No Shopping On Snow Days

On Saturday the high was 34 and snowing all day. On Monday the high is supposed to be 68! It will be beautiful tomorrow and I have to go back to work. This is crazy weather but at least it kept me away from the stores. Bad for the stores, good for my wallet. Everything I see on TV, commercials and news stories, tells me to go shopping and get those GREAT DEALS! Sometimes I feel like I am missing a great opportunity. But then I check my list, the list I keep of things I am looking for if they are a great price. There are only 3 things on my list: a wallet, knit hat, and gel insoles for my shoes. That is all that I want right now. No electronics, no video games, no new clothes. Do I really need to waste my time and money combing through clearance racks? I am sure I would spend a lot more money if I was standing in front of tempting "deals". Next weekend I will get possession of my rental house again and I am sure I will need to buy a few things to spruce it up. It is better that I stay away from the stores now so that I will have money to spend on things I NEED for the house later on. At least, that is my plan.

Saving with Frugal Meals And Grocery Sales

This post is for my mom. She is still cooking for a family of 4 since my parents are raising two grandkids. When we were young my mom cooked from scratch, used coupons, planned meals and had a garden. After all the kids moved out and my dad retired, he took over the grocery shopping chore. Over the years they have stopped tracking their expenses as much, slacked off on the meal planning and got out of the habit of using coupons. Now she wants to start doing these things again.

Recently she read Early Retirement Extreme's blog post about $1-$2 Recipes and was inspired. So far 2 of those recipes have been a success at her house. She called me and wanted more frugal recipe ideas. I don't have many ideas because I eat the same meals over and over, pizza quesadillas, spaghetti, chicken alfredo, nachos, soup. I don't experiment with food because it costs money and I don't want to waste it (the money or the food). I buy and eat what I like and that's pretty much it. I don't use many coupons either because I usually buy store brands on sale and I don't buy the Sunday paper so I don't get coupons.

But anyway, here are a few sites for my mom and anyone else who is interested:

Hillbilly Housewife
Lots of frugal recipes, shortcuts, grocery ideas.

The Grocery Game This one costs $10 every 8 weeks. It matches printed coupons to in-store sales. Sorry Mom, they don't cover your town. I have heard that in-store sales will match the newspaper coupons from 3 weeks earlier. So, the coupon shows up in the paper and they want you to run out and buy the item. Then in a 3 weeks the item goes on sale again and you buy it again if you liked it. If you save the coupon and wait until it goes on sale, then you save more. At least that's what I have heard. I haven't tried it.

Frugal Recipes This site has recipes submitted from various people. No pictures. I really need pictures of the food before I will try a recipe. Maybe I'm just not that adventurous.

Miserly Mom Recipes I read this Miserly Mom book from the library. I don't remember it because it is geared towards families and I don't have one. She also wrote Miserly Meals (hey, Mom, maybe you can find it at your library!) but this site has many frugal recipes submitted by readers.

Living On A Dime There are books, Dining On A Dime and Not Just Beans, which go along with this site and might be at your local library. They also sell ebooks on various frugal topics.

Does anyone else have a favorite frugal meal or frugal recipe site?

Frugal Talk In The Lunchroom

The conversation in the lunchroom today moved from movies to DVDs to what kind of TV package we had. One lady had expanded cable with internet for $70 and another fellow had satellite with internet for $110. He told her she should get his TV package because he got a lot more channels and it was ONLY $40 more a month. She didn't think that was worth it. Then he turned to me and said, what do you have? Satellite? Um, no, I said. I'm one of those people with an old rabbit ear antenna who had to buy a digital TV converter so I can keep watching my 6 free channels. He was incredulous. He wanted to know what I did all weekend without all those TV channels to watch. And I don't even subscribe to Netflicks!

Then he mentioned that he saw the Today Show this morning and this family: America's Cheapest Family was on the show. I had heard of them before but I didn't realize they were from Arizona. My coworker wanted to know if I subscribed to their newsletter. No, I said, it probably costs money (it does, $1 a month) plus I already do lots of frugal things and their tips focus on raising a family, something I am not doing at the moment.

Anyway, my coworker is interested in saving money but also wants to have fun now which is understandable. He makes more money than I do and has more discretionary income to play with. I think having fun now is important too. We just have different ideas of what 'fun' is. Fun to him is having 8 football games on one giant screen. Fun to me is paying off my mortgage as fast as I can. I guess we will have to agree to disagree on this one.

Biggest Cheapskate?

I saw this story on the show 20/20 Vermont Man: Cheap and Proud of It. I love seeing how other people live on very little money. He lives on $15,000 a year which he earns by picking up old items from the trash, refurbishing them and selling them for profit. I assume he likes what he does and considers it a fun hobby. The article says he doesn't have a real job but I think his recycling for profit hobby is a "real job". I wonder how many hours he works at it each day. He has to work enough to earn that $15,000 he needs to maintain his lifestyle, however frugal it may be. He also runs a charity for stray animals. I would consider that a job too. It is great that he can earn a living on the little bit of money that he makes doing what he loves. That is my goal too, to have a job that I love.

I do draw the line at getting married just to get on the spouse's health insurance. I hope there were other factors involved. And asking for people's leftovers in restaurants is too bold for me. I don't go to those kind of restaurants very often anyway. If his wife has the health insurance coverage for both of them I guess she has a job. I could live very well on $15,000 especially if I didn't have to pay for health insurance. I wouldn't consider him the biggest cheapskate though. Lot's of people live on less than $15,000. But I'm glad he is happy with his lifestyle, happiness is a very important part of life and definitely another one of my top goals!

Stretching Free Food

Last night was our office Christmas dinner. I was determined to take food home this year instead of stuffing myself like I did last year. I helped myself to the pre-dinner rolls, drank 2 drinks and pillaged the appetizers freely. When it was time to order dinner I wasn't even hungry. I ordered the filet mignon and ate the vegetables, nibbled the potatoes and carved only 4 bites off of the steak. The rest went in to a take home box. Of course, everyone noticed that I was taking home most of my meal and joked that I would be eating it for the entire week. I think I should eat it all week just to amuse them.


When the waitress asked if anyone wanted dessert most people said no but then someone said yes and half of the people (including myself) decided to have dessert too. I had a bit of a childhood flashback because I didn't finish my dinner before having dessert but I got dessert anyway (I know, I'm such a rule breaker!). I ate a third and scooted the rest of it in to my box.

Now I have 2 servings of potatoes, 2 servings of cheesecake and 5 servings of beef. If I add my own vegetables and bread, tortillas or potatoes, I can eat my Office Christmas Dinner all week long!

Awakening Frugality In Others

One peculiar thing that happens when people find out I am interested in saving money is that they tell me about the things that they do to save money too. It becomes a sort of contest to see who is the most frugal. I always win because no one else lives in an RV and depends on rainwater :) but I like to hear what things other people do and what they would like to do.

Many people would like to use solar energy more if it wasn't so expensive. The return on investment for a whole house system seems to be stuck at 20 years. Until they come up with a cheaper technology not many people are going to go for that. I know a few people who built strawbale houses and have water running through their concrete floors for heat. Supposedly this is a very cost effective method of heating. A neighbor just put up a windmill. I haven't had a chance to ask him about it yet but it looks cool!
On a smaller scale, a few people I know use their laundry water for their landscape including me. Most people have drip systems for irrigation. It saves water and keeps the water close to the plants. All the new houses have drip systems installed as standard now. Using rocks for the front yard instead of grass is standard practice also. That took some getting used to when I first moved here from California (home of the manicured lawn with sprinklers watering the sidewalks).

My mother is even re-analysing where her money is going and trying to plug some money holes. She told me she put quilts over the windows and blocked off the gaps under the doors to stop the drafts this winter. She uses space heaters in the rooms that are used more and keeps the temperature for the rest of the house low. She also wears about 4 layers of clothes including long underwear. Hopefully this will help her save some money on propane this year.

So, what frugal thing that you do saves you the most money? I can always use more ideas!

Are You Cutting Back?

The economy has been down for many months now and even CNN is talking about economising. As I was sitting in the airport waiting for my flight last weekend I heard the people on CNN talking about meal planning, using coupons and cooking at home instead of eating out. This is news? I thought everyone did those things. Ok, I know a lot of people don't do those things but my parents always did those things so for the longest time I thought everyone did it. Sometimes I would hear about people in New York who spent a lot of money on food and clothes but I just thought they were really rich.

The funniest part of the CNN broadcast was when their expert suggested that we should buy a $30 shirt from the GAP store instead of that $300 shirt that we usually buy. $300 for a shirt! I can not imagine paying that much. In fact, $30 for a shirt is out of my price range. $3 at the thrift store is more like it. Even better if they are having their $1 sale.

I was thinking about my life and if I have changed anything in the last year because of money. Let's see, I did start carpooling this year because gas prices went up so high. That saved me a lot of money. I lost a lot of money out of my 401k but that only meant I wasn't happy to see my retirement statements anymore. Other than those things, I haven't really changed my routine. I was already budgeting and cutting back as much as I could for my mortgage repayment plan.

So, what have you done differently this year because of the economy?

Going Out Of Town? Share Your Food!

I made it through Monday...only 4 days left until my vacation! My trip to the store went well. I successfully made it out of the store with only carrots and batteries. Batteries certainly are expensive. It was my turn to pay for the carpool's gas and I needed gas for my car so it was double gas day. Luckily, gas is only $2.06 and my carpooler had a ten cents off coupon. I might actually have a little bit of money left over this month since I won't be driving for the last week of the month.

As I was waiting to leave the office tonight I was chatting with my boss. He is going on a trip too and I asked if he was trying to eat all of the perishable food in the house. He said he could finish off most of it but he had a lot of lettuce that he would have to throw out. I suggested he bring it in to the office. He thought I meant to bring it in on Friday and he said that wouldn't do any good since I was going out of town too. I said, no, bring it in tomorrow and I'll bring my salad dressing. We can have salad for the rest of the week. Hee hee...now I get free salad :) I have planned the rest of my lunches so all of my food will be eaten by Friday...as long as OTHER coworker doesn't try to feed me his surplus.

How Long Do Your Shoes Last?

I bought the sandals on the right side of the picture back in high school. That was almost 20 years ago. They were on sale at TJMaxx for $15, I think. I wore them until the soles started to come unglued. I tried to find some replacements and bought some similar but cheaper sandals. They were uncomfortable and I still had the old sandals in the closet so I pulled them out and glued the soles back on. I wore them off and on all of these years. Lately though the soles have worn thin and they are uncomfortable to wear when walking on the rocky ground around here. I put 'sandals' on my want list. My want list has things that I want but don't need right away. If I see exactly what I want for a phenomenal price then I will buy it.

So, I was walking past an outlet shoe store and saw the magic "clearance" sign that made me go inside. I looked around and found some Berkenstock sandals for $70 which is the same price as the online price so I wasn't interested. I was headed out the door when I spotted one more table. There they were...my sandals. They were the only ones of their kind and they were men's size 8, which just happens to fit me. And the price...a phenomenal $5. I couldn't believe it! I bought them right away.

When I got home I peeled off the colorful price stickers...original price $59.99, then $25, $20, $15, and finally my magic $5 price. It is a great feeling when I have time to search for just the right item at just the right price. Too many times I need something NOW and have to pay the expensive NOW price. But not this time. These are Dr. Scholl's brand so I am hoping they are well made and will last me another 20 years.

Produce For One

I only needed carrots at the store, but you know its impossible to only buy one item. So, I made a list, but surprisingly, I wasn't very hungry. Maybe it was the stock market roller coaster that upset my stomach. This time I decided to let myself splurge in the produce section. That's not very dangerous for my budget since I hate to waste food and produce goes bad quite quickly. This is what I bought:

4 little golden potatoes (single serving size)

2 Roma tomatoes (because they are small)

3 bananas (I get tired of them quickly)

3 apples (I tried a new kind)

1 yellow squash (can't they grow them any smaller???)

1 bag mini carrots

1 bag clementine tangerines

The apples were called Ambrosia but unfortunately they didn't taste as good as the name, just like normal apples. The mini carrots tasted like chemicals. All summer those carrots have tasted bad but I still buy them hoping the next batch is better. I even bought the organic kind. The other store with better carrots is down the street. Not quite as convenient but at least I won't want to spit the carrots out. The tangerines were $5 for that little bag. I can't wait until I have a permanent place to live where I can plant some fruit trees. I even bought my parents a citrus tree because I wanted one and the seed catalog wouldn't ship to Arizona. (How's the tree Mom? Is it still alive? I'm coming to visit it for Thanksgiving!)

I noticed when I took the picture that all of my produce is yellow, orange and red. That's funny. There is lettuce in there but the iceburg stuff is kind of white. I also bought frozen broccoli, frozen peas and frozen corn. That will last after the fresh stuff is gone. And for my long term fruit, I bought little applesauce cups.

At least when I splurge on fruits and vegetables, they are good for me. And since I bought them at the beginning of my shopping trip, I didn't feel like I needed to reward myself with microwave kettle corn...althought kettle corn sounds good right now...no no...have another tangerine.

Down The Electric Bill Goes

My electric bill for September was.....$49.90! Below $50, that is amazing for Arizona. I tried to keep the air conditioner off as much as possible, although we did have a couple of days in the high 90's. These middle months, in the Fall and Spring are the best time to save on electricity. I am trying not to pull out the heater yet. I did finally bring out my down comforter last week. Then it got hot again but tonight it is supposed to go down to 45 degrees...brrrrr.

Tomorrow the electricians come out to tell me if I have enough electricity available for a stove/oven, hot water heater, AC/heater, washer and dryer for my mobile home. If not, I could need a very costly electrical upgrade from the electrical box at the property line. I had an idea today though. If I do need more electricity and the project costs $10k or more, I think I would be better off investing in a solar system. One of the local electric companies offers a plan to buy solar energy from residents who install solar panels. This plan combined with state and federal rebates could make a solar system an affordable alternative. If I only need a little bit more electricity, perhaps I could get a solar hot water heater. Now I just need a solar oven and a solar dryer...oh wait...such things do exist but I don't think I'll be able to convince a renter to use them...but you never know.

When The Economy Gets Shaky, Stick To The Plan

I try not to dwell too much on the news. I can't control much of what is going on. The best thing I can do is to stick to my plan...no extra spending, pay down the mortgage, keep my job, keep expenses low.

Another week of work is about to begin and I have a bad attitude. I have to keep reminding myself that it is my job that will enable me to pay off my rental house and retire early. That will only happen if I don't quit early.

Here's what I did this weekend to amuse/frustrate myself instead of spend money.

I attempted to complete my airbrushed flames project.


I wasn't completely happy with it so I watched the Flames video again and ended up painting over it and trying it again 3 more times. Now I am completely frustrated. I had to stop before I tested the motorcycle tank cover's aerodynamic abilities. Maybe I'll try again next weekend.

And now for my usual chores. I filled my RV water tank with filtered rainwater from my collection tanks.


I did my plumbing-less laundry by hauling buckets of water to my washing machine.


I used the wash water to water my baby trees.


I defrosted my freezer and threw out all of the ice blocks that were once edible food.

Before:

After:

Now I know exactly how much food I have. I thought I had a lot more but frozen shriveled hamburger buns and veggie burger ice blocks from last March really don't count as 'food'.

My RV fridge seemed to be cooling well at first. The freezer side freezes but the fridge side hasn't dropped below 50°F. I was just thinking how nice it would be to have all of my food in my RV instead of half of it next door in the mobile home. I could use the RV freezer and ignore the fact that the fridge side won't get cold or I could shut it off and go back to the way it was with my freezer food next door. What I am not going to do is pay the RV repairman $80 to show up and $70/h! If I have to buy a new RV fridge on the day before I sell this RV then that's what I will do (we are talking about over $2,000 for a new one). My mini fridge works just fine for now.

Got Fed For Free Today

Just when I decided to buy essential groceries only and eat everything in my pantry and fridge, I get free food. Too bad this free food isn't reliable. One of my co-workers bought giant chocolate chocolate chip muffins. It is hard to believe but I have never had a chocolate muffin before. I prefer apple or blueberry. This muffin was very good but I thought it needed frosting. That would make it a cupcake right? Can I eat a cupcake for breakfast?

Another co-worker brought me a tuna lunch pack, you know, the kind with crackers and a little pack of tuna and mayo. I did mention not buying food until Thanksgiving to her(I was joking, kind of). I'll save the tuna lunch for later.

Then, at lunch, I was too full from the muffin to eat a frozen dinner, which is what I brought so I just had carrots. Another person offered me some of his homemade gumbo. He likes to trick me in to eating spicy things but he promised it was not spicy. It was actually very good. It tasted a lot like the red beans and rice I make, except without the beans and with chicken and sausage. I asked for the recipe. The ingredients didn't look too expensive, maybe I can add it to my frugal meal plan.

If this kind of free food keeps up I won't have any problem making it until Thanksgiving without groceries!

Sometimes You Pay For It First And Find The Money Later

I did it. I went ahead and bought a $402 airline ticket for Thanksgiving. I could have waited but then I would stress out about the prices going up and the flights filling up and I would check the prices every day for the next month I and would probably end up paying $500. So, I bought it now. $402 seemed like a reasonable price from Arizona to Washington.

Now, where to find the money. I only have $161 in my travel fund at the moment with no new incoming cash on the horizon. In fact, I had just cut back, twice. Once for the extra $100 for my mortgage and the other for my property tax bill. Hmmm, I could take it out of my November's extra mortgage payment but no. I won't. I hate to subtract on my mortgage spreadsheet. Only more money can be added!

My biggest adjustable budget category is food. How about no groceries until Thanksgiving! Ok, that's a little much. My tomato plant is dead and my squash plant isn't looking very good. I had better learn how to prepare cactus. I am going to try very hard to eat all of the food in my fridge and pantry. I just threw out carrots, lettuce and chicken that went bad too quickly. I can do better! I have only spent $20 on food this month because I went shopping at the end of August. If I eat everything that I have already I think I can cut my food bill in half. That would save $50 a month for Sept, Oct, and Nov. With the travel money I already have that leaves me only $91 short. Maybe I can do better than $50 a month. I see a lot of rice, beans and cheese in my future for the next 10 weeks. Right now that doesn't sound so bad. But when I get to Washington I think I will be very happy to eat anything else!

Selling Off The "Stuff" Is Hard To Do

I have begun my second $500 Ebay challenge. That's where I force myself...I mean "challenge" myself to sell $500 worth of stuff before November. I was almost successful (that's the nice way of saying I failed) in June. I sold $450 on Craig's List and Ebay. After that I lost my momentum. Last weekend I started slowly by listing $50 worth of stuff on Ebay. I'm going to have to try harder to reach my goal this time because I don't have big ticket items like my sewing machine and serger that I sold last time. I did find a Movado watch that I won at a raffle. I checked on Ebay and I might be able to get $180 for it. I haven't listed it yet.

Today there was a post on getting rid of stuff at The Simple Dollar. How timely. I am doing some of the things he suggests like using Ebay and Craig's List. I do plan to have a garage sale in March went my renters leave. I can briefly use the garage and driveway to get rid of the junk that isn't worth my time on Ebay and I want to sell the house furnishings too if there is anything left to salvage. After that I'll rent it as an unfurnished rental.

And a little story about emotional attachment to stuff. ***Do Not Read Further If Your Are Squeamish, You Have Been Warned*** I have mentioned my dear little first car a few times. The pack rats have chewed the wires, nested in the wheel wells and used the interior to throw wild parties. I cleaned the nests out of the engine compartment and sprayed it all down with Lysol. Then I place rat poison around and even put some Bounce dryer sheets inside because I heard the rats don't like them. Well, when I was doing laundry yesterday I smelled something bad. I walked around the garage sniffing and was dismayed to find the smell coming from inside the car. After obtaining a flashlight I located a large dead rat on the floor of the back seat. He was nice enough to die on a dryer sheet so it made the pick up a little easier.

So, why do I keep this car which is now just a hotel for pack rats and their friends? Because it was my first car and I want to fix it. If I sold it now I wouldn't get much money for it. Some day I will have a couple thousand dollars to get new upholstery and new wiring. I just can't get rid of it when it looks so sad. Yup, emotional attachment at it's worse.

Property Tax Bills Arrive, Time To Re-Balance The Budget

Well, I just posted my nice little $700 budget and then I got my property tax bills. These are the bills for the 2 pieces of vacant land that my RV is sitting on. Last year the total was $811.47, this year $936.07. Dividing by 12 months that's a $10/month increase.

Now, I know that I am paying an additional $120 that wasn't in my budget last year but I have enough cushion in my savings to pay for it. I just add $10/month starting now to my budget. I had to subtract it from my misc. fund. That means I have $10 less a month to buy stuff I want...like food :) But really, I just see it as more of a challenge. Groceries are the one area where I often splurge, like for ice cream and cookies. I could do more baking for myself but I just don't do it. Now maybe I'll start.

Resisting The Digital TV Switch

I get my television stations the old fashioned way, thru an antenna. Only 6 stations come through but it's enough for me. This week, the channel I watch most disappeared and another channel has been having sound problems. I thought it might be my antenna so I hauled out the ladder and checked all of the connections. They looked good so I waited a few days. Today the station was still missing. I decided to pull out my digital-analog converter box that I bought last spring with the coupon from this site.

I hooked it up after I bought it but I didn't really like it so I put it back in the box for later. Sure, the reception is better and I get more public broadcasting stations so I can watch educational kids shows all day long but I didn't like that I needed 2 remotes, one for channels and one for volume. I also didn't like the delay when I switched channels. It has to scan for a signal for each channel. I'm a channel surfer so that is very annoying. I know, I don't have many channels to surf but I can still surf them!

After I hooked up the box I got my lost channel back. I was curious so I searched for info on the web and found this from the local news site FOXAZ.com:

A major equipment failure at the KTTU-TV transmitter has knocked out the analog TV signal for KTTU My Tucson-TV 18.

While handling the equipment failure at the transmitter the KTTU My Tucson-TV 18 signal transmission to Cox Cable provider was down for about an hour Tuesday afternoon, but currently any customers who receive their television signal from Cox, Comcast, DirecTV, Dish Network or the off-air digital signal will be unaffected by the analog transmitter outage.

Customers who have not yet made the transition to DTV in time for the February shutdown will experience a KTTU My Tucson-TV 18 outage for an unknown period of time.

Work is currently being done to try and salvage the damaged transmitter, but the extent of the damage and length of time to repair the damage is not yet known.

Customers who rely on the analog signal may be able to make a transition to the digital signal using a converter box. More information on the DTV transition can be found here.

I bet it got hit by lightening. Well, it's good to know I'm not crazy after all. I guess I will just have to start using my converter box a little early. I was going to hold out until the last day in February but since they've started taking my stations away I either have to convert or buy a satellite dish. You all know I'm too cheap to pay!

Cutting Down On Wants By Reusing What I Have

I really like my new cell phone. I like people to call me just so I can hear it ring. It came with 10 different tones. I've always just had a plain ring so having a musical ring is cool. So far I have resisted the urge to buy accessories. My old hands-free earpiece works with this phone. Last weekend I stuffed my phone in to my old phone's case because I wanted to use the belt clip. It works...kind of. My new phone is shorter so the velcro doesn't hook. I have to tuck the top flap behind the phone. It's functional. And yesterday I was thinking that I needed a leash for it. I was able to use the one from my old phone. I like to hang it on a hook when I am at home and since I'm not a purse person, my phone is the only thing I carry. It is easier to hang the phone on the coat hook in a public restroom than to put it down somewhere or risk dropping it. Eew.

I haven't figured out how to get around buying a memory card and memory transfer stick for music transfer yet. My sister has the same phone so if I went to visit her maybe I could use hers. There is a person at work who has the same phone but I don't feel comfortable asking them to use theirs. I found one on a web site for $3 for a card and $7 for the transfer stick. I'm worried I will get what I pay for, meaning cheap stuff that breaks quickly. Maybe I'll go visit my sister before I go on my next plane trip. I really only want the music for plane trips. The rest of the time I can listen on my computer, except when I go for a walk. I'll see if I have any money left this month.

I noticed, as I emptied the RV black water tank that the hose has many holes. I really need to buy new hose or better yet, some PVC pipe so the sun won't eat the plastic again. Hmmm, music accessories for my phone or sewer pipe? I know which one sounds more fun. I only empty the tank once every 6 weeks, so I could put it off. Oh, that's terrible! My neighbors aren't going to appreciate it if the wind blows in their direction next time I empty the tank. Ok, ok, I suppose I can wait a little longer for phone accessories.

My $700 A Month Budget

For the curious, here's my budget. These are only monthly bills. Retirement, giving and extra mortgage payments were already doled out. See yesterday's post for that info. I hope to whittle it down even further after I pay off my mortgage to make the "Great Search For The Job That Doesn't Feel Like A Job" transition easier.

So, $700, here's where it goes:

$150 food**
$150 gas**
$37 car insurance
$41 cell phone
$47 life insurance
$70 electric**
$38 internet
$25 Christmas
$30 RV registration and insurance
$20 maintenance**
$68 property tax
$6 car registration and inspection
$9 mobile home tax
$4 AAA roadside service
$5 trash**

The ** means that I add those categories up and subtract my expenses as they happen. Sometimes I don't spend all of the food or gas money and I can use the extra for something else. I track my spending in a notebook. I like to wait until the end of the month if I need to buy something, that way I know exactly how much I have left.

The other expenses don't change much. Maybe a dollar here or there every 6 months. I re-calculate every time I pay the bill for car insurance or property tax to see if it went up or down and re-balance the categories. Eventually I will run out of money in my maintenance fund, which is the only category that isn't required. Then I'll have to increase my budget to **gasp**...$750???. I've kept it at $700 for quite a few years now. Moving to my RV definitely helped keep the expenses low.

Rejuvinating The Wardrobe Without Ruining The Budget

I am a little bored with my clothes. I wear the same thing almost every week. I need 4 business casual outfits and one casual for Friday. I only have 4 pairs of pants and I don't like one pair (they are a little short) so sometimes I wear one pair twice in one week or throw in a dress. The dress always makes people say 'what are you all dressed up for?'. I wore the same dress last summer, they just forgot.

I decided it was time to give the thrift store a good going-through. Every few months I like to spend some time going through everything at the thrift store. I have to keep myself from buying stuff I don't need but if I really want something I let myself buy it. There was this ceramic dolphin holding a hanging dish. It was cute but I didn't need it. After I put it down someone grabbed it and put it in their cart. That made me want it but it was too late.(what an I? 5 years old? I just wanted it because the other lady wanted it.)

Anyway, I found 11 things that I really liked. I almost bought a pair of snow pants but they were too small. I want snow pants this winter because I'm going to be doing laundry outside in the cold windy weather and I want something warmer than jeans. Maybe next time I'll find some. It isn't exactly Fall weather here yet. It's going to be 100°F all week. They probably have the winter clothes in the back.

I got 2 pairs of jean shorts finally, now that summer is almost over. I bought a sweater too and then I remembered how hot it gets in the office in the winter. This sweater has a zipper so I can wear something underneath and take the sweater off if it gets too hot. Last winter I wore a heavy sweater and I was sooo hot all day. I got a pair of black pants also to replace my short pants. I still only have 4 pairs of pants though.

Total spent: $34 for 11 items. I felt like I did some major shopping and I added some new outfits to my work rotation. I used money from my budget that I have set aside for donations. I consider buying from a thrift store a donation because they use the money for the community.

Now I need to go through the closet and give away the clothes I don't wear. I'm running out of space and hangars. Closet space in my RV is at a premium. It's not like I can take over the closet in the guest room :)