09 April 2018

WHAT WE SPENT, WHAT WE DIDN'T SPEND AND WHAT WE SAVED WEEK 14

This is what we spent:

Aldi: $19.90
Coles: 39.35

This is what we didn't spend (and what was moved into savings/slush fund/holiday fund):

Coffee: Wayne has gone back to using the Keep Cup and we are both still having iced coffee in the mornings. I've been making up Iced Coffee Syrup, using expresso from my machine and MOO vanilla extract. Total cost: $3.82 for 1 litre of coffee syrup, that makes 20 iced coffees (I use 50ml per drink). Our iced coffees cost just 40 cents each (200ml milk costs 20c, 50ml syrup is 20c). Between the two of us, over seven mornings, we didn't spend $52.50 on iced coffee this week!

Petrol: No petrol needed in my car this week, I still have between 3/4 and a full tank, so I didn't spend $80 on petrol, and moved $80 to the holiday fund.

Meals:  All our meals were cooked from scratch, using ingredients from the pantry, fridge and freeze so we didn't spend $376 again on takeaway this week.

Three birthday cards: We had three birthdays to celebrate this month, so instead of spending $24 on birthday cards, I made them, using materials from the craft drawers. I didn't spent $21 on buying birthday cards. I budget $1 per, so shifted $3 from the gift fund to the holiday fund.

Three birthday presents and wrapping: One gift was a potted mini succulent garden. These very cute little gardens cost upwards of $20 from the florist, this one cost absolutely nothing. The plants were strikes off strikes that were given to me by the lovely Maureen a couple of years ago, and the very cute little fishbowl was given to Hannah, who gave it to me, by the gorgeous Anne. I used sand, soil, and pebbles that we already had in the garden. $20 I didn't spent on a birthday gift, and $20 left in the gift fund.

The other two gifts were for men, both play golf, so their gifts were easy. I embroidered their names and "golf towel" on some super large, navy blue hand towels I had in the present box (and they were given to me a while back), added a bar of my handmade soap and wrapped them in cellophane I had. Personalised hand towels are $17.50 each and nice soap is $5.50 a bar. I didn't spend $46 on two gifts. I budget $10 per gift, so $30 was moved to the holiday fund.

Windows: Taking advantage of the lovely autumn weather, we washed the outside of the windows and dusted the cobwebs away. It took about an hour working together as a team, one washing, the other rinsing and drying. I was gobsmacked to find out how much we didn’t spend to get the windows washed: $185! And that was the cheapest quote, I shudder to think how much it would cost if we had more windows or a two-storey home.

Total spent this week:  $59.32
Total not spent this week: $780.50
And moved to savings:  $113.00

Remember, money isn't saved until it is safely in the bank. Until then it is just not spent - hence my "what we didn't spend" list and making sure I move money from the relevant categories into our savings accounts.

2 comments:

  1. Hi, I'm a bit surprised that you suppose that 3 birthday cards cost about $24. Where did you get those prices from? I do not spend more than $1-2 per card. I live in Sydney, and we have very nice $1-2 cards in every Red Dollar or shops like this. When it comes to Xmas, I can buy from those shops or even from Aldi packs of about 20 cards for roughly $2-3 dollars.
    Honestly, I would'n be wasting any of my time to make a card valued $1 dollar if I can buy really nice one for the same money.
    Sorry, just opinion.
    Irina.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Irina, cards can cost up to $18 each, $8 for a nice card is about the average from a good newsagent or somewhere like Wisteria. Even Kmart cards can be $6 - $8, and that's with the 10% discount. I like to give nice cards, and run-of-the-mill $2 shop cards just don't cut it for me anymore. I had to use those cards for years when we were on a very tight budget, thankfully I no longer need to do that. I much prefer to take the time to make my cards; they're unique and personal, and it's not only a saving, but it's also relaxing, and as I belong to a card making group, it's a social outlet too. Any my cards are valued at a lot more than $1; they may only cost a few dollars to make but they sell for more.

      Delete

Thanks so much for taking the time to leave a comment...I just love hearing from you!

Just a couple of things:

Please don't use your comments to advertise your business or goods for sale, any such comments will be removed.

And please include your name, ANONYMOUS POSTS WILL NOT BE PUBLISHED AND WILL BE RECORDED AS SPAM.