Post by closertofine on Jan 13, 2019 20:18:23 GMT -5
Posting this week's thread a bit early bc tomorrow is going to be a busy one for me. How is everyone doing? If the snow affected you this weekend, did that help or hurt your freeze attempts? Hope you all have a great, inexpensive week!
Post by closertofine on Jan 13, 2019 20:23:32 GMT -5
One of my goals was no eating out, which shouldn't be too difficult because I don't often anyway, but this weekend without the kids left me very unmotivated to cook. So I got two quick lunches for $8 each and one dinner out with friends that was $20. Certainly not terrible, but I didn't stick to my goals.
I did log into my credit card this weekend and the balance is noticeably less than it would be normally. My billing cycle runs from the 19th to the 19th and if I stick to my plan this week, my balance (which I pay off monthly) should only be $1000. That is food, gas, tolls, phone, cable, Netflix, etc. Normally, I run closer to $2000/month. I may actually extend my freeze to Feb 19.
We got some snow today and normally my neighbor blows my driveway for me, but I think they are out of town. Two kids came by today to shovel, and normally, I would have taken one up on it and paid him. But I held strong and did it myself this evening.
I spent $200 on groceries that should last almost the rest of the month. I’m hoping to save 50% of the usual grocery budget this month.
We had a low spend weekend, stayed in and cooked and did a couple small home cleaning / organizing projects. This week I’m going to cash in my free pedicure certificate and go ice skating at the outdoor community rink.
I ordered a new pair of shoes to replace the pair that broke yesterday (they were a few years old and a seam came apart). New job has different shoe requirements than prior because the safety guy is over cautious. New ones are replacing the causal ones I had that matched the safety requirements.
Post by minionkevin on Jan 14, 2019 9:20:19 GMT -5
The snow forced us to remain at home most of the day yesterday, so no spending. I did go through Kid2’s clothes/shoes situation and realized he has nothing in the next shoe size. He takes a wide width, so my options are limited, but I ended up with a pair of New Balance sneakers for $30, and used an amazon gift card. Not bad. We went out for dinner at a fast casual place on Saturday night, but I realized I was going to be short one dinner this week anyway, so it wasn’t too awful. Grocery shopping was a bit more than usual but last week was only $68, so it evened out. I also stocked up on some things I can leave in my desk (soups and whatnot) so I’m sure that’s some of the difference. Goals for this week: -Bring lunch 3 days (work is covering one day already) -Eat breakfast from work stash 3 days -No dinners out/takeout
Post by covergirl82 on Jan 14, 2019 9:43:04 GMT -5
We are doing well on the credit card.
Over the weekend, I did buy DD a dress and shoes for the upcoming daddy/daughter dance and both were on clearance and were about $20 total. I had a gift card so I bought DS a shirt for Easter and a few accessories for DD.
I almost bought a few things online, but I don't really need them right now, so I'm going to wait until I actually need them.
We reserved a rental car and booked a few hotel nights for our spring break trip, but that was already planned.
Goals for this week: -No lunches out for me -Do my main grocery shopping trip for the week at Aldi and compare what I spend there to my usual grocery store -Try and sell $25-$30 worth of items on my local FB yard sale site
Update: We had a "win" today (1/15) school was cancelled and the roads were really icy, so DH and I worked from home. We probably saved about $10 in gas, plus the almost $10 DH would've spent buying lunch at work.
We have a chase credit card and an amex. The amex is for our everyday use and the chase is mostly just autpays. Right now, the chase is at 0 and i'm hoping to have the only charges on it be the autopays. I usually put amazon stuff and other non-grocery purchases on it. We are doing surprisingly well and I would like to continue this way until we file and hopefully get a tax return.
Still generally sticking to my goals. Our credit card is way down from normal.
My hard core "no" items were clothes and stuff for anyone and that is going strong. I keep deleting all the sales emails... which are aplenty.
We're also doing well with food budget as we only ate out once last week at a brewery and groceries have been kept in check as we're trying to use up our pantry stuff.
We did grab some stuff for DD's birthday party on Friday and Saturday but it was ~$40 and all planned purchases. (Goal is to stay under ~$100 for everything so that leaves us with a good amount for homemade food for four kids and five adults.)
Biggest thing we bought were our tickets to Ireland and Scotland, but it was a killer deal and saved us about $1500 off our estimated cost. We had saved for it already but we weren't planning to grab them in January. Oh well.
H left for a work trip this morning so hoping to keep everything going until he gets back, lol.
Post by bostonmichelle on Jan 14, 2019 13:19:29 GMT -5
Doing okay on our spending. I have been sick though since Saturday afternoon so we ended up with an extra 2 meals out because DH was wrangling DD but just ordered groceries for pickup on Tuesday and we are doing well with our spending overall. I did have a coupon for my birthday so my lunch out on Saturday with old coworkers was less than $3!
My birthday is Saturday so we will go out for dinner that night and hopefully that's it for spending this week. I'm doing a research study tomorrow and will get $30 when I'm done.
Weekend was good, I only spent $25 because I had to order more Natural Calm from Amazon. But I'm returning a different brand that was disgusting so should get back $13 from that.
This should be a decent week, I just need to get groceries on Friday and we will most likely need a babysitter Sat. night but I budgeted for it.
Moneywise, I mostly bought food (some on sale) and Girl Scout cookies. I ordered my daughter's yearbook at the early, discounted rate. I am planning tomorrow to get a bulk order of theater tickets, and since I've got enough people we'll save $6 each.
Carbonwise this week: - I spent $2 at dmachoice.org to remove my household from most direct mailings (it's too early to notice the effect), and I've specifically unsubscribed from a few other paper catalogs, not on their list. - I've continued averaging 5-6 minute showers, though it has been tough. I've turned the water off to shave my legs (yes, I know I could scrap that all together, but I'm trying to do something I can actually live with ) and also not use the lights if there's enough ambient daylight in the bathroom by the time I take a shower. - I still haven't used a paper towel in the house this year, and am pleased to say my kids, and even our 7 year old neighbor who is always here, are catching on pretty easily. - I emailed our PTA president about composting in the school (they're already looking into it). - I read a used copy of Use Less Stuff, which was great, highly recommend. I'm already doing a lot of it, but it inspired me to vacuum around the air intake on my refrigerator (dust on the coils significantly lowers the efficiency), lower the temp on our hot water heater, and change the HVAC filters (which were a little overdue). I had been a little haphazard about it, but I'm going to consistently put a lid on a pot of water when getting it to boil, since it heats faster that way, and therefore you should use less energy. - We were home most of the weekend with the snow, and so my husband was big into zone heating - he kept the upstairs around 65 during the day when we were downstairs, and the reverse at night, kind of like a poor man's nest or ecobee. - During the day if it is just me, I have been trying to keep the house cool and just use a space heater where I am, rather than cranking the heat to the whole house. I found a sunny patch on my steps one day, and warmed up there for "free." - I carpooled with a friend on my longest car trip of the week. A gallon of gas weighs over 5 pounds and produces nearly 20 pounds of carbon dioxide, and we probably "saved" two gallons driving together instead of separately. - Instead of mailing a "thank you for buying Girl Scout cookies" note like I was planning, my daughter wrote one on the back of scrap paper and I took a picture of it and texted it. - Because you can't really improve something unless you know what the baseline measurement is, I decided to weigh our weekly trash, and I involved the kids in it. (20 pounds even for a week for 4 people, probably most weight is attributable to stuff we should be composting, and a little bit of it was "pack out" Girl Scout meeting trash). I'd like it to be less next week.
None of this is going to make a big difference of course, but damn it I've got to try.
We are going on vacation this weekend, so we will certainly be spending money. However, we are on a cruise so I am planning to bring wine on board with us to avoid spending money on drinks. We really just want to lounge around so I think our biggest expense will be tips and the few hours we plan to send DS to the nursery.
Money wise we are doing okay. My son's shoes fell apart yesterday. I mean the sole ripped and he had to get new shoes. I meal prepped so no temptation for eating out this week.
Well, I spent $276 on concert tickets yesterday. But, it means I finally get to see Billy Joel this summer. So it's a good investment? Ha.
Beyond that I think I'm doing ok. I did buy 2 bras on Amazon last week but they were $14 each and I really honestly needed them.
We spent over $100 on dining out this weekend, but it was all we did for entertainment so I'm ok with that. I figure around $100 a week for dining out/entertainment is ok with our budget and really helps with my sanity. I don't have a whole lot going on in my life right now so I kind of live for getting out and doing things around our city.
Not counting the concert tickets (which I will likely take out of savings) we are actually ahead of what we normally are for our budget this month. I still have almost $700 allotted for misc spending, and unless something crazy comes up I kind of doubt we'll use it all. I consider "misc" to include groceries, gas, medical copays, cat supplies, etc so it's not all just there for fun, but we're doing ok with all of those things and I don't really anticipate spending more than another $250 or so on those. So we should have a decent amount left. Maybe even enough to cover the concert tickets!
You know what is good for saving money? Not leaving the house, hah. I WFH mostly and so I don't go anywhere, so it doesn't cost me anything. Except I go stir crazy, so I will go to the grocery store to buy one or two things that I forgot during my weekly trip, but that was only $11.50 (including more Sumo mandarins).
I also cancelled my WaPo subscription. It was going to renew at $100 for the year and I just wasn't reading it as much as I thought I would, I can make do with the free articles per month.
ETA: I did just "spend" money to fund my 2019 IRA/Roth conversion. Bye large sum of money, hello financially secure retirement (hopefully).
H has been gone for two days and I have left the house once (to stuff envelope's for DD's school), so that has helped with not spending money.
We leave tomorrow for Great Wolf Lodge (surprise for DD's birthday) and that'll mean eating out but since it's just going to be the two of us I am hoping to keep it reasonable.
This week has been neutral. I've eaten out of the pantry and freezer 3 nights. I sold an additional $50 worth of stuff on the local Facebook garage sale site & still have some drawers to purge.
Unplanned spending: -My work laptop backpack's zipper broke and is not repairable. It's more than 6 years old, so it's time to replace. I ordered a $25 slim laptop backpack from Amazon. If the quality is ok, I'll keep it and hope to get 2-4 years out of it. If it isn't I'll return it and suck up paying $75-100 for a nice one that will last. I WFH much of the time but do work at other locations and need a small bag for my laptop & tech gear. Work does not reimburse for the bag.
Planned spending: -Monthly Chiropractor appt. -I'll spend a little more in gas this weekend since I have a yoga seminar in a suburb 45 minutes away. The seminar itself is free and is being put on by one of my cycling club teammates. We also get a coupon for a free class at that yoga studio. -No "extra" spending on clothes, Amazon, etc. -Regular groceries and eating out budget
Post by ellipses84 on Jan 16, 2019 11:48:58 GMT -5
We had an awful stomach virus hit our house last weekend and now DS2 is sick with something else. I’ve been good about not spending money, as I’ve either been at home or at work. DH got fast food for the kids one night since he knew DS2 would eat some protein with it, and he’s hardly been eating anything we offer. He bought a few perishable groceries we needed like milk and fruit. I had to buy DS1 baseball cleats for $30 on amazon since he outgrew his. I’ve been trying to use some of my time at home to take care of my financial to-do list.
We've actually been doing good, but that went out the window today. Our box spring broke and it's just the nail in the coffin for our shitty bed. So, I bought a new one today.
I'm mostly crabby that I was really trying to hold for a king size, and I had to cave and buy the queen. Oh well.
So far, so good this week. I haven’t eaten any lunches out which is a big win for me. We had a cheap weekend and have another one planned. Maybe the library and an outdoor skate.
Post by claudiakishi on Jan 17, 2019 12:39:05 GMT -5
I am at exactly half my grocery goal so I hope to be on track with my goal of spending less than $500 this month. I did spend more than planned at Trader Joe’s, but a lot of it is freezer stuff or condiments so it will last awhile.
I also haven’t done any frivolous spending. No clothes, Starbucks, random Target trips. I used a gift card for a new water bottle and that’s it!
Post by heliocentric on Jan 17, 2019 14:40:03 GMT -5
We had no unnecessary spending, except our grocery bill was on the high side. That's because the store had great deals, but required buying multiples in order to get the sale. So, we spent more than necessary, but are stocked up on some items for awhile so I guess that's an overall win.
Post by cabbagecabbage on Jan 19, 2019 10:26:19 GMT -5
I'm really glad I'm being careful because this month brought us surprise vet bills and a medical bill that was higher than I thought and a broken faucet. So basically I'm going to break even but that's a win for me.
I have brought no new clothing, toys, or things that collect dust into the house and I have donated three bags and some boxes. Its amazing that I want an uncluttered house yet I want more things. Doesn't work that way!
I made a big cart on the old navy super sale last night. Left it. Edited it later. Then let it sit. Its freaking Old Navy. I guarentee nothing in that cart would have been amazing. I woke up glad I didn't spend on disposable clothing.
I did good! I did have to spend $50 on supplies for a prep course that I wasn't expecting, but that is okay. I really want to order takeout right now, but a friend talked me out of it
Didn't eat out at all while H was gone. Only spent $36 at Great Wolf Lodge for DD's birthday. We did spend $25ish at Panera for lunch today. About $100 on groceries (both for the week and for DD's party tomorrow).
-The cheap laptop backpack was horrible quality. I returned it for a name brand for $60 that I hope is better. -Costco run a week earlier than planned but budgeted for this month. -I did have an unplanned $12 Amazon purchase but need it for still being sick. -I checked out the new Whole Foods 365 to see what the hype was about. I only purchased some fruit for next week that was on sale and some OJ that was on my grocery list and $1 cheaper than Publix/Kroger. $15 total. -An ebay item sold, and I made a whopping $4. There is more house purging to come.
We have been doing fairly well. Our spending is lower then Normal until the dog got an infection. We spend $200 on meds to help clear it up and he will have to have surgery which will be another $500 so that blow everything we have saved out of the water.
Post by bostonmichelle on Jan 20, 2019 16:01:04 GMT -5
Spending hasn't been the best this week but I think we'll still finish mostly on budget for the month.
And we hit a huge MM Net Worth Milestone! I'm so excited to hit it but still its bittersweet since they only way we are hitting it because of a huge inheritance (probably close to 60-70% of our NW) from my dad's death last year.