Four days to go

The receipts are piling up fast and furious as we try to make it through these last few days. We're having to buy pretty much everything we put in our mouths because the fridge, freezer and pantry are bare. Even the lemons are gone. We had spaghetti with a jar of pizza sauce because that's what we had.

Went to Target for the first time all month - bananas, milk, eggs, cheese, coffee and 1 package of chicken thighs, discounted $2 for having a close expiration date: $32.38. Got a $5 gift card for buying 2 bags of coffee, and that's fair game for spending. Had to avoid the Evil Eye of Target.

Courtesy www.crappypictures.com

Hubby made a comfort food run for cereal, cookies and ice cream, $17.38. Pasta and bread, $4.78, Carrots, milk, peanuts for more peanut butter, orange juice, and a bottle of wine, $23.54. We have $60.22 remaining.

Breaking the Rules

Tonight we made another meal for our neighbors who are in a time of need. We might not make it through February on the money we have left but we went ahead and bought the ingredients needed to make a turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberry, green beans and home-baked cookies meal for them. If it puts us over budget, it puts us over budget. The Frugal February rules say "Don't spend!" but our hearts say "Give!" and we know which to heed.

So grocery totals for yesterday and today: yesterday, $39.39 sin run (coffee, wine and a few other things like a whole chicken for soup for $5.19) and $6.53 bulk items from the Co-op, mostly noodles and spices to go with the chicken soup, plus today's shopping for the meal (only item already on hand was the cranberries), $29.62 = $261.70

FF thought I had today: You don't realize how much stuff you have until you stop buying more. We have been able to 'make do' through an amazing number of situations over these Frugal Februaries with the things we have and a little creativity. Really, what was I saving the leftover wedding decorations for?

Other FF thought I had today: Imperial margarine is totally gross. But really cheap.

A Peanut Sat on the Railroad Track

The list of things we're out of is growing at a dizzying rate. Coffee, wine, cheese sticks (heck, we're out of cheese), butter, sliced turkey (a staple for kid lunch), and it goes on. Today we remedied the peanut butter situation, buying a pound of bulk peanuts for $3.08, and turning them into a pound of home made peanut butter ... which probably would have cost us $3.08 to buy, but hey, it was fun. We usually buy the natural "peanuts only" brands anyway so we're all happy with the results.

Skinning the peanuts was the hardest part. After trying a few things we resorted to rubbing them in a colander, outside so the skins could blow away. Messy!

Then we dumped them in the food processor with a little salt and a tsp of honey (that we can't taste so I'd either up it next time or forget about it), ran it for a while, then drizzled in a tablespoon of oil.

Lousy picture via my lovely assistant's iPad because my hands were busy, one with salt and one with, well, hanging around.

Then you just let the processor run, and it all balls up and the ball just kind of rolls around making you think you wasted your Frugal February money making a large ball of useless peanut meal. Then you let it go a little longer and then - toot toot - peanut butter! The ball just flattens out and the peanut butter gets pretty smooth and creamy. Not like store bought but pretty good.

It's all uphill from here

More than halfway done with Frugal February, but I know the hardest part has just begun. We were coasting by supplementing the food we had in the house with some fresh food, but are out of everything now - no more meat, nothing stored away in the freezer, cocoa powder and peanut butter gone, out of cereal. No, you can't leave any of those things on my doorstep. But thanks if you thought of it. Now the grocery money we have left has some work to do! I need to do some smart shopping.

We made it through Valentine's day with computer-printed Valentines that we cut into puzzles with the Sizzix, then tucked into gift bags with miscellaneous goodies from my craft box - silk petals, red curling ribbon, sparkly stickers and little bits of a plastic pearl trim. My daughter closed her bags with wired silver leaves left from our wedding over 13 years ago!

I sewed into the wee hours and made the big kids flannel lounge pants and the little guy another pair of training pants (nothing like hearing a sincere, "Yay, underwear!").

We voted that we needed a treat last night and pooled our funds to buy pizza for dinner. The big kids each put in $3 from their Valentine's cash from Grandma (unsolicited gift!), the little kid insisted he wanted to give me a buck too so I didn't refuse, and the grocery fund put in $3.80, and we got two cheap pizzas, enough for dinner and lunch leftovers for the big kids.

So adding $3.80 plus $21.91 for more milk (seriously!), yogurt and butter, grand total $183.08.

Day 11

Did the next week's shopping today instead of tomorrow because it was looking pretty sparse around here, adding $44.54 to our total. Not much to report really. I think we are used to Frugal Februaries by now. The kids haven't asked for a thing. Well, the 2 year old had a fit because we were out of Wheat Thins but he got over it. And I found this recipe that I might try.

Making things from scratch is an everyday occurrence now, not so much in the name of being frugal, but it tastes better and I know what's in it. Biscuits, waffles, mac & cheese, taco seasoning, hamburger and hot dog buns, chocolate pudding, chocolate frosting - all things I would have bought in the past. We love to count the number of ingredients in the store-bought and the homemade versions. (Home made frosting, 4. Canned frosting, 20, including deliciousness like distilled monoglycerides and sodium stearoyl lactylate.).

Loving the Little House on the Prairie feel of this month. Simple cooking, trading lemons for home made hummus, a spontaneous exchange of handmade gifts, everyone checking in on each others' welfare. Remind me I said I love this when I am helping make Valentines for 60 children tomorrow.

Total to date, including 2 more gallons of milk (why don't we just get a faucet!) and a tub of sour cream hubby is bringing to a party at work: $157.37.

Day 9

I'm out of shampoo this morning and hubby's is running low so I don't want to borrow his. I'm not quite ready to join the no poo movement (though if you want to take that idea and go viral with it, be my guest) so remembered we had some Dr. Bronner's baby soap that I got in bulk from the Co-op. This is the kind of stuff you can wash your body with, or your hair, your laundry, your teeth, your dog, your floor, etc. Really. It's unscented so I added a few drops of essential oils to it, and some tea tree cause that seems like the right thing to do.

Running total update: bought a lime 2/7, .50 and milk and 3 gallons of bulk water yesterday, $4.98 = $102.46.

And in other news, apparently I don't actually like coffee, just Coffeemate.

Nothing says February like homemade underwear

The good news: My 2 year old is potty training! He's only using diapers at night, which is good news not only for February but for the rest of my life. The complication: We only have 3 pairs of training pants for him, a gift from my Mom over a year ago. I may have even rolled my eyes a teeny bit when we got them, since he was still so far from being able to use them. But once again, my Mom saves the day. Moms are like that.

This mom sprang into action today and sewed the little tyke a few more pairs of unders. I used this pattern by that*darn*kat for them, which I had in my stash from the time I test-sewed it for You Can Make This. (I had to laugh looking at that link, my test pair (pink/green/light blue) made more than 3 years ago looks suspiciously like the pair I just made. I never throw away fabric.) I sized up to the size 4, interlined the center panel with organic cotton fleece to make them training pants, and omitted the fly.

Someday, he'll tell people about his home made underwear. Hopefully it won't be his therapist.

When life gives you lemons

Hubby and the kids spent the morning at a free circus arts class on campus. I stayed home and squeezed lemons for homemade lemonade because we are out of orange juice. And, admittedly, enjoying the peace and quiet, and this amazing February sunshine.

I've been asked what happens if you run out of money. It happens. It happened to us last year. I got a little too confident with my ability to stretch a grocery dollar, and we had a sleepover here and a few friends for dinner and before I knew it, we were left with no money and only a few condiments in the fridge.

Frugal Feb fail, 2011.

That was February 25 and we just raised the white flag and made a mental note not to be so darn charming and social this year, especially because this year February has 29 days.

We have a huge advantage this year, a twice-monthly prepaid veggie box from Farm Fresh to You. It's hard to run out of food with fresh organic veggies showing up at your door every other week. Yeah, I feel a little like a cheater with that one. edited: Hubby tells me it IS cheating, so we're taking the $60 cost out of our $400. So expenditure to date: $96.98.

Oh and bonus! Received a $5 Starbucks card in the mail yesterday, a rebate for bags of coffee I bought in December. Combined with the buy-one-get-one-free coupon I have for the Starbucks at Target, it's a coffee date for me and a friend! Finding happiness in the little things today.

Day 4

Today I did the first bit of grocery shopping, hopefully enough to take us for the next 5 or 6 days. Milk, eggs, bread, a few ingredients for soup and home made mac & cheese. Passed up Coffeemate, which I am seriously embarrassed to admit I love. Not the weird flavors, but the regular kind. I don't enjoy coffee without it. Yet, I'd feel too selfish spending $4 of our budget on something only I use, that I really could live without. So I'll be having plain old milk in my coffee, and probably drinking less coffee too.

A family in my children's school is in a time of need, and I signed up to bring them a meal, knowing it means squeezing one more meal into our 29-day budget. I told the kids we'd be having some meager dinners for a few days so that we'd have enough to prepare a nice meal for the family. So Day 1, we had a few frozen meatballs left in a package - too few to make a meal so they'd just been sitting there. I tossed them into sauce with some leftover breakfast sausages. No one seemed to notice. The next night was grilled cheese and soup, the night after, a mix of roasted veggies for us and fish sticks for the kids. Not my usual style of cooking but inexpensive for sure. And I think the kids secretly liked it. It helped that we had some ice cream in the freezer. One of the primary tenets of Frugal February is, .99 brownie mix (or a bit of ice cream purchase in January) can make everyone forget a meal of leftovers.

Tonight I made a double batch of dinners and a double batch of muffins, one for us, one for the family. What kind of muffins? Lemon, of course, from our backyard tree

32 pounds of them, to be exact, though we've given away a lot of them since I took this picture a few days ago. We have kept the boy.

Expenditure to date: $36.98.

Frugal February

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Today begins our fourth annual Frugal February, the month in which we spend nothing except a designated amount of cash on groceries. Well, we also pay our regular recurring bills - it's frugal, not deadbeat, month.

Over the years, I have been asked a lot of things about Frugal February. What's nice is, "Are you crazy?" isn't often one of them. Instead people are truly interested in how it works, whether it works, and what we get out it. So, that's what this blog is about.

In the past, I haven't wanted to blog it. Frugal February is, to us, an introspective journey. But I've been asked about "rules" so often, I thought it would be helpful to write it all down for anyone who might be so inspired, so here goes.

We didn't make up Frugal February but we've found a set of rules that work for us. What works for you might be different. Mostly, it's about cutting back in whatever way will make you appreciate times of plenty, using what you have instead of buying more, repairing instead of throwing away, wasting less.

This translates for us into this:

*$400 for groceries, taken out in cash at the beginning of the month
*Regularly recurring bills get paid (mortgage, utilities, etc).
*One full tank of gas.
*Business/commute expenses are OK.
*Gifts are accepted with gratitude but must be unsolicited.
*If you're doing to miss a deadline, don't do anything stupid in the name of sticking with the rules (like fail to sign up for preschool or book your summer vacation.)
*Little amounts on random gift cards can be used, but no cheating by loading up a card just to 'discover' it in February. CVS bucks are fair game too.

Does it work? Doesn't it just push expenses into March? Sure, some expenses are merely put off. The first year, our dishwasher AND our clothes dryer broke in February. We hand-washed dishes and we hung our clothes to dry in our playroom and scheduled the repairs for March. We didn't save any money by putting the repairs off, but we were raised to a whole new level of appliance gratitude.

February 2009

What do we get out of it? Plenty. Shutting off the noise of email advertising (delete!), piles of catalogs (recycle!), the siren song of "stuff" (no!) and endless loops of errands (stop!) brings what's left into focus. And what's left is what's really important: being grateful for times of plenty, creating with our hands, cooking from scratch, spending time and not money.