Pork, the other white meat

Last week Chris saw an amazing sale at Loblaws grocery store on pork. Remember when he did that a few years ago? Yup, well it happened again!

The best way for us to save money on groceries is to hunt through the flyers and buy what's on sale. So, if there is an amazing deal on pork, we buy it -- and buy a lot! Thankfully we have a five cubic foot freezer where we can stock up on meat and other things to freeze and so that sure helps our savings, but I gotta tell you, what we paid for the darn freezer wasn't a great savings!

We were stupid once, too y'know. Chris and I didn't know about the whole Dave Ramsey plan back and in the day, and so we saw one of those rent to own furniture places and thought we could buy a freezer through them. Well, yeah we could buy a freezer at their store, but it turned out we spent three times more money buying this darn freezer than if we had just saved up the money ourselves! Never again! Nope, nuh uh....!

Thankfully, we've moved on from such dumb mistakes, and we're utilizing this very expensive little freezer to its fullest by saving up big time when it comes to freezing food in the darn thing.

Last time we saw a sale like this we bought pork shoulders. Humongous pork shoulders! I remember that meat just lasted forever and this time is really no different with this pork. It might not be the shoulder of the pig but we still have some amazing top quality meat.

When Chris was cutting the pork chops down to size he really examined the quality of the meat and said it was a really good cut. Nothing cheap and at only $2/lbs (CDN) it was SO worth it! Yes, we got $70 worth of meat, but it'll last us at least a year with 109 pork chops! (That's 35 lbs of meat! That Chris carried home in his backpack on the bus! What a trooper that guy is!)

So, my challenge to you is to search those flyers and be willing to use a little of your food budget for the latest great sale. If it's something you know you or your family will eat, don't hesitate to stock up and freeze it.

Chris and I have decided that once we're debt-free we plan to put $20 extra aside every month just for food sales like these. Eventually having an extra $100 once or twice a year to buy an exceptional sale will save us a ton of money!

Taxes are paid!

Well, our taxes were filed two weeks ago. It was nice to get it all done in time. This year was our first full year just having our annuity income as the only source of income at all, so it was a guessing game about just how much taxes we would have to pay.

We had been paying our taxes every month, as I made an estimate as to what they would be based on discussions with our accountant and her boss. Our estimates were pretty spot on. We ended up paying, $8,573.66. You're thinking, "Holy cow that's a lot of money, Rosie!" Actually, it's not, really. I used to have to pay more than double that with the way the annuity was set up. When we renegotiated the annuity they were able to bring up our income and bring down the income taxes I'd have to pay.

Although annuities now are no longer taxable, thanks to a law change, my annuity isn't included in that law change that happened more than 25 years ago. It's very frustrating that I'm taxed, but I feel that solving the annuity is a greater blessing and so I don't complain much about the tax. It's better to count your blessings than to complain.

So, here government of Canada, take your money and I know you're not going to spend it the way I see fit. *shrugs* Hahaha...

I do hope everyone else was able to file their taxes on time. Spring is always a time for eternal renewal and hope, but yes, tax season is part of it as well. I'm not always pleased about that part and I hear many other people grumble about it as well. Just be thankful for the country we live in and that the majority of us get a tax return. Enjoy those tax returns for me! :D Hey, why don't you put your return towards debt this year? Make some big payment towards your debt and do the debt pay off dance for me!

Findings little ways to save can make big long-term changes

I've been out of sorts lately, and so I haven't posted recently. There's some medical stuff going on that's sort of taking priority in my life. It's difficult to deal with and time-consuming but the great thing is it isn't affecting us financially very much -- at least not yet.

I do know if I was still working full-time I would've had to use sick leave or quit my job, but thankfully with our income, this isn't a problem. Although that thought led me to think about all the people out there that do struggle with medical difficulties that require time away from their job and resting at home or going to doctor's appointments continuously. It made me feel so thankful and blessed by what The Lord has given me.

It reminds me how important to is to be good stewards of the money we are entrusted with. You know, whether you work for your money (like the majority of society) or have an annuity/pension (like myself) God has entrusted you to use your money wisely and not spend frivolously.

Looking back at March, we put $1,350 towards our debt. Every chance we can throw money at the debt means we're another step towards debt-freedom.

I cannot wait until that day comes.  Can...not....wait.

I think we've really begun to utilize the grocery bus service which I get every two weeks more effectively now. I pay a fee $11/trip to have a ride to and from the grocery store. We budget for this expense every month and that allows me to get out of the house regularly even in winter, icy weather which helps stave off things like depression and cabin-fever. This is the first year in over 20 years I feel more happy and productive. I think that is a small price to pay for such a significant emotional change in my daily life. It's a service primarily for the elderly. There's a big disabled services bus that come drives over from the retirement home nearby and picks me up, along with some other people in our area. We all get transported to the local grocery store (which has a chain of other stores in the same walking area to shop at) We have an hour or so window of time to do our shopping and then our driver takes us all home again. It's great!

We have a set budget for groceries at $300/mth and an "Other" category of $150/mth Chris and I then break that down into how many bus trips per month we'll be getting. From there, we know our amount of groceries and household/other things to spend and look at the Metro flyer to see what's on sale that week. We shop by sales and that's a huge savings.

Chris will occasionally go out on his own a buy a few things we also need, but we still stay in budget. If we do go over (which is rare anymore) we always make sure to take cash from somewhere else. We NEVER live on credit; ever.

Last month was a great month for shopping and I think April will be similar. We don't buy the best of everything and I can't wait to be debt-free in order to buy a few more luxury items at the grocery store, but for now, this way of budgeting and saving allows us to get debt-free as quickly as we can. I wouldn't have it any other way.

So, I encourage you to look at your flyers, shop by the sales, but most important set up your grocery/other budgets! For those who have no idea how to even come up with that number a good rule of thumb for groceries is $100 per person in the house, but with a minimum of $300 for the entire household. So, for example, if you're a family of two (like Chris and me) that's $300. If you're family of three, still that's $300. If you're family of 5, that'll be $500. You don't think you can do it. I know! I know, what you're thinking, "That's just not enough money, Rosie!" Yes, yes it is.....it really is because the more sacrifices you make in the grocery store on little things that really don't matter, the more money you can either save for future more important expenses or the more money you can throw at your debt, the more life you'll be able to live and enjoy. Seriously, it's the small insignificant changes like spending less on groceries, that actually begin to add up over time.

(As far as your household budget, look back and receipts or bill invoices, see what you bought for the house for last 3 months and it'll give you an average. We find $150/mth tight, but if we increase it too much, we just end up spending more. Being a little tight and frugal is actually a good challenge and allows us to really think about the price of laundry soap or whether we can wait another month to buy more Lysol wipes, etc.)

Before you dismiss me completely and go on to the next task in your day, think about how much debt Chris and I have paid off in the last 22 months -- and counting! It's about $50,000 now. What have you paid off in the last two years? Are you close to
getting that credit card, student loan debt, car lease debt paid off? It's life changing when you get just one major debt paid off. You can see the possibilities of your future radically change in a new way!

So try it, just try it for a week. Set your grocery budget by the week, instead of the month, and challenge yourself to only spend that amount of money for the next seven days. I believe in you! You can do it! :D Let me know how it goes! Email me! Whoo-hoo!