Making our Money Work for Us

Shopping

As a SAHM, I feel it's my responsibility to stretch our dollars as far as they can be stretched. I'm trying to do this by:

• maximizing BOGO deals at Publix
• coupons
• store brands vs. name brands
• emealz

I discovered emealz through Dave Ramsey's site. For $5 a month, my dinners and grocery lists are planned for me. All I have to do is hit "print"! The meals are planned around the weekly specials as much as possible which makes the average cost for a week's worth of dinners is $80. BUT since it's just Mr. B and I, we pick 3 out of the 7 meals and eat leftovers. Since the meals make 6 servings, we usually get an extra night out of one of the meals for the seventh day. Not only have we cut down our dinner costs to about $40 a week, we've cut back on our caloric intake by eating appropriate serving sizes. Plus, we selected the Weight Watchers Points meal plan so the meals are well-balanced with protein, veggies, and fruit. Emealz plans are fantastic!

I plan the remainder of our shopping list for the daily needs like cereals, breads and such around the specials and coupons. I clip coupons from the Sunday paper and print them from afullcup.com  We love Arnold multi-grain bread so when it is BOGO, we buy 4 or 6 loaves and put them in the freezer. For splurge items like frozen yogurt or frozen pizza (we usually keep one on hand for crazy schedule nights), if they're not on sale, we don't buy them. For necessary items not on sale or for which I have no coupons, I always buy store brand.



On Our Way to Being Debt Free!
both cars - August 2009 PAID!
credit card - August 2009 PAID!
personal loan - July 2010 PAID!
credit card - April 2011 PAID! (a month earlier than our goal)
personal loan - goal
credit card- goal