*52 Week Savings Plan: When, oh when will I make progress in this area? Not at this point in time. Shucks!
*Christmas Jar of Change: $2.76 will be added to the previous total of $91.58 for a new total of $94.34.
*Favorite Frugal Accomplishments:
-I applied my $20 in Amazon gift cards that I earned through Swagbucks and Bing Rewards to my purchase of educational supplies.
-I continued working my Swagbucks and Bing accounts. Let's see if I can earn more rewards.
-I submitted the necessary information for a rebate. The $10 rebate will be used to purchase Christmas gifts.
-I kept track of my spending as part of the Deliberate Spending Plan; however, I am not sure that I was as deliberate as I had hoped to be.
Sunday (07/13): Impulsively I purchased a tea at Sonic for $1.61. When Maceo returned from his mission trip I treated him to a drink from Dillons costing $3.09 and pizza from Papa Murphey's for a whopping $42.89. Ugh. (I spent a total of $47.59 that I will take from the grocery budget. I have now spent $164.64 on groceries).
Monday (07/14): An unexpected expense, I had to pick up a prescription for Maceo costing me $3.47. Another $22.07 was spent at Dillons today for groceries. I purchased a sanctioned iced tea today during Maceo's vocal lesson at Pickleman's for $1.93. I also purchased a plethora of books that are needed for educational purposes. I applied $20 in gift cards towards the purchase and paid $105.24 out of pocket exceeding my alloted amount by $5.24. (Grocery spending = $186.71; Educational spending = $105.24)
Tuesday (07/15): Today I purchased tickets for two different shows at the community theatre for $28 (this leaves another $12 available for entertainment purposes beyond what was set aside for the fair, etc). I filled up the gas tank for $38.69 leaving $111.31 in the budget for gasoline. Another impulsive purchase costing me $3.58 was made at Panera. (I will take this out of the grocery budget which makes the total spent on grocery spending $190.29).
Wednesday (07/16): I feel like I really blew it today. Last night Bishop was invited to join some friends on a grand adventure today. It involved field trips to a koi farm and a bird hatchery. Field trip fees were a total of $8.50 and he needed additional funds for lunch. I gave him another $11.00. (The field trip fees are educational expenses and the lunch money comes from the grocery budget). Because the adventure was planned at the last minute and I had an outing of my own planned for the next day it was easy to just pull out the cashola rather then plan meals etc., so... I swung by McDonald's in the morning to get breakfast for Bishop before meeting up with the friends. This cost $8.04. I left $29 cash for Christian and Maceo to take care of meals while I am off adventuring. As a belated birthday gift I treated my sister to a blueberry scone at Panera, spending $6.96 in the process. Roxie and I had a great day adventuring. We went hiking and then to the Creation Experience. Both of the activities cost $0 (yay!) but I stopped to look in the bookstore of Creation Experience and $27 later came out with some more educational-related items. Roxie and I then proceeded to Branson where she had a gift card for a hotel room. We ate dinner at the Farmhouse Restaurant where I spent $21.51. This was an expense that I had allowed for in my budgeting. I also made a Christmas-related purchase at an antique store in the amount of $26.55. (Grocery spending = $245.29; Educational expenses = $148.74; Christmas expenses = $26.55, leaving $23.45 available)
Thursday (07/17): While still in Branson I spent another $16.31 on dining out at Cakes n Cremes. Again, this expense was allowable. Also, the girls night out got scheduled for the same time period as this adventure so I will not be spending money on it. I feel ok about the large dining out bills. We stopped at an Amish store and I spent $21.90 on groceries. On fair-related expenses I spent $7.09 at Hobby Lobby (and, yes, I used a 40% off coupon). Then, again because of poor planning and me being exhausted after my adventure I spent $2.53 at Sonic on a tea and fed the boys Subway costing me $15.71. (Grocery expenses = $282.90)
Friday (07/18): And here is the day in which I officially blew it. I had a rather enjoyable breakfast with Bishop at Panera but it was impulsive and cost me $13.93. And talk about impulsive...after running into friends while taking in a show at the community theatre we went out to dinner at Picklemans where I dropped $36.38. None of it sanctioned. All of it impulsive. Ugh. I had to make a run to Walmart and spent a total of $179.52. $23 of that was for headphones for Maceo; not budgeted for and not absolutely necessary so maybe I should have refused to get them at this moment but I so dislike going to Walmart that I really don't want to make another trip in the future if I can help it. About $50 was spent on groceries and the remainder, $106.52, was for fair-related expenses. Bishop is entering 12 different food items in the fair so I had to buy quite a bit of groceries for his baking. I probably overestimated how much flour, etc. I needed to have on hand so I am sure that there will be much leftover for family use. Other then milk and produce I am hoping not to hit the grocery store again during the month of June. (Grocery spending = $405.66; Fair-related expenses = $178.34)
Saturday (07/19): $0 spent. Yup, that's right, $0 spent today. Yay!!!
I definitely had successes and failures this week. It is such a struggle for me but I will continue to persevere!
I definitely had successes and failures this week. It is such a struggle for me but I will continue to persevere!
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