September: Our Savings Month

Our family is on a “no-nonessential spending kick” for September. Why? We had a few hangover bills from a summer vacation and three unexpected car repairs. So a spending freeze seemed like a sane way to get our budget back on track.

Now, we’re pretty careful with our money anyway, so I thought, “How hard can this be?” Well, it’s only September 2. And I’ll tell ya the truth: It’s very, very hard!

I read a suggestion in financial celebrity Suze Orman’s 2009 Action Plan (which I downloaded for free; you can still read the first chapter here). It was: Don’t spend ANYTHING for one day. So during the last part of August, I kept trying to do that, in preparation for September. Emphasis on “kept trying.” I’d think: OK, this is an easy day to spend nothing. Then we desperately needed milk. Or it was my “mom’s night out” and I wanted to buy a cup of coffee with a friend. Or I needed to send in a check for my daughters’ lunch money.

So I’d put off the “spend nothing day” until tomorrow. But the funny thing was that something kept popping up—sometimes a need, sometimes a very strong “want”—and I found it really tough to go even one single day without spending at least a few bucks! I wondered: How the heck are we going to get through September?

Welcome Home: A happy byproduct of the recession

Do tight economic times have you spending more time at home with your kids? If so, you’re not alone. And it can be a good thing. Check out this article: Tough times mean family time at home.

My question: Will we keep this up even after the recessions passes? I hope so.

Save money by growing your groceries

Our project for this summer: Start a vegetable garden. Not only do we hope to save money on produce, I think it will be fun, too!

We’re planning to install two 4′ x 4′ raised garden boxes on the narrow south side of our house. One will be a “salad garden” with arugula, lettuce and other greens. The second will be an “Italian garden” with basil, parsley, tomatoes and the like.

I’ve been wondering, though, how we’d know if we’re really saving money by growing our own veggies.Then I came upon this cool savings calculator that  helps you figure out how much you save by planting your own vegetable garden. Perfect! Now I’m off to the nursery to buy basil and blueberry bushes and tomatoes….

Pets with purpose: Chickens

One of my all-time favorite money-saving family projects of the past year is our cute backyard chickens. Ok, ok, we also wanted some outdoor pets, since my hubby is allergic to the standard indoor stuff (cats, dogs, rabbits, gerbils, etc.). But seriously, now that organic, free-range eggs are getting so spendy, our girls are definitely earning their keep!

Each of our girls lays an egg a day–fewer during the shorter days of winter. If you’ve never had a really fresh egg, it’s a real treat. The yolks are so rich they’re almost orange. And they come from very happy, doted-upon chickens.

You don’t need to have a farm to have chickens. We’re in a typical, urban neighborhood (50 x 100 lot) and we can have ‘em. In fact, two other neighbors within 5 blocks have chickens. As someone said (I forget who), “chickens are the new pug”!

This cracked me up–Manhattanites with chickens. But we actually kept ours (these folks gave up on having a coop in their co-op). And our girls seem to be putting up with us pretty well.

Recession fallout: Save like crazy or take advantage of sales?

Know what I mean? On one hand, I feel like I want to have an even larger emergency fund than usual and get really frugal with my spending. On the other hand…this is a great time to get a bargain on a car, do home improvements (since builders and other workers are anxious for business), invest in our retirement funds while prices are low, and so on!

It’s driving my consumer brain crazy! Anyone else?

Living (happily!) with less

Couldn’t resist sharing this great essay on living simply from The Christian Science Monitor. It’s by my friend and freelance writing colleague Kris Bordessa. She and her family lived in Hawaii for three years and happily embraced the easy-going, less materialistic culture they found in the islands. They’ve just returned to what many of us consider the altar of materialism: California. Read it here.

I’m kind of intrigued by a simple living advocate she mentions: Dave Bruno created something called the 100 Thing Challenge. His goal is to cut his possession back to just 100 items by the end of the year. Could you do it?

Frugal is cool again

Any of you remember the voluntary simplicity movement that was HUGE maybe 10 years ago? Well, it’s coming back. All this doom-and-gloom recession news apparently has people thinking twice about their spending habits. While I’m not happy about the economic news, I’m sort of happy that folks have an opportunity to really consider their money choices carefully. I know I am.

I love the title of this article– “Is Frugal the New Black?” Read it here.

And I appreciate this writer’s ability to see the “silver lining” in the economic slowdown: “10 reasons to love a recession.”

Cheaper lunch meat

My family goes through a lot of sandwich fixings. The kids eat sandwiches almost every day, as does my hubby. But buying the meat gets spendy!

I don’t love the packaged, thin-sliced meats filled with sodium, though they’re cheap. And the sliced deli meat is close to $6 a pound right now–too expensive for every day. So I was thrilled to read a great tip in this interesting book. You can also more read about The Economides family and their frugal living ideas at their Web site.