Austere August No or low spending

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alliesmama4
Posts: 8591
Joined: Sun Aug 30, 2015 10:10 pm
Location: Southern IL

Re: Austere August No or low spending

Post by alliesmama4 »

I did break down and buy some foods from Aldi's to use for making salads.. That is a need not a want.. Fresh produce is important in anyone's diet.

Have not figures out the bottom line yet but due to recently found money bought an order from Jet.com Not sure if anyone else is buying from them online for fresh produce and meat products. I have done two orders with them.. This will be my second order and I have been pleased with the first order arriving in a cold packed box. The butter was still as solid as if I bought it in town and brought it home in a Styrofoam container. Paid $5.00 for a $13.00 chicken. You have to know your prices. If you buy more things the prices go down and if you use a debit card you get 1.5% off. It cost about 4.99 for the cold pack but by the time I bought what I needed and with the price reduction it came to 1.99 for the cold pack charge. I like it better than Amazon since you do not have to have Prime to get lower prices or the free shipping. I think once you hit 35.00 you get free shipping on things that do not require cold packing. Now some of their products seem to be too high in price compared to local grocery stores and some are much lower. I try to cross compare with in town here and what they are charging.. As I said you have to know your prices.. Janet Alliesmama
Last edited by alliesmama4 on Sun Aug 20, 2017 8:54 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Janet Alliesmama
SandiSAHM
Posts: 2263
Joined: Fri Aug 28, 2015 11:46 am
Location: Oklahoma

Re: Austere August No or low spending

Post by SandiSAHM »

20 days... 6 no-spend. This brings my % down to 30, as I shopped for eclipse trip food.

That's still okay... we'll probably have leftovers for a while (I over plan), and with DH heading out later in the week we should be pretty basic in the kitchen for a while. The kids have a rotation of things they like the most that we usually fall back on while he's gone. No point in getting fancy ;) for the not-quite-as-appreciative palettes.

They do pizza, mac-n-vegan cheese with vegan sausage & broccoli, minestrone with biscuits, breakfast for dinner, a vegan 'beef' stroganoff over rice... they would eat that stuff 'til they popped if it weren't for adult intervention.

% should go up sharply next week!
SandiSAHM
Posts: 2263
Joined: Fri Aug 28, 2015 11:46 am
Location: Oklahoma

Re: Austere August No or low spending

Post by SandiSAHM »

23 days... 8 no-spend!! Around 34.8ish%

I've decided on ONE more allowable spend day this month - tomorrow. To stock up on alt milk, fruit & veg for while DH is out of town. If I can pull that off, I'll have 7 MORE no spend days, which will put me at almost half the month! Nearly unheard of since we moved to an area where we don't have to go 40+ miles to get to a health food store, LOL.
alliesmama4
Posts: 8591
Joined: Sun Aug 30, 2015 10:10 pm
Location: Southern IL

Re: Austere August No or low spending

Post by alliesmama4 »

Although I have not been posting I am being careful with my money. I am saving money on gas for my car since it is not safe to drive...lol. Pinching every penny where I can ie turning off lights, not using the A/C. When leaving a room I do turn off the ceiling fans. I need a new battery for the remote control on my ceiling fan and light in my bedroom. It stops working periodically and since it is not one that you find in the lower end stores I have been rubbing the positive end on my mouse pad and that seems to perk it up for several days. Only doing laundry when there is a full load and hanging most things on drying racks or clothes lines in the garage. I do dry clothes for about 10 min in the dryer before hanging them on hangers and then they are hung in the garage on the clothesline until dry. I am trying to cut down on expenses as well as chemicals. I bought the wool dryer balls on Amazon. They were about 10.00 for 6 of them. So far they are doing a good job. I did wait and buy them with a combined order to get free shipping. So cutting corners as much as I am able. Janet Alliesmama
Last edited by alliesmama4 on Thu Aug 31, 2017 1:45 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Janet Alliesmama
SandiSAHM
Posts: 2263
Joined: Fri Aug 28, 2015 11:46 am
Location: Oklahoma

Re: Austere August No or low spending

Post by SandiSAHM »

Not going anywhere today, so...

15 out of 31 days of August were no spend :D 48.3% !


September will be off to an interesting start as DH comes home tomorrow but we still don't 'need' anything. Sunday I'll go for milk, fruit. Then after a few days he leaves for the other side of the globe, so that'll be another 7-day no spend stretch.

I may need gas next week, but if so it'll be the only fill up until around the middle of the month, DH's car is topped off and sitting around with no one driving it. He works 3 days between trips and most of his commute is spent in electric mode, so that car will probably not need gas for another 3-4 weeks.
gaylejackson2
Posts: 3172
Joined: Tue Sep 08, 2015 1:13 pm
Location: Utah

Re: Austere August No or low spending

Post by gaylejackson2 »

alliesmama4 wrote: Sun Aug 13, 2017 4:28 pm Some of you are tagging along in July for a challenge and I liked the term Austere August. Hope I am not stepping on anyone toes but thought we might like to use the title instead of tagging in to July. So here we go...Janet Alliesmama
I love it Janet!!

Whenever my Mom felt like she needed to tighten up her frugal belt and slow the spending, she'd announce that she was going on an "Austerity Plan" and there wasn't going to be anything going out but for the most extreme of essentials!! :lol:
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I didn't post in here every day/week and that was likely my downfall. I think I might have gotten 12-14 no-spend days at most. *sigh* I hope to do lots better in September!
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