~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ May 2022 Frugalistas ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[mommyoffive]

May Day! 

Anyone still hanging in here?  Rising prices on everything is sure making being a Frugalista hard.  

Hoping the April showers are bring you some May flowers.

[Brittany1116]

Hello. We are planning a birthday party this month. Hoping for no big surprises with the budget. Miiiight call a relator to see about possibly selling but too much backstory to share more info now. 

Gas is hard to find right now! Multiple stations are out multiple days this week. And the prices sure don't help me feek better about it.

[cjzimmer1]

Well I just paid off April's credit card charges and there was nothing frugal about that.  The majority of it was all planned expenses (yearly car and house insurance as well as supplies for trimming the windows in the sunroom and materials for the landscaping around it) but it's still painful to see that much outgoing in one month.  The good news is I came in under budget for groceries even with prepaying for my Ruby's Pantry pickup next month.  I did spend a quite bit on clothes for the youngest 3 because they were all needing new things and I found great sales on pants for youngest DS. May is the only month out of the year that I work but it's 45 minutes away so there will be lots more spent on gas in May.  Otherwise I'm expecting bills to be better because when I work so much there is no time to go to the store. However June's grocery bill will probably go up again because I will need to restock everything that got used in May that I didn't have time to replenish. Such is life.  There is always something.

We still have one more payment to the builder for the sunroom but I have no idea when that will be due.  We are waiting for both the door and window manufacturers to replace product because we got the great misfortune of getting a leaking door and a leaky window but the manufacturers are so behind that it takes months to get a replacement. And we are also waiting for gutters (and have been for 6 weeks) and the builder has no idea when that will be done either.  So my current projection is some time this summer but it gives us that much more time to save up more towards it and thus can borrow less with the HELOC.

[historically accurate]

I wrote a whiny post and then it got eaten.

To make a long story short, budget was completely busted last month. Groceries double normal - Whole30 and covering my brother's groceries as well. Gas up (and we just added another driver who needs 50 hours of practice). Rent 10+% increase. Com Ed (our electricity provider) just put in for an increase in price as well.

On the good news, Whole30 caused me to lose a huge amount of weight which was needed. I have never lost weight like this before. So I'm ecstatic about that. 

[mommyoffive]

6 minutes ago, historically accurate said:

I wrote a whiny post and then it got eaten.

To make a long story short, budget was completely busted last month. Groceries double normal - Whole30 and covering my brother's groceries as well. Gas up (and we just added another driver who needs 50 hours of practice). Rent 10+% increase. Com Ed (our electricity provider) just put in for an increase in price as well.

On the good news, Whole30 caused me to lose a huge amount of weight which was needed. I have never lost weight like this before. So I'm ecstatic about that. 

Ugh all the increases.  It is so hard right now because it is every aspect of life. 

Congrats on the weight loss!

[mommyoffive]

11 hours ago, cjzimmer1 said:

Well I just paid off April's credit card charges and there was nothing frugal about that.  The majority of it was all planned expenses (yearly car and house insurance as well as supplies for trimming the windows in the sunroom and materials for the landscaping around it) but it's still painful to see that much outgoing in one month.  The good news is I came in under budget for groceries even with prepaying for my Ruby's Pantry pickup next month.  I did spend a quite bit on clothes for the youngest 3 because they were all needing new things and I found great sales on pants for youngest DS. May is the only month out of the year that I work but it's 45 minutes away so there will be lots more spent on gas in May.  Otherwise I'm expecting bills to be better because when I work so much there is no time to go to the store. However June's grocery bill will probably go up again because I will need to restock everything that got used in May that I didn't have time to replenish. Such is life.  There is always something.

We still have one more payment to the builder for the sunroom but I have no idea when that will be due.  We are waiting for both the door and window manufacturers to replace product because we got the great misfortune of getting a leaking door and a leaky window but the manufacturers are so behind that it takes months to get a replacement. And we are also waiting for gutters (and have been for 6 weeks) and the builder has no idea when that will be done either.  So my current projection is some time this summer but it gives us that much more time to save up more towards it and thus can borrow less with the HELOC.

Oh I hope your sunroom is totally done soon.  I am sorry about the leaky door and window.  I hope that isn't causing any damage.  ARe you able to use the room at all now?

[cjzimmer1]

4 hours ago, mommyoffive said:

Oh I hope your sunroom is totally done soon.  I am sorry about the leaky door and window.  I hope that isn't causing any damage.  ARe you able to use the room at all now?

They applied a whole bunch of silicone stuff around the door. It's super ugly and it's all over the glass but at least it's not leaky until they get the new panel made.  The window is at the seam where the panels meet (it's three windows in one huge opening) so it's not damaging anything in the short term but I also can't (well I should say I won't) do the jamb and trim work because it's a small leak and could easily go undetected if it were finished.  We can kinda use the room.  We go out and watch the dogs outside (without having to freeze or get soaked.  We can sit in the sun but half the room has no floor trim and the dogs keep eating/ripping the unfinished drywall edges so I have gates blocking all the unfinished areas.  So we can go in it but not really use it.

[Brittany1116]

4 hours ago, historically accurate said:

I wrote a whiny post and then it got eaten.

To make a long story short, budget was completely busted last month. Groceries double normal - Whole30 and covering my brother's groceries as well. Gas up (and we just added another driver who needs 50 hours of practice). Rent 10+% increase. Com Ed (our electricity provider) just put in for an increase in price as well.

On the good news, Whole30 caused me to lose a huge amount of weight which was needed. I have never lost weight like this before. So I'm ecstatic about that. 

Happy for your happy part! Congrats.

[mommyoffive]

16 hours ago, Brittany1116 said:

Hello. We are planning a birthday party this month. Hoping for no big surprises with the budget. Miiiight call a relator to see about possibly selling but too much backstory to share more info now. 

Gas is hard to find right now! Multiple stations are out multiple days this week. And the prices sure don't help me feek better about it.

I hadn't heard about gas being hard to find.  This freaks me out.  What area are you in?  Good luck with the selling.

[prairiewindmomma]

We’re shopping for a new car, a new roof, and maybe solar. Inflation is actually causing us to accelerate some spending plans while our purchasing power is still stronger. These are things we need in the next three years, and we don’t see inflation calming much for those particular things before then due to all of the complicated circumstances. 

We are also stashing everything away we can outside of those expenditures in prep for recession. 
 

Both of our current cars are in line for the repair shop. I am glad for my AAA towing credits. *sigh*

 

[mommyoffive]

2 minutes ago, prairiewindmomma said:

We’re shopping for a new car, a new roof, and maybe solar. Inflation is actually causing us to accelerate some spending plans while our purchasing power is still stronger. These are things we need in the next three years, and we don’t see inflation calming much for those particular things before then due to all of the complicated circumstances. 

We are also stashing everything away we can outside of those expenditures in prep for recession. 
 

Both of our current cars are in line for the repair shop. I am glad for my AAA towing credits. *sigh*

 

Very interested in how your solar experience goes.  Says the girl who hasn't seen the sun more than a few peeks from clouds in at least a week or more. 

Oh man are your cars driveable now? 

What car are you looking for? 

Where are you stashing money in thoughts of a recession?

[prairiewindmomma]

Oh, I forgot to mention. I lucked into strawberries at $1.29/lb today. I would have bought all they had if I had room in my freezer and if I knew they had plenty of backstock. 
 

The “good” store didn’t have many gaps today, but one was chicken breasts. There were only two packages and I took one, and I feel guilty about that. One package will be stretched through a few meals, though, so I did it.

[prairiewindmomma]

2 minutes ago, mommyoffive said:

Very interested in how your solar experience goes.  Says the girl who hasn't seen the sun more than a few peeks from clouds in at least a week or more. 
 

Even though I am in a place known for cloudy weather, enough of my neighbors have solar that I have a good sense of what my generation numbers will look like. We plan to grid tie with battery backup and my state “balances” accounts once a year—my overgeneration in summer when the sun is up 5am-10pm should balance out the dreary winters. We will probably break even at the 15 year point but we are doing this less for $$$ reasons and more to be energy independent. We have rolling brownouts some summers and ice storms in the winter. We also currently have our electricity coming from hydro but as snowpack decreases with climate change, rates are going to increase significantly as they have to bring in more solar and wind. It’s coming, and sooner than we would like.

Oh man are your cars driveable now? 
 

One is, one isn’t. I got an engine overheat notice on my 4 year old car even though coolant levels are fine. Either a sensor or a fan died and I won’t know which until it goes in, so it’s going to be towed whenever I can get it in in case it’s the fan. The 20 year old car has an appointment Friday for work but it’s running. We aren’t fixing all of the things that are broken—just the safety things. AC hasn’t worked in that car for close to a decade, and the one repair we tried didn’t work. It has other issues as well—but we just live with them.

What car are you looking for? 
Dh wants a long range electric commuter car that can become our primary car as kids leave the nest and we don’t need a minivan anymore. We usually buy new and have it for 20 years. We like the Hyundai Ioniq5 best so far, but the dealership we were working with wants 10k over MSRP—so 60k for the one they have in stock. That’s hard to reconcile with the fact I can get a new hybrid accord for 32k. Trying to work out a plan of all of the things we want to do and prioritize funds accordingly.

Where are you stashing money in thoughts of a recession? 

 

We have a diversified plan on managing recession planning as it’s painful to have that much cash sitting out depreciating while also acknowledging that stock markets obviously correct during recessions. Bonds are essentially unhelpful right now—so it’s all just complicated. Dh does some active trading outside of our portfolios and he is very good at it. I wish we had some passive income going—that had been our next goal—but we have had some big medical hits and other things over the last few years. 

 

[prairiewindmomma]

Youngest has talked me into making organic strawberry fruit leather: 1 lb organic strawberries, 3 T honey, blend and pour out into a baking dish lined with parchment paper. dry in a convection fan oven set to 100C/212F for about an hour. 
 

🤞this turns out. 

Edited May 1, 2022 by prairiewindmomma

[mommyoffive]

2 hours ago, prairiewindmomma said:

 

We have a diversified plan on managing recession planning as it’s painful to have that much cash sitting out depreciating while also acknowledging that stock markets obviously correct during recessions. Bonds are essentially unhelpful right now—so it’s all just complicated. Dh does some active trading outside of our portfolios and he is very good at it. I wish we had some passive income going—that had been our next goal—but we have had some big medical hits and other things over the last few years. 

 

Keep us updated on the solar and how it goes.  And also what car you go with.  

[mommyoffive]

Today spending so far

Grocery pick up order with some furniture in the order that I am so excited to use and organzie. 

Tickets for the dance show my kids are doing. 

 

Need to do some more dance ordering for intensives and shows.

[Shoeless]

I've decided to start making bread at home. But I want to start with no-knead, "easy" breads. Now I need a Dutch oven! 

Anyone have strong opinions on cast iron, enameled dutch ovens? Le Creuset is out of my budget.

[Brittany1116]

@mommyoffive Florida. Idk why it's short but it has been a couple places now.

@MissLemon I have one from Martha Stewart. I use it often and have absolutely no complaints. My grandmother gave it to me. 

 

We went to the Cuban cafe for breakfast, and picked up a couple of things at Lowes. $65ish today?

[Shoeless]

39 minutes ago, Brittany1116 said:

@mommyoffive Florida. Idk why it's short but it has been a couple places now.

@MissLemon I have one from Martha Stewart. I use it often and have absolutely no complaints. My grandmother gave it to me. 

 

We went to the Cuban cafe for breakfast, and picked up a couple of things at Lowes. $65ish today?

Thanks, I will look at the Martha Stewart ones. I've been stalking the thrift stores for weeks, hoping to find one, but no luck. 😕

[prairiewindmomma]

2 hours ago, MissLemon said:

I've decided to start making bread at home. But I want to start with no-knead, "easy" breads. Now I need a Dutch oven! 

Anyone have strong opinions on cast iron, enameled dutch ovens? Le Creuset is out of my budget.

I bought a 6 qt Lodge one from Amazon—cream colored—several months ago. It does a beautiful job with my sourdough bread. I paid $75?? Quality has been good—no pitting, enamel defects, issues with the knob, or rough edges. It cooks evenly and it washes up nicely despite its light color.

Our Home Goods carries Staub and Le Creuset on the regular. There’s also a fair number of Le Crueset outlets around if brand really matters.

 

[Shoeless]

52 minutes ago, prairiewindmomma said:

I bought a 6 qt Lodge one from Amazon—cream colored—several months ago. It does a beautiful job with my sourdough bread. I paid $75?? Quality has been good—no pitting, enamel defects, issues with the knob, or rough edges. It cooks evenly and it washes up nicely despite its light color.

Our Home Goods carries Staub and Le Creuset on the regular. There’s also a fair number of Le Crueset outlets around if brand really matters.

 

Brand doesn't matter. I want quality that will last for 20+ years. It can be stamped Acme like from Bugs Bunny for all I care 😆

Hmm, apparently we have a Home Goods store not too far from here. I have to head into that town soon-ish, so I'll take a peek in there. 

Edited May 2, 2022 by MissLemon

[Soror]

We're still doing our best. 

Last month's budget would be titled, it is only money. Between funeral clothes, food expenses while out, and money given to the family it was obviously more than planned. That doesn't count the ER+ catscan bill to come.

This month is finishing up vaca planning and hoping we can keep it much tighter. Financially I'll be anxious to get the vaca done and make sure it stays on budget. We still have a shop to build this summer and I'm anxious about costs there. 

Yesterday starting off expensive but needed things. Dh had to replace both hiking shoes (6 yrs old) and tennis shoes (he's had 4 yrs and his dads before that). Both had holes in them at this point. We also got dd a pair of shorts to replace hers lost in the crash. Ds still has to buy a bag, he needs one for school anyway, his school issued bag he's used for 3 years broke. I need to survey clothes again. I think we're all mostly good now but need to lay out what everyone plans to bring. 

Dh is almost done with college so our gas bill will be going down, thank goodness. 

 

[mommyoffive]

11 hours ago, Brittany1116 said:

@mommyoffive Florida. Idk why it's short but it has been a couple places now.

@MissLemon I have one from Martha Stewart. I use it often and have absolutely no complaints. My grandmother gave it to me. 

 

We went to the Cuban cafe for breakfast, and picked up a couple of things at Lowes. $65ish today?

Hmm that is so odd and worrisome.

[cjzimmer1]

May is not starting out well.  Had to take a dog to the emergency vet yesterday.  She's barely been eating or drinking since Thursday and even refused super high value foods like liver and fish.  I thought she felt warm but didn't really know.  One of my foster puppies was adopted by a veterinarian and he's offered to be a resource.  So I sent him a message to ask what he thought (turns out the guy is on vacation in Italy and still took the time for many messages with me - LOVE that guy).  Anyways her temp was pretty high and he said take her in.  They didn't find anything obviously wrong but she was dehydrated so gave her fluids and meds to help with her appetite.  She is a little bit better today and no fever which I'm very thankful for but if she doesn't recover quickly I will have to take her in for a full bloodwork and who knows what else.  They did rule out blockages so at least she's not in imminent danger.  

Hoping to just skip grocery shopping this week.  We have plenty of food on hand so in theory it's possible but I know the kids would prefer if I picked up more fresh fruit and veggies.  Will have to see how my time plays out.  This is the month I work in the greenhouse so all my normal routines are thrown out the window.

[cjzimmer1]

16 hours ago, prairiewindmomma said:

Youngest has talked me into making organic strawberry fruit leather: 1 lb organic strawberries, 3 T honey, blend and pour out into a baking dish lined with parchment paper. dry in a convection fan oven set to 100C/212F for about an hour. 
 

🤞this turns out. 

I didn't add honey to mine so that may make a difference but when I tried straight strawberries they got kinda brittle on me.  I did better adding some applesauce to my to keep the more chewy texture.  Just throwing it out there in case you need to try something else.

[cjzimmer1]

12 hours ago, MissLemon said:

I've decided to start making bread at home. But I want to start with no-knead, "easy" breads. Now I need a Dutch oven! 

Anyone have strong opinions on cast iron, enameled dutch ovens? Le Creuset is out of my budget.

Have you seen the book Artisan Bread in 5 minutes a day? Their recipes just bake on the stone and no dutch oven necessary.  I used to do some in the dutch oven but much prefer the style in the book because it's much less work plus I can mix up the dough in advance and store it in the fridge and just bake a hunk each day.

[mommyoffive]

11 minutes ago, cjzimmer1 said:

May is not starting out well.  Had to take a dog to the emergency vet yesterday.  She's barely been eating or drinking since Thursday and even refused super high value foods like liver and fish.  I thought she felt warm but didn't really know.  One of my foster puppies was adopted by a veterinarian and he's offered to be a resource.  So I sent him a message to ask what he thought (turns out the guy is on vacation in Italy and still took the time for many messages with me - LOVE that guy).  Anyways her temp was pretty high and he said take her in.  They didn't find anything obviously wrong but she was dehydrated so gave her fluids and meds to help with her appetite.  She is a little bit better today and no fever which I'm very thankful for but if she doesn't recover quickly I will have to take her in for a full bloodwork and who knows what else.  They did rule out blockages so at least she's not in imminent danger.  

Hoping to just skip grocery shopping this week.  We have plenty of food on hand so in theory it's possible but I know the kids would prefer if I picked up more fresh fruit and veggies.  Will have to see how my time plays out.  This is the month I work in the greenhouse so all my normal routines are thrown out the window.

Hoping your dog is ok.  Is it your younger or older one? 

[prairiewindmomma]

1 hour ago, cjzimmer1 said:

Have you seen the book Artisan Bread in 5 minutes a day? Their recipes just bake on the stone and no dutch oven necessary.  I used to do some in the dutch oven but much prefer the style in the book because it's much less work plus I can mix up the dough in advance and store it in the fridge and just bake a hunk each day.

We did the basic Artisan Bread recipe for years on our pizza stone. They have a spin-off cookbook with healthier bread recipes, but with the same easy method. 

[prairiewindmomma]

I am sorry your dog is not well. 😔

[prairiewindmomma]

I am of the age where everyone’s parents are dying. My BFF’s mom looks to be on her way out of mortality. Any gift ideas? She and her mom aren’t especially close so the usual lovey dovey stuff isn’t necessarily the right direction—especially with Mother’s Day coming up.

[prairiewindmomma]

We lost some of our garden to the late frost and heavy hailstorms we have been having. I have new seedlings going under the grow lights/seed heating mat for the transplants and I directly sowed what I could for the rest yesterday. Most veg plant seedlings are close to $5 each in the nurseries—even places like Lowes or Home Depot. Is that what you guys are seeing also? I am used to 2/$3-4 for 4” veg plants.
 

I used my Amazon points to buy a hydroponics kit. Youngest wants to grow some things hydroponically. We were going to buy a generic hydroponic kit but when we priced our replacement growing medium and other things, the aero garden became more appealing pretty quickly. Amazon gave me a $22 off coupon so I pulled the trigger on that.

Youngest is going the aero garden direction with her hydroponics. I am going to try the Kratky method for herbs with all of the leftover jam and salsa and marinara jars we go through. I want to get her system going and the get the garden stabilized—but I am hopefully between everything I will have solved my fresh greens and herbs issue. The Kratky method looks super affordable so I wanted to toss that out there if people didn’t know about it. Amazon carries rock wool.

[Brittany1116]

1 hour ago, prairiewindmomma said:

We lost some of our garden to the late frost and heavy hailstorms we have been having. I have new seedlings going under the grow lights/seed heating mat for the transplants and I directly sowed what I could for the rest yesterday. Most veg plant seedlings are close to $5 each in the nurseries—even places like Lowes or Home Depot. Is that what you guys are seeing also? I am used to 2/$3-4 for 4” veg plants.
 

I used my Amazon points to buy a hydroponics kit. Youngest wants to grow some things hydroponically. We were going to buy a generic hydroponic kit but when we priced our replacement growing medium and other things, the aero garden became more appealing pretty quickly. Amazon gave me a $22 off coupon so I pulled the trigger on that.

Youngest is going the aero garden direction with her hydroponics. I am going to try the Kratky method for herbs with all of the leftover jam and salsa and marinara jars we go through. I want to get her system going and the get the garden stabilized—but I am hopefully between everything I will have solved my fresh greens and herbs issue. The Kratky method looks super affordable so I wanted to toss that out there if people didn’t know about it. Amazon carries rock wool.

Yes to inflation on plant starts. Things I have bought for 2.99 many times are now 4.99+.

[saraha]

I sent this picture to my dh saturday. That was one plant. Now he gets why I have really embraced seed starting as ds11 started 60! Tomato plants this year from one $3 packet of seed. Thats 1% of the cost of buying them.

[saraha]

1 hour ago, prairiewindmomma said:

We lost some of our garden to the late frost and heavy hailstorms we have been having. I have new seedlings going under the grow lights/seed heating mat for the transplants and I directly sowed what I could for the rest yesterday. Most veg plant seedlings are close to $5 each in the nurseries—even places like Lowes or Home Depot. Is that what you guys are seeing also? I am used to 2/$3-4 for 4” veg plants.
 

I used my Amazon points to buy a hydroponics kit. Youngest wants to grow some things hydroponically. We were going to buy a generic hydroponic kit but when we priced our replacement growing medium and other things, the aero garden became more appealing pretty quickly. Amazon gave me a $22 off coupon so I pulled the trigger on that.

Youngest is going the aero garden direction with her hydroponics. I am going to try the Kratky method for herbs with all of the leftover jam and salsa and marinara jars we go through. I want to get her system going and the get the garden stabilized—but I am hopefully between everything I will have solved my fresh greens and herbs issue. The Kratky method looks super affordable so I wanted to toss that out there if people didn’t know about it. Amazon carries rock wool.

I looked at a set up Home Depot had over the weekend. I just don’t have a good place to set it and plug in

[mommyoffive]

I bought so many expensive garden plants last year.  Even a $14 tomato plant with that ended up doing horrible.  The under $4 ones I bought produced a ton.  

Signed up the kids for horse back riding lessons for the month.

[Shoeless]

11 hours ago, cjzimmer1 said:

Have you seen the book Artisan Bread in 5 minutes a day? Their recipes just bake on the stone and no dutch oven necessary.  I used to do some in the dutch oven but much prefer the style in the book because it's much less work plus I can mix up the dough in advance and store it in the fridge and just bake a hunk each day.

I have seen it, yes. I want the Dutch oven because I know I will use it for other things, even if I give up on bread making 🙂

[cjzimmer1]

11 hours ago, prairiewindmomma said:

We lost some of our garden to the late frost and heavy hailstorms we have been having. I have new seedlings going under the grow lights/seed heating mat for the transplants and I directly sowed what I could for the rest yesterday. Most veg plant seedlings are close to $5 each in the nurseries—even places like Lowes or Home Depot. Is that what you guys are seeing also? I am used to 2/$3-4 for 4” veg plants.
 

I don't buy plants as my relatives own a greenhouse and I get my plants for free but I will say from the producer side our costs have gone sky high.  We normally only raise prices about every 3-4 years but had to raise them last year to stay solvent after COVID and then had to raise them again this year.  We hated doing it but our heating expense alone tripled from normal years (mostly because of the high cost of heating fuel but also the ridiculously cold spring has meant we needed significantly more heat than usual and then the delivery fee of the fuel doubled). And that's only one aspect of our costs.  Now we are by no means a Lowes or Home Depot so we have no negotiating power but understand people are having a hard time with the higher costs but if we don't raise our prices we go out of business.  It sucks for everyone involved. 

PS.  I don't blame you one bit for starting your own.  It definitely is a cost savings. I'm sorry you lost plants that's always a discouraging prospect.

[cjzimmer1]

13 hours ago, mommyoffive said:

Hoping your dog is ok.  Is it your younger or older one? 

It's one of the "older" ones.  I have two that are about a year and half old and one that is 6 months old.  We just had that one spayed last week.  But atl east that was a planned pet expense instead of this emergency one.

She is slightly better.  No fever all day. She still won't eat dog food but is at least eating chicken and rice.  And tonight she is chewing her bully stick.  Energy is still pretty low but seems better than Saturday and Sunday. 

[Brittany1116]

We had a flash flood and hail yesterday and lost some plants as well.

I also balanced the budget app today and realized I overdid it on Thriftbooks and essential oils while I was laid up and bored. Yikes!

[mommyoffive]

14 hours ago, cjzimmer1 said:

It's one of the "older" ones.  I have two that are about a year and half old and one that is 6 months old.  We just had that one spayed last week.  But atl east that was a planned pet expense instead of this emergency one.

She is slightly better.  No fever all day. She still won't eat dog food but is at least eating chicken and rice.  And tonight she is chewing her bully stick.  Energy is still pretty low but seems better than Saturday and Sunday. 

I am glad she is doing better today.

[mommyoffive]

14 hours ago, Brittany1116 said:

We had a flash flood and hail yesterday and lost some plants as well.

I also balanced the budget app today and realized I overdid it on Thriftbooks and essential oils while I was laid up and bored. Yikes!

Ugh I am sorry about losing the plants.  I hope that is all the damage you had.

[mommyoffive]

Through May 5th, hop on over to Walgreens where they are offering a FREE 8×10 Photo Print when you use promo code MAYFREEBIE at checkout! Plus, opt for free store pickup to get your order in as little as an hour and save on shipping costs!

[HomeAgain]

Joining in here...

So far, so good this month.  It's the month where everything seems to be falling apart, lol, so I am wondering how it's going to go.  Lawnmower died finally.  It had been on its last leg for a while.  We ordered a new carburetor, filter, etc. for about $25, which was definitely cheaper than buying a new one.  Then ds's bike needed a new quick release.  We had replaced the bolt on it but it needed constant tightening.  $10 for a whole new mechanism.

I picked up an extra tutoring job (yay!) and dh sold a bike, earmarking that money for replacing the firepit out back.  We were going to buy one until we started designing it ourselves. It'll be about 3.5ft across on the inside.  We have a forest of trees that need constant maintenance and the pit needs to be able to handle burning some bigger logs.

Hello Fresh is continuing to save us money.  It's about the same amount we would have spent on dinners, but we're also then not deciding to push off a meal and eat out, or letting something go bad, or running back and forth to the store because we forgot an ingredient....we're at the store weekly now: about another $120 on breakfasts, lunches, and staples. I know I can come in from a busy day and have dinner on the table in 40 minutes because I'm not hunting around to gather up ingredients, recipe, etc.

My goal this month: find things to put in vacation boxes for the kids.  I want to surprise them with useful-ish stuff before we set out on our trip, so unusual snacks, a t-shirt, etc.  I have the containers already: packable backpacks. They shrink down to pocket-sized nearly but look like a regular backpack when unfolded.  I bought them before the pandemic and they've sat in my closet ever since.  The stuff inside, I'd rather not pay full price for but we'll see how that goes.

 

[Shoeless]

Philosophical question about how you categorize expenses:

I include everything we buy at the grocery and drug store as "groceries": toothpaste, trashbags, strawberries, etc. I have not been consistent in including pet supplies. Sometimes I stop at Tractor Supply or the pet store, sometimes I just grab them with the groceries. 

Do you split stuff like shampoo and dog food into separate categories? Part of me feels like, if it's an item that everyone benefits from, like laundry soap, then it goes into "groceries". We don't eat the dog food, (ha!), but we obviously all benefit from having well-fed pets. 

But what about DH's diet soda habit? Because that crap adds up and he's the only one that drinks it. I feel like maybe that should be categorized as "personal", and not impact my grocery budget. I could argue that we all benefit from not having DH be crabby because he doesn't have a diet soda.  But if I recategorize sodas, should I then also recategorize dog food or shampoo?

This is all a thought experiment. DH doesn't care what I spend on food or shampoo; I'm the one that gets a kick out of trying to get the grocery bill as low as possible. 

[saraha]

Just for myself, the pop would just go under groceries. I buy fake meat for my one vegetarian and no one else eats it but I still put it under groceries. Since we have both pets and farm animals we have that kind of food as a separate line item. Shampoo and stuff all comes from groceries because I don’t want to take the time to itemize all that out.

[Brittany1116]

8 hours ago, MissLemon said:

Philosophical question about how you categorize expenses:

I include everything we buy at the grocery and drug store as "groceries": toothpaste, trashbags, strawberries, etc. I have not been consistent in including pet supplies. Sometimes I stop at Tractor Supply or the pet store, sometimes I just grab them with the groceries. 

Do you split stuff like shampoo and dog food into separate categories? Part of me feels like, if it's an item that everyone benefits from, like laundry soap, then it goes into "groceries". We don't eat the dog food, (ha!), but we obviously all benefit from having well-fed pets. 

But what about DH's diet soda habit? Because that crap adds up and he's the only one that drinks it. I feel like maybe that should be categorized as "personal", and not impact my grocery budget. I could argue that we all benefit from not having DH be crabby because he doesn't have a diet soda.  But if I recategorize sodas, should I then also recategorize dog food or shampoo?

This is all a thought experiment. DH doesn't care what I spend on food or shampoo; I'm the one that gets a kick out of trying to get the grocery bill as low as possible. 

We have groceries, pet, and household (can be paper towels, toothpaste, anything from hardware store, etc). My husband also drinks soda and always has. It is just part of the grocery bill. 

[prairiewindmomma]

If we had pets, I would put that under the pet category so I could understand the true costs of having a pet—vet visits, food, toys, etc.

I have a groceries account and I have a household account. Things you eat or drink go into groceries, everything else goes into household.

[mommyoffive]

1 hour ago, saraha said:

Just for myself, the pop would just go under groceries. I buy fake meat for my one vegetarian and no one else eats it but I still put it under groceries. Since we have both pets and farm animals we have that kind of food as a separate line item. Shampoo and stuff all comes from groceries because I don’t want to take the time to itemize all that out.

Same.  I don't separate things.  Whatever I buy at the grocery store goes under grocery.  Since we shop at aldi and walmart there are a lot of Non Grocery store things that I just lump as grocery items. 

[cjzimmer1]

8 hours ago, MissLemon said:

Philosophical question about how you categorize expenses:

I include everything we buy at the grocery and drug store as "groceries": toothpaste, trashbags, strawberries, etc. I have not been consistent in including pet supplies. Sometimes I stop at Tractor Supply or the pet store, sometimes I just grab them with the groceries. 

Do you split stuff like shampoo and dog food into separate categories? Part of me feels like, if it's an item that everyone benefits from, like laundry soap, then it goes into "groceries". We don't eat the dog food, (ha!), but we obviously all benefit from having well-fed pets. 

But what about DH's diet soda habit? Because that crap adds up and he's the only one that drinks it. I feel like maybe that should be categorized as "personal", and not impact my grocery budget. I could argue that we all benefit from not having DH be crabby because he doesn't have a diet soda.  But if I recategorize sodas, should I then also recategorize dog food or shampoo?

This is all a thought experiment. DH doesn't care what I spend on food or shampoo; I'm the one that gets a kick out of trying to get the grocery bill as low as possible. 

I've read lots of posts about budgeting on various forums over the years and ultimately I think the best way is just pick a way that YOU like.  Some people want simple and just lump it all together, others thrive on knowing every little detail.  I separate it all out but I very rarely buy household products at the same store as I buy groceries so it's not much work for me.  I like keeping pet stuff separate because I have a habit of spending way too much on toys and treats and it help me keep better tabs on that if I keep it a separate budget category.  

[prairiewindmomma]

Fwiw, the reason I separate it was because I needed to understand roughly what my reoccurring costs were in each category. At the time I started this, I was doing a monthly Costco run where I bought a bale of toilet paper, a bale of paper towels, a container of laundry soap (I was cloth diapering four kids, so even more laundry than now), and so on. It made me realize how greatly I was underfunding food because a lot of the things I was getting was just what we needed as part of running a household. (This was back in the $400/month for food days.)

However your brain deals with that is fine—but it helped me realize at the time we had an income problem, not an out-go problem.