Category Archives: Budgeting

Monday Menu Plan

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We are half way through the month and actually on budget in all areas, as you read yesterday!  This is really the most challenging part of the month for me. We are out of a couple of breakfast foods that are a frequent easy fix and with money left in the budget, I want to just go pick up. But instead we are going to try and use what we have and make sure we stay in budget.  I was out of town last Friday and most of the day Saturday, so things were a little bit different. This week it is back to the usually with an activity every night of the week except Tuesday and our yard sale next Saturday.

Breakfast– French toast, toast with new jelly, yogurt,  cereal, poptarts or grits. Zach has been grabbing applesauce or canned fruit for breakfast as well. Keeping it simple this week!  , Sunday morning- Sausage crescent rolls

Lunch- We are down to our last 3 days of Lunchable this week. Kendall was excited to be able to take chicken nugget two days, Zach decided on a sandwich one day and chicken nuggets one day and Lily has a grab lunch (crackers, fruit, gummies and cheese) with a sandwich the second day.

Dinner– I am trying to stick to my goal of leaving work by 5:30 daily so I can eat with the family most nights.

Saturday- Lunch: leftovers .   Dinner- Pizza Bread-Pop Up

Sunday- Lunch- Taco Soup .  Dinner-Leftovers .

Monday- Grilled Chicken salad (Leftovers make awesome wraps for me for lunch) Pasta Salad
Tuesday- Breakfast- Bacon, Eggs and Biscuits
Wednesday-Pork Chops, stove top stuffing and fruit
Thursday-  Crockpot Beef Roast
Friday- Hamburger Helper.

September Goal Update

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1.  Full Fund the budget each month.  I was able to complete this by using $400 of our grocery budget.!

2. Emergency Fund to $2000.   Added $100 this week.

. 3. Groceries: Reduce Grocery spending to $300 for the month. Currently, I have spent $274 for the month. I have the remaining $26 plus a $5 refund from Target in cash. I am excited because I have purchased 80# of chicken, 90 rolls of toilet paper and this list, all this month!  I will admit that the last 2.5 weeks of the month will be challenging but I am setting myself up to succeed.

4. Gas: Spend $400 a month .  Total spent this  month is $304.11. We decided to go ahead and complete some preventive work on Matt’s van this month, our goal is to extend the life of the van till my current van is paid off. I was able to find gas for $1.99 a gallon so I am very hopefully that we are able to stay within the budget for the month.

5. Eating out- Reduce/Eliminate Eating out for the month of September. $80 for the month including the purchase of 2 meals during my recent trip.

Disney- Pay at least $375 toward our Disney trip to maximize Disney points prior to November. This week I paid an additional $100 toward our Disney trip so total for the month so far is $200!  I do have a yard sale planned for next Saturday, all proceeds will go toward meeting this goal!

Extra Goals:
1.  Plan to purchase both Lily and Amanda birthday cards.  Completed! 

As you can see, for the month I am really on track financially. I want to make sure that I stay accountable for the next two and half weeks, they will be the most difficulty. I am also very excited that we have been able to turn off the air conditioning for the last 24 hours. My goal is to get at least 7 days of no heat or air this month to reduce our electric bill to under $250.

Saving on Saturday

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I am so excited about this Saving on Saturday!  Food Lion, our one and only local grocery store, is running it’s house brand sale!  In the past they have ran this sale twice a year, usually January and July. This has not been the case in 2015, this is the first time this year they have offered this sale. With each “house brand” item you purchase you receive a coupon for $.0.25 off your next order. You must purchase 4 items at a time and they limit you to 40 items or $10 at a time. The reason I like this so much is they have house brands of just about everything.  In addition to this coupon, they often run sales on the house brand items . I was also so glad to read that this sale will continue for the next four weeks with new/different items on sale each week.  My biggest disappointment is that I have not came up with a legitimate way to figure the true savings. Because the “house brand items” are usually cheaper to begin with it is hard to enter a saved amount.  I did use my usual tracker to get an idea and it gave me a savings of 42% with my two trips. The other method I have seen and like but really is not accurate in most case is to take the number of items purchased and divide by total cost. I have spent 79 cent on each of these items which is a better way to judge but still not the most accurate.

I spent $66.19 in 7 transactions for the following:

8 2 L Soda
15 Bags of frozen corn
4 4lb bags of Sugar
40 cups of yogurt
18 packets of taco seasoning
6 packets of Ranch dressing
6 boxes of Ziti Pasta
4 boxes of Jumbo elbow noodles
6 cans of cream of celery Soup
6 cans of cream of Chicken Soup
1 can baked beans
2 blocks of cream cheese
Bag of potato’s
package of Pepperoni

After hearing and confirming the sale, I went to my pantry and made a list of “wants” that if I can purchase over the next several weeks, I will consider my stockpile full. So far I am approximately 75% of the items. I am trying really hard to stick to a small grocery budget of $300 this month. Currently I have $32 in cash left in my envelope. My plan is to watch for a sale on Ketchup as this is the next “big” items on my wish list. I will then use my remaining cash and be done for the month! Easier said than done but it is a goal!

5 Things Friday

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1. I am staying in a hotel room tonight, as I attended a continuing education class from 8-5:30 today and will be in class again from 8 till 1:30 tommorow as well. This is the first time since I think Zach was born that I have been away from the kids an entire night.  We are very fortunate to have FaceTime so they are not so far away.

2. I was so very excited to be able to fund all our budget catogeries this month. We are focusing on keeping our expenses low and making any extra payment we can toward our Disney trip.

3. I am going to have another yard sale next Saturday, I am hoping to sell $100 worth of stuff and that money will also go into the Disney fund.

4. Yesterday online I found an awesome coupon for $25 off a $50 purchase at Advance Auto. We decide to go ahead and purchase some items to complete some maintence on Matt’s van. None of the items were emergencies but the goal is to keep his van in the best shape so we can drive for the next 5 years.

5. Zach is having a really good year so far at school with his behavior being some of the best in the class! Kendall also had a great day today with achieve “Gold” status after getting in trouble on Wednesday. I am praying this is the postive up swing she needs!

Saving on Saturday 9/5

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As I mentioned in this post, I am planning to make the next couple of months, low spend/no spend months. That does create a small problem with one of my favorite things to post, Saving on Saturday. The reason, if I am not spending then how can I really be saving. So at least for a couple of times I am going to use this day to discuss my budget and my progress toward goals. My intention is to give concrete steps that I am taking to meet each goal. So for today an update on September Goals.

1. Reduce Grocery spending to $300 for the month. So far I have spent nothing on groceries for the first 5 days of the month. I did go to the building this morning to “shopping” during menu planning. I am so excited to find the meat and other items to make no shopping easier.  I also have already checked the CVS ad starting on Sunday and will not be making a trip this week.  This is a tough decision but I don’t need anything and with no free items why be tempted.

2. When I looked at my September budget, I have 4 categories that are not completely funded for the month so the remaining $400 of the normal grocery budget will be used to completely fund the budget. This should actually occur next weekend after I receive my first paycheck of the month.

3  Plan to purchase both Lily and Amanda birthday cards.  Completed!  Amanda will  not be getting gift card, instead she needs some items for college.

4. Pay at least $375 toward our Disney trip to maximize Disney points prior to November. Paid $100 toward the trip this week! I did use my Disney card to purchase the gift cards for the kids spending money so I am excited to see where my reward dollars are in a couple of days.

5. Maintain Gas budget at or below $400. We have had to purchase gas in both vans but still less than $100 so far.

6. Reduce/Eliminate Eating out for the month of September. So far we have spent $60 for Zach’s birthday meal and donuts for his class. I do have a meal planned for tomorrow in addition to most of the meals planned for the week. This should definitely help us stay on track.

I have also placed one item, toddler bed on a yard sale site and plan to clean my closet out this week to have a good start! My goal is to place all money earned toward our Disney trip as the other items in our budget are currently funded!

5 Things Friday

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1. I decided to try my hand at fall gardening, so yesterday I purchased 9 lettuce plants and 9 cabbage plants. I decided to test my “Mel’s Mix” and regular soil with the cabbage plants. I planted 4 in regular soil that I purchased at Lowes, the remaining 5 are in the “Mel’s mix” that I have to have shipped at the cost of $18 a bag. Worst case scenario nothing grows and I just wasted $7.

2. We have been extremely busy this week. My work picked up as well. Tonight is actually the first night this week that we are home. I am so tired and just want to hide out all night.

3. We spent around 2 hours yesterday in Lowes, picking up items to finish up some projects around the house. I am always amazed at what we forget each time we go.

4.The kids are out of school on Monday for Labor Day. I am covering inpatients which means that we can sleep in for the next 3 days.

5.I am planning to spend at least an hour or more enjoying my garden tub tonight!

September Goals

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This summer has been full of fun! I really enjoyed some nice long days at the pool in addition to our week of vacation at the beach. However, I have not been as on top of budgeting as I like to be. Our Disney trip is less than 3 months away, so my goal is to tight up the budget and get up ready to enjoy Disney. Keeping that in mind, I have decided to make September  a “low spend/ no spend.” month. I really want to make September, October and November all low spend/no spend months but I am going to focus on one month at a time! I know that I can make a goal but if I don’t include some action steps in addition to adding accountability then I am going to fails. I am going to list my plans/goals for September, with weekly or biweekly updates as I can.

1. Reduce Grocery spending to $300 for the month. I am going to purchase 80 pounds of chicken from Zaycon and pull out $150 in cash to put in the grocery envelope. Cash for me is harder to over spend so this should keep me on track.

2. When I looked at my September budget, I have 4 categories that are not completely funded for the month so the remaining $400 of the normal grocery budget will be used to completely fund the budget.

3  Plan to purchase both Lily and Amanda birthday cards. This will allow me to direct our gift money for October, November and December to Christmas. I have already decided that Christmas will be smaller than normal after our trip so I am estimating I need $400 to cover gifts for the kids.

4. Pay at least $375 toward our Disney trip to maximize Disney points prior to November. My goal is to pay for the Bibbidi, Bobbidi Boutique with Disney points only. I have already earned enough to cover one of the girls so well on the way. We are expecting Matt to bring in around $350 in new income from his web business, so I only need to find $25 more.

5. Maintain Gas budget at or below $400. Matt has identified several “maintenance/ repairs” that need to be completed on his van. My goal is to wait till the end of the month to complete to make sure we stay I budget.

6. Reduce/Eliminate Eating out for the month of September. Zach’s birthday is Tuesday September 1st so he has already chosen to eat at a local pizza buffet. Other than this meal, no eating out! I will have to be very deliberate with especially Sunday lunches but we have been spending over $300 a month on eating out and that is a huge amount.

I am hoping to have a yard sale of some form or fashion at the end of the month as well. This may help boost our Disney Payments.

August In Review

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I am posting this a day early but hey at least it is posted.

Blogging:  Goal: 14 per month This is actually post 20! I may or may not post tomorrow but I am very pleased with the way I am starting to keep up with posting on a regular basis.  Goal MET!

Weight: Goal:  Met and maintain weight of 175. This goal will be considered met each month that weight loss is achieved and once this weight is achieved, each month maintained is considered achieved.  Struggling still.. I have in the last week added back in regular exercise so I hope that will make a difference.

Spiritual-  Goal. I want to spend time reading and or studying the Bible at least 5 days a week for the year.  I am going to consider this Goal MET! I have been struggling over the summer to find time to read but with school back in session, it appears to be getting easier and I am trying to make a priority otherwise.

Financial Goals-
1.  Full Fund the budget each month.   I am excited to post GOAL MET! Our savings both emergency and yearly is starting to look regular.

2. Emergency Fund to $2000.  Met. Added $100!  Goal met 3 months in a row!

. 3. Groceries: Spend $700 a month .Total Fail.  Again I am struggling in this area. I am currently $185.72 over for the month. We actually spent less this month than the several month but still we are way over again.

4. Gas: Spend $400 a month .  Fail again. I am actually only over by less than $50 this month so I have made some improvement but still not enough. September is without need for tags or title or insurance and with gas prices continuing to decease I am hoping to stay in budget!

5. Eating out- tracking purposes only $381. Again a decrease from previous months.

Disney- Failed!  But I have plans to change this!

August was not a total fail or a total success for anything. I do have plans for at least September to help adjust our budgets. I will post more later on the “goal” and the rationale as to why I think September should demonstrate good progress with all my goals.

Menu Planning Monday

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Menu planning is usually not all that difficulty at my house. The main reason for this is that we are always trying to make and package items that make life simpler and easier to survive. For example, when we buy hamburger, part of it is cooked and frozen in 1 pound containers, these can be used for spaghetti, chill or even hamburger helper. This past weekend, I have been focusing on cooking ahead. Breakfast items have been made and place in the fridge for easy quick mornings. I made “Breakfast Burrito filling” on Saturday morning and a large container of baked oatmeal on Sunday. We cooked up several bags of dried beans because they are so much healthier and cheaper than canned beans. On Sunday, we picked 2 gallons of ripe muscadines.  I made a batch of jelly, frozen 8 cups of whole muscadine and made a second “starter” for more jelly. Sometimes by spreading the extra work out it makes it easier and we definitely eat better and spend less.

Now on to the menu plan

Breakfast-Breakfast burritos, baked oatmeal, French toast, toast with new jelly, cereal, poptarts or grits.

Lunch- The kids will be taking Lunchables everyday, I will take leftovers Monday, Wednesday and Friday with a sandwich on Tuesday. Matt will be eating from the fridge or sandwich every day.

Dinner– I am trying to stick to my goal of leaving work by 5:30 daily so I can eat with the family most nights.

Saturday- Lunch: Coconut shrimp and grilled pineapple.   Dinner- Chicken Enchiladas

Sunday- Lunch- with my parents.  Dinner-out of the fridge.

Monday- Spaghetti with meatballs and garlic bread.
Tuesday- Grilled Chicken salad
Wednesday-Pulled pork, green beans and fruit
Thursday-  Sonic corn dogs ($0.50 each)
Friday- Cowboy beans and cucumber relish from the freezer.

Saving on Saturday- Vacation

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I really do enjoy travelling and especially enjoyed our vacation this year if you could not tell by all the pictures. One reason, that I was able to enjoy our vacation this year is because of the fact that we actually spent overall less on a week at the beach than we have spent on a long weekend trip. So today, I am going to share some tips that I used this year to not only save money but also to make this trip so enjoyable.

The first and most important tip is PLAN AHEAD!.  I booked our condo in January this year in order to get the specific week that I wanted for the rate we could easily afford. But I actually started buying for the trip back in November 2014. CVS usually runs some awesome Black Friday sales, starting the Sunday before Thanksgiving, for the past several years these have included laundry detergent for free after ECB.  I am pretty brand loyal, but in this case, I carried the free laundry detergent home and placed in a plastic container. During our beach trip, we typically come in from the beach and toss all suits and towels in the wash. My thoughts are free is good enough as long as it helps to remove the sand. Other items that I find on good deals (usually $0.75 or less) include hand soap, toilet paper, dishwasher tablet and dishwashing liquid.

The next way that I plan ahead for our vacation is meal planning. I know there are a few meals that the entire family loves and so if I am making one of these I will just make two and place the second in the deep freezer to take to the beach. Our plan ahead meals this year included baked ziti, chicken and broccoli casserole and gravy biscuits. If I find a good deal on a special snack food that we like I will also go ahead and purchase that as well. This year these items included goldfish crackers, Oreos and  Kit Kat Minis.  I also do the same with paper plates, cups and silverware. The condo does have a dishwasher but I prefer the paper for the convenience.

Another way that we save money is by saving and reusing certain items year after year.  I have a 20 year collection of sand toys that I store in a large bag in our building. Each year we take it with us to the beach. Some years we come back with less sand toys as if they break they are thrown away at the beach. We also have purchased a beach cart, umbrella and several chairs that are specifically for beach use. It may seem like a lot of trouble to carry these items back and forth but in the big picture it continues to save us money as we don’t purchase new items unless they are needed.

A finally way that we save money on vacation is by increasing the temperature of our house to 82* and turning off/unplugging anything possible. Our electric bill dropped by $30 this month in comparison to last month with the only difference being our vacation week. We also saw a $5 decrease in our water bill which is a direct result of less laundry.

How have you been saving money this week?