{"id":35435,"date":"2018-03-01T16:56:10","date_gmt":"2018-03-02T00:56:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/?p=35435"},"modified":"2018-03-01T17:07:40","modified_gmt":"2018-03-02T01:07:40","slug":"frugal-march","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/2018\/03\/01\/frugal-march\/","title":{"rendered":"Frugal March"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/FrugalGrannySlogan.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/FrugalGrannySlogan.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-35436\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/FrugalGrannySlogan.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/FrugalGrannySlogan-450x300.jpg 450w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Second annual Frugal March begins.<\/p>\n<p>Last March, I set <a href=\"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/2017\/03\/31\/month-of-frugality-comes-to-an-end\/\" target=\"_blank\">a goal of spending no more than $500 all month<\/a>. A couple unexpected expenses came up, which I cheated and put on credit. But not counting those, I slid in roughly at goal.<\/p>\n<p>Last summer, car payments entered the picture. They&#8217;re lowish as vehicle payments go, but &#8230; ugh. Between those and almost constant construction expenses, large or small, a $500 month seems long ago, far away, and downright impossible. I&#8217;ve been blessed by angels since then, though, and gotten through both car and construction with the help of friends.<\/p>\n<p>Now late winter brings a break in house projects. Things are quiet. March is a good time to take a deep breath and get back to basics.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m not going to set a specific goal for this month. Just going to avoid optional spending, approach necessary expenses consciously, and get creative when I need something.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/FrugalTropicThunder.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/FrugalTropicThunder.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"512\" height=\"348\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-35437\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/FrugalTropicThunder.jpg 512w, https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/FrugalTropicThunder-450x306.jpg 450w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 512px) 100vw, 512px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Do I ever go full retail when a thrift store is nearby? Well, yes, I do. They&#8217;re very unreasonable about bargaining for discounts at the grocery store and the gas station. But this month you can expect some reports from me about how food from those #10 cans tastes and whether pinto beans have a decent shelf life. It&#8217;s also time to see how last winter&#8217;s stored-and-stabilized generator gas goes in the Kia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Second annual Frugal March begins. Last March, I set a goal of spending no more than $500 all month. A couple unexpected expenses came up, which I cheated and put on credit. But not counting those, I slid in roughly at goal. Last summer, car payments entered the picture. They&#8217;re lowish as vehicle payments go, but &#8230; ugh. Between those and almost constant construction expenses, large or small, a $500 month seems long ago, far away, and downright impossible. I&#8217;ve been blessed by angels since then, though, and gotten through both car and construction with the help of friends. Now&#8230;<\/p>\n<div class=\"more-link-wrapper\"><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/2018\/03\/01\/frugal-march\/\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Frugal March<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,20,27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35435","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mind-and-spirit","category-money","category-preparedness","ratio-natural","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35435","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35435"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35435\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35448,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35435\/revisions\/35448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}