Category Archives: Saving Money

Saved 88%

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I think that the TV show “Extreme Couponing” has really done massive damage to the couponing in general.  I want to debunk  some of the myths that it has implied with my real world experience. Today I knew I needed to make a stop at CVS to pick up Diet Cokes with a rain check I have been holding, so this is my real life example of how anyone can save money.

On  “Extreme Couponing” the folks spend between 30-80 hours a week couponing. Come on who has that much time to waste? Total time I spent planning, clipping and shopping for this trip was 1 hour.  The next myth is that you need “at least one newspaper subscription per person in your family” or that dumpster diving, begging neighbors coupon inserts or even stealing inserts from empty houses are necessary to get great results. I have ONE newspaper subscription! I gladly will accept any insert you don’t want but other than my own, I usually end up with my parents” inserts as well. However most weeks like this one, I receive the inserts at least a week late or the paper person even forgot a couple. Finally, in order to stay in the rules and have the least out-of-pocket a minimum of 10 transactions are require. I completed 2 transactions today!

Today at CVS, I spent a total of $6.83 and saved $48.35 or 88%. I did start with a $10 Cash card from buying drinks last week. Before work this morning I spent less than 10 minutes on Southern Savers clicking on any items from the CVS list I thought I might wanted, printed out the list and clip coupons while sitting at the store. I also did discover an awesome 75% deal on deodorant so pulled up the coupon database and head back to my car to grab 2 $1 off coupons.

First Transaction
2 Suave Kids Shampoos   $2.00 each    $0.50/2 coupon
4 Suave Body Washes      $2.00 each     B2G1 free coupon
2 Tubes of Colgate toothpaste @2.99 each    2–$.50/1 coupon
$10 CVS cash card
Total out-of-pocket $5.69
received 4 ECB for purchasing $12 in Suave, 2 ECB from Toothpaste and 1 ECB for using Green bag 4 times

Second Transaction
5 2L Diet Cokes    raincheck for $0.88 each
1 bottle each of Tresseme Shampoo and Conditioner     $4.49 each  B1G1 coupon, CVS Coupon for $2/2 bottles of Tresseme
2 Sticks of Advance Control Mitchum deodorant $1.99 each   2-$1 off coupons and CVS coupon for $1 off $4 deodorant
1 Caramel candy 0.33 cent
Used ECB from above
Total spent $1.14.

 

 

Back to the Basics!

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I have been living on a budget for many years, at least that I what I thought in my head.  I can’t even begin to count the number of articles, blogs, books etc that I have read over the years about reducing debt and living on less, at one point we even DVR Dave Rasmey so I should have this budgeting and getting out of debt thing down right? WRONG!! Oh boy is that WRONG!

First of all, living paycheck to paycheck and living on a budget are two very different things.  I have tried and mostly succeeded living paycheck to paycheck. The easy part for me if we don’t have it then we don’t get it. I am a master at juggling money. This month I am learing that living on a budget is a different beast, yes I have the money to cover this but that will put me over budget which  means I have to move the money from something else or simply make the choice to say no! The case in point here is that I still have $17 in my grocery budget for the month but I will not be adding to the grocery budget until February 14th due to my pay schedule, that leave 4 and 1/2 weeks for $17 to last, in addition to still wanting to buy some chips and drinks for our Super Bowl party! Next up is gas, I was excited to think that I only need to place $80 in the gas fund this week until I realized that mean I would have no gas money until February 14th as well. So I had to redo the budget for my 3rd January check to add in gas money to be used in February.

Next on the list of things I should know about money management but don’t/have forgotten is that if you know about an expense in advance, it is not an emergency and needs to be planned for. The mess up that I have corrected in this area is pool dues. They are currently not due till April but  I must make a plan to pay for them rather than just   “finding” money when they are due.

Finally, the one thing that I learned this weekend that is most upsetting and frustrating. Check each bill especially credit card statements to make sure the amount of interest you are paying. After working on a debt reduction plan and actually starting the plan in December, I was again revisiting some numbers and decided to check the amount due on our Chase Card. This account has been closed for several years, I receive the online statement and make payments on-line. I usually look at the statement’s first page when paying. As I was checking the statement for a pay off amount this time, and started looking for the interest rate. I almost feel out of  my chair 29.99%!!! I was so upset, how and why had I not seen this before. GRRR! So instead of paying off interest free medical bills my focus is eliminating Chase from our lives.  I am almost sick at the idea that for the past year I have been paying this outrageous interest rate!! My new debt goal is to get rid of Chase this month!

Day In the Life- Eating Like You Are Rich While Shopping Like You Are Poor

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Today is the first Thursday of the month, this was good news for us in several areas. First it was my first paycheck of the year, which I was really unsure about because of taxes and some major changes I made this year during open benefit enrollment. I was pleasantly surprised today. Next the news keeps getting better, I will be receiving one of my “extra” paychecks this month as well. Because I am paid every 2 weeks, 2 months during the year we receive this “extra” check. Our budget is based on the 2 checks a month so it makes this an extra” check. Matt and I sat and looked at our budget this morning and currently the plan is to pay off 4 of our outstanding debts with this check. I will definitely let you know when this happens. After paying bills and getting excited that we actually are ahead this month, it was off to the grocery store. Thank you, Matt for the second part of the title.

I have mentioned before that currently we have quite a bit stockpiled but that I felt our stockpile lacked meat. One of the stops that I have been wanting to explore was our local meat processing plant. We decided to head there first today. I am so glad we did. We were able to purchase 18 “meals” of meat for $115.00. WOW! Last stop of the morning, Food Lion. They are currently having their house brand sale for each “house brand” item you buy you earn 0.25 toward your next order. I have spent probably an hour collecting coupons and working out the 2 transaction. We ended up spending  $43 and saving $49 or 54%. I used most of the Catalina that I collect over the past week. I also added 4 additional meals of frozen shrimp to the list. So all together today, we have spent around $165 of our grocery budget but really have enough meat for an entire month!!!

I do have to add a final shopping trip in it was on Wednesday to CVS. I needed make up removal wipes. I expected to receive 5ECB due to the beauty club purchases I made on Sunday. I was not expecting to receive 8.50 in quarterly ECB or a $4 of 20 facial care purchase. I was able to grab enough wipes for probably 3 months and spent $1.35, 94% savings!!!

Saving at Food Lion

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Last Thursday, a friend let me know that Food Lion (our only grocery store in town) had put out a gift. A coupon $5 off $5 purchase, this coupon was available from their website in a pdf file. So I took advantage of this and print some to use. The expiration date on the coupon was 12/29/2013, I realized that this was probably a mistake. After a day the company corrected the date to read 1/1/2013.  I knew that it would take a few days for the company to stop excepting these. But also thought I will use as long as they let me, the gravy train stopped tonight.  I am sad but not surprised. I have been able to treat the family with items like potato chips, cookies and ice cream over the past week.

I/We stopped a total of 10 times to use this coupon, spending a total of $9.23, saving 67.99 or 88%. I could qualify for extreme couponing with this one!  Most of the transactions ended up costing less than $1 except for the one I completed on Sunday afternoon. In the process of using these coupons, Catalina have been printing at the end of each trip. I wanted to know if they would limit the number of these I could use so I tried. I purchased a roast $6.54(using a $1.50 off $6 meat purchase), a bag of shredded lettuce $1.99 and 3 tomatoes $1.48(using a $1 off $3 of produce), 4 2L drinks of store brand $0.83 each(coupons for $0.75 off three, the fourth was to raise my total), 2L Diet Coke$1.66 (Free with minimum $10 purchase). I had a $1.50 off $15 and the $5 off 5. My total came to $3.83. The current plan is to go for one more trip to Food Lion on Thursday, they are having their brand sale that basically gives you $0.25 off each of their brand items you buy. I will be stocking up on mustard and ketchup as well as using the rest of my Catalinas.

On a very personal note, I have been able to do something with everyone of my 2013 goals today!

 

Shopping- 11/05/2012

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I was super excited to learn that Harris Teeter was running a coupon event this week. The news got even better when I learned that due to my location, the stores to the North were having Super Doubles and the store to my south was having Triples. The choice was going to be difficult until I learned that Triples included coupons up to $1!! To the south and Salisbury it was. I have actually made two trips already, one on Thursday and one as a date on Saturday night. I have spent a total of $56, saved $160 or 74%. Saturday night was my single highest saving amount of $97. Matt was not impressed until I reminded him that $18 of my $33 spent was on Tide Laundry Detergent. I am brand loyal to Tide because it cleans the clothes which prolonges their lives. So this was definitely a stock up trip!  I also made a trip to CVS this week for deodorant, I really like Mitchum and Matt really likes the new Right Guard 5 so I was able to make both of us happy for $12!  I spent a total of $18 saved $35 but the best deal of all was the 2 rainchecks that I have now for Diet Coke 2 L at 0.88 each!!

Total spent this week is $74 or less than 1/5 of the budget!!

Grocery Shopping 10/20/2012

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For the past several years we have been working to reduce our grocery budget. One of the suggestions that Matt made was that I start really  keeping track of what I am spending and saving at each store. Over the past several weeks, I have been doing just that.  I am thinking that by sharing at least once a week,it will build more accountability in as well.

This week I stopped in at Food Lion on Monday to pick up the ingredients for Paula Dean mac and cheese. I discovered that pasta was on sale as well. However, I spent nothing out-of-pocket because of one of the items I won was a $20 Food Lion gift card. I still have around $6 left on the card for future use. I am not counting this in the total saving or spent because it truly was free!

The second store that I have shopped at this week is CVS. I ended up making 4 separate trips. One of the main reasons was Diet Coke 2L are on sale for 0.97 each. This is the lowest I have seen in about 6 months so I was going to make sure I have a stock pile. I did end up finding other deals including deodorant, razors and make up wipes to add to each trip. Overall this week I have spent $76 at CVS and saved 50%. Not outstanding saving but because it is on things we use regular, I am not too upset. I am a bit surprised on the overall total, but it does explain where part of my grocery budget is disappearing to!

 

Grocery Store Challenge Final October

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What is my challenge? Spend as close to $20 a week at Food Lion over the next 3 weeks while purchasing items we need or to add to the stockpile based on sales. I am also going to give myself $10 a week to spend at CVS to keep rolling ECB. So that is a total of $30 a week for the next 4 weeks to feed our family of 6.

This is the third and final week of the challenge this time. One of the most exciting parts of the challenge was going out to our building tonight to  shop in the freezers. We will be picking up our 80# of chicken breast in 3 weeks and are really trying to make space for it. So tonight we pull out 2 weeks worth of meat items, I think* that this will leave enough space for the chicken now.

Now on to the shopping. I have not been really impressed with CVS lately and for the first two weeks of the challenge was simply using a gift card to purchase some items. So for this week, I had $30 to use at CVS. This week the were running a P&G promotion which included my only brand loyal item “Tide”, so of course I decided to stock up. I spent $21 and saved $38 or 65%.  Harris Teeter has a couple of awesome sales this week on cereal, so instead of Food Lion, I placed an order there. I also had to go to CVS because Matt and the kids have been sick all week and the medicine cabinet was empty. I ended up spending $35 between the two stores, saved $98 or 74%!  This week I have spent a total of $56 on grocery items so a fail again with the challenge!

I seriously doubt I will attempt another challenge for the rest of the year. We are currently planning a trip to Michigan in November as well as travel at least one weekend a month between quizzing and cheerleading. But I am hoping to continue to lower the amount we are spending on groceries so that by January, I can reduce our budget for groceries overall.

Grocery Saving Part 2

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This has been one big shopping week at our house this week. We ended up with 3 trips to Harris Teeter during their Super Doubles event. We ended up spending $141, saving 57% or 190 in addition to $10 in gift cards remaining. The stock up items this week were mainly breakfast items which we use every day! So I was excited even after the trip that left us with the $10 in gift cards due to the POOR service we received.  I made a CVS free trip for 2 toothbrushes and 3 bottles of nail polish remover. Finally was the Food Lion trip, where I spent 20 and saved 23 or 53%.  In addition, the purchase of 80# of chicken breast is an added grocery expense this month. If you add up all that I have spent $675 on groceries already this month. So the first reason for doing a grocery challenge is that I need to keep the rest of the month spending as low as possible to stay in budget.  The next reason for the challenge is space related., in order to be able to freeze 80# of chicken breast in October, I need to clean out some space in the chest freezer. Finally, Food Lion has sent me 3 more $5 off $25 to use over the next several weeks. So I am again going to try this challenge

What is my challenge? Spend as close to $20 a week at Food Lion over the next 3 weeks while purchasing items we need or to add to the stockpile based on sales. I am also going to give myself $10 a week to spend at CVS to keep rolling ECB. So that is a total of $30 a week for the next 4 weeks to feed our family of 6.

I already have my shopping planned for tomorrow at Food Lion, hopefully with the iPhone I can get some pictures of what I am able to purchase!

Anyone joining me?

Final Renovation Update 8/25

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  1. Haley’s new room .
  2. Lily and Kendall move into bigger room
  3. Zach gets his own room and closet.. 
  4. Matt’s office-  He has moved in!

The desk is a perfect example of re-using things in order to complete projects without spending additional money. First the base is a closet door from one of the bedrooms. It was really beat up and we did not want to re-hang it as a door.  The wood section is actually left over boards from when we installed the floor in our master bedroom and office.  The blue paint is one of the dollar mis-tints that we picked up to use at the beginning of the renovation. These can not be return so this was a great use for a “waste” otherwise.  Cords are always a issue with computers and desk. Matt made the door knob hole bigger and salvaged a plastic ring from the bed we got rid of to make a nice cord compartment. To mount to the wall, Matt used scraps of lumber he had from building both Zach and Kendall’s bed. We did end up purchasing molding to finish out the top, the keyboard tray and one leg. Less than $20 for a desk that is big enough for a lot of stuff.

Spending Totals for Renovations

Budget information:$1000

Total Spent $1049

As I stated at the beginning of this project, when the money runs out we are finished. I am really pleased with how far we were able to get with this project. Zach will still need another dresser for his room and Matt definitely needs “storage” cabinets in his office along with a message center/ white board. But these are all things that will have to wait until we can afford them.  We actually have complete much more than I anticipated in fact, I now have a “scrapbook/couponing” desk of my own. Pictures to follow of course!


Grocery Store Challenge

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What is my challenge? Spend as close to $20 a week at Food Lion over the next 4 weeks while purchasing items we need or to add to the stockpile based on sales. I am also going to give myself $10 a week to spend at CVS to keep rolling ECB. So that is a total of $30 a week for the next 4 weeks to feed our family of 6.
Week One Shopping:      Total Spent- $32.01
Week Two Shopping:     Total Spent– $84.24
Week Three Shopping:   Total Spent- $ 198.84

Week Four Shopping: This week we are definitely back on track. Since I am on vacation, Matt and I hit Harris Teeter for Super Doubles at 7am on Wednesday. We spent $21.64, saved 86.06 or 80%. I also managed to hit CVS this week to stock up on Tide. This remains the one item that I am brand loyal on so to hit a stock up price is awesome. I spent 23.51 saved 39.11 or 62% including enough Tide for 6 to 8 weeks. Total Spent $ 45.15

Reflection: According to the number I was success for 2 of the 4 weeks. But in reality I was able to reduce my normal budget of $800 to $361 or less than half, that makes it a success!  I am at least looking at my food budget differently now instead of cool this is a good deal let me stock up or we are going to need this in the next month so I will buy it now, I am now looking at the things in my pantry going unless we are out lets hold off purchasing!