If you've read about the Lenten challenge (which is to spend money only on what's necessary) you may be wondering how we are planning to save money over top that. So this month's challenge is:
No unnecessary driving.
Don't worry, if you aren't interested in the Lent challenge you can still save money by driving less. We will still drive to work, church, and the store (combining those as much as possible), but other than that, driving will be off limits. Emergencies are one thing, joy riding to Sonic for a milk shake is another. Now that doesn't mean we aren't going to do anything; we still have healthy legs and a set of bikes. With winter coming to an end we have no reason not to get out and enjoy the warmer weather.
Good luck and get some sun.
Saturday, February 28, 2015
Friday, February 27, 2015
Lenten Challenge
No spending on nonessentials.
If you don't know what Lent is, look it up for yourself. Essentially it is the 40 days (excluding Sundays) before Easter to reflect on the Lord's suffering and death. Many give up some "luxury" in order to gain firsthand understanding of the suffering Christ endured leading up to his death. It also reminds you that Christ gave up his life for yours.
We're nearing the end of February's challenge, but have decided to take it one step further. It's rather quite simple: we will not spend money on things we don't need. Our decision to do this is more on the saving money side but the religious aspects can't be overlooked either. The idea actually came from another blog we've been reading recently and really liked the idea.
Now why in the world would anyone want to cut out unnecessary purchases? Other than saving the most you can in a month another reason is to test the waters of your emergency fund. And no, credit cards are not an emergency fund. A general rule of thumb is to save 3-6 months of expenses, however is that your current expenses or barebones expenses? Either way, in order to make the money last as long as possible (and in order to have a safety margin) you have to cut out everything that isn't necessary. Why not test a barebones budget while you still have an income? You'll be able to see where you can cut the fat further or can determine that your emergency fund isn't enough.
Having said that here's our list of essentials (not necessarily barebones, but pretty close):
The real difficulty will lie in our upcoming trip to Texas for a family wedding. 12 hour drive, three nights in a hotel and four days of eating away from home. We will be driving instead of flying and renting a car. Estimated savings of $500. We are staying in a cheaper hotel than the rest of the guests. Estimated savings of $100-$150, not sure what the actual negotiated rate is for the suggested hotel. We will bring sandwich/bagel supplies for the car ride, breakfast is provided by the hotel, dinner is provided at the wedding, leaving three meals to provide ourselves. Two of those will be lunch, so we can make sandwiches. For the last meal I'm going to bring our crockpot (Because guess what? There are grocery stores in Texas too.) and let dinner cook itself while we are out enjoying the wonderful March weather. Estimated savings of $75-$100, including the cost to eat out while traveling. I'm not sure if the crockpot and sandwiches will go over with the other family we're meeting there so we'll see how that goes. Total estimated savings of $675-$750.
Share what you plan to include in your essentials only budget.
If you don't know what Lent is, look it up for yourself. Essentially it is the 40 days (excluding Sundays) before Easter to reflect on the Lord's suffering and death. Many give up some "luxury" in order to gain firsthand understanding of the suffering Christ endured leading up to his death. It also reminds you that Christ gave up his life for yours.
We're nearing the end of February's challenge, but have decided to take it one step further. It's rather quite simple: we will not spend money on things we don't need. Our decision to do this is more on the saving money side but the religious aspects can't be overlooked either. The idea actually came from another blog we've been reading recently and really liked the idea.
Now why in the world would anyone want to cut out unnecessary purchases? Other than saving the most you can in a month another reason is to test the waters of your emergency fund. And no, credit cards are not an emergency fund. A general rule of thumb is to save 3-6 months of expenses, however is that your current expenses or barebones expenses? Either way, in order to make the money last as long as possible (and in order to have a safety margin) you have to cut out everything that isn't necessary. Why not test a barebones budget while you still have an income? You'll be able to see where you can cut the fat further or can determine that your emergency fund isn't enough.
Having said that here's our list of essentials (not necessarily barebones, but pretty close):
- Church offering
- Mortgage
- Utilities: We don't need internet, so I guess we're not depriving ourselves as much as we could be. However, we've recently cut our internet cost by 43% just by asking for a cheaper price. All we had to do was commit to a one-year contract and sign up for auto pay.
- Food: for people and pets
- Toiletries: Mostly just toothpaste, we have enough of everything else to last us until Easter. Ah, the joys of cloth diapering.
- Gasoline: Only to go work, church, maybe a trip or two to the library, and pre-booked travel.
- Necessary car/home maintenance: Which if gone undone will result in further damage. At the moment nothing is screaming to be repaired though.
The real difficulty will lie in our upcoming trip to Texas for a family wedding. 12 hour drive, three nights in a hotel and four days of eating away from home. We will be driving instead of flying and renting a car. Estimated savings of $500. We are staying in a cheaper hotel than the rest of the guests. Estimated savings of $100-$150, not sure what the actual negotiated rate is for the suggested hotel. We will bring sandwich/bagel supplies for the car ride, breakfast is provided by the hotel, dinner is provided at the wedding, leaving three meals to provide ourselves. Two of those will be lunch, so we can make sandwiches. For the last meal I'm going to bring our crockpot (Because guess what? There are grocery stores in Texas too.) and let dinner cook itself while we are out enjoying the wonderful March weather. Estimated savings of $75-$100, including the cost to eat out while traveling. I'm not sure if the crockpot and sandwiches will go over with the other family we're meeting there so we'll see how that goes. Total estimated savings of $675-$750.
Share what you plan to include in your essentials only budget.
Walk to the airport?
Welcome to our new segment: random acts of frugality. Where we will occasionally post topics on living a frugal lifestyle. The first edition is as follows.
Ever thought of walking to the airport? Well recently Jack had to go to out of town for work and decided to walk from his hotel to the airport. This is what he had to say on the experience:
Ever thought of walking to the airport? Well recently Jack had to go to out of town for work and decided to walk from his hotel to the airport. This is what he had to say on the experience:
I just walked from Luxor in Las Vegas to the airport. My company would have paid for a cab or shuttle but it just felt wrong when I can walk. It was only 2.5 miles but the luggage made it a little more challenging. I probably would have chickened out in the summer though. Did not see anyone else walking here. a few people walking to work in the other direction (I'm guessing that they were going to work since they did not have suitcases or anything). I am enjoying watching these people who are out of breath from just walking in the terminal.So the next time you go to out of town check the distance from the airport to your hotel and consider walking.
February Results
Well we are at the end of the first official challenge so thoughts of successfulness are coming to mind. Whether or not you are successful is up to you. After all this was about cutting a category from the budget not about saving a certain dollar amount. For those with a budget, your savings will be fixed. For those without a budget, your savings are more obscure. If you usually eat out 4 times a week, but cut down to once a week, were you successful? If you usually spend $200 per month on dining out, but only managed to spend $50 this month, were you successful?
Here's our outcome:
Jack went out of town on business for a week and bought food at a local grocery store. However the last day there he made some sandwiches for lunch and the trip home, but accidently grabbed the bag of trash and left the sandwiches in the hotel room. Just a bit of advice, don't put your lunch in the same type of bag that the hotel uses for trash. He ended up buying fast food for lunch ($8.38) and stopped at a restaurant in the airport ($31.00 Yikes!). All of this will be paid with per diem from the trip, but we would have otherwise pocketed the money so they deserve to be added to the list. While Jack was gone, I went to the store to get groceries. On the way home I had a splitting headache, a screaming baby in the car who wouldn't eat, two other stops to make and the thought that dinner still had to made. So I caved in and went to Wal-Mart to get something from the deli. At this point we hadn't decided whether hot-and-ready food was allowed but I knew in the back of my head I shouldn't buy it, especially since I'd just come from the grocery store. While there I also picked up a candy bar, 6-pack of hard cider, and a tub of frosting ($16.47). All in all we spent $55.85.
Lessons learned this month: We normally eat out 6 times a month on average, however this month Jack ate out twice while I ate out only once and neither of us felt deprived for having done so (though we wanted to a few times). In fact, our home cooked meals were far tastier than anything we could have bought from a restaurant for a similar price. Now we can easily cut down our eating out habit and be much happier for it. We will save more money each month and be healthier too. Even though we spent $56 this month eating out, we spent 30% less on groceries this month than the average over the last three months. We feel we were successful due to the long term benefits this challenge will provide, but there is still room for improvement.
How did you do? Share your own story below in the comments.
Here's our outcome:
Jack went out of town on business for a week and bought food at a local grocery store. However the last day there he made some sandwiches for lunch and the trip home, but accidently grabbed the bag of trash and left the sandwiches in the hotel room. Just a bit of advice, don't put your lunch in the same type of bag that the hotel uses for trash. He ended up buying fast food for lunch ($8.38) and stopped at a restaurant in the airport ($31.00 Yikes!). All of this will be paid with per diem from the trip, but we would have otherwise pocketed the money so they deserve to be added to the list. While Jack was gone, I went to the store to get groceries. On the way home I had a splitting headache, a screaming baby in the car who wouldn't eat, two other stops to make and the thought that dinner still had to made. So I caved in and went to Wal-Mart to get something from the deli. At this point we hadn't decided whether hot-and-ready food was allowed but I knew in the back of my head I shouldn't buy it, especially since I'd just come from the grocery store. While there I also picked up a candy bar, 6-pack of hard cider, and a tub of frosting ($16.47). All in all we spent $55.85.
Lessons learned this month: We normally eat out 6 times a month on average, however this month Jack ate out twice while I ate out only once and neither of us felt deprived for having done so (though we wanted to a few times). In fact, our home cooked meals were far tastier than anything we could have bought from a restaurant for a similar price. Now we can easily cut down our eating out habit and be much happier for it. We will save more money each month and be healthier too. Even though we spent $56 this month eating out, we spent 30% less on groceries this month than the average over the last three months. We feel we were successful due to the long term benefits this challenge will provide, but there is still room for improvement.
How did you do? Share your own story below in the comments.
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