Sunday, March 25, 2012

Operation Bill Shrinkage Update

I have met my goal!!! I managed to save myself $1055 annually by making changes to my Direct TV bill. I went down a package from Choice Xtra to Choice (cut about 90 channels) and dropped HBO and Showtime. I'm thrilled. So much so that I've decided to up my goal to $2000. I'm going to calculate my gas and groceries cost and add them into the mix. Hopefully by changing habits in those areas I can see significant savings as well. I tried to downgrade my ancestry.com subscription online but unfortunately you have to call...I'm hoping to get back to my previous subscription price of only $20.00.


APS (electric) - average $80
Southwest Gas - average $80
State Farm Insurance - $151.00
Direct TV - $125.00 reduced to $93 DONE
T-mobile - $76.00
Century Link - have not received first bill yet
Netflix - was $21.84 reduced to $7.99 DONE
Ancestry.com - $34.99
Arizona Republic - $4.64
Car Payment - $374.00
Rent - $561.00
*Verizon wireless - $82.07
Spotify - $10.00 - CXLD
Hulu Plus - $7.99 - CXLD
MyFico.com - $4.95 - CXLD
Experian - $17.95 - CXLD

Baby Steps

I wrote out a list of my bills and I'm evaluating each one to see if there is a way to reduce them:

APS (electric) - average $80
Southwest Gas - average $80
State Farm Insurance - $151.00
Direct TV - $125.00
T-mobile - $76.00
Century Link - have not received first bill yet
Netflix - was $21.84 reduced to $7.99 DONE
Ancestry.com - $34.99
Arizona Republic - $4.64
Car Payment - $374.00
Rent - $561.00
*Verizon wireless - $82.07
Spotify - $10.00 - CXLD
Hulu Plus - $7.99 - CXLD
MyFico.com - $4.95 - CXLD
Experian - $17.95 - CXLD

Today I tackled my Netflix account. I'm the person who takes out books from the library and never returns them. I know - a serious character flaw. With Netflix I would get my two movies and hang on to them - for like a year. Such a complete waste of money. We do frequently use the streaming feature though. I dug out the movies I've had for..um, forever, and returned them. Then I downgraded my subscription to streaming only. That's a savings of $144 a year.

Some other easy cuts - I'm going to cancel the last 4 items on the list for a savings of $43 per month - that's a savings of $516 per year. So far today I've saved myself $660. I'd like to see if I can get it to $1000 savings per year. Stay tuned...

Saturday, March 24, 2012

Grocery Shopping Report Card : C

So everyone makes mistakes sometime....here are a few blunders I made shopping today:

1. I went off the list. I picked up frozen waffles, a cake mix and frosting and cupcake liners, flavored carbonated water, and a loaf of bread. Those extras ring it at about $10 including tax. Had I not gone off the list my total would have been about $50.00.

2. I wasn't coupon prepared. I clipped some this afternoon but often the store brand or another brand of that item was cheaper than the one I had a coupon for...even once you deduct the price of the coupon. Not good. I ended up using only 2 of the 12 or so coupons I went shopping with.

3. I forgot to buy the toiletry and beauty items I need. I'm hoping to score good coupons from the Sunday paper tomorrow for things like toilet paper, hair dye, and tooth paste.

Overall I give myself a C. I kept my cost under $100 but I wasn't buying any meat. I also avoided many impulse buys - it's hard to fault myself for a loaf of wheat bread or whole grain waffles to use that bottle of syrup on that I found this morning. I could have skipped the flavored water - it's not that good for me considering it has aspartame.

Good news...I scored a $5 off coupon for some frozen food items and a 20% off coupon for Payless that doesn't expire for another 2 weeks. I do need some shoes so I think that's a great score. I also found a certificate for a free oil change at a local garage in some junk mail I finally went through.

Here's hoping my next shopping trip goes better!

Pantry Raid

With my first goal in mind: To drastically reduce my food bill and improve my health by losing weight through diet, I perpetrated a pantry raid...not to be confused with a panty raid. What I found was disturbing. I have plenty of items to make meals with - a chili kit, taco seasoning, pasta, mac and cheese, scalloped potatoes, tuna etc. I also raided my freezer and am embarrassed to admit what I found - ground beef, pork and turkey, pork chops, boneless skinless chicken thighs, frozen meatballs, pizza dough, pot roast I made about a month ago and froze the leftovers. So I'm heading to the store with a short list, some coupons and a plan.

Typically I spend about $100 any time I go to the grocery store. Here's hoping I'm able to spend much less than that. Here are my goals for the next two weeks to cut my food bill and start losing some weight:

1. Eat cereal, oatmeal, or toast for breakfast from my pantry rather than buy a burrito as I normally do
2. Take my lunch - frozen dinner, leftovers, or a sandwich - rather than buy a fast food or cafeteria meal
3. Eat at home as often as possible with the exception of "school" nights when I will use a coupon to pick something up on the way to work.
4. Swap soda for green tea, iced tea, crystal light or water
5. Have healthy snacks at the ready - fruits, veggies, and rice cakes - in order to avoid the vending machine

Wish me luck - I will let you know how my first shopping trip goes!

Taming the Beast

I've decided to get my finances under control. The title of this blog post is Taming the Beast and the beast ladies and gentleman...is me. I overspend, overindulge, and over consume in almost every aspect of my life. And quite frankly, I'm over it. In one week I turn 36 and I've decided to take the next four years and do some serious achieving. Here are my goals in general...as time goes on I will identify what's long term, short term and even micro term meaning a weekly or maybe monthly goal.

1. Drastically reduce my food bill and improve my health through diet by losing weight.
2. Save an emergency fund...not sure how many months I plan to save for yet
3. Cut unnecessary costs by evaluating monthly expenditures
4. Build a professional wardrobe without breaking the bank
5. Buy a house
6. Start a side business for additional cash flow
7. Furnish my home to make it as nice as possible but do so in a thrifty manner
8. Pay no fees - do what needs to be done to avoid late or convenience fees
9. Graduate with my bachelor's degree in business by December of 2012
10. Graduate with my MBA by 2016
11. Earn a full time salary position at work (currently in a temp salary position although I have a regular hourly position waiting for me when my assignment is over in September)
12. Take care of costly dental work

Over the next week or so I plan to solidify my goals and I will share that information here. If you're looking for someone to tell you how to save I'm not your girl...if you want to join me on this journey and learn with me....let's get started!