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Archive for July, 2011

Wasting expensive food.

July 29th, 2011 at 10:58 pm

My problem is a lot of expensive food waste because menu planning is a challenge.

We have a baby and our ONLY chance to go out is when my or DH's mom decide to come over and watch him. They can never say when it will be. Whenever they don't feel tired, or MIL does not have clients and have an opening... Always at the last moment. And we have to take that chance for our mental sanity.

And since we buy fresh unprocessed foods, it can't "keep". Raw meat, poultry fresh veggies/herbs. Most is organic/ripe and from small specialized companies (mainstream brands don't really produce in a way that is really healthy). So everything expires fast and if I don't eat it on the day it was planned for, it will go bad Frown

But if we were to hire a babysitter for 2-3 hours it would add $50-60 to the cost of our meal out. Which would also be not so good. Plus, we did not yet find anyone we trust with our little one. So a lot of stuff gets waisted and every time I throw it out I feel quite bad. I am also super paranoid about food and won't eat any even potentially "borderline" things.

Cashback rewards... what do you designate it for?

July 29th, 2011 at 05:15 pm

I am almost up to $300 in rewards on my Discover (and I already cashed in like $200 in gift cards this year) and close to $300 on my visa. I wonder what this "special" money that don't come from regular income should be earmarked for.

What do you guys do with your rewards money?

My detailed budget categories. August will be

July 28th, 2011 at 07:20 pm

I want to be extremely detailed. Here is my detailed list.
Of course, I may have cheated somewhat - we bought a bunch of stuff end of this month (new baby car seat, gates, baby-proofing things, clothing for my return to work... ect.) And this will be our last month before huge childcare expences hit.) But still, I will try my best in August and TRACK EVERYTHING!

I went back to work last week. So hopefully I will now stop spending like a drunken sailor.
So here it is (let me know if you have any suggestions).

HOUSING
mortgage
maintenance (inc. utilities)
assessment (if any)

TRANSPORTATION
gas
tolls
Metronorth
public transport
parking
car maintenance
car payment
car insurance

FOOD
groceries
food at work
eating out

MEDICAL


HOUSEHOLD
clothing
grooming
supplies (drugstore stuff)
Goods (Décor, utensils, etc)
gifts
charity
tips

BABY
Childcare
Clothing
Food
supplies
other

ENTERTAINMENT (data plans and fun subscriptions go here)
me personal
DH personal
common(cable, internet, netflix, activities, etc.)
vacation and getaways

DEBT REPAYMENT
SallieMae


SAVINGS
pension me
TSP DH
EF
ROTH me
ROTH DH
Baby college fund

9 categories in all. So it will be easy to make a pie chart at the end of the month.