$30 Grocery Budget

Posted on February 9, 2018 by Sheila

I have often shared about our huge shopping trips to Costco in addition to great sales I find here and there. This week is a different week for us, we are not in need of many things and I could not find a great sale either, so I have spent less than $30 on groceries for the week.

First stop was Dollar General. We needed, like down to the last 2 rolls of cheap spare toilet paper needed, toilet paper this week. I did some research this morning and discovered that Dollar General had a $2 off 2 digital coupon on our favorite brand. The lesson learned is that you can not combine digital and paper coupons. Total spent $8.70

Next, was a quick trip across the street to Food Lion to grab some breakfast deals. They are currently having their Buy 2 Get 1 Free Sale. My receipt showed a 50% saving which is great for this store. I purchased 6 boxes of cereal, 3 boxes of pop-tarts, 6 bowls of instant noodle soup and 2 packs of hot dogs for $16.77

I did stop at CVS but did not receive the coupon I needed to get a great deal on hair styling products so zero spent there.

My last stop was Aldi to pick up the other two needed items milk and half and half. Matt uses the half and half as creamer. Total spent $3.01

How are you saving?

Saving on Food

Posted on February 8, 2018 by Sheila

Food is the single most expensive item in our budget. I have been very proud in the past several years to slowly but surely reduce our grocery budget from $800 to $475. I also will just put out there that we no longer have kids in diapers either so that helps. Eating out is a huge expense and one that we have also reduced significantly over the past several years. I am trying to find a happy balance between a stocked pantry and shopping sales. This week the only real need we have is milk, cream and toilet paper but I plan to stock up on cereal and pop-tarts as well because they are on an awesome sale.

I have found two great fast food deals that I want to share with you. First is McDonalds, download the app! The deals always change. Currently, the focus is on mobile ordering. It is super easy to do. Matt and I both have the app so we were able to eat lunch for $5.47 on Tuesday. We used the $1 any sandwich and I added a large fry and $1 soda. Another great deal can be scored today, Sonic had fifty cent corn dogs all day. This is honestly even better than purchasing and frying ourselves!

Saving On Saturday 02/03/2018

Posted on February 3, 2018 by Sheila

I am super excited to share about my trip to Harris Teeter. I receive the weekly email but often delete it before checking it out, however this week the 12 pack of Cokes for $1.99 caught my eye. I also was glad that I found packs of shredded cheese for $0.99 each. I stocked up on my limit of 10 and may have convinced by Mother to purchase another 8 on her card. The other really exciting part of this trip was that they are doubling coupons up to $2 this week. This is the most I have saved!

By the numbers:
Total before VIC Card and coupons $176.18
VIC savings $126.20
Coupon Savings    $19.98
Total Savings    $146.18
Total spent    $57.30
Saving Percent    77%

January In Review 2018

Posted on February 1, 2018 by Sheila

The final week of January has been a rough one for us, on many different levels. Today is Thursday and I can see a small light at the end of the tunnel at least for this week. Both our electric and water bill will be extremely high for February so I am already working the budget numbers to accommodate the extra amounts.

Since I am not totally positive on what things I want to monitor this year I am going with a list method of goals and may decide to add or delete a few as the weeks go on.

Financial- We are attempting to use a cash only method for the first six month of the year in order to get us some better financial balance.

Total paid to credit card debit $1050 total reduction in credit card debit $415
Grocery budget $160- Total spent $200. This is still $275 less than budget.. I will be increasing the February budget to $300.
Gas budget- $280- Spent $235
Kid/Summer expenses : $85
Earned $170- this is indeed a much lower amount but this is the expectation until at least March.

Personal- This is truly where I am add or change several things

Blogging- 15 for the month. I am going to set a goal for 20 but realize that is probably not realistic.
Reading The Bible – 31 days complete!
Exercise- 7 total days for the month. Again setting a goal for 15 but not sure if that is realistic or not.

5 Things Friday- Financial

Posted on January 26, 2018 by Sheila

Fair warning this is not a happy post, I had even considered naming it 5 Financial Woes but decided that was a bit dramatic.

My snow days last week, which I did enjoy ended up being unpaid.
On Saturday of last week, the windshield of my van started to crack for no apparent reason. The crack has now spread to cover 3/4 of the windshield. It is not actually in the line of site but the entire windshield will need to be replaced in the near future.
Our water bill increased this month by $18.
Our electric bill increased by $160 from last month and $80 from our average bill.
Our earning apps, extra money has slowed to a crawl. This is expected for the first several month of the year but still a cut in pay.

Awesome CVS post…

Posted on January 25, 2018 by Sheila

I have really slacked off with CVS over the past year. In fact, I usually only go every couple of weeks. One of the main reason is that they are making it difficult to save money. Just a few weeks ago I was greeted by a sign that stated “Limit of two transactions per household per day.” I asked and got a crazy explanation and thankful someone has at least told them that is not legit. Earlier this week, I stopped by to grab a good deal on deodorant that I found on Southern Savers. I ended up with 4 sticks of deodorant for $5.12 and 5 ECB to save.

Today, Matt and I made a quick trip to CVS to grab more deodorant on a different deal. I also had printed coupons for Campbell’s Soup, $0.80 off 4 cans. I did not realize that Tomato Soup was on sale.

Today I spent a total of $2.25 for 3 sticks of deodorant, 4 cans of Tomato soup, and 2 kit kat bars. I purchased the 3 sticks of deodorant in the first transaction using the 5 ECB from earlier in the week, and the soup with the 4 ECB I received back!

Matt should have enough deodorant for several months and Kendall is one happy girl with four cans of Tomato Soup!

Monday Menu Planning 1/22/2018

Posted on January 22, 2018 by Sheila

I have to admit that last week’s snow threw a wrench in my meal plan for the week. The good news is that I decided to cook and use items we already had on hand! This week our crazy normal schedule returns with at least 3 days of evening activities.

Breakfast- Saturday-Fried Bologna and scrambled eggs , Sunday- Cereal and milk , Monday-baked oatmeal, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday- Choice of cereal, eggs or left-overs, Thursday- breakfast burrito bowl.

Lunch- Saturday- pizza snacks , Sunday- meal at friends house , Monday- left over pizza for everyone. The kids are taking 2 day of sandwiches and 2 grab and go days. I plan to eat at work a couple of times this week as they have my favorite sandwich.

Dinner – Saturday- Pizza , Sunday- Chicken parmesan with spaghetti noodles Monday- Bacon Ranch Chicken casserole , Tuesday- Taco Tuesday, Wednesday-Left over night , Thursday- Pulled pork or pork chops , Friday- Hamburger and French Fries.

Saving on Saturday- 1/22/2018

Posted on January 21, 2018 by Sheila

This week we , Matt, kids, my mom and myself, decided to search out some clearance deals. I will go ahead and say that Matt was able to get the best overall deal. Matt works at Dollar General. Until Tuesday of this coming week, the majority of Christmas items are twenty-five cent each. After hearing of his awesome deal, we decided to browse the other Dollar Generals in town.

On Friday night, Matt found a candle that was placed in the wrong area with a twenty-five cent coupon on top of it. He purchased the candle for me and a box of candy canes for a total of twenty-six cent. He also submitted his receipt to Ibbotta and receive a twenty five cent rebate so a candle and box of candy canes for one penny after rebate.

One store had lots of canned pumpkin (I purchased 12 cans) a container of green sprinkles and a container of cloves all priced at twenty-five cents. We also found a Cars stocking also priced at twenty five cent. I also purchased tissue paper, gift boxes and bows of varies sizes. Plastic round ornament boxes were priced at $3 each, I purchased at total of three at two separate stores. I also found some paper plates for a Ladies banquet that I am responsible for a table at. These were not on clearance but a great deal. I ended up spending a total of $50 ! I will say I am very impressed with my self.

Our final stop was the local Big Lots, we found all Christmas items between 50% and 75% off. We also discovered at the register that this weekend, we received an additional 20% off. I am excited to say that we found wrapping paper that will work for several occasions for less than seventy five cents a roll! This was a huge score and completes re stocking our wrapping paper.

Today, we claimed and sorted the recycle paper bin at our church. I started with many years ago. After less than an hours work for the sorting we have a case or more of paper that will be used for printing coupons, art work and recipes for the next six months or so.

Thursday Snow Thoughts 1/18/2018

Posted on January 18, 2018 by Sheila

Today is actually day #2 of Snow her in NC. I ended up not heading in to work yesterday because of the weather and today is my normal day off. Yesterday, I cooked several things and today I worked on doing some extra Spring cleaning. Which includes 6-7 loads of laundry and vacuuming of the walls in the living room.

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The kids all had eye appointments scheduled for today but because of the snow, they have been rescheduled to March. Lily is most worried because she has 2 pair of contacts left.
January continues to be a tight budget month but we are doing excellent with our grocery budget which was $160 for the entire month. Currently, we have $6.41 left. The snow has also helped our gas budget. Neither Matt nor I have been anywhere since Tuesday.
For Breakfast, I tried a two ingredient recipe for pancakes. Lily and Kendall LOVED these, Matt and Zach ate theirs but did not want seconds. I liked them and it was a great way to use up bananas.
Lily is upset because her charter school, which is online, is continuing while both Zach and Kendall have not had school in the last two days. I had to remind her that she has days out of school when they attend as well.