Confession Time
Posted by Lynnae on May 30, 2008
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My new desk looks great! Now I just have to figure out how to manage the computer cords.
I blew my budget this month. Big time. I’d like to put a number on it, but I haven’t even looked at my budget in over two weeks. What went wrong, you ask? Let me tell you. And no, these aren’t excuses. It’s just me being honest. You are my accountability partners, after all.
Preschool is Over
My son graduated from preschool last week. I attended his graduation last Wednesday and his all-school picnic on Friday. The week before I attended his Spring Tea.
Since I usually run errands/paybills/blog on Wednesday and Friday mornings, my schedule was off kilter for a couple of weeks. And this week my son has been home with me all week, also making getting things done difficult. It’s tough to balance being mommy with wearing all the other hats I wear!
Massive Declutter Spree
One of my goals this year was to get rid of everything I don’t use or love. I’m proud to say that I’ve almost accomplished that goal this month! The only thing I haven’t decluttered is sentimental stuff like photos and the kids’ artwork.
Much of my time this month was spent preparing for my yardsale. Even though the yardsale wasn’t as successful as I would have liked, I got rid of a ton of stuff. Now my whole house is organized, and there is more SPACE! Yay!
Unfortunately, I tend not to want to cook when I’ve been working hard at decluttering all day. So I went over the eating out budget AGAIN. Fortunately I’m still on a healthy eating kick, so I’m hoping to do better now that my house is in order.
New (To Me) Furniture
In the process of decluttering, I realized I needed a few things to help organize my house. The first was a dresser for my son. I had been hanging all of his clothes up, because he has a big closet. But shorts are harder to hang than pants, and the tiny drawers that were holding his underwear and socks were just getting unmanageable.
I was able to find a nice dresser for him at a yard sale for $35! So that was a good purchase. And now my son’s room is much, much neater! He doesn’t dump his socks on the floor anymore, while searching for the pair he’s looking for. (And how he can tell the difference between all the pairs of white socks is beyond me.)
I also needed a new desk and a couple of small filing cabinets. All total I spent a little under $200 at Target. The desk isn’t top quality, but it sure looks a lot better than the old, dilapidated Walmart desk and plastic fileboxes I was using. My living room/office is definitely a more relaxing place now!
Change in Dietary Habits
I’m really, really wanting to eat healthier. Even though I’ve blown our eating habits about as bad as I’ve blown our budget, this is an area I really want to work on.
Since I’m a person who has a hard time translating an idea into a firm plan, I ordered the book Shoppers Guide to Healthy Living on Amazon. (Yes, I did check the library first.) It’s a great, easy-to-read book that breaks down moving to an organic lifestyle into steps. Perfect for me!
It also gives suggestions for the few processed foods you might need from time to time (like cereal and snack crackers), so you aren’t standing in the grocery store aisle, overwhelmed by your options. The book has been a good investment for me because of that.
But, I have found that eating more organic foods is definitely more expensive. Perhaps choosing a time when food prices in general are going up wasn’t a great time to start eating organic, but the situation is what it is. Needless to say, I went over my grocery budget, too. And you know it’s bad when I don’t even have to run the numbers to know I’m over.
What Am I Going To Do Next?
Well, today I’ll be sitting down with YNAB, running my May numbers, and making my June budget.
I’m also heading into ultra-frugal mode. I’m on my last roll of paper towels and my last package of paper napkins, and I’m going all cloth when I run out. My garden is also growing nicely, and I already have tons of lettuce for salad. I almost wish I would have planted a bigger garden!
I’m planning on making a month-long menu over the weekend, so I can shop for the month (the non-perishables anyway) next week. By shopping for a month, I should only have to run into town once next month. I can buy milk and produce right here in town.
That should get me of to a good start. I don’t foresee any huge expenses next month. If I can’t stick to my eating out budget in June, you all have my permission to give me a good scolding!
Thanks for hanging in here with me through the good, AND the bad. I always want to keep this blog real, and I would feel pretty dishonest in encouraging you all to be frugal, if I didn’t admit I dropped the ball this month. I’m determined to have a better month in June.
Be sure to check back tomorrow! It’s Being Frugal’s first blogiversary, and I’ve got a giveaway planned!
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I am not a financial expert. I'm just a wife and mom doing the best I can to live a frugal life and get out of debt. Like any human, I make mistakes. I write this blog out of my own experiences, and nothing I write should be taken as expert advice. If you need financial advice, please consult a professional.
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I commend you for being honest about your spending. Your ‘fix it’ plan sounds good too.
A suggestion for you - since you admit to not wanting to cook after a busy day perhaps having something in the freezer to defrost, heat and eat would help you. I try to always have a soup, chili or casserole in the freezer for just such days. And gardening, succession planting will allow you to continue to have your own produce right up to frost.
You said that your yard sale didn’t go as well as you’d hoped. To me, if you got rid of a ton of stuff you don’t need, you should consider it a *massive* success!
I think you had a productive and successful month. Look at all you accomplished, from being involved in a spring tea and graduation to decluttering and reorganizing the house to continuing to focus on eating healthy. Yes, it’s excellent to work hard on staying within the budget, but don’t discount all the great (and fun!) things you’ve done.
So, no scolding from me.
Hey, it’s nice to know I’m not the only one who had a bit of trouble this month.
It’s best to face it and be honest rather than sticking your head in the sand. That’s where all of our money problems come from in the first place, right? (Ignoring the elephant in the room until it’s just too big to keep ignoring.)
Sometimes we have to loosen the reins ever so slightly to make progress, long term. I think the organizational expenses you’ve mentioned will help you be more creative, less stressed out, etc. over time, which have obvious benefits in terms of blogging and your overall health. As we’ve discussed before at both our blogs, being frugal means finding, and maximizing, the value in things we consume, and that’s just what you’ve done.
Sounds like you had a great month to me! Grats on all you were able to accomplish! As for your cord issue, I saw a great post at unclutter about that. It was part of one of their minimalist office posts (sorry, can’t remember exactly what they call it now), so if you scroll back through some of the articles, you should be able to find a nice picture which shows how this person hid their cords under their desk. It was a very cool idea; one I hope to implement sometime soon. All the cords under my desk make it so much harder to sweep under there
Best of luck to you and thanks for keeping us updated.
May is always a tough month because of graduations. I hate to not give a gift to grads and I hate for it to be a cheap one.
Lynnae, I have found the best thing for cable management are the twist ties left over from bread and garbage bags. I have been saving any that I find for a few years now and there is an amazing amount of good uses for them!
Honesty is the best policy. Little failures make up larger successes. You work really hard at everything you do, (this blog, being a mom, ect. ect.) you deserve to have a decent space to work in.
Ooh, Lynnae - I have to admit that my computer desk cost $39 at the Salvation Army & it’s lovely, with a hutch, too. If I were you, I would have shopped used business supply stores first, before buying anything at a mass market store…But we have meltdowns, too - I must confess. We had almost $1000 in car repair bills last month (& those are hard to predict)& it threw everything OFF big time. Thank heaven I convinced my husband to try some stop leak in the truck’s radiator before springing for a new one! Worked, too. Hoorah for additives.
I just wanted to recommend that you check your local farmer’s market for local/organic items this summer. If you are trying to eat a more healthy diet, especially with fruits and veggies really try to eat in season, because that’s when things are cheapest. And if you can get a good deal on something, freeze it if you have a decent sized freezer or can (learn to if you need to)for the upcoming months.
I still kick myself because I turned down boatloads of tomatoes last summer from peoples’ gardens because I didn’t want to take the time to learn to can. This year I am making as much canned spaghetti sauce and tomatoes as I am able, because those things make up a huge amount of our diet and are so much more expensive than making/canning our own.
Hi Lynnae,
Don’t feel bad - we went over this month too! May is a bad month anyway with all the graduations and upcoming weddings. Also we went on vacation and went over a bit on that. Hang in there. Thanks for “keeping it real”.
Blessings!
Lynnae, Bravo for honesty, sometimes I read blogs and I have a hard time believing they never blow it. You are human, not perfect and you made some mistakes.
I being a farmer’s wife totally agree about eating things in season and local vs organic. Very few people trust me but most pesticides here in America are so much safer than grocery store bought veggies from foreign countries. America hsa strict standards, that other countries don’t. Buying local and seasonal will guarantee you a supply of veggies and fruits of higher quality. Many of them us what we do goat manure, and chicken manure things that enhance the soil and the food.
Many write about high oil prices, one of the main reasons of high price is foreign oil. Any time you buy seasonal or local you are supporting Americans, which in the long run will allow us to a wonderful array of foods. Right now in Texas it is squash and zucchini season. In a few short weeks it will be Sweet corn and peaches. So plan ahead for those things.
Once a month Cooking is really a good read too, you might be able to find it at the library.
So glad that you admitted this to us! I, too, went way over budget this month in the grocery department. We also decided to eat more healthy and organic items and that affected the budget. Also, the rise in costs of food really showed this month. I finally decided that it was time to increase my budget. I wrote about it on my blog. I’m going to post my monthly totals tomorrow on there and I think that I will post a link to your blog as well, so others can see that as long as you are accountable and have a plan for the next month, its not the end of the world if you are over budget.
Lynnae, no scolding from me either. I think, even with setbacks, you do an amazing job!
I’m actually ahead of the game this month. I got my third (in 20 years!) child support check - wooohooo! So what if he still owes over $40,000!
My 17 year old is graduating this coming week, and has just started a new job. I can now afford to purchase his work clothes - and buy him a small graduation gift as well as pay a little something towards one of my bills.
For health reasons, I’ve been trying to buy more organic and whole foods. And it’s true that they are more expensive. I try to cook more from scratch, buy in bulk when I can, and we’ve put in a small garden.
I also use coupons whenever I can, and the following list is for companies that offer them.
http://farmfriends.organicvalley.coop/join/
http://ecards.stonyfield.com/subscriptions.cfm
http://www.mambosprouts.com/instantsavings/
http://www.mambosprouts.com/subscribe.php
http://www.horizonorganic.com/coupons/index.php
http://www.scojuice.com/
http://www.soydelicious.com/products/coupon.html
http://www.silksoymilk.com/SpecialOffers.aspx
http://www.organicvalley.coop/coupons/
http://www.dreamfieldsfoods.com/
http://www.earthsbest.com/promos/index.php
http://www.knudsenjuices.com/p.....on=coupons
http://www.seventhgeneration.com/coupons
http://www.bobsredmill.com organic rice and some grains, available in bulk
http://www.healthvalley.com/contactus/index.php
http://www.alexiafoods.com/coupons.html
Check out this article – “Affording Organics in a Time of Recession”: http://www.organicconsumers.or....._12406.cfm
And this article: http://www.newdream.org/living.....rganic.php
Taste for Life magazine (Free monthly) has some great articles, seasonal recipes, usually has several coupons, and always has pages showing which organic and/or natural products are on sale for that particular month. Call your local grocers to see if they carry the magazine. A companion website is at: http://www.tasteforlife.com/default.asp
For those in the Portland, Oregon metro area - if you know someone receiving food stamps, there are now a half dozen or so Farmer’s Markets that accept food stamps. For low income parents with a child under 5, there is the WIC (Women, Infants & Children) program that supplements vouchers for milk, eggs, etc. with vouchers for fresh produce at the local farmer’s markets. There is a similar program in Oregon that offers fresh produce vouchers to low-income seniors who are 60 plus. And, nation-wide, there is the Free Summer Lunch program for kids ages 1 - 18. Many of the lunch sites are outdoors and offer activities, crafts, etc. as well. There are no applications, no questions about income, etc.
If you’d like any information about any of these programs, drop me a note!
Cynthia
It’s so nice knowing that I am not the only one who went crazy spending money this month. I don’t know what happened. It’s like my frugal self took a vacation. But June is a new month….
I will also suggest soscuisine.com which provides menus on a weekly basis based on local grocery flyers specials. A cost estimate per portion is also provided. At this time it is available in both french and english but covers only Quebec.
Good luck
Lynnae,
I, too, break the budget in the eating-out category first! It’s so hard, in these running-around months, to remember to bring snacks, drinks and meals with us.
As far as eating healthy foods on a budget, I second the person who said check out farmer’s markets and even CSAs. Even if the produce is not organic, chances are they do not use nearly the amount of pesticides and preservatives as the big farms that ship nationally and internationally.
Also, pick-your-own farms can be some of the cheapest, especially if you plan on canning/freezing.
I’m sure June will be a great catch-up.
Take care
Thank you for your honesty!
We’re all human, and we’re all gonna fall off the wagon sometimes. It’s wonderful to have a mentor that will freely admit to such things.
You’re also showing how to deal with inevitable shortcomings whether that was your intention or not. You’re not giving up, you’re getting right back up on that horse and carrying on. Fabulous!
Thanks for your awesome example!
Lynnae, being new to blogs, etc. I wasn’t sure how to get this to you. I’ve found a website that I think you’ll love - it’s based in the UK, but so very relevant to people in industrialized countries everywhere.
It’s http://www.lovefoodhatewaste.com/
Cynthia