Tracking spending

Trying to keep track of my variable spending for at least a week, as well as chart which stores I hit most frequently. I plan to cut back my shopping days per week. It wastes time and gas, plus the less I am in the stores, the less money I'm going to spend.

Jan. 3

$32 -- Shell station (filled up gas tank @3.059 per gallon)

8.49 -- Banfield (dental chews for dog)

8.89 -- Target (2 boxes Capn Crunch @3.04 each; 1 Chlorox wipes @2.49)

6.02 -- Publix (shredded cheese, OJ, TGIF snack -- all on sale for half off)

2.35 -- Taco Bell (2 tacos for "dinner" on the way to work)

.99 -- Amazon (downloaded "Eat That Frog" to Kindle -- special one-day only pricing)

Total spent: $58.74

Well, it wouldn't look so bad if I hadn't had to fill up the gas tank...

Tomorrow will look much worse -- it's grocery day!

A race to the Finish!

Got a fantastic deal on Finish dishwashing tabs and gel pacs at Target over the weekend. There is a temporary price markdown to $2.50. Combine that great price with the $2.25/1 coupon from the 1/2 SmartSource, and you've got an awesome price for stockpiling! I was able to snag 7 of them for 25 cents per box, and that should last me for quite some time. I have since found 2 more of the coupons in my stash, so hopefully they will still have some on my next trip to Target. (And of course by 'coupon stash' I mean the pile of unorganized coupons sitting on top of my coupon binder. hee!)

Working the overage

My weekly grocery budget is $75 for the four of us and it runs Wednesday-Tuesday. I rarely find myself in a situation where I need something and the budget for the week has been all but depleted, but that happened this week. I had grabbed some great "reduced for quick sale" meat deals at Walmart on Friday that were too good to pass up. But that left me with very little to work with for the rest of the week.

So how did I work around it when we used up the last slice of bread on Monday? Overage! I got all of the items pictured today at Publix for a grand total after tax of just 57 CENTS! This was possible because of the Mentos sale and coupons. They are on sale for 50 cents a roll, and there was a coupon in the 2/6 SmartSource for 50 cents off any Mentos product. Publix doubled the coupon, resulting in $3 in overage for 6 rolls. I also used a 50-cent off coupon (from 2/13 newspaper inserts) for the Fiber One Yogurt, making it just 25 cents. The bread and produce were not on sale, but we needed them before Wednesday, so the overage took care of most of it. Budget saved!

Under budget!

I've been working with a $75 weekly grocery budget this month for our family of four, and although I went over last week, I was thrilled to see I came in UNDER budget this week! And I didn't sacrifice ANYTHING. Included in the total were two packs of boneless ribeye steaks, two packs of ground chuck, two packages of bacon, several boxes of cereal, orange juice, fresh tomatoes, cucumbers and iceberg lettuce, yogurt, apple sauce, sodas, chips and dips (for Super Bowl Sunday), cookies, peanut butter, two gallons of white milk, two half-gallons of chocolate milk, two loaves of bread, butter, crescent rolls, mustard, cat food and still lots more! Whew!

I'm fairly certain that I'll be able to scale back to a $60 a week budget next month once I'm fully stockpiled, but I probably won't try to go much lower than that. Considering we go through two gallons of milk and two loaves of bread per week, that's over $9 of the budget right there, even using store brands (which I do). I've been watching a show on CNBC on Saturday nights called "Til Debt Do Us Part," in which couples who are deeply in debt work with a financial/budgeting expert for one month to map out a plan to pay off the debt. I always shake my head when the expert tells them they are allowed $125 or $150 a week for groceries (even when it's just a couple with no children!) and they STRUGGLE with this! Oh, if they only knew what WE know!! *wink*

Publix Shopping Trip: $4.49!!

Had a great shopping trip at Publix today! I got all this for only $4.49 after coupons!

* 1 gallon Publix milk - 3.39

* 2 boxes Toaster Strudel - used 2 $1 off coupons, makes them 24 cents each

* 6 boxes Honey Maid crackers - used six $1 off coupons, makes them 1.06 each

* 1 Lubriderm lotion - used one $2 off man. coupon and one $1 Walgreens coupon, makes it 79 cents

* 2 cans Fancy Feast - 1.10 each (no Q's, but I was out!)

* 1 loaf Publix bread - 1.17

* 2 bags Chex Mix - used two 50-cent off coupons, which Publix doubled, makes them 24 cents each

I also had a $10 RR coupon, which brought the grand total down to $4.49 after tax.

PLUS, there is a mail-in rebate offer on the Honey Maid crackers (I bought 4 more boxes the other day at 1.06 each) for a $10 rebate when you buy 10 boxes. That brings the cost of each box of graham crackers down to SIX CENTS EACH!! Holy cow!!

The electric bill cometh

Oh my! I knew the electric bill would be bad this month after that Arctic blast came through a couple of weeks ago and the heater was running pretty much constantly (and we had it set no higher than 68 at any given time!). But I didn't expect it to be THIS bad! Last month it was $207 and this month it was... $322!! *gulp!* We have a two-story house (which I do NOT recommend, just for this reason!) so our electric bills are always higher than in our last house, but this is just ridiculous. We were even using the fireplace more, but clearly it didn't make a whole lot of difference. We're changing the filters again, but I'm not sure that would have helped much on this bill. Luckily the temps have been much more mild the last week or so and the heater is running much less now. Hope it stays that way! I'm WAY over my wish for snow now! Hee!

This on top of the return of the dreaded furlough days at work is NOT a good combination! But the good news is all of our tax info is now ready so we can file our taxes this weekend. Here's hoping for a nice refund!!

This was a tough one!

Now that there has been another round of layoffs at work, I'm looking around for even more ways to cut back so we can attack the debt even more aggressively. I had been putting this one off for awhile, but yesterday I cancelled our digital cable. Eeek! I know lots of people have gotten rid of cable entirely, but we're not ready to take that step quite yet. We have discussed it, and obviously if one of us were to lose our job that would certainly be one of the first things to go. But for now it's baby steps. It takes an additional $18+ off our bill each month. It all adds up, right?

I haven't been couponing as hard as I had been, with all the Thanksgiving rush (though I did score a 19.2-pound Butterball turkey for $12.01 with coupons at Publix), but this week I've been getting my act back together. I picked up a few freebies today -- the Yoplait Fiber One yogurt 4-packs were B1G1, making them 1.25 each, and I had two 1.25 off coupons, plus I had another Healthy Choice $2 off coupon and the HC complete meals were on sale at Bi-Lo this week for 1.98 each. I had to get a raincheck at Publix for the 1.79 chicken breasts since they were completely out, but that price is too good not to stock up! I'm eager to see what tomorrow's sale flyers offer up to match with coupons!