January Freeze - how is everyone doing?

[konapoppy]

No online orders over here! Woo hoo!

We did well with eating our dinners at home all last week, and planned meals for this week.

How are you doing?

[covergirl82]

Only ok. I ordered a set of socks for DD from Amazon because she has multiple pairs with holes in the bottom. I'm going to place an order this morning for vitamins/supplements because they have a good sale right now, but it ends today, and I want to make sure to order from a reputable source (i.e., not Amazon).

We did eat out an extra day last week, but did not eat out extra over the weekend.

We are working on decluttering and trying to sell some items for extra money in our budget. I did take about a dozen items to a consignment store late last week, but then I bought two tops while I was there (for about $30). I also have a bunch of clothes and toys to try and sell on my local FB garage sale site, or take to Once Upon a Child if I can't sell on FB.

[dcn]

I ordered some stuff from amazon but it’s things we need (filters for our faucet, filters for humidifiers etc.). I had a stomach bug over the weekend so H bought groceries but that’s it. My goal is to stay well within our budget this month and really need to be diligent about saving each month for things like gifts, continuing Ed, professional licenses etc.

[aspentosh]

I get really frustrated looking back at my week because I bought stuff, but I'd say most (all?) is justified.

Last week I spent $40 at Grove, but it was getting bar shampoo, conditioner, and body soap and environmentally friendly face wipes because mine are almost out. So it's a necessity, but it sucks spending that money THIS MONTH of all months.

And this morning I ordered sunscreen for our beach trip next week. It was almost $30 worth of sunscreen but I used a gift card so it was only $5 out of pocket.

Tomorrow our food delivery is coming and that's $100, but it will prevent us from eating out for at least the rest of the week and will mean minimal groceries (just replenishing produce, milk) so that will keep us well within our food budget.

Outside of the above, we've not spent anything and I keep deleting deleting deleting all the emails for sales.

[mccallister84]

Well DD1 and I have the flu. Which had been great for making sure we aren’t doing any random spending but horrible because of course our deductible just reset.

[madringal]

Well, my 15 year old fridge officially bit the dust last week. We had planned on replacing it when we got our tax refund, but that timeline got bumped up to this past weekend. Good news is that we had budgeted $2k, found one we liked at Menards that was on sale for $1700, and then we went to Home Depot and they had a floor model of the same one on clearance for $887! It has a small ding in the front, but I don't care. And they took an additional $50 off. So out the door, we paid less then $900! Total MM win!

Can you see the ding? I figure I'll just slap a magnet over it and call it a day, lol!

[Velar Fricative]

We desperately needed this freeze as a result of an unexpected repair/renovation and our dryer biting the dust just before the new year. We've done really well so far!

- Packed lunches every day
- No takeout
- Returned a few items from Christmas (not gifts for us, just random things I kept putting off returning)
- Sold (and gave away for free) some household items after doing a purge

We're not tackling the grocery bill just yet, especially because I expect it to go up since I'm packing lunches and buying more produce.

I did have a momentary slip, but it was my own fault for getting tempted anyway. I went to the Container Store to find an Elfa solution for my closet, since with our renovation, I'm considering getting rid of my dresser because it's now creating a narrow path for us to get to our new master bathroom (it didn't exist before). I wasn't expecting to order that day, but I did, because it's on sale and it was a "good deal." But then I came home and realized it wasn't going to be able to store all my dresser stuff anyway, so this morning I called to get a refund. I do think I need another viable solution but I'm going to hold off and really think about it more.

[Velar Fricative]

Oh and along with the freeze, I also resolved to be more cognizant of what we're bringing into the house, and purging is part of that. I've found a lot of things to repurpose so that I *don't* feel inclined to buy things I already have at home that can be used for the same/similar purpose. I have never felt like we owned a lot of stuff but it's still easy for me to assume I don't have X when I really did, it was just stored in the basement for a while and I forgot about it.

[melsbels]

I had to break it and place an Amazon order for a $16 light switch guard. We searched all over the place for one in store on the weekend but no dice, so I had to order online. The twins have been fighting naps and messing with the light in their room, so it was necessary.

There’s a lock on their closet door, we’ve screwed the floor vent into the sub floor, and now they can’t operate the light switch. Their room only has has two beds, two pillows, and four stuffed animals in it now, but they MUST nap...so we have to lock it down lol

[kdubs923]

Well, I bought a new car yesterday. So. Not great.

It was a planned 2020 expenditure, but I had hoped to make it into the spring once I got my bonus. My car started making a funny noise again (after putting $$$ into it over the summer for work on the transmission). I was not willing to sink any more money into that thing when I only planned to keep it for another few months, so I casually browsed online. Apparently this weekend was Toyota's year end, so we found a good deal with all my wants/needs in a slightly used 2019 Highlander. Also, I got more for my trade in than I expected, which would not have happened if I drove it until it died in a few months.

But yeah, not a great start to the year.

That said - we're all stocked up on groceries, so we're packing lunches and making dinners at home for the foreseeable future. And no online orders, except for a (planned) birthday present for my niece who is out of state.

[mrssandro]

It's a rough start. We did go to the zoo yesterday but we have a pogo pass (which was previously purchased before the new year) so we only had to pay for me and the little one. It was just a beautiful day yesterday and we paid cash. We only bought one snack. The only reason we where in area was for the season passes for six flags which required us to pick them up before today so we could have gold pass (free parking for the year) but my husband wanted a family day.

We stayed under budget for groceries and we did well going to a store and browsing vrs always buying a toy or unnecessarily items.

I guess we can say small changes. This is harder than I thought.

[farfalla2011]

I'm off to a horrible start. We've grabbed fast food now 3 times, but did get groceries so at least it's just been lunch and fast food which is cheaper than actual dinner out.

Also, I totally forgot about daycare starting and prepping for back to work which comes with it's own expenses, so at least we're being more mindful? It's going to be anything but a freeze month unfortunately:/

[gt7301b]

I accidentally ordered a book on Amazon with one-click ordering rather than just putting it in my cart for later. I did go and turn off one-click ordering on all devices.

I took the day off Friday and my husband and I went to brunch and happy hour, but I am traveling for work this week and it was nice to spend some quality time with DH before I left.

[flygirl]

We were doing well until I had my DS try on some of his shorts that I just bought in August and they are all way too short, shorts should be easy to get some extra time out of right? No, apparently all his growth was in his legs! (We’re going to somewhere hot for spring break so I needed to get them now vs April/May.  Please pray this kids growth slows for a bit-lol!)

[aspentosh]

Bumping up for more updates. How are others doing?

An update to my earlier post about a $40 order on Grove. Well, almost all of it has been refunded (except $4 for bar of soap) because things are now out of stock. Also, not so impressed with their shipping time so far. So that's a better number than I previously thought. Bad part is I'll need to spend that money elsewhere soon because I'm almost out of conditioner. We'll see.

On the topic of food, we've done awesome. Our food delivery was $107 and we have not eaten out once since Monday because of it. And we easily have enough food for the rest of the weekend and into Monday. We'll get our next order on Tuesday and hope to repeat those results! Our grocery bill for this past week was $20 for milk, some fruit and veggies, and ingredients for a BLT because DD asked for that. Amazing.

Besides that I spend $10 on a basket I'd been looking for. It was from HomeGoods, which has high turnover, so that was the only reason I bought it now. Annoyed that I even went in though, lol.

[redpenmama]

Doing well so far! My goals were to cut mindless spending. No shopping this week other than for essentials. I've meal planned for the month and have meals prepped and ready for the weekend, which is when we tend to eat out.

I did find some 90% off Christmas clearance today when I was grocery shopping and bought a bunch of gift card holders/bags for teacher gifts for next year. It was $3.50 total for 6 gift card boxes and 10 gift bags, so I consider that a win!

[ohgillian]

So, I'm not doing a "freeze" per se, but about a month ago I did decide to work on reducing my amazon spending as much as possible, due to a lot of concerns I have about their business practices. At this point I'm not reducing my digital amazon consumption (i.e., e books), but I'm talking about orders of tangible products.

For context, Amazon says I placed 104 orders in the past 6 months, and 176 orders in 2019.

So far, I have placed 1 order in the past month. It was for a 10-pack of FitBit bands; I feel okay about it. The alternative was one band for the same price at Target and given how quickly the bands break for me, I just couldn't justify that.

I also cancelled my Amazon credit card.

[raangoli]

I failed. Go on without me, I’ll just weigh you down. 😂

[konapoppy]

Jan 10, 2020 21:54:42 GMT -5 raangoli said:

I failed. Go on without me, I’ll just weigh you down. 😂

🤣🤣🤣

My only online orders have been gifts. It feels good!

Now, spending on food is another story...

[aspentosh]

Jan 10, 2020 21:54:42 GMT -5 raangoli said:

I failed. Go on without me, I’ll just weigh you down. 😂

lol

We've all been there. I can't tell you how many times I've started a freeze just to buy a very large/expensive item. 

[SusanBAnthony]

We instituted a Sunday evening sit down to review spending for the month. Of course I'm on a work trip this Sunday! We are going to do it today.

So far so good. But mostly because we made a bunch of purchases at the end of December, lol. No eating out, no misc household spending. Medical bills will start rolling in at some point since we're in a new year. The second half of the year is always nice for that.

I'm lucky I get to travel some for work because that scratches some of my eating out itch. Work is paying for a week of eating out on a work trip.

[brooke77]

The good - No SBux or coffee shop spending so far! This is a major win because I have a bad habit of grabbing SBux a couple times a week.

The bad - I was planning on not buying any lunches, which usually only happens when I meet a friend for lunch (and pay). I took a friend out for drinks and apps this week. It was his birthday so I paid. I made lunch plans with another friend at the end of the month, but since it’s not a special occasion, we can split the tab.

I will work on this one. I really like taking my friends out to lunch 🙂

[covergirl82]

No online orders since last weekend, so that is a plus. I dropped off an Amazon return ($75) yesterday and the credit is back on my card and I returned a dress ($20). However, we have an ice storm coming through, so I stocked up on water and food yesterday, so I spent more than I usually would on my weekly grocery trip.

[aspentosh]

Just spent $125 to register DD for softball. $25 discount expires this weekend so I did it now. And if I'd waited until Feb it would have been $185.

But we canceled our trip to Puerto Rico for next weekend so we're getting back $1k+ from AirBnB and the activities we had planned I feel so bad for that island.

[aprilsails]

I did a massive load of groceries yesterday but I didn’t purchase any meat (we need to eat down our freezer) and the vast majority was fresh items from the perimeter of the store (so fruits/veggies, bread, milk, eggs, cheese).

Otherwise I’ve been doing well, and we convinced DD that she didn’t need a snack from the canteen at the rec centre today. She’s in a growth spurt so she is ravenous at all times.

I am trying to organize a get together with girlfriends at my house (easier for me to manage the kids) but one friend is pushing back and wants to go to a nice restaurant. That would be my splurge item for the month of it even happens.

[konapoppy]

How was the weekend?

H made an amazon order (grr) but otherwise we are keeping unnecessary spending down, especially internet orders. I am interested to see the credit card bill compared to the last two months.

[madringal]

Well, last week I bought an impromptu weekend to WW of Harry Potter for April, so I'll go ahead and bow out of the Jan freeze now. I am NOT doing well, lol!

[aspentosh]

Weekend was good, here. Went to Target and only bought the few groceries we needed, sunscreen and bug spray for H. $22, done.

Meal delivery was today and since H is gone all week we only needed two recipes so that was $67. That plus the fruit/veggies we got at Target will get us through the week.

But since we canceled our trip to PR I am seriously feeling the urge to book something ASAP for spring break. I'll resist and just do a lot of airbnb surfing for now

[aspentosh]

Oh, but I just remembered one of DD's summer camp registrations opens tomorrow... so that'll be $235. Whomp whomp.

ETA: Only had to pay the $50 registration fee now. Yay! 

[farfalla2011]

Jan 10, 2020 21:54:42 GMT -5 raangoli said:

I failed. Go on without me, I’ll just weigh you down. 😂

Add me to this camp haha. I think we'll try again next month when I'm back at work.