Monthly Archives: June 2013

June in Review

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Financial goals:  In June the focus was to reduce the overall debt we owed. I was able to pay $750 overall this money. I did realize that when planning my budget in July that I would be $240 short for the month. I have already paid ahead $100 of this, my plan is to use the remaining gas money from June to cover the rest. One of the reason, June was an awesome month for us was the fact I picked up several extra days work at the Nursing home.

  • Pay off Lawn mower by March 2014, so no interest is charged. Made an extra payment on this. (see above)
  • Pay off all outstanding debt except the mortgage by June– No new debt incurred!
  • Emergency fund to $2000–  Did not add to it this month.
  • Maintain a budget using a form of the envelope system – Still working well!
  • Groceries: Spend $600 or less a month  Ouch, Ouch and ouch. I currently set at $860 for the month. This does include Kendall’s birthday cake, stock up from Bath and Body Works as well as an order from Zaycon foods that will be picked up in July. I did find and check national averages this month. My understand is that groceries in this average are considered only food. Everything purchased at a Grocery store, drug store or Costco I count in this. The national average for a family of 6 with children the same ages as mine, considered “thrifty” was $748! So I should not feel as bad, at least that is what I am telling myself. I hope to get the average down by the end of the year but I don’t know that it will happen prior to school starting again. In July we will be purchasing meat so that usually throws the entire budget out.
  • Gas- I am adding this category. The goal each month is to spend $450 or less for gas.  We spent $340 this month. I am going to use the remaining money to cover regular expenses in July. Hopefully in the future I will be able to place in our auto fund as Matt is picking up more work to cover the short fall in our regular budget.

Blogging:  Goal: 15 per month This is post number 14 for the month. I am excited because I feel like I have gotten into a good grove with post and am able to post more frequently. Our schedule for the past 3 weeks has been insane so I also think that as things slow down, I can post more.

Devotions: Goal is 5 a week   Goal Met! I am really enjoying my morning time.

Weight: Goal to exercise 3x a week and to be down to 150 by December by losing around 4 # a month.. To be honest, I have not even address this goal this month. I have not gained the 10# I lost but there has been no progress.

Saturday Shopping 6/29/2013

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Kendall requested a trip to Build a Bear for her birthday this year, so today we headed to Winston-Salem to celebrate all of her favorite things. An added benefit for me was that I could get some shopping and awesome saving in as well. Matt used 2 emptied Starbucks coffee bags for 2 free coffees. I had $10 Bear Bucks for Build A Bear and we ended up hitting Bath and Body Works to grab some hand sanitizer as well. However these were not the highlights of the trip saving wise.

I knew that today was $1 Flip Flops at Old Navy, however the other in store sales combined with a $10 off $40 that was given to be at the cash register made a good deal on flip-flops into an awesome trip for clothing. We purchased 4 shirts for Matt, Matt a pair of shorts, 3 shirts for me, 3 pair of Flip flops for me, both the little girls got 2 pair of flip-flops and Zach got 3 pair, one for this year and two for next.  The total cost for 18 items $55 or 56% savings.

One of the last stops of the day was Harris Teeter. I knew they were running a Super Doubles promotions this week. I spent around 2 hours last night preparing a list. We chose to return to the “new to us” Harris Teeter. My only disappointment was that they did not carry “Suddenly Salad” but their customer service makes up for that in full. We purchased all items that we use on a regular basis including Kool-Aid Jammers for $1 a box. In total I spent $31 and saved $81 or 73%!

Being Sick is No Fun!

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I had such fun plans for this weekend. Haley arrived home on Saturday and we plan on a family trip to see Monster University!  And at least a couple of hours at the pool enjoying some down time.
But no such thing would occur…because of strep!   I started getting a sore throat on Friday afternoon…early to bed on Friday night and by Saturday morning I knew I had strep so off to the Urgent Care Clinic it was.  I definitely have strep… Saturday was spent in bed… feeling unable to even talk to the world.

Today, I was able to clean up the kitchen this morning and got the kids ready for church but then a two-hour nap was needed. I am awake again so my plan is to try to wash my sheets, fix a really good lunch and then head to the movies with the kids. I am starting to feel better and hope to at least save one part of the weekend!

This weeks looks as crazy busy as the last couple with both swim lessons and swim practice on Monday, Swim Meet on Tuesday and Wednesday. Thursday holds both swim lessons and swim practice as well as cheerleading practice as well. I also am planning on longer hours at work as BFF is going to Washington for 4 days!  So now I am off to tackle lunch and a shower!

Budget Thursday 6/20/2013

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Today was payday for me so I spent quite a bit of time working on the budget. First I finished up paying all the bills for the month and next I worked on our budget for next month. I am really working toward a zero budget where every dollar has a name up front and then the “extra” is for spending money.  We have had ALOT of extra expenses for the month of June but I am pleased to say that by the end, we are actually even for the month. I want to transfer around $100 from our gas budget into the auto fund to cover the cost of new tires and brakes for the van we purchased, but that is a want.  We have been able to make a sizeable dent in our debt this month, including another $225 paid off today. I am currently down to no medical bills, one credit card and our personal loan. On the down side, I have overspent our grocery budget at this point by $131 and have another $100 set aside for the next two-week. I have purchased chicken tenders from Zaycon and a huge stock pile of items from Bath and Body Works. If we don’t need the additional money for groceries then it will be applied to July to help the short fall.

On to the month of July, I gave every dollar a name and came up $240 short for the month. I have recently been working at the nursing home and with that income in addition to Matt’s web income, I plan to make up the difference prior to the end of June and start July again with a zero balance, meaning our income and expense are equal.

Wordless Wednesday

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Last Thursday, we had a storm with strong straight line winds. We actually were attending a swim meet and came home to find this. Thank goodness the damage is minor!

 

Food Lion Savings

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I am the first and maybe the loudest to say that Food Lion has a really back coupon policy in addition to no doubling or extra perks for shopping there. It is also the only grocery store in my small town. But after shopping this weekend, I might even say that things are starting to look up at Food Lion.

I realized earlier in the week, that part of their 3 day sale would be 2L Cokes for $0.79, my stock up price for these are 0.99 and since we pass a Food Lion on any trip we take, I was going to take advantage. Today, we decided to shop at the Food Lion near our church and pool. I did not even take my coupons with me but instead scanned the MVP card up front and decided to go from there.  I did have a “Free roll of Paper Towel” with a $10 purchase and $1.50 off any Laundry supply. Both of these we received on Friday night when we made our first stop to grab Diet Cokes.   I was pleasantly surprised to receive several coupon from the kiosk to use. I was able to purchase the follow for $10, in two transactions. I had to split up the Diet Cokes because you are only allowed to purchase for at a time.

8 2 L Diet Cokes    $0.79 each
Roll of Paper towel- used the free coupon
24oz Ketchup 0.99 with 0.50 off coupon-  0.49
2 cans of Sweet Peas 0.67 each with 0.50 off 2 or 0.42 each (not a stock up price but I need to get my total to $10 before coupons)
Loaf of Sandwich Bread 0.95 with coupon for 0.50 off – 0.49
ALL Mighty Pacs  on sale for 2.99 with coupon for $1.50 –  $1.49.  I am usually very brand loyal for washing detergent however with us doing an additional load  a day of pool items there really is no need to be- these items are not really dirt to begin with.

Total Spent $10, total saved $17 or 62%

Haley’s Graduation Class of 2013

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Haley’s Graduation Ceremony was at 9am this morning. It last around an hour and half in the hot blazing NC sun. After a quick shower and lunch, she headed to Alabama on a mission trip.

Warning this is extremely picture heavy!

Random Tuesday Thoughts 6/11/2013

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  • Thursday is the first swim meet of the season. Lily is scheduled to swim in 5 events including backstroke and 2 relays. Kendall is scheduled to swim in the 25 free style but still refuses to “dive” in the pool or swim the entire length without a kick board. We had a long talk on the way home and she says that she is going to swim the pool tomorrow at practice so we will see.
  • Haley can officially drive her car as I purchased the tag on it today. However, she is not used to a 5 speed and does know if she will ever be!
  • Saturday during a break from the rain we have had for the past week, we were able to mulch the playground.
  • We called it a “Red Neck Yard Work Day”. The reason, I chose to wear a cami, both the little girls were white undershirts  and Zach got to go outside without a shirt on!
  • Our Square foot garden is growing so well. I am starting to see blossoms for both the tomatoes and cucumber plants. I am so excited about these!
  • I have already overspent the grocery budget for the month… not sure how much I can stretch what we have either.
  • We started our “summer” Homeschool yesterday; Lily is going to finish learning cursive this summer, learn her multiplication tables and continue reading at least 3 times a week. Kendall is going to finish learning the correct formation of lower case letters and finish learning to read. Zach is going to learn to write his first name. He already knows the name of the letters and can write the H.
  • I am exhausted…looking forward to some slow weeks of work ahead!