Shopping Trip

So far this month, I have spent $217.56 on groceries. Yesterday, we went shopping and I have no plans to make another trip this month. I have come to realize that I usually don’t shop like other people. I find it very interesting to read the details about other people’s trips and thought it might be interesting to explain how I do shop. I live in a very small town, which has a Walmart and one grocery store chain. I try to combine trips and usually buy items that are on sale only for most trips. Keep in mind that we currently have 40# of chicken breast, 50# of ground venison, a bag of shrimp and probably 10# of pork in our freezer. At the brand sale earlier in the month, I stocked up on canned goods including beans and veggie as well as staples such as oatmeal, ketchup and mustard.  This month, my focus was stocking up at our local store (Food Lion) brand sale and keeping the grocery bill as low as possible. Any amount left in the budget for the month will definitely help to meet our financial goals for this month.

We did end up shopping at CVS, Food Lion, Harris Teeter and Costco yesterday. The first stop was CVS, I purchased eye patches for Kendall and grabbed the best deals on items that we use.  I spent a total of $13.69 of which $4.59 was the cost of the eye patches. At Harris Teeter, I spent $8.96 for only items on sale that ended up costing less than $1 each they included 4 boxes of Hamburger Helper, 2 boxes of cereals, bottle of shampoo, mousse, 2 bottles of Hair Spray, hair gel, toothpaste, 2 boxes of granola bars  and a  roll of sausage. Costco is the only store that I would actually consider grocery shopping because I purchased items that we were out of  including milk, creamer and eggs. I spent $73 at Costco. The final stop was Food Lion where I had $12.50 in coupons from the previous sale, I ended up grabbing items for our Super Bowl party and spending an additional $14 above the coupons.  The total spent for the day was $105.

Does anyone else shop this way?

 

November in Review

I am posting these a day early so that I can share a major way to save money tomorrow on home renovations!

Financial goals November has been a better month for us, however with the expenses of car insurance, which I had not completely saved this time and lot of Christmas shopping it was an expensive month.  We were able to reduce our monthly expenses by $100 by reducing cable and eliminating our home security system. This new number will begin in December so I will be developing a new plan for the 2014 with these new figures.

  • Pay off Lawn mower by March 2014, so no interest is charged. Payment of $100 made, almost a triple payment. Steady progress. I have added to this initial debt with the purchase of flooring but have a plan to still pay all off prior to interest being applied!
  • Pay off all outstanding debt except the mortgage by June–  No progress this month but no new debt. We missed this goal obviously but my new goal is June 2014!
  • Emergency fund to $2000  I have been talking and being in January this will be a major goal and I will be adding a line item to our budget to make it a reality.
  • Maintain a budget using a form of the envelope system -Slight adjustments in this area as well. I am going to be moving several items to cash envelopes such as hair to make this easier.
  • Groceries: Spend $600 or less a month  We have spent $453 this month. In December my plan is to stick to less than $200 by eating out of the fridge and pantry!
  • Gas- Goal Met!! We currently have $150 left in our gas budget which we used for part of our car insurance.

Blogging:  Goal: 15 per month:  This is post number 14 with another post with pictures about our new flooring!

Devotions: Goal is 5 a week   Goal Met! I am really enjoying my morning time.

Weight: Goal to exercise 3x a week and to be down to 150 by December by losing around 4 # a month.. I have been consistently exercising 2x a week and actually lost some weight in addition to my clothes fitting much better. I will be continuing to work on this next year.

So my goals look much better this month! In December I will be spending some time reviewing each goal and deciding how to proceed for next year. I will plan an several post on budgeting and at least an update in December with new goals stated for January. Progress should be celebrated!

Seven Cent Shopping Trip!

photoI made a quick trip to CVS, Sunday evening. My initial goal was to grab the free paper towels and a stick of my favorite deodorant breaking even in the process. I was very pleasantly surprised to receive 5 ECB from the beauty club when I scanned my card. So I was able to grab the above items for 7 CENT including tax!   I have 2 rolls of paper towel, 2 sticks of Mitcheum deodorant and 2 packs of trident gum!   I am really excited as these are truly items that I normally use and the deodorant is one of the few items that I am brand loyal to!

CVS is slowing down on deals lately but it is trips like this that will keep me going back!

September No-Low Spend Challenge Update 3

1.Emergency Fund at $1000 by the end of the month. I did receive a refund on Haley’s tuition so I was able to place $500 in the fund. I still need to find another $500 but this is a start.

2. Grocery spending at $200 or less not including our Zaycon Food chicken order. This week was expensive for groceries. I did place our chicken order and will be picking up 120# of chicken in a October. This week I have made two stops at the grocery store, one at Aldi and another at Food Lion. I am over my $200. Currently I sit at $226 for the month.

As you can tell, I most likely will not be able to met either of my goals for the month. However, I am glad I accepted the challenge as it has made me hyper aware of spending and has actually keep my grocery shopping well under budget as well. I will only do a find update since I am already fallen from the wagon so to speak.

 

What Does Our Stockpile Look Like?

Over the past several months, we have been cleaning out our freezers and pantries. However during the last three weeks, two of the stores in the area have been running some really good deals so I chose to start to stock pile again.  I am always looking for what other people consider a stock pile and how they do it so I thought I would share about ours. Here is a breakdown of some of the items we have on hand:

  • 10 tubes of unopened toothpaste. I was able to grab 4 tubes for free this past week!  I will not be purchasing any more, but free is free no matter how many you have.
  • 20 plus bottles of Shampoo and Conditioner. I did purchase 3 bottles of Kid’s shampoo this past week. This is definitely an item, I will not be buying anytime soon. In fact, I will not even be looking for any deals on these until I am down to 5 bottles or less.
  • 15 un-open bars of soap. Lily has very sensitive skin so I try to stock up when even one of the few brands she uses is on sale. I was able to purchase 3 bar packs at Harris Teeter for $0.35 this week.
  • 6 bottles each of Ketchup and mustard. These were actually purchased in January when I was able to find them for $0.50 or less.
  • 4 5# bags of sugar. I remember purchasing these at less than $1.50 a bag, they are in Ziploc bags so they should last a good long time.
  • 40 can of vegetables. I purchased these at Food Lion two weeks ago for $0.25 a can. I prefer the frozen veggies but these are awesome to have on hand.
  • 10 cans of soup.  Tomato soup is one of the few items that I am brand loyal to, so when I find coupons that make it less than $.50 a can, I buy. But I also have another 10 cans of cooking soups as well.
  • 10 cases of soda, I take usually 1 a week to work. These were all purchased in May and June when I was able to get for around $0.08 a can or less than $2.00 per 12 pack. I also use my coke points to add to this any time I can.
  • 12 2 L Diet Cokes. I have been enjoying these that I purchased at $0.88 in August but I know that I will soon need to add to this.
  • Our meal list is currently at 14 dinners. After these are used up, I will be stocking back up the freezers. First with a 120# order of chicken from Zaycon and then with a trip to the local meat butcher/market.

Lastly our veggie freezer is almost full, I have been slowly adding diced/stewed tomatoes this summer. Otherwise I have several packages of plums from last year. I also have an abidance of frozen zucchini and squash from 2 years ago.  I did add to the freezer with frozen broccoli and corn purchased again on the brand sale at Food Lion. I know that Food Lion usually has the brand sale in January so I purchased what I thought would last till then.

Can anyone give me an idea what their stock pile looks like?

 

 

 

1. Emergency Fund at $1000 by the end of the month. I found out that I will be getting a refund on Haley’s tuition next week, so that will help to bump this up. But as of yet, I have not added any to the fund.

2. Grocery spending at $200 or less not including our Zaycon Food chicken order. We have made three shopping trips this week Harris Teeter #1 $8.82 (triples sale), Food Lion $ $20.39(things we are out of including paper towel) and Harris Teeter $22.42 (triples sale),. I also had to write a check for the girls to eat at school several times a week. But the good news is we are still under budget $163. The plan is to spend $200 or less!  I actually think we are going to make it!

Food Lion Savings

I am the first and maybe the loudest to say that Food Lion has a really back coupon policy in addition to no doubling or extra perks for shopping there. It is also the only grocery store in my small town. But after shopping this weekend, I might even say that things are starting to look up at Food Lion.

I realized earlier in the week, that part of their 3 day sale would be 2L Cokes for $0.79, my stock up price for these are 0.99 and since we pass a Food Lion on any trip we take, I was going to take advantage. Today, we decided to shop at the Food Lion near our church and pool. I did not even take my coupons with me but instead scanned the MVP card up front and decided to go from there.  I did have a “Free roll of Paper Towel” with a $10 purchase and $1.50 off any Laundry supply. Both of these we received on Friday night when we made our first stop to grab Diet Cokes.   I was pleasantly surprised to receive several coupon from the kiosk to use. I was able to purchase the follow for $10, in two transactions. I had to split up the Diet Cokes because you are only allowed to purchase for at a time.

8 2 L Diet Cokes    $0.79 each
Roll of Paper towel- used the free coupon
24oz Ketchup 0.99 with 0.50 off coupon-  0.49
2 cans of Sweet Peas 0.67 each with 0.50 off 2 or 0.42 each (not a stock up price but I need to get my total to $10 before coupons)
Loaf of Sandwich Bread 0.95 with coupon for 0.50 off – 0.49
ALL Mighty Pacs  on sale for 2.99 with coupon for $1.50 –  $1.49.  I am usually very brand loyal for washing detergent however with us doing an additional load  a day of pool items there really is no need to be- these items are not really dirt to begin with.

Total Spent $10, total saved $17 or 62%

CVS Awesome Trip

Matt made a pretty interesting statement yesterday.  “CVS is more of a marathon, not a sprint.” I have made two trip to CVS in the past two-day and have done amazingly!  I will preference it by saying that Haley “needed” make up earlier in the week so she asked for some coupons and brought her 5 ECB back for me to you.  So I did begin with 5 ECB and ended today with zero. I spent $15 and saved $68 or 82%.  I am most impressed with the items I purchased: 10  2 L Diet Cokes  (0.99) each, 2 large bags of M&Ms, 2 boxes of movie candy, 2 bottle of Dove Hair Spray, 2 containers of Shampoo, A razor, a container of shaving gel, and 2 bottles of Irish Spring Body wash, These are all items that will be easily used in the next month. I know that I need to stock back up on razors so I am going to watch the sales over the next couple of weeks to see what I can come up!

 

April In Review

Financial goals: April was a month of catch up that didn’t have us catching up as I had hoped. One of the reason was I actually was shorted a full day on a check. Hopefully things will start to improve in May

  • Pay off Lawn mower by March 2014, so no interest is charged. Payment made of $175
  • Pay off all outstanding debt except the mortgage by June–  No progress this month
  • Emergency fund to $2000  This fund has actually decreased again this month. My focus for May will be to return it to the $500 mark.  I would like to have it up to $500 ASAP and $2000 by the end of the year.
  • Maintain a budget using a form of the envelope system – Still working well!
  • Groceries: Spend $600 or less a month Goal met, and we are on track for meeting our projection for the year as well. , We spent a $564.00 this month. We have decided not to participate in the food co-op this year but instead use of the money for fresh fruits and veggies.

Blogging:  Goal: 15 per month This is my 14th post of the month . Still have not met this goal for the year but will continue to keep working toward it. I am actually pleased this month because I feel I have achieved a good balance with pictures and information.

Devotions: Goal is 5 a week   Goal Met! I am really enjoying my morning time.

Weight: Goal to exercise 3x a week and to be down to 150 by December by losing around 4 # a month. Exercising has not been as consistent as I want it to be and I have realized that I really need to focus on my water intake as well. This continues to be a daily struggle for me.

My 2 Cents

photo (13)This is what I was able to purchase with my 2 cents yesterday at CVS!  I always say that couponing is a game but it is a long game like monopoly. I used 10 ECB to pay for the above items. All the items I purchased were on this current weeks sale,including the toothpaste which was BOGO Free!  But you really can’t look at this purchase in isolation. It really started in January, when I grab a rain check for 24  12 packs of coke products. The rain check was 4 for $10 and 10 ECB when you purchased $30. Last week I went by CVS to pre-order 24 cases of Diet Coke.  Thursday morning, I was able to purchase the 24 packs in two separate transactions. I used 2 free 12 pack coupons to bring the actual cost down to $1.80 per 12 pack including tax.  I chose not to spend my remaining 10 ECB from the second transaction in hopes of a awesome sale that might start on Sunday. I did check Thursday night and discover I really had no interest in going to CVS for the next sale so decide to go ahead and so see what I could use from this weeks sale.

What have you purchased for 2 cent lately?