Family Budget Update - Days 5 & 6

We are out of paper towels, swiffers, sponges, trash bags, and plastic wrap. We are using rags to wipe down the floor and other surfaces and considering buying a mop next month instead of parting with nine precious dollars for swiffers. To top it all off we have guests coming in today, and I am trying to figure out how to get my $20 daily budget to incorporate two more people. The upshot is - the self-righteousness of “Mom’s Family Budget Challenge” is over, and the reality is hitting that the $20 dollars we have to spend each day doesn’t go that far. This isn’t necessarily causing us to have a “pity party” as we realize how blessed and fortunate we are and that others are far, far worse off than us. But we are realizing how little attention we paid to what we were getting for our money before our family challenge. I would walk into a grocery store, hand over that debit card, and almost always bought $50 or more in groceries. Now times have changed and if we spend $50 that is two and half days money! We are not even half way through the month and I already can’t wait until payday. We have talked about giving ourselves an extra “bill” from Costco at the beginning of next month to see if stocking up on items like milk, cheese, and bread would help the $20 go further (i.e. we might need a bit of a head start each month), but we know sometimes walking into stores like Costco means walking out with far more than we might need. The major lesson we have learned in the last few days is that we are returning to the way my mother used to clean the house - with a broom, mop, hot water, vinegar, and lots of elbow grease - why? Because it is way cheaper!

Family Budget Challenge - Day 4

I knew it was only a matter of time when the $20 a day budget our family is trying to live on would yield a bit of public shame. One thing my husband and I have done since embarking on our “Mom’s Family Budget Challenge” is let our friends & family know our spending goal, so they are not surprised if it seems like we are being a bit “cheap” (we of course don’t see it this way - we just see it as us being more fiscally responsible). But we don’t make a public announcement when we go shopping that we are trying to get by on the $20 we have in our wallet that day.  You wouldn’t think other people would even necessarily know this - at least not until you are at the checkout counting pennies, letting the clerk know you need your 5 cents rebate per cloth bag you brought, and yes, sometimes saying “Oh, I am sorry, I must have miscalculated, but could I please return those pears?”  This is exactly what happened to me yesterday. I didn’t feel humiliated, but I also didn’t exactly feel vindicated either. The long line of customers behind me looked on annoyingly, as I handed back the pears that I thought were on sale. I was wondering if someone was going to offer me money as I looked at my total of $20.14.  I couldn’t believe it. $20.14?  I already had the attendant take the pears off the bill.  Did I even have the extra 14 cents? I wasn’t sure I did. How did the total get to $20.14?  I thought I weighed everything, accurately calculated prices in my head, and I thought the bill would be about $16.14 not $20.14.  By chance I had exactly 14 pennies in my purse, and I counted them out thanking the heavens that I had my cloth bag with me - because I needed that 5 cents rebate. As I ashamedly left the line I ignored the gazes/scowls behind me and intensively studied the receipt.  Where did I go wrong? And there is was - screaming from the receipt “MISTAKE, MISTAKE, MISTAKE” - the blueberries were coming in at $3.99 each.  I couldn’t believe it, as the sign clearly read “Buy one get one free.” So with a struggling toddler in tow, I returned to the service counter for the second time this week and inquired about the berries. After seeing the ad in the circular the attendant seemed puzzled too, and called the produce department asking “What the heck is the deal with the blueberries - why aren’t they ringing up properly?”  She mysteriously replied “Oh, really?” Of course my paranoia set in as I thought her response might have something to do with me (like “watch out that lady already has gotten four dollars back from us this week when we mis-charged her for her apples”). But my fears were abated when she informed me that “Those berries are buy one, get one free - but only if you spend $40 on certain brand items such as Wishbone dressing.”  $40 on Wishbone dressing? You have to be kidding me. I looked at her and simply stated “Really? Wow, could I return the berries please?”  With almost eight dollars back in my pocket, I walked out feeling a bit more triumphant than I was feeling five minutes ago and with new knowledge about our budget challenge: saving money is a lot of work, and doesn’t always feel good.

Family Budget Challenge - Day 3

Happy Fourth of July! With our new family budget of $20 a day I was worried that our 4th would feel more like a “fizzle.” But never fear - it is a good time to shop for produce specials, and sure enough I was able to buy quite a lot for our 4th of July feast. Using the supermarkets “saver card” I was able to buy melon, corn, tomatoes, cucumbers, nectarines, potatoes and a few other festive items for under $10. I actually used the scale at the grocery store to keep tabs on how much each item cost - again something I haven’t done for a long time. I even found myself putting a few items back to keep our costs down.  Our family decided to use the organic meat & buns we have in the freezer instead of purchasing new items (another thing we never really used to do). And although we are starting to feel a bit of the $20.00 squeeze (especially when window shopping) we were encouraged by our wrapping of coins last night (which I actually almost forgot how to do) only to discover we had exactly $20 to wrap up and take to the bank. Talk about serendipity. So although we are now feeling things are tight, we realize things should feel tight. Grand total spent yesterday $15.00 out $5.00 to our piggy box.

Family Budget Challenge - Day 2

I am starting to feel the pressure of trying to keep to $20 a day. I grabbed lunch “to go” and the total of $7.25 left me reeling - $7.25 for a sandwich, apple & granola bar? Maybe that is a good deal, but all of a sudden it didn’t feel like it. Then I realized that all those times I have spent money on food to go, I never once thought about what else I could buy for that amount. Yesterday, I thought about it. I dreamed of the chocolate bars I could have bought for $7.25 or the basics we probably will need this week, like milk or bread. So although I know our $20 can include a meal out - I think we will be more picky about what kind of meal this is. After all peanut butter & jam still works for me, and at a fraction of the cost. So “Mom’s Family Budget Challenge” lesson of the day was to be careful of meals to go, because they really might not be worth the cost.  At the end of the day with a few groceries included $15.25 out, $4.75 to the piggy box.

Family Budget Challenge - Day 1

Yesterday we launched our “Mom’s Family Budget Challenge” to see if we could spend less & save more. I am happy to say that I felt particularly vindicated yesterday, as we only spent $10 on groceries - and because I was paying by cash I made sure to check my receipts. Sure enough, I discovered on my way out of the store (from now on I will check while I am still in the store) that the apple I bought was rung up as an “organic ugly tomato” - at 3.99, so I promptly got my refund and left with three more bucks in my pocket.   Yes, it pays to pay attention & to pay by cash. Another bonus that netted me 5 cents (as I said we are counting pennies) is the fact that I brought my cloth bag with me to the store and I made sure that I brought it to the attention of the attendant. Many stores now pay you to bring your own bag. 

I understand this is only going to get harder, not easier as time goes by, especially when the novelty of all of this wears off and the family wants pizza or I want to sit outside a nice cafe and there is no money left in the $20 budget - but so far so good. Family budget update - 10 bucks out, 10 bucks to the “piggy box” - thirty dollars now available.

Mom’s Family Budget Challenge

This month our family decided to see whether or not we could scale back drastically from our spending. After tallying all of our expenses and seeing what is leftover we were shocked at how much we spend at the grocery store and on other “incidentals.” Given the state of the economy and the price of gas, we have set ourselves quite a challenge this month - to live on $20 dollars a day. I will be chronicling our progress and sharing cost cutting tips with you as well. Hopefully we (and maybe you) can learn ways to recoup money and put more into savings, and less into other people’s pockets. So here are the details of our challenge:

1. We are paying as many bills as possible at the beginning of the month. That doesn’t leave much left, which is the point really. When we were spreading the payment of our bills over the entire month we noticed we weren’t capturing the “left-overs” as we should be. So now we hope to put the money from the middle of the month in our savings account.

2. If we know we have a monthly expense, such as gas, or church offering, we now consider this a bill that we have to budget in. This way we have a more realistic idea of how much money we really are spending. 

3. We now are going to earmark any amount that we have left after paying bills as “family savings” so that we start to see any excess in the month grow - not be spent.

4. Once we pay our bills - we are going to use cash. Why? Because we realized that debit and credit cards were divorcing us from the value of money. If we were using a plastic card to pay for expenses, we were hardly noticing where the money went, and we were always shocked to see the end of month statement (how many times have we said - “did we really spend that much?”). Another reason to use cash is because if you pay cash for something you are more willing to scrutinize your bill, use coupons, and want to hold on to as many bills and coins as possible.

5. We set ourselves the average of $20 a day to live on. That figure needs to include groceries, going out, hair cuts, toys, books, and dry cleaning.  If we have money left over that day it goes into a “piggy box” that we can borrow from another day. If we run out of money for that day - too bad (unless of course we deem something as an emergency). That means we need to use a bit of fore planning - do we need to do the dry cleaning? If yes, then we know that day the money will go to the dry cleaners and not the grocery store.

6. We are going to start paying attention to where our money goes. If you only have $20 a day and you realize you are spending $5 on gas just running everyone around, then you might think about walking, biking, or limiting trips (which is exactly what we have done).

7. We are going to save our pennies (yes, and count them too). Honestly, my husband is going to pick up coin wrappers from the bank today. I remember as a kid it was a special treat to wrap up pennies, nickles, dimes, and quarters - all the excess change - and deposit them in the bank.

8. We are taking the time to comparison shop, examine receipts, collect coupons, take back cans - i.e. make sure our $20 goes as far as possible.

9. We are cutting back on what we now see as “luxury items” - that means “non-essentials” - including (sniff sniff) chocolate, any bottled drink, gum, condiments, magazines, lattes, etc., etc., etc.

10. We are changing our psychology about money and hoping it makes a difference! Every time we buy a latte that costs $3.50 that is actually $5 we had to earn in our paycheck before tax to pay for that latte. Does that mean we can’t have a latte? Of course not - but it means we will make it a treat not a norm.

We realize that some families don’t have the luxury of $20 a day nor the time to make sure that it is well spent - but for our family we knew that we needed this sort of challenge because with two full time professionals in the house we should have more to show for all of our work. We want our children to realize that money spent comes from money earned - and if we can’t do this, how will they ever be able to? So here goes Mom’s Family Budget Challenge. Wish us luck, and share your cost saving ideas with us, as we will share ours with you - because honestly every penny counts!

Waste Not Want Not

Today, I caught a segment on NBC that was a great reminder for our family which was about not wasting food. This mom knows there is nothing worse then throwing away food that was carefully picked out, prepared, and bought for the family. This clip offered some good advice for families -which was if possible, shop less, buy less, and throw less. Is this common sense? Yes? Is this always possible? No. But when you see all the food that the average family throws away in a week it might be that extra little reminder you need to go ahead and warm up the left-overs instead of heading to the trash.

Saving Strategies

Sunday grocery shopping is not our favorite event. As discussed in the Healthy Lifestyle section we try not to shop at busy times. However, what we do try to do on a Sunday (besides going to church) is collect coupons. A lot of us out there are trying to pinch pennies where we can, but sometimes this takes work. Recently, I caught a feature on ABC from the “Coupon Mom” reminding us all how to save money when grocery shopping. In a nutshell, she reminded shoppers to buy generic items, plan your shopping (and eating) around what is on sale at stores, check receipts, and use coupons (which she has available online).

This mom has a few other favorite ways to save money at the grocery store, and some might seem a bit counter-intuitive:

Let things run out. We found that if we have a lot of something we use more of it and usually gratuitously. Think of how you get when your toothpaste is finished but you just need a teeny bit more. Well you get it by rolling over the tube 4-5 times, cutting off the end, or pushing hard at the top because you need that little bit to get your teeth clean. Whereas, if you have 2-3 in the closet you might just throw out the toothpaste when the cap gets too messy or it is almost gone. So as the saying goes “waste not, want not.”

Keep your cans. At our grocery store we get charged a deposit just for the possibility that we might bring our cans back. On a 12 pack that is 60 cents. If we don’t take the cans back we loose 60 cents. So keep them, collect them, and get your money back.

Drink water from the tap. Call me crazy, but we have a good friend that works for a public water company and he can’t believe people drink bottled water due to rigorous State and Federal water testing. If you just can’t stomach that buy a filter that attaches to the faucet.