Just a little triumph

So I have been learning a lot about saving. I have learned that I am not always as good as I should be but I am learning about lots of good ways to save. I finished the book a while ago but I have been practicing several of the money saving ideas all month. One thing I am really proud of is that we have been without Netflix for 2 months now. We have had it for so long that I really didn't think we could go without and now I know we can. I haven't really missed it terribly. We did rent a movie from Redbox once, but I mostly watch my shows on line and movies we get from the library. It isn't much saved but if you add it up it is $107 a year.

My big triumph for this post is that we got very close to our goal of cutting our budget in half. I was shocked when we calculated everything and figured out that we only spent 60% of our income for the month. I am so excited. And that was including an airplane ticket to go home. I feel like I have held off on so many purchases that at times have been so hard not to buy, but I feel like it has been worth it. When we broke down the categories we were under on everything except food. Food was about the same. I did work on stocking some of our food storage this month though so that is probably some of it, and we ate out more this month so hopefully I can work on that this next month and start using our stored up food.

I feel like it has been good for us to watch more closely what we buy. I don't feel like we have had to sacrifice much. I think a lot of it is that the little things matter. I get so tempted to buy a little thing here or there when I got to a store and I have had to be ok with leaving a store without buying something. I struggled a couple times but honestly after a few days I can't remember what it was I wanted to buy so obviously we aren't missing out. I also was tempted to buy Halloween decorations and decided to make them instead. We have some cute decorations made by my daughter and I that we can save for next year now, for free. And it was so fun to make them together. We also really wanted to go to a farm to do the petting zoo and pumpkin patch and all the fun activities but we decided not to because the ones in our area were really expensive, and I don't think my daughter feels put out any. We went to plenty of free Halloween events. It has been really good for us to try this. I can't wait for next month and to see how we do.

We have been thinking about something that we can do with our savings and one thing is that we may be able to afford a bigger place in a good neighborhood when we move next time. Another is, since we love to travel, we could take a trip after this training is over. Or we don't have to use it at all.

I have several other thoughts to share so I will post more later.

Weekend Shopping Spree

So this weekend we made a trip to the mall. We didn't really have a plan which is a bad idea when you go to a store, we just wanted to walk around since it was freezing outside. We did leave with some purchases but I think they were pretty reasonable. We got two clearance shirts for my daughter and a pair of sale mittens for her as well. I probably could have waited on the mittens but I guess I am still not perfect on the not spending. At least they were not full price. I also used a gift card I had forgotten about it for something I did need. My total 10.00. Not bad for a shopping spree.

I think the biggest success for me is how many times I said no. I am pretty proud of myself for that. So at least I can say that I am proud of myself for keeping myself in check. I think this month we may meet our goal. Cross finger, close wallet.

Ideas to make it through

I have found that it is getting harder to not spend money. Sometimes I am really iching to make an impulse buy. I know that I shouldn't but it is so hard. It also is really hard to think about the whole month and how to gauge what I should and shouldn't spend for the whole month, so I thought of something that I think will work better. Since I know how much we need to spend to spend half of what we normally do I can cut that in half again and just think about it for two weeks. I can do that. Two weeks isn't hard. I can prepare myself and think of what we are doing in the next two weeks. And if I really want something but it will put us over I only have to wait two weeks until I can get it. I think it sounds good. Hopefully it will work.

Something else I wanted to share was that I just got a whole new wardrobe, for free. I went to a clothing swap and there were so many things there that I ended up coming home with a ton of clothes, not just for me but for my daughter, husband, sisters, mom, brothers, and niece and nephews. I was so thrilled. I know a couple areas that do a clothing swap and I think it is such a great idea. I really want to pull a group of people together to do it again.

How it could work if you choose to do it with friends is set a time that you will do it (maybe once or twice a year), then let your old clothing pile up and when it is time for the swap, the amount of things you donate is how much you can take with you. At the end if there is still more, anyone can take what ever is left. If there is still anything left over donate it to a thrift store. That way if you have changed sizes or just gotten tired of a certain shirt you can switch it up. Everyone benefits and you aren't loosing anything because they are clothes you were getting rid of anyways. If anyone tries this I really want to know how it turns out.

Tips for Traveling

So we have been really busy here trying to keep up with things but now things have calmed down and I am ready to continue. Last week we took a quick trip to another city. I really thought I was prepared for everything and realized that I really could have saved myself a lot of money.

One of the biggest things was that I left things behind. I think it is a curse of mine. I somehow always seem to leave something, no matter how careful or thurogh I am with packing up. This time it was my daughter's beloved panda and her blanket. She had them in hand when I was taking stuff out to the car then decided to shove them in a little cubby hole in the cat's scratch post. I didn't notice and we left without them. The first thing I thought of doing was running out and buying new ones because she is so attached to them, but ended up not. I just wanted to see how she would do without them. Well, I am glad I didn't buy her a new one. I explained that she left them and that the person would be mailing them back to us but she wouldn't have them for now and she seemed to do ok with it. She has missed them because she talks about them but she hasn't lost any sleep over them. Yeah.

So double check everything before you leave somewhere.

Another tip is that you could find someone to stay with when you travel. Bring a cooler with food so you don't stop along the way to eat out, it is unhealthy as well as expensive. Bring snacks with you. Have a plan. Know where you are going and how much you are going to spend and then add 10% to whatever it is you are budgeting, because something always comes up.

Our trip cost was mostly gas because of how far it was but we stayed with a friend, brought snacks and bought food at the grocery store when we got there. We didn't really have a lot of time to spend money but I thought the trip went over well budget wise.

Month End Report

We calculated all of our spending for the month of September and this is what we found.... we failed miserably.

I had hoped that the car issue wouldn't put us over too much but it did. But it wasn't just that, it was a lot more. I think the biggest problem with the month is that we didn't start the month on the half price challenge. I paid tuition for an on line class, we had to buy things for our new house, we ate out a lot when we first moved here because we didn't have our kitchen set up or food in the fridge right away. We were still spending on moving expenses. So I guess the last part of the month was good for us to save so that we didn't spend more than we did.

With this though we redid our buget and reviewed previous months. It turns out that since January of this year we have been spending under our income until August. So I can feel good about that. August and September were just off months. Hopefully this next month can be full of savings and we can be on our way to spending half of what we normally do. Maybe it will take us until December to do it but I am going to keep trying. Thanks for reading.