What $100 in Groceries Looks Like to my Family

For all of us that like visuals -- here it is!  This is what $100 in groceries looks like in our household.  Well, $115.85 to be exact.... or.. $111.33 (after my Endorse rewards) to be exactly exact. 

I do a big-ish shopping trip generally once each weekend to make sure we have what we need for the coming week, though I do generally end up running to the store mid week to get milk and those few items that we need to round out our meals (which is why you don't see any milk pictured here!)

This was my shopping trip at Safeway this weekend.  I want to highlight how its possible to save money on groceries without going all "Crazy Couponer" or running from store to store to store.  This was one store, maybe 15-20 minutes of before shopping prep time to check the contents of our fridge/freezer/pantry, and maybe 10 minutes to load savings onto my Just For U account and check to see what the others in blogisphere were saying about Safeway deals this week!

I stock up on items I know we will use when prices are low.  This may not look like a "complete" shopping trip, but that is because I always try to use what I have at home.  Sometimes I buy more meat, sometimes I buy more canned goods... the way I shop is dependent on the sale cycles.

Here is a breakdown of this shopping trip:
3 boxes of honey nut cheerios medley
1 box of peanut butter cinnamon toast crunch
1 box of Safeway brand graham crackers
2 bottles of Safeway brand apple juice
1 47.8oz jar of Safeway brand applesauce
4 boxes of Safeway brand pasta
1 box of Safeway brand fruit snacks (Star Wars, yeah baby!)
2 bags of soup mix (B1G1)
2 boxes of Quaker chewy granola bars
2 boxes of Better Cheddar crackers
1 family size Oreos
2 pouches of McCormick chili seasoning
2 boxes of Capri Sun roarin waters
1 Mrs Butterworth syrup
2 Plum Organic tots pouches
4 4pks of Angel Soft tp
1 box of Kleenex
2 Kraft Fresh Take cheese/seasoning mixes
18 ct eggs
2lb sharp cheddar cheese block
2lb shredded medium cheddar cheese
1 container blue cheese crumbles
1 16oz container sour cream
1 package of Challenge stick butter
3 3pks of Dawn scrubbers
1 package Mom to Mom (Safeway brand) diapers
1 package Monster High erasers (clearance priced for 99 cents)
1 loaf white bread
3.7lbs hamburger
4lb pork shoulder roast
2.6lbs bananas
1 cucumber
2 zucchini
2 yellow squash
1 onion
2 avacados
1 bag baby carrots
5lb box of Cutie oranges
1 bag salad mix
1 bag spinach
1 bottle of Maries salad dressing
1 package tortelloni (clearance priced at $1.99)

My savings breakdown shows the value of shopping sales and using store cards:
Total Saved - $97.95 or 46%!
(Card savings - $62.18, Just for U savings - $20.67, paper coupons - $15.10)

I think this shopping trip shows that you don't need to make couponing a full time job in order to see savings, the smartest way to shop is paying attention to sales and cycles and building your menu around what you are able to pick up at the grocery store and already have on hand.  I know the food we eat isn't always the healthiest, but I try not to buy a lot of processed foods.  There may not be a lot of coupons for produce and whole foods, but they DO exist, and store sales and club card savings can really help you in those areas!  The key is being flexible with your shopping trips and menus.

As always, I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have about couponing.  Happy Shopping, go save some money!

Pay Period Review {Feb 1-14}

We interrupt this regularly scheduled review to admit that the budgeting attempts went out the window!  I find that its harder to budget and be responsible when we have more money than we are used to having.  Now that our tax refund has been mostly spent/enjoyed/earmarked for bills, and we have made it past two birthdays and Valentines Day we are actually happy to be back to our normal financial situation.

Pay Period Review { Jan 18-31 }

Budgeting should be a four letter word.

Its a challenge and disappointment, a goal and a curse.  I need to continue to remind myself that this is a work in progress and that even at a minimum, having a budget outlined and tracking our spending is a HUGE step and better than doing nothing at all.

Our "monkey wrench" during this period and our current pay period has been Ashlyn's birthday and receiving a hefty tax refund.  Some people see having a big influx of money as a good thing.  Personally, it scares the heck outa me!  I can be so impulsive at times that I stress over purchases and how to spend and be responsible at the same time... but more on that to come with the next review!

Ashlyn turned 10 yesterday!  It makes me feel old to be the parent of a ten year old... the fact that I'm on the brink of 30 doesn't phase me, but a 10 year old daughter seems monumental!  I wanted to make sure we celebrated this birthday in a big way, so we invited Ashlyn's best friend from our neighborhood to spend the night with us at the new Holiday Inn Express here in Red Bluff.  We had a great time at our girl's night slumber party/pool party!

All in all, including the cost of the hotel room, pizza, snacks & birthday gifts I think we were able to keep Ashlyn's celebration in the $150 range.  I love being purposeful with gift giving, planning ahead and shopping for deals.  We were able to get an outfit from Justice (Yikes! Expensive!) for Ash to wear to dance rehersals.  It was $30 for a pair of yoga type pants and a cute top, and that was after I used a $25 off $50 purchase reward card that I got for free from a lady on Red Bluff Needs.  Now, had it not been her birthday I probably would have searched the thrift stores for an outfit or two, but birthdays deserve something new!  We also gifted a pair of Monster High Earbuds (free through Amazon when I redeemed some swagbucks, an American Girl book called The Care and Keeping of You that I found at a yardsale last summer, an American Girl craft kit that I got on super clearance at Michaels and an 8x10 print of the fruits of the Spirit with a cool frame also found at Michaels. 

Now, onto the regular scheduled programing:

Groceries/Consumables:
Initially budgeted: $300
Actual spending: $349.87
Hmmm.. Over again.  I need to determine a better way to work within this category.  I think I do pretty well with the grocery part in seeing big savings, but this will be something I focus on continuously.  Using coupons, shopping sales and menu planning is helping us tremendously.  We need to get back to using cloth diapers more frequently, and maybe be a little more selective with the drug store deals I'm doing.  I know the way I shop saves us money in the long run, but I need to do better at keeping the budget in mind WHILE I'm shopping!

Eating Out:
Initially budgeted: $50
Actual spending: $18
It seems like this can't possibly be right.  Did we actually not get pizza, or anything else with the family?  This $18 included $9.11 at Sonic for an afternoon ice cream treat one day, and $8.89 for a late night Mom & Dad McDonalds run.

Gas:
Initially budgeted: $50
Actual spending: $45!
Yep, loving our van (and Safeway's gas reward program) more and more and more!

Spending Money:
Bob's budgeted: $50
Bob's actual spending: $79.81
Bob's spending was mostly eating out while he was working.  This number is crazy to me, I would think he might want some of his spending money to actually spend and buy himself stuff he wants.  Granted, he filed an expense report and will get about $50 back from his per diem allotment when he had to spend the night on the coast for work.  Still... definitely need to work on this area for the budget AND our health.

Hailey's budgeted: $100
Hailey's actual spending: $84.01
I am so proud of myself!  I really thought this would be a bigger challenge, and I'm sure there are times where it will be, but it helps to be aware of this category and be more specific and conscious of my purchases.

We had a lot of "extras" during this period:  $10 at the mobile vet clinic to get Dallas utd on his rabies shot, $45 for Ashlyn's dance costume for the recital coming in June, $55 for Dannon's soccer registration and $40 to some friends of ours.  I was thrilled to be able to raise the $100 for the kid's activities by selling items on Red Bluff Needs and Craigslist. 

Part of my yard sale/thrifting hobby is knowing what I can buy for cheap and resell.  When Ashlyn and I were in Sacramento during the beginning of January I found a like new pair of women's K2 inline skates.  The beauty of owning a smart phone is that I could look up the specifics on the spot. I ended up buying the skates for $8.99 when I realized they retailed for $120+ and successfully sold them on craigslist for $50! That one ten dollar purchase ended up paying Ashlyn's costume fee.  Bring on yard sale season!

1st Budgeting Pay Period Review

I have done my best to track our spending in the following categories: Groceries/Consumables, Eating Out, Gas and personal spending.  My hope is that we can determine amounts for each category that challenge us to stay within budget, but are also realistic for our life and our needs.  We set rough dollar amounts for each category to give us an idea of what will work, and will review and tweak these amounts once we determine what our spending habits really are.

This is a review of how the first pay period went.

Groceries/Consumables:
Initially budgeted = $250
Actual spending =  $347.35
Yikes!  I think its a good thing this is a category that we can work on to see better savings, though $250 for this category is probably a bit low.  I would like to be able to increase this budget category to $300 per pay period and do our best to reach that goal and then whittle it down a bit.  This category is really broad, includes diapers, dogfood, booze, newspapers (for coupons, of course!), groceries and drug store deals.  Pretty much everything we eat or consume in some way. 

Eating Out:
Initially budgeted = $50
Actual spending = $79.47
Another category where we overspent, but I feel we did pretty good.  This included a trip to Sacramento to take Ashlyn's grandma Tobie to the airport.  Ashlyn and I enjoyed a thrift store shopping afternoon and lunch at Chick-fil-A.  We also had a last minute meal planning fail where nothing really sounded good to me so we ordered pizza.  Dominos put a $26.83 dent into this category, but provided dinner and a few lunches for our family.  I think we can continue to try and stick with a $50 family eating out budget, though we may need to make some exceptions during February when we have Ashlyn's birthday, my birthday and Valentines day.

Gas:
Initially budgeted = $50
Actual spending = $38.19
Under budget, wahoo!  One thing I love about our new van is the gas mileage, that plus the fact that I don't do a ton of driving makes this category an easy one for us on a normal basis.

Spending Money:
Bob's initially budgeted = $50
Bob's actual spending = $29.77
The majority of Bob's spending was on lunch while he is working.  This is something we need to focus on.  He was within his spending limits but I'm sure he'd enjoy spending his money on something fun occasionally, we need to do a little more lunch packing and a little less McDonalds buying.

Hailey's initially budgeted = $100
Hailey's actual spending = $106.33
YES!! This impresses me, big time!  I'm a shopper.  This amount was spent during our thrift store shopping day, a Redding trip to Joann's & Michaels and included a few birthday items for Ashlyn!

There were also a few random expenses & purchases that came up during this period, $14.20 in ebay fees and $40 that we spent on a chair from Red Bluff Needs.  Not just any chair, Dannon's favorite "Awesome gamer chair!"

All in all, I think this was a good start to our budgeting attempt!  Tracking our spending in these areas will help us to be more aware of where the money is going, and which areas we can focus on improving.  I'd like to also start keeping track of the money I bring into the house by selling items on the facebook buy/sell groups I'm a part of and Craigslist.  More on that to come with our next pay period review!

2013

Well, 16 days late, but....

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Bob and I kicked around some ideas for goals to work towards in 2013 (and we do have things we want, erm.. NEED to work on) but what we ended up coming up with is a 2013 Bucket List!  We had a little mini New Years Day adventure and took the boys out to breakfast at the Black Bear Diner in Paradise.  Going out to breakfast on new years day is becoming a tradition, 2 years in the running now!  Anyway, on our drive home we came up with this list that I jotted down on the top of the to-go box that was holding my mini apple pie.  In no particular order, here is our list:

Boys baptised
2 camping trips
Visit 2 new Food Network restaurants
New ink
Find a church
Real vacation (Tombstone, Lincoln City, Great Wolf Lodge)
Volunteer opportunity
5K
Attend 1 sporting event
Geocaching
Family emergency kit
1 new recipe/month cooking together
Monthly dates

These are all things I'm really excited about!  A few are a little more daunting to me than others (finding a church and participating in a 5k), but I really feel like this is a great mix of experiences and things we want to do together and as a family this year.  I really want to focus more on living with purpose.  There is always going to be the daily grind, but I want to feel confident that we are experiencing life in positive ways, and ways that might be a little different than how we normally do things.

In addition to our bucket list for the year, we are focusing on building and following a budget.  Its hard.  We're not even completely 2 weeks in to the first budgeted pay period and I feel like I've blown it.  I need to remind myself though, that we haven't "blown it" we are learning.  Its going to be a process and if we can improve a little bit each month, by the end of the year we should have a handle on this!

Here is a rough outline of what our household budget looks like right now.  It always looks great on paper, but doesn't carry over quite how I would like it to in real life.  The biggest blessing of all is that Bob has a great job, and even though we don't have it all, and often have more month than money, we have a roof over our heads and food to fill our bellies!

Monthly Expenses - $2000
(rent, water, PGE, Directv, Sprint, Allstate, AT&T, car payment, Rx's)
Gas - $120
Groceries/Consumables - $500
Eating out - $100
Personal spending - $250
Debt Payoff - $200
(Tier 1 - Court, Kohls, Chevron, Sprint, Orchard CC)

I'm trying my best to get a handle on this budget thing.  We're not friends.  Yet.  My hope is that since a lot of our budgeting categories are going to be per pay period, that I can track our spending and update here as a way to stay accountable and also as a way to see where we started, and how we finish.  My biggest brag so far is that we had a debt free Christmas AND paid off the balance on the Kohls card in December.  According to www.undebt.it we are set for our Tier 1 debts to be paid off in April 2013.  I think we'll have them out of the way before that!

Here is to wishing 2013 is happy, healthy & successful!

21 Days - Day 13

I have fallen off the wagon.

I'm feeling a little yucky this morning, but I'm ready to get back on track.  I actually first wrote that sentence as "I'm ready to try to get back on track," but I remembered the earlier reading and re-wrote it without using try. I'm not going to TRY, I'm going to DO IT!

So.. its currently 7:25am and I'm on my first cup of coffee. This post is going to be a little different today as I want to post my list of goals for the day, and for the week.

Today's Goals:
 2 loads of laundry from start to finish (including put away)
30 minute pick up of my bedroom, including putting away folded clothes
30 minute pick up of entry/toy area/living room
30 minute pick up of boys room
Clean kitchen table
Pick up dining area
Sweep dining room floor
Catch up on 21 Days reading


This Week's Goals:
Strip diapers
Cut quilt
Clean shower/tubs with the vinegar/dawn solution
Stay on track with 21 Days challenge

My Beautiful Fall Family!

I've been slacking a bit, I know... generally how things go around here!  I'm anxious to get back on track tomorrow!

Here is a sneak peak into how we spent some of our Veteran's Day since Bob was home from work.

-{Today I am thankful that we are able to capture so many moments in pictures, and thankful to my family, our photographer turned friend and shutterfly that all indulge me in my obsession! }-

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