I mentioned in week #1's post that we had decided to give up our personal allowances and apply them to debt and or savings for that week, and we did just that!
We decided not to wait on doing the 'applying' though, but instead do it immediately. We felt like the longer we held onto our personal allowances the more opportunity for temptation there would be to spend it, so I immediately applied part of it to debt and part of it to savings. No, it wasn't a huge amount, but it was a baby step in the direction of achieving our goals! Score! Every little bit helps!
What else did we do? Hubby continued to take a sandwich with him to work for his lunch, we had another low spend week, I cooked our meals from scratch, and we did not eat out.
I'm pretty proud of our week! Our wins or losses come from our daily choices!
Looking at the big picture of our financial goals for the year is a little daunting so we're going to set mini goals for each month along with a mini challenge!
Our mini goal for January is to finish paying off one of our small debts, which is completely doable if we complete the challenge we've set before us for the month.
What's the challenge? No personal allowance for either of us the entire month; instead take it and apply it to that debt.
For February we'll set a new and different challenge and a new and different goal.
Our financial check-in with each other this week occurred while we were driving down the road. These little check-ins don't have to be big deep meetings, unless there is a need, just making sure each other is on the same page is so important, so is bouncing ideas off of each other and really listening to what the other has to say.
The take-away from this week for us was to immediately apply any 'found' money to its designated purpose. Also, to find ways to make this journey engaging and mindful.
What about you, I can't wait to read how you hunkered down financially this week.
One more thing, for the ladies who are following our book of Esther ladies Bible study, lesson 13 has been posted HERE!
mrs. patsi @ A Working Pantry
She looketh well to the ways of her household … Proverbs 31:27
Sharing 44 years' experience of frugal, prudent living and pantry building
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Hooray for a good week! That is smart to put the money towards the debt right away- the option to spend it disappears. I like your monthly mini goal idea. As for not having a personal allowance, we've done that before too. I'm sure there were things I wanted those months, but I can't remember any of them today, which just goes to show how fleeting and unnecessary they were. What I do see today are the fruits of those sacrifices.
ReplyDeleteI have stuck with my half month spending freeze goal, overcoming the temptation of a personal want that I could have easily "justified" in my mind. But I knew if I caved I'd be setting a pattern for myself. A question I have been asking myself this year is "Will it help or hinder my goals?" That pretty well nips things in the bud!
Meals and snacks were homemade. I noticed a couple of times Colton stopped for coffee before work in the mornings, and I know he works so hard and is tired so it doesn't bother me, but I've made a mental note to myself to make extra coffee in the mornings to send with him. It's a simple fix that both of us will appreciate. I've also taken your no-waste kitchen challenge to heart and that provided us with meals and treats without going to the store for anything.
I mended some of my clothes this week also (it's about time lol). Now I feel like I have new clothes. I also started some of my "old" seeds using the paper towel method to test for germination.
My spending freeze will break tomorrow as we are going out for our anniversary, but I've built up enough momentum to keep me mindful of spending as the month goes on.
Onto week #3!
Happy Anniversary, Kelsey!
DeleteThank you, Elise!
DeleteHappy Anniversary!
DeleteKelsey, Happy Anniversary!
DeleteI really like the question you ask ... will it help or hinder my goal?" I'm going to make a note of it and place it in my planner so I will see it every day and be reminded that I need to pause and consider before doing any unnecessary spending.
You've done really well with sticking with your spending freeze. I agree to break it even if you can justify it is setting a dangerous precedence, it would be for me.
Great comment! Enjoy your anniversary!
Thank you, ladies!
DeleteGood morning and happy Friday to all. Patsy, I love your monthly goals/challenge plan; it's a lot less intimidating to take things a month at a time. Or a week at a time if things are really tight.
ReplyDeleteHow did this week go in my house? Well, with an added challenge of waiting for dental work on the 17th, and ongoing pain until then, it went pretty well. I 'd been adding pre-cooked meats to the freezer, which came in very hand for Hubs. We also had 2 dozen eggs. Past tense. Eggs are a good source of protein when you can't chew much. Oatmeal is handy, too. And homemade broth. I made homemade soup we both enjoyed for a few days. There was NO going out or delivery. NO need to run to a store. Prescriptions were picked up and the new insurance has dropped our monthly costs by about 1/3rd. A nice surprise. Even the prescription for antibiotics the dentist called in was only $18.
When able to do so, I got toilets/bathrooms cleaned, laundry done, and sorted through my flannel shirts, pulling 11 out to go in the guest room closet for future craft projects. I'd like to take up quilting again this winter and learn simple embroidery. I figured using what "fabric" I have but don't wear is a good way to practice. Dollar General also sells some small, cheap kits for embroidery. I'll budget for a few of those.
Tomorrow is $5 off $25 (coupon) at Dollar General. I want to get some spiral notebooks to use for ideas and planning throughout the year. Your (wonderful) post about your potted garden has me thinking about doing our own this year. Winter is the time to plan. --Elise
I forgot to mention that the check from the electric company was deposited into savings.
DeleteI am praying for you. Dental pain is awful.
DeleteThank you, Lana.
DeleteElise, I'm so sorry you have ongoing dental pain, there is nothing like it!
DeleteRecycled clothing is an excellent source of fabric, I do it all the time.
Yes, winter is the time to plan. I stock up on spiral notebooks/tablets during back to school sales in July and August. I really try to anticipate my needs for a year and stock up. It sure saves a lot of money plus, I have it when I go into planning mode!!
Take care!
👏👏👏
ReplyDeleteLee Ann, Thank you!
DeleteYou are doing well! Getting one debt cleared just seems to give momentum to paying off bills. I am cheering you on!
ReplyDeleteWe didn't get very much done this week because we both just needed rest. I felt that we needed to go to the big salvage grocery store and I am so glad we went. Even though we are overstocked we did have some holes in the pantry. Our coffee stock was low and there right inside the door was our favorite coffee beans that never go on sale. We got ten full pounds for $36. As we went through the store item after item that we needed was on the shelf at 75 percent or more less than retail. It was such a blessing. We even got some favorite candy . This may not seem a necessary item but yes we need to have some chocolate in our pantry! When we got home I went through the candy area of the pantry and decided that the ends of a few things have to be finished before new is opened. The coffee was vacuum sealed today in half gallon jars because it is short dated.
We had an alternative medical appointment which always just makes us so tired so we did have a pizza from out that night but I used a gift card that I paid 75 percent of face value for and a coupon. Half of that is in the freezer for another meal.
Overall it was a good week. Sometimes it is best to just have a slow week and catch up with oneself!
Lana, thank you and yes, momentum is so important when you're paying off debt and rebuilding savings.
DeleteI'm glad you went to the big salvage grocery too, what great deals you got and yes, taking time to rest is vital to be able to keep on keeping on. The older we get, the more we're factoring in rest days, sometimes we just need them.
At my house, chocolate is a necessity! Enough said!!!!
For some reason blogger will not let me comment with my Google sign in on certain blogs. That's why I've been posting my name/blog on the comments.
ReplyDeleteWe got a refund from the credit union that was automatically deposited into our account. Instant savings, lol. I applied my allowance towards a debt rather than take it from the household account.
I figured our 2024 budget now that I have more or less final figures (one bill is going to change this next week and I've guesstimated on what that new amount will be) and worked it to a zero balance budget. I cannot save the hoped for 10% of our income this year except by using windfalls and such however, I can make SOME savings and I'm going to do so.
Unfortunately, this month's savings went right to paying for the repair on our heat pump. It balanced though since the refund was as much as I'd planned to put into savings. Thank you, windfall! It would have been nice to have doubled our savings this month, but I'm grateful that we had that balance.
All meals were cooked at home even when I wanted nothing so much as to go into town and get takeaway.
I did a full freezer inventory and we have food aplenty. No need to go buy more.
Patsy you are doing so well and mini goals are great and don't seem so daunting when you break things down into smaller achievable goals. So wonderful you put your personal allowances towards debt and some for savings too. I love the saying by Desmond Tutu " How do you eat an elephant, one bite at a time" that also applies to setting goals and achieving them bit by bit when the overall picture seems daunting.
ReplyDeleteI remember when we were saving for a deposit for buying our home we saved 50 - 75% of our combined income towards that goal whilst paying rent. Being that we were lower income than most, we knew that we faced both an uphill battle to buy a home for us and to get a bank loan for a home unless we saved a big deposit and were aware of property prices starting to jump from 2013 -2018 whilst renting. We decided since we both liked chocolate that every $1000 we saved we would each buy ourselves a block of chocolate as a reward. I must say we both really looked forward to that block of chocolate each as we were spending very little on anything else but we found it motivated us.
Our goal is to save up at least half of the price or more of buying myself a new car this year as we are debt free as of April this year. So far carrying over from the last few months of last year we have saved around $6100 for the car so far.
Like yourself and husband DH and I had a few mini financial catch ups about grocery expenditure and I caught up DH on the current prices of things and ways we could reduce our expenditure. We decided to go back to making bread at home in the bread making machine as we have all the ingredients here and it is cheaper to do so although occasionally we may buy some. Previously we had been buying rolls and bread as DH was studying. In our discussion we also talked about certain what we consider luxury special treat grocery items that we were buying as well that were becoming a more common purchase so we decided that yes we can still have them but less of them to save more. It is lovely that we can have mini catch ups and be on the same page too.
We are so far for the first half of the month under our grocery budget by $40.26 carrying over the over $16 odd over budget from December. Also we both agreed to apply any savings from any budget categories we were under to car savings at the end of each month too. Before we purchase anything we are both consulting on what is available in each budget category and if there isn't enough we are saying no it will have to wait whereas previously we would purchase said thing occasionally and run some budget categories into the the red. I simply don't like playing catch up over a few fortnights of income :) .
Both DH and myself have been going through our clothing that is too small for us in storage and gradually sorting through those and donating and or selling them and gradually buying clothing that fits us as the clothing budget allows.
Have a great week ahead everyone and hope you all make huge progress towards your goals in the coming week.
Lorna.
Lorna, I love your comment and have taken several notes from it! Thank you for sharing and congratulations on making a plan and sticking to it, with your determination you will soon have enough saved to purchase a vehicle.
DeleteIt looks like everyone who commented had a pretty good week one. This week found us with a few doctor's appointments in which there was good news all around. In hunkering down, all meals were cooked at home. I made a large batch of chicken caccitore, which we had one meal from and then two more went into the freezer. It used up some peppers and onions that need to be used. I made cream of zucchini soup and used up a half a can of coconut milk diluted with somle water to make the full two cups needed. The zucchini was from the base that was made last summer and frozen. We had soup, salad, and scones for dinner, using up the odds and ends from the freezer to create the meal. I made my own gift boxes and bags from from cardstock that was on hand. They came out beautifully. They were used to package up and send a birthday gift to my niece. I finished an apron for myself, cleaned the craft room and gathered supplies to make valentines from my craft closet. More money was added to our savings. Cookie
ReplyDeleteCookie, I bet your gift boxes and bags were beautiful! You do such amazing work! Congratulations on adding more money to your savings. It's a wonderful feeling isn't it, no matter the amount.
DeleteWeek 2 allowed me to stay within my goals for the month. Rather than increasing my budget categories for groceries, fuel, and entertainment (which includes my widows group outings, and events with friends) for 2024, allowing for all of the inflation over the last few years, I opted to hold it at my 2022 budgeted amounts. Last year, I was not as attentive as I should have been, and I need to get on track and better utilize my freezer and pantry, rather than grabbing something when I'm out. WIth the winter storms that were headed to Chicago, I meal planned for the next 10 days. When shopping for what I needed, I only bought the essentials and am well within my grocery allowance for the month and I won't need to shop again until Feb. if I follow my menu plan. January is a big month for me, with several large annual bills coming due at once, so staying within this budget is critical. Your posts keep me encouraged that I, too, can do it.
ReplyDeleteLori, you can do it! Staying the course is easier when we have a team of supporters and encouragement.
DeleteI forgot to mention that I've also been saving all food safe containers, like cottage cheese containers, milk cartons, etc. to use for starting seeds indoors rather than buying anything. I did this last year too and everything turned out beautifully. Before I got warming pads for them I used the top of my refrigerator as a warming pad. After everything germinated and grew a little the plants were transferred to my kitchen greenhouse window. Cookie
ReplyDeleteCookie, that's a good idea about the food safe containers and about using the top of your refrigerator as a warming pad. That's such a good frugal idea that will save us gardeners money if we don't have a greenhouse! Thanks for sharing!
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