Finishing up the month

Here is the rest of the food breakdown for June.

Sunday
b - homemade muffins, fruit
l - grilled hotdogs, fruit
d - Kevin and I went out for our anniversary. My sister babysat and her and the kids had spaghetti and salad

snack was ice cream floats

Monday
b - homemade muffins, fruit
l - PB&J, fruit, peas from the garden
d - Michael and I headed to my sister's to babysat her kids so they could go out. Kevin and the kids here had leftover spaghetti, I had pizza at her house. They also had salad.

snack was pretzels and popsicles

Tuesday
b - leftovers from previous mornings, or cereal, yogurt and fruit
l - either ramen noodles or bologna sandwiches, fruit
d - garlic/lime chicken, cous cous and salad - oh and we finished up watermelon

snack was peanut butter crackers in the car running errands, and tonight I made pumpkin chocolate chip muffins.

So there is what we ate for the whole month of June. Hope you enjoyed seeing how we do things around here.

My $.11 Target run

We needed toilet paper and were running low on snack food. Being out of grocery money for the month I needed to get creative. We were headed to Lowe's to get stuff for the yard and I knew there was a Target next door. I had $7.50 in gift cards from previous deals. I also needed a prescription filled and there had been a coupon in the Target ad this week for a $10 gift card when getting a new or transferred prescription. Suddenly I had $17.50 in gift cards to work with.

12 pack of toilet paper
box of kleenex
2 goldfish
granola bars
sunflower seeds
teddy grahams
popsicle holders - mine have either broken or become lost over the years and I needed more. Have been looking for awhile and unable to find them, until today.

The total of all of the above was $17.61. Yay! I got everything I needed for $.11. Doesn't get much better than that.

*this post is linked to Money Saving Mom.

Why I am avoiding the Farmer's Market

When I was little we would go to the farmer's market every week. It was at the fair grounds and we pulled up to a huge lot filled with semi trucks. The trucks opened up in rows and people would walk down and buy by the bushel off the back of the trucks. It was super cheap. Of course there were more farmers then too, driving the price down.

Last year it got to the point that I couldn't afford to shop at the farmer's market though. The prices are 2-3 times the store prices. For essentially the same produce. Ohio is very good about getting locally grown produce into the grocery stores. I can buy Ohio corn for $2 a dozen at the grocery, but it is $5.50 a dozen at the farmer's market. Why would I do that?

I read an article last week that people shouldn't go to farmer's markets hoping to save money on produce. They should go prepared to spend lots of money, and consider it entertainment, not grocery shopping. It said that shopping at the farmer's market was an "experience" that you should expect to spend money on. I don't really agree.

I like going to the farmer's market, but I don't like feeling ripped off trying to support local farmers, which normally I am all for doing. Plus, most of the farmer's markets in my area are not all food. In fact, many times only about half the booths are food. Others are jewelry, baskets, pottery, pet items, cooking demos, soap etc.

Honestly I am there for the food. I want to get good deals on food products, in quantity so that I can preserve it for the winter. I don't want to spend $10 a pound on cheese. I don't want soap. If you want to have these things great, but still have reasonably priced produce too. If I were to get all my produce at the farmer's market it would eat up my entire grocery budget. I just can't afford it. So as much as I would love to spend the morning wandering the farmer's market, it won't be happening this year because it is so much more money than buying it in the stores. Has anyone else experienced this?

2 shopping trips today

My first stop was Sams club. I only go there once a month. I bought the following for $72.98

Blackberries
2 lbs strawberries
3 lb lemons
3 lbs limes
organic spring mix
4 lbs of chicken nuggets
3 lbs of sausage
bagel bites
12 pack of tomato sauce
the largest can of tomato sauce I have ever seen
2 lb extra sharp cheese
canola oil
hot dog buns
Next was Giant Eagle. I spent $31.20 there. I should have gotten $5 off for watching a video online, but when the clerk asked if I wanted to use it and I said yes, she punched in no. Then they couldn't figure out how to make it come up again and they wouldn't let me use it. Of course that was the reason I splurged on the wine (that and it was our anniversary last week and we are going out to dinner tonight), but I was annoyed that they couldn't get it to go through.

2 packs of popcorn - raincheck from last week when it was b1g1, ended up being $1 a box
2 loaves bread
2 4 packs of dannon drinkable yogurt
4 pack of breyers crunch yogurt - free with a coupon
milk - free with a catalina from last week
green beans
tomatoes
cucumber
carrots
2 boxes of triscuits
white zinfandel wine
newspaper
6 packs of breyers yogurt
sour cream

My total for all groceries (not including bulk fruit purchase) was $438.33 for June. This is about right as I budget $200 per pay period which is every 2 weeks. June was 4 weeks and a couple of days, so I came in right about where I should be. Of course I would love to get it lower and I am going to really focus on that once my garden starts producing more.

Way behind on food wrap ups, sorry!

I'll try to remember the past few days.

Saturday

b - pancakes, bacon
l - triscuits with tuna and cheese, strawberry/lime slushies
d - special request by Michael grits, sausage and watermelon

Friday

b - cereal for the kids, muffin for me, not sure what Kevin had, along with fruit
l - we ate at VBS for the last day, Kevin was at camp with Michael
d - leftovers for the people that were home

Thursday

b - muffins, fruit
l - sandwiches, peaches
d - I can't remember, sorry!

100 Ways We Save Money - Part 1

Frugal living has become such a way of life for us that sometimes I don't even realize that what I am doing is saving money. It just seems so routine that I don't think of it as a money saving move anymore, it is just how we have done things for so long. I thought by highlighting ways we save money it would help others as well as remind me of all the frugal things we do every day. This will be broken out into many parts.

#1 - We exercise at home. Or actually on the road. But we have never paid for a gym membership. There are plenty of free exercises you can do without ever leaving the house. Kevin works out in all sorts of ways at home, but his main exercise is cycling. Aside from the cost of the bike many years ago and tubes for the tires every now and then, there aren't any. I either walk or run, so a good pair of shoes every year is all I need.

#2 - We pick our own fruits and veggies in large quantities at rock bottom prices all summer and fall and preserve them for eating all year. There is no way I would ever pay $4 a lb for strawberries in December when I can pull them out of my freezer at $1.60 a lb.

#3 - We combine errands. Today for instance, Kevin was going to take the kids to the library. I needed some packages mailed and Luke and Claire have been wanting to go spend their money at toy stores downtown. Kevin did all those things at once rather than making 4 different trips. And when he got downtown they parked and walked to 3 different places instead of moving the car around. So they even got free exercise. I try to never go only 1 place at a time. Combining errands saves time and money.

#4 - We do all our own lawn care. We shovel snow, mow our own grass, mulch our own beds, cut down our own trees, etc. We are capable of doing these things and we would rather see a job well done ourselves and not pay someone else to do it.

#5 - I play the drugstore game. I get great deals at CVS a few times a month to cover all our toiletry and household needs, and even some of our food items. I lowered my monthly budget on these items by $100 by shopping at CVS.

Stay tuned over the next few weeks as I share more ways we save money.

*This post is linked to Frugal Fridays.

Bargain Meal of the Week

Thursdays are the first day of the sale ads for the Giant Eagle in NE Ohio. Did you notice the lower chicken prices? There are lots of great prices there, I wonder how long they will last? It doesn't really make it clear if it is permanent or not, but we might as well take advantage of them while they are here, right?

BBQ chicken thighs

chicken thighs are $1.39 a pound
Open pit BBQ sauce is $1 this week
Bushes baked beans are $2 for a 28 oz can
corn on the cob is $.20 each - $.60 for us, as we split the cobs in half to make them last longer.

Marinate your chicken in the BBQ sauce. Grill on low until done, basting every few minutes. Grilled corn on the cob is wonderful! I place the corn on tinfoil, add a couple of pats of butter and sprinkle salt. Seal up the foil and grill on low, turning occassionally.

Total cost for the meal is $4.99. This would make a perfect 4th of July meal.

Getting great deals at CVS - You can do it too!

I have had a few questions and comments about how to work the CVS deals, so I thought I would cover that a little. Of course I want everyone else to get great deals too, because it has really allowed us to stretch our budget. I used to spend over $100 a month on toiletry items, cleaning items and household items. Now I spend around $20 a month max.

It took me a long time to figure out all the ins and outs of CVS. It took me awhile to work up my courage to start, because their prices seemed so high. Initially I did have to lay out more money for a few select items to get some ECB to start rolling. But since that first trip I have spent less on toiletry items than ever in my life, so it was very much worth it and I wish I had started sooner.

Some of the basics.

ECBs are Extra Care Bucks. These print at the end of your receipt and are like cash to be used next time. I think you have about a month to use them.

You can use CVS coupons on top of manufacturer coupons. This type of stacking will really help you get great deals.

Many stores have a machine inside the door that will give you more coupons. You scan your card once a day and you can get extra coupons. Coupons also print out on your receipt too.

You have to really watch the limits and product sizes. Most of the ECB deals are very specific as to exactly what product you can purchase. Keep the ad with you in the store and analyze it to make sure you are getting the right items. Of course if you mess up, you can always return the wrong item and get the right one. Also, many shelves are not labeled with the ECB deals, so having the ad is essential in that case as well.

If an ECB deal is based on a dollar amount (for example, spend $20 get a $10 ECB) you don't typically have to spend the $20 in 1 transaction. You can spread items across many transactions to get better deals and the computer will keep track of your dollar amount. When you hit $20 your ECB will print.

Using coupons along with ECB sales will help you generate overages, or grow your ECB. For example, Soy Joy bars are on sale this week. Buy 4 get $4 ECB. I had a $1 coupon when I purchased 4 bars. So I paid $3 for 4 bars and got a $4 ECB back. I made money on the deal (because I was rolling ECB) and grew my ECB.

Sign up for their email. I get coupons emailed to me all the time. These $ off a certain $ amount purchase make good deals great. Don't feel like you have to use every one though, some weeks even with a $5 off a $30 purchase coupon it isn't worth it to me to shop.

Check out other forums. Slick Deals and Hot Coupon World both offer ad previews, so the week before the sales start you can gather everything together and come up with a game plan. Seeing ahead of time what will be on sale is wonderful.

Some weeks my ECBs grow and some weeks I come out with less. Depending on how badly I need an item and the deals for the week this is usually fine. I know that in a few weeks I will grow them again.

When most people think of CVS deals they think ECBs. You can do great with those. But don't forget to pay attention to the rest of the ad. They do carry some food items and frequently have very good deals on those items too. I get many items that might not generate an ECB, but that are B1G1 free and are cheaper than getting those items at other stores. So make sure you read the whole ad and not just the ECB deals.

That being said, you certainly want to get ECBs each week, because that is how you will get so many things for free. If you can roll your ECBs from week to week you will do awesome and quickly have what seems to be an endless supply of any and all toiltery products.

Now that I have a good stockpile of things I haven't been going every week. I have set some rules for myself as to how I will handle the CVS deals without feeling out of control or getting greedy.

1. Unless it is a super fabulous deal, I limit myself to 2 transactions. Many people will do 5 or 6 small transactions. I prefer to do larger transactions because it is simpler. I will only go to 1 store a week, unless they are out of something that I really need and then I might hit another.
2. I do not buy things unless I will use them. I don't need hair color for example. So even if it is free, I don't do the deal. If I were to chase after every deal I would drive myself crazy and spend too much time and energy on it.
   
3. This is not a competition with anyone else. I could easily get frustrated at how other people get better deals than me. Frequently they are doing different deals than I am and willing to spend more time on it than I am. I have to stop myself from thinking it is a competition. I do the best I can to get the things we need at the best price.
   

If you haven't ever shopped at CVS now is the time to start. Don't wait! It does take some brain power to get it all figured out and I used to pour over the ads before going to the store. Now I can figure out a great deal on the spot without much spot because I know how their system works. Don't get discouraged, if you stick to the great deals and the much needed items each week you will benefit from CVS in the long run. Good luck and have fun with it!

Because of this, my garden finally gets sun.

*This post is linked to Wordless Wednesdays.

Festival of Frugality & other links

it has been a wild week around here with VBS and canning and such. All my time seems to be spoken for. So I wanted to share a few links with you. I participated in the Festival of Frugality this week at Financial Highway with this article. There are a lot of great articles over there. One in particular is called Suze Orman - Not Equipped to Educate Us by My Life ROI. I have never liked Orman very much and after her negative comments about teachers I dislike her even more.

The Happy Housewife has been doing a great series on 30 Days of Disney. For the past few years I have wanted to take my kids to Disney once they were all old enough to remember it and enjoy everything. That time will be in a couple of years, but I didn't think it was possible for under $5000 or so. I am getting all sorts of great frugal tips from this series and it looks like we could do it for much less. I have no idea if we will or not, as we have other financial goals at the moment, but knowing it might happen is exciting. Here is a link to her latest Disney post. Be sure to look around for the others.

Watermelon

I don't have a picture, but today Kevin stopped at the store and bought a large watermelon and a 4 lb bag of sugar. The total was $6.85. Yesterday Kevin picked up a 25 lb box of peaches. There is a company that delivers semi trucks of fresh fruit from Georgia and Florida all year long here. I spent the afternoon canning.

Michael is at scout camp this week. Tomorrow night is family night. The troop requests that each family bring the scouts favorite food. After I rejected grits, cheese soup and chicken cordon bleu he finally settled on watermelon. That I can do easily.

b - muffins, blueberries
l - Kevin had mac n cheese and a peach, the kids had chicken nuggets and peaches and I had a sandwich.
d - leftovers

snack was ice cream

Shopping trip

It was a great week this week, mainly because there were lots of things we use and needed that was on sale. I started at Giant Eagle and my cashier got very flustered with my coupons. He skipped some, he rang some twice, I ended up with free Ritz and free Wheat thins. I had so many coupons, I am not sure what the break down should have been or who got the best of this transaction the store or me. According to my receipt I paid $40.99 for all of the above and used $25.49 in coupons. I also have a catalina for a free gallon milk. Here is exactly what I bought.

gallon of milk
ritz crackers
wheat thins
4 pack of crystal light
newspaper
2 pints of blueberries $1 each!
4 boxes of cinnamon toast crunch
3 warm delights
baby carrots
bunch bananas
2 tomatoes
cucumber
velveeta individual mac and cheese *free*
2 brownies supreme
frozen green beans and peas
3 free cans of dog food (VBS donation)
6 bags of cat treats (VBS donation)
sugar
2 zone perfect bars
2 hotdog buns
1 hamburger bun
I did even better at CVS though. Kevin loves the Soy Joy bars, so I got 20 which were free after ECB. I had a $5 off $30 purchase so used coupons for free M&Ms and 2 $2 coupons to get the 3 pepsi for free (with $1 ecb too). So for the above I spent $6.54 after coupons and $12 ECB and walked out with all that stuff and got $26 ECB back. Yay! I grew my ECB by $8!
At target I used B1G1 coupons to get the mac and cheese for $.37 each. I used a $1.25 coupon to get 2 soy milks for $3.73, which is about the price of 1 at my grocery store.

My total for the month of June so far is $327.30 for 6 people. I am pretty happy with that total.

Food for June 21

b - everyone had something different
l - PB&J, blueberries
d - grilled chicken, cantaloupe, cucumbers, carrots, leftover focaccia bread

I can't remember what snack was.

Food for June 22

b - most people had blueberry muffins and fruit, I had sausage biscuits
l - leftover lasagna (freezer) for Kevin, leftover pizza for the rest of us with blueberries
d - brats, roasted potatoes, green beans

snack was teddy grahams this afternoon, this morning they were at VBS

*This post is linked to Money Saving Mom.

June 19th and 20th

I went to CVS and the grocery store yesterday. CVS I got travel kleenex's, 2 boxes of puffs and 2 things of raisins. Total was $8. The shampoo I got at the grocery store.

At the grocery store I got the following.

5 boxes of cereal
tub of dairy free sherbert
gallon of milk
3 8 oz blocks of cheese
2 pints blueberries
2 yams
1 cantaloupe
1 onion
13 dannon yogurt (miss counted, had wanted 12)
1 soy yogurt
15 count water, free
2 conditioner
1 shampoo

The total was $33.99 and I used $5.20 in coupons, not including the water.

Food for June 19th

b - random with each person having something different, yogurt or fruit
l - crackers with tuna and cheese, blueberries
d - homemade pizza, cantaloupe, radishes (from our garden) and cucumbers

snack was leftover pie, ice cream sandwiches and wheat thins

June 20th

b - muffins, blueberries, Kevin and Michael also had yogurt
l - grilled hotdogs, chips, either peaches or canned pears
d - Michael and Kevin will be going to the baseball party and eating there, the rest of us will eat sandwiches at the game

snack this morning was yogurt for Emma and cookies and carrots at gymnastics, wheat thins for everyone else and Luke finished up the cheese cubes. I have brownies in the oven for the party tonight and we will probably eat a few before the game.

Weekly Wrap Up

This was a pretty good money saving week for us.

• We got 43 pounds of strawberries for $1.60 a pound. Much cheaper than in the stores, and I will have strawberries to eat all winter.
• Kevin replaced the brake pads on all 4 tires of his car today, saving around $200 in labor charges
• have had a bunch of auctions end this week netting me almost $400 already. It will go straight to the car fund.
• hung all laundry
• harvested lettuce from my garden
• took down a large tree ourselves, saved about $300. More importantly, the garden now gets 7 hours of sun a day. It had been getting only 3 hours which is not nearly enough. We also have more firewood.
• ate all meals at home and cooked from scratch too
• gave Kevin a haircut myself
• Michael made the World Series team in baseball, which means baseball will continue through the end of July. I had planned on signing him up for a soccer camp in July, but won't now because of baseball. Savings of $85.
• Have been running for exercise, this has to be good for you, right?

I hope everyone else had a great week too. I can't wait to hear all about it. If you have a blog, please link directly to your post, not your home page. If you don't, please leave a comment telling us about all the frugal things you did this week. Oh and don't forget to link back to Getting Ahead. Thanks for participating!

June 18th

No money spent on food today, thank goodness. I spent enough money on stuff to get Michael ready for Boy Scout camp. Most of the stuff will get used for other things and definitely every year at camp, it is just painful to buy it all at once.

b - pancakes and bacon
l - spagettios, boiled eggs and strawberries for 3 kids, Kevin had leftovers and berries, Emma had leftovers and berries, I had a bagel sandwich
d - focaccia bread, pasta salad, carrots and hummus and Emma finished off some leftover peas too

Snack this afternoon was ice cream. Michael and Kevin had pie tonight.

Yay, tomorrow is Friday!

Did you ever wonder what 43 pounds of strawberries looked like?

The picture above is what we came home with after strawberry picking. I had hoped for 20 pounds. We got more than double that. Holy cow! The small green bowl had been overflowing too, but we ate them as we drove home.

So this is what I have been doing the past 2 days. So in case you were wondering what I would do with that many strawberries. I will tell you. I froze 20 quarts for eating in the winter or for slushies.
I made 1 very ugly, but tasty pie. Emma really wants to learn how to make pie, so we are learning together. This is our third one. I will never get a great crust, because I can't use butter.
2 batches of strawberry jam here. I also dehydrated 6 trays and made 1 tray of fruit leather. We ate too many to count and I made strawberry lime slushies one day too. I have a small bowl of strawberries left that we will finish by tomorrow. They were so good and we had a blast picking them. BUT I don't want to process anymore strawberries for awhile.

At $1.60 a pound, picking your own fruits and veggies is a very frugal way to stock your pantry and freezer with yummy foods.

*This post is linked to Life as Mom Frugal Fridays.

June 17th

Had to stop at 2 stores today. Kevin was looking for stuff for scout camp at Target and couldn't find what he needed. He had a $15 giftcard he had gotten from softball and decided to use it for the Breyer's deal. 5 tubs of ice cream for $12.50 and a $5 giftcard to use later.

Next stop was the grocery store (our target is not a Super Target) because I had forgotten hamburger buns at the store this week and that is what I was grilling for dinner. The mints were b1g1 for a total of $2.73. My total for June is 234.85.

b - leftovers from previous mornings or poptarts, with strawberries
l - PB&J, strawberries
d - hamburgers, baked beans

snacks were pretzel rods in the morning, fruit leather in the afternoon and strawberry pie in the evening.

Congrats Michael!

Way to go on making the World Series Team!

*This post is linked to Wordless Wednesday.

June 16th - Strawberry day

We went strawberry picking today. Guess how many pounds we picked? I will tell you all tomorrow how many we got. It was fun and perfect picking weather.

b - chocolate chip muffins, yogurt
l - hotdogs, chips
d - leftovers and salad from the garden

snacks - strawberries all morning, strawberry lime slushies this afternoon, and granola bars at the baseball field tonight

Now I have to get back to work on all these strawberries!

June 15th

I had to go grocery shopping today, we were out of fruits and many veggies, we are going strawberry picking this week, so that will be most of our fruit. I walked in with $25 in cash and had to trim my shopping list accordingly, based on the best deals and what I needed to round out the week. Here is what I got for $24.96.

4 lbs of ground beef
frozen green beans
6 peaches
2 tomatoes
zone perfect bar - free
capri suns - $.50
rice cakes - $.66
3 boxes of pasta
5 lbs of potatoes
loaf of bread
1 lb carrots

Here is what we ate.

b - leftover cinnamon rolls, sausage
l - chicken nuggets, cheese cubes, peaches, peas for Emma (she can't have cheese cubes) I don't really like chicken nuggets so I had leftovers
d - pasta with sausage and sweet potatoes, homemade applesauce

snack was ice cream sandwiches (Emma had a popsicle) this afternoon and tonight they had pretzel rods

Transition time

I don't think I have mentioned it here before, but we are done homeschooling now. We homeschooled for 4 years. During that time, though, I always had kids in public school as well as homeschooling some. You see Luke has been in school much longer than most kids. He started in the public school preschool program at 2, in order to receive the services he needed. So while he will be starting 1st grade soon, he has already been in school for 4 years.

Doing both public school and homeschool over the years has really taken its toll. I never really fit in with either group of moms because neither group understood why I would homeschool some and send some to school. And if I mentioned that Kevin was a public school teacher they would really get confused. I could never fully relax into homeschool mode, because we have always been strictly tied to the school schedule as well as bus schedules. I could never get into the public school thing because I was always at home homeschooling. It was frustrating.

We put Michael back in school in January so that he could make that transition and figure out how things worked before middle school. Starting in August they will all be in school. Michael 6th grade, Emma 3rd grade, Luke 1st grade and Claire Kindergarten. It should be interesting to see our home go from having most everyone here to me being the only one. I hope the transition will go well, it is definitely time for this change.

All that being said, there will be some changes on the blog. I obviously will not be talking about homeschooling anymore (I didn't much anyway). I will be talking more about public school life starting in a couple of months. Also, I am selling all my old homeschool stuff. We won't be needing it anymore, this is not a temporary change for us. I am in the process of getting everything listed on Ebay, you can check out my auctions if you are interested.

All the money that I make from selling my school stuff will be going to fund the new car account. We are still pinching pennies big time to try to get the money together to replace the van. It is slow going, but one day we will get there. I appreciate everyone's support here at Getting Ahead. Thanks for reading!

June 14th

Boy, today went by fast. We are getting ready to go to a free outdoor concert downtown, so I will be very brief.

b - homemade cinnamon rolls, pears or grapes
l - mac n cheese or ramen, with mandarin oranges
d - grilled teriyaki chicken, sauteed potatoes, peas

snack this afternoon was at my sister's and they had granola bars, except Emma who had gummies

Tonight I will grab a box of crackers or something to take to the concert. Hope everyone had a great weekend.

Edited to say we spent a little money today on food. This morning someone from Michael's scout troop was having a fund raiser and we paid $2 for a cinnamon roll. Tonight at the concert the caramel corn they were selling had no milk, so I bought a bag along with some water. Total spent today was $4.50.

June 13th

One of the things I love about summer is putting a plate of fresh vegetables on the table and having the kids gobble everything up. It is easy and healthy.

b - the kids all had sausage, 3 had cereal and Emma had frozen waffles. kevin went on a bike ride and drank a protein shake before, a poptart during and yogurt with granola after. I had sausage biscuits

l - Emma had a black bean burrito before gymnastics, the rest of us had a frozen pizza and grapes. Emma had a bagel when she got home.

d - Italian meatball subs, and the veggies pictured above

snack was animal crackers

Are camels still alive?

Claire asked me a few weeks ago if camels are still alive. A few days later she asked me if penguins were real or if someone made them up. I decided we needed to get to the zoo. Good thing we have a membership, it would have cost us $48 to get in if we didn't. Yesterday was the first day that was possible. We headed straight for the camels. (There were no penguins at this zoo)
Then when we found out that you could actually RIDE a camel, I thought that was a much better way for her to learn about and remember camels. So $16 later, Claire, Luke, Michael and I rode a camel. It was a very bumpy ride, but money well spent.
Another favorite of mine was seeing this baby wallaby dive into it's mother's pouch. Here you can see the leg and tail still sticking out. I was hoping it would flip over and poke it's head out, but the mom hopped away.
They had a big tree house made into an Australian ship at the top. Emma is steering the boat.
This last picture is the gorilla's vegetable garden. Complete with compost pile. I loved it.

Meals for the day were -

b - random leftovers from previous days (muffins, sausage biscuits, etc.) and fruit or yogurt
l - picnic at the zoo
d - turkey sausages, cantaloupe, rice pilaf

snack was ice cream sandwiches when we got home

Weekly Wrap Up

Can you believe it is Friday again? It is the official start to summer vacation for us and it will be nice to have a break. At least from the regular stuff, I still have plenty of projects we want to take care of this summer. Hopefully as frugal as possible. I had a late meeting, so I am going to jump right in with how our week went.

• Michael needed new shoes, I went to payless and did the buy 1 get 1 half off deal, saving $11 on the hiking boots and sneakers he needed.
  
• I also used the $10 rebate visa card I got from the Swiffer deal awhile ago, saving even more money off the shoes
• had leftovers plenty this week, not letting food go to waste is a big priority for me
• hung lots of laundry
• Kevin rode his bike to school twice this week
• mailed a package first class instead of priority mail, saved $4
• sold our bike trailer for $200! It went straight to the car fund
• our meeting was at Panera Bread tonight and I didn't order anything at all, I am tired of spending money
• harvested some lettuce from the garden
• got great deals at CVS

I hope everyone else had a great week too. If you have a blog please include your link directly to your post, not your home page. If you don't have a blog, please share how your week went in the comments. Don't forget to link back to Getting Ahead. Thanks for participating!

Bargain Meal of the Week

On Thursdays I post a $5 bargain meal of the week based on the Giant Eagle grocery ad in NE Ohio. It is a really good week this week with a $10 sale and other deals that offer catalinas back when you purchase certain products. Here are a few of the deals I really like.

• GE butter 6 for $10
• peaches $.99 a lb
• Folgers coffee $3 each, there are $1 off coupons for this
• life savers b1g1, I love having these around. When I feel like munching on something I grab a mint. They are only 5 calories and keep me from eating randomly.

I have 2 meal ideas for you this week.

Dinner #1, ultra cheap meal Spaghetti, veggies

Barilla pasta $1
Del Grosso sauce $1
a bag of organic carrots is $.99
a bag of frozen peas is also $.99 - take you pick on the veggies, or do both, you will still be under $5 for dinner

Total cost of the meal is $2.99.

Dinner #2, grilled chicken breasts and oven roasted potatoes

3 lb bags of boneless, skinless chicken breasts are $1.99 a lb
5 lb bags of red potatoes are $2.99

1 lb chicken $1.99
1 lb potatoes $.50
frozen green beans $.99
seasonings and oil $.25

For the chicken you can season it with whatever spices you have on hand, I like lemon pepper. Grill or bake, whatever you like. For the potatoes, wash them and dice them small. Toss in a pan with a couple of tablespoons of olive oil and sprinkle with salt, pepper and rosemary. Bake at 350 for 1 hour. Total cost of the meal is $3.73.

For more $5 dinner ideas check out $5 dinners.

June 11th

I hit a couple of stores today. First up a store I don't usually go to, but they had milk and produce on sale. I bought the above for $13.66.

Today was Kevin's first day of summer break, yay! Tomorrow is the kid's first day off. I took advantage of Kevin being home and went out to lunch with my sister. We were right next to Trader Joe's, so I stopped in. I got humus and fruit bars. Total there was $5.91. Total for June is $202.66.

b - was chocolate chip bread and canned pears
l - Kevin and the kids had PB&J and carrots, I was out
d - grilled hotdogs (free this week), sweet potato fries, leftover corn and cucumbers from earlier in the week

snack was animal crackers

June 10th

Did I mention that I found a great dehydrator at a yard sale last weekend for $5? It retails for over $100. Yay! I also found a wheel barrow that we needed for $5. It was a great day for yard sales. Anyway, I have reduced price bananas in the dehydrator right now. I just had to try something LOL. Kevin keeps sneaking them out and says they are yummy. The one thing I noticed though is that it is really heating up my kitchen. I will have to watch when I use it and pick cool days or maybe rig it up in the basement or something? I worry about bugs down there though. Not sure what I will do.

b - another random meal, with everyone having something different
l - the at home crowd had pizza bagels and strawberries, Kevin took leftover lasagna from the freezer, fruit and cookies, Michael took a sandwich, fruit and chips
d - I put chicken and BBQ sauce in the crock pot and we had BBQ sandwiches for dinner with cucumbers and corn. Ice cream for desert.

Right now I have a loaf of chocolate chip bread in the oven and a batch of Emma's chocolate chip muffins that will mostly go in the freezer. I figured while I was heating up my kitchen with the dehydrator, I might as well heat it up some more with the oven. It is pretty cool today anyway.

Why I Don't Like Auto Pay or Auto Renewal

I was reminded recently of why I don't like auto pay or auto renewal for bills. There are really many reasons. When you give someone access to your bank accounts, as is needed for many automatic payment plans, they then have just that - access to your bank accounts. They might say they will take out the payment on the 15th, but if that falls on a weekend, they might take it out on the 13th or 14th, and you might not have the money in there at that time. If you don't have the money they will continue to try to debit your account, creating more problems. Even if you cancel your service with this company they might continue to debit your account. It can be difficult to get companies to stop auto payment plans once you get them started.

Kevin gets paid every 2 weeks. Because he doesn't have set days that are the same each month that he gets paid, the bills can't always be paid the same day. If I were signed up for the automatic payment plans, they would not accommodate this. If you have a large unexpected expense and you pay all your bills yourself, you can rearrange things and adjust where needed to cover the expense. Maybe that means paying a bill on the next paycheck instead of the day it would have come out automatically.

When you have something set to renew automatically it takes the thinking process out of it. Suddenly you realize you have been getting the same magazine subscription for four years and you really never read it anymore. What a waste of money. Having to sit down and make the payment each time it is due will force you to rethink whether you need it or not or even if you want it at all. Or in the case of bills, you will be looking at the bill and can see if there is a large discrepancy over previous months. This could mean you have been leaving lights on a bunch, there was a rate hike, or maybe a water leak. By physically making the payment yourself (even if you do it online) you are having to review the bill and will hopefully notice things like this.

Avoiding auto renewals and auto payments will help you be more in the control of your money. Just about everything out there is trying to separate you from your money. Being in control of paying your bills will help you keep more of it in your pocket. Just like taking only cash to the store will help you stick to your budget and list better, writing a check or paying it online yourself will help you stick to your budget better too. When everything is automatic, a person can quickly become complacent. Don't let that happen to you.

June 9th

Here is the food break down for the day.

b - very much a random affair, with everyone eating something different
l - triscuits with tuna and cheese, strawberries for the at home crowd, Michael had pizza on his field trip and Kevin took a hot pocket, cookies and fruits
d - leftovers

snack was granola bars at the baseball field

2 more days of school! Can't wait for summer to really start. We hope to go strawberry picking on Friday, I am almost out of jam and I like to freeze berries for other times of the year. No money spent today except to pay a bill online. Hope everyone had a good day.

June 8th & shopping trip

I completely forgot to take a picture of my shopping trip this morning. Here is what I got though, I will highlite the great deals.

2 Ken's salad dressings - $.33 each
2 packs hotdog buns
2 london broil roasts B1G1 total was $9.88
2 lysol wipes
nutrigrain bars
2 packs of dannon yogurt
frozen green beans
frozen peas
8 cans of bumble bee tuna $.62 each
dannon drinkable yogurt
2 12 ct poptarts
gallon of milk
cucumber
organic carrots
strawberries
clearance bananas
tomatoes

Total spent was $40.61, I used $6.70 in coupons. My total for food only so far in June is $183.09.

Here is what we ate today.

b - leftover chocolate chip muffins or pumpkin bread with blueberries from the freezer and/or yogurt
l - chicken nuggets for 2 kids, hotdog for 1, with bananas and peas, Michael took leftover pizza, chips, and teddy grahams, Kevin took leftovers and a peach, I had a bagel with egg, cheese and turkey
d - my sister came over so I made spaghetti and green beans

Snack was teddy grahams.

CVS trip for the week

I thought it was a great week at CVS, mostly because they had deals on things that I needed. Here is how my 2 transactions went.

#1
2 6 packs of Dove bar soap $6 each - 2 $1.25 coupons
1 Dove Shampoo - $3.50 - $1
1 Dove hairspray - $3.50 - $1
1 Dove deoderant - $2.50 - $2
2 Dawn dish soaps $2 - 2 $.25

I also had a $4 off $20 purchase coupon, used $12.99 in ECB, paid $.94 out of pocket and walked out with $11 in ECB.

#2
3 packs of Energizer batteries - $1, $1 and $2 coupons
2 banana boat sunscreens - $1

For this transaction I used a $4 off $20 purchase along with a $3 off any purchase I received for my birthday. After coupons and $11 in ECB I paid $16.25 and walked out with $12 in ECB. The total for the day is $17.19 out of pocket, $12 left to spend, and I got a ton of great products in the process. How did you do at CVS this week?

* This post linked to Money Saving Mom.

June 6th and 7th

Another crazy weekend around here, but here is our food recap.

June 6th

b - sausage biscuits and cherries
l - leftover pizza, fruit
d - pork chops, brown rice, glazed carrots, tomatoes and birthday cake

snack was granola bars at the baseball game

June 7th

b - either pumpkin bread or chocolate chip muffins along with cherries
l - the kids had toast and applesauce because they weren't feeling good, except Claire who had triscuits and cheese and applesauce. Kevin had a sandwich and peach, I had ramen with cheese. I needed something fast and easy because I spent most of the day at church
d - cheese grits, sausage, salad and pickles

snack was cake

June 5th

I made my monthly trip to Wal-Mart today. I will list what I bought, and highlite the great deals.

vinegar
4 pack buttermilk biscuits
3 packs sausage for the kids
2 packs of lunch meat
turkey pepperoni
2 packs Blue Bonnet Light
1 totinos pizza
pack of 30 sausage patties
3 things of OJ
12 pack of string cheese
2 dozen omega 3 eggs
1 pack of beef hot dogs - FREE
24 jar lids
4 boxes of pectin
5 lb of sugar - $.38 after $2 off coupon when you buy pectin
2 organic mac n cheese
48 ct decaf tea bags
brown sugar
chocolate soy milk
48 oz applesauce
ritz crackers
wheat thins - FREE
capri suns
2 pringles
ketchup - FREE
PB crackers
2 large cans of spaghettios
Redhot sauce - FREE
bagels
1.23 lb of peaches
3 pack of chocolate muffins - a weakness of mine
dog treats
2 chewnola dog treats
gentle leader - all of the pet stuff is for the birthday party Michael is going to
comet
kids wipes
160 ct vitamins
toothpicks
3 5 lb sacks of flour
3 muffin mixes
2 corn muffin mixes
spray canola oil
cake mix
icing
2 father's day cards
pepper
lint roller

I used $10.85 in coupons and the total was $117.81. I need to do the break down on what the totals were for gifts, toiletries and food, I don't have a calculator right now, but will update later.

For meals we had the following.

b - Kevin had a breakfast sandwich and yogurt, 3 kids had scrambled eggs and strawberries, Emma had a bagel and strawberries, I had a leftover muffin and bacon
l - pizza bagels for those at home along with leftover veggies and cherries, Kevin took a hot pocket, cherries, and cookies, Michael took ramen, cherries and trailmix
d - we went out for pizza for my birthday, we have a ton of leftovers

Weekly Wrap Up

Tomorrow is going to be a very busy day starting with registering the van (it expires on Saturday), monthly trip to Wal-Mart, homeschool picnic, Kevin is taking me shopping and out to dinner for my birthday and then Michael has an end of the year party at school. I think I will be more than worn out and hardly home at all. Aside from feeling rather defeated about the prospects of saving cash to buy a new van, the week has been pretty good.

• I have been keeping my eyes out for new quilts for the boys beds. What they have are falling apart and rather childish for an 11 year old. While checking out clearnace backpacks at Lands End I found $150 twin quilts for $30 each! Yay! They will match their room perfectly too.
• hung all laundry except for the 4 loads done after Claire puked everywhere all night and all morning
  
• babysat my neighbors daughter a few afternoons and made $100
• adsense depostied a nice sum into my checking account for adclicks, thanks everyone! Little by little I am sure we will eventually save enough for a new van. I need to think more positively.
  
• had leftovers for dinner one night
• avoided CVS this week, there weren't many good deals, but next week should be a good one
• Kevin rode his bike to work today, saving on gas
• paid a bill online
• returned the things that we didn't end up using for the roof, got back about $100
• cashed in my LL Bean coupon dollars for a medium duffle bag worth $40, plus free shipping.
  
• wrote an article on succession planting

So how was everyone else's week? Hopefully frugal too. Please let us know how it went by linking directly to your post, not your home page. Don't forget to link back to Getting Ahead too. Thanks for participating!

Bargain Meal of the Week

The Giant Eagle ad for NE Ohio looks pretty good this week, yay! Here are some of my favorite deals.

• Bumble Bee tuna for $.75 a can, but if you buy 8 you get $1 off. So you could pay $5 for 8 of them or $.62 a can
• Lysol disinfectant wipes B1G1, there are $1 off 2 coupons coming out in Sunday's paper, making these $1 per container
• Grapes for $1.19
• Broccoli for $.99 a head

For the bargain meal of the week I think ribs sound good.

Pork loin country style ribs $1.49 a lb, bought in a 3 lb pack $4.47
Rice Pilaf $1.25
Steamed broccoli $.99

The total cost is $6.71, a little more than $5, but for a treat like ribs, a great deal. Enjoy!

Grocery trip #2

This was my second grocery trip of the month. I went to a store I only go to for occasional great deals and Emma's yogurt. Here is the break down.

2 boxes Cheerios $1.55 each after coupons - we really needed cereal and this was the best deal around
1 box apple cinnamon cheerios $1.55
2 lbs strawberries b1g1 or $2 each
1.45 cherries - $7! the last time I am buying cherries this year
2.44 yams $.78 a lb
6 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breast $1.99 a lb
2 tubs of Breyers ice cream $1.50 each after coupon
3 Silk Soy yogurt $.99 each
2 boxes kitten chow - free! Michael was asked to bring items for the humane society to a birthday party this weekend.

total spent was $35.16

total for the month of June so far is 53.91

June 3rd and 4th

I never got my post up from yesterday on what we ate, so I am going to combine yesterday and today.

June 3rd
b - muffins and yogurt
l - Kevin took bean soup, the people at home at triscuits with tuna and cheese and bananas, and Michael took a lunchable, fruit cup and peanuts
d - meatloaf, roasted red potatoes, homemade applesauce and carrot sticks
snacks were teddy grahams and string cheese

June 4th
b - Kevin had oatmeal and yogurt, I had leftover muffins, the kids had cereal and fruit, Michael and Luke split a boiled egg (I always try to get good proteins in them before school)
l - will be hotdogs on the grill, apple slices and cheese cubes
d - tacos with all the fixings, peas
snacks will be whatever they find in the cupboard

Summer Entertainment

It sure doesn't feel like summer today with our 56 degree temperature and the kids and hubby still in school, but I know that by the end of next week our summer will start whether the weather cooperates or not. It won't be long before the kids are tired of not going to school. Having a plan will make the summer pass by more smoothly.

I have the added bonus of having Kevin home all summer too. So there will be 6 of us around here every day all day. Except we don't stay around here that much, so the kids don't get a chance to get bored. We like to get out and do things - but as everyone knows that can get pricey. Here are some of my favorite ideas for keeping the kids occupied during the summer.

First I signed each child up for an activity or two. Spread sporadically throughout the summer each child has something to look forward to. There are so many camps or single day things to occupy kids. I am sure you can find something in your area that your kids are interested in. They don't have to cost much at all. Some do, but not all. I have found many options for great prices or even free.

We plan day trips for the whole family. We will use our zoo membership a few times this summer. We will also go swimming at a local lake a few times. We usually make a long afternoon of it and we can all swim for $20. It is great. We plan to go berry picking at least twice.

Daily things that we do right around here are bike rides and hiking. Both offer relief from the heat either in the form of shade or breezes. The kids have a blast and it is great exercise. We do the library reading program and every week make a trip to the air conditioned library to get new books and cash in for prizes. Best of all I get an hours peace when we get home while everyone enjoys their picks.

All of that being said, my kids still get bored sometimes. When that happens I do one of two things. Either give them a job to do or let them pick from The Jar. The Jar is full of ideas of fun things to do. Mostly. There are at least 30 slips of paper in there, with just a few chores listed. Here are some of the things we have listed.

• do a puzzle
• play a game
• read a book
• draw a picture
• have a popsicle
• water the garden
• run through the sprinkler
• ride your bike
• jump rope
• play with Ralphie (the dog)
• practice the piano

I can't even begin to remember them all, and your list might be completely different. BUT the key is, when they are bored and want something to do, I am not telling them what to do. The jar is and whatever they get is what THEY picked, not me. So they usually do it willingly. Which is why it works so well for me.

Humidity

*This post linked to Wordless Wednesday at 5 minutes for mom.

June 2nd

No money spent today, just simple eating. We were able to really clean out the fridge of leftovers.

B - frozen waffles and sausage for me, Luke, Michael and Claire. Michael also had yogurt. Emma had leftover banana bread and sausage. I have no idea what Kevin ate other than yogurt.

L - Kevin and I had leftovers and fruit, the kids at home had chicken nuggets and bananas, Michael took leftover mac n cheese, fritos and cupcake

D - Emma and I have a gymnastics banquet ($35 for the 2 of us!), so the others had leftovers.

We made chocolate chip cookies for snack this afternoon and the kids took granola bars to eat at Michael's baseball game.

Tracking your grocery spending

We have all heard that you should track your spending. Maybe not all the time, but it is a great tool for finding leaks. Knowing that our second most expensive category each month is the food budget I like to periodically get a good idea of exactly where my food money is going. It does take work to track your grocery spending this way, but it is worth it in the end. Just doing it for one month can be very eye opening.

You can make a spreadsheet on the computer if you want, but I just use a notepad and pen. I divide my grocery spending into categories. For instance - dairy, meats, beverages, snacks, desserts, canned goods, carbs (rice, breads, etc), breakfast stuff, produce, etc. Sometimes it can be confusing to try to figure out where to put things like milk which could go under dairy or beverages, but just make a decision at the beginning of the month and stick with it.

At the end of the month you will be able to see the area of groceries that you are possibly overspending. Maybe you aren't overspending, that is for you to decide, but seeing that you spend 15% of your budget on snacks could definitely make you rethink things. I have found this to really help me with targeting a specific area to reduce, as opposed to just saying I need to lower my grocery bill.

*this post is linked to Tammy's recipes Kitchen Tip Tuesday.

June 1st

I made a small grocery trip today. Kevin had been digging through the fridge for a few days in search of fruit and yogurt. I had hoped to not shop for a couple of weeks after my family left, but in the end I had to. The total was $18.85. Claire has been throwing up, so I wanted to get some apples in the house and paid $1.99 a pound, yikes! But did you know that if you are feeling nauseous you can eat an apple (skin and all) and that will prevent you from throwing up?

For food today we had the following -

breakfast - muffins and mandarin oranges, the boys split a boiled egg

lunch - ramen with grated cheese for me, Kevin got a free lunch at school, Michael took a bologna sandwich, a pear cup and a cupcake, Emma and Luke had hotdogs, strawberries and ritz crackers. Claire had gatorade and crackers.

Dinner - garlic/lime chicken over cous cous, green beans, pickles and tomatoes

Snack tonight will be apple sauce