Adventures in Frugality, Part 3: Surprising Results

Because I haven’t yet managed to find any more sources of income we’re still trying to cut the weekly budget to make up for my still impending loss of a job. What amazes me is how well we’ve managed to do. Six months ago we took out $240 each week to cover food, gas and sundries. We’ve been cutting back for a while but now we’re down $180 a week. Despite the rising costs of food and gas we’re doing quite well. In fact I often find that I have more money in my pocket at the end of the week than I did when we were taking out more cash.


Last week I had enough left over at the end of the week to take Maura out to lunch on Friday, which she had off from school. We went to Windy City Eats, our favorite local hot dog stand. The hot dogs are Chicago style and the best I’ve had for a long time, served with a smile and no ketchup. Lunch there always makes Maura’s day and the prices are very reasonable. [Local readers in search of a good hot dog can find Windy City Eats at 407 Middle Street, Weymouth, MA and on the web at www.windycityeats.com.]

I suspect the reason we’ve been doing so well is that we’ve been paying attention to what we spend our money on. We’ve been saving money on our food bills by buying meat in larger amounts when it’s cheap and eating more vegetarian meals. I’m still driving as little as possible and once my current job ends I’ll be taking even fewer trips.

There is one disclaimer on our weekly spending numbers. They do not include the cost of most of our vegetables. We get those from a CSA and pay for them in advance so they don’t come out of the weekly budget. We paid $130 for eight weeks of fresh, mostly locally grown produce. The quality is better than what we’d buy in the supermarket and we support local farmers. We’re still spending less than $200 a week. We were getting our vegetables from a CSA six months ago, too, so the amount we've cut from our budget is real.