The Marc House Orchids

Today is Shop Local Saturday.  It's meant to promote shopping at local smaller establishments.   I took advantage of a promotion by American Express.  By registering my card ahead of time they offered a $25 account credit for spending $25 or more in a single transaction at one of the local merchants listed. 

I decided to take advantage of this by shopping at the Marc Plant Store.  The Marc House is a local nonprofit designed to help mentally challenged individuals lead independent lives.  Marc stands for Monroe Association for ReMARCable Citizens.  Residents work at the plant store and are able to learn a marketable trade.  It's a great organization that does a great service. 

I purchased two orchids today.

This one:

 

 

And this one:

 

Two beautiful flowers that will be a beautiful addition to the Casual Shack garden.

                               Here's how the deal worked:

                           2 Orchids @ $15.00 each = $30.00
                                 7.5% sales tax              = $ 2.25
                                 Total                               $32.25
                  Rebate from American Express   - $25.00
                           1.25% Blue Cash reward   -       .37      
                         Actual Cost of 2 Orchids         $ 6.88         

All profit from the $30.00 sale goes to the Marc House and I got an amazing deal on Orchids!  Does it get any better than that?         

 

Learn to say no

At one point or another anyone trying to follow a budget will be faced with choosing between being true to their financial plan or giving in to the pressure of others. 

Perhaps a friend wants to try an expensive new restaurant but your eating out budget couldn't cover the tip, what would you do?  Though you may be tempted to go you would probably spend the evening miserable knowing you are spending money you really don't have.  It's okay to say no. Simply tell them it isn't in your budget and suggest an alternative you can afford.  Search the Internet for things to do in your area such as free admission days to local museums or perhaps pack a lunch to eat at the local park.  If spending quality time with your friends requires overspending your budget consider finding new friends.

Work is another place that may leave you feeling pressured.  Well meaning employees always seem to be asking you to contribute to a workplace collection.  You don't have to give just because you are asked.  It's not a requirement of the job.  If not participating makes you feel uncomfortable budget a set amount for such collections, giving only what you can afford.  If someone accuses you of being "cheap" tell them you are on a budget and this is what you can afford.  Gift giving should be because you want to, not because you feel you have to.  I would much rather get a gift that cost the giver nothing yet came from the heart rather than get an expensive gift given from a sense of obligation. 

The only people who should get a say in how you spend your money are you and those in your household.  This is your personal finance, don't let the wishes of others dictate where your money goes.  As you realize the benefits of sticking to your budget, saying no will get a whole lot easier.




 

The shopping report, what I saved today!

I do my grocery shopping once per week.  I do a circuit of three different stores.  It starts at Walgreen's, then next door to CVS, culminating at Winn-Dixie.  There are only two chain grocery stores in my area.  Winn-Dixie is 7 miles away, Publix is 20 miles away.  To save time and gas I have opted to stick to one store and make the best of what they have to offer.   It does hinder my savings potential but it's the price we pay for living on a rock in the middle of the ocean.

Here's what I need to prepare for my weekly shopping trip:

 

 

Each Saturday I buy 4 Early Edition Sunday papers giving me 4 sets of coupons.  By buying the early edition I spend $4.00 each week as opposed to the $8.00 I would spend buying the Sunday edition.  Some people use more coupons but I find 4 is my magic number, anything more for me and my often hectic schedule would be overwhelming.

From those papers I pull out the coupon inserts and the ads for the stores I'll be visiting.  To clip the coupons I seperate them into single pages, stacking each like page together.  I then cut four like coupons simultaneously.  After cutting I take each stack of 4 coupons and file them into my coupon binder.  My binder is divided alphabetically.  I don't over categorize things, I like to keep it as simple as possible.  For example, the "F" section has fruit and frozen foods, the "M" section would have meat as well as medicine.  It's just easier for me to remember things that way.  If I try to micromanage my coupons I'll forget where I filed them and invariably waste them. 

After organizing the coupons it's time to make my list.  In addition to the items we need I like to check the ads for deals on items we might be running low on in the near future.  By buying extra and stockpiling when an item is at a great price I avoid having to pay full price on an item because we ran out of it.

For the CVS and Walgreens list I like to visit a site called HIP2SAVE.  There are many sites that can help you to find the best sales and coupon combinations but I like this one because for me it's extremely user friendly.  The site name is pretty cool too. 

As I make my lists, yep there's 3 of them, I look for buy one get one deals for products I use.  If I have a manufacturer coupon for the item I'm sweetening the deal.  The preparation process, start to finish, usually takes me about 2 hours.  Once my lists is done it's off to the store. 

After about 2 hours of shopping, I came home with this:

It's hard to see what's in the picture so here's a list:
4        Mrs. Smith's deep dish pies
2        Cool Whip
1        8 oz Philadelphia cream cheese
1        1/2 gallon whole milk
1        cucumber
3lbs.  sweet potatoes
2        32oz Kraft mayonaisse (with bonus Shake n Bake!)
2        boxes Stove Top Stuffing
4        Ritz Fresh Stack crackers
20      large cans Alpo Chop Filet dog food
4        cans Campbell's turkey gravy
2        packets McCormick brown gravy
1        McCormick Gourmet Chicken Rub
4        cans DelMonte vegetables
4        2 liter Diet Coke
2        15 pound frozen turkeys
6        6 oz cans Bumble Bee white chicken
2        Lady Mitchum antiperspirant
4        2 liter Mountain Dew
4        2 liter Diet Pepsi
2        12 packs Mountain Dew
5        12 packs Diet Pepsi              (yes, we drink too much soda at the casual shack)
2         2.8oz French's french fried onions
1        box Kraft Mac n Cheese
1        32 oz bottle Powerade
1        Phillips universal remote control
1        Easyfeet
1        Starbucks doubleshot
1        Starbucks refresher
1        Thermacare back wrap
1        Finesse shampoo
1        Advil 10count
1        Kotex U panty liner 18 count
1        1.25 liter Diet Coke
1        box Nature Valley Protein granola bars
1        Carmex lip balm
1        roll Charmin Basic

That's a lot of stuff. 

AT CVS I spent $45.02, saved $34.16 for a savings of 43%
At Walgreen's I spent $30.75, saved $33.00 for a savings of 52%
At Winn Dixie I spent $75.69, saved $90.06 for a savings of 54%.

My out of pocket for all three stores and the 4 newspapers was $155.46.  I saved a total of $157.22 using $11.05 worth of manufacturers coupons and taking advantage of sales.  That's a total savings percentage this week of 50%.

50% sounds good, right?  It gets better! 

Cash back!!  That's right, both CVS and Walgreens gave me coupons good toward future purchase.  At CVS I received 16 Extra Buck rewards totalling $32.92!  At Walgreens I got one for $4.00.  I will use these as cash toward my shopping trip next week and report back here as to how I'm going to maximize this $36.

But wait there's more!  Remember the Universal Remote and the Easyfeet in the list?  I don't need either of those items but by buying them I got an equal amount of Extra Bucks so in the cart they went.  I'll put both these items into the annual Trash to Cash yard sale for a potential additional $10 in my pocket.

So there you have it, $312.68 worth of products, $155.46 out of pocket, a 50% savings with a bonus of $36.92 in register rewards and 2 items for the yard sale.

Life really is good, keep it casual!

The benefits of paying extra on your mortgage

Our single biggest financial focus is to pay off the house before we retire.  We have a lofty goal of reducing our 30 year mortgage to just under 9 years.  We bought the Casual Shack in the summer of 2009 taking advantage of a short sale. To date we have made 41 monthly payments and have reduced our mortgage term by 71 months.   That means if we only make minimum mortgage payments from here on out we will pay it off almost 6 years early and have already saved close to $58,000 in future interest payments.  $58,000!!

The purchase price of our house was $200,000.  If we didn’t pay extra over the life of the loan our house would have cost $405,000. At this point, with no further additional principal payments the Casual Shack will cost $347,000.  That’s still too much.  If we reach our 9 year payoff goal our house will cost us $261,000 which is close to market value for this area, saving us $144,000 in interest payments. We can live with that. 

In order to do this we have sent an additional payment every month since the first payment.  Sometimes a lot, sometimes a little, dependent upon our extra income and unexpected expenditures.

You don’t need to add thousands of dollars to your monthly payment to make a difference.  Had we only added $100 per month, every month consistently we would still have saved $42,000 over the life of the loan and reduced the payment term by 64 payments.  That’s $42,000 that can stay in your pocket and over 5 years early!  These figures are based on our loan and its interest rate so the numbers will vary.  Here's a link to an Amortization calculator to see how much you can save by adding that little bit extra. 

I don’t know if we’ll reach our goal of owning our house by May 2018.  I do know that we have already deprived the big bank of $58,000 of our hard earned money.

Those "extreme" shows

It started with Extreme Couponing, then came Hoarding, Buried Alive and now Extreme Cheapskates. In this post I'll be addressing Extreme Couponing.

I'll admit I was excited by the prospect of a show all about couponing. I've been known to go to extremes in my frugalness so this was right up my alley.

I was dismayed to see couponers portrayed as greedy and self serving. I also was appalled at the excessive stockpiles so large they took over living space and could not possibly be consumed prior to expiration. On the flip side, kudos to those on the show that donated these items to charity.

I have yet to find a store that would allow me to use 100 like coupons. In my experience the limit is generally 4. To me it seemed as though the stores portrayed were abusing thier own policies in order to gain television exposure.

It is unrealistic for the average couponer to consistently save 90 or 100 percent each time they shop. This may be a reality show but it is definitely not the real world, at least not the one I live in.

Aside from the blatant bending of the rules the savings are inflated. At the end of the segment they show the percentage saved but they fail to factor in the costs associated with acquiring the coupons or the value of the persons time. Some of these people spend upwards of 60 hours per week pursuing these "deals". So how much are they really saving?

These types of shows, in my opinion, glorify obsessive compulsive behavior and set a horrible example for anyone new to couponing.

On average I save 45% on groceries and household products spending approximately 2 hours per week preparing for my shopping trips. I don't clear shelves though I do stockpile by buying enough to carry me through to the next sale cycle of an item.

I believe couponing is a valuable tool toward achieving financial goals but don't expect to bring home half the store for under a dollar.