Monday, January 11, 2010

End of first week for January Budget Challenge



First pic is what I got from CVS on Saturday, minus one Cottonnelle that is suppposed to be with this weeks deals. The Special K and Electrasol was from Wags. Altogether the stuff in the pic cost me $4.57! Considering one box of Electrasol regular price is $4.99, I thought that was a phenomenal deal!
And my last trip to Meijer and Wags for the week. The Neosporin, Glucerna, Tresemme, "poppers", pen, Electrasol, and 2 boxes of Special K are from Wags. Everything else was from Meijer. That would have been so much easier to type if I had typed Meijer first...oh well. :) Anyway, I spent a $8.48 at Meijer for 22 yogurts and 5 boxes of cereal and then got $2.00 back for OYNO. At Wags I spent $1.32! So happy for good deals. And now I am once again, completely stocked up on cereal.

So for my first week my total out of pocket spending came to $54.29! Only $4.29 over what I was aiming for. Not too shabby, I thought. Hopefully next week goes just as good...

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Thursday, January 07, 2010

The **EDITED** $100.00 a month budget...now $200.00

So it is Thursday and so far this is what I have bought, minus a couple of tomatoes, some cucumbers, a head of lettuce, 4 Sunday papers, and some icecream. This brings my total spending for the week to $36.54. I am hoping to get back $5.67 of that for a coupon that was inputted wrong. They put $.62 instead of $6.29. Big difference if you ask me. Unfortunately I didn't catch it until I was all ready home.


Now I know what you are thinking--Esther--and, no, we didn't survive on Cheerios and coffee creamer all week. :) For the kids it was cold cereal, until today since I ran out of milk, and oatmeal for Caleb and I. Lunch has been a variety of things from egg salad to peanut butter and jelly to quesadillas. I had a TON of bananas from last week and those will last us through the weekend. Dinners have been tacos, enchiladas, and pizza sandwhiches. Any other fruit that we eat is taken from my canning supply downstairs.

I have enough of a food storage that I can typically buy to fill in the wholes. Notice the roasts that are in the pic. They were on sale and will be perfect for our Sunday lunch. So even though I bought them this week they will be eaten over the next couple of weeks for sure. Some snack fillers that I got were the cucumbers, yogurt, and Cheerios. It doesn't sound like much but when you have a fridge full of food--so much you can't find room for leftovers!!--you know you have plenty of food. So I don't worry too much about buying certain things. I figure there is plenty of stuff to eat it is just a matter of wanting to eat it. :)

So there you have it. Maybe not a list of specific deals but at least a pic of most everything I got. I am hoping to head to Wags one more time this week, get my money back hopefully and then turn around and use it one some of the other deals that I didn't get there this week. And just in case you are wondering about the uppage (is that even a word?) in the budget, I did not think it was feasible to make it on $25.00 a week especially since my food storage is not what it used to be. So from now on, $50.00 a week should be plenty...hopefully...

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Friday, January 01, 2010

January Challenge
I saw this challenge on Money Saving Mom and thought it looked great...until I looked at my pantry and food storage and realized I couldn't make it a whole month on what I have stored up. Food has seemed to disappear around here at an alarming rate recently. Or maybe it is because I just haven't been up to doing all the deals as much as I used to. Either way, I just don't think a whole month is possible.
But what I am going to try to do is do it for two weeks out of the month and be on a strict budget for the month. I am going to try to spend $100.00 for the month. Yikes! That is scary actually having it in print, but I'm hoping I can do it. I will try to post some of our meals on here and also how much I have spent for the week and let you know the deals that I have gotten. I have really slacked off on that in the last six months.
The only things I am going to try to stick to buying is fresh meat since that is not something I have stored up, milk, bread, eggs, fresh veggies, and a minimal of fresh fruit since I have a good amount and variety of fresh fruit canned.
If you think you can do the whole month, you can sign up on Money Saving Mom's website. Otherwise if you are like me and just don't have a ton of food stored up but have a decent amount, then feel free to join me this month as I try to follow a very strict budget and at the same time clear out the pantry/food storage to make room for new.

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