So, I have put together the numbers for February 2010! Yes, I know that February isn’t quite over but I am finished shopping now for this week. I won’t be shopping until Sunday afternoon and at that point it will be for the Week of March 1st. Where did February go?
I bought my first paper on the 7th of February to cash in on some of the coupons. I have also asked my friends to save their coupons for me as well and my sis and I trade off too. She does the CVS, Walgreens and Rite Aid deals and I am sticking to grocery stores. I did well on the $40.00 a week grocery/household budget except this last week. It came out sort of like this:
The Grand total for the month on grocery/household budget is $203.71 . For a total budget of $160.00 this was okay. I am still working on couponing. I am feeling out the different stores, what sales they have and then I am going to dive in. I went to Walmart too. That had a $44.08 impact on this budget. So all told if I would have stayed away from WM I would have been in budget much better. I told Little Farmer as I was going in that we weren’t going to buy much. BUT, I found black icing and red icing (on clearance from Valentine’s Day) for his barn cake which due to the weather and other commitments has been postponed till March. Poor baby!
The first two weeks I did well eating out of the pantry and freezer. All but one or two meals came from there. I am really enjoying this menu planning at the beginning of the week. It really saves me a headache during the week to know exactly what is planned for the evening meal. Week three and four, I did well with meals coming from the sales that were running.
I am thankful we are getting snow because the earth truly needs it for our wells and water tables and nutrients for the soil for our gardens BUT I am just over it. I am ready to start my garden! Plus, I only have my little car and the roads I drive are really bad about drifting when the wind blows. (I never have had problems until this year.) Most of the time VDOT puts up snow fences to help prevent this. WELL, they haven’t had to use them lets see in the past 10 years or longer so they haven’t put them up for 2010. I was going home one evening and got stuck in a whiteout then got into a drift/ditch and had to call a wonderful family to come pull me out, yes, with their tractor. They were so helpful and I am so grateful to have them in our lives. My son adores them because he farms for a living and his wife works at the school. SO A GREAT BIG THANKS GOES TO THEM. I will post the card I sent to them soon for that!
Now onto the update for February Debt Payoff for 2010:
|
|
%Paid |
|
Consumer Loan #1 |
100% |
|
Consumer Loan #2 |
45% |
|
Consumer Loan #3 |
11% |
|
|
|
|
|
Vacation Money Saved |
19% |
Down Payment included |
As you can see I am making some progress. I made it into the double digits for loan #2 and barely got there for loan #3. My focus is on Loan #2 at this point. Farmer’s work schedule changed so this has helped some, okay really a bunch! I have not gone to any stores just to be going and I haven’t shopped for anything like clothes or toys either. We really don’t need any of that and when I do I will go to a thrift store first. Although with all this snow I do need to buy a pair of waterproof boots. I have a birthday coming up in Spring and will ask for a pair then after all this crud is over. Maybe get them on sale too!
I am also adding a new Savings column in addition to the debt. This is for me and Little Farmer’s vacation! Big Farmer doesn’t want to go. But I don’t remember asking him to go either. We have the money set back for this but I really don’t want to touch it unless I have too. With the piggy banks cleaned out and all of his birthday money going toward this it has bumped this into the double digits too! Can’t wait to see how March goes. I am going to raise my budget for household/grocery to $50.00 for the first two weeks and see how that goes; $40.00 just didn’t seem to go far when shopping for the sales even though I was mostly just buying the staples, but I am going to use coupons so I hope this helps. I am also going to try to stock up after eating out of the pantry for a month.
Remember “To save money, sometimes you have to not spend any money at all.” It shows that when you put your mind to something it can be done. I have also been asked why would I post about my debt payoff, well, I know that posting it will help me stay on track! I won’t bend the rules if everyone is watching. I hope you enjoy my process of living debt free. You really have to be completely on board and determined to do this quickly. You really have to look at what is important and do I really need that item/product that is calling my name. March has several quarterly payments due so I won’t be able to move up as much as February. But hopefully March will bring in some extra income as well.
XO,
Becky
A love for Scrapbooking 