No money being spent here today. Spent enough yesterday!! This is our first month with the mortgage being higher. (escrow was short alot - thanks hurricanes!)

Got the electric bill and it's about $20 higher than last month and about $70 higher than last year! Some of it's from the rate increase, but the rest is just being lazy. (like using my dishwasher, dryer - stuff like that. My goal this month is to get it back down!

We have a leaky faucet on the side of the house, dh will be fixing this weekend. But I wonder how long it's been leaking......... It's on the side we never go on, Neighbors noticed it not us. So wonder what the water bill will be like........

Today I will working on cutting down the kwh, baking some bread, hanging laundry out, washing only in cold (dson helped with laundry yesterday and washed everything in warm. ) Will be unplugging ghost appliances. Trying to cook more in the crockpot versus the stove/oven.

I am still amazed, even though we are extremely frugal there are still a few little money leaks......... We need to get those plugged immediately. Just little things add up to big dollars over time.

Well today Mega money has gone out of this house. All planned but still!!
Goodwill 24.50 - got a breadmaker that I have been wanting still in the box!! Also got a pair of Nike shoes for dson - still with tags on them - retail value 59.99 - my cost 3.00!!! WOOHOO!! He doesn't need them right at the moment - but they are the next size up for him. Also got a couple pair of uniform pants for dsons.

Publix - 5.00 for minicupcakes that I should of made but was just toooooo lazy!! These are for a kindegarten party.

Walmart - 94.44 UGH!! I got a couple more uniform shirts, a pair of uniform pants for dson. I got a new drying rack, ink for the printer and HBA's

Sams- 102.52 I get all my meat from Sams and pasta. Also got some milk and cottage cheese

Save A lot 107.31 My stock up store canned goods, and some snack type foods.

Gas for suburban - only needed $20 to fill it, of course it was half full.

Total for the day:353.47

I had budgeted 400.00 for today and came in under that amount. So I am happy but gosh that is still alot of money for one day.

Ugh! The electric bill went up this month. Actually a lot from last year - well alot for me 70.00!! Now off to find ways to lower it again.

I just finished cutting 4 of my sons hair and my dd's bangs. I am getting ready to do dh's hair in a few minutes. It is very easy to learn to cut hair. I have been cutting my son's hair since he was 1 - he is 17 1/2 now! I can't imagine what we would of spent on haircuts all these years at 10 to 12 a haircut.

Look at all the $$$ saved just doing that one activity.

My dson came home yesterday from school with a pair of uniform pants with both knees ripped open. I was a little upset as the pants were fine and hole- free LOL before school. I had some errands to run last night. I had a gift card from Joannes and stopped in there and got some patches. I came home and ironed them on - I saved that pair of pants for another month or so. Then I will cut them off and sew them up for uniform shorts. I decided those are the pants he can wear for p.e. from now on, since that is wear he ripped them.

I also got some candles from Joannes (from giftcard) for 1.29 each they were 90% off. They are cute little candles - 3 to a pack On the glass votive they say peace, hope and joy. So cute!

Day 21 of no spending!
Today I am going to an awards ceremony for my dd. Other than that, I will be reading my TWG.

Dinner will be in the crockpot.
Laundry is being done.
Linen closet will be cleaned, so I can make my list of Walmat hba's for tomorrow.
Also will work on menu for the next 2 weeks
work on budget for the next 2 weeks also

WOOHOO!!! My book came today. I even got it at a huge discount. Ordered it through barnes and noble - 5.95 for the complete tightwad gazette hardcover! What a bargain. I am *sure* I can recoop that.

Looking forward to curling on the couch with my book and homemade hot cocoa tonight.

I know - I am either late or *very* early. LOL Well I sell christmas ornaments that I sew in a little craft store locally and ebay from sept to Nov. Well last year, I ran out of the ones that I had made. Good thing but really could of used the extra $$ to pay off a medical bill or something. So this year, I have decided to go ahead and start making a few sets every month. Normally I start working on them late August. This way I shouldn't run out and mean more $$ for us. BUT the good news, I already have supplies, so it won't cost anything right now to start this up.

Well dson didn't get in to the dr yesterday but this morning instead. I spent $10 for some meds for him. No other $$ being spent today.
No $$ spent yesterday so - I made it to *******20******** NO SPEND days!!!!!! WOOHOO!!!

The heater is off and the rest of the week it's warming up again - so hopefully I won't be turning it back on this year. Ok - sometimes we have had the a/c turned on as early as feb. We are NOT doing that this year!!

Will be eating all meals at home today. Going to the PTA meeting tonight as they are having a uniform exchange - so that will save some more $$.

We crunched some #'s yesterday - I would love to go to work part time - but for what they pay for our area - I would be making $35 a week - before taxes after expenses. So I am looking at ways to save $$. We don't think it would be worth it for our family for $140 a month. SOOOO now I am on a mission to see if I can save us $140 a month with our expenses right now.......... I will get back with some of my ideas.

Today will be spending day, I think. I need to take dson to the dr today (if he needs meds - that's where the spending will take place).

Continuting to declutter the house today. I have a couple things posted on ebay.

Will work on budget today for this coming payday. Will also start my grocery list and menus.

Being frugal today:
~wash laundry in cold water
~use 1/8 cup of laundry soap (I have a front loader so that's plenty!)
~combine errands, take kids to school, other to dr
~keep heat set at 65 during the day, 69 at night and 71 for an hour in the morning
~clip coupons and file
~start making out a menu that uses things I already have in the pantry/freezer
~using 1/4 of a dryer sheet, normally I would hang laundry but it's sooooo cold
~keep all lights turned off during the day
~when cooking dinner (baked ziti from freezer) also make a pan of cookie bars - saves on electric use as I can cook them together

Have a great week!

It's dropping fast down here tonight. It's at 36 now. It's supposed to be in the 20s tonight.

I am making homemade cookies and hot cocoa for a bedtime snack. :-) Cookies are warming up the house too.

Need to finish getting everything set for the kiddos to go back to school tomorrow.

So far 19 no spend days this month. WOOHOO!!!
I was aiming for 20 and I will definitely make it.
Still tracking the kwh. Will be buying a drying rack this next week sometime, actually probably 2 of them. That way I can stop using the dryer so much.

Still washing dishes by hand. Using very little heat, but it will be on tonight. LOL

Continuing to track all of our spending (which hasn't been much right now) -
I have shopped with a list and actually spent $175 less this month with my menus and list. I didn't even use coupons. I am setting up a coupon file and will see if I can bring it lower...........

Snacks are being made, instead of being bought premade.

There is a uniform exchange this week at school, so I will be sure to go to it. Kids grow so quickly don't they?

I added 1/2 water to all the shampoo bottles in the house and no one has noticed a difference.

I changed laundry soap to a bulk soap instead of Tide and am only using 1/8 of a cup. So that's a savings there.

UGH!! Well it's gonna be alot more guerilla mode - I just found out the mortgage's escrow is short. We knew it was gonna be, but didn't know it would make the payment go up 114.37 a month!! We were told back in Sept it would go up about $40 but with all the hurricanes, homeowners insurance has went up.
I am already cutting pennies now, I know we will do this....... But it's alway seems like it's one step forward two back.

Today I have reset the water heater timer. It has been on all the time lately. So now I have reset it for the times when we really need hot water and will see if that can add any more saved KWH.

I discovered the last week that my main energy hogs were the dishwasher and dryer - so I am trying really hard not to use either. So far so good!!

I have a freezer that has been unplugged for awhile, decided to plug it in today to check how my kwh will do. I am hoping it's not to much higher than what it's been, as I really want to start stocking the freezer again.

By stocking the freezer, I think it will lower our grocery bill. When I can buy things on sale, especially meat. Also can make breads and snacks.

We have 2 loaves of bread left. I have decided I will make some up today instead of going to the store. I have everything to do it, and we prefer homemade bread anyways. This will keep me out of the stores again today.


No spend day today. Total of 2 for 2005!!

I think our dishwasher was our biggest electric hog - we have come down about 16 points daily since stopping using the dishwasher - let see we pay 8cents per KWH - at 480 for 30 days being saved - we are saving around $38!!! How cool is that?

Our dishwasher is only 1 1/2 years old, we bought it brand new from sears. It's too bad - it's such a energy hog - because I do like keeping dishes in there versus on the counter in the dish drainer. We will just have to keep drying the dishes and putting them away immediately.

Most of the other stuff I have done, was started a few months ago - so this has got to be it.

Of course having a dishwasher on holidays is great - but the rest of the time I think we will have dishwashing hands.

I feel the same way. That we are going nowhere. At least it feels that way - 2 steps forward one step back.

I have one son that needs dental work to the tune of $600 in the next month. First visit is in 2 weeks. Another son that needs glasses. I will need to call and make an appt tomorrow for that. It will probably cost close to $200 with exam and glasses We don't have eye insurance and the dental work is our part that the insurance doesn't cover.

I will be working on little ways to save $ here this week. Cooking more - gonna make some pumpkin bread and then banana bread
Also gonna make up a few treats to go in lunch boxes. Will freeze alot of that.

I will be making little bags with veggies for school lunches starting wednesday when the kids go back to school.

Got a great deal on notebook paper on friday 3 packs for 99 cents. Can't beat that we go through a lot of paper.

Will also be decluttering kitchen cabinets this week. I really don't need 6 HUGE bowls - yes we have a big family but I never use that many bowls. It's time to say goodbye to some of them. Will probably box some of this stuff up and offer it on the freecycle list first and if no one wants it then I will donate it to goodwill. Anything that I wouldn't want - I will toss. If someone from freecycle picks it up - it saves me gas $.

Also gonna start working on a freedom account (mary hunt) for expenses that are not monthly but tend to mess things up when they come.

I kinda do a dave ramsey/mary hunt combo. LOL It's working so far. I was really into just dave ramsey's financial peace - but have learned alot about Mary Hunt recently so will take some of her ideas and work with those too. Because just dave's ways are not getting us where we need or want to be.

Today is a beautiful day out. High will be close to 80!!
It's a no spend day here. Yeah!

Will clip a few coupons if there is anything that I actually use. Actually surprised to see coupons in the paper - since yesterday was new years.

Just straightening up a little, more laundry and that's about it today.

Ways to save today:
~eating out of pantry/freezer
~washing laundry in cold water
~mopping the house uses hot water and spic 'n span I got from the $ store.
~gonna make up some homemade furniture polish and wipe down the furniture.
~make up some iced tea to drink instead of pepsi - this is a *biggie* for me. LOL

I was able to declutter the entry way closet today. It has school supplies, wrapping paper bucket, and basically a catch all for every type of paper around. It looks great in there, and I eliminated about half the closet into the garbage can!!

I also went through our 2 drawer filing cabinet and probably could combine it all into one drawer. Anything with our name or address was shredded - everything else just tossed.

It feels sooooooo good to let things like that go!

Also cleaned the porch off and all the cobwebs around the door - not many as I do this monthly but still some.

It's easy to keep the house clean when it is decluttered. Also you know what you have, and everything has a place. So you don't buy something you thought you needed, you just didn't know where it was.

I am gonna work on one cabinet or drawer at a time to get everything decluttered once and for all. I tend to collect candles, unfortunately the ones I have tend not to smell anymore after lighting a couple times. So I will be weeding some of those out as they are just taking up space. Not all will go though, as we did need them last summer when we had no power, thanks to the hurricanes.

Something I realized during our hurricanes was that when everything was in it's place, we could find it in the dark! Amazing I know, but it helped so much!!

Want to start stocking slowly for hurricane season this year, so will start buying one package of batteries each payday - which will go on the hurricane shelf.

I went to the $ store today and got 6 rolls of christmas wrapping paper and 2 containers of spic n span for 5.33

Then we went to target, I hear tomorrow will be 75% BUT I can't go tomorrow. I got one more roll of paper that was just sooooo cute for $1.49, then got a red/white pie plastic pie tote for 2.49, lip gloss for dd 1.29. That's it.

There really wasn't anything that was a *must have* kwim? I guess things must have already been picked over, or the things I liked - I didn't like well enough to even pay half price. LOL

So even though today was a spending day - it was a light spending day.

Ok I am aiming for 20 no spend days in January. Obviously today wasn't one of them. I *will* get those days though!

Starting today I will be working on 3 goals per month. Some goals may overlap months if I haven't completed them like I think I should.

Three goals for January:
1. continue working on electric bill
2. work on getting the food budget down!!
3. declutter marathon with flylady

I have already started working on lowering our electric bill. I have kept track of the kwh for 2 years now and it's amazing how much I have saved over the last year. Adding a few more little ways is saving more $ everyday.

Lowering the food budget - I really need to learn to cook more snack type foods. Make a menu and a grocery list and stick to them. Instead of just shopping with no clue and buying whatever looks good. LOL

Decluttering with Flylady - got an email that says this is declutter month - in all honesty - this shouldn't take too long. I have been doing major declutters the last year and half, so there isn't *that* much to declutter.

Today I have spent
$38 at walmart for hba and a couple christmas clearance items
$26.47 at kmart for notebook paper, shoes for dson and trash bags

I won't be spending anything else today. Tomorrow starts tracking for new year.

~learn to stay within our zero based budget and not borrow from other categories
~learn to make menu plans, shop only with a list
~cut out all unnecessary expenses
~switch long distance over to a calling card
~keep adding change to the change jar
~start christmas club - done today! just keep adding to it
~pay off some old medical bills

~consider selling baby diapers again!?!?!
~continue with flylady routines and keep house in order
~increase fico score by 41 points or sure gonna try


There are other goals but those are ones I want to do that pertain to frugality.

I spent $178.00 at the grocery store.
I also took dson to wendys and we spent 3.99

I need to get a few school supplies and schools for another dson sometime before next week.........

Kwh were 45!!Coming down from 67 a day -just a week ago! That's almost $2 a day - or $60 a month!!!!! I am so excited. Just the few little things I have started doing are really paying off.

Went grocery shopping with a menu and a list and budgeted 250.00 so I still have $68 for anything we may need before next payday. If all of it doesn't get used then I will divide it in half and put half in a stock up fund (pantry) and the other half to the EF.

Also had to go to the bank, while there I opened a christmas club account for 2005. We will be having $25 taken out on the 1st and 15th of every month. This way in Dec. we will have saved $600 to go towards christmas.

Well actually today won't be real thrifty - I need to go grocery shopping. Also need to pay the electric bill.

I will update with totals later but am hoping to keep the grocery shopping down to $250 for 2 weeks. Not sure I can do that. But am sure gonna try. That may be high for some of you - but this will be for 9 people and a dog.

We use the zero based budget from Dave Ramsey to tell each $ where to go, before spending. This has been done already.

Will be adding $20 in quarters to my change jar. Know what? If it is in change I won't spend it, but if it's a $20 bill - we will. So this is the best way for us to save right now.

Need to do a couple minor house repairs - allotted $55 for that, whatever isn't spent will be cashed in for the change jar.

Also decided for the new year that dh and I need money to just blow on whatever we want. It's not much, but it's in the budget.

Well off to make the grocery list out.

I have come down another 5 kwh yesterday for a total of 16 daily now!

Things I have done so far:
~unplug things when not in use
~line dry all but 2 loads of laundry in the last 2 days (total of 8 loads done)
~wash everything but one load of whites in cold, white were washed in hot.
~stopped using the dishwasher - washing dishes by hand
~keep heat off or when it is on set it at 68

Ways I will continue to work on the electric use going down are:
~resetting the hot water heater timer - we already have one on there, we just don't have it running at this time. I was actually trying an experiment.
~continue doing all the above
~cook using the crockpot more


**Something that I tried last night - I left the computer on all night, in sleep mode and the kwh actually went down. So I am gonna do that again tonight and see what happens. Could it actually be cheaper to put the computer in sleep mode versus turning it off?!?! I didn't think so , but now not sure.

Calling the phone company this morning - have dsl (the most expensive plan - they have 3) will downgrade to the lowest plan. Will report back with what that will save me.


Canceled att cell phone - contract already up, so no cancellation fee. Decided for my use all I needed was a tracfone. Att was costing $48 a month - the new phone was $35 got 10 free minutes with the phone, 10 for activating it online and and then had a friend email me a refer a friend deal for 100 free minutes. (she got 100 too! ) So for 120 minutes, new phone and no more minutes needed to buy until the end of March - I saved over $150!!! I am not one to use the phone just to chit chat. It's for my dh or older children to reach me in an emergency.


Laundry is being washed in cold water, and hung outside to dry.
Dinner will be something from the freezer and pantry.
no heat/ac on.

$6.35 spent today on pepsi. My one *main* downfall with frugality. I really want to quit drinking it, and am starting to wean off of it. I know that sounds bad - but I can easily drink 4 to 6 a day by myself. Know how much money I could save if I quit? LOTS! LOL

I have decided to cut down to 3 a day for a week - then I will cut down further the following week. I really want to save any money we can!

Other than that no $ spent today.

Just checked KWH for today and am down another 5. WOOHOO! Which means I am actually down 11 per day right now.

Cleaned out the truck and vacuumed it out and found some quarters. Cleaned my purse out and between the truck and purse added about $18.00 in change to the changejar. Another WOOHOO!! My container is about half full now.

Washed all laundry today in cold water. Put one in the dryer and will hang the other 2 that I have to wash on the line.

Cleaned and organized pantry - dinner will be from pantry and freezer.

All lights are off, things are unplugged when not in use.

dson will be driving himself to work today, so it will save some gas $ - as I won't be making double trips.

No $$ spent today. WOOHOO!

Will run to the video store and get anchorman - but have a gift cert for that so it won't cost me anything.

Also need to run to bank and cash dson's check for him. The video store and bank are in same parking lot. So saves me gas too.

Other than that, no going anywhere else.

I have been tracking kwh (electric use) daily. I have been able to lower the kwh by 6 each day for the last 3 = 18 kwh saved - only $1.44 saved so far. Just unplugging a few things has done this.

I will continue to keep lights turned out during the day. Unplug things when not using - except alarm clocks.

Tomorrow I will start hanging laundry out, to try and get the kwh to come down even more.

I will be working on the budget tomorrow and a grocery/menu list.
I made chili yesterday and it was really good - half went into freezer for another meal.


Combined silver change and pennies into a change jar - once it's full I will cash it out and start our Emergency fund - yet again!