This blog is to showcase steals, thrills, & mega deals in the shopping world. By this, I don't mean snatching up a Coach bag off E-bay for a couple hundred bones...I mean snatching up EVERYDAY needs (& sometimes wants) for pennies on the dollar...ie- children's socks for $1, cream of mushroom soup for 50 cents, Old Navy skirts for 99 cents...got it? Feel free to pass any of YOUR fab finds my way & I'll post them, giving credit to you of course. Happy Savings!

Thursday, February 5, 2009

(to be said in a low, deep, echo-ing voice) The Weekend BONUS Challenge!!!

Okay Frugal Friends. You are awesome! I'm glad that organizing your spices will help you save $, and will help you rid yourselves of shelved goods that expired in 1984...eh-hem, Ms. Gray.

Are you behind a few points, THIS IS YOUR CHANCE TO CATCH UP! You can decide how many points you will earn this weekend. How is this little Valentine's Day miracle possible, you ask?


ANSWER:
The name of this challenge is the "Give it up Already" challenge.

1-Think of something you're hooked on that you are willing to give up for the WHOLE weekend. By the whole weekend, I mean 48 consecutive hours of absence.



You can decide when to start and stop: Friday 8am - Sunday 8am? Friday 10pm - Sunday 10pm?............you choose whatever 48 hour time period will work best for you.

2- At the end of the 48 hour time period, figure out how much money you saved by giving up that 1 thing.

3- Add 1 point for EVERY DOLLAR you saved by not using that product or service. The max amount of points you can earn is 15...we need to keep the points under some sort of control.




Example:
I will be giving up paper towels. I use WAY too many for tasks that could easily be remedied with a sponge or towel.
I will NOT use A SINGLE paper towel from Friday 5:00pm - Sunday 5:00pm.
I will save roughly $1.5o over the 48 hour time slot.
I will earn 1 and a half points.

Here are some suggestions:
-Dare I start with the Black Acid (AKA Diet Coke), Ms. Carter?
-a beauty product
-gum
-gasoline
-heater
-fore-go the gym & run instead
-the tv
-salt

Remember, this is a good opportunity to not only catch up in points, but to realize that life REALLY CAN go on without some of the things we rely on so heavily.


Feel free to ask any questions in a comment or via email: hay.atwd@gmail.com

Best of Luck!

13 comments:

Danielle said...

I was totally think paper towels before scrolling down and seeing that's what you are doing too!
Also quick question, are we just giving up one thing or can we do multiple things?

Hayley said...

danielle & others with the same quetsion) i say let's just give up 1 thing this weekend...after all, we still have the whole month of feb to cut back. good question!

good luck!
hayley

Ashley said...

Brutal--I can't give up the acid this weekend--I'm not in a good enough place to do that. :) But I will try to kill two birds with one stone by giving up sugary cereal. I hit the Lucky $1.50 sale and have been going to town on Fruitloops ever since. I need to lay off for my pocketbook and my girlish figure. Granted, given the sale I won't earn that many points, but it'll be good for me nonetheless. I figure I could easily eat a box in 48 hours, so that should earn me 3 points if I succeed.

Lindsay said...

Whoa, this is a tough one. I'm gonna give up paying tithing. Just kidding! Really, I'm giving up diapers (for Cooper, of course). No, no...kidding again. Maybe we'll give up white elephant gifts for VDay parties? Mwahahaha! Hmmm...do I dare say going out to dinner??? There, I said it. We will not go out to dinner this weekend...I'm including Friday in that. This is a big deal, folks. We never eat out on weekdays, but when Friday and Saturday roll around it is not uncommon for us to eat out Friday night AND all three meals on Saturday. I know we're going to breakfast tomorrow (using a gift certificate), so I can't include all meals, sorry. I may have to save that for the grand finale weekend. We should still save a bundle though...I'm going for all 15 points here. Wish me luck...I haven't told my husband what I've committed us to. And with that preposition I will end this monster comment.

Rachelle said...

Wow! You're making this hard!

After much thought I've decided to give up eating out as well. Every Saturday we go out for lunch. My meal usually cost about $4.50, the total for my girls and me is about $18. But you can just count the cost for me, if you want, for the points.

Rachelle said...

Come to think of it we get pizza on the weekend too. I guess I'd better go see what I have in the pantry. Here's hoping for strength over the next 48 hours. I'll let you know how we did!

Lindsey said...

Sorry for the lack of creativity, but I have spent some time thinking and have come to the conclusion that the only way I will get the full points is if I give up eating out as well. I thought about my ice cream habit, but it would have to be about a weeks worth to make the $7.50 (sad that i eat that much in a week). Well, it looks like i will be spend a little extra time in my kitchen tomorrow...nuts!

Danielle said...

I did the paper towel thing this weekend and it was totally do-able! So I'm giving up on paper towels all together.
But for point wise I think I might go with the crowd and say eating out.
Let me know if this counts or not because we don't do it every weekend but we do eat out for EVERY family members Birthday. This weekend was my Birthday and we were planning on eating out but I took the challenge...
So we made homemade lasagna, salad, and garlic bread.
The meal I cooked cost 9.80 (some ingredients I already had). Usually a birthday dinner cost about $25. So we save around $15.20. At first I was dreading cooking on my birthday, for my birthday. But my husband wanted to help and so it was a lot of fun cooking together. We haven't done that since our dating years! It actually made for a much enjoyable birthday.
Thanks!
yellyjohnsen@yahoo.com

Kristina said...

I gave up buying my treats at the grocery store on Fri/Sat... usually I can go through about 2 big bags of Hershey's kisses... so that is about $6 ($3 a bag)...=12 points?

Rachelle said...

Well, I did it! It wasn't easy, but I did it. Not going out for lunch wasn't so hard, it was not getting pizza for dinner that made it difficult. 48 hours, done and done!

Lindsay said...

Mission accomplished! Friday night was especially hard because Pat actually got home early enough that we could have gone out to eat without a fussy baby...but, o-well. We saved some bucks and probably some calories by eating at home.

Jennikunz said...

I honestly gave up cable tv.. actually my whole family did... and it's been since monday the 2nd!
so lets see... 77 bucks a month 30 days in a month.... what??! I only saved $5.14, I'm turning it back on!

Hayley said...

jen,

i agree...cable's a hard one. we justify cable by paying for that & dvr rather than going out to movies or renting movies a lot. it's all about the trade-off.

so i'll award you 10.5 pts for the weekend...right?