BrokeFamily.com

How a BrokeFamily combats the flu?

Robin — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 14:16:52 +0000

Since the regular flu season is in full swing as well as this H1N1 Craziness we have researched the little things we can do to stay safe and healthy. Here are a couple of things we are doing:

· BrokeDad and I are sanitizing our hands in the car before we head into Daycare. I wash my hands before I leave work since all I do is play with money all day.

· Changing BrokeBaby’s clothes when he comes home.

· Limiting BrokeBaby to stores and restaurants, especially now that things are seeming to get worse.

· We are all getting our shots next Tuesday, it won’t ward off the H1N1 but it should help with the main flu virus.

· We are upping BrokeBaby’s fruit intake, oranges and kiwi’s have a high concentration of Vitamin C.

· Us adults of course are taking our Vitamin C supplement.

These are only little things but hopefully we will be able to ward off any major illnesses this season. We have to try our best because we are needed at work and don’t have a lot of sick time. Here’s to hoping everyone has a safe and healthy flu season and if you have any ideas on how we can ward off the flu please let us know.

Two Great deals to partake in this week.

Robin — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 15:57:35 +0000

Target has a great deal on Purina One Dog Food. Their 8 lb bags are on sale for $9.49. They have a store coupon for $2 off plus you can find a $3 off coupon in the 9/13 red plum insert. Using both of these coupons you can get Premium dog food for .50 cents a pound. Brokedog will be so pleased, she has put on a little bit of weight now that Brokebaby feeds her.

Second great deal is Huggies at Rite-Aid. If you buy three jumbo packs at $11 each you get a $10 single check rebate. Here is where the deal gets good and complicated. Go to riteaid.com and click on Video Values. Sign up for it and watch the huggies one so you can print $2 off Huggies. Print 3 of them. If you watch 20 videos you can print a $5 0ff $20 coupon. Also, go to coupons.com and print 3 of the huggies either $2 or $3 off coupons. In the end with all of the coupons and the rebate you will pay $1 per pack.

You Know You Are Tired When…

Robin — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 13:58:16 +0000

5. You drive to Jazzercise at 5:30am and you are still yawning thirty minutes into the set. All of the other women are smiling and jumping around (I need to figure out what they are drinking)

4. When reading Dr. Seuss at 8pm you actually understand what he is saying?

3. You’re playing on the floor with BrokeBaby and he gives you a hard look, giggles and starts to run away. How he knows that he has a good 5 second head start I have no idea.

2. You answer a survey on baby website and it asks from 1-7 how “I haven’t had a good night’s sleep since before I was pregnant .” You think about calling tech support and asking if there can be a 10 added to make the question fair.

1. So it’s lunch time you look at your lunch bag. It’s empty; you brought your lunch bag with a bottle of vitamin’s in it! Yummy!

Kudos’s to Chick-fil-a!

Robin — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 15:48:08 +0000

We all know that you never get anything for free, really free that is.

Well yesterday we wore our favorite team shirts and got our Free Chicken Sandwich. Here is where Chick-fil-a topped all of the other freebie deals lately.

It was a full chicken sandwich, nice and warm and ready for us to devour. While we are grateful for other freebie offers some have been less than great.

Take Zaxby’s for example their free milkshake offer just a week ago. It was in the smallest cup we have ever seen, Broke Baby finished his before we got home! However we did find a use for the little plastic cups, Bath Toys!

Another example is KFC, they offered free chicken and couldn’t deliver, we had to wait two months for our coupons to come in. Yes we did go and get those free meals but if you promise something you need to deliver.

Thanks to Chick-fil-a we had a great labor day dinner for $3.46 (we had to buy waffle fries and a Dr. Pepper of course)

Make sure you stop by Moe’s tonight before 6pm. It’s $2 burrito night. While it’s not free it is still good eatin’.

Two Sites That Will Save You Time When Couponing.

Robin — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 15:11:45 +0000

Here are two new to us web sites that have helped us save a lot of money the past few months.

http://www.iheartpublix.com

http://www.southernsavers.com

I like that on southernsavers.com you can see all of the drugstores plus grocery stores like krogers and bi-lo. They go through the weekly ad about a day before and tell you where the coupons are and also find printable ones. They do a really good job at matching up bogo’s with coupons to get the best possible deal.

iheartpublix.com is also a good one in that it goes through the ad a few days in advance. The author also discusses promotions that Publix is offering and the best possible scenarios.

When it comes to drugstores I have started leaning towards southernsavers.com to find the best deals. While they don’t get the ad as early as iheartcvs.com. Etc. They have tended to put a little more thought into the best money saving strategies. They have also listed several more coupons that they have found.

Figure out what method works best for you and helps your family save the most money.

We’re Back!

Robin — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 13:54:23 +0000

Sorry for our extended hiatus but well BrokeMom needed a break.

This summer has been fun with Broke Baby gathering his wings and starting to walk and run at the same time. Our fun has just started and let the tantrums begin. We’re back and have some fun article ideas!

we are going old school like how we started and talking about what is going on in our lives. There will be tidbits of personal finance thrown in as we are still the BrokeFamily.

Thank you to our readers who emailed us asking What’s up? Working and raising a Toddler has not been easy but with time management and working as a team we can make it happen. We are going to write articles about how we do things in our household kind of like how Jon and Kate Plus 8 used to be. Get ready for some fun because we here we go!

Decoding myths about Publix

Robin — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 13:17:00 +0000

After recently talking to some fellow Moms I got the understanding that many do not utilize Publix grocery stores in their shopping adventures. I was fighting for them but kept getting shot down. Here are some of the things they told me:

Myth: Publix is too expensive

Decoding: Not really many of their items are comparable to Bi-lo or Bloom, They have great deals and specials.

Myth: They are high end so I don’t go there

Decoding: Your loss then I go there every Sunday and buy their bogo items and produce. They also have the penny item meaning you get the item

Gerber Graduates

Robin — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 13:36:52 +0000

We have found Gerber Graduate snacks to be some of Brokebaby’s favorites. Especially since we went and had the kid who hates Cheerios!

On one of my many trips to the grocery store I found a new item of theirs. Gerber Graduates Smart Sips. SMART SIPS beverages are packed with 15 essential vitamins and minerals and omega-3 fat to support your toddler’s healthy growth and development.

They had a coupon on the front saying try me free! I got three of them and bought them individually.

I filled out the rebate form for two of my co-workers and myself and mailed them in. About 4 weeks later I got a check for $3.79 which is what I paid. Free Milk! The best part is that it does not have be refrigerated since its more of a sippy cup and it can travel easily. Look for it at your local store in the baby section.

Credit Card Legislation

Robin — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 12:54:41 +0000

http://moneyfeatures.blogs.money.cnn.com/2009/05/19/what-credit-card-legislation-means-for-you/

Trying to make sense of the new legislation on credit cards. We have a nasty one that we are
trying to pay off as fast as possible. After reading this article it did help clear up a couple of things for me. Reading some of the stories that were offered really scared us into trying to get rid of our credit cards. I know we signed up for them but wow can they be mean.

Paying off the mortgage… $13.19 at a time

Robin — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 13:38:12 +0000

We cannot currently focus on paying off our mortgage until we pay off our debt.

However, I have found a way to making budgeting a little easier. Our mortgage is $786.81 so to make our budget easier I have rounded it to $800 putting an extra $13.19 towards our mortgage. There are several reasons for doing this:

Who is going to miss $13.19 from our budget?
By paying this amount extra we are paying off our mortgage 1.5 years earlier.
Savings of paying this miniscule amount every month are in the tune of $10,381.00.

Hopefully soon in the future we will increase the amount we put towards the principal so we can have some equity in our house.