Three Fails, One Win

Towards the end of last week we realized that we had plenty of ‘money’ left and were trying to decide how we wanted to end things.  Did we want to stay frugal to the end to see just how little we could spend?  Or did we want to have a grand splurge and spend all of our money to demonstrate that treats could be a part of the plan?  We loosened the purse strings some while deciding.  We got a ham, we got pancake mix and we even bought candy.  Then we realized that we were still ‘saving money;’ we couldn’t even spend when we intended to.  Let us explain:

FAIL #1 - When Lori bought the ham last week it was the biggest ticket item she had purchased the entire time.  It was on sale, so she justified it that way.  Then after blogging about it, she realized that it wasn’t really an indulgence after all.  After allowing for waste and using the number of servings on a popular ham store website, the per serving cost of the ham is $0.77 less than the beef tips we ate early on in the challenge!

FAIL #2 – We decided to make waffles as a special treat.  John made Lori waffles when they were dating so it has become a special meal for them.  The waffle mix was on sale.  Waffles use an egg and oil even using the pancake mix requiring only water.  We even used milk to drive up the cost of the batter and still each waffle only cost $0.19 even including butter and syrup!

FAIL #3 – We thought candy would be a fine indulgence.  We went to the store to get a big candy bar (3 ounce) to split.  When we realized that the dark chocolate bars that we both like so much were only $0.97 each rather than $2.49 regular price, we got two.  So, we each got our own candy and still spent less money that we would have if we’d purchased one at full price to share.

WIN (sort of) – We went out to eat yesterday.  We used a $5 off coupon making our bill $10.52 before tip.  That is just barely over the daily SNAP rate for two people ($8.40).  While technically this does not count as SNAP because that money cannot be spent in a restaurant.  We are counting it as if we could.  It shows that even a meal out can be enjoyed every now and then if it is planned and the money has been saved.

Friday is day number 30, our last day on SNAP.  We should make it with money left on our imaginary EBT card.  We’ll give a full accounting of what we spent, what we ate in terms of dollars and what we have left both in the pantry and unspent funds.

It isn’t too late to vote on splurging since we haven’t quite been able to make that happen. -->