Thanksgiving Day Deals

I normally do not venture out on Thanksgiving or even Black Friday, but since I've had a break from the drug stores lately I thought I would check it out. I am glad I did. The stores were pretty empty so I didn't have to deal with a ton of people. I went to Walgreens and CVS actually made money on all the stuff pictured here. I figured it out to be about a $10 profit. Check out Iheartwags and iheartcvs sites for the coupon matchups. Also moneysavingmom.com gives you some great breakdowns. For those of you who do not know how I came out ahead remember I used manufacture coupons, store coupons and store sales to do this. One example is the Infusium23 leave in treatment-On sale for $4.99 and then you get $4.99 back on your next purchase. When you use a $2 off coupon you make a profit. Here is a breakdown of all my stuff and their retail value to give you an idea of my savings:

Johnson& Johnson Softwash-5.99
Dove Deodorant X2-3.99
Infusium Hair TreatmentX2-4.99
Nivia Mens Shave Gel X2-2.49
Christmas OrnamentsX2-.99
Toothpaste-1.99
Christmas PencilsX4-1.00
Bic Solie Razor-6.99
Kit Kat-.89
King Size Milkyway-1.59
Lotion-7.99
Remote control-6.99
Men's razor-9.99
Just for Men Dye-8.29
Body Wash St. Ives-3.99
Ear Buds-6.99
Degree Deodorant-4.00

Total Value is about $91.00

I may try Rite Aid tomorrow but we'll see. Happy Thanksgiving.

We're Debt Free (besides the house)

I am so excited because I just made the last payment on our van.  We paid it off in less than one year with a lot of hard work these last few months.  We did make some sacrifices such as budgeting, eating out less, meal planning, skipping some recreational activities but now that I've done it for almost 6 months I don't think I can go back.  I never want to finance anything ever again.

Our next goal is to establish our fully funded emergency fund of 6 months of living expenses.  If we continue what we are doing we should have this goal met by mid year 2010.  After this we plan to invest, save for kids college and tackle the house.  We would love to have the house paid off in 7 years or less, but we'll see how that goes.  There was a point in time that we wanted a new house but now that we want to live debt free lifestyle I am ok with what we have.  We do plan to have one more child and having only one bathroom is going to be a challenge.  We are also planning to save for maybe an expansion of this house and a bathroom update once our ER fund is fully funded.

In the next five years Matt is going to have several surgeries on his mouth that is not covered my insurance, so we are saving for this as well.  It is going to cost about 25K over the five years.  That is a lot on money, but I know God will provide.  He went for a consult the other day and we found out the oral surgeon is going to charge us less than the original amount he proposed saving us nearly 5K.  We are so blessed to have an awesome God that provides beyond what we can imagine.  All praise to Him.  We plan to start the first series in March and then on from there.

We are excited to see what God has in store for us this upcoming year.  We are also excited to have our goals set and ready to tackle them.  There is just something about accomplishment that gives me such a high.  WOOHOO!!!!  What are your goals for this coming year?  

The Final Outcome-Eating from the Pantry

My week without shopping is finally complete.  For some reason this has probably been the most challenging time I've had doing this.  Probably because I've actually said it out loud and had to stick to it.  Who knows.  I am happy to say that we did it.  

I did learn a few things during this time.  First of all...I just love fresh baked bread and so does the family.  In the few days that we had no store bought bread I made a loaf a day for a couple of days and we ate it up so quickly.  I now know my bread machine pretty well and feel confident enough to adventure out and make some unique breads.  In the five years that I've had this bread machine it has been used about 5 times, three of which were last week.  So my wish to make bread more often is a go.

Another thing I learned is it's important to be sure the family (husband) is on the same page with you when it comes to budgeting and eating out of the pantry.  I think he understands now why I would not buy the hot sauce, but at the time it was a bit difficult.  

Finally, the internet has so many ideas for using leftovers and getting ideas on what to cook with what you have.  My favorite site is All Recipes.  You can just key the ingredients you want and you will get a list.  You can also chose healthier options if you chose to.  

During the kids nap yesterday I ventured out to do all of my grocery shopping.  I had to go to a few stores to get the best deals and I still spent more than I wanted, but it's done.  As I mentioned before we are trying to stick to a $160 per month budget and yesterday alone I spent over $100.  The good thing is I have all of our meat for the month which is the costly thing to buy.   Since I only have $60 left to work with we will be eating out of the pantry again this month when the money runs out.  

Some of the deals to take note of are the whole chickens at Smart and Final-.76 per pound.  Pork Roast at FoodMaxx-.89 per pound.  This only came in a huge 18lbs bag but they gave me an additional $2.00 off for buying this quantity.  It was a bit of work to cut up all that meat and put it into bags, I think it is worth it.  I normally do not like the meat at FoodMaxx, but since I plan to crock pot it, I don't think it matters.  The crock pot can make any meat taste yummy.

So my plan for this week is: 

Monday-Butter Chicken, basmati rice, naan and lentils.

Tuesday-Chicken tacos, rice and beans

Wednesday-Green Bean Casserole and salad

Thursday-Leftovers

Friday-Pulled Pork sandwiches with salad or veggie of some sort.

Saturday-Matt's family traditional meal of bread(usually zweibach, but I need to work on this), meat, cheese, jam, honey, peanut butter or whatever you want on your bread.

Sunday-Veggie minestrone soup

My plans probably will change but this is what I have so far.