Frugal Activities #14

I really like doing this post weekly as it keeps me accountable and makes me think twice on certain things :)

Granted, I've slacked off posting this the past few weeks, but that doesn't mean we haven't been practicing frugality, it's just been really busy ...

With the birthday and Mother's Day weekend O V E R I'm ready to get back in the groove of real life ;-) and back on the Frugal Accountability Post!

Here are some of the Frugal Activities that we have done in the past few weeks:

1.  I made my breakfast and lunch 90% of the days I worked ... yeah! Stayed far away from the dollar menu!

2.  Been reading up on some more savvy thrifty blogs ... more along the lines of saving money, early retirement, etc. I'm really itching to be FREE ... some of the blogs are good, some not so much. I will eventually put up a page with recommended reading to at least fuel the fire!

3.  Worked out at HOME instead of giving in to looking at local gyms, again. Not sure why I fall in to that trap ... even the buffiest attorney in the office says "You don't need a gym to work out Jan!" Doh. I know that! Honestly, I need to make more of an effort to exercise more ... I know that my general health relies on a little activity!

4.  Stayed far away from all grocery stores during the week. Of course, it helps that I worked until 6:30 to 7pm most nights, that definitely keeps me in line! I've done so so with the grocery budget doing this.

5.  Hubby stayed at a Sheraton in Orlando while on his business trip. He already has the membership so he's earning points again (!YES!) ... earned an extra 500 points by letting them skip housekeeping the one day (they have a program where they give you 500 extra points if you tell them to skip housekeeping one day as it's part of the "green" movement). I'm excited to earn some points again as that's how we paid for our trip to Nashville last year ...

6.  Skipped out on the grass fed ground beef sale at Fresh Market during Earth Day. I really wanted to get 20 lbs at $3.49 per pound ... but I didn't have a lot of room or extra grocery money floating around after last weeks Costco trip.

7.  Ate a LOT of ham the week following Easter Sunday ... ended up pulling what was left off the bone and freezing. Hubby may or may not make soup with the bone ... I'd prefer not as I'm not a fan of same and he just makes way too much!

8.  Again, paid all my bills on line withing the first week of the month. All I have left is the water bill ($200!!) which will be paid on the 16th.

9.  Moved over another $500.00 to my long term savings plan with Capital One 360. I like this as it takes me 3 to 5 days to get the money if I request it so it's a TRUE savings plan for me when I can't just arbitrarily transfer $50 to the checking account to cover something I want now.

10. Set up another Capital One 360 account to deposit $30 every Monday ... this is my short term savings plan for vacations, gifts, etc.

And of course, full disclosure and some of our NOT so Frugal Activities:

1. Sucked in to ordering Chinese takeout with the kids on Saturday night ... it was an awful lazy day with rain and such (and yes, we were recuperating from the many bottles of wine the previous night) .. .$30 out of pocket but did give me & Hubby lots of leftovers to eat on Sunday for lunch (this was several weeks ago)

2.  Hubby was traveling Tuesday through Thursday ... Wednesday night I asked Princess if she'd like to go grab something to eat down the street at my favorite little pub ... of course she said yes! $37 with tip ... had we both skipped the 2 beers, we would have spent around $25 ... oh well, it's good to spend one on one time with her ;-)

3.  Our weekend getaway ... I suppose I should SAY that we did do it somewhat frugally, however, the room was $300 a night (great room!) and the girl with the golf cart made some decent cash from us (what happens when you tip and then your spouse tips). If we had limited our alcohol consumption it would have been WAY cheaper ... even though we had a cooler of booze, a round at the bar for the 2 of us was $25 after tip ... I don't need to tell you that we drank A LOT. Uggg. That's what made it not so frugal.

4.  Cell phone replacement ... I did use my insurance plan for the replacement but it still cost me $150.00. I need to be MORE careful when I'm holding it ... it's been dropped one too many times and the last time was the death time.

5.  Kitchen sink ... need to remember to NOT dump greasy/oily things down the garbage disposal.  I need to make more effort to wipe the pans out over the trash can before rinsing. Cost for drain was $115.00.

6.  Stopped at Whole Foods on way home from work on Friday ... $100.xx for what amounts to pretty much "nothing". Someday I will learn!

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