Category Archives: Budgeting

5 Things Friday- Financial

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I have mentioned before that I really like this format-just bulletin points with a little to no connection between them so I am going to adapt it a little bit , give myself permission to change between them randomly, and attempt to make it a regular part of my blogging.

1. Harris Teeter is having one of their super double events. This means they will double up to 20 coupons a day up to $2.00 each. Of course we shopped yesterday, I spent 17.16 and saved 77.14 or 82%. I was most excited with this because they were out of at least 3 of the items on  my list.  But even more exciting was the fact I bought Band-aids, Tide pods, and dishwasher tabs to name a few.

2. My grocery budget is currently sitting at $302 spent for the month, I am hopeful to keep this amount low for the month to help pay off debt.

3. My gas budget is sitting at $233 for the month. This includes several minor repairs for the white van that we purchased in addition to an oil change for my car as well. I am almost confident that this amount will say under our budgeted $400.

4. We were pleasantly surprised to not have to have the white van inspected prior to purchasing tires for it. We did pay $126 for tags and taxes for the first year. This amount is in addition to the regular gas budget, because this is a one time expense that will decease to less than $50 any other years that we owe the vehicle.

5. Haley will be purchasing my car, over the next several months. I am still debating and deciding how to use and account for this money.   I will be deducting the $126 above from her down payment otherwise I hope to place in a saving account until it is completely paid for and then make a big debit payoff with it!

One Cent Soup Sunday Shopping

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I have decided to change up my regular CVS shopping on Sunday a little bit this year.  One of the hardest things to do with five children for me is to find time to spend with each one individually. In reality, with the older girls this usually is a phone/text conversation once a week or so but to find one on one time with the little ones is hard especially with the girls who are so involved and in school most days. I think I may have found a great solution for all of us….Sunday shopping.  I am going to plan on taking one of the kids only with me each week as I go to grab the deals.  Today was Zach’s turn as Kendall went with me last week.

Zach was really luck as I made 3 stops today, Dollar General, CVS and Aldi.  At Dollar General, I used 2 BIC coupons from today’s paper to grab a set of pens and a set of highlighters for free. I know that these will not go bad and simply added both to the stockpile. I also picked up a box of instant grits as this was a request. Total spent $2.74 , of which the grits were $2.74.

CVS was our second stop. One thing that really helped me out was the fact that winter quarter ECB are printing. So I was receive 3 ECB from my card and 5 ECB  from Matt’s card. Unfortunately, by the time I got to the store they had already sold out of Lipton Tea and the free Gummy vitamins were not in stock either.  But who can be disappointed when both my receipts show 100% savings. I was able to purchase one can of Tomato soup and 2 cans of Progresso Soup on each card a grand total of $0.04   I used 2 progresso soup coupons from today paper for $0.50 off two cans and along with the 0.50 cent off a can of Campbell’s tomato soup printing from the red box.   I was rewarded with 1 ECB back on each transaction so I have a total of 7 ECB left to use either later in the week or save until next week.

Our final stop was Aldi, I mainly needed to grab fresh fruits and vegetables to use in our lunches this week I found an awesome deal on OceanSpray cranberries, $0.25 for a 12 ounces bag. I grab 8 of these and came home and froze as we love fresh cranberry sauce and the bag stated to simply freeze and use as fresh in recipes.

Total spent for the day $37.72….awesome start to the year.

2015 Budget Update and Goals

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We have an unique opportunity this year. Because of my pay schedule I receive 26 checks a year. I base my budget on 2 checks a month just to make things easier for me. This also provides me with two paychecks each year that are not budgeted for. Last year both of these were used to fund vacations/trips. However this year, I am using my first check (which I received today) to reset the budget. What this mean is that as of today, each of the fund that I have established is starting at the level need to meet demands. For example I budget $45 a month to use of AAA and car insurance. At this point I have to pay our insurance in May or five months so I have researched and funded each category to the level to make our budget work. So basically if we just stick to the budget amount then we should not have any surprise in the year and should be able to finally become debt free except for our mortgage without living on beans and rice.

I have promised you real numbers and here you go along with my plan to accomplish and a little explanation as needed.

1.  Pay off all debit , except for mortgage.  I am going to list each of our debt the amount owed and the plan to attack.
a. JC Penny- 79.32– will be pay with clothing money in January.
b. Home Depot- $1807.45-  This amount is all on an interest free plan. I did not pay any interest to Home Depot in 2014 and by sticking to the plan will not pay any this year either.  $210 a month Payment.
c. American Express   $9232- Again this currently is on a no interest plan which will expire in April. Currently the goal is to pay $12OO a month and all my tax return to get this amount down and gone. 
d. Personal Loan (used to purchase van) $2704.88  The current scheduled payment is $217 a month with this scheduled to be paid off in December 2015.

2. Emergency Fund to $2000. I have actually included this as a line in our budget this year. I mostly likely will not be able to achieve the full $2000 without some extra work and saving but I am leaving as a goal so I have go be accountable at the end of the year.  The current plan is also to address a long term septic issue once our EF reaches this amount. I am totally unsure what the actual cost will be but this should cover it. At the point, this repair becomes necessary it may wipe out the EF but at least we have a plan.

Several other changes are occurring this year with our budget as well.

  • We are purchasing a new to us mini van which after it is completely purchased and new brakes applied will replace my car. I am unable to transport all three kids to school in a manner I consider safe with  my current car. The plan includes selling my car as soon as this vehicle is in service, Overall we will likely see an increase in the cost of gas but that is the only additional cost I am budgeting for.
  • I have officially started saving for Retirement. My company has a mandatory 2% retirement contribution which they match, In November, I elected to place an additional 2% in a ROTH IRA. The even better news is starting mid January the hospital will also match this additional 2% contribution.
  • We have cancelled our membership to the local YMCA but instead of deducting this expense have replaced it with “pool” which will be used for our membership fee and swim team cost.
  • Several categories including hair and piano are entire cash based so this will allow for more accurate use and spending of these funds.
  • Matt is expecting an initial decrease in his projected salary but has already starting seeking out opportunities to increase not only his web design business but is also looking at establishing other routes for steady income.

I am excited to have  chance for a true budget reset and hope to use this as a springboard board for both paying off debt and saving money in 2015!

 

2016 Goals

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I need to stick to and achieve the same personal goals that I have kept for the past few years, so I am going to include them again with some slight modifications.

Blogging-  Goal: 20 post per month

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.

Spiritual-  Goal. I want to spend time reading and or studying the Bible at least 5 days a week for the year.  I started a plan to read the Bible in a year 2 years ago and currently am 80% finished. I want to definitely finish this plan.

My financial plans are definitely different from last year and I am going to include measureable steps to reach each of these. I am going to be upfront and honest. I did some extra shopping today to prepare to start out in January with a bang.

1.  Full Fund the budget each month. Sounds simple but honestly, we have at least 3 categories a month that are not funded without some assistance.  For the month of January I am going to participate in .  If we can eliminate all non-essential spending, it will allow me to fully fund each of our budget categories and start the year on a solid foundation.  I plan to pay on my purchases from JCP with the clothing budget this month. The only clothing want that I am aware of is jeans for Matt. I do expect to receive some reward dollars and hopefully use these to grab at least one pair. I also need to find a good way to sale clothing on line as we are starting to get quite a bit.
2. Establish and maintain an Emergency fund with a monthly deposit of at least $100.
3. Groceries: Goal is for $700. I am going to take this a step further and use only cash for the month of January for groceries. My goal is to spend $200 or less this month. It has become really easy to just purchase things that are on sale or a great deal and I want to focus on using what we have. I do know that we need to add some male body wash and deodorant to the stockpile. I am hoping to find these at CVS over the next month but if not they will go on the list for February.
4. Gas: Spend $400 a month. This should not be too difficulty with gas prices expect to continue to remain under $2.00 a gallon.  In addition we purchased a maintenance  plan with the new van. This fund will continue to cover any repairs and maintenance on the other van. We may need to purchase tires for the new van so this would also need to come from this account. I don’t want to change this amount but instead will use any and all overage to paid down our credit card debit, but will first try to get $500 in a separate fund to pay for tires when needed.
5. Eating Out- After tracking this expense the last 6 months of 2015, I have decided that we need to budget to cover this. $200 will be the amount for each month with roll over for the next month as needed. In January, in the spirit of the Diet, we are going to not spend any money eating out but with two scheduled cheer competitions, I would assume that we may end up spending some of this.
6. Make at least 2 principal only payment to the van.  By completing this, we will reduce our schedule payments by one year. I receive 2 “additional” checks each year so I should be able to use these to cover this goal.
7. Pay at least $10 more than minimum on all credit card debit. I was very hestitant to actually write this goal but I need the accountability of addressing it each month. My ultimate goal is to pay off all credit card debit this year but I want to be realistic so this is my small steps. I will be using our tax refund and most likely both of my “extra” checks to work toward the ultimate goal but I also need to do a small step each month.

 

Year In Review

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As promised here is where I stand for the year on each of the goals I set.  I am also going to include an update goal for 2015. My current plan is  to add to these and put some numbers with them at the end of the week. One quick recap, just after establishing these goals. we decided to take a last minute trip to Michigan which cause everything to start at a much slower pace than I had planned.

Long Term Goals: These were last addressed in July.

1.  $2000 to repair our septic system- I have no clue of the cost for this but this is a save range. I will be counting our Emergency Fund in this amount for the time being because if it cost less than anything left will stay in this fund. No progress.  The new and improved goal for 2015 will remain the same with the exception of planned saving on a monthly basis. However it will not cover the entire amount so I will need to “find” extra money along the way..
 2.  $1000  to replace the floor in our Living room.  Goal Met.

I will be adding several long term (meaning year long goals to this).

Monthly goals

Blogging:  Goal: 15 per month Met 8 of 12 months with only this month exceeding the goal. This will continue as it at least keeps me accountable.

Weight: Goal to exercise 3x a week and to be down to 175 by December 2014.  This goal was met 7/12 for 2014 but I have not reached my overall goal of 175.  I am going to change this goal just a bit for 2015. New goal is 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.  We have decided to cancel our YMCA membership due to the significant increase in amount and decease in our use over the previous year. Instead, we are in the process of purchasing a treadmill to use at home. I am honestly thinking that by having the equipment at home, I will be using it more often.

Spiritual-  After eliminating this goal for 2014, I am going to add it back. I want to spend time reading and or studying the Bible at least 5 days a week for the year. Matt and I have signed up for a college class on the Old Testament, which should spur me on to make steady progress.

Financial Goals:

1.  Pay off all debit by July 2015, except for mortgage.   This goal was achieved 10 of 12 months. I plan to continue this goal but will be providing specific numbers to go along with this. Slight changes may including total payoff in September of 2015 instead of July.

2. Emergency Fund to $2000.  I was able to achieve this goal only 4 of 12 months. I hope to make significant improvements in this year as indicated above with a planned saving each month.

. 3. Groceries: Spend $600 a month . Achieved 10 of 12 months.  Our overall average is $650 for the year. I am going to continue this goal for 2015.

4. Gas: Spend $400 a month with any remaining to be move to Auto fund for repairs.  Goal achieved 7 of 7 months that I tracked, however I currently do not have any money in the Auto Fund.   The current plan is to continue this goal as is.  We are currently purchasing a new to us van to replace my car so I am unsure if this will affect our overall gas use and may increase in June 2015 if needed.

 

Overall this has been a good year for the goals I established and I hope to continue improvements in 2015.What goals are you establishing?

Trouble with Shopping or How I Spent our Entire Grocery Budget in a Day!

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If you will recall, I had planned to not shop much in the month of November. One of the reason was to continue reducing down our stockpile in addition to not wanting to leave a lot of food in our refrigerator while we were away. So it was starting to look a little bare around here and we had already plan to do a major shopping trip the first of December.

I was super excited to find out that Starbuck’s K-cup were going to be on an awesome sale at Harris Teeter this week, Matt was even more excited than I was!  The deal was part of “stock up” where you must buy 5 or more of an item to get the best price. 5 10 cup packs of Starbuck K cup for $25 is a good deal to begin with but I also had enough coupons for 10 boxes.. After looking over the ad, I planned to also purchase the 24 packs of water along with some can vegetables and cheese as well.  I love Harris Teeter an even after my problems today, they still are my favorite store. The problems started at check out, I am very careful to watch all my coupons but the computer can sometimes not always be kind. The first problem that was an easy fix with a manager key is that it said I had too many coupons. The store policy is that they will double up to 20 coupons a day. I actually only had 13 coupons to double but I had around 10 coupons that were valued at $1.50 or more and would not double. I guess the computer does not recognize the difference.  Next as my receipt was printing, I realized that my waters had not rang up at the EVIC price, this can only be corrected at the service desk. I was disappointed but it happens so I stopped by the desk.   Matt did make the comment that it seems that we had spent a lot for a trip and our saving was not adding up. I started looking over the receipt and realized that only 5 of my packs of K cups had rang up at the correct price. Luckily we were less than 5 minutes from the store so we turned around and headed back to the service desk. They were already aware of the problem but it still took around 15 minutes to get my $12 refund back to me. I am so glad that I was using cash this day because it makes all the changes and refunds much easier!

Next we stopped at JC Penny’s to return a pair of boots, I order over Thanksgiving. I have wide feet and fat calves  so finding boots to fit is near impossible. I tried on around 20 pair in the store now of which fit the way I wanted. I did find 2 pair of boots that I really liked that were available with wide calves, so I purchased both to be shipped to my house. UPDATE: One pair arrived and does not fit!  I guess I will stick to the short ugly ones I have!

After grabbing some lunch, we headed to Costco where we need to purchase lots of fruits and vegetables in  addition to milk, eggs, bacon, cream cheese, etc.  You get the idea and after spending over $400 you would think this would be the end to my grocery shopping. Not so, I also had to go to Aldi to pick up turkey and backing supplies.  Even Aldi did not get my order right today. I was charged for 3 rugs instead of 2 but caught the mistake before leaving the store so I was able to get a cash refund as well.

We currently have $15 left in our grocery budget for the month, which will certainly be used to purchase last-minute party supplies for school and home.  As you can tell, today was not the easiest shopping day and I am so glad that I have no plans to shop for groceries again until after Christmas!  Matt mostly likely will be making the trip to pick up items as they are needed!

 

 

November In Review

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Blogging:  Goal: 15 per month 13 for the month counting this.

Weight: Goal to exercise 3x a week and to be down to 175 by December 2014.  I did manage to break that 185 mark that I have been stuck at since August, however post Thanksgiving I am back to where I am stuck.

Financial Goals:

1.  Pay off all debit by July 2015, except for mortgage.  I did make a huge payment on Debt this month and am refocused on this goal.. Goal Met

2. Emergency Fund to $2000.  Another fail for this month… I have to get a handle on this!

. 3. Groceries: Spend $600 a month . Goal Met  $500. I am planning to use any and all extra monies to go toward paying down debt. I purchased lots of extra stuff this month so I know it was spent, just not on Groceries.

4. Gas: Spend $400 a month with any remaining to be move to Auto fund for repairs.  Total Spent $228 for gas and another $150 for a part for my car. GOAL MET!  This is due to the significant lowering of gas prices. I also did not include any of the gas for our trip which comes from a second budget. I will hopefully report on this next week.

I did not met any of my personal goals but 3/4 of financial goal. Next month, I anticipated the same and will plan to give a detailed description of our debt and the plan to pay off prior to July 2015.

Menu Planning and Other Random Thoughts?

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It has been a very long time since I  talked/shared an actually menu plan. I can definitely say that we try to complete menu planning at least once a week. This school year planning  has fallen on Sundays or at least on the weekend. After some trial and error, what works best for our family is to plan not only dinners for the week but to also go ahead and stock up snacks in book bags in addition to getting at least a working list of the girls lunches ready, depending on what is actually on the list, we also try to get several of these lunches made ahead of time.

In addition to the “regular” menu planning that I am talking about above, we also try to have at least an idea for what we are going to do on the weekends as well. I have found that if I don’t think ahead and plan for at least one meal on the weekends, we end up going out to eat.  We realize that beginning next Saturday, we will be eating out ALOT!  At least one meal on Saturday and Sunday, with at least 2 meals eaten out starting on Tuesday due to travelling. Combine this reality with the idea that I don’t want to leave food in our refrigerator while we are travelling  and menu planning was a must this week.

A limitation that has played a huge part in the plan for this week is that I have really been trying to eat from our pantry over the last several months (since September).  I can honestly say that we have the least amount of food in our house today then we have had in several years. I have purchased only things we are out of  and mainly fresh veggies and fruit, for the past several months. This has helped to reduce the grocery budget to under $600 a month however it is also starting to be a little bit challenging for menu planning. I decided last week not to purchase fresh items this week in addition to the other limitations.

Sunday-                    Breakfast  choice of leftovers (sausage stuffed crescent rolls, French toast or baked oatmeal.
Lunch- cowboy beans and cucumber relish. Beans were a left over from the fridge.
Dinner- Spam (fried) and Mac and cheese deluxe.

Monday-                    Breakfast- egg casserole (Made of Saturday to use up spinach and eggs)
Dinner- Tomato soup for kids, Broccoli and cheese soup for adults.
Tuesday                    Breakfast-  choice of cereal, toast or grits
Dinner- Breakfast casserole
Wednesday                Breakfast- leftovers casseroles or choice of cereal, toast or grits.
Dinner- Kids will be eating at church, Matt and I will find either leftovers or I am thinking of making oyster stew for myself.   (Will plan to use leftovers for lunch).
Thursday-                   Breakfast-  Eggs and sausage
Dinner- Squash Lasagna
Friday-                        Breakfast -choice of cereal, toast or grits
Dinner- Kielbasa with rice (Matt’s dish).
Saturday-                    Breakfast- French toast- (if enough bread left) or finishing up any other leftovers of breakfast food.
Lunch- Zach is at a birthday party and Girls are going to use Book-it coupons.
Dinner- Mexican rice and fried apples- if any are left to be used. May also look at leftovers and eat up anything that needs to be finished.

The girls lunches have already been planned out and I have 2 days of Lily’s prepared and 3 days of Kendall’s.

Because of our date night next week, I have already planned for both snacks and lunches on Monday.  Next Monday night dinner will be Hamburger Helper because we don’t have any left-overs from it.

Sunday, I am planning a baked oatmeal for breakfast. Lunch most likely at my parents and dinner is our night out with McDonald’s for the kids.

As you can tell, nothing fancy is happening but we are continuing to eat very well!

Financial Update

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Life is about choices, this is actually one of my favorite saying and also something that is very true in every aspect of life. I also can add to this by saying that not every choice is good and bad or even good and better but it is always a choice. There have been periods in my life when what I spent money on was not a choice. The reason, after paying bills such as electric, water, mortgage etc, there was little or no money left to cover food much less anything else like new towels or eating out.  However, this is no longer the case.  I am not saying that we have a lot of money or even that we are spending our money in the best way possible but I am very thankful to say that we definitely have a choice in how we spend our money.

This  is the time of year, when I start looking at the budget and reworking and figuring out what the priorities  are  for not only November and December but also for the next year.  My work is going through some major changes as well especially with benefits.  So I definitely am looking at changing things up next year.  My cost for insurances in all forms is actually going to be lower in addition to the small raise. Given these conditions I have decided to start investing in our retirement fund. I am really nervous about this decision simply because it will be money that is “out of reach” for the short term. We, Matt and I, have discussed this decision and feel like it is the best one at this time.  I will meet with an advisors next week and for the first time ever will be investing in our future instead of the present. Along the same lines, I am adding a line item for saving as well. My goal with these decisions is to keep living on what I am making this year and place the “raise/additional savings” out of sight and out of reach.  I am still working on the number but hope to share a sample budget prior to January.

In more present financial news, we are currently doing very well with our financial goals for the month!

         1. Emergency Fund to $2000.  I know this goal will not be met this year but hope/plan to add $100 to this by the end of the month.

  2. Groceries: Spend $600 a month . Spending for the month is $390 which does include 2 Sunday newspaper subscriptions, ($130). We will be leaving in less than two weeks so I am planning to try and clean out our fridge because I can’t stand to waste food! The only purchase that I anticipate for the trip itself is Diet Cokes and maybe waters.

 3. Gas: Spend $400 a month with any remaining to be move to Auto fund for repairs. So far we have only spent $120 for gas. I did pay our auto insurance for 6 months but this was from money that has already been saved! As you will notice below, I am setting a budget for our trip which will be all inclusive.  Prior to the trip, we will be having the oil changed and adding a power outlet for the DVD player, both these items will come from this budget.  We also plan to purchase a new set of tires but this cost will be included in the trip cost.

4. Michigan Trip Budget: $2000- This is actually a very high budget for us when traveling but the current plan is this will include the cost of new tires in addition to hotel, gas, food and entertainment.

Another Chicken Day

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Yesterday, we picked up more chicken from Zaycon foods. After some debate, we decided to purchase another 120#. Last year we purchased the same amount but spent a lot of time and energy just figuring out what to do with it. Overall, the chicken lasted our family around 10 months. This year, our order was delay by one month due to “higher” prices so in reality we have been out of chicken for around 3 months now. iwas able to find some on sale but it still was more expensive and of a lesser quality than what we purchased from Zaycon.   Luckily I was able to get an awesome deal because I had ordered early, spending an average of $1.77 a pound of boneless skinless chicken breast.

Here are most of the details of our first purchase last October. I spent the better part of a week, planning and organizing for this. I can honestly say that I was more than disappointed with the results, most of the recipes were just ok and I did not leave myself with any raw chicken to make things that we did enjoy as a family. So this was a major part of the decision to scale back and simplify this year.  I decided to only make recipes that I knew we enjoyed. I also scaled back on the portions to eliminate a lot of the leftovers and to give a better variety.

I started planning on paper on Thursday and both Matt and I did a shopping trip to different grocery stores on Friday am. In total we spent $63.91 on ingredients that I could not pull out of the stockpile to use.  I am most pleased with the fact that we used a lot of items already on hand and even with the additional purchase stayed under budget for November.  Total time this year was probably 10 hours. I was up at midnight finishing up the meals but we did not receive the chicken until 4pm and had to stop for over an hour to get the kids dinner and baths on Saturday.

A total of 277.09 was used for the 70  meals that we created.  Here is the list of items that we have mostly frozen for use in the next year.

12 bags of grilled chicken- we doubled the portion of each bag with the idea that we can always use the leftovers for salads, wraps and sandwiches. I actually counted these as 24 meals.
5 bags of raw chicken breast cut into normal size portions.
18 bags of shredded chicken- each bag contains 2 cups. Let me just add that I LOVE my Kitchen Aid mixer for this.
5 meal of crockpot chicken- 1 pineapple chicken, 2 café rio chicken and 2 garlic lime chicken. The recipes are linked here.
2 meals of chicken enchiladas– We had one for our lunch today and it was AWESOME!
4 Chicken Broccoli casseroles-check the recipe tab if you are interested.
4 Chicken pie bases- the tops will be added the day we cook.
8 Frozen chicken fried rice meals.