About Me

Petunia

40-something wife of Mr H and mom of Daisy.

Goal 2: Budget for Checkbook One
- Write a budget for Checkbook One each month, one week prior to the start of the month.
- Update weekly - amount spent and amount remaining for budget categories.
- Share weekly budget updates with Mr H and get his feedback.
- Evaluate each month's budget at the end of that month.

Status: Achieved for Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr
Somewhat achieved: May, June
Not achieved: July, August

Goal 3: Decrease food costs
- Keep food, cleaning and personal care budget to $650/month
- Look for ways to decrease that $650 figure

Status: Achieved for Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr
Somewhat achieved for May, Jun

Goal 6: Save 2% of monthly income towards retirement for April, May and June. Increase to 3% in July.

Status: achieved Apr, May, Jun
2% achieved for Jul, Aug, Sep
Re-evaluating the % increase

Goal 7: Limit coffee stops (ie, Starbucks) to two per week

Status: Started in September

Future goal: Save 10-15 % of our income for retirement.

Future goal: Develop a source of "egg money".

Future goal: In five years move closer to our church.

$20 Challenge Total for 2008: $152.50
Tutoring income for 2008: $570

NSD's = No Starbucks Days

My Pages

$32.50 More to the Challenge and Lifestyle Changes

November 25th, 2008 at 02:55 am

I had planned to list some of my curriculum items on Craig's list in January or February. This isn't really the time of year that people are buying this kind of item.

But, someone put a "wanted" posting on a local homeschooling yahoo group for a curriculum item that I had. From my first response to the requestor to when I dropped the item off and had the check in my hand was about 24 hours. I cashed the check about three hours after that. Woo-hoo!

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Yesterday I reset the programmable thermostat to 65 during the hours that I was home. It wasn't that bad. I was surprised - I'm really a wimp when it comes to being cold. I also took a navy shower.

But the thing I wonder about these lifestyle changes is - is there anyway to calculate how much money is saved by doing them? I know I can look at the bill when it comes in, but is there anyway to estimate how much these actions save each time I do them?

Posted in $20 Challenge | 3 Comments »

3 Responses to “$32.50 More to the Challenge and Lifestyle Changes”

Koppur Says:
November 25th, 2008 at 06:20 am

Congrats on the sale.
thriftorama Says:
November 26th, 2008 at 06:18 am

You may be able to find stats on the department of energy or a site like treehugger.com. I also wrote a story for bankrate once about how much conservation saves you. Here is a link: http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/energy-environment-2007/ti...
Petunia Says:
December 2nd, 2008 at 11:25 am

Thanks Koppur! Thriftorama - thanks - this at least gives me a place to start. If I'm going to turn the heat down, I'd like to be thinking, "Today I saved $5 on the gas bill" or something similar.

Petunia in an Onion Patch

When life brings you onions. . . Make French onion soup

$32.50 More to the Challenge and Lifestyle Changes

3 Responses to “$32.50 More to the Challenge and Lifestyle Changes”

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