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Archive for July, 2008

Garage Sale Leftovers

July 13th, 2008 at 04:56 pm

What is better than finding a great price on an item at a garage sale? Finding it for FREE! After sitting in the sun all day on Saturdays, most people in our city will place a FREE sign in front of all their garage sale leftovers that didn't sell. We have found some really great stuff when digging through the leftovers. A lot of times if you look on your local freecycle or craigslist boards on Saturday or Sunday afternoons, you can find the listings for the FREE leftovers.

7/11/08 Budget/Savings

July 11th, 2008 at 11:27 pm

10% Give
6% Retirement
5% ING 6 Month Emergency Savings
3% Vehicle Savings
3% ING Appliance Savings
3% ING Vacation Savings

1/4 Mortgage Payment Saved for August
50 Put in Slush Fund for non monthly expenses

75 Food/Household
50 Home Improvement
100 HSBC CC
80 Water/Sewer/Garbage
300 2 Plane Tickets
190 Vehicle Insurance (Quarterly)
165 Student Loan
10 DH food money

I haven't always been consistent at funding the slush fund. I know I should be as it sure makes it easier when the annual life insurance policy comes due. I can just write the check and not think twice about how I am needing to come up with that extra money that month. So I tallied up all the nonmonthly expenses we have in one year and divided by 12. I figure if I stash $50 a week into a slush account, we will be set. I just need to actually DO it now! Smile

Borrow, not Buy

July 4th, 2008 at 05:38 pm

Once or twice during the summer our older kids enjoy a float trip down the local river. Instead of purchasing expensive life jackets to only be used a few times a year, we use our cities free life jacket rental system. Each of our local fire departments loans out life jackets in all sizes to community members for floating/boating trips. They are easy to pick up and there are drop off boxes all over town for them to dropped off after you finish using them. If there is something you won't use on a regular basis, why not see if you can borrow it from someone, rather than spend money for it and then have to find the space to store it?

Budget & Savings 7/03/08

July 3rd, 2008 at 04:30 pm

10% Give

6% Retirement
5% 6 Month Emergency Fund
3% New Vehicle Savings Fund
3% Tool Fund for Hubby
3% Slush Fund (for non monthly expenses)

279 Monthly Medical/Dental Insurance

1/4 Mortgage for August Saved
20 Blow Money for DH
20 Blow Money for Me
20 Kids Allowance
10 Food for DH
85 Electric
80 Home Phone/Internet
25 DD Birthday Gift
45 BOA CC
865 Home Improvement

Fireworks for Free

July 3rd, 2008 at 04:18 pm

Our city has an annual fireworks show. They charge $10.00 per vehicle to park near where they shoot them off. Rather than pay that money AND get stuck in the worst traffic jam our state sees all year, we opt to walk to a hill near our house and watch from there. No, they aren't as BIG and SPECTACULAR as being "right there" but the kids love them just the same and we get home before most people pack up and make it out of the parking lot. Works for us!

Library DVD's

July 2nd, 2008 at 10:14 pm

Each week I put the new release DVD's on hold online at our local library. We usually have a steady stream of DVD's to pick up each week and it costs us nothing.

July 2008 Food/Household

July 2nd, 2008 at 09:22 pm

I am going to keep track of our spending this month on all purchases made in the food category as well as regular household items. My goal is to spend $500 or less for the month of July. This might be a bit of a bigger challenge for me this month, more than most, because we have a daughter with a birthday this month and also a few more things for the new baby to get. Smile


$8.02 Spent at Taco Johns for 2 meals- Yes I could have avoided this Frown

4 pounds shrimp
4 pounds red grapes
2 cantaloupes
40 oz pistachios
15 pounds cheddar cheese
2 seedless watermelons
12.5 pounds ground turkey
5 packages hot dog buns
1 pound peppered beef jerky
2 packages Nathans Hot dogs
2 packages Hebrew Hot dogs

1 bag charcoal
1 bag chips
1 box ziplock bags
3 boxes lasagna noodles
1 package ground buffalo meat
1 package undies for DH
2 packages of diapers
1 small container wipes
1 bottle medicine
1 package cake decorating frosting
1 container frosting
1 container of buttermilk powder
1 bottle dishsoap
1 gallon skim milk
1 dozen organic eggs

$7.25 Fast Food (UGH!)

$12.50 2 bags of clothing, waffle maker from thrift store



Total $214.57

ING SubAccounts

July 1st, 2008 at 03:30 pm

Today our family is being frugal by...

Loading up our van and driving to the local lake to cool off. It is $2.00 per car load to spend the entire day there. Over the last few months before summer arrived, I stocked up on 100% juices from Big Lots to fill our cooler with on days like this. No yucky high fructose corn syrup drinks, and no paying full price for drinks today at the grocery store!

Yesterday I figured out how to make sub accounts under our main ING orange savings account. This tickled the nerd in me, because now I can see all of our separate savings categories with the amount of money in each when I log in. Our family has never been savers, so its new to me to watch our balances grow each week. I love it!