Finance Discussions

I think for us it's knowing where our money goes. We tracked out spendings for one month before realizing how much we overspent on groceries - the same products that used to cost us around $25/week now range more than $100. I'm not joking either. It's just depressing. However, we do what we can and plan ahead for meals.

I buy as much FRESH produce as possible and then immediately put it into a dish to freeze it for later. It really does help. Plus I know what my limits are. Each month we go on ONE meat binge. The rest of the time we buy only the essentials - milk for the kids, bread (bulk when in clearance; just freeze the rest), etc.

I also plan for holidays and birthdays far, far in advance - after holiday sales usually provide a trove of gifts on clearance. My MIL loves decorating, so after Christmas last year I purchased her a little snow man (originally $20) and a large candle holder (originally $30) for a total of $25.

Wow, that's a large amount in difference for groceries. In the groceries department it's kind of hard to cut back on certain items but most of the "wants" are easily cut back. I went to Price Chopper last night for the things to make lasagna and 2 gallons of milk, nothing extra, and spent $50.00. Now I remember why I have been doing the "large" grocery shopping at ALDI or Save-A-Lot.

Freezing things is a great way to go! Save-A-Lot has a big roll of hamburger for $8.97, I think and we can make 2-3 meals from it. It saves major money! Also, my father has a membership to the Restaurant Depot in the West Bottoms and he will let me go with him and get a HUGE roll of hamburger for $15.00 and with that comes 5-6 meals! I have a family of 5 to feed too so it makes for more groceries. I'm looking to save everywhere that I can.

Shopping after the event is awesome! That's how we get all of our decorations and craigslist.org is another awesome site!

I have been exercising the "delete" button on my email.  I am signed up for tons of newsletters for my favorite stores, but to avoid spending i don't even look at the advertisements most of the time anymore.  Delete, delete delete!  I know if I start looking at them I'll think "oh 20% off, maybe I can find something!" which is no good when I don't NEED it.  So instead, I only keep the coupons if I actually was already planning to shop there. 

vivasuzi said…

I have been exercising the "delete" button on my email.  I am signed up for tons of newsletters for my favorite stores, but to avoid spending i don't even look at the advertisements most of the time anymore.  Delete, delete delete!  I know if I start looking at them I'll think "oh 20% off, maybe I can find something!" which is no good when I don't NEED it.  So instead, I only keep the coupons if I actually was already planning to shop there. 

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Wow, great idea. Maybe you can unsubscribe? I never even thought about that! I was no lancome.com today  :( bad choice on my part! lol... Those sale items will always get ya!

Well I don't unsubscribe because if I DO need something, then I wait for a coupon to come before I buy it.  But if I look at the coupons when I DON'T need something, I'll be tempted :)  

Given it is now just the two of us and our baby dog, we are probably doing more now and we'll worry about it later. As they say when you have fewer years ahead of you than behind you things look a bit different. Luckily our 3 kids are self sufficient so we don't have to support them in any way. A couple of our friends so have to help their kids.

I have been trying to watch spending, use more coupons and sign up for freebies, never realized there were so many out there. I was at Walmart and had two $3 coupons I got for Kashi Go Lean and two buy one get one free coupons for Fiber One yougurt. Spent $2.12 for two boxes of cereal and four of the four packs of yougurt. Thought I did great but the cashier told me a lady was in earlier that bought over $300 worth of groceries for $137. Wow! She said she had alot of coupons. I use coupons.com and Eversave.com.

That's a bargain, I need to speak with that lady. You did great also, lorihall2861. :) I need really thought of coupons until I had kids, now, they are a must have! I'm not into fashion, beauty, latest trends, makeup, etc., I'm into the latest coupons! lol

With less money coming in and insurance costs, etc going up, we have cut way back.  Less going out to eat, I hardly ever buy new clothes, and I've cut way back on impulse purchases.  We have cut out a lot of non-essential things too. Like I don't drive my car much anymore so I cancelled the satellite radio and when the lease is up I'm going to buy a used car.  We also switched cable companies last week.  TV is our main entertainment since we don't go out much anymore, but I just couldn't justify the cost of the plan we were on so we cut back on that too.  Oh, and I called around to get better deals on our auto and homeowners insurance.

I really feel bad for not being able to do more with coupons. I'm working 40 hours a week + being a full time momre the rest of the time. I barely have time to breathe!

Oh and Siperry - have you heard of Kid's Closet? They have a sale twice a year the OP Convention Center. It's a HUGE sale where people sell their used baby clotehs and toys. I usually get all of my kids' clothes that way. I usually save bout 75% over retail - you can seriously get Gymboree, gently-used jeans for like $2.

AngiBowman,yeah, I heard of the Kid's Closet, they just had one like 2 weeks ago? Well, there's a similar one going on this weekend at the Kansas Speedway that I think I'm going to try out.

I know all about the Full-time mom and and Full-time job... It gets hectic and I even had to put my college courses on hold for awhile so I can get myself some sleep! Will be starting that back up with the job and mommy in February! :) Coupons save time and money but not that much. However, there are a lot of freebies out there! Freakyfreddies.com is a good site, you have to be quick though. Also, cashpill.com is giving away free money, each time it varies but it's really FREE money. Sign up!

I've been much more involved in small things like participating in Viewpoints Contests.  Those $5 gift cards add up when you combine them with coupons.  I've also been actively racking up points through www.MyPoints.com.  It's a site where you can earn points through purchases or just by clicking on emails.  It takes a while, but we've gotten two $50 Target give cards from the site.  When times are tough, EVERYTHING helps.

I now use more store brand products. I've found that most of the items I've purchased work or taste just fine. I'm trying to get into the habit of using coupons. I manage to cut them out, but I need to work on getting them in my purse and to the store.