The Hungry Housewives: SPENDING FREEZE- Part Five. IT'S OVER!!!

Friday, December 3, 2010

SPENDING FREEZE- Part Five. IT'S OVER!!!

These are personal notes from my experience doing a Spending Freeze for the month of November. For more info, see our first Blog about it at: SPENDING FREEZE- THE PLAN

WOW. This has been an interesting month!!!!! Thank you to everybody who supported us- I hope that we were able to inspire some of you to really THINK about what you are purchasing. Though you may not write it all down, I must say having a visual was a real eye-opener! OF COURSE, what we "saved" was not real money- it was either using coupons or by forgoing something we normally would have gotten if we had the money in our pocket. LUCKILY for us we did save what we did because we ended up having some unexpected things to pay for, bought a few Christmas presents (w/o using credit cards), and we caught ourselves up on some bills so we ended up almost spending every bit of Hubby's paycheck. My Hubby said it was so nice because it was the first time in a long time that we didn't have to worry about paying bills on time.

The weight loss was not as low as I had hoped but the weather was yucky so was harder to get in exercise, and we didn't knock out fast food completely (we'll save that scary withdrawal for another blog). But we did make smarter choices when we were ordering by using coupons and not up-sizing.

If this was not a good time for you, I'm thinking of doing this again at the beginning of the new year (we have a trip planned) so I hope you will join us! Thanks again!

Description:

RED is what we spent in excesses or was not "needed"

GREEN was money we brought in or "saved"

ORANGE was free stuff

PURPLE was spending that was necessary to living like bills or groceries

Day 28:

Been waiting for this day!!!! Hungry Housewife Dawn and I purchased tickets to see A Christmas Story- The Musical at the 5th Ave Theater in Seattle. This was our one "planned" day for going out and eating. What a great night!

Activity-

Stopped at Starbucks for late breakfast
Went to the 5th Ave Theater to see a show
Had dinner at Purple Cafe and Wine Bar
Popped into Old Navy and Target

Spent today-

Starbucks $14.21 for two drinks and two hot sandwiches. I got a medium over a large so saved $1.00
Theater was about $40 each but we paid for these months before so am not counting.
Purple Cafe was split $33 each (then Dawn left a tip). We received $3.50 off for EACH of us because we showed them our ticket stub from the 5th Ave
Parking in Seattle lot $15.00 (which Dawn paid for so not counting either).
Didn't see anything I liked at Old Navy so spent $0 but at Target I picked up two shirts on clearance and one on sale for my boys (they have no long-sleeved anything) plus dog jacket for chihuahua (stupid but he NEEDS them!) for a total of $17.50. By getting them on sale/clearance, I saved $24.06!

Day 29:

Medical day- 5yr old had a Wellness Exam and flu shot (ended up getting 103 temp the next day...hmmm) and it was my Allergy shot day

Activity-

Went to Pediatrician
Stopped at McDonald's
After dropped son off at school, I went to allergist
Hit Safeway to get hubby some lunches and dinner items

Spent today-

Co-pay for check-up and flu shot $15.00
McDonald's to cheer up the kid after his appointment. Nooooooooooooooo- they quit taking our coupons from Monopoly!!! So had to pay FULL PRICE (darkness!) $10.03 I did opt for a medium instead of a large coffee and had a coupon for son's chocolate milk from Halloween so saved $2.00
Safeway was $55.91

Day 30:

Our lab went into heat today so we had to make an unplanned trip to pick her up some washable body wraps and pads (I KNOW- vomit).

Activity-

Went to school conference for 12 yr old
Snuck out of the house with the hubby and popped into Farm Fresh Produce, Ben Franklin, Petco, Target, gas station and a furniture store.

Spent today-

Had to pay $10 for middle-schooler's field trip to Tacoma History Museum in Dec
Farm Fresh Produce for some greenery for a wreath $6.51 and then we went to Ben Franklin for small decorations and one craft present for the kids to make $6.34. The person we usually buy the wreaths from let us come over to make them ourselves so saved $10.00.
Walked over to a furniture store that was closing FORever at midnight. There was a beautiful hutch originally $800 and they said they'd take less than $200 {sigh- I wish!}. They also had $1,000 valued mattresses they were selling for $175. We debated and decided to not get the mattress since Christmas is coming though I think the one we have was NOT brand new when we got married 13 yrs ago!
Had to run over to Petco for the reusable diapers $26.22 then Target for pads for the dog $14.00 but since we bought two packs, we got $5.00 gift card.
Got gas in the hubby's car on the way home $35.45