More about the groceries...

So last week we did great with our "grocery challenge" this past week, I spent about $75 on groceries. That being said, I got some great deals and I figured since I was under budget by about $25 the first week, adding it to the next week's shopping wasn't a horrible misstep.

One of the really cool things that I did this week was negotiate with the manager at the grocery store. I had read about doing this before and thought I wasn't the type of person that would do this, but it happened quite serendipitously. I was walking by the freezer case and the store manager said "we really need to move this stuff that has been marked down." I told her that I had bought two of the items that were on clearance. She told me if I bought the other two, she would take and additional dollar off each one that I bought. I knew it was something that I would use, and it was already deeply discounted, so I saved myself $4 there. Then she went through the case and negotiated with me some of the other items. I got 4 2 packages of seasoned frozen steaks at .99 a piece. They had been marked down to $1.99. So I saved another $4 there and got the steaks at an unbelievably low price. It's not like they have meat of this quality at the dollar store.

So far, we have been doing really well about eating at home and staying within our budget. Knowing that I have set this limit for myself also prevents me from making impulse purchases like those "Snackables" lunch things that my son loves, but are a ridiculous waste of money.

Update $50 Grocery challenge

Well I succeeded the first week. I did one more trek to the produce store and spent a little under $10 and we purchased two soft drinks at a gas station. Some of the produce I bought included: spinach, broccoli, strawberries, and apples.
I had planned to write out all of my menu plans to share, but it just didn't happen. Here's some of what we did to be able to manage staying at that $25 level for the week.

I had a frozen turkey breast (actually a gift from my mother who bought two because it was BO GO free at her local grocer.) We cooked that up one night, and we used that for sandwiches, and I also made a noodle casserole with it in the crock pot which was enough for dinner one night and lunch the following day. The basic recipe was similar to tuna noodle casserole- Egg noodles, can of cream of mushroom soup, turkey, chopped carrots, celery, and onions. I also threw in some of our leftover vegetable soup that I had made earlier in the week.

My husband made salmon cakes (like crab cakes) using some canned salmon we had on hand and a recipe he found on line. So that was our dinner another night.

Some of our breakfasts included: milk & cereal, spinach omelet, sausage and frozen waffles.

For lunches with the kids, we had some of the turkey sandwiches, peanut butter sandwiches, and some chicken nuggets (already in the freezer) with fresh fruit.

Some of the things that we were able to learn from this: 1) we did the challenge at half price 2) I need to do more planning ahead of time to make sure I had enough snacks while on the road with the kids 3) baking from scratch is way cheaper, but makes for a lot more dishes 4) $25 was probably too low and we felt a little deprived.

$50 Weekly grocery challenge Day 1

So, today we ate a lot of things that were leftovers in the fridge and the pantry for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
DH had leftover brats and kraut for lunch,
kids had chicken nuggets and carrot sticks w/snack of "fruit snacks"
I had Soy sausage patties for breakfast/lunch and a snack of fruit snacks

Last week when I was at Aldi, I picked up something on clearance- it was a "Soy Ginger Noodle" thing for .79 inside was: the seasoning packet, the noodles, and some sesame seeds to put on the top of it. The directions recommended different vegetables and/or protein to complete the meal (about 3/4 a cup.) I chopped up one Spanish onion, three carrots, and added a can of mushrooms. I also prepared two chicken breasts which were already marinated in a terriaki sauce. It came out great and there were no leftovers. I have another flavor, same type of "Asian Meal Starter" and I plan to add (from my fridge and freezer) carrots, fresh mushrooms, green beans, onions, and (depending on what DH says, some scrambled egg for protein.) I really liked making this type of dish because I only really had to use two dishes and the meal was totally prepared in maybe 20 minutes.


I had made a list up and my husband went to Aldi and didn't stray from the list here's what we got:
Waffles $1.15
Whole Milk 2@ $1.49 ea
Whole Wheat Bread $1.69
Unsalted Butter (for baking) 1.99
Hot Dogs .75
2 pkg Brown and Serve Sausage @ .89ea
Ham Tub Lunch Meat $2.49
Hot Dog Buns .79
Total including tax: $14.66

A couple things about the above- I know hands down that Aldi is the cheapest place here to buy any of these items. If I were to go to another grocer close by I could expect to pay twice or three times what I paid for these items. IE. When I was at Target, they had Milk for 2.49 /gal and Waffles on sale for $2.49 the waffles being almost twice as much.

My breakfasts for this week will probably include:
Waffles, sausage, orange slices
High Fiber Cereal (in pantry from Trader Joe's or Target) w/milk
oatmeal
yogurt
apple slices
eggs

Tomorrow I plan on making a hearty vegetable soup,
And Wednesday's meal is more involved as I plan to make a turkey breast I had in the freezer

The $50 Grocery Challenge

I have been distracted lately and haven't been focusing on my budget. I've overspent in some areas, and it has annoyed me. My husband hasn't been working this past month, and we are trying to budget based on what we think he will bring in the next 5 weeks or so, so that we have some left over.
I'm trying to tackle one thing at a time, and since grocery/food is usually where you can do the most cost cutting with some creativity, I am going after that first. We've already set an "eating out budget" for the month which is half of last month's expenditures. I hope we can stick to that.
With some "guesstimating," we think that on average, I've been spending about $100 a week or $400 a month to feed our family of four. I know I am overspending, because I haven't been planning every meal- and I have a surplus in our pantry. So we've decided to try and spend $50-$75 a week on groceries. I am not counting diapers or cat food in that approximation, but everything else counts. We'll be keeping track of random soda or coffee purchases at the gas station, because, let's face it, those can add up fast. I head to the store tomorrow, so I'll keep you posted on the damage, I mean my progress.

Bill time and Quicken

I mentioned the other day that I thought it would be helpful to plot my income and bills on a calendar. I still haven't done it yet. But I did sign up for Quicken and there are a lot of bells and whistles that can help you get a visual picture of things. They have a tool that pulls all the info from your bank accounts and automatically charts pay days and when your bills are due. Of course it isn't 100 % accurate- you have to check the details, but it did a pretty good job on mine.

I plan to use Quicken in addition to an actual tactile calendar to keep track of what is coming in and what needs to come out. Right now I feel as though I am barely treading water- I hope to get to a point where I have my Emergency savings and other savings set up so that I can do home repairs, or vacations, etc.

2008 Taxes, Turbo Tax and Quicken!

I got all our paperwork together and did our taxes. I used Turbo Tax and I am so glad that I did. Obviously, the main motivator for me doing our taxes now was to see whether or not we would get a refund (yay) or have to pay taxes (yuck.) As I mentioned in my earlier posts, we've been very disorganized with our money and so I am trying to face my finances and get everything straightened out. The good thing is that we had all our documents in a file folder. Here are some of the reasons why I'm glad I used Turbo Tax and did the taxes online, rather than trying to figure everything out for myself.

1. Our income situation changed- I had a W-2 from my wages and severance pay, my spouse had a new employer, my husband received jury duty pay, and I had to claim my unemployment benefits. Trying to figure all of this out on my own would have been nightmarish to try and figure out which schedules I needed and what documentation I needed to provide. TurboTax walked me through this step-by-step.
2. We decided to itemize- we did some charitable giving this year and TurboTax has a very cool feature which allows you to get an estimated value of things that you donate. I donated a lot of clothes and books this year, and was able to write that off with documentation to support that. This feature is called Itsdeductable. (More about this later.)
3. I have small children. What does that have to do with anything? Well instead of going to a preparers' office and having my children climb around like monkeys or have to pay for childcare, I was able to prepare my taxes in the middle of the night while they were sleeping.
4. I messed up. Even with all the support they offer, I was tired and not paying attention. I overlooked one of the many forms I needed to submit for income, and had to file and amended return. Turbo Tax didn't charge me again to file, pulled the necessary 1040X IRS form and filled it out, plus recalculated our tax refund.
5. I am broke. Turbotax has a feature (for an added fee) where they will take the cost of filing out from your refund. How convenient is that?
6. They offer a year of Quicken free for people that file (with the version I purchased.)
7. I was able to e-file and should be getting my refund in a few weeks. My refund was less than last year because we made more, but we were smarter about tracking our donations and allowed deductions and our refund is going to be equal to two months of mortgage payments.

So some of you savvy folks might be saying to yourself about number 7, "If you are getting a big refund back, you are just loaning the government money." That's true, but I believe some of the stimulus package or recent tax legislation loosened things up for people like me. My husband had very little withholding this year, and I was actually worried that we would end up owing money. Our state allows you to withhold state and federal earnings from unemployment, which I did. I am thrilled that we are getting some back.

Here are some things that I learned from this:

• Keep a file folder for the current tax year. For example, it's 2009, so you should have a folder with tax information for this year. That way, when next year comes around and you get those W-2s, and 1099s and whatever other funky forms you have to fill out, you will have a place to put them. When you sit down to file it will all be where you need it.
• I am not a tax professional. Now that I am a homeowner, married, and have children, my tax situation is more complex. I need to rely on the help of either a tax professional or software to help me do my taxes.
• Do your taxes early! I saw some post on yahoo that says you are more at risk for an audit if you do your taxes early. I don't know how true that is, but I didn't bother reading the article because I can sleep better at night knowing my taxes are completed and that my refund check is on its way. Additionally, when I have filed late or very close to the deadline, I have had to wait longer to receive a refund.
• Getting rid of your clutter can help you free up space and money. Our refund increased because of our donations this year. A friend of mine gave me a great tip early in 2008. She said, "Whenever I go to donate items to the Salvation Army I have a notebook and any thing I throw into the box I write down in the notebook. Then when I get my receipt for donating, I attach that to my list. I use Itsdeductible on TurboTax after I've made the donation so I know how much I can claim."