Uber Frugal June - Save All those Dubloons!

[Morning Glory]

Planned expenses:
Power bill is only $150 this month- lower than average, but I know the vampires are just hibernating
Mortgage:1589
Spousal mystery fund:1000-covers most of our grocery, household supplies, vehicle expenses, projects, his phone, etc.
Internet:57
Republic wireless:13
Netflix: 9
Health insurance:274
=3092
No irregular bills coming up that I know of.
Goal is $3333 for the month.
This leaves $241 discretionary for me

So far:
6/12: $18 shopping
6/14: $90 grocery money I made my parents take because we stayed there for a week
6/14: $19 fast food on the drive home (too rainy for a picnic)
Total = $127

[Bart1ma3u5]

I am in for June! It did not go well in April and May was also a pretty big spending month. Hopefully we can do better in June.

Goals:
Eat out once a week or less (We have been having problems with this as we both get home late and cooking doesnt seem as fun or easy as going out)
Hopefully we can do better with this as we joined a CSA and will have most of the veggies we will need. We are also hoping to meal prep better so that later nights aren't as hard to stay in.

Not go crazy on other spending categories  and not break our budgets.

Challenges will be the late nights and not wanting to cook. I also may need to purchase a new set of tires this month, but that might be able to wait until next month, and in any case that has already been budgeted for.

One week in and I'm already starting from behind. We managed to only have one night out this week, which is a step in the right direction.

As far as not going crazy in other budgets, i blew that out of the water by agreeing to go on a deepsea fishing charter on sunday. As something I've always wanted to do and have not done, and with the fishing reports of catches going crazy right now, I found it too tempting to say no. An additional silver lining is that hopefully this will fill my freezer for the next several months. Even while I am very excited for the trip I hope I manage to make this my only blunder of June.

This week we managed to only go out to eat once as well, which had been preplanned weeks in advance to go out with a couple of my fiance's coworkers. Still going well on the 1 time per week eating out. Additionally, the fishing trip was definitely a success, and our freezer is completely full, which will hopefully cut down on required meat purchases over the next several months, making grocery bills go down significantly. The CSA has also helped alot with eating in as it is very hard to justify going out to eat when we have fruits and veggies that will begin to go bad if we do not make things with them.

[SAfAmBrit]

I am in although I can run this from the 12th - 11th. I am pretty excited because I will have the house all to myself - so I can see how well i can do. For the most part I have been doing MMM by myself quietly in the background - and now that I have almost paid the house hubby has kinda caught on.

So my challenge:

$200 (50 per week) on food, gas for hybrid etc. If I hit $50 or less each week I will put $100 in savings.
Cut the electric bill by 1/4 - I am excited for this - I have the electric dialed down to $60 except June - Sep, then it jumps to between 180 and 240. (we live in the desert. I am not a fan of ac by my SO loves it!) -We have to have it sometimes in the summer - but not permanently in the 70's.

So today is day 1 - 3:30 am call to put son on one plane and SO on another 2 hours later -no spend - Challenge - try not buy food - come up with creative ideas for what is in the house.This will be interesting - I returned from DC last night after a week and hardly any fresh food in the house.

Day 1 - 0
Day 2 - Gas  $29.82
Day 3 - Groceries $1.32

[TartanTallulah]

My paycheck month ends at midnight on 19th June so we're into the homeward stretch. It's touch and go. When the water bill payment comes out tomorrow, we should have around $200 left, and my car's service and MOT has been deferred until 21st June so it'll be next month's expenditure, but eBay's cut of the things I've sold is more than I expected and should be due for payment today, and the remaining PayPal balance won't quite cover it.

And the weekend's coming, though it needn't be a very spendy weekend.

It's been quite interesting as a fact-finding exercise. Becoming familiar with our actual household expenditure month by month should make it easier to plan for monthly variations after RE.

[Stimpy]

I think I'll jump in this one.

Goals:

• No new video games (unless they are Free!) Estimated Savings ~50
• No Eating out (at all) Estimated Savings ~50-150
• Drive my Car only to work  ~ Estimated Savings ~0-20
• Bike everywhere else ~ Estimated Savings ~Infinite
• No fancy last minute ingredients to make something else/add to meal purchases.  Eat what I already have.  Estimated Savings ~ 50-100
• Cut Alcohol consumption in Half or more ~Estimated Savings ~36

Fails Total: $157
Semi Planned Total: $865
Total spent as of Last week: 1022 (Ouch)

Fails:
Alcohol - 50 -  Should last the month though.
Eating out - 16 - Working lunches suck.  (Especially since I had other plans i had to cancel...  /sigh)
Gas - 23 -  Was hoping my just above a quarter of a tank would last.  Oh well made it half a month so solid win to at least to sorta nullify this failure.
household items - 18 - Few other things popped up so technically a fail.
Motorcycle cover - 20 - Bloody wind literally shredded my current one.  <Insert creative curses here!>

Semi PrePlanned:
Utilities - 82 + 95 = 177 - Paying utilities for my grandpa's house temporarily on top of mine but total falls just above what I plan for on average.
State Parks Annual Pass - 30 - I pay this every year and honestly, worth it.
Phone - 150 - I know I can bring this down and will after my grandmother is no longer a worry.

Wins:
Haven't paid for any games despite E3 being this week.  Soooo many (hopefully) good games coming!
Biking a few more places in general.  Feels awesome!
AC has only gone off a few time.  So hopefully that will continue and translate to a Utility bill looking similar to what I paid this month!

Challenges:
It's hot, though the wind is calming down a bit.  Still going to make biking interesting.
Might be traveling for work.  I usually pay for it first and get payed back later, so those might show up this month.  Not sure yet.

[Mongoose]

$47.31 at the grocery store today. That brings our monthly total to $139.80. Our "month" has two weeks left. This is awesome spending for us! Part of the small number is because we were gone some (other people were feeding us). If we include money spent during travel, we're at 207.63. Still great for half a month. Super excited! Part of the reduction is probably due to increasing our activity. For some reason, exercise is an appetite suppressant for me.

Up to $418.80 for the month. I'm stoked!!!!! We have one week left and shouldn't need anything! Our first under $500 month since DH got a job and we quit living off savings. And we are still fully stocked on food and haven't been subsisting on rice and beans!

[SAfAmBrit]

I am in although I can run this from the 12th - 11th. I am pretty excited because I will have the house all to myself - so I can see how well i can do. For the most part I have been doing MMM by myself quietly in the background - and now that I have almost paid the house hubby has kinda caught on.

So my challenge:

$200 (50 per week) on food, gas for hybrid etc. If I hit $50 or less each week I will put $100 in savings.
Cut the electric bill by 1/4 - I am excited for this - I have the electric dialed down to $60 except June - Sep, then it jumps to between 180 and 240. (we live in the desert. I am not a fan of ac by my SO loves it!) -We have to have it sometimes in the summer - but not permanently in the 70's.


Day 1 - 0
Day 2 - Gas  $29.82
Day 3 - Groceries $1.32
Day 4 - 0
Day 5 - 0
Day 6 - Groceries $4.86
[/quote]

[Kerowyn]

Spending so far:
$1,281.49 on rent and utilities
$88.85 on food
$15.53 on gas

$1,480.41 on rent/utilities/other bills (my husband paid his cell phone bills for last month and this month, which is fine, except that it screws up the numbers...)
$173.63 on food
$50.98 on gas
$10 giving
$14.48 medical (about a third of that is shipping--when I see my doctor this month and get an opinion on the particular vitamin I'm taking, I'll either switch this to every three month delivery for cheaper shipping or switch to a different vitamin)
$6.99 household (mouthwash)

$1,480.41 on rent/utilities/other bills
$313.58 on food
$79.40 on gas
$10 giving
$14.48 medical
$33.28 household (mouthwash, interdental brushes on sale, electric shaver, reusable produce bags--not frugal but environmentally friendly)
$15.84 on cat food
$16.13 on gifts (had an Amazon gift card that helped with this)

We're obviously not doing nearly as well as I hoped on food and I'm not sure why. I have some ideas what to do about it (finally try making seitan, don't buy any more cans of beans), but am not sure I'll actually manage them. We seem to be buying a lot of extra, somewhat unusual stuff to turn all our CSA greens into meals.

[SAfAmBrit]

I am in although I can run this from the 12th - 11th. I am pretty excited because I will have the house all to myself - so I can see how well i can do. For the most part I have been doing MMM by myself quietly in the background - and now that I have almost paid the house hubby has kinda caught on.

So my challenge:

$200 (50 per week) on food, gas for hybrid etc. If I hit $50 or less each week I will put $100 in savings.
Cut the electric bill by 1/4 - I am excited for this - I have the electric dialed down to $60 except June - Sep, then it jumps to between 180 and 240. (we live in the desert. I am not a fan of ac by my SO loves it!) -We have to have it sometimes in the summer - but not permanently in the 70's.


Day 1 - 0
Day 2 - Gas  $29.82
Day 3 - Groceries $1.32
Day 4 - 0
Day 5 - 0
Day 6 - Groceries $4.86
Day 7 - 0

Week total = $36 so $100 to the savings account. I know week one is easy because it is a novelty. Week 2 should really be exciting! So long as nothing goes astray - our house will be paid off on Friday 6/23. The end of a 3 year project. So heres to a house paying party with my huskies and an under $50 week next week!

[/quote]

[westtoeast]

http://www.frugalwoods.com/2017/06/19/the-uber-frugal-month-challenge-is-back-july-2017-edition/

Yay! Structure for next month!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Morning Glory]

Planned expenses:
Power bill is only $150 this month- lower than average, but I know the vampires are just hibernating
Mortgage:1589
Spousal mystery fund:1000-covers most of our grocery, household supplies, vehicle expenses, projects, his phone, etc.
Internet:57
Republic wireless:13
Netflix: 9
Health insurance:274
=3092
No irregular bills coming up that I know of.
Goal is $3333 for the month.
This leaves $241 discretionary for me

So far:
6/12: $18 shopping
6/14: $90 grocery money I made my parents take because we stayed there for a week
6/14: $19 fast food on the drive home (too rainy for a picnic)
Total = $127

6/15 I  spent $52 Costco and $16 Aldi
Total= 195

[TartanTallulah]

My paycheck month ends at midnight on 19th June so we're into the homeward stretch. It's touch and go. When the water bill payment comes out tomorrow, we should have around $200 left, and my car's service and MOT has been deferred until 21st June so it'll be next month's expenditure, but eBay's cut of the things I've sold is more than I expected and should be due for payment today, and the remaining PayPal balance won't quite cover it.

And the weekend's coming, though it needn't be a very spendy weekend.

It's been quite interesting as a fact-finding exercise. Becoming familiar with our actual household expenditure month by month should make it easier to plan for monthly variations after RE.

Payday in a few hours, and we've done what I set out to do. I did get nervous and sweep some cash from the linked savings account back into the checking account a few days ago, but we haven't needed to touch it despite eating out twice at the weekend (not extravagant eating out, just coffee and sandwiches during our long bike rides) and the eBay fees won't be collected for at least another week and I now have plenty in my PayPal account to cover them.

I'll be starting again from tomorrow. I have numbers and I intend to make them happen.

[Rosy]

^^^ I have numbers and I intend to make them happen ^^^
I like that sentiment - a lot!

Well, uber frugal June is kicking my patoutie, but I am still hanging in there.
Got an unexpected $40 medical bill this week and paid $23 for Vitamins yesterday.

We'll see how it goes - this is by far the closest I've come in years to be under $50 balance at the end of the month. I don't need to transfer money in, because those two latest expenditures are now on my cc and will not be paid until next month from the money still sitting in the checking at the end of the month. Still, this is freaking me out a little.
I'll feel better when I see $500 sitting in my checking account again, as a safety net.

If I were to go to B&N, bought a book and indulged myself in their coffeeshop, then afterwards got a pedicure, I'd be essentially at zero. Maybe I will, I'm feeling rebellious - I want to go to the limit:), be a badass and still not go over budget.

[TartanTallulah]

If I were to go to B&N, bought a book and indulged myself in their coffeeshop, then afterwards got a pedicure, I'd be essentially at zero. Maybe I will, I'm feeling rebellious - I want to go to the limit:), be a badass and still not go over budget.

Go on, be a full-on badass. Have you got an investment account where you could deposit that little surplus so that it's spent but you've still got it for the future? ;-)

[SAfAmBrit]

I am in although I can run this from the 12th - 11th. I am pretty excited because I will have the house all to myself - so I can see how well i can do. For the most part I have been doing MMM by myself quietly in the background - and now that I have almost paid the house hubby has kinda caught on.

So my challenge:

$200 (50 per week) on food, gas for hybrid etc. If I hit $50 or less each week I will put $100 in savings.
Cut the electric bill by 1/4 - I am excited for this - I have the electric dialed down to $60 except June - Sep, then it jumps to between 180 and 240. (we live in the desert. I am not a fan of ac by my SO loves it!) -We have to have it sometimes in the summer - but not permanently in the 70's.

Week 1 total = $36 so $100 to the savings account. I know week one is easy because it is a novelty. Week 2 should really be exciting! So long as nothing goes astray - our house will be paid off on Friday 6/23. The end of a 3 year project. So here's to a house paying party with my huskies and an under $50 week next week!

Day 1 - $9.56
Day 2 - 0
Day 3 - 0
Day 4 - 0
Day 5 -
Day 6 -
Day 7 -

House was PIF today (Paid in full). Today is a good day and it has been a good week for spending. $9.56 so far.

[Kerowyn]

Spent $299 on prescription sunglasses. Ouch. But my eyes will be happy.

On the plus side, we're skipping our usual weekend grocery trip, provided I can stand going until Tuesday with no fruit (but plenty of vegetables), so we may come in under budget for food after all.

[Stimpy]

I think I'll jump in this one.

Goals:

• No new video games (unless they are Free!) Estimated Savings ~50
• No Eating out (at all) Estimated Savings ~50-150
• Drive my Car only to work  ~ Estimated Savings ~0-20
• Bike everywhere else ~ Estimated Savings ~Infinite
• No fancy last minute ingredients to make something else/add to meal purchases.  Eat what I already have.  Estimated Savings ~ 50-100
• Cut Alcohol consumption in Half or more ~Estimated Savings ~36

Fails Total: $284
Semi Planned Total: $1222
Total spent as of Last week: 2538 (Ouch)

Fails:
 - Woot!

Semi PrePlanned:
Rent - 550
Car Payment - 321 - For a total of 971 for in payments.  Not what I usually pay a month which is 640.
Groceries - 45 - Totaling that out with the 38 spent before, yea that's about what I usually spend if I don't do surprise buys
Pills - 22
Trash pick up - 19 - Not what I normally pay but this is only temporary.
Audible - 16 - Yup know I can get audio books for free but haven't found one that was worth a dam.  +Rather listen to a book while working out.
Airplane Ticket - 447 - Work will reimburse, but still... 

Wins:
The lack of fails

Challenges:
3 words: Steam Summer Sale.

[Rosy]

If I were to go to B&N, bought a book and indulged myself in their coffeeshop, then afterwards got a pedicure, I'd be essentially at zero. Maybe I will, I'm feeling rebellious - I want to go to the limit:), be a badass and still not go over budget.

Go on, be a full-on badass. Have you got an investment account where you could deposit that little surplus so that it's spent but you've still got it for the future? ;-)

Hi tartan...
No not yet, Mr. R. does. I'm debating whether to open a Vanguard with part of my new savings, I wanted to wait until it hits at least 10K, but I have enough to get at least started now and still leave all my other savings buckets like new car and travel and EF alone. Maybe it's time to JDI?:)

@stimepy - yay - you are really rocking it!

[boy_bye]

Just made my first impulse purchase of the month -- I bought a $5 container of gorgeous-looking cherries. So the frugal month is going pretty well :)

[SAfAmBrit]

I am in although I can run this from the 12th - 11th. I am pretty excited because I will have the house all to myself - so I can see how well i can do. For the most part I have been doing MMM by myself quietly in the background - and now that I have almost paid the house hubby has kinda caught on.

So my challenge:

$200 (50 per week) on food, gas for hybrid etc. If I hit $50 or less each week I will put $100 in savings.
Cut the electric bill by 1/4 - I am excited for this - I have the electric dialed down to $60 except June - Sep, then it jumps to between 180 and 240. (we live in the desert. I am not a fan of ac by my SO loves it!) -We have to have it sometimes in the summer - but not permanently in the 70's.

Week 1 total = $36 so $100 to the savings account. I know week one is easy because it is a novelty. Week 2 should really be exciting! So long as nothing goes astray - our house will be paid off on Friday 6/23. The end of a 3 year project. So here's to a house paying party with my huskies and an under $50 week next week!

Day 1 - $9.56
Day 2 - 0
Day 3 - 0
Day 4 - 0
Day 5 - 0
Day 6 - 0
Day 7 - 0

Week 2 total $9.56 - Total for 2 weeks $45.56.We (the huskies and I) are doing well!$200 to the savings account. The food cupboard is getting emptier so it is more challenging from here in! Electric Bill is...$136 vs $163 so 17% reduction. I will keep on trying.

[SAfAmBrit]

I am in although I can run this from the 12th - 11th. I am pretty excited because I will have the house all to myself - so I can see how well i can do. For the most part I have been doing MMM by myself quietly in the background - and now that I have almost paid the house hubby has kinda caught on.

So my challenge:

$200 (50 per week) on food, gas for hybrid etc. If I hit $50 or less each week I will put $100 in savings.
Cut the electric bill by 1/4 - I am excited for this - I have the electric dialed down to $60 except June - Sep, then it jumps to between 180 and 240. (we live in the desert. I am not a fan of ac by my SO loves it!) -We have to have it sometimes in the summer - but not permanently in the 70's.

Week 1 total = $36 so $100 to the savings account. I know week one is easy because it is a novelty. Week 2 should really be exciting! So long as nothing goes astray - our house will be paid off on Friday 6/23. The end of a 3 year project. So here's to a house paying party with my huskies and an under $50 week next week!

Week 2 total $9.56 - Total for 2 weeks $45.56.We (the huskies and I) are doing well!$200 to the savings account. The food cupboard is getting emptier so it is more challenging from here in! Electric Bill is...$136 vs $163 so 17% reduction. I will keep on trying.

Day 1 - $29.11
Day 2 - 0
Day 3 - 0
Day 4 - 0
Day 5 - 0
Day 6 - 0
Day 7 - 0

Did not buy anything further - $300 in the savings.Going to move to July

[Kerowyn]

Spending so far:
$1,281.49 on rent and utilities
$88.85 on food
$15.53 on gas

$1,480.41 on rent/utilities/other bills (my husband paid his cell phone bills for last month and this month, which is fine, except that it screws up the numbers...)
$173.63 on food
$50.98 on gas
$10 giving
$14.48 medical (about a third of that is shipping--when I see my doctor this month and get an opinion on the particular vitamin I'm taking, I'll either switch this to every three month delivery for cheaper shipping or switch to a different vitamin)
$6.99 household (mouthwash)

$1,480.41 on rent/utilities/other bills
$313.58 on food
$79.40 on gas
$10 giving
$14.48 medical
$33.28 household (mouthwash, interdental brushes on sale, electric shaver, reusable produce bags--not frugal but environmentally friendly)
$15.84 on cat food
$16.13 on gifts (had an Amazon gift card that helped with this)

We're obviously not doing nearly as well as I hoped on food and I'm not sure why. I have some ideas what to do about it (finally try making seitan, don't buy any more cans of beans), but am not sure I'll actually manage them. We seem to be buying a lot of extra, somewhat unusual stuff to turn all our CSA greens into meals.

The final damage:
$1,520.40 on rent/utilities/other bills
$360.86 on food
$112.33 on gas
$15 giving
$341.68 medical (that's those prescription sunglasses)
$37.67 household (I guess most of these could have waited another month, but there were no unexpected expenses)
$15.84 on cat food
$16.13 on gifts (had an Amazon gift card that helped with this)

We did actually come in quite close to my goal on food, so I'm pleased about that! I think that vegetables have been a relatively low proportion of our food bill (because they're cheap, not because we don't buy many vegetables), so the CSA doesn't make a huge dent in the budget, but we wrangled it down anyway.

[tawyer]

OK results are in USD. I am excluding daycare and rent because reasons. Two adults and one toddler.

745 total
--665 needs
----353 food (June 30 happened to be pantry reload for the first two weeks of July, so this is quite high)
---- 48 non-edible household goods
---- 90 utilities
----154 transport (necessary car, bicycle, public transit)
---- 20 kid consumables
--100 wants
---- 93 social (charity, gifts)
----  7 dining (restaurants, bars, fast food, coffee shops)

This works out to about $9K a year, which is actually what we spent with the same exclusions in 2016.