On fire!

I'm still ecstatic about Dave Ramsey's get out of debt snowball program! My husband & I started watching every penny spent since Dec. 13th & our first change after just two days was to quit making the coke machine guy RICH while making us poor! My husband, bless his heart, is ADDICTED TO MOUNTAIN DEW! And, he's a smoker so he's always thirsty! In just TWO days, he spent $10 in the coke machine at his work. 20 oz bottles of Mt.
Dew at $1.25 each. Neither him or myself was very happy about that so that changed real quick!

Will my husband switch to water? That would be ideal, but no. Not yet. I don't know if ever, as much as I'd like for him to, but for now we have decided to QUIT making the coke machine owner RICH while making ourselves poor. At first my hubby had said that he saw the 6 pack of 24 oz bottles on sale at Kroger 2/ $9. That is not the best deal they ever offer, but you do the math. It's cheaper than $1.25 each, and they're 4 oz bigger! We bought two 6 packs.
Next, I needed to know that he wouldn't drink them all up quicker just because he knew we had them. I asked that he please try to only drink 3 a day. We're still working on that, but I think he's doing ok. Since buying those two 6 packs of Mt. Dew, our grocery store had them on sale two weeks in a row for 4/ $11. We bought 8 6-packs, twice. That's $44 in Mt. Dew, plus the $18 the first go round. In my opinion, that's INSANE!!! But... as insane as it is, it's still cheaper than $1.25 each from the coke machine.

To keep a watchful eye on sales, I installed Krogers mobile app on my phone & I'm checking it weekly. I now know that a new ad goes out on Sundays. I never paid attention before. I can compare what's on sale to what coupons I have, therefore saving money. Extreme couponing is my goal!

Cigarettes. Expensive. He smokes Marlboro lights, not the cheap stuff. I wish he could get away with the cheap ones but I agree with why he don't make the switch. If the cheap ones taste half as bad as they smell, I wouldn't smoke them either! Sooo.. He's been buying a pack a day. We all know that's the most expensive way to buy cigarettes, but I guess it doesn't seem as bad as dropping $40something dollars all at once. And, I never wanted him to buy a carton because I have hopes that he will quit-/ but like the Mt. Dew, he's ADDICTED & I don't see that happening any time soon. The only thing I know to do is try to save what we can now. I signed up for Marlboro's website to get carton coupons & he is already on their mailing list. I also had him buy a carton. $47 later...uhh yeahh... Ouch! Heck, neither of us know the cheapest place to buy a carton yet but we're now keeping our eyes open!
The second go-round, he did much better! He chose the Marlboro Special Blend instead and saved about $10. Too bad my coupons haven't come in yet, but still... Not bad! Yeah it may be floor scrapings but really when u think of it, all of it is bad for you & just plain nasty so what does a little dirt hurt? ...just my opinion!

In conclusion... I haven't crunched many numbers yet, but I do know we have saved a substantial amount of money just by making those two changes. That has to make some difference. It's two days from the end of the month so I can't wait to see what we spent the second half of December, and maybe I'll notice some other things that can be changed to save more.

Until then, my final thoughts: Dave Ramsey said!!!

Being frugal

So far my entire blog has been about my constant struggle with food. Just to shake things up a bit, I thought I'd tell everyone what's been on my mind these days. Dave Ramsey. That's right, the financial expert. I started listening to him on YouTube & I find him to be very likable & interesting & I think he has a lot of knowledge when it comes to managing your finances. I'm all about saving money! I want to get out of debt & become a millionaire! I'm going to follow Dave Ramsey's "baby steps" to reach my financial goals! I'm sooo excited about this!

On Thursday my husband & I started the envelope system to see where we are spending for 30 days so that we can create a budget. Today, I clipped coupons & planned our meals for the next two weeks, wrote a grocery list & went to the store and STUCK TO IT! I almost picked up a container of ice cream (that I didn't need) but I changed my mind because its not a necessity. I only bought the things on my list, I used my coupons, saved some money & also saved time in the store because I knew exactly what I wanted & didn't need to look around. I'm pretty happy about that!
Lets see how the next few weeks go with creating my budget ;)