Category Archives: Budgeting

Renovation Update 8/18/2012

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  1. Haley’s new room Officially Haley’s room is finished.
  2. Lily and Kendall move into bigger room Room is completely finished with all clothing drawers labelled. 
  3. Zach gets his own room and closet. Zach has been sleeping in his new room for a week now! He does have to share the closet with Kendall but he loves being able to pick out his clothes and put them away. We are planning to purchase one additional dresser for this room to allow all his clothes to be sorted easily. So until we make it to IKEA in Sept., this room is not complete.
  4. Matt’s office- Matt has started working in his office!! The desk is actually a closet door. I will get a much better picture with all the details once it is painted and complete. A third picture will finish out his wall.

 Spending Totals for Renovations

Budget information:$1000

Total Spent $1014

Update: I received a $10 rebate check back from the paint that was purchased this week. A friend was able to find a matching twin set of sheet/comforter for Kendall’s bed and purchased these. I will be making the doll beds as well as Kendall’s bed match the other girls!  Matt also purchased some trim for his desk at Lowes.  So currently our total spent is at $1049.

 

Random Thoughts Tuesday 8/14

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•We got back a $10 rebate from paint today so currently, we are over budget by only $4 now for the Renovation. Matt is going to take some scrap metal to the recycle center on Thursday so that will put us under again until I purchase the matching bed set for Kendall.

•Zach is currently sleeping in his new room, he “tried” giving up pacifiers last night but that did not go well. He currently only has the one in his mouth which is a decrease of 3. I really don’t see how he is going to give these up! But I also do not want to give up any more sleep in this battle.

•Matt is starting to work in his new office. I “think” all the work in the other rooms is finished! We even switched out door knobs on the little girls room after Kendall managed to lock herself in. So now that door does not lock.

•I am not planning a huge grocery trip this week. Instead we hit up Walmart tonight for the couple of items we are out of. I was only able to find one of the 5 deals I was looking for with my coupons. But on the bright side, we found a $1 clearance table with shorts for Zach. I purchased 6 pairs of shorts and 1 T-shirt as well as a skirt each for the girls. Total spent even with groceries $24!!

•As I moved clothes this weekend and yesterday, I discovered/confirmed that only Zach will be in need of clothes for this winter. He does not need a new coat or shoes or pajamas. My goal is to spend less than $75 on clothes for him this winter. Hopefully, I will be able to find a really good sale on jeans and pants as this is the biggest need for him.

•We started a new schedule around the house this week. We have moved every one’s bedtime to 7:30 except for Wednesday nights. Kendall and Lily both will be up later till at least 8:30 because of church. Lily also will have a second late night due to cheerleading. The even bigger change is a schedule during the day, which greatly reduces television watching and includes “school” time daily except for Thursdays. So far both evenings have gone much smoother and things seem not so “hurried”. Matt has work time and hopefully we can find a balance and maintain it!!

Grocery Store Challenge

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What is my challenge? Spend as close to $20 a week at Food Lion over the next 4 weeks while purchasing items we need or to add to the stockpile based on sales. I am also going to give myself $10 a week to spend at CVS to keep rolling ECB. So that is a total of $30 a week for the next 4 weeks to feed our family of 6.
Week One Shopping:      Total Spent- $32.01
Week Two Shopping:     Total Spent– $84.24
Week Three Shopping:   Total Spent- $ 198.84

Week Four Shopping: This week we are definitely back on track. Since I am on vacation, Matt and I hit Harris Teeter for Super Doubles at 7am on Wednesday. We spent $21.64, saved 86.06 or 80%. I also managed to hit CVS this week to stock up on Tide. This remains the one item that I am brand loyal on so to hit a stock up price is awesome. I spent 23.51 saved 39.11 or 62% including enough Tide for 6 to 8 weeks. Total Spent $ 45.15

Reflection: According to the number I was success for 2 of the 4 weeks. But in reality I was able to reduce my normal budget of $800 to $361 or less than half, that makes it a success!  I am at least looking at my food budget differently now instead of cool this is a good deal let me stock up or we are going to need this in the next month so I will buy it now, I am now looking at the things in my pantry going unless we are out lets hold off purchasing!

 

Renovation update 8/9-The numbers!

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One of the advantages to staying home on vacation this week, is that we are making amazing progress on the renovations. Haley’s room is 100% complete. See below for all the details!

  1. Haley’s new room- Haley has moved across the hall to the
    largest bedroom with a half bath attached. a) Scrap popcorn
    ceiling- completed, b) repaint ceiling-completed c) Remove wallpaper
    boarder-completed d) repaint walls- e)Replace window- has been order.
    f)Complete floor in closet g) move window treatments    .DONE!!!! Furniture needed: 2 new dresser for clothing. After much debate at IKEA, Haley chose a clothing system that included pull out boxes. She was able to move all her clothing due to the deep boxes. Officially Haley’s room is finished.
  2. Lily and Kendall move into bigger room-a) Scrap popcorn ceiling, b) repaint ceiling
    c) Remove wallpaper boarder d) repair walls and door e) Paint walls f)
     Purchase and hang new window treatments. g) Matt is planning to make a
    new twin bed frame for Lily to use. h) change light fixture for new fan
    already purchased. Furniture needed: New closet divider, bins.      All these items are complete! After discussion, Matt is currently staining a new wooden bed frame for Kendall. My goal/plan for tomorrow is to get all the drawers labeled to make putting away clothing easier. Lily will have her own closet. Kendall and Zach will share the closet in Zach’s room.
  3. Zach gets his own room and closet- a) Scrap popcorn ceiling, b) repaint ceiling c) adapt currently color (yellow) to boys room probably pin-stripping and maybe stickers. Furniture needed:Due to changes in the budget, we decided to purchase 2 small dressers for Zach’s room. Currently, Matt is working to get the wall art complete, and then the ceiling. My best guess on when Zach will be changing to his new room is prior to Labor Day. Not this week but we are making steady progress!
  4. Matt’s office- Matt will need furniture only for this including -desk, chair and shelves. These needs have dramatically changes especially due to our budget and trying to get the most out of it. Matt has decided to make a desk with an old door and unused floor planks. In addition, he was given an awesome chair so it will now be a matter of arranging and using things we have as our budget is gone.!

 Spending Totals for Renovations

Budget information:$1000

Total spent $470 with $530 remaining. 

Total spent $595 with $405 left.

Since the last update, our planned trip to IKEA has been completed. We spent $339 on everything including several candles and all the new furniture. Matt has made 2 small trips to Lowes this week as well to purchase paint and supplies for the bed, total spent $80. For a grand total this week of $419.

We currently are $14 over budget at $1014. I am planning to continue sharing with you updates so that you can see how far we can stretch this last spending spree. I also want to be able to see on average what we spent per room.

Grocery Store Challenge Update 8/2/2012

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What is my challenge? Spend as close to $20 a week at Food Lion over the next 4 weeks while purchasing items we need or to add to the stockpile based on sales. I am also going to give myself $10 a week to spend at CVS to keep rolling ECB. So that is a total of $30 a week for the next 4 weeks to feed our family of 6.

Week One Shopping: I stopped at Food Lion after work on Wednesday. I purchased Coffee Filters (a need), 2 12 pack rolls of toilet paper, 1 6 pack of paper towels and 3# of ground beef. I used the 5/25 and 2 $0.75 coupons on the toilet paper. Total spent $20.15, saved 12.50. I also got a Catalina coupon for $2 off $10 of the house brand products. My plan is to save this for next week to use to increase my saving.
CVS- After looking at the ad on Thursday and Friday, I decided that their were really only one deal that started on Sunday that I would be interested in. So Friday night, Matt and I headed to CVS to use his card for another Twizzlers deal , free candy and an I-Tunes card. I was surprised to learn that I could not use ECB for the purchase of an I-Tunes card.  I ended up spending $12.01 with a total of 7 ECB for the next couple of weeks!
Total Spent- $32.01

Week Two- Matt and I went to Food Lion on Wednesday night. I had a list of four items that we were completely out of. So I purchased Olive Oil, Sour Cream, Freezer Bags, Sandwich Bags, 4 2L Sodas and a pack of gum.  Total Spent $19.00. I did receive another Catalina coupon for $1.50 off 10 of the house brands. Fast forward to last Saturday, stops at both CVS and Food Lion. CVS, I scan my card and received a free Children’s Gummy Vitamin. So I purchased a total of  4 AMP energy drinks and the vitamins total spent  $1 with 6 ECB earned. You can read the highlights of the Food Lion trip, we spent $64.24. Definitely, failure.  Total Spent– $84.24

Week 3- This week started off much better. I stopped at CVS on Wednesday to complete the Suave deal. Purchased 2 bottles of Kid’s Shampoo and 4 bottles of Body Wash. Total Spent $5.84 with 4 ECB earned.   After looking over the Food Lion ad and realizing that we were completely out of milk and cheese, I decide that this week would also be a fail. We had to have the car serviced in Winston so I planned at stop at Target and Costco. Target was awesome, I purchased a swim top for me, dress for Lily, school supplies and cups and napkins for the party for $43. In the spirit  of the challenge, I only purchased items at Costco that we were out of. I spent $150.00 Part of the rationale for my decision was that if I stuck to the challenge and purchased milk and cheese at Food Lion, I would have spent the $20 this week in addition to another $150 or more in 2 weeks when the challenge is over. In addition, I am on vacation next week so I want to have options to eat at home without the urge to spend money out on meals.

Thoughts?

 

July in Review

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Blogging: Actually on track for the month as this will be my 16th post of the month. I am currently running 2 series so maybe that is what is helping stay on task for the month.  I am currently posting on both blogger and my very own webpage. Hopefully in August I will move over to the site that Matt is designing!   Goal: 15 per month

Devotions: Starting to hit my stride in this area. I have once again hit my goal! I know that is one of the reason that things seem to be going smoother. Goal is 3 a week.
Groceries: For the first time in several month grocery spending is down.  We spent 508.72 on groceries this month which included school and party supplies! I am very excited to see this number. I did do an average for the year, currently my average is $809 a month. I am sure that by December with no diapers that I will be able to bring this down to the set budget.. Grocery Budget is set at $800 per month, this includes diapers, cleaning supplies, food and toiletries.

Financially:This month we maintained again.Some exciting things did happen, I will be going full time so that means an increase in pay as well as a decrease in medical expenses. Matt has not had time to focus on growing his business so with a combination of these two things in the next month. I am going to try to stay on track.  Goal: To be Debt free except for mortgage by the end of the year. This was established prior to our learning of the significant financial changes that are occurring so I am trusting God to provide direction in this area. Currently we are focused on meeting budget each month!
Weight- I have been able to start exercising at the pool at least once weekly. So that is a huge plus. I have not been on a scale recently. I will at least get an idea of my weight for next month. Goal to exercise 3x a week and to be down to 150 by December by losing around 4 # a month.

This month I have met 3 of 5 goals!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Best month to date~!!!

Saturday Shopping Success = Grocery Challenge Failure

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We decided to make a shopping loop through town on Saturday morning, with a stop by my parents to play with their new puppy first. The local Aldi advertised a food dehydrator for $19.99, we actually bought some apples and bananas to try out the dehydrator. Next stop CVS, I scan my card and received a free Children’s Gummy Vitamin. So I purchased a total of  4 AMP energy drinks and the vitamins total spent  $1 with 6 ECB earned.  Finally stop was Food Lion, the reason to purchase party supplies for Kendall and Zach’s party next Sunday. Matt and I both scanned our MVP cards, which produces some very interesting and useful coupons. Ground Beef is currently on sale for $1.99 a pound, one of the coupons was $5 off $45 Butcher’s Beef. Combining sales and coupons we purchased: 4 bags of Cool Ranch Doritos, 10 Food Lion brand Sodas, 3 Pespi Next Soda (sale 0.79 with one coupon 0.55/1 and a second 1.00/2) Gallon of Bleach, 5 cans of veggies  (sale 0.33 each), 2lbs of Ground chuck reduced to $5.09 and 21 pounds of Ground Beef. Our total was 64.24!!!  Total saving was 49% or 60.59. I am so excited because of the amount of meat this trip included.

 

Now if you have been following the Grocery Store Challenge you realize that is is definitely over my $30 but as I have said before we eat food and so this deal was too good to pass up!

Grocery Store Challenge

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What is my challenge? Spend as close to $20 a week at Food Lion over the next 4 weeks while purchasing items we need or to add to the stockpile based on sales. I am also going to give myself $10 a week to spend at CVS to keep rolling ECB. So that is a total of $30 a week for the next 4 weeks to feed our family of 6.

Week One Shopping: I stopped at Food Lion after work on Wednesday. I purchased Coffee Filters (a need), 2 12 pack rolls of toilet paper, 1 6 pack of paper towels and 3# of ground beef. I used the 5/25 and 2 $0.75 coupons on the toilet paper. Total spent $20.15, saved 12.50. I also got a Catalina coupon for $2 off $10 of the house brand products. My plan is to save this for next week to use to increase my saving.

CVS- After looking at the ad on Thursday and Friday, I decided that their were really only one deal that started on Sunday that I would be interested in. So Friday night, Matt and I headed to CVS to use his card for another Twizzlers deal , free candy and an I-Tunes card. I was surprised to learn that I could not use ECB for the purchase of an I-Tunes card.  I ended up spending $12.01 with a total of 7 ECB for the next couple of weeks!

Total Spent- $32.01

 

Week Two- Matt and I went to Food Lion on Wednesday night. I had a list of four items that we were completely out of. So I purchased Olive Oil, Sour Cream, Freezer Bags, Sandwich Bags, 4 2L Sodas and a pack of gum.  Total Spent $19.00. I did receive another Catalina coupon for $1.50 off 10 of the house brands.

 

 

Thoughts– Because of the challenge this week, I know I have saved money. Food Lion is currently running several “stock up deals” including Ground Beef for $1.99 and canned veggies are 0.30. I resisted the urge on Wednesday. I am planning to head back to Food Lion on Saturday to buy a couple of party supplies but these will  not be counted in the budget as I gave myself an out because of the Birthday Party.

 

Any one want to share?

 

Random Tuesday Thoughts

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  • My house is really really quiet at 8:17am!!! Why? Because this week our church is having Vacation Bible School. The kids spend from 9-12 for 5 days at church learning, doing crafts and playing games. This year the theme is “Jesus is My Rock”  Haley is the official nursery person and a general helper. Matt is in charge of games. On Monday, they had 116 kids!  From everything I have seen and heard is was awesome. All the kids were singing new songs first thing this morning.
  • This week has also turned out to be one of the busiest of the summer. In addition to VBS, Monday Lily had cheerleading, I went to pick tomatoes. Tuesday Matt has a meeting tonight at church. Wednesday we have to mow our jungle aka yard and pick tomatoes again.
  • My brother is gone with his church on a youth trips so he suggested I come over and claim as many tomatoes as I wanted. Yesterday, I picked 8 gallons. I am so excited about this because we  now have 15 cans of diced tomatoes in our freezer. By the looks of the vines, I probably will pick another 5 gallons on Wednesday, with the plan of a another batch of Salsa. I need to check again on Friday,if I can pick another 3 gallons then those will be used for more diced/stewed tomatoes.
  • We have several answers to prayer this week, first we received out of the blue a check to cover the purchase of VBS t-shirts, and the above tomatoes are another. I have been praying for some extra tomatoes, I have even debated on purchasing some  to freeze. We typically use at least one recipe a week that calls for 1-2 cans of diced tomatoes. My goal this summer was to get a stock pile in the freezer to save this cost.
  • The food co-op ended this week, but I was able to add a batch of salsa and another 4 ears of corn frozen. We will be using some of the corn this week as side dishes as well.
  • I will be updating on my Grocery Store Challenge tomorrow, but to be honest it has been a little bit difficult for me. I currently have a list, of items we are completely out of and my goal is to stay under the budget and purchase all the items. If I were not doing the challenge, I definitely would have already gone and purchased these items because I consider most of them staples. So the challenge is working, but not as easy as it sounds.
  • Nothing new is happening with the renovation simply because we don’t have the time. I am being to wonder if it will be finished before my week of vacation or if it will become the way I spent my vacation?

Grocery Shopping Challenge

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I love a good challenge. After several years of reading blogs and even writing. I have seen  a lot different various on grocery challenges such as “feeding a family of four for $100 a week.” or “Eating from pantry.”   This is my own version, the first of which I have attempted and shared from day one! Feel free to leave a comment and join me!

 

How I decided on this:  I have slowly been adding to the stockpile since the first of the year, currently most of the cabinets are full. I received in the mail last week 4 coupons for $5 off $25 at Food Lion each one good for one week. I have already spent $312 on groceries this month and really need to take a big chunk out of the grocery budget to help pay some auto expenses. School starts in 4 weeks and prior to that I will have to restock on snacks and other lunch items. I definitely want to use the $5/25 coupons from Food Lion especially since I pass 2 on the way to work and historically they don’t have a good coupon policy.   I also realize that I could never do an eat out of the pantry challenge something always seems to come up and we need “x”. So after thinking and deliberation I decided on the $35 a week Grocery challenge for the next 4 weeks starting today!

 

What is my challenge? Spend as close to $20 a week at Food Lion over the next 4 weeks while purchasing items we need or to add to the stockpile based on sales. I am also going to give myself $10 a week to spend at CVS to keep rolling ECB. So that is a total of $35 a week for the next 4 weeks to feed our family of 6.

I am going to make 2 exceptions or  rule bending items up front. First, I will not be counting my final trip to Costco and/or produce stand to purchase last minute items for Kendall and Zach’s Birthday Party. I have already purchased most of the paper product but plan to purchase watermelons and sweet items along with Pizza and drinks to serve.  Second, the rumored Harris Teeter Triple event, if this occurs I will use the CVS budget to purchase items is there are too good of deals to pass up!

 

Week One Shopping: I stopped at Food Lion after work on Wednesday. I purchased Coffee Filters (a need), 2 12 pack rolls of toilet paper, 1 6 pack of paper towels and 3# of ground beef. I used the 5/25 and 2 $0.75 coupons on the toilet paper. Total spent $20.15, saved 12.50. I also got a catalina coupon for $2 off $10 of the house brand products. My plan is to save this for next week to use to increase my saving.  Success so Far!!!!!