Monthly Archives: November 2011

November in Review

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Blogging: .November has 14 post including this one. Matt would say this was a success because not a single one of these was a picture post. Opps need to fix that soon!
 Goal: 15 per month

Devotions: Slowly but surely, I would guess 1x a week still working toward the goal. With all the stuff going on this month, I really had lost sight of doing a regular devotion. My plan is to start a year long devotional book in January so that might keep me on track better. In the mean time I need to just read something!
Goal is 3 a week.

Couponing/Grocery Budgeting: We ended up spending $755 on groceries this month, so under the goal. I am also pleased to say that our eating out has decreased as well. In order to cut our budget for December I am going to reduce the budget for December to $400.
Our Grocery Budget is set at $800 per month, this includes diapers, cleaning supplies, food and toiletries.

Financially: November has been the best month so far to date. We currently have $300 in our emergency fund. I was able to purchase ALL of our Christmas gifts this month. We also ordered 3 new windows for the house.  December will be a small month due to my decrease in income that I am expecting but we hope to at least achieve the half way mark of our emergency fund. As for the car fund, we have not been able to save in this area but are using the money to maintain the cars that we currently own. Goals in this area: Emergency fund of $1000, car fund equal to a payment of $300 each month and by January- debt free except for mortgage.

Weight- UGGHHHH
Goal to exercise 3x a week.

I was actually excited to write this review, until I realized that I had only hit my goal in about half of the categories. But at least I am honest and hopefully this will help keep me on track in December. My current plan is to write a month in review as well as a year in review where I establish new goals or keep working on the problems with these!

CVS-Awesome Trip

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So if you have been catching up on reading the blog lately you will remember from yesterday that I really spent more than I planned at CVS on Thursday. I was not to upset because I knew that I would use the ECB in the next couple of weeks to make some really good deals. Today I took my first trip, I was also able to grab a couple of rain checks that I cashed in today. Overall I spent $3.36 and saved $90 for a 96% saving, even better all the items are thing we use regularly.  I did split my transaction up into 2 just to make it easier for me to use the ECB.
       Transaction 1
4 bags of Combos on sale 1.50 each received a $2 off 4 bags at the red coupon machine
Revita Lens contact solution 8.99 (8.99 in ECB back)
1 Poster board $1.19
1 Breath Right Strip 12 count (raincheck from Thanksgiving)
1 LA Looks hair gel (Raincheck from Thanksgiving)

USE $22.89 in ECB and $2 off coupon above
Total out of pocket 0.29 (tax was $1.10)

   Transaction 2
2 Packs Pampers Cruisers $9.50 each (2.00 off 2 coupon)
1 Tide with Bleach $5.94 (2.00 coupon)
2 Panatene Shampoo/Conditioners $3.94 (1.00 off 2 coupon)
1 Nyquil liquid and tablet pack $9.99 (3.00 off coupon from red box last week)

Used Coupons above plus   33.45 in ECB from Above and Thanksgiving
Total out of pocket $3.07, In addition I received a $10 gift card for spending 30 in P&G products and will also get a free pack of diapers for buying  6 next time I scanned my card.

I still have approximately $20 in ECB and will do the P&G gift card again this week.

Black Friday Shopping

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I actually started my shopping on Thanksgiving morning. After getting all the good things in the Crockpots, I headed out to CVS where I met a couple of friends. I was super pleased with my first transaction which I ended up paying $1.69 for, next was a flop in my eyes because I paid around $35 for it even rolling ECBs. I think what happened is that I was missing 5 ECB from  my first transaction that were out of stock and I added several “free” items that I originally didn’t plan to purchase. I ended up with my final purchase using rain checks to purchase Diet Cokes.  Overall I spent $40 and came home with over $40 in ECB. Matt and I went to a different CVS in Winston on Friday and used Amanda’s card to grab the “freebies” that were left. I ended up buying 2 boxes of eye patches and some children’s medicine with the ECB I earned. With Amanda’s card I spent $20 for everything I purchased and got lots of rainchecks to use in the next several weeks.  I am most excited to go to CVS tomorrow because I will be using the ECB and plan to spend nothing out of pocket except for tax. I will try and get a picture and details together ASAP. I also went to Walgreens on Thursday morning with a friend. The register was printing free movies so I grabbed 3 to watch. I was able to do okay at Walgreens. I did realize that several of the items that I got are “nutrients supplements” I usually do buy this type of stuff so it will go in the donation bin.  I was able between the drugstores able to definitely restock out toothbrush and toothpaste box as well as deodorant. After this week at CVS I should have enough shampoo, conditioner and diaper to last several months.

Friday morning,  Matt and I headed out around 2:30am to shop, we called this our date, as it was the longest that we both have been away from the kids at one time ever. We returned home around 11:30.  I have heard the horror stories but honestly it was not bad at all. We did stand in line at Belk’s for about 5 minutes. I wanted to purchase boots and did but I will be returning this week because they are too narrow. I did grab several bras and Zach a Christmas sweater.  After checking out at Belks we headed to Walmart, with a quick stop at McDonalds for breakfast.  We purchased several Christmas presents there but missed one of the major items we were looking for. So after discovering out mistake we took at second trip to a different Walmart and found several more gifts.  The rest of the day was Lowes, Best buy, Starbucks, Costco, Krispy Kreme and home. I have also purchased several items online including 2 TVs and the one portable DVD that we couldn’t find at either of the Walmarts. The longest line that we waited in was at Krispy Kreme.  The reason I think it was so easy on us was that we were shopping at the off time, hitting stores after the initial opening but still early enough to grab most of the deals.

As for shopping, I am finished except for a couple of additional items for my nieces. I hope to purchase these locally. I would post more details but my girls like to read so I am not giving away the surprises! Stay tuned for Christmas pictures~

Saving Time and Money with Crockpot or How I cook..

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I LOVE my Crockpot in fact I love it so much that I multiplied it last summer as my birthday gift.  I purchased a combo of 3 small crockpots!  Using a crockpot saves energy! I also find that it is a great way to get meal prepared especially for a crowd and have everything hot at the same time. My favorite site for Crockpot recipes is A Year of Slow Cooking. I actually started following this site the same year that she cooked something different in Crockpots each day for 365. I have used probably 10 recipes from this site and never been disappointed.

For Thanksgiving this year, I was asked to bring vegetables and a desert to my parents for lunch. Matt and I both like turkey so we chose to cook a Turkey breast as well.  I am a recipe follower so this site  is awesome. I used both the turkey breast and cream style corn recipes . The turkey was  honestly one of the best tasting and moist turkey I have ever eaten. I started it about 7am and we ended up eating it around 6pm. I used my large Crockpot for this. In the sectional, I prepared corn, pintos and sweet potatoes. I did have to soak the pintos overnight. While all these items were cooking I was able to go to both CVS and Walgreens. We still arrived at my parents with plenty of time prior to lunch.  No trouble cleaning up is also an advantage, after lunch we came home plugged back up the sectional and turn them on warm. At 6ish we simply dished up the food for a second meal. I did empty the pots after dinner.  We enjoyed a second round of leftovers this evening for dinner. My plan is to make a turkey pie. So we have really stretch our meals this weekend. Both the large one and the sectional all fit in the dishwasher

Using the crockpot makes roast, soups and appetizers easy as well. I can use find most ingredients in my pantry. The biggest advantage I see to using the crock pot is that I can start a meal and it is ready at dinner time even if we have been extremely busy all day. This usually saves us from grabbing something out to eat or using alot of “quick pasta meals”.  An example is this Sunday, we will be cooking Baked Potatoes for us while at church, easily $30 saved in one meal which pays for the Crockpots each time I use them.

Do you have a favorite recipe to share?

So Much to be Thankful for..

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This will be my last blog post on the things I am thankful for this year…although it really shouldn’t be because I need to have a grateful heart all year long. I do have plans for several more post on this extended weekend. But to stick to the topic here is the extended list of things ( I have been posting each Friday in Novmeber so in total this will make 24, don’t forget to catch up !)
1. Being at home for this Thanksgiving. Matt and I have been together now for 8 years, in each of the previous years except 2009, we have travel to Michigian to celebrate with his side of the family. I LOVE each and every one of those folks but it is hard to travel with small kids. So I am thankful for cooking my own dinner in my own house this Thanksgiving
2. Having time to enjoy my husband. Matt and I plan to spend a good portion of the day tommorow shopping together. Haley is baby-sitting, with pay so she is also thankful for this chance to earn some extra money. One of the benefit of traveling together is the extended time in the car in which we talk and get caught up with each other. So instead we are going to each shopping and maybe even a meal out alone during this busy season.
3. Friends that have the same interest as I do. I really enjoyed meeting both Sandy and Dana at CVS this morning and rushing through the store grabbing the deals we wanted to share!
4. Crock-pots. They are a huge time and money saver. (More details on this soon)
5. My children growing up as friends, the older girls are starting to become mature friends. I am happy to see them want to spend time together and not always fighting over clothes. I LOVE watching the younger ones play! Yes I enjoy having 5 kids!
6. God’s blessing in my life. Several years ago Matt and I attended a small group that used the book “A Blessed Life.” We have struggled to live in this manner and in all honest are really enjoyed this blessed life!

Saving Money- Something you think about

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Saving money is not just something you do or in my case something you want and try to do it truly is a way of thinking about things.  I actually had started this post several days ago and just did not get enough of my thoughts down on paper.  Saving money for us means we think about things in a different way.

 First, especially when buying grocery type items this means that we have to make two important decisions; a) is the item on sale/ do we have a coupon ? b) how much or how little of this do we really need today. A great example of this is Matt when to Aldi to pick up flour and other items that we did purchase at Costco. All the kids LOVE Poptarts and would eat them every morning for breakfast if we let me. We only saw Strawberry Poptarts at Costco so we didn’t get them even tho we have been out for several weeks.  The Aldi brand Poptarts were $1.83, Matt remembered that I had been able to purchase Poptarts for 1.50 or less with coupons in the past so he only purchased one box.  The same items apply when I do shop sales, when I find the lowest price I have seen or just a really good deal on an item then I usually buy the limit or the number of coupons I have. An example, Sugar  a good price is $2.00 or less so last time I found this price I used all 3 coupons I had, and I have 1 bag still in the pantry.

Next before making any purchase even if it is going out to eat we have to decide why we are considering going out. Today, we had decided that we would go out to lunch after church with friends. Our friends decided not to eat out so we decided to come home and eat out of the fridge.  The purpose of going out to eat was to enjoy time with friends not to eat out. We ended up saving at least $30 by not going out to eat today.

Finally, keeping a list of things that will need to be purchased in the future and buying things on sale or with rewards reduces spending and increases saving. I have been able to use diaper rewards to purchase several puzzle and other items that I use as gifts.

In other posts I have talked about some other ways we save money, but in reality deciding that we wanted to save money and then using that as one of the things we base decisions on has really helped in our lives.

Another 7 Days to be Thankful

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1. God’s protection in the storms of this week. Zach and I were home alone on Wednesday night and it was scary for a little bit.
2. God’s protection in the storms of life.
3. Whirlpool tubs and jets
4. Krispy Kreme donuts…no way any Dunkin Donut could begin to compete!
5. Candles
6. A weekend with few plans
7. Blog- a place to write and remember

Costco

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I love Costco. I know that some items can be found cheaper by using coupons but honestly I still love going to Costco.  The main reason for this is that I like being able to buy in a quantity that will last our family of seven for around a month and not have 3-4 boxes of each item. I really like being able to come home and “stock” our shelves with the food, knowing I want have to go out again for at least a week.

I am careful when we go to Costco, if we are only buying things we need then I plan that trip around lunch and if we need ALOT then I usually try to take a good list.  My pantry has started to look a little bare lately.  I have been shopping the sales and using coupons but things like snacks and crackers are still disappearing. Initially my plan was to go shopping at Costco last week but between work and quizzing it just did not happen.  Today with the severe weather causing a delay in school today which resulted in me working later than plan, we decided to bite the bullet  and just go to Costco after school. Haley stayed at home and did some of her chores in the quiet.   Matt, myself and the 3 smaller kids were on an adventure. During my hair appointment, Matt took our master list and we tried to make sure we included things we needed but also didn’t forget anything.  The plan was to eat dinner as well. Matt and the kids LOVE the hot dogs and you can’t beat the price. I , however, am not a pizza or hot dog fan but tonight I actually ate and really enjoyed it. I decided to purchase a whole rotisserie chicken. I simply got a fork and knife from the food side and enjoyed the juicy chicken while the kids ate hot dogs and pizza.  Even with purchasing the entire chicken, which will be at least enough for my lunch tomorrow if not that in addition to chicken salad, we spent less than $10 on dinner.  The rest of our trip was expensive around $400 but we were able to purchase the meat for at least 18 meals and other foods for both breakfast and lunch. We came home and separated out most of the meats as well as the cheese. Everything is put away and after looking at my grocery budget for the month I am still right on track with $550  spent so far. I hope that today’s trip will keep up in good supply until Christmas!

Saving Money with little Time

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One of the biggest challenges that comes with using coupons and shopping the deals is finding the time to do all this in a real world time frame. I don’t have 2 plus hours a day to spend on the Internet looking up deals or hand matching coupons and ads. I also live in a very small town with only Food Lion and Walmart as far as grocery stores go.  But I do LOVE a good bargain so I thought I would share some of the ideas/thoughts/secrets I have figured out over the past year for finding time to coupon.

1. You don’t have to be at the store first thing when the ad starts to get the good deals. The one exception for this rule is probably Black Friday. So since in the case of CVS, I am not going to the store prior to church on Sunday, I have discovered that the store restocks on Thursday am. So I usually try to hit the store after the restocking if I really really really want a certain deal. Rain checks are awesome so most of the time if the store doesn’t have a deal, I simply get a rain check. Usually in 2-3 weeks the deal is back in place and I can use both the rain check and the expired coupon.  I ended up at CVS last night at 8:15pm after the kids were all in bed. I was pleasantly surprised that they had everything in stock.

2. Combined trips with other activities whenever possible. For example, last Thursday I was at a workshop in Winston. So I decided to use the express Lane at Harris Teeter for groceries as well as a quick trip into the CVS in the same parking lot after my class had finished.

3. Spending 5 minutes on Sundays to sort and file coupons saves hours when I am matching up the coupons with sale items.

4. Decide on what you are going to buy prior to going to the store. Stick to the plan.  I could never just take my binder to the store and shop.  On average I spend about 30 minutes a week planning shopping trips. But this allows me to spend less than 30 minutes in the store at a time.

5. Set a goal for where you are going to spend the money you are saving. This way you know that  you are making progress.

Finally, if you miss a sale or need to buy an item. So what?  The world will not end nor will your couponing license be revoked.

7 Days of Thankfulness

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I ended up working till after 7pm last night and with Bible Quizzing in Raleigh today, (Saturday), I missed posting the list of things I am thankful for on Friday but here they are a day late…

1. Freedom- Thank you to the Veterans who are have fought and are stilling Fighting for mine!
2. My Job- yes it is taking alot of time and I constantly complain but God has provided me with 2 awesome jobs that are allowing our Family to get back on track and also start to enjoy some things.
3. Computer/Internet- It is so easy and fun to find about anything in the world now with the use of a computer.
4. My parents who even today love and support me in ways that I could not have imagined when I was a child.
5. My car- God provided it last September and it is awesome.  I actually think it is the nicest car I have ever owned and it works so well.
6. Friends who will listen and pray whenever I need them.
7. The Bible.

Hopefully I will get another post up tommorow but …. who knows with this crazy life?