I poked my feelings on food spending and found some Feelings Of Scarcity. I would like to turn those into Feelings Of Abundance. This is directly related to my pregnancy side effects. I think having delicious snacks always handy at home, plus some nicer restaurant takeaway will help. Fancy ingredients at home make me feel really good so I will think about what I’d like to try.
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I’ll be doing an eat from the pantry challenge for the rest of September-partially because my fridge is overflowing and partially to get a buffer on our first month of paying down our plumbing bill. The goal grocery list for the next three weeks is eggs and dairy.
Will be posting the food details at my journal: https://forum.ohmydollar.com/t/krmit-s-journal-lets-take-it-again-from-the-top/2219/341?u=krmit
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I’ve been catching up on a week of forums after a backcountry/unplugged vacay and figured I’d add some things in case they resonated…
- How often do you shop? If it’s weekly or less it’s easy for your grocery spending to be off by 20%+ based on how the weeks in a month line up (and that’s assuming perfectly equivalent shopping trips.) Are you consistent across 3-4 month periods?
- How do hi/low grocery months correlate with hi/low restaurants? Does takeout/outings offset groceries or do both rise when you’re busy? (more packaged/prepared food)
[Will this fix the formatting that’s annoying me? Yes. ]
Rambling/Navel Gazing
I’ve noticed we are stupendously consistent year to year even through income changes, a local move, etc. Granted, we haven’t made fundamental shifts in how we shop and eat in general (eg going full veg, keto, free range/organic, etc) and have not been “back to the wall,” barebones budget for more than a few months at a time…
Ultimately, I decided the numbers I was seeing were fine and not worth the amount of my effort to change. Not the most “money saving mindset” but that’s where I’m at. In fact, I gave myself permission to increase my grocery spending where it would impact my health/diet goals, eg buying pricier produce like peapods, berries, good tomatoes. Or packaged salads for when we’re busy. Or getting hidden-legume pasta and “rice” occasionally to up my protein, instead of the cheaper basic product. Next step: get spoiled by farmers markets!
I still try to find deals on what I do buy, eg keep fruit mostly in season and get peapods in bulk from one store and cherry tomatoes from another and milk and eggs from a third. But at the end of the day spending is a holistic lifestyle problem, and I think groceries are an area to optimize, not minimize…
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This is precisely where I’m at. I’ll optimize getting blueberries (u pick at $1.99/lb) but I’m not going to cut out blueberries. That’s just not where I’m at anymore, and while I want to stay within means I want to hit my health priorities and ethical standards more than I want to reach FI faster. Definitely one thing if it’s making or breaking the budget, or trying to hit a specific short term goal. But as my body reminds me, lol, I increasingly have more money than health so I need to do whatever I reasonably can to safeguard that.
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My local toy library has recently gotten some money to spend updating their toys, so I am encouraging them to buy stuff I want to try for Duckling!
Also, I’ve noticed a LOT of fancy fun toys are really designed for daycares and classrooms and then sold to parents at home. Sometimes it’s obvious not in the object but in the quantity it’s sold in. I don’t need 24 identical pieces, I want 3-4 of each kind so we can play without my spending $300 (looking at you, Grimm’s). So I decided, since kid is in childcare, he can play with those kinds of things there (or not, if they don’t have them) and I’ll focus on other toys. Related, I bought some wipeable silicone drawing mats because he’s really into them, easy to clean and transport for vacations or cafes, a good quiet time activity.
(My calculations on this would be different if we weren’t sending him to childcare and were looking at homeschooling in future, but then I wouldn’t be paying $800/month in daycare…)
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I haven’t checked in in a while! Savings rate has been going as planned so far but I’m not sure if that’ll continue through next paycheck because we spent quite a bit in the last week or two and I wasn’t diligent about tracking because…I didn’t want to? Haha. This is why I’ll never have beautiful records that span decades like some people here! Husband overruled me on anniversary spending (like it was a tough fight, lmao. Him- “I want to get you a gift though” Me- “You’re totally right, I fold.”). I also bought a new fruit bowl, a foam roller, and some other little odds and ends. We went out a lot last weekend too so that’s probably $. Obviously tracking spending isn’t going to happen reliably so I think I’ll switch back to tracking savings instead, since really that’s what matters in the end. If I consistently can’t meet savings goals ($500 per paycheck, post tax) doing it that way then I’ll force myself to do the itemized spend tracking but I doubt it’ll be necessary.
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Oh and here’s a new FFM video. I love how she reps dollar tree so hard 
pleases my soul.
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I’m really finding that meal planning here is focusing my spending and planning. Thank you everyone!!
Lunches - leftovers, hardboiled eggs, bread, hummus, an avocado, cheese, KD (okay Annie’s)
Breakfasts - oatmeal, green smoothies, yogurt, bananas
Snacks- fruit, hummus, yogurt, cheese
Monday - pasta and jarred sauce. (We are home from camping and that way we will eat before groceries)
Tuesday - coleslaw mix rice bowls or fried rice with tandoori fish
Wednesday - out
Thursday - curry whatever is on sale at foodbasics tonight, dogh
Friday - leftovers plus spinach and beans (rice)
Groceries
Eggs
Milk
A veggie protein and an animal protein
Coleslaw mix
Onions
Frozen spinach
Frozen mixed veggies.
Frozen berries
At ethnic supermarket
Apples and oranges
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And little brag moment, on our way back from camping we ate lunch out, but had oatmeal at home for dinner!!!
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This was a good video too, if you haven’t come across this guy’s channel yet you should check him out!
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Projected Spending Week of 9/13
Monday: Drinks out with a friend. This happened before I posted. Cost was $52 for three drinks and a 20% tip. I almost got a second drink but instead I just had a few sips of fiancé’s second and that was good enough! He is pretty amenable to splitting stuff and I’m thankful! 
Tuesday: Who knows what this dentist trip will cost 
Wednesday: $0
Thursday: Yom Kippur. We might go see a matinee to distract from fasting? $14ish 
If we don’t, it’ll be another no-spend day for me
Friday: Either making or ordering dinner for my two BFFs. Capping my share at $30 either way
TOTAL: $96 + Dentist
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Projected spending for the week, oy vey
Even for us, this is a pretty spendy week?!
Groceries: $100ish
HVAC service: $345
Plumber to check out non-working faucet in the backyard: $150? TBD.
Uber to volunteer: $25
Leashes for volunteering: $30ish
Two planned dinners out for two: $150ish?
My first professional haircut in TWO YEARS: $100ish with tip
I think we’ll pay our neighbor for fixing our backyard pump this week: $4Kish
Supplies to organize kitchen: $100ish
Total: Infinity
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Projected spending!
This week is going to be extremely expensive! My best friend in town (I haven’t lived here that long and most of it has been covid times, lol, so I don’t know that many people yet!) is having a birthday this weekend. She’s pretty extra so I think it will be $$$ and I’ve spent a decent amount on the gift already.
I also really really really want to book a vacation. My husband and I haven’t been on a vacation in over 3 years. I’m just not comfortable traveling internationally yet, covid-wise, and I probably won’t be for a couple of years so…Vegas? Haha, I really want to do it right since I’ve never been, like stay at the Bellagio, spa it up, rent a convertible, visit the hoover dam, mob museum, neon museum, magic show, and allll the food. Vegas has such a cool food scene. So…that’s not going to be cheap, lol.
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So after I told the shadowy one to get a new razor already because the old one had a damaged power cord, and that turned into both a vacuum and a razor, there might also be a new desk chair being purchased.
To be fair, the current chair has had a ripped seat for probably two years. Also it seams we’re upgrading from Ikea to whatever Wirecutting is suggesting.
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I see what you did there - well played .
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I’m a little late to the party on this conversation but I really like this mindset. I did a major clean-out of my closet recently and was debating whether it was worth it to try selling them at a garage sale, but because of this post I decided to put them in my Buy Nothing group’s round robin boxes (which we didn’t have before—my group started them just a few weeks ago).
Most of the clothes that I gave away were ones I had purchased at thrift stores. It’s nice to know that they’ll either go to my neighbors or end up back in a thrift store eventually.
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We have been spending money like crazy on the new house/remodel and we’ve almost gone through the whole budget we had set aside for it. Over $40k* between what we added to to the down payment to get to 20% equity and what we’ve spent so far/promised to spend, and we haven’t paid the movers yet or gotten a couch for the tv room in the basement. After we move this weekend we have to really buckle down and start replenishing our savings, so I’m jumping on here. The rest of September will probably still have high spending but then in October we will activate super saver mode.
*At least we haven’t gone into credit card debt or anything like that. We still have the cash to actually pay for everything.
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I am eyeing two medium-sized purchases (a sewing dress form, and another set of good binoculars so that my partner can come birding with me). Trying to talk myself into waiting til the end of the month to make sure I stay within budget, since I probably have to pick one. 
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Posting here instead of buying jeans from J.Crew, which have never fit me well anyway. And now that I’m writing this, I’m remembering my last (now disintegrated) favorite comfy jeans were from LOFT and I have a few LOFT gift cards.
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I bought a set of clippers instead of going to a salon to redo my undercut. It was roughly the same price as what I would pay with tip and the results were great. Future money savings, here I come!
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