Last Weeks Frugal Accomplishments: The Deliberate Spending Plan in Action Volume 1

*52 Week Savings Plan:  Still no progress here.  The balance remains at $0.  (Continued Ugh!)

*Christmas Jar of Change:  $4.01 will be added to the previous balance of $91.58 making a new grand total of $95.59.  (Cool!)

*Favorite Frugal Accomplishments:

-I redeemed Bing rewards for another $10.  I now have $20 in Amazon gift cards.  I will apply this towards my educational-related purchases that I will be making soon.

-I attempted to implement my Deliberate Spending Plan.  Here is a look at it in action:

Sunday (07/06):  $0 spent.  I had a pleasant little surprise today.  After dropping Maceo off at the church for his mission trip some friends invited me out to lunch.  Despite my established goals I accepted, deciding that time spent with these friends was worth fudging on the goal a bit.  However, I got a bit of a surprise, they insisted on treating me allowing me to maintain my goal.

Monday (07/07):  Bishop is hoping to bake a cake to enter in the fair so I bought him a special cake pan for $24.79.  A couple of triumph's include getting my library books returned on time (doesn't always happens so accumulating no fines is indeed a triumph); all ingredients for all the meals came from my pantry, garden and, most importantly, freezer (making space for that quarter of a cow, yay!); and was really aware of utility usage.

Tuesday (07/08):  I had a load of laundry that needed to dry but it was storming so I ran the dryer despite my best intentions.  Bishop and I were asked to work at the food pantry today and, although we pack our lunch, it is tradition to stop at Sonic on the way there to get beverages to last throughout the day so I did spend $4.41 that was not originally budgeted for.  After working the food pantry I took Christian and Bishop out for bulgolgi and spent $45.65.  Upon returning home I made us a little dessert using frozen fruit that I found in that freezer I am cleaning.  So, I was not 100% successful in sticking with the plan but was within the realm of acceptable.

Wednesday (07/09):  I completely operated within the parameters of my Deliberate Spending Plan today.  It was challenging but I DID IT!  I spent $45.65 at Hobby Lobby but only for sanctioned house related projects.  Independence Day items were discounted by 66%.  I initially placed three items in my cart that I could envision using for Bishop's Eagle Scout Court of Honor - the court of honor that I imagine will happen at some point in the future.  I went all around the store with those items in my cart but, in the end, put them back on the shelf before checking out.  (Yay me!)  Also, I was very tempted to go to the grocery store.  My excuse was that I needed fresh hamburger buns but I knew that I really wanted to see what else was there.  Although I haven't even come close to using all of my grocery budget I know that I must resist these sorts of temptations.  I need to be deliberate.  Today I was.  (Yay me, again!)  We made hamburgers/bisonburgers with meat found in the freezer served on buns given to us after a scout event,  The side dishes served were sauteed squash and sliced cucumbers, both given to us by a generous gardener.  A final success for the day - I line dried my laundry today.  (Yay me!)

Thursday (07/10):  Christian and I bought his new tennis shoes today; the ones that weren't to be in the original budget but when his old shoes collapsed I was forced to get.  However, I think that we did a fine job shopping.  I had a 15% off coupon for Kohl's and $10 Kohl's cash so to Kohl's we went and managed to get a pair of Fila's with memory foam (sounds comfy!) for $36.57.  Although we did really well on the shoe purchase I just could not control my impulse to purchase some carry-out.  I spent $16.98 at a deli.  I will take this amount out of the grocery budget.  On the plus side, the portions were so large that we ate the food for both lunch and dinner.  Also coming out of the grocery budget is $4.41 spent at a bakery/coffee shop when I took my niece out for a treat and a conversation about homeschooling (she is considering it for her kiddos - exciting!).  A small success was resisting the urge to go to Incredible Pizza when I knew a bunch of friends were hanging out there.  Instead I stayed home and made some progress on my house-related projects.  (Grocery spending to date = $21.39).

Friday (07/11):  I ate a bagel while I did some paper work at a local bakery and I bought a loaf of bread  for lunch and dinner.  I spent $4.98 and will take this from the grocery budget.  I spent another $58.59 at Hobby Lobby for one of my house-related projects.  I also made a trip to WalMart where I spent a total of $74.68- $55.18 was for groceries and $19.50 was fair related.  (Grocery spending = $81.55; House-related projects = $104.24 which is $4.24 over the budgeted amount; Fair-related expenses =  $44.29)

Saturday (07/12):  Today I spent another $19.55 Hobby Lobby in order to complete one of my house-related projects.  This means that I have spent a total of $23.79 over the budgeted amount for this category.  I hope to spend less on yard related projects in order to stay reasonably close to the overall budget.  I bought another $25.44 worth of groceries of which $5.00 comes from the grocery budget and the remainder is for the fair.  Although I had intended to take Christian and Bishop out only once while Maceo was gone I couldn't resist the impulse to take them one more time.  I took them to the Aviary for some yummy crepes and spent  $30.50.  This will be taken from the grocery budget.  (Grocery spending = $117.05; House-related projects = 123.79; Fair-related expenses = $64.73).

There is definitely room for improvement but I am not doing too bad.  I will keep working at this!