I had to do a bit of arm twisting to convince Mr. A to go along with my summer project. For the months of June and July, I am trying a not-exactly radical experiment: We are trying to buy nothing but the basic necessities. Hopefully, we can save a chunk of cash to replenish some of the savings we used to make home repairs when we thought we were going to move.
To make this work, we had to come up with a realistic budget and decide what we would and would not give up. This sounds easier than it was in reality, because we don’t usually have a real budget for anything. Well, except for a vague grocery ($120/week) and eating-out ($50) guideline that we regularly exceed.
So last weekend, Mr. A and I sat down and looked at what we spent over the past three months and were not excactly surprised by how much money we piddle away on dumb things. We aren’t going to cut back drastically on our regular expenses (because we don’t want this to be the summer of ascesticism), but this month, the piddling STOPS. If it doesn’t fit into one of the jointly-approved budget categories, we don’t buy it.
Now that I am not buying things, I am realizing how much time I spend thinking about things I might want to buy. In the last three days, I caught myself thinking about buying the following:
1) A swimming tube for L like the one they have at the rec center $15
2) A swim noodle for L $4
3) A sun-blocking hat for L, even though she would probably not wear it. $6
4) A new bottle of sunscreen because I left ours at my mom’s house last weekend. I am actually going back to her house this week, so I could probably just pick up the old one. $8
5) Math workbooks to keep M busy this summer $15
6) Math flash cards so I can stop playing “Ask me how much it is if you add two numbers together” with M $3
7) Mr. Clean Magic Erasers because I can’t find the old one and the crayon on the spare-room closet door is bothering me. $3
New pillows. Just because ours are kind of flat-looking $20
9) New pillowcases because Mr.A’s hair gel has discolored the old ones $20
10) Top sheets for the girls. I don’t know if they sell just top sheets or what i did with the old ones, but the girls only have thick blankets and it is too hot at night for that. $20?
11) Bean bag chairs for the basement $50
12) A cheap chef’s mandolin because I read a book about knife skills and it seems to be able to do cool things $150
13) A CD carrying case to hold all the CDs I don’t actual own for the CD player in my new car $5
14) A new sprinker that is better for playing in the yard $15
15) A new trashcan that will prevent the damn racoons from continually spreading garbage all over the yard $20
16) Hiring someone to come trap the racoons $50?
17) Sunglasses for me $10
18) Sunglasses for the girls. $15
If we were not on our spending vacation, I would probably have purchased 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 13, and 17 immediately and without much thought if i were in a place like Target where it would be convenient ($51). I may have mentioned 1, 6, 11, 14 and 18 to my mom to see if she felt interested in buying any of those ($97). I can pretty safely assume she would buy at least half of those ($49), though they may not be the specific version I had in mind. I probably would have eventually coughed up the dough for 10, 15 and maybe 16 after a lot of wishy-washy internal debate ($90). I probably would not actually buy 8, 9, or 12, because I couldn’t really justify the expense.
So all together, I have saved myself $141. And I may have saved my mom* at least $49 and she isn’t even involved in the experiment!
Mr. A just came in and looked at my list. Then he tried to convince me to buy the swim tube, swim noodle, math workbook, math flashcards and racoon removal despite the spending vacation. And then he shuffled out of the room mumbling that we need to get the math workbook so M will one day be able to get into Columbia.
I am holding firm.
(Please save your diatribes about me taking advantage of my mom. She likes to buy things for us and prefers it when I give her an idea of things the girls would enjoy. Better I tell her that they love sunglasses but lost/broke them already this year, rather than have her waste her money on random crap that will languish on the shelf unused until I send it to goodwill.)
This sounds like a good idea…it’s amazing how much money I can end up spending at Target on unplanned items. Good luck sticking to your guns!
No diatribe here-my mother is mailing me a check this week because, as she says, the other grandkids come out ahead because they live nearby and she picks up things for them. So she estimated and added in the cost of the crib she bought for them and S didn’t need. She’s also sending me one of those fancy ricecookers you got for christmas as my birthday gift. I did mention that she got me several gifts when we were in China, but she said that doesn’t “count.”
I actually went to target on sat-spent a lot, but also put back a lot before I got to the register, like rainboots for lbg-the storms are bad, but she makes me carry her anyway. And it dries quickly in the desert. And it all adds up quickly. I’m actually thinking of returning the hose I bought.
What I find is that it’s like any habit-you get out of it, and you stop thinking about the things you “need” to buy. It starts getting second nature to abstain (from the woman who gave up chocolate 12 yrs ago ; ). Good luck. ~lmc
I think about buying stuff a lot too. I love to organize and make things “perfect” and I can always find lots of stuff to buy to help me in that direction!
We are doing a real hardcore budget right now, too. We used to call the added up money we spent every month our “budget”, but now we’re sitting down before we spend the money to make sure it all goes where we want it to. It takes a lot of time and effort…and self control.
Here’s to a summer (winter for me) of moderate to low spending! Cheers.
I have a not-cheap mandolin (William Sonoma) which I would send you. It is a repeat of one I already own. Let me know if you want it.
Don’t forget about freecycle.org where you might find things you want for free!
For raccoons: Get a bungee cord from the hardware store. It’s like $3 and you hook it over the lid onto the handles on each side. Not that I think you should spend more money, but it’s much cheaper than new cans. And it works. Kept the raccoon family out of our birdseed.
I found that when we stopped getting the Sunday paper, and I didn’t see all the ads, I felt like we needed a lot less stuff.
We have the racoon problem as well. Drives me nuts. My neighbor bought me locking bungee cords that we put on the handles of the trash cans. I think they’re $8 each at HD. Ooh – I see Brooke just wrote that. But get the locking kind of they’ll get them off. As for the rest, I’m being pretty careful too. Except when I’m not. Hello set of three monkey soaps at chichi gift shop….
Weird, that you’d get diatribes about your mom buying stuff for her grandchildren.
I think spending vacations are good. But, I like A, would have a tough time giving up the stuff for the kids. We don’t *need* to go on a spending vacation, but we do need to be more mindful of what we buy. I think a solution for us would be to impose a delay — a purchase has to be planned a week in advance. Then we could reconsider.
At the beginning of the year, I was trying to get my husband and I to email each other about our impulse purchases (to make ourselves more mindful). But, we’ve dropped the ball. Your post is an incentive to start getting on the ball again.
What’s the book about knife skills?
Sounds interesting
1. I’ve noticed that I spend much more when I’m not working outside the home – oh well.
2. Our bank, Wells Fargo, breaks down our monthly spending into categories like groceries, restaurants, medical, etc. When my husband showed me how much we spent on groceries alone, I felt sick and immediately vowed to cut wayyy back. It wasn’t the weekly shopping that was causing such a high bill, but the going in for milk and coming out with $50 worth of impulse buys. I’m proud to say I’m doing better.
Hi Amber!
I second Freecycle.org…people give away so much stuff its staggering! (been looking for an aquarium for my fish loving girl)
Good luck! Everytime I do this kind of excersize, I end up backlasing (a perfect is example is that I just bought a Roomba last weekend!)
Math: Use playing cards to have M add/subtract numbers. You can download practice worksheets for any subject and there are a lot of sites where she can play school-type games on the computer. Some sites I like are:
http://www.internet4classrooms.com/grade_level_help.htm
http://www.kidshealth.org/kid/closet/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/typing/ – (because this summer I am going to make my kids learn how to keyboard efficiently.)
Oh man, I so totally agree with this about a billion percent! He he!
“She likes to buy things for us and prefers it when I give her an idea of things the girls would enjoy.”
Same here. When it’s either one of my (2) son’s birthday’s for example. My dad or mom will call and ask me, first, what does Branden want for his birthday this year? Do you have any suggestions? And then they’ll ask, either of the boys themselves on the phone too. And then my mom or dad will talk to me about it and they always ends up taking our suggestion and the gift they end up buying is indeed something they like and *love*.
My mother in law on the other hand, usually buys whatever she thinks and the gift always ends up at the back of the closet so to speak. Again not that we are mean horrible people. It’s just something the kids weren’t interested in at all or something else. For example, one year for Christmas, my mil sent, my *son* bright kermit the frog, bright kelly green jeans. Hello Mr. Green jeans! And they had princess crown rhinestones in the actual shape of a princess tiara on both pockets! Forgive me if I am wrong here, but don’t you agree, my mil should not have sent a boy, pants with princess tiara crowns on the pockets? LOL! Those little gems are still hiding in our attic. Ha ha ha. : )
And PS, I love making lists, grocery lists, lists of what to pack for vacation. Lists in general. Ha ha ha. I think I like the list itself better then the thing/item? Ha ha ha. Right now, I am planning on going back to the US. Back to Denver for a short while this summer. And I am planning to stock up. I need it.: ( Stuff is just way more expensive in Japan. Kids clothes for example absolutely outrageous!!! Ha ha ha.. : ( So, I am making a list, checking it twice. And hope to god I don’t forget anything from my list, while I am there. : ) Ha ha ha. My biggest dream right now? To be able to walk into a Target and spend a full 2 hours walking slowly down each aisle. : )
I love your detailed list. This is just the kind of thing we need to do. Fortunately, I have already reordered my much-needed gravel (for the driveway) and less-needed topsoil (for the garden). But after some big bills came looming on the horizon, I realized I will have to avoid buying more photo paper, web cam, etc. *sniff sniff*
Well, I personally cannot live without Mr. Clean Magic Eraser Sponges so more power to you. I see someone else already commented about finding math worksheets on-line, but be careful or you’ll find yourself buying more paper and ink.
I bet five minutes of googling would find you a fine math website with downloadable/printable math stuff for M. I got a link to a site like that a while back on a homeschool listserv but am too lazy to hunt it up for you.
In other news, hey, thanks! You are my inspiration. I am going to redouble my efforts not to pick up nonsense when grocery shopping at the big box store…
Um yeah, I didn’t read the comments until after I left that one.
Doh!
Just an FYI the raccoon trapping is way more than $50. I had one in the attic once cost me $750 and they trapped the cat next door instead (that was one pissed off cat too). The raccoon and babies left on their own though I didn’t know it at the time. Of course they sealed the attic from them getting in again.
Here are some more (free) math ideas from a 1st grade teacher.
Other Math games – have M roll 2 dice and then write the sum. When she gets good, add a third die. (As a previous poster suggested this also works with playing cards).
If you own dominos, she can add the dots on each side, and then try to find another domino that has the same sum.
Print out a hundreds chart – there’s one at
http://www.abcteach.com/Math/hundchart.htm
Have M roll one die and color in the number she gets. Then roll again, and count that many more. Continue. If you want to play with her, you can race to 100, first one there wins.
Also http://www.rainforestmaths.com/ is fabulous. Good for more than just computation.
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