I actually didn’t spend a penny today.  But The Daughter went shopping with my mom and she ended up finding a number of items she’d been wanting to find — and some good bargains to boot.  Since her clothing allowance comes in the form of a budget category instead of cold hard cash, I did technically spend money even though I wasn’t there doing the shopping.

Some of these purchases will come out of her monthly clothing allowance.  Others she paid for herself using gift cards.  The remainder of it will be paid for in trade — I offered to pay cash value for some Gap gift cards she has.  She rarely shops at Gap preferring Old Navy because the prices are lower and the stores are closer and more accessible.  I can use the Gap cards when I shop for The Son.

T.J. Maxx — $21.51
The Daughter found a terrific pair of American Eagle jeans — her all-time favorite brand — on sale for $19.99.  These are normally about $50 per pair and they do fit her nicely.  There were a great find.

T.J. Maxx — $5.92
I’m not sure why this purchase was separate from the jeans — probably a case of my mom still shopping after The Daughter had checked out so she looked around more and found something else.  This time she found a two-pack of tights that she’ll be able to wear under her skirts and dresses when she needs to dress up for school on game days.  Again, a nice price for a needed item.

Old Navy — $61.60
She bought a navy blue wool toggle peacoat that is, I must admit, pretty cute on her for $39.

We bought her a beautiful full-length peacoat last year just before Christmas and she does wear it but it feels too dressy to her to wear over casual clothes.  She also has a nice Columbia 3-in-1 jacket that we bought about two years ago but that’s too sporty for her to even consider wearing except for the most sporty occasions  ;-)  The short peacoat she found today is what she’s been wanting for school on those days when the long peacoat is too dressy but she doesn’t want to feel like she’d totally slumming in her Columbia.  It’s a vanity purchase, in my mind, but it was 50% off and I can respect her position.  It’s coming out of her allowance and if it turns out to be a mistake purchase, well at least she’ll have learned that lesson now.  If it turns out to be a great purchase and a garment she gets a lot of wear out of, then she’ll have that experience too.

She also purchased a pair of dark brown chinos for $18.25.  This is the purchase she’s the least confident about.  She’s going to go through her wardrobe tomorrow to see how many garments she has that will coordinate with the pants — plus decide what shoes she can wear with them and whether or not she likes them with the new peacoat.  She may end up taking them back.

DWS — 29.00 ??
The one item The Daughter went shopping for specifically today was a pair of shoes suitable for wearing to school on snowy days.  She has clogs — but they’re not great in 1.5 feet of snow.  She has boots, too, but they are apparently too tall and bulky to fit comfortably over jeans and the jeans are too flared to fit comfortably inside the boots.  So she wanted something that was high enough to keep out the snow but low enough to work under jeans.  [Please don’t ask me to explain it any better than that — I’m one of those apparently rare women who does not have a pair of shoes for every occasion.  Shoes simply are not my thing.]  Anyway, she found a cute pair of black shoes that she loves and finds comfortable.  She forgot to turn in that receipt so I’ll have to fill in the correct amount tomorrow.

Overall it was a successful shopping trip and I’m pleased with the purchases she made.  It did, however, raise issues because my mom, the shop-a-holic, was involved.  My daughter was clearly distressed because she knew she’d gone over her remaining December clothing budget.  My mom kept trying to point out that she’d be getting more money in her allowance tomorrow.  Her argument was that the clothes were on sale, The Daughter knew she’d have more money coming in soon, so The Daughter should just buy them.  I had to pull my mom aside and ask her to please stay out of it.  I made it very clear that The Daughter was absolutely not allowed to spend money she did not have — even if it was due to come in just a few hours later.

I was proud of how The Daughter handled herself — she loves shopping with my mom because she’s a clothes-horse and fun to shop with.  But, on the other hand, The Daughter knows how much debt my mom is in and has seen, first-hand, how irresponsible she is with money and how she simply cannot deny herself something she wants even when she clearly cannot afford it.

Tomorrow is the first day of a new year and I’m excited about some of my financial and budgeting goals and resolutions. 

Goals:

YNAB Budget
December marks the third full month of using my YNAB Pro Budgeting Software* and I’m excited to get a fresh new start tomorrow.  Instead of rolling over my 2007 data into 2008, The Husband and I have agreed to start the new year with a fresh new budget.  He has agreed to share all of his expense and income info with me so I can combine it with my receipts for a complete and accurate family budget instead of the more “household” budget I’ve been keeping so far.

Don’t get me wrong — my husband has never hidden money or info from me.  It’s just that he’s better at detail stuff and has always been the one to pay the bills — a task I willingly handed over.  I, as the stay-at-home-mom, am in charge of 99% of the family purchases — a task he willingly leaves in my capable hands.  In other words, we each do what we do best:  he makes the money and I spend it 

Since purchasing and setting up the YNAB software, I’ve been sharing the data with him and he’s gone from sceptical to cautiously interested to an as-long-as-I-don’t-have-to-do-it convert.

I’m really excited about this step forward for two reasons.  One, even though we’re definitely living within our means (spending less than we earn), I think we could easily trim our expenses without feeling a pinch.  I’d like to take an active role in putting more into savings every year and spending our money a little more consciously and wisely.  And, two, as much as I’ve learned not to live in fear of tomorrow, I can’t hide from the fact that my husband is old and sick and the odds simply are not in his favor to be around for another 30 years (he’d be 103).  The more informed I am about how much money we have and where it is, the better off I’ll be if and when he can no longer handle our finances.

So, put simply, that goal is to enter absolutely every expense and income — no matter what the source — into our YNAB program in 2008.

Not Paper or Plastic!
Another much simpler and somewhat silly goal is to keep track of how many bags I don’t use — in all my shopping, not just at the grocery store — by using my four ChicoBags* instead.  I also want to track how much bag credit I earn over the course of the year by using those same bags.  I plan to keep track of both the number of bags and the total bag credits earned in the side column of my blog.

If you’d care to join me in this challenge, please sign up in the comments below and we’ll do regular check-ins on our challenge status.

Resolutions:

No KnickKnacks or Trinkets
I’m not one prone to purchasing knick-knacks or trinkets but every once in a while I go all nutty and buy something silly for around the house.  Why do I do that?  They always end up being a waste of money as well as a waste of space and energy.  Knick-Knacks and trinkets take up space and they gather dust.  I resolve to not buy anything resembling a knick-knack or trinket for my house and I expect my readers to call me on it if they find anything like that in my daily $$ postings.  The one exception is artwork.  I do not consider artwork for my walls to be knick-knacks or trinkets and my walls are pretty pathetically bare.  I am slowly and carefully trying to remedy that situation.

Returns
I would say that my most costly weakness is un-returned merchandise.  I get heart palpatations when I think how many things I have lying around the house that I own but don’t use simply because I never got around to returning them.  If I were to kick just one bad habit, this would be it.  I resolve to end the year 2008 without adding a single item to my collection of non-returned items.

Culture and Life-Enrichment
The one area in my budget that has been most neglected is that of cultural and life-enriching events.  I have nothing at all budgeted for taking the children to concerts, plays, and other cultural events.  I resolve to correct that oversight in 2008.  I will create a category in my budget so that when I hear of an event that I know we’d enjoy, I will already have money set aside and won’t cringe at the price per ticket and say we can’t afford it.

Sorry for the late posting today — I’d meant to post my Maintenance Monday article earlier in the day but I got tied with with my lasagna and iced apple cake.

If you’re new to my blog, Maintenance Monday is a regular “column” of sorts in which I share a maintenance tip.  I am of the “quality, not quantity” philosophy and, to me, a key element of truely frugal living is buying high quality products and then doing everything necessary to protect that investment and prolonging the life of my possessions.

~ o o O o o ~

The next time you go digging into your couch cushions looking for loose change, take your vacuum cleaner with you.  Start by removing any throw pillows and then all the seat cushions.  Once you’ve found all the hidden treasures, and stored that loose change in your change jar, give the couch a thorough vacuuming — under the cushions, the cushions themselves, the back cushions, the arms, and any throw pillows you have.

Keeping your couch vacuumed and clean can significantly prolong the life of your sofa.  All that grit that sifts down under the pillows can prove awfully destructive to your fabric over time.

I give my couch a thorough vacuuming about once a month.

My mom’s here for a week-long visit.  It’s going to take a ton of self-discipline on my part to keep from spending money I wouldn’t otherwise spend.  My mom’s a shop-a-holic and a bad influence — even more so on The Daughter than on me. 

I wrote a check to my Church — $15.00 for my weekly offering.

Talk about the “latte factor.”  I don’t even drink coffee (or anything, for that matter, other than water) but I still managed to go to Starbucks twice today and spend a total of $13.36!  My mom won’t drink anything but designer coffee.  The Husband drinks nothing but instant.  Thus, mom needed to find a Starbucks before church this morning but we were running late so we went to church first, dropped off The Son, and, being who I am, I asked around at church if anyone wanted me to pick up a designer coffee for them while I was out.  I got two orders; with my mom’s that came to three “shorts” for $4.54.

Then, on the way home, she needed the vente latte she’d passed up earlier because of our tight schedule.  Her latte and two chocolate milks for the kids set me back another $8.82.  I hate Starbucks!

After church but before Starbucks, we made our weekly stop at Einstein Bros. Bagels for a dozen bucket deal (baker’s dozen bagels and 2 tubs of schmear) plus a root beer for The Son — $14.42.

This afternoon my mom and I ran out to Whole Foods for the ingredients needed for tomorrow’s potluck dishes (our annual New Year’s Eve evening at the church) plus a few staples we needed to stock up on.  I spent $73.89 on:

• quart of buttermilk — $2.99
• 3 boxes of organic Le Boles lasagna pasta — $2.49/ea.
• Muir organic tomato sauce — $1.99
• Muir no salt added organic tomato sauce — $1.69
• Ah! Laska chocolate sauce — $4.99
• organic sliced turkey breast — $5.99
• organic sliced roast beef — $4.99
• ground beef — $3.12 (on sale for $1.99/lb!)
• grated parmesean cheese — $3.49
• mozzarella cheese — $7.99
• ricotta cheese –$3.99
• green leaf lettuce — $2.49
• designer “fingerling” tiny potatoes — $2.99
• scallions — $0.99
• cucumber — $1.47
• pears — $1.77
• granny smith apples — $6.67
• measuring spoons — $5.99
• bag credit — ($0.30)

I spent the whole day (well, on and off) cleaning the house getting ready for my mom to come for a visit.  I had meant to get out and pick up another package of mouse-traps but just couldn’t bring myself to venture out into the frozen, snowy world ;-)  So I ended up having my fourth no-spend day this week.  That must be some kind of record for me this year.

Today I figured that as long as I’d done all that work to dig out The Tank last night, I might as well run to Kroger and replenish our milk supply 

This purchase wiped out the very last of my $200. worth of Kroger gift cards I bought from The Daughter’s school just before the Christmas break.  I’ve still got some money left on my Vitamin Cottage card though.

Kroger — $27.77

• 1/2 gallon Horizon chocolate milk — $3.29 (saved $0.20)
• gallon Horizon 2% milk — $4.88 (saved $0.07)
• Carrs water crackers — $2.50 (saved $0.89)
• Late July organic crackers — $2.99
• Keebler chocolate chip cookies — $3.59
• Quaker chocolate granola bits — $2.51
• Kozy Shack chocolate pudding — $2.50 (saved $1.09)
• Cascadian Farm french fries — $3.00 (saved $0.19)
• carrots — $0.52
• acorn squash — $1.41

The cookies are for The Husband (and his special needs son :-)  ) .  The crackers and french fries are for The Daughter who’s having stomach trouble.  The chocolate pudding was purchased per The Son’s request

Do you know, the other night I made a huge, yummy shepherd’s pie for dinner.  The Son alone ate about half of it — just this massive pile of food.  The next morning I got up and found the boy in his bed asleep on top of his book and his reading glasses with all the lights on.  I also found the huge bag of nacho Doritos open on the table.  It turns out, as he informed me later that morning, that he woke up at 5am starving, deperately needing food.  I’m not sure when these boys go back to being normal human beings but I figure I’ve probably got about 4 or 5 years left of this.  Good thing he’s interested in learning to cook because he’s going to have to start sharing the workload

It snowed and snowed and snowed.  All day long.  We’ve run out of milk, chocolate milk, and tortillas — but none of those were worth going out into the snow and cold for.

Well, I really wanted milk and might have been willing to brave the snow and cold to go get some.  But I definitely didn’t want milk bad enough to dig out the driveway and then brave the snowy, unplowed streets filled with California transplants idiot drivers.

In the end, I had to dig out the driveway tonight anyway because The Husband has to get his #1 son and family to the airport for a morning flight.

I suspect that I’ll end my string of no-spend days tomorrow.  We need groceries.  The Son needs to get to the bank so he can deposit all of that glorious cash he got for Christmas (three people heeded his request for cash for his savings account instead of gift cards).  Plus the kids and I want to go see the new National Treasure movie.

Part of me wishes we’d get hit with another big storm so I could rack up another no-spend day 

I didn’t leave the house and I didn’t spend a dime!  :-)   The perfect day, in my book.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Last night was the first time since having children that I finished my Santa chores early enough, and with enough energy to spare, to attend the midnight service at church.  It was beautiful and worth every minute of lost sleep.  I got home at about 1:30am and the roads were clear and the weather fine.

Six hours later I awoke to a foot of snow!  The drive to church took us almost an hour this morning

The service was beautiful.  Afterward, we slipped and slushed out way home to open presents and stockings and enjoy a nice, peaceful day at home with just the four of us.  The Daughter absolutely loved her camera.  It’s going to take The Son some time to adjust to his new watch.

I wrote a check to the church for $300.00 — the only money I spent today.

Christmas eve and The Daughter and I ran to the library and then went grocery shopping.  We took only one trip to the grocery store but we ended up going through the checkout line a full three times!

Does anyone else spend weeks shopping and feel like they’ve gotten way more than enough only to look at it on Christmas eve and panic because the pile of loot looks pathetically small?  That’s what happened to me this morning.  The party’s over, all the grandkids have been thoroughly gifted, and now I have one last day to make sure I’ve got all my ducks in a row for my own kids.  And all of a sudden I’m feeling panicked because it just doesn’t seem enough.

So we were there to 1) pick up some last minute stocking stuffers; 2) to buy supplies for the traditional “making gingerbread houses with graham crackers and powdered sugar glue” project that the daughter does with the children during church childcare; and 3) to buy one or two grocery items needed before the 26th.

Kroger — $44.90

• Coleman ground beef — $12.34
• beef jerkey — $3.99 (saved $2.00) [for The Son’s stocking]
• Mentos — $1.19 [mint flavored for The Daughter]
• Mentos — $1.19 [fruit flavored for The Son]
• Nerds — $0.75 [for The Son]
• Altoids — $1.99 [for The Daughter]
• Spree mini candies — $1.19 [for The Son]
• Planter’s mixed nuts — $2.50 [for The Daughter]
• Skittles gum — $0.69 [for The Daughter]
• Skittles gum — $0.00 (saved $0.69) [for The Son]
• candy — $0.75 [for The Son]
• 2 bags Hairbo bears — $1.29/ea [for the gingerbread houses]
• Brach candy — $2.00 [ditto]
• Twizzlers — $2.79 [ditto]
• bag of Nerds boxes — $2.99 [ditto]
• 4 boxes Kroger graham crackers — $1.88/ea. [ditto]

Kroger — $4.08 (these were in my cart originally but somehow I missed them until I’d finished the first transaction so I had to start all over again just for these)

• 2 Dove chocolate bars — $1.99 [plain for The Son; with almonds for The Daughter]

Kroger — $1.03 (we went in with just a mental list and then got distracted; luckily we remembered the powdered sugar before leaving the store)

• Kroger powdered sugar — $1.00 (saved $0.99)