Everyday Savings: Have a Plan

The most important way we save money each week is through planning before hitting the grocery store. Without this I would simply wander through the store, pick a few things that look like we would use them for dinner, spend way more than I need to and then go back again several more times during the week because of all the things I forgot It'd be crazy! And expensive.

Instead I follow this careful planning process.

On Sunday afternoon I go through our local paper for coupons, cutting out the ones that I think I may possibly use. Even if it's something I might buy but don't normally buy, I keep it ... if I find the item on a really good sale I WILL buy it and make it work in a upcoming meal.

Next I look over the sales list on commissaries.com. Since we are military we shop at the commissary. Instead of having weekly ads, they run two-week sales and post all sales items, the price and percentage off on that Web site. Largely based on that list and any coupons I have that match up to make things even cheaper, I decide what we will eat the upcoming week. For example, this week Zatarains rice is on sale as is Hillshire smoked sausage. Since I had a coupon for both I found a recipe for jambalaya.

I don't plan lunches (Luke takes a sandwich to work and I eat some fruit, hummus and wheat thins and maybe cheese each day) or breakfast (I eat yogurt every day and Luke sometimes eats cereal which I stock up on when it's on sale) so I only have to worry about dinner.

If what Im cooking with isn't based on that list it is based off coupons or what is in my pantry or freezer. Another example: blocks of cheese were on sale a few weeks ago, plus I had some great coupons. I bought about 10 or 12 blocks and put them in the freezer so we are well set in that area. I also had a coupon for hormel pepperonis ... and thus we are eating homemade calzones! Delicious. Last week I had $32 in coupons. That's $32 more I would've spent whether that day or another day on this we need for our home and meals.

Now bring on the list. I could be far more organized about this step, putting things into narrow categories. Instead I break it down into "dry," "meat," "dairy," and "veggies." The problem with this method is that it lumps an incredibly large number of things in "dry" in no particular order so they are easy to overlook. But let's not dwell on that, OK?

My list consists of things we need for the week (including cleaning supplies and hygiene products) and things that are on a great sale but we will use in a future week. I've learned recently the dangers of stocking up TOO much, but there are some things I know we use regularly enough to buy multiples of when on discount. Examples: cereal, black beans and cheese.

In the store itself I start at the one end and go to the other, using a pen to cross things off my list (so I don't forget anything).

Towards the end, before I hit the checkout, I go through my coupons to make sure I have the ones I plan to use separated out and ready to give to the checker.

The art of the coupon is a story for another post, but let me just say here as far as in the store is concerned -- Know Thy Checker. I don't care if it's the next one available -- let someone else deal with the Crazy Mean Coupon Checkers. Pick one that looks nice, young and like they don't care and regardless always hand them the coupons first. This will save you the trouble of dealing with someone who insists on going back through your groceries to find the 6 yogurts required for the $1 off 6 coupon. It is absolutely beyond me why some of these checkers care SO MUCH about your coupons. The coupon means the manufacturer is giving money back to the store for giving me a discount ... meaning there's no skin off the store's nose for giving me money off. And I KNOW they saw a bunch of yogurts go by because they JUST SCANNED THEM ... what gives?!

But like I said -- a discussions for later. And believe me, I will discuss it. You can count on it.

Everyday Savings: The Electric Bill Challenge

I have a terrible habit: I hate turning off lights.

It isn't that I like having the lights on, either -- it's that I don't like going to the trouble of hitting the switch. I'm just that lazy.

Laziness, at least in this circumstance, costs money.

And so my personal challenge for the month of April is dropping our electric bill drastically. I chose to wait until this month so that I would have a full month of drying cloth diapers reflected before I worked to lower things. And wow did that make a difference ... our dryer/washer (apartment owned) is not energy efficient. It just SUCKS MONEY.

Unfortunately stupid power company did not get my comparison memo and they have decided to raise the rates this month. So to do this for you I'm going to have to do MATH. ... MATH! for you. That's how much I love you.

Since we can't avoid using our dryer every other day for diapers (since that in itself is cost cutting), I'm going to have to find other ways to do this. Examples:

-- Turning off our surge protectors (and everything plugged into them) at night. We don't need our modem and wireless on while we're sleeping, let's be honest.

-- Unplugging our cell phone chargers during the day ... no reason to suck power when they aren't charging anything

-- Turning off the computer when not in use

-- Turning off lights when we leave the house or a room. We live in a small apartment so I don't bother turning them off each time I go out of the room ... and when I'm about to go out the door with my hands full of David and three million other things and I notice that I left I light on ... it stays on. We are going to change that.

-- Running the dishwasher less. I frequently run it just to clean bottles and nothing else. There's no reason I can't take five minutes to wash them by hand.

-- Washing clothes less. I typically do loads of clothing laundry, wearing the same shirts and jeans over and over again just because those are the ones I like best. It's not like I don't have any others. I've decided to abide by a clothes/towels/sheets cleaning schedule with the hopes that it will cut down on the number of partial loads (and thus loads total) I do each week.

We'll let you know how it goes.

Everyday Savings: Just Say "No."

It's a new month! It's a new day! It's a new blog post series!

(Lucky you).

(And fine, it's a mostly new month ... I've been out of town. Give me a break).

This month I'm going to focus now and then on how I've been accomplishing every day savings in my home. Hopefully this will give you some good ideas ... or make you think "wow you're a moron I can't believe you didn't think of that before now." Let's just not share that little tidbit with me when it happens, mmmk?

I started thinking about this series in early March, gathering ideas for this. As I took stock of all the little things I've started doing and learning the number one thing that has helped me save money is this: saying "no" to stuff I don't need.

I know, that's mind blowing.

But stick with me here. Think about how many times you are walking through the grocery store and buy that bag of cookies because you are hungry and it looks delicious and hey, it's only $2 and on sale.

Just say "no," folks. Just. Say. No.

Think about how many times you wandered into that mall store *cough* ann taylor *cough* and fingered through the clearence items ... and ended up walking out with that $15 super cute sweater that was $75 to start with! and on sale.

I hate to break it to you -- but even if you get it on sale, but you actually don't need it -- it's just money spent and money wasted on something unnecessary and, frequently, unbudgeted.

I'm not saying there is no room in life for the simple pleasures of a gallon of delicious ice cream (which made its way home from the commissary in my bag). But it should be planned. It's the impulsiveness that gets you in trouble. Just say "no."

Coming soon: actual practical tips with evidence ... or something of that nature.

Magically Growing Groceries

Once again I managed to spend $10 more than what I had hoped at the commissary. HOW does this happen?

I'll tell you!

(Isn't it so handy that instead of making you answer my questions, I answer them for you?)

It's the little things that I realize we need or are low on as I walk out the door on my way to the store. For example, this week I realized that Dave, purveyor of 3.5 teeth (if you'll recall), is low on infant pain meds. And that's something we DEFINITELY do not want to run out of.

But that stuff is expensive! And so even though I used a $3 off 2 coupon, I still spent almost $6 that I hadn't taken into account.

(It occurs to me now, many hours later, that I probably should've waited and gone to Target for the store brand -- no doubt cheaper than the name brands even WITH my coupon. Fail.)

This week was also time to restock our laundry detergent supply. I was fortunately armed with several high value (considering laundry coupons are usually really LOW value) coupons for the task received in the mail over the last several weeks (remember how I said "always register for snail mail samples and coupons?" This is why) ... but that stuff adds up. Almost $13 ($8.75ish after coupons) was spent on detergent, stain removal booster and fabric softener.

This brings me to something that dawned (Dawn ... haha ... soap pun. sorry) on me on the way home: while stain removal will be needed once in a while, softener is really a complete luxery item and, sometimes, waste of money. It makes clothes wear out faster. In fact, the towels we just bought from costco (to replace the ones we've worn out since the wedding ... or rather I ruined somehow with renegade bleach use) specifically instruct you to AVOID softeners.

My mother, in fact, NEVER used softener. It was too expensive. I think that I'm going to cut back and put it only in select loads, like our bed sheets (because who doesn't love suuuuuper soft bed sheets? I mean really, some things are worth the splurge).

I do feel I should be congratulated, by the way, for resisting the $2 for one Super Delicious Looking chocolate dipped biscotti by the register. I would note that I had not been paying for my groceries with cash I probably would've caved.

IKEA Much?

I am a HUGE fan of IKEA. Back in the day most of my apartment was furnished courtesy of that glorious store. Futon, bed, mattress, tables, chairs, more tables, more chairs, silverware, plates, a plant, dressers ... yeah, everything.

Now I am grown up. And cheap. So I still like IKEA. You see very little has changed.

Today's trip was primarily for a bookshelf. Oh, and Chipotle. But that's just a fringe benefit.

I took this photo of all the loot I scored for just about $30. Note in particular the beautiful set of wooden blocks Dave will be getting for his birthday. This one was $12. I've seen comparable sets for $30 or more.

In fact, beyond my new mixing bowls and colander (our current one is literally rusting) all of this stuff is for Dave. We bought two shirt bibs, a bowl/cup/spoon/scoop bib set (primarily because I wanted the scoop bib which go for about $10 each at Target ... this set was $5), a huge collection of kiddo silverware and a stack of Dave plates. The blocks were our most expensive purchase with the shirt bibs in second.

All in all, a good experience. Now if Dave would only stop crying ...

Success! (and $20).

We'll call it making up for the pine nuts.

Today I got rid of our giant rocking chair. It was wonderful that Luke wanted it and all, but then he left and it didn't really get used. And it started taking up lots of space. At Christmas it was relocated to Dave's room to make way for our tree. It's been in there since, just sitting in the middle of everything collecting dust.

And today I convinced some Fort Lewis Army wife to give me $20 for it and TAKE IT AWAY.

I consider this a major win. I'm also in the process of getting rid of a few bottles I've never used and don't plan to use but somehow manage to own anyway. That will be another win.

Both of these things are making up for the fact that yesterday I bought pine nuts. Dear readers, if you see me post a recipe that contains an expensive ingredient that is not necessary and I don't comment about it, please, save me from myself and point it out! I am a cheap eater, not a foodie ... so how was I to know that pine nuts are like $4 for this little tiny bottle? And since I did not know anything about pine nuts I did not know that they can easily be substituted with something very cheap, like sunflower seeds. Man alive. I feel like a moron.

Between that and a few other unexpected purchases yesterday (like the bag of cookies that literally JUMPED into my basket from the shelf. What is the world coming to?!) I went $10 over what I had hoped to spend on groceries this week, considering that (minus the stupid nuts) I already have everything on hand for everything I'm making for dinner.

I did manage to resist the on sale Ben and Jerrys. I should be congratulated.

In other news, I think it's going to rain just in time for my run with Alisha. Fantastic. HOW will I fetch my cupcake from her if I do not go over there to run!?!?

Sundry Stuff

A spattering of sundry information for your ... well, unclear what it's for. But here it is:

-- Got on the bike for the first time. Yes, I've owned it two weeks. But alas it was raining and then I had The Disease ... so I couldn't ride it. But today I did! It was beautiful outside, so I took the bike onto post and rode the triathlon course. 14 miles. And I didn't die. But it did take me just under an hour. So I need to cut down on that.

-- My back is now hurting from the bike riding. Yowee. I also learned that biking and the running is hard. So that's another thing to work on.

-- After many moons of resisting I've decided to give cloth diapers a try. I just can't get past the idea that at our current rate I will spend at LEAST $700 on diapers this year, and that's only if he remains the same size ... which he won't ... so it will be way more because the bigger they are, the more they cost. So despite our retarded washer/dryer and despite the fact that the concept kind of grosses me out, I'm going to try it. So at least I can say "I tried."

-- Closing ceremonies? Stupid. I want to watch more ski jumping!! A conversation that Luke and I just had about the closing ceremonies:

Us: watching opera singing guy

Luke: Is that the Prime Minister?

Me: Singing?

Luke: Yes.

Me: Why did you think that was him singing?

Luke: I didn't.

Me: I'm confused

Now there is a lady in a pant suit. Whoa crazy times here.

-- Tomorrow we are going to the commissary. We need like 10 things. It's going to be a good week for the Grocery Envelope. No wait, I lied. There are 15 things on my list. Whatever. I'm cleaning out the freezer and pantry this week (thus the stir fry and rice a roni), so here are the things I am making for dinner:

- Spaghetti Squash Spaghetti (and rice a roni)

- Birds Eye Stir Fry

- Butternut Squash Flatbread (new recipe from Real Simple)

- More Birds Eye Stir Fry

- Tilapia

- BBQ chicken (more rice a roni)

-- Speaking of envelopes, this is the first month on full time budgetness. I already mentioned above that I'd love love to eliminate that diaper line item. Stupid expensive diapers. Seriously! It's like highway robbery. Or ... armed robbery. Or something bad like that. You HAVE to have a diaper on your kid (because the alternative is not acceptable) and they are at LEAST .20 cents each ... and thats the really cheap ones! It's making me mad just typing about it. Meh.

-- A new delicious vegetarian recipe I used last week that was SO GOOD: find it here ... seriously, SO GOOD. (and cheap!)