New Month - New Challenge. The “Reduce a Bill” Challenge Continues…
November 1, 2007 – 12:24 pmWelcome to Working For Financial Freedom. If this is your first visit please read about this blog. You can keep updated by subscribing by email or to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
Last month four other bloggers joined me in Working For Financial Freedom’s first ever “Reduce a Bill” challenge. Some vowed to reduce their eating out bill, their grocery bill or just not spend at all on certain days.
This month we continue the challenge but with a bit of a twist. Well, not really a huge twist, but a request. I tried to think of a creative change to the challenge or even a giveaway at the end but there were 2 problems.
1. I didn’t want to make the challenge so hard that it frustrated people or no one was able to finish the challenge. The goal is simply to save money, not wear ourselves out trying to do it. So I’m keeping it the same (except for ya’ll that are doing the same challenge you did last month)
2. This blog has a budget of $0 so a giveaway is not available right now. (although if you are a company that has a product you’d like to contribute towards the challenge I’d be more than happy to give it away for you.)
With that said, the only twist I could think of is that if you are continuing the same challenge you did last month, try to increase your savings. Did you have 10 no spend days last month? Try for 11 this month. Did you save $5 on your grocery bill? Try to save $10 in November.
If you are new to the challenge- it’s simple to join. Choose a bill that you would like to reduce. Some ideas:
- Cancel an extra feature on your phone line.
- Turn down the thermostat and wear layers to keep warm.
- Skip the drive-through at Starbucks and make your coffee at home.
- Or?
After you have picked your challenge leave a comment here with your choice. I’ll post updates once a week so come back and let us know how you are doing.
Who Can Participate?
Anyone! You don’t need to have a blog to join in.
What Am I Doing?
This month I challenge myself to spend less at the grocery store. I currently budget $400 a month for our family of 5 (this includes food, 19 gallons of milk a month, organic meat, diapers, cleaning products, paper towels etc…). I want to reduce my weekly bill by at least $5 giving me a savings of $20. Not much, but that’s $240 in one year. Thanksgiving is also this month and the added expense of the turkey dinner will force me to plan carefully and be extra vigilant in shopping the sales.
What will I do with the money saved?
Every week I will transfer the money saved towards the next debt on the chopping block - the truck payment.
I can’t wait to hear what you are doing!
19 Responses to “New Month - New Challenge. The “Reduce a Bill” Challenge Continues…”
I’m going to continue to work on my grocery bill. I just totalled up the numbers, and I was waaaaay over on groceries last month, but I was stocking up, so that was why.
I’ll put up a post about it in the morning.
By Lynnae @ Being Frugal on Nov 1, 2007
I’d like to join you on that challenge.For us it would be the grocery bill. We have allocated $640 for the month but, I’d like to reduce it.
By JW Thornhill on Nov 1, 2007
Lynnae,
Glad you are joining it again this month! Once you get your stockpile built up (takes about 12 weeks) you’ll see your grocery bill go way down.
Oh-and if you miss out on a deal, don’t worry. They come in cycles, so you’ll see good deals repeat
JW,
Glad you are going to join us!
By Momof3 on Nov 1, 2007
I’m ready for a new month of the Reduce A Bill Challenge. I’m sticking with the 10 No Spend Days, but I’m upping the anti by limiting days I dine out to no more than 3 a week that I pay for. I should do better, but this is a heavy meeting month.
By Mary on Nov 2, 2007
I am also in again this month, I will try for 11 no spend days which I can foresee as not a problem since we are strapped yet again this month.
Well, by the time we get this debt out of the way at least dh and I will be used to the no spend days lol :).
By Heather on Nov 2, 2007
I was able to lower my electricity bill by $50 last month. My goal as the month of November will be colder is to keep that savings as I doubt I could get it much lower. I also would like to save on my grocery budget…trying to keep it at $500 which is challenge when feeding 10 people (I do child care and provide breakfast, lunch and two snacks each day for them).
By Julia on Nov 2, 2007
I’m in the process of getting my grocery bill down as much as possible. Over the last month I’ve picked a few things that were really driving it up - shrimp, cheese, packaged things - and either reduced how much I used them, or cut them out totally. now I’m working on more ways to get it down even further - bulk shopping, dried foods instead of canned, and so on.
By Jenn on Nov 2, 2007
I have stared a challange for myself before seeing this blog of not buying water at work to drink (saving me $3.20 per 750ml) I worked it out to be a qauter of my hour of wages (close too) and I drink on hot days around 5 that is huge (please remember I live in Australia)…..so
I want to reduce my phone bill down by $100.00 for this month.
Thank you for the challange.
By shay on Nov 3, 2007
Hi there, I found your website via Being Frugal. I’d love to join in this challenge. My grocery budget for November is $160 and I’d love to see myself only spend $150.
By Cat on Nov 4, 2007
I have a Misc section in my budget that I usually alot $350 a month for. My dining out, starbucks run, atm withdrawals all come from this fund. I would like to get this below $300 a month.
By SingleGuyMoney on Nov 24, 2007
My challenge this month was to cut back on our dining-out expenses and I’m happy to report that so far we’ve been very successful! Our bugeted allowance for Dining is $75.00. To date, we’ve spent $46.65.
By Elizabeth on Nov 27, 2007
My reduce a bill is at the grocery. We used to be out of control when we went grocery shopping. We never took a list and would just throw whatever looked good in the cart. We didn’t plan out meals, so alot of what we bought went bad or just sat on the shelf. About a year I ago, I started planning meals and clipping coupons, eliminating red meat from our diet, and cutting back on our portions. Instead of a whole sandwich, we split one. Instead of two giant baked potatoes, we fix one and split it. I will still bake two, but one is for the next day’s lunches. It is just DH and myself. We prepare our own dogfood for our two mutts. That adds to our bill, but is still cheaper than buying a commercial brand. I can buy brown rice in bulk and got a great deal at GFS…100 lbs of Uncle Ben’s Brown Rice for 40 dollars. We use it in the dog food. We have also eliminated bacon, sausage, processed cheese food, sugar, soft drinks, and bottled water. We bought a Britta pitcher and filter our tap water. This saves us nearly 12 dollars a week. We were not drinking a full pot of coffee in the morning, so now we make only half a pot and this saves by not throwing out the leftovers each morning. Alsom we quit buying coffeemate and now just use a spash of vanilla soy milk. We buy oatmeal in bulk instead of the individual packets and actually cook it in a pan on the stove. Fresh fruit is a staple in our house, but being only two of us ….an entire bag of apples would spoil before we could eat them. They are still cheaper in bulk, so now when I get them home, I peel 3/4 of them, quarter, add a little butter, cinnamon, nutmeg and splenda, water, and cook til fork tender. These are great over vanilla yogurt or with a dollop of creme fresh. They also freeze well in baggies and can be zapped in the microwave for a minute or two when you are ready for a quick dessert. We do put out a sizeable garden each year and I keep herbs growing year round in the kitchen. We chop up our red and green bell peppers and freeze them. Have your priced what red and yellow peppers cost at the store this time of year?? Astronomical!! Zucchini is grated and placed in cup proportions in freezer bags. We add zucchini to spaghetti sauce and make fritters, muffins, and bread with it. I make my own chicken stock twice a month and freeze for soups and stews. We batch cook on Sundays for lunches the coming week and this keeps us from spending approx 60 dollars for the two of us to eat at work or a restaurant.
I have a friend that buys cut flowers two or three times a week at Whole Foods. That is a luxury for sure. I choose to force bulbs indoors and that gives me color during the cold winter months.
The month of January, my goal is to shave another 50 dollars off of our grocery bill and we will do this by reducing our use of paper towels, fabric softener (we tear a sheet in two and get two loads per sheet)shampoo(we pour half into an empty bottle and add water to both), toothpaste,using vinegar and water for cleaning windows, reusing baggies and foil, and only running the dishwaser when it is full. We even make our own drain cleaner with vinegar, salt and baking soda.
Good Luck to everyone in their endeavors.
By Jean on Jan 5, 2008