No Spend Month - Final Results

We have two more days in February, but I don't need anything and I don't have any money to spend, so I am giving my results today.

I didn’t meet my goal of saving $200 this month. I did save $100 by not spending in many areas of the budget. While I didn’t meet my goal, I did save a lot of money by coming across some great grocery in store specials that I just couldn’t pass up. One was hamburger for only 80 cents a lb.

I will continue to make those same cutbacks to save $100 each month as we will need to put that $100 towards gasoline. Gas is going up all over the world and while I am going to be doing some cost cutting measures of my own, in the end we will still be paying more for gasoline. I’m also concerned about heating oil and that it will also be going up.

It has been a great month for conscious spending and saving.

Bad Week in the News - Good Week for Me

I have been working so hard on finishing the entryway and to have it finally done feels good.  I can cross something off my to do list.  While I have been painting I have been listening to the news.  So much is happening all around the world and I find myself drawn to the latest news.  There is more and more to pray about. 

Yesterday I stopped by the grocery store where I purchased the $1.99 a lb. butter last week.  Yesterday it was knocked down to 99 cents since it was now 2 days away from the sell by date.  They had quite a bit left.  I bought another 15 lbs. for my freezer.  I have plenty of butter.

Tonight it was just my husband and me for supper so I fixed salmon, whole grain rice mixture, broccoli and a tossed salad.  I baked a salmon fillet with a little bit of oil brushed on it, sprinkled it with a Mrs. Dash mixture and baked it for 14 minutes.  It was moist and flaky and delicious.  I also poured a little bit of low fat italian dressing on the salmon for a little more flavor.  My husband loves fish and so do I.  Our son does not like fish at all so when he is gone for supper, it is fish night. 

Tomorrow I will take a look at the receipts to see where I am on the No Spend Month.  I have done pretty good this week.  Also I need to catch up on my blog reading and I will spend some time trying to get the gold paint off of my finger nails!!!

No Spend Month - A Successful Failure

I love the movie Apollo 13. Perhaps it is because I remember when this actually happened. I was 15 at the time and I remember all the news reports and updates. Apollo 13 was called a "Successful failure." This mission was considered a failure because they failed to complete their mission and a success because the astronauts were able to return to earth and didn't lose their lives.
I am having a Successful Failure No Spend Month.

When I started this month I wondered what I would do if I came across some good deals at the grocery store. In January of 2010 I participated in an “Eating from the Pantry Month” and I stuck to it and only spent $160.00. There were many sales that month but I passed on them as I knew those same sales would come around in another 6 weeks.

I can't say the same this time around. Prices are going up and by the end of the year they are predicting that food prices will be sky high. It’s not just food prices. It’s everything. So this month when I encountered a sale I decided that I just couldn't pass on any sales. Many things came to mind such as this product is on sale at this price right now and I may never get it again at this price.

I wanted to save $200 extra this month and next month for a total of $400 by April 1st. We're not experiencing an emergency, but I wanted to see if I could save some extra money to replenish the amount of money we took out of our savings account to pay the $500 deductible on our car insurance. We put money into our savings account every pay day but I wanted to surprise my husband and cut back and make an extra deposit to our savings account.

Okay – now that I have stated my case, made my excuses and validated it, you know what is coming next so I might as well get to what I spent money on this week.

I need some new running shoes. I buy running shoes for walking and for working out. My old shoes were showing some wear and also they were not giving my feet as much support as they used to. I knew I could probably put off purchasing new shoes to next month that is until I came across a great deal this week at a local store. I was able to get the New Balance shoes that I like on sale for $39.98. They are regularly priced $60.00. I couldn’t pass this sale up. I always ask myself these questions: Is this a need? Yes. Is this a good sale? Yes. Can I afford this at this moment or in other words, do I have the cash for this purchase? Yes. Will there be another sale or a better sale prior to when I had planned to purchase this item? I don’t know. What I did know was that prices are going up on everything and this was a $20.00 savings. I decided to buy the shoes.

I stopped by a grocery store for some milk and I asked a store employee about food prices. He said that obviously prices had gone up but he told me that I should expect prices to go up a lot more. He warned me that by the end of the year we will be paying quite a bit more on food. I learned that due to bad weather in various areas of the country, lettuce and tomatoes will be going sky high. I will probably find a place in my yard this summer to grow leaf lettuce and tomatoes.

There aren’t as many animals going to market so the supplies are low while the need is high. Droughts in Russia and bad crops in China along with the floods in Australia and the flooding in the Midwest last summer have affected the crops and thus our food supplies.  Already I have seen many of the normal staples I buy at the grocery store go up anywhere between 15% and 18%.  Gasoline this week has gone up 13 cents a gallon.

That was Thursday.

So, I decided that while putting more money in savings is a great idea, so is saving money on the front end on groceries.

Here were the sales in the grocery store this week. To begin with, they had bone in chicken breasts for 88 cents a lb. I have only ever, and I mean ever, seen these for 99 cents a lb. about three times a year. These are two large chicken breasts with the bone. Each weighs about 2 lbs. and will feed the 3 of us for one meal, with some leftovers. Even though these are bone in, there is a lot of meat on these pieces. I bought 20 lbs. This sale was a sale that was definitely intended to get customers into the store. I got to that store when it opened at 8:00 a.m. and the parking lot was filling up.

At the same store they had all their Kellogg’s cereals on sale at 50% off. While other stores may mark up the price so that the 50% off isn’t such a good deal, this store does not do that. I had coupons for these cereals. Normally I would pay around $1.00 a box or less on a sale and with coupons. Prices have indeed gone up so if I can get these cereals for $1.50 or less, than it is a great deal. I was able to buy plain Shredded Wheat – a large 24 oz. box for only $1.50. I also bought Raisin Bran, Frosted Mini Wheats and Special K along with some more sugary options such as Corn Pops and Cocoa Pebbles.

Another store had soy sauce on sale for $1.00. This bottle is normally around $1.75. I love soy sauce. I pour it over a pork roast and add some bay leaves and garlic for a tasty meal. They also had 100% whole wheat bread (1 lb. loaf) on sale for 99 cents, 1 doz. large eggs was 99 cents. I was able to get a few more lbs. of butter for $1.99, fresh red peppers were $1.29 each, 4 lb. bags of granulated sugar were $2.39 and my favorite Salmon fillets were $3.99 a lb. I also was able to get 8 cans of organic tomato paste for only 49 cents.

All of the above were good deals and I had coupons. The question I put to myself is this. With food prices going up, will I ever see these items again at these sales prices? Would I regret not purchasing these sales items? I decided that I will probably not see these sales prices again and I would definitely regret not taking advantage of these sales.

We are not in an emergency situation in our household as to this challenge. In other words, my hubby is not unemployed and we are not facing a tremendous financial crisis at the moment.

Also, I got good news when I called the doctor’s office yesterday and found out that the medical bill I received in the mail had not had the insurance applied to it. Instead of $285.00 we owed only $12.95.

That was Friday.

So as things stand right now, I will not meet my goal of $200 extra to go to savings this month. Instead I will end up with half that amount by the end of the month. I tallied up what I have spent so far on groceries for the month and it is coming out to my normal budgeted amount for groceries.

It is good to have a challenge. After all I have cut back in some areas and I was able to save a little more to put in our savings account so far along with what we would normally put in savings each month. Also, this challenge has been good for me as I have really thought about the items I am purchasing. I’ve asked myself questions along the way.

Yes, I would definitely describe this challenge for me as being a Successful Failure and a very good learning experience.

Unexpected Medical Expense

We received an unexpected medical expense in the mail recently.  It was for $285.00.  I looked it over and it would appear that this is from my visit to the doctor at the end of December and I immediately thought that insurance hadn't been applied.  Then I looked and our insurance had paid it's portion.  Yikes! 

So, my husband looked it over and said he would take care of it.  We have a flex plan at his job where pre-tax dollars are taken out of his paychecks for any medical expenses that may occur during the year.  But we have to decide on the amount to be taken out from his paycheck each Autumn for the coming year.  We pay the medical bill and then get reimbursed from the Flex Plan. 

We never expected that I would have the medical problems that I have been experiencing so we didn't set a lot of money aside in the Flex Plan this year.  At this rate we will use up the money in the Flex Plan in a couple of months. 

I have been keeping track of my spending and how much I have been saving.  I was going to go to the bank to take out the amount I had saved in cash to keep in a jar here at home.  This was part of my plan to take all the cash I had saved to give to my husband as a surprise in early April. 

Anytime I take out cash, I tell him since he keeps track of the bank reconciliation and the checkbook.  He said a slow "okay."  I could tell from the sound of his voice that it was not okay.  I asked him if he would prefer that I would not take out cash right now and he said yes.  He had been putting the extra money in savings but he told me he could transfer it back if I needed it.  Now he was planning on taking it to pay on the medical expense.  Hmm. 

I decided to tell my hubby about the No Spend Month and my goal.  After all he was doing what I was planning to do.  It was still a surprise. 

Week 2 - No Spend Month - Update

Well, I had a budget of $40 per week for groceries and that went out the door.  My No Spend Month actually began for me January 31st when my hubby got paid and I bought some groceries that day.  I included those groceries in on the No Spend Month since those groceries were for February. 

But I encountered some great deals last week and this week so I went ahead and stocked up.  I have spent the grocery budget for the month and then some - $163.00.  Where did it go?  That great deal on hamburger last week at 80 cents a lb.  This week it was deli ham for $1.25 lb. for my hubby's lunches.  I bought 12 lbs.  Then I encountered an unadvertised sale of ground pork for only $1.50 a lb.  I stocked up.  Butter was $1.99 lb. so I stocked up and stashed some in the freezer.  Pure grapefruit juice was on sale for 99 cents for 64 oz. 

Yes, I buy a lot of meat and I keep it in my freezer.  With the prices of meat going up, when I encounter a great deal, I buy what I can fit in my freezer at that time.  I triple wrap the meat and I have never had any meat get freezer burn.    Right now I know that I have a year's supply of meat and I also have plenty of meat for meals to fix for church family that are sick and for other meals to give away.

What did I do to accommodate this and still meet my goal? I cut back on other variable spending areas in our budget to bare bones.  I will have to be extra careful with gasoline in my vehicle.  I have half a tank and I should be able to make it last to the end of the month, if I am careful.  It costs $36 to fill it up so I will save $36.00 by stretching the 1/2 tank of gas. 

I had planned for us to eat out on Valentine's day using a restaurant coupon but instead our Valentine's day dinner will be spent on a meal that I will fix for my family.  I have some nice steaks in the freezer and as for a special treat, I am going to make my own homemade "Mounds" candy.  The recipe uses powdered sugar, mashed potatoes and coconut mixed together and then refrigerated and dipped in chocolate.  I have the ingredients on hand and I also will bake some butter cookies cut in the shapes of hearts.  So, I should save about $20.00 there. 

I saved $40.00 on paint for my entryway.  I will post about that tomorrow.  Just need to add that on the day I overspent on groceries, I found a way to cut back on the amount I budgeted for paint.  It involved a change in color scheme, that I like even better than what I originally picked out.

There are other things I will do as the opportunity arises.  But I have tweaked things enough to increase my savings another $50.00 for a total of $75.00 saved so far.  My goal is $200.00.

I have to say that I didn't want to post this as it would look like a fail as to February being a No Spend Month for me.  After all by the time the month is over, I will have overspent my grocery budget by $80.00.  However, I am making it work.  I am finding ways to cut back in other areas to make up for it. 

That's what we do.  We don't give up, we go to plan B and we make things work. 

No Spend Month - First Week & Frugal Ideas

I spent $55.93 on groceries last week while I only had a budget for $40.00.  This is due to my big find on hamburger at only 80 cents a lb.  It was worth it to go over budget even if it was a No Spend Month and I am trying to reduce expenses. 

Today I went to the grocery store to buy several items that were on sale and that I had coupons for.  Here is what I spent today:  After coupons I spent $8.58 for a 25 lb. bag of Tidy Cat Litter for $1.99, 3 boxes of Kleenex for only 38 cents each, 3 bags of New York Brand Texas Toast Croutons for 49 cents each, 3 pkgs. of Farmland Sausage links for 70 cents each and a ½ gallon of 1% Milk for $1.49. 


I spent a total of $64.51 on groceries in the first 7 days of the challenge.  Which means I have $95.41 for the rest of the month on groceries.  I know I can do it and if I hadn't taken advantage of the hamburger sale, I would be right on track.  Even so I have 21 more days in this month and $95.41 is a lot of money for produce and dairy.

BUT I saved about $25 in other areas.  So I am at least $25 towards my goal of saving $200.  I can do it - I know I can.


It all comes down to being focused on the goal.  I spent yesterday pondering my spending and how I am able to stay on track more often than getting off track. 


Number One.  Staying on track and spending less pleases my husband.  Okay perhaps that shouldn't be the Number one reason, but honestly, it is.  He sees how hard I work at staying on a budget and he knows I am working towards the same financial goals as he is.  We are a team.  He earns the money and he loves the way that I respect how long it takes him to earn it and how I am careful not to overspend. 


Number Two.  Staying on track and spending less means more money in savings and more money to debt repayment.  It is very gratifying to see one debt paid off after another.


Number Three.  Staying on track and spending less means that I am learning a skill.  I am learning to live with what I already have and saving up for what I would like to have. 


For two years I have wanted two new kitchen chairs.  The 1940's (original) dinette that I own was purchased at an antique store for $40 about 8 years ago.  One of the chairs broke 18 months ago and I keep trying to save up for new chairs, but that purchase keeps being put on the back burner.  I have learned that having to use a folding chair in place of the broken chair is okay for now.  I will be able to buy new chairs by the end of this year.  BTW - here is a picture of my dinette and here is a picture of the chairs I want to buy. 

Over the past several months I have been able to get name brand laundry soap on sale and with coupon at $1.50 for a 32 load size and $1.99 for a 48 load size jug.  I have continued to make my homemade laundry soap and I have been measuring 1 tablespoon of the name brand soap into the 1/3 measuring cup I use to measure out the homemade laundry soap.  Then I fill it with my homemade version.  I've been doing this for a while to give even more cleaning power to the homemade version while adding a slight fragrance.


Also I have noticed a big difference in how much warmer our house feels in the winter due to putting plastic on the windows.  We use budget billing each month for our electricity and natural gas and while these are going up, our bill hasn't gone up since we took the precautions and put the plastic up.


I'm trying to think of other ways to save money.  Sometimes it's hard to come up with something new.  Last week I purchased 15 lbs. of potatoes for $3.50.  I quit buying tater tots and french fries since I can get more "potato product" out of the raw potatoes.  For a tater tot casserole I don't use a cream soup but prefer to brown the hamburger, drain the fat and rinse the hamburger.  Then I take a pkg. of onion soup mix and add about 2 cups water to the hamburger.  Bring this to a boil and thicken as for gravy.  I put this in the bottom of the casserole and top it with frozen California Mix vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower and carrots) and then I would top it with the tater tots.  Not anymore.  Now when I make homemade mashed potatoes I make extra and freeze them.  Yep, I freeze mashed potatoes.  Then when I am making "Tater Tot Casserole" I thaw the potatoes and spread the mashed potatoes on top of the vegetable layer, dot with a little butter and bake in the oven til bubbly and browned.  Yeah, it ends up being more like a Shepherd's Pie, but my family loves it. 


Instead of fries I take the potatoes and dice them, toss with a little olive oil and then sprinkle Italian salad dressing mix or any other mixture of spices such as italian seasoning or chili powder with garlic powder and onion powder, and well, you get the picture.  I bake these or roast these in the oven at about 350 degrees, stirring about every 15 minutes until they are golden, crispy and browned.  


So does anyone else have any other frugal tips?  I'm open to any ideas.

No Spend Month Goals

First of all, I am participating in this No Spend Month and will continue this into next month in order to surprise my husband with extra cash by April 1st. Why? We had to pay a $500 deductible in order to get our son’s (actually the car is in me and my husband’s name) repaired after an accident. That amount kind of dwindled our savings and I want to surprise my hubby with extra cash. So, yes, I am keeping a secret from my husband. Again, it is only bad if I am keeping debt a secret from him. I don’t think cutting back on the budget to surprise him with extra cash is a bad.

In our household, my husband pays the bills. Over the years we have traded back and forth and now it is his turn. That doesn’t mean that I don’t know what our finances look like and what bills we have to pay.

Each month we have money budgeted in the categories of household repairs, clothing, entertainment, food, car repairs and etc. If we don’t use what is in those categories, the amount leftover is carried over to the next month. For example, we have not spent any money in the clothing category for months but we keep adding to that category so that when we need to buy a big ticket item such as a suit or coat, the money will be there. It is all put in the same savings account, but it is accounted for separately on an excel spreadsheet.

Most of the spending that I do is in the realm of variable spending such as: food, gasoline, entertainment, eating out, clothing and miscellaneous spending. Miscellaneous spending consists of pet food and supplies and other items needed for our home.

Since variable spending categories is where you can cut back in a budget and save the most, those are the areas that I will work on to save the money for the No Spend Month.

Here are the areas that I expect to get my savings.

Food: My budget will be $30 to $40 per week.

Gasoline: We have been spending $150 to $200 per month depending on what is going on in our schedules. For example, if we have to drive out of town to see my in laws, it will take a tank of gas versus many months when we stay in town. With gasoline going up in price, I will be cutting back in order to keep the amounts the same or at least to the lower end of our budget being $150.

Entertainment and Eating Out: Our entertainment budget includes cablevision, internet and Netflix. Beyond that we budget for a movie (matinee) if there is one we want to see in town. We won’t be doing anything special for entertainment this month as cablevision, internet and Netflix seem to meet our entertainment needs. As for eating out, we won’t this month. We usually eat out once or twice a month.

Miscellaneous Spending: This includes pet food and supplies and anything else such as copy paper and ink for our printer.

Clothing: To my knowledge we do not need anything.  If we do, we have money in savings so I shouldn't have to spend anything extra.  I will of course check out the sales and the consignment or thrift stores first.
Our fixed expenses are mortgage payment, car payments, insurance payments, utilities, debt payments, savings, charity giving, property taxes, phone, cable/internet/Netflix, college fund and 401K. I hope I haven’t left anything out.

The one extra expense that we will have this month is paint. I will be painting our living room and entryway. These are large rooms, but the money is already saved for this household expense.

In looking over this budget I should be able to save $200 for the month of February from our variable spending categories.

No Spend Month and Bargain Shopping

Okay, I am officially (oooohh - now I am an official) changing my $400 challenge to calling it my No Spend Month for February and a $200 challenge for March.  I'll label it somehow.

I am getting ready to leave for Iowa City in about an hour but I knew a lot of you would love what happened to me early this morning.  Our local Hy-Vee grocery store is having a 1 day sale.  They have a 5 lb. package of 80% lean ground beef on sale for $8.95 or $1.80 a lb.  There was a limit of one package.  Also they had Tony's pizza on sale for $1.67 and since I won't be home to cook supper tonight (and school is closed again today), I picked up a pizza for my son to have for supper.  This is a real treat as I don't buy frozen pizzas anymore. 

My son went with me to the store at 7:00 this morning.  We went to the meat counter to pick up the meat when I saw a sign - 5 lb. pkgs. of 73% lean ground beef for $3.99.  Oh my goodness!!!  That's 80 cents a lb.  Granted this is a higher fat content of ground beef that I don't normally buy, but 80 cents a lb. is an absolute steal.  This ground beef is best cooked and browned into crumbles, drained of the fat and then I rinse it in hot water.  I will use it in chili, spaghetti, sloppy joes and any casseroles. 

How much did I buy?  30 lbs.  It had a sell by date of today.  I opened one of the packages when I got home and it is a beautiful red and smells fresh.  So, I will ask my DIL or our son, to measure it out into 1 lb. packages and freeze it for me today.

Now I need to get in the shower and get ready to leave town.  It is a beautiful sun shiny day, but the temp is below zero and the wind chills are minus 20 degrees.  Hence no school - also the country roads are still drifted over and the school buses can't get down the roads.

So, when I return I will post my budget for my No Spend Month - although I blew $24 on meat this morning and I was only planning on spending $9.00 - I feel pumped.  I'm ready to save as much as I can. 

God Bless all of you and have a great day.

Just Not Into Spending Money

I should have joined the No Spend Challenge for February as I am really not into spending money right now.  Maybe it's the Paxil that has made me so much more focused and therefore helps me to stay on track.  Don't misunderstand me as I am not advocating taking Paxil to help you with your financial goals. 

In my quest to save $400 in February and March, I have made up a list of entrees of items I have on hand.  I did this in one sitting and I know that there are more that I can come up with over the next week.  Here they are:

1. Chili
2. Chili Mac - leftover chili with macaroni and topped with cheese
3. Sloppy Joes
4. Meatloaf
5. Stir fry with pork or chicken
6. Pigs in a Blanket
7. Hamburger Gravey
8. Chicken or Turkey Casserole
9. Chicken Pasta casserole topped with breadcrumbs
10. Pulled Pork sandwiches
11. Pork slices with teriyaki sauce on rice
12. Honey Orange Chicken
13. Pizza
14. Pasta with meat sauce
15. Apricot Chicken
16. Waffles with sausage
17. Fried Chicken
18. Quiche Lorraine
19. Calico beans with some hamburger and cornbread
20. Tacos
21. Ham with scalloped potatoes
22. Tater Tot Casserole
23. Chicken Dumpling Soup
24. Hamburgers
25. Roast Beef
26. Ham and Bean Soup
27. Beef n Noodles
28. Vegetable soup with grilled cheese sandwiches
29. Oven BBQ chicken
30. Fried Rice with chicken
31.  Sesame Chicken

These are simple easy meals to serve with a vegetable and salad.  Best of all since I have the ingredients on hand, I will be saving money on groceries to put towards my goal of saving.

My $400 Savings Challenge

Before I get into what I want to write about today, I want to remind everyone to continue to pray for Elizabeth's son, Jacob, and all of their family as Jacob goes through cancer treatments.  You can view Elizabeth's blog The Trenches of Mommyhood here. 

$400 Savings Challenge

On Monday we will take our son's car to the collision center for the autobody repairs that he sustained in his minor accident last month.  Our son turned 18 earlier this month and the car is actually my old car that he drives and it is in my husband's and my name. This car will last him through college and hopefully beyond.  So, since he is on our insurance, we will be paying the $500 deductible for the repairs. 

Our son has a job and the majority of his money goes to his college savings account, so we would never ask him to pay the $500.  This is what parents do for their children. 

We use a modified version of the envelope system in our budget.  We have money in savings earmarked for certain categories.  One of those categories is auto repairs.  So the money is there, but I hate it when we have to pull money out of savings and start to rebuild it again for those specific categories.

Well, over the past week I have been reading a couple of the blogs that I follow and a few of them are taking on the challenge of a No Spend Month in February.  If you're interested check out Sharon's Blog My Year of Spending Less and Living More and Maureen's Blog Toward Retirement with Debt.

I love reading about the challenge and will follow them daily to see how they are doing.  My challenge to myself is going to be different.  I want to cut back over the months of February and March in order to put $400 of that deductible money back into our savings account.  Now the total sum of $500 is a lofty sum for me to save in two months since we already are on a frugal budget.  In fact it is way too high and it would be self defeating to set a goal that high.  $400 is still a tough challenge but it may be attainable. I feel a challenge should be just that.  It should be challenging and perhaps hurt a little bit but should still be attainable if I stay on track. 

How do I plan to do this?  If you look at my blog list towards the bottom of the sidebar, you will find that I follow these blogs because they give me so many ideas on how to save money.  I learn a lot and I dedicate 1 hour a day to reading those blogs.  Also, I will really begin to learn to conserve more of our resources in order to save. 

Instead of using my debit card for paying for groceries and miscellaneous spending, I will take that money out of our account on my husband's pay day and will spend only what is necessary and will save the balance.  Having cash in hand will help me see how much I am actually spending and I will then be able to see my savings grow. Then on April 1st I will tally up my savings to see if I have met my goal.

I don't plan on telling my husband about the challenge I have given myself as I want to surprise him on April 1st with the money I have saved.  While I don't believe in keeping secrets from your spouse, somehow saving money and surprising him with the extra cash seems like one of those secrets that will be okay to keep.  It's the secrets of hiding debt from a spouse that is a big No No.

My husband will continue to take money out of his paychecks to add to savings and some of that will be earmarked towards auto repairs.  He will be building that savings amount back up as we always do.  So I think on April 1st it will be a pleasant surprise when I hand him some extra cash that I have saved.