Starting our 2018 No Spend Challenge

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

Re: Starting our 2018 No Spend Challenge

Post by alliesmama4 »

Momof2 wrote: Mon Apr 02, 2018 9:26 pm Janet- I know that you will be successful with your big push to be frugal. I understand completely the conflict between buying groceries and using what is on hand. I have such a problem with this. I could save a ton of money by just using what is on hand, but I do enjoy grocery shopping. I am trying to incorporate the two- use what is on hand and allowing myself to buy some things to incorporate with the on-hand items.

I am hoping that April will be a little less busy than the last month or two. I cannot believe that there is less than 8 weeks left in this school year. As for being frugal, I have been too busy to spend too much money. I even managed to stay out of the grocery store the last few weeks of the month, so my pantry challenge was a large success- I did not even spend money on fresh fruits and/or veggies or bread, milk, etc. I went grocery shopping on Saturday although I did not use anything from that shop until yesterday (Easter) which was also April. RM and I had a roasted chicken- we still have turkey in the freezer left from Thanksgiving, and ham in the freezer left from Christmas, so I did not want to add any more of those items to the freezer. We will use the left-over this week. I do not think I can cram one more item into either of my freezers.

Janet, I read your post about how economical it is to buy a rotisserie chicken, and I agree. RM and I get at least 4 to 5 meals each from one. I was thinking that if I lived alone, one would last me the whole week plus lunches for a couple of days- that would certainly cut down my grocery output.

I did have a little food waste last month. I tossed out a partial pkg. of mini bagels I had to take out of the freezer to make room for something else, and we never ate any of them, so out they went. I also tossed out a partial pkg. of both hamburger buns and hot dog buns- they just got really dried out in the fridge. I also tossed out 3 tangerines that dried out and a papaya I completely forgot about.

I did manage to salvage a banana (added some bananas from the freezer to make a Banana-Walnut with Lemon bread- very good), and a couple of scallions (put them in an omelet this morning), two pkgs. Cream cheese (made a cheesecake for Easter), and the rest of a pkg. of Romaine lettuce (minus 4 to 5 outer leaves that were bad) and paired that along with some of the left-over chicken for lunch today. I made a home-made Raspberry Vinaigrette. For a snack, I used up some celery that has been in the fridge for a while stuffed with an herbed cream cheese (used a pkg. of cream cheese some garlic powder, some parsley, and some thyme).
Tonight’s dinner will use up a pkg. of Salmon (Grilled Rosemary Salmon), a pkg. of asparagus (steamed asparagus with garlic and lemon), and some salad greens, mini peppers, some cherry tomatoes, cucumbers (tossed salad) along with more homemade Raspberry Vinaigrette.
Momof 2.. I wrote you a reply yesterday but it disappeared..gremlins at work.I think when you have a variety of things in the freezer like you do it is easier to be more frugal and feel less like you are being so. You really do have some yummy foods like the grilled rosemary salmon and your raspberry vinaigrette.. I never get that fancy too much work..lol .Great save with some of your foods. I think we all have a problem with foods going bad before we get to them.. Especially if you work. Keep up the good work. Janet Alliesmama
Janet Alliesmama
alliesmama4
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Joined: Sun Aug 30, 2015 10:10 pm
Location: Southern IL

Re: Starting our 2018 No Spend Challenge

Post by alliesmama4 »

Yesterday I bought a weather radio for $30.00. We are approaching tornado season where I live and where I live I have no communications if the weather is bad. My TV and internet are both supplied by satellite and they are easily knocked out when the weather is bad. Also where I live we are too far out to hear a tornado siren. Last year something came through here that was not designated a tornado but it snapped a huge pear tree off about two feet of a stump is all that was left and all of my apples disappeared in one swoop. They were not knocked off or laying on the ground they were just gone. They could not have been stolen since the tree sit low on a hill where it is not noticeable to anyone. Heavy brush that was on top of a burn pile were lifted off and in weird areas not as if they blown but were lifted and dropped. I knew nothing until I woke up. Scary! A TV station in St. Louis has a storm/weather safety program with one of our local chain stores and I was going to go in to town today to have their weather team set up my radio but the thought of the drive and a long line of people were a turn off so I decided to set the radio up myself.. I did it! At first I thought ok admit defeat and go in to town but it is 18 mile round trip. Then I finally got the hang of it and I am so glad I did..Gas money and physical energy saved

Today I did spend some money through King Arthur Flour company. I had a $10.00 reward from them and they reminded me it was going to expire soon. After considerable elimination I did buy some things and spent $24.85 but the items were about 1/3 the price and it gives me more things to work with in the future.

In order to save money I have switched from my beloved 1/2 and 1/2 in my coffee to whole milk. sniff, sniff..The cheapest 1/2 and 1/2 is Aldi's at $1.99 a quart. Whole milk it $1.00 at Dollar Tree for 1 qt. However one of our local stores is selling a half gal of milk for .89 cents.. that is their everyday price and they are right across the street from Aldi's. So money saved for something else. I only have nickels, dimes and pennies to manipulate but whatever I will work hard to keep saving where I can. Janet Alliesmama
Janet Alliesmama
alliesmama4
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Joined: Sun Aug 30, 2015 10:10 pm
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Re: Starting our 2018 No Spend Challenge

Post by alliesmama4 »

April 5, 2018 Good evening. I have had a long day going to the bank and running various errands. Had to take doggie nephew for his grooming appointment. The place is near the bridge to MO so I zipped over to fill my gas tank over there. It is much cheaper in MO. Our gas was as high as $ 2.89 a gal and theirs was $ 2.43.. So a big savings. I have most of my monthly bills paid except the ones that come later.. I see where I have saved a few dollars in some areas, not much, but better than going a little bit over budget. The savings will go in to my slush fund. I made tuna salad last night but was too tired to peel and chop the eggs and when I came home today was still too tired so I ate the tuna with just the onion and miracle whip. It was still tasty. I have decided to use the eggs for egg salad for my lunches the next several days.

Edited to add..last night I picked my DB and DSIL up from the airport. The gas in their area was $3.00 a gal! They only live about 45 min north of me.

Janet Alliesmama.
Last edited by alliesmama4 on Fri Apr 06, 2018 8:39 am, edited 1 time in total.
Janet Alliesmama
Momof2
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Re: Starting our 2018 No Spend Challenge

Post by Momof2 »

Janet- those online gremlins are the worst. I agree that it seems less painful when there is a variety of items to choose from to cook with. I think that is one reason I have a hard time just staying out of the grocery store or only picking up what we need. Even with buying extra (things on sale that I know RM and I will eat), I average $50.00 a week which isn’t bad all things considering. I rarely eat out- maybe once every 3 to 4 months, and then I am careful to use gift cards or other offers.

Great idea on the weather radio. RM picked up one at a thrift store a few weeks ago which seems to work well. I live in Florida, so while we do have tornadoes, they are not all that common. Our threat comes from hurricanes which are not something that occurs without warning.

I tried for a while to not buy coffee items- creamers, half & half, and even coffee because of the price. I decided that if I really wanted a coffee I could just go pick one up on occasion instead of keeping items in the house to make it. I even allowed myself to run out of creamer, but then started thinking about it. I like coffee. I do tend to drink a mixture of two thirds decaf to one third regular coffee. I can get a large can of regular coffee at Aldi for less than $6.00 which lasts me around 4 months, so roughly $1.50 a month. I usually pick up decaf when it is on sale (a large can) for $7.00 or if not, I can get a small can of decaf at Aldi for around $3.50 (two equals nearly the large can), and will last me at least 6 weeks, so approx. $4.50 for a month. I get flavored creamer for $2.29 which lasts me about 2 months (I use 1 tablespoon per largish cup of coffee), so approx. $1.15 a month. I also use 1 tablespoon powdered creamer in my coffee which I pick up at Aldi for $1.79 which lasts me about 2 months also, so another $1.40 per month. In addition to the powdered creamer and the flavored creamer, I add 3 tablespoons half & half to my coffee, which is not strong to begin with, and that lasts me around 1 month, so another $1.99 a month. I tried just using milk, and I am fine with that as long as the milk is whole milk, but since I tend to keep low fat milk (1%) in the house, I do not like it as well as the half & half. I use Stevia in the Raw, which I get at Aldi for $4.19 and if I only used it for coffee would last well over 6 months, so approx. $.75 a month for a total of around $11.25 per month for a coffee daily and sometimes twice a day (If I feel a migraine is oncoming, I will drink a whole caffeine coffee to ward it off, or at least lessen the pain). I would need to spend around $4.00 for a flavored coffee if I got it elsewhere, and it would be a smaller container than what I get by making it at home- not to mention I have no idea what meds to ward off migraines cost, but I am guessing it is more than $4.00. It seemed crazy to deny myself something I really enjoy and then treat myself to it a couple to three times a month and not save anything by doing that.

Over the last couple of days, I have used up the rest of the roasted chicken from Easter (we had it one night just warmed up, and another day we had it added to a salad). I boiled down the bones and then when they cooled, I picked the remaining meat off of them. I added the leftover gravy to that and tonight I used that as the base for a Greek lemon chicken soup- boy was it good. Along with that I used up some of a pkg. of green onions that were going bad- I peeled off the outer parts, three large carrots, some celery, two eggs and some lemon juice in the soup. The recipe called for orzo pasta, but I used the veggies instead. I have used up a couple of tomatoes, a couple of baby cucumbers, some mini peppers, a can of tuna, some cilantro, boiled eggs, an avocado, a partial container of mayonnaise, some pickle relish and some Romaine lettuce leaves, along with some spices in various ways (turkey and ham wraps, salads with either tuna or egg salad). RM and I used up the candied sweet potato casserole, the green bean casserole, some left-over green beans, leftover asparagus and the salmon for dinners too. I opened a pkg. of turkey sandwich meat and a pkg. of ham sandwich meat to make the ham and turkey wraps as a snack a couple of times this week.

I froze the mashed potatoes from Easter along with two pkgs. of bananas I smashed with a little lemon juice as they were about to get too ripe, and we have a large bag of sliced bananas in the freezer we use in smoothies. I have managed to have minimal waste- just the outer parts of the green onions that were getting gross.

Well off to take care of the animals and head to bed. I hope everyone has a restful night.
Dgflorida
Posts: 4381
Joined: Wed Oct 07, 2015 8:10 pm

Re: Starting our 2018 No Spend Challenge

Post by Dgflorida »

Interesting thinking about the coffee Momof2. We are big coffee drinkers. We drink it black. I stock up on it because it stays pretty good if unopened. A couple of times a year, there is a good sale on it and I buy a case. I am just about to start on my last case.
alliesmama4
Posts: 8591
Joined: Sun Aug 30, 2015 10:10 pm
Location: Southern IL

Re: Starting our 2018 No Spend Challenge

Post by alliesmama4 »

April 6, 2018..I am down to very little in the meat department and was going to try to not buy any for a while but decided that I need to add something to my current meager protein. Yesterday I had $ 6.00 transferred from one of my survey sites to Pay Pal and will transfer that to my bank today..$ 6.00 will allow me to buy a rotisserie chicken and that can be stretched for a lot of meals. I do have frozen, canned, and dehydrated veggies to use as well as dehydrated fruits from my emergency stores. I am also going to buy some cottage cheese to combine with the fruit and another 1/2 gal of whole milk for .89 cents. Teddi needs baby carrots.. He gets them as a reward for going out to do his business and I use them shredded in coleslaw and other salads.The extra money to pay for these items is being gleaned from my slush fund. The slush fund money comes from other areas of my budget where I have been able to cut the prices. I am happy with the way I am able to cut the costs in some areas and use them in others. I am hoping to really lower my utility bill once the weather warms up and I can use the clotheslines in the garage more often as well as stop using my furnace for heating. The price of gas is scary as noted in my previous days posting it has gone up to 3.00 a gal not too far from here. Bummer was looking forward to going for rides and taking a picnic lunch when the weather gets warmer. Janet Alliesmama
Janet Alliesmama
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