January 4, 2013 Money Saving Challenge
This morning I looked over all of the Christmas cards we received this year to see what I could cut from the fronts to make tags for gifts for next year. I was able to find the few above. Having done this every year prevents me from having to buy tags for presents. I never get enough but combining the ones I do get with store bought ones purchased years ago really helps.
I also had a couple of thank you notes to write for Christmas gifts. So I used a couple of these cards that I printed on the computer last Christmas. I keep a box of invitation envelopes with my printed cards so that I am always prepared with the envelopes to mail them. One will get mailed and the other will be hand delivered so that I save on the cost of the stamp.
The wind is so bad here today it is blowing the snow against our windows. Thank God that we put in the energy saving shades and have energy saving windows. They are all down and hopefully helping with the heat. It's like being in Siberia here today. There is no way I am going out in this today for any reason. Of course it is garbage day so the garbage cans keep falling over. DH has had to rescue the cans more than once this morning. Fortunately they just came and he could bring the empties inside. They still have to come back for the recyclables but that can seems to be staying put.
Breakfast this morning was oatmeal(me) and Cheerios ( DH), orange juice and coffee. Lunch was leftover pizza from dinner last night. Dinner tonight will be the bean soup pictured above and some fresh pineapple chunks. The soup turned out really tasty.
After lunch, DH and I watched a movie on Netflix. It is that kind of cold, blustery day to just take it easy and drink hot cider.
Then I did some planning with my DIL for some of the meals that we will eat in their timeshare at Disney. She made a grocery list and I added some things to it. Since I am the only one who drinks coffee, I pulled an assortment of coffee, creamer, teas and ciders from my stash( lots of samples included) and added some paper towels to pack. I am very good at making coffee filters from paper toweling. I have a reusable coffee filter here at home so I don't want to have to buy a package of coffee filters for a few cups. I also plan on packing the Quaker Oatmeal to share. We have reservations at a 5 star restaurant the first night. Plus we plan on going to a restaurant where they have had what they( my son and DIL) say is the best breakfast ever one morning. Other than that we hope to eat most meals at the timeshare. That will cut down on the cost of this very expensive vacation. It won't be long now before we go.
We haven't done much else today. Please feel free to leave a comment and share what you did today to save some money.
32 comments:
Hi Precious,
Your soup looks delish! I LOVE bean soup.
I have been looking for a super easy way to track my savings for this year and came across a spreadsheet that I thought you might enjoy looking into. You may have already used this but just in case, it seemed like a good one. http://happymoneysaver.com/2013-coupon-savings-tracker/
Hi Amanda,
Thanks so much for sharing. I am off to look at it now.
Biggest money savings today was closing on our refinance. Payments going down over $500 per month! Which will help with the decrease in paycheck with the 2% hike
Hi Frugalista Mama,
Yeah on the savings!
ooh Disney will be fun!! I can't wait to hear more about your trip!
I can't wait to hear about your trip to Disney you guys will have a fantastic time!! Hopefully by the time you come to town the weather will have improved some.
Thank you for your regular postings about the challenge, we will be starting back with it here to next week when life gets back to normal and the little one is in school again. I love hearing all that you do it inspires me to do more and reminds me of areas I might be slacking in.
Love the idea of re-using the Christmas cards. One of my SitNStitch ladies sister, makes new cards for a childrens hospital-so thekids have cards to give. That is where mine go.
B'fast was coffee and toast, then some fruit, dinner was homemade soup w/sandwich. Oh your beans soup looks soooo goood. Haven't found any god prices on pork/ham or even turkey.
Doing great on the prep work for your trip, anything that can save.
I stayed home all day taking care of my grandsons, my son also spent part of the day here to visit his nephews.
We ate from groceries on hand.
I spent the last of my Christmas gift money and ordered a triple crock pot, it is something I think I will use often to prepare meals with little energy.
It is cold in Oklahoma but no snow this year so far for us.
Our saving money was my husband & I just refinanced our home today. We orginally took out a 15 yr loan at a 4.5% rate when we bought our home in March of 2010. We now have a 10 yr loan with a 3.25% rate. We knocked off 2 yrs on the loan, knocked off 1.25% off the interest rate & saved over $28,000 over the life of the loan. It feels good to be saving that much money. :) We also plan on paying extra monthly & are hoping to have it paid off b4 the 10 yrs.
Hi Precious -- cute tags.
Things were going great here until I sent DH to the store...
Oh well. Menu plan is made for next week, and the kids & I are going to hang around the house today while DH works. Later on I'll sneak out to the library and pick up our crop share. We'll have roast chicken and veggies for dinner.
Hi KC,
I know how much you love Disney. I hope to get some pics.
Hi Tiffany,
Hello, my friend, it's great to hear from you. Please order up good weather. It's so frigid here. We will be there 1 week from today.
I am glad you will be back for the challenge. Let me know when you come back and I will link your blog.
Hi Urmelche,
That is a very good use of your cards. Meals sound wonderful. I hope you are feeling much better now.
I looked at our grocery flyer for tomorrow and the meat prices are horrendous. UGH!
Hi Rhonda,
It sounds like you had a nice family day. I have never seen a triple crockpot. It sounds interesting.
Hi Shanna,
Can you hear me clapping for you? That is a fantastic savings. I will be rooting for you to pay it off quickly.
Hi Jillian,
Thanks. Don't you know by now to never send a man to the store? I will be shopping for everything that DH needs before I go to Florida. Otherwise, he will wreck my January budget.
Your dinner is my kind of dinner. You are so lucky to still be able to get a crop share.
Your soup does look good. I love a bean soup. I really like soup...We will be eating 3 different kinds of soup this weekend to use up what is in the freezer. I have potato soup, broccoli cheese soup, and chicken noodle. We will have some grilled cheese sandwiches too. It is cold (in the 40's) here and wet..good soup, reading, and napping weather.
I have done 2 loads of laundry. In the warm water. I have 2 more loads to do. All will be hung to dry on racks except for hubby's uniforms.
There will be little grocery shopping this week. Just a few basic items for the kids...milk, bread, and fresh fruit. (bananas, apples, and oranges) Should come in at less than $25.00...My husband will fill the tank of his truck with gas...it is $3.19 a gallon here. I will pick up 2 perscriptions for my husband..that will be $50.00...
Paid the water bill, gas bill, and electric bill. I paid our life insurance bills too. We got the property tax bill in the mail..one was $3,400.00 and the other $1,900.00. They send 2 bills for county property tax and school tax. We own our home out right so we must pay these bills without the escro of a house payment. I save almost $600.00 a month just for tax reasons so the money is there. It just hurts to pull the money from MY account and send it to them to waste as they see fit.
I know better than to send my husband to the store also. lol I asked him one time if he had to do the grocery shopping would he coupon, pricematch @ Walmart & look for the coupons on the internet like me. He said no way he'd just go into the store grab what he needed (w/out looking at prices of course) & leave. Just about made my heart stop. :) So that says it all about most men huh??? lol
Can't wait for the Disney pics. Have always wanted to go. Oh well maybe someday. :) Have fun!!!
Hi Precious!
Absolutely adore the gift tags, what a great idea!
Breakfast yesterday was oatmeal, a piece of fruit for lunch for me, and I packed sandwiches for the family.
Dinner was the last of the soup with fresh crumbled bacon. I did make homemade meringue cookies, sugar free for dessert.
I've found that with the frozen juice, I can do almost 4-1/2 cans per container and the family doesn't notice the difference. I do exactly 4-1/2 and they do, lol go figure. But I'm getting 2 extra glasses out of it. Every little bit helps.
I will be making bread again this week. The kids said that their friends were so jealous at how good their sandwiches looked and asked for a bite or trade,lol. We eat with our eyes first, so I always try and make our food eye appealing. I figure I'll go with that and different breads for the various sandwiches.
It's been wicked cold here too. Shades are down, we so need new windows in the back of the house. The front were replaced 3 yrs ago, but the back...
Oh well, step by step, we'll get there!!
Hi Roxie,
Your soups sound wonderful also. YUM! I had a grilled cheese on homemade French bread for lunch today. You are so right about soup, reading and napping weather. You're doing great with the savings. Amazing how different places send their property and school taxes. We don't get school taxes until Sept. here. We have always paid our taxes ourselves even when we did have a mortgage. We used to be able to make more in investments than the interest they paid on escrow money.
Hi Shanna,
I hear you on the men! LOL!
I am over 65 years old and this is my first trip to Disney. So don't feel bad that you haven't gone yet. My kids went with their private high school.
Hi Didi,
You are usch a good cook. My mouth just waters reading your blog.
I hear you on the orange juice. I used to do that too when the kids were at home. But I had forgotten.
Where do you get a good price on the canned oj?
I love that you are making your bread. It tastes so much better than store bought.
Do you have heavy drapes or blankets on those back windows. That would help.
I do that too with my Christmas cards and a number of people at work thought I was odd! Ha! Glad to see I am not alone!
Hi Precious,
The bean soup sounds great. I am trying very hard to do a no spend month except for bills, groceries and gas for vehicles. It was so hard today doing exchanges at the mall of Christmas gifts my kids got for the right sizes. But I need to do this so we get out of debt quicker. I make homemade bread too. A great no knead one is from a blog Simply so good.
Hi Hunie,
Then I guess we both must be odd! LOL!
Hi craftmom,
I hear you on the exchanges. But it is a necessary evil.
Good luck with your no spend month. Thanks for the blog tip.
The soup looks yummy. I really like your blog.
Wow it sounds brutal up there. Keep warm.
Hi domestic grove,
Thanks for the nice compliment.
Hi Elaine,
It's warming up a little. :-)
Dear Precious;
It makes me happy to think Mom's card will have one more Christmas season, in case you use if for a tag! Happy to be reading again. I went to the Habitat for Humanity Re-Store (they sell all kinds of donations and over-stock from building homes to make money to re-invest in the future homes), and saw two framed pictures, 30" by 36", $15 each. I'm thinking of doing a collage of Mom's cards, if I can make it look classy, not like a teenager's cut-up magazine type of collage. I might have enough for two, even. I was thinking one in the shape of a wreath, and one shaped like a Xmas tree, and I might keep them up all year (if I actually get them done LOL) in my dining area. I also found some small glass bowls, just right for condiments, 6 at 25 cents each. Uh-oh. Back to work!
Aloha,
Tenney
Hi Tenney,
I am so glad to see you back here. I hope to make a tag from your Mom's card. Your ideas are a perfect remembrance of your Mom. I would love to see them when they are done. Great deal on those bowls.
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