Woohoo, DBOOTHE! Good for you!
I’m Still spending too much on groceries for 2 adults & 2 dogs, so I need to do more meal-planning and stick to my shopping list to cut down on the second half of the month.
Today I had to buy a new car battery (boo) BUT my dr. gave me samples for a new prescription medicine that would have cost way more than the battery (yay)! It’s so wonderful when things work out like that.
keep up the good work…we’re halfway through the challenge. ?
For your furnace filter subscription (honestly I have never heard of this) have you considered getting the kind where you cut it to fit and then wash it every 3 months? Maybe put a reminder on the cell phone calendar? Or for a reminder attach a label to the furnace of near it and write when it was changed? My husband has the dollar razor blade club too, he manages that-that’s pretty cheap.
So good to hear you are using reusable K cups, that’s a savings. Since we found a really good deal on the K cups and are in process of using them, what I do is recycle them in a different way. The lid and contents are compostable &/or recyclable, I use the actual plastic cup (if it has 1) to start seedlings for spring planting. If you do this, please label the cups with a magic marker or a label of some kind.
I never heard of reusable K cups! Our coffee maker comes with a little basket filter that you can use to make one cup at a time, so I do that. It’s kind of a pain to rinse out though.
what would you do with a whole lot of lemons, besides make lemonade? ? The ones on the tree in our backyard got ripe all at the same time. So far I’ve made lemon bars, lemon cookies, and lemon chicken. Any other suggestions? The desserts were delicious but full of sugar, and we’re trying to lose weight. My daughter suggested lemon curd, but I don’t think I’d use it.
You are so lucky to have all those lemons! We live in Maryland so our citrus trees are in pots and we have to bring them to over winter. I will give considerable thought to what you can do with lots of lemons. You can cut the sugar by using Splenda, my husband is diabetic and that’s all we use for cooking, desserts, home canning, etc.
Do your K cups look like mini basketball hoops with a mesh basket with coffee inside? If so, what you can do is let them dry out after use, take a small pair of scissors and cut the basket free just where it joins to the hard rim. The basket & contents can go to compost or the garden, recycle the ring, no rinsing needed.
Reusable K cups have to be dumped and rinsed out like your little basket, but it’s cheaper than buying K cups.
Lemon curd is delicious, best on scones or muffins. You might want to try it. Also, why not Google lemon recipes, lemon recipes with stevia, lemon-pepper recipes are popular. Good luck.
We are lucky, REDCATCEC! We live in Southern California, although it has gotten down to freezing at night here. Using Splenda is a good idea, although I’ve had mixed results using it for baking. Probably buying the baking mix kind that has sugar in it would be better than trying to guesstimate how much straight Splenda to use, which is what I usually do. ?
The individual coffee cup filter looks kind of like that but isn’t meant to be recycled. It’s OK—if I get tired of using it, I breakdown and buy some k-cups. I try to avoid them because they get expensive.
Thanks DBOOTHE!
If you would like another idea for your lemons, you can make Lemoncello:
Thanks, REDCATCEC! I’ve never had limoncella but it sure sounds tasty!
REDCATCEC, I would LOVE having a washable filter, but honestly I’ve never heard of it and don’t know where to get one. I suppose I COULD GOOGLE it! (after the January no spend challenge of course). I could wash it when I change my water pitcher filter which already has that little calendar on it.
Good idea reusing the plastic K-cup for seedlings. If only I were a gardener. I have a brown thumb and kill everything by either forgetting about it or killing it with kindness…overwatering, overfertilizing, overfeeding.
AnnMarieL, To save money on your groceries, make sure you use whatever you have already in the house, then expound to include those items in your meal plans. It’s amazing how much you can save when you use up all that you have and nothing expires. Win-Win.
I’ve been using GoodRx for a few years before I had Medicare and still use sometimes. It saves a lot. Starting this month, January, I did just get Medicare Plan D for prescription coverage so maybe I won’t need to use GoodRx.
As for the No Spend, I’ve backslid a bit this week with the buying food I didn’t cook myself. But, last week I did great. I had a plan. I made food that I ate off for about 4 days (mac, 1.5 lb ground beef, tomatoes w/chili peppers, good seasonings (my Dad used to call it goulash), and I had purchased deli meat and toasted sourdough bread for sandwiches for my lunch. I was proud of that, AND… then I slid this week. Back on the horse next week
Same as you, slid back a little after discussing only eat out once a week. Joined BJ’s with a 3 month free trial, they did their best to convince us to open up our wallet and buy a membership, yes, you can cancel & get your money back, but it is still money flowing out. Bought lunch meat and caught them jacking up the price $1/lb, had to get a manager to fix it. They blamed it on lazy staff. We really need to eat what is already here.
I believe it’s a good habit that we are more aware of cash flowing out.
We have our slips, but I’m much more conscious of the waste…both in throwing away food that does not get eaten (partly due to eating out) and wasting money eating out when there is perfectly good food at home to eat. I picked it out…no one forced it on me. 
Using up what we have in the house before buying more food is a great suggestion. Still spending too much on groceries.
I definitely “backslid” a bit. But this month has been such a revelation! I had an amount in mind to have left in the bank at the third week of the month…and it’s twice that! Now there’s the peace of mind that comes with knowing we CAN pay our higher 2020 bills without dipping into savings. So worth it!
ANNMARIE L.
So happy for your success. Groceries are too much. One way to save on groceries is to make double and freeze half. It isn’t quite as expensive as making the meal twice and there’s that extra meal in the freezer when you’re extra busy and can just pop it in the oven. Best wishes for continued success.
I had pretty good success with not eating out and using up what I had in the refrigerator and pantry. Some unexpected expenses used up the money I saved, but they would have happened anyway so I’m still ahead of where I would have been had I not done this challenge.
Congratulations to everyone who attempted and/or completed the Jan. No Spend Challenge! It was a real eye-opener for me and now I’m looking at my finances in a new way. Hopefully by this time next year I’ll be debt free!!
Best of luck AnnMarie L! Thanks for swapping saving ideas and accomplishments and making the challenge fun. I bought a few things this morning that that I had held off on last month, but really when I reconsidered everything in my cart, they were needs that I could just wait on during the challenge, so great lesson.
Continued success going forward.
Thanks DBOOTHE! Good job on not spending. I wish you continued success too.
