Cash Diet...struggling with the cash envelopes but not eating out...so far.

I finally have gotten around to adding up all the receipts for our groceries last month. I kinda procrastinated on this because I thought I was over budget and didn't want feel disappointed. I knew I had forgotten my cash envelope a few times and had to use debit instead. AND, I knew we blew our eating out budget completely.

Boy was I ever surprised when I added them up today to see I was $120 UNDER budget! Of course I did what any normal person would do, I added up my receipts three or four more times to be sure. Yep, still under budget! I spent $279.83 (if I found all my receipts) and I got $1263 worth of groceries. That's about a 79% savings. I don't think I will have to buy laundry detergent or cereal for a year or more.

Anyway, it's been a bit of a struggle this month so that's why I thought for sure I had blown it. I mean when I opened my cash envelope and found cash in there I really didn't believe it. Gosh I really hope I don't find any more receipts!

So why stress myself out and take on such a grandiose goal? Well, I am an all or nothing kind of person when it comes to some things. I hate not being able to do something fully or having to stop in the middle to finish it later. Mostly because I never get back to it later and find it again in three years. By then I have moved on to something else. I guess that would explain my messy basement and unfinished sewing table. And probably a few dozen other things and areas. This would also explain why instead of trying to just work on keeping to the grocery budget I have to do the entire budget.

My other goal recently was to not eat out at all this month. My dear husband asked if we could postpone it for another month. The month he would be deployed. Yeah, NO. If I have to suffer, so do you! Just sayin'.  I have only eaten out once. I was craving a burger and dear husband tried to make me one but it wasn't what I was craving. The next day, after spending a large portion of the day at the doctor's and pharmacy with a very busy two year old, I was heading home well after lunch and could not resist the temptation, being weak with hunger and all and super stressed, so I broke down and bought a burger. Good news is it worked and I no longer crave it.

Anyway, we knew there would be a few times this month where we had to "eat out" for events, like a fundraising event for scouts and a banquet for swim team. That money will come out of groceries this month since we knew about them in advance.

Not too bad on the goals. I am trying to think and keep positive. I'll leave all my pessimism for my Facebook page.

And then life happens.....

So, if you have read one of my earlier posts, not sure which one right now, then you will know that life loves to throw us curve balls. All I can say is at least it waited until tax time. Now we don't get a huge tax payout because I think it's silly to let Uncle Sam "borrow" your money all year for free but we do get a little. Enough to cover an unexpected plane ticket and a cat who needs unexpected surgery.

Anyway, on to the good news....drum roll please! I actually almost did not go over my grocery budget (otherwise known as I did go over it but not by too much). I pretty much expected that because this month had some great sales and couple that with some great coupons and I was pretty much doomed to fail. I actually blame Kellogg's but that's another story.

While I stood at the stove tallying my receipts, and then re-tallying my receipts three more times because I didn't trust my numbers, I noticed a pattern. I was paying only 10-50% of retail at most. And if you really must know why I did all this standing up at the stove it's because my two year old can detect when I sit in front of my computer from a mile away and it doesn't matter how enthralled he is in whatever he is doing, it's like a shark to blood and he attacks. So, I stand to fool him, which by the way, only buys me a little extra time.

Alright, back to numbers. My grocery budget is $400 and as far as I can tell I went over by about $25ish. The "ish" comes from the fact that I also have SavingStar deposits that I am not accounting for and I know my husband bought me newspapers but I am not sure how much he spent because he didn't give me receipts and used his debit card! So, $425ish this month. The retail value of what I bought before coupons was over $1385.93! The savings is actually a lot higher if you figure in that I bought a lot of things on clearance, like four sleds for $1.00 each that retail for over $10 a piece or 4 light bulb packs that also retail for over $10 a piece for $1.49 each. Now I did shop at the military commissary a few times this month and while the products there are usually priced about 33% below the average retail, you still are charged a "surcharge" on the pre-coupon amount so this adds up and sucks up the savings. Regular retailers cannot charge you tax on items that are free or pre-coupon price in my state, currently.

I won't even go into my eating out budget because my dear husband came home and we ate out more. I don't understand this because we have such a huge stockpile but nonetheless, I have yet to asses that damage.

TTFN!

Working from home....through the Zombie Apocalypse

In a perfect world we would be able to work from home and our children would never have to go to daycare unless we wanted them to, you know, for that much needed break. But for most of us this world just isn't perfect.

I have tried a number of the "work from home" things like selling Tupperware, toys (kids toys that is), a music program and I realized I am just not cut out for them. Either that or I haven't found the perfect one. And no, I am not interested in selling make-up. Please don't ask! I have also tried earning money from doing surveys and mystery shopping. Those weren't too bad, if you didn't mind waiting more than two weeks for your pay and if you didn't mind driving around. Sometimes that costs more than what you get paid so keep that in mind.

Nonetheless I "make" money from home, and no, I am not copying it on my copier. I am couponing. Spell check doesn't like that word by-the-way and neither do some grocery stores. I started a year ago and have saved my family a lot (read A LOT) of money.

I am the type of personality that when I get into something, I get into it hard core. Good and bad I suppose. I researched like crazy and came upon a few websites, www.livingrichwithcoupons.com , and www.thekrazycouponlady.com and a forum www.weusecoupons.com . They are my favorites and the ones I go to prior to stepping out the door to go shopping. They are also the ones I subscribe to on my Facebook page. There are a few blogs I follow but I only subscribe to them by email feed so I get a daily update of what they posted.

So, how do I "make" money with this? Well, it's simple. Our grocery bill for the 6 of us used to be over $1000 a month for groceries, personal care, etc. When I started couponing I really didn't see the savings in the first few months but what I did see was a stockpile growing. It just so happened that I started couponing when my local grocery store had their best sales. It was about 3 months before I saw the "savings". I didn't have room in my pantry for the foods I had bought and I didn't have room in my upright deep freezer for them either. That's when I really started seeing the savings. I wasn't going to the grocery store as often and when I did, my savings were over 60% every time.  We used some of our savings to buy the wood to make more shelves and another upright deep freezer.

Now I budget $400 a month for everything grocery and personal care. And yes, that is still for 6 people. What that means is I basically "make" over $600 a month "working" from home. I get to sit in my pj's with my hair going every which way. I get to drink my coffee and eat my breakfast while working. I get to have my two year old at home with me. I can work when I want to work or when I can work, mostly nap time and bedtime, and I don't lose half my pay to childcare and gas. I get to see his firsts and be there when he is sick. And that goes for all of my other kids as well.

My final advice, buy the newspapers every Sunday that there are coupons and buy multiples at that. I usually buy 4-8 papers depending on what coupons are in them. My papers run about $2.00 so that is about $7-$15 a month (one I get on subscription at half off) and that comes out of my grocery budget. Or, the other option if you hate getting all the papers or coupons you don't use/need like I do, order online from either eBay or a coupon clipping service. Yes, there is controversy over that and no I am not going into it but until it's definitively said to be illegal, I will do what I need to do to feed my family and save money.

My stockpile is big and growing weekly. As my 17 year old says, if there is ever a zombie apocalypse, we can just board up the doors and windows and live in the basement on our stockpile for over a year.

Cash Envelopes

So it may be a little crazy of me to think that we can only spend cash on our everyday expenses but I sure am determined to try. So here is my cash plan for this month, notice I said this month because who knows what drama, trauma, or incident is waiting to happen.

• Groceries: $400 (yep, for 6 people, this is where couponing helps)
• Eating out: $150 (really almost unrealistic for my family since we have caviar tastes on a shoestring budget but it's what I feel the max we should spend is)
• Haircare: $48 (I am really bad about getting everyone a haircut and they typically look like they have tumbleweeds on their heads by the time we get around to haircuts but we usually go every 2-3 months)
• David's Money: $50 (someone has an addiction to soda and snuff, he also gets haircuts every two weeks so this has to cover it all)

So here is what we put in savings: (we do this because these expenses we only access every 3-6 months so to have cash just lying around in an envelope in our house would not be good, just sayin')

• Gifts: $180 (for Christmas and Birthdays...we do have 5 kids)
• Clothes: $100 (again...5 kids, well 4 at home and we do pass down clothes a lot so this is the emergency fund disguised to look like our clothing fund)
• Oil: $150 (to heat our house, took all the bills from the last two years added a few hundred for inflation and averaged them...)
• Vehicle Maintenance: $93.00 ( we averaged out our oil changes and other misc things we need to have done routinely)
• Chiefs Dues: $17 ($200 a year, will not get in to this now)

That's it. Well, we do have other monthly bills but those stay about the same and are just that, monthly.

So far, so good this month. We are on track except for eating out. We have blown most of that. Might be in part due to my husband being away for the past few weeks and I am too exhausted to cook. I also have incurred some scouting expenses that were not planned for. These I took from my grocery budget since I don't need most of it this month but I will repay it. I need to re-evaluate and add those into our yearly budget as well and since they don't happen every month they can also go into savings.

It's all in the name...

So not only is my blog called "a year of change" because I hope that it will be just that, a year full of positive changes and movement forward, but, it's also called that because I am determined to see how much actual change I can save in a year. I call it my "passive savings account because we have no savings".
Anyway, it's gonna be a bit harder on the cash diet because we are only using money out of the envelopes for their intended purpose however I think that if I have change left at the end of the month, I will buy it off myself. It sounds kinda silly but as an example, if I have $10.00 left in my grocery envelope at the end of the month and it just so happens that $5.00 of it is left in change, then I can replace the change in the envelope with dollar bills and then put the change in my jar....seen here:

Yes, there are "little hands" trying to get into my jar!

This is some from last year and it's about $108 or so...minus the one roll the "helper" stole.

So, that's it. My "passive savings" plan. Someday I will get to Dave Ramsey's recommended minimum of $1000 but for now, we are at $10.00.

Chicken and a Chainsaw and the Chicken Nugget

So I have a son with Asperger's. If you are familiar with the disorder then you will understand what it's like to have a child walk around ALL day saying the same phrase over and over and...over. If you don't know what it is, google it. It's interesting. Needless to say, my son used to walk around saying "chicken nugget" and my best friend Kathy's son used to walk around saying "chicken and a chainsaw". While this seems pretty innocuous, it's incredibly annoying after hours of it.

But, never fear, this post has nothing to do with anything other than chicken. (I cannot vouch for how the chicken was killed however).

Chicken in a Crock pot (my recipe hack)

1-Whole chicken (giblets or whatever is in that bag removed, rinsed and patted dry)
3-whole carrots cut up in 1 inch increments
5-potatoes, whole, washed and unpeeled (I used white potatoes, I think)
1-Onion, quartered and then sections pulled apart
1 tbs.- crushed garlic (not fresh, the kind you find in a jar, only because I don't have a garlic crusher and partly because I am a lazy cook)
Salt
Pepper
a few pats of butter
Onion soup mix (used Lipton)
1 cup-hot water
2 Cups Rice

Okay, so here's what I did. First I sprayed my crock pot with Pam with Olive Oil. I refuse to use liners and when the Pam stash runs out from my adventures in couponing, I will probably buy on of those "make-your-own" oil spray things. I then put the carrots on the bottom with a few onion sections and the chicken on top of that. I sprinkled the chicken with a little salt and a little pepper then put a few pats of butter on top. Then I placed the potatoes on top of the chicken and put the garlic in the cavity. Then I mixed the onion soup with the hot water and poured it next to the chicken. In hindsight, I should have poured the soup mix in with the carrots then put the garlic in the chicken cavity then chicken on top. You know what they say about hindsight, right? Finally turn the crock pot on high for one hour then low for 8-10 hours or on high for 4-6 hrs. My chicken had the nice little pop-up timer, which I did not notice until it popped up. It said it was done at about 4 1/2 hrs (or at least that is when I noticed it had popped up) but I never trust that thing. Anyway, I let it cook about 5 hrs total and it pegged my kitchen thermometer so it quite possibly may have been done earlier when the pop-up thingy said so.
I planned to serve it with Sweet Hawaiian bread but alas, I forgot to get it so we are eating it with rice. We love rice here. Who doesn't? We use the medium grain rice that is bad for you. It's sticky, yummy, and oh, cheap! Did I mention I was cheap?

So, the verdict? It smelled amazing all day. Let me emphasize that, AMAZING! I pulled the potatoes out first, mostly because I had to to get to the chicken, then sucked out all the juices around it with my baster. That I made into gravy but I forgot to measure so it was more clear than opaque. When I went to pull the chicken out using two wooden spoons, the legs and wings fell right off. Good sign, right? As I was putting it on the plate, a whole breast section fell off. Nothing like a self-carving chicken! I thought everything was pretty good, except the carrots. I think baby carrots might be better or cutting them smaller. It also could have used a touch of salt but because my husband and I differ in our opinions of how much salt is too much, I err on the side of less then I add more to my plate. All my boys ate it. My 7 year old did comment the chicken tasted like potato though. So, if you don't like a "potato" taste, maybe put them on bottom. They were super tender though. Overall, it was a mighty tasty former clucker.

Some side notes to consider: I am not a chef or a cook but rather I have to cook for my family or they will eat junk, I think you could add any concoction of seasonings you like to this and it will turn out well, the skin does not brown well but if you could get it out in one piece versus the eight mine came out in, you could possibly broil the skin to golden perfection, and don't let your 14 year old cook the gravy because he/she may let it boil over on the stove, leave the burner on with the gravy on it and create a wonderful, blackened, smokey mess. All I can say is thank-goodness for glass top stoves.

So, I thought I would tell you what my meal cost. Since I am a couponer, my prices may differ from yours. Here we go:
Chicken:$5.33 (on sale for $.89/lb which is not my stock-up price but wanted an easy dinner)
Potatoes: $.66 ($1.99/5 lb bag, of which I used about 1/3)
Soup mix: $.25 (hit a sale with coupons, paid $.50 for the 2ct box)
Carrots:Free (had a coupon from recyclebank)
Onion: $.20 ($1.99/3lb bag, about 10 in a bag)
Spices/Garlic: $.25 (I mean really, who knows but I think that is fair)
Water: Free (we have a well and thank goodness because our boys take FOREVER in the shower)
Butter: $.19 (got it for 1.99/lb, divided by 32 tbs)
Rice: $.50 (I use medium grain rice and buy it in the 20lb bag for about $10 at my local commissary)
Total: $7.38 for 5 of us.

That's about $1.48 per person. Try that at McDonald's!

Cheap Eats

So in my quest to save my family money, I have been using my crock pot a lot (read a whole HELLuva lot). Some recipes are from other blogs/websites but some are just my hair brained ideas. Be warned I am not a chef. Just a mom/wife of a whole mess of kids and I am cheap. So, without further ado, here is my recipe for something for which I have no name yet:

2-chicken breasts cut into small pieces (use your discretion, chicken shrinks)
1-12 oz Bag of frozen corn and black bean blend (I used Veg-All Steam Supreme mix which had peppers, BONUS!)
1-16 oz jar of salsa (I used medium)
1/2 tbs-ground Cayenne pepper
1/2 tbs-crushed red pepper
1/2 tbs-chili powder (I was honestly scared at this point 'cause it looked hot)
1 cup of water
Instant Brown Rice ( I used uncle Ben's whole grain brown rice and used 2 cups)
Shredded cheddar

Cook first 7 ingredients in crock pot low for 10 hours or high for 5-6 hrs. At about the final hour mark I added the rice then had an "oh, crap" moment when I realized there wasn't enough liquid to make the rice cook properly so then I added about another cup and a half of water (again if you add less rice, add less water and if you add more, add more). I stirred it a lot at first to make sure all the rice was covered then threw the lid back on and served it about an hour later on tortillas and tostitos with shredded cheddar on top.

So, it was hot. Spicy hot, but not the crying, begging for your momma hot. It did make our noses run though. I at first ate it on a whole wheat tortilla but honestly whatever brand I used tasted a bit like I imagine cardboard would taste so I defaulted to tortilla chips and that was much better. My husband liked it but then again he eats his momma's cooking and that's not a compliment.

If you try it, please let me know your thoughts. If you share it, please link back to my original post.