Category Archives: Saving Money

Saving on Saturday 08/06/2016

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This month we are approaching our grocery budget a little bit different. First, our summer is coming to an end. Next week is our final “slow” week of the summer followed by our beach trip. So after looking at our supplies and realizing that we are to back to school days and crazy nights. So the decision was made to go ahead and get things ready for our crazy busy life. We headed to Aldi on Wednesday night to buy some staples and make sure we had can goods. Next it was Costco on Thursday. Fortunately, Costco had an awesome sale on convenience foods and lots of things that make our lunches easy to pack in the mornings.  Zach and I also went to Walmart and grabbed 40 lunchables which were on sale for $1 each. These are awesome for the kids at the beach and also for a special lunch treat.   On Friday, I stopped at CVS to grab the laundry detergent that was on sale. This is a ton of shopping this week but I am vey happy with feeling confident for the first couple of month of fall.

Next is actually getting some things in the freezer for grab and go dinners. Matt picked up 80# of ground beef that we ordered from Zaycon on Friday afternoon.  This is some of the freshest meat we have ever received the date stamped on all the packages is July 23rd, so 2 weeks ago this was a live animal.  We decided to simple put in the freezer 20 pounds or 10 packages to use for things that call for raw meat.  Next we spent five hours, fry up and packaging the rest in one pound containers. These are also for pulling out for taco meat, spaghetti sauce, hamburger helper, sloppy joes, chili and stews or crock pot recipes that call for a pound of ground beef. I estimate this should last us six to nine months. This morning I made a large batch of French toast. The kids and I enjoyed some for breakfast and the rest was frozen to stick in the toaster for a quick easy breakfast.

We have a very full pantry and freezers. I plan to reduce our grocery budget to $100 in September and $300 in October. I may be able to keep it low for the rest of the year depending on how things work out with sales and how much the kids decide to eat.

Ways I Am Earning Money

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I have been using all three of these for several months now so I am confident that they are legit. You will notice up front I am not making an income but extra money is extra money.

  1. IBOTTA- this is an app on my iPhone. I actually have been using for over a year now. I earn extra slow on it because I don’t look at it until after my trips to the store, if I purchased something on the list great if not so what. I earned approximately $20 in the last year but no money spent so a great extra.  To use you simply download the app and every time you shop you pick your store and see what rebates are available. To claim a rebate you first either watch a short video or answer a question, then you must scan the bar code of the items and barcode on receipt. I have to submit a picture of my Costco receipts but not difficult at all.
  2. MPlaces- another app on my IPHONE. This is like a GPS. The idea is that you “check into” all the places you visit in a day. You can complete 25 daily check in each day and you also receive “prizes” for the check-ins completed the day before. I use this app at stoplights. I will occasionally pull in a parking lot to complete several additional check-ins if needed. I compare this to “Pokémon Go” except I am receiving actual money for this. Just to give you an idea, I try to achieve my 25 check in daily mainly at stoplights and typically earn 500 points a day. I cash out at 12500 for a $5 gift card and start again. I usually watch a couple of short videos as part of the “prizes” so this increases my points as well. Matt has linked his tweeter account and received 10 extra points for tweeting each check in but I don’t have a tweeter account so that does not work for me.  Currently, I am earning about $5 a month again not a windfall but it is easy and does not require extra money
  3. Swagbucks- This one is easy to do but difficult to explain. I am going to give some step by step instructions and examples of how I complete. If you have a question ask I love to help people earn extra money.  First this is an app but I usually complete on the computer.   You can find a bit of everything and many different ways to earn swagbucks. I typically take surveys and watch videos. Here is a referral link that will take you directly to swagbucks.  This link will not hurt or cost  you anything to use but it does link you to my account and I get 1 SwagBuck for each 10 you earn. I want to stress that I am not taking anything from you but am being rewarded for getting you signed up. Ways to earn include:
    1. Everyday I go to the left side of the page and complete the daily survey(1), daily crave (1) and Daily Offers (NOSO) which is 2. The key to Daily offers is to hit the skip button until you get to the end. I NEVER fill in any  information.
    2. At some point during the day, I will open the SwagTV app on my IPAD and run the movie trailers. They will usually just run without me having to touch. You can earn a total of 10 swagbucks this way.
    3. Watching videos- Click the watch button on the right side. I usually start with NCrave videos which again is a button on the right side. Find the auto run ones because they will run without you interacting. A couple of tips I have learned is that you can not run two of the same type of videos at the same time, however you are allowed to watch an NCRAVE in one window and a regular video in a second window.
    4. Surveys- These can be found under Answer. I usually set a time limit for myself and if I have not qualified for a survey within 20 or 30 minutes I simple stop.
    5. Purchases online- If I am planning to make an online purchase I will go through shop first to see if it will qualify. I did purchase my new freezer this way and had no trouble using my Home Depot account with it. I am planning to make reservations this way as well.
    6. Subscriptions- I will state upfront that I only purchase things that I would normally buy and only if making money. Today I purchased the Birch Box subscription which is under discovery. I paid $9.99 out of our grocery budget and received 1500 SB ($15) these credit instantly.
    7. Searching the internet- You can be rewarded for searching using the bar at the top of the screen. This is very random and never certain so I use if I remember.

At the top of your swagbuck screen you will see several items one is your daily goal. This changes daily, by reaching your goal,  you receive the extra SB, for example today my goal is 90 to receive 8SB and 106 to receive 10.  These extra SB are awarded separately once a month between the 1st and 15th. I usually stop after reaching one or both of my goals for the day. If I qualify for one survey and reach my goal, I stop. This way I don’t spend more than an hour a day on swagbucks. Under the smiley face are your record and is pretty self explanatory.  They usually issue 1 or 2 extra swag codes a day but I usually miss because I am at work.  So how much am I earning. I try to earn 100 SB a day but this is about 60% of the time. I am earning approximately $50 a month with this. This money goes straight to my Disney trip.

 

Any questions? Let me know if you have any success!

 

 

 

 

Saturday Savings

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Today was the final swim meet of the year and I have a ton of pictures that I will post during the next week but for now we have been doing some serious saving.

First up is a budget buster- we have a leak in the  main water line from coming  the street to the house. The first leak occurred over the Fourth of July and it failed again today. Matt was able to fix the leak and repaired  the leak for less than $5. If we could have found a plumber to come out on a weekend or holiday just the service fee is at least $100 per trip, so we saved at least $200.

We were given a bag of cucumbers and squash. To be honest, I am exhausted and did not want spend anytime doing anything in the kitchen. But this is a lifestyle choice so I fried squash for dinner, chopped up and cooked the remaining squash with onions and carrots. I have a squash casserole ready for the oven tomorrow and we have a bag that will be used for a casserole in the future. The cucumber have been cut into spears and place in a jar. Our pickles will be ready in three days and will last in the refrigerator for up to a year. This is hard to place an exact price on but I am going to say that we saved at least $10 by doing these things.

We did save money at the County swim meet by waiting to purchase t-shirts until later in the day, when the price was reduced, we saved a total of $7.50.

How are you saving?

Saving on Saturday-7/16/2016

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I have said many time that it is the little things that save money. So after realizing how far behind I am on blogging this month, I thought I would make a list of things we are doing this summer to get our budget back under control.

  1. Menu planning- We have switched to a month long plan. One of the best parts of this is that we can switch around days without having to worry about if we have certain ingredients or not. Our menu plan is based around the meat in our freezer’s at the first of the month. Fruit and veggie are most like what we have either in cans or fresh or as in today on sale.
  2. Not shopping- This one sounds so very simple and actually makes the most sense. I know that if I go to Costco, I can always find a good deal on snacks and cereal or other foods that we don’t usually buy. Sales are great but I realized in January that we needed to consume the great deals. I have been able to reduce our food budget by over $150 by simply not shopping. I have a list that can be added to if we run out of something and my goal is to shop Costco once a month. I also have been stopping at Aldi about every other week to grab things in smaller quantities or pick up fresh items. Yesterday, I grabbed 2 containers of blueberries along with some lettuce, poptarts and sausage.
  3. Planning ahead which really goes along with menu planning. We have a pool membership that we pay yearly and this year, we purchased season passes to the water park.  I have purchased chips and cookies and other convenience foods to take with us as treats. We will usually take either a pasta salad or wraps or sandwiches for lunch. I did some research on our last visit to the water park and the best deal was $25 for a pizza and 4 drinks. I spent $24 at Aldi yesterday and grab more than enough stuff to finish out 3 meals instead of one. The kids are enjoying our special treat such as a package of cookies and we are not breaking the bank.
  4. Not eating out. This by far is our biggest down fall. We enjoy eating out. At the beginning of our budget journey we would honest eat out 3-4 times a week. When our income was reduced to one, we have been slowly decreasing the times we eat out. I was so excited to find out that we have eaten out twice in July. Once for Kendall’s birthday with my parents and once yesterday.
  5. Stockpiling- When I do shop, you will find that I don’t shop like a normal person. I shop the deals and then stock up. It is not usually for me to purchase 10 2-liters at a time or 10 bottles of ketchup if the sale is the right one. I am finding that sales are becoming fewer this year but I am still able to shop with my price list.
  6. Wasting as little as possible- This week on Wednesday evening, I saw three very wipe bananas on the cabinet. I knew we needed to use these ASAP. I was able to make banana bread and top with strawberry jam for breakfast on Thursday. We also are trying to preserve as much of our garden harvest as possible. This week alone I have made 2 batches of spaghetti sauce and a batch of frozen cucumber relish. This does requires some flexibility with our menu planning but it seems to be working for us.

How are you saving money today?

5 Things Friday

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  1. We have survived our busiest week of the Summer!  Vacation Bible School everyday in addition to swim and piano. Matt is also working tonight and tomorrow so things are different to say the least.  One of the causalities of this week is this is only my 5 or 6th blog post for the month. I am hoping to get several post out this weekend to play catch up.
  2. I had two specific yes! answers to pray today. I am so thankful and excited!
  3. Our garden tomatoes are starting to come in, slowly but surely, I have made 2 batches of spaghetti and a couple of cans of tomato sauce.
  4. We purchased a new kitchen table and finally got it assembled yesterday!  It will seat 7 regular and up to 12 with the expandable end!
  5. Today is payday so I need to sit down and work on the budget today. I am excited that both our gas and grocery budget is below for the month. In addition we have only eaten out once this month!

Summer Saturday-6/25/2016

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IMG_2604This is a picture that I took last night of Zach. I am truly amazed at it. Zach is the only one of my children who did not like the water. We spend a big part of our summer at the pool most years but Zach has always preferred to play on the edge or just watch others until this year. He decided that he was going to swim on the swim team and then decide he wanted to play in the deep end. When I arrived after work yesterday, he wanted me to watch him go off the diving board, so of course I had to take a picture.

The weather today is different, it is less humid but very cloudy. We spent the morning outside working in the garden. We were able to pick another couple of family servings of green beans, which have already been cooked and placed in the freezer. We also unfortunately had to pull some plants like our snap peas, which have stopped producing and several of our squash plants which have been attacked by the squash bug. We also tied up tomatoes which I really really hope start to produce in the next couple of weeks.

Lily will be arriving home from camp this afternoon so the current plan is to wash her clothes and we may end up renting a movie.

I have several items that I need to take care of on this not the best of days to go to the pool including a monthly calendar and menu plan for the next couple of weeks.

Bring on Summer play!

Random Tuesday Thoughts 6/7/2016

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  • We are in full summer mood around here even though school still officially has 2 and half more days. We have swim team practice Monday- Thursday nights. Last Saturday, we ended up spending around 7 hours just hanging out in the sun.
  • I had the day off yesterday to attend Kendall’s play at school and both Kendall and Zach’s award day. Both got recognized for basically “student of the month”.  Kendall was very upset because she did not get a certificate on Monday.
  • Both the girls are going to continue with piano this summer, but Lily has asked to stop in the fall so she can learn to play the clarinet at school. I am kinda torn on if this is the best thing or not for her.
  • Lily is going to a camp away from home this summer. She will be gone a total of 5 days. We both are nervous and excited at the same time.
  • Both Matt and I have decided that we prefer the “patty” squash over yellow squash for taste. I may get brave and attempt to save some of the seeds to plant next year.
  • I am very relieved that our sweet potatoes have finally begun to grow and spread.
  • We are starting to get some cucumbers and squash in from the garden. I hope we planted enough to restock the freezer.

Saving on Saturday 6/4/2016

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sosThis morning we are trying to make good use of this beautiful day. I am washing all the sheets and comforters. This is a total of 6 loads that are drying on the line. That is a minimum of 8 hours in the dryer. So not only do the sheet smell amazing we are saving 8 or more hours of electricity.

Matt is working on installing a solar power fan in the building to reduce the temperature, protect the freezer and prevent us from using the window unit unless absolutely necessary.

While the sheets and comforters are drying, I am working on preparing several meals ahead of time to help make the next month a little bit less crazy.  Currently on the menu is shepherd pie for lunch tomorrow, a cheeseburger pie to be frozen and potato salad to use as a side for pork chops this week.

We will spend the rest of the day hanging at  the pool. No extra money spent today!

5 Things Friday

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  1. Tonight, while the kids watched Toy Store, I was able to spend a couple of hours with our budget. I am relieved to say that I have developed a plan that should get us back on track for the year by August. We had several big set backs in May including a contract for Matt that fell through and the freezer.  I have been avoiding looking at the accounts but made some realistic decisions and have a plan. I know that continues to provide for us but I also realize that I have to work with the income we are given.
  2. Matt is on board with planning a Disney trip in November 2017. My current goal is to use Swagbucks to place the deposit in September or October. This trip will be paid for entirely from outside my income. It is a huge challenge but something I want to prove I can do.
  3. Our new freezer is AWESOME. We still need to install the solar powered fan in the building to help protect it but yesterday I was able to re-organize all the freezer in preparation for the summer harvest and chicken delivery.
  4. I officially have a three day weekend starting today. I am off work on Monday so that I can attend several different events at the school for the end of the year.
  5. We have four and half day of school left. I am probably more excited about this than the kids. Tonight was also the first official pay out for chores. I know at least one of the kids was upset. I am hoping they will pick up and do more chores with ice cream at the pool as the goal.

Random Thursday Post-6/02/2016

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  • imageOur first official harvest from this morning. We have been collecting and freezing  basil for the past few weeks and have used a couple of squash, but this is the beginning of what I hope to be a very productive season for us.
  • Our new freezer arrived today, which gave me a chance to do some arranging and make a list of all the meat that we currently have on hand. I am excited and pleased to report we have meat for 75 meals in our freezers.
  • The bad news is that we also have a delivery of 120# of chicken breast coming a week from Tuesday. I need to get a plan in place of how I want to prepare and use this.
  • Given the above information, I am setting the grocery budget at $150 for the month of June.  I will need to make some purchased to help prepare the chicken but otherwise I am going to stick to Aldi each week for $10 worth of extra health options!
  • All three kids are going to participate in swim team this summer which is my favorite activity to watch. The only down side to this is that I have to find Zach some trunks that he can wear.
  • I will receive my extra paycheck the first of July, our initial intention was to make an extra payment on both the house and van with this check however given our current situation, we will be using this money to help keep things on an even playing field for the summer.
  • The kids have one more week of school left, I think we are all excited to have some extra time.