Stretching Birthday $

Yesterday as I was getting my grocery list ready, I remembered that I had $50 in birthday money to spend! That made my shopping trip all the more enticing.

My first stop was St. Vincent de Paul, my favorite thrift store. I find it easy to shop there because they organize their clothing by size. I wondered how far I could make my birthday $ stretch at a place like this.

I found a pair of Columbia cargo-type shorts, a pair of Old Navy khaki pants, and a pair of Cato brown dress slacks (tags still on) for a total of $9.50.

With the rest of the money, I decided to buy shoes. I have been so good at not buying shoes and purses the last few years, so I decided to buy myself some cool footwear even though I don't actually NEED shoes right now. That's what fun money is for, right? I found gray and blue New Balance tennis shoes on sale for $29.95 and a pair of nice flip flops (with a real sole and thick straps) for $12.95. That brought my grand total to $52.40...pretty close to $50!

Shopping with deals in mind helps your money buy MORE FUN!

How do you like to spend your birthday money?

Shopping Changes

As much as I enjoy my bi-monthly deal hunting, I am burnt out! As a result, the idea of once-a-month shopping trips is appealing to me more and more. This way, I would only be spending one Saturday per month on shopping.

The disadvantage to this approach is that I may miss some great deals at the drugstores. For instance, the Register Rewards at Walgreen's expire after just two weeks. You see, I have tried monthly shopping trips before, but when I receive those rewards, I can't stand the idea of wasting them, so I make the half hour trek to the closest store every two weeks even if I don't need to. While I'm there, I stop at Walmart, Save a Lot, etc., and spend more money saving money. As wonderful as it is to stock up on free stuff from the drug stores, I'm just not sure it's worth it. I may save just as much money (or more) by shopping less.

Here is another motivation for me. I spend $2.00 on a Sunday paper every week JUST for the coupons. Neither Seth nor I actually care to read the newspaper. I know that may seem a travesty to some, but we get our news online, on TV, and on the radio. I just don't want to spend $8.00 on coupons every month, even though I save more than that every month couponing, especially when most of the coupon inserts seem to be filled with ads for ugly house dresses and diabetic socks. For my monthly shopping trips, I am hoping I can find most of the same coupons online. Without the newspaper coupons and flyers coming into my house on a weekly basis, I will be less tempted to run out and spend money to get a good deal.

Don't get me wrong, I still think using coupons is a good idea. I am just too busy right now to pour myself into it like I have been. Plus, I really want to try to make more of my own food and cleaning products from scratch, and couponing just doesn't contribute much to those kinds of things. For instance, how often can you find a coupon for a gallon of vinegar or a bag of flour? I have put off making a homemade alternative to deodorant and making a powdered cream of anything soup mix just because I've had coupons to buy that stuff from the store. Maybe cutting back on my couponing will inspire me to actually experiment and try some of these things. If they don't work, I can always go back.

What are your thoughts? Is it possible to save just as much money shopping less often as you do shopping more often with lots of coupons?

Random Post

I have a friend who periodically writes random posts on her blog, and I really enjoy them. Since I never do this, I thought I might try one tonight. I have a lot on my mind...

My house is a mess. We were traveling for most of our Christmas break and got home just in time for me to spend many hours entering grades, go to bed, and get back to school. Our suitcases exploded all over the house, and I am embarrassed to say that I have just sat here and looked at it this week. I just don't have the drive to work every second of every day like I did in college. When I get home, I just want to sit on the couch. I'm not happy with myself :(

I had a popcorn party for my church choir kids this week. I hadn't met with them since our Christmas performance and wanted to reward them for their hard work. As an added bonus, I had several new kids come and join us! Since my core group is only 10-11, having more voices would be great. The question is, will the new kids come consistently?

Rural King is an awesome store. My favorite thing are their ladies' socks. They have every pattern you could imagine and also nice dressy socks for 88 cents this week. I am such a sucker for them and bought several more pair tonight, even though I have a drawer full.

When I was little I taped all of the Dick Van Dyke episodes off Nick at Nite. Why would a little girl be interested, you ask? Well, my parents watched 1960's reruns all the time, and it just rubbed off on me I guess. Then, being the OCD child I was, I watched each tape, looked up the episode title and other info in a Dick Van Dyke reference book, and listed the episodes on the tape. I got so into it that I even wrote to Dick Van Dyke, and he sent me back an autographed picture "to Amy, God Bless!" (I have wondered since if it was really his secretary who signed it, but I'd like to think he really wrote that message to me). I have been using those old tapes from 1993 to watch "my show" ever since then... Until now! My mom got me the entire series on DVD for Christmas! I almost stopped breathing, I was so excited and surprised! I don't think I'll get rid of the tapes, though. The commercials are awfully fun :)

We got ourselves a practical Christmas present this year: flannel sheets. I always said I would never want flannel sheets because I would get too hot, but I love them. It feels like I'm crawling onto a cloud when I go to bed every night! Since we keep the house at 65 (sometimes 62 at night), I haven't had problems getting too hot.

Well, I will close for now. The dryer repairman is coming tomorrow and I need to clear him a path. *Sigh*

Frugal Cheese

Last weekend when I made my bi-monthly Wal-mart run, I planned to buy a HUGE block of cheese (I forget how many ounces) I had seen during previous visits. At first I didn't see the cheese and thought I had missed my window of opportunity. Luckily, I am not shy when it comes to asking questions, and an employee led me right to it! When you buy a large quantity of cheese in the deli, it is expensive, but this cheese was located outside the deli in the refrigerated section. It was about half the unit price of the larger block of "Great Value" cheese I usually buy.

This story gets even better! Having read in the Tightwad Gazette that many stores will slice meat and cheese for free, I had the deli slice the cheese into thin squares for sandwiches. I paid just $10.95 for all this!

My hubby placed it in a ziplock bags for the freezer. As we run out, we will pull out a block, thaw it in the fridge, and eat. All this cheese will last us a LONG time.

I really should have bought another block and shredded it in the food processor... Maybe next time!

How I make my shopping list

Each Sunday afternoon, I sit down with the newspaper, scissors, a calculator, my price book, and the computer. I clip coupons and sort them into my coupon file box. Then I visit http://hip2save.com/. I simply copy and paste the deals that apply to me into a Word document. I used to just list the item I wanted to buy, but this can get confusing when multiple coupons/rebates are employed. For items I regularly buy without coupons, I just list the product. I will fore go trips to some stores this week. Other stores do not release their ad until tomorrow, so I will pick those ads up at school tomorrow in the paper that is delivered to the teacher's lounge. The question of when to actually go shopping is a tricky one. Last week I went after school on Monday, but that means not getting home until late (in my neck of the woods you have to drive to get anywhere!!!). Sometimes I go on Wednesdays after church, but church ends at 7 and some of the stores close at 8, which doesn't leave me much time. When I go on Saturdays, the stores are often out of the products I want. Still, I can get rainchecks and buy the missing products the next time I visit the store.

Here is my shopping list for this week (so far). I am excited to get lots of free items at Walgreen's.

August Grocery Challenge Results

It has been exactly four weeks today since I started my August Grocery Challenge, and I am excited to share the results with you this evening. My goal was to spend no more than $100.00 for groceries. Drum roll please.............

WE DID IT!!!!!

We spent a total of $96.99 and came out with $3.01 left!

You can check out the post detailing all of my expenditures here. The only things I had to put back on the shelf as a result of my experiment were frozen dinners, soda, and coffee creamer. These things are certainly not necessities and don't provide real nutritional value; therefore, we were not deprived. Still, I will probably purchase those things this weekend. My husband has suggested that we just give up soda altogether, but I don't know that I'm ready to take that step. I grew up in a pop-addicted household and have never been able to kick the habit.

Not only did we not deprive ourselves, I would say that we ate very well. You can see some of the meals we enjoyed here and here.

It is a comfort to me to know that WE CAN DO THIS when we really put our minds to it. Next month's challenge...$50.00...JUST KIDDING!!!!! I think that averaging $125 will work well for us in future months, as I want to be flexible enough to take advantage of great deals when they come along.

August Grocery Challenge

After bragging to several people over the summer about our grocery budget, I got a healthy dose of humility when I added up my grocery receipts for July. Instead of being disciplined and recording my expenditures every week, I assumed I was doing fine and just recorded at the end. Instead of spending $150, we spent $234.38! This month, I am determined to stay at (or under - ha) $100. I believe it will help to hold myself accountable here. Now, I realize that spending money on food is FINE, and we are way under what we could be spending. Nevertheless, I want to know how little we can really spend on food and still eat a tasty, well-balanced diet.

Here is what I have spent so far:

July 31 - IGA

• 2 loaves sandwich bread - $1.98

August 2 - Walmart

• Block of cheese, 2.77 lb. of nectarines, 1 lb. dried northern beans, light sour cream - $8.31

August 2 - Save a Lot

• Unsalted butter, 34.5 oz. coffee, 2 8-oz blocks cream cheese (Seth wants a cheesecake), bag of flour, 1.36 lb. fresh tomatoes, 24 oz. bottle of ketchup, 1 lb. bag lentils, head of lettuce, package of bologna, 2 12-oz bags shredded cheese, 3 lb. yellow onions, 2 gallons orange juice, 1 canister quick oats, 1 package turkey franks - $30.97

August 3 - IGA (New ad + I was already right next door at my eye appointment)

• 2 half-gallons milk, 1 dozen large eggs, 1 canister of Parmesan cheese, 4 packages of hot dog buns (I freeze these, and when we have pasta dishes I split them spread them with garlic butter and bake them--great bread sticks!!!), 7 lb. whole Boston Pork Butt, 8 1/2 lb. chicken legs and thighs (Pilgrim's Pride...no hormones or antibiotics), 1 package bologna (for freezer...it was only 37 cents after coupon)- $22.10

August 3 - Mor For Less

• 3 lb. ground beef - $4.40

My total so far is $67.76, so I have $32.24 to spend. I know it's early in the month, but if you could see my freezer(s) and pantry, you would surmise that pretty much all I will have to buy for the rest of the month is bread, milk, orange juice, yogurt, cheese and some fresh fruit. We have fresh veggies from the garden, so no need to buy those! And we could make the bread-YUM!

Update:

August 8 - Mor For Less

• 2 loaves bread - $2.18

August 9 - Walmart

• 2 cans crushed tomatoes, 2 cans tomato paste, huge canister of peanuts, applesauce - $8.10

August 9 - Save a Lot

• bananas, graham crackers, 1 gallon orange juice, 48 oz. tub margarine - $8.08

New Total: $86.12

Left to Spend: $13.88

Update:

August 12 - Wesselman's

• 2 dozen medium eggs - $1.18

August 18 - Mor 4 Less

• 2 loaves bread - $2.18

New Total: $89.48

Left to Spend: $10.52

Update:

August 23 - Walgreen's

• Smucker's Strawberry Jam 32 oz, 2 boxes Frosted Mini Wheats, $1.19 (I had $6 in register rewards and several coupons)

August 23 - Walmart

• 16 oz. frozen peas, 16 oz. frozen green beans (garden has not been doing well), 32 oz. yogurt, 2 lb. fresh plums - $5.94

August 23 - CVS

• 1 box Wheat Thins, 2 gallons milk - $.38 (I had $4 ECB and coupons)

New Total:$96.99

Left to Spend: $3.01

All that is left to buy before the end of the month is probably 1 loaf of bread. Yahooooooo!

The Elusive Black Skirt

I have been looking for a plain, just-below-the-knee black skirt for about...6 months now? Maybe longer? I can't remember! I have now looked in every thrift shop in the nearest town at least once, and some (St. Vincent dePaul and Goodwill) multiple times. I even visited a Goodwill Store while visiting my parents up north. This store is in a very affluent neighboring town and is known for its fabulous finds. After all this, I have a very nice selection of skirts in all colors and patterns, but still no solid black one. I can't even find a new one I like that fits me well. This should be so simple to find, but it continues to elude me. I ought to be frustrated, but I'm starting to find this situation very funny. Sometimes I like to imagine my life as a comedy show, and I think that "The Elusive Black Skirt" might be a funny episode! There I stand, in front of an endless row of black skirts of all lengths and styles and materials...oh, the possibilities!

Price's "Price Book"

My interest in frugality has remained strong and constant. In my previous post I mentioned some tricks that I planned to implement. I have tried a number of things, including but not limited to the ones on my list, and have discovered that the most powerful tool of all is my price book. In it, I record the lowest price on the items I normally buy. This way, I can keep track of which store has the best price on which item and when. For those of you not familiar with this system, I took a spiral-bound index card notebook and placed a stick-on tab on every third page or so. On each tab is written a category such as "dairy" or "canned goods." Each page is divided into several columns, including "Item," "Regular Price/Amount," "Sale Price," "Price per unit," and "Store." This has caused me to put many items disguised as good deals right back on the shelf where they belong. After just a few short months of using this approach to shopping, I am beginning to memorize my bottom line for a particular item. For instance, I now know that I can regularly purchase store-brand cold cereal (which my husband and I genuinely like) for 10-12 cents per ounce, so when a store sale and coupon combo looks promising, I whip out my cell phone and calculate price per unit. It rarely beats my 10-12 cents per ounce rule! On a related thread, I now understand how stores can get away with claiming so many sales. Many of the sales are just overly-priced items marked down to a more reasonable price. Occasionally, there is a genuinely good deal, and when I see a price that beats the one in my price book, whether by coupons or close-out or store-brand options, I do a little happy dance in the aisle, figure out how much of it I can store, and buy buy buy! This shop-a-holic is finding a new and more fulfilling way to get her "fix!"

Coupons vs. Generics

I have been stumped lately in regards to how people save so much money with coupons. I even signed up for a free e-course on couponing, but this is what I have noticed: Every time I get excited about using a coupon, I take it to Wal-mart and find that their generic brand is cheaper than the cost of a name-brand item after coupon. What's more, I like Great Value brand really well, sometimes better than the real thing. Something else I have discovered is that Dollar General has their canned soups and vegetables regularly priced at 50-60 cents a can, which is cheaper than coupons OR generics at Wal-mart! I wonder if any seasoned coupon experts could comment on this so that I can better understand the value of coupons.