Wow, it seems so long since I have posted here. Since going gluten and dairy free, boosting our nutrition and trying to create a safer home environment, I've had to make some changes in the way that I shop for things and what I shop for. Gone are the days I can just go to the grocery store and pick up whatever I want whenever I want.
Yes, I am still couponing and I subscribe to the Sunday paper so I can have my coupons delivered to my door. I clip and file them in a 5 x 7 binder that fits easily into a shopping cart and I still try to plan my shopping around sales and consult with some of my favorite websites such as moneysavingmom.com, couponmom.com and stockpiling moms (which is also a bit of a gluten free blog too). I am finding, however, that I am not clipping nearly as many coupons as I used to as I am buying less from grocery and drug stores and I move around more from Trader Joes, GFS, Aldi, Marianos and mail order places such as Vitacost and Melaleuca. In other words I only buy certain things from certain stores. I am so loving Marianos, a new grocer in the Chicago area that has more gluten free and health foods than stores like Jewel and Dominicks. There is one by my work and also near my mom's house. I hope they make one closer to my house.
When my son went gluten free a year ago, it pretty much turned our life upside down. I went to Whole Foods (aka whole paycheck) and bought 2 bags of groceries and spent $100. Yep, that was dumb. I joined my son in the GFCF world last summer after getting the blood test done and finding that I had 28 food sensitivities myself. I have also developed environmental sensitivities over the past couple of years and I cannot walk through the detergent aisle of a grocery store without my eyes and nose pitching a fit.
With an autistic kid and my own emerging allergies, I thought it was best to go green and lighten the toxic load, at least in our home environment. A couple of months ago I joined Melaleuca - the Wellness Company to buy supplements, toiletries and safer products for my home and body. I'm so happy I did. I am feeling a hundred times better, eat healthier, don't have a 2:00 crash and I have lost nearly 40 pounds since going gluten free. Melaleuca is a manufacturer of top quality green (and mostly gluten-free) products and is only available to customers who have been referred by other customers. If you would like an invite, please drop me a line at katdaddy5 (at) gmail dotcom and put mela in the subject line and leave a phone number and good time to call and I will give you the skinny. Membership is only $1 until March 31, 2013 so hurry.
So although going on the gluten free casein free diet has been limiting, it has also been liberating. I used to feel awful and trapped in a body I hated. I know just what I can have and when I'm feeling ambitious, I kick the GF/CF diet up a notch to Body Ecology, which is really healthy. Social events revolving around food are still a bit awkward, but as long as there is meat, veggies or salad around, I make the best of it. I see my son recovering in ways I never would have imagined before attending the AutismOne conference last year and although skeptical at first, I'm glad I've made the choice to become the groovy earth mom I was always meant to be.
I shamelessly love money...cash, gold, silver...whatever I can get my paws on. And when I get it I'd like to keep it, thank you. This is my blog on money, frugality, getting out of debt, couponing, silver and gold, saving and investing. In these uncertain economic times I am educating myself on personal finance matters, getting out of debt, and taking the necessary steps to improve my financial situation.
Sunday, March 24, 2013
Saturday, May 19, 2012
When it rains, it pours (right through the roof!)
Murphy strikes again. Just when I thought I was gaining traction with my debt reduction plan, sh*t happens. The car went kaput, water comes pouring through the roof, and I have to get my kid from an out of state college weeks before I expected. The emergency fund is pretty much gone now and I will have to rebuild it some way, some how. Wish me luck.
Monday, April 16, 2012
Going Gluten Free
Well, we got the news back a couple of weeks ago, my son has all kinds of food sensitivities. He is also autistic so we put him on the gluten free casein free diet (aka GFCF diet or the autism diet).
Roughly half the kids on the spectrum have GI problems where they cannot break down the proteins in wheat and milk, gluten and casein and it affects their brain and behavior. Anyway, we had bloodwork done and it confirmed that he was allergic to gluten, eggs, wheat, bananas, cows milk, cheese, yogurt, and swordfish. I'm not too worried about the swordfish as we would never eat that in a million years, yuck! But the rest is a major drag, especially the eggs and bananas.
The doctor referred us to a nutritionist who we met with and she was wonderful and gave us some pointers. She recommended a local market and Trader Joes. I loved Trader Joes but it is kind of far for us. This weekend I went to Whole Foods, and boy was that a mistake. Whole Foods is awful, in fact I would put them in the sucks the big green weenie category. It was laid out like a maze and took forever to get through it, the aisles are too narrow, and they are not coupon friendly. I even was charged twice for an item because a coupon did not scan. The lady behind me left the checkout lane in a huff because I gave the checker a bunch of coupons. Actually, I wouldn't even call it a bunch, only $12.50 worth, which is nothing for me. I spent close to $100 for two bags of groceries!!!
Un-freaking believable!
It wasn't like I bought a whole weeks worth of groceries. I bought stuff at Aldi on Saturday. I just shopped the sales at Whole Foods and tried to match with coupons. I bought a 3 lb pkg of grass fed ground beef, 8 Gluten Free Pantry mixes (on sale), some mangoes, organic peanut butter, GF frozen waffles, 2 frozen entrees, cereal, dream bites, and a few other Gluten free, dairy free or organic pantry staples. Two paper bags of stuff. Needless to say, I am not going back there unless I really need something I can't find elsewhere. I simply did not like the place, the prices or the people there, although there was one young girl working there who was helpful and tried to find some Dairyfree for me. I think she was new or it was a fluke. They did not have it and she recommended I go to the health food store up the street.
In better gluten free news, I baked my first loaf of Gluten free bread. Actually, it was the first time I have ever made bread. It was quite tasty and moist. My son said it was much better than Udi's or stuff from the store. I will need to do it more often. Here is the video from Pamela, who makes the mix I used. I only wish I had watched this first. I think if I used warmer water it would have been fluffier.
Roughly half the kids on the spectrum have GI problems where they cannot break down the proteins in wheat and milk, gluten and casein and it affects their brain and behavior. Anyway, we had bloodwork done and it confirmed that he was allergic to gluten, eggs, wheat, bananas, cows milk, cheese, yogurt, and swordfish. I'm not too worried about the swordfish as we would never eat that in a million years, yuck! But the rest is a major drag, especially the eggs and bananas.
The doctor referred us to a nutritionist who we met with and she was wonderful and gave us some pointers. She recommended a local market and Trader Joes. I loved Trader Joes but it is kind of far for us. This weekend I went to Whole Foods, and boy was that a mistake. Whole Foods is awful, in fact I would put them in the sucks the big green weenie category. It was laid out like a maze and took forever to get through it, the aisles are too narrow, and they are not coupon friendly. I even was charged twice for an item because a coupon did not scan. The lady behind me left the checkout lane in a huff because I gave the checker a bunch of coupons. Actually, I wouldn't even call it a bunch, only $12.50 worth, which is nothing for me. I spent close to $100 for two bags of groceries!!!
Un-freaking believable!
It wasn't like I bought a whole weeks worth of groceries. I bought stuff at Aldi on Saturday. I just shopped the sales at Whole Foods and tried to match with coupons. I bought a 3 lb pkg of grass fed ground beef, 8 Gluten Free Pantry mixes (on sale), some mangoes, organic peanut butter, GF frozen waffles, 2 frozen entrees, cereal, dream bites, and a few other Gluten free, dairy free or organic pantry staples. Two paper bags of stuff. Needless to say, I am not going back there unless I really need something I can't find elsewhere. I simply did not like the place, the prices or the people there, although there was one young girl working there who was helpful and tried to find some Dairyfree for me. I think she was new or it was a fluke. They did not have it and she recommended I go to the health food store up the street.
In better gluten free news, I baked my first loaf of Gluten free bread. Actually, it was the first time I have ever made bread. It was quite tasty and moist. My son said it was much better than Udi's or stuff from the store. I will need to do it more often. Here is the video from Pamela, who makes the mix I used. I only wish I had watched this first. I think if I used warmer water it would have been fluffier.
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
You are invited: Watch my Autism Speaks video message
You are invited: Watch my Autism Speaks video message
My son is autistic and so I walk to raise funds for Autism Speaks. This will be our 5th year. Please help.
I recently put my son on the gluten free casein free diet and boy is that busting up my budget. I may post recipes up occasionally as I find stuff. He actually liked the pizza I made yesterday with GF Bisquick and soy cheese. So many autism moms claim a tremendous improvement in their kids with this diet and so I'm trying it. Wish me luck.
Oh, and contribute to my autism walk page too if you can. I'd really appreciate that.
My son is autistic and so I walk to raise funds for Autism Speaks. This will be our 5th year. Please help.
I recently put my son on the gluten free casein free diet and boy is that busting up my budget. I may post recipes up occasionally as I find stuff. He actually liked the pizza I made yesterday with GF Bisquick and soy cheese. So many autism moms claim a tremendous improvement in their kids with this diet and so I'm trying it. Wish me luck.
Oh, and contribute to my autism walk page too if you can. I'd really appreciate that.
Sunday, March 18, 2012
Spring break
My daughter came home for a week for spring break. She goes to an out of state college and I miss her so much when she's gone. She caught her bus from Union Station this morning and is on her long ride to college. We did a little shopping at Walmart because she needs some camping stuff for next semester's class that includes a camping trip to Minnesota. She's so excited. I don't go to Walmart very much but they are supposed to be good for that sort of stuff so that's where we went. She also needed some clothing that wasn't cotton so she bought some wicking shirts and socks there.
I had my coupon book with me and let her get some toiletries. The deal there was a Schick hydro silk razor with free shaving gel for $5.97 that I had a $4.00 off coupon, bringing the price down to $1.97 for a 5-blade razor and goo. When we got home we got a nice surprise. Inside the package was another $4.00 off coupon for refills and one for $.55 for Skintimate shave gel. Not bad. We only bought one so go grab them while they're hot.
I went to Walgreens yesterday to pick up some things. Saturday is the last day of their sales cycle and I have found that my neighborhood store really sucks on Saturdays because the shelf tags are all screwed up. What is on sale is not marked and what is going on sale may just be marked. It was pretty confusing. Luckily I had paid a visit to couponmom.com before going so I had a notion as to what was a good deal. I knew there was a BOGO sale on Dial bar soap and Scotchbrite sponges I wanted to take advantage of and had coupons for. These are also the preferred brands in my house so when I can save 50% or more on the brands we like, I try to take advantage of the sale. I also saw I had a $3 off vitamin coupon that was expiring soon so I thought I'd pick up some for my daughter. That was something I could take or leave it. Even before I got into the coupon craze, I would never pay full price for vitamins because they are almost always on sale. Same with makeup. Buy one get one half off sales at least once a month.
While I was at Walgreens approaching the checkout, I saw that store brand batteries were marked BOGO so I picked up a couple of packs. I also saw a coupon in their March book so ripped it out. I was also Jonesing for some mint Milanos which were supposed to be on sale, but they were out of them. I did get a decent deal on hair color on sale for $4.99 and a $3 coupon and also saved a bit on Splenda, Progresso, Glad kitchen bags and No nonsense hose with their sales and/or in-ad coupons. For the Splenda, garbage bags and soup, I also had manufacturers coupons.
Checkout was a disaster. Three bottles of vitamins had to go back. For some reason the Nature made sale was only for certain ones and the shelf tags were off. The $5 centrum specialty vitamin coupon did not include the vision formula that I picked up because it was on closeout. The batteries were not on sale until the next day and the $3 coupon required a 24 pack for AA not an I pack like for the 9V. An easy misread. There was a list of batteries and I just skimmed the coupon and the last thing it said was 8 pack...but apparently that was only one kind of battery. I tell ya, they get you coming and going. I almost fainted when the amount was approaching $100, but then the coupons came and things started going back. I ended up spending a little under $40, which is what I expected.
I am sure the checker was annoyed that I was putting these items back, but he was pretty cool. I told him that if it doesn't work, I don't buy. The way I am working my program, is that the coupon has to work and the item needs to be on sale, and I don't mean a nickel off either. Now that my per trip savings are getting up to around 50% and up, I want it to stay that way, and the way to the bigger savings is to match the coupons with the sales and buy things before you need them. Why pay over $10 for detergent or garbage bags? Those are a couple of items that I won't buy from Aldi because their brand for those particular items is crap. Get quality items when they go on sale and add a coupon. Buy multiples if you have the money and space. (I sure wish I did.) Save the Aldi runs for canned goods, string cheese, snacks and bread. Knowing what to buy where is important. A penny saved is a penny earned, but a penny wasted is still a penny wasted.
I didn't go grocery shopping this weekend, just ran into Dominicks for bread, milk and Doritos to feed my Jones. Just that and I blew about $7 and saved 47%. Not too shabby. I would have paid roughly the same at Aldi and got lower quality. Real Doritos are my friend and I also love the $1.97 milk deal.
I had my coupon book with me and let her get some toiletries. The deal there was a Schick hydro silk razor with free shaving gel for $5.97 that I had a $4.00 off coupon, bringing the price down to $1.97 for a 5-blade razor and goo. When we got home we got a nice surprise. Inside the package was another $4.00 off coupon for refills and one for $.55 for Skintimate shave gel. Not bad. We only bought one so go grab them while they're hot.
I went to Walgreens yesterday to pick up some things. Saturday is the last day of their sales cycle and I have found that my neighborhood store really sucks on Saturdays because the shelf tags are all screwed up. What is on sale is not marked and what is going on sale may just be marked. It was pretty confusing. Luckily I had paid a visit to couponmom.com before going so I had a notion as to what was a good deal. I knew there was a BOGO sale on Dial bar soap and Scotchbrite sponges I wanted to take advantage of and had coupons for. These are also the preferred brands in my house so when I can save 50% or more on the brands we like, I try to take advantage of the sale. I also saw I had a $3 off vitamin coupon that was expiring soon so I thought I'd pick up some for my daughter. That was something I could take or leave it. Even before I got into the coupon craze, I would never pay full price for vitamins because they are almost always on sale. Same with makeup. Buy one get one half off sales at least once a month.
While I was at Walgreens approaching the checkout, I saw that store brand batteries were marked BOGO so I picked up a couple of packs. I also saw a coupon in their March book so ripped it out. I was also Jonesing for some mint Milanos which were supposed to be on sale, but they were out of them. I did get a decent deal on hair color on sale for $4.99 and a $3 coupon and also saved a bit on Splenda, Progresso, Glad kitchen bags and No nonsense hose with their sales and/or in-ad coupons. For the Splenda, garbage bags and soup, I also had manufacturers coupons.
Checkout was a disaster. Three bottles of vitamins had to go back. For some reason the Nature made sale was only for certain ones and the shelf tags were off. The $5 centrum specialty vitamin coupon did not include the vision formula that I picked up because it was on closeout. The batteries were not on sale until the next day and the $3 coupon required a 24 pack for AA not an I pack like for the 9V. An easy misread. There was a list of batteries and I just skimmed the coupon and the last thing it said was 8 pack...but apparently that was only one kind of battery. I tell ya, they get you coming and going. I almost fainted when the amount was approaching $100, but then the coupons came and things started going back. I ended up spending a little under $40, which is what I expected.
I am sure the checker was annoyed that I was putting these items back, but he was pretty cool. I told him that if it doesn't work, I don't buy. The way I am working my program, is that the coupon has to work and the item needs to be on sale, and I don't mean a nickel off either. Now that my per trip savings are getting up to around 50% and up, I want it to stay that way, and the way to the bigger savings is to match the coupons with the sales and buy things before you need them. Why pay over $10 for detergent or garbage bags? Those are a couple of items that I won't buy from Aldi because their brand for those particular items is crap. Get quality items when they go on sale and add a coupon. Buy multiples if you have the money and space. (I sure wish I did.) Save the Aldi runs for canned goods, string cheese, snacks and bread. Knowing what to buy where is important. A penny saved is a penny earned, but a penny wasted is still a penny wasted.
I didn't go grocery shopping this weekend, just ran into Dominicks for bread, milk and Doritos to feed my Jones. Just that and I blew about $7 and saved 47%. Not too shabby. I would have paid roughly the same at Aldi and got lower quality. Real Doritos are my friend and I also love the $1.97 milk deal.
Monday, March 5, 2012
Coupon Queen
Oh yes! Now I am a coupon queen. Getting there anyway. I went shopping this weekend after working on my mini coupon binder for a couple of weeks and it made a difference. With all the BOGO sales I sure did buy a lot of stuff though....
After getting a load of coupons from friends and buying extra papers, I had a lot of work to do, clipping, sorting and filing. My son helped me sort them this time. I made a PowerPoint deck with the number and categories as the title and products as bullet points and printed them as two on a page handouts. I laid these 8 sheets of paper across the foot of the bed and laid the coupons on top of each category so I had a stack on each before I started stuffing them into the binder.
I have 15 categories in my book and because the sheet protectors are wider than the dividers, I put numbered post-it flags at the top of each divider and also printed out and taped an index to the inside of the front cover so I can always see it whenever the binder is open. That is tremendously helpful.
My binder pages are the homemade 3-pocket and also 2 and 4 pocket. Martha Stewart introduced a new Avery product line at Staples and they have 5 x 8 mini-binder sheet protectors divided into 4 pockets. Awesome timing and I got a 20% discount because they had a coupon on this new line (that I had to chase around Chicago to find BTW) These 4-pocket sheet protectors are the perfect size for most coupons. Business card pages also hold tiny ones 4 to a page. I'll admit, it probably did cost a little bit more to set up a small binder vs a big one, but it is so much easier to handle while shopping... and having it really makes the difference between pulling out $5 worth or coupons or pulling $50 worth of coupons. How cool is that!!!
OK, I bet you're wondering how much I saved. At Food4Less I'm not quite sure because the receipt doesn't tell you.
At Dominicks, the receipt calculated 43% ($129.30)but with the catalinas for $10 + $3 next shopping trip, $5 off next purchase of frozen food and free milk, in addition to other coupons, I'm sure it is closer to 50%. I'm not quite a super couponer like Jill Cataldo yet, but I'm getting there. I was stocking up on groceries, not stockpiling BOGO body wash, so I did quite well actually. When you are stocked up and just buy the sales, that is when you get to 70% savings by matching coupons with sales and buying things before you need them. I did buy 3 Secret deodorants at Food4Less though. They were on sale for $1.98 and I had three $1 off coupons making them $0.98 each. That's how you do it, baby.
* * * * * *
Here's a good article on savings by Mary Hunt that is very spot on. I am not quite to baby step 3 yet and have debt to pay off first, but I think that Dave's baby emergency fund should have at least 1 month's expenses rather than $1,000, at least in my case being a single mom. I'm living lean and trying to both save and pay down debt. As long as nothing stupid happens, I will be out of debt (except the house) within a year.
After getting a load of coupons from friends and buying extra papers, I had a lot of work to do, clipping, sorting and filing. My son helped me sort them this time. I made a PowerPoint deck with the number and categories as the title and products as bullet points and printed them as two on a page handouts. I laid these 8 sheets of paper across the foot of the bed and laid the coupons on top of each category so I had a stack on each before I started stuffing them into the binder.
I have 15 categories in my book and because the sheet protectors are wider than the dividers, I put numbered post-it flags at the top of each divider and also printed out and taped an index to the inside of the front cover so I can always see it whenever the binder is open. That is tremendously helpful.
My binder pages are the homemade 3-pocket and also 2 and 4 pocket. Martha Stewart introduced a new Avery product line at Staples and they have 5 x 8 mini-binder sheet protectors divided into 4 pockets. Awesome timing and I got a 20% discount because they had a coupon on this new line (that I had to chase around Chicago to find BTW) These 4-pocket sheet protectors are the perfect size for most coupons. Business card pages also hold tiny ones 4 to a page. I'll admit, it probably did cost a little bit more to set up a small binder vs a big one, but it is so much easier to handle while shopping... and having it really makes the difference between pulling out $5 worth or coupons or pulling $50 worth of coupons. How cool is that!!!
OK, I bet you're wondering how much I saved. At Food4Less I'm not quite sure because the receipt doesn't tell you.
At Dominicks, the receipt calculated 43% ($129.30)but with the catalinas for $10 + $3 next shopping trip, $5 off next purchase of frozen food and free milk, in addition to other coupons, I'm sure it is closer to 50%. I'm not quite a super couponer like Jill Cataldo yet, but I'm getting there. I was stocking up on groceries, not stockpiling BOGO body wash, so I did quite well actually. When you are stocked up and just buy the sales, that is when you get to 70% savings by matching coupons with sales and buying things before you need them. I did buy 3 Secret deodorants at Food4Less though. They were on sale for $1.98 and I had three $1 off coupons making them $0.98 each. That's how you do it, baby.
* * * * * *
Here's a good article on savings by Mary Hunt that is very spot on. I am not quite to baby step 3 yet and have debt to pay off first, but I think that Dave's baby emergency fund should have at least 1 month's expenses rather than $1,000, at least in my case being a single mom. I'm living lean and trying to both save and pay down debt. As long as nothing stupid happens, I will be out of debt (except the house) within a year.
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Making a mini coupon binder
Today I found a mini 2.5 inch thick binder that holds half sheets of paper and decided that since I am starting to outgrow my Couponizer already, I'd like to try to make a coupon binder out of this. So off to google I went searching for ideas on how to do this. I am not an extreme couponer and don't want to do baseball card sleeves in a full sized binder. I did find a good instructional video and here it is.
Happy Couponing!
Happy Couponing!
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Customer Satisfaction
I went to Jewel this weekend to take advantage of some of their BOGO specials and to cash in my coupons from the game. Of course, I spent more than I wanted to. To punish myself for that I skipped the BOGO special on those yummy Diana Bananas that I love so much and haven't had in years.
I spent just over $100 and I had planned to spend $75. I took cash and a bunch of coupons in my handy dandy couponizer book. I got the donut and free jar of gravy from the game pieces and cheap cookies too. Some of the deals I got were Italian sausage, olive oil, fish oil, peanut butter, jelly, dishwashing thingys and soup. The one BOGO I thought I was getting was on pork chops. Turned out that the deal required an in-store coupon and there were none there. I called the store and talked to the manager and he said bring in the receipt and get a refund. That was nice. Got about $6 back.
I feel that now I am pretty stocked up for awhile on most things and even though I bought a couple things not on the list such as the fish oil (BOGO big bottles) and the Finish dishwashing tabs, which were on preferred card special in a buy 2 get one free bonus pack for $10.99 (just over a penny each with no coupon). I knew we would be needing these within a week or two anyway so I jumped on the deals. How much are dishwashing packs or pellets worth anyway. Seems like a small pack of cascade are about $7 or so.
BTW - I want to do a price book but don't know how to start. Can anyone direct me to one for Chicago stores such as Jewel, Dominicks, Aldi and Food 4 Less. Thanks!
I spent just over $100 and I had planned to spend $75. I took cash and a bunch of coupons in my handy dandy couponizer book. I got the donut and free jar of gravy from the game pieces and cheap cookies too. Some of the deals I got were Italian sausage, olive oil, fish oil, peanut butter, jelly, dishwashing thingys and soup. The one BOGO I thought I was getting was on pork chops. Turned out that the deal required an in-store coupon and there were none there. I called the store and talked to the manager and he said bring in the receipt and get a refund. That was nice. Got about $6 back.
I feel that now I am pretty stocked up for awhile on most things and even though I bought a couple things not on the list such as the fish oil (BOGO big bottles) and the Finish dishwashing tabs, which were on preferred card special in a buy 2 get one free bonus pack for $10.99 (just over a penny each with no coupon). I knew we would be needing these within a week or two anyway so I jumped on the deals. How much are dishwashing packs or pellets worth anyway. Seems like a small pack of cascade are about $7 or so.
BTW - I want to do a price book but don't know how to start. Can anyone direct me to one for Chicago stores such as Jewel, Dominicks, Aldi and Food 4 Less. Thanks!
Thursday, February 9, 2012
Six at Sam's
Yesterday we went to Sam's Club to buy a few items. These are things that we almost always buy there so I wanted to give you a glimpse of a typical Sam's run. Here are the items and prices:
2.5 lbs Eight o'clock Columbian Coffee $14.24
2 lbs Kraft Mexican Shredded Cheese $6.78
1 gal Skim Milk $2.39
1 bucket Cole Slaw $3.88
2 1.5 doz eggs $3.58
1 delicious rotisserie chicken $5.99
The bill came out to be $38.10 after tax this time and the coffee price has been stable for a few months, but the chicken went up $1.00 recently. We generally go to Sam's about twice a month. Other things we buy there are chewing gum, printer paper and big cans of pinto beans, my favorite flax seed tortilla chips and hamburger. Any other bargains to be found at Sam's? Let me know.
2.5 lbs Eight o'clock Columbian Coffee $14.24
2 lbs Kraft Mexican Shredded Cheese $6.78
1 gal Skim Milk $2.39
1 bucket Cole Slaw $3.88
2 1.5 doz eggs $3.58
1 delicious rotisserie chicken $5.99
The bill came out to be $38.10 after tax this time and the coffee price has been stable for a few months, but the chicken went up $1.00 recently. We generally go to Sam's about twice a month. Other things we buy there are chewing gum, printer paper and big cans of pinto beans, my favorite flax seed tortilla chips and hamburger. Any other bargains to be found at Sam's? Let me know.
Friday, February 3, 2012
Going like a Gazelle!
Right now I'm squeezing every penny to become debt free. In FPU we call that Gazelle Intensity. At the beginning of the year I had about $4,500 in credit card debt which was kicking my ass. I also have a mortgage which I pay an extra $40/month towards principal.
I have my baby emergency fund of $1000 and have reduced my 401k to free up cash... about $70/month. I am couponing and following sales more at the grocery stores, using envelopes and eating out much less. Yesterday my brother met me for lunch at work and he brought some pulled pork he made in the crockpot and a couple cans of soda. I bought two fries and it was lunch out for two for $3. Normally, we would go out and spend about $15 for lunch and go out once a week. He is now on medical leave, battling cancer and cooking more so this was a special treat.
For my turnaround since the beginning of the year the total is $1631... $1041 paid and $590 saved. Yes it is painful but I paid off the last $161 from Macy's (my winter coat and accessories) and about $600 is mortgage principal reduction. I still have over 25 years left so the principal is not going down very fast. When I added it up and saw $1631, I was amazed. Yes, I am still saving for college for my boy who is a high school senior and because I am pushing 50, I don't want to cut retirement savings completely. This does deviate slightly from the Ramsey plan, which is perfect when you are 30. I hope to be out of the credit card hole by next fall and am watching my accounts closely.
In other news, I caught an automatic charge to my checking account for $67 from Angie's list to automatically renew my subscription. No warning... just boom! Snatched it out of my bank. I saw red. I got on chat and had them reverse it. I subscribed a couple years ago for, I think, $30 because I was doing some work on the house. I don't like these automatic renewing things and will be more watchful in the future. BEWARE: You touch my money and you will be pimp-slapped on my blog!
I have my baby emergency fund of $1000 and have reduced my 401k to free up cash... about $70/month. I am couponing and following sales more at the grocery stores, using envelopes and eating out much less. Yesterday my brother met me for lunch at work and he brought some pulled pork he made in the crockpot and a couple cans of soda. I bought two fries and it was lunch out for two for $3. Normally, we would go out and spend about $15 for lunch and go out once a week. He is now on medical leave, battling cancer and cooking more so this was a special treat.
For my turnaround since the beginning of the year the total is $1631... $1041 paid and $590 saved. Yes it is painful but I paid off the last $161 from Macy's (my winter coat and accessories) and about $600 is mortgage principal reduction. I still have over 25 years left so the principal is not going down very fast. When I added it up and saw $1631, I was amazed. Yes, I am still saving for college for my boy who is a high school senior and because I am pushing 50, I don't want to cut retirement savings completely. This does deviate slightly from the Ramsey plan, which is perfect when you are 30. I hope to be out of the credit card hole by next fall and am watching my accounts closely.
In other news, I caught an automatic charge to my checking account for $67 from Angie's list to automatically renew my subscription. No warning... just boom! Snatched it out of my bank. I saw red. I got on chat and had them reverse it. I subscribed a couple years ago for, I think, $30 because I was doing some work on the house. I don't like these automatic renewing things and will be more watchful in the future. BEWARE: You touch my money and you will be pimp-slapped on my blog!
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