Friday, February 3, 2017

Frugal Friday

Here's a recap of our frugal things for the week


  • Walked to the grocery store & produce stand over the weekend. Good for my sanity & for saving gas.
  • Continued to sell things on my local Facebook site. I made $20 by selling two jackets.
  • Sold two yoga blocks for $4
  • Made two batches of dinner rolls, to reduce our consumption of Costco ciabatta rolls. We apparently really like bread at our house. (I blame the kids, primarily). :-)
  • Submitted all of my expenses through work
  • No eating out
  • Used newspaper to clean our mirrors instead of paper towels
  • Used Plenti points (Rite Aid) to buy cold medicine for the kids
  • Waited for a sale on flights to buy my ticket for my girls trip at the beach in Portland. Also, planned the girls trip around the vacation house, vs meeting somewhere else. We'll likely get in lots of exercise, drink wine, and play games. We are party animals. ;)
  • Picked up free boxes from a neighbor for our move
  • A sick nanny means one less day of after school care. I juggled with a friend so I could still get work done. Savings of $30.
  • We have *just* enough for our down payment. And by that, I truly mean, *just enough*. We had another account we could have liquidated in an absolute emergency, but we were really hoping not to tap it. We weren't able to have a better prediction of our actual funds until this week, as we weren't able to trade stock for most of the month due to employer trading restrictions. At the last minute, I also realized that a $10,000 CD wouldn't be available for closing in time (two days too late!) It's left a lot of stress for the last minute, suffice it to say. To put it into context, our down payment is over $650,000, and we have an extra $90 left after we send the wire. Of course, we get paid the next day, have monthly upcoming stock, & have a plan for all of the rest of the bills. :-) 
  • Bought two summer camps at the school auction for a small discount. The camps are donated, so all of the money goes to the boys school programs. Given the state of funding in California, the money raised by the school auction goes to hiring an additional two teachers to keep class sizes down. Happy to donate & help the school

What about you? Any big frugal wins for the week? 

12 comments:

  1. That is a context I can hardly fathom, but I know costs are relative in different places. I'm just happy for you that it worked out well, and you have the home your family truly wants, to build the life you all want. I love a good silent auction. If we didn't live so far form where my daughters last choir competition was, I would have bid heavily as they had some really great gift baskets. It is a nice way to get the wider community involved in donating or buying, and usually the buying is a good deal so win all around.

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    1. Thanks. Even I can hardly fathom it, which is why I pushed so hard to move back to Seattle. Although, let's be honest, the Seattle market is almost as insane - it's just that we already had a house that we purchased 11 years ago. And, you are right - everyone is thrilled to be here & have stability & a plan for the future.

      I love the auctions for the school. I stepped up this year & am hosting a party - a flag football, pizza, movie night for 4th & 5th graders. Should be interesting! I promised myself that if we decided to stay, I'd get more involved in the local community. So, this is my first commitment.

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  2. Wow, glad you made the downpayment. I think buying real estate in the States is a whole lot different than Canada. Ours is pretty cut and dried. You make a small nonrefundable deposit at time of offer, have a specific date by to give downpayment and another specific date by which final payment is to be made, all of which exact amounts and dates are given at time of original offer. It's a good thing you are great at managing your money. Well done on a frugal week. It seems your Nanny is very unreliable. Won't it be nice when the kids are older and don't need one?

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    1. I can't describe the level of financing stress combined with . . what I'll describe as political/news stress over the past few weeks. I'll be so happy next week when all of the transfers & sales & money scrambling is over. I had to really take a hard stance with myself on the other topic, to reduce my anxiety on current events.

      The Canada market is fascinating! We had to give $80K the day we made the offer as a deposit, and then the rest of the money at closing.

      My nanny is terrible. I thought it would be a very short term need, as I was planning on quitting my job & moving to something flexible. I have committed to finding someone MUCH better, but not until after the house stuff is done. I can only handle so much stress at a time. So, we'll continue to limp along with the terrible nanny for now.

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  3. I'm hoping the size of your down payment means you bought a home of sufficient size to serve your family - I've seen those little 1,200 sq ft starter homes that a 'paltry' million will buy you up there!

    Hope you'll share a few photos of the new abode once you are all in. :-)

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    1. The price for an empty lot in our area is $2.1M. We actually looked at a lot that had, what I would only describe as an uninhabitable house on it, and they wanted $2.1M. Unfortunately, you still have to tear down the shack & then start again.

      We ended up with an older house, in good condition. But, the lot is significantly better than many others we'd seen. You can always modify the house, but you are stuck with the lot. It's so much more than we wanted to pay *understatement*, but it's a much better investment. It's around 2700 sq/ft. Actually a bit bigger than we wanted, but there were no similar options with a smaller sq ft on the market. The lack of inventory is the biggest challenge where we're at.

      Yes, will do!

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  4. I hope everything goes smoothly with the closing and your landlord finds renters quickly. I can't even fathom those types of numbers. The only houses that sell for $650,000+ where I live are gorgeous 4,000+ sq feet numbers that are either on 1-2 acre lots or waterfront. There are a handful of estates (and some farms) in the local MLS that are listed over $1,000,000. I'm not thrilled with where I live, but I honestly don't think we could come close to replicating our lifestyle in any "interesting" parts of the country.

    I have the opposite problem with bread ... it always gets stale. I just don't have bread eaters.

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    1. It's crazy. I grew up in a really small town. My parents have multiple acres & a gorgeous, secluded house. I'm guessing it's worth around $200K. So, I hear you. :-) We own a vacation house that's around 2/3 of the deposit for this house - talk about crazy.

      The challenge here is that you get paid a very significant salary, but you have to be realistic about what it can buy you. Many people forget this and assume they will have a lot of disposable income. It's possible, but you'd have to be willing to live really far away from work, and share a 1 bedroom studio.

      In terms of the bread, do you make a lot of sandwiches? What do the kids have for lunch?

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  5. So many movings and buidings! I guess it is in the air. Been there on the deposit! We were "living" on my little sewing gig because we could not buy anything for more than a month. Luckily you get paid the next day. Ours came in the form of a lease back - they had to cut a check the day of closing. Time to get settled for all of us!

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    1. Ha, same! We lived on our liquid cash for a few weeks there, because the sourcing & tracking of the money was such a hassle. The underwriters for this loan were so picky! They needed documentation on $30 bills I paid. What a waste of time.

      Yes - looking forward to getting settled! Can't wait for a bit of stability.

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  6. The housing costs in my area are very low, including waterfronts...but so are the salaries! I am amazed that your school does fundraising to hire teachers. I'm not sure if I'm more surprised it's needed, or it's allowed :) I looove those Costco ciabatta rolls!

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    1. California's education funding is pretty shabby. Of course, it means that in higher end districts, parents contribute to offset. I'm not sure of the regulations, but basically the parent donations can be used to fund other positions (i.e. art teacher, etc). The ask per family is typically around $1500/child, with the expectation that most people work for a company that matches (mine does).

      We also love those ciabatta rolls. We make all sandwiches on the pannini maker, and I've yet to find a good homemade alternative that can hold up to the pannini machine. I do have a great yeast dinner roll recipe, but it's not as good when grilled. The search continues, because the rolls are too expensive to buy every week!

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