Welcome to the second installment of my Weekly Spending Update where I catalog the spending I charge to my credit card each week. Check out the Weekly Spending Update 5/19-25 to see my first post in this series. I have been tracking my monthly expense diligently for the past 3 months or so but I wanted to get a better understanding of my weekly spending habits. I place almost every charge on my credit card so this will give me a better look to see where my money goes each week. As for this particular week, I kept spending pretty low and made one big purchase, which I am extremely excited about, that greatly increased the total spending amount.
Total Spending: $446.03
- $27.86 – Gas
- $17.12 Kroger – all for meals this week
- $25.33 – Dinner with friends
- $25.72 – Dinner with friends and lunch the next day from leftovers
- $350.00 – Camp FI ticket
Meals: Cheesy Chicken Tortilla Bake AND Orange Glazed Chicken with Roasted Parmesan Cauliflower
- Total Meal Spending: $17.12
- Total per meal per person: $2.85
I was remarkably impressed with how these meals turned out this week. Pictures don’t do the them justice. Most of the fanciness from the Mealime pictures comes from the staging and background. I was more interested in how the meals, themselves, turned out. I would certainly cook both meals again in a heartbeat, especially the tortilla bake – cheese, cheese and more cheese!! This was super simple and the innards of the tortilla bake could be paired with some rice and beans to make a complete meal out of themselves. While the roasted parmesan cauliflower could be paired with any sort of meat, or if you’re looking for a meatless option you could prepare them as cauliflower steaks and serve it as the main portion of the meal. For both meals, all I really had to pick up from the store was the produce and meat. Everything else came from my pantry and fridge.
As for the rest of my spending this week, I kept it low but was frivolous by going out to eat twice this week. However, I got two meals out of one of my restaurant experiences to save just a little bit of money for the next day. Going out to eat with my friends is still a place where I could be more conscious of my spending. I have been trying to introduce them to the FIRE lifestyle but I don’t want to overload anyone with too much information too quickly. This lifestyle and daily expense tracking aren’t for everyone and it may have to be a more gradual change for some people. Hopefully, they will see how I am trying to become more frugal with my spending and my habits may rub off on them. There are easy ways to still hang out with friends that doesn’t cost money and we have definitely had those nights as well, but every once in a while, we’ll go out for dinner to catch up.
Now for the purchase I am most excited: my Camp FI ticket! Once I found the ChooseFI podcast, they mentioned Camp Mustache and then more recently Camp FI. I did some research on these camps and I knew I had to go to one eventually. From my understanding, the camps have a fairly intimate setting where some of the experts in the FIRE community come together and talk about FIRE. I am beyond excited for Camp FI Southeast Week 1 from January 3-6, 2020!!! Be on the lookout FAR, FAR in the future for a post on my experience. For something a little closer to the present, check in next week to see my spending and what I’ll be cooking!
Thanks!
Steven | Rx for FIRE
Rx for FIRE 