What Frugal Thing .....- Part II

[PennyDime]

Spent $36 on babysitter. That's it.

[PennyDime]

Took visiting guests to dinner. They were very generous during their stay.
$86.00

[marvholly]

Figure I did pretty good in Dec. Had 15 no drive days & 18 no spend days. goal is similar for Jan but may need adjusting since I am determined to start doing some volunteer work. will be checking w/my town & township to see what is needed. Don't want to be running up expenses of driving too much further.

[marvholly]

First 7 days Jan report:

4 no drive days
5 no spend days

That will end BIG time this week as I have dinner plans w/a friend that will take me WAAY over entertainment budget (my turn to buy) and add an extra drive day.

[Momma23]

Stayed home yesterday so a no spend day.

Grouped my errands today to save on gas. Bought a pillow pet for a little girls bday party this weekend. It was on sale for $7.50 and I had a $2.00 coupon. Purchased a bday card at Dollar General as they are only $1.00. Also got good and natural bars free with a coup[on. I think they are nasty, but DH will eat them.

[PennyDime]

Costco got me today. But I used lots of coupons and only got true necessities. Plan on spending nothing in the next coming days and hopefully weekend. We have guests staying for 3 weeks so I'm rather nervous about spending. I know I tend to over spend when they come to town.

[marvholly]

I almost always group my shopping. The majority of places I go are on my route to see my Dad 2x/week. I also bought cards for the next 2 bdays coming up. Got them at Dollar Tree for $1/2 cards. Also got a pkg of smoked sausage (3 meals worth) for $1 to go w/the pierogi in my freezzer and a 2nd silicone spatulat I have been wanting.

[ccole]

I tend to spend a LOT of money at the grocery store (I love good foods), but went in with a $20 bill and agreed I wouldn't spend more than that. I got all my yogurts, milk, veggies and fruit for the week for just under $14.

[PennyDime]

That's awesome CC! Such a good idea to use cash.
Today did not spend a penny nor a dime. Hence my screen name lol

[marvholly]

At 15 days into the month (approx 1/2 way) I have done 9 no drive and 9 nospend days.

[marvholly]

Three week (21 days) report:
12 no drive days
14 no spend days

It has helped that I have been sick/under the weather for about a week. it has also helped that it is miserably cold here on Mon and will be again today. Who wants/needs to go out if you are retired and the high temp of the day is single digit.

[Momma23]

Price matched and used coupons saving 40% on groceries.

Making pinto beans and sausage. We have had the pinto beans forever and got the sausage on sale. Soaked the beans overnight and will start them in the slow cooker shortly.

Took several returns back to the store today and got gas while in town.

Ordered daughter's prom dress and found a promo code saving 30%

[marvholly]

Had a good Jan., esp since my Dad was hospitalized mid month so a LOT of trips to see him & follow up on his care.

had 15 no drive days as planned
Had 19 no spend days, more than planned
Drove 287 miles which was OVER planned 260 but w/extra distance & visits to hospital was VERY good.

today I MUST drive quite a bit to close 2 mature CDs. If they roll the rate (12 & 18 mon) is o.25. My money market is paying 0.90. That is where I will 'park' the $$ until I find something better.

[PennyDime]

$3.75 on milk. That's all today

[theduc]

We completely cut out restaurants and dining out from our budget this month as part of creating our new budget for February to drastically reduce spending! We're currently on track to save over $1,900 this month! To date we've already spent $770 less than we did for the same time frame in January (although some NYE celebrations were part of January spending). Our average spending has been $5,600/month (from Sept. to Dec. of last year when we started keeping track of our spending). We got our spending down to $4,900 in January and are on schedule to have it down to under $3,800 this month. The current plan reduced our grocery budget by over $200/month and our dining out/entertainment budget by over $450/month (yes, we went out a LOT)!

March's new budget will include an additional $1,000 in principal on our mortgage with hopes of adding at least $700/month to principal after that!