A Frugal Girl Tries To Spend Money | Month #1
I recently gave myself a "Spend this on fun things!" budget for the first time in ages.
Why? Well, I do have some financial wiggle room now that I am done with nursing school and am actually working as a nurse.
And I'm also doing this because...part of the reason we have money is so we can use it. But diehard frugal people like me are sometimes not very good at that.
Thus, I have assigned myself to spend this money in joy-inducing ways, on things that are not strictly necessities.
You all thought $100/month (basically $25/week) was a good amount to start with, so that's what I'm going to try.
Soo, now that it's October, here's my report on September.
Week 1: $22.99
NYT Games Subscription
Interestingly, week one of this new budget coincided with the NYT Games app making The Mini (a tiny daily crossword) subscription-only.
BOO.
I like this small crossword puzzle because it makes me feel smart. Ha. I can usually solve the puzzle in under a minute unless it's one of the bigger weekend puzzles.
Normally, the app costs $49.99 a year, but they had a sale offer for $17.99. That means each Mini will cost me less than $0.05, which seems like a bargain for a daily ego boost. 😉
The other two games I play daily (Wordle and Connections) are still free to anyone.
But if that changes in the next year, I'm good to go.
Ikea Solskur Lamp
When I helped my girl move to college, I was reminded how much I love her little Ikea lamp, and I have kinda wanted one ever since.
Every Ikea here is kind of a drive (not worth it for a single lamp), so I looked on eBay.
Unfortunately, most of the lamps on eBay were as much as a new one from Ikea!
A reminder overlapping from yesterday's post: if you are interested in something, add it to your watchlist. Sometimes this will trigger a discount offer, so check your inbox over the next day or two.
I got offers on almost all the lamps I put on my list:
Then I had the idea to look on Facebook Marketplace, which can be a little hit or miss when you're looking for something specific.
But lo and behold, someone in my area was listing one for <drum roll>...only $5!
I was able to arrange same-day pickup, and ooh, this purchase is making me so happy.
I love the shape of this lamp, and the gentle glow it puts out. It will be a lovely item to have in the darker days of winter. 🙂
Week One Happiness Rating: 10/10
My NYT subscription is gonna bring me a little joy every single day, so I feel good about that purchase.
My Ikea lamp is already making me happy whenever I look at it, and I am especially happy that I was able to get one secondhand.
Overall, my first week was a roaring success.
Week Two: Fincon week
I worked Sunday and Monday, and then I was at Fincon Tuesday-Saturday.
My travel-related expenses came from my business checking account, of course.
And I think the only extras I spent money on were my Goodwill bins purchases ($4.71) and my Winco purchases ($5.50 for some clearance cinnamon gum to share with my coworker and study buddy, Brittany, some Nerds clusters to share with Katy, and some honey nut Chex mix for my flight home.)
Sooo, $10.21, and honestly, I'm not even sure if these qualify as fun money purchases.
But everything I bought did make me pretty happy, and it was fun to leave a pack of gum on Brittany's workspace (she prefers cinnamon gum to minty gum, which is why the clearance package caught my eye!)
Week Three: Sick week/work week
As soon as I got home, I caught a cold from Zoe. So, I stayed home and did not spend any money. And as soon as my cold improved, I spent the rest of the week at work (masked up.)
Sooo, I did zero fun spending.
Week Four: Work and Philly!
I worked Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, and went to Philly Thursday.
In Philly, I spent $20 on parking, $17 on my lunch, and $3.50 on my ice cream.
So, $40.50, which was solidly happiness-inducing.
Totals:
Week 1: $22.99
Week 2:$10.21
Week 3: $0
Week 4: $40.50
That adds up to $73.70 for my first month, about $26 under budget.
Sooo, I'm gonna roll that $26 over to next month and give myself $126 to spend.
Verdict: I like this experiment!
Parts of September were pretty out of the ordinary (I do not normally fly to the other side of the country), but October should be a more normal month.
We shall see what fun ways I come up with to spend my money this time! 🙂
Hmm, I guess if a person’s budget is so tight that a dollar makes a big difference then anything above “needed for survival” could be ‘fun’. Like you, I’ve been in that place. I would say the ice cream and the puzzle subscription are fun but gum for a friend, food on trip and discount water bottle aren’t, when you’re a little way away from the ‘dollar makes a difference’ position.
New cushions, bubble machine, crazy golf, books, axe throwing, weekend away are in the fun camp for me. I’m dying to try axe throwing and my bubble machine brings me great joy. As a side point, I feel good about allowing myself to enjoy things that might be considered only for children, like bubbles, because, why not?
I think it’s great that you’re spending fun money and will enjoy seeing how you progress.
@Victoria, axe throwing is a lot of fun! It was rather tiring, but not so much that it wasn't a cool experience.
@Victoria, I disagree about the gum. Treating a friend, especially surprising them, makes me happy so I would definitely put that in the fun category!
I think the problem is that despite my newfound financial wiggle room, I have still been operating in, "a dollar makes a difference" mode. So, this is an effort to stretch a little from that!
@Kristen, absolutely! I meant my comment to be potentially widening horizons rather than judging.
I don’t know if this is relevant for you but in the back of my mind was acknowledging that someone who has been strictly frugal for a long time might need external validation that little things like gum are more than acceptable and aren’t frivolous. Also, sometimes (again, not aimed at you specifically) people who have been in controlling relationships may have a lot of trauma about justifying any money spent on themselves or their family/friends.
I vividly remember as a young child my mum panicking when she thought she had lost money while we were away and what my dad would say, and my older sister saying that she didn’t need to tell him. Though thankfully she found it under the bed.
My mum’s family would send her a cheque at Christmas so she could buy presents for us without dad taking it.
I bought the same NYT subscription for my son's birthday to use precisely because of the Mini! For $18, the fun lasts all year. And I think the beauty of the Mini is that it's short. Like Wordle and Connections, a fun little diversion in the day without a major commitment. Like the Jumble or little crossword in the printed newspaper back in the day.
The lamp is so elegant and charming! Glad you found some lovely things to spend your fun money!
@mbmom11, I was very disappointed when the mini was put behind the paywall, but I refused to pay the subscription fee. Call me stubborn. Call me cheap. Both these statements are somewhat true. However, in reality, I was just spending too much time playing games each morning and this action by NYT made me take back a few minutes each day.
@Bee, Thank you for a good way to look at my own stubbornness at losing the Mini crossword. I, too, was disappointed at their move and expect the Times to take more games away. Double boo
@ErikaJS, and everyone,
If NYT takes Wordle away/makes you pay for it, there is a fantastic alternative. Same game, only better: Word Guessr. You can play as many times as you want and you can even vary how many letters in the word -- from 3 to 7 letters.
I usually go with the standard 5, but I find doing, say, 6 makes it a challenge on a whole different level. And it is FREE!!!
@ErikaJS,
I'm still a little salty that they stopped Vertex. I lived playing that NYT game. Boo.
@Liz B.,
Loved, not lived
@Fru-gal Lisa, There is also Blossom, by Merriam Webster. Very fun!
@Karen A., I like Blossom, too
@mbmom11, LA Times has a free mini puzzle.I've gone over to that one now.
@Liz B., and I miss Digits -it was a beta game from nyt for awhile... Long enough for me to get hooked! I found a couple of them online for free including archived ones so I'm enjoying those using NYT digits as my search term.
I'm glad you're indulging yourself and enjoying the results. You are the boss of you!
If you want further time sucks the NYT Spelling Bee (with a subscription it does not cut off your ability to make words), Letter Boxed, and Pips are worth trying.
I look forward to your October Fun Money report.
@K D,
I find Pips very challenging, in a good way!
Good for you!! Just reading your post lifted my spirits!! That lamp is so pretty and I'm sure you will especially enjoy it with short days ahead.
I like the idea of rolling your leftover funds to the next month. That does two things. If you see something you'd like to do or buy that costs more than $100 and there's enough money in your "Fun Fund," you can spend without guilt. More importantly, it will prevent you from feeling like you HAVE to spend that monthly allotment. I can see how a frugal mindset could lead some of us down the road of "I can't let that money go to waste," but that would defeat the purpose of spending just for fun - and it would start a bad habit. Love your IKEA lamp - and the fact that it was fun spending the frugal way!
This post makes me so happy! The NYT games app was one of the first treats that I ever got for myself. At the time it felt so...strange...to spend $40 on a nonessential. As you point out, the cost per use is quite low.
About three years ago I found myself sitting around the house alone while the rest of my family was deep into Boy Scouts, and that is what led to me learning to spend money for good. I started with local tourism, and for the first trip I felt bad about the "wasted" gas to drive an hour to go to a park. Then I started to see the joy that I was getting from these trips, and I've never looked back. Frugality got me here, and I am so grateful for it, but it would be such a disservice to have had the desire plus the financial ability to travel and to not have acted on it.
I can't wait to hear how you spend $126 for fun in October!
Agreed on the park money! If we think it's fine to spend $30 on a meal out, why is it not fine to spend $30 for a day in nature?
My husband and I also allocate $100 a month for fun/entertainment, but we are slow to spend it. We roll over most or all of it to the next month. We now have hundreds of dollars saved. It's been great. We can go out of town to visit family and not be afraid to eat out. It gives us freedom, knowing we are always in budget.
Not really the point of this post, but . . . how did Nerds gummy clusters become so ubiquitous? I had never even heard of them until a couple of years ago, and now they're everywhere. Same thing with those Kinderjoy egg things. I don't know how the candy business works, but clearly they push certain things hard sometimes.
I don't know! I first tried them when Zoe brought a bag home. They are so much better than regular Nerds.
@kristin @ going country, My coworker just walked in and put a bag of Nerds Clusters on the communal snack table!
For the Kinder Joy Eggs - I know there has been a desire to have Kinder Surprise Eggs in the US for years but because of the way the toy is packaged inside of the candy shell they are banned in the US. Kinder finally found a work around and now the public is excited to finally get the experience.
Totally awesome to have that fun money fund! I also get a lot of bang for my buck, simple pleasures fill my heart up to the brim..Like a bag of GOOD coffee to brew at home. A new pair of Vionic sandals found on ebay at very very low price! YAY!
I-will look forward to more fun money spending reports! LOVE THAT LAMP!!
The thing I love the most about this is how intentional you were about every purchase. You thought about what would bring you joy, planned for it, and then executed it the way you wanted. I find that to be really inspirational.
@Walk in the Woods, amen!
@Walk in the Woods, agree!!
I’m so glad you’re doing this! Someone else I’ve seen in the money saving space
defines frugality as saving on things you don’t care as much about so you have money for things you do and I think that is a very helpful way of thinking about it-it’s not about deprivation, it’s about ensuring you can spend in ways that bring you joy.
Also-how have I never seen that IKEA lamp? It’s lovely! I’ve been looking for a sweet, soft low light lamp for my kitchen counter and that one looks perfect!
PS~ hope night shift is kind! Hang in there!
Isn't it beautiful? I feel happy every time I turn it on!
I had thought about doing this, too, but it fell by the wayside - in other words, I forgot it. So I will start now! I'm glad you enjoyed it; enjoying spending money can be hard to do sometimes. We'll see how I do!
I like the Mini but not enough to pay for it. I have gotten a little fed up doing Connections. So now I do Wordle, Strands, and Pips. Such fun!
There are plenty of other free puzzles available out there but these three are enough for me. If they make Wordle part of the paid subscription, I'm going to be pretty annoyed though.
@Carla G,I recently found a word puzzle I really like. It's free. Called Word Shake
An FYI for all you NYT Games subscribers out there: For the past three years, I've been getting the entire online NYT, Games and Cooking included, for the introductory rate of $52/year. As I'm getting close to the end of my year, I cancel the subscription, wait a few days till I get offered the introductory rate again, and then get a new subscription. I don't know whether this ploy will work indefinitely, but we'll see. (And, of course, for folks who don't want the entire NYT, this tip won't be useful. But I do want it.)
@A. Marie,
I did this several months ago when I realized my NYT subscription was costing something like $30/month (gasp!!). I hadnt been paying attention to my credit card statement, and my DH never said anything, either. (Not blaming DH. I should have been more on top of things.) Once I cancelled, they offered the all-inclusive subscription for $1/week. Yes, please. That cancelled my separate Cooking and Games subscriptions, too. I, too, dont know how long they will keep doing this, but I will continue to take advantage of it as long as it lasts.
@A. Marie, I work for a University and have access to a free subscription. I wasn't even aware of it until a couple years ago. It's worth checking if anyone else also works for an educational institution.
@Jen, I also get mine free through my university job
Love that lamp, and I say if you can afford the mini splurges & they bring you happiness, why not!? Love the idea
This made me think of some fun money spending in September, and also how to categorize it. A lot of the fun money was spent on things we do as a family or date nights, but it's harder to spend just on myself.
One thing I did for "myself" was to suggest lunch out with a friend although I had food at home, but I would have eaten it alone.
I bought a headset for my son for his birthday, and because they were on sale I also bought one for myself.
I look forward to hearing more fun-money reports, Kristen, especially money spent on experiences!
Sounds like a successful month. The lamp is very pretty. I will usually buy something I really, really want if I can afford it, but I'm so used to finding a cheaper or free alternative, I refuse to pay for things like music, recipes or online games because there are so many free alternatives. AARP, for example, offers an extensive selection of games for free and they are available to anyone.
It dawned on me one day that the bubbles I use for my bath were scents given to me or rejected by other family members. I kept using them out of some sense of frugality? Loathed to waste? I rec’d a 20% off Bath & Body Works coupon & marched off & chose 6 fragrances of my choice (they were buy 3, get 3). It felt freeing & naughty & I loved it!!!
Philly was a work trip for scrubs? If that’s fun money, I feel kinda sad. I am happy you love your job though!
@April, it wasn't a work trip at all. Sounded like a perfectly fun adventure day with friends who happen to know each other through school / work and wanted to check out a store together in Philly.
Oh my goodness, no one should feel sad for me about that day! It was a fun adventure with my study buddies (now nurse buddies) to go explore a new city and go shopping. We went because we wanted to! 🙂
Doing the [big] NYT crossword together has become a serious family activity! We screen share it from something onto the tv and whoever is around joins in. During warm weather our evenings are usually spent outside so we don’t do it then but when my [ya] kids are home they [and their partners!] always ask if we can go in to do it LOL. Great deal on app. Fun money well spent, and it is lovely to have that breathing space!
@cherie,
That is such a cool idea!
I don't have any crossword partners anymore, now that my roommate is gone, but it sounds like family fun. I've never attempted a NYT or newspaper crossword, though.
I like the crosswords in Woman's World magazine (one of my fun purchases) and also the free online ones. USA Today and dictionary.com let you do a couple of free ones each week, then you have to subscribe. Which I will not do. But the one that lets you do as many as you want free and without subscribing is my favorite: Boatload Puzzles. I think they have something like 4,000 crossword puzzles online and you can play to your heart's content.
@cherie, we used to do the Sunday crossword at the dinner table when the kids were teenagers. My eldest still does the crossword everyday. It's not as much fun for me to do alone. I sure miss them!
@cherie, We do the same thing every Sunday - cast the puzzle from my laptop to the TV. My husband and I work on it for sure and sometimes my older daughter joins us (she's surprisingly good for at 14 year old!). It's my favorite part of the week.
I'm curious to know what the name of that lamp is. It's adorable.
It's called Solskur. Ikea does still sell it! https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/solskur-led-table-lamp-white-brass-color-50440841/
i am beyond thrilled that you bought the nyt mini puzzle. also happy that you are enjoying your fun money. am so grateful to be a part of this community. and so proud of you.
Aww, you are so sweet!
I think this is going to be a great thing for you! I love the IKEA lamp. Never saw anything like that before!!
I love that lamp!
I probably need to work on my reducing rather than adding to my fun money budget, but I wouldn't want to lose it completely!
I am so happy you rolled the extra money into next month. As a saver, I could see how easy it would be to try and save money on fun even if the point is to spend the money. A former financial planner once asked me to please start spending money on myself instead of putting everything in savings. I was a stay at home mom and it was hard to spend money on myself. She's only a former financial planner because she is also a friend who felt it best to cut business ties with my ex and I during our divorce.
I subscribed the NYT games in during Covid so that my husband and I could play the crossword together on Sundays (we cast it to our TV and try to complete it together in under and hour) and it is the one app I will gladly pay for. They are now doing a family subscription so we'll be rolling into that when my subscription gets renewed next week.
I'm excited to see what fun October brings!
It’s great to see you having fun AND/WHILE spending money!
Tomorrow a dear friend is coming over for help on a drawing, to help me with yardening (she offered!), and we decided to go to lunch at the brand new Greek restaurant in my neighborhood. Very extravagant for me to eat out, and OF COURSE I will pay!
She is a recent college grad, age 22, a friend since she first took drawing lessons from me while just in 4th grade. Next week she is entering a monastery, and we will not see one another for 3 years. This is hard for me, and I know her parents are just dying. But they can visit once a month, whereas I’m only allowed to write letters, and she can only respond to four letters per year.
I have many thoughts about this, not relevant to a frugal blog.
However, apropos to this blog, I’m thankful for frugal living which allows an occasional guilt-free extravagance, such as lunch at a fancy Greek restaurant. (WALKING DISTANCE—that’s frugal!)
@Central Calif. Artist Jana, ooh yes, red flags there with blocking communication.
@Victoria, I think, but don’t know for sure, that the blocking of communication is to get the new nuns-to-be to completely focus on the tasks at hand, which in the case of her chosen monastery is simply to pray. She told me that she thinks she needs to stay in touch with people so she knows what to pray for! More will be revealed. . . I am going to tell her that she has nothing to prove.
@Central Calif. Artist Jana, The Spiral Staircase by Karen Armstrong deals with her early life experience as a nun in an authoritarian convent. Your friend's description of the limitations sound similar. I highly recommend this, and her other, books.
@Kris, thank you. I’m a little fearful of reading it because her mind is made up and the date is set for next week. However, I will gird my loins and see if I can find the book in case her parents and I need to perform an extraction. (Gawl, am I going psycho-dramatic or what??)
@Central Calif. Artist Jana, It sounds like maybe there is fear here on your side because you are not Catholic and don't really understand the choice she is making? Which is totally natural, because cloistered life is a radical choice in our modern age, even among practicing Catholics. And of course, you will miss your friend. However, I'm sure her parents' visits--and their subsequent reports to you--will help to ease your mind, and I do hope you will support your friend as she continues to discern God's will for her life.
@kristin @ going country, thank you! You are exactly the person I was hoping to hear from about this. I am supportive of her, with only an occasional “wish you were doing something else”. We have had many conversations about it all, which convince me that she has given this many years of thought and prayer. She has spent several months there in the past two years. So, you are right, and I appreciate your words.
Yay!! Also, I love that lamp so much, I'm starting my own hunt for one. It's so pretty! And great news on the NYT Games. I play those every morning, too, through a full NYT digital subscription. I've contemplated dropping it, but I didn't want to lose my games. I didn't realize a game-only subscription was an option.
Thanks for sharing this and I'm glad the experiment is working well for you.
I hope this continues as a series. I too struggle with spending things on fun. I don't feed deprived though. for instance, It gives me more satisfaction to purchase food for a "free little pantry" than to go out to dinner myself.
I do have a sinking fund for "next new toy" so when I do want something there is already money set aside for it.
Right now, my wardrobe needs a pretty major overhaul. Maybe I'll put some fun money toward that.
Now I'm just rambling but thanks again for this post as it has gotten me thinking...
I am not familiar with most things IKEA, as the "local" store is 2hrs away. I love that lamp and it is the perfect thing to have now that our days are getting aggressively shorter.
I have a porcelain kitty lamp that glows that I turn on in the kitty's bathroom. Yes, they have their own bathroom. Robot necessary in the lined shower, their food, a big window, cat friendly wheat grass crop and stairs up to the counter for the older cats.
I, too, have a $100 fun allowance. It pays for my park permits, hiking equipment and the roll over funds my estate sale/garage sale excursions (all monies made from flipping from those sales also goes into the fund). So fun!
@Blue Gate Farmgirl, wow cats with their own bathroom. i am so jealous. hubby and i and our two kids share on bathroom. it can get really rough at times.
@Anita Isaac, one
As a former resident of Philadelphia, please, I beg you, it's Philadelphia, NOT "Philly"
Smiley face.
I was delighted that you share my passion for the various NYTimes puzzles and found such good deals (I have a subscription so all the games are included. I didn't even know any were free.)
I live for Connections. The Mini is usually so easy, once you get how they present the clues.
I also do the Tiles for visual stimulation (same ones over and over so you'd think we'd always have 100% but not.)
Have to ask: Did you not spend any money on food for meals when you were away? Even if it was only buying groceries to make meals at the home you stayed in? Maybe I missed you discussing this along the way.
Didn't you eat out?
My spend for pleasure goes for BritBox, AcornTV and MHz, which all feature streaming movies, tv series, documentaries from the UK, and around the world. Worth every penny. (Especially as I get the discounted annual rates.) Each month, I'm still spending less than it costs in RT public transportation and what even a discounted senior movie ticket costs.
The other thing in the spend on me is occasional takeout food from a restaurant that makes food I could never duplicate (If I could make it at home, I will. If not, the occasional takeout.)
I aslo purchased a 3 year subscription to a service that gives me monthly access to literally hundreds of magazines. It was discounted and I ended up saving several hundred dollars because I could not end other paid magazine subs I had. This was a real money saver.
Oh yes, I explained in a comment responding to you about the meals when you asked on Friday, and it is also in today's post. Perhaps you missed it both of those places so: it was a day trip, no lodging necessary! My friend kindly drove her car, I paid for the $20 in parking, my lunch was $17, the ice cream was $3.50, and we weren't hungry for dinner due to the late lunch.
I have never heard the Philly is considered a bad term for Philadelphia; do tell.
@Kristen, @Irena, in California San Franciscans object vehemently to “Frisco”. Folks in the Bay Area call it “The City”, as if there is only one city worth mentioning.
@Kristen, my husband was born there and worked in thein with the hospital he was born it and we always call it philly
This was such a fun and enjoyable read! Little tip on the NYT Games subscription, though - I recently found that I can get access to the NYT (including Games) via a link provided through my library! They provide a new code every day good for 24 hours that I can add into my NYT account and it provides my access for free!
@Kristin S., I was about to make the same comment. I’ve been using online library link access to several newspapers to read paywalled articles for years. I was excited when they recently added full NYT games and recipe access, because that had been restricted. Also, I have two different library accounts, one in my current city and one where most of family lives, and both have the NYT service. One is only 24 hour access, but I just realized the other is for 72, so I guess I know which one I’m going to bookmark!
https://www.lapl.org/new-york-times-digital
I've had a personal budget for over a decade now. Sometimes I spend it but a lot of times I don't.
Since you've got the NYT Games subscription you should try the Tiles game! It's super satisfying to clear the board. That was the one I was most disappointed about losing from the free version.
I love this for you and I love that you’re sharing it with us! keep it up! 🙂
I love this! You should try the Pips NYTimes game, it's like Sudoku with dominoes.
I call this "an allowance." I usually spend mine on books -- but got a beautiful turquoise necklace for $15.50 at the thrift shop that was worth much more. (I felt guilty, anyways. Husband said, 'Don't!') We are in pretty good financial shape right now, which helps -- and I did a ton of teaching/appraising in September, which brought in a lot of extra income.
Now if I could find a long leather coat for $50 or so in my size...
I really like that lamp and this post reminded me that I used to love doing Wordle. No idea why I stopped. I just did today's Wordle in four guesses.
I'm glad that you're able to do this for yourself now.
When better and I first got married, we each got 10% of net paycheck for our fun money (in addition to savings/emergency fund). Neither of us spent much of it and when we bought a house, we ceased the fun money each paycheck.
IMHO, you were extremely conservative in your fun money spending even including your Philly trip. Buying your co-worker cinnamon gum hardly qualified as being "extravagant" in my book. Good friends are hard to come by these days.
I presume you are contributing to your emergency fund. If it were me, your $26 would be in a "stretch bucket", not so much rolled into next month per se. I'm of the mindset that just because you didn't spend it doesn't mean automatically available for next time period.
YMMV.
Love this report so much and can't wait to see what October fun brings for you!
Kristen, if you like Connections you may like NYT Strands too which is free. It is a very satisfying hidden word type game that uses up all the letters and follows a daily theme.
Gosh, I love that IKEA lamp! I might need to find one of those!