Category Archives: Budgeting

The Good, the Bad , the Crazy Week in Review

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I knew that this past week would be busy as normal and so when I thought about posting for this week, I came up with this list format. Hope you enjoy…

The Good

-Lily has had a blue or purple light/dot all week, so she got a prize. I had lunch with Lily on Thursday and Matt meet briefly with her teacher Thursday night. Lily is very well-behavior and is exceeding in reading and writing! We don’t have a good reading level on her yet but at the end of first grade, all students should be reading on a Level I, currently Lily has passed Level E with plans to test at Level F this week.
– I got to have a meeting with my supervisor at work this week, so I am feeling alot more at ease about my position and there is a chance that by the end of the year, I may only be working 1 job which still will keep us on track financially.
-After a somewhat rough start to the Bible Quizzing year, Haley has joined a team from the church in Greensboro. We had our first competition on Saturday. Haley did awesome and is currently 6 out of 27 quizzers. This also was an awesome event for me. I came home not exhausted and I really enjoyed interacting with the quizzers.
– We are still gathering peppers from our Square Foot Garden
-I was able to make several good trips to CVS this week, including today (Sunday) where I spent $10 and saved $36 or 78%. I was also able to bring home 3ECB which is only 1 less than what I started with. I hopefully will be able to do the same transactions on Amanda’s card later on in the week. One of the big sale item is Diet Coke cans!
-Kendall and Zach are both enjoying “preschool” at least once a week!
-God has supplied all our needs. See the bad to understand more.

THE BAD

– Haley is currently grounded from the computer and the phone.
-On Wednesday night our dryer developed a sound that could give anyone a headache and it sound like it could stop at any moment, add to this it was taking 2 hours or more per load. We knew we needed to buy a replacement. Matt was able to locate and purchase a dryer for $150. After bringing it home it is much better than we expected. It is a higher end “digtal” dryer that is quiet and dries even a full load of towels in an hour. This was a huge answer to prayer so that we can hopefully purchase the new windows and start our debt snowball next month.
– On Saturday, about an hour prior to leaving for Greensboro, we discovered a flat tire on my car. Thankfully, my parents came over and help Matt with the little ones so he could get the tire fixed and back on the car.
– We discovered late Friday night that “Angel Food Ministries” will not be disturbing food in September. This is one of the main ways we have been purchasing meat over the past year. We are both shocked that after 17 years that have stopped. Our prayer is that they will be able to reorganize and begin again before the end of the year but we have no information to go on so at this point it is very doubtful.
The Crazy Hairstyle

Haley is entering the Crazy Hairstyle contest at Youth tonight and she really wanted to win and to have it posted here! This leaves a smile on my face after a long week!

Saving Money

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Since my last post with long and about our budget, I thought I would share 5 ideas that we are using to reduce our expenses.

1. Re-use paper, in the past 18 months, I have used less than 1 pack (500) sheet of new paper. Instead, I asked our church staff to save the mess ups and other papers that they no longer need. We use the second side. The girls LOVE to color, draw and write. This way they can be as creative and practice as much as they like and I don’t sweat it.

2. Plastic containers instead of sandwich/zipper bags. I try to use this simply because they don’t cost anything to use the second or fifth time. We stick them in the dishwasher and then under the cabinet.

3. Brown bag lunch- This is the hardest for me but after looking at the cost of lunch ($5) a day vs taking left-overs or a salad ($3 for a week) then I just figure out ways to take other things instead of sandwiches for myself, Haley and Lily. I also bring my own drinks. I average 4 can drinks a day and at a savings of $.20 each that is $.80. I am very lucky that we have a small fridge in our office that holds 9 drinks.

4. Re-use grocery bags instead of buying liners for the diaper pail, small trash cans. We also use these bags to hold and throw away cat litter as well.

5. Creative cooking- We save money by purchasing Angel Food, I also purchased a produce box this summer. The one downside to both of these is that you often get things you are not used to eating. So that is where creative cooking comes in handy. An example, in our Angel Food box this month were 2 bags of frozen spinach. I have never cooked with spinach and didn’t remember liking the taste. So I used it in a cassrole tonight for dinner. It ended up not being so bad, in fact I am taking some for lunch tommorow as well. We also make a focused efforted on eating left-overs. So we may use as lunch or last week we combined different items and ended up cleaning out the fridge just prior to Zach’s party.

Leave a comment with your best money saving idea!

Budget

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One of the biggest focus of the past couple of months for both Matt and myself has been our budget. I can say that as long as I can remember,I knew what a budget was and usually had a budget either in my head or written on paper. Only one problem, I have always in the past viewed a budget as a guide. I plan to spend my money this way but if something else pops up or if I over spend in this area then I just juggle things. As you can probably imagine,this has lead to alot of difficulty. Over the past several month, I have really taken to heart Dave Ramsey statement “Every dollar has a name and a place.” We have made adjustments to out grocery budget based on the actual amount we have been spending. And I have been really trying to keep an accurate record of where are money is going. Things are starting to come easier and make more sense and in September the plan is that we will actual have enough money to do a major home improvement and still meet all the requirements we have. Another awesome change is that Matt and I are talking not only about the budget but actual spending. So this week, I realized that we need to focus and adjust our gas budget. This has actually been an ongoing thing. Originally I budgeted $400 a month, for the past 2 months I have changed this amount to $100 a week. I have begun to notice that most weeks both of the autos need gas so I tend to go over this $100. Matt and I talked about it made a change to monitor this. Yesterday, both the car and the van needed gas. We were driving the car so we ended up filling it up, which only left $42 for use in the van. We put that amount in last night and I hope to see that we could stick to the $100 a week if we adjust our thinking just a little bit. My thought is we alternate completing filling one car one week and the the second the next. This way we should be able to stick to the $100 budget.

In other exciting budget related news- I realized last night and verified today that I actually was below budget last month for groceries because I had included a $50 gas card from Walmart in my amounts! Watching each dollar is actually helping!

Super Doubles

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I just checked back to see what I had attempted to budget for groceries this month. My goal for August was $400 and the plan was to eat out of the freezer for the majority of the month. However, I have ran into a small snag in the plan. First, I failed to realize that I would need to stock up on school supplies for the year, and attempt to get them at the lowest possible price. Next we are having a surprise visit from Matt’s brother in law this weekend. It will be awesome as we always enjoy them. But I wanted to purchase some extra food to make it a simple and special meal on Saturday. We decided on doing alot of finger foods/appetizers so that no matter what time they arrive it will be warm and ready to eat. They are travelling home from Disney so the timing is always a question. I checked the budget and so far I have spent around $380 and it is not even the middle of the month. But I was able to catch some great deals at Harris Teeter this week.

Super Doubles means that any coupon up to $1.98 will double up to $3.98 or the value of the item. Harris Teeter is also running some excellent sales on school foods/lunches. I picked up an order through the Express Lane yesterday after work and today Matt, myself and the little kids went to Salisbury. I have saved around 60% on the trips combined but in reality have stocked up on paper Towels, Lunchables ($1 each), chips, Capri Suns (which will be donated for our kids carnival), Chex mix and Bugles(both ended up being 0.44 a bag). I am pleased with what we were able to grab. I am hopeful that the rest of the month will be uneventful in the grocery area~!

June in Review

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Yes, I realize it is July 4th. But Kendall’s birthday occurred on the first and I wanted her to have a day of post all alone!

Blogging: 7 post for the month. This seems to be closed to where I am staying for the year. I am okay with that but want to get more in the swing of things and at least post “Wordless Wednesdays” and Coupon Blessing on a regular basis. I should be ahead of the time this month with 4 post in 4 day, so thankful for the holiday. The goal is 15.

Devotions:This seems to be hit or miss. Our Pastor is currently preaching out of the book of Deuteronomy. He requested that we read the book along with him. I am trying to use that as at least one of my devotions. I am suppose to ready Chapter 5 today. I also need to get ready for next quiz year so that should encourage me as well. Goal: 3 per week.

Couponing/Grocery Budgeting: I did not stay “way under for the month of June” but instead ended up at $879 for the month. Harris Teeter has ran both a Super Doubles and a Triples event in the month so that at least explains the overage. I definitely do have a stockpile now. One thing that should make a nice impact on this year is the fact that Matt and I are making a menu plan for the week. This allows us to know and use the items we already have as well as helps Matt not have to rush around and “figure” out what to fix for dinner. The most exciting development in this area is that yesterday (Sunday) we were able to provide a couple at church with a “blessing” from our stockpile. I estimate the value to be about $100. I have also been able provide toiletries to my parents. It feels so awesome to give stuff away! Our Grocery Budget is set at $800 per month, this includes diapers, cleaning supplies, food and toiletries.


Financially: We were able to pay off one small credit card this month however due to expected income not arriving I did not place any money in savings or the auto fund. July will be a different month as well since we are going to the beach for 5 days. Goals in this area: Emergency fund of $1000, car fund equal to a payment of $300 each month and by January- debt free except for mortgage.

Weight– Have not even stepped on the scale. This will become a propriety in the next couple of months maybe?

November in Review

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I know it is already the 6th of December but I needed to post this so that I stay accountable. This is not an easy blog to post but I am hoping that by posting honestly it will encourage me to continue to improve. I also have already been thinking toward January and how I want to set my goals for the coming year. They will be different from this year but I have learned that I need to be specific. Just a overall view I did awful this month in all areas.

Blogging- Goal is 5 times a week or 20 a month. This is my lowest month ever 10 post for month. No excuse, no reason.

Reading my Bible- The goal is for me to have a devotional time 5-6 times a week. One of the things that we are trying to add is a couple devotional time. I think I was able to maintain the 3 devotions a week. Not near the goal but at least something.

Preschool with Lily and Kendall- We decided to take a break from school the week we were away but still manage a good month of school. Lily is on lesson 50 with learning to read half way finished and Kendall is picking up more and more each day.

Budget-Not even going to attempt to post. We enjoyed our trip and my shopping. Budget will be one of the biggest areas for us next year! December hopefully will be much better and on to a good start of the new year.

October in Review

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Blogging- Goal is 5 times a week or 20 a month. I am staying steady in this area, I have blogged a total of 17 times this month, one less than September. We are finally achieving the balance that allows me time to do things I enjoy.

Reading my Bible- Holding stead in this area as well. I am reading a devotion at least 3 times a week. The goal is for me to have a devotional time 5-6 times a week. One of the things that we are trying to add is a couple devotional time. We had done so twice this week but I would hope this becomes at least 3 times a week.

Preschool with Lily and Kendall- This continues to be an area of excellence in our house. I am spending about 2 hours a week getting everything set up. I also get to “teach” usually one day a week. A school readiness person started coming to the house 2x a month to work with all 3 little ones. Matt really enjoyed this time and learned alot from Mrs. Melissa. Lily is work on numbers to 100, she is also learning about money, so far she has learned pennies and nickels. I checked her on the Kindergarten sight word list this past week. Lily recognizes/ reads 7 of the 30 words. Matt continues to work on reading with her in the evenings as well. Kendall is learning by leaps and bounds now. She recognizes a circle and counts to 10. She has started to memorize the ABC song.

Budget-Overall we did well on budget this month. Groceries still remain a huge challenge for us but after looking at it realistically we will be increase the monthly grocery budget to 800 or 26 a person per week. During October I spent around 550 so that is below the budgeted 600 even. We are continuing to eat out of the pantry until at least we leave for MI.

Grocery Budget…the good…bad and ugly

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I have been really trying to get us on a strict budget this year. One of the areas that I seem to continual struggle in is grocery shopping. As you know, Matt and I decided to clean out our cupboard/freezer starting exactly a month ago. I have been sticking to shopping only for things we are out of and of course CVS. Unfortunately on Thursday we were in town with Costco and went to pick up the items on the list. I can say that we stuck very closely to the list and only add things after discussion. The one exception was “gluten free” crackers we found and bought but Zach because they are delicious and he loves to have crunch foods. We bought drinks for Haley and I at lunch, cleaning wipes, swiffers, milk, eggs, bread, bananas and bacon. Our total was $120 that pushes the total for the month to $420 and with the $40 Matt just took to Walmart for Formula and creamer and diet coke. We are pushing $500 for the month. At this point we are starting to consider if the budget of $600 a month is realistic or should be increase that to $800. At $800 that is approximately $125 a person or $29 a week per person. Looking at the number $800 sounds like a lot but when you take that down to $30 a person a week that seems reasonable, especially when you include diapers for 2, formula and Gluten free foods for Zach and household cleaning products. So I am pretty convinced that I will again increase the budget to set it at $800 a month. But since finding 5 lbs of Hamburger and getting Angel Food in this week. we are also both convinced that we will continue to eat out of the freezers/cupboard until we leave for our trip at Thanksgiving. I am planning on having the first Monday off after arriving home and we most like will make a HUGE trip to Costco at that time unless we realize that we have enough food to go another week. 🙂 Any thoughts or suggestions?

Saturday Catch UP

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This week has been busy as usual. I was trying to decide what made it so busy that I have not been able to post…the only thing I can come up with is that I worked on quizzing every night to prepare for our monthly meet today. At least I have part of the morning before heading that way. So here is the long and short of the week.

Eat out of the pantry/No grocery shopping for the month of October. So far so good, we have had to buy Diet Cokes, cream, milk, formula and eggs. The one exception is that we bought cake mix and icing for Amanda’s cake. But we returned a battery cores so this technically no money was spent on this. I am not sure if I said this upfront but I am continuing to shop at CVS as usual. I do count this in our grocery budget but I usually only buy sale items that we use in the stock pile and diapers. So far for the month we have spent 200 this includes our Angel Food so that is about 1/3 of what I usually budget and 1/4 of what we have been spending. The next 3-5 weeks depending on how long we can actually go will be challenging simply because the food we have left requires thought and preparation. Matt has been using the crock pot several days this week.

Kendall is doing really well with potty training. She has been staying day most days with only 1 accident per day.

CVS has an awesome monthly long deal on AZO products so I have made several trips this week but next week looks lame. I am saving over 80% on all the trips.

The other big news this week is that we finally bought a bed for Matt and I. I will be posting before and after pictures for Wordless Wednesday.

September in Review

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I am actually looking forward to post this, except for the budget but I think “the challenge” will definitely help with that one.

Blogging- I just checked the number of post for the month and it was 18, counting this one. This is a improvement over the summer and almost close to my goal of 20 or 5 a week. I am also pleased that I have once again been posting deals and not just Menu Monday and Wordless Wednesday post. I am going to met my goal in October just to say it is possible. One of the biggest reason I am doing much better is that my work has settled in a pattern. I am actually starting to enjoy some time off and realize I don’t have to work as much as possible :).

Reading my Bible- I am continuing to make strides in this area as well. I also am beginning to feel that I not only need to read a devotion but also spend some time just reading the Word, I am reading a devotion at least 3 times a week. The goal is for me to have a devotional time 5-6 times a week. Some have asked about prayer. I prayer several times a day. This is my conversation with God something I value and just like to keep private.

Preschool with Lily and Kendall- I am changing this to include both of the girls because I also want to be able to comment on where they are so I can look back in a year. Matt and I have finally worked out a system that I think is awesome. I am going to attempt to complete school with the girls at least once a week. I enjoy this time and really want to stay hands on in this area. I am also going to take some time each week and develop a lesson plan and pull together all the things needed for the week as far as school goes. This allows Matt to open a folder and have time to really teach the girls instead of trying figure out what to do. Lily is continuing with Reading. She is able to read some short sentences. She has mastered writing number the correct way and we are working on the concept of counting by 5s. Lily understands even numbers and counting by 2s. She continues to work through the workbooks we purchased and she is learning a verse a week at Club 254 at church. We are using this as practice for writing and review so she will be able to quote all 26 at the end of the year. Kendall is able to draw a circle and is working on recognizing colors and K in her name.

budget- We are finally on track in this area except for groceries. So we have decided to try and control expenses by eating out of the pantry. Matt and I develop a menu plan for 30 days with the hope of extending it until we travel to Michigan simply by buying Angel Food this month. We are going to purchase milk and sodas as needed but not ingredients for meals.

Overall, September has been a month of settling into a routine and getting back on track. I hope we are able to continue!