Linking to Friday Finances at Renaissance
With my homekeeping notebook, it has been simple to keep up with expenditures and things done.
When I totaled it all up, I was so pleased to see that I had only spent 66% of the grocery budget and 20% of my spending money for January. I did most of my shopping at Aldi with a few coupon deals at Walmart and CVS. For February, I hope to do the same or even better.
We have 3 financial goals for 2014 and for January, all 3 have been met.
January Frugal doings
I have baked all our bread this month, I hope to not buy any bread in 2014. I use a bread machine for most of the work but all the ingredients are just basic, wholesome pantry ingredients. Homemade bread is cheaper than store bread and tastes so much better.
For all January, We ate all meals at home except my husband ate out lunch one day and I ate out lunch one day.
No sodas have been purchased and I am no longer consuming sodas. Yea Me!
I did our taxes online with Taxact and funded my IRA for 2013.
All January bills, except our property taxes, were paid online I am big fan of the free billpay our credit union offers, it saves time and postage and is easy to double check.
I am still keeping up with our freezer inventory. Today, I did a top to bottom organization of the pantry. Knowing what is in the kitchen really helps with meal planning.
Machine sewing, I learned a new to me trick to sew on a scrap of fabric at the start and end of every seam unless you are chain stitching, to save on thread. It also saves time clipping threads and filling bobbins and buying more thread.
This month, I've been sewing on a scrap quilt, made a Belle dress and did some alterations.
I don't worry so much about earning money as I do about spending the money my husband earns wisely, but I do have fun earning Swagbucks and have made goal there everyday. I've also got a few ads on my blogs. Even just a few clicks to the ads earn income ( if you ever do click on my ads, thank you! I try to click on ads when I visit other blogs too. Earnings are added even if the ad clicker does not buy anything but just opens the ad window)
I hope all your finances are planned out and in order too.
You are doing well. Good for you for meeting your January goals. I agree home made bread is much better than store bought but I don't make it at home all the time or I'll be tempted to eat more. I don't have to do taxes until April so haven't started yet but everything is in order and I do it on line. I so like it when I am up to date with all the financial stuff. I just wish I could be as organized with all my papers. I don't like paperwork and I seem to have a lot of it.
ReplyDeleteGo YOU!! What a great month you have had. I too try to run our home/money like a small buisness. Money comes in, money goes out but if more goes out than comes in you go belly up. I blew all of the savings I had in January on the very last day :( But it was worth spending to try and keep our family safe in an emergency
ReplyDeleteYay you! We had a good Jan as well. I make a lot of bread but DS eats 3 sandwiches a day! I am curious about the sewing tip- would love to save on thread! Would you do a little tutorial maybe? Angela
ReplyDeleteYes Angela I will. I was thinking I saw it on a sewing blog but when I looked there for a link, ii was wrong. After thinking, it was a tip I saw on Fons and Porter on PBS but their site doesn't show it either.
DeleteI blew my January grocery budget. :( I am going to take an inventory of the freezers and try to spend for fresh veggies/fruit and milk only in February. Since I see my grocery bill rising and rising I might have to raise my food budget a little along with finding ways to make things stretch. Great job, Rhonda!
ReplyDeleteWell done!! We had a great month! I don't think Feburary will be nearly as easy to save, but i'll be happy with socking away a few hundred $! Good luck to you!
ReplyDeleteGood Job! I had a goal of only going to Target once a month and only spending cash. I'm happy to say that's what I did for January (being unable to drive because of the snow helped).
ReplyDeleteGlad you mentioned you had ads! I had my ad blocker on so of course didn't see them.
Isn't Swagbucks great! I don't know why more people don't do it. Especially if you have a kindle. You can run the swagbucks tv app with hardly any interaction (some days are better than others) and max that out.
Yes I agree Swagbucks is great, especially with the 2 Kindle Fire apps.
DeleteAnd I didn't even know there was such a thing as an ad blocker.
Good for you-that sounds like a great month! I've thought about doing those ads, but I just haven't. I thought whoever would have to actually buy something, and that would hardly be worth the effort since I don't get a ton of traffic. But, maybe I'll look into it! Every little bit helps.
ReplyDeleteWow...you did great for January! I love this kind of stuff....and you are so inspiring! Our spending has changed drastically with Taylor out of the house. Funny that one kid would make such a big difference. ha. But he lived here and went to college locally, so we fed lots and lots of college kids who came to hang out.
ReplyDeleteAnd I do agree about how organization of the pantry and freezer really helps. I've been trying to use what I have to plan and prepare meals. It's fun when you can do it without spending any additional money to do it!
Your bread looks yummy!
I bought all the stuff I need to make your freezer calzones. Had a cold this past week and didn't have the motivation but plan to do that this week! Can't wait!
I hope you like the calzones, the young adults here are crazy about them.
DeleteWhat can I say? I am just so proud of you!
ReplyDeleteWell done! Only using a percentage of your grocery budget is IMPRESSIVE! Keep it up!
ReplyDeleteSo is not drinking sodas! I am 31 days 'dry'...and though I have a serious hunkering every now and again, I know if I take a sip, I'll get hooked!
I absolutely agree, too, that knowing what you have for food helps with the food preparing. Great job taking inventory...that will really be helpful to you!
Thank you Rebecca, It was hard but I have no plans to go back to sodas, I went through the worst withdrawel ever and the memory of that comes back when I think a soda would taste good.
DeleteReading your blog and your goal for a $50 grocery budget inspired to me to do better with my grocery spending too.