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You are here: Home / Blog / Low-Spend July: Days 3-8

Low-Spend July: Days 3-8

July 9, 2017 by admin Leave a Comment

I’m going to go over several days at once; I haven’t had a chance to log on daily so I’ll just go over the past 6 days now.  I need to go back to keeping track daily, because I THOUGHT I was doing really well, but it all adds up to way more than I had in my head.

Day 3:

The HOA fee, cable/phone bill were paid this day.  I had to buy some postage for some online sales, but the buyers ultimately had paid that.  My monthly GoDaddy bill was also paid, and a bunch of fast food charges cleared all at once, so without looking at the receipts I’m not even sure WHEN we went.

Sorry, this will be disjointed, because my thoughts are scattered right now!

Days 4-5:

Waffle House, tank of gas, ice, water and some drinks for our trip down to Southern AZ.  A few other  restaurant and fast food charges from before the holiday cleared, and the check for our theater deposit cleared, as well as a music lesson check.

Days 6-8:

I went to a discount produce market and accidentally bought $32 worth of candy.  I got $55 worth of produce, much of which I froze for another day ~ and we’ve been enjoying lots of melon, great veggies, etc.  (HUGE cauli heads for $1 each!  I froze a bunch of florets.)  The candy?  My husband loves this candy and it’s made in AZ.  Really good chocolate…not as good as See’s, but cheaper.  I sent my daughter over to pic out a bag’s worth, after her having her check the price.  She told me it was $3.99/pound, so I said, OK…steal…let’s splurge and get enough so dad can keep a bowl in his office…let’s get two pounds.   I hadn’t bought it in forever and after all, it’s a DISCOUNT store, so I wasn’t thinking anything was amiss with the price. She made a nice mixed bag taking a handful of pieces from each of the 20 or so bins of various flavors.  When checking out, the cashier held up the bag and said, “You know this is $32 worth of candy?” and I was embarrassed, so I just played it off like I knew.  But, what had happened was it was really $13.99 per pound and K had read the sign wrong.  Since the flavors aren’t marked, there was no way to put them back…although I could have asked, but ugh.  Everyone in family has been enjoying the candy.  Fail.  I’m human, right?

We had more fast food and restaurant visits…just fail fail fail.  This always happens when I *try* to do no-spend/low-spend for an extended period of time.  Again, human.  Try again.

I bought 5 new tops and 2 bike shorts from Walmart/Walmart.com.  I recently have furthered my clothing purges to form somewhat of a capsule wardrobe, and tossed the stained, pilled, baggy, stretched out, (I’ve lost about 25 pounds in the past 4 months), uncomfortable or things that otherwise make me fele bad about myself.  After the purge, I needed some tops and the bike shorts, I’d been looking for for a long time….to go under two dresses I have and love that are a little short on me, if it’s windy.  The total was only $40 and I’m still awaiting my $40 credit from Lane Bryant for the bras I canceled, so it will be a wash.

We bought extra house keys (moving locksets/deadbolts around because three keys have been lost) and that was $16, but they don’t work.  I’m sure we can get a refund or get them re-done at no charge.

Our $11/month Microsoft Office 365 payment also was paid.  And I paid $45 cash for music lessons (45 minutes of voice for me, 45 minutes of voice for K and 45 minutes of piano for K…it really is a steal and we love our teacher).

We bought milk, cheese, hot dogs, buns, strawberries, grapes, pineapple and watermelon.  Also tea, marinade (I buy the huge 48oz italian dressing…generic), tabasco, potato pancake mix, powdered peanut butter, mayo, avocados, ziplock bags, ice…and I can’t bring up my other Walmart receipt right now (it’s in the app on my phone) so there are a few other things.

We also realized we need bottled water and a propane refill.  Bleh.  I want to try a new bottled water source that will be closed tomorrow (Sunday) so I think we’ll just fill one of our 5 bottles and maybe wait for the weekend to get the propane.

We have ribs from the fridge marinating and that will be tomorrow’s dinner.  Tonight we had hot dogs, sweet corn and homemade potato salad (no one liked it but I think it will be better once it sit s in the fridge overnight.  Tomorrow I’m making soup…cauli/broc/cheese/potato chowder I believe.  It should be yummy.  I haven’t planned for the rest of the week yet but I have chicken and beef in the freezer, and a huge pork loin, so we’re set for proteins.

Hubby and I had breakfast out this AM…it was $25 after tip.  I love how now that the kids are older, we can go out more often.  We’re averaging 2-3x per week but the drawback is the cost of meals, which range from $10-15 if we get fast food, and $25-$40 if we do a sit down (with tip).  We usually only order water to drink, or at most one coffee or soda.  We usually forgo appetizers.  It just gets expensive but we’re struggling to find activities that DON’T include eating, that are a comfortable distance from home.

I did sell three dolls…I discounted the bundle by $40 because I liked the person buying them but I got $150 from that.  That’s where the $45 for music lessons came from, and I’m saving the other $105 for the next time we need power.  I also have $60 incoming from Mercari sales this week.  I like making money.  But it’s a lot easier to spend it than it is to make it!  😉

 

 

 

Filed Under: Blog, Tending Hearth Tagged With: budgeting, finances. budget, frugal, Frugality & DIY, low-spend, saving, spending freeze

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