For the month of April I am going to attempt not to do any wasteful spending. I have cut back greatly since being unemployed but I do still enjoy the occasional new pair of shoes, new dress, etc. Well for the month of April that is all out. No new shoes, no new dress, no unnecessary item for the house, zip. April is a month of bills. URG…federal tax, vehicle tax, yearly termite inspection, Oscar’s dental work (Milo had his in March), and I am sure there are some more I am missing. After those items are paid for the money I normally budget for unnecessary items (such as clothing, iTunes, eBay, travel, donations, gifts) will be used to buy some more supplies for the covered patio we are building.
Of course as I write this there is a new INC dress out for $90 that will be perfect for my upcoming beach vacations. I am in love with this dress and my $20 off of $50 expires April 26 at Macys. SUCKS! Honey if you want to surprise me with this dress I am a size small, $20 off coupon is in my coupon binder, and your Macy’s card is in my wallet. Use MrRebates.com for additional savings. ID is my yahoo email and you know my favorite password. Hey…I said my spending was done for April but did not say my husband’s wasn’t. A girl can try, right? http://www1.macys.com/catalog/product/index.ognc?ID=542431&CategoryID=26513#fn=sp%3D1%26spc%3D56 Before I lost my job I would buy clothing and items for the house if I liked it. Now I have to LOVE it to buy it.
March sucked as well with vet bills, surprise vehicle expenses, and we were not about to give up our sanity by canceling our trip to Charleston. We made it through without dipping into savings or using credit cards. I will say I did pretty good in Charleston for spending. The only things I bought for myself was an olive oil dispenser and a sponge holder for the kitchen. Both handmade by artists in Charleston and only cost me $31. But for the month of April even items like that will be cut out of my spending. Tony bought two shirts and a flag for the garage. Every town he visits he buys a Harley shirt with the dealers name and location on it.
We packed our lunches on the trip which saved us $40 - $50 right there. It is just a smart thing to do when traveling to save money and your waistline. I cannot eat out every single meal of the day. Our hotel had free breakfast but I brought my low fat oatmeal with.
Last month I finally decided to give up ordering wine when out to dinner unless it is a special occasion. For whatever reason the last few times eating out the restaurants have passed off two buck chuck as a nice wine. The heck if I am going to pay $7 a glass for wine that is going to give me a hangover the next day. I will just have a glass when we get home. My wine is under $7 a bottle! If you look at the bigger picture if I buy one glass of wine out to dinner 50 weeks a year that is $350 on shit wine. No thank you.
Another goal I have for April is to hold a garage sale towards the end of the month. Last year Tony and I made $700 from selling stuff we did not use. I know we will not hit that number again this year because there is not a whole lot to sell but even $200 would be nice. Anytime I receive cash it gets stashed away for vacations. Tony and I took that $700 to Curacao with us. This money will be for Aruba. I am sure there still are items shoved away in my attic that can go. I really need to clean out my closet and get ride of some shoes! Well, April is just a few days away. Lets see how I do.
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