What's New With You? FF Update
Hi everyone and Happy March! It's already time for the monthly What's New With
You linkup, and today I'm going to be talking how Frugal February went.
Overall, I did really well with my goals. I managed to stick with all of them (with the exception of one small exception in my first category). But- this was one of those months where a few things went wrong and we ended up having to spend way more money than we wanted to. First, our car broke down and we had to spend money just to get it home, then had to buy a repair kit to fix the issue. Then, we had a pipe in our basement crack and leak all over the place. Luckily, our home warranty covered the issue, but we still had to pay the consultation fee and a bunch of our stuff was destroyed. Finally, Selma had her annual vet appointment and was due on a bunch of shots, so that added on to our bills as well.
In happier news, we got our tax refund for the year, and were able to put that all towards our mortgage! I also got a promotion at work, and Dan had some overtime hours from a work trip. It all ended up balancing out in the end, but at the same time I want to try to carry over some of these goals to March and try again.
With all that said- here's a breakdown of how my month and goals went:
NO buying breakfast, lunch, dinner, coffee, or snacks out. I did really well with this, but I did buy coffee and a cookie one day at work. I found out that a project that I was working on for the last year and was about to launch had to be delayed, so I took a break at lunch to leave the office and needed a little pick me up. Other than that, I packed every day and didn't go out for dinner or breakfast at all.
NO online shopping. Nailed this one! I didn't even do that thing where I put items in my shopping cart (online window shopping). Just avoided it completely. I also managed to not buy anything on Amazon, which I'm really proud of.
NO Target!! I did not step foot in Target or buy anything online from Target.com. Go me! Now that February is over I'm interested in trying their new brand(which reminds me a lot of one of my favorite stores, Madewell). Might reward myself with a new pair of jeans or a top.
NO Netflix and Hulu. I'll give myself a pass for this. I managed to cancel my Netflix for the month, but Hulu needs more lead time and is on hold for March instead.
NO Trader Joe's or Whole Foods. Also nailed this one. I went to Aldi for all of my shopping and managed to save money. In January we spent a total of $312 on groceries, and in February only $235. Coupled with the fact that we saved over $100 in restaurants, I'm really happy with how we did.
Overall, I did really well with my goals. I managed to stick with all of them (with the exception of one small exception in my first category). But- this was one of those months where a few things went wrong and we ended up having to spend way more money than we wanted to. First, our car broke down and we had to spend money just to get it home, then had to buy a repair kit to fix the issue. Then, we had a pipe in our basement crack and leak all over the place. Luckily, our home warranty covered the issue, but we still had to pay the consultation fee and a bunch of our stuff was destroyed. Finally, Selma had her annual vet appointment and was due on a bunch of shots, so that added on to our bills as well.
In happier news, we got our tax refund for the year, and were able to put that all towards our mortgage! I also got a promotion at work, and Dan had some overtime hours from a work trip. It all ended up balancing out in the end, but at the same time I want to try to carry over some of these goals to March and try again.
With all that said- here's a breakdown of how my month and goals went:
NO buying breakfast, lunch, dinner, coffee, or snacks out. I did really well with this, but I did buy coffee and a cookie one day at work. I found out that a project that I was working on for the last year and was about to launch had to be delayed, so I took a break at lunch to leave the office and needed a little pick me up. Other than that, I packed every day and didn't go out for dinner or breakfast at all.
NO online shopping. Nailed this one! I didn't even do that thing where I put items in my shopping cart (online window shopping). Just avoided it completely. I also managed to not buy anything on Amazon, which I'm really proud of.
NO Target!! I did not step foot in Target or buy anything online from Target.com. Go me! Now that February is over I'm interested in trying their new brand(which reminds me a lot of one of my favorite stores, Madewell). Might reward myself with a new pair of jeans or a top.
NO Netflix and Hulu. I'll give myself a pass for this. I managed to cancel my Netflix for the month, but Hulu needs more lead time and is on hold for March instead.
NO Trader Joe's or Whole Foods. Also nailed this one. I went to Aldi for all of my shopping and managed to save money. In January we spent a total of $312 on groceries, and in February only $235. Coupled with the fact that we saved over $100 in restaurants, I'm really happy with how we did.
Saving all that money by shopping at Aldi is awesome! And isn't it amazing what eating can cost you? It's crazy!
ReplyDeleteWow, no Amazon! I should try that some time...
ReplyDeleteI am going to check out Target's new line this month!
ReplyDeleteoh my gosh, i hate when multiple things go wrong like that. thank goodness for home warranty for that pipe/leak. sorry about your stuff being ruined though. can you replace it with insurance?
ReplyDeletewhen i have to stop online shopping, i have to avoid it completely too. can't even 'window' shop. dangerous, just step away lol
wow, what you spent in groceries is amazing! i have tried aldi but they just don't have a lot of what we eat and then i have to go elsewhere to get the rest so it's a bit of a hassle and not worth the savings that we do get. i keep trying though just in case lol.
Oh that's awesome that you saved so much on groceries! I meant to try Aldi all of last year... and of course did not. Now our Aldi is under construction. They are making it bigger I think. So hopefully after that I can *finally* go. We definitely could use a cheaper grocery spot! I am so impressed by your FF. I am such a spender! Such a bummer about the leak, I hope you are able to get it replaced! Xo - Alexandra
ReplyDeleteSimply Alexandra: My Favorite Things
Great job with your goals this month! Saying no to Target is hard.
ReplyDeleteCongrats on your promotion! That's great news! Also that you managed to stick to so many of your goals. We did a lot better with our finances last month too, which will now be offset by the fact we both need new phones. Mine has been slowly dying but my husband's took a swim over the weekend so now we have a large expenditure looming... Sometimes it just feels like the world gives with one hand and takes away with another! Ah well. We did switch to just using Aldi more frequently vs doing one giant shop at Costco for the month, and I think it's working out cheaper. So that's good. I really do love Aldi.
ReplyDeleteWow, you did a really great job on spending last month. I need to start shopping at Aldi more, I just always forget about it.
ReplyDelete$235 for groceries? I am so impressed. I guess you need an Aldi to accomplish that LOL ... we brought our bill down to <$600 which is a huge win for us, but it's nowhere near $235.
ReplyDelete