STOP! Save on Groceries and Gas

The single-me loved grocery shopping.  I had a very low budget, no more than $40 per week. Luckily, since I lived alone, I could eat simply--any where from beans and rice or peanut butter and crackers to eggs and toast with an apple or banana thrown in here and there.  I was a "starving" assistant for a non-profit, but I didn't mind it.  It was my first real job!

Grocery shopping at that time was relaxing: almost like window shopping.  The temperature was a cool relief from the Texas heat and the music was soft rock with a lean toward elevator music.  The isles were neatly laid out, colorful with so much to see as I slowly strolled down the isles! It was really exciting if there were free samples available! Heck, I could have a free meal on them.

When I got married and found out that my hippie husband was a traditionalist when it came to dinner.  He announced after I sat a sandwich in front of him, "I prefer a hot meal for dinner." And forget about breakfast for dinner:  no omelets, scrambled eggs, pancakes or biscuits and gravy (some of my favorite dinner faire).  Huh?  So I saved those for when he was out of town.

Now we have two kids ages 10 and 13.  Have you ever seen how much a 13 year old boy can eat? It makes me want to throw up just watching him!  So, now that I have to cut costs, save on groceries and push through this recession mess, I'm now cutting coupons, looking for deals and making organized lists before I go.  BTW:  I am NOT an Extreme Coupon mom.  Too much for me to organize and store!  More power to them!

Then I discovered Stop and Shop http://www.stopandshop.com/home.htm.  You can save on food and earm Gas Points for more savings when you purchase your gas at a Shell station:  http://www.stopandshop.com/savings/shell_program.htm?linkid=SN.  For every dollar you spend, you earn 100 points per dollar. Then, when you go to Shell Gas Station, you type in your Stop and Shop code or swipe your card and it automatically deducts the savings.  When I fill up, I average 30 cents per gallon  savings on about a 17 gallon purchased.  I fill up once a week, so on average per year, I save at least $245.

 

My best tip for using clipped coupons is to use them to make your grocery list.  Yes, a GROCERY LIST!  Don't leave home without it, a pen, and a fist full of coupons. You can get coupons out of your weekly mailer, but also on-line.  My favorites are http://www.coupons.com/  and http://www.redplum.com/. Write down exactly what you need, so you don't have to go back and forth with your coupons figuring out the rules for usage.  Also, grab the circular when you get there:  there are even more coupons!

Hopefully you are luckily enough to have a Stop and Shop in your state.  Not only do they double coupons under $1.00, they have their own in-store coupons AND coupons on line you and print yourself:  http://www.stopandshop.com/savings/coupons.htm?linkid=SN .  It doesn't stop there: they have coupons that spit out self checkout for the things that are in your cart to use on following trips.  Twice I found a coupon for $10 off your next order that someone forgot to grab, so I used it on my purchase. Leave no coupon un-turned!

If you don't have a Stop and Shop rewards card, go directly to customer service and sign up.https://www.stopandshop.com/account/login.htm?opco=SNS  It is free!  The program will automatically apply the coupons for you.  If you use their smartphone app called Scan It or their personal scanners, http://www.stopandshop.com/savings/coupons.htm?linkid=SN, it shows you personal coupons right on the screen.   It just might be fore something you need. 

The last time I went to Stop and Shop, I saved over $85 and earned 20 cents off my Shell Gasoline!  My average savings per trip is about $50 and I go about 3 times a month, so on average per year, I save at least $1,800!

It does take a little more time to do all these things, but think about how much you are "paying" yourself by saving!  Not bad for a days' work.

Total Savings:

Gas:  $245

Groceries: $1,800

Grand Total per Year: $2,045

Start Saving Now!

Once the din settled down in my head, I pulled out a piece of paper and pen.  I knew that I had to take a hard look at our monthly spending with Superman x-ray vision.  I remembered enough about fixed costs, variable costs and mixed costs from high school economics class to know that much of our spending was variable.  But I also knew that I also had control over mixed costs.

How about a little economics 101?  A fixed cost is one that you cannot change, like your mortgage or a car payment.  Examples of variable costs are ones you can change such as food, entertainment and clothing spending.  Mixed costs are just that---a cost that you have to pay but you have some control over:  electricity and water bills.  You have to pay those bills to keep the lights on and the water running but you can turn off the lights and fix leaks to help with the costs.  More on those later.

I started with our variable costs and discovered that there was a lot of mindless spending.  I didn't get all technical with it:  I just did a quick go through in my head and made an educational guesstimate of the monthly costs.  Here we go:

House Keeper (Stop whining and get out that elbow grease:  $400
Data Plans on iPads (WiFi--need I say more):  $50
Local Coffee Shop (Love their Chi and muffins...hubby loves the iced coffee):  $100
Buying Lunch (It is OK to eat at your desk, honey):  $125
Going Out (had to go!): $200
Clothing and Random Crap I Buy at Target (Although I LOVE Target, snif!):  $300
Exercise Classes (Yoga, Ballet--what's wrong with walking?):  $150
Guitar Lessons for my Son Who Doesn't Practice (He isn't going to be a Rock Star):  $100
Mani/Pedi, Eyebrows, Facial ( that is what a good washcloth, tweezers and pumice are for):  $150
Going to Movies (wait for Netfilx, On Demand or Pay Per View): $100

Total Monthly Mindless Spending:  $1,675 (What??)
Yearly Mindless Spending:  $20,100 (Really?!?!?!)

I know!  I had gotten so used to our lifestyle we'd had over the "fat years" that it never occurred to me how much we were spending on goods and services we didn't need.  Now, of course, there are some trade-offs.  I still have to buy clothes for my growing children, just not as many.  My husband has to each lunch, he just doesn't have to buy it at a restaurant.  I have to use cleaning products to clean my house.  However, those costs pale in comparison to what we were mindlessly spending.

I got rid of all of the above amenities immediately.  Over the months, I came up with other ways to cut cents and dollars that actually add up to a significant savings.  I will share those with you day by day as well as look at some of the above line item costs.

Until then, grab a pen, paper and calculator and make a list of your mindless spending.  It may be less than mine or even more.  Regardless, these are things you can either cut out all together or figure out a way to cut back the cost as much as comfortably possible.  For me, it wasn't a tough decision to make and not really painful to implement:  it is what I had to do.  Sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do.

A Penny Earned

I started this blog to share my day-to-day experience with trying to make it through this recession, and, heck, who doesn't want to save a few bucks?  I am a mother of two and have been able to stay home with them for many years. I have what I call a "challenging" family who is pretty high maintenance.  It is important to my husband and me that one of us is able to be with them when they are home before and after school.  That job usually falls to me for obvious reasons

Before we had financial issues, we lived in a beautiful home (that had a lot of upkeep) in a nice neighborhood in a nice town.  I volunteered at my children's school, went to church, ran a small business of my own on the side, did yoga, scrap-booking, decorated our house by myself (including all the window treatments) and, after 3:00, became chauffeur, referee, cook, maid, teacher, therapist, mother and wife.  I had help with housekeeping, pampered myself on occasion and my husband and I had date night.  We would have parties with our friends and for our kids.  We went on vacations and visited relatives.  We really didn't want for anything.

Just like everyone else, we were hit with "the crash," but we've managed to keep ourselves afloat by cutting back on a few extras, but mainly because of what happened on November 8, 2010 at 12:45 a.m.. :  we had a house fire (no lives were lost).  When we were able to sell it "as is," we decided to make a lifestyle change and moved into a house half its size with half the bills in a laid back beach community.  My husband and I even decided to do our own lawn care instead of hiring a landscaper.  Kind of a hard way to go about it, but it was one of those "meant-to-be" scenarios.   We still live in a beautiful house in a lovely neighborhood and town, but a few things have changed.

As a stay-at-home-mom, I was already used to saving a few bucks here and there, especially since the children grew so quickly!  How many pairs of pants can one boy go through in a year!? My husband is in the land development business, which has dropped but held steady enough until this year. We are now in the proverbial "rough patch."  He kept it from me until June, hoping he could work it out and to save me added stress. Once I found out, I cried, pulled up my boot straps and immediately went into action.

Since it was the beginning of summer and we have two children, I had a difficult decision to make: do I go back to work outside the home?  After thoroughly studying the job market in my area, I realized that at the time, I would be working to pay someone to be with my children:  I couldn't make enough income for it to make sense. My first order of business: cut back the" fat" from our spending.  After the initial list, I've discovered other ways to save.  Remember, Benjamin Franklin had it right: "A penny saved is a penny earned!"

I'll share tips on how I use my Sense for Savings and turn pennies into dollars over a course of a year.