Money Saving Baby Steps

So as you may know from reading around here that I am trying to be more frugal.

Basically, we live in a very expensive area - Southern California AKA Shake and Bake - although we are more bake than shake in our particular neck of the woods. The bad news is that we are trying to move to a more expensive area so that my husband will not have to commute 80 miles each way. (Our monthly gas budget is currently too scary to mention.)

So to help, I am taking baby steps to cut budget lines now so when we move it is not a case of desperation! We also have specific savings goals I want to help us reach in any way I can! Mostly I am trusting God to provide, as always, but I am also trying to use wisely what He is blessing us with!

Baby step number 1: Use what we have more thoroughly!

Baby step number 2: Combine the grocery and household goods budget lines under the grocery amount.

This second item is tricky. It is technically two line items on our budget. So rather than divide my focus, I have a new goal.

To shop with savvy and intelligence so that each month I can purchase both our household goods and groceries with the money budgeted for groceries. (Baby step number 3 will be to cut the $ amount).

I started making steps towards this last month, but this is the month where I start keeping serious track.

Here is how I did on this week's shopping:

CVS - Spent about $8 for $40 worth of items, and discovered that ECB's now print out on the same receipt - no more waiting for the next shopping trip to get them! I should do better and CVS going forward now as I think established with the ECB's.

Vons - great sales, and with sales and double coupons I saved 51% on my bill. A first for me! I have been working hard to save more than I spend without buying stuff we don't need for a long time and I finally accomplished it!

Henry's - $16 for milk and produce -- local store with great produce that is also cheaper, and where we can get organic milk.

I ended the week about $2 over budget to my combining goal, but I did a big shop this week because of great sales, also, looking at my pantry, I may just need milk, fruits and veggies next week! (I filled some very big gaps in it this week). Also, it is a monthly budget, I just break it up weekly to help me.

Unfortunately we ran out of something I had to go to Home Depot for, and spent $12.93, but have a $3 rebate. So that stinks, but I now have BBQ pans for the summer, and finally have Windex outdoor to clean our second story windows! Technically I should include this in my budget, but my husband is not sure about that. He is thinking I should cut myself some slack. I am tracking grocery items and household items separately so that can still see each, but really am trying to meet the goal I set for myself.

One thing I am doing to reach Baby Step number 2 goal is to not look through my cookbooks to see what looks good, and then buying all I need to make it. I have a list of recipes I would like to try, and when I make my menu I consult that to see if I have most things in my pantry. If I do, I put it on the list, if not I keep watching for sales. I am basically trying cook and bake from my pantry and freezer and replenishing those with sales and a few other items I need that week. That helps a lot!

Of course I am also clipping coupons, and getting a friend who does not coupon to bless me with hers! (In return I give her daughter all my Bed Bath and Beyond coupons! They just bought a house, so they need them!) Ideally I am buying sale items and combining with coupons (and the Vons near our place is having great sales recently and is doing double coupons).

I also am using the CVS ExtraCare program to earn ExtraBucks, and I think I am at the point now that if I shop carefully I will be spending very little each week there, so that helps a lot too.

Things that make this hard:
Miss Pear is allergic to potatoes, eggs, and severely allergic to nuts.
Heart disease and high cholesterol run in both our families so we are careful in the meat we eat and try to eat a healthy lower fat diet.

But I am certain that we can do this!

It is a lot of work at first, but my husband is pleased with the savings so far, and I really feel like this is something God wants me to do, so that settles it!

Note:
Crystal had a great series on supermarket savings (that she turned into an ebook). The blog series helped me tremendously, and I have it printed out to help me!

Rachel had a post about how to get started with CVS ExtraBucks and that helped me a lot too!