Author Topic: Uber Frugal February  (Read 44449 times)

Road42

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Re: Uber Frugal February
« Reply #150 on: February 11, 2017, 09:16:41 PM »
Ok, we completely fell off the wagon today and ordered dinner when my mom and her SO were visiting. On the plus side, it was delicious Indian food and let us talk for hours on end around our table at home. On the minus side it was $100 for six people. Ugh. But tomorrow I'm making us all brunch at home.

To offset that somewhat, I researched insurance options and figured out a way to save $1773/year while having the same levels of coverage (home and auto)

I did try to contribute to more long term frugality by having a long conversation with my kids about how advertising works, the way the human brain is structured to make feelings-based decisions whenever possible, etc. I basically introduced Kahneman and Tversky to them, age-appropriately. Then we did some math to figure out that our homemade cookies cost about $.10-.15 a piece vs. $2 each for the ones in the local bakery. They were fascinated, and hopefully some of that will stick as we keep talking about the way the world of money works.

Jon_Snow

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Re: Uber Frugal February
« Reply #151 on: February 11, 2017, 09:42:38 PM »
Feb 11 - 7$ - jalapeño cheddar smokies.  (I've talked in length about these...but OMG)

PJ

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Re: Uber Frugal February
« Reply #152 on: February 11, 2017, 10:18:32 PM »
Ok, we completely fell off the wagon today and ordered dinner when my mom and her SO were visiting. On the plus side, it was delicious Indian food and let us talk for hours on end around our table at home. On the minus side it was $100 for six people. Ugh. But tomorrow I'm making us all brunch at home.

To offset that somewhat, I researched insurance options and figured out a way to save $1773/year while having the same levels of coverage (home and auto)

I did try to contribute to more long term frugality by having a long conversation with my kids about how advertising works, the way the human brain is structured to make feelings-based decisions whenever possible, etc. I basically introduced Kahneman and Tversky to them, age-appropriately. Then we did some math to figure out that our homemade cookies cost about $.10-.15 a piece vs. $2 each for the ones in the local bakery. They were fascinated, and hopefully some of that will stick as we keep talking about the way the world of money works.

Ok, Indian food for 6 is not Uber Frugal, but it does sound good. :-)

As for the insurance thing, please say more!  I pay SO much for insurance, as a relatively new driver and living in such a crazy city (Toronto).  Is there some trick to what you did, or did you just shop around and find a new company?

Also, well done on the advertising awareness and real-life math examples with the kids.  What a great way to approach it with them!  I seem to vaguely remember Mom showing us once or twice how to figure out which of two items in the grocery store was a better price, when they came in different size packages.  It's the kind of lesson kids need more of, not in a heavy handed way, just naturally as you go through the day.

PJ

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Re: Uber Frugal February
« Reply #153 on: February 11, 2017, 11:22:29 PM »
OK, end of the day wrap-up:

Saved money by staying home today.
This includes not going to the grocery store, which I pondered.  But resisted, because I still have "enough" food in the house for now. 
Ate all meals from home.
My downstairs tenants are back home, so can't turn down the thermostat.  But I lit a bunch of candles (I have a lot of candles!) and left the lights off most of the evening, just puttered around by candlelight!

nottoolatetostart

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Re: Uber Frugal February
« Reply #154 on: February 12, 2017, 04:52:25 AM »
Jon -  I loved your gardening pic. That must feel amazing! They are gorgeous. We should start a Gauntlet challenge of Uber Frugal Garden thread soon!

Life going well here. No clothes dryer used thus far, switched my chandelier to all led's (all 18, eek, but paid for out of eBay money), returned my stuff to Target, walking as much as possible. My electric bill is down close to 30% compared to early January (according to electric company, we were averaging over 3 dollars a day and as of this morning we are at $2.18 a day. That includes baking a lot and cooking on electric every single day. That's 420 savings per year with the stuff we have done so far!!! Love it!!!!

DH's car was not starting so after googling figured out it could be the battery. I watched a YouTube video on changing batteries for his exact car year, ordered a battery on the Advance Auto mobile app, used a 20% off coupon and ebates referral, picked it up and had it ordered to install in under 2 hours. AAA and car shop would not have gotten it done that fast. Car worked perfect when I started it up. While it did cost 136 (I needed a tool but am now set for life for changing the whole neighborhood's batteries, guy at shop gave me a coupon for the tool too), it gave me confidence to actually do car DIY. It was really simple actually! The Advance Auto mobile site was amazing for really solidifying what I needed based on my car model and taking concern out of buying the wrong thing (plus you can read reviews).. I have much more interest in doing more work on my car now. I also am finding with DIY, whether your money management or house or car, that no one takes as good as care of your stuff as you. People cut corners that you yourself would not do.

I made pizza this week and it was the best pizza I have ever made. Another baking win! I may make cute Valentine heart shaped pizzas today with leftover sauce and cheese.

Home decorating is my weakness, not dining  out  or buying Starbucks coffee. I was online shopping, for what reason I don't know (fail!) , but actually found curtains for my son's room from Land of Nod (he has pink and green floral curtains now that came with the house). I never find exactly what I am looking for, so this stumble was a find. Really wanted to buy them, especially since I only need 2 panels, but thought of you all and UFF, and closed my browser. So, I will either sell something to make the money or try my hand at DIY-ING it with coupons since the fabric shold be easy to obtain. If I DIY it, I need to find a good tutorial as I have not been happy in the past. In March, I guess. I am so glad I have a small (by American standards) house since I have less stuff to furnish.

The other big thing we did officially this month is drop/change life insurance. We previously had 750k on each of us at $668 total annual premium, or $50ish per month for both of us. We bought these premiums when our savings was not that high and now that our nest egg has grown significantly, it does not make sense to continue it. We self insured, plus I looked at our Social Security benefits if one of us, or both passed away, and there is enough money. We dropped DH's life insurance. For me, because I save us so much money (cooking, clean, most DIY, lawn, kids care) and he has no DIY skills (he will tell you that too! I am not dissing him. We joke about this), his lifestyle would cost more without me in the picture, so we agreed to get me new policy of $250k on me for now at $134 a year. So this change saved us another $534 this year (canceling hus, downsizing mine). My new  policy was approved this week, so those savings are solidified. It sounds morbid to go through exercise of putting together budget if one of us, or both, we're not in the picture, but it saved us some good money this year. We will keep policy on me for another couple years. Mentioning this in case it helps anyone.......

I love seeing everyone's posts. We are almost halfway through February.....anyone thinking of UFM(arch)? I am up for it.




Mezzie

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Re: Uber Frugal February
« Reply #155 on: February 12, 2017, 06:40:00 AM »
Husband and I ate out yesterday, but I'm still on budget (yay for local Thai places that don't cost much more than making it ourselves).

I got my revised auto insurance statement and found another mistake that, when fixed, will save $200/year. Study those policies, people!

Played board games last night for entertainment.

Ordered some Mandarin language CDs at the library for fun even though I'm still studying German. Roommate speaks Mandarin. Comsidering how much I know I suck at tonal languages, I am unlikely to get past pleasantries, so I saved some money there.

Before going grocery shopping today, I'm going to see what's in my pantry.

tortoiseshell

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Re: Uber Frugal February
« Reply #156 on: February 12, 2017, 06:48:32 AM »

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)
Day 11: $66.08 (groceries)

I've spent so much money on groceries this week! Part of it is that I needed to replenish some pantry staples and part of it is that I keep buying $&@#%* meat. The freezer is full, knock it off, self!

swick

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Re: Uber Frugal February
« Reply #157 on: February 12, 2017, 10:52:27 AM »
Sooo... you know how it is easy to forget you know what you know?

Or....

Do you think that what you know isn't special because it seems to simple to you or routine?

I had a bit of an epiphany while talking with DH about what to do about a baby shower gift. Given we don't know if it is a boy or a girl, they registered at a place that we can't go to (live in a small-ish area) and we'd have to get something shipped in and running out of time I was stressing....

Then it popped into my head, guys, I used to take Photos FOR A LIVING. I'm a bloody photographer. *facepalm* I have done newborn and family photo shoots. This is something I can EASILY offer. So Hubs is going to design a nice personalized card in photoshop and BAM Baby shower gift :)

Reading stories about Nottolatetostart's home decorating and DIY skills (Seriously, we should chat if you want to help other people spend their money. I am LOST when it comes to curtains and it is the only thing in our house that we could change that would significantly add to our quality of life)

I think a lot of us have skills that we could be using more, or that we sometimes forget we have. So one thing I'm going to work on is a kind of skills list so we can track who is good at what for Hubby and myself, and our friends, so we can all be aware of what things we are good at and how we can help each other out.

Happy Sunday everyone!


Road42

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Re: Uber Frugal February
« Reply #158 on: February 12, 2017, 11:32:58 AM »
Ok, we completely fell off the wagon today and ordered dinner when my mom and her SO were visiting. On the plus side, it was delicious Indian food and let us talk for hours on end around our table at home. On the minus side it was $100 for six people. Ugh. But tomorrow I'm making us all brunch at home.

To offset that somewhat, I researched insurance options and figured out a way to save $1773/year while having the same levels of coverage (home and auto)

I did try to contribute to more long term frugality by having a long conversation with my kids about how advertising works, the way the human brain is structured to make feelings-based decisions whenever possible, etc. I basically introduced Kahneman and Tversky to them, age-appropriately. Then we did some math to figure out that our homemade cookies cost about $.10-.15 a piece vs. $2 each for the ones in the local bakery. They were fascinated, and hopefully some of that will stick as we keep talking about the way the world of money works.

Ok, Indian food for 6 is not Uber Frugal, but it does sound good. :-)

As for the insurance thing, please say more!  I pay SO much for insurance, as a relatively new driver and living in such a crazy city (Toronto).  Is there some trick to what you did, or did you just shop around and find a new company?

Also, well done on the advertising awareness and real-life math examples with the kids.  What a great way to approach it with them!  I seem to vaguely remember Mom showing us once or twice how to figure out which of two items in the grocery store was a better price, when they came in different size packages.  It's the kind of lesson kids need more of, not in a heavy handed way, just naturally as you go through the day.

PJ, I think it really is as simple as calling around to see what different insurance rates would be. I just went to the websites of big ones that I've heard of (Liberty Mutual, Nationwide, Metlife, etc. - they are prob different up in Canada) and put in all my same info from the insurance we have now. A bunch came in with higher quotes, but Metlife had a much lower one. Who knows why - I really don't have a good sense of where their numbers come from. I know some things that lower our rates are:

- bundle auto and home
- pay the whole year's worth at once rather than having monthly payments (there's a small discount for that)
- no accidents for either driver basically ever

but that can't possibly account for the wide swing of numbers I was seeing.

Yeah, we talk about money decisions with the kids all the time - and often lay out the reasoning behind our decision-making in general. I think the more transparency the better, at least in terms of understanding how to navigate systems and develop higher-level executive function skills. They are old enough now (11 and 8) to really see how our choices don't necessarily mirror those of their friends' families, so working through both the "different families are different and that's fine" and "here's how we think about the choices we make" lines of reasoning is really useful.

Road42

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Re: Uber Frugal February
« Reply #159 on: February 12, 2017, 11:34:38 AM »
I love seeing everyone's posts. We are almost halfway through February.....anyone thinking of UFM(arch)? I am up for it.

I am 100% on board! The feeling that I have to be somewhat accountable to internet strangers is a surprisingly effective motivational tool...

Ok, so, so far this month we've spent $1721.47. Which - yes, a little ugh. But breaking all that down, I know that:

  • $1000 were expenses to fix leaky plumbing rough-ins and fix a giant hole to the outside of the house - neither of which repairs I would have been comfortable doing myself, and both of which I minimized as much as possible.
  • $200 was a long-planned birthday outing for DH. Not frugal, but worth it.
  • $100 was for that Indian food dinner I mentioned already. Again, obviously not frugal, but I'm ok with it since it was food for 6 for dinner, and we have enough leftover for 2 more dinners for the 4 of us.

And so with all that ridiculous rationalizing, I can say that we are doing really well this month otherwise! :)
« Last Edit: February 12, 2017, 11:45:22 AM by Road42 »

katscratch

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Re: Uber Frugal February
« Reply #160 on: February 12, 2017, 12:45:23 PM »
Yeah, we talk about money decisions with the kids all the time - and often lay out the reasoning behind our decision-making in general. I think the more transparency the better, at least in terms of understanding how to navigate systems and develop higher-level executive function skills. They are old enough now (11 and 8) to really see how our choices don't necessarily mirror those of their friends' families, so working through both the "different families are different and that's fine" and "here's how we think about the choices we make" lines of reasoning is really useful.

We/I did the same thing - it definitely helps that my former husband is a thousand times more Mustachian than anyone I've met so our son has had two parents in separate households essentially saying the same things regarding consumerism and money but following different paths.  Mine was not the smarter path ;)

On to my spending:
Quote
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

2/06 -- $0
2/07 -- $0
2/08 -- $0
2/09 -- $0
2/10 -- $35.20 co-op -- loose leaf tea that was a LOT spendier than I thought! I also should've calculated before buying to make sure the scale at the register was reading correctly. Oops! and coconut ice cream on sale**
2/11 -- $24.27 grocery store
           $3.48 grocery store
           $11.02 wine
2/12 -- $0

Although I could maintain the ultra low grocery bills from last month for another 60-90 days, my body is particular when it comes to food so I'm spending more this month in hopes of avoiding the various illnesses rampant in my workplace and community right now (norovirus- ick, strep, and bad weeklong respiratory viruses).

**I don't buy impulse 'treat' foods any more, with one exception allowed in the rare event my favorite chocolate peanut butter coconut milk ice cream is on sale (hasn't happened since I started watching my budget six months ago).  On my first visit to the co-op in several months, it was!  I hesitated and didn't get it, and at the last minute went back to throw it in my basket with the tea I'd selected.  The funny part: when I got home it was the wrong flavor :) and after months of not eating sweet treats it wasn't that great and didn't sit well in my gut.  Haha, lesson learned.

horsepoor

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Re: Uber Frugal February
« Reply #161 on: February 12, 2017, 02:24:11 PM »
$53 at Whole Foods yesterday, which included coffee and a bottle of wine.
$5.50 on a slice of chocolate cake from a fancy bakery

Today I did place a bid on an eBay item.  Something I've been planning to buy, and will replace two others that I'll be able to sell.  Item used would be at least $50 less than if I purchase new. Chances are, I'll be outbid, but if not, it will save me a bit n the long run.

PJ

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Re: Uber Frugal February
« Reply #162 on: February 12, 2017, 11:04:27 PM »
DH's car was not starting so after googling figured out it could be the battery. I watched a YouTube video on changing batteries for his exact car year, ordered a battery on the Advance Auto mobile app, used a 20% off coupon and ebates referral, picked it up and had it ordered to install in under 2 hours. AAA and car shop would not have gotten it done that fast. Car worked perfect when I started it up. While it did cost 136 (I needed a tool but am now set for life for changing the whole neighborhood's batteries, guy at shop gave me a coupon for the tool too), it gave me confidence to actually do car DIY. It was really simple actually!

I love seeing everyone's posts. We are almost halfway through February.....anyone thinking of UFM(arch)? I am up for it.

Well done, nottoolatetostart!  And yes, UFM sounds good to me.  Nothing too dramatic, but continuing to try to be conservative with utilities, minimize driving, refrain from (much) shopping - though a thrift store trip specifically for pants may be in order, continue to try to eat down the pantry/freezer/fridge (I still have lots of food left!)  Will need to continue to supplement with fresh fruit/veg/dairy, but should be able to spend minimally on groceries for at least one more month.

I do have an idea that I've been cultivating for some family birthday gifts coming up, that may need some creativity to keep frugal.  Since most of our family birthdays are in April and June, and they are all going to be basically the same gift, it would make sense to work on them all at once, and if I take a few days off in March as planned, that will be a good time to try to get them done.

I've spent so much money on groceries this week! Part of it is that I needed to replenish some pantry staples and part of it is that I keep buying $&@#%* meat. The freezer is full, knock it off, self!

Y'all know about my overstocked rice by now, right?  Or is it only in the Eat All the Food thread that I've been posting about that?  Yeah.  I have a lot of packages of rice/grain dishes.  So yes, tortoiseshell, knock it off!  Otherwise you might find yourself buried under an avalanche of food from the freezer one day, like I literally had a half dozen boxes/packages of "rice side dishes" fall on me from the cupboard the other day!  Apparently (as I'm learning) those things will go on sale again in future...

Then it popped into my head, guys, I used to take Photos FOR A LIVING. I'm a bloody photographer. *facepalm* I have done newborn and family photo shoots. This is something I can EASILY offer. So Hubs is going to design a nice personalized card in photoshop and BAM Baby shower gift :) 

Great baby shower gift idea!  Well done! 

PJ, I think it really is as simple as calling around to see what different insurance rates would be. I just went to the websites of big ones that I've heard of (Liberty Mutual, Nationwide, Metlife, etc. - they are prob different up in Canada) and put in all my same info from the insurance we have now. A bunch came in with higher quotes, but Metlife had a much lower one. Who knows why - I really don't have a good sense of where their numbers come from. I know some things that lower our rates are:

- bundle auto and home
- pay the whole year's worth at once rather than having monthly payments (there's a small discount for that)
- no accidents for either driver basically ever

Thanks Road42!  I already have auto and home bundled, which I highly encourage others to check out if they aren't already doing so.  I only had to add contents insurance because I rent, but my insurance cost ended up being LESS once I added the contents to my auto policy!  I have been lazy about checking insurance options because my employer has a broker who assists us, and we get a group rate, and other people I know have said that when they've checked around, these are the best rates.  But, it's always worth checking, especially since I think there are group rates available to alumni from both of the two universities I've gone to.  They could be even better, for all I know!

Home decorating is my weakness, not dining  out  or buying Starbucks coffee. I was online shopping, for what reason I don't know (fail!) , but actually found curtains for my son's room from Land of Nod (he has pink and green floral curtains now that came with the house). I never find exactly what I am looking for, so this stumble was a find. Really wanted to buy them, especially since I only need 2 panels, but thought of you all and UFF, and closed my browser. So, I will either sell something to make the money or try my hand at DIY-ING it with coupons since the fabric shold be easy to obtain. If I DIY it, I need to find a good tutorial as I have not been happy in the past. In March, I guess. I am so glad I have a small (by American standards) house since I have less stuff to furnish.

This comment made me laugh.  I stopped by Walmart today on the way home from church.  Meds for cat - justifiable.  Package of tofu because I'm craving a bit of variety after several weeks of mostly beans/split peas/lentils - semi-justifiable.  Couple of small packages of Valentine candy (less than $3) - semi-justifiable - will explain below!  But then I walked straight from the produce dept, where I'd picked up the tofu, and right over to the baked good.  And as I picked up a pack of these awful (delicious!) glazed donuts that come in 6 packs for $1, there was this terribly intrusive thought in my mind about having to confess to you all that I'd bought them!  They're obviously not that expensive, but they are NOT good for me, especially since I will eat them all in a couple of days.  I might just as well buy a bag of sugar, mix it up with some margarine or oil, and eat it by the spoonful!  (But they are much more delicious, and so far tonight I've had ... several!)

A word about the Valentine candy.  I got so sick over Christmas, first the flu and then bronchitis, and we were really really busy at work, with one funeral after another back to back.  I had done a lot of my Christmas shopping early (for people at work) but never got around to wrapping stuff and giving it out!  So I wrapped up the little gifts I had bought for my leadership team volunteers, and took them in today.  I'll take our admin asst her gift tomorrow.  I posted about this in the "Odd Job a Day" thread.  I had also bought a gingerbread house kit and a cat toy for my downstairs neighbours, which I also never got around to dealing with, and kind of forgot about.  So, I bought a few little packages of Valentine's candy, and will give them the gift on Tuesday, with an explanation of what happened, and the suggestion that they can make a Valentine's themed gingerbread house instead of a Christmas one :-)

Total cost of Walmart trip - $26 dollars or so.

Jon_Snow

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Re: Uber Frugal February
« Reply #163 on: February 13, 2017, 01:03:14 AM »
DW and I spent the entire day working on our island property. Impossible to spend money there. :)

Feb 12 - $0
« Last Edit: February 13, 2017, 10:22:48 AM by Jon_Snow »

CloserToFree

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Re: Uber Frugal February
« Reply #164 on: February 13, 2017, 07:23:07 AM »
I'm in too!  Will post goals later.  Yay!

westtoeast

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Re: Uber Frugal February
« Reply #165 on: February 13, 2017, 10:18:36 AM »
Week 2 Update!

Feb 7:$0 (well... I bought a plane ticket but this was pre-planned spending for when a deal hit & came from my travel savings)
Feb 8: $8 (Uber, necessary to doc visit); $5 (my share of bulk coconut oil purchase); $15 (sweater)
Feb 9: $5 (chocolate to give as thank you gifts to those who wrote me recommendations for a summer travel grant)
Feb 10: $40 (SO forgot to move his car during the snow emergency & got towed. He ended up with a huge fine and couldn't earn any money at work on this day, so I pitched in); $60 (Groceries)
Feb 11: $20 (Uber... more on this below)
Feb 12: $0
Feb 13: $4 (Tom's Deodorant)

Total: $1160 out of $1400 Goal

Wins/Challenges:
This really wasn't a great week. I did secure a new side hustle that is going to be pretty lucrative (well, for me at least) but I had some major spending mess ups. I feel good about helping SO with car fines because I do benefit from him having a car so I should assume some financial responsibility. But I spent $20 on Uber rides and it was my goal to cut this out! I won't give all my excuses, but basically it was one of those situations where you give in on spending because of not wanting to appear a cheapskate to friends (and the ground being covered with enough snow and slush that walking for an hour would have been really terrible). I also bought a sweater (I'm excusing this because I have a big bag of clothing I'm selling to thredup, and because I am trying to slowly build a capsule... I am renouncing my previous promise not to buy clothing, and instead I'm going to purchase one well thought out piece every so often).

I still have $240 I can spend this month and be within my goal. This should be totally doable. I have a cheaper meal plan worked out for next week and I anticipate about $100 more in grocery spend this month. I also don't have any other major purchases that I can foresee, so if I can avoid any unneeded spending for the next two weeks I might actually be able to add another $100 to savings at the end. 

swick

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Re: Uber Frugal February
« Reply #166 on: February 13, 2017, 10:48:17 AM »
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.

Week 2 Update:

Groceries: $132.36 First actual shop of the month. Chicken went on sale for as low as it ever goes around here (still about 3.oo lb) but we stocked up and used some coupons. Also got a ton of veggies and 20 lbs of apples. Other then a trip to pick up some dishwasher detergent we should be good for the rest of the month.

Gas: We fill up less than 1 tank a month for our camry, but Canada so still $62.41

Travel/other: $20.14 Pictures for Hubby's passport renewal.

WIN: $2340 SAVED!! Due to work schedules and such, hubby and I are going on one trip this year. As it's Gen Con's 50th and my best friend and her husband go every year (and our husbands have never met but would get along great) It popped out of my mouth we should go too! Now, having never been, I didn't consider the hotel cost and I have been DREADING it - but realized we still wanted to do it so we'd just have to suck it up.

Well, turns out thanks to a little encouragement from Camp Mustache to do some travel hacking (although it is not as lucrative for us Canadians) I had enough Marriot points to book into a hotel for 6 nights! If you redeem 4 you get a night free so all 6 nights cost us 50,000 points.  Since they determine redemption based on category and not advertised price of the room (which jumped from 120 a night to over 300 a night) add in exchange and it would have been over $2,300 dollars if we had to pay listed prices. Plus we get a suite with a full kitchen which is great! I'm totally excited :)






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Re: Uber Frugal February
« Reply #167 on: February 13, 2017, 11:29:20 AM »
I still have $240 I can spend this month and be within my goal. This should be totally doable. I have a cheaper meal plan worked out for next week and I anticipate about $100 more in grocery spend this month. I also don't have any other major purchases that I can foresee, so if I can avoid any unneeded spending for the next two weeks I might actually be able to add another $100 to savings at the end.

Just want to say that I think this is the right attitude to have.  Sometimes, an emergency will come up, or we make a decision we regret.  You're still under budget right now.  And you think you can stay that way, because you have cheaper alternatives for meals next week.  If you wanted to make up some of the extra you spent, you could set a personal challenge to go even cheaper with the groceries, or to trim back further on utilities until the end of the month, or something like that.  But when you look at the big picture, if you're still under your uber frugal budget overall, then that suggests that on the whole, you've been making some pretty good decisions throughout the month.

PJ

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Re: Uber Frugal February
« Reply #168 on: February 13, 2017, 11:34:29 AM »
WIN: $2340 SAVED!! Due to work schedules and such, hubby and I are going on one trip this year. As it's Gen Con's 50th and my best friend and her husband go every year (and our husbands have never met but would get along great) It popped out of my mouth we should go too! Now, having never been, I didn't consider the hotel cost and I have been DREADING it - but realized we still wanted to do it so we'd just have to suck it up.

Well, turns out thanks to a little encouragement from Camp Mustache to do some travel hacking (although it is not as lucrative for us Canadians) I had enough Marriot points to book into a hotel for 6 nights! If you redeem 4 you get a night free so all 6 nights cost us 50,000 points.  Since they determine redemption based on category and not advertised price of the room (which jumped from 120 a night to over 300 a night) add in exchange and it would have been over $2,300 dollars if we had to pay listed prices. Plus we get a suite with a full kitchen which is great! I'm totally excited :)

Well done, swick! 

I am really intrigued by the idea of travel hacking (even though not as lucrative, etc).  I have some friends I would LOVE to visit, and would be cheap to stay with them, so all I need is flights.  But I am carrying some credit card debt right now, and have told myself that I should be looking into doing a balance transfer (again) to save myself some interest costs.  I am going to think about this some more, but may want to pick your brain in the future.  So many of the travel hacking sites are about the U.S. options, and also it's hard to tell when the advice is good, or just good for them!  (affiliate links and such)

alleykat

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Re: Uber Frugal February
« Reply #169 on: February 13, 2017, 01:31:50 PM »
While I am not having an uber frugal February, it is still pretty frugal. the most frugal I have ever been.  Maybe in march I will track my expenses. 

Mezzie

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Re: Uber Frugal February
« Reply #170 on: February 13, 2017, 01:44:42 PM »
I spent twice my grocery budget but only because I bought things in bulk at a cheaper per oz rate; I'll freeze half and only buy a few fruits and veggies next week.

westtoeast

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Re: Uber Frugal February
« Reply #171 on: February 13, 2017, 02:07:19 PM »
I still have $240 I can spend this month and be within my goal. This should be totally doable. I have a cheaper meal plan worked out for next week and I anticipate about $100 more in grocery spend this month. I also don't have any other major purchases that I can foresee, so if I can avoid any unneeded spending for the next two weeks I might actually be able to add another $100 to savings at the end.

Just want to say that I think this is the right attitude to have.  Sometimes, an emergency will come up, or we make a decision we regret.  You're still under budget right now.  And you think you can stay that way, because you have cheaper alternatives for meals next week.  If you wanted to make up some of the extra you spent, you could set a personal challenge to go even cheaper with the groceries, or to trim back further on utilities until the end of the month, or something like that.  But when you look at the big picture, if you're still under your uber frugal budget overall, then that suggests that on the whole, you've been making some pretty good decisions throughout the month.

Thank you for this! Sometimes an emergency or bad decision can make me want to throw in the towel... but really, a mostly-frugal month is still so much better than a "regular" month. And if I have a flexible mindset where I expect some missteps, but am prepared to adjust to accommodate them, might allow me to keep going to Uber Frugal March... Uber Frugal April... and beyond!

Mongoose

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Re: Uber Frugal February
« Reply #172 on: February 13, 2017, 07:55:15 PM »
Total fail at frugal February. Eyeglasses, kids summer camp registrations, unexpected medical copays. I'm trying to salvage the rest of the month but consider myself a drop-out. :-)

Bracken_Joy

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Re: Uber Frugal February
« Reply #173 on: February 13, 2017, 07:59:30 PM »
Total fail at frugal February. Eyeglasses, kids summer camp registrations, unexpected medical copays. I'm trying to salvage the rest of the month but consider myself a drop-out. :-)

I'm there with you, Mongoose.

72lbs grassfed beef, a sushi dinner for a friend's birthday, car insurance, etc.

I'm still trying now, but I'll just be working on that in the background.

PJ

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Re: Uber Frugal February
« Reply #174 on: February 13, 2017, 09:52:57 PM »
I still have $240 I can spend this month and be within my goal. This should be totally doable. I have a cheaper meal plan worked out for next week and I anticipate about $100 more in grocery spend this month. I also don't have any other major purchases that I can foresee, so if I can avoid any unneeded spending for the next two weeks I might actually be able to add another $100 to savings at the end.

Just want to say that I think this is the right attitude to have.  Sometimes, an emergency will come up, or we make a decision we regret.  You're still under budget right now.  And you think you can stay that way, because you have cheaper alternatives for meals next week.  If you wanted to make up some of the extra you spent, you could set a personal challenge to go even cheaper with the groceries, or to trim back further on utilities until the end of the month, or something like that.  But when you look at the big picture, if you're still under your uber frugal budget overall, then that suggests that on the whole, you've been making some pretty good decisions throughout the month.

Thank you for this! Sometimes an emergency or bad decision can make me want to throw in the towel... but really, a mostly-frugal month is still so much better than a "regular" month. And if I have a flexible mindset where I expect some missteps, but am prepared to adjust to accommodate them, might allow me to keep going to Uber Frugal March... Uber Frugal April... and beyond!

Oh, I know that feeling all too well!  That's why all the dieting literature addresses how you should respond to slipping up on your eating plan.  That's why when I (successfully) quit smoking years ago by first cutting back slowly, I made myself a rule that I could have extra cigarettes on specific types of occasions, but with the proviso that it would go back to the normal daily ration the next day.

The most memorable analogy I've heard is about taking medication.  If you realize that you missed a dose, you don't stop taking it entirely, and you don't double up the next dose either.  You just take your next scheduled dose and get back into the routine.

Total fail at frugal February. Eyeglasses, kids summer camp registrations, unexpected medical copays. I'm trying to salvage the rest of the month but consider myself a drop-out. :-) 

I'm there with you, Mongoose.

72lbs grassfed beef, a sushi dinner for a friend's birthday, car insurance, etc.

I'm still trying now, but I'll just be working on that in the background.

Hey, don't abandon us entirely!  Keep posting, we all need the inspiration!

Bracken_Joy, didn't you post somewhere else about going grocery shopping on your bike for the first time?  Come on, that's UFF kick-butt style!

And Mongoose, you can't beat yourself up over medical co-pays, eyeglasses, and booking the kids into summer camp.  Those are totally normal and necessary expenditures, and aren't you glad you'd been doing UFF so that you were in a better position to cover them?

PJ

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Re: Uber Frugal February
« Reply #175 on: February 14, 2017, 12:48:03 AM »
Double posting so that I can report on my own day...

Frugal wins:
Was leaving late to do some pastoral visits, and realized I hadn't eaten yet for the day.  Instead of hitting the drive-thru, I poured some dry cereal into a container, added an almost empty container of trail mix, and a couple of wedges of cheese from the fridge, and hit the road.
First stop was at a hospital where I don't get free clergy parking.  The person I was visiting was pretty sleepy, so rather than dragging things out, I kept things short, and headed out JUST BARELY within the $4 for half-hour time frame.  I kept the receipt for reimbursement, and remembered to make a note of who I visited on the receipt, and in my diary, so that I can account for the expense.
Directly on my way to my next appointment, I stopped to do some necessary shopping (more later), thus saving gas since I would have been driving right past anyway.
Stopped at the cheap gas station, but only put a little bit in because gas is supposed to go down a couple of cents later this week.  It's a gamble - hopefully I'll be in the vicinity of the cheap station soon after the price does drop.  Also, used some of my "bonus bucks" to pay for part of the gas.
Final stop for the day was carefully plotted to be directly on my path home, so a very efficient day, driving-wise.
At some point in the day, I'd decided to let myself stop in at McD's when I passed, to grab a coffee, since I know I have a "free" one on my card.  But by the time I was near one, I convinced myself to save the free coffee for another day, since it was getting a bit too late to want to drink a nice big cup of joe!

The necessary shopping - a Frugal so-so
I needed black pants.  Pretty urgently.  I am a minister, I wear black A LOT!  My only pair of black pants, which I've been wearing several times a week, are not in good shape. (Because I've been wearing them several times a week!  And because I've gained weight.)  My gray pants, which I can alternate with the black, except for funerals and weddings, are starting to get a bit worn looking too. So I went to my favourite Sal Army thrift store with the intention of looking for ONLY black pants. 

Fail.

I did find some black pants (I don't LOVE them, but they'll do fine).  And 3 other pairs of grey/greyish-black dress pants that I can totally justify, because really, part of the problem was only having a couple of pairs of pants for work, which meant really frequent rotation.  But, um, I also bought 4 pairs of capris for the spring/summer season (I was pretty limited last year in that area too, because of the aforementioned weight gain from the last couple years).  And 2 "activewear" but still nice looking zip up cardigan/sweaters.  And a long sleeved black t-shirt.  Yeah.  About $65 of clothes in total. 

(And a bunch of other stuff that I'm justifying on the grounds that I'm going to try to do a "Thrift Store" Christmas next year, except for the fact that I also bought a really cool bracelet for myself for $4 and also that I spent about $8 on craft stuff for myself even though I hardly ever do any crafting these days, and also that I already have a bunch of stuff put aside for our "Operation Christmas Child" shoeboxes and I didn't really need to spend another $4 on stuff for them so early in the year, and maybe I should stop listing the stuff out and confess that in total I spent about $120 today when all I really needed was one pair of black pants.)

Mongoose

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Re: Uber Frugal February
« Reply #176 on: February 14, 2017, 07:59:59 AM »
And Mongoose, you can't beat yourself up over medical co-pays, eyeglasses, and booking the kids into summer camp.  Those are totally normal and necessary expenditures, and aren't you glad you'd been doing UFF so that you were in a better position to cover them?

I'm not beating myself up about it. :-). We run pretty lean so there isn't much to cut. And we had several years of unemployment/underemployment with no "discretionary spending" on "unnecessary" things like eyeglasses, clothes except a few things for growing kids we couldn't get as hand-me-downs, medical checkups, car repairs, etc. It is distressingly expensive to cover 4 years of such things in one to get caught up but also totally necessary. We haven't even addressed the clothing situation for me. I'm down to one good pair of jeans and two that are in immanent danger of wearing through in inconvenient locations...and a selection of either free or 15+ year old t-shirts.

My goals for this month were focused around our ongoing food expenses and I'm over budget there too...mainly because I underestimated how much we had. Plus we got caught in town really late once and ate out. Other than that, spending less would just get us down to zero in the pantry and defer the grocery purchases until March. I guess my main take away is that we have the budget set lean for us now anyway. We can't cut much back without going back to the rice and bean diet...and we've had enough of that for awhile. (Shudders!)

Bracken_Joy

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Re: Uber Frugal February
« Reply #177 on: February 14, 2017, 08:05:09 AM »
Total fail at frugal February. Eyeglasses, kids summer camp registrations, unexpected medical copays. I'm trying to salvage the rest of the month but consider myself a drop-out. :-) 

I'm there with you, Mongoose.

72lbs grassfed beef, a sushi dinner for a friend's birthday, car insurance, etc.

I'm still trying now, but I'll just be working on that in the background.

Hey, don't abandon us entirely!  Keep posting, we all need the inspiration!

Bracken_Joy, didn't you post somewhere else about going grocery shopping on your bike for the first time?  Come on, that's UFF kick-butt style!

And Mongoose, you can't beat yourself up over medical co-pays, eyeglasses, and booking the kids into summer camp.  Those are totally normal and necessary expenditures, and aren't you glad you'd been doing UFF so that you were in a better position to cover them?

Ugh. Okay! But you've all been fore warned, haha. (And these purchases may be offset from the days they happened, I'm just using the dates on Mint for ease.)

2/8: $0
2/9: $5 bar; $2.40 coffee
2/10: $2 coffee; $273 grass fed local ground beef (72lbs)
2/11: $10 for 4 2.5lb weight plates; $29 gas
2/12: $50 sushi
2/13: $22 beard balm for DH; $4.98 caulk scraper; $88.33 costco groceries; $9.58 gas top off; $7.06 groceries
2/14: $401 car insurance

The $7 grocery trip I did by bike. 1.1mi each way, and a section where I go over a bridge. First bike trip for groceries!
The beef is on sale for February for 36lb boxes. So we bought 2. $3.79/lb for local and grass fed. Not organic, but a lot of local farms do organic practices and never get the cert (it's expensive). Plus, I care more about the local and grass fed than the organic.
Car insurance went up over the base price for the last 6 month period, because we turned in the 2015 TDI and now have a 2017 TSI. So the per 6 month price for our truck + car went from like $365 to $401. OTOH, we turned the TDI in yesterday and are getting $19,962 in the next couple days. Not bad for a car we bought for $14,500. =o Also in the "plus" column was the federal tax return we got ($2220), and we're waiting on a few hundred from state.

Upcoming expenses: $12-14 for dog nail trim, however the hell much it'll cost to renew my passport, more groceries.

I'll admit I kinda gave up on groceries for this month. Husband is having a really rough time with his schedule right now (I am too, for that matter), and so I declared it "taco free for all" season. Taco bowls make him happy, and feel at home. So taco bowls we shall do. They're definitely one of our more expensive meals. And I could care less. Husband Surviving the next few weeks > Cheap Grocery Budget.

Typical frugal wins- cut DH's hair, we don't do valentine's gifts or go out (actually, he's gone today, so we'll just do steak and wine tomorrow or something). Setting overnight temps to 62 (down from 64) has held over from UF January- that one is sticking around.

swick

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Re: Uber Frugal February
« Reply #178 on: February 14, 2017, 10:45:29 AM »
I would have been ALL OVER that beef, Braken_Joy!

The only thing that really stuck out for me in your list is Hubby's beard balm. Is he super attached to a specific brand? Becuase that stuff is dirt cheap to make and a fun DIY product. <----Homemade Christmas gifts too? For 22 bucks you could probably make 10 tins.

I don't have a recipe for you, I don't know enough men who have the ability to grow a nice beard that would require balm, but most balms/salves/lotions are just various amounts of a few main ingredients.  Alternatively, I have all the stuff, so we can make some in July :)

Bracken_Joy

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Re: Uber Frugal February
« Reply #179 on: February 14, 2017, 10:50:28 AM »
I would have been ALL OVER that beef, Braken_Joy!

The only thing that really stuck out for me in your list is Hubby's beard balm. Is he super attached to a specific brand? Becuase that stuff is dirt cheap to make and a fun DIY product. <----Homemade Christmas gifts too? For 22 bucks you could probably make 10 tins.

I don't have a recipe for you, I don't know enough men who have the ability to grow a nice beard that would require balm, but most balms/salves/lotions are just various amounts of a few main ingredients.  Alternatively, I have all the stuff, so we can make some in July :)

I've thought about making it, but he really goes through so little of it. One tin every 6 months or so. We bought it last in August, and he even had his beard extra long there for a while, so that was even a little faster than usual. We both really like the smell of it, and it obviously does good stuff for beard appearance.

Making it in July would be *super* fun. Which reminds me about the passport thing... ughhhhhh.

Jon_Snow

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Re: Uber Frugal February
« Reply #180 on: February 14, 2017, 11:26:03 AM »
Feb 13 - $10 - ferry food yet again - and we were able to subsist on the food stores of family and what we have stockpiled in our travel trailer (which never travels).
Feb 14 - should be $0 - DW and I do not feel the need to spend money to express our feelings for one another....or to "spice things up".   ;)

lemonverbena

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Re: Uber Frugal February
« Reply #181 on: February 14, 2017, 11:31:52 AM »
Must be something in the air, with so many needing to crawl back up into the wagon ;) I haven't blown any money shopping (yet), but I sure do have a case of the 'want'iness. I made the mistake of looking at a (irony!) minimalist capsule wardrobe blog, and suddenly my clothes are no good and I really want to paint my house white and my blue curtains no longer satisfy. Luckily, the next day I cleaned my house and the redecorating bug subsided. I should go round up all the laundry and see if that doesn't cure my clothing issue, as well.

2/11: $60.92 groceries
2/12: $0
2/13: $48.79 medicine and trail mix
         $21.64 fast food (got back into town after a hike that took longer than expected on a school night... fail)

PJ

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Re: Uber Frugal February
« Reply #182 on: February 14, 2017, 01:40:52 PM »
And Mongoose, you can't beat yourself up over medical co-pays, eyeglasses, and booking the kids into summer camp.  Those are totally normal and necessary expenditures, and aren't you glad you'd been doing UFF so that you were in a better position to cover them?

I'm not beating myself up about it. :-). We run pretty lean so there isn't much to cut. And we had several years of unemployment/underemployment with no "discretionary spending" on "unnecessary" things like eyeglasses, clothes except a few things for growing kids we couldn't get as hand-me-downs, medical checkups, car repairs, etc. It is distressingly expensive to cover 4 years of such things in one to get caught up but also totally necessary. We haven't even addressed the clothing situation for me. I'm down to one good pair of jeans and two that are in immanent danger of wearing through in inconvenient locations...and a selection of either free or 15+ year old t-shirts.

My goals for this month were focused around our ongoing food expenses and I'm over budget there too...mainly because I underestimated how much we had. Plus we got caught in town really late once and ate out. Other than that, spending less would just get us down to zero in the pantry and defer the grocery purchases until March. I guess my main take away is that we have the budget set lean for us now anyway. We can't cut much back without going back to the rice and bean diet...and we've had enough of that for awhile. (Shudders!) 

Hey Mongoose, sounds like things have been really lean for a long while.  I guess my point is just what you said.  The things you said you spent money on this month, for the most part, were totally necessary.  So don't count yourself out for the month just yet, ok?  We're glad you're around!

And I feel you on the clothing front - that's why I just HAD to get some new pants for work.  (The other stuff, not so much!)  I hope a (thrift?) trip is possible for you too soon, to replenish your wardrobe.  If we lived near each other I'd totally say we should do it together!

...

Ok, so yeah, most of us have had some slip-ups, but the month isn't over yet!  Let's see this thing through, ok?  And we all get to make our own choices about where that uber frugal line is drawn ;-)

twojabs

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Re: Uber Frugal February
« Reply #183 on: February 14, 2017, 02:35:55 PM »
Failed!

£580 overspend - albeit on some bills we knew we had but damn it grinds my gears "bringing money back" from savings to pay for it (even though that is the purpose of it!)

horsepoor

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Re: Uber Frugal February
« Reply #184 on: February 14, 2017, 05:06:58 PM »
Two no-spend days, then $36.99 today at Trader Joe's

I will probably be out for UFM.  Today I found a horse I'm very interested in, within a day's drive, and another one more locally to me, that I'll probably be checking out when I get home in a few weeks. But, a couple low-spend months has made this a possibility, and there's a solid chance that I'll sell current fancy horse for more than I might be spending on future less-fancy-but-not-going-to-buck-me-off horse.

LindseyC

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Re: Uber Frugal February
« Reply #185 on: February 14, 2017, 05:32:04 PM »
I have been doing so good at not eating out, buying takeout, or anything "convenience." I went cold turkey half way through January and have not slipped yet. It is hard though, I find myself feeling very lazy sometimes and am tempted to go the easy route. The only thing keeping me honest is updating my budget daily with my expenses, it's a point of pride to keep the eating out row at zero.

Sailor Sam

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Re: Uber Frugal February
« Reply #186 on: February 14, 2017, 06:09:36 PM »
Spending
2/1: $27.19 on pizza;  $76.92 Patreon subscription
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;  $39.99 internet

Week One: $292.5

2/8:   $0
2/9:   $1.73 spatula
2/10: $29.93 restaurant
2/11: $29.72 restaurant;  $30.06 groceries
2/12: $0
2/13: $16.39 audible subscription
2/14: $0

Week Two: $107.83

I ate a restaurants Friday and Saturday. Two different friend groups wanted to eat out. Not particularly frugal, but still a conscious choice I made. That seems to be the point of the whole exercise.

Assuming I don't have any surprise expenses tomorrow, I'll save an extra $463.79 from this paycheck. That will certainly feel nice.

PJ

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Re: Uber Frugal February
« Reply #187 on: February 15, 2017, 12:37:47 AM »
A few frugal things today:

Was going to a meeting in her neighbourhood, so I took my mom a small Valentine's gift - a couple of really pretty plastic placemats I found at Sal Army the other day.  My mom is a quiet and shy person, but she loves C O L O U R !  These placemats had a really lovely picture of a bunch of tulips in bright pinks and oranges and reds.  So, I rolled them up into a cone and wrapped brown paper around the bottom, and tied a ribbon around it.  They looked (kind of!) like a bunch of flowers.  Mom appreciated the creativity :-)  While I was there, I helped her change the bed and start a load of laundry.  We prefer to carry the basket down the stairs, if one of us is around to do it for her.

Also, not too far from my meeting and my mom's place is a Value Village.  Saving gas mileage by combining trips, and since I wasn't totally happy with the black pants I bought yesterday, and because a second pair would be good so I can rotate one in the laundry at a time, I decided to take a look there as well.  Scored with a fantastic pair of Ann Taylor dress pants in like new condition.  More pricey than Sal Army, but still, only $15.  Picked up two other pieces of clothing - whittled down from several sweaters that I wanted to get.  One is a great red sweater/wrap type thing with a buckle that I expect will eventually take the place of a similar style black sweater that's getting a bit worn looking - $13 but I judged that well worth it for as much as I think I'll wear it.  And a black cardigan with a fake blouse underneath, quite sedate with the cardigan buttoned up, but a little bit sheer if worn with the sweater undone.  Pretty and totally professional enough with the sweater done up.  That one was only $4.  :-)

Ate at home all day.  As noted in Eat All the Food thread, I resisted my several days long serious craving for pizza by making mini pizzas on a roll at home, using up some cheese I'd had frozen, and some salsa that needs to get finished up.  Also, while grocery shopping I really resisted stocking up on things, kept myself to dairy, produce, and just a couple of cans of soup that were on a very good sale, for the emergency quick meal stash.  I've been doing really well with cooking for myself lately, but need to have something on hand for those days when it's a crunch and the energy level isn't there.  I also took back a half container of cream that expired way too quickly - best before date was March 14!  They gave me a bit of a hard time, not just because I didn't have the receipt anymore, but because they said "they don't take back food."  Huh?  I've done similar exchanges before and no one ever told me that.  I politely persisted, pointing to their Satisfaction Guarantee, and the fact that the expiry date was still ages away, and she gave me the exchange in the end.  Oh, and I forgot my shopping bags at home (again!)  So I just rolled the cart out to the car, and unloaded things loose in the hatchback, then carried them into the house.  Actually, I must have (unintentionally) perfected my helpless bumbling with putting soup cans in my purse act, because the cashier pretty much insisted in giving me a bag to put my produce in! 

Came home, found a bill in the mailbox that's due in just 6 days.  Paid it right away, so I don't risk forgetting about it and paying late fees.  And lo and behold, after about a month of aiming for "uber frugal", I had the money sitting right there!  (I've been anxiously waiting for that bill to arrive so that I could pay it and know if I had anything extra still left to throw toward CC debt.)  Also, signed in to online banking, and found my VISA bill had arrived.  Since I've been throwing every extra cent toward it for the last month and a half, I noted that I got charged significantly less interest than last month.  Which is very good to see!  Next month will be even better, because it'll have been at that much lower balance for the whole month.  Good news is that I have enough left in the bank that barring any emergencies, I'll make it through no problem to my next paycheque (10 days away - I'm only paid monthly)  And if I get my expenses reimbursement from work before then, I should be able to deposit it straight to the CC, bypassing the bank account entirely.

andy85

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Re: Uber Frugal February
« Reply #188 on: February 15, 2017, 05:44:59 AM »
Day    Feb.
1    $187
2    $22
3    $7
4    $68
5    $5
6    $41
7    $-   
Week 1 Total:    $329

Day    Feb.
8    $60
9    $30
10    $0
11    $0
12    $163
13    $0
14    $47 
Week 2 Total:    $299

I've been sick for like a week and have spent about $50 on drugs....so that's kind of a bummer. Otherwise, it's been going good.

Road42

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Re: Uber Frugal February
« Reply #189 on: February 15, 2017, 07:41:44 AM »
Just added up February so far, and the two-week total for our discretionary spending is $965.12. $200 of that is DH's annual birthday trip to see his best friends, and $100 of that is a bunch of Indian food we ordered when my mom visited.

Logically, that means that we should be able to stick to around $600 for the next two weeks. This isn't as super frugal as some of you people have been managing, but for us, it's pretty awesome. Now I'm curious to see whether we can keep to that, and then next month I am curious to see whether we can sustain this level of being reined in.

Frugal pluses:

1. On Tuesday I fixed the fridge by myself using a You Tube video. This isn't out of the ordinary, since I tend to be pretty handy around the house, but I'm still putting it in the yay column.

2. Yesterday we had an awesome no-spend Valentine's day. DH and I made ridiculously delicious oatmeal cookies (half with choc chips for him, half with craisins for me), went for a really nice walk, played Dungeons and Dragons, and... had more adult fun. Best Valentines ever.

3. We now have a nice end goal in mind for trying to keep the frugality going: DH is going to be able to take a 3 month sabbatical the summer of 2018. If we play our cards right, that might mean a summer spent abroad, which would be amazing, but probably costly, even if we successfully rent our house while we are gone.

4. Not every choice we've made these 2 weeks has been frugal, but each has been thought out and deliberate. I'll take it.

Frugal minuses:

1. We are committed to going to a restaurant dinner with a bunch of friends this Saturday. Plans made a long time ago, etc. Hopefully that won't get too expensive.

2. DH still can't get it together to pack lunch every day. He wants to, but the logistics just don't seem to work. He's not at a desk, he has no fridge or microwave, and he usually has only about 15-20 minutes to get to wherever his lunch is, eat it, and get back. Sometimes there's free food in a meeting he can eat, but mostly he buys a salad for $4-$5. Not sure how to fix this. 

couponvan

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Re: Uber Frugal February
« Reply #190 on: February 15, 2017, 08:03:58 AM »
I returned some leftover equipment to Comcast from cutting them off.  It was a pain to go to their store and sit there for 35 minutes waiting for a person to check the items over and in...Got a check in the mail for $127.69. Go me. (Seriously debating cashing it for my own stash since DH bought $168 air pods for himself.)

swick

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Re: Uber Frugal February
« Reply #191 on: February 15, 2017, 09:24:59 AM »

2. DH still can't get it together to pack lunch every day. He wants to, but the logistics just don't seem to work. He's not at a desk, he has no fridge or microwave, and he usually has only about 15-20 minutes to get to wherever his lunch is, eat it, and get back. Sometimes there's free food in a meeting he can eat, but mostly he buys a salad for $4-$5. Not sure how to fix this.

If hubby is on the go and used to salads anyways, would you be able to prep a bunch of different "Mason Jar Salads"  at the beginning of the week? Then it would just be grab and go in the morning, add a fork, an ice pack to keep it cool if he needs it and he's off to the races - if he wants to get super fancy he could have a plate to dump it out onto. There are a million ideas on google for them :)

Win: Hubby got his quarterly bonus. Usually, we just divide it into our budgeting categories and bump up any we want to give a little boost to. Since starting UFJ we created our budget this year, hopefully making it more realistic but also we wanted to see what are baseline is, so instead of bumping up a few categories we tend to overspend in (and know it) we put it right onto the mortgage.

Challenge: Struggling with a massive case of S.A.D. Alternately want to buy all the things ( I really don't) or say screw it and run away someplace warm (I really do)

Road42

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Re: Uber Frugal February
« Reply #192 on: February 15, 2017, 09:41:32 AM »

2. DH still can't get it together to pack lunch every day. He wants to, but the logistics just don't seem to work. He's not at a desk, he has no fridge or microwave, and he usually has only about 15-20 minutes to get to wherever his lunch is, eat it, and get back. Sometimes there's free food in a meeting he can eat, but mostly he buys a salad for $4-$5. Not sure how to fix this.

If hubby is on the go and used to salads anyways, would you be able to prep a bunch of different "Mason Jar Salads"  at the beginning of the week? Then it would just be grab and go in the morning, add a fork, an ice pack to keep it cool if he needs it and he's off to the races - if he wants to get super fancy he could have a plate to dump it out onto. There are a million ideas on google for them :)

Thanks, swick, for the suggestion. I actually already floated this idea by him, but he wasn't into it because then he'd be stuck carrying a jar, a fork, and melting ice packs around with him all day. I put together a huge list of options culled from the boards here, so we'll see if anything jumps out at him. The best bet will probably be some kind of wrap in foil so he can eat and throw away the wrapping without having to sit down or carrying a container around.

Challenge: Struggling with a massive case of S.A.D. Alternately want to buy all the things ( I really don't) or say screw it and run away someplace warm (I really do)

I feel your pain, and am super susceptible to SAD also. I've started daily exercise, alternating yoga and no-equipment strength training (we have Amazon Prime and there are a ton of included exercise videos of all kinds) and it's helped tremendously. I also try my best to go for a daily walk in the middle of the day to soak up as much sunlight as possible while it's available. I can literally feel my mood improve with each step, especially as I listen to funny podcasts as I walk. Would any of that help?

PJ

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Re: Uber Frugal February
« Reply #193 on: February 15, 2017, 11:27:10 AM »

2. DH still can't get it together to pack lunch every day. He wants to, but the logistics just don't seem to work. He's not at a desk, he has no fridge or microwave, and he usually has only about 15-20 minutes to get to wherever his lunch is, eat it, and get back. Sometimes there's free food in a meeting he can eat, but mostly he buys a salad for $4-$5. Not sure how to fix this.

If hubby is on the go and used to salads anyways, would you be able to prep a bunch of different "Mason Jar Salads"  at the beginning of the week? Then it would just be grab and go in the morning, add a fork, an ice pack to keep it cool if he needs it and he's off to the races - if he wants to get super fancy he could have a plate to dump it out onto. There are a million ideas on google for them :)

Thanks, swick, for the suggestion. I actually already floated this idea by him, but he wasn't into it because then he'd be stuck carrying a jar, a fork, and melting ice packs around with him all day. I put together a huge list of options culled from the boards here, so we'll see if anything jumps out at him. The best bet will probably be some kind of wrap in foil so he can eat and throw away the wrapping without having to sit down or carrying a container around. 

Further suggestion - skip the ice pack (being a bit choosier about what you put into it, maybe).  I never carry ice packs, or even bother to put my lunch in the fridge at work.  It just sits on my desk until I'm ready to eat it.  And salads don't have to just be veggie salads - think about grain salads like tabbouleh, 7 grain salad, etc.  Plastic containers are lighter than mason jars, and may even be able to fit a plastic fork inside.  Bad for the environment, better for your wallet than lunch out everyday (where he's presumably using a plastic fork anyway!)  Sandwiches, cheese and crackers, trail mix, cut up fruit and veg can all go in plastic sandwich bags as long as they can be put somewhere they won't get banged up.  And wraps (veg and cheese and hummus, bean and cheese burrito, egg and sausage?) sound like a good idea.

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Re: Uber Frugal February
« Reply #194 on: February 15, 2017, 07:58:31 PM »
lemonverbena this is the third year in a row that I've had the urge to paint my entire house bright white!  I am having a harder time with winter ick this year than I remember in the past -- it's only mid February and usually I don't feel so bleh until March, and we had a really mild fall so it hasn't even been winter very long!  Yet I'm so sick of it.

The good news for my psyche (bad for the planet, probably) is that it's going to be in the 50's this weekend! I will definitely make myself get out on my bicycle, with tea from home, not spending any money ;)

Road42 what time does your hub eat lunch? I stopped refrigerating my lunches once our break room got too crowded and my food is still plenty cold just sitting in my bag. It usually sits out for 5-6 hours.  Oh- ha- what PJ said!

Mezzie

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Re: Uber Frugal February
« Reply #195 on: February 15, 2017, 08:08:05 PM »
I have jury duty, and they offer free metro passes while you serve, so for lunch I spent the other metro money I'd put aside for the week on some tacos as a splurge, and then I forgot to pick up the free metro passes!

Frugal fail. :(

But the tacos were good!

couponvan

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Re: Uber Frugal February
« Reply #196 on: February 15, 2017, 09:45:27 PM »
I'm out. DH came home with diamond studs....I did say I don't control his spending.

Sailor Sam

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Re: Uber Frugal February
« Reply #197 on: February 15, 2017, 09:48:02 PM »
I'm out. DH came home with diamond studs....I did say I don't control his spending.

Wow. I'll admit that I'm impressed.

horsepoor

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Re: Uber Frugal February
« Reply #198 on: February 16, 2017, 06:31:45 AM »
I'm out. DH came home with diamond studs....I did say I don't control his spending.

And I was coming here to confess that I spent $75 on a vintage sterling belt buckle last night.  I've been looking off and on for a couple years now and love the one I bought.  Hit Starbucks yesterday too.  Boo.  Will atone with a no spend day today.

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Re: Uber Frugal February
« Reply #199 on: February 16, 2017, 07:06:02 AM »
I may yet another grocery store trip...but it waste regular budget money because I got a small unexpected bonus. We're trying a Whole30 so I needed some different food. I'll put the rest in savings (to cover a trip next month).

And I bought a read-in-bed light for myself that I don't need but real wanted. It was only $11 though so I didn't go crazy.

I somehow feel like it's cheating on a uber frugal challenge to come out ahead for the month due solely to unexpected income (and not even by the full amount). ;-)