March in Review

Posted on March 31, 2015 by Sheila

Blogging: Goal: 15 per month Goal Met! I think I have finally got my groove with blogging!

Spiritual- Goal. I want to spend time reading and or studying the Bible at least 5 days a week for the year. Doing better but still not achieved

Personal Goals: Achieved 1 of 3

Financial Goals: Achieved 4 of 4

We are continuing to make small steady progress in this area. Income wise this was an awesome month as we received an expected boast. I am also hoping to keep on track during April with our Beach trip.

1. Pay off all debit by December 2015, except for mortgage.
~~a. JC Penny- 79.32– .~~ DONE
b. Home Depot-     $270 a month Payment. Will be paid off in July Goal met!
c. American Express   – pay $2300 this month Goal Met!
d. Personal Loan (used to purchase van) .The current scheduled payment is $217 a month with this scheduled to be paid off in December 2015. Goal Met!

2. Emergency Fund to $2000. Placed $100 in for the month Goal Met!

. 3. Groceries: Spend $600 a month . Currently at $741 for the month. No real reason for this except we choose to purchase some steaks and convenient foods and this was a 5 week month. Hopefully better on track next month especially with the need to purchase plants for the garden and a trip for meat in our near future. Fail

4. Gas: Spend $400 a month with any remaining to be move to Auto fund for repairs. We need to make another repair on the white van this month which cost $157. We also have been travelling alot both for cheerleading and for medical appointments. With the repair we ended the month with a total of $474. Because of some extra income we did not need to dip in our emergency fund for this repair so officially this is Goal Met!

Disney- I have decided to add this just to be accountable. This month, I have been selling items online in preparation for our physical yard sale in April. I have been really surprised and excited to see the money come in. I have been able to purchase a stroller that we plan to take and use in Disney, 2 autograph books and a dress.

Looking ahead to April- First is going to be to control with grocery budget. I am hoping to eat out of the fridge and freezer for the first 3 weeks of the month prior to our beach trip. I am positive we will at that point have to head to Costco. I will also need to purchase live plants during the last two weeks of the month depending on the weather. I am setting $100 budget for this which means that I need our grocery spending to stay under $500 for the month. Next is Gas- in April, I am already aware of 3 small repairs that are needed. I am hoping that gas prices will stay low enough to accomplish these repairs in addition to covering our regular expense of gas. Finally, I have reworked our budget and have added a line for saving in our emergency fund. I am so happy to accomplish this goal.

Fun CVS Trip

Posted on March 20, 2015 by Sheila

I was kinda disappointed this past Sunday when I finished my CVS shopping. I ended up not splitting my transactions up the best way and spent $20 out of pocket and ended up with $12 in ECB. My saving total was right at 60% not bad but not great. However the week is saved!!! After work, I discovered a high value Tide coupon ($3 off). I decided to head to CVS just to use the two I printed. I spent $2.15 on the following..

I did receive a nice surprise tonight of 2 $5 ECB printing from the Red Machine because of my beauty club purchases.

Total spent for the week $22.31, total value 118.46, total saved 96.15 or 81%!!! And I still have 6 ECB to save till next week.

Random Thursday Thoughts

Posted on March 19, 2015 by Sheila

We are traveling again today. First headed to Matthews for eye appointments for all the kids. Next to IKEA to enjoy some window shopping. Finally back to Winston-Salem to pick out new glasses for the girls. I am estimating that we will be travelling over 150 miles and eating out at least 2 meals.
I am continue to list items on several Facebook groups in order to sell them. So far all the transactions have worked out very smoothly. I only have one more item that I am planning to list. The real yard sale is scheduled for the first weekend in April. I am planning to post this both online and in our local paper. I have already made $300 and my goal for all the yard sale is now $500. This is a lofty goal but I am hoping that it works out. If not then I will have a huge donation for the year to go to Goodwill and I have managed to really clean out!
After travelling tomorrow, our lives should slow down to a more normal hetic pace. It is a full month until we will be travelling again for cheerleading. That trip is so much fun and I am already looking forward to it. Myrtle Beach is always my favorite spot to visit.
Currently our budgets are right on schedule. We had to make a small repair to the white van again this past week but if all goes as well we will stay under our $400 gas budget for the month. The lower price of gas is certainly a nice thing and has helped our budget tremendously so far this year. The grocery budget is also doing well for the month with $170 left in it. I am really trying to clean out the freezers as much as possible with plans to start filling them again in May with freshly frozen fruits and vegetables.
My goals for the weekend include: yard work and trying to make homemade granola.

Enough randomness for today!

February in Review

Posted on February 28, 2015 by Sheila

Blogging: Goal: 15 per month Goal Met! The snow really help to get me motivated for the month!

Spiritual- Goal. I want to spend time reading and or studying the Bible at least 5 days a week for the year. One of the reasons I need to be reminded of my goals each month. Fail

Personal Goals: Achieved 1 of 3

Financial Goals: Achieved 4 of 4

I am really excited to be able to say that February has been the best month for use financial in a long time. Matt has significantly increased his income and we are exactly on budget for the month of February.

1. Pay off all debit by December 2015, except for mortgage.
~~a. JC Penny- 79.32– .~~ DONE
b. Home Depot-     $210 a month Payment. Will be paid off in July Goal met!
c. American Express   – pay $1400 this month Goal Met!
d. Personal Loan (used to purchase van) .The current scheduled payment is $217 a month with this scheduled to be paid off in December 2015. Goal Met!

2. Emergency Fund to $2000. Placed $100 in for the month Goal Met!

. 3. Groceries: Spend $600 a month . Currently at $616 for the month. I chose to do some shopping on Friday instead of waiting till Sunday so I am declaring this Goal Met!

4. Gas: Spend $400 a month with any remaining to be move to Auto fund for repairs. Gas prices hit the lowest price they have been in several years at the beginning of the month. We took advantage and filled the trunk in addition to our gas cans that we use especially during the summer months. We have continued to make some small repairs to both of our vehicles which I have taken from this budget as well. The fact that the kids have been out of school for basically two week also kept our expenses low. Total spent for the month is $398 Goal Met!

5 Things Friday 2/20/2015

Posted on February 20, 2015 by Sheila

1. It has been extremely cold here the last several days, the kids have been out of school due to the weather for the entire week. Last night the pipes to our bathroom froze, luckily they did not burst but this will be a major headache to repair in the spring. I expect our electric and water bill to be much higher than normal. Matt called someone to come look at our heat pump next week because it simply is not keeping the house warm. We woke up to a temperature of 60 this morning. NO FUN!

2. We anticipate small repairs on our vehicles because they are older: however this month we have spent over $100 on parts for these small repairs. I am thankful that Matt is doing all the labor but I had hoped to be able to save some of our gas budget this month, instead it is going into parts.

3. We have received both our tax returns now. I am thankful that this extra income has been able to help us reserve our rooms at Disney World. I am planning a full post on the cost associated with this trip and ways we are saving for it ~~very soon.~~ tomorrow.

4. I should be able to control the grocery budget this month and keep it below our $600. Currently, it has $94 left in it with one week left in the month. I know that I will be shopping at CVS on Sunday but otherwise I hope to avoid any other purchases. This past week I have made several trips to CVS and ending up spending $50 on soda and another $10 on make up but this should not be the case for next week. It was fun to see a couple of receipts that showed 100% savings.

5. Because of the weather, my work hours have been crazy. I will admit to enjoying not going into work on Tuesday or Wednesday until 10 am and getting off prior to 3pm on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday was a rare treat. I ended up working only 23 hours so between the past two week I have taken 14 hours of vacation time. I try to save these hours for the summer or events that I need to attend with the kids.

January in Review

Posted on January 31, 2015 by Sheila

Blogging: Goal: 15 per month Goal Met! I know that this will be at least post number 15 for the month but I also have a couple of other post in my head that I am going to try and get out but no matter what I am good 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. I am very excited to say that I have been able to lose 4 pounds this month. I honestly think it is having the treadmill sitting in my room. I have gone from a maximum of 3 nights a week working out to a minimum of 6 nights a week walking on the treadmill. I have struggled a lot this month with my eating but success is awesome. The down side is that I am not yet back down to the weight I was prior to Thanksgiving. Goal Met!

Spiritual- Goal. I want to spend time reading and or studying the Bible at least 5 days a week for the year. I am trying to spend more time in the Word, but I don’t honestly think I have met this goal for the month. Room for improvement.

Personal Goals: Achieved 2 of 3

Financial Goals: Achieved 1 of 4

1. Pay off all debit by December 2015, except for mortgage.
~~a. JC Penny- 79.32– .~~ DONE
b. Home Depot-     $210 a month Payment. Goal met!
c. American Express   – pay $12OO a month – paid $700 due to windshield
d. Personal Loan (used to purchase van) .The current scheduled payment is $217 a month with this scheduled to be paid off in December 2015. Goal Met!

2. Emergency Fund to $2000. Did not happen this month due to purchase of new to us van and the windshield replacement.

. 3. Groceries: Spend $600 a month . Currently at $680 for the month. My excuse this does included the junk food for Super Bowl Sunday.

4. Gas: Spend $400 a month with any remaining to be move to Auto fund for repairs. We did end up purchasing the new to us van and had to do some repairs to it to get it the way I feel safe in it. I am not counting the tax,title and tag fee of $126 in this cost, it was covered with the sale of my car. Nor am I counting the $217 windshield because that was a true Emergency. Even eliminating those 2 expenses that I can account for else where I am way over budget for the month at $514. The price of gas has finally dropped to below $2 a gallon so I am hopeful that next month this expense will go way down!

5 Things Friday- Financial

Posted on January 9, 2015 by Sheila

I have mentioned before that I really like this format-just bulletin points with a little to no connection between them so I am going to adapt it a little bit , give myself permission to change between them randomly, and attempt to make it a regular part of my blogging.

1. Harris Teeter is having one of their super double events. This means they will double up to 20 coupons a day up to $2.00 each. Of course we shopped yesterday, I spent 17.16 and saved 77.14 or 82%. I was most excited with this because they were out of at least 3 of the items on my list. But even more exciting was the fact I bought Band-aids, Tide pods, and dishwasher tabs to name a few.

2. My grocery budget is currently sitting at $302 spent for the month, I am hopeful to keep this amount low for the month to help pay off debt.

3. My gas budget is sitting at $233 for the month. This includes several minor repairs for the white van that we purchased in addition to an oil change for my car as well. I am almost confident that this amount will say under our budgeted $400.

4. We were pleasantly surprised to not have to have the white van inspected prior to purchasing tires for it. We did pay $126 for tags and taxes for the first year. This amount is in addition to the regular gas budget, because this is a one time expense that will decease to less than $50 any other years that we owe the vehicle.

5. Haley will be purchasing my car, over the next several months. I am still debating and deciding how to use and account for this money. I will be deducting the $126 above from her down payment otherwise I hope to place in a saving account until it is completely paid for and then make a big debit payoff with it!

One Cent Soup Sunday Shopping

Posted on January 4, 2015 by Sheila

I have decided to change up my regular CVS shopping on Sunday a little bit this year. One of the hardest things to do with five children for me is to find time to spend with each one individually. In reality, with the older girls this usually is a phone/text conversation once a week or so but to find one on one time with the little ones is hard especially with the girls who are so involved and in school most days. I think I may have found a great solution for all of us….Sunday shopping. I am going to plan on taking one of the kids only with me each week as I go to grab the deals. Today was Zach’s turn as Kendall went with me last week.

Zach was really luck as I made 3 stops today, Dollar General, CVS and Aldi. At Dollar General, I used 2 BIC coupons from today’s paper to grab a set of pens and a set of highlighters for free. I know that these will not go bad and simply added both to the stockpile. I also picked up a box of instant grits as this was a request. Total spent $2.74 , of which the grits were $2.74.

CVS was our second stop. One thing that really helped me out was the fact that winter quarter ECB are printing. So I was receive 3 ECB from my card and 5 ECB from Matt’s card. Unfortunately, by the time I got to the store they had already sold out of Lipton Tea and the free Gummy vitamins were not in stock either. But who can be disappointed when both my receipts show 100% savings. I was able to purchase one can of Tomato soup and 2 cans of Progresso Soup on each card a grand total of $0.04 I used 2 progresso soup coupons from today paper for $0.50 off two cans and along with the 0.50 cent off a can of Campbell’s tomato soup printing from the red box. I was rewarded with 1 ECB back on each transaction so I have a total of 7 ECB left to use either later in the week or save until next week.

Our final stop was Aldi, I mainly needed to grab fresh fruits and vegetables to use in our lunches this week I found an awesome deal on OceanSpray cranberries, $0.25 for a 12 ounces bag. I grab 8 of these and came home and froze as we love fresh cranberry sauce and the bag stated to simply freeze and use as fresh in recipes.

Total spent for the day $37.72….awesome start to the year.

2016 Goals

Posted on January 1, 2015 by Sheila

I need to stick to and achieve the same personal goals that I have kept for the past few years, so I am going to include them again with some slight modifications.

Blogging- Goal: 20 post per month

Spiritual- Goal. I want to spend time reading and or studying the Bible at least 5 days a week for the year. I started a plan to read the Bible in a year 2 years ago and currently am 80% finished. I want to definitely finish this plan.

My financial plans are definitely different from last year and I am going to include measureable steps to reach each of these. I am going to be upfront and honest. I did some extra shopping today to prepare to start out in January with a bang.

1. Full Fund the budget each month. Sounds simple but honestly, we have at least 3 categories a month that are not funded without some assistance. For the month of January I am going to participate in . If we can eliminate all non-essential spending, it will allow me to fully fund each of our budget categories and start the year on a solid foundation. I plan to pay on my purchases from JCP with the clothing budget this month. The only clothing want that I am aware of is jeans for Matt. I do expect to receive some reward dollars and hopefully use these to grab at least one pair. I also need to find a good way to sale clothing on line as we are starting to get quite a bit.
2. Establish and maintain an Emergency fund with a monthly deposit of at least $100.
3. Groceries: Goal is for $700. I am going to take this a step further and use only cash for the month of January for groceries. My goal is to spend $200 or less this month. It has become really easy to just purchase things that are on sale or a great deal and I want to focus on using what we have. I do know that we need to add some male body wash and deodorant to the stockpile. I am hoping to find these at CVS over the next month but if not they will go on the list for February.
4. Gas: Spend $400 a month. This should not be too difficulty with gas prices expect to continue to remain under $2.00 a gallon. In addition we purchased a maintenance plan with the new van. This fund will continue to cover any repairs and maintenance on the other van. We may need to purchase tires for the new van so this would also need to come from this account. I don’t want to change this amount but instead will use any and all overage to paid down our credit card debit, but will first try to get $500 in a separate fund to pay for tires when needed.
5. Eating Out- After tracking this expense the last 6 months of 2015, I have decided that we need to budget to cover this. $200 will be the amount for each month with roll over for the next month as needed. In January, in the spirit of the Diet, we are going to not spend any money eating out but with two scheduled cheer competitions, I would assume that we may end up spending some of this.
6. Make at least 2 principal only payment to the van. By completing this, we will reduce our schedule payments by one year. I receive 2 “additional” checks each year so I should be able to use these to cover this goal.
7. Pay at least $10 more than minimum on all credit card debit. I was very hestitant to actually write this goal but I need the accountability of addressing it each month. My ultimate goal is to pay off all credit card debit this year but I want to be realistic so this is my small steps. I will be using our tax refund and most likely both of my “extra” checks to work toward the ultimate goal but I also need to do a small step each month.

Brand Loyalty- Yes!

Posted on December 20, 2014 by Sheila

One of the first rules of couponing that you hear is that you must not be “brand loyal” meaning that you can’t just chose to use one brand of say toilet paper. I totally disagree with this statement. You can’t be brand loyal on every product but you can pick the items that you prefer and coupon for those items and still manage to save money. I have many items that I am brand loyal to. What that means for me is that I tend to stock up on the items when they go on sale and/or hit my buy price. It also means that on occasion I end up paying a little more that I would for the same item of a different brand but the difference is well spent in my book. I am brand loyal for my deodorant, it has to be Mitchum, my buy price is $1 or less. Currently I am looking for this item on sale because I am using my last one. In laundry detergent, I am really brand loyal to Tide. I have found that I don’t like the smell of other brands and most don’t clean as well so I ended up using more. This summer I was able to stock up on Tide, so I am just keeping an eye out for awesome deals at this point. Now I do have a rule that free is the best so when CVS offers free laundry detergent using ECB then I purchase and save for our annual beach trip. We watch a load of towel and bathing suit every day, free is good enough for these daily washings. Lily has very sensitive skin and after multiple trips to the demonologist, we have found that buying Aveno bath wash is worth the expense. A final item that I am extremely brand loyal to is Diet Coke. I have been using Coke Rewards for several years now and honestly will drink water if my Diet Coke is not available.

CVS has really not had any awesome sales since Thanksgiving but I was able to stock up on several brand loyal items this week at a 68% saving! The standard for couponing is 60% or more is a buy price so I am extremely pleased. I did spend $27 for these items but saved $58. I purchased 7 bags of Christmas candy, 6 12 packs of Diet Coke, 2 2L Diet Coke and 2 bottle of body wash for Lily. Are you brand loyal?

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Life, Love and Coupons

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