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Home > Free Inspection, Cat Litter Flop, and Other Stuff

Free Inspection, Cat Litter Flop, and Other Stuff

January 6th, 2017 at 02:10 pm

Day 6 of UFM is getting finances in order. While I do feel like I currently have a system that works for me, there is so much room for improvement that I'd like to do. It seems overwhelming to do at this time. Two things I did implement are Snafu's suggestion to pay cash for everything and tracking everything spent. It'll take some manipulation to get all the payments in an appropriate order to align with our paychecks, but I did start immediately paying off anything charged to the cc's with money in our accounts. I will continue to do this and pay minimums on all accounts until we have $1000 in Savings and can live off of last month's income. We used to live off last month's income, but fell behind with the house and DH's job change resulting in less income. Currently, we pay the mortgage from last month's income, and everything else gets paid from income within the month. It'll take a few months to get to this point and will hinder my debt payoff, but I think it's an important first step if I want to get our finances back on track.

As for the spending yesterday, DH's inspection was free, so the only spending was the cat litter. I failed on two accounts with that expense. First, I also needed dog food, so that will be another spending day, but I'm trying to put it off and will get it when another expense comes up. We're running pretty low though and feed 2 large dogs, so I suspect I will have to cave early next week. I plan to root through ads/do some planning, so I can go ahead and get some of the party foodstuffs with the $50 allotted to groceries for next week. The other flop associated with the cat litter is that I had a $5 PetSmart coupon. It expired on the 2nd which is a bummer because had I planned ahead, I could have used it taking ~30% off the $16 price. I'm terrible about using those PetSmart coupons...

Back to the UFM, our other money saving strategies are going well. We've been sticking to our 5 minute showers and kept the house at 60. It's been challenging, but it's also become kind of a game. DH gets one 10 minute shower at some point this month for his birthday. I've had multiple layers on at all times this week. We have an electric fireplace space heater, but it makes a disturbing noise when on, so we can't run it. I have to look into troubleshooting because if we had it, the basement would be much more bearable.

The last bit of news is that the hot tub is being looked at today. The cost for the visit is $150 which I've already budgeted. DH's dad had connected it, but when we filled it and tried to turn it on, it didn't work. My FIL rechecked the power and everything is good there, so it seems to be an issue with the unit itself. Really hoping we just missed something simple (like the time we tried filling it without plugging the drain plug). It would stink to have gotten a hot tub that's broken. Since it had already been drained, we took them at their word when they said it still ran fine. Their reasoning for getting rid of it was that they were moving to a townhouse and the backyard was small and afforded little privacy. I haven't yet discussed it with DH, but I'm thinking if it's anything more than $200 to get it up and running, then we'll just wait on it.

6 Responses to “Free Inspection, Cat Litter Flop, and Other Stuff”

  1. scottish girl Says:
    1483712310

    I'm in the habit of using cash for food shopping now and I'm definetly noticing the difference. I think it makes me think about the purchase more, rather than just handing over my card.

  2. creditcardfree Says:
    1483712828

    I would guess running an electric fireplace would be expensive as a form of heat. Although heating one room is easier than a whole house.

  3. Debt-free by Thir-ty Says:
    1483715761

    CCF, it's not one of those huge ones. It's small (like a foot and a half tall). It actually puts out a good amount of heat, and when we ran it in our old place, the price difference in electricity was negligible. My brother gave us a very small ceramic heater that DH uses in the office when he's playing his video games. The only reason we don't use that in the basement is that it has to sit on a flat surface to run, and we don't have any coffee table or anything that would put it at a good height to actually warm us up. For now, we use a small heated throw. I also have a heated blanket, but DD2 chewed a hole in it and pulled out a wire like a week after we got it. The wire wasn't fully broken, so we tried electrical tape, but it just doesn't heat up like it used too. I'm hoping towards the end of the winter season that we can invest in one or two more heated blankets or small space heaters. With 3 floors and 10ish rooms (several of which are completely empty), it's a lot cheaper to keep the heat low and spend small amounts of electricity heating up our immediate vicinity.

  4. My English Castle Says:
    1483723499

    Man, it's cold here too. My DH is working in the basement with a wooly hat on.

  5. snafu Says:
    1483737976

    Would you find it helpful to put Pet Smart, 30% coupon expiry date n your cell phone's calendar? It's incredibly cold here and government has added a huge 'Carbon Tax' to all heat producing sources and vehicle operation so we're all trying to hold the line on our budget plan. Did you know that most heat escapes through your head? We wear small toques [knit hats] and fingerless gloves to stay toasty warm in doors. In spring you might check insulation factor in your home to verify it meets code. A lot of heat is ls through leakage around doors and windows. You Tube explains how to check this out. If you have a major issue, at end of season the 'stick on, shrink wrap, will be on sale for modest price. It's reusable if handles with care. It's something like minus 24 here just now!

  6. FrugalTexan75 Says:
    1484015611

    Does PetSmart have the refillable litter? That's what I get at Petco. $9 for 30 lbs.

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