Welcome to the weekly spend-freeze update. If you recall, on February 1st, I posted all
about what a Spend-Freeze is and the rules we were going to follow for the rest
of the month in order to stop our spending and save money.
Week 1
The first week is always tough as spending money is a
bit of a reflex; an ingrained habit really.
You don't think twice about going to the store and picking up
this or that. A prime example: My husband was wanting to cheer me up on
February 1st with the purchase of flowers. (I adore flowers! This would have been a lovely gesture
normally but not this month.) Thankfully
he remembered that he could not spend money!
If he had bought me flowers I would have been angered rather than
cheered. Imagine if he'd broken the
rules of our spend-freeze on the first day!!
Instead he had the creative idea of looking up flower origami on the
internet. The internet did not
disappoint and he brought me home a lovely hand made flower that cheered me and impressed
me with his creativity. A win for our
relationship and our budget!
 |
| A free origami flower replaces the cost of real ones. |
Sadly I noticed too late that I did not stock enough pull-up
diapers for Miss Evalynn (my youngest daughter who is 21 months old). They will not last to the end of the
month. *sad face* No worries. No problem.
*optimistic grin and determination* We've been start-stop potty training
(a method I do not recommend) for a few months now. The spend-freeze-diaper-dilemma has
forced our hand so we are now full blown potty training. And it's a messy business. But it is saving us on diapers. I will still use two a day. One at nap time and one at bedtime.
I also found myself saving foods that normally I would
have thrown out. Example: when the big kids get
from school I normally throw out any of their school lunch leftovers. This week I took out those things that hadn't
been touched (cut carrots in this case).
I chopped up the uneaten veggies and put them in our salad at supper
time. I have become a bit hyper-vigilant about
using up all the food I can. I remember the final week of our last
spend-freeze and how low we had become on all our stored foods. Having that feeling of NOT being able to buy more
food is an odd one for us. We have been
blessed with abundance and it's easy to take it for granted.
Food
Our weekly menu hasn't changed much since it is only the
first week of our spend-freeze. I bought
groceries as normal on Saturday before the spend-freeze started. Well.... almost normal. I did stock up more than usual on fresh
veggies. (We always seem to run
through them so quickly! A good problem to have.) I stocked up partly because of the spend-freeze
and partly because broccoli was on sale.
I like to buy extra when it goes on sale.
Here's what we ate:
Monday - Baked Squash and Salad with Pork croutons (using
leftover pork roast)
Tuesday - Chicken noodle soup (from a leftover chicken
leg)
Wednesday - Chicken with Squash and Broccoli
Thursday - Butter Chicken on Rice with Broccoli and Turnips
(leftover chicken from last night)
Friday - Chicken with cubed Potato/Squash medley and Broccoli
Saturday - Chicken spaghetti (leftover chicken from last
night)
Sunday - Sliders (mini hamburgers) with Homemade Oven
Fries
 |
| Hubby Jon barbecuing in the freezing February cold. |
I like to buy our groceries on Saturday mornings. Our son Jackson had his birthday party on
Saturday at our house so my husband Jon went to the store for me. Our rules (click here if you need a rule refresher) were to only buy milk and bananas for the first two weeks of the
month. We decided to also include yogurt
in that list as our youngest daughter Evalynn is a growing
girl who loves yogurt once a day. And so
does Jon. So... He spent only $16. Less than $20 for a week of groceries! I'm happy with that.
Something always comes up
Each month, regardless of whether we're on a spend-freeze or
not, something always comes up. It's
tough to work out a budget when non-budgeted items always seem to crop up. Last year, when we did our spend-freeze, the
battery in my husband's car died. We
lived much further from his workplace then and walking wasn't an option. We grudgingly paid the $100 for a new
battery. We were disappointed at having
to spend so much money on our spend-freeze.
BUT we were also extremely thankful that, by being on a spend-freeze,
the $100 for a new battery wasn't a sting to our finances. We easily had the money at hand.
We had a scare on Sunday when my husband, Jon, opened the
oven door. It completely fell off one
hinge! Thankfully he was able to secure
it back on. We were planning to replace
our oven in the future (just not during spend-freeze month!!). This little incident puts "new oven"
a bit higher up on the priority list.
So the question remains; what unforeseen expense will crop up this month?
If you take money out, you will need to put work in.
When I look back at the decisions we've had to make or
alternatives we've had to employ in order to conform to the Spend-Freeze, I
have discovered that if you wish to save money, you must instead do work. Here are examples of what I mean:
* To save money on fruit/veggies, work planting and maintaining your own garden.
* To save money on fruit/veggies, work planting and maintaining your own garden.
*To save money on oil changes or car repairs, do the
repairs/work yourself.
*To save money on coffee, make it at home yourself.
*To save money cleaning, do the cleaning yourself and use
elbow grease instead of expensive cleaners.
The good news is that, for the most part, I enjoy the work. I think that's the battle really. If you can make your daily jobs fun, then they're no longer jobs. I hope you have fun in all you do today!
Happy thoughts,
Andrea
Please leave any questions/comments below
God bless!
Links
How To Freeze your Spending - Final Week
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