Where's the beef?

I'll tell you where it is! In my freezer!!! I am so excited - hubby just scored some awesome deals on meat today!!! Shelf price is $202.58 but with the sales he only paid $86.79 :) Yeahhhhh Hubby! Here's what he got:
4 whole chickens
6 rump roasts, beautifully trimmed I might add
1 sirlion steak
1 bottom round roast
1 pork loin roast (it's huge!! he is going to cut this and it should make two meals of pork chops and one meal of a pork roast)

This will make 14 meals for us at a cost of $6.20 for the meat per meal not to mention the roasts are so big I am positive that there will be leftovers for lunch the next day. That is awesome in my book!!!

Every little bit helps

So I've been constantly turning off lights..... & TVs for that matter…when my family leaves a room. This is a never ending battle, I promise you I get a full walk in every day just going around room to room turning off lights and whatever else has been mindlessly left on. In addition, I unplug things that aren't in use like the toaster, can opener (heck, to be honest I use my hand operated one 99% of the time now because it's just as easy to get it out than to plug in the electric one), nightlights and such when they are not being used.
I also only do the laundry and run the dishwasher after 8 p.m. I bet you thought I was going to say I washed the dishes by hand didn’t you?? LOL – no way, never, not on your life! I detest doing dishes! LOL

I scored big too at Spokane Discount on florescent light bulbs - they came out to like $1 a bulb!!!! So, yes, lol - those are in play too. Darling Husband turned the water heater down a couple degrees. Now, I am not in favor of him doing because I soooo miss my piping hot showers but.....I suppose it's part of the sacrifice towards the end goal. He also put our computers to sleep mode or something like that (I just use the computer, I don't care how it works lol)so when we don't use them after so many minutes (again see my comment about how I don't care how they function)they basically shut down to conserve energy. The biggest thing we've been able to do is utilize our wood stove. We spend about $200 a month on wood for it but our heater hardly runs - which is set at 68 degrees of course.

For the month of December we fully expected our electric bill to around $700. Due to the changes we made in our lifestyle our bill was only $300. Now, I know, I know - we spent $200 on wood but that still brings it to $500 which is $200 less than we were anticipating. So yes, I have a big ol' smile on my face because I now know that every little bit does in fact help!

I'm stocked

**These pictures are about 3 months into my adventure**

Ohhhh mylanta, I have to tell you this! From playing the grocery game I've managed to save $4,717 on groceries, health & beauty products, cleaning supplies, pet food and so on and so forth for the last six months of 2008. Now, I know you are probably thinking well how much did you spend? Well, that my dear friend is $4,487. So roughly I saved 50% and I am excited about that!

Still think that is alot? Let me tell you, I was spending about $2,000 a month - yes, you read that right, a month - on these types of items to run the house. I would make my list and go to the store for my big shop once a week. But then you have those moments of "oh, I need _____" which when you go back to the store for the one item you end up with sixteen other items in your cart that you didn't know you needed until you got to the store LOL. I guess I should mention we are family of seven and have 3 dogs & 1 cat.

Obviously before I joined I had no grocerybudget LOL. I just bought what I needed *clears throat* thought I needed. I had no idea how much I spent each month until I was preparing my case for my better half of why we needed to join this game. When I joined I set my budget to $600 a month. I had no idea how this was going to work out as I had already been buying store brands and sales......but I was determined.

I was sooo overly afraid of missing a deal that I went over budget by a few hunderd dollars each month for the first few months but realized "hey, the deals do come around again" and backed off and now stay in my $600 month budget. Heck in November and December I had money left over in my grocery envelope so I moved it to our emergancy fund!

Right now I only HAVE to go shopping each week for milk, eggs, fresh fruits & veggies. You notice I didn't say bread. That's because my darling husband figured out the cost of the ingrediants and I make a loaf myself for about 60cents. And to my surprise I found out I like making bread. As a matter of a fact I LOVE making bread since I got the breadmaker for Christmas :).

The goal is to stockpile items you use on a regular basis while they are at their rockbottom price. Needless to say I am fully stocked on everything from shampoo to cereal. At this point I have to be careful on shopping because my basement pantry is pretty stuffed and I don't have hardly any room left to store things.

Plus, I started saving all the coin change I got from my grocery budget and after 3 months it totaled $100. Now I am saving all my $1 bills in addition to my change and in the last three weeks I've already accumulated $44 in dollar bills. I am so excited to see where this game takes me because I got to tell ya, it's been a great ride so far!

**If you check out the grocery game and want to sign up please put me as a refernce - email me @ohhh.mylanta@gmail.com & i'll give my email addy that I use for that**

Is it worth burning the bacon?

So I am a busy Mom. I assume most of us are busy whether you are a Mom, or a parent for that matter, or not. The afternoon started with cleaning up the kitchen, showering and heading out on a few shopping errands. Marah and I fight the snow and ice on the roads and safely make it to our stores with no hassles. We scored some great deals while out to. Heck, I think she did better than me! For her $5 she got a Rudolph lunch bag, a reindeer headband that lights up and a Backyardigans music set. I am shining proud of her and how she has learned to scope the clearance isles when it comes to spending her money. So we get home after hitting three stores and I start dinner. I am making a sandwich I've been thinking about all day - chicken breast, bacon & swiss cheese. I am happy to say it turned out as great as I thought it would! However, because I wanted bacon I had to fry it and the only thawed pack was 5 lbs. So, I start my venture of frying the bacon. Mind you I have to fry the whole pack as it has been previously frozen already.

An hour and a half later I am still frying bacon......Marah is in the tub calling for me. Whining for me. I am frustrated, doesn't she know I'm frying this massive pack of bacon??? Geez! I finally give in and go up to the bathroom. She proceeds to entertain me with song and dance and of course - a water show. I have to admit this, and I am so ashamed to, but I was getting mad! I mean -couldn't she smell the bacon? She knew I was cooking, trust me, I made that obundantly clear. But as my darling 4 yr old continued the show *after all, the show must go on* I couldn't help it, a smile breaks and my heart melts. So here is the point in my life where I learned that sometimes yes, it is in fact worth burning the bacon.

Tis the New Year

Ok, I've been gone for awhile. Wrapped up in Thanksgiving, my FAV holiday of the year!!!!, and Christmas. I have nothing to target speficially tonight but I will leave you all with a thought.

Our recession...we can learn a lot from this. For far too long far too many Americans have been living beyond their means with the help of loans and credit cards - it's simply catching up to us. Now, don't take it as I blame all Americans for this - oh no! The companies that offered us the easy financing are to blame as well. They approved us when there was NO WAY we should have been approved - whether for a house, car, credit car, furniture...the list goes on and on. We applied for things we KNEW we couldn't really afford (if we were being completely honest with ourselves) and the finance companies where more than happy to oblige.

I can guarantee you this - when you get your debt paid off and purchase things with your hard earned cash, not only will you be more price aware of how much you are paying but you will have a greater satisfaction with your item. Can you imagine your life where when you want a new ZZZZZ, just go to your safe or bank, take out the cash and go buy it? Can you imagine your life where when you have an emergancy, it's not a huge problem because you have a cash reserve? It can and will happen for you if you sit back, reflect and learn about why and how we got ourselves into this situation and make it a point to not let yourself ever get sucked back into the same web. Blessings!