Not tooooo bad

This afternoon I had to go to our local IRS office for an audit. We received notification back in May or June that we had been "selected" for an "evaluation." Doesn't that make a person feel special? What was especially interesting was all the paperwork they wanted us to bring. Did they want to see pay check stubs, bank records, etc.? No.

The wanted to see our kids' birth certificates. They wanted to see medical or school or other records that had our kids' names and our address on them as documentation that they lived with us. They wanted to see records of other income we had to support these kids, like alimony, child support, welfare, VA benefits, or anything else. They wanted to know how we spent this money. They wanted to know how much these dependents made and how much they contributed to the household budget. (I got a gooood laugh out of that one). Oh, and of course, our returns for the audit year (2008) as well as the year before and the year after.

So they only things we could gather of all that were the birth certificates, some insurance records that showed our kids received mail at our address, and the returns. Unfortunately, Kelly was unable to get out of the class he's in for work so I had to go BY MYSELF.

Fortunately it wasn't as bad as I thought. I was thrown for a loop though when he told me that he had already pulled a lot of financial background on us. He was telling this to me reassuringly, because everything looked fine - in other words, we don't spend more than we make or live above our means. (Duh!) But I had, naively, not expected that. I wanted to start calling the guy "Big Brother" though I doubt he would have appreciated it. This bothered me more than anything else, though it shouldn't have surprised me.

The whole meeting took 30 minutes. He made copies of the documents he needed to, and didn't even look at the other 2 returns. They only discrepancy we had was our bank sent us a document reporting one amount of earned interest for the year but reported a different amount to the IRS. Lovely. I showed him the documentation they sent us, and he was a little perplexed as well. However, the difference was a small amount and would have made no impact on the amount of tax owed or return received so he said it would be pointless to pursue it at this point. As relatively painless as it was, I hope not to have to do that again.

CVS deal

I haven't posted one of my CVS deals lately, so I thought I'd do this. Monday, I went to CVS and got all this (except the toddler, of course)
for $3.44. Plus I had $16 in ECB's (Extra Care Bucks, "dollars" good only at CVS) on the bottom of the receipt.

Everything except the trial sized deodorant was on sale, plus I used a $5 off a $30 CVS coupon that CVS emailed me (you just have to sign up for the emails). Then I used manufacturers coupons either out of the newspaper or printed on the internet and ECB's I had earned from previous trips to CVS. Toilet paper, Kleenex, diapers, shampoo, and deodorant. Good deal!

Giveaway

Money Saving Mom, one of my favorite blogs, is having a 24 hour giveaway. She has 5 $100 gift cards to the merchant of your choice to giveaway. So head over here if you are interested in entering.

If you're not already a reader, be sure to stick around and read her blog!

Money

We got a check in the mail yesterday.

That doesn't sound like such an earth-shattering event, and it certainly wasn't a large amount, but the source is what has surprised me.

We've all heard about these "billions" of dollars of unclaimed money that the state comptrollers are holding, right? A few weeks back, I saw a link to this site. It lists the links to all 50 states' lists of unclaimed or abandoned property. Even though we have always been very careful with our money and I thought there was no way that we could have money we had forgotten about (how does one forget about money?), I clicked on Texas and started searching for Kelly's name first. After all, he's more forgetful than I am (ducking for cover now...).

I couldn't believe my eyes when his name was on the list! And it was from the medical clinic that I worked for in San Angelo for the last year of college and right before he went active duty. I also saw a couple of the doctors there, especially when I got pregnant with Kora about 6 months before we left town. Since it wasn't in my name, like it would if they had owed me money from my paycheck, I have to assume we over paid a medical co-pay. But really, that's just a guess.

I then checked my name in Texas, his name in Oklahoma (we lived there for 3 years) and my name in Oklahoma. Nothing else showed up, but it was still money we didn't have before, right? Then I looked at the paper work you had to submit to claim it. Then I wasn't sure we would be able to get it because I could find nothing that had the address there in San Angelo on it, to proved we had lived there. Because we were college students, we filed income taxes from his parents' home, since it was listed as our permanent residence. And we had no utility bills, pay stubs or anything left from 13 years ago. Even his orders to enter the military just listed "Texas" as our address.

Finally, I looked at our college transcripts. Fortunately, his had our San Angelo address on it - and his Social Security number which they needed as well. But I still wasn't sure that was sufficient to prove to the Texas state that he was who he said he was. Evidently it was, though, and we received it yesterday.

The moral is, even if you are positively sure it is a waste of time, go here and search anyway. You might be surprised.

Tax Time

As most of you know, it's income tax time! Last year we discovered the wonderful joy of free online tax preparation software, which includes free e-file! This only works if you are using the basic software program, but it works great if that's all you need! I'm sure there is more than one option out there, but here's what we use. Just click the "Free Edition."

Maybe I'm the only one out there, but I do not take tax preparation software for granted. For the first 8 or 9 years of our marriage, I did our taxes every year by hand. That's right, just me, a pencil, paper, and a calculator. Frankly, I was too cheap to spend the money on the software to do it. We didn't have anything very complicated but it still took a while and I was always nervous about making errors. In fact, one year I got Aubrey's social security number wrong and we had to file a correction. What a pain.

Then six years ago, I had four children 6 and under, the youngest being only 4 months old. I was still deep in the depths of post partum depression, and we were getting ready to list our house for sale and build a new one. I couldn't even THINK about doing taxes that year. I finally got up the nerve to tell Kelly that I just couldn't do it. I told him I didn't care if he hired someone to do it for us or whatever, but I could not even look at the stuff.

To my utter and complete relief, he said, "Fine. I'll take care of it." He went and bought a $50 piece of software, and had it all done in about 15 minutes. I was astonished. And kicking myself for not doing that years ago! The next year we figured out that we only needed the $25 version - even better! And now they offer that same program for free on their website! Every year, I am very thankful for the software that makes it so much easier.

And for a husband who never gave the job of tax preparer back to me!

It's a good thing I'm done Christmas Shopping

I was sick two weekends ago, and Thursday I started feeling bad again. Feels like the same thing, and my husband and one of my kids have had the same thing. I don't know if I caught it again or if this is a relapse, but here I am with another wasted weekend on my hands. Fortunately I only have one gift card left to get and I am DONE with Christmas shopping.

Here is yet another good reason to start Christmas shopping in January - you never know what December will bring. Whether it be health issues or financial issues, any kind of hiccup in your lives can really cause problems this time of year, especially if you have a large family to organize gifts for and/or a limited budget in which to do it.

So after Christmas, make yourself a chart with everyone you need to buy for next year, and set a goal to buy/make a certain number every month between now and next November. Jot down ideas for each person and keep a look out for great gifts and you'll be surprised at how often you'll find a sale or coupon for them. And buying some every month will cut down on stress next Advent season!

Christmas Gifts: Group Giving

A few days ago, I was talking with some other moms about Christmas. We were laughing over the years when we didn't have much, and about how we handled all the gift buying, especially with extended families. One of my friends suggested I write a blog post about some of my ideas.

There are lots of ideas for handling gift giving in extended families. Some draw names, some give only gag gifts, some set a dollar limit, some donate to charity in a family member's name, some play games. In our extended family, we have started giving group gifts. For instance, while we buy my mother and father separate gifts, we give each sibling and spouse a single gift. Then we give each family a gift for all the kids. So for instance, my sister who lives in Lubbock will get one gift for her and her husband to share. They have three boys, and we give them one gift for them to share. So each family gets only two gifts. They do the same for us (although sometimes they will split it into a gift for the older kids and one for the younger girls)But we are able to give them something that is hopefully nice and thoughtful and still spend less and have to chase and keep track of fewer gifts.

Here is a list of gifts ideas for groups of kids, covering a wide age range and good for both boys and girls (of course not all idea will work for all families):
* Movies - a no brainer, right? This one has been a big hit with my kids.
* Books - Good books can be enjoyed by all ages, even those too young to read them by themselves if a parent or older sibling will read them to them. Last year my niece and nephew received the Chronicles of Narnia set from us.
* Music CD's
* Board Games
* Coloring books and crayons/markers/etc. - There are some really cool crayon sets out there, and if a family has all young kids this could be a hit. You could even personalize some coloring books (mix in princess and Spiderman books for both genders), get a big set of crayons and a set of glittery markers and you are all set.
* CD player - Kelly's brother's family got my girls their own CD player one year and they have really enjoyed it. Plus it is something that they could not have afforded it they had to buy all the girls a gift.
* Sidewalk art supplies - There are some really cool sidewalk art chalks, paints, etc that all the kids could really go to town on.
*General art supplies - A big tablet of drawing paper, some paint, or some art pencils and maybe a "How-to-Draw" book and all the kids in a family could practice their art.
*Water toys - I throw this in for those of us who live in hot climates. Here, we can swim 7-8 months out of the year. So a Slip 'N' Slide or a set of super soaker water guns could be very welcome.
* Any toy set with lots of pieces which can be used with more than one person: Legos, blocks, TinkerToys, Lincoln Logs, etc.

If you have only girls you are giving to, here's a couple of ideas:
* a box of dress up clothes
* a nail set - a couple different bottles of nail polish, an emery board, a set of toe separators, and the stickers you put on nails. Put it in a cute container or basket and the girls have an at home nail salon!

If you need to cut down even more, what about giving a family Christmas gift? It is just enough to let the family know you are thinking about them, but can be done without breaking the bank. Here's some ideas for that:
* a family movie night - a Blockbuster gift card, a couple of bags of microwave popcorn, and some hot chocolate mix.
*Give to their interests. If a family is really into camping, give them a camping lantern or a dutch oven, or something that they can use while doing what they enjoy.
* Take your kids' pictures to a photo place (like CVS or Walgreens) and have inexpensive family calendars made.
* A Christmas tree ornament - Give them either a personalized ornament or one that goes along with their interests (eg. if they are a big sports loving family, find a team ornament).
* Give them a meal in a basket - In a basket, put some homemade meal fixin's, like soup in a jar, cornbread mix and brownie mix. You can find ideas for this sort of thing all over the Internet, like this place or this one. Just Google "mix in a jar" or "gift in a jar" or "gift mixes."
*Gift cards - If all else fails, or if you have to mail it and big baskets won't cut it, send an Amazon gift card or a card to a favorite restaurant.
*Movie passes - Theaters also sell gift cards so you could treat the whole family to a movie out - even at $10 a piece, it would be hard to find a nice gift at that much per person.
*Web Camera - This one is especially nice for family who lives far away.

Well, these are just suggestions. I'm sure there are lots of other good ideas out there. If you have any good "group gift" ideas, leave a comment! Especially for boys, because I have no experience with boys. Happy gift planning!

Grocery Shopping: an Update

One of my projects for this year was to change some things about the way I went grocery shopping. You can click here if you would like to read my original post about my goals and ideas.

I have to say that I'm not sure I have brought our grocery expenditures down much. However, they have not gone up, which is saying something with the way grocery prices have increased. Now don't get me wrong, they have gone down a little. But inflation has taken care of most of what I would have otherwise saved. Make sense?

So here is what I have learned about keeping the grocery bill down as low as possible. Of course, in a different town these might be different (for example, there is no Aldi's or Krogers here. We really only have one grocery store franchise and two supercenters in the whole town, along with a couple of health food grocers).

1. Coupons have definitely helped. However, they have made only a small impact on purely food items. I went shopping yesterday at Walmart (my big, once-a-month shop) and used about $12 in coupons, only one of which was printed online. That's not a huge amount, maybe. But it does "pay" for 12 weeks worth of Sunday papers! When I use food coupons, I only use them for things I would buy anyway. I don't buy something just because I have a coupon for it. Yesterday, I had a coupon for 75 cents off a tomato product from a particular brand. I calculated whether it was cheaper to get that or the Walmart store brand diced tomatoes I needed. This time, it was cheaper to get the coupon item, but that isn't always the case.

2. If you've read my blog much, you know that I love CVS! This is where the coupons have really paid off. This is also where I have seen the biggest decrease in spending. I used to spend anywhere from $20-$50 at Walmart every month on toiletries, cleaning items, over the counter medicines, and various household items. That has nearly disappeared from my monthly shopping list. Using coupons, ECBs, sales, CRTs, I get all of this for much less. A couple of days ago, I got a large package of Pampers, foundation, two lip glosses, a Gillette razor, a bottle of Dawn, and a blood glucose monitor for $6.40. I'll give the monitor to a family diabetic, and our family will use the rest.

3. Another area that I have changed is the way I buy meat. To tell the truth, I used to just buy it all from Sam's. Now I compare at Walmart, Sun Harvest, and especially at HEB. HEB runs some great sales at times (and is very close to my house). When they do, I stock up. I may buy more roasts than we'll actually use that month, but I'll buy enough to get us by until the next time they are on sale. So I have started stocking up on sale meats. This has saved us quite a bit as well.

4. I still buy ground meat in bulk from Sam's. I haven't found any other way that beats it. I noticed the last time I was there that they sell chicken breasts in bulk as well. Next trip, I want to inquire into the price for these. If you have a Sam's membership but don't have the budget or freezer space to buy a full case of a particular meat, you can split it with another family or families. I used to do this before our family grew a little more.

5. I have done a better job of comparing Sam's to other stores. I used to just buy x number of things there. Now I am doing better about making sure it is still a good deal. Not perfectly, mind you, but better. There are a few things that I could probably get a better deal on if I used coupons and stocked up on sales - like paper towels. However, I would have to get several more papers to get enough coupons because we go through way too many paper towels and toilet paper. So I keep those on the Sam's list, and supplement with deals from CVS or Walgreens when I can.

6. There are still some things I am brand name specific on. I have looked at each one to see if I should stay loyal, and kept to the things that really make a difference. For me some of these are:
Bounty or Brawny paper towels
Quilted Northern or Charmin. (And remember, we have girls. Many, many girls!)
Crisco (what little I use)
Ranch Style Beans
Barilla Plus pasta
KC Masterpiece
Wishbone Thousand Island Dressing (I don't touch any other 1000 Island.)
Jif
Nesquik
Quaker Chewy granola bars
Ritz
Brummel and Brown

That's all I can think of. I do look for coupons for these things that I am picky about. Or buy them at Sam's.

7. One thing I haven't done is substantially change the way we eat. We already ate meat as an ingredient in most things, rather than a dish to itself. I already cooked nearly everything from scratch. We eat at home or take food all but a couple of meals every month. While I could introduce more beans and rice only meals, I haven't felt the need to yet. What I do want to do is start making more of our bread, but this is more from health and taste reasons than economy. :-)

Tomorrow I am going to talk about the big debate. No, not political. But whether to plan meals and shopping trips around sales and in-season items or to plan shopping trips around a meal plan.

What about you? What things are you brand specific about? What have you done, if anything, to adjust your grocery buying habits?

Picture courtesy of moguefile.com

Super Savings Saturdays

I finally take a picture of my way cool CVS run, and Crystal over at Money Saving Mom isn't hosting her normal Super Savings Saturdays. Oh well, I'm gonna post it anyway.

Everything in this picture cost me a total of $2 out of pocket. This was two transactions, actually the second run.
I had been to CVS earlier that day, but had forgotten a couple of really good coupons. I had to go home to nurse the baby anyway, so then I went back. All told that day I spent $22 at CVS and got all of this:
The diapers alone should have cost more than that!

A Weekend Well Spent

We celebrated the long Fourth of July weekend in a slightly unorthodox manner. We had bought some furniture a few weeks ago and it was delivered last Thursday, so we spent that evening and a good part of Friday and Saturday cleaning out and reorganizing to accommodate the new stuff. We also had several smaller projects on the to-do list for the weekend, so we were hopping all weekend long.

And of course, I had to go shopping for new accessories to go with the new furniture.

Friday evening we did grill, but we had something special. I'm sure most people know that Wal-mart price matches other stores. One of the other grocery stores here in town had t-bone and Blue Bell Ice Cream on sale. We don't have one of their stores near us, so I took the flyer to Wal-mart Friday morning, along with two $1 off coupons from Blue Bell's website. I bought t-bone steak - which we hadn't had in ages - for $3.97 a pound (versus over $11 a pound regular Wal-mart price) and two half-gallons of Blue Bell for $1.88 each. So for $15.95, plus some red potatoes and fresh corn I already had at home, we had a really good steak dinner with our favorite ice cream for supper for 7 people. Not too bad, and a wonderful treat. So if you get flyers for grocers you don't normally frequent, scan them for deal you can get at Wal-mart!

Do you know what this is?

Yes, this is our house.

But what is that in front?

Yes, it is a yellow car. A VERY yellow car. (Or, as Lauryn used to say, "Daddee's yewwow cah.")

But do you know what else it is?

It is a paid off very yellow car! Yep, we paid the car off this week. Now we are going to roll a good part of the money that used to go into the car payment into the suburban payment. So hopefully we'll pay that off soon as well.

We've forgotten history

Just turn on any news program lately and you'll hear plenty about how rotten the economy is. And there is definitely alot of truth in it. We have felt the increase in costs, especially in groceries and gas. (This was one reason I started paying more attention to how I spent our grocery money.) I read yesterday about how we are in for a bad wheat crop and wheat prices are going to go up - although I think they already have as the flour I buy at Sam's has doubled in price in the last year.

But this morning when Kelly and I were watching the news, the reporter made a statement that really irked me. "Times are really bad right now." Yes I know it sounds innocuous enough. And I know that there are many families who have been hit very hard. But I'm sorry, things in the country are not "really bad" right now, comparatively.

Hear me out on this.

Yes I know all the predictions of gloom and doom - recession, stagnation, housing crisis, gas prices, these are all things I understand and have heard. But really, things just aren't as good right now as they have been for most of my adult life. We have been living through a time of great wealth and ease until very recently. Prices were low, inflation almost nonexistent, unemployment at record lows, interest rates on house and car loans very low. We've had it easy. And now that the pendulum is swinging back the other way (as it always does) we are panicking.

If you want to know about "times that are really bad" talk to your grandparents (or great grandparents) about what it was to live in the depression. Read cookbooks from that era - its quite eye opening. When we think we've got it bad because we can only buy the meat that's on sale, read how these women fed families with no meat, milk, butter, etc. These people lived through a time when they probably wished for only a recession - and don't forget the horrible drought that lasted for years that decimated so many family farms. They had it really bad.

Also talk to your grandparents about living through WWII. I know Iraq has caused some prices to go up, but we have never had to go "meatless on Mondays" or plow up our lawns to plant victory gardens. We would absolutely die if we have to have ration books to get certain items - we get upset if we have to take a raincheck on a sale item!

No, our country is scared right now (and the media is fueling it for all it's worth). And with fear we lose perspective. Now I'm not saying we should ignore what's going on around us. I'm all for being frugal, careful and discerning with money - just ask Kelly, who thinks I am too much sometimes! I am still working on bringing our grocery budget down, so that I've gone back to couponing after giving it up years ago. But we need to be careful not to get caught up in the hype. It keeps us from being thankful for what we have and being content. Our history gives us perspective - let's not lose it during this time. And as Christians, we have have the ultimate history - the Bible which shows us how God has always taken care of his people.

My project

One of the blog entries I didn't get to last week, was an update on my financial goal of reducing my grocery budget. The first weekend in February I did my "big shopping" so it was the first time I got to see how much of an impact some of the things I'd been doing have had.

First, I was very surprised by what my newly resurrected price book told me. Mainly it reaffirmed for me that Wal-mart is by far the best value for the majority of my dry and canned goods. However, some things are still cheaper in bulk at Sam's. But a few things surprised me. I had been wishing Sam's would start carrying oats in bulk, but for years all they carried was big boxes of instant oats, when I wanted rolled or quick cooking. Well, last week, our Sam's actually had a HUGE box of quick cooking oats. But when I computed the price per ounce, Wal-mart was still cheaper! Also, that weekend the cheapest eggs (Large sized) were not at Sam's or Wal-mart but HEB! Go figure!

Second, I noticed that I didn't spend as much at Sam's because I had been watching the meat sales at HEB more carefully and had caught a few things that were cheaper than Sam's.

Third, the biggest difference I noticed was in how much I spent at Wal-mart. My grocery bill there went down drastically due to two things. The biggest was that I wasn't buying toiletries for 7 people there. In fact, the only non-food item I bought was generic allergy medicine, which is still way cheaper at Wal-mart than at CVS, even with all the CVS specials. Since I had been matching up coupons with the CVS deals (and a few from Walgreens) and buying toiletries for pennies, or sometimes for free from CVS, I cut almost a quarter off what I normally spend at Walmart. I also had about $10 in coupons, which helped as well. These were for the things that are not store brands that I would have bought anyway.

So I would say that so far the project has been a success, without my having to change the way we eat, though I could do that if we got really strapped for money at some point.

Busy Weekend

You can always tell when I am super busy if my blog goes un-updated two days in a row! :-)

The first weekend of the month is usually my "big shop" weekend - I do the majority of my dry goods type shopping this weekend. Either Kelly or I go to Sam's Club, and then I go to Wal-mart and HEB. This allows me to just run to HEB for milk, eggs, and produce on the other weekends, and to CVS for weekly specials on toiletries and vitamin/supplements. However, right now that makes for a BIG weekend, just because my fatigue level anyway is higher than normal. Plus I had to plan school for the next week, and prepare food for our church luncheon, so needless to say, I did not get my afternoon rest time yesterday. :(

Friday, I did make me and Kelly both very happy. :-) Kelly has had a rough couple of days, so he did NOT feel up to going to Sam's for me on Friday, which is our usual arrangement. Well I cannot physically do Walmart and Sam's on the same day so I went to Sam's Friday after supper. Earlier this week Kelly's cell phone died. As in D.E.D. We'd been looking online at the free phones we could get if we signed another contract (ours had been expired for nearly a year). When I went to Sam's, I saw a kiosk for AT&T Wireless, our cell phone company for the past nine years or more. I went to look at what they had, and while talking to the sales rep., he mentioned that he could waive the activation fees if we signed up there at the kiosk instead of online or in an AT&T store. Plus, they had the RAZR that Kelly had wanted for FREE with the contract, whereas online we would have had to pay $99 each for the same phone.

So I called Kelly - as I'm such a good wife and would never do anything like this without consulting him - and asked him if he wanted me to do it. He snorted, "Why did you even call me?" So much for wifely thoughtfulness, huh? So while I shopped for what I needed, the cell phone guys got me set up with two new RAZRV3xx, with no activation or upgrade fees for a plan that is the same price as we are paying now, with more minutes per month, and $0 out of pocket. So if you have a Sam's Club membership and are in the market for a cell phone, try there first!

Yesterday I had my midwife check up. I explained about the fatigue exhaustion I've been dealing with. The good news is that I'm not anemic. The bad news is that they seem to think it's a combination of third trimester, not eating enough protein, and dealing with the extremely high allergens in the air right now. She said that if I'm fighting this stuff this much, it's like I'm half sick, so I'm going to be tired because my body's immune system is doing what it's supposed to do. She also wants me to eat protein at breakfast, something I am not looking forward to, and see if that helps.

Then, as if to confirm what she said, I woke up this morning with a heavy chest. By the time I got home from church I had a slight cough. I've been telling myself over and over today, "I'm not getting sick. I'm not getting sick." I'll let you know tomorrow if this mind over matter thing has any merit whatsoever. Right now I'm going to go lie on the sofa until the Super Bowl comes on.

Deals from the last few days

HEB - whole chicken $0.62 per pound

Sam's Club (410) - gas $2.77 per gallon w/ membership (part of me still can't believe I'm calling that price a deal.)

Co-op - laundry basket full of produce - can't beat it!

Library - 27 books, including 2 audio books - free!

My personal best CVS week thus far:
10 bar pack of Irish Spring bath soap
1 box Zantac 150
8 Soy Joy granola bars
1 toothbrush
2 medium bags of peanut M&M's
1 tube chapstick

The candy was B1G1 free. So after that deal, a $4 of $20 purchase coupon, 2 soy joy $1 coupons, a $5 coupon off Zantac, and $13 in ECB's my total out of pocket was $0.98 and got back $15.99 worth of ECB's! Actually I only bought the chapstick because I had a negative balance and needed to throw in something else to bring the total up to a positive number.

Also found out that Turbo Tax offers an online version of their basic software for free. It also appears to have free eFile with it. My MIL has used it already and it had everything that she needed - including itemization. Of course, if it doesn't have everything you need, you can always upgrade for a fee, but we have used the basic version for years with great success. But this year we will be saving about $20! If you are interested click here and then click on "Free Edition."

And this is a deal we will be taking advantage of in the next few days - Norton AntiVirus 2008 for up to 3 computers for $2.99 after rebates (one of these rebates is for previous Norton owners to upgrade so be sure to read the conditions to that one as it may or may not apply to you). Click here to see this offer. Our antivirus was about to expire anyway, and it was Norton, so this will be a great deal for us!

My New Favorite Store

I wrote earlier in the week about my new efforts to save money. Well, there was an unusually high amount of coupons in the paper (and I bought two) and this week, CVS is running many great deals. So I went on Monday and bought:

2 Palmolive Dishwashing liquids
2 Fructis shampoos
2 Fructis conditioners
1 Aquafresh toothpaste
2 Colgate total toothpastes
2 Colgate wave toothbrushes
2 Johnson's Buddies Sops
and 1 Lubriderm lotion (I just needed a heavy duty lotion, this was the only item I didn't have a coupon for)

After several coupons combined with sales on every one of these items (except the Lubriderm lotion), and $7 in ECB's from previous purchases (when I picked up 4 bottles of vitamins and herbs), I paid $10.69 plus received $12 in ECB's for future purchases. ECB's are basically like dollars to be used at CVS stores.

Tonight I needed milk, and CVS is running it for cheaper than my HEB right now, with the card. So tonight I bought:

1 gallon 2% milk
1 gallon skim milk
2 Right Guard deodorants
1 pkg Keebler cookies
2 Robitussin cough syrups
1 Sambucol Immunity Defense

After sales, coupons, and $10 ECB's from that last purchase, I paid $8.46 plus got $10 ECB's. So I didn't grow my ECB's anymore, but I maintained the amount, plus $7 of that out of pocket was the milk. And I'll get a $12.99 rebate for buying the Sambucol in the mail from the manufacturer, so I will come out way ahead. And in all honesty, I forgot to use two of my coupons, so this total should have been $6.46. Oh well. I still have more coupons to use, so I'm sure I will be making another stop or two by the CVS which is on my way to nearly everywhere from my house to take advantage of the "dollar days."

I plan on trying to grow my ECB's a little every week, so that my out of pocket expense goes down every week, while I stock up on toiletries, vitamins, and over the counter medicines. If you are at all interested in how to go about doing it, go to this website.

New Years, Goals, and a New Project

I've had a post in mind for New Years for quite a while, but with being out of town on New Year's Eve and Day, and Kelly's surgery almost as soon as we got home, I haven't had time to do so.

I do not make New Year's Resolutions. They are meant to be broken, and I don't like things that are broken - it just goes against my neat-nick, OCD nature. However, I am very goal and project oriented, too much so at times. So I do have on going lists of long term goals, and short term projects to accomplish those. And there are natural times that I reevaluate them. Back in October and November, I realized I need to do something about our grocery budget, but with illnesses, funerals, holidays, and musicals, I knew that I could not start until after Christmas.

So my newest project in my ongoing goal of being a wise housewife - I have half-joked before that Kelly's job is to make the money and mine is to stretch it - is to address the grocery budget. With the cost of gas which has caused groceries to skyrocket, our grocery bill lately has seen an alarming jump. In fact, in spite of a yearly raise, it seems we actually have less disposable income because we are paying so much in gas and groceries. So I decided there must be more I could do about it.

Not that I have been doing nothing about it. I have spent considerable time and energy in the last several years concentrating on my cooking skills, because the most frugal way to save money on food is to (a) cook it yourself and (b) cook it from scratch. So I have been learning to bake and cook using few to no convenience food, and that does help tremendously. However, after we got out of the military and I started shopping at Walmart and HEB - places that have store brands - rather than the commissary, I let couponing go. I figured I could save as much just buying the store brands. I have also bought staples in bulk, and utilized a great bread store here in San Antonio for any store bought bread and a fraction of grocery store costs.

Well, I have been convicted that I have gotten a little lazy in comparison shopping and coupon usage, so I am back on the bandwagon. One of the things that got me back on was a realization that a large part of our "grocery budget" was going to toiletries, over the counter medications, vitamins, and household items. And these are the very items that often have alot of coupons, and are often on sale as well. If I can save money just on those items, I can see a significant savings. But I am also hoping to save on food items as well by more carefully matching coupons with sales. That's the plan anyway.

So here's some of what I am doing:

• I bought a couple of papers today to start my coupon stash back up. There were several inserts today, so I got quite a good start.
• I have been reading a great website my friend Aubrey told me about, called Money Saving Mom. She has some great articles on there about how to best utilize the deals at CVS and Walgreens. These are places I am hoping will save me alot on many of these non-food grocery items, as well as a few grocery deals here and there. She also has links to many online coupon sites, as well as other articles on saving money on groceries, where you can print off coupons, something that was unavailable years ago when I was clipping coupons.
• I am going to be price comparing more, so I am going to be resurrecting my price book. Click here if you have no idea what that is. Mainly I am hoping this will let me know if deals are better at Sam's or at the grocery store. The prices at Sam's have gone up as well, so there may be things that aren't the best deal from there, even though they used to be.
• In order to price compare, I am going to be paying more attention, not only to the fliers that come in the mail, but to a couple of website. Target has their specials and web coupons online for their SuperTargets, so I will check that once a week. I have also found another website thanks to my friend Cathi, called My Grocery Deals. This site compares current sales from most of your local stores - for me it is Walmart, HEB, SuperTarget, Whole Foods, CVS, and Walgreens. I noticed some good deals on meat today at HEB when I was looking.
• I am thinking about trying out The Grocery Game. A friend of mine recommended it to me, saying it saves her well over the cost. The trial is only $1, so I think I might at least give it a four week trial.
• There are also a few meat markets in town that I intend to drop by and price their items as well, as I've read that many time they are cheaper than the grocery store. I'll enter that info into my price book, and we'll see. A few years ago we used to order sides of beef, and that was really nice, but it is a big expenditure at once. I'd love to look into that again, but not sure it is feasible.

So this weekend I started my project. Like I said, I bought two papers today, and got my new coupon box set up, those coupons clipped and sorted. Yesterday I did my first CVS shopping trip, with the sales, coupons, and ECB's in mind. I bought 4 bottles of vitamins - two of Vitamin C's for Kelly and two of my pregnancy herbs - a box of Zantac and deodorant for less than $10 (the vitamins normally retail for $8-9 a bottle) plus I got back $6 in EBC's for my next visit. I'm already making my lists for CVS and Walgreens this week as they have some great deals this week.

So, anybody have any more helpful hints? Has anyone else tried The Grocery Game? Is it worth the money?

A few tips for the Season

Seems like this is the time of year to blog about Christmas shopping. Everywhere I read, bloggers are sharing their thoughts on this. Well, I had planned on doing the same, so I guess great minds think alike. Then I wondered if I have anything original to add to this discussion. Probably not, but it's my blog, so I'm going to add my two cents anyway.

1. Shop throughout the year. Oh, wait, I know that's one everyone has heard. And it is easier said than done. Even for me. I am usually pretty good about doing this, but this year I fell down on the job, and now I am regretting it.

At the very least, if you don't buy stuff throughout the year, set aside money throughout the year, so that when November/December roll around you have most/all of the money you need to buy the gifts. (This method has its advantages too if you get loss leaders this time of year.) You can put it in your savings account, create a special bank account for gifts, have an envelope that you add money to every pay period, whatever. But plan for it throughout the year. This is critical if you, like me, have 4 birthdays in your family in November and December. Thank goodness this baby is coming in the spring!

2. The Christmas Kora turned 2, it was like a toy store blew up in our house. Between gifts from us, both sets of grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc., our small house could hardly hold it all. After that we decided to change how we did this. Then I read somewhere about a family that only gave each child three gifts, just like Jesus received three gifts from the Wise Men in Matthew. We decided then and there that if it was good enough for Jesus it was good enough for our kids. So from us, our kids only get three gifts. One of these is always books.

Sometimes they might share a particular gift if they both want it. especially a more expensive one. For instance, last year, Brynna and Hailey received the Barbie and the 12 Dancing Princesses Magical Dance Castle. It was about $80-$90 retail last year. Well that was more than I would spend for one gift on any one child, but I got the best deal I could find on it, and gave it to both of them. They were thrilled. They share a room and all their Barbies anyway, so it was a perfect match.

I have heard of other ways to limit the gifts. One lady I knew had a different system. They gave four gifts: one each for their spiritual, mental, physical and recreational lives. So a child might receive a study Bible or devotional book (spiritual), a leisure book or CD (mental), a pair of roller blades (physical) and then something fun like a toy of something for their hobby (recreational). However you do it, they children are much more appreciative of the gifts if they are a few thoughtfully given ones, rather one on a sea of other gifts.

We do, on top of those three, put one or two smaller things in their stockings. These are usually small toys (my pretty Ponies work well), jewelry, nail polish, a small stuffed animal, etc. This also in no way limits what they get from the extended family. But it has helped us enjoy our Christmases more. I can honestly say that our girls have never asked why they don't get more, as we choose carefully to get them things they really want.

And as a note, we do not do Santa with our kids. There are no extra toys under the tree, even at grandparents' houses from Santa. We have our reasons for that, but that is another blog entry.

3. Keep a list. On December 26, make a list of some kind of everyone you will need to get gifts for the next year. Keep it handy so that throughout the year you can write down ideas of something you could get them. Maybe something someone gave somebody else gives you an idea. Maybe you are talking on the phone and something they say gives you an idea. WRITE IT DOWN. Then check it off when you buy for that person. Also write down how much it is so you can keep track of holiday spending.

4. Give group gifts. If you have cousins or couples to buy for, don't feel obligated to buy each one of them a gift (unless you have all the money you need for that type of thing, in which case, I think I am a long lost cousin). I have bought movies, books, games, art supplies, and even made a tent for gifts for all the kids in the family. For couples, think of home items they can both enjoy (maybe a nice pair of candlesticks with candles for mood setting), movies, gift certificates for a date night (if you live in the same town, offer a night of free babysitting for them to use it!), or items they are both interested in (maybe they are both readers or both collect something). You'll spend less than if you try to buy two gifts, you'll be less stressed, and it will be just as appreciated.

Don't know if this has helped anyone else, but these tactics have helped keep me and our family sane through the holidays, and out of debt. It also helps keep our focus on the real meaning of the season, while still enjoying some great gifts.

Are the cows on strike?

So does anyone know what's up with the price of milk? I went to Wal-mart today, and a gallon of the store brand milk was just under $4.50 a gallon! I held off, and went to HEB, where it was only $3.30 or so a gallon. Are Wal-mart cows in negotiations for a higher salary? I about choked. When your family goes through about 4 gallons a week, that's quite a good chunk of change out of the grocery budget!

Maybe my husband's idea about getting a farm with a couple of cows isn't so bad... Think my breast pump would work on them? ;-)

Price matching

UPDATE: CVS has milk for $2.49/gallon. If you take the flyer to Walmart be sure you get the Oak Farms brand milk since that is shown in the picture. If you go to CVS you need the Extracare card.

I suppose most of you know that many stores will match the prices in competitor's ads. Well, if you live in San Antonio, don't throw away the La Fiesta flyer from today. While I would probably never shop there, I have used their flyers to get items at Walmart for their lose leaders' prices.

Today, they have:
Seven bone Chuck roast for $1.47/lb (limit 2 with $10 purchase)
Russet potato 5 lb bags for $0.99 each
strawberries for $1.38/lb
Oak Farms half gallon ice cream for $1.00 each
Borden gallon orange juice $2.44
Suave 15 oz. shampoo for $0.77

and probably others I missed. Just take the flyer with you when you check out at Walmart and give them the flyer, showing them the price, and they will adjust the price. Just make sure that if the flyer lists a brand or shows a brand in the picture that it has to be the exact same thing. Believe me, I had to carry 4 gallons of milk across Walmart one time because I had picked up Walmart brand milk when the ad was for Borden. :)

Does anyone know of HEB price matches as well? I'd much rather get any produce from there.