Sunday, February 24, 2008
This Week's Frugal Dinner Menu
| By Lynn Forgy I went to the grocery yesterday, armed with a list and a sale paper. For $22.00, I was able to buy dinner and my daughter's lunch items for the week.  Night 1: Vegetable Pot Pie 3 cans veg-all (Kroger had them on sale 3/$1) Homemade crust TOTAL: $1 Night 2: Vegetable Stuffing Casserole 2 cans veg-all Stuffing mix ($1.20) TOTAL $1.86 Night 3: Pizza Cheese $2.99 (Kroger did have Kraft on sale for $2 but not the kind that I wanted) Sauce $1.10 Homemade crust TOTAL: $4.09 Night 4: Chicken & Rice *I already had these items on hand TOTAL: $0 Night 5: Vegetable soup 3 cans vegetables (3/$1 at Kroger) Potatoes (had on hand) Chicken Broth ($.50) TOTAL: $1.50 Night 6: Corn casserole Corn (3/$1) Sour cream ($1) Cheese ($2.99) TOTAL: $4.99 Night 7: Potato pancakes Potato flakes (had on hand) TOTAL: $0 GRAND TOTAL $13.54 I'm not one to follow recipes religiously, I generally throw my meals together and use a recipe as a "guide". For the crust in the vegetable pot pie and pizza: 3/4 cup warm water 1 TBSP oil or butter 1 1/2 tsp salt 2 c. flour (bread flour works best) 1 tsp sugar 1 tsp yeast Mix together and let rise for about 20 minutes, then roll out. Homemade Condensed Soup: If you need a recipe for this, there are many on the internet. I use about 3/4 - 1 cup of dry milk, about 1/2 cup of cornstarch. Mix these together, add about 1 TBSP chicken bouillon powder, pepper, enough water to make it milky (about 2 cups). Then cook on the stovetop until it's the consistency of condensed soup. Pot Pie Recipe: Mix the vegetables with homemade condensed soup and pour in a baking pan. Cover with crust and bake at 350 or 400 til golden brown. Vegetable Stuffing Casserole: Mix the veg-all, stuffing and condensed soup mix together. Bake at 350 or 400 for about 30 minutes. Corn Casserole: I do not have a recipe for this, and I haven't made it before so I'll be winging it. I plan to mix the corn, 1 cup of sour cream, and 2 cups of cheese together and bake for 30 min. at 400. |
Saturday, February 16, 2008
Making Ends Meet
By Lynn Forgy We are now more than midway through February, and this is the point of the month where I like to start planning next month's budget. In calculating the numbers, I realize that I am over $200 short. The reason? I finally broke down and bought health insurance last month (which of course I hadn't planned on doing so February's budget was off too). With many friends and acquaintances, co-workers and family members getting sick with the flu or colds, etc., I felt like now was the time to get insurance. I'm not happy about it, but then again, I would be more unhappy if something happened and I had to pay a $10,000 hospital bill. A necessary evil, I suppose. So back to the budget. I am brainstorming ways to cut expenses even more, and also increase my income if at all possible. The problem I seem to have is that the extra money I have been earning from my part time job and the mystery shopping I don't want to spend on my budget. I've put all of it into an interest bearing savings account, and I can't make myself pull any of it out. I wanted to leave it there until May, earning interest, at which point I was hopeful that I would be able to pay off my 2 remaining debts in my Debt Snowball. So I'm back to cutting expenses. I've cut the cable, water, and electric bills. I don't think it's possible to cut the grocery budget even more (it's down to $100 for the month). Although I have been reading in my groups that many people are paying only a couple of dollars, sometimes nothing, for their groceries. All through coupons. I'm too cheap to buy a paper, though. But I am definitely not too proud to pull one out of the trash if I see one. Right now, that is my plan for March - to get my grocery budget down even further, through coupons and freebies, which will leave me only $100 short on my zero based budget.  March is also my daughter's birthday, so this is something I have had to figure in. Luckily, I am training her on frugality, and she seems to be on board most of the time (although I still hear complaints from time to time). If anyone has any coupon site suggestions, feel free to email them to me for posting! Or if you have some frugal ways to save, send them to me to share with other readers! |
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Cutting Back
| By Lynn Forgy Over the past several months, since I've become more and more focused on getting out of debt, I've noticed that my spending habits are changing. I have eliminated many unnecessary expenses from my monthly budget, although I'm sure there are many more little ways I could reduce my spending. Some of the expenses I've cut out or cut back on are: 1) Cable/Satellite - I reduced monthly package to the "Basic" plan, and saved $40 per month. 2) Telephone - I cut out the landline and only use a cell phone, saving $50 per month. 3) Groceries - I shop one time per week, making a complete weekly menu a day or two before I go to the store. I only buy what is on my list. My average weekly cost for groceries (which includes hygienic products like soap and deodorant, cat food, etc.) is around $35, for a total of $140 per month. I also do not purchase the prepackaged convenience type meals from the grocery. I think a lot of money can be wasted on these types of foods, so I don't buy them. 4) Electricity - I have switched to the energy saving lightbulbs, and have not had to purchase replacements yet. Not only am I saving by not having to purchase light bulbs so frequently, the cost of my electric bill has declined. My thermostat is set on 64 in the winter, and 80 in the summer. I open the blinds during the day in the winter to help heat the house. In another month, I'll be able to hang all my laundry outside rather than using the dryer (even though we live in a subdivision, I am blessed to live in the cul de sac, with no close neighbors behind me to complain about my laundry hanging outside). 5) Water - We have a bucket in each shower, and save the bath water as well. This gets put into the washing machine to reduce the amount of water needed to wash clothes. Other ways I've saved: - We don't eat out as often (once a week or less, with a cost of $3.50). - I've stopped going shopping - no more department stores, the mall, random trips to Target or Walmart, etc. - Every month I write out my budget - as Dave Ramsey says, every dollar has a name. - I stick as closely as I can to my budget. - I cut up ALL my credit cards, so even if the temptation arises I can't act on it. - Almost everyone I know is aware of my plan to get out of debt, and so I'm not made to feel as if I have to participate financially in something if it's not in my budget. - My daughter will be homeschooled next year, which eliminates the cost of the private school tuition. - I don't rent movies - I can check them out from the library if I need to. Most importantly, before I purchase anything, I first make sure I have planned for it by checking my budget. Secondly, I ask myself if I really NEED it. If I do need it, I try to wait for a couple of days before I get it. If I find I still cannot live without it, I give myself permission to buy it, but I have to account for that by subtracting from one of my other categories. Also, I have heard from many people that they have been extremely successful in using coupons - some have even been able to get their groceries free! |
Monday, February 11, 2008
One of Life's Struggles
| By Lynn Forgy I have been struggling with my job lately, and for reasons that I won't go into I have been actively seeking a new position. I don't feel like where I'm at now is where I need to be - I am not at my Christian best while I'm there, and I don't feel like my Christian testimony is adding any converts to the church. Probably scaring them off would be closer to the truth. But at what point is enough enough? I have been asking myself for the past 2 days if money is a good enough reason to stay - does God want me where I'm at for some reason I can't fathom? And if so, why? And for how long? Questions, questions, and with no answers. Although maybe the answer I'm getting is one I'm not wanting to hear right now - be patient and wait. Patience has never been a strong point, and it's even harder for me to be patient when I don't know where tomorrow will lead me. This is where FAITH comes in. I have to trust that God will provide. I keep telling myself to just hold on, be patient, wait until May when the debt snowball will be paid off or at least more manageable. Waiting, and not knowing, is hard. My real struggle, then, appears to be faith - is my faith strong enough to stay? Or is it strong enough to leave? |
Sunday, February 10, 2008
More on Mystery Shops
By Lynn Forgy I've been doing more of the mystery shops this month, and the total for February (if I am able to keep the shops that I have scheduled for the remainder of the month, plus the 10 shops I've done to this point), I should have a total of $250 extra income to throw at my Debt Snowball. This sounds great, right? Well, it is, but there are some down sides to the mystery shopping that I wasn't aware of when I began almost 2 months ago. These are not exactly huge deterrents to mystery shopping, but I do think that they should be given careful thought prior to signing up for them. 1) The first thing I failed to calculate was the upfront expenses I would incur. This is mainly for fast food restaurants that I have to shop, and while the amounts seem somewhat trivial at first ($4.50, $5.75, etc.), if you have a zero based budget with NO wiggle room, this money has to come from one of your categories and can quickly add up. 2) The second food for thought is related to #1 above - the expenses and income you receive from mystery shopping are usually not paid out until the end of the next calendar month. So for all the shops I do this month, February, I will not be paid until after March 25th. These are the main things I've come up with in my "vast" experience (2 months worth). There is also the time factor to consider. Not only do you have to drive to the shops, conduct the shop and possibly take pictures (some shops can take several hours or more to complete), and drive home, but then you must complete the report and upload any pictures or images required. With this being said, I have managed to scrimp on some of my existing budget categories (I cut down our cable package so that bill will not have to paid this month, and my power bill was $50 less than what I budgeted for) and have been able to use some of this money to go towards my mystery shopping expenses. I am still in the learning phase of this side job, and I think I will get better and quicker at the reports in time. I plan to reevaluate mystery shopping as one of my part time jobs in a couple of months, giving myself time to really see if this is worth the time and effort. I will say, however, that having that extra $250 to put towards my debt is a blessing! Every little bit helps! |
Tuesday, February 05, 2008
Steady Plodding
| By Lynn Forgy Proverbs 21:5 — "Steady plodding brings prosperity; hasty speculation brings poverty." I am not a patient person, so this concept is hard for me - to achieve financial freedom will not be an overnight event. I must stay focused and continue plodding away on my debt. How do you stay focused and motivated? What about the times when you get so fed up with eating only "beans and rice" as Dave Ramsey says? Or when your shoes have holes in the bottom of them but a new pair is NOT in your budget? For those times, especially when I'm seriously considering taking the money I've alloted for my Debt Snowball for that month and blowing it on clothes, or excessive amounts of groceries, or new shoes, etc., etc., I will take a budget sheet from last year, or the year before if I'm really depressed, just to see how far I've come. It may not seem like I've made a lot of progress when I'm living it day by day, but when I can look back at last year's budget, and compare the size of my Debt Snowball with this year's, I can see how my steady plodding is paying off. This is one of the reasons why holding onto your past budget worksheets, and Debt Snowball tracking sheets, is so important. You can visualize what you've done, the progress you've made, and see where you are in relation to paying of your debt. Try it - you might find it gives you your motivation back when you need it most! |
Sunday, February 03, 2008
Beginning of the Month Budget
| By Lynn Forgy I love starting a new month - a fresh, clean spreadsheet, with no "in the red" numbers. I am a nerd, I know, but I love budgeting! I like to make my dollars scream and my pennies squeal.  If you're a frequent reader, you probably already know that my favorite way to save money is in the grocery. This week, I spent a total of $33. This is for 7 dinner meals, and my daughter's lunch for 5 days. To be honest, I already had most of the items for her lunch, but did purchase Quaker snacks, crackers, and chips. To further toot my own horn, I had 3 mystery shops at local grocery stores. So because I get paid $10 per shop ($30) and reimbursed up to $3 per shop ($9), I actually made $6 plus got my groceries for the week. Admittedly I was out a little gas, but not much. I was a little tired after yesterday's excursion to the grocery stores, because I had 4 other mystery shops that I had to do. But every little dollar gets me closer to my goal of $15,000 by the end of May. So back to the budget - I will have to tweak it this month because I have only a certain amount budgeted for miscellaneous, and most of the mystery shops that require me to purchase something will not reimburse me until the month after the shop has been completed. The money that I am spending on expenses for the mystery shops (food, etc.) will have to come out of the miscellaneous category until the shop reimburses me and I can put the funds back into my miscellaneous category. |
Saturday, February 02, 2008
Homeschool v. Private School
By Lynn Forgy Dave Ramsey would probably have been not too happy to learn that for the past 3 years, and on my meager income, I sent my daughter to a private school. The reason: I felt that she would do better, both academically and socially, in a private school rather than a public school. Because I am buckling down on my expenses, cutting costs right and left, I have decided that private school is not a luxury that we can afford at this time. I was paying per year the same amount, if not more, that it would cost for my daughter to attend college. Therefore, I am taking the plunge and have decided to homeschool for 9th grade. I have just started researching the curriculum and resources that are available. I think that one could easily spend as much if not more on homeschooling that you would spend at a private school. But I do have a budget that I must stick to, so it is very important that I not splurge. The internet is a plethora of information, free resources, groups, etc. which can be used to help with homeschooling. The problem I am running into is with the 2 subjects I fear most: Math and Science. I admit, I had to retake Alegebra twice before I passed it (in college) and Science was never a fun subject for me. I have found only 2 curriculum providers that offer these 2 subjects on DVD - at a cost of approximately $300 each. That seems to me very high, and believe that there must be more selections out there that are cost-effective yet provide a great learning experience. As a new homeschooling parent, I would welcome any and all comments, suggestions, and advice. Please email me using the link on the top right of my blog. |
