Broke Ass September

A friend of mine, Kelly, recently announced that she was challenging herself to a month of limited excess spending. That is, spending over and above budgeted spending like bills, rent and groceries.

Being the ultimate empty slate who is susceptible to every advertising campaign out there (ooooh, beard wax sounds cool, I should buy some for my…. Beard?! Wait, what?!) I decided that this should be a worthy challenge for me.

Helpfully, in August I went on an overseas trip on which I overspent horribly and capped it off with a pre-planned trip to Napier on the last weekend of the month which conveniently EMPTIED my bank account. My next pay day is Wednesday 10 September, 10 days into this challenge.

Kelly dubbed this challenge Broke Ass September and it now has a twitter hashtag #BASept

Now following a day-by-day break down of my interesting life and spending habits. /end sarcasm

Monday: Having done the grocery shopping last week I have soy milk and cereal for work breakfasts, along with some stewed apple and boysenberry that I sealed in jars, and after making a large fish pie and a large lasagne, I also have lunches for the week. 

I’m minuting a big meeting over the lunch break today, so lunch is on work! Bonus, one of my frozen lunches saved for tomorrow instead.

I make it through Monday without raiding the snack box at work (my biggest downfall at $2 a pop) and refrain from getting a hot chocolate on the coffee run as well as missing the soft drink at lunch time.

Wow, seems I might be cutting back on a bit of sugar as well! Straight home after work and cooked dinner, Moroccan lamb chickpea dish with quinoa and mushrooms and plain yoghurt for my flatmate and I rediscovered my (full) liquor cabinet and had a gin & soda with dinner instead of wine or beer.

Week 1, Day 1: Total spend - $0

Tuesday: Breakfast again at work, had about 5 cups of tea to keep me going (okay, maybe not cutting back on that much sugar!) ate leftovers from Dinner on Sunday, a yummy chicken dish with brown rice and veges… must get the flatmate to make that again!

Avoided the snack box again, unfortunately I also avoided my weekly knitting group as I knew that would mean buying a beer and probably chips as well. Straight home after work to knit at home and the flatmate is cooking for me tonight..

Week 1, Day 2: Total spend - $0

Wednesday: Skipped breakfast (naughty), survived on tea again all morning and devoured a large slice of lasagne for lunch. Trying to drink more water (ew) as I think I’m a little dehydrated without drinking my usual soft drinks and juices.

Friend coming over for dinner tonight so I have a menu planned based on things I have at home. Such a great hostess, when she asked if she could bring anything I simply said anything you want to drink! One downside of not spending is not being able to buy a bottle of wine to go with dinner – to be fair, if I hadn’t drunk the one I bought in the last grocery shop on Sunday night, I would’ve had one!

I was reading about Campbell Live and the KidsCan charity drive this week and text donated $3 to the appeal as I didn’t know where I could drop some cans of baked beans/spaghetti off on Friday (go donate, they do great stuff!).

Southern baked chicken thighs with fried polenta, mushroom sauce and apple coleslaw was delicious. No leftovers tonight, but plenty of things in the freezer for lunches.

Week 1, Day 3: Total spend - $3 donation

Thursday: Ate fruit for breakfast at work, flat out and lots of tea! Had lasagne again for lunch (yum!) and avoided buying anything again (it’s not so bad, but it is getting boring!)

Home again after work, flatmate heading out so I ate cheese, drank gin and knitted. I can adult well.

Week 1, Day 4: Total spend - $0

Friday: Got through the day fine, cereal for breakfast, one cup of tea as I ran out of soy milk (so stupid as I have 4 containers at home) and left over chickpea dish from Monday night for lunch.

Went round to friends house for the evening, we were heading off to babysit for her sister so when she suggested we eat something before we went I made a throw together meal from her fridge (Vogel’s with relish, caramelised onions, halloumi and lemon peas).

Stopped at the supermarket on the way to buy some beer – I had budgeted $15 for this and spent $13.99 on a four pack of Epic Lager.

Week 1, Day 5: Total spend - $13.99

Saturday: Lovely sleep in! Made crepes with banana and maple syrup for breakfast and spent the day doing bits and pieces around my friend’s house and van. 

As a thanks for my help my friend bought me some beer so I cooked her dinner again. Made our own coating for chicken drumsticks, honeyed carrots, pureed peas and a mushroom sauce. 

Only thing purchased was the mushrooms and again, these were supplied by my friend. 

Week 1, Day 6: Total spend - $0

Sunday: Another great sleep in! Unheard of!! Made another brunch of Eggs ala Lyall Bay – Vogel’s toast, Lewis Road Creamery butter, caramelised onions, fried mushrooms, a perfectly poached egg and hollandaise sauce. All of the eggy products were made using eggs from my friend’s free-range backyard chickens! Double green points.

After a trip to the recycle shop at the landfill to dispose of some cardboard and recycle a few things we stopped at the supermarket and I bought a bottle of Sprig & Fern Pilsner for $10.97. 

Headed back to my friends to chill for the afternoon, we spent time in the sun snacking on crackers and I removed the labels from, cleaned and rinsed 30 crate beer bottles for our adventures in brewing beer.

We will be staring our first batch next weekend, hopefully in about a month I’ll be able to cut down on the money I spend on beer! After tidying up and a bit more relaxing I got a ride home, had a nice long bath and an early night (whoops, I skipped dinner!)

Week 1, Day 7: Total spend - $10.97

Week 1 Total spend: $27.96 – an average of $3.99 per day!