Top Ways I Saved Money in 2012 & December Budget Results

1. Prevented Food Waste creating ways to use leftovers within a day or freeze them for use later. There has been a conscious effort to reduce food waste here - and it definitely improved in 2012.

2. Used only vinegar as a rinse aid in the dishwasher. I have been doing this for six months now and will never go back to store bought rinse aid. Better for the environment too!

3. Bought in bulk - two weeks ago I bought 8 kg of white rice for $10. Way cheaper than buying small individual bags and now I just have to find a better storage solution for bulk buying.

4. Cherry picked the loss leaders every week from the flyers, stockpiling those items and meal planning around only what was on sale.

5. Maximizing use of frequent flyer and air mile programs. We had nine free flights between Alberta and BC this year - only paying taxes.

6. Continuing to buy used. Clothing, furniture, vehicles. Anything that is required try to find used first. This strategy pays off year after year with someone else paying for all the depreciation. It helps that I love garage saling and thrifting.

7. I finally color my own hair and have found much cheaper options for haircuts. This was the largest breakthrough and my hair care budget in 2013 will be much lower than 2012 as a result.

8. Continued with my paid out phone contract on a month to month basis when it expired in September at a lower rate. I have no need to upgrade my cell phone currently, although in 2013 I may take the plunge and get a smartphone.

9. Cooking from scratch. I now can make homemade pizza crust and pie crust. Hubby has suggested that my cooking has gotten better this year (his has too). In 2013 I would like to dust off that bread-making machine or make dough from scratch. In the past I didn't like the hole the bread-maker makes in the middle of the loaf (does your breadmaker do that?) but there may be a way around that - make the dough in the machine and transfer to oven for baking perhaps.

10. Found free entertainment options and limited eating out to once per month. Eating out is the number one budget buster and I mean anything from grabbing a coffee and doughnut to a lavish dinner. Think of all the groceries you could buy instead! I try and keep our diet varied and interesting otherwise hubby is tempted into eating out more. We occupied ourselves at the beach a lot this past summer and that certainly qualifies as free entertainment. This year hiking and biking is on the agenda.

11. Moved ourselves versus hiring a mover and purged a huge amount before the move. This saved us at least $7000 - it was tough but totally worth it. Only move items that are difficult to replace or mean something to you. Buy furniture when you get there. We filled one cube van and two cars worth - that was all that was moved. We downsized from over 3600 sq ft to 1700 sq foot and love our new home. Now just to get rid of the gigantic home back in Alberta! It goes back on the market in March.


The No More Christmas Cr**p Campaign

If you missed the original post see here. Well, other than the few vintage ornaments I found in November there was one other Christmas Crap purchase this year. One that went over the allotted budget! Hubby insisted we get two more light strands for the exterior of our home as due to the style of our new home we didn't have enough lights. I searched and searched the thrift stores but could find only the older style energy busting lights. After being called Scrooge I caved and we spent $24 at Canadian Tire on LED lights. It was not worth an argument and they look pretty nice. Hopefully they will last forever and we don't need to buy anything new at all next year. I collect vintage glass ornaments so will keep looking at garage sales and thrift stores to find them at the absolute lowest prices.

December's Grocery Budget $425

If you are a new follower the grocery budget includes all over counter medications, grooming and cleaning products.

Actual $667.31. Way Over!
Coupons used $12.65

$200 of this amount was spent on Christmas food/snacks in Alberta, much of it left behind for my stepson to finish. I continued to stock up on items and my stockpile keeps growing. Hopefully 2013 will be easier on the grocery budget as it took a bruising this year due to depleting the stockpile before the move and then starting over once we got here.

Grocery overage for 2012 = $664.57 less money transferred in from hair ($104.01) and clothing ($90.01)budgets throughout the year = $471.55 OVERALL BUDGET OVERAGE. A few months ago the grocery budget increased from $400 per month to $425 so there it shall stay in 2012. Grocery prices have increased and I had to be realistic with the budget since we rarely eat out now.


Annual Clothing Budget $200
I bought an Eddie Bauer Spring shirt for $3 at the Thrift Store this month.
Total Spent on Clothing, shoes and accessories this year was $109.99.
Throughout the year $90.01 of clothing budget was transferred out to reduce the grocery budget overage.

Of the $109.99:
used:
7 shirts
3 pants (2 jeans, 1 capri)
2 belts
boots
new:
bra, socks, nylons

In 2013 the clothing budget will remain at $200 as I need to do an undergarment shop and only purchase those new so need extra funds for that. As well, I will be looking for a good rain jacket. So far I have not found one at the thrift stores so again, may have to purchase it new. We intend on travelling to Washington for a cross border weekend away/business supplies shop so probably will spend some money on clothing there as prices are 40% to 60% cheaper than in Canada.



Annual Hair Budget $400
I had a cut this month for $20.12 which included a $5 tip. Yes, you can get a good haircut for cheap. My hair looks little different than when I used to spend $140 for a cut and color.

Actual spent in 2012 $295.99. $104.01 was transferred out to Grocery Budget overage. The Annual Hair Budget in 2013 is being reduced to $250.

I look forward to a new 2013 budget year with a clean slate! There will be no transferring of budgets to other categories in and I shall stay ON TARGET!!

August Budget Roundup & Urban Foraging

Hubby's shot from his iphone today on our beach walk

August's Grocery Budget $400
Year to date overage prior to August $335.66

Actual $380.25 reducing year to date overage to $317.91 less $75 from clothes budget (see below) to $242.91 overage year to date.
If you are a new follower my grocery budget includes all over counter medications, grooming and cleaning products.

Coupons Used $6.46. Quite low but so much cooking from scratch on items that have no coupons so I am not at all worried about that.

Annual Clothing Budget $200
I bought two pieces of clothing to go with my job - both purchased at Value Village for $25.74
$139.79 To Go
I have done so well this year on a reduced clothing budget by shopping thrift stores. Now I am transferring out $75 of the clothing budget to reduce to grocery overage but still have $64.79 left in the clothing budget for the year.

Annual Hair Budget $400

Spent $8.95 on root lightening kit

$133.25 left to go - and I think I can now stay within this budget - drumroll please

This is not a sponsored post - just wanted to show you what I bought

****Finally I tried lightening my hair with a store bought lightening kit. I was not trying to go full blonde or anything, just lightening up the roots a bit to match the rest of the hair that bleached out from the summer and the left over lightened bits from the last time I got my hair done in the Spring. Hubby says he likes it better than the last several times the hairdresser did it as is more natural looking. Another great thing was that it only took fifteen minutes.


SUCCESS! I am now committed to only getting my hair cut at the hairdressers, not colored. This is a financial barrier that took years of being a GIGANTIC CHICKEN to overcome. Next year my hair budget is going down to $200 as a result which is still a generous budget.

Due to inflation next year I likely will increase my grocery budget by the amount I reduce the hair budget.

I have gotten exactly one tiny tomato off the plants so far, I cut it in half and shared with hubby (picture much bigger than real life). It was tasty and several more are starting to turn. Both tomato plants were supposed to be beefsteak tomato, and one is apparently not.

After a wonderful late summer day at the beach enjoying the sunshine I picked some blackberries to freeze for baking. Hubby joined in the eating when I got them home so tommorrow night he joins in the picking :) Hooray for free groceries!

July Budget Roundup

flowers from front of house beds

July's Grocery Budget $400 less YTD overage of $269.40=$130.60


Actual $466.26. Over by $335.66 YTD

Coupons Used $23.86


No haircuts this month so Annual Hair Budget $400
= $142.20 for rest of 2012



This is the month that I try and reduce the YTD grocery overage which occured all from the last three months due in part to restocking the pantry and the move which can throw budgets out of whack. Now that my pantry is mostly full I am only buying when there is a great deal. We are eating at home a lot more than we used to before the move and that is making an impact in the budget, but I fully intend to stay within the $400 budget this month and chip away a bit at the overage.

I made scones for the first time using this recipe from allrecipes.com and added some cinnamin, cloves, raisins and milk as found it too dry without adding more moisture. They were yummy but a little more like a cookie than scones. Rather than cut them I just dropped them biscuit style.

I also made tzatziki from scratch using some Greek yogurt obtained for free with a coupon - it was amazing and I will definitely make it again. No pictures of that as it was long gone before I thought about taking a picture. The recipe can be found here at Kalyn's Kitchen. I highly recommend using proper Greek yogurt and fresh dill.

Miniature rose in container pot on my patio

There are two small tomatoes growing with several blossoms on the two tomato plants we keep in containers on the back patio. As they were not purchased until the last week of June they are later than normal for this time of year. Luckily September here is normally georgous and sunny so they have some time yet to grow. Each plant was $1.14 on sale so if we get a couple of tomatoes out of it they will have paid for themselves.

What I haven't shown you is the bug eaten petunias in pots at the front of the house. I have been battling with earwigs for two weeks and they were winning but this week I started getting the upper hand. Next year I will research annual plants they don't like eating or hang the pots rather than put them on the ground. They don't seem to like tomatoes, roses, or hot peppers.

Hubby made dinner and brought in some flowers the other night for me. I had the same colour hydrangea in my bouquet when we got married and now enjoy them in the front flowerbed. There were orange lilies that bloomed a few weeks ago and now these pink ones are in bloom. The black cat was a souvenir brought back from Egypt fifteen years ago. The vases are actually pillar candle holders that I bought at a garage sale about five years ago, hubbys idea to put the flowers in them.

Have a great day!

April Budgetary Results

April Food Budget $426.57 (if you are new to this blog the post in which I worked out this formula is here)
minus March overage of $30.30 = April Food Budget 396.27

Actual $396.72 - Success - only over by .45 cents!

It took me three months but I made up January's huge overage and am back on track. This method of carrying forward and reducing current month's food budget by previous months overages certainly keeps the budget on course. It also allows me to blow the budget near end of month if I happen upon a great sale, knowing that it will only reduce next months budget.

Coupons used $9.50 - one of the lowest months yet. I am almost at 95% scratch cooking so only using coupons on mostly non-food items. I found a great sale on pork loin mid month so with a little effort chopping up pork chops - the freezer is well stocked going into May.

Non-food items: all over the counter medications, soaps, razors, garbage bags etc: $72.19 of the budget. I would like to reduce this further and believe I will be able to when I can again stockpile after we move ourselves to Vancouver Island.

Meat: $99.11. I continue to buy family packs and break them down into family size meals. We had the older boys over a few times for dinner - and the younger two kids seem to have hollow legs at ages 14 and 16. I swear we went through six litres of milk the last time my 16 year old stepson was over for the weekend.

Annual Clothing Budget $200
April spent $9.99 on a shirt and a tank top at Goodwill (see previous post)
= $190.01 for rest of 2012

Annual Hair Budget $400
April spent $140.20 on a cut, professional colour (lighten not darken) and professional hair product
= $192.20 for rest of 2012

We also sold our truck $5500 which was reduced from original asking price due to a wheel bearing that was discovered during the purchasers mechanical inspection - he still bought it - thank goodness!

Also unloaded this week: sold 2 kids bikes $40, gave away a tube tv, one box and one bag to goodwill and recycled an old cell phone as part of a women's shelter drive (they recondition them and give them to women in crisis).
Total in stuff sold in downsize: $7910.

I have just over 20 days of work left and will be making the drive to move to Vancouver Island the first week of June to our new pad at Comox. Hubby will come as soon as we can unload the Alberta house - we did a further price reduction this week and are resigned to losing somewhere between $50,000 and $70,000 on this home from our purchase price. Fortunately, the home is paid for in full - and we made over $100,000 in equity on the sale of our last home so everything evens out in the end. Lesson learned is try not to tie so much of your equity up in your home. Our new home in Comox is smaller, less expensive on taxes and utilities and is 54% of the cost of our home we are trying to sell in Alberta. The difference in equity will be put to work making our life financially independent and hopefully a little less stressful.

Saturday was the 9th Anniversary of the weekend I met Hubby(married 6.5 years) - we celebrated by using a giftcard that we had received at Christmas and went to the Keg for a wonderful dinner of Steak and Seafood. It was one of the few good meals out we have had in the past year - excellent service and food. Afterwards we went for a walk around the pond and spotted:

Muskrats(look like mini-beavers) and Grebes (similar a duck)

It is baby making season on the pond so stay tuned for photos of tiny furry and feathered creatures as all seem to be pairing up!

February Financials

We sold our last two items today that were listed on Kijiji for $60 (pictured above one of the items-abdominal excersizer)giving a grand total of $1535 household items sold. Ironically we had planned to relist these items this weekend (originally listed on February 10th) and list a bunch more - we will still do that but it is surprising weeks after your original listing people still call you up.

Now for grocery results for March:

Budget $426.59 - January overage of .29 = $428.28
Actual $502.80 - Way over by $74.60 which will come off March Budget.

Of the $502.80 Spent:
Coupons used $11.25
Nonfood items $74.12
Meat $139.67

I spent a lot more on meat this month. I also miscalculated as now that hubby is self employed he is home more and we are eating out far less due to tightened budget. I may have to increase our food budget a bit to account for this as soon I will be home more as well. I will give it another month to see.

I started keeping track of non-food items, most of this being over the counter pain medication for my fibro-mialgia. I refuse to go on prescriptions as tried several and they only screwed up my blood pressure and made me gain weight. So far this is one of my most pain free winters to date and the self-medication seems to be working. I only take medication as needed and seem to be healthier for it.

Hair Budget for year is $400

Haircut in February - used $52 of budget = $348 to go.
I am going to push the time between dyes to stretch my budget. We dyed my hair a slightly darker shade of blond this time so roots take much longer to show, and later when I move I may still try home dye but for now will stick with my faithful hairdresser. If I go over on the hair budget the clothing budget may be to make it up as I seem to be doing better in that area.


Clothing Budget for $200

Spent so far ZERO!!!! Yay!!
Apparently it is not that hard to go a few months without spending any money on clothes. I did buy some undergarments for $19.93 (socks and a bra) but used a Gift Certificate that I won last year at Winners so am still counting it as Zero out of pocket.

I am buying more in bulk, family packs of meat, and definitely stocking up on sales even with the move (a month or two's worth).

Funny story heard today: at work discussing the Box O Wine waiting for me in the fridge at home a co-worker told of her Grandpa who used to save the plastic bags from the inside of the boxes of wine, wash them out, fold them up and save them for camping. When someone needed a pillow at the beach he whipped out the wine bag and filled it with water - Wa La - a pillow for suntanning. I love that story. No, I am not saving the bag to do that - it will be recycled. Still, long before mass recycling people were finding ways to re-use items.

Have a thrifty weekend!

January Budgetary Results

Art Courtesy of the Graphics Fairy

Grocery Tally - January Budget: $426.57 (see how I determined this budget and tips to save money on groceries here)minus overage of $74.54 from December = $352.03
Actual $352.32 - over budget by .29 which will come off February Budget. A success with tiny overage due to finding stuffed chicken breasts on sale this evening(6 for 9.99).

Meat purchases of $100.48(included in above totals).

Next month I will keep track of non-food items separately for the first time. It is very interesting analyzing your grocery budget at the end of the month.

Coupons used: $9.88 - very low but it was mostly scratch cooking this month so not many items to use coupons on.

Clothing Annual Budget $200 ($16.67 per month) Zero spent this month. With a much lower budget this year it will be saved for when I need something (versus want something). The closet is full and and I don't anticipate any pricey clothes purchases in my future. When I do, I will try and buy used with exception of undergarments.

Now for my dirty little secret. What do I spend way too much money on? My hair. There. I said it. After an episode of pink hair at age 19 from a colour treatment gone wrong (from student hair stylist school) I have shied away from anything but seasoned hair stylists. No home dye jobs for my roots. This may have to change with our new "work less play more on a budget" lifestyle. In 2011 I budgeted $1000 for hair and hair products (yes, just me, please don't be too judgemental). Actual was $636. I include professional hair styling products in that amount. Anything bought at a regular drugstore is included in the grocery budget. Ridiculous, isn't it?

In 2012 the budget for hair is $400 ($33.33/month) - Zero spent this month although I do have to get a haircut in the next week or two. My average haircut costs $50 and a cut and dye costs $120-$130. This includes one salon hair product that I cannot part with (tried to find cheap replacements and no luck-product is Super Skinny Flat Ironing Serum by Paul Mitchell) due to very thick fine hair. Hairspray is $1.98 Finesse - purchased with coupons.

As someone who is deathly afraid to dye her own hair I have to figure out a way to keep within this budget. Do you dye your own hair? What line of home dye is your favorite? Any suggestions?

Year End Thrift Store Finds and Why I Went Over My Budget for a Leather Bag!

I returned to work after Christmas on Wednesday to huge piles of work and being short-staffed with many off for the holidays. At lunch I simply had to get away from the office. The only place I can go on my short 45 minute lunch is my favorite Goodwill location that is 1/2 a block away. This was one of the best speed shopping thrift trips this year:

Two pair of jeans (one is Gap) $6.99 each - this is what I set out to look for as my current jeans are in poor shape.

One completely awesome brown Italian leather with yellow silk interior Pulicati Hobo Bag $15 - more than I would normally ever spend on a used purse but I recognized immediately the high quality. Would you believe I did not recognize the name? Back at work I quickly googled it and realized this is a high end designer that is generally only available in Europe and the USA. I am not sure there is a retailer in Canada selling these bags so someone must have picked it up in their travels. A used one exactly like this is currently listed on Ebay for $99. And yes, folks, this is not a knock off. This rates as my favorite thrift store find in 2011.

After such fabulous luck on my lunch break I thought I would check out the Salvation Army on the way home from work. Eddie Bauer soft cotton summer shirt - perfect for my new Vancouver Island lifestyle. $4.99

Yes, these year end purchases put me a bit over the year clothing budget but I believe worth the small overage. Here is the breakdown:

Clothing Budget 2011 $400

Actual $406.90

Of $406.90(includes socks/undergarments/clothes/shoes/jackets/purses/jewellery)
$173.07 spent on new items
$233.87 spent on used items

2012 Budget $200/year or half as much as 2011, lower as will be quitting our jobs shortly and taking part of the year off work. No need to maintain a work wardrobe.

I aim to achieve this budget by buying more used items in 2012 and checking out special sales days at the thrift stores. I simply was disappointed with most of the new items I bought(early wear, buttons falling off) whereas am never disappointed in a pair of jeans worn 100 times purchased for $6.99 used = higher satisfaction ratio.

My big breakthrough this year was getting over buying used shoes. They still have to be in almost never worn pristine condition for me to buy them but after buying two pairs of designer leather shoes and a pair of boots all for $17 total I am a convert. Needless to say I am still careful to completely disinfect them once home but after a polish you would never know.

Do you buy used clothing? If so what was your greatest find this year?

Linking up with apronthriftgirl thrift share Monday. Check her out!