End of Year Goals 2008

Weellll... some good and some not so good.

1. Pay extra on van in December. done
2. Make savings account deposit. not done, in fact, had to dip into it
3. Have 90% of Christmas shopping and all Christmas cards done by end of November. done
4. Finish DS's quilt! done!
5. Pay off medical bills. not done
6. Finish current cross-stitch project (nativity scene). done
7. No use of credit cards except for online purchases for Christmas; immediately transfer money from Christmas Club fund to pay for these purchases. yes and no - only used once but didn't get money transferred
8. Get total debt owed below $11k by the end of 2008. no, close, but no
9. Have yearly goals for 2009 made and plan in place to accomplish. goals made, working on plan
10. Continue to rely on God's provision. continuing goal

Cookie Exchange

Tomorrow I am having my annual cookie exchange with my friend from northwest Ohio. We decided several years ago that instead of exchanging gifts, we would do a cookie exchange. Later today I will be doing my 2 cookie recipes and we'll meet up at a restaurant halfway between our homes for lunch tomorrow. It's nice to see her for a bit and eat somewhere we normally wouldn't if we were each alone, and it's nice to remember each other in a frugal yet a splurge kind of way, one which we both appreciate. It's also more relaxing to do it between Christmas and New Year's. After peppernuts and cutout cookies and now these, I think it will be a while before I bake cookies again! My kids may argue that, however..... ;-)

Happy Birthday Jesus!

Happy Birthday Jesus! Thank You for coming to Earth to be the ultimate Sacrifice. May we continue to worship You and praise You and obey Your Word this coming year and beyond.

Merry Christmas everyone!

A $4 Piece of Chicken?

It's Christmas Eve, and we have a tradition of getting KFC for dinner when my side of the family gets together to exchange gifts. Some people do Chinese; we do KFC. :-) I was looking at a KFC coupon booklet that came to the house to see which meal deal we want to get and noticed something interesting. A 9-piece meal with 2 sides and 4 biscuits is $11.99. A 10-piece meal with 2 sides and 4 biscuits is $15.99. Huh??? That means that last piece of chicken in the 10-piece is essentially $4! I don't think so. We will get the 9-piece meal and get an extra piece of chicken ala carte, thank you. As I've said before, it pays to pay attention!

If you would, please keep us in your prayers. This is our first Christmas without Mom, and at least on my part, there are bound to be a few tears, especially at the Christmas Eve service at church. Thanks.

Crock Pots and Freezer Meals

With the way work has been going lately, dinnertime is generally the time of day when there is a lot of work available, and so we have either been eating very late or not very healthy. So lately I've found myself checking out books from the library on crock pot cooking and freezer meals. I've used my crock pot here and there over the years but not on a regular basis. In fact, the only thing I routinely use the crock pot for has been BBQ ribs, but I'm trying to change that. I have on the menu plan for this week chicken cacciatore. I usually make this on the stovetop, but it gets so darn messy! So I'm going to try mixing the sauce ingredients and using the crock instead. We'll see how that turns out. I've also been drawn to freezer meals. I love the concept and have several meals that I always double and have one in the freezer, but I would like to do more. Again, I've gotten several books out and have found a number of recipes; I just need to find a way to work it into our lifestyle/routine. I'd love to hear how other women have started into freezer meals and how they adapt it without giving up a weekend (besides cooking double entrees and freezing those). Actually I 'd also love to start a meal swap at church, where we use the church kitchen and have each person responsible for one or two meals. We all cook together and then all go home with different meals - ie, 6 people pick 1 or 2 different recipes, are responsible for making 6 servings and we all go home with 6 or 12 dinners. THAT would be fun! Hmm...another idea for the pastor!

2009 Goals

I think I have my goals for 2009 complete. Here we go!

1. Pay off van.
2. Emergency fund to $1000 (ending balance on 12/31/09).
3. Pay off Mastercard.
4. Pay off Visa.
5. Complete 1 unfinished project each month.
6. Complete Revelations Bible study.
7. Visit Washington, DC.
8. Complete 6 cross-stitch projects.

God Things:
1. No use of credit cards in 2009.
2. Pay car/house insurance and camp fees without dipping into EF.
3. Pay off house.
4. Pay cash for new hot water tank.
5. Pay cash for new refrigerator.

A Good Handyman - Frugal?

Weatherstripping for the front door: $7
A faucet for the bathtub: $15
Labor charge: $40/hour
A trustworthy, honest handyman: Priceless!

My front door leaked air. Badly. As in, you could sit in the living room with everything locked up and literally feel the cold breeze on a windy day. Now I feel fortunate that my gas budget for heating is only $69 a month, but like most people, I'm trying to conserve energy and costs any way I can. I've tried for several years to seal that door properly to keep the cold air out and the heat in (and vice versa in summer) with very little success. When the door was shut, you could see daylight between the door and the doorframe, and I could also see dollar signs going out that crack! Foam weatherstripping wasn't working, and finally a few days ago I resorted to shoving flannel material in between the door and frame. The change was amazing! Not only was the living room warm, but the entire house felt warmer, and I didn't notice the furnace kicking on as often. I could actually sit in the living room to cross-stitch and not have ice-cold hands. This motivated me to call a new handyman, one I knew from our previous church. (I had used someone different before, but that guy was hard to get a hold of and even harder to get here. He did fine once he was here, but it was frustrating making that initial contact.) So I called Bob and left a message on his phone the day before yesterday. He came out yesterday, looked at it, knew what needed to be done and was here at 8:30 this morning ready to go. An hour later, my door is fixed properly - weatherstripping, the lock plate moved to proper position and the door frame fixed back in proper place - and no more flannel stuck in between wood pieces! He specializes in the small things that most handymen/contractors won't do, which is wonderful for people like me, who have very little handyman-like talent! I know him personally, and he is trustworthy, honest in his estimates and very, very capable in his work. I have a list of things that need repaired, and I will call him as I have the funds available. He also looked at a drip in my bathtub, but we've decided that as the whole faucet is basically shot and has been, um, not very professionally repaired in the past, that it would be best to replace that when I replace the tub surround in a couple of years.

Why did I pick these 2 projects to start with? Because they are costing me money. The front door not being sealed properly was a constant heat and money leak, and everytime we take a shower and water comes out the faucet instead of the showerhead, that is money down the drain. I am confident that I will recoup the $40 that I spent this morning in energy costs before the end of this heating season, making this an extremely frugal expenditure.

A good handyman? Definitely a frugal find!

Grocery Challenge

We always get an email with our paystubs about 2 working days prior to the paycheck actually being direct deposited. In going over the paystub and working on bills last night, I figure I have approximately $60 for food until the end of the month. The part of the month that includes Christmas. And my brother coming in for a few days. And kids being home and grazing all day long for a week. *sigh* This will be a challenge. I can count on probably $20 of that going towards milk and another $5 in cat food. I already have next week's meal plan pretty well finished and can probably get through the week on about $10, as long as I don't take the kids with me to the store and develop selective hearing when they gripe and complain that there is "nothing to eat." ;-) So my challenge to myself: Take the $60 out in cash when the deposit is made and do cash-only grocery shopping until December 31, 2008. Buy only the necessities and do some baking with what I have at home. And hide the chocolate chips so we have them available for pancakes before DD eats them all!

Reward Programs

I have been participating in several reward programs over the last year and thought I'd give a little overview and my experiences with them.

First, MYPOINTS. (www.mypoints.com) This is a program where you earn points for clicking through emails and answering surveys. You can earn more points by shopping through their site. I started back in February and have earned over 5000 points just by clicking through emails and answering surveys. I have used a "junk" email for signing up for newsletters, which also earns points. The rewards are gift cards to stores and restaurants, starting at around 1350 for $10 cards, up to 7000 or more for $50+ cards. This includes places like CVS, Applebees, Starbucks, Wal-Mart, Old Navy, etc. In November, I cashed in some points and got a $25 gift code for Amazon, which I used on DS's big Christmas gift. While the disclaimer says it can take up to 4 weeks to get your gift cards/codes, I got mine in less than 2 weeks. I am now back up to around 2000 points but haven't decided whether to keep accumulating or cash in for a $10 card for me to splurge on something. As far as I know, points don't expire, but I would have to check that out to be sure.

Second, SWAGBUCKS. (www.swagbucks.com) This is a search engine where you can win "swagbucks" that can be redeemed for gift cards, baseball cards, shirts, music, etc. I just started this less than a week ago and have 64 swagbucks already, enough for small gift cards ($5) or a bunch of baseball cards! You can download a tool bar, but I just search from the website. You don't earn swagbucks for every search, but the second day I was using it, I got 50 swagbucks and have been averaging 2-3 swagbucks per day. The search engine is powered by Ask.com and Google, and while it is okay, I much prefer Google for detailed searches. I haven't redeemed anything yet, so cannot comment on those.

Third, MYSURVEY. (www.mysurvey.com) This is a survey site where you answer surveys, earn points and then redeem them for cash, prizes or you can give your cash reward to charity. You need to earn a minimum of 1000 to redeem points, which would be $10 cash, donation to charity or prizes. I have been doing this for several months and have 595 points so far.

Finally, EBATES. (www.ebates.com) To be honest, I just signed up for this a few weeks ago. This is program where you click to merchants through their site and get rebated back a percentage of what you spend. I have heard good things about it, but haven't bought anything online since signing up.

There are several other programs I have heard about, but these are what I am currently participating in. What reward programs do you benefit from?

Frugal Out of Town Weekend?

We're leaving this afternoon to go visit friends in Cincinnati. Their daughter is in a Breakfast in Bethlehem type program in the morning and wanted us to come to it. We always have fun with them, and we tend to do things none of us would usually do. You know, the "touristy" things in your town that the locals never really go to? Sometimes these trips can be frugal (food in the car on the way down and back and gas), sometimes not (my friend is a power shopper :-) ), but this one needs to be. We have plans to go to a paint-it-yourself pottery shop tonight; shop fees are 1/2 off, and I am going to make next year's ornaments for the kids - planning ahead ;-) - and will hopefully come in at less than $20, which is my normal ornament budget. Tomorrow we will do the breakfast (free with a canned good donation), but I'm not sure what we will do after that. One option is the zoo, but we don't have a zoo pass (the friends do), or we could go to the Creation Museum across the river in Kentucky and go to their free outdoor nativity/town of Bethlehem activity. The museum itself is quite expensive ($20 a person), so we would just do the free outside activities. I prefer the museum, but we'll see. Anyhow, it will be fun. We'll exchange gifts, stay up talking and my friend and I will go for hot fudge cake after pottery. The kids will walk their dog, play on the Playstation and stay up talking. We'll come home tired, but wondering when we will go back. Hopefully we'll also come home with money left in my wallet!

Frugal Music

Have you noticed how expensive it can be to buy CDs in a store? I took DD Christmas shopping this weekend, and she wanted to buy her brother a CD. This particular CD ranged from $11.97 to $14.99 at 3 different stores and was only a few cents cheaper when we came home and checked Amazon. Then I got an idea. We checked the Wal-Mart music download page, and that same CD was only $8.92 for the download! Since we knew her brother wanted the CD to download to his MP3 player, this was perfect! She decided to get him a $10 gift card to Wal-Mart and will put a note in there that this is to purchase the CD as a download, plus there will be a little left over for another single song. Both will be happy - DS with his gift from his sister, and DD for being able to save money while getting her brother something he wanted. Merry Christmas!

Groceries Again

I went to Kroger last night to get some things that were on sale and that I had matched with a coupon. While I saved 64% off my total, I was a little disappointed that my store didn't have some of the good deals that others had reported. For example, the Celestial Seasonings tea was 2/$3, not $1 a box, so it wouldn't have been free with my doubled 55-cent coupons, and I didn't get it. I also made the mistake of taking DD with me. I had hoped to get out for under $10, but she requested block cheese for snacking, and I got some snacks for lunches. I also picked up powered sugar for cookie icing, and those "unlisted" items came to $9, exactly how much I went over my $10 limit. I did stick to my guns and didn't give into several other things that she wanted, so it was a partial victory. :-) On the very bright side, I filled up my gas tank (15+ gallons) for under $20! I'm still not sure how I spent over $350 at Krogers last month, but I got the 20-cent/gallon discount, and that was nice.

Spending Plan - I Found a Spreadsheet

I think I have found a budget spreadsheet that I am going to try. Actually I have already started inputting my budget into it. It seems to be very simple and straightforward, which is what I need. It's a little scary to think about watching this over the next few months, but it needs to be done. I will have a bit of breathing room once the van is paid off, but until then, it is going to be tight. I am serious about following Dave Ramsey's baby steps, though, and following a spending plan (budget) is part of that. Dave also has a sample spending plan in Total Money Makeover, but that is an exhaustive one and feels a little overwhelming to me, so I will start with this one, and hopefully as I become successful with a basic budget, I will get more comfortable with a more detailed one. Wish me luck!

http://www.mrsmicah.com/2008/12/03/3-new-years-worksheets/

Saving on Groceries

Groceries tend to be the biggest leak in my budget, and I am always looking for ways to save money. Here are some of my favorites:

1. Shop alone. With 2 teenagers, even taking one of them to the store adds a minimum of $10 to the bill. When they were younger, it was easy to satisfy them with one inexpensive "treat" item, but now it's not just treats they want but specific meals that are not in my 2-week plan!
2. Shop early in the morning. I find that if I go to Krogers right after dropping the kids off at school, that is when I find a good selection of clearance meat, dairy and bread. I haven't tried shopping later in the evening (after 8 pm) but I may soon try that to see if there is a better selection at that time of day.
3. Shop Aldi's (or a food clearance warehouse) first, then hit the bigger stores for sales. I keep one master list and note on it the current sale prices at Kroger's and Meijer's. I start at Aldi's especially for the basics (flour, sugar, frozen chicken breasts, canned vegetables, etc.) and if they have something for less than the sale at the other stores, I get it there too. Then it's on to Meijer for sale items and the few "usual" things that are cheaper there than Krogers. Last stop is Krogers for milk, the "usuals" there and sales. I rarely shop at Wal-Mart for food anymore because I can do better with Aldi and sales elsewhere, although again, I have a few "usual" items that either I can't find elsewhere or are at a better price at Wal-Mart.
4. Stock up. As stated above, I rarely shop Wal-Mart anymore. It is just too tempting to walk in for one or two items in grocery and find 5 or 6 other things I didn't know I needed until I saw them. So when I go to Wal-Mart or Meijer's, I try to stock up at least a month's worth of the nonperishables that are cheaper there. That limits my running to the store (saving gas) and the temptation of seeing something else I "forgot" I needed.
5. Shop for health and beauty and cleaning items by sale/coupon match, playing the drugstore game. I now have enough shampoo and conditioner to last me many months, all for free or nearly free just by watching for sales and matching it with coupons and am always keeping an eye open for deals that are too good to pass up.
6. Pay attention to prices. As I recently wrote, I was inadvertantly overcharged because some coupons didn't take in the computer and didn't come off my final bill. By knowing what my total should have been and what coupons I knew I used, I was able to get that money refunded to the tune of $11.97. This is much easier to do when following #1 above!
7. Plan your menu to the sales and match sales with coupons. Sunday afternoons is my meal planning time. I cut out coupons and get them filed in my box, and then I go through the ads for Kroger, Meijer, Walgreens and CVS. I make a master list of what is on sale that I need and then cross-reference that with the coupons I have. THEN I go through my recipes and plan my meals for the next week or two, depending on our schedule and where we are in relation to the pay period, according to what is on sale and what I need to buy for a given recipe. I also review the drugstore ads, looking for deals on health and beauty products, cleaning products, etc., seeing what I can match with coupons to get the best deal, hopefully for free or close to it! Rarely to I purchase anything that is not either matched with a coupon or is not generic brand.

What else do you do to save money at the store? With teenage twins, I can use all the help I can get!

Why?

Why does it seem like we go through more milk when I buy it in half-gallons versus full gallons? It may be in my mind, but I don't think so. We go through easily 3 gallons of milk a week during the school year, 4 gallons when the kids are on school break. My 13-year-old twins don't drink pop or juice, just milk and water, so I can't really complain. But I find it strange that I have to run to Krogers sooner when we are using half gallons. (I buy half gallons when it is on sale and cheaper than a full gallon. But you have to watch - the half-gallon sale price doesn't always mean it is cheaper to by 2 half-gallons than 1 full gallon!) For instance, this week, it took us 2-1/2 days to go through the last full gallon, but in the last 2 days, we have already gone through two half-gallons and are into a third one? Why is that? I used to tease DS that we needed to buy him a cow for milk when he was younger....I'm starting to think that we need to do that now! Hmm...that would also eliminate mowing in the back yard, plus a steady supply of fertilizer for the bushes and flowers....hmmm...I wonder what the zoning is here???..... ;-)

It Pays to Pay Attention

I went to Krogers this morning after dropping off the kids at school. That seems to be the best time to pick up meat and dairy clearance deals. It also helps in controlling costs to shop without teenagers around! Anyhoo, I had been adding prices up in my head as I went along and knew what I needed to put on my gift card so as not to run it to zero. (My kids get a portion of whatever I spend on the gift card rebated back to them through their youth group. It goes towards paying for camp each year, which really makes a difference, so I reload the card everytime I shop.) I went through the self-checkout and handed the coupons to the checkout lady, including 7 or 8 coupons for free items. After she took those off, the total still seems nearly $20 higher than I thought it should be. Turns out, she had to manually enter one of the meats from a BOGO deal (bar code sticker was wrinkled) and had not adjusted it off for the free part. Still, the total was not right. She was very nice about it and let me look through the computer printout before paying, but I couldn't find the problem and figured I must have forgotten to add something in.

After loading things into the car, I started checking the receipt. Turns out, three free coupons had not come off my total! That made a $12 difference and certainly worth going back in for, especially since they were items I would not have bought if I was paying full price for. It was strange, because the checkout lady had specifically asked me if they were all the same price (they were) because she had to manually enter the coupon price. Neither one of us understood why the coupons weren't taken off, and I know she did them and didn't just skip over them. She was very apologetic and took the coupons back up to the Customer Service desk, where they gave me the coupon amount back without hesitation.

If I hadn't paid attention to prices on the way through the store, I may not have caught the fact that I was inadvertantly overcharged. If I hadn't paid attention while the clerk rang through the coupons, I might have thought she just skipped those coupons, but now the store can check to see if there is a problem with the computer program, hopefully preventing it from happening again. And if I hadn't paid attention to the register slip when I got in the car, I would have gotten home and either forgotten about checking it at all or having to come back to the store and hope that the clerk was still on duty and remembered me. It pays to pay attention!

Wanted: An Accountability Partner

It's no secret that I'm having some financial issues. Driving home from dropping of the kids at school this morning, I was thinking that I really need to make a spending plan, aka budget, and stick to it, but I have such a hard time doing that. Then it struck me: As a single parent, I really have no one else to whom to answer about my spending. I need someone to hold me accountable, someone to whom I have to explain why I felt the need to go through McDonald's or buy this or that. It's not that my spending is over the top outrageous, but I do need to rein it in some, especially when work is sporadic, and I need to get into a spending plan with discipline. Now, how do I go about finding someone? My 2 DBs are having as many problems as I am, if not more, but would probably have no desire to be an accountability partner and actually probably wouldn't be very good ones. My one DF up north would probably be too inhibited to ask the tough questions, and my BFF down south doesn't believe in spending plans. Perhaps I will broach the subject at my small groups. If no one there is willing and able, maybe they can give me some ideas on who to ask. I also have a desire to start a Dave Ramsey Total Money Makeover study group at church. That will require some prayer before approaching the pastor, but that would also make a good accountability group. My instinct is to wait for the spending plan until after the tax return in January/February and the car is paid off along with a chunk of the credit card debit. It's 2 months away, but when I think in terms of paychecks - 3 - it's not. Decisions...decisions....Definitely a prayer request!

I Heart Aldi's

On the way to church tonight, I need to stop at Aldi's. DS has requested the tacos that I made last week, and I used the Aldi brand taco mix. It's funny, because there are now as many Aldi-brand items that we prefer as Kroger-brand. Taco mix, brownie/cake mix, snacks, canned fruits and vegetables, rice....they are all just as good, if not better, than name brand or Kroger brand. I'm also partial to their quick-frozen chicken breasts, 4 pounds for $6.49. My only complaint is that I wish they were on this side of town, although that might make it too easy to run in there more frequently! Oh well, we're out that way twice a week anyhow. I've heard their trash bags are pretty decent. I may pick up a box of those as well, and powdered sugar if they have it and..... ;-)

Reducing Christmas Stress

The last few years, Christmas has been very stressful. For over 10 years, I had been taking on the majority of my mother's Christmas preparations - first, helping to wrap gifts she bought to helping address Christmas cards to finally all that plus buying gifts from her to everyone else. Then last Christmas she was declining and passed away less than a month later (my birthday, to be exact, but that's another post). It got to the point where opening gifts on Christmas morning was just another thing to tick off the "to-do" list. So this year, it seems like I should have a lot more to do than I actually do. Instead, I'm ahead of schedule. I have 85% of my shopping done. The starter for the Christmas cutout cookies is done. Christmas cards are signed, sealed and waiting for stamps. The peppernuts will be baked tonight, and split into 3 containers in the freezer - one for a gift, one for a party and the rest for us. And it's only December 1. I'm looking forward to spending this month without worrying about getting everything done in time. I'm looking forward to not having to worry about Christmas bills in January thanks to my Christmas Club account. I'm looking forward to just reflecting on Christmas and Christ's birth.

Teacher Gifts

My kids are passed the age of giving gifts to teachers, but I wanted to pass along an idea that we used every Christmas with tremendous success. In fact, many teachers have told us that it was the best gift they ever received, and one even cried!

Most teachers usually end up with a lot of mugs and soaps and lotions and things like that. Nice things and thoughtful things, but they have so much of it! So this is what we did. The first part of December, I would take my kids to the local teacher supply store and ask them, what is your teacher running out of? We would grab sticky-tack (gum-like substance used instead of tape to put things on the walls), stickers for reward charts, dry erase board cleaner and note pads and anything else that the child had noticed the teacher needed or used on a regular basis. Most of these things are paid for by the teachers, not the school, and as my kids moved from one grade to another in elementary school, each teacher loved their little gift bag. It was definitely something that would be used, would save her (or him) a little money and time and showed that we appreciated them. We rarely spent over $10 a teacher, but you'd have thought we spent $50 by their reactions.

At the end of the year, we gave each teacher a small gift certificate to the teacher store, but it sure was fun each December to go and pick out things. So this Christmas, think of your teacher's needs and see if you can find something to help her out in the classroom, where she is impacting your child and making a difference!