Putting the Plan Into Action

Now that I've had some time to internalise everything that has happened last week, I'm ready to start putting our Action Plan into place. Hubby and I have talked and talked about what we can do to keep things on an even keel around here until I find somthing else to bring in an income. The way I figure it, we will have a reduced income until February 28th, and then after that, who knows? There is so much that is unknown and to tell you the truth, I'm a little bit scared. But now is the time to really prioritise what is important to us and what is just 'nice to have'. Even when we had gobs and gobs of debt, I wasn't as willing to let go of things as I am now. Knowing that there is *some* money in the bank to see us through is certainly helping me to sleep at night.

Here's a list of actions I'll be taking to reduce our expenditures:

• go to the bank and temporarily stop RRSP, RESP and House downpayment contributions.
• calling cellphone provider and reducing plans to something more affordable.
• make a freezer and cupboard inventory; we need to eat what we have to reduce grocery costs.
• inventory items that can be sold to list on Kijijii and other sites.
• list items on Kijijii; have already started with two.

As for looking for other work, I have an appointment on Wednesday to get some help from an employment counsellor. Also, I had an unexpected tip on a possible job lead kind of within my field, but not quite. However, I will be in contact with them to see if they are interested in hiring me. Fingers crossed.

I'll be going over my invoicing tomorrow to see how much money that I am owed from various companies, as well as making sure that I pay any outstanding invoices from my business. I'd like to get as close to a clean slate as I can, before we start feeling the pinch of living on one income.

Unit Pricing

When you are shopping for the best deals, do you use unit pricing as part of your expense reducing strategy? If not, maybe you should consider it. This strategy alone could save you tons of cash.

What is unit pricing?
When you purchase a case of individual drinks, like a case of pop, or a multi-pack of dry goods, like six boxes of facial tissues, the entire package is a certain price. The cost of one individual can, bottle or tissue would be the unit price.

If a case of 12 boxes of macaroni & cheese is $6.88, the unit price would be ($6.88 / 12 =) $0.573 each. If you are paying $1.25 per single box, you could potentially save $8.12 ( or $0.68 per box).

This type of price comparison is more important when you have two like products but different packaging standards. An example of this would be bottled water. If you want to compare product A which sells water in a case of 15 X 500mL bottles for $0.88 and product B which sells water in a case of 24 (with a bonus of 4 bottles for a total of 28) X 500mL bottles at $2.44.

An individual bottle of Product A would be $0.88 / 15 = $0.058 per 500 mL.

An individual bottle of Product B would be $2.44 / 28 = $0.087 per 500 mL.

Where this really becomes important is when you have coupons. Lets say you had a coupon for Product B, for $1 off the purchase of a case of 24. Firstly, the coupon qualifies for the purchase because the additional four bottles are a bonus from the manufacturer, if they typically do not sell the product in packaging of 28. You would then be purchasing 28 X 500mL bottles for $0.051 each.

Here's the math:
$2.44 - $1 Manufacturer coupon = $1.44 / 28 = $0.051 per 500mL bottle.

When shopping for items that you buy regularly, you should be inputting the Unit Price into your Price Book (you do have a Price Book, don't you) so that you can compare at a glance what seems like a good deal while you're at the store. If the unit price isn't below or near your set point for cost, you know that it's not as good a deal as it is advertised to be.

Over time, using this tool can really help you to reduce your spending. Just remember to actually 'save' your savings. Put the money you don't spend in your savings account, or RRSP where it can actually do some good, instead of just spending that money on something else.

Frugal Cooking

Hubby came home from work today, not feeling so well. I think it may be the dreaded flu that's going around and kicking everyone in the butt! I don't really want to spend a whole lot of money these days (the CRA thing has got me terrified) so I thought I should be a good girl, and make something yummy for dinner.

Enter Club House Slow Cooker Chicken Noodle Soup Starter. I have several of these in the cupboard that I bought on sale last month. I wish I could upload a picture of the package, or even find one online to show you, but alas, I cannot. Try googling it. It comes in a pretty blue package.

I had some leftover chicken breast in the fridge, so I chopped that up. I had to purchase some veggies for the soup, but I did manage to snag 2 celery bunches (heads? stalks? ribs? WTH is the correct terminology anyway?) for 99 cents on the reduced rack, and a package of baby carrots for another 99 cents. I also had to buy egg noodles which was on sale for $1.47. Between the celery, carrots and noodles, I should be able to get another 3 or 4 batches of soup out of what I have. :) I'll be chopping the remaining veg, cooked chicken thighs (I already had theses in the fridge) and putting one cup of each into freezer bags, so when I want to make more, I can just dump it, with the seasoning package and water,  into the crock pot and I'm set for the day.

Now, let's see if I'm any good at math:

~ package of chicken thighs (on sale) : $ 4.07
~ celery: $ 0.99
~ baby carrots: $ 0.99
~ onions (on hand)
~ egg noodles: $ 1.47
~ seasoning package: $ 1.25 each, so $ 3.75

$11.27 for three batches of Crock pot Chicken Noodle soup. Give or take. I had onions already and one cooked chicken breast, so add another $3 onto the total. About $15 for several meals.

Not bad. Not bad at all.

They also have a Vegetable Beef Soup Starter for the crock pot that I will be trying out sometime this month. I'd love to try lots of different kinds of recipes for my crock, but I live with some really picky eaters. I am on the hunt for good crock pot meal recipes, so if you have a favourite, please share with me.

Now if I could only find the Crock pot cooking liners in any store around here. Maybe I could get a friend from the US to send me a pack?

My Wee Garden is Growing

We live in an apartment, so there is no backyard for us to grow things in. I would love to be able to have the room to plant a full vegetable garden, but that is not yet to be.

I love growing vegetables. Years ago, I would plant in my sisters humongous yard with her, and reap the harvest that we both took care of. Now, my garden is reduced to planting a few choices veggies in pots that live on my balcony.

In pot # 1, I planted some green onions that I sprouted from grocery bought ones. The end cuttings in water got the roots going, and into the dirt they went. The birds who like to hang out on my balcony railing have picked away at the tops of these,  so I am currently making a plastic canvas wind sock type thing to hang in the area to keep the birds away. After the onions took root in their new home, I sprinkled lettuce seeds around the plants to try to make the most of the limited space that I have available.

Pot # 2 is home to radishes. Before I planted the seeds, I 'planted' a home made irrigation system ( 2L pop bottle with well placed holes in it) to keep the little guys well watered. Cub and I then made a 'racetrack' in the dirt around the top of the bottle with his toy bulldozer. We sprinkled radish seeds in the racetrack and covered them with a dirt blanket. I'm happy to report that 4 days later, they have already sprouted and are beginning their journey to our table.

In # 3, I put a mixture of cherry tomato seeds and pepper seeds. In the past few years, I would sprout seeds indoors, and plant only the hardiest plants in the pot, only to have the birds eat the plants, leaving me next to nothing. this year, I've planted dozens of seeds in the same container, in the hopes that I may get one or two plants of each after the birds have their fill.

If I had a yard to plant a full garden in, I would plant tomatoes, cucumbers, potatoes, carrots, squash, pumpkin, onions, lettuce, radishes, garlic, beans and peas. Oh how I miss those days in the garden, getting dirt under my nails.

Do you grow your own veggies? Have you ever had space challenges with gardening?

Coming Back and New Goals

I have missed the blogging community greatly. I felt like I was part of something, and then I was missing out on the friendship and sharing. But it had to be done. I had so much to say, but I was under wraps for awhile (self-imposed). I know me. I have trouble keeping my mouth shut, lol. But now, I can talk a little more freely about what has been happening.

The big news is that the company I work for has opened an office location right here in London. I'm still working part-time hours, and if all goes well, I should be out from under my probationary period in the next week or so. This will enable me to serve my client families more efficiently.

My goals for working with this company are to become a full-time employee, to gain status as a managing director, and eventually be able to 'buy-in' as silent ( Ha- who am I kidding? I'm never silent!) partner for this location.

In anticipation of major changes ahead in the next few years, I'm forging forward with personal and financial goals also.

Toward the beginning of the year, I opened yet another RRSP account at my bank. I put a small deposit in, and left it be. No further deposits to date. After thinking about it for a time, I realised that I could use this account as my 'Home Down payment Fund'. Using  the Home Buyers Plan, I can 'borrow' my own money from my RRSP, up to $25,000 toward the purchase of a home. Meanwhile, any deposits I make will count toward my RRSP contributions for that year, giving me a small break on the amount of tax I will owe.

Still with me this far? Good.

I will still have to 'pay that money back', but since it's mine, there won't be any outrageous interest fees associated with it (at least none that I am aware of). Just a repayment schedule that the government defines.

So off to the bank I went, and signed a paper to say that they could take $25 per pay out of my chequing and put into the 'House RRSP Fund'. I know it will take me a hundred years or so to save up a down payment at that rate, but it's a starting point, ya know?

Seeing as I've hit the big 4-0, I've been thinking lots and lots about where my life is headed, where I am right now, and where I want to be in the future. I want to have a home of our very own, however modest it may be. I want to have money in the bank should the day ever come that I want to semi-retire. (I'm pretty sure if I ever fully retire, it will be due to health reasons only.) I'm putting away money to help partially pay for my kids post-secondary educations. Our debt is almost gone...Can you say U-RAH to that!!!! We've finally gotten that consumer debt monster down to something manageable.

On the other side of the coin, it looks like we will be shopping for a newer vehicle this year. Well, we have been looking for awhile, and I have absolutely nothing saved up for a new van, but we will need to replace it I think. A van is vital to my employment, so hopefully we can get a good deal on a 1 or 2 year old used one. I'm hoping for a Dodge Grand Caravan with Stow-N-Go seating, but we will see. I will not be taking out another 7 year long, $28,000 car loan, that's for sure.

One of these days, I will get around to updating my reading list. I've read a ton of books over the last little while, which has certainly helped my keep my shopping habit under control. Speaking of shopping, I'm working at the couponing again to keep our grocery costs down with budget limits. I think this is the first May in the last 5 years that we have stuff in the pantry, cupboards and freezer and I don't feel like an unfit parent. I'm anticipating what we will need over a given period and stocking up (not extreme couponer style) some of the things that we regularly use when its on sale.
I'm feeling good about life these days. I hope it lasts.

What are you feeling good about today?

Shopping and Dinner

I went shopping yesterday.

I had read all the flyers and made a careful list. I need to stretch every dollar I possibly can right now. I wish the budget wasn't so darn tight but it is what it is.

I got Palmolive Dish soap, 1.1L for $1.73 at Canadian Tire yesterday. I bought 4 of them. I love stocking up on things when I find a great deal. I also picked up some Christmas wrap that was on sale, and a few stocking stuffers there. Who would have thought that CT would have good prices on seasonal candy?

Next stop, No Frills. They are having another one of their $1, $2, $3 sales and some of the deals were hard to pass up. While there, I realized that lean ground beef was on sale as well, so I bought two of the family sized packs. I used one for dinner, and split the other one up for the freezer.

When I got home after picking up the kidlets, I put stuff away, and packed up two reusable grocery bags of foodstuffs for DD1's house. She has recently gone back to work full-time after mat leave, and they are struggling once again. Her BF is having trouble finding and staying employed, so they have opted for him to stay home and look after grandcub while DD1 works to provide for their little family. They have exhausted all of their resources, and are grateful for any help in the next month while they are adjusting to the new schedule.

I wish I could have run to the bank, and taken out money for them to survive, but I can't. I want to fix the problem for them, but I can't do that either. But I realized that having stocked up on all the sales I can, I am able to help them with pantry items that I have. Baby wipes, t.p., soups, jam and bread from the freezer, peanut butter, sugar, cereal, rice mixes, all gleaned from our cupboards. It made me feel better and they were very grateful for the help.

Anyway, for dinner I made homemade burgers, with all the fixings. Mine ended up being a mushroom bacon cheeseburger. With fries, pickles and olives on the side. :) For dinner we had 3 adults, 2 tweenagers (DD2's fave girl cousin of the same age is here for the weekend), 1 toddler, and a 10 month old. All fed and happy on under  $20 worth of groceries bought on sale over time.
I. Love. That.

I am still making (knitting) gifts for my family to reduce costs. This is likely going to be our most frugal holidays ever. But it will be ok. Everyone knows that we are struggling financially, and are not so worried about stuff. We watched "The Grinch That Stole Christmas" after dinner, and it led to a discussion about 'Christmas not coming from a store'. That it was about being together with the ones you love, and who love you. The tweens seemed to 'get' it, and that's all I can hope for.

Happy Friday

" Even if you are on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there." - Will Rogers

There has been lots going on in my head, and with me in general.

I cleaned out the freezers and took some time to do some stocking up on items that we will use for the next few months. Here are my purchases over the last couple of days:

1x Sirloin Tip Roast, $ 11.66
1x Package Ground Beef, $11.06
8x 1 lb Unsalted Butter, $23.04
2x McCain Frozen Cream Pies, $2.58
1x 10 lb bag potatoes, $1.88
3x 1L Oasis 100% juice, $2.97
3x Pillsbury Apple Turnovers, $6.00
8x Dr. Oetker Frozen Pizzas, $24.00
4x Knorr Rice/Pasta Mixes, 4.00
1 each chicken & beef bullion cubes, $3.00
3x Glad Cling Wrap, $3.00
3x Oatmeal Crisp Triple Berry Cereal, $9.00
2x Pillsbury Crescent Rolls, $3.74
2 lb bag Macintosh Apples, $2.00
3x 90-100 count bagged frozen cooked shrimp, $9.00


There was a lot more, but I don't want to bore you with the details. However, I'm not done with the shopping just yet.

Tomorrow and Sunday, Shopper's Drug Mart is having a 'Spend Your Points Event' , where you get additional dollar amounts in free purchase if you redeem your points over 50,000.
I've combined their sales items from the flyer, along with redeeming 50,000 of my accumulated points. If I've done my math correctly, I will get $100.99 (before taxes) of products for $14.12.
I like to think of it as my version of Extreme Couponing, without the actual coupons, lol!

Products purchased will be:
4 x 2kg bags of sugar @ $1.99 each
4 x Life Brand 2-roll paper towels @ $0.49 each
4 x 24 roll Royale Toilet Tissue @ $5.99 each
2 x Oral B Children's Toothpaste @ $1.88 each
2 x Herbal Essences hair care @ 2/$5.00 each
4 x Vim Cream Cleanser @ $0.99 each
1 x Aleve Tablets @ 9.99
1 x 4 pk Tic Tacs @ $3.49
1 x 320 count Pampers Baby Wipes @ $9.99
2 x Sunsilk shampoo (with free 355 ml conditioner) @ 3.99 each
2 x Balea 2-in-1 Kids Shampoo/Bodywash @ 3.99 each
1 x Trident gum, 4 pack $2.99
2 x Pringles Chips @ 1.99 each

This will give me a head start on some of the stocking stuffers that I typically buy for Christmas, along with a few things to stock up on.

I'm hoping that this weeks shopping excursions will help to lower our costs overall for grocery spending and planned holiday spending.

Have you been shopping this week?

Strawberry Freezer Jam

I was totally inspired by Kristen over at The Frugal Girl with her post on homemade freezer jam.

The last couple of years, as I have been learning to make things from scratch, I have made a few things that were a bit out of the standard for me. Two years ago, I made Blueberry Freezer Jam. It was good, but it wasn't quite as wonderful as I thought it would be. This year I decided to try Strawberry Freezer Jam.

After school today, I headed to the thriving metropolis of Lambeth. Well, just to the west of Lambeth, to Millar Berry Farms to get the kidlets to help me pick some strawberries. I was saddened to learn that the Pick-Your-Own fruit isn't ready yet, but they did have plenty of ripe delicious berries for sale.

I bought two, 3L baskets of 'imperfect' fruit for $3.00 each, and a six pack of pints for $23.00. We also bought fresh asparagus that was cut less than an hour before we showed up, and some rhubarb stalks.

Stopping at the TSC store on the way back to London (the east side of Lambeth), I bought a case of 12, 500mL canning jars, perfect for jam. I also picked up some liquid pectin. Total: $20.00.

I ended up with 9-500mL jars and 4-8 oz. jars of strawberry freezer jam. I also quartered some berries and bagged them for the freezer, and had some leftovers to slice to add to some vanilla ice cream for dessert.

I figure the total cost of making the jams/bags came to about $53.36.
If I were to purchase the same amounts of commercial jam, bags of frozen berries, and sliced berries, it would have set me back about $62.83.

I still have 3 jars left to fill with something though. I wonder when the raspberries will be ready?

How I Keep Our Grocery Costs in Check

Ok, so it's definitely not scientific by any means, but it works for us. Which means it's likely to work for others as well. Or some variation of it anyway.

The first thing I needed to do was develop a price book.  Click here to learn more about the hows and whys of price books. I used a spiral bound notebook and wrote down the sale items each week from fliers of each of the major stores. I also tracked the prices of items that we purchase on a weekly basis. Each product was labelled by name, size, price, and unit price.

Unit price is a way of determining cost per unit of product ie. per toilet paper sheet, or per diaper. Example: a box of 80 diapers is $29.99. Divide total cost by number of units = unit price.

$29.99 / 80 = app. 37 cents per diaper.

Using the calculator on my cell phone, I can calculate the unit price on a product right in the store. After several months of watching prices, you will see some recurring sale items, and some patterns in the pricing of those items. You may notice that typical baking items (sugar, flour, etc.) will go on sale every 6-8 weeks or so. Or that a certain brand of coffee will only go on sale every 6 months. Having a price book will help you to anticipate when products are more likely to go on sale so that you can purchase enough of a particular item just until it goes on sale again.

Knowing what things your family typically eats and how to reduce costs on those items is important. For example, we eat kidney beans in several of our favourite dishes. Reducing the cost for that item proved to easier for us by switching from cans of beans in liquid to buying dried kidney beans at the bulk store. When I need them for a recipe, I soak a cup of beans in water overnight, and gently boil them until tender before including them in my recipe. I purchase bulk spices and mix them together at home for chili seasoning, seasoned salt, Italian seasoning, and taco mix.

I keep a running list on the door of the fridge of items that are almost gone, like body wash, or dish soap. When a sale comes along that I can get a great price on those items, I buy 6 of that particular item. I consult my price book to see what the item sold for the cheapest in the past 6 months. If it is the same, or less than that price, then I buy. You may find that 6 of a given item is too much or not enough for your household, but as you work through it, you will figure out how much of anything you really need to have on hand.

Another tactic we use to keep our items from running out is to simply use less. Every time I'm in the shower, I reduce the amount of shampoo that I squeeze from the bottle into my hand. I note mentally the size of the dollop in my hand, so that I know how much to use (the size of a dime instead of the size of a quarter). Too often, most people use way more of a product than is actually needed to produce the required results.

Menu plans have their place in achieving your financial goals as do making things from scratch. If bread or rolls are something that your family eats frequently, learn to make them yourself. The cost of the ingredients and your time are typically less than of commercial bread products. Make your own stock from chicken carcasses, meat bones, or from vegetable scraps.  

I don't have the privilege of having a backyard, so I am unable to grow our own produce. If I did, I'm sure I would be growing our own tomatoes and peppers at the very least. If you've never had a vegetable garden before, try growing one thing that your family will eat, like potatoes or onions. These are virtually goof-proof to grow.

These are most of the things I do to keep our home well stocked with the things we eat, and the things we use regularly. Feel free to add comments with your own methods. :)

Batch Freezer Cooking - Ground Beef

As part of my frugal lifestyle-in-training, I find the idea of batch freezer cooking to be one of the best tips that I've come across. The idea itself is not unique, but it certainly is a timesaver.

What does batch freezer cooking entail? Well, for me, it may be a bit different than for others. Some people will spend an entire day preparing everything for 4 or more different casserole dishes, cooking them, letting them cool, wrapping them in aluminum foil, and putting them in the freezer. For me though, I try to do things a bit simpler.

Many of the dishes that I prepare for my family and that they like start with some of the same main meat ingredient. Ground beef. Plain old hamburger. I take a lot of ground beef, say 5 to 10 pounds of the stuff, and brown it. I make sure its very crumbly by breaking it up oftern while browning it over a medium-low heat on the stovetop. I'll add diced onion and garlic, and some of our favourite spices, particularly chili powder. Not enough to make your eyes water, but just enough so that you can smell it cooking in the beef juices.

When it's finished browning, I drain the fat away using a large collander. If your family is on a fat-reduced meal plan like mine is, then you could pat the ground beef with paper towels to extract more of the remaining fat. I will take out a portion of the cooked ground beef for whatever dish I am making that night, then let the collander of ground beef sit for awhile, until it has cooled enough to handle. After cooling, the ground beef gets spread on a clean cookie sheet in a reasonably thin layer. The cookie sheet goes directly into the freezer above our fridge for half an hour or so. This rapid cooling/partial freezing helps the ground beef retain its crumbly texture.

Using a measuring cup, I measure out portions into reusable plastic containers. Some get 1 cup, some get 2, depending on how many containers I have available to me at the time. The sealed containers then get stacked and put into the apartment sized deep freezer that we have. They are ready for use at any time. You should probably not let them stay in the freezer for more than 12 months, but my ground beef containers never stay in the freezer for more than a month. Did I mention we eat alot of ground beef?

When I'm days that I'm feeling too lazy to do any real cooking, or if I know I'm going to be compressed for time, I can pull out a container from the freezer. Our standby meals using this mixture are: tacos, chili, spaghetti, shepard's pie, and another dish I make that has no name, but is comprised of the ground beef mix, a can of diced tomatoes, mixed with cooked elbow macaroni and topped with shredded cheese. Yum!

I haven't yet ventured into other batch freezer cooking ideas, but if they all suit us as well as this one does, I'm sure going to like pre-planning our meals a whole lot more. The benefits of doing this one thing save us money by not having to order out, or eat out as much, saving money by purchasing larger quantities of ground beef when it is on sale, as well as being able to provide a home cooked for my family when time is limited.

Do you use any batch freezer methods that are simple, yet extremely helpful? Please share your ideas.

Learning the basics of home cooking

I read an interesting article today about how to save money on your grocery budget by meal planning, buying in bulk and making the majority of your meals at home from scratch. I have always liked this idea, but lacked the basic kitchen knowledge in order to make the easiest of things like bread, soup or stew. My kitchen knowledge has always been very limited, and attempts in the past to learn to cook were met with ridicule from my former partner.

More Month than Money: Tightening Your Food Budget While Feeding Your Family Well by Tracy Rimmer is a downloadable document that may serve as a basis for me learn things that I had always thought were outside of my abilities. I used to think that making bread was an enormous task, and that making stew that was delicious and thick was next to impossible. Rimmer provides basic recipes that one should learn when trying to feed a family of any size.

She also provides a sample of weekly meal planning, accompanied by weekly and monthly grocery lists, as well an annual grocery list to illustrate the idea of planning similar weekly meals and purchasing in bulk could save you money on your grocery bills.

To view the downloadable document, visit New Century Homestead.com or http://www.newcenturyhomestead.com/documentcategory?category=FoodPlanning