Groceries in March!

$2.87 over budget... So close... so close my friends... but I blame it on SCB getting sick and us needing to buy "sick food" for him at the tail end of the month.  But I'm still happy with what we spent on food, all things considered :)

Dairy

This month we spent just short of $60.00 on dairy, about $10 more than last month and $15 less than January. We bought the same amount of Milk (2 gallons)... we only used half the amount of Greek yogurt as last month because of our travel plans out to Utah and because we "average" about 3 containers a month between smoothies, veggie dip, and using it for cooking. We have also been baking more so more butter was needed. As for Cheese, we did a little stock up towards then end of the month so I think next month will be lighter like last month.

Fruit 

Mmmmmmm... (Sorry, flashbacks to my first Red Mango-- My husband described me eating it like a wolf devours meat....)... but the yellow mango.... ewwwwwwwwww

So we ended up spending just over $30.00 on fruit, which was about $25 less than February and January. Part of this came from not needing to stock up on strawberries like last month and my habit to consume fruit in smoothie form... although I missed actually eating fruit instead of drinking it so when I ate that Mango, it was probably the first piece of fruit I had Chewed in a few weeks. As I type this the second Red Mango is waiting for me on the counter still (a reward for finishing my food blog post for the month).

The only fruit that got tossed was maybe 1 or 2 bananas that got too ripe to do anything with because they were forgotten about or I didn't have enough of them for banana nut bread but felt the banana was too ripe for my smoothie or to really eat.

Grains

We spent a little less than January and February on grains and breads largely because we had most of our bread in the freezer... and because we stocked up on granola bars. SCB really liked the organic ones so we will see those have a permanent home in our pantry... and just 7 ingredients makes me happy.

I'm going to attempt to go back to making my own bread because the Organic Bread at Costco got kind of tacky after freezing and now that I have my own wheat grinder (be-lated christmas present), I'm hoping I can get back into the groove and start to make, slice, and freeze my own bread. We bought some Potato bread as a treat for hubby.

Meats

Not really that much since we were gone a full week, but I've finally hit the point where its time to re-stock the chest freezer with organic ground turkey again... and we are finally out of our stockpile of burgers. I'm going to see if I can find a good way to make my own frozen burger patties because we want to switch to Organic for these and I have not been able to find any, let alone decide if they are worth the cost... so Look forward to a post on my "attempt" at homemade frozen burger patties. (We want to try to freeze them because the fresh ones fall through the BBQ grill. But $16 for meat this month, instead of $35 in Feb and $72 in January.

Vegetables

I don't think I can ever get mad when we spend money on Vegetables ... except for when we waste food and don't eat them... as I alluded in yesterdays post was the "theme" of the month apparently. Looking now though, I think some of the wasted produce must have been purchased last month because looking at this list, most of the stuff listed here is still in the fridge because it was bought just a couple of days ago when I went shopping. But either way we spent $66 for March, $47 in February & $74 in January on vegetables. Only 4 things that weren't organic... that's a huge victory, especially when we think about where we were last year around this time!

I now even dig carrot juice and spinach in my fruit smoothies now....

And this month I had a LOVE relationship with home made pico... hence the 4 lbs of tomatoes...

I swear if I can just break this habit of not working out (March was bad with vacations and work schedule changes) and stop snacking in between meals, maybe i'll have a hope to shed those extra pounds I've put back on... April is the month to Re-commit!

Pantry/House 

We picked up a few pantry items... and a lot of stuff to help the sick husband get on the mend. Frozen pot pies, canned soup, saltines, sprite, Gatorade, and Alfredo sauce were all bought because SCB was sicker than a dog... and is still on the mend as I type.

As for house stuff, we seem to average around $20 -$30 a month. This month it was dryer sheets and bathroom cleaner for the most part. ... last month it was hygiene products like shampoo and TP.... January it was Laundry and Dishwasher Detergents and trash bags.... Its nice to know we tend to be able to spread these purchases out over time so we can work them into the food budget!

DONE- 2013 ROTH IRA

We did it folks. I just transferred the $61.07 we needed from South County Boy's last paycheck this month and BAM we have all the money for his first ever Roth IRA.

It feels like such an accomplishment... But there's more...

We had enough money leftover from his paycheck to cover my January and February Roth IRA savings amounts... ($275 each month)... and we had $136.46 left over from Gasoline, utility bills, etc...

Combine that with the $128.54 gas rebate check from work and $10 of my fun money and that's another $275.00

Which means we end March with my Roth IRA all caught up and back on track for 2014.

WOOT WOOT!!

Meals in March

Just cause its pretty... and tasty... Avocado Toast!

I will just come straight out and say it... we were HORRIBLE with wasted produce this month. I literally couldn't keep track of how much we actually tossed... so much in fact that I now have a pad and paper near the trash can so I can make a point of either keeping track of everything we toss or to use as a reminder to eat what we have.

We seriously need to get on the ban wagon again... I don't know if it was the planning to leave for Utah that threw us off, or just us being lazy and embracing the going out for dinner route, but the first half of the month was horrible for food waste. It wasn't until we got back to Utah that I found a second wind and tried to keep together what I could. I was also really bad with taking pictures of things since we ate out... a lot... and then when we did cook, it was frozen foods... literally the first three meals we made came from our freezer...

Spinach and Cheese Ravioli 
A freezer staple because its cheap and tasty. It's also SCB's back up meal for when I'm working and he needs to fend for himself. We get a huge bag (3 lbs 8 oz) of it at Costco for $9.99... and if we are both having dinner, we generally get 3 meals out of it since we don't really do side dishes with it..basically it's dinner for under $5 bucks.

I know I'm a little debbie downer right now about the freezer meals, but I owe this meal a lot. This meal was the first time I was able to get South County Boy to eat pasta and Olive Oil together. He literally would refuse to eat anything coated in Olive Oil when we first got married. After he sampled it in the store and said it was good, we got the bag and I made it for dinner that night, with olive oil and he fell in love by the end of the bowl... when he went for seconds I told him it was tossed in olive oil... and he no longer cared.

This pasta was how I was able to get SCB "okay" with one meatless meal a week and now we eat multiple meatless meals a week just cause they taste good by his standards.

Saute'd Veggies and Chicken Broccoli Bake
So this meal too started in our Freezer at the beginning of the month when we were really busy. It's a breaded chicken breast that is stuffed with broccoli and sauce inside. I used to like these a whole lot more, but since we have generally been eating more fresh and home made meals it has lost its appeal. It just doesn't taste as good as it used to.

I included it in the blog because we aren't perfect people and the veggies were just plain awesome. That's Zucchini, mushrooms and onions that were sauteed in oil oil and topped with a little Parmesan cheese.

Frozen Wild Caught Fish (and an Omaha steak fish), baked potatoes and steamed broccoli
One thing we have started doing right is abandoning the frozen veggie and starting to use fresh ones that we steam in the microwave. It just tastes so much better.... and look at that color... it's just soooo green... It blows my mind how green fresh veggies are compared to the frozen ones...

and speaking of color, I walked by the normal produce at Sprouts when I was shopping on my way to get Milk and saw the "tomatoes" ...  They sure didn't look red to me... which kind of makes me okay with paying twice as much for ones that actually are in fact Red...

But back to the meal in question... we generally have fish once a week and just add a different side dish... This month we only really ate fish one or twice with all our traveling and vacation.

Stuffed Pork and Cabbage/Carrot salad/Slaw
Post vacation I wanted to try something new, and while I've yet to find organic pork, sprouts had stuffed pork chops on sale and SCB loves pork so I picked a pair of them up.

Sadly, after cooking them we ended up needing to have apple sauce and BBQ to dip the meat in because it wasn't seasoned or flavored... it was just plain meat with a little awesome broccoli and cheese poking out from the top... But they didn't season or marinate the meat so it was such a disappointment.

The "cole slaw salad" was a recipe save. You see I picked up a head of cabbage because it was on sale for Saint Patrick's Day and dirt cheap... even for organic. I wanted to make this recipe I found on-line for a healthy coleslaw carrot salad.... All it required was Fat Free Greek Yogurt, Salt, and just carrots, cabbage and crasins...

So I made a small batch... and while it was edible, it was not flavorful and I ended up tossing it out and calling it a fail. The rest of the cabbage and carrots I shredded I just made into a impromptu salad and tossed it with some salad dressing. 

Korean "Beef"
I adapted this recipe from one of my co-workers because my husband doesn't like Asian sauces very much because they are too "potent" for him.

I cooked some Organic Ground Turkey and drained the fat.
Then I added some Soy Sauce, Brown Sugar, Ginger, and Sesame Seed Oil to the meat...

then I chopped up a can of water chestnuts, cut and steamed some broccoli... and added some salt and pepper.

Served it on rice.... and now i'm allowed to make it when I get a hankering for Asian.

Road Trip Part 2

I don't know why he put her on the roof
of the car... but we had adorable paw prints
on the car the whole trip afterwards.

Not only did we get to go out to Utah for our friend's beautiful wedding, we also got to spend some time with South County Boy's brother and their new little baby girl... which made the drive much easier to tolerate on both our ends.

We took our wonderful little pup along for the ride and she was a perfect little angel all weekend... in fact, several of my sister-in-law's relatives wanted to clone her and take her home with them. I was just proud that it only took her about 5 minutes to calm down and stop barking, even with the 20 plus new people to go around and sniff out. Made me a proud of her.

She didn't even growl too much with their dog Arbo (he's big enough to eat Roxy and has way more energy and always wants to play when Roxy doesn't want to). She also was really great around the little baby and the 10 plus kids that wanted to sit and pet her. Naturally this gives us some really good vibes and feelings that she will hopefully continue to love kids as we consider having one in the near distant future. I think it helped that all the kids were pretty mellow and approached her slowly and let her come to them... she gets scared and defensive when people come at her fast.

Kneaders.... I should buy into this company...

We also went to our favorite bakery and sandwich place... Kneaders......

I think SCB made us eat there each day we were out in Utah... and I say made loosely because you don't have to twist my arm too badly to get me there. Between the errands and our busy schedule I was happy to eat tasty sandwiches and salads from kneaders then junk from a fast food dive. We even came home with 3 loaves of bread for the freezer.

Since we were only in town a few days, we got to running our errands... including hitting up some of the "D.I." locations (Church owned thrift shops similar to goodwill but well organized and cleaner).

I always seem to find something really cute for just a few dollars each time we go. I think it helps that they sort similar colors and styles together to help make browsing easier and more pleasant. Its kind of like shopping in a Ross or a TJ Max and not really a thrift store. Definitely not like the goodwill stores out here in California. I ended up scoring a $6 dress, a $3 top, and another $2 top! 3 items all for $11... I call that a win.  I used my fun money for my clothes so you won't see that appear in the end of the month totals... but since we're talking about Money, lets look at what we spent:

Its the adorable baby!

$124.66 on food... (mostly from kneaders)

$187.19 on gasoline

a few dollars on the toll road... (still waiting for that credit to be reversed... had to call again when we got back from the trip)

$49.23 at Walmart on some odds and ends (including yarn to make the baby girl an adorable polar bear outfit).

So our vacation ended up being $361.19... 

Frankly, it could have been worse since I let the budget reins go and let SCB indulge a bit more. All I can say was it was a nice welcome break from watching everything, especially since we were on vacation. Woot for profit sharing checks and Costco rewards Money. ($100 of which we still have left too!)

I think it was uber helpful that gas in Utah was $3.39 a gallon as apposed to $4.09 when we left California..

We also spent $55.45 at Emergency Essentials because South County Boy really wanted to get a 15 gallon water barrel and some re-chargeable batteries... but that came from our discretionary funds. With all the drought talk in California, he thought it was best to up our water storage and since we were out there already it was going to be tons cheaper to buy it and drive it home then to get it on-line. Our new water barrel is going to live on our patio deck once its filled up.

We also spent $35.54 at Deseret Book out in Utah, but that was a gift for a friend of mine who is getting baptized later this month and the rest was a book on tape so it's getting paid with our discretionary spending.

We also put $50 in a card for a wedding present.

After all the errands, we did a lot of wedding festivities as I mentioned in my other post. The rest of the trip revolved around my sister-in-law's family and this adorable baby girl that was blessed :)

I even changed my very first diaper... it wasn't a poopy one, but I can now say I've changed a diaper. I even got the baby swaddled in a blanket... and I only got spit up on once and even then she fell asleep with me holding her a few times.

It's love I swear it is.

The drive home was pretty brutal... we got back okay, but I crashed at 5 pm without dinner and didn't really get up until SCB left for work at 7pm the next day.

Another Windfall

More money! Its just so exciting!

You see, I haven't turned in my mileage for work since November. For those of you who don't know, when I have to use my personal vehicle for work, my job will reimburse me based on each mile I drive. Some of my co-workers don't bother to keep track, but I do... It's generally just a few dollars, but rather a few dollars in my pocket then not I say.

If I have to run to another center to drop off money or pick something up... or say attend an offsite meeting... I just keep a little notebook in my car and write it down. It takes me just a moment to keep track of and I normally will turn it in every other month of so... only this time I hadn't turned anything in since November!

I know, I know... its really bad of me, but I have been so busy that every time I got a free moment to do it, I always got distracted and then it became this thing I never wanted to tackle and the list of trips just kept getting longer... which made me want to do it even less....

At the beginning of the month I thought we were still going to need to "find money" to make the Roth IRA deadline... so I bit the bullet and did all 6 pages or reimbursement requests...

...

and I got a check for $128.57

It might be a hassle for some, but $128.57 returned to my pocket is kind of awesome right now.

Road Trip part 1

So back when I was investigating the Church (you can read about that story here), we met this really awesome missionary who became more of a friend to us than anything else. On his insistence, I became friends with his girlfriend through Facebook, then his mom.... then his grandma... 

He was there when I was baptized, we had him and his companion over for Thanksgiving and later watched him Skype with his parents at Christmas time. 

We visited Utah and met up with his girlfriend in person and South County Boy relished the moment when he tortured him with pictures of his real life and missionary life clashing. Heck, SCB would even text his girlfriend while he was at our condo just hoping that she'd respond back while he was over at our house so he could tease him.    

When he left our area like missionaries eventually do, he later got transferred over to the singles ward and since our home was again in the boundaries, we had him and his companion over for dinner once more. 

When our Sealing was announced we got word to him through our current missionaries and he got special permission to come and be there. Before he left to go home for good,we got the privilege of going to the temple with him and his grandparents (they arranged it with the Mission President since they were only an hour or two north from us and wanted to see him state side).

So needless to say, we became pretty good friends over the course of the year we knew him. 

When he went home back in November, he got engaged to his girlfriend and we were very honored to get a wedding invite to help celebrate their occasion! Since they were getting Sealed (Married) out in Utah near SCB's family, we road tripped and crashed with family nearby.

While it was a short trip and we wished we could have stayed longer, it was wonderful. 

Mount Timpanogos Temple in Utah.
Check out that moon, its just as bright as the temple, right? 

We ran some errands the first day or so we where there. While we were out picking up a few things at a Church Bookstore, we bumped into his soon to be wife and asked/got invited to go to the temple with them the night before for her endowment ceremony. We had already planned to go to a temple either that night or Saturday morning before my sister-in-law's baby blessing, so it was perfect timing.   

Me outside of the Draper Temple in Utah.

Having fun while waiting for the bride and
groom to make their grand appearance. 

The next morning we attended their sealing at the Draper temple in Utah. I hadn't been to that temple either and it was such a pretty and wonderful ceremony. I think I was nearly as happy to see them get married then I was when SCB and I were sealed together back in August. We waited outside the temple and walked around the grounds with family and friends while they changed for their grand exit. 

The temple was back in the mountains and had some really pretty views, but nothing was as excited as seeing the happy couple come out!

Later that night we met up with them for the reception with the rest of their friends and family. It was my first full Mormon wedding and it sure set the bar for what I hope SCB and my future kiddos will want to have one day.

It was like other weddings I've attended with dinner, dancing, flower and guarder toss, cake smashing.... but it was also really mellow and everyone goofed off and had a great time.

Mortgage Update March 2014

Principle paid down: $325.60
Interest: $344.36
Additional Principle: $0.19
New Balance: $109,871.01

The pay off date is June 2033. 

If I continue to pay the minimum on my loan, we will end up paying a total of $69,410.24 in interest over the course of our entire loan. 

Before our refinance, we would have paid $116,404.23 in interest.

Getting the Keys...

It took me $7,057.08 to get the keys to my condo and then I spent another $17,672.29 to remodel and repair it... In short, I was -$24,729.37 in the hole on day one...

• In 2009 I got the First Time Home buyer's Credit giving us $8,000.00. I also got to write off some of the property tax I paid in addition to taking the standard deduction. This gave us an extra $90.10... but then I had to pay an Electrician $95.00 to fix an outlet... We also got a refund from my botched tile job that gave us another $1,265.00.
• In 2010 I saved $1,087.00 on my federal taxes and $461.00 on my State taxes from itemizing my homeowners expenses. (This is what I received ABOVE what I would have gotten back with just the standard deduction).
• In 2011 I spent $12.97 at home depot and $72.29 on a kitchen door. When we subtract those costs from what we saved by living in our condo instead of renting, we came out ahead $494.04 (See Mortgage Update + Condo Costs December '11 for that break down.) We also received a small $70 refund check from over paid closing costs. We didn't Itemize our taxes in 2011.
• In 2012 we finished our Kitchen/Laundry door which cost us $103.24.. We also replaced both our glass slider doors which cost us $2,957.00... and repaired our dryer for $81.42....It ended up being $3,383.47 cheaper to OWN our condo than to rent an apartment on a monthly basis, (See Housing Costs 2012 for the break down) so even after we subtract the windows and other minor repairs, we still came out ahead $241.81 by owning our condo instead of renting...
• In 2013 we got $52.53 back from challenging my property taxes in 2012. I also refinanced our condo, costing us $447.00 up front for our home appraisal... but we got a check back at closing for $747.20 and a check from my old escrow account for $489.74... We also got to skip a mortgage payment too! In addition, they automatically lowered my property tax value, giving us a check for $86.77.. and we saved $5,191.81 by NOT renting a place (see Housing Comps 2013)!! Additionally we ITEMIZED our taxes in 2013, saving $702.45 on a federal taxes and $503.74 on our State Taxes. (This is what we would have owed had we not had our property to write off).

All of that "math" leaves us $5,788.18 in the hole. If we assume our home is worth at least what we paid for it ($120k), we have $10,128.99 in equity...

Leaving us a profit of $4,340.81 after 4 yrs & 6 months!

Even though we broke even at the end of 2013, I still want to keep track of how much money our condo is saving us each year. For 2014, we will again assume our monthly mortgage payments are going to be a wash since it's cheaper to OWN our home then to RENT an apartment. (Check out Housing Comps 2014 for how we figured that one out). For 2014 we have spent $3,199.32 to live in our condo, instead of $4,323.00 to live in the apartment.

• Mortgage: $2,009.88 (P&I)
• Extra Mortgage Principle: $13.38
• HOA: $810.00
• Property Taxes: $305.71
• Small Home Repairs/Improvements: $60.35 
• $6.44 fix something under the sink
• $53.91 New front door deadbolt

So far we have saved $1,123.68 by owning our condo and not renting an apartment in 2014.

Current Housing Market:
One-Bedrooms 

• Sold in last 6 months: $220,000 (January 2014)

Two-Bedrooms

• Asking $285,000
• Listed 9/30/13 
• Delisted 12/18/13
• Relisted 1/7/14
• Asking $260,000
• Delisted 11/2/11 (leased)
• Listed 3/14/14
• Asking $237,500
• Listed 3/13/14
• Sold in the last 6 months: $255,000.00 (February, 2014)
• Sold in the last 6 months: $255,000.00 (February, 2014)

Smog test time

I got my car registration notice in the mail a couple of months ago and it's just been sitting in the drawer taunting me... all because I hate getting my car smog'd. It always seems to be inconvenient to go and get it done...

As for registration, its going to cost $104 to register my car (Stitch, our '04 Toyota Camry).

• $70 Registration Fee
• $24 License Fee
• $10 County and District Fees

But before I can mail off the payment, I have to SMOG the car because we live in California.... Thankfully, I found a $20.00 off coupon to go to a local place I've previously taken my car, so that and a phone call ahead to book my appointment took a lot of the hassle out of the experience. 

All in all it was $51.24 after the discount to get my car SMOG complete.

For those of you who don't know, they test your emissions at 2 different speed levels, 15 mph and 25 mph... 

You can have a MAX of 54 parts per measure (ppm) for "HC" at 15 MPH and 37 ppm at 25 mph. Stitch is in good shape at 6 and 9 ppm respectfully. For CO %, the MAX you can have is .50% and .47%... Stitch came in at .02% and .01%. Finally for NO, the max you can have is 430 and 717... Stitch cam in at a whopping 5 and 5.

Yup, I call that a PASS!  

Right now we are going to pull the money out of savings to pay for the registration, but since our cars cost a little over $100 to register each year and since a SMOG is about $70 before a coupon, we should be okay if we start putting $25.00 a month aside to cover these expenses for the future instead of relying on our tax return (which is we didn't itemize, we wouldn't have received).

I almost threw away $200

We do all of our bills and money management online and have for sometime. Most of my accounts I elect for online statements to save trees and reduce the amount of stuff I need to shred each month.

I only have 2 credit cards that don't have on-line statements. My Kohl's card and my Costco AMX. (Kohl's because its so infrequently used that I want the paper statement since it only comes when a charge has been made.... and Costco AMX because of the rewards money we get once a year.)

Since I'm always tracking our expenses and checking our accounts at least twice a week for any errors, when our paper statements come in, I generally toss them to the shredder...

I'm really glad our shredder broke at the end of last month because our Costco AMX rewards check was in there. In fact the statement has been sitting on the couch for a month because the shredder was out of commission.

It wasn't until this morning when I was cleaning up that I finally opened it... and there was a pretty check for $212.56. I almost didn't see it and only looked for it when the glossy paper telling me the check was in there was visible.

To think I almost tossed it....

I don't know why I forget those things come in the mail every February and not in August when I pay the annual costco renewal fee.

***shakes head in shame***

But unexpected windfalls are nice!

Toll Road Account Fix

So, we're going out of town! Our friends are getting married and my sister-in-law has an adorable baby that's getting blessed so we are Utah bound!

Normally we pay cash when we use the toll roads to get to Utah since it saves us a good stretch of sanity... but in May the Toll Roads will be going cash less... and we aren't transponder people since we use it so infrequently.

Right now there are a lot of free credits for signing up (promo codes), and I recently designed an ad for work with a toll road promo code on it for $30 FREE dollars so we decided to go ahead and get a prepaid account set up because it would make our trip free.

Unfortunately when I set up my account I was automatically charged $60 and didn't receive my free $30 of credit. I called their customer service center and after waiting on hold about 5 minutes I got a very friendly Ann on the phone and we got to the bottom of it.

She told me they would get my $30 of free credit set up in the next day or so since it was after business hours when I called. She also told me that they will refund the balance of the $60 charged (minus what we will be using for this trip) back to my credit card. (Since we will be driving out at 2 am they won't have the credit in place by the time we drive through the lanes so we will get around $50 credited back at the end of the trip)  She will also change the amount of the auto charge to $30 when our balance goes down to $10 instead of a $60 charge when our balance hits $20.

A simple 5 minute phone call and we will have our $30 of free toll money for a future trip and a much nicer auto pay and no transponder or maintenance fees.

That my friends is a customer service win!

Roth IRA Update!

When we last left this adventure, we were trying to figure out how to get South County Boy's FIRST EVER Roth IRA maxed out by the April 15th deadline. At 27 years of age, its about time we started up some serious retirement funds for him and since we like to go BIG or go home, we told good old Uncle Sam that we maxed out not just mine but HIS on our 2013 taxes. So we need to get it done.

I first opened my Roth IRA back in 2006 when I was only 20 years old and every year since then, even with college tuition bills and rent payments I have been faithful to cause of maxing out a Roth IRA ever year. That's $39,500 over the past 7 years. Not bad for a 20 something eh?

But this will be South County Boy's first real jump into putting retirement a priority... and unfortunately even if we were perfect with our budget, we were going to come up short $134.43.... But then the glorious profit sharing check arrived giving us $1,094.50 that we could take to use for the Roth! After tithing that's basically 2 EXTRA paychecks.... 

*** Happy dance***

So, we were at $3,593.76 at the end of last month... with that $1,094.50 we come to a shiny $4,688.26, meaning we only need $811.74 to complete his Roth THIS month... and we have $1,275 budgeted in!

That means that not only can we finish his Roth, but the regular $275.00 that supposed to go to my Roth IRA can this month!!!!!!!! and we should have around $150.00 hanging out that we can use for some car maintenance and our little vacation out to Utah for our friends wedding!!!!! (and so the pinching pennies feeling South County Boy has been suffering from can be slightly alleviated.)

SCORE!!!!

With one check from South County Boy in April, my Roth IRA will be caught up and we can look at the rest of our savings goals for the year.

Profit Sharing

I wish their was a word I could type that would convey the sounds of angels descending into our bank account. You know those movie moments where the sound effects literally make the scene? So lets just insert one of those here:

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh"

The profit sharing check arrived... and blew our expectations out of the water.

Now before I tell you how much it is, MOST of the check goes towards taxes because it's considered a "bonus..." and remember, this check is only for him working half the year.... so we can assume next year might be double the amount we received... which was

$2,200.00

or

$1,314.50 after taxes

YES! 

March Budget

New Sub Savings
So we added a new savings category to the budget for our annual car registrations. I think in the long run doing a monthly budget for it will be smart so we don't have to rely on our tax return for it every year. Thankfully we have the money saved up from last year to cover the payment due this month on "Stitch" (the Camry). So we knocking the discretionary funds down a little.

Road Trip

We are also not sure how operation Roth IRA will fair this month because we need to take "Sally" (our newer Ford Escort) in for a 75,000 mile oil change / inspection. (we should have last month but didn't realize). If it needs anything more then an oil change, we are going to need to dip into SCB's paychecks...

We are also trying to figure out if we should take "Stitch" in too because we are driving out to Utah for our friends wedding and will most likely take Stitch because its easier to drive (Read: Stitch is an automatic... I Sally is our stick shift... I have only driven her once in an attempt to get her home and not since). We have enough money for our vacation fund so we aren't worried about the gas there and back... just if we should take Stitch in as well for a check up at the mechanic before the road trip because that increases our odds of having an issue and I feel like we just took her in recently... 

Not Spending Money Side Effects - Grumpy Hubby
South County Boy wants to buy running shoes this month... Well he wanted to last month but the budget stopped him... and then we need to fix that busted computer fan... and now we may have auto maintenance stuff to do too, which takes priority over shoes when we have limited discretionary funds... 

Needless to say, all of this isn't helping South County Boy too much. He's been really bummed out when we have income coming in, but he can't spend it like we did at the tail end of 2013. We were responsible and didn't get any debt.. but we didn't save anything those months. He's forgotten how much I was really watching our dollars and cents when we were first married on a much smaller single income... and he seems to have an all or nothing mentality so finding middle ground has been difficult... and there's been a little more complaining that he has to wait for things or use his fun money for them.  

My worry is if we do decide to start a family next year, finding a middle ground will be much more important because that income he generates will most likely NOT be there since day care in this area is north of a grand a month and it would be cheaper to have him QUIT and stay home then to work and use daycare. Getting into the habit and saving now will help us assess if we can even do a family on my income when the money isn't there. Most likely we are hoping he can move to part time so he can work when i'm not working and hopefully keep his insurance and stuff... but that's all stuff we aren't even mentioning until next year when and if I do get Preggers at some point. He may have to quit and try to get a different job part time.   

March Budget:

Spending

Mortgage: $771.99

Church Tithe: $572.00

Other Church offerings: $40.00

Groceries/Household Items: $300.00

Date Nights & Eating Out: $100.00

Pocket Money ($40 each): $80.00

Cell Phone Work Reimbursement: $60.00

HOA: $270.00

Utility Bills: $150.00 (Second cell, Electricity, Internet)

Gasoline: $250.00

Discretionary: $174.95

Saving

Christmas Savings: $50.00

Birthday/gifts Savings: $50.00

Vacation Savings: $100
Car Registration Savings: $25.00

Roth IRA: $1,275.00

Insurance Savings: $143.00

Prescriptions/Doctors Visits: $50.00

Roxy (Dog) Savings Account: $50.00

What we spent in February

Me at Slater's just moments after SCB accidentally knocked
an entire glass of water all over me.

February seems to have flown by really fast this year. Maybe it was the shorter month... or the fact that Valentines Day is smack dab in the middle of the month and we had a 3 day weekend with the holiday... but it went by really fast for me at least.

Hubs bought me some cookies and a card at work earlier in the week leading up to V-day... and then he brought me dinner since I was stuck working until 9 pm because of my new work schedule. Yup, I'm back to Tuesday - Saturdays... AND I have to close Friday and Saturday nights which means Sundays is really the only day we have together right now (and even then Church takes up a lot of it)... It's taking a little getting used to but we are making it work and have been trying to adjust a bit, especially since SCB is on his own for dinner at least once a week.

I also have a new supervisor too. We have a few open "BIG JOBS" at work but they aren't filling them immediately anymore and instead they are cross training a lot of supervisors since our department is very building specific so no one really knows what goes on in the department outside of their "space"... so my new boss comes from a completely different city facility and background. This last week was the first week with the changes so a lot of transition stuff is going on.

I kind of feel like we really didn't do much this month. With us getting sick and the work changes, we spent a lot of time at home... which meant we ate out way too much this month just to escape the mundane... I don't feel that bad about it considering we had Valentines day and we wanted to try a new place out. The funny thing was we ended up going to a couple of nicer sit-down places which is why it ended up costing more then normal, but the food was good so I can't complain. If you have ever been to Slater's 50/50 then you know the vampire dip is crazy good.

So without further ado, here's the nitty gritty of what we spent this month!

February 2014 Spending:

• Church Tithe/ Giving: $612.00 
• Groceries: $265.99
• Household Items: $30.81
• Gasoline: $226.49
• Housing: $1,041.99
• Mortgage: $771.80
• Extra Principle: $0.19
• HOA: $270.00
• Eating Out: $162.61
• Clothes:
• SCG: $8.00
• SCB: $47.36
• Dog: $23.35
• Fun Money: $80.00
• (Always $40 a month per person)
• Cell Phones: $101.35
• Electricity: $53.85
• Internet: $33.99
• Medical:
• Prescriptions: $10.00
• Dr. Visit: $161.02
• Other:
• $9.12 Laundry Basket
• $27.98 (Running Arm Band, Computer Cable, Computer Microphone,Nose hair trimmer.)
• $91.98 Turbo Tax/State and Fed File
• $13.18 V-Day items.
• 21.55 (Metal Skewers, Organizer bins, Shower cleaner)
• $7.83 OTC Medications and Water bottle.

What We Spent in 2014:

• Church Tithe/ Giving: $1,320.00
• Groceries: $615.83
• Household Items: $67.76
• Gasoline: $438.27
• Housing: $2,157.33
• Mortgage: $1,543.79
• Extra Principle: $13.19
• HOA: $540.00
• Small house repairs:
• $6.44 (fixing under the sink piping)
• $53.91 (New front door deadbolt)
• Eating Out: $244.44
• Date Night: $2.00 (Movies)
• Clothes:
• SCG: $91.44
• SCB: $70.13
• Dog: $38.28
• Fun Money: $160.00
• Cell Phones: $161.35
• Just my prepaid work phone. SCB didn't need to refill his trac phone this month.
• Electricity: $115.68
• Internet: $67.98
• Gifts:
• Wedding: $50.00
• Medical:
• Prescriptions: $10.00
• Dr. Visit: $161.02
• Other:



YUP.... He cut his hair :)

• $27.45 (Wedding Card, Walking Safety Light, 10 Storage Boxes)
• $4.69 (2 car key copies)
• $24.09 ($5 dry Vac, 7 house key copies)
• $3.26 (post Office)
• $10.79 (MLP dog tag, running light)
• $3.21 (Bug Spray)
• $347.75 DYSON Pet Vacuum (Kohls)
• $208.18 Disney Half Marathon
• $208.18 Disney Half Marathon
• $9.12 Laundry Basket
• $27.98 (Running Arm Band, Computer Cable, Computer Microphone,Nose hair trimmer.)
• $91.98 Turbo Tax/State and Fed File
• $13.18 V-Day items.
• 21.55 (Metal Skewers, Organizer bins, Shower cleaner)
• $7.83 OTC Medications and Water bottle

Food and Groceries in February

So despite being sick and all, we managed to keep our food/household items under $300.00 this month!

It wasn't by much... (Total came to $296.80), but were finally figuring things out and it was much better than last month's overage :)

So, since I was bad with the camera and didn't take a whole lot of "dinner" pictures, (largely because we ate the same things we ate last month), I'd thought i'd just highlight a few *new* items that I did take pictures of and do a combined what we ate and what we bought post.

1. Chocolate Covered Strawberries: This is what I live for in February. It's not Valentines Day without Chocolate Covered Strawberries, but there is no way I will buy them in the store when I can make them myself for a fraction of the cost... especially when I finally found a place that sells organic strawberries without ripping off an arm and a leg!

2. Egg Mex Breakfast Sandwich: This ended up being a random delight of awesomeness. I was at work and since I had that nifty toaster oven, I took 2 slices of bread, sliced up a hard boiled egg, added some cheese, and then I made what i'm referring to as my poor man mexican guac (chopped tomatoes, onion, cilantro & avocado that was leftover from another dinner) and just mashed that all together and put it on top... Heat and eat. It was a really nice way to change up eating a toasted egg sandwich.

3. Zucchini Pasta: It doesn't get better then just cooking a box of whole wheat pasta and then just dumping in sliced Zucchini that was cooked in olive oil, Italian seasoning, and Parmesan cheese. It's one of hubby's favorite meals and since we are doing more meatless options, it was time to hit our rotation.

4. Pizza Bread: This is a family tradition I learned from my hubby's mama and we haven't had it in a long time so he started asking for it, especially since last month I was trying so hard to avoid the $5 pizza take out... I make my own dough from a super easy recipe

• The Dough Recipe/Process: 9 oz of water, 2 tablespoons powdered Milk, 2 tablespoons butter, 3 cups flour, 1.5 tablespoons sugar, 1.5 teaspoons salt. 2 teaspoons fast acting yeast.
• Then just mix it in a mixer with a dough hook, or kneed by hand for 10 minutes or so.
• Once its ready, take half the dough (each batch of dough makes 2 loaves)... then roll it out so its as long as your baking sheet (might have to add a little flour to the surface so it doesn't stick) and get it as wide as you want it (wide enough for your toppings). 
• Then just place on your favorite pizza toppings. 
• For me that's mushrooms, bell peppers, olives, onion, pineapple, and cheese. I try and dry out the pineapple with some paper towels so it doesn't get too liquid-y
• For SCB its pepperoni, olives, onions and cheese. 
• Then you just wrap and pull the dough around the inside stuff. You can use a little water to act like glue if you need to. Then just spray your baking sheet and make sure the crease is on the bottom.... cut some slits in the top with a knife and stick it in the oven for around 35 minutes at 350 degrees. I made 3 batches (6 loaves) cause i'm awesome and my hubby wanted leftovers for his work lunches. 

• The key is you dip it in marinara sauce! It's not greasy and only has the flavors you like-- Its like healthy pizza!

Grocery Breakdown:

Okay, I'm feeling way better about our $300 a month goal now that we have tackled February's groceries. Despite how we ended up tossing out 4 artichokes, a head of lettuce, a few potatoes, and almost a whole bag of oranges... I think we are getting into a new rhythm that's much more manageable. Even without relying on Fresh and Easy coupons (we only shopped at Trader Joes, Costco, Sprouts, and Walmart this month), the fact that we stayed under $300 including house items makes me think we have a good target to shoot for, especially since last month we had $28 in free groceries from Fresh and Easy alone and still went over. All in all every things recorded sans $4 since I bought a couple things for the pantry at walmart with some other non food items, but i tossed the receipt before I could record them in the spread sheet.  But onto the food!

Dairy: So i'm glad we spent less money on Dairy this month then we did last ($47 is better than $75!). We still haven't found a good option for organic cheese, but we got our Milk down pat now and are just buying a gallon when we need it. We actually almost hit the expiration date on the first one since we were sick, but I went ahead a made 2 boxes of pudding and it magically disappeared. I'm not planning on re-stocking the pudding cause of all the stuff I can't pronounce in there, but it was a tasty treat.

Fruit: We spent a similar amount on Fruit this month as we did last month, just shy of $55. While there isn't a lot of variety listed, but that's because I've been getting into smoothies! I get my fruit in for the day that I would most likely ignore and its the only way I can mask the tarty fat free greek yogurt to make it edible for my pallet since I refuse to pay almost $2 for a single serving cup of flavored awesome.

We did switch to an Organic OJ from Costco and hubs loves it even though he has to shake it up. He claims he can taste the difference between processed crap and the real stuff now that he's had the real stuff. Case in point, I had some leftover un-opened OJ from a work event and after having a gallon of the good stuff and then switching to minute maid fresh squeezed, my husband was so glad to go back to the "good stuff" that he hugged me after a Costco trip.  We are also going to try some organic Apple juice that isn't made from concentrate since I only ever use the juice in smoothies and SCB said he's over the shaking of things since we have had success with the OJ... So we will be trying that soon.

We did end up pitching a bag of oranges we got at the tail end of last month because we didn't get around to them since the Orange Juice was awesome... I even had to make apple cobbler just to use up the apples from the bag we bought as well last month because I was seldom eating them when I had smoothies as an option. I think we are going to go back to just buying one or two of them when we feel like it. It doesn't save us money in the long run to buy in bulk if we pitch em later cause they went bad.

I also finally finished my huge 6 lb bag of frozen strawberries from Costco (not organic and purchased a long time ago)...But Costco started selling 2 lb packages of fresh organic Strawberries, so we took February to stock pile up. So far I've found it's cheaper for me to buy fresh & freeze them for smoothies myself then to buy frozen organic strawberries. So we have them in our chest freezer now.

Vegetables: I was really excited this month to see cheaper organic tomatoes. Sprouts started selling roma and other tomato varieties!!! We spent less on veggies this month than last (Almost $50 compared to almost $75 last month) but this month we have gotten a bit smarter and cut out some convenience to save on costs.

Grains: I've been on a fresh salsa kick so we have been going through a lot of tortilla chips and I need to stop eating them cause I know they aren't good for me even if they are delish in their salt-tastic crunchiness.

We also stocked up on bread. Costco had it on sale at the very beginning of the month and I came a day after the sale.... but they had the bread on two different isles with two different price tags. I flagged down an employee to double check that the sale was done and he said if I took the old sign to the register that they would honor the sale price for me since it was their error. In the end it worked and I got 3 packages (6 loaves) of bread at the sale price but I wouldn't hold that for gold that it would happen again by the gal at the registers reaction.

We also did a little goldfish re-stock since I can't get hubs to give up the salty crunch fish... and picked up some organic Quinoa because I love making this recipe (its a video) for lunches... which also explains my tortilla chip addiction at the moment cause that's the best way to eat that sucker!


Meats: Besides Burgers, we didn't really eat a lot of meat from our freezer... but we must have and I'm just not remembering correctly because I swear we haven't gone vegetarian, (no way SCB would let that fly)! I guess we just haven't been spending much on meat either because we have reduced what we use when we cook with it. I do know the Steak was for another batch of Kabbobs which also yielded some tasty leftovers but I swear we still eat meat... and fish like once a week...  Maybe our freezer is just better stocked then I realize?????

Pantry: Woohoo for less spent on processed crud. Sure, right now we are cleaning out and not replacing items but we are also using more natural flavors which makes me happy. Even my husband is starting to turn his nose to a few things. Somethings we will continue to buy, but i'm glad to see less of this stuff overall.

House Stuff:  Just some basic things we needed to re-stock... pretty straight forward.