Distilled Rose Personal Finance

Hey! Remember Me?

noreply@blogger.com (Redd) — Mon, 15 May 2017 23:59:00 +0000

Well hello there.
It's been a while since we hung out. About 4 or 5 years I think.
What's new with me?
Well lets see. I live in Minneapolis, Minnesota. I got married. I changed careers. I now make a six figure income and work from home. My only debt is the mortgage on my house.
Quite the change, huh? I've come a long way baby.

But I'm back. And why am I back?

Because I'm not the kind of person that can sit back and have no goals. I need to be striving. I need to be working. I need to be doing.

I'm an entrepreneur, a business person, and a hard worker and my job is.... well, not super fulfilling. And I don't want to do it forever. And I hate my mortgage.

So I'm going to see about shifting things. It's time to get back to pursuing new businesses and working towards truly, honestly, and really aiming for a life with no debt.

I'm starting a couple of new ventures. I'm taking $2000 and splitting them into two kinds of investment. One will be building a new small business. The other will be using investing to generate passive income. I'm going to see which one works best, and we're going to chat about that here. Along with some other things.

So if you're still here, hi. If you're new, welcome.

Let's see where this goes now.

It's Amazing

noreply@blogger.com (Redd) — Sat, 07 Dec 2013 20:08:00 +0000

Things are different now. Things have changed, and it's amazing.

It's been over a year since I updated this blog and so much has happened. I've made serious progress in my debt. I'm still working hard. I'm working at the Circus as well as finding some pretty great successes in my voice over career.

I've worked my ass off over this last year to get myself in a financially strong position. And I'm almost there.

I bought a new car, which is very soon going to be the only debt that I carry. I'm overpaying on it anyways and it's interest rate is really low.... 3.54%.

The only debt I now carry, is on my BoA card, which stands at $3200. I'll have that paid off probably within the next three months, maybe sooner if things keep going this well.

When you get stuck in debt, you're the only one that can get you out of it. Hard work is the way to go. I was freelancing for other companies whenever I could. I've been working hard on voiceovers, which has significantly increased both my income and my quality of life. I've been dedicated, and I've persevered even when I've been knocked down.

It's been hard but it's very close to having all been worth it. Just a couple of months to go.

Guest Post : How To Save Money on Life Insurance

noreply@blogger.com (Redd) — Sun, 11 Nov 2012 00:52:00 +0000

How To Save Money On Life Insurance

If you are trying to pay off debts, then life insurance is probably the last thing on your mind.
Adding an extra payment each month doesn't sound like the best way to cut back, does it? But,
while life insurance may seem like a pointless expense, it is worth thinking about what it would
be like if something were to happen to you.

If you have a partner or family, would they be able to cope paying off all the debts you have left
behind? Apart from unpaid debts, there may also be only the one income in the household to pay
day-to-day expenses. And what about funeral costs?

We all know it's unpleasant to think about all the bad things that could happen, but in the end, it
can be a good idea to plan for them. Here are some common questions on life insurance – and
some ways to save money as well.

What is life insurance?

When you buy life insurance, you agree to pay a certain amount in monthly or annual premiums,
in return for a payout should something happen to you. There are many different types of life
insurance – from the standard life insurance that pays out a lump sum upon death, to income
protection insurance, which can provide regular payments if become sick or injured and can no
longer work. Find out more about what types of insurance are available so you can choose the
right one for you. Individual insurance provider websites are a great place to start. Click here for an example of one provider’s policy document section.

Why would I need life insurance?

If you have debts or dependents then getting life insurance can be a great choice. Life insurance
can pay off debts, it can offer financial assistance to loved ones left behind, and it can make an
emotional time less of a burden by taking money worries out of the equation.

How much cover do I need?

The level of cover you need will depend on a number of factors. Think about how much debt you
have – your mortgage, credit cards, personal loans, student loans, car loans, and so on. Also think
about your dependents and what they will need – day-to-day living costs, school fees, medical
costs, college tuition. If you are unsure how much cover you need, you can use an online life
insurance calculator, or you could speak to an insurance expert.

How do I choose the right insurer?

Check out review sites online to find out what other people recommend. Try to choose an insurer
that has an “A” rating or above.

How do I compare policies?

Using an online comparison site is a great way of narrowing down your options. You can
compare each policy side-by-side, and then make a shortlist of the best options. Always read the
terms and conditions in full – this is very important! - to make sure you get the most suitable policy for you.

How can I save money on life insurance?

You could get healthy to lower your premiums – stop smoking, get more exercise, lower your
cholesterol or blood pressure. You can shop around to make sure you get the best deal. You can
do some extra research to make sure you get the right policy. You can speak to an adviser to
make sure you are not over-insured or under-insured. You can buy online to get discounts and
offers.

There are many ways to save money on life insurance. It doesn't have to be expensive, and it
may be a lot cheaper than you think. Take some time to find out your options, and think about
whether it is the right choice for you.

This sponsored post was written by Jules Shiells

Okay, Onward

noreply@blogger.com (Redd) — Tue, 14 Aug 2012 05:18:00 +0000

Okay, so the car that turned out not to work is sold. I put all the money from the sale onto debt and in the bank for my medical bills. All is taken care of and good. The good thing is, I'm really starting to see some progress on the smaller of our two credit cards. It's not been below $4,000 in over a year and now it's sitting pretty at $3,714.50.

Every so often I get horrendously frustrated with paying off debt. It causes me a lot of stress and really impacts the choices that I can make with my life. But, I know it's not forever. Sometimes, when I sell a book on Amazon or some other small thing I might put $7 towards my debt, or another small number. It may seem silly, but it makes me feel better.... lighter somehow.

You have to keep going with the little stuff. You have to keep snowballing your debt. It's really the only way to do it. I'm being much more vigilant about making sure the debt on my BoA card doesn't increase any more. We have a couple of things that get automatically charged to it, and I'm being really good about paying them off right away. You have to do that too, else you never get anywhere. My goal is that the next time my statement ends, the amount of interest won't max out the card. I don't think that's actually happened yet on that card. But when you're paying $150 a month in interest, it's easy for it to happen.

You have to keep sucking it. Keep going.

Current Totals

Prosper - $0
AmEx - $3714
BoA - $11866
ING - $833
Total - $16413

Ugh

noreply@blogger.com (Redd) — Sat, 21 Jul 2012 02:28:00 +0000

Well, that didn't work. Not two weeks after I bought the car, I discovered that it actually needs $3500 worth of work.

I'm hoping I'll be able to sell it for more than I paid for it, then fix up my Escort with the money. So, no nice big lump sum for me.

I also just had $480 worth of medical bills added to my plate for August and September. We're also buying plane tickets every 1-2 months right now.

I'm going crazy.

Goodbye Soon, Stupid Car

noreply@blogger.com (Redd) — Sat, 16 Jun 2012 00:53:00 +0000

Back when I moved to Las Vegas 18 months ago, I bought a car the first day I moved here. After a week, I completely hated it.

I paid way too much for it, and I did what so many people do when they get new jobs:

I purchased an item based on what I perceived my income would be, rather than money I had on hand.

Honestly, this is a really common occurrence. Lots of people get into debt this way. They get a big increase in salary and they don't pull their punches with their spending.

So, this car has been a real pain since I bought it. It's got many little things that keep going wrong, the air conditioning no longer works, and I've honestly gotten tired of it.

Sorry to whine. I made a bad choice and it's haunted me for a year.

So, anyway. I'd saved up the $350 to fix my air conditioning, when a friend of mine told me she was leaving town and wasn't planning on taking her car with her. On a hunch, I asked her what she was looking to get for it. She came back with $600 for a car in really good working order. Since that's just $250 more than my air conditioning, I'm buying her car and selling mine. This means I get to go back to driving a late 90's Toyota, which is honestly my preference over the 2002 Ford Escort!

I should also be able to recoup some money by selling the Ford, which makes me super super happy! So, probably in a month when all of this is done and barring crap happening, because crap certainly happens, I should be able to put another chunk on a credit card. Things certainly are moving in the right direction. We've taken $900 off our debt in the last four weeks. Here are the new totals:

Starting Debt: 07/02/11 - $21543

Updated 6/15/12

Prosper - $0
AmEx - $4257
BoA - $11869
ING - $1004

Total - $17130 (20.5%)

Onwards!

Goodbye Prosper

noreply@blogger.com (Redd) — Wed, 30 May 2012 18:44:00 +0000

Today is a good day. I paid off the Prosper loan today. We had it for 15 months, paying it off 21 months early. It took a lot of extra work, but this is a huge mile marker on the road to get out of debt.

Without this loan, we now free up an extra $150 a month to put towards the American Express credit card, which is currently holding a balance of around $4400. That, plus putting anything extra that we can towards it, should mean that we can really start to snowball out of this situation.

I'm incredibly relieved, though I confess it was a bit anticlimactic!

I've been working hard on projects like getting Voiceover work and finding other ways to make extra money. I have a roommate now, and wouldn't have been able to pay off this loan without his financial contribution. Needless to say, the hard work is starting to pay off!

How's your debt journey going?

Starting Debt: 07/02/11 - $21543

Prosper - $0
AmEx - $4494
BoA - $11913
ING - $1133

Total - $17538 (18.5%)

I Know, I Know

noreply@blogger.com (Redd) — Sun, 20 May 2012 22:11:00 +0000

I know it's been a while. I'm sorry. There has been so much and I'm so focused on my food blog that I've totally neglected this one. I'd say No more!! I shall regularly update and prevail! but I really don't want to make a promise that I can't keep.

So, instead, an update.

I've been getting lots of extra work lately doing voiceovers. I just recently landed a contract to record an Audio Book which will help hugely. I have no AC in my car and I simply can't handle it anymore (it's already over 100 degrees in the Valley) and this will give me the last of the money that I need to finally get that handled, plus some extra to pay down my day.

Hey shameless plug! If you need voicework, no matter how big or how small, check out my website here.

So, my Stunt Guy is back in Atlanta, trying to get some work. It's done a little to alleviate the financial strain, but we have a really long way to go. Hopefully he'll get some bigger gigs soon and we can start taking big chunks off our debt. In the meantime, I've got a roommate and gone into hunker down survival mode. This has involved lots of pantry purging and not doing things that cost money. I've also done really well at getting myself in shape, even running a 5K. I'm getting close to my goal weight, and continue to plug away at it.

So, here is the real update. When last I posted, here was the state of the union:

Prosper - $3026
AmEx - $4282
BoA - $11708
ING - $968

Total - $19,984

Now, this is where we stand:

Prosper - $367
AmEx - $4494
BoA - $11913
ING - $1133

Total - $17907

So we've paid over $2000 in the last few months. We've been paying it on our highest interest loan. It's almost paid off and I am so very happy! This loan has been a pain and being done with it will be huge. We'll be able to start snowballing our minimum payments and hopefully the rest will flow nicely. I calculated that if we snowball minimums, we're looking at 32 months worth of debt. I find that to be unacceptable, and am pushing really hard for us to try and get all this paid off in half that time or more.

I'm happy that once we move on to paying off the AmEx, I can throw random dribs and drabs of cash at it whenever I want. With the Prosper loan, we always had to pay at least $150 at a time. I find it better to be able to whittle in down.

I still can't see the light at the end of the tunnel, though I'm sure it's there. But I'm going to keep trucking.

Life

noreply@blogger.com (Redd) — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 19:27:00 +0000

Life gets crazy sometimes. I'm dealing with an impending cross country move for my guy, who also just had to have his appendix removed (thank everything for insurance, else we'd be declaring bankruptcy after this). I've got a 5K coming up that I'm trying to train for. I haven't updated this blog in ages and I have no good excuse. I'll get to it soon though. Debt totals are down from the previous. We managed to put a lot of extra money on our Prosper loan between my tax return and some extra income that we both made. The good news is that my guy is moving for work, so he'll be able to make some nice contributions to getting our debt paid down. I'm looking for a roommate to help us pay stuff down.

I've been working a lot on my other blog project too. Check it out.

Thanks so much for still being here.

Under 20,000

noreply@blogger.com (Redd) — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 20:05:00 +0000

Today is a great milestone for me. I just made a couple of debt payments, and we've finally got our debt under $20,000. This is a great motivational boost. The 20,000 number has always felt huge, nearly insurmountable. It really makes me feel good to see it shrinking. It's taking a lot of time, but it'll be worth it when it's all done. I'm hoping that my tax return will be the next big boost that we need.

It's hard, especially around this time of year, to put extra money onto debt. We've been traveling, and we have Christmas Gifts to pick up, but a little can go a long way in the end. Even though we're only putting a little extra onto debt at a time, it's going to make a big difference. Right now, we're overpaying on all of our minimum payments. Not, by a lot, sometimes, but it's these little dents that help. When I have a bigger chunk, it goes on our Prosper loan. Thats the big goal right now, getting that one paid off.

But that number having a 19 in front of it instead of a 20 is an awesome sight.

Christmas with the Frugals: Guest Post from Melanie at Think Money

noreply@blogger.com (Redd) — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 02:09:00 +0000

Rather than blowing your bank balance this Christmas, why not have a frugal festive season? Although this doesn't actually sound possible - it is! Christmas can cost you a fraction of the price, and you can do just as much as you normally do - parties, celebrations, etc!

And here's how…
Shopping list
Ever go to the store not knowing what you're going to buy (or just having a rough idea), and end up coming back with loads of things you didn't need?

The chances are, the answer is yes. So to stop this from happening again, and to stop you from wasting your money, you should create a shopping list.

To create a shopping list, you should search through your cupboards and fridge before you go shopping and note down what you really need to buy.

By creating a list of the things you actually need, you can avoid walking out of the store with things you don't need!
Discount vouchers
If you haven't already discovered the pleasures of using discount vouchers, I suggest you start now!

Discount vouchers are readily available online and can often offer you money off at your favourite retailers. New vouchers are constantly being uploaded to voucher websites - you just need to search for 'discount vouchers' on a search engine and take a look at the results.

If you can't find a voucher for the store you are shopping at, don't worry - your local paper may have some in.
Party guests can contribute
If you are holding a Christmas party this year, and are having a few guests over - why not ask them to contribute to the festive celebration?

So, instead of you having to go to the store and buy everything in, you could ask them to bring along some cakes, drinks and other snacks to save you money!

Guest article by Melanie Taylor from financial solutions company Think Money. For guides, help and information on money saving, debt management and financial tools click here now.

Total Love

noreply@blogger.com (Redd) — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 20:23:00 +0000

I love re-doing my totals for debt right after I've made all of my payments. It goes up from there, but for a few days I feel like I've made progress.

It's slow going. I'm not making progress as quickly as I would like, but we're owed about $800 in extra income that will all go to debt if it ever gets here.

I hate how long it takes for freelance checks to show up. You'd think I'd be used to this by now.

The one thing I do have to look forward to, though, is that I should get a tax return this year. I hope I do, because I want to get rid of my Prosper loan so badly I almost itch.

Here's hoping.

Blech

noreply@blogger.com (Redd) — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 02:22:00 +0000

I applied for a loan yesterday, in an attempt to consolidate my debt and lock in a lower interest rate.

I was denied.

It's hard to say that. I had repaired my credit and it was pretty and shiny and good. Now, it's in the crapper. But, our bills are paid. We are owed a bunch of money that we have no idea when it will show up. We have plane tickets to fly home in December. It's not all bad. The biggest thing is that we aren't going further into debt. We may be moving at a snails pace, but at least we are moving.

I checked the interest rates on my credit card... something everyone should regularly do. It's not too terrible. The biggest problem is the Prosper loan that I took out in order to pay our taxes. I thought initially that I would be able to pay it off in three months. Here we are, six months later, and we're paying just over the minimum. Now what I need to do is focus on it, because the interest rate is 21%. Everything extra that we can swing will be going on that loan. I'm seriously hoping that no more surprises come along and we can really get all of this taken care of.

Honestly, if you are trying to get out of debt, remember that the best thing you can do first is to stop charging on your cards. Even if you think you'll pay it off immediately, if you are carrying a balance, stop charging now. Don't be me.

Movement

noreply@blogger.com (Redd) — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 20:05:00 +0000

One of my goals is to make an extra $200 a month. Today, I'm $53 closer to that goal and I feel like I didn't have to do pretty much anything to get it, other than clean my house.

We started traveling with AirBnB back over the summer. It's a really neat networking program that has you stay with people in their homes instead of in hotels when you travel. If you have a spare guest room, you can set a price and rent it out. We stayed in a lovely home in San Diego back in August for a few days and it was really great. It was less expensive and it was neat to stay somewhere where we were the only guests and we were treated like family. After that experience, we decided to try and see if we could host too. We have an office with a fold out sofa and, since we live near a pretty major tourist area, we figured that we might be able to make it work.

So far, we're hosted twice. Last night, we had guests who were traveling in from Switzerland. I cleaned up the house, made up the spare bed, stocked us up on breakfast food, and then went to work. My other half let them in at midnight, they crashed out, in their room, got up in the morning, took a shower, ate some fruit and then carried on their way. It was so very very easy.

I know that we are lucky in that we had pretty much the perfect guests, and I know that some people aren't as easy as those two. But I am very happy that we've started doing this.

You can vet your prospective tenants pretty well. They provide profiles and usually they have Facebook so you can see if they really exist. We've hosted twice and travelled twice and both times it's saved or made us money, and been a pleasant experience.

I've been thinking about a similar program that lets you rent out your car when you aren't using it, but I'm not sure yet and I need to do more research.

So, check out AirBnB if you want to travel more cheaply or if you have a spare room that you want to rent out and make a little side money from.

Here's Where We're At

noreply@blogger.com (Redd) — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 23:18:00 +0000

So, I'm in Vegas, working for my dream company. Things have not been great on the work front for my other half and as a result we've gotten into a bit of a rut with our debt.

It's frustrating when you look at your paycheck and see your year to date income and wonder where the heck it all went. These things happen, though. Moving across the country wasn't cheap and of course things happened before and after we got here.

But now it's time to fix it. It's time to hunker down and get out of debt. I'm working on getting a few extra projects (mainly voice work) going, and I've been working on a new blog that I'm quite happy with. Writing for me has been something that I work on when I'm busy and happy, and though I haven't been terribly happy, I'm going to try and step it up a notch. It may well be that writing MAKES me happy.

As for my other half, well, he's getting there slowly but surely. He's also much better at being frugal than me often times. He's usually the one to say "we don't really need that right now", whereas I tend to be a bit more spendy. He's right though.

So with a new effort, and for transparency sake, it's time that I stick the old total bar back on the side of the blog and again list my debt. It's worked before, it should work again. It's also time that I set myself some goals about making extra money. Obviously, I want to make as much extra money as possible, but for now we'll be starting small. I want to make an extra $200 a month. So, here is the state of the ugly ugly union:

BoA - This is our major credit card. All our moving expenses went on this, as well as incidental things that have come up. And, I'm ashamed to admit it, so did a big chunk of my car.
Current Balance : $11795
Min Payment : $242

AmEx - This was another credit card that was used for all kinds of incidentals and then the rest of my car... mostly the warranty went on this.
Current Balance : $4348
Min Payment : $89

Prosper - This is a short term loan that we used to pay our 2010 taxes. We had both freelanced all year and, though I had put some money aside, it got eaten up in the move.
Current Balance : $3285
Min Payment : $149

ING - This is my checking account overdraft. Any time we travel, it's ended up on this. I really need this to be empty so that I can use it in case I have to fly home in an emergency.
Current Balance : $1091
Min Payment : $100

Total Balance : $20519
Total Minimum Payment : $580

So we need to pay all of this off and quite quickly. The current plan that I have is to pay off the ING and Prosper accounts first. I really need the ING account cleared so I have it as an emergency fund. I'm also working on building back our emergency fund but that isn't going to be full for a while. I have to get this debt paid down.

Anything that my other half makes, luckily, can go primarily towards our debt, so if he got, say, one movie, he could wipe out an enormous chunk of it. Of course, that's not exactly something that we get to bank on so we'll be assuming that won't happen.

So here we go. Nose to the grindstone. Time to fix it all.

Depth

noreply@blogger.com (Redd) — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 17:47:00 +0000

I think I'm one of those couponers who peaked early and then crashed and burned.
People complain that they don't coupon because it's so much work and so much to keep up with and I think that they might be right. I've had a huge stack of inserts to clip and file for a while now but I haven't managed to get around to it. It's partly because I work a regular job, partly because I have another new big project and partly because couponing is kinda lonely.

But then I look at the depth of our debt and I'm grateful that I'm at least doing it sometimes. We really have drastically reduced our grocery bill. For one thing, you don't realize how much stuff actually costs until you find how cheap you can get it. I swear I will never pay full price for cereal again. No way in heck. So thats why the updates have disappeared. Work has been busy. My other project has been busy, and I've just not had as much time as I would like to wax lyrical about the virtues of personal finance and saving money. Although, I am looking into RelayRide or some other service. Basically the idea is that when you aren't using your car, you rent it out by the hour. I'm trying to find someone who has been involved in it before so that I can get a better inside opinion. Know anyone?

But for now, I have sorting and clipping and writing to do.

Albertsons Double Coupon Grocery Shopping

noreply@blogger.com (Redd) — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 22:54:00 +0000

Albertsons have the magical little coupons available that double manufacturer coupons again. I'm very lucky that my store lets me use three per transaction so that I don't have to check out so many times.

This shopping trip was a really great one. They had Mozzarella cheese on BOGO as well as Tillamook Cheddar on sale for $6.99 for two pounds. I stocked up on those, which was $14 of the final bill.

I paid $49.06 for $124.19 worth of groceries. A total saving of $75.13, which is over 60%.

Airfare Sale

noreply@blogger.com (Redd) — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 08:03:00 +0000

In case you didn't spot it already, Southwest Airlines is having a sale to celebrate their 40th birthday with many fares across the US cut dramatically if you book in the next couple of days. Tickets start at $40 for one way. If you are looking to fly any time between now and December and you know your dates, now is a great time to book!

Grocery Shopping from June 15th

noreply@blogger.com (Redd) — Sat, 18 Jun 2011 00:18:00 +0000

Between CVS, Smiths and Target I had a decent grocery shop this week. I'm still working on building my stockpile but also adding in the occaisional luxury like buying my favorite cheap wine.

Total Value: $104.34
Total Paid: $45.18
Saved: $59.16 (57%)

And here is my question dear readers. Do you like seeing the break down of what I spent where? Would you like me to just highlight the good deals? Would you rather not read it at all?

Using Overage to Pay for Produce

noreply@blogger.com (Redd) — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 23:37:00 +0000

I went to Walmart very late last night on my way home because there was an opportunity for a saving that I didn't want to miss out on.

As a couponer, it can be very challenging to buy things like produce or proteins like meat and fish. We eat fish primarily in my house and I'm always sad when we run out because I know it'll take up a huge chunk of my grocery budget.

So I discovered that at Walmart, travel sized Dial body wash was on sale for $0.97. Also, a recent Manufacturer's coupon for $2 off any Dial Lotion or Body Wash with no size restriction meant that I could take these coupons to the store and use overage to purchase items I can't normally buy cheaply. I had six coupons and they happened to have six body wash left. So I purchased 2lb fish fillets, some fresh garlic and fresh ginger, along with 6 tiny bottles of Body wash for $1.65. This was down from $13.18 for a savings of 87%.

This is a rare feat, but a good one!

Drugstore Shopping from June 12th

noreply@blogger.com (Redd) — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 00:45:00 +0000

I didn't go too crazy at the drugstores today. I tried to only get things that I knew I would use and I laid off most of the candy sales. Leon the cat refused to be parted with the milk while it was on the table.

Total Value: $33.20
Total Paid: $5.43
Total Saved: $27.77 (84%)
Got back $4 RR and $3 ECB

CVS

Transaction 1

Zyrtec 5 Count - $6.99
Sale Price - $5.99
Used $2/1 MQ
Used $1 ECB

Paid $3.48 OOP Got $5.99 ECB

Transaction 2

Motrin PM - $5.99
Sale Price - $4.00
Used $1/1 MQ

Viva Milk - $3.19
Sale Price - $2.99

Used $5.99 ECB
Paid $0.32 OOP Got $3.00 ECB

Transaction 3

Motrin PM - $5.00
Sale Price - $4.00
Used $1/1 MQ

Used $3 ECB
Paid $0.32 OOP Got $3.00 ECB

Those $3 ECB's will be used towards milk this week. I love using ECB's to buy milk.

Walgreens

Wal-Fex Allery 5 count - Sale Price $3.99

Nestle Crunch Bars - Sale Price $0.39
Used 2 $0.35/1 MQ's
Used 1 B2G1 MQ

Used $2 RR
Used $1.08 Store Credit
Paid $1.31 OOP Got $4 RR for next week.

Really Good Restaurant Deal

noreply@blogger.com (Redd) — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 20:29:00 +0000

So today, Restaurant.com is offering an 80% discount on orders if you use the code DEAL when you check out. I just bought $100 of gift certificates to our favorite Sushi restaurant for $8. I highly recommend checking it out! They offer gift certificates for restaurants all over the country.

Finally Found It

noreply@blogger.com (Redd) — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 19:37:00 +0000

I've finally found an awesome coupon matchup site that handles coupon matchups for Nevada as well as pretty much every other state. I've been doing these matchups myself and, while I will continue to do so, it's pretty awesome to have found a place to double check my work.

It's the little things that make us happy.

http://grocerysmarts.com/index.html

May Totals

noreply@blogger.com (Redd) — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 01:09:00 +0000

May was the first full month that I worked on extreme couponing/strategic shopping. I was really happy with the financial results from this first month. I ended up spending a total of $296.91 on all groceries. I saved $467.92 in total. I'm well on my way to making my goal of saving $1000 this year to the point that I'm laughing at how silly a goal that was in the first place.

The more immediate goal is to only spend $50 a week on groceries. I believe that is completely appropriate and I'm hoping to hit that this month.

One of the benefits of shopping this way is I'm actually able to add more variety into what we have in the pantry as we try new things. I'm happy with how it is going and I plan to keep working on it.

I had a really great grocery trip last week that I haven't written up because I've been both busy and sick. I should be back to normal posting soon though.

Another neat benefit of shopping this way is that I was able to tell my parents who were flying in from England to not worry about bringing toiletries. I was able to hand them a bag of shampoo, razors, deodorant, body wash, toothpaste and floss at the airport so they saved room in their packing and didn't have to deal with the liquid issue. I got all of those items for free. It was very neat.

Drugstore Shopping from May 29th

noreply@blogger.com (Redd) — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 22:21:00 +0000

I decided to give Walgreens and CVS another go and am very happy that I did because I got a pretty great haul there for a very small amount.
At Walgreens, I did three separate transactions in order to roll my register rewards. At CVS I did two. Here is how I did:

Total Value: $77.71
Total Saved: $76.63 (99%)
Spent: $1.08
Received back $2 Register Rewards, $1 Extra Care Bucks

Walgreens

Transaction 1
Icy Hot Natural Pain Relief - $1.99
Sale Price - $0.99
1 $1/1 MQ
End Price - 0 (Got $0.99 RR)

Transaction 2
Wheat Thins - $3.99
Sale Price - $2.00
End Price $2.00 (Got $2 RR)

2 Dry Idea Deoderant - $4.49
Store BOGO
1 BOGO MQ
End Price - FREE

Gum Eez Flossers - $4.99
Rain Check - $4.99 off
End Price - FREE

Total - $2.38
Used $0.99 RR
Used $1.37 Store Credit
Paid - $0.00
Got Back $2 RR

Transaction 3
10 Dry Idea/Right Guard Deo - $4.49
Store BOGO
5 BOGO MQ's
End Price - FREE

Illy Latte Coffee Drink - $2.00

Total - $3.82
Used $2.00 RR
Used $1.82 Store Credit
Paid - $0.00

CVS

Transaction 1
Tasters Choice Coffee - $1.00
$1/1 MQ
End Price - FREE

Preparation H Wipes - $4.99
Sale Price - $3.99
1 $2/1 MQ
End Price - $1.99 (Got $3.99 ECB)

Total - $2.07
Used $0.99 ECB
Paid $1.08 OOP

Transaction 2
2 3 Musketeers Candy Bars - $1.19
Sale Price - $0.50
End Price - $0.50

Viva Milk - $2.99

Total - $3.99
Used $3.99 ECB
Paid $0.00
Got Back $1 ECB

So as you can see, by rolling my rewards and using store credit I did really really well. Half the deodorant and the Preparation H wipes are going into the donation box. The only reason I got the wipes was because I made $2.00 which covered the lions share of the milk that I needed. It went pretty well, I think!

May totals are almost in and then I have another shopping trip from today where I kicked some serious tushie to post. How did you do? Feel free to comment and link your strategic shopping success!