Financial Friday: Making Sacrifices to Get Out of Debt

For a while, I avoided those center aisles in the grocery store. Recently, I have gone back to them. While I still pick and choose to try to provide the healthiest options I can for my family, I am taking advantage of cheap options to free up more funds for getting out of debt. Some things like Hamburger Helper, Betty Crocker potatoes and some other items have made it back into our menu, when I can get them for the right price.

I use a couple online sites to load coupons to my Kroger Plus card: Cellfire and Shortcuts. Say I load a coupon for Yoplait yogurt. When I purchase the yogurt at Kroger using my Plus card, the amount of the coupon is automatically deducted from my order. I can also use a traditional paper coupon for the same item, increasing my savings. Not only that, but I will wait until that yogurt is on sale to use the coupons.

Where do I get my paper coupons? I get some from the Sunday paper. We don't subscribe to the paper but we will buy a couple copies on Sundays for the coupons. We more than make up for the cost of the papers by using the coupons. Some other sources for coupons are online sources
( www.redplum.com, www.smartsource.com, www.pillsbury.com, etc.), in freebie packages, in/on the items themselves, and from the coupon dispensers at stores. I haven't tried buying any from e-Bay yet. I have participated in a coupon train before.

One area of caution is that not all stores in all areas will accept coupons printed from a computer. Some people can use these coupons at their local Wal-mart, but my local Wal-mart will not accept them.

today's breakfast: cold cereal and milk

today's lunch: chicken, rice, and stir fry vegetables with teriyaki sauce

today's afternoon snack: Tricuits with Colby cheese

I have to go scan the loss leader adds and then I'll be back later to report on my meal plan and shopping trip.

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I'm tired so I'll make this short. The only store we ended up making any purchases from tonight was Kroger. There were so many good deals, that I passed by some.

total number of items purchased = 77

balance = $96.50

manufacturer coupon savings = $24.55

bonus coupon savings = $6.03

store coupon & Kroger Plus Card savings = $55.57

total coupons = $86.15

total savings = 47%

My cupboards, which were nearly bare in January and February, are now bursting. I'm stocked up on several items.

I haven't made up my menu yet. I'll do that tomorrow.

Today's supper was carry-out pizza that we ate in between stops. I had promised that we would have pizza since Birdie and Monkey would have it at their over-nighter. I got carry out to save my sanity and so we wouldn't have to go home between dropping the girls off and grocery shopping.

Financial Friday

This has to be one of the worst times to be in debt. Interest rates keep climbing, making it more difficult to pay off old debts. Minimum payments keep climbing, making it more difficult to pay off old debts. The price of groceries, household goods, gasoline, and more keep climbing, making it more difficult to pay off old debts.

We have been trying to get out of debt for years now, but it seems we take a step backward for every two steps forward. We have made progress. We outright own our vehicles, and we have paid off some credit cards and other debts. Last year, we tried not to use our credit cards. We did all right until a few emergencies came up.

One exception we make to our no credit card usage rule is using our Old Navy card. We always pay off the balance after we use it so we don't have to pay interest. If we will not be able to pay it off, then we don't use it. We don't use it often. Following is an explanation of why we go ahead and use the Old Navy card.

My cousin's baby shower is tomorrow and I went to get her a gift today. We did not have the money in our budget for a gift, but we did have a ten dollar Old Navy Bucks Back coupon earned by our previous purchases.

This is what I found. I got the notepad so that I would not lose two dollars, but it is a nice pad that my cousin could keep handy in her diaper bag.

This is a copy of my receipt.

I am always looking for new money saving ideas, so now let me ask you. What do you do to stretch a dollar?