A Deal on Glasses

Jerry saved a bundle by ordering his latest pair of glasses online. Read about it here!

Coupon Fun

If you are interested in reading the details about how I paid $20 for $60 worth of stuff at Walmart on Friday click here.

Good Day

It's shaping up to be a good day over here at Casa de Shown. I ran to the only grocery store in our area that doubles coupons this morning and got almost $70 worth of food for $19!! A special thanks to those of you who give me your coupons! It is WORTH it!
Don't worry we eat a lot healthier than this! (Mostly!) This was just a quick run for deals...all the rest of the groceries (bread, fruit, veggies, etc.) were bought last night. You guys in AZ don't know how lucky you are to have so many stores that double coupons ALL the time!

We only have one store that does double coupons here. And the rules are ridiculous...you only get to double 5 coupons, on Wednesday, you must spend over $25, your first born male child must bag your order and there must be a full moon. Just kidding about those last two...but you see what I mean. Here's my post about it at GB Savers if you want to read more.

PLUS tonight is the BIG night. The LOST season finale. :) Originally, I was going to have to do some quick bedtime maneuvers since Jer and Roz were going to be on their way home from a Six Flags field trip, but the weather decided to cooperate act up a bit and they rescheduled the field trip for Monday. So it will just be me and the TV for a couple hours tonight minus the interruptions. The phone will be unplugged so don't even think about calling!

$aving $trategies: Menu Planning

While I love saving money, I really dragged my feet on this one. I don't know why but I just did not want to do it. Now that I have been menu planning for almost a year I can promise you it is worth the effort. If you are really busy then a menu is a must! You will not only save money, but time as well. I plan my menus for one month at a time (weekly can work too). When I sit down with the calendar, the first thing I do is mark all the games, meetings, etc. so I know what nights I need a quick meal. A planned, quick meal means no fast food, which saves us a bunch of money.

The real key to saving money with menu planning is to do it backwards. To save money, you DO NOT plan a menu and then go shopping for the needed ingredients. You shop, taking advantage of the deals and sales, then plan your menu around what you have in your pantry and freezer. That way you are getting the best deals and using what you have. Always keep an eye out for sales on the items you use most. When you see a good deal...STOCK UP! When you use what you have and only use items bought at low sale prices you save even more!

I have menus for breakfast and lunch too. Those aren't as creative as the dinner menus, but I didn't just want to have cereal every morning either. So I made a two week rotating breakfast and lunch menu. I don't even have to think about what to make for breakfast or lunch anymore! I love it! I always know what to stock up on (saves money!) because we have the same 10 things! Since half of our family can't read yet I put together a clipart menu for the rotating breakfasts and lunches; the kids know what to expect and really hold me to the menu. Now not only do I save money, I don't have to wonder what to make, AND I don't have to answer the dreaded question: "Mom, what are we having...?"

Here are a few additional links to help with menu planning if you are interested:
Organized Home
Family Grocery Budget
Menu Planner
Money Saving Mom
The Simple Dollar

[I wrote this (minus the links) for my Mother's of Multiples club newsletter but thought I would share it here as well. That way this info will make it in to my next book! I hope to write a small piece for the newsletter each month and I'm calling it $aving $trategies.]

Budget Report 3/9 to 3/15

Weekly budget for groceries and household: $170
Amount spent: $56.06
Coupons used: $ 18.48 (not including ECBs or RRs)

Since I'm only buying milk, fruit, and stuff we really need for groceries we are coming in way under budget this week. We are trying to eat some of what we have on hand so we don't have to move it. I can't pass up free stuff though so it seems like I keep packing stuff I get from Walgreens and CVS, but I haven't really been paying much out of pocket for it so it isn't affecting the budget much!

A Good Week for FREE stuff

After several trips to both CVS and Walgreens this week this is what I came away with:


12 bottles of shampoo/conditioner
10 bars of soap
3 bottles of mouthwash
3 tubes of toothpaste
4 bags of candy (only 2 are shown in picture)
4 lip balms (only 3 are shown)
3 bottles of vitamins
4 pkgs. razors
1 face moisturizer

When all is said and done (meaning after store rewards and rebates are recieved) I will have paid NOTHING for all of the above. In fact, the stores/companies will have paid me $23.50 (in gift cards, rebates, RRs, and ECBs). This is so FUN!

Budget Report 3/2 to 3/8

Weekly budget for groceries and household: $170
Amount spent: $137.25
Coupons used: $ 72.15 (not including ECBs or RRs)

Another week of lots of little trips. Did find two of my "biggies" on sale this week at Piggly Wiggly. Chicken breasts were $1.66 per pound and cheese was $1 (per 8 oz. pkg). I was so excited about the cheese I didn't see that it was limit three. It has never been limited in the past. So I ended up having to return some cheese! Actually, I made Roz do it since I had already gotten into it once with the service desk lady over the cereal deal. In the end it was all figured out with nothing but time wasted. I'll have to look more carefully at the add next time.

Budget Report 2/24 to 3/1

Weekly budget for groceries and household: $170
Amount spent: $131.07
Coupons used: $40.78 (not including ECBs or RRs)

I didn't do any major shopping this week. Just a lot of little trips here and there. Our grocery budget should go down in the next four weeks as we try and eat what we have on hand so we don't have to move it! Although, if I find a good sale (especially on one of my four "biggies" I will still be stocking up). I'm sure the money saved on groceries will be spent on fast food and other moving related expenses though so it should be interesting. If anyone has any boxes let me know!

Weekly Report 2/17-2/23

Weekly budget for groceries and household: $170
Amount spent: $158.15
Coupons used: $66.97 (not including ECBs or RRs)

I would say that is pretty good. I did better than last week. Spent less and used more coupons. This is including diapers for now. I normally use cloth but while the house is up for sale I am giving myself a break to lighten the laundry load. Once we get settled in a new house I'll get back on track with that. With the deals I've been getting at CVS lately though I might have to re-d0 the math on that...especially since I only have 2 in diapers. (The twins still wear something at night though.)

I'm a Stockpiler...

I have been thinking about this idea a lot lately and then I came across this blog post that I found interesting. Thought you might want to read this too. I have been following the "pantry principle" for about 10 years now (since I first read about it in the Tightwad Gazette) and I think it has saved us a lot of money. If you have been in my basement "pantry" or looked in my upright freezer you know it's true I have a lot of food stockpiled. But that food was bought at the LOWEST price I could find.

When my four "biggies" go on sale I really stock up and those are: peanut butter, cheese, boneless skinless chicken breasts, and ground beef. I only buy peanut butter when it is $1 or less. I buy a case or sometimes 2 to get us through until the next sale. So I spend $12 on peanut butter at once instead of buying each one individually for $1.50 saving myself $6 maybe more (not including coupons) that I know I'm going to spend anyway. Chicken breasts aren't a good deal to me if they aren't about $1.66 per pound but sometimes I have to settle for anything under $2 per pound. If it's more than that I just don't get them. I used to be able to get ground beef for $.99 per pound but that hasn't happened for a LONG time. Now anything at about $1.5o or less per pound is a good deal in my opinion. (Found some at Woodman's two weeks ago for $1.25 per pound!) Cheese also used to go on sale for $1 (8 oz. packages) but the lowest I've gotten it lately is $1.25. The cashier always gives me a strange look when I buy 20 packages of cheese. Once a lady at Piggly Wiggly even asked me what I was going to do with it all. I told her the expiration date for cheese is usually a long way off so as long as you keep it in the fridge it will be fine. (I used to freeze it but then it crumbles and I hate that.) I stack it on the bottom shelf in the way back of the fridge. But it doesn't last long in this house of cheese lovers...we go through a lot of cheese. Since it is perishable and takes up fridge space sometimes I do pay more for cheese since I just cannot buy enough to last me until the next sale.

Just think of all the things you buy on a regular basis. Even if you didn't use coupons, if you only bought that item when it was on sale, buying enough to last you until it is on sale again, you would save a good sum of money. Don't have enough space in your cupboards or linen closet to stash bargain food and toilet paper? Think of other places to store it. Keep a few items handy in the kitchen (or bathroom) and put the rest in the basement on shelves. I very rarely run out of anything. I don't ever use the last bit of ketchup and say "oh, we're out of ketchup I better get some when I go to the store". I open the next bottle that I had stored in the "pantry" and add it to my list to get when I see a good sale or find a coupon. It has gotten to the point that when we get down to 40 rolls of toilet paper or 10 jars of peanut butter Jerry will say to me: "Hey, did you know we're getting low?"

Aldi has lessened my need to stockpile some. Lots of items are the lowest price there all the time, so I don't feel like I have to stockpile things that I know I can get there on a regular basis. But sometimes with a sale and a coupon I can beat an Aldi price so I try and stock up when I can. Sometimes I don't have enough coupons to really stockpile. Sometimes it is too perishable to stockpile...can't stock up on lettuce! Some things never have a coupon or rarely go on sale. That's when I think Aldi saves us money. This summer when I was taking it easy and Jer was in charge of shopping we cut back to shopping at mostly just Aldi with an occasional run to the Pig or Cub for items Aldi didn't have or a great sale. We were able to get most of our groceries there for around $100 per week. Not back for a family of (then) seven!

Stockpiling also saves money in other little ways. Saves on gas, fewer quick trips to the store to get one or two items. Cub scouts knocking on the door for the food drive...no problem, just pull out a few cans and boxes. It's also a bit of "insurance" in case we have a bad snowstorm and can't leave the house. We could eat from the stockpile and would really only need milk and produce for at least a month or maybe even two!

New Blog

In an effort to keep the Shown Family blog about the Shown family, I decided to start a new blog. It will be no frills and low maintenance (so no cute backgrounds). I'll put my CVS and Walgreens shopping lists over there so I don't bore everyone to death with my lists. That way if you want to see my lists you'll know where they are...if not then they won't be in the way here! I think I'll still post (or maybe double post?) my general money saving ideas here since I am using it as a kind of journal and want to print it out someday.

To my frugal shopping friends (you know who you are!), I'll send you an "invite" to be authors so you can post there too so we can all share deals! Give me a few days and I'll also put some links up over on the other site. In hopes that others besides me will be posting I called it "Green Bay Savers" and the address is: www.gbsavers.blogspot.com

Coupons

Since church was canceled I was able to put the finishing touches on the coupon post I was have been working on...

Here is my coupon strategy: use them! Okay, I guess I can explain a bit more. First, you have to collect coupons. The best place to find coupons is still the Sunday paper. I don't get the Sunday paper BUT I know a bunch of people who do and since they don't use coupons they give me theirs. Even if you have to buy the paper though, I think it is still worth it. Just a few coupons will save you the cost of the paper. (You could always use your CVS ECBs to buy the paper too.) If you only want the coupons and ads I suggest signing up for the "weekender" deal where you only get the paper on the weekend. Why pay for it all week if you won't be reading it?! This is usually a bit cheaper than buying it from a store each Sunday. If you are just going to buy it weekly from a store don't bother buying it on a holiday. There are no coupons in the paper on holidays. I have no idea why, so don't ask me!

There are also TONS of coupons available online. I have had no trouble at all using internet coupons. (Wait...I take that back Copps won't take internet coupons if they are over $1.) Print them in black and white to save on ink. Get cheap paper from Wal-mart (about $3/ream) to print your coupons out. Sometimes a coupon prints at the top of a page with an ad below. If you hit cancel right after you see the coupon on the paper it will save you the ink of printing the whole ad. Sometimes, if possible, I print the coupon, rotate the page, and use the "other end" of the page to print the next coupon. I really like the coupon sites like SmartSource that let you print more than one per page. I hate wasting all that paper.

Love Betty Crocker or Huggies or any major name brand? Sign up for their online product newsletter and you may find printable coupons in your inbox. Get on their snail mail list too while you're at it! Don't buy a name brand product with out at least checking for a coupon. The CouponLoop has a list of currently available printable coupons and the CouponMom has a list of coupons that were available in past Sunday papers. Some other good coupon websites are SmartSource, CouponBug, Coupons.com, Red Plum, and Box Tops. Most of these sites limit the number of coupons you can print (usually 2) but often more than one site will offer some of the same coupons. For example, the Betty Crocker and Box Tops sites have some duplicate coupons so you can print four coupons instead of only two, which is helpful if you find a really good deal and want to stock up or if cereal is 5 boxes for $10 and you want a coupon for each box of cereal.

If you get a defective product or are not satisfied with something you buy call (or email) the company and tell them. They will usually send you a coupon for a free item and often even more. Two weeks ago, I bought a Dial foaming soap hand pump and the pumper was broken. I called them and they sent me a coupon for a free one to replace the broken one and several other coupons for various products made by their company. In the past I've also called Dawn to tell them I didn't like their new dish soap scent and Kraft when my macaroni cheese packet wasn't sealed properly. Both companies sent me several coupons. Even if you call and just ask a question sometimes you will get coupons as well. I called Enfamil when the twins were born to ask a question about their preemie formula and they sent me a CASE of formula. Since I only used formula for a short time to fortify my milk I never had to actually buy any. If you can, call instead of emailing. For some reason you just don't get the same response if you don't actually talk to a person.

Don't forget to keep an eye out at the store for those little red boxes that spit out coupons. If it is a product you like take a few extra for your collection. I got a good deal on soy sauce last week at Cub Foods thanks to some coupons from the little box!

Don't waste your time cutting every single coupon out of the paper. Just cut the ones you know you will use and save the rest of the coupon "inserts" in a file folder sorted by date. When MoneySavingMom or someone mentions a coupon they usually tell you which insert it was in and you can go get it out when you need it later. You can also search the "Virtual Coupon Organizer" at CouponMom to see if/when a certain coupon came out. This has been especially helpful since I started shopping at CVS. I have been buying things there that I normally would not have saved the coupon for, but since it is free, I'll get it. This tip has saved me a bunch of time...and space in my coupon file! The down side to this is if you don't have a coupon with you that would get you a great deal, like if you find something on clearance for instance. But it is still much better than cutting out the ones you will use and tossing the rest!

Coupon File Box (above and below)

My coupon box is an accordion style check file from Walmart (for about $4). It is a bit longer than a regular coupon organizer but I like that I don't have to fold some of the longer coupons. It also has a little compartment in the front that I use to store scissors, a pen, and a calculator. Put your name and phone number on your coupon organizer somewhere so if you lose it (say in a church parking lot) then you'll hopefully get it back.

Open

Closed

Organize your coupons so you can find what you need quickly. I organize my coupons by category. I use envelopes to divide each category. For example, in my "mouth" section I have envelopes for toothpaste, mouthwash, toothbrushes, floss, etc. On some of my envelopes, I jotted down the known lowest price (like from Sams or Aldi) for items I buy frequently. That way I know if I can get a better deal with the coupon then I should stock up.

Envelopes

This is probably obvious, but don't forget to go through your coupons every so often and remove the expired ones. I hate that... I think I've found a great deal and then notice the coupon is expired.

Get your list and coupons ready to go before you head out the door. That way your not fumbling around and wasting time at the store. In the back of my coupon organizer I have an envelope for each store I shop at (Piggly Wiggly, Cub, CVS, Walgreens, etc) and as I make my list I stick the coupons in the store envelope. Do bring your coupon organizer along though even if you pulled all the coupons out ahead of time to match your list...you never know when you'll find a deal.

So coupons in a nutshell...get them...use them! Questions?!

First Weekly Report

We have a currently have a budget of $170 per week for groceries and household items. I don't normally keep track on paper but I want to give it a try. So I thought I'd put it here and then knowing you all are "watching" might help me keep better track. I know I can do even better than that with CVS so as I get better with that I plan on lowering the amount to challenge myself more. Just for fun, I thought I'd keep track of how much I saved each week using coupons. This is coupons only and does not include CVS ECBs.

This week I spent: $169.57
Coupon savings: $57.50

I had a nice running total in my head and was right on track to go under budget at about $150 but then Jerry ran to Walmart Friday during his lunch hour to replace the ice scraper that I stepped on (oops!) and to get dog food. Good thing I only spent $1.92 at CVS this week or we would have gone over budget. While that wasn't my lowest CVS total ever it was my best since I got more ECBs back than I spent (in both ECBs and cash). This weeks best bargain though was 3 reams of paper at Office Max for under $3...they had a buy two get one free sale and then I used what was left on my "Teacher" MaxPerks gift card to pay for most of it. I'll use that paper to print more money...I mean coupons...from home!

Shopping with Shelly, An Update

I haven't made it to CVS yet this week but while I was out grocery shopping last night I went to Walgreens. I learned a few things and made one mistake that I'll share so you don't do the same thing...

The Walgreens that I went to (Main & Mason) would not allow me to use the $2 off $1.99 Aquafresh toothpaste. I asked her to adjust the coupon down to $1.99 but she wouldn't, so I had her take it off my order and I didn't buy it. (I don't know why the store wouldn't take when they get the face value plus 8 cents or whatever when they process a coupon. CVS would have taken it!) They also didn't have the right chapstick or the free after rebate razor. The clerk told me they only got 4 of the razors...how ridiculous! They shouldn't have advertised those if they were only going to give a handful to each store.

I bought two of the Suave products that were 3 for $4. For some reason it completely slipped my mind (probably cause I didn't read my own list!) that I had to get 3 to get the $2 register reward. Unfortunately, at Walgreens you can't go back and buy one more to get the reward like at CVS...so I'm kicking myself for that one!

The rest of the list, thankfully, went as planned.

Another FYI coupon rule you might want to know about...Copps won't take internet coupons for amounts greater than $1. (So don't go trying to use your Huggies internet coupons there!) With that minor exception, so far I haven't had any trouble with stores taking coupons printed from the internet. I thought I might, especially since I print them in black and white, not color.

Shopping with Shelly

Since several people have asked I thought I'd type out my shopping list for this week. Feel free to skip reading this post if it doesn't interest you! :)

Unfortunately, this week is pretty slim pickings at CVS. If you are new to the CVS thing don't judge the whole deal based on this weeks ad. Some bloggers in the know are prediciting that next week will be better. Supposedly there will be a deal... buy $30 worth of Huggies stuff get $15 back. So get your Huggies and Pull Ups coupons ready. There are some printable Huggies coupons and Pull Ups coupons available right now online. If I have time I'll post the links to those in another post or next week if I do another list.

Walgreens has some good deals this week. If you didn't already know this Walgreens also has a rebate program where you can get things free or more than free. Most of the time you have to actually fill out a form though, you don't get it back instantly like at CVS. Wisconsin (and AZ!) is one of the few lucky states that can file the rebate form online. Actually, Walgreens does have a few items that you can get instant rebates (Register Rewards) that are just like the Extra Care Bucks but they aren't as common as the ECBs at CVS. Walgreens has a weekly ad and a monthly Easy Saver booklet. When shopping at Walgreens you can use a store coupon WITH a manufacturers coupon to maximize your savings. I have also been told that you can use a monthly Easy Saver booklet coupon WITH a weekly ad coupon although I have not tried that myself yet (will try this week though!).

I'm planning another post about coupons but for now set up a spam email account that you can use to sign in to get all these printable coupons. My new spam-mail is mrs.frugal@sbcglobal.net. Cute, huh?

WALGREENS SHOPPING LIST

• Aquafresh toothpaste $1.99 free after using this coupon
• Bayer Aspirin $.99 free after using coupon from the Feb. 3 paper
• Bounty Basic paper towels-Walgreens coupon $.79 plus coupon from this week and Jan. 20= $.54 per roll (limit 3)
• Robitussin $3.99 more than free with printable coupon and $2 Register Reward
• Gillette Venus razor $9.99 free after Walgreens rebate (I tried to get this last week but they were out)
• General Mills (Cheerios, Lucky Charms) cereal 3 for $7 get $2 register reward use coupons from paper or from Betty Crocker or Box Tops or from Pillsbury. That is $1.17 per box of Cheerios or Lucky Charms
• Hefty Zip Bags buy one for $2.79 get one free (or $1.40 each) there was a coupon in the paper to make this an even better deal but we didn't get it.
• Chapstick $.99 with coupon but if you get the "naturals" brand you supposedly get $2 register reward making it more than free.
• Gillette Fusion Phenom razor $9.99 get $6 register rewards, use $4 off coupon from this weeks paper get it for free. Can also get this same deal at CVS so I'll probably do it there since I have ECBs.
• Suave Kids 3in1 Shampoo is on sale 3 for $6 get $2 register rewards making them $1.33 each...most of the country got coupons for these in this weeks paper but not us. Ugh!
  
• Wrigley's gum $.59 with weekly coupon plus use coupon $.99 off three from monthly booklet to make $.26 each if you get three.
• Arrid or Arm&Hammer deodorant $.99 each with weekly coupon.
  

CVS SHOPPING LIST

• Gatorade G2 FREE after ECBs
• Colgate Toothpaste $1.88 get $1 ECBs use coupon from here or here more than free
• Excedrin $3.99 get $2 ECBs free after this coupon
• Boost Smoothie $1 get free after $1 ECB (this is a monthly deal, Roz tried one and said it was good so I'll get more...limit 5)
  
• Purell hand sanatizer $3.69 get $2 ECBs use $1 off coupon from paper making it $.69
• Kleenex buy one for $2.19 get one free use two $.50 off 3 coupon from Jan. 6 or Jan. 27 paper get 6 boxes for $.93 each.
• Gillette Fusion Phenom razor $9.99 get $6 ECBs, use $4 off coupon from this weeks paper get it for free.

Okay, that's it for now. All these embedded links are going to be the death of me. Let me know if you find any errors or can't get the link to work. FYI, if you are on a Mac these coupon printers do not work with Firefox. I have to use Safari to print. If you found this helpful, please leave a comment or I'm never going to do it again! :)

Fifty nine cents!

After my joyous reunion with my coupon box yesterday, I headed back to CVS this evening. I was going to go later in the week but I went grocery shopping tonight (since tomorrow night is Parents Night at AWANA).

Here is what I got:
That would be 2 packages of Pull Ups, 2 boxes of wipes, 2 baby washes, 2 packages of Huggies disposable washcloths, a package of pads, 2 (12) packs of AA batteries, shaving gel, toothpaste, and my impulse buy of two bags of clearance sunflower seeds for Jerry.

Here is my total:

That's right! 59 cents! I was so excited! I was digging change out of my wallet since I didn't want to get out the debit card for that amount! Not only did I only pay 59 cents they gave me over $15 in CVS bucks to spend next time. Okay, I promise not to write any more about CVS...until next week anyway!

On a side note, I found out today my coupon box was found this weekend by the guy who plows the church parking lot. So it sat out there from Tuesday until Saturday (or Sunday morning). I can't believe it wasn't just plowed into a snow bank and never found again!

Free Stuff

I love free stuff. I love saving money. And now I love CVS. If you haven't been taking advantage of this great store you have been missing out! Yesterday, I went and got the following:

5 Deodorant 3.99 =19.95
2 pkg. Pampers Easy ups =17.98
2 Dawn dish soap =1.98
1 Puffs tissues =.99
TOTAL= 40.90

-$5 CVS coupon (printed from internet)
-$2 Pampers Easy up coupon
-$2 Pampers Easy up coupon
-$1 Dawn coupon
TOTAL= $30.90 out of pocket...for now
(would have been even less but I had a setback this week--see below)

BUT then I got $25.95 extra bucks rebates back

FINAL TOTAL= $5.95 (not including tax)

I am just learning how to do this "right" and there are others who really know how to do this and save a lot more or get a lot more free. The trick is to use coupons and shop carefully to get as many as the extra buck rebates as possible because you use those the next time you go like cash. I am trying to get things we only buy anyway. A lot of the money saving pros buy stuff they won't ever use (ex: glucose monitors and soy protein bars) even if they are free just to get the rebates and then donate them.

Personally, I had a major setback this week when I went grocery shopping and left my coupon box (with my CVS extra bucks) in the cart at the grocery store. I have called the grocery store twice and it has not been turned in. No one else can use the "bucks" since they are linked to my card. Such a waste. I am going to try and call CVS on Monday to see if they can re-issue the ones I lost. I doubt it but I guess it's worth a try. Now all my coupons are gone so that too will set me back for several weeks until I can replace those as well. I wasn't as upset about loosing the coupons as I was about those CVS bucks. That was like losing a $20 bill.

If you want to learn more about getting free stuff at CVS, check out these websites:
CVS 101
Making CVS Work for You
Coupon Mom--you have to register for this site, but it's free and worth the trouble plus she offers a free ebook to explain how this all works. If you want to borrow it I have the Coupon Mom's real book too.

Annual Budget Review

Last night we had our "Annual Budget Review". Jerry and I sit down once a year, at the beginning of January, and set new budget limits for the year and review how we did the previous year. Sometimes we have some nice surprises and other times we are shocked at how much we went over budget (last year we were way over on dining out!). Strange as it may sound we actually look forward to our yearly review. It is also fun to look back at all our budgets from years past.

We use Quicken to keep track of all our accounts. We don't balance the checkbook on paper at all anymore. Since it is all on the computer we print off a "report". We can look up anything we need since it is all right on the computer. We try very hard to categorize where all our money goes. We did pretty good...this year we only had $9 in miscellaneous for all of 2007!

We used to be "average" savers. We would save up some but something would always come along to eat up the savings and if it got too high then we would spend thinking we had enough. Thankfully, we had minimal debt...a car payment, an occasional credit card we didn't pay off right away, and, of course, the mortgage.

But we had a major break through in our finances a few years ago. We sat down and added up all the non-monthly bills. You know the ones that come and you think "why didn't I save up for this....I knew it was coming". We took that total and divided it by 52 weeks and started putting that into our savings account by direct deposit (so we didn't have to think about it) when Jerry got paid each week. We also figured out what we should have left each week after paying ALL the bills and added that to the direct deposit amount as well to kind of force of to save. We thought we'd see if we could live without that money but knew it was there just in case. It was kind of our habit to spend it if it was there.

Our non-monthly bills list is as follows (I'm sure everyone's would be a little different):

Water bill (ours come quarterly)
Medical bills (not covered by insurance)
Vet bill (annual exam and meds)
Dog grooming (quarterly)
Car insurance (twice a year)
Life insurance (quarterly)
Gifts (birthday, Christmas)
Safe Deposit Box (once a year)
Car registration (once a year)
Car repair (just in case)
Property taxes (once a year...we do not escrow ours and earn the interest in the mean time!!)
Tax preparation fees (once a year)
Subscriptions (newspaper)
Membership dues
IRA contributions
Home repair
Clothing
Charity (not tithing that is weekly)
Church activities (kids, trips, etc)

Basically the only things we budget for on a monthly (sometimes
weekly) basis are:
Mortgage
Telephone/Cell phone
Electric/Gas
Gas for the vehicles
Groceries
Household (paper goods, shampoo, etc)
Dining out (we really need to cut back on this one!)
Internet
Medical/Dental (comes out of paycheck weekly)
Tithe

A little over one third of Jer's paycheck goes right to savings, some to be spent later when we need it, and some to be saved. So now when those non-monthly bills come we transfer the money from savings to checking and pay them. No problem. Plus with the "forced" savings our account really started to grow! So much so that we looked into other places to keep it so it would earn more interest for us. We finally decided on a money market deposit account (MMDA) which has the great interest rates of a money market but is also insured like a regular savings account. Now we keep our savings there (we use Capital One's MMDA) and love to see the interest! Way better than our bank and no minimum balance either!

Using this method we no longer carry a balance EVER on a credit card. Our vehicles are paid for so no more car payments. Right now we are trying extra hard to save for a down payment on the new house. Once we have the new house we would like to work towards paying off the mortgage early. We have done all of the above over the last few years as our family has been growing (and most years we have had high medical bills as well since we have a high deductible plan and preemies!). We often wonder how much we could have saved by now if we had only started sooner!

I just thought I would share...this is what works for us. As far as saving money goes, I think the most important thing is do SOMETHING. It doesn't have to be this method or any other in particular...find what works for you and your family!

Until I write mine (ha!)...here are some financial books I found helpful if you are interested...check the library:

• The Complete Tightwad Gazette by Amy Dacyczyn
  
• The Two-Income Trap and All Your Worth by Elizabeth Warren
• America's Cheapest Family by the Economides
  
• The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey
• The 9 Steps to Financial Freedom by Suze Orman
• Raising Kids with Just a Little Cash by Lisa Reid
• Miserly Moms: Living on One Income in a Two Income Economy by Jonni McCoy
• Your Money or Your Life by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin