Welcome to the weekly Spend-Freeze update. On February 1st 2016, I posted what a Spend-Freeze is all about. I outlined the rules we will strictly follow for the rest of the month. The purpose is to stop our needless spending and save money.
Week 2
This week was easier than the first week of our Spend-Freeze as we have settled into a new routine of avoiding the stores and making do with what we already have at home.
This week the kids needed Valentine's cards for their
classmates. We made all the cards and
gifts they wanted to give their friends (click here to read how we did it!). For my in-laws I made cookies and squares. My husband got me a lovely gift too (which I will not photograph and share here). But how did he get it? Good question. He will not tell me! But he does know a shop keeper downtown. I'm wondering if he was sneaky and put it on store credit for later. (This breaks the Spend-Freeze rules by the way!) I'm hoping he made a trade, a barter, and will do something for the store keeper in return. I can only guess.
This week we've experienced an unforeseen consequence of not shopping. We are running out of garbage bags. I like to line the small garbage cans in the office and bathrooms with plastic shopping bags. Well, if you don't shop, you don't get bags. Makes sense. We'll likely run out of bags this week. Look for next week's post to see what solution we come up with (I'm still trying to think of one!).
This week we've experienced an unforeseen consequence of not shopping. We are running out of garbage bags. I like to line the small garbage cans in the office and bathrooms with plastic shopping bags. Well, if you don't shop, you don't get bags. Makes sense. We'll likely run out of bags this week. Look for next week's post to see what solution we come up with (I'm still trying to think of one!).
Food
Jon, my husband, did the groceries on Thursday since he was near the store anyway. He bought milk, bananas and yogurt.
Monday - Pancakes with Bacon and Home Canned fruit (Peaches
and Cherries. Oh my!)
Tuesday - Beef roast with Homemade Mac and Cheese
Wednesday - Tortillas with Homemade Tortilla Shells and Home
Canned Salsa (using leftover beef roast cut into strips)
Thursday - Chicken soup (from leftover chicken bones)
Friday - Pizza Casserole
Saturday - We were invited over to my in-laws for supper!
Sunday - Ham with Mashed Potatoes, Canned Corn and Canned Green Beans
This week we ate more bacon and beef. (I guess that balances out all the chicken
we had last week. *wink*) We've eaten up most of the fresh veg that I
bought before our Spend-Freeze started.
I'm surprised and happy that I've been able to really stretch out what I
bought over the past two weeks. And we
still have some broccoli, lettuce and lots of celery to take us into next week. I think the reason for this is wasting
less. Previously I would toss any food
that I had given the kids but that they didn't eat. Instead I kept it and put it into soups,
salads or casseroles. Even the stem of
the broccoli was cut up and added to last week's spaghetti.
Surprise
Well this month's surprise expense finally came. Our son Jackson has been struggling with
extreme tummy pain for a over a week.
After consulting our family physician, it is believed the pain is due to
food allergies. Yes. A new allergy! Or possibly his soy allergy is getting
worse. Our doctor suggested a costly
blood test to find out. We were unsure
if Jon's benefits would cover the $200 cost of the test. We decided to go ahead with the test
anyway. Knowing exactly what is causing
our beautiful boy pain is more important to us than saving money. We were, however, happy to discover that the
test IS covered! Hooray!! So we will be reimbursed the money through
Jon's workplace benefits. Whew!
Cheating?
As I mentioned last week, we are desperately short on diapers. I decided to jump on the potty training band wagon but things have not gone well. Although I was prepared to train Evalynn at this time, she was not. She has refused to sit on the potty and so we've had many accidents. I've been diligently cleaning up after her, but Jon patience is wearing thin. I even began napping her without a diaper in the effort of diaper-saving. We were down to 5 diapers. Not enough to last through the 18 nights remaining until the end of the month. So we made a decision. I had a gift card to a general store in my purse. It had been given to us when we moved 6 months ago. It still had money on it. We decided that we would spend the money needed to get diapers for Evalynn. Jon bought two packages. Although I'm sad we needed to spend the money, I'm unclear if it was cheating. Yes we did spend money but it was money we'd been given. And I'm sure most of you would agree that diapers are a necessity. If putting gas in the car is not cheating, perhaps putting diapers on our baby is not cheating either. Whether we cheated or not, we did go to the store. And the fact that we didn't spend any more money than we needed to was a win!
Did you do a Spend-Freeze this week?
What are your thoughts on a monthly or weekly Spend-Freeze?
As I mentioned last week, we are desperately short on diapers. I decided to jump on the potty training band wagon but things have not gone well. Although I was prepared to train Evalynn at this time, she was not. She has refused to sit on the potty and so we've had many accidents. I've been diligently cleaning up after her, but Jon patience is wearing thin. I even began napping her without a diaper in the effort of diaper-saving. We were down to 5 diapers. Not enough to last through the 18 nights remaining until the end of the month. So we made a decision. I had a gift card to a general store in my purse. It had been given to us when we moved 6 months ago. It still had money on it. We decided that we would spend the money needed to get diapers for Evalynn. Jon bought two packages. Although I'm sad we needed to spend the money, I'm unclear if it was cheating. Yes we did spend money but it was money we'd been given. And I'm sure most of you would agree that diapers are a necessity. If putting gas in the car is not cheating, perhaps putting diapers on our baby is not cheating either. Whether we cheated or not, we did go to the store. And the fact that we didn't spend any more money than we needed to was a win!
Did you do a Spend-Freeze this week?
What are your thoughts on a monthly or weekly Spend-Freeze?
Happy Thoughts,
Andrea
Please leave any questions/comments below
God bless!
Links
How To Freeze your Spending - Week 1
How To Freeze your Spending - Week 3
How To Freeze your Spending - Final Week
How To Freeze your Spending - Week 1
How To Freeze your Spending - Week 3
How To Freeze your Spending - Final Week
Just curious what you do for breakfast and lunches during your spend freeze. I definitely think buying diapers is not cheating! I have since stopped lining my garbage cans since we use cloth bags a lot more. Or some people recycle theirs so you could ask neighbours or friends for their extras.
ReplyDeleteThank you for garbage bag ideas Megan! For breakfast we eat homemade granola cereal or toast (from homemade bread) with PB. Lunch is often sandwiches or mac and cheese or leftovers. All things I can make from my pantry (plus milk).
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