All Wrapped Up — March 2


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Somehow it’s already March! At the beginning of February we introduced a giveaway challenge. So now it’s time to ask, How did you fare? Were you able to cut down on one category of your budget this month? Johnny and I focused on getting our electric bill down from $63 in January to $50 in February. And I’m very proud to say that our bill was $50.80 at the end of this month! We were more conscious about turning off lights if we weren’t in a room, and we also quit leaving the TV on and muted when we weren’t actually watching it. I used to be especially guilty of that during the day. So leave a comment and let us know how you did. We’ll announce the winner of the $25 Amazon gift card on Monday!

And as always, if you want to stay in the OFB loop, please subscribe to our RSS feed, like us on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter. Also, if you’ve got any pressing questions, post ideas, or comments, we’d love to hear them via email at general@ourfreakingbudget.com.

Tune of the Week

 

Joanna’s Johnny’s
Little Talks by Of Monsters and Men on Grooveshark England by The National on Grooveshark

Splurge of the Week

Two 32-packs of Diet Coke from Costco – Even 8 weeks into parenthood, we’re still suffering from sleep deprivation. We decided to make certain our house would never be without caffeine reinforcements. 🙂

Our Freaking Baby’s 2-Month Photo

This little girl is getting her 2-month shots on Monday, so wish us luck!

Fave Posts

  • Is tipping getting out of control? Erika at Newlyweds on a Budget discusses how tips seem to be expected for just about everything these days.
  • Yahoo’s recent decision to no longer allow telecommuting has caused quite a stir. Roo from NiceGirlNotes shares her thoughts and how she’s making work from home work for her.
  • And for a good reminder of how awesome some human beings can be, this video should warm your spirits.

Here’s to hoping we can all catch up on chores and zzz’s. Have a freaking productive weekend.

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24 Comments

  • Reply Rob March 2, 2013 at 7:16 am

    That Baby girl – cute as a button!

    Congratulations, btw, on your electricity bill reduction. Here we use time-of-day electricity rates, which encourages one to use electricity during off peak hours in order to get cheaper rates. Thus we usually do our clothes washes on weekends, when the rate is the cheapest.

    Have a great weekend, guys, and I truly hope that you can catch up a bit on your zzzz’s 🙂

    • Reply Johnny March 4, 2013 at 6:55 pm

      I love the off peak hour idea! That’s awesome. You better believe I’d wake up at 4am to start the laundry if we used that system.

  • Reply Mrs. Pop @ Planting Our Pennies March 2, 2013 at 7:38 am

    Our electric bill was down this month, too! … but only because our pool pump was broken for a week and it’s expensive to run. Personally, I would have rather paid for the electricity than $300 to an electrician to fix it all. Ah well.

    • Reply Johnny March 4, 2013 at 6:57 pm

      Dang. It sounded good at first. We always talk about owning a home with a pool some day, but I hear enough of these types of stories that I’m beginning to wonder if it’s worth it.

  • Reply Roo // NiceGirlNotes March 2, 2013 at 9:40 am

    Ooooh I’m honored to have written one of this week’s fave posts.

    Can’t believe she’s two months old already! So cute!

    • Reply Johnny March 4, 2013 at 7:01 pm

      In person, she looks like she’s eight months old. We got ourselves a biggin’. It probably doesn’t help that we feed her full chicken breasts for breakfast.

  • Reply Michelle March 2, 2013 at 11:08 am

    Awww she is just too cute!

    • Reply Johnny March 4, 2013 at 7:14 pm

      Thanks, Michelle!

  • Reply Laurie @thefrugalfarmer March 2, 2013 at 1:09 pm

    Great job on the electricity bill! Ours was down too: $38 this month – woohoo! She’s getting SO big already, your little one! Have a great weekend, guys.

    • Reply Johnny March 4, 2013 at 7:02 pm

      Awesome! Congrats. And your observation was confirmed at today’s check-up: 95th% of both height and weight!

  • Reply MomofTwoPreciousGirls March 2, 2013 at 9:35 pm

    Saved $30 on my coffee. Went to a tall, skipped one day (I TRIED!) and got 2 free through their rewards program and a car in front of me paid for one and nobody was behind me to pay I forward to!

    Thy grow so fast and your pics (and all other babies that I know that have been born) are making me ache. :0(. She is gorgeous!

    • Reply Christine March 3, 2013 at 11:43 am

      Good idea to go down a size. I am going to do that this month, less painful than cutting out a visit entirely.

    • Reply Johnny March 4, 2013 at 7:06 pm

      Nice work on the coffee! I love that you tried some different cost-savings methods. And I feel you on the toughness of skipping — don’t know what I’d do without my morning Diet Coke.

      Thanks for your comment.

  • Reply Christine March 3, 2013 at 11:42 am

    We tried to cut back on the food bill, but found ourselves at almost exactly the same amount as last month. 🙁 We’ll keep trying and hopefully less work related dining out events will happen this month, think that is what kept us from being down.

    • Reply Johnny March 4, 2013 at 7:11 pm

      The important thing is you’re aware of it and working toward it. Here’s to March!

  • Reply Michelle March 3, 2013 at 12:10 pm

    Baby girl is sooo cute! Look at those cheeks.

    • Reply Johnny March 4, 2013 at 7:13 pm

      Thanks, Michelle! She’s our little chipmunk!

  • Reply Chris March 3, 2013 at 2:33 pm

    I epically failed at meeting my budget last month, so March I am reaffirming my budget and knuckling down.

    Can guys get baby fever? I put most of the blame in you two and this blog. I guess I should find me a nice girl to settle down with and start procreating. Bah! Good job on getting that electricity bill down! It’s a tricky one.

    • Reply Johnny March 4, 2013 at 7:17 pm

      March for the win!

      Dudes are just as susceptible to baby fever. And the only prescription is more cowbell… and a lady friend. Now go find her.

  • Reply KC @ genxfinance March 4, 2013 at 2:15 am

    The chin, wow. she’s amazingly adorable.

    • Reply Johnny March 4, 2013 at 7:18 pm

      Thanks, KC. Her butt-chin means business!

  • Reply JMK March 4, 2013 at 10:15 am

    I’m going to assume that all those with electric bills under $100 live in warm places and this is your cool season where you don’t need A/C and all you’re really covering is lights, and regular appliances? If that’s the case I also realize your bill will go up substantially in the summer months when A/C is struggling to keep you comfortable.

    I live in a cold climate so the Jan-April bills cover Dec-Mar usage when we’re struggling to keep warm. We run the wood stove on weekends when we’re around to keep feeding it, and whenever possible do laundry and cooking during the off peak rate hours, but my January bill was still $761.32 and for February it was $1248.45. It’s only around $200 in the summer when we only need minimal A/C to keep comfy, but budgetting for these expensive months well in advance is part of our annual spending plan.

    • Reply Chris March 4, 2013 at 10:28 am

      Holy crap! I have an all electric house and it tends to be $160 – $250 depending on the season. It must be really cold where you are! How many square feet does that cover?

    • Reply Johnny March 4, 2013 at 7:25 pm

      That’s some expensive electric! I guess we’ve been taking our utility costs for granted!

      We’ve actually been running our heat a lot the last month. But we made a much more conscious effort of maximizing our dishwasher and laundry loads, as well as doing a better job of turning off lights and power in every room we exit. That’s where we saved.

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