September Challenge and Other Miscellany

Money continues to fly out the door at the Frugal Shrink Cottage.  But not for anything fun, I assure you!!  This month, I'm looking at a plumber visit ($??), renewing my professional liability insurance ($700), and paying for a conference out of pocket that won't be reimbursed by my company until I actually attend in November ($1200ish).  YIKES!  Time to go on lock down again!

This month, I'm going to concentrate on not eating at restaurants/ fast food unless I am with friends/ family.  I have become lazy and complacent in the food area, spending $5 a day on lunch and driving through fast food or ordering a pizza whenever I don't feel like preparing food (which is much of the time).  

In August, I spent ~$145 on having food prepared for me because I'm lazy eating meals out by myself.  YIKES AGAIN!!  I totally did not realize this was happening until I did the math for this blog post.  It's going to take some preparation on my part but I think it will be worth it- what an easy way to save money and how NOT FRUGAL can you get!!

I am happy to report that my regular spending has been quite good.  I've been doing my regular inexpensive thrifting for shop merchandise and for a few items for me or the house.  I did also purchase a couple of gorgeous silk blouses in emerald green and leopard print from JC Penney.  These are in the style of the Equipment blouses that are so popular, but mine were just $13 each with coupon.  Other than that, not much extraneous spending has been happening.

I'll keep you posted.  It's good to have internet accountability!

Comments

Anonymous said…
I've been lurking for a while, but don't believe I've ever commented. I recall when I used to believe that I needed professional liability insurance (I taught college). I'm wondering what line of work you do.
Hi Terri, thanks for delurking! I am a psychologist.
Frugal Scholar said…
Buy a rice cooker! You will never have to eat in a restaurant unless you really want to.

P.S. A cheapo ricecooker is about $15 retail and they often turn up at yard sales and thrift shops for less.
Mrs. GV said…
We are looking at some similar costs this month. My husband is a clinical pharmacist and is traveling out of town to do CE starting tomorrow. We have the cost of the CE plus the hotel on our credit card until he gets reimbursed. (The hospital is going through tough financial times so stopped reimbursing for CE but his department gets paid for being a rotation site for students, so that will pay for the CE. We are going to try for the hotel reimbursement, but we aren't sure about that.) We always pay the credit card in full, but of course it's annoying having to take that hit to the budget in the meantime.

Think we are going to need the septic pumped soon (but dh will locate/dig out the top so that should help with the cost we think.)
FS- Sadly, I am limiting my starches these days and hardly ever eat rice. Unless you can do other things with them??

Mrs. GV- YES, it is so annoying to absorb the cost even though it's just for a little while!! Hope your hotel gets reimbursed, too.

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