{"id":639,"date":"2017-01-26T05:44:07","date_gmt":"2017-01-26T05:44:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.abyteofcommonsense.com\/?p=639"},"modified":"2018-01-11T20:43:33","modified_gmt":"2018-01-11T20:43:33","slug":"uber-frugal-month-challenge-days-19-26","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.abyteofcommonsense.com\/?p=639","title":{"rendered":"Uber Frugal Month 2017: Days 19-26"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As part of a semi-serious New Year&#8217;s Resolution (and both of us looking for new jobs), we thought we&#8217;d attempt the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.frugalwoods.com\/2016\/12\/19\/uber-frugal-month-the-ultimate-guide-to-saving-more-money-than-you-ever-thought-possible\/\">Uber Frugal Month by Mrs. Frugalwoods<\/a>. It&#8217;s more me wanting to do this, I manage all of the finances, but\u00a0Eli is also on board.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Day 19:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><u>Write down everything that is &#8216;just $5&#8217;.<\/u><\/li>\n<li>I\u00a0don&#8217;t really have a problem with this $5 thing. It saves me that I rarely leave the house to be tempted by this. Ironically (once again), this was a day I went for coffee with friends I hadn&#8217;t seen for 2 months (see me justifying it here?). I did save some money by taking my own KeepCup however.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Day 20:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><u>Frugality is a mindset.<\/u><\/li>\n<li>My brainstorm here is the delicious iced tea maker that Eli got me for Christmas. The teas you buy from the shop are expensive and create lots of wasteful packaging that haunts me. Instead, I&#8217;m going to dehydrate my own fruit and make tea (so far, so good, it passes the Eli taste-test).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Day 21:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><u>The only person who cares, is you! Don&#8217;t be a conformist.<\/u><\/li>\n<li>Let it not be said that I do things to impress others. If I was a conformist, I&#8217;d be looking for a 9-5 job and I&#8217;d hate it. Instead, Eli and I are happy doing temp work and using our frugality skills to make our variable income work for us.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Day 22:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><u>In-house labor in order to strenthen your partnership.<\/u><\/li>\n<li>Eli and I now cut each other&#8217;s hair. I have long, very curly hair and I was worried that it wouldn&#8217;t trim well at home. I got Eli to cut off an inch or so off the bottom, and it looks 200% better than it did before! Now I&#8217;ll actually have hair that looks nice, and it didn&#8217;t cost me a cent.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Day 23:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">List things you are grateful for.<\/span><\/li>\n<li>I am grateful for my health issues being mostly under control, for Eli to be at home a lot at the moment, and to have a great house that we have customised to what we want.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Day 24:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><u>When less is more.<\/u><\/li>\n<li>The less I buy, the less I need. I&#8217;ve got things down to the essentials, but I&#8217;m still struggling with a couple of things. I so want those glass containers&#8230;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Day 25:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><u>Host a frugal party!<\/u><\/li>\n<li>Tick! We&#8217;ve done this, and I&#8217;m looking forward to doing it again.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Day 26:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">True happiness isn&#8217;t bought in a store.<\/span><\/li>\n<li>What is my own good life? Being able to read books I didn&#8217;t pay a cent for, and to build LEGO that will make me a profit or at least break even.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>We went on vacation to NZ, so I can&#8217;t catagorise our expenses. Let it be said we spent around AU$400 on the trip while there, but we didn&#8217;t pay for the airfares. Those expenses weren&#8217;t avoidable, but next time I think we&#8217;ll try do more our own way, by hiring a car that is more expensive at the outset but will allow some freedom for how we eat out.<\/p>\n<p><strong>January&#8217;s running expenses (and a catalogue of posts in this series so far):\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><a style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.abyteofcommonsense.com\/?p=623\">None<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.abyteofcommonsense.com\/?p=625\"><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">swim -$17.40, <\/span><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><span style=\"color: #339966;\">PayPal payment for Lego\u00a0sale\u00a0<\/span><\/span><span style=\"color: #339966;\">$69.40<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<li>None<\/li>\n<li>None<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.abyteofcommonsense.com\/?p=627\"><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">apricots for drying -$100, eggs and cockroach bait -$23.10, disposable wipes -$3.99, <span style=\"color: #339966;\">found $10!<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<li>None<\/li>\n<li>None<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.abyteofcommonsense.com\/?p=631\"><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">petrol for both cars -$77.96<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">fruit and veggies for the guest we had staying -$26.30<\/span><\/li>\n<li>None<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">money onto public transport cards -$20<\/span><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.abyteofcommonsense.com\/?p=634\"><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">groceries for the guest we had staying -$106.22<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">parking in the city -$47!!!!!<\/span><\/li>\n<li>none<\/li>\n<li>none<\/li>\n<li>none. <span style=\"color: #008000;\">Potential future income from homestay students.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">fish and chips -$23<\/span><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.abyteofcommonsense.com\/?p=636\">none<\/a><\/li>\n<li>?<\/li>\n<li>?<\/li>\n<li>?<\/li>\n<li>?<\/li>\n<li>?<\/li>\n<li>?<\/li>\n<li>?<\/li>\n<li>?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As part of a semi-serious New Year&#8217;s Resolution (and both of us looking for new jobs), we thought we&#8217;d attempt the\u00a0Uber Frugal Month by Mrs.&#8230;<\/p>\n<div class=\"more-link-wrapper\"><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.abyteofcommonsense.com\/?p=639\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Uber Frugal Month 2017: Days 19-26<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[9,67,59],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6nzXS-aj","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":708,"url":"http:\/\/www.abyteofcommonsense.com\/?p=708","url_meta":{"origin":639,"position":0},"title":"Uber Frugal Month 2018 - Day 5","date":"January 5, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"This is my second attempt at an Uber-Frugal Month: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4. \u00a0 Day 5: I will eat all the things! Eli says I'm crazy all the time, and that I eat out the pantry and fridge like crazy. But seriously! There are always things\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Finance&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":625,"url":"http:\/\/www.abyteofcommonsense.com\/?p=625","url_meta":{"origin":639,"position":1},"title":"Uber Frugal Month 2017: Day 2","date":"January 2, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"As part of a semi-serious New Year's Resolution (and both of us looking for new jobs), we thought we'd attempt the\u00a0Uber Frugal Month by Mrs. Frugalwoods. It's more me wanting to do this, I manage all of the finances, but\u00a0Eli is also on board. Liz's suggestion for today is: \"be\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Finance&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":722,"url":"http:\/\/www.abyteofcommonsense.com\/?p=722","url_meta":{"origin":639,"position":2},"title":"Uber Frugal Month 2018 - Day 7","date":"January 7, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"This is my second attempt at an Uber-Frugal Month:\u00a0Day 1,\u00a0Day 2,\u00a0Day 3,\u00a0Day 4,\u00a0Day 5, Day 6 \u00a0 Day 7: I will eat\u00a0everything\u00a0I buy at the grocery store (and in the veggie box I get delivered!)! I have gotten lazy. I have lost some leftovers because Eli said she would eat\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Finance&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":695,"url":"http:\/\/www.abyteofcommonsense.com\/?p=695","url_meta":{"origin":639,"position":3},"title":"Uber Frugal Month 2018 - Day 2","date":"January 2, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"This is my second attempt at an Uber Frugal Month. See Day 1 here. Liz's suggestion for today is: \"be bold and write down where you want to be in 10 years, in 20 years, in 40 years\u2026 you get the picture. And then, put that piece of paper in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Finance&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":730,"url":"http:\/\/www.abyteofcommonsense.com\/?p=730","url_meta":{"origin":639,"position":4},"title":"Uber Frugal Month 2018 - Day 10","date":"January 10, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"This is my second attempt at an Uber-Frugal Month:\u00a0Day 1,\u00a0Day 2,\u00a0Day 3,\u00a0Day 4,\u00a0Day 5, Day 6, Day 7, Day 8, Day 9 Day 10: Food is a necessity, but expensive food is not! I shop at the discount store, Aldi with a $150-$200 shop once a month. The expensive food\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Food&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":734,"url":"http:\/\/www.abyteofcommonsense.com\/?p=734","url_meta":{"origin":639,"position":5},"title":"Uber Frugal Month 2018 - Day 12","date":"January 12, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"This is my second attempt at an Uber-Frugal Month:\u00a0Day 1,\u00a0Day 2,\u00a0Day 3,\u00a0Day 4,\u00a0Day 5, Day 6, Day 7, Day 8, Day 9, Day 10, Day 11 Day 12: I will make time for the things that matter most. No more PhD! Freedom! I don't need to make (more) time for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Frugal&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.abyteofcommonsense.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.abyteofcommonsense.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.abyteofcommonsense.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.abyteofcommonsense.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.abyteofcommonsense.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=639"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.abyteofcommonsense.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":717,"href":"http:\/\/www.abyteofcommonsense.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639\/revisions\/717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.abyteofcommonsense.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.abyteofcommonsense.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.abyteofcommonsense.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}