Throw me a bone!

I think I must have gone cah-razy, because I've decided to take school FULL TIME starting this fall. That's on top of my full time job, and of course being a full time wife and full time budgeting, saving, penny tracking obsessive compulsive. More on my plans to keep afloat later...

In the meantime, I've had to plug some pretty big tuition bills into my tracking ledger in October, January and April. My monthly savings goal has now been sadly changed to zero (shudder) other than maxing out my Roth IRA. Luckily there are two of us in the Pig Penny household, so it's not as if we won't be saving anything, and luckily I've been saving some bigger than usual chunks of change over the past few months.

Sadly, there are still some negative numbers showing up in the coming months. Thanks to aggressive savings I won't be actually overdrawn, but I am loathe to cut into my savings - especially since I won't be growing my savings account each month anymore.

So, I am trying to scrounge up a spare $2 thousand. Certainly easier said than done. I do have a little extra cash floating around that wasn't specifically earmarked for my savings account over the past few months. I have a $25 offer from Chase to open a savings account and keep a minimum of $300 in it. I also just opened a savings account for $1500 with Chase and earned $125 bonus for doing so, which you can do too! So, after meeting the minimums on the savings and checking accounts with my spare cash, I have about $650 left over.

I also have a $50 gift card from USBank courtesy of their START Saving offer, and $25 should transfer from my PayPal this week for some eBay sales I made.

That leaves me $1275 short of my goal. Deep breaths...

I am a little short over at Fusion Cash this month. I need a little bit extra in order to cash out at the end of the month, so if you'd like to earn me a referral reward click HERE to sign up for Fusion Cash. Verifying your e-mail will earn me $1 and completing an offer will earn me $2. I still haven't had a single one of my referrals actually cash out, which is kind of sad. Kind of nice because they earned me cash without actually gaining anything themselves, but kind of sad because Fusion Cash really does work. I have cashed out over $225 and hope to hit $250 this month.

If I manage to cash out every month for the rest of the year (which takes $25 minimum) I'll be $100 closer to my not-eating-my-savings goal. Again, feel free to throw me a bone by signing up :)

Other than that I'll be rolling counts, taking a look at what else I can Craigslist and eBay, and trying to earn Amazon gift cards over at Swagbucks to help cover my Christmas shopping. Yes, I've succumbed to Swagbucks. Earning Amazon cards through Bing's reward program proved addicting!

So feel free to throw me a referral bone to help me towards my goal, and hopefully I'll be able to pay for school without going broke!

April Groceries - All About Restraint

I went through my freezer on Sunday and took a look at what I still had for dinners. Even after cleaning out the freezer in March, I had dinner on the table Sunday (delicious pork chops baked with onions and apple) and still had enough food for eleven more main courses!

So, my Monday grocery trip was all about restraint.

Safeway
Jalapeno Chips - $4.29 (for hubby's lunches)
6 Cans Tuna - $2.94 (49 cents a can!)
Organic Milk - $5.19 (still painful)
Red Leaf Lettuce - $1.49
Organic Yellow Onions - $2.99
Total - $16.90


Costco
Frozen OJ - $9.99
Grey Poupon - $6.75 (restocking)
Dubliner Cheese - $9.90
Organic Ground Beef - $12.99
6 Red Peppers - $5.9
Chicken Tenderloins - $16.38 (accidentally bought tenderloins instead of breasts!)
Bratwurst Sausages - $13.99
Total - $75.99


Then I went to Franz Bakery Outlet for sandwich bread and burger buns, only to discover they'd closed 15 minutes earlier. I swear, they changed their hours! There's no way I've been there before 6pm every other time I've shopped there. Back to Safeway I went...

Safeway
Wholewheat Buns - $2.49
Franz Bread - $4.69 (I could get two loaves for $5.29 at Franz...grrrr!)
3 Whole Garlic - $1 (forgot before)
Total - $8.18


Grand Total - $101.07


Put that together with my grocery shopping on the 1st, and my total for the month so far is $146.91. I'm trying to keep groceries as far under $250 as possible, and I think this still leaves me a lot of room. I know it's early still, but I'm very well stocked (hubby would say we have no food - not true!) and will probably buy more milk, maybe some veggies, just realized I need sour cream, and lunch meat. That can easily be accomplished below budget.

A note on juice - my husband LOVES orange juice. Loves it. He will make a can of concentrate, and go through it in two or three days. Three if I'm lucky. I'm not such a miser that I want to deny him juice, but it is expensive. I buy a six pack of concentrate at Costco every month for $9.99. It goes straight into the deep freeze without him even seeing it. If he gets a hankering for juice, he has to go out into the garage and make up a pitcher. If he's willing to go through the extra hassle over just grabbing water from the tap, well....I figure he deserves his juice then :)

He's also taken to filling an old drink bottle with juice for his work lunches. I'm fine with this, since normally he ends up buying a drink for $1.25 if he doesn't have one. If he keeps up this habit, I'll start buying 2 packs of concentrate a month.

Does anyone have any thoughts on traveling juice containers? Right now he's using an old plastic bottle, which worries me a little...

So Much For Last Groceries

I posted this morning about my "last" grocery trip of March. Then, I got an e-mail from Amazon Fresh that I just couldn't resist. As a new customer they offered me $30 off my order of $50 or more using this code - KLFUYF9VW6 - now through March 23rd.

I just can't ignore an offer like that!

Ever since I raided all the change jars in the house and rolled $26 in coins, my husband has been bugging me to buy him a 12 pack of beer with his portion of the bounty. Undeserved! At least in regards to his contribution to the coin rolling. But I will admit my husband is a hard working, good man who is handsome to boot and deserves a cold beer now and again ;-)

I've been dragging my heels nonetheless (but what about the budget! and all) so I knew this gift from Amazon was the perfect time to buy beer guilt free. I also decided to stock up on flour since, you know, I'm now an expert bread baker and all. I perused The Frugal Girl to find out what brand she likes best, and it was also very economical. I got a 10 pound bag of Gold Medal unbleached and a 5 pound bag of Gold Medal whole wheat.

Then I had to fill in the gaps. Popcorn? Don't mind if I do! More expensive per ounce than Costco, but I figured I could treat myself to a small bag to tide me over. Quaker Oats - our staple breakfast on the weekends, and great for making oatmeal cookies/bars for weekday mornings - a no brainer. Two bags each of frozen corn and peas (won't have to restock those next month!) brought me to just under $50, so I put it over the edge with 3 apples. I think I'll make my really, really, ridiculously good looking delicious pork chops with apple and onions later this week.

Total Spent: $51.80 + $5.99 delivery fee minus - $30 coupon discount = $27.79

Bringing my FINAL March Grand Total to $187.70. Still happy!

If you give the discount code a shot (remember, it expires March 23rd!) leave me a comment and let me know if it worked for you - and all about your bounty of goods!

Last Of The Groceries

Here's to hoping yesterday's shopping trip was the last of the month.

Safeway
3 1/4 oz Yeast - $2.75
Organic Milk - $5.19
Carrots - $1.89
1 lb Canadian Maple Ham Lunch Meat - $5.65
Total: 14.98

Franz Bakery Outlet
2 Loaves - $5.29

That would bring my grand total for the month to...(drum roll please)...$159.91! To say I am proud of that number would be an understatement.

This morning I sent my husband off to work with homegrown sprouts in his lunch! The jar is so full I had to split the yield in two in order to allow light to reach them all and turn them a beautiful green. Let's gaze at the glory, shall we?

If anyone would like to gift me a Canon Rebel or equivalent
on account of it being a Monday, I would be much obliged.

Aren't they beautiful? I can turn the jar upside down and they don't even budge they're packed in there so tight. Lesson learned - less seed next time. I am definitely going to be regularly stocking up on sprout seeds. Growing your own sprouts is just too easy!

Speaking of easy, The Mrs also inspired me to take a stab at bread baking. She is working her way through 200 different bread recipes. It got me thinking of how she must have a whole range of flops and successes, but the point is she's trying. Too often, I let perfection get in my way - it's part of the reason I bought sprout seeds in January and didn't try to grow them until March!

So I picked up yeast (enemy number one) yesterday and came home and just did it - I baked bread. And it turned out delicious!

My Italian Herb Loaf - a success!

Costco Versus The Budget

I stopped by Costco today for the previously mentioned bacon. By this point, my husband had cleaned me all out so any fantasy I'd had of those last few pieces making it into a quiche were gone. I also had just a few other items to pick up...

2 Dozen Eggs - $3.35
Bacon - $10.99
Pepper Jack Cheese - $6.89
Butter - $9.99
Balsamic Vinegar - $10.99
Italian Seasoning - $2.55
Tollhouse Cookie Dough - $7.79

Total - $52.55

My receipt is so short, my box so small, and yet Costco still took me for over $50! I couldn't believe it, particularly since I left with less than what was actually on my list. I started adding items up in my head and thinking about how I was about to blow the budget.

I put back pastrami lunch meat. It was almost $12, and I can easily buy lunch meat from Safeway for less than that and get through the rest of the month. I'm sure the pastrami would have lasted into next month, but it is still a pretty expensive lunch meat and I think my husband has been quite enjoying the (cheap!) ham.

While putting it back I remembered that I really did need cheese. I am loving the block cheese! Sure I have to slice it myself, but for the same price I get half a pound more and it's lasted me an incredibly long time. You know why? Because I slice it a lot thinner! One block lasted me a month and a half - plus cheese for two quiches! It's a cheese miracle.

I also put back the $11 tub of popcorn kernels. Popcorn is a great snack - inexpensive, healthy, and easy to dress up (I'll have to post my delicious popcorn ideas in another post) - but until now I've been buying the microwave bag kind. Buying kernels will be a ton cheaper, especially since I don't go for that fake butter stuff. Nevertheless, I decided that March is not the month to try out the tub. Even though it was a ton of popcorn for the price, $11 is a lot of money. Too many Costco purchases will ruin a budget, even if you're getting great deals.

After all, I was already replenishing my butter and balsamic vinegar supply. I haven't purchased either of those since starting this blog, but when replenishing purchases all fall in the same month it can get tricky.

I've decided I need a plan for next month since I will literally have eaten our house out of meat. I'll post that soon...

Produce Purchases

I took another inventory of the freezer today and decided that I definitely can make it through the rest of the month without buying any meat. I have frozen chicken breasts, flank steak, beef chunks, shrimp, ground beef, shredded chicken, matzo ball soup, a pork chop (fat enough to be split in two) and a couple of pie crusts.

I will need to buy some more bacon if I want to make those quiches, and my husband often has bacon on the weekends, so I guess I'm not completely meat free. But then again, I have a bunch of tuna and canned salmon, so I could probably get by without even buying that!

I stopped by Safeway to pick up Jalapeno chips for hubby's lunches and to buy a bunch of produce. Since I made my no-meat purchase goal for the month, I figured it might be the perfect time to try to work in some alternatives to meat - huge no-no for my husband! So, instead of jumping straight into meatless meals, I'm going to incorporate mushrooms into some meals and cut the meat in half.

I made a delicious "spaghetti and meatballs" tonight using spaghetti squash, sausage and portabello mushrooms. Not only were there no complaints, my husband declared it delicious!

So, here's what I purchased:

Organic Milk - $5.19 (twenty cents higher than last week!)
2 Bags Jalapeno Chips - $8.98
Spinach - $1.99
Red Chard - $1.99
Portabella Mushrooms - $2.87
Shitake Mushrooms - $2.80
Spaghetti Squash - $6.33
Spaghetti Squash - $6.81
Organic Onions - $5.02 (only twenty cents more than regular, so I went organic!)
Total = $41.98

I also ran past Trader Joe's on Friday and bought a couple bottles of cheap wine and some lemonade/tea as a  treat for the hubs. Total = $8.73.

That brings my grand total for the month so far to $87.09. Pretty good since we're almost half way through!

Saturday Spending

I don't have a whole lot of spending to report for the past week. Mostly I've just paid fixed bills, and also have a couple charges at the post office and my first invoice at eBay for 9% of all my sales. I don't see those charges as "spending" though since I ultimately brought in money I wouldn't have otherwise, and the buyers are the ones actually paying for shipping.

My one personal charge was a $25 Groupon certificate for a 3 hour acrylic workshop at Daniel Smith art store in Seattle. I have always been fairly artistic, although never threw myself into it much. I recently started painting with acrylics when my sister in law pointed out she could easily paint me the wall art I was considering purchasing from Crate & Barrel for a lot less money. Instead, I had her teach me how to use acrylics, and have fallen in love with it. Art supplies are expensive, but certainly not as expensive as art! I'd even like to see if I could earn some side income from my art once I get a little more skilled and prolific with my works. I only have so much wall space of my own, after all!

So, that's my spending for the week. All in all, my budget is looking pretty good and repairing from our weekend in Portland last month. If I can limit my miscellaneous purchases to this art class this month, and keep my grocery purchases a lot smaller than usual, I might even be able to catch up with the extra splurge last month!

March Grocery Madness!

...or not, because actually March has been extremely easy on me grocery-wise. I have been making a concerted effort to use up all the frozen leftovers and meat in the freezer, and I guess it turns out I had way more than I thought, because I am still in good shape on the meat I bought new last month that is sitting in the deep freeze.

I made a mental list of meat the other day, and I'm pretty sure I can get by on entrees without buying more than a couple flank steaks and a 3 pack of organic ground beef from Costco.

So, I haven't done my usual big first of the month grocery shop yet. I do have to keep my husband in lunches, so I made a small trip to Safeway. Here's what I left with:

Organic Milk - $4.99
3 Apples - $2.00
Virginia Ham Lunch Meat - $7.41
Salami - $6.68
Rotisserie Chicken - $6.56 (after tax price)
Fresh Spinach - $1.99
Skinny Cows - $4.99

I also stopped by Metropolitan Market to pick up my free bag or heirloom oranges (yay, coupons!) and I also found parsley for just 99 cents and sprouts for $1.99. Metro Market can be pretty expensive, but nobody around here is beating those prices. I still haven't found sprouts at Safeway since the great salmonella scare, and I've been too lazy to get around to growing my own. This weekend, I swear!

I do need to stop in for more chips for hubby's lunches, onions (desperately) and Italian seasoning. We could also use some more eggs and bacon, but all in all I think I'll be blowing the food budget out of the water this month! If only I can stay away from the wine aisle...

Temptations

Lately, every time I get a new catalog or e-mail I start coveting things. I recently posted about the Tory Burch espadrilles that sucked me in. Ultimately, I didn't keep them (and even made a little money off them!) but initially I thought I needed those shoes.

Do you know what I don't need? 4" espadrilles that go with literally nothing in my closet and might get use in sunny San Diego, but not so much up here in summer-is-seven-minutes-long Seattle.

Then I received an e-mail in my inbox from Coach. I immediately started coveting a Kristen satchel for around $400 after tax. After all, my purse is old and the straps are kind of worn. After searching eBay for the bag, I caught myself seriously considering a $350 option. So cheap, right?! I backed away from the computer and reeled myself in.

I've also written before about canceling catalogs to avoid temptation. I've canceled a lot of catalogs, although clearly Nordstrom needs to be added to that list and maybe I need to start unsubscribing from some e-mail lists. These are clearly where temptation gets into my house and under my skin.

The extra money I made on eBay has been fantastic and unexpected, but it is not my intention to replenish my still large closet with that money. I want to set it away. In fact, I've even put it in a separate high interest savings account, and am working on paying the eBay fees out of my own pocket. I'd like to see if I can fit it all into my budget while keeping that chunk of savings wholly intact.

But apparently I want my cake, and I want to eat it too...

The goal this year is to save and then save some more and not touch it! And just because the bank accounts start looking really pretty, does not mean I have to spend that money haphazardly.

Food Waste Friday - Brie and Frozen Flank Steak

I'm extremely happy with how my food waste has been going ever since I started partaking in Food Waste Fridays. Posting once a week helps keep waste in the forefront of my mind, so I've been very conscious of using up leftovers and finding ways to incorporate veggies that are looking like they're on their way out.

The only thing I have to report this week is an old piece of Brie - mostly rind. It's been in there...awhile. I'm pretty sure someone brought it over during a potluck get together, and the last little bit was thrown in a plastic bag and into the deli drawer of my fridge, never to be seen again until today.

Brie is pretty much my most favorite thing in the world, so I said a few words before regretfully tossing it.

The hubs bought strawberries two-for-one last weekend when he got a hankering for Belgian waffles, so I have a ton of strawberries in the fridge that probably won't last much longer. I think I'm going to add some to my homemade yogurt. I'm wondering, do strawberries freeze well? I need to get on it, or these will be part of next week's post.

The other thing I've been doing a lot of lately is using up frozen leftover flank steak. I buy a two pack of flank steak from Costco every month. I'm that girl sorting through every package of flank steaks in the fridge looking for the lightest, cheapest one. Hey - there's only two of us! Even though I usually don't spend more than $15 on two small flank steaks, they're still far too big for the two of us to finish, so I throw the leftovers in the freezer.

If I don't, they will go to waste. I've learned this about myself, and accepted it. Leftovers go straight into the freezer, none of this fridge business.

Next time I decide we're having red meat for dinner, I take out the leftover flank steak and make it into Beef Stroganoff! It's actually a bonus that it's already frozen, because many stroganoff recipes call for you to lightly freeze the beef before chopping it up. Here's how I make my stroganoff:

Heat up a little oil or butter in a skillet while you chop up a medium sized onion. Toss the onion in the pan, and slice the leftover flank steak into bite size pieces and then dredge in flour. When the onion is looking pretty translucent (cook it on pretty low heat) toss in the dredged meat. I season with salt, pepper, and some Italian seasoning or thyme. I usually add some freshly chopped garlic or powdered garlic as well.

Once that's all tossed together and heated through (remember, I'm using cooked meat - if yours isn't, make sure to cook it all the way through) I add about a cup of chicken broth. Many recipes call for beef broth, but I never keep that on hand. I think the chicken broth is just as flavorful. I let that cook down just a little, and then stir in about a cup of sour cream. Oh - don't forget to cook your pasta at some point! I like to use linguini. Egg noodles are the usual choice, but I don't keep them on hand.

I stir the sour cream in for just a few minutes, adjusting the seasoning to taste and the thickness with either broth or a little more sour cream. You can also add a little flour if it's not thick enough. Then, pour everything from the skillet over your pasta and serve. Voila! Another meal from my frozen flank steak.

If you're wondering where the mushrooms are, my husband stands steadfastly against button mushrooms. He's worked his way into liking Portabellas, but hasn't opened up his palate to any other fungus...yet. I'm trying. If I don't feel like serving my stroganoff with a salad, I usually add some cooked peas instead. Delish!

Grocery Run - Last for February

I made another run to Safeway on Monday. I exchanged the candy thermometer I had purchased a month before and that had promptly broken. I purchased a regular meat thermometer that still covered the temps I need but doesn't have glass. I also picked up milk, red lettuce for sandwiches, and green onions. The green onions were an impulse buy, but I noticed that they were on sale for their old price of 99 cents. Then I noticed it was 2 for 99 cents! Are you kidding? Done and done. No regrets.

Thermometer Difference - $2.96
Milk - $4.99
Green Onions - $.99
Red Lettuce - $1.99
Total - $10.93


I also stopped at the Franz Bakery Outlet on Wednesday night to pick up sandwich bread. I've been meaning to go in there forever! I had no idea what to expect, but it was everything I was hoping for - no frills, but tons of products at cheap prices. Luckily, they had my husband's favorite bread. The loaves were $2.79 - already a huge discount off Safeway prices (although I did just buy loaves for that price on sale at Safeway). But on top of that, Franz had a buy two deal!

2 Loaves Columbia River Sweet Dark Whole Grain - $5.29

Grand Total - $16.22
Total for February - $229.75


Below budget! And I still have tons of food left. I will be working hard to come in closer to $200 in March.

A Quick Safeway Trip

I made a quick stop at Safeway for some things to supplement my big February shop. I knew I was going to need things like milk, onions and sour cream, and I also picked up some canned fruit for a healthy dessert. They were having a $10 for 10 sale on the smaller cans, so I picked up some peaches and pears as well as a big can of the fruit cocktail my husband loves.

All the fruit is canned in pear juice - no heavy syrup for us!

Safeway
Fruit Cocktail - $1.54
Canned Peaches - $1
Canned Pears - $1
Sour Cream - $1.50
1% Milk - $4.99
Onions (.99/lb) - $4.12
Total: $14.15


I'm pretty happy with my total grocery purchases this month. So far I'm $213.53. My budget calls for $250, but I want to get that down to $200 a month so I'm trying really hard to come under. It's probably a good thing that February is so short - March will be a real challenge!

Spending Saturday | A Weekly Spending Round Up

In order to keep up with my budget, I've decided to take a look at my spending for the previous week every Saturday. Here's my spending round up!

I purchased groceries last Friday and came in under budget but didn't leave a whole lot of room for additional produce runs later in the month. I managed not to make any more grocery runs this week - plus one for me! - even though we are now solidly out of milk and onions.

I purchased a trunk to be used for storage/coffee table from Goodwill - $14.23. My husband's not in love with it. It may end up on Craigslist. If so, hopefully I can get $15 for it.

I had to have a mirror cut to replace our spare bathroom mirror that broke during installation 3 years ago - $189.98. Gah! I still have the two old mirrors that were replaced sitting in a spare bedroom waiting to be listed on Craigslist. I'll also be listing the broken one that could easily be cut down to a smaller size since the crack is right along the edge. Hopefully this will recoup some of that painful expense.

I purchased a chip and dip set for a wedding we're attending tonight - $31.90. I purchased online through Ebates, so I'll be seeing 3% of that back. It was either that or put $50 in an envelope. I don't know the couple well, so I decided to go with the cheapest option and for a night out with free dinner and drinks I think it's worth it. Rumor has it there's going to be a vodka fountain...

I also made $17.50 from Half Price Books and sold $274.30 of clothing I wasn't wearing on eBay. So all in all not too bad. One big painful but necessary and not unexpected expense, and quite a windfall so far from the declutter project!

Groceries | February

Felling pretty good about our grocery expenses so far this month. In the name of accountability, I am now tracking not only what I spend but exactly what I spend it on. I think this is going to make a HUGE difference in our food budget and my ability to keep within my limits.

I typically do one big grocery trip a month to Safeway and Costco. I then pick up little things as needed like milk or lunch meat. I'm a little bit worried that I've spent too much this month already, and it's only the 5th. I think maybe my problems with going over are that I spend within my budget on the big shopping trips, but then have too many "little" trips that add up and put me over.

Hopefully keeping track of exactly what I buy as I buy it will cause me to be more aware of how much has already been spent and how much room is left.

So, here's what I've bought so far in February:

Trader Joe's
1 Dozen Eggs - $1.69 (This is the first time I'd realized TJ's eggs are this cheap!)
Red Wine - $13.13 (Total splurge, totally needed that night. That's the after tax price.)

Safeway
2 Bags Timm's Jalapeno Chips - $4.29 each
Brown Sugar - $2.39
Oatmeal - $3.19 (All they had was quick oats, grrrr!)
Frozen Corn - $2.50
Frozen Peas - $2.50
4 Frozen Pie Crusts - $5 (Lesson learned - making my own from now on)
Red Leaf Lettuce - $2.19
Salami - $6.49
1lb Deli Turkey - $5.75 (They were running a special so I bought a pound)
2% Milk - $4.99
2 Loaves Franz Bread - $2.79 (Super sale, bought two!)
Skinny Cows - $4.99

Costco
Timm's Maui Chips - $4.89 (Almost twice the size of the Jalapeno bags!)
2 Flank Steaks - $15.09
3lbs Organic Ground Beef - $12.99
2 Tubs Nestle Tollhouse Cookie Dough - $5.29 each (They applied my $2.50 coupon twice!)
Pantene Conditioner - $5.99 ($2 off coupon)
Pastrami Lunch Meat - $12.99
Potatoes - $7.99
6 Red Peppers - $5.79 (Cheaper than the multi-colored pack)
2 Dozen Eggs - $3.45 (A few pennies more than they would have been at TJs)
Garlic Powder - $4.49
Olive Oil - $17.99
Frozen OJ - $9.99
Laundry Detergent - $11.29 ($2 off coupon)
Pepperjack Cheese - $6.89 (Same price as the sliced stuff, but 1/2 lb more)

Grand Total: $199.38

I'm going to need onions, more lettuce, sour cream, and a couple more gallons of milk before the month is over. I'm hoping that is it. We have frozen chicken breasts, shrimp, and sausage in the deep freeze, plus chicken pieces and broth for soup and tuna for sandwiches. It should be enough to get us through 24 more dinners. I definitely have enough chips and cookie dough to get through my hubby's lunches. I bought more than is necessary, but I wanted to stock up while Costco still had the cookie dough on sale and the chips in stock. I know I should start making my own cookies, but for 80 oz of our favorite cookie dough I couldn't pass up the price. The same cookie dough would have cost me the same amount on sale at Safeway for only 36oz!

I might have to get another loaf of bread and half a pound of lunch meat towards the end of the month. I'm excited to stop in at the Franz Bakery Outlet for the first time. It is basically across the street from my Safeway, but I've never been in. I can't wait to compare prices!

I completely forgot to buy ham at Costco for quiches. I'm also out of spinach. Those way-too-expensive frozen crusts are really annoying me now, and I don't even need any quiche to make it through the month. Maybe I can return them to Safeway? Is that really weird? Where else do you think I could be saving on my grocery budget? Technically I've allotted myself $250 for the month. I know I can make it, but I really want to come in under!

Food Waste Friday | Keeping Accountable!

Staying accountable to my grocery budget isn't just minimizing my spending, it's also minimizing wasted food. Kristen at The Frugal Girl stays accountable by posting pictures of any food that has gone bad as part of her Food Waste Friday series, which I think is a great idea. Saying your goals out loud helps assure you'll actually achieve them.

With that being said, I think I'm doing pretty well so far. My successes are both breadcrumb related. First I made some breaded chicken, but misjudged the amount of breadcrumbs I needed and ended up with a lot left over. Of course, at that point they were contaminated and couldn't go back in the tub, but I decided to save them in some Tupperware and make Chicken Parmesan a couple of days later. I wondered if this was a good idea, since technically all sorts of deadly germs could be sitting in there, but I figured the heat of cooking the next meal would suffice.

We're still alive, so I think it worked out alright.

My husband also made some delicious corn bread when he realized we were out of yeast and couldn't make his trademark focaccia. I ate it for breakfast lunch and dinner for a couple of days, but the last little bit got pretty stale. I decided to throw it in the food processor, and now I have a bunch of cornbread crumbs! I'm thinking they might be delicious on some pork chops next week.

The bad news was mainly lunchtime related. There were a few slices of Havarti cheese remaining before we went away for the holidays, and they started looking pretty bad. I also had about half a bag of salami from Costco that started to look.....gray. Horrors! I have never in my life let a Costco bag of salami go bad. I don't even know how it's possible, especially with cured-meat-loving Me around. It never would have happened if we hadn't been out of town for 3 weeks.

The last little bit of my milk went a little sour. I drank about half a glass of it before I decided it was gone. I poured the last of the glass back in the jug, and I'm going to scour the internet for some recipes this weekend. I'm determined not to let it go to waste!

If you've ever read anything about food waste you know that this is just one of the ways in which frugal living is also sustainable living. 

The Saver and the Spender | Adjusting Spending Habits

Get Rich Slowly posted a reader question today that I can totally relate to. The reader asks how to motivate her boyfriend to stop spending so much and focus more on saving. My husband worked through a lot of debt and credit issues while we were dating, but - in my opinion - continued to bleed money and save nothing.

The thing that helped me curb my spending was creating a budget. Along with my fixed monthly expenses and savings goals, I also had to allot some money for miscellaneous things. I'm not such a miserly person that I will never grab a coffee or meet a friend at happy hour - I just try not to do these things too often. I decided on an amount that I thought was reasonable to spend, but when I took a look at my past spending (tracking my spending in Excel spreadsheets made this really easy!) I was flabbergasted to find out that I was spending way more.

Comparing what I thought was reasonable and what I was actually doing was a wake up call that has really changed my spending habits.

My husband is not a details guy and definitely doesn't want to see an Excel spreadsheet of his expenses and spending habits. However, painting the bigger picture for him in broader strokes has worked well for us. Since I'm the one knee deep in our finances every day, I pay all of our monthly bills. This way I know that everything will be paid on time (I'm not always perfect, but at least then I can yell at myself and not him) and that we never overdraw a checking account. Twice a month he writes me a check for his portion of the expenses. I cash these checks on his paydays.

Paying the bills as large lump sums really helps him see exactly how much his fixed monthly expenses are, instead of adding up a bunch of smaller line items in a detailed budget.

As a big picture person, my husband finds it hard to see how saving $416 a month in a Roth IRA, or 4% of his paycheck in a 401K is going to add up to retirement savings for our future. He'd rather not mess around with pennies, and instead take on a side job building someone's garage so that he can put a big chunk into savings all at once. The problem with that plan is that there's always somewhere else to spend that extra money.

Since he didn't want to think about what was a reasonable amount to save, we focused instead on what was a reasonable amount to spend every month. Like me, what he actually spends and what he thinks he spends are two very different matters. I gently told him this, but didn't bash his brains in with the details. Instead we used the amount that he thought was reasonable, subtracted it from his monthly income, subtracted his fixed expenses, and set up automatic withdrawals to retirement accounts.

We left a big cushion, but since he's still a spender at heart I didn't think he could immediately cut his actual spending down to the amount he thought was reasonable. He automatically saves, and pays his bills to me on payday. What is left over is basically his. I watch his bank account like a hawk to make sure he never overdraws. Sometimes he's fine, and sometimes he comes close to spending everything in the account, but my reminders that he only has another $20 until payday keep his spending in check without him having to put too much thought into it.

I still think he could be saving a lot more, but as his spending habits change his savings habits get better. I think we'll get there. I think we're already on our way, and I know we're a good balance for each other!

Staying Accountable To My Budget

I recently created a detailed budget for myself. I have $100 to spend on miscellaneous items, and I've allotted myself a total budget for groceries and gas of $325 every month. The problem with budgeting isn't so much creating a budget - it's sticking to it.

At the end of every month I've been tallying that months spending. This month I spent $106.66 in the miscellaneous category. This included my antique store purchases, a Groupon certificate for half off at happy hour, lunch with the hubby's grandmother, the Living Social certificate which I applied to buying sprout seeds (can't wait to start this project - hopefully a money saver!) and a late fee and interest. No, I'm not perfect, and I'm super annoyed with myself for this one. I thought I had all of my ducks in order before leaving for the holidays, but I forgot to schedule the payment on one of my credit cards. Usually I can get the late fee reversed (while still eating the interest) but apparently I had done that last March, and USBank is only being lenient once a year.

I decided to include the late fee and interest in my miscellaneous category to really make it hurt. It's frustrating to know that the only reason I went over my miscellaneous budget this month is because of that stupid mistake. I assume that my miscellaneous spending is going to be somewhat flexible every month. By this I mean that sometimes I'll go over and sometimes I'll be under because I don't buy cat food or litter every month, or get my oil changed every month. But it's really easy to go a little over $100 a month, and a lot harder to stay under. I'm glad I almost made it, but I'm going to try really hard to be under in February because of the late payment mistake.

I came in just under budget on gas and groceries - $321.49. This is partly because I decided not to hold myself accountable for the $11.79 my husband charged to my card when I sent him out for eggs. He decided to also get 5 concentrated juices. I would never have bought these for him. Juice is expensive, and I try not to buy too many in a month, and typically keep them in the deep freeze in the garage so that my husband doesn't go through them so fast. This time he's already gone through all 5 cans of Welch's, and he just bought them on the 20th!

After reading that Kristen over at The Frugal Girl feeds her family of 6 on $100 a week (and she does it in part by avoiding expensive juice!) I'm feeling a little disappointed in myself for barely managing to feed the two of us on $285 a month (that's $325 minus the $40 I realistically feed the Prius every month). Truthfully I aim at $200 a month, added in $50 when I started making the hubby's lunches, and allot $75 for gas (which is more like what I fed the Lexus). I combine gas and groceries in my budget to give myself a little extra cushion on groceries, since I definitely don't spend $75 on gas anymore. So basically, I'm pathetic. I mean who am I fooling? Myself?

So I'm going to try to be more accountable for my grocery shopping expenses. I'm going to seriously aim at spending less than what I've currently alloted - a lofty goal, since last year I had a difficult time coming in at the already generous budget I've given myself. So I've decided to track even more data! (There's nothing I love more than a detailed Excel spreadsheet :) The last few times I've been to the grocery store, I've kept my receipts and started tracking exactly what I purchase. I've already recognized that I can probably stop paying $2.50 for two frozen pie crusts. It can't be that hard to make crust, right? And I'm pretty sure I can do it for less than $1.25 each. Hopefully I'll be able to plug more of these holes as I take a closer look at my grocery purchases!