Author Topic: Ultra frugal July!  (Read 12710 times)

11ducks

  • Pencil Stache
  • ****
  • Posts: 573
  • Location: Duckville, Australia
Ultra frugal July!
« on: June 30, 2017, 06:35:27 AM »
Anyone else signed up for frugalwoods ultra frugal month?
I'm taking it as a kick in the pants to go through every expense (particularly recurring ones) and cut costs. Started today by changing my mobile plan down to $15/month (Aldi).
Also planning to finally list and sell a heap of things I've been too lazy to bother with, and start
Looking for a casual/weekend side hustle

Fire2025

  • Bristles
  • ***
  • Posts: 302
  • Location: LA LA Land
Re: Ultra frugal July!
« Reply #1 on: June 30, 2017, 07:39:20 AM »
I just signed up.  I've been over spending on eating out lately and wanted to kick myself back into line.

TX2RVA

  • 5 O'Clock Shadow
  • *
  • Posts: 63
Re: Ultra frugal July!
« Reply #2 on: June 30, 2017, 01:08:01 PM »
I've signed up.  I have a very aggressive debt pay-down plan for the reminder of the year and I really have no room for error if I want to hit my goal. 

Fire2025

  • Bristles
  • ***
  • Posts: 302
  • Location: LA LA Land
Re: Ultra frugal July!
« Reply #3 on: June 30, 2017, 01:51:39 PM »
I've signed up.  I have a very aggressive debt pay-down plan for the reminder of the year and I really have no room for error if I want to hit my goal.

Good for you!!!!  I've got the mortgage and the student loan, so I'm still truckin'  Can't wait to knock out the SL, then just a mortgage.

lemonverbena

  • 5 O'Clock Shadow
  • *
  • Posts: 96
Re: Ultra frugal July!
« Reply #4 on: June 30, 2017, 02:20:00 PM »
I'm in for this month. We took a "free" trip in June (as in, we didn't pay anything for airfare or accomodations) but ended up spending more than our mortgage payment on eating/drinking out and parking/entertainment, partly because we were with family and just went along with it, partly due to poor planning (airport food). Big oops. Time to rein it in! I'll post my spending for the month here because shame motivates me. I'm focusing on the food bill mainly, and know I'll have some home repair spending this month. Also hoping to have some extra leftover to go toward our roof loan this month. Good luck everyone!
 

justaguy

  • 5 O'Clock Shadow
  • *
  • Posts: 22
Re: Ultra frugal July!
« Reply #5 on: June 30, 2017, 02:54:05 PM »
I signed up.  I'm a new member of the mustache team.  We have a week long family vacation this year and while I know we will spend more than we do during a 'normal' week - I'm excited to see how much less we can spend compared to previous summer vacations.  Every day my wife seems  a little more on board. 

Rosy

  • Magnum Stache
  • ******
  • Posts: 2742
  • Location: Florida
Re: Ultra frugal July!
« Reply #6 on: June 30, 2017, 03:33:18 PM »
I'm in - my goal will be to keep my overall spending under budget. The more I can save this month, the better it will be for all my savings goals going forward.
Good luck everyone!


ixtap

  • Magnum Stache
  • ******
  • Posts: 4561
  • Age: 51
  • Location: SoCal
    • Our Sea Story
Re: Ultra frugal July!
« Reply #7 on: June 30, 2017, 04:50:30 PM »
I'm in. Our mid year review was great, but we also spent a lot of money in June. All of it needed, and all of it good deals, but it still makes me flinch to see it all add up at once.

ToughMother

  • Bristles
  • ***
  • Posts: 373
  • Location: Western Mass.
Re: Ultra frugal July!
« Reply #8 on: June 30, 2017, 08:25:33 PM »
I signed up.  Between home renovations and an upcoming wedding, I've been spending.  While all of that was intentional and saved for, I feel like I've been a bit more loose with the spending in all other areas as well.  I'm using this July to tighten the spending belt once again in all other categories.
« Last Edit: July 01, 2017, 04:17:16 AM by ToughMother »

TartanTallulah

  • Pencil Stache
  • ****
  • Posts: 592
  • Location: The Middle of Scenic Nowhere
Re: Ultra frugal July!
« Reply #9 on: July 01, 2017, 12:03:45 AM »
Yes. With a few predictable big expenses in early July I shall need to keep a clamp on everyday spending to stay within budget.

After pulling planned cash and other savings out of the checking account, we're currently sitting with £1,000 to last until we're paid on 20th July. One car service and MOT needs to come out of that and there's around £250 in recurring monthly bills and a landmark birthday for one of our offspring. It's going to be tight.

Mongoose

  • Handlebar Stache
  • *****
  • Posts: 2461
Re: Ultra frugal July!
« Reply #10 on: July 01, 2017, 10:13:56 AM »
I'm in and signed up. Last month was great for groceries...so much so that we could afford a minor car repair and a new washing machine. We're honing in on a year of debt free except for our mortgage...two months to go. I want to increase our buffer so it stays permanent.

SingleMomDebt

  • Guest
Re: Ultra frugal July!
« Reply #11 on: July 01, 2017, 10:41:35 AM »
What can I eliminate entirely? Discretionary List

If I do without the discretionary spending, I can save around $300/m. with the possibility of another $130 if I REALLY want to do without any of it. There is also the possibility of reducing my grocery shopping expenses. But cooking is a good past time for me when staying frugal. So will stick with current allotment for groceries, me thinks.

CloserToFree

  • Bristles
  • ***
  • Posts: 369
  • Location: Major U.S. City
  • 30-sth lawyer (for now), traveler, lover of nature
Re: Ultra frugal July!
« Reply #12 on: July 01, 2017, 03:02:12 PM »
Signed up again (did the FW January one too). Need to do the HW and goal setting but looking forward to upping my frugality game this month!

Fire2025

  • Bristles
  • ***
  • Posts: 302
  • Location: LA LA Land
Re: Ultra frugal July!
« Reply #13 on: July 01, 2017, 06:20:09 PM »
Hey all I have a question.  I signed up for the frugal challenge using a yahoo email and facebook account I use for my FIRE stuff, that's super private and mostly anonymous, but yahoo is not letting me log into that email account.  so I'm happy to switch the emails to go to another account, but can I join the facebook community from a different email address, than the one I use for a facebook account???

Fire2025

  • Bristles
  • ***
  • Posts: 302
  • Location: LA LA Land
Re: Ultra frugal July!
« Reply #14 on: July 01, 2017, 06:24:43 PM »
Oops I also have a super frugal tip. 

If you are in the LA area and know someone with a petsmart account.  Petsmart is giving away free bags of cat and dog food until July 4th with a coupon that's being mailed to account holders.  Small bags: under 8lbs for dog food and under 4.5lbs for cat food, but we got two coupons, from two friends that didn't need them, and now we have dog food for the next 3 months, freeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

frooglepoodle

  • Handlebar Stache
  • *****
  • Posts: 1309
Re: Ultra frugal July!
« Reply #15 on: July 02, 2017, 05:02:11 AM »
I signed up as well. This month has some large one-time costs as we are moving at the end of the month and will need to put down a deposit on a new place, etc. but no reason not to work on minimizing everything else. DH will be switching jobs and industries and we're expecting our household income to decrease by 30-35% initially. 

When we did the previous UFM in January, our caveat was that our fun money was budgeted as normal. We're doing that again this time, but we did decrease our fun money by $40/each/month a few months ago.

asauer

  • Pencil Stache
  • ****
  • Posts: 848
  • Location: North Carolina
Re: Ultra frugal July!
« Reply #16 on: July 02, 2017, 08:02:35 AM »
I'm definitely in.  We're going on a spendy bucket-list vacation in August so need to tighten up and save this month!

TX2RVA

  • 5 O'Clock Shadow
  • *
  • Posts: 63
Re: Ultra frugal July!
« Reply #17 on: July 02, 2017, 01:14:26 PM »
July 1:
I went through all my automated monthly expenses and canceled Plan to Eat, Audible, Dropbox (switched to Amazon Prime Cloud) and paused my Dollar Shave Club subscription for a month because I have plenty of blades left.  In October I can cancel my Adobe Creative Cloud subscription since my work will pay for it. 

I purchased two white ceramic pots ($8.00) at Michael's on clearance for some houseplants I purchased at Lowe's earlier in the week. My oldest son leaves for basic training next week and I'm converting his room into my craft room/office but I have to figure out how to do this as cheaply as possible.

July 2:
Deep cleaning my entire house.  I just finished steam cleaning the sofa.  Next up I need go mop all the floors then clean the back porch and my car if I have the energy.  I'll eat from my pantry and today will be a no-spend day. 

I hope everyone is having a lovely yet ultra frugal weekend.

SAfAmBrit

  • Stubble
  • **
  • Posts: 206
  • Age: 52
Re: Ultra frugal July!
« Reply #18 on: July 02, 2017, 01:22:14 PM »
Moving from the June challenge - it is lonely there! I am on my own for 6 weeks. I am 3 weeks in and the challenge is to spend less than $50 per week on gas, food and personal spend. I am eating down the pantry, cleaning, decluttering...... If I succeed I put $100 in savings to show my family it can be done. So far so good - I have spent $74.67 over 3 weeks - never over $50 per week. Here is to week 4.

frooglepoodle

  • Handlebar Stache
  • *****
  • Posts: 1309
Re: Ultra frugal July!
« Reply #19 on: July 02, 2017, 02:05:54 PM »
Did everyone else write down the long term goal and stick it in their wallet today? Or was I the only one who didn't already have it there? Mine is to be able to stay home with my child(ren) until I want to go back to work.

Small frugal wins today:

I returned a swimsuit MIL got our toddler for his birthday since he currently has 3 that fit. I had planned to exchange it for a larger size to wear next year, but used the store credit to buy a box of diapers instead. She'll want to buy him a new one next year anyway!

I ran into JoAnn and bought a new twin needle using a 60% off coupon. The needle I've been using is old and I suspect it is the reason I've been getting a lot of broken threads and skipped stitches. I'm working on a bunch of projects (ones I already have materials for!) that need it.

Also bought some fruit, veggies, eggs, and ground lamb at the farmer's market. Not necessarily the cheapest option but it'll go into lovely, healthy home-cooked meals.

Experimented with baking bread on the grill since I didn't want to have to run the AC extra to compensate for having the oven on. The bottoms of the loaves got a bit burned but they're still edible. I've been tearing off pieces and eating them with hummus and carrot pesto all afternoon.

Mongoose

  • Handlebar Stache
  • *****
  • Posts: 2461
Re: Ultra frugal July!
« Reply #20 on: July 02, 2017, 05:25:20 PM »
My long term goal (move to desired location while not having to work) is in my wallet. We have mostly no spend weekends because no place to shop near our house. :-)

I run my month from about the 24th to the 23rd. So far, we've spent $30.37 on groceries. Starting well!

Fire2025

  • Bristles
  • ***
  • Posts: 302
  • Location: LA LA Land
Re: Ultra frugal July!
« Reply #21 on: July 02, 2017, 06:38:03 PM »
Goal:  Get back to being a full time stay home artist and gardener.  Last time this happened I was unemployed (2008 - 2009) and loved the stay at home artist part, but the gut wrenching financial panic kind of took some of the joy out of it.  Now I want that life back but with financial health.

westtoeast

  • Bristles
  • ***
  • Posts: 355
  • Location: East Coast City
Re: Ultra frugal July!
« Reply #22 on: July 02, 2017, 06:47:13 PM »
Joined! After a few Uber Frugal Fails I finally have a whole month with no travel and no excuses. I'm getting home tomorrow and will begin then.

I'm not setting a number goal-- I just want to see how much I can squeeze out of my budget by cutting hopefully almost all discretionary spending for July. Ideally I'd like to purchase no physical items other than food and find free experiences for entertainment.

My long term goal for my wallet is feeling like I'm working because I love my job and not because I need to work.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

TartanTallulah

  • Pencil Stache
  • ****
  • Posts: 592
  • Location: The Middle of Scenic Nowhere
Re: Ultra frugal July!
« Reply #23 on: July 03, 2017, 03:47:43 AM »
My long term goal needs to flash up whenever I log into PayPal rather than being a physical thing in my wallet.

Slight curveball here. My car has had its service and MOT and needs a full set of new tyres. I know it's a once-in-a-while expense, but every month seems to have a once-in-a-while expense. Still, this is a fact-finding exercise rather than having to live on half our income for real.

littlelykke

  • 5 O'Clock Shadow
  • *
  • Posts: 95
Re: Ultra frugal July!
« Reply #24 on: July 03, 2017, 04:04:56 AM »
I'm in! Last month was an expensive one. In July it's our goal to eat everything from our freezer, because that's overflowing with food and we don't want it to get dry. Besides we can create some space this way for the fruits and veggies that are growing as we speak in our garden. So a nice challenge.

The overall goal is to buy as little as possible. Let's see how we do :)

11ducks

  • Pencil Stache
  • ****
  • Posts: 573
  • Location: Duckville, Australia
Re: Ultra frugal July!
« Reply #25 on: July 03, 2017, 05:11:18 AM »
My long term goal needs to flash up whenever I log into PayPal rather than being a physical thing in my wallet.

Slight curveball here. My car has had its service and MOT and needs a full set of new tyres. I know it's a once-in-a-while expense, but every month seems to have a once-in-a-while expense. Still, this is a fact-finding exercise rather than having to live on half our income for real.

Have you considered a slush fund? You tally up irregular fixed expenses, figure out how much you need to  put away each week- mine is set to cover:
Car rego, insurance, servicing and tyres
Work Union and registration fees
School books, uniforms, shoes and fees
Christmas presents and DS/DH birthdays
$100 per school holiday break
DS summer swimming fees

One thing I must do this month is reevaluate each expense in this category to see if I can find cheaper insurance and the like!

Im still going strong, only spends so far are groceries


TartanTallulah

  • Pencil Stache
  • ****
  • Posts: 592
  • Location: The Middle of Scenic Nowhere
Re: Ultra frugal July!
« Reply #26 on: July 03, 2017, 07:37:44 AM »
My long term goal needs to flash up whenever I log into PayPal rather than being a physical thing in my wallet.

Slight curveball here. My car has had its service and MOT and needs a full set of new tyres. I know it's a once-in-a-while expense, but every month seems to have a once-in-a-while expense. Still, this is a fact-finding exercise rather than having to live on half our income for real.

Have you considered a slush fund? You tally up irregular fixed expenses, figure out how much you need to  put away each week- mine is set to cover:
Car rego, insurance, servicing and tyres
Work Union and registration fees
School books, uniforms, shoes and fees
Christmas presents and DS/DH birthdays
$100 per school holiday break
DS summer swimming fees

One thing I must do this month is reevaluate each expense in this category to see if I can find cheaper insurance and the like!

Yes :-) One of the purposes of this fact-finding exercise is to locate and quantify the recurrent expenses that don't occur at regular intervals or only occur once a year, and to get an idea of how much I'll need to allow for occasional expenses like, to take a random example, new car tyres. This will affect the monthly income I'll need and determine how many OMYs I'll be facing.

Looking at your list, I'm starting to forgive myself for living paycheck to paycheck while my children were at school. Uniforms, books, trips, school transport, extra lessons, parties ... giving them bed and board as working adults is nothing by comparison.

VeggieTable

  • Stubble
  • **
  • Posts: 143
  • Location: GA
Re: Ultra frugal July!
« Reply #27 on: July 03, 2017, 11:00:30 AM »
Thanks to whoever posted about Frugalwoods' UFM for July in the June thread! I signed up and I'm loving it already. June was pretty good, but I know we can do better. My husband is in training for a new job and 100% of his take-home pay went to paying for an Airbnb apt. (He's an airline pilot and the airline does not provide a hotel for training..ugh.) So obviously we had to use savings to pay our mortgage/other monthly expenses - luckily we are mustachians so it was no problem :) Even so, I want to keep our expenses bare-bones this month.

I spent $53.47 yesterday on groceries and $23 on gas. I hadn't bought gas since 6/7, so pretty good!

rdaneel0

  • Pencil Stache
  • ****
  • Posts: 646
Re: Ultra frugal July!
« Reply #28 on: July 03, 2017, 03:46:40 PM »
I'm in! We're saving up for our first income property so I'm looking to live as close to the bone as possible. Bring it on!!!

jayzee

  • 5 O'Clock Shadow
  • *
  • Posts: 10
Re: Ultra frugal July!
« Reply #29 on: July 03, 2017, 07:22:15 PM »
Signed up! Actually have renovations scheduled this month, which is sorely needed but costing a lot, so have to cut down on other aspects of life to stay on track.

ixtap

  • Magnum Stache
  • ******
  • Posts: 4561
  • Age: 51
  • Location: SoCal
    • Our Sea Story
Re: Ultra frugal July!
« Reply #30 on: July 03, 2017, 09:42:23 PM »
We are somewhere between "spendy bucket list vacation in August" and "renovations": we are prepping our boat for a three week cruise in August. There are a lot of things that we have been willing to do without locally and at dock that we need for spending three weeks in the wild. Once we leave our home dock, the vacation itself will actually be very cheap. We will save the liveaboard fees, as well as commuting costs.

Until then, metal and electronics are expensive, so I am trying to cut costs where I can.

westtoeast

  • Bristles
  • ***
  • Posts: 355
  • Location: East Coast City
Re: Ultra frugal July!
« Reply #31 on: July 05, 2017, 04:26:55 AM »
Ok, so today's Frugalwoods challenge is using up all the food in your house.

I've got: 3 bags of quinoa pasta, 1 can of tomato sauce, dried beans, popcorn kernels, seedy crackers, hummus, frozen chicken, frozen veggie soup, frozen meat sauce, frozen cauliflower pizza crust, frozen gluten free breads and a bunch of eggs.

Not a bad haul! I'm going to meal plan using these ingredients before going shopping. I think I'll make: Pasta w/ meat sauce, cauliflower pizza w/ tomato sauce, chicken & goat cheese, popcorn for snack time, hummus toast, crackers/hard-boiled-egg/hummus lunches, veggie soup, and french toast using the bread & eggs. Not sure how to use the beans in all this so I may buy some rice & veggies to make meals here.

Discretionary Spending So Far: $0 (but only because I just returned from a trip and was using the money I withdrew from my travel savings account and converted to foreign currency)

ixtap

  • Magnum Stache
  • ******
  • Posts: 4561
  • Age: 51
  • Location: SoCal
    • Our Sea Story
Re: Ultra frugal July!
« Reply #32 on: July 05, 2017, 06:17:45 PM »
After whining about this challenge on another thread, I put a lot of thought into how to get the most out of it. Going back to yesterday, the challenge was to look at recurring costs and subscriptions. Well, we have our monthly subscriptions at 3; two cell phones and Netflix, totalling ~$90. The cell phones are needed for work and provide our only internet access at home. Netflix DVD's mean we aren't paying for other entertainment. We have put a lot of discussion into these topics and we are keeping these expenses for the foreseeable future.

However, I took the opportunity to scour around and found two annual subscriptions. DH didn't cancel Skype last year, like he thought he had. And I had a Dropbox business account that I only needed for a short while for a specific client. So we auto paid the Skype a month ago, but I caught the Dropbox before it renewed. $60 annual savings isn't as exciting as $90 monthly, but at least we aren't wasting that going forward.

DH has also agreed to look into only getting state required minimums for car insurance, since the cars are 8 and 10 years old and the renewal notice just came.

TartanTallulah

  • Pencil Stache
  • ****
  • Posts: 592
  • Location: The Middle of Scenic Nowhere
Re: Ultra frugal July!
« Reply #33 on: July 06, 2017, 06:04:10 AM »
Two weeks to go till next payday, £510 in the checking account, at least £450 to come out in expected expenses plus a significant birthday and a social weekend coming up.

This isn't going to happen.

I'm feeling a little sabotaged, but I'll get over it.

Fire2025

  • Bristles
  • ***
  • Posts: 302
  • Location: LA LA Land
Re: Ultra frugal July!
« Reply #34 on: July 06, 2017, 09:07:56 AM »
Two weeks to go till next payday, £510 in the checking account, at least £450 to come out in expected expenses plus a significant birthday and a social weekend coming up.

This isn't going to happen.

I'm feeling a little sabotaged, but I'll get over it.
Tartan you can do this!!!!!! 

Time and attention can be very valuable gifts, with the added benefit of being low cost.

Does the social weekend have a set cost?  Can you eat at home and meet up later?  Split a meal with someone else in the group?

Just trying to get the ideas flowing.  You make this win!!!!!

11ducks

  • Pencil Stache
  • ****
  • Posts: 573
  • Location: Duckville, Australia
Re: Ultra frugal July!
« Reply #35 on: July 06, 2017, 03:37:57 PM »
Two weeks to go till next payday, £510 in the checking account, at least £450 to come out in expected expenses plus a significant birthday and a social weekend coming up.

This isn't going to happen.

I'm feeling a little sabotaged, but I'll get over it.
Tartan you can do this!!!!!! 

Time and attention can be very valuable gifts, with the added benefit of being low cost.

Does the social weekend have a set cost?  Can you eat at home and meet up later?  Split a meal with someone else in the group?

Just trying to get the ideas flowing.  You make this win!!!!!

Seconded, you can totally do this. Other option is to increase revenue. Is there anything you can sell for a quick £20? Anyone owe you money to, or something you purchased but can get refunded?

TartanTallulah

  • Pencil Stache
  • ****
  • Posts: 592
  • Location: The Middle of Scenic Nowhere
Re: Ultra frugal July!
« Reply #36 on: July 06, 2017, 03:52:09 PM »
Thanks, Fire2025! I appreciate your faith and encouragement, but I can't pour a quart out of a pint pot. The birthday is one of my adult offspring, who has recently moved away from home and appreciates (and needs) money more than anything else right now. The social weekend won't be a particularly extravagant one, but it's likely to involve dining out at least once and I'm looking forward to meeting the people I'm going out with and don't like displaying my mustache at the dinner table.

What I can do, though, is limit the damage rather than exploding the budget. If my aspirational savings rate turns out to be too aggressive in any particular month, it's easy enough to sweep some money around to make sure we don't dip into being overdrawn. I knew I wouldn't get away with a 50+% post-tax savings rate (not including my work pension contribution) every single month, but I could still end up with more than 40%. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

I'll be in live-to-work mode for the rest of this month, which is good for keeping me away from spending temptations, and at some point in the near future the extra hours at work will come home to roost in my FU fund. So Ultra Frugal July is still happening.


TartanTallulah

  • Pencil Stache
  • ****
  • Posts: 592
  • Location: The Middle of Scenic Nowhere
Re: Ultra frugal July!
« Reply #37 on: July 06, 2017, 04:03:29 PM »

Seconded, you can totally do this. Other option is to increase revenue. Is there anything you can sell for a quick £20? Anyone owe you money to, or something you purchased but can get refunded?

It'll take more than a quick £20 to make up the difference (as it happens, I'm in line to make a bit more than that with some eBay auctions, but I look upon that as "decluttering to invest" rather than "making money to spend" and it gets diverted into a global tracker fund). But it's OK. I no longer feel sabotaged, and am even quite pleased that my projected savings rate would have been almost perfectly calculated had I not been hit with the cost of four new tyres.

I can still avoid frivolous spending.

Being frugal continues.

Izybat

  • Stubble
  • **
  • Posts: 218
Re: Ultra frugal July!
« Reply #38 on: July 06, 2017, 05:43:39 PM »
I'm a bit late to the party, as I just joined the challenge today. I think that means I'll be getting all the emails 6 days late, but oh well. Recently, I've been spending WAYYYYY too much on eating out and drinking alcohol. Both habits must stop, both for the financial reasons and the health ones. So my goals for the rest of July are no more spending on either of those two items.  I'm going to try to eat down what's in my pantry and my freezer, as these are both very full.

TheloniousMonk

  • 5 O'Clock Shadow
  • *
  • Posts: 1
Re: Ultra frugal July!
« Reply #39 on: July 07, 2017, 03:08:48 PM »
I'm joining the club a week too late - better late than never.

I have a few planned purchases this month - a climbing training, wedding rings, but my goal is to reduce to zero:
* non-social beer (by myself in front of the PC)
* snacks at work not brought from home (mostly some snickers crap etc)

and if I want a beer, I get to run instead!

Izybat

  • Stubble
  • **
  • Posts: 218
Re: Ultra frugal July!
« Reply #40 on: July 07, 2017, 05:08:38 PM »
Since I started late too, I'm posting my long term goal today.

My long term goal is to be financially independent enough that I can quit my job (that I hate), and try to make a living as a novelist (which I really want to do, but I'm still working up to trying to submit my first book).

11ducks

  • Pencil Stache
  • ****
  • Posts: 573
  • Location: Duckville, Australia
Re: Ultra frugal July!
« Reply #41 on: July 07, 2017, 05:45:40 PM »
Welcome guys! The more the merrier!

I'm extra motivated this month, I'm only $746 away from a milestone (which i planned to hit mid August) and realised that by cutting all variable expenses (spending/petrol/food) to up my regular savings, this month I can (hopefully) meet this goal!! Woot!

frooglepoodle

  • Handlebar Stache
  • *****
  • Posts: 1309
Re: Ultra frugal July!
« Reply #42 on: July 07, 2017, 06:01:18 PM »
I spent an unplanned $126 at IKEA today. Being sleep deprived and stressed isn't good for mindful, non-impulse spending, and while these were on our "to buy" list (play kitchen and additional train track pieces for our toddler), I hadn't meant to buy them until at least next month. :-/

ixtap

  • Magnum Stache
  • ******
  • Posts: 4561
  • Age: 51
  • Location: SoCal
    • Our Sea Story
Re: Ultra frugal July!
« Reply #43 on: July 07, 2017, 06:33:49 PM »
I spent an unplanned $126 at IKEA today. Being sleep deprived and stressed isn't good for mindful, non-impulse spending, and while these were on our "to buy" list (play kitchen and additional train track pieces for our toddler), I hadn't meant to buy them until at least next month. :-/

If it is important to you, you could return them and find used.

frooglepoodle

  • Handlebar Stache
  • *****
  • Posts: 1309
Re: Ultra frugal July!
« Reply #44 on: July 07, 2017, 07:10:43 PM »
I spent an unplanned $126 at IKEA today. Being sleep deprived and stressed isn't good for mindful, non-impulse spending, and while these were on our "to buy" list (play kitchen and additional train track pieces for our toddler), I hadn't meant to buy them until at least next month. :-/

If it is important to you, you could return them and find used.

I try to buy as much kid things as possible used, but I've been looking for months and haven't been able to find a play kitchen that meets our criteria (not primarily made of plastic and in gender-neutral colors) in our local secondhand market, unfortunately. We packed up our TV tonight to store in the garage, since our toddler's TV-related fits have gotten out of hand, and our hope is that having something new and exciting to play with will ease the transition. Other than buying it sooner than planned, I'm not unhappy with the decision to buy.

Izybat

  • Stubble
  • **
  • Posts: 218
Re: Ultra frugal July!
« Reply #45 on: July 07, 2017, 07:35:35 PM »
Being part of this challenge definitely helped me make a few wiser choices today. I wanted to hit the vending machine at work, and didn't because of this challenge. I also (very briefly) considered stopping for subway for dinner, and didn't do it for the same reasons. Hopefully, I can keep up the momentum.

recklesslysober

  • Bristles
  • ***
  • Posts: 489
  • Age: 36
  • Location: BC, Canada
Re: Ultra frugal July!
« Reply #46 on: July 08, 2017, 09:37:00 AM »
Working on meal planning and spending less on groceries/takeout this month.

dreams_and_discoveries

  • Pencil Stache
  • ****
  • Posts: 924
  • Location: London, UK
Re: Ultra frugal July!
« Reply #47 on: July 09, 2017, 01:45:22 AM »
Great to hear how everyone is doing.

I'm holding strong here, planning my days and making sure I take food/drinks if I need them. And no expenditure on unnecessarily or nice to have so far..

What has helped is filling my diary with lots of free events.....nothing tastes better than a free drink!

SAfAmBrit

  • Stubble
  • **
  • Posts: 206
  • Age: 52
Re: Ultra frugal July!
« Reply #48 on: July 09, 2017, 10:56:23 AM »
Moving from the June challenge - it is lonely there! I am on my own for 6 weeks. I am 3 weeks in and the challenge is to spend less than $50 per week on gas, food and personal spend. I am eating down the pantry, cleaning, decluttering...... If I succeed I put $100 in savings to show my family it can be done. So far so good - I have spent $74.67 over 3 weeks - never over $50 per week. Here is to week 4.
Another good week - $3.87. I had run out of my tea - (my SD has black tea and I am struggling with it) so I bought my tea and picked up 2 bread rolls. Total over 4 weeks $78.47. Food is getting a little challenging but it is achievable.

TartanTallulah

  • Pencil Stache
  • ****
  • Posts: 592
  • Location: The Middle of Scenic Nowhere
Re: Ultra frugal July!
« Reply #49 on: July 09, 2017, 11:07:06 AM »
What has helped is filling my diary with lots of free events.....nothing tastes better than a free drink!

Nice planning :-) I was thinking, "Where do you find lots of free events?" then I realised that if I was organised and looked in the places where such things are advertised, or even listened to local radio, it would be possible to spend my days shuttling between opportunities to pay for tea and sandwiches with a bit of small talk. And when I lived in a city I remember being able to secure a good dinner in return for lending my ears for a couple of hours.

My weekend has turned out less expensive than anticipated. Our dining companions yesterday don't drink much and are coffee-instead-of-dessert people, and we followed their example (and had dessert after coming home, because DH and I tear through calories like the MMMs do, though our diet incorporates a lot more cheap starch than theirs does). I'm still going to end up over budget, but unless a devil gets into my debit card in the next 11 days the spending will all have been essential and some of it won't need to be repeated for several years.

 

Wow, a phone plan for fifteen bucks!