Getting Back Into the Black

The first time I looked at how much money we spent on food every month, I was floored. We had been averaging about 700 dollars a month for groceries. What’s even worse is that we were averaging over 500 dollars a month on eating out. By the way, there’s only three of us. Twelve hundred bucks a month for two adults and a three year old is beyond ridiculous. I knew we could do better.

I started planning out meals using http://www.mealsmatter.org/. I printed out my shopping lists from that site also. That helped me see what I really needed to buy so pounds of produce didn’t rot in my fridge like normal. Typically, I would plan about two weeks in advance. I noticed a couple things doing this. First, we were spending even more than I usually did but were spending less money eating out. We all have to start somewhere.

Since then, I’ve found a better way to shop. I plan our purchases around the sales ads and coupons. That makes a huge difference. It takes more time to shop this way but the savings are worth it. One of the greatest advantages to this system is that you will know what you are gonna spend before you even go to the store. For example, tomorrow I’ll swing by Raley’s and spend $6.25 before taxes for 10 cups of Dannon light yogurt, 2 Glade jar candles and 1 tube of Colgate toothpaste. Without sales and coupons, these items would cost me $16.29, that’s a savings of over ten dollars (almost 62% savings)! My next post will list more detailed tips and websites for saving money on groceries.

Freemoneyfinance.com has a great post up about several of its users spending a little time to save money from Comcast and DirecTV.

• Not only will I save $360 this year…
• So basically I “saved” $390 for about a hour of my time…

I had a similar experience last month. Comcast wanted to raise our bill from $55 (after tax) to about $80. I tried calling their customer service center but didnt really get any offers I wanted. So the next day I took the box into the local office and asked them to cancel. Within 10 minutes I had a very nice woman offer me their intro package for $30 a month for a year, including free HD and free DVR service. Taking 20 minutes out of my day actually saved me over $500 a year!

Does anyone else have any similar experiences?

After all of the confrontations with the IRS I’ve had over the past year I was not expecting to get an income tax return. For the past few years its been common place at our home for us to file our income tax, expect a refund and a few weeks later get a notice in the mail that our refund was kept and applied toward my outstanding balance.

While I dont like to count my chickens before they hatch, I’m happy to report that I will be getting my refund this year. I talked to the IRS yesterday and they have the payment scheduled to go out tomorrow into my checking account.

Of course, being the obsessive compulsive person I am, I’ve already marked all of it for use in our savings and travel plans.

Where’s your refund? - goes to the IRS website.

Kiplinger.com has a great article that shows the three simple steps to starting down the path of financial security.

Three Simple Steps to Financial Security - Kiplinger.com

• Save for a rainy day - There are two ways to buy what you want in life: cash or charge. The very definition of financial security is being able to buy what you want on your own terms.
• Be prepared for an emergency - Even the best-laid financial plans can get derailed by an unexpected cost
• Invest for retirement - Your immediate and short-term needs are easy to focus on. However, it’s not so easy for young adults to take this third step seriously.