I read a shared article on Facebook (AKA the debil) about a family in my area that does a spending diet during February. I like it. I have decided that I will do the same thing... but it's the 2nd and I'm already REALLY frustrated. It's probably not for the reasons you're thinking though!
It is not because I can't spend $$, I am frustrated b/c we keep getting little reminders of fees due for the kid's activities... all in February. sigh. On the other hand... perhaps I should be a glass half full girl all month and say "great! The perfect time to spend as little as humanly possible this month. Those expenses may turn into a blessing of awareness and an opportunity to see how frugal we can be!"
That's what I'll go with for the next day or so. I'll update how that goes...
I have decided that we will live out of our pantry and freezers this month. I only decided this on the 31st, so no time to cheat and do any stocking up. My weekly budget will be $50 for things like milk, cheese, bread and basics for my little kid's lunches. I would like to include gas... but I just don't think that's possible. Gas prices are too high, but I absolutely will be consolidating our trips and attempting to only fill up twice this month... at around $100. So, basically I'm trying to spend $300 this month on household expenses. I'm a little nervous about the toilet paper running low... I may have to pop a valium.
These are the issues at hand... normally this would leave me about $700 left over to put in savings after all the regular bills are paid. However... I am discovering some residual spending from January that's going to be carried over into this month. I think that $700 is spoken for.
$173.40 plane ticket for April girls weekend
$ 15.00 girl scout cookies
$164.49 hotel stay for Howie's business trip (should be reimbursed quickly)
$105.00 FVAA dues for Nathan's soccer and tball registration
$150.00 preschool registration fee for Heather (only annoys me b/c I don't know if I'll be going back to work and if she'll even be able to GO next year.
$ 32.31 for my phone cover. Necessary evil.
$ 34.00 groupon deal for Nathan's art classes. Bargain... just bad timing.
$ 8.49 at Wendy's (Howie) while he was on the road.
$ 9.30 pak n ship for an ebay item I sold.
I did bring in $40 for babysitting and $35 for the Ebay item sold. So, we are ONLY starting this month with a deficit of $616.99. I sure am glad I read that article and decided to give it a go. Good lord, if these kids would eat anything like chef boyardee I think this would be easy... but OH NO... I have to buy organic milk and kosher meats. I refuse to skimp on that stuff, even if I have to steal toilet paper and sweetners. Please, invite me to your home so I can steal a roll of TP to make it through this month.
For full disclosure I am also going to admit that Howie and I will be using a gift card we received for Christmas. We have a very rare evening without children this Saturday. I think we will attempt to keep our meal well within the $50 card, I think we'll be able to do this easily. I don't care what we eat, I just want to be able to sit down the entire meal, eat the food at the temperature it was intended to be eaten at and have someone else clean up.
I'm going to see what extra $$ I can bring in as well. Not to be spent... but to TRY to increase the whopping $80 we could slide into savings at the end of this experiment. sheesh. This may be a very very educational and trying month!
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