Skip to main content

Frugal February

Today is January 31, 2014. Tomorrow we are starting a month of no-spending. A spending freeze. The whole family is on board. The only thing we will spend money on is gas and $25 per week for groceries, primarily produce and dairy items. I did stock up the past few weeks on meat that I found on sale or discount. For about 7 months we have been couponing, sale shopping and stock piling our groceries and we have cut our spending in half! Out stock pile is in pretty good shape so this month we will be using as much of it as possible. Our income was lowered in July 2013 due to me becoming unemployed. Luckily, I have a wonderful, hard working husband who has a good job so we are not in dire straights but our budget is super-duper slim. Also over the past few years, especially over the past few months, we have been cutting our bills and our spending, little by little.
Some of the things we have done to cut costs have been getting rid of our home phone and cable.If you haven't done this yet, I HIGHLY recommend it! I probably held on to the home phone a little longer than we needed but, I was worried about 911 calls. If you call 911 from your cell phone it takes longer to get help because the call goes to the highway patrol. Then I found out that Stockton has a direct line to 911. It's 209-937-7911. Once I found out about that number I got rid of our home phone and the city number is locked in to my cell. We got rid of the cable company thanks to my husband. He is way more "in the know" about the latest technology and he was interested in trying Hulu and Netflix. So, we agreed  to get rid of cable and bought a antennae box for the basic channels. We now have Hulu, Netflix and The Blaze which totals about $24. We are currently trying out Amazon Prime(1 month free) which has a few shows that we do not get on our current providers. But we are seriously considering getting it for the free 2 day shipping. I am currently in college and I rent my books through Amazon, the free shipping would pay for itself right away. Plus I would get to continue watching Downton Abbey and Duck Dynasty!
The kids are ready for the challenge. Today they got one last after school treat. Every Friday we go to Qiang Bakery and get Pork Buns for just under a buck. They get one each. When I asked them what would be the hardest thing about the spending freeze, they said the after school snacks that we would get 2-3 times a week($1 or less). They really enjoy participating in couponing and sales shopping. It's been a great experience for us to do together as a family. I am glad they are learning the value of what things cost also that we can have fun and do plenty of things on a budget. I am glad they are happily joining in to this challenge and I think it will be great for us as a family!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 20: Money Making Ideas

I have been talking a lot about saving money. How about we talk about making money? 1) Have a garage/yard sale. When we downsized over 1000 sq ft of home we didn't have enough room to put everything! So we had a sale. We made almost $300 in a few hours just getting rid of our old junk. 2) Sell stuff on Ebay or Craigslist. Over the years we have sold a few items on Craigslist and Ebay. The biggest item was Joel's motorcycle. It took a while, but we finally the right buyer. 3) Save your loose change. When I was a kid, there was this thing called a pay phone. You would put your change in and make a call. And on a good day, you might find a quarter in the coin return! And a quarter used to buy a whole candy bar! hahaha, I crack myself up. But seriously, save your change, it can add up quickly. Did you know that the loose change people left behind at airports in security tubs totaled more than $500,000 in one year? Wow! 4) Recycling. Taking your aluminum, plastic and glass t...
2 comments
Read more

Day 14: I LOVE Saving Money!

Since I LOVE saving money, I thought it was appropriate on Valentines Day to share some more ways we have found to do just that!!! 1) Always, always, always ask for a better deal. Open the door for negotiation. You might be surprised! Just about everything is negotiable. We have had the same CPA do our taxes every year for that past 10 years. I used to pay $250. Last year, I told him that things were tight and asked if he would be willing to reduce our fee. And since we don't have as many write offs its less paperwork for him. He agreed and reduced our fee to $175.  2) Cut and or color your own hair.  Over the summer months we bought a clipper and I would shave Joel's head. It was easy! But, I am not brave enough to cut or color my own hair. I know a lot of ladies that do. BUT, you can refer back to Item #1 above on this... I told my hairdresser and friend of over 12  years that I might have to go to the beauty school next time to afford getting my hair cut and colore...
2 comments
Read more

DAY 5: I want some FREE stuff!

Back in October of last year, 2013, we adopted a a dog from a rescue shelter. He is half poodle and half cocker spaniel (between the vet, the shelter and ourselves) that is our best guess. We named him Chop. Rather my son, Leo named him Chop. He was found with 2 other dogs wandering in a field next to the shelter. I call him my scaredy-cat, bird-dog. He doesn't like crowds, he doesn't like dark men, deep voices and he doesn't like to go for walks(scaredy cat) But he loves to perch on the back of the couch and the top of the recliner(bird-dog) He is very loveable and sweet and I have been able to train him. He is my shadow and follows me everywhere, he loves to ride in the car too. The reason I am talking about my fur baby is because I did not stock up on his food and treats for No Spend February. I meant to, just didn't make it. Luckily I still had $13 on my Walmart gift card. But before I went to Wally-world I decided to check out CouponMom.com and see if they had any...
2 comments
Read more