Takin' One for the Team

At my son's cleaning visit, the dentist recommended I take my son to see an orthodontist.  I wasn't surprised really.  Unfortunately for him (and our bank account), he has a curse courtesy of hubby and me.  You see, we both have small mouths.  I also cursed my son with rather large teeth.  Large teeth in a small mouth is not a good mix. 
In fact, I was expecting the orthodontist to recommend that we needed to start appliances immediately.  What he recommended was that we have 2 teeth removed sooner rather than later so that his teeth could shift around before they started to permanently attach in their current locations.  One of those teeth was already loose but was behind the adult tooth.  This made it hard to wiggle and get the tooth out.  So the orthodontist recommended he chew on something like taffy or Starburst. 

Say what?!?  Yep.  The orthodontist recommended that he eat candy to get his loose tooth out.  We scheduled the tooth removal for a couple weeks after the orthodontist visit (the dentist was busy and it would give us more time to get the loose tooth out).  The first three nights after the orthodontist appointment my son diligently age his Starbursts.  They loosened the tooth some but it just didn't seem like it was going to come out.  Life got in the way for a while and we didn't really focus on the tooth until the night before the appointment to have them removed.

We got home late from a friends house (as in 10:30).  My son asked if he could try the Starburst one more time.  At first I told him no because I didn't want him to get sugared up before bed.  He reminded me that if he didn't get it out on his own it would cost me more money.  And you know what, he was earnest in wanting to save me money. 

As my regular readers are aware, my family has been spending lots of money on dental work as of late.  My daughter had 10 fillings, Hubby had 2, and I had 2 as well.  All within the last 7 months or so.  Luckily my son has been cavity free.  But he knows how expensive all this has been.

So I gave in and let him try one last time.  We had one last 2 pack of Starburst left, and although he winced a few times with the first one, it didn't do much other than loosen it up a little.

But that second one... well, the tooth came out!  Not without some pain.  Oh, and the tooth got stuck in the Starburst and he accidentally bit into it and then swallowed it.  Oops!  Guess we found the down side  :-)

Who knew that Starbust could save money on dental work?  How much money you ask?  According to the dentist's office $140.  So what did I do... I took him to Wendy's to get a Frosty on the way home as a thank you for saving me money and for being such a good patient with the one tooth that was removed.

Reevaluating

Budgeting while paid by 100% commission can be very hard.  Not knowing how much you will bring in each months is difficult, but there are ways that I've found to help.  First is to make a point to save money during those months when the income is high.  Second is to break down expenses into those that are optional (movies, eating out, etc) and those that are required (mortgage, gas - in my line of business, car insurance, cell phone - again because of my line of business, groceries etc).

Then when the money is tight I reduce the optional items as low as possible.  Does that mean we don't eat out at all?  No.  Do we not allow our kids to participate in field trips?  Yes.  We are firm believers that God will provide, but we are also supposed to be good stewards so we try to be responsible and picky in where we spend our money.

I also try to look at the required expenses.  I try to make sure I'm doing my best to save money on things like groceries (I coupon), gas (I use gas buddy and know certain areas that have lower gas prices) and restaurants (I use coupons when I can).

Then there are the expenses that are less flexible: mortgage, health and or life insurance if you are lucky enough to have them, and utilities, which of course can vary from month to month but are usually pretty consistent.

One of the things I like to do every once in a while is to look at everything to see if I can lower any of those recurring bills.  Considering I just bought my house a little over a year ago (at a lower interest rate than is now available, there's not much I can do for my mortgage except for my homeowner's insurance.  I live in Florida in an area near the Gulf of Mexico so there aren't many companies that insure in my area.  That means there isn't much competition so I don't really have options with that one.

A few months ago I found out that I could save money by letting my cell phone provider know my employer.  Unfortunately, it would have required a new 2-year contract and I'm just not willing to stick with my carrier beyond my current contract which is up in November (not that I'm counting down or anything).  Can't wait till November to change carriers and get my discount with the new provider  :-)

As a Realtor, I get notices in the mail frequently letting me know that as a Realtor I am eligible for discounts through various providers.  In fact, I called around two or three months ago looking into my health insurance options based on one of those mailings and I didn't find anything better than what I have already.

So when I got something in the mail a month about saving money on my car insurance, I didn't think it would do any good, but I set it aside anyway.  I found the paper again this weekend and made the call.  I was able to save over $300 and my coverages are better!  Whoop, whoop!

So what's the lesson for you?  Once a year do your due diligence and make a few phone calls.  Call around and price out your homeowners or renters policy, car insurance, health insurance, cell phone plan, etc.  You never know how much you could save.

Gratitude Challenge - Day 20

Today I am thankful for others who've gone before me and found ways to help my family save money. 

In particular I'm thankful for www.TrueCouponing.com who is responsible for helping me cut my grocery bills by about half over the last few months.  I'm still getting the same amount of food, I've just learned how to do it for less.  They've also allowed me to donate free or inexpensive items without feeling like I'm putting a strain on the family budget.

Grocery Shopping Success and Defeat

The last couple months I have been trying very hard to watch our grocery budget.  The way I see it, there are 2 very obvious ways to save money when shopping.  1.  Buy what's on sale or 2. Use coupons.  If you can do both at the same time, even better!

What's worked for me best is buying in bulk the meats when they are a really good price (ground beef, chicken, pork, etc).  I then prep and freeze in the size that we tend to use them in.

Then I look at the sales fliers for the grocery stores in town and determine based on what meats I have in the freezer what meals I should make (For example:  If I have 5 packages of ground beef and I see that spaghetti sauce is on sale, you can bet we will be having that for dinner.  If I also know that I have a 5 pack of romaine lettuce that I don't want going bad, I will make salad as a side with said spaghetti dinner rather than buying say corn).  I then scour my coupons and the web for any coupons for the items that happen to be on sale.


I then go shopping once a week for produce and other items such as milk that I don't or can't stock up on without it going bad.  Of course I try to get fruits and veggies that are on sale (no buying a $5 pineapple for me - although we LOVE pineapple).

I've also recently found that looking through the local drugstore adds can be beneficial.  For example, the other day I went to the CVS and got 2 bags of tortilla chips for $5, but I got to use a $1 off coupon I'd gotten my previous visit (and it printed another $1 off coupon for next time). On the same trip, I also got 4 packs of soda cans for $10 (if I had my way we wouldn't buy soda, but it helps hubby stay awake to get work done at strange hours).

I went to the Walgreens and got a 4lb bag of sugar for $.99 (I used their coupon in the sales flier plus a manufacturers coupon).

I realize that store hopping may not be worth it to some, and I will be honest... till recently it wasn't to me either.  I didn't want to drag my kids around everywhere and hear the whining as we hit the 3rd or even 4th store that day.  I live closer to things now and I've learned to break up the trips across multiple days (and sometimes I even go after they are in bed).  My kids are a bit older now too so that helps.

I have recently encountered a problem though.  One of my biggest sources for coupons is printing them online.  For some reason, my computer / printer will randomly decide not to print them.  This is particularly bad because the manufacturers limit how many you can print of any given coupon.  I've hit my limits trying to print just 1 coupon (the limits are usually at least 2 sometimes up to 4 or 5).  Today I even decided to print a coupon I didn't want first to see if it worked at all.  It printed just fine, so I then went back and tried to print the ones I really wanted and guess what.... it didn't print them (and of course I've now reached my printing limit - not that I've printed ONE)!  Ugghh!

Good news... I've still been able to stay on budget even without the coupons I tried to print.

Penny Pinching

I'm going to appologize for the length of this posting.  I had no intention of it being this long, but I guess I'm more passionate about the topic than I though.
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A couple weeks ago, I discovered that I had spent $900 during the month of November on groceries.  That is CRAZY!  Part of it is that we are still re-buying some staple items such as flour, and part of it is that I did some of my early December shopping in the last couple days of November, but still... that's just NUTS! 

I think the largest part of it, is that the price of things are going up and I just figured that all the increase in my weekly bills was because of that.  What I've recently discovered is that the problem is that I've moved.  This created two problems:  1. I was not aware of the coupon policies of my new stores.   I am now aware though  (FYI Virginian's, there is no store down here that double coupons - UGH!)  and 2.  I have not figured out which stores to buy what items from (For example in VA, I would get canned veggies from Wegman's because they were cheapest).  Some items I'm just willing to pay more for because they are better quality.  For example, I pretty much refuse to buy produce from the Wal-Mart.  What that meant is that I would shop at a more expensive store because I wanted their produce but would not think about how much more expensive their other foods are.

I have been shopping the sales flyers the last couple weeks and it's been saving me some money (I'm back around $100 - $125 a week).  I used to make my menu and then would just shop.  Now I make my menu based on what's on sale. 

After I realized how high our grocery bill was, we had a family meeting in which we talked about how we want to buy a house soon, and the more money we save the better the house.  I've also mentioned that we need money in order to be able to go on trips (like a cruise, Disney, etc).  We then discussed ways to save money and the 3 ways they can help is 1. Turning off lights when they leave a room, 2. Help Mommy save money on groceries by understanding when I say no to something or when I ask them to eat leftovers, and 3. By realizing we will be eating out less.

Talking to the kids and letting them know the situation has helped as well because there is now much less complaining when we have leftovers for dinner on occasion.  Not only does this make my life easier but it means we are not wasting money. 

There is one more thing I'm about to try to institute.  I've always thought that the most expensive part of my grocery bill besides meats was produce.  Therefore I didn't purchase them as snack foods.  I've read that fresh produce can actually cost less in the long run and I think I've finally realized exactly how that's true.  For example, my kids typically have a snack in the AM and in the PM.  What's been happening lately is that they have 2 snacks in the AM and 2 in the PM.  Why?  Because they are made of processed foods and aren't as filling.  SO.... after my kids finish off the granola bars, fruit snacks, etc that are in the house, we're going to switch to fruits and veggies as our snacks.  It's healthier, more filling, and I hope will prove to be less expensive. 

I made a local friend almost right after I moved to Florida and she recently went to a farm and came back and asked if I wanted anything from the massive stash she came back with.  I got a HUGE cabbage, 4 red peppers, and 4 tomatoes for $3.  I made cole slaw and barely scratched the surface of the cabbage.  If I don't even use any more of the cabbage, I spent less than if I'd gotten a bag of cole slaw mix.  But you know what?  I have plans for more of that cabbage.

And I also have plans on joining my friend on a future trip (she likes to go every week).  Maybe the next thing I try is to get my family to eat a vegetarian meal on occasion.  Wish me luck on that one.  :-)