Thursday, January 7, 2016

First dinner, then money

Very much inspired by Sonya Ann's post the other day over at A Mom, Money, and More which she titled "Would you eat green chicken and tortillas," I now have the beginning of white chicken chili started on the stove. Yes hers was a crock pot recipe. No it was not white chicken chili. I have problems. I wanted to make the chicken like she said but then I strayed. Chili sounded really good and I know, blasphemy, I'm just not a fan of the crock pot (I do have one though). I haven't made white chicken chili in longer then I can remember and I've never made it with salsa verde so this adds a new experience to the new year.

For Christmas I think the ONE thing I actually asked my husband for was a stock pot. Of course that was foolish of me because my all time favorite Christmas present are these expensive chocolate truffles from Chicago that he gets for me every single year. I LOVE them! They seriously make Christmas morning so much more special for me. I did not specifically ask for them this year and he did not get them for me. But he did get me the stock pot. I wanted it to do proper canning this summer. I believe it was the day after Christmas when he looked at the enormous pot sitting on the stove and he asked me, "when are you going to start making stock already?" Like I was neglecting my gift and should be making stock round the clock.

All that said, I am boiling a whole chicken right now (that sounds very inhumane) and am making stock for the chili and for chicken and dumplings later on this week. The recipe I am using for the white chicken chili is here (sorry Sonya Ann, I failed) and I chose it specifically because of the salsa Verde that Sonya Ann used for her green chicken.


Okay, on to money. I am way over budget at this point but I'm not the least bit stressed about it. I've gotten my son a new winter coat for next year ($12), a pair of shoes (the next size up; $11), and two long sleeves shirts and a sweatshirt for next year ($14.74). I purchased a pretty neat Star Wars candy gift set today for Little Abe's birthday. It was in the Christmas clearance ($4.19/ originally $15). He is going to LOVE it.

Last year I did notice that there was a lot of fabulous clearance during the month of January. In attempt to keep my spending down I purchased a little of it but not as much as I probably should have. This year I am going a different route. I am only purchasing things that we will need or smart gift choices for this upcoming year but I am not holding back as much on the January clearance sales for the sake of the budget. I think buying a few more things on deep discount this month will off set some spending later. So I'm going for it.



I purchase very little at full retail but simply for my own reflection the clothing and shoes pictured above would have cost $132.47 if I'd paid full price for it all. I spent $43.21 on all of it, a savings of $89.26 (67% savings). Not bad, not bad... I'm going to have to find something really really cheap to push that total over to 70%... I like the sound of 70% a lot more.

Average daily spending for 2016: $20.87

I better get back to that chili... the chicken is probably done cooking right about now.

8 comments:

  1. Buying ahead gifts at a much reduced price is great as long as when the time comes to give the gift that you don't add more to the gift because you spent so little on it(even though it's "worth" is so much more than what you paid). That's a common pitfall with people.....(and me). lolz

    Spending now to save later is a great frugal hack.
    Enjoy your chili!

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    1. The chili was awesome!

      I know what you're saying. I almost did that several times last year. Exactly like you said, I thought, "ooh, what else could I put with this since it cost so little?" Most of the time though I did end up resisting the urge. I'll work on that again this year. Great input! It does seem like it could be a common mis-step.

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  2. Excellent plan. It is exactly how we were talking the other day. If we are tied to strict budget guidelines in a single purchase period, we are not able to purchase beyond that amount (or can't because the money is not there)to buy things at their lowest cost, thus reducing the overall budget over a period of time.How wise you are becoming on the money front. I foresee $17 a day in your 2016 future (unless of course, you are planning something intentionally to keep you at or above your $18 sucess of 2015.)

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    1. Ah, this year's financial plans... I haven't actually starting blogging about that yet. I have drawn up spending category budgets that should get me right around $17 a day if followed. So you were spot on with that thought. The goal for 2015 was to come in under $18 a day. This year I would like to come in under $17 a day (shooting for $16.99)

      I have truly learned, mostly over the past year how to make a purchasing plan in order to save money. Sometimes that does include spending more now to save more later. It took me quite awhile to get to this place. The first few years of this financial journey I was simply learning to stop buying nonsense (Starbucks coffee, eating out at restaurants constantly, ect;). After that I worked on cutting spending more. Now I've moved into the planning and trying to spend smart leg of the journey. I'm excited about this new year!

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  3. Today, I bought gifts to give during the year and next Christmas. I've done this for about 15 years. However, for the last six weeks or so, I have gotten refunds for things I bought that I did not use for a gift or for the Christmas Child boxes I usually give. Amazingly, those refunds have gotten me through when I had no money for gas or milk each week. It kept me out of the red. I had not been buying foolishly because I got all the items on sale. It is amazing the space it freed.

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  4. I have already started Christmas 2016. I love the January sales and savings!

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    1. So far I've only purchased wrapping paper for Christmas 2016. I will not need to buy any come Christmas this year. Last month I ended up buying several rolls from the dollar store because I didn't pick up clearance paper in 2014. But I will definitely be picking up some more birthday presents this month. January clearance is really really good.

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