Category Archives: Saving Money

Menu Planning Monday 2/15

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As I mentioned on Friday, menu planning went out the window this past week and my grocery spending actually hit outside the $400 I planned. I am beginning to see how the two are definitely related.  I did order several large storage buckets to use for bulk items such as flour and rice. I am starting a list of Costco and am planning to restrain myself until March if at all possible. I did cook several meals ahead of time on Sunday so hopefully we will stay on a better track this week.

Breakfast–  Saturday- biscuits, Sunday- Egg Spinach omelet. Monday- Baked Oatmeal, Tuesday- Trisha Yearwood Breakfast casserole, Wednesday and Friday- Frozen Muffins or Left-overs. Thursday-eggs.

Lunch-I have several containers of cabbage soup and will also take a salad for lunch. The kids will be eating chicken nuggets 3 days each, sandwiches the other days.

Dinner-  Saturday- Lunch- pizza bites.   Dinner- Leftover soup
Sunday- Lunch and Dinner- Taco Soup
Monday- Salisbury steak, rice, corn and peaches
Tuesday-Shepherd pie
Wednesday-Pork roast or pork chops
Thursday- Chicken and dressing in the crock pot with leftover cream corn and carrots?
Friday- Chicken fried rice.

 

January in Review 2015

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Personal-
1. Blogging– Post 20 per month. Fail. This is post number 19. I honestly had a post in my head for yesterday but just not the energy to get out.

2.Weight Loss– 175#.  I have used the treadmill on at least 2 a week but still. FAIL

3. Spiritual– Spend at least 5 days a week, reading and studying The Bible. Fail but improvement noted with 50% success for the month.

It would not appear that January has been a good month because I did not achieve any of these goals. One way to look at it is that I have lots of room for improvement.

Financial- 

1. Set aside money each month in every budget category. Fail-4 of the categories are without funding this month.

2. Establish and maintain Emergency Fund- Fail.
3. Groceries: Goal is for $700. SUCCES- Total spending for the month is $199! I am so excited and surprised at how easy it was. I am going to increase the goal to $400 for February but that still stays way below the goal amount.

4. Gas: Spend $400 a month- SUCCESS. We spent only $250 in gas this month!

5. Pay off all Credit Card debit by December 2016- I am not exactly sure how to report on this. Matt unfortunately did lose 2 accounts in the month of January so we are not going to make stellar progress but at this point any progress is a success. So I reduce our overall credit card debit and will count this as a success.

Financially, I am very proud of the month of January. We are making small  but steady progress and just need to keep things moving in the right direction.

 

Snow Sunday Savings!

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The sun came out today which began the melting process for us! Matt has worked most of the afternoon clearing our driveway so I can head to work tomorrow.  After he finished he asked if we wanted to venture out to CVS and Walmart.  Considering that I had already opened my last 2L of Diet Coke, I agreed. This was another excellent week at CVS.  I completed 3 transactions spending $1.92 and saving $27.16 or 93% I grabbed 8 bottles of Diet Coke and 3 tubes of free toothpaste. I should have grabbed another Diet Coke but my calculations were off.  Next stop was Walmart to grab a couple of items that we will run out of prior to the end of the month, I was able to use a calculate and list and stay on track spending $30.73 which puts me at $199.83 for the month.

Since we all have been at home since Thursday and the kids really have been at home for a week, we used some of the time to clean and re-organize. I was seriously thinking about needing to push some more storage containers on Thursday but instead, found and repurposed things we already had. We are in the process of reducing the playroom and I took the shelf from it and moved it to Zach room.

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The best part of this shelf is that it originally was a kitchen cabinet/bar in a house that my brother and sister in law purchased when they were first married. I was helping with some of the work and originally place this shelf in my  building. As you can tell it has been moved and reused but still is a large steady piece of furniture. I also reconfigured my closet and was able to place this smaller shelf in the playroom.

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Total spend on this project which ended up taking a full day Zero.

A final way we have saved money this weekend is cooking at home and using items that we already have. I am hoping to stick to a lower budget for at least February and most likely even March. I am realizing that we have a lot of food that I have purchased and by keeping a rolling stockpile, I should be able keep at least that line item lower for several month this year, therefore reducing our total expenses significantly even with resuming the $700 a month budget in April or May.

January Money Diet Update

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I am not surprised at all to say that several thing have occurred this month that I did not originally think about or plan for. Fortunately, we have adapted and managed to spend as little as possible. One of the bigger things that has happen is the sudden dramatic weather change that has brought us temperature not rising above freezing for several days in a row. I discovered that we had a significant draft in our living room. We were able to purchase and reduce this draft for around $20 but this was totally unplanned. Next up was a computer problem, we ended up purchasing a new operating system for one of our computers which was $130 but in addition after spending several hours working on and around this problem, Matt and I both needed a mental break and headed to Cracker Barrel for Dinner. I am honestly glad we did because after coming home it took another 3 hours to get the computer back to a workable state. I am really enjoying this diet challenge because it allows us to stop and thing before spending, even if we decide to spend the money.  Now on to more positive news.

1. Grocery spending of $200 or less- Currently I have spent $168 after both a trip to Costco and Aldi. I am so excited by this number. I don’t see any reason we can not stay in our goal for the month. We also went ahead today and did a rough menu plan for the month of February. I can see that we should be able to maintain a low budget of $400 or less for February!

2. Challenge #1– Give away 31 things- I have a box of kids clothing already packed and have a couple of options. I am going to make sure this box is gone before the end of the month.

3.Challenge #2– Figure your Net Worth-  I did not complete this totally simply because this number has no meaning to me at this point. What I have done is make a spreadsheet to keep up with real number as I work at paying off credit cards and other debits. I also know the value of all our vehicles. Finally today, I set up access to my retirement account so I can at least glance at it from time to time. As an interesting side note, it has lost over a thousand dollars in January already.

4. Challenge # 3- Do something to earn an extra $25 or more this month.– I have several items listed on Facebook for sale right now.

5. Challenge #4- Reduce at least one expense– I stay pretty on top of this to begin with. But I was able to get a $14 credit on our cable bill due, this month and finally think we have that bill straighten out. I do need to check on our cellphone bill to make sure it is as low as possible.

Overall I am happy with our progress and this challenge is definitely helping me to find some money that can be saved.

CVS Savings 01/17/2015

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I explain the saving in just a second but first my newspaper drama that continues to make life interesting. I live in a rural area, this is no secret. In fact the “local” newspaper does not offer a Sunday edition. Coupon inserts are with the Saturday paper and they do not offer a “Saturday” only subscription.  The bright side is that I do have the option of two different city newspapers that both are delivered. I have been attempting to get regular deliver of at least one of these papers for several years.  It is usually a 75% chance that I get the paper at all. I have spoken to both of the paper on many occasions and currently am boycotting the Greensboro News and Record due to the fact that after paying for 6 months I received a paper 1 out of 8 weeks.   The other paper is supposed to arrive prior to 8am on Sunday morning. I spoke with someone about 3 weeks ago on a Monday after not receiving a paper, I was promised that if I would contact on Sunday prior to noon they would make the carrier bring a paper. The problem I usually have is that we go to church around 8:30 and don’t get home before noon. Today, was different since we are taking a skip day. I called the paper office about 9:30 and did the usually leave a message. I had already talked about ‘needing” several coupons from this weeks insert for my CVS trip, so Matt volunteer to go purchase a paper. After returning home around 11am we noticed the paper person in our driveway. I am not sure why but instead of one paper they left 2. I was super excited because this allowed me to stock up on deodorant for Matt!  So I was able to use coupons for all three of the insert this week.

I am still participating in the January Money Diet, one of the major things I am realizing is that I often buy food for the sake of convenience or because I know we will need it before long instead of waiting til I can find it on sale or we actually need it. One of the things I have been doing this month is making a list of items that we are low on as well as things we are in need to purchase. Matt is down to one stick of deodorant and one bottle of body wash so I placed these on the list and decide unless he ran out, I was going to wait for a sale. The sale happened this week!

It was Kendall’s turn to help me shop this week. I ended up completing 3 transactions, one on my card and two on Matt’s card. Total spent $12.52, total saved $41.70 or 77%.

Transaction #1- Matt’s card
2 bottle of Pantene shampoo  2 for $8.00
Coupon from 12/27 $3 off 2
5 ECB from last week
Paid $.56 ( tax) and received 4 ECB

Transaction #2- Matt’s Card
2 bottles of Irish spring body wash 2 for $7.00
2 coupons from today’s insert $1.00
2 sticks of Right Gear deodorant 2 for $7
BOGO coupon from today (subtracted 3.50)
4 ECB from first transaction and $.75 ECB from last week
Paid $4.73 and received 6 ECB

Transaction #3- My card
4 sticks of Right Gear Deodorant 2 for $7
2 BOGO coupons from today’s insert
$0.75 ECB from last week
Paid $7.23 and received 6 ECB

 

I count it a success any time I leave with more ECB than actual money I spent!

Extreme Couponing

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I was really surprised to discover that I had not been to CVS since before Christmas, in fact, my ECBs expire this week. The reason behind my long absence has been simple, no really deals that I wanted/needed to grab.  This week was a huge change. I started the trip with 2 $0.89 ECB. I also received $2 ECB for winter spending on Matt’s card.

Here is a breakdown by the numbers
5 total transactions,( one of my card and four on Matt’s).
$7.88 total spent
$84.72 total saved of 91% with taxes included and 95% taking out the $3.68 of sales tax
$6.50 in ECB left.

I purchased:
6 12 pack of Coke (Used 6 free 12 pack coupons from my Coke rewards)
4 packs of M&M ( used 2 Buy One Get One Free coupons)
2 2L Liters (used a 0.24 coupon that printed from red machine)
4 Bottles so L’Oreal Shampoo ( used 2- $4/2 from 01/03)
2  Packages of Crest Sensi strips.

 

This is one for the record books!  My total grocery spending is less than $12 for the month so far!  I did make a trip to the building today to check out what we have in the freezers and did a little bit of organizing so we can get our pork order from Zaycon tomorrow. We have enough of a variety with the pork order that I am going to say we are going to plan on coming in under goal for this month of $200 and reduce the grocery spending in February to $500. That will get us totally on the right foot with groceries and may in fact help to control/reduce grocery spending for the year!

Action Plan for 2016

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For some reason, I really like the wording of action plan versus goals, not sure if it is truly a motivational thing but I am going to stick with it.  My current plan for each month is not only to be accountable by reporting how each month progress but also included plans for the following month to keep things on track.

Personal-
1. Blogging– Post 20 per month. This is definitely a stretch but a good one for both accountability and fun.
2.Weight Loss– 175#.  In January, I plan to use the treadmill for at least 30 minutes a day for 3 days a week.
3. Spiritual– Spend at least 5 days a week, reading and studying The Bible. My Sunday school is starting a new study that has a work book with 5 sections each week. I also really want to finish reading through the entire Bible. Between these two things I am confident this is achievable.

Financial-  These are always much harder for me but guess that might be a good thing.
1. Set aside money each month in every budget category. I know very well where all my money goes, but in reality knowing where it needs to go and placing it there are two different things. In addition, life happens and some days I have to borrow from one item to truly pay another. I reset the following funds each January, Gifts and Clothing. I am adding an Eating Out category with a base of $200 per month which will roll and will reset next January. To achieve this goal in January, I am participating in the “January Money Diet “. I also plan to spend $200 or less on grocery. When I am success this will allow all categories to be funded except for eating out. We are suppose to attend two cheerleading competitions this month so I am not sure that we can eliminate this category all together. I do have several items that I need to sell this month which will be used to fund eating out.
2. Establish and maintain Emergency Fund- Ultimate goal is $3500, but this year adding $100 a month is a start.  See above for the plan.
3. Groceries: Goal is for $700. This month, we will be using cash and plan to spend $200.
4. Gas: Spend $400 a month. This includes repair, maintenance, tags and taxes. In the past, I have rest this budget each month with using any overage  to fund other items.  I am going to change that this year and place overage in a Capital one account to be used for larger repairs. I would like to set a $500 limit. In reality with gas prices being so low this will only take 2 months. After meeting the $500 I can switch to again using money in other ways. I am afraid of reducing this amount because if and when gas prices increase this will only cover gas.
5. Pay off all Credit Card debit by December 2016- This is by far the most lofty goal I am setting but the purpose being that we can then plan another Disney trip for November 2017!  I have no really plan for meeting this goal except by having a very frugal year and increasing income in any way possible.

Food For Thought-

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Today is my Mom’s birthday, which means we are fast approaching the end of the year. I am already in the process of looking and working on a budget for 2016. I will do a final update and set new goals hopefully this week but today I want to focus on Food.

  • Menu planning is still happening although I have not been posting the last couple of weeks have been about a couple of special meals and using up leftovers. This week we have already had a meal using meatballs my sister in law brought, tonight we made a roast and used some the sides we had left-over and tomorrow the plan is to use and make pork fried rice from leftover Christmas Eve shoulder. I am also adding some “convenient” meals to the freeze with the extra time we have this week.
  • Our grocery spending for the month is close to $900 which is way over budget. I have been taking advantage of some sells and stocking up, in addition to some extra meals and appetizers.
  • Our average monthly grocery spending for the year is at $691.59. I am totally amazed and excited for this number as it is under my $700 a month that I started in July.
  • I have been looking into some “average” numbers for grocery spending for our size family a “thrifty” plan is $770 and a “Low” plan is $1028 per month.
  • After finding these numbers I am very comfortable with maintaining our grocery spending to $700 a month. I am going to continue to focus on each month but not beat myself up for spending over now that I know it averages out within the year!
  • I was also able to find that the “average” family spends about $200 a month on eating out. In the past, I have not budgeted anything for eating out but this will become a regular expense in the year 2016.
  • We are starting the year with lots of meat in the freezer. I have already paid for 80# of pork that Matt will pick up the first week of January. We also just recently purchased chicken and a large order of ground beef. I am hopefully to not purchase any additional meat until March.
  • Our garden this year did well and we have been enjoying a variety of things. We have enlarged the garden to it’s capacity and hopefully will be able to multiply our freezing stock for the year.
  • I did not even attempt to lose weight with our trip to Disney and the holidays so I will back on track with eating healthier again in January.
  • Total random thought but at least it is food related. I just received in the mail a total of 6 free 12 packs expiring March 31. I will hold on till CVS offers ECBs or I just need them.

Things I Am Saving On 12142015

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Since I have been at home for the last few days I have been doing a lot of window shopping online and even purchased several things. Here are a few of my best finds.

Shutterfly– As I mentioned we have around 1400 pictures from our trip. I definitely am planning on making a scrapbook and knew that the sooner I printed these the more like the scrapbook is to happen. The offer a “pre-paid” plan for prints that currently is on sale for $54 for 600 prints. I purchased 2 and yesterday afternoon picked out 650 pictures to print. I used the code “SHIP49” which gave me free shipping so including shipping ended up paying $60 for these pictures or ten cent including shipping. I was also able to grab a magnet with some cute pictures for $3.45 and purchased my dad his yearly calendar which included about 75 pictures for 13.75 using a free $20 from my coke rewards. I must still print another 400 pictures within the next year.

Flirty Aprons– 70% of any apron with free shipping. I purchased an black apron for Matt to use in the kitchen for $7.48

Bath and Body Works- Over the past week, I have purchased hand soaps at $2.50 or less each and body cream for $4.  These were one day deals but I did grab a lot of stuff. I found out with the hand soaps that you can purchase bundles and they will be discounted but only count as one item in your limit.

JCPennys- They are really offering some great deals right now. I was able to purchase twin size sheet sets for $12.50 each and the kids some fleece jackets for less than $3 each!  I also get back rewards so these were awesome deals.

Amazon- finally today is known as green day because online stores are taking to have the biggest day of the season. Kendall has been asking for Doc McStuffins toys and I was able to grab on at half off today.

 

Have you found any great deals that I should check out?

 

Saving on Saturday 10/24/2015

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sosThis weeks, we are saving on Saturday by cooking.  Our schedule during the week and many weekends are very hectic, which in the past has lead to us eating out. I really do enjoy eating out however, my budget does not. I started tracking our eating out expenses back in June. I will admit up front that I have been extremely surprised by the amount that I discovered over the last 5 months. One of the most shocking aspects was that prior to Matt’s permanent job change in 2010, we ate out double what we do not if not triple. I know we have reduced our eating out tremendously so the numbers were a serious surprise.  During June, July and August, I simply tracked the amount but over the past 2 months, I am working on reducing the amount.  One of the huge purpose of cooking today was to provide options that are quick and easy for those crazy days when we need to eat on the run.

First thing this morning we complete our menu planning, this forced us to look at the week’s schedule and make some decisions. Today, Matt is work at a college football game, he needed to drive 30 minutes and arrive by 9:30, he will not be returning home till around 6 this evening. He decided to pack a protein bar to eat on the drive and also packed a “lunch” that he will be eating on the way home. This will eliminate a trip through the drive thru.  The next decision we had to make was how many times can we afford to eat out?  We have 3 evening this week that are going to be really busy so if we don’t plan than we have spent over $100 in eating out in one week. We decided that we would only eat out of Thursday.  After some thinking and checking of the freezer, for one evening I will be making Hamburger Helper with pre-cooked beef and the other hectic evening will mean cowboy beans in the crock pot.

Now to the cooking, this morning we had a huge “country breakfast”. I have in the crockpot “Ranch BBQ chicken legs” and sweet potatoes baking in the oven for lunch. Lily has also made an orange mandarin salad.  My goal for today is to have breakfast and lunch for tomorrow (Sunday) prepared today as well so that we can heat and eat.  So far, I have peanut butter bars in the freezer for desert. I have used up the rest of potatoes purchased in September to make mashed potatoes that will be heated for lunch tomorrow in addition to freezing 2 other containers that we can use in the future. I will be making the meat loaf and sitting in the fridge along with a squash casserole. The only thing left will be the cranberry sauce that cooks in the small crockpot tomorrow.  Before calling it a day, I will make apple pie baked oatmeal for breakfast in the morning. You probably notice that we will have a lot of “side dishes” left which we have planned to heat and use during the week to make dinner much easier to prepare in less than an hour.  After much trial and error, for use have a lot of sides dishes and prepared ingredients such as cooked ground beef or chicken works better than have entire meals frozen for use. What helps you resist the drive thru?