The first week of September is over, and I must say things are going pretty well in the Frugal household. I gave myself 3 challenges at the beginning of this week.
My first challenge was to not eat out for a month. I am very proud to let you know that we have not eaten out at all this month. (the exception being my husband, who had dinner out with my dad a week ago. I gave him a pass for that) With the kids back in school, I’ve been more motivated to cook. I even made a double batch of pasta last night and froze a meal for a night when I don’t feel like cooking. Aren’t you proud of me?
My other two challenges were to write everything down and to spend time in my finances every day. I’ve been pretty successful with those challenges, too. Using Pear Budget has been a huge help in tracking spending. I usually get lost when I try to use spreadsheets, but this one is really easy and intuitive. I’ve also been taking 10 minutes a day to update my checkbook and pay bills that need to be paid. Seeing how little money we actually have on a daily basis had really served to motivate me to not spend money.
Another big event for me this week was freezing my credit cards. I’m at the point where I want to get serious about not using credit, but I’m not at the point where I’m convinced that getting rid of them all together is the answer. I do use them occasionally to rent hotel rooms, and I’m not ready for the hassle of using a debit card for that. But until we need to rent a hotel room, my credit cards are frozen solid in the back of my freezer.
And the last bit of good news is that I deposited $14.59 into my checking account today, and immediately turned around and made a credit card payment in the same amount. It’s a small snowflake, but every little bit counts when you’re getting out of debt!
It’s not all good news, though. I’m $47 over my grocery budget so far this month. Some of that is OK, because I stocked up on things that were on sale, so I won’t spend as much later in the month. Some of that is just flat out spending too much on groceries, though. Has anyone else noticed that the price of groceries is going way up? I definitely need some improvement in that area. I’m thinking about doing what Frugal Homemaker Plus does and buying a gift card to my grocery store every month. Like her, I hate carrying cash, and I like that you can’t overspend with a gift card. Something to think about anyway.
So there it is. The good, the bad, and the not-so-ugly. All in all, this week’s been a success!
September 7th, 2007 at 7:11 pm
Hi,
I looked at Pear Budget and bookmarked the program for download later. It looks like a great thing. I admire what you are doing because I need to do it too.
Lisa
September 7th, 2007 at 7:45 pm
Thank you! And you can do it!
September 8th, 2007 at 12:10 am
Love the picture! Keep up the good work! How do you keep track of your expenses? I’m trying to figure out what’s the most efficient way to do it. I tried carrying a notebook before but I keep forgetting to record the little expenses.
September 8th, 2007 at 2:52 am
This is a very interesting idea. Very inspirational!
September 8th, 2007 at 3:13 am
Just wanted to say “hi!”, as I’m one of your new RSS readers
I’ve found the biggest help to keeping my grocery bill low is having a list of “low cost meals” (soups, pasta etc.) and when I’m making up my shopping list, I always look through and include a couple of these cheap meals in my weekly menu plan. I also walk around the grocery store with a calculator in my hand 
My 11 year old thinks the definition of responsibility is being allowed to enter the figures into the calculator - at least it stops him fighting with his sister!
Anyway, great blog, very interesting, and looking forwards to reading you regularly from now on!
September 8th, 2007 at 8:44 am
WTG on the cooking! Yay Lynne!
I’m with you on the higher cost of groceries. My dh read an article that said groceries on the outside of the store have gone up by 30% since the all the corn is going towards ethanol. I believe it with the cost of milk! Yikes! Almost makes me want to cut out milk all together. I think there would be a revolt though.
September 8th, 2007 at 1:38 pm
Thanks for all the encouragement!
Hilda - I’ve been keeping track of my expenses using Pear Budget (pearbudget.com) and Mvelopes. I think any program like Mvelopes or Quicken that downloads your transactions from your bank would work well. I always use my debit card, so I know all the money I spend will be downloaded, and I won’t miss anything. Also, recording daily helps a lot, too.
Anni - Thanks for subscribing! It’s a great idea to make sure I incorporate a couple of cheap meals in my weekly meal plan. I need to get better about using leftovers, too. And I have a calculator in my purse. I just need to make sure I use it at the grocery store!
Paula, I totally believe that groceries have gone up by 30%! My grocery bill has gone up by 30%!!!
September 8th, 2007 at 9:23 pm
You know how I feel about the cost of EVERYTHING going up!! Ugh! But since you have not eaten out at all so far, I ‘m sure the grocery budget overage is probably a good balance for that!
September 9th, 2007 at 5:37 am
^^^
Agreed!
You saved so much more by cooking your own food rather than going out.
Will be back
First-time reader!
September 9th, 2007 at 10:44 am
That’s my feeling, too. I may have gone over my grocery budget this week, but I’m not spending anywhere near what we were spending on eating out!
September 9th, 2007 at 1:29 pm
I just came back from a horrible dining experience, and it makes me wonder why I even bother.
The waiter took 10 minutes to even get to us (he wasn’t swamped, he was a gigolo chitchatting with other waiters/waitresses, while we were WAITING to get our drink orders taken and our meals taken - we knew what we wanted).
Then he took only 10 minutes getting the food out to us………… but ignored us for the refill of our water, didn’t bother clearing our plates, and we waited another 10 minutes to just run our credit card through - I got so angry, I got up, waited at the counter (he was again, chit chatting and walking back and forth idly as though he was working but he CLEARLY wasn’t doing jack all), and waited for him to run our bill through.
Then he STOOD there, and waited for me to sign the slip. I took my time putting my copy and card back in, signed my name, and left a BIG FAT 0.
I normally tip well - 15% - 20%, but this was beyond outrageous to have an awful meal and be expected to tip a waiter who did nothing (someone else ran the food out to us)….
We had to go to the grocery store and buy readymade heat up meals to tide us over, it was so bad.
September 9th, 2007 at 1:34 pm
That’s awful! One more reason to eat in! Sorry you had to deal with that!
September 9th, 2007 at 3:32 pm
No kiddin’ eh?
I think I’m just going to grocery-shop it from now on..
That’s certainly one way to cure me of wanting to eat out.
September 10th, 2007 at 9:04 pm
Excellent! Yay for those mini payments I love em! And keep on being strong about eating out you can do it!!
September 11th, 2007 at 12:06 pm
Well, we still haven’t eaten out, though we were tempted on Sunday night. I didn’t want to post that we had blown it, though. See, this blog is great for my finances!