New Year's Resolutions

I know it has been a while since I have posted, but I actually have a little time so I thought I would write something up. I hope you have all had a wonderful holiday season, and didn't overspend too much.

During this time of the year, many people make New Year's resolutions. Some decide to get healthier and lose weight while others decide that they want to makeover their financial situation. This year I have resolutions to do both.

I need to get my butt in gear and get this weight off. I want to do this not only so I can lose the weight and wear smaller clothes, but also so that I can feel healthier and have more energy. Both my husband and I have gym memberships, it is just a matter of getting there. It is relatively cheap and it is open twenty four hours a day. So, this should make it easier to get there, but getting the inspiration to leave and go has proved difficult. I am going to start trying to go in the morning before work. If this doesn't work, then I will start doing 30 Day Shred several times during the work week and just go to the gym on the weekends.

Financially, I have some really big goals for the coming year. Fortunately, we found out yesterday that my husband's unemployment will be extended until at least April. So that is good news. If it hadn't been extended, it would have run out in the middle of February. That would have meant a month and a half of saving every last penny we could get our hands on. This would have given us about $1500 (or more) in our savings to help pay bills with. I figured that with this amount and our current bills we would have to use a little less than $400 of it each month.

I still want to get that $1500 in the savings account and get some of our credit cards paid off. So, here are my financial goals for 2010 and how we will achieve them:

1. Save $1500 in our emergency fund. This is also what Dave Ramsey suggests you do before you start paying off the bills. I have already devised our budget for the next 6 months and figured out that by the middle of February we will be at this amount. Although we will have reached our goal at that time, we will continue taking out $25 a week and having it automatically placed in our online savings account.
2. Build up our food stockpile. I would like to have enough food for 4-6 months (with only having to buy perishables). This would help in case of lower income or any other reason we couldn't get to the store. I will be taking a weekly inventory of what we have so I know what we need more of in order to have a 4 month supply. I will then stock up when I get a deal of those foods.
3. After our EF is fully funded, we will start snowballing our credit cards. Although I think it might be a little bit smarter to pay the highest interest debts off first, I think it gives you more motivation if you pay off the smallest balances first. As previously stated, I have done up a budget for the next 6 months and have already figured out how much I will be using to pay off debt each week. After getting the first debt paid off, I will take the payment I normally paid on that debt, plus the extra and put it on the next smallest debt.
4. After our credit cards are paid off I will be concentrating on paying off our van early. We own our explorer so we don't have to worry about paying that off. I will then concentrate on getting my school loans paid off.

So what are your New Year's resolutions? I would love to hear. Leave them in the comments.

Stockpile and Strawberries

Stockpile Reorganization

Something must have been wrong with me today. LOL. I was in an organizing/cleaning frenzy. I organized my two cupboards where I keep some of my stockpile. Then I folded and put away a whole mess-load of clothes, washed a load of dishes (by hand - how I wish we had a dishwasher), washed another load of clothes and a load of towels. Since my stockpile cupboards look so good I thought I would share pictures of them with you.



In the first picture on the left hand side, is all our cereal, my 2-liters of Pepsi, syrup, oatmeal canisters and other larger foods that do not fit on my shelves. The middle picture is the left side of my closet. It has all kinds of HBA products: toothpaste and tooth brushes, shampoo, conditioner, mouth wash, body wash, deodorant, razors and more. The last picture, the one on the right, is the right side of the closet and containers all my cleaning supplies.

I have more stockpile than this of course. I have 2 shelves full of canned goods and bottles. I have a stockpile of paper towels (this is a necessity in my house because of the little ones) above my cabinet in the kitchen and I usually have at least one package in the basement. Most of my boxed goods are upstairs in a cabinet. I will be organizing all these again, and also organizing my linen closet this week. I will try to remember to take pictures of my stockpile when I am done so I can share them with you. I will also be cleaning out my freezer and upright freezer and trying to eat up the stuff that has been in there for a while.

Strawberries Galore

My husband's grandmother bought a huge bin full of local strawberries today and gave us a whole bunch of them. I just have to say that these were the juiciest and tastiest strawberries I have ever had. YUMMY!! She gave us at least 4 pounds, so I will be making strawberry shortcake either tonight or tomorrow. I usually just make a regular white or yellow cake, but I may try biscuits this time. I have Cool Whip in the freezer that I bought last month for $.50.

Hope you have a wonderful night and a great Friday. TGIF!!

Couponing and Stockpiling

It really amazes me the way some people shop. For instance, I was at Tops yesterday and I was waiting for a lady to pick up Domino sugar, so I could get some. She puts a bag in her cart and then looks at a coupon someone had left there. It was for $.50 on 2. Well, she reads it and then puts it back on top of the sugar on the shelf. Maybe it was because she would have had to have bought 2? Or maybe it was because she doesn't know that Tops doubles up to $.99, making that coupon actually $1 off the 2? It was $1.99 for a 5 pound bag of sugar and it was a really good deal anyways, even without a coupon. Maybe she thought that 10 pounds of sugar was a lot, not thinking that sugar lasts like 10 years! If she had bought 2 and used that coupon, each bag of sugar would have been $1.49!!!!

I think there are a lot of people out there who are still only shopping for that week's worth of food. This is the wrong way to go. You end up having to buy stuff that is not on sale. If you buy things and stock up when you have a good deal, you can wait until the next time something is on sale again before you have to buy it. I know this doesn't always work, but probably 98% it does. I very rarely buy something that is not on sale, and usually if I need to I am buying it at Aldi's if it is food and Walmart or Target for household and bath products. If you look at my Tops receipts that I post each week, you will see that very few things are on there that are not on sale (and most of the time with a coupon also), with the exception of bananas. If it's not on sale, I figure I don't need it.

Couponing and stockpiling go hand in hand in my opinion. In order to save the most money, you need to buy enough of the products on sale to last you until the next time they are on sale. Along with saving you money, this also provides you with food and other products during times of crisis, like natural disasters or lay offs. Having a stockpile is like money in the bank. There for you when you need it most. Plus, no more running to the store just to buy "one thing". If you plan and keep your stockpile up, you will always have the stuff you need. For instance, my husband needed a new toothbrush the other day. Instead of running to the store to get one, I told him to shop the stockpile. I have about 5 or 6 toothbrushes down there that I had gotten cheap or even free, along with other household and bath products. I would say I have a stockpile of at least a year of most HBA products.

As a side note, knowing how much of each product you use is essential to building a great stockpile. If you aren't going to eat something before it goes bad, don't buy it. If you know you use 3 of a certain product each month this will also help you stock up enough to last you until the next sale. Sale cycles are usually 12 weeks, but may vary depending on if there are any holidays.

Do you have a stockpile? What kind of things do you always keep in there and how much of a supply do you have? Please let me know by leaving me a comment.

Coming Soon!

I am currently working on the second part of my budgeting article and will have that for you soon. I wanted to work on it this weekend but we were busy busy busy (went to my parents' house on Saturday for a cookout and we got our garden tilled on Sunday). I am hoping to have the next part of it for you before the week is out.

In light of the whole swine flu and the possibility of a pandemic, I am also doing an inventory of my stockpile. I am not freaking out over the whole thing, I just want to be prepared. I want to have at least 2 months' worth of the essential foods and products. It will do no harm to make sure we have this, and it can only help. If money starts getting tight later in the summer, we will have a good stockpile of food and will only have to go to the store to buy milk. When I am done with my inventory count, I will share with you the numbers, and let you know what I plan to buy to increase my stockpile. I am wanting to get this done this week.

I am also working on getting you the deal list for Walgreen's, Rite Aid, and Tops. (I am busy busy busy huh?) I am working on them as we speak and will have all three done by tomorrow. I did look through them all and there seems to be some good deals. Jubilee also has some good deals this week, so I will also let you know what they have.

I am off to get what I can done of this stuff. Have a very wonderful day!