Pennies To Nickels

A Look At My Goals

noreply@blogger.com (Deborah) — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 23:56:00 +0000

This is a post solely dedicated to tooting my own horn. Patting myself on the back. "Insert your own all-about-me cliche here.

As of April 1st, The Professor and I have fully funded our Emergency Fund. Go Us, Yay Us!

As of March 17th, The Professor and I bought plane tickets for three to visit family in June on the other side of the continent - completely paid for from our Travel Fund that I started last June. Go us! Yay Us!

As of April 3rd (today, payday) my Car Down-payment Fund is enough so that if the engine fell out of my 215,000-miles-on-her Camry tomorrow and I had to replace it, I could do so with a two year old Corolla and then make payments that were twice the note. Go me, Yay Me!

As of April 1st, The Professor has over half of the way to the money he wants to save for his new Motorcycle. Go Professor, Yay Professor!

As of Feb 21st, I'm making an extra $150 payment on my student loans every month. Go Me, Yay Me!

But the spreadsheets...oh, the spreadsheets. They spread joy. And then they say "Hey, what's next? There's a bunch of empty cells down there". I don't like empty spreadsheets. They make me sad.

So what's next?

Well, there's still a lot left to pay on those balance sheets. And I'm always convinced there's a monster named "Debt" hiding around the next corner. So...

I'm not actually planning on the engine falling out of my car tomorrow. In a perfect world, I'd wait until I had the $20,000 plus to pay for a Prius. The pictures of the new model - hitting your local Toyota dealership soon - make me drool with antici...pation. In reality, I don't know that I'll make it the 18 months that it will take me to save up the rest of the money. But as long as I can wait and get it for $300 a month or less, I'm going to count "Operation: Drool Over The Prius" a success.

The Emergency Fund: I will never really be happy until it's high enough we could both lose our jobs and never worry about replacing him. But that's more of a neurosis than a goal, so we won't count that one.

The Travel Fund: The Professor and I are planning a trip to Ireland for Spring Break of 2010. His, thanks to the University gig, will be free. I'll have to pay for the package by next January, and we're not completely sure how much that will be. I'm guessing about $2000 for 7 days. At my current rate, Excel tells me I'll only have $1300 by the deadline. So I need to find $700 between now and January.

The Biggie: My student loans. Those seem like such a deal-breaker. If I can keep to the plan that I discussed with my spreadsheets, I could possibly have them paid off in December of 2012. That sounds like soooo faaaarrr awaaaaay. But you know what? That's only 3 years and 8 months. And that's less time than I've been married. The past 4 years have gone by fast enough. Too fast, truth be told. So I guess December of 2012 isn't really that far away after all.

Amazon Makes Me Happy

noreply@blogger.com (Deborah) — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 00:10:00 +0000

A while back, I got an Amazon Visa, which earns me a point for every dollar I spend; even better, all my Amazon purchases earn me triple points. I use this for all my gas, groceries and bills and pay it off every two weeks so I can get as many points as possible. And those points translate into Amazon gift cards, which I try to balance between fun (usually books or kitchen stuff) and needs (usually food or toiletries).

Today's also Friday, which means an Amazon Friday Sale. Even better? Right now, Amazon's having a grocery sale on certain items - they're 40% off the already (somewhat) discounted prices. And also - just to make it even sweeter - I picked items that qualify for free shipping. I am a happy woman. A happy woman who has earned a glass (or three) of wine.

So here's how my Amazon shopping shaped up today:

Original total: $116.xx

After Super Saver Shipping: $96.xx

After 40% discount on 2 items: $66.xx

After $50 in Gift Cards: $16.32

What I got:

Mushrooms (part of the 40% off promotion, in the Natural & Organics section): http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000HP5I46

Artichoke Hearts (part of today’s Friday Sale): http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000FDB3YY

Krinkle Sticks (part of the 40% off promotion, in the Natural & Organics section): http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000TYHSZW

Oatmeal: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001FA1M6K

The artichoke hearts made me especially happy – I love using them in dips and pasta dishes, and they’re NOT cheap. What I paid for my entire order is still saving several dollars over what I would pay retail for 12 cans of them.

And next week, I'll have much fun opening up my boxes.

Happy Friday, Indeed!

CVS at Thanksgiving - a new holiday tradition?

noreply@blogger.com (Deborah) — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 14:23:00 +0000

The Professor was not nearly impressed enough with my shopping trip this morning, so I'm breaking the silence over here (silence due to my own laziness and lack of insight) to say that for once, I'm glad I'm not cooking for 15 people today, because if I had that to worry about I never would have taken 30 minutes to run to CVS at 8 AM.

What's sad? I didn't even have to set my alarm this morning I was out of bed by 6:45. It's like I don't know myself anymore.

Anyway, CVS has made Thanksgiving worth more than turkey and dressing for me. Maybe the day after Christmas will be just as good.

So, here's my shopping trip in all it's fun:

Clairol Hydriance 8.49
Aussie Conditioner 2.99
Aussie Shampoo 2.99
2 Bic Soleil - 5.99 each
1 CoverGirl pressed powder - 5.99

My coupons:
$2 Clairol Hydriance
(2) $1 Aussie
(2) $3 Bic Soleil
$1 Cover Girl
$2 CVS any razor purchase $10 or more
$2 CVS any hair color purchase
$13 ECB

My total before I handed the coupons over was $35.xx - and I ended up paying $5.40. But the real kicker?
I got back almost $29 in ECB!

So come on, CVS. Give me some awesome deals at Christmas.

Quotable Quotes

noreply@blogger.com (Deborah) — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 00:46:00 +0000

For Christmas, The Bestest Friend gave me a Quote Journal. She had added many that meant something to her; that she hoped would strike a chord in me. She hit the nail on the head with all of them. This is a journal to write quotes that strike something in me. After 8 months of not adding anything, today I came across one that is worthy:

Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.
--Ralph Waldo Emerson

Because I need one more reason to drink coffee

noreply@blogger.com (Deborah) — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 01:03:00 +0000

I love coffee. I love flavored cream for my coffee. But mostly, I love coffee in all it's caffeinated forms. I rarely buy cream for it anymore (which is why it was such a treat to have half & half at my sister's house last week - I shamelessly took advantage of it). But when I find coupons like this, I usually give in.

$1 off Coffee Mate

I'll be giving in soon.

Weekly Shopping: Publix

noreply@blogger.com (Deborah) — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 00:30:00 +0000

I didn't buy much food at Publix this week - some chicken breasts and pork chops, some bananas and plums. The best deals I got this week were on non-food items.

1) Lysol products aren't on sale, but the Publix circular (which you can pick up in the store) has a coupon to get $3 off when you buy three. There's also several Lysol coupons out there - I had a bunch of 50 cent ones (that got doubled). So I bought 2 toilet bowl cleaners ($2.19 each) and 1 all purpose cleaner ($2.69). Total cost for all three: $1.07.

2) Kotex tampons are buy 1 get 1 free this week, for $2.95. There's some $1/1 coupons here, which makes this a sweet, sweet deal at 48 cents a box.

I was overbudget by $6, but I'm not gonna sweat it. I may have spent $46, but I saved $44 - and over $20 of that was coupons.

Check Fiddledeedee! for some more Publix Deals!

Car Maintenance Fund (Or, my ING Sub-Accounts Addiction)

noreply@blogger.com (Deborah) — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 13:19:00 +0000

Having an 8 year-old car means realizing that you're probably going to shell out a few hundred dollars a year in maintenance costs over and above the cost of oil changes and air filters. After I had to hack into my emergency fund last year to pay for some transmission work last summer, I decided to start my car maintenance fund. Because I'm a procrastinator, it took me until this past February to actually do it. Basically, I dump $2o into a savings account every pay period. It's enough money to add up to a nice (small) cushion when I need work done on my car, but not enough that it hurts the rest of the money juggling I do between accounts. I don't tap into it for my oil changes, but it's there in case I need anything much bigger done to my car.

A couple of weeks ago, I took my car in for some maintenance work before our Tropical Trip. My car has 197,000 miles on it and has never had a tune up. It was time. I also needed new wiper blades, a new headlight, an oil change...oh and my battery was corroding around the connectors so they cleaned it for free. Woo-hoo! for free stuff! .

Total bill: $465. Yuck.

I put it on my credit card (everything goes on the credit card). Friday I got paid, and so I checked into all my various accounts to check on things and pay my bills. I thought I had enough money left over from last month to pay the credit card off like I do every pay day. But I was a couple hundred short. I was going to have to carry a balance for more than two weeks? Cue the Panic Music.

Then I remembered: I have that separate account just for this kind of work. I haven't tapped into that money yet, so I have the cash there to make up the difference. Part of my heart died a little when I hit the key to transfer the money, but now I'm glad that I have it there to transfer.

CVS Sales Cycle

noreply@blogger.com (Deborah) — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 13:02:00 +0000

A couple of weeks ago, CVS started testing out a new sales cycle: Friday-Thursday (instead of Sunday-Saturday). It's not in efffect everywhere yet, but I happen to be in one of the test markets.

I'm afraid that by the time I do my weekly shopping on Sunday mornings, the good sales items will have already been snatched up on Saturdays, leaving me...nothing. I'm not doing as many CVS deals as I was 6 months ago - as my mom says, there's only so much toothpaste a household of two needs to have on hand at any given time. But when the goodies come along, I'd like to be able to participate.

There's some more details here on the slickdeals forums. If you're in the new market, pipe up and let us all know!

On Vacation: It's Cheaper To Go To The Tropical Storm

noreply@blogger.com (Deborah) — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 13:45:00 +0000

The trip had been planned for months. Every year, The Professor and I travel down to the coast to visit the sister with the hot tub, the pool, the close-by-beach, the full wine rack and the screened in back porch that's oh-so-perfect for morning coffee and laptop usage. I go because I actually like my sister a little, but those are some of the perks I get from displaying all that sibling affection on an annual basis.

This year, a lady named Fay has intervened. The tropical storm's been sitting close enough for literally days to make rain and wind the normal background sound.

The kids are out of school, which means we haven't done the shopping that was planned around the carpool route. We might hit up the spice store today, but we're not going to make it to the Farmer's Market - which really isn't all that bad, because my sister is brilliant and went before we came. And we still have tons of produce - and we're leaving for home tomorrow.

We missed our night out due to power outages and - more importantly - the pub we had in our sights closed down for the night. So Sis saved on babysitter charges and The Professor and I saved on buying drinks for hours on end. Instead we made margaritas at home and played Go-Fish with the 6 year old. (The six-year-old niece did not have any margaritas.)

Entertainment? Oh, we've had plenty. The Hurricane Center puts out updated storm tracking maps every 3 hours. With my sister and I both keeping an eye on various websites and radars and projected paths, that takes up more time than you would probably like to think about.

The best part about coming down here, though, is that this isn't the type of vacation where The Professor and I are trying to be on the move every minute of the day. And my sister gets that - she's good with the fact that we just come down here and sit around her property for a few days. An entire day with nothing planned means an entire day with no pressure and the fun of sitting around talking to my sister. Or playing Go-Fish.

Ebates

noreply@blogger.com (Deborah) — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 00:00:00 +0000

I signed up for Ebates today. I don't buy as much stuff online as I used to, so I've never paid much attention to them. But:

Christmas is coming up (yes, I'm already making my lists);
I had to make a hotel reservation today for tomorrow night;
Drugstore.com is currently giving 12% rebates on Ebates;
There was a $5 sign up bonus.

You have to have $5.01 in rebates to get a check - the $5 sign-up bonus and the rebate from the hotel reservation (3% rebate) will get me $6 and some change for making the reservation that I needed anyway. AND!

You and I can both get bonuses. If you use my link, we'll both get $5. Or just go to Ebates and sign up the old-fashioned way - you still get $5 for signing up.

Any way you look at it, that's another snowflake for my Car Fund.

Quick Publix Deal

noreply@blogger.com (Deborah) — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 15:45:00 +0000

I still haven't decided if I need this much Diet 7-Up and Root Beer in my life (or Ginger Ale, or any combination of the above), but there's a pretty good deal at Publix this week:

Buy 3 12-packs of the above sodas for $9.
Use the coupon on the front of the circular for "Buy 3 Get 1 Free", which makes it 4 12-packs for $9.
Print up 4 of the coupons on these sodas from SuperTarget's coupon site: http://sites.target.com/site/en/supertarget/page.jsp?title=coupons_specials
Get 4 12-packs for $5.

Diet 7-Up makes a great mixer, and The Professor loves Root Beer, so I may cave and do this. Who knows what my shopping trip will bring this weekend? :)

Free Amazon MP3s

noreply@blogger.com (Deborah) — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 01:14:00 +0000

I love Amazon's MP3 store. It's way too easy for me to buy new songs and/or albums. But the best part of the store is their free MP3 program.

It's very simple: sign up for their MP3 newsletter, and you get an email once a week with links to free MP3 downloads. Anywhere from 2-5 songs usually, completely free.

Many of these are artists I would NEVER download if I had to pay for them - and that's exactly what Amazon is counting on. That I'll listen to one song and think, hey! I need this whole album!

So far, I haven't given in. But I do make a point to download the free songs - of course! Who doesn't like free music?

This week they have an entire album they're doing for free. And I'll go ahead and admit - I am loving this music.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001D4ZF6Q/ref

Thanks to Karen for the link via her Twitter feed.

Amazon didn't pay me for this - I've just been enjoying the free music and felt the need to share.

So...How much toilet paper do YOU use?

noreply@blogger.com (Deborah) — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 23:49:00 +0000

We all have areas in our life that could use some cutting back. Sometimes the trick is finding them.

I've been telling The Professor for literally months that we use too much toilet paper. He has some sinus issues, so it's not unusual for him to go through a half a roll a day on his own. I won't go into other uses. This, however, is not a subject he wishes to discuss, Ever, For any reason other than to tell me that we need more.

Sarcastic Mom has a fascinating conversation going on over at her blog. And before I link you, I'll warn you that she does go into some detail, so it's not for the faint of heart. Also, her tree metaphor might offend a few people - but it was one of the funniest things I've read this month.

So, Sarcastic Mom & I want to know - how much toilet paper do you use?

Curbside Recycling

noreply@blogger.com (Deborah) — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 14:50:00 +0000

Here in my little corner of the Southern Paradise, we don't have curbside recycling. There's a church about a half mile away that takes newspapers and magazines for recycling, and The Professor takes our #s 1& 2 plastics and our cans to the university for their campus recycling.

I finally sat down to read our city's monthly newsletter, and was very excited to see that the city is looking into providing curbside recycling. But it's a little more complicated than just putting my plastics in a bin and moving on with my life:

[E]ach city resident that would like to sign up would be issued a large container very similar to your city trash can. This can would hold all of your recyclable items. Allied Waste will provide the city with a list of all recyclable items. Once a month for a small fee, Allied Waste Services would pick up your recycling can. The can will have a scanner on the outside that will read the items recycled by the customer and the amounts that are being recycled. Each customer would then receive a rewards card based of the amount you recycled. The reward cards can be redeemed at several merchants. The list of merchants will be provided by Allied Waste Services.

Recycling is definitely something I'd pay a small fee to take advantage of, since we wouldn't be driving our garbage around anymore. But I don't think I've ever heard of this kind of program. I'll be very interested to see which merchants will be participating. I can only hope and dream that it will be Publix!

Update to the Car Break-In

noreply@blogger.com (Deborah) — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 01:11:00 +0000

Monday morning, I found out my gym bag - which had nothing of any real value in it - had been stolen from my car overnight.

And today, the police department called and told me they had recovered my bag! It still had everything in it. I had originally planned on going by the police department today to get a copy of the police report to hand over to my insurance company, but instead I picked up my bag.

I asked the Sergeant where they had found it; he told me they "found" it in the subdivision across the road from ours (the subdivision he lives in, and the one that I've been eyeing houses in for the past couple of years). He told me that the two suspects hadn't been formally charged yet, and because they are minors he can't give me any more information. But he was going to "interview" them today. I also received a letter from the police department today with a card to fill out if I want to be kept up-to-date on the progress of "the case". I don't remember what he his exact words were, but my stuff wasn't the only thing found and it took them a couple of days to match belongings up to the police reports. This comes just a few days after the same police department arrested 4 other young adults for the same type of crime.

The Professor thought from the beginning that it was just kids, bored at the end of their summer. That doesn't excuse them at all - and hopefully they'll learn their lesson.

Free Pet Food

noreply@blogger.com (Deborah) — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 02:01:00 +0000

My cats love Iams cat food. And luckily, Iams loves me and frequently puts out coupons. Combine those with the fact that Publix has Iams on sale every 6 weeks or so, and I usually get my cat food for about $3 bucks a bag. Thanks to a cat-less Mom, I get twice as many coupons as I would on my own. So I stockpile cat food as much - if not more - as I do my pasta and frozen vegetables.

And now, Iams has coupons for a free bag up for grabs! I am a happy woman. With Happy Cats.

Click here for the coupon form.

Monday, Monday

noreply@blogger.com (Deborah) — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 20:47:00 +0000

I'm beginning to dread Mondays.

Two weeks ago, the TV broke on a Monday.

This week, I went to leave for work Monday morning and discovered that while I had been sleeping, someone decided to get in my car, throw the contents of my glove box around and help themselves to my gym bag.

The Good News: No broken windows (unlike the last time) and nothing worth a whole lot of money was taken.

The Bad News: I'm out a gym bag, a comfy pair of stretchy pants, a pair of tennis shoes and various toiletries (I was most upset about the brand new bottle of deodorant).

The Better News: 1) Thanks to my rabid CVS-ing I have replacements for all my toiletries.
2) I have car insurance, so I can be reimbursed for the $50-$75 of stuff in there (basically, the shoes).
3) I have an excellent history with my insurance company. I've only been with them for 3 years, so I was hesitant to make a claim - the last thing I need is a higher premium. But the only thing I I've needed them for prior to this was a couple of windshields. Since my agent told us that 1) windshield claims don't count against you, and 2) I have a perfectly clean record with them (no tickets, accidents, etc), than their underwriters probably won't even notice a $50 claim.

So no speeding tickets for me, please.

Even more incentive to slow down, hmm?

Changing Horses Midstream

noreply@blogger.com (Deborah) — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 00:58:00 +0000

It's not a secret around here that I feel - daily - the spectre of my student loans dangling over my head. I make my payments on time (thank you auto-pay that also gets me a 0.5% reduction in interest) and while they take a ~~big~~ gigantic bite out of each and every paycheck, I know that I'm lucky to have the luxury of not really worrying about them. Which is why I decided to start socking all my extra money into paying them off early.

Then The Professor had to start taking another daily medication. Gas prices went up. And while I haven't increased my grocery budget - yet - those prices are going up fast as well. And we got word that The Professor might not get his cost of living increase.

In so many ways, we're so far ahead, bill-wise, of where we were this time last year. In the past 12 months we've paid off three auto loans (the ex's car, his motorcycle, my car). As those debts fell, one by one, we socked the money into our emergency account.

We both have great job security, but there is an ever-so-very-slim chance that my organization could be outsourced in a few years, which would force some difficult decisions for me career-wise. I started thinking about the money I was planning on putting towards my student loans. And I realized that I would feel much better if I doubled our emergency fund rather than paying off the loans. At first, I thought I was simply reading too many news stories about the price of rice and gas and electricity and potatoes.

But after a couple of weeks of thinking about it, I realized it didn't really matter what I was telling myself. I wanted more security in our savings accounts. And while I felt good - no, GREAT - about getting out from under the student loan debt a little faster, all that wouldn't make me feel better if we were suddenly in a situation where that extra money would be paying for us to have hot water and gas for a few months if we needed it.

So I haven't made one penny of an extra payment on my student loans. I started putting the money into the Emergency Fund, deciding to double what we already had.

It might be a pyschological game that I play with myself , but I feel much better.

Freezer inventory: Leftovers Rock

noreply@blogger.com (Deborah) — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 18:15:00 +0000

Last weekend left us with an abundance of food in our freezers. After I went grocery shopping yesterday, I took a look through our freezers to see how much was left, and I am amazed at how much food we still have leftover.

Some of this was on purpose - my in-laws like to make a ton of gnocchi for us to have after they're gone, and I purposely made twice as much pork and coconut curried veggies one night so that I would have a bunch of leftovers to freeze for future meals. When the teenagers decided to eat salad instead of trying the veggies, I was left with twice as many leftovers as I had planned - a situation I am not complaing about. :) I had that for lunch 4 days last week, and The Professor ate more of those leftovers for dinner a couple of nights.

Some of the excess was accidental - my mother-in-law made a pot of lentil soup that would feed 20; unfortunately, only 4 of us ate it for dinner that night (the teenagers weren't too sure what "lentils" are, and steered clear"). After I made a pasta dish for dinner the first night, I found out our niece is now a vegetarian, so I made a (second) meatless version for her. I portioned up those leftovers as well and froze them for lunches.

After a couple of days in the fridge, the lentils had absorbed all of the liquid in the soup; I turned half of that into filling for stuffed bell peppers for dinner last night. The rest went in the freezer, probably to be used in the same way sometime in the future.

Looking through my freezer today, I found:

5 portions of baked penne;
2 portions of pork and coconut curried vegetables;
2 stuffed bell peppers (frozen individually);
stuffing for 3-4 more bell peppers;
2 huge packages of gnocchi;
1 quart-sized ziploc bag of vodka sauce;
1 quart-sized ziploc bag of tomato/meat sauce;
6 large meat balls.

That means that I don't even have to think about preparing lunches for myself for the next two weeks! Since no one communicated about purchasing bread for dinners last weekend, I also have two different loaves of French breads in the freezer that will make either awesome garlic bread or homemade croutons at some point.

I knew I had put away a lot of food last weekend, but I'm still amazed!

Coupons? Check. But where are the sales?

noreply@blogger.com (Deborah) — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 18:12:00 +0000

The past couple of weeks have been kinda slim pickings at the grocery store. CVS hasn't had anything that excited me in a while - well, the Prilosec deal a few weeks ago that got us a free case of bottled water was pretty cool, since The Professor has to take one a day now. (And speaking of Prilosec - the Parade section in today's paper has a $3 coupon on the last page. Woo-hoo!)

But the sales lately just haven't been inspirational.
Is it bad that I resist using a coupon if I can't get something on sale, too? I have two Boca Burger coupons. No one's had Boca products on sale lately - and they both expire next week. These are for $1 off any product - a pretty good deal, especially for their meatless crumbles. So today I used them - wishing they were on sale the whole time, doing the mental math on how much less I would pay if they were buy one get one free.

Ok, obviously I've gotten spoiled by paying 50% or less for most of what I buy!

This year, it seems, fruit is especially expensive. Last summer I could get peaches and plums almost all summer or 99 cents a pound. This year, I'm lucky to find it for $1.29.

Also - this week, I spent exactly $40 to the penny on my shopping. It wasn't planned, but somehow I picked all the right fruits and vegetables to equal the exact right weight to make everything add up to $40. I'm feeling uber-cool right now. Please don't burst my bubble.

Walmart:

1.84 lb Sweet Potatoes
1 Lime
3 Bell Peppers
2.18 lb Bananas
Eggs
Bread
Soymilk:
Total before Sales: $12.20
Total Spent: $10.95

Publix:

Ronzoni Penne
Boca Ground Burger
Ground Beef
TN Pride Sausage
2 packs Ziploc containers
12 Pk Pub Dt Lem/Lime (Penny Product!)
Peaches
Total Before Sales & Cpns: $23.17
Total Spent: $13.50

CVS
2 12packs Charmin
2 One A Day Vitamins
Total Before Sales & Cpns: $26.15
Total Before ECB: $21.71
Total Spent: $15.55

You Know It's a Good Deal If I Post Twice In One Day

noreply@blogger.com (Deborah) — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 19:51:00 +0000

Storm has made my day.

One of the products that I buy all the time is something I rarely find coupons or sales on - Arm & Hammer Kitty Litter. A couple of years ago, I slowly tried to switch to a greener alternative (Feline Pine). But one of my cats is...how shall I say it...absolutely resistant to any change. The second his little paw touches anything unusual in the litter box, he's jumping back out and running behind the entertainment center to do his business in private.

But Storm linked to some new printable Arm & Hammer coupons. There's more available than the kitty litter, but my brain is doing happy circles because of that one coupon.

I'm running off to the printer.
Thanks Storm!

PS - I was able to print this twice, and they don't expire until Dec 31st! Here's to hoping that they'll reset the coupons before then. :)

Someday My Prius Will Come...

noreply@blogger.com (Deborah) — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 15:29:00 +0000

For the past year, I've been plotting and planning my way to a Prius. This is roughly the plan of action I've had:

Step 1) Pay off the Camry as quickly as possible
Step 2) Begin making my car payments to an ING account instead of the bank.
Step 3) Drive the Camry for as long as possible, which led to creating another ING account for car repairs.
Step 4) Save up as much at least $10,000 for the down payment for the Prius - but more if the Camry keeps running. I'd love to pay cash for the whole thing.
Step 5) Drive my family, friends, and blog-readers crazy with this goal.
Step 6) Buy a good, used Prius that's 1-2 years old, depending on what I can find at the time.

I think I already skipped from step 2 to step 5, but that's not the point. I may have hit a snag in my grand scheme, because the price of a used Prius has gone up, up and up in the past two months.

I use Carmax to keep an eye on what's available. There are a couple of local Toyota dealerships with websites that I'll look at now and then, but Carmax is definitely the easiest way to see what the trends are - especially since I'm not actually ready to buy one. For the past year, I've been seeing Prius' that are about 2 years old ranging from 20,000-25,000 (Depending on where they are and how many miles they have).

For the past couple of weeks, those ranges have jumped - by about $5,000 dollars. If I were looking today, the price for (basically) the same vehicle has gone from $23,000+ to $27,000.

This article from the Orlando Sentinel reports that Carmax' website has had a lot more searches for "smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles." The Prius isn't mentioned, but the Corolla, Mazda3 & VW Beetle are.

I'm going to have to increase my budget - quite a bit, apparently. There might be a lot more time between steps 5 & 6 than I originally planned. But that's ok - the Camry's a good car.

And besides, this will just give me a little more quality time with my Prius spreadsheets.

How To Blow A Grocery Buget In Five Easy Steps

noreply@blogger.com (Deborah) — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 19:23:00 +0000

Invite your in-laws and niece to stay with you for a weekend on their drive across the country;
Plan meals for 3 guests for 3 days plus a Beloved StepSon who will flit in and out – usually around mealtimes;
Receive a phone call 24 hours before arrival saying that the three said guests are arriving a day early; frantically rework the menus and go grocery shopping for more food;
Receive a phone call 3 hours before the guests arrive letting you know that one of them is now a vegetarian – you, of course, have premade the dinner’s pasta sauce with meat in it. Frantically rework the menus and go grocery shopping for more food.
Find out that your guests want to cook for you while you drink the wine they brought (Yay!) – and that you don’t have half of the ingredients they need. Frantically rework the menus and go grocery shopping for more food.

Even though I had tripled my weekly food budget, made foods in advance and stockpiled my brains out, I went over my budget. How much?

Since the Visit Of Family Love straddles a weekend, I allotted both weeks’ groceries for the fun times. Then I added another $40, for a grand total of $120 to be spent. How much have I spent?

$201 for four days of food. And I’m hearing rumors that someone needs Italian Ham to make tonight’s dinner. This is not something I have lurking in the back of my fridge, so it looks like another trip to Publix is in order. It also looks like I’m in for another incredible dinner that will be cooked while I sip on a ~~bottle~~ glass of red.

It’s been worth every penny , though. The Professor sees his parents – at most – once a year. It’s been 18 months since the last time. Thanks to the leftovers from all the awesome food we’ve all cooked, I have enough lunches packaged up in my freezer to last me for at least two weeks.

And … did I mention the 15 bottles of wine they brought me?

Free ebook from CouponMom

noreply@blogger.com (Deborah) — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 01:13:00 +0000

I've heard a lot about the Grocery Game - there's been a couple of stories on NPR that mentioned it, and my sister tried it out (I think she's still using it - Sis? Any thoughts?).

I haven't given in, though, for two basic reasons:

I love CouponMom.com . It might not give as personalized results as The Grocery Game, but it's enough to save me time and money. And that's my basic goal.
This is the big reason- I don't want to pay for it. I would take that $5 or $10 a week out of my grocery budget - and since I'm only spending $40 a week and buying for two people, that just doesn't seem like a good choice for me.

But I love Stephanie Nelson's site. I especially love the restaurant.com coupon codes she has ($25 gift cards for $4, for example), and the Grocery Coupon Database. And best of all, for me, the site is free (although you do have to register).

And then today, while perusing moneysavingmom.com (another all-time fave), I saw a link for a free CouponMom ebook.

I just downloaded it - although I haven't read it yet. But if it teaches me how to save another buck or two a week - at no cost - it was worth the 15 seconds it took to download.

On my to-do list

noreply@blogger.com (Deborah) — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 19:23:00 +0000

It's an ever-growing list, but one thing I have simply GOT to make time for soon is a visit to the eye doctor. I haven't had my eyes checked in more years than I care to think about. Also? vision isn't covered on our insurance plan. So there's the whole spending money thing to deal with too.

I know I'm going to get glasses when I go, and I really don't want to pay for them either. ZenniOptical.com sells glasses online from $8 and up. They have a bunch of different kinds of lenses, too - hopefully I don't need bifoculs, but it's probably only a matter of time. I'm already something of an anomaly of good vision in my family. I'm even thinking that maybe .. just maybe I could get myself a pair of prescription sunglasses. Zenni optical was even on Fox News, but I think I might try them out anyway.

Would it be taking my love of all things blue too far to get the blue lenses?

Yes?

Well, first things first - I have to actually get my eyes checked. Then I can start picking out my frames.