Freebies and First Ever Used Shoe Deal

Yesterday, I crossed a line never ventured. Yes, before yesterday I was a used shoe virgin. My thought? Wash it thoroughly and all memories of the prior owner will be washed away. But shoes? If you have ever gone bowling and rented shoes or rented skates at your local skating arena, you probably would be ok with buying used shoes.

Here is my find: $4.99 Bianca Nygard Shoes - likely original price was $60-$100 CAD. One rockin pair of fall shoes (thoroughly disinfected - part of my problem with buying used shoes in the past has been the heebeejeebee factor). Comfortable, all leather and fashionable. Appear to have only been worn once or twice.

Also some freebies this week so far:

Deals this Week and Tweaking my Future Grocery Budget

Deals this week:

Blouse from Goodwill $5.99

Freebies this week: P&G Brandsampler
Olay facial cleansing cloth
Febreze Noticeable coupon for free unit
Two samples Crest Whitestrips
Two samples Cascade Actionpacks

We are starting to purge/downsize slowly. I will feel better about the process if I document it as will feel like I am getting something accomplished. In 10 minutes these items were gathered to be taken to Goodwill on Monday(yes, they take comforters and blankets, I checked):

Tomatoes from the lone tomato plant turning red on the windowsill (the one on the right is being eaten this evening). Aren't they beautiful? There are at least six more in the vine - it is now a houseplant.

Two years ago before I discovered couponing and stockpiling (with two adults and four kids staying with us 8 days per month) we paid on average $1000 to $1100 per month for groceries. That included all non-food items like toothpaste, toilet paper and cleaners. Today with two adults and two kids (older boys just come to visit now as they are young adults) 8 days per month we have a set grocery budget of $450 per month. We rarely eat out (about twice per month), are meat eaters and enjoy cooking. We don't include our eating out tally in the food budget as I consider that more under the entertainment category. Keep in mind if you are reading this blog outside Canada that grocery and food prices are 1.5 times what they are in the USA and if we lived in the USA with couponing (better rules and availability) I could probably pay $200 per month total. The Canadian budget is kept down by buying and stocking up on loss leaders every week and using coupons only for items that we would normally use.

I was trying to do some research to find out if our monthly average grocery budget was lower or higher than the average family. The best research too founds was figures from December 2009 which show what the weekly grocery budget is for the average two and four person family in the U.S.A(based on age brackets as well) with information taken from the US Government Census.

Under the low cost plan (four plans - thrifty, low cost, moderate, and liberal)
Two adults between the ages of 19 and 50 have an average weekly grocery cost of $101.70 which I prefer to calculate out to monthly:

Two Adults (age 42 & 49) $440.70
Male Child age 15 - 8 days per month $72.27
Female child age 14 - 8 days per month $49.11

On the low cost plan our currently monthly budget should be $562.08.

We are already lower. Based on our current plan of quitting our jobs and not working for a period of time I have decided that starting October 1 we will lower our budget to the thrifty plan:

Two Adults (age 42 & 49) $345.80
Male Child age 15 - 8 days per month $41.13
Female child age 14 - 8 days per month $39.64

Thrifty Plan Total Monthly Budget $426.57 (currently at $450 per month)

My Two Cents on Debt - Get off the "new" Merri-go-round

If you are reading this blog I am likely preaching to the converted but I am going to get on my soap box.
There are only two kinds of debt that are acceptable:
1. Debt for a mortgage
2. Debt for an education

Yes, I believe in credit cards but only if they are paid off 100% each month. I never pay a cent in interest and charge at least $10,000 per year to my credit card. I pay an annual fee for an airmiles mastercard and as we travel frequently this is a very cheap way to support our travel habit.

If I didn't travel I would seek out a zero fee or low fee credit card for additional benefits (ie Presidents Choice credit card = free groceries).

So many reports in the news these day of people spending more than they earn and how they feel with their personal debt level.

Yes, as a nineteen year old with my first credit card (Sears was the only company willing to give me credit - $500 spending limit) I maxed it out buying an overpriced vacuum and lamp which at the time I thought were required necessities for day to day living. Had I known better I would have purchased those items used - but learning about money takes time. It took me two years to pay that off and I have never met my credit limit since.

Flash forward 23 years and I almost never buy new (except electronics) as buying used just makes so much more sense. I am continually shocked to see designer clothes at my local goodwill. Who can't afford five bucks for the most awesome blouse ever? And guess what? No need to charge it to my credit card (and it comes pre-washed so I can see how it will wear). My latest search is for luggage as the $15 Samsonite luggage scored this Spring on Vancouver island was just smashed so that the zipper won't work on our last trip.

If you are on the credit card hamster wheel it is time to get off. The easiest way is to start purchasing used so you can afford all purchases and put away that credit card until you can pay the balance off each month. Really, after you wash clothing once, drive that car once, scratch that brand new table once - what difference does new versus used make?

Some of this Weeks Deals

This week a few deals and freebies:

Save on Foods:
2 Free Javex Bleach 99 cents each - $1 coupon x 2 = .08 cents including tax for both

Shoppers Drug Mart:
Dove Body Wash $1.27 each - $1 coupon x 2 = .67 cents including tax for both
Advil Nightime $4.99 each - $4 coupon x 2 = 2.48 including tax for both plus 3500 SDM points

Walmart
Irish Spring Bar Soap (6 bars) .97 - $1 coupon x 2 = .04 cents including tax for both

I am limiting all bargains to what I think we can use by Spring. There is no use getting items if we have to pay to ship them. Canadian Thanksgiving is just around the corner and the stores started putting young Turkey on for .99 cents per pound this weekend. I purchased one and will have to find out how many bodies I am feeding before buying another.

This week I thought I had another virus (darn windows based products) but fortunately my antivirus managed to remove the trojan just as I was speaking to the McAfee people. For $89 USD they will get the virus off your computer without deleting all your programs and saved files. If they can't fix it they refund your money. In this case just after I paid and the technician took over my computer we had a screen flash showing the virus had been removed therefore my money was refunded.

I really hate people who spend time thinking up ways to corrupt others computers. Hubby just got an ipad for work, which is extremely user friendly. Did you know apple products rarely get viruses? There really is no buying programs to protect them, the makers of apple have made it so that hackers and viruses are unable to penetrate them. When my HP laptop croaks I will definitely get an apple product as I am tired of spending $90 per year for antivirus programs and another $90 when the viruses get around them to fix my computer.

A surefire sign of winter on its way - the Canadian geese are gathering on the ponds in our back yard in preparation for their long flights South for the winter.

The first frost also brought unusual mist at 6 am.

Back from our Future Home on Vancouver Island

Wow, just back from four days of complete sunshine, ocean fresh air and local produce. We had an excellent time doing our research (aka holiday) for our future home. We have made a final decision, instead of settling down in Parksville we are moving slightly further north to the Courtenay Comox Valley. This area has its own small but very efficient airport(which hubby will use if he chooses to consult across Canada and the kids can fly to see us) and it is the fourth fastest growing area in North America. The twin cities boast a population of 60,000 and services like Costco, Canadian Tire, Superstore, Safeway, and many lovely local shopping stores as well.

Why did we change our mind?

We are not yet seniors. We would like a slightly younger population while at the same time experiencing slightly lower real estate prices. We connected with a realtor and even found the exact neighborhood we want to live in. 10 minute drive to local free beaches, scallops, oysters and salmon all local and within 1/2 hour. Farms abound, I could even try out a 100 mile local diet and survive happily here. We grazed on local peas (still producing even this late), apricots and apples. This area is certainly great for novice gardeners like me. IF YOU PLANT IT IT WILL GROW HERE.

Down the road if we feel like working employment is much better in this area due to non-dependance on one industry. There is a large military base here, forestry, farming and aquaculture harvesting plus tourism thrown into the mix. Winters are similar to the rest of Vancouver Island with 10 to 15 inches of snow per winter (usually one or two dumps followed by rain which washes it away), large amounts of rain in November, December and January and moderate beautiful Spring, Summer and Fall.

Although we don't live on a budget now (other than my grocery limitation) we made up a "tight budget" for our first year of unemployment a "loose budget" for when we obtain part-time work doing whatever it is we want to do. I am starting to get excited now.

I could not believe the bucketfulls of free blackberries everywhere we looked even saw free crabapples growing wild on one beach. I certainly will be taking advantage of nature's free food out there.

If everything goes by the plan we will be living on the island by summer 2012.
Finally, we are realizing the dream of living in our little slice of paradise.

August Coupon Savings and Grocery Budget Results

Grocery Budget for August 2011 $450.00 minus overage from July of $52.41 = $397.59

Actual: $443.61. I shaved a small amount off July's overage(was over $52.41 that month) but $46.03 is now being deducted from Septembers food budget.

This idea of carryforward your overage or underage is a great way to stay on budget. Not only are you accountable for the month but you are also accountable for year to date. It is one of the tools that has kept me on track - that plus writing every food purchase down with a budget in mind.

Coupons used $28.52 this month (year to date $335.19)
Others use coupons more freely buying products they don't need or stockpiling. I agree with the concept of stockpiling but am not currently adding to mine due to looming move. As well we are eating healthier whole foods which means it is difficult to get coupons on onions, oranges and meat. Instead I scour the fliers looking for loss leaders - just yesterday picked up a package of four chicken legs back attached for .99/lb ($2.34 for the package). This is a special at my grocery store only for the weekend. Unfortunately I got the last package. Today I will go back as the store is three blocks from my house to see if I can stock up. Everyone knows fresh food costs way more than crappy high caloric fast food. Our biggest splurges were cherries from the Okanagan. Even at $1.78/lb we ate at least $30 worth this month.

I haven't been shopping for much other than food items. Goodwill and garage sales have been avoided with the thought that we are moving in a few months and I really have enough clothes and loads of books to read.
Two of my last book purchases were some that I have been waiting to find:

The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

Now I just have to find the third and final book in the trilogy.
These were found at Goodwill for $2.49 each. Each retailed for $13.50 .

In July I only purchased one shirt at Goodwill for $5.99 and zero for the month of August for clothes. Yesterday (on September budget) I finally broke down and bought a new pair of shoes to wear to work as had completely worn out my others.

Retail $54.99 on sale $17.99 and used my 10% Alberta Motor Association card to get an additional 10% off at Payless. Final price including tax $16.07. They are even leather which was unexpected at that price.

Year to date clothing spent (includes socks/underwear/nylons/clothes/shoes) $304
The only item I regret purchasing is the new red trench coat that I had splurged on and paid $73.13 in the Spring. I still like the jacket but have had to take every button off and sew them on properly, which is a drag as they kept coming loose. The major benefit of purchasing used clothing is that the quality of the item is evident-they never shrink, never run and if they wear too easily you will see that before you buy.


We fly out tommorrow for four days to Vancouver Island to start the house hunt in the Parksville-Qualicum Beach area which is also called Oceanside. I am very excited - we don't really intend to buy this trip unless something that is completely awesome and underpriced grabs us. It is a fact finding mission to scope out where the grocery stores are, get the feel of the town and neighborhoods. Flights - free except taxes on airmiles. Accommodation-a private Inn on the ocean with kitchenette so we can save on eating out, $30 was negotiated off the nightly rate as we are booking four nights and total cost is half the price of all of the local hotels and condos (I compared 15). Yes, full on ocean view with private balcony and access to barbeques. That is why I call this blog living rich on the cheap. You really can have everything if you look around for it.

We are saving as much of our paychecks as possible right now for our first year of living without jobs. It does feel like that day is approaching when we can "take our jobs and shove them" and only work if we want to or feel like it at something that interests us. FREEDOM IS AROUND THE BEND!