Weekly Shopping Trip

When I took a month off from blogging, I felt weird not taking pictures of my groceries. Then I got used to it. Now that I am doing it again, I feel weird again. Anyway, I did find some great deals this week! One super deal was a total accident!

For those of you who have been reading my blog for awhile, my annual goal for his year was $2,600 for groceries or $50.00 per week. This included food, household items, and diapers. If you notice, the word I used above is WAS not IS. Unfortunately, I have not been able to stick to the budget of $50.00 per week. My current total is $2,454.47. That leaves me $145.53 for the next 13 weeks of 2009. That is $11.00 per week. Yeah...not going to happen. I have learned a lot along the way though, and my stockpile is still pretty big. This makes my average for the year about $63/week. This is also way better than my average from last year, which was $118/week.

Now that I got that out of the way...here is my shopping trip:

Walgreen's:1 Glad trash bags - $7.99 (-$1.50 coupon in September savings booklet) - $6.49

2 Scott Bath Tissue - $5.00 (w/in ad coupon)

4 Domino sugar - $3.20 (yes, you read that right - this is 20 pounds of sugar for $3.20. I love clearance! This was the deal I found by accident!

2 Baskin Robbins chewy candies - $.64 (clearance)

Net OOP: $16.24

Then I hit Fred Meyer: 8 Country Oven bread - $10.00 (w/in ad coupon)

2 Cheerios - $3.00 (w/in ad coupon)(2 -$1.00 off coupons) = $1.00

2 Big K Rootbeer - $1.00

1 A&W Rootbeer - $1.69

1 Coke Zero - $1.39

2 FM tuna - $1.00

1 bunch bananas - $1.14

1 Oscar Meyer lunchmeat - $1.79 (marked down from $3.99)

2 Land o' Frost lunchmeat - $5.00 (w/in ad coupon) (-2 $1.00 off coupons) = $3.00

2 Fresh Express salad - $2.50

2 Oscar Meyer bacon - $5.00 (-1.25 off 2 coupon) = $3.75

3 gallons milk - $5.97

2 Bumble Bee Tuna bowls - $4.00 (-2 $1.00 off coupons) = $2.00

1 bunch celery - $.34

Net OOP: $38.95

So my total for the week is $55.19 - not terrible! How did you do this week?

Monthly Financial Check Up

In January, I set some financial goals for our family. We are getting closer to being 3/4 of the way through the year and I think we are doing pretty well - especially over last year.

Here is the update:

Grocery Spending - My goal for the year is $2,600 or $50.00 per week. This includes food, household items, and diapers. As of today, our total spending is $2,141.42. I have spent 82% of our budget, but we are only 63% of the way through the year. My average has been $65/week. Even though I am chronically over budget, I am happy with this. In 2008 I spent $6,111.87 or $118.00/week, so I have almost cut this in 1/2. I'm still sticking with this goal and am cutting back on my spending were I can. It's all about necessities. I just need to remember that ice cream is not a necessity!

Emergency Fund - My goal was to reach $1,000 by the end of the year. Thank goodness for my credit union! Every two weeks they take $38.46 from my paycheck and deposits it directly into my savings - I currently have $615.62 which is right on track. Woo hoo!

Car Savings - Yeah...about that...my goal was to save $2,500 toward purchasing another car. We were driving a 1996 Honda Accord and a 1986 Jetta. The Jetta died on me and it had been sitting in our driveway since the end of December! We worked it out with the Honda for about six months. During that time I was casually looking for a good deal on a minivan. A great deal landed in our laps and we purchased a 1999 Chrysler Town and Country with only 90,000 miles for a steal - only $4,000! My husband is such a good negotiator, he was able to get $1,800 off of the asking price. We both felt like it was the right time and we got a small loan to pay for it. We are working to get it paid off a.s.a.p! By the way...if you want to buy a Jetta that needs a new fuel pump (we think) send me an e-mail!

Christmas Savings - I have had my credit union pull $20.00 from each paycheck to go to our Christmas Savings. This has worked out great as well. I have been picking up items as I find them for great deals. It is great to have that money set aside!

So, that's it - I think we are doing pretty darn good - not exactly on track, but I am willing to make changes based on our needs/situation.

How are you doing with your financial goals?

-Michelle

Monthly Financial Check Up

This year I set some small financial goals for our family. So far we have been doing pretty well. You can read April's update HERE. Here is the run down for May...

Grocery Spending - I report on this EVERY week, but my goal is $2,600 for the year or $50.00 per week. As of the end of May our spending was $1,291.74. It is a bit over for that point in the year, but I am really happy with it. Last year I spent over $6,000 on groceries!

$1,000 Emergency Fund - This is still going strong. I love having the money deducted from my paycheck! The balance as of May 31st was $448.17.

Car Savings - this is a weak point in my plan. I wanted to have $2,500 saved by the end of the year. By the end of April I had $81.24 in the account. Ick! The current balance is $158.61 so I almost doubled it. I don't see how I can make this goal by year end, but maybe there will be a miracle :)! My in laws are having a yard sale tomorrow so I put a TON of stuff in it. Hopefully I will be able to infuse this fund with some extra cash!

Christmas Savings - I am still having $20.00 per paycheck put into this account. I have been picking up items here and there for Christmas out of this account. The current balance is $127.64.

So that's how it is going. I am pretty happy with the results so far. I hope we can keep it up and get some more money over to that blasted car savings!

How about you? How are you doing with your financial goals?

-Michelle

Annual Goal Checkup

In January I made a few small financial goals for our family. So far, I think we have done pretty well. Here is the check-up:

Grocery Spending: My goal for the year is to spend $2,600.00 or less or $50.00 per week. So far this year I have spent exactly $1,132.00. We are basically 1/3 of the way through the year so I am a bit over, but I have done WAAAAAAYYY better than last year. I spent $6,111.87 or an average of $230 per week! Holy cow! I am happy with my progress on this.

$1,000 Emergency Fund: I am happy to report that I have $371.25 in my emergency fund and will have just over $1,000 by years end, which was my goal. I have $38.46 come out of each paycheck and it is deposited directly into that account.

Car Savings: This is not so good...I wanted to have $2,500 by the end of the year. I only have $81.24 in the account. I cannot afford to put away $200.00/month right now, so I am looking for ways to do this. My plan is to use any funds I get from the affiliate programs I participate in for this blog (I actually have a $100.00 check coming from Logical Media in the next few weeks!). I also plan on having a mega yard sale in a few weeks as well. I will put the money I earn from that into my car savings.

Christmas Savings: I have been putting $20.00 each week into an account for Christmas. This would give me $520.00 to spend on Christmas by the end of the year. I have spent some of this money on bargains I have found that I am saving for Christmas gifts, so the fund is sitting at $81.68 right now.

My husband has really jumped on board with the changes we are making in our spending habits and our other categories have come way down. We have done so much better with really thinking about our spending choices before we make them rather than just buying things because we feel like it.

So that's my story. How have you done with your goals this year? Check out what other bloggers are posting about their checkups at Money Saving Mom!

-Michelle

Spring Cleaning Update

Remember my spring cleaning schedule from last week? Do you also remember my son's disastrous room? I finally spent some time getting is cleaned and rearranged today. I love the way it turned out!

P. S. 99% of the stuff in this room is from yard sales (I only bought the bedspread new - on clearance for $15!). All of the clothes in the closet are hand me downs!

Spring Cleaning Update

This week was my spring cleaning week. My plan was to basically do a room each day and finish my whole house by Friday. Monday-Thursday were great! Friday I started and had some WONDERFUL (but unexpected) visitors. I didn't get the kitchen or my son's room done as planned. Guess what? I'm happy. I got the bulk of my house done. I'm flexible and I will get it done next week.

Spring Cleaning - Day Four

So, day four of my Spring cleaning was last night. It is so nice to have these goals and be achieving them. It feels great to have a "deep cleaned" home! So for the update...

I cleaned my bathroom yesterday. It actually wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. My son was also really geared up to help. He even (sort of) scrubbed the toilet! The pictures I took really didn't capture the grossness of the tub and shower (the soap scum really didn't show up!) - and I wasn't about to take a picture of the inside of my toilet :). So here is my sparkling clean bathroom. Friday's challenge is the kitchen. I don't think it is going to be too bad...but I do still have my son's room. Ugh and double Ugh!

Spring Cleaning - Day Three

Today is my third day of Spring Cleaning and today was my first day off work this week so I thought I'd get a lot done today - including my son's room. Change of plans, I hung out with my mother in law and a niece and nephew for a good portion of the day and didn't get to all I wanted to do today. I did complete the cleaning of my living room. I'll get my son's room done tomorrow or Friday and I'll have some great pics to share.

Look what was under my couch, hilarious! I have been looking for that blue lid for weeks!

Those white spots are smarties :).
I must say that I usually keep my living room picked up, so I didn't think it would be too bad. I moved all the furniture and rugs, swept an mopped, and dusted the top of the furniture. Talk about a caking of dust! It feels so good to hang out in my "Spring Cleaned" living room!

Come back tomorrow to make sure I cleaned my bathroom. I'm not looking forward to it. Ugh!

Spring Cleaning - Day Two

Why is it that the master bedroom turns into a dumping ground? Is it that way at your house? It is at mine as you can see...but tonight all of that changed! I did some serious spring cleaning. Tuesday night is the Biggest Loser - one of our favorite shows and we didn't want to miss it. Two hours out of my spring cleaning evening seemed pretty daunting. So my hubby and the kids joined in the fun. We ran to the bedroom during the commercials and cleaned, vacuumed, dusted, and organized. Here is what it looked like before:

While we were watching the show, I went through the pile of clothes from the dresser and the bed. My husband was trying on shirt after shirt after shirt to see if they still fit and if he still wanted them. It was pretty funny.

Here are the results of our hard work:

It feels so good to have a clean bedroom! Come back tomorrow to see my sparkling clean living room and dun...dun...dun...my son's room!

Spring Cleaning - Day One

So today was the first day of my spring cleaning challenge. It ended up being a crazy day, but I did get some done.

My sob story...I worked until 5:30, then my husband was running late picking me up (we have been having car trouble, so we have been with one car for about 3 months! It has been fine :)!) so I walked home. It is about 1.5 miles, which isn't bad, but I brought my coupon binder to work to sort coupons on my lunch hour - so I hauled it home in a backpack. I was so tired because I already worked a full day! Then I decided I needed to use my Albertson's double coupons, then I went to Walgreen's, then I went to Fred Meyer. Do you think I am within my budget???? Stay tuned, I'll post it later this week.

I decided to only do my daughter's room tonight because my son's room looked like this:

Nice.

Here are some before pictures of my daughter's room:

Eww...dried milk!

Piles of junk!
Behind the crib. This made me laugh. So...that's where all the socks are :)!

And...after:

I thought I took a before picture of this one, but I didn't. This is a pack and play that I keep set up all the time with the changing table insert and the bassinet insert in place. It is very handy storage!

Stay tuned the rest of the week to see how much I am able to get done. I work tomorrow so I think I am going to save my son's room until Wednesday.

Spring Cleaning

I have decided to designate this week as my Spring Cleaning Week - and share it with all of you (you know, the whole accountability thing...). Here is the plan. I work from 8:00-5:30ish on Monday and Tuesday, so I'll keep those days fairly easy. Luckily we have a small house!

Monday: Both kids rooms (wash windows, dust, wipe down baseboards)

Tuesday: Master bedroom (this shouldn't be too bad...)

Wednesday: Living Room (this entails moving all the furniture and cleaning underneath, removing all the couch cushions and vacumming, and dusting...the dreaded dusting!)

Thursday: Bathroom - we only have one! (scrub EVERYTHING) - BTW...this is the ONE and ONLY time I am happy that we only have one bathroom!

Friday: Kitchen (wipe down all cupboards, baseboards, wash windows - including the toddler handprints all over the french doors! Also organize the desk - a daunting task!)

That's it - I told you my house was small! I can get through the whole thing in a week! I'll make a daily post on my progress. Next week is going to be my organize and purge week...going through my closets and my storage room. Wish me luck...I think I am going to need it!

New Year's Resolution Poll

For the last few months, I have been including a poll in my left sidebar. It has been fun to see what people are doing based on the results.

I did a survey in November about grocery budgets. You can read about that here.

In December I did a survey about going meatless - read those results here.

The survey I did for January was about New Year's Resolutions. I thought it would be interesting to see what type of resolutions my readers had. Here are the results out of 47 votes. Thanks to all who voted!

I was not surprised to see that Financial was the highest - after all this is a blog about saving money. I also wasn't surprised that Physical was right up there. That is a very common resolution.

For myself, my New Year's resolutions have been financial and spiritual. I have put my financial goals for 2009 in writing here. I also just want to improve my spirituality by reading and studying the scriptures each day, having a Family Home Evening each week, and looking for opportunities to be of service to others.

How about you? What are your New Year's Resolutions? Are you sticking to them? Also, if you haven't participated in my current poll...please do!

Financial Goals for 2009

I wanted to put into writing what our financial goals are for 2009. This will help me to be more accountable for my decisions and my plan is to do an update each month of our progress. Here goes...


Grocery Expenses - My goal is to stay with my $50.00 per week budget that I set for myself toward the end of 2008. This gives me a total of $2,600 for the whole year. I looked at Quicken for the past several years and here are my totals for past spending:


2004
$3,757.93 (no kids)


2005
$2,673.78 (my son was born in August, we lived with the in laws for 6 months of 2005)


2006
$4,663.32


2007
$5,476.44 (my daughter was born in September)


2008
$6,111.87


As you can see, only spending $2,600 for the year will cut my grocery expenses by more than 1/2 from last year. This will really help us reach our goals!



Savings - We have been putting away about 10% of our income for quite awhile. Much of this is going into retirement accounts we also have a couple of CD's. We do not have an emergency fund per say. So here is what I would like to do:


Emergency Fund - I would like to have $1,000 in a savings account by the end of 2009. I will set up a payroll deduction from my paycheck for $38.50 each pay period to accomplish this (I get paid bi-weekly, so this will be deposited 26 times for a total of $1,001 by the end of the year).


Car Savings - Eventually I am going to need a new car. I drive a 1986 Jetta. Let's face it, the thing isn't going to last forever! I would like to pay cash for our next vehicle. We started an account last year with good intentions and have put a very small amount into it - only $60.00. My goal is to get it up to $2,500 by the end of the year. That won't buy a new car or even a great used car, but it will be a great start. I haven't decided on an exact plan for this - but I am working on it.


Christmas Fund - This is something I have never done successfully, but would like to start this year. I will set aside $20.00 per pay period from my paycheck to go directly to a separate savings account. This will give me $520.00 to spend for Christmas next year - which I'll also use to cover a nice meal if necessary.


Money/Cash Management - One thing that we have done that I think has contributed to our sometimes overspending is our credit card. We have a card that we use for most everything that we pay off each month. We earn rewards points which we cash in for gift cards on a regular basis. I love this, but I think that we spend more because we are using a credit card vs. cash. I would like to start using the cash envelope system for the following categories:


Eating out
Entertainment
Miscellaneous Expenses
Groceries


I will still use the credit card for gas a few automatic payments that we have set up and continue to pay it off each month. We will earn much less in rewards, but I think we will also spend much less in these categories.


Medical/Credit Card/Mortgage Debt - we will just keep plugging away, making sure to make as much more than the minimum payments that we can afford.


So that's the plan. I know that we can accomplish this. It feels good to have everything in writing and to know that I can take steps right away to get this started (set up payroll deduction, etc.). I am excited to see our progress and to share it with my readers!

Yikes! My (HUGE) grocery mistakes...

I have always considered myself to be a frugal person. I felt as if I never wasted money and was doing "the best I could." That was when I started to read books about saving money, spending less, budgeting, etc. What an eye opener! I just recently started using coupons. I knew about the possibilities in the past and I had used them some in the past, but never to their full potential - and I know I am not now. I was inspired by reading Money Saving Mom and decided this would be a fun hobby. Of course now I am addicted to getting a great deal - even the best deal possible - free or with overages. I have had a few decent success stories. I decided that I would (and could) start spending much less on groceries. Crystal from Money Saving Mom spends $35-$40 per week on her family of 4. Because I am also a family of 4 I decided to try. I looked back at my grocery spending (I use Quicken) and gasped - for the past year this is what I have spent on groceries:

August '07 - $563.91
September '07 - $610.53
October '07 - $634.52
November '07 - $559.33
December '07 - $114.65 (great month!)
January '08 - $457.67
February '08 - $499.57
March '08 - $582.95
April '08 - $559.81
May '08 - $666.50
June '08 - $989.16 (YIKES!!!!)
July '08 - $443.36
August '08 - $211.21

Overall total for the past 12 months - $6,893.17!!!! I have been throwing our money down the toilet!

I do have to mention that those prices included all household products, baby formula, and diapers for 2 kids - but still! This is ridiculous. The numbers speak for themselves. So now, my current goal is $60.00/week, which is kind of high from what I've seen on other blogs (see my link list), but I have to start somewhere. So, my frugal journey has begun - thanks for being here for the ride!