April Savings Report

This month has flown by! We did go on our San Diego trip and I'll report on that later. First I want to write down what I was able to save this month.

• I was able to set aside $25 from last month's grocery budget to spend on groceries for our trip. I also put aside $40 from this month's budget, giving me $65 to spend. That was definitely a big help!
• I reduced the amount of my grocery budget by $10 this month, bringing it down to $470 for our family of 5. I was able to do it! That is $10 extra in my savings fund.
• I cashed in my coins from March: $31.82. That's a little bit high because I found a piggy bank with a bunch of coins in there. : ) I got a gift card to Amazon for that amount, used it to buy diapers and wipes, and then put the cash from my envelope into my savings jar. I rounded it up to $32.
• I came in $10 under budget in groceries in March and added that to my savings fund.
• My rebate check for $3 came from Rite Aid.
• I found a dollar in my pocket. : )

That adds $56 to my savings fund, which brings my total up to $503.05 saved since February 1, 2011! Only $100 more to go!

We seemed to have some extra expenses this month: the girls needed new church shoes and some new clothes for the trip, my newspaper subscription was paid, which I wasn't planning on, our housecleaners cashed the checks for March and April in the same month...anyway, I don't have any extra money to funnel into next month's grocery fund. : ( Oh well. But it feels really good to come in right on target for our budget, though. In fact, we didn't have to take any money from our vacation fund to cover the cost of gas for our trip or our meals on the road. That is such a blessing!

Speaking of blessings, I have been amazed at the blessings that come from being a good steward over the money and goodness that our Heavenly Father has blessed us with. He is aware of us, even when the things we want/need seem insignificant. As an example, last week I was at the store and really wanted to buy some strawberries. They were a little bit expensive but I was just craving those sweet juicy fruits! I decided that if I had enough money when we got back from the trip, then I could buy some strawberries.

The next day, my parents came over and my dad brought me some strawberries that he had gotten earlier in the day. I was speechless. Those strawberries didn't mean that much to my dad (he was just being thoughtful). But he couldn't have known what they meant to me. : ) Have you had any experiences like that as you've tried to save your money?

February Grocery Breakdown

I thought it would be interesting to see how I spent my grocery budget this month. I loosely assigned my purchases to categories, just to get a general idea of where my money is going. Here's how it turned out:

• Baby items (diapers, wipes, pull-ups): 13.7%
• Treats (ice cream, cookies, etc.): 11.3%
• Milk: 9.9%
• Drinks (juice and juice boxes): 9.5%
• Snacks (includes both healthy and not-so-healthy ones): 9.1%
• Dairy items (eggs, cheese, cream): 8.2%
• Home (tissues, toilet paper, dishwashing detergent, etc.): 7.2%
• Staples (peanut butter, rice, pasta, etc.) 7%
• Produce: 5.7%
• Meat: 5.5%
• Condiments (salsa, sauces, dressings): 4.5%
• Health items (medicine, feminine products): 2.4%
• Breakfast (mostly cereal): 2.1%
• Beauty: 1.2%

I realize these are very general categories, especially staples and snacks! But, as I said before, I just wanted to get a general idea of what I was spending money on. One thing I noticed even before I did this was how much I spend on juice for my kids. I know juice is such a no-no and I admit that I use it as my crutch. Juice boxes are given for a treat in lieu of candy bars and chips, and my kids rarely drink soda, so that's how I rationalize it. I do know that I need to get them to cut back and I've started to do that already.

I'm happy that I spent more on produce than I did on meat (although just barely!). I would like to see my produce numbers go up and my meat numbers stay low.

I'm not surprised that most of my budget goes towards diapers! We are in the middle of potty training and hopefully I will see this number go down over the next few months!

The treats category was rather high this month, but I do have an explanation: (1) It was Valentine's Day this month so some of those items were treats for Husband and the tiny babes. (2) We hosted a Valentine's Day party and some of those treats were for the party. (3) It was also my grandmother's birthday this month and I picked up the birthday cake. Whew! A lot of celebrating!

I think it will be interesting to see how these numbers change as the year progresses. Have you ever wondered which categories your family spends the most money on?

February's Cash Only Experiment Report

I have to say that I loved doing this cash-only experiment this month. I'm going to continue on in March, but I wanted to mark down the results from February:

I was under my grocery budget by $13, under my clothing budget by $15, and under my household budget by $38 for a total savings of $86! I decided to add some of this overage to next month (especially since March is a long month for me as a tax widow!) and I took out $20 to put toward our San Diego vacation. This $20 will show up in my savings for next month.

I was able to "cash out" three giftcards this month. When I used a gift card, I took the cash out of my envelope for that category and put it in my savings jar. This allowed me to add $50 to our San Diego trip.

Every time I got change back from a purchase, I put the coins in my savings jar. This past Saturday I took one of my daughters with me to cash in the coins at a Coinstar machine. If you choose to receive a giftcard instead of cash, there is no counting fee. I chose an Amazon gift card and ended up getting $12.35 from my spare change! I took $13 out of my grocery budget to put in our savings jar and used the gift card to buy wipes on Amazon. With the gift card, my out of pocket expense was only $0.02!

We got our "big fat check" from Ebates this month: $40.05. That money went into the savings jar. We also got our rebate check from our American Express card (that we have through Costco). I was shocked to see our rebate was $263.00! That money also went right into the savings jar.

The only downside was that I did use my credit card for some things (like Costco) and just took the cash out of my envelope and set it aside. We decided not to redeposit this extra cash at the end of the month only to have to turn around and withdraw cash at the beginning of the month, so all the cash I saved will be redistributed into our envelopes for March and we will see the savings from February at the end of March. (We use Microsoft Money to keep track of our budgeting.) Not a big deal in the long run, but it did make us a little cash poor this first month.

So in summary, here is what I was able to save in my first month at this cash-only experiment:

• $50 from "cashing out" gift cards
• $13 from saving spare change
• $263 from credit card rebate
• $40.05 from Ebates

...for a grand total of: $366.05!

The total cost for our hotel stay in San Diego is $610. So with the savings from this month's experiment, I have already covered more than 1/2 the cost! I am so excited to start saving in March!

The Hunger Challenge Debate

I read a post on BlogHer about the SF Food Bank's Hunger Challenge last week. Several different bloggers participated in the challenge, which was to eat on $4 per person/day. Apparently that is about what people who are receiving food stamps have to spend on groceries.

After reading some of the posts about getting by on bean and cheese burritos with not enough money for fruits and vegetables, I started to wonder if I could feed my family on the Hunger Challenge amount. Let's see: $4 per person (we have 5)/day works out to $20/day...or $560 per month! In 2008, the maximum a family of 5 could receive in food stamps was $698!

I was shocked because my food budget is less than that...by more than $100/month. So while it is difficult to hand someone a $5 bill and say "This is all the money you have to buy food with today", if you look at the bigger picture, it's not that hard to eat (and actually eat well) on such a "small" amount.

One blogger who got it right is Kimberly from PoorGirlEatsWell. I like the way that she makes her food as appealing as possible, because that always makes it taste better. She also uses what she has on hand instead of running to the store for an ounce of some obscure spice that you'll never use again. I'm definitely going to check out her blog for some inspiration as I prepare my weekly meal plans.

The main point of the Hunger Challenge was made clear: there are people who are on food stamps who don't have the luxury of eating whatever they want. They long to be able to buy a cupcake at the corner bakery or even something from a drive-thru. With every bite they take, they are keenly aware that their bounty is steadily dwindling and the cupboard may be completely bare before they are able to get more assistance or find another job. Those of us who are blessed with full cupboards should be moved to share with those whose pantries are empty.

Cash Envelope Experiment Update: June Report

According to our Microsoft Money software, I was under our grocery budget by $22.49, which is really great. It's actually more than that because I have a little bit of cash in my wallet that I'll use next month, so it will all filter through in the end.

I attribute my success to the cash envelope experiment. I wrote down each receipt total and then would take the "cash" out of my envelope so that I could actually see how much I had left. I always rounded up, so I think I saved around $3 in spare change alone.

Most importantly, I had to weigh my purchases more carefully: do I really need this? If I buy this, then I won't have enough money to buy that...is that okay? What's the best way to stretch my money this week/trip/etc.? Don't assume that it was time consuming because it wasn't. It was just a little reminder every few days that someone is watching you. (In a good way, of course.)

I don't quite feel ready to move on to real cash only...yet. I like my credit card rewards (especially at Costco) and the ease of swiping a card when you have three crowing birds in your shopping cart really cannot be overstated.

At the outset of this experiment, I said that I would put whatever was leftover from my grocery budget into my European Tour Fund. Husband is not convinced of this idea. We do have miscellaneous expenses that crop up (like dance class or other things that you don't necessarily budget for) and my scrimping equals a little more saving in other departments, so that's fine with me.

Don't worry: I've still got some tricks up my sleeve to infuse some cash into my fund.

I am really excited to get into July's budget and start saving away. I just need to sort out my Monopoly money first.

Cash Envelope Experiment Update

At the beginning of the month I started an experiment. After three weeks, I've got to say that I really like the cash system. It keeps me accountable for all my purchases and makes me really think about what I need.

After Friday's diaper purchase, I was over on my weekly budget by about $30. I borrowed that from this week's envelope, so this will definitely be a slim week. I'm enjoying the challenge of trying to create something from a small budget!

An Experiment

I've been following Money Saving Mom for almost two years now and I know she really likes using the cash only/envelope system. I like the ease of using credit cards and even though we always pay our balance off each month, it did seem like it was a lot easier to go over budget.

I decided to try it, but in a transitional way. I got out my Monopoly money and divided it among the 5 "weeks" in the month of June, putting it in 5 different envelopes. When I make a purchase, I write it down on a piece of paper that I keep in the envelope for that week and then I take out the "money". I round up so that I don't have to make change, thus increasing my savings.

My plan is that whatever I save this month in groceries gets to go to the European Tour Fund. With this in mind, I carefully (oh, ever so carefully) planned out my grocery expenses for the week. I even hosted a little House Party this weekend (more on that in a bit) and factored that in. I'm happy to say that for the first week of this experiment, I was only $1 over on my budget...and I'll explain why in my next post.

It's kind of fun and it's really helpful to see exactly how much I have left. The visual is helping me to rein in my expenses and see which ones I really need. If this experiment goes well, I might just go to actual cash....we'll see.

January Report

I'm not sure why it was so tough for me to stay on budget in January. I ended up going over my $440 budget by about $40. I did spend a little more on diapers this month because I got behind on the diaper deals, so I'll try to keep up better this month.

I did get $35.98 worth of free stuff this month,though, including:

• $9 in free gas (Safeway power pump rewards)
• 20 pk. Electrasol power tabs
• Cascade rinse agent (from Right @ Home coupon booklet)
• Classico pasta sauce (rec'd free coupon from mfr.)

I'm reducing my budget to $420 this month, which shouldn't be bad, considering there are only 28 days in this month! I signed up for a 4 week trial subscription to a CSA (community supported agriculture) and am really excited for it to start next week. I'm splitting it with my sister to save some money and to make sure that we use all that produce. I'll give you a report on how well it works for us. I'm hoping that by centering more of our meals around fresh produce, we will reduce our food budget.

I feel like I've gotten a little discouraged with my food budget because I'm having trouble finding the time to gather and organize my coupons, thus forgetting them before my shopping trips. Or I find out the item I've purchased is on sale the next week. Before my babies went to one nap, I used to plan my shopping during their second nap, but now that it's consolidated into one, I find myself using that time for other things! I know I need to get into a better schedule...they're not the only ones making the adjustment!

I hope you did well on your budgets for January. With the new month comes the chance to do better than before!

Our car story (hopefully, the final chapter)

In December, I posted about the trials of our old minivan. The weekend before Christmas, Husband and I left the babies with my parents for a couple of hours, determined not to return without a new car. We found one we liked and we bought it, although it was a little more than we had planned on spending. (Keep in mind we had only bought Husband's new car the month before!)

(And when I say "new" car, I mean new to us. We each got used cars.)

Anyway, we ended up financing part of the new minivan purchase, something we really don't like to do. So our goal is to pay off the car loan as quickly as possible. We are paying more than the minimum payment each month in order to shrink the principal.

Shortly after we bought the car, I asked Husband what he thought we should do with the rebate checks that I get from all my great shopping deals. We threw some ideas around, like save it for vacations or something fun, like a new video camera. But then he suggested we put that extra money toward the car loan. The first month, it was only about $20, but every little bit will help so that we can once again be debt free (except for our mortgage, of course).

(By the way, the new car runs great and is perfect for out little family. I'm so grateful that it is safe, too. )

December report

My budget for December was $460. It was a little hazy tracking things at the end, because Husband went to the store and didn't give me receipts a few times. After all was said and done, I went a little bit over, but I'm going to call it a wash since it was the holidays and we were under on our holiday budget.

January's budget is $440. I'm already having a bit of a tough time, but I think things will calm down the next couple weeks. Coming back from vacation you always get out of your habits, etc. My goal still is to get the budget down to $400/month, which I think will be doable for us.

We are trying to improve our eating habits, which can be more expensive than the good old packaged foods standbys. I'm trying to think more creatively to come up with better snacks and meals.

How have your budget strategies changed for 2009?

November Budget Report

My budget for November was $480. My total spent was $463.28. I can't believe I came in under my budget this month. I'm so happy about that. Although I didn't quite make up for the overage of October, I made up a little, which is good. I also included the groceries we bought on our trip in Hawaii, which I totally thought would put me over. Phew!

December's budget will be $460. (I'm trying to get it down to $400.) Anything I buy for Christmas comes out of our Christmas budget (which would include ingredients to make treats for friends, etc.), so I'm comfortable with this number for the holidays. Although we will be spending Christmas at home this year, we will be taking a little trip with family right after Christmas, so I need to make an allowance for that.

Could have been a spoiled trip

Husband has always been a saver. Lucky for me, because when I met him, I was your typical spender. Of course, I'm reformed now (mostly), and often grateful for Husband's ways.

One of the things that is important to him is buying a car with cash. Instead of making a car payment (at outrageous interest rates), he makes the car payment "to himself". He would take $300 a month and put it into a special savings account just for his car. That way, when the time came to buy a new car, he already had the money saved. This account has come into play not only as we have purchased our last two cars with cash, but also when a big car repair cost rolls in. We don't have to dip into our emergency savings to cover the bill.

I'm particularly grateful for that now as Husband's car sits in our driveway with a gas leak. We found it the night before we left for our trip, just after returning home from dropping off our babies at my parents' house. We quickly made arrangements for a shuttle service to take us to the airport and plan on taking care of the car trouble when we return home.

Had we not had that car account, I might have worried about it our whole trip. I'm grateful to say that I didn't have to worry about that one bit.

I'll be back tomorrow and can't wait to share my trip with you!