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Cracking down...

May 29th, 2010 at 07:31 pm

I've been following the $1/day challenge on grocerycouponguide.com. Wow, it's amazing that he's been able to get through an entire month eating on $1/day. And not just getting by, but really eating (though I think I'd be sick of salsa by day 6)! It's really interesting, if anyone hasn't already seen it.

Financially, this was a challenging month, but we're getting by. We had the second payment for our summer vacation house, along with a few annual big ticket items. (I intended to do the envelope system this year, where I'd be setting aside money each month for the annual bills but it didn't fly). One piece of good news: The kids went to their dentist, which is out of network. However, our insurance still pays 100% reasonable & customary for preventative work, so even though we had to shell it out ($450 total!), we just got the checks back on Friday.

After many months of going through the motions without being terribly careful with our finances, it's time to start cracking down. Nothing extreme, just some simple things that quickly go by the wayside if I'm not paying attention. First is the eating out. We enjoy eating out, and I don't mind paying for it if it's a special treat. But if I take out pork for dinner and the family "doesn't feel like pork tonight" (or chicken, or veal, or...), then we shouldn't be rushing to get pizza, fast food or Chinese. This hit home when I checked the credit card bill and saw a $52 charge for a local sushi place. I totally forgot about it until I saw the bill, and hubby didn't even remember it then! That's $52 down the drain. And there were a number of others just like it. So...we'll crack down and see if we can make some progress over the next few months.

1 Responses to “Cracking down...”

  1. HouseHopeful Says:
    1275176278

    One way that I combat eating out for special treats, is planning and adding new meals to make at home. Shrimp one night, a stir fry another.

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