Shopping Success

or as I like to say... WOWZA!!!

Boxing Day Week shopping has never been something I have ever done a lot, or any, of but I may be sold on the notion of it as of today.  We hit the mother load! Other than all I could seem to find for tops was sweaters. {What? Do we live in northern Canada or something? grin}

One mall and one other store (read Old Navy) later and we had spent $260 and bought:
1 pair of jeans
1 dress coat
3 t-shirts
2 dress shirts
3 dressy scarves
1 sweater
2 cardigans
1 pair of brown boots (flats)...
and a partridge in a pear tree...

Ok, ok, maybe no partridges were purchased but that is still quite a bargain. I, being the cheap frugal gal I am and loving a deal, just HAD to tally up the regular prices of all these items (less the partridge of course) to see just what kind of a deal we walked away with AND the grand total of said purchases at regular price was (drum roll please...ok, could you at least imagine there's a drum roll?)

$640...

I think I could just get used to this Boxing Week sale shopping...

Fun in the Sun

Yay!!! Summer is here! New routines. New goals. New opportunities.

This summer has presented itself with a lot of little changes for our family, a lot of things to look forward to.  One of those things may even get us in a pretty good financial position.  It is not 100% set in stone so I will let you know more about that as it unfolds...

1 more month and I get to meet my cousin who is travelling here from Italy.  Words can not even begin to define just how freaking excited I am.


We have finally come to an end, in Canada, of a way too long postal strike which turned into a lock-out...but it is finally over and with its end comes our Income Tax check - finally...  We sent it in ions ago but they needed proof of our charitable donations...red tape, red tape and more red tape and a postal strike/lock-out later I open my mailbox each day seeking that ugly brown envelope...{grin}

Hope the summer has found you well, enjoying life, your family & your friends...'til next time.

In all the excitement

of being able to pay off our bills a funny thing happened. 

I didn't have our cell phone bill in front of me at the time so I just guesstimated at what the amount was.  It had been a couple of months and we have a couple of cell phones on it so I thought $220 would cover it and any residual "left-over monies that probably hadn't been paid.

This morning I wanted to make sure the balance would read zero when they received my payment so I gave them a call.  After a bunch of rigamaroll (yep, totally a word) because my name wasn't on the bill, just BigDaddy's so they wouldn't tell me (I had to pass my phone to him to confirm that "yes, this woman wanting to know the balance to pay the bill is my wife"), the gal on the other end of the phone informed me that our bill was $120. 

Guess, I inadvertently paid next month and a bit of January's cell phone bill.  Too bad they don't send you a nice letter in the mail opposite the one you get with the big red letters that reads "Final Notice".  Wouldn't it be nice if they sent you one that says "Extra Special Notice"?

Know what's nicer than having your bills balance at zero?  Finding out at least one of them is set in the negative dollar figure!

28 days

Yep, 28 days.  Depending on the circumstance, 28 days can seem like a long time.  When you are downsizing and moving into a different home, it feels like a deep breath. (on twitter I thought it was 27 but I remembered that there are 31 days in May.)

Today I had the day off and thus, the ability to collect some boxes and make some plans.  I have, to this point, gotten 1 1/2 boxes of kitchen stuff packed and a BIG box of stuff collected and priced for a garage sale.  I don't even know if I dare post pictures of the bags I end up throwing in the garbage.

Oh, speaking of which, I still owe a post showing what I got rid of on my last purging/clean sweep episode...with all the chaos of the last few days, I totally forgot. 

Off to take the kids to music; B.D. is out of town for the week, and when I get home I will continue with what I can pack so early.
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Speaking of B.D., his bounced cheques for child support to his e-wife mean I get to figure out how to pay yet another debt....

How do you shop?

Working at the customer service desk at a grocery store gives me plenty of opportunity to watch people as they shop and I have seen it all, from the lady with the stack of coupons to the family that just throws stuff in their cart like the world is coming to an end.

It got me to thinking today, how do you all shop?

As for me, I have to start with a meal plan, see what I have/don't have for that plan, make out my list, get it and my coupons clipped onto my clipboard, grab my calculator, grocery bins and re-usable bags and head out.

I find that we, as a family, save money when I shop this way.  Not only do I stay within my food budget but it seems we get more food for our buck when I am not tempted to throw a few of this and a little of that.  The gas station that I fill the car up at offers you a rebate in the form of a coupon to the store each time you get gas and I make sure to use those when I get my groceries.  Another perk, for me, is the fact that I now have a discount card for the store which gives me 10% off the total of most anything in the store.  For things like electronics or clothing it simply covers the taxes but, when I buy food, I am basically getting 10% taken off the cost of the food (which is very, very nice).

I have only just got this card as I have just, at the beginning of this month, been there 6 months and I decided that the money I save through the card, coupons or those special gas "coupons" was not just going to be saved and forgotten.  I decided to keep track of that money saved and put that amount into a savings account for us.

I don't have a lot in that account since it just crossed my mind to do that once I got the card 2 weeks ago but, I have all ready saved $14.57.

One other thing I have learned from working at Customer Service is ALWAYS check your receipt!!!  ALWAYS!!!  People make mistakes.  Computers err.  Prices can be wrong. Check the prices and check your receipt.  I don't know if the same holds true for the USA but here in Canada we have a scanning code policy.  If the price on the shelf is lower and not what you paid, you (a) get the item for free, if under $10 or (b) get $10 taken off the price of the item. 

I think most places have to give it to you automatically BUT, when you take your issue to Customer Service or talk to the cashier do not allow them to just adjust the price accordingly AND, if they don't mention the scanning code to you, YOU MENTION IT TO THEM.  Mistakes happen more than you think.  It pays to pay attention to your receipts and to the shelf prices. 

So, how do you shop?  What are your best tricks or tips for saving time and/or money?

I'm so excited!

Oh, just about started channeling The Pointer Sisters for a second... {grin}  (you know, if I believed in that sort of thing).

Jellybean and Bug are excited too.

Why are we so excited?

  We get our new car tomorrow.  Ok, new is sort of  a push. It is almost as old as I am.  Uh, so not kidding here but this car is in so much better shape than the one we have been driving (which makes us sea sick every day thanks to some computer sensor that no one can fix that make the car lunge, sputter and cough).  The "new" car is an '86 Chevy Caprice and if we tint our windows we will, we've been told, look rather maffiaesque.  Hmmm?  Let's "pimp" that baby up.  :-D

The best thing about this car is, it is paid for completely! With a minor technicality.  We are paying for it with the income tax we get back so we have, in the mean time, borrowed the money from B.Ds parents.  Well that and the fact that you can fit A LOT in the trunk of the car.  We are talking 1 adult sized body and 2 children aged 6 1/2 and 9. {Ahem} Don't ask how we know that or why it was important to know so we could figure out our bulk grocery space.  {grin}

Declutter bug strikes again!

I've been on a decluttering kick - have been for some time now.  It seems to be a never ending task in this house anyway.  (Anyone else?  Just me?  Oh...)

The other day I attacked Bug's room.  No before or after pictures.  Kind of glad about that though.  The "before" scared me enough to wonder if I would find someone's small child in there alone and scared or Jimmy Hoffa or something.  Still, I put on my brave face (perhaps some rubber gloves {grin}) and grabbed a bag for garbage.  His room is now clean and this is what I took out of it.  I would also like to mention that this was ALL trash! (broken toys, filled coloring books, things boys collect that their moms don't want to know were in the house - sort of kidding).

(Ok, so the milk jug and the laundry detergent bottle were not a part of his room but, the three bags of garbage and the really ratty pillow were.)

I also gathered a whole lot of stuff from our house to go to the thrift store (And again, still lots more stuff for me to gather and/or get emotionally ready to leave my house.  WHY are we so attached to things!?)

The painting is not something I have parted with but it has been moved to my husband's office.  LOOK at all that stuff - just look at it! The more I get rid of the more "extra" clutter drives me crazy and I am getting a bit more ruthless.

However, I did end up bringing more stuff into my house.  You do have to replace the clothes you get rid of - especially when your children seem to out-grow everything at once.  I did get some really good deals though!

Found, at WalMart, 2 pair of rubber boots for my children.  Originally cost $12/pair.  Purchased for $3/pair.  Both kids equipped for half the cost of one pair! And, as I have a girl and a boy left at home, I did what any loving "this aint no fashion show" mom frugal mom would do.  I bought my daughter a pair of plain dark blue boots from the boys department for $3 instead of spending $16.00 to get her pink ones with flowers that will be covered in mud {as soon as the snow begins to melt}; this way, in two years, her brother will fit them fabulously.

I also found some great shirts for the kids.  $75.00 worth of clothes for them for the much smaller cost of $13.00!  My kids need to wear dress clothes to school and, at times, it can be very hard to find suitable stuff for them. 

Here's what I found...

(Sorry, don't know why it is rotated and can't get it fixed, gtaking this from a memory stick and, although rotated properly on the stick, it is spinning it sideways)
Flower print shirt for Jellybean $3.00
White polo shirt for Bug   $3.00
Fooler hooded shirt w/ brown cord jacket for Bug  $7.00

My kids can wear all of these things to school and church and, other than the polo shirt, are clothes they would choose to wear everyday.  The hooded shirt Bug can only wear on "casual" Fridays but I am very happy with my "deals".  Now to find them some more pants.  {sigh}

How much can I get for this much?

I used to work at a gas station and we had a young girl that would come in with a ziploc baggie full of coins and ask us "How much can I get with this much?". Drove me bonkers. Drove us all bonkers, actually. You had to count the money and figure out how much candy she could get with that much money and the taxes, and work around her with customers who were wanting to pay for their gas, etc. She came in every day - some days several times a shift.

I don't know why I shared that other than it popped into my head right after I finished making 12 wraps for school lunches. One for tomorrow and eleven for the freezer. I got to thinking "wow. I think I just made the main part of 12 lunches for the cost of a McDonalds meal" and that got me to thinking, "how much can I get for this much".

I know.

Don't even try to figure out how my brain works at times - you will feel lost and slightly confused. Unless you do have the same process of thought as I do and then, perhaps, we can help each other out. Never know! {Grin}

I'll bet you are wondering what I made, aren't you? Well, wondering or not I am about to tell you - even show you! Lucky you. {grin}

I found this recipe for Salsa Chicken over at From My Kitchen (thanks Brandi!) quite awhile ago. Today I threw 3 chicken breasts in the crockpot with some salsa (I buy ours in bulk so I guesstimate at how much it was - perhaps a cup) and shredded them up. On 12 tortillas, I spread out some sour cream that I had just bought for $0.50 (I know!), put a couple forkfuls of the shredded chicken and topped it with shredded cheddar. I wrapped them up individaully in plastic wrap and then put them in a freezer bag.

Take a peek at these... (Yumm-o)

11 of the 12 I made (#12 is for tomorrow's lunch)

I would guess that the 12 of these wraps cost me approximately $7 to make. You're looking at about $0.58 per wrap.

When I look at that, I just don't know if I could ever pay $6.50 for a Big Mac Meal or $5.29 for a 6-inch sub with baked chips and a drink at Subway again. (Ok, maybe hardly ever; I really like Subway!)

Coupons, coupons, coupons!

And these ones are for Canada!  Woo Hoo!  It seems most sites I find out there are coupon sites for the U.S... great for my American friends.  Doesn't really help me much.  Ok, it doesn't help me at all (except for when I am planning a trip down to KC, MO but that isn't coming up for awhile.

So, I will be doing some more digging in the future and if you have any sites, ADD them! Um, please...

So far I have found the following (which are fairly easy to find but, I do what I can.  You're welcome.)

Save.ca

Gocoupons

With both of these sites you select the coupons you want and they are mailed out to you.  Coupons from Save.ca are good for about 60 days.  I just found Gocoupons and selected my coupons so I am still waiting to see how long they take to get here and for how long they are good.

All right my fellow Canadian mamas, do you have any more leads for coupons?

Much ado about nothing in particular

→Today we cancelled our home phone.  We both have cell phones, plus we have skype on our computers.  We can't call land lines with it as we haven't paid for that feature but we can call computer to computer...  We are saving ourselves $600/year by cancelling our land line.  $600 a year, huh?  That's a fair bit especially given the fact that most of the calls we get are on our cells and we may get 4 calls a month on our land line. Ok, maybe a bit more than that - but not much.  EVERYONE calls our cells.

Thus begins our year of beginning to incorporate Kingdom principles in our finances.

→ I used that Jillian Michaels Fitness Ultimatum 2010 the other day. 

I needed help to even think about using my leg muscles.  My boss even threatened to send in help to get me off the toilet if I took longer than she thought I needed.  Seriously though, I could hardly move.

→ I got to go out for supper last night with my husband.  Just us.  I had a Tuscan pizza. Oh! So Good! {like I am salivating right now good} I was very nicely surprised when a figure ran up beside me and threw her arms around me.  When I realized who it was, I began to cry {happy tears}; it was my friend who moved away {the day Rush ran away} to another province.

→ I was distracted through a bit of our supper as one of Rush's good friend's family sat across the way from us and I could see her talking and laughing with her family and looking at her mom with love and adoration.  It hurt but I am pleased to say that it did not dictate my night.  I had my moment of grief and was able to move on.

→ We were joined after we finished our supper by some very, very dear friends of ours for "coffee". 

→ Why "coffee"?  I don't drink coffee.  I haven't since I was pregnant with Rush over 16 years ago.  The smell of it made me ill and I have had, maybe, 3 cups since.

→ Kids really do say the silliest things sometimes and the thought processes they have ever amaze me.
 → Case in point, Bug was playing and running quite hard this morning and was left a little out of breath; he looked at me and said, "Mama, my breath is angry at me."

The other day he decided to delight us with an extremely descriptive tale of his last bowel movement and how it "shot out of him like a bomb from a ship."  {Has to be a boy thing.}

→ We are in the process of deciding if it will be to the best interest of our family for me to take in a couple of children and have Home Daycare instead of working at the grocery store.  There is one lady who is interested at this point.  I would need one more to make it worth my while.  My job does not give us medical benefits; we get that from BigB's work and so we are just relying on my job for the income.  If I can do that while still being at home full-time all the better!

→ BigB got me Lightroom and I am so thrilled to be able to begin playing with it tonight.  I have not yet had the chance. What with writing a skit and all...

→ I wrote a skit called The Biggest Loser - Church Edition and we performed it at our church on New Year's Eve.  BigB and I also teamed up to compete in the anual Iron Chef competition at our church (also on New Year's Eve).  We didn't win but had SO much fun with the 4 other teams.

→ Boxing Day was an incredibly eventful day.  We were introduced to a new {church} family member.  Little Landon Jeremiah was born at 7 AM.  In the evening our close friend's dad was admitted to the hospital and the prognosis didn't look good.  I am pleased to say that the situation has been rectified and e is doing well at home.  Grandpa Art simply had pneumonia that had brought on an infection which resulted in complications.

→ Dec 27th we had a bunch of the young adults from our church over.  People who have recently moved from different provinces and have no family here.  We filled them with food, baking and love and sent them home happy; it was nice to be around people we love.

→ I am thankful for my regular schedule.  It is nice to be able to be back blogging and to go to your blogs and see what you all have been up to.

See? Much ado about nothing in particular.  What have you been up to lately?  Huh, friends?

Never too young

I took Jellybean and Bug with me tonight when I went grocery shopping. Where else would they be, right? Anyway, totally not the point of the story.

We were passing the deli where they keep all the delicious looking sandwiches that they sell for $5 each when Jellybean had a brainwave. "Mom," she said full of excitement over her thought processes, "why don't you just buy me and Bug one of those sandwiches for our lunches and then you don't have to make us lunches anymore?! That would be so easy for you, heh?"

I didn't want to crush her really "great" idea but I took that time to explain to the kids about being good stewards of our money, then we discussed how much two of those sandwiches would be for one day of the week and then I showed and explained to her (Bug too but he wasn't really listening - what can I expect from a 6 year old boy about grocery shopping? Yawn)how much lunch stuff we could buy for that $10.

She will be getting a delicious looking egg salad sandwich tomorrow but I think this one only cost about $0.75 to make (if even that). She did get the message and you could see the "gears" turning in her head as she was figuring out what the best deal was, and as she figured it out and saw that she could have her sandwich and a package of mini oreo cakesters for lunch for way less than that one sandwich she was uber excited to go home so I could make as many sandwiches as I wanted.

P.S. I will be bringing forth all name suggestions to Jellybean and Bug tomorrow for judging and let you know of the "winner" of the unbelievable prizes as soon as I can. {Grin}

A penny saved...

We have recently decided that we needed to buckle down and get Jellybean and Bug an allowance. We have talked about it forever but we always pushed it to the back burner because we couldn't afford it at the time. We have decided that whether we can afford it or not is not the question. The question really is, can we afford not to?

We have struggled our entire relationship being tossed in wave upon wave of debt. We have just this year gotten so close to out of debt we can probably say we are. At this point, we owe $600 and that is it! Hooray!

Anyway, we thought that it was incredibly important that we teach our children about money and how to save it, and how to spend it properly. This is why, both, Jellybean and Bug get $15 each/month. At the beginning of the month I gather the kids in the kitchen and dole out their allowance (that they earn by doing chores around the house).

Each child's $15 is broken up into the following each month:
1 - $10
2 - $2
1 - $1

Each of the kids have three jars to put their money into: one for "saving for", one for "spending money" and one for "tithe/offering". They each, and joyfully I might add, LOVE to give 10% of what they earn to God for tithe and both willingly add money to it for offering. It's one of the highlights of the month for them - getting to fill out their very own offering envelopes. Each of them have decided to add $0.50 to their tithe of $1.50 to give an even $2.00.




Another of the jars is where the kids put $3.00 of the money to spend that month on whatever they want at the candy store, dollar store or to save to add with next month's for something bigger.

The third jar is the biggest jar of them all as it is going to have to hold and save a fair bit of money. Both kids are saving money to buy themselves each a NintendoDS. They are saving birtday money, $10 each month of their allowance money and they have bags upon bags of pop bottles and juice boxes to take to Sarcan to get recylce money back. (I am hoping to do that tomorrow.)



What do you do for your children as far as allowance goes? For teaching them the value of money? For teaching them how to save and for teaching them how NOT to wind up where we were, so far in debt we couldn't see any light at the end of the tunnel?

T Minus DD2 Day 6

Today was a hard day for me emotionally; I did wake up ok but, as the day progressed, and I did the few things that needed to be done, it got worse. I called Child Tax to let them know DD2 isn't with us anymore; my brain went numb and I couldn't remember my S.I.N. so they wouldn't help me. I had spent a total of 2 hours trying to call them today. Needless to say I hung up the phone mentaly drained by my conversation with them that resulted in nothing getting done until I get them my number.

Then I got the call from my "friend" that I mentioned earlier. It left me in tears and heartbroken. A real friend wouldn't disrespect me that way and it wouldn't be all about them either. I realized just how selfish they really are. I mean, I realized it before and have talked to her about it before but, I never really understood the depths of it before. They have somehow turned DD2 running away ALL. ABOUT. THEM! Since when does that affect them, other than needing to find someone else to look after her responsibility when she wants to do whatever?

I had a very lovely surprise tonight from some very dear friends of ours. Tonight there was a wedding shower for one of our friends; DH is out of town and I couldn't find a sitter so I made plans to do some snuggling with my kids. We ate supper: leftover hashbrown bake with McDonald's cheeseburgers. (Yes, I went though the drive through for cheeseburgers instead of cooking something to go with the hashbrown bake! There is nothing wrong with that {GRIN}) and were snuggling when the phone rang. My friend, Shar was wondering when I was leaving for the shower; so, I explained it all to her, said my "goodbyes" and resumed snuggling. Her husband offered to watch the kids for me so I could go and just "have some fun". He sent me off with a hug and with one of those "dad" looks that he gives me - the kind that you know he is looking right into your heart knowing exactly what you are feeling and thinking. So, we had fun.

I saw DD2's best friend there; she is hurting too. I don't know if DD2 really understood that magnitude of people that would be affected and wounded by her decision, and her lack of desire to be with them. DD2 has another friend, a deaf friend, who is heart broken the DD2 won't be there at school anymore. She has asked her mom, 'what am I going to do?'. DD2 was the one who would sign for her, translate for her and spent hours getting Laura to teach her more words so she can communicate better with her. She feels she will be lost this year.

It seems strange in our house; there's a huge void. Her lack of being there is quite noticable. The anger that seemed to fill our house, though, is gone too. I still want things to be like they were last Christmas before everything seemed to change. For my daughter to be with me...that will never change.

We have been hoping to go on a family trip this winter. It was somewhere I really wanted to go with DD2, something I know she & I would really enjoy. It won't be the same without her...

Just a phone call away

DD4 and DS3 (ages 8 and 6) have recently added a new phone number to their memory banks...my cell number. They seem to think that "emergency", while I am at work, qualifies as DS3 wanting to spend his $20 birthday money at the local convenience store...

Not really what I had in mind when I told them I would always be just a phone call away. That being said, I am SO glad they know they can call me.

I will be going over a finances lesson with them and doing something we should have started a while ago, but weren't in a financial situation ourselves, allowances. We will be discussing tithing (which they all ready know about but I will teach them how to apply it to their own finances) and what to do as far as "spending money" and "savings".

After the lessons DH & I have learned the hard way about finances, I think we are all ready late in starting to teach them. Perhaps a post about it later on what we decided to do with them.