Category Archives: Shopping

Grocery Budget-Motivation

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Our largest category of spending is Groceries.  I budget $600 a month to go toward this but for this year so far I am averaging over this amount by $14.  I often plan and set a goal to reduce this category but it is the most difficulty one for me to control or at least that is what it feels like. If you read my July update, you probably are aware that I plan to save at least $250 of this months grocery budget to use as fun money at the beach.

Every time I make such a plan, things seem to come up and usually I tend to cave and just buy what we “need”. This month, as usual, already we are starting to run out or run low on a number of items. However, I have not caved to the pressure, simply because of the motivation to have the extra money to use at the beach.  I will say that this is becoming harder by the day and we still have 2 week prior to leaving for our trip.

One of the items that we are running out of currently are spices. I have just started a list on the back of the monthly calendar so that when we do head out to shop, I can be assured that we are not forgetting anything. We are starting to run low on several items that I would usually plan a trip to Costco just to pick up such as milk and eggs. We brought up from the freezer, our last gallon of milk yesterday.  I had originally planned to keep this frozen and use as an ice pack in the cooler but this will not be the case. I have decided that we can always purchase a gallon of milk there it will come from the same money but it at least will be a beach purchase. We have exactly 24 eggs left. The kids have been enjoying at least one egg a morning each with their dad and at that rate we have about a weeks worth left.

A final item that is going to take a little bit more planning for the next two weeks is menus.  Our only chicken meal left in the freezer is Chicken Fried Rice, slight problem we are out of soy sauce to complete.  The good news is that we have plenty of pork and beef items and even a seafood meal.  The addition problem is that starting this week the girls will have cheerleading two nights a week which means that we have to have semi quick meals.  I don’t want us trying to save the grocery money to turn into eating out because it is easier.  I am hoping that by writing things down it will make me more accountable. Wish me luck!

Target Shopping

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I can honestly say that I enjoy shopping more at Target than CVS now!  The only thing that could make me like shopping Target anymore would be if it were physically closer to me!  Over the last several months I have been making it a habit to watch the Target ads and stop by any time I am in Winston.. On Thursday, we spent most of the day shopping and our first stop was Target. I am going to give a lot of details about this trip and also how anyone can combine all the promotions at Target to save even more money!

The final saving at Target to me is the simplest. You save an additional 5% of your bill after all other coupons by using a “Red Card”.  My red card is not a credit card but simply a card that is tied to my regular bank account. I use it only in Target and it works like a regular debit card although it usually takes about a week for it to post to my account. On our trip Thursday, I saved $4.53 by swiping this card instead of my regular debit card.

One of the biggest ways to save at Target is to combine sales with coupons. You are allowed to use 1 Target (store) coupon in addition to a manufactures coupon.  Target actually has 2 different types of coupons. First they have printable coupons from the website, in addition, they have mobile coupons which are texted to your phone. Although you can use both a manufactures coupon and a Target coupon on one item you can not use both a mobile coupon and a printed Target coupon on the same items.   On this trip, I purchased “Right Guard Deodorant” this was not on sale. The price was $3.34, I used a $2.00 off Target coupon and a $1.50 coupon from the newspaper for this item, which made it entirely FREE! I don’t think that Target allows overages but I can’t really tell from my receipt but FREE is still Free!  Target also puts out very different coupons than you generally see. For example I was able to purchase a roll of Scotch Tape and a pack of Post It notes  for $0.02 each by simply using the store coupon. Another advantage to the Target coupon is that some are for their house brand items, which are usually less expensive. For example, I purchased the house brand sunscreen and used $1.00 off store coupons.  I have really been surprised at how many coupons I find on their store brands.

Finally, in addition to use both a store and manufactures coupon, Target has a program called “Cartwheel”  This takes a little bit of work and planning but as you will see well worth the time in the long run.  To use the “cartwheel” you have to go to the Target website and sign up for the account, I used Facebook so it was simple. Cartwheel items are generally for a % off an item.  You are limited to 18 Cartwheel offers at a time but can easily remove and add. I always print my Cartwheel list from the site so it is a simple scan of a barcode in the store. On this trip, I took advantage of several of these offers including 20% of kids shoes, 30% off Nutty Poptarts, 25% off Swimwear, and 15% off Coopertone Sunscreen. I was able to combine the cartwheel and coupons to purchase the Poptarts for $0.66 a box and the sunscreen for $6.50 a bottle. The percentage of saving comes off the price of the item before coupons which is an advantage.

A final reason I like shopping Target is the convenience of having everything in one store!

40# of Ground Beef!

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Matt and the girls picked up our Zaycon ground beef order. Zach got to enjoy some unexpected big sister time with both Haley and Amanda due to our central air problems.

We were unsure of what to expect but after ordering and enjoying several boxes of the chicken breast, I was hopefully. This meat was awesome. Matt placed the 4 tubes in the cooler with 2 ice packs from around 10:00 until 7pm. Either of the ice packs melted and the meat was still very cold.

I had been debating and thinking about the best possible use of this meat. In other words what do we need to do to get the most use with the least effort. I am pretty pleased with the results so I thought I would share with you.

I frozen 10# raw. 4 bags of 1.5# and 4 bags of 1#.  I will insert that I have been using regular sandwich bags for freezing and have not had any huge issues.

We ended up using 3# for making Taco Rice.  I am going to estimate that this is approximately 6 full meals. We usually keep a container in the fridge for a quick meal. I used 2 of my side by side crocks to simmer  the ingredients while working to prepare the rest of the meat. I am going to estimate this as 6 meals.

Next up in the third crock is Sloppy Joes. I used another 3 pounds of ground beef for this. I am going to estimate 3 total meals.

Matt loves Salisbury Steak so we also made 3# worth of these which totaled 5 additional meals. Last Saturday, I used around 10# of potatoes that were not looking the best to make mashed potatoes. So this is a quick and complete meal.

The remaining 21 pounds we browned with onion to be used in a variety of dishes as it is needed.

Overall meals = 45 meals
Total Time= 4 hours including clean up with both Matt and I work.

 

Weekend Rambling

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I have enjoyed 4 full days off work in a row!  I am excited and feeling accomplished that I just had to share all that we have been up to.

  • Both Friday and Saturday, we spent over 5 hours enjoying the pool. I can finally say that I have a tan now!
  • The weather has been awesome, much cooler than in the past week and much cooler than I expected, temperatures have been in the mid 80s by day and even some 50s at night.
  • Because of the nice weather, I was able to spend several hours working not only in our square foot garden but also working in the flower beds around the house. I am very pleased with the results!
  • The square foot garden continues to provide us with fresh vegetables daily, our cherry tomatoes are awesome! Hopefully by the end of the week, we will have some full size tomatoes to go with our cucumbers and squash. Because of the really hot weather, I am not sure if we will be getting any more beans this year but the kids loved planting and picking so they will be repeated next week.  My most exciting discovery this week has been that we have 4 watermelons and 2 cantaloupes growing! I can’t wait to eat these.
  • I have been grabbing some good deals at both CVS and Food Lion this week. I will say that I was most disappointed to find that Diet Coke was not on sale at Food Lion after being told it was by 2 different people.
  • Both the little girls are really enjoying swim team. Lily is now able to swim all 4 strokes but needs to work on her endurance. Kendall is able to swim the back stroke and freestyle without stopping. Kendall has also been working on the butterfly but I am not sure she will be able to compete in this stroke this year.
  • Our new dryer arrived on Saturday and we were able to dry a load of towels in less than an hour!
  • One of the best deals I got at Food Lion was ground chuck for $2.67 a pound, this afternoon in less than an hour, Matt and I put together 5 meals. We decided to combine the ground chuck with venison that we had previously purchased.  All the meals were frozen because we are still eating leftovers from Kendall’s party.  We packed 2 bags of cooked ground beef; these will be used for Hamburger Helper or other meals such as pizza that started with cooked meat. I made a meatloaf and cheeseburger pie and finally Matt made a container of Taco rice that we plan to take to the beach as a meal in August.
  • On Friday, which was the Fourth of July, Amanda came and took Kendall shopping for her birthday. She purchased a dress, 2 complete outfits, a pair of shorts and a couple of Disney shirts. Kendall is so excited to have new clothes to wear!  Haley decided to spend time with us as well. She actually went to the pool. The little kids absolute LOVE when their big sister spend time with them!
  • Tonight, all three of the little ones are attending Vacation Bible School at my brother’s church. I am excited and surprised because Zach wanted to go and did not even get upset when we left him eating with his cousin. I hope they all have a great time. This is the first time that Zach has been able to stay somewhere without either of his parents. He will sometimes stay at the child watch center at the YMCA but other time he refuses so for him to want to stay is AWESOME! I hope the trend continues all week!

Saving at Harris Teeter

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I have been looking at the Harris Teeter ad for several days now, trying to decide it I should make a trip for this week or wait.  I am reading rumors that they will host a “Super Doubles Event” in the next few weeks, but after a little more printing, I knew this would be an awesome week to go.  I was able to load my card with the ZVR coupons (Harris Teeter) and I even signed into Saving Star to make sure I could get the best deal.

Bright and early this morning we headed out to Salisbury. I am so glad I did!

Total Spent $65.01
Total Saved $109.56
Percent Saved 63%

Once everything shows up in my Saving Star, I am also eligible for $10 cash back!

One of the reason I am so excited about this trip is the number of convenience foods, I was able to grab. We spend ALOT of time at the pool during the summer but there is no way we can afford to eat out or even just buy snacks at the pool each time. So today was awesome, I grabbed around 20 Lunchables- great for swim meets and if they last that long to take to the beach, 5 packs of Hunt’s pudding, 8 boxes of Granola bars, 4 boxes of fruit by the foot/fruit gushers and 5 cases of soda for Matt to drink at the pool and also for the beach. These are all easy things to carry to the pool. In addition to these items I also included in my purchase was 2 boxes of Hamburger Helper, 2 boxes of Suddenly Salad, 3 boxes of Stand up Taco shells and 2 bottles of salad dressing.

I keep a spread sheet for the year with most of my best saving trips on it. This is not the best trip as far as percentage wise that I have saved but it is the second largest savings dollars that I have achieved this year!

Random Thoughts Thursday- Money Edition

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Today, we have spent most of the day running errands and shopping so this is a great way to share my best deals of the day!

  • CVS paid me to take 4 tubes of Toothpaste today including 2 of the hard side bottle that are great for traveling. Total Spent $3.66, ECB back $4ECB and I did not start  ECB with any so this is definitely a profit.
  • We found 2 “Palm Tree Coolers” at “Five Below”. I can’t wait to use these at Kendall’s birthday party.
  • At BedBathandBeyond, the salesperson asked if I had any coupons, I replied “No, but I would take one if you can find one.” She said let me look. I ended up with a $5 off my purchase! I was able to buy a new steam iron and a melon baller for $19.05!!
  • Our first stop of the day was to purchase meat at one of the “local”  closest (20 miles) Meat Markets. We spent $185 for 15lbs of bacon, pork chops. hamburger patties, chicken nuggets, cube steak and 2 packs of steaks for grilling. All were processed and frozen within the past 24 hours. This is addition to our purchase of hamburger to be delivered in July should help us stay in budget for the rest of the Summer.
  • I am glad to say that June will still be our most expensive month of the year however God is providing so that it also appears that it  will biggest income month to date as well.

 

Sunday Shopping At CVS

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This is one of the best weeks in a long time at CVS, I knew that I needed to get to the store today if I want to grab the couple of deals I spotted.  But the reason I am so excited tonight is not only did I get the deal but made money in the process.

In the past, there has been some debate on a couple of websites as how to count your ECB and figure in your savings., however today no matter how you do the math, I made money by shopping.  The one slight issue I had was that the red coupon machine did not work so I had to wait till after the transactions to get most of the coupons that have been advertised. I just kept things simple and am sure I did better by the machine being broken in the end.

I started out with $1.00 ECB on my card and $2.50 on Matt’s card.

Transaction #1 (my card)
M&M on sale $0.75 and Skinny Cow Carmel Delight on clearance for $0.59
Total spent $0.37 and Earned $0.75 for the M&Ms

Transaction #2 (Matt’s Card)
Crest Pro-Health mouthwash on sale for $4.99 and a coupon for $1.00 off
Total Spent $1.83 and earned $4 in ECB and an additional $5 in ECB for meeting $50 in the beauty club.

Transaction #3 (Matt’s Card)
Crest Pro-Health mouthwash on sale for $4.99 and a coupon for $1.00 off
M&M on sale for $0.75
I did use $4 ECB from the previous transaction, total spent $1.09 with $4 ECBs

Total Spent out of Pocket = $3.29 plus $3.50 in ECB      equals $6.79
ECBs remaining = $10.50
Total profit $3.71!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Travel Budget

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If you have been reading here long you know that our family travels on a regular basis. The usual standard of travel is to save money while enjoying the trip. This long weekend was a bit different in this aspect. We still travel on a budget, however it was much larger than most of our trips. the reason?  We only took snack foods and drinks, all meals were purchased. If you just want to see some cute pictures of our family, scroll down for a group of pictures

Here is our budget breakdown:

Hotel    $240.72  The hotel also placed a hold on $100 for a security deposit but that was returned on Tuesday
Gas       $120.00  This was 2 tanks of gas in the van. It is in addition to our regular monthly gas budget.
Food      $400.00.  Basically $100 a day. We came close to this everyday and the additional was spent for clothing.
Spending money $240.  We used the majority of this for purchasing clothes and other small treats while shopping.

Total budget amount $1000      Total spent $1200- the additional money will be deducted from clothing and additional regular gas money not spent.

On our food budget we enjoyed pizza, ice cream, daily breakfast, PF Changs, Olive Garden and Cheeseburger in Paradise.

Random Thoughts Tuesday

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  • I am so tired of cold and water that I can’t wait for Spring. In the past 2 weeks the kids have had 2 early dismissals and 2 missed days because of ice. Enough already give me some sun!
  • I never realized how much a tooth could affect your life. I had a cavity filled 2 weeks ago with a root canal last Thursday, every day I come home drained and climb into bed. Today is the first day I have not taken medicine at work. But now I am dealing with an awful headache
  • I am so looking for to our long weekend. I just need some time to sit and think!  Hopefully I can enjoy the sounds of the ocean at least once while we are there!
  • I need to find myself something to wear in our family pictures that are scheduled in 2 weeks!
  • I don’t plan on using Thred Up again to resale clothing, I did send in one bag and was given a fair but small price for the bag. I did not realize that in order to get a payout, it would require waiting 2 weeks and a PayPal account. Last night I finally just found some summer clothes for Zach so that I am done with this  for good!

 

ICE Storm 2014

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Yucky, nasty! Those are the two best words to describe the ice storm we experienced this past Friday, March 7th.

I actually headed in to work around 8am because I had decided I like to get paid for watching the nasty weather. However, God had different plans for me. I dodged several trees on Beck’s Church Road and even felt the back of my car slid a bit. At that time, the roads were covered with around an inch or so of ice. However, the thing that actually sent me home was when the police officer told me to turn around because of down electric lines in the road. On the white knuckle drive home of less than 4 miles, I watched several trees fall over, slide in the ice going up a hill and did a lot of praying.

Once at home, I decided a good cleaning day would be great especially with the business of the next two weeks. However again God’s plan are always better than mine.  Our power went out around 9am, we are very fortunate that my parents that live less than a mile away still had electricity and in fact were part of the 4% of the county that never lost power. Matt and I packed an overnight bag, grabbed our electronic and dinner that was  in the crock pot and headed over for a visit with the dog and kids in tow. The rest of Friday was spent watching television, surfing the internet and even a couple of games of Uno. The kids had a ball and I am betting my parents enjoyed the time as well.  By Friday evening, the ice turned to rain! We received a total of over 3 inches of precipitation on Friday.

On Saturday we had a planned day of shopping in Winston. We left my parents house around 8:30 and returned home with Rugar (our dog) around 5pm that evening. We were really surprised at the amount of snow instead of ice that was received just 30 miles north of us.  I plan to give more details of my deals in another post!

Our electricity was restored around 11 am on Saturday. We are so thankful and blessed.  The temperature on Saturday rose to around 70* and the only evidence of the massive ice storm are the abundance of trees that are laying everywhere. We have no trees in our yard so we are among the few that don’t have clean up to complete this week.

Here are a couple of pictures…