Quilter's Money Saving and No Waste Challenge.

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Quilter51
Posts: 2815
Joined: Sat Aug 29, 2015 6:04 pm

Quilter's Money Saving and No Waste Challenge.

Post by Quilter51 »

Figured I would fine tune my goals to be more coherent: I have two primary goals in the coming year: Massively increasing Savings for upcoming expenses and emergencies, and getting rid of waste in all those areas.

First of all, I want to put aside 400 dollars every month starting in March (after my 642 debacle is resolved). Not all will go into long term savings, but mainly for now this will be a multi directional sinking fund (furniture, travel, car primarily)

Second of all I want to eliminate waste. Primarily in the food area, but in all walks of my life.

In order to do these two things I will:

1. Fine tune my spending, and make a master list of needs and wants. and make my self accountable by sharing my spending.

2. Commit to only purchasing items that are from the used marked or on end of sale clearance. Exceptions will be SAS shoes, food and household supplies, upholstered furniture, some cosmetics, and those fabrics needed to finish an already started craft or sewing item. Also some gifts.

3. Concentrate on reuse and durability when purchasing items I must (new or used)


4. Doing more cooking and freezing

5. Tracking my spending daily and using cash for social and entertainment purposes to keep it in line.

Wish me luck
Last edited by Quilter51 on Thu Jan 12, 2023 9:24 am, edited 5 times in total.
floridacatlover
Posts: 8058
Joined: Fri Aug 28, 2015 7:21 am

Re: Quilter's Triple Thread Frugality Challenge

Post by floridacatlover »

Quilter51 wrote: Thu Jan 05, 2023 12:51 pm I have three frugality type goals for the year-I need to come up with a better name.

1. Put aside 400 dollars every month, AFTER the current 642 debacle bookkeeping issue is resolved. This could mean I start at the end of February. I am not saying that this will go to savings. But I need new furniture (daughter has an account at Nebraska Furniture so I would work with her and give her monthly payments), my nephew is getting married in South Tahoe in June (I normally would not go to a destination wedding, but this is the trans kid who used to be addicted to heroin and I will not miss it), and I want a nicer emergency fund in case this debacle arises again. I have fine tuned my budget and by doing this I am leaving myself between 100 and 125 totally free spending each week and 350 in the grocery (food only) budget. I still need to do fine tuning including the annual car insurance comparison and looking at my subscriptions (I really do not want to give up any newspapers but I may go down to just the times))

2. Purchase only items that are used or on clearance with some limited exceptions. I had originally planned to make this used only. Then as I said elsewhere, I got three pullovers and two cardigans at end of season sale at lane bryant for 20 or less and realizes that beats ebay and poshmark (Its REALLY difficult to thrift shop when you are a 48 DDD). Along with this I will up-cycle more things leaving my house. So far my known exceptions for the used are upholstered furniture (I will buy this new and it will last me forever) and mattress, small appliances, shoes, cosmetics, personal products, household products and food. Exceptions to the clearance are SAS shoes (which never do), real quilting fabric needed to finish products and the same with yarn, and some requested gifts. I live near both a used quilting fabric store and a craft thrift store so i should do okay.

3. Finally, last goal is to eliminate food waste completely other than the obvious bones and trash in the next year. One of the ways to eliminate may mean more eating out-I cook and don't eat what I cook or I buy things thinking I will cook them and then don't have the energy (I also need a different storing method).

And there you have it, my triple thread for 2023. Wish me luck, I'll need it.
Good luck!

Two ideas. You perhaps already know that often if you cancel a newspaper sub they will often come back to you with a much lower rate. I’ve done this several times with the Washington Post. I’ve cancelled my sub with the WP as of Jan. 7 and so far they’ve only come back to me with an offer of $40 compared to $100. I want lower. If not, I can do without it because I believe their quality has slipped.

Where do you order your SAS shoes? I use Zappos. After I placed an order last December they started sending me offers of $40 off $100. I didn’t use it until a week ago (shoes should arrive tomorrow) so I don’t know if I’ll get future offers.
Quilter51
Posts: 2815
Joined: Sat Aug 29, 2015 6:04 pm

Re: Quilter's Triple Thread Frugality Challenge

Post by Quilter51 »

Florida I actually have a brick and mortar store nearby.
HappyDaze
Posts: 4186
Joined: Tue Oct 15, 2019 11:11 am

Re: Quilter's Triple Thread Frugality Challenge

Post by HappyDaze »

Quilter, you have put a lot of thought into your goals and I say YOU GOT THIS! Looking forward to your progress reports.
"All his life he tried to be a good person. Many times, however, he failed. After all, he was only human. He wasn't a dog."

Charles M. Schultz
Quilter51
Posts: 2815
Joined: Sat Aug 29, 2015 6:04 pm

Re: Quilter's Triple Thread Frugality Challenge

Post by Quilter51 »

Still working on whatever else I want to commit to savings wise.

Today my women's retired group met at a coffee place instead of lunch. a friend got my tea for me and I did not eat so it was a no spend (I'll pay for her tip or something at lunch next week). I'm not commiting to no out of the house or no gas as I need to see the people lol. I did get some new ideas for the group like day drives and walks that would be less costly mixed in with lunch andhappy hour and movies and such.

I have already designed one quilt in my head with the cut up remnant squares. It is very bright of course as it is by me.

Tonight is all food made at home and tomorrow I am home all day.

I want to make a list of all my scheduled outings this month and see how much I am spending on those and go thru the subscriptions one by one.
Quilter51
Posts: 2815
Joined: Sat Aug 29, 2015 6:04 pm

Re: Quilter's Multi Goal Frugality Challenge

Post by Quilter51 »

So today I did a two week grocery plan, and now that I'm done my total for my order on Monday is 170-at least that's on hold. That's a bit more than half of my 350 budget, which averages out to about 77 a week if you do the dividing by 4.5 thing.

BUT all my recipes are at least six servings so I figure two for the freezer in the future, two for lunches and two for dinners now. So in theory as I feed the freezer the cost will go down.

I will need to add some of those screw on lid storage things and freezer storage as I dont see putting my casserole squares in a ziploc. I also need to learn to freeze everything in single servings instead of just throwing the casserole in the freezer, lol

I also figured out my planned eating out spending for the next two weeks which is a hundred dollars (four committed lunches, a happy hour and a "cocoa walk" in my town square). Traditionally this has counted as separate category but I am considering just doing one as food and combining the two and upping that amount.

Either way I'll be a tad high this month but if I have no waste, I should start with some meals in the freezer for the next two weeks. In addition to lowering the waste I also need the lower the budget so I can get the home delivered meals I do once a month that are like fifteen bucks each for two servings and ready to throw in the oven.\

Slow and steady wins the race.
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