Blog: Household Economy: Day by Day

A journal of our family's daily attempt to live mindfully and lightly on the earth. We strive to live beneath our means as a manifestation of our commitment to a less materialistic, more authentic lifestyle.


Happy New Year
Monday, January 15, 2007

Good day.

We are enjoying ? unusually warm weather here in northeast Ohio this winter.  I prefer snow personally.  Anyway, work has been good in that I am getting all the hours I want as a visiting nurse, plus working some at the nursing home.  Bad news is that  Jeff and I have had some kind of flu- him last week and me this week-so we haven't gotten on our new year's fitness and financial resolutions as we planned.  Plus I am missing available work hours.  Fortunately Jeff has a civil service job with plenty of sick leave.  What of the families who do not have such a cushion?  Illness, even a run of the mill flu, can be devastating to hourly and other non-salaried workers and their dependents.

We are grateful for our  relative security, and we will be managing our finances better this year.  I plan to suggest some changes we can make that will add to our savings and decrease our spending. We just need to feel better and sit down and do it.

I kept a complete list of holiday spending for this year so we know what we spend and how much to  put in our -NEW yet old IDEA Christmas Club account for next year.   We were surprised at how much the total was, because we even used a lot of free gift cards from Discoverbucks.  Dang. 

 

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Score!
Monday, November 13, 2006

We amateur cooks (and I am an amateur) are following the Joy of Cooking new edition buzz.  Seems like the 2006 version is getting pretty good reviews, but is generally held to be slightly inferior to the 1975 version, which I have had forever.  I was thinking of getting dd a copy of Joy circa 1975 for Christmas off Amazon or EBay used, but what did I see in the "Free" pile at the library??  A 1975 Joy !!!  In fairly nice shape too.

Happy happy joy joy!  I love the library.

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Two months later
Friday, November 10, 2006

Well, it has been two months since my last blog entry.  I have been pretty busy with my new jobs, but lately work has slowed down (good for time, bad for money). We have been on the usual frugal track, with varying degrees of success.  Here are some updates:

1. Still trying to walk uptown to stores and bank, but not doing so as much as in the summer.  Mostly a time issue now, but gas has gotten a little cheaper. Did hike up to vote the other day, then to the store with my backpack. There are so many cheapskates in my hometown that nobody gives a second look to me with my backpack or collapsible shopping cart in the middle of a modern city grocery store.  I love this town.

2. All of my paychecks direct deposited in savings.  We are still able to live on Jeff's salary alone, which is good.  I need to get more work days in, but we have been traveling and doing other stuff on weekends so I do not want to tie up my time. The eternal dilemma: time -v-money.

3. Unexpected expenses have been horrendous. Hugely expensive car repairs to both cars, especially my ancient Accord, have really taxed our budget. We have had to dip into savings to pay off the repairs, which we charged on our Discovercard.  On the up side- we got lots of Discover bonus bucks which we have cashed in for gift cards for Christmas gifts.  We have a good start on holiday shopping that way.  And we never carry a balance on any of our three credit cards.

4. Found cheap spices for holiday baking at World Market store. Got ground cloves, for example, for $1.99 rather than $5.49 which they wanted in the grocery stores and which I refused to pay.

5. Getting DVDs from the library for free.  Did have to buy a new DVD player/VCR.  We use the library constantly, as we are both avid readers. I have a long list of books on order from the library- I can't imagine people buying them to read once.  The library has every new and old book imaginable.

6. Spending too much at Super Walmart when we go down and visit daughter at OU.  Will attempt to slow down on Walmart sprees.  Have lately started shopping there for ourselves too much. Time for the Walmart diet (again). It does show up in our bottom line when we abstain from going there.

7. $500 dental bill for me today for toothache out of nowhere. Plus more dental work is needed. Joy.

8. Going to Miami in two weeks to accompany daughter to a wedding (she is afraid to fly and so am I) and have a rare vacation for ourselves.Three round trip airline tickets and three nights in a nice hotel in Coral Gables for $1000 on Priceline.  I think I need to change the name of this blog to Household Profligacy!

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Update- first half September
Monday, September 11, 2006

Frugal victories:

Dragged laundry downstate to do at daughter's to avoid cost of our coin op laundry facility

Walked to physical for new job

Continuing to pack lunches for work for both of us

Sent in rebate for pens

Got clothing together to take to consignment shop next week

Walked to grocery store: spent $5.43, logged 7K steps

Avoided paying for dryer by drying  entire load of clothes on our clothesline (hung unobtrusively on our balcony since no yard with our condo)

Curb shopped two nice oriental style rugs- 8 x 10 and 10' runner- dad is cleaning them up.  We can't use them but someone in the family can

Returned gift of body wash in stinky scent to Bath and Body works- exchanged for on sale sunscreen.  Was told by a fellow Freecylcer that BBWorks will exchange any of their products for something else if for some reason you do not like it, which is apparently true.  We had this body wash for some time, used once

Joined FusionCash site online and have $15 coming  so far.  Just wanted to try one of these online trial offer payment things   

Freecycled really nice tomato cages for next year's garden.  Had to drive to pick them up, but gas is down a little here ($2.23/gal)

Started both new jobs last week. Will be working all this week but at least I won't be running around spending money.                                  

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So much for that
Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Quote from Debbie  " Hey- it's your birthday money- go ahead!".  Thanks Deb.  Well, official spending total for the day is $24.35.  Started out OK- lunch $2.95 at Taco Bell.  Then to Marc's (deep discount), where I put together what I think is a great birthday present for a four year old girl:  for $9 I got a big Care Bear drawing tablet, Crayola crayons, two sets of watercolor paints (brights and glitter), a neon ruler, a pack of construction paper, cute scissors and matching glue stick, a little green purse, kitten pen set, nice kiddie sunglasses and three little girl type flavored lip glosses.  I like presents that are made up of a lot of cool little things.  Debbie helped a lot in putting this together.

Got a few  other misc. fun things at Marcs, including cute notebook for MIL for 50 cents.  Resisted A LOT of stuff that I liked for gifts but did not need to get today.  Total at Marc's $16.92

Went to craft store Pat Catan because Deb had to check out something.  Ended up spending $4.48 on totally unnecessary totally cute Harvest door hanger thingy and a bag of tiny fake gourds for my tiny basket. 

Well, $10 was a bit unrealistic.  And I have not been driving around at all for the past week, and only drove to meet Debbie (she drove to stores because I have no a/c and it was hot today) and home. I have confirmed that the way to save money on gratuitous purchases is to stay home and out of places where these things are for sale. Which I  will continue to do.

To the good side, I was notified that I got the job I interviewed for last Friday.  Starts Monday 9-11. So that's one day I won't be driving around getting in trouble with "Hey, it's your birthday money" Debbie. 

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Runnin around with Debbie
Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Tuesday August 22 : Today I am meeting my bestest friend Debbie uptown for lunch and hangin out. She goes to art lessons at a studio in the Falls, which is halfway between our respective homes.  Closer to me actually.  I have errands up there, so I will drive up and meet her.  We usually have lunch, catch up, hit some discount stores or whatever is on her city agenda (she lives farther from the retail centers).  Past days usually include Sam's, JoAnn's, Archivers, Marcs discount, etc.

SInce I am really being mindful of the money this month, I am going to do some thinking ahead here.  I am scrounging up cash around here for lunch (think I still have some birthday money stashed), and to allocate a small amount for any unexpected bargains.  Here's my spending goal: $10.  I do need to get a birthday present for Jeff's four year old niece, so I might go over a bit, but I am trying not to.  Debbie will  be a real help today- she knows how to stretch the dollar, but she does spend on what she needs.

Am dropping off some unneeded nursing school texts for a friend's daughter who is starting the same program I just finished.  She lives right up by where I am meeting Debbie, so that's a consolidated trip.Did not drive at all yesterday, so that's to the good.

Will report back on how much I did- and did not- spend.

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Grocery update
Sunday, August 20, 2006

Sunday 8-20 : Final total for weekly grocery shopping- $68.78.  That includes $8.49 spent at the local veggie market before we hit the supermarket.  I consider this a victory.

Before we left for shopping we went through our recipes (we have our respective files, since I am a vegetarian, he is omnivorous and a mite selective), and got a general idea of what we wanted to cook up for the week.  We had some ingredients in common (a piece of ginger root for 24 cents), he bought ground beef  and lunchmeat.  We also got a half gallon of ice cream from his mom (two for one special on ice cream last week) and picked up some chicken we had stashed in her freezer since our freezer is just a small one atop the fridge. 

We always knew that actually having half a plan before shopping is a good idea, but this is the first time we were able to put it into action. Tonight I will make a batch of my Indian spiced eggplant (my 99 cent eggplant from Thursday's trip to the farm market downtown), a batch of brown rice we can nibble from all week, some pudding to use up the gallon of milk we got on sale (I froze a quart to see if it can be done), and some blueberry muffins to use up frozen berries I bought on sale a month ago for cheap. We will continue to actually look and see  what we have in the cupboard and fridge/freezer that we can use.

Also returned an item to Walmart for a refund of $7.40.

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This week's efforts
Saturday, August 19, 2006

Here is a listing of actions we have taken- or not taken- to reduce household expenditures this week:

Monday 8-14 : Returned outfit I bought last week. Saved $56

Tuesday 8-15 : Walked to grocery store (4 miles round trip). Only bought what I could fit in my shopping cart- $26. Contacted STRS to withdraw small teacher's pension amount to add to existing IRA.

Wednesday 8-16 : Joined Akron Cheapcycle- website to sell items locally.  Posted dorm sheet set- no response yet.

Thursday 8-17 : Drove downtown (about 6 miles round trip) to farm market.  Only spent $2, got just what we needed and could use in a day or two.  Enjoyed beautiful stands with local produce, bread, etc. Went to library while in town, got free DVDs to watch this week.This evening walked to grocery store (with Jeff !), stuck to our list, spend only $7.75.

Friday 8-18 : Had job interview (successful I think) in AM. Drove 1 mile there and back, but no further driving today (had headache so was not tempted to run around anyway). Jeff took his lunch to work, saving the cash he usually spends on eating out on Fridays.

Saturday 8-19 : Jeff and I tried to consolidate our uptown errands to do in one trip today.  Our itinerary:  drop items at Goodwill, start laundry at his Mom's (we have to use coin-op facility at our condo complex, so it really helps to do laundry at his mom's or my parents'), drop books at library out that way, back to his mom's where Jeff put up his mom's cuckoo clock while we waited for laundry to be done. Took a load home to air dry rather than use electric dryer.  His mom kindly gave us  lunch, and we made dinner at home, thus spending $0 on food, which is rather unusual for a Saturday.  Instead of buying a new feather toy for our new cat who destroyed his old one, we borrowed back some cat toys we had shared with Jeff's mom, thus spending $0.  We did go to a discount drug store to get some necessities, spend about $17, which Jeff says should do him for a month.  Used coupons totalling $4. Had dinner at home using ingredients we had laying around the pantry and the squash I bought  at the farm market on Thursday- very yummy.

Tomorrow will be a test for the budget- we usually grocery shop on Sunday when the sale paper comes out.  Will try to hold it to $60. Stay tuned!

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Author:
susanna1231
Akron, OH USA
About Me:

Wife to Jeff since 2001. Mom to Victoria since 1984. Cat mom to Lucien and Riley. New RN, formerly lawyer and teacher. Hobbies: Hiking, biking, cooking, reading, organizing, nature study, etc. etc.

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