Nothing New/Mindful Spending Week 17

[Ginevra]

The "rules" of this challenge are self-defined. Anyone can join in at any time. The aim of the challenge (for me) is to combat consumerism, wastefulness, mindless buying, and overspending. It is meant to nurture creative problem solving, ecology, frugality, intentionalism, and resourcefulness. To support these goals, I seek to buy nothing new/unnecessary. I aim to use existing resources, borrow, hand-craft, and buy existing second-hand materials to the greatest extent possible. However, I recognize that life is unpredictable, and family life increases this factor exponentially, so I will buy new in the following cases, when a non-buying option does not present:

 

Food, health, and necessary household goods excluded.

Requirements for school, work, or health and well-being which cannot be obtained used.

Gifts, when a creative non-commercial option will not suffice.

Anything animal or gardening related that cannot be obtained used.

Fuel/energy sources.

 

Posts will appear each Saturday, referring to the week that is ending. Post your successes, creative solutions, relapses and weak moments. It doesn't matter if you have a weak moment! Just keep swimming!

So, spending this week: enrollment fee for homeschool co-op next fall; a very few books at the used curriculum sale at co-op (totalled $3.50); a boy's puberty book from Amazon, and a(nother) booklet of loom knitting patterns. I bought a few fancy buttons to sew onto the baby hats I knitted; one I am sending to a friend living in another state, due to have her first baby.

 

Spent some money on care package items and shipping to send DD one last care package before she comes back home for the summer. :)

 

I ordered prints of photos made by the students in my photography class; this is for them to have to display at Talent Night.

 

I think that's it, other than food and gas. dS16 got his temporary dental veneres on; his smile looks amazing! So, I did pay that down payment, which was expensive, but not a surprise. We will also have additional payments for the next twelve months. I think it is worth it, though! Just the difference in the tension around his smile is amazing, because before he smiled self-consciously so he wouldn't reveal his irregular teeth.

[Annie G]

Spent some money on a project for the grandkids. Around $12, I think.   

 

About 4 times a year I seem to need to do a big stock up of things. And this week was it. A large Trader Joe's trip, spices and such from Penzey's, and stocked up on staples and household stuff like tp, cat litter, fish oil, etc.  So yeah, I spent a lot on food and stuff, but it gets used over a period of months. 

 

We ate lunch at Chick fil a while we were out doing our mega stock up...which is kind of funny because my mega stock up is about what it was like once a month when we were raising four kids. I must have blocked out how expensive those kids were!

 

Spent today pricing materials for our master bathroom remodel. I'm excited but it's going to be expensive. A contractor is doing a lot of it but we've done so many renovations on this old house that we have to do some ourselves...we are crazy. 

 

If it ever stops raining and warms up I'm going to need to spend money on dirt, plants, containers, and pavers.  That's one of the things that I don't understand about the folks at Mr. Money Mustache or other really frugal boards- they don't seem to ever spend anything on home improvement or upgrades. I feel like we spend a lot on that kind of thing, but maybe it just feels that way because we have to do all those things from May- September due to our cold climate. 

 

 

[JustEm]

Aside from gas a groceries we didn't spend anything. We have a first communion, high school graduation, baby shower, wedding, and dd's bday all in May so we are not spending anything on ourselves until after all of that.

[BarbecueMom]

We had 5 free tickets for the City Museum that expired today and spent $20 on an extra ticket for my mom plus drinks. I didn't plan this well, because the one weekend I know to avoid the City Museum is the weekend of the FIRST Championships. By noon it was so crowded I couldn't see my own feet. Oh well, we had fun early before it got busy.

 

I need to order curriculum this week. I'm dragging my feet on it because the total is painful for what we need after a pretty frugal year. Going on our fourth year of homeschooling, and this is the first time I'm breaking the order up into two semesters so it's not so expensive at once. Does that make me a real homeschooler now? Why do I still feel like I'm playing school still?

 

If it ever stops raining and warms up I'm going to need to spend money on dirt, plants, containers, and pavers. That's one of the things that I don't understand about the folks at Mr. Money Mustache or other really frugal boards- they don't seem to ever spend anything on home improvement or upgrades. I feel like we spend a lot on that kind of thing, but maybe it just feels that way because we have to do all those things from May- September due to our cold climate.

House projects drain my budget. And my time. Most of them only get about 88.7% done. Then it feels like they haven't been done at all because I have to look at a partially finished project until I can put the finishing touches on. Like baseboards. I am so tired of rooms without baseboards.

 

I'd think we end up averaging between $400-500 a month on home improvement and repairs. I don't think I've spent more than $150 so far this year (on paint, which is still in the garage, not on the walls), but I have so many things in the queue that I'll probably catch up to the average.

[Guest]

If it ever stops raining and warms up I'm going to need to spend money on dirt, plants, containers, and pavers. That's one of the things that I don't understand about the folks at Mr. Money Mustache or other really frugal boards- they don't seem to ever spend anything on home improvement or upgrades. I feel like we spend a lot on that kind of thing, but maybe it just feels that way because we have to do all those things from May- September due to our cold climate.

Annie G, we don't spend much on home improvements/repairs in a typical year, but I think two main things conteibute to this: 1) Our house was built new 13 years ago (although...thirteen..that is not *so* new anymore); 2) DH is a contractor, so most repairs he can manage himself. This is not to say there are not things I would like to have done. There's definitely room for lots of hardscaping outside, but it not a high enough priority to put money into it. So, we go on with a dirt path where I would like pavers and stairs, and a stone-and-railroad-tie sidewalk where I really want an actual sidewalk that would not get overrun with weeds. sigh.

[Annie G]

We share a driveway with our hosta stealing neighbor and he chooses the snow plow guy and the guy always damages our yard when he pushes snow past the parking area. It drives me crazy!  I spend money putting annuals in pots every year. Yeah, I should do perennials but we take the pots in during the winter and we're only going to be here a few more years. 

 

Most of our spending is for inside projects.  We do almost all of it ourselves but it's still costly. Especially since so much work had to be done on things like wiring- knob and tube when we moved in! 

 

I think maybe most frugal people don't live in houses that need this much upkeep.  (I'm keeping that in mind as we begin our search for a house to retire to!)

 

 

[Baseball mom]

This week was not a good week for money savings.

 

Other ds has a birthday coming up. I bought a few items for him.

 

Ordered some graduation stuff for ds1

 

There was a death in the family.  Dh needed a new shirt for funeral so we went shopping.  Now dh has 4 new shirts (but 1 is going back), ds has a new pair of jeans (he has been down to 1 pair for some time now) and a new shirt,  I have a new pair of cheapo sneakers. (they were on sale)

 

We ate out after visitation and the funeral.

 

Also extra gas in vehicle.  Dh was upset and we did some riding, just getting out, instead of coming home after the funeral. Might have been extra money but I am glad we did it.  Dh seemed to feel better after.

 

 

 

[SKL]

Mostly just worked and carted the kids around to their activities this week.  I was too busy to go grocery shopping, so I ate up a lot of old stuff, but also went out to eat at quick places, to save time and stress.

 

I ordered some swim caps and swim shampoo for my kids.  Also threw in a few books, because man it is easy to shop on Amazon.  Anyone ever use the "eat your homework" cookbooks and similar?  Seems like a good way to kill two birds (or more) with one stone.

 

Saturday night, I let my kids attend a "parents' survival night" at The Little Gym from 7-10, at a cost of $40.  Normally I don't do this for several reasons (too far, too late, don't need it) but the theme was something my kid really enjoys, so I decided to indulge her.  Both kids liked it, so maybe we'll do it again, but not regularly.

 

At 9am this morning I hope to get online and register for some free library summer camps.  They won't let me register earlier.  :/  I wonder why that is.

 

The best part of the week was soccer, which is one of the cheapest things we do.  Too bad we can't do it all year long.  I'm going to miss it next year. I keep having thoughts of "maybe we should try to make it work."  Ugh.  I think not.

[Prairie~Phlox]

Ok, I've kind of been MIA, got done with prom and all three teens have started working and I'm trying to get ready for graduation.  I feel like spending is under control as best as it can be, I'm not going into debt trying to throw a party, but am waiting until the next paycheck to buy anything else, as we have property taxes due soon. The picture is the dress that I made for dd, it was originally bought from a church rummage sale for $1.00 and we spent about $15 on notions and lace. The originally dress was this the one below, she has a red dress in the exact same that she wore last year and got for $10.  It's originally from David's Bridal. Oh and I used the top part of the dress with the beading to make a clutch.

Some frugal things I've done lately, ds has been bring me leftover plants from the greenhouse that he works at.  Whenever he closes, he brings about a half flat of misc. things. 

I needed some graduation gifts, I was at Dollar Tree and found some bottles with lids and also got binder clips, white out, pencils and I already had some brand new high lighters from couponing days, I added erasers that were new and I already had, and picked up a huge bag of candy and plan to add some candy, a small pkg. of tissues and in the end, I will spend about $25 on 6 bottles, so about $4 per bottle, which is cheaper than a $10 gift card.  Plus I had fun putting them together.

 

 

Edited May 1, 2016 by Prairie~Phlox

[Jane in NC]

Lots of money spent this week getting vacations organized.  Travel is a necessary thing for us though so it is an important line item in the budget; that said, I do enjoy using points from an airline affiliated card when I can.

 

I am using points to visit my husband while he attends a two week class across the country this summer.  I won't stay the entire two weeks but am going out for the weekend in the middle plus a few days. I'll admit that having points for these situations is a great luxury.  I take advantage of the hotel on the company's dime and enjoy what I consider to be a subsidized vacation.

 

We spent money on a dinner out before seeing a local theatrical production on Saturday.  I also bought a packet of notecards when I stopped in a shop owned by an acquaintance. 

 

I picked strawberries mid-week and made a number of jars of jam for future gift giving. 

 

And I am sitting on my hands when looking over the incredible sale at the Purl Soho website.  Their yarns and fabrics are pricey which makes the sale meaningful.  I regularly use the tutorials that the site offers and feel that I should support them financially in some way.  Too many times have I seen websites/businesses fail because people expect free content.  But I simply have too large of a stash of both fabrics and yarns.  Sigh.

 

Prairie--nice job on the prom dress.  The cost of prom and all of its related activities these days boggles my mind.  There were prom kids at the restaurant where we dined last night.  It was a place with a scenic view along the river. What really surprised me were the professional photographers shooting the prom attendees along the river walk.  I had no idea...

[SKL]

Well, I got the kids into the free science camp, but I have to wait until May 11 to sign up for the other 2 camps.  I hope I remember.  :)

[Guest]

Prairie--nice job on the prom dress. The cost of prom and all of its related activities these days boggles my mind. There were prom kids at the restaurant where we dined last night. It was a place with a scenic view along the river. What really surprised me were the professional photographers shooting the prom attendees along the river walk. I had no idea...

Proms are one area where I feel ever-rising expectations are getting crazy...and it's not necessarily always the kids driving the expectations into the stratosphere! I made dinner at my home for DD's prom last year (and other dances, too); I also provided transportation, along with another parent. I took pictures (although we had a thunderstorm, so regretably few outdoor photos.) dress was second-hand, shoes from another prior dance, purse was a discount that happened to match perfectly. Hair was done at a beauty school.

 

One of my SILs was very disdainful that they did not have a limousine. I said, "it's just not necessary. Plus I drove them in my Cadillac." She said, "Well, I just feel it is safer to have a limo." I said, "Safer than being driven by me?!" Bottom line is that she (my SIL) is big on appearances and looking wealthy. For myself, I just think it is totally unimportant to spend hundreds of dollars on fancy transportation when you have a perfectly nice car to go in and a willing driver. (It's not even about my personal money; I don't even want the kids/boys/whomever to waste money on this when they have college expenses and whatever else that is way more important.)

[BlsdMama]

I'd like in on this action.  Mindful spending would be good for me...

 

Big grocery trip this weekend, but more so because of scout camping trip.  Justifiable.

DH bought two new shirts-  he went very inexpensive on them... online.  I'm concerned.  Generally I'd spend more because they last longer or aren't so thin.  I admit worry... One is for an interview a week from Monday.

I went garage saling on Friday to look for cast iron for camping because I refuse to buy it new.  Nada.  And then I did spend $18.  However, can we justify things on here?  I had $20 budgeted for a metal sprinkler - found the sprinkler -$2, and then a sturdy tool belt for DH along with some yard tools that truly were a great deal and I used ALL of it this weekend to replant hostas from the back of the house to the front.

 

Spent $35 this week on pea gravel - 2 TON of pea gravel.  Fire pit.  Didn't spend a penny on the pit itself - used our current bowl and landscaping bricks we had here.  We made benches out of stumps and logs.  It looks very cute IMO.