Over at The Cheapskates Club, many members are participating in the Frugal February / Spending Freeze Challenge. This is a challenge where all non essential spending is halted for the month of February. After watching this challenge for many years, Darren and I have decided to give it a go.
During January we had expenses for our trip away to Tasmania. We also had to buy a new mattress and a new laptop. None of these expenses could be avoided but our savings has taken a huge hit. Mattress prices have increased enormously since we bought the last one 10 - 12 years ago. This time round we only replaced the mattress and kept the old base to save costs. Let's just say if you want a comfortable mattress, there's nothing much under $2000 and that's the sale price.
Darren needs two computer screens for his new job so he took my old laptop that was running a bit slow. Thankfully laptops were on sale for the ' Back to School ' season and we got a good deal for my new one.
As you know, we are very frugal ( most of the time ). We are not perfect with our spending and do like to have morning tea or a lunch out every now and then. This spending freeze challenge has got us excited about increasing our savings account.
The rules for this challenge -
* Continue to pay all household bills as per usual. This includes gas, electric, water, rates, insurances, medical ( if needed ), food, petrol and mortgage / rent if you usually do this.
* Only spend money on absolute essentials
You can't spend money on -
Takeaways
Eating out
Going to the movies
Buying magazines
Entertainment
Clothes / shoes
Toys
Homewares
Here's our plan of attack for a successful challenge -
* For us personally we will not be eating out at all for the entire month of February. We are just going to resist the urge. I'm happy to make hamburgers, nachos, pizzas and fish and chips at home all from scratch with what we have on hand.
* Making sure we take water bottles and muesli bars wherever we go as a back up for hunger pains.
* Combining errands in one trip and when we are already on the road for cleaning jobs.
* Using the seeds we already have to plant more veggies and flowers instead of shopping at Bunnings.
* No birthdays fall in February but I will be looking ahead to future months to try and make the presents.
* Using the homewares we already have and perhaps rearranging them for a new look.
* When the urge strikes us to go shopping at department stores, we will be writing a list of what we THINK we need and revisit the list at the end of the month. Maybe we won't need that item after all.
* I will only be buying essential food items. My stockpile is very healthy. Now is the time to live off it.
I hope to give you a weekly update of how the challenge is going for Darren and I and how much money we are saving or spending.
 |
| We hope to have lots of this at the end of the month. |
 |
| Using what we have. |
 |
| Making our own takeaway / fast food |
 |
| Baking from scratch. |
I'd love to join, as we have a very expansive and expensive renovation coming up this year, husband is going to his home country for 2 months, and we are going on a family vacation to Madrid for a week at Easter.We have plenty of food in the house, and we receive 'meal vouchers' from our employers, which have a total of about €250/month.
ReplyDeleteThe only 2 items we really have to pay for this month are hairdresser's appointments. I just cannot do dds (half-African-half-European) curly hair. It's about €130 every 3 months.
The dentist will be postponed to March.
Our project 'introduce dds to other national foods' will continue: we have takeaway every Friday from a different cuisine from the surrounding restaurants. We typically share 2 plates between the 4 of us, just to get a taste of it, and if we like it, to replicate at home. This Friday we'll have a cheese-and-fruit platter from the local kindergarten's fundraiser.
We have enough clothes and shoes, although dd1 (13) seems to have a growth spurt right now. I'll wait a week or 2 before buying her new/secondhand items.
We started clearing the house for the renovation, so will use up as much as possible.
Fortunately just before the latest grocery problems began I felt I needed to go to a specific Coles. When I arrived they were marking down a lot of meat. I bought more than a month's worth at quite low cost. The beef mince for the highest quality was $2.50 a pack. We still have the meat in the freezer. I am trying to eat from the stores at home but need buy milk and fresh produce. I do have some bread flour here but mum turned her nose at it because it rye flour. But we will be eating at home etc as much as possible. Sadly today the main air conditioner died and we live in South East Queensland so a technician was call was called this evening.
ReplyDeleteSuzan, you can use rye flour in pancakes! Just switch about a quarter of the normal flour for rye flour. It gives the pancakes a 'deeper' taste.
DeleteThank you. I love a pancake.
DeleteI like the idea of making a list of what you 'think' you need and waiting until the end of the month. That must save a fortune!
ReplyDeleteI’m all in Wendy, going well so far 4 days in! Look forward to your updates
ReplyDeleteMy husband and I are trying to do this too. My exceptions will be stocking up on grocery items IF there is a good sale on something that we use quite a bit of normally and my hubby has his regular bowling league on Thursday nights, which he will continue.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to give this a go as i'm having arm surgery on Monday so I won't be able to drive to the shops for quite awhile.
ReplyDeleteBest wishes for a successful outcome.
Delete