Well, it’s been a week! Did you survive the frugal challenge?
I did! It even went better than I anticipated! I definitely think that maybe we should go for a longer challenge, don’t you think? If felt like this one ended just about as quick as it began.
Here is my recap from the week:
- When traveling away from home, pack your own snacks, meals and drinks. Yes! We’ve really not been away a whole lot, other than back to the hometown over the weekend. My house was out of all things snack related (other than a few fruit snacks–which I packed), so I knew I would have to stop off at the store. We were spending the weekend with my mom (first time in almost 6 years!!!!) and I had no idea if she would have snacks for us or not so I picked some up at the grocery store on our way out.
- Try not to eat out at all this week. From Saturday to next Friday.Yes! This is the one I was really worried about on our end. While sometimes we do really well, there are other hurried trips in which we just decide to eat out. Especially those trips back home. But, this time I stuck to my guns! I stopped off at the store on the way back to the hometown and bought fried chicken from the deli as well as potato wedges and snacks that we needed for the weeked at my mom’s. On our way home, which was right around dinner time, we decided we could wait until we got home (around 7) and eat something quick out of the refrigerator. And you know what?! Not one of us died from starvation.
- Plan outings that are no cost adventures, such as parks and museums. Again, we’ve had a pretty uneventful week. There was a lot of rain at the beginning of the week, and I’ve been fighting a migraine. Over the weekend though, we made it withougt spending a dime and the kids had a blast. We picked cherries and made a pie, and we’ve played around the house. It’s been fun, and it’s been frugal.
- Make extra meals for your freezer for days when you have no gusto to cook dinner. For lunch on Thursday, I made Corn Dog Muffins and since the recipe makes about 24, and we only need 8 for lunch, I froze the rest. This is definitely going to come in handy for our lunches!
- Make something from scratch that you normally wouldn’t, such as bread, household cleaners, snacks, etc. I didn’t do as well in this area as I had wanted. My original intention was to make some cleaners, but the headache pretty much derailed me. However, I did end up making my own vinaigrette dressing for our dinner, since I had to switch to Plan B (the boys went out on a fishing trip, so I wanted more of a simple dinner).
- If you haven’t made a budget (or goals for 2009) yet..DO IT! If you are all squared away here, check and see if there is something in your budget that you can lower, or cut out completely. I realized that since the big kids were out of school that I didn’t have to worry about their school lunch money. That gave me an additional $42/month for the summer, but I guess that isn’t technically cutting something out.
- Try out a new-to-you frugal idea such as washing/re-using ziploc bags, using less laundry/dishwashing detergent, re-use juice from canned fruits and vegetables, save butter tubs, amongst many others. Be creative! Fail. I’m sure there are frugal steps that I haven’t made yet, I just didn’t have the brain power to search them out.
How did your week go? Are you up for another Challenge in the next month or so? How about ideas for an upcoming Finding Freedom Friday? Let me know your thoughts!
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
Congrats on a job well done this week.
Thanks for doing this — it was really good, and it would be fun to do again!
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This is a fun challenge although I didn't keep track of myself on it this week. My goal is to try to read one budgeting/money saving related book a week and review it!
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Great job! Steps in the right direction whether small or not are always great!
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I, too, was stoked about not having to pay out lunch money for school! For me, it comes to $80 a month! So, that's our "fun" money for summer. That way I don't have to budget in fun money. It's already in the budget and then when school starts back up, the lunch money is already in the budget too. My tab in my expandable says "Lunch". That could be at school, or in the summer it could be out while having fun!!
Nicole
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Thanks for a great challenge! I can't wait to see what's next!
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I didn't participate in last week's challenge, but I think I'm going to try it for the coming week. My husband an I are at very different places in our desire to be frugal (I want to be more frugal; he doesn't see that it's important or even possible.), so it's a slow go here.
I linked up a post about a game my toddler and I made up. We used toys that we already had to have fun, and now it's one of her favorite things. There's nothing better than a free NEW game!
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instead of a meatless meal, we had a meatless day…eggs toast and fruit for breakfast, pbj's with carrots and fruit for lunch and then rice and veggie stuffed peppers. The carnivores here didn't even complain!
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My hubby and friends think i am insane when i wash my ziplocs to save..lol- but thats ok i tell them im saveing me money..lol.
I hve about 80 bucks extra for the summer for fun time till school starts back!
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I just found your blog and challenge…I am sooo in. Got your blog added to my new bloggy pal page over at my blog so I will be back to visit and learn all that I can. So far I am failing pretty miserably at getting myself out of debt…I'm in it for the long haul though.
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