Originally Posted by
bdkmosher
Okay, so unfortunately I had not PLANNED to do frugal February - and then my husband got laid off indefinitely, effective February 1st. SO, the first few days of February have had more expenditures than usual for us to make sure we have enough baby items and food to get by until his EI comes through in a few weeks. I am returning to work effective this coming Monday to try to make up the difference, so we have to switch me three month old from near exclusive breastfeeding to near exclusive bottle feeding, on short notice. This means stocking up on bottlefeeding supplies and formula. :(
We have already spent about $200 on groceries/stockpile, PLUS some non necessities since Feb 1st (including a birthday party gift, for example). Yuck. Part of it is my own fault, because this is our third lay-off in less than three years, and I was already on maternity leave - so my reaction to the sudden and unexpected layoff was mad panic and obsessive need to hoard food and supplies. Today, however, I am going to attempt homemade pizza pockets to minimize my lunch expenditures on my return to work next week. Wish me luck!
On the bright side, I discovered Sally's Cereals at Walmart, a nice affordable alternative to brand name cereals and SOOOO yummy (yummy enough that I called the company to tell them how much I loved it!) which cuts down costs for my work breakfasts, and I also forced myself to buy a 4L plastic jug of milk instead of two 2L cartons, as it is 30+ cents cheaper than the cheapest price on two x 2L cartons I can find, and we go through a LOT of milk. I have myself convinced it is gross in a plastic jug and has a funny taste, but I have committed myself to using the jug milk instead of carton milk at LEAST for cereal, if not for drinking.
I almost killed my freezer stockpile - I got stress out, and when I stress, I clean like a madwoman. Well, part of my cleaning involved moving the freezer - which got unplugged, and I didn't notice. Thank goodness my husband noticed the next day, and only the top items were starting to defrost, but still cold, so we went ahead and refroze them... seemed fine, and my Dad thought so too.
I also started a spreadsheet so I can track three columns 'Grocery/stockpile', 'necessities and bills' and 'unnecessary/other' ... to see what we spend in February, and my husband is helping me take an inventory of all of our food in freezers, fridge and cupboards so we can put it in a spread sheet, add and subtract as appropriate, and plan meals and grocery purchases more appropriately and conservatively.
I am just terrified about the whole damn thing, as another lay off was the last thing we needed or expected, and we still aren't out of the hole from the last two layoffs and my maternity leave waiting period. I love living in a small town most of the time - but not when the job market tanks. :( My husband is an experienced tradesman ion a couple of trades, but the jobs just aren't there. I am in business development, so my job is perhaps a little more stable - I am lucky I can go back to work early and that there wasn't someone on contract in my position or anything to fill the void while I was away!
So yeah, frugal February means a whole lot more now than it did a week ago!