February goals

To cut the non-food amt spent to 2/3 rds of what it is running now. I don't think we can get it any cheaper than that because of the softener salt and filter we have to buy being out in the boonies. Still I will try.

I am looking for a cheaper place to buy printer ink.

I will combine sales and coupons which I started this month.

We will eat from the pantry. January we ate out 4 times and I bought Chinese from the store (so I count that as eating out). We would like to bring that down to 3 ....as facing  Valentine's day  and our anniversary this month. I know we will eat at least once at the local restaurant for Lent as they have a great fish special on Fridays.

I put together a coupon book to keep better track of my coupons.I arranged it in the order of how I shop instead of alphabetical.

I downloaded a savings tracker http://thecouponproject.com/downloads/savings-tracker/

I am putting together a grocery price data workbook that will include my inventory. Goal is to buy at the cheapest and keep track of the inventory without going down and doing a count every month. Plus if possible (my friend that I call Guru) have place were it will let me know I should buy if on sale or a need now.

Hubby would like to retire in 3 yrs. So everything we do know needs to reflect that. Not only financially as in finishing off the last of the debt incurred when he went to 3 days a week for 2 yrs but in the home as of right now we rent a home of 2200 sq ft and use a 1 1/2 car garage, 2 stalls in the pig barn (no animals on the farm any more) and over half the farrowing house which would be 3 10x12 storage units. We want a  2-1/2 car garage and 1400 sq ft with a basement...lots to get rid off.

It's still too cold to plant here but I am hoping towards the end of the month I might be able to plant some lettuce and such in containers that I can cover when it's cold.

Blessed be

Frugal end of Jan

Looking back of the past month I see some improvement on being frugal.

I fixed a pair of pants.

I started 2 more sweet potatoes to make slips to plant this spring. The first two got nasty and had to be pitched. I've never had that happen before so I don't know what caused it.

I ordered the last of my seeds using coupons. I want to order candy onion sets from a local green house yet.I will most likely buy my spring plants from the Amish produce auction.

I combined sales with coupons to get a year's supply of vitamins and 6 mos supply of other vits that I have to take due to my Crohn's . Crohn's can stop you from getting nutrition from the food you eat.On top of I live in Ohio so my Vit D is low to begin with because we don't get the sunshine to keep it up.

I got my doctor to send my prescriptions to a mail order instead of the local pharmacy and saved there.

I baked bread so we didn't buy any.

I repaired my bread board that we use to cut the bread on.

I canned 7 quarts of applesauce and made 5-1/2 pints of apple butter out of the peelings and cores and then mixed the apple "juice" with the other juice we had in the frig.

We ate mostly from the pantry.

Blessed Be

End of Pantry Challenge 1.31.16

We didn't waste food and very little went to the compost also. We looked back and realized that we went from Dec 24th until today eating mostly from the pantry.

KEY WORD....MOSTLY...SIGH

Out of 5 weeks we ate out 4 times and I count the time I bought Chinese out of the freezer section as eating out since I normally make my own.

That's an average of once a week....

We ate once at Bob Evans as I had a coupon from them .Saved $9.47

We ate once at Perkins as I had a coupon from them for my bday .Saved $8.56

We bought take out at Davis meats (smoked rib lunch) that actually fed us 2 days.

We bought Al's pizza with a chef salad (and then I listened to my son lecture me about buying fast food that I can make at home) with the excuse we leaving the grocery store and very hungry and Hubby was going to already be  2 hrs late getting to bed so he could get his sleep in to go to work. That excuse didn't work with son HA HA.

I bought the Chinese at of the freezer section at store because I got sick while in the store and knew I wouldn't be cooking and I can eat Chinese when I am sick...

Two of the times we wouldn't have ate out if I hadn't had the coupons...

We were able to stock the staples back up because I wasn't buying much food beside perishables.

PLUS we were able to stock a lot of non-food up since "Food" money wasn't being used.

I also did a lot of use left overs for second and third round dishes that stretched the pantry...not that my pantry needs to stretch as I maintain a pantry to feed us at least a year if not pushing 18 months.

Blessed Be