Frugal February Day 9 and Oh, the Temptations!
Thursday, friends! It’s Thursday. I am so thankful for a Thursday to be here with you and share with you about our day and how we are saving money in our every day.
Today more than any other day in our week is probably a lot like you because this is the one day a week that our kids go to school.
Well one of them did today…the other went for an hour and then came back with me to do some classes via zoom (concussion kid) ;/
In the morning we used to stop and get doughnuts every Thursday. It was a fun treat and was an easy way to get breakfast on the road. However, it got pricey very expensive. Before I knew it they were each getting 3 doughnuts and then milk, and yea, it was getting to be too much.
Instead I have started making sure I have a quick breakfast for them to eat before we leave the house. A quick breakfast for us is not cereal because there is always a mess and the eating of three-jillion bowls and ugh. So I try to make sure I have a quickbread, muffins, or cinnamon rolls on hand for them to grab and go.
After I got the kids to school, oh the temptations were fierce! Thursday is a big work day for me but it is also a day I have time to pop in to some of my favorite shops. The kids school is in the city we moved from before we moved away from civilization so going back gives me a reason to pop in and get things from local stores up there. I also see Thursdays for myself so it’s a day I love to pop into Ollie’s or Costco and stroll through every aisle, being able to meander through the aisles and dream of possibilities. Anyone else do this?
So dropping off the kids and then not going to one of these stores was HARD! In fact, the other day I had purchased beef jerky for Calvin online because I didn’t want the temptation of going to Costco to buy a bunch of other stuff. I found it for cheaper online anyway but the point is that I had eeked out a temptation and found a way to curb myself from that.
Running errands for things we've run out of has become second nature to me. I've always considered myself a frugal person but in this month of frugality it's made me see how much of a person on auto pilot I've been. We ran out of the french roast coffee beans I love. So onto the list coffee went. Then I used the last dishwasher tab. Onto the list.
Upon further reflection though I realized that I had not one, not two, but three bags of coffee in the pantry. While these may not be my all time favorite coffee, they are coffees I've already used my money to own so I need to use them. Same with the dishwasher. The coffee incident piqued my interest so I looked and lo and behold I had two bottles of dishwasher detergent in the back of our cleaning cabinet to be used.
Using up and making do is what it's all about so the dishwasher detergent and coffee of choice this month will be what we already purchased.
After work I went grocery shopping. I went to E& S Sales and Forks, both in Shipshewana. The primary reason I drove about 30 miles to go grocery shopping was four flour. E & S sells several different types of King Arthur flour for 65 cents a pound which a great deal. I purchased a big bag of artisan bread flour and a bag of all purpose flour.
There were so many wonderful things I could have stocked up and spent money on. I told myself that that is not what I am doing this month. I also usually go shopping at the fabric store and browse all of the gift shops in the touristy town but I didn’t. It was difficult but I stuck to my guns. And oh the candy aisles! So many temptations!
Some great deals I found? 20 pounds of chicken for $23.00. Ground Beef for $2/pound. I also stopped at Meijer on the way home and bought 3 gallons of milk for $2.00 each. Such a great bargain!
I also bought gas which is only the second time this month. A little proud of that :)
-
$533.16 remaining
-$31.67 BP Gas
=$501.49 remaining
-
$479.68
-$97.51 E & S Sales
-$69.45 Forks
-$6.67
= $306.05
After I got home I made supper. I was a little proud of myself that I had been planning on Chicken Meatballs and salad but NO ONE wanted chicken meatballs. I took the meatballs, chopped them up, tossed them in a package of gravy from Ikea and served them over a half bag of fries as poutine. I was pretty proud of myself for making something my family loved (big poutine fans over here) out of something my family was dreading eating.
After that we scraped wallpaper (this life is sexy over here) and then I started to feel sick again so I’m resting on the couch for the rest of the night.
Not to toot my own horn but I watched the last Miss Marple episode tonight marking that in a two week time period I have successfully watched the best mystery series in its entirety.
Tomorrow we are meeting with a specialist about Emma. Her symptoms started coming back when we started easing into things yesterday. Prayers are appreciated for our sweet girl.
Loves!
