Frugal Fast

[lala72]

I’m thinking of doing a frugal fast sometime this month. How many of you have done this before? I would like to see any comments.

Thanks.

[MrsPaws]

I’m not familiar with that term. What exactly is it and how is it frugal…I’m interested in ALL things frugal. 😉

[lala72]

A frugal fast is taking time off from spending extra money. It could be for a week or a month. If it’s for a week you wouldn’t spend any money at all except for bills.

You live off what’s in your fridge, freezer and pantry. It’s a great time to use up items too. For a month you could set aside a budget of say $200 for the month to spend on groceries and gas.

Any money left over can be used to pay down any debt. Again bills have to be paid and are not part of the budget for the month. I hope this clarifies the subject for you.

I’m very interested in all things frugal too.

[MrsPaws]

Hhhmmmm…I like this ‘frugal fast’ idea…thanks for letting me know what it is. May have to work on this. 😉

[Liss]

We do this every few weeks, particularly if I notice that the kids are getting Tired of fresh fruits and veggies. We tend to include salad with every lunch/dinner meal and after a few weeks, they start to.. ignore the salad. So I don’t buy ANY fruits and veggies for that week and they have to eat what’s in the pantry/freezer.
It works great for using up stored items, home-canned foods, etc and by next week, they’ll be more than ready to dive back into the salad bowl or grab some fresh fruit for snacking.
Oh, and then there’s the fact that it saves me from grocery shopping for the week

[Kimmie628]

We do this too but we call it our Cheap Week. We pick at least 1 week out of the month where we don’t buy anything at all and we use up all leftover food etc. I always seem to find opened packages of crackers in the cupboard or bags of stale chips.

I turn these into casseroles or coatings for baked fish or chops by adding a few seasonigns.

[Jesusrox]

I love this!!! I feel like I do this already. I have a set budget where since I stay at home my husband gives me 250.00 every two weeks this is for gas, food, my own savings, kids allowance, pet food, my pharmacy, and coffee.

( I like coffee) I am on week 5 and I have saved money!!! If anyone is interested in how the budget is broke down I would love to share this! I keep all receipts and use the envolope system
.
Jill

[lmitchell]

I need to try this. This might be just what I need. Granted, we are still trying to lower our food budget all while our family is growing but I think we can make this work.

We are horrible at getting extras that are not on the list or me….going to the cafeteria at work. I am the worst spender. I will admit that.

My shopping habits have gotten worse over the years. I used to never like going shopping and now its weird. At least I haven’t gotten my sister’s shoe addiction…although it might happen in the future.

I just want to be able to save up money for a down payment on a house. This frugal fasting just might do the trick. We need to save money and improve our credit (namely, mine).

[Smile7]

I love this idea! I think I like the once a month idea!!! Thanks for sharing this.

[loreann]

@lala72 236239 wrote:

I’m thinking of doing a frugal fast sometime this month. How many of you have done this before? I would like to see any comments.

Thanks.

We do this often. I like to shop one week and then spend the next week or two disposing of “leftovers,” or items in the freezer.

[IrishMoon]

About once a week to week and a half we have leftovers night. I’ll even make what we call refrigerator stew where I make a soup out of the leftovers. We’ve had some pretty interesting soups but nothing bad.

The kids even look forward to it, lol. There’s some months where we don’t have a choice but to be frugal…darn bills gang up on us more than other months.
The trick is getting creative with some of the leftovers and/or pantry items. I also keep track of what we eat for dinner each day of the month. It also helps in keeping us from getting in a food rut.

[azambada]

This sounds like a good idea I’m going to have to try this.

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