Higher costs of things...
Gasoline...less trips to town for me. Like 2 x a week instead of 3 or 4. List so things do not get forgotten.
Food...things that are on special. Or marked down. I use Aldi's and the dollar store the most. Then Sav A Lot. Only a few food items, have to get bought no matter the price. Like milk and white bread for him.I may at some point start making white bread again. If low on milk, I do use powdered for cooking or baking. Scratch cooking / baking.
Chicken grain...I get most of what I need now from a local farmer. Cannot afford the store prices. The wild bird seed just went up again,
and I told him to mix half cracked corn in the feed can, or the bird seed won't be part of this budget. The chickens lay eggs and so far,
we are matching their grain costs. If I can't sell enough eggs, then I reduce the flock going into next winter. Also we will grow what we can
for the birds this summer. Food for the dogs is about half homemade / half storebought. It is what it is with a old spoiled dog, and a fast growing big puppy.
Garden will hopefully be a bit bigger and I will can and freeze the surplus again. Recently I have seen canned vegtables in two different stores for $ 1 per can. That is mind boggling to me. I won't pay that for a 15 oz can.
Heating costs. We went to a outside wood boiler about 4 years ago. One of the most frugal and smart things we have done here. Propane would be pushing $ 2000 now for the year ,and the wood is $ 500 or less. Big difference.
Other items we need. Garage sales or thrift shops. If not finding, then a trip to a regular store for new. Use it up, wear it out, and or go without.
Eating out is 1x a month for the both of us. Sometimes it is only 1x every other month.
Cash is king. Trying to figure out things to barter in the future.
I do say NO to the hubby a lot. We need to plan to fit things into our budget. Things have to be on a list and what is priority has to be first. His list of wants always used to get priority, now I either make him wait it out, or just plain say no.
And I put together a EF last year. It's mine, and he doesn't know it exists. Or it would have been spent long ago. My protection for our budget if something really goes wrong.
Electric is $ 110 a month or less. Summers even lower. I read the meter every day and log into my notebook. Hanging about half the clothes in the winter.
