Ebay and cutting costs

My auctions ended Sunday and 27 of the 28 items I had listed sold for a total of $384. That's a bit more than I expected. So after ebay and Paypal fees I should still be able to pay off two small bills with the money and still have $25 left over for a little reward for me. Hee! It always feels good to write a check to pay off something for good. I've got another stack of items to list tomorrow that will hopefully bring in a few hundred dollars as well.

We got the electric bill a couple of days ago. It had dropped $49 from last month, thankfully. Probably would have been even more of a drop but we had some unseasonably HOT weather a couple of weeks ago. It's getting down in the low 40s here at night now, but for the most part I'm holding off turning on the heater. I did turn it on briefly the other night around 4:30 a.m. because it was just a bit TOO chilly, but it was only on for 15 minutes or so and hasn't been back on since. I open all the blinds on the windows facing the sun during the day to get some warmth inside after the chilly nights. I'd love to have an electric bill below $200 next month because I know once the cold weather is here to stay this winter, it will be much harder to keep the bill low. Of all my monthly bills, the only two I have any power to lower are the electric bill and groceries -- everything else is pretty much the same amount each month. So these are the two I focus on the most.

I bought some baseball card sheets at Wal-Mart and have begun the process of organizing my clipped coupons into my spiffy turquoise binder. It will be so much easier when I know where to find everything I need before hitting the stores. Also need to organize all of my Sunday inserts. I have a huge pile dating back to July, so I'm going to store them by month in an accordian file.

It may be a bit early to start this as I'm still stockpiling, but I want to try the envelope system for my groceries starting Nov. 1. I'll start with a bit of a higher amount, but ultimately I want to get it down to $50 per week. There are four of us to feed, plus the cat and dog, but I know that it is VERY attainable. I've seen countless blogs of families, some larger than mine, eating on $50 or less per week. No reason why we can't do the same.

A Sense of Accomplishment

I have been gathering up items to sell on eBay for awhile now, but hadn't actually listed anything in over a month. So either out of determination to pay down debt or just being plain sick and tired of looking at all the stuff piling up on my dining room table, I finally took some time and put up 28 items for auction tonight. Those should bring in close to $300. Of course eBay and Paypal will take their share, but still, it's some extra cash in the account.

The budget hasn't been quite as tight this month, thankfully, but that's no reason to slack off from my goal. It's an extra paycheck month, for one thing (hooray!). Plus I'm not having to deal with furlough days at work this quarter (I'd almost forgotten what a full paycheck looked like!) And then, a very pleasant surprise last week -- my husband got a raise! (Some companies apparently still do that these days -- ha!) But instead of sitting back and allowing myself not to worry about debt and savings for a little while, I'm more focused than ever. I want this debt GONE! The sooner, the better!

But anyway, I forgot to post some of the deals I got at Bi-Lo and Publix on Tuesday. I know the sales are over, but I was rather proud of myself. Especially since they were deals I found myself, without the aid of any of the wonderful savings blogs I check multiple times per day. Hee!!

At Bi-Lo, I got:

* three 10-pound bags of Tidy Cat litter for 47 cents each -- reg. 2.94 each (which is OUTRAGEOUS by the way, since Wal-Mart and Target sell them for 1.77 each, but I digress...) on sale BOGO for 1.47 each, and I had three $1 off coupons from the 10/4 inserts

* six cans of Progresso soups for 71 cents each (also combined BOGO with manufacturer's coupons)

At Publix:

* four boxes of Frosted Mini Wheats for 1.24 each (on sale for 1.99 and I had two coupons for $1.50 off 2 boxes)

* free gallon of milk (free with purchase of 3 boxes of Kelloggs cereals)

I hit Walgreens today, and I'll be going back tomorrow, since it's only about a mile from my house and I drive by it all the time. I'll post those details tomorrow.

The pantry is filling up! :)