Living the Frugal Life

I Made My Own Baby Wipes

2009-09-08T13:39:00.000-06:00

Last night was my first attempt at making my own baby wipes. We were waiting until the wipes we had previously bought ran out. We went out and bought Viva paper towels because they are so soft (they really do feel like cloth!). I took my recipe from my Dining on a Dime Cookbook.

Roll of paper towels cut in half
2 T. baby shampoo or wash
1 T. baby oil
1 1/2 cups of boiling water

I saved an old ice cream container (a big plastic one) to use as my baby wipe holder and put all the ingredients in there. I actually boiled closer to 3 cups of water and I ended up using all of it because you are supposed to soak the paper towels through. I think that may have been too much though because today the paper towels were almost soggy and they tore easily.

The recipe said to pull out the cardboard paper towel holder in the middle, cut an 'x' in the middle of your lid and then just pull them out of the middle. I did this, but like I said, the paper towels were tearing before I could even get them out. I ended up taking our old baby wipe container (rectangular-shaped), tearing all the papertowels off the roll, and storing them in there. It only took me a few minutes and it filled the entire box. Next time, I will tearing them up and putting them in the box first and using less water.

We Switched to Progressive Car Insurance

2009-09-08T13:33:00.000-06:00

In one of our attempts at saving money, we decided to go out and get some quotes for car insurance. We checked out Progressive and it is significantly less than our current car insurance, which is ANPAC. We ended up switching for a savings of $400 per year.

This was kind of a hard decision because ANPAC currently refunds a percentage of our premium for every year we do not have any accidents. But that's if we don't have any accidents and we don't get it until the following year. This year the refund is about $500. We still get it even though we canceled our insurance with them (they had already mailed the check). But I figure that this is similar to lending them $100 interest-free. I would rather have the $400 savings now and put it on our credit cards. Whether this was the right decision, only time will tell.

August 2009 - Success!!

2009-09-02T12:05:00.000-06:00

So it looks like we are back on track with decreasing our credit card debt! Down almost $900 from the month before. I wish we hadn't lost our momentum of decreasing the total debt, but it's a good thing since it forced me to sit down and actually write out a budget for the month. I am doing the same thing for September, but since my husband is having a job change, I'm not real sure of the expected income. I was able to at least get the bare minimum down for expenses and we'll just go from there. Once I get an estimated amount, I will lock in the numbers for September.

Some things I did notice in my attempts at following a budget was that I need to give us a little room in the entertainment department, I need to work on anticipating things in the upcoming month, and I really need to work on sticking to what I've come up with. Last month, we did not budget any money for eating out or for entertainment. So what did we do? We spent $167.21 in dining out/entertainment. We did the same thing the month before. So this month, I am allotting money for dining out and some events happening this month that I'm sure I will want to go to. Instead of telling myself I can't go and then going over budget, I am going to set aside a small amount of money and try staying within my limits.

On a positive note, we were under in our gasoline budget ($150 for both cars) and just $9.50 over in our grocery budget ($250 for the month). Another thing we did this month was switch completely over to cash. So while we did go over budget in some areas, it was all with our own cash so nothing went on the credit cards. We also managed to pay off three of our credit cards!! Yes, they were for small amounts, but I'll take it! Now we only have two left. Technically, it's three, but the third one is used for business expenses and will be paid off once we receive the expense check. Luckily, the majority of our credit card debt is on one card that has a 3.68% APR for the life of the balance. So we are paying about $4.00 in interest per month on that card. Once we get the other one paid off, we will start really knocking the money down!!

Once we are done with the credit card debt, we will start working on the student loans ($29K). We are also building up our emergency fund savings account and we are hoping to buy a new used car and pay cash for it! And we are doing all of this on one income so that I can stay home with the kids! I am so proud of us!!

Penny Pinchin' Mama by Jill Cooper

2009-08-30T16:19:00.000-06:00

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4328735.Penny_Pinchin_Mama_500_ways_I_lived_on_500_a_month">Penny Pinchin' Mama 500 ways I lived on $500 a month by http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/113181.Jill_Cooper">Jill Cooper

My rating: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/69477262">4 of 5 starsGreat money-saving ideas that people probably hadn't thought of before. Good to have in case we are ever in a financial bind. :)
http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/2520645-monica">View all my reviews >>

Digging Out of Debt

2009-08-19T16:55:00.001-06:00

Dig Out of Debt Over 1000 of the Best Ideas From LivingOnADime.com by Jill Cooper

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This book had some good money-saving ideas in it. Some of the situations did not apply to me personally, but overall it was a good read for some ideas on saving even more money.

View all my reviews >>

Dining on a Dime Cookbook

2009-08-19T16:49:00.000-06:00

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/194143.Dining_on_a_Dime_1000_Money_Saving_Recipes_and_Tips">Dining on a Dime: 1000 Money Saving Recipes and Tips by http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/113182.Tawra_Jean_Kellam">Tawra Jean Kellam

My rating: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/68092409">5 of 5 starsI love all the money saving tips and simple recipes in this book. Most of the recipes have minimal ingredients that I already having in my pantry. I'm already using some of them... especially the many different ways to use those 10 lbs bags of potatoes I buy!
http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/2520645-monica">View all my reviews >>

July 2009 Bust - New Plan for August

2009-08-19T16:27:00.004-06:00

So as you can see from our total credit card debt this month, we went up instead of down. Our total debt (including student loans, which is not included in the total on the sidebar) went up approximately $200 in July. Honestly, I'm not sure what happened. I'm having some trouble with my calculations. I think I'm adding some numbers twice since I am adding what was spent on credit cards along with payments made on credit cards. So putting some things on the credit cards and trying to track them along with trying to pay down the debt is getting too complicated.

So beginning in the month of August we are going totally to cash. We were putting gas, our Netflix subscription, and my son's swim class onto a credit cards, but we are making the switch to cash this month. This means that we'll be making double the payment this month (paying off last month's transactions while paying for this month as well). With this switch, I've had to get serious about a budget.

Previously, I was winging it with the budget with some general ideas in my head about what we would be spending money on. However, with the switch to cash, I've had to account for every penny in the month of August. I made up a proposed budget and now we are just in the process of just trying to stick to it. We tried to do another money-spending freeze this past week with groceries and such, but ended up using the grocery money for some unplanned things. The money-spending freeze was a flop. Now, I'm just trying to stay on budget for the rest of the month to see if that helps the total debt go down.

We are feeling a little cautious this month as well since there is a chance my husband may lose his job in the next 30 days. I'm thankful that we are already living frugally so I'm not overly concerned about what we would do if he lost his job, but it does put a dent in the goal of getting our credit card debt paid off. I have faith that everything will work out though.

Inviting Another Author

2009-08-19T16:18:00.003-06:00

I've decided to invite my cousin, Meagan to contribute to the cause on this website. She manages to live on her own as a single mother on a small income. Hopefully she will be able to post some good ideas on saving money. Yay Meagan!

Miserly Moms

2009-08-03T12:17:00.001-06:00

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6444450-miserly-moms-living-well-on-less-in-a-tough-ecomony">Miserly Moms: Living Well on Less in a Tough Ecomony by http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/361912.Jonni_McCoy">Jonni McCoy

My rating: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/64539683">5 of 5 starsGreat tips on saving money and homemade recipes (not just food).
http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/2520645-monica">View all my reviews >>

So Far, So Good...

2009-07-07T14:54:00.002-06:00

Well, this is a little late, but we completed our stats for our credit cards and net worth... We managed to decrease our total debt by $2,000 last month! It was hard work, but it definitely paid off. It was also really encouraging to keep going this month!

We celebrated by having dinner out on July 4th. With a $40 cash budget, of course. We managed to feed all four of us (pizza and drinks) and get ice creams for all with that $40. We spent a nice, free day in the Rocky Mountain National Park (annual membership previously purchased).

We are hoping to make another good dent in the debt this month!

My New Grocery Store... For Now, Anyway

2009-06-24T11:22:00.003-06:00

I went to Super Walmart to check out their prices to see if they are any lower than Super Target, where I currently shop. I normally don't frequent Walmart because the ones I've been in haven't been altogether clean (that's putting it nicely), and it's been worth it to spend a couple more cents and shop in a clean store. But a new Super Walmart opened up just down the street and it's in pretty good shape, so I thought I'd give it a try.

I spent a total of $104.99 and bought 40 items. My favorites were $1.58 for a gallon of milk (purchased previously), $0.85 for a loaf of wheat bread, $0.87 for a bag of frozen veggies, and $0.88 for a dozen eggs. I also saw 4 sticks of butter for $0.75 (didn't buy cause I didn't need it), bananas for $0.44/lbs and Roma tomatoes for $1/lbs. I purchased 2 for $0.92. I also bought garlic for $0.37 and 2 jalepenos for $0.10.

My big money items were 5 lbs of medium cheddar cheese for $15.98 ($3.20/lbs - I divided this cheese into blocks and put 4 of them in the freezer and 1 in the fridge), 5 lbs of boneless, skinless chicken breast for $11.98 ($2.39/lbs - also divided into 5-1lbs portions and put in the freezer), 12 rolls of toilet paper for $5.48, and 6 paper towel rolls for $5.97. I also purchased 3 small steaks for $4.47 and two huge pork steaks for $2.83 (we'll use those for tacos). I'm not sure that the huge block of cheese was a money-saver. I will have to look into that more. I'm sure I've seen cheese at Sunflower Market for $1.99/lb. But we are stocked for now.

Most of the items I bought were under a dollar because I bought Walmart's brand. I was pretty happy with the result. Plus I started teaching my son to look for the best value on the food. My daughter on the other hand, spent most of the excursion either screaming from the cart or trying to run away when I let her down. I figure this is a good way to help her learn how to behave in a store, but if I don't see any progress after a couple of months, I will be doing my shopping when my husband can stay at home with the kids.

Results of Week One - Money Spending Freeze

2009-06-24T11:11:00.004-06:00

We did really good, but I am beating myself up for the money we did spend this past weekend... even though most of it was pre-approved or part of our allowances. I think maybe I've gotten too much into tunnel vision when it comes to the not spending money, but I really wanted to spend nothing the past week just to prove to myself that I could do it.

We used the pre-approved $20 for my mom's birthday. I bought her lunch and a beer at the street fair and we had enough for my husband and I to share a beer (a HUGE luxury for us since we never spend the money on alcohol anymore). Then all we needed was one more dollar from the leftover change to share another one, so DH dipped into his allowance and brought up that extra $1.00. I just feel guilty thinking that we should have saved the leftover money. But I know we both needed the little treat...

On Father's Day, my DH also dipped into his allowance and bought us all ice creams at the zoo. It only totaled $8.34, but again, I felt guilty that we spent anything at all.

THEN, Walmart was having a sale on Mac N Cheese (50 cents per box) and hot dogs (50 cents per package) on the last day of the freeze so I spent $7 and stocked up on some of that (4 packages of hot dogs and 6 boxes of mac n cheese). I guess since the allowance money didn't count, I only spent the $7.00. I ended up not getting any milk or gas until the official freeze was over. Also, I was pretty excited because I found milk at Walmart for $1.58 per gallon, which is the cheapest I've seen it yet. And we go through about 3 gallons of milk per week, so that was exciting.

Other than that though we did awesome. I was really happy with my DH because he managed to not spend any money either during the week. His weakness is going to get fast food when he doesn't have a lot of time for lunch. He managed to not do that once!

On a side note, my daughter really enjoyed her first ever ice cream cone... worth every penny of the $1.57 we paid for it!

A New Perspective on Our Credit Cards

2009-06-19T13:37:00.002-06:00

I've been looking at our credit card debt again and decided to approach it from a different perspective than I normally do.

I decided to take our total debt and look at paying it off in the next two years. I divided it by 2 (approx. $11k per year) and then by 12 months (approx. $917 per month). I then took our total monthly take home pay and subtracted that out from the start. Usually I go through fixed expenses and then add in flexible expenses and decide how much to pay on credit cards dependant on what's left. I don't know that it's working for us. And since we've dedicated this year (beg. June 1st) to doing whatever we can to pay down our credit card debt, I'm thinking we should make that our first priority.

So I started with subtracting the $917 per month for credit cards and then deducted fixed expenses... then moved on to flexible expenses based on what is a fixed amount of money and what can be reduced. I ended with groceries. What I came up with leaves me with $250 in groceries per month. That's $125 per paycheck (we get paid bimonthly). Based on what I've learned from this week's spending freeze, it's not impossible to do this.

I must admit, it freaks me out a little having to do this for 2 years. I feel like we won't have money for gifts and fun, etc. and I won't be able to feed our family of 4 on $250 a month. Maybe it's just because I am new to the game and am not overly confident. I am going to approach DH with this information tonight and see what he thinks. The fact that I can see the light at the end of the tunnel is making me nervous for some reason. Like it's too good to be true... and you know what they say about that!

I'm thinking that maybe we can try it for the summer and see how it works out and then work out any kinks if necessary. I'm just trying to keep in my head "What am I willing to sacrifice now for my family's financial future?" (I just read that in a book this morning called Living Well on One Income in a Two-Income World by Cynthia Yates). It's really made me take a look at what I want for my children and I think the main thing is that I don't want them to be in this position financially when they are my age (consumer debt, student loans, minimal savings and retirement). I want to be a good example...

I didn't realize that our lack of financial goals has been the cause of us just going around willy-nilly with our money. I think we can do it for 2 years. That's not really that long in the grand scheme of things. Trying to pep myself up!

First Spending Freeze - Days 3 & 4

2009-06-19T13:15:00.002-06:00

Wednesday & Thursday worked out fine. I forgot about an automatic payment for my life insurance so there was $9.50 taken out of my checking account. I'm don't feel as though this really counts as spending though since it is a monthly bill that will be paid regardless.

Yesterday I was all worked up trying to find out how I can buy this inexpensive book on ways to live cheap. I looked at all my websites and wrote down prices. I figured that my most inexpensive route would be through Barnes & Noble since I have a membership there and eventually I would receive an additional coupon (usually 15%). That would bring the book to $6.00.

Then I figured out a cheaper way! The book is basically a list of ways to save money. I decided to just make my own list of my favorites from the book to have as a reference and work on one at a time (which is what the book suggests in the beginning). That way, I still have the ideas and I don't need to spend the money on buying the book! AND one less book to store in my house!

Yikes... I'm beginning to wonder why I even spent money before. I am ridiculous when it comes to impulse buys and things I thought I needed. What is up with that? I also thought that we should give up our membership to the zoo when it expires at the end of the year and just have one membership this next year. I just renewed it and it is for the Museum of Nature & Science. We go there way more than we do to the zoo so it is worth every penny of the $80 for a family membership!

Today is another day... and payday! Plus I just had $44.24 transferred into my checking account for some books I sold to Powell's online. It's a good day!

First Money-Spending Freeze - Day 2

2009-06-17T13:16:00.003-06:00

Yesterday was good. I paid the Qwest bill and put the expense check on our Bank of America credit card, both of which were on my approved spending list.

We went to the library for a Summer Reading Event. The theme was Barnwood Animals and they brought a llama in the meeting room at the library. There were a lot of kids there with entertaining comments (free "Kids Say the Darndest Things" for Mom!). The speakers were hiliarious in that they were trying so hard to stay on topic, but those kids just wouldn't let them! We waited until all the kids left before going in to pet the llama. My daughter was not brave enough to try, but that's okay... the llama was pretty big!

We had Tuna Helper Cheesy Pasta for dinner. Total cost: $2.29. Enough leftovers for my lunch today. It's not DH's favorite though... he was sweet enough to eat his portion without making rude remarks. ;)

First Money-Spending Freeze - Day 1

2009-06-16T13:33:00.001-06:00

Yesterday was my first day of the spending freeze. Honestly, I didn't really think about it until that night.

I spent most of the day cataloguing my books on LibraryThing (which is free). I only had 1 1/2 bookshelves of my own books left to catalog and I was excited that I was going to get so much done. Well, when I hit the 200 mark, LibraryThing told me I would have to pay to catalog the rest. It is $25.00 for a lifetime membership, but they do allow you to pay only $19.00. I don't know. I think they see it as a donation or something.I sat there and stared at it really wanting to pay it and continue on with my cataloguing project. My DH was wondering what my purpose of cataloguing was. How can he not understand my obsessive need to make lists????

I was sitting there trying to justify paying the $25 and I honestly couldn't come up with a good reason. Only after that did I realize that I was still only on my first day of the spending freeze. My thoughts then went to after that and whether I should purchase it then.

That was yesterday. Today, I'm wondering why I would even consider paying $25 just to list my books on a website. Maybe I'll try to find a free one that allows more books. Or maybe I just won't do it at all. Or maybe I'll actually read some of the books already on the list and see if I need to keep them and try to downsize my books even more.

Forget the Joneses Summer Boot Camp

2009-06-15T11:59:00.002-06:00

I've joined on at Mommysavers.com and signed up to participate in their Forget the Joneses Summer Boot Camp. It lasts 6 weeks beginning today (June 15th) and starts with a week long money-spending freeze. I think we can do this. I bought a some extra grocery items yesterday (only spent $14.67!!) to prepare. We also both have enough gas in our cars to last us at least a week.

We get a pre-approved spending list. I noticed a lot of the members who have done this before are going for the full 3 weeks. I'm going to start with 1 to see how it goes. My pre-approved spending items are:

~ Milk
~ Gas if needed
~ $20 for my mom's birthday this weekend
~ Qwest bill $37.00
~ Bank of America credit card - We received an expense check. The entire sum will go on that card.

Once this week (7 days) is over, we will reevaluate and see if we can do another week. I don't foresee us being able to do 2 weeks in a row. We may have to alternate. We don't have a huge amount of food in the fridge, freezer and pantry and we are going to have to get creative with lunches and dinners as it is. But if we make it, we will be saving at least $100 in groceries this week that we can put directly on to a credit card! I have both my husband and my son on board. My daughter is too young to have a say so and she will fine as long as she has food and milk. :)

Wish me luck!

Our Mini-Vacation

2009-06-15T11:53:00.004-06:00

So we did really well this past weekend with cutting costs! Here are the results:

Family History Expo (2 days) $65.00 (saved $10 by registering early)
3 night stay at hotel: FREE (DH works for hotel and we stayed at one within his company)
Gas for trip (Denver to Loveland, Loveland to RMNP and then back to Denver, plus driving around town while Mom is in Expo): $22.17

We withdrew $100 cash to take with us for food.

Breakfast: FREE with hotel stay

Lunches: Bought food at Target, including cold medicine since I was sick
Natural Cheetos - $3.00
Crystal Light Packets - $2.66
Arrowhead Water bottles (bought to replace any drinks for the trip) - $3.99
Skippy peanut butter - $2.14
Target bread - $0.99
Target whole milk (1/2 gallon) - $1.94
Target Cold Medinice (equivalent to Tylenol Cold Day/Night) -$3.69
Target Immune Supplment (equivalent to Airborne - for DH) - $3.44

Total: $22.77
*We also brought bread, granola snacks, Gerber toddler snacks, leftover chicken salad, and fruit from home for lunches.

Dinners:
First Night: Little Caesar's Ready to go Pizza at $5.00 a piece x 2 = $10.70
Second Night: Chipotle's Mexican Grill - $23.73 (2 adult meals + 2 kids' meals)

I bought two maps at the Expo for $0.50 a piece - $1.07

Third day we went to Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP) and paid for their annual pass out of the $100.00 cash. = $40.00

We were going to eat at home on Sunday after going to the RMNP. Unfortunately as we were on our way home we received a call from my mom saying there was tornado watches/warnings in Denver, severe thunderstorms, and hail. We decided to stop just outside of Denver to wait until the warning was over and ate at Gunther Toody's since it was close to dinnertime. We had the kids share a kids' meal and we shared our fries with each of them. My son is becoming a bottomless pit: my DH and I couldn't finish our burgers so he finished each of them off for us. We all left with full tummies and zero wasted food! Total cost + tip for 4 = $31.00

Total cost of trip: $216.44

We did end up spending all of the $100 cash and $5.00 out of DH's weekly cash allowance.

BUT, we can use the annual pass at RMNP for the next year and we have leftover food from the trip that we will be using this week. ALSO, I won two prizes at the Family History Expo! I won some software that I actually wanted (valued at $35.00) and a World Subscription to Ancestry.com (valued at $300). That's a total of $335 on items that I already wanted for FREE! My Ancestry.com subscription is set to expire in August and I didn't know how I was going to be able to renew it! Perfect timing!

Entertainment Book

2009-06-03T16:48:00.002-06:00

Okay, I wasn't supposed to be buying anything, but the Entertainment coupon book is half off with free shipping ($15.00) so I had to buy it. I want to still be able to do things this next year... just want to save money while doing it...

Free Ideas for Summer

2009-06-03T16:36:00.002-06:00

Barnes & Noble Summer Reading Program: Kids in 1st thru 5th grade can fill out a reading journal that is basically the title of the book, author, and favorite part. Once they've read 8 books they can choose a free book from a pre-chosen list. They can do this twice. This program has already started and goes until September 7th. They can fill out two journals per child. That's two free books!

Library Summer Reading Program: Our district library is having a summer kickoff event. We are close to two libraries so we can enjoy the benefits of both. One is having the Top Hogs, which are pigs who do fun stuff including races, and the other is sponsoring Monkey Shines, a puppet program. The kids pick up a "journal" and keep track of how much they read. Every week they can bring their journal in and receive coupons and little prizes. Even toddlers can participate and at the end of their program they receive a free board book! They are also having about one free event per week that I will be taking my kids to for some free entertainment!

Storytimes at the Library: The district library also has a free storytime hour for babies, toddlers, preschoolers, and families. One per week.

Barnes & Noble Storytime: The Barnes & Noble next to us has a free storytime on Fridays at 10:00 am.

Free Days: Denver Art Museum and both Botanical Gardens have free days this summer.

Memberships: I have yearly memberships for the Denver Zoo and the Denver Museum of Nature & Science (worth every penny!). Will use those often.

Sunflower Market Classes: Sunflower Market has a calendar of events, including seminars, cooking classes for adults, and a Sunny Kids Club. Matheu will be attending both of the kids club events in June (nutritional choices game and a cooking class!)

Frugal Living for Dummies

2009-06-03T16:35:00.001-06:00

The first book I've started with is appropriate... Frugal Living for Dummies by Deborah Taylor-Hough. It's actually a really good book. It was a quick read for me and has some good tips. I wrote down some web addresses that I might be interested in.

She is covering everything from food to clothing and gifts. She has some good tips about shopping, but most of it is stuff we probably already know like thrift stores and garage sales.

I am particularly interested in her grocery section. She is feeding a family of five and manages to spend about $300 per month on groceries. She says she does this with coupons and sales and rebates and such.

Recommended websites:

http://www.refundlebundle.com/ - You have to pay $23.87 for a year subscription to a magazine. I'm not ready to make that kind of commitment on this one. Maybe when I'm not such an amateur.

http://www.couponsandrefunds.com/ - This is a website that is a bunch of categorized links. Honestly, I skimmed through a couple of the categories, clicked on one for Colorado specifically and then looked at some of their deals. I don't see this as a site that I will be returning to personally.

These are the only two I've checked out so far. Once I get a chance to look into the other ones, I will do so.

Grocery Shopping

2009-05-29T13:44:00.004-06:00

Okay, I know our first official day has not come yet, but I've already started trying to get in the habit of really thinking about the money we spend. The big one for us is grocery shopping. We get those grocery shopping flyers in the mail and one of them is for Sunflower Market. A new one has opened up near us and since I've become more aware of how our family is eating, I am trying to shop more healthy on top of being price concious. Their ad says on Wednesday it is double ad time, which means their sale items from the previous week overlap with the upcoming week's ads. So I've changed grocery shopping day to Wednesday to take advantage of this.

I go on Wednesday and ONLY buy items on sale. I get a ton of fresh fruit, pork chops, ground sirloin, family size pack of chicken (worth 3 dinners) and various other items on my list. My total bill comes to $99.73!! Well, technically it came to $100.23, but I get a $0.10 discount for every reusable grocery bag I bring in (mine came to $0.50). Woo hoo!! I stayed within my budget!

Oops... I forgot that I was driving across the street to Target where I had to buy some toiletry items, including diapers. That comes to $41.41 because I had to buy some Tostitoes to go with my yummy salsa and Cliff bars for Kent. Oh and they had my favorite coffee there and SF Market does not carry it. I almost got a value pack of Pop Tarts (half the price of the organic ones in SF Market), but someone had ripped open the package and stolen a couple of packs out of it. I didn't notice until we got up to the register and didn't feel like going back for more. So that was not purchased. So my grand total was $141.14. I think I need to do a seperate budget for toiletry items and diapers. I was pretty happy with myself for the groceries though.

Here's the link for SF Market in case you have that store... http://www.sfmarkets.com/

What we are already doing...

2009-05-29T13:32:00.004-06:00

These are the money savings ideas that we are already implementing:

No cable service
No land line
Shopping at discount stores (ie. Target)
Grocery shopping at Super Target
Trying to have a budget of $100 per week for groceries
No new clothes for me or my husband
Trying to go cheap on other necessary items
Setting out thermostat for heating and cooling to save money

Having said that, here is where we are spending too much money:

Gifts for other people
Eating out
Books
Movies (buying and going to movies)
Groceries (yes, I know I said $100 budget, but I rarely stay within that budget)
My hobbies... yes... only mine. (scrapbooking, genealogy)

There's got to be a better way to do things, so I've checked out a ton of books to read and come up with ideas. I will keep you posted.