Category Archives: Saving Money

January In Review

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I don’t ever remember the month of January feeling so long….I honestly think someone stuck an extra six weeks in it. The good news is that it is over and we actually stay the course fairly well for the month. We were able to stick to our budget and made some really fun plans for this year. I plan to share those soon as well. As you can tell I have lots of plans!

Goal #1 Grocery Budget of $550- This was a close one at $552.98 for the month. I am going to call this one a success. I want to try and keep things on a even level more this year instead of huge month and really low months. We are headed to Costco for our monthly trip today and we also need to grab a couple more things for our Super Bowl party.

Goal #2 – Record and keep up with gas/ auto purchase- We spent $455 on auto related things including gas, oil change and wiper blades.

Goal #3-Use a cash envelope system for everything possible. Success!

Goal #4- Blogging- 15 post per month. 13 for the month. I do have another recipe to report on but just did not get it posted. This post should have also been in January so I am very close to success.

Goal # 5- Fitness- Goal is to walk 3 times a week. I managed to walk once a week except for the week I was sick. It is a start.

Goal #6 – Bible study- Goal- 3x a week – A fail

Goal #7-Attempt at least 52 new recipes this year.- This has been successful with keeping up with it so far. But the result are not so successful.
Tator Tot Casserole and Taco Tator Tots and Chicken Burrito Soup
I did try another breakfast casserole and will get a post up about it soon.

Menu Planning Monday

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For some strange reason, my brain was saying that because the kids were out of school a couple of days this week, things should be less hectic. Of course, my brain was wrong. In fact, we have multiple things going on every night this week. The positive- no extra eating out this week. Pizza is free with gift card.

Breakfast- Saturday- fried steak biscuits. Sunday,-bacon and eggs Monday- Peanut butter and chocolate baked oatmeal,Tuesday,Wednesday, Thursday, Friday– Choice of fried bologna, omelet, pop tarts, cereal, bagels or toast. 

Lunch–Saturday- chicken stew , Sunday-Gregg’s(local restaurant). Friday both Matt and I will eat out, Monday-kids had mac and cheese, Tuesday- chicken salad plate for me. Wednesday-ramen noodles, Thursday- something left-over. Matt has four salads this week. Kids have grab and go and sandwich on the days they go to school.

Dinner – Saturday- left-overs.  Sunday–Broccoli-cheese casserole Monday-Burrito Soup Tuesday– Sweet meatballs Wednesday-Pizza Thursday– Ham Bone soup Friday- Hamburger Helper.

Saving on Home Repairs- Master Bathroom

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A house is an investment and with any investment you have to plan on maintaining it. But a house also needs repairs not just maintenance. We finished our master bedroom addition about 10 years ago with the plan to spend no more money on it. Of course we were wrong. In September, I stepped close to the shower to grab something on top of the shower wall and my foot went through the floor.



The detective work began. We needed to figure out first how much damage there was, second what was causing the damage and third how we were going to fix the damage.

The damage was much worse than we even thought

  • We needed to add additional supports to the floor in because we could not replace.
  • The floor and subfloor were rotten

It actually took several months for us to figure out and completely repair the problem. We discovered that the shower surround itself was leaking. The only solution to this problem was to replace the entire shower surround. We decided to order the replacement from Home Depot for several reasons, first they would deliver to house and second we could stretch the payment to 6 months without interest. Unfortunately the cost of shipping was over $100. Total cost for the replacement shower surround $725.

Fortunately, we had saved excess material from the addition work. We even saved multiple pieces of the glass tile that we used as an accent in the shower room. We found large tile that matched closely to the original for $0.78 each. We also had saved the gout needed to match the original. We decided to rework the design of the floor and used the remaining glass tile. I actually like the look of the finished project much better than even the original. We also used gift card earned from Swagbucks in order to decrease our overall expense. We did have to purchase a tile saw and tile clippers. We plan to use these in the future to update the hall bathroom. Total out of pocket other than the surround $101.34! This is a huge win for us!

Creative Left-overs

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I cooked a huge meal for Christmas lunch, knowing that I would be able to stretch it for several more days. The day after Christmas we shared left-overs with our friends and ended up with about 1/4 of a spiral ham and even more unexpected was the left-over BBQ pork from my family gathering. So far, I would consider our use of left overs a success! We been eating up the left-overs for 7 days now but I have been able to use things in different ways and actually freeze several easy to prepare meals to use in the next couple of months.

The first creative left-over was ham bone soup. I cut most of the remaining ham off the bone and threw the bone in crockpot with an additional 2 cups of chopped ham, added a bag of navy beans, chopped up cooked carrots, a couple of stalks of celery that were not used, 1/4 teaspoon of red pepper flakes, 1 teaspoon of pepper, 1 teaspoon of salt and 6 cups of turkey stock. We ate this for a dinner meal and I froze a container to use as a quick soup meal.

I pulled out my food processor to make ham salad. This is an awesome snack or lunch.

Yesterday, I chopped up some of the ham and mixed with remaining mac and cheese. Kendall, who is not a left-over person loved this and requested that I make it again! Today at lunch, we finished up the ham by making ham and cheese quesadillas.

Left-over BBQ was eaten as several meals of sandwiches, next I made two containers of Pork Fried Rice. We ate one for dinner and finished as a lunch. The second container was frozen again for a easy meal in the future.

Turkey is an easy sandwich of course. But I have also made a pot of Turkey taco soup, simply chop up the cooked turkey instead of ground beef. This also made two meals with one in the freezer to use later on.

Can you share a creative left-over that I have not thought of?

Year in Review

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I am actually really impressed with myself for writing this on New Year’s Eve. This is almost a week sooner than 2018. 2019 was a much less stressful year in all the areas of my life. As I was looking back on the goals I established it does not look like I made progress but overall I feel really positive as we head into the next year.

Financial- Our debit is not below 20,000 however both Matt and I have significantly increased our income this year. In fact, Matt received a raise today that we were not expecting until mid January. I plan to share our budget tomorrow along with the goals of the year. I feel comfortable financially which is the first time I have said this in our entire marriage. In fact it may be the first time in my entire lifetime.
We spent an average of $506.76 a month in groceries this year. This is over an $100 a month deduction from last year but $75 more a month than what I wanted to budget. The kids are all growing and eating real portions now. The budget for 2020 is $550 a month which includes the purchase of more meat as we don’t have any hamburger meat or steaks.
Gas is a huge expense for us. We currently are averaging $ 465 a month but this is only over the 7 months that I managed to keep track. The good news is that we only spent $284.49 in December.

Blogging- I have been averaging 10 post a month. I was able to hit the goal of 15 in the month of March and came close in June with 14. This month, this is post number 12.

Weight/ health- This is huge dud. I injured my knee in August. I stopped everything except working. This week I have managed to walk outside 2 days so I am going to establish the goal of 3 days a week for this year.

Bible study- As a family, we were successful in reading Luke during the month of December. I need to find an individual devotional book and start a good habit for the next year.

Saving on Saturday

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This first deal is probably one of the best of the year. I headed to CVS to use some of the Extra Care Bucks that I have been rolling since Black Friday. Unfortunately, I let 3 ECB expire so I was very sad. I grabbed a tube of concealer and mascara used two $1 off coupons printed from Swagbucks and Extra Care Bucks. I spent fourteen cent out of pocket, received $7 ECB back and should earn 50 Swagbucks (fifty cent).

Yesterday (Friday) Mom, 4 out of 5 kids and I went after Christmas shopping. We found the best deals at Walmart.

Was 19.98 on sale for 9.99
Regular price $19.99 on sale for $9.99. I also purchased a small Ree figure carrying a pie for $1.98

I found a 6 foot unlit pine artificial tree for $11.00 and stocked up on tissue paper and gift boxes for next year.

At Lowes I purchased a tree topper for $4.01 you can see in the background of the picture above.

My favorite find of the day was vegetable seeds for twenty-five cent each at Dollar Tree.

I finished the day by purchasing more make up at Ulta, a gift box with eye shadow, blush and brushes for $16.01.

Did yo grab a good deal?

Five Things Friday

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  1. I absolute hate our weather, currently it is 34 and raining. We have had several cold and rainy days this weeks with yet another one expected for Saturday
  2. Tonight we are working on some handmade Christmas gifts for both my work and Zach’s teachers. I will share right before Christmas and after they have all been disturbed. We have 12 gifts and currently have spent $8.
  3. I need to decide on a menu plan for Christmas day. In the past, it has always been a sort of find your own dinner thing. But as the kids get older, I am thinking toward a big lunch with left-overs for dinner. Of course, my family needs to eat three meals a day no matter what holiday it is. This also means I need to make a trip to the grocery store.
  4. Our budget this month is looking awesome. We have currently spent $18.54 on groceries. I am anticipating around $100 for our Christmas trip, which keeps us really low for the month but after last month it should be. I am planning to share a detailed budget for next year after Christmas as well.
  5. I have 4 gifts left to buy in December. One is my mother’s birthday present so only 3 left for Christmas. I only have to decide on one final gift. Lily suggested that I need to keep a list of all the things I buy during the year but my only fear is that nosey people would find it. I guess I could be generic and just put the number of gifts purchased. Any Suggestion?

Saving and Shopping

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We all know that I enjoy shopping and I REALLY enjoy saving money. To be honest I have done my fair share of Black Friday shopping especially when my kids were smaller and it was really a chance to get out in public without three little people attached. Things changes as we all know. I have no desire to go out and fight a crowd tonight or tomorrow. But I wanted to grab some of the best deals of the year so I did both online shopping and in store shopping on Wednesday. We ended up spending most of yesterday afternoon shopping. Crowds were light to no existence and the deals were awesome. So I thought I would share most of them with you!

  • Zach used his money to order a X Box One from Costco online for $213 shipped. I used my Costco membership in addition to my Costco credit card (which I paid off immediately online). I ended up earning at least $9 back in cash for this purchase.
  • Lily wanted to use her money to buy Air Pods. We had anticipated grabbing the Black Friday deal online at 10pm, Wednesday night. However we failed. I had actually put the Air Pods in my cart around 9:30 but the price did not change when I went to check out at 10:01 and by 10:02 they were all sold out online. I quickly flipped over to Staples where she was able to purchase them for $8 more. I ended up going through Swagbucks for this purchase and earned $4.02 back.
  • Lily is going to a semi formal dance next weekend. At Kohls she found a dress for $38. I purchased several books for $2.50 and t-shirts for Kendall at $10 each.
  • Hobby Lobby is always so much fun just to walk through. I did find some baseball ornaments that I will turn into a curtain for Zach for $4.
  • Our last stop of the evening was Shoe Carnival. I was so excited to learn that their boots were already on sale for $19.99 a pair. I was beyond the moon to find a selection of wide calf boots that actually fit me. I purchased 2 pair of boots for $42. Today, I received a $10 reward certificate in my email which is good until February!
  • We ate at Olive Garden and brought home 6 prepared meals to use this weekend in addition to enough left-overs and soup for three additional meals. A total of 3 meals for $80 is a huge bargain in my book!
  • My only stop today, Thanksgiving was at CVS. I purchased several gifts and grabbed anything that was free and we use. I spent a total of $30.23 saved $76.14 or 72%. I also left the store with over 20 ECB to be used during the month of December.

I am excited to shop and save but not in a crazy exhausted ugly people way!

Tuesday Thoughts/Catch Up

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We survived the busiest six weeks that I can remember. During the month of October, all three kids were involved in one additional activity besides piano and church. This weekend, Lily had three performances of her play. I can honestly say that I was super excited and luck to have yesterday off from work just to catch up.

Income update- The really good news on this front is not only is Matt working a job that actually pays well but we both have part time jobs. This is a source of stress. We had a couple of different discussions regarding how we could or if we should even attempt this. We are at a point where the kids are pretty self sufficient so that allows us to have the ability to add not one but two part time jobs. I am working in Guam via teletherapy as an Occupational Therapist. This was a job that I initially applied for in February 2017. I have decided to limit by availability to Sunday night for a full 8 hours and Wednesday night to around 3 hours. Because of the 15 hour time difference this schedule works well. I will admit that the first week was a challenge but I also feel that once I get in the swing of things, I should be able to maintain a low level of stress. This job will continue until the end of May. At that time, we will again evaluate and decide if I want to attempt this for a second school year. Matt is working 10 hours a week as the marketing manger for the Humane Society of Davie County. We are currently unsure how long this job will last but God has a plan and a purpose so we need to simply obey. My plan is to use the extra money in November and December to get us on track. I will share an updated budget in December.

I took a day from work last Friday to catch up on grocery shopping. I was able to go to Costco, Aldi and Food Lion and restock our pantry. So far for the month of November, I have spent $750 on groceries. I would bet this number will end up closer to $800 but I am definitely ok with that. I will run numbers at the end of the year but I have a feeling that I need to increase our grocery budget instead of decrease this year.

We are currently driving a car that gets better gas mileage than either of the vans. This is a family decision that I don’t feel free to discuss but it should reduce our gas spending at least as long as we continue to drive it.

To close out our busy season, we had a family movie night on Monday. We watched Toy Story 4. It was much better than I anticipated, in fact it is my second favorite Disney movie now!

Saving on Saturday

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I was able to find a couple of hours today to search out some awesome sale items, I want to share with you. My first stop was at Dollar General. I specifically chose this store to buy Hot Wheels cars that were on sale for Buy one Get one free. The selection at this store was really limited so I only ended up purchasing 10 cars with several of those being duplicate. I will send the duplicates to church to use. I was so excited to discovery that they were taking an additional 30% off items already on clearance. Summer items are at 90%. So I was able to grab 10 packets of seed for ONE cent each. I did get some cold weather plants such as lettuce and spinach that I hope to plant in February. My favorite find of the day were these signs that I paid SIX cent each for.

Look for them in the snow village soon!

Clothing was at 70% off so I found Matt a swim suit for $1.13 and Braxton an outfit for sixty-three cent. I decided I need to check out at least one more Dollar General before heading home. The second store had a much better selection of Hot Wheels cars so I grabbed one more but less of anything else. I did purchase one Christmas present for $1.34 for the older girls.

My final stop was at Food Lion to grab some carrots and potatoes. I did grab 8 2liter Dr. Peppers because they were $0.69 each. These are a huge treat for the kids and I will plan to take a coupe to our Thanksgiving dinner. I also grabbed a couple of Boston butts roast that we can use for pulled pork. The BEST deal of the day was on cupcake mix which were in the clearance section at the back of the store. The boxes of vanilla cupcake mix were marked down to twenty cent each. The shelf also had coupons for $1.00 off 2 boxes. I grabbed 20 boxes and used 5 coupons so that I was paid $1.00 to carry the boxes out of the store! Better than free!

Did you find any deals let me know in the comment section!