Friday Dates on a Dime

So, some of these Dates on a Dime posts might be the tiniest bit illegal, but don't let that deter you. I haven't gotten caught yet so you can pull it off. And there is a small part of me that enjoys breaking the rules just a little bit, maybe you have the same small part? :)

An old date stand-by is going to the movies. Regularly this costs about 23-30 dollars for 2 people and 40-50 dollars if you bring your kids. For me, that amount equals 40-70 percent of my weekly food budget. These days, I see almost everything I buy not in dollar signs but grocery bags and I can get at least 4 grocery bags of food for 50 dollars.

But that doesn't mean I can't go to the movies, I just have to get creative with it.

That is where the "dollar movie" comes in, which around here costs 3 dollars on a regular day and 2 dollars on Tuesday. We pay 4-6 dollars at the discount theater for my husband and I or 10-15 dollars the for our family of five. Almost every town has a theater like this. You do have wait a bit for the movies to hit this theater but it's still fun to have the movie experience, and the savings are so good. Plus, delayed gratification is a good thing to practice.

This probably doesn't sound like I am breaking any rules yet, which brings us to the snacks. Even at the dollar theater they charge regular prices for food, which means on our tight budget we can't afford it. But we don't just want to watch a movie, we want the whole experience -popcorn, soda, and candy (and maybe wine - but be careful with this one!).

That means, breaking the rules, doing a little prep work, and sneaking in food

Here is what we sneak in:

Popcorn. We avoid microwave popcorn as it is filled with chemicals and instead go the cheaper route popping it ourselves in the microwave with a bowl and a plate. A bag of popcorn kernels for 2-3 dollars will last 1-2 months in my house. After dressing it with a little butter and salt I throw it in a brown paper bag. 

Where we usually don't buy soda because of the cost, we always bring it to the theater as a treat. We will buy Jones soda, or whatever else happens to be on sale, or if we want to go cheaper, the store brand soda in the cans.

We don't forget the candy either. Actually, the grocery stores sell the same type of candy in the large boxes as the movie theaters do but for a dollar-or-so. And they almost always have a 2 for 1 sale on some sort of candy.

Place everything in a bigger purse or satchel and off we go.


Movie = $6.00
Popcorn = .50
Drinks = $2.00 dollars
Candy = $1. 50

Total Cost for Friday Movie Date = 10 bucks! 

PS.  I recently took my kids and two of their friends, a total of 6 people, to the movies for 30 dollars. That is the same price many people spend just taking two people to the movies. I was so proud!  :)

How Living Frugally Impacts Children

My 15 year old daughter enjoys browsing the isles at Goodwill. When given a gift card to an expensive store on her birthday she exchanges it online for a card that she says, "will let me get more than one shirt and a pair of jeans for 50 bucks." In those moments I feel proud of her for getting the most for her money as I know this is a skill that will serve her well in life.

Instead of playing with the latest toys, my son creates worlds and games complete with invisible friends. He is magical and often hilarious.

I can't lie though, sometimes I carry a heavy guilt that I am not giving my children enough. Just like all parents, I fall into the trap of comparing what I am doing to what other parents are doing. There are times, especially around birthdays and holidays, that I want to give my kids piles of toys. I see pictures on Facebook of ski trips and vacations to island resorts and I want to take them there.

We have chosen to spend more time at home which means not providing dance classes, karate classes, and academic preschool and instead going to local libraries, playing boardgames, and painting with water colors.

Are we depriving them of something truly significant? 

It turns out we are providing more than just extra time with the family and lessons on how to save - frugal living benefits children in more ways than I imagined.

Double Whammy! Eat Better While Saving

Out of all the things I have done in an effort to save money purchasing a basket from a food co-op has had the largest impact not just on saving money, but on me, my health, my family, and even my spirituality.

About four years ago a friend told me I could get a laundry basket full of food for 15 dollars. This was right at the start of us trying to live more frugally so for the most part I didn't know what I was doing - we were broke.  I couldn't believe my ears. 15 dollars! I signed up to get my first bountiful basket.

It was indeed bountiful. That next week I set to work at figuring out how in the world we were going to eat all those fruits and veggies, some of which I didn't even recognize. 

It was a bit daunting but made me feel like a kid trying things for the first time. We began the slow process of moving from the boxed food I grew up on, or the idea that veggies are just 1/4th of of a plate, to moving into what Bobby Flay calls "revers[ing] the psychology of your plate by making meat the side dish and vegetables the main course."

This basket, it changed the way we eat. 

Today, when I am pulling veggies from the fridge to cut them up, or throwing fruits into a blender to make a smoothie I feel connected to the rhythms of the earth. I have entered into a relationship with food, understanding what fruits and veggies are in season, and when. Cooking with fresh fruits and veggies makes me feel more real.

My children now eat a huge variety of both fruits and veggies. My five year old finally ate radishes for the first time about two weeks ago. Before trying this you may worry that your family won't make the change but if what is available in your fridge and pantry changes, and your family finds ways to cook the fruits and veggies that people enjoy, with time, change will happen. Plus, I haven't found a kid yet that will turn down a popsicle (made from fresh fruit). 

We have started to look at food as not just sustenance but as medicine.
 
Plus, did I mention, I SAVE SO MUCH MONEY? 

Every weekend (or so, there are times we skip a week due to overflow of fruits and veggies that still need to be eaten), after getting my basket, I look to see what I have and plan my weeks meals around recipes that include all my fruits and veggies supplemented with what is in my pantry and fridge. Usually this means, besides my basket I only spend 60-75 dollars a week to feed five people (more about how I pull that off to come). That means I spend less than 100 dollars a week on food.

And we eat well.

You most definitely have a food co-op in your area. Jump on Google and search around. Bountiful baskets itself has spread to many states and if you don't have one and are interested in starting one, you can open one yourself. They offer both conventional and organic baskets (25$) as well as ad-ons such as oil, bread, honey, beans, and grains.

If you have a smaller family and don't need a whole basket then split it with someone at work, a family member, or a neighbor and pay even less.

This is an easy first step in the direction of heath and savings. By focusing on this one thing you can change your diet, your health, and save money at the same time.

Just do it. It's awesome, I promise.

Two Checking Accounts = Less Stress, More Free Time

The main focus of my life is living it. I want to have fun, to love and be loved, and to make a difference in this world.

That means for me, a big picture person, keeping track of money needs to be streamlined. I don't want to obsess about it; I don't want to have to keep a running ledger of every single thing we buy every day, subtracting for bills that still need to be paid, to find out how much we currently have. And I don't want to have to discuss it constantly. In the evening I want to talk to my husband about the world, our kids, to laugh with him and hopefully cuddle. I don't want our conversation to be one where we go over our receipts.

But I still need to know how much we have at any given moment to stay within our budget.

So how do you live your life and still have control of your money?

Here is where having two checking bank credit union accounts that are linked together comes in. (Credit Unions don't charge monthly fees and often reimburse ATM fees!)

The first checking account is the Bills account. All money is deposited or direct deposited into this account.  Just like the name implies this is the account bills are paid from, either in the form of automatic payment or, if you have to, by snail mail with a check. We personally leave 1860 dollars in this account each month to cover the rent (water is included), car payment, electricity, car/home insurance, the internet bill, the credit card bill, 2 hospital bills we are paying off month by month, and netflix. If we have a strange bill that pops up, something the dentist forgot to charge so he sent it though the mail, we also account for that.

All of these bills, except for the rent, are payed by an automatic debit to our account or through my credit unions automatic bill pay. And the only reason rent is paid by check is because something strange was going on with the post office and it kept returning the rent check to the bank instead of delivering it to our landlord! (yikes) So, we actually have to write it out and walk it up to the front office. Because I have everything set up on automatic debts or payments I spend literally 15 minutes every month dealing with bills. Most of which consists of going through junk mail to search out the actual bills. (If only there was a way to stop the junk mail...)

The best part of having a separate Bills account is that it makes it so that as long as you don't touch the money in this account, you will never overdraft your account again. The rule is, after the money is in there for the month, it doesn't exist. We don't touch it.

However, we can spend money from our checking Flexible account. At the first of the month the money that is leftover after accounting for what is put in the Bills account is transferred into this account.  This money will be used to buy food, gas, medicine, clothes, go to doctor visits, and for entertainment. This separate account has the benefit of letting us see exactly how fast we are spending our usable money as well as exactly what we are spending it on.

Since I know we only have a set amount in this account to last entire month I check this account online every few days or so. I check it especially after weekends when we tend to spend more money. It just takes minutes to do this. If I see that we spent 250 dollars in one week because we splurged, or had an unexpected expense, we will reign in spending for a few days or a week to even it out for the next week so we have enough to last us through the rest of the month. That means eating what is in the house and only buying gas if we need it to get to work. Also, since we only use our debit on this account we cannot overdraft. If the money runs out the card simply gets declined.

I do have two debit cards, one for the bills and one for the flexible account which I label on the back so I can tell them apart. Just put the bills account card away so you aren't tempted to use it.

This system has allowed us to live our life without letting money run our life.

If you have a secret way or organizing money please share in the comments! I'd love to hear it.

It's the (overripe) Little Things

Really, there is no one big secret to saving money; there are lots of little ones that add up. Some may work for you some may not.

This tip, however, is delicious! Well, as long as you like banana bread fresh out of the oven smeared with butter. :)

Super Easy, Yummy, and Cheap Banana Bread from Simply Recipes

I love this recipe because it mixes up with a wooden spoon or fork in less than 5 minutes and uses common basic baking staples. So simple!

The secret to saving money on this one is not letting those overripe bananas go to waste. You know the yucky brown spotted ones that no one will eat (even you, especially you)? Don't throw them out! Throw them in the freezer where they will keep until you are ready to make this bread.

Yes, they will turn brown once frozen. And yes, it will change the consistency of the bananas when they slip out of their skins for the batter. But don't let that deter you; it won't make a bit of difference in the bread.

Actually, I have my bananas thawing on the counter right now.


Enjoy!