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July frugalistas


SamanthaCarter
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8 minutes ago, hjffkj said:

 

If you use something like google drive it'll back things up onto the cloud and then you won't lose anything.  

I did use Google Drive briefly, but stopped for some reason.  I think I had issues with formatting when printing or something like that.  I could try using it again, maybe updates have fixed whatever issue I was having.

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re: Mint- we stopped using it for awhile when it was so buggy too but I haven't been having issues lately. It will sometimes show something twice while it is still pending but once it clears the bank it is resolved. 

Whatever works for you for budgeting! Lots of people love You Need a Budget- we tried a couple of times and didn't care for it. There is also the Every Dollar by Dave Ramsey. I love planning on paper and always start planning everything with pencil and paper. I find I can think better to start w/ pencil and paper but once I have things sorted out I like typing it up. I LOVED my homemade spreadsheets, just never could get dh to feel the love. I still play w/ spreadsheets on my own sometimes but just for fun.  We used to use Open Office but now we just use Google Drives?

DDS'1 & 2 did dance at the local studio for a couple of years but dd feel out of love- she just wanted to do the acro class but they required dance class with it. Dd2 would have to preferred to keep with it but she was only 7 so it wasn't a huge deal. The cost got to be too much and I didn't like how busy we were.

@hjffkj- many congrats on selling the house!!! I bet you guys are breathing so much easier, what a huge load off your mind. 

@mommyoffive- woot for selling stuff on CL!

Tonight we've got to go to the city, I'll be so glad when we are done w/ these trips, just the gas adds up.

I'm making red beans and rice for a cheap potluck dish. Not spending any money otherwise, other big plan for today is rewatching tip videos for VIP so I can record tomorrow ( I know I keep getting nervous and putting it off). I made the rest of my jam this am. 

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So I'm not the only one who loves old fashioned paper and pencil. The pencil always obeys me, never fails to save, never gets frozen in mid air, and is so simple to learn how to use, probably my biggest problem with mvelopes. I don't think it has been hard to learn but I haven't really taken the time to learn it. I'm lazy.  

 

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19 hours ago, mommyoffive said:

Just heard about this site to teach English for and you don't need a degree

https://www.fitnancials.com/teach-english-online-get-paid-26-per-hour-no-bachelors-degree-necessary/

 

Looks good but the interview process seems harder.

2 hours ago, mommyoffive said:
1

Sweet, I'm going to have dh use that to buy oil for the car, it needs an oil change anyway in Aug. anyway.

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We're working on wrapping up the end of the month. We kept it pretty darn tight and ended up the month much better than anticipated. We've made up August's budget (on paper ?). August should be a very good month- dh gets an extra check (nice thing w/ weekly pay- 4 months a year he gets an extra check) AND his bonus. Already he has 10.5 hours of OT (he is paid 2 wks behind so the OT he's worked the last 2 Saturdays gets paid in August. The prospect is looking good for some more. We should be able to easily finish our funds for property taxes and car insurance (due in Dec & Jan respectively)- plus sock some away for the EF. We loosened the budget a smidge- dh is taking $25 of spending money, I'm taking $20 and the kids are getting a few bucks ($25 total). Anymore OT he gets will just be put in the EF, we've set a goal for to have a modest 6 month fund within a year's time, if we keep it uber tight I think we can manage that and if he get's OT we'll easily surpass it. Of course if SHTF all bets are off but our goal is to sock as much as we can just in case. Currently, things are looking ok- he's supposed to keep his job and pay and is working a full week w/ some OT but we know that could change or something else crazy could happen. 

I'm making a video TODAY for VIPKID, you guys can lash me if I don't get it done. I've got to just do it and get it over with. I'm planning on really trying to bust my butt looking for more ways to save and make money. 

Here's hoping we don't have any random expenses this month (like tires) but we put a bit of padding in there JIC, all the better if we don't need it!

Groceries were $600 for the month- I'm very pleased - we eat Gf, I stocked up quite a bit, and ate reasonably healthy with some treats here and there.

Pantry & Freezer Stock-up for July (not counting stuff we've already used and from MIL):

 

2- 16 ct cases of Larabars

24 lbs sugar

2 sides of ribs

14 pkgs organic beef uncured hotdogs

20#- various cuts of chicken a mix of what was on sale

6#- various ground meat- turkey, chicken, turkey Italian sausage

1#- beef stew meat

4#- mozzarella cheese

11 jars homemade strawberry jelly

7# Bob's Redmill GF 1 to 1 Flour

8# - butter

Next month I plan to stock up on dry goods. I've already got 50# gf oats coming (I might sell off some at cost, we'll see). I also want to stock some tomato products, pb and whatever else I find on sale. I'll  be getting another couple bags of BRM 1 to 1 (using a coupon I got) and 10 lbs of cheese (to hopefully last until the next sale) with my Kroger raincheck.

Dh will be needed new boots to wear to work, it looks like he might have found some on Amazon and I think I can use my $10 Amazon credit to help pay for them. I'm putting a little wiggle room in the budget for school supplies since ds starts PS next month, I'm sure there will be some expenses I've not anticipated. 

 

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1 hour ago, soror said:

Looks good but the interview process seems harder.

Sweet, I'm going to have dh use that to buy oil for the car, it needs an oil change anyway in Aug. anyway.

-------------------------

We're working on wrapping up the end of the month. We kept it pretty darn tight and ended up the month much better than anticipated. We've made up August's budget (on paper ?). August should be a very good month- dh gets an extra check (nice thing w/ weekly pay- 4 months a year he gets an extra check) AND his bonus. Already he has 10.5 hours of OT (he is paid 2 wks behind so the OT he's worked the last 2 Saturdays gets paid in August. The prospect is looking good for some more. We should be able to easily finish our funds for property taxes and car insurance (due in Dec & Jan respectively)- plus sock some away for the EF. We loosened the budget a smidge- dh is taking $25 of spending money, I'm taking $20 and the kids are getting a few bucks ($25 total). Anymore OT he gets will just be put in the EF, we've set a goal for to have a modest 6 month fund within a year's time, if we keep it uber tight I think we can manage that and if he get's OT we'll easily surpass it. Of course if SHTF all bets are off but our goal is to sock as much as we can just in case. Currently, things are looking ok- he's supposed to keep his job and pay and is working a full week w/ some OT but we know that could change or something else crazy could happen. 

I'm making a video TODAY for VIPKID, you guys can lash me if I don't get it done. I've got to just do it and get it over with. I'm planning on really trying to bust my butt looking for more ways to save and make money. 

Here's hoping we don't have any random expenses this month (like tires) but we put a bit of padding in there JIC, all the better if we don't need it!

Groceries were $600 for the month- I'm very pleased - we eat Gf, I stocked up quite a bit, and ate reasonably healthy with some treats here and there.

Pantry & Freezer Stock-up for July (not counting stuff we've already used and from MIL):

 

2- 16 ct cases of Larabars

24 lbs sugar

2 sides of ribs

14 pkgs organic beef uncured hotdogs

20#- various cuts of chicken a mix of what was on sale

6#- various ground meat- turkey, chicken, turkey Italian sausage

1#- beef stew meat

4#- mozzarella cheese

11 jars homemade strawberry jelly

7# Bob's Redmill GF 1 to 1 Flour

8# - butter

Next month I plan to stock up on dry goods. I've already got 50# gf oats coming (I might sell off some at cost, we'll see). I also want to stock some tomato products, pb and whatever else I find on sale. I'll  be getting another couple bags of BRM 1 to 1 (using a coupon I got) and 10 lbs of cheese (to hopefully last until the next sale) with my Kroger raincheck.

Dh will be needed new boots to wear to work, it looks like he might have found some on Amazon and I think I can use my $10 Amazon credit to help pay for them. I'm putting a little wiggle room in the budget for school supplies since ds starts PS next month, I'm sure there will be some expenses I've not anticipated. 

 

 

You have all that still stocked up?  Wow!  You are rocking the budget for food. 

Good news for dh's job!

Good luck on your video. 

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47 minutes ago, mommyoffive said:

 

You have all that still stocked up?  Wow!  You are rocking the budget for food. 

Good news for dh's job!

Good luck on your video. 

Yep, my freezer is pretty full, especially w/ the meat MIL gave me too. I used the link you game me and got some oil for dh's car, woot! I'm working on my VIPKID stuff now, I can do this! I can do this!

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I’m trying to go through and read and like posts, but I’m trying to stay off my phone and getting behind on posts!

I cleaned out my fridge, freezer, and pantry and wrote down every single food item that we have.  I’m challenging myself in August to cook with only what we have on hand, except for perishables and things we use frequently but I didn’t have the room to buy right now (like bread).  I’m going to try to only buy produce, dairy, eggs, bread, sales/markdowns that are too good to pass up, and the items needed for two birthday parties (family party for DS10 and DSalmost5 and 60th birthday “girls weekend” for my mom).  And probably a few “easy foods” for the days my niece and nephews will be here before they go back to school, although I hope that overlaps with the sales and markdowns and produce.

DS10 (ack, that’s two digits!) wanted steak for his birthday lunch today.  DH grilled a pack of New York Strip steaks from Costco, made some fingerling potatoes in the Instant Pot (pro tip, put the silicone ring back in the lid!  Oops!), fixed salads for DH and I, and served the kids leftover corn on the cob and applesauce from yesterday.  Total for the meal, including charcoal for the grill, was about $75, or $15/person.  Better than dining out, but yikes.

However, we only ate half the steaks.  I put a half-steak plus the rest of the potatoes in a container for DS to eat as leftovers tonight or tomorrow.  One entire steak was set back for fajitas on Tuesday.  The leftover sliced and uneaten steak and drippings was put in a container to freeze for steak and potato soup.  And I bagged up the edges and fat to make a broth for that soup.

Tomorrow morning I’m getting them donuts in lieu of cake and ice cream.  I have nowhere to put ice cream!

Aldi has cuties-style mandarins for 0.99/bag and grapes for 0.79/lb this week.  I also grabbed an avocado for 0.49. I’m not a huge avocado fan, but I might make a little guacamole for fajitas.

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This isn't so much a deal, just being happy with ourselves for staying the course!  Yesterday I really wanted to go to a local festival in the evening as well as watch the parade.  Two of our daughters were in the parade.  We haven't done anything fun as a family in ages so I thought we would watch the parade and then head over and get a treat of some sort at the festival.  In the end, we took Kool Aid (not a normal purchase for us) in water bottles and I made some kettle corn to take.  After watching the parade and gathering our older two girls, it was almost 9, so we called it a night.  It was a lovely evening, the weather was perfect, the kids got a little bit of candy from the parade as their treat and we spent 15 cents on a pack of Kool Aid. 

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7 minutes ago, ksr5377 said:

This isn't so much a deal, just being happy with ourselves for staying the course!  Yesterday I really wanted to go to a local festival in the evening as well as watch the parade.  Two of our daughters were in the parade.  We haven't done anything fun as a family in ages so I thought we would watch the parade and then head over and get a treat of some sort at the festival.  In the end, we took Kool Aid (not a normal purchase for us) in water bottles and I made some kettle corn to take.  After watching the parade and gathering our older two girls, it was almost 9, so we called it a night.  It was a lovely evening, the weather was perfect, the kids got a little bit of candy from the parade as their treat and we spent 15 cents on a pack of Kool Aid. 

 

Sweet.  I love a free fun outing. 

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2 hours ago, soror said:

Yep, my freezer is pretty full, especially w/ the meat MIL gave me too. I used the link you game me and got some oil for dh's car, woot! I'm working on my VIPKID stuff now, I can do this! I can do this!

 

That is amazing!!

You can do the VIPKID stuff!  You've got this. 

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43 minutes ago, soror said:

Guess what? Guess what? 

I finally did the videos and I passed the Express Interview!!!!!! (they got back to me really quick!)

Now, I have to go through this teaching prep stuff and do a mock class or two. EEK! 

 

Great news!  Congrats!

I can't believe you got it done today and they got back to you that fast.  Awesome. 

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8 hours ago, mommyoffive said:

Great news!  Congrats!

I can't believe you got it done today and they got back to you that fast.  Awesome. 

 

They say they will get back to you in 24 hours, I head back in 9 minutes !!!!!! I was getting ready to go to bed and saw a Congrats email pop-up.

12 hours ago, ksr5377 said:

This isn't so much a deal, just being happy with ourselves for staying the course!  Yesterday I really wanted to go to a local festival in the evening as well as watch the parade.  Two of our daughters were in the parade.  We haven't done anything fun as a family in ages so I thought we would watch the parade and then head over and get a treat of some sort at the festival.  In the end, we took Kool Aid (not a normal purchase for us) in water bottles and I made some kettle corn to take.  After watching the parade and gathering our older two girls, it was almost 9, so we called it a night.  It was a lovely evening, the weather was perfect, the kids got a little bit of candy from the parade as their treat and we spent 15 cents on a pack of Kool Aid. 

3

Aww, how sweet, that sounds like a great evening.

12 hours ago, BarbecueMom said:

I’m trying to go through and read and like posts, but I’m trying to stay off my phone and getting behind on posts!

I cleaned out my fridge, freezer, and pantry and wrote down every single food item that we have.  I’m challenging myself in August to cook with only what we have on hand, except for perishables and things we use frequently but I didn’t have the room to buy right now (like bread).  I’m going to try to only buy produce, dairy, eggs, bread, sales/markdowns that are too good to pass up, and the items needed for two birthday parties (family party for DS10 and DSalmost5 and 60th birthday “girls weekend” for my mom).  And probably a few “easy foods” for the days my niece and nephews will be here before they go back to school, although I hope that overlaps with the sales and markdowns and produce.

DS10 (ack, that’s two digits!) wanted steak for his birthday lunch today.  DH grilled a pack of New York Strip steaks from Costco, made some fingerling potatoes in the Instant Pot (pro tip, put the silicone ring back in the lid!  Oops!), fixed salads for DH and I, and served the kids leftover corn on the cob and applesauce from yesterday.  Total for the meal, including charcoal for the grill, was about $75, or $15/person.  Better than dining out, but yikes.

However, we only ate half the steaks.  I put a half-steak plus the rest of the potatoes in a container for DS to eat as leftovers tonight or tomorrow.  One entire steak was set back for fajitas on Tuesday.  The leftover sliced and uneaten steak and drippings was put in a container to freeze for steak and potato soup.  And I bagged up the edges and fat to make a broth for that soup.

Tomorrow morning I’m getting them donuts in lieu of cake and ice cream.  I have nowhere to put ice cream!

Aldi has cuties-style mandarins for 0.99/bag and grapes for 0.79/lb this week.  I also grabbed an avocado for 0.49. I’m not a huge avocado fan, but I might make a little guacamole for fajitas.

2

Happy Bday to your son! Sounds like a delicious meal and now steak fajitas, swoon! Thanks for the heads up for Aldi's, I know what produce we're getting this week. You'll have to keep us updated on your no-spend month. I'm working on making it through the meat from MIL but working on stocking up otherwise. Some of it's been ok, some of it meh, the tbone which we cooked for our belated anniversary dinner was not very good at all. Poor dh. It hadn't been in the freezer that long either, must not have been great to begin with. 

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Congrats, Soror!


Yesterday was a non-frugal day here.  DS8 went to work at the fair and I was his chaperone.  For 6 hours he helped other kids with crafts, baked in the demonstration kitchen, and sold the goodies/drinks at another station.  He was awesome.  I couldn't have asked for better at his age.  I brought food with us, but I ended up buying him a hamburger & fries ($10 ?) for linner.  After his shift we bought a sheet of tickets for $20, which got him on the one ride he really wanted to go on and in the fun houses.  I'm not big on carnival rides.  Dh and I both think they're pretty sketchy, but there are a few that have minimal risk and we're okay with.  A frozen lemonade capped off his day and he was happy as a clam, ready to go home to a real dinner, although a late one.. 
Dh spent that time doing our grocery shopping this week and cleaning the house.  He had no desire to go walk around in the dusty hot fairgrounds.  I made up our camping menu before we left with a 'use it up' ingredient list, so first morning we'll have bacon and eggs, by the last morning we'll be having breakfast burritos with the remains of the eggs, bacon, cheese, and veggies from other meals.  We're making and freezing hobo packets before we go for first night so we don't have to worry about food prep as soon as we get there.  I'm not the main cook by a long shot in our house so dh was a little skeptical when he saw my menu/shopping list, but I am the main camper and scout parent. ? Turns out, yes, I do know what I'm doing in the food department. 

We've been invited to partake in a garage sale after we get back, so next week I get to go through things and see what we'll be getting rid of.

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Finished my teacher's prep and test, now I'm supposed to teach the mock class within 6 days. EEk! It is a regular class but you teach it to a master teacher acting as a 5 yo- class is 25 minutes but an hour total w/ feedback. From there you can get offered a job or have to teach another class, from what I've read you usually have to do more than one Mock class but I don't know the odds on that. I'm going to watch lots of demo videos, I felt pretty prepared to do my interview video b/c of the videos I watched. I need to work more on my area though, I just used my iPad for the interview videos and I don't know that will work for the class, ideally, I need to use the laptop but the shelf I put in there isn't big enough. 

@HomeAgain have fun camping and you get to do a yardsale, taht's awesome, we live in the middle of nowhere here.

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I found a budget spreadsheet that I think will do for what I want.  It tracks spending, income, and savings.  Then it calculates what percent of your income you are spending and saving.  Since we aim for a specific percent to go into savings every months this hopefully will work nicely

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Frugal wins: We came in under budget on our vacation, even factoring in having to buy a roof bag and a couple more compressing sacks to get DD's hand me downs from her cousin home (cheaper than shipping it all, and now the only thing I have to buy for her for back to school is some bras!).

Frugal fail: I walked in to the BSA Scout shop. DS now has a cub scout uniform, handbook, etc. I admittedly splurged. We spent more on that than on his back to school clothes (where I used a coupon for $10 off $40+ of clothes and bought him a pair of joggers and 3 pairs of shorts).

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5 hours ago, heartlikealion said:

I'm biting the bullet and going to the doctor this week. I just don't want to regret not having my foot looked at. And I know, I'll probably get a huge bill for this, ugh. Dh might even gripe about it, but I feel stuck between a rock and a hard place. My foot has a visible purple bruise on it and I've missed church two weekends in a row because I'm not sure if I should be going on with it in this condition. 

We got $15 for the school jacket we sold to the neighbor. I essentially spent that already though because I placed an order for approx $15 for my sister's birthday gift (an item popped up in my feed from Krazy coupon lady. I got her a cute teacher shirt -- she is a teacher and I think she will like it. It says, "teach from the heart, not the book"). 

Dh got the shirts back that we didn't have monogrammed. We can return those to WM and use toward groceries. I just put in a request for a $10 Sam's Club gift card on Swagbucks. Those usually take a few days to process so I should have it by our next shopping trip, hopefully. Dh's swagbucks account is still working on getting toward a $25 Sam's Club card (which is more bang for your buck so we'll wait on that one).

A few posts back I mentioned eggs in the fridge. Well they were not actually expired and they were on the cusp and I used them all up before we bought more eggs. I threw some in a stir fry, used a couple in a baked good, and scrambled others for a breakfast dinner. We have bought more eggs since then and I've made tuna salad which I sent to work for dh. Yes, I got his lunch bag and saved $7 on it from my gift cards at Target. He left it at work and I teased no wonder where ds gets it from LOL. He didn't eat out today and just walked home for lunch. I think if we're consistent on lunches he will be less tempted to eat out. 

I use the coupons.com app for some of their digital coupons. If anyone is interested, these link to stores and you have to set it up on your PC in advance to link the stores to your account. So first step, create an account. Then it will let you link stores and then you clip coupons that are affiliated with those specific stores. I just got .55 put into my paypal account for scanning a receipt where I had clipped a sausage coupon. Dh had to do the grocery shopping on my behalf this week (I've pretty much insisted on doing it lately so I can manage my couponing and meal planning). Well he didn't have to fiddle with a paper coupon for that one and I was still able to get money back. I think we have one for butter still processing. 

I have been using the ibotta and fetch app. I'm trying to stay on top of this stuff, but I don't know where one of my sam's receipts is and I know I could probably get points for it. For Fetch you have 14 days to submit. I don't remember what the time period is for ibotta. 

 

I hope your foot is ok. 

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Preparing for camping this weekend too. 9 people and 7 mealtimes so I'll be busy.

I have not been doing good at weekly grocery shopping with mailers. We have been attempting to get so much car and housework/ maintenance done I start losing yrack of dinner time and grocery shopping.

 

I did put that expensive chocolate back though after holding it over my shopping cart for a good 15-30 seconds. Lol 

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On 7/30/2018 at 8:40 AM, hjffkj said:

I found a budget spreadsheet that I think will do for what I want.  It tracks spending, income, and savings.  Then it calculates what percent of your income you are spending and saving.  Since we aim for a specific percent to go into savings every months this hopefully will work nicely

 

May I ask which one?

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@heartlikealion- good luck at the dr.

I'm knee deep in practicing for VIPKID- I practice teaching- watch more videos and study some more- rinse and repeat. I've practice the first section 6x already. I'm feeling more comfortable but I've got a bit to go to really feel like I've got it. I'm doing my Mock Class Friday night. 

Made budget for month and it is now inputted into Mint. 

@SamanthaCarter- can we get a new thread for August ?

 

Edited by soror
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