Saving Money This Week
We just hosted the wedding reception for Princess this past weekend and well, let's be honest, there was a lot of green soldiers marching out the door for a few weeks prior to that!
Tents. Chairs. Tables. Linens. Paper goods. Food. Drinks. Decorations. Flowers. Champagne. Clothing.
Oh and then there was the bridal shower the week before that. I volunteered the food (no biggie, Costco run, about $100 with tons of leftovers) BUT then all the girls wanted to come back to the house to see Poppy (Hubby) and the dress and drink some more champagne (which makes me thankful I keep a supply of good and not so very good champagne on hand, you just never know) ...
Oh. And let's not forget about the birthday night. Friday night before the bridal shower was a good friend of mine's birthday celebration so a few of us girls went to her house and sat on the lake, sipping wine and champagne and eating good things until about 1am. I spent as much for a card as I did a bottle of wine ... $9.99 for the card, $9.99 for the yummy bottle of wine and then $4.99 for the really neat little bag for the wine.
I picked up most of the stuff on Saturday night after most of the guest had left. There were a few stragglers hanging around but it was fine. The reception was a success, the mess that night and sunday morning were fairly easy to deal with and clean up. The kids helped Sunday morning, to pick up the rest of the stuff left from the night before, they entertained me with stories of taking over the Tiki Bar at the hotel where the bride and groom were staying. They opened the gifts that had taken over my dining room table as I sipped a can of Sprite and took notes of the gifts.
THEN. They drove and got donuts for everyone still at the house. I figured THIS is a perfect time for a spending freeze! Not to mention, new month ahead! MARCH! I can take a chill pill for the week and not feel guilty because I'll be saving money! *I do need to pick up toilet paper, coffee and bread, but that's it AND I did that Monday night ... AFTER I found out that my 18 year old niece had flown in to stay with us for the week!
1. Eating all meals at home. That means, breakfast, lunch AND dinner. We have plenty of leftovers so it's fine. Even with an extra houseguest, we are eating leftovers!
2. Staying out of all stores. Grocery, clothing, etc. We have everything we need at this time (including those above mentioned leftovers).
3. Come Tuesday, I will be evaluating what to freeze (from the leftovers) for future meals. I mean, heck, we've got meatballs & marinara, stuffed shells, lasagna, pulled pork (naked!) and beef brisket. Not that I'm supposed to be focused on FILLING up the freezers right now since we are trying to sell the house, but I also don't want to let any of this go to waste!
4. I've had quite a bit of padding in my checking account lately. I'm nervous that I'm going to feel the need to go on a spending spree (more so than I just did!) because the cash is sitting there. What I think I'm going to do is just hit a credit card hard with a $1000 and move the balance to savings (about $800). That will make me start all over again with a low checking account balance, but it's ok, it will get fat again over time! Don't worry, this will be when I get my paychecks and I will have more than enough to pay bills with for the first half of March. AND I do have the American Express bill coming in but that's already budgeted in as well ...
5. Organize my dresser drawers. HOW is that going to save me money? Uhm, show me WHAT I have that I don't remember because all the clothes on the bottom of the drawers never see the light of day since I apparently wear the same things over and over ;-)
OH! And then ... the cat water fountain pump stopped working (yes, my cats have a drinking fountain) so we ordered a replacement through Amazon for $21. It arrived, 2 days later, thanks to Prime but was the wrong size (the connector wasn't the same size) so I had to send it back. These fountains are $80 new. I goggled and youtubed it and found out how to take it apart. Works better than the first day now! Yeah!
And there you have it ... MYFIVE SIX THINGS!
What are you going to do this month to save money? Let me know in your comments as it's always good to see what others are doing!
*I just got my daily text from Digit and it shows I have $307 in savings right now so I need to move another $200 back to put towards an additional debt payment ... this is a GREAT program!
Tents. Chairs. Tables. Linens. Paper goods. Food. Drinks. Decorations. Flowers. Champagne. Clothing.
The list goes on and on.
Oh and then there was the bridal shower the week before that. I volunteered the food (no biggie, Costco run, about $100 with tons of leftovers) BUT then all the girls wanted to come back to the house to see Poppy (Hubby) and the dress and drink some more champagne (which makes me thankful I keep a supply of good and not so very good champagne on hand, you just never know) ...
Oh. And let's not forget about the birthday night. Friday night before the bridal shower was a good friend of mine's birthday celebration so a few of us girls went to her house and sat on the lake, sipping wine and champagne and eating good things until about 1am. I spent as much for a card as I did a bottle of wine ... $9.99 for the card, $9.99 for the yummy bottle of wine and then $4.99 for the really neat little bag for the wine.
I was plain exhausted Sunday morning.
I picked up most of the stuff on Saturday night after most of the guest had left. There were a few stragglers hanging around but it was fine. The reception was a success, the mess that night and sunday morning were fairly easy to deal with and clean up. The kids helped Sunday morning, to pick up the rest of the stuff left from the night before, they entertained me with stories of taking over the Tiki Bar at the hotel where the bride and groom were staying. They opened the gifts that had taken over my dining room table as I sipped a can of Sprite and took notes of the gifts.
THEN. They drove and got donuts for everyone still at the house. I figured THIS is a perfect time for a spending freeze! Not to mention, new month ahead! MARCH! I can take a chill pill for the week and not feel guilty because I'll be saving money! *I do need to pick up toilet paper, coffee and bread, but that's it AND I did that Monday night ... AFTER I found out that my 18 year old niece had flown in to stay with us for the week!
So here's what I'm doing this week:
1. Eating all meals at home. That means, breakfast, lunch AND dinner. We have plenty of leftovers so it's fine. Even with an extra houseguest, we are eating leftovers!
2. Staying out of all stores. Grocery, clothing, etc. We have everything we need at this time (including those above mentioned leftovers).
3. Come Tuesday, I will be evaluating what to freeze (from the leftovers) for future meals. I mean, heck, we've got meatballs & marinara, stuffed shells, lasagna, pulled pork (naked!) and beef brisket. Not that I'm supposed to be focused on FILLING up the freezers right now since we are trying to sell the house, but I also don't want to let any of this go to waste!
4. I've had quite a bit of padding in my checking account lately. I'm nervous that I'm going to feel the need to go on a spending spree (more so than I just did!) because the cash is sitting there. What I think I'm going to do is just hit a credit card hard with a $1000 and move the balance to savings (about $800). That will make me start all over again with a low checking account balance, but it's ok, it will get fat again over time! Don't worry, this will be when I get my paychecks and I will have more than enough to pay bills with for the first half of March. AND I do have the American Express bill coming in but that's already budgeted in as well ...
5. Organize my dresser drawers. HOW is that going to save me money? Uhm, show me WHAT I have that I don't remember because all the clothes on the bottom of the drawers never see the light of day since I apparently wear the same things over and over ;-)
OH! And then ... the cat water fountain pump stopped working (yes, my cats have a drinking fountain) so we ordered a replacement through Amazon for $21. It arrived, 2 days later, thanks to Prime but was the wrong size (the connector wasn't the same size) so I had to send it back. These fountains are $80 new. I goggled and youtubed it and found out how to take it apart. Works better than the first day now! Yeah!
And there you have it ... MY
What are you going to do this month to save money? Let me know in your comments as it's always good to see what others are doing!
*I just got my daily text from Digit and it shows I have $307 in savings right now so I need to move another $200 back to put towards an additional debt payment ... this is a GREAT program!
Great tips on how to save money. Thanks for sharing on Sunday's Best linkup.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like you have a great plan and congrats on surviving all of the festivities! Thank you for sharing with us this week at Celebrate Your Story, have a great weekend.
ReplyDelete