Saturday, January 31, 2009

Busy Saturday

After breakfast and a shower I went to watch my grand daughter play basketball. Her team won so that was nice. I stopped at Acme on the way to the game to take advantage of the 1 day sale. They had Smith milk on sale for $1.99. There was a limit of 4 gallons. I had 2 35 cent coupons and I knew my daughter would have 2 coupons so I stopped my her house to get her coupons. They also had Nickles bread on sale for 88 cents so I got 2 loafs. I spent OOP $9.72 and had a savings of $8.32.

After the basketball game I stopped by Target. I wanted to get the Coke that they had on sale. It was hard to just walk straight to the soft drinks and not look at other things, but I did it. I used 2 coupons that I printed of the my come rewards site. OOP $5.09 with a savings of $2.00.

This evening we are going to see the Black Keys. We are taking our daughter and 2 grandsons to see them. We saw them play at an Obama rally in Akron in September. They were the opening act for Devo. The drummer was great to watch. He really got into his playing. Since both of my grandsons enjoy playing in their own 2 man band I thought they would enjoy seeing the concert.

Surprise in the mail


Have you checked out http://www.houseparty.com/ yet? This is a site that let's you pick parties to host in your home to help introduce your friends and family to products. I've applied to host several parties and was picked for one. I hosted a Grey Poupon party last year. I got lots of free stuff and coupons to give to my guests. I applied to host a party for Alpine Lace. I did not get the party, but today I got a $1.00 coupon to use on a 1/2 pound of Alpine Lace Deli Cheese just so I wouldn't be disappointed for not being picked to host the party.

Friday, January 30, 2009

Ebay

I've spent the morning researching selling on ebay. I've bought things on ebay before and I'm selling things on half.com. I just don't know if I have the talent to take the pictures and do the write up on items that I have to sell. I would like to make some extra money and I think ebay might be one avenue to try. I do know that they've changed a lot of their policies and have raised their prices. My daughter sells her hand crafted Renaissance jewelry on ebay as well has on her website. She said it's not hard. She is a perfectionist and her photos and descriptions are great. I think I'm going to give it a try with some of the things I have in the basement that will be in the spring yard sale. Wish me luck.

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Snowed In

It's been snowing all night and it's still coming down. We're under a winter advisory until 4pm today. The schools have been canceled. I guess I'll be getting a phone call from one of the grand kids saying they want to come over today.

I hate driving in bad weather, so I know I won't be going out today, to spend any money. Now to decide what I'm going to do. I will probably work on the basement. My hubby finished the shelves so I can now stack the tubs of fabric on them so you can walk down there again. I still have a lot of boxes to go through and start pricing for the yard sale this spring. I want it all organized so all I have to do is set up tables and set the things out. Only problem is we don't rally have heat in the basement. When we had the new furnace put in they didn't put a vent down there so it gets cold. I will do a little and then take a break and have some hot tea or cocoa.

Dinner will be something with the leftover chicken or spaghetti and meatballs. I haven't decided yet. I think I'll make some wheat bread in the bread maker. It always makes the house smell so good and like I've been baking all day.

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Shopping results

I went grocery shopping yesterday. Lucky for me I have a store credit card. I went over my $40.00 that was left in the checking account. I ended up spending OOP $103.68 with a savings of $64.19 plus got a $3.00 cat to use at a later date. All in all I feel good about the experience. I will have to pay the card in full when it comes though. That's my rule with using the credit card. I can't afford the interest they will charge if I don't do this. I did get the chickens and the ground beef so I can use that meat for the rest of this week and next. They had a good sale on Skippy natural peanut butter and I had coupons so I did buy a lot of that. My pantry is now well stocked with peanut butter. They also had syrup on sale. I was out and wanted to stock my pantry with that as well. The added purchase were only to stock the pantry for later use. I think that is the trick to saving money is to have what you need on hand when you need it. I will have to spend a little more than I want to in the beginning until I get all my staples stocked up. That's my plan anyway.

My daughter called this morning and said she needed to go to the store today and asked if I wanted to go along. I did still need onions and oil so I told her I would go with her. BIG MISTAKE!! I ended up spending another $15.94. I decided to have a Mexican dinner tonight with some of the ground beef and I need to get the taco shells and things. These items were on sale and I did have a coupon for them which is one of my new rules. I should be set for the rest of the weeks and hopefully next. Except for going to Target and taking advantage of the coke sale and use my coke rewards coupons. That's all I'm going to buy while I'm there, even thought Target is my most favorite place to shop. I love their clearance items. My dilemma is, do I take my coupons in just in case there is good clearance or leave them at home and then be sorry when I see a good bargain?

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Sunday Coupons & Meal Planning

Do the coupons seem to be uninteresting? I just can't find that many in the Sunday paper that I want to cut out and use. There has been biscuit coupons in every week. I got a new coupon box from Refunding Makes Cents and if I don't get coupons I want to cut out how am I going to fill it up?

I've been printing internet coupons, but I can only use them at CVS and Walmart. None of the other stores around here let you use them. The grocery store does double other coupons up to 99 cents. I'm looking forward to the next double at Kmart, but you can't use internet coupons there either.

I am on some coupon trains so I do get some coupons that are not in my local paper. This does help a little. I also get rid of many of the coupons I don't use this way. It also seems like the coupons are getting lower in value. Good thing for my double coupon store.

It seems like past years they've had specials on diet foods and good coupons for those items in January. I haven't seen this being true this year.

After I paid all my bills last week I now only have $44.00 to get me through until February 9th. It looks like I will be eating a lot of my stockpile these next 2 weeks. I will get the B1G1 roasting chickens that are on sale and will plan meals around them for at least a week. I don't have a free standing freezer so I don't have a large stockpile on meats. My husband thinks he had to have meat every night for dinner. Maybe a pot of chili would be a good choice. I can skimp on the burger and load up on the beans. They do have ground beef on sale for $1.99 per pound at the store also. I will get 2 chickens and a large pack of ground beef and live on them for 2 weeks. I will make spaghetti and meatballs one day and maybe a meatloaf one day. The chicken can be made into stir fry, garlic-chicken pasta and corn chowder soup after the first day of a traditional chicken meal. I can alternate the chicken and beef meals so it doesn't seem like we are eating the same meat every day. Sounds like a good cheap plan.

Thursday, January 22, 2009

Cleaning out the closet today

Not much happened yesterday. No shopping. I had planned on going to Jazzercise in the morning, but I didn't really feel well so I decided against it. I had a headache all day. We decided to get a pizza for dinner so I didn't even have to cook. I had my veggie soup for lunch.

Today I've made up my mind to get the closet cleaned out. I know there's stuff in there I no longer want. I still have summer clothes in there. I don't have drawers in the bedroom so everything I wear is kept in storage tubs on the floor of the closet. I really need to change out the season since it's already January. It will so much easier to do this once my husband finishes building the storing shelves in the basement. I will be able to store the out of season clothing in their tubs on the shelves instead of in the closet.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Soups On

I went back to store today and got the veggies and the beef for the soup. I was good and didn't get anything else except some wine coolers. I went to CVS and for the 4 12 packs of Pepsi and 3 Lays chips. I paid $21.00 for this purchase (I didn't have any coupons). I got a ECB for $10.00. I will send in for my $15.oo Pepsi rebate and will be $4.00 ahead on the deal. I had a second transaction at CVS. I bought some Excedrin (had a $1.00 coupon), 2 Dawn dish detergent B1G1(had .25 and .50 coupons), 2 Reeses cups bags, and 3 greeting cards (B3 get $3.00 EBC). After coupons and EBC''s I paid OOP $3.95. So far I've spent $115.61 for this weeks purchases. That is $15.61 over budget, but I do have$35.66 left from last week so I'm still good for the month.

I've got my veggie soup on the stove cooking. I was chopping the cabbage and cutting up the beef shoulder roast while I was watching the new president being sworn in. My pot is so full I have to have the meat and potatoes and some of the cabbage in a different pan until the veggies cook down enough so I can add it in with the soup. I love Veggie soup. It brings back the memories of when my mom used to make it. I would eat 2 and 3 bowls of it at a time. Oh my, as I just typed that I remembered that I forgot to put the barley in the soup. I'm off to add that important ingredient right now.

Monday, January 19, 2009

Today's grocery trip

I went to the store today. I had my list and coupons in hand. Of course, my husband added to my list. This doesn't help my budgeting. Usually he wants something that isn't on sale and that I don't have a coupon for. I did very well on my first transaction. They had a sale on Yoplait yogurt. It was 10 for $20 plus if you bought 20 you got an additional $2.00 instantly. I bought the 20 yogurts and used a $1.00 coupon on 8 and 2 $.60 on 6 (which doubled to $1.20 each). I also had a coupon for a free kashi cereal bar. I also had a catalina coupon for $3.00 from a previous shoping day. The total OOP was $3.91 with a savings of $7.58 That is a 65% savings.

I wish I could say I did as well on my second tansaction. There was only one yogurt deal per transaction so I had to split my purchases. I won't list everything I bought, but the end totals after store card discounts and coupons was OOP $68.82 with a savings of $ 36.82. That is a 35% savings. If I hadn't bought the Bigelow tea, Raisin Bran Crunch, and fruit snacks (that my grand daughter wanted) I wouldn't have felt as bad about the adventure. I didn't have any coupons for these items and they were not on sale. My plan is to not buy anything that isn't on sale. Maybe I'll have better luck next week.

Oh, I also forgot the 2 things I went to the store for. They had frozen veggies on sale for a dollar a bag and they had beef shoulder roast B1G1. I was going to make vegetable soup today. Guess what! Now I have to go back tomorrow and get these items. I will just walk in and get what is on my list and then head back home to start cooking. I also want to go to CVS and do the Pepsi deal and get the Lays chips they have on sale so I can send in for the $15 rebate.

My goal is to not spend over $100 a week. I will be coming close this week. The first week in January I went over my budget by $64.34. I didn't go shopping at all last week, so that helped with the monthy budget. So far I was ahead by $35.66 until this week. If I don't go too far over I will hopefully still come in at or below the $400 monthly budget. That is if I don't let my husband add to my list again.

Sunday, January 18, 2009

Grocery Coupons in the Sunday Paper

I got 2 papers today for the coupons. My local paper doesn't have all the coupons that the bigger city paper does so I always get an extra paper. I have all my coupons cut out and I've gone through all the ads so I'm ready for my shopping trip tomorrow. I will go to a store that doubles up to .99 and offers a loyality card. Plus I have a store credit card that earns extra towards my gas. I always pay the credit card in full when the bill comes so I never have to pay any interest on the card.

Saturday, January 17, 2009

Grocery Savings

I've following several blogs and would love to be able to save the money on groceries these ladies do. I've been couponing for ever and have been doing much better in the last several months. I've started a stockpile and am using my coupons combined with sales. I hope to use this blog to track my savings and share with others how I'm doing.