Christmas. New Years. A Funeral.
Life is coming at me fast and furious. As is often the case when life gets to moving so quickly, I have failed to post routinely. But now I am back and ready to go. Obviously I won't be able to share all of my frugal accomplishments but I do have some good ones to share with you.
I am really quite pleased with my Christmas-related frugal accomplishments. I will share those accomplishments with you in a separate post.
I have also challenged myself to No Spend 2019. I have my own unique parameters and goals. This, too, will get it's own post.
So what is left to post here? Hmmm....let's see...
-The hubby and I were successful with staying within our agreed upon grocery budget of $600 per month. I would like to see this amount come down a little bit but having grocery-related restrictions is new to the hubby and is difficult for him so I will settle for this amount and consider it a success when we stay within this amount. I should clarify that this amount does cover household and hygiene items in addition to food items.
-After having such wonderful success keeping my Christmas expenses down by using Amazon gift cards earned through Swagbucks I am intent on working Swagbucks this year and finding other similar ways to earn some cashola. I have signed on to several other survey sites and am using some apps that involve uploading my receipts. I have already earned enough swagbucks to get a $10 Amazon gift card. And I have more than $60 between the other sites. I am not one to spend a ton of time doing these sorts of things. I have many other things that I need to accomplish so I am just intent on working them slow and steady. I am finding that some are more natural for me to use than others. I will do a post reviewing these sites a bit later.
-Another little thing that I have done is to sign up for free stuff. Just little free stuff. It's a fun little hobby that doesn't cost me a thing, well, maybe a little time. (Again, I guard my time pretty carefully so I only put in minimal effort). I have already received three packages of free stuff and it's a little like Christmas receiving those packages. The first was cat and dog food. There was enough food in those samples to feed my pets two meals and they gave me coupons. I have received a package with a travel size deodorant and some gum which, of course, will come in handy at some point. And, finally, I received the little package below which will be wonderful in the hubby's stocking next year. It's fun, it's easy, it's free!
-I really prefer to have a well-stocked "pantry"; one that is full of food, household and hygiene items and even gifts. Presently my supplies are low and I really want to change that - intentionally, incrementally. As we were down to samples of toothpaste given to us by the dentist (note: the boys had the toothpaste that was in their stockings but the hubby and I were not so fortunate to receive such a prize in our stockings) I decided to focus on household and hygiene items. I have been working CVS. At this point in time all my purchases have fit in our grocery budget; I really hope that I don't go over. I have been doing a great job though. Twice I have made purchases in which the balance due was $0. Yup, $0. I literally got two tubes of toothpaste, two bottles of conditioner and a large bottle of dish soap with $0 out of pocket. I now have us well stocked on shampoo and conditioner and reasonably stocked on razors, toothpaste and laundry detergent. I really need to get a good stock of toilet paper and dish soap so I'm going to keep working.
-Unfortunately, I had to travel nearly a thousand miles for a funeral. Anticipating the new year I knew that this trip would happen at some point this year; however, I was not prepared for it to happen so early in the year. There is never a good time for these sorts of things but this moment was really not the best financially - property taxes were due, entry fees for Bishop's art shows and college application fees were needing paid, there was a birthday and we were just coming off of Christmas. Fortunately, I did not overextend us during Christmas and I found ways to keep the travel expenses down. We took that trip and still paid the property taxes on time. Here are some things that I did. I packed all of the on-the-road meals. I boiled eggs and made mini muffins for our breakfasts. I packed sandwich fixings for our other meals. All the candy from our Christmas stockings and such were packed for snacks. The funeral service was scheduled for 9 am and the gravesite portion of the service was an hour away from the church so I knew that we wouldn't have a good chance to eat if we didn't eat first thing in the morning so I baked some chocolate quick bread and some mini quiches and packed some fruit. It worked out really well and held us over until the family dinner at 3:30. Everything worked out really well and saved us a lot of money. I do wish that I had thrown a case of water in the vehicle as we did purchase two bottles of water at convenience stores on the way there and then again on the way back. We could have had an entire case of water for less then those four bottles of water cost me.
-After having such wonderful success keeping my Christmas expenses down by using Amazon gift cards earned through Swagbucks I am intent on working Swagbucks this year and finding other similar ways to earn some cashola. I have signed on to several other survey sites and am using some apps that involve uploading my receipts. I have already earned enough swagbucks to get a $10 Amazon gift card. And I have more than $60 between the other sites. I am not one to spend a ton of time doing these sorts of things. I have many other things that I need to accomplish so I am just intent on working them slow and steady. I am finding that some are more natural for me to use than others. I will do a post reviewing these sites a bit later.
-Another little thing that I have done is to sign up for free stuff. Just little free stuff. It's a fun little hobby that doesn't cost me a thing, well, maybe a little time. (Again, I guard my time pretty carefully so I only put in minimal effort). I have already received three packages of free stuff and it's a little like Christmas receiving those packages. The first was cat and dog food. There was enough food in those samples to feed my pets two meals and they gave me coupons. I have received a package with a travel size deodorant and some gum which, of course, will come in handy at some point. And, finally, I received the little package below which will be wonderful in the hubby's stocking next year. It's fun, it's easy, it's free!
-I really prefer to have a well-stocked "pantry"; one that is full of food, household and hygiene items and even gifts. Presently my supplies are low and I really want to change that - intentionally, incrementally. As we were down to samples of toothpaste given to us by the dentist (note: the boys had the toothpaste that was in their stockings but the hubby and I were not so fortunate to receive such a prize in our stockings) I decided to focus on household and hygiene items. I have been working CVS. At this point in time all my purchases have fit in our grocery budget; I really hope that I don't go over. I have been doing a great job though. Twice I have made purchases in which the balance due was $0. Yup, $0. I literally got two tubes of toothpaste, two bottles of conditioner and a large bottle of dish soap with $0 out of pocket. I now have us well stocked on shampoo and conditioner and reasonably stocked on razors, toothpaste and laundry detergent. I really need to get a good stock of toilet paper and dish soap so I'm going to keep working.
-Unfortunately, I had to travel nearly a thousand miles for a funeral. Anticipating the new year I knew that this trip would happen at some point this year; however, I was not prepared for it to happen so early in the year. There is never a good time for these sorts of things but this moment was really not the best financially - property taxes were due, entry fees for Bishop's art shows and college application fees were needing paid, there was a birthday and we were just coming off of Christmas. Fortunately, I did not overextend us during Christmas and I found ways to keep the travel expenses down. We took that trip and still paid the property taxes on time. Here are some things that I did. I packed all of the on-the-road meals. I boiled eggs and made mini muffins for our breakfasts. I packed sandwich fixings for our other meals. All the candy from our Christmas stockings and such were packed for snacks. The funeral service was scheduled for 9 am and the gravesite portion of the service was an hour away from the church so I knew that we wouldn't have a good chance to eat if we didn't eat first thing in the morning so I baked some chocolate quick bread and some mini quiches and packed some fruit. It worked out really well and held us over until the family dinner at 3:30. Everything worked out really well and saved us a lot of money. I do wish that I had thrown a case of water in the vehicle as we did purchase two bottles of water at convenience stores on the way there and then again on the way back. We could have had an entire case of water for less then those four bottles of water cost me.
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