Anyone interested in a spending freeze challenge for January? I’m planning to avoid non-essential spending and cook from the freezer and pantry as much as possible.
So far I spent $7.67 on a few fresh items that we needed for this week’s meal plan.
I’m playing a game with myself to see how little I can spend on food this month. It’s the same goal, but a little mental gymnastics that I think might be more successful for me.
We have a full freezer and pantry & some food in the fridge. The kids will get lunches from school most weekdays, so that helps!
We have a full freezer and pantry & some food in the fridge.
We cooked from the pantry and freezer most of December and it was amazing. I loved getting a clean freezer with lots of available space and getting rid of old food or things that had been buried so long they went bad.
We have a full freezer and pantry & some food in the fridge.
We cooked from the pantry and freezer most of December and it was amazing. I loved getting a clean freezer with lots of available space and getting rid of old food or things that had been buried so long they went bad.
We had a huge storm in August and didn’t expect to get power back for a long time, so we cleaned out our freezer and took it to my parents’ house. We left most of it there when the power came back on...and yet my freezer is full again. A full freezer and pantry brings a feeling of security for me, so I think I was stocking up more than usual in 2020. It was quite ironic that everyone had stocked freezers because of the pandemic, then lost it all because of the Derecho.
I am going to give this a go - and if I do spend, then lean on the gift cards I have. I have a terrible habit of hoarding them. Why? I do not know. Bc I also hoard cash, so I guess I think of it as the same?
I also need to do what lilac05 is doing - I have a decently stocked pantry and freezer, it needs to be chipped away at. My limiting factor is vegetables and fruit. I will definitely need those on a weekly basis.
Totally in for a total spending freeze (we have no income right now). Limit food costs, no non-essential purchases, and hopefully get stuff out of the house in the process of cleaning.
@@@@ DD's birthday is on the 18th and we have bought everything already for her. I'll plan to make cookies or cupcakes with her because she's not really into sweets so a cake would be a waste.
Had to pick up milk and sour cream. $7ish. Let’s say I’m at $15 now.
I have been flooded with promotional emails and deleting and unsubscribing from them. Have not felt much desire to shop or spend. Today I received $178 from Costco as my executive member reward, an attestation of how much we spend there annually (yikes) but more than I spent on the executive membership and the timing is ideal. That should get us through the month for groceries other than odds and ends that they don’t carry or I don’t want a gross ton of.
I have been flooded with promotional emails and deleting and unsubscribing from them. Have not felt much desire to shop or spend. Today I received $178 from Costco as my executive member reward, an attestation of how much we spend there annually (yikes) but more than I spent on the executive membership and the timing is ideal. That should get us through the month for groceries other than odds and ends that they don’t carry or I don’t want a gross ton of.
This is a good reminder for me to change from executive. We got a check for $65 this year, but only because we bought a $$$ fridge in April. I know this year was different because we only went there like four times total, but we aren't buying as much there so it doesn't make sense for us to pay $120 vs $60 (or is it $65 now?).
I'm going to focus on lowering our grocery bill (shopping more at Aldi and making one Costco trip this month) and reducing non-essential spending as much as possible. We'll have a vet bill for getting our dog neutered and I also have to buy gifts for two upcoming birthdays (my dad's in late January and DD's in early February), but outside of those things, my goal is to not buy anything "extra."
Had to pick up milk and sour cream. $7ish. Let’s say I’m at $15 now.
I have been flooded with promotional emails and deleting and unsubscribing from them. Have not felt much desire to shop or spend. Today I received $178 from Costco as my executive member reward, an attestation of how much we spend there annually (yikes) but more than I spent on the executive membership and the timing is ideal. That should get us through the month for groceries other than odds and ends that they don’t carry or I don’t want a gross ton of.
This is really critical for me. I don't think there's a single company I get promotional emails from, and whenever I order from somewhere new and they add me, I immediately unsubscribe. Otherwise all the advertising makes me want to buy things.
Had to pick up milk and sour cream. $7ish. Let’s say I’m at $15 now.
Jan 7 total: $76
Headed to Costco today and ended up with a bill for $61 after using my rebate. I am hoping this will be it for grocery spending this month. I have $60 in rewards at the local grocery that I can use to top up our fresh food as necessary.
For those that are inundated with promotional emails but don't necessarily want to unsubscribe, check out unroll.me. It's free and it has saved me so much because it filters any message you choose into a separate folder. So if you're trying to not buy things, you won't even see them, but if you need something and know they send out coupons it's there in a folder.
Also works great for emails you don't need to see immediately but want to peruse later... but if you put both types of emails in the folder then you'll have to wade through promotional emails, just as a heads up.
It's going well for us. We ate out as a treat yesterday ($28) but otherwise just bills so far this month. We are going to need more face wash and dish detergent and it'll be a little more $$ because we are doing only plastic free, but it's a necessity so it is what it is.
made the dinner list for the week and i dont think i have to go to the store for anything.. really trying to cut the grocery bill for january so happy about that. May need to go for milk and fruit/fresh veggies but we will see...
Post by sometimesrunner on Jan 8, 2021 21:34:34 GMT -5
I ate lunch in 4 times and ate dinner in 3 times, so we improved in those areas. I got an email that spring break camp registration was open, so I signed up right away since they fill up fast. $205 spent there. Still using YNAB and enjoying it.
We are moving at the end of March so we are using our freezer and pantry stash. My goal is to only buy fresh foods to supplement what we have. I like being creative in the kitchen so this is a fun challenge to me rather than a stressor.
I have been flooded with promotional emails and deleting and unsubscribing from them. Have not felt much desire to shop or spend. Today I received $178 from Costco as my executive member reward, an attestation of how much we spend there annually (yikes) but more than I spent on the executive membership and the timing is ideal. That should get us through the month for groceries other than odds and ends that they don’t carry or I don’t want a gross ton of.
This is a good reminder for me to change from executive. We got a check for $65 this year, but only because we bought a $$$ fridge in April. I know this year was different because we only went there like four times total, but we aren't buying as much there so it doesn't make sense for us to pay $120 vs $60 (or is it $65 now?).
I struggle with which membership. We have the exec and barely make $60-65, so it’s basically a wash relative to the other membership.
Chase had 5% cash back on whole sale clubs this quarter.
Post by SusanBAnthony on Jan 9, 2021 8:10:52 GMT -5
We are trying to have a low spend Jan and eat down the pantry.
We don't normally keep a ton of food on hand because prior to March, let's be real, we can just run get whatever we need.
Hahahaha.
Anyway we stocked way up through the early covid months. But with two adults cooking and shopping, the more we have the harder it is to keep track of what we have and what we are out of.
So our big Jan goal is to eat down the pantry and freezer. As usual this is breaking H's brain. For the first week we each planned 3 dinners using stuff up. H made soup last night... Needed 3 fresh veggies but he used a carton of broth from the pantry. I was like dude..... Let's aim a little higher than using up a carton of broth, but buying 10$ of produce, to make a pot of soup that only you like, and putting 6 jars of soup back in the freezer for you to eat at a future date! We actually ended up with more stored food than when we started hahaha.
Plus DD has to give up dairy for at least a few weeks and she is being very dramatic about that because she loves dairy, so we are trying to work around that.
Anyway, so far so good. My boss gave me a 50$ gift card to Amazon for Christmas so that will cover odds and ends, and as usual we aren't going anywhere or doing anything so spending should be low outside of regular bills, childcare, and food. The only one that may come up is we are optimistically planning an august vacation, but I think it will be all airline credits at this point, and no other costs until (if) we actually go.
For those that are inundated with promotional emails but don't necessarily want to unsubscribe, check out unroll.me. It's free and it has saved me so much because it filters any message you choose into a separate folder. So if you're trying to not buy things, you won't even see them, but if you need something and know they send out coupons it's there in a folder.
.
I have all promotional emails automatically archived. They don’t hit my inbox but if I know I need something, I can search through them to see if I received any good deals lately. (Or keep checking until I do).
Had to pick up milk and sour cream. $7ish. Let’s say I’m at $15 now.
Jan 7 total: $76
@@@@
H spent $90 on ice skates and sharpening for the kids. I’m ok with it especially since skating is one of the few things we can actually do this winter.
Food spending is pretty typical so far at $358 for the month. We'll need to go for produce this week but not much else, so hoping to keep it below $100 for this grocery trip.
Spent $26 on face soap bar, eco friendly dish brushes, shampoo bar and conditioner, and trying a new shower spray. Those items will last us through probably 4-6 months (except maybe dish brushes) so it's kind of a "stock up" order.
@@@ I will be trying to sign DD up for a GS summer camp today in the hopes that we can send her in August. That will be $260.
Food spending is pretty typical so far at $358 for the month. We'll need to go for produce this week but not much else, so hoping to keep it below $100 for this grocery trip.
Spent $26 on face soap bar, eco friendly dish brushes, shampoo bar and conditioner, and trying a new shower spray. Those items will last us through probably 4-6 months (except maybe dish brushes) so it's kind of a "stock up" order.
@@@ I will be trying to sign DD up for a GS summer camp today in the hopes that we can send her in August. That will be $260.
Otherwise it's been pretty easy to not spend.
Do you mind sharing where you bought the cleaning products?
Well, our school closures have been extended to mid Feb at the earliest. I’ve been working around the noise at home, but my headphones suck and are not noise cancelling. I can’t take it for another month or more. I just spent $384 on Bose 700 noise canceling headphones which should help a lot.
On the upside, I’ll save $900 in childcare this month plus $270 because we had to cancel the cleaning service.
Food spending is pretty typical so far at $358 for the month. We'll need to go for produce this week but not much else, so hoping to keep it below $100 for this grocery trip.
Spent $26 on face soap bar, eco friendly dish brushes, shampoo bar and conditioner, and trying a new shower spray. Those items will last us through probably 4-6 months (except maybe dish brushes) so it's kind of a "stock up" order.
@@@ I will be trying to sign DD up for a GS summer camp today in the hopes that we can send her in August. That will be $260.
Otherwise it's been pretty easy to not spend.
Do you mind sharing where you bought the cleaning products?
Grove. I don't love the subscription aspect (won't do it this year) but I have found quite a few products I like enough to replace our non-ecofriendly version. I did NOT like their daily shower spray concentrate so trying something new. We'll see how it goes.
My sister has tried JAWS (Just Add Water System). It's a smaller footprint because you're reusing the (plastic) bottle and only using a small plastic insert for each refill. If I don't like what I am trying this time I will probably try that.
Post by buckeyegirl on Jan 14, 2021 11:10:31 GMT -5
I've joined you guys and so far we're doing really well. It's usually very difficult to get my DH to not just order something from Amazon when he wants it. He's putting things in his cart and thinking about them first. I held off on some clothes that I didn't really need. We're also trying to eat more out of the freezer/pantry. We've been spending ~$800 a month on groceries since Covid. Right now we've spent $236. We've also been spending $400 on takeout. Right now we're at $117 and have no real plans for any other major takeout expenses. We are doing much better than usual. Let's see how the second half of the month goes.
ewall , I didn't think Target did adjustments - that is good to know and worth trying!
They do do adjustments and they make it really easy. I did it a few times over the holidays. They have also been really great about fixing problems (I had two damaged items over the last few months and the shipped replacements and I didn't have to send them the damaged items).
19 days in and things are holding steady. Food is higher than I'd like but we're eating in almost exclusively so I know groceries will increase because we buy healthier foods. Still within budget for it though.
@@@ Spent $6.29 on donuts for DD's birthday breakfast. And spent $29 on some baskets for our tv stand to corral all the new switch games and cords she got between Christmas and birthday.
Otherwise no purchases, not even gas, until this point.