sherry7
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Apr 29, 2001
- Messages
- 2,412
I'm in too! I recently took an early retirement buy out offer from my employer, so this Friday will be my first time without a paycheck since I was a teenager. 
Our income is being cut roughly in half, but I know that the extra time that I'll get to spend with DD will be priceless. 
But, we really need to look at what we're spending now. I'm not so much about zero days, but looking at what I'm spending as a whole. Here's what I've tracked so far for the month of July:
1 - Trip to Sam's Club. $28.76 for t paper and freezer bags, $94.14 for groceries. McDonald's, $1.04 for 2 ice cream cones and an hour or so of play time for DD in their playland.
2 - zero
3 - zero
4 - Groceries $11.26. Hunting license for DH $37.40, which will hopefully payoff with a freezer full of venison this Fall.
5 - Groceries $3.87. Gasoline $28.27. 2 new cell phones $63.37. (We dropped our expensive VzWireless plan, and got inexpensive prepaid service through PagePlus.)
6 - Amazon $5.49, case for DH's cell phone.
7 - McDonald's $3.80, snack for me and DD while running errands.
8 - Pitched in money for food at family gathering, $25.00. LL Bean, did 2 online orders. Order #1, monogrammed backpack and thermos food container for DD for pre-K this Fall. It was $57.65 minus a $10 coupon minus a $10 credit that I'll get from eBates in a few weeks. So, $37.65 for the backpack and thermos. LL Bean Order #2, $18.43 for a monogrammed lunch box minus a $10 coupon equals $8.43 for DD's lunch box.
9 - Dollar Tree $22.18. All but a couple bucks of that was for grocery items. The rest was for a tiara and magic wand for my little Princess.
Rite Aid - bought 3 large packs of t paper and 2 packs of juice boxes. Used $26.00 Up Reward from transferring a prescription last week, paid $5.73 to cashier, then got back another $7.00 in Up Rewards that I can spend in the next 2 weeks. End result, lots of free t paper. Score!
10 - zero
11 - Ouch! Big spending day today, but it couldn't be helped. Cat food for our 3 kitties, $74.18. One kitty is allergic to corn, etc so this is the only kind that doesn't make him barf. This should be enough for 3 to 3 1/2 months though. New work boots for DH, $161.90. DH prescription copay, $2.64. 2 prescriptions for me at Kmart, $5.00. I had a coupon for transferring a prescription, so I got a $25.00 gift card.
Out of that, I bought $4.63 of food, and an over-the-door mirror and hair bow for DD for $16.73. Still have a few bucks on the gift card for a future shopping trip.
12 - Ouch, another spending day. DD had a 24 hour test scheduled at Children's Hospital, so me and DH had to pay for all of our meals while we were there. We went to drive-thru at McD's on the drive there for a snack and spent $4.24. Then we had breakfast, lunch, and dinner at the hospital which totaled $36.00. Actually, I have to commend the hospital for not price gouging, because "guest meals" that got delivered with DD's meals were only $6.00 per person, and it was a lot of food and actually tasted pretty good too.
13 - $5.00 parking fee when we left the hospital parking garage this morning.
14 - The Children's Place is having an awesome online sale, and I ordered DD4's entire summer wardrobe for next year. I got 20 shirts and 12 bottoms for $90.62. I almost always buy her clothing ahead of time like this to get good deals. Gas for my Prius, $25.50.
15 - Dollar Tree $29.00 for food items, and $5.30 for household/cleaning items. Rite Aid - bought an 8 pack of paper towel and 3 cans of shaving cream. I had $7.00 of Up Rewards, so my total was only $3.67.
16 - Dollar Tree $22.00 for food items. They had Weight Watchers frozen meals for a buck each! My freezer is now well stocked with them.
17 - I took DD to our local kiddie amusement park today. We took snacks and water with us, but stopped on the way there and back to get a snack. Spent a total of $6.95 at Wendy's and Burger King. Gas for DH's SUV, $45.64.
18 - $75.00 for a 2 week Super Why day camp at our local Y for DD. It's not until next month.
19 - Big spending day, since I haven't made a big grocery trip since last month. Aldi $98.26 for food items, and $3.16 for household items. Dollar Tree $20.00 for food items, and $10.36 for household items. Sam's Club $107.51 on food items, 15.98 for a years supply of allergy meds, and $43.34 on 4 preschool prep books. (I actually intend to take a couple of these back the next time I go to Sam's. I didn't have the time to look through them well at the store, so I just bought all of them with the intention of returning a couple of them.) Wendy's $2.10 for a quick lunch, because you should never go grocery shopping when you're hungry!
Our income is being cut roughly in half, but I know that the extra time that I'll get to spend with DD will be priceless. But, we really need to look at what we're spending now. I'm not so much about zero days, but looking at what I'm spending as a whole. Here's what I've tracked so far for the month of July:1 - Trip to Sam's Club. $28.76 for t paper and freezer bags, $94.14 for groceries. McDonald's, $1.04 for 2 ice cream cones and an hour or so of play time for DD in their playland.
2 - zero
3 - zero
4 - Groceries $11.26. Hunting license for DH $37.40, which will hopefully payoff with a freezer full of venison this Fall.
5 - Groceries $3.87. Gasoline $28.27. 2 new cell phones $63.37. (We dropped our expensive VzWireless plan, and got inexpensive prepaid service through PagePlus.)
6 - Amazon $5.49, case for DH's cell phone.
7 - McDonald's $3.80, snack for me and DD while running errands.
8 - Pitched in money for food at family gathering, $25.00. LL Bean, did 2 online orders. Order #1, monogrammed backpack and thermos food container for DD for pre-K this Fall. It was $57.65 minus a $10 coupon minus a $10 credit that I'll get from eBates in a few weeks. So, $37.65 for the backpack and thermos. LL Bean Order #2, $18.43 for a monogrammed lunch box minus a $10 coupon equals $8.43 for DD's lunch box.
9 - Dollar Tree $22.18. All but a couple bucks of that was for grocery items. The rest was for a tiara and magic wand for my little Princess.
Rite Aid - bought 3 large packs of t paper and 2 packs of juice boxes. Used $26.00 Up Reward from transferring a prescription last week, paid $5.73 to cashier, then got back another $7.00 in Up Rewards that I can spend in the next 2 weeks. End result, lots of free t paper. Score!10 - zero
11 - Ouch! Big spending day today, but it couldn't be helped. Cat food for our 3 kitties, $74.18. One kitty is allergic to corn, etc so this is the only kind that doesn't make him barf. This should be enough for 3 to 3 1/2 months though. New work boots for DH, $161.90. DH prescription copay, $2.64. 2 prescriptions for me at Kmart, $5.00. I had a coupon for transferring a prescription, so I got a $25.00 gift card.
Out of that, I bought $4.63 of food, and an over-the-door mirror and hair bow for DD for $16.73. Still have a few bucks on the gift card for a future shopping trip.12 - Ouch, another spending day. DD had a 24 hour test scheduled at Children's Hospital, so me and DH had to pay for all of our meals while we were there. We went to drive-thru at McD's on the drive there for a snack and spent $4.24. Then we had breakfast, lunch, and dinner at the hospital which totaled $36.00. Actually, I have to commend the hospital for not price gouging, because "guest meals" that got delivered with DD's meals were only $6.00 per person, and it was a lot of food and actually tasted pretty good too.
13 - $5.00 parking fee when we left the hospital parking garage this morning.
14 - The Children's Place is having an awesome online sale, and I ordered DD4's entire summer wardrobe for next year. I got 20 shirts and 12 bottoms for $90.62. I almost always buy her clothing ahead of time like this to get good deals. Gas for my Prius, $25.50.
15 - Dollar Tree $29.00 for food items, and $5.30 for household/cleaning items. Rite Aid - bought an 8 pack of paper towel and 3 cans of shaving cream. I had $7.00 of Up Rewards, so my total was only $3.67.
16 - Dollar Tree $22.00 for food items. They had Weight Watchers frozen meals for a buck each! My freezer is now well stocked with them.
17 - I took DD to our local kiddie amusement park today. We took snacks and water with us, but stopped on the way there and back to get a snack. Spent a total of $6.95 at Wendy's and Burger King. Gas for DH's SUV, $45.64.
18 - $75.00 for a 2 week Super Why day camp at our local Y for DD. It's not until next month.
19 - Big spending day, since I haven't made a big grocery trip since last month. Aldi $98.26 for food items, and $3.16 for household items. Dollar Tree $20.00 for food items, and $10.36 for household items. Sam's Club $107.51 on food items, 15.98 for a years supply of allergy meds, and $43.34 on 4 preschool prep books. (I actually intend to take a couple of these back the next time I go to Sam's. I didn't have the time to look through them well at the store, so I just bought all of them with the intention of returning a couple of them.) Wendy's $2.10 for a quick lunch, because you should never go grocery shopping when you're hungry!
