Day 32: Stocking up and Garden Dreams

Having used up everything in the house last month, I am now very intent on stocking up on supplies.  In this day and age lots of people have gotten on the stocking up bandwagon.  Costco I noticed has even gotten into the market with products like Shelf Reliance THRIVE, 1-year supply Dehydrated and Freeze-Dried Food for $200 off the regular $1,000 price tag.  There is even a wheat grinder included.  Their website says that there is overwhelming demand and there is a delay on shipment.

My thoughts on food storage are mixed.  On the one hand, historically people used to save up for a rainy day.  Storing up food for times when it was less accessible was a natural part of life.  Where we live in this disaster prone part of California people are strongly encouraged to store up, not just food, but other supplies as well that can help out in emergencies (nope, don't really have them yet, need to figure out what to get and add them to my grocery lists).  But, I find this new frenzy disturbing.  I think it is just a new way of spending; spending to help with nervousness about the future.  I don't know how helpful a few #10 cans of dried veggies are going to be against, say, an economic depression that lasts years.

 

Now owning canning supplies, having a garden, and knowing how to can, that might be more helpful in the long run, and cheaper in the short run.  Which brings me to my next thought on food storage.  Relying on canned grocery store food as food storage gets really old really fast.  At the end of last month we ate up the cans that I had bought for storage.  I got very tired of our food options, cloyingly sweet pears and peaches, beans, beans and more beans, and mushy off color vegetables.  Grocery store canned food remains chained to the 1950's and 60's palate. Which brings me again to the thought about gardens, and home canning.  The idea of putting food we really eat into storage for later appeals to me.

Gardens.  I have always wanted a large flourishing garden, but have never managed more than a few plants at a time.  Right now I have three bell pepper plants ( I have gotten one bell pepper so far), one eggplant (harvested 3 small eggplants), and a yellow squash, I am delighted to see baby squashes growing, basil and rosemary.  Not much, but given that we have a tiny California yard, that contains a pool and a cement patio with a strip of dirt two feet wide surrounding two sides of the patio, I am working with what I have.  To compound the problem the non-cement area barely gets enough sunlight to support vegetable growth.  So why am I dreaming of having a lush canning garden?  I have one thing going for me--a 1960's nearly flat roof.  Sigh.  I'm fantasizing about a rooftop garden.  I have a couple of setbacks there too: we rent, so I'd have to have the owners permission, we'd need to have the structure examined to make sure the weight of the garden could be supported, and most of all, I'd need my husband to get behind the project as well because it is a big backbreaking job.  There are no guarantees that Jeffrey would get excited as I am, because he would want to know that the cost of the veggies offsets the cost of creating the garden.  Hmmm.  I don't know the answer to that one.  At this point I am just dreaming.

Day 30: End of Month Budget Analysis

Budget...............................Actual Expense.......Balance

$170 Utilities.......................$332......................($162)
$115 Phone.........................$116.....................($1)
$150 Gasoline.....................$116....................$34
$900 Groceries...................$942.....................($42)
$53 Eating out....................$60.......................($8)
$200 Clothing/personal......$200.....................$0
$50 Entertainment..............$53.......................($3)
$75 Babysitter.....................$0........................$75
$50 School Expenses..........$359....................($309)
$100 Miscellaneous...........$103....................($3)
$150 Vacation....................$163....................($13)
$150 Gifts..........................$167....................($17)
$150 Doctor/Dentist..........$136........................$14
$150 Car maintenance......$0........................$150
_____________  ____________________ 
$ 2463 Total                      $2747 Total         


O.K.  Biggest hits were utilities and school expenses.  Utilities will be less next month because the waste bill ($87) covers three months.  But even if I were to only add a third of that, bringing our actual monthly utilites to $274, that is still almost $200 over my budget.  Water is high at $157.  It is the one to target getting lower.


School expenses hopefully are mostly over.  Free public education, not quite, but it is cheaper than when we were writing private school checks.


I almost made it with groceries.  I was doing cloth diapers, and cooking up the last bit of pantry stuff, but we had an ant infestation and it broke me.  I needed that bug spray.  I got diapers too. I am weak.


Clothing and personal is $200 which sounds like a lot until you realize there are six of us.  It seems someone is always in need of something.  I was hoping to have personal money to roll over to next month, but Jeffrey needed some clothes.  There goes my roll over, and next months personal is spent already as well.  


So, overall not a great triumph, we spent $284 more than I had in my budget.  I'll have to do better next month.  The groceries got off to a rocky start with my small runs at the beginning, so that should be easier to keep under control next month.  Focusing on water use will be a priority, and then just trying to have a few extra dollars rather than a few less dollars in the other categories.  It was a good first month's try.

Day 21: Serendipity with Mrs. Child

I was thinking of a passage in a book about frugality a few days ago, and wondered where I had read it, when my husband handed me a late birthday present The American Frugal Housewife by Mrs. Child, a reprint of the 1833 addition.  I flipped it open and my eyes fell on the exact passage I had remembered.   Such serendipity is worthy of including a passage here. 

"I once visited a family where the most exact economy was observed; yet nothing was mean or uncomfortable.  It is the character of true economy to be as comfortable and genteel with a little, as others can be with much.  It this family, when the father brought home a package, the older children would, of their own accord put away the paper and twine neatly...The other day, I heard a mechanic say, 'I have a wife and two little children; we live in a very small house; but, to save my life, I cannot spend less than twelve hundred a year.' Another replied, 'You are not economical; I spend but eight hundred.'  I thought to myself,--'Neither of you pick up your twine and paper.'  A third one, who was present, was silent; but after they were gone, he said, 'I keep house, and comfortably too, with a wife and children, for six hundred a year; but I suppose they would have thought me mean, if I had told them so.'   I did not think him mean; it merely occurred to me that his wife and children were in the habit of picking up paper and twine."

My thought, what does the paper and twine represent for us today?  We have so much waste.  Mrs. Child begins her book with this sentence: "The true economy of housekeeping is simply the art of gathering up all the fragments, so nothing be lost."  I have many fragments left to gather.  I would like to think I am like the eight hundred a year gentleman, but I would like to be like the six hundred a year gentleman.  My true goal is to be "as comfortable and genteel with a little, as others can be with much".

Day 15: Mid-month budget check

Mid-Month day of reckoning:

Let me see how well I am doing with my budget at the mid-point of the month. I am nervous about our progress.

Budget...............................Actual Expense.......Money remaining

$150 Gasoline............................$40.........................+$110
$900 Groceries.........................$586........................+$314
$53 Eating out..........................$82..........................-$29
$200 Clothing/personal..........$77..........................+$123
$50 Entertainment..................$26..........................+$24
$75 Babysitter..........................$0...........................+$75
$50 School Expenses...............$306.......................-$256
$100 Miscellaneous.................$136.......................-$36


(Utilities and Phone I will not know about until I get the bill next month. Vacation, gifts,medical, and car maintenance will accumulate)

Gasoline is great. We have been using the fuel efficient car for all the errands, and the kids are walking to and from school. It has really made a difference!

Grocery budget is on target. I have a lot of food in the pantry, and enough money to make one more major grocery run.

Eating out is over. I will take the little bit left in entertainment and apply it to Eating out, so no more restaurants or blockbuster.

Clothing personal needs to accumulate. That will roll over into next month.

Babysitter can roll over as well. No point in paying a babysitter when we are out of entertainment and eating out money.

School expenses are going to have to take the 6 months to re-accumulate.

Miscellaneous is way over! I know we are still going to have more costs in that category, so I might have to increase it's budget. Maybe I can take some from Gasoline since our use has gone down.

Overall I am pleased. I think with a few tweeks this budget will work for us. Yea!

Day 11: Personal Family Cookbook

From our Favorite Family Recipes(see day 5), I created a Personal Family Cookbook, in a three ring binder with tabs of different sections.

My Personal Family Cookbook contains:
List of meals
Recipes
Grocery list
Price book

The List of Meals is what I use to create a menu plan for the week (or two weeks depending on how often I am planning on going to the grocery store).   It includes breakfasts, school lunches, suppers, deserts, and snacks. 

Once I have my menu I flip to the Recipes to make sure I put everything on my grocery list.

The Grocery List is interesting.  It is the reverse of what people usually do.  Instead of making a grocery list every time I go grocery shopping, I have a complete list of the items I use, and when I am ready to make a grocery list, all I do is cross off items we do not need.  I keep a lot of copies in my Personal Family Cookbook.  That saves time, and helps keep me from forgetting to put something on my list.

The Price Book is made from the grocery receipts. I have the food items listed on the left column, and then the different stores I shop at are at the top of the columns. Then I am able to see what items cost at different stores.
_..._..._... _..._..._... _..._..._... _..._..._... _..._..._... _..._..._... _..._..._



I did my major grocery run. I love Super King Market! It is a chain here in Southern California. Today they had tons of things reduced, and I walked through the store and formed my menu plan from what was on sale.   That is a great benefit of having a Personal Family Cookbook with me, I can take a quick peek at the other ingredients in a recipe and make a grocery list in the store.  It made for a really cheap checkout.

Super King Market (food that will last us two weeks)
$209

I did great going to Super King Market, but then I forgot I needed stuff for a picnic at school, so made a run to Ralphs at 5:00pm, and then needed nice stuff for breakfast for a guest, and so made another run to Ralphs at 10:00pm. ARRGG. Saving is all in the planning.

#@$%&*! Ralphs (quick food, for a supper, and a breakfast, and a little bit extra)
$137

Other expenditures:
Baby/House/kid stuff: $77
Miscellaneous (house) $10
Husband got coffee: $2
McDonalds: $23
Park entrance fee: $9
Blockbuster movie: $5
Total $ 430

Day 8: Big Lots vs. Office Depot with coupon

Supplies!








School supplies. Our schools wait until the first day to tell the parents what supplies are needed, and needed immediately, so there is not much time to search around. Luckily I got most of what I needed at Big Lots, and then I had a $10 off coupon at Office Depot, so I was suckered into going there for the last few items.

Big Lots: 46 items
$90.76

Office Depot: 18 items
$ 113.40
- 10.00
-----------
$ 103.40

That takes a huge bite out of my school budget. I also had classroom fees I had to pay:
one elementary kid: $10
the other elementary kid: $17
my middle school kid: $85

Total School supply cost: $ 306.16

I have budgeted $50/month for school costs, so that has spent all the money from September to February. So now they just need to wait until spring to need anything else for school. We shall see how that works out.

Day 7: Creating a Budget

I am celebrating labor day by laboring on our one income budget. I took out things that can not be lowered by being more frugal (at least in the short term: housing, income tax, insurance, etc.) and then split the remainder into categories. So my goal for our family of six is to live on $2463/month. I wanted to round it up to 2500, because what is $37 extra dollars a month? Unfortunately it is $444 a year. So to quote Charles Dickens in his book David Copperfield:

"Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pound ought and six, result misery.

Here is the breakdown of my monthly (family of six) budget:

$170 Utilities (water, electric, waste, and gas)
$115 Phone
$150 Gasoline
$900 Groceries
$53 Eating out
$200 Clothing/personal
$50 Entertainment
$75 Babysitter
$50 School Expenses
$100 Miscellaneous
_____
$1748 semi total

$150 Vacation
$150 Gifts: Birthdays & Christmas
$150 Doctor/Dentist
$150 Car maintenance
_____
$600 semi total
_____________
$ 2463 Total

I split the budget into two categories, the first one is expenditures we will have every month, and the second is money that needs to accumulate from month to month so that we will have the money to cover the (usually) large one time costs.