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Archive for June, 2012

Success

June 23rd, 2012 at 08:54 pm

The hubster and I recently applied for a lower rate credit card. We will transfer our balance from the old card to the new one. The rate of the new card is 5% lower than the old one and has no annual fee. It does not have any rewards, but we don't care. We want to keep the old one open and charge one thing to it per month and pay it off every month. Our goal is to get the credit card paid off and keep it paid off every month in order to improve our credit overall. We hope to be able to refinance our house in a few years, so good credit will be very important there.

I spent $128.00 on groceries that include food, paper goods, and other household supplies. We will be eating a lot of leftovers this week, so this is a use-it-up week! Here are our meals for the week:

1) Squash Soup - 3 meals

2) Spaghetti served over brown rice - 2 meals

3) Baked Chicken Breasts. Side of steamed veggies. - 2 meals

4) Leftover Lentil Soup. - 2 meals

5) Leftover Jalfrezi. - 1 meal

6) Leftover Chicken Bean Casserole. - 1 meal

7) Oatmeal. Side of ham. Orange Juice. - 4 meals

8) Eggs. Side of ham. Orange Juice. - 3 meals

9) Leftover Hamburger Patty. Side of veggies. - 1 meal

10) Leftover Meatloaf. Side of steamed veggies. - 1 meal

11) Tuna Salad with mayo, sea salt, and pepper. Chopped up cucumber and tomato. Carrot Sticks. Side of raw fruit. - 2 meals

Got Paid Again and Other $ Stuff

June 22nd, 2012 at 08:34 pm

Well, I got paid again today. My regular savings account is up again. Yeah. My car savings is up, too. I will use it to replace my car when needed. My house account is way down. I took money out to have some work done on the house. That will probably happen next week. I don't think I will check the retirement account, as I don't like to check it more than once a quarter, or I get a little freaked out.

I will probably do the grocery shopping tonight and post about my planned meals and such later. I will post about the credit card later, too.

I am so excited that my regular savings account is up so high. My goal is to get $12,000 in order to call it my 6-month savings for emergencies and other stuff.

Met My Spending Limit!

June 16th, 2012 at 03:33 am

Woo-hoo! I went shopping tonight and spent $115.00, which is $5.00 under my grocery spending limit for a week. I still have to buy some cage free eggs tomorrow and that will eat up the other $5.00.

Part of my shopping list was accounting for all the leftovers we have that we can eat. Great. I love leftovers as long as it is not the same thing day after day. Here are my meals for the week.

1) Leftover lentil soup. Side of raw fruit. Homemade iced tea.

Text is http://allrecipes.com/recipe/lentil-soup/detail.aspx?event8=1&prop24=SR_Title&e11=lentil%20soup&e8=Quick%20Search&event10=1&e7=Recipe%20Search%20Results and Link is
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/lentil-soup/detail.aspx?event8=... - 2 meals

2) Leftover Moroccan Bean Stew.
Text is http://www.forksoverknives.com/moroccan-bean-stew-with-sweet-potatoes/ and Link is
http://www.forksoverknives.com/moroccan-bean-stew-with-sweet... - 1 meal

3) Tuna salad with chopped tomatoes, onion, bean sprouts, green pepper, sea salt, and black pepper. Side of raw fruit. Homemade iced tea. No real recipe here. I just love tuna and raw veggies. - 2 meals

4) Eggs with parsley, onion, cilantro. Side of oatmeal with honey, cinnamon, flaxseeds, and almond milk. Orange juice. - 3 meals.

5) Oatmeal with honey, cinnamon, flaxseeds, and almond milk. Side of ham or chicken. Orange juice. - 4 meals

6) Spaghetti with brown rice. - 2 meals

7) Meatloaf. Side of veggies. - 2 meals

8) Chicken and garbanzo bean jalfrezzi. Side of veggies.
Text is http://allrecipes.com/recipe/chicken-jalfrezi/detail.aspx and Link is
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/chicken-jalfrezi/detail.aspx - 2 meals

9) Chicken and Black Bean Casserole. Side of veggies.
Text is http://allrecipes.com/recipe/chicken-and-black-bean-casserole/detail.aspx and Link is
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/chicken-and-black-bean-casserol... - 2 meals

Almost Met My Spending Limit Goal!

June 9th, 2012 at 11:55 pm

I wound up spending $124.00 for groceries today. That's far better than the approximately $177.00 I was doing before! I am doing the snoopy dance.

I have also figured out a way to decrease the amount of bad (and costly) snack food I have been frequently eating. Instead of going to a convenience store to get a package of trail mix (typically $1.00 to $1.99, depending on the kind), I bought a big bag of trail mix at the store. The bad thing about these convenience store trips is that I also feel tempted to get a soda instead of iced tea or bottled water. If I knock out the snack food as a problem, I have no excuse than to drink my own iced tea and eat trail mix I bought at the grocery store. I figure I can save at least $10.00 a week. I will send an extra payment to the credit card with this money. Yeah.

I made it to payday!

June 8th, 2012 at 02:37 am

Well not quite. Payday is not until tomorrow, but I did make it without any catastropes. I already have a detailed shopping list made out noting what I do need, as well as what I don't need.

I added a little extra to my regular savings, thinking that even at just under $1000, it is way too skinny. I also added to the house and car savings accounts. My retirement has gone up a little since last month.

As I said, I have already made my shopping list complete with notes about coupons and what is on sale. I am trying to significantly lower my overall grocery (people food and household supplies) bill. Here are the meals I am planning, although it might change a little after I go to the store and farmer's market.

1) Leftover Lentil Soup. Side of apple or orange. Trail mix. Iced tea. (4 meals)

2) Baked Chicken Leftover. Side of steamed veggies. (1 meal)

3) Meatloaf. Side of steamed veggies. (2 meals)

4) Spaghetti over rice. Side of steamed veggies. (2 meals)

5) Moraccan Bean Stew with Sweet Potatoes -

Text is http://www.forksoverknives.com/moroccan-bean-stew-with-sweet-potatoes/ and Link is
http://www.forksoverknives.com/moroccan-bean-stew-with-sweet... - I changed this from roast because I am just so tired of eating meat all the time - meat, meat, meat. Ugh. I saw this documentary called Forks over Knives on netflix instant viewing. The documentary was great, so then, I got the book on interlibrary loan and it's even better than the movie. The website has a lot of cool information, including this recipe, which is both amazingly healthy and it tastes great, too! Even my dh, who doesn't really like veggies, raved about how great is smelled. Let's see how he likes it. (We're eating the first serving at dinner right now.) - I am estimating 3 meals on this one. It depends on how much dh likes it.

6) Scrambled eggs with onions and parsley. Side of 1 piece of ham. Orange juice. Oatmeal with honey, flaxseeds, cinnamon, and almond milk. (3 meals)

7) Oatmeal with honey, flaxseeds, cinnamon, and almond milk. Side of 3 pieces of ham. Orange juice.

8) Baked chicken. Side of steamed veggies. (1 meal)

9) Hamburger Patty. Side of steamed veggies. (1 meal)

That's all for now. See ya, financially savvy friends and neighbors!!

Anyone Know What Happened?

June 3rd, 2012 at 10:47 pm

I couldn't get to my blog earlier today at all. I tried several times, but only got some error message that I could not understand. Did anyone else have that problem?

I saved up my pocket change over the last week or so. I cashed it in and deposited it in my regular savings, bringing the balance to $999.03. Whee!

Payday is not until this coming Friday. Money in checking was starting to look a little skinny, so I decided to do a pantry challenge. I also am challenging myself to cut down my overall grocery bill. I added up what I spent last month on groceries and it was $709.00! Ouch. So, Saturday morning I spent about $87.00. Much better.

Here are my meals for the coming week. I note where I am using something I already had in my house.

1) Lentil soup with diced canned tomatoes, fresh carrots, fresh onions, garlic, sea salt, black pepper, chili powder, turmeric, cumin, turkey, and cayenne pepper. Side of fresh fruit, trail mix. Iced tea. 5 meals (Already had lentils, carrots, garlic, sea salt, black pepper, chili powder, turmeric, cumin, cayenne pepper, and tea bags.) This one was great for my pantry challenge.

2) Chicken salad with cayenne pepper, miracle whip, and green onion. Side of mung bean sprouts and carrots. Side of fresh fruit and trail mix. Iced tea. 1 meal. (Already had cayenne pepper, chicken, miracle whip, and tea bags)

3) Meatloaf. Side of steamed veggies. 2 meals.

4) Eggs and ham. Side of orange juice. Oatmeal with flaxseed, almond milk, honey, and cinnamon. 3 meals (Already had oatmeal, almond milk, honey, and cinnamon)

5) Oatmeal with honey, flaxseeds, almond milk, and cinnamon. Side of chicken or ham. Orange Juice. 4 meals. (Already had oatmeal, flaxseeds, almond milk, and cinnamon.)

5) Baked Chicken Breast. Side of steamed veggies. 3 meals.

6) Hamburger Patty. Side of steamed veggies. 1 meal.

7) Lunch out on Friday! Probably salad off the salad bar at the pizza place down the street.

Grocery Bill Challenge

June 2nd, 2012 at 02:39 am

Frugal Artisan has inspired me to challenge myself to cut my grocery bill by $100. I just added up what I spent for groceries last month and it came to $709! Shocking considering I am not feeding a foreign country or something. Just me, the hubby, and 2 furbabies. So, I am now off to make my much more sensible shopping list.