May Frugals

[Kat]

I know I'm a day early, but due to some home remodeling, we hemorrhaged money all through the month of April. Ugh! Hate months like that! I desperately need to get back on track, so I thought I would start this thread in hopes of doing better in May.

We are on a tiny, tiny budget now that I am done working. Some of the things I have been doing to get by:

--couponing (doing really well with this, even though it is time consuming)
--stockpiling when sales come around (this includes household goods, food, and gifts)
--focusing more on "free" activities like cleaning, organizing, and reading

Today I did my first grocery shop on my new grocery budget ($50 a week average for four people and two cats--this includes health/beauty/pet food, etc.). I shopped for two weeks and came in about $30 under budget. That includes the $8 hanging plant DD picked out for our porch. I will use some of that to pick up little things we frequently run out of-- milk, fruit, etc.--next week.

I also put off buying new maternity shirts. I really could use a few more short-sleeved ones now that it is hot here (87 today!), but I have less than a month until my due date and so am trying to make do with what I have.

Lastly, I have been having a blast playing outside with DD. We blow bubbles, collect branches, smell flowers, play with her ball, go for walks to the park, etc. It is all free and so much fun! I have some sidewalk chalk tucked away for her, too, that I will get out soon. I think she is old enough. :-)

[rosarugosa]

Hey Kat! I was wondering where you've been; we haven't seen Stella for awhile either. I'm glad you're well and it sounds like you're doing great things with your daughter. I can appreciate your remodeling woes. We're currently having a new roof put on, and they're taking pictures of what was underneath the roofing shingles because it is apparently one of the worst-rotted messes they've ever seen - so this is definitely going to come in over budget
Will have to be extra-virtuous in other areas to help offset this expense, but it was clearly necessary and long overdue.

[chrissieq]

Spent the weekend in Chicago - thanks megabus for $24.50 fare for 2 RT tix from Mpls - ate at a deli and brought home 1/2 of each sandwich for the next night's dinner. We stayed at an Embassy Suites hotel which is not particularly frugal but between the managers reception/happy hour and massive breakfast buffet, an OK price plus the front desk upgraded us to the "executive floor" with a corner unit so had a wonderful view of the lake. Had a lovely AM of drinking tea and reading on the window seat overlooking the lake!

Took a personal day today at work and spent most of that time organizing a book sale for my local library - I'm so ready for summer and not working!! So many things to do that add value to my life and cost nothing or near to nothing!

[Tussiemussies]

Spent the weekend in Chicago - thanks megabus for $24.50 fare for 2 RT tix from Mpls - ate at a deli and brought home 1/2 of each sandwich for the next night's dinner. We stayed at an Embassy Suites hotel which is not particularly frugal but between the managers reception/happy hour and massive breakfast buffet, an OK price plus the front desk upgraded us to the "executive floor" with a corner unit so had a wonderful view of the lake. Had a lovely AM of drinking tea and reading on the window seat overlooking the lake!

Took a personal day today at work and spent most of that time organizing a book sale for my local library - I'm so ready for summer and not working!! So many things to do that add value to my life and cost nothing or near to nothing!

Chrissy, your excursion sounds wonderful! So nice that they upgraded your room which gave you that view. Glad you have summer off, sounds like lots of fun for you!

[bke]

I have just spent the last 45 minutes reading all the posts about the failures of this site. I came here for the financial support almost 12 years ago. I miss having more money discussions than we have now and am also concerned about not hearing more from people about those things. I haven't posted much lately-life seems to be the same old thing here and there has been so little discussion from others. This is NOT a complaint. I've decided that this place means enough to me that I'm going to start posting more, at least on the frugals topic even if I get very repetitive. After all, being diligent day after day is what is going to get me to FI3. If I bore you I'm sorry but I don't want to see this site fade away. I encourage to share more here-we've been such a family over the years.

I might repeat something I've already shared-just trying to summarize the last few weeks of frugals.

An engine light came on on our car. The first person dh took it too said we needed $500 in repairs. The second person (we rarely bother with a second opinion) reset the light and said to wait and see if it happens again before spending the money. Its been 2 weeks and the light hasn't come on again.

Same kind of situation with the house. First estimate came in at $4200. The other three estimates are between $1500 and $2000. We haven't decided exactly what we're going to do yet but we aren't spending the $4200!

My mother gave me a can of Folgers after making one pot out of it plus, a bag of flavored coffee.

I received a free roll of toilet paper in the mail.

We go to Aldi and buy produce for work all the time. Great veggies at a wonderful price. Anyways, I decided to find a couple of new items to try for myself. I bought a large chocolate bar and a box of triscuit like crackers for a total of $2.74. The chocolate is ok-still need to try the crackers. If they're good they cost less than what I can normally get them for even with a coupon.

[Kat]

rosarugosa--eek! I guess we never really know what we are getting into when we start a project! I hope things end up better than you are expecting.

chrissie--the Chicago trip sounds lovely! It really is a beautiful city!

So the hanger on my daughter's potted plant broke yesterday, and the plant fell flower-side down on the porch! It was quite smashed, and DD was pretty upset about it. I took the hanger from a cracked pot I had planned to throw away and was able to get the plant hanging again. We gave it a good watering, too. I guess now we will wait to see if it perks back up. Back in the day, I probably would have just bought another plant. But it was $8, so we'll see if this one makes it through okay. :-)

I also print a lot of coupons and have been trying to use scratch paper (or even the reverse side of junk mail) in my printer to save on paper costs. Of course I print in grayscale, too, when possible. :-)

One thing I have been working on a lot is getting our photos organized. I have been making digital photobooks online and backing up photos there, too. The photobooks themselves are not cheap, but I have been making them anyway and then waiting for sales and coupons. I just ordered my first book for free and only have to pay shipping and handling. It is nice to be creative, and it is a hobby that doesn't have to cost money unless I want it to.

DH and I talked about throwing DD a birthday party in August. We really don't want to get into the habit of throwing a party every year, but we think she might be feeling a little neglected after the baby is born. So we decided to have just a small family party here and do a luau theme since it goes with the way our deck is decorated. I have started pinning ideas on Pinterest and am starting to gather food ingredients now as I see them on sale (like this week, I will get 13 packs of Kool Aid for $1. DD loves Kool Aid, and it will be way cheaper to serve than punch). I will probably make her a cake, too, and buy some decorations from the dollar store.

[cdttmm]

So nice to read everyone's posts!

Kat -- great to hear from you as I was wondering where you had gotten to. Not that I've been all that diligent about posting myself...

bke -- I always love reading your posts so please keep posting! I am going to try to recommit to posting more regularly, too, because I like this place and I get a lot of support from all of you, especially on this thread!

I don't have much to report, but I did decide to get back to tracking all of my spending. I was always just loosely following my bank account and thinking, well, I'm maintaining a steady month to month so everything must be okay. Ummmm...then I got hit with a giant tax bill. Oops. So, it's back to tracking for me!

My big frugal win for today is that my cat did not need to have a second round of x-rays. I took him to the vet this morning and they just called to tell me that they had made a mistake and had not looked at all the films from the emergency clinic when they recommended that he have more x-rays taken. Oops. At least they were honest and we love all the vets at the clinic so, really, this was not something I was going to get overly annoyed at. Since he's already there they will give him a laser treatment and an injection for his arthritis. So at least I am getting some necessary treatments done instead of just having a wasted trip. Plus no $300 bill for x-rays!

After I get back from the vet I'm going to make some yogurt in the crockpot. This is part of our move towards cooking/baking even more of our food from scratch. We have not bought yogurt in a number of weeks and we haven't bought bread in several months. Small, but important frugal wins.

I'm also going to go to Home Depot to return a sprinkler that I bought that does not work. It was $6, which probably explains why it doesn't work. I'm going to see if I can find something of better quality at another store -- Home Depot only seemed to have cheaply made plastic sprinklers.

[Gardenarian]

This is a tough month for me - dd's birthday, as well as registering for summer camps. I've got to keep my eye on the total amount I spend on these two categories.

[fidgiegirl]

Hi everybody!

I had a mindful frugal today. I don't know if you remember that last fall I was talking about our cars quite a bit. I was researching to see if I could fix DH's A/C by myself. Well, I decided no. But I did take it in, and with my knowledge from that research was able to have an intelligent conversation and know what the logical first steps should be in the repair. The shop charged it up and we are to bring it back to check it in a few weeks (when it's hot and has been run a bit, not 35 degrees out). So while I made the mindful choice to spend the money on it (DH would have just stuck it out, but not really, he just drives it the bare minimum and we stack all the miles on my car which has working A/C), it was with education behind it and it will make using the car so much more enjoyable. I think I am going to look into the cost of a new radio for it as well, and probably research that as a DIY job - less at stake than with A/C! It's really a solid car mechanically - 1996 Honda Accord, and only has 160K miles on it. DH is the only owner. I don't like feeling like I'm riding around in a bucket of junk just because the "optionals" like A/C and the radio don't work right. Oh, and water is leaking in around the windshield. So while we've put off those repairs and tried to be stoic about it, I'll confess . . . those things make riding in the car a lot more palatable and if they were fixed, my mind would less frequently turn to replacing that car . . . and that's where the real savings will lie.

Went to Costco on Monday evening and even controlled myself. DH has a potluck on Friday - taco bar - so I bought the meat there.

Remember the Petco rewards I was issued? Used all $30 on a bag of dog food yesterday.

We are comparing bids to have some work done on our exterior. It's going to be a LOT of money. I think I know which company I want to use, and it will be about a $5000 savings over the competitors, but still with very good work. We can't compromise on the quality of the job; it's already awful and water has gotten into a very lot of places where it doesn't belong. So this guy will do a better job than some Joe Schmoe off the street, but isn't as high-priced as some of the really high-end remodelers in the area.

We almost - almost - almost financed central air for the house a few weeks ago. Can you believe it?! I was just sick to my stomach thinking we were going to do it. We actually had a big fight over it, because it was a 0% offer for 18 or 24 mo., so DH was ok with it, but I just couldn't get over that it would be DEBT. We have NO consumer debt right now and that's how I prefer it. Even the two mortgages bother me. I am so glad we passed. We might have a hot summer, but we can make it a year or two in order to save up the funds. Plus, having a concrete savings goal like that forces us to channel all our "found" monies, like tax refunds, mileage checks, eBay sales, occasional workshops I put on, etc. to something very concrete and it builds up quickly with focus. Otherwise those monies just disappear into the checkbook and into the household expenses stream, never to be seen again . . . I have a real thing about separating out money. If I can't see it add up, it kind of feels like "why bother? "What difference does it make if I do or don't submit my mileage?" "Big deal if we sell that or give it away"

[early morning]

Hi all - May already, whew! I am so not ready. DD and I are tying to do some outside work around here every evening, and it's starting to look a little better - even though tonight all we did was pull some nasty sticky weeds from the wildflower area under the apricot tree. But I was late getting home, had errands to run- and there's a program about the Spanish Riding School on tonight, so... I've put laundry out before work the last two days, and it's dried really nicely. We've not paid for any unplanned fast food for ages, and even though I really really want ice cream tonight, there's no way in heck I'm leaving the house for it - I'll make do with my second favorite - peanut butter mixed with honey, and eaten with a spoon. Kelli, I know what you mean about needing to separate the money out. I do it on paper - it's all in the same pot - but the checkbook totals don't reflect the emergency fund, my own funds, the vacation stash, etc. Thank goodness for Quicken, lol. Bke, I wasn't aware we were in failure mode - I must have missed those threads - but I really love reading your posts so more=good! Kat, less than a month, how exciting! When DD was born (30 years ago!) I borrowed all of my maternity clothes and was sooo sick of them by the end. She was born in Nov. and most of the tops were short sleeves so I managed to stretch my turtlenecks on under them for work, no way was I buying anything!