Thrifty Dad

Good shopping week

2011-02-28T20:36:00.000-08:00

Both Meijer and Kroger have some really good deals going this week. While Meijer does not have many coupon match-ups they do have the 10 for $10 deals going right now so it may be a good time to stock up. 1 very good Kroger deal I noticed today is the Gillette Pro Glide razor, they have it on sale for $8.99 and there is a $3 OC on this as well as a $4 MQ that was in the 02/27/11 Proctor & Gamble insert (yes they can be used together) which made the razor $1.99....

This is one of those weeks where it will pay you to take a few minutes to look at the ads and go through your coupons and make the match-ups.

I now see how a budget can be a "saving grace" in times of need

2011-02-24T16:29:00.000-08:00

It has been quite some time since I have had the heart to sit down and write anything about being thrifty or budgeting. And not because I haven't been following what I write myself but because I have been in kind of a depressed slump over not being able to find a job over the last 7 months. With unemployment paying roughly $200 a check less than what I am used to bringing home the family budget needless to say has been stretched pretty tight at times. But the key word in that sentence is budget, we have held to our guns and kept working towards our goals even with less income coming in and roughly the same amount monthly still needing to go out.

Lucky for my family and I we did not wait until the bottom fell out to try and get a budget together. Since we had been on a budget for the past year before I lost my job we hit the situation in a state of preparedness. We were able to live off of my 401k (something that I do not recommend if you can live by any other means) until my unemployment was approved some 4 months after I lost my job. Since that point we have stocked the cabinets full of food by couponing, ad matching, and just looking for the best deals. Saving money has become a hobby as well as a lifestyle and when I make my payment tomorrow the only credit card I have ever had will be paid off permenantly. We still have our $1,000 in the emergency fund, we still have a couple hundred in regular savings and all bills are paid and on time. We have cut the eating out to just here and there and that is usually just when we get the hankering for pizza.

Being off of work has been an eye opener for us that is for sure, while we were never well to do we were definitely above poverty and on track to have our bills paid off and working towards our future. Now, even though we don't have the extra money to do much, I have used the time to catch up with my children. I have seen them more in the last 7 months than I had seen them the entire 4 previous years, which to me has been a blessing. Without a proper, thought through, and followed budget the household finances would have collapsed long ago and I would have been struggling to take any available job at any pay rate. Thankfully that has not been the case and I have been able to keep up the search for something at least marginally close to what I was making previously.

Keep your head up, I know I am by far not the only one out of work right now, with unemployment at one of the highest levels in many many years but life is still manageable and you can still fulfill your obligations to your creditors if you really want to, it just takes a no nonsense approach to your finances and a well thought out plan.

Seasonal clearance

2011-02-10T21:13:00.000-08:00

I was in Meijer yesterday and I noticed that a lot of the hunting and camping gear has started to go on seasonal clearance sales. I picked up 11 packages of Sterno for under $5 (they were clearing them out for $.42 a pack). If you are into hunting, camping or building an emergency cache then times like now are good times to pick up some deals.. They also had some grilling equipment and fire tinder on clearance.

If you take the time to look around you might find some really good deals!! And Meijer is nice enough to put most of its clearance items all in one area so you don't have to look all over the store for the stuff.

Time to stock up

2011-02-01T09:36:00.000-08:00

Kroger's is running another buy 10 mega sale event and this is one to stock up on. Del monte canned vegetables are on the mega sale for $1 a can but if you buy 10 items and get the $5 back it makes them just .50 cents a can. If you can manage to find any coupons for them it would make it an even sweeter deal but at a time when even store branded canned goods are .75 cents a can or more I took the opportunity to purchase 36 cans. Progresso soup is also on the mega sale and after the 10 item discount it becomes .99 cents plus I had a coupon for a dollar off of 4 cans making it just .74 cents a can. If you have a few minutes to look at the Kroger add and match up the mega sales to your coupons you can save quite a bit of money this week and stock up on a lot of food, plus there are more items marked in the store on the sale that were not in the add.

Helping the Economy one step(purchase) at a time

2011-01-17T20:02:00.000-08:00

I received an email earlier this afternoon that had a really good saying on it: While one grasshopper on the railroad tracks wouldn't slow a train very well, a billion of them would. With that saying in mind it really got me to thinking about all the things in life this saying could apply to and then the main one hit me, the economy.

Our nation with approx 330 million (registered) inhabitants may not have total control of how the economy runs but if we all were unified in our approach we could make a dent in repairing it. And by that I am not saying that we all just run out and buy stuff off of the store shelves or spend money recklessly into the system (like they wanted us to do with the stimulus money)with no game plan. No I mean if we all took the time to consider what we are purchasing, where the money goes (what country) after we purchase it, and to who's economy we are stimulating by purchasing that product.

Looking through my weekly purchases from the grocery store I notice a few things on the weekly list that help keep the money, and hopefully the jobs here in the US. And it is simple everyday things you take for granted or just grab the name brand without really thinking about where the factory that makes it is located. Like Bounce Dryer Sheets are made in Canada, the Everyday Living store brand that I picked up, guess what? Made in the good ole USA and about $1.40 cheaper per box to boot. Colgate toothpaste, once located across the river from me in Indiana, well they moved their operations to Mexico I guess to save a few bucks, my new toothpaste of choice Crest, still made here in the US. GE Lightbulbs, another company now making products in Mexico, so with a little looking around there was a dollar brand made in the US.

It won't solve the entire economic issue beseiging America right now (because the gov't spends faster than they can print it)but it would definitely help if we stop sending all of our hard earned cash to China, or Mexico, or anyother country that takes too much advantage of NAFTA and uses it to flood our markets with cheap goods while raising the tarriff's on US produced goods going into their countries.

The next time you go shopping, take 5 minutes extra to check a few labels to find goods produced here. Who know's that one extra step may one day save you or a neighbor's job from shipping out over sea's.....

Cheap protein bars @ Kroger part 2

2011-01-12T07:48:00.000-08:00

I headed out to Kroger last night to get my protein bars on the sale and picked up a few items. 38 total items for $28.98 after sales and coupons, original total of $110.97 a savings of $81.99!!!! That is right at $.76 (76 cents) an item, and as you can see most of the stuff in this picture is not cheap items.

OK the match-ups:

Best Life Butter spread on sale for $1 each, used 2 of the $1/1 MQ from the 1/2/2011 SS coupon insert and both were free.
Colgate toothpaste 6.4oz on sale $1 each, used 2 of the $.50/1 MQ from the 1/2/2011 SS insert and since Kroger doubles coupons up to $.50 they were also free.
The old spice deoderant was on sale for $2.40 each I had a $1/2 MQ and a $1/2 OC making them $1.40 each and then had a coupon for a free Old Spice body wash with purchase of the deoderant (savings of $3.68) not sure which insert they came from......
The Planters Nut-trition was on sale for $2.29 had 2 MQ for .75/1 making them $1.54 each
Slim Fast drinks were on sale 2 for $10 and I had a coupon for free slim fast bars with purchase of 2 savings of $4.99 on the bars
Pure Protein Bars are on sale $1 each I had a $1/2 OC loaded to my Kroger card and I had 4 B1G1 coupons from the RP website making 5 bars instanly free (and as I look at my receipt I notice the cashier rang the coupons up for the original price of $1.66 instead of the $1 sale price so I got a total of 8 protein bars for $.36 (yes 36 cents)
MetRx Protein bars are on sale for $1.66 each and have a $2/2 OC available on Krogers ecoupon site, RP also has the B1G1 for these as well and I managed to print 5 of these (3 seperate PC's as they have a print limit of 2 per PC) so I was able to purchase 10 bars for $6.30 (not bad considering these are usually $2.29each or more)
Quaker instant oatmeal is on sale for $1.99 each used the $1/1 MQ from the 1/2/2011 SS insert making it $.99
The Sundown Vitamins were on sale for $4.39 each I had a $2/1 store coupon from a kroger mailer (not sure why they mail them to me but I'll use em) and a $2/1 MQ from the 1/9/11 Kroger insert plus a $2.50/1 OC on my Kroger card making 2 bottles $1.14 each
Coke Zero 2 liter was on sale for $1.25 and I had a .50/1 catalina which doubled making it $.75
The 3 bottles of Glaceau water and the bottle of Vitamin Water Zero were on sale for a $1.00 each I had a $1/1 catalina on the vitamin water and a $1/4 MQ from a store mailer making 4 bottles $.50 each

The OC (online coupons) are from sites like Krogers Ecoupon site or CellFire.com that load directly to your Kroger card and are taken off instantly at the register when your card is scanned and you purchase those items.

Cheap protein bars @ Kroger

2011-01-10T18:52:00.000-08:00

Pure protein bars bars are on sale 10/10 this week at krogers and not only does krogers have online coupons on them that you can load to your kroger card but there are also B1G1 coupons available at Redplum . You can print up to 2 coupons for the pure bars from RedPlum and if you use the $1/2 coupon available on the Krogers online site you can get 4 bars for $1.

RedPlum also has B1G1 coupons for the MetRX protein bars plus Kroger online also has $2/2 on those as well so you can pick up 2 MetRX bars for free, or get 4 of them for $1.66.

If you have a little extra cash then this website Zeal For A Deal can show you how to get $15 worth of food for $3.50 using Kroger match ups.

You can also check out I Heart Kroger which posts all of the coupon to sale match ups on a weekly basis, you can also like them on facebook.

Wow, eating healthy is expensive (discussion)

2011-01-08T21:50:00.000-08:00

OK, I would like to see if I can get a discussion going on this one in the comments. Maybe some of my readers will have some insight into this issue for me. When I started this blog a few months ago I was couponing and saving money eating normal everyday food that most people eat. 80/20 hamburger, fries, mac and cheese, you get the idea and I was doing a good job at getting it for very good prices between sales and coupons. But after the 1st of the year I started a new diet, plus my wife is going to weight watchers and one thing we are seeing is that eating healthy costs a WHOLE lot more than eating the other stuff.

I don't know, and haven't been able to find if there are any coupon sites on the net for getting coupons toward the healthier food like the Jenny-O turkey products or the Laura's 93/7 lean beef but if any of you know of any please leave me some comments.

My wife and I went to the grocery today and for the first time in a long time spent around $300 for groceries. Considering my grocery bill here lately has been around that much for an entire month this was way outside of our budget but it was all foods linked to the diets we are doing and it is all pretty much healthier for us, even the snack foods we bought (rice cakes). We went between Kroger and Meijer to get the best prices on fresh fruit and vegetables since both places had different produce items on sale and then we used a few coupons (about $65 worth) but no where near what I am usually able to do.

This time I am open to any comments or suggestions on getting the grocery bill down while shopping for healthier food, and if any of you have an idea or suggestion on where to get protein bars at the best prices...

Online Games.

2011-01-04T06:24:00.000-08:00

After seeing many of the online games that people are playing now, whether on Facebook or Myspace or where ever I start to wonder why people play these games. Almost all of these "free" Facebook and Myspace games have a gimmick to get you to pay more for these games than you would to buy multiple new console games for your home gaming machine. Whether it be for gems, mushrooms, karma, gaming money, or whatever the in game currency is for each particular game it is often very expensive and very cleverly marketed to you.

One of the games I checked out it comes something like here lets build your city oh wait you can only go to level 9 without having gems to buy the level 10 upgrade, oh gems they are only ten cents each and you only need 50 gems to get the item to make your castle a level 10 and oh you only need one of those items for each thing that you want to make a level 10. So lets do some math 50gems x .10 = $5.00, now you have say 10 things to level to 10 if you want to have 1 of each leveled up so 5.00 x 10 = $50.00 and that is for 1 city... But wait you can have up to 6 cities!!!! $50.00 x 6= $300.00... Now to get the 2nd city you have to get 10 friends playing this game.. You send out say 100 invites pestering your friends to play and get enough to join you, so now you have 2 cities to spend money on (real money if you want to have all the build abilities opened up) and you could be up to $100 or more at this point depending on how far you want to build.. Now to get the 3rd through the 6th cities you can either spend many many hours online attacking wilds to hunt for the crests to get the city deeds or you can just spend gems!!! For your 3rd city you can buy these chests for only 90 gems ($9.00) that may or may not contain all of the crests to get your city and you may have to buy more than one chest. Same for the 4th city you can buy the chest for only 150 gems ($15.00) and you may have to buy more than one to get the needed crests... Now the 5th city is easier you can just cough up 1250 gems ($125.00) to buy the 5th city package, and same with the 6th city only 1080 gems ($108.00) to get your 6th city!!!!

Now somebody please tell me why people are actually DUMB enough to play these TEXT based games and ACTUALLY PAY these prices to get the stuff in game. Just from what I listed about the one game I checked out you could spend upwards of $500 on a text based game that really does nothing!! And I have spoken to some of the people in the game who have purchased the gems to play the game and they act like its COOL!! WTF Really??? for that price I could go buy a PS3, 360, or a Wii and a stack of games to play! Some of the people I talked to spend hours on end on these games, my Facebook wall is usually full of game request from the different games from my friends and it gets quite annoying deleting or blocking all of them just so you can see the other stuff. Maybe I am just mad because I am not quite smart enough, or maybe mean enough to profit from mass ignorance with something like that.

Either way it really makes me wonder what people are thinking when they send money into these games to get that next level or buy that new weapon, and how many of those people can actually afford to be spending the money they are using to send these game makers instead of paying off a credit card or an old doctor bill that has been hanging over their heads..

Oh well, I just hope whomever reads this realizes what a crock those games are if they play them and use that money elsewhere..

Preparing

2011-01-02T20:19:00.000-08:00

I know it has been a while since my last post and there is no real excuse for it other than life in general (and a heavy dose of Call of duty Black ops) taking up my time. But in the last few days I have been reading up on a few of the blogs I like to follow and I noticed a really good article on DVM (Death Valley Mag) that kind of goes along with what I have been doing the last couple of years. Taking on your debt while preparing for disaster. I am not going to copy what he wrote over there (if you want to read it go here) but he basically says quit preparing for the apocalypse if you are not prepared for next Thursday, meaning pay off your bills and have your financial affairs in order as well as your household affairs if the SHTF. Because quite frankly at some point life will go on after most disasters and many of the debt holding companies will still be trying to collect what is owed to them.

Credit card companies still collected from displaced individuals after Katrina, they didn't pass them any breaks. Their computer are stored in bunkers to withstand all but full nuclear fallout so they will have their info on hand even after many major disasters. And it is a fairly smart idea to be prepared in all ways, not just with food or guns or water (besides think of all the survival gear you can buy if you have no debt) but to have no debts other than normal monthly utilites, at that point you are free if disaster strikes to get your household back in order.

The methods outlined in the article for becoming debt free are definitely different than those preached by Dave Ramsey but they both outlay the same goal with the same final outcome: Freedom from the opression of debt for those who can follow the path (I am working towards it, and one day I WILL get there) and continue along that path once the debt has been eliminated.

Stay thrifty and concious of your choices. Till next time.

Health Insurance, is the cost worth it to you?

2010-12-13T21:33:00.000-08:00

Over the last few months I have noticed health care to be a really hot topic, especially with POTUS making it his legacy legislation to pass a huge health care bill. I have seen many blogs, websites, social networking sites and friends emails discussing the rising cost in health care and health insurance. My question to you is: Is the cost of health insurance worth it?

With the rising costs of medical care, it seems to me the logical answer is yes, health insurance is worth it. But that is just my opinion and I know many people have a totally different view of this issue. Many people say they cannot afford health insurance at all, that the cost is just too exorbitant. Many people still do not have insurance through their jobs or cannot afford to pay the costs out of their checks.

In my case I say health insurance is worth it because the $500 a month we have taken out of our paycheck for our family of 4 is a bargain compared to what the costs of health care would have been over the last few years. With the birth of 2 children, 2 emergency room visits for injuries (daughter fell on the school playground), and then my son being hospitalized twice for asthmatic pneumonia, the hospital bills without insurance would have buried us in debt. Not to mention the weekly shots for my sons asthma which are totally covered by our insurance, no telling what they would cost but I guarantee they would be more than what we pay for insurance.

As a family we do go without some luxuries to have health care but to us it is worth it. I do not have to have a brand new car, or the latest technology but the money spent on insurance to me is worth it. I have had many people tell me that they just cannot afford health insurance or that their portion through work is just too high to pay and then in their next breath tell me about the vacation they just took or the new high tech toy they just bought which tells me that their priorities are different then mine.

I think many people need to take a look at their own selves before they complain about the cost of health care or the cost of insurance, they need to look at spending habits, if they have options they have not explored, if their habits are causing their health issues that they need covered, or if they actually have the right to complain as none of the above are in their control. I have seen people who are two pack a day smokers complaining that their medical costs are killing them but they don't think the $6 a day they spend on cigarettes is an issue since it is something they want, or the guy driving the brand new sports car with $700 a month payments not having coverage because he has to pay for the new car. If you only visit the doc once a year then no you probably do not need to be paying for insurance, if you are someone who gets sick often, has known medical issues, or a family history of bad health then yeah you should probably have insurance, and if you are saying you cannot afford it but you just renewed your monthly subscription to WOW or just bought the new COD BO (Call of Duty Black OPS) then you should probably take a look at your priorities and stop whining about how you can't afford medical insurance and look for affordable options. Spend more time on caring for yourself then keeping up with the Joneses.

Bonus

2010-12-09T21:39:00.000-08:00

Every once in a while when you are shopping you can run into some rebate items. Most people I know don't like to waste their time to send these in and get their money back. But if you take the time you can find some really good rebates and it is basically money back on stuff you already purchase. In the past week I have found 2 really good rebates, 1 is for $10 cash back on the purchase of $50 in gift cards and the other is for $8 on the purchase of 2 bottles of Captain Morgan, Johnny Walker Red, or Tanqueray Gin.

On the $10 rebate I just purchased a $50 Kroger gift card on my way into the grocery the other day and then did my grocery shopping and used the card I had just purchased. Now all I have to do is send in the rebate and I have $10 back on my shopping trip which was already pretty good due to coupons now even better because of some free money from Coors (and you didn't even have to purchase beer). For the other rebate, we don't really drink at all but I do have a glass on the occasion that my buddy comes down from Ohio, or some old friends stop by so I picked up a bottle of Captain Morgan on sale at Meijer for $13.99 and a bottle of Johnny Walker on sale for $21.99 and I will get $8 of that back.

On top of the $10 rebate from Kroger, another thing to consider is the fuel points. At a time when gas is still fairly high every cent at the pump counts. Since I purchased the $50 gift card I got 50 points towards the 100 needed for fuel, when I spent the gift card on my groceries I got the other 50 points needed to make the hundred and now I have $.10 a gallon off at the pump just for spending $50 that I would normally spend on groceries anyways(which will be $40 once I get my rebate). Kroger is also running a deal right now that if you purchase $100 worth of gift cards you will get $.40 a gallon off at the pump on your next fill up. Considering this is Christmas (yes I said CHRISTMAS, not Happy Holidays) time it should be pretty easy to spend $100 on gift cards to give out, and this is on any gift cards on their wall, not just Kroger branded ones and you can save quite a bit on a fill up.

These are all little things to consider while shopping. Some stores may try and outright say they have the lowest prices but you have to add in any extras that you can get depending on where you shop and also any loyalty bonuses, I.E. Kroger's will send out bonus coupons every once in a while and a lot of times they are very good coupons based on your shopping habits on your Kroger card. Both Kroger and Meijer's have online coupons that can be used at the register without printing them out, they just come off of you order if you use your Kroger card or at Meijer just enter your phone # that you attach to the website.

Re-purposing

2010-12-07T20:46:00.000-08:00

Since I have started using coupons pretty heavily the one thing I have noticed is that I cannot find a suitable way to organize my coupons. Until today I had been using one of those 12 pocket expanding file folders. I had a decent system going to separate them, but while shopping I still had to shuffle through the stack in each file to find a coupon if I found a sale on an item (Kroger is good about not advertising all sale items). One of the blogs I was reading had an interesting idea on it to use a 3 ring binder and collector card 9 pocket pages to sort your coupons.

Since I have a quite a collection of cards just laying around I decided to give it a shot. So far it looks as if it is going to be a pretty good idea. It took about 35 pages for all of my coupons but now everything is sorted and seperated in a way that I will be able to find the coupons I am looking for pretty quickly. I found the idea on http://mamioffour.blogspot.com/ . Her blog also lists coupon match-ups to good sales as does http://mrspennypincher.blogspot.com/...... If your headed out to do your shopping this week, check out these two sites and see if you can save a little extra money.

Survival Bracelet

2010-12-06T20:45:00.000-08:00

Checking my updates on facebook the other day one of the ads on the right hand side caught my eye. It was for a Survival Bracelet made out of paracord. Paracord has more uses than I can count and I always try to keep some handy in my truck, my hiking pack, fishing gear (you get the idea). Well usually I just ball up a length and try to keep it out of the way, but the bracelet looked like a cool idea to carry it just about any where. I check out the website and they have the bracelets starting at $23.95 which is way too steep for a 10' piece of paracord. I get to looking around Ebay and Amazon and I see that they have the survival bracelets starting as cheap as a penny with $4.99 shipping and handling.

Not really having the money to be ordering stuff right now I decided to try and make my own. After searching the internet for a few minutes and finding the directions to braid your own it is pretty easy with simple to understand instructions. Theprepared.com has all the steps to do this with pictures to make it simple to do.

Not having any of the cool metal clasps that they use on Survivalstraps.com to make one, I used some old plastic buckles I had cut off of a backpack that I was throwing out. Total time to make the one in the picture was about 20 minutes and that was only because I didnt know how to tie off the end when I was done with the braiding. No real cost to make it since I used buckles I already had and just pulled the 10' of cord off of a roll dad already had (Thanks Dad!!)...

There is a ton of other projects you can braid out of cord like key fobs, belts, rifle slings, can coozies, baskets.. And now you can order paracord in 10 or more different colors to make these things of your own style.

Night Out

2010-12-05T00:24:00.000-08:00

Even when you are cracking down and working on getting everything in line in your budget, you will need a reprieve. For some it is going to the movies, out to dinner, out with friends or even a weekend mini-vacation. These are a totally necessary thing or you will wear yourself down and not want to continue with your plan (unless you are an uber focused and totally dedicated individual who can go without a relax period) but most people need a break. It is not a deal breaker or even a bad thing to have some fun while working on getting out of debt but just like everything else you need to plan for it. It has to be in your budget and you can't go over the amount you set aside for it.

In my budget this category is called "blow money" and I allot the family enough to go out about 1 or 2 times a month and have some fun. And it doesn't always cost a ton of money. Sometimes you can go out even if you do not have a lot of money to spend in that category you just have to plan what you are going to do.

Tonight for instance I met up with some friends and we headed to Roosters for wings and beer (I didn't drink as I was DD) and then headed back to a buddies house to play Xbox Kinect Total night expenditure was $30 for me and that was being nice and leaving a good tip since it is Christmas season. On top of getting off with just the cost of my dinner we had a total blast playing the Kinect and even got some exercise with that thing.

Being on a written plan does not mean that you cannot live your life and have fun, it just means that you have to be smart about it and not break the bank heading to the casino with your entire paycheck expecting to break it rich. And just like with everything else, look into what you want to do first, there may be a coupon for your favorite restaurant or a deal to go to the movies. Sites like www.groupon.com or www.restaurant.com can net you discount and deals.

So go out, have a drink, have dinner, go to a movie, or whatever is your idea of a good time, just do it reasonably within your budget.. Have fun!!

Books, Tools and Resources

2010-12-02T18:47:00.000-08:00

Over the last few posts I have mentioned various books and resources we have used in our journey to go from living paycheck to paycheck to being able to have some breathing room and working to pay off our debts. With the immense amount of information out there on the subject of finances there is no way that I can give the books and tools that will work for everyone but these are the books that worked for us.
This list is the books that I used for learning about money and how to manage it.

1. Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover
2. The Total Money Makeover Workbook
3. Financial Peace Revisited
4. Financial Peace University and Total Money Makeover Complete 2009 Home Study Kit By Dave Ramsey w/ Dvds Cds Books
5. Your Money or Your Life: 9 Steps to Transforming Your Relationship with Money and Achieving Financial Independence: Revised and Updated for the 21st Century
6. America's Cheapest Family Gets You Right on the Money: Your Guide to Living Better, Spending Less, and Cashing in on Your Dreams

Each of these books has many things to teach in its own right. The Dave Ramsey books lay out the steps to getting on a written plan and getting on a budget. It has everything broke down into 7 easy baby steps that spell out how to transform your relationship with money. Your money or your life by Joe Dominguez outlines how to become more frugal, how to manage on less and how to interact with your money. America's Cheapest Family outlines how to stretch each section of your budget, how to watch for sale's and match coupons to fill your food stores as cheap as possible and it also covers when to stock up on certain things and how to cut some of your other bills.

A couple of Motivational books that I have read to keep motivated during this process are

1. Secrets of the Millionaire Mind: Mastering the Inner Game of Wealth
2. Rich Dad Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money-That the Poor and the Middle Class Do Not!

Don't rely on books alone during this process either. The web is full of useful information if you have a few minutes to search it out. Sites like www.betterbudgeting.com or www.daveramsey.com . Blogs such as this one and others like http://mrspennypincher.blogspot.com/ ... All the resources are out there to assist you in a search to better your situation if you have the want and the dedication to search, read and learn.

Kroger Mega Sales.

2010-12-02T09:02:00.000-08:00

OK so I am going to put a pause in the story for a minute to share one of the things I have learned. Coupon matching to store sales. This is one of the areas that I have used to really start shaving money off the budget. I have learned that you cannot just blanket shop at any one store but you have to research the Sunday sale ads to see what is on sale and where then match up any of the stuff you use to coupons you have. Here is an example of my grocery trip this week at Kroger's with their 10 item mega sale going on. If you buy 10 participating items you automatically get $5 off of your total (pretty much $.50 off each item). Then you can also match coupons to these items and get many of them cheap and sometimes even free.

Some of the stuff I got yesterday matched with coupons

(4) 2 liters of Pepsi products on sale for $1.29 each - .50 mega sale= $.79 each - $1 off of 4 coupon = $.54 each
(2) 48oz bottles of Wesson Canola oil on sale for $2.49 each -$.50 mega sale =$1.99 each, - 2 $.40 off of 1 coupons which Kroger doubles to $.80 = $1.19 each
(2) Best life buttery spread $1.79 each- $.50 mega sale = $1.29 each - 2 $.50 off of 1 coupons Kroger doubles to $1.00 = $.29 each
(3)Marie Callender's frozen meals $2.28 each - $.50 mega sale = $1.78 each - $1.50 off of 3 coupon = $1.28 each
(2)Healthy Choice frozen dinners $2.28 each - $.50 mega sale = $1.78 each - $1 off of 2 coupon = $1.28 each
(2)Kraft salad dressings $1.99 each - $.50 mega sale = $1.49 each - $1 off of 2 coupon = $.99 each
(1)Colgate total toothpaste $2.50 - $.50 mega sale = $2.00 - $1 off 1 coupon = $1.00
(3)boxes of Kleenex tissues $1.49 - $.50 mega sale = $.99 each - $.50 off of 3 coupon doubled to $1 = $.65 each
(1)Freschetta pizza $4.49 - $.50 mega sale = $3.99- $.75 off 1 coupon = $3.24 (not bad for a pizza that will feed the 4 of us, makes a cheap dinner)
(1)Red Baron pizza $4.49 - $.50 mega sale = $3.99 - $1 off 1 coupon = $2.99(again another meal sized pizza)
(1) Maxwell house coffee $6.49 - $.50 mega sale= $5.99 - $.50 off 1 coupon doubled = $4.99
(2) Half Gallons of Silk Almond Milk $2.49each - $.50 mega sale = $1.99 - $2 off 2 coupon = $.99 each
(2)Hunts tomato sauces 28 oz $1.49 each - $.50mega sale = $.99 - $1 off 3 coupon(bought a can of hunts roasted tomatoes not on the mega sale to fulfill coupon) = $.67 each

This is a sample of the items I matched with coupons, I bought more on the mega sale like bumblebee tuna packages that worked out to $.49 each after mega sale, and scooby fruit snacks for the kids came out to $1.49 on the sale. I bought a total of 40 participating items and got $20 off my over all order.

Total on receipt $179 after mega sale and coupons I paid $104.82 a savings of 57%..

Getting Organized

2010-12-01T20:48:00.000-08:00

After the transmission went out in the suburban and we could do nothing about it, we realized it was time to get organized and get back on track with our goals. We decided it was time to totally reassess our situation and what our actual goals were. It was at this time that we found out that my wife's church was offering Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University class which we decided would probably be our best hope of getting back in line. While Dave's class is not a be all, end all total authority on how to handle your money it is a very good starting point and the tools and info a great asset to get you started on a path to financial Independence.

The first step of the plan laid out before us was to get $1000 in an emergency fund and get it put in a place that we could not tap into it except for actual emergencies. Now while a thousand bucks does not seem like much, it can actually seem like climbing a mountain when you are so far in debt that you were 1 missed paycheck away from a total breakdown. Knowing that I did not have the extra money within the monthly income to pull the thousand out of it in a short period I decided to get my butt in gear and make some extra cash to help out. I decided that I really didn't need to have a huge knife collection or multiple guns just sitting in my cabinet so I took a few days and started setting up at my local flea market to try and sell off what I could to come up with the cash. Suprisingly enough (to me) it only took me two weekends of hitting the flea market and selling my stuff to put the money into the emergency fund without pulling it out of the already stretched monthly income.

Now the second step of his plan (and the step we are still working on slowly but surely) is called the Debt Snowball. This step requires you to list all of your bills I.E. credit cards, vehicles, hospital bills etc on a list from smallest to largest then start paying all the extra money you can come up with on the smallest bill first. When we first started our snowball we did whatever we could to bring in a little extra cash and to cut corners in our budget to throw extra money to the top of our list and it really started to work for us. During this time I read a book called America's Cheapest Family that gave me ways to cut corners in my grocery bills and utility bills. Within the first 6 months of starting the snowball we had knocked out 6 bills (all medical bills) that had been haunting us since the birth of our 2nd child who had some problems early on and had racked up some medical bills. Getting the first 6 items checked off we realized that this plan was working for us and we started working a little more overtime, doing whatever sidework we could get into, and setting up at the flea market when we found the time. The more we did, the more we watched come off of our list, within a year after starting the plan again we had paid off all of our medical bills, our best buy credit card, my wifes school loans and were now at a point where we could get the suburban fixed without breaking the bank to do it.

Around 16 months in we slowed down on the debt snowball and (finally) took the Suburban in to get the transmission repaired and was able to pay the $2400 without falling back to the emergency fund. After getting the truck repaired we again sat down and looked at the budget and reassessed the debt snowball. We were making good headway down to just my school loan, the signature loan we had used to replace the heater and repair the truck, the suburban loan, some new medical bills and the house. Work had slowed some and we were not working the overtime we had been the previous year so we tackled the bills as best we could with just what we were making plus any extra we could make on the weekends but we stayed positive and in a few months after getting the suburban repaired we knocked out the medical bills again and paid down the suburban fast. Going into New Years 2010 we were on track to have our snowball down to just the house within 16 more months at the most. I paid the final payment on the suburban in January 2010 almost a year earlier than it should have been leaving us with just the school loans and the signature loan which were the 2 biggest besides the house.

Now being me, I cant ever do anything easy and I lose attention to what I am doing when it takes way to long to accomplish. At this point I saw that we only had the 2 bills left on the snowball and we were doing all right on money so I decided to try another venture to make extra cash instead of just the flea market. So I went out and purchased an exmark mower (on credit, dumb me)and a lawncare trailer thus pushing our snowball back up to 3 bills, but I had the plan to pay it off quickly doing lawn mowing and small lawncare work not realizing how hard it was to break into this field. Even still, I managed to get a few lawn jobs and it looked as if it was going to work out.

Things were almost running on cruise control at this point, that is until I got in an accident in May and totaled the paid off suburban on the way to a lawn care job no less. The insurance paid out a great amount on the truck considering the age of it, but me seeing the nice amount clouded my judgement on finding a new vehicle. They had given me more than enough to find a good running older base model F250 or chevy 2500 to continue doing the lawn business with and at first when I started looking that is what I was trying to find. A truck for 5-6k that I could pay cash for and not go back into debt but then it happened, I walked onto a lot and my son saw an F250 Harley Edition sitting there, he looked over and said "Daddy I want the monster truck" so I decided to check it out. It had all of the options I had been looking for and it had the power to tow the lawncare trailer. And here is where I made a rather big mistake, I assumed, I assumed that I would be able to pay the truck off just like I had the other bills because I had been with my comapny for the last 3 1/2 years and I assumed I would still be with my company. So I took the insurance check to the bank and I took part of it and paid off the mowing equipment and then I took $6k of it and used it as a down payment on the truck. My payment "only" $374 a month which was nothing I couldn't manage considering the money I was bringing home plus the side work.

Then came July 15th, and my assumption of a secure job turned into a huge mistake when I was walked out for telling a friend I was going to beat his ass. It was not a threat or even anything that he took serious but somebody within earshot decided it was enough for them to make a case against me. I was fired for threating a man who went to bat for me and told the management that he had not been threatened and it was just a joke between friends.

Now here's where the learning to be thrifty part comes in, having been fired for threatening an employee my unemployment was at first denied. So we went from having around $3500 a month after taxes coming in, to just over $1800 a month coming in to cover all of our bills, and the lawncare business, well it was dead due to a draught, no rain coming in to make my customers yards grow. Lucky for us we had set aside the emergency fund, had started building some savings and I had been stocking back a 401k through work (which I really hated to cash, but we wouldnt of survived without it) which I was able to cash out to cover not having an income. Knowing the job market was rough I started looking for ways to cut unnecessary spending out of our budget. Having more time to learn I started reading about saving money and ways to save money on groceries, bills, clothes and other stuff.

On the next few blogs I will start outlining the tools, books, blogs and other resources that I used to keep us afloat from July until October when my unemployment appeal was finally won and we started having some money coming in again.

A Couple Years of Stupidity

2010-11-30T20:25:00.000-08:00

In the following couple of years after the purchase of my Suburban it seemed like all good sense and any notion of the previous attempt to get out of debt went the way of the dodo. Although not all of it was irresponsible spending and some of the debts incurred were out of necessity, almost all of it could have been avoided had I have continued the original debt snowball and not blown it back out of proportion with the school loan and the truck but as they say hindsight is always 20/20.

One of the first major debts to hit us after the purchase of the truck was the heater in the house going out in the middle of winter. With a newborn and a toddler in the house there was not much we could do but get it fixed immediately, leading to a %10 interest signature loan in the amount of $5k for a new heater. This brought us to around $155k in our debt snowball (which we were totally ignoring at this point), within 6-8 months of having to put the heater in, the ac pump on my truck went out, another have to fix issue. This time it was only $1600 but yet again we had no emergency fund built up to fall back on so into the bank we went again and tacked it onto the revolving signature loan they had given us. And during all of this instead of trying to get back on track and get things aligned in our favor what did we continue to do, nothing. We kept with the convenience of eating out near to every night since with both of us working we were to tired to come in and fix dinner (or so that was our excuse).

Within 3-4 months of having the ac repaired on the truck the transmission started showing signs of slipping, since I was already running on a paycheck to paycheck basis I decided to just ignore the signs that the truck was giving me and I drove the truck until the transmission went totally out on the truck with only 1 speed working. At this point we were very lucky that my parents had an extra vehicle to lend us because the initial repair estimate on the truck this time $2800 and at this point we were all but tapped out. By this time we should not have had too many problems because both of us had moved to a really good job and had more money coming in than we had ever had before. And this was the breaking point we needed to restart our debt snowball and to get back on track. The realization that we were so far behind was like a smack in the face to us because there was no real reason for it other than our own laziness.

At this point we made the decision to make a written plan to get back on track, and we decided to look for a little help getting motivated to succeed. Through my wife's church we found that they were doing Dave Ramsey Financial Peace University class and it was something we felt could really help us.

Next up: Getting Organized and making a plan.

Slow Start

2010-11-30T03:53:00.000-08:00

The seeds of want to become frugal, money smart, and thrifty had come sometime before I had actually lost my job. It had just never sank in that we should be living that way all the time instead of just when we didn't have money to spend. A few years ago while still at my old job a friend had recommended that I read Dave Ramsey's book The Total Money Makeover: A Proven Plan for Financial Fitness ... So I sat down and over the coming week or so after I read through the book learning the method Dave laid out before you to become financially independent. For a short time after a different mental state come over me and I pushed my family in a direction to stop trying to catch the Jones. I slowed spending and eating out, I cut out going to lunch every day from work and started carrying leftovers or microwave meals and I put us on course to pay off all of our bills just like those in the book had stated could be done.

The want, the need to be Debt Free lasted for quite some time I even picked up another book by Dave called Financial Peace Revisited which just furthered my resolve that we needed to be debt free.... We did pretty well, in the first year after reading these books, we managed to go from blowing every incoming penny to actually having a starter emergency fund (outlined by Dave as $1000 put up for emergencies only) and having a small nest egg starting to grow in our savings account which to this point was only there because our bank required we have a savings account to have checking. We followed the "Debt Snowball" given to us in the book until we had paid down to just our last 3 or 4 bills (counting our house), with debt freedom in sight we were on the home run stretch...... And then....

My stupidity set in before home base, I decided I wanted to go to school to learn about computers. Technically, not a stupid idea just not a well founded idea when you have to take out a high interest loan to do so. And on top of that I let advertisements for a "career education" center, cloud my brain. I saw the 6-9 months to do what you love ad and I fell for it just like any other sucker that doesn't think things through first. I'll fully get into why this was a bad choice later but this is where my resolve broke and we really started spending again. Going back to school I added a school loan of $18,000 back into the snowball that really has done nothing for me and has yet to pay for itself.

On top of going back to school I found out that my wife was pregnant with our 2nd child at this point and again good judgment went out the window. I took my fully paid off 4 cylinder gas friendly truck and sold it, to go purchase a new "family size" gas hungry Chevrolet Suburban because that was my dream vehicle and I finally had reason to need the extra space. Another large bill back into the debt snowball that was now growing larger than it had originally began with all of the small bills in it that we had worked to pay off. With a new child on the way should have been the time that we cracked down, got in line and pushed to finish our goal of freedom from debt, instead it is where we fell apart and started making unwise decisions again. Our debt snowball had been down to just my wife's car, her school loan, and our house a total of about $125k owed. But after my bad decision it was back to over $150k for us to work on again. And I tell you this not looking for you to feel sorry for me but to show you that even the best laid plans start to fall apart if you do not have dedication to the goal at hand.

Next post: A couple years of stupidity.

Learning,

2010-11-29T20:27:00.000-08:00

There comes a time in all of our lives in which we have to learn new things, to change our ways, to improve upon ourselves. Whether it is because of a choice, a decision, or something totally out of our control it happens. It may or may not be something that drastically changes who we are or even something that changes our way of life.

For me and my family the time for change has come. As of 7/15/2010 we went from being a 2 income $80,000 a year household to a 1 income barely meeting the bills household. It was not by design or even by choice that our life took this direction but by stupidity on my part. Getting fired from what I consider to be one of the best jobs/careers I have held in years all because of a stupid statement between friends(a story all in itself). But it has been an eye opener and possibly one of the better things to happen to us, because it made us aware that we were trying to keep up with the Joneses, we were trying to keep up the appearance that we could do as we pleased.

Had we have been smart over the 3 1/2 years I was at my job and we were bringing in more than ever before we would have saved, we would have taken the opportunity afforded to us and would have built an emergency fund and a fall back plan of 3-6 months of expenses for use during times like we are facing now. BUT we did not, we just did as a majority of all Americans have done and still continue to do: We spent like there is no tomorrow. Instead of smart grocery shopping and eating at home, we ate out 4,5, sometimes 6 or even 7 times a week or more. We looked at our budget and saw there was money there that we could put in the bank, instead we decided we "needed" a new flat panel LCD television. When I wrecked my truck, I got a nice big check, did I take that money and buy a new vehicle within reason? spending only what the insurance paid on my old vehicle.. No. I went out and purchased a bright, shiny $24,000 truck with nice big monthly payments... Now what am I doing, STRUGGLING with all the nice bills we racked up during our time of excess, not success, excess because we really did not need all these things.

Why am I telling you, complete strangers, this? I hope that my story and the learning process that I am going through and have gone through over the last few months will give you pause. Will give you a reason to reassess whether you need that shiny new expensive thing, or whether you would be better off to add another 5% to your savings. And if you are out of work and in my shoes maybe I can show you some new tricks to help you out, help you save a few bucks here and there.

Over the next few posts, I am going to lay out the steps we have taken to try and get in line, to get in order and manage to survive while I have spent the last 5 months searching for a new job in one of the worst job markets I have seen in many years. I have recommended reading for you, whether christian or not it is reading that should help you to turn your situation in your favor. For tonight that is all I have to say.