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Archive for May, 2010

Update About Food Challenge

May 30th, 2010 at 01:52 am

This is an update to my part of Househopeful's challenge to eat frugally. Here is what I have planned.

On Monday, I have the day off, so it shouldn't be too much of a challenge to eat frugally, but I am going to stick with it anyway.

Monday - egg salad sandwich, carrots, apple, water

Tuesday - Chicken and pasta chili mac, apple, orange, water

Wednesday - Chicken and pasta chili mac, apples, water

Thursday - tuna sandwich, apple, carrots, water

Friday - leftover baked chicken breast, apple, carrots, water

I was going to make egg salad anyway to have for dinner one night this week. The cost of ingredients is minimal. The carrots and apples are inexpensive and fresh food, my effort to eat frugally and healthful at the same time. The apples were on markdown for only $.89. I bought the pasta for the chicken and pasta chili mac on sale for $0.99 markdown. I bought the canned tomatoes and tomato sauce on sale also. The tuna is leftover from last week when I went out to eat for lunch instead of eating my packed lunch as planned. The baked chicken breast is left over from a couple of weeks ago.

carrots 1.5
apples 0.89
chicken 5.00
leftover chicken 1.00
tuna 1.45
tomatoes 1.14
tomato sauce 0.59
filtered water from home 0.10
pasta 0.99
12.66

I calculate I am spending about $2.53 per day to eat lunch. We will see how this goes.

Update

May 28th, 2010 at 06:08 pm

Well, I got paid today. More money went into savings and retirement. My retirement account went down, though. What's up with that? Also, I went to Coinstar and cashed in my spare change. I have $6.00 and some odd cents. I deposited $6.00 to my Spare Change Challenge account. I also cashed in $6.00 in survey points. That should come in about 2 weeks, at which time I will make a payment to Hospital Debt #1. I will work really hard to come up with some more ways to make money in the next 2 weeks. Here is what I am thinking.

$6.00 Spare Change
$6.00 Survey Check
$20.00 regular payment on Hospital Debt #1
$28.00 excess from changing car insurance after selling truck

That makes for a $60.00 payment on Hospital Debt #1. Woo-hoo!

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I just cashed in more survey points, which will give me another $5.00 for my Spare Change Challenge.

Success!

May 25th, 2010 at 12:19 am

Well, after a great deal of frustration, the hubby and I sold our truck. It was a 1990 Chevy Blazer. Last Saturday, when I went shopping at Walgreens, it died when I was getting ready to park in the parking lot. We could not start it. We have known for some time that it had been leaking oil, which probably means it had a crack in the engine block or something like that. It also had multiple other problems, like the horn wouldn't work, the windows sometimes wouldn't go down or up, and it got horrible gas mileage. Fixing the engine alone would have cost over $1000, something we just couldn't do. So, because of the significant problems with it, we felt a used car place probably would not want it and we took it to the salvage yard. We got $80.00 out of it, which we are going to put into doing some maintenance on the car Friday. This also means our car/renter's insurance is going down by about $28.00 per month. Guess where that $28.00 is going? Yes, into paying off Hospital Debt #1!!

Anyone Know What's Going On?

May 18th, 2010 at 02:17 am

In the last 2 minutes, I have gotten hundreds of messages in my email that look like replies or comments on other people's blogs and my blogs. But when I open them, there is nothing there. So I deleted them, and then more messages appear within seconds.

Frugal Food Stuff For the Week of May 17-21

May 15th, 2010 at 10:34 pm

Well, I am off on another challenge to eat healthy and cheap this coming week. I thought about making chicken soup using some chicken bones I had in the freezer along with other stuff I would buy. However, I noticed boneless chicken breasts were on sale for $1.19 per pound, which came out to $3.45 for what I believe is 5 chicken breasts. I also bought a bag of 8 organic oranges for $4.69. I have 1/2 a bag of raw carrots leftover from last week, so the cost for them is negligible. I have 10 tea bags left. I usually drink 1 cup of tea a day while at work. I bought a 12 pack of bottled water. So, here are my lunches for the week. I also have some nuts leftover from before.

Chicken breast, orange, snack bag of nuts, snack bag of carrots, 1 bottled water, 1 tea bag

I am coming up with a high estimate of $2.63 per lunch to eat for this coming week.

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Update: I got an updated bill in the mail for Hospital Debt #1. I made out a check for $20 and will mail it on Monday. This brings my balance to $377.58. Yea!

In the coming weeks, I am going to work on getting some disaster preparedness supplies together. My hubby is Red Cross disaster volunteer and so I am going to put together a pack for him to take if he gets called out. I think it should contain a first aid kit, bottled water, basic non-perishable food, tools, a hand-crank radio, a little cash, and whatever else I can find. I want to put it all in some kind of backpack or other easy to carry bag. We already have one hand-crank radio for our house, but I will get another one for his pack. I will put together a separate pack for our home. I am going to check for yard sales and sales at stores!

Saturday Night Live Skits

May 9th, 2010 at 09:35 pm

Not Money Related, but I love Saturday Night Live skits.

Text is http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/scared-straight/17wnutrgn and Link is
http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/scared-straight/17wnu...

Frugal Food Stuff This Week

May 9th, 2010 at 06:50 pm

Well, I decided to make this week a very frugal food week. DH wanted to go to dinner and a movie on Friday, but that means we had to make a few other sacrifices.

When I make my grocery shopping list, it includes stuff I need, stuff I already have, and stuff I don't need. I label the stuff as such: need, don't need, and have. I also make notes on what stuff I have coupons for. This is to make sure I don't come home with peanut butter if I already have 3 jars. Unless it is on sale really cheap. So, my part of the sacrifice was making very frugal lunches to take to work. Does anyone do this? Don't get me wrong, I do stock up on non-perishables when they are on sale and/or I have a coupon that gives me a big discount. But I digress. I am supposed to be talking about sacrifices here.

Lunch #1 2.6 oz package of Starkist Albacore Tuna, bread, orange, apple, handful of nuts, bottle of filtered water from home

Lunch #2 leftover frozen chicken soup from last week, apple, orange, handful of nuts, bottle of filtered water from home

Lunch #3 2.6 oz package of Starkist Albacore Tuna, bread, 2 oranges, handful of nuts, bottle of filtered water from home

Lunch #4 leftover frozen chicken soup from last week, 2 oranges, handful of nuts, bottle of filtered water from home

Lunch #5 plan to have lunch with one of my student employees who is graduating (I work at a university)

The cost of the albacore tuna was $1.95 per package and I had a coupon for $1.00 off of 2 packages. That comes to $2.90 or $1.45 per package. I know that the chunk lite tuna for the same brand is cheaper, but I hate it. I also hate canned tuna, because it tasts like the can to me.

The apples were leftover from last week and I need to use them before they rot, so the cost is negligible.

I already had the nuts, so the cost is neglibigle.

I have 6 bottles of water leftover from last week. They came in a 12 pack for $2.99. That comes to $0.25 each. I know water from the tap is cheaper, but I cannot drink tap water for health reasons, so I buy Primo brand water that is in bottles made from plants.

So, all in all, my lunches for this week are very frugal. My dh's sacrifice is that he can't buy any Starbucks or Playstation stuff until Friday.

Weekend Bargain Stock Up!

May 4th, 2010 at 03:31 am

Well, this past weekend, I made out like a fat rat at Walgreens. Here are the details.

Nature's Bounty supplements were on sale for BOGOF. I also had $1.00 off coupons for one bottle each. I got two bottles.

Nature's Made supplements were on sale for $4.59 each. I take a lot of B Complex, so I got two bottles.

Duracell batteries (8 packs of AAs) were on sale for $5.99. I would have gotten $2.00 more off, but my coupon for that expired 4/30/2010. Oh well, we were almost out of batteries and this was a good price.

I actually saved $19.79, which was almost as much as I spent $21.24. Woo-hoo!

Free Doritos Coupons!

May 3rd, 2010 at 07:46 pm

I am not into Doritos and can't even eat them, but a friend send me a pdf file with coupons for free Doritos. If you are so inclined, send me back a message with your email and I will send you the pdf file.

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Update: I sent a friend on facebook a message about this and she said this coupon is a fake, so I have deleted it.