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I recently came across the $27.40 Rule. Basically, if you save $27.40 every day, you would have saved $10,001 in one year. That’s a lot of money! I thought this would be a fun challenge to try for Make It Do May. What do the frugal accomplishments that I prioritize each week save me? Is the effort worth it? I was about to find out!
The rule says to save $27.40 each day, which would total $191.80 for the week. Since every day is different and my productivity ebbs and flows, I decided to focus on the weekly number. My goal: for every frugal accomplishment I complete, I’ll tally the money saved and see if I can do enough to total $191.80. So for example:
- if I wanted this item but put it back on the shelf: I’ll have saved $x
- I could have purchased an item at the grocery store, but made it at home with ingredients I already have instead: I saved $x
- if I bought something online (a need not a want!) but found a coupon code: I saved $x
- I put the A/C thermostat up a degree: I’ll have saved approximately $x
See below for more details, but to sum up the week: I saved $423 and even made $72 reselling unneeded items from around the house. Those little, seemingly insignificant frugal tasks do add up!
Hoping to document 52 weeks of good things!
Five Good Things…
- Our last First Communion in the family. // Our littlest guy received his First Communion on Mother’s Day – what a blessing!
- Standardized testing is done. // I hate this homeschooling requirement and think it’s a terrible way to see a child’s progress, but we do what we have to do to stay in the county’s good graces. The kids did great.
- “Look at those grays! I love it!” // Words spoken to me in complete love and sincerity from my husband. He was about to leave for work and I walked him to his car. The early morning sunlight must have hit my bedhead just so, highlighting those pesky reminders of my aging body. His words were so happy and loving that I couldn’t help but smile. I can’t wait to grow old with that man.
- Decluttering all the things! // I’m on a roll and nothing is safe, ha! This week, I tackled a lot of old paperwork, let go of a few books and started on my master closet. The schoolroom and kids’ clothes are next!
- A Make It Do May update. // We’ve reached the midpoint of the month so time to check in on our progress. As of today, we’ve paid off 11.8% of the debt! A satisfactory start.
Frugal Accomplishments //
- shredded more junk mail for the chickens nesting boxes (I avoided having to buy a pack of pine shavings, saving me $8.49)
- added to my compost pile, adding new material and turning the entire mixture (will be saving approximately $0.85 in organic garden soil)
- made tallow from beef fat in the freezer (a 14oz. jar retails for $20)
- ripped out (and then stapled together to make a DIY notepad) the unused pages of a half-used notebook (saved about $0.50)
- air-dried six loads of laundry on drying racks (saved approximately $2.70)
- wanted to pick up a special sauce at the grocery store, but decided to use what we already had at home instead (saved $4.69)
- made two loaves of banana bread using six overripe bananas (avoided wasting $0.81 in fruit)
- made sure my husband had a lunch so he wouldn’t have to eat out at work (saved $30)
- “dry cleaned” my son’s First Communion suit at home with these Woolite cloths (saved $11)
- reused a big padded envelope, a box and packing material to mail resale orders (saved $7)
- made vanilla granola (makes the equivalent of two bags, saving $10.98)
- used a free sample Tide pod to wash a load of laundry (saved $0.40)
- thought about buying eggs from a farmer friend but ultimately decided to make do with what we had (saved $5.75)
- made a big batch of marinara sauce in the slow cooker (saved about $20)
- avoided a full grocery store trip, only buying a few essentials like milk, freezer bags and coffee (saved $300)
- sold a pair of shorts, a DVD, a mousetrap contraption, a video game, two Christmas ornaments, a wool sweater (in May!), a purse with two matching zipper pouches and a Lego set and after fees, made $72.48!
This Week in the Liturgical Year //
May 15 was the Optional Memorial of St. Isidore the Farmer.
To Read: St. Isidore the Farmer and Rogation Days
To Pray: Novena to St. Isidore
Reading //
- When Innovation Runs Out: The Vindication of Maintenance from Joshua Pauling at Front Porch Republic // “Vinsel and Russell offer some additional questions and principles for practicing this maintenance mindset as an ‘antidote to the Innovation Delusion’ (158). They suggest adopting ‘a new habit when you walk around, or think about your work, your community, and your personal life: Ask yourself, What is good here? And how can I maintain that goodness? How can I preserve and extend that which is valuable?'” Definitely adding the book featured to my TBR.
- Why I’ll Always Send Flowers for a Miscarriage from Grace Emily Stark at Verily // “I now know that was exactly why those flowers we received in the wake of our miscarriage were such a perfect gift—they were a recognition, and therefore a validation, of our very real grief. We had after all experienced the death of our child, and those flowers spoke to that reality in a way that nothing else seemed to. As simple a gesture as they may have seemed by those who sent them, those flowers were the recognition of the traumatic card we’d been dealt, and the permission that recognition gave me to grieve started me on the path to eventual healing. Even if I didn’t realize it myself at the time.”
- It Started With My Forearms from Going Godward // “To be clear, I don’t think the physical aging process should rob women of their whimsy; if anything she should lean hard into the enchanted parts of herself, the creative parts, and live. I think the creativity that can come after youth has the potential to be deeper and richer than anything that might have been produced by a 20 year old.”
- Internet Overexposure Syndrome from Katherine Dee at Comment // Thought-provoking.
New Additions to The List //
- On Wealth and Poverty by St. John Chrysostom
- A Light in the Heavens: Great Encyclical Letters Of Pope Leo XIII
- The Innovation Delusion: How Our Obsession with the New Has Disrupted the Work That Matters Most by Lee Vinsel and Andrew L. Russell
Watching/Listening //
- Lesson 3 of the Who is God? How Can We Know Him? course from Aquinas 101 at the Thomistic Institute (I’m watching these as I read the corresponding section in Aquinas’s Shorter Summa – very helpful!)
- Lectures 1-3 of The Life and Teachings of St. Augustine from The Pursuit of Wisdom at Ave Maria University
- Episode 1 of The Commentaries: The Confessions of St. Augustine (I’ll be listening to these as I work through the Confessions.)
from the archives…
WEEK TWENTY 2024 // The Stars Always Shine
May 2 was the Memorial of St. Athanasius, Bishop and Doctor of the Church.
