Attempt to Save Money...Again...

This is so nice having time to blog again! Two posts in two days, yes!!

Here I am back to blogging about my attempts at saving money on groceries. I have tried planning ahead (still spent too much) and even tried the whole crazy couponing (saved money but not enough). So I am trying something new this time and it's probably something that I should have been doing a loooong time ago.

So what is my new secret to saving money? Or I hope it will save us money...

Sam's!!!!

I know, a lot of you are probably going, "Well, duh! Why haven't you been doing that all along?". And I'm pretty sure my wonderful sister has even told me to go to Sam's. 

I guess I  like to learn the hard way. :)

I spent pretty much the ENTIRE day yesterday getting groceries. I started out at Sam's and let me tell you, I was shocked at the prices!! 32 bottles of water for $4!! You can spend $4 at the grocery store and only get 12 bottles of water!

Some more examples:

2-96 oz bottles of Apple Juice: $5
30 rolls of toilet paper: $20
4 boxes of Capri Sun: $7.50

Really?! Why have I not shopped here until now?? What really made me realize just how much Sam's can save people money is when I overheard two ladies talking about how they drive from Perry (at least an hours drive) and other small towns just to come to Sam's! There must be some real savings if one is willing to drive almost an hour to load up on groceries.

And Sam's is just a short 5 minute drive for me and this is the first time I have chosen to shop here. What is wrong with me?

I called Wes about every 5 minutes starting out every conversation with, "Man, this is so crazy! I can get _____ for only $_____!!". I'm sure he was annoyed after about the 4th phone call from me. But then he just had to hear more about it all when he got home from work because I had to physically show him what I had accomplished.

My husband is so patient with me. :)

Here is a picture of what I hope is the answer to our grocery money woes.

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As I was leaving, I started to think about all the things I could get at Sam's that could potentially save us a lot of money by buying in bulk. I was worried about where I was going to put all this stuff but I managed to find a place for it all. Success!!

What is not in this picture that I really wanted to go to Sam's for in the first place is meat. I have noticed that when I go to Homeland and buy meat, my grocery bill is always outrageous. Now, we can't just go without meat (ha) so I knew I needed to find a solution that wouldn't cost us so much money.

Solution found! Sam's!!

I got 5 lbs of hamburger meat for $14, 4 strip steaks for $15, and a bag of chicken breasts for $14.

But we are only a family of 2 so of course we aren't going to go through that much meat before it goes bad. Even though I have the smallest freezer in the world, I decided to try freezing everything I bought and use it on an as needed basis.

Once again, most of you are saying, "Meredith, where have you been? Freezing meat WILL save you money!". I got it...I got it...finally...after being told many times. :)

So I bought a small scale to weight out 1 lb of my meat and baggies and foil to get it stored away. I took some pictures of the process:

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5 lbs of meat

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1 lb weighed and ready to be "bagged"

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All 5 lbs ready to be frozen

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Steaks and beef; I guess this does mean I have to plan ahead :)

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I will update on the results of my freezing meat attempt to save money. I really hope it helps.Now, if I had to choose one item that I was totally excited about saving money on it would have to be this:

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I was just telling Wes the other morning that I have to find a way to save money on my Keurig K-Cups. I have found a flavor that I absolutely love and have only been able to find it at Homeland. But the price is pretty ridiculous. At Homeland I get 14 K-Cups for $10. That's about .71 cents per K-Cup.

Now Sam's: 80 K-Cups for $40 which is about .50 cents per K-Cup.

This is so worth it when it is something you use every single day. Not a single morning goes by that I don't have my cup of coffee. So I was pretty excited about this find. Not to mention, it is my favorite flavor! Score!!!!  

I did end up having to go to the grocery store for other items that I really didn't need 20 of but tried to stick to my list and buy things less expensive: rice, beans, canned foods, Ramen (the only way to eat on a budget, for me at least, Wes won't eat it).

When I got home, I decided to make an Excel spreadsheet of the prices of the items I bought and when I bought them. I really want to see how long the Sam's items last and also be able to compare prices with the grocery store.

I know, I'm  a nerd...such an organizer...what else am I supposed to do with all this free time??

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Sam's List

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Homeland List

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Ramen? Hamburger Helper? Yes, please!

I will try to "spice things up" a little bit. I might have to get a little creative and get brave with my spices, but I can do it!

Any suggestions are kindly welcomed. I feel good about what I have done so far, I just hope it will pay off in the end. We will see!

Meal Planning to Save Money...Resolution #1

I think I may have found a New Year's resolution. Another fellow blogger, Megan, wrote a post about meal planning. And the more I read, the more I realized, I need to do this too! Not only to have something planned and have less to think about, but to also save us some money.

Since Wes and I have been married, the subject of money has come up quite often. It's crazy how you can try to prepare for such things in premarital counseling or just by talking it out with each other before the wedding and it is still a hard subject. I am lucky that we are both the type to be able to talk about things like adults and not let it get out of hand. We always come to an agreement that we are both happy with. And for that, I am a lucky woman to be married to Wes and to have the wonderful marriage that I do.

So, a few months ago, being the organized one, I decide to go over our expenses and create a budget. I know, I said it...budget. We both realize the importance of sticking to a budget but when it comes down to actually implementing the budget...we tend to "fall off the wagon". All good intentions, just can't seem to stick to it. Anyone else have this problem?

After looking at what we currently spend our money on, I found the culprit to all our money woes...EATING OUT! In a period of one month, we had spend almost $500 on eating out alone! Whoah!!! That is just craziness to me! I didn't feel like we were going out to eat that often, but I guess the numbers never lie. So I immediately break out the budget form and get to work on balancing out our expenses a little more appropriately.

Now this was..oh...last month that I wrote up our first budget. And did we stick to it? Nope. We didn't eat out as much but by no means were we trying to stick to an actual budget. Long story short, I have done probably two more budgets for us since then and still no luck in following through. Work in progess.

But I do know where our weakness is and that is still eating out. So when I read about others making a resolution to meal planning, I thought that would be a great way for us to save money and eat out less.

I spent all morning yesterday creating our first week of meals. (I am only attempting dinner so far..we are lucky to see breakfast or lunch on a regular basis) I got a great form for meal planning that has given me a good start to trying to plan ahead.

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I pulled out my new cookbooks that Wes and I have gotten as wedding gifts and started planning!

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I chose to stick with a few meals that I have already done before but also add in a few new ones to try. Wes and I also decided that we will have a "buffer" for one day of the week that can be pizza night. And thanks to a crazy evening last night...we already used up the pizza night. Starting out well aren't we? Ha

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Here is my first week meal plan!

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Once that task was accomplished, I had to make a trip to the grocery story to buy all of the goodies we would need for the week. One and a half hours later and $160 spent, this is what one week's worth of groceries looks like....

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Wow. What work it is to shop for a full week. What was even harder was having an official list to shop from. Why this would seem easier having a list so you can go right in and out, it wasn't that type of experience for me.

Here I am in the grocery store, trying to read my list, check things off, keep track of how much I'm spending, and every person in the store (really..every single person) was running into me, trying to push me along. Ahhh!! Let me shop in peace people!! It drove me crazy! This doesn't seem to happen when you don't have a list and a predetermined agenda. But the second you have a list to guide you along, the people will get impatient with your wandering around trying to find what you need and just flat out make you want to give the list up all together. But I stuck to my guns and finished my shopping successfully. Success but nerves were a little bit shot.

Okay, I had a bad first full week meal planning shopping experience. Luckily, I get to do it all again next week. Yay! We will see how it goes.

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No meal planning is complete without an organized binder to store away all the meal plans and wonderful recipes we will try. So I had to make a trip to Office Depot too.

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And it turned out like this!

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I can already tell that the weekly plan will be adjusted quite often depending on Wes and I's schedules. The plan is that the adjustment won't include eating out but simply changing what to eat on what day.

I hope I can keep up with it once school starts back. For now, one week down! Many, many more to go!

Tonight's meal: My Mom's Mexican Casserole! YUM!

(Yes, this is supposed to be Wednesday's dinner. Changing it up already!)

Quick and easy. Here is the recipe for those who want to try it. Thanks Mom! Delicious!!

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Mexican Casserole

By: Melanie Jackson

Ingredients

1 can Cream of Mushroom soup

1 can Cream of Chicken soup

1 (8 oz) can chopped green chilies

3 cans chicken

1 cup chicken broth

1 bag Mexican style shredded cheese

2-3 tsp chili powder (depends how spicy you like it)

3 tsp minced onion

1/8 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp pepper

Tostito’s Chips

Directions

Combine all ingredients in bowl except chicken, cheese and chips

Layer x 2: chips, chicken, sauce, cheese (end with cheese)

Casserole Dish (9x13)

Bake in oven 30-45 minutes at 350 degrees

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