Debt Non Sequitur

Never buy toiletries again!

2009-05-03T16:39:00.000-07:00

If you are into saving money you undoubtedly have heard about Walgreens and their rebate program. They have stopped their program as of this month and have implemented a new program in which you purchase particular items and then right at checkout receive a coupon for a dollar off amount on your next purchase. This is a terrific program because the benfits to the consumer are terrific if you spend some time organizing your deals.

For example, last week Nivea body wash was priced $4.99. Purchase one and you receive a $5.00 Register reward [coupon] good on your next purchase. I purchased the body wash and did several other separate transactions one after the other all the while using the coupon from the previous sale to purchase the items in the next sale. Walked out with $65.00 worth of stuff and paid tax. I have had people behind me in line stop me in the parking lot and ask me how I do it.

First of all if someone else is doing the work already why should you do it? Time is money. There are loads of websites out the where the bloggers do the deals for you and all you have to do is copy it down on an envelope, put your coupons into the envelope and away you go to score some deals. The site I use most is:

Money Saving Mom

This site writes out all the deals for you plus has a tutorial for how to shop at Walgreens. all the work has been done for you. Money Saving Mom also highlights deals for other stores such as Target and Walmart. No need to spend more money than you need to and no need to speand more time than you need to. These bloggers have paved the way. Happily charge on after them while you save money.

Chickens

2009-05-03T16:30:00.000-07:00

I am not the chicken type. Had you asked me two years ago if I would have had chickens I would have said there would be no way I would keep chickens. A year into the process I cannot see how I lived without chickens. Granted we have 1 acre of land but realistically you could keep chickens in an urban backyard. Chickens are very low maintenance and you get quality eggs.

Here is what you need to know:

1.) You only need hens to get eggs. Roosters are unnecessary unless you want baby chicks. Believe it or not so many peole do not know this.

2.) You need water tight shelter. This could be anything. All you need is for it to be secure so a raccoon does not get in and for the hens to be able to roost off the ground.

3.) You do not need many hens. Three hens will usually lay an egg a day. 24 eggs in a week. Not bad and it saves you $2 at the store if you were to buy them.

4.) You do not necessarily have to feed the chickens anything. Ours are free range so they are not caged. They walk around and eat bugs all day. in the winter time when bugs are a little more scarce we supplement with organic chicken feed but a cupful once in the evening and once in the morning is enough to suffice our 12 hens.

That is it. On the surface keeping chickens seems a bit overwhelming but in the grand scheme of things it is really easy to keep hens. And it saves you money.

Which is why we are here isn't it?

One call saved me $300 dollars

2009-02-16T20:02:00.001-08:00

I did not need to make the call. There was no piece of mail that suggested it to me. I just decided to call my homeowners insurance company to tell them that the new fire station was built a mile from my house - "Do you guys care?" Apparently they do because just the fact that I live within a 5 mile radius of a fire station they gave me a discount. I would have never known if I had to asked. $300 saved just like that. And in the form of a check mind you. It never hurts to ask. While we were at it I asked if they could review my deductibles and look at some other companies to see if we could lower the premium. Currently I have a $500 deductible. I told her to work up some numbers for $1000, $1500, & $2000 and let me know what kind of savings we are looking at. Granted each family is different in terms of what they are willing to pay out of pocket. But isn't that what your emergency fund is for? Make the call.

I think I Have Decided to Blog Again

2009-02-16T19:59:00.000-08:00

Although I continue to do all of the things I blogged about last year I just have not had the time to post since last summer. Life got in the way as we all have happen sometimes. I have decided to try to fit this back into my life again sicne it keeps me accountable and helps me hone my scope of simple living.

Have a Vision Board

2008-06-26T10:20:00.000-07:00

Not that I am advocating Oprah, who in herself is her own religion, but I did get the idea from something I saw on one of her shows. It was talking about that ridiculous concept The Secret where you can get things to come into your life by speaking them into the universe. Although I do not believe in the concept proposed by The Secret I do believe in a Vision Board. On the show a woman was talking about how she had a board that she tacked all the thing she would like to do/have onto and there was a stove that she liked. Anyway she bought another stove and somehow "the universe did not want her to have that stove but the one she had on her board" and she ended up with the original stove. Okay far fetched I know!

I like the idea of a Vision Board. Not because you can somehow magically get these things to appear in your life but because using a vision board narrows your scope so you can focus on your goals. By keeping the things that are important to you in front of you so you can look at them every day it keeps you in forward progression - it helps you know where you want to be. On my visions board I have the house that I want to build, some scripture, a quote about Living my best life, among a few other things. I am working on a PhD so I have something relating to that on there as well. Sorry a stove is not that important to me. I think you can tell a lot about someone by looking at their vision board.

The key to success in any capacity is staying focused.

6th Carnival of Snowflaking at Greener Pastures

2008-05-30T06:05:00.000-07:00

The 6th Carnival of Snowflaking is up over at Greener Pastures.

A big thanks to them for including my article Free Cash for Snowflaking!

If this is your first time to Debt Non Sequitur - WELCOME! Please look around. There are alot of articles to help you save money, pay of debt, and live a financially independent life.

Thanks for stopping by!

Mesh Onion Bags = Scouring Pads

2008-05-29T08:35:00.001-07:00

Frugal Tip:

Save your mesh onion bags, wrap them with a rubber band and use to clean baked on food from pots and pans.

May Snowflake Report - $1292.15

2008-05-28T00:00:00.000-07:00

Not bad for this month so far:

77.15 - Sold textbook on Half.com
335.00 - Sold Braille machine on Ebay
11.50 - rolled change from change jar
57.83 - refund from Unclaimed money
800.00 - sold comic book collection
10.67 - reimbursement check
_____________

$1292.15 - sent to savings

I decided instead of paying off the orthodontist I would slate most of May's snowflake money to savings and pay only a little to the orthodontist. But all in all a good month for snowflakes.

Carnival of Debt Reduction #141: Enemies of the Doctor

2008-05-27T18:53:00.000-07:00

Jump on over to Consumerism Commentary for the 141st edition of the Carnival of Debt Reduction! This carnival is a traveling showcase of the best articles about the process of eliminating debt.

The theme for this week is “Enemies of Doctor Who.” The concept of debt would certainly be an enemy worth the Doctor’s attention, if he had any money.

Thank you to Consumerism Commentary for including my article Free Cash for Snowflaking – Snowflake Report – $57.83

If this is your first time here welcome and please take a look around. There are many articles to help you with debt reduction and saving.

Thanks for stopping by!

127th Festival of Frugality at Funny About Money

2008-05-27T18:40:00.001-07:00

And the Beat Goes On: 127th Festival of Frugality

My article "Free Cash for Snowflaking" has been included in the 127th Festival of Frugality being hosted at Funny About Money . A big thank you to Funny about Money for inclusion of my article in their carnival. Head over there to check out all the fine blogs and information related to all things frugal.

If this is your first time at Debt Non Sequitur please take a look around! There are many ideas to help you save money and we hope to see you again sometime!

Thanks for stopping by!

Seek Out Opportunities to Snowflake Big

2008-05-27T05:43:00.000-07:00

I love Goodwill. We have one that I go to that really gets some great things - they seem more particular about the things that they sell - good quality items and not junk. A few months ago I happened upon a braille machine. Since we were studying Helen Keller at the time I bought it for $15.00 and let the girls play with it for a few month to learn how people type in braille, make Braille books etc. I decided when they had enough of it I would sell it on eBay. Well come to find out this machine retails for $685.00! I ended up selling it for $335.00! Not bad for a $15.00 investment. Guess where the "extra" snowflake money will go? You got it, the orthodontist bill since that is the bill I am concentrating on to eliminate.

This just goes to show that there are opportunities out there to make serious cash for snowflakes. I am not of the mindset that you should be combing Goodwill or yard sales for things to sell. It seems like a lot of work - browsing, driving around, then taking pictures, putting them on eBay, packing, etc. If you can find a really good opportunity like the one I have shared here then it seems worth it. Half an hour of my time equaled $335.00. If I were selling something that ended up at $7.00 would that really be worth the half an hour to find, take pictures, post, and package the item? In my opinion, no. Look for big opportunities to snowflake. You waste your time and your life by spending it needlessly on mini-opportunities that net you $7.00. Yes, every little bit adds up but do you want to spend the rest of your life adding up $7.00 at a time or $335.00 at a time?

Seek out opportunities to snowflake big.

Staying In a 7 Bedroom Beach House is in Your Budget

2008-05-25T00:00:00.000-07:00

Each year my husband's sisters (3) and their families and our family rent a beach house in the Outer Banks for our annual week long beach trip. Now some of you might be thinking that might be expensive. It is if you go in the middle of the summer during their peak season. If you schedule your trip right outside those peak times you can save quite a bit of money. So we have 8 adults and 9 kids staying in a 7 bedroom beach house (grandparents sometimes come and go) with a private heated pool and hot tub on the ocean (sometimes on the sound front) for $1360. For a week. Split four ways (4 families) it is only $340.00 per family. You cannot stay in a nice hotel for that amount and have a private pool hot tub and king sized bedroom with a nice master bath. You cannot beat those prices.

Since we have to eat while we are here each family picks a night that they are responsible for. Whatever night they pick out, they make dinner for the entire crew, including dessert, and clean up. They are also responsible to bring a game for the grownups to play. This still is not expensive because you can purchase all the ingredients at home and bring them with you to the beach house to assemble. For example we have the first night and we decided to do a pizza bar. We will make several pizza doughs here at the house and bring them to the beach house. The kids will all have mini-pizzas and we will make five larges for the adults. The toppings will already be cut and separated out into Ziplocs that we can take there and when we get ready to cook the kids can all make their own pizzas. I will make the pizza sauce ahead of time at home and bring it as well. Our dessert will be a sundae bar. Again same concept - lots of choices to build your own sundae. I purchased many of the toppings very inexpensively over the last few months when I saw them on clearance or had triple coupons at Harris Teeter. Again this will not be a huge expense and the rest of the nights we can sit back because other families will be cooking and cleaning up! We always take the first day because we want to get it over with and relax for the rest of the week.

We usually do not spend any money when we go on this trip. The kids basically play in the pool, eat, go to the beach, eat, play in the pool, eat, go to the beach, eat, etc. We really do not go anywhere or do anything special just let the kids have fun. Occasionally we will take them to an ice cream shop on the corner or some of the moms will go to the outlet stores but generally we just hang out since everyone lives in different places. It is a time for us to spend together. But the house is big enough that if you do need a break from your in-laws you can hide in your bedroom.

Since I have an ING account (email me for a referral) I create subaccounts that I can automatically deposit money into for different things. One of the subaccounts is labeled vacation and months ago I started deposited a bit each payday so now I have several hundred dollars in there in case I need it. No worrying about if we have enough money in the account to cover the trip or having to take money out of savings if there isn't a surplus in the checking account. We have been saving for this already. Since ING automatically debits this out for me I don't really even realize it is there until I need it. We have another trip scheduled later in the summer and this money will be used for that.

Things are not out of your reach just because you are in debt or trying to save.

If you learn anything by reading this blog it is that creatively and preplanning are essential for financial security.

Cheap Massages

2008-05-24T00:00:00.000-07:00

Massages just make life go better. The benefits of massage are numerous and can help you if you are sore, stressed or need to be rejuventated. There are studies out there that say that just by trying to conjure up a previously received massage in your mind it has stress relieving properties.

Instead of paying a whopping $55+ for a massage how about checking out a massage school where people are learning the trade and will practice on you for $15.00?

Not a bad deal and snowflake your savings.

Free Cash for Snowflaking - Snowflake Report - $57.83

2008-05-23T11:32:00.000-07:00

I have to say that any time before when I have seen those websites or advertisements on tv about the fact that each state has unclaimed money in the millions to pay taxpayers I did not really believe it. But now I am a believer. A couple of weeks ago I happened on one of those sites and it looked like it was set up by the state that I live in. It was the website for the Department of the State Treasurer's Office and it has a search engine on it where you could input your name and see if there were any funds in your name. Well I typed in my name - nothing. I typed in my husband's name and I got a hit. The site does not tell you who the money was held by pr how much only your name and an address they have on file. If it is you there is a link to a claim form. You fill out this form, include proper forms of identification, including proof of your living at that address and send it in. Well my husband lived at that particular address 13 years ago, before we were married. We did not have anything in the safe with that address on it. But after some searching I found the address on a credit report. We sent in the paperwork and two weeks later we were sent a check in the amount of $57.83! Not bad for 20 minutes worth of work. I will be sending this to that oh so favorite debt of mine - the orthodontist. I am $57.83 closer to paying them off and we did not even know we had this money to begin with!

This goes to show that it is worth it to check out all avenues of passive income - even if it is a long shot.

Stop Shortening Your Life Span - How to be Healthy and Lose Weight by Default

2008-05-23T05:48:00.000-07:00

We definitely fall under the holistic category when it comes to health. I have four children, all of which are extremely healthy. In fact, just last year, I discovered at a routine visit to the pediatrician that we were three years behind for my two oldest girls well-checks! I thought the schedule was 5 years old, 7 years old, 10, etc. Because they never go to the doctor it was never caught. Anyway we immediately scheduled them for their well-checks or maintenance checks because these are so important for documenting growth. And checking for eyesight issues, in this case, since we discovered that my oldest daughter might need glasses.

People are always surprised to hear how healthy we are as a family. My husband is 40 and to look at him he looks like he is in his 20's. Don't get me wrong, he works at it, eats all the right things, exercises, it takes commitment, but in his eyes it is worth it to maintain a healthy lifestyle and he has often said his goal is not to be on blood pressure medication or cholesterol lowering meds, or anything like that in later life. Good goal if you ask me. Meds shorten your life span. I still have the same body I had in my 20's - even after 4 kids. We only go to the doctor for check-ups.

I believe it is because of our lifestyle. No, we are not hardcore exercise freaks who mountain-bike trails every weekend. No, we don't workout 7 days a week at a gym or with home equipment for that matter. No, you couldn't describe us as "outdoorsy types". People would not describe us as exercise monsters who think only about being healthy.

But we are healthy.

And you could be too with a few adjustments to your diet and lifestyle. Nothing major, just tweak things a bit.

Get rid of processed food - if it has more than 6 ingredients in it - don't eat it. If it has anything that you cannot pronounce or don't know what it is - don't eat it.

Drink tea - Nothings pains me more that to see these people walking around with bottle Lipton Green tea. They think it is the green tea that all the doctors are talking about. Read the label - it is garbage. The tea they are talking about is hot tea. Of all kinds. Try to drink at least one cup a day. Sweeten it with honey not sugar. Add a bit of no fat milk to it.

Garlic - step up garlic consumption. Not only is it good for your heart but it is a natural anti-coagulant so it thins the blood and prevents clotting and it has the equivalent of antibiotic properties. Good preventative measures for heart attack and stroke. If you love garlic, roast a bulb in the oven for 40 minutes and squeeze it out onto a piece of toasted bread once a day. The act of roasting it cuts the sharpness of the flavor and sweetens it. Cut the top off, drizzle with olive oil, and cover with aluminum foil and throw into the oven. If you hate garlic, too bad, take some in a capsule form or try to add it to whatever you can that can mask it somewhat - turkey meatloaf, spaghetti sauce, etc. You must factor this into your diet somehow, someway.

Ginger - This is still used medicinally by Chinese practitioners. I have used ginger treatment for all sorts of things because of its anti-inflammatory properties. You could use this as a preventative treatment for inflammatory issues like arthritis or even artery inflammation. Mind you this is not for the faint of heart - this tea has a menthol sort of taste to it but you get used to it.

Ginger Tea

Grind up 1 TBSP ginger root into 8 oz. boiling water. Turn off heat and steep 3 minutes. Strain into mug and sweeten with honey and lemon and a bit of milk would be nice.

Drink this once a day to keep inflammation in your arteries down and to prevent clotting which leads to stroke and heart attacks. I am a big believer in ginger tea and have converted many. When people mention that their back back is unbearable or one lady who could not heal from stomach surgery I tell them about this remedy. most will only try it when they have tried everything else and it hasn't worked. Try it because you want to and because it will extend your life.

Sweets - only one per day. Whatever you want that is not processed but only once per day. When I say sweets I am talking about things that are good for you like home-made cookies beefed up with flax seed and bran and some chocolate chips. Eat only unprocessed sweets.

Flax Seed - must have in your diet. Both ground meal and whole. The oil in the flax "greases" up your arteries and cleans them out so to speak as well as cleaning out your bowels. Dump flax into anything you can. Hide it in spaghetti, yogurt, stir fry, anything because once this seed actually elevated your HDL which is your good cholesterol and gives you a preventative measure. My HDL is actually 25 points higher than the normal range so they add that back to my numbers to lower my actual number of my LDL. It is considered a preventative so they give you credit for it.

Grape Juice - solid no additives, no preservatives, straight up grape juice. One cup per day with breakfast. Obviously you have heard about grape juice and its antioxidant properties. It also lowers cholesterol. I put my father on a regimen of 1 cup grape juice, handful of almonds, and flax seed and his cholesterol went down 30 points.

Nuts - specifically walnuts or almonds. Only a handful as these are high in fat, good fat, but fat nonetheless.

Olive Oil - use only this oil for cooking. If you decide to fry something which you should not be doing very often, use canola oil as olive oil is not a high heat oil.

Ditch Fried Food - no explanation here. Eat it in moderation, like once a month.

That's it. I guarantee you will see a change in your health, weight and activity level if you just change these few things. Not a major change, just a minimal one with big payoffs.

The beautiful thing about tweaking your diet in this way is that the weight falls off of you. Once you stop eating garbage your body becomes more efficient and uses what it needs and what you provide it. You are not giving it "extra stuff" that it doesn't know what to do with so it stores it in your arteries or your hips. I have never been on a diet and neither has my husband. We have not cut out sugar nor do we eat everything or even half of our things low-fat. We use real butter. We drink no-fat milk.

I am still in a size 4 a 5'9" at age 37 and my husband is a 33 waist at 6' at age 40. We are lean and have low body fat. Not because we exercise all the time and deprive ourselves of food but because we have utilized the things that come from the earth in raw form since we believe that this is what was created for the body to utilize. Everything that you could need is on the earth naturally. Partially hydrogenated oil is man made and gunks up the machine that is your body. Fruits and vegetables and legumes and nuts make your body run like a well-oiled machine.

It goes without saying that this will save you on health care costs in the future.

Stop shortening you life span.

5th Carnival of Snowflakes!

2008-05-22T00:00:00.000-07:00

My article "Birthday Party Ideas For Cheap" has been included in the 5th Carnival of Snowflakes being hosted at My Small Cents. A big thank you to Snowflake Revolution for inclusion of my article in their carnival. Head over there to check out all the fine blogs and information related to snowflaking, a concept that I embrace.

If this is your first time at Debt Non Sequitur please take a look around! There are many ideas to help you save money and we hope to see you again sometime!

Thanks for stopping by!

Selective Perfectionism

2008-05-20T06:22:00.000-07:00

I am what they call a Selective Perfectionist. There are certain things that I need to have a certain way and I will not be able to rest until it is in order, how I like it. For example, I like to have the amoire doors closed in the great room if no one is watching tv. I don't know why. It really bothers me, I mean reeeaaalllllyyyyy bothers me if the doors are wide open and the tv is not on. I have tried to ignore it before. You know if the kids have left it open and I am working in the kitchen, or helping them with school work, whatever, but every time I walk past it, and I could be 20 feet away, it bothers me to no end. I have to go close it. Right now.

But other things, like my desk, don't really bother me. I can work in that environment. I know where everything is. It is not filed or in a certain place or anything. I don't even notice the clutter or the cat ChouChou for that matter when I am working at my desk. I think I have selective perfectionism when it comes to finances too. Some things I have to have completely under control like savings or paying bills but do I balance my checkbook? Uh no. "The horror!" you say! I know! I really should balance the checkbook. I do not know how many times I have started to balance the checkbook only to loose interest a few weeks later. Same goes for that wretched Quicken to track your expenses and assets. I have entered information for hours into that program only to loose interest a few weeks later. I try but just cannot seem to stay with it.

But it is okay. I can function without them. For me it is fine to mentally know where I am and I do have a rough estimate of where how much is in the bank at a given time. I always know where we are money wise with bills, savings, etc. so I think this method, or lack thereof, works for me.

Find something that works for you. If you hate it don't do it. If you keep trying to do something that you hate, like balance a checkbook in my case, don't do it. Find another way that works. Just make sure that it works.

Why do anything in life that you hate? Seems like a waste of your life energy, don't you think?

Never Buy Another Envelope Again

2008-05-20T00:00:00.000-07:00

Make sure that you recycle envelopes that you receive from companies trying to get your business. You know the envelopes you get with "postage paid" on them? The ones without windows. Pull it apart, flip it inside out and glue the edges back down. I have a file folder in my file cabinet that I keep these envelopes in. As I am going through junk mail I toss these envelopes into the file and then maybe once every three or four months, when I have collected a bunch, I will take a half hour and pull them all apart, turn them inside out, and glue them back together again. Do it while you watch tv.

You'll never have to buy another envelope again.

Use an Envelope System to Control Spending

2008-05-18T08:39:00.000-07:00

Everytime I go into a store I always have coupons. To make sure that I know what I need to get and to keep the coupons handy I use envelopes. For example, once I have compiled a list of the items I want at a particular store - let's use Target, I will write the items down on the outside of the envelope. I will write the item, the sale price and then in parenthesis what coupon I have for said item. So it might look like this:

Olay Body wash - 3.99- 2.00 (MC) - 1.00 (TC)

I know what item I am looking for, the sale price, that I have a manufacturer's coupon (MC) and a Target coupon (TC) which I can piggyback onto the MC. The coupons are then put into the envelope. I take only this envelope into Target and I only buy only what is on this list. I use this method for grocery stores as well as places like Walgreen's and Rite Aid.

As a side note, recycle the envelopes that you receive in your junk mail. You know the ones you get with credit cards offers that are postage prepaid, etc? Just flip them inside out and glue back together and you have some envelopes - FREE. No need to go out and purchase a box of envelopes if you don't have to. Creative thinking leads to savings.

This method prevents you from needless spending as long as you do not deviate from your list.

Birthday Party Ideas for Cheap

2008-05-16T05:06:00.000-07:00

Since I snowflake religiously I have to spend the least amount of money possible on everything to obtain my goals. That includes birthday parties.

My daughter turned nine recently and we needed to throw a party. I am not going to spend a million dollars on a birthday but there are some creative things that you can do to make it unbelievably memorable. Since we had to host 14 little girls and my daughter wanted a spa theme we came up with the idea to do stations where they could get nails done or their feet massaged or a crazy hair up-do, etc.

Here are some of the frugal things we came up with:

I enlisted the moms to man the stations - FREE - each mom had a station that she "worked" at and provided a service such as nails, hair, make-up, etc. For the nail station we all brought nail polish so the girls had many colors to choose from (FREE) We already had cuticle trimmers, nail files, lotion for hands, so I only had to buy jewels to glue onto the nail polish - $.49.

I made goodybags

The Sign on her chair - cardboard cut to size, fancy font printed on paper and cut out, lined with feather boa.

The Goody Table - tree with pink booms from the side yard, glass bowls from the kitchen to put goodies in, glass container from bathroom - all free. Tulle - $1/yard at Walmart. White sheet to cover the table. Goodies from Dollar Store - for example pink emery boards were a pack of 8 for $1.00.
Food - I made the cupcakes and searched around for any type of bulk candy that was pink. Pretzels covered in chocolate with pink sprinkles, etc. Anything to match the theme. Glass jars on table to store candy I borrowed from friends. I raided four houses.

Having a party doesn't need to be expensive. Come up with creative, inexpensive ideas and it looks like you paid a million dollars for it. Onward snowflaking!

I Started Using a DayTimer

2008-05-15T09:19:00.000-07:00

I don't have a job and there is no real reason to have a Day Timer other than for purely selfish reasons and the fact that I love to cross things off a list. Call it OCD or being a control freak but there is something very liberating about having a list then crossing something off of it. Completion. Forward momentum. Working towards a goal.

When I decided that I was going to organize my day in one spot and not sticky notes all over the house I did not run out and buy a Day Timer. I posted on Freecycle that I needed one and lo and behold, the same day I got two replies for people wanting me to pick theirs up to get it out of their hair. I picked it up, stopped off at Target to get some new filler pages and priced the DayTimers there ($12.99 - $24.99) and was proud of myself for saving money.

If you glean anything from this blog know that financial security is really all about preparation and creativity. Try to seek out solutions in a creative manner.

Part of being in debt in the first place is lack of discipline - when you need something you run to the store to buy it. Then it ends up in your yard sale three years later selling for a fraction of what you paid. And don't forget you are still paying for it on your Visa, with interest.

Be in control. When you need something look around first. You might be surprised that you can acquire the item easily and for free.

Back to the Day Timer. I really did not think I was one of those people who could use one of those things and be happy about it. I can imagine that many buy these things with good intentions and then it ends up under some books somewhere never to be used after a month. I was concerned about my being able to write things down in it in a disciplined manner. I have to say after using one for a month that I love this method of controlling my madness. Before I had little post-its everywhere. Now everything is in one spot all nice and neat. The Day Timer sits on my desk and is always open so I can see at a moment's glace what needs to be done and what has been done. I list anything from appointments to what room of the house needs to be cleaned to phone calls that I need to make. After I have finished a task I cross through it with a highlighter. I use highlighters instead of marking through an item so I can still read what the item was and it is easy from afar to see what has been crossed off and what hasn't been. I am not one of those people who cannot rest if there are things left on the list for the day. I merely work on it the following day so I can cross it off. The rule is that is has to be done by the weekend so everything will be highlighted by Saturday. It is wonderful seeing how much I have accomplished. Before all the little lists were thrown away after I finished with them. There wasn't really a sense completion, that I worked hard all week to get a lot done. I knew I had done things through the week but I couldn't tell you everything.

There is something very satisfying and soul satisfying to see your work and what you have accomplished. I love the Day Timer.

Three Daughters = Braces, College, and a Wedding

2008-05-14T18:48:00.001-07:00

I have three daughters. All of which will require braces, college, and a wedding. Two of the three are non-negotiable. The weddings, well, they can live at home forever, or so their Daddy says.

Here is a great tip for those who have daughters:

Instead of paying for the wedding like somehow we have been roped into doing (Who decided that?!?) how about, starting when she is very young, putting away money to equal $10,000? Have an amount automatically debited from your payday each time into a separate fund especially for this purpose. ING sub accounts would be wonderful for this. (Email me to get a referral. I get credit for referring people.) When the time comes that she wants to get married (how dare she??) offer the $10,000 to pay for the wedding or she and her new husband can take it and blow it or they can put a down payment on a house. Either way you have done your part and given them a fair start in their new life together. And if you have raised your daughter right, with good financial wits about her since you learned from your mistakes, she will opt to buy a home since he is not in credit card debt because you taught her so well, aaaannnnndddd, she would think blowing it would be financially irresponsible. Whew nice run-on sentence. This will prevent you from getting caught in the "Can't I have it Daddy & Mommy please?????" and you end up paying for a $30,000 wedding, in our case three times over.

Being financially secure is all about planning.

Back in the Game

2008-05-14T18:38:00.000-07:00

You know sometimes when it really seems like people are not listening it is hard to stay motivated to keep on writing about stuff? I had a computer issue for a couple of days there and then I began to let those thoughts creep in: "Well no one really reads the blog anyway so why bother?" or "Do I really have time to do this?"

So I check in today and there is a new comment saying that I have good information! Ahhhhhh....all is well in the world again. It is so nice to hear people say nice things or make comments. it keeps those of us who blog a feeling that we are helping in some small way. Sometimes it is hard to carry on a one sided relationship - no feedback sometimes makes you think am I the only one who is giving here??

I thank all of you who have posted in the past. I'm back in the game.

Five Budget Busters Meme

2008-04-25T08:15:00.000-07:00

I've Paid For This Twice Already , one of my favorite blogs, tagged me in the Five Budget Busters Meme. I love the idea of putting this down on "paper" so to speak. We all have stuff floating around in our heads but when you write it down, take an honest look at it staring you in the face, it becomes reality and you have to make a choice about it - you can ignore it or do something about it. Love that!

My Five Budget Busters are:

Organic Food – Since we eat only natural, non processed foods I am so tempted by organic food in the stores. You know organic cookies that appear to be Oreo’s or organic frozen dinners which, since they are a whole food and usually just have a few ingredients would be fine on a night when I am too tired to cook. I shy away from those because of the high sodium content but it sure would be nice to have one of those sitting in the freezer for a night off for me.

Home school and Kid’s Books – Hello. My name is ChouChou and I am addicted to home school & kid’s books. I need a 12 step program. I try to do what I can: buying books a yard sales for .25 or buying off the clearance rack at our local used home school store but what is my problem???? For example I went into said home school store yesterday for a new science book since my 11 year old blew through hers in like three months so I went to get her the next grade up so she can start on it. One book. One science book. I walked out of there with a literature book, a study of the Tudor Dynasty book, a science book, and a history book. What is my problem?????

Travel – Lord knows I am a Travel Junkie! Being a homeschooling family does not help the situation either in that if we are studying Williamsburg why can’t we go experience Williamsburg? If we are studying the coral reefs why can’t we go snorkel in the Bahamas (we did this by the way this past September). I really try, I really do, to find the best possible deals, accommodations, eat in our suite, etc. but there is just something about traveling that goes hand in hand with the shocking realization that you have spent too much. I start off with great intentions but when we return I am almost always surprised at how much we have spent.

Starbucks Caramel Frappiccinos – Again, my name is ChouChou and among my many addictions I am also addicted to this particular coffee at Starbucks. I only go into town once a week and will usually get one, so a once a week addiction is not that bad [rationalization] but you can bet that I break out into a rash every time I fork over $4.43 for that thing. But I like the idea of little treats for myself now and then and if my treat is only 4 bucks then I think I can handle it.

Shoes – I think all women like the idea of shoes. I mean who does not like buying new shoes that go perfect with a certain outfit. New shoes do something for the soul. But is it really necessary to have six pairs of black pumps??? Hello, my name is ChouChou and I am addicted to buying shoes.

Okay after writing all that out I have decided that I have an addictive personality. Seriously though, those are the things that tempt me and even though I have a handle on them somehow they creep in occasionally and disrupt my budget. The good news is that since I have become a frugal zealot who is in control of my money the effects are not terribly devastating and that is the key. Once you get your finances under control a little deviation from the plan, even unplanned, is okay and is not the end of the world.

I am supposed to tag three people, so I will tag:

Frugal Dad

Thrifty Florida Mama

Pinching Copper

These are great blogs. Please visit them and see what they have to say on this subject.

Carnival of Snowflaking 1st Edition!

2008-04-25T06:00:00.000-07:00

The first edition of the Carnival of Snowflaking is up over at Snowflake Revoloution and many thanks to Paid Twice for including my post on How To Find Snowflakes! Please go visit all of the great bloggers who post about snowflaking. You'll learn alot about this revolutionary way of attacking debt and saving money. Knowledge is power.

http://www.snowflakerevolution.com

If this is your first time to my blog welcome! I invite you to please take a look around and learn how we live on a fireman's salary with 4 kids in a 21st century world! There are many ideas and helpful hints on how to save money, make money and reduce your debt.

I thank you kindly for stopping by!

Free Birthday Gifts

2008-04-24T06:03:00.000-07:00

In the last year have you noticed that in drugstores like CVS or Walgreen's or Rite Aid they have begun to sell giftcards to places like Barnes & Noble, or restaurants like Olive Garden, or even Visa cards? This is a wonderful concept for those who frequent these stores for their free deals.

Sometimes when I shop at Walgreen's they will give you back Register Rewards (RR's) for certain products that you buy. For example the other day I received $10 in RR's for the Aveeno deal. A few days later I went to Walgreen's again and bought gum and a $10.00 Borders Bookstore gift card. Total $11.86 - $10.00 RR = $.86 for gum and a gift card. I buy gift cards with RR's so that I can give them away as birthday gifts throughout the year. For free. If you have a CVS they will give you something similar and they have also begun to carry giftcards.

Not bad since most people prefer gift cards anyway and it doesn't cost me a dime.

How To Find Snowflakes

2008-04-23T07:11:00.000-07:00

Snowflaking is a wonderful concept. You can read about it here. I mean I love the idea of the debt snowball where you pay off one debt and then apply the amount you were paying to the original debt to the next debt and so on. But snowflaking gives you the sense of mini-successes which I love. They motivate me to keep working towards the bigger debt. Granted you are moving forward while working on your debt snowball but the successes seem fewer and farther between. Chinking away at debt in $2, $8, or $11 weekly increments makes me feel like I am doing something rather than having my successes a couple of months apart or more.

Where to find snowflakes:

Change around the house - Look everywhere. I mean everywhere. In the couch, in the laundry room, all of the drawers in the house, in the car, the garage, everywhere. I found three dollars in change in the playroom. Who knew?

Store mistakes - The other day I was at Harris Teeter and they were supposed to take off $3.00 for their store brand organic salsa making it $.29. When they rang me up it did not come off automatically like it as supposed to so they sent me up to customer service to get my money back. the lady at customer service said okay you'll get back $3.14. I asked her if she had to put it back onto my debit card or if she could just give me cash and she said she could give me the cash. I took the money and out it into my orthodontist envelope that I have sitting in my desk. I use any snowflakes to pay down my $1600.00 ortho bill for my son's teeth. But in my mind I had already committed and spent the $53.00 in the original transaction. Getting three dollars back and putting it back into my account seems counterproductive to me [this could just be my bizarre thinking!] but since I know that money has already been spent why not take it and spend it in a snowflake instead? If I had really been on the ball I would have quoted them their store policy which is when an item rings up at the wrong price you get that item free of charge.

Refunds - Those of you who shop Walgreen's or CVS know the power of refunding. These stores have free items every month where all you have to do is purchase the items and send in the rebate forms and they send you a check or gift card back. They give away these items hoping that you are going to spend more money while youa re in there but little do they know that we hardcore frugal people will not buy anything but what we have gone in there to get. Instead of getting the rebate amount back in a gift card which means you have to spend it at their store get it in the form of a rebate check which is money free and clear that you can deposit at your bank. Take that money and snowflake it.

Sell your stuff - no brainer here. Sell your stuff on Ebay, Craigslist, wherever you can. Yard sales, etc. You have this stuff sitting aorund your house that is worth money. Pretend it is money. Pretend that book on the shelf is $15.00. Pretend that those shoes in your closet are $21.00 laying on the floor. That figurine in the living room is $11.00 sitting on your entertainment center. If that was real money wouldn't you gather it all up and want to pay off your debt with it? What is stopping you?

Windfalls - Any money that you were not expecting is considered a windfall. That could be an overpayment to your mortgage company, a rebate stimlus check (hint, hint), a birthday present, whatever.

Coupon Savings - If you are a couponer at the bottom of your receipt it says how much you saved in coupons and card specials. Every time you go to the store check this amount and immediately throw that amount towards your debt.

For Those Who Coupon the Old Fashioned Way

2008-04-22T06:24:00.000-07:00

For those of you who coupon the old fashioned way by scanning the sales ads and coming up with shopping lists on your own here are some tips. I told you about the methods I use called the Grocery Game where they track 12 week highs and lows (something I could never have done scanning the sales ads myself) and put out a list that compiles free stuff and the lowest prices possible on any given item. You can read more about the Grocery Game in my post here. This is much easier than scanning the ads yourself and not expensive.

But if you are still scanning the ads yourself there are a few things you can do to make your life easier. Let's hope that you did your monthly menu planning that I spoke about here so you have all of the meals planned, the shopping lists done and now all that you need to do is find the sales.

Sit down with all of your ads at a time when you have no interruptions. You will need to scan each store's ads and write down which items you use and how much they are. Get a notebook for this because you will want to track the prices over a long period of time, say 12 weeks. One thing to remember here is that with the current economy the way it is prices have been steadily creeping upward in the last year so finding a product whose prices will trend downward at certain times will be difficult since everything is trending upward.

Once you have your products selected and your prices written down you need to make a menu based on these items. I actually plan my menu for a month in advance and use the same menu each month since no meal is repeated in the month. You can read about it here. But if you are trying to make your menus from the ads weekly now is the time to do it to see what you need in your pantry because, God forbid, you don't want to come home on a Tuesday night, tired, and discover you do not have baking powder and have to run to the corner store to pay an arm and a leg for it.

Now you need to break out your coupon binder and go through to see how you can get your prices down even more. Use an envelope and write the store's name on the back and list what you will be buying, the price and whether or not you have a coupon. Put your coupons into the envelope so they are handy when you go into the store. Preplanning will save you money. By using this method and not deviating from the items on your list you will get in and out of the store paying exactly how much you thought you would. Go in, buy what is on your envelope and leave. Do not buy anything else.

If you glean anything from reading this blog I hope that it is that planning will save you money. We always get into a situation where we have a need and because we have not planned we have to go out and pay for that need, usually full price.

Plan for your family's needs.

Children's Library Online

2008-04-22T06:08:00.000-07:00

For you homeschoolers out there I just discovered a wonderful children's library online unlike any I have ever seen. I has all the books categorized by age and interest and when a child goes to read the book it has the actual book whose pages flip as you are reading it! Amazing and if you have big readers in your family, which I do, who clow through books faster than we can get to the library this is a good in-between visits option. A great resource for your family.

Here is the site. Enjoy!

How Are You So Skinny?

2008-04-21T12:16:00.000-07:00

People ask me this all the time. That's good considering I have four kids and I am pushing 40 and I HATE exercising. My husband is also in good shape - has abs a 25 year old would love - but he is not muscular by any body builder's terms. My children are also all thin and lanky, just right for their heights. We are also all very healthy.

I think it is because of our diets and activity levels. We eat no processed food. None. We do eat "junk food" but it is usually the kind that are all natural with only a couple of ingredients and all of which I can pronounce, if we have not made it ourselves. Granted eating no processed foods and whole foods only requires a bit of creativity and planning in that we must make all the food ourselves or eat raw almonds and raw tomatoes or something. But in reality, eating healthfully saves us money.

We have fewer visits to the doctor which means less co-pays.

We do not pay for medicines unless we absolutely need them which is rare.

We have a garden and grow a lot of the food.

We do not eat out very much since there are not a lot of options for whole- foodists out there.

We did not decide to eat healthy to save money. Saving money was just a natural result from our eating healthy. We decided to eat healthy to be good to our bodies. Our bodies are our temples and we get just one. We should honor it. We are killing two birds with one stone here.

As a related side note, we eat all natural foods and some organics. We also use natural remedies for their healing properties rather than running to the store the minute someone has a problem. I think healthy eating and healthy living go hand in hand. I believe God has given us everything that we need to live on the earth - all that he created was good. Even pot, even beer. Everything has a purpose if not abused. We treat aches and pains with real ginger tea. We do not treat our children's sniffles or fevers under 100 degrees. Learn to use what you have and what others have had for hundreds of years. Do you really need Theraflu to get through a sickness? How about good old fashioned rest and tea and just work through it. How about parents that treat their kids colds? Why can't they have a runny nose? Oh so you don't get inconvenienced because your 2 year old wakes up several times a night because he cannot breathe. How about a humidifier and rocking him for a while because those days will be long gone fast and in 20 years you will be wishing that you had a baby to rock for hours on end since your house feels so empty nowadays.

People nowadays don't like inconvenience. They want the easiest and fastest way to relief, to eat, to sleep, to earn money, etc., etc., etc.

Seek out things that were put here for your benefit. Falling into the trap that the newest medicine or foods have to be better is illogical thinking. Tried and true tactics for better living have lasted this long for a reason.

Aren't Student Loans a Way of Life Just Like a Car Payment?

2008-04-19T06:44:00.000-07:00

I am in graduate school and I want to get a PhD so I am far away from being finished paying for school. Being obsessed with personal finance does not help when I have to borrow loans to pay for my schooling. Plus I attend a private Christian college so the tuition is slightly more than a regular college. I have 26,000 in school loans already that I am going to need to pay back and it stresses me out thinking that those are just sitting there waiting for me when I finish. I assume I will add another 26,000 when all is said and done. I have been weighing how to handle this for months:

I cannot pay it back yet because sold my company and I am not working right now to pursue school. This is where most people are. They are going to school and postpone paying back their loans until after they graduate and get a job. This seems like impending doom to me. I don't like the idea of having to fork out $800 a month once I am working. Seems like it goes against going back to school to earn a better living. Seems like I went back to school to pay back $800 a month.

I could pay for my education as I go. I did this as an undergrad. Back when I had help from my parents, I was in my early 20's, no husband, no pets, no kids,, no responsibilities. Unlikely I can do that now since we are on a fixed income and don't have a lot of surplus. Sure I am saving a few hundred a month towards personal savings and retirement accounts and I could carve out a little from that but I feel like we are not contributing enough to those outlets so I would be stressed if I had to cut back on them some more. I like adding to savings every month and I like adding to my retirement accounts. They are the safety nets for our future. Planning is the secret of frugality.

Okay you say, well ditch the private Christian college. Go to a less expensive state run school. I could but it isn't my preference. I like the idea of learning about theology while I am learning about my field. It is like hitting two birds with one stone. I am growing spiritually while learning about other things. Seems like a bargain so to speak in terms of getting bang for my buck. I did attend a secular college as an undergrad and it was fine but I feel like attending this school for graduate work has made a tremendous difference in my enjoying my education. I believe it has added to my life. So ditching this school would be a last resort.

Okay well aren't student loans a way of life just like a car payment? No they are not and neither is the car payment. When I say I want to be debt free I mean debt free. There seems to be some sort of slavery associated with owing others and I do not like it. Freedom is having the money to do what you want and I value that so much so that I am willing to not go into debt to keep it.

I visit my student loan accounts on line a lot to look at the impending doom. I am not even starting to pay them back but as I look at the figures going up I just shake my head. There has got to be a way out, or through this.

Here is what I have decided. We purchased our home 6 years ago before the big housing bubble. We were unbelievably fortunate to get a builder's house with all kind of upgrades that is unique (a Victoria reproduction) with all the bells and whistles close to a major metropolitan town but just on the outskirts for cheap. Since it is half an hour outside of this major city it is still considered rural so the housing market had not caught up with the major city yet. We stand to make close to $300,000 profit when we sell this house in two or three years. There is my escape. As badly as I want to use that to build our new home mortgage free and throw the rest into an investment or savings I know I will have to pay back these student loans. I like my freedom so I will do it no matter how much it will hurt. I will be giving away part of my house that I plan to build to pay back a debt that I borrow to go to school. Ouch! But freedom is on the horizon!

Okay you say, that is great for you but I don't have a house I can sell for profit like that so I am stuck paying it back when I graduate. If I did not have the option of selling the house I would start to snowflake immediately, even before I was required to pay back the loan. You can read about snowflaking here. I would get a part time job or bring in some extra income and slate it nly for student loan payback. I would have to do something to get started on it because the idea of that waiting for me might be enough to make me think it just wasn't worth it. At least chinking away at the loans would feel like progress. I would divert some of the funds from the savings and from retirement and put it words to student loans each month. I would also start taking my tax refunds, whatever the amounts and use it for student loans or to pay tuition. I would also start using any windfalls that I received towards the loans or tuition.

Well, gosh ChouChou, wouldn't my life be terrible since I would have to give any extra money over to my education? Yes, for a little while but just think about the fact that you will be able to breathe a sigh of relief one day when you have your education paid in full and can longer be a slave to student loans. Won't it be worth it?

Circumstances That Can Rob Even The Most Savvy Frugal Zealot

2008-04-18T15:25:00.000-07:00

Today my husband had dive training with a few other guys from the station. One guy is single. one guy is married, both of them work, no kids. The other guy is divorced, no kids. Then there is my husband - married, four kids. Since my husband is a healthy eater he tends to make his own meals at the fire station. This particular day the training was off site and on a boat for the coast guard. Now that I have set this up let me tell you the host of circumstances that can rob even the most savvy frugal zealot.

There was no warning that training was going to be off-site - This means that my husband was caught off guard and had nothing prepared to grab on the way out the door.

He was on a boat - no refrigeration. Well, you say, he could bring a cooler. Nope, not allowed.

He was hanging out with guys who do not have kids, or are single - these guys decided that hey we are off site, there is a restaurant around the corner - Hey let's go there for lunch! These guys don't really care or watch their finances as closely as someone with children would and were fine with dropping 10-15 bucks on lunch.

Because he was on a boat he couldn't opt out of lunch - Normally he would just skip lunch and wait until they got back to the station to eat but being on a rocking boat and having motion sickness, it is not a good idea to skip lunch since he would be sick the rest of the day.

Alas, he was stuck. He dropped $11.00 for lunch that day. Not a big deal but we don't want to make a habit of it. But my husband was a bit irritated because the guys that he works with do not even think twice about going out to lunch. Husband does not feel as though he is missing out on something by not being of the same mind as those guys but more that he has goals that he wants to achieve and would much rather spend his money on travel or something worthwhile than a fancy salad.

So at the end of the day, be aware of the situations that you could get in, plan for them, so you do not get into a position of being caught off gaurd as my husband did this day. Planning is the secret to frugality and living on less.

What To Do With Your Rebate Stimulus Check

2008-04-16T19:27:00.000-07:00

In the blogosphere there is a lot of discussion about what people should be doing with their rebate checks that are starting to come out in May. Most people are talking about paying off debt or putting it into a CD or savings. Here are some other alternatives that you can consider when deciding what to do with your windfall:

Invest in Compact Fluorescent Light bulbs (CFLs) - These are pricier than regular light bulbs but will save the earth and your pocketbook from an untimely demise. Throw a couple hundred dollars towards changing all your light bulbs out and reap the savings in your power bill and longevity of the earth.

Fill your freezer - Your freezer doesn't run as efficiently if all you have is a tub of Chunky Monkey and a Tostinos pizza in there. Consider buying some meats or other items to fill your freezer so a.) you will have a fridge using less electricity and b.) on those weeks where you are short on cash and have little money to spare to buy groceries you can pull that rump roast out of the freezer that you bout 2 months ago and throw it into the crock pot and not have to worry about how you will feed your family this week.

Get an electric programmable thermostat - $100-200 buys you a regulator that you can program to lower the temperature when you are not home and thus save money over the long haul.

Invest in a low flow Shower head - Again no brainer here - save the earth and your water bill at the same time.

Replace all the filters in your house - New filters means the less your systems have to work to clean the air.

Buy energy efficient appliances - Yes your 14 year old Whirpool washer still works but do you think that thing isn't a water/electricity hog? Donate it to a women's shelter and get a highly efficient model to save on water and electricity bills.

Before you make any decision have all the options in front of you so you are well informed.

Saving Money Doesn't Need to Be Difficult But It Needs To Be Organized

2008-04-15T05:21:00.000-07:00

Remember how I told you about how I use coupons here and here? Just to make my life a little easier when I am going to a particular store I will write the list on an envelope and then put the coupons for that store that I need into the envelope so everything is sorted and I do not have to troll through my binder to find something. This works especially well if you are doing the Walgreen's or CVS or Rite Aid deals. Write what the deals are on the outside of the envelope. Here is an example:

Colgate Total Advanced Toothpaste -2.99 (on sale) - 2.99 (rebate) - 1.50 (MC)

This shows me what the price of the item should be on sale, that I have to rebate, and that I have a 1.50 manufacturer's coupon in the envelope for it. I use all kinds of abbreviations so it doesn't look all written out like this on the envelope.

Saving money does not have to be difficult but it does need to be organized.

Be a Superhero - Beat Pride, Your Financial Arch Nemesis

2008-04-12T06:00:00.001-07:00

If you think about it most people could do with so much less than they do. Why do you think that is? Do you think that people WANT to part with their money? Do they want to give it away to the cable company, or the store, or to the guys who manicures their lawn? We all realize that it is possible to live a just a few things as they did 100 years ago. Why do we feel as though we are entitled to have the latest a greatest things?

Do you always try to show your best feathers?

Pride. We like to have nice things. We like getting compliments on our new haircut or our new car. We like to have the nicest lawn on the block or have a new pair of earrings. But who is all that stuff actually for? Is it for you or so your neighbors will think that you are well off? Is it for your wife's parents so they will think that their daughter did not do too bad marrying you? Is it so your best girlfriends will think you are the cutest mom of the group? How about when you go to church? Are you dressing up in your "Sunday best" to glorify God or to look like the most put together family?

Contemplate why you spend money on things. By spending money on things we really do not need it sets us up for financial failure. Before you consider buying that new outfit think about who you are actually buying it for. It is not bad to have a few nice things. But when it becomes a need for you to maintain a certain persona or public image then it encroaches on your financial well being. Do you really need to spend that money or could it serve you better in your savings account?

Be a superhero - beat pride, your financial arch nemesis.

Our Egg Layer Has Died

2008-04-11T04:53:00.000-07:00

Roxy "Buck Buck" was killed in her enclosure by a fox. My girls wept for an hour last night. Please be in prayer for these young children that lost a pet. She followed them around the yard and came when they called her. She was not like other chickens but like a real pet for them. Pray that they might understand that it is better to have loved her for a little while than to never have loved her at all.

Coupon Lecture Last Night

2008-04-11T04:30:00.000-07:00

Couponing 101

Last night I gave a lecture for a local MOPS (Moms of Preschoolers) group in my area about agressive couponing. I showed them everything from how to organize my coupons for maximum efficiency to how to do great "deals" so they can keep more of their money in their pockets. Here are some of the topics we discussed.

I. Types of Coupons - the secret is piggy-backing several coupons for one product
· Manufacturer’s coupons
· Store Coupons
· Catalinas - coupons that print out at register
· Holders to organize your coupons – binder or plastic tub - you can see my organizer here

II. Which Stores Work Best For Couponing
· Harris Teeter
· Kroger
· Walgreen’s - here is a primer on how to maximize savings at Walgreen's
· Rite Aid

III. How To Compile Deals
· Be organized
· Let others do the work for you – Coupon Mom, The Grocery Game, etc.
· Websites that post the deals for you – Money Saving Mom, etc.
· B1G1 Free - use two coupons for two products instead of just one
· Register Rewards (RR’s) - get cash back from Walgreen's

IV. Rebates & Refunds
· Be organized - if you lose you receipts or do not enter them in on time what goood is it?
· Get Rain checks - if other couponers have bought up all the good deals get a rain check so you can make sure you get the item at the same great price
· Roll savings onto Gift cards for no out of pocket expenses or get a check in the mail
· Take your savings and roll onto your next purchase by purchasing iems with your giftcard or put in savings or pay down debt by snowflaking

Chances Are Slim That I Will Win the Lottery

2008-04-10T05:06:00.000-07:00

I will occasionally pick up a lottery ticket if the jackpot is huge. Apparently, if you are one of those people who buy lottery tickets regularly you are throwing money out the window. I was listening to NPR recently and they were interviewing a professor that wrote a book called "Guesstimation: Solving the World's Problems on the Back of a Cocktail Napkin". The guy, Lauwrence Weinstein, put it all into perspective with regards to lottery tickets for me. You know when it says on the ticket "Your chances of winning are 1 in 12, 048, 2837?" What does that number mean? Professor Weinstein put it into layman's term for the rest of us. He said to imagine taking enough lottery tickets to stack them one on top of another all the way from the ground to where the planes fly, so about 40,000 feet up, and then your job is to pull one ticket, only one ticket and one try to do this, you must pull the winning lottery ticket.

Puts things into perspective for me. Chances are slim that I will win the lottery.

[Jerry posted a comment that got me thinking so I wanted to add something to this post on imagery. I love solid imagery to help me wrap my brain around things. You might like the book I referred to in my post. He even talks about the numbers 1 in one billion. If you line the equator with white golf balls and your job would be to pick out the one red golf ball that would be equal to 1/1 billionth. If you line the equator with grains of white sand and then try to pick out the red grain of sand this would equal 1/1 trillionth. Amazing isn't it? Thank you for your comment!)

Money Saving Ideas

2008-04-09T18:44:00.000-07:00

I remember when I was eager to get out of debt and save money. I was so hungry for any tips that would help me and motivate me. Unfortunately there is a lot of stuff out there you have to weed through to get to the real tips that you can actually use.

Money Saving Ideas to Get you Out of Debt or increase your savings:

Make a budget - I know I know, everyone says this but it couldn't be more true. Pay everything in list of priority – pay shelter, utilities, food, transportation (PUFT) and first. Then work your way down the list of who gets paid until you are out of money for that month. Pay people in this order:

· Shelter, utilities, food, transportation
· IRS
· 2nd mortgages/HELOCs
· credit cards

Increase your income - take a second job, part time job, get a better job. This is only temporarily.

Sell stuff on eBay – Since you have plenty of time on your hands because you won’t be eating out or going to the movies, etc. collect all the stuff in your house that you don’t use that is taking up space, plus you have to dust it. Recoup some of the money you spent on frivolous stuff and throw it towards debt or savings.

Have yard sales.

Loose the cable/satellite

– you know that you are losing brains cells by sitting in front of the tv for hours at a time don’t you?

Cut back on extras – No Starbucks Caramel Frappicinos. No new red shoes. No filet mignon. Remember this is only temporary until you can get your bearings. That stuff will always be there.

Ditch anything that is not in PUFT – Blockbuster/Netflicks movie rental – you can borrow movies for free from the library, piano lessons, etc.

Freecycle for what you need – Sign up for your area’s Freecycle and post what you need and someone will have it and email you to come pick it up. You can read about my recent success story here. Stuff that you think you cannot sell on Ebay post onto Freecycle so it does not end up in a landfill.

Collect all of your bills and call each company to get a better rate – again you have time on your hands since you are in lock down from yourself and your bad spending habits. Spend this time calling each company and get them to lower your rates to the very best rate they can offer – this includes your cell phone, insurance (life & car), credit cards, power company (see my post here about how to do this). Every company you deal with wants to keep you as their customer and not loose your business. Use this to your advantage.

With a few major and minor adjustments you can get yourself out of debt or increase your savings. Sure it will be difficult. Sure it might not be much fun.

But just as you teach your children that they must suffer the consequences when they make a bad choice the shouldn't the same be for you?

Creative Loopholes

2008-04-08T06:07:00.000-07:00

Yes! I love it when things work out for my benefit!! But you cannot just sit around and expect things to happen to you that maximize your savings. You need to take an active role in seeking out creative opportunities.

There are ways to obtain what you need/want in such a way that it makes you smile because you really got a bargain. Always try to look at how you can maximize your potential savings. I always tell myself and the kids "I would rather have money in my pocket to travel, buy things that I enjoy and not have to waste money on things like the electric bill and groceries." This is why I strive so hard to minimize trivial (well, trivial to me) bills. I just don't want to give away my hard earned money. I always try to maximize my savings in any situation.

Today on National Public Radio (NPR) they are having a drive to raise money. If you donate $200.00 to their drive they were offering two free tickets to a huge amusement park. Now we were already going to buy season passes to this amusement part which are $68.00 each. For a family of 6 that is $408.00. We usually buy either those amusement park season passes or water park season passes each year. Now I usually do not donate to NPR when they have these fund drives but I am a loyal listener, every day of my life in fact. But we just do not have "extra" to give away in this season of our lives.

Since we were already going to buy the passes to begin with my husband and I both donated $200.00 to NPR. This equals four free season passes. You're sitting there thinking well didn't you actually spend more for the tickets? Here's the sweet part of the deal. You can deduct the amount that you donated to NPR off of your taxes. So in essence, I will be able to deduct the $400.00 off my taxes lowering my taxable income for this year. Nice, huh? I thought so too.

Always look for way to maximize your savings so things will work out for your benefit.

Savvy Shopping Report! Detergent!

2008-04-07T06:28:00.000-07:00

Normally I do not buy detergent. It has all kinds of junk in it and you can easily make some yourself. Here is a recipe for homemade laundry detergent. But sometimes I get bogged down and need to buy detergent. But yesterday I was smitten by a deal at Walgreen's. In their sale ad they had Gain detergent for 2/$10 which is a horrible deal. But since you get $4.00 off your next shopping order (these are called Register Rewards) and if you buy $50.00 worth you get an extra $5.00 RR. I decided to buy $50.00 worth. Here's the math:

2/$10 - I bought 10 things of detergent - the big 48 load ones!

$50.00

-$25.00 Register Rewards

-$7.00 previously earned RR's

_________

$18.00 OOP (Out of Pocket)

$20.00/10 = $1.80 each

I won't need detergent for a year! Yes it is obnoxious to walk out of a store with 10 things of detergent! And you do need to have some flexibility in your budget to be able to drop extra money on a really good deal and not have to worry that you cannot buy eggs this week. Pad your account with a little extra so you can take advantage of deals like this. You can either have surplus in your regular checking account or budget envelope or have a totally separate account for "extras". Just make sure that you have a little extra so you do not have to pass up a good deal. Pre-planning makes all the difference.

Do Pets Really Need a Skirt?

2008-04-05T06:06:00.000-07:00

I post under the name Chou Chou. Chou Chou is the cat. Well the favorite cat out of the three cats in the house. I picked his name as my blogger name. This leads me to some interesting ideas on frugal pet care. Obviously having animals costs money. I think that it is worth it for the contribution they bring to my life and to my children's lives but that doesn't mean I want to spend a lot of money on them.

Here are some tips for frugality when it comes to pets:

1. Feed them the right food so they don't get sick - This is the most important element to having a pet. As anyone with a pet knows, one visit to the veterinarian puts you into the poor house. You can easily avoid unnecessary visits by feeding your animal decent food. By decent food I do not mean the most expensive that is out there. I am talking about food that does not have fillers or preservatives in it. Just as people shouldn't be eating food with this junk in it because it gunks up their system the same goes for animals. There is a relatively inexpensive product at Walmart that is called Maxximum (blue and black bag) that is the store brand that is decent with no additives or preservatives and no fillers. Look at what you are feeding your animals and find a better alternative to junky food. Your pocketbook will thank you later. So will your animal by living and loving you for many years to come.

2. Search out alternatives - We recently adopted a hurt chicken. She was a major layer in her flock but got hurt and was getting attacked by the other chickens so a friend of ours let us keep her until she was healed and then we ended up keeping her. My daughters love this chicken. They named her Roxy because, as we all know, once you name an animal your dad cannot butcher it. The woman that gave her to us gave us a bag of feed to give to her. We had already decided that she would be free ranging in the back yard and that we would add to her meal by supplementing with feed but I did not run out and by her some feed which was certainly overpriced from the feed store. I made my own. Since we buy grains in bulk for the family it was not difficult to come up with a mixture that would be good for a chicken. I combined in a container millet, steel cut oats, regular oatmeal, flax seed, flax meal, corn meal, and sunflower seeds. These are all organic so she is eating organic feed. She also eats scraps from the kitchen. Since she is a layer she is giving back to us for our caring for her. Great symbiotic relationship - like it is supposed to be. Again, don't just run off to the store to spend money - seek out alternatives first.

3. Animals do not need "things" - Does your dog really need a skirt? Does your cat really need a jeweled collar or that complex jungle gym thingy- ma-bob taking up space in your living room? Do you really need to provide a lavish pet bed or fancy walking gear or a pet stroller for your animal? Do you think that it increases their quality of life? It doesn't. Buying animals things does not do anything for the animal - the things are for people. So people can show off their pet or feel better about their pet or perhaps it makes the person feel better about themselves, who knows? Let me tell you before you think I sound like some bitter pet owner - I spoil my pets rotten, but with love and not things. Kind of how we should treat our kids don't you think? (Rant for later)

4. Let's say your animal does get sick - Try, if it is not an emergency, to wait until business hours to get treatment for your pet. If you go to an after hours emergency vet you might as well leave your first born child as payment because you will be in debt if you weren't already after you leave that place. Try to comfort your animal until regular hours and then take them in.

5. Weigh the options of treatment - We lost our dog of 14 years two years ago. We loved that dog. He was the healthiest dog. never went to the vet except for shots. Again I believe this is because we fed him the right things and loved him with all our hearts. He was heading down hill and when it came time to decide what to do we elected not to do all the expensive tests to see if there was an "out" and they could stabilize him. His body was failing him and so we had him put down. That was probably one of the hardest decisions we ever had to make and as bad as I wanted to spend whatever the amount to see if he could be saved, if there was a 1% chance, I knew we couldn't do it. He was in renal failure and we just needed to let him go.

This has nothing to do with frugality but I will share it just in case anyone out there who reads this blog (does anyone read this blog?!?) has pet that they lost or if they lose a pet explaining it to children can be difficult. We heard comments like "I never want another animal again" or "I cannot love another animal" or "We should have never gotten him in the first place if he is just going to die and we feel bad." These are all valid feelings that children will experience. We told our children that yes, it would be easier if we did not have to say good-bye but we would never trade those years that we had Jake because he added so much to our lives. Our lives were better because of him. (I am starting to cry) We would have missed out on a lot if we did not have him so it was worth it even though he had to leave us. We buried him in the back yard and had a funeral for him. The children stood at his grave and threw flowers into it before we buried him. We also buried him with his tennis ball because he loved that stupid ball. The children planted a tree over top of him in his memory. And they can "visit" him anytime they want to by going to his resting place.

Perhaps some of these things can help you and your family whether the grief of losing a beloved pet.

Dedicated to Jake - 6-23-06

[Disclaimer - I'd like to add that Augie left a comment about there being a true need for some pets to use strollers. I agree with this wholeheartedly! I believe there are cases where it does add to the animal's and the owner's life. I was merely speaking of people who buy strollers for animals that do not NEED such devices to make their lives complete. Thank you Augie for helping me to remember that I need to clarify these things.]

Using Coupons- Crash Course - Part II

2008-04-04T15:41:00.000-07:00

Now that you have your coupons in order time to start scanning the ads for sales. There are three ways that you can do this. You can either get the Sunday paper and make your shopping list to coincide with your monthly menu plans that we talked about here. Once you have your shopping list then you can pull the approriate coupons. The is the cheapest by being free as you can access the paper from a friend or some other free method.

The second way is to look online at the sale ads for your favorite stores. Another free way to get the informaiton but you need to be comfortable with scanning websites and copying information down. I did this before and it is somewhat time consuming but worth it in the end.

The third way and the one I recommend is using the Grocery Game. This site lets you access all the sales and coupons ofr your stores. What I love is that it is color coded with best lowest prices in blue and free items in gree. All the items are listed with the price, sale price, the coupon that you can apply and the new price. All you need to do is check the items that you want to print on your list, pull the coupons from your handy coupon binder and you are all set to shop. This is reasonable - $1o.00/8 weeks for one store and $15.00/8 weeks for two stores. I personally only shop at two grocery stores so this seems like a good price to me and a time saver at that! Right now you can try the Grocery Game for $1.00 for 30 days and if you don't like it cancel. I recommend at least trying it.

Yes, if you find it works you will have to spend some moeny to obtain this service but look at it this way:

This will save you a bunch of time that you do not have - time = money

You will easily recoup this amount in savings - she has a staff that monitor all the possible deals. If you are doing it you are guaranteed to miss something. Let the experts do it. Kind of like changing the oil in my car. Would I attempt to save money by changing it myself? No, becasue I would have no idea what I was doing and I would probably mess something up, not to mention I would spend twice as much of my valuable time doing it. I think the money would be well spent letting the "experts" do what they know how to do.

This is money spent for something useful. You are not buying a new shirt. This is something that will help you save, a tool - that makes it worth the money coming out of your budget.

Stay tuned for Part II of this series.

You Still Have Your Arms and Your Legs

2008-04-02T07:22:00.000-07:00

In light of the economy many people are having to make some financial cuts in order to stay atop the rising costs of day to day living. This is a good lesson is wants versus needs. Needs are food, shelter, & clothing, the bare necessities to keep a human being alive. Many could argue that in America we could also lump transportation so we can get to/from work as a need to be able to get food, shelter and clothing. I believe that is valid. However cable television is not. When we speak of wants we all know that this means things that you could live without - cable, a new Wii, designer clothing, etc. So in today's economy, how can one discern between what you really need and want?

Ask yourself these few questions:

1. Can I get by without it? Let's use the example of cable television. Some could argue that this is actually a need because they are trying to save money by cutting out any outside entertainment whatsoever. You could reason that this is actually less money than going out to eat or a movie or some other form of entertainment. I believe this could be deemed logical reasoning if you were not having your house foreclosed on you. If you are trying to cut back and do so by eliminating all other forms of entertainment including eating out and settle for just keeping cable so you can be entertained at home for an amount that you can expect and budget each month I think this is feasible. But not so if you cannot pay your fixed bills. You need to cut the cable out completely.

2. Do I want to trade my time for this item? I have always looked at a purchase in terms of how much time it would take for my husband to work to earn that amount. Let's say that you are looking at buying a $15 sweater at Target. Great deal right? $15 sweater! Yay that's a bargain! But what if your husband, the sole breadwinner of your family, makes $15/hour at his job? Your husband would have worked an hour of his life, an hour he cannot get back, for you to have that sweater. Is it really worth it to you that your husband, or you for that matter, worked an entire hour for that sweater? When you look at your purchases in these terms you might find yourself hanging things back on the rack.

3. Are you having to choose between a want and a need? Let's say you have a few kids and would like them to take soccer lessons, or piano, or whatever they want to do. Granted it is nice to let your kids take lessons but not if it means paying for the lessons or the power bill. 60 years ago kids rarely took lessons like they do now and still they turned out alright. Your kids are not going to suffer just because they don't play T-ball this year. Perhaps they will develop their imagination since they will have to find things to do for themselves outside while they play. I can think of worse things for a child to develop rather than their imagination.

4. Can this be temporary? So what if you have to cut the cable? So what if you can't let your kid play soccer this year or get that new sweater you like? This is only temporary. Once you have your financial bearings then you can let yourself breathe a little bit and add back in some of the things you are cutting back on now. Nothing is forever. You'll like another sweater. You'll probably read more or devote time to getting your financial life back on track when you cut the cable. Your kids can play soccer next season because by then you will have put aside money to plan for that expense (hopefully).

5. Finally, and most importantly, look at how others live - I'm not talking about the Joneses either. I just read this book "Three Cups of Tea" about the plight of one man who goes into remote regions in the last 15 years to build schools in little villiages where young girls never had the opportunity to be educated. All I could think of was how blessed and fortunate we are to live in a civilized country. They did not even have clean water and the infant mortality rate was so high that 1 in 3 infants died before age 1. Many mothers died in childbirth. The man, Greg Mortenson, brought medical care, vocational training and built schools for $12,000, so nothing fancy and these people were able to haul themselves up by their bootstraps and begin to work themselves out of poverty. They would have loved to have what the person on government assistance in the US has now. Yet people who are poor in this country complain that they cannot get ahead. Try living in a mud hut and drinking dirty water all the while living in a harsh climate near the Himalayas where temperatures hover around 0 degrees and make a living. Someone is always more worse off than you. Not that you should take comfort in this but let this be your snap back to reality - as bad as it seems you are still not as bad off as you could be. You still have all your arms and legs, since they have not been blown off by a landmine. You have a source of income and if you don't then you can get assistance from your government to help you so you don't starve to death like those children you see on television in Africa. Let's hope you have a car and don't have to walk 12 miles to the nearest town to get supplies for your village. You have heat or air conditioning. The next time you feel pity for how your life is progressing take a look at how others live. It will put things in a new perspective for you and perhaps you might become grateful for the position you are in currently.

Lightbulb Appears on Top of My Head- Frugal Multiplicity

2008-04-01T15:56:00.000-07:00

We live on 1 1/4 acres of land. We have had a riding lawnmower for years. You know the gas guzzling hog that is loud, obnoixious and you die of boredom while you are riding it. Witht he weather breaking and the grass starting to grow again I decided that I wanted one of those old timey lawn mowers, the kind you push and the roating blades cut the grass with sheer elbow grease.

10:30 AM- Ding! Lightbulb appears on top of my head. I decide I want an old timey push mower to get more exercise and not have to pay for gas to run the riding lawnmower. Not to mention leaving less imprint of the earth with no emmisions.

11:00 AM - Post on Freecycle that I am looking for such a thing.

3:00PM - Someone emails me and tells me that have one in perfect condition and it is sitting outside and I can pick it up whenever.

3:15PM - I call my freind who works in town right around the corner from these people and he picks it up on his way home from work for me.

5:30PM - My friend drops off the mower, and not without a 15 minute diatribe of how ridiculous I will look with the 1952 mower. I begin to mow the yard, well part of the yard and get my exercise for the day.

Cost: Free

Those things run $90-139.00 new. Granted this came about beautifully and I would have waited until one showed up over the next few weeks on Freecycle but this just goes to show that to get your idea to become a reality is easy and it won't cost you anything. I remember 15 years ago if I got that same idea I would run to the store and just buy one, not even thinking about how I could come about one for free.

Again, you never know where help might come from and it might just be free. But you never know unless you tell people your needs.

Frugal Travel

2008-03-30T17:23:00.000-07:00

This past week we went on a trip. With three kids and the both of us you can imagine how much is involved. Here are some things that did to ease the dent in our pocket:

1. Do not use the luggage carrier - With the price of gas being so high we decided to pack light and put the luggage in the back of the Landcruiser instead of attching that plastic thing on top of the vehicle that causes more drag and you fly down the highway, thus increasing your gas consumption.

2. Do not eat on the road - I spent the two days before we left baking cookies, treats and buscuits. I used the leftover ham from Easter and made ham and cheese buscuits (recipe here - super easy). We had fruit and some peanuts and bottled water in the cooler. In a six hour trip we spent zero dollars on food. I also made enough for our trip back.

3. Free entertainment to keep you busy - word searches, crossword puzzle, I organized my coupons, sew. For the kids I print some activities off the computer and put about 20 pages into a separate file folder for each child. That was they are working on "new to them" stuff and don't get bored quickly. We borrow movies from the library for them to watch.

4. Came to visit and just visited - the family that we visited had asked us what we wanted to do when we came and we said that they did not have to entertain us but that we were coming to just to spend time with them. Plus we don't need to spend money needlessly. We see them once a year, we can see Chuck E. Cheese any time. The kids played outside ALL day long and did not even miss the fact that we did not go to a theme park or somewhere kid related. Just spend time with the people you visit.

Travel does not need to be expensive. Some pre-planning makes all the difference.

Seven little words. Use them. They work.

2008-03-29T08:02:00.000-07:00

Somewhere in the last few months I read this article about this lady who uses the phrase "Is that the best you can do?" when trying to negotiate a lower price for services. I think she was trying to negotiate for tires if I remember correctly. I thought she was brilliant to use this strategy and started to adopt it to my approach. I shared this with Husband. Cut to two weeks ago when Husband needed to get new tires for his vehicle. He has done all the research and found the set of tires he wants for the price he wants. He goes to the counter and begins to pay for the tires:

The clerk says "Okay it will be XX dollars sir."

My husband says "Is that the best you can do?"

Silence.

The clerk looks at him, cocks his head, and says "Excuse me?"

My husband says again "Is that the best you can do?"

"Um, well, uh, we can maybe throw in a free oil change."

"Done."

Granted the lady in the story where I first heard about this did her negotiating up front and then purchased her tires and my husband was basically at the counter paying after the work was done when he remembered but it was still worth it in the end because he got a better value for his money.

When using this tactic, make sure to leave it as an open-ended question. Just say the seven words and nothing more. You want them to conjure up in their mind whatever it is that they are willing to offer you so do not suggest anything to them.

Seven little words. Use them. They work.

Ask and your wish just might be granted. But you will never know if you don't ask.

Snowflake report - $8.99

2008-03-28T05:08:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I received in the mailbox (It's like Christmas!) a rebate check from Rite Aid for $8.99. If you are unfamiliar with rebating for Rite Aid or Walgreen's stores it is something that you need to add into your Debt and/or Savings Strategy. The comapniaes give away free items every month and all you have to do is purchase them and then send in the rebate forms. Free stuff free and clear. Some people like to rebate items and have RiteAid put the refund onto a gift card so that when they go into the store again they do not have to pay anything out of pocket. Their previous refunds pay for the new merchandise. They roll this over ad over so they never have to pay anything out of pocket.

I do this a different way. I have them send me a check instead of putting it onto a store giftcard. I like getting the rebate checks becasue as soon as they show up I count them as snowflake money and put them right towards debt. If I were just have them put it onto the giftcard each month then I would just spend this money again. This way I feel like I am really using the money for debt rather than just savings.

Debt and/or Savings Strategy Steps - Recap

2008-03-26T05:54:00.000-07:00

Step #1: Make a Budget

Step #2: Know what and who you owe.

Step #3: Read Self Help Personal Finance Books.

Step #4 – Snowflake

Step #5: Comparison Shop for Everything

Step #6 - When you are not happy with the situation seek out alternatives and tell others about your plight. You never know where help might come from. And it might be free.

Step #7: Menu Plan for a Month at a Time

Step #8 - Make sure that you consider all the options before you even think about letting your money leave your hands. Clearance does not always mean cheaper

Step #9 - Be resourceful.

Step #10 - Tell companies you like their products and/or services to get coupons or free stuff.

Budget Helps

2008-03-25T14:52:00.000-07:00

I hate to budget. I never even had one until a couple of months ago. Sad to hear considering I used to own a national company and was responsible for the payroll of my employees. Scary. Anyway I have found that it is necessary to have this tool to navigate the financial hurdles that are bound to creep up. In all honesty, I can say that for the first time in my adult life I feel good about where we are financially. Ironically we are making less money than we ever made before in our entire working careers. The "feel good" part is that I know that the bills will be paid, I know that we are saving money, and I know that there is enough money in the bank for our needs. No more worrying that since the checkbook isn't balanced whether we will be overdrawn. No more wondering if I paid a bill or not. When you keep track of your money things like that just don't happen anymore. It is a nice feeling.

1. Notebooks, pencil, & paper - this is the method I use. Sure I would love to have those fancy pie charts and it would be nice to click on a link and know exactly what your net worth is but I am a busy person and I hate doing a budget so 30 minutes once a month is about all I would like to spend on this since I will never get that 30 minutes back and I would much rather being doing something else with my time. I do it because it is necessary, just like check ups at the doctor. Your notebook budget does not need to be fancy. Here is mine:

Notice the Target clearance sticker in the corner. I revise the budget once every month for the month coming up. So for April's budget I set aside some time to write out the bills on the corresponding paydays. Each penny is accounted for. We pay some bills with the first check and some bills with the last check since we are paid on the 1st and the 15th.

So it may look like this:

1st check:

1189.99
776.17 mortgage
______
405.82
100.00 groceries
______
305.85
67.50 gas
______
238.35
59.75 life insurance
______
178.60
138.00 tithe
______
40.60

In this notebook I also have my Financial Goals for 2008. If you look closely you will see that I have highlighted three of them. This means that I have succeeded in obtaining them and crossed them off of my list. Granted there are a bunch more goals to meet but the very idea of crossing something off a list gives you a sense of forward momentum - that you are accomplishing something or moving, albeit slowly, towards what you said you would do. I am a chronic list maker and crosser-off- er.

I keep this notebook on my desk so I can refer to it often and be able to access it pretty easily to find out financial information. Again some people may spend a lot of time using Quicken and Microsoft money or other programs. I would rather spend my time on something besides seeing how much money I don't have. But don't get me wrong - this is a very necessary and critical step to your being financially independent one day. Do not skip it. Just don't spend all day on it. Spend time with your kids or your parakeet or doing something to contribute to your love of life instead.

2. Online services - Pear Budget , Mint and others - I have heard good things about these sorts of online services. The only thing is that it takes a lot of time to plug in your information and the very idea of someone else having that much financial information on me would make me nervous.

However you decide to handle a budget does not matter, just make sure you do it.

Email Companies to Get Free Coupons

2008-03-24T15:34:00.000-07:00

I have discovered that it is worth your while to send a quick email to companies to let them know you appreciate them. A couple of weeks ago I was on the Pace site and just drop them a quick email and they sent me a link to a free item in an email as a thank you. I emailed Mission tortillas and they sent me two free tortillas coupons just to say thanks.

It takes 1 minute to kick out an email to tell a company that you appreciate them and most of the time they will send you coupon for cents off or for a free item. Definitely worth it for you to incorporate it into your strategy. It is a small investment that gives you a big return.

Debt and/or Savings Strategy Step #10 - Tell companies you like their products and/or services to get coupons or free stuff.

Pay Off Debt With Savings - Yes or No?

2008-03-22T05:21:00.000-07:00

This is a touchy subject with most financial gurus out there. Some subscribe to the discipline that it is better to have a certain amount in savings (like an emergency fund) and then start paying down debt. Others beleive that you should not agressively save to get to XX amount of dollars to build an emergency fund but instead save a little bit and throw the rest at your debt. I do agree you should have a good amount in an emergency fund before anything else - minimum $1000.00. It just makes good financial sense to not have to go further into debt if something unexpected should rear its ugly head.

But what if youhave a situation like mine: I have the dreadful orthodontist bill with a balance of $1665.00. We have plenty in savings so have no worries about an emergency popping up and not being able to cover it. So why don't I just take some out of savings and pay the balance off to get it over with? Herein lies the caveat. Yes, I could pay off the entire balance from savings but choose not to and here is why: The orthodontist does not charge me a finance charge. When we decided to have my son in braces it would have been advantageous for us to pay for it in full, from savings, becasue we would have gotten a 5% discount for paying the bill up front. Since we opted for monthly payments we are responsible the entire amount (including the 5% which I am assuming is the built in interest). Becasue we elected to have monthly payments there is really no hurry in paying it off faster becasue I am not accruing more interest. The only reason to take the money out of savings and pay it off in full now would be for my piece of mind. I would not have to be sending snowflakes to it or a monthly payment to the bill.

The reason I elect not to take this burden off my mind is two fold -A.) I like looking for snowflakes. It keeps me motivated. It keeps me working towards a goal. If I weren't looking for snowflakes for the ortho bill, I would be doing it for savings, or for the student loan; and B.) I like having money in savings and somehow psychologically, seeing my balance in savings go down by $1665.00 would cause me anxiety. Yes I know it would be for a good cause like paying down debt, but there is just comfort in having a good amount in savings and when your balance takes a hit it almost seems like you are regressing some how. Somehow it seems like you would have to claw and scratch your way back to where you were before before you could breathe again.

I think I will continue paying the bill a little at a time. By doing this I can chip away at the bill and simutaneously be able to save money and watch the savings account balance get bigger.

What would you do?

Soap Dispensers Rob Parents and They Know It

2008-03-21T15:04:00.000-07:00

How many of you parents out there have kids that go to wash their hands and squirt a shot of soap into their hands and go about their business? Yep, just about everyone.

Each time we, they, whomever washes their hands they pump a bunch of soap out of the dispenser. And in a couple of weeks you have to replace it. Not at our house! Because I get the soaps so inexpensive (.19-25 cents each) I don't buy the big refill jugs. When a dispenser is getting low instead of throwing it out and getting a brand new one we fill it again about a third full with soap from another dispenser, fill it the rest of the way with water and voila! a full soap dispenser at minimal cost. You do not need fully concentrated soap to get your hands clean. A minimal amount of soap, water and old fashioned friction will get your hands clean. Train your kids to only push down the dispenser tab half way, thus getting only half a squirt rather than a full blown squirt to stretch it even further. Again, you are not going to suffer, other than your pocketbook, by not having a fully concentrated, full blown soap squirts each time you wash your hands.

But that is what the soap companies would like you to believe.

Minimize soap use to keep more of your hard earned moneyin your pocket.

Using Coupons - Hardcore Crash Course - Part 1

2008-03-20T18:14:00.000-07:00

Hold on to your hat. This is the real deal. In this series I am going to show you how I saved loads of money by using coupons. If you are truly ready to save money and be a convert continue reading.

We all know that coupons can save you money. If you apply a couple of different strategies and methods you can get out of a store by spending mere pennies. We all know people who do this but most cannot really figure out how it is done.

I'm going to tell you how it is done step by step.

Start by getting organized:

#1. Getting a big binder. 2" or 3" binder is perfect for this.

#2. Get a pack of baseball card holders. These are clear plastic sleeve like things that fits right into your binder.

#3. mini calculator.

#4. tabs to label your individual plastic holders.

#5. get some coupons.

The secret to serious couponing is organization. A lot of people shy away from using coupons because they fear it is time consuming. If your coupons are organized this will not take much more of your time. I have seen online and people in the store with those plastic shoe boxes with their coupons organized in envelopes. This is not the most efficient way to coupon. The method I will teach you is very efficient and if you need to find a coupon while in the store it takes no time at all. With the shoebox method you will have to sort through 30 coupons in your "deodorant" envelop. Sorry I don't have time for that and you probably don't either!

Organize your coupons into your binder by slipping them into the plastic sleeves that you would normally put baseball cards in. Make sure that you can see the picture of the product. It does not matter if you cannot see the amount of the coupon. You want to be able to see the product at all times. If the coupon is too big bend it so that it fits with the picture showing. In some categories you will have several pages/sleeves since there might be many coupons in this category. Make sure to have a page/sleeve in the front for competitor's coupons, rain checks, gift cards, store discount cards, whatever, that will be easily available when you need them.

Okay go!

Once you have done this come back and join us as we learn how to use coupons effectively in Part II of this series.

Snowflake Report - $22.75

2008-03-20T16:27:00.000-07:00

I love snowflakes! I can't believed I even lived with out them before - how could I have managed? Here is the report:

Bought wrong sized canning lids so I returned them - $1.97
canvas bag I thought I needed but decided I didn't - $3.99
Walgreen's EasySaver rebate - $14.97

Now who knew, but apparently my mother bought me a subscription to the lottery and I won $2.00 so she hands me a check from the lottery place for $2.00. Who knew you could win the lottery when you don't even play the lottery?!? - $2.00

Total Snowflake Money - $22.75

All going into the orthodontist envelope in my desk to be paid the next time I am in "town" and in that neck of the woods.

Ortho balance: $1642.25

Again I cannot say how important it is for you to collect small amounts of money and put them towards your debts. There were so many times in the past that I got an unexpected $10 and blew it and never could tell you where it went. I decided that I did not need that money when I did not know it was coming to me so I do not need it now. Almost like it doesn't exist. I put it straight to debt. Once I am finished with the orthodontist bill I will then concentrate on my student loans from snowflaking. Remember this money is in addition to your regular payments. My regular payment to the orthodontist is $135.00/month. Money I make snowflaking is extra and pays down the balance much faster.

Power Bill Tip You Can Actually Use

2008-03-19T18:26:00.000-07:00

Okay here is a tip you can use and not "Tape plastic over your windows to seal in the heat" which is ridiculous. Who does that?

Call you power company and tell them you would like to get set up on their budget billing. In our are what this means is that instead of getting surprised every month when you get your power bill you have a set amount each month that you pay based on your last six months worth of use. So whatever the average is for that six months, that becomes your flat rate that you pay.

I did this recently and it was awesome! We had bills from $97.00 in the months where we did not use heat or air conditioning to $278.00 in the dead of winter for a 2800 square foot house. Our monthly fixed payment is $135.00. What?? Yes, $135.00 per month. Every month. Now this is not a license to freak out and use all the electricity that you want to because you have the same monthly payment each month. They regulate it by doing an audit on your power usage every six months and reconfigure your payment to that. So as long as you don't go crazy and use relatively the same amount that you have been using then your payment should stay around the same amount. Ideally you will be practicing all kinds of power saving strategies so your bill would actually turn out to be less when you came up for audit.

The second blessing in this is that you now can budget exactly what your power bill will be each month - no more surprises.

The Great Paper Towel Challenge

2008-03-19T08:05:00.000-07:00

A couple of months ago Husband and I decided that we use too many paper towels. We were going through two papaer towel rolls per week and at 6.00 per 8 pack that was out of control. We told the kids that we were going to try and cut out paper towels and only use them when absolutely necessary. This way we might save some trees and and some money.

I made a one-time purchase from Walmart of $2.50 for a pack of white washcloths. I think there were 10 in the pack. I bought two packs of white. ($5.00) We told the kids that they are not to use paper towels but white washcloths for any spills or for cleaning. If they thought they absolutely needed a paper towel for something they could ask and we would let them know if they could get one. This system worked beautifully! We had the same roll of paper towels on the holder for two weeks! We couldn't believe it. The kids got used to grabbing a cloth instead of a paper towel. We had a rule that they could keep the cloth on the sink after they wiped up a spill throughout the day and that way if someone else needed one they would see it and use it for their spill rather than getting a fresh one. At the end of the day when someone was going to bed they would just throw it into the washer to be washed the next day since I start a load every morning of laundry.

The reason that we only use white washcloths for spills or wiping counters or the dining room table is that it is easily distinguishable from the dish cloths. I use one green washcloth per day to wash our dishes. I do not want you to wipe down the counter with the washcloth I use to clean dishes that we eat off of - just doesn't work for me. So in the drawer there is a stack of white washcloths and a stack of green washcloths. If a spill is wiped up off the floor then they can go ahead and take it to the laundry room right after they are done. Again this is to prevent them from using a washcloth on the floor and then someone else coming along and wiping my counter or table. I've got issues I know! Also using white deters any color running from the cloth onto say a chair or the carpet.

We are now down to 1 paper towel roll for three 1/2 weeks!

In a related topic we used to cut a paper towels into fourths for napkins for dinner. There is no reason a five year old child should have a whole paper towel to wipe her sweet little mouth on one corner. As the children set the table one would just cut the paper towel with scissors into four pieces and put that next to the plates - the child sized salad plates and not regular adult plates as I spoke of in my post here.

We personally use napkins that I sewed from regular fabric. It cuts down on paper towel use and they are so much more charming. Here are my chicken napkins cut from a yard of fabric ($2.00/yard) :

After dinner whomever is doing the clean up can toss these along with the used "spill" washcloths into the washer.

Challenge your family to see how long they can make a paper towel roll last. If your family needs some incentive perhaps offer to rent a movie if they can make 1 paper towel roll last for four weeks. This is just to get them into the habit of grabbing a washcloth instead of a paper towel. After the four weeks it should be second nature and you will not need to provide incentives.

Baked Chicken Morphs Into Chicken 'n' Dumplings

2008-03-18T15:42:00.000-07:00

If you read my previous post How to Feed a Family of Six on $200 you will appreciate this post. Part of the success of my menu planning is that I choose meals that are low in cost and that stretch to cover another meal or three if I am really on a roll.

Yesterday's dinner was baked chicken. Husband procured a natural free range 7 lb chicken from Trader Joe's for $13.00. You could get this figure down to really cheap if you did not care if it is natural or free range. For the first night we had baked chicken, mashed potatoes ($1.50) & gravy (free) and canned organic green beans (2 at a $1.00 each) ($2.00). The next morning I took the chicken carcass, still half full of meat, and put it into the crock pot and let it boil all day. Once the meat was falling off the bones I cleaned the carcass, put all the chicken back into the broth and simmered the rest of the day. Half and hour before dinner was to be served I added frozen, boxed all natural Anne's Dumplings ($2.50). Half hour later dinner was served. There was some left over for my husband to take for lunch the next day and for my children to eat for lunch.

This is a prime example of being able stretch one meal into three meals thus reducing your grocery bill. Again, that is the secret to being able to feed 6 under $200 - being resourceful.

Here's the breakdown:
$13.00
$1.50
$2.00
_______

$16.50 - feeds six people three times = $5.50/meal - you could get this figure down further if you bought a less expensive chicken.

Debt and/or Savings Strategy Step #9 - Be resourceful.

Savvy Shopper Report

2008-03-18T12:26:00.000-07:00

My friend called me this morning and said "I'm going to town to shop. Do you want to come?"

Savings #1 - Free ride/no gas. Town is 30 minutes up the road.

Harris Teeter:

Kellogg's cereal - sale B1G1F - 3.49/each before sale - $48.86

Minus - Sale price - 17.95 MiniWheats; 6.98 Special K

Viva paper towels - $2.39

canvas grocery bag - $2.99

$10.00 Competitor's coupon

Total - $19.31 - $10.00 off next shopping trip coupon I got from buying this.

Total out of Pocket - $9.31

I normally do not buy processed, sugar- bomb cereal. The only reason that I bought this is because I received a Catalina notice (those things that print out along with your receipt that sometimes have coupons on them) that said if I purchased Kellogg's cereal during the month of March and if I purchased seven I would get $10.00 off my next shopping order. When I happened to see that these were B1G1 I went ahead and bought the required 7, ended up with 14 because of the B1G1 sale and have a $10.00 off coupon for my next shopping trip. most of these cereals will go to the Food Pantry in our community since I volunteer there. Technically we could say that this really only cost me $9.31 since I got $10.00 back to apply to my next shopping trip.

Target:

Dole Pineapple juice (2) large cans - $1.02 clearance -$2.04

Juicy Juice (6) - $1.81 clearance - $10.86

Arm & Hammer Detergent (2) - 2.48/1 clearance - $4.96

Juicy Juice coupons - $1.00/2 - I had three of these

Minus $5.00 Target gift card

Total out of pocket: $11.86

Not bad but this could be better. The juice would not have been a good deal if I did not have the $5.00 Target card.

Here's why - even though it is clearanced and you have a coupon pay close attention to the amount of juice. One of those big 1 gallon grape juice jugs is $4.26. Three of the Juicy Juice bottles equals 1 of those but 3 x 1.81 = 5.43. So it is better, even with them being on clearance, to buy the Walmart brand juice. If I did not have the additional amount off I would not have bought them, even though they were clearanced and even though I had coupons. Be careful that you look at all the information. I also could have made this a better deal if I had Arm & Hammer coupons but I didn't have any and needed detergent so I still think I did not do too bad since they were on clearance.

But remember clearance doesn't always mean cheaper.

Debt and/or Savings Strategy #8 - Make sure that you consider all the options before you even think about letting your money leave your hands. Clearance does not always mean cheaper.

Snowflake Report - $6.00 - Checking the Mail is like Christmas!

2008-03-17T13:29:00.000-07:00

I love to check the mail. The regular snail mail. Today in the mailbox was a check from LiveActive cheese. It was my rebate for trying their cheese. They have a guarantee that if you try their cheese you can send in for a rebate. I got $6.00 back!

This will go into the envelope in my desk for the orthodontist. $6.00 closer to paying them off!

I believe that the Live Active guarantee is still going on until July 2008. Find a sale where they are 2/$6.00 or Walmart sells them for $2.77. There were printable coupons online a month or so ago for $2.00/1 but unfortunately they are no longer available - I just checked so I cannot link you to any current coupons for the cheese. If you can get your hands on some that were in the papers in the last couple of months or find some from another source it would be less out of pocket for you. However, because you are getting them free when you get your rebate it really won't matter in the end.

Here is the rebate form for you to fill out and send it with your UPC's.

Make sure that you snowflake the money from the rebate when it comes in. Make a commitment to yourself now that any rebate checks that some in, no matter what, that you are going to snowflake them towards debt or savings. You did not miss that money when you did not have that check in your hand - don't even think about it- just put it towards something that will help your situation and don't look back.

This Week's Carnival of Personal Finance #144 - St. Patrick's Day Edition

2008-03-17T05:49:00.000-07:00

This Carnival of Personal Finance is being hosted by Being Frugal this week. A big thanks to Being Frugal for my post Hives in the Eggs Section being included in the round up!

Carnivals are wonderful because the authors consolidate a bunch of related links all in one place. It is a huge time saver since you can look through many different articles in a short amount of time.

Please visit this week's carnival! Enjoy!

And if you are new to my new-ish site thanks for coming please look around!

How To Feed A Family of Six on $200.00

2008-03-16T17:33:00.000-07:00

Okay you've seen the budget. You know that I have $200.00 to work with each month to feed six people, one of which is a full grown man and the other is a 16 year old boy. They might each equal two people so effectively I might be feeding 8. Mind boggling.

In order to even try to feed these people I need to have a plan. if I were one of those people that ran around the grocery store just picking things out to eat this would be impossible. First things first though - we do not eat processed foods. We only eat whole foods which means that we make almost everything from scratch and usually with 6 ingredients or less. We also abuse the crock pot in such a way that we should be jailed. So if you are saying to yourself "Well this is not going to be feasible for our family. I work all day and the last thing I want to do is come home and cook a dinner from scratch so I'll be moving on to the next blog now." Wait! It is possible to feed your family on $200 and work full time - I swear!

First things first. Decide that you are not going to buy any more processed garbage food. If you are committed to saving money this should be on the top of your list as things that will save you money. If you dump garbage into your finely tuned, well-oiled machine it will gunk it up and it will not work properly and thus, you will have medical bills. Case in point: I have four kids - 16, 10, 8, 5 - and none but 1 (last month to be exact) have had ear infections and none have been to the doctor their ENTIRE lives but twice, except for well checks. Not kidding. Husband and I have also not been to the doctor in many years, probably 10 or so, for a malady. We do go for routine check ups. Do you think this is good genes? Perhaps partly, but the other half is our eating habits.

Once you have decided that you will not eat processed food the next step is to round up 31 days worth of recipes. We have a monthly menu that we use each month. Every 1st of any month is always the same breakfast, lunch and dinner. My family never tires from any one thing because they only eat that item once a month except for breakfast and lunches which may repeat because good heavens I am not a restaurant. So to clarify you will make a month's worth of menus that you will start over again the following month. So in essence you have a year's worth of menus with your 1 month menu plan.

Print out a blank calender from your Microsoft program of choice or here and blow the dust off your cookbooks and sit down for an hour and fill in that calender. In each box denoting a day of the month write what you will have for breakfast, lunch and dinner. We are looking for simplicity here. Do not get crazy and think you will make fois gras on a Thursday night before karate class.

Here is an example of from one of our days:

eggs & toast

Soup & grilled cheese sandwich, apple slices, string cheese

chili

So in each block, or day, write out a list of what you will eat for the day. Once you have all of your blocks or days filled with breakfasts, lunches, and dinners, you need to number each week. So the first full week will be Week 1, Week 2, and so forth. Let's say that March 1st and 2ND fall on a Friday and Saturday - Does that count as Week 1? No. That would be part of the previous week and would share that week with the end of February. Your calender should look something like this (this one is incomplete):

For desserts or snacks pick three for each week and write them either in the margin or down at the bottom. I like to write them in the margin of the corresponding week so I know when I am supposed to make it. After you have completed this step you need to secure five pieces of paper and each you will Name Week ___ Shopping List. Go to Week 1 on your calender and make a list of all of the things you will need to accomplish those dishes onto your Week 1 Shopping List. That way at any given week you know what you need to shop for. You do not need to deviate from this list unless you have run out of staples. So you will/should have relatively the same total to budget for every week you go grocery shopping. No more of these wildly fluctuating amounts to pay for groceries each week. Do this same thing for all the weeks in the month - you should end up with five just to cover you in all cases.

Now you have a months' worth of menus and your shopping lists for each week. Place all of these items into a binder.

Behind your Monthly Calender you need to put tabs with Week 1, 2, 3, 4, & 5 on them. This is so that you can file all of the recipes for that week behind the tab. This way when you need to look up March's Week 4, Thursday's recipe all you have to do is flip to that section in your binder and you have everything ready. If someone else is doing the cooking they will also be able to find out what to cook for the night with relative ease.

The key to making this work is selecting cost effective dinners that you can stretch or get the ingredients for less. For example on the nights we have chili, I make a big crock pot full so that you can bet that you will be having chili the next day for lunch. Or lets say that you have crock pot chicken 'n' dumplings. That requires a chicken carcass (for my recipe) so I can make chicken broth from that that and it can be used for soup later in the week. Be creative. Come up with menus for different days that compliment other days. Grow a garden so you can have fresh produce and you might be able to whittle down your weekly shopping bill even more.

If you work full time this is not a problem. Set aside a Saturday to cook some of the things that you can freeze like lasagna. Other things that are crock pot recipes - get up 10 minutes earlier and put all the ingredients in and have a hot meal done and ready when you get home. On the Saturday you decide to cook a couple of things go ahead and chop a bag of onions or carrots and put them into a Ziploc so you don't have to cut anything during the week. This should not take up a long time on Saturday - maybe two hours or so. If you have kids you need to put them to work. Ages 8 and up should be allowed to peel carrots, dice onions, etc. Being in a family means that you contribute to the family's well being. That means helping in meal preparation so mom or dad are not bogged down from trying to feed then after they (parent) have been working all day.

And no, they don't get paid for it. Does their mom get paid for doing their laundry?

Debt and/or Savings Strategy Step #7: Menu Plan for a Month at a Time

Hives in the Eggs Section

2008-03-15T09:22:00.000-07:00

As a family that cooks almost everything from scratch you can imagine how many eggs we go through a week. Three dozen. When the price of groceries started to go through the roof you can probably visualize my breaking out into hives standing in front of the eggs section looking at the soaring prices. As I regained control of my body from shock I grabbed three dozen, and these are natural free range eggs, so the pricey ones, squeezed my eyes shut and put them into the cart. I didn't look at them for the rest of the shopping trip - even when I checked out.

I decided that there must be an alternative. Aside from obtaining a flock of 50 hens myself I had remembered seeing a sign for "2.00 natural eggs" at the farm on one of the back roads to town. I live in a semi-rural area where "town" is about 30 minutes up the road. There are a lot of homes in the country, peppered with a few farms here and there. I stopped in to talk to the lady about her eggs. I wanted to know what she feed them and if they were truly free range or natural. Lo and behold, my friends, they were! This touched off a 45 minute visit where my girls and I got a tour of the farm, the chicken coop, fed the chickens, and read the supplemental seed bag. These eggs are a free range as you can get! They just aren't certified organic. Fine by me. I took two dozen that day. And to think I drove by that sign a million times. $2.00 a dozen for all natural eggs. Better than what I was paying at the store.

I was happy with the story. That was two weeks ago. I shared my story with my husband and did not think about it again. My husband comes home one day and tells me that he told someone the story and they said their parents have chickens, free-range & natural (shut-up!) and they have a surplus they throw away. What?! So Husband now gets two dozen from her - FREE. Yep, free.

The story gets better. So then Husband was working at a new fire station that he got transferred to and relayed the whole story again to someone and this guy he works with says - you guess it - "Hey, I keep chickens on my 12 acres to keep the mosquitos and ticks down. I have a surplus of eggs too. Want 'em?" What?! FREE. Yes, free, people. So Husband is getting two dozen from him a week.

So because I was distraught about eggs and looked for alternatives I now get four dozen all natural, free-range, close to organic eggs for FREE.

Okay what is the moral of this story?

Debt and/or Savings Strategy Step #6 - When you are not happy with the situation seek out alternatives and tell others about your plight. You never know where help might come from. And it might be free.

Kids Will Not End Up in Therapy Because of Regular Dishes

2008-03-15T08:27:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine who has five children was over recently and two of her children ate dinner with us that night. She came to pick them up and noticed that they had salad plates rather than regular dinner plates and commented on how at her house her husband serves her kids on dinner plates and fills the plates up and then they get yelled at for not eating all of their food. That night at our house her kids cleared their plates.

A great money saving tip that we employ having four kids is using smaller plates for mealtimes. If you set the table and use regular adult sized dinner plates chances are you are going to put more on the plate than the child can actually eat, thus creating waste and throwing money out the window. For kids ages 10 and under I recommend using the salad plate to serve them rather than a large dinner plate. Their portions will be smaller. Remember a child's stomach is only expands to the size of their fist. Giving them more portions on a big plate will lead to problems - namely getting yelled at for not eating their food. If they eat everything they can always go back for seconds. This way you are minimizing waste.

Most of you are saying "Yeah, we have those cute little kid plates that I picked up from Target with Barbie on them! I know exactly what you are talking about." Uh no. We do not have any fancy "kid" plates. Kid plates are a frivolous expense and if you are trying to cut down on your money outflow you can't run out and buy kid friendly plates. Use good old fashioned grown-up salad plates for your kids. It's not like you are robbing them from something important in their life and they are going to end up in therapy all because they ate off of regular dishes. Invest in their character and not in things for them.

Car Insurance Loyalty to Customers - Ummm, ma'mam, who are you again?

2008-03-13T18:20:00.001-07:00

I've been with Geico for 7 years. 2555 days. I've never had an accident. I have never filed a claim. Even when my child's portable DVD player was stolen out of the back seat I didn't not complain. I'm complaining now however.

They don't care.

They raised my rate. Not just a couple of dollars either. $89.00.

My policy is up for renewal so I call and ask:

"So why is my rate so much higher?"

"Has anything changed ma'am?"

"No."

"No teenage drivers?"

"No."

"No accidents or claims?"

"No."

"Ma'am, I really don't know why your rate has gone up but I see you have all of the discounts and have been with us for seven years so we thank you for that."

"Apparently you guys thanked me by raising my rater."

"Really ma'am that is the best we can do."

On to comparison shopping for car insurance. Even though I would much rather spend my Wednesday morning, oh I don't know, plucking all the hairs our of my head, I spent what was and hour and a half on comparison shopping different companies to give me quotes for a new policy. I gave the same information four times to four differnt companies. They cannot just give you a ball park number. They need your mother's Social Security number and your genetic code is on your 8th chromosome.

But...

I did find a reputable company that I had heard of, and not Joe's Auto Insurance located on Riff Raff Road, that will give me a comparable policy and a great rate. Allstate ended up being the winner here: $411.00 for six months! $121.00 savings! For a hour and a half worth of work. So what's that - $80/hour? Not bad. And all because I did not just accept the shaft from my current insurance company. I spent a little time, granted aggravating and irritating time, but still, the less money out of my pocket for things like insurance is more money towards debt and savings.

Debt and/or Savings Strategy Step #5: Comparison Shop for Everything

Snowflake Report -$19.49

2008-03-13T06:20:00.000-07:00

Half.com just deposited $19.49 cents! WooHoo! That is sad. Really. I am overjoyed that $19.49 was deposited in my account. The world is twisted when you can get excited about $19.49 and a hot date with your husband is couponing at Harris Teeter on a Friday Night.

If you are new to saving money and paying off debts and have not heard about the concept of Snowflaking it is something that you want to add to your strategy. It helps, little by little, for you to pay down your debt or sock away money in investments or savings. Paid Twice over at I've Paid For This Twice Already coined the term off of Dave Ramsey's term Debt Snowballing. Paid Twice has now developed sort of a underground movement where people really got on board with the idea that you could actively pay down your debts in small increments in addition to making monthly or bulk payments. It's a great concept and one that I embrace. Thus the excitement about $19.49. You can read Paid Twice's Primer on Snowflaking here.

Okay so on to the $19.49! I sell my textbooks or books that I am trying to get rid of on Half.com. It is so easy to use and and great way to rid yourself of unwanted books that you have to dust. Actually I guess you could make your kids dust. But look at it another way - that is money sitting on your shelf that you have to dust. Would you rather put that money towards your debt or dust it?

Selling books on that site is a great way to earn snowflakes. Once your item sells they notify you, you ship the item and then the make a deposit twice a month into your account. It's that easy! I've never made a huge amount except for the first time I got started where I sold a bunch of my current graduate school textbooks for $87.00. Still, $87.00 more than I had. And I put that into savings rather than having to dust it on the shelf.

Snowflake Report:

$19.49 goes into the orthodontist envelope sitting in my desk. In the envelope I keep miscellaneous amounts of money that I gather as extra to pay down the ortho bill.

The balance is $1763.00 for the ortho bill.

$1763.00
$332.00 Last payment from pool we sold
3.00 Change jar
19.49 Half.com
_____________
$1408.51 Balance

Not bad.

Debt and/or Savings Strategy Step #4 - Snowflake

Personal Finance Books = Peanut Butter Cups

2008-03-13T04:58:00.000-07:00

My name is ChouChou and I'm addicted to self-help finance books. Well that and peanut butter cups. Both provide such a sense of pure and instant gratification as I devour them. Both cost me money. Both leave me with a sense of feeling "full" after I am finished. I love them both. Tremendously. A lot.

I have just finished reading "The Five Lessons a Millionaire are Taught Me." This was an easy read. Straight forward and to the point. Just like peanut butter cups. I have a hard time weeding through complicated books on personal finance. Just tell me bluntly flat out what I need to do. The chocolate is on the outside, the peanut butter on the inside - clear, concise. Love it.

The book is broken into five lessons, thus the title. And all of the lessons are not anything new that we did not know before. But that's okay. Doesn't matter if I know it or have heard in the past the content because once I read it again it gets me motivated.

If we're honest, most of the things in these books really are rudimentary concepts that are common sense and easy to apply. However, because people like me with a household to manage, kids to home school, and a myriad of other things, I need a handbook where the information is compiled in one spot. If others want to do the work by all means let them. Face it - we're busy people and you can only pack so much into your brain. Having the information in other places helps.

So part of your overall strategy to live on less and pay down debt should include personal finance self help books. Why? Because the information is in one place. Because these people spend more time researching the very topics you need to know about, might even be experts in the subject, so you want good, clear consice information. Because you want to stay motivated. After I read a good personal finance book and am even more motivated about saving and immediately want to do some of the techniques that I have learned or "forgot" about. It keeps all of the information in front of me so that I can make sure that I am doing all that I possibly can to be an active participant in debt reduction and living lightly on the planet.

And somehow in the grand scheme of things, peanut butter cups do that too.

Debt and/or Savings Strategy Step #3: Read Self Help Personal Finance Books.

The neighbors think we sell crack out of the garage

2008-03-12T21:22:00.000-07:00

Actual conversation:

"So, you stay a home?"

"Uh-huh."

"And your husband is a firefighter?"

"Yes."

"Wow, how do you do it? You live in a nice house and drive an SUV. What, are you guys doing - selling crack out of the garage or something?"

"Excuse me?"

When people hear that we are not a dual income family - okay, not the norm, but not a big deal. When they see other aspects of our lives an eyebrow tends to go up. Maybe two. People tend to have this idea that if you are living on one income, especially a fire fighter's income, that you are poor, maybe cannot have some of the finer things in life, and surely should not have things that would define a dual income lifestyle. I think people just naturally assume that if you aren't making much money you can't really be living the good life.

This isn't true my friends.

It is all about choices. Do you want to eat a dinner that you will be paying for three years from now and not even recall what you had or do you want to be able to say "Hey, let's take a little out of the vacation fund and go to Washington D.C. this weekend for some fun." Do you choose to have a brand new top of the line car so you can impress people at the stoplight or would you rather have a nice emergency fund in case you have a need for quick cash?

For us it is simple - we look at it as do we choose the family or do we choose "X"? Sure it would be nice to have a nicer car but that would mean that Husband would have to work more or I would have to go to work, thus compromising our personal commitment to putting our family first. (Disclaimer here: this is just the choice for our family - by no means am I saying that if you are working that you are compromising your family.) For our family, we want them to have a parent in the home full time. Those are our beliefs and those are our choices that trump everything else.

So start to look at things as a choice and find something to compare it to. Do you choose the new red shirt or do you choose to have extra money so your kid can take soccer lessons?

It is all about choice. And you don't have to sell crack out of your garage.

Okay...so where's the debt in this budget?

2008-03-12T05:41:00.000-07:00

We do not have any credit card debt. We do not have any car payments - we drive second hand vehicles. I have been imprisoned by that monster one too many times in my life so we make sure that we do not carry balances.

We do however, have student loan debts to the tune of 33,000. Well, not "we" - me - I do, because I decided I was going back to graduate school. How I managed that in a year and a half is mind boggling. We do have other debts - the orthodontist bill - down to $1700.00 right now from $3000.00 (all from snowflaking which I will share with you later) - and we have three other children that will be needing braces all within the next few years. We do have a mortgage but I will not consider this a part of my debt reduction until everything is paid off. Since I am currently in school I do not have to pay the student loans as I am in the grace period currently, but having that hanging over me makes me lose sleep at night. Just the very thought of having a monthly payment equivalent to a car payment or some mortgages makes me shudder. I need to pay it down now while I am in school.

We do have savings accounts, 2 Roth IRAs, Husband's 401K, Money market - all vehicles for saving money that we put into place recently to make sure that we were saving money while we embark on this. Since I have the looming braces freak show upon me in three consecutive years for three kids in a row I want to budget and pay for those out of pocket rather than financing like I had to do this time.

You could say that we might be in better financial shape than some - I mean, we have no car payments, we have no credit card debt, we have savings - that isn't bad. But we weren't always in that position.

And we still have a long way to go. Being debt free is being debt free.

Debt and/or Savings Strategy Step #2: Know what and who you owe.

$2400...no way..how on earth?

2008-03-11T20:47:00.000-07:00

Yep, I thought that too as I stared at our income versus our bills. I considered jumping off the roof to an untimely death at one point but then came to my senses. After pulling my hair out I crunched all the numbers and came up with a budget. I have never had a budget before, never had to, so I have revised that thing like weekly, probably a million times by this point, but I now had a working plan. That was our first step. Take an honest look at the reality we were facing. After getting up off the floor we decided that we knew two things for sure:

1.) I did not want to work anymore. I sold the company so I could spend more time with the kids. I did work from a home office so I wasn't technically "away" but I did not want to spend time "working" on things that were not related to the family.

2.) We knew that we did not want Husband to work more than 11 days per month. He left a high paying position with a major company so that he could not work 50 hour weeks and just work 11 days per month. When I was still working we made that conscious desicion so he could be home more. We knew we did not want him to have to find other employment or get a second job.

Since we were both in agreement on these two things, which is most important, we set to the task of figuring out how to get to this goal.

Hence the dreaded current budget:

Husband is paid twice a month:

1st - 1200.00

776.17 mortgage
100.00 groceries

135.00 power

30.00 cable

50.00 gas

60.00 tithe

What's left: $48.83

2nd - $1200.00

776.17 mortgage

100.00 groceries

59.00 life insurance

30.00 telephone

120.00 tithe

50.00 gas

What's left: $64.83

$113.66 - are you serious?

There it was. But okay. We were in the black. Not by much but were there. Now the challenge was to figure out why we were spending upwards of $4000.00/month. This is our current working budget. We used to have things like a cable bill that was $75.00/month, or a cell bill that was $80.00 but we felt that we were trading these things for time we would have to work so we chose the children instead. We used to have an $800-1000 grocery bill. As you can see I have whittled that down to around $200.00 per month. All of these items reflect our fixed expeses.

It can be done and I am going to tell you how we did it.

But the first step to get where you are going is to know where you have been. Put together a budget and face the reality at hand.

Debt and/or Savings Strategy Step #1: Make a Budget

Launching

2008-03-11T18:19:00.000-07:00

I should have done this a long time ago. I mean really, a loooonggg time ago. I spend so much time on the web, learning about personal finance, peeking into other people's lives through their blogs, that is just makes sense that I do it too. So how did I get here? November 2006 I sold my company for a profit to become a stay at home mom and return to graduate school. We were debt free except for our mortgage and somehow, some way, I have managed to incur $35,000 in school loans, a personal loan, an orthodontic treatment loan, and still have a mortgage. Part of the problem was that I was still living at the same level that we were when I was working. Being a dual income family meant there was lots of disposable income. Our bills were based on my husband's salary so the several thousand I made was really play money. Once that was gone things should have changed but they didn't. Sure I got a lump sum for the company but that went to savings which I cannot touch. So I just spent whatever, whenever, living like I did before we went down to one income. Not a smart move.

Cut to March 2008. The reality of our liquid savings going down and my credit card use going up hits me like a ton of bricks a few months ago. In the last few months I have become something of a personal finance guru. I can budget like no one's business now (I've never had a budget before). I can snowflake with the best of them. I have increased our savings and developed multiple ways to increase our income all the while living on less than $2400.00 (take home) per month. That includes the $1500.00 mortgage payment. Yes, we live on $900.00/month and we can still put away money in savings. Yes, we have four kids. Yes, we eat mostly organic. Yes, we have three cars.

So join me as I share tips, ideas, creative loopholes, and other unbelievable ways to cut your spending and increase your savings at the same time.

Onward....so this is how we do it....