Frugal Fast

Due to some surprising twists and turns, this month I am going on a frugal fast.  I am hoping that by the end of the month I will have gained some great frugal lessons.  I will not be spending any money that is not absolutely needed.  Here is how I hope to achieve this.

1.) Stop, look and ponder.  Do I really need this or is it impulse buy?  I will be including my beloved sodas in this.  I am a little addicted to a bit of caffeine each day so I am anxious about how this will be done.

2.) Stay home.  It is hard to spend money at home.  I hope to avoid the daily deal sites and my beloved sites that post great buys.  Hope to see ya soon! ;-)

3.) Grocery Budget is $200.00.  Let's all laugh hysterically at my optimism.  There are six of us.  I feel I might be overshooting this since my freezers are not bulging with great meat buys.   I hope to put together some meals that include meat as flavoring but not the star of the meal.  Let's hope I am successful.  Oh, I also found a deal on chicken breast for .89 a pound so I plan to get 10 pounds.  Anyone have great chicken recipes?

4.) Putting Limits on Kids' Activities - I am going to stay focused on the prize and really work on this one.  This is one area I struggle with when it comes to the kids.  I don't take them to the movies every weekend or McDonalds every day.  My second oldest really wants to play baseball and that fee would be paid at the end of February.  I would really, really, really have a hard time saying no to that.  

I am glad that February is a short month, but I fear that I will be carrying this challenge on to March.  I will update each week in the grocery and gas department for February so that you can see how I am doing.  I will also love your guys' input in how I can make my dollars stretch.  One way I have found is looking at what I have around the house and seeing if it can be used in a different way.  For example, I have a couple of huge containers of dehydrated apple slices.  I am in need of some baking oil.  If I take the apples and make applesauce, I should be able to use the applesauce in place of oil in baking.  Hopefully, creative thinking will take me far in this challenge.

Just so you know, this month I will not have a grand total of what I have saved. This fast is due to the fact that we are struggling like many small business owners and for this month, I am living off of savings.  I didn't want to disappoint anyone at the end.