Retire@50

PatientSaver had a really great post about an article in AARP called The Leap to Cheap.

http://patientsaver.savingadvice.com/2010/06/08/the-leap-to-...

I enjoyed it alot and found several quotes that are excellent

"they've found ways to be wealthy that don't depend on earning more cash or buying more things."

"thrift is more about knowing what you cherish, then skipping the rest"

"Someone drops a million dollars on you—how would it change your life? More than 9 out of 10 replies said, in so many words, that money cannot alter their lives."

Last night I finally got the movie Julie and Julia from the library. I've had it on hold for about 6 months and at one time there was more than 400 people waiting for it. It was pretty good. I really enjoyed the portrayel of the relationship between Julia Child and her husband. I gave it to my mom to watch before I have to return it.

Being inspired by the movie, this morning I made Julia Child's 6 minute boiled eggs, which she calls a substitute for poached eggs. They were so good. The yolk was creamy and rich and yummy. Eggs seem like such a simple food, but I love them for flavor and variety - you can do so much with an egg.

I finished reading the library book The Good, The Bad and the Uncanny by Simon R Green. Sci/Fi - very good.

It's been over 90 for the last several days and no rain. That's way too hot for me. I like it between 40 and 70. We've had to take our walks around 8 at night and it's still in the 80's. Come back cool weather

Went to both grocery stores this morning.

King Soopers

2.18 - 1 gal milk
3.76 - 2 Lean Cuisine @1.88 each
4.00 - 2 Dove deodorants
.32 - taxes
-----
10.26
-2.00 - catalina from Kraft salad dressings
-2.00 - 2 $1 q's for Lean Cuisine
-4.00 - 2 $2 q's for Dove deodorant
-----
2.26

The deodorants go to the food pantry

Safeway

5.34 - 6 boxes Kraft cheesy explosion mac and cheese
-3.00 - 3 .50/2 q's doubled
-----
2.34 - these go to food pantry and toward kraft rebate

1.98 - 4 Butterfingers - Buy 2 get 2 free
.10 - tax
-----
2.09
- .99 - 1 free item q
-----
1.11 for 4 large candy bars

3.00 - 4 Bumblebee tuna pouches
-2.20 - 4 .55 q's
-----
.80 - goes to food pantry

1.58 - 2 Sobe Lifewaters
-1.29 - free item q
-----
.29

3.49 - Kraft 100 calorie snack Cheese
-3.29 - free item q upto 3.29
-----
.29

Food pantry gets

6 boxes mac and cheese
4 pouches tuna
2 deodorants

I finished reading my book The Tower and the Hive by Anne McCaffrey. Sci/Fi. ok

I also finished the library book Hot Rocks by Nora Roberts. Mystery/Romance - excellent - the dialog is so good.

I was not naturally frugal as a child. I spent all of my allowance every week. I chose to become frugal in my 20's. One of the major influences to that choice was reading this article: How to Retire Six Months Every Year in the Mother Earth News.

http://www.motherearthnews.com/Nature-Community/1970-05-01/H...

The articles basic premise was that by not spending everything you made you could work less. This was a revelation to me and the frugal lightbulb went off in my head. From that time on I searched for ways to be frugal because my goal of not working was more important to me, than the things I could buy.

The frugal lifestyle worked for me and seems like a second skin now. I actually enjoy and take pride in not spending a lot on things. But it was not the attitude I was born with. My brother was born a natural frugalist. He always had money when we were growing up. My sister and I would spend all our allowance and borrow a dollar from him till payday and pay him back a $1.05. Good deal for him, bad deal for us

One of my friends is frugal by necessity. When they got married they were deeply in debt from a failed business venture of his, where he declared bankruptcy, and after she had a child she wanted to be a stay-at-home mom. So even though he makes very good money and they finnally paid off his debts, they live very close to the bone, where $5 makes a big difference. She doesn't care for the lifestyle but considers it worthwhile to be able to stay home with the kid. If things changed, they would not be frugal.

I'm sure there are others who were dragged kicking and screaming into the lifestyle because of some emergency or circumstance of life and as soon as possible will return to their spending ways.

I think some people are frugal for philosophical reasons such as saving the environment, or not wanting to consume too much.

I think it's interesting the way people arrive at the lifestyle and if they stay in it long-term. For me it was a conscious choice made to meet my goal and I've never regretted not buying more things or living in a better house, having new cars every year, etc. All the things people told me I should do on my journey from then to now - retired, house paid off and extremely happy with my life.

I finished reading the library book Arms-Commander by L.E. Modesitt Jr. Sci/Fi - very good.

Several things didn't go right today on my grocery trip. According to the reciept I saved 87%, but I would have saved more if more of my e-coupons had worked. It's weird how you dwell on the couple of things you didn't get free, instead of all the other things you did get free or made money on I guess they bug me so much because these particular things were stuff I wouldn't buy unless they were free or cheaper - hamburger helper, Nut clusters, chex mix.

I spent $10.25. $5 for the food pantry. Some of the rest was for nieces first apartment stockup.

Safeway is having a buy 8 or more and get $4 off sale, so I had to buy at least 8 of the sale items, after the first 8 they were all at the sale price. So I didn't have to buy in multiples of 8.

1.49 - Chex snack mix
-1.00 - .50 q doubled
-----
.49 - this is where one of my e-coupons didn't work or it would have been free. For my niece.

2.98 - 2 boxes Cheerios
-1.00 - $1/2 q
- .55 - e-coupon
-----
1.48

3.00 - 3 boxes Hamburger Helper
-1.00 - .75 q doubled
------
2.00 - supposed to get a .75 e-coupon but didn't. These are for the food pantry

1.99 - Nature Valley nut clusters
-1.00 - $1 q
-----
.99 - supposed to have a $1 e-coupon. for niece

1.96 - 2 boxes Kraft cheesy explosion
-2.58 - 2 free item coupons
-----
.62 money maker - goes toward kraft rebate and to the food pantry

1.96 - 4 boxes regular mac and cheese
-2.00 - 2 .55 q's doubled
-----
.04 money maker - goes to kraft rebate and to food pantry

1.49 - cheetos mighty zingers
-1.00 - q
-----
.49 - for niece

13.41 - 9 cans Crystal light
-9.00 - 3 $3/3 coupons
-----
3.41 - 2 to brother, 2 to niece, 5 to food pantry

3.00 - 4 packs Bumbleebee albacore tuna
-2.20 - 4 .55 q's
-----
.80 - food pantry

1.58 - 2 Sobe lifewater
-1.29 - BOGO q
-----
.29

2.00 - 2 110 ct boxes Kleenex
.19 - taxes
-----
2.19
-2.00 - $2/2 q
-----
.19

Food pantry gets

5 cans Crystal Light
4 packages tuna
5 boxes mac and cheese
3 boxes hamburger helper

Niece gets

1 Chex Mix
1 Cheetos
2 Crystal Light
1 Nut Clusters

Brother gets 2 Crystal Light and I get the rest.

I finished reading the library book The Lost. Mystery short stories - some good, some not

I also finished the library book The Burning Lamp by Amanda Quick. Romance - very good

I took both nieces to see Shrek Forever After today. We all thought it wasn't very good compared to the others. I'm really tired of the 3D stuff. Mom got 2 free movie codes a couple months ago for buying Smart Ones at the grocery store, so I went to Fandango and got two tickets from there. 2 tickets - $9 each. I bought one at the theater for me. I got 4 bags of Hershey's pieces candy last week at Walgreens so I let them each pick one bag for the movie. We went to Red Robin for lunch. My niece had a free hamburger coupon for joining their e-club. Lunch was $26 even though they took off $9.50 for her burger. Expensive day made better with freebies

I sent my niece a site to sign up for birthday coupons since she's over 18 now. I got so many this year I wasn't able to use them all.

Cold Stone - free ice cream
Schlotsky's - free sandwich
Noodles and Company - free bowl of noodles
Red Robin - free hamburger
Ruby Tuesday's - free hamburger
Subway - free 6" sub wyb 1
Red Lobster - $5 off

http://abundantfoodsavings.com/index.php?option=com_content&...

I finished reading my book Street Game by Christine Feehan. Romance - excellent.

I spent less than budgeted in May for food pantry items - only 14.91. I'll use up that other $5 some other month. I donated 96 items so 4 short of my 100 item goal.

The month was closer to normal spending wise - I spent @ 1500 for the month. I only ate out 9 times so that's good progress. Groceries and Eating out were about the same amount. $76.29 for groceries and $75.94 for eating out.

Yesterday I went to my sister's for hamburgers and hotdogs for nieces bday. Her bday isn't until next Monday, but sister decided to celebrate this weekend since everyone was free. My parents were there too. I drove over with them and we went back to their home after cake in the afternoon. We wanted to walk but it was still too hot at 3:00 so I played games until it cooled down at 7:00 then played more games until I went home at 10:00. I only won 3 games out of about 15, but that's ok, playing is fun regardless.

I went to King Soopers today for 3 more free Kraft salad dressings and a lot of veggies. I'm in the mood for salads right now. So tonight a baked potato and salad. Spent about an hour prepping all the salad stuff so I can just pull them together when wanted.

I got another $5 giftcard from Amazon using my Swagbucks so I ordered 3 more books from them - total $32.39. I almost have enough for another gift card. I've really been getting a lot of swagbucks lately. I got 50 the other day.

I finished reading Paranormal Romance - a series of short stories. Very good.

I went to Walgreens this morning to get this weeks specials. I did 4 transactions and spent nothing out of pocket since I used gift cards that I rolled previous Register Rewards on to. I ended up with $9 in RRs to either put on a gift card or spend in the next 2 weeks.

Transactions 1 - 3

2.00 - 45 ct Ecotrin aspirin
.14 - taxes
-----
2.14
-2.00 - coupon
-----
.14 - got a $2 RR for each transaction

Transaction 4

10.00 - 2 bags each Reeses pieces + peppermint patties
.29 - taxes
------
10.39
-3.00 - 3 $1 coupons
-2.00 - Ecotrin RR
-----
5.29 - got back a $5 RR

The candy will go to my nieces, the aspirin goes in my stash. I take one a day.

Is anyone else just getting one comment emailed to them from their blogs? I get the first one, but not anything after that. This just started yesterday.

I finished reading the library book Demon Forged by Meljean Brook. Paranormal - very good.

I finished reading the library book The New Frugality by Chris Farrell. What a waste of time. There was nothing new, just a general rehash of old principles - save more, spend less and do it in a green/environmental way. Plus there was the obligatory slap at Amy Dacyczyn for her 'extreme frugalism' of reusing vacuum cleaner bags. I don't know why so many financial savings authors think they have to do that. She's the most successful savings author ever, yet so many other financial savings authors feel they have to put her down. They need to prove that they are not asking you to do something 'extreme' - like not use credit cards - everyone has saving ideas that other people would not use, that doesn't mean those people are weird or cheap or extremist. What difference does it make to them if someone uses an idea that they wouldn't use. It works for the user, it saves money and reusing vacuum cleaners, ziploc bags, aluminum foil etc is good for the environment, which this author is supposedly promoting. Most people know all the basic savings advice, you need to do something different to get people thinking about all aspects of their savings if you want to make a big difference.

There was one quote in the book that I liked about retirment. "Many retirees find that they can make significant cuts in expenses without slashing their standard of living. The retired have the time to shop for and take advantage of deals and discounts, to clip coupons and plan ahead. It's easy for them to substitue home cooking instead of a late-night dash after work to get takeout.... You can get by on a lot less when you're retired, without really depriving yourself of anything important." This fits in exactly with my philosophy.

I was telling my dad about the savings on the Elephant Bar gift cards and he asked me to buy him 2 $50 cards, so I went online last night and got those and a lot more cards had been added, so I got another $100 WalMart card at 4% off. Dad likes Elephant bar because he gets a 20% senior citizen discount - add that to an 11% gift card discount and the occassional coupon and he really saves.

I got gas at Safeway this morning for the first time in almost 2 months. I last got gas at King Soopers on April 6th when I had .60 cents off. I used the gas in my 2 5 gal cans thru this month. This time I only had .10 cents off. It cost $2.53/gal and I spent $25 just for my car. I'll wait to fill up the gas cans when it's cheaper. The credit card should be giving 5% back on gas in July.

I have used up several of my gift cards in the last couple of weeks buying stuff for my niece's bday. So today I was looking at plasticjungle for discounted gift cards to replace what I've used. I saw an Elephant Bar gift card at 11% off. $50 card for 44.50. My parents eat there after church almost every Sunday, so I got it for father's day. Didn't see the other ones I was looking for, but I'll keep looking, probably in the next week or so they'll show up. I found a new site for discounted cards:

http://www.cardpool.com/buy

I finished reading my book Mackenzie's Legacy by Linda Howard. Romance - excellent.

I went to Walgreens today to stock up on Boost, which they have on sale buy 1 get 1 for 50% off and I have $1.50 coupons. But as usual Walgreens only had 1 so no deal. I may try the other Walgreens again tomorrow and if they don't have it, get a raincheck. I like to keep nutritional drinks around for mornings when I don't have time for breakfast or if I know I'm going to have a big lunch.

While at Walgreens I found a Blood Pressure monitor on clearance for 33.99. I've been looking for one of these and that was a decent price for the brand. I also found 2 self-check A1c tests for diabetes at $7.50 each. I'm supposed to get this test every 3 months. This is a lot cheaper than paying for a dr visit and lab work. I did some research and these are supposed to be very accurate.

I went to King Soopers after that. If people were to just look at my grocerie cart each week, they would wonder what the heck I ate based on what's in my cart. I usually have basics like milk and bread and some fruit or veggies, but the rest of the stuff is what's very cheap or free So I might have no veggies and 3 bottles of salad dressing and 2 bottles of BBQ sauce and lifesavers candy. Hard to make meals out of that

I spent $13.91

2.00 - 2 bottles Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ sauce
-2.00 - 2 $1 q's
-----
FREE - both bottles go to the food pantry

5.00 - 3 bottles Kraft salad dressing
-3.00 - 3 .55 q's doubled
-----
2.00 - got back a $2.00 OYNO q. 1 goes to me, 1 goes to niece and 1 goes to pantry

2.00 - 2 bags lifesavers hard candy
-2.00 - 2 .50 q's doubled
-----
FREE - 1 to each of my nieces

7.50 - 3 6 pcks Hansens natural soda
-3.00 - 3 .50 q's doubled
-----
4.50 - I rarely drink soda but every once in a while I like one, especially with popcorn, plus I like to have something nieces can drink. I get the Black Cherry made with Splenda and it's very good.

3.96 - 2 dozen large Smart Balance eggs w/Omega 3
-2.00 - 2 .50 q's doubled
-----
1.96 - after the coupons this was cheaper than store brand eggs at $1.29/doz

1.98 - 1 gal skim milk
1.99 - 1 loaf Sara Lee whole wheat bread
1.23 - 8 bananas
.23 - tax
----
4.43

Kraft has a rebate out buy $30 and get $10 back so the $5 in salad dressings will go towards completing that.

I finished reading the library book A Touch of Minx by Suzanne Enoch. Romance - very good.

Today's theme seems to run to tomatoes. After our walk today Dad came and got mom and me to go to Home Depot. We needed his truck for the dirt. Mom used the gift card I gave her for mother's day and picked out a bunch of flowers for their yard. I got a 40 lb sack of compost, some perlite and 2 tomato plants. The tomatoes I planted back in April in the windowsill died from lack of attention - oops. Home Depot had large tomato plants with tomotoes already growing for .99 cents. What a good price.

Then we stopped at WalMart which is accross the street so mom could pick up some Weight Watcher's ice cream that's on sale right now. So I bought some more tomato products. They have 40 oz Heinz ketchup on sale for $1. I had 2 .20 cents coupons so I got them for .80 each. 1 for me, 1 for niece. Walgreens has 8 oz Hunts tomato sauce on sale for .25 cents, but they are usually out if I want to buy any quantity, so I took the ad to Walmart and got a price match on 5 cans. I had a coupon for a $1/5 so I spent .25 for 5 cans. They all go to the food pantry.

I finished reading the library book A Game of Chance by Linda Howard. Romance - excellent.

My oldest niece has a birthday coming up in June. Mom and I took both nieces to Denver for birthday present shopping. OMG! It was a very good day, but we spent 2 hours in 2 stores. My niece had to look at everything in the store, she had to try on half the store and then settle for 2 things. The music was loud, and obnoxious to me. My mom and I both got so tired of standing waiting for her. We sat on one of the display ledges in one of the stores, it was extremely hard and we were both stiff after a while. Used to be we could shop all day in a mall, but I don't ever remember spending an hour in any one store. Signs that I'm getting old are I dislike most of the clothes, I hate the music, I also get stiff and sore standing around all day. But I love my niece so it was worth it - I guess

We also went to Border's were I got 2 books for me using my reward gift cards from my credit card and 33% off coupons.

After the mall we went to the Container Store which is one of my favorite stores. For once, however, I didn't buy anything from them.

Then mom took us to the White Chocolate Grill for dinner. Which is a very expensive restaurant, but is one of my nieces favorites - mostly for the desserts. We had a late lunch so I wasn't that hungry. I got a Rustic Club sandwich with fries and ate about half the sandwich and a few of the fries. I brought the other half home. It was really good. The main reason for going though was the desserts. Their desserts are $7 each and are supposed to serve 2. My mom and I split a White Chocolate brownie. It was decadent. The brownie was about 4" x 4" and topped with a large scoop of vanilla ice cream, hot fudge sauce and huge peels of curled white chocolate. I had one bite of the brownie and half the ice cream and a couple of the chocolate curls. Mom ate all of her half and I took the rest home. My oldest niece had the White Chocolate souffle cake. She ate about 2/3 rds of it and brought the rest home and my youngest niece had the rasperry cheesecake. She also ate about 2/3 rds and brought the rest home. We were all totally stuffed when done, but it was very, very good.

We stopped at Target on the way home to get the rest of the birthday presents. My oldest niece is working at Target this summer and gets a 10% discount on everything so we used that. I spent $40 on her presents and $7.46 for lunch, and got 2 books and dinner and leftovers for tomorrow for free. We started at 1 pm and got home just before 9 pm - a very long day.

I finished reading the library book changes by Jim Butcher. Sci/Fi - very good.

Last night I fixed a big pan of Stouffer's individual meatloaves, 6 of them. I ate one and refroze 3 and kept 2 for other meals this week. For sides I fixed scalloped tomatoes and mashed butternut squash. The mashed butternut squash is fixed the same way you fix mashed potatoes - boil in salted water, drain, mash with butter, milk, salt and pepper. They were pretty good - not as good as mashed potatoes, but good, and it was a vegetable :P

I love the scalloped tomatoes. This is a takeoff on one of Ina Garten's recipes only I changed it to just make 2 servings and use stuff from my pantry and freezer.

Scalloped Tomatoes

Ingredients

2 sliced frozen Texas Toast garlic bread
1 15 oz can diced tomatoes with Basil and garlic
2 cloves garlic
1 package Splenda
1 tsp basil
1 tsp salt
½ tsp pepper
1 tbls olive oil
2 tbls parmesan cheese

Directions

Preheat oven to 350
Add olive oil to large skillet and heat
Mince garlic
Grate parmesan
Drain tomatoes
Cut Texas Toast into 1 inch chunks while still frozen
Add toast to skillet and toast - approx 5 min
Add can of tomatoes, Splenda, garlic, salt, pepper and basil to skillet.
Heat tomatoes and other ingredients - approx 5 min
Put mixture in small ramekin and sprinkle parmesan over the top.
Bake in oven at 350 degrees for 35 min
Serves 2

I planted basil, parsley, radishes and green onions this weekend. It's finally time here - I hope. Now if I can just get thru the hail season.

I finished reading the library book The Endless Forest by Sara Donati. Historical - excellent. I love this series. I gave it to my niece a while back and she fell in love too and has been forcing all her friends to read it.

I also read my book Lyon's Pride by Anne McCaffrey. Sci/Fi - ok

Mom and I went browsing today. She clips advertisements for gift stores she wants to visit and since she had to go way downtown she picked out a couple to see and asked me along. She loves to buy gifts. She gives gifts to everybody for everything. But most gift stores don't stay in business very long. Too much competition from the big chains. She likes to find things that no one else she knows has seen.

We went to a little store that had old fashioned victorian style stuff and she found a really pretty necklace and earring set for herself. Then we just walked around the block and there was a spice store. We wandered in to see what it was about and she got several spices. I guess there is going to be a new Cooking channel on TV that starts May 31 and one of their shows is called Spice It Up. It's based on this store. They were advertising it.

Next store was cooking store, which I love to look in, even though they are usually very expensive. I did get a new paring knife with a cover for the blade for $10. She got several things. We were at a parking meter and were late getting back to it, but fortunately no ticket.

We went to another little store in another area of town called Aunt Ruth's Attic. It had shabby chic type stuff. Neither one of us found anything interesting there.

Lunch was at Ruby Tuesday's. $9. I had the salad bar and a baked potato. Last stop on the way home was the dollar store. My kind of store . Mom got bunches of plastic/silk flowers to put on the graves for memorial day plus some other things. I got a big bag of shelled sunflower seeds, some egg noodles, some 13 gal trash bags and a pair of sunglasses. $4.15 I sat on my sunglasses the other day and broke them. I found a dime on the way out of the store.

I bought a large pizza on Tuesday because a friend was supposed to come over yesterday with Avatar and we were going to watch it. But her car broke down and she canceled, so I'm taking the pizza over to parents tonight to have it. It's too big to put in my side-by-side freezer.

I finished reading my book Hunting Julian by Jacquelyn Frank. Paranormal - very good.

I ran several errands this morning. I went to Great Clips for a haircut - $8.99 with coupon, saved $3 - spent $11 with tip.

Goodwill - dropped off 3 boxes of household stuff

Staples - bought 1 black ink cartridge for my printer

21.49
.35 - tax
------
21.84
- 2.00 - 10% rewards check from staples for previous ink purchases
-15.00 - staples check for turning in 5 ink cartridges last month
------
4.84
-4.00 - used the Staples card I bought that was discounted by $4
-----
.84 for ink

Walgreens - traded in last weeks RRs for a $10 walgreens gift card and got milk and bread and a .19 cent Royal gelatin package for a filler. The gelatin goes to the food pantry. It was .47 cents after the RRs, which I paid with another WAG gift card. No oop.

Papa Murphey's - bought a large pepperoni pizza for $8. I had a $3 coupon.

I got a $5 rebate check in the mail for the Quilted Northern I got a while back. I think it was buy $20 get $5.

I finished reading the library book Conspiracies by F. Paul Wilson. Adventure - ok

My mom, my niece and I went to Parker, CO today to do some looking around. We had driven thru, but never stopped. Mom had heard there were some good gift stores there and wanted to check them out. Unfortunately, we didn't find anything different, just the same stores as in every other town in the USA. Walmart, Target, Kohls etc.

We went to Bed, Bath and Beyond and I got my niece some things for her apartment as bday presents. A cover for her bed and a set of 7 baking pans. I spent $60 after using 2 20% off coupons.

We went back to mom's and talked for several hours. She is all grown up and I am impressed with her demeanor and attitude towards the world. So proud of who she has become.

I gave my niece the box of cleaning supplies and spices and stuff I've been collecting for her for her new apartment.

I got a few more boxes of cereal free today. 6 Captain Crunch which go to my brother and 3 Cheerios for me. I got a total of 51 free boxes of cereal last week. 34 for the pantry, 11 for me and 6 for brother.

I finished reading my book Moon Shadows. Paranormal short stories - ok

I just finished reading the library book Save Big by Elisabeth Leamy. The book focuses on saving money on what she describes as the 5 big items people spend money on - houses, cars, credit, groceries and health care. Her philosophy is "I've always preferred to save a lot of money on a few things rather than a little bit of money on a bunch of things. I like to SAVE BIG. Not small."

She has some good ideas in the various categories, but nothing new for me. I found her style off-putting because of her disdain for saving on little stuff. How often do people buy houses or cars? Yes you can save money in these areas, but usually only a few times a decade, in my opinion you can't just save money on these items and expect to be able to spend freely in the rest of your life.

She speaks in hyperbole claiming "This book contains $1,176,916 worth of savings in all. You would have to deny yourself $294,229 lattes to save that much money."

First of all not all saving ideas will pertain to all people, and second just because you don't spend money on something doesn't mean you've saved money. Most likely it means you never had that money in the first place and if you did, you spent it on something else. I'd be very surprised to find someone who had $1 million saved based on these saving ideas. I could save thousands every day buy not buying a big house or a newer car, doesn't mean I actually have any more money in the bank.

She shows a real disdain for saving money on small items that build up into major savings over time.

"the way to cut those costs is not to install low-flow shower heads, yet that's one fo the most common tips for saving money around the house. If you do it to save the environment, fine. But to save money? Please. That's Small Stuff savings; five dollars a month at most. Peanuts. Pennies. Pathetic."

"The clasic tip for saving money on getting money is to go to your own bank's ATM to avoid fees. I don't like the idea of having to pay a fee to access my own money either, but we're talking Small Stuff Savings with that: an average of $3 per transaction, according to www.Bankrate.com. Utterly underwhelming."

"The usual advice to save on food is to pack you own lunch. Yawn ... Yes, that will save you about $7 a day, but it's a pain. When I pack my lunch and take it to work, my body goes into some sort of freak starvation mode and I inevitably wolf down my sack lunch at 11 A.M. Then I'm famished again at 3 P.M. and end up going out and buying another lunch. I soon get tired of packing a limp lunch and buying a late lunch and I give up. Besides, that's Small Stuff Savings."

Obviously she is a person who makes a pretty good salary and after buying houses, cars, groceries, and health care has enough money left to do all the other things in life she wants to - good for her, (I mean that sincerely), but most people aren't that way. They can't afford unlimited hot showers, $4 lattes, $3 ATM charges and $7 lunches every day. That adds up into big money.

For most people even buying houses and cars they can afford, not having debt and watching health care costs there is not enough money left to do everything. That is where saving on the little stuff comes in play. It's about priorities, do I save on hot water so I can travel. Do I save on ATM charges so I can go out to eat once in a while, etc.

She reminds me of the government. Oh, $5 million is just a small amount in the scheme of things - it's not worth bothering about. We don't want to concern ourselves with such small amounts of money. We need to spend $1 trillion for this program, just because 10% of that is wasted ... it's Small Stuff Savings - why are you bothering us about that? PLBHHHHH.....

As I said her attitude irked me, but the book is worth reading especially if you've never bought a house. There are some good ideas on that and in other chapters.

I also finished reading the library book Silent Sea by Clive Cussler. Adventure - very good.

I've been thinking alot lately about needing to update my financial notebook. I moved a lot of money around in the last month, opened new cds with a new bank, bought some more I-bonds and got a new credit card. My notebook hasn't been updated in more than a year. With all the accounts that are totally online anymore, where you don't get printed statements in the mail, someone coming in after I'm dead would have a terrible time finding some of my assets without help. Several of my accounts don't even send you tax information anymore, you have to go to their site to print it. My parents can do some basic things on the computer, but they really need to be spelled out for them to be able to access many of the financial websites that ask you security questions and type in passwords etc. It would be very difficult for them. I do print out statements at least every quarter so that would be somewhere to start.

Anyways, while wandering around on Dollar Stretcher I came across this article that I thought was rather timely.

http://www.stretcher.com/stories/10/10may10b.cfm

Now if I would just sit down and actually do the updates

I finished reading my book Damia's Children by Anne McCaffrey. Sci/Fi - ok

Back to Safeway where I did 6 transactions and got 38 boxes of cereal. 30 for the food pantry.

1st transaction

2.00 - 2 boxes Kelloggs Corn flakes
4.50 - 3 boxes Frosted Flakes
6.99 - 1 Scrubbing Bubbles power spray
.48 - tax
-----
13.97
-1.00 - $1/2 Kelloggs corn flakes
-1.00 - $1/3 Frosted flakes
-5.00 - Scrubbing Bubbles
-6.00 - 2 $3 OYNO coupons
-----
.97 - I got $4 OYNO q from kelloggs and $3 OYNO from Scrubbing bubbles

2nd transaction

6.00 - 4 boxes cheerios
2.00 - 2 boxes Kelloggs Corn flakes
4.50 - 3 boxes Frosted Flakes
4.00 - 2 jars Classico spagetti sauce
.00 - 2 boxes Safeway pasta
10.00 - 4 boxes Nabisco 100 cal cookies
.99 - 1 trial size Tide
6.99 - 1 Scrubbing Bubbles power spray
.55 - tax
-----
35.03
-4.00 - 4 .55 Cheerios q's doubled
-3.39 - Classico bogo q
-1.00 - $1/2 Nabisco cookies
-7.18 - 2 BOGO Nabisco q's - each took off 3.59
-5.00 - Scrubbing Bubbles
.99 - $1.00 Tide q price adjusted
-6.00 - 2 $3 OYNO coupons
-4.00 - 1 $4 OYNO q
-----
3.47 - they cheated me out of $2 in coupons I had for the Kelloggs cereal, but I got 2 $3 OYNO and 1 $4 OYNO coupon back

3rd, 4th and 5th transactions

2.00 - 2 boxes Kelloggs Corn flakes
4.50 - 3 boxes Frosted Flakes
-----
6.50
-1.00 - $1/2 Kelloggs corn flakes
-1.00 - $1/3 Frosted flakes
-4.00 - 1 $4 OYNO coupons
-----
.50 and got back a $4 OYNO q for each transaction so I just rolled it onto the next one

6th transaction

6.00 - 4 boxes Cheerios
7.50 - 3 boxes Nabisco 100 cal cookies
2.00 - 2 boxes Kelloggs Corn flakes
4.50 - 3 boxes Corn Pops
-----
20.00
-4.00 - 4 .55 cheerios q's doubled
-1.00 - $1/2 Nabisco cookies
-2.50 - BOGO Nabisco q
-1.00 - $1/2 Kelloggs
-1.00 - $1/3 Kelloggs
-10.00 - OYNO q's
------
.50 and got back $4 and $2 OYNO q

I spent a total of $6.43 and still have $9 in OYNO q's

I got the following for the food pantry

30 boxes cereal
2 packages pasta
1 jar Classico spagetti sauce
1 bottle Scrubbing bubbles

I got 1 Scrubbing bubbles for my mom and for me I got

8 boxes cheerios
7 boxes Nabisco cookies
1 jar alfredo sauce

They were out of the Wacky Mac and I still have 3 cheerios q's to use. There are supposed to be more cereal q's in Sunday's paper, so I will probably go back again on Monday.

I finished reading the library book Silver Borne by Patricia Briggs - paranormal - excellent

I went to Safeway again today and got $54 worth of stuff for $1.34 and got $9 back in OYNO coupons - very good shopping day.

4.00 - 4 boxes Kelloggs corn flakes
-2.00 - 2 $1/2 coupons
-----
2.00 - got back a $3 OYNO q - moneymaker - these go to the food pantry

6.99 - Scrubbing Bubbles power spray starter kit
.48 - taxes
-----
7.47
-5.00 - coupon
-----
2.47 - got back a $3 OYNO q - moneymaker - this goes to my mom

4.00 - 2 jars Classico sauce - 1 red, 1 white
.00 - 2 boxes Safeway Penne rigatoni
-3.39 - Classico BOGO q
-----
1.39 - plus got 2 packages of Safeway brand penne rigatoni free. Buy 2 Classico get 2 pasta free. 1 jar of sauce goes to food pantry

2.00 - Nabisco Planter's Nut bars
-1.00 - .75 q doubled
-----
1.00 - I wanted to try these and while they are ok, they are not a payday which is my favorite candy bar

10.00 - 4 boxes Nabisco 100 calorie cookies
- 1.00 - $1/2 coupon
- 3.59 - bogo q
- 3.59 - bogo q
------
1.82 - got back a $3 OYNO q - moneymaker

1.69 - 2 packages Wacky Mac - on sale BOGO
-1.00 - .50 q doubled
- .50 - .50 q - cashier entered didn't double
-----
.19 - the food pantry gets these

I also bought 1.25 of bananas and used the $8 OYNO coupons I got yesterday. Final cost 1.34

The food pantry gets

4 boxes corn flakes
1 jar spagetti sauce
2 packages Wacky Mac

I also went back to Walgreens and got 2 more of the Schick Hydro shavers - made $1.46 on each one.

7.99 - Schick razor
.55 - tax
-----
8.54
-5.00 - Schick coupon
-----
3.54 - got back a $5.00 RR so made $1.46 on both razors - these go to my brother.

I need to go back to Safeway again since I have more q's, plus I had to decide if I wanted to use my cheerios coupons there or at King Soopers. I stopped at King Soopers and decided Safeway had the better deal. Safeway was out of some of the things I wanted also, maybe they will be restocked tomorrow. I want to do the Classico, Nabisco and cereal deals again.

And to make the day better I got my All You magazine in the mail - more coupons

I finished reading the library book The Dragon Master by Allyson James. Paranormal - ok

I also finished my book Mackenzie's Heroes by Linda Howard. Romance - excellent.

We got snow last night, just a little bit so the ground was covered. Calling for more tonight. Anyone who planted flowers out here is probably not very happy. Two more weeks till planting time and even then it's a crap shoot. There has been many summers we get snow in June or hail or like last year a ton of rain so everything rots in the ground. But I'm going to try tomatoes again anyways - in a couple weeks

Went to Safeway this morning and did the scrubbing bubbles deal and made money

13.98 - 2 Scrubbing Bubbles power spray starter kit
7.00 - 2 refills
1.45 - tax
------
22.43
-10.00 - 2 $5 coupons on starter kit
- 7.00 - 2 BOGO refills wyb starter kit
------
5.43 - but I got 2 $3 OYNO coupons for the Starter kits and 2 $1 OYNO for the refills giving me back $8 for a moneymaker of 2.57. I have one more coupon for the starter kit so will try this again. One set of starter kit and refills will go to niece and one will go to brother.

I finished reading the library book Flirt by Laurell K. Hamilton. Sci/Fi - very good

I also finished my book Devlin's Luck by Patricia Bray. Sci/Fi - good

My grandma was staying at my mom's this weekend, so Friday and Saturday night I went over there and played cards for several hours.

Yesterday I stopped at Walmart for their specials of the week.

7.99 - Schick razor
.55 - tax
-----
8.54
-5.00 - Schick coupon
-----
3.54 - got back a $5.00 RR so made $1.46 I have 2 more coupons but I got the last one yesterday. I'll try again later this week to see if they've restocked.

4.99 - 50 Ct Aleve
.34 - tax
-----
5.33
-1.00 - Aleeve coupon
-----
4.33 - got a $2 RR

3.96 - 4 cans Van de Camp pork and beans
-1.96 - WAG coupon
-1.00 - Van de Camp coupon
-----
1.00 - .25 each - these go to the food pantry

I paid for everything with Walgreens gift cards on which I had rolled previous RR's so no out of pocket expense.

I finished reading my book Damia by Anne McCaffrey. Sci/Fi - good

I finished the library book Black Dragon by Allyson James. Paranormal romance - good

Went to Safeway this morning to pick up the deals for this week. I spent 3.15 for the pantry and $7.59 for my groceries.

5.96 - 4 boxes Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal
-4.00 - 4 .55 cent q's doubled
- .55 - ecoupon
-----
1.41

1.49 - Honey Nut Cheeries
-1.00 - .55 q doubled
- .55 - ecoupon
-----
-.06 moneymaker

5.00 - 2 RedBaron Pizza by the slice
-4.00 - 2 $2.00 q's
-----
1.00 there is rebate on these so will get $2.50 back another moneymaker

2.99 - Lays Kettle cooked chips
-1.00 - q
-1.11 - Safeway q
------
.88

1.98 - 4 Hershey's Special Dark candy bars - BOGO
-1.98 - 2 BOGO q's
-----
FREE - these go to my nieces

3.98 - 2 Welches juice wyb 5
-2.00 - 2 $1 q's
-----
1.98

4.47 - 3 Capri Sun wyb 5
-3.00 - 3 $1 q's
-----
1.47

2.49 - 25 ct Ziploc bags
- .80 - .40 q doubled
-1.00 - Safeway q
-----
.69 - these go for nieces new apartment

5.98 - 2 Oscar Meyer deli fresh lunchmeat
-4.00 - 2 $2 q's
-1.00 - Safeway q
-----
.98

1.88 - 1 gal milk
1.99 - 1 loaf bread
.50 - big bunch radishes
3.00 - bag of apples
-----
7.37
-1.00 - Safeway q on bagged produce
-----
6.37

The food pantry gets:

3 boxes Capri Sun juice
4 boxes Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal
1 box Honey Nut Cheerios

I finished reading my book Divine Misdemeanors by Laurell K. Hamilton. Paranormal romance - excellent.

I went to King Soopers this morning and got several free items and made money on the hamburger helper.

3.00 - 3 Hamburger Helper @ $1 each
-1.00 - .75 manufacturer's q doubled
- .75 - shortcuts e-coupon
-----
1.25 and I got a $1.50 OYNO coupon at checkout so I made .25 cents. I have 3 more of these to do

7.13 - 300 ct Nature Made vitamins - calcium, magnesium and zinc. On Sale at 40% off
.56 - taxes
-----
7.69
-7.00 - Nature Made wellness coupon
-----
.69

I signed up with Nature Made years ago and when I buy vitamins I enter my codes from the bottles. When I get 500 points they send me a $7 coupon. I entered the codes from today's bottles and now have 80 more points.

1.00 - Tobasco
-1.00 - .50 q doubled
------
FREE

2.00 - 2 McCormick taco seasoning mixes
-2.00 - 2 $1.00 q's
-----
FREE

2.00 - 2 Pure Protein bars
-1.00 - $1.00 q
-1.00 - 1 BOGO q
-----
FREE

1.00 - 1 Betty Crocker potatoes
- .50 - .25 q doubled
- .40 - cellfire e-coupon
-----
.10

.83 - 6 bananas
1.16 - 4 tomatoes
1.50 - 1 pint Kroger Private Selection ice cream
-----
3.49

I love the Kroger Private Selection ice cream - it's so rich and creamy. I spent $1.35 on food pantry items and they get:

3 Hamburger Helper
2 Taco Seasoning
2 Pure Protein bars
1 Tobasco
1 Betty Crocker potatoes

I finished reading my book Much Ado in the Moonlight by Lynn Kurland. Romance - very good

My youngest niece and sister are planning to go to Hondurus this summer to build a shower building as part of a church group. I just got a letter from her asking me to donate to the cost of going. It will cost $1850 per person. This letter makes me very uncomfortable and I'm having a hard time understanding/expressing my feelings about this.

My sister said they sent out 400 letters asking for dontations. Basically writing to anyone they've ever met and any relative no matter how distant. The letter is written as if my niece wrote it but it sounds nothing like her and is full of outright lies, such as "Over the past six months I have become more involved in my church" I doubt if she's been to that church 3 times in 6 months and she's told me she doesn't like the church since it's too big and she feels like the preachers are all about showmanship rather that preaching. She prefers a small church group where the teen group is only 12 people vs a couple hundred.

The letter then proceeds to tell you all the ways you can give money such as cash, check or go to the website and then how to make sure you get your tax deduction. It just feels so sleazy to me, like a used car salesman. I was raised that you never, ever ask people for money, even if it is for charity. But it's only partially for charity, most of it is because my sister thinks it will be a good experience for her. I agree, I just don't think everyone else should be asked to fund that experience.

The other thing that bothers me is the total cost. I can go on a 7-night cruise to Alaska for that price. Why in the world does it cost so much to go to Honduras? Even though I don't feel comfortable with the method of raising the money I plan to donate $50 and give her some money-making chores to help fund it. The whole thing leaves me feeling very unsettled.

I finished reading the library book Private Places. Romance short stories - very good.

I got a coupon in the mail for a new dentist - exam and xrays $49. I haven't been to the dentist in over 2 years because my old dentist hygenists were butchering my mouth when they cleaned my teeth. My parents and sisters family use him too and we've all complained about the roughness. So anyways when I saw the coupon and saw she was not too far in town I called for an appt. The cleaning was another $78 - total $127. My mom just spent $159 at our old dentist for the same thing.

The hygenist was very gentle, my mouth is a little sore but considering I had 2+ years of plaque it's hardly her fault. I didn't have any cavities but have a tooth that is chipping that they want to fill at a cost of $250. I'll think about it since it doesn't bother me. The dentist was nice and I'll probably go back. They gave me a cute little bag of goodies after the process. It included sensitive teeth toothpaste, a toothbrush, mouthwash, dental floss and chapstick. The toothpaste goes to mom, the toothbrush goes to brother, the dental floss and mouthwash go to the food pantry and I'll keep the chapstick.

She's the first dentist who hasn't told me I should get my wisdom teeth pulled, even though they never came in completely and don't hurt and aren't causing any problems. My philosophy is if it doesn't hurt leave it alone. It really bugs me when dentists/doctors make generic recommendations whether they apply to the person or not.

I planned to pick up the scrubbing bubbles deal at Target afterwards but they were completely out. They were out of some other things I wanted too, so that was a bust. I guess I'll miss out on that one, since I won't go all the way back in town just for one thing. I stopped by the used bookstore since I was in town and picked up a few more books to read.

I finished reading my book Sitka by Louis L'Amour. Western - pretty good.

I went to Walgreens this morning and got this weeks freebies.

16.77 - 3 large Nivea body wash
1.16 - taxes
-----
17.93
-5.59 - BOGO Nivea q
-8.00 - 2 $4/1 Nivea q's
-----
4.34 but I got a RR for $5 back so made money.

10.00 - 4 Sure deodorant, 3 were for 20% more size
.41 - taxes
-----
6.41
-4.00 - WAG q 2/$3
-6.00 - 4 $1.50 Sure q's
-----
.41 cents

All 4 deodorants and 2 of the body washes go to the food pantry. I kept one of the body washes.

I also got 100 envelopes for .69 cents and 2 books of forever stamps using my credit card that pays 5% back on drugstore purchases.

I finished reading the library book Demon Angel by Meljean Brook. Paranormal romance - very good.

I took my youngest niece to see Clash of the Titans. It was a good movie - we both liked it. However, I wish they wouldn't totally rewrite greek mythology with the story. My niece took mythology last semester and even she could see the changes. Why do they have to change everything?

$18 for the tickets because they were 3-D, just a way to charge more. I really don't think 3-D adds anything to the picture. $3.75 for candy for her. The movie was only 2 hours with previews. That's shorter than most movies have been lately. They have 3 hour movies and then you have to rush to the bathroom when they are done - especially if you've ordered a drink

We went to Wendy's afterwards for a late lunch. $10.47 She was in a good mood and we had a good time. She's 15 so there are times when she doesn't want to talk at all and then other times when she talks non-stop. I prefer the non-stop since I learn stuff about her life then love her either way.

I finished reading my book The Rowan by Anne McCaffrey. Sci/Fi - pretty good

after walking this morning mom and I went to Walmart for a few things. I can't believe how many people are buying gardening plants. We can't plant here yet, we just had more snow yesterday - it was light but still snow. We had several inches earlier this week. Ah well, live and learn.

I got 2 12 packs of Schick disposable razors and 3 Johnson's Buddies soaps for free to give to the food pantry. Actually I had to pay taxes, but I consider it free. I saved $8.80 on $28 in coupons. I pop popcorn in an air popper and get the Walgreens brand. It went down 25% from $1.98 to $1.48 so I got a couple bags of that. That was the extent of my bargains, I got a few other things that were just a good Walmart basic price, but no sale or coupon.

I ordered 4 books from Border's last night including Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child. It was 40% off at $24. I got 40% off one of the other books too using a promo code. I used reward gift cards to pay for them so no out of pocket money.

Completed my April spending totals. It was an expensive month since I had to pay propery taxes. Total spent $2,444.22. I really need to rein in the eating out. I spend about a third more on that vs groceries. I ate out 14 times which is almost every other day. I'll try to limit it to twice a week. But I like to eat out and I do it with family and friends pretty often.

I finished reading the library book Fantasy in Death by J.D. Robb. Sci/Fi - excellent - love this series

I didn't do as well this month as usual on the number of items I donate to the food pantry. This is because of the 2 12ct packages of TP I bought to donate. This was a huge chunk of my $20 budget and so not as many other things were bought. But it's ok since they desperately needed TP.

I spent $19.55 with a face value of $75.74 and donated 53 items. My goal is to donate 100 items per month.

I went to both King Soopers and Safeway today and bought a lot of produce, and some ham and cheese. I also got 2 free packages of Mission Tortillas and 3 bottles of Tobasco sauce for free. The Tobasco sauce will go the food pantry. I spent about $17

I bought a Staples giftcard from PlasticJungle where I saved 8%. $50 gift card for $46.

Last night I had the best scrambled eggs I've ever tasted. I used the method from the book Mastering the Art of French Cooking. I couldn't believe how creamy and yummy they were. The difference from how I usually make them was:

1. Room temperature eggs
2. only 1/2 tsp of milk per egg
3. cooked on very low heat and stirring constantly
4. added small pats of butter to top when done.

So good. I made a list of menus for the week of other recipes I'm going to try from the book.

Finished reading my book Don't Look Down by Suzanne Enoch. Romance -pretty good.