Have you signed up for your local freecycle group? It is awesome!! I was able to give a microwave away to a woman, that really wanted one. Today I got 2 pillows made by this lady, 2 huge bags of decorator fabric and a 13 gallon trash bag filled with yarn. Oh almost forgot 8 crocheting needles.

Dh was just telling me I needed a hobby, LOL. I love to sew and crochet, but with our snt budget, I didn't want to spend any $$ right now. I am focused on paying that last medical bill off - that's it right now. This is such a great blessing!!

Today is day 6 of our strive and thrive challenge to live off of 70% of our income.

We are doing good so far. Today it's freezing here - for us at least. I woke up to 28 degrees and ice on the car windows - that just doesn't happen here. LOL The high will only be 45!!! Will use cleaning the oven to warm up the house.

I decided not to hang laundry today as I don't know if it will dry. I did run the heater this morning but it's off now. I will be cleaning the oven in a little while - I dumped part of our dinner in there last night. I will wipe it out by hand, then it's a self cleaning oven I will turn it on. That should keep it warmer in here today. Tonight I will probably turn the heater on a little while before bed and then set it for early morning.

Cooking will be done from the pantry and freezer. I need to stop and get some sugar and that's it.

Well today I won't be spending any money. I will pick up my dd from a friends later. May stop by the video store, got a coupon in the mail yesterday for a free rental. But I may just wait, depending on my mood when I pick up dd.

I have made carrot cake and brownies this morning. I cooked them both at the same time to save kwh on the electric bill. I will be making baked ziti for dinner tonight, will make a double batch and put it in the freezer for one of those frantic nights I would prefer not to cook.

I made some charts up to track our savings, medical bill payoff and christmas accounts. I can't wait to add more $$ to those. I am actually looking for ways to save even more.

Some things we already do,
~ wash everything in cold water - actually I wash whites in hot.
~ staying out of the stores, reminding myself of our long term goals not instant gratification - this is hard sometimes but I know it will be so worth it.
~cut everyones hair (except mine, which is long and I get layered about every 3 to 4 months. Actually I just got my youngest dd's hair this morning. I took about 7 inches off the back.
~use the library lots
~coupons, if it's for something we actually use. I don't buy anything even if it's free if we won't use it as it just adds more clutter in our home.
~combine errands
~increased the auto deductible
~cut all extras (excpet caller id) off the phone
~cut dsl, went to dial up
~recycle - even in our home -check to see if we have something that we can make do with at this moment.

I will add more later.

Well today I spent 5.25 on used books at the library book store. I got all 3 volumes of the tightwad gazette, eating healthy for $50 a week, $ave money everyday,Rasing happy kids on a reasonable budget, more cookbooks, and a few inspirational books. I got the books for 25 cents each!!!!!!
I was quite excited!!

Other than that it was a guerilla frugality day. I made sausage, red beans and rice with salad for dinner.

Checked into savings on our homeowners insurance and I don't think our company will let us raise our deductible - or at least that is what I was told today. I will call back next week after talking to the mortgage company.

Our dsl went off today - I got dial up for 6.95 a month. WOOHOO!! So that's a huge savings. Took everything extra off the phone, with the exception of caller id, dh wanted to keep that right now - since we have a teenage daughter. LOL

Neighbor brought over a huge box of tupperware, I went thru that and mine and weeded out what I didn't want or need and will offer it on freecycle.

Will be working on reducing the light bill next. Then on to groceries - not overly concerned with this one right now as I had a great shopping trip the other day.

That's what we are calling our new live off 70% income - Survive and Thrive in '05!!!

I paid the cable bill 40.00

Then I went to Sams 77.35 (now $50 of this is for stuff that will last at least a month or more laundry soap, razors, saran wrap, etc) I budgeted 50.00 for here so I was over 27.35 but was groceries so I will add it below.

Grocery shopping: I made a menu, then a list, then checked it against things in the pantry. This is for one week only - I budgeted 100.00 Thinking there was no way I could feed us for $100 this week - total in Walmart 83.77 (I used 4 coupons I think LOL) So my grocery total with sams and walmart was 111.12 I am SOOOOO happy!! WE normally spend $200 a week. BUT that's with lots of snack type foods, sodas etc. I bought 2 bags of pretzels and made 6 dozen cookies yesterday and 3 loaves of pumpkin bread.

Today was the first day of living off of 70% of our income. So far so good. I transferred the $$ into our Emergency fund and will find a way to make this work - one week at a time. I really know we can do this if we set our mind to it!! Mind you I never said it would be easy. Just need to get creative

Things we will be cutting for awhile to make our thrive 05 succeed.

Working on lowering the light bill - more on that later
~cut everything off the phone
~cut dsl
~switch to dial up
~brought cable down to basic - I would get rid of it but dh won't let us.
~cell phone - switching mine to a prepaid like dh's - we have an extra phone already.

What will this save us? about 150.00 a month!!

That's our start. Tomorrow I will call about homeowners insurance and see about raising the deductible.

Next up:
Will be working on my grocery list tonight, and the menu for the next couple of weeks. We have been eating out of the pantry and it's gone very well, but now it's time to shop. I don't think I want to stockpile food, I would rather stockpile $$. LOL So savings is my goal!

First off, just wanted to tell you a little about me and this journal. I will be keeping this journal while my family is living off of 70% of our income. What will we do with the rest? We will finish paying off the last medical bill, start and fund our emergency funds, christmas/birthday funds, and a new car fund.
We want to get to a point of living off of 60% and saving the other 40% but right now - we are starting with 70%.

I know this won't be easy, but I am going through the budget tonight and looking for ways to cut expenses or do without the item all together.

The hard part - will be groceries! There are 9 of us, so that will be constant planning to keep the grocery bill down.

I know we can do this!! If you are interested in coming along with us for the ride, just keep checking back here for updates daily.

Have a great blessed day!
74me