Budget Results for February

I can't believe it's already the end of the month! Time to go over how we did on our budget. I figured as the months would go on, we would get a little bit more lazy as time went by and start overspending. Was I right? Well, kinda. :) But hey, what's the point of tracking it if we do everything perfect?

So, here's our big budget categories that we have really been keeping an eye on. I figure you're not interested too much in our utilities or our mortgage. :)

Miscellaneous: Goal is $96 a month: We actually spent about $91 dollars over that amount. This is one fund that I really need to increase, but I'm not sure where to take it away from to get to that point. I think the problem is that this is the catch all for everything that doesn't fit into another category so it tends to get a lot of use!

Grocery: Goal is $200 a month: Under by $32 dollars: Not sure how this happened, but I guess because I hate taking Preston to the grocery store so much, it helps me to not go myself too much. :) Also, my parents were here for the weekend and they tend to spoil us while they are here. Thanks Mom and Dad! Also, we have been eating out a little bit more because I haven't felt like cooking too much! I'm too big to fit in the kitchen!!

Dining Out: Goal is $200 a month: Under by $40 dollars: This savings of money I can only credit to our Nazi use of coupons! We really do let the coupons dictate where we go out to eat. We usually can spend under $10 for all 3 of us to eat out. I get a lot of my coupons from the annoying fliers you get in your mailbox. But I go through them religiously and pull out anything that might interest us. Also this month, we got a free sub coupon from Quizno's and Penn Station and a free roast burger from Arby's. Every little bit helps. I find these free coupons by getting on the restaurants mailing list with my junk email account.

Entertainment: Goal is $50 a month: Under by $8 dollars: Well we definitely did more with the entertainment fund this month than last month. It ended up being a good amount for us!

So, all in all, I'm really happy about where we have ended up! It probably helps that this month is a shorter month though. I'm really interested to see how the budget will change once Owen decides to make his appearance. Not like he eats Arby's or anything, but I know there are always unexpected expenses with the babies! :)

How hard is it to get 5 kids to smile at once?

It's hard and here's the proof! These are from my grandma's 85th birthday party! Happy Birthday Nana! The kids in the picture are my cousin's kids plus Preston.

Is it cold in here??

Preston has decided that he loves wearing his coat even when he's inside! Although he likes to refer to it as his "toat." I just figured out he can't really say his C's because he wanted to watch a show that had clowns on it and he called them "towns." I hope it's something he grows out of so that when he's sixteen he doesn't tell some hot girl, "Tall me!" Haha.

Freebies!! A Free Quizno's Sub!

Quizno's is giving away a free sub to the first one million customers! Here's the information I got from slickdeals.net about how to go about getting a free sub:

http://www.millionsubs.com/Reg.php

Click on this link and then sign up for their Q-club and they will email you a free coupon for a sub. I have set up a junk email account so I am able to sign up for things like this without getting my real email all cluttered with junk!

I'm going to go ahead and do this now and I will let you know if I get the coupon! I am your humble guinea pig! :)

*Update: This worked like a charm! There have only been 5000 people that have gotten these so far so they have a long way to go so you've got some time!!

Free Photo Prints from Walgreens!

Hi Everybody,
Here's a good freebie for your Friday! You can get 20 free prints from Walgreens, today only!! I just tried it and it worked great. First you upload the pictures you want to their site and then put them in your cart. Then in the checkout part, put in the coupon code ONE DAY. That's all you have to do! And then you can pick your prints up in the store! The only bad part is that if you do free store pick-up, you have to get glossy. But hey, free is free, right??? Let me know if it doesn't work for you for some reason!! Have a great weekend!!

Grocery Tip Tuesday- Should you be a one-stop shopper?

Part of the way that I save money on groceries is by not being loyal to just one store. Every Thursday when the paper comes with our ads (some stores change their ads on Sunday), the first thing I do is I look through each ad to see what their "loss leaders" are. If you don't know what a loss leader is, it's the products that grocery stores are willing to discount in order to get you in the front door of their store. They know that after this, you are more than likely going to stick around and do the rest of your shopping which means more money for them!

The good thing for us is that we have an Aldi's, Marsh, Meijer and Kroger all within a reasonable distance from each other. This enables me to figure out which store has the best deals on all of the stuff I need and go there for my big grocery shopping. Then either the same day or throughout the week, I will hit the other stores for their loss leaders. For example, last week, Marsh had grapes, apples and milk on sale. I was able to stock up on milk 2 for $4. This ended up saving me $2 dollars over how much milk was at Meijer. And I saved $1.69 on grapes by buying them at Marsh instead of Meijer.

This way of shopping is not for everyone. I have a friend who earns money to pay for her daughter's preschool by shopping only at Kroger. Now that is definitely a reason to be loyal to just Kroger! And I also know that some people just don't have the time to shop around so much. Totally understandable in today's busy world. But in order to maximize savings in our family, shopping around and not being loyal to just one store is what saves us money!

A Small Milestone

It was one small tinkle for man, one giant tinkle for Preston-kind!

Well, to my chagrin, Preston has decided in the past week that he is ready to start on the road of being potty-trained. While I am excited, the timing couldn't be worse. I am not in the best physical shape to be running after a naked child, bending over all the time, getting up all the time....you get the idea.

But how can I deny him the chance to start? So, he has been in underwear all day, just walking around like he is "the man." He's had 2 accidents so far and had never peed in the potty, but he kept thinking he could. Well, right after lunch, I checked and he had peed about a teaspoon worth of pee in the potty!! I was way more excited than he was. He thought I had lost my mind. But then he was happy to get a piece of candy! It's going to be a long road, but I guess it has to happen sometime, right??

Valentine

Here's what showed up from my Valentine!

A Frugal Valentine's Day....Or Not!!

Sometimes it's hard to go through occasions like Valentine's Day without feeling the need to buy expensive things for our loved ones! I have this dilemma with Wes. What can I get him to show him how much I love him?So, since I was looking at Amazon Grocery for fun, I stumbled across some items that were 50% off or more that I thought would make great gifts for Wes for Valentines Day!

Note: these are real products from Amazon, but I may have made up their descriptions.....

Muscle, Milk n' Oats:
"Is your loved one feeling hungry this Valentine's Day? Give him the one treat that will fill up his tummy plus give him really huge muscles!!"

Kiss My Face Soap:"Are you wanting your loved one to find you more attractive? Well, we guarantee after using this soap, your loved one won't be able to stop kissing your face!"

Pro-Line Hair Food:
"Do you notice that you are losing your hair at a rapid pace? Whether it be in the front or the back, you may not be feeding your hair enough!! Just like we need food to survive, so does your hair! So, slather on this concoction (pretty much just Vaseline in a jar) and within 24 hours, your head will have at 50% more sprouts than it used to!!"

Donald Duck Eau de Parfum for Men:
"Is your husband really a kid at heart? Well, this Valentine's Day, give him some cologne that will bring out that kid inside! You may also notice a change in his voice...but this is just a temporary side effect.

So there you have it folks!! My ideas for Wes for Valentine's Day. Right now I'm leaning heavily towards the Donald Duck Perfume, but the Muscle, Oat's and Milk concoction does look tasty!!

Hope everyone has a very loving Valentines Day!!

Poor Baby Austin--KIDNAPPED!!!

Well, we all need to take a moment of silence for Baby Austin. He has been abducted. And I'm not talking by Preston.....Here's the scoop.

Preston and I went on a walk yesterday and decided to take the wagon. I let him also take baby Austin and a teddy that he had. So, Preston got strapped in on one side with his toys on the other side. We walked for about 20 minutes and then headed to the park.

I left the wagon like I normally do just by the side of the playground and helped Preston as he played. Well, I looked over and these three sisters who were from ages 5-10 probably were pulling the wagon around. No big deal. Then they started playing inside the wagon. Okay, still not a big deal. Well then their mom puts them and their dog!!!! in the wagon and starts pulling them on a wagon ride! She took them pretty far away from the playground and I started getting a little uneasy. Strange I thought, but I didn't think much of it. Then they headed to leave and left the wagon in the parking lot instead of where I had left it! When we were ready to leave, I looked in the wagon and Baby Austin and the teddy bear were gone!! The girls had taken them!! I couldn't believe it! I still can't. I know their just toys but that cabbage patch was from my childhood! So, it had a lot of meaning to me.

Anyway, I don't know if I will ever see Baby Austin again. I just hope his new family takes care of him. Now, if I see them later on...should I say something?? I just don't know how I could since they never even acknowledged me as they used my wagon. Should I just push them into the pool this summer? Decisions....decisions.

Grocery Tip Tuesday!!

Welcome to the first week of Grocery Tip Tuesday!! I'm so excited to start sharing some of the tips and ideas that I have gleaned from various places. Before we start, I just want to say that this is how I shop for 3 people. So, if your groceries cost more than mine...who cares?? The point is to learn ways to make your shopping experience easier and hopefully save some money in the process!! And everyone's family and shopping list is going to be completely different so please don't think I'm advocating that everyone should shop like me! And I'm sure you have heard of a lot of these tips, but just in case you haven't, that's what I'm here for!

There is my disclaimer! Now, for the first week I'm going to show you what a typical week of spending $50 dollars looks like. This week, the tip I have for you is DON'T BE AFRAID OF STORE BRANDS!! Most store brands are just as good as their pricey counterparts. But the key is to also stock up when the stores are having their "Store Brand Sale." That's what Meijer was having this week. Most everything I got was Meijer brand.

Here's what I was able to get for $52 this week:

Here's some of the good deals among stuff we just needed:

5#'s of Ground Turkey: $1 each

3 bags of cheese: $1.67 each

2 boxes of butter: $2 each

4 boxes of spaghetti: $.59 each

Deli meat: Free after rebate

2 Pop Tarts: $1.50 each/had coupon for $1 off/2, final price: $1 each!

2 Taco mixes: $.60 each/ had coupon for .75 off 2, final price: $.22 cents each!

5 pound chicken: $3.50/ .70 a pound

So, those were just some highlights from this week's shopping trip. I just thought it would be helpful for you to see that you can still get healthy food and not break the bank. The whole trick is to catch stuff on sale and then stock up. I now have 8 pounds of hamburger/turkey meat that should last us a while! Same with the spaghetti. It's so much better to buy it at a good price when you don't need it then to have to be forced to buy it at full price when you can't live without it! It may mean that I might have to put off purchasing something else I was planning on buying in order to stock up on something else, but normally it's definitely worth it!

But if you're still unsure about store brands, why don't you just try one or two things and see how they compare to the name brand? It can't hurt to try! Although, I will tell you that last week I bought some off brand Cheerios and they were definitely not even close to the original! So, you can't win them all I guess! I am definitely never going generic with my little O's again!

What other things have you tried generic and have been happy with or not happy with?

Dad's Toys are so fun!!

Preston thinks grownup toys are way more fun than his toys. Whether it's cellphones, homephones, knives and spoons and brooms, he defnitely prefers to play with what we like to "play"with. This morning he was having a fun time getting a massage from Wes' massage chair that he go for Christmas. He just pushes a bunch of buttons and then was having fun trying to catch the little massagers as they went up the seat. In the last picture, I forced him to smile. Don't you just love forced smiles?? And yup, he got a big hair cut. All his blond hair is gone until it lightens up this summer! He and his dad are now twins!

4 weeks, 2 days left!!

We are so excited to show you the latest ultrasound of our baby. Isn't he cute?? I'm not really sure how he got pants on in the womb, but hey at least he's cute! Not to mention how he ended up Asian......


Wow, time has really flown these past few weeks! We only have a small window of time left before our little one enters the world, God-willing! Wes said he is just excited and looking forward to the whole thing. I am too....I just wish I could pick up the baby at Meijer or something and not have to go through the rest...:) Well, I was majorly nesting this weekend and was able to get the whole upstairs cleaned up and vacuumed and all of the sheets changed. I was a woman on fire!!


Once the baby is born, we hope to post pics on the blog and communicate through here or email. Also, if you want to come and visit, we would love to have you! We are going to be at Community North by the Castleton Mall. The hospital gives each woman a code in order for you to get into the birthing center so I will be sure to post this on the blog.



We will keep the updates coming!!

Taste Test Tuesday- Wa...wa....

Unless I have a major change of heart, I'm going to be suspending Taste Test Tuesday until after the little one is born! I hope none of you are heartbroken!! I really enjoy doing it but I'm low on inspiration, and energy. Not a great combination!! So, don't worry, I will bring it back, but until then, you can enjoy the recipes in the archives. But if there is someone or a lot of someone's who would like to do a guest post on their favorite meal, I would love that! All you need is a camera!! I'll take anyone.....really, anyone. :)

I love to hear when people try stuff so let me know if you liked it! My grandma just tried the cornbread....hope it tasted good!! Thinking about that stuff always makes me hungry!! So, goodbye for now Taste Test Tuesday. We will miss you.

A Couple of Ideas.......

Since Taste Test Tuesday is going to be on hiatus for awhile, I thought I would come up with some other regular things I could blog about. So, here's some of the ideas that I have been thinking about:

1. Grocery Tip Tuesday- Judging from the reaction we're getting from our budget, some of you are wondering how we can keep our food budget so low. No...it's not because I just buy 50 cans of Spagettios a week!! I thought it would be fun to blog about some of the tips I've learned along the way that keep our grocery budget down. I am by no means an expert in this area so please don't think that I think I am, but I usually am able to save about 50% each time I go to the store.

2. Wonderful Website Wednesdays- I love to visit different websites so I have got quite a collection of regular websites that I frequent. I thought it would be fun to share those with you and why I like them so much!

3. Continue with the decluttering until the job is done!! I only have our loft left and I would like to tackle the toy box while I'm at it....doesn't that sound cool? Yeah right. (Image in my mind right now is Preston crying as I donate all of his toys.....) Can you tell I'm sick of the clutter?

4. Continue with the monthly budget updates so that you guys can see how we're doing! If we keep doing good, you can bum some money off of us....if things go south, we may be moving in with you!!

5. When the time gets closer, I expect to be putting up lots of new pictures of our newest addition. So, hope you don't mind if I use the blog to show of our (hopefully) cute kid. If there are no pictures for about a month after he's born, you have my permission to think that maybe he didn't turn out too cute! KIDDING!!

6. I also want to do a post on making your own baby food. No...not because I'm Mother Earth, but because I'm Mother of Cheapness!! And I know I have lots of friends who are having their new babies in the coming months and this is a great way to save a few bucks. I have a lot of great recipes that Preston really enjoyed and didn't spit at us!

Our Family Rocks!

Hi everybody! This is Wes. I'm posting this video because I finally was forced to unload all the footage from my video camera because the hard drive was full. I actually forgot we had taken so many fun videos! :) Here's one of the whole family during Christmas. We are "Attempting" to play RockBand on the PS2.

Stacy and I have reviewed the tape many times, and have decided that Chuck (Sara's husband) is pretty much going to be the next American Idol.

Enjoy!

*Disclaimer- I am not responsible for any bleeding ear drums that result from listening to this clip*

January Budget Results

Well, this month has seemed like it's lasted forever!! I have been anxious to update how things are going with the budget, but January was never-ending. Because this was our first month to attempt to keep a strict budget, I figured that we would do pretty good because we would try hard. And I was right! I'm happy to report that we did pretty good. We do need to tweek somethings though.

Here's the big categories we were working with that we always seemed to overspend on:

Groceries: Budget for month: $200 Actual spent: $187 (this includes diapers, wipes and toiletries)

Dining Out: Budget for month: $200 Actual spent: $170 (I know this seems like a lot, but we decided that we needed to keep important things to us in the budget. This also covers Wes going out to eat with work friends once a week.)

Entertainment: Budget for month: $50 Actual spent: $11 (this makes me laugh because I guess we weren't very entertained this month!! :) Actually we were pretty busy this month so that cuts down on the need for entertainment that costs a lot.)

Miscellaneous: Budget for the month: $97 Actual spent: $169 (we went over in this category because we had the unexpected expense of Wes playing sports at work. So, we will have to plan better for this in the next few months.)

So, there you have it! I was proud that we did good this month except for misc., but I am trying to not get too excited just in case there are other things that come up that we didn't plan for. We will keep you posted on our progress. One exciting thing was the difference a month could do to our Discover Card bill. We were able to cut it in half! That felt really good.