$150 Challenge and Extra Expenses

                                                     $150 Challenge


When I set up the $150 Challenge I neglected to take a couple of things into account. In July we will be going to New York to visit my mother and our son is scheduled to have his Senior pictures taken in July.

If I waited until everything was perfect to plan a challenge, then it would never happen.  After all where is the "challenge" if I didn't have to deal with extra expenses?  So the challenge is still on no matter what.  Actually the trip money is set aside, it is the Senior pictures that I forgot about.  The sitting fee for the pictures is between $100 and $150 depending on how many outfits my son wears (yes, the photographer used the word outfits). 

It would appear that the $150 Challenge money may be used towards the photographer's sitting fee.  I'm not discouraged.  I'm encouraged as I know I can do it and I also know that this will help our budget by planning ahead, cutting back and saving for that sitting fee. 

This is what it is all about, being able to save money to handle the extras.  As to the accountability factor in this challenge, I will be posting each Monday what I spent the week prior and compare it to past weekly spending. 

$150 Challenge and Utility usage

I love the d.v.d. series Band of Brothers. I know, it is pretty violent, but that is war.  My father served in World War II and became disabled due to his injuries.  I have a lot of respect for our citizen soldiers. In one episode of Band of Brothers, General McAuliffe visits the front lines during the Battle of the Bulge. Our men had very little ammunition and no winter clothing. Also the lines were running very thin with men and they were having trouble holding back the Germans. General McAuliffe makes this statement “Hold the line, plug the holes. There is a lot of “blank” heading this way and with the fog, there will be no drops.”

Our soldiers did hold off the Germans and under very difficult circumstances including very little resources.

What does this have to do with the $150 challenge? I need to plug the holes in our budget. A few months ago I wrote a post talking about the little things adding up and they do.

Utilities are a big part of our budget. We have budget billing and pay the same each month, however, every quarter the utility company reviews our usage and increases or decreases the bill. I know it is obvious, but I never really thought about our electric or natural gas consumption and taking steps to reduce it. That is, until now.

This morning my DH told me that our electric bill for the month of May was the highest it had ever been. We had some very warm days toward the end of May so we naturally ran the air conditioners. I am now pondering ways to save on electricity and I am also trying to figure out why it was so high that month.

1. Turning off lights and TV: I am the one that is constantly turning off lights or the TV. when left on. I know, mothers have been facing this uphill battle ever since TVs and electricity were invented. I hate to nag about it, but the nagging may get worse until the message gets across.

2. Hanging clothes on the line: This week I started hanging our laundry on the line with the exception of my husband’s dress shirts and pants and towels. I have noticed that when I dry clothes it is taking a lot longer to dry them in the dryer. Could it be that the dryer is not performing as well? That would be the natural answer. Then the more I thought about I realized that the new washing machine had a larger tub and I was trying to dry too large a load in the dryer. The solution: I can split the loads of towels and dry half at a time. However, I do believe the next time I will dry them on the line and then while they are still a little damp, toss them into the dryer to fluff them. As to my husband’s dress clothes, when dried in the dryer they do not need ironing and that is a big plus to me.

3. Energy Efficient Lightbulbs: The dollar store has energy efficient light bulbs for only $1.00 each. I plan on replacing all of our light bulbs over the next month with energy efficient bulbs. We have some lamps that we only use once in a while, so I will leave the incandescent bulbs in those lamps for now.

4. Start unplugging: Today I am unplugging lamps and other electric items that we leave plugged in all the time that we don’t use daily.

5. Not using as many lights: It is okay to use the natural light coming through the windows on a cool day as your only lighting. We get too used to flicking a switch to turn on a light and it isn't necessary most of the time.

6. Air conditioners and fans: When we run our air conditioner we already have the temp set at a higher setting and I always keep the drapes closed when the sun is pouring in the house on those warm days. On the cooler summer days, how many fans do we need to have running at a time?

I remember reading somewhere that a woman did all of the above and she saved close to $30 a month on her electric bill and she lived in an apartment.

Our budget utility billing is reviewed every quarter and goes up or down according to our usage. I know that July and August are prime months for air conditioning in our area and I won’t turn off the air conditioning when it is very hot. I will make as many changes as I can to take the edge off of high electric usage months so that the bill won’t go up and over time, it will go down.

In September we will need to be more diligent about winterizing the house by caulking, weather stripping and putting plastic on windows.

Anyone have any other ideas for reducing utility bills?

"The Farmer's Wife" a dvd review

Back in 1998 David Sutherland produced a series on PBS entitled "The Farmer's Wife."  I remember watching the three episodes over three evenings.  I have never lived on a farm.  My Uncles had small farms that they maintained along with careers in teaching.  We live in Iowa where there are a lot of farm operations.  When the weather has been bad, such as now with the flooding, you can almost feel the tension in the air of farmers that are trying to get into their fields to spray the soy beans or watching their fields turn into small lakes. 

I could never do it.  Perhaps I don't have enough faith or enough resilience.  I admire farm wives as they carry the burden of the farm operation along with their husband.  They help on the farm, raise the children, keep chickens and a garden for their family's use and also to sell eggs and produce at the farmer's market.  I think it is a life you either love or hate.

So, there I sat for three nights watching a farm family in Lawrence, Nebraska and seeing them fight to save their farm and also their marriage.  David Sutherland followed Darrel and Juanita Buschkoetter for over three years on location at their farm.  The cameras caught everything. 

It showed a desperate struggle to save their farm operation.  It also showed the stress and how it affected their marriage.  Juanita went from being a passive farm wife to a wife that was fully involved in the farm operation down to understanding everything about FHA and all the finances of the farm.  Darrel at one point was working in a factory and coming home to farm.  One time it showed him driving a truck during the day and coming home at night to farm.

Juanita cleaned houses.  She was being paid by the hour and had to rush to clean the houses in order to get home when their 3 daughters got off the bus frrom school.  Juanita was determined to be a good mother and wife.  She did everything she could to create a happy home for her children.  One scene showed how she had created a Halloween party for her kids and neighbor children with only $5.  They had been wanting a Halloween party for years and she finally decided she wanted to do it for her children.  She was quite inventive.

The hardest part for me was to see how little they had.  Having little resources, having a husband with an anger management problem due to the stress and not having hope, was hard for me to watch at times.  Then imagine that this doesn't go on for just a week, but for years.  Add to that the lack of family support from Juanita's side of the family.

The expressions on Darrel and Juanita's faces during some of the interviews speak to their plight.  They have very little or no money for food at one point.  Juanita talks about not having meat and after awhile it gets to you.  Juanita does get support from a local group that helps farmers that are struggling.  She receives some food from a local food pantry and then they do end up going on food stamps.  Juanita does it for her kids.  They need nutritious food.  She talks with a crisis counselor about not having enough money to take her daughter to the doctor for an ear infection.  Juanita also attends a clinic with other farm families and shares her story about the farm and the long road they have to get out of debt.  As the camera pans the room you see in the faces of the farmers' and their wives that if they had a chance, they would probably be telling the same story.

Juanita sees education as a future for their family so she enrolls in a community college.  Towards the end of the series you see her graduating from the community college wearing a dress she borrowed from a friend.  She looks amazing. 

Every month and year they put their hopes on future crops, future sale of farm animals but the weather was against them.  At one point Darrell makes a powerful statement, "If you have never had money problems, then you don't know what it is like." 

In my marriage we have had dry periods when money was tight, but never to the level of the Buschkoetters.  Actually, their story is not unique.  I remember the farm crisis of the early 1980's and many farmers went bankrupt and had to abandon farming.  The Buschkoetters were doing everything they could to save their family farm.

Towards the end of the series their life is getting better.  However due to what they had been through, they were cautiously optimistic. 
Why do I recommend this dvd series?  It shows a family going through a crisis.  It is honest in its telling of the entire story.  Nothing is hidden.  You need to watch it if only to see what it is like to live on a farm and see the stresses that farm families endure.

I bought the dvd series about 5 years ago when I saw it on sale.  I hadn't watched it in about a year but with my recent conviction to get back on track in my finances, I pulled it out.  I've been watching a little bit every day. Sometimes I need to see a story of a struggling family to make me appreciate what I do have.  I don't have to worry about not being able to afford a doctor's visit or not being able to afford meat, but I do need to be more cognizant of what resources I do have. I need to respect those resources and value them enough not to waste them.

The dvd series is a 3 dvd set and is available on Netflix.

Finally .... Sunshine!

We have had so many rainy days in the past month, that when I heard the forecast for this week I thought it was a mistake.  I'm not kidding when I say that it has rained practically every day and the ground is very saturated.  I have downplayed it.  It has stormed - lightning, thunder, tornadoes, straight line winds and hail over the past few weeks.  There are places in Iowa that are facing flooding.  Corn fields are looking like rice paddies. 

Today it was sunny, a breeze was blowing and the high was around 80 degrees.  It was a perfect day to finally be able to hang the clothes outside to dry. 

Now imagine my 17 year old son coming home from a student council fundraiser to see his underwear hanging on the line.  He was a little unhappy about that.  It would have been worse since 2 hours earlier the student council members were at our house painting the school mascot on our driveway.  Thank goodness I didn't hang out the clothes then.  He would have been totally embarrassed. 

After supper tonight my DH and I sat on our back deck and drank a cup of coffee.  It was nice and cool.  We sit out on the deck a lot in the evening and I enjoy sitting out there in the morning drinking a cup of coffee and watching everyone go to work.  That is so sweet. 

Today I headed to the grocery store for some milk.  When I walked into the store there was a grocery cart filled with bags of stuff (I couldn't see what it was from a distance).  There was a sign on the cart that said "50 cents."  I had to see what it was.  Hershey Kisses!!!! Yippee.  Nothing speaks to a woman like a bag of chocolate at a reduced price.  I bought 10 bags.  My DH took two to work to put in his candy dish and I took a bag to a neighbor lady who is in her last three weeks of pregnancy.  Yes, I do believe that chocolate is the best way to soothe even the final weeks of pregnancy.  The rest I will  hang on to and use in some baking and snacking.  The candy was discounted as it had an expiration date of July 2010. 

My Hershey Kiss bargain got me to thinking about the grocery stores I shop.  They are both located 1 block from each other and they are about 7 blocks from my house.  One store discounts meat while the other store discounts produce.  Perhaps I need to go to those stores more frequently so that I can take advantage of the discounted food, especially the produce.

I take a walk every day and I could include the grocery stores on my route. I could stop by one of the stores on my way back home and alternate the days I go to each store.  It would only take about 5 minutes to go in the store to check to see if they have anything reduced.  Another advantage to doing this is that it will soon start to heat up again and stopping by an air conditioned store on the way home from my walk might be kind of nice. 

It's just something I am pondering.

This weekend I did get a few great bargains at each grocery store:   90% lean ground beef for $1.69 lb., 8 oz. bags of shredded cheese for $1.00, 15 - 32 oz. bottles of Powerade for $5.00 (my DH is a runner), store brand cereals for $1.00 a box and I received a free seedless watermelon with the purchase of 4 liters of Diet Coke.  The Diet Coke was on sale for 50 cents.  But the best deal by far was the $10 grocery gift card we received from our local newspaper just for signing up to have the payment directly withdrawn from our checking account.

I am on a tight budget right now and will be for the next 6 months.  Now is when my stocked pantry and freezer will be put to good use. 

In setting the $150 challenge I realize that I have probably set it a little low, but I would rather set it low and be successful than to set it high and fail miserably.  My hope is that I can increase the challenge by $25 a month until I have found the point that I can't cut any further.  For me it is about the baby steps in making changes in my life.  Today was one of those baby steps. I have never hung the majority of my laundry outside to dry.  It was tiring as I was on my feet a lot today but I kept thinking this will save some money and my clothes will smell fresh. 

I'll be giving weekly updates on where I am on the $150 challenge.  I have 9 months of spending records to refer to along the way.  I know every penny I have spent over those 9 months so I will be able to calculate my savings and I have targeted the categories that I have been overspending.  Yuck - I hate to admit it but I got into a habit of picking up a $5 item here, spending $10 there and before you knew it, I had blown through $100.  It's very much like a food diet.  Sometimes you eat the ice cream sandwich and then you have to get back on track. 

I had a great day.  While I hung the laundry out I listened to some great music on my Mp3 player, day dreamed about ways to save money and made a list of projects we need to get done on the house.  It was one of those days that makes me happy I am homemaker. 

Frugal Tip #2 - Clean Showers

I spent the afternoon cleaning out my basement and getting my pantry organized along with my laundry room.  We had water in a portion of our basement two weeks ago and I needed to spend some time sweeping and putting some things away.  Laundry day is tomorrow and I am almost giddy at the prospect of doing the laundry in a neat laundry room. 

One thing is true and that is to live a frugal life you must be organized.  If you are disorganized, you end up going out and buying stuff that you probably already have stashed somewhere.  I found a few things that I had been wondering where I had put them.  I'm sure it's not age catching up to me - just being in a hurry and not putting things in their proper place. 

I couldn't let the weekend end without sharing another frugal tip that I have tried and liked.

I was never comfortable with the daily shower cleaners on the market.  I didn't really want to put those kind of chemicals on my shower every day and besides it is money better spent elsewhere. 

I have a daily routine for keeping my shower mold and mildew free, especially during the warm summer months.  I am the last person to take a shower in our house each day.  After I turn off the water I take a cloth that I have hanging on a hook in the shower and I wipe the shower walls and doors down.  This doesn't dry them off, as that is not my intent, instead it wipes off any soap scum or shampoo residue that may still be on the shower. 

Then when I get out of the shower I lightly mist the shower with a bleach water solution.  I take 2 to 3 tablespoons of bleach and pour it into a spray bottle and fill the bottle with water.  I do not use a recycled spray bottle as I don't want to take a risk of mixing any bleach with leftover chemicals that may still be in a recycled spray bottle. 

As to the bleach, I watch for sales and I always buy the scented bleaches to use in my shower mist.  Then I don't have that bleach smell in my bathroom.

Lastly I leave the shower door open for the rest of the morning in order to help the shower air dry.  And that is that.  Since I have been doing this, my shower stays fresh and clean inbetween the regular days I clean the bathroom. 

I have found that this same principal can work in the toilet.  Give the toilet a quick swish with the toilet brush and then mist with the bleach spray each morning. 

For the price of an old washcloth and about 2 tablespoons of bleach I have a frugal alternative to the daily shower cleaners on the market.

My Pantry and Freezer

In the next week to 10 days I will post how I keep and maintain an extensive pantry and freezer stockpile.  I started stockpiling about 18 months ago and I won't go back to shopping for groceries the way I used to.  I will post pictures and sample documents of how I keep track of everything. I also hope to discuss how stockpiling for some people can end up being hoarding. 

It is easy to go to the "darkside" in stockpiling and become a hoarder.  I learned quickly that I would never let stockpiling control me.  Instead I find the principle of stocking up on sale items and buying in bulk a unique way to save money and stretch my grocery budget.

Frugal Tip #1 - Mascara

I like to wear some makeup even if I know I am going to be home for the day.  I always purchase a good quality foundation, usually from Merle Norman.  It lasts close to 6 months and for $20 that is a good deal in my mind.  I buy name brand mascara and eye liner from Walmart.  The rest - eye shadow, blush, lip gloss/stick I purchase on the cheap from the dollar store.  I have never had a problem with allergies and I have always been satisfied. 

No matter what brand of mascara I buy, after about 2 weeks, it always seems to glop and it is hard to apply to my lashes. I am sure it is the result of air getting into the tube as I push the mascara brush down each time I use it.

I like to put on one coat of mascara and not several coats of thick mascara on my lashes.  At my age (51), less is definitely more.  This morning I tried a tip that I had read about a long time ago.  Before I got in the shower I took my tube of mascara and set it in a cup of very hot tap water and let it sit in that water until I was done with my shower and had dried my hair.  I didn't cover the tube with the hot water but only let the water come up to the lid of the mascara.

When I went to apply the mascara it was warm, melted and perfect for applying to my lashes.  It gave me a nice smooth coat, no glops and I was very happy with the result.

Now, I don't recommend keeping makeup for a long time as it is not sanitary, but I do expect mascara not to get gloppy after only 2 weeks.  Mascara usually runs around $5.00 without a coupon and most of the time I have at least a 50 cent or $1.00 coupon to use.   I am sure that I will be able to get at extra month's worth of mascara, without the glops, from doing this simple tip. 

Hmmm - maybe I should invent a mascara warmer and sell it on the internet.