February Goals
Our main goals for the month as a couple are to create a budget and to pay off as much debt as possible, but we also set some personal goals for the month.
Lindsey:
1. Read at least 5 books. Listening to audio books during my hour roundtrip counts as reading, so even though this month will be super busy with grading student essays, this should be doable.
2. Walk at least 100 miles. I wear a pedometer and track my walking everyday. I’ve averaged over 4 miles the past few days. If I keep this up, I can definitely meet this goal.
3. Lose at least 2 pounds.
4. Make extra food at least once a week to put an extra meal in the freezer. I met that for this week already when we made a huge batch of mini pizza meatloaves. It was our supper last night, Josh’s lunch today, and we have 5 servings left in the freezer.
5. Generate at least $100 of extra income (which can come from selling stuff or extra work). This is going to have to be actually $170 because I want $100 profit, and I’m budgeting this month for the breakfast I provide all 90 of my students the morning of our big state standardized test the first week of March. Last year I fed 93 kids on $100, and they were well fed. They were still full at lunch. This year I think I can do even better and spend even less. My budget is $70.
6. Write at least 10 ehow articles.
Josh:
1. Be all caught up on grading
2. Do 10 mystery shops (he’s already done 2 for the month and has some really good restaurant ones lined up–2 at Buffalo Wild Wings and 1 at Applebees. I’m excited!)
3. Listen to 2 audio books
4. Lose 9 pounds
5. Sell at least 10 things and earn a minimum of $70
6. Figure out what he’s doing this summer and fall
7. Not buy more than 3 fountain pops (his very favorite)
8. Have 1 day a week of not yelling at Mauer (one of our dogs; he’s the crazy neurotic one, but we I love him anyway)
9. Apply for at least 3 full-time jobs
January’s Successes
We’ve said many times that we need to get our acts together, start being more responsible, etc., but in January we finally made a real commitment to it. We still have a long way to go, but we’re off to a good start. Here’s what we accomplished:
1. We established our emergency savings account of $1000.
2. We paid a decent chunk toward our credit card bill. We plan on being credit card debt free by our first anniversary on July 3. It will hopefully be sooner, but that’s our deadline.
3. We started decluttering. We both have hoarding tendencies we need to keep in check, and we started getting rid of stuff (though we still have a lot more to get rid of). The stuff is either getting sold, being given away, or going in the garbage.
4. I got free stuff! I love free stuff. This month I got several samples of things, but, more exciting, I got several non-sample items: 1 free pair of Lee jeans, 1 free pair of Champion workout pants (now I just need to work out), Tide Swash (which I tried for the first time this morning and was amazed at the results), and a full bottle of Suave Rosemary Mint shampoo and conditioner (a much cheaper version of Aveda’s expensive stuff). I also won 2 free tickets to Valentine’s Day.
5. We made extra money selling stuff! We got $49.92 selling video games on Half.com and $150 selling stuff on Craigslist.
6. We got about $45 worth of free food. Most of it was from Arby’s (see my eHow article on how to get free food from Arby’s), but we also got free fresco tacos from Taco Bell, a free half gallon of chocolate milk thanks to a coupon I got from the Great Gallon Give, and we earned enough points at QDoba to get Josh’s chicken quesadilla free.
7. I made my nerdy spreadsheet to track my free stuff and extra income.
Great deal at Office Depot!
In years past, Josh has paid our taxes using the free edition of Turbo Tax, but this year we decided to purchase Turbo Tax Deluxe to try to help us find as many deductions as possible. We’ve been looking in the Sunday ads and had seen several offers for a gift card or money back with purchase, which looked tempting, but we just didn’t get around to going to the store to actually purchase it.
I’m glad we didn’t! Office Depot is having a great deal this week. Buy the Turbo Tax software for $50, get Quicken Starter Edition for free, a free dvd (he chose House Bunny because he knew my sister and brother-in-law like the movie (Happy Birthday!), and they also have up to $1100 worth of free software that you can get. Josh got Defender Pro, which is an anti-virus software we’ll use when our current subscription is over, and Digital TV for PC2 (we’re considering getting rid of satelite and streaming Netflix and other programs through Josh’s XBOX 360 in the living room and a roku in the bedroom and also watching on my desktop). The only catch to all of the free software is it’s all rebates, so if you’re not willing to fill out the paperwork, it’s really not a good deal for you. We’re willing though, so we’ll gladly take our free stuff! 
We spent $181.85. Of that, $11.90 was tax, the Turbo Tax program was $49.99, and the rest will be refunded with rebates. Josh also signed up for the Office Depot rewards card, which means we’ll be getting 10% in a rebate from them. So for a about $45, we got a lot of stuff! I just hope we’re able to save that much or more on taxes with the Deluxe Edition!
Walgreens and CVS deals
Super Savings Sunday
Today I did a pretty good job of shopping. I went to Walgreens, CVS, and Meijer.
At Walgreen, I purchased $71.98 worth of items for just $15.96, plus I got $6 in Register Rewards back, so it was basically a $10 excursion. I purchased:
4 Loreal makeup items BOGO 50% (1 foundation, 2 powders, for which I had $2 coupons for each, and 1 mascara I had a $3 coupon for and the store had a $2 instant coupon for)
3 Swanson chicken broth (store coupon for $.69 each, plus I stacked it with a manufacturer’s coupon for $1 on 3)
2 Dole Peach cups and a Mott’s applesauce (on sale $5 for 3, coupon for $.75 off on 2 Dole)
1 Secret Clinical Strength Deodorent ($8.99 with $4 RR, $.25 coupon)
2 Hershey’s dark chocolate bars, 2 Hershey’s dark chocolate with almonds (2 BOGO coupons, will keep one wrapper and send it in to get a free bag of Hershey’s dark pieces.
1 Carmex chapstick (Store coupon for $.99, stacked with a catalina coupon for $.75 off)
Vitamin Water Schtick chapstick (on sale for $1.99 with $2 RR) (I’ll probably be stopping in at Walgreens later in the week to get some more of these)
I also used $25 in RR from last week.
The makeup and deoderent will go downstairs to the stock pile to be used in the next couple of months. The chapsticks I put right in my stocking stuffer box, as they don’t expire for quite some time and will still be good well beyond Christmas.
At CVS I ended up making money, which was exciting. I’d never done that before. I purchased:
2 of Dove’s new man soaps for $5.49 each, plus 2 coupons for $1.25 off, and got $10.98 in CVS Cash Back
1 Colgate Max Fresh toothepaste for $2.99, plus a $.50 coupon, and $2 CVS Cash Back
I spent a total of $11.95 including tax, and I got $12.98 in CVS Cash to spend later, so I made $1.03 this trip. We already have some man soap and toothpaste, so these will be added to my stockpile in the basement, but I know we’ll use them, and these prices were too good to pass up.
I didn’t save nearly as much at Meijer, but that’s to be expected, as it’s harder to save on groceries. I did, however save 33%, spent under $50, which was my goal for the week, and was able to stock up on tomato sauce, Rice-A-Roni, and Raisin Bran, in addition to buying the groceries we need for the week. All in all, I think I did pretty pretty well.
Staples Rewards – Read the Fine Print and then take advantage of it!
Two and a half years ago when we first moved to our current city, we made our first trip to Staples for some basic supplies for our house. When we were checking out we were asked if we wanted to join Staples Rewards. When told it was free, we joined. Two years later, I had still been going to Staples for any office needs and had spent almost a thousand dollars over this span. Two weeks ago, I received an ad telling me I could receive three-ring binders for free after a 100% Staples Rewards return. I of course was interested in receiving free things.
After I went to Staples and purchased the binders, I began to think about how I had not actually received anything from Staples in regards to Reward rebates. I did some research and it turns out in order to receive a rebate, you need to have earned enough of a rebate ($10) within a calendar quarter (three month time frame).
In order to receive rebates at all, the rebates need to be earned via purchasing certain items. The items include printer paper and cartridges as well as special sales that they offer. Now that I know how much of a rebate I need in order to receive Rewards, I have made a plan on how to shop at Staples. Instead of going to Staples and purchasing a ream of paper, or a single print cartridge, I now plan on buying in bulk. When you buy one ream or one cartridge, you build up a small rebate and run the risk of not actually making the $10 threshold.
After buying the binders, I have now started scouring the Staples ads in an attempt to build up as big of a rebate before the quarter is over. I have also started to look at the other reward clubs I belong to (Best Buy, CVS, Speedway/Super America, etc.) to see what steps I need to take in order to receive the rebate.
Pleasant shopping!
Thrifty Reading
I love books! And two of my favorite websites allow me to trade books with others–PaperBackSwap and SwapTree.
PaperBackSwap works on a credit system. YOu post all of the books you want to trade, and for each book someone requests from you, you earn one credit. You then send the book to the requester. This usually costs between $2 and $3. People likewise will pay to send you the books you request. Once you earn credits (and they automatically give you two once you list 10 books), you can use them to request the books you want. You are also able to purchase credits to request more books.
SwapTree is similar, but has some key differences. You also pay to send books requested from you, but wherease PaperBackSwap gives you credits to get books, SwapTree allows you to trade directly with people who have items you want. Three-party trades are also possible. SwapTree also has books, dvds, cds, and video games all on the same site, so you can swap your book for someone else’s movie. You and the other people participating in the trade all have to agree to it before the trade goes through–you’re not obligated to trade your brand new dvd for a cheap paperback, unless that’s a swap you want to make. Swaptree also let’s you rate the condition of books. This can help you determine whether or not you want to enter the swap.
I find the two systems complement each other well. I like that on PaperBackSwap I can order books from whomever I want, regardless of whether or not they want something of mine. However, for popular items, you’re put on a waiting list, and it could take a long time before all of the people ahead of you get the books and it finally gets to you. This points toward a main advantage of SwapTree–if there’s something you want, there isn’t a waiting list. You just have to have something the owner wants. So if you have a desirable item, you’re likely to get what you want fairly quickly. This trading system can also be a disadvantage, though, because you must have something that the other person wants. Overall, I find that by belonging to both sites, I get the benefits of both, and they balance each other out.
I recognize that an even thriftier way to access books (and other items on SwapTree) would be to go to the library, as you do spend money to send out each book. I do use the library sometimes, but they don’t always have too books I want, and I want to be able to read the books at my own pace when I get the time. This isn’t always possible with the library. Overall, I find paying only shipping makes books significantly cheaper than buying new and also cheaper than at a used bookstore. Plus it’s always fun to get mail.
This is also an economical way to purchase gifts. Get items you know your gift recipients would like that are in good condition, and they become great, affordable gifts. I was able to get books for Christmas gifts for my mom, my mother-in-law, and my cousins this way.
Biscuit Ravioli
Tasty Tuesday Recipe
This meal is one of our favorites. I got the recipe from my mom, and I don’t know where she got it. I’ve changed it a bit over time to make it easier, and it’s one that can easily be adapted to fit your particular tastes.
Ingrediants:
• 1 package Grands Biscuits, 8 count (we use the reduced fat ones)
• 1 jar of pasta sauce or equivalent amount of sauce (I think it’s about 26 oz, but I could be wrong)
• ½ cup cottage cheese—small curd works best
• 1/3 cup ricotta cheese
• ½ cup mozzarella cheese
• Spices like garlic powder, oregano, basil, Italian seasoning, etc.
Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 375.
2. Heat the sauce. I like to add extra spices to mine. Doctor yours as desired. Heating the sauce helps the biscuit raviolis to cook better.
3. Roll out the biscuits. I find this works best with a rolling pin. You want them about ¼ inch thick.
Rolling out the dough for biscuit ravioli
4. Mix all of the cheeses together. I add about 1 tablespoon combined of garlic powder, black pepper, oregano, basil, rosemary, and thyme. Use whatever flavors your family likes.
5. Put a heaping spoonful of the cheese mixture in the center of each biscuit. Try to avoid getting it on the edges because it makes it hard to seal. Fold each biscuit over and seal the edges with a fork. Flip it over and seal the edges on the other side with a fork, too.
Fill the biscuit with cheese
6. Pour the hot pasta sauce into a 13×9 inch pan (I line mine with foil to make clean up super easy). Place the biscuits in the pan. If desired, you can then sprinkle the tops of the biscuits with more seasonings. I put garlic powder and some Italian seasoning on mine. Sometimes I use grated parmesan, too.
Place the biscuits in the sauce
7. Bake for 20-25 minutes until the biscuits are golden brown.
The emerge golden brown, tasty, and delicious
Serves 4
We like to add a salad to add some nutritional value to this yummy dish. Enjoy!
Mystery Shopping
Money Monday
A month or so ago, Lindsey and I were thinking of ways to make some money. One the ways she had me look into Mystery Shopping. At first I was skeptical and thought of those ads that said “you can make $75 a day as a mystery shopper,” I had always thought those ads sounded too good to be true and that no one really made money off of actual mystery shopping, but rather off of referrals… like a mystery shopping pyramid scheme.
Although I was skeptical, my concerns were somewhat put to ease when Lindsey sent me a link of someone evaluating mystery shopping services. I took one day out of a weekend and signed up with a few websites. I get a few emails a week from each of these websites, but had not done any assignments until one service actually called me. The worker on the other side of the line seemed really friendly and in need of someone to do a mystery shopping assignment. This mystery shopping assignment was for a dinner at Applebees. Because the only thing I like more than food is free food, I decided to take the assignment.
The way that mystery shopping works is you go to a restaurant – or other business, gas station, K-Mart, Lowes, etc. – observe what the assignment asks you to observe and then report on your observations. At Applebees I was supposed to observe how the bartender/server at the bar dealt with customers and how long certain aspects of the ordering and serving process took. Because this assignment involved a lot of different steps and questions, I found it very helpful to have my iPhone with me with the questions and steps near me to help keep time and fill out the survey when the server wasn’t close. For other assignments, you might be better off printing off the instructions and keeping them with you or turning the instructions into a shopping list to not make it noticeable that you are a mystery shopper.
In terms of payment, the company you are working with will tell you how much they are willing to reimburse you for as well as any additional compensation. The Applebees assignment was a reimbursement of a meal up to $25, I have seen a recruitment for a K-Mart assignment that has a compensation of $10 and then a $1 reimbursement. The compensation usually is based on how much work the assignment will take as well as how desperate the company you are evaluating is to be evaluated. To be reimbursed you usually need to either take a picture of the receipt or upload a copy of the receipt. Either way, it is important you keep a copy of your receipt.
I have had one problem when it comes to mystery shopping. This weekend I signed up to do a mystery shopping assignment for Papa John’s — my favorite pizza company. I was really looking forward to this assignment because 1) I was watching football 2) pizza goes great with football 3) I love pizza. However, when I went to order the pizza, I was informed that the Papa John’s I was assigned to was not the closest restaurant — by a tenth of a mile — and thus I could not deliver from the restaurant 1.5 miles away (I MapQuested the distance). Because of my address and that tenth of a mile, I was not able to complete the assignment or get pizza.
My recommendation is to find a site where someone is recommending a variety of sites. This way you are able to ask questions and possibly go back to this individual and let them know if the mystery shopping service seemed like a scam.
Grocery Savings
Super Savings on Savings Sunday (I really like alliterations!)
Yesterday was perhaps one of my most successful shopping days ever. I bought $109.86 worth of groceries for just $32.22! That’s a savings of 71 percent!
I usually avoid Marsh, a local, overpriced grocery chain, but when roasts are on sale, I venture in because the one advantage they have over Meijer, my usual grocery store, is they have better sales on roasts.
This week, though, they had an amazing sale on more than just roasts. On select items, they marked them down plus they were offering $5 off at the register for every 10 items of there “mega sale” products you purchased. Amazingly, the items they had on sale were actually items Josh and I use and had coupons for. I carefully went through the ad and my coupon collection and matched coupons for items listed.
Here’s what we got:
• 10 Healthy Choice frozen meals (this was my big saver because I had 2 coupons from the Healthy Choice Website for $5 off 5 meals, so I saved $10 just on these with coupons)
• 4 cans of Progresso soup
• 3 boxes of Honey Nut Cheerios
• 2 boxes of Green Giant frozen veggies
• 1 bag of Yoplait frozen smoothies (which I typically wouldn’t buy, but I had a coupon and was saving so much money, I thought it would be a nice treat for Josh and it boosted us to our 20th item, giving us another $5 off)
• 10 pounds of Russet Potatoes, not a “mega sale” item, but on sale for $1.88
• 4 boneless rump roasts for a total of 10.77 lbs at 1.98/lb. Three will go in the freezer, and one will be Monday’s supper.
I’m quite pleased with our purchases. They should last us quite a while, and it always makes me happy to save money, especially that much money!
Groceries
Money Saving Tips
Last Wednesday was a day of saving opportunities that easily could have been passed by. The day started with me working in my office (read that as laying in bed with the dogs) when the phone rang. It was the repairman from A&E about the dishwasher we had been having problems with.
When he arrived he asked how we were going to be paying for the service visit. When he said this, I worried a little as I was under the impression our landlord had taken care of payment when they made the reservation. I had tried making a reservation with A&E but gave up when I was told the machine was no longer under warranty. When he asked about the payment I told him that the landlord had told us it was under warranty which resulted in him calling his dispatch people. If you think it is bad when you have to call a call center, imagine how bad it would be if you needed to call a call center for your job and they hung up on you! After the dispatcher hung up on the repairman, I called the landlord. The landlord said that yes it was under warranty and gave me the confirmation number she was given as well as contract expiration date.
This was the first saving opportunity for the day and had our landlord not written down the confirmation number, the $150 service fee would have come out of our pocket. Usually when I call and receive a confirmation number I either simply pretend to write it down or write it down and lose the number amongst my messes. Luckily my landlord did not behave the same way.
The second saving opportunity arose when I was out running errands. Seeing how my wife has a full time job and I do not, I have become the errand-boy. One of the errands I needed to run was to get a new printer. While a quality printer-scanner-copier did come with the desktop computer we purchased two years ago, and it does still run, it will not recognize the refilled printer cartridges we would buy on eBay.
While printers are relatively cheap, the company makes their profit off the ink. I learned during my undergrad that companies that make printers (HP, Lexmark, etc.) are willing to actually lose money on making printers, but continue to make printers knowing they will make their money on cartridges. Because of this profit-making business, they sometimes set up their printers to not run if you try to replace the ink yourself rather than purchasing a new cartridge. Because our cartridges were not being read, things that would be automatically sent to print, such as coupons on coupons.com were not printing. We decided to get a new printer in order for these coupons to print so we could save money (paying for the printer with our savings in just a couple of months).
I told my troubles to the customer service rep at Best Buy and he recommended a printer-scanner-copier by HP that ran on their new 560 series of cartridges and told me how many pages per cartridge it was able to print. He also was unsure which printers would read replacement cartridges and which ones would not. I started to think, while yes this printer-scanner-copier does look pretty interesting, I don’t think I need all of those functions. What I really need is a printer that will have give me a high volume of pages printed per cartridge. I then decided that since our primary printing duties are documents and things in gray-scale, it would be a good idea to get a laser printer. The price of the HP printer with the bells and whistles the sales associate was trying to get me to buy was $250, the Brother laser printer was priced at $150. Even better, the toner cartridges for the Brother were the same price as the HP ink jet cartridges with the added benefit of being able to print three times as many pages as the ink jet cartridges.
After I had decided on the laser printer I used my iPhone to see if I could get the laser printer online. I checked eBay and I was able to get the same printer that was in the store for $50 cheaper with free shipping. Besides that $50 savings, the printer online also did not require a sales tax. If you are not as fortunate to have an iPhone or a phone with internet capabilities, you can still compare prices with eBay by texting the product information you are interested in buying to either Cha Cha (242242) or KGB (542542). Depending on your phone carrier, both services are free (check with their websites before your first use).
By simply writing down the confirmation number and passing up the bells and whistles we were able to save money that day as well as have the ability to save even more using a laser printer than if we were to stay with a ink jet printer that goes through cartridges like it were a kid with candy after Halloween! Keep in mind, you never know when you will need a confirmation number and you can always save money if you are willing to sacrifice.
Josh
