We are on Day 6 of our 31 Days of Nothing. This first week has gone pretty easy. I felt no temptation or need to go to the stores or spend any money. I did go to the grocery store on Wednesday and spent $5.15 on a gallon of milk and 2 heads of lettuce. I ran out of bread so I made 2 loaves of homemade bread instead of buying any. (I will be posting my bread recipe later next week.) I budgeted $25 for the week so I am well under.
I tried not to leave the house as much this week. Wednesday I had to go into town for an appointment so I did my other errands at the same time. This helped me save on gas.
Unfortunatly alot of money was spent this week on medical expenses. That is something I can't really control. We had to take my daughter to the emergency room early in the week because she was running a fever of 105 and vomiting. She required an IV and antibiotics. She is doing better now. We had yearly eye exams for myself and 2 older children. We had to pay our co-pays for the exams. I also had to pick up some medication for my son. Since it is a new year, our deductibles start over. This means paying full price for prescriptions until the deductible is met.
We started composting all our table scraps again. I am using a 5 gallon bucket set outside our back door to store the scraps in. Every couple days I will have one of the boys empty it into the compost pile in the backyard.
I still need to call and see if we can get another recycle container. Our recycle is only picked up every 2 weeks and we fill it almost weekly. That is on my list of things to do.
There was lots of reminders this week for turning lights off. Hopefully after another week of nagging it will become habit. The kids have done well limiting their water usage. They even took quick showers.
Over all I am happy with how the week went. I am excited to hear about your first week. Leave a comment or link up your blog post below. We can all support and benefit from each other.
We did pretty well. I am also (re)starting a weight loss journey, and instead of buying a video I watched some on youtube and borrowed one from a friend.
ReplyDeleteWe DID go to Sam's Club to stock up on a few things, because we were able to borrow a membership card from a friend to use.
We've been drinking more water instead of soda (a healthier option as well as cheaper). I'm planning to make some biscuits today and have made homemade meals every night except my birthday - which hubby treated us all to Indian take-out - not frugal :(
I wanted to comment about bathing. What we do isn't always received well when I tell others, but I'll tell you anyway ;) I like super hot baths, DH likes medium hot, and of course the kids like it luke-warm. So, I fill the tub with my super hot water and bathe. Then when I'm done DH can get in and bathe (since it's a bit cooler at that point). Then we drain the water a bit and put the kids in (they bathe together at their young age). It allows everyone to enjoy the temp they like and saves quite a bit of water.
But wait, I'm not done! THEN, when the kids get out, you can toss laundry into that water and let it presoak. Think about it: there's already going to be soap in that water. Soak for about 30 mins (or more, if there are stained clothes in there) and then toss into the washer (you'll drip on the floor, unless you put the clothes into a plastic storage tote, like I do.
Then, you can set the washer to about 3/4 of the way through it's initial water fill mode. You've saved water and electricity! Just add a tiny splash of detergent and wash. Saves on laundry detergent that way as well.
My goal for this week is to only buy milk, bread and fresh fruit (if it's on sale).
I did forget to mention that if someone is particularly grimey, they do a quick wash up in the sink first (of the particularly grimy areas) with a damp washcloth (dampened in the tub water, of course) before hopping into the tub.
ReplyDeleteConsidering we didn't know about this challenge until the last minute, we did well.
ReplyDeleteHave used up much food from the fridge, freezer & cupboards! Only spent $4.95 on some groceries that we will use in the next few weeks (canned tomatoes, tomato paste, hash browns, english muffins & pie filling mix(there are so many tart shells in my freezer))!
I got take out coffee, but it was paid for by a gift card I already had!
Was sick so didn't leave the house, saved lots on gas.
Temperature is set at 63, when we are cold, we layer & use microwave rice/grain filled bags.
I'm happy with the first week... I will need to fill the gas tank soon so next week won't be as good. Will use the "savings" to pay down some debt!