No Spending Challenge: The End!

The ghouls and goblins arrived which heralded the end of October. Thank goodness.

I was not able to do the daily posts like I hoped to track everything, so here is the final tally of our attempt at significantly decreasing our spending:

Last Tally for Days 19-31:
Baseline Avg Spending Combined: $1,823.14
Actual Spending Combined: $605.98
Savings: $1,217.16

As you can see we were getting a bit tired in the second half of the month. I give major kudos to those bloggers who have done this hardcore and not spent a dime, it was tough for us. The majority of the $605 was spent on groceries, the liquor store (weekend company!) plus some miscellaneous stuff.

So how did we do overall? It wasn't a total bust though I am a little disappointed in how dedicated we were. Here is the final breakdown for October:

October Tally:
Total Baseline Avg Spending: $4,266
Total Actual Spending: $1,468
Total Savings: $2,797

Original Savings Goal: $3,000 ($203 short)

We spent only 34% of our average spending previously, which is certainly good. We came close to the $3000 target but fell a little short. We paid off 2 bills we wanted gone and that felt great.

Lessons Learned:

1. This is a lot harder than it looks, if you are trying to be strict.

2. Set a firm food budget. For me this was the hardest area to control. I have a very hard time keeping the grocery bill to a minimum mostly because I buy a lot of organics or sustainably raised food which costs more, but I think is worth it. Hubby & kids seemed to be a sense of panic whenever the pantry got too low (like i was trying to starve the family or something). I also just really enjoy food and cooking so I always want to try new things, hard for me to say no!

3. You need to have a plan for the unexpected. We had a few house issues that cost money, not a lot but still things we had to stop and decide what was worth spending money on and where do you draw the line?

4. Everyone needs to be vested in the process. I think we were both pretty good at this, but we probably could have been better at deciding to go really hardcore, i.e. spend less than we did.

5. Plan for kids and their expenditures. We told our kids what we are doing and why and they were sort of OK about it, only whining occasionally. But we had a few times where they had activities costs we were unsure of how to approach. So this is what I did:

Did NOT Buy: school pictures, clothes or shoes, toys. DID Buy: Friend's birthday present for a party, some small special food requests not on the menu, school lunches, 1 school party: tickets & & food. I'm not sure we really tackled this area the best though it could have been worse, I fended off a request for something that costs money almost daily.

6. Be concrete over what is discretionary and what is not. Medical costs hit us a couple times and it wasn't something we planned for but I optioned to add it as a bill and not discretionary. Car maintenance is another area we struggled with (became a bit of both discretionary and non).

The Fallout:

All in all we are really happy we did this, it proved we can spend less and save money. In fact we've been talking about doing this maybe quarterly, January for sure (post-Christmas freeze).

Looking at what we spent what we saved and how tight things felt, we decided to set a goal of saving $1000 a month going forward. I think this is doable as long as we don't go back to our old ways or don't have some big expenditures we are unprepared for. That $1k would be going to an emergency fund to help pay for the things that creep up on us. Also, we are planning on traveling to either Italy or Egypt next year and both options are expensive so we have a lot of money to save up in the next 6-9 months.

Happy Saving!

No Spending Challenge: Days 12-18

Sorry for not posting last week, it was a busy home and work week and time got away from me. We are still moving along with our challenge, in fact I moved $1400 into my not so secret savings stash yesterday which was an accumulation of the money we HAVE NOT SPENT this month - yea! Check out our Month Tally in the middle column.

My end goal for this month is to pay off my credit card bill and then focusing on pushing as much cash as I can back into savings. Boy this frugality and saving stuff is not easy for us. I wish I could say it is, I really do but being frugal is not inherent to my nature. We also want to finish the master bathroom project but have committed to saving up for what we want first, so some savings will apply to that (because I do need a toilet back some day!).

Tally for Days 12-18:
Baseline Avg Spending Combined: $1,073.04
Actual Spending Combined: $217.30
Savings: $855.74

So what was that $217 spent on and why did we spend over $1k on average before that?

The baseline was driven by 2 vacations and a wedding which all had at least some or all of the expenses occur during this time in the month - yikes!

Our expenses in the last week:
My Hungry Man ate 2 lunches out while working in DC (he was great about taking his lunch most days but missed a couple). Regular groceries which were less than $80 this week for a family of 4, that is of course subsidized by my Polyface Farm meat order and the pantry. The most expensive were some car parts due to a dead headlight and worn brake pads. The in-house auto mechanic will do the work and we figured it was probably cheaper than a ticket.

No Spending Challenge: Day 11

Just a quick hit today. We spent $19 on copper plumbing fittings for a leaking pipe, there was no postponing that one! The pipe is now fixed which is a relief.

Tally for Day 11:
Baseline Avg Spending: $147.20
Actual Spending: $19.00
Savings: $128.20

No Spending Challenge: Days 8-10

Well things are clicking along with our savings now. Yesterday was a good day as we spent $0. Those days seem few and far between. I am finding as this goes that it is a lot harder than it sounded initially and not so easy to just not spend any money at all, at least with kids in the house. That said we are starting to make progress overall. Today was grocery shopping day and I totally blew my budget which is to stay under $100, I wound up spending $138. There were a few factors driving that, but the biggest one I think was that I did not use my calculator adding everything up as I went. Using a calculator (I use my phone if I forget it) makes such a huge difference in what you spend, if you've never done this try it and see if you start really thinking twice about what is going into your cart. Next week it will be back to the calculator for me.

Tally for Days 8-10:
Baseline Avg Spending Combined: $634.77
Actual Spending Combined: $161.40
Savings: $473.37

No Spending Challenge: Days 4-7

I am playing a bit of catch up today on the No Spending month calculations. If anyone out there in blog land is keeping track, well we are still moving along, albeit slowly. So instead of listing every day, I am summing it up.

Tally for Days 4-7:
Baseline Avg Spending Combined: $340.38
Actual Spending Combined: $250.83
Savings: $89.55

This included an order from Polyface Farm for my meat order, this was expected so no unplanned spending there though the overall pounds were higher than I anticipated and raised my expected cost (but I also got more meat, so OK). I also had an unplanned trip to Richmond due to a work computer issue and ended up buying lunch out (and a great lunch it was!) with my co-workers. So all in all we didn't go too far off track but more than I would like. I plan on trying to replicate the curry chicken salad, the hands down best I've ever had, at home on a future date.

From the Polyface order I decided to make a quiche tonight. My mother in law made some pretty inspiring quiches last month and I've always wanted to make one, especially seeing as the pre-made ones at Wegmans cost $8. It was my first attempt and it turned out pretty darn good. The egg yolks were such an orange color, nothing like an egg you buy in the store. I am looking forward to frying or scrambling them up in the morning for the kids.


For the quiche I decided to wing it with a little guidance from Paula Deen on the ratios and oven temp. I oven roasted some Shady Brook Farms turkey breakfast links and once cooked chopped them up. I also chopped up 2 green onions. For the egg mixture I combined 7 medium eggs (the only size Polyface had, but if you have larger use 1 or 2 less), about 1/2-3/4 cup whole milk, an assortment of Whole Foods cheese I had lying about in the fridge that I shredded to rougly 1/2 cup (mozzarella, fontina & gouda). I also added 3 Tbsp of some leftover bechamel sauce I had made to go over some broccoli the night before. That one was on a whim but I think it added some nice flavor. I used a whole grain pre-made spelt pie crust from Wholly Wholesome that I already had in the freezer. I started with the sausage on the bottom, green onions next and then poured in the egg mixture. It went in the oven at 350 degrees for about 35 minutes (bake until middle is set). To accompany the quiche I sauteed zucchini from the farmers market. I had another whim with those and added some curry powder along with the usual salt & pepper and Italian seasonings. Wow, what an interesting but great add for zucchini, a new staple recipe.

I was a bit nervous about the spelt pie crust because it was a pre-made frozen shell and without all the added fat & preservatives normal pre-made shells have I figured it would be crumbly or taste blah, however it got very good reviews from the family and I would totally buy them again for another dinner just like this, or perhaps a fruit pie. Looking at the ingredients and then comparing to Pillsbury, which would be a grocery store standard, I can't help but be glad it tastes good - which would you rather eat? (Thanks to Wegmans for listing product ingredients!)

Organic Spelt 9" Pie Shells
Organic Whole Spelt Flour (Wheat), Organic Palm Oil, Water, Organic Cane Sugar, Sea Salt

Pillsbury Pet-Ritz Pie Crusts, Regular
Enriched Wheat Flour (wheat flour, niacin, iron, thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), partially hydrogenated lard (adds trivial amount of fat) with BHA and BHT added to protect flavor, water, sugar, whey, salt, baking soda, sodium metabisulfite (preservative), colord with yellow 5 and yellow 6

I am planning a post on sustainable food as well as Polyface Farms soon! If you have not read Michael Pollan's book The Omnivore's Dilemma, I stongly encourage you to do so, I have learned so much from it. Polyface is featured in the book as a sustainable agriculture farm and I happen to be oh so lucky enough to live in the same state!

No Spending Challenge: Day 3

I am starting to think I should have named this the 'Minimize Spending Challenge' because I have yet to hit a $0 or No Spending day. It is only day 3 so I have hope. Our expenses today were from a $5 donation to high school kids looking to sponsor their sports team. It is really hard to say no so we gave them the last cash we had on hand. The rest was for caulk for the shower. We desperately want it done by tomorrow and the 2 tubes we had were not enough, we needed 2 more.

Tally for the Day:
Day 3 Baseline Avg Spending: $132.53
Day 3 Actual Spending: $21.63
Savings: $110.90

From Blog

For dinner tonight I was inspired by Michael Ruhlman's recent contest for the best from scratch BLT's. It was mouthwatering looking at the contest winner photos - check them out here. So for dinner tonight we had BLT's on homemade focaccia with nitrate-free bacon, organic lettuce & tomatoes. Oh, they were so good, literally out of this world good. The foccacia came out a lot thinner than I expected and I even made it smaller than the recipe called for. It may be my yeast was old, I'm not sure. I also whipped up a pizza dough that is now in the fridge waiting for tomorrow night, so we'll see if that one seems off too. Regardless it still tasted great. I cut the foccacia like a pizza and sliced each piece in half lengthwise to make 2 pieces of toast, layered it with a yogurt ranch and caesar blend (I don't like mayo on a sandwich) the bacon, lettuce, thick sliced tomatoes and a small piece of havarti cheese. This is just a quick guess on cost, I didn't get my trusty calculator and the receipts out because it's been a really busy day. I estimate (per serving) $1.25 for the bacon, $0.16 for the lettuce, $0.40 tomatoes, $0.10 dressing and $0.30 for the havarti. This totals to $2.21 or $8.84 for the 4 of us.

No Spending Challenge: Day 2

The challenge went much better today. We spent $20 for an optometrist visit, necessary for sure but I think it should be counted because it is not a regular expense. With all this illness going around I have a sinking this won't be the last.

All this money talk got us thinking about our future retirement (far future!). So we lifted the lid and peaked in the box to see if things had settled down in there and indeed we were quite surprised to see our 401k's behaving, dare I say it... pretty darn good. A shocker really, I haven't dared to look at any tallies since January, I just put those envelopes straight into my filing cabinet unopened because I vowed not to panic and sell a thing until this economic mess was over. So it was good to refresh our future outlook and think, eh not so bad!

Tally for the Day:
Day 2 Baseline Avg Spending: $89.58
Day 2 Actual Spending: $20
Savings/Loss: $69.58
Check out the running tally in the middle column, that's where I am keeping track.

Economic Meal of the Day:
Tonight I made white turkey chili with the 2 for 1 shady brook farms ground turkey, some Whole Foods canned pinto beans, corn, leftover rice and other odds and ends. It was a hit. I also made my favorite cast iron skillet cheesy corn bread from Bon Appetit,Y'all by Virginia Willis and we rounded that out with some simple organic greens with a yogurt dressing from Wegman's (Bolthouse Farms makes an excellent version if you can find them).


The tally for dinner was $1.60 per person or $6.40 for a meal for 4.
If you are a math geek like me lets break it down (per serving): The turkey chili was $1.21, organic salad was $0.21 (this was from a bulk pack on sale, see organics can be cost effective), and the homemade corn bread was $0.18. I didn't bother trying to calculate the costs of the spices, all of which I already had on hand - in fact I pretty much just poured in anything that sounded good. You could probably round the overall cost up to $1.80-$2.00 for pantry incidentals. Still, a reasonable price for a great meal.

I have a sneak peek of the shower remodel, it is so close we are just itching to take a shower in that baby but we have to wait for the sealer coats to be done, a final caulking, install the new hardware and install the soon to be refurbished shower doors (that's my job this weekend).

Here ya go (just a peek).

The No Spending Challenge officially begins

It is the long awaited October 1st, the first official day of our No Spending Challenge. Out of the gate I was hit by the additional challenge of a sick child who was in need of some special food and medicine. So while I had planned on delaying my week 1 reduced grocery shopping until the weekend I ended up getting it out of the way today which starts me off with a lovely negative balance (note my sarcasm). The good news is that I resisted buying said child lunch out today despite her rather nasally forlorn pleas, so that was good, right? She pretty much thinks this whole idea sucks now.

Tally for the Day:
Day 1 Baseline Avg Spending: $24.90
Day 1 Actual Spending: $78.39

Savings/Loss: $-53.50

Bummer to start in the hole, but I am certain tomorrow will put me in a good place. I should mention spending less than $200 let alone less than $100 on groceries for 4 is a milestone for me, so really I did well there as long as I really do make them stretch along with my pantry items. I took advantage of some Shady Brook Farms 2 for 1 specials but bought many organics as well. I am trying very hard to stick to my food principals as much as I can (though technically SBF don't work well there, but sustainably raised meat is just tough on a budget - can't wait till my Farmer delivery next week!) p.s. isn't that little guy the cutest?

Tonight we had a nice economic meal that was so good. I had leftover shredded pork from the crock pot yesterday ($6.99 for 3lbs). I made some rice and homemade corn tortillas and we simply loaded those tortillas up with the rice, shredded pork, diced Havarti cheese, shredded organic lettuce and a little dollop of light sour cream. Fabulous. The shredded pork made 2 dinners for 4 plus 3 lunches, so works out to roughly $0.63/serving. Tortillas are super cheap as all you use is the masa flour water & salt. A 4 lb bag of flour is around $5 but it will last for quite some time and figure this to be about $0.08/serving of 2 tortillas (though everyone got really whiny tonight that they only got 2). If I added on another $0.38/serving for the rest of the meal (trust me I had my calculator and receipts out on that like the geek that I am) the meal came to $1.09/serving or $4.36 for all 4 of us, not bad! I would recommend adding another veggie though, we were a bit remiss.

If you have never made (or even tried) fresh out of the pan corn tortillas you don't know what you're missing. They are super easy, cheap and extremely good, nothing like what you buy in those plastic bags in the store. The only investment is masa flour (I use Maseca) and a tortilla press. I purchased a Victoria press which is heavy cast iron and works great, don't skimp on a lightweight press. You can make tortillas easy any night and trust me the kids love them.

No Spending Month: Preview

Well, additional expenses (i.e. taxes) are prompting us to start our October No Spending Month 3 days early. Not that its a bad thing. With our shower project nearing completion we will be able to take the month to think through what we are doing next without jumping to buy things we may regret later. We have flooring, vanity and closets left to go, so no small expenditure. The shower is really gorgeous though - the tile guy did a bang up job! I will post pictures as soon as the final grouting is complete.

For our upcoming "official" October No Spending Month I will be tracking our progress day by day with what we spent outside of bills and gas and what we saved. I went through my bank statements for the last 4 months and tallied up day by day what we spent (gasp!), so I have a good comparison to determine our savings. Now we had a pretty expensive summer with vacations, a wedding, and house projects so 3 of the months are pretty inflated but regardless those are dollars we don't plan on spending in October so still a savings for us to squirrel away.

One expense we know of outside of our regular bills is an order for meat from a local farm that arrives Oct 7th. My plan is to use this with my freezer supplies to purchase no more meat in October. So look for that one on the 7th and see how we do with our groceries next month - good quality local food is my biggest weakness so this will be a huge challenge for me to keep costs down.

I have to say i am pretty excited for October but we'll see what I think in a couple weeks!

Not Buying it in October

We are gearing up for a family No Spending month for October. I'll be tracking here how we are doing and what we are saving compared to our average monthly expenses for the last 3 months. We had some extra curricular activities this summer with vacations, wedding, etc but I am still using those months - the money always goes somewhere!

Big Spender and I are working out the rules now and I know I'll need to do a little pantry stocking up to be ready to go Oct 1st. This is pretty daunting!