Maybe not the right sub for this, but I'm still amazed and ...strangely... proud of myself.
I keep myself on a pretty tight budget. Or so I thought. Last month I had an unexpected expense. It was $85, so not terribly bad. I just thought I'd make it up this month. Then, a few days into this month, I had another unexpected expense. This time $100. That put my budget in the hole $185.
Well, this would be tough. I made the decision to not take anything out of savings until later in the month when I had a better idea of exactly how much I would need. (I tend to nickel and dime my savings.) I would just knuckle down a bit until things got urgent.
I started paying attention to things I don't really pay attention to.
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I like my coffee drink. To save money, I've been making my coffee drink at home. I decided I'd just cut that down a bit. Drink regular coffee. Reserve the special stuff until I really wanted the special stuff instead of just mindlessly making the more expensive version.
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No wasted food at all. Be really mindful of using what I bought. Buy only things when I knew I would eat it all.
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Watch the wasted trips. Save up until I could run 2-3 errands at once.
Some things that I've learned:
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I don't need that specialty coffee every day. I'm perfectly happy having it once or twice a week. Didn't bother me at all. In fact, I was only drinking it every day from habit.
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I saved much more than I thought on gas. My monthly expense for fuel was half (HALF!) what I normally spend. Simply by waiting a day or two for things that weren't urgent anyway.
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The groceries really flabbergasted me. I shaved so much off by simply thinking about what I bought. I actually started spending less and less at the store every week. In total, I saved about 30% of my food budget.
Instead of looking at what was less expensive, I started thinking about how much I would actually use. I discovered that the $10 pack of chicken I normally buy wasn't frugal at all, even if it was less expensive per pound. Because I get tired of chicken, and the last servings of the last dish would be wasted. I wouldn't eat it. So if I buy the $5 pack of chicken, I get less per serving, but it's more frugal because I don't waste any. Plus I have the extra $5 to buy something else.
I planned my meals better. I thought ahead more. I cooked some things in advance--like dried beans and rice. I simply made sure I had a portion in the fridge, ready to go for side dishes. I made more casseroles. When I was unenthusiastic about cooking, I didn't default to easy but more expensive meals. I had a casserole serving to heat and eat.
Instead of thinking about what I had in the freezer, I looked at what I had in the fridge so that I could use the perishable things first. (Side effect of this was I actually ate more veggies.)
I'm at the end of the month. Guess what? I never dipped into savings. I have one more day, and nothing I need to buy. I have $10 left. I cut almost $200 out of my monthly budget by simply being more mindful.
February 27, 2019 at 05:51PM
