LAST DAY OF 31 DAYS OF (ALMOST) NO SPENDING!

IT'S THE LASSSSSTTTT DAY!!!!!!

I am so excited. 31 Days. Almost no spending.

Well, truth is, I spent another $10 on groceries, even though I originally set out to spend $30.
My total for the month is $40; for 1 man, 1 woman and 1 15yo male child. Not too shabby.

That's $10 a week, plus 3 days extra. I'm celebrating because it is an accomplishment to have turned down the temptation to spend money; it is an accomplishment to have a certain amount of discipline and power over my desires.  Here is a pic of my fridge now:

Do you see much of a difference? Well, I have dug out a lot of things from the freezer baskets, and the shelves of the fridge are almost bare. There is one egg in that egg carton. The sour cream container is almost empty. There is NO milk. The bottom fridge shelf holds a bread bag with 2 pitiful slices of bread. I am out of sugar and coffee creamer. But we still have food! Amazing...

There are two things which have been ADDED. One is a box of iron supplement water, called purAbsorb. I can't say that I actually "purchased" it and I didn't include it in the tally of money I spent. Why? Because I "bought" it with a $6.00 register reward at Walgreens. It was originally $20.00, on sale for $10.00, but I used my $6.00 credit, plus I used a $3.00 coupon and they gave me $10.00 back for buying it. I still don't know how to total that, but either way, I THINK I came out ahead on that deal, because I still have the $10.00 to spend.

The other addition is a half gallon of one of my favorite flavors of ice cream.  That would be Blue Bell - Mocha Almond Fudge. A sweet girlfriend of mine came by yesterday and brought it to me - just to be sweet!  Love ya, Debby. She probably felt sorry for me. LOL (My other favorite ice cream is Goldenbrook Farms Supreme - Chocolate Kona Almond from Brookshire's). Yep. Ice cream with nuts and chocolate. Yep.

So anyway - Wow, I learned a lot this month. How much we were wasting. How to improvise. How to think outside the box. How to differentiate between WANTS and NEEDS better. Meals became simpler. "So how about we have chili-stuffed baked potatoes tonight with a salad?" "Ok, sounds good."

I had one flop meal. I made a stew out of chicken breasts, leftover crockpot-cooked-pinto beans, large chunks of real potatoes and cream of mushroom soup. Not great. It was eaten for one meal. But I made a great save! I had a brainstorm - take the chicken out and rinse it off.

I cut it up and made the most AWESOME chicken salad. We ate it with garden vegetable flavored crackers. Oh my gosh. So good. I even took the potatoes out and rinsed them and made mashed potatoes to go with crockpot pork steaks and gravy the next day. Goodness.

So now I know, pinto beans in their juice do not go with cream of mushroom soup.

What's my grocery spending going to be like in February? I'm starting a new month of minimal spending. Oh, I got an "I told you so" and a roll of the eyes from DS. But that's okay. This time I am going to allow $100 for the month for groceries and home supplies. I really want to challenge myself again and come in lower than $100. We will see. I am out of a lot of basics and, the way I normally purchase is to stock up on things. Not giant, hoarding amounts, but I like to keep a few packages of things we use regularly when I find them on sale. Things like sugar, flour, crackers, pasta, rice, toilet paper, shampoo, etc.

SUCCESS!  The bottom line is: it can be done.  I don't have to spend hundreds of dollars a month on groceries.  I will be keeping up with my spending and reporting on it.

BUT WAIT - wait 'til you hear of my new 28-day plan for February.

In addition to not spending unnecessarily, and in a massive effort to get rid of some unsecured debts we have incurred, I am starting "28 Days of Making Extra Money from Things we Have Lying Around Our Home." Well, I think I will tweak that title; maybe shorten it. What do you think?

How about "28 Days of Debt Reduction?"

Seriously. I am making a list a mile long of things we've been wanting or needing to sell.

By the way - my husband bought a car with the insurance money we received last month after someone hit his car and totaled it. We are now the proud owners of a 2001 Volkswagen Jetta Tdi (diesel). It gets 49 mpg on the highway. Good thing since he drives 200 miles a day to and from work. We are praying for a closer, and better, job for him. Will you join me?

See you tomorrow for my kickoff of 28 Days of Debt Reduction. Woooohooooo!

Sherry