Here is the budget for November 16th through December 15th.
December 2010
Laundry 40
Rent 1000
Groceries 180 (I am having a pantry challenge for the first two weeks of this budget, which is why this number is so low)
ComEd 40
AT & T 28
Comcast 85
Son’s school 549
Son’s after school language program 120
Son’s dance class 48
Misc. 50
Gas/Transportation 120
Restaurant 75
Entertainment 30
Student Loan 192
Life insurance 77
Daughter’s Health Insurance 40
Husband’s spending money 20
My spending money 20
Weight Watchers 40
Tithes Private
TOTAL $2754
Starting January 1st, we will no longer have my income. That will make us a little more than $1,200 short each month. My husband is applying for part-time jobs, but I am also doing my part to put money aside as I want to try to avoid dipping into emergency savings.
So far I have saved for January:
360.39 – refund from son’s old school
130.10 – payment for article writing
125.00 – payment for book review
200.00 – saved from my November pantry challenge
815.49 Total saved for January thus far
Just a thought, but have you considered making your own laundry soap? I switched to making mine. What you spend in a month on laundry soap n softener, is about what we spend for the year. I got the detergent recipe from several bloggers (new nostalgia being my main source) who use the it & have for a good while. I have modified it slightly, but not much. I was worried about reactions, cause previously i had reactions to detergents other than tide, but i have had none 🙂 Now given it is just my husband & I; however, I do provide for my parents who live in a household of 4, so i would say 40$ for a year for a household of 6 is bout what we spend 🙂
Detergent:
2 bars of Zote (pink laundry soap bar, can use felsnapth or other laundry soap)
1 box of borax
1 box of washing soda (i always have to order this online, just not sold in my area i guess)
Shred the soap in the food processor & then just blend w/ the other ingredients in equal portions. In my food processor takes bout 3 batches. I normally double this so its one complete batch for my mom & one for me.
Fabric softener:
Personally i use liquid softener. I Dilute it, 1 bottle of softener & 2 water. Then i cut up a few sponges in 4 & put in the bucket w/ it. They get used as a dryer sheet. Basically you squeeze out the excess so its not dripping & throw it in the dryer w/ the clothes.
I apologize if this was not a reply you were looking for in response to this post, i just know that personally we’ve seen some tough times too & had to refine our budget and this one thing made a huge difference for us 🙂
Thanks so much for this. I have been thinking of making my own detergent, so I will have to give this a try. The $40 we spend a month is actually for a coin operated machine as we are in an apartment. As soon as I make more room here with my decluttering, we will start air drying clothes again, so that should cut back the laundry expense by $10 to $15 a month. Hopefully making the homemade soap will also help. How much of this soap do you use per load?
I Keep one of those Chinese soup spoons in the canister & it only takes 2 scoops. I believe the the actual measurement is 2 table spoons. Here is the best link i found : http://amy-newnostalgia.blogspot.com/2010/03/homemade-laundry-detergent.html It has a lot of other option to think about what works best for you. That is rough having to use the quarters, i can certainly see why it adds up now. Oh and this does dissolve in cold water by the way, well with the Zote it does, haven’t tried the other soaps & its supposed to be HE safe, although i don’t have one to test it in.
Thanks. I’ll be sure to try it.
You are really brave to be putting your actual numbers out there! It certainly helps me to see how other people are spending their money, to give me ideas on what I can do as well. Thanks!
— Laura at Frugal Follies
Yeah, it is a bit scary to bare all so to speak. I wish more people would do this. It helps to see how other people spend their money.
Also, just another brainstorm thought as to trim your budget: i would take advantage of restaurant.com’s sales they have, most of the time you can get a 25$ gift certificate for 2$, given you will have to still spend 25 to use it i think. The site is more of a half off kinda thing, but 2$ to save half? could help if its something important to you to keep in the budget. Another idea is to just take an online class or 2 & that would save you having to pay you student loan for right now. And my last suggestion ( I promise to not butt in on your blog anymore, so sry), is to consider joining a CSA, (Community Supported Agriculture, or a Co-Op). It could save you big time on groceries & most deliver! Well where we live they do. Just a thought, it may not be worth it where you live depending,
Thanks for all of the suggestions. I appreciate it. We have had organic produce delivered a few times, but it was $25 for the fruit and $25 for the veggies, which we can’t really afford, and the veggies we got were often things we weren’t used to using. If you don’t mind me asking, how much do you pay for a CSA if you use one?
We do use restaurant.com. I love it! But, we have to remain disciplined to only go to those restaurants that we can buy the voucher for. (We have a few favorite sushi places that don’t offer coupons, but I think those will have to wait until our budget gets better. 🙂 )
I know what you mean bout not always being able to find what you want on the restaurant site 😛 Serves us right for lookin for a place that is not a chain & is different eh? lol, well it feels like that sometimes though. Well the I haven’t joined a CSA yet, but it is on my list to do very soon, just gotta deal w/ a few other things first. But the one i found was best was 240 for 12 weeks, it’s organic too. I mean its a lil less, than yours, but not much. I honestly shopped around alot to see who offered the most of what we ate. I also have kinda taken a vow to try as many veggies as i can this year, i personally have been one of the anti veggie people who has been since a kid, & decided to change that this year. I think i have done pretty well with at least tryin them & generally eating more. I don’t know if you do this or not, but, i have also taken to learning how to better preserve food freezer & canning( freezer mainly). I stock up in season & use it all year. That has been of great help, cause one i learned how to do it with all the different seasons this year n look for a good variety of recipes to use. If a CSA is not a good option where you are, then maybe growing your own. Not sure if you have read Square foot gardening, its very different than what we used to think of for growin you own. Can do a lot with a very little space(such as your balcony). This would allow you to choose what you want to grow & how much, to better meet your needs. I mean personally its all about what you have to invest? Time or money? I haven’t started honestly due to time constraints & i live in AZ where everything would burn if i didn’t tend to it. For now i kinda just stock up on whats in season & freeze or can, until i can get to a point where i would ideally do the CSA or grow my own.
We have tried to garden, but the plants don’t grow. I think the backyard is too shady. I will look into another CSA. Thanks again for all of the suggestions!
We went through the same thing several years back and it was scary. One thing that helped for us (I still do it) is checking with utilities for the best deal every 6-8 months (or when the prices start to creep up). The last time I did it I saved $32 a month for 12 months Directv, $17 a month with electric, $16 a month with phone/dsl for 24 months. I also review our home insurance and car. Good luck I know you can do it-it may swing back and forth but you’ll get there.
Thanks for the tip. I do call the cable company to get a discount every 6 months or so, but I didn’t know about the others. When you say electric, did you negotiate with the company or switch to another company?
I switched according to my choices in my area- the website was on my bill the first time and I googled it for PA the second a year later. I had to input my usage so it is good to have that going in. And I called my telephone (who does our dsl) and they did all the work to find the best deal on both.