Financial Goals of 2011

Tim doesn't know this is coming. I'm about to sit him down and we're going to discuss what our financial goals of 2011 are and what we need to do to make it happen. Do I need to cut down on rabbits? Do we need to cut our grocery bill, or power bill? Do we need to reduce how much we spend in gas?

It's important to make sure you pick achievable goals. We can't say "get out of debt" is our goal, because Tim's sizeable student loans make that impossible. We could say "pay off one monthly bill completely". Maybe that's the car payment. That's doable, although it would really be a challenge. Hey- challenges are good!

Be specific with what you want to accomplish. "Saving money" is nice and all, but if you save a nickel in that year, did you really accomplish anything? Having a clearly defined goal will help you stick to your game plan!

Track your progress! If your goal is to save $1,000 this year, keep a spreadsheet of how much you've saved, or open a bank account specifically for that money. It will really push you harder if you see how you are stacking up to your goal each week or month!

-Kristen

Stockpiling Update

I've been stockpiling like crazy- shampoos, bath wash, dish detergent, men's deodorant, cream of chicken soup and cat litter-

the holiday offered a lot of good deals and I took advantage of them!

Having just watched my first ever episode of Hoarders, I feel like I need to take this time to say- DON'T buy ridiculous amounts of things. Stockpiling shouldn't take over your life. If you have an extra room you want to devote to things you buy, then fine, but make sure you can use everything before it goes bad- otherwise you aren't saving a dime.

Now- I'm 100% to capacity on tampons, shampoo, body wash and dish detergent! The only way I'll buy any more is if I can get it for free.

With the soup, I wish I had stocked up more. Target had it at SUCH a great price, but I erred on the side of caution and chose instead to go with a large, but manageable amount. At least I know it won't go to waste and I have enough of a buffer I can continue to look for sales prices.

Cat Litter is a fun one- Joni told me about the friends and family discount at PetSmart, so we went with the intentions of buying 4 containers- it would be 15% off, I had 4 coupons for $1 off and it was already on sale for $9.99. Then I opened up one of our existing containers and found a $5 off coupon on any purina item. Tidy Cats is Purina! We bought our 4 containers (using 3 $1 off coupons and the $5 off coupon) and brought them home, popped them open, and brought out 4 more $5 off coupons! My plan is to continue to use the high dollar coupons until I don't get any more in containers. That makes the litter basically half off and you just can't get a quality litter at 30lbs for $5-$6. Thankfully, I can store this all in the cat room and they can have fun jumping off the tops of the full litter containers.

While it's a large investment now, to continue the stockpiling (especially of the cat litter, which is still a hunk of money each purchase), it pays off in the long run when we can go months without needing to buy litter or shampoo!

Want a cheap way to start your own stockpile? Coupons.com is giving away free packages of Excedrin Headache Medicine. Go there and look at the list of coupons on the left. Click Health Care and look until you see Excedrin. Sign up and they will mail you a coupon for a FREE bottle up to $5.99!

-Kristen

Recipe #33- Cheatin' Chicken N Dumplins

I call these Cheatin' because I'm used to make them from scratch. This is a much quicker way to do it and it can easily be made even cheaper.

You'll Need:
32 oz of Chicken Broth (buy it, or make it with a bouillon cube)
1 Chicken Bouillon Cube (I like my food chickeny, what can I say)
3-4 Chicken Breasts (or equivalent chicken pieces)
1 can of 10 flaky pull apart layer biscuits
1 can of cream of chicken soup
Flour
Salt and Pepper to taste


Cook your chicken- I throw it in the crockpot so I can ignore it all day, but you're welcome to boil it until it's tender.

Place your broth in a medium-large pot and bring it to a gentle boil. Then stir in the chicken bouillon cube and the cream of chicken soup. Add a little salt and pepper.

Break your biscuits (uncooked) in to three layers and cover each layer with flour (on both sides!). Pull each of the biscuit layers in to 3 smaller pieces and drop them in the gently boiling broth/soup.

Do Not Stir.

Let the dumplings cook for 10 minutes after the last one goes in the pot. Using a spoon, press them down in to the broth and let them float back to the top. They are probably going to stick together, they did for me. No biggie, still tastes good :).

Add your cut/shredded chicken and then turn on low until you're ready to serve it!

-Kristen

Setting new goals

I've decided to set a new goal for us.

$60 per month to spend on eating out. We can eat 12 times at McDonalds if we want, we can eat 3 times at my favorite steak house, we can mix and match any way we want to, but when the $60 is gone, it's GONE.

I also added on a second rule- we can't eat out more than twice per week. That shoots McDonalds twelve times a month in the foot, huh?

My goal is to not eliminate any fun we have, but to help us pay more attention to when we go out to eat and not just use it as a convenience tool. I also want us to save money!

I think setting a reasonable budget is good, but to prevent us from being good all month and then blowing the rest of the money in the last week (thus falling in to bad habits) prompted me to also set how many times a week we can eat out.

-Kristen

Free Shipping on Dec. 17th!

Friday is Free Shipping Day. You can go here to see the 1513 merchants participating. However, keep in mind that some of them think free shipping on orders $50 and over is free shipping. I disagree >.< But, it's a great chance to get some last minute shopping done. Remember, the 17th is pretty much the last online shopping day, if you want your item for Christmas!

I imagine some of these websites will be running specials as well.

-Kristen