- Cut back on diet coke
- Think about what I order when I eat out. I'm not a picky eater, I don't just look at the prices, I think about them.
- I have cooked a LOT more. And it's been better quality that what you can get at a fast food place.
- I've not bought any clothes or trinkets for the house since Nashville. What I did buy fit into my trinket budget.
- I have been combing the house for yard sale items for tomorrow! We have rented a community center for $20 for the day to have the sale. They have tables and hanging racks, it's the way to go :)
- I have been using up some of my gift cards. I lost (yes lost, how pathetic is that?) a $75 petsmart gift card. While doing my yard sale stuff I found it. I wouldn't throw $75 in cash around, why aren't I more careful with giftcards?
- I did the Walgreens rebates for the month. I have the stuff ready to fax back for the other months. I discovered I didn't get credit for a lip gloss in Nov either. It was $10-ish, I'll be getting that back too.
- I have organized some of my stockpile and wrote down what I am missing. Unless it's almost free, I won't be buying bodywash for... I don't, like 8 years :) Seriously though, I have 20 bottles of it, all free after rebates. That is YEARS of Walgreens/CVS stockpiling.
Things I'd like to improve on:
- I'd like to cut out coke entirely. I have been making a green tea/reg tea combo with half the sugar and a lot of lemon that I am pretty happy with.
- I'd like to stop drinking milk. I've read some pretty bad stuff about it lately that has turned me off of it. So I'll be taking a calcium supplement instead.
- I want to try to do the food stamp challenge for a month. Basically you spend $90 a month on your food. If you wanted it to be really fair you wouldn't include anything you already had. For the first month I am going to include my taco Thursday group lunch and stuff I already have. Then maybe the month after, give up tacos (I know, I'm takin crazy here) and only include new things I buy. My friend asked me if I couldn't do a $160 budget, what made me think I could do $90? I don't know, I guess we'll see!
So here is my spending for the week: 2 taco meals ($10.22), 1 taco bell run (3.55) , 1 Chinese meal (5.75) and $9.90 for grapes, bananas, onions & laundry soap bar (to make my own detergent). $29.42 - wooohoooo!
So this is why I think I can do the $90 challenge. I am going to start July 1 with a meal plan so I won't worry about what to eat when.
So you might wonder why all this is going on, why bother if I am already living below my means?
- The baby is coming, the baby is coming - hide your wallets! No really, a little worried about how much she is going to cost. I'd rather not spend the money when it's just me.
- My 401K. I know that is an odd answer but MY 401K HIT $15,000 this week! I am so excited. I have been contributing to it for 4 years now. My first year was very pitiful, like 1% in order to get the company match. The next year I did a whole 3-5%. The past two years I have been slowly creeping it up and now I'm at 12%. I am going to increase it 1% every quarter until I hit the max.
- I want the new car. In order to have the new car, part of the basement has to be converted to a garage. I have to rework one support under the deck and buy a traditional garage door. With an auto door opener, a door & the wood needed for support - it's 1K. I'm not going to park a brand new car in the driveway where the cats will get all over it.
- Plus, I want the new car. But I am not going to do a 100% finance.
So there you go. I think I've written enough uninteresting things about myself today. Have a good weekend!
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