July frugalistas

[Soror]

And the rollecoaster starts again....

They are laying off 100+ at dh's work, that won't affect him at all. They are laying off all temp workers and anybody on advisement + some more. This was expected. 

The troublesome thing is that they say there will be some changes to pay scales and it will affect 90% of employees!!! Dh has been there a very long time and is an exemplary employee. He always goes above and beyond and is known throughout the plant as a very skilled and hardworker. Over the years he's always said if things ever go bad I want to be the one known for being the best he could be, we'll see if it is enough. 10% is a pretty darn small percentage, although we don't know the details. Dh was actually just given a new position, which was approved by the plant manager. Supposedly they are going to find out the details next week, we'll be holding our breath until then and we'll proceed accordingly and do what we got to do. 

I'm a little down b/c although we expected layoffs we didn't expect the other and I was seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. But we are very resilent and have options, going through the mental exercises of thinking about putting the kids in school and going back to work has me feeling more prepared to handle whatever and we know how to live frugally.

[SamanthaCarter]

Soror, hug. I’ve been through that roller coaster, including austerity pay. It’s what got us to move away.   It think manufacturing will always be a roller coaster and I will steer my children away from mechanical engineering or other manufacturing fields of study. I don’t wish that on them. ?

[BarbecueMom]

Almost had a massive fail.  I have to get some blood work done, and the doctor's office asked if I wanted it done at the hospital, Quest, or Labcorp.  I thought Quest was in-network and Labcorp wasn't, so I got the paper to take to Quest.  I decided to double check this morning before getting the blood draw done - I had it backwards!  Quest is out of network, Labcorp isn't!   DH swears last time he had blood work done, he did it at Quest and it was in-network, so that must have changed this year.  I'm going to call the office back this morning and have that switched.  Lesson learned, double check labs with the insurance.

I don't think I'm going to hit my grocery budget target after all.  A couple unplanned food expenses popped up, like buying dinner for my mom and brother Monday night.  DS9 is going to work with DH tomorrow, and they'll go out to lunch.  I completely forgot about that until last night.  It's "take your kids to work day", but they also have an educational component and projects, so I can count it as a field trip.  One that I don't have to go on or organize, lol.

@soror, that's so nerve-wrecking.  My dad was often in a similar position, being the one they could rely on even through plant layoffs and shift shutdowns, but it took a toll over time.  Hoping everything works out.

[historically accurate]

Soror, I will keep my fingers crossed for being in the 10% - how scary!

 

I feel like my frugalista bone is broken this month. It's been an expensive month; unfortunately, I don't see that August is any better. 

Wins:

I have purchased "enough" for school uniforms, and my mom is buying her a school specific skirt so that is at least covered. If I find any deals from now to school start, I'll get another piece, but she can start. She ended with 5 short sleeve shirts, 3 long sleeves, 1 sweater, 2 shorts and 2 pants. With a skirt thrown in there, I think it's complete. I ended up at an average of $8.83 per piece, so I thought that was pretty good especially for an 8th grader and all new.

I've squirreled away some food to start making school lunches. Less of a shock to the budget if I pick up one item per week, also gives some variety instead of "Mom bought X, so I have to eat it every day this week."

Vegetable garden is just starting to produce - we didn't plant much, but DH can make salsa with all of the peppers soon. 

Kind of Wins:

University books (for oldest and DH) have all been purchased along with a graphing calculator. I got all as cheaply as I found them (only one came full price because it's a kind of workbook), but wowza, I don't want to think about the total outlay there.

Today is a DD's birthday, and she has chosen Red Robin. To save $, we're going on a day where youngest's meal is $1.99, I have a card that currently has b1g1 burgers. We'll let birthday girl get the free sundae and then we'll stop at Culver's for custard on the way home using the Kids' Meals tickets. Birthday girl can have a sundae tomorrow then as well.

Losses:

Lawn mower is in the shop; it's blowing white smoke when you turn it on. Have not heard how much to fix it.

I used up the last of the medical FSA yesterday at orthodontist. So, that payment will be coming out of my pocket until January. 

I still haven't purchased math or writing for youngest's homeschool. I can find no sales on them at all.

[JustEm]

This had not been a particularly frugal month but July never is.  Both dh and I have birthdays this month so we generally plan for splurges but with the craziness of the sale of the ouse I've been in La La land as far has spending goes.  The house settles in 2 days and then I can get back to paying attention to normal things in life

[BarbecueMom]

On 7/24/2018 at 7:10 AM, HomeAgain said:

Yesterday was almost a no-spend day.

Dh uses water bottles he can squeeze when riding his bike.  He also uses them to take his water to work (they don't set off the metal detectors like our stainless steel ones).  Well, yesterday he went to take a drink and noticed mold spores in the caps of both of them.  ? Yuck!  And they're designed so that it's impossible to clean them out.  New caps cost $6 (can't buy just the small piece, has to be a new lid), new bottles of the same design are $10. Neither seems to be a good option.  So now he's on the hunt for new, clean-able, bottles.  Any recs?

On the upside, neither of us wanted to cook dinner last night and nearly ate out..........except all of those options sounded terrible, too. ?  I ended up making a nice light dinner.  DS came home from work and realized he's starting to be mineral deficient when he sat there eating green onions by the handful.  I'm taking him to the grocery store today for fruits and veggies that require little to no prep so he can feel more stable when he gets off work at 10pm.  He's asked for salad greens, melon, and peppers, along with what I grow in the garden.

Do you have an Aldi nearby?  They'll have these water bottles for $3.99 starting next Wednesday, August 1.  Will those work?  They kind of look like the Gatorade ones a lot of the kids on DS's baseball team have.

I hear you about the metal detectors.  DH just gets coffee at work now (it's 99 cents for any size refillable cup, from a coffee cart with his favorite local brand) because it was too much of a hassle to get through security.  A dollar a day still adds up to over $20/month, but better than replacing the gross cups he'd leave in his car all day and forget about.  He also can't take a steak knife in his leftovers, apparently.  Oops.

[BarbecueMom]

I figured out one of our sources of food waste.  I usually try to keep a pack of salami and sliced cheese on hand for sandwiches when DH has nothing else to take to work (we have PB&J but they are gluten contaminated, only the kids use them).  But it seems we are never able to get them eaten before they start growing mold.  I saw a tip on the MMM forums about making sandwiches and freezing them.  I'm not too picky on taste, the GF bread does hold up well in the freezer, and I prefer to nuke my sandwiches rather than eat them cold.  I bought some salami and turkey and cheese today, and once I open them, I'll make up a bunch of sandwiches and throw them in the freezer.  They'll be easy to grab and take to park day, too, although I'm not going to bring the microwave with me to the park.  ?

The "cell phone bill" creeping up thread prompted me to check our bill... yep.  It's gone up, a lot.  I'm going to talk with DH tonight about switching some things up.  Once we finish getting the decluttering done, I'd like to switch our trash service too.  Currently we have a company that is known for being too expensive, but they are so easy to work with when you're trying to clear out debris and bulk items.  Once I get the rest of the old paint cans and the half of a demolished shed picked up, it might be time to switch.

[HomeAgain]

1 hour ago, BarbecueMom said:

Do you have an Aldi nearby?  They'll have these water bottles for $3.99 starting next Wednesday, August 1.  Will those work?  They kind of look like the Gatorade ones a lot of the kids on DS's baseball team have.

I hear you about the metal detectors.  DH just gets coffee at work now (it's 99 cents for any size refillable cup, from a coffee cart with his favorite local brand) because it was too much of a hassle to get through security.  A dollar a day still adds up to over $20/month, but better than replacing the gross cups he'd leave in his car all day and forget about.  He also can't take a steak knife in his leftovers, apparently.  Oops.

Bless you!
Dh and I just looked and they're very similar to what he had, but without the fancy top!  I don't have an Aldi near, exactly, but I can kill two birds with one stone if I run errands near the one an hour away. ? They're cheap enough that they're worth giving a go!

[BarbecueMom]

1 hour ago, HomeAgain said:

Bless you!
Dh and I just looked and they're very similar to what he had, but without the fancy top!  I don't have an Aldi near, exactly, but I can kill two birds with one stone if I run errands near the one an hour away. ? They're cheap enough that they're worth giving a go!

If you can’t find it, the green Gatorade ones that are similar are only $1 more at Target, in the sporting goods section.

[HomeAgain]

19 minutes ago, BarbecueMom said:

If you can’t find it, the green Gatorade ones that are similar are only $1 more at Target, in the sporting goods section.

Those didn't work here.  The plastic was thicker and they were harder to use on the go.

[Soror]

A bit of shopping at Aldi's, I've got a smidge of a budget left and a few more things to buy.

I took ds to Goodwill spent - $8.75- got him a lunch bag for school (new w/ tags), jeans (he has none that fit), 3 t-shirts; 

I'm thrilled I found him some jeans and they were $1.75! Children's Place like new; I don't know how long they'll last with him growing but at least they were cheap. He prefers shorts and athletic pants but I felt uneasy that he didn't have a single pair that fit.

All but one shirt was half-off.

I asked our AHG Coordinator for a scholarship, that was hard. I've served in leadership for 6 yrs and have put a lot of my own money in, I just can't do it this year.

Dh finds out his fate Aug. 10. Evidently, the 90% affected is not just pay cuts but also position changes, while dh doesn't want to change jobs that is FAR preferable to a pay cut.

[SamanthaCarter]

Pretty unfrugal week this week. My ds is in an Science day camp at the nearby state U and even though he can ride the shuttle for the 50 min drive, I decided to take him and pick him up the first day. Big school, little 12 year old. The girls and I spent the day in university town, picked berries at the berry farm ($13), bought lunch ($24), went to a small water park/pool ($15), met my local sister at a bakery ($6), bought gas and drinks ($35). It was a fantastic day worth every penny. I dropped the kids off at home that evening and drove 45 min the other way to attend a school board meeting one county over. (They are not playing by the state homeschool rules.)

Ds has ridden the shuttle since yesterday morning. The girls and I will go back to University on Friday and I will not spend money! 

[Tina]

Very tight month here.  Dd's gone to camp as a counselor most of the month, so it's just dh and I.  We spend long hours at the office, so eat out a lot.  We've just gone a few times this month, and switched to eating only once a day for the most part.  Last two meals cost us about $10 each for the both of us.  I have also fixed some meals from things I found in the freezer.  Dh being willing to not eat big meals this month-- without my saying anything--has been great. 

Had a wedding shower, and used cash I had put away.  Ordered the wedding gift, too, while I had options.  No lattes this last week and a half, at least.  Pulled out the ss bottle and I've been drinking lots of water!   The boys are going to switch to personal phone bills, too.

 

[BarbecueMom]

Aaaaasaand my laptop died.  Hard drive’s shot.  I’ve only had it for eight months.  I thought to myself earlier, “I’m so proud of myself for getting the first quarter of school work all planned out before the last minute.”  Of course that’s the magic phrase to cause catastrophic hardware failure.

It’s under warranty, but DH paid for expedited shipping.

And I lost my budget, which was just an OpenOffice document. Poof.

[BarbecueMom]

Lots of food clearance items at Target today, especially gluten free items - GF flour (Cup 4 Cup, $2.15/lb, about what I pay for KAF with subscribe and save), GF pancake mixes with Funfetti (birthday breakfast!), little Reese’s pieces and M&M’s to mix into granola or cookies.  GF pasta was marked down but still over $1/package.  Lots of McCormick spices.

I’m sure each Target is different but it might be worth checking out.

[Soror]

3 hours ago, BarbecueMom said:

Lots of food clearance items at Target today, especially gluten free items - GF flour (Cup 4 Cup, $2.15/lb, about what I pay for KAF with subscribe and save), GF pancake mixes with Funfetti (birthday breakfast!), little Reese’s pieces and M&M’s to mix into granola or cookies.  GF pasta was marked down but still over $1/package.  Lots of McCormick spices.

I’m sure each Target is different but it might be worth checking out.

1

Sweet finds! I'm jelly, no Target here! Hope you stocked up! Thanks for mentioning the price of the KAF on Subscribe and Save, I'll have to hit that if I can't get BRM on sale, with coupons at Big Lots it's $1.81 pound. I bought the rest of the supplies to make my own mix for some things too, I'm going to try that again, I'm not very optimistic I'm done a ton of different recipes w/ various homemade mixes which were only so-so and now we have recipes that we love and are simple but we'll try some new ones and see if we can find some cheaper ones that work for us.

18 hours ago, BarbecueMom said:

Aaaaasaand my laptop died.  Hard drive’s shot.  I’ve only had it for eight months.  I thought to myself earlier, “I’m so proud of myself for getting the first quarter of school work all planned out before the last minute.”  Of course that’s the magic phrase to cause catastrophic hardware failure.

It’s under warranty, but DH paid for expedited shipping.

And I lost my budget, which was just an OpenOffice document. Poof.

1

1

Bummer ? So glad it is under warranty!

20 hours ago, SamanthaCarter said:

Pretty unfrugal week this week. My ds is in an Science day camp at the nearby state U and even though he can ride the shuttle for the 50 min drive, I decided to take him and pick him up the first day. Big school, little 12 year old. The girls and I spent the day in university town, picked berries at the berry farm ($13), bought lunch ($24), went to a small water park/pool ($15), met my local sister at a bakery ($6), bought gas and drinks ($35). It was a fantastic day worth every penny. I dropped the kids off at home that evening and drove 45 min the other way to attend a school board meeting one county over. (They are not playing by the state homeschool rules.)

Ds has ridden the shuttle since yesterday morning. The girls and I will go back to University on Friday and I will not spend money! 

3

3

When ds started summer school I drove him and picked him up the first few days too to get him used to it, it was worth it. Doesn't sound to me you were going spending crazy, your expenses were very reasonable for what you did and sounds like a good day, it is worth it to save so you can have the money at other times.

19 hours ago, Tina said:

Very tight month here.  Dd's gone to camp as a counselor most of the month, so it's just dh and I.  We spend long hours at the office, so eat out a lot.  We've just gone a few times this month, and switched to eating only once a day for the most part.  Last two meals cost us about $10 each for the both of us.  I have also fixed some meals from things I found in the freezer.  Dh being willing to not eat big meals this month-- without my saying anything--has been great. 

Had a wedding shower, and used cash I had put away.  Ordered the wedding gift, too, while I had options.  No lattes this last week and a half, at least.  Pulled out the ss bottle and I've been drinking lots of water!   The boys are going to switch to personal phone bills, too.

 

5

5

Woot for reducing eating out and lattes, good job!

_______________________________________________

Dh gets to work this Saturday, all day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Word from his dept. manager is that he is on the bubble, he is trying to keep him on days might he might have to go to nights. But it doesn't look like he will have a reduction in pay, that is very good news. We still won't know for 2 wks but that is hopeful news.

I'm thinking I should sign ds up for free lunch, I think we qualify. I don't know how much they will have GF but I believe they do have a salad bar and choco milk at least, that would at least partially fill him up so I don't have to send so much. I don't want him to be that poor kid but teenage boys ate a MASSIVE amount of food.

I thought I was about out of money for groceries and might go over but it looks like I have a bit more than I thought- so perhaps I still will squeak by. Kroger has a sale on butter and sour cream this week so I want to pick some up, even though I don't technically need it. I'll have to reign in my stocking up a bit next month, it is so hard when you find good deals. I'm popping into Kroger's tonight and should be finishing my shopping for the month. 

Oh, and a neighbor asked me to water her dog for a week, so I think I'll get a bit for that. No, I've still not done my VIP interview video and people keep telling me about friends they have doing it and loving it. I'm trying to kick my own butt in gear. I have to get a space ready to take the video, that is my major hold up, it's stressing me out. I need someplace quiet and that looks nice'ish'. I've got no space in my bedroom, my closet is only 5x5 (for both of us which doesn't leave much space with clothes racks). I have no extra rooms. The basement is preferable for sound. The best place down there would be the bathroom, there is a corner in there (b/c we really need a longer vanity, I'd have to have a table, maybe for supplies, not sure what I'd use for that. Idk how I would set that up exactly. Our house is decent size (2400ish sq ft but we have 5 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms-+ 600 ft great room upstairs and 400 ft den- that are both open and not really lending themselves to quiet w/ a house of kids).

[JustEm]

Just got word from our car insurance agent that our auto insurance is going down $20/month because we moved to a different zip code!!  

[mommyoffive]

1 hour ago, soror said:

Sweet finds! I'm jelly, no Target here! Hope you stocked up! Thanks for mentioning the price of the KAF on Subscribe and Save, I'll have to hit that if I can't get BRM on sale, with coupons at Big Lots it's $1.81 pound. I bought the rest of the supplies to make my own mix for some things too, I'm going to try that again, I'm not very optimistic I'm done a ton of different recipes w/ various homemade mixes which were only so-so and now we have recipes that we love and are simple but we'll try some new ones and see if we can find some cheaper ones that work for us.

Bummer ? So glad it is under warranty!

When ds started summer school I drove him and picked him up the first few days too to get him used to it, it was worth it. Doesn't sound to me you were going spending crazy, your expenses were very reasonable for what you did and sounds like a good day, it is worth it to save so you can have the money at other times.

Woot for reducing eating out and lattes, good job!

_______________________________________________

Dh gets to work this Saturday, all day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Word from his dept. manager is that he is on the bubble, he is trying to keep him on days might he might have to go to nights. But it doesn't look like he will have a reduction in pay, that is very good news. We still won't know for 2 wks but that is hopeful news.

I'm thinking I should sign ds up for free lunch, I think we qualify. I don't know how much they will have GF but I believe they do have a salad bar and choco milk at least, that would at least partially fill him up so I don't have to send so much. I don't want him to be that poor kid but teenage boys ate a MASSIVE amount of food.

I thought I was about out of money for groceries and might go over but it looks like I have a bit more than I thought- so perhaps I still will squeak by. Kroger has a sale on butter and sour cream this week so I want to pick some up, even though I don't technically need it. I'll have to reign in my stocking up a bit next month, it is so hard when you find good deals. I'm popping into Kroger's tonight and should be finishing my shopping for the month. 

Oh, and a neighbor asked me to water her dog for a week, so I think I'll get a bit for that. No, I've still not done my VIP interview video and people keep telling me about friends they have doing it and loving it. I'm trying to kick my own butt in gear. I have to get a space ready to take the video, that is my major hold up, it's stressing me out. I need someplace quiet and that looks nice'ish'. I've got no space in my bedroom, my closet is only 5x5 (for both of us which doesn't leave much space with clothes racks). I have no extra rooms. The basement is preferable for sound. The best place down there would be the bathroom, there is a corner in there (b/c we really need a longer vanity, I'd have to have a table, maybe for supplies, not sure what I'd use for that. Idk how I would set that up exactly. Our house is decent size (2400ish sq ft but we have 5 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms-+ 600 ft great room upstairs and 400 ft den- that are both open and not really lending themselves to quiet w/ a house of kids).

 

It sounds like you have a really big house, but maybe no great place to work.  I remember seeing this on Moneysavingmom.com about how one person worked in their bathroom and how they set it up. 

 

https://moneysavingmom.com/2018/01/unexpected-income-source-thanks-money-saving-mom-post.html

[Soror]

2 hours ago, mommyoffive said:

 

It sounds like you have a really big house, but maybe no great place to work.  I remember seeing this on Moneysavingmom.com about how one person worked in their bathroom and how they set it up. 

 

https://moneysavingmom.com/2018/01/unexpected-income-source-thanks-money-saving-mom-post.html

Thanks, I'll check it out! I live in a LCOL area so our house isn't huge for our family size here, you know that's all relative!

---------------------------

Made it to Kroger's and they had bacon on sale, swoon, everyone is stoked about that! Apples from the discount bin- $1- haven't had them in bit, breakfast tomorrow. A container of plain yogurt for starter for yogurt b/c I got some milk yesterday. I got 6lbs of butter on sale, so now I've got 8# in the freezer, we usually use 1lb or so a week so maybe I can ride it out until the next sale. I think I now have a $1 or so left in my budget that I'm probably going to use on some peaches from 10Box ? I could save it but fresh cheap fruit in season is good for us.

[Baseball mom]

Mom's birthday was this month. I planned on giving her a bag of snacks as her gift.  Went to dollar tree and found a bunch of name brand snacks, really nice cards and a cute reusable bag (used as the gift bag) for very little money.

Dh got a bonus check last week.  Cashed it and went to grocery before ever coming home.  Grocery was having a meat sale and he bought all he could with the check.  I had mentioned being low on meat.  He bought ground beef, chicken & pork steaks.  Nice to have meat in freezer & I didn't have to try to figure out how to stretch the grocery budget for meat.  Not to mention I didn't have to go to the store.

[Soror]

Today I'm making strawberry jam and yogurt, I can't remember if I've made jam before, if I have it's been awhile. Oh, and Wednesday night I made a big batch of broth (from the bones I cut off the thighs), I've got to put some in the freezer. I got in my new phone yesterday, it is sooo much nicer than my old one. I'm very pleased that I got a new phone and service for a year for what it would have cost to just buy service. So, I have service for a whole year and dh is currently good through March so we won't have any expense there for a good long time. Ds now has an emergency phone that technically has service through 2020 but is very low on minutes (oodles of text though), I'm hoping to squeeze that out to the new year.  

________________________________

eta: first batch of jam is done- I've got 9 jars and enough to do another batch, trying to decide if I should go ahead and make another batch or just freeze them. Of course, we can use it to flavor homemade yogurt too, not just for toast.

So, my cost per jar is around 62c, which is about $2 cheaper than the good jam(just sugar no HFCS or other stuff) at Aldi's. Probably not as much of a bargain if I find good jam on sale somewhere but I still can't come close to that cost.

I've started on the yogurt but that process takes awhile.

[HomeAgain]

Well, here is big.
DS is thinking about taking a semester off of school.  He realized that he could get the same degree for a fraction of the cost, keep his job, and live at home if he did so by transferring to a university closer to us. (He was not a fan of dorm life) But it would require taking time off in order to get paperwork in line.  The school he would be transferring to would be a very good school.  He's mulling the prospect right now, but he's not in a position to go back to the dorms this month with a mountain of stress about after college finances.  How does this affect us?  We committed a certain amount for his college years, about 50%-60% of total costs at this college vs. 25% at the other.  Plus we don't have to worry about plane tickets back and forth and monthly help. 
So....wish him luck!  He's a great kid, and after our family talk last night he seemed to be very at peace with his decision.

[Soror]

1 hour ago, HomeAgain said:

Well, here is big.
DS is thinking about taking a semester off of school.  He realized that he could get the same degree for a fraction of the cost, keep his job, and live at home if he did so by transferring to a university closer to us. (He was not a fan of dorm life) But it would require taking time off in order to get paperwork in line.  The school he would be transferring to would be a very good school.  He's mulling the prospect right now, but he's not in a position to go back to the dorms this month with a mountain of stress about after college finances.  How does this affect us?  We committed a certain amount for his college years, about 50%-60% of total costs at this college vs. 25% at the other.  Plus we don't have to worry about plane tickets back and forth and monthly help. 
So....wish him luck!  He's a great kid, and after our family talk last night he seemed to be very at peace with his decision.

OH, that is awesome, I hope it all works out for you guys, sounds like a great move.

 

[Angie in VA]

I hope it's OK to post this here because it seems relevant. Audible's Deal of the Day for Friday July 27 is The Year of Less for $1.95 (regular price is $24.49). I don't know if it's available outside the US, but I would hope so!

Just FYI. I'm getting this. (Not an affiliate link)

[Angie in VA]

1 hour ago, HomeAgain said:

Well, here is big.
DS is thinking about taking a semester off of school.  He realized that he could get the same degree for a fraction of the cost, keep his job, and live at home if he did so by transferring to a university closer to us. (He was not a fan of dorm life) But it would require taking time off in order to get paperwork in line.  The school he would be transferring to would be a very good school.  He's mulling the prospect right now, but he's not in a position to go back to the dorms this month with a mountain of stress about after college finances.  How does this affect us?  We committed a certain amount for his college years, about 50%-60% of total costs at this college vs. 25% at the other.  Plus we don't have to worry about plane tickets back and forth and monthly help. 
So....wish him luck!  He's a great kid, and after our family talk last night he seemed to be very at peace with his decision.

 

This is brilliant! And he's lived in the dorms so he knows what he's NOT missing. Think of the money he'll make while working and getting that paperwork done. He's one smart guy! 

[Soror]

Dh has been told that the plant manager (aka the big boss) has approved for him to stay days as a floating set-up. That means he'd help out when needed- bigger jobs or someone has a day off and then do his current job when not. This is the best case scenario! It still won't be 100% confirmed for 2 wks but this is a very good sign!

[HomeAgain]

1 hour ago, Angie in VA said:

 

This is brilliant! And he's lived in the dorms so he knows what he's NOT missing. Think of the money he'll make while working and getting that paperwork done. He's one smart guy! 

He really is.  ?  He has grown up well, which is all I can ask for.  He is definitely respected at his work by the manager and customers, so I think they'll be glad to have him around longer, too.  All in all, I can't fault his plan, though I did almost kick him when he seemed apologetic about living at home longer. He felt like he was an adult out on his own last year.  ?  We told him there's time enough for that later....and that we STILL will expect him to feel like this is his home even after he's off and running.

[JustEm]

We settled on the house! We got a bit over $22,000 from the sale.  $3000 will pay off the card I put the reno material on. another $500 is going toward a beach trip dh and I are going on next week without the kids, not frugal because we are paying a bit more at our regular place because it is peak time but my dad is insisting we get away just us before he has his knee surgery so it is what it is.  Another $2500 will go straight into dh's RothIRA account so we can max it out for the year.   And the rest goes into savings.

Now dh and I need to sit down with my parents and figure out what they want us to pay for living here.  The last time we talked my dad said he'd probably just charge the added utility expenses so we can sock away everything else we were spending on housing to go toward the next house we purchase together.  If that is the case then we'll be saving at least $1300/month for the next place, which is awesome. Time to crunch numbers.

[mommyoffive]

2 hours ago, hjffkj said:

We settled on the house! We got a bit over $22,000 from the sale.  $3000 will pay off the card I put the reno material on. another $500 is going toward a beach trip dh and I are going on next week without the kids, not frugal because we are paying a bit more at our regular place because it is peak time but my dad is insisting we get away just us before he has his knee surgery so it is what it is.  Another $2500 will go straight into dh's RothIRA account so we can max it out for the year.   And the rest goes into savings.

Now dh and I need to sit down with my parents and figure out what they want us to pay for living here.  The last time we talked my dad said he'd probably just charge the added utility expenses so we can sock away everything else we were spending on housing to go toward the next house we purchase together.  If that is the case then we'll be saving at least $1300/month for the next place, which is awesome. Time to crunch numbers.

 

Congrats!!

[mommyoffive]

8 hours ago, soror said:

Dh has been told that the plant manager (aka the big boss) has approved for him to stay days as a floating set-up. That means he'd help out when needed- bigger jobs or someone has a day off and then do his current job when not. This is the best case scenario! It still won't be 100% confirmed for 2 wks but this is a very good sign!

 

Sounds like great news. 

[BarbecueMom]

Frugal wins for the week:

- I had some medical tests done this morning that required fasting. It would have been so easy to swing by Starbucks after it was over, but I brought coffee and a Larabar (which had been purchased on markdown at Target a couple months ago!) from home.

- Went back to Target to get the rest of the GF flour (2 bags) and pancake mixes (2 boxes), and realize I’d missed a section of marked down items!  They also had dry milk powder packets for $0.75, which I can use for making cocoa this winter or in GF cinnamon roll dough.

- I pitted and froze three bags of cherries from Aldi’s sale this week.  We use frozen cherries year round in yogurt and smoothies, and these were 1/2 the cost of Costco’s.  It looks like I committed an ax murder and tried to clean it up in my kitchen, but they’re all in the freezer now!

 

I think I have more meat and pantry goods to end the month than I had at the beginning, and there is no room for stocking up on anything else right now.  I may do a “pantry challenge” next month to start working through these things.  Anyone else interested?  Might be fun to see what random dishes come out of it.

[JustEm]

Just did my last grocery trip of the month and squeezed in just under our $500/month budget.  It would have been about $20 less but I bought some beef in bulk that was really marked down, so that will actually be used in August. Plus, I'm making a meal this week for a homeschool group mom who just had a baby

[JustEm]

What do you all use for budgeting? I'm looking for a good system, preferably an excel spreadsheet that I can use to track the money coming in, going out, and going into savings.  I'd like it to have both monthly pages and a year to date sheet.

[frogger]

4 hours ago, hjffkj said:

What do you all use for budgeting? I'm looking for a good system, preferably an excel spreadsheet that I can use to track the money coming in, going out, and going into savings.  I'd like it to have both monthly pages and a year to date sheet.

 

I used to use a homemade excel sheet for awhile but just this year we moved to mvelopes. I'm not sure I'd reccomend it yet. I was constantly changing my homemade thing but of course, I can't change mvelopes.

I have a hard time following a curriculum too. ?

[JustEm]

8 hours ago, frogger said:

 

I used to use a homemade excel sheet for awhile but just this year we moved to mvelopes. I'm not sure I'd reccomend it yet. I was constantly changing my homemade thing but of course, I can't change mvelopes.

I have a hard time following a curriculum too. ?

Hmm, I love the envelope system so that is appealing. I doubt I could convince myself that $4/month is worth it to me. But I'll pull it over, thanks for the suggestion.

[Soror]

I used to use spreadsheets I made myself but dh hated them. We switched to Mint, he still doesn't love budgeting but likes Mint ok and the interface is easy to use and pretty to look at.

fail yesterday: I accidentally scorched the bottom of my pan making sauce from our garden tomatoes, I ended up having to throw out about half of it

win: I started to set up an area to teach in the basement bathroom, I guess I just need to print a few things for the wall to make it look nicer- slow progress

dh check out a movie from Redbox for an at-home date night, we had a coupon so it was 75c;

kids ate homemade pizza and dh and I had steak from his Mom- steak was not the best- odd as it wasn't that old but she had bought it on mark-down anyway

[mommyoffive]

8 hours ago, heartlikealion said:

keep us posted, soror! What a roller coaster.

I just purchased the audio book. Hopefully Amazon used my $1 credit toward the purchase. What a great price. Thanks.

I got a notification a few weeks ago that someone logged into my Pinterest account. I think I accidentally opened two accounts and I hardly use the thing. I can't imagine the purpose of hacking that. Then today I got an email notification that someone hacked into my paypal account. Ugh. The "from" looked legit, it was the same email I get other PP notices from. I just changed a whole bunch of my passwords as I have no idea what is going on. Hope no one is trying to spend what little I had in there.

Since I'm still healing from a foot injury it would probably be wise not to shell out the $20 for the "not back to school" homeschool party coming up soon. I was thinking of going with dd, but it's a pool party and I definitely need to be on my feet assisting her. I would love to go but it may just be too much right now.

The shirts we didn't get monogrammed for dd have been dropped off on campus but I couldn't get to the building to pick them up and dh was out of town for work today. I guess next week we can get our money back for them and use toward groceries (they came from WM). I had left one of ds' old jackets as a sample for the school logo and our neighbor saw it. She wants to buy the jacket from us, I guess as a spare. I don't think there's any other way to get a spare since the uniform stores closed down and I don't know if the school still carries the jackets. We agreed to sell it to her. Dh had someone interested in his Apple watch (which he only wore about 2 weeks after winning it as a prize at a conference). That would be really great if he could sell it.

I'm just a few points shy of another $2 Shopkick GC. I want to pair that with the Target GC toward a lunch bag for dh. He picked the one from Target which I was leaning toward.

 

I missed that you hurt your foot.  I hope it gets better soon. 

Maybe your dh should sell the watch online. 

[mommyoffive]

13 hours ago, hjffkj said:

What do you all use for budgeting? I'm looking for a good system, preferably an excel spreadsheet that I can use to track the money coming in, going out, and going into savings.  I'd like it to have both monthly pages and a year to date sheet.

 

We don't use anything.  We have a written budget and know what our normal bills are. 

We just max out all our retirement accounts, pay our bills, and then spend the rest.  But we have a full EF, pay our credit bills in full, max out retirement funds, so I feel like we can let things go  now.    When things were tighter we stuck to a budget for sure.  

[JustEm]

24 minutes ago, soror said:

I used to use spreadsheets I made myself but dh hated them. We switched to Mint, he still doesn't love budgeting but likes Mint ok and the interface is easy to use and pretty to look at.

 

Mint has pretty much lost me forever as a customer.  I really like the concept and the interface but when I used it they had double entry issue. So I had entries that would get added multiple times and the only way to fix it was to manually delete each entry.  This added what should have been a 5 minute budget review per month into an hour long process.  I sought help from customer service and they couldn't do anything. So I closed my account.  A few years later I read that they had finally fixed that glitch, which apparently a lot of people had, so I decided to give it another try.  Unfortunately,it still did it for me.  This time customer service just told me that they fixed the issue so I shouldn't be having that issue.  When I explained that I was in fact having that issue, they just kept saying they fixed that issue.

[mommyoffive]

19 hours ago, hjffkj said:

We settled on the house! We got a bit over $22,000 from the sale.  $3000 will pay off the card I put the reno material on. another $500 is going toward a beach trip dh and I are going on next week without the kids, not frugal because we are paying a bit more at our regular place because it is peak time but my dad is insisting we get away just us before he has his knee surgery so it is what it is.  Another $2500 will go straight into dh's RothIRA account so we can max it out for the year.   And the rest goes into savings.

Now dh and I need to sit down with my parents and figure out what they want us to pay for living here.  The last time we talked my dad said he'd probably just charge the added utility expenses so we can sock away everything else we were spending on housing to go toward the next house we purchase together.  If that is the case then we'll be saving at least $1300/month for the next place, which is awesome. Time to crunch numbers.

 

Did you have to pay taxes on the 22k?   I haven't looked into this in probably a decade.  We may sell our house and not buy something right after.  Don't you have to pay taxes on the gains if you are not buying another home? 

[JustEm]

11 minutes ago, mommyoffive said:

 

We don't use anything.  We have a written budget and know what our normal bills are. 

We just max out all our retirement accounts, pay our bills, and then spend the rest.  But we have a full EF, pay our credit bills in full, max out retirement funds, so I feel like we can let things go  now.    When things were tighter we stuck to a budget for sure.  

Right now I do have a written budget and just want something more.  We max out our retirement accounts, pay the bills, and have a full EF as well.  But just spending the rest isn't something I want to do.  I have no problem spending our left over money on things that are important to me but often times if I don't keep a tight eye on where are money is going we end up wasting it on eating out too much or another dumb product no one needs. I'd rather find a better use for it, either in the present or just start socking it away in the stock market to get us closer to retirement.

[JustEm]

6 minutes ago, mommyoffive said:

 

Did you have to pay taxes on the 22k?   I haven't looked into this in probably a decade.  We may sell our house and not buy something right after.  Don't you have to pay taxes on the gains if you are not buying another home? 

 

I believe you don't pay taxes on the sale of the house if you owned it for more than 5 years and lived there for at least 2 of those years. well on the first $500,000 as a married couple.

[mommyoffive]

1 minute ago, hjffkj said:

Right now I do have a written budget and just want something more.  We max out our retirement accounts, pay the bills, and have a full EF as well.  But just spending the rest isn't something I want to do.  I have no problem spending our left over money on things that are important to me but often times if I don't keep a tight eye on where are money is going we end up wasting it on eating out too much or another dumb product no one needs. I'd rather find a better use for it, either in the present or just start socking it away in the stock market to get us closer to retirement.

 

Yeah we don't spend it on stuff.  We spend on experiences.  We travel internationally a lot.  And the kids are in a very expensive activity.  That are the two things that we spend on. 

[JustEm]

1 minute ago, mommyoffive said:

 

Yeah we don't spend it on stuff.  We spend on experiences.  We travel internationally a lot.  And the kids are in a very expensive activity.  That are the two things that we spend on. 

 

This is where I want to be, well not on expensive activites, we don't have to pay for kung-fu which thankfully they all love as a main activity.  The problem is that dh came from a family of spenders.  They all buy new stuff all the time. He is not nearly as spendy as the rest of them anymore but because of how he was raised it can be really easy for him to just not think about what our goals are in the moment and buy XYZ.  And sometimes I just go along with it because it can get exhausting always being the logical one.  But we are going to the beach next weekend and I think that will remind him how much better these experiences are than having another board game or whatever.

[SamanthaCarter]

I tried Mint about 12? years ago and wanted to love it. It was so buggy I gave up. In the years since I’ve heard so many recommendations that I’m tempted to give it another try. <shrug>

[mommyoffive]

3 minutes ago, hjffkj said:

 

This is where I want to be, well not on expensive activites, we don't have to pay for kung-fu which thankfully they all love as a main activity.  The problem is that dh came from a family of spenders.  They all buy new stuff all the time. He is not nearly as spendy as the rest of them anymore but because of how he was raised it can be really easy for him to just not think about what our goals are in the moment and buy XYZ.  And sometimes I just go along with it because it can get exhausting always being the logical one.  But we are going to the beach next weekend and I think that will remind him how much better these experiences are than having another board game or whatever.

 

I get you on being the responsible one.  Dh was the spender and now he isn't except on experiences.  I am glad he changed.  Would giving him his own blow money work? 

The kids are all into dance.  $$$$$$$$$ They want want to be professionals.  I love dance.  It is amazing to watch and great for them.  But I kind of regret going down this path.  The park and rec sports and swim team were so much cheaper. 

[BarbecueMom]

I didn’t like Mint, either.  I’ve just used a notebook for years, but started keeping a budget on the computer this year when I finally got a computer (I had only used my phone for internet for years, but not easy to plan school stuff with).

And then the weekend before we were going to back everything up (because school planning for the first ~6 weeks was just finalized), the hard drive completely fried right in the middle of reading a recipe while cooking dinner.

I’m going back to paper - for budget and school planning/recording.  Fortunately, I had been tracking non-bill spending on paper still.  That’s much harder to lose than the bills where there’s a bank record to look back on.

[JustEm]

3 minutes ago, mommyoffive said:

 

I get you on being the responsible one.  Dh was the spender and now he isn't except on experiences.  I am glad he changed.  Would giving him his own blow money work? 

The kids are all into dance.  $$$$$$$$$ They want want to be professionals.  I love dance.  It is amazing to watch and great for them.  But I kind of regret going down this path.  The park and rec sports and swim team were so much cheaper. 

We have had our own blow money categories in the past and this is what I'd like to get back to it.  When we had that he would just save it and have his tattoo worked on, which while I view as a waste of money is less a waste then the mindless spending that happens.  He has come a LONG way in ten years so I am glad for that.

Yes dance is expensive.  We have opted to just do the dance classes at parks and rec, which actually just got a lot cheaper because we are now in the city limits so get the resident discount!  We are blessed to have kung-fu as our main activity because dh's job doesn't charge us for classes or the events they have.  We just pay for new uniforms every few years.

[JustEm]

3 minutes ago, BarbecueMom said:

I didn’t like Mint, either.  I’ve just used a notebook for years, but started keeping a budget on the computer this year when I finally got a computer (I had only used my phone for internet for years, but not easy to plan school stuff with).

And then the weekend before we were going to back everything up (because school planning for the first ~6 weeks was just finalized), the hard drive completely fried right in the middle of reading a recipe while cooking dinner.

I’m going back to paper - for budget and school planning/recording.  Fortunately, I had been tracking non-bill spending on paper still.  That’s much harder to lose than the bills where there’s a bank record to look back on.

 

If you use something like google drive it'll back things up onto the cloud and then you won't lose anything.  

[mommyoffive]

3 minutes ago, hjffkj said:

We have had our own blow money categories in the past and this is what I'd like to get back to it.  When we had that he would just save it and have his tattoo worked on, which while I view as a waste of money is less a waste then the mindless spending that happens.  He has come a LONG way in ten years so I am glad for that.

Yes dance is expensive.  We have opted to just do the dance classes at parks and rec, which actually just got a lot cheaper because we are now in the city limits so get the resident discount!  We are blessed to have kung-fu as our main activity because dh's job doesn't charge us for classes or the events they have.  We just pay for new uniforms every few years.

 

Yes dance wasn't so bad when we were doing park and rec.  A nearby town has an amazing park and rec dance program.  But the the dance school we go to is on a different level.