Saturday, August 18, 2012

Our First Fiscal Fast Weekend - 8/18/2012

So here we are, on our 2nd night of our first Fiscal Fast, and imagine that - we are still alive & we haven't spent any money yet!

I actually wasn't too concerned that we would be able to do this because Mitch worked until 9pm last night & tonight, and also works 10-6pm tomorrow. So with him being gone, I knew I wouldn't be tempted to go out like I would if he was here. 

I really wanted a Caribou Coffee this morning. I knew that couldn't happen, so I improvised. 
I put a packet of iced coffee mix, milk and ice in the blender. I have to say it was really good! 
I poured it into a Caribou cup from the other day, and had my "Caribou" without spending $5 like usual.



Ahhh... the sun was shining, I had my coffee, I watered my plants and made eggs for breakfast.
I was, however, concerned about one thing.... Well, actually two things.
The first was that I had seen an ad on Craigslist, and had been emailing a guy about a beautiful leather ottoman for our living room. He wanted $50 (which was a steal), and I had already talked him into $25 (which was amazing!), but now I was going to have to ask him to hold on to it for me until Monday all because I can't spend money today?? 
Just as I was thinking of a way to do that, I get this email:


Say What?!!! I couldn't believe it! It was meant to be. 
So, I hopped in the car, and when I picked it up, he seemed pretty tickled when I told him 
about our weekend plans of not spending any money & that he made my day. 
So, here is our new leather ottoman that we got for FREE today:


So, my next dilemma was that I had something in my wallet that, of course, expired today:


I know these $10 gift cards come free in the mail, but I hate letting them expire because it's like someone handing you a free ten dollar bill. So, I reluctantly went, knowing this was dangerous & wondering how long my will power would hold up.


$9.36! And I didn't spend a dime...
I'm not gonna lie, the cashier wasn't really enthused & I felt kinda cheap - but at the same time it felt really good to be able to treat myself to a couple things I probably wouldn't of spend $ on normally.
It actually wasn't hard to stay under $10 at Kohls - after all, I AM a seasoned deal shopper ;)
As you can see, I came up with these Vanilla Rum Brulle (YUM!) candles & some lavender pillow spray. If you haven't tried pillow spray, I would highly recommend it. It smells like you're going to sleep at the spa every night! I love it! And I'll sleep even better knowing that it was free!

So I got home, talked to Mitch who said that a SBarro's pizza guy came and dropped off a free pizza at his office, so he scored also by not spending any money on dinner. He does have a $15 Subway card which was his ticket to eating when he is at work this weekend. So guess he will use that tomorrow for his lunch & dinner there. 
I, on the other hand, had plenty of time tonight to make a good meal. I even picked some chives, basil and kale from our garden to put in the sauce. The bread is actually some that I got for free - the Salvation Army in Minneapolis gives away what they don't use to shoppers every day around 1-2pm. This loaf had been in the freezer for a couple months now, but it tasted great! 



Finished product with some wine that I had forgotten about :)


How could this Fiscal Fast day get any better, you ask?
Well, Mitch just got home from work & loves the new FREE ottoman :)
He also brought home the leftovers that the company supplied for their meeting today...



Today was a good day.


Monday, August 13, 2012

Ultimate Cheapskate: Bottles Up



Here's some more great money saving & recycling tips, and also a gentle reminder of how bad soda is for you (and expensive too! $1000/year on average for a family)!

Ultimate Cheapskate: Fiscal Fast



Basic info on starting a Fiscal Fast!
(Not gonna lie, The Boyfriend wasn't too excited about not stocking up on beer... lol)

The Fiscal Fast Weekend Experiment

This is going to be quite the experience... and just to warn you I have no idea what I am doing. 
Heck, I didn't even know how to "blog" until 5 minutes ago when I Googled it. 
So, here we go...


Tonight I was watching a show called The World's Biggest Cheapskates, and just when I started thinking that these people must seriously be insane... a family comes on that does a "Fiscal Fast" one week out of every month where they don't spend any money, and basically just use up the food and supplies that they have around the house. 
This saved the family on average $300 per month - a whopping $3600 per year!! Since the thought of just using up all the excess crap we have was enough incentive to give it a go, now knowing that this is where our next vacation money could come from made me very happy. Anyways, it got me thinking that this was an incredible idea. I know in our house, we have so much frozen & pantry food, toiletries, wine etc... that we could probably live for an entire month without spending much. But do we do it?? No. Like most American households, we just keep accumulating more and spending more. 

When I brought this idea up to The Boyfriend, he said that it would be too tough (with a very apparent lack of enthusiasm), but that actually just made me want to prove to him how much we have lying around that he may not be aware of. So I made a deal with him that we would start small - just one weekend a quarter. He agreed, and so our Fiscal Fast Weekend concept was born. 

If nothing else, this should be really entertaining, and probably worth your time to read about our new adventure starting this weekend! But, again, not making any promises because I don't even know how to save this freakin' blog. LOL