My Journey to the Dark Side

Last week, I decided to try out extreme couponing aka the “dark side”. This was not intentional at all. Since starting to use Instagram, I have been following a number of accounts that focus on personal finance, budgeting and savings. One particular user shared about getting free groceries so I thought, “why not see if this is real?”

My first experience was with Google Express, a service of Google that delivers groceries and other items to your door. I decided to use it at Whole Foods since they carry a lot of gluten free, vegan foods my son likes that are so darn expensive! I was able to get a $15 off coupon code and if I signed up for a membership, I would get delivery free. (Membership is $10 a month, but they give you free 3 months. I plan to cancel the membership). My total spending was $16.96 and I paid $1.96 for these four items: can of black beans $1.99 and 3 boxes of pasta mixes that are $4.99 each. Not a bad deal at all!!

My next adventure was with Instacart (warning: referral link). They have free delivery on your first order and I received $30 in coupons. I ordered six boxes of pasta mixes from Whole Foods and expected to pay nothing. When my order was delivered, the Instacart shopper knocked on my door. He told me that they only had 5 of the boxes I wanted. I still have $4.68 in credit since I was only charged for the items I received. Seeing a young man working his side hustle spoke to my heart and I gave him a 10% tip.   In the end, I paid $2.53 for $25.32. Still, not a bad deal.

Now I caught the bug! I needed detergent and toilet paper, so I looked into how I could get some discounts. With coupons and a sale, the detergent was supposed be $3.24 each if you count the $5 gift card you get for buying two. Excited about getting a super deal, I drove to Target and got the last two containers of detergent containers they had. I also went to the clearance aisle and got toilet paper for $6.35. My daughter was with me and wanted to buy some boots that were on sale with a gift card her grandparents got her. When we went to check out, I was a little distracted trying to help her pay (and a little offended when the supervisor came up to the cashier and said, “Make sure you check the boots box for other items” as if my daughter was trying to steal something.) In the confusion of me asking if they said that to all customers or just minority ones, I forgot to use the cartwheel app to get 25% of my purchase. I went to customer service and they were nice enough to give me the value of the coupon or $4.50 but I think I ended up paying more because of the order I was supposed to do it in. At the end of the day, I paid $14.20 for 12 rolls of toilet paper and two 1.07 gallons of detergent.

What are my thoughts on the experience of extreme couponing? Would I do it again? What did I learn? Well, many of the deals are for first time users only. To use Instacart and Google Express again, I would definitely pay more than if I grocery shopped at the store myself. I may use the remaining balance on Instacart if I can get free delivery again. I never thought before to shop clearance for items I need, so I will definitely be doing that again when I have household needs. I saw quite a few more great deals, but I didn’t need any of the items offered. I don’t think stockpiling works for me but I don’t think it hurts to find great deals on things I planned on buying anyways.

What do you think? Did I get some good deals? Have you ever/do you extreme coupon? Is it worth the effort?

 

Pantry Challenge or not…

Supposedly I am completing a pantry challenge. I set this goal simply as: complete a pantry challenge – reduce my grocery bill by cooking and eating what we have. Here and there I’ve been making a few meals with random ingredients, but overall the items in my pantry have not influenced my meals. This weekend, I spent $331.99 in groceries. Does that seem like reduced grocery spending to you? Well, its not! Our typical budget for each bimonthly paycheck is $350 for two adults and two kids, one who eats a mostly vegan, gluten-free diet due to allergies. We typically try for natural and organic items if we can afford it.

After I spent what seemed like an enormous amount on groceries, I realized I forgot to buy sugar. I tried to convince myself that I didn’t “need” sugar, but I failed to convince myself. I decided to return some items to the grocery store and pick up sugar and baking power. This would also give me a little more wiggle room if I need to pick up some additional items later in the month. As I went through all my purchases, I realized I brought more groceries that I really needed! I even meal planned! Not sure where I went wrong, but I still have much to learn in this area. It is definitely awkward to return groceries but most stores allow for it. I got a few odd looks as I held up the line (not my fault that customer services closed at 7pm and it was 7:16pm). The cashier examined my receipt very closely for what seemed like 5 minutes. But in the end I received $22.81 back. With that money, I brought the items I needed. My husband got four sweet potatoes free that were leftovers from a camping trip he attended this weekend. I was able to make this delicious southern sweet potato bread adapted from this recipe!

Since I didn’t use any additional money, I am counting this as a “no spending day”. 9 down, 6 to go!

 

Mid-Month Review

We are 15 days in to October. How are you doing with your goals for this month? Here’s my progress:

Completed:

1. Declutter my inbox – Goal: Remove myself from 25 email lists. – done!
2. Donate or put away one box of clothing away – done!
3. Make a decision about refinance my mortgage – done! stay tuned!
4. Create next set of financial goals for 2017 – completed
5. Track down $25 gift card from phone company – yes, and spent it!
6. Complete doctors visits: eye doctor and primary care – done
7. Give up coffee – haven’t drank any this month!

In process:

1. Complete a pantry challenge – Still working on it, but its going well.
2. Organize and declutter the kids’ toys – books, clothes and toys have been decluttered. I just need to organize them.
3. Track daily spending  and have 15 days of no spending – 10/10 – I spent $5.36 on bananas and bread for the week. 10/11, 10/12 and 10/13 were all no spending days. Yesterday I spent $20.00 on childcare, $66.90 on school lunches for 3 weeks, $135 on a conference registration and $8.29 at a cafe. My “no spending days” are now at 8 total! 7 more to go. I can do this!

Needs serious attention!

1. Work out 15 days – I’ve worked out 2 days this month. I need to seriously kick it into gear if I want make this goal.
2. Drink 64 ounces of water a day – Ha! Not even close. I should have probably started with a baby goal like 24 oz!
3. Monitor my blood pressure daily – I was doing fine but then I misplaced the monitor some how. I need to find it and start back
4. Lose 5 lbs – Yeah…not even!

To try and achieve all of my goals, I’m going to create a daily checklist or find a good app! What will you be doing different for the rest of the month to achieve your goals?

The lies I have been telling myself

As I am gearing up for the kids to return back to school and all the expenses that come with our regular/non-summer lives, I have been trying to rework our budget. (Yes, again. I am now very comfortable with the fact that our budget constantly changes). I have had a nagging feeling recently that something does not add up, but have blamed it on the irregularities in our budget that come with summer including travel and camps.

Today, I decided to take a look at our food expenses lines which currently total $1,000. $700 is budgeted for monthly groceries and $300 is allocated my husband’s ridiculous eating out lunch daily habit. I began to wonder if $700 was not enough given the amount of gluten free/vegan items we buy for my son’s diet. Using mint.com, I reviewed our grocery spending for the last six months. I was a bit surprised at what I saw:

A very different picture than what I have been thinking we have spent on groceries! Except for March (when my in-laws stayed with us for 2 weeks), our monthly groceries is less than what we have in our budget. I was super confused by these numbers. If has been the truth, why isn’t there an extra $100-$150 in a budget each month? If these numbers are true, where are the leftover funds? Numbers don’t lie. I decided to further explore this perplexing situation and look at our overall food expenses. What I discovered made me sick to my stomach. I expected to see about $300 a month on eating out based on what I thought my husband typically spends a month. Here’s what I found instead:

Are you kidding me?! WTH! These numbers make NO sense. How in the world did we spending $834 on eating out on May without me even realizing it?! That’s ridiculous! I am extremely upset and baffled that I have been lying to myself all this time. Perhaps my husband is really spending more than I thought he was. Or maybe quick trips to fast food places on the way back from school really add up! I have no idea, but I am definitely going to address this! I am super annoyed but glad I uncovered this huge leak.

So where do I go from here? First, I have decided to set a food budget of $600 since the average was $584 for the last six months. I am going to try to use cash only for July and August to really stick to this. I am also going to closely monitor my husband’s eating out as well. I am going to show him these numbers. Hopefully he will have the same disgusted reaction as I did! I am also going to continue my “fast food” fast that I did in June. It will be a little harder when the kids get back, but I am going to keep this graphic handy to remind myself of all the better ways we could be spending money. Lastly, I will use this blog to hold myself accountable. Ugh! What a mess!

On better notes, I was proud of my shopping trip today where I spent exactly $40.20. I had budgeted 40 bucks for the trip. Yes, I was $.20 over, but that was good considering I actually put 4 items back! Had I not been using cash, I probably would have spent $55-60. Also, June was pretty awesome. I am glad my husband agreed to the challenge of no fast food or buying lunches. I wish every month could look that great!

Have you ever discovered that you were doing horribly in an area of your budget when you thought you were doing great?

Pantry Challenge Update – Week 4

If you have read prior posts, you know that this was a tough week. There were many days I didn’t feel like cooking or focusing on this challenge. I wanted comfort food which doesn’t include things like lentils and chia seeds. As a result, our grocery bill for the week was higher than I wanted it to be. We spent $123 which isn’t that bad actually (only $23 more than what I budgeted). However, we also spent $54 on eating out including both health options (Panera’s, Chipotle) as well as pure crap fast food. And I still have those frozen pancakes and chia seeds left! Darn-it!

One night, I was really craving sweets. We didn’t have any cookies or ice cream and chia seed pudding was not going to hit the spot. I found some grits in the pantry which I added some butter and maple syrup. My husband thought I was crazy, but it satisfied my sweet tooth that night! I also cooked a vegan lentils recipe called koshari. It reminded me of my travels to Egypt many, many moons ago. Not sure I’ll make it again though, but it was fun to try something new.

Now that the month is over, I have come to realize quite a few things:

1. There is always something to eat! Even as I end the challenge, there are more than enough items to make more random meals. Chia seeds anyone?
2. I need to hone in my meal planning skills.
3. The busier my family is, the more fast food we eat.
4. My family typically takes two days to finish off whatever I cook for dinner. There is only need to buy 3-4 meat items a week, not 7!
5. I was in a cooking rut. I need to try new recipes at least every 3-4 months.
6. To save money, I need to find a way to streamline meals so that I am not cooking 2-3 separate dinners every night. This means more members of our house need to be vegan like my son.
7. I miss fresh ingredients. While it was fun, I feel better physically when I eat less processed foods which was much of my pantry/fridge items.
8. I need to do this challenge every 3-4 months. I’m thinking January, May and September each year.

What tips do you have to get the most out of your grocery/food budget?

Pantry Challenge Update – Week 3

We had a great pantry challenge week!  I spent $34.09 for the week on groceries and my husband purchased ribs for BBQ he attended for $9.33 making our total $43.42. My goal was to use up some hemp and chia seeds I brought over a year ago and were expiring soon. I added both to my daily smoothies and sprinkled hemp seeds on all my veggies. I also made “no cook” chia seed chocolate “pudding”. The worst part was running out of coffee midweek but I decided I needed to return to drinking black tea only. Its been a hard adjustment because I love/need coffee even though my body doesn’t do well drinking it regularly. Overall it wasn’t that bad. We also minimized our fast food consumption to only $29 – most of it was purchased by my husband.

My goal for the final week of April is really finish off the random things  like chia seeds, fish sticks and frozen pancakes that I probably will never purchase again. The budget is $100 for all food expenses. I really want to cook more vegetarian meal so I am going to try out a lentil recipes that I hope the whole family likes.

Have you tried any new recipes lately that you’ve enjoyed?

Hemp in smoothies and with spinach and carrots – yum! Hemp with quinoa with peas and corn – I felt like I was eating bird food. 

Chia seed pudding – not sure I like the texture of it.

 

Pantry Challenge Update – Week 2

My goal was to spend less than $100 on food related items while continuing to eat up the random things in my pantry and fridge. Sadly, I must rule this week as very unsuccessful. The total we spent on groceries was $157.07 with an additional $34.46 on fast food. Our family had a super busy week (the fast food) coupled with my husband decided he was going to do the cooking for the week. While I like going for simple recipes with few ingredients, my husband enjoys making elaborate dishes with variety. Our meals were delicious, so I don’t feel too bad. We still used up some leftovers so we are making progress in cleaning out the pantry and fridge by the end of the month.

But I can’t blame it all on my husband. For some reason, I have difficulties buying for just a week. For example, I brought 4 boxes of vegan, gluten free mac and cheese for my son. Guess how many boxes he ate this week? Zero! I also brought chicken and ground beef which went unused. Now obviously we will eat these at some point. However, I really want to get better at this so I can reduce our overall spending on food in a month. We are spending way too much in my opinion. I can blame some of it on my son’s diet due to allergies. He’s allergic to all animal protein, soy, dairy, nuts, seeds and wheat. On top of that, he is a super picky eater and refuse to eat all day if its not something he likes. But there is always room for improvement.

Next week will be better! The goal remains to spend $100 on all food related items this week. Wish me luck!

 

 

Pantry Challenge Update – Week 1

Even though I’ve allowed myself to spend money on groceries, I am still trying to clean out our freezer, fridge and pantry. I’ve given myself permission to purchase food items for recipes that would use up random things in our home. It’s still pretty fun and some of the meals were quite tasty. The barley and beef stew was yummy! (All pantry/freezer items)

 

The day I made meal the products shown below was very painful. I brought them a while and my son turned out to be allergic to these items. On top of that, my husband has a fish allergy and my daughter only ate a few fishes. As I was eating the very gross spinach littles, I thought, “I really am a 38 year old eating sponge bob shaped food. I am an adult!”  

Overall though, it has been insightful on how much and what our family actually eats. I only spent $21.41 on groceries for the week which is way less than the $175 we typically spend. Most of the items I brought were for my son and his vegan diet. We did eat out 3 times, twice on fast food crap (about $10 total) and once a restaurant (About $45 spent. My son ended the night by throwing up the contents of his $5 kid’s meal. What a waste.) Still not bad at all especially considering we had an unexpected house guest for 2 days. 

The goal for next week is to adjust the meal plan and continue the pantry clear out. I’ve budgeted $100 for total food related expenses for the next 7 days, but I really hope to spend only 3/4 of that. Well see what happens. 

Default Pantry Challenge

As I shared a few days ago, one of main goals this month is to create a budget and stick to it. Unfortunately we were hit with a few medical bills last month that I decided to pay at the beginning of this month. Additionally, my husband had two pledged donations he had to pay on in April. Due to some miscommunication, we ended up using all of monthly discretionary funds this weekend. Oops! 

I am still committed to sticking to our budget! After crunching the numbers, it looks like we are over by $15 if we don’t buy any groceries for the next  11 days! Sounds crazy but going to try. Some call it the pantry challenge; others call it making ends meet. I am going to try to get the kids involved to inspire them to eat whatever crazy concoctions I come up with. 

This weekend, my daughter and I made pizzas with a gluten free crust we brought that my son turned out to be allergic to. Not the best tasting pizza we’ve ever had, but I had fun making them with the kids. Today we made vegetarian chili with a bunch of random veggies in our refrigerator. Add in some cornbread and enjoy! Delish! I’ll be packing this for lunch all week. 

   
Have you ever done the pantry challenge? What was the most unique thing you ate?

Saving money, hating coupons and an important tip!

Couponing is the worst. Yup, I said it. More on this later!

Instead of trying and failing to document every cent I spend, I decided to work on reducing our grocery and food expenses for the month of September. This decision came after several days of not blogging and thinking about chucking the whole “No Spend September” challenge. But then I remembered that being on #teambroke is not fun and that I really need to get the spending under control. The challenge is now going to focus on a few key areas including reducing our monthly spending on food and groceries.

First, I decided to change my grocery buying habits. I normally pick up the majority of my groceries at a small grocery franchise called Fresh and Easy. It’s the cutest, most convenient store by my house! However, they seem to be a little more expensive than others and do not take coupons at all. Then I’d head over to Whole Foods for my son food since he is on a ridiculous vegan, gluten-free and soy-free diet due to allergies. Afterwards, I finish off at either Sprouts or/and Trader Joe’s for mostly the meat products we like. This month, I am trying to get most of my groceries from Target. As a red card member, I get an automatic 5% discount on all purchases. Target takes manufacture’s coupons, offers its own coupons, has a savings app called Cartwheel and can be used with several online saving apps. I also love shopping at Target. Channeling my overwhelming desire to shop at Target to food purchases makes perfect sense!

Second, I am going to try to earn cash through apps including Ibotta, Saving Start, Checkout 51 and Snap by Groupon. Bloggers seem to rave about these apps and review them highly (with affiliated links of course!). If I can make $20 or so this month from these apps, I’ll proclaim success in this area.

Third, I am going to eat leftovers and random items that have been sitting in my pantry/freezer for months. Although I wish to take my family along with me into the kingdom of leftovers, I fear I will be on this journey alone. I promise not to eat anything that has gone bad or expired.

Lastly, I am trying my hand again at couponing. I hate it. Honestly using coupons stresses me out. I always feel like I am spending more money just to get a few cents off. I am terrible at matching store coupons and manufacture’s coupons. I get personally insulted when the cashiers scrutinize my printed coupons. But, I am going to do it for September and see what happens. My first attempt was yesterday. Trying to organize all my coupons and saving apps and managing my 5 year’s son mini-melt down apparently was more than I could handle. When I returned home and started scanning my receipts, I noticed that gum was not an item on my list. I had a strong recollection of picking up gum to buy, but figured that I had left it in the shopping cart. This morning as I prepared to tackle Whole Foods, I noticed a pack of gum in my purse. I reviewed my receipts again. No gum on my receipt. Great! In my attempts to use all of the correct coupons, manage my son and check out, I must have inadvertently put the gum in my purse! Because my mom raised me right, I went back to Target this morning and paid for the gum. I think the cashier thought I was a bit crazy as she said, “You owe a whole $.93!” Whatever, I can enjoy my gum with a clear conscious!

Tip for the day: Don’t accidentally steal!

For real, what are your money saving tips for groceries because I clearly need it?