Bossy's Poverty Party

Bossy is having a Poverty Party...what is it? Well, as the world is coming to an end, so-to-speak, it's a good time for us to reevaluate our own situations and come up with positive solutions for our financial futures. A communal accountability group, as well as a place to share and discuss our ideas and solutions.


What are we doing? Well as we will be in student loan hock until Evie is old and gray, thanks to me, we are doing everything we can to make sure that and the house are the only things we have to pay for; a lofty goal to be sure.

As some of you know, we had a major house/closet/garage purge earlier this year, where I sold a great deal of stuff on Craigslist...close to $2000 worth of stuff to be exact.

We are back to the ole' spending freeze; only buying what we absolutely need. No movies, no coffee, no toys, no treats of any kind, except for special, pre-arranged occasions.

We are making meals/menus out of what we already have on hand. We go through the freezer and pantry, and make a menu for the upcoming week, out of the food/supplies we already have in stock. Our grocery bill has been reduced dramatically this way. It also helps with the "what are we having for dinner?" issue, when we already have a list to choose from. We don't have a specific daily menu, as-in, "we are having lasagna on Monday," since our work schedules are both pretty crazy and we never quite know who will be home first, but we at least know from the list what our options are, and what meat to defrost etc.

I also have a mini-fridge at school and keep staple food in my desk/fridge (string cheese, rice cakes, peanut butter, etc.) for the days I forget to bring a lunch from home; I never buy a lunch.

We only use one car on the weekends, and I carpool with a co-worker at least two days a week (my teaching schedule is pretty varied, so it's hard to be consistent.)

Our next goal is to become coupon-clippers, although it seems pretty daunting, we are assured it can be very cost-effective.

As we continue to try to come up with ways to save, I'll be posting here on our blog. I also have a link to Bossy's poverty party on my website, to the right.