tightening the belt…

After I knew for sure that I was going to be back in school next year, we got to looking at the budget and we’re going to have to make some major cutbacks.  Especially since I won’t be working any more (I’ll have a bit of financial aid, but nothing near what I’m currently making.  Which isn’t actually much since I’m a teacher, lol.)  We want to get as much paid off as possible before my last paycheck in August as we can.

Here are the things we’ve gotten paid off so far…

• Two credit cards (which I’ve since put a bit more back on so they again need to be paid off)
• my engagement + wedding ring

Things we want to get paid off before August 25th…

• My credit cards (again, lol)
• Our TV (which was our Christmas gift to each other)
• Justin’s truck (he doesn’t owe too much on it)
• my contacts (whole other story…I have an eye disease and the eye doc wanted to try some special contacts on me, but they ended up not working.  So I got financing through care credit for a $2,000 pair of contacts that I can’t wear.  Biggest waste of money ever)

If we can get all of these things paid off before I head back to school it will free up a good $800 or so a month.

We also want to build our savings a bit more because we really want to buy a house this summer.  Lofty goals huh?

Well, the first thing that we’ve cut in the budget is food.  Wah 🙁

But I seriously spend waaaay too much money on food.  Like, I’ve been spending 5-600 bucks a month in the grocery store.  Yup.

So I’ve cut the budget way back and my goal is $250/month for groceries.  The first thing I did to try and save money grocery wise is get a costco membership (I simply refuse to shop at Wal-Mart.  I hate that place!).  Wowy- wow, I love that place!  The best thing that will come out of it is the gigantic quantities of fruits and veggies that I can get so inexpensively!  I can no longer afford the organic fruits and veggies unfortunately.  And that sucks, but I’d rather buy a house honestly.  I’ll just have to get over it.

Look at these massive quantities of the veggies that I got!

SIX, count em SIX romaine hearts for around $3!!  This would have cost well over $10 in the regular grocery store!  And this will last for about two weeks.  Can you believe that?!

GIGANTO bag of broccoli for (I think) $3.99!!  I’m going to freeze half of it and save it for cooking/stir fry.  I can use this in so many different ways.  This three pounds of broccoli would have cost me probably $7-8 in the regular grocery store.

Monster bag of Asparagus.  2.25 lbs!  I think I’ll freeze some of this as well.  I see lots of stir frys coming up!  In the regular store this would probably cost around $10- I paid $4.99.

Look at these blackberries.  They are gorgeous!  This is a pound I think- around 5 bucks.  No telling what this would he been at the regular store, probably around $15 or so.  Crazy!

And look at this MONSTEROUS container of strawberries for $6!!!

I don’t even want to think about how much this would cost in the regular store.

Really big container of cherry tomatoes.  Justin (AKA hubby) eats these things like candy- he loves tomatoes!  I think these were around $4.  At the regular store they would have been somewhere around $15-$20.

And my splurge item!  Dried fruit/nut mix.  This was $11 BUT it will last us a really long time.  And.it.is.fabulous!  I have already munched on it a couple of times.  LOVE!!

It has in it…

• peanuts
• almonds
• walnuts
• apples
• kiwi
• mangoes
• papaya
• pineapple
• strawberries
• bananas
• cherries
• raisins

I also found some antibiotic free all-natural boneless skinless chicken breast.  (no picture).

Wow, can you believe the deals I got?!?!  Then I had to stop at the local grocery for a few things that we needed small quantities of.  All in all, I spent $109.  I normally spend around $140 per grocery trip.  And this stuff will last at least 2 weeks (some of it will last longer).  I think I will make my budget- no problemo!

Cheers!!