The goal: Try to spend the least amount of money (not considering emergencies) as possible during the month but still have fun with friends and family. Spend less on groceries by cooking what I already have in the pantry and freezer. Spend much less on such things as alcohol.
I do drive a car and pay for parking for work.
Let’s examine how I am doing. I will keep you posted as the weeks go by and at the end of the month.
1st week:
· I made bread! Yay. A healthy, sugar-free tasty treat that I made with ingredients already in my pantry.
· I made dinner with the ingredients I already had in my pantry and freezer with lots of left-overs!
· My friends invited me over to watch the game and had snakes there! Brought my own non-alcoholic drink to enjoy. Money-free and a great time spent with friends.
· Borrowed library books! I love to read and explore new ideas and this is a great money saver for me. I encourage all to explore what books are available at your local library. And, they have great eBook options as well.
Spent – $65.66; $32 was on parking at work. $3.00 spent on a gadget to help me get the most out of a tube of toothpaste. The rest ($30.66) on groceries to include staples such as peanut butter!
Not bad – we’ll see how the next week goes. I am hoping to utilize more of the staples I already have in the pantry and freezer for meal planning and get that grocery spending down even further!
One challenge coming up next week – I have a couple of dinners out with friends coming up. We’ll see how that goes and perhaps explore ways to minimize cost
Week 2
Spent $115.49 –
As I knew it would be the majority of my weekly spending was based on going out with friends. Positives – cheaper movie night: second run movie on Tuesday night when it’s generally cheaper. Happy hour/specials to enjoy eating out and light drinking.
However, when I went out for friends where it was not happy-hour or special, this is definitely where the spending went up. Something to employ in the future: either eat or have a drink, but stay away from both. This is how you really rack up a bill.
Otherwise, I made dinner with lots of left-overs from items in my pantry. One was a big pot of beans…so filling, so affordable, so easy to make.
Breakdown:
• Split the cost of going out with a friend for drinks and a movie– my half was $25.00.
• Movie night out with friends, happy hour special: $29.25 (essentially: dinner, drinks, and a movie)
• Dinner out with friends – no happy hour special: $39.75
• Groceries: $5.49 – creamer for my coffee and fresh produce
• Only spent $16.00 for parking
Overall – a lot of insights learned about going out with friends and how to keep down the costs. Groceries can be a lot less expensive if one purchases fewer pre-made foods and makes dinner out of staples and inexpensive items.
Week 3:
This was the most I have spent so far doing this 30 day period.
• Had to buy a tank of gas: $32.88
• The dog required dog food – can you believe he demands that? $26.99
• Bought furnace filters for the house – definitely needed to help the heater work during the winter and to help reduce my asthma/allergies: $29.99.
• Happy hour – drinks and food – with a friend: $15.99
• Groceries – including flour to bake bread, fresh produce: $21.97
A total of $142.28 but a lot less money spent on entertainment
Week 4 –
This is really where my competitive streak came in and it seemed like a badge of honor to have a blank piece of paper for the week.
Total spent – $35.33
I bought groceries and paid for parking. That was it. This is not something I can do every week, but for one week that competitive spirit of trying to spend the least possible really got a hold of me.
And…since that is 28 days, here are how the last 2 days went: I bought groceries for $15.55
Overall, what did I spend and did I learn anything?
For the 30 days, not including such bills as mortgage/utilities, I spent $374.31 which was low for me. This included every other expenditure such as: food, gas, parking, clothes, entertainment, things needed for the house, and stuff for the dog. I looked at this month like fasting when it comes to food. Spend as little as possible to reset my spending habits.
I learned that having to account for the money spent by writing the expenditure down and seeing it on paper caused me to spend a lot less. I also found that by doing that, it caused me to take time to think about a big expenditure and got me out of that impulse buying. Both of those are things I will continue to do in the future, while I acknowledge that I am likely to spend more per month. And I think this is a good thing to do once a month, every year
Kristen Cook 