Move Along Little Shopper

It's been almost a month since I last posted an update to my journey. I have been to the commissary twice in the last month. The first time, I spent $20 (found some great items to stock up on at a great price, so I went for it).

The second time, I left my pen in my father's car. He dropped me off and ran an errand, so I shopped along, penless, adding and subtrscting in my head as I went.

If something was $1.39, I'd simply round it up to $2 to factor in surcharge and panic mathmatics.

I ran my grocery bill $39 into the negative. They paid me $39.

Oops.

So, for the year, I'm ahead, or in the negative, depending on your perspective.

I also have decided to keep the bank account we use for eBay and use it to deposit rebate checks. Medsurveys has been asking me to do surveys with increasing frequency and that $125 for thirty minute survey check is a nice way to fluff up that account.

We had a windfall last week as my husband was hired for a GREAT paying job that will increase our yearly income by another $40,000 in addition to what the two of us were bringing in.

Our Dave Ramsey journey is kicking into overdrive. If all goes as planned, we'll be through with Baby Step 3 in August.

I now have enough toilet paper to last 6 months, paper towels for 6 months, razors for longer than I'll be on this planet, and enough lotion to soothe an elephant's itch..... make that enough for a whole herd!

We're still trying to use up all that meat in the freezer. My challenge is to come up with new, delicious meals using what we have.

At the end of June, we'll have a biannual family budget meeting to see if we're on track and vote to see what changes we need to make.

I want an inground swimming pool with raised attached jacuzzi and AMAZING outdoor living area.

I also want to renovate the master suite/great room/patio area, which might make sense as they are all on the back of the house too.

So we need to get some contractors in to figure out which we do first and how much it will cost.

Becoming debt free has been a spiritual journey and the freedom it has generated in our family has been powerful.

I'll keep at it! And I'll keep writing about it!

More than Enough?

   Dave Ramsey has a book out titled More than Enough. It makes me wonder "how much do I need?"

   Tough question. While I often joke about gluttony, there is a fine line between shopping the way I do and out right gluttony.

SO how much do I need?

I reorganized my pantry, freezers, storeroom, even household cleaners, bathrooms, refrigerators, and spice cabinet. Yes, refrigerator is supposed to be plural.

I tossed out items that were expired, loaded a box of unexpired items I KNOW we would never use. I cleaned and organized. I even made an inventory.

Do I really want to clutter things again after my hard work?

No. So I'm determined to use http://www.allrecipes.com/, enter ingredients I have on hand, and create menus from that.

Any perishables I need during this time, I willo get using overage coupons.

At the end of December 2010, if I've succeeded, then I will take the $400 per month we have budgeted for food, and I will book a GREAT family vacation with it.

Thank you coupons. I'm inspired and excited to see if I can do this for a whole year. I've managed two weeks so far!

Budget Thought for 2010

   I'm planning a stock up mission to the commissary with coupons tomorrow! Heading into 2010, I thought it would be wise to stock up on non perishable items I'd have a hard time paying full price for if I ran out. Included on my list are:

Paper Towels
Toilet Paper
Garbage Bags
Wax Paper, parchment paper
sandwich, freezer, and storage bags
cat litter
health and beauty aids

I also thought I'd supplement my freezer with meats, vegetables, and fish items that I can plan meals around. Ground beef, chicken breasts, whole chickens, sausage, hot dogs, pork chops, roasts, steaks. I'm figuring on having about $250 worth of overage to work with, so I'm budgeting like this:

100 razors x 65 cents each (including surcharge) = $65.00
100 $3 off any disposable razor coupons = $300.00
Leaves me with $235.00 in overage to spend unless Fur Fighters are in stock. Fur fighters run $2.81 each with surcharge and I have $4 coupons. So I have $1.19 in overage for each one I find.

If I spend $20 on paper towels, $20 on toilet paper, $20 on the wax and parchemnt paper, bags, then $20 in cat litter, I still have $155.00 to spend on health and beauty aids and meat.

I'll need to clean out and organize my freezers before I leave so I have room for everything! I also repackage meats in freezer paper and freezer bags to save space before butting in my freezer.

Now, if I have coupons for the various items I'm going to be stockpiling, I can get more!

One of my New Year's Resolutions is to make a gentle transition from processed foods to purchasing more single ingredient items, so I know exactly what I'm putting into the meals I prepare. Bye bye chemicals!

Yes, I'm Dragging My Feet!

Have you ever stumbled onto a good thing and shared it with others? Then, those you were nice enough to share it with either dumped you completely, laughed in your face, or made disparaging remarks about your find? I've experienced all of it.

Fortunately for me, my mother gets the whole coupon thing! Our last trip to the commissary ran $318 before coupons, -$6.85 after coupons. They paid us! We gave that money to the bagger for bagging our groceries and wheeling them out to the car. So, what did we get? We purchased all of the items we needed for Christmas Eve, Day meals and treats, some other staples, as well as a big steak dinner! We had to haul home 82 packages of razors and 12 Fur Fighters to make it happen, but we did it! I think I'll keep a bag of the razors in the back of my car to donate.

I also happened to purchase two packages of Andies Mints and will send the receipt and UPCs off for a coupon for a FREE package!

I plan on sitting down with my parents and David to come up with a menu for the month of January. This will guide my shopping trips. We have $100 a week budgeted for food. I'd like to keep my food budget in the negative, put that extra $400 aside, and spend a week in Akumal this winter.

Baby Steps Towards the Future.....

My husband spent 21 years in the Air Force before we retired to Florida in 2007. Despite years of dreaming, planning, education, and goals, the economy was not on our side for our planned foray into the next big stage of our lives. In plainspeak, he couldn't find a good job. Oh, there were plenty of low paying opportunities for him to waste his MBA on, but nothing that gave him a chance, nothing that made him feel worthy. So, the job of breadwinner fell on me. Again. My plan was to return to school and finish that nurse practitioner program I started in 1997. So that was on the back burner. With a full time job, a part time job, a small military retirement, it was time to start life anew. A new home, downsizing a vehicle, new schools, we had a lot of balls in the air. We were also accumulating a lot of bills. Our credit cards were no where near maxed out, yet I could never keep them paid off. A mortgage, car payment, credit card payments, and daily expenses were causing quite a strain. I felt like I worked constantly just to tread water. I began listing heavily on eBay in my spare time (yes, you read that right. Sleepless nights). I also began using coupons to generate enough overage that a trip to the commissary made our purchases free. Then, my husband lost his part time job. I left my part time nursing job, but kept the full time position and my eBay stint. We were getting nowhere fast. Then Dave Ramsey entered our lives. We read Financial Peace University and Total Money Makeover and decided we were already so different from our peers, it was time to take a leap of faith and trust that we deserved our status as weirdos.

On July 1st, 2009, David and I held our first family meeting and started on our first zero dollar budget. More to come on that and how much we've accomplished in 5 months!

Accountability

I've added a link to this blog to my Facebook wall, emailed a few friends, and also edited a signature on my DisBoard profile so every post has a link here!

Does this mean I'm serious about blogging my way into managing my money saving obsession so it ceases to disrupt my sleep, my time off, my desire to have a hobby that does not require me to use a paper cutter?

Next: Do they use coupons in Mexico?

Yes, I'm Getting Around to It

It took a lot to finally get me here. Writing this has been on my mind for a few years, but I've been a bit apprehensive about putting it all out there for the world to read.

People think I'm cheap. At least the impression I get from others is that they think I'm cheap. I have this OCD type fascination with couponing. Is it a shopping personality disorder? Hoarding? While I understand the first step towards solving a problem is admitting you have a problem, I don't necessarily know if I'm at that point yet...... wanting to stop.

I run numbers in my head. If something costs $1.86, with a 5% surcharge (like tax, I'll explain later), that makes it REALLY $1.95. Why don't stores just add the sales tax/surcharge right into the price so we don't have to calculate the whole silly tax thing in too?

OK, back to my confession. Say I stumble onto a coupon for the item I mentioned above that's good for $4 off that item? Well, if the store you shop at will give you the whole $4 off the cost of the item, you should end up $2.05 ahead for each item. Buying a hundred with a hundred coupons? That's $205.00!

I've found stores that will do this. I've found stores that have this written into their organizational policy to allow this to happen. So there lies the dilemma, do you allow the store to hand you cash? Or do you use the proceeds towards purchasing things you would use, things you need?

I've done both. I've done both A LOT.

Next up: Exactly why I'm here.....