Fearlessly Frugal: Day Eighteen

Frist, I want to thank everyone who commented on my last post. I don't know why I let her words bother me but you're right, she shouldn't have said those things to me. I guess it's times like these that remind you of your true friends.

Second, how is everyone liking the new layout? I just need to figure out how I can post a giveaway on my main page and have it link to my giveaway page too. And I want to try and get my headers to be a bigger font.

Now, on to my Fearlessly Frugal update. The Outdoor Art Festival didn't really turn out to be free. I mean, come on, is anything free these days? It cost us $10 to park, we ate at the festival which was only about $9, and then we bought some dip mix (I know that was a want but it gives me something to do with leftover sour cream, which we always seem to have). They're supposed to be having a Dog Days Festival at the end of this month and I'm not sure if we're going to go. I don't want to have to pay for parking again.

We also bought a couple things on gift cards that fell into the "want" category, but we didn't spend any of our cash except for $1.50. Then last night I made a big purchase...I spent $60 on Norton Anti-virus for my computer. It's been almost a year since my subscription expired so I should have done it a long time ago. The good thing is that the software can be downloaded on up to three computers so I'm going to put it on my laptop as well. I think it's been about 5 years since that computer was updated! That purchase was made on a credit card and we'll probably use some of that extra $90 we earned to pay for it.

Some of you asked whether I'll keep up with this after the month is up and what I plan to do with the money. To be honest, this is probably just going to last a month because it's quite boring to go without spending but I do have a plan for the future. Remember our $300 of miscellaneous spending? Well I decided that when we get that money at the beginning of the month I'm going to automatically deduct $220 to put into the following envelopes:

School (for books and school fees)- $40
Car Maintenance- $60
Oso (for toys, vet appointments, flea meds, grooming, etc)- $40
Hair Appointments- $40 ($20 for each of us)
Vacation- $40

The remaining $80 will be our discretionary spending for clothes, eating out, movies, stuff for the home, etc. While that may not sound like a lot, keep in mind that Brandon and I get our own "allowance" of $20 per week to spend on individual stuff as well as gas money. The $80 is for things that we will both use and enjoy. Still, large purchases like furniture and electronics will have to be planned out well in advance and will probably require some money from savings. At the end of this month, whatever cash we have left in the Baby Fund will be equally distributed into the envelopes mentioned above to give us a head start.

So that's our plan! Only 13 more days to go.