Caselot Sale!

I spend a bit of time lurking on Reddit's personal finance forums and there seems to be a lot of chatter about how much people spend on groceries.  So I want to spend a bit of time thinking about how our money is spent in this area, in more detail. 

I don't typically keep grocery receipts, but did for last week's big shop.  We only have two grocery stores in my community - so suggestions around going to your local low cost shop don't work for me.  We plan ahead, try to get to Costco every couple of months or so and we watch for local sales.  Here's a peek at what some of our local costs are.

If there is interest I can post this again as I get more historical information.  My mom and I both track sales in the same excel worksheet, so that if I can't remember what a good price is I can go back and look.  I've been negligent in keeping this up to date, but I am going to start doing this for a while again. 

...and no, we don't by strip loin steak very often but we did this trip so wanted to show it on the tracker. They were too thick and delicious looking to pass by.

Crunchy...but not Chips

In our continued efforts avoid eating out, and to eat healthily Jordan asked me to pick up something that was crunchy, but not chips.

We've had some good luck with a few different types of trail mix from Costco, so I thought I would try my hand at making one from the bulk section at the grocery store.  I got a bit excited, and I think next time I could do better by watching for sales (though I did get some one sale).

I spent a total of $17.52 for 1.115kg total mix on:

• Dried Apple Rings - $1.90 ($12.90/kg - on sale from $19.90/kg)
• Dried Pineapple - $5.47 ($19.90/kg)
• Dried Cranberries - $5.77 ($19.90/kg)
• Mixed Nuts with Dried Banana Chips - $4.47 ($10.90/kg - on sale from $11.90/kg)

From the size of the bag compared to the bag from Costco which was around $15 - I feel okay about the mix but I'm going to start keeping on eye on the bulk section though, and try to pick up a few things as they go on sale, so that our next mix can cost even less.

Making Vino!

Stirring in the Chemicals

Back in April, on my Good News! post commenter Janette suggested that Jordan and I look into making wine as a way to help manage our spending on Alcohol without having to necessarily limit our consumption of it...well Janette - thank you!

For my 30th birthday back in July my mom and my husband went in together to buy a starter kit and the supplies along with a three hour course and I was up and on my way!  I've bottled my first kit, and have started on my second - a Reisling kit from Costco.

Bottling

So far it's been super fun!  We hit a garage sale and got more supplies so I could keep going and keep learning.  I want to start a third wine (another red) and then start to investigate beer making with Jordan!

I need to be careful not to spend too much $$ as I get started - but I think I now have everything I need to keep going (except of course a new wine kit which includes the juice and chemicals to make the wine).

What an uplifting experience....

this is a post for the girls...

I love bra shopping!

I breifly mentioned on an earlier post that I went bra shopping with my mom, aunts, and grandmother this past weekend.  We were all blessed, and cursed, with the same.....affliction body type.

We are all in the range of 36G through to 42H (or higher - I'm guessing) - yeah, it goes up that high (and we're allll natural).

These lovlies need all the help they can get - which includes an annual bra-fitting.  Women's bodies change and so do the rest of their clothes - it only makes sense that bra's would need to change as well.

Places like La Senza, or even La Vie en Rose usually only go as high as a D or if you're very lucky a DD... there's a lot of letters between D and H!  If you know much about sizing, each letter represents another inch... so no way are you squeezing an H into a DD cup - no way!

So, we found our selves at Knickers 'n Lace.  If you don't know much about how a bra is supposed to fit - I would really suggest checking out their website, they've got some great information on there.

I spent $357 on TWO BRA's - yea... they were $175 and $165 (plus 5% gst)

...and to any nay sayers out there - it's worth it!  You wear these every day for 10-12 hours a day - you need some high quality suppport and Sears and Walmart just don't have it! My mom, because she's amazing, bought me a third. It's a strapless - it works! I've never had a strapless that actually worked - it's amazing! I love my mom.



Oh right - you want to know how I'm paying for it?... well I had $170.05 in my clothing fund already and have set aside another $186.95 from tomorrow's pay to cover the rest.

Landlord & Rent Update! Wow!!

I don't say this often, but I am absolutely impressed with myself right now!

Over the last while I've been in negotiations with my landlord.  It was most recently left off with people encouraging me to just pay the $1500/month and never mind the rest b/c being in a month to month lease was worth it.  Well it turns out we're getting a rent decrease, with no other changes to the terms of the lease.  We'll continue operating month-to-month.

Starting November 1, 2009, our rent is going from $1,500/month to $1,350 a month.  That's a savings of $150, or $1,800 combined for Jordan and I (or $900 each).

This has wonderful implications for our budgets!!! waahoo!

Here's how it all played out:

"Good Afternoon Landlord,

I hope this note finds you well.

I am following up from our e-mail conversation whereby you stated you would get back to us upon your return from your trip on October 12, 2009. As it is nearing the end of the month we thought it best to touch base to ensure that rent is taken care of for November.

Please let us know your address so that we may drop off a rent cheque prior to November 1, 2009.

Thank you,
Jessie"

"Thank you Jessie.

Our address is XYZ.

[instructions to the house] & [description of the house]

If you could leave it in the mailbox, we would certainly appreciate that.

Thank you.

Landlord"

"Hi Landlord,

Thanks for writing back.

Should we assume that you have decided not to consider a rent decrease and that we should leave a cheque for $1,500?

Thanks,
Jessie"

"Jessie – I will reduce the rent to $1350 per month."

"Hi Landlord,

Thank you for confirming the new monthly rent. I will drop off a few post dated cheques for you, for your convenience.

Have a great weekend,
Jessie"

Kindness pays double time...

So my supervisor/boss-lady at work was sick for half the week and in all day meetings for the half of the week.  On Tuesday she dumped a pile of work to get done (some of which I hadn't done before) - and I managed to get it all taken care of for her. 

She gave me a gift card for The Keg for $50, when I combine that with the one we got earlier in the week - that means we're going to have a fantastic supper tonight!

Kindness really does pay...

The week before last I briefly mentioned that Jordan and I would be house sitting for a co-worker of mine from the 10th to the 17th.  We agreed to for a couple of different reasons, but mostly - it's nice to be nice.  

When I got to my desk this morning I saw a little blue envelope with my name written on it and inside was a delightful little thank you card and a $50 gift certificate for The Keg.

What a wonderful surprise it was (and I made sure to tell him) - Jordan and I really looking forward to using that card.  Maybe next weekend when all of my roommates are planning on moving out on the same day (have fun guys).

Hobbies - Our Fish

I've written a bit about the fish tanks that Jordan and I have, and they are currently a bone of contention with our landlord - so I thought I would share a little bit more about them.


When I moved into this place a little more then three years ago, my roommate at that time had a pet iguana.  We talked about my fish-keeping hobby and she was fine with me bringing in a tank.  I started with a 33 gallon.  Throughout my time in the house, and after Jordan moved in a year or so ago we expanded.  We got a second 33 gallon as well as a 90 gallon tank.

Getting started is the most work and is very rewarding.  Getting a healthy tank set up, planting it (we use live plants) and finding a healthy mix of interesting fish to populate the tank is a lot of fun!

It would be hard to estimate the annual costs of having the tanks, I would guess maybe $25/month on average.  There would be some months when you spend nothing and some when you're buying food, plants and/or fish. 

This is our 90 gallon tank, you can see we have a lot of different kinds of fish, some great plants and some great wood pieces.  We would call this a community tank.

Here is a picture of our main 33 gallon tank.  This is our tetra tank, it has a varity of fish but they are all from the tetra family.

To give you a size comparrison between the 90 gallon tank and a 33 gallon tank, here is a picture of our 90 gallon tank next to our second 33 gallon which we are going to try to sell.  It looks soo little next to the biggy.

We're hoping to get $25 for the four silver dollar fish that are in the small tank to the right, and hoping to get $250 for the tank/stand/filtration system/heater/rocks.  If we're successful that money will go towards paying back our house fund.

Making More Money!

I read Money Funk's post, about 28 ways to make more money, this morning and got an idea.

I'm going to look into becoming an Avon Lady.  There's none that are active in my neighborhood, so there wouldn't be any significant competition.  How do I know that?  I've lived in my current home for nearly three years, and an Avon sales rep (let alone any other door-to-door sales rep) has not yet come knocking.

I don't really know how it would work, but I went to their Canadian website and sent away for some information.  My Great Aunt (who lives in another part of the city) has an Avon lady, so I'm going to see if I can talk to her about it.  See how much money making potential their really is.

I'll let you folks know more about it, as I learn about it too.

Has anyone out there ever done this, or something like it, before?

Cheap Healthy Food

My mom found a blog that might help people find less expensive, healtheir ways to eat:

Spend Less, Eat Healthier: The Five Most Important Things You Can Do

Check it out and let me know what you think :)

Living our Parents Lifestyle

I have found that there is a significant number of my peers who feel they have the right, the need, or at the very least the desire to live the life that their parents do. There seems to be a disconnect in that our parents worked for twenty years (while we were being raised) to accumulate the wealth and ‘stuff’ to which our generation desires. The catch is that there are a number of 20-somethings who want to start out at the same point that are parents are leaving us off.

It just doesn’t work that way!

I am not sure where this misplaced sense of deserving comes from, but people seem not to understand that it takes time, work and energy to accumulate things. You can’t just have everything you want all at once. Let me correct myself. You can have it – if you want to live in a debt-hole for your entire life. By essence of you reading this blog, I can imagine that you likely do not want to live in debt, so please – stop buying things you can’t afford.

I do this sometimes; buy things that I can’t afford. I’m every so slowing weaning myself off of it. I’m not sure that it’s an addiction per say; however, it is certainly a challenge to change your habits - to just stop using that credit card. To save first, and buy later.

For example, this weekend I bought a new fishing rod. The rod, reel, and line cost me just under $100. The rod will probably last me a lifetime and I “Needed” this fishing rod because we’re going camping next weekend. I wanted to be able to fish with J and my dad without having to ask to borrow their rods.

After I bought it, I had instant buyer’s remorse. That would be my brain telling me a moment to late to stop buying things. Jordan and I actually had the idea of trading credit cards. We wouldn’t be able to use the other person’s but we could hang on to it to help remove that bit of temptation. We would have to ‘ask’ the other person before we could buy something which would challenge the need/want struggle.

It’s a thought.

I think however; that I’m not as bad as some people are. I’m not sure I like using the word bad in this case, but we’ll go with that for now. I mean that I haven’t bought a quad, snow machine, house, new cell phone, new wardrobe, new car…. Ect. I bought a $100 fishing rod (and last month a $200 patio set).

So yes, I need to continue to remind myself that it’s OKAY that I don’t have the means to have my parents lifestyle yet – it took them YEARS to amass the wealth and other ‘things’ that they have, that I want. Patience and it will come.

Tighten Your Belt, Strengthen Your Mind?

An e-mail was passed around work today, and apparently our brains have a limit on the amount of will power we have. So, with the recession in mind more and more people are thinking about money all the time, trying not to spend (at least they ought to be). The result of this is less or no will power when it comes to other things - such as eating!

I found it a pretty interesting read, although I'm not sure how much I'm going to buy into it. I found a copy of the artical printed by the New York Times. The artical is called Tighten Your Belt, Strengthen Your Mind By SANDRA AAMODT and SAM WANG.

The Cost of Eating Out

There have been a few PF bloggers that recently wrote about the cost as well as the pros and cons of eating out or bringing your lunch to work everyday. I am a huge proponent of brining your lunch to work. I probably buy my lunch once or twice a month. I think it's important not to beat yourself up over it, but is is important to know where your monies going.

There are two main reasons I bring my lunch to work:
1. It tastes better
2. It's cheaper

For example:

If I grabbed coffee and a breakfast sandwhich at TH's everymorning that would run me about $3/day. If I also got lunch each day it would average about $10/day. If there are twenty work days in a month = it will cost (at a minimum) $260/month to eat out.

My entire grocery budget is $200/month - so this doesn't work for me. That $200/month includes breakfast, lunch & dinner: Monday-Sunday. That is plenty enough money (for me) to eat in a month).

That said, I do budget $100/month for restaurants. If I choose to eat out a few times that fine, or if I want to go out for a fancy dinner, that's planned for too.

That's the point - it's planning. If you want to spend $260/month (or more) on eating your lunch out - do it. But plan for it! Know how much money you are spending and know that something else will likely suffer because of it.

36 Free (or almost free) Things To Do..

1. Check out the community calendar
2. Visit a local library
3. Is it summer? Go to a park
4. Take your pet for a walk
5. Play board games
6. Bake! Don’t know how? – learn!
7. Learn how to juggle
8. Meet your neighbours
9. Have a potluck – you have to eat anywas, might as well do it with some friends, perhaps you could have a potluck while meeting your neighbours!
10. Go for a test drive
11. Do some spring cleaning
12. Teach yourself how to knit. This can be free if you can borrow the tools from a grandparent or great aunt
13. Take some digital pics and upload them on whatever social media platform you use – very free as long as you already have a camera
14. Start a blog
15. Teach yourself something new
16. Pack your lunches for the week and freeze them
17. Seduce your partner
18. Exercise
19. Cut your own hair
20. Re-arrange a room
21. Read a book
22. Build a giant fort
23. Make a phone call
24. Have a yard sale
25. Have a nap
26. Do a puzzle – have an old newspaper, i bet it has a crossword in there
27. Volunteer somewhere
28. Do some yard work
29. Play cards, try real cards not just on your computer
30. Go swimming
31. Blow bubbles
32. Start a journal
33. Play some old video games or computer games
34. Go on a bike ride
35. Go on a hike
36. Write your own list of free or near free things to do and post it as a reply to this blog