Lightening Online

July has been a kind of strange month for grocery shopping. Between my challenge not to shop in the first week, being away for 5 days (so didn’t do a regular shop that week either) and then sending DH to do a small shop for me last week, I only did 1 “normal” grocery shop.

The upside to not shopping has been we only spent $302.29 for the month of July. That was including the stock up shop I did at Gaganis Bros while we were away. Had I not done the Gaganis Bros shop, the total spend would have only been $219.19 for the month. I’m kind of surprised with this and yet also really happy. One of the things I didn’t want to do when I started my $100 a week average spend challenge was to simply cut costs by using up what I had on hand. I wanted to be truly cutting our spending. I guess to get to the end of the 6 months and be able to cope through a month that way was proof to me that I was still keeping plenty of food on hand.

The downside to not shopping many times would have to be a gradually depleting stock of food. Not so much in the pantry but definitely noticable in the freezer. In fact, for the first time in my memory, we ran out of frozen peas! I usually keep several packets of frozen peas on hand so this is quite an unusual occurence. Of course, if DH had remembered to buy some last week when I asked him to, we wouldn’t have run out. LOL. But that’s okay. I do plan to use the $97.71 surplus from this months goal of $400 to restock the freezer as opportunities arise. So in reality my spending will still end up being around the $400 mark for the month.

When I was thinking about making this my topic for today, I wasn’t due to shop until tomorrow. As things turned out I ended up shopping today (DH needed to go into town anyway) but given July is all but finished and the shop was really due tomorrow, I’m thinking I’ll still count todays shop as an August shop.

It was an interesting experience doing the grocery shop today. I wanted to make sure I did a fairly decent shop rather than just a small, fill-in shop given the lack of shopping that had happened in recent weeks. I guess having not done much shopping during July, the difference in prices were particularly noticable to me. I actually felt ill as I went around the supermarket. Everything seems to have gone up in price!!! And even though it’s only Tuesday, many of the specials I was hoping to get weren’t available.

I know they were predicting fruit and vegetable prices to increase but to actually see it was an interesting experience (to be honest I was really hoping they’d turn out to be wrong). $5.50 for a lettuce! $5.50 for a cauliflower. $9.99 kg for broccoli. $4.59 kg for mandarines. $7.99 kg for bananas Aaaaarhhhhh!!! Other than the bananas, we’re talking IN SEASON fruit and veg here. Boy do I wish my vegetable garden was producing a little better. At least with the price of lettuces at the moment, I know I’m getting good savings from the lettuces I’m growing (although they are almost at the end of their life now).

I guess if this keeps up, the $75 we spent on a trailer load of compost today will be money well invested. One thing is for sure, my $100 challenge just got more challenging!!!

Up until about 3 years ago when I started on my journey toward a more frugal life, I had never heard of the concept of a price book. I thought I was doing a reasonable job of our grocery spending by shopping the specials, buying some items in generic brands and being careful not to buy the more expensive cuts of meat (at least some of the time). If you’ve been reading my blog for a while you may well remember my shock when I discovered that I’m saving around $3000 a year by changing a few of my habits since that time. While I wasn’t spending an outrageous amount on groceries even then, what I have learnt since is that in most areas there is always ways to improve and things that can be learnt when it comes to frugality.

Using a price book was one of the significant changes I made. A price book can take any form you like really. What it basically is, is a tool to help you determine how good a special price may be. That way you can decide if you want to do a big stock up or not. I was quite surprised at how much difference there can be between a regular special and a good special. I find I do remember some general pricings on some items, but to remember on everything I buy is almost impossible. I’ve also found writing things down has helped me remember. I think because I shop in a number of different supermarkets depending on where I am at the time - the price book concept is particularly useful for me.

I use a small spiral bound notebook for my price book. I just divided it up into sections such as pantry, freezer, fruit & veg, meat, non food. Then some pages I devote solely to a single item and others I might group things together (for instance I have a page titled “spreads” for items like Vegemite, Peanut Butter etc). I include the date, name of the shop, item, size and price. For some things (like Milo where there are several sizes) I’ll work out a unit price (such as how much per kg).

Some people go as far as to work out how often things come on special so they know how many of a particular item to buy to get them through to next time the special comes around. I haven’t bothered with this as there are a lot of specials that I can’t take advantage of due to my location. As with everything I think you have to use ideas in a way that works for you and weigh up the whole time vs savings vs hassle factor etc etc in what you choose to do.

If I can make one suggestion though - keep it simple. I have seen people spend hours on something like this and never really getting around to putting it to good use. A few notes scribbled on a piece of scrap paper that you actually make use of is going to be a much better investment than having the fanciest price book that never gets used. Keep it small too so that it’s always in your handbag - I would never remember to take mine with me to the shops each time.

I have to admit that my original price book is now old, tattered and many of the prices are out of date. A few months ago I decided to begin a new one but it does take a while to get the entries built up.

Recently I decided to check out Gaganis Bros in Adelaide as I’d heard they were a good source of cheaper grocery items - particularly things like dried beans and lentils (which I have been struggling to find at times in supermarkets). I had some prices with me and those showed that indeed the prices were lower than my regular supermarket prices. I then made the assumption that all their prices would be lower than supermarket prices. As I have since discovered, that isn’t quite so. For instance, I picked up some tomato puree for 90c a bottle. I *knew* that I usually paid over $1 so was confident it was a good price. Turned out to be an excellent price as I paid $10.80 for 12 bottles whereas my cheapest price elsewhere would have been $19.08. Almost half price. Given the tomato puree seemed a great price, I assumed perhaps tomato paste was. I didn’t have the price with me that I usually pay for tomato paste so grabbed one large tin. That cost me $2.25 and when I went back through past receipts - I usually pay $2.06 for the equivalent amount from Coles. Not a huge difference but enough to highlight to me the fact that *knowing* your prices can lead to additional savings. And that you can’t just assume that 1 place is going to be cheaper across the board.

Not that you could really say that my cupboard (or fridge or freezer) were bare, despite going almost 2 weeks without shopping. In fact, I was quite surprised at how easy the challenge ended up being. I obviously have a tendency to keep plenty of food on hand without even realising it.

In the end the only one who really noticed my lack of shopping was my 3 year old when the apples ran out. He quite happily eats oranges but he LOVES his apples and usually eats a couple a day. He ate the last apple on Sunday morning so Monday ended up being the only day he had to go without an apple. Despite being allowed to take pocket money and buy lollies at the supermarket yesterday, I think mum buying apples was the highlight of his day.

I was expecting to spend around $100 to stock up again yesterday so was quite pleased when the total came to just under $80. DH made a comment on how much food I came home with. I even bought a 900g tin of milo and a packet of Nutra Grain (school holiday treat) within that total. Plus a few meals of meat. It did help that both potatoes and oranges were on special this week. Nearly half of what I spent was on fruit and veg though. I do look forward to the day when we can produce at least some of these from our own yard. It’s a pity I’ve had such a struggle with growing broccoli (although fingers crossed I’m finally winning the war against the bugs) as it was $9.99 kg at the supermarket. I bought one floret and that cost me $3.05. I probably should have looked at the frozen broccoli but we much prefer it fresh.

To be quite honest I’m actually scratching my head a little as to why my grocery bill seems to be staying low so easily at the moment. I keep kind of waiting for the axe to fall where I suddenly have no choice but to spend more money in order to “catch up”. I don’t really know… we still seem to have a lot of food on hand. We do need cereal and some meat and will soon need to buy up on some spreads like Vegemite and Promite.

Oh well, it doesn’t actually matter. It’s a good problem to have I guess. I just don’t like the unexpected. So I don’t want to be thinking everything is travelling along fine, only to discover I’ve been kidding myself. LOL.

We do have a separate take away budget which does help with the grocery budget. At the moment we allow $100 a month which usually buys us 3-4 meals depending on how we use it. And we all get pocket money (DH and I included) so I don’t have quite the same *need* to buy treats with the groceries (although I still do from time to time).

This month will actually be easier too as we’ll be away for a few days and that is going to come out of a different budget. I find it more relaxing if I don’t have to think too much about budgets when we go away. So at the end of each year, a certain percentage of any money in the budget that hasn’t been spent gets set aside as “blow money” for the following year - we’ll use some of that for our few days away.

So, 2 shopping weeks to go this month and about $300 left in the kitty if I’m to keep below $400 for the month. I’m feeling pretty confident about making it. Can’t wait until August though - that should be a fun month as there are 5 shopping weeks (since my regular shopping day is Wednesday, I count the number of shopping weeks by how many Wednesdays in the month) even though the number of days in August is the same as the number of days in July.

Various circumstances have altered my week so that I haven’t yet done a grocery shop. I don’t have any other *need* to go into town other than to buy food so I’ve given myself the challenge to see if I can make it until next Tuesday without needing any groceries. Since I shopped Wednesday last week, that will be just under the fortnight between grocery shops.

Today is the kids last day of school for the term which gives me a little bit of breathing space in terms of finding suitable things for their lunchboxes. It does provide a little bit of an added challenge though in the sense that they tend to eat more during the holidays - particularly in between meals.

Here’s a bit of a run-down on potential problem areas:

FRUIT - Obviously this is something I would usually buy fresh each week. We have run out of bananas but do have 3 apples, 1 pear and about 2kg oranges in the fridge. Also some frozen stewed pear, a tin of pears and a tin of apples. So we *should* be able to manage on what we have left for the next 4 days. One thing I don’t want to do during this challenge is make compromises to our health.

VEGETABLES - I have almost enough potatoes for 3 main meals so should be able to stretch to that. Monday night on the menu is tuna patties and I have 1 meal left of Deb potato which I usually use for tuna patties (that way I don’t have to make the mashed potato in advanced). I have enough yellow veg with several kg’s of carrots, a whole butternut pumpkin and 1 sweet potato. Also have 1/2 red cabbage and about 3kg of frozen peas. So that should get us through until Tuesday. Of course, my next challenge will be that next week I’ll have to stock up fully rather than adding to what I have on hand - fingers crossed lots of fruit and veg is on special locally next week.

BREAKFAST - Could pose a challenge. We are nearly out of most cereals. I have just made up some more muesli so that will help for DH, DS and myself. The kids often have toast in the school holidays but there is only 3 loaves of bread left so not sure how we’ll go there. Was thinking I’d make up a batch of crumpets but flour is getting low so I may have to choose between baking snacks or making crumpets. Need to investigate a little further here.

BREAD - 3 loaves of white bread left in the freezer. Do have a batch of Soy & Linseed in the breadmaker now. Hoping DH will eat that and leave the white bread for the kids. We tend to go through about 1 loaf a day so just need to make that stretch out a little. If I can come up with lunches that don’t involve bread, that will help.

SNACKS - I had been planning a bit of a bake up for the school holidays as the kids are constantly looking for something to eat. Being low on flour is a bit of a challenge. Do have plenty of ingredients to make yoghurt so will need to make sure I’m on top of that given it takes about a day by the time it sets and then chills. Also have plenty of popping corn. It’s really only a few days so we should be able to get by.

There is definitely no shortage of food in this house. No danger of anyone going hungry. I think the biggest challenge will be making sure everyone still eats a fairly healthy diet and being a little more creative than usual where they are a few gaps in what we’re used to eating for particular meals.

Actually, I’m quite looking forward to it. Don’t mind a bit of a challenge. The best bit is going to be the head start we’ll get on the grocery spending challenge for the month!

Well I spent $18.77 on groceries today. Wasn’t in need of much after a stock up last week (plus some free pumpkin we were kindly given on Sunday). That brings my total spend for the month of June to $399.46. How’s that for just scraping in under $400! My average spend so far this year is now $99.93 per week.

What will July bring? Dunno yet. Only 4 Wednesdays again in July so if I want to continue my challenge I need to keep spending under $400 again. School Holidays may be a challenge as the kids often eat more during the holidays than they do at school. I don’t mind a challenge though so we’ll see how we go.

I did it! I did it! I did it! Okay, I should probably not get *too* excited just yet as I do have 1 more shopping day left before the end of the month.

Yesterday I spent a grand total of $133.85 which leaves me $19.31 to spend next week. I should only need apples and a couple of loaves of bread so we’ll see what happens. AND I bought everything on my list except for glad wrap (not sure how I missed that one but it wasn’t urgent - just replacing my spare one). I also managed to get a few extras that weren’t on my list.

I was really pleased with the amount of fruit and veg I was able to buy. Sometimes I do well at the fruit and veg place down there and sometimes the specials are not so good. I spent $23.75 and got 5kg carrots, 5kg potatoes, 2 kg apples, a whole butternut pumpkin, 2 sweet potatoes and just over 1kg bananas. That’s pretty good going for what we usually pay.

I think I have enough powdered milk now to last me until the end of the year. I usually only use it in cooking. Last month I bought 4 packets because Coles had a Bi-Lo brand for $1 cheaper than the Coles brand and I figured they were just using up Bi-Lo stock and wouldn’t always have it. This time when I went it was on a clearance sale and only $3.99 (Coles brand is $5.99) so I bought the last 4 packets on the shelf. We’re going through it quicker now that I’m using it to make up Easiyo yoghurt so the savings will be very nice. I had to make some up in a jug this week as we ran out of milk the day I went to town (none left for my breakfast!). I’ve decided I don’t really mind using it on my breakfast. I don’t have a huge amount of milk anyway as I have hot water as well. Because I prefer a little lower fat milk, I made it up a little weaker than recommended so got an extra little saving there (more litres per packet). I may even continue to use powdered milk for myself. We’ll see.

On the topic of milk, I noticed that Coles UHT milk has increased in price. Their fresh milk worked out cheaper per litre than the UHT milk. This is the first time I’ve seen this so I bought 6 Litres of fresh milk as well as a carton of UHT milk. Only thing is, I’m hoping having fresh for a week doesn’t put the kids off the UHT milk. Time will tell I guess.

Within that total I was able to get 18 rolls of toilet paper. We usually use Kleenex Cottonelle (we’re fussy about our toilet paper) but about 12 months ago I found an Autralian brand recycled paper that we didn’t mind and was quite cheaply priced. Haven’t seen it since though. I found a packet in Kmart that’s not the same (but is recycled and Australian) and figured it was worth giving a go - and it was on sale for nearly half price ($4.00 for 18 rolls).

I was also pleased to be able to get a Carpet Cleaner I saw advertised on TV the other day which I wanted to try. DH said he needed some anti-dandruff shampoo this shop and I thought that might have made things a bit tight (his bottles of shampoo are usually around $8-$10). He’s been using up various natural shampoos I’ve bought to try on my own hair but needs an anti-dandruff one every now and then. Fortunately he likes to switch around the brands he uses so this time I bought him a new brand to try (which was a little cheaper). If he doesn’t like it - no problems, I’ll buy the more expensive one next time. At least he’s the type of person that’s willing to give things a go. I also bought new toothbrushes for the kids (only needed 2 as I had 1 spare one in the cupboard) and toothpaste.

Probably the thing that *saved* my budget was a lack of meat on special. I did buy a roll of fritz but that was the only meat I bought. It wasn’t urgent as I’ve been able to get some meat throughout this month and our local specials can often be as cheap as I can get meat elsewhere (other than chancing upon super specials).

I think DH has a sheep that he wants to get killed in the next month or so which will boost our meat supply somewhat. It’s been over a year since I’ve had a sheep. We don’t tend to eat it all that often (think it’s on June’s menu once) because it does seem to have a higher fat content than other meats. It costs me less than $30 (butchering fees) to get a sheep so that does help with the budget a little. I had someone ask me recently if my $100 a week spending includes meat. Well it comes pretty close. We do get the occasional sheep for a discounted price but then some people have access to regular fruit and vegetable bargains or eat regularly at their parents place (I know my SIL and her family go to her inlaws every Sunday for instance). So I figure the bonus we get with the sheep is not really much different.

One thing I’m finding with Coles is that I need to be very alert when I’m shopping. They now have 2 ranges of generic brands and it’s not consistent which of the two are going to be the cheapest. I have to keep checking and comparing prices which is annoying and draining. I have learnt though to send DH off car shopping or whatever he feels like doing. When he comes shopping with me he likes to be *helpful* and then I can’t concentrate on what I’m doing. He still gets to be helpful though - by packing it all in the car!!! When I’ve done a big shop on my own I’ve really noticed the difference with having to pack it all away in the car myself. Now that we don’t have the dual cab ute I have to be more careful with how things are packed in the back of the car (we now have a Pajero) to get them to fit. Some of my big shops have been one of those double trolleys full as well as a single trolley overflowing. So we’re talking BIG shop. The joys of living in a rural area. With my regular dental treatment and having to take DS to an orthodontist, we’ve been finding lately that we’re in a regional centre more often so I haven’t had to do a *massive* shop for a while.

Anyway, all in all I’m really happy with how the grocery spending is going. This month I have bought 4 litres ice cream, 2 packets of corn chips, 4 packets of Tim Tams (um ah, no wonder I’m not losing weight at the moment) and some donuts so we’re not going without our treats either.

The arrival of the cold weather seems to have increased all the appetites around here. So my $100 a week (on average) Grocery Challenge is coming under some strain. With only 4 Wednesdays in June, I need to keep my spending under $400 in order to maintain my spending goal.

So far this month I have spent $246.84, leaving me $153.16 until the end of the month. Ordinarily that would be plenty but tomorrow I have the opportunity to shop at Coles which is cheaper than the local supermarket. It makes sense to take advantage of the lower prices as long term this will save us money. It’s still hard to compromise my current goals to do so though.

I’m still reasonably well stocked from last months pantry stock up shop so it is possible with my smallish list that I *might* come under this months goal. At the very least I guess it’ll give me an incentive not to give in and buy too many impulse purchases.

My original goal was to maintain this level of spending until the end of June. Basically because I can easily keep our grocery spending down for a month or two due to the stockpile of food we keep on hand. But I didn’t think that would give me a true picture of what we truly consumed in dollar value per week. I was figuring an average over 6 months would give me a better chance of a true spending figure.

I haven’t decided yet whether to continue my challenge past the end of June. Rising dairy and fruit and vegetable prices are increasing the challenge of the challenge. Plus of course the rising appetites mentioned at the beginning of this post. That’s okay though. I always said that I would only continue the challenge all the time that I found it fun. If it came to the point where it was too much of a struggle and just not fun any more, well I’d know it was time to stop.

I will see how my shop goes tomorrow and how things travel in the first few weeks of July and then make a decision.

I gave this recipe a try this week much to the kids excitement. It took less than 5 minutes to throw together so was very quick and easy.

Melt 3 cups marshmallows and 50g butter together. Pour over 2 cups of rice bubbles and stir together. Flatten into a small slice tray (you could use a plastic container or whatever). I then sprinkled some rainbow choc decorations I had leftover in the cupboard on top. You could also sprinkle with choc chips. Another variation is to add 100s and 1000s to the mix.

Set in fridge then cut into whatever size pieces you like. I cut mine into small bar shapes (like a slightly smaller version of an LCM bar).

The most expensive part of the recipe was the marshmallows (I used a generic brand). Next time I make it I’m going to try making my own marshmallow and see how that goes.

UPDATE ON GROCERY SPENDING

I’ve finished my grocery shopping for May and ended up spending a grand total of $496.06! This is my highest monthly spend so far this year but did include a 5 week month and a fairly large stock up shop so I’m still happy with that. The best bit is that the fridge and cupboard are both looking healthily stocked. I’ve just calculated that my total grocery spend so far for this year is $2198.95 which when averaged over the 22 weeks comes out at $99.95 a week. That is a result I am absolutely STOKED with. It was a bit of a fun challenge to try and get my average spend to under the $100 a week average. All the time I’m enjoying the challenge, I intend to keep going with it. At the point it becomes “no longer fun”, I’ll know it’s time to move on to something different. In my opinion frugality should be more about creativity than deprivation.

I’ve done quite a bit of pottering in the kitchen this week. Trying out a few new recipes and generally having fun.

I made custard from scratch for the first time and that was a great hit with the family. I’m gradually trying to decrease the number of colours and additives in our diet so this is one more step along the road. For anyone wanting a recipe, here it is:

CUSTARD

heat 300ml milk (around 2 min on high in the microwave)

combine:
1 beaten egg
1 Tbsp cornflour
2 Tbsp sugar
few drops vanilla

Use a small amount of milk to mix it together.

Pour hot milk into this mixture and stir well.

Heat on high for 2-4 minutes, stirring every minute.

Next time I need to remember to double the recipe as this wasn’t quite enough for our family of 5.

I also made a chocolate custard recipe this week. We found it a little bit strong and a little bit firm in comparison to the yogo’s that the whole family loves. So I’m going to play around with the recips a bit more and I’ll keep you posted on how that turns out.

YOGHURT

I love finding new ways to create the same things for less money. Of course, that has to be balanced up against time and hassle factor as well so I’ve never been real keen to make my own yoghurt from scratch (even though it is definitely the cheapest way to make yoghurt).

A few years ago I bought myself an Easiyo yoghurt making kit. It’s almost foolproof as you just add water to the Easiyo sachet, shake and then pop the whole thing into the provided thermos with boiling water added. It works out cheaper than store bought yoghurt. I usually have to pay anywhere from $3.50-$5.50 for yoghurt here (depending on sales). With the Easiyo I can make yoghurt whenever we want it for just under $3.00 a kg.

I have tried a few suggestions for ways to make the Easiyo yoghurt a little cheaper but so far haven’t had much success and had returned to making it with the full sachet and putting up with the cost.

This week I came across a new recipe for the Easiyo and decided to try again. This time it seems to have worked much better and has gone down really well with the family.

If you have an Easiyo maker here’s the recipe:

1 1/3 cups powdered milk
1/3 cup sugar
tsp vanilla (make sure it’s imitation with no alcohol in it as the alcohol will kill your bacteria)
2 Tbsp Easiyo sachet as a starter (shake pkt first to make sure the yoghurt culture is evenly mixed through the pack before you start or you could get it all in the one batch and none left for the next one)

BISCUITS

Made a variation on plain biscuits by adding plum jam to the mix. They certainly smelt good while they were baking! I love how versatile basic biscuits are when it comes to using up bits and pieces you have in the fridge/cupboard. It’s amazing how much cheaper this basic biscuit mix is even compared to plain generic brand biscuits. Of course, it does then depend on what you add to the mix as to the final cost. I think I might use up the last of my custard powder mix in my next batch.

TURKEY DRUMSTICKS

I bought my first ever turkey drumsticks this week while they were on special. They were just under $3 each and weighed about 1kg. That’s some drumstick! I’m trying to add some turkey to our diet as it’s supposed to contain tryptophan. Not necessarily a real frugal meat so it’s a bit of a new challenge. I cooked the 2 legs in the crockpot then chopped all the meat up fine and made up 3 meals worth of turkey patties (similar to chicken patties). We haven’t eaten any yet so the proof will be in the tasting. I also made a container of stock. So that will give us 4 meals for $6. Can’t complain about the frugality of that figure.

CHICKEN KEBABS

The kids really love these but at $1+ each they’re a bit on the expensive side for us to have very often. This week I bought some chicken thighs on special so I’ve made up a meal (which is 13 kebabs for our family). Cost to me was around $5 which is quite a bit cheaper than $13+ and we’re less likely to come across any horrible bits that haven’t been cut out of the chicken like we do with the bought ones. I was working out an hourly savings rate for this. It took me around 15 minutes to cut up the chicken, thread it onto skewers and marinate. At a saving of $8 for the meal that’s around $32 an hour post tax money. Well worth the effort for me.

UPDATE ON MY BEANS & LENTILS CHALLENGE

I tried using the leftover Cannellini Beans in my lunch time salads the other week and really liked that. I think so far the Cannellini Beans are my favourite for adding to my salad.

Tonight we’re having Vegetable Lentil Loaf for tea. This is my first experience with green lentils (they’re cooking in the crockpot right now) so I’ll let you know what we think of it. Fingers crossed it’ll be a new dish we can add to our reportoire.

GROCERY SPENDING UPDATE

My final grocery spending figure for April was $419.83 so I was really happy with that. I did some calculations and so far my average for the year is $100.17 per week. This is down slightly on an earlier average calculation of $102.80. My challenge now is to see if I can bring that average weekly spend figure down to under the $100 mark.

May has 5 shopping weeks (I usually shop Wednesdays) so my goal is to see if I can spend under $450 with 5 shops. I’m not expecting that to be real easy so we’ll see how we go. First shop for May I spent $57.75 - so far so good. I will have an opportunity to do a pantry stock up later in the month so there’s where my biggest challenge is going to lie.

I’m back and I think I did okay. Spent $49.00. Phew!!! Just snuck in under the $50 mark. I didn’t need as much fruit and veg this week as we still have some stuff leftover from last week. I wasn’t sure how I was going to go as DH asked me to buy fritz as I was walking out the door. Hadn’t factored that in to my workings. Also grabbed a tube of toothpaste on special and a packet of lebanese bread for next time we have pizza (also on special).

That brings my total grocery spend for March to: $442.86. That’s just slightly higher than January’s spend of $441.27. I’m pretty happy with that.