week 4 update - no spending month challenge

I've made it to the end of Sharon's No Spending Month Challenge and had a great month!  My goal for Week 4 was to spend $125....and I spent under that!  For week 4, I spent about $115, most of which was on groceries.

So, did I meet my goal of staying under $800 for the month?  Let's see:

Week 1 - $139.58 spent
Week 2 - $366.72 spent
Week 3 - $148.87 spent
Week 4 - $114.26 spent

Total for the month?  $769.43...$30.57 under budget!

My **WISH** for the month was to add $3900 to savings.  Because of a garage door repair ($250) and a car repair ($1100), we didn't make that goal.  But, we managed to save some and we had a great month being frugal!  Had I not been working so hard to keep our "everyday expenses" under $800 we wouldn't have been nearly as successful as we were.

Thank you Sharon for hosting the challenge! 

"yes money"

The vacations that we're taking this week were planned and put in the 2011 budget so that we would have the money in the bank and not go into debt!  (I love knowing that there will not be a credit card bill waiting for us when we get home!)  But before we left I "found" some extra money here and there that I've tucked away for our Chattanooga trip.

I'm calling it my "yes money".  My 12 year old is SOOOOO used to hearing me say "no" when he asks me to buy something that I thought it would be nice for him to hear "yes" for a change.  My thoughts are that the "yes money" will go towards things like extra souvenirs, snacks or sightseeing things he might like to do that I hadn't already planned.   He has brought his own money to spend as well, but it'll be fun for me to treat him to things that I normally wouldn't at home!

So where did I find my "yes money"?
$95 - an insurance check for his braces (that were removed 7 months ago) that I wasn't expecting to get
$6 - sold a movie on half.com
$7 - found in my coat pocket
$19 - survey money
$5 - sold a book on half.com

So...to my 12 year old, "Yes honey, you can get that!"  ...but once it runs out....

road trip!

This week my kids are on Winter Break from school and we're trying something new as a family.  One-on-one vacations with the boys.  My husband had originally planned to take the boys on a trip, leaving me home to enjoy a week of peace and quiet...ahhhh! (now that would be heavenly!)  The more the boys talked about where they were going and what they wanted to do, it was evident they had very different ideas on how they wanted to spend time with Dad. 

So?  They each are getting a trip with Dad!  And they each get a trip with me!  This week my 9 year old is skiing with Dad in Colorado and my 12 year old and I are taking a road trip to Chattanooga!  Come Spring Break, we'll flip it around and my older son will be fishing in Florida and my 9 year old and I will be taking a road trip!

We've never vacationed this way, but I'm really and truly looking forward to it.  My husband has taken 1-on-1 trips with the boys before but I've never done it.  I'm not sure if going on a road trip with mom is something they'll always want to do, so I'm taking full advantage of it while they are eager!  I'm so excited!

Plans for us in Chattanooga?  We're going to be HUGE tourists!  First stop is a private hiking tour through one of the caves.  Then, everything else there is to do in Chattanooga...the aquarium, Rock City, Ruby Falls, Lookout Mountain, Incline Railway, battlefields, and a college basketball game!

More details when we return!

cloth vs. paper napkins

On way we save money and reduce waste at our house is to use cloth napkins.   Occasionally I'll grab a paper towel to use at lunch, but for the most part we only use cloth.  To reduce waste even more, sometimes we'll use the same cloth napkin all day long!  gasp!  (unless it's truly dirty...).  When it comes to eating ribs though (or something equally messy) we don't use cloth napkins but instead use dish towels!!!

How about you?  What do you use?  Cloth or paper?

Carla over at My Half Dozen Daily has a giveaway going on this week for cloth napkins that she has made herself!  She has some very cute patterns and it's definitely worth your time to check it out.  Take a look and enter her giveaway!

week 3 update - No Spend Month Challenge

We've made it through 3 weeks with minimal spending and I excited at how well we're doing!  My goal for this week was to spend $150 or less.  Here's what we spent our money on this week!

Groceries - $94.52
Personal Blow Money - $18.34
Gas - $27.26
Dry Cleaners - $5.65
Balance due on newspaper subscription - $3.10

So, if I did my math correctly, we spent $148.87, coming in $1.13 under budget.  Yippee!

A couple of things that I've been doing to SAVE at the grocery store.  I have been making a lot of homemade breakfasts for our family this month.  I did buy a box of cereal last week to give myself a break for a morning or two, but other than that, I've been making muffins, french toast, waffles, eggs and/or bacon in the mornings.  Not buying Pop Tarts, and frozen waffles and pancakes has saved a lot of money!

Another area where I've saved money is with LUNCH stuff.  We all have our favorite bread and we are never are able to go through 2 loaves between the 4 of us before it gets stale.  I have found a fresh baked deli bread that we all like, and our grocery deli will sell it by the 1/2 loaf.  It's the perfect size for us to eat sandwiches from for 2-3 days.  I'm able to get a half loaf of fresh sandwich bread for less than $1.50!  I have also been getting fresh deli lunch meat and cheese.   It's cheaper by the ounce/pound for me to buy it from the deli counter AND I am able to get only what I need. 

So - we enter our 4th and final week of Sharon's No Spend Month Challenge.   My goal is to finish the month with $125 cash which will go towards food, gas and any incidentals.

Here is my monthly recap.  My goal for February was to keep my everyday expenses under $800.

Week 1 - $139.58 spent
Week 2 - $366.72 spent
Week 3 - $148.87 spent

forever 21

My birthday was this past weekend and the boys surprised me with a yogurt cake!  Because a bit of my frugality trickles down to them, instead of buying candles to put on top of it, they resued the number "12" candles from my oldest son's last birthday.  But they got creative...

From the mouths of my babes:
Oldest son says:  Mom...we wanted to make you think you're 21 again!!!
Youngest son says:  Mom...if you double the number, that's your real age!!!


And...my birthday surprise?!?

A digital SLR!!!!  I cannot even tell you how excited I was to get this!  I've been wanting this for many, many years!  Now...I just have to give myself some lessons and learn how to use it!

day 15 update - no spending month

We're halfway through Sharon's No Spending Month challenge!  How is everyone doing?  My goal was to spend $800 or less on my discretionary spending items.  Things like groceries, eating out, gifts, gasoline, and everyday incidentals would come out of the $800.  Our fixed expenses (mortgage, utilities) and pre-planned expenses (like monthly haircuts and a vacation that's coming up) would not come out of the $800.

I must say there are many things that I catch myself needing to buy that I'm not sure should or shouldn't count against my $800.  I have, for the most part, been erring on the conservative side and deducting these expenses from the $800 challenge.

So - let's cut to the chase.  How am I doing?

Week 1:  Spent $139.58
Week 2:  Spent $366.72

Total Spent:  $506.30
Total Left:  $293.70 for 13 days

We didn't have the Scouting expenses (badges and celebratory dinner) this week that I'd expected so that helped us come under budget.  Scout Sunday at our church was rescheduled to a different week...so that money budgeted will get spent later on in the Spring.

For Week 3, the only expenses that I think we'll have are groceries and gasoline, so I'm hoping to keep expenses below $150 for the week!

valentine's day on a budget

Valentine's Day on $50...that was my goal.  

How did I do?

$8 - my youngest son's school Valentine cards and candy
$8.25 - party supplies for son's school party
$20 - gifts for my boys...I got each of them $10 gift certificates to TCBY
$0 - gift for my husband...I cleaned the garage for him as his gift!!!
$18 - pizza for dinner (I could put this expense under "food", but since it was special for V-Day, I'll include it in the Valentines expenses)
$1.25 - ingredients needed to make a special cake for dessert

So....$60.50 is what I'd spent!!! 

I went over a bit.  I'd originally planned to make ribs for dinner, but I was able to purchase a $25 gift certificate for only $2 from restaurant.com to Johnny's Pizza (one of our favorites).  I had to spend $35 in order to use it, but figured I'd just ordered more than we needed with the intent that we'd have leftovers for dinner tonight (or freeze it for another night).   When it was time to use the certificate though, I found out that they add 18% gratuity on top of the bill -- even though I was doing carry out.  I was really disappointed.  I'd expected to be $12 out of pocket for $35 worth of food, but instead was $18 out of pocket.  So, that added $6 to my VDay that I hadn't planned.  But other than that, I felt like we did pretty good.  The kids LOVED their TCBY gift certificates and my hubby loved his clean garage!  And, it was nice having the pizza for dinner was a treat for me and freed up time to clean the garage and make the cake.

How about you?  How did you spend your Valentine's Day?

my ah ha moment

I think I may have finally gotten over my motivational plateau  that I've been on for the past 2 years with my weight loss goals.  I've kept a weight loss journal for a couple of years and looking back through the pages that I've written, I see 2 things that are constant.  I am constantly losing and gaining the same 3 or 4 pounds, and I am constantly listing 130# as my goal weight.

Last week in the USA Today's Life section, there was an article about losing weight.  In it the author compared having extra weight to having debt!  That really got my attention!  She said that we need to look at extra weight as debt and look at exercise as income.

I wasn't blogging when our family was working to get out of debt.  We paid off $32,000 in 17 months and worked hard to get it done.  It wasn't easy, but it was fun in it's own way.  There is nothing like seeing the balance due on your credit card and car loan go down each month.  Getting out of debt was something we did very well.  We were focused.  We had a plan.  We had a setback here and there, but we were never derailed.  Sounds like a weight loss journey too, huh?

So, when I read those words--- to treat extra weight as if it were debt, THAT was something I could grasp.  Since I read that article, my weight loss journey has taken on a whole new importance too me.  This time, I really feel like I'm in the right frame of mind to finish what I start.

homemade breakfasts

I've never considered myself a "baker"...mainly because I'm too tempted to eat actual homemade baked treats versus store-bought ones that I get for my boys.

But, this month I'm being much more conscientious about what I'm spending my money on at the grocery store.  Earlier in the week we had nothing in the house for breakfast that my kids would want to eat, so I whipped up a batch of muffins.  (I only made 6 so there were none left to tempt me!)   When I saw how quickly I could make breakfast AND just how inexpensive it is compared to frozen waffles and pancakes or pop tarts, I have been trying to do it each morning.  Yesterday I made homemade waffles and bacon for the boys.  This morning I surprised my husband with breakfast tacos!  We had a couple of corn tortillas left in the refrigerator so I scrambled some eggs, added cheese and voila! he had a yummy breakfast treat.

I know that realistically I won't be able to make them a homemade breakfast every single morning, but for now it's working out fine.    And...my husband asked me "Why couldn't you make us breakfast every morning?!?"

The pressure's on...

spending money to save money

I KNOW better than this!!!  But...temptation got the best of me.  Yesterday morning I had an e-mail from Shutterfly reminding me that yesterday was the last day to get my 50 free 4x6 prints!  What!?!  50 free prints?  Wow -- add that to the 15 free ones that I already had credit for and I'm up to 65 free prints!  That's nearly $10 worth of free pictures!

So, what did I do?  I spent $38.09 in order to get my 65 free prints!

It wasn't my best moment.

this week's menu

To stay inside my grocery budget it's a must to plan ahead for meals.  Here's what we are (and have been...) eating this week!

Monday:  Leftover pizza from Sunday's Super Bowl and Mac & Cheese
Tuesday:  Spaghetti w/meat sauce, salad, bread
Wednesday:  Sour Cream Chicken, Rice, Peas, Salad
Thursday:  Out to eat after Talent Show
Friday:  Sloppy Joes, fruit, chips
Saturday:  Out to eat for my birthday
Sunday:  Steaks, Veggies (whatever looks good and is on sale...)
Monday:  For Valentine's I'll make the boys favorite:  Ribs, Beans, Mac & Cheese, Cornbread, Chocolate cake

As of today, I've spent $62 on groceries and I'll need to spend about $40-50 for ingredients I don't have on hand for Friday-Monday meals.  I should be under my $125 grocery budget for the week and that makes me very excited!   I'm still "shopping" from my pantry and freezer to plan my meals.  For our menu above these things I already had on hand:  spaghetti, chicken breasts, peas, chips, steaks, and cake mix.

In two weeks we take our vacation, so next week it'll be much easier mentally to be frugal and tell the kids (and myself!!) that "we need to make frugal choices this week so that we can have the extra money for our vacation next week!"

commission updates

Last week I transitioned my children from an allowance to a commission based chore system. They were THRILLED to have the opportunity to earn more money.  Instead of giving them each a $25/month allowance, we're giving them the opportunity to earn $9/week for my 9-year old and $12/week for my 12-year old!  But, they weren't quite as thrilled when it came down to them actually working for it!  go figure...

So, how did they do?

My 9 year old earned $4.70 for the week and my 12 year old earned $3.20.   Hopefully they'll work more next week so that they can earn more, but I do feel better about giving them more control over what they earn, and having them actually earn it, versus me simply giving it to them!

day 7 - no spending month

We've made it through a full six days on February's No Spending Month.  This past Tuesday, I withdrew $170 cash which was to last me through yesterday.  The cash was to be used for food, gifts, gasoline and any incidentals that should come us.  I must say that I did better than I expected!

Here is a run-down on where the $$ went:
$20 - gasoline (half tank)
$11 - tennis court fee
$41.11 - groceries
$33.78 - eating out
$12.69 - birthday gift
$8.29 - household
$16.21 - school supplies

Which leaves me with $30.42!

My grocery bill has never been as low as it was this week!  What did we do different?  For starters we ate a lot of food that we already had in the freezer, refrigerator and pantry.  When the kids ran out of cereal and frozen waffles/pancakes, for breakfast I made them French Toast, muffins and bacon.  There was only one complaint during the week on what was being served (Thursday night's dinner).  In fact, my kids were thrilled with the homemade muffins this morning!  I woke up in a panic when I realized the cupboards were bare of breakfast food, so I had to get up in a hurry and make the muffins.

Another area that helped was simply eating at home.  I mentioned last week that I considered it a small victory to say no to my husband to going out to eat at lunch.  On Friday I did cave in to going out (he'd been the one to complain about the dinner the previous night), BUT we went to a restaurant where we had a gift card and ended up getting $5 back in change!  Woo Hoo!  He was out of town this weekend, so I treated the kids to lunch out after their ball games Saturday and to pizza last night for the Super Bowl. 

So ...Week 2 in upon us.  We've got more activities and parties scheduled for this week which is going to require more cash.  Also, Valentine's Day goodies will need to be purchased this week. 

Here is my budget for the week:
$125 - groceries
$125 - Three celebratory out to eat dinners (one for my oldest who is performing in the school talent show, one for my youngest who is receiving a special Cub Scout award, and one for a basketball team party)
$20 - Birthday gift
$60 - gasoline
$50 - Valentines Day - includes VDay meal, party at school, VDay cards for classmates, and surprises for my family
$10 - Scout badge for my son
$20 - talent show tickets

After having such a "lean" week this past week and spending only $140, spending $460 in a week seems a bit much.   I haven't sat down to do a meal plan for the week, so I'm going to work to get the grocery bill less than $125...I'm sure I can do it!  So anyway, off to the bank today to get cash to last me through the week!

***disclaimer*** on $3900 savings

After reading back through my posts and reading the comments left about my goal of saving $3900 for the month of February, I realized that something was amiss.

I didn't take into account that our cash flowing for January and February is a bit "off".  My husband paid my AMEX bill (normally due mid-February) in January out of our savings account.  He did this to help us (me...) get back on track by using cash for everyday expenses.  So...while my hope is to save $3900 in February, please know that some of this is simply replenishing what came out last month to pay the American Express.  By the way...my AMEX card has not been out of my wallet since we started the challenge. 

3 days without using AMEX...now that is a new record! 

update #1 - february's no spending month

So, I've made it through 2 days with the "No Spending" challenge.  I ended up getting $170 in cash on Tuesday with the intention of it lasting through next Monday.  The cash is being used for gas, groceries, gifts, etc.

So what have I spent it on?

$20       gas for my car
$12.71  school supplies
$11       tennis court fee
$7.41    groceries for lunch
$12.69  birthday gift for son's friend
$2.64    travel bottles for husband's suitcase

This leaves me with $103.55 for the next 5 days!


Small victories to celebrate!!!

• I said "no" to giving my oldest son extra lunch money and instead had him take a lunch kit to school.
• I said "no" to going to out to lunch with my husband and instead spent $7.41 and made a "fun lunch" at home for us.  (This was a hard one to do!!!)
• I spent less on the friend's birthday gift than I normally would...I normally spend around $20.
• I made dinner "out of the pantry" two nights in a row...Tuesday we had a steak salad using leftover steak from Sunday night, and last night we had sauteed shrimp, couscous, and a salad.

Unexpected expenses?

• $11 on the tennis court -- because of bad weather our team chose to play our match at an indoor court instead of trying to reschedule.
• $12.69 on the birthday gift -- it is a fairly impromptu party.

commissions vs. allowances

For the past year or so, we've given our kids an allowance.  The allowance goes towards after school snacks, renting video games, school book fairs, the concession stand a the ball-park, "teen night", and of course, anything that they want to save up for.  I have given each of them $25/month.

This past month when my oldest came to me with his hand open and asked for his allowance, I had a very unsettling feeling that this allowance was simply a "hand out".  This uneasiness was validated on Sunday at my FPU class when Dave Ramsey talked about this very subject in his Kids & Money speech.  While my boys both do quite a bit around the house to help me and my husband, they're essentially doing nothing for the money we give them.  Also, I haven't been consistently teaching and encouraging them to SAVE and GIVE. 

This month we're transitioning from an Allowance to a Commission.  I'm anxious (and admittedly, a bit nervous) to see how it works.  We're giving them the opportunity to earn more....my 9 year old can earn up to $9/week and my 12 year old can earn up to $12/week IF they complete all of their chores.  But, with this "raise" we're also expecting them to both SAVE and GIVE.

Here's a peek at what their chores chart include for the month of February:

9 year old:
clean his room, vacuum and dust it 1x/week -- $2.00
clean the basement bathroom's toilet, sink & counter, 1x -- $2.50
empty the recycling bin daily, 7x.20 -- $1.40
bring his laundry to the laundry room, 4x.50 -- $2.00
take the recycling and trash bins to the curb on Mondays, 1x -- $1.10

12 year old:
clean his room, vacuum and dust it, 1x/week -- $2.50
clean his bathroom toilet, sink & counter, 1x -- $3.00
empty the kitchen trashcan everyday, 7x.20 -- $1.40
bring his laundry to the laundry room, 3x.25 -- $0.75
if he...
washes, dries & folds it (his laundry only), 3x$1.25 -- $3.75

We'll expect both of them to continue with the "basics" of helping out around the house.  Things like feeding the dog, keeping their room tidy, helping to do the dinner dishes are just expected and aren't included in the commissions.

So, what about you?  Do your children get "commissions" or "allowances"?  What are some of the chores they do to earn their money?

February - No Spend Month

I'm joining Sharon in her No Spend Month!  Here are my goals for the month...

Objective - 
Spend less than our "normal" budget.  My goal is to add $3900 to savings this month.


How we'll get there --
I have alloted $800 to be spent on ourselves.  Normally, this wouldn't cover our grocery bill, but because this is a short month, and because we'll be out of town for a few days, AND because this is a CHALLENGE, I've decided on $800 as our "magic number"!


So, what does $800 go towards?
Food!  (Groceries and eating out)
Gasoline
Valentine's Day
Scouting expenses
Entertainment

What's not covered in the $800?
Fixed bills, offerings to our church, and expenses that were pre-planned such as a haircut and our vacation.

Where I am today--
I'm starting with $895 in checking.  Next payday is February 11th.  I'm thinking of withdrawing $400 now and $400 on the 11th and simply live on cash for the challenge.   Both cars are almost on "empty" so we'll need to spend close to $100 on gas this week.  The pantry is somewhat stocked.  I'll need to take inventory of what we have and see how we can make it stretch.  I see lots of homemade snacks in our future!  :)'

I hoping that with this challenge I'll become more intentional with my spending!  And, if we save my goal of $3900...well, that would be totally amazing!