Saving successes!!

 First of all, go read the comments on my last post because Melissa has THE BEST summer these day ideas!

Second, YOU GUYS YOU GUYS YOU GUYS. When we started this very spendy month of ALL OF THE THINGS, I despaired about saving any money or even staying with our means-- so we embarked on a bit of a spending freeze (LOL-- we still had to buy so many "essentials" that a freeze seems like a misnomer. A spending cool down?) and we came out ahead, kid trips and sign ups and Father's Day and a 20th bday and all.

THE SECRET IS TO JUST STOP BEING STUPID, apparently.

Even Dorothy and Cooper got in on the act and started making their beloved matchas at home.

less than $20 for all the supplies and lasts for weeeeeeeeks, instead of $6 each every time

I wore a dress to Jack's graduation that is SO OLD it could be graduating

And! I wore an old dress to the girls' dance recital, too

(also to dress rehearsal-- that dress predates 3/5 of my kids) (crappy backstage selfie is all I got)

Other things we have done to trim spending:

stop buying random garbage (I cannot tell you how huge this one is) (judge away, you guys, but I was feeling so resentful and put upon toward the end of the semester that I was buying myself a lot of junk -- anything I wanted the second I wanted it-- just, like, not doing that has been huge. Also talking about my feelings and asking the other people who live with me to share the burden has really really helped, as has slowing down for the summer. I need to think about this before we find ourselves in another crazy season).

only eat out sometimes (again, this one has been SO SO SO easy)

coffee at home

meal planning-- including looking in the fridge/freezer, and cabinets before we shop (shut up-- I know this is a thing most adults do automatically, but I was so spent in all the ways by the end of the semester that I just bought whatever whenever and then threw most of it away because we got takeout anyway).

the above ingredients for salad and grain bowls get freshly prepped and take up prime fridge space every week, and I love it

I have also had really good luck with having 2 ZERO SPEND days a week. Not only has this made me think twice before I buy something, but it has also imposed some extra structure on food shopping and meal planning that has been so, so, so helpful and has taken away some of the stress. Like, if we run out of something on a day I have decided is not for spending, then we probably aren't going to get it and people should just, like, eat their second favorite cracker, you know?

Last week, I only had one single no-spend day because I had to buy Built Puff brownie bars and instant ice packs (for diving and dance respectively), but a $14 spend day is still pretty excellent when you are keeping a household of 7 people afloat. But then! My spending sort of steam rolled into the weekend, with a pricey dance bag re-stock for nationals (eyelashes and makeup remover and spray gel and garbage snacks add up), $65 in takeout sandwiches and then another $10 in concession snacks at a dive meet, $30 in Saturday night snack shack food and another $30 for pizza and cheese curds because people were still hungry, plus a Whole Foods detour for wine ($40). Suddenly, I spent $300 without even noticing it. When I did notice it, I realized just how drastically my habits have changed since a day like that is the exception not the rule. 

I absolutely could have made a picnic for the dive meet and fed everyone at home before we went to the pool, but I didn't WANT to because I had tons of work to do on Friday (a summer work day for me and the dive meet day) but so did Ben, and Minnie needed to have Fun Fun, and truthfully? I felt resentful and put upon and just did not even want to deal with food. Ditto Saturday when I was on my own while Ben went to O'Hare to pick up a car load of returning speech kids and I didn't WANT to be on my own. 

I have also noticed that when we slide into a food rut, we end up abandoning our meals and ingredients and buying trash instead. This week, the leftover burgers and chicken breasts did not fly off the fridge shelves-- we need to stop repeating these two for a couple of weeks, I guess...

(Someone asked in my comments about retirement savings, and I should note that when I talk about spending, I am just talking about the money we use for all of the things that aren't automatically deducted (retirement accounts, FSA money, etc) or already spoken for (bills bills bills dance tuition more bills)-- the variable monthly spending, groceries included. SO while I am clearly kind of let-them-eat-cake-y, I am not as dumb as I perhaps come off in these posts.)