Category Archives: Budgeting

Awesome CVS Trip

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I was excited on Thursday to read on Southern Savers that I would be able to get Electric toothbrushes for FREE! I also knew in the back of my head that I might have to re-think my strategy in the store if these had already sold out. I originally put together 4 transactions with around $20 out of pocket. When I arrived at the store they were out of the toothbrushes and even the store in the next closest town was out. So I did some rethinking and using my original list for items I need was able to come up with 3 transactions spending $19.21, saving $63.90 or 77%. I started out with no ECB and got no coupons that I used today from the machine. The only variable is that my CVS accepts competitor’s coupons so I used 2 $5 off $25 that I printed from Rite-Aid. Here is how it worked

Transaction 1
2 Olay Daily Facial wipes 5.00 2 coupons $1 off
2 Tampax Tampons 2.50 2 coupons $2 off
2 Oral B Toothbrushes 4.99 1 coupon $1 off, 1 coupon BOGO

Total 10.98 and 10 ECB back

Transaction 2
2 Bags of M&M 2.50
1 Bag of Reese 2.50
1 Bag of Snickers 2.50 1 CVS coupon $1 off
1 Bag of Pampers 8.99 1 Coupon $1 off
2 Oral B Toothbrushes 4.99 for one and 2.99 for the other, 1 coupon $1 off, BOGO rang up as 4.99

Used 10 ECB and total was 6.07 of which 2.10 was tax got back 3 ECB

Transaction 3

2 small bottle Mitch deodorant 2.50
Used 3 ECB total due was 2.16

Left the store with rain checks for the electric toothbrushes and I will plan to return on Monday to see if I can pick up if they have any in stock.

Matt did make a trip to Aldi today and spent 10.00 but even he thinks that we can go a month without grocery shopping again!

A challenge

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I LOVE yes LOVE to read (stalk) other blogs, especially those with small kids. I have noticed a common thread of monthly challenges on several. These have included “no dining out”, “living on x for an entire month” etc. I consider my entire life a challenge so have not felt the need to participate in any of these until today. Matt and I made a “quick” trip to Costco today to pick up some milk and other supplies. We came home and started putting up the groceries, but man we don’t have much space at all. We started talking about trying to use up all the food we have in the house and how menu planning and even sticking to a weekly menu plan is hard, and going totally without a menu plan is even worse. I also am kinda disappointed in how much I am still spending each month on groceries. So I thought it would be awesome if I didn’t have to shop for an entire month. Matt and I talked and this idea has grown and develop and refined. So during the month of October I am going to try and avoid going grocery shopping except for milk and Diet Coke. We also plan to purchase the normal for us amount of food from Angel Food in October. We have made a list of 32 different meals that can be made out of the food that is already here. This is not an all inclusive list because we also plan to eat lunches and breakfast at home. I also will continue to go to CVS on a regular basis for “deals” each week. I am actually anxious to see if this can work. I have realized in talking to Matt and planning meals that we do need a trip to Aldi to buy flour, taco seasoning and sour cream to complete the list. If this idea works we may continue to use the 30 meal plan each month and begin with the list of recipes instead of the ingredients. I wonder if anyone would like to join me or have you tried this?? Leave me a comment…

August Month in Review

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WOW I am not sure where the month of August went but it has flown by. I wanted to update on the goals that I set in January. Things have changed dramatically so far this year but I am happy to report that I have a feel I am actually going to met some of these goals.

Blogging- I just checked the number of post for the month and it was 14. This is a improvement over both June and July but not my highest so I still have something to aim at. I would like to blog at least 3 times a week with a goal of 5. I am also hoping to return to talking about my good deal that I find as well.

Reading my Bible- I can honestly say that this is the area of biggest improvement this month. I am reading a devotion at least 3 times a week so that is much better that I have been doing. I also know that I need to improve in this area as well but at least there is some improvement.

Preschool with Lily- Matt has taken on this task with me preparing lesson plans and helping him to know which direction to go. Preschool started on August 16th and is occurring at least 3 times a week. In August, I came across an educational store where I purchased a Kindergarten/First grade math work book as well as a Kindergarten book that has a little bit of everything in it. Lily is currently working on writing lower case letter as well. Kendall is beginning to blossom by counting to 10! I think that this will be amazing to see the progress at the end of the year!

budget- UMMM let me see.. this month the budget has undergone some major changes. Our much needed vacation makes it difficult to even get a feel for the money we spent on Groceries. I have also not been in the swing of coupons but hope to get back on trace in September and report awesome improvements!

July in Review

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Let me just say out loud that July 2010 has been the worst month in my entire life! I honestly didn’t think it would ever end. Low points of the month include the week of Remington’s death, Matt losing his job and the dishwasher completely not working. So is anyone surprised that I have came even close on any of my goals?
The one thing that I have improved on is my devotions because honestly God is the only one support and carrying us right now! I am able to spend time at least 2 a week and usually 3 to 4. I am encouraged by a devotional book that Haley bought me at Life.

I have spent around 800 again on groceries this month that is on top of all the wonderful food we have been blessed with. But the bright side of that is that our freezer is of officially full and we should be able to reduce the grocery budget in August even with our beach trip!

I have only blogged 12 times including this post.

Preschool is on summer vacation!

Now for an update and plan/idea of what is going on over here! Matt is officially unemployed and as we had established as our plan 3 years ago, he will become the full time daddy and housekeeper. I already have in the works a part-time position that will guarantee me 16 hours a week and full benefits. I also plan to continue working a second position for around 12-16 hours a week depending on what they want and how busy my schedule is. We are confident that this will allow us to not only maintain a budget but actually start to reduce debt and save. I add this to my monthly update as to what we have been able to accomplish. For the month of August, the goal is to go on vacation, find a second car for me to drive and met the budget we establish prior to him being unemployed. Matt will be taking over the responsibility of teaching Lily to read but I am still going to do a “preschool” time with her to work on writing and math. I am excited to get these details in place! If you are reading then please pray for us these first weeks of August that we establish a routine and find peace and comfort in it!

Highest Ever Savings at CVS

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After reading my last blog, you know that I do not roll ECBs but try to spend them all at the same time. I also am a member of “CVS advisory” panel. I found the information for this on Southern Savers. So far I have completed 3 surveys, one of which I received information about yesterday via email. I have to admit I was very skeptical because it promised 10 ECB if you qualified to participate and 2 just for trying so I thought okay why not. I did qualify for this survey which involved watching a commercial and typing in responses.

So today, I took my 10 ECBs and my printed list and did a quick trip to CVS. I was able to snag a couple of money making deals. One of which is on the Gillette Body Wash ( sale price $4 with 4ECB). I also had a BOGO coupon and thought great two more free things of body wash. The register actually printed out ECB on both of the items. Here is a break down of the transactions

Transaction #1
4 SOBE Water (sale price $1 each)
2 Gillette Body Wash ($4 each)
1 Herbral Essence Shampoo ($5.99)
Coupons used BOGO Gillette
2 BOGO SOBE Waters
1 off Shampoo
10 ECBs
Total with Tax 1.56, ECB received 8 for Gillette and 2 for Shampoo

Transaction #2
2 Packs of Huggies Diapers (sale price 8.98)
Coupons used 2 x $3.00 off Diapers
10 ECBs from previous transaction
Total with Tax 2.30

Total Out of Pocket $3.56 total saved $47 or 92%!

MAY in Review

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Wow! I can’t believe it is already the 3rd day of June. May turned out to be a very very busy month for us indeed. I have got a few minutes to update on the monthly goals.

Blogging- I just checked the number of post for the month and it was 21. Not too bad considering that I have been really trying to blog at least 5 times a week. This is the same number of post as January and the second highest, with March being the most. I wonder why I was able to post so much in March?

Reading my Bible- I sucked at this and need to make it a higher priority! This will be my focus on June.

Preschool with Lily- We have completed 6 days of preschool this month. The biggest thing is that I have finally finished the planning part of “Teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons.” I am going to start this with Lily either tonight or tomm.

budget- It sucked this month, if you read my last post you understand why. My goal is to spend 500 a month or less on groceries including diapers, formula, cleaning and personnel items. Last month I did provide the food for Amanda’s baby shower but my grocery budget was over $1000. I have got to get better and at least down to the average of $620 for June!

Work is needed in all areas but I know that God will show the way!

Randon Thoughts Tuesday

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I actually remember to do this on Tuesday!

I realized on my trip to Harris Teeter last Wednesday that I have not been reporting/giving credit to myself for the actual amount saved. I have not been including my “VIC” saving in my total.

On Sunday, Matt, myself and the 3 little kids made a second trip to HT this week. I spent $55 saved $124 or 69%. This was a great trip considering we ended up with 5 cases of drinks for Matt’s lunch. I am debating a third trip today but it probably will not happen.

We also went to CVS on Sunday. There were already out of the Body wash that would have made this an awesome trip and I forgot my free coupon for “Little swimmers.” So I will most likely make a trip to another CVS this week to take advantage of the money maker. I did get a raincheck for the body wash but I will be able to do this deal twice if I can find the items in stock.

I have totally shot the grocery budget for this month, my excuse is that I bought all the food for Amanda’s shower. So to try and at least use some of this food for us I have spent the better part of the last 2 days steaming, and freezing things such as broccoli and carrots. I will also be freezing the celery to use in soups this winter. Today, I am trying a new recipe that involved using alot of veggies that I had already decided I need to use up! I hope it turns out well because I ended up using 6 chicken breast in it as well. I have made 2 dozen muffins and need to freeze half of these and then make a batch of banana bread to use the rest of the 9lbs of bananas I bought at half price last week. I hope to finish all this up today and make some baby food for Zach to eat. Yesterday he ate no “bought” baby food which was awesome. If I do nothing but save on the purchase of baby food that should get me back on track for June with the budget. I did come in 150 less than the average in April so if I can do the same in June, I will break even.

My garden is growing awesomely. I notice this morning that the jalapeno pepper is blooming. I have now transplanted everything and each square has something growing in it! I will try and get a picture to post soon.

Harris Teeter Super Doubles Trip

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I am super excited after getting back from my first trip to Harris Teeter for Super Doubles. I had made the comment to Matt that I thought Super Doubles would be better right now then Triples and I was right :). I actually made the trip today with a friend, this was her first trip to Harris Teeter so it was awesome to help her “find” the deals. So I spent a total of $27 and saved $124 or 82% this is the highest this year besides one trip to CVS. I was able to grab 9 free items, 6 boxes of cereal, 4 cans of Tomato soup, 5 containers of juice and 3 frozen pizzas. Those are just the highlights. I did use a Raincheck to grab 2 packs of diapers at 0.09 cent each, but these are included in my totals so this was AWESOME! No picture today because my kitchen table is a mess and since it was lunch time when I came in. I decided to clean and take a picture was not worth the effort!

I am super busy this week and now understand how hard it is to keep up with blogging and my crazy life. I will try to get better but the rest of the week includes a second trip to HT, Amanda’s baby shower and a quiz meeting. So I wonder if I actually will!

First Walmart Coupon Trip

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A little back ground is necessary before I actually tell you about my trip. First of all, I live in a small town. The only “grocery stores” in town are Food Lion, Aldi, Save A Lot and Super Walmart. I regularly drive out of town to go to Harris Teeter for any of there special events or for a really good sales week. Food Lion does not double any coupons EVER or accept competitor coupons or even stack coupons. So basically both Food Lion and Walmart make it difficult to save on my grocery bill. I have been consistently couponing for around 3 months now. I decided yesterday after my EXCELLENT trip to CVS that I would attempt a trip to Walmart. Matt was out of coffee creamer, which he is brand loyal and Zach was running low on baby food. I couldn’t find a sale worth driving to for the baby food so I thought lets just see how I do. I have heard from several people in the past 3 weeks that Walmart is no longer accepting printed internet coupons so I decided not to even take one in. I did look at the list on Couponing to Disney to find out some dollar deals. I was actually pleased when I checked out and spend $40 and saved 17 or 29%. The saving were only from coupons as it does not show you or give you as way to figure in “roll backs” or sale prices. I was able to pick up Diet Cokes for 0.98 each and other sodas for the kids for 0.66 so overall this would be considered a successful trip in my book. I will never be able to save over 40% realistically at my local grocery stores so for a first trip with the whole family it was not bad!

Cheap is Good…. Free is Better

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DUH you say of course everyone knows this but let me clarify. I am talking about new or even slightly used items I have been able to gain over the past couple of weeks. When I say FREE, I mean with no out of pocket cost to me (this includes tax and shipping/handling). So I am really excited to report that I was able to get a Free Razor (New Fusion) for Matt just yesterday. On Sunday I picked up 4 FREE Magnets from CVS. I was not sure I would like these so I stopped ordering at 4 instead of the 6 I could have gotten. Now I am really disappointed that I didn’t get the other two because they are AWESOME! I order a photo collage today from Walgreens, my plan is to hang it in the new bathroom but if it is ugly then at least I don’t feel bad about throwing it away:). With Mother’s Day on Sunday there are several offers floating out there that I am hoping to take advantage off because FREE IS THE BEST! I have been able to “earn” 15 ECB during the past week just by taking surveys for CVS. I had signed up for the advisory panel over a month ago and these are the first 2 surveys that I have been sent. I really hope they continue to send them! They are easy and quick and I like being able to print my ECB right as I finish.

But don’t get me wrong cheap is good. For example my CVS trip this past Sunday I spent $30 and saved 77% or $102. I did start out with $2 ECB from the previous week and 10 ECB from a survey but I was excited about this trip. Highlights include Body wash for $0.60 a piece (3 total). Diapers for 0.07 a piece. With the diapers I really debated on purchasing and ended up buying a large size for Zach but the fact I had 2 coupons expiring I decided to use them. I also purchase both face cleaner and feminine products that should last between 3-6 months during this trip. Another cheap item that I have received is 2 “snowball” bushes. I have always wanted one or more of these in the yard. A nursery online was offering a $25 discount on a 25 purchase. So basically I paid 12.95 (shipping ) for 2. They arrived yesterday and we planted them at the corners of the trampoline, I hope they grow. They are suppose to have a life time guarantee with a minimum of 3 months prior to obvious growth so we will see?