Grocery stop $100 worth of groceries for $60

Albertsons has boneless skinless chicken breasts on sale for $1.79 lb. That is a good price and is the bulk of our meat diet. I stocked up!

About 9.6 pounds chicken $17.23
bpa free bottles $3.49
plum sauce $3.99
Sesame oil $2.9
Stir fry veggies $1.67
Garlic sauce $3.29
2 mac & cheese $2.58
Full price $66.25
I paid $38.96 (something was taxed .30)
Saved $26.99

Safeway
2.81 lbs apples $4.19
2.82 lbs organic apples $2.82
2 lb carrots $1.69
Rice noodles $1.25

Full price $16.4
I paid $9.95
saved $6.45

So far thats $48.91 paid
and $33.44 saved.

Red apple market


2 packs strawberries $6
2 bunches organic celery $1.76
2 wheat thins $8 on sale $4 (- $2 coupon) $2
2.33 pounds oranges $2.05

Full price $17.80 (more but it doesnt show all of the full prices)
After sales $13.80
After coupon $11.80

Saved $6

Total $60.71
Saved $39.44

$60 is way over my $40 limit. Why did I spend so much? Because now my family is stocked up on meat for weeks. At a great price.

I dont think so cell phone company!

My husband's rugged (HAHAHAHAH) phone is dying. Did i mention its the second model of this phone he's had? And he babies it? Never drops it. My rumor phone hits the floor every day and its fine. Scratched up but works great. So far his phones have run is $130, my phone $50. Hubby called our cell company to see about a credit for a new one. They have him a $150 credit. Sweet! He found a new phone that will be $20 after the credit. The associate starts ringing us up and casually mentions 'You know this will extend your contract for 2 years, right?' Hold up, what? Nobody said anything about that. We walked out. We're fine with our cell carrier (best one we've had so far) and have no desire to switch. Why would we walk out?

Our plan costs us $100 a month. 24 months x $100 = $2,400
The new cell phone without discount runs us $170.

If I am going to renew my contract for 2 years, I am negotiating a better rate! Otherwise I am not locking us into a contract. Lets so we only get $10 off a month.

24 months x $90 = $2,160

That means we save $240 over 2 years. The phone was $170. We just saved $70 buy not falling into their 'cheap' phone trap.

Say we negotiate down to $80 a month for the same exact service.

24 months x $80 = $1920

That would be a savings (off the original contract) of $480. Phone was $170, we would save $310.

Now say we did something even more radical and find a used phone from our carrier. Wow, we could really save! We didn't sign onto their plan blindly excited to 'save' the $150 off a new cell phone. Now we have the opportunity to look for a used phone, and negotiate a better rate if we want to extend our contract. And currently, we don't!

Gosh isn't it nice of the cell company to give you $150 phone credit while you give THEM $2,400? lol

Weekly groceries

This weeks groceries. Sorry there isn't a picture!

Safeway

4 cans ragu $5.98 (saved $5.98)
Chicken breasts $5.83 (saved $5.27)
3 avocados $3 (saved $2.97)
10 pounds Oranges $3.99 (saved $4)
2 packs blueberries $3 (saved $4.98)

Spent $21.80
Saved $23.80

Save-A-Lot
Applesauce $1.29
4.62 lb cabbage $1.16
2 lb Carrots .99
Celery $1.49
2 Mac & cheese $.70
4 cans tuna $2
3 cans green beans $1.45
Generic Nilla wafers $1.29
Generic wheat things $1.49

$12.35

Total $35.55

I still need to hit the bread outlet. That will probably send the budget over $40. We usually spend $7 there.

My cash 'envelope'

Dh and I switched over to a cash budget January 1st. Its a work in progress and there have been a few kinks. One major kink was all the envelopes needed for the separate categories. They took up a bunch of space, we're messy and a bit embarrassing to pay out of! I casually looked for a wallet with a bunch of compartments but none seemed to work correctly. Dave Ramsey sells a wallet for $19. $19 is a HUGE chunk of our $70 spending budget. Sorry Dave but a $19 wallet is not my idea of frugal. Finally I remember my original coupon systems, a check file folder. It has 6 slots, comes with labels, light and pretty! PERFECT! Even better it cost $1, from Dollar tree!


Now I'm not going to kid you its still embaressing to pay with a plastic check folder but far less then an envelope labeled 'GROCERIES.' I dont mind being frugal but I dont like looking cheap. I'm going to continue to look for a wallet alternative, that doesn't cost a forture. It does make me chuckle to pull the money holder out of my Coach purse!

Revised weekly budget

Yesterday we smashed our budget a bit. We went to the mall and 'splurged' on a few items. I dont want to abandon the budget but I also dont want to not have any money available to spend. Our new budget for this week will be:

Gas $40
Food $35
Fast Food $0
Animal $15
Everything else $50

Thats $140 total.

Just to clarify we would NEVER let our animals go hungry. I think they will be fine for dry food all week. If for some reason I guessed wrong more food will be purchased for them. They do need more 'wet' food, hence the $15. When I was a single broke college student I always bought animal food before my food, there were ways to eat cheaper if I needed to. (which I probably should have done anyway) But i wouldn't let them go hungry!

Budget brings on lifestyle changes.

Our spending is out of control! Dh makes more then ever and instead of saving and investing the extra we're spending it. And i'm sick of it! We started an all cash spending budget. I've resisted for years. Its inconvenient to carry cash, I'm afraid it will get stolen, all I've ever used was a debit card etc. But no matter how many times I would say we only have X amount to spend we always managed to spend more. Normally I just give us X amount for 2 weeks. And because the dollars are not designated to specific areas we over spend. Thats in the past now! We just started this last week and are still working out the kinks but so far its great. I'm going to share our budget which may seem extravagant to some and small to others.

Every week we're budgeting $200 for spending.
$40/ a week for gas ($20 per car)
$40 groceries (think i MAY have to add to this)
$30 pet food ($60 dry food a month/ wet food/ treats/ bones)
$20 fast food.
Total $130

That leaves $70 for anything else. Clothing/ household needs/ toys/ entertainment etc

Typing it out makes my stomach curdle because it doesn't seem like much. But that is the point, we're used to spending money whenever we want. Its not healthy! Bad for the budget, bad for us. I find buying whatever I want whenever very unfulfilling. When we limit money our 'treats' seem way more special and wonderful! Hubby and I each get $40 a paycheck for ourselves. We can spend it, save it, blow it whatever we choose. It really helps us to not feel deprived.

We have a specific fast food budget because we we're buying it all the time. Gross. This is already changing the way we eat. Several times now when we would have grabbed food on the run, we ate at home. When we do eat out its off the dollar menu instead of more expensive 'value' meals.

Since theres less money for movies, entertainment shopping, even thrift store browsing we've been playing with the dogs more. Going to the park to run and play instead of blowing money on stupid things. What a change a 'small' budget brings to an over spending family!

Thrift store decorations

I love decorating. I'm having so much fun with the nursery. Last night while dh and I were in the thrift store looking for costume items I found a cute little sign that says 'Home is where your story begins' Anna Danielson. I love it! And I love the price tag. .99 cents! I cant decide if it goes in the bathroom or kitchen. Here's my pretty little sign. http://danielsondesigns.com/DisplayFull.aspx?page=0&SKU=XP110&AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1

Yay!!! Debt free! Except for the mortgage. :)

We finally recieved my husband's re-inlistment bonus. Its a large (to us) amount. About half a year's income. And we will recieve another installment of his old bonus, plus an installment of the new bonus. Its very exciting! I love being able to pay off the debt. The irritating thing is last year we paid off everything but a credit card and our car. Yes stuff came up that had to be paid/bought but there was quite a few instances when we didnt deny ourselves a wanted item, instead we charged it. Stupid! Had we kept everything paid off the entire check could go into savings or into the mortgage. Its dumb, we knew better and now its time to move on. Debt free. :) Almost.

Money challenge

Well the $100 bill was used monday. I paid for walgreens and dinner with my original cash but after that we went to the grocery store. We spent $44 mainly on things for dh to snack on at work. He is working very long hard hours (from 7 am till 8pm without a day off for 3 weeks streight)and I wanted to get him some candy bars, power bars, and stuff to make him trail mix. I have enough of everything (except oatmeal) to make 3 more batches of trail mix. Homemade trail mix is nice because its cheaper and its customized to him. We used mixed nuts he likes, yogurt covered raisins, homemade granola and dark M&Ms. Yuck! lol

I made the granola using 'quick' oats instead of old fashioned oats and I like it much more then old fashioned oats. The bits of oats formed small clusters instead of each oat being sepperate. Its more like store bought granola and it makes it easier to snack on.

We spent another $20 on dinner tonight. You can see dinners out can be a big budget buster for us, we like to eat out when life gets crazy. Its healthier, cheaper and generally more relaxing to eat at home. However its something we struggle with and sometimes do better then other times.

Sunday money update

Ok so we fell off the cash band wagon. We stopped at Home Depot to kill some time ( waiting to pick up freecycle stuff) and I grabbed the thanksgiving weekend ad. They had a set with an 18v cordless drill, cordless saw, sweet flashlight, and radio for $60. Remember the $7 used drill? It gets the job done but very, very slowly. So we splurged on the Ryobi 18v drill, with cool extras. I'm glad we waited to purchase the drill because now hubby has a drill he really likes at a great price. We did put it on the credit card because we were not carrying enough cash and we were 20 minutes from home.

We also bought a power strip and bottle of nail polish from Rite Aid, free after rebate. We paid cash for those! :)

$60ish dollars on credit card
$7 rite aid free after rebate

Today's money review

Sold
Dvds for cash $48
Book for trade credit $22

Bought
4 books and new hat at used book store $8 cash after trade credit
Veggies, animal food, and tp at Walmart $18 cash
Mcdonalds $8 (bad frugal people!)
2 packs sandwich rolls, english muffins, 2 loafs of expensive wheat bread, 1 loaf cheap white bread at bakery thrift store $6

Spent $40
Made $48 cash so $8 cash left over.
We still have not cashed the $30 check.

Way, way WAY over budget

We are so far over budget we can't see the budget anymore. Most of our purchases were good needed items, good deals on Christmas presents, big dog's surgery. However its time to buckle down! My goal is to get to the first spending only cash. We have $130 in our cash bucket. I have a $30 check in my wallet. Dh has some cash but I don't know how much. We plan to sell some of the dvds and books we no longer watch or read. I would really like to not spend $100 from the cash bucket. That leaves $60. Which should be possible if we dont need gas ($50 last fill up) right now we have a half a tank. I need a little big of veggies, but no meat. We probably have 10 pounds of turkey. The animals have plenty of dry food they only need wet food.

What will we be doing? Projects of course! Earlier I mentioned a few things I would like to get done. On top of that there is a $1 coffee table we're refurnishing, a garbage disposal to install, washer maintenance, weather stripping, cleaning, sewing, patching, and baking. Not to mention taking dogs for walks and to the park. We can also frisbee golf, and geocache. Oh and the cat stand we started but have not worked on. Sheesh we have so much to do maybe we should very a strict budget more often!

Budget

Ever since we bought our home our budget has been much tighter then what we are used to. After the mortgage is paid from the first paycheck we have only $450 to make it two weeks. Normally I budget $500-$600 for two weeks. We try and spend an extra $50 on our mortgage but sometimes it just doesn't work out. We pay all our bills in the second paycheck but some how one was missed so that's another $60. Instead of pulling from our savings we are trying to make do with our cash. Its not going to work very well, we're already down to $70. Bummer! However we have some cash, and $100 in another checking account. So we might be able to squeak by without taking from savings. The key to doing this is to not let it depress you. We look at it as more of a game then anything, and because its a choice (we have money in savings) we don't feel insecure about our lack of cash. I'm actually glad we're trying to spend far less as I feel like our spending has gotten out of control. A lot of it is spent on meals out because we run errands in the evenings (right now we're down to just one car and dh gets it during the day) so we grab a quick bite to eat. If we spend $15 twice a week that's $120 a month. Dinner 3 times a week at $15 is $180 a month. That adds up!