Category Archives: Shopping

September Goal Update

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1.  Full Fund the budget each month.  I was able to complete this by using $400 of our grocery budget.!

2. Emergency Fund to $2000.   Added $100 this week.

. 3. Groceries: Reduce Grocery spending to $300 for the month. Currently, I have spent $274 for the month. I have the remaining $26 plus a $5 refund from Target in cash. I am excited because I have purchased 80# of chicken, 90 rolls of toilet paper and this list, all this month!  I will admit that the last 2.5 weeks of the month will be challenging but I am setting myself up to succeed.

4. Gas: Spend $400 a month .  Total spent this  month is $304.11. We decided to go ahead and complete some preventive work on Matt’s van this month, our goal is to extend the life of the van till my current van is paid off. I was able to find gas for $1.99 a gallon so I am very hopefully that we are able to stay within the budget for the month.

5. Eating out- Reduce/Eliminate Eating out for the month of September. $80 for the month including the purchase of 2 meals during my recent trip.

Disney- Pay at least $375 toward our Disney trip to maximize Disney points prior to November. This week I paid an additional $100 toward our Disney trip so total for the month so far is $200!  I do have a yard sale planned for next Saturday, all proceeds will go toward meeting this goal!

Extra Goals:
1.  Plan to purchase both Lily and Amanda birthday cards.  Completed! 

As you can see, for the month I am really on track financially. I want to make sure that I stay accountable for the next two and half weeks, they will be the most difficulty. I am also very excited that we have been able to turn off the air conditioning for the last 24 hours. My goal is to get at least 7 days of no heat or air this month to reduce our electric bill to under $250.

Saving on Saturday

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I am so excited about this Saving on Saturday!  Food Lion, our one and only local grocery store, is running it’s house brand sale!  In the past they have ran this sale twice a year, usually January and July. This has not been the case in 2015, this is the first time this year they have offered this sale. With each “house brand” item you purchase you receive a coupon for $.0.25 off your next order. You must purchase 4 items at a time and they limit you to 40 items or $10 at a time. The reason I like this so much is they have house brands of just about everything.  In addition to this coupon, they often run sales on the house brand items . I was also so glad to read that this sale will continue for the next four weeks with new/different items on sale each week.  My biggest disappointment is that I have not came up with a legitimate way to figure the true savings. Because the “house brand items” are usually cheaper to begin with it is hard to enter a saved amount.  I did use my usual tracker to get an idea and it gave me a savings of 42% with my two trips. The other method I have seen and like but really is not accurate in most case is to take the number of items purchased and divide by total cost. I have spent 79 cent on each of these items which is a better way to judge but still not the most accurate.

I spent $66.19 in 7 transactions for the following:

8 2 L Soda
15 Bags of frozen corn
4 4lb bags of Sugar
40 cups of yogurt
18 packets of taco seasoning
6 packets of Ranch dressing
6 boxes of Ziti Pasta
4 boxes of Jumbo elbow noodles
6 cans of cream of celery Soup
6 cans of cream of Chicken Soup
1 can baked beans
2 blocks of cream cheese
Bag of potato’s
package of Pepperoni

After hearing and confirming the sale, I went to my pantry and made a list of “wants” that if I can purchase over the next several weeks, I will consider my stockpile full. So far I am approximately 75% of the items. I am trying really hard to stick to a small grocery budget of $300 this month. Currently I have $32 in cash left in my envelope. My plan is to watch for a sale on Ketchup as this is the next “big” items on my wish list. I will then use my remaining cash and be done for the month! Easier said than done but it is a goal!

Saving on Saturday 9/5

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As I mentioned in this post, I am planning to make the next couple of months, low spend/no spend months. That does create a small problem with one of my favorite things to post, Saving on Saturday. The reason, if I am not spending then how can I really be saving. So at least for a couple of times I am going to use this day to discuss my budget and my progress toward goals. My intention is to give concrete steps that I am taking to meet each goal. So for today an update on September Goals.

1. Reduce Grocery spending to $300 for the month. So far I have spent nothing on groceries for the first 5 days of the month. I did go to the building this morning to “shopping” during menu planning. I am so excited to find the meat and other items to make no shopping easier.  I also have already checked the CVS ad starting on Sunday and will not be making a trip this week.  This is a tough decision but I don’t need anything and with no free items why be tempted.

2. When I looked at my September budget, I have 4 categories that are not completely funded for the month so the remaining $400 of the normal grocery budget will be used to completely fund the budget. This should actually occur next weekend after I receive my first paycheck of the month.

3  Plan to purchase both Lily and Amanda birthday cards.  Completed!  Amanda will  not be getting gift card, instead she needs some items for college.

4. Pay at least $375 toward our Disney trip to maximize Disney points prior to November. Paid $100 toward the trip this week! I did use my Disney card to purchase the gift cards for the kids spending money so I am excited to see where my reward dollars are in a couple of days.

5. Maintain Gas budget at or below $400. We have had to purchase gas in both vans but still less than $100 so far.

6. Reduce/Eliminate Eating out for the month of September. So far we have spent $60 for Zach’s birthday meal and donuts for his class. I do have a meal planned for tomorrow in addition to most of the meals planned for the week. This should definitely help us stay on track.

I have also placed one item, toddler bed on a yard sale site and plan to clean my closet out this week to have a good start! My goal is to place all money earned toward our Disney trip as the other items in our budget are currently funded!

Saving on Saturday- Vacation

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I really do enjoy travelling and especially enjoyed our vacation this year if you could not tell by all the pictures. One reason, that I was able to enjoy our vacation this year is because of the fact that we actually spent overall less on a week at the beach than we have spent on a long weekend trip. So today, I am going to share some tips that I used this year to not only save money but also to make this trip so enjoyable.

The first and most important tip is PLAN AHEAD!.  I booked our condo in January this year in order to get the specific week that I wanted for the rate we could easily afford. But I actually started buying for the trip back in November 2014. CVS usually runs some awesome Black Friday sales, starting the Sunday before Thanksgiving, for the past several years these have included laundry detergent for free after ECB.  I am pretty brand loyal, but in this case, I carried the free laundry detergent home and placed in a plastic container. During our beach trip, we typically come in from the beach and toss all suits and towels in the wash. My thoughts are free is good enough as long as it helps to remove the sand. Other items that I find on good deals (usually $0.75 or less) include hand soap, toilet paper, dishwasher tablet and dishwashing liquid.

The next way that I plan ahead for our vacation is meal planning. I know there are a few meals that the entire family loves and so if I am making one of these I will just make two and place the second in the deep freezer to take to the beach. Our plan ahead meals this year included baked ziti, chicken and broccoli casserole and gravy biscuits. If I find a good deal on a special snack food that we like I will also go ahead and purchase that as well. This year these items included goldfish crackers, Oreos and  Kit Kat Minis.  I also do the same with paper plates, cups and silverware. The condo does have a dishwasher but I prefer the paper for the convenience.

Another way that we save money is by saving and reusing certain items year after year.  I have a 20 year collection of sand toys that I store in a large bag in our building. Each year we take it with us to the beach. Some years we come back with less sand toys as if they break they are thrown away at the beach. We also have purchased a beach cart, umbrella and several chairs that are specifically for beach use. It may seem like a lot of trouble to carry these items back and forth but in the big picture it continues to save us money as we don’t purchase new items unless they are needed.

A finally way that we save money on vacation is by increasing the temperature of our house to 82* and turning off/unplugging anything possible. Our electric bill dropped by $30 this month in comparison to last month with the only difference being our vacation week. We also saw a $5 decrease in our water bill which is a direct result of less laundry.

How have you been saving money this week?

Random Tuesday Thoughts

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  • We have been home from vacation for 2 days and are about 1/2 the way unpacked. Goal- Be completely unpacked by Saturday.
  • I am going to be changing/hopefully reducing my work schedule over the next month to make things a little bit easier around here in the evenings. My goal until the changes officially take place and for the whole school year is to be leaving work by 5:30. So far I have been home 2 days in a row. Go me!
  • During my extended lunch break today, we headed to Winston to Vision Works to order both Zach and Kendall new glasses. The lesson we learned is that glasses for the little kids need to have nose pieces to keep them from sliding off their face. I did use a coupon surprised? We were able to purchase 2 pair of glasses with transitional lens plus a very nice contact lens case for Lily to take to school for $200.
  • I am planning to attend a continuing education class in September, it will be the first time in 10 years I have stayed by myself in a hotel room. I think I am a little too excited!
  • Disney planning is in full swing as soon as we finish unpacking from the Beach.
  • As part of getting ready to go back to school, I had the kids try on and get rid of any shoes that were too small or that they did not like. Kendall is upset because now she is left with only 22 pairs of shoes.
  • Lily has cheerleading every night this week and man is it rough trying to get everyone back on a school schedule. Zach will start Kindergarten and we are trying to eliminate naps up front so the evening have been full of attitude. Tonight was at least better than last night. Zach made it to his “normal” 7:30 bedtime. Last night he was in bed at 6:50.
  • Amanda has started college and so far I am very proud of the hours she is putting in to be successful!
  • We are on budget so far for the month in both groceries and gas. I am so proud of this especially because of the massive Costco trip we made on Sunday in addition to the purchase of school supplies today.
  • Blogging is always better at the beach, I guess the smell of the ocean makes my thoughts come easier!

 

Saving on Saturday August 8th

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These are the items that I was able to purchase last week at CVS. My favorite deal was purchasing 2 boxes of cereal, 2 shampoos and a bottle of hand soap for $0.40. The reason this was possible was that I received an “extra” 5 ECB for reaching $50 in beauty care spending. I used that in conjunction with the 5 ECB for purchasing $20 in P&G products from last week.  When you combine all the transactions 5 in total I spent around $8 and saved 81%.  The sharpies are going to finish up Zach birthday gift (autograph books for Disney). All the other items when in my beach stock.(More details on these hopefully later in the week.

I made several additional shopping trips this week to grab up “Lunchables” which we will use at the beach for lunches and for easy school lunches to get us back in the swing in a couple of weeks.  My best grocery deal this week came at Food Lion. I had to make a shopping trip to purchase baby food to use at work, I did use a $1.50 coupon that printed at the machine, At the end of the transaction, the regrister also printed a $3.00 catalina. I used this to purchase bread flour for $.25.

I have also started to play around and use the ibotta and checkout 51 apps. So far that have been fairly simple to use and I am not purchasing items that are not already on my list, so ever little bit helps. This week alone I earned $0.75 at Checkout 51 and 5.35 at Ibbota,

What have you been doing to save money?

Saving on Saturday-August 1st

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sosTarget is one of my favorite stores to shop. I love combining sales and other special deals. This week was an awesome week to stock up on drinks and purchase jeans. I actually received a text message from Target asking me to combine a sale with a 35% off cartwheel of sodas.. I was able to purchase 4 12 packs of Diet Coke, 1- 12 pack of Coke and 8 bottles of Diet Coke for $13.00 or $2.16 each. These will come in hand on our upcoming  Beach trip. Matt requested we grab some “Crystal Lite” packs as well. They were also on sale. Prior to making the trip, I ordered 105 K-cups, they were on sale at Buy Two, Get one Free with an additional 10% off for store pick up, the individual cost of $0.33 each. The final great deal at Target was jeans for both girls, on sale for $10 with an additional 5% using my Target card, which is connect to my regular account.

Shopping is not the only way that I am saving money this week. We are planning our annual trip to the Beach next week. In the past, we have been able to stock up on “Lunchables” to use most days on the beach. This has not been the case so far this year. I have decided that it would make the most sense to make a huge batch of sour dough rolls next week, bake and use these as our ‘sandwich bread” Today, my goal is to make egg salad, and chicken salad to use for these meals. I will also be make a big bowl of pasta salad to take as our meal to the pool this afternoon.

Menu planning and working out  a laundry schedule for the week to maximize the use of our clothes line should round out the day.

 

July in Review

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Blogging:  Goal: 14 per month Been a crazy month and I don’t even feel like going back and making one more post for the 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.  No regular exercise…. got to get back in a routine.

Spiritual-  Goal. I want to spend time reading and or studying the Bible at least 5 days a week for the year. Fail fail fail.

Financial Goals-
1.  Full Fund the budget each month.   I can imagine that this may seem strange to some people but I set my budget based on what I need each month to cover all expected bills with extra savings going into various counts for non monthly bills. Some money are much easier than others. For example July was a crazy spending month, however with extra monies coming in from the refinancing of the house we were still able to be totally over budget but everything paid and future expenses saved for.  Goal met!

2. Emergency Fund to $2000.  Met. Added $100!  Goal met 2 months in a row!

. 3. Groceries: Spend $700 a month .Total Fail.  We started the month with a trip to Shuler meats. In addition, we have had to purchase several items such as toilet paper due to running out. Total spent in July 934.12

4. Gas: Spend $400 a month .  This is a huge FAIL!  Because of the wired state of NC, I paid sales tax on the new van when I purchased but also had to pay property tax in order to receive the permanent tag. The car also required an oil change which made me $110 over budget for the month of July.

5. Eating out- tracking purposes only $465

Disney- Goal Met! We have now paid for over half of our Disney trip!

July was intended to be our “budget reset’ month. It also ended up a very expensive and crazy busy month as well. I am so glad to look forward to our Beach trip in August for the life reset I need. Then watch out it is full steam ahead to Disney

Budget Update 7/23/2015

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This is an accurate representation of my budget for the month. I will be honest and say that I am not really stressing about it this month. We have had a lot of monies coming in and out of the account in addition to the county swim meet and buying of school supplies, so the fact that I can say that all we are not sinking in an incredible debt hole or juggling important bills is a gain for the month. July is also the month that I receive an extra paycheck, so that helped offset a lot of the additional expenses as well. Now for a look at the numbers…..
1. Emergency Fund to $2000.  Met. I did add money but the fund is still extremely low but I am happy with progress in the right direction.
2.. Groceries: Spend $700 a month .Fail.  Currently we have spent $833.59 so far this month on groceries, this amount does include a large meat order from the beginning of the month. I also have purchased several items to add to the stock pile. As with the rest of our budget August should be a much better month.
3. Gas: Spend $400 a month with any remaining to be move to Auto fund for repairs.  This is a huge FAIL!  I am sure had we just been using this money for gas that I could have stayed under budget for the month; however based on the crazy ways that vehicle tax is now being collected in North Carolina, not only did we pay sales tax on the purchase of our new van but we also had to pay regular taxes prior to being issues a tag.  The other major hit this month was an oil change for the car. In August, we will be purchasing new rails for the van to mount our traveling box on, I have to obtain a new license and the car will  need new tags which will mean taxes and an inspection for it as well. I had planned to reduce this budget to $350 starting in August but with all these expenses I will not make any change until September.   4.
4. Disney- Goal Met!  I was able to pay $1000 toward our trip this month!
5.Eating Out- This is a new category and for the present it does not have a set amount but instead it will be a way for me to gauge how much we spend each month to help in developing a budget for next year. So far this month we have spent $292 eating out.

Saving on Saturday July 11 2015

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sosThis is one of those it is a lot of little things that make a big difference kind of week.

We spent most of the morning in the kitchen preparing food ahead. I made burrito bowls for breakfast and we plan to enjoy the leftovers for several morning this week. I also made tomato/basil biscuit. They turned out awesome and we ended up eating for lunch at the pool today. I will plan to make at least a batch of these every couple of days in order to  keep ahead of our garden. Next on our cooking list was “baked ziti” We made two large pans at the same time. The first of these we will be enjoying for lunch tomorrow with friends. My preparing ahead we will not be tempted to eat our tomorrow after church. The second baked ziti went straight in the freezer this is one of the 4 planned evening meal that we will be using on our beach trip. The condo we plan to stay at has a full kitchen but I do not enjoy cooking on my vacation so we plan ahead and take a couple of meal that just need to cook, by freezing the also serve as ice for the cooler on the trip.

I am beginning to notice a difference in my grocery spending this month. The main reason for this is that after making our “big” meat purchase and completing a trip to Costco, I decided to take the remaining money out of the bank and place in a cash envelope. Because I can physically see the money remaining in the envelope and know we still have half the month left, I have been making some tough decision regarding stocking up on items.  I did run to the grocery store yesterday to purchase provolone cheese for the baked ziti but I was not even tempted by any of the sales they had. We are currently on our last 2 rolls of toilet paper.  CVS is having a good sale on my favorite brand tomorrow, I would normal complete this deal twice for a total of $35 out of pocket. This amount of toilet paper would last us 6 months. However, I will only be spending about $17 tomorrow because of checking the cash envelope prior to planning the trip. I don’t have enough cash to cover two transactions so I will be buying more toilet paper in 3 months as the need arises. It may sound silly right now but I am really working at staying on budget this month, even with some big spending up front.

I spent about an hour tonight updating and learning about the different apps that will actually give you money back for purchasing certain items. I have had a saving star account for over a year and realized that I was eligible for my second payout, the amount is only $5.25 but this is directly deposited into my bank account and I earned it by simply buying items that were on sale with a coupon as well. I am hoping to make some extra change each month by using these apps.

How are you saving?