march money challenge

This month I find myself facing a financial challenge.

I've been keeping our monthly margin at the razor's edge of the emergency cushion, after accounting for regular expenses and saving, because of paying down that pesky and pestilent mortgage!
(OK, deep calming breath).

In January I set aside a nice chunk of change for my final term of nursing school tuition, and it's been patiently waiting for its turn to transfer as I've been feverishly scouring academic databases and writing papers and performance improvement projects. But due to some additional final-term fees, and one additional credit hour, I'm  $500 short of the total (due the first week of April).

So here's my March money challenge:
Cut spending this month enough to make up the $500 difference!
....and still have something left to contribute to the mortgage principal in April (even if just a few dollars).

I'll let you know how it goes.

Anyone else up for a March money challenge? What'll it be?

frugal february report

The numbers aren't in yet on utilities, but I'm feeling good about frugal february...
I'm posting early since I.will.not. purchase any more food or gas until 3/1.
Let's crunch some numbers, shall we?

January Food: $525
February Food: $300 (wait, what?)

January Gasoline: $ 80
February Gasoline: $41

Wow! I call that progress.
If a little suspicious.

And you know where it's all going.
Straight to the mortgage.
Take that, evil interest!

Tell me about any frugal challenges you've set for yourself.

frugal february friday update

Transportation:

• rode bike to work 4/4 days! (Monday was a holiday)
• used car once on weekend to take p'tit minou deux shopping (see angst-y post below)
• Minou used the car three times Saturday to make a two mile round trip to the grocery store. Tsk, tsk, tsk. But it was a deliberate choice; we had friends coming for dinner, he was cooking, he valued his time more at that moment. He stated.
• Back bike light is out; need to find the rechargable batteries. Luckily it's light when I leave work.

Food:

• Spent more this week. Cupboards were bare. Decided against a lentil-based diet (though I like them).
• Bought fancy sandwich spreads at Trader Joe's for livening up simple fare (tapenade, roasted pepper & garlic, etc.). Bought some luxury items: veggie ham, parmesan, a bottle of wine (friends for dinner)
• Starting into the new week with a semi-full fridge, will try to just pinch-hit as needed (fruit, veggies, cheese, milk) until March rather than doing my usual weekly shopping.

Utilities

• It got cold again. I haven't turned up the heat but I am feeling it, especially up in our unheated Attic Addition at the top of the house. We have a mountain of comforters and each other to stay warm.
• Still trying to be careful with the water. No baths. Shorter showers, usually.
• Turning off the printer at night (last one up).

Frugal Fun:

• The Ladies have started laying again! We have had an egg a day since Monday. I tricked encouraged them by placing a decoy in their nest, and the days are getting longer.
• Very nice meal with some good friends. Spaghetti, homemade marinara, sauteed tofu, garlic bread, salad, red wine, and ice cream with homemade fudge sauce. 
• p'tit minou deux now wants to go out for frozen yogurt. He argued earnestly in favor (he is very earnest, that one) of supporting the local family-owned business whose yogurt he enjoys. I think we will have  homemade ice cream sundae night at home instead.
• Minou wants to watch the "new" James Bond movie at the dollar theater this evening, which is actually $2 (maybe even $2.50) per person on Friday evenings. We may rent this from Redbox for a dollar instead.

How about you? What frugal adventures did you have this week?

never be normal

The title of this post is a knockoff of a great one written by Mrs. Money Mustache about how living the frugal life (she would say the Mustachian life) can permanently alter your perception and habits.
She titled her post "You'll never be normal again!"

I took my younger son to the mall yesterday. Why, you ask?
He needed shoes, grey jeans, and long sleeved t-shirts.
Well, he really needed shoes. They do that, those kids, they grow and outgrow things.
The jeans and t-shirts I wouldn't say he really needed.

However, he has decided that grey jeans are the color for him, and so the grey pair now has a giant hole in the knee but he continues to wear them to school. So traditional of me, but it bugs me.
He has blue pairs and black pairs that stay in the closet.
Same with shirts--he has several, but they are either very frayed, too large, or somehow not quite right.

I suggested second-hand shopping--at least twice. But he looked at me earnestly and said, "I've had so many second or third hand clothes in my life, Mama--almost all of my clothes were (p'tit minou un)'s first, and lots of those were someone else's first too."

He is right. And while I know that this is not a bad thing, that wearing hand-me-downs or third-hand clothes does not mean deprivation, I was still swayed--I wanted him to know that he is important to me, that I heard this was important to him, that he meant enough to me that I would swallow my aversion and go to the mall.

And so we did. Yikes. Once we were there, we quickly found jeans, and shoes, and plotted our escape. The smells, the crowds, the lights, the pounding music--it was completely sensory overload for me, and I suspect for p'tit minou deux as well. Because an odd thing happened when we couldn't find any plain, simple, long sleeved t-shirts in either of the two stores we had now been in. Everything had logos, or writing, or branding, and that wasn't what he wanted. Neither did we want to venture any further into that giant place.

He sort of forgot why we had come, and began saying that he didn't really need any more t-shirts (forgetting the weeks of rejecting the ones he has for above reasons or size or conditions). Meanwhile, I went into bossy generalista Mama mode and became very directive, demanding of the young skateboarder/hipster clerk WHY they didn't have PLAIN CHEAP t-shirts and WHERE could someone who HATED the mall find such a thing. Because I was darned if I was going to come back another day after p'tit minou deux remembered that actually he really wanted a t-shirt or two.

Target, the young man told me. Go to Target.
It was in a different mall.
So heck, we were already out and about (driving, I might add)--we drove there too.

I am happy that my son is happy. I want him to have non-ripped and non-frayed clothes to wear to school. I get that he has had almost exclusively hand-me-downs (except for the times his lovely Grammy has taken him shopping), and appreciated having something new for himself. He has the right to have his own opinions about the colors and styles he prefers, and he is usually a very easygoing member of the family who tends not to assert his own wants and needs too strongly (maybe not strongly enough, at times).

However, I feel downright icky. We drove our car at least 15 miles round trip, polluting the air. We bought clothing that was cheap for us because it was likely manufactured by someone in a sweatshop in Nicaragua or Bangladesh. Clothing that he did not really need (except for the shoes). Money spent that is also now not going to melt the mortgage this month.

Did I do the right thing? Am I making too big a deal out of this?

What do you think? Have you had similar dilemmas?

frugal friday update

It's the Frugal Friday update--on Saturday!

transportation:

• rode bike to work 5/5 days (new benefit: chatted with nice bike commuter coworker en route)
• filled up gas tank for 1st time this month (we are using less with my commutes out of equation)
• used the car only once last weekend, to pick up p'tit minou un from far-away friend's house

groceries:

• food spending for us four this month so far is around $250--more than I hoped, but pretty good.
• on the downside, because I have been busy with schoolwork, I haven't been planning/cooking much and meals have been rather plain. Need to work on that this week.

utilities:

• thermostats at 64 and staying that way. Ignoring complaints and bundling up. 
• taking "military showers": get in, water off, soap/shampoo up, water on, rinse, out.
• turning off lights and "vampire lights": printer, power strips, laptop.

frugal fun:

• found a gift card I received for my 40th birthday (a while ago) and went out to lunch with Minou during the work week at a fancy delicatessen, twice! (had delicious & interesting sandwiches)
•  had Friday Family Movie Night (third week in a row). Borrowed the third Matrix movie from the library. Had frugal snacks (Valentines chocolate from a neighbor, snack mix and soda courtesy of p'tit minou un's generosity, and rum and coke for Mama Minou courtesy of winning the liquor at a holiday White Elephant party).
• borrowed "The City of Ember" from the library per coworker's recommendation. Read it, loved it. Passed it to Minou who read it, loved it (he cried at the end--we are sappy that way). P'tit minou deux also read it and liked it. P'tit minou un read it years ago. Then we watched the movie.

How about you--any frugal fun this week?

lights & leftovers

I have become that mother.
The one who follows everyone around turning off the lights, or is constantly calling up the stairs "Are you coming back down to the bathroom? Because you left the light on!" (mentally: Again!)
Or, "Did you remember to turn off your power strip? You think so? Let's just pop in and check."
And, "It's so nice and bright in here. I can see why you like it. But do you really need two lights just for doing your Algebra II homework? Hmm? I didn't think so!" (click)

Delightful.
And even better: the mother who finishes the food on her children's plates that they did not deign to consume.
(Let's hope p'tit minou un never reads this post, for he would faint with embarrassment).
This is actually a rather common practice among mothers of preschoolers, at least it was among those that we spent time with back in the day. Maybe a little less so among mamas of teens.

However, I hate, hate, hate with a passion wasting food, and I have nothing against leftovers on principle. So if one of my boys happens to declare something inedible, or himself too full to touch it, I am prone to scooping it into tupperware and taking the leftovers for lunch the next day.
There. I said it.

Does that send me over the edge from frugal to cheap?
Am I taking things too far? Or just being reasonable?

No dumpster diving yet.
Just kidding, honestly.

thermostat update

I did it--I reset the home thermostats to 65. All of them. No cheating!
I am taking advantage of a novel concept called "layered clothing" for comfort (see humorous post by Mr. Money Mustache, and especially read down for the truly inspiring story of Alaskan bike commuter Sister X).

Today, that means legwarmers under my jeans, two pairs of socks, a wool scarf, and a wool sweater.
I am nicely toasty.
I police the boys' rooms a little bit, nudging their thermostats back down as they nudge upwards.
I drink hot tea, in addition (haven't caved and bought coffee yet).

It's also warmed up significantly since our January cold snap.
Which was nothing compared to what the East Coast is enduring right now.

I hope our water & electric bill will be back under $100 this month.

How much do you heat your home?
And how do you stay comfortable?

clothes shopping

Yikes! After all this talk abut frugal living, I went clothes shopping.
A good friend who loves to thrift shop invited me to meet her at a 50% off sale at a very nice, slightly upscale second-hand clothing store. I went intending to spend no more than $10 and hoping to find a pair of dark jeans that are presentable enough to wear to work on Fridays.

I had recently noticed that my favorite black pair of work pants, a uniform if you will, was showing serious signs of wear (not surprising given being worn at least three times weekly for the last four years, and purchased second hand! Those were amazing pants. No ironing required.) The hem was fraying, the inseam was ripping, and they were starting to look a little faded. Boo. I also noticed that my beloved black Dansko clogs were cracking and the heels were getting very worn. Again, these have been my daily shoes since fall of 2008. The cracks started while wearing them biking in the rain--not a good idea with leather shoes. The dress code (unofficial) where I work is quite casual, but looking professional is still appreciated, and I knew it was time to retire the clogs and black pants soon. I was thinking, though, that I would try to last until spring--just a few more months.

Long story short, I had no luck with jeans (always challenging for Pears with Curves), but did find two other pairs of pants, an REI grey casual one and a well-fitting replacement black pair, new with the tag on. The total for the two after the discount was $18. I also found a new-but-gently-used pair of Danskos with a little heel--a narrower, dressier, look and more height than I am accustomed to, but just my size, very comfortable and a good price at $16 on sale (they would be over $100 new). I was hesitating, but bought them after I noticed that my tan socks were visible through the cracks in my black everyday shoes! (I usually wear black socks, so I hadn't noticed. My friend's husband later asked, "Didn't you try duct tape on the inside? That's what I would have done.")

What do you think--was this a good investment in my professional wardrobe?
Or should I have gone for the duct tape and waited until spring?

frugal february

Hi there.
We are starting a new month. This means it's a good time for a new challenge.
I think I have already mentioned my determination to melt down my mortgage.
Each month I want to put all the extra pennies I can towards it.
Pennies won't go too far, but dollars will. Even a few here and there.

The biggest spending categories that we can easily control and cut are groceries and gas.
Utilities too, actually. Our water & electric bill has jumped almost 20% to $120 since the Attic Addition
(more space to heat) and with the month-long cold snap we endured here in the normally mild PNW.

So...a challenge!
First up: take on the gas bill. Yikes! A good month for us is around $100.
I can't control the chauffering that happens when I am off at work, but I can change how I get to work.
Goals:

1. Ride my bike to work four out of five days a week.
2. Make any weekend trips under three miles by bike or on foot.
3. Try to do grocery shopping once using the Burley bike trailer!

Second: take on the grocery bill.

This is challenging, since I already feel like I'm fairly frugal here, and we have a picky eater on board.

Goals:

1. Grocery shop once a week at a larger discount store, and only buy milk/fruit/veggies in between
2. Try a cash budget and stay under $500 monthly for the four of us
3. Do not stray from the list at the grocery store (avoid those impulse purchases)

Third: take on the utility bill

Oh, the dreaded Being Cold. I wear a wool sweater, wool socks, wool scarf, and hat at home. I really dislike being cold. I am often the guilty party nudging up the thermostat. Our heating bill has nudged up accordingly.

Goals:

• Keep downstairs thermostat at a consistent 68 degrees (I know that's high, but it's lower than now)
• Keep upstairs thermostats at a consistent 65 degrees
• (according to Architect Minou, consistent is more energy efficient than raising and lowering)
• Take On-Off Showers and no hot baths.
• Get KGallons of water at or under 5. (that's a crazy lot of water, folks).

Anything I can save I will throw at the mortgage. I'll let you know how it goes.

Anybody else up for a frugal february challenge of your own?
What will it be, and what will you do with the money you save?

mortgage madness

Oh, I am going all kinds of crazy with my mortgage.
This type of situation is when I'm not sure if my somewhat obsessive nature is a blessing or a curse.
Yes, it's important to let go of things, take them slowly, step by step.
But it's also so exciting to see progress!

I sent off my monthly payment with some extra principal this month, and the bank mistakenly applied the whole thing to principal. I could have called to fix it, but since I'm already paid a month ahead, I don't really need to. And it's so wonderful to see the drop in principal! In just one payment, I wiped out what would have been almost a year's worth of principal making regular payments (because so much goes to interest).

Now it makes me want to put more, more, more toward principal. My ostensible and reasonably ambitious goal is to be mortgage-free by age 50. What I really want is to be mortgage-free much sooner.
However, I don't have more money to put toward the mortgage right now.

Do I get a second job? (after completing this BS degree of course).
Or maybe ditch the car?

mortgage meltdown

I do not like the feeling of being in debt.

I feel so lucky to have exited my (many) years of college without student loan debt, thanks to a combination of family assistance, working while studying, and frugal living/planning. I have my final term's nursing school tuition waiting in the bank, unfortunately in a low-yield savings account.

We also thankfully do not have auto loan debt, another common type in the U.S., this time due to Minou's foresight. At the time, my understanding of how much more you pay over the life of a loan due to interest was limited, and it made me nervous to nearly empty our savings to pay off that debt. But I am grateful now, both for the money saved and the introduction to the concept. That was back in 2005, when I first checked out from the library and read "Personal Finance for Dummies".

Eye-opening! And initially, anxiety-inspiring. For a number of reasons, I grew up without much practical knowledge of personal finance, and even into my late 20s preferred to let Minou take the lead in that arena. I have since seen the light, and we are now equal partners in our family budget and planning (I think I enjoy playing around with the numbers more than he does).

Our house and urban farmette  are not yet our own, and this is driving me crazy.
I know I need to let it go, since it won't be entirely our own for quite a while.
I also know that there's a lot of debate out there about whether it makes good financial sense to pay down your mortgage early. In this case, if only for the strong emotional reason of being so debt-averse, I think it does. So, I have decided to prioritize it. I'm calling my campaign "The Mortgage Meltdown".

I made a very basic, low-tech tool for our refrigerator door. I took a piece of graph paper and blocked out the number of squares we still owe on the mortgage, with each square representing $100. Each time we pay off another $100 from the total owed, I color it in.

Initially it was somewhat discouraging. There are a lot of squares. Since only a third of the monthly payment goes toward the principal, they are not getting colored in very quickly. However, by adding more toward the principal each month, it speeds the process. I am updating my system now. P'tit minou deux suggested making an even bigger graph, where each square represents $10. I think this was a good idea, even though it initially seemed like so much farther to go. It's easy to spend $10, thinking "Oh, it's just $10,".... a bakery trip, a cheap movie jaunt, library fines (oops).

But each $10 put toward the mortgage principal helps melt it away, even if slowly. It's a visual representation of progress. And it helps cultivate the habit of planning, saving, and strategizing, one little square at a time.

How about you? Do you have a mortgage or other debts, and if so, are you trying to pay them down?

weekly meal plan

I have saved quite a bit of money since I started planning meals and doing a focused shopping once a week.
Plus, meals tend to be a little more interesting, since there is time to think ahead to when in the week I will have time for cooking, prepping, and baking after-school snacks.

We had fallen into the lazy habits of many parents around the world, catering to speed and the bottom line in meal planning. Many, many years of meals such as plain pasta, raw carrots or bell peppers, a glass of milk, and an omelette or handful of nuts (all the males in my family are vegetarian--I am not). So, so, so boring.

One of my boys is a very picky eater. Very picky. As in, plain foods not touching kind of picky. Luckily for his health, he loves tofu, nuts, and fruit and will eat many types of raw vegetables, including (when pressured) salad. The other boy used to be a fairly picky eater, but has developed a more sophisticated palate in the last few years and also dislikes too much repetition. These boring meals were driving him (as well as Minou and I) crazy.

So....I have added a few more dishes into our regular rotation. These include:

• bean and cheese enchiladas or enchilada casserole
• vegetarian curry with tofu, carrots, and potatoes (YUM)
• lentils cooked with sauteed onion and garlic
• pureed vegetable soup with whatever I can throw into it for the adults (my boys will not eat soup), usually carrots, potatoes, turnips, leeks, tomato sauce, & leafy greens like chard or kale
• basque skillet beans, made with spinach and tomatoes
• orzo pasta with sauteed vegetables and parmesan

I try to always add a salad or sliced raw veggies, plus a vegetable soup, to the main dish for our evening meal.

I buy fruit, milk, yogurt, and vegetables during the weekend shopping trip, and then pick more up as needed during the week (or ask Minou to do so).

We mostly eat rolled oats for breakfast, sometimes with brown sugar and raisins added, so I make sure that we have those on hand plus brown rice, peanut butter, whole wheat sandwich bread, jam, and whole grain pasta. 

I bake muffins for after-school snacks, and add as many fruits and nuts as I can (plus a few extra eggs) for nutrition.

I think this system has helped me be more organized and avoid the dreaded "What in the world can we have for dinner?" or frustrating last-minute 5:30 pm grocery shopping trips (or plain pasta for dinner). I can also try to plan meals around what we already have in the cupboard, just looking at what needs to be added to make a dish, which lets us spend out and save money. My goal is to keep our monthly food budget under $450, which is a challenge with hungry teenage boys in the house.

This morning I made: vegetable soup, vegetarian lasagna, and walnut-chocolate-chip muffins.

Do you pick things up day to day, or do a big weekly (or even monthly) shopping trip?

saving

I am constantly thinking about ways to live frugally. It's pretty a pretty ingrained habit by now.

Here are some things I did this week to celebrate frugality:

• am holding off to the weekend for a big(ger) planned grocery trip, cooking with what's in the bare cupboards and ignoring my cravings for popcorn and chocolate
• am thinking about what I can prepare with what we have for an office birthday potluck
• did not go out to lunch with colleagues (I also had homework to do)
• drank office coffee (instead of using up a lovely coffee card that I was gifted)
• rode my bike to work four days out of five
• waited four days to wash my hair (French people wait a full week!)
• turned a shrunken merino wool sweater into the warmest circle scarf ever
• drank warm water instead of faux cafe (Pero or Inka, a non-caffeinated favorite) after dinner
• put holds on five movies at the library (one has 47 other holds) and did not go to Redbox
• had pineapple upside-down cake made by Minou instead of taking Mamie out for ice cream
• ate beans or lentils I soaked & cooked myself for dinner or lunch five times this week

Because I did those things, I went ahead and 

• turned the thermostat up to 71 (because it's coooooold)
• took a hot bath (it has been quite the week, and it's a semi-monthly treat).

Are you frugally minded? What is one thing you did this week to save?

intentions

Intentions. They are the guide, the pointer.
Imagine a child preparing to take a turn at the pinata at a birthday party.
Blindfolded, she is spun around and around, and then sets out with her stick in the direction she thinks the pinata hangs, swinging wildly. Sometimes she is heading in the opposite direction.

When we take off our blindfolds and point ourselves in the direction we want to go, we make progress.
We may not break the pinata and be showered with candy, but we are getting closer to it.
(I'm not sure this metaphor is working, but you get the idea).

I have so many intentions in so many directions.
Sometimes I feel like I'm spinning in circles because I'm not sure which way to head first.

I find myself thinking and worrying about finances quite a bit. It's not a bad thing, but it can become a mental groove that I am stuck in. This is really not where I want my life's energy and intentions to be focused. Security for my family and myself  is important, but fretting is not productive and is a limitation. Our time here is limited. I'm middle aged--yikes! Where do my intentions really lie?

Growth. Spirituality. Relationships. Creativity.

Last night, I sat down for my nightly Sitting and could not turn off my monkey mind. What was worse was that I didn't really want to. It was much easier and more comfortable to go around and around the questions of the mortgage and retirement savings and how to pay for college than it was to focus on Love and Kindness.

I want to set concrete goals and take steps toward them in the areas of my life, such as finances, that I tend to worry about--to put them on auto-pilot. Instead of worrying each month how much extra I can put toward the mortgage, I can make a lump-sum payment now, and stop thinking about it. Instead of fretting about the ever-increasing food bill, I can plan meals and use the envelope system. That way, I am working on goals and making progress, even if incremental, and can let go of the fretting.

Then I can  focus my life energy on the core values.

tunnel vision

I've been on this frugal living/minimizing lifestyle path for a while now.
It's been long enough that I sometimes forget that not everyone around me thinks this way.

A co-worker was recently talking about budgeting concerns and questions. I had trouble remembering the first steps I took on this path. To talk about where I'm at now might sound restrictive and a little crazy.

That I enjoy tracking my budget with Quicken to the dollar (in most areas of my life, I am not this obsessive, really!). That going out to coffee is a luxury that happens maybe twice a year. Let's take a walk instead! That I will delay watching movies until I can get them from the public library, to save that Redbox dollar. That not buying furniture or linens or new clothes (I do make a clothes exception for my family, particularly the older teen) is a way of life. That I pass by the dark beer and red wine, both of which I love (in moderation of course), at the grocery store. I haven't had my hair cut in a salon since I was 17 (I do it myself) and I cut my husband and boys' hair too.

I would have shuddered and run at a vision of this lifestyle when I was younger. But I really appreciate the awareness now of the difference between needs and wants. I love small luxuries, and I really enjoy them when I indulge in them now, since they are less frequent--like good chocolate, a glass of wine, a mocha out. I also feel so much better to know that I can live on less, and save.

It sounds restrictive, but it actually brings me a greater sense of peace and freedom. But where to start? How to explain? Luckily, another coworker had some great suggestions for my friend: Keep track of everything you spend for two weeks. Write it all down. Write down your monthly bills, when they are due, and when your paycheck comes in, so that you don't overdraw. Such good advice! And I realized how far I have come (still have a long ways to go), personal finance-ways.

Living paycheck to paycheck is not something I think about. I'm extremely fortunate because I have a relatively stable, above minimum-wage job. I don't have to make the monthly choices of: buy gas for the car, or food? Pay for medication, or pay the electric bill? But there are surely people in my position who do worry about running out of money at the end of the month. Instead, I would rather see what I can live without, and make it a game to see how little I can spend on groceries (and still eat and feed my family  tasty, healthy food) each month. It's kind of fun.

Is that strange?

Great Glasses!

OK, let's have a vote!

I need a new pair of glasses (my old one has been repaired more times than I can count)
and...I have $300 of insurance left that are earmarked just for that. How lucky am I?!

More lucky than lucky, except that I find glasses shopping to be quite stressful.

First, I'm utterly blind as a bat without my current pair of glasses, so to try and get an impression how a new pair looks, I must place my face 6 inches from the mirror and squint my eyes fiercely.
Let's hope that distorts my usual affect just a little bit.

Second, I find it hard to be objective about my appearance, usually estimating glasses to be either much more or much less flattering than outside opinions corroborate.

And my family has limited patience for weighing in as I try on pairs in different poses. (My local wonderful glasses store allows clients to check out up to 4 pairs of glasses for up to 3 days before deciding). How about like this? From this angle? Pair A or Pair B? Mama, who cares?! (Husbands/sweeties know better than to express their opinions on such matters too forcefully, so Minou comments with caution).

Therefore I am relying on you, my readers! Because I know you will tell it like it is.
Right? Please leave me a comment and let me know which pair you prefer and why.
As a reward you will have my gratitude forever and one less nurse in unflattering glasses walking around.

Here are the choices.

Option A:

Option B:

Option C:

Option D:

I do realize that they are mostly similar. But slightly different--honest!
P'tit Minou Un took the pictures, and I was trying to look serious.

Please weigh in--I need some help!

budget blues

I've been using Quicken for quite a while to keep track of our monthly spending.
Ever since I took over the household accounting about two years ago, in fact.
It's a task I enjoy in a slightly hyperfocused kind of way.

I frequently tinker with the amount I set aside for various things, trying to constantly lower our monthly expenses and increase my rate of savings into various "pots"--tuition fees (9 more months!), Roth IRA retirement, 403 (b) retirement, and the wishful "home projects" (we now have plans for the attic addition, but not yet the funds).

Each month I "hide" or set aside money from various categories and release it as spent, so that when I look at what's left to spend what I see is the grocery money. I'm frustrated to see that we went $453 over budget this month, and at a loss how to explain it. I can see that we had some unusual expenses, including a building permit (the attic), home repair (paint and shelving), auto registration, and September school fees. However, each of those things was pre-budgeted for and I removed the money from the appropriate "pots" as needed (every month I set aside money for auto, pets, school fees, health insurance, etc etc, etc).

So where did I go wrong this month? I can see that we have way, way overspent on gas (sigh). We budget $55 and have already spent $112. We also had some health expenses (Minou's glasses and eye appointment), but again, I was reimbursed from a flex spending account, pre-tax, through work. I think that I probably didn't have enough pre-budgeted for some categories like school fees. We had some back-to-school shopping ($50) and some skin-care product shopping ($21), stamps ($10), movie rentals ($10). But those items don't add up to $453. What happened?!

I'm seeking some balance. I want to know how much we have and stick to a budget. I want to save, save, save to meet our many goals. But if the budget isn't realistic, it also won't work.

frugal friday

My frugalicious act this week was...getting back on my bike.
This was made so much easier by the beautiful spring weather and the new puncture-resistant tires Minou had put on my bike last week (spendy, but we budget $30 for "bike stuff" monthly).
With gas at $4.20 a gallon, I calculate that it costs almost 10 cents a mile to drive or be driven these days. I have a 13 mile round trip commute to one of my health center sites and 15 miles to the other, adding up to a weekly total of 58 miles...or $5.80. It may not sound like much, but with $5.80 I could rent 4 Redbox movies for the family, or almost buy a bottle of wine or pound of good coffee for Minou and myself, or put a tiny drop in the bucket of our mortgage (controversial among frugal folk, I know). If you drive less, you might be able to lower your car insurance rates as well--we did this last year.
Those are just the economic benefits! There's so much more. Health benefits, environmental benefits, and it feels great to have the wind in your hair...(with helmet of course)...

*Late realization: When Minou is transporting me to work and back (so he can use our shared family car), he actually does the trip twice--so double those numbers above, $12 a week or $48 a month.

Frugal Friday

This week's frugal act was...cooking at home. This does not really represent a change for us, since meals out are a rare and special treat, but I took full advantage of my mid-week day off to prepare food for the family. This is potentially money-saving because with the backbone of meals planned for, we're less likely to make those quick trips to the store for something for dinner and end up with six other purchases.

On Tuesday I made: Vanilla Walnut muffins (with lots of fresh eggs from the Ladies) for after-school high-protein treats, a big kettle of Potato Leek & Kale soup for Minou and I--savory and delicious, and two vegetarian (using veggie ham) Quiche Lorraines, again with our own eggs. I do not have the best success with pie crust (anyone have a good whole wheat recipe?), so the quiche was received with mixed reviews by some, but appreciated by most. I also made sure we have weekly staples on hand--milk, fruit, salad, veggies. This way we can get creative with other supplies in the cupboards without being tempted to resort to more expensive veggie burgers or tofu dogs, our convenience foods.

How about your frugal acts of the week? Please share!

winnowing wednesday

to winnow: [transitive] a) to remove, to get rid of  b) to sift or separate c) to blow on to remove the wheat from the chaff

Sifting and separating for the week: 7 items for 7 days.

1) passed down to me--still haven't read--will borrow from library
2) decorative, but in 3 months we have not drawn still-lifes, and missing the lid
3) useful but have other, more solid bags
4) 1993 was the year I studied in Beijing and used this
5) not sure where this came from...I did used to make quilts
6) passed down to me--watched once--will go to next year's White Elephant gift exchange
7) doesn't fit!