Our Budget Saver of the Month: $40/week Groceries

As part of overhauling our family budget this month, I cut back at the grocery store.

For the first week of May, I spent $61.01. This week was a little higher than most because I was taking advantage of a big sale to stock up for the month. I also had to replenish a lot of our pantry items that were running low. Not a bad deal though, since I was able to completely stock up for the month at some very low prices at HyVee.

The second week of May I spent a whopping total of $21.79. I didn't have much to buy this week but took advantage a sale on bagels for $1 and some inexpensive meat and grilling items.

I skipped out on grocery shopping the following week. Our refrigerator was full of items still and this became our "No spend" week of the month. We also had lots of leftovers to use up.

This week I spent the most but I made it worth my money. I made a trip to HyVee and spent $33.01 on groceries. Not bad, since I had to replenish a lot of necessities from not shopping the week before. It was a great weekend to shop with all of the Memorial Day sales. There were some fantastic snack and pop deals at Walmart, Target, and Kmart so I took advantage of those. All together I spent about $20 on pop and $10 on snacks for our many trips to the park that we take in the summer. I also picked up some Organic Gerber baby food items at ToysRUs (BRU has the same deals). That totaled $10 but I won't have to buy baby food for a LONG time now.

Everything averages out to under $40 a week! Which is a HUGE change for us. We had been spending about $50-80 a week, sometimes much more if we were stocking up on items. And that didn't include pop. So we did a fantastic job this month. I will of course still be on the look out for this Wednesday's ads from Fareway and HyVee. I am hoping for some great sale prices following Memorial Day weekend. :-)

Pop Your Own Popcorn!

Love popcorn but hating paying up to $3 a box on just 2-3 microwaveable bags? Get your own popcorn machine and save money! Our popcorn machine is a Waring Pro machine we got at Tanger Outlet at a Kitchen Store. The outlet has a coupon for 20% off any item in any store every month and we took the opportunity to buy ours at $99 and pay only $79!

If you do the math, each of those popcorn bags will cost you on average of $1 a bag at a bare minimum. To buy a 4 lb bag of kernels costs under $3 and to buy pour over butter costs no more than about $4, and will last you approximately 3 months. So buy the popcorn machine on sale and your cost over 3 months is $86. If you eat 7 bags a week like we do (we would normally pop 2 bags to fill up a large bowl) it takes you about 3 months to break even. And you still have a popcorn machine. So if you LOVE popcorn for movie nights like we do you can expect to save money around the 4th month into your investment. Don't eat that much popcorn but enjoy a couple bags a week? You will break even around 7 months.

Popcorn machines make a great gift and you can even shop for them online. Check out Amazon here at: http://www.amazon.com/Waring-WPM25-Professional-Popcorn-Maker/dp/B001G8Y2Y0 to check out our popcorn machine.

10 Ways to Save Money this Spring!

1. Declare a spending freeze--no shopping except for bare necessities and stay out of the malls and stores. See how long you can stay away from your favorite place to shop.
2. Cheap entertainment-- Don't pay when you can have fun for free. Try game nights, movie and popcorn nights, walks to park, and getting books from the library.
3. Pantry-only cooking--no grocery shopping except for basics like milk, eggs, butter for 1 week during the month
4. Drive less--don't go to places that are not necessary and save on gas money. Plan any trips out so you are not wasting time driving back and forth.
5. Drink less sodas and pops--switch to waters, koolaids, and crystal lite instead. You can even try making your own lemonade for a nice spring treat.
6. No eating out--cook at home instead or bring a lunch to work. Try some new recipes to keep yourself from getting bored.
7. Clean out the closets--sell items for cash or give away. An extra bonus: this declutters your home and you will have your spring cleaning done!
8. Pay with cash--Try to not use your debit card and pay with cash. You will be more conscious of what you spend when paying with cash.
9. Use coupons--Utilize your local newspaper and clip coupons and plan plan plan to save money at the store. Also try looking online for coupons or savings codes.
10. Invest wisely--To make it all worthwhile put 90% of the savings into a savings or power checking account to earn interest. Then treat yourself to something nice after 1 month of saving money!

I have discovered how to make my homemade cleaning product smell better!

I use 1 part vinegar and 1 part baking soda and water to scrub down my bathroom and kitchen. I had been putting Dawn lemon-scented dish soap in it and using a spray bottle. But I switched to using fresh squeezed lemon and orange juices instead. Not a lot, but just enough to rid it of that vinegar smell (about 2 tablespoons). I love using the orange the best, it gives off a super clean scent in my kitchen! Plus my son loves oranges so one more orange a week is an easy and cheap buy for me since I buy the big bag of oranges every time I go to the grocery store! I just dump my mix every couple of days or so if I have any leftovers so I can clean out my sprayer to keep it from getting clogged. When I dump it, I also use that to clean my kitchen sink!