Fru Febbing Along ...

More than halfway there! We're enjoying free fun and doing fine on our grocery budget. We braved a wet Saturday last weekend to visit some bugs and animals on free museum day. Had it not been Frugal February, we might have skipped it as too rainy, but when you have to take your fun when you can, what's a little rain?

Class Valentines were taken care of with a $2.49 bag of 62 Smarties and some home-made printed cards.

At home, we enjoyed a gift of steaks (thanks, Mom!) in a borrowed pan (thanks, Kristen!).

And home-made chocolate cake (recipes for cake and frosting on the box of Hershey's cocoa) for dessert. Did you know you can make a heart-shaped cake with a square pan and a round pan?

We're at $249.18 for groceries - as expected, expenses are loaded in the end of the month since we're out of everything we started with. Except chicken. We have lots and lots of chicken.

We combined our few sad, dry lemons with a big bag of juicy ones we were given (thanks June!) and have enough juice to make lemonade for the rest of the month, which the kids will have with breakfast in place of purchased orange juice. And now, it truly feels like February.

Had to invoke the 'don't be stupid' rule to replace a borrowed item that became ruined. No waiting on that one.

I polled everyone to see what it is they are wanting to buy come March 1. The teen needs boots. Oh, yes, she does. The ones she is wearing have so many holes they look more like sandals. The tween wants to see the Lego movie. The 4 year old was certain, he needs water balloons, now. Hubby wants this gourmet chocolate bar he likes and I have only enough makeup to wear it every third day or so, or when I am worried I will frighten small children without it, so it's on my March list for sure.With these as our wants, we are doing OK.

Growing up Frugal February - The Sixth Year

One week in to Frugal February #6!  All is well. We talked about raising our grocery budget this year, realizing we set the budget when we had two children instead of three, and the two we had had much smaller stomachs and pickier appetites than they do now. In the end, we decided to leave it at $400 and see how far it takes us. If I call you crying on February 20, you can NOT give me food! As we get more experienced in Frugal February, it is much easier to stretch a dollar and I think we can still get it done on $400. So ... here are the rules for FF #VI, for our family of 5.

*$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.
*Social budget for the teen of $20, taken from her own allowance.

A hurdle for us this year: no lemons. The extended freezing temps here in Northern California took their toll on our beloved lemon tree and we have maybe a handful that survived the frost, compared with 32 pounds two years ago. We won't be making gallons of lemonade for Valentines' parties this year or trading lemon cake for eggs. Maybe we should take up singing and dancing as barter material? On second thought, we'd surely starve.

Week 1 brought exactly $30.50 in grocery expenses, mostly fresh fruit, milk and bread. We've been eating a lot of random things that were in the freezer - ravioli and fish sticks, though also normal meals like spicy chicken with quinoa and tacos.  The tacos were made with 1/3 the normal seasoning because we're now totally out of chili powder but no one seemed to mind, and it made it easier to throw some spaghetti sauce on it the next night and put it over noodles with parmesan, pretending it was now Italian. I realize my family's flexibility has a lot to do with why Frugal February works for us and feel good about teaching my kids that sometimes 'just enough' is enough.


Home Made Taco Seasoning (recipe makes about 1 commercial package)

1 T chili powder
1-1/2 t cumin
1/2 t salt
1/2 t paprika
1/4 t garlic powder
1/4 t onion powder
1/4 t dried oregano (or about 3/4 t fresh. Ours looks awful right now.)
1/8 t cayenne pepper

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