Tell me I can do this

[Zhoen]

Op,

I once had a roomate from a very nifty, midwestern family. She had all sorts of habits that were "frugal", and she had learned them from her family. She used to put cubed baked potatoes in Hamburger Helper instead of meat. it was weird... but I tried some one day, and it was really good. Just a thought of something you could do with some of that 10lbs of potatoes, if the family's allergies/sensitivities allow it.

 

[mrodgers]

No particulars are known. 2 things can be happening.

1. Husband controls the money. He pays the bills and has $X left over. He gives Wife $X for gas and groceries. $X isn't enough for gas and groceries.

2. Husband controls the money. He gives Wife $X for groceries and that's that. He makes the money, therefore thinks it is his money. He pays the bills and with what is left buys Harleys, quads, drinks, gambles, etc. $X isn't enough for gas and groceries.

Neither of these are known whether is true or not.

As for could it be done? No one can answer that. Everyone is in a different situation. That $88 would be $50 in gas for my wife for 3 days and $28 in groceries to feed and bathe 4 for 28 days.

As for the term "bailout" as she used? She may just need money that isn't there for groceries. Making $12/hour, you're bringing home $1200, paying $700 for housing, $100 for electric, assume husband's gas maybe $100, $80 for phone, $100 for car insurance, leaving $120 left which she needs for her gas and to feed the family for a month. That's not too unrealistic of a situation to be in. That's with using numbers that isn't even remotely close to what some people spend just in gas ($150/week for the 2 of us...)

 

[janatmovies]

This is all so weird to me. DH gives me a debit card (I am a signer on his account). Whenever I need to buy something for our son, or gas, or food, I use it. No questions asked. And he does NOT make a lot of money! But he is the bread winner, I am the budgeter. It just works.
Now, for the OP, he should help you out!!! Ask him!

 

[beaucoup]

Which do you think the kids will remember more later in life about their childhood?

A trip to WDW or the way they never had any money for food & were always hungry and had nothing good to eat.

I vote food over trip everytime. Gift trip or not. If you can't afford groceries for your family, you cannot afford that trip in 7 months even if Mom is paying for 90% of the trip. Ask her for grocery money to feed her grandchildren real food instead. A grandmother would rather have them eat well then take them to WDW I am sure.

 

[veraletta]

Before long everyone will have her post saying that they live on the street or live in a tent and they are panhanding on the corner to feed themselves...

Are you guys kidding or what?
Some telling her to go to the food bank for food.
Others telling her to cancel her trip to Disney.
Some are reading into it that she is having trouble feeding their kids.

I must be reading the post wrong:
As I thought she wanted advice on a budget board, on how to make it with the food she has on hand and with what little money she has set aside, without going over her budget.
That way she would be back on track next month.
Do you think she can make it? Which would be a no or yes...
I think some of the posts are rude when it comes to saying her husband is controling and or not giving her enough money to feed their family.

How would we know any of this? For all we know last month they could have ran short because they had to get their car fixed.
Some people don't want to use saving at any cost and will take from their food budget. Why? Because I think most people have a lot of money set aside for eating out, and for buying food. For all we know she could have 20k in saving...
I think the post needs to go back on track by answering her question on ways to help her make it through the month.
Not running her or her family into the ground about her going on a disney trip.
I know that mdsoccermom will pass judgement and that she will say she is irresponsible with her money. But I think we would better serve her by helping her with recipes or ideal on ways to cut corners. Just my 2 cents...

 

[RitaE]

Before long everyone will have her post saying that they live on the street or live in a tent and they are panhanding on the corner to feed themselves...

Are you guys kidding or what?
Some telling her to go to the food bank for food.
Others telling her to cancel her trip to Disney.
Some are reading into it that she is having trouble feeding their kids.

I must be reading the post wrong:
As I thought she wanted advice on a budget board, on how to make it with the food she has on hand and with what little money she has set aside, without going over her budget.
That way she would be back on track next month.
Do you think she can make it? Which would be a no or yes...
I think some of the posts are rude when it comes to saying her husband is controling and or not giving her enough money to feed their family.

How would we know any of this? For all we know last month they could have ran short because they had to get their car fixed.
Some people don't want to use saving at any cost and will take from their food budget. Why? Because I think most people have a lot of money set aside for eating out, and for buying food. For all we know she could have 20k in saving...
I think the post needs to go back on track by answering her question on ways to help her make it through the month.
Not running her or her family into the ground about her going on a disney trip.
I know that mdsoccermom will pass judgement and that she will say she is irresponsible with her money. But I think we would better serve her by helping her with recipes or ideal on ways to cut corners. Just my 2 cents...

Anybody know how to make squirrel stew or dandelion greens?

 

[donaldlovesdaisy]

You can totally do it - please my kids are 5 and 7 and they wany ramen everynight for dinner!! Green leafy veggies - bwahahaha try getting the 5 yr old to touch them!!!

I would buy some frozen veggies because they are cheap. That with pasta and rice you can totally stretch things. Roast the chicken for dinner one night with rice and frozen corn, make chicken and pasta the next and then boil the carcass for soup. You can make at least 2 dinners of the soup. bananas are super cheap - especially if you have an aldi. apples are good cheap snacks - crackers and stuff at aldi are a buck a box.

Your trip is being paid for by your inlaws - mine is too except for meals.. i would not cancel.

OP is not saying she cannot access the cash or her hubby will give her greif - she just wants to try to stay in the budget for once geesh!!

I sure hope that is not what they eat every night! I also have no idea how a family of 4 could make two meals off a roasted chicken. There are 4 of us and we are not over eaters and my kids have very athletic and healthy body styles and a whole chicken is one meal plus some leftover meat for me to throw on a salad the next day. I guess maybe if you eat a bunch of carby sides with it you could stretch it but I would much prefer my kids filling up on the protein part of the meal first before having all the carbs. However my food budget is far more important than my WDW budget and my husband would never accept a "gift trip" from a family member.

 

[SaraJayne]

I feel like I've wandered into some alternate universe.

Do grown women actually ask their husbands for money?

 

[okeydokey]

I think the problem with the OPs budget may be that there is a food budget, but she has used it in past months to pay for disney gift cards and vacation purchases. Now there is not enough grocery money left for this month and she probably doesn't want to tell her DH that she has already spent it. I don't think it is a secret that can be kept when the questions start flying about why are we having ground beef and pasta yet again. The decision was still made to fund the trip instead of food.

 

[ilovemk76]

OP - Did you spend previous month's grocery money on those Disney gift cards for your trip? If not, did you DH give your your weekly grocery money on Friday and you spent it on something other than food?

I do not have to ask my husband if I can purchase anything and he does not have to ask me. All of the money is ours and neither of us have to ask our spouse to "bail us out". This is just so bizarre.

 

[ThreeMusketeers]

...

 

[mdsoccermom]

I think the problem with the OPs budget may be that there is a food budget, but she has used it in past months to pay for disney gift cards and vacation purchases. Now there is not enough grocery money left for this month and she probably doesn't want to tell her DH that she has already spent it. I don't think it is a secret that can be kept when the questions start flying about why are we having ground beef and pasta yet again. The decision was still made to fund the trip instead of food.

Or Amtrak tickets. There was a recent thread where she talked about buying tickets for the Autotrain. She said she knew driving would be cheaper, but not as fun.

 

[JennyKS]

I wasn't going to respond, because I've just been "wow'd" reading some of these responses.

She never said her husband WOULDN'T give her money. She never said she was putting vacation before food. You don't know, she could have the money in her savings and not want to touch it. She could, but she is going to try not to. She didn't say she wouldn't have money next month to stock back up. She just wants to see if she can do something this month. She's being creative, good for her.

I'm a single mom (6 year old daughter). But I work 45 minutes from home so I use 50 bucks a week in gas. So no way could I do it. Now could I spend 15 bucks a week on groceries for the 2 of us? I'm sure there are some weeks I could. Some weeks I only need milk, a little fruit and bread. Especially now that the garden is producing. And school is out daycare feeds my daughter breakfast and lunch. Leftover dinner feeds my lunch the next day. I think I could easily get by with 30 bucks a week.

I think it would be intersting to take a month and see how "minimal" we could make it. But for me it could end badly. I tend to be a "splurger". I might go nuts after working so hard to be minimal for a month.

 

[Irishgrl]

It will be tight but, it's not impossible. To do this you will need to plan everything out and cut coupons too. When i was working PT we need extra money coming in so I learned the art of stretching a dollar.

I would start by taking out your calendar a writing down a meal for every day start with what you have in the house and than you can add to it with they money you have. I would take what money you have and divide it by how many weeks you need it to last and this way you know you can't spend more than that. I can't tell you how many meals I have made for free with coupons. Do you belong to Costco or Bj's their milk is the cheapest here in NJ I paid 2.45 last week for a gallon of whole milk.

Here are some coupon sites that I use that will help you.

http://www.livingrichwithcoupons.com/ - She will list out the sales by stores and tell you where to find the coupons.

http://thekrazycouponlady.com/ - If you look under printable coupons she has the coupons listed in ABC order.

Coupons.com - Coupon site where you can print them
Coupon Network.com - another site where you can print them

Another tip for the future is when cutting coupons try to stay ahead 1-2 months on staples this way if you have a tough month it's not so hard to get by.

Good luck!! Let us know how you did....

 

[KigerKat]

I have not read the entire thread, mostly because I hate it when people get flamed for things that are no one's business. I don't care if she has a trip planned. Just because some people have a harder time making ends meet doesn't mean they don't deserve a wonderful vacation. I think those people (sometimes) deserve it more than anyone.

As for her original question, I think it's doable, but it will be difficult. You have a lot of frozen meat, which will definitely help you out. However with four kids, it's going to be hard to stretch it out and keep them full. It's good that the older ones will be spending time with grandma, that will definitely help!

I would go through and try to find anyway to make a little fast extra cash. Have a yard sale! Maybe your kids have a lot of toys and/or clothes they don't use or wear anymore? Yard sales with kid stuff are big hits. If you don't have time for a yard sale, then try a consignment store. You might have to wait a few weeks before you see any money and you have to split it with the store, but it's an idea.

Here's another suggestion, but it won't be a whole lot of help for June. If you have a house with a yard, try planting a small veggie garden. You can get plants through mail order pretty cheap, and it would be a great way to add some healthy options to your menus. Try growing blueberries, strawberries, cucumbers, carrots, tomatoes... And it might be a fun project for your kids to work on to take some of the responsibility off of you. But like I said, doing that won't help you out at all for this month and it's going to take a few months (depending on the size of the plants you start out with) to actually get a good bit of use out of it. But doing this could help you down the road with future months that could be tight.

I'm sure others have suggested you start couponing. I love it when I can stack a store coupon with a manufacturer's coupon and apply it to something that's on sale! It can be like a little game to see how many items I can get for nearly nothing. My favorite website is SouthernSavers.com. She will go through the local sales ads and match the coupons up for you with the sales. She will even provide you with links to printable coupons, if there are any, for sale items.

Good luck to you!!

 

[leighe]

No one "deserves" a vacation.

 

[mdsoccermom]

No one "deserves" a vacation.

Shut up with your crazy talk.

 

[veraletta]

No one "deserves" a vacation.
Are you kidding me?

Well my son deserves a vacation and he doesn't have the money for one but once he gets home for Dyess Air Force Base, this momma is going to take him to his favorite place, which is disney.. It's been 18 months since I saw him last and it maybe another 4 months before he comes home.. But he deserves a vacation and he going to get one...

 

[PrincessTDQ]

[/COLOR]

Anybody know how to make squirrel stew or dandelion greens?

Yes. Both.

 

[wvjules]

No one "deserves" a vacation.
Are you kidding me?

Well my son deserves a vacation and he doesn't have the money for one but once he gets home for Dyess Air Force Base, this momma is going to take him to his favorite place, which is disney.. It's been 18 months since I saw him last and it maybe another 4 months before he comes home.. But he deserves a vacation and he going to get one...

Correct, no one "deserves" a vacation.