I am sitting here surrounded by one heck of a mess. Nothing unusual...just the normal state of affairs at my house on any given day. Dishes in the sink, laundry to be done, homework to be done (DUE TONIGHT!), sewing to be done (and covering every flat surface in my kitchen and dining room), toys to be picked up, etc, etc. Ugh! How does my house get like this?! Both babies are in bed and I really should get off this computer, off of my hiney and get busy. I'm still in my pajamas! I'm drinking cold, left-over-from-this-morning coffee. I'm a mess. But I had to stop a minute and write this post before I forget.

You know, before we had Easton, I knew I would stay home once he was born. Financially it just did not make sense for me to go to work when I would basically just be working to pay for daycare while someone else raised my child. I mean I loved my job and all but it really didn't pay enough to make it worth going back to work after he was born. So we freaked out a little and then got busy making cuts. Expensive (but fun) weekly dinners with friends? Gone. Pricey home phone package we never used anyway? Cancelled. 160 something channels on our satellite package when we really only watched a hand full of channels? Cancelled those extras too. Buying whatever groceries I thought sounded good whenever I felt like grocery shopping? Nope. Time to use what you've got. Now I take stock of what we've got on hand and build meals from there. (Hmm...I could probably do a little better job with that but it really does help!) Paying full price for clothes? Never! Especially now that I have kids, I am always looking for bargains, even if that means shopping consignment stores or buying 2 to 3 sizes bigger and saving til they fit the kids. I've bought size 4 and 5 T jeans for each kid for around $2 at Target. Who can say no to $2 jeans?!

But what surprised me and what has really been our biggest secret money saving tip recently? Our bank's saving program. Every time we use our debit or checking account, our bank transfers $1 into our special savings account. At the end of the day, if you've used the account once, one dollar is transferred. If you use it 10 times, it's ten dollars. We've had that account open for 29 days and already we have saved a whopping $56. I can't believe we use our debit/check cards that much!! But it really adds up. $56 a month ends up being a yearly savings of...get ready...$672! And when you add interest and the yearly bonus the bank pays, we're talking about $724 that didn't hurt us one bit to save. NICE! And if we make an extra monthly transfer of just $25 into this account, by the end of the year we could have $1,047 in that account!

We honestly haven't missed those extra few dollars here and there. If your bank has a program like this, you really should look into it.

Now off to get a shower, make a fresh post of coffee and get busy!

SWEET! Just finished the taxes and we are getting a pretty great refund. Enough to pay off the last of our car loan, get my wisdom teeth removed (NOT looking forward to that!) and pay off about 2/3 of one of our biggest bills. Debt free by 2011, we are getting closer!!!

Menu Plan Monday

Well, OK I know it's Tuesday but I was busy all day yesterday. Here's what we're having this week:

Monday: Lasagna and garlic bread
Tuesday: Rosemary Lemon Chicken
Wednesday: Beefy Macaroni Bake
Thursday: Dinner w/friends at Brewbaker's (YAY! No cooking!)
Friday: Artichoke chicken
Saturday: Black bean and corn tostadas
Sunday: Leftovers or cook dinner on the grill

I've found that meal planning really helps me cut down on the grocery budget big time! We save money because we build around things we already have on hand, we shop around and buy what's on sale each week at the local stores, and I make use of coupons I get online, in the newspaper and by mail. Yesterday I got $13.60 worth of coupons by mail from signing up online and by writing letters to companies about their products. I got 2 $3 off coupons from Playtex because I wrote a letter telling them how much I love their products, $5. 10 worth of coupons from Earth's Best for signing up online at their website, and $2.50 from Dove from signing up for a free sample through Walmart's website.
Check out the "Frugal Mama's Favorites" links over on the right side of my page for some of my favorite money-saving websites.

I've been trying hard lately to slash our monthly grocery budget. Inspired by The Grocery Cart Challenge http://grocerycartchallenge.blogspot.com/, I thought I'd start out with $200/month. That sounds like a reasonable place to start considering we were spending WAY more than that on groceries...even when it was just the two of us! So far, I'm doing well. Through use of LOTS of coupons, shopping sales and making a meal plan, I'm doing OK. I went a bit over already because our fridge/freezer went out and I had to replace some staples like mayo and cheese and other misc stuff that we will usually keep on hand.
So far, we've spent $135.29 on groceries/household stuff this month. Not wonderful but not too awful compared to what we were previously spending. We have 15 days until J's next payday so considering the fridge/freezer disaster, we're not doing too bad. I am really kind of enjoying seeing how much stuff I can get for free or very cheap. Last week at Food Lion, I got 20 pkg of Gerber baby food for FREE using coupons! That's 40 servings for baby food for nothing!
We're doing ok financially, but without my paycheck, things can get awfully tight around here. Plus, the more money I save, it's almost like that's my paycheck. And trust me, saving this much money per month takes some real WORK sometimes! Going to more than one store to shop the best deals is time-consuming and exhausting but worth it.
Check back around the 25th for an updated total for the month. I expect next month to be right around $200 for the month if all goes well. Keep your fingers crossed for me!