A Frugal way to Save

One of the points of this blog is to hold me accountable for being frugal, which in turn is usually better for the environment (also one of the points of the blog, cause I love our planet :).  So, I thought I would share one thing I have been doing and an adjustment I have made that helps me to be frugal and use less resources. 

Since, I have two boys I am lucky in that the oldest can pass his clothes down to the younger one.  This allows for huge savings for my husband and I.  But, the problem is that they are BOYS, yes those rough and tumble creatures who like to wear out the knees of pair of jeans in three short uses.  So, it is easy to say that jeans were not always passed down in our household.  Well, at least before I went all "Little House on the Prairie" about our clothing and started to patch the all the jeans that had holes.  But, who wants their child to run around in nothing but jeans with holes/patches?  

A short while after I started putting patches on the pants, I read a post somewhere that talked about being proactive with patches.  What a great idea I thought.  You put the patches on first and they serve as reinforcement and hopefully they will last through both kids without a hole.  So far so good. 

Did you also know that you can get patches for vinyl outdoor wear.  You can and here is why I know this...
We really don't buy expensive things for the kids to wear.  They usually get stained way too quickly for that.  But "C" had outgrown his snow pants and I couldn't find a pair anywhere.  I had been looking at Target, Wal-Mart, Goodwill, etc., but there just weren't any.  I also had to get the kids some nice gloves and "C" new boots.  I was on-line, Kohls was having a sale and I had a coupon (recipe for financial disaster!!!!).  So, I bought him some very nice snow pants and by very nice I mean $30 (originally $50) and they had better last through two kids at two years each.  They were quickly delivered and the snow arrived shortly thereafter.  I got the kids all bundled up with new gloves, new snow pants, new boots and sent them out.  Not ten minutes later I glance at "C's" brand new $30 snow pants that have to fit him one additional year and his brother two more and to my utter horror there is a huge slice down one of the legs and there is white filament hanging out!  I really thought they were trash, but a trip to Wal-Mart several weeks later made me realize they were not.  Below you can see the pants and the weather resistant patch I placed on it.  I don't know how well it will work, but I do know that right now I happy my kid's snow pants have been rescued. 

Saturday Savings

Another week, another grocery bill!  I didn't do to bad this week, however I need to be keeping track of my drugstore shopping too.  Hopefully, this summer when I have time off I can get into a habit of tracking everything and stick to it when I have to go back to work in August.  Also, if you look at my list it really doesn't appear as though I got that much.  But, I was a able to get a great price on cheese for $1 a bag and organic butter for $2 (it is typically almost $5, isn't that insane!).  Finally I looked at how much we are spending on soda.  $15 of this week's $105 went to soda!  That is also insane.  My husband drinks soda like it is going out of style.  Pretty much the rest of us drink water and milk.  He can't put it in a reusable container, b/c they aren't allowed to at work and if he buys them at work they are even more overpriced than they already are.  Any suggestions?!?!

27-May
Kroger
4 - 6 packs Pepsi	$12.00
Kashi Cereal	$3.50	$2 coupon
Org Frz. Blueberries	$3.59
3 Big K Soda	$2.37
3lbs. Org. Gala Apples	$4.89
5.05lbs org. bananas	$3.49
1 pt. blueberries	$2.50
1.31 lbs. tomatoes	$2.20
1 cucumber	$0.89
1 pt. org tomatoes	$3.29
Total Spent	$39.87
Total Saved	$14.14
Meijer
2 lbs org carrots	$1.99
5 org. butter	$24.95	$15 off org. food
2 EB org lettuce	$5.98	$2 off EB
3 - 16 oz org. stb.	$6.00
16 Kraft cheese	$32.00	16 - $1 off coupons
8 Triscuit crackers	$13.36
Ball Park hot dogs	$0.98	.55 coupon
Gum	$2.09
4 Pizza Sauce	$3.96	$3 off org./nat. food
Dog Food	$10.99	$1.50 off
Total Spent	$65.02
Total Saved	$80.55
Total Spent	$104.89
Total Saved	$94.69
Coupon Savings	$40.05
Budget		Under by 20.11
May Total	$463.10
Yearly Total	$1,245.91

Wordless Wednesday

My youngest graduated from preschool last week.  These are some of the sweet photos of his graduation.

"A" got to lead the class in. 

Smiling at his best friend, his brother.

Singing "Peanut Butter & Jelly"

The graduate wearing his medal for being the class leader.

My Fabulous Yard Sale Finds

This weekend I got to go to a few yard sales with my mother-in-law and I hit the jackpot!  I love yard sale season for the wonderful deals you can find. 

I got everything pictured above for a whopping total of $4.75.  Nothing was over fifty cents.  My favorite find was a practically brand new pair of shoes for you guessed it, fifty cents.  I was also able to pick up two basketballs (.50 each), a lunch box for my youngest son for next year and an extra one for whichever child loses their's first next year (.50 each), two light up pumpkins (.50 each) and five books to read this summer (.25 each).  Overall, it was a great yard sale and I hope a sign of good things to come.

Saturday Savings

My weekly budget is $125 and I am currently trying to incorporate as much organic produce, dairy and meat as I can into that budget while making it as local as possible.  This week I spent under $100 which means I got to add $27 to our vacation fund!  That makes me a very happy woman.   In addition to that, my in-laws are here for the weekend so I bought a few things I wouldn't normally have.  So, for a price tag of under $100 I am a very pleased shopper.  The picture is missing the milk & soda.  Here are the details:

Kroger
4 - 6 packs Pepsi	$12.00
2 EB Org. Eggs	$7.98	2-$1 coupons
Unbleached Flour	$3.60
3 Big K Sodas	$2.37
2 Mom's Best Cereal	$2.98	2-.75 coupons
2 Kroger Chips	$2.00
2 Org. Milk	$6.98	$1 coupon
2 Kroger Salad Dressing	$2.50	.40 coupon
Whole White Wheat Flour	$3.69
Org. Potatoes	$2.49
9.25 oz Cashews	$2.79
Org. Butter	$4.59
Choc. Chips	$2.25
3 OM Bologna	$3.00
5 Org. Yogurt	$4.45	$1 coupon
32 oz Org Yogurt	$2.75	$1 coupon
Diet Coke	$1.59
10 ears of corn	$3.00
Cantaloupe	$1.25
Org. Spinach	$2.99
2 Org. Romaine	$5.98
Fresh Mushrooms	$2.07
2lbs. Strawberries	$2.96
Fresh Pineapple	$2.50
1.62 lbs. Tom.	$3.69
3.97 lbs. Org. Bananas	$2.74
3lbs. Org. Apples	$3.89
1 pint Org. Tom	$2.50
Orange Bell Pepper	$1.69
Cucumber	$0.89
		$1 off Org. Produce
		$4 off $20 in Produce
		$10 off $100
Total Spent	$82.58
Total Saved	$52.40
Coupon Savings	$21.90
Crestwood Meats
2 lbs. Local Bacon	$7.90
2 lbs. Local Sausage	$6.77
Total Spent	$14.67
Weekly Totals
Total Spent	$97.25
Total Saved	$52.40
Coupon Savings	$21.90
Budget		Under by $27.75
May Total	$358.21
Yearly Total	$1,141.02

Paying Off those Pesky Credit Cards

Not too long ago we had $16,000 in debt (probably a year and a half to two years ago) and one car payment.  I can't really remember how much we owed on the car - how easily we forget, huh!!!  Today we are down to under $5,000 in credit cards and no car payment (actually we owe $150, but I refuse to pay the prepayment penalty, so we are letting it sit) and the plan is to pay off the credit cards in September and only have student loan and mortgage debt.  Here is the plan and I hope by posting it on-line that I will be more likely to hold myself accountable and make the payments as I should instead of buying that really cute outfit or those amazing shoes that I desperately "need."  So I will also be updating this bi-monthly as the payments are made.

A few things first....

• I'm sure this isn't perfect, my numbers aren't exact and I'm sure some things will crop up in the process (Want to hear something ironic?  Before I even published this-I typed it on Monday and was saving it for today - my husband had an accident.   Thankfully, he is ok.  But we now need a new vehicle.  What is that saying, I think it goes something like "We make plans and God laughs."  So, we made some plans and they have been derailed a bit, but we are still going to pay those credit cards off.) 
• We aren't paying interest (I play the transfer game), so that helps.  But after this hopefully there will never be a transfer game to play again!
• Our regular payments are just that, what we had been paying.  But the first full week in June the kids are out of daycare and we have an extra $650 to put towards our credit card payments.  I kept $200 of that out because we always spend more during the summer on fun activities, so realistically we need more spending money.  The remainder of that has been divided up into twice a month payments labeled as "Extra Daycare." When the kids go back to school in the fall the payment changes, but we get to save almost $400 over what we are currently paying :)!!!!

Date	Payment	Balance	Payment Source
1-Jun		$ 4,600
	$673		Reg. Payment
	$85		extra daycare
		$3,842
15-Jun	$150		Reg. Payment
	$225		extra daycare
		$3,467
1-Jul	$673		Reg. Payment
	$225		extra daycare
		$2,569
15-Jul	$150		Reg. Payment
	$225		extra daycare
		$2,194
1-Aug	$673		Reg. Payment
	$215		extra daycare - kids start school
		$1,306
15-Aug	$150
	$160		extra daycare - extra week to pay
		$996
1-Sep	$673		Reg. Payment
	$215		Extra Daycare
		$108
15-Sep	Pay that baby off!!!!!!

Wordless Wednesdays

I Love Spring!!!