NO/LOW Spend January - Week Two

Wow, where has the weekend gone? I planned to post about my No/Low Spend January - Week Two yesterday but instead I took a trip down Memory Lane. Remember that place? I spent most of Saturday rearranging furniture, cleaning, going through boxes of papers and old photos and shedding many tears. Why? Because I am creating a ROOM OF MY OWN! More on that this week - that was just a teaser!

Oh , here's my version of a trailer:

I also planned to get caught up on everyone's posts, so sorry I neglected y'all yesterday but it was a very cathartic experience and now YOU are at the top of my list!

Let's get to the numbers shall we? I had some amazing No Spend Days this week and then I had a little splurge - nothing earthshaking. But, before I get going there's another number I'm celebrating this week! On my sidebar I'm counting down the days until retirement and the number slipped below 900 this week!! As of this minute I have 896 days left until retirement - woo hoo!

Alright, no more delays....(I started the week with $70.00 cash in my wallet and as you may or may not remember I was going to challenge myself to live on that $70.00 for misc spending and entertainment for the rest of the month!) That is so NOT going to succeed as today I have only $20 left and 16 days left in January. However, due to not spending all of my food and gas budget over the first two weeks of January and having my hydro and natural gas bills coming in under budget that $20 has increased. Let's see what I spent $50 on...

• Sat. January 7 - $7.00 movie ticket at the Hyland to see "Martha Marcy May Marlene" starring the younger sister of the Olsen twins. She was fantastic but the ending really left us hanging, and I mean REALLY hanging!  ($3.00 to the Sealed Pot)
• Sunday - No Spend: I did purchase a coffee at Starbucks but using a  gift card.
• Monday - No Spend
• Tuesday - No Spend
• Wednesday - No Spend
• Thursday - No Spend

I don't think I've ever had 5 No Spend days in a row before EVER IN MY LIFE!!

• Friday, January 13: $20.00 at the Wine and Food Show and yes I behaved myself pretty well. Considering how much I ate there last year and all of the desserts I sampled I can hardly believe I had such willpower this year. I had 4 two ounce samples of red wine and tried to stick to fish and veggies for my food choices: sauteed mushrooms in some sort of reduction, tomato bisque with shrimp garnish, escargot, an organic veggie wrap, jerk chicken (free from Jambalaya:), a special type of organic radish (I think the fellow called it watermelon radish? - they were cut in large slices and pink inside not white- no bitter taste) and then I tried the most interesting food of my night - a cheesecake made from squash, red pepper and a couple other ingredients with a piece of crispy fried bacon stuck into it - delicious! Lastly I had one scoop of organic vanilla icecream with a dollop of apple butter and when I say it was to die for I mean IT WAS TO DIE FOR!!  I also donated $5.00 at work for a gift basket for a staff member whose father died just before Christmas and put $4.00 in my Sealed Pot.
• Saturday, January 14: I spent $3.00 for some mutsu apples at the Farmer's Market which really should come out of the food budget but it'll all work out in the end...I hope! I also purchased a newspaper for $3.00 and a Timmy's coffee for $1.80.  I returned some wine bottles to the Beer Store and received $2.80 for my troubles. Together with the change in my wallet I was able to put an even $5.00 in my Sealed Pot. Michael and I did go out for a couple hours in the evening to a bar called Cowboys for a friend's birthday but he paid the cover charge and the cost of my LOW-CAL beer (Miller's Chill - it has lime added to it and is only 70 calories and is very yummy:) Thanks Michael!

So I am left with only $20.00 in my wallet. However, with the added $$ from my over-estimated bills and savings on gas and food I have an extra $155 in my account so in total I have $175 to cover misc and entertainment expenses until the end of January. AND THAT IS AFTER SETTING ASIDE $300 TO COVER THE COST OF "PIPE" RE the INSTALLATION OF NEW HOT WATER TANK!! I AM ECSTATIC!! So although I won't reach my NO/LOW Spend January goal of increasing my EF to $2000 I WAS able to absorb an extra $500 of FLOOD costs without taking a cent from my EF. Already I see this month as a HUGE success as long as Mr. Murphy doesn't pay me another visit that is.....shhhhhhhhhhh! 

My daughter will be paying me her share of the car insurance this week ($50.00) so that will put my wallet back up to $70.  I am comfortable with that for the next week or so. I bought groceries ($108.62 left in the food budget til Jan. 31st) and put in $40 worth of gas ($60 left in the gas budget). So all in all I call the 2nd week of No/Low Spend January a rousing success! And my Sealed Pot increased by $12!

How did your second week go???

Posts to come: Sunday Night Chit Chat, The 10 Pound Challenge: Monday's weigh-in and biking update, Vision Board, A Room of My Own