Frou Frou Gypsy in Combat Boots

Kids at the Circus!  well, several people have asked me in the past week or two how my No Spend Month is going...so here are the latest numbers: Publix: milk hormel ham lunch meat total $6.92 (OUCH!) Publix: tomatoes vanilla yogurt, organic french bread cottage cheese total $11.31 CVS: 12 pk Coke Zero x4 total $10.80 Target: hair gel  total $5.44 ALDI: apples deli pizza organic honey nut toasted oats penguin crackers mustard crescent rolls x2 hot dog buns broccoli deli sliced cheese mozzarella bread crumbs milk cheese curls baking soda total: $29.97 Krystals Lunch Out for 4: $23.47 Doughnuts: $5.00 Circus and a soda $12.50 haircuts x2 $25.00 For a total of $130.41 for the "third" week. that is a grand total of $244.96 spent so far this month! whoo HOO! In the next day or two I will be buying a few more groceries, and I will wrack my brain for expenses that I may have missed. I will have a post in a few days abou...

I know you are wonder WHAT we are eating while we are on this NO SPENDING SPREE, right? In case you are, let me say that I am a mid-range couponer, so i tend to have a decent stockpile of staples in our house. I did not pile up things in December just to prepare for NOT spending in January, but I do have an extra freezer with some meats and other frozen things. I was trying to eat more WHOLE FOODS, healthy, and then fell off the wagon during the holidays, so I am still eating the food-like items that i purchased in my weakness during that time. Breakfasts are simple. I am not even awake when they happen. {Have i mentioned lately how AWESOME my husband is?} The kids, ages 11 and 8, eat either boxed cereal, homemade and frozen sourdough waffles, cheese toast or peanut butter toast. Hubby eats one of those or he eats the homemade granola that I made back in December that we are still munching on. I have been drinking a Visalus shake. I just read that they contain GMOs, so once my s...

Well, another weeks worth of shopping to report. I am doing "good" and "bad." but we will sort it all out in a minute. ALDI: apple juice sandwich bags gala apples Total: $7.20 ALDI: Organic Honey Nut breakfast cereal sandwich bread x2 fresh baby spinach deli rolls lunch meat sliced cheese bella mushrooms sharp cheddar 10 lb. potatoes half & half milk onions fuji apples diet cola beef broth brown rice Total: $35.02 Publix: Bacon organic salad blend zucchini ricola cough drops x4 green onions lipton decaf tea bags Annie's organic ranch dressing Total: $19.30 This represents a total of $61.52 for the week and $114.55 overall so far this month in Groceries.  Not too shabby if i do say so myself. This will get us through until Saturday, when I will go shopping again. Here's the "problem." I have $195.46 left in my cash envelope. so I have picked up $16.01 somewhere. I know i bought some groceries for ...

Ok, this is not my idea, but it is my take on it. Here is a link to where I read about it. There are 4 in my family, 2 adults and kids age 8 and 11. Our goal is to spend only $300 during the month of January on groceries, household supplies, and basically anything that is not a tithe, bill, medical expense or gasoline.  The people i have seen do this previously, have included gasoline in their monthly "budget" but I really don't see how we can cut our spending in that department so I am not including that. We started January 1 and this is what i have spent so far: Organic Harvest: $14.00 Jar of Salsa Peanut Butter Olive Oil Local Honey Chia Seeds The cost before coupons was $27.18 but I had a $5 off of a $25 purchase and a Living social deal that cost me $10 for $20 of groceries...so when it was all said and done, it actually cost me $14.18 since I had bought the living social deal earlier in the week. I found .18 in the bottom of my purse, so I didn'...