Money Saving Challenge- 6/30

Today was a busy cleaning day for me but this is what I did to save money.


- Cereal with blueberries, juice and coffee was our breakfast - all from the stockpile.


- I cleaned our Master Bedroom from top to bottom using homemade all purpose cleaner. I have it all ready to shampoo the carpet tomorrow.


- I stayed home which saved on gasoline and spending money.


- We arranged for the city to pick up our green barrel tomorrow so DH and I bagged the little bit of trimmings that were in it for the garbage. We cancelled monthly service for it since DH has hired a weekly landscaping and gardening service. We have saved over the years knowing that some day we would not want to do all that needs to be done ourselves especially in this hot climate.


-We tested the pool to make sure the salt system is making enough chlorine and that our pool is balanced.


- Lunch was salsa and chips.

- I roasted the turkey breast in the Nesco out on the patio. Keeps the heat out of the air-conditioned house.


- We had a lovely chat with our family via the web cam.


- The mail brought the $6.00 Rebate for shipping UPS, my Free Woman's Day Magazine, a free sample of cat appetizers, and a coupon to be used at Bashas for True Lemon.


- I washed a load of sheets and a blanket and hung them to dry.


- I pulled all of the rest of my June coupons and threw them out. I filed all of the coupons that came this week in my binder.


- Dinner was turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans and Joseph's Cookies for dessert.


- I did 2 surveys for cash and 3 for points.


- I received a $5.00 Amazon giftcard from SwagBucks and ordered another one from SwagBucks.


- I received a wonderful Word World Thank You note from my grandaughter for her birthday gifts. She colored a pic for me on it. .....PRICELESS!


- Exercise today was a swim.


- I started to make my grocery list for tomorrow.


- I made a deal with a dear friend to trade BTFE, Tyson labels and Campbells soup labels for extra coupons from Sunday inserts. Yeah, I won't have to buy extra newspapers. I can save those ECB's for other items.


- Entertainment tonight is NCIS as I type this. I am really tired tonight so off to bed early.


As usual feel free to share with us via comments what you did to save money today.

What We Don't Do to Save Money!

As usual there are a lot of things that we save money on, just because of the frugal habits that are ingrained in us. Here are a few:


- We don't buy drinks or coffee when we are out running errands.


- We don't rent DVD's except when we have free coupons or codes.


- We haven't seen a movie in a theater that was worth spending money on in a couple of years. Even if we have free tickets, we never buy from the concession stand.


- We don't eat out once a week or even get Fast Food once a week. We seldom order a pizza for pick up or delivery.


- We don't buy DVD's or CD's.


- The Schwann's man is driving us crazy since I got those hashbrowns for a $1.00. What doesn't he understand when I tell him that I will order online if I need something else. I don't order regularly from any delivery man.


- I never go shopping just to browse. I most likely will have a list and know exactly what I want. Hence, I very rarely impulse shop.


- We don't leave TV's on just for noise. What a waste of electricity!


- We don't spend rebate checks. We put the money in our savings account.


- We don't leave water running in the sink when we brush our teeth or when DH shaves.


- We don't waste water when we shower. We take navy showers.


- We use a drip system on a timer so as not to waste water in the watering of bushes and trees. We water at 3 am when the sun isn't beating down.


- We don't shop for the latest styles in clothing. We mostly buy quality classic clothing in a few solid colors that we can mix and match.


- We buy good quality shoes that will last for years. DH's dress shoes get resoled.

- We carefully think about our purchases so that we don't buy things that we really don't need. We hate clutter and to us most knick knacks are clutter that have to be taken care of and washed and dusted.


- We don't wait until something like carpet is really dirty to clean it. We steam clean our carpeting on a regular basis to keep it looking new. This goes for everything that needs maintenance in our home.

- I don't pay for manicures or pedicures since I can do these at home a lot cheaper. If I colored my hair, I would do it at home.


There are many more but I must get on with my day. I will post what I did today to save money challenge very soon!


As usual feel free to comment and share with us what you don't do to save money!

If You Care About Your Money, You Need to Write or Call Your US Senator!

Under the cover of every TV station talking about the Michael Jackson death, the US House passed the Cap and Trade Bill(energy bill) late Friday night. Not only is this going to cost American citizens jobs but the Democrats put an amendment in there that you need to know about.

When you want to sell your home, you have to, by law, allow a Federal Inspector in your house who will decide whether your house is green enough to sell. If the Inspector doesn't like your windows, you have to replace them before you can place the house on the market. Anything they don't like, you are going to have to spend money to replace whether it be insulation, windows, etc. The burden will fall on the current homeowner to make the house green for the new buyer. Good luck being able to recoup those costs.

Germany has had Cap and Trade for a number of years now and their citizens pay 25 more in utility costs than a couple of years ago.

As far as I am concerned this is the biggest power grab for certain companies in this country like GE who owns the NBC networks. These companies will become rich on the backs of all of us.

In my estimation, this is the worst bill I have ever seen. I have just written my U.S. Senators and told them not to vote yes on this bill. If you feel uncomfortable with what this bill is going to do for your wallet, please contact your US Senators and tell them not to pass this ridiculous bill. It is not too late to stop the bill from passing the Senate. I have no intention of voting for anyone in the House who voted yes on this bill and will not vote for anyone in the Senate who votes yes and I have let them know.

Either call your Senators Office or write them asap. You can find their e-mail addresses here: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

I Hit the Motherlode for Meat and Rice!

Since I had to go to the Post Office today, I quickly scanned the flyer for Walgreens and Fresh and Easy before I left. I also wanted to make a stop at CVS because I am down to my last bit of Natural Dentist and this is the best rinse I have ever used. When I will pay full price for something, it has to be good. I figure I might find some more Joseph's Cookies too but no luck! I went to Fresh and Easy for the Grillpacks that were advertised for $ 5.99 each. They contain 4 hamburgers, 4 Italian sausage, 4 chicken thighs and 4 chicken drumsticks. The chicken is all seasoned with a Chili Citrus and Cilantro Seasoning. All of the meat is hormone free and totals 4 lbs. 11 oz. of meat in each pack. They normally sell for $9.99. We have purchased them before and love them! But I got an even better price as you will see below. Everyone knows how expensive rice is and we use a lot of rice. DH would rather have rice than potatoes any day. Well, when I saw the price and since I have a lot of money left in my grocery budget for this month, I got 40 lbs. This is what I purchased:


CVS:


2 Natural Dentist - $ 6.99 each


Total including tax was $ 15.11 but nothing OOP because I paid with a Free Giftcard from a prescription.



Walgreens:


3 Walgreens Cloth Bags - 3 for $1.00 with Walgreens coupon ( I think I now have enough cloth bags!)


3 Lindsay Green Olives - $ .99 each with Walgreens coupon = $ 2.97



Total OOP was $ 4.05 including tax.

Fresh and Easy:

3 Grill Packs of Hamburgers, Italian Sausage and Chicken - on sale for $5.99 each- marked down for quick sale = $ 3.00 each

8 - 5 lb. Bags of Rice - $ 1.25 each = $ 10.00

2 Louis Rich Turkey Bacon - $ 2.49 each = $ 4.98

1 pkg. of Hamburger Buns - $ .88

1 - 8 oz. pkg. of Fresh Mushrooms - marked down for quick sale -$ 1.37

3- 12 packs of Diet Pepsi - $ 6.99 for all( Must buy 3 for this price)

Used $ 3./30. Fresh and Easy Coupon

Total OOP was $ 30.22!

My rollover grocery budget was $ 83.16 minus the $ 34.27 I spent today leaves $ 48.89 for the rest of the month.

Safeway & SuperWalmart

A quick trip for some deals to Safeway and SuperWalmart. Everyones' prices may be a little different than mine at SWM. DH and I have been craving turkey, so this will get cooked outside tomorrow either on the spit on the grill or in my Nesco roaster. This is what I purchased:


Safeway:


1 Honeysuckle White Turkey Breast- on sale for $ .99 a lb. = $ 6.66


1 - 12 oz. pkg. of Kraft American Singles - $ .99 with Safeway Cpn


Total OOP was $ 7.65.



SuperWalmart:


3 lb. Box of Jennie-O Turkey Burgers - $ 5.98 - Used $5.00 Mfrs. Cpn (came in booklet in the mail) = $ .98


1 DiGiorno Flatbread Melt - $ 2.78 - Used Free Mfrs. Cpn.( and will send for TMF Rebate)= Free


Total OOP was $ .98



My rollover grocery budget was $ 91.79 minus the $ 8.63 spent today leaves $ 83.16 for the rest of the month!

CVS

I went to CVS this morning to mainly get the sunglass deal and the chip deal for when I have company coming. All of the sunglasses were $ 19.99 so I decided not to do the deal. However,I hit the motherlode on Joseph's Sugar Free Cookies. These are so expensive on QVC and I found them on clearance. So this is what I purchased:


13 Bags of Joseph's Sugar Free Cookies - on clearance for $ .15 a bag =$ 1.95


2 Bags of Wavy Lays Chips - on B1G1F - Used $ 1./2 Mfrs. Cpn = $ 2.99


Total was $ 4.94 but nothing OOP because I paid with a Free CVS prescription Giftcard.

Twitter!

Who says you can't teach an old dog "new tricks"? I now am on Twitter and will be posting updates during the day. You can follow by checking out the Twitter Updates on the right hand sidebar of my blog.

Our Goal!!!

This morning I read a wonderful post by Amiyrah on what she is doing because her family is so important to her. You can read it here:

http://4hatsandfrugal.blogspot.com/2009/06/letting-go-of-income.html

Between reading that post and the fact that I kind of let the secret of our goal out of the bag with a comment I made, I have decided to let you know why we are saving every dime that we can!

Those of you who frequent my blog know that my son, DIL and grandaughter have moved recently to upstate New York. My youngest son and his wife live in New York also along with all of our siblings and spouses, many cousins, and an aunt. We also have many cherished friends there. Many things have changed since we first made the decision to retire here in Arizona. Most importantly, our grandaughter came into our lives and she has enriched us so. Secondly, we are not getting any younger and we are 2900+ miles away from the nearest family. We miss our children and our grandaughter every day! We chat with and e-mail our children almost daily and talk to our grandaughter every few days on the web cam. However it is not the same as being able to hug and kiss them and spend time with them in person.

So we are considering buying another home somewhere in upstate New York. In order for us to do this and not screw up our early retirement income we have to save the money to purchase it from the money that we allocate to live on each year. For those of you who are not retired, I will try to explain this a little better by giving the following example.

Let's say, for example, that you have one million dollars( disclaimer- this is not what we have; it is just an example) in retirement savings and that you have $20,000. in pension income. The one million dollars would generate about $40,000. in income a year. However that was before our economy crashed. Right now, you are lucky to find 2-3% a year in income on that money. With inflation about to rear it's ugly head, you will have to spend even less than that in order not to touch your principal. Principal is what generates the income. For the sake of example, lets say the economy is generating that 4% of income that most reputable economists will tell you you can spend of that million dollars without touching the principal. Notice that I said reputable economists not brokers. The reason for that is because most brokers will sell you what makes them the most amount of money. I dealt with Merrill Lynch brokers just once in my life and that was enough for me.

Anyhow, you would have the $40,000. a year in generated income and the $20,000. in pension income to spend each year which would total $ 60,000. That figure of course is before all the taxes. To be totally safe, I would consider lowering that figure to $50,000. a year and probably even more now that the economy is so bad and inflation is just around the corner. So, if I want to save for a goal, I must save for that goal out of that $50,000. that I have to spend each year. In order to do that, I must spend as little of that $50,000. as possible on necessary expenses. That is where the cost cutting and guerilla frugality comes in! The only other way I know to do this is to generate more income. Since we will not be generating more income, we would have to save out of that $50,000. That is a set amount that can't be changed if you want to continue to be retired and live off of your retirement money without having to find a job.

So we are trying to save every penny that we can out of our annual allotted amount for income so that we can realize our dream of being near our family and buying another home in New York without destroying our future security. We have recently researched and gotten a handle on housing prices there. They are a lot higher than they were 8 years ago. While home prices have dropped considerably here in Arizona, that is not the case in New York. I don't foresee being able to sell this home here anytime soon so we are not looking at that right now.

Since we have been mortgage free for years, we would like to be able to pay cash for this home so hence the guerilla frugality. As I told you in a prior post, we have saved over the past few years, 61% of what we think we will need. But we have a long way to go to save the other 39%! Even if we decide to take on a mortgage until we eventually sell this home here, I want it to be as small as possible. I have told you many times how much I hate paying interest so that will be a last resort! I will continue to research prices and ways to get to our goal with a vengeance. Hopefully, within the next year or two, we will accomplish our dream!

If you don't see as many posts weekly as before, you will know that I am working on two things. I am looking forward to my sister's visit and planning her two week stay. And I am working on my guerilla frugality. I will post and pop in to answer comments as frequently as I can. I will update you on our dream and how we are getting there as we go along!

Basha's

I really didn't see much that I needed in the store flyers this week. But since I needed to deposit some checks in the bank and go to the Post Office with the mail, I stopped at Bashas for 2 things I was getting mighty close to being out of and some meat. DH has requested Philly steak sandwiches for dinner tonight and since they weren't too expensive, I picked up a few boxes. I will cook some of those, some sliced onions and melt some cheese and we will have as good a dinner as if we went out to a restaurant and ordered them. So this is what I purchased at Basha's:


4 boxes Philly Steaks - $ 2.00 each = $ 8.00


1.21 lbs. of Beef Cube Steaks on sale for $ 3.99 a lb = $ 4.83


5 lbs. of Grand Canyon Sweet Onions - $ 1.99


1 container of shredded Digiorno Parmesan Cheese - $ 3.99 - Used $ 1./1 Mfrs. Cpn = $ 2.99



Total OOP was $ 17.81. My rollover grocery budget was $ 109.60 minus the $ 91.79 left for the rest of the month. I really haven't spent much money on groceries this month due to using the stockpile.

Money Saving Challenge - 6/23

I have been missing in action the past fews days but I am back. So today, I will let you know what I did to save money the past few days.

On Father's Day, instead of going out to eat, I made DH his favorite meal - Chicken in Wine Sauce. Knowing that we were going to have workmen in our home for 1/2 a day yesterday, I made a double batch so that we wouldn't be tempted to go out. That worked out perfectly.

DH and I had to move a lot of furniture and oriental rugs yesterday because we had COIT coming. We have 900 sq. ft. of tile floors and the grout needed to be cleaned and resealed. This is a big job that should be done once a year so DH and I decided to hire the professionals instead of attempting it ourselves. Since COIT was running an ad on TV that they were giving a 35% off discount in our area, I called them last week and they came and gave us an estimate. The man actually gave us 40% off. So it is now done and the floors look wonderful and I feel good about saving so much off the cost. We always have done our own work but have saved in our house maintenance and repair fund the money to handle these things as we are getting older. So the job is all done and all paid for and that makes me feel good. :-) Today we can get all the furniture placed back where it belongs.

In the past few days, I have washed 2 loads of laundry and a load of sheets.They were all hung to dry. I have also kept the A/C at 82 during peak hours and 78 on off peak. Lights were off until dark and I have done a minimal amount of cooking in the kitchen. I don't want to heat the house up and make the A/C work harder. Our breakfasts have been cereal with fruit and our lunches have been salads, cheese and crackers or salsa and chips.

This morning I made DH a ham and egg breakfast with whole wheat toast. Would you believe that I now only have a couple of ham steaks left from that Target deal? I used the last bit of homemade bread so I will be making another loaf in the breadmaker today.

Before I ran out to Staples, I put all the ingredients for our Cranberry Orange Breakfast Bread in our breadmaker. It smells heavenly and is in the above picture. The recipe is here: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Cranberry-Orange-Breakfast-Bread/Detail.aspx .

DH and I talk every few days on the webcam with our grandaughter, son, and DIL. DH has a large swivel, black vinyl chair with arms in front of his computer. Everytime they call, one of us has to run to the kitchen to grab a kitchen chair so that we can both sit and chat. So we wanted to get a small side chair that we could keep right next to our writing table in the office. We wanted it to fit in with the decor but not be too bulky or expensive. So, at Staples, I found the chair in the picture. It is just perfect! It was not on sale but was only $36.99. It was in a stack of chairs so that when the best one was picked out, it had a crease on the seat where the chair on top of it had been stacked. I decided to ask the manager to mark it down. He did by $5.00, so I got it for $ 31.99 and I used my $9.00 Staples Reward check so only paid $ 22.99+ tax out of

pocket. By the time I got home with it, the crease was gone! I am thrilled with this deal!

I have received in the mail the past few days some really great coupons from my DIL(Thank you Michelle!), my All You Magazine, $24.00 in rebates and a sample of Axe Shampoo.

Dinner tonight will be Pasta all Marlboro Man. The recipe is here: http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2009/03/monday-night-dinner-pasta-alla-marlboro-man/

We are about to take a swim in the pool and enjoy a cocktail. Tonight I will watch the rerun of NCIS and do some reading.

As usual feel free to leave a comment and let us know what you did today to save money.

What Things Can You Do Without?

In my quest to save more and more money so that DH and I can reach our goal, I have given a lot of thought this weekend to what we could do without and not really change our quality of life. I know that a lot of my blog readers have also been unfortunate enough to lose their jobs over the past few months, so hopefully this list will help them also.

- All paper products except toilet paper: You can replace paper napkins with cloth, kleenex with handkerchiefs, wrapping paper with cloth bags, paper towels(except for the one piece to drain fried foods on) with rags and dish towels. Instead of buying paper for lists or printing coupons, you can save your junk mail letters and print on the backside or cut them into quarters for scrap paper.

- Sponges can be replaced with rags or dishcloths.

- Plastic bags can be reused or gotten rid of all together by using a reusable plastic container. Replace your purchased garbage bags by reusing plastic grocery bags from purchases. I use mostly cloth bags to buy groceries but have plenty of other plastic bags from retail store purchases.

- Most cleaning products can be made at home for pennies. For example: I put a 1/8 cup of PineSol or other cleaner in a quart bottle and fill with water. This solution cleans almost everything that you would buy all purpose cleaners for. Sinks and tubs can be cleaned with baking soda. I put just a little bleach in the toilet overnight and it keeps it clean.

-Books, DVD's, VHS tapes, Video Games, etc. : They can all be taken on loan from the library.

- Fast Food & Restaurants: Anything that you can buy at a fast food place, restaurant, or coffee shop can be made so much cheaper at home. This site has many of the recipes: http://copycat.cdkitchen.com/

- Going to the Movies: With so many free codes out there, DVD's can be borrowed and watched for nothing but the time to get them and return them. DH and I would much rather watch a Free DVD in the comfort of our great room with no noise and no cellphone conversations going on around us.

- Many concerts are free in parks this time of the year. Many museums and sightseeing places have free hours.

- Gym memberships and exercise equipment: Go for a walk, ride your bike, or swim in that pool that sits idle. Play a game of tennis or basketball at the neighborhood or school courts.

- Alcohol, wine ,beer and soda are not necessities.

- Hair coloring, manicures and pedicures can be done at home.

- Gifts or gift baskets can be made at home for a lot less than storebought. You can always give a gift of your time.

- Store bought bread does not taste as good as homemade and is more expensive.

- Cable or Satellite TV is a luxury not a need.

There are many more but I will leave them for another day. Please feel free to add to this list by leaving a comment and sharing with all of us. I am sure that those of you who have lost your jobs are much better at making this list than I am. I pray that all of you find employment soon.

Money Saving Challenge - 6/18

Breakfast this morning was cereal and sliced fresh strawberries, orange juice and coffee. We have been using my homemade kahlua creamer and enjoying it.

After I took my navy shower using my free shampoo and body wash, I made my grocery list for Fry's and my errand list. Then driving as smoothly as I could using a route that would save the most gasoline, I headed out. My first stop was Kohl's where I returned a top I bought earlier in the week and received a cash refund of $ 6.71. Next I went to CVS to pick up a prescription that we forgot to order the other day. I was able to use a Walgreens Coupon for a $25.00 CVS Giftcard. I love getting these Free giftcards because they help defray the cost of my co-pays or I can use them for milk, eggs or a myriad of other necessities and I don't have to take the money out of my own pocket. I paid for the prescription today with 1/2 of the Free Giftcard that I received the other day. I then made my way to the Post Office with the mail and then my last stop was Fry's where they paid me $ .10 to bring home the groceries.

I have been tracking what it costs me in gasoline for these trips. It is an eye opener when you actually realize what you are spending on gasoline. Today's trip was 12 miles round trip. So based on the price I paid for gasoline the last time I filled up and the miles per gallon that I get, today's outing cost me $ 1.80.

After I got home and put everything away, I decided to cook a pound of bacon that I had defrosted last night since it was off peak hours for electricity. It is in the picture above draining. I always drain my bacon on newspapers. I use just one paper towel so that the newsprint doesn't get on the bacon. This saves me on purchasing paper towels and is the green way to go. I put 1/3 of the bacon in the fridge for BLT's for dinner tonight. The other 2/3's is divided up into 2 reused Ziplocs and in the freezer for other meals.

When I went to clean my glasses today, I realized that we are almost out of cleaner. Rather than purchase a bottle, I made some and refilled the bottle. I just filled the bottle 3/4's of the way with rubbing alcohol and then filled the rest with water.

Lunch for DH and I was a nice tossed salad using today's free bagged salad, the fresh veggies I cut up the other day and Asian Toasted Sesame Dressing.

This afternoon, I handwashed a load of clothes and hung them to dry. I have caught up on some e-mails and some paperwork that needed doing. I also did a little cleaning while DH is cleaning out some files in the office. My son called us on the cellphone he sent me and we had a nice chat. I also did my points programs today, took a survey, entered some Coke codes and did my SwagBucks searches. I also placed an order with http://www.schwans.com for a 2.5lb. Bag of Shredded Hash Browns. I used Code D5 to get $5.00 off . The delivery charge is $1.00 so after the code I will pay them $ .99 when they deliver it on Saturday. It was definitely worth the price to me.

The mail today was my Free More Magazine, a Free Bounce Dryer Bar from Vocalpoint,a $ 10.00 CVS Giftcard from My Points along with a FTD $15.00 Rewards Card ( Does anyone really use that?), a coupon for a free M&M/ Mars Chocolate Bar, and a $3.00 check from Pinecone.

Dinner tonight will be BLT's. I will just heat up a couple of bacon strips in the microwave for a second or so. I sliced up a nice tomato that I got fresh the other day and with lettuce, mayo and toasted homemade wheat bread, we will be set. We haven't had a BLT in a long time and I am really looking forward to it.

Tonight I will be running the dishwasher after 8 pm in off peak hours. The A/C is set on 82 in on peak hours and 78 off peak. Lights are off until dark. Entertainment will be a swim and some reading.

As usual, please feel free to share what you did today to save money by leaving a comment.

Just a Very Little Shopping This Week: Fry's!

I didn't see many deals this week except the above items and the beef tenderloin is on sale again for a rock bottom price at Basha's. However, having bought 3 whole ones prior, I have no more room right now for beef. This is what I purchased this morning:

Fry's:

2 Dole Bagged Salads - $1.00 each - Used $ .55/1 Mfrs. Cpns Dbled = Free

1 - 30 oz. Best Foods Light Mayonaise - $ 3.99 - Used Free Fry's Coupon = Free

1- Suave Deodorant - $ .99 - Used $ .75/1 Mfrs. Cpn Dbled = Free

Received $ .10 Bag Credit

I received $ .10 from the cashier for this order which I will put towards my goal fund!

Nothing Has Touched Me In Months Like This Letter Has!

A woman from Arizona( no - not me because I can't write that well) wrote this letter into the Glen Beck Show. I have never seen anything written so eloquently and she certainly says what I know a lot of Americans are feeling today. Due to infringement and copyright laws I can't copy the letter here. However if you would like to see what this patriotic woman wrote go to http://www.glennbeck.com/index.php and the link is on the page. It says: Glenn Beck: The Letter! When you click on the link, her letter is there in it's entirety. Whether you are a Democrat, Republican, Libertatian, Independent or other, I believe that most Americans will agree with the principles that she writes about!

Money Saving Challenge - 6/16

I cut up that whole pineapple yesterday,diced two chicken breasts and prepared an enormous container of fresh broccoli, sliced onions, sliced celery, sliced mushrooms, and broccoli. Since I try to make more than one meal when I cook, I made enough chicken stir-fry for dinner last night and tonight. Stir-frying doesn't take but a few minutes so not much energy used. We served it on rice cooked in my rice cooker out on the patio table so as not to heat up the house. Dinner tonight was just heated quickly in the microwave. I had some pineapple chunks left over so I froze them for smoothies. The leftover veggies will get used for salads and cooked veggies the rest of the week.

We have been having homemade strawberry yogurt with a little granola and sliced strawberries for breakfasts these past couple of days. I usually serve pretty much the same healthy cheap breakfasts:

Yogurt with strawberries, bananas or blueberries

Toast( from homemade bread) with jam

Cereal with fruit

Homemade Pancakes with fruit or syrup

Waffles with fruit or syrup

Oatmeal with fruit(Usually in the winter)

Homemade Biscuit Sandwiches

Homemade Egg McMuffins

Eggs, turkey bacon, ham or turkey sausage( this is a more expensive breakfast that we serve once a week or so)

Homemade Hashbrowns and eggs

Homemade Muffins or Quick Bread

Bagels with Cream Cheese( I will be making Homemade Bagels next week)

I purchased the items I showed in my prior post today after pulling coupons, and making my list. I ran my errands in a circle to save on gasoline.

First stop was Fry's for the groceries. Next I picked up prescriptions and reading glasses at CVS. I snagged a $10.00 CVS giftcard free with the prescription using the KMart Coupon that was in the newspaper recently.

Then it was off to Ross to return one of the last two tops I purchased last week. Next I went to Kohl's and picked up 3 tops using a 15% off Card they sent me in the mail. I only spent $26. including tax for these badly needed clothes, but true to form, one is going back. I just wish they made clothing sizes the same in all the brands. They differ so much that you can never tell if something is going to fit. So the next time I go over that way, I will make that return.

Lastly, I picked up DH's and my treat for the week: In and Out Burgers for lunch. We had never had one of these before. They have to be the best burgers that we have ever purchased. Yum! I loved that I could buy a small to stay consistent with my eating plan.

My mail today was a bit disappointing - just a Garnier sample and Parents Magazine(free subscription that I signed up for mainly for the coupons).

I did receive a SwagBucks GC today and was also able to order another one. I love SwagBucks !

I am trying to keep track of my gasoline usage and be ever mindful of what these trips are really costing. Based on the price that I paid to fill up my tank last week and the miles per gallon that my car gives me, I detemined that it cost me $.15 per mile times 20 miles so a total of $ 3.00 for this trip. If gasoline keeps going up the way it has been(we are today at $2.76 a gallon here), it may be more frugal to order from a grocery store with delivery service with a free delivery code. I will also be keeping my eye on Free shipping stores online for other items.

Tonight we will be watching some TV and I will be filing coupons in my binder.

Fry's and CVS!

I had to make a trip to CVS today to pick up some prescriptions so I also stopped at Fry's. This is what I purchased:

CVS:

2 pair of Magnavision Reading Glasses - $ 22.00 each = $44.00 - Used $ 1.00 in ECB's = $ 43.00 and I received a $10.00 ECB!

Fry's:

3 Santa Cruz Organic Lemonades - $ 1.25 each - Used $ .75/1 IP Cpns = $ .25 each

1 Bag of Kroger Mini Carrots - $ 1.00

3 Kraft Natural Cheese - Shredded - $ 1.88 each - Used $ .50/1 Mfrs. Cpns = $ .88 each

Total OOP was $ 4.39!

My rollover grocery budget was $ 113.99 minus the $ 4.39 I spent today leaves $ 109.60 for the rest of the month!

Cash is King!

Back in the beginning of 2009, I told you that we had a goal that we were saving for. We actually had been saving for a different goal at that time but life and circumstances change. I still am not able to tell you what that goal is because we are keeping it close to the vest as the saying goes. Someday, I will be able to tell you! :-) Hopefully that will be soon!

Anyhow, in our household cash has always been King! We figured out 42 years ago that the only way to truly enjoy life with no worries was to use cash and live within our means. It's a very simple concept. If you can't pay cash, you don't buy it. Now, I know that most people can't buy a home without taking a mortgage. We did that too in our younger years. But we always paid our homes off early. We have paid for three homes since we were first married and have no mortgage at all.

We have money budgeted for all kinds of things like home repairs, groceries, gasoline, utility bills, telephone bills, taxes, property taxes, cable and internet bills, car repairs and a new car fund, medical expenses, appliance replacement, entertainment, clothing, travel, gifts,and every other emergency we can think of. We pay cash for all expenses. If you can't pay cash, you can't afford it. If we use a credit card during the month to pay for anything, we pay the bill in full when it comes. By always doing this, we never pay interest. We have always tracked our income and outgo. By living this way, we saved a great deal of money for retirement. We saved as much of our money as possible so that DH could take early retirement 8 years ago.

A couple of years ago, we decided we had one last goal left. As I stated that goal has now changed but is one that is our #1 priority. Our priority is to pay cash for this goal and not change our yearly cash flow nor touch any of above named funds. In other words, we will still spend within the confines of the amount that we have earmarked yearly for retirement. So the only way we have to save for this goal is to save money from our yearly retirement allotment. We have no extra income from working. So ,we have to cut back on everyday expenses in order to eek out an amount to save each month. You have seen by the many posts I have done how I watch every expense. Because of this we have now saved 61% of our goal over the last couple of years. Now we need to save the other 39% and I am getting impatient so I will be ramping up the savings even further.

So, if you don't see me grocery shopping or retail shopping, you will know that is because we have plenty in the house to eat and that all of our necessities have been purchased. I will be doing more and more to cut back on the utility bills. I will be finding ways to cut back on cable and telephone. I will be looking at every expense we have to see where we can lower them. One of the things that we hate to do is cut back on our gift giving. But I have decided that we are cutting back the dollar amount we have always spent by at least 50% - maybe much, much, more. We have been overly generous in past years, but now I will be earmarking that money for our priority. No expense will stand in the way of reaching our goal. We will continue to not eat out or go to the movies. My home cooked meals taste better anyhow and I know that my hands are clean when I cook. We will continue to get free DVD's to watch or watch the ones we own. DH was just asking the other day, what we were going to do for our 42nd anniversary that is coming up in a couple of weeks. I told him I would prefer to stay home and have a nice steak dinner grilled outside. He agrees that that will be much nicer! I will be spending many more days doing things at home and not running around in the car. That will let us save more of our gasoline budget.

You all the know the economy has hurt everyone especially the retired since we have lost a lot of our savings! I could sit and cry about it or do something about it. Even though, we have less money to work with each year, I can still make my savings goal for our priority! We may not make as much interest or investment income on our money as just a few years ago but that won't stop me! Watch out when Precious decides to go after something, she goes after it with a vengeance!

Whether you are saving for a special goal or trying to pay off debt, anyone can do what I do. You just have to decide to have the mindset to go after it. So cut back those expenses and put that money in savings each month or put all the extra on your debt. If you are in debt, put those credit cards away. Just DON'T use them! If you need to use a credit card to buy something or pay for something, you can't afford it. I don't care whether it is a new pair of shoes or a repair bill. If you need to charge it, you can't afford it. The only exception that I can think of would be a medical emergency or a car repair bill if it is the only way to get back and forth to work. Nothing else! If the car breaks down and you have another way to get to work, don't fix the car until you have the money. If an appliance breaks down, don't fix it until you have the cash. Look at all the options around you before you pull out that credit card. Not breaking the cycle of continually charging will just in the long run get you in a lot of trouble. I don't tell you this to chastise anyone. I would just like for all of you to be stress free and have the freedom of mind that we have. I can't tell you how many times I have seen people say, I will charge this one thing. The next thing you know they are thousands of dollars in debt. Please think twice before using that credit card.

If we can save money on our fixed income, anyone can. It just takes a lot of thought and the willingness to take the time to do it.

Money Saving Challenge - 6/14

I took a quick trip to the Superstition Ranch Produce market this morning. Since I am making stir fry for tomorrow night's dinner, I picked up green peppers at 3 for $ 1.00 and broccoli at $ .19 a lb. The cherries which were $1.69 a lb., the peaches which were $ .34 a lb. are snacks this week. The strawberries at $ .50 a lb and the blueberries at $2.00 a container

are to put on cereal, make yogurt and to make pancakes. The cucumbers were 4 for $.50 and will be great in salads. So my entire bill for all this produce was $ 8.54!

Today I will be setting up my diet plan on Sparkspople.com. I read about it on Crystal Paine's Blog which is here: http://www.moneysavingmom.com/. I love all of the tools and features to track what I eat and how much exercise I get. I will be setting up my goals and trying my best. I want to eat properly, but also incorporate some of the processed food that I am still trying to use up, and exercise a little each day. It took me a while to gain weight so it will take me a while to reduce my weight. But that is okay because by eating smartly, it will be a way of life.

I also plan on doing a load of laundry in cold water with minimal detergent and hanging it to dry. My master bathroom will be cleaned spic and span with eco-friendly products. The A/C is at 78 this weekend since we are on off peak hours.

I will be exercising to an exercise tape for 15 minutes and riding my recumbent bike for the same amount of time. This afternoon, we may go for a swim.

Leisure activities will reading and the swim, both things that I love and they certainly are cheap.

Breakfast this morning was shredded wheat with strawberries and skim milk. Lunch will be a salad. Dinner will be filet mignon grilled outside with mushrooms and some fresh pineapple on the side. I also plan on serving sliced tomatoes with vinagrette dressing and a glass of red wine.

I don't plan on going out again today so that will save on gasoline and keep my money in my

wallet.

As usual freel free to let us know what you are doing to save money today by leaving a comment.

Money Saving Challenge - 6/12

I haven't posted the last couple of days because I really haven't done much except the same old, same old as far as money saving. Wednesday, I was woken out of bed at 8:15am by our burglar alarm. I was all alone and quiet scared. The company that monitors our alarm decided along with me that they should send the police out even though I didn't see anything or anyone. I was so groggy when they called. While I was waiting, police dispatch called me and a woman stayed on the phone with me the entire time. The policeman came and he was wonderful. He checked every room, closet, the garage and all of the backyard. He found nothing. He said we should have the system checked. Well, when DH returned from his Doctor's appointment, we determined that he had mindlessly alarmed the house when he left to go to it. So the alarm system said okay, no one is home and turned on the motion detectors. So when I started to stir in bed, it set the motion detector off which set the alarm off. Men!!!! But it will be an expensive Doctors appt. because besides the co-pay, DH will now be paying a $50.00 False Alarm bill from the city. I was so shook all day that I did nothing but cook meals.


Yesterday, I did meals and also took my cat for her vaccinations. I was so thrilled with Banfield Veterinary Services at Petsmart during their clinic hours. My cat had a full exam for no charge and the Rabies and Distemper Vaccine only cost me $44.15! This would have cost me $ 101. at the vet I had been going to. I will continue to go to Banfield since it was cheap and they were so efficient there. I loved the vet and so did my cat. The vet also told me about the Pet Hotel at Petsmart. So the next time my cat gets boarded that is where she is going. It is about $2.50 more a day than my old vet but it will be so much nicer there and I believe she will get better care!


Today, we had cereal and strawberries, oj and coffee for breakfast. Then after I made list and pulled my coupons and went shopping for the items in my prior post. We still continue to live mostly off of our stockpile while reducing it is in size. I also stopped at the bank with a deposit and went to the PO with the mail.

We, now have our air conditioning at 82 during the on peak hours. I am trying to see if it makes much of a difference between 81 and 82. The 82 is quite bearable. Lights are off until dark and TV has only been on for an hour or so. My computer has been off most of the day and I will turn it off when I am done here.


I have been trying to catch up on my to do list. I ordered 5 shirts for DH today from L.L.Bean. I couldn't find a coupon code but did go through Ebates to get 2% back or $2.40 on the order. Both of our wardrobes are getting very old so time to replace items. Go through my link, sign up and you will get $5.00 added to your account when you make your first purchase through them.


I also received another $5.00Amazon.com gift certificate yesterday from SwagBucks. I also ordered another one. I just love searching through SwagBucks!


Lunch today was cold cut sandwiches. While I was pulling out the sandwich meat from the freezer, I found some halibut frozen in the back. I thawed it and we will have grilled halibut and tossed salad for dinner. Since it is Friday night, we will also add a nice glass of wine.


While I was out running errands today I stopped at the gas station that was $ .06 a gallon cheaper than my normal one and filled up. Geez, gasoline is getting more and more expensive again.


Tonight I will continue to work on my to do list and watch a little TV!


As usual, feel free to leave a comment and share with us what you did to save money today!

Bashas, Fry's and Albertsons!

I finally was able to get out to shop today. This is what I purchased:

Albertsons:

2 Hickmans Large AA Eggs( they were substituting at my store) - $ .75 each with Albies Cpn = $ 1.50

1 Pkg. of Boneless Chicken Breast - $ 1.67 a lb = $ 5.90

Total OOP was $ 7.40

Bashas:

2.20 lbs. of Red Potatoes - $ .99 a lb. = $ .73

Red Tomatoes on the Vine - $ 1.91 lb x $ .99 a lb = $ 1.89

Total OOP was $ 2.62!

Frys:

2 bags of Lightly Salted Lays Chips - $ 1.50 each - Used $ .50/2 Mfrs. Cpn Dbled(Thanks Pat) = $ 2.00 for both

1 Bag of Baked Tostitos - $ 3.79 - Used $ 2.00 off Frito Lay Baked Mfrs. Cpn wyb 2 Lays = $ 1.79

1 DelMonte Gold Fresh Pineapple - $ 1.00 - Used $ .50/1 IP Cpn Dbled = Free

2 - Daisy Light Sour Cream - $ 1.67 each - Used $ .75/1 Mfrs. Cpn Dbled = $ .67 each = $ 1.34

3 Energizer Batteries - $ 2.00 each - Used $ 1./1 Mfrs. Cpns = $1.00 each = $ 3.00

1 gallon of Kroger Orange Juice - $ 1.77 with in ad Cpn = $ 1.77

Received $ .20 Cloth Bag Credit

Total OOP was $10.03 including $ .33 tax!

My rollover grocery budget was $ 122.53 minus the $ 20.05 I spent today leaves $ 102.48 for the rest of the month!

Money Saving Challenge- 6/9

Two of the tops that I bought yesterday at Ross Dress for Less, I did not like when I tried them on. So this morning I took them back to the Ross that is only a couple of blocks from me.

I never keep anything that isn't perfect for me! I got my $12.+ cash refund and decided to check this store again. I had looked last week and they had nothing that I liked; however today I found these two tops that I loved. Since it was 10% off senior discount day, I got both tops for a total of $ 9.70. They are well made and in the material that I really like. I suppose I should try things on in the store but I hate those dressing rooms. And since my favorite colors are green and blue I am happy with my purchases between yesterday and today. I also found out something that I didn't know about Ross. They have a huge kids department and carry a lot of the brand names that Babies R Us carries. I will be doing a lot of shopping there! :-)

Breakfast was the end of the garlic and herb homemade bread with cream cheese, juice and coffee. I made my kahlua creamer today and used an old Coffemate container to put it in. It turned out to be delicious and was so easy to make.

DH has been doing some more updating of our inventory. The software program that he is using has been giving him some trouble so he has been e-mailing back and forth with the company who made it and they have been helping him with a fix. He is almost finished now.

I handwashed our clothes that we wore yesterday and hung them to dry. I also ran the dishwasher on off peak hours.

Today, I received my electric bill online. It was $22.63 higher than last year but the period it covered we tied a record for 19 days over 100 degrees. For a 28 day period the bill was $ 130.52 after a 1% discount . I have done just about all that I can do to lower it but I still strive to keep it down. The average bill for the same size house with a pool out here, the electric company says, was $ 207.72 so I guess we did fairly well.

Lunch was cheese and crackers and a glass of ice water.

This afternoon we went for a swim and then read for a while. It was a nice quiet time.

For dinner, I made cheddar steakburgers on buns with a slice of fresh tomato and a slice of red onion. I served canned pineapple slices as a side. Since we didn't use the juice from the can, I froze it in an ice cube tray and bagged the cubes up for smoothies. They work wonderfully with fruits and yogurt. If I am making a fruited chicken, I use the fruit juice to make a sauce. But when I don't need it for anything it gets frozen in cubes whether is is pineapple, peach or pear juice.

The only thing I received in the mail today was 3 bodycology samples and the Sprouts flyer. They have a great sale on halibut this week.

Tonight, we will be watching TV and doing a little more reading.

As usual, feel free to leave a comment telling us what you did to save money today.

Money Saving Challenge - 6/8( UPDATED!)

These are the things that I did or am doing today to save us money:


- Breakfast this morning was Kashi Waffles with syrup for DH and Kashi Waffles with fresh strawberries and cream for me.



- After I took my Navy shower and used up some more shampoo, conditioner and soap samples, I ran my errands in a circle to save on gasoline.



- First stop was to return the tops that I bought the other day at SuperWalmart. They did not fit right. I should know better than to try to buy cheap tops because they never seem to fit right.



- Next stop was the bank to deposit some rebate checks.



- Then I went to the Post Office to mail a whole bunch of rebates.



- Next I went to JC Penneys where I found just one top that I loved. I love Alfred Dunner tops but I like them mostly solid colors. They last me for 10-20 years so are worth the money. My top was $ 46.00 minus 25% minus the $10.00 off coupon I got in the mail. So the bottom line with tax was $ 26.47.



- Then I browsed through Half Price Books but I saw nothing that I couldn't borrow from my library.



- Next I went to Ross Dress for Less, where I found 3 really cute name brand tops including a Liz Claiborne for a total of $ 28.06 including tax. I could have waited until tomorrow for my 10% off senior discount but I was afraid these tops would be gone by then plus it would have cost me more than that in gasoline to go back.



- Last stop was Fry's where I picked up 3 more Thomas English Muffins that after coupon cost me $ 1.00 each. I will freeze them for the future so I don't have to pay full price.



- On the way home I went through the drive-thru at Arbys and surprised DH with lunch which cost me $5.00. This will be our treat this week.



- I called my local vet to see what vacinations and booster shots that our cat needed. The shots and an exam were going to be $101.69 which is quite expensive. My vet charges $ 59.99 for an exam when you get shots plus the cost of the shots. I made the appointment but was not happy that I have to pay for an exam when I just had her in and paid for an exam when she was sick. Remembering this post that KC wrote which is here:


http://www.desertdealsdiva.blogspot.com/search?q=vet



I decided to do some research. I found that I can get her vacination and shot for a total of $46.20 which is quite a savings over what the vet would charge. I called the vet back and offered to pay for the shots only. They refused so I cancelled the appointment and will take her elsewhere. That is a savings of $ 55.49!



- DH just went to his Dr's checkup and I reminded him to pay all of the co-pays(2) so that we don't have to spend a stamp to mail the bill in that they will send. For some reason, they only charge 1/2 while he is there and then send a bill for the other 1/2 which doesn't make sense to me. Why spend $ .44 for a stamp when you don't have to!



- I only had a couple of things in the laundry hamper, so I handwashed them and hung them to dry.



- The A/C is set at 81, the lights are off until dark and the TV's are off. This computer is about to get turned off for the day when I am done writing this.



- When DH gets home, I am hoping we will go for a swim.



- Dinner tonight will be filet mignons grilled outside, a tossed salad and homemade mozzarella garlic bread made with the garlic and herb bread that I made the other day in the breadmaker.



- Tonight will be some TV watching.



-UPDATED: I almost forgot to post what mail I received today. I got a $ 9.00 Staples Reward Check for the return of 3 printer cartridges, a Free Mars Chocolate Bar coupon and my Free Woman's Day magazine.



As usual, feel free to leave a comment sharing with us what you did to save money today.

Money Saving Challenge - 6/6

I forgot to tell you yesterday that I snagged another coupon from Mars Chocolate. :-) I also did 2 surveys for My Points. Today I was able to order a CVS Giftcard from them. Since I only do clicks and surveys with them, I am thrilled.

This morning, we had toast from our homemade bread, juice and coffee for breakfast. Then we waited for the Maytag repairman. The seal on my dishwasher is coming off which is ridculous since I just bought this in March. My husband who is an engineer says it is a design flaw and plans on writing to Maytag about it. The repairman came and has to order a new seal. For now he fixed the other one. I am so glad we have a warranty, so no cost to us.

Today I made another container of taco seasoning mix. I used the recipe here: http://busycooks.about.com/od/homemademixes/r/tacoseasonmix.htm

It is so easy and so much cheaper than buying those little packets.

I also cannot believe the price of Ortega Taco Sauce in the markets. This is what I have always purchased. But I won't be buying it anymore. The regular price in my market is $ 3.59. When it is on sale it is $ 2.69. Over the past year they have downsized the bottle from 11.+ oz. to 8 oz. That is a drastic reduction; plus the price has gone up! YIKES! So in my quest to make things cheaper and healthier, I made my own today using this recipe:

http://teriskitchen.com/meats/tacosauce.html. I am hoping that DH likes it.

DH couldn't wait to use his new tortilla bowl makers. So we had these taco salads(pictured) with cooked ground chuck with taco seasoning, lettuce, tomato, onions, black olives, Mexican 4 cheese, taco sauce and sour cream for dinner. The homemade seasoning and taco sauce were wonderful so the recipes are keepers.

While we were eating dinner I put the ingredients in the breadmaker for a loaf of Cinnamon Cranraisin Quick Bread. It is almost done and looks delicious. We will serve that for breakfast tomorrow. Here is the recipe I used:
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Cinnamon-Cranraisin-Bread/Detail.aspx

Today we had a webcam meeting with our grandaughter, son and DIL. My grandaughter is getting so tall. I was also lucky enough to get a call from my sister and be able to chat with her for a while.

Tonight I am just going to relax and watch some TV or read.

As usual feel free to leave a comment and tell us what you did to save money today.

Money Saving Challenge - 6/5

Today was a beautiful day here in Arizona! Sun shining and much cooler than normal- only 94! It was a great day to shop and do some outside things.

I started the day off by making us a nice breakfast of eggs, turkey sausage, juice, coffee and toast made from the delicious Italian herb bread that I made yesterday. Then I prepared my SuperWalmart list and pulled a couple of coupons. Most of the items that I needed did not have coupons. Before I left for Walmart, I had DH check the air pressure in the tires and add some air. It seems to evaporate in the heat out here.

Off to SuperWalmart I went. I was on a mission to buy myself a couple of tops since mine are getting old. I did find 2 that I really liked - one for $ 14.00 and one for $ 12.00! I also picked up some unmentionable underwear that I like there. Liquor was also on my list: Amaretto Di Saronno which is an after dinner liqueur that I wanted to have on hand for company and to flavor creamer. With these items and some groceries that I needed, I spent $ 89.82.

I bought the bag of sugar substitute which is cheaper than Splenda. It is called Altern and was $ 5.46. I also picked up White Cloud TP which was $ 1.00 after a $1.00 coupon, hamburg buns that were $ 1.18, Alexia Waffle Fries that were $ 1.48 after a $ 1.00 off coupon and I will get $ 2.48 back on a TMF Rebate, a 100 ct. bottle of Low Dose Aspirin that was $ 2.94, a bottle of canola oil that was $ 2.42, Florida Natural OJ for $ 2.00, a large bottle of Half and Half Creamer for $ 1.50 and a bottle of Kahlua syrup for $ 3.66. I will be subtracting $ 21.64 from my grocery budget for the month.

I bake with Splenda and since someone was nice enough to tell me about the Altern and that costs less , I decided to give it a try. Most of what I bought was Walmart brands. I am looking for a less expensive creamer. The Coffemates and International Delights have gotten so expensive and we go through a lot of coffee and creamer here. I found a recipe online for Amaretto creamer that uses canned evaporated milk and a couple of teaspoons of Amaretto. I am going to try that. Since DH says he does not like evaporated milk, I got him the half and half which was cheap and will flavor it with the amaretto or kahlua syrup. I think this will be cheaper in the long run. I will be tracking the cost. I have a lot of evaporated milk that I got free at Frys a while ago so that will be cheap. With the exception of the TP and the waffle fries for the rebate, the rest of the items, I was totally out of.

I never ate lunch today since I was so busy. DH had salsa and chips.

My son called and we had a nice chat for a while with his family plan. I also did some reading today and just relaxed. I will be running the dishwasher later on off peak hours. My mail brought some great coupons from my sister( Thanks Pat!), 2 Cottonelle samples and some coupons and a rebate check for $ 12.99!

Dinner will be salad topped with sliced chicken that DH grilled last night. For dessert, we will be having strawberries and cream.

Tonight we will be watching a little TV and possibly go for a swim.

I am LIVID with WALMART!

I am so LIVID with Walmart! If any of you have learned from my blog or enjoyed by blog, I need a favor. I need every one of you to write Walmart and tell them that their policy that I am about to explain is unacceptable! You can write customer service at http://www.walmart.com/ or to their corporate offices here:

Mike Duke CEO
Walmart Stores, Inc.
Bentonville, Arkansas 72716-8611


I have already sent an e-mail to customer service at http://www.walmart.com/ and will be sending a letter to Mike Duke this afternoon.


This morning I went to my SuperWalmart to purchase just about $90. worth of clothing, liquor and a few grocery items that I needed. As usual I did my research before I went out
the door. No one had orange juice on sale at a reasonable price except Marketside by Walmart. I had their flyer in my hand which showed a 64 oz. Florida Natural OJ for $ 2.00.
The closest Marketside by Walmart to me is 16 miles each way. I was not driving 32 miles round trip to save what turned out to be $ .88! So I thought no problem, I am going to SuperWalmart for all the other purchases, I will just bring the Marketside flyer and price match it. I picked up the OJ along with all the other items and went to check out. I put the OJ on the counter first along with the ad. The cashier says to me, we don't pricematch our own ads. I couldn't believe it! I told the cashier that I found it absolutely ridiculous that they wanted me to drive 32 miles round trip to save $ .88 on OJ. About this time a woman who was waiting to collect money from her register, said to me, in a snotty voice, we will not price match it. I asked who she was and she obviously didn't want me to know and mumbled what I thought was I am a manager, a CSO. Then she left. So I asked the cashier, is she the highest manager in the store? She said no. I told her I wanted the top honcho in the store. She yells down to the manager to get a higher one. She thought the girl was, but she ignored us. After waiting 5 minutes and no one coming, the cashier telephoned for a manager. An assistant manager showed up and I told her that I thought it was ridiculous that they wanted me to either pay the $ .88 or drive 32 miles to their other store. I informed her that the total I was spending was $ 90. and that I couldn't believe Walmart would stand firm for $ .88! She told me they would price match it this time but never again. I find their policy ridiculous! They will price match 10 other stores in the area but not their own Marketside store. In this economy, you would think they would cut the consumers a break gasoline wise. If that manager had not price matched the OJ for me, I had every intention of leaving everything there and walking. I purposely had not written my check to pay till I got the price match!

I wrote an e-mail explaining how come their policy is ridiculous. I also told them I have 75,000 people who read my blog and I will be blogging about their policy. And I let them know that I will be reconsidering the stock that I own in Walmart, besides any further purchase in their store. I am fuming over this! BTW, the last manager told me that every Walmart store has different prices so that is why they can't pricematch. I told her I wasn't asking her to pricematch a price from one SuperWalmart to another. I don't normally have an ad for that. But when you send me a Marketside ad in the mail and the store is 32 miles roundtrip away, I expect you to price match. I also told her that I am well aware that Walmart has different prices in each of their stores. They mark prices according to the median income in the area. If you make a higher income, they rip you off on the prices! I have two SuperWalmarts within 3 and 1/2 blocks from me. One is in another county and a poorer city median income wise. Their prices are lower than the other one.

So please I beg of you to take the time to zip off an e-mail to Walmart and let them know the policy is unacceptable and they should be pricematching both their Marketside at Walmart and their Walmart Neighborhood Grocery ads. Thanks!

Money Saving Challenge - 6/4

Today, I am staying home to do some cleaning and odds and ends around the old homestead. I have been spending my time at home throwing out anything that we haven't used in 6 months. So I will not be using any gasoline nor tempting myself with any impulse shopping.

This morning, we started our day with toasted English muffins with jam, coffee and orange juice. Then I entered the new SwagBucks Gift Certificate on my Amazon account.

Since we had no bread left for sandwiches, I made a loaf of Italian Herb Bread in the breadmaker. My house smells so good! I also washed a load of clothes in cold water with minimal detergent and hung them to dry. I am using free samples that I got in the mail for everything in the house that I can in my quest to use up all these free samples and declutter the house.

I placed an order with Amazon.com this morning using some SwagBucks Gift Certificates. I ordered my grandaughter a 3 DVD set of Little Einsteins.

I just finished dividing up two packages of the chicken I purchased yesterday. I used my foodsaver to bag it for the freezer. The other 2 packages are marinating in barbeque sauce. DH will grill them for dinner tonight and 2 other dinners. This saves on propane and cooking later on.

Lunch was grilled turkey and cheese sandwiches. This afternoon, most of my time will be spent on a research project. Then later on we will be taking a swim in the pool.

I just ordered another $ 5.00 Amazon.com Gift Certificate because I had enough to do so at

SwagBucks. I just love searching through this program; it is so easy!

In the mail today, I received a $ 10.00 off $10.00 purchase coupon from JC Penneys. It has been a long time since I received one.

DH grilled the chicken for dinner and he we had that, corn and applesauce. The other ones have been put away for salads or wraps. I had leftover corn which I will add to my soup bucket in the freezer.

Tonight, we will watch a DVD from our collection!

Please feel free to post in comments what you did today to save money!

Fry's, Safeway and The Produce Market!

I was up bright and early this morning so that I could review the coupons, make my list and pull my coupons. Do you believe in karma? I have been looking for a sale on boneless chicken and on quart size ziplocs. I had 2 chicken breasts left and only 4 ziploc bags. So I was thrilled to see the sale on these things! This is what I purchased:


Fry's:


4 pkgs. of Tyson Boneless Chicken Breasts - $ 1.67 a lb. = $ 12.60 - 10% Senior Discount =
$ 11.34 - Used $ 1./1 Mfrs. Cpns = $ 7.34 ( I paid about $ .97 a lb!)


2 Tombstone Pizzas - $ 2.50 each - 10% Senior Discount = $ 4.50 - Used $ 1./2 IP Cpn = $ 3.50 or $ 1.75 each ( This is a great price since I am saving to get the Utility Rebate)


1 pkg. Of Thomas English Muffins - $ 2.00 - 10 % Senior Discount = $ 1.80 - Used $ .50/1 Mfrs. Cpn Dbled = $ .80


Total OOP was $ 11.64!



Superstition Ranch Produce Market:


1 lb. of Strawberries - $ .99


1 Head of Iceberg Lettuce - $ .50


1.99 lb. of Cherries - $ 1.69 lb. = $ 3.36


Total OOP was $ 4.85!



Safeway:


6 pkgs. of Hefty One Zip Quart Size Bags - $ 2.00 each - $ 1./1 Mfrs. Cpn on each = $ 1.00 each


4 pkgs. of Brown and Serve Turkey Sausage Links - $ .99 each = $ 3.96


Received $ 5.00 Instant Rebate for Buying 10 Mix and Match Products


Total OOP including $ 1.02 in tax was $ 5.98!


My grocery budget for the month is $ 150.00 minus the $ 22.47 I spent today leaves $ 127.53 for the rest of the month!

Money Saving Challenge - June 1

Yesterday was an odds and ends errand day in Precious's household. By last night, I was glad to relax with a book. Here is what I did to save money:


- DH made French toast for breakfast from the leftover homemade cinnamon bread. We had it with our usual juice and coffee.


- DH asked me to order 2 Taco Bowl Bakers. After doing some research on the 9 inch ones we we wanted, I ordered them from Amazon.com along with a grocery item we needed so that I would get free shipping. I paid nothing OOP because I paid with Amazon.com gift certificates earned at SWAGBUCKS. You can link to SWAGBUCKS through the link on my right sidebar. I LOVE FREE!


- The flounder that I purchased on Saturday was the worst fish I have ever purchased. I took it back to Bashas and got my $ 11.97 back.

- Since Bashas is in the plaza with my hairdresser, I decided to stop and see if she could do something with my hair. I have worn my hair short in layers for years and I got tired of the look. So I have been growing the layers out which is a slow and messy process. She trimmed my hair so that it will grow faster and shaped it a little so that it isn't such a mess. A couple more cuts and I should have it back to one length. I had a coupon for an $ 8.99 haircut so that was a bonus.

- Before I went out, I put Hot Italian sausage and spaghetti sauce in the crockpot and put it on the patio to cook. I served that on penne rigate and made some homemade mozzarella garlic bread with the rest of the crusty bread. I made enough sausage, pasta and sauce for two meals so we will be having that again tonight. I will just heat it in the microwave.

- DH and I spent some time finishing the wrapping of my grandaughters birthday presents. We were able to find two boxes that would fit them all and got them ready to ship. Each time I ship at UPS, I get a punch on a card for each package. When you have shipped 10 boxes, you get $ 5.00 off the next one. My card was full so I was able to get $ 5.00 off the cost of ground shipping. Lucky also sent me a rebate form to get $6.00 back on a $ 25.00 order so I will be sending in for that rebate also. Thanks Lucky!

- And lastly, my mail brought me a Free Mars Chocolate Bar coupon and a Free Package of any Oscar Mayer Beef Franks coupon.

As usual, please feel free to leave a comment and tell us what you did to save money either yesterday or today!