Friday, September 25, 2009

Forget Clothes That Say "Dry-Clean"

I just picked up some items from the dry cleaners that had been sitting there since the spring. The total bill was $75.00. Ouch. Three of the items were jackets that couldn't be washing by hand, I think two other items might have done okay on the "handwash" cycle. The less money we spend on dry-cleaning the better, so I am going to be more careful to check the tags before I buy anything to see if I want to pay many times over the cost of the item in drycleaning. Usually I wouldn't, but you can't avoid drycleaning fancy dresses or sport coats.

Monday, September 21, 2009

Don't Bring the $1 off Coupons to H.T.

I just found out today, after matching up my coupons and selecting my items, that during the Triple Coupons Week at Harris Teeter, they will double any coupon with a face value up to .99, but not on a dollar off coupon. So I only got $1 off instead of the three I though I was on several times. Bummer. Lesson learned. Read the fine print.

Why You Should Color Code Your Checkbooks

I made a stupid mistake last week and I am kicking myself for not having each of our checking/savings/money market checkbooks in distinct covers. Two of them were in burgundy covers, and I handed my husband the wrong one last week to pay a car repair bill. You guessed it, the check bounced because the checkbook he used was the one with not much in it. Aaaargh! So now we have fees to pay on top. I immediately threw away one of the burgundy covers and I am ordering different covers for our other five checkbooks that came with navy blue. This is the kind of thing that should never happen. Maybe we have too many accounts in too many different places! Hmmm......

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Great Tool For Cutting Grocery Costs

On Coupon Mom, I found a booklet you can download (8 pages) that spells out exactly how to be a strategic shopper. All of her "tricks" are outlined there, and combined with her research providing every state's grocery store deals of the week, and the coupons to print out, you can save A LOT of money. I am glad to have something I can study this week to make my efforts pay off. I feel more change in the jar coming!

Saturday, September 19, 2009

Taking Advantage of a Great Equifax Service

We have used Equifax for years to track our credit score and. They advertised a new service for $15.00 a month that lays out a debt repayment schedule for you and keeps track of whether or not you are on target each month. According to Equifax, we should be debt-free (except for a mortgage) in two years if we stay on plan. They use the "debt-stacking" method and map out which credit cards you should focus on first. I tried to keep a debt-stacking plan on our computer using Excel, but I like the fact that I don't have to look up the balances each month because they track that for you. Much easier. I am excited about following this plan.

New Grocery Tactics

This week was the first time I tried the method of trying to get groceries for free or for only a few cents using grocery store triple coupon specials combined with coupons. I have subscribed to a great blog called www.thecouponconsultant.com where the match-ups are often done for you. I went to Harris Teeter and got $59 worth of groceries for $18! At Krogers, I was able to get $195 worth of groceries for $113. Not bad. My goal is to cut our $1000 a month grocery bill in half. I have become obsessed! It does require some preparation but it is worth it!

Saturday, September 12, 2009

Big Start of School Delay

What I mean is, I have been so busy getting my four kids back into the swing of school, that I have had little time to blog about finances. My biggest struggle these two weeks has been paying for all of the back to school clothes and supplies while shopping for my oldest's sixteenth birthday and encountering a huge car repair bill. That makes two huge car repair bills in four weeks. Yikes! This is the sort of thing that can completely throw your budget if you don't have the money previously saved. We did have money saved for the first car repair because we knew that $900 bill was coming. But the second $900 for the second car was not planned, so now we have forked out money out of savings that was set aside for earnest money on a new house for a fall move. Now we have to refigure it all out. We may have to delay the move til spring when we get our tax money back, which is a big bummer. And the fall visit to a college in Florida for my oldest will definitely have to wait til spring. She won't be happy, but oh well. Life happens. I am waiting for the big fall sales to put my kid's clothes resale business on Ebay. Can't sell resell fall clothes until I can buy them at a big discount later this month. Waiting seems to be the theme here! But waiting is better than more debt!!