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.

Healthy Choice deal, and a disturbing trend

I went to Wal-Mart this afternoon with my $2 Healthy Choice coupons in hand. I had heard you can get them free with coupon. But when I got a look at the selection, I realized it was the entrees that are priced for $2 and not the dinners. Since I was getting these for my husband, I knew the entrees would be more of a snack for him than a meal, so I decided to go ahead and buy 3 of the 'complete meal' dinners that were 2.50 each. I figured 50 cents per box was still a great deal. When I got to the checkout, the cashier rang them up at 2.50 each, but then stopped and said "Wait!" and dashed off to another register. She came back with the Bi-Lo sale paper and showed me that Bi-Lo has all HC entrees, dinners and steamers on sale this week for 1.98. So she price-matched and I ended up making 2 cents per box after coupons. Sweet! I'm so grateful she helped me get an even better deal! I hadn't really looked at my Bi-Lo ad too closely yet this week since it got soaked lying outside in the rain Wednesday. I did run in and grab one at the store yesterday, along with the new Bonus Deals booklet that just came out this week, but with all the ebaying I was doing yesterday, I didn't get a chance to look at it when I got home. I have since scanned through it and they've got some really good specials this week so I need to plan my trip there this weekend. I'm very close to my next Fuel Perks reward too, so this next trip should push me over.

I have been noticing a disturbing trend at the stores over the past month or so. I first saw it happening at Wal-Mart. They have begun raising prices on many grocery items. (So much for their "save money" pitch, eh?) Prices have gone up on Pop Tarts, Hershey's chocolate syrup and Kraft Mac and Cheese (jumped from 50 cents to 76 cents!), to name a few. Which, you know, OK, inflation. They kept their prices relatively low during the worst of the economic downturn, and I wouldn't really have an issue with them doing this merely to start boosting their profit margin now that the economy is slowly picking up again. But here's the other thing I've noticed happening at the exact same time as these prices are rising: the store brands of the same items are now on the shelves showing the same prices that the name brand items had 3 months ago. If they are raising the prices of the name brands simply to encourage shoppers to buy the store brands instead, then I do have an issue with it. I can't use coupons on the store brands, so I'm not getting as good of a deal, and that irks me. Plus, to be honest, I don't care if they were to GIVE AWAY Wal-Mart brand mac and cheese, I won't be buying it over Kraft! No way! I have limits, people! (I did try the Wal-Mart chocolate syrup -- unfortunately, it's not as good as Hershey's.)

It's happening at Publix too. I was in there Sunday getting some sale items, but I needed to grab some vegetable oil while I was there because we were out and needed some for dinner that night. I always use Crisco, but they only had the smallest size and the largest size of Crisco in the store. However, they conveniently had every size of the Publix brand, so that's what I bought. I'm not opposed to store brands -- I use them on many, many items (milk, bread, buns, sugar, paper products, soda, coffee, chips, etc.) but I think it's a bit underhanded to take away the shoppers' options so they are forced to buy your brand. Hmph!

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! :)

CVS card!

I finally filled out the CVS Extra Care form that's been sitting on my desk for more than a month and took it to the store on my way to work last night. I received my card right away, and of course I had to use it for *something* before I left! I spied a display for Brach's candy corn (my absolute FAVORITE Halloween candy!) -- 9 ounce bags 2/88 cents with card. Oh yeah, I grabbed those right up and bought them.

After work I had to stop by Wal-Mart and get a few items. I didn't really have any coupons for the stuff I needed (bread, hamburger buns and such) but I thought I'd check out some deals I'd seen other bloggers snagging for free with coupons. I looked for the AirWick IMotion air freshener, for which I have a $6 coupon. I'd heard some stores had marked them down to 5.99, but not my Wal-Mart. I'll check Target next time I'm there. I did find the travel size Tide liquid packs that I'd seen people pick up for free with their $1 off coupons. I had 3 coupons and took them to the checkout, but the register wouldn't accept them, so the cashier said I couldn't use them. So I said, "OK, well, I don't want them then." So she proceeds to throw the coupons in the trash. Ack!! I said "No! I meant I don't want the Tide. I definitely want to keep the coupons!" Ha! But anyway, I guess I'll use those at Target, too, since they apparently accept them for the travel packs.

Made a horrible discovery when I got up today -- my Wednesday newspaper got SOAKED in all this rain we're getting. I've got the grocery store sale papers drying out around the kitchen, but I don't think my Bi-Lo ad is going to make it. It's completely drenched. I'll have to be sure to pick one up at the store -- I have to have my sale papers to mark up!

Time to go on a Saving Spree!

I have been greatly inspired by the many fabulous couponing blogs I have seen for the frugal-minded among us. I have always been one to clip and use coupons, but there is so much money to be saved by utilizing them to their fullest. So I'm starting this blog to chronicle my savings. Should I ever start to feel lazy and think it's not worth the work, I want to be able to come back here and be reminded of how much I've saved.

But I'm not stopping at coupons. I'm going on a total saving spree and will be cutting expenses, as well, to help the savings add up faster. I have some bills I'd like to pay off within 6 months, so some sacrifices will be made for the greater good. I'll post about those too.

To start things off, I headed to Family Dollar yesterday after hearing about a great coupon deal on Snuggle dryer sheets. A box of 70 sheets costs $3 at Family Dollar. I had three coupons for $3 off one box, so all I had to pay was the tax (74 cents total). The cashier was amazed as she rang them up and realized I was getting them all just for the cost of sales tax. I won't be needing to buy any more dryer sheets for several months!

I got some great deals at the grocery store today, too, but I'll post about those later.

My next mission is to figure out the Walgreens Register Rewards and CVS Extra Care Bucks. There are MAJOR deals to be had with those!