My Uber Thrifty Month In Review - January

I decided to continue with my Uber Thrifty monthly reviews in 2016 because these posts rank amongst my highest each month.  Comments and emails I receive suggest my readers, all of you darling people, seem to really enjoy them.  So I will continue to post these articles for you each month again this year.

Our first month of 2016 is in the books already!  It was a wonderful month for us and I am super excited.  Once again I was blessed to be able to pay all of our bills - electric, water, sewer & trash, internet and  orthodontist -  well ahead of their due dates.  I love how empowered I feel when I do this.  I just think I am so on top of things. J

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I paid the mortgage two weeks early as I have done for quite some time now.  2015 was the first full year I've done this and when I received my tax form 1098INT (year end mortgage interest statement) and compared it to 2014 I was amazed at how much interest I did not pay last year.  Just a little tweak and wow.  It really does make a big difference.

I used coupons combined with good sales prices in order to spend a lot less on our groceries and non food items.  Although I went over the grocery portion of my budget, I was under in the non food portion so it worked out alright.  I stocked our pantry and freezer quite well and we are set with plenty of dish soap and laundry detergent for quite some time.

I did store surveys to gain extra bonus points on my Fred Meyer rewards card and saved an extra 10¢ a gallon when I filled up the gas tank on the car at their station.  I did not need to put fuel in my truck again this month.

I made a sizeable payment on my big business debt.  My goal is to have it paid off this summer.  I'm pretty sure I shared with you that I worked New Year's Day.  The extra money I earned that day was enough to make an extra payment on my big business debt payment.  Doing this has moved up the timeline for payoff a whole month now.  I think if I'm careful with my spending I'll be able to do it again in February.  I also made my savings goal.

All of my yearend tax statements arrived rather early this year.  My employer sent out our W-2s mid month and I was able to get my taxes filed on the 18th.  This is, by far, the earliest I have ever filed my income tax returns.  Yippeeeee!

I was able to purchase two pair of warm comfortable socks on clearance to add to my work wardrobe.  I replaced my well worn workout pants by finding a nice pair on the clearance rack too.  Additionally, I managed to get a few things on clearance to put aside for Christmas and Easter gifts and Valentine's Day.  By using coupons on items that were on sale I bought a few things for Easter baskets.  I also bought a few plants and a couple pots for our house and a friend of mine.  My personal spending last month was very little coming just under $55.  I'm pretty happy about that and how far I was able to make that money go.

I sold a dozen eggs to our next door neighbor.  The hens are now back to earning their keep once again.  We just opened the second 50# bag of lay pellets they bought last fall so they are still very much self sustaining other than the labor we exert to get them food, water, collect the eggs and keep the coop tidy.  However, we are more than compensated for our efforts with the fresh eggs we get to eat, not to mention the joy we get just in having them.  These ladies are pretty awesome.

Anatomy Of A Ham

Buying a ham can be a wonderful investment.  I find I can get a lot of mileage out one single ham.  Depending on the price I buy both bone-in or boneless hams.  This last time I bought a bone-in shank ham.  After heating it through in the oven I served it for one of our Sunday dinners.  Then it was time to get work and carve it up for many more meals to come.

I like to thinly slice a fair amount for sandwiches and wraps.  Then dice up another good sized portion to put in soups, casseroles, baked beans, macaroni and cheese, pork fried rice, quiche or omelets.  Thicker slices make great ham steaks for dinners or for breakfast with eggs and toast.

Upper L - R  Chunks for ham salad, soup bone
Lower L - R  ham steaks, diced, sliced for sandwiches, sliced for sandwiches

I also like to take a chunk or two and run it through the meat grinder.  Add a little mayonnaise and some sweet pickle relish and you can make a terrific sandwich spread.  It is also nice served on crackers.

Grinding ham for ham salad

Once I get everything sliced up and diced I put it in Ziploc bags and mark it with the date and of course what is in it.  Then into the freezer until I am ready to use it for a meal or in a recipe.

I save the juices in the bottom of the pan to add to soup or baked beans.  It is like a concentrated ham broth and has a wonderful flavor to add in with beans, lentils or split peas.

I used chopped up ham in my Pork Fried Rice

I also like to leave a little meat on the bone, quite a bit actually, and put it in a with a big pot of navy beans.  There is nothing more enjoyable than a hot bowl of navy bean soup with a nice piece of cornbread.  Or a lovely, silky pea soup is also quite nice.

As you can see there is a lot one can do here.  The possibilities are endless.  One can easily feed a family several tasty meals with just a single ham.

You may also enjoy revisiting Anatomy Of A Turkey or Anatomy Of A Pot Roast.

My February Meal Plan

Not entirely sure where January went but I do know we enjoyed some fabulous meals last month.  Once again, I designed this month's plan based on the items I already have in our freezer and pantry.  I will probably shop a few times throughout the month for fresh produce and dairy to finish off and round out each meal.

Sausage I bought at Cash & Carry last summer

As the budget allows I will plan to purchase loss leader items and take advantage of any good sales to further add to our pantry and freezer.  I have a couple things in mind such as all-purpose flour and pork sausage.  Whenever possible I hope to pair coupons with sales items too.  My continuing goal this year is to spend as little as I can on each item I buy.

This is what I plan to feed my family this month:

Pasta & Spicy Sausage, Lettuce Wedges

Chili & Cheese Omelet, Toast, Fruit

Taco Soup, Cornbread, Garden Salad

Pulled Pork, Baked Beans, Coleslaw, Dinner Rolls

Mac & Cheese, Buttered Peas

Sausage Dogs, Potato Chips, Veggies & Dip

Quesadillas, Spanish Rice, Refried Beans

Asian Curry Soup w/ Pork, Mung Bean Noodles, Tossed Green Salad

Chef Salads, Breadsticks

Cheese Quiche, Fruit Salad

Buffalo Chicken Pizza, Caesar Salad

Creamy Tomato Bisque, Cheese Bread, Spinach Salad

Swedish Meatballs, Steamed Rice, Steamed Broccoli

Broccoli Beef, Steamed Rice

Baked Potato Bar

Navy Bean Soup, Cornbread, Garden Salad

Veggie Lasagna, Caesar Salad, French Bread

A special menu for Valentine's Day

Spicy Romano Chicken w/ BowTie Pasta

Tossed Green Salad

French Bread

Cupcakes

Again you will notice there are a lot of salads on this plan and that is because we eat a lot of salad in this house.  We use a variety of vegetables and different salad dressings to keep them interesting so we aren't eating the same salad day in and day out.

Asian Curry Soup

My meal plan also includes that I make pretty much everything from scratch.  Knowing what ingredients are in our food is important to me.  It also makes a huge difference in the cost of each meal.

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I try to make all of our baked goods so I save money over buying them at the store.  Occasionally I may grab a loaf of bread if I am short on time, but I try not to do that very often.  We prefer our homemade bread over store bought.

Are you a meal planner?  Whether you are or not, what are some of your favorites dinners to prepare for your family?

Last Week's Thrifty Moves

Sunday I made two loaves of homemade oat bread and a pan of brownies.  Neither one seemed to stick around very long.  They seldom do.

I sewed up a cute little table square to set my kerosene lamp on.  I had this cute scrap of fabric and it was too small to make much, but it was perfect for this.  I also used leftover black fabric and batting from another project and machine quilted it.  It was fun little project and now I want to make a couple more of them.

I had used one of the travel size pillows I had bought us for camping to make a throw pillow as a Christmas gift for a friend.  With the full intention of replacing it next time I found myself in Walmart too.  Instead I took some muslin I had and made a pillow using the same technique I used for those throw pillows I had made.  Funny thing is, I used the leftover quilt batting and polyfil from that project to make it with and now I've replaced it without spending a dime.  And saved myself a trip to Walmart to boot. J

Instead of making the lasagna I had planned for Sunday dinner I ended up boiling fresh pasta and combining it with an assortment of leftover pasta sauces I had in the fridge and freezer.  I topped it with cheese and baked it.  It turned out delicious and a great way to use up some leftovers.

It is hard to read around here without a cat or two

I ordered a book from the county library to be held for me at the main one downtown.  I picked it up Tuesday and dropped off one I'd finished.  I love that we have this service which saves me a lot of time, not to mention fuel, from having to make trips all over town to check out and return library books.

I did not shop for anything this week.  It was a lovely feeling staying out of the stores.

I signed up for a free sample of assorted teas to be sent to me.  It has been a long time since I've signed up for a freebie. J

I cleaned and reorganized the refrigerator.  I love it when it is all neat and tidy inside.

On Friday we watched a couple of movies on YouTube for free.

I composted coffee grounds, tea bags and egg shells.  We fed our kitchen scraps to the chickens and they blessed us with 11 eggs this week.

How was your thrifty week?

Finally, I Replaced My Workout Pants

Note:  I am not the model in these pants. Ha!

A girl has to look good when doing yoga.  Even when she is by herself.  With no one around.  Right?  Of course she does!

The truth of the matter is that when I am wearing my workout pants I'm rarely alone.  And although I was well aware that my last pair, also my one and only, were shot, I had other pieces of clothing to take care of long before my workout pants became a priority.  Now after several mending jobs they were becoming a priority.

For several months now I've been looking for replacements, but man are they expensive.  And some of the styles are…  well, let's just say not mine.  I like mine plain, black and roomy.  Not sucked to my bod with bright wild colors emphasizing the stuff I don’t want emphasized.

Funny thing is I'd been looking at these for quite awhile but the lowest I'd seen them on sale for was $29.99.  Too much for my budget at the time so I kept looking.  Not seriously, but when we were out shopping I'd check and I also checked online from time to time.  Last week I found this pair on the clearance rack at ShopKo.  

Needless to say, when I found the ones I wanted were on the clearance rack I was thrilled.  Especially when I saw the price.  $8.00!  Whoooo hooooo!  Can you say happy dance in the aisle?  They are a size larger than I usually buy but in this instance I find this brand tends to run smaller so they fit pretty good.  Plus they have a drawstring inside the waistband.

When I came home with them and showed the girls they literally started cheering.  Then they started giving me a hard time about my old pair.  Apparently they are worse than I thought.  Okay, I knew they were bad.

There is no way I would pay $40.00 for these pants

Now the old ones are my project pants.  Delegated for painting, working on the truck, home improvement projects and messy jobs.  Which is good.  I need a pair of pants for that.

I'm so glad I waited and took my time.  As a result, I was able to get what I wanted at a price I was quite happy with.  I'll enjoy them much more having not overpaid for these pants.  This patience thing I've got going is really starting to pay off.

How about you?  What do you have in your closet that you are wearing past its prime?

My Grocery Budget - January Update

I did the bulk of my shopping in the first week of January.  I happened along some great deals and I had a lot of coupons to use on the things I bought.  I got a lot of those coupons in the mail from Fred Meyer and the others I found online and printed on some scrap paper I had.  By pairing coupons up with sales items I was able to buy a lot of stuff for mere pennies.  I also managed to get some great bargains on milk this month.

There were so many great sales I ended up going over budget.  Dang!  Not at all how I wanted to start out the new year.  I know the main reason was because I didn't want to pass up the 5# bag of cheddar that went on sale.  I was actually hoping they'd do it next month, but it didn't happen that way.  And the soup we love went on sale too.  Plus I had a coupon…  Yeah, you know how that is.

Dollar store haul

Although I went over budget with groceries I made up for that with my non food budget.  My non food items budget is $25 a month.  Whatever I don't spend I roll over to the next month to use.

I did really well and bought things like laundry detergent on sale at Walgreens and fabric softener and food storage bags at the dollar store.  I also bought a stick of deodorant on sale for 99¢ less a 50¢ OFF coupon making it only 49¢ and four bottles of dish soap on sale for 99¢ each.  I used four 30¢ OFF coupons making the final price 69¢ each!

I added 4 cans of Science Diet canned cat food to our stock as well for my aging kitty.  My best spend less deal was to buy three bags of kitty litter, use a $1 OFF coupon and the remains of a gift card bringing my total out of pocket to 28¢!  I spent $14.27 of my non food budget leaving $10.73 to roll over and use next month!

Markdown milk and produce made for big budget stretchers

It was definitely my month to stock up on cheese and it worked out perfectly as this was one thing I was running really low on.  I can usually hold out until the cheese I want is on sale at Cash & Carry and in January they ran 5# bags of grated pizza blend - mozzarella, provolone & parmesan on sale the first part of the month and then mid month they ran another one of our favorites.  5# bags of grated cheddar and Monterey jack.  I also bought grated parmesan.  It meant I made three different trips there but I went only when I was in the area so I didn't need to make any special trips and waste fuel.

I stocked up on more rice (50¢ a pound) and found frozen fruits and vegetables and other name brand canned goods at the dollar store.  I am planning to shop more often for groceries at the dollar store as they have expanded the selection and I find quite a few things that are priced lower than the regular grocery store.  The quality is good too.

All packaged up for the freezer

Here is the list of food I bought.  The items highlighted in red are my stock up items:

Groceries		$$$
Pork roast		15.34	Sale
Smoked sausage (2)		3.98	Sale
Italian sausage		2.99	Markdown
Pepperoni (2)		2.00	Dollar Store
Frozen veg - 16 oz (3)		3.00	Dollar Store
Frozen fruit -12 oz (3)		3.00	Dollar Store
Pineapple (2)		2.00	Dollar Store
Lasagna (2)		2.00	Dollar Store
Banana peppers		2.00	Dollar Store
Milk - 1 gal.		1.88	Sale
Eggs - 1 doz. (2)		3.28
Apples - 3#		2.60	Sale
Green onions		0.79	Sale
Avocados (2)		1.76	Sale
Oranges		4.08	Sale
Bananas		0.82	Sale
Smoked sausage  - 2.5#		3.68	Sale/Coupon
Salami		2.00	Sale
Sour cream (2)		1.98	Store Coupon
Milk - 1/2 gal. (2)		1.38	Markdown
Bread		0.99
Flour 5#		1.19	Sale/Coupon
Tortilla chips		0.60	Sale/Coupon
Spinach		1.54	Coupon
Ground beef - 10#		19.50	Cash & Carry
Cheese - 5#		10.48	Cash & Carry
Parmesan - 1#		5.47	Cash & Carry
Tomato sauce - jumbo		3.42	Cash & Carry
Cheese - 5#		10.98	Cash & Carry
Cream - 1 qt.		3.95	Cash & Carry
Lettuce (2)		2.48	Markdown
Veggie tray		3.99	Markdown
Milk - 1 gal.		1.49	Markdown
Milk - 1 gal.		1.89	Sale
Canned soup (5)		3.96	Sale/Coupon
Bagels		0.99	Markdown
Total		$ 133.48

$133.48 ÷ 31 days ÷3 people = $1.44 per person per day!

Next month I will work to get it lower and make up my deficit.  We are so well stocked up now I can't imagine it will be a problem.

My lovely pile of receipts

Did you stock up on anything this month?  Any super deals?

This budget month runs from January 1 through January 31.