Category Archives: Saving Money

April 29? Huh

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This honestly has been one of the busiest months I can remember in a long time.  I now remember why I made blogging one of my goals. I get so busy that I just don’t have enough time in the day. So once again, I am offering an apology and going to make an effort to do better. I really like random list so that is my pick of the day. Here is a random list of the things going on in our house.

  1. Our square foot garden that looked so good in this post, now is dead except for the broccoli and the tomato plants that are in separate containers.  In the past two weeks, we have had temperature swings that included 4 night of below 32 and days like today which the temp is 80. So I did cover everything the first night it was freezing but it still managed to kill most of it.   I am planning to replant the garden next Saturday. According to most web site and the almanac April 30 is the last frost day, so hopefully things will survive this time.
  2. Last Monday, we spent most of our time, re-organizing and moving our master closet. My plan is to post pictures on Wednesday, if I can remember to get them off the camera.  The total spent for the entire thing was less than $10. The room is 8×8, but feels larger now, this morning both Matt and I were able to get dressed at the same time. My plan is to purchase 2 more wire shelves from IKEA and then the room will be complete and very usable!
  3. One of the main reason, I have been so busy is that I agreed to coach the “Zone Teams” in Bible quizzing. Quizzing is for 7th-12th graders. The teams I have been working with over the past 6 weeks was the top 11 quizzers from our zone, which is approximately 30 quizzers from NC. Haley placed 6th this year and is the one of the reason I agreed to coach. In addition the competition was held at our church yesterday (April 27th). Not only was I coaching our teams but I also was in charge of the housing, food and organization for this event which include teens and adults from NC,SC and Ga. Haley ended up 10th out of 20 and I am proud of her. But honestly, I am so thankful it is over. I have been spending at least 30 minutes a day with this for the past month. I do have to say that there is no way I could have done it without the help of Matt and some great ladies from our church. The ladies supplied most of the food and one even had a play date for Kendall and Zach from 7:30am yesterday. I have some pictures from their day and will try and get a post together with those soon!
  4. I am really enjoying the produce box we are picking up each week now. This week we were given a recipe to try with the spinach. Spinach is not a veggie that I have ever purchased but I am actually enjoying trying different recipes with it. This week it will be a “green calzone”.  I have been able to freeze several serving of broccoli and strawberries. I am actually very proud of myself for using all the produce and so far, nothing has gone bad.
  5. My work has been crazy. I have actually worked around 28 hours for 3 weeks and last week, I enjoyed both Monday and Thursday off. The other news is that starting in January 2013, part time benefits will change. So far the changes that I am aware of are that Medical and Dental benefits will no longer be given. They are unsure if I will even be able to purchase these and if I am able to purchase then it will be at double what I am paying now. My first thought is that I should just go full time, the problem with that is that at this point, I am not sure that will be offered. I have decided that God will provide and maybe this is his way of directing my path. Please pray with  me that if I am to go full time this offer be presented in the near future or that something else opens up for me.
  6. Matt’s unemployment is ending. We received notice of this on Friday. We had expected this transition to occur at the end of June but instead it will be the second week of May. A major change for us financially, especially with the moving up by 8 weeks. Matt is currently working on establishing his web design business. Please pray for our peace and God’s direction in this area as well.  And of course if you are aware of any business, church or person in need of a website or even a updated website, email me!
  7. We are planning on a major yard sale during the month of May, Lily and Kendall are planning on a lemonade stand. My goal is to clean out the attic and some of the building. We have boxes of clothing, several pieces of furniture as well as an assortment of toys that need to find better homes.
  8. I LOVE my bathtub- so do the kids both Kendall and Zach are jumping in right now as a special treat!

Our Produce Box

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After several emails, missed deadlines and details, today Matt went to the “farm” to pick up our first produce box of the season. I was excited that instead of 10 weeks like last year, this year we have 15 weeks to get this boxes. Zach was so excited because he even saw a tractor at the farm and it was big.  Our first 5 weeks should be half the size of the rest of the boxes.

This box contained: 2 heads of romaine lettuce, a couple of green onions, a bunch of radishes, a pint of strawberries, a pound of spinach, and a large head of broccoli.

 The kids devoured the strawberries between the ride home and as desert this evening. Matt chopped one of the heads of romaine to make an awesome salad, to which I added a couple of radishes for the kids and myself. It honestly was one of the best salads I have eaten in a long time! I went ahead and steamed and froze the broccoli for use later on, since I know it is a cool weather veggie. As a special treat, Matt grilled several of the steaks I purchased last week on sale at Food Lion. Dinner was ready and it was awesome!

Did anyone else purchase a co-op box how does ours compare?

Random Saving Thoughts

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I made an excellent trip to CVS on Saturday, spent $4 for a pack of diapers, men’s deodorant, Biore pore strips and cleaner.

I am realizing that coupons this year are not as good as they were a year ago. The value on the coupon’s are generally less and store sales seem to be running on a different cycle than the coupons.

My stock up trip to ALDI was less than $50 today. I purchased several pantry items that I have not been able to grab on a good sale recently.

The reason this was a stock up trip is that starting today, Matt and I are going to try and limit our grocery shopping to the purchase of bread, milk and eggs until the beginning of June. This will encourage us to use up the food that we have previously purchased including the Zaycon chicken as well as you our usual $800 grocery budget for May to pay for a trip we are planning.

We are going to start picking up our co-op box of produce this week. I am excited to not only see what we get but also to try out some new recipes with the food we are given.

The freezing temperature of last week, mean the demise of the majority of my square food Garden. I am still undecided as to if I want to replant things that were lost or just give up this year.

Convenient and Cheap

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We have been working on re-stocking our freezers over the past 2 months. One thing that I realized is even if we have tons of foods, at least once if not several times a week, we need something that is easy to fix and doesn’t require a full day of planning.
This afternoon, I was able to add 7 meals to the freezers, the total time spent was around 3 hours. Last Saturday, at Costco we purchased 6# of ground beef. It has been sitting waiting patiently for me all week. I made 2 cheeseburger pies, 2 meatloaf and 2 packages of Salisbury steaks from this pack. Any of these meals can be taken out of the freezer and completely prepared in 2 hours or less. Next, I decided to tack the Rotisserie Chicken from Costco as well. Kendall and I had both enjoyed  it as our lunch on Saturday.  I was able to remove enough chicken from the bones to make dinner for tomorrow night, which will be chicken and broccoli. I used broccoli that was frozen and even found the Velveeta cheese in the bottom of the refrigerator.   To end the day, I made Easter Egg Salad, the secret ingredient to this is the Lazy day pickles that we made last year. Hopefully, these convenient meals will make life run smoother around here for the next couple of weeks.

Consignment Sale Shopping

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This is something that is definitely  not new for me. In fact, Haley wore only consignment sale finds for several years. However, it seems that in the last several years, I have not been able to consistently find these sales especially that offer good quality clothes.  The other issue has been driving to a particular sale, I often don’t remember when the sales occur and forget to schedule the time to get to the sale before everything is gone. The good news is that this changed this weekend.

Lily had her first cheerleading competition on Saturday in Concord (lots of pictures this week). As I was searching for additional information, I discovered that there would be a consignment sale going on in an adjacent building.  Lily squad met 2 hours prior to competition time so after dropping her off, we head to the sale.  I had gone through Zach clothes so I knew he needed shirts. I decided to start with his size first. I was able to find  1 complete outfit, 4 play shirts, 2 Polo’s for church or just to wear and 2 dress shirts for him.  They also had a HUGE selection of shoes. I found a pair of dress shoes and a pair of sandals for him that both appear new.  Next I headed over to Lily’s size to check out what might catch my attention. Kendall found a bathing suit so she ended up with that. For Lily, we found 2 outfits, 3 shirts and a bathing suit. Saturday was 50% off day. This sale was awesome, in fact, I am planning to return next year even if the competition is not the same day. I was able to find everything and check out in less than an hour!  I am even more excited when I came home and discovered that Zach now has 10 pair of shorts and 10 shirts for the summer. I will continue to look at yard sales for cute T-shirts but even if I don’t purchase anything else he has enough clothes for the summer!

My total was $63.75
Items purchased included: 2 pair of shoes, 2 bathing suits, 3 outfits, and 10 shirts, or $3.18 per piece!

Saving Money- $0.85 at CVS

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Yes, this is what I purchased at CVS today for $0.85. CVS is an excellent place to start couponing because of the fact that it doesn’t limit you to only purchasing the items that give you ECBs.   You can instead use the ECBs or gift cards to purchase things you need or want.  This week’s ad was not all that impressive and I saw nothing to roll my ECB to. But after my last CVS trip, I was left with 9ECBs. I have been checking out things in the stockpile so I know what I need to stock up on when a good sale comes. We seem to use ALOT of shampoo and conditioner at our house, so this is usually something we need. I did notice that the VO5 was on sale for 0.77 a bottle. We needed the peanuts for dinner today. So after another short day at work, I ran to CVS to cash in some ECBs.   My subtotal was $.61 and the rest was tax.  So now instead of holding on the ECB or letting them expire. I was able to stock up on a product that is used at least daily around here.

For the record

I purchased 8 bottles of shampoo and conditioner, 1 jar of  peanuts and a pack of eye shadow applicators. I used 9 ECB and my out of pocket was $0.85, saving $11.81 or 93%.

Snow Day In North Carolina

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Yes, we finally had our first official snow fall in North Carolina last night. We woke up this morning to around an inch on the ground.  Matt took the little kids out to play before 8am because he knew it would be gone by this afternoon.  I had a really easy day at work, so I spent most of the morning at home as well as a large chuck of the afternoon.  Guess how I enjoyed this “snow day”?  I worked on the Square Foot Garden and took some pictures.  The kids have really enjoyed helping me “make” the containers out of newspaper and they really like watching things actually grow.

The small green plants are broccoli that we planted about 3 weeks ago. Today we planted Green Pepper and chilles.

This is the new addition to the square foot garden. The plan is to purchase soil this week and begin transplanting broccoli plants in a week. I hope to be able to get 2 harvest form the broccoli before the heat kills it!

Saving Money- While on the Go!I

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We love to travel, yes as a family!  During any given year, we usually make at least 1 long distance (12 plus hour), 1 short distance (4 or so hours) as well as several day trips.  During the next 6 weeks we are going to be on 4 day trips. The first of which was yesterday but just Haley and I. As I was driving yesterday, I had some extra time to think and plan for the next couple of weeks.  Here is a list of idea to cut down on the cost of travelling. Some of the tips work great for all trips, other are specifically for day or short trips. I tried to include which ones we use for which. Do you have ideas or suggestions? Please leave a comment below!

  • Check gas prices and fill up on a plan. I saw gas at the cheapest $3.53 while grocery shopping on Thursday so I filled up. We travelled east to Raleigh and the cheapest I saw gas was $3.58.  This is not always the case so check ahead and decide which is best.  On long trips keep a watch on prices and if you have less than half of a tank and see gas for 3 or 4 cent less than other places go ahead and make the extra stop.
  • Bring Drinks for everyone! This is the biggest money saving trick we use on any trip. If we are going on a short or day trip, I bring a small cooler with 3-4 drinks for everyone. For Zach, I save water bottles and fill with juice so that he can have a fresh drink when he wants. This is even a bigger saver on long trips, I usually pack the same small cooler and then bring cases of drinks that we rotate in.  A twelve pack of soda can range from 15 to 40 cent a can. This sounds expensive but compared to the $2-3 per can you pay at convenient stores and/or hotels this is really a no brainier. I try to purchase juice boxes for longer trips and squeeze them into Zach cups as needed. In Disney, we froze several bottles of water, then refilled these at fountains in the park.
  • Bring Snacks- This is also important any time you are away from home. Currently, we have a variety of snacks in the diaper bag. For day trips, I try to also pack one meal. One of the things that Lily really enjoys is a picnic. So we have stopped at rest areas and enjoyed our sandwiches for lunch on a couple of occasions.  During the winter or even on rainy days, eating a sandwich while travelling is just as much fun as stopping and grabbing a burger at McDonalds. Just not buying the expensive food at ball games, and/or competitions saves at least $20 a day. I try to carry a small bag of snacks even while running errands because stopping for a drink or small snack can add up quick. With my kids they are hungry no matter the time of day.
  • Pack a small emergency bag including diaper wipes, feminine supplies, lotion, gum, Kleenex, band aids and a small bottle of medicine for headaches and such.  You can easily find a Walmart but save the $10 for a  treat such as donuts!

Saving Money- Even When It is Not Convenient

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Living in a small town makes it difficult to save money most of the time. Add in the fact that most weeks, we don’t have alot of extra time to devote to saving money. But I have learned the hard way, sometimes saving money is not the most convenient or easy thing to do.

 Out of the 7 of us, 5 use contacts and/or glasses. I do carry vision insurance at work but coverage is very limited.  Glasses are very expensive, on average a pair has been costing with the insurance an average of $200.  We have tried places in town such as Walmart, however they refuse to place transition lens in Lily’s glasses and the “$10” kids glass still cost around $100.  In addition, the customer service is awful, we have waited around 30 minutes each time we go for a fix as well as they charge for each piece that breaks on the glasses, for example nose pieces are $10 each. I also have attempted to order glasses online but this does not work out either mainly due to trying to fit the small face structure of the girls.  I have been reading about Vision Works and decided to check it out. The closest Vision Works is in Winston about 30 minutes away. I stopped in 2 weeks ago, we were able to order 2 pair of glasses for Lily including one with the transitional lens, they also “slimmed down” the lens as well, the final cost $184.00.  I was most impressed with the selection of frames we had to choice from, even staying with the lower $69.95 frames, Lily located several pair she really like in about 10 minutes.  I was able to come home and submit for a part of the cost back from my vision plan. I can only get $90 back as opposed to $150 but the real difference is after reimbursement I will have spent $95.00 for two pair of glasses as opposed to $150 for one.  Yes, using Vision Works took extra time and the cost of gas but the overall saving is well worth it.  Check out Lily’s new frames below!  I was so pleased that Kendall will be receiving 2 pair of new glasses this week as well!

Another example of saving money not being easy is couponing in general. It takes time. Time to prepare and shop. An example is today, I knew that if on my way to CVS, I stopped at my parents then I would have a second set of coupons and therefore be able to purchase 2 toothpaste for free instead of one. At this point, I don’t need the second tube but it was a small inconvenient for a free item.

January in Review

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I am actually excited to write this first update for the year! I also am including some important changes we are starting to implement this month. I will be the first to admit that most of my excitement is due to the fact that with alot of conscience effort, I have met most of the goals this month.





Blogging: This post will make 16 for the month!! I can honestly say that I have had to think about blogging this month. But have been successful in at least getting something on paper.

Goal: 15 per month

Devotions: Major improvements this month including meeting the goal for the month. I need to continue with this focus and also add some meat to it. I am also extremely excited that Matt has “stepped up” and is taking an active role in being the spiritual head of the house!
Goal is 3 a week.

Groceries: So this is the major ouch I am way behind goal on this one. I spent $1120. So my explanations is as following: stock-pile. Food Lion the one local grocery store has been running an awesome “Brand sale”. I have made 3 separate trips spending approximately $85 each trip.  This is a store that I normally don’t even shop. The other part of the explanation is that we are attempting to stock up on items during the first 3-4 month of the year so that during the remainder of the year, it will make all things easier.
     I am planning on making some major changes in= the way I keep up with our budget in this area. I am going to pull out the designated money on Monday and keep a cash envelope for it each week. This first week will be the hardest since I usually shop at CVS on Sundays, so I may just end up taking a week off or at least                 
 Grocery Budget is set at $800 per month, this includes diapers, cleaning supplies, food and toiletries.

Financially: After looking at our spending and income for the month, we are $450 over budget. I can account for all of this in the medical bills that were paid during the month. In order, to continue without this overage tanking our budget for February, we will be using our unexpected tax return to cover. Other plans for the return including the completion of our addition with gutters going up!
     I realize that we need to place money in our budget for medical expenses and will begin this in March. No debt was paid off this month but we should begin to see one or more a month starting in February.
Goal: To be Debt free except for mortgage by the end of the year.

Weight– I lost 7 pounds in the month of January! An awesome start..at this rate I will reach my goal prior to December of this year! Currently I am exercising 4 days a week and drink 8+ glasses of water

Goal to exercise 3x a week and to be down to 150