Turns out when you are an irresponsible spender who is looking to clean things up a bit for a spendy month, there is much fat to trim. WHO KNEW.
I usually get a pedicure every 3-5 weeks, depending on how things are looking, so my feet were in pretty good shape, but I gave myself a polish change for free at home instead of paying someone $50 to do it for me. Will this happen on the regular? Not during sandal season. Did I hate it? Not at all!
You know what I for sure do not need? MOAR books. I cleaned out my Kindle library and discovered I have-- wait for it-- FOURTEEN BOOKS in there that I have not read through the Amazon First Reads program-- dating back to 2023! WHAT. I am going to read these BEFORE I buy more books. (Obviously if they are terrible, I will abandon them-- what a great time to practice DNFing!-- but I think they will be FINE FINE FINE for the pool.) (Now cross your fingers that I randomly find Whistler on the walk in shelf at my library).
(Also, organizing my Kindle and adding all the unread books to my Storygraph pile was so fun. But it made me think of the productivity company in Annie Knows Everything. The characters work for a planner app and there is a bunch of funny, snarky commentary about how the app just makes people think they are getting work done when really it's just another digital time suck, and I was like OMG this is meeeeeeee).
But really! The biggest thing we have done to stop spending like drunken sailors is to STOP EATING OUT. This, too, feels like a seasonal saver thing because when activity season hits, I will absolutely need to rely on food not made by me. But for now? It is a healthy and delicious perk of a slower pace.
Speaking of fashion. Ok. I have a dance recital and a graduation to attend in the next couple of weeks, and I think I am going to... re-wear a couple of dresses. Usually, I buy a new dress to wear backstage and after the girls dance, but this is dumb you guys. I AM NOT ONSTAGE. Graduation? Not sure about this one. Part of me wants a new dress just because. But the other part of me me knows I have a TON of summer dresses in my closet and should probably just, um, pull one off the hanger.
OH! One more thing! I stopped getting coffee out cold turkey. This habit is a creeper for me. It starts with an espresso before class. Then it's that plus also maybe a coffee before my Wednesday class and also a "Friday coffee" with Dorothy and Cooper. Then the Friday coffee happens also on Tuesdays and includes breakfast sandwiches and suddenly we are talking about $100 a week that I don't even really notice as money spent. SLIPPERY SLOPE you guys.
So there you have it-- some simple ways we are spending less in a month of trips and sign ups. What about you?
Timely post as we just did some budget analysis this weekend too! Now with 2 new drivers, FOUR cars, crazy $$ gas, a couple of car "incidents" in the past year + 2 teen boy drivers = HIGH insurance, etc., there's been a lot of additions to the budget but not a lot of decreases! Plus college on the horizon x2, etc. So we are doing some similar trimming of fat and re-evaluating category amounts.
ReplyDeleteI'm with you on cutting back on so many beverages. We also really want to focus on food/grocery waste. This one matters to me not only from $ standpoint but the environmental aspect as well, so double whammy. We're trying to be more intentional with our eating out in general as well. This is something we really enjoy so never gonna cut it way back, but would like to minimize some of the times where it's not even really that enjoyable per se, but more of a whim: eh, lunch at home of leftovers doesn't seem fun, let's just get Chipotle (which means dropping at least $60 for no good reason! Except I do really like Chipotle... lol.)
Would be curious to know what tools you guys use to manage and monitor your spending. Do you follow a monthly budget? Seems like you guys have high expenses so would be fun to hear more about your methods of managing them!
I'm kind of the opposite, in that I wear my clothes over and over again until they look like rags and people are begging me to replace them. I have some items I just HAVE TO replace, and I'm dreading it (but does anyone really enjoy buying bras???) I'm thinking I probably need another dress for when I go to the wedding, because there's a bridal shower plus we have the rehearsal dinner... and my shorts are in sad shape. So I will probably have a spendy month, clothes-wise!
ReplyDeleteOther than that, I'm pretty frugal. I agree those trips to Starbucks add up- you don't think it's so much until you look at the weekly total and EGADS.
we went out to ramen on Saturday night after the dance show (i wore a dress from 2023ish, lol) and it was $140 for the 5 of us! everything has definitely gotten a lot more expensive over the past couple of years. in our case i think our day to day spending is the thoughtful part (i end up spending $$$ on vacations or experiences like concerts - that's kind of where all 'extra' money goes, but I'm mostly okay with that!)
ReplyDeleteTo save money this month, I'm going to...not. I'm just not going to save money. I need new undergarments and I'm due for a pedicure. I'm just going to spend the money. LOL. (That's a joke. I will, of course, always cook at home and bring my own lunch and only buy coffee once a week and make my own granola and be the cheap ass person I always am. Except spend $$$ on my pets and personal care products. I AM A WOMAN OF MANY CONTRADICTIONS.)
ReplyDeleteMy daughter has Minnie's exact same dress in red. I thought it was surely an adorable waste of money when I bought it for "rainbow day" last year but it has held up to several special-ish occasion wears, and she wore it to her K graduation this year so it's apparently her go-to (um, only) "dressy" dress. They are having rainbow day again tomorrow and she will probably wear it again. Maybe for small girls having a single go-to rainbow outfit is actually a money saver?
ReplyDeleteGraduation month is spendy, and so are these recitals and so on, so you are smart to cut back where you can. I’m leaning in to less expensive meals wherever I can, though I am still going to buy the eggs/bread/milk that we like, and I’m still going to go to the farmer’s market because the quality is better even if it costs more than the sale at the grocery store.
ReplyDeleteI generally only get one pedicure a year, and do my own polish the rest of the time. Does it look as good as if someone else did it? No. Does anyone ever look at my feet besides me when I’m doing forward fold in yoga? No.
My daughter was going through her subscriptions and managed to save $200 a month by cancelling things. I mean, that’s $2,400 a year! Will she miss some of them? Probably. But hopefully not a lot, and if she does she can re-up. Just good to not have them charge you money in the background when you’re not using them.