Deposit to Disney Fund!!!

(2) $5.00 Rebates for Prestone Antifreeze that we did a few months back.
$5 from my daughter for her friends birthday present.
$135.00 from my vacation check
Total Deposit $150.00

FREE Gain Laundry Sheets...with $1.13 in OVERAGE!

A good friend of mine gave me a bunch of coupon inserts this week.  In them were $3 off any Gain Laundry Soap or dryer sheets.

I hit Walmart and found their 40 count sheets to be $1.87.
I bought 8 =$14.96
Used (8) $3 coupons -$24
=$9.04 in OVERAGE to use on other items.

I bought a birthday present for my daughter's friend with the $!!!

Now, I have given away the darn things because they have such a strong scent that I can't stand!  And the Soapnuts I bought are working so great I don't need the dryer sheets...but for $9.00 I will take them!

Keep in mind that Walmart changed their coupon policy to allow overage...print it out and take it with you.

Go Here, and print you copy.  I didn't have any problems with it!

FREE Tuna and King Soopers this week...

Use your coupons for $1.50 off 3 and $.75/2 that came in last weekends paper for FREE Tuna.

I had some other coupons that were catalina's and I got 15 cans of tuna today!

Love my FREE shopping days!

Find the cheapes gas in your area

Thanks to Mojo Savings for posting this.  Currently the cheapest gas in my area is $3.22!  And I don't have to drive too far for that!

Gas Map

March 9 Meal Tracking

Breakfast: 2 eggs, 1 slice of Sprouted Cinnamon Raisin Bread (only 80 calories)

Lunch: Salad

Dinner: Burgers, sweet potatoes, vegetables

Snack: protein bar 1/2 in am 1/2 in pm and an orange

Menu Plan

Tuesday: Leftovers
Wednesday: Burgers, sweet potatoes, vegetable
Thursday: Crockpot Eggplant Parmesan with Feta and Salad
Friday: Pizza Night
Saturday: Popcorn, Fruit, etc. Movie Night
Sunday: Honey Orange Tofu with Brown Rice and Broccoli
Monday: Mac and Cheese and Salad

March 8 Meal Tracking

Breakfast: 2 Slices of Sprouted Cinnamon Raisin bread with Peanut butter

Lunch: Left over quinoa and lentil salad with green salad

Dinner: Leftover smorgasboard...

Deposit to our Disney Fund!!!

I deposited $48.51 into our fund today!

I found $40 stuffed in a hiding place...don't know what it was stuffed there for???
Jacob added $5
I added $3.51 from my wallet.

YEAH!  I'm so excited!

March 6th Eating

Breakfast: Banana French Toast and Orange Juice (I only ate one slice)

Lunch: Leftover Mediterranean Chick Pea Patties and a large salad
The kids and I had a slice of banana pudding pie.

Dinner: Haystacks (Basically glorified Nachos.  I plan to have more lettuce than chips and cheese)

Dessert: Lemon Meringue Pie (It is my hubby's birthday today and this is is favorite)

Have a great Sunday!

Disney Fund Update!

I'm so proud of my little guy!  He didn't spend the $ he had in his jar from his February allowance, so I asked him if he would like to keep it for spending money or put it in the Disney Fund?  He wanted to put it in the Disney Fund Jar.

This week we added $8.51 to the jar!  The $3.51 came from around the house...just money I found!

Total in our Fund: $114.42

I will continue to update our totals as I add it to our fund!  I am hoping that my oldest will keep some of her spending $ and put it in the Fund also!  She is the worst at spending her allowance on just plain junk!

What do you do to save Money?

I'm sitting here with a few hours of peace and quiet.  My kids are at church for their once a month fun group activities/learning!

I keep thinking and thinking about ways to squeeze $ out of everything we do.  I believe that our family is in dire need of a vacation since my hubby works so hard to provide for us and we end up just getting by some months and other months are fabulous!  We have to live on a budget and save for those things we want!  Our needs are always taken care of first.  So, I thought I would list the things I do to save $ and it would be great if you can add your saving ideas.

1.  Shop the sales/stock up with coupons.  (This is a great one, but I am careful to not buy things I don't need...that doesn't save me any $ I end up spending more if I try to get all the great deals)

2.  Shop at Goodwill for clothing for my daughter.  I am fortunate enough to have fabulous friends who give me hand-me-downs for my son.  I do buy their shoes on sale...I won't do Goodwill on those...call me picky.

3.  Cook from scratch.  It is wayyy cheaper to buy beans in bulk and soak them on your own.  I also buy rice in bulk, popcorn, etc.  Some days it is hard to remember to plan on having beans ready, so I try to soak a lot all at once and freeze them!

4.  I have a garden in the summer!  This year I plan to expand!  I want to have enough to freeze and can this year.  I did freeze a TON of zuchinni last year...in fact I need to make some bread with that.

5.  I started a Disney Fund Jar with my kids.  I just had the bank count all our change and I added that to our fund.  I labeled it with some vinyl.  I got the kids to help me get some Mickey's on there and they are excited to add some of their allowance to it every month.  I plan to do the same.  All my change from grocery shopping, etc. will go into the jar.  I haven't been spending the change, just adding it to the jar.

6.  I am going to start adding the savings to my fund from my groceries.  If I am under budget then it will go to straight into our fund!

7.  I am working on the kids to keep their lights turned off and we use our adjustable thermostat and turn it off completely when it is warm out.

8.  I try to plan out my errands on the days that my son has school.  I write down my route on a sticky note and put it on my dash so I know exactly where I am going.  I also plan out all my lists and clip my coupons to them.  The hardest part is sticking to the list!  I MUST if I want this vacation!

9.  I signed up for 4 survey companies.  I have spend about an hour on one and have earned almost $10!  Any found money will be added to the fund!  Even what is found in the laundry (sometimes my family tips me and they don't even know it.)

10.  We CUT OUT OUR CABLE!  DONE!  I am so relieve to finally have done it.  Our bill dropped by $58 each month!  That $ will go directly to our fund!  We now have netflix for $7.99 a month, so we are saving $50 a month!  The best part is that we don't even miss it!  YEAH!

Those are my 10 for now.  I will keep listing more as I come up with them.

Have a fabulous weekend!  I am off to check my garbanzo beans...

March 4 Meal Tracking

This is my plan...I will edit if the day changes.

Breakfast: 2/3 C. Oatmeal with blueberries and 1tsp Agave, Caffix (like coffee only 5 calories), sweetened with 1 tsp Agave and a little Almond Milk.

Lunch:  Salad with Almonds, cucumbers, red pepper.

Snack: Orange

Dinner: 1 Slice of Pizza and a large Salad

March GOALS!

For the past week I have been sick with some nasty virus that causes a cough, stuffy/runny nose, fever on and off, and just feeling down right yucky!  I took two nights off of my 1 hour job (that is how bad I felt).  I am finally feeling a little better but the time resting got me thinking and plotting :)

Here are my March goals:
Prepare for my run (I signed up for the Colfax Marathon May 15th, which I am doing a relay with some people I work with)  So, I have been running 3 x's a week with some great people.  This week...I had to take off. 
Track my eating on my blog...this should hopefully keep me accountable!

My other goal is HUGE!  I am extremely excited for it!  I want to get my family to take a VACATION!  We haven't had a REAL vacation in...well, over 8 years.  Since our 1st was born we have sacrificed on one income so I could stay home with them.  We don't do anything our budget can't handle.  Since we are so frugal our vacations have consisted of 3-4 days with family in timeshares in the mountains...over a long weekend so my hubby doesn't miss work. 

So, I talked to my hubby who is very skeptical and said that we would talk when we have $10,000 in the bank along with the $ that is required to take a vacation... (this is the downer...yet, it is also the challenge for me!)  I am actually proud of my hubby for making that goal!  We have seen so many ups and downs in the last 8 years and many lessons learned.  I'm glad he is keeping me on track.

Being that this is our slow/hard time of year it will be a challenge.  So, I am looking for extra $ to stash...that is where my posts will keep me in line!

My first deposit was $55.91 from our change that we have collected.
My next deposit will be from my vacation check that I will get in a few weeks.

Then, I need to be FRUGAL!!!

• I need ideas for inexpensive/free entertainment or dates. 
• Grocery shopping will have to be planned carefully.
• Clothing will be also something we have to shop clearance/Goodwill for.
• Home improvements...well that will also have to be planned carefully (working on that as we have the wood for our cabinets that I bought a year ago with my extra grocery $)
• New car...well that is possibly in the works also.

All the above things will get in my savings way...I will need help to stay on track!

Our vacation I am going to start planning will be to Disney World!!!  I am so darn excited!  So, how long will this take me???