I have to admit, I have been way less than frugal lately, especially on our food. We can spend a CRAZY amount of money on food. Eddie and I like to have date nights after the kids are asleep, so we often order take out and pick up a movie from Redbox. It’s still cheaper than going out to dinner and a movie and hiring a baby sitter, but $30-$40 dinners a few nights each week add up! (This week we did steaks from Texas Roadhouse.) And one night I fully intended to make dinner after getting home from an appointment, but when we got home the spaghetti sauce I had taken out to defrost was still frozen solid, so we ordered pizza instead. That was just me being lazy because I could have given everyone peanut butter sandwiches or something, but I didn’t want to.
We’ve been very fortunate lately with our finances and it is easy to get lazy and not worry about it, but I know that’s just irresponsible, plus I like saving money, so I’m making an effort to get back to a more frugal way of living, regardless of whether or not we *have* to.
Food splurging aside, we actually did do a few things to save money recently. (And, P.S. when I went to the grocery store today, the total was finally back under $100. I need to take my own advice and get back into the meal planning).
For Nick’s birthday, he said he wanted to go to Chuck E. Cheese. Instead of having a huge party with his entire class, we just drove our little family of 5 there last Friday and got a family meal deal. The kids had a blast and Nicholas got exactly what he wanted. When I asked him what his favorite part of the day was he spread out his hands and said, “The whole thing!”
Also in the name of frugality, Eddie cut Nick’s hair and I learned that if you send two boys into the bathroom with the clippers, one of them is going to come out with a mohawk.
The girls and I have been tending to the seeds we planted last week. The roma tomatoes are already starting to sprout! I’m a little worried they aren’t getting enough light in the bay window in our kitchen, so I moved them out onto the front porch to get some sun while it is so beautiful today.
I told you yesterday about how I’m trying this homemade shampoo.
I also tried this trick for making homemade dishwasher detergent from The Elliott Homestead. It was really easy and I was surprised at how well it worked for me!
I also broke out the sewing machine and mended two pairs of my own pajama pants and one of Penny’s dresses, all of which had small holes in the seams.
I got samples in the mail of full coverage designer lingerie for large-busted women from a company I will be telling you about in a few weeks. I have a feeling Eddie is going to like this “market research.”
And I started back up with my exercising, using free Denise Austin videos on You Tube. This may or may not be related to the fact that I am going to be writing about how I felt in this lingerie.
I’m linking up to Rebecca’s Finances on Friday series.
What have you been doing this week to get your finances back on track?
I actually find that it’s easier for money to slip through my fingers when we are doing better than when things are tight. It’s almost like I want to celebrate and end up spending way too much! Loved all your ways to save and I’m visiting from Rebecca’s blog.
Totally agree. A $20 treat here, $20 there and I can easily wind up with a bunch of junk I don’t need and wondering where all that extra money went!
ha! That lingerie and exercise comment made me laugh. I feel ya, sister….I feel ya.
If we didn’t live so out in the boondocks and our Texas Roadhouse (or any take out, for that matter) wouldn’t be stone cold by the time we actually arrived home with it- I would TOTALLY have date-IN’s. Just in sitter costs alone it would be well worth it. But then again- I guess I should be thankful I don’t because, like you, I would have a hard time NOT doing it! 😉
Yay! Rebecca’s here! Every time you comment on my blog it makes me feel like I’m hosting a celebrity in my house. 🙂
Hahaha I love the mohawk part! As a mom of 3 boys. I mess up on having things frozen when they should be or thinking we have them when we dont, it leads to a lot of pizza nights.
I’m awful about forgetting what I already have in the freezer! And bless you, 3 boys! wow.
I’m with Rebecca about living rurally and getting take out anything. It’s very limiting when it’s a 60mile round trip to most chain restaurants…but when we lived in town we had food delivered to the door, lol. Moving out to the country really taught us how much we’d been spending for convenience.
Good job by the way. You seemed to have balanced your frugal/splurge enough to keep things real.
I’m a country mouse, but my husband is very much a city mouse. We managed to find a few acres (what I wanted) but we are right off a main road and still part of a neighborhood (what he wanted). I have to admit, while I would have liked more land, I am very spoiled because it’s only 3 miles to the grocery store in one direction and 1 mile to a local farm store in the other. We are close to a lot of restaurants. I’m not sure if that is so good for our wallets, but is certainly is convenient.
We also struggle with letting our frugal ways slide a bit when times get comfortable financially. I try to remind myself that saving money no matter what the circumstances is what allows us to be generous and give our money away like we’re called to do. Easier said than done, of course!
Food prices seem to have gone up so much recently anyway. i was shocked last week when i went to the store and some things were so much more expensive than just the week before! We ate out twice this week, so I hear you about that. Pizza over pb and j any day. lol