All you mom's out there probably know what starts to happen to you when you are 7 months pregnant (especially when you are 7 months pregnant and a mother). A little streak of panic starts to go thru you. At least that is what is happening to me.
I am nervous about having a boy.
I am nervous about our home being ready for a baby.
I am nervous about how Hannah is going to act.
I am nervous about getting all the right things.
I am nervous about money.
I am dreaming of the kind of Mom I want and hope to be.
I am dreaming about my form of income.
I am trying to imagine a family of 4.
I am tired (I should be in bed right now!)
Blah Blah.. I could go on.
So within this life change I am doing around my house, I am trying to find some little ways to save us some money and pay off some bills so that maybe, one day, I can have the opportunity to spend more time with my children.
I decided a couple of weeks ago I was going to be really disciplined and do this. Last week Carrie puts information on her blog that she is trying to find ways to save money and some people gave her some great websites.
So, I decided that we were going to start planning our weekly meals and making a grocery list and sticking to it!! Also, I decided that we were going to see if it was worth it to invest $1.50 a week to get the Sunday paper and cut coupons.
I made a coupon box. An idea I got from another
blog and I feel guilty that I don't know whose it was or how I got there so I can't officially give them the credit but it is great. (Don't act like that has never happened to you!) Just some index cards and envelopes and a few broad categories and there you go. I have them all organized. In the Sunday paper there was an insert and the cover says "103 tips to stretch your money..." and I got a lot of great websites and ideas from it.Then I go to LeeAnn's blog and she has posted about a website she loves that helps her with saving money at the grocery store.
Whew what a crazy, interesting week of
information. So, I thought I would share with you some interesting things and pose a few questions for you to see what you think.#1
Please share your ways of saving with me/us. I would love to know and try it myself!
#2
If you are a Kroger shopper, go to Kroger.com, click on P&G eSaver. It will show you a lot of great coupons. Here comes the cool part. You choose your coupons and then put in your Kroger Plus Card # and the coupons are put on your Kroger Plus Card. You don't even have to print and cut them. When you go to Kroger and scan your Card - the coupons will be subtracted from your total. How easy is that? I am Very Excited about this piece of information!
#3
I found this blog that I love written by a lady named Gayle. She has 4 kids and a grocery budget of $50 - $60 a week. She posts lots of great money saving ideas. She doesn't use coupons because she has lots of discount places near by. I have a problem with coupons for another reason. (As you can see from the prior info, I am trying to work that out.) Most coupons are for name brand stuff. We have a few things in our home that we have not had to (nor do we want to) resorted to generic. Like Lever 2000, Cheerios, Charmin... I really can't think of anything else. But most everything else we buy is the generic brands. SO, name brands with a coupon is still usually not as good of a deal as the generic brands. AND, coupons can get confusing. How much do I have to buy to get the savings? Was I going to buy that anyway or did I just buy it because of the coupon? Anyway, I love reading about her money saving tips without hearing about coupons. One of her tips is homemade laundry detergent which I have every intention of trying and if I do I will let you know all about it. (She has a lot of homemade recipes on there for cleaning supplies including dryer sheets and Febreeze!) Gayle is willing to make some sacrifices we are not, yet. I am not sure we will ever let ourselves get to where we can not have milk. (We would probably sell a car before we would do that!) I don't think we could limit our family of 3 to 1 gallon of milk a week - much less if we had a family of 6, like she does!! We bought 3 gallons on Saturday and are already about half way thru our 2nd!
#4
MyGroceryDeals.com This website will let you put in your zip code and you can look at all the deals from all the near by stores before you go out to see if someone has a better deal than another. It will let you view deals by store or by category or you can search for a certain item. How great is that?
I will try to keep you updated on my life change and how things are going.
This week we took a list to the grocery store and we DID NOT buy anything not on the list. I listed out items for breakfast, lunches, and suppers to be sure we had some things before we left. SO far it has worked out great. And our goal this week was to be under $100 which we were! Yipppeeeee! We hope to go down from there!
Your Turn. Spill It. Any other good advice or suggestions on saving money?
5 comments:
Mindy,
Glad my post was helpful! It is amazing how many blogs are out there to help us all save some money.
We also have been on a very strict budget for about 3 years now (ever since we "met" Dave Ramsey!). I long for the day that we no longer have debt to pay each month. Right now our school loan payments all together are more than our house payment! But I am thankful that we have been able to pay off the rest of our debt.
The most motivating things when trying to save money and pay off debt for me have been 1) thinking about staying home with kids and 2) wanting to be free to follow God's leading for our lives without the hindrance that debt brings.
My most recent attempt at saving money has been by using CVS and their Extra Care Bucks, as well as transferring prescriptions to take advantage of gift card promotions at the different drug stores. This has already landed me $55 in gift cards!
Another idea is to check online for any medications that you're on to see if the manufacturer has a rebate program.
I'm glad you mentioned meal planning...it is something I have tried before and it works well when you DO IT! That's my problem...I know it works, it's just taking the time to actually make the plan that's the kicker! :)
try bulk... we hit up sams and bj's. I love bulk because it is cheaper but usually you don't use it all before it goes bad sooo... you find someone else who likes that stuff and split it with them. that's what we do with some stuff... buy one get one free then split the cost or take a box of 24and split it to 12 while spliting the cost.
i see a Cheerio's coupon....
are you holding out on me?
love
AW
i forgot to tell you. on Gayle's blog she has a yummy recipe for Ham and Swiss Stromboli. I can't wait to try it.
i may change the cheese from swiss to mozzarella.
love
AW
You can also load coupons onto your kroger card at www.shortcuts.com. They don't have very many coupons, but they might have something you can use. I keep hoping that they'll get more. Also, I've found some other websites lately on other people's blogs.
www.thecentsiblesawyer.blogspot.com
www.couponmom.com
I've also been reading a lot about shopping at places like Walgreens, CVS and Riteaid. I'm going to give it a try and see if it's worth it. You get stuff for "free." I say it like that because you actually pay for it and then get the amount back in money to use in that store only. I'll let you know how it goes.
Post a Comment