Monday, September 3, 2012

August Budget Roundup & Urban Foraging

Hubby's shot from his iphone today on our beach walk

August's Grocery Budget $400
Year to date overage prior to August $335.66

Actual $380.25 reducing year to date overage to $317.91 less $75 from clothes budget (see below) to $242.91 overage year to date.
If you are a new follower my grocery budget includes all over counter medications, grooming and cleaning products.

Coupons Used $6.46. Quite low but so much cooking from scratch on items that have no coupons so I am not at all worried about that.

Annual Clothing Budget $200
I bought two pieces of clothing to go with my job - both purchased at Value Village for $25.74
$139.79 To Go
I have done so well this year on a reduced clothing budget by shopping thrift stores. Now I am transferring out $75 of the clothing budget to reduce to grocery overage but still have $64.79 left in the clothing budget for the year.

Annual Hair Budget $400

Spent $8.95 on root lightening kit

$133.25 left to go - and I think I can now stay within this budget - drumroll please
This is not a sponsored post - just wanted to show you what I bought

****Finally I tried lightening my hair with a store bought lightening kit. I was not trying to go full blonde or anything, just lightening up the roots a bit to match the rest of the hair that bleached out from the summer and the left over lightened bits from the last time I got my hair done in the Spring. Hubby says he likes it better than the last several times the hairdresser did it as is more natural looking. Another great thing was that it only took fifteen minutes.


SUCCESS! I am now committed to only getting my hair cut at the hairdressers, not colored. This is a financial barrier that took years of being a GIGANTIC CHICKEN to overcome. Next year my hair budget is going down to $200 as a result which is still a generous budget.

Due to inflation next year I likely will increase my grocery budget by the amount I reduce the hair budget.

I have gotten exactly one tiny tomato off the plants so far, I cut it in half and shared with hubby (picture much bigger than real life). It was tasty and several more are starting to turn. Both tomato plants were supposed to be beefsteak tomato, and one is apparently not.

After a wonderful late summer day at the beach enjoying the sunshine I picked some blackberries to freeze for baking. Hubby joined in the eating when I got them home so tommorrow night he joins in the picking :) Hooray for free groceries!





3 comments:

  1. Great posts! One of my biggest downfalls is my hair- I always go to salon to get it cut and coloured which is £75 a time. However, I have reduced from monthly to 3 monthly visits by getting a more low maintenance colour.

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  2. I used to color my hair at home but in the end I had that odd lighter roots look.

    Now I go for a cut every 6 to 7 weeks (27$) and a color every 10 to 12 weeks (67$ with cut) and my hair has never looked better.

    This is super cheap compared to salons in Montreal who charge $100 for a cut and $200 for a color and cut (YIKES)

    I'm glad you found a way to color your own hair and it works!

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  3. I'm so glad that I found you! I color my own hair. Well, my husband colors it while I talk.
    And my tomatoes did not thrive at all but my neighbor's tomatoes were out of control. The tomatoes are always greener on the other side. Wait that isn't how it goes.

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