Category Archives: Shopping

Saving on Saturday

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  • The weather has finally turned nice on a weekend. So today we hung 6 loads of bedding on the line to dry. Which saved us over 8 hours of drying time plus they all smell so good!
  • Last weekend, we inventoried our freezers and listed 50 plus meals we could use. During this process, I realized we had 2 whole turkeys. We decided to cook one tomorrow and will have a great lunch with friends that has no out of pocket cost for us!
  • We rotated all of the cold weather plants out of the greenhouse. The temperature is not supposed to drop below freezing for the next 10 days and during the day the greenhouse reaches over 100 degree so in order to extend the growing life of these plants we have moved them outside.  In the process we discussed some spinach, lettuce and swiss chard that we can incorporate into our salads this week. We also turned off the heater which should save some electricity as well.
  • Matt was able to remove the sliding glass door and locate the defective piece. We were able to order the piece for $90 on Ebay. A fair estimate is that this saved us around $500 in the cost of a repair.
  • We took a clothing inventory and realized that new shorts are needed for most of the kids. I was able to order 14 pair of shorts at Old Navy for a total of $91.  I used my credit card rewards ($17), old navy super cash ($20) and combine with the current sale to really save.
  • I took both our vehicles to a local automatic carwash that is $5 for “the works” this is a huge savings for both time and money!

Freezer and Pantry Food

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Recently I have been spending/ wasting a considerable amount of time watching Youtube videos of grocery hauls, pantries and freezers along with the traditional January- Eat out of the  Pantry challenge.    It actually has brought several things to light for me and I decided that I would share a couple of those things with you.

First a couple of facts that I know I have said but wanted to make sure these are obvious when I am reading this 3-5 years from now.
1. Matt lost his job in November 2021. This was a sudden and unexpected change.
2.  We had budgeted $650 a month of groceries in 2021. We overspent this budget 3 months of the year but stayed under budget in November.  We were over budget in December due to some stocking up.
3. I set our grocery budget for January until June at $200 a month or $50 a year.
4. Once Matt returns to steady full-time employment, I plan to use the difference of $450 a month to save in order to purchase a cow this summer and re-stock our meat.
5. If Matt’s unemployment would end prior to him having a full-time job, I am planning to then switch my grocery shopping to only things that we are completely out of and NEED!

After reviewing that list, I can make the following statements:

1. We could likely exist on $25 a week if we needed to by only purchasing things we are completely out of.
2. I am keeping a rolling grocery list of items that we are currently low on. I am restocking to the level that I normally would. For example, we have 2 cans of corn left, I will be purchasing 8 cans on one of my next few trips. I really could get by with purchasing 2 more but instead, I want to keep a doable level for me. This will allow me to switch to number 5 above for several months in not longer if the need arises.
3.  I am continuing to purchase items I know we will use in the next couple of months when I see them on sale. For example, 2 Liter Diet Cokes are on sale this week. I will be purchasing my normal amount of 20 bottle plus an additional 10 bottles of regular Coke for the kids. I also plan to purchase 10 non-caffeinate soda to restock as well.
4. In order to use the items that we have in the freezer, I have to meal plan. And I am also trying to add one meatless meal a week and at least one meal a week to use items that we have in the freezer but normally would not choose like chicken legs or meatloaf muffins.
5. We are in a very blessed position that allows us to wait on God’s timing for Matt’s new job. Currently you would not be able to tell from our lifestyle that we are basically a one income family at this point.
6. I need to remember that we need to keep the budget at $200 a month including Amazon in order to enjoy things like our planned trips without it becoming a financial strain or hardship.
7. I am not the only person in the world who has enough food for 6 months to a year on hand!

Tuesday Thoughts

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  • We all (even Lily) enjoyed our 4 day camping trip to Conway SC this past weekend.  We arrived home on Monday (Martin Luther King Day_) to about 6 inches of snow in our driveway. The kids were super excited to “play in the snow.”
  • Today (Tuesday) was an official snow day for the kids. The community college even cancelled class!  I however worked remotely with a two-hour delay. I am grateful to be able to stay nice and warm and earn a paycheck. The same thing will happen again tomorrow.  We are actually supposed to receive more bad weather Thursday night and Friday morning, so this is turning into an interesting week.
  • We have our first official harvest from the greenhouse. Matt was able to harvest a bag of mesclun lettuce today. We will use this as part of our salad with Lasagna for dinner tomorrow. Matt was also pleasantly surprised to find that our greenhouse roof of plastic did not break or tear in the sleet, snow and wind. We are now strongly considering getting a lemon tree this summer to keep outside in the summer and in the greenhouse next winter!
  • So far this month for groceries we have spent $90.72. Which means I currently have over $100 sitting in the grocery fund. I have trade and left a $100 bill in the envelope to encourage me not to spend it. I am also on track to spend less than $200 on groceries this month. I do have a subscribe and save delivery that should arrive on January 28th but that still should not throw me over the $200 budget. My next decision is to keep saving the excess in the grocery fund until June or use this money to pay for some other items.  Right now I want to build an emergency grocery fund of $200 to start with.
  • Braxton has been staying with us this week so that both of his parents can work.  I will be the first to admit, I am glad daycare is open tomorrow because it is difficult to work with a toddler in the house!

Tuesday Thoughts

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  • Lily was rear ended on Friday while driving her car, unfortunately the person who hit her did not have license, insurance or a tag.  She is very shaken up and we are now trying to figure out what and how to fix her car.  She loves the car and wants it to be perfect. So this will be a huge balancing act.
  • I have declared November to be a no spending month.  I have even gone so far as to tell both Matt and myself that we do not need anything from Amazon!   I have gotten into a bad habit of eating breakfast out 2 to 3 times a week, in addition to my 2 or 3 days of lunch out.  I am definitely cutting back this month. We have been gifted 3 to 4 dozen eggs so it is much easier to find a different way to eat an egg for breakfast every day this week.
  • We have given in and turned on the heat on October 28th was the official date.  We should experience out first freeze this coming week.  The temperature today was a cool high of 59.  I am not ready for winter in fact, I would love to move to a spot with summer all year long!
  • The kids all did awesome during the first grading period of the year. Lily has all A/s even in her college classes. Kendall has all A’s and Zach has all A’s and B’s.
  • The past several weekend have been spent relocating the garden beds in order to expand the driveway.  Hopefully during the next 2 weeks we will be able to start some seeds in the green house.
  • We have harvested our sweet potatoes. This year was a very small harvest of sweet potatoes but small is better than no harvest at all.
  • Tonight for dinner, I took out our entire green bean harvest for the year, and it was all eaten. Again one family serving is better than no servings.

5 Things Friday

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  1. Today starts our last full week of summer break. Next week will be filled with last minute appointments and some extra fun if we can arrange it.  Braxton will also be with us for the entire week.  Today is a pool day so we plan to spend most of the day at the pool.
  2. I had a huge food waste fail this week- We had an entire watermelon that had not been cut go back and spilled on the floor. I have definitely become a little bit more aware of our food following the clean up.  I did manage to make half a squash casserole with the remaining squash.  I am also beginning to use dill and basil that has been previously frozen in dishes.  I had forgotten about these treasures until we attempted to organize the freezer. Since I was unable to grow either this year, I am thankful to find them.  I did cook our first official meal this summer that include several items.
  3. Tomatoes are continuing to produce.  I had hoped for much more but I do realize that this summer has not been the best for tomato growing.  We have been able to freeze enough spaghetti sauce for the year in addition to eating several times. I should be able to continue to make a batch a week which means at least 4# of tomatoes.
  4. I talked with the neighbor and will start using goat manure to improve the dirt in my square foot garden. I am hoping that with this and more worm casting next year it will support and grow a garden full.
  5. We received our school supply list. I am excited that we need only to purchase a couple of notebooks and clear water bottles. I have been trying to stock up on items as they have been on sale. I anticipate less than $50 for all supplies for all 3 kids!

Five Things Friday

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  1. No Monday Menu will be posted this week. Next week our church is hosting Vacation Bible School from 6 to 8 Monday thur Thursday and a pool party on Friday. Dinner is provided for workers and their children.
  2. Our new oven has arrived!  I have been experimenting and getting use to it over the past couple of days. So far I am very impressed!
  3. With only 3 weeks left of summer vacation, I have established a couple of goals that I want to work toward which will make my life easier in the fall. First- prepare easy to heat and eat meals as much as possible. This week we have focused on making pizza dough. We have all the ingredients but it takes around 2 hours to make the dough. Kendall has made 12 this week. This will make for easy pizza in the fall. Simply unthaw the dough in the morning and add toppings. We also made 2 additional cheeseburger pizza toppings to add to the dough. Second- Stock up and organize the freezers and pantry.  This is also close to completion. I will be adding a couple of cookie, bread and cake mixes during the next week. Finally-enjoy lots of down time by sitting by the pool.
  4. Square Foot Garden- we are making plans to add cement to complete this area but I am also continue to try and figure out how I can improve the soil for next year. We are fortunate to get tomatoes but I am so frustrated that the money I spent on soil is basically worthless this year!
  5. July has turned out to be one of the most expensive months EVER but we are still holding our heads above water. I am ready to start reaping the benefits of all my bargains and saving.

Filling Up the Pantry.

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I have mentioned before that I feel like we have a well stocked freezers.  So now I am trying to stock up the freezers with easy to prepare meals in addition to adding some needed items to the pantry.

I have been doing ALOT of shopping on Amazon this summer, in addition to it being the most convenient option for me, I have been able to find some great deals.  I am using scribe and save- the subscription service.   I am finding that some  deals offer some additional amounts off for your first shipment. I am setting reminders all over the place to go back and check prices to make sure that the second and future shipment are still at the great deal. If not it is not difficult to cancel but the trick waiting till around  a week before your shipment closes and then doing the math.  I have purchased snacks (30 cent or less per pack), hand soap, school supplies, rice and all vitamins. This week  I have found soup for around 80 cent a cup this is a HUGE convivence item for us!

Today I ventured out to Harris Teeter.  I have not shopped this grocery store in over 18 months. I LOVE their sales but with COVID and the distance to get to the store I just have not had a chance. Today I was getting some work on the van so I was  within a mile of a store.  I spent $33.45 and saved 53% according to the receipt! There was only one small catch, none of the items purchased were a need. They all were to add to the pantry. I grabbed 4 boxes of pasta at $0.79 cent each.  Canned beans, green beans and corn at thirty seven cent each and Hamburger helper at ninety-eight cent each. I admit that we use 2 boxes of Hamburger helper to one pound of ground beef but this is a quick and easy meal.

I am actually thinking that I have stocked up on most pantry items as well.  My plan is to only shop sales for the rest of the summer! This months groceries will be a regular month but hopefully I will be able to reduce the grocery budget by half for the rest of the year! $300 a month sounds very doable starting in August.

 

5 Things Friday

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  1. No menu plan for this week for a couple of reasons. First we are on week 6 of no oven.  Scheduled delivery is 2 weeks away.  I wanted to use up a lot of the fresh ingredients in my pantry and refrigerator as well as left-overs. And the final reason… I was just too tired.
  2. Made the first batch of spaghetti sauce from the garden this week. IT was awesome.   Unfortunately, we have discovered that the soil that I purchased from Home Depot was not good. We have been working to salvage anything by adding lime.  We were able to harvest some snap peas and some tomatoes. The tomatoes beds were over half full with dirt that I had already been using so they are at least producing a first harvest. I doubt it will be enough to fill the freezer this year but at least I can make a few batches of spaghetti sauce.  The sweet potato bed which is all old dirt seems to be doing the best so maybe I can salvage a few of those as well. My plan is to continue to add lime a bag a month until we get the beds close to where they need to be. Ugggh  I had high hopes and expectations this year!
  3.  We are headed on our beach trip soon. Not going to share all the details but this will be a totally new experience for us. We are planning a trip to Oak Island. I have never stayed on a NC beach!
  4. Lily is really enjoying her job as a lifeguard. She is actually working much more than she hoped and is enjoying spending the money as well.
  5. My summer is officially half over. I return to work in 6 weeks.  I have actually completed all the items on my summer to do list except stock the freezer. I am hoping that the next 6 weeks are at a much slower pace than the last 5!

Saving on Saturday

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This week let’s talk about our single biggest expenses food.  Yes we spend more on food than our mortgage some months. I have really been focusing on reducing this expense this year. Last year we averaged  of $631.51 a month. We have been under budget ever single month so far this year.  I thought I would share so of the ways I am making this work.

One of the things that has been going in my favor is that last year, I was able to completely stock our pantry and freezers. I have been very deliberate about keeping a running list of items we are low on or in need of. The Alexa and it’s app make this so easy for me. At least once a month, if not every 2 weeks, I am heading to a grocery store to pick up these items.   This week I had a total of 9 items on my list. I also picked up bread and bagels and lots of vegetables. Total spent $53. Our total for the month is currently at $164.  I am not planning a trip to Costco this month so I should be able to keep things very low. I am trying to only buy things on the list and greatly reduced items that I know we can use within the next month.

We spent several hours a couple of months ago cleaning out and organizing our freezers in the building. I discovered that we had an abundance of pork items.  This freezer is currently very full so I don’t need to any any items to it even very heavily discounted things.  I know I paid less for most items even last year than what they are currently.  Not buying meat is one of the huge ways that I have been able to reduce our spending. My plan is to use what meat we have for the remainder of the year with the idea we may buy a cow next spring. Next up on the agenda is to clean out our house freezers. We have lots of items that have gotten lost in these freezers. This week it took 3 people to find a pack of hot dogs. But they were found and are on the meal plan for the week.

We have high hopes and plans for our garden this year!  We had a huge expense when we update the garden beds. In total including dirt we spent around $1500.  Our goal is to grown and eat enough to even our the expense. I had purchased several packets of seed and attempted to grow cucumbers, squash, zucchini, snap peas and green beads from these packets.  So far the results are still out. I have somethings growing but not as well as I had hoped. The past two years, I have purchased tomatoes from a local greenhouse. This year I purchased a flat 36 plants for $30 compared to Lowes and what I have paid it the past this is a HUGE savings.  I also have started  8 pepper plants in the garden. I usually buy most of my plants from Lowes. The average price is $3.50 a pot which for I get one pepper or tomato plant and maybe 4 squash or cucumber plants.  Today we headed to the local farmer’s market where I spent $3.75 on on 10 cucumber plants. (Mine are not near as green or as big). We also spent $3.00 at the local nursery for 2 watermelon and 2 cantaloupe plants. These are half the price of a single plant at Lowes.

We also purchased 2 tomatoes, a squash and a zucchini from the farmer’s market. We spent $5.00 to feed all 5 of us lunch of tomato sandwiches and saluted zucchini and squash.

After a year of eating school lunches, everyone is burn out and decided to return to packing our own.   Matt and I still have a lunch allowance but I am finding that I prefer to eat from home most days and use the money for dinners or ball games. I stocked up (10 boxes) of Suddenly Pasta salad last summer at $1 a box. I checked the current price and  $2.35 is shocking.  We made 2 boxes of pasta salad, added 3 cups of shredded chicken along with the remainder of a cucumber and tomatoes from lunch. For around $3 we have enough for 10 lunch meals.

This week I was also able to find reduced prices on broccoli, blueberries and cucumbers at Aldi. So I made a pot of broccoli soup for dinner. Looking for discounts is the best way to save money but you have to use the food or it is still over spending.

Did you save money this week?

 

Saving on Saturday

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After the struggle we had last week I am glad to say that things are definitely looking better today.

Instead of replacing the washer, we decided to have a repairman check it out to determine if it was worth the repair.   I am excited to say that he came this morning and it is a belt which will cost $20. So along with his labor we are around $100 to repair, saving us $500 if we had chosen to replace.

I feel like I am finally controlling the grocery budget.  The first thing that has made a huge difference is use “Alexa” to keep up with what items need to be on my grocery list. I have gotten in the habit of adding items as they are used up to the grocery list and then printing before going to the store. I save time and money by not purchasing items not needed!  In January we spent $230 on groceries and so far this month we have spent $171!  This is a significant reduction in our spending from last year!  I do anticipate a COSTCO trip at the end of the month but I also have a Costco list going on the Alexa so that should help as well.

My mother has been watching food prices and let me know that Aldai had  ground beef for $1.49 a pound this week.  The limit was 2-5 pound tubes. I was able to purchase 5 tubes between myself, mom and Matt today. This is the absolute lowest I have seen ground beef in several years.  I did a quick check of the freezer to determine what we needed. I was able to process 25 # today. We have taco meat, Matt’s chill and my chill. Baked beans for lunch tomorrow and 9 bags of cooked meat to use to help with a quick meal on our busy days.

Matt was able to use some wood from the building to make 2 additional Minnie Ear holders for Kendall’s wall and a shelf for Zach’s room. I will try and post pictures as soon as they both get painted.

Finally, I remember to add digital coupons and offers prior to heading to Food Lion today. My receipt says that I save $26.00 and I earned $4. in rewards!

How did you save money today?