Sunday, February 10, 2008

Not a Frugal Weekend, or Was It?

I'm not sure whether this weekend was frugal or not. Between yesterday and today, I made two trips to the market and my husband made one for a total of around $100 in spending. Instead of making dinner at home, I bought take-out for dinner last night at Panda Express for around $11 instead of fixing dinner but I had to work yesterday afternoon and my husband had to work the whole day so I'm giving us a break there. And, had we eaten at Panda Express for the four of us rather than doing takeout, it would have cost about $25. So, in that sense we were frugal. But, yesterday, I went to ToysRUs with my 5 year old and we spent $25 for some gifts and toys and then treated ourselves to ice cream at Cold Stone Creamery for $5 because we had a 2-for-1 coupon thus we saved about $5. Again, not too frugal since I could have bought an entire gallon of ice cream for $4 at the market! But, it's nice for my 5 year old to have an ice cream and choose what flavor he wants. We usually go to Baskin-Robbins only during free cone nights so every once in a while I think it's OK but, it's definitely not too frugal. And then today, we bought a new couch finally. We've had our current one for 13 years and it's been through our first apartment together then it moved with us to our current home and has sustained multiple assaults and injuries thanks to our two boys. So, we found a couch which cost $699 at Plummer's. (Actually, the Queen of Frugal found it and relayed the news to us. I hope to have her contribute a post or two in the future.) That's less than the other couches we saw at Living Spaces and definitely less than some that we considered at Crate and Barrel. We had already put money aside for new furniture so I feel good that didn't cost over $1000.00 which is what I'd budgeted. But, it was a weekend where I ended up spending more than I usually do so it's a bit unsettling. However, I feel good that our furniture won't be frayed like it is now and I won't be embarrassed to have people come over to visit.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

You know you've changed when you feel weird about spending money. An even bigger change is when you get used to having money in the bank. Right now our account is a bit on the low side (but still in the positive) and I'm thinking, man I like having money in the bank. Used to be we'd spend that money the moment it came in, now having cash in my wallet feels really good, don't want to spend it as I like that feeling.

One tip (we don't kids so I know it's different) to cut back on eating out is to have loads of frozen meals which can be pulled out at a moments notice and heated up. Gives you a quick meal when your busy. Than when do eat out you can enjoy a nice meal rather than feeling guilty about getting a take out.

I'm just looking up recipes for hamburger casserole, the wife is gone for 2 days, rather than eat out like I used to, I decided to make a meal and freeze the left overs.

SmallBizMom said...

Frozen meals are a great idea. I also have a crock pot I could use, especially now in the colder weather. These things require some preparation and forethought which I believe help in living a frugal life. Thanks for your comment!