Save 24 cents per gallon on your fuel

Drive More Efficiently

• Observe the speed limits. Each 5 mph you drive over 60 mph is like paying an additional $0.24 per gallon for gas.

• Stop aggressive driving. Aggressive driving (speeding, rapid acceleration and braking) can lower your gas mileage by 33 percent at highway speeds and by 5 percent around town.

• Avoid unnecessary idling. It wastes fuel, costs you money, and pollutes the air. Turn off the engine if you anticipate a wait.

• Combine errands into one trip and save money as well as time. Several short trips taken from a cold start can use twice as much fuel as one trip covering the same distance when the engine is warm.

• When you use overdrive gearing, your car's engine speed goes down. This saves gas and reduces engine wear

• Using cruise control on the highway helps you maintain a constant speed and, in most cases, will save gas.

• Remove any extra weight. An extra 100 pounds can reduce fuel economy by up to two percent. The smaller your vehicle, the more the fuel economy is reduced.

• A loaded roof rack or carrier will decrease fuel economy by five percent.

Note: Cost savings are based on an assumed fuel price of $3.52/gallon.

Sources: US Department of Energy 

A day in the city...

Today I had to drive into the city to report to the unemployment office. I am required to report in person once every 4 weeks.

I include other errands when I have to make this 60 mile trip.

Today I stopped at Hyvee for their meat sale. Total purchase was $26.78
Then I ran into Big Lots. The only thing they had was that I was looking for was wash cloths. Total purchase was $6.49
Last stop was The Family Center for koi fish food. Total Purchase was $8.64
I also had to get some gas. $20 but I do not include this in my household budget.


Monthly totals:
OOP: $125.90
Coupons: $30

Another no spend day!

We had another zero spend today. YEAH!

Dinner was Jambalaya. I used the last of the polish sausage we had grilled Saturday, free Old El Paso Black Beans and the rice was about .50. I bought it so long ago with a coupon and I remember it wasnt free but not much or I wouldnt have bought it. We've never eaten Saffron yellow rice so I was happy to try the Mahatma without it costing full price.

2 5oz tubes of Mahatma Saffron Yellow Rice
3 1/3 cup water
1 tsp ground onion powder

Bring water to a boil, stir in rice and onion powder, turn down to simmer and cook for 15 minutes.

Add approximately 1 pound of sliced polish sausage (ours was HOT polish sausage) and 1 Old El Paso Heat & Serve Seasoned Black Beans (8 oz. pouch).

Simmer until all heated thorougly. I had to add another cup of hot water to keep it from scorching.

We loved the rice! The flavor was very spicy. I am sure it was because of the HOT polish sausage. If you don't use the hot sausage it may be a little bland depending upon how spicy you like your food.

This will be a quick frugal meal I will be serving again.

For dessert we had the best seedless watermelon I have had in a looonnnngggg time. It was so sweet like candy!

Monthly totals:
OOP: $83.99
Coupons: $30

Have you a quick frugal meal to share? Let's hear it!

Happy 4th of July

Yeah! The only money spent was $56 on our fireworks.

The fourth of July is one of my favorite holidays. I love sitting and watching big firework displays. And if you have the one you love with you, it makes it even better. There is something magical and romantic about the 4th for me.

I didn't get to see any big fireworks display this year. But I enjoyed helping and watching my son shoot his off.

Spending on household was $0.
Entertainment $56 (fireworks)

Monthly totals:
OOP: $83.99
Coupons: $30

Things I did today to save money:

Lunch and dinner was left overs. No heating up the kitchen!
Entertainment was at home... fireworks, but they were bought this evening when they were on 50% discount, but that discount wasnt deep enough for me, so I haggled with them some more and got approximately another 10% off. I paid $56 for $130 worth of fireworks.

So, how was your 4th? Everyone ok and safe? Did anyone have any new desserts?

Keeping my budget in line...

Today was a big spending day. One of those weeks where you have to BUY (pay hard cash out of pocket) several things.

Dollar General $17.61 (hangers, charcoal, foam plates and various otc meds)
Sutherlands $17.99 minus 20% FOF discount= $15.60 (50lb dry dog food for two outside dogs)
Price Chopper $45.08 minus $6 in coupons=$39.08 (3 hot dog buns, 1 hamburger bun, Hershy Milk Choc Bars, Marshmllws, loaf bread, 3 Kraft salad dressings, cool whip, 6 Oscar Meyer Hotdogs, 4lbs hamburger, 8 chicken breasts, head of lettuce & 5# potatoes)

So even though I spent $72, I added to my stockpile, and most of the dollar general store items were not things I have to purchase weekly. Same on the dog food.

Monthly totals:
OOP: $83.99
Coupons: $30

Things I did to save money today:

Hubby and I grilled chicken breasts, polish sausage, hotdogs, baked beans, cabbage. Enough food to last the weekend so we wouldnt have to cook again.
Hubby went and brought home a truckload of FREE apple tree wood for smoking.
We ate on foam plates so the dishwasher wouldn't have to be ran.

Cashing in Walgreens Register Rewards

It doesn't look like there will be much going on at Walgreens next week so I decided to snag a few things today to use up my register rewards before they expire.

Today's spending:
$5.26-Walgreens: 2 Blistops, 3 Mt Dew 12pks, 1 Pepsi 12pk, 3 Lays Chips,
$6.44-Dollar Tree: 2 dog collars, 1 Plastic Cups, 1 Balloon weight, 1 4pk AA batteries & 1 2pk 9 volt battery for smoke alarms
Coupons: $24.00 (all were Walgreen register rewards)

Monthly totals:
OOP: $11.70
Coupons: $24

Things I did to save money:

Ran the dishwasher today, didn't use the dry cycle.

I washed 4 loads of laundry using cold water. The loads were dried for a short period and then hung up to finish drying.

Lights were kept off as well as the tv.

Supper was one skillet-hamburger steaks with sauted Gypsy peppers. Cloth kitchen towels and napkins were used.

Turned the a/c up to 76. The weather was still pretty nice today. Read an article on entering a giveaway for FREE electricity in my coop newsletter. Hope I win!

Clipped several coupons for upcoming shopping.

Emptied all trash cans and relined them with plastic shopping bags.

Entertainment for the evening was a short country nature spotting drive. Watched a couple deer watching me! lol and seen a couple bunny rabbits.

Watered my flower pots on front porch using water from koi pond.

Checked on vegetable garden. Tomorrow will be a small harvest.

There's still time to sign up for my giveaway of "Be Thrifty-Not Cheap". There will be two winners. Deadline is 7/5.

Time to Review Household spending

When trying to stay to a budget it's always good to periodically do a review and see if things are still in line, or if something needs attention.

Since it's the first of the month, I thought it would be a great time to start tracking my out of pocket household/grocery spending. I am going to track my use of coupons and compare the two.

Also, I will list all the other things I do to make our money stretch.

Today was a no spend day. I did no shopping.

Things I did to save money:

My dark green sheet is still clothes pinned to my west dining room windows. These floor to almost ceiling windows heats up the heart of my home sooo bad! It has helped keep the dining room, kitchen and family room so much cooler. I also kept the drapes pulled shut on the west patio doors.

I skipped running the dishwasher today, I didn't have a full load.

I washed 2 loads of laundry using cold water. I do not wash ALL my laundry in cold water. Sheets, towels/wash cloths and undergarments get washed in hot water to kill bacteria/germs. Both loads were dried for a short period and then hung up to finish drying. (note to self: have hubby check dryer, I think the exhaust hose has come off, NOT GOOD!)

During the day, lights are rarely used. Keeping them shut off saves me on my electric bill two ways. One, no electricity is used for the light itself, and two lights heat a home up.

Did not use the stove today! Supper was leftover hamburgers warmed in microwave.

Turned the a/c off for several hours. It was a very nice day!

Clipped several coupons for upcoming shopping.

Shook out two ziplock bags that held cookies and crackers so they could be reused.

Ordered an Amazon gift card from Swagbucks!

Where Did My Money Go? Finding Your Money Leaks

Many people spend a great deal of money daily without knowing exactly where it went. They can tell you what their basic monthly expenses is, but have no idea where the rest went.

Here's how to find out:

Start TODAY!
Get an envelope.
For every purchase over .50 get a receipt and place it in your envelope. Write down the purchase on the envelope.
Do this for two weeks.

You'll soon see your hard earned dollars is being spent on small petty items.

entertainment
snacks & fast food
restaurant dining
newspapers & magazines

A couple of dollars here and a few dollars there add up FAST!

For example, here is what I was doing daily:
Stopped on way to work: $1.49 on a 16 oz soda and $1.99 breakfast sandwich
Lunch: Fast food meal $5-6
Two or three times a week I was also buying newspapers and magazines. (I cannot believe how the price of magazines has went up in the last 3 years.)
I found I was spending $40-$50 A WEEK on this! That's $200 a month.

AND

My husband was even worse. One breakfast sandwich wasnt enough. Working outside in the heat he was also buying 3-4 sodas/teas/waters. We were spending close to $600 a month on this "stuff" and nothing to show for it.

Keep repeating the question: "Is this where I WANT my money to go?" "Is this stuff really worth it?"

To plug these leaks we did a few things.
1) Started packing our lunches. I made sandwiches, bathces of burritos & hamburgers and froze, and we learned to love leftovers instead of throwing them out!
2) I bought a 2 litre of pop to take to my office job for $1.25 and it would last 3 or 4 days. I bought a drink jug cooler from a thrift store and hubby either took water or tea made at home.
3) My new years resolution 2 years ago was to not buy any more magazines. Although I didnt completely quit buying, I have cut this back 90%. Some I can read on line. I watched for FREE subscriptions or highly discounted subscriptions. I've even requested subscriptions as gifts when someone asks what I want.
4) FREE entertainment: I watch for FREE dvd rentals. Redbox gives a free code once a month. Our satellite provider offered two FREE movies this month. We went to a free art show this past weekend and had a great time.

We went from spending $600 a month to $150.

Everyone wants to have some spending money to spend any way they want. You've worked hard and earned it. We gave ourselves $10 each for the week. Both of us usually spent our money and treated ourselves out to lunch on Fridays and had money leftover.

By doing this tracking method, you'll be surprised at how much you have spent on things that don't really matter very much to you and that don't have lasting value.

Precious' Money Saving Challenge

Be sure to visit Precious' blog to read more on her Money Saving Challenge.

I kept all lights off today and used natural light. I try to do this everyday, but yesterday was dark and cloudy so I used one lamp (with a cfl bulb) to read by.

I have only used my stove once this week to cook 4 fried steak burgers tonight. Other nights the outdoor wood burning grill/smoker, microwave or deep fryer was used.

We've been eating a lot of fresh veggies from our garden fixed a variety of ways this week, so no cooking required... yeah for me! Hubby loves Pico de Gallo and eats it with tortilla chips or on his meats. I also enjoy it all ways including plain as a type of salad! I also made cucumber & onion salad. One night I fried tons of okra. The two salads, okra, a burger and some cheese and crackers makes light frugal dinners for hubby and I. We've also ate leftover baked ziti.

I put hubbies filthy work shirts in a plastic tub with free oxi clean and water on the deck table in the sun. I let them soak there for two days. The hot sun does such a great job of heating the water up and boosting the cleaning power of the oxi clean.

I ran my dishwasher today. A FULL load and I do not use the dry cycle.

A load of throw rugs was washed in cold water and hung on porch railing to dry. Shower curtain was also washed and then rehung wet to dry on its own.

Fed 5 cats everyday with FREE Purina kitten food. Two of these cats are our indoor pets. The other three are ferrel type cats we inherited when we bought our home 4 years ago.

Fed my two poodles with FREE mighty dog can food. Have I ever told you I love coupons for FREE pet food?

Mail received so far this week: All You magazine, Mother Earth News, Womans Day and Family Circle. All these mags were free subscriptions except All You and it was a deeply discounted subscription.

Clipped some coupons.

I also received the Digiorno Flatbread Melt Free coupon in the mail yesterday. Guess when it expired? July 24, 2009. Wonder what's up with the postal service? geesh Did any of you receive this coupon after it was expired?