No spending at all other than groceries bills and petrol for 5mths

**macemesmum** · 06-27-2008, 08:15 PM

I thought I would post this here in the hopes of getting lots of great ideas to help us along on our journey. Here is a basic rundown of why we are doing this, we are going to visit my husbands family for christmas in USA from Australia, we brought a really cheap airfare with money my dad left me when he died. We now need to save around 7K to cover the cost of hotel in LA (as we want to take the kids to disneyland since we are going all that way), car hire in LA cost of hotel in tokyo (had to have a 3 day stopover there for cheap flight), food whilst away spending money and money to cover bills at home whilst we are away. We have 5 .5 months to save this money. We are one income I stay home we have 2 little kids and we make average income. So to accomplish this task I have set myself the challenge of not spending on anything other than a monthly grocery shop, petrol ( which at 7 a gallon is killing us) and bills ie electric, mortage, water insurance etc. So this means no clothes, books dinners out, toys for kids or parties they are invited to, car repairs, coffee out or any extra at all. My groceries I am going to try and stick to 250 a month which is not much at all as ours are nearly double the cost of your groceries and we dont have any big discount stores over here but i have some places where i can get stuff cheaper. I have lots of meat in my freezer and a bit of a stockpile so i am going to eat out of that as much as i can. I must drive the kids to school each day and back which costs about $70 petrol week other than that i am staying home. I am going to line dry all my clothes. I am going to make our own bread which i do on and off now. Shopping once a month with no visits in between is going to be tough I do freeze milk so I am going to have to work out exactly how much milk fruit etc to buy to try and last the whole month I am determined not to stop in at the shops more than once a month. Hubby is in charge of fixing anything that is broken!!!anyway any ideas will be greatly appreciated cheers

**DonnainME** · 06-27-2008, 08:18 PM

All I can say is GOOD LUCK!

**AmyBoz** · 06-27-2008, 08:32 PM

I'll be interested to see how it all works out for you! Good luck and enjoy your trip!

**Terri** · 06-27-2008, 08:42 PM

What a great challenge and reward. Good Luck! I think the hardest part would be just reminding yourself why you are going through this when things get tough.

1 suggestion-- go ahead and put away some of the children's toys, books and games and rotate them when they start wanting something new.

**macemesmum** · 06-27-2008, 09:25 PM

I started off well today I have an invite to my cousins birthday (shes 12) I have 4 bratz books that I paid $2 each a while ago in my present box I bundled them up with a ribbon I had and I made a beautiful card, so her present is done without a trip to the shop.

I am cleaning out the kitchen and the fridge and freezers today and making a list so i know what we have, as we have a fair bit in there. I have bread rising as we speak, and we are having burritos for dinner with lettuce and tomatoes from the garden and home made burrito mix. Daughter is tucked up in bed as she has a cold rather than buying a lemon cold remedy she has just had a hot drink of lemon and honey and is sound asleep. Told my hubby of idea he patted me on the head and said thats nice, but hes really good and wont spend any money at all. We have to wait until we get paid on the 15th july, we get paid once a month (yuk!!!) so i have 1.5 gallon of milk left till then!! so milk is on rations at the moment although we have lots of yoghurt in the fridge and freezer. I am really excited about this challenge and knowing we can come back with no credit card debt and having spend invaluable time with the inlaws (which the kids are sooo excited about ) and having a white christmas!!! will keep checking in and letting you know how we are going.

**peanut** · 06-27-2008, 09:27 PM

From your siggy it looks like you're in pretty good financial shape. You have an EF, your CCs are paid off. All you have is a mortgage. It's winter for you right now...is there anything fun you can find for the kiddos to do that doesn't cost any money? Maybe use the library or Net to get simple craft projects for them to do? Also you might want to take Amy D. "The Complete Tightwad Gazette" out of the library. Amy has some good ideas for entertaining yourself for free. I think this is definitely doable, depending on your actual monthly income and expenses. Best of luck!

Jean

**macemesmum** · 06-28-2008, 07:01 PM

Yes peanut we are probably in the best financial shape of our lives right now although we have always been frugal the real reason behind that is my father passed away from cancer last year and left us some money so we upgraded out house and paid of our credit cards (which had small balances ) and funded our ef with it. Normally we just struggle by like everyone else. Having just a mortgage is great but we have had so many rate rises in a row it is ridiculous our rate is around 9.45 interest rate on the mortgage. ANyway I am truly blessed to have had 6 months with my father whilst he was sick and when he passed he wanted my mum my brother and i to be taken care of.
So rather than blow it on new cars etc we did responsible things with it, and this trip is like the one fun thing we decided he would have liked for us to go and see my husbands parents and for the kids to spend christmas with them as we realise now they wont be around forever. I love this forum i check it everyday it really helps me and i think by posting my thoughts on here it helps keep me on track. Anyway yeterday we spent the whole winters day playing monopoly with the kids and had home made banana cake for a treat, so far i am on track. This morning is soccer for the kids normally we would take them to mcdonalds for brekkie but this morning dh got up early and made home made pancakes delicious and saved us around $20.00

**Jskell911** · 06-28-2008, 08:13 PM

Good luck! Sounds like you have a wonderful grasp on what needs doing and a great attitude. I believe with those two on your side, you can do it!

**Suzi T.** · 06-28-2008, 08:25 PM

My only suggestion is to join a carpool to take your children to school and save some of your petrol.

**heartofmine** · 06-28-2008, 08:27 PM

Good luck with what your trying to do.

**dolphin** · 06-28-2008, 09:24 PM

It sounds like you are really commited to this so I hope you can save bunches before the trip. Good luck!

**Mamaof2rugrats** · 06-28-2008, 09:43 PM

Good luck!
I know we couldn't make it on that little milk for 2 weeks. Do you have some frozen?

**bumplett** · 06-28-2008, 09:56 PM

I can't wait to here how you progress through the month! I'm sure you will do great!

Fantastic job on the "gift" for your cousin!

good luck!

**freebs** · 06-28-2008, 10:15 PM

good luck

**macemesmum** · 06-28-2008, 10:21 PM

Thanks for all the luck, I have another .5 gallon saved of milk in the freezer, and .5 gallon of long life in the cupboard. I would lvoe to carpool for the kids to school but noone from my area sends their kids to the same school I do ( I kept them in their old school when we recently moved as it is a fantastic public school - hard to find around here) I does cost me a lot to transport them so my dh has started picking them up 2 days a week as its on his way home if he gets off 10 mins early so that helps a lot. Petrol is really killing us I am only driving to school and once a month for shopping day I am paying all my bills online out my bank so that saves on petrol. Am going to make cookies and pikelets today for snacks for the kids lunch boxes. We dug out an old computer game we got sent from a relative in USA with dragon tales and clifford games on it, it is currently provising the kids with entertainment today and if it clears up we will take the dog to the park . So far no spend weekend!!!