spend less challenge

We're doing it again this year! On Mary's inspiration, we'll be doing a low spending month in October. Last year we tried it, and I was so pleased to end the month knowing that I had spent less than $100 on everything! For us, October is the perfect time to do it too... coming off the summer when it feels like spending gets a little out of control, and right before the holidays when I know spending gets out of control. I have a mental image of autumn's falling leaves, like our falling expenses. Something like that, anyway.

This year it will be interesting to see how it works out since this is baby arrival month. We could incur some extra expenses with convenience foods, parking at the hospital, baby necessities, etc., but I think I've planned ahead through the summer so that this won't happen. Especially in the area of food, I don't foresee a lot of spending. We have our freezer stash, and the ladies from our church are planning to bring a few weeks of meals too. So, in theory, it shouldn't be too hard to spend little and save much.

The plan is simple: Today the girls and I walk down the block to the gas station, withdraw $140 from the ATM, and I put away the debit/credit cards. I keep $100 in my wallet, Eric gets $40. It can be spent on whatever we want, really there's no budget plan. The goal is just to not spend it all! A few areas fall outside of the cash jurisdiction: mortgage, utilities, fuel, and medical bills (which will be adding up soon!). Will any of you join us?!? At least follow along and tip me off to the sweet deals I'll be sniffing out at the grocery store!

Concluding Remarks

Well, I'm tired of blogging about money. At least for awhile. But it seems like I have a lot of random thoughts about this frugal living thing that are rattling around in my head. I'm going to try to lay them out. Then, I promise I'll be done.

First, here are a few things I wanted to buy this month, but DIDN'T:

1. A new toothbrush for Eva. The flattened out bristles are doing the job, I think. Her new dentist will give the final word on that tomorrow.
2. Eric's special hair goup. Instead he has been taming his locks with a random selection of leftovers in the closet.
3. Lovely, natural, gentle soap from Trader Joe's. In it's place I found an old and highly perfumed bar of Irish Spring in the back of the closet. Yes, I've been a little itchy.
4. Zip-lock bags. I usually try to reuse plastic bags a few times anyway. My kitchen sometimes looks like a laundry mat for garbage when I'm washing them, but oh well. This month I ran out of new ones, and have not bought more.

Second, a few things that I am rethinking for future months:

1. My $45 haircuts. They happen once every three months, but seriously! That is half of our entire budget this month. You might not recognize me (or at least my hair) next year this time. Goodbye vanity.
2. Cable TV/Internet. I don't think we'll really get rid of it though. We have a super good deal, thanks to Eric's diligent sleuthing. And I would slit my wrists if I had to blog on a dial-up connection. Truth be told, we watch TV once a week. Wish we could get rid of the TV and keep the cheap, fast Internet.
3. Revoking Eric's credit card rights. No, I am not a money dictator jerk. I thought it and he said it, all at the same time. It is way too easy to drop cash on lunches at work, and I almost always pack him something to take. We're thinking about a cash allowance for work day expenses, but we're not sure how much is reasonable. Now, don't even get me started about tall mochas :).

Here's where I wax philosophical. I've been thinking about why I do this. In fact, does money even matter? I've concluded that it does. Back to the sermon series that got me going with this in the first place...how we spend our money reflects where our heart is. Jesus said, "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." Where can we put our "treasure" that truly reflects our heart? Something to ponder individually, I suppose.

Also, the girltalkers have been blogging about the Proverbs 31 woman. "She does him good..." Proverbs 31:12 refers to her husband. As much as I've painted Eric as the spender lately, budgeting and being a wise steward of money is something he is very passionate about. So, I know that this is an area where I can serve my husband and do good to him. And it does me good too. Win/Win situation, folks!

Well, these are my thoughts for now. And as promised, I am ending this tangent. Thanks for asking so many questions and encouraging me with your comments. This has been a fun adventure for this mama!

How it happens

So many of you have asked how we did it. That is, spent $100 or so on groceries, etc. in the month of October. I'm going to post our methodology here. Not to puff ourselves up. In fact, you'll find it's just the opposite. In God's providence, our circumstances this month made all the difference. Read on, I'm sure you'll see what I'm talking about.

First, this was the plan: Spend a total of $125 on all flexible expenses such as groceries, miscellaneous needs, dates, clothing, family outings, etc. Check this and this out for more ideas.

We still spent money on our regular bills (electricity, mortgage, etc.), gas for the vehicles, tithing, and finishing up the garage project that was started a long time ago.

As it were, I had stocked up on diapers and wipes in September, so we didn't drop any cash on those big ticket items.

Dates were great, even though they were penniless. We went on a great walk one evening, and I can't remember what else we did. Probably walk more.

We participate in the WIC program in Minnesota, which means we get a lot of basic foods for free. Milk, cheese, cereal, beans, carrots, tuna, eggs, juice are not part of our regular spending.

We were blessed by the generosity of others. As long as the gardens are producing, we are thankful to usually be on the receiving end of great organic produce. Here is a list of the hand-me-down produce from Eric's dad and my parents this month:

• 1/2 bushell apples
• 20 pounds potatoes
• 7 dozen eggs
• At least 10 lbs. of tomatoes
• Many, many peppers of all varieties (aren't they breath-taking?!?)
• A small cooler of beets
• 5 lbs. carrots
• 10 or so cucumbers
• 4 Buttercup squash
• 1 lb. fresh-ground Spelt flour

As I do every fall, I spent a considerable amount of time freezing everything we couldn't use right away. There is no way we could eat up all of this in a few weeks time!

There were other gestures of generosity this month as well. Eric's Aunt Phyllis brought us a jar of her delicious strawberry freezer jam, Eric's mom bought us another jar of jam- raspberry jalapeno...it's really good. Usually one small jar of jam wouldn't be a big deal, but it enabled us to make quite a few PB&J's (well, Almondbutter&J's)! Last Friday night I went out with a group of girl friends, expecting to pay for my meal with the debit card. But a kind, thoughtful husband of one of the ladies paid for all of our meals! Lastly, we received two bags of hand-me-down clothes for Eva, including a pair of shoes that she is wearing a ton.

As you can see, God made it easy to keep to a minuscule budget this month. But friends (and family), this is not unusual. This is God's character. He is always providing, always showering us with much more than we deserve! It builds my faith to try something like this. You see, we were never really in need. We could've decided to ditch the plan at any point and go back to spending as usual. So, the message seems to be: God provides when you play around with your budget, He will surely provide when you really need it. I am full of faith for the future, no matter what it might hold. Yes, our fruit basket hung empty more than once, but only because I didn't have time to run to Aldi.

What's left in my wallet

So much to write on this topic.

First, I will end the brief period of suspense. I have $3.07 in my wallet. It is Monday, and this money will last me until Friday...Halloween...the end of this loooooong month.

The worst thing about this month? Not the food we've eaten or the places we've gone. It's the boredom of not having any opportunity for adventure in the grocery store, kitchen, or any other store at all!

Here's what the receipts say

Today -
Aldi: Bananas, red grapes ($2.69...note inflation in 11 days!), tortilla chips, oranges $8.31 (Folks, Aldi is dirt cheap, and we're happy with it)

October 16 -
Aldi: Bananas, red grapes ($2.49), tortilla chips, iceberg lettuce, table salt ($.33), 6 oz. yogurt, onions, apples $10.05

October 10 -
Walgreen's: feminine products that were an absolutely unexpected expense. Argh! $3.49

Aldi: Red grapes (still $2.49), potato chips, cheese puffs (Eva picked out her special treat), potatoes (10 lbs./$2.99) $7.76

So, I started with $100, spent $20 on costume stuff, spent $29.61 at Walgreen's and Aldi (above), I recorded a few other grocery store stops here and here...all of this equals $80.84.

Where did the other $20 bucks go??? I recall pulling out $2 to give to our babysitters on Thursday (don't worry, we aren't that cheap...Eric pitched in the rest of a reasonable wage). I also recall at least two fast food splurges at McDonald's and Taco Bell. With just myself and the girls, we can pull away from McDonald's spending less than $4.00 thanks to the value menu. Now that I'm searching the archives of my brain, I remember tossing $2.00 towards a group tip on Friday night. And now that I've been typing for awhile, I remember that I bought 4 lbs. of butter at CUB a few weeks ago for $.99/lb. I really wanted to stock up more, but I didn't.

Now is the time to pat me on the back and celebrate my thriftiness. It's also a good time to marvel at how we didn't end up eating our Fall Fest costumes and acknowledge that I must have been Spirit led that day when I dropped a large percentage of our budget on absolute un-necessities. Go ahead, I deserve it...

Just kidding! Truth be told, I pulled out my debit card a few times. I specifically recollect purchasing a loaf of day-old artisan bread from the French Bakery across the street. It was $2.49. I also bought a pail of ice cream for a friend, which I agreed was a last minute emergency! Applaud my selflessness, I didn't even get a taste of it, either :). Yesterday we bought Subway sandwiches after church while en route to visit family in Mankato ($9.00). My legalistic self just can't feel OK about it. I know it's not a big deal at all, but that's just how I roll.

Therefore, in the spirit of transparency (and blame shifting :), I will tell you that Eric blew his $25 within about 10 days and decided to abandon the plan altogether, I think. At least that's what the credit card statement is telling me. Strange too, because he is most certainly the more disciplined half of this marriage. When he feels like it. Anyway, I digress.

Overall, I am happy with this month. We even managed to entertain a few times and bring two meals to struggling families. I'd say God provided for our needs! On a practical note, it seems obvious to me that we could scale back our normal grocery budget. It means less variety, less spontenaity, and more planning. But it would be rewarding to be able to use our money for a less mundane purpose than groceries.

So, that's the official audit of the month. I have no idea what I will spend my last $3.07 on, but I'll be sure to let y'all know!

Ham! It's what's for dinner

This is a frugal month. Sorry I haven't been very faithful in updating on our budget challenge. I will probably post more later, but I'll say this much- it's going well! If Y2K every materializes, come to our house. I'm discovering that my meager stores of food will last for a long, long time. The groceries part of my $100 has gone very well...other areas have been a little trickier. More on that later, I hope.

One of the reasons the food goes so far, is that I am trying to stretch meat. Long considered the most expensive component to any grocery budget, we've been eating meat in moderation this month. In general, we've been eating everything in moderation with a little less variety. Guess what! Everyone is still nourished and still happy...hmmmm, food for thought.

Another reason the the food is lasting, is the generosity of others. Our family has always been the happy recipient of hand-me-down food, but this month I have really noticed the quantity. One example, the Christmas ham. Eric's Grandma gave us a nice ham for Christmas last year. Now, typically I shy away from serving pork, but ham is tasty and we have a lot of it. I baked it up a week or more ago, and here's a short list of the dinners we've had from this 8 lb. ham.

1. Ham w/ mustard sauce, mashed potatoes, carrot sticks
2. Black bean soup w/ ham, fresh bread, apples
3. Egg bake w/ cubed ham, orange juice
4. Split pea soup w/ ham, apples, red bell pepper slices
5. Ham slices, roasted beets, carrot sticks, spelt bread (a recipe that was NOT a keeper!)
6. Omelets w/ ham, green pepper, & onion, waffles
7. Vietnamese fried rice (w/ ham & chicken, veggies), apples
8. ***the last ham meal, coming up tomorrow night**** Loaded baked potatoes, minus sour cream, but with plenty of ham chunks to make up for it ;).

In case you're wondering, I'm the only one who seems bored with ham. Eric is still hamming it up at the dinner table. (sorry, I just had to find a way to fit that in!)

And I'm accepting any and all new ham recipes. Send them my way!

"Spooky" Spending

Just a quick update on our October money challenge...

I've thoroughly enjoyed all the enthusiastic feedback on the idea. Now, anyone up for actually joining us???

Sad but true, we are quickly whittling away at our $125. Today I spent money on apples, elbow macaroni, and evaporated milk. I think it was about $10.

I've read before that people who never have enough money don't even try to make the "right" choices with it. And it is a vicious cycle, meaning poor choices build on one another until poor people are permanently poor with no way out. The idea is: we'll never have enough for everything we need, why don't we get what we want?

Today I shopped for Halloween costumes. Actually, they are "fall fest" costumes, but we might take the girls trick or treating in them as well. And, although I really pinched pennies, I still spent much more than I probably should have on things that we certainly don't need. Actually, I spent almost exactly $20 at our local thrift shop on costume supplies for a family of four. Wig, hat, fairy wings, skirt, dress, glitter, plastic sword, belt and more...I think I did quite well for $20...even if I didn't need this stuff.

Wise choice? I'm not so sure. But, this is an experiment. And we'll be spending less this month regardless. And, and, and (can't you hear me rationalizing it all?). Nonetheless, if you see us eating wig/hat/wings/skirt/dress/sword/glitter casserole at the end of the month, you can definitely say "I told you so!"

Bare Bones Update

EDIT: Don't trust my memory or my ability with numbers...after reviewing my sales receipt from yesterday, I will post the actual facts in RED.

I explained earlier about my $100 for the month.

Shortly after leaving the bank, I spent my first $15 ($21.23) (and some change). Here's what I got-

A bag (5.13 lbs) of apples (.98 / lb.)
5 lbs. white flour
4 lbs. white sugar
6 bananas
40 oz. chicken thighs (buy one/get one deal)
1 bag store brand egg noodles
1 small container dried thyme (I should probably reconsider my "needs")
1 lb. baby carrots

The $85 ($78.77) in my pocket better last us for 30 more days!

OUCH!!!

Bare Bones October

I'm making an announcement:

Today I went to the bank and withdrew $125 in cash. And that is our budget for the month of October. You ask, "Is this really blog worthy?" Well, I guess so. I've been inspired towards this endeavor by other bloggers, so I thought I would take you along with me on the adventure. So here are the details:

What: The Patenaude family is attempting to spend a very small amount of money this month by limiting my spending to $100, and Eric's spending to $25. After the cash is gone, we're done. What will I spend my $100 on? Everything! Groceries, diapers, clothes, movie rentals, date night...basically anything that I would otherwise use my check card/credit card for.

Why: We have always been budget happy, and by God's grace there has always been enough $$$ to go around. Thankfully we don't have car loans, credit card debt, etc. BUT, we have gotten a little loose with our spending. Last month we bought a mini van (more to come on that, I'm sure) and a lot of cement work around our house. We depleted our savings significantly with those big purchases. Now it is time to build it back up. Also, Eric had a short career as a graduate student last year, but that brief mission has left us with some new school loans. We would like to ZAP those loans, and soon!

How: The freezer has lots of produce from our parent's gardens, meat from the past few hunting seasons, and random baked goods. We plan on eating it. In general, we're going to work with what we have, and find an inexpensive way to get what we need (such a subjective concept, isn't it?).

My inspiration: In the month of September, Mary spent a measly $194 on her family of 12. Got that???? I'd say $100 should work for us according to her recipe!

Other inspiration: This post by Jenni and this sermon series preached in the last few weeks.

So, anyone want to join us? I think it will be a fun experiment, and we are psyched to see how we can retouch our budget based on this month's findings.

Here we go!