Costco Shop

This past weekend we did a Costco run to stock up on a few essentials (and some non-essentials).  We have to be careful shopping at Costco.  It is easy to assume everything costs less - many things do but not everything.  It's also key to not spend on something that costs less if you won't use it before it expires.   I've gone through the receipt line by line to come up with the summary above.

Gas - This was the cost of fueling the vehicle after driving to Costco.

Costco - After going through all the categories this is the amount that was leftover.  It represents the taxes on all the items we purchased.

Kids Stuff - The kids needed bathing suits for this coming summer season. Little Man also needed socks and undies.  I also picked up for him a new book and a snorkel/flippers set for $25.   Little Miss needed diapers and wipes ($36 for the diapers and $23 for the wipes) - so this is included here too.  I also picked up a pack of three water bottles.

Groceries - These are some bulk items that are simply less expensive at Costco.  It includes frozen fruit, lunch snacks (yogurt, cheese strings), cheese, dumplings, baby cookies, coffee, syrup, trail mix, coffee, sugar, salsa, granola bars, icing sugar, dishwasher detergent etc.

Home Maintenance - Metal water bottles for Jordan and triple-A batteries.

Vehicle Maintenance - This is windshield wipers for both vehicles and a case of windshield washer fluid.

Pets - Three bags of dog food.

Medical - This is some back & muscle pills.

Clothes/Shoes/Hair - This includes jeans and t-shirts for Jordan.  He just went back to work and needed a few things.

Gifts - I printed some pictures and some are for our home, and some to give away to grandparents.

Alcohol - Picked up a bottle of whisky for Jordan and a few bottles of wine for the cellar.

phew.  That's it.

That's it she says.  It's a lot and it's what keeps the wheels moving.

Eating In

We've been working hard at meal planning - in part to help just manage the after-work-daycare rush and in part to go out to eat less often.

Don't get me wrong, we really enjoy eating out, however; we want to be more intentional about it.  We want to go out when we're planning to do it - as a social thing not as an 'oh crap, did you take something out for dinner, no I didn't, we need to feed the kids' event.

Last week we planned to have a pizza night.  Recently we've been doing this with store-bought pizza shells.  This time, however; I found a great recipe online - quick and easy and made the dough myself.

It was amazing!  So good!  We did one pepperoni and one cheese.

Paint Paint Paint

We recently 'finished' a basement renovation - finished in that we paid the last bill and our contractor has wrapped up.  Now, that contractor just happened to be my Uncle - and he's infamous for giving homework when he's working for family.

The kids did amazing during their first week of Daycare last week - and so this week Jordan's expecting to have four days uninterrupted.  He has a stack of closet doors to paint and re-install, walls to patch and paint (after moving all our furniture downstairs the walls got pretty beat-up).  I'm so excited for all of these small jobs to be finished - and I know he's excited for me to stop talking about all the tasks left on the to-do list.

Art?

We made this.

It's two feet by three feet - and we bought two of these canvas for about $40 last month.  This is the first one that we painted as a family.  We're going to hang this and the second above our living room couch.

Inexpensive art, and a celebration of our family doing something fun together.

More Bread!

I mentioned earlier in the week, that kiddo and I have stopped grocery shopping just to get out of the house.  One of the things we're doing to do something different, spend less, and save more, is baking bread.  I posted some of the cost savings a while back - but here's a few photos of our latest baking adventures.

Cloth Diaper Covers...Bam!

When I was pregnant, and we had decided we were going to cloth diaper instead of using disposables, my mom picked up the material and tools we needed so we could make some of our own covers (we use inserts/covers instead of the all in one systems).  Well, we also bought some ones that were already made, and then just never quite got around to sewing our own.

We're hanging all of our things to dry, and given that we can't dry outside right now, it sometimes takes a day or longer which means running out of covers!  So, we decided to get sewing.  We have two and a half so far, and enough material for a few more. 

The first one was pretty tricky, but getting into the third, mom and I found a bit of a rhythm.  Check out the first one on our model below!

Mmmm Homemade Bread

 Guys!  I love bread, I love not spending money, making my own bread is pretty great as it serves both.  The trick is, it takes patience to do it well.  My mom ran through everything with me, and adjusted the recipe to fit my KitchenAid when we made buns for Christmas.  Now that we've run out, I was inspired to keep going with this baking business.  Her method, requires we let the bread rise three times!  So start to finish, this takes 3-4 hours or so.

I love bunching down the dough!

Too much fun.

I couldn't find my third bread pan, I think Little Man might have put it in another cupboard somewhere.  So, we wound up with two loaves and six beautiful buns!

They aren't quite as smooth as my moms, but I'm super happy with how it turned out.

It's simple really - water, sugar and yeast to start.  A little butter or margarine, skim milk powder, then some brown flower and some white flower - more of the latter than the former.

Soup Stock

 

There is nothing like a cold winter day to have me wanting for soup!  I haven't done it on my own before, but I've had my mom's home made soup a lot and watched her make it too.  So today (well, I started yesterday), I'm making my own!

Starting with the stock, I pulled out a bag and a half of veggie scraps that I have kept in the freezer (just adding to it when we have carrots, or bits of onion, even a few potato peels), next I tossed in a few steak bones that were also in the freezer.  I had room in the pot, so tossed in a bit more celery and a limp carrot from my fridge that hadn't quite made it to the freezer yet.

I didn't have enough bones, so my mom gave me a few that she had picked up at the farmers market.  They were raw, chopped up small, from a local beef breeder/butcher.  Those bones I roasted for an hour, and then tossed in the pot too.

I topped it up with water ~ about 12 cups fit in my pot, and turned it on to low.  I added salt and pepper to taste, and a bit of garlic.  I tasted throughout the day and added a bit more salt a few times because I was pretty conservative with that.

It bubbled away for about 8 hours yesterday, and then we just stuck it in the attached garage overnight and I popped it back on the stove for a few more hours this morning.  Later today, I'll strain off the veggies and make the soup!

My mom lets the stock chill so she can scrape off the fat on the top, then, using the big pot, melt the fat, and add onions/celery until they are fragrant.  Then she adds the stock, any other veggies she wants, plus a tender cut of beef like Sirloin.

Yum, yum!

Kitchen Cabinet (Doors)

One of the ways that we are saving money in our renovations is tackling painting all of our kitchen cabinet doors.  We did look at buying stock cabinets from IKEA and a few other big box stores, but we found the cost difference between that and a custom fit solution to be pretty negligible - within about $500.  We got several quotes and decided to go with a local cabinet maker who agreed to cut our doors out of MDF and we would paint them.

I did a lot of research on paint, MDF, and cabinet doors.  They are a high use, often get banged up location so it's important that the paint is made of tough stuff.  MDF is also super absorbent so it's important to use an excellent primer.  I looked at General Paint and Benjamin Moore among other products and decided on the Benjamin Moore Advance line. This product is made specifically for cabinets - it goes on smoothly, is easy to clean up and still has low VOCs.  I didn't track my time well (or my moms, or Jordans) on this project - but it took us a couple of weeks or so, in the evenings and mornings.  The one drawback about this paint is that it has about a 16 hour dry time - we did two coats of primer and two coats of paint on both the fronts and backs - so many, many hours.

I will say that if you tackle something like this yourself BE CAREFUL OF DRIPS.

Sanding takes the most amount of time, and you're most likely to get them when you do the edges and the paint drips and settles on the underside.  After a bit of trial and error we settled on painting the fronts/sides at the same time so any drips would be on the back of the doors, instead of the fronts.

This is my mom sanding like a boss.

What Did it Cost?

Including sanding, primer, paint and brushes.  Painting cost us $303.  We saved around $1,000 by doing this ourselves, and saved more than that by going with MDF over a solid wood door.

March Eating Out Ban

Guys!

Our eating out ban was so super successful!  We spend nothing, notta, zero, ziltch in restaurants in March!  We have $800 left over in the day to day right now, and are feeling so good about how this went.  So good in fact, that we have decided that while we won't say no if a friend or family member invites us out, we're going to continue on the ban if it's just the two of us.

Woohoo!

Eating Out Update

I haven't been writing every recipe we've tried, but I wanted to share that we have been sticking true to our eating out ban.  Well, we haven't paid for eating out once this month, but my mom did pick up the tab when we were on a quick out of town trip soon I don't count that.

The picture above is from the night when my husband was craving pizza.  He made these delicious single serve pizza's using naan bread and it went over so well, that he did it again.  We also had an Opa! Greek night when he whipped up homemade tzatziki, chicken kabobs and rice - we used the leftover nana bread instead of pita and had a great night!

Our day to day spending budget has been positive, rolling over each week and we haven't picked up the credit card once.  This is feeling so, so good! 

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.

Moving Costs!

Jordan and I finally finished moving everything into storage last week.  Instead of renting a moving truck from u-haul, which I estimated would have cost us around $1,500 including gas, three days rental and kilometres - we made the drive to Alberta back to BC 5 times!  We used my mom's 10 foot utility trailer and her pickup truck and then unloaded into the storage container we bought a couple of months ago.

We spent about $300 more on gas than normal, and spent a few hundred dollars on eating out because of all of the trips - but I estimate we saved at least $1,000 by doing it this way.  We were also able to maximize our trips by visiting my great aunt while we were there, and doing some Costco shopping and stocking up on things like TP, paper towel and other Costco type things.

All-in-all, I'm pretty pleased how it worked out.  It certainly wasn't easy trying to get it all done with Little Man in tow, but a couple of friends and my mom helped out in a variety of ways.

Breakfast Egg Biscuits

This is picture of my latest money saving endevaour.  It's my take on a McDonalds Egg McMuffin or a Tim Horton's breakfast sandwich - two of Jordan's favourite morning treats.  As part of our efforts to have a zero spend month on eating out, I've been trying to find ways to replace some of our favourite eat out foods while making them healthier at the same time.  I started by frying up some bacon after I had cut it into pieces.  

I set that aside to rest on paper towel and then fried mushrooms, green onions, and green pepper in about 1/4 of the leftover bacon grease.  Next I beat 8 eggs together and then stirred in the veggies in a large measuring cup so it would be easy to pour.  The mixture filled 12 muffin tins about 3/4 or so full.  I topped with bacon pieces and cheese and then baked in the oven at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes.

Next up was my families cheese biscuit recipe - I left out the cheese though, because we already had some in the eggs.  There, see, healthier lol.

On groceries for the egg muffins I spent just over $12.  I did some rough math, and tried to account just for the amount that I used, not the amount that was left over in the fridge for the nachos we had for dinner.  The biscuits are just flour, salt, baking powder, margarine, and milk - all things that we already had in the pantry so a bit difficult to price out.

At Mcdonalds, they are about $3.89, and don't have near the veggies, cheese, and meat that I included in them.  So!  I'd say a couple of hours well worth it!  Both me, my mom and Jordan all thought they were tasty!  

Have you ever tried to recreate a meal from a restaurant or fast food place that tasted better and cost less?

Banana Muffins

To help us stay on track of not eating out this month, I'm going to be trying to come up with healthy and tasty snacks for breakfasts and lunches.

We honestly (I know, it's hard to believe), very often have leftovers for lunch so breakfast is the big challenge outside of cereal every day, but there are days when there weren't enough leftovers for all three of us - so having more snacks will be good.  I also want to do this without going crazy in the grocery store so want to try to use things that we have in the freezer and the pantry as much as possible.

First up is homemade banana bread.

We had 7 frozen bananas which turned into four dozen muffins! 

Yes, that's my bite mark out of one of them.

Child Care Benefit

Back in June I wrote about money I would be eligible for while on Maternity Leave, other than EI.  The Universal Child Care Benefit (UCCB) was one of them, and the BC Family benefit was the other.  At the time I had estimated I would be eligible for $125/month.  Since then, we've had a government change in BC and the UCCB benefit has increased to $160/month - wahoo!  So I'm receiving this, as well as $26.28 for the BC Family Benefit.

For the time being, we'e decided to deposit the money into Little Man's bank account, it's the same account that $100 will be withdrawn for his RESP.  The rest will stay in his very own savings account (Tangerine Children's Saving Account).  The hope is that the money will be there for him both for school, and for his first 'big thing' that he might want when he's older.  A pet, a car...that sort of thing. We'll also be depositing any Christmas or Birthday financial gifts he gets into his bank account, unless folks ask us specifically to put it towards his school - then it will go in his RESP.

It's important to us that we teach Little Man saving, planned spending, and sharing.  We don't have a full plan yet, but this is definitely the beginning of it.

RESPs

For my non Canadian readers, RESP stands for Registered Education Savings Plan.  It's a government sponsored plan where they will contribute 20% of what you contribute up to a maximum of $500/year for your kids education fund.  You can set these up as family or individual plans, though I think family makes more sense because then if one child doesn't go to school, another can use the money.  If you're kids never go to school you can pull the principal plus interest out, but lose the government grants.

So, I don't know if you are aware of another guaranteed way to get a 20% return on your savings for your children's education - but there's really nothing that beats the RESP in Canada.

It was really important to my mom that we get started right away, and don't let this be one of those things that you 'get to one of these days'.  So in December, I met with a Sunlife Advisor and set up a family RESP with Little Man as the beneficiary.  Due to a very generous financial gift, we were able to get the matching grant for 2015 - so we already have $3,000 for his education and he's not enough three months old yet.

We're going to continue to contribute $100/month as a base, and then hope to get the maximum each year when we can afford it.

Cloth Diapers

Lots, and lots of people have written on the pros and cons of cloth diapering.  Anyone who's looked into cloth versus disposables knows that cloth - over the long term - is far more cost effective than the alternative.  So for that reason, and for Jordan - because of the environmental impacts of disposables, we bit the bullet and jumped on the cloth wagon.

Isn't his little butt cute!!

I mean, really, that should be reason enough to cloth diaper.  The cute factors.

We got started by purchasing some covers, and pre-fold diapers, which are working really well for us.  We picked up a locking garbage can and liners that will keep the dogs all out.

My mom bought some material, a pattern, snaps etc. so that we can make some more covers ourselves.  We've started working on that, and will post some pictures once we have them made.

Upfront, we've spent about $750 plus maybe $100 or so on material etc.  I think, honestly, we could have spent a bit less but I also don't feel like we over spent by a great deal.  Little Man was crying and then nursing when we were shopping so Jordan and my mom picked out most of our stash and I love what they chose for us!

Does anyone else out there cloth diaper?

We're still doing disposables for overnights, and if we're going to town for more than an hour - but overall it's working out really well!

Satellite Radio

I've had Sirius satellite radio for a longggg time.

My dad actually first got a family plan, and both my brother and I, himself and my mom all radios for Christmas one year when I was still in college.  It was one of my favorite gifts as I spent so many weekends driving back and forth between Alberta and BC.

I didn't actually realize until several years later that there was an annual subscription cost for them!?  I felt so silly realizing that it was a Christmas gift that just kept on giving.

Well, once Jordan and I bought our own vehicles with built in radios, we wound up signing up ourselves, and started paying our own way.

Each year the radios have come up for renewal, I've been able to negotiate better prices than the standard renewal...but this year, well this year maybe I'm just cheap?  or no longer see the value?

I got an email that said my annual renewal would be $175.89 plus fees and taxes.  I called in to find out how much the fees and taxes were, and to confirm that this was for both radios.  I was assuming that the $176 was for both...but holy hannah was I wrong!

After fees & taxes, the first radio was going to be $213 and the second $154 - for a grand total of $367!!  Wowza!  So I told them that I was going to have to cancel, because I thought $176 was too much for one radio.  I was passed on to customer retention and went through the same conversation...the best price they could offer me was $105 inclusive of fees/taxes for each radio - so still $210.  I told them again, that I thought $176 was too much, so $210 was still not possible.

Well, that was apparently as low as they could go, because about five minutes later, I had cancelled both subscriptions.

If we call in within six months we can re-activate either radio,and they will waive the $30 re-activation fee...

So, we'll see if we realllllly miss the radios in the next few months - but my bet is that we'll be too busy with baby to notice.

Bottling Day!

 Last night was bottling day for my Reisling I bought from Costco a month or so ago.

Just wanted to share!