Category Archives: Saving Money

Pantry Challenge vs No Spending

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This is a subject that I have been thinking and working out in my head for the last 24 hours or so.  These are my thoughts and how I worked it all out.

A pantry challenge is a way to reduce your grocery spending, use up items that you have had for any length of time in your freezer and pantry.   Another purpose or rationale would be to determine how much food do I really need to store?  My one solid rule for this year’s pantry challenge was to only buy what we were completely out of.  My thought was also that if I don’t go to the store, I am less likely to spend money as well.   I don’t mind stopping at the grocery store on the way home from work to grab an item but usually what happens is I look at meat for markdowns and also take a look at the clearance section.   Knowing in my head that I don’t/should not be doing that is actually very freeing and has given me a chance to avoid extra spending on groceries.  Another benefit for me is being able to say to my family “We are doing a pantry challenge this month so if we don’t have it then we can’t make it.”   Because of this I am currently keeping a list of meals that we enjoyed and have enough supplies for in February.  I will again do the same for March. My goal is that we really eat out of the pantry and freezer until after our Disney trip. Which leads me to a random question and struggle.  How much do I restock?  For example, I used the last of the pork and beans in a recipe on Saturday. Since I am completely out, I could restock but do I buy 2 cans (what I used) or 6 cans which is what I would typically grab because that fills my can shelf.   Currently my decision is to wait, we use those beans once a month maybe so they are something that I can wait to restock.   This may be my overall decision about most foods except Diet Coke, and creamer. It also does depend on what we end up eating as well.  I chose to continue my subscribe and save items at Amazon.  I am very consistent in checking prices to make sure that they are still at a good deal.   I also make sure we don’t have an abundance of the item. This month’s subscription is mainly lunch foods.  We all take lunches at least 4 days a week.  I will count this toward our grocery spending.   I will admit that I have also been trying to limit the number of items we are ordering from Amazon as well. This month so far we have paid for toothpaste. The other items have been free with points and/or gift cards earned.   I should be able to reduce the amount of Amazon spending for both February and March as my plan is to get our small tax refund on an Amazon gift card to help reduce cost.   A pantry challenge in my mind does not affect our other spending such as going out to eat or purchasing non-food items.

A no-spend challenge means that you do not spend any money except on bills and gas for the month. This would include eating out, purchasing snacks at ballgames or other events and also any other purchase.  This would be extremely difficult for us or even just me to do during this session of our lives. Since May of 2022, we have had at least one kid involved in an extracurricular activity. This means paying for admission for an event and usually these events happen around the dinner hour.  Including our drive time, it is just impossible to eat at home some days.  We also enjoy eating out with friends after church on most Sundays. I have in fact incorporated this into our budget.  I have in the past tried a no spend month except for budgeted items but this is my goal for every month so that does not work either.

So now that I have gotten all my thoughts out on paper, Why does it matter?  Currently we are in a pantry challenge and our washer completely died yesterday. Matt and I talked about it and decided to go ahead and order a new washer.  So, my debate was doing this just ruin our pantry challenge?  The answer is no and I don’t have an excuse to buy additional groceries or other items.

 

5 Things Friday- Pantry Challenge Update

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  1.  One of the things that I had given myself prior to the pantry challenge was that if 2L Diet Cokes went on sale for under $1 I would plan to stock up.  If you have been around here for any length of time you know this is my drink of choice. Late Friday night I received a text from my Mom that Food Lion was having a one-day sale on coke products.  After a swim meet, we (Matt, Lily, Zach and I) went into Food Lion and each purchased the limit of 10. Matt actually purchased Dr. Pepper, so I have “only” 30 Diet Cokes.  This puts our grocery total up to $50.46.
  2. One of the reasons, I have heard several people use for participating in the Pantry Challenge is to discover where you have holes in your pantry.  The very first hole was toothpaste.  That is now on my Amazon subscribe and save list. Yes, I am paying for toothpaste for the first time in almost 10 years but hopefully we will not run out again. The awesome thing about subscribe and save is once I get stocked up I can cancel and restart if needed or simply skip for 6 months. The second items that we discovered needed to be on subscribe and save was liquid soap. The good news is that we had enough credits on Amazon that this was a no cost item!
  3. A pleasant and fugal surprise this week was discovering 9 eggs in our chicken coop. We decided to enjoy these on the day they were discovered. This meant we switched up our menu plan for the week and had breakfast for dinner!
  4. My master list of repeat dinners has grown to nine!  The goal is that after we have eaten a meal if everyone enjoys, we can add it to our master list, and these can become items/meals we repeat at least once per month.
  5. I went grocery shopping in the freezers today. We are doing excellent with eating and re-arranging. Zach is a little concerned, but I think we are doing well!  Second biggest accomplishment of the day/. No Amazon deliveries scheduled until the 28th!

5 Things Friday- Budget

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  1. We practice a zero budget, which means that we plan where each of dollars go prior to the month beginning.  One exception is the Verizon phone bill, I budget to pay this entirely each month however several family members are responsible to pay their own portion. This money is not budget but I usually add to the fun money or purchase other items that are needed but not budgeted for.
  2. Several of our monthly expenses are fixed such as the mortgage payment and Tahoe payment.  I am choices at this point to only pay the required amounts as the interest rates are 2.75% and 3.49%. This allows us to focus on debt pay-off with fun thrown in as well.
  3.  For our utilities, we actually just lowered our internet bill to $49.99 a month, electricity budget is $300 and water is $44. If we manage to keep these lower than anticipated, then that adds money in for debt reduction.
  4.  This year we have increased both our grocery and gas budget. I currently have $975 for groceries and $600 for gas.  I am using any money left over even during the pantry challenge to work on debt as these are the categories that for 2022 we were most over in and we ended up using other monies to cover.
  5. Two budget categories that I rarely talk about but have been a part of our budget for the last several years are Pool Dues / Summer Fund at $50 a month and AAA/ Insurance at $150 a month.

Pantry Challenge – The Details and Week 1

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I first mention this challenge (#3RiversPantryChallenge). My goal is to share at least once a week about this challenge in order to help keep me accountable.

I stated that my only rule was that I would not buy anything until I was actually out of the item.   Unfortunately, I have already had to order/ buy toothpaste. I was going to try and use the ‘travel size ” tube I found but Lily came in and told me that she was out of toothpaste as well. So, $10.38 was spent on toothpaste for the next couple of months. I also added this to my subscribe and save list!

I have now re-done my budget and if I can survive and complete the challenge, I could possibly add around $1800 for the months of January and February!  This is a huge motivation for me. Along with the pantry challenge, I am also going to try and limit my spending for the month, especially from Amazon.  It has become so easy to just order from Amazon if we think about it.  So far, we are doing great with this part of the challenge, no Amazon deliveries in three days. Kendall ordered and received a new bible but that does not belong to me.  The one exception is that I am going to continue with my subscribe and save planned for the month. Most of these items are for lunches. Currently all five of us, take our lunch at least 4 days a week. If the kids had to switch to purchasing lunch that would be $30 a week. By keeping my Amazon subscription coming in I am actually probably saving money.

One thing that I feel like I need to share upfront is that I always take my mother grocery shopping because she reliant on a walker.  She also eats with us around 4 times a week.  She enjoys and insist that she treats my kids with certain items when I take her shopping. This week she purchased pickles, apples, raspberries, Oreos, chocolate chip cookies and strawberries. This makes the kids and my mom very happy so it will continue.  I honest think that it balances out because we share meals and meat with her on a regular basis.

One really positive that I have started this week is that I am making a list of dinners that we are currently enjoying in January that we can easily repeat in February. My goal is to make my life easier this way.

One other addendum is that Amanda brought over a case of chicken nuggets this week that she was given at work. She knows I never turn down free food so hey that should help with the pantry challenge as well.

 

Financial Planning- Year in Review

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Today, I have spent about 3/4 of my time in my office, reviewing, reworking, rethinking and double checking all things in my financial plan.  Overall, this has been a good year for us financially and I want to make sure that we stay on a good course to keep things in a positive direction.

One thing that has significantly changed this year is our income. Matt started the year off on unemployment, actively seeking a position. This continued until mid-April with a period of six weeks where he had no income.   I worked between 10- 15 hours a week in Guam via Tiny Eye until the end of May. I was very surprised to learn that my contract was not renewed in June.  Although this has negative impacted our finances, I do not plan to seek a second job at this point. I have some things on the radar, but this would currently consist of less than 2 hours weekly. One of the things that I wanted to make sure of was that we would be able to continue our current lifestyle without building up debit if things stayed absolutely the same for an entire year.  Currently, we should be able to maintain both our current income and living status based on the numbers I have gotten today.

I was able to finalize a budget for 2023.  I did make some major changes in not only the way I am budgeting but also in the priorities that we have.  Although the way I am wording and paying our expenses in 2023 is different, we are still using a zero budget. Meaning that both Matt and my income is budgeted at 100% with no extra money.  We find ways to save more and make money in a variety of different ways. Part of my time was spent reviewing previous years and where we stand financially compared to even 2011.  We currently have 24 thousand dollars in debt besides our Tahoe and house.   This is in comparison to $16 thousand in December of 2015.   One important difference that should be noted with the current value of our house, we could in theory sell the house and be able to cover not only the remaining mortgage but also our current debt including the Tahoe.  Another comparison that I found is that our minimum credit card payment in 2017 was $989.69 compared to $822 today.  I am going to continue to work toward zero debit other than the mortgage, but I also want to celebrate the success that we are achieving while actively living and engaging in our lives.

Speaking of success, we have achieved a “baby” emergency fund of $1000.  The majority of this is in cash so that is a HUGE success.  The next steps that I am going to focus on under the Dave Ramsey plan is snowballing all debit.  I am seriously considering making zero credit card debit a goal for 2023!  I am not sure this is achievable with Lily starting college, but I do want to have less than $100 thousand in debit including our mortgage and Tahoe by 2024.  Currently we have around $170 thousand in total debit.

We averaged $972 a month in grocery spending this year. In comparison to the USDA “thrifty” plan which would equal $1400 a month. This is significant increase in spending when compared to $530 in 2021, $631 in 2020 and even $821 in 2011.  My mother continues to provide support in this area as she eats at least 3 days a week with us.  My goal is to increase grocery spending to $975 a month in 2023.

We have spent an average of $620 a month on gas this year. This does include 2 trips to Florida, two trips to Mrytle Beach and a trip to Asheville. My plan is to budget $600 a month for gas with anything extra being used to pay down debt or for the extra expenses like oil change that always seem to pop up.

One final thing that I am going to include but it is an after note and one that I just wanted to document somewhere is that we lost around $2500 this year.  This was not an intentional lost or one we could have predicted but it did happen and affected our bottom line!

Saving on Saturday

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We all know that our grocery bill in one of the highest budgeted items.  And to be honest, I have been going way over budget this year most of the year!  Today, I spent the afternoon making sure that as little as possible of our food goes bad and is wasted.

We also managed to eat at home all three meals which is a huge money saver.  Matt used the Black stone to make sausage links and patties and bacon. I was in charge of eggs and hashbrowns.  Matt also used the Black stone to cook 3 pounds of hamburger to use in several different things today as well.

I opened the vegetable draw to discovery that most of the items were on the brink of going bad. I did fine one orange pepper that was fed to the chickens.  I chopped up 4 and half cups of peppers and 2 cups of celery that went into the freezer. I also left out sliced peppers to be eaten as lunches this week. I chopped 4 cucumbers to snack on. I used the remaining green onions in our loaded potato casserole that was made to prevent the remaining potatoes from going soft.

I used up a couple of boxes of Chex mix for reindeer crack and muddy buddy Chex mix. We also discovered that a couple of half boxes of Chex cereal were stale, but they were not wasted instead the chickens enjoyed a treat.

For meal prep, I made a batch of cheddar and bacon burgers, two loaded potato casserole went in the freezer for later use. I made a batch of my chili for dinner and to use with baked potatoes this week.  Matt made a batch of his chill for dinner and lunches next week.  We also have a pound of ground beef cooked for a taco pasta this week.

Finally, we saved money by wrapping presents this evening using the paper I found in the attic last year and tape that was purchased on sale several years ago.  I have enough paper to last several more years of Christmas.  By that time, may I can sell my “vintage” wiggles wrapping paper!

5 Things Friday

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  1.  Christmas is my favorite time of the year!   We actually have finished with all the decorating!   Lily and I will be headed to Disney in 17 days for a girls only graduation trip!  This is truely a  once in a lifetime experience!
  2. The weather is still really bizarre!  We have several days in the 60s followed by days in the 40s and it feels like it is raining every other day!  We have had so much rain that we are currently trying to figure out ways to dry up the water because we have standing water at the back of the coop.
  3. This weekend is very unique and special…. no plans for the entire weekend other than church. My goal is to get caught up on some cleaning and have an awesome pajama day.
  4. We have scheduled family pictures for December 26th and only one person is still in need of a shirt to wear.
  5. Groceries are the biggest area that I am noticing a difference in cost.  We have been over our grocery budget for 4 out of the last 5 months. And not just a little over WAY over!   I am going to try and reduce our spending on groceries for at least the next 3 months. I will adjust the budget to this year’s average in January but I also would like to reduce the amount we are spending along with adding freezer space that I can feel this summer.  My current goal is to spend $100 in the month of December.

Saving on Saturday

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This is the Saturday after Thanksgiving so today is definitely different than most Saturdays! But here are a couple of ways we are saving today.

  1.  I have pressure canned 15 quarts and 2 pints of turkey stock.
  2. We are eating left-overs in various ways and forms.  Leftover sandwiches have been the biggest hit, but I made turkey sliders for dinner today which were also good.  My goal is to base the menu plan next week on what is still in the fridge instead of shopping in the freezer so stay tune for Monday!
  3. We are using the decorations that we already have. I did spend $37 on new sheets for my bed. And I placed an Amazon order for tent stakes and ways to connect the lights to Alexa.  Total holiday decoration spending $70! I did decide to use the same tree as last year and we dug out more lights that have been sitting in the box for years instead of purchasing more!
  4. My goal is to limit spending for Christmas this year as we prefer to spend time together and have lots of experiences.  I “need” to order one more gift, purchase gift cards for my nieces and purchase the experience for Amanda which is likely around $250 in order to complete Christmas shopping!
  5. My plan is to limit Grocery spending in the month of December to items we need for celebrating. Then for January, February and March only purchase items we are completely out of and eat on a regular basis. I am thinking diary and fruit will be the main items.

5 Things Friday

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  1. Today is Veteran’s Day. We are being blessed by several friends and family members who have served in the military. So, it is important to us to say, “Thank you” and WE LOVE YOU!
  2. I had the day off work!  This is actually the first day that I have been at home since school started. Labor was spent in Florida and was a busy but fun time. Both the car and the Tahoe needed services appointments today and Zach had a doctor’s appointment.  Busy day off!
  3. We also experienced the second Tropical Storm this year. Not as much wind but several inches of rain have fallen. At least this time we have the automatic chicken door, so we did not have to worry about being outside.
  4. I have spent quite a bit of time in the kitchen today. I did go and purchase breakfast this morning. But I made stuffed green peppers for lunch.  For dinner Matt picked up a rotisserie chicken from Costco but I am a squash casserole, sweet potato casserole, stuffing and parmesan broccoli. This should give us several meal for the weekend. The chicken bones and skin are already in the crockpot for chicken broth that I plan to can tomorrow!
  5. It is snow village weekend!  The goal is to have the snow village assembled by Sunday! Here is a preview!

Saving on Saturday

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A Saturday at home, yes this is a treat.  We decided to go ahead and get ahead on some projects around here, so it was not a leisurely Saturday.

Matt took the pressure washer to the back deck. We will need to purchase a water sealer to place on it but it does look much better, and it is still structurally sound so we will continue to use what we have.

I am really enjoying my electric pressure canner and have started to get a good stockpile of items.  We still have tomatoes ripening on our cabinet from the garden and I am determined to use what we have and waste as little as possible. I decided to venture out today and make enchilada sauce. I started by dicing and cooking all the tomatoes that were on the cabinet.  Which produced 4 cups of tomato sauce!  This was enough to make a double batch of the recipe that I had.  It turned out perfect, I have a batch of chicken enchiladas in the fridge for a meal this week and canned up 4 half pints so that should be another 4 meals!

I have been researching pressure canning meat. One of the benefits is having it shelf stable in case the power were to go out.  Another benefit for us is that with it being canned it will be in the house instead outside in the cold.  We (Matt and I ) decided to tackle this project.  I defrosted 25 pounds of hamburger meat from the freezer, Matt cooked it on the Blackstone!  I currently have 13 quarts and 2 half pints of ground beef that is shelf stable.  Th e next project will be to make taco meat and can it but first I want to use up what is in the freezer.

A final saving money thought is that we are actually using the food in our freezer and pantry. I can actually see a difference even without the canning which is not using but moving around.  My goal is to keep the grocery budget for both November and December below $400 which is half of the normal.