MMM Save $100 This Week Challenge: Update
Good Morning Mustachian Trainees.
I posted the $100 Challenge last Wednesday Night, which made Thursday the first day. The post got an unusually large number of reads last week, and again today due to a valued reader who posted it to her facebook page – thanks a lot!
But have you actually been challenging yourself? Or did you just read it and have a chuckle and then head out in the Mercedes ML500 for pints and steaks at the brew pub?
I must admit I was feeling a bit casual myself when I wrote it. I was secretly thinking, “Listen up, we already the Triple M’z, Yo / We runnin’ so lean, nobody could shave a dolla’ from the routine”.
But once I published the challenge, a little change came over me. And it happened to Mrs. Money Mustache too, since she is a very close participant in this blog. Even though none of you are actually watching us to check for cheating, we really felt motivated to see what we could do. I stuck a piece of scrap paper onto the breakfast bar and started writing down the results – including all our spending and transportation – each day. Here’s where we’re at so far:
Thursday:
Bike Miles: 7, Car Miles: 0, Spending: $54 on groceries
Challenge Savings: I made a point of looking over my grocery bill to check for mistakes. It turns out when you buy a lot of organic produce as I do, mistakes are very common (1 in 4 receipts perhaps). Today I found that my $5.00/5 lb bag of organic Gala apples was billed at $12.00. I asked the service guy and he very apologetically handed over the full $12.00 as a compensation. Free apples – sweet! Deliberately decided to skip buying beer and wine this week to save some money and also give my fitness training a boost. We normally have about 3 drinks each per week at $1.50 each: Credit: $12.00 for apples and for $9.00 for beer and wine = $21.00.
Friday:
Bike Miles: 7, Car Miles: 0, Spending: $0 – no unusual challenge savings today, the wife and I just worked at home while the lad was in preschool.
Saturday: Bike Miles: 11, Car Miles: 0, Spending: $0.
Challenge Savings: Wife normally would have driven to CrossFit class due to unusually chilly weather, but she toughed up for the challenge, saving 1 car trip. Also, I was trimming the grass with my old inherited corded weed eater. The piece of crap finally gave out and shot broken plastic parts all over the lawn. I smashed it up in rage and threw it into the metal recycling bin, and ALMOST hopped on the bike to head to Home Depot to pick out a new cordless one. Then a bubble appeared over my head and Barney from the Simpsons started calling “Chaaaaalllenge Weeeek!”. So I went to the shed and grabbed the long manual shears instead. I had never tried using these for lawn and weed edging before, but surprise, they are shockingly fast, silent, and I also got a bit of added workout for free! I don’t think I’ll even buy a weed-eater again. So I’ll award myself $60 for the day.
Sunday: Bike Miles: 2, Car Miles: 0, Spending: $0. Raining part of the day. Played in and around the house. No unusual Savings, but you can’t complain about a day where you spent zero dollars!
Monday: Bike Miles: 8, Car Miles: 0, Spending: $95 ($25 insurance copayfor the boy’s 5-year checkup and immunizations, $70 for wife’s first experimental visit to chiropractor). Wife took son to the doctor’s office in the bike trailer instead of the car, for which we get $10 according to the scoring system.
Perhaps a little more detail than you wanted. But it’s interesting to me to note that we haven’t even started the car in almost a week, and we have spent only $54+$95 even on a week with very unusual medical bills. But of course, other random expenses come up in other weeks like school supplies or clothing.
So so far, with an honest accounting of savings directly because of MMM challenge week, I’m up $91.00 in five days! This is pretty significant since as a family that lives on about $40k, our average spending is normally $547 on the typical five-day period. We’ve cut it by a further one sixth just because of this savings game!
Imagine how much cutting could be done for a family that is currently living on $50, 70, or 100+ thousand per year!
Any stories of your own savings to share?
Article: How To Start a Blog
Where to next? Check out a Random Article
|
Stay in Touch: Subscribe to posts by e-mail, RSS Feed, or follow MMM on Twitter and Facebook.
Join the Conversation: Learn from Like-Minded Mustachians in The Money Mustache Community |
Mr. Money Mustache is a family man living in the United States who retired from work, relatively wealthy, at about age 30. After several years of retirement, he noticed that his still-working peers were envious of his lifestyle. They were making more money than he ever had, yet they were somehow still broke. So he decided to write this blog to educate the world on how it is done.
Whoa there MMM, you only saved $5 on apples…. I’d say you are at $86. Still almost there, though.
ok, my math is off too. $84.
Herbert Again!
Thanks for checking up on my accuracy. I definitely appreciate people calling me out if they don’t believe my figures, because in order for people to make some sacrifices to do this shit, they have to believe it’s true.
For the apples, I credited myself $12.00 because it was MMM Challenge week that gave me the motivation to actually check over my grocery receipt as I rolled the cart out of the store. When I found the error, I was expecting to only get a $7 refund, but instead the King Sooper’s service guy surprised me with a full $12.00 in cash. Without doing this check, I would be $12.00 poorer than I am today, so I figured 12 is the right number to credit.
I bought lunch for $2.85, because I forgot my wallet and had to work from pocket change. It was a good hearty lunch: 1 sweet potato, 1 package of ramen noodles, and 1 apple. It was cooked in the microwave at work, so the power was free. I drove to the store though, completely negating any virtue points.
Haha.. a tragic story but at least you did not starve.
As an office worker with an inconsistent grocery shopping and lunch packing problem, my solution to forgotten lunches was always the Secret Mini Fridge Under The Desk In The Cube.
In this fridge, I kept several jars of kickass organic natural peanut butter, raspberry jam, a loaf of whole wheat bread, a big brick of cheddar cheese, containers of yogurt, a jar of jalapenos, and assorted fruits, vegetables, and nuts. And a few good beers. Then it was Gourmet Time all day, every day. Man, that fridge surely saved me thousands in restaurant lunches.. hundreds of thousands if you count gained productivity from not worrying about food and from the networking bonds built with fellow workers when I got to be the one who unexpectedly whipped out beers at 5′o’clock. I think I’ll have to crib this comment as the foundation for a future frugality post for office workers.
I did that too because I was always too lazy to make lunch at home. I discovered quickly thought that if I didn’t leave the office, people didn’t think I was on lunch, and I would get more work assigned to me. So I had to make my lunch quickly and run outside with it. To make eating outside more fun, I took walks everyday. Healthy meals and exercise during lunch? Darn right!
Back in February we did a dollar fast, and I found it to be a good exercise. Basically, it consisted of the only cutting expenses to bare necessities like milk, eggs, and fresh vegetables, gas to go to and from work, electric, mortgage, etc.
We are pretty frugal compared to most of the people we know. Clothes from thrift stores and purchases from yard sales and craigslist. Even so, we go out twice a week to eat and we go to thrift stores even when we don’t specifically NEED something. When you have to cut that out, all of a sudden have to come face to face with the fact that in many cases we spend money for the purpose of spending money…because it feels good.
Would love to see a post on your weekly grocery shopping – the bill, what you buy/cook.
Good idea! An article like this is definitely in the near future. I’d like to learn from readers too.
Why not make your own beer and wine? It’s relatively to very inexpensive in the long run, even if you always rely on kits. The startup cost will run you about 100-150 dollars, even if you buy new, and each batch of 50 bottles (beer) 30 bottles (wine) will cost you around $30. Grow your own hops, make it all-grain, etc. and the costs drop even further
Keep reading! You’ll soon get to the post where I started making beer (June 3, 2011 – http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2011/06/03/a-mustachian-microbrewery-is-born/)
It has been a HUGE success – we’ve made 10-12 big batches of the stuff since then, following all sorts of different recipes. It’s remarkably easy to make good alcoholic beverages – I wish I had known this in high school! And the knowledge is even more powerful for those who live in the province of BC, Canada: up there, beer is taxed to double its normal price, making home-brewing absolutely essential.
In fact, it has now been over a year since I bought beer in a regular store (with a few exceptions, like during road trips, camping, vacations, etc.).
I’m still catching up on your blog, and try to read all comments on all posts. You may have already posted on this question further in time, but I was wondering. I am in a situation similar as yours, family-wize: wife and one kid. Our groceries bill, however, always seem to be off the hook. I know I can save tons of monies there, but don’t know exactly how, with baby products and such (diapers, wipes, etc).
You talk a lot about organic produce and groceries, which I would like to buy more of, but they are always more expensive (especially here in Ottawa, for some reason). How do you pull it off?
Looking forward to your groceries post later.
Read on, Alex! The fast answer for you is that in Ottawa, Costco is an absolute essential for groceries.
You’ll find several more grocery articles as you go through the series, including these two:
http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2011/08/23/grocery-shopping-with-your-middle-finger/
http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/03/29/killing-your-1000-grocery-bill/
Costco eh? So bulk buying, but essentially calculating the costs over time rather than on the spot?
Hi Alex, I’m in Ottawa too. Heres a ‘recipe’ for baby wipes. When I was given this recipe I thought making your own baby wipes was daft but I became a convert. I had twins & these home-made wipes were great!
1 package good quality (sturdy) paper towels (bounty worked well)
2 cups hot water (boiled)
1 tablespoon liquid baby wash
1 tablespoon baby oil
1 tablespoon baby lotion
A round container with lid (a big ice-cream container could work. I used a round Tupperware container)
Directions:
-Cut the paper towel in half with a serrated kitchen knife (for efficiency cut a few for later use)
-Put the baby wash, oil & lotion in the container, add the hot water & mix (I used a small wisk)
-Put the half roll in (shredded side up) in the container. Let about half of the water absorb, then turn over. Pull the cardboard tube out & pull out the wipes from the centre. That’s it.
Make these as need – don’t make extra as they can get moldy, since you aren’t using a ton of chemicals. I have taken these wipes on trips- transferred to zip-lock bags to save space.
We used a diaper service (cloth diapers) for the first year, its not for everybody but it worked great for us.
Try adding a little salt to delay the onset of strange growths.
chux wipes and water work equally well – no need to go to such extremes.
Then you just chuck them in with the cloth nappies to wash.
Cloth nappies do need to be changed more often that disposables, but we found generally there was less nappy rash and whatnot (more breathable, and not sitting in their own wee for extended periods…)
Arguably, for a single child there may not be much cost advantage, but using with subsequenet children (or buying secondhand, or as we did, get a number of loaners from friends) definitely compounds the savings.
All that biking and a chiro is needed? Odd. Try a PT, skills are based in actual science. Check out chirobase.org.