Making Ends Meet - Part Two

If you read my first entry about "Making Ends Meet" you know my family fell on hard times last year. The good news is that we are back on track with our finances. My husband has been working steadily for almost a year. We haven't gone without utilities or household products once this year. Our bills are caught up and since we've cut back on our spending we have been able to have extra cash again. We have taken some extra cash to buy a nice Christmas this year, and our Christmas shopping is done for this season. So we're back on track, though there were times I thought we'd never get through.

One thing we learned from the situation is how to save. I discovered there were LOTS of things we were buying that we could do without purchasing. Not just groceries, but other things also. We don't go out and spend money on things that we really don't need like we used to. Before our motto was "why not, we have some extra money" but now it's "that's not something we really need" ... need being the key word. We don't "need" a new DVD player because the one in the front room broke. Everyone has one in their room, and nobody really uses the front room to watch movies much. If we decide to watch a movie in there we can borrow a DVD player from one of the bedrooms.

We don't look at sales ads anymore at all. As soon as they come into the house they go right into the recycling bag. The only part of the ads I keep from the paper are the coupons. But even then I only clip what we use. If it's not something we use, no matter how much of a savings it is, I don't clip it. It's too much of a temptation to spend once you get into the store for the "deals." So we have saved a lot just by avoiding the stores and their sales. When we need something we research the prices at various stores and go get it, but we don't pay attention to what's on sale. So stay away from the sales ads! They are evil lol.

I was already a bit thrifty before. In addition to our four kids, we took in two kids after their mom died. To keep everyone in clothes and shoes, I knew already how to shop for discounts. I always bought name brand when it came to their clothes, but I would shop at the thrift stores or big discount stores for them, like Value City. But after my oldest son and the two we took in moved out, money wasn't as tight. After we started homeschooling and stopped paying for a private education we had lots more left over to spend. It wasn't that hard to keep the kids in clothes and shoes. So I started going to the regular stores more often. That was my first biggest mistake! Don't pay retail for what you can get at a cheaper price!! There is nothing wrong with shopping at thrift stores. Often times the clothes still have tags on them. When I think of all the money we wasted shopping at the mall instead of the thrift stores it still makes me sick. There's no use crying over spilled milk, but when you have no gas or electric you can't help but regret not doing things differently.

Another thing we changed was where we buy our household items. We started shopping for things at Family Dollar or Dollar General instead of Target or Walmart. Much cheaper and the products are surprisingly very good. You can get some name brand products in these discount stores as well. They are not all generic or store brand products. I believe for some things you just can't do store brand, namely soaps, shampoos, and toilet paper. Luckily we can still get the name brand products we like but don't spend as much for them. And if you have a coupon then you save even more!

Gasoline was another thing we were spending a lot on. We were spending so much to drive here and there when we really didn't need to. Instead of spending that money on gasoline we would have a bit extra for something else AND we could help the environment. This is something we still don't spend a lot of money on today. Everyone has bikes and we only drive if we absolutely have to. Even shopping doesn't require us to use the car. My husband and the boys have a little cart they hook up to one of bikes and the shopping is done that way. When we need to get a lot of groceries or supplies, or if the weather is bad, we drive. If you can get away with not driving as much you really should. It's great exercise, it helps the environment, and it helps bring down the cost of gas.

One thing we were doing is ordering takeout at least once a week. Now we might order take out once a month if that. Our favorite thing to order out is pizza. Ordering enough to feed everyone would cost anywhere from $30 to $50 depending on where we had deliver. Now we make our own pizzas out of tortillas or pita shells. Both make for a great tasting pizza and everyone can make their own pizza. A few minutes in the oven, salad on the side, and you have a nice meal in about 15 minutes. And it costs alot less than delivery even if you do have a coupon and they have this "great deal" going on.

We don't spend a lot on soda like we used to. Save the money and buy yourself a box of 100 tagless teabags for a buck. Make a fresh pitcher of tea every day and it will only cost you about 12 cents for each 2 quart pitcher. Compare that to a bottle of soda, then multiply how many bottles of soda you go through in a day. Huge savings if your family is like mine was. We could go through 4-6 bottles of soda a day depending on how many people were here. At the least that was costing us $30 a week, sometimes as high as $40. I make one gallon of tea a day, every day. That's less than $2 a week! We were drinking nothing but soda, now we drink water more because we get tired of the tea. So it's not only cheaper, it's healthier too. We do still buy soda, but we never buy more than 3 bottles a week anymore.

That's the biggest area that we were spending just way too much on was the groceries. Mainly prepackaged foods that you can really save money just making it yourself. For instance bread. I bake my own instead of paying $1.50 a loaf. While that may seem cheap, with a family my size we were buying three loafs a week at least. That's $20 a month for bread. We were also buying so many other things you can make yourself for much cheaper. Lipton noodles for side dishes, Hamburger Helper, boxed mashed potatoes, Encor and Stouffers meals, pancake mix, boxed cereals, muffins, granola bars, biscuits, rice a roni, macaroni and cheese ... just to name a few. I buy NONE of this stuff now.

And this entry is getting to be long. So I may have to make another entry to finish this up. I'll post the rest tomorrow.

Have a good night!
Jenna

Making Ends Meet - Part One

I've been meaning to do this entry for quite a while, before the AOL eviction, but have just never gotten around to it. This is going to be a two part entry because I think it's important to first share a bit about my family and how we made ends meet before this year, and how we manage now. I never shared this part of my life in my journal before, though I meant to write about it many times. I don't know why I kept putting it off, maybe I didn't want to talk about it. Most likely a small part of me was ashamed or embarrassed. But I think it's important to share this now for several reasons. I know there are many families across our nation that are going through tough times. If I can reach just one of those families, and give them comfort and hope, then these two entries will serve a purpose other than filling space on my blog.

I know first hand how challenging it is to feed a family in today's economy. My family is a large one, and it can get larger depending on who shows up for a meal. Usually I have 6 that I need to plan meals for, but the boys, both teenagers, eat enough for two extra mouths each. So when I cook, I've always cooked for at least 12 people. This way there is enough in case my older son and his roommates stop over, or if not we'd have the leftovers for lunch the next day. I've always tried to not waste much because I know that not everyone is as fortunate as we've been. I've always believed in not skipping meals because if we did the boys would be eating all day long. I've also been a firm believer in keeping meals on a schedule. There is less snacking and less time spent raiding the fridge, and my supplies, when the boys are fed on a schedule. So we've always had 3 balanced meals a day as well as an evening snack, and dessert 3-4 days a week. I used to spend $300 a week easily on groceries. And now, I only spend $150.00 a week on groceries.

Yep, you read that right. Our grocery bill is $150 a week for a family of 6. It took a while to get the grocery bill cut in half. Unfortunately the motive behind reigning in the grocery spending was events that happened during 2007 that made it mandatory to do so. Up until that time we lived comfortably, and didn't have a problem making ends meet for the most part. We probably took many things for granted, but always tried to help out others in the community who were not so fortunate. I helped others out with groceries once a month. I would get together three to four bags of groceries a month to donate to either our local church, local food pantries, or give it right to one of two families I knew needed extra help. I went through our closets three to four times a year and gave the clothing we no longer needed to those who did. I was part of a Giving Tree group that provided a Christmas to underprivileged kids across the United States for several years.

Then in June of 2007 my husband lost his job and was out of work for months. Despite putting in dozens of applications a week, spending hours on the phone checking on applications and calling other companies, and doing work through temporary agencies, he could not find a permanent job. As the months dragged on, our bank account dwindled. Eventually it was closed due to overdraft fees that we just could not pay. We were officially broke. My family found out what it was like to be on the other end of the food pantry line. We had to ask our local church for help with our utility bills. Our electricity was shut off not once, but twice from June 2007 to January 2008. We had no heat during December of 2007 for two weeks because our gas was turned off. Our Christmas in 2007 was terrible. I was no longer giving a Christmas to other kids, I was trying to make a Christmas for my own. If not for getting help from local agencies, and scraping together around $100 for a few gifts, we would have had no Christmas at all.

So we went from eating three meals a day, desserts, snacks, and plenty of fruits and vegetables, to eating Ramen noodles sometimes two times a day. We ate so much rice and tuna none of us really care much for either anymore. Fresh fruits and vegetables were rare. Desserts or snacks were even rarer. If they existed at all it was something given to us from the food pantries because we certainly couldn't afford it. At this point I had less than $300 a week to spend on groceries, household products, and the bills. Since my husband was only doing temporary work when it was available, which was a few days a week if that, we applied to the food stamp program for assistance. At first, we did not qualify due to his unemployment benefits. Once that ran out we applied again and were relieved to find out we qualified. If not for that small amount of food stamps, I don't know how we would have managed to buy groceries. Because at this point we were barely buying any compared to what we were used to buying.

That's when I started looking for ways to cut our expenses even more, mainly the grocery expense. I sure wasn't going to be getting over $1000 a month for groceries from the food stamp program. And what cash we had coming in we had to keep up the bills and buy what little else we could afford like soap, garbage bags, toilet paper, etc. I managed to get the grocery spending down to around $200 a week. That meant with the $500 that we were getting in food stamps, we would eat for about 2 1/2 weeks each month. With help from the local food pantry and our church we could almost get through a month. But often it meant the kids were going to bed still hungry. So I started looking at ways to cut the budget more, yet provide the kids better nourishment.

And that ends this entry. You'll have to read part two to find out how I did it. Gosh, that sounds like one of those internet ads doesn't it? Where you have to "click here" to find out more only to discover you have to pay a one time fee of $39.95 for the secret? Well I promise you my secret is free and I will post part two tomorrow.

Have a great evening!
Jenna