It is Saturday morning just after 8:30 A.M. and here I am blogging away the morning! I am hungry, thirsty, and could go for a nice cup of coffee.... yummy.
Yesterday, after work, I headed to Stations of the Cross at our chapel. Only four people showed up, but the little group persevered! Afterwards I drove home and hit the kitchen for my first attempt at pretzel making....Attempt? How about foretold failure! Yeah, yeast and me just don't do well. I really am not sure what the heck I do to the yeast, but it never rises. I think maybe I mix it with water that is too hot. I don't know, but it doesn't work. What a waste of time and ingredients! I am tempted to try again, but it will probably be failure! Is two tablespoons of yeast equal to one packet? I don't know..... Sister dear-help!
Sister posted about being frugal and it caused me to think a bit about the whole subject. I am not sure if I am frugal or not. I know both my sisters are VERY frugal to a fault. When it comes to food, they are the cheap queens and I can't follow in their suit! My hubby likes meat, a lot and isn't too keen on giving it up for more than one day a week. He loves pizza, and he likes good food. He goes on these crazy binges where he wants chips, salsa, cookies, doughnuts and such! Settle down!
Eating out? Well, I have to admit that we usually eat out at least once every 7-10 days.... Bad? probably. I like to have a break from making dinner (cooking is easier than baking) doesn't everyone?
Food is the one thing we buy on a regular basis that we do try to work on lowering costs. We definitely lowered costs from January to February. We will see what happens in March...
Other than that, everything else is bills. We don't have a cell phone because it really isn't that necessary. We just lowered our phone bill. We don't have cable (I would never leave the couch). You can tell, but I cut my own hair (just hacked off 4 inches), and I don't have my nails professionally done. Um... what do women spend money on that I don't spend money on? I think that is it: cell phone, cable, nails, hair....
Hubby and I rarely go out except for dinner. Most of our excursions are Church and volunteer related, although, I would like to take voice lessons.
One thing for sure, is that I do have a savings plan in place. Every month we have money going to savings (for emergencies), Christmas savings, auto savings (insurance and repairs), travel savings (trips back home!), Church savings (donations), and then the rest is for bills and miscellaneous. Those saving accounts take up half my paycheck every month and will be a God send should one or both of us loses a job (it is looking towards September for me..visit back home here I come).
We pay off all the credit cards every month so as not to accrue interest which leaves us with our monthly bills. The bills, I think are pretty steep and I have been looking into refinancing our first mortgage, but we are buoyant and I don't think we will sink yet. We did pay for all our furniture by credit card with zero percent interest and then paid it until completely paid off.
How would I like to see us improve?
I would love for us to use coupons on a more frequent basis. The problem I find is that coupons are generally for things I do NOT purchase. I purchase my cheese in bulk, my meat in bulk (and usually on sale), eggs in bulk, vegetables in bulk. I don't buy a lot of items that usually have coupons. I know that I could still save money, but I am not that savvy. I guess in this instance, I would need to spend more time shopping the ads and creating some kind of grocery excursion plan. I would also need to go shopping in the early morning hours of a Saturday. This would ensure that I could shop in peace and at my own leisure instead of a mad rush with drones of other persons!
I also would need to make sure I cut down on those gas station purchases..ya know.. hop in, get a 20 ounce drink for a buck forty five and think you are all that. What a waste of money! Shame on me! Good thing I gave up carbonated drinks for Lent!
The second thing I would curtail is gift giving for us. Now, when it comes to other people, I like to splurge which is why I decided to set up the Christmas savings for 2009. I tracked what we spent and it topped off at 1500.00. Mind you, that I no longer give gifts to any of my siblings, except the youngest, and that during Christmas, I only give to god children (which is money or religious gifts) and my Secret Santa person. Hubby's family is different and they are a much smaller family compared to mine. They give to everyone and are very generous. 2007 we were frugal because I was without a job, and they spoiled us with so many lovely gifts! This past year, we were in a better position and I wanted to extend love and thankfulness with lovely gifts this year. I hope we did! I also purchased gifts for all my choir girls. Anyway... I am off topic. That is why we started that account. BUT hubby likes to buy himself little gifts throughout the year and I think this is a bachelor habit of his that needs to be extinguished. Granted, the flame does not burn as brightly, but it does burn. We were at Sam's the other day and he was looking and DVD's and was trying to get me to purchase a dvd... I told him he could purchase that for our anniversary or my birthday which, of course, frazzled him. My single days are over. I can't be buying gifts all willy nilly. There are other priorities that come first and self gifts are not one of them. Besides, have you seen my house? Do you really think we need another movie, cd or book (btw Chris Isaak just released a new album and I will be splurging on that)? We could rent out all of our books and make a profit! BTW- that was popular back in the 19th century. Many folks would pay a monthly fee to rent books from a merchant. Crazy eh?
Anyway.. I better get cracking with a bit of housework. I am heading to Mass and then the abortion clinic ( I pray that father starts on time!). There seems to be quite a number of persons who will be in attendance- God bless them all!
That's my story!
