Grocery Budget Challenge

I’ve been dabbling in budgeting. I say “dabbling” because every time I make out a budget I blow it. Go figure. Well, I decided that with the holidays coming up (ie. Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years) I should make a practice run with my grocery budget. I have (for no other reason than that’s what I came up with) $180 for a family of 4 (that includes myself and 3 teenage boys). Possible? I guess we’ll see. I’m challenging myself to stick to this and I’ll record my progress here on Learning 2 Live 4 Less. It starts today and I’ll run this for a month – December 10th will be my verdict day.

Day 1

Stopped at Wal-Mart on the way into work to pick up the following:

20 oz Coke $1.38
24 pk Wally world Water $3.98
Great Value Creamer (big container) $3.86
Banquet Chicken Steak Microwave dinner $1.00
Banquet Sweet & Sour Chicken Microwave Dinner $1.00
Croissants Baker reduced $1.50
Great Value Applesauce cups $1.56
Great Value Nonfat Dried Milk $16.42

Total $30.70
Balance $149.30


This trip was spontaneous so I didn’t plan it too well. I needed lunch for the day and for tomorrow. The water is a staple at our house. As for the Nonfat Dried Milk? Oh let me tell you it’s my favorite ingredient to have. Before you say ooo and gross. Let me let you in on my secret. Ok It’s not MY secret but I learned it and live by it. I even have a cheat sheet on the side of the refrigerator to refer to. We go through a ton of milk in our house. The boys still drink it like they did when they used Sippy cups. I save the so called “good” stuff for their drinking and cereal use and then fall back on my powered milk substitutes for cooking, baking, and a few little recipes that the boys love. These included Magic Milkshakes, vanilla milk, and even Hot Cocoa Mix. My favorite site for quick, inexpensive recipes www.hillbillyhousewife.com is a great resource for some do it yourself home concoctions. The point I started with was why I buy powered milk. While it’s not our first choice for drinking, it does come in handy when we run short or a freak ice storm lands like it did last year. Plus, a gallon of milk runs about $ 3.50 maybe $2.89 on sale these days (prices may vary by region ) The box I bought today makes 80 quarts or 20 gallons of milk. Roughly broke down means for less than a dollar ($0.821) a gallon I would save more than enough to justify the hassle of using the powdered version. Again, we still buy good old fashion milk but this is a great addition to stretch our dollar.



Back to my original posting topic: I need to do some grocery shopping tonight and I’ll let you know how I do. I don’t have the first coupon to use (shame on me) but I am going to our discount grocery store because well, I always shop there.  I’m off to make a list and get what we need. First I’m going to do some recipe surfing then list making. Wish me luck!

Swagbucks.com

In my never-ending search to make very little stretch very far, (and my love for free stuff). I just started using Swagbucks.com. Basically, its a search engine portal that allows you to earn Swagbucks for purchases and the chance to win prizes.

"www.swagbucks.com is an online portal dedicated to helping you earn digital dollars called "Swag Bucks," which can be redeemed for exclusive swagbucks.com merchandise." -Swagbucks.com FAQs

you can check it out here:

I've only been on it a few minutes and have already earned about 10 swagbucks. The site also gives points for turning in old cell phones and video games. That's a pretty good deal to get something out of those old useless objects laying around the house. The search engine so far seems comparable to Google so why not earn some extras while searching for things you do everyday anyway?

Take a look and tell him Gertie Sent ya!

SmartShopper Discounted at Yugster.com

Sorry I've been MIA so much going on there isn't enough room in cyberspace to get anyone caught up. I wanted to share a great deal with everyone though.

The budget guru Erin over at Jane4Girls had posted this great giveaway back in January for a great new tool for help with grocery & to-do lists. It was called the SmartShopper.


Well, I didn't win BUT while scoping out my 1 a day sale sites this morning I found the deal of the day. Yugster.com is offering the SmartShopper as a sneak peak special (which means if you're registered you can go ahead an order it but if not you can order it tomorrow-registering is FREE) this awesome tool is being sold on Yugster.com for....$27.97!!!! Yes that's right $27.97. I had a $10 Gift card from earlier purchases so I got mine for $17.97 plus $7 shipping and handling for a grand total of $24.97! That's a HUGE savings. So I would jump on it. I've order from them several times before they are very reliable. A bit slow with shipping but I've always received what I've ordered.

So Happy Friday everyone!

The Flu has landed

Hello all! Sorry for the absence. The flu has landed at our home...well more like crashed landed in a blaze of glory! Not a very nice couple of weeks around here. I believe I'm on the mend; at least the walls coming in on me makes me feel like I'm on the mend. I haven't been able to get out and do any shopping which really has helped the budget quite a bit. ha! ha! The only thing I've been buying lately is NyQuil and Sprite. But I didn't want to leave you hanging without a tip or two for them. We've gone through a bunch of sprite this past week and I actually sat there and read the "See Details" part of the package. While I was running a bit of fever for most of the week, I did decide to join the Mycokerewards program. I went through the house collecting all the caps I could find. While you can get great coke stuff I also learned that you can donate the rewards to the school of your choice. This is a great idea if you aren't into all the merchandise items or you just want to help out a local school. There are also other great causes you can support with your Coke Rewards as well. During the month of March when you enter a 12-pack you'll earn an additional bonus of 3 points each day for the month of March. It will amaze you how quickly those little cap points will add up. So go grap a Coke/Sprite and a smile for all the good points that will add up to some great things or at least some great opportunity for a worth cause.

Using Coupon Codes to save on Online purchases

One of the great things about the web is you can shop around to find the best deal without running yourself rigid. You can also save yourself a little more buy using coupon codes or promo/promotional codes. For those who aren't familiar with these, they are basically codes that you can put into your online checkout cart that will give you a discount. You can sometimes find them on the mailing label of a catalog or retailers you order from frequently may even send you a postcard with the special code. However, if you don't ever receive them or don't get the ones you could actually use, don't despair. As with all things virtual, you can find virtually any retailer's codes on the web. If you're going to buy online, do a little search (google's my personal favorite) for the retailer you're shopping at with the key words "coupon codes", "promo codes", or "promotional codes". i.e. shopping on Amazon.com I search for : Amazon.com coupon codes and end up with sites that have codes such as this one: 4DNW5Q89 FOR $25 off shoes sold by RoadRunner thru Amazon.com or 326465 5% discount on DVDs. Basically, you just look for a code that fits what you are looking for. Some of the places to look that I've found helpful are:

Retailmenot.com

Currentcodes.com

Couponcabin.com

These are just a few of the ones I've used. You can also find them on some of your favorite forums. Some of the ones I've used included:

Hotcouponworld.com

Fishingfordeals.com

Mommysavers.com

All three of these sites are great coupon code resources as well as having a multitude of other savings ideas. Just remember to shop around and look for virtual coupons just like you would a traditional paper coupon or sale. Combining these with some of reward programs like Mypoints.com and ebates.com that give cash back or points for purchases, can really cut your costs on things you buy. It takes a few extra clicks but a few extra clicks can really add up to extra savings.

Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act could make our lives worse

In our quest to save money, many of us with children shop ebay, yard sales, children's consignment, etc. However, there's a law that was passed called The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act could stop all that. According to The Los Angeles Times, as of February 10th all items for children will have to be tested to be lead free before the can be sold. This could possibly mean it will be illegal for consignment shops, thrift store, yard sales, even ebay sellers to sell children's items since they wouldn't have been tested for Lead making them hazardous. The law was written to protect children from products made with lead products. While it was a well intended law, it could potentially hurt a ton of businesses as well as hit our own pocket books. Several people are trying to get the Consumer Product Safety Commission to amend the law so that it doesn't hurt the resale industries.

Let's all hope that this gets amended before we loose one of the best ways we've found to cloth our children and even recycle our children's outgrown toys and clothes. This could really rock a lot of our worlds.