His Hers Money

When we go grocery shopping we don’t go empty handed. We have a list, our coupons and a plan. This weekend’s grocery shopping trip is an excellent example of what our bill looks like. This is for two people and we are not starting from scratch as we have things in the freezer / pantry / fridge at home already that we are augmenting. I look at what’s on sale, what coupons I have and what we need.

This week’s trip was to Safeway but we don’t always shop there. It all depends on who has the rights things on sale that week.

• Ketchup $.99
• Cheez-Its $1.47
• Cranergy Juice $2.50
• Canned Cat Food 6 - $.33 each
• Kraft Cheese Singles - 2 - $1.50 each
• FF Half & Half $4.49
• Yummy mini ice creams 2 - $1.00 each
• Limeade $1.25
• Duracell 8pk AA $2.49
• Men’s Shave Gel $1.50
• OM Hotdog - 3pks for $1 total
• Lean Hamburger $6.11 for 4.8lbs
• Jumbo Raw Shrimp $5.39 for 0.9lbs
• Green Onion $0.99
• Ginger Root $0.25
• Cinlantro $0.99
• Beer 24pk $12.99 (July 4th parties)

Our total was $50.24 and obviously the beer at $13 was the biggest item but with July 4th parties coming up next weekend we grabbed it at a good price to bring to a big party we are attending. The shrimp was a treat for us which we will grill up for dinner and the hamburger has already been mixed up and made into hamburger patties and in the freezer for later use.

Our receipt claims that we saved $61.34 (56%) off of our bill which in fact we did but we wouldn’t have bought some of the items if they weren’t on sale and had coupons to go along with them. The hot dogs for example we couldn’t pass up at 3 Oscar Myer packs for $1, I just threw them in the freezer for later use. The same thing with the cheese slices, I’m not a huge fan of that kind of cheese but at that price I’ll make so for a couple weeks!

So, in recent posts I have eluded to the fact that we just moved into a new apartment. Our lease was up on our old apartment and it just really didn’t seem to have enough redeeming qualities to keep us there, let alone the fact that they wanted to jack our rent up. We were paying $1875 a month and they wanted to raise it up to around $2300. Add to that the monthly fees of $100 for utilities, $175 for parking two vehicles, $70 for storage and $35 for the pet fee.

Now the only thing this place had going for it was location. Yes, I know how the saying goes: location, location, location but that only carries so far. It was right on the metro route and had a number of places you could walk to to get either a bite to eat, a few drinks or do any retail or grocery shopping. Sounds great right. it was but we realized we just didn’t use a lot of those things. Yes, we would walk over and have a couple of drinks now and then but other than that we usually drove elsewhere to retail places that had lower prices.

So, off we went in search of a new residence. We looked at a number of places including a number of places which would have even lowered our monthly rent bill but none of them were really jumping out and saying “come live in me” to us. Then we decided to go look at a brand new tower that just went up. Originally the building was supposed to be condos but when the market fell they decided to make it apartments but prices were way out of our league. Luckily the market continued to decline causing them to have to lower their prices.

So, here we are. Our new rent is $2300/month with a pet fee of $50 and parking of $75 and then an electric bill of whatever the electric companies charges us that month. Our rent will be higher but our new apartment is about 300 sq. ft bigger and about a billion times nicer so for now we are willing to pony up the additional cash.

As, I previously posted, now I can walk to work so we have tossed around the idea of going down to one car between the two of us but for right now we are going to settle in and think about that later. I have to believe my chi is worth something!

This week we made a huge runs to the warehouse club, Costco is our favorite but we went to BJs this time (free guest pass), and stocked up on a household items and food items that we needed. BJs is great becuase you can combine the club discounts, club coupons and manufacturers coupons.

When I say we made a huge run I wasn’t kidding. Our bill was $175 and that was after $50 in coupons! So what did we get for all o four hard earned dough? Toilet paper, crystal light, chicken, BBQ sauce, mayo, goldfish snacks, italian sausage, wine, breakfast smoothies, laundry soap, fabric softener, cat food… all sorts of things.

We have been preparing to move into our new apartment (more to come later on this) so we have really been careful to just buy the minimum and use up everything we have. When it comes to things like toilet paper and laundry soap I don’t like having to wonder if I have enough or do I need to buy more this week so I generally buy it in bulk and get it over with. Most of the warehouse clubs send out coupons every so often so I usually stock up then.

There has been a lot of debate as to whether the membership fees that the warehouse clubs charge are worth it. For us it really wasn’t even a matter of it being worth while or not, it was a matter of convenience. We live in a high rise that is literally right next door to a Costco. We will walk over there for just one item some times. I think over an entire year we could possibly claim that by being able to walk next door to shop instead of driving a few miles away to the grocery store and spending money on gas that we mitigate the cost of the membership even without taking any actual discounts into account.

What is your opinion of the warehouse clubs and the membership fees that they charge?

After reading a couple articles about Crissy Thompson, the Coupon Queen I can honestly saw that I am in awe. This woman spends like $10 on a week’s worth of groceries for her family of five, not one but five. It seems that I can’t even get by with $10 a day for the two of us let alone for a week.

Basically Crissy spends about an hour each week combing through the grocery store fliers and clipping coupons from four Sunday papers. She only cuts the coupons for items that she uses and combines them with the current sales items. After reading the article about Crissy and her extreme couponing I did learn a few great tips and facts that I didn’t know about.

My favorite tip is that you can use one coupon for each item you purchase. If there is a buy 1 get 1 free sale you can use a coupon on both of the items. I think the key here is to get multiple papers and/or have a good stash of coupons so that you do end up with multiple coupons for the items.

I don’t buy multiple papers each week but every once in awhile I do end up with two sets of coupons. I live in a high rise and one of my neighbors puts their Sunday paper in a pile outside the trash room on my floor to be recycled and if I see it I’ll grab the coupons books out of it.

I do try to keep an eye on the sales and what coupons I have. We actually got about $30 worth of groceries for $16 this weekend when we combined the sales and coupons. This isn’t nearly as good as Crissy does but it’s not too shabby.

Do you use coupons? Are you embarrassed using them or too embarrassed to use them?

So we all know that it’s smart to have an emergency account. And it seems that most people recommend to have 3 to 6 months of your salary set aside. For those of us in debt it can be a delicate balance between saving and paying down debt. Do you save, do you put all your extra money towards debt, or do you try and do both at the same time? The third choice is the one that I have made.

I am putting money into savings at the same time as I am using the snowflake method of paying down my debt. Is that the best approach in a purely monetary sense? No. However, it gives me the self-satisfaction of seeing my savings grow and debts paid down to zero.

Another reason for my method is that besides the mental aspect, there is also the specter of small unexpected expenses. Just yesterday I did not have much change with me to park on the street for an appointment that was scheduled for 1:30pm. Needless to say, I was still waiting until almost 2 before I even got into the office. By that time my meter had run out and since I happened to be parked within a 1/2 block of the courthouse and police station, of COURSE I GOT A TICKET! The expense is not large. I can afford the $25 fine. But I don’t want to pay it and of course if I had a tight budget it is possible that it could create a problem.

Moral of the story? Besides taking enough change to pay for parking? Don’t focus entirely on your debt. The last thing you want to do is pay extra on say your credit card only to be forced to take a cash advance on the same card the following week. Give yourself a little breathing room.