I Hate When DH Goes to the Store...

but I had no choice but to let him go by himself. I've been sick the last 2 days and standing up for any period of time is just nor good!! He took the Little Princess with him. She loves to go to store with, especially to Wegmans because they have the little carts she can push around.

He actually didn't do too badly. Wegmans recently announced that they have cut prices on groceries that people need the most, like bread, peanut butter, etc. A regular size loaf of white bread is normally $1.29 at Walmart and $1.69 at Tops. Wegmans had it for 99 cents!!! They also had my 2 liters of Pepsi for $1 each. This is the only time I will buy them I HATE paying more than that. He bought 3 loaves of bread, 3 2-liters of diet Pepsi for me, a pound of deli ham, a pound of deli turkey, 6 pack of rolls (they were pricey - $2.50!) and apples. So, we had sandwiches for dinner. I know it's not the healthiest, but it sure beats eating out!! Oh I forgot. Wegmans also reduced their price on a Jumbo pack of Huggies from $10.89 to $9.59. Anytime it's less than $10 it's a good price now. I had given DH 2 coupons just in case and he bought 2 packs.

We now have about $20 for next week's groceries. No problem! I will just meal plan for the week (until Thursday), stick to my list, and, of course, shop at Aldi's.

GET OUT THERE!!!

NO MATTER WHO YOU ARE VOTING FOR, NO MATTER IF YOU ARE A REPUBLICAN, DEMOCRAT, OR INDEPENDENT, DON'T FORGET TO GO OUT AND VOTE TODAY!! NO MATTER WHO WINS THE PRESIDENCY, THIS WILL MAKE HISTORY. WE WILL EITHER HAVE AN AFRICAN AMERICAN PRESIDENT OR A FEMALE VICE PRESIDENT!!  LET YOUR VOICE BE HEARD. THOSE WHO DON'T VOTE, DON'T HAVE THE RIGHT TO COMPLAIN. 

What a great site for all us frugalistas!!!

One of the Yahoo groups that I belong to, but I seldom take an active role, had this link last week. http://tastyplanner.com/ I checked it out and it is really awesome! I think it could really help all of us plan our meals and shop better.

Sign up is free, of course. I wouldn't be singing its praises otherwise. lol. You can find recipes that other users have added and even add your own recipes. I really like the meal planner. It is as simple as dragging and dropping the recipe into the day's column. The ingredients you will need to make your menu for the week, will automatically be added to the grocery list. You can then print out your list or access it using an iPhone (Being a frugalista, I, of course, do not have one of these, but a girl can dream can't she?)

So, if you are not meal planning yet or are doing it on paper, check this site out. I think you will find it very interesting. Let me know what you think of it.

Free coloring pages!

I just wanted to share a great site for all you readers with young children who love to color. My little girl loves to color, but coloring books can be expensive. I like this site because, first of all, it's free. Secondly, I like it because she can pick which ones she wants to color. Check it out for yourself. Just click on the picture below.

Blog of the week

Each week I will be posting a blog that I find interesting or informative. I will add the link and talk about things I find particularly interesting. Please feel free to add your comments.

This week I chose 5 Quick Ways to Save on Money on Groceries on The Daily Dish blog.

The first way she says you can save money is to cook from scratch. This is so true, especially if you have a family. If there are 5 people in your family and you each eat a frozen dinner at $2 a piece, that is $10 for one meal. Many times I can make a dinner that will feed all us plus have leftovers for a day or two for around $5. I have heard that 90% of your food should not have any ingredients, they should be ingredients. My family is currently working on this, though I do sometimes resort to using a box of macaroni and cheese or a can of soup. An added bonus to cooking from scratch is that you know what's in it and you can control the amount of salt or sugar that is added.

The second way she talks about saving money is by using coupons. Coupons are great and in the past I have saved a lot of money. I would go from having to pay like $50 down to $30 or even less. Lately though, the amount of coupons in the Sunday paper have been decreased dramatically. Last Sunday I think there were 10 actual coupons in the paper. You can print coupons online but not all stores takes these, so you will need to ask them. Also with coupons you need to look at how much other brands cost. Sometimes it is not worth it to use the coupon, even when doubled. Lately we have been buying generics and shopping at Aldi's.

Buying in bulk is the writer's third way to save money. This is true sometimes. You have to be careful though. Just because it's a bigger box, doesn't mean it's a better price. I have noticed a lot lately that buying several smaller boxes/cans can often times be the same price or cheaper than buying in bulk. Check out the unit price on the shelf or use your calculator/cell phone calculator to find out if you are actually getting a better deal. To figure the unit cost all you have to do is take the price of the product and divide it by the ounces or pounds that are in there. I also sometimes divide it by the number of products if there are single things in there, like granola bars, oatmeal packets, etc.

Number four is 100% correct. Shopping on an empty stomach is just asking for trouble. If you're hungry, all those packages of chips and cookies are going to be really tempting.

Meal planning and making a list will save you quite a bit of money, especially if you can stick to your list. I meal plan for 2 weeks, since this I shop every 2 weeks. I take my list and next to each product, I write down where I want to buy it and an approximate cost of that product.

So, what do you think? Do you agree or disagree with what the blog says or with what I wrote? Let me know what you think.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYBODY!!!!

                    Stay safe and keep the little ones bundled up!!!

Online Bill Pay Saves Me Big Bucks!!!

A few years ago we started using online bill payment through our old bank. It was free and so easy to do. We have all our bills set up to automatically be mailed at a week before they're due, except for the rent.

I pay doctor's and hospital bills on a weekly basis and everything else is monthly. With the money going out automatically, I don't forget about a bill and it makes my life SO MUCH EASIER! I also use Money to track what we spend, and that also puts those automatic payments in there a day before the bank sends the check or sends the payment. The only thing I have to add is any checks written or any debit card uses. We haven't bounced a check in over four years.

We not only save money by not having any late fees or bounced check fees, we also save a lot of money on stamps. We now buy a book of stamps and it will last us months! I figure we save at least $6 a month by not having to buy stamps.

Tell me what you think. Do you use bill payment? Why or why not? How much does it save you?

Trick or Treating Tonight

Well, tonight we will be going down to my mom's house and then trick or treating in her town. Up here, they trick or treat on Halloween and since that is a Friday, my husband will have to work and will miss trick or treating. So, we are going tonight. 

My oldest son is going as some freaky looking monster. My two year old is going to be a princess and the little guy is going as a bumblebee. I think it will be fun, because my daughter will be able to enjoy it more now that she is older.

I just have to find something quick for dinner tonight so we can eat early and get going. Trick or treating starts at 6pm and it's about a 35 minute drive. Right now, I have no clue what to make. These are one of those times when I wish we had some frozen pizzas in our upright freezer. Maybe I will make some homemade pizza. I guess it depends on what my husband is doing this afternoon, because making pizza dough is a little time consuming and I don't dare leave the little ones in the living room that long by themselves.

Any ideas for what else I could make for dinner. For meat we have a couple frozen uncooked chicken breasts and some frozen cut-up ham pieces. So, that kind of limits us. I know, I know. We need to go meat shopping!

DO REALLY NEED CABLE?

Now that baseball is basically over and the Mets did not make it into divisional play, AGAIN, my husband announced that now we could reduce the cable to channels 2-13. This costs about $10 a month, so our cable and Internet will go from being about $100 a month to about $55. With the main channels we can still watch network television and the kids can still watch PBS. Before we cancel it, we will be taping a bunch of the kids favorite shows like Dora, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Backyardigans, etc.

Saving $45 a month is a big deal. That's my highest credit card payment right there. I could be using that to snowball all our debt and get rid of it quicker.

We won't miss cable too much. We spend way too much time staring at the TV anyway, so it will probably be good for us. Plus a lot of shows can be seen online now. I often watch Heroes online because I somehow forget to watch it. I always watch SNL online because I don't want to watch the whole thing, just the political satire. If we start getting bored with network tv, there is always www.Hulu.com which has older movies and tv shows. Also we can run down to the grocery store and rent a movie from the RedBox for $1 a night per movie. http://www.insideredbox.com/

How much money could you save by reducing your cable or canceling it? By the way, most cable companies have some form of the reduced cable for about $10, but you have to ask them about it.

Flickr Tags: cable,cable reduction,saving money,entertainment

WIND TURBINES AND OTHER FORMS OF ALTERNATIVE ENERGY

I was driving on the highway yesterday, going to the airport to pick up my husband, and happened to glance over and see a truck carrying the blades for a wind turbine. We've been seeing these a lot lately, and they are always headed west. There are some very windy areas around here, like around the lakes. I really think between wind, solar and geothermal we could drastically reduce our dependence on oil.

If every house had solar panels (even in most of the northeast) I think that would dramatically help. The government has a lot of tax rebates and refunds right now and it's a great time to do it, if you can afford to. We looked it up because we are thinking about putting them in after we get our modular up next spring, and in New York state between rebates and credits, it would end up being just about free if you installed them yourself - which my husband can do. If you wanted to use solar to heat your house, you would need to make sure you had an electric heat source.

Wind power also has a lot of potential. It's a renewable resource and it's not like we are going to run out of it. Some people don't like the way they look, but I'd much rather prefer a bunch of these near my house, than having more nuclear power plants or relying on foreign oil.

There is also geothermal energy we could use. Since I don't know much about it I will not talk about it, except to say that it is being used more and more these days and looks like a good alternative for heating our homes. If you know more about geothermal energy and would like to share, please do.

I guess what I'm trying to say with all this is that we need to be expanding these alternative energy sources as much as possible. I do not like depending on other countries for our energy when we have so much potential here! I think that the latest talk I heard of the oil companies reducing their output is crap! They said it was because demand went down. If they reduce the oil they are refining, our price is going to go up, along with THEIR profits. With reducing the output, they get more money per gallon of oil. Why wouldn't they want to do this? I would hope that the government would step in and tell them they can't do this, but I don't see it happening. The way I see it, the less oil we need, the better. I will save talking about energy independence in vehicles for some other day.

LiveJournal Tags: alternative energy,energy,oil,solar energy,wind power,geothermal,oil companies,gas prices

Family Calendar

I just found this wonderful program for helping you keep track of your family: http://www.cozi.com/ * It's free and there is some really nice features that I will be using.

One really nice feature is the family calendar. You can enter the names of each person in your family and when you enter an appointment, you can check off who the appointment is for. You can even synchronize the calendar to Microsoft Outlook. I think this will be a very nice feature for me.

There is also a feature for adding your grocery list. You can even add the stores where you need to buy different items at. There's also a family journal and you can download a photo collage screen saver.

So, check it out if you have a few minutes. I think it will definitely help my family and I get organized.

*I am in no way affiliated with Betty Crocker and did not receive anything for writing today's blog entry. I just like the product and know that other frugal moms and dads could also benefit from using this free program.

LiveJournal Tags: family,schedule,planning,grocery list

The Advantages of Meal Planning

Do you know what you're making for dinner everyday or are you constantly asking "What's for dinner?" If it is the latter, then maybe you should try meal planning. Planning your meals will help your day go smoother and it will save you money at the grocery store.

You can plan either weekly, bi-weekly or monthly. It depends on when you do your shopping and what you prefer. We usually shop either every week or every other week, so I plan for 2 weeks or even for the whole month.

In preparing to do your plan for the first time, you may want to come up with a list of the meals that you make quite a bit. These are your tried and true recipes. You can always add to your list as you try new recipes and find that you like them. I have a list of about 30 different meals and I challenge myself to try one new recipe a week. If it's a good recipe, I add it to my main recipe binder and add the meal to my list.

Step 2 to meal planning is the actual planning what meals you want when. You will need to take into account any days you have planned to eat out or when you might eat at someone else's house. Also I usually include an occasional leftover day, especially after a larger meal like chili. I usually just plan dinners, but if you cook breakfast and lunch, you may also want to plan them.

After you get your meals planned, check out your pantry and freezer and list what you will need to buy at the store. What I also do is take out the recipes I will need, put them in the order I will be making them and put them back in the front of the binder.

For the design of your plan, there are many things you can do. You can just list the day and then the meal(s), either on paper or typing them up. What I like to do is go into Word and use one of their calendar templates and add in the meals. Then I usually put my plan on the refrigerator so even the kids can see it and know what we will be having for dinner.

I challenge you, if you don't already to plan your meals. And let me know how it works out for you.

del.icio.us Tags: meal planning,meals,recipes,planning,frugality

THE ECONOMY - SAW IT COMING!!

Our family, as well as many other American families, are concerned with the recent happenings in regards to our economy. I can't say I didn't see this coming. I took an economics in the spring of 2007 and I was already noticing a slow down. I look back and think, why didn't we do more to pay off our credit cards and save more money? Then I start thinking about what was going on last year.

It sure was a crazy year. I quit my job the first week of January so that I could stay home with our then 4 month old daughter. So, living on only one income took a while to adjust too. Though I have to say we actually did better financially after I stopped working. We spent too much money eating out and really didn't have a budget. In August of last year, the union where my husband worked went on strike. So there we were living on a strike bonus of $300 until he could get the unemployment. Once we got that we were getting about $700 a week, which was more than enough to live on. Though we ended up being financially ok, it was a very stressful time for everyone. In November our son was born. My husband put an application in with his current employer and started working there in January of this year. The company had stated there was an impasse and they were calling people back, but my husband hadn't been called back yet. They called him a week after he started his new job.

My husband's new job is wonderful. He gets paid well and the company really cares about its employees. He works Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights 7pm to 7am and gets paid for 40 hours. He brings home a little over $600 a week and we've been doing great with our budget. We have paid off several hospital bills and smaller credit cards. We did have over $600 in our baby EF, but we needed to use that for some bills, because we spent too much when we went on vacation camping.

We are debating on what is the best course of action: save up more money in baby EF (currently about $250) or start snowballing our credit cards again. We had to stop paying off our credit cards for the last few months because we had to save us much as possible to get our house put in (building permits, fees, etc). It won't be a whole lot we will have extra (we are using $250 cash for Christmas), only about $80 extra for the next 2 months. We put $20 a week into savings no matter what. With the economy the way it is, what is the best move. Voice your opinion and post a comment!!

LiveJournal Tags: frugal,economy,saving,credit