Extreme Couponers are Nuts!

Okay- let me start off with this tidbit: Most coupons are for packaged and pre made foods. It is rare that your will get a coupon for fruit or produce items. 
I was watching an episode of 'Extreme Couponers' and something occurred to me (now mind you I was also researching what brands support the use of GMOs, in order to avoid giving them my business). I realized that most of the deals that these people were excited about were highly manufactured foods- sports drinks, pre made noodle dishes, artificial sweeteners- and were very LOW in nutritional value. 
Which led me to this epiphany: The money you save using coupons on highly manufactured foods, you will ultimately spend on doctor's bills and weight loss attempts.

There it is- the cold hard truth. Sorry for those of you who didn't know. 

Is it wonderful to save money? Absolutely! But not at the expense of your familie's health. So what is a frugalista supposed to do?!!?

I do 90% of my shopping at my local Kroger. I sign up for their value card and they send me coupons every month for brands I use the most. Often I get $1.00 or $2.00 off of produce coupons which helps out quite a bit! They also give you fuel points ($.10/gallon for every $100 you spend). I also purchase my fuel in the County where my husband works- trying to funnel more tax dollars into his job :)

Do your shopping each week, even if you get paid monthly! Take the money and set it aside to be used. This way you are buying what you need instead of impulse buying to try to make it through the month. 

Make a list, complete with prices and any coupon discounts you plan to use. This way you go in with a good idea of what each item costs. This gets easier if you purchase a lot of the same items and know what to expect. 

We also switched to a milk that is locally 'sourced' without hormones. KG can drink her weight in milk in no time fast! (Homestead Creamery)

Know what brands you want to support with your money. Your money is your vote. Don't like GMOs? Don't support those businesses!

Has my grocery bill gone up since getting off of the extreme coupon band wagon? Yes, by about $20/week or $80/month. But I feel like it is worth it to be sure my family is getting the most nutritious foods possible. As my sister and I say, if you have a picky eater and they eat a lot of the same stuff, you want to be sure it is as healthy as possible! 

Now, not all coupons are for junk... I am all over my coupons for things like spices, reynolds wrap, toilet paper, specific cleaners, laundry cleaners, etc. 

Shop smart my friends!

E-Meals...Easy?

So I decided to take a dive today and sign up for the 'clean eating' e-meals meal planning service...why? 
Well before I decided to do this I had to think long and hard about it and ask myself these questions:
1. Will it make my life easier? 
2. Will it improve my quality of life?
3. Can it save me money?

Here is what I came up with:
1. Yes, obviously it will make my life easier. It has taken the planning out of dinner for me. It gives me a grocery list that is set up to make the most of the local grocery store sales and plans it a week in advance. 

2. This particular one does. Considering this family is notorious for pizza, eating out and junk food- this will help us make our meals more healthy and hopefully save us money on doctor's visits in the long run. 

3. By planning ahead this will help us curb our eating out as well as planning our grocery trips better. By getting it a week in advance I can pick and choose what to buy fresh, canned or in bulk to get a better price. 

My hope is to break the meals down week by week and post how much I paid for our dinners. 

This week we will be having:

Spring Green Rissoto

Salmon Salad

Beef Sliders with Sweet Potato Fries

Leg of Lamb with carrots and potatoes

Spicy Lemon Chicken

Tilapia baked in parchment

Asian Baby Back Ribs

I'll update after the grocery trip! :)

A Big Savings Testimonial

This is an email I received this morning from a friend that I helped last year with creating a budget so that she could stay home with her two children. She is expecting a third and is a cloth diapering momma. She was concerned about cloth diapering two at the same time (amount of diapers she would need) and here is her story:

Hi there!!  So, I am sucessfully continuing our budget well enough to still be at home with my kids!  Yay!  

Anyway, the reason for my email is my most recent huge savings!  (Im very proud of myself!)  I thought if you wanted to share and it could help some one else, that would be wonderful.  

So, we now have our 3 rd child on the way.  She is due in June.  If you remember, our son was born last June, so, I will be diapering 2 for a year or more.  I went into a panic!  How to afford a whole other stash for a another child.  This was very scary to me.  I happened to come across a craigslist posting.  21 free bumgenius 3.0's.  They needed velcro and didn't hold water well.  I decided to get them.  If they really were that bad, I didnt lose anything anyway.  Well. . . They were worse!  The velcro was horrible, they did not hold moisture at all, the elastic was gone, and they were not pretty at all!!  Lol!  I decided to try my hand at refreshing them and started researching.  

I found on cottonbabies a water proof spray that you can use to refresh old diapers.  They sell the same thing at walmart.  So, I got a can.  Then I researched what to do about the velcro and found that you can convert to snaps!  I was very excited about this!  And I happen to know a lady that ownes a dry cleaner, so, she did all of my elastics for free.  So, heres what I invested in these free diapers:

1 can Atsko permanent waterproofer  $8 @ walmart

400 KAM snaps $5.95 per 100 on ebay $23.80 w/ free shipping!

1 pair snap pliers $19.95 at craft store

Totaling $51.75

KAM snaps can be bought on many sites but ebay is by far the cheapest and they even have true bumgenius colors.  They are great.  I pulled all of the velcro, replaced with snaps, had a friend replace the elastics, sprayed them (2 coats and cure for 24 hrs) with the waterproofer, then for appearence used a lint shaver on them.  I learned this would probably be easier before you put the snaps on.  Lol!  

Now, all of these free diapers were yellow, green, and blue.  Not very girly.  So, I ordered some pinks and purples and such in my snaps to girly up some diapers.  I did order the blue bg snaps to match and they are true color.  And I used 1 row in stead of 2 to save a little money.  Only 1/2 the snaps.  

In the end, they work wonderfully!!  And after lint shaving them look great!  I have been using and washing them for about a week.  I wash every other day.  All in all, I am more than happy with 21 bg diapers for $52.  

I hope this can help someone who needs it.  And if you do know someone that has any questions about it, feel free to share my email address.  I'll be glad to help.  And just to let you know, I am the least crafty person I know and this was relatively easy to do.

Can You Afford to? Stay at Home Moms

Out of all the things I do to save a buck (couponing, cloth diapering, breast feeding, goodwilling, etc) the one thing that many other moms cannot fathom is being a stay at home mom.
How come we are able to afford it and others aren't? Is there some magic formula for being able to stay at home? 
To put it simply, no. There are, however, many things that you will have to take into account. 
Like:

• How much will child care cost each week/month.
• How often will we be eating out as a result of tiredness or late evenings?
• How much gas will I use driving to and from the sitter, work and home?
• How much do we bring in a month and how much do we spend on necessities?
• Do I have any skills that I can use from home to make additional income?

See for our family we would end up spending $880/month in child care expenses. Not to mention an additional $120/month in gasoline. We would eat out quite often as well...because when I am tired I am not cooking!

I knew that I had a marketable skill, child care! I have families on a wait list for wanting/needing care! I, on average, make $285/week through child care or $1,140/month. I also was able to find a part time job as a children's minister. So for our family it was far more profitable for me to stay at home with the children. Our monthly expenses add up $3,823.00 including our mortgage, groceries, gasoline, savings, eating out and all our other bills. Through all our endeavors we typically bring in about $4,000.00/ month.

Bottom line? We hustle to do the things that are important to us! I have children here Monday-Friday (and I love it almost every day) and DH busts his rump to make sure the bills are paid. Do we pay a price? Of course. There are some days I wish DH would be here to hang out with us instead of working his 3rd or 4th job of the week. There are some days I envy the women that are in the work force, especially if it has been a hard week. 

Bottom line: It is worth it to know if going back to work is financially beneficial to your family. If I worked out side of the home our income would be about $800 less (and that is a conservative estimate) and we would be spending about $1,000 more each month. 

Plus, I get to spend my days with some pretty terrific children and their families! Although I do wish Wells Fargo took hugs as mortgage payments...our house could be paid off!

New Project and some changes

We are working on a new project... a fenced in backyard! This is truly an answer to my prayers, as I keep little ones and have two little ones of my own. We live on a VERY busy road so this gives me quite a bit of peace of mind. 

DH has been hard at work, and I am hoping the rain will let up today so that we can get a little more done! 

Now, onto the changes! As we transition to warmer spring weather there will be some changes, and I wanted to encourage you all to do the same! 

1. Buying local produce from the farmers market or mom and pop shop. It is so much cheaper, supports local economy and is often times pesticide free.

2. Hanging the clothes out to dry! Don't worry about the spring showers or dew settling either- both act as natural fabric softener. 

3. Park play dates! Wahoo! I am so excited about this one as I have been trying to find ways to get us out of the house all winter/fall. 

4. Turn off the heat/AC and open those windows! I am looking forward to a much lower electric bill for the next little bit. 

I have also been diagnosed with a very overactive thyroid. Not sure what that is going to mean in terms of medical expenses, but I will keep you updated. My hope is to try to talk my doctor into controlling it holistically before resorting to medication. I don't know if I am comfortable nursing M&M while on medication, so I have begun pumping again in case I am unable to hold off on the meds. While researching I found a local (to Roanoke) group that helps with breast milk donation... 
Human Milk for Human Babies- Roanoke

I encourage you to show them some support! If you are a lactating mother and could donate this is a great place to get started. I am currently in the process of donating again for the second time, and it is a great feeling! 

Enjoy your St. Patrick's day! 

Reality Check

We have been striving to be debt free for about a year and a half now. I have finally come to terms with a few things about our financial lives. 

1. We will probably carry some debt for a couple more years (excluding the house and car). I own my own child care business and things like a fenced in yard, playroom, etc are things that help me continue to stay in business. 
2. I need to re-instate my small goals list! Over the last couple of months I have been focusing on big goals and have been getting discouraged...time to think small (aka achievable). 
3. We have had quite a few financial hiccups in the last couple of months: hospital visit for repairs after M&M ($3700 before insurance), hospital visit for KG just last week, losing my job at the church, etc. It's okay when life throws curve balls. We are able to continue living the way we have been due to all the work we have put in during the last year and a half.
4. We need to re-grow our savings account. We have run it low for quite a while now (since right after M&M arrived). Time to build that bad boy up again!
5. We are still trying to sell our 'extra' vehicle. Not many bites right now... but while we wait we are trying to pay it forward and lend it to a couple who just returned from missions in Africa. They needed a vehicle so both could secure jobs. By the grace of God we were able to refinance the vehicle and bring the payment down, but it would be nice to be rid of that burden. 

Does this mean I give up all the work we've done or regress into a life full of consumer debt? No way! It just means I accept our current station and reevaluate our battle plan to get where we want to be financially! 

For those who have been following, here is where we were June of 2012

Our current debt stands at: 
Credit Card #1  $251.00
Credit Card #2  $2,768.00
Addition:            $5,500.00
Vehicle:             $10, 494.00
House:               $126,425.00
Total Debt:       $ 145,438.00

Here is where we are currently:

Addition/Fence: $6,986

Vehicle (Jeep): $12,964

Vehicle (Envoy) $9,111

*Currently trying to sell

House: $124,800

Total Debt: $153,861

Our debt has increased by almost $8,500... that is a scary thing to see! Hopefully the envoy will sell soon and that number will go down to a debt decrease of almost $700. 

Our debt is different now though. The debt for the addition and fencing is for business purposes- and the Jeep is also to allow me to be able to transport children to and fro (the envoy only seated 5 and the jeep seats 7, making it much easier to put 3-4 car seats in there).

Now- onto the plan portion!

Here is what we hope to do with our debt over the next 3 months:

1. Pay $2000.00 toward the addition debt from tax returns.
2. Pay $1,570 toward the addition during monthly budgeting (bringing the addition debt down to $3,416.00)
3. Make additional payments on the Envoy to help pay it down faster. By the end of May we will owe $8,500. We will continue to try to sell it until we pay it off. 

Can I be honest for a second? I am a little discouraged! But have no fear... discouraged does not equal giving up. It would be truly discouraging if I said 'oh this failed, lets just go back to what we were doing'. Time to buckle down, get creative and get re-invested in my financial future. Because at the end of the day I am doing it for my kids!

Anyone else need to recommit to their financial future? Hop on board, we can do it together!

Going 'Off the Grid'

I have taken a step to the dark side... I am planning a spring and summer full of, what I have recently found to be called, Urban Homesteading.
The premise being that you grow your own food (as much as possible), can/preserve it for cooler months and becoming as self sustainable as possible!

I have discovered over the last couple of weeks that prices are rising on foods that I purchase each week. Bread alone has risen $.11! (Don't worry, I will be mixing some dough tomorrow morning to bake!)

After some research I have decided that I am going to plant a garden this spring. I am planning on growing these fruits and veggies, because we eat these the most.

• Tomatoes
• Cucumbers
• Sweet Potatoes
• Onions
• Watermelon
• Pumpkin
• Peas 
• Beans

I have found a cool idea on how to save space AND grow sweet potatoes... you can grow them in a large bucket! They like HOT weather so that one will have to wait just a tad bit... It is still cold around these parts, don't ya know!

I am not done researching all I need to know to grow a garden, but I am certainly looking forward to the task! I have also decided that I will make a palet fence to surround my garden and keep the deer out. We have an apple orchard on neighboring land and the deer love to come through our back yard as the sun sets- yes, it is as pretty a picture as you might imagine. 

My hope is to convince my husband to let me get some leghorn chickens to raise for eggs. I alone eat about 2 dozen a week...that has not been a success yet. I am excited to start hanging my clothes out to dry again- I got away from that this fall with a little baby that I wasn't willing to carry out in the cold or leave unattended in the house. 

This week I am going to start doing the following:

• Make homemade bread
• Find a good raspberry jam recipe
• Begin pricing pressure cookers (or finding one to borrow) for canning

My hope is that even with prices rising, we will be able to continue to eat the fresh foods we love! My hope is to also find a place that I can buy beef in bulk to freeze!