Uber Frugal February

[frooglepoodle]

I went to Costco on Saturday. I bought a lot. I hate going to Costco so I did stock up on some things that I am close to running out of, but checked expiration dates so that I could be sure I would comfortably use them up. I still feel sick from my Saturday trip still...the whole visit was excessive, the hoards of people there, the cars, mass quantities of food. I am glad I only go every 1-2 months.

Returned those kids clothes at Target (from December) while I was in that neighborhood. $27 refunded to credit card!!!

When I walked around Target, looking at the furnishings, I was struck by the fact how EXPENSIVE everything seemed. My attitude has definitely changed so much and I feel like I am spending more time evaluating purchases, if we make them.

Ordered all my curtain rod supplies. Glad I gave myself a month to get this done. Will come in at about 100, more than the 40 I was hoping for. We look at this window hundreds of times a day so the extra cost of my decision (after hours and hours and hours of research). Also my curtain rod supplies are paid for from ebay declutter sales in January. My aspirational look is West Elm, which would have been around 300 (but they didnt make a curtain rod large enough for my window). It sounds like I am justifying my decision to spend 100, but I had a lot of aesthetic criteria (no telescoping rod, all 1 size rod for 14 feet, larger rod of 1 inch to accomodate space (I hate rod sizes ill suited to the room), fits in with midcentury modern aesthetic, curtain rings with loops rather than clips that sit behind our pinch pleats rather using clips to hold up drapes (I hate that look!), easy slide to open/close every day and night). I hope I can get project done before curtain rod string breaks (literally thread left).

I am looking forward to this new week. I need to get some more ebay/Craigslist sales going, I kind of slacked last week as I put my energy into this curtain rod issue.

My frugal new learned skill was I made (& succeeded!) homemade brioche slider hamburger buns for the Super Bowl. My buns actually tasted and looked like store bought buns, so I likely will not buy hamburger buns again. Last year, I feel like we spent like $25-30 on Super Bowl food, this year just tried to make it more fun using real food (like sliders, potato skins, and rainbow cookies) so I did not spend anything as everything was on hand.
 
Should not use either car this week. Have a great day everyone!

I'm sure there are plenty of folks here who don't give two hoots about aesthetics, but I think this is 100% an okay use of money. YOU care about the aesthetics and mostly likely wouldn't have been happy with the outcome if you'd gotten a thinner rod to save money. Better spend a little bit extra and have something that doesn't make you wince every time you look at it! It's still a huge savings over buying something similar.

We spent what feels like a lot of money this weekend (groceries, discounted membership to the yoga studio that actually has classes that work with our schedule, supplies to bake cupcakes for DH's work function), and I still have to run to the grocery store and post office today, but it should set us up for a week of zero to very little spending.

[Ebrat]

Well... I bought a bike. This is either frugal or not, depending on how you argue it. But the takeaway is this: I've been wanting a bike for more than 2 years. To the point that it was annoying my husband a bit. I bought a fairly good bike, too. Not the bad Mega-Store mountain bikes I grew up on. Something where there are gears, and they aren't rusted, and your older brother already busted the seat... just me?

Anyway, I got a Raleigh Alysa, and it was $320 (last year, closeout). I also got a bunch of stuff with start up costs... lights, lock, rack, fenders. I still have to order panniers (grocery shopping and book store are key targets). I'm already at $495. I'm unrepentant.

So-

2/1: $42 gas; $12.59 household; $79.79 groceries; $21 pharmacy; $25 headphones

2/2: $0
2/3: $20 charity; $495 bike and accessories


....'fairly' frugal February might not even touch it.

I bought the same bike back in October! I love love love it. I bought it for a similar reason--one car household, and I felt like I was a little stranded even though we live close to lots of stuff. It's been great for trips in the 1-3 mile range (under that I usually just walk).

[Bracken_Joy]

Well... I bought a bike. This is either frugal or not, depending on how you argue it. But the takeaway is this: I've been wanting a bike for more than 2 years. To the point that it was annoying my husband a bit. I bought a fairly good bike, too. Not the bad Mega-Store mountain bikes I grew up on. Something where there are gears, and they aren't rusted, and your older brother already busted the seat... just me?

Anyway, I got a Raleigh Alysa, and it was $320 (last year, closeout). I also got a bunch of stuff with start up costs... lights, lock, rack, fenders. I still have to order panniers (grocery shopping and book store are key targets). I'm already at $495. I'm unrepentant.

So-

2/1: $42 gas; $12.59 household; $79.79 groceries; $21 pharmacy; $25 headphones

2/2: $0
2/3: $20 charity; $495 bike and accessories


....'fairly' frugal February might not even touch it.

I bought the same bike back in October! I love love love it. I bought it for a similar reason--one car household, and I felt like I was a little stranded even though we live close to lots of stuff. It's been great for trips in the 1-3 mile range (under that I usually just walk).

So glad to hear you like the bike, and it's been good for you! You guys are definitely helping me feel better about my bike spending, thank you. I looked around online a couple days, and found some panniers on amazon that have pretty good reviews for $40.

Spending so far:
2/1: $42 gas; $12.59 household; $79.79 groceries; $21 pharmacy; $25 headphones
2/2: $0
2/3: $20 charity; $495 bike and accessories
2/4: $0.77 grocery; $13.98 liquor store; then $13.98 liquor store when more people RSVPd
2/5: $33.37 groceries; $4.99 wine; $19.99 filed taxes
2/6: $46.99 panniers for bike; $59.95 new hair trimmer

You know how everything breaks all at once? Yeah... well, DH's beard trimmer/body groomer finally died. Over a year ago, on a trip, DH's contact solution got in the case. It wouldn't turn off, so we had to just let it run until it died (salt in the contact point). With a couple blips of it running until it died again, we kept it working until 2 weeks ago. The central pin for the charger corroded and broke off- DH stripped it down, and it's so messed up he doesn't think it's even worth trying to solder some sort of replacement part on. So, new trimmer. His neckline is looking scruffy, so we ordered one. (Bright side being panniers and trimmer are both amazon, so 5% back. Yay?)

PLUS, our shower. Our friggin shower. Drip. Drip. DRIPDRIPDRIP. Drip. For a while, was fine if we turned it off with the temp set to 'cold', but it's getting worse. So yesterday we took it apart, and pulled out the cartridge. Cleaned it up, went to fine a replacement. Haha. No. 21 years old is too old, no longer exists, try agin. We've got an email in to Delta to see, but we're not the original owners, and the part doesn't seem to be made anymore. The bright side is that all the 'rough in valves' from delta are universally compatible with all their trim kits, so we probably just have to replace the whole trim kit, but at least we don't have to deal with welding or drywall or anything like that. We'll keep working on that today, but hoping to have it resolved soon, because the intermittent dripping is driving me nuts. This'll probably come out to $100-200 depending on what we get.

But, to balance the scales of this spendy, spendy month. I sold my wedding dress. =o $800. Although I will say guys? Be careful, I could have gotten big time screwed on this. We used Square Cash for the transaction, and her bank has cancelled it twice now 'to protect her'. I had let her just take the dress when she tried it on, since it says there is no way to cancel a sq cash transaction... well yeah, for the buyers, not for the banks. If she was a dishonest person and tried to disappear on me now, it would be a huge headache. (Luckily, OR is pretty small, so I actually know what her grad program is, I know her grad advisor since it's my alma mater, and it turns out her fiance's company tried to recruit DH once. So if she *did* try to disappear it's easy to track her down, but I'm *super* grateful she's been mega cooperative and communicative so far). We're trying paypal next, lol.

[swick]

Doing ok.

Grocery - 30.00 for Duck and chicken egg delivery. Came to 22.00 but our farmer/friends are struggling with being off work with some surgery and have been off for over a year. Won't take any help, but I didn't have change :D

Gas - 151.50 - Still super frustrating but about 10.00 less than last month, so maybe some of our weather stripping is starting to pay off?

Hub's fun Money - 26.00 for some music.

Win: Turned the last of our shriveled not storing well apples into a cobbler for Hubby's breakfast. Got 6 servings from fruit I probably would have composted.

Skipped regular weekend grocery shopping trip. Continuing to work on "Staples" price book. Discovered Cashews are cheaper than almonds right now (whaa???) and we like cashews so much more. So when we do our next bulk order (once everything is used up) it will be all cashews :)

Challenge: Hubby is trying so hard to do good, and I might have derailed him a bit. He found a game he has been looking for YEARS. The Holy Grail. It's out of print, very hard to find used, and when a copy comes up it is usually very pricy.

Guy he traded with offered it to him, with an equally hard to find expansion for 50.00. (about 1/2 of what a used copy of just the base game goes for) Initially, he wrote the guy an email saying "Thanks, but I've spent my game allowance for this month, if you still have it for sale in March though, I'll take it!" He read it to me before sending and I said, "well if it is a game you know you want and have been looking for for this long, let's see how we can make it happen." So it led to a good convo and we decided he could spend what was left in his fun money, and we have some winning lottery tickets that were given to us at Christmas that hadn't been cashed and hadn't made their way into the budget and that was enough to make up the difference. Also if he decides to sell it, he'll be able to make a profit on it.

So, I'm trying to decide if it was a smart purchase, I mean, other than it is a game, or I should have left Hubby sent that email and possibly lose the game. I think I have a habit of being very good at justifying things sometimes, which I am trying to work on. It's not like it wasn't an aware and considered purchase...and I'm super proud of DH and that his habits are changing. I dunno, frugal OK? Frugal Fail?

[lemonverbena]

Update time...

2/1: $70 tax filing (had to upgrade to a fancier program this year that can handle self-employment income)
       $24.43 groceries
2/2: $1237.01 mortgage
       $120 state taxes
       $53.69 groceries
2/3: $29.44 gasoline
       $80.62 water/sewer
2/4: +$10 phone charger return (found a long lost one under the bed)
       +$5 sold a bookcase
       +$10 sold some shelves
2/5: $0
2/6: $114.86 groceries
       $34.99 headlight
       $0.54 bolt for headlight
       $9.70 treats
       +$18.64 Home Depot return

Spending a little more than I'd like on groceries, including alcohol. We had a bad case of cabin fever and went for a drive in the country and promised a treat at our destination to keep the kids from complaining in the car; could've been worse than $9, so not feeling too guilty. Plenty of little income rivulets from returns and Craigslist sales this month, so that's good.

[PJ]

Day 5: $11.00 (church offering and limes)

For some reason, this made me laugh out loud.  Just struck me as a weird combination, I guess!

But then I got to wondering - when was the last time that I went into a store for just one specific thing (i.e. limes) and came out with just that one thing?  And I stopped laughing and gave a mental "tip of the hat" to you for your uber frugal self-control!

______________________

I worked A LOT this weekend. But got fed at events several times, and brought a little bit of food home too.  I made sure to eat most of it right away, so it wouldn't get wasted.

Also, to compensate, I'm having a lazy day at home.  Will do some work later, but for now have the heat turned down a bit (downstairs neighbours are still away), and I'm curled up on the couch with my laptop and fuzzy bathrobe.  Eating food from home.  Had left a container of blueberries a bit too long.  Rather than passing over them and letting them all go bad, I sorted through the container.  A few really gross ones into the compost.  Moderately squicky (wrinkled but not oozing) I fed to the dog (she loves them!)  The rest of the container I dumped on top of some cereal and ate it up!  Delicious!

[katscratch]

I went to Costco on Saturday. I bought a lot. I hate going to Costco so I did stock up on some things that I am close to running out of, but checked expiration dates so that I could be sure I would comfortably use them up. I still feel sick from my Saturday trip still...the whole visit was excessive, the hoards of people there, the cars, mass quantities of food. I am glad I only go every 1-2 months.

I also shop at Costco every 6-8 weeks or so, and went on Saturday. I completely forgot the Superbowl was Sunday or I would've waited. Holy smokes was it busy!! I would've been fine on dog food for another couple of weeks but didn't want to have to drive back out there.


2/01 -- $18.74 box wine...that was almost purchased 1/29 but I held out!
2/02 -- $0
2/03 -- $0
2/04 -- $103.77 Costco ($30.56 dog food)
             $22.08 Costco gasoline
2/05 -- $122.59 Home depot

I spent more in one day that I did all last month on food-related stuff! I reupped on butter, coffee, and dried nuts, as well as a bag of almond flour. The dog food will last several months.

I spent yesterday replacing a bunch of outlets and switches in my house after blowing a circuit late at night earlier last week and spending all night hoping my house wouldn't burn down (smoke detectors placed next to the outlet, extinguisher next to me, and cat in my room so I could throw him out the window just in case....heh). The faulty outlet that caused the circuit to blow was obvious, and the wires that were visible were otherwise in great shape so a morning spent on Google and off I went to the store. It was incredibly addictive and I ended up doing all the outlets/switches on two separate circuits and fixing a heat lamp in the bathroom. I'll probably spend more money on this project this month, because I realized that some light switches that have been 'iffy' since I bought my house really should just be replaced. Not uber frugal, but reasonably frugal and good for my safety and skill-learnin'.

[katscratch]

Challenge: Hubby is trying so hard to do good, and I might have derailed him a bit. He found a game he has been looking for YEARS. The Holy Grail. It's out of print, very hard to find used, and when a copy comes up it is usually very pricy.

Guy he traded with offered it to him, with an equally hard to find expansion for 50.00. (about 1/2 of what a used copy of just the base game goes for) Initially, he wrote the guy an email saying "Thanks, but I've spent my game allowance for this month, if you still have it for sale in March though, I'll take it!" He read it to me before sending and I said, "well if it is a game you know you want and have been looking for for this long, let's see how we can make it happen." So it led to a good convo and we decided he could spend what was left in his fun money, and we have some winning lottery tickets that were given to us at Christmas that hadn't been cashed and hadn't made their way into the budget and that was enough to make up the difference. Also if he decides to sell it, he'll be able to make a profit on it.

So, I'm trying to decide if it was a smart purchase, I mean, other than it is a game, or I should have left Hubby sent that email and possibly lose the game. I think I have a habit of being very good at justifying things sometimes, which I am trying to work on. It's not like it wasn't an aware and considered purchase...and I'm super proud of DH and that his habits are changing. I dunno, frugal OK? Frugal Fail?

For me it would be ok -- because my goal this month is primarily to continue working on my spending habits so that I'm not mindlessly letting hundreds of dollars float away on coffees and random food every month.  It's a tossup - there have been things in the past that I regretted not getting when I had the chance, and things that I wanted badly, passed on, and ended up not minding at all down the road.

[horsepoor]

well, I was saved from buying a horse trailer today!  This is actually kind of a frugal fail.  I'm planning on getting a very specific trailer at some point in the next few years.  A 2007 model with 90% of the features I want came up for sale in Wisconsin for 1/3 of new price. Called today and was ready to put a deposit down, but they already had a likely buyer, and won't ship used trailers without the buyer doing an in-person inspection anway.  Too bad, but I will keep an eye out for another deal like that but they're pretty rare in my part of the world.

Spend so far this month:

$6 - drinking water and TP
$102 - Whole Foods - one practical trip @$60, and one spendy-pants trip @$42
$14 - BlueTooth keyboard
$6 - batteries because I didn't realize the keyboard isn't rechargeable
$13 - running belt to hold my phone
$0 - spent my $25 Nordstrom gift card on a shirt at the Rack
$7 - weekend coffee/baked good treat

[nottoolatetostart]

So, I'm trying to decide if it was a smart purchase, I mean, other than it is a game, or I should have left Hubby sent that email and possibly lose the game. I think I have a habit of being very good at justifying things sometimes, which I am trying to work on. It's not like it wasn't an aware and considered purchase...and I'm super proud of DH and that his habits are changing. I dunno, frugal OK? Frugal Fail?

I don't know, not for me to say whether frugal fail or frugal fabulousness, but your story was very cute. I think being creative on how to pay for it and really determining if it is worth it is terrific. Thinking that way and prioritizing is awesome. Maybe in the future he tucks away a little bit of cash for the NEXT holy grail game (because inevitably that happens at the worst time, right?). His games sound like my penchant for vintage midcentury pieces. :0)

[nottoolatetostart]

Ordered all my curtain rod supplies. Glad I gave myself a month to get this done. Will come in at about 100, more than the 40 I was hoping for. We look at this window hundreds of times a day so the extra cost of my decision (after hours and hours and hours of research). Also my curtain rod supplies are paid for from ebay declutter sales in January. My aspirational look is West Elm, which would have been around 300 (but they didnt make a curtain rod large enough for my window). It sounds like I am justifying my decision to spend 100, but I had a lot of aesthetic criteria (no telescoping rod, all 1 size rod for 14 feet, larger rod of 1 inch to accomodate space (I hate rod sizes ill suited to the room), fits in with midcentury modern aesthetic, curtain rings with loops rather than clips that sit behind our pinch pleats rather using clips to hold up drapes (I hate that look!), easy slide to open/close every day and night). I hope I can get project done before curtain rod string breaks (literally thread left).

I'm sure there are plenty of folks here who don't give two hoots about aesthetics, but I think this is 100% an okay use of money. YOU care about the aesthetics and mostly likely wouldn't have been happy with the outcome if you'd gotten a thinner rod to save money. Better spend a little bit extra and have something that doesn't make you wince every time you look at it! It's still a huge savings over buying something similar.

Totally right. Some people are more wired this way vs others. Design is very important to me. Luckily, I like vintage pieces and actually love green bathtubs, pink bathrooms and 1950's appliances, so that saves us money from remodeling.....it all balances out.

Drove a car today for a Craigslist sale (safety factor). But ate in all day and worked on FREE frugal Valentines for my daughters class. We gathered all pink and red papers throughout our house for crafting and I made a cute print out for the card. Found some cute ideas on Pinterest with my daughter. Planning helps so much! Party is Thursday so the old me would have started this Thursday morning and overcompensated with buying stuff but I am trying to knock these out for FREE over next couple days. Go me!

[frooglepoodle]

Ordered all my curtain rod supplies. Glad I gave myself a month to get this done. Will come in at about 100, more than the 40 I was hoping for. We look at this window hundreds of times a day so the extra cost of my decision (after hours and hours and hours of research). Also my curtain rod supplies are paid for from ebay declutter sales in January. My aspirational look is West Elm, which would have been around 300 (but they didnt make a curtain rod large enough for my window). It sounds like I am justifying my decision to spend 100, but I had a lot of aesthetic criteria (no telescoping rod, all 1 size rod for 14 feet, larger rod of 1 inch to accomodate space (I hate rod sizes ill suited to the room), fits in with midcentury modern aesthetic, curtain rings with loops rather than clips that sit behind our pinch pleats rather using clips to hold up drapes (I hate that look!), easy slide to open/close every day and night). I hope I can get project done before curtain rod string breaks (literally thread left).

I'm sure there are plenty of folks here who don't give two hoots about aesthetics, but I think this is 100% an okay use of money. YOU care about the aesthetics and mostly likely wouldn't have been happy with the outcome if you'd gotten a thinner rod to save money. Better spend a little bit extra and have something that doesn't make you wince every time you look at it! It's still a huge savings over buying something similar.

Totally right. Some people are more wired this way vs others. Design is very important to me. Luckily, I like vintage pieces and actually love green bathtubs, pink bathrooms and 1950's appliances, so that saves us money from remodeling.....it all balances out.

Drove a car today for a Craigslist sale (safety factor). But ate in all day and worked on FREE frugal Valentines for my daughters class. We gathered all pink and red papers throughout our house for crafting and I made a cute print out for the card. Found some cute ideas on Pinterest with my daughter. Planning helps so much! Party is Thursday so the old me would have started this Thursday morning and overcompensated with buying stuff but I am trying to knock these out for FREE over next couple days. Go me!

I had one of those pink bathrooms growing up! I'm sure the people who bought that house from my parents have since gutted it. :-( I guess I can see not wanting to scrub all that grout, but it's so PRETTY!

I got the last few groceries we need for the week yesterday, and only bought one thing that wasn't on my list. DH likes frozen blueberries for dessert/late night snack, we were nearly out, and the 3lb bags were on sale for $8.50 instead of $10. I've spent $185 in the past week on groceries, but a large portion of that has been replenishing things we ran out of during Uber Frugal January and didn't replace. Weekly spending should be much lower from here on out, unless we end up stocking up on meat from a local farmer.

[tortoiseshell]

Day 5: $11.00 (church offering and limes)

For some reason, this made me laugh out loud.  Just struck me as a weird combination, I guess!

But then I got to wondering - when was the last time that I went into a store for just one specific thing (i.e. limes) and came out with just that one thing?  And I stopped laughing and gave a mental "tip of the hat" to you for your uber frugal self-control!

Haha, thank you! It helped that we went to the store on the walk to church, as I can fit a couple of limes in my purse. A full bag of groceries? Not so much.

I'm still in Uber Frugal mode because we're still living on one income right now. In addition to that, I will probably have two insurance premiums to pay this month ($664.22 combined), so I need to work extra hard to keep the rest of my expenses down. Here we go:

Day 1: $2.00 (bus transfers for interview)

Day 2: $332.11 (health insurance premium)
Day 3: $2.00 (bus transfers for interview)
Day 4: $76.12 (groceries and cat food)

Day 5: $11.00 (church offering and limes)

Day 6: $7.14 (deli turkey and tortilla chips)

[Cowardly Toaster]

We're doing ok on our grocery spending so far: however I feel like we're cheating because we have a very deep larder and can "shop" out of our own house for a lot of stuff.

[PJ]

Day 5: $11.00 (church offering and limes)

For some reason, this made me laugh out loud.  Just struck me as a weird combination, I guess!

But then I got to wondering - when was the last time that I went into a store for just one specific thing (i.e. limes) and came out with just that one thing?  And I stopped laughing and gave a mental "tip of the hat" to you for your uber frugal self-control!

Haha, thank you! It helped that we went to the store on the walk to church, as I can fit a couple of limes in my purse. A full bag of groceries? Not so much.

Ok, you are not helping! 

Now I'm laughing at the image of you sitting in church, with a little old church lady next to you.

And as you turn to dig in your purse for your offering, she leans over and says, "What's that in your purse?"

You respond, "What, this?  It's just a lime.  Two, actually."

And then, the expression of confusion on her face.

LOL

[Juslookin]

I'm here.....I'm here.  I've just been so crazy I have not been able to post.

So, I joined in January and my dog got sick.  February has been no better.  Dog still ill and it took another trip to the vet and an expensive diagnostic test we were trying to avoid, to heal her.....WHAM another $338. 

Than on Sunday I noticed that our septic system alarm was going off......not a good sign.  Turns out we need approximately $600.00 in repairs. " No worries ma'am, this will get your system up and running and good for another 12 years."  Great, doesn't he know it's Uber Frugal February?

So I have been seriously derailed before I even start.  However, I am going to completely disregard those two bills and keep on truckin'.  First of all I have zero choice when it came to the septic system.  Second, we did have a choice when it came to the dog, but she's young, only five and she is our security system on our very rural piece of property.  She earns her keep daily with her big booming bark and her doggie cuddles.  Having a dog has been great for my children and I think has provided significant value to our life in many ways. I would never let an animal suffer and when we brought her home we committed to caring for her.  If you are not an animal person I guess you could just say my security system needed some routine maintenance. :)

So, thank goodness for Uber Frugal January and February.  I have had some bad knocks....seriously......but because of my frugality I am able to afford those knocks.  I am happy to say that I have bought absolutely nothing for the house, no clothing, no doo dads....nothing.  Grocery shopping is down, eating out of the freezer is up, mindless spending has been stopped.....and I am happy with my progress overall. 

So onward I will march.   

[katscratch]

I also don't count those types of expenses against my overall goals -  they are part of living where we do. It wouldn't be wise to ignore those issues, and in the long run it makes more financial sense to deal with issues right away instead of letting them get worse.

I'm with you on having made commitments to my pets - I ended up with three kitties over 20 at the same time and 2014 to early 2016 was quite expensive at the end of their lives - but averaged out over their entire lives, in comparison to the positives they brought my family (my son was born after I had the first two so grew up 18 years with them) -- no question I'd spend the money again. I am however hoping my 15 year old dog waits a couple of years before the spendy stuff ;)

[PJ]

I'm in a weird position, of being actually eager for my bills to arrive in the mailbox.  I have some money sitting in my bank account, that I want to put toward my credit card.  But I can't do that until I know how much my gas/electric bills are going to be.  They should be here any day now, but I am tired of waiting.

In the meantime, just so that I can feel like I'm *DOING* something, I decided to come straight back home after leaving work this afternoon to do a nursing home service, rather than spending the gas to pop back to the office for a bit.  Made sure I brought the lunch/dinner I'd packed for myself too!  And when I got home, I turned down the heat another .5 degrees, and made a big pot of tea using looseleaf tea that almost never gets used, and now I'm going to do some more work, comfortably ensconced on my couch, while outside is awful freezing rain. 

[PJ]

And just another quick update...

I took a few minutes to do up an expense report for so far this year, including double checking the current price of basic home phone service (my work reimburses me for the equivalent amount, which I apply toward my cell phone bill).  Home phone price has gone up since I last checked, so I adjusted my expense report accordingly for Jan and Feb.

With travel, I'll be getting back a couple hundred dollars, which will go immediately toward my credit card.

I also tried to follow up on a small home-based business that I'd ordered something from a while back (I found the receipt when I was finishing last year's expenses a few weeks ago).  Never got the item.  No answer when I tried to call.  Will try again later today or later in the week.

[Mezzie]

I just got a decent Escrow rebate. Normally I'd put that towards the mortgage, but A lot of this saving is to fund my husband's IRA, so I'll put it there instead.

I resisted some fundraising wares my students were selling. That's a tough one.

I will be buying some gardening things soon, but that was budgeted for last year; I'm not going to count it against my February spending.

[SquashingDebt]

Week 1 update:

2/1 – $15 for political action group dues
2/2 – $0
2/3 – $0
2/4 – $15 for cocktail (business networking-related)
2/5 – $0
2/6 – $34 for tax filing software
2/7 – $0

Total for Week 1 = $64


I'm pretty happy with how Week 1 went!  Lower than any of my weeks in January.  It helped that the conference I went to had an open bar this time ;)

Week 2 is going to start out today with a pretty big grocery trip, and then a dinner out on Thursday (going to a Meetup activity to try to make some more friends).  This weekend should be pretty low-key, at least.

[Mezzie]

I'm going to a training today which usually means a rare lunch out, but I'm packing my lunch. (I'll still go out and socialize, though.)

[tortoiseshell]

Day 5: $11.00 (church offering and limes)

For some reason, this made me laugh out loud.  Just struck me as a weird combination, I guess!

But then I got to wondering - when was the last time that I went into a store for just one specific thing (i.e. limes) and came out with just that one thing?  And I stopped laughing and gave a mental "tip of the hat" to you for your uber frugal self-control!

Haha, thank you! It helped that we went to the store on the walk to church, as I can fit a couple of limes in my purse. A full bag of groceries? Not so much.

Ok, you are not helping! 

Now I'm laughing at the image of you sitting in church, with a little old church lady next to you.

And as you turn to dig in your purse for your offering, she leans over and says, "What's that in your purse?"

You respond, "What, this?  It's just a lime.  Two, actually."

And then, the expression of confusion on her face.

LOL

LOL! :D

I'm still in Uber Frugal mode because we're still living on one income right now. In addition to that, I will probably have two insurance premiums to pay this month ($664.22 combined), so I need to work extra hard to keep the rest of my expenses down. Here we go:

Day 1: $2.00 (bus transfers for interview)

Day 2: $332.11 (health insurance premium)
Day 3: $2.00 (bus transfers for interview)
Day 4: $76.12 (groceries and cat food)

Day 5: $11.00 (church offering and limes)

Day 6: $7.14 (deli turkey and tortilla chips)
Day 7: $0

First no spend day of the month! I'll be making up for it today with paying the internet bill, a quick trip to the store for mid-week produce, and buying a bus pass (new job is not within walking distance, alas).

I'm also in the process of making lunch/dinner plans with some ex-coworkers. If it turns out to be lunch, there's a spot in the neighborhood that has a lot of different vendors for lunch with common seating, so I can get a coffee and bring something from home to tide me over. If it's dinner, I'm not sure how to make it as frugal as lunch would be because we will have to go to an actual restaurant.

[Road42]

This is awesome! I'm coming to the party a little late, but I'm in. We are going to try to super frugalize for the next few months to see that makes us and our bank accounts feel. The goal is to minimize discretionary spending. Hopefully under $1000.

So far this month, I've spent $190 - groceries, bathroom stuff, and phone. Yesterday was a no-spend day!

Challenges this month will be: I will have to pay plumber for redoing the failing shower/bathtub rough-ins, and we are going to out to eat once for DH's bday.

[Bracken_Joy]

2/1: $42 gas; $12.59 laundry soap (costco); $79.79 groceries; $21 pharmacy; $25 headphones
2/2: $0
2/3: $20 charity; $495 bike and accessories
2/4: $0.77 grocery; $13.98 liquor store; then $13.98 liquor store when more people RSVPd
2/5: $33.37 groceries; $4.99 wine; $19.99 filed taxes
2/6: $46.99 panniers for bike; $59.95 new hair trimmer

2/7: $20.07 gas; $15.69 paper towels (costco); $50.03 groceries (costco); +$3.60 price adjustment for laundry soap from the 1st
2/8: $37 cartridge for shower

Bought a GIANT block of cheese from Costco. Cheaper per unit than what we've been getting, but twice the size. Trying not to be 'penny wise and pound foolish', but that's hard to balance with the shock of already being at $164 for groceries. We've had a fair amount of bulk purchases though, and we're stocked up now, so I'm hoping that spells the end of it, and it's just fresh vegetable purchases now for a few weeks.

[swick]

So, I'm trying to decide if it was a smart purchase, I mean, other than it is a game, or I should have left Hubby sent that email and possibly lose the game. I think I have a habit of being very good at justifying things sometimes, which I am trying to work on. It's not like it wasn't an aware and considered purchase...and I'm super proud of DH and that his habits are changing. I dunno, frugal OK? Frugal Fail?

I don't know, not for me to say whether frugal fail or frugal fabulousness, but your story was very cute. I think being creative on how to pay for it and really determining if it is worth it is terrific. Thinking that way and prioritizing is awesome. Maybe in the future he tucks away a little bit of cash for the NEXT holy grail game (because inevitably that happens at the worst time, right?). His games sound like my penchant for vintage midcentury pieces. :0)

:) I think I am okay with it. The point someone brought out about regretting purchases is something I always struggle with. There have definitely been a few times I have definitely regretted not buying something, and then there are times I stretched myself probably beyond what I should have and justified it, but am so, so glad I did.

There are probably more times I've justified things for other peoples that I wouldn't bother with for myself. That seems to be what I am working on :)

And I can ALWAYS justify further education in something I am interested in, I came to realize that that little habit stems directly from a few negative childhood experiences. *Stuff* could be taken away from you, *Money* can be taken from you, but knowledge can't. Now, this isn't really a bad thing as long as you are USING the materials to gain knowledge instead of just collecting resources like a security blanket.

[akzidenz]

swick, I almost read your story as a lesson in how good frugality can…enable expenses like that? I think it's really sweet he planned to walk away from it, and that you both discussed it so thoroughly. But I think one of the nice things about frugality is to clear space away for the occasional, meaningful expense, and to be able to buy certain things without anxiety/stress/guilt.

There are some purchases that produce much more utility, happiness, satisfaction than others. I've been thinking about this a lot in reference to my one main indulgence—clothing. If I say no to 95% of all my desires, maybe 5% of the time I can say yes to buying a shirt that I can wear often, feel great in—and not feel guilty about it, because I've been rigorously frugal in other places.

[PJ]

I'm staying uber frugal by not leaving the house if I don't have to (have stayed home the last couple of days - I can do a lot of my work from here, though I do have to go in tomorrow to meet with someone), keeping the thermostat down a titch while downstairs neighbours are away, eating food from the fridge and pantry. 

On the grocery shopping front, I'm participating in Eat All the Food in Your House, but still allowed to buy perishables.  My usual practice, because Thursday is not good for me, and I'm not interested in going to Walmart on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday (then they need a chance to restock after the weekend) is to go shopping or Tuesday or Wednesday night, just before the next sale flyers come out.  I didn't go last week, because I was slower than anticipated using stuff up from my previous shop (plus, some things - like the kiwis - were ripening VERY slowly). 

Anyway, tonight I looked all the way through the flyers, circling the things I might buy depending on how the produce looked when I got to the store, whether it was packaged in the right lb/kg/gr size package for price matching, etc.  Then went and looked in the kitchen, noting that I still have 4 kiwis, and an orange, and some bagged coleslaw type salad, and potatoes and onions, and several cooked meals with plenty of veggies in them, just waiting to be eaten.  I also still have a bag of milk and two partial loaves of bread.  Yeah.  I didn't go grocery shopping.  I will need to stop in sometime over the weekend to pick up a couple bananas and some tomatoes or something, but I can wait until next week to properly shop, or else I'll just end up throwing out food.

Not shopping = uber frugal!

I'm in a weird position, of being actually eager for my bills to arrive in the mailbox.  I have some money sitting in my bank account, that I want to put toward my credit card.  But I can't do that until I know how much my gas/electric bills are going to be.  They should be here any day now, but I am tired of waiting.

Also, one of my awaited bills arrived today, and was a bit less than I'd expected, because they'd done a meter reading and made a correction to the equal billing amount.  I could probably estimate how much I owe for the electric bill, and go ahead and make my credit card payment, as long as I keep it a little on the conservative side.  As well as sending a cheque to pay for CMC (Camp Mustache Canada) of course!

[couponvan]

Finally had my first $0 spend yesterday - because I stayed home.
Today - I literally had 1 mile left before running out of gas and rolled into the gas station $37 to fill up at the $2.05/gallon place.
Still haven't eaten out in a restaurant this month on my own dime (Company paid for lunch out Tuesday). People that know me know this is actually fairly major for our family.

[andy85]

Day    Feb.
1    $187
2    $22
3    $7
4    $68
5    $5
6    $41
7    $-   
Week 1 Total:    $329

[Sailor Sam]

Spending
2/1: $27.19 on pizza. I started with a bang!
2/2: $0
2/3: $15.71 groceries;  $30.79 gasoline
2/4: $89.63 groceries
2/5: $0
2/6: $0
2/7: $2.47 coffee;  $9.80 stamps

Week One: $175.59

$2.05/gallon place.

I want your gas prices. GIVE THEM TO ME.

[tortoiseshell]

I'm still in Uber Frugal mode because we're still living on one income right now. In addition to that, I will probably have two insurance premiums to pay this month ($664.22 combined), so I need to work extra hard to keep the rest of my expenses down. Here we go:

Day 1: $2.00 (bus transfers for interview)

Day 2: $332.11 (health insurance premium)
Day 3: $2.00 (bus transfers for interview)
Day 4: $76.12 (groceries and cat food)

Day 5: $11.00 (church offering and limes)
Day 6: $7.14 (deli turkey and tortilla chips)
Day 7: $0

Week 1 Total: $430.37 (ugh.)

Day 8: $91.87 ($55.91 for internet, $24.00 for weekly bus pass, $11.96 groceries)
Day 9: $10.00 (DH's Dunkin' Donuts giftcard refill)

I'm so glad that I got around to calling Comcast at the end of last month to reduce my internet speed. I still haven't noticed any change in quality and the bill is $30 lower than last month's. Although, the difference went towards buying a transit pass, which I hadn't needed for some time, but it beats having to buy the pass while paying too much for internet service.

[swick]

$2.05/gallon place.

I want your gas prices. GIVE THEM TO ME.

HA! You could have my 4.91 a gallon (Yep the joys of Canada)

swick, I almost read your story as a lesson in how good frugality can…enable expenses like that? I think it's really sweet he planned to walk away from it, and that you both discussed it so thoroughly. But I think one of the nice things about frugality is to clear space away for the occasional, meaningful expense, and to be able to buy certain things without anxiety/stress/guilt.

There are some purchases that produce much more utility, happiness, satisfaction than others. I've been thinking about this a lot in reference to my one main indulgence—clothing. If I say no to 95% of all my desires, maybe 5% of the time I can say yes to buying a shirt that I can wear often, feel great in—and not feel guilty about it, because I've been rigorously frugal in other places.

Thanks :) I think we are trying to find a balance between "Uber Frugal" and "Consciously Spend..." It really all is a balance between saving in areas you don't care as much about and spending consciously in the areas that you do and developing the habits to allow for that.

I really like your clothing example, that strikes me as a very wise way of doing it :)

[Jon_Snow]

So far...

Feb.1 - $5 - misc. grocery items
Feb. 2 - $0
Feb. 3 - $12 - DW goes for a few pints
Feb. 4 - $0
Feb. 5 - $70 - filled up truck
Feb. 6 - $0
Feb. 7 - $30 - some grocery "staples"...milk, eggs, bread...and DW's rather pricey tea. :(
Feb. 8 - $0

Total - $117

Really rather good. At some point a more extensive restocking of food will occur, but my FIRE-status allows me the time to create cheap meals that can last us several days...and with the weather the way it's been, we are loving our soups these days.

Things fall off the rails a bit tomorrow when we engage in some B.C. Ferry travel and some driving...but this the cost of doing business with our current life setup. We could save considerable money by leaving the truck at home and going over as foot passengers...but I often need the truck to do "trucky" things...like haul firewood or garden soil.

I happened to look in our freezer this morning and realized we are down to our last big Ziploc bag of frozen garden tomatoes. Distressing. We have been using these throughout the Winter as the basis for soups, curries, pasta sauce, casseroles etc.


2015 was the first year that I attempted to grow my own food. Considering how little I knew going in, it was wildly successful. And I clearly had no idea how prolific tomato plants could be. We were swamped and gave so much away. In 2016, I had every intention of scaling back...but somehow, I planted MORE tomato plants. It may have been on this very forum where I learned that if you put tomatoes in hot water for a few minutes you can easily remove the skins and then you can freeze them for future use. Which we have been...and even previously frozen, they taste so much better than canned tomatoes.

I think I have enough of a handle on the "growing" part of gardening now that I am increasingly focused on "preserving". And yesterday it hit me like a bolt of lightening...WE NEED A CHEST FREEZER. Not only veggies...but berries (blackberries and salal)...fish (salmon and lingcod)...crab and prawns. Freezing seafood can be a challenge (especially salmon) but I've read up on some pretty cool techniques that make it more likely to succeed. Our current drawer freezer beneath our fridge cannot hope to contain the bounty my island can provide during the warm months. DW wasn't overly thrilled with the idea...but I think if we go with a mid-size model, it can exist in our condo unobtrusively. This will help us reduce the grocery bill going forward...especially seeing the increasingly outrageous prices for produce here in Canada.

Seriously, with this in mind, I'm thinking about DOUBLING tomato production this year...especially Roma's...so, so, good. Come on Spring!

[SquashingDebt]

2015 was the first year that I attempted to grow my own food. Considering how little I knew going in, it was wildly successful. And I clearly had no idea how prolific tomato plants could be. We were swamped and gave so much away. In 2016, I had every intention of scaling back...but somehow, I planted MORE tomato plants. It may have been on this very forum where I learned that if you put tomatoes in hot water for a few minutes you can easily remove the skins and then you can freeze them for future use. Which we have been...and even previously frozen, they taste so much better than canned tomatoes.

If you're extra busy (or lazy), you can also just freeze tomatoes whole.  I do core the larger tomatoes, but the cherries and grapes I just throw in a freezer bag.  When you thaw them, the skins slip off easily, or if you're not fussy, an immersion blender chops up the skins pretty well.  I get a lot of free tomatoes at work, but it's also my busiest time of year, so this method works really well for me.

[Kaybee]

So far this month:

Feb 1: $12 - French meetup (meet for drinks/apps at a bar with Francophones to chat in French, I have spent most of my life taking French lessons so this gives me a chance to practice it and keep it up)
Feb 2: $ 28.28 - breakfast on the go and food at the airport
Feb 3: $37 entry to a museum (my dad said he will repay me as this was something my mom wanted to do but couldn't do alone as she is currently in a wheelchair)
Feb 4: $0
Feb 5: $0
Feb 6: $70 -premium gas into mom's gas guzzler (dad also said he'd repay me for that)
Feb 7: $55.19 - airport food/snacks and uber to airport  (trip ended prematurely and nobody was home to give me a ride)
Feb 8: $111.19 - gas for MY car, groceries, boring fruit-of-the-loom undies, cat litter (could have been higher but I was able to use points to subsidize grocery bill)

My plane ticket has also been charged to my credit card but I'm not going to put that amount here.  I'm an airline employee so it was negligible and I'm not sure I'm even allowed to disclose what we pay for our flight passes.

I'm very unhappy with the amount of money spent on food/snacks at the airport (I usually bring my own) but this trip was decided fairly last minute.  I'm also not necessarily holding my breath for the reimbursement from my dad who isn't particularly great with money.  The rest of the month is really packed with work so I don't imagine I'll even have time to spend money. ;)

Note:  I'm not including mortgage/electricity bills/insurance payment above because those are more or less fixed and happen every month.

[nottoolatetostart]

Jon Snow - envious of your tomato growing. I really want to start a garden of my own this spring.

[tortoiseshell]

I'm still in Uber Frugal mode because we're still living on one income right now. In addition to that, I will probably have two insurance premiums to pay this month ($664.22 combined), so I need to work extra hard to keep the rest of my expenses down. Here we go:

Day 1: $2.00 (bus transfers for interview)

Day 2: $332.11 (health insurance premium)
Day 3: $2.00 (bus transfers for interview)
Day 4: $76.12 (groceries and cat food)

Day 5: $11.00 (church offering and limes)
Day 6: $7.14 (deli turkey and tortilla chips)
Day 7: $0

Week 1 Total: $430.37 (ugh.)

Day 8: $91.87 ($55.91 for internet, $24.00 for weekly bus pass, $11.96 groceries)

Day 9 [EDITED]: $70.47 ($10.00 on DH's Dunkin' Donuts giftcard refill, $60.47 DH discretionary money)

I wasn't anticipating that DH would spend any more money yesterday, particularly discretionary money, but I don't mind. He's very budget-conscious (and has been his whole life, unlike me and my reformed-spendypants ways) and thinks a long while before making any purchases.

[Road42]

Spending till today: $329.41. Wow, that's pretty good for 10 days!

Ok, I think I've realized something pretty key: the less I leave my house for aimless wandering, the less I am likely to spend random money on things that I don't really need and won't remember buying. I usually go for a daily walk since I work at home and if I don't leave the house I get crazy - but I've been working on not having that walk lead to buying snacks, or buying some small house thing, or whatever, unless I have pre-planned getting that thing as an actual errand.

swick, I think my random thoughtless spending is so different from you wrote about. Buying a game that you will enjoy is a deliberate and smart use of money in my book. We play a lot of board games in my house, and we tend to think of them on a price/time of enjoyment ratio. And good games tend to have a super high rate of return when seen that way. For example: sure, our Terra Mystica game was something like $65. But it'll last forever (nicely made cardboard, we treat it well), it functions as a fun delivery system (each game takes maybe 2-3 hours), it's a way for our 7 year old to get his fill of advanced math/reasoning/strategy stuff that his school can't fully support, it provides a reasonable alternative to chess, etc.

I've been enjoying this challenge as a way of much more consciously separating the things that are good to buy from the things that are just there to buy.

Also, we made amazing cookies yesterday, which has led to me to realize that we should never buy store cookies ever again - and all because I've been digging around the pantry more and trying to figure out what to do with stuff we already own. Case in point: almond meal, which led to this recipe:

http://www.southerninlaw.com/2014/07/soft-and-fluffy-secretly-skinny-almond-meal-cookies-recipe.html

I made it with regular flour, not rice flour, and those suckers were gone in no time at all.

[swick]

swick, I think my random thoughtless spending is so different from you wrote about. Buying a game that you will enjoy is a deliberate and smart use of money in my book. We play a lot of board games in my house, and we tend to think of them on a price/time of enjoyment ratio. And good games tend to have a super high rate of return when seen that way. For example: sure, our Terra Mystica game was something like $65. But it'll last forever (nicely made cardboard, we treat it well), it functions as a fun delivery system (each game takes maybe 2-3 hours), it's a way for our 7 year old to get his fill of advanced math/reasoning/strategy stuff that his school can't fully support, it provides a reasonable alternative to chess, etc.

It has been an ongoing process for us with the board games. At first a lot of it was just figuring out what we wanted. We did a lot of research and watched a lot of reviews and playthroughs, but we bought a lot of games at first that for one reason or other didn't really work for us. We were trying to figure out what mechanics and such we do like. Fun fact, I pretty much hate tile laying games - weird, right?

Then there is the (ideal) that we have that we spend money on. I think people tend to spend towards their ideal in a lot of categories. I want to see myself as healthy/a good cook/a gamer/whatever so we buy towards the ideal and not the reality.  People are particularly bad with buying salads and letting them go bad. I know not to buy zucchini unless I have a specific recipe for it :)

Part of our Ideal that we fall into with board games is thinking and wanting to be more social than we really are. We don't have kids, and many of the awesome games really play better with more than two people. So we buy them in hopes of having people to play with. This is starting to get better since we are forcing ourselves out more. 

Hubby also loves to teach games to new people and bring them into the hobby so he buys lots of games that he thinks other people will like. Annd...he just loves new and novel mechanics. He is getting so much better now about weighing his wants and planning ahead. I would love to see him start developing some of his own game concepts, but usually after work, he is pretty beat.

We totally track and value games on a per play basis as well :) Some games have a much higher return value than others, that is part of the learning process!

We do have plans this weekend for dinner and boardgames with some friends of ours, probably the last session before their first baby is born, so we are providing dinner for that, otherwise thinking it is going to be pretty low spend other than *finally* a grocery trip to restock on fresh stuff.

What are YOUR low-spend plans for the weekend, everyone?

[tortoiseshell]

What are YOUR low-spend plans for the weekend, everyone?

Tomorrow, I'll be hosting a crafting session with friends. I'll bake some blueberry oat bars with ingredients that we (mostly!) already have on hand and provide the coffee. They'll bring mimosa makings and companionship. I also have to do the weekly food shopping, so it won't be the least spendy of days, but I'm trying to incorporate some new recipes into the rotation that will use up food in the freezer and pantry.

Sunday, we'll go to church and watch a movie at home.

[katscratch]

What are YOUR low-spend plans for the weekend, everyone?

I'm really hating on winter right now (happens every year in either February or March) so I'm thinking about hiking in a state park an hour or so outside the cities. This will blow my gasoline goal for the month but it would be worthwhile.  If I don't road trip, I'll probably just bum around the house cooking and cleaning and maybe take my bicycle out around the lakes.

[PJ]

...

Then there is the (ideal) that we have that we spend money on. I think people tend to spend towards their ideal in a lot of categories. I want to see myself as healthy/a good cook/a gamer/whatever so we buy towards the ideal and not the reality.  People are particularly bad with buying salads and letting them go bad. I know not to buy zucchini unless I have a specific recipe for it :)

Part of our Ideal that we fall into with board games is thinking and wanting to be more social than we really are. We don't have kids, and many of the awesome games really play better with more than two people. So we buy them in hopes of having people to play with. This is starting to get better since we are forcing ourselves out more.

...

I used to frequent the forums at a website called Unclutterer, though they've pretty much died off these days.  We used to talk about categories of clutter in our lives, including "aspirational clutter."  Sounds like you may have (used to have?) some board games that were aspirational clutter, though you could also think of them as aspirational spending, since we're in financial forums here.  You spend the money on stuff that you hope will make you into a different person, KWIM?  In your case, it's about wanting a more social life - but of course, you don't actually need to buy new/different games to achieve that!

An example of my own aspirational spending/clutter is my craft supplies.  Yes, I am a crafty/artistic/creative type of person.  But I would say that during the last year, I probably spent more time shopping for art supplies (I am now unsubscribed from the Michaels craft store emails!) than I have spent doing my art.  And the fact is, I don't actually need all the fancy tools (embossing heat tool and powders, as one example of something I bought months ago and is still sitting in a bag on my crafting desk) to do my art, I could just get down to it and have a good time with the stuff I have.  Heck, I've sometimes made stuff I really loved (mixed media collage, etc) using crumpled up tissue paper from a gift I got, scraps from newspapers and flyers, or scavenged scratch off lottery tickets (they had cool colours)! 

I don't remember if this got linked in the thread already (I know I came across a post about it recently, but I've been reading a lot of old threads!) but it is a good exercise to try to figure out your motivation behind wanting to purchase something:

http://www.nwedible.com/mini-money-challenge-occupy-your-brainwhat-you-want-isnt-really-what-you-want/

[Jon_Snow]

Jon Snow - envious of your tomato growing. I really want to start a garden of my own this spring.

It has been an eye opening experience and truly one of the highlights of FIRE - it saddens me that I had no time for this when I was working. And it's not just tomatoes of course. I am in the process of trying to decide what can be preserved...either dried, pickled, frozen....and whatever methods exist out there. I am still in my infancy with all this.

Here is just one of dozens of such harvests last season.


In terms of spending, things are bit shaky today...and will get worse later in the month with new travel plans afoot.

Feb. 9 - $0
Feb. 10 - $120 - ferry fare
            - $12 - ferry food (ick)

[Bracken_Joy]

2/1: $42 gas; $12.59 laundry soap (costco); $79.79 groceries; $21 pharmacy; $25 headphones
2/2: $0
2/3: $20 charity; $495 bike and accessories
2/4: $0.77 grocery; $13.98 liquor store; then $13.98 liquor store when more people RSVPd
2/5: $33.37 groceries; $4.99 wine; $19.99 filed taxes
2/6: $46.99 panniers for bike; $59.95 new hair trimmer
2/7: $20.07 gas; $15.69 paper towels (costco); $50.03 groceries (costco); +$3.60 price adjustment for laundry soap from the 1st

2/8: $37 cartridge for shower

2/9: $5 cider with a friend; $2.40 DH coffee before class
2/10: $2 coffee with a friend

We will also probably spend a decent amount on a dinner out with friends. They're frugal 99% of the time (we always do dinner and TV, trading place week to week haha), but it's her 25th birthday and she wants to go to sushi. Seems pretty reasonable, since we haven't gone out with them in quite a while.

I'm not doing perfect at this month, that's for sure. January went a lot better, haha. But at least I'm seeing people! Friends are good!

[PJ]

Stayed in, did some work from home, did some relaxing.  In the evening I peeked in the cupboards to determine next priority for eating down the pantry, and threw a pot of something together to cook for future dinners.

Biggest financial related activity today was precipitated by some frustration.  I got a letter from my bank today saying that they're raising the interest rate on my line of credit by .5%.  No reason given, but of course, "before making any changes to (their) pricing, (they) take great care in assessing the total value of (their) products to (their) clients."  Grrrr.

I have other debt that needs to get paid off before the LOC, but I have looked up how to request my free credit report from the two main Canadian companies (Equifax and TransUnion), so that I can get a sense of how applications for alternate credit cards (0% balance transfers), LOC elsewhere, or debt consolidation loans might be received. It's good to check them every year anyway.  Not sure if I will end up trying to actually transfer my LOC to another bank, or if I will just try to do the balance transfer on remaining CC debt so I can pay it down faster.  But I am annoyed enough by this increase that it's strengthening my resolve.  In the past, I've worked on paying down my debt until the point that I feel like I have some breathing room in terms of monthly payments, then lapse back into bad habits (or respond to a crisis by throwing money at it).  This time around, I want to keep going until it's ALL gone!

[horsepoor]

$32 at Trader Joe's this week, and that's it!

Redeemed $34.xx as a statement credit to the card I buy groceries and gas with (2x groceries, 3x gas points)

Grocery shopping this weekend should be minimal; pretty much green veggies and eggs.  I might go out to eat this weekend, but then I might not.

Last night I spent a couple hours putting my budget/savings projections into a spreadsheet.  Nothing sophisticated since I'm working on a tablet, but it's nice to be able to look at different scenarios more easily.  I can see that I can easily pay off my car note and some 0% credit card debt and my car loan by the end of the year without being too austere.  I got a little thrill each time I realized that my vacation this spring is already >50% paid for (plane and event tix).   I know math says to keep the car loan, but I hate the payment. If I delay paying it off, we could get our driveway replaced this year. It was already trashed, but it is now pretty much crumbling from all the snow and ice this winter.  Of course, while we're doing that, we might as well replace the front porch, and then the front door, which would then look shabby in comparison (we should be able to DIY the porch and door).  Ahh, thinking of a non-crumbling driveway is making me happy.

I'm currently brainstorming everything I think I might want to purchase this year and creating a list that I can refer to and consider over the next few months.  I'll also be making a list of things that need to be sold (espresso machine, I'm looking at you).

[tortoiseshell]

I'm still in Uber Frugal mode because we're still living on one income right now. In addition to that, I will probably have two insurance premiums to pay this month ($664.22 combined), so I need to work extra hard to keep the rest of my expenses down. Here we go:

Day 1: $2.00 (bus transfers for interview)

Day 2: $332.11 (health insurance premium)
Day 3: $2.00 (bus transfers for interview)
Day 4: $76.12 (groceries and cat food)

Day 5: $11.00 (church offering and limes)
Day 6: $7.14 (deli turkey and tortilla chips)
Day 7: $0

Week 1 Total: $430.37 (ugh.)

Day 8: $91.87 ($55.91 for internet, $24.00 for weekly bus pass, $11.96 groceries)

Day 9 [EDITED]: $70.47 ($10.00 on DH's Dunkin' Donuts giftcard refill, $60.47 DH discretionary money)

Day 10: $11.78 (house coffee and eggs)

[Mezzie]

I have some money to deposit into a CD offering 3.5% for 12 months, but I also have jury duty this coming week (and my credit union is the old school no weekend or late hours type), so I'm hoping I can make the deposit before the special is gone.

Otherwise, we went to the movies yesterday to see Lego Batman. I've been sick and my family firmly believes in comedy as a healing experience, albeit temporary. I felt pretty good during the movie itself, only to go back to being whoozy afterwards. It was a matinee, so not too expensive, and you know, it was medically necessary. :p It certainly felt better than self-pity on the couch.

Otherwise all is going according to plan.

[lemonverbena]

Jon_Snow, I love your garden harvest pic. I'm afraid my gardening is more on the side of being an expensive hobby rather than a money saver, but hopefully I'll have better returns this year.

2/7: $33.34 gasoline car 1
       $245.91 car loan
       $35 local tax
       $22.96 prepared food from natural grocery store, sigh
2/8: $6.50 spouse got beer at a bar, uh oh
       $23 pot
2/9: $195.81 electricity
       $5.22 prepared food from convenience store, not again!
       $29.10 gasoline car 2
2/10: $80.80 groceries, including $4 wine
         $32.62 gasoline car 1
         $8.48 pizza and wine from grocery store, hangs head
2/11: $2000 extra principal payment on car loan!

Ok, we got a little off track this week. But! We put an extra $2k on the car loan, so that's something. Getting back on the saddle now.