Paper or Plastic?

This post contains affiliate links from Grocery University.

During the month of September, I decided to tackle out outrageous $600 grocery budget and using a little planning and the tips learned from Grocery University we were able to cut our spending by $200!  Since then, I’ve lightened up on the planning a bit BUT have still managed to use the tips to keep our spending at just $400 per month.. well actually October was $415 but November was a paltry $175!  So where do we go from here?

I’m considering setting a goal of paying only $300 per month for groceries!  Since I’ve been able to maintain $400 or less for a couple months with minimal effort I think I can do some extra planning and stick to a $300 budget.  I also pulled out household and baby items into their own line items in the budget so the $300 will be strictly for food related expenses.

Another change we will be making in the new year?  Paying CASH for groceries.  It’s easy to overspend when you can just swipe the plastic, but handing over those paper bills  makes that shopping trip much more real.  If you head to the store with a plan for the cash, you need to stick to that plan and not give in to impulses as much.  This will be a real challenge for me as I use my debit card for everything and rarely carry cash. 

As I plan to cut our budget even further, I’m looking over and listening to my Grocery University materials again to really ingrain the tips into my brain.  I really believe that this program helped our family save $200 a month and that it can help us to save an additional $100!  And let me add that my savings didn’t happen with stores that double $1 coupons or at ones that allow a high dollar coupon to be used on trial sizes.  If you watch the extreme couponing shows you know that’s often what gets them to a $1 total for $1000 of groceries but that just isn’t realistic.  One of my regular grocery stores doubles up to $0.50 coupons, another doesn’t double, and another doesn’t even take coupons!

If you haven’t checked it out yet, or know someone who could use a little help in trimming some spending, I encourage you to check out the program or share the link with a friend because there is a SALE going on TODAY!!!  Normally, Grocery University is $9.97 but TODAY ONLY the price is just $4.97!! It’s a great deal and could make a great gift for someone struggling with this area.

Another great deal for today is Financial Peace University!  The home study course is just $129 (normally $399!!) and the online format that Hubs and I are going through is just $109.

Check out these two great deals to get your 2015 off to a great start!

Holiday Havoc

Hey y'all!  Wow.. nearly 1.5 months since I posted!  Life certainly gets in the way when you let it but I have NOT given up on our quest to become debt free.

I have been updating the little total ticker there on the right sidebar, and if you look you can see we've paid off $3,220.13 since I started this little blog in September.  That's just 3 months worth of effort. Not included in that total are 2 medical bills that popped up, incidentals on a trip to Michigan, baby shower gifts, Thanksgiving expenses, and the fact that we have gotten ourselves a baby emergency fund in place.  I've started a side Avon business (link on the side) to bring in some extra income and Hubs and I have been working our way through Financial Peace University Online. Oh and there's this little thing called CHRISTMAS coming up so a little extra income has been allocated toward gifts the past month as well!  Whew… it has been a busy month but I'm feeling really encouraged about where we are right now even if this month's snowball payment was fairly small.

The plan for December?  Pick up those few last minute Christmas gifts, pay cash for 2 new tires on our car, and hopefully attack the snowball a bit harder.  Also this month we have 3 family birthdays and Christmas!  I’m planning a little extra for restaurants and fun things like going to see the lights in Gatlinburg or other Christmas-y things we can do as a family.  The holiday season has a way of wreaking havoc on the budget but we are trying to be as prepared as possible!  We also plan to finish up our FPU classes and move forward in 2015 with a more complete budget.  This will make us cut back a bit in some areas but will also help us save for a those inevitable rainy days.  Things like new tires or dryer repairs or unplanned medical expenses will have their own sinking funds monthly so that when these kinds of expenses pop up, we will be ready for them.  Even with these extra categories, we will have money leftover to apply to the snowball and will continue to push toward becoming debt free. 

We are wrapping up this year faster than I would like but we feel good about our plan for the next one!

Are you making any special budget considerations for the holiday season? Do you have any budget related goals for 2015?

Cutting The Grocery Budget–Wrap Up

We’ve had a little break in posting because we had a somewhat surprise visitor in the form of my 90year old grandpa!  We hadn’t seen him since early June so this was quite a treat!  At that point Baby Wee had just started walking.  Now she’s running and climbing everywhere, displaying more of her personality everyday!

But I promised a wrap-up with tips and tricks that I had learned during this process and so here we go!

Here are the top 5 easy to do things that helped me to cut our grocery budget by 33% in just one month!

Menu Planning -  Ok, I was already doing this before we set out to cut our budget BUT I made one small change in HOW I planned.  I planned my menu around the items that were on sale that week.  See, I told you it was simple!  Somehow, it had never occurred to me to do this before I bought the Grocery University program. Once I read that I was like “DUH!!”  While we still might decide on a meal or two that just sounds good at the time, switching to mostly on sale ingredients helps immensely!

Shop Your Pantry -  Another simple and obvious tip!  Most of us have shelves and freezers with food purchased and then forgotten.  It’s always a good idea to take stock of what you already have on hand before heading to the store or even before menu planning!  This also comes in handy if you need to whip up a plan B one night because a quicker, easier dinner is warranted.

Use Coupons -  I told you these are easy to do right? Get a paper and get some scissors and start clipping!  Then get on your computer and start printing and clipping some more! Ask friends and family to give you their leftovers, pick up those coupons in the grocery aisle displays… It’s worth it, I promise.  I used to think coupons were a hassle but they really can save you big money – especially when you combine them with store sales and double coupon policies.

Know Your Prices – You may very well need to shop around to get the best prices.  I’m working on creating a Price Book so I can quickly reference prices of commonly purchased items.  It’s worth it to know what the normal and sale prices are on certain items so you know if that week’s sale is actually a “good deal.”  Currently, I have a general idea of prices but over the 4 weeks of tracking I know there are things I got at less than a “good deal.”  Some things could be cheaper at Sam’s Club even without a coupon, but unless you know the normal price per serving or ounce you might end up paying more.  Also, stores generally have sales on a cycle.  If you can figure out that your favorite pasta sauce is on sale every 4 weeks, you know the ideal time to stock up and use your coupons!  Knowing prices and sales cycles is really beneficial when you use it to stock up on things like meats – things for which you generally can’t find coupons.  If I see pork loin for $1.99/lb, I’m going to stock my freezer with self cut chops and roasts. If I see hormone and antibiotic free chicken breasts for $2.99/lb you better believe I’m buying a bunch! Stocking up when you know the price is low is a great way to save money even if you spend a little more during that trip.  Remember, we are shopping from our pantry and fridge/freezer before spending a dime at the store that week!

Get Organized – Know what is in your pantry and fridge. Know your “good deals.” Organize your coupons so you can find them quickly and easily.  Make a menu board with your favorite recipes to make menu planning faster.  With a toddler in tow, I need to be able to menu plan and grocery shop as quickly as possible.  I also don’t want to miss out on an unadvertised deal because I can’t find the coupon I know I have somewhere. 

My process looks something like this:

• Clip coupons from Sunday paper and file.  Pull coupons that will expire this week to the front.  Discard any expired coupons.
• Peruse the grocery store sale flyers when they come out on Wednesday. 
• Make a list of all “good deals” that I see or items we need to restock and print.
• Use the lists (usually 2 from 2 stores) and my pantry/fridge to make a menu for the week & highlight ingredients needed on the lists.
• Match highlighted items from the lists to coupons. 
• Hit the store(s)!

It really can be as simple as that!  Just a few small and easy changes made a big change in our budget.  There are even more tips I learned from Grocery University and implemented over the month, but these 5 tips are the easiest things I did.  They are also easy enough that pretty much anyone can do them!  I hope they can help you and your family too.

Delectable Banana Bread

Now that fall is upon us, I’m back into baking mode!  I love baking bread, cakes and cookies but we don’t have air conditioning so here in the South that means summer is a barren wasteland for all things homemade baked goods.  It’s just too darn hot to run the oven!  But summer also means lots of fresh fruits… some of which just don’t get eaten before they start to go bad.  In the spirit of saving money, I try to stick fruits in the freezer before they spoil too much so we can use them up when we get a chance.  This is how I came to have 8 blackened bananas in a gallon baggie in my freezer.

We always seem to have 1 or 2 bananas that just don’t get eaten before they start to go bad and I hate to waste them.  I remember when (ok showing my age here…) you could get bananas for $0.25/lb and now they average about $0.59/lb.  I hate spending that much but I actually like bananas so I try to buy them when they go on sale.  But with just 1 or 2 bananas leftover every few weeks you can’t do much so when I get one that is turning I stick it in a gallon baggie and pop it in my freezer. Then I just add to the baggie each time we have extras until I get 6-8 very ripe bananas. 

And then this delicious bread happens.

For this recipe you need about 3 cups of banana which is between 6-8 bananas.  BUT if you don’t have enough and are really craving banana bread you can substitute the missing portion of banana with applesauce.  I have made it with up to one cup of applesauce and it was just as banana-y as if I had used all banana!

First you want to combine your sugar and butter until it’s light and fluffy.  I don’t know the why behind this step but I do it, its pretty easy.

Next, you add the eggs and bananas (and applesauce if you choose). Mix well.

Finally, sift together your dry ingredients. (I will fully admit I totally skip this step – hey I have a toddler to get back to!) Then mix the dry ingredients with your banana mixture until just blended together.

Grease your loaf pans well.  I like to use butter and a paper towel to coat the pan but cooking spray works just fine.  If you have trouble with sticking, make sure to coat the corners really well.  Then fill your pans with the mixture until they are about 1/2-3/4 full.  I usually get 2 loaves with this recipe. One large and one medium sized.

Then bake for 45-60mins or until the centers come clean when you stick a knife or toothpick in. (My medium sized loaf took about 45mins and the larger loaf took closer to 60mins.)  Let them cool in the pan for about 10 mins and then remove from pan to finish cooling. Slice and enjoy with some butter or ice cream! Ready to start baking?  Here’s the recipe:

Delectable Banana Bread

3 cups	Banana, mashed (about 6-8 ripe bananas)
2 cups	Sugar
1 cup	Butter
4	Eggs, beaten
2.5 cups	Flour (I use all purpose)
2 tsp	Baking Soda
1 tsp	Salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

With electric mixer, cream the sugar and butter together.  Add the bananas and eggs and beat until well mixed. (You can substitute the banana with applesauce if you don’t have quite 3 cups.)

Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt. Blend the dry mixture with the banana mixture until just mixed.

Pour into 2 greased loaf pans.  Bake for 45-60minutes or until a knife or toothpicks comes out clean from the middle. You can also watch for the edges to start to separate from the pans – mine sometimes don’t do this so I always use the toothpick method.

Cool in pans for about 10 minutes then remove from pans and let cool.  Enjoy!

Frugal tip: If your family can’t eat both loaves before they go bad – not a problem in my house – you can freeze one loaf for later use!

Getting a Handle on Spending

I came clean a few weeks back on our total debt and our deadline to pay it off, but I didn’t really discuss how we plan to pay it off.  Honestly, I really didn’t know how we would.  I figured we would start a snowball type plan to get it done but I didn’t know where we could get any extra money to do this with.  I spent the last 4 weeks focusing on our grocery budget because to me it was the easiest place to cut.  I knew we were overspending in this area and I was right!  The extra $200 a month is a great start but I want to be more aggressive in getting this done.  You Dave Ramsey fans out there might call this getting “gazelle.” 

I’ve read Dave’s books and looked into his methods. I know they work for a lot of people and I know some of it can work for us. The one thing I was struggling with was how to live on a cash only basis.  My credit union that I’ve had an account with for over 30 years has no branches here in the state so cash can’t be taken out to be re-deposited at specific times to pay bill categories.  But I liked the thought of having “envelopes” and having set amounts for those categories.  I needed a way to keep my accounts electronic while still tracking specific category spending.

Enter You Need A Budget – or YNAB.

This is an actual screenshot of my budget in YNAB.  The “budgeted” amount is the total amount I’ve placed in that “envelope” for the month, the “outflows” are what I’ve actually spent from that “envelope” and the “balance” is the amount left to spend in my “envelope.”  This is all separate from my checking account yet helps me track my allocations without the money ever leaving the account.  I can also track the spending just like you would with a check register – remember those?  The best part is you can load the program on as many devices as you like!  I have the free app loaded on my Android phone that let’s me quickly see how much is currently in my envelope AND enter transactions as they happen to immediately update the totals across all devices. 

For example, I’m at grocery store A and I check to see I have $100 left for the week in that category.  I shop and I spend $75.  I enter that amount on my phone before leaving the store and immediately my husband who is at store B can see on his app that we now only have $25 left for groceries and adjusts his spending accordingly.

Since I started using the program about 4 weeks ago, I’ve been much more aware of what I’m spending and where.  I get a paycheck and immediately prioritize where the money gets allocated.   Then I don’t worry about if we have enough to get gas or go out to eat because I can always see exactly what I’ve already earmarked for that purpose.  If “Murphy” happens, and he always does, you can adjust your categories as needed but still know you have enough to cover everything.  I can’t say enough about YNAB it is the easiest and most liveable plan I’ve ever used.   And in the short time I’ve used it we have “found” over $400 to use toward our snowball this month!

YNAB has a FREE trial – and I mean completely FREE for 34 days – so you can see if the program is right for you.  They also have free online classes to help you customize the product for your needs.  I just bought the program before our free trial ended because I love it so much!  It has made budgeting…. FUN! Yes, I actually said that.   So try YNAB by using their free trial, and if you like it, please come back here and click through my link to get yourself a $6 discount on the program. (out of full disclozure - I might also get a $6 bonus if you do!)

Cutting the Grocery Budget–Week 4

This is the last week in my grocery challenge to trim $200 from our grocery bill and I am happy to report – I DID IT!!  The goal was to go from spending roughly $600 per month to just $400 – about a 33% reduction. The total I spent for this month on groceries (including household and baby items) was just….

In my budget, that is a savings of 37% or an actual $222.09!  I will be putting this extra cash to paying down our debts and to hopefully get us to our goal even sooner.  To me that total above is simply amazing.  Amazing because I always thought I was a smart shopper before. Amazing because I didn’t think we had anywhere to scrape extra dollars like that from. Amazing because it was so much easier than I thought it could be! 

I even saved money this week when I was feeling overwhelmed and tired and didn’t really get the greatest of deals.  This way of shopping and the simple act of using coupons is really saving our family money and is sustainable.  That is the important thing to me -  that this will be something I can achieve consistently if I keep at it.

This week I spent $90.13 between 2 stores – under budget by almost $10.  So without further ado… where did I shop and what did I get? 

First we went to Target – now I admit we mostly went here to get a deal on Starbucks coffee and ended up with other things entirely. This is my problem going to “big box” type of stores where they have more than just grocery items – BUT -  they do tend to have better prices on the household and baby items. I guess it’s a tradeoff and I just need to get more willpower not to scour the entire store!  So, back to the shopping… we went to pick up Starbucks beans that were on sale AND had a $5 gift card offer.  Most of the bags were gone, completely cleared out.  The ones that were left were blends Mr. Wee doesn’t like so we didn’t get any coffee.  Bummer!  By the way, did you know there are smartphone apps that will pay you to snap a pic of empty shelves and upload them?  Holy crap I would make so much money around here…. if only the apps were compatible with my phone! (iPhone users – check out gapNsnap if you are interested)  So what did we buy here then?  Baby Wee was out of Hylands Teething Tablets – best invention ever – so we picked those up using a Cartwheel offer.  We also used a Cartwheel and Target coupon to purchase Plum Organic baby food packets.  Finally, they had a sale on a giant jar of Jif for $5 – normally the same jar runs $6.99 at the grocery store.  Total spent: $24.99, total saved: $6.37.

The bulk of our shopping was done at Kroger.  I will admit I had been in a sort of love affair with Kroger the past few weeks after getting some great deals.  This week, I even decided to skip looking at my local Ingles ad because I was certain the better deals would be here – mistake.  Ok, I did still get some good deals here this week but I’ve become slightly disenchanted.  I got caught up in the 10/$10 promotion but found many of the items cleared out from the shelves… other shoppers informed me they had been empty since the day the ad came out.  Maybe they restocked during the promo, maybe they didn’t.  Either way, I was disappointed.  I was able to get greek yogurt, frozen veggies, organic mac n cheese, pasta and condensed soups (yes, I know making them is healthier but time is sometimes a premium!) for $1 or less when combined with coupons. I also stocked up on organic chicken broth for soups for fall!  Overall I spent $65.14 here and saved $33.94 – a 36% savings.  After the last few weeks of saving 40% or more, this felt like a fail.  But I still saved money – that is the most important thing to remember!

Next week I plan to recap some of the biggest things I’ve learned over the last 4 weeks but if you want to start saving now, I really want to encourage you to check out the banner link to my affiliate below:I know I’ve mentioned Grocery University in previous weeks of this challenge, but I cannot stress enough how great this program has been for our family!  I bought the program figuring I would at least recoup the cost of the program with a tip or two, so what was the harm?  The program costs $9.97 and over the last 4 weeks I’ve saved $222.09.  Seriously, how can you not love that?  Some of the tips are common sense or things you might know if you’ve been on a tight budget, but I think there are at least one or two tricks your family might benefit from in there too.  I encourage you to check it out!

What does your grocery budget look like? Could you stand to trim it?

Cutting the Grocery Budget–Week 3

Disclosure policy: This post contains affiliate links, which means I may receive compensation if you make a purchase using this link.

Here we are over halfway into my mission to cut our grocery budget by $200 this month. I am finding it easier and easier to save money at the store without making huge sacrifices and so I know I will be able to continue sticking to the new grocery budget and maybe even challenge that a bit to get it down even further!  Again I came in under budget and spent just $80.42 between 3 grocery bills. That puts the monthly total at $287.78 at week 3!  

I knew this week would be a challenge because we needed quite a few “big ticket” items for the house like toilet paper and detergent.  I knew this week would be a challenge because we needed quite a few “big ticket” items for the house like toilet paper and detergent so I decided to get a little creative and “shopped” from my fridge and pantry first.   I was shocked at what we already had on hand… especially in our little freezer.

Freezer Inventory:
Meats – keilbasa, 3 chicken breasts, sausage log, homemade sausage from the neighbors, ground chicken, 8 filet mignon, bacon, 4 sirloins, cube steak, 5 pork chops, chicken thighs, 2 cooked chicken breasts.
Vegetables – lima beans, sweet carrots, peas, corn, broccoli, peas & carrots, mixed veggies, cauliflower, tater tots, crinkle fries, chopped green pepper, chopped onion
Fruit – mixed berries, blueberries, black bananas
Cheese – swiss, parmesan, 2 bags of cheddar, mozzarella
Drinks – rum ,gin, tequila, moonshine, Tastefully Simple Ruby Orange Slush, breastmilk
Random – 4lb butter, ice cream, sugar cookies, yeast, pork gravy leftovers, bean & cheese burrito, chicken tenders, taquitos.

Yes… allllll of that fit in this tiny freezer you see in the picture.  I was vaguely aware of the contents but I was even taken by surprise on a few items.  This was more than enough to feed my family for the week if not for a few weeks!  Some things may not be our first choice but we definitely would not starve.  Let’s not forget I still have my fridge and pantry to find additional ingredients and round out the meals!  So where else did I shop and what deals did I get?

First I scoured the internet for deals on toilet paper.  Hubs is kinda picky about this one because of our septic tank and the best deal I could find was through Amazon.  We ordered Scott Extra Soft Double Rolls (36 rolls) for $19.74 shipped. We used subscribe & save, a $1 digital coupon and our Amazon Prime membership to make this item a decent deal. It works out to about $0.55 per roll and I’m pretty good with that price. This purchase will last us a while too so spread over 2-3 months the cost isn’t bad at all!

Then we went to Wal-Mart where I stocked up on toothpaste, new toothbrushes (for our upcoming trip!), mouthwash, deodorant and aluminum foil.  I spent $25.25 here on house/grocery items and saved about $4 using coupons. I have decided I really need to stay away from Wal-Mart though because I spent an additional $35.72 on shoes for baby and a hooded zip sweatshirt for me.  That came out of the clothes budget so technically doesn’t count for the grocery totals!

Last up was Kroger. I used my Kroger card and digital coupons and saved $22.58 to make my total bill $35.43!  Again I saved 40% on my main grocery trip!  I shopped a lot of the mega savings event items and managed to get deals like General Mills cereal for $1.49, Tide for $3.99 and my lovely raspberries for $0.99!  We also purchased staples like milk and eggs.  Kroger is quickly becoming my new favorite grocery store even though it’s a bit further to drive!

Let’s tally up some totals for the past 3 weeks, shall we?  I’ve spent a total of $287.78 of our grocery/household budget.  Without using the tips learned from the Grocery University program, I would have spent $400.65 on those exact same items.   I’ve saved $112.87 so far on the items I’ve bought.  I’ve also spent approximately $162.22 less than I normally would have spent from this budget at this point in the month!  That is a huge savings in my book!

Creative Grocery Savings

So I mentioned in my last post that I purchased 9 various Pillsbury items and got a free gallon of milk on an in store promotion.  Those items were on sale and I used coupons as well (some of which doubled!), bringing the total down considerably.  I think using coupons on top of store sales is an easy way to save but is there another way to maximize those savings?  YES!

Since our grocery ads come out on Wednesday and we only purchase a Sunday paper, I do my ad browsing online.  When I went to my store’s website, I discovered that they offer a section that has printable coupons and then had something called SavingStar.   Basically it’s a way to link your store card to earn cash back on items you purchase.  You just choose which offers to load to your card and then swipe your store card at checkout and you are done – no reciepts to upload!  I noticed that several of the offers were similar or the same as the coupons I had BUT they could be used in addition to the coupons and store sales giving me triple savings on certain items!

So let’s look at those Pillsbury items again…

Regular Retail Price of 9 items: $17.60
Ad Price for 9 items:                       $15.00
Instant Brand Svgs at Register:   -$2.00
Value of Free Gallon of Milk:       -$3.79
Coupons w/ doubling:                   -$4.40
Total Paid for 9 items:                $4.81

Today I received notification that my SavingStar savings had been added to my account.  I received $2.20 cash back related to the same Pillsbury items above. 

That makes my total cost for those items: $2.61 or about $0.29 per item!  Well really 10 items for about $0.26 each if you count the gallon of milk we also received!  That is an 85% savings!

SavingStar also loads one item every Friday that will be FREE if purchased by a certain date.  Last week that item was Reeses’ Peanut Butter Cups – oh the deliciousness!  And yes, the full cost was uploaded to my account so it was FREE!  That just made them all the more delicious!

To see if your store participates with SavingStar just go to http://savingstar.com to check!

Cutting the Grocery Budget–Week 2

This marks week 2 of my quest to lower our grocery budget by $200 for the month.  (See week 1 here!) I am very happy to report that I came in well under my budget of $100 for the week, paying just $72.81 between two stores!  That puts us at a total of $207.36 for the month – just $7.36 over my goal for this point. I am confident we can make that up over the next 2 weeks.  So where did I shop and what savings did I get?

First up was Kroger.  I spent $17.56 here.  We generally don’t shop here much, but when I was comparing prices at our local stores they had the best prices for meat.  Hubs requested steaks for Sunday night dinner which was NOT in my budget at all.  There were a couple options at Kroger that I thought I could make work but Hubs wasn’t impressed with those and wanted the $20 steaks instead – these came out of ”his” grocery budget.  In our family budget, we include a “his” grocery budget for items I might have him pick up on the way home and that is not figured into the general grocery budget.  What I did get was a pork loin for $1.99/lb that we will turn into a couple meals of pork chops and a pork roast (total $9.07).  I also picked up a head of green leaf lettuce and a tube of Butt Paste for the little. I used our Kroger card and a $2 coupon for the Butt Paste.  The diaper cream probably could have been purchased for slightly less elsewhere, but we weren’t making another trip.  Overall with the card and the coupon, I saved 36% off the total bill.

Then we finished up our trip at Ingles, our local grocery store.  I paid $55.25 for $93.99 worth of groceries – a 41% savings!  I had 3 coupons that doubled (from $0.40 to $0.80), a few higher dollar coupons ($1+), a Catalina for $3 off the total, and used an in store “coupon” for a free gallon of milk (a savings of $3.79).  The rest of the savings came from using our store card for sale prices.  We stocked up on baby water which was on sale for $0.88/gallon – the first time I’ve ever noticed this on sale and we go through about 1 gallon per week.  We also stocked up on taco shells (3/$2.75 after coupon).  I got 9 various Pillsbury cookies, biscuits, and cinnamon rolls – used 3 coupons that were doubled, got $2 off instantly at the register, and got a free gallon of milk! (with the combined savings I paid about $1 per item)  My “big ticket” item was lunch meat for the hubs that cost $5.50/lb.  The store had a BOGO promotion going and then I also used a $0.75 coupon making them about $2.38 each!

I feel like we did pretty well in the savings department this week!  I would love to reach a 50% or more savings on a trip, but overall 40% is still great!  In total we should have spent $120.89 and spent just $72.81. That’s almost $50 back in our pockets… or to paying off debts! I also have rebates coming from a few smartphone apps because of certain grocery purchases we made!

Today the hubs asked me why we haven’t been doing this all along.  I thought I didn’t have the time. I thought we didn’t have access to coupons we would use. I know now I didn’t have the right tips & tricks in my arsenal to make it happen.  With some new tips and perspective,  a few minutes cutting/printing coupons, and a few more minutes organizing my list and matching up menus, deals & coupons getting this savings is easier than I ever thought it would be.  Why haven’t we been doing this all along?

Asian Lettuce Wraps

So I mentioned that one of my “good deals” at the grocery store this past weekend was antibiotic and hormone free ground chicken.  I have never bought this before because its generally too pricey but this week it was less than the ground beef!  So what to make?  We have a favorite ground beef recipe that I decided might just work with ground chicken.  I was right and it was delicious!  Its similar to a very popular restaurant chain’s lettuce wrap appetizer… so if you like those, you need to try this recipe.

Asian Lettuce Wraps:
1 Lb Ground Chicken
1/2 can Water Chestnuts, chopped
2-3 stalks Celery, chopped
1/2c. Brown Sugar – not packed
1/4c. Soy Sauce
1 Tbs Sesame Oil
3 cloves of Garlic, minced
1/2 tsp freshly grated Ginger (can also use 1/4 tsp ground ginger)
1/2-1 tsp crushed red pepper (the full amount is SPICY!)
Salt & Pepper to taste

Mix together the brown sugar, soy sauce, ginger & red pepper and set aside.  Brown the ground chicken with the water chestnuts, celery, minced garlic, salt, pepper and sesame oil in a skillet over medium heat.  Drain the fat and place back in the skillet.  Add the brown sugar/soy sauce mixture and stir to coat.  Simmer for 3-4minutes to blend the flavors.  Serve over rice or wrapped in your favorite lettuce leaf. 
Recipe slightly adapted from Six Sisters’ Stuff.

This recipe also works very well with ground beef and has become a favorite in our house. The hubs actually requests it weekly, although it doesn’t get made quite that often!  The next time I make this I’m thinking of adding roasted peanuts to the mix.

If you make this, let me know if your family likes it!

Cutting the Grocery Budget–Week 1

My goal for this month is to cut our grocery budget by $200.  That is a huge amount but we were also spending a huge amount.  This week it will probably look like we aren’t doing so hot in the savings department because I spent $134.55… just $15.45 less than my original spending of $150 per week.  BUT… we stocked up on some things that *should* save us on grocery costs throughout the month and it’s still a savings for the week!  Oh, and I think I should mention that our “grocery” budget includes personal care items.  I also should mention, we have taxes here on groceries and it ranges from 5-7% depending on the item so that is included in my monthly budget as well. So what did I buy and what “deals” did I get?

First up was Sam’s Club.  Love ‘em or hate ‘em, warehouse clubs can be a great place to find deals. Personally, I prefer Costco but we only have Sam’s in our area.  There are deals to be had but you need to really check the prices at your local grocery stores to know if you are getting a good one or not.  For example, Campbell’s tomato soup runs $0.79+/can at the grocery store and at Sam’s I can buy it in a 12pack for $0.66/can.  We do not make a weekly trip here and generally buy just a few choice items when we do go.  So stocking up on a few items for the month, we spent $68.76… ugh… ok let’s break that down a bit with our price so it doesn’t hurt so much…

We bought:
5lbs of 90/10 ground beef – $3.65/lb (6+meals & cheaper per lb than the 80/20 at the grocery)
2 32oz flavored International Delight coffee creamers – $2.03 each (my vice)
3 Classico Pasta Sauces – $1.82 each
2 Simply Orange Orange Juice – $2.94 each
4lbs Butter (in sticks) – $2.87/lb or
2lbs Starbucks Beans – $8.99/lb (Hubs is a coffee snob and this runs us $13/lb at the grocery)

Next we went to Walmart.  Yes, I know allll about the evils of Walmart but for things like personal care items, they have the best prices in the area.  I spent $6.50 here and saved $4.25 using coupons! (That’s an almost 40% savings!) I will add that going here I also bought things I didn’t need that were *not* grocery budget line items so are not included in the total.  This will always be the downfall of shopping in a supercenter type setting.

We bought:
Carefree pantyliners – $0.44 (used $0.50 off coupon)
Stayfree pads – $1.86 (used $1 off coupon)
TRESemee Hairspray – $1.98 (used $2 off coupon)
Caress Body Wash – $2.22 (used $0.75 off coupon)

Finally, we went to Ingles (our local grocery store). We spent a grand total of $59.29 on just grocery items and we saved $31.96.  That’s right, we got $91.25 worth of food for just over $59!!  (A 35% savings!)  I’m not going to detail my entire grocery list here but our savings came from a few places.  First, we used our store card to save $25.76.  Big ticket items included in this savings were hamburger buns for $0.68, ground chicken for $3/lb, grapes for $1.40/lb and 33oz of olive oil for $6!  I used store card savings on some Gerber baby items that were 2/$3 or 3/$4 and stacked that with $1 off coupons bringing those down to $1 per meal or snack saving about $0.60 on each.  I also got catalinas for $1 off more Gerber items and $3 off my next shopping trip! (Catalinas are the coupons that print at the register with your receipt) In total I used $6.20 in coupons.

So did I save the 90% that you see on the extreme couponing shows?  Heck no!  But I do think I learned some helpful tips that will get us to the $400 or less monthly grocery budget. (Thank you to my affiliate, Grocery University)  I also think saving 35-40% off is a pretty good first effort. 

A few things I have learned from this first venture out? 

• The tips I learned from Grocery University have already saved me more than I paid for the download – seriously, go buy it now! 
• My local grocery store runs their ads from Wednesday to Tuesday every week so I can plan for my weekend shopping trip by looking at the online ad. 
• Running to town to pick up the “big city” newspaper (in our case, the Knoxville News Sentinel) is worth it for the extra coupons they offer. 
• I have a ton of coupons for non-food items and not so many for food items – I need to focus more on the food coupons when printing them from online. 
• I need to make a price list so I can better judge if items are a “good deal” or not – especially when shopping at Sam’s club. (ex: I should have bought the soup!)

What is your favorite grocery shopping tip? What was your biggest grocery shopping deal?

Slow Cooker Salsa Chicken Burritos

I mentioned that this week our grocery bill was a whopping $36 because we are making do with mostly on hand items. When I searched my shelves and fridge I found a can of black beans, frozen boneless, skinless chicken breasts (I stock up on these when I find a good sale on the hormone and antibiotic free kind), a half used bulk jar of salsa and about 6 large flour tortillas leftover from quesadilla night.  So what did I come up with for dinner?

Salsa Chicken Burritos!

Slow Cooker Salsa Chicken Burritos:
2-3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 medium sized jar mild salsa (I used about 20oz or so)
1 can black beans, drained
Tastefully Simple Fiesta Party Dip Mix
Large flour tortillas
Shredded cheddar cheese
Sour cream

Place chicken in your slow cooker.  Cover chicken with salsa completely. Sprinkle Fiesta Party Dip Mix over top to taste. (I used about a teaspoon or so just to give it a little kick) Set slow cooker on low and let it cook for about 5 hours or until chicken is falling apart. Take 2 forks and shred the chicken breasts. Add the black beans and mix the chicken, salsa and beans thoroughly. Cook for an additional half hour.

Take a large flour tortilla and sprinkle with cheese. Place chicken mixture on top of cheese and roll like a burrito. Add a dollop of sour cream to finish.

Viola! Completely easy and tasty dinner packed with a little extra protein!  Enjoy!

Small Setback

After our daughter was born, we decided to try to live off my husband’s income as much as possible.   Most of our “living” related bills are paid by his salary and my salary mainly goes toward groceries, the car payment, and the debts.  This made sense for us because I am a contract employee and sometimes have short breaks between assignments.  Of course I would end up on an extended break right when we are really focusing on paying off debts. Of course.  I am currently going on no work for 3 out of the last 4 weeks.  Yes, that makes a major dent in our plans.

While I’m scrambling around changing up my debt snowball spreadsheet and making sure all bases are covered, I’m also trying to think of areas to save more and how to make a few bucks to help offset the loss a bit. 

First, I did manage to spend only $36 at the grocery store this weekend and I picked up a “big city” newspaper with better coupons so I can start implementing my Grocery University strategies.  I used my store card and my own pantry and fridge to keep the total so low for this week.  We bought no meat because our freezer was still full from previous weeks and I worked a menu to fit around that.  Hubs also worked late everyday last week so the baby and I made do with leftovers and a bit of mac n cheese.  This coming weekend I plan to use coupons and the GU strategies to keep the grocery total low even with the addition of meat and produce.

This weekend I also received a small check from a local consignment sale where I sold my daughter’s outgrown items.  This got me thinking what else can we sell that is currently just cluttering up the house?  Here are a few I came up with:

• Old electronics, books and DVD’s – we have at least 1 old Kindle a cell phone or two, a hundred or so DVD’s and probably 50ish books we could stand to purge.  When doing a quick search online, I found that Amazon will let you trade in these types of items for Amazon gift cards.  They even pay shipping! This wouldn’t be an immediate cash in hand type thing but we do use Amazon often and these gift cards would not go to waste.  We also have a local used bookstore that takes items for cash or trade in value that I will be looking into.
• Old purses – since I’ve become a mom I usually carry a diaper bag or large satchel type bag for all the mom-on-the-go needs so my purses are in a closet collecting dust.  I know I have at least 2 Coach purses that are in ‘like new’ condition that I would not miss.  I’m considering listing on eBay or our local Facebook garage sale site.
• Diapers – Ok this may be totally weird to some, but yes used cloth diapers are a commodity.  I have a few brands/styles that just didn’t work for us and would be snatched up quickly by someone else.  I even have a couple new-in-package that I just don’t like or need.  Don’t tell the Hubs this, but I have more than enough diapers in my stash to keep the baby’s bum covered through a wash day… or two.  On to lighten the stash a bit!
• Online surveys – I’ve tried Swagbucks with little success. It seems I spent 15 minutes on surveys only to find out I didn’t qualify for said survey.  But others I know have had great success mainly using the search function.  I recently found InboxDollars and have found this program much easier for me to use with better results.  I “made” $9 in a little less than 24 hours just by reading emails and filling in the profile information!  You can even print grocery coupons through this site and you earn $0.10 for every coupon you redeem! 

Do you know of any other non-traditional money making ideas? I would love to hear them!

The Ugly Truth

So if I’m going to be talking about paying off debts, I have to come clean about the total of those debts.  In order for me to stay home with our little one, we decided we need to eliminate all but my student loan debt.  The number we are looking at is {deep breath}:

$18,838.39

I hate seeing that number.  It’s much easier to stomach in individual credit line balances than to add it all up into one.  The breakdown is about 50% credit cards/store cards and 50% car loan.  I read somewhere that the average American family has $8,000 in credit card debt so we are apparently decidedly average. I’m so not proud of that fact.

Why aren’t we including my student loans in the total?  Well I’m ashamed to admit, the amount is ridiculously high and it will be a very long time before those are paid off.  Luckily, my interest rates are low.  Once the above debts are taken care of, we will be putting any extras toward tackling this beast.
So what is the goal? 

Pay off $18,838.39 by December 31st, 2015 or about 16 months

With our current budget, if everything goes perfectly, this should be achievable by October 2015.  If something goes wrong, like losing a couple weeks of work, December gives us a little leeway.  I’m hopeful that I will be able to shave $200 off our monthly grocery bill using the Grocery University program (a 33% reduction!) and will then apply that to our debt.  In doing that, these debts will be eliminated by September 2015 or just over a year.  
There you have it in writing.  Here’s to hoping what they say about putting your goals in writing is true!

Do you have any current financial goals? What are your strategies to help you achieve these goals?

Taking a Bite out of the Grocery Bill

This post contains sponsored links from Grocery University.

Currently I grocery shop weekly.  I try to make a menu plan ahead of time and then stick pretty closely to that plan when we head to the store. I do not currently budget our grocery trips. Some weeks the bill is just $75, some weeks it's $150 or even $175! When I started making up a budget, I quickly realized that we were spending close to $700 per month on groceries. For two (and a half) people!  If you want to factor in what we are spending eating out in addition to groceries our monthly food budget is close to $1000.
Let's just let that sink in a minute shall we?

$1000.... We are spending nearly 22% of our monthly income on food. That.is.ridiculous.

Hubs doesn't think we can cut the grocery bill much but I would like to challenge him on that.  I've read dozens of articles on how to cut your grocery bill, watched hours of couponing shows, looked at coupon sites galore, perused our local newspapers... and I have yet to implement a system that works for us. Coupons in our local paper are sparse and hardly ever for things we actually eat. The TV shows on using coupons focus on those with "stockpiles" and all I can think about is "we have no place to put that much stuff!" and "how are they ever going to eat 100 yogurts before they expire?!"  The coupon sites are sometimes tedious to look through and who has time for that with a 13 month old?

There has to be a better, more efficient way to save, right? I mean, families of 4+ are claiming a monthly grocery budget of less than half what we spend.  Coupons can't be that difficult to find and use because thousands of people use them every day.  There has to be a way to maximize their use to my advantage without buying mountains of stuff to clog up our guest room. People have it figured out and I should be able to figure it out too!

Enter: Grocery University by one of my favorite bloggers.  This is a program she has talked about and used to reduce her grocery bill and others simply rave about it.  I am excited to see the reduction in our grocery bill and I am even more excited to tell you that there is a SUPER SALE on this program happening TOMORROW!

Grocery University is usually $9.97 and I am certain it will save you more than that just on your first shopping trip.  But for tomorrow only you can get this easy to use money saving program for as low as $2.99! So what do you get for $2.99?  You get a 2hr audio course on everything you need to know to make the most of your grocery budget, a printable workbook with more tips and visual aids, and the bonus Rock Bottom Price Database.  And?  It comes with a 60 day money back guarantee!! Seriously, what do you (and I) have to lose other than hefty grocery bills?  I'm so excited to get started and see how much of a difference it makes for us!

So more about that super one-day sale I was telling you about... The early bird will catch the worm on this one!  Save your family a little money and catch this amazing deal on Grocery University!

• 5 a.m. CT - kick things off with the low, low price of $2.99

• 8 a.m. CT - price goes up to $3.99

• 11 a.m. CT - price goes up to $4.97 

• 2 p.m. CT - price goes up to $5.97 

• 5 p.m. CT - price goes up to $6.97

• 8 p.m. CT- price goes up to $7.97 

• 11 p.m. CT- price goes up to $8.97 

 

Although this post is sponsored, all opinions are my own. This post contains affiliate links, which means I may receive compensation if you make a purchase using this link.

Where Do We Start?

My baby girl is one. O-N-E!?  How did that happen?  Where did that first year go? How much of her first year did I miss?  Why are we no closer to me staying at home?

I met my wonderful husband at the young age of 32… quick 3 years ago.  At that point in my life, I had almost given up hope on my dream of having a family.  I knew in my heart that if I was ever blessed with a husband and then baby, that I wanted to be the one who was there to raise him/her.  I didn’t want to miss any precious moments and, honestly, work/career just wasn’t that important to me.  Fast forward three years and we are happily married for almost 2 years and have a 1year old baby girl!  God is so good!

Since it took me longer than some to get here, I spent my pre married years getting my college degree, starting my career, battling thyroid cancer and collecting debts along the way.  Credit cards, student loans, medical bills… they started building while I lived in the now without a thought for the future.  I had debts, but I had a job to support them so it was ok. Right? Wrong.

When we were blessed with the news of our baby girl, we could hardly contain our excitement! We both had hopes of me staying home to raise her but reality set in when we sat down to crunch numbers. Because of past bad/hasty decisions on both our parts and our current debt load, I needed to work.  At the end of my maternity leave, I went back to work part time (30 hours/week) and have spent every spare minute dreaming of ways to make staying home with our daughter work for our family.

We created a budget and a snowball plan to tackle our debts but it seemed that our goals kept getting pushed back.  To be completely honest, we had a budget but it was only on paper. We didn't live it.  We didn't change our spending habits.  We didn't change so our situation didn't change.

This is the start of our journey to make those changes and to make our dream of me being a stay at home mommy a reality.