Mika's Personal Finance Blog

OK, so Im really not trying to have all my posts seem negative, but today my chore is to get our wedding invitations done and ready to send out. My printter evidently thinks vellum is the devil and is having a hard time printing it. So its a very slow process. I just have to keep telling myself its better this way lol.

That's my new thought...I have not yet had a no spend day, either bills going out, or groceries, or $250 on tires for my DBF's car, or or or. So it sucks. I need to get settled down and enter in all my receipts so I can throw the coupon savings money at the challenge, but URGH, makes me mad. Tomorrow should be a no spend at least! Today is my "freebie cheapie" run at the grocery store, where I really shouldn't spend much of anything, but every cent counts!

I think night before last caught up with me sleep wise. I'm unmotivated today, not getting alot done. Only hit 2 of the 8 rooms in my house so far. Tonight will be super busy...have to take the older munchkins up to my moms (an hour away) so she can watch them while I have the yardsale this weekend. On the way back we're going to stop and check out a truck we saw on cheapcycle. I'm not THRILLED about spending the $400 or so for it, but it's a purchase we've been counting on coming up, I just hate to see our meager savings drained already. But, purchasing a truck now will net further savings and earnings down the road.

We will be able to get the lawn care business going full swing, we've been holding it off due to lack of ability to transport the equipment.

We will be able to bring the freezer from my parents house down here which will enable me to stock up better on sales, etc.

We will be able to get things from freecycle that we cant at the moment due to no way to transport them..we had to pass on a dining room table and chairs (which we dont have a table at the moment) because of this.

We can hold off on replacing my DBF's tires on his car since he'll drive the truck to and from work, etc. So we can wait for a good sale or just for our savings to build up.

More pros than cons, but still..just frustrating.

Those are the stores we hit last night. Target still hasn't restocked any of the free goodies with their coupons, but I did get a bunch of trial sizes free after coupon. We're having our yard sale this weekend so that will be good to have!

Walgreens: Got 11 bottles of Palmolive dish detergent, a canister of Ajax, 3 12 packs of Mountain Dew for DBF, and 3 drinks for the kids (they'd been in the hot car for awhile and were thirsty as heck!)...all that for $16.09 and will get back a $10 gift card via rebate.

Kroger was a hit...20 boxes of pizza rolls (DBF takes those for lunch sometimes) for .20 each, 2 boxes of free mrs. Smith's pizza slices, 14 packages of hunts single serve pudding (4 in each package) for .65 each (another lunch thing), they had sirloin steak for 2.99 a lb so we got 6 steaks (thats a GREAT price around here), and I just realized we had a ham sliced and forgot to pick it up!!! CRAP!!! Well, I guess we didnt pay for it, so oh well, I just feel bad!

Also, on the way home saw a 12 pack of toilet paper laying in the middle of the road so stopped and picked that up. Someone dropped it I'm sure, but no one else was stopping. so that was free TP.

Save a lot has Cottonelle on sale this week for $1, and I have $1 coupons so that will be more free TP. Gotta love it!!

So I decided if I want to meet my goal of having the invitations go out this week, there was no way I could make them all by hand without staying up 24/7. So we were at Target last night, and found BEAUTIFUL invitations to print at home for $30. Much better than $200 to have them done by a printer! So I'm going to get those all done today and sent out.

So I was blogging along last night since I was up with a cranky baby, just goin along. After I went to bed I realized my post didn't make alot of sense! LOL!

I was reading on the boards how most people probably don't blog about their splurges, so I was going to talk about mine, but got off track talking about school starting.

Last night we took the kids to Pizza King (I think it's only in Indiana). They adore trains, and this one has your drinks delivered by an electric train. My kids about died!!! They thought it was the coolest thing ever. We spent $38 for dinner for 5 of us, plus enough leftovers for lunch today. So really not too bad, but we do that about once a month dinner out for all of us. So that's my splurge!

I decided to wait to go to the store until DBF got home from work, so we could go out for a family night. I try and be frugal, really I do, but sometimes I just want to treat the family! We don't have a house payment this month, just the $200 to his grandmother as repayment on the loan. So that went out today. Leaves me with $700 of my child support. I've budgeted $200 for school supplies, clothes, etc. for the kids, but when we registered them for school they gave us backpacks (new), with all the school supplies inside they'll need to start the year off. I had already bought a few things at the cheapo back to school sales, so those items went into storage for later in the year. Also, went through the boys' dressers and discovered they really dont NEED any clothing for school. My middle son got a pair of new shoes (not really needed, as the child doesn't grow I swear lol) on clearance for $7, that he ADORES, and seeing how he's starting kindergarten, how could I say no? My oldest does probably need a pair of shoes, he grows like a weed, and is hard on shoes. He has to have wide width shoes, so those will probably be about $40, plus we agreed to get them one new outfit a piece, then buy as the need arises or the sale arises. They each picked out a shirt while at Target tonight, each was under $6, and we have $30 in credit for Kmart which I'll use to buy them each a pair of pants. When we spend that credit on Levi's we'll get another $10 GC for later use. The $30 was from buying my engagement rings, so that's found money, and rolling it over into another $10 GC is just yet another bonus!! My personal question...who thought up buying a whole new wardrobe to start school with anyway???? I think it's ridiculous, but to each his own right?

OK, so I know I'm way late in the game on this one, BUT it all works right?

I just transferred $20 over to savings to start off my challenge. There is actually now a balance there of $47. So my starting challenge balance is $47.

My additions will be based on:

1> 10% of all coupon savings on regular weekly shopping trips (not my trips to get freebies lol).

2> All rebate checks.

3> $1 for each day we stay home and don't go anywhere.

It's a start!

I've decided I need to write down my goals and hold myself accountable for them as well.

Since this will be my first full month as a SAHM, I think all of that will come into play as well. These may be modified as the month goes on, but most will be the same!

1. Design invitations for our wedding
a> go through scrapbooking supplies and see what all I need to buy to get them done and out ASAP.

2. Spend 15 minutes a day in each room of my house (anyone else follow flylady? lol).

3. Spend 15 minutes morning and evening working on my coupons and rebates so that I miss fewer deals due to lack of organization.

4. Start a master list of chores for B-the household things I cannot do due mostly to lack of handyman skills on my part lol.

5. Arrange rentals for our wedding.

6. Start the $20 challenge TODAY!!!!!

My parents came over today and we talked about the guest list. Added 4 more people. I think I've actually decided to buy some cheap invitations and print them out at home. Still cheap, but less time intensive than doing them by hand. Realized our potluck reception idea had some flaws, so we decided to just opt for some meat trays, etc. and register at Target and Penney's for gifts. Oh well..maybe people will get us stuff for our house right? Still more than thrilled to be getting married!!!

I got another can of formula in the mail today, along with checks for more. Also, my first survey payout, a $5 gift card for gas. ya!!!! Also received a few coupons from Birds Eye, from an email I sent about one of their products. No free coupons, but any coupon is a good coupon to me!

Rite aid has had this skin care rebate deal going on since last month. For each 2 of certain products you buy, you get a $5 rebate. Well, one thing I've stocked up on is Curel lotion. They have the 2.5 oz tubes for 2.59, I have a bunch of $2 coupons from their website. So $1.18 for 2, then a $5 rebate. Nice profit huh? Also, Softsoap body wash...$1.75 each after my coupons, $5 rebate for each 2. Again, decent profit. Right now I'm looking at $165 rebate check...can we say wedding cake??? lol I need to get a plan of attack ready for tomorrow. I need to buy printer ink, and groceries, although not much in that department. But tonight..I'm tired!!!

I got 2 cans of Enfamil formula and a $7 check for formula from them as well. I had signed up on the site when i was pregnant back in March, but have since miscarried. No harm no foul, we are still trying to have another baby, so I will put the formula away for awhile. Doesn't expire until 10/07, so if we start getting close to expiration with no baby in sight, I will donate it somewhere. Also recieved coupons from one company I wrote to, our business card order from vistaprint, and the water bill. Seemed high this month, $55. So I'll check into that one.

We finally sat down and made a guest list tonight. All in all, 28 people invited. I am making the invitations myself, and they are probably 1/2 done on the intial crafting, just need to finish designing them. We decided that instead of the potluck reception we were planning, we would get some meat and cheese trays, some sparkling cider (we don't really drink), and the cake. Should spend around $300 on that including the cake. I found shoes today in my own closet (gasp!) that I'll wear, they're cream and gorgeous, ones I had bought for my sisters wedding years ago. So that's out of the way! Making progress..step by step!

Making the dollar scream is my mission in life. I've accepted that fact. I've been farting around doing points programs and paid to clicks for awhile, but today I've been getting those organized, checking balances, etc. and making my notebook so I can make sure and optimize all those programs. Lots of time in front of the computer, but worth it in the end I think!

No BILLS!!! Wohoo!

I got 2 samples in the mail today, which go into a basket for my sister's Christmas present. She's a "big class lawyer" but LOVES getting a box of my freebies for Christmas. I'mm all for that! LOL! Also some decent fast food coupons I'll keep for our once weekly eat out night. All in all it's good!

I've always been a fan of mail. Don't know why, I just love opening up the box and seeing what comes out.

Today was good!

I got a Poise sample (ordered when my grandmother was still alive, now will probably hit the yard sale pile), my last Literary Guild order (can now cancel my membership with them!), and my Refund Cents magazine. Oh ya, got the electric bill too but blah its ok!

I spent the day working on getting all my coupons and rebates organized. Good news, I'm halfway done lol. Serious couponing is almost a fulltime job in and of itself, but its my favorite hobby, and saves us money instead of costing it. Over the years of doing this, I've basically adopted an attitude of "anything free is better than nothing free". This way I don't overstress myself if I have a rough day and don't make it out to get whatever is free or so cheap. Today is one of those days, my goal was to go to Target and Rite Aid to get free stuff. Never made it to Rite Aid, but when DBF got home from work he wanted to go to Target anyway so off we went. We got more cereal cups, 40 more sticks of string cheese (will last maybe a week in this house of cheeseheads lol), and more oreos. Total out of pocket, $1.74. Cost before coupons was $30.XX. Not bad! I am so thankful to have a fiancee who is so very supportive of this hobby, despite the mountains of coupons that randomly appear throughout the house. I also got my Refund Cents magazine today, which I love. It always inspires me to head on to the next deal. So tonight I'm cuddling up with my honey and working on coupons some more. Maybe tomorrow I'll hit Rite Aid!

I read through flash's whole blog over the last few days, she is always so inspiring to me in the savings realm, and otherwise. I've started contacting companies in regards to their products, etc. and I'll see what happens.

Yesterday I printed out a bunch of Target coupons from their website and went shopping. First, we had to get my fiancee's nitro prescription ($7.49), and I had a coupon for a $10 Gift Certificate with a new prescription, so total there was $3.51 "profit". Then I got 5 bags of snack size Quaker granola bars, free after their $1 coupons, 20 of the single serve bowls of General Mills cereals for .22 each after their .75 coupons (the bowls will be recycled next spring when we start seeds for the garden), 40 single string cheeses, free after their .50 coupons (2 free for each coupon). We also picked up a few school things they had very cheap..total out of pocket was $15.

Today we went to Meijer becaues we needed twine for our tomato stakes, so we got that 1.49, plus they had mountain dew on sale for DBF, so we got 4 cases of that and a free case of Diet Pepsi Jazz (who knows..dad will drink it lol), so that was $10, and picked up a few things I had free item coupons for.

Went to Rite Aid to get the free things they had advertised in their flyer today, but they were out, and substituting anything of the same value in the school supply aisles. So I ended up getting things I actually needed, envelopes and garage sale stickers, for nothing. Plus some of the lotion I ordered came in, so I paid $9 for that, and will get back $20 in rebates on it. All in all, a good money weekend!!!

Ok, so I havent gotten married in a while (almost 10 years to be exact) lol. I never planned to get married a second time, but sometimes the man upstairs knows better for us than we do. So..enter my fiancee. He won my heart, and finally technically proposed to me on Friday night. He took me to this place call Clifty Falls, where there are TONS of beautiful waterfalls all through the park. It was raining a bit, but he had found one area where you could go down and you were beneath an overhang, but still looking out over one of these amazing waterfalls. He got down on one knee and asked me to be his wife. It was beautiful, and so romantic, and well worth the wait!

We've already decided when our wedding will be, October 7th of this year. We've also decided to get married at my parents house, under their gazebo. So no costs associated there. We want to have a "potluck" reception where guests bring prepared dishes instead of gifts. Does anyone have any suggestions for wording on the invitations? We'll have to buy a cake of course, so that will be approximately $200. I'm not going to get a wedding dress per say, I've done that once, and we want this to be low key, personal, and quite casual. So I'm going to look at Penney's, etc. for something, hopefully spending under $100. Add shoes and accessories for maybe another $40 or $50.

We have my rings already, purchased at 75% off and they're BEAUTIFUL! A $2K set for just under $400, plus we received $30 in coupons for another purchase of anything in the store (bought at Kmart). So we still have to get him a band, but he just wants a plain silver band, so figure maybe $50 or so for that.

I need to call around about renting chairs and tables for the "reception", I have no idea how much those will run. Also, going to rent a large tent just in case it rains.

Anything else I'm missing? I am going to hand make all of our invitations, already have part of them done. They are being made with my scrapbooking supplies I have on hand, so no real out of pocket cost there.

Any input is always welcome!!!

I was laying in bed last night, berating myself for yet again forgetting to update my blog, and I was thinking that I need to make use of those nifty categories, and break my postings up into smaller areas. I'm going to add a category for wedding on the cheap, our goal of saving for a truck and a van, and add to the rest of them on a regular basis. promise!

Things have been CRAZY around here for awhile...so sit back, relax, grab some coffee or water, and I'll do a big ole update.


We "closed" on our house last night. we borrowed $3,000 from my fiancee's grandmother for the downpayment, which we will pay back $200 a month. Add that to the new house payment, and we're paying $11 a month more than we were in rent, but actually BUYING our house. It wont take us long to pay off the loan anyway, and at no interest being charged, seemed like a no brainer.

Also, we set a wedding date!!! October 7th of this year. This is my 2nd marriage and his THIRD, so it will be very low key and cozy. We are getting married at my parents house, so no rental fees there. I need to make phone calls to find out how much renting a large tent and tables and chairs will be. Also, a cake and clothing for the 5 of us. But all in all, not very expensive.

We put my wedding set in layaway last weekend, found a gorgeous set 75% off at Kmart. Its beautiful and I'm so excited!

Another change is..I'm not working anymore. We sat down last night and figured out my paycheck vs. daycare, parking, etc. and found I was only bringing home $100 a week. Not worth it. We decided I'll stay home during the day which will result in less eating out since I'll cook more, more things being done with the house since I'll have more time, happier kids cuz they'll be with mommy!, plus more time to spend doing coupons/rebates and internet paid to do stuff programs. Also, I will pick up a part time job in the evenings which I'm sure will make up the $100 a week!

Also, he's wanting to start up a lawn care business, so we ordered business cards for that. Doing that has placed buying a truck over buying a van on the priority list, but I'm ok with that since I wont be driving as much anymore.

I'm excited to be doing this stay at home mom thing again, but I'm going to try my hardest to not spend money unless necessary and make our money work for us as best as we can. Any cheap wedding ideas are more than welcome!!!

For me, but not B. I stayed home today to catch up on work due to sick kid most of last week. So I actually will get paid for today lol. Going to transfer 26.92 over to ING for our $20 challenge, plus a little more for coupon savinfs, etc. Been apretty unexciting weekend, although I did buy some plants and stuff yesterday for our late start garden.

Boring boring me today lol/

Ok, so to get over yesterdays financial cuss-fest...I called the gym back and finally got to speak to the manager. I told him my issues, and he agreed to refund me $40, this months memebership + 1 to help cover the cost of the bank fees. Not the ideal solution, but a good compromise to reach instead of wasting another $10 on cell phone minutes right?

B and I had our first argument about money last night, we joined our bank accounts and he freaked out a bit. Previous relationship issues yes, but we have never fought about money before and we're working on buying a house together!!! I was pretty floored at the whole thing, but we're better now and back on the same track. We're making our first contribution tonight to the $20 challenge, so thats good.

Trying to avoid the $4 coffee as I sit freezing at my desk........

I made a MAJOR screwup today. I have been trying to call and cancel my gym membership for weeks now, and getting run around after run around. I live an hour away, so I cant just stop in or anything. Well, today they took their payment out of my account. Wouldnt be a big deal, but the $12 check I wrote for a dresser for my son was deposited yesterday (a week late), so I was $10 short in my account. (Insert lots of cussing here). So now my account is $59 overdrawn . And that will eat up the overtime pay on my check tomorrow. I am so mad at myself, plus the gym for being uncooperative. I was trying!!! So today has NOT been a no-spend day unfortunately. CRAP..I'm gonna have to tell B about it too cuz he was going to deposit money today to cover bill checks that mailed out this morning. CRAP CRAP CRAP!!!!!

I had my first no spend day today since joining this forum. I had to go to work, so I guess TECHNICALLY I spent money for gas, but since my commute has been cut from over an hour to less than 10 minutes, I can take that. I skipped my $4 coffee weakness, but mostly that was because my son was sick so I had to leave work early. lol

I spent the day unpacking some more, and organizing my coupons. My binder is FULL, I need to find some more of the baseball card sheets I use, I know I have some around here SOMEWHERE. I joined a new rewards program today too, so that will help.

I am always looking for referrals to good, reliable paying reward and survey sites, so if you know of any, drop me a line. I'm looking forward to grocery shopping this weekend and seeing how I can do coupon wise. The store here doubles coupons up to .75 every day WOOHOO!

I talked to B about doing the $1 trial offers for GC's and he said it was cool as long as I remember to cancel them. So I'll do them from work where I have Outlook and can set the reminders to cancel. I also remembered to mail in my computer rebates today. I'm on track and still feeling good about this!

I broke down today..bought my $4 cup of coffee. OUCH! My office is kept FREEZING cold (note to self: bring a jacket!!!), and the free coffee seriously tastes like it has a substance in it that should never pass human lips. I told myself I would stop spending $4 a day on coffee, but today I broke down. I can start that whole no $4 coffee thing Friday right???

Had a great mail day yesterday..got my Bzzzkit for Aquapods which included 2 bottles of the water ( so cool for kids, 11 oz of Ice Mountain water in a bubble shaped bottle), a coupon for a free 8 pack and .50 coupons for me to pass out to others..also got a free full sized tube of Jergens Daily Glow facial moisturizer from a contest and a few other things. Today I got my Netflix movie and the free 5x7 picture I won in a Kodak contest. It's the little things right?

Taking inspiration from a few other blogs I've read, I wrote to Reynolds today about their Slow Cooker liners, I had gotten some ridiculously cheap with coupons, and since I use my slow cooker so much I finally used one last night. Well, the thing leaked!!! Kinda defeats the purpose doesnt it? So we'll see what happens with that one.

Talked to B last night about the $20 challenge, and he said it was a great idea so we're going to start on Friday when we get paid since we dont have $20 to our name at the moment.

Also today I finally remembered to print out the rebate forms for my new computer, so I'll get those sent in tomorrow. That will be $100 for our challenge account when those come in. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, and its pretty!!!! LOL!

Thanks for the inspiration everyone..I'm off to read The Tightwad Gazette!

I figure thats about accurate for now. We just moved a few weeks ago, and used all of our meager savings to do so. BTW, deposits SUCK! We are both working now, which is definitely a good thing, but trying to get on our feet is rough. I started re-reading The Complete Tightwad Gazette (again), and that just got me all motivated. We want to buy the house we are currently living in, and are contracted to do so, with a downpayment of $3,000 being due September 1st. My fiancee isnt real serious about the saving money thing, he is in spirit, but the reality isnt quite there. He says, I want to get this, and this, and this, and this...and I'm like..wait! we dont need to buy that now!!! He will listen to an extent, but I'm trying to get him to read that book, and the forums with me, to try and get his head in the right place.

Ok, so anyway, right now we have $56 in checking, $5 in savings. I opened an ING account this weekend so I can start putting money away there. I've been tracking all of my coupon savings, and after talking it over with B (my fiancee), we decided that 10% of all coupon savings, all rebate checks, etc. will be deposited in this account, along with whatever else we can do. I'm cruising the site, trying to figure out how to navigate, as well as what the heck the $20 challenge is, and I'm learning alot along the way.

I'm 26 years old, and I'm finally learning how to become an adult financially. YA ME!!!!!