Javalina Sighting.

The other evening, before sunset, my husband and I took the dogs for a walk down the dirt road.  As we made the turnaround to come home I started noticing the different types of tracks in the DG. Dog, person, and…what’s this?  Small unusual prints that I had never seen before, the spread of each print indicated that the animal was probably the size of a raccoon or an opossum…that wasn’t the odd part, however.  The tracks ran perfectly straight.  Rodents tend to scurry, and coyote’s kinda “meander” like a dog…this was a straight line…it really made me wonder WHAT THE HECK CAME THROUGH HERE?

Two nights later, my husband and I are driving home, this time its around 11pm…its dark.  The usual suspects romp to get out of our way…rabbits, a field mouse, and…what’s this?  I could have sworn the back end of a koala bear ducked under the field fence.  Noooo, not a koala bear, maybe a…what? Some kind of pig?  My husband laughed at me, “its a coyote babe.”  That was no coyote…it didn’t have a tail.  It was short and had stubby legs.  He Googled it the next day…Javalina.

This is exactly what I saw.

Great…we not only have every nasty rodent under the sun living here, plus coyotes and wild dogs, mountain lions and skunks; now we also have destructive wild pigs.  My husband was wondering what tore apart his irrigation a few weeks ago.  We chalked it up to coyotes desperate for water, but usually coyotes just chew the hose in one spot.  Our drip lines were DESTROYED.  Now what?

On to other news…

I am back to working on our food budget again, and I’m putting together an idea on blogging my shopping trips, meal planning, menus, time saving ideas, etc…I will eventually make a separate blog site for that, but until then, I am still working on my shopping techniques.  I’d also like to incorporate “how to” videos and offer shopping services and meal planning to others.

Today I was up bright and early…this is how my morning looked:

I only had about $200 to spend (as I mentioned, this was a lean month so my trips to the market have been piecemeal.  Ideally, as mentioned in a previous post, I try to do all of my shopping for the month in one day, hitting 4 or 5 different stores for the best deals…but today we only went to Stater Brothers and Albertsons.  I ended up spending a little over $230, but I still scored a lot of food, including wine, dog kibble and cat food. There is enough meat and vegetables in our fridge for 9 dinners with leftovers for lunches. This should carry us until our next payday.

Today we have been eating the last of our leftovers from last week.  In my last trip I bought a ham (on sale after Easter) it made 2 dinners for us, the second one was ham & cabbage soup…(YUM) and I still have a tupperware FULL of meat.  Great with eggs in the morning, and grilled ham & cheese sandwiches.  Once it is gone, my husband is burned out on ham for awhile. heehee

OK, that was one long blog post.  Hope everyone is having a happy Monday.

Hugs & Kisses from Long Ranch.

Hydration Break.

Today is a productive day.  The weekend was brutal, and really depleted my energy level.  I thought yesterday I was going to break down…absolutely no energy and lots to do.  Its tax season, I’ve been putting off all my doctor follow-ups, the house is in shambles, and my husband is pushing to get our band marketing in place and learn new songs.  It was just a little much.

The truth is, all this stuff is just life.  I am not special or unique to these daily trials and tribulations…when I’m sick or run down, it all just seems amplified.  So yesterday, I ran a few errands and talked to some of my doctors then came home and worked on band marketing.  Today, I had to clean house.  Good lord, who lives here anyway?  Pigs?  heehee.

This morning I still felt a little run-down, but I allowed myself an hour and a half or so to relax, drink coffee and think about my day.  I took the plunge, wrote a to-do list and started in on the kitchen.  By noon I had not only cleaned the kitchen, but I washed my sheets and cleaned the bathroom and made a delicious lunch.  After lunch, I scrubbed the shower and folded some laundry…now I am ready to sit down and hydrate.

          

I know its terribly exciting to blog about cleaning house, NOT, but its these daily chores that make me feel like I am accomplishing something and participating in the family dynamic.  I HATE BEING SICK…it takes me away from everything I love to do.

So, let’s get back to talking about saving money.  A new website came to my attention that I am very interested in.  Its called Jet.com  SUPPOSEDLY it will be a discount shopping website, but before they launch, they are building their following.  You can check it out here for a free 6 month subscription: JET.COM  It will be interesting to see where this goes. I ended up going back to the grocery and spending another $44…but I had to go to Stater Bros. as they had my coffee on sale.  I bought 4 cans saving me $8 for the month.

I am also following a friend of mine who is blogging about healthier living.  She and her husband are around 60 years old and they are the sweetest, handsomest & happiest people I know.  They just ALWAYS seem to be happy.  She has developed a method of fermenting vegetables and she swears by its health attributes as it puts pro-biotics into your gut which is very healing.  Its sounds like solid preventative medicine.  I want to give it a shot, but to be honest fermented vegetables sound disgusting.  haha.  I’ll put my mind to it, and may give it a shot after my next grocery trip.  After taking antibiotics for a week, I’m sure my system could use a healthy dose of good stuff.  Here is Cheri and Mike’s blog if you’d like to check it out. http://keepfightin.info/

I have to keep a close eye on my budget for another month. I have many household repairs that need to be made, and my car is in need of brake pads…but I am going to try and hold off until February to start in.  I will also need to buy more pest control items (the mice have been brutal this season) and weed killer.  Luckily, I socked away a few bucks for all of these things.

Alright.  My hydration break is over.  Time to get to work on my patio.

Here’s to another week!  CHEERS!

Fun With Budgeting: Experiment One.

I saw a chiropractor about my back, was able to trade two sessions for a bottle of wine.  I feel SOOOOO much better.

So, I’ve been reading…YAY ME!  I have chosen a book (on my Kindle) to help me with budgeting and saving money.  The book is “America’s Cheapest Family, Gets you Right On The Money”.  Its awesome.  REALLY awesome.

The first few chapters are about saving money on our grocery bill.  The book’s suggestion is to shop once a month for the entire month.  This will cut back on multiple trips to the store…you will save gas, save time, and if you shop manager specials and avoid emotional spending you will also save money.  A TON OF MONEY.  The authors of the book say they only spend $375 a month for a family of 7.  Wow.  Really?  Of course they are heavily into couponing and have been working at this for years and years…so they have it down to a science.  I chose to start with baby steps.  I love the idea of shopping once a month, because in my heart of hearts I have always wanted a huge pantry filled with food.  Food is comforting to me, and when the cupboard is bare, I am cranky.

So…baby steps.

My first step was to go back through my bank account and add up all my grocery spending.  I was shocked to see that sometimes I would go to the store twice in one day…what?  why?  In December my groceries added up to over $1200.  That is understandable, I thought…after all, it is Christmas.  November was $1100, again…a Holiday month.  October was in our normal spending range…close to $1000.  Mind you…when I spend $1000 a month, we are always scraping by…skipping meals…and picking up fast food because there is just never enough food in the house.  So, I’m thinking HOW IN THE WORLD IS A FAMILY OF SEVEN LIVING OFF OF $375 A MONTH IN GROCERIES????  They even have pets…

Step Two: Check out the grocery specials.  I did not have any mailers to thumb through, so I went online and found that many grocery stores now update their specials on their websites.  RAD!  So I visited Stater Bros., Albertson’s, Walgreens Ralph’s and Winco.  The only one that did not have an ad section was Winco…but I happen to know they have really great prices on canned goods, dry goods and produce.  I also know that Costco has great pricing on any over the counter medications, pantry staples, etc…

Step Three: Start making a shopping list with all the specials, and plan meals for the month.  This is hard.  I know that my family can easily consume 2 lbs of meat a day.  2lbs x 30 days = 60 lbs of meat.  Wow.  I didn’t know if I was going to be able to manage THAT MUCH meat.  So I took the pressure off of myself and decided to do the best I can.  Since meat is probably the most expensive part of my grocery bill (beside wine, as I am a wine-o) I made lists of all the meats I found on sale, also cereal, paper goods, produce etc…and cross-referencing which stores have the best pricing etc…

Step Four: Meal planning.  I asked all my boys/men what meals they would like to eat for the rest of the month.  All 3 of them mentioned “sausage and peppers”…so that is obviously a favorite.  GREAT!  Sausage is on sale at Stater Bros, and peppers are cheap at Winco.  One boy wants tacos, the other wants mini meatloafs…GREAT!  Hamburger meat is on sale at Stater Bros. too.  My husband always wants fish…this is a tough one.  Fish RARELY goes on sale, its definitely a hit or miss, but Albertson’s occasionally has cod or catfish discounted, so I told him I would try.  My husband also wanted some creative options for breakfast…hmmmmm.

Step Five: Plan my trip.  This is not easy, because you really don’t know what stores are going to have the best prices on “non-advertised” items.  For example…milk.  I normally buy milk at $3.79 a gallon.  Walgreens was advertising milk at $3.50 a gallon, so I planned on picking it up there.  KEEP IN MIND, I am going to buy 6 gallons of milk to get us through the month, so a $.29 savings per gallon is going to save me $1.74.  Walgreens is right by my house, so I figured I’d pick up milk on the way home, but in the back of my mind I knew I would be pricing it at Costco. I mapped my trip so there would be a minimal amount of backtracking (to save on gas).  So it worked out like this:  Costco, Winco, Stater Bros., Albertson’s and Walgreens.  The book mentioned this would take 5 hours.  They were right.

Step Six: Our Shopping Adventure. I took my youngest on the shopping spree with me because I knew he would be a big help and I want to teach my kids how to budget money also.  We hit the street armed with our 3 lists, a pen and a calculator.  We took the granny-mobile because it has a huge trunk and backseat.  Our goal was to spend only $600.

Costco:  I was really only planning on buying Afrin for my husband at Costco.  ONE ITEM…silly right?  The savings on this one item is ridiculous though.  In the drugstore it is usually $13 for one large bottle.  At Costco, a package of 3 bottles is only $8.  HELLOOOOO…MATH!  $39 – $8 is a $31 savings. My husband easily goes through 3 bottle of Afrin a month as he has chronic sinus/allergy issues.  This is a significant savings, and worth a trip to Costco.  While we were there we decided to also price milk and pantry items.  We found a better deal on milk here was $3.40 a gallon, another $.10 savings than walgreens, and a $.39 savings from my normal grocery.  $.39 x 6 = $2.34 savings I also got a great deal on a 6-pack of black beans (a new household favorite), mayonnaise, sugar, sea salt, ranch seasoning mix (I can make a CRAPLOAD of ranch dressing for pennies on the dollar by buying a mix instead of in the bottle.)  All in all, I’m sure I saved over $50 at Costco.

Winco: Winco is rad. I’m not crazy about their meat department, but for produce and canned goods you cannot beat it.  I’ll be honest, I’m not sure what I saved here, but check this out.  The bread I usually buy at Stater Bros. is regularly priced at $3.79 a loaf, but I usually buy it when it goes on sale for $2.50 a loaf.  At Winco it is regularly priced at $2.28.  That means I don’t have to wait for it to go on sale anymore or bite the bullet and buy it full price at Stater Bros when I need bread…I can get it at Winco cheaper ANYTIME. Bell Peppers: $.78 each instead of $.99 each is a $1.32 savings. Cat food: $.50 a can instead of $.59…$.09 savings x 15 = $1.35  Cat litter:  I started out with one box that was a $1 cheaper than I normally get it at Stater Bros., but then the cashier gave me a $2 coupon, so I grabbed a second box…savings of $6 total.  I could go on and on about Winco.

Stater Bros.:  I mostly stocked up on meat here.  This part is a crap-shoot because I’m not actually sure how much meat my family will actually consume in one month…and since this post is starting to go long…I will just tell you that my receipt says I saved $92 by shopping their sales.

Albertson’s: My receipt says I saved $40 shopping sales.

Walgreens: I didn’t end up buying ANYTHING at Walgreens for my monthly shopping, but I did have to pick up several prescriptions.  I have an awesome pharmacist…he takes guitar lessons from my husband.  He is always looking for deals for us…and he informed me that I was able to get a special deal on my thyroid meds, so I got 2 months worth for $5.  CHA-CHING!

At The End of the Day:  My son and I spent $645 on groceries.  This was $45 over my goal, but I am very pleased with my first attempt at saving money on our food bill.  It remains to be seen if it will last a whole month.  I will keep you updated.  Putting the groceries away was also a challenge.  We have an extra refrigerator in the garage, so I have extra freezer space which is where I am keeping the extra gallons of milk and produce drawers for fruit and veggies.

For once in my life, my pantry is over-flowing.  Its awesome…and it cost less than I have EVER spent on groceries.

Over the next month I will keep my eye out for coupons.  I don’t get a Sunday paper, so I’m not sure where I will find coupons.  Maybe online????

Tonight…SAUSAGE AND PEPPERS!