Category Archives: Budgeting

October in Review

Posted on by
Reply

Blogging:  Goal: 15 per month I am posting this on Thursday and post number 15 is scheduled for Halloween (Friday). This is a GOAL MET!

Weight: Goal to exercise 3x a week and to be down to 175 by December 2014.  This is the goal that I wanted to skip this month.  I have not lost any weight since August. I know that it is a struggle but grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!  I have been getting to the Y at least once a week so hopefully soon it will help!

Financial Goals:

1.  Pay off all debit by July 2015, except for mortgage.  This is still the goal, but I have taken advantage of a free interest period of 6 months to purchase some needed up dates around the house, so in reality we have went backwards on this goal but with all the Christmas shopping done< I hope to document significant progress in the next several months!

2. Emergency Fund to $2000.  Added $150 to this so for the first time in a long time GOAL MET!

. 3. Groceries: Spend $600 a month . Goal Met  $545. This definitely is not the $300 I had anticipated and hoped for this month however it does include $110 for the Costco membership that I thought had paid and is still under for the month. We are continuing to clean out the stockpile, I actually have an empty shelf. I am not sure where this will end up in November, a goal would be under $300 but I do have 120# of chicken that we will pick up on Saturday so I know that I will be spending some money to get this prepared for the freezer.

4. Gas: Spend $400 a month with any remaining to be move to Auto fund for repairs.  Total Spent $453. This does include tags, title and insurance for the truck so that is what set up over the top. In November we will be making a trip to Michigan and anticipate some major changes in our cars but I don’t want to talk about that until it occurs. I have not doubt that I will not met this goal in November!

50% this month. I had really anticipated that October would be a lower spending month for use however it happened to be the opposite. I anticipate November being around the same because of our trip and the holiday. At least I can see progress!

Budget Update- October

Posted on by
Reply

leaky faucet : conceptual illustration of a dripping tap coins Illustration

This is exactly what my budget feels like for this month. Yes, I will take full credit for most of it but I also really want to stop some of the leaks. I have completely failed at the Low/No Spend challenge for the month. The good news is that all my Christmas shopping is done.  That makes my life so much less hectic at this point so that will be counted as a positive. We have spent a chunk of extra money this month on updating both the tower and playhouse for the kids to enjoy. I am think that when all is said and done around $300 for updating and fixing both in addition to new mulch for the playground. We also have update the hall bathroom with a new coat of paint, new flooring and new shower curtain.  I am adding around another $200 for these updates and finally a new roof for our outbuilding with a price tag of $250. As you can see these have added up fast. Other unplanned spending included clothes for myself and the kids and of course new shoes.

In the ok but not great budget news, we have spent $545 of our $600 grocery budget which includes our Costco membership fee that I thought I had already paid but had not. This is not as good as I had hoped or expected but I have been doing some research and grocery prices are on the rise so staying in the budget is a win at least. We are starting to make a small dent in the stockpile and I am only replacing what we are out of so I am hoping to make a even bigger dent in the next two months to average our grocery spending down to $600 a month from $625 that it currently is.   In the second ok news we have spent $399,68 of our gas budget this month. This includes tags, inspection and  taxes for the truck.  This may increase if we are unable to hold out on putting gas in the van. Gas prices have dropped significantly and this should help use next month as well.

I did add $200 to our Emergency fund so this is a definite win!

Not a total loss but definitely not a low/no spend month!

Low Spend/No Spend Failure

Posted on by
Reply

I knew it would happen. Every time I decided that I am going to try and keep our spending to a minimum  something always seems to come up. This month it was shoes.

All three of the little kids needed shoes this past week. So we ended up spending most of last Sunday, shopping for shoes. We were able to find 4 new pair of shoes, Kendall was the lucky recipient of two pair, for $95.  I don’t think that our shoe problems has been entirely solved but at least they have been pushed back for the moment. I anticipate that both Lily and Kendall will need new boots this year but for now they are fine wearing what shoes they have. I will also need to buy a pair of new shoes for work  but my plan is to wait till we are in Michigan and attempt to go to the Nike outlet for those.   The other unexpected cost this month are directly related to home repair and upkeep. As a home owner, things wear out and need to be repaired and updates as is the case with our house this month. So I am going to declare that I am a failure at this low spend month.

However I am thinking in the long range, I may actually meet most of our set financial goals for the month.  We currently have spent $320 of our $600 grocery budget. This  does include our Costco membership that I thought I had paid in September. I don’t see any other large purchase for this month so I expect to stay around $350 total for the month. In other good budget news, gas prices have significantly dropped in the last week. I saw prices today at less than $3 a gallon. This should allow us to stay under our $400 a month gas budget. Anything left for the month will be used for our Michigan trip, which will also be reduced if gas prices decide to stay at this level.

In some  other good budget news, we have been able to increase our income for the month by selling a couple of items, a $20 rebate from P&G, a refund of $70 for my weight loss challenge and Matt has picked up some additional work as well.

 

October Budget Challenge

Posted on by
Reply

I have decided to join Carla in her October Budget Challenge. One of the reason that I so enjoying reading Carla’s blog is that she is real, she does not try to pad number or just say hey I am going to do this and then forget to tell us what is up even it is ugly.  So now on to me… I have already talked about how we are trying to save money so now I am going to put some numbers to the challenge.

My big goal for the month will be to have $600 in our Michigan trip fund by the end of the month.   I am hoping to do this mainly by saving money from small areas such as gas, groceries and utilities. In addition, I have placed several items up for sale and will be receiving the cash for these as well. I am also hoping to get a small bump in income from Matt this month.

So my goal for the week is very similar to Carla’s…… stay on budget. Currently as of today, I have spent $265 of our $600 grocery budget, so my goal is to definitely not spend anything else on groceries for the week.

I will be updating on Thursday/Friday of each week as this is usually payday.

 

September in Review

Posted on by
Reply

Blogging:  Goal: 15 per month  Post number 14 for the month.  So close yet so far!

Weight: Goal to exercise 3x a week and to be down to 175 by December 2014.  This has been a really frustrating month for me. I am stuck at a number that I don’t like. I have been trying to get to the Y to exercise but once or twice a week is all I have been able to fit in.

Financial Goals:

1.  Pay off all debit by July 2015, except for mortgage.  Goal met for this month.

2. Emergency Fund to $2000.  Still no progress.

. 3. Groceries: Spend $600 a month . Goal Met  Total spent $599. This has taken deliberate effort on my part. We have not shopped in three weeks now and I am planning to keep shopping to a minimum in October and November as well.

4. Gas: Spend $400 a month with any remaining to be move to Auto fund for repairs.  Total Spent $$37. Goal MET.  I am not going to be moving this money instead we are saving for our trip and all extra money is being placed in that fund.

I am excited because after selling our small playhouse we have $45  surplus for the month!  I hope to build up even more in the months to come.

This does not look like a great month on paper but I am happy with where we are with most things and  plan to stay the course.

 

Low Spending Week #3 September 27th.

Posted on by
Reply

We are officially in our third week of attempting to find extra money in our budget for a trip. Find out the initial details here. Last week we did awesome and to be honest it was much easier as it was not a pay week and we really had no  spending other than a quick trip to the CVS.  This week was a little more difficulty.

First the good news, I did stop in at Aldi to pick up salsa and lettuce. The total cost of the trip was $3.44. That keeps me under our $600 grocery budget by $2.66. I will most likely stop at Aldi either today or tomorrow to spend this on a dozen eggs and a 2L Diet Coke.  Both of the cars needed gas this week but  with the cost of gas Slowly going down we still have $54 left for the month of September. I am anticipating that this too will be used prior to Wednesday for the van but  even so we have managed to stay on track for the month in both these areas!!  I was also able to purchase Amanda’s birthday present and stayed under budget.

Now the not so great news, we are going to be purchasing cheerleading uniforms for both the girls this week. This is not an unexpected expense but it is one that I will have to incorporate and for the short time it will move some money that I had hoped to place in the trip fund.

October starts on Wednesday, I am definitely going to plan on it being a low spend/no spend month. I may even join a couple of challenges on other blogs to help keep me motivated. I had originally plan to spend $100 or less on groceries for October, however because of a mistake at Costco, I will need to increase this to $200 or less. I will have to pay our yearly membership fee of $110 out of this amount. So $90 or less will be the challenge.  I am going to be honest and say upfront this amount may need to be increased to $300 for the month or $190 after membership. We are continuing to try and clean out our pantries and freezers. I am actually starting to see a change in these. We have empty spaces in both the bathroom closet and the kitchen pantry. I am down to 2 bottles of Diet Coke and Matt just told me that he has less than a months supply of K cups. I will watch for sales on both these items in October but that will also mean some additional shopping as well.  We are planning a trip to Costco next Saturday and this will be probably the most difficult part of the challenge at least for me. Costco is a place that you always see a good deal and we have always grabbed a couple of extra items that are on sale just because we can. I have already started a list and hopefully this will make it easier to stick to the must be out of it to purchase rule but we shall see.

Spending Update for the Week

Posted on by
Reply

Last week, I talked a lot about the goals we have over the next two and half months for saving money for a trip to visit family. This is where it starts.

This has been a great week in terms of this goal for us. We have received out water and electric bills for the month of October. Both were lower than the budgeted amount so that savings of $30 will go into our trip.

Next up is our spending, if you recall I had $7 left for the remaining 2 weeks of September to stay on budget. This week I have spent $1.02 which leaves $5.98 for the next week and half.  We ran out of baking soda so I picked up two boxes.  I did go to CVS this week, I was able to purchase 2 bottles of body wash for Matt and 2 Starbuck’s refresher. I used the CVS gift card that I have so nothing was spent out of pocket. I still have $2 on the gift card in addition to 3.50 in ECB.

I was also able to generate (hopefully) a little extra cash as well. I took 80 pieces of clothing to a consignment sale and we have placed our plastic playhouse up for sale on Craiglist.

Overall I am very excited for being able to stay on track so far and add $30 to our trip fun. The menu is planned for next week so I am looking forward to another week of low to no spending!

Saturday Yard Work

Posted on by
Reply

photo 2Today brought more beautiful weather to North Carolina. I had already decided that we needed to spend some time outside doing some yard work. I spent most of the day, trimming our iris and pulling weeds from the flower beds. However the yard work that was most exciting was the “reworking” of our square foot garden.

I was so excited to start this year as I had great plans to get the most use and some yummy veggies to use all year. That was a plan that did achieve it’s greatness.  First of all the weather has been strange this summer. We have not had our typical hot (90plus) temperatures and also have lacked some in the rain department as well. We have been enjoying tomatoes all summer in addition to lots of green peppers the last couple of weeks. We discovered several nice size watermelons, however the last 3 have rotten before they ripen so I knew we needed to make some changes.  First, was a new bed over to the right side in the picture. This will be for squash as they grow really large and take up a lot of sun!  Next, Matt added another back stop to use with cherry tomatoes. Cherry tomatoes have been our best and most enjoyed treat this summer so I definitely want to have more of these next year.  Finally after some discussion, we moved out watermelon  and cantaloupe planters from the back of the deck to the front with the rest of the garden.  We hope this will allow them to grow, spread and ripen in the future.  I am so proud to say that with all these additions we have not spent any more instead we have used some recycled work. We will need to purchase or hopefully find a piece of wire to complete the backstop.  So our only purchase next spring will be some additional dirt to replenish and fill the new and improved beds!

I will admit this was a lot of work so I plan to enjoy a restful day tomorrow.

Stockpile Full?

Posted on by
Reply

photoThis is a picture that I took today of one of the 3 closet/areas that I use to keep most of my stockpile items in. If you can see most of this shelf is complete full and it actually has about another 2 foot of space above it as well. I have been working over the past several days to straighten and organize my stockpile. One of the reason is that I have been making some pretty awesome purchases over the past several weeks, such as Scott Extra Bath Tissue for $0.32 a roll and needed to make room to store it. Another reason is that I have been looking at our budget for the next several month in an attempt to locate enough money for a trip at Thanksgiving.

I have discovered several things during the arranging and rearranging of items. The first of which is that quite literally, we are out of space. I have moved and boxed and rearranged but at the end of the day, my stockpile is full!!  I can honestly say it is overflowing. A second thing that has occurred to me is that most of our freezer space is full as well. This would not normally be a huge deal; however I have recently order and paid for a huge 120# order of chicken breast that will be picked up the second weekend in October. So I have to find a place to store this food. The final thought that occurred to me was no wonder my grocery budget is slowing climbing higher and higher each month. I am focusing on buy the great deals but failed to realize that I have 20 boxes of cereal already purchased on a great deal. Taking into account all this information in addition to the trip that we would like to take over the Thanksgiving weekend, I have decided that I will be limiting the amount of shopping and purchasing that I am going to be doing over the next two and half months.

I am definitely going to commit to and be accountable for living off our stockpile until December, approximately two and half months away. Because I know that as soon as I make the commitment to do this undertaking then we will start to run of things or will need to purchase milk and eggs or even worse Diet Coke.   I am going to budget $100 a month for groceries during October and November. I have a CVS gift card from our recent toilet paper purchase for $10 so this will be my play money to keep shopping the best deals. If you are wondering about the grocery budget for September, we have $7 left which may or may not get used at CVS as well. My goal with allowing $100 in spending is to purchase only items that we are “out” of.  I know that I may miss some really good deals but I also realize that I need to make some space prior to the first of the year when my local store usually runs the best sale of the year. I also will be able to grab “free” items and pay just tax! I will be the first to say that this is going to be hard for me as I enjoy the “shopping game” and love to play it especially at the grocery and drug store but I also realize that this is a great opportunity to prove my self control, manage to save at least one half of the money need for our trip, reduce our overall grocery budget for the year and clean out the 10 boxes of mac and cheese that have been hiding in my closet.  I am going to plan to provide a weekly update on my spending just to make myself accountable!  Does anyone else have a stockpile that is full?

Freezer Cooking- Not as Expected!

Posted on by
Reply

I have been doing some type of freezer cooking for years. I have done this several different ways including share a day with friends as well as simply doubling recipes to place in the freezer or most recently finding ways to process meat/chicken when purchased in large quantities.  I have learned that doubling is the easiest way to keep the freezer stocked but it is not always convenient  to work things this way. This weekend, my best friend and I decided to try a menu plan. I am going to be really honest and upfront, I did not spend the money to actually purchase the plan so I am hopefully that the problems I had/discovered would have been covered if we had purchased the plan. This is the actual plan.

First, the reasons that I was excited to attempt the plan. This plan includes 20 meals but in reality it is 10 meals that can be repeated. This was a huge plus as it allowed us both to work together share the cost and end up with 10 meals. We were able to reduce some of the cost by using ingredients that we already had on hand such as the chicken stock and diced tomatoes. Total spent out of pocket was $66.25 each. I did end up with 11 meals because I could tell that the soup was easily tow full meal so that cost per meal is $6. The fact that this plan used four different types of meat and was gluten free were also high on the reason to try list.   Another advantage to this plan was shopping at Costco, I love Costco and the food is always a better quality.  We were not able to find all the ingredients at Costco so we did end up spending money at Food Lion as well. Finally, one of the biggest reasons I wanted to try the plan was the idea of “completing/assembling” in 2 hours.

Now on to reality, first as I mentioned we were not able to find all the items at Costco, which meant we shopped the first time at Food Lion. Second as we were working on the meals, we realized that some of the ingredients were incorrect, for example we only used two cans of black beans instead of four, we needed an additional two or three peppers and two cans of rotel were left off the list entirely. My husband ended up going out to grab things twice while we were assembling. Finally the biggest negative about this list and preparing it was the actually time we spent. I didn’t keep account of shopping time but we spent 5 hours at my friends house cooking on Saturday. I have gone back to the site today and realized that she used the word assembled in regards to the two hour time frame. I did not purchase the plan so I have not watched the video but I am pretty sure that when she used the word assembled it was just that putting all the items in a bag. This plan is labor intensive and require a lot more than just assembling.  We both enjoyed spending time together and overall this was probably not as much time as most people spend on preparing two weeks worth of meal but I had I anticipated the time more accurately than it would have been more enjoyable.

I am excited to try the food because each of the meals looks and smells good so in the end this may not be a bad experience; however I will be very careful about my reading in the future.