This is one of those it is a lot of little things that make a big difference kind of week.

We spent most of the morning in the kitchen preparing food ahead. I made burrito bowls for breakfast and we plan to enjoy the leftovers for several morning this week. I also made tomato/basil biscuit. They turned out awesome and we ended up eating for lunch at the pool today. I will plan to make at least a batch of these every couple of days in order to  keep ahead of our garden. Next on our cooking list was “baked ziti” We made two large pans at the same time. The first of these we will be enjoying for lunch tomorrow with friends. My preparing ahead we will not be tempted to eat our tomorrow after church. The second baked ziti went straight in the freezer this is one of the 4 planned evening meal that we will be using on our beach trip. The condo we plan to stay at has a full kitchen but I do not enjoy cooking on my vacation so we plan ahead and take a couple of meal that just need to cook, by freezing the also serve as ice for the cooler on the trip.

I am beginning to notice a difference in my grocery spending this month. The main reason for this is that after making our “big” meat purchase and completing a trip to Costco, I decided to take the remaining money out of the bank and place in a cash envelope. Because I can physically see the money remaining in the envelope and know we still have half the month left, I have been making some tough decision regarding stocking up on items.  I did run to the grocery store yesterday to purchase provolone cheese for the baked ziti but I was not even tempted by any of the sales they had. We are currently on our last 2 rolls of toilet paper.  CVS is having a good sale on my favorite brand tomorrow, I would normal complete this deal twice for a total of $35 out of pocket. This amount of toilet paper would last us 6 months. However, I will only be spending about $17 tomorrow because of checking the cash envelope prior to planning the trip. I don’t have enough cash to cover two transactions so I will be buying more toilet paper in 3 months as the need arises. It may sound silly right now but I am really working at staying on budget this month, even with some big spending up front.

I spent about an hour tonight updating and learning about the different apps that will actually give you money back for purchasing certain items. I have had a saving star account for over a year and realized that I was eligible for my second payout, the amount is only $5.25 but this is directly deposited into my bank account and I earned it by simply buying items that were on sale with a coupon as well. I am hoping to make some extra change each month by using these apps.

How are you saving?