money, money, money...

So I was having one of those days where I balanced my checkbook after a period of summer where I had not been paying any attention to our bank account. We hadn't been spending a lot of money, or so I thought. $5 here, $10 there. Then I realized I owed $132 on my Chevron Card (we use our credit cards to build credit and pay them off right away). So I owed $132 and I suddenly I realized I only had $131 in my bank account. WAIT, WHAT $131 - Just days ago I had $600 in my bank account!!! What had I done???? Well apparently being irresponsible doesn't work and those little spots here and there add up quickly! After moments of irritation at myself and realization that I would have to pull money from the savings, I decided to move on with my day, at least we're healthy and have food in the freezer! THE LORD ALWAYS PROVIDES... I thought about a paycheck I was expecting from working the elections, but that was June 8th and it was expected to take 40 days so there was no hope I'd get that. THEN I checked the mail and guess what was in it, and it was for $185, not $175!!! The day continued to get better when I asked Phil to clean out a box we've had for a year and he pulled out a box with probably $15 in change..... GOD IS GOOD... He always takes take of his children - I just need to make sure I watch that bank account!

My Grocery Deals. Com

I just heard about a wonderful website to help all of us save money on food while still feeling like we're "treating" ourselves! If you're anything like me I have my staple must-haves on my grocery list: bread, milk, cheese, tortillas, salad, turkey meat... etc. and everything else I buy, I try to get on sale or buy the store brand. Sometimes I feel like my shopping gets pretty bland - boy would I love to throw a filet mignon in that basket, but I'd also like to pay my electic bill! I've recently noticed the "special" meat section. This is the area where they put the food that will expire if not used of frozen by a certain date - there are quite a lot of cheap treats in there and I throw them in the freezer when I get home! That's how sometimes we get steak or last night we had a wonderful marinated whole chicken normally at least $10 on sale for $4. Enough chicken to last my husband and I for two meals - chicken, stuffing and vegis last night and chicken tacos tonight for $4!!!

So onto the promised website: Mygrocerydeals.com allows you to enter your zip code and find grocery deals at a lot of the local grocery stores. The website even categorizes the food, so you can compare all the "pork roasts" on sale... then if that's not great enough it lets you make your own grocery list where it tells the location and price of your item! I just found the website so I'm looking forward to using it next week.

Also, I just heard you should try to shop around for store deals as much as you can, if time allows, and it shouldn't waste too much gas but the savings should really add up!