Hello. My name is Ida and I am a frugal fraud. There. I said it.

When our family was going through its tightest financial times, I was a cost cutting, value adding, coupon clipping, laundry detergent making (ok so I still do this!) picture of frugality. I swore that our family would be that way through thick and thin. We were going to keep from falling into the trap of lifestyle inflation once our financial picture got rosier. I was wrong.

I slowed way down on couponing and deal shopping. We stopped giving every dollar a job and let it start to trickle out of our fingers, untracked and unaccounted for. We allowed ourselves to justify unplanned spending $10 here… $20 there. We started allowing excuses for unplanned dining out to creep back into our lives… too hot, too tired, too, busy.

Yesterday, I got the estimated bill for my oldest daughter’s first semester of college. After scholarship and student loan offerings, the gap between what is paid and what I have to cover is pretty huge.

The jolt that came from this made me immediately evaluate every dollar I’ve spent in the last several months and I didn’t like what I saw. So, our family is getting back to living on a budget. I’ll be listening to my CDs of Financial Peace University and going through the workbook again.

It’s time to stop Justifying away our money and start making it work as hard for us as we work for it.

Ready. Set. Take Two!

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I have to admit that I’ve been out of the loop with my couponing for a while. Life got busy… schedules were hectic… blah blah blah… I got lazy. I hadn’t realized that so many coupon policies are changing at major retailers!

Wal-Mart, for instance, has never been a store I’ve recommended for shopping with coupons. Their cashiers have always been so negative when it came to trying to redeem coupons, and they were always out of stock on the items I had coupons for. It’s been a while and I was feeling energetic, so yesterday I gave Wal-Mart’s coupon matching list a look on Coupon Mom to see if I could beat the sale prices at the other stores on a couple of things. There was a pretty decent list of Free After Coupon items, and definitely had better prices on the body wash I was looking for.

After printing up my list, gathering my coupons, and bracing myself for impact, I went to the website to print Wal-Mart’s coupon policy to take with me… a MUST for shopping there, because of the pushback that I’ve always gotten over my coupons. I have to say that I was startled to see the comprehensive (and might I say IMPRESSIVE) changes to their policies. Click here to see Wal-Mart’s old coupon policy. I was especially impressed with the fact that they WILLINGLY apply coupon overages to the rest of your purchase OR GIVE YOU CASH BACK!

Here is the current policy (as of 4/13/11):

Walmart Coupon Policy

We gladly accept the following types of coupons*

• Print-at-home internet coupons
  
  • Must be legible
    
  • Must have “Manufacturer Coupon” printed on them
    
  • Must have a valid remit address for the manufacturer
    
  • Must have a valid expiration date
    
  • Must have a scannable bar code
    
  • Buy one, get one free (BOGO) coupons with a specified price
    
  • Are acceptable in black and white or color
    
  • May not be duplicated
    
• Manufacturers’ coupons
  
  • For dollar/cents off
    
  • For free items (except those printed off the Internet)
    
  • Buy one, get one free (BOGO) coupons
    
  • Must have “Manufacturer Coupon” printed on them
    
  • Must have a valid remit address for the manufacturer
    
  • Must have a valid expiration date
    
  • Must have a scannable bar code
    
  • May not be duplicated
    
• Competitors’ coupons
  
  • A specific item for a specified price, for example, $2.99
    
  • Buy one, get one free (BOGO) coupons for items with a specified price
    
  • Have a valid expiration date
    
  • Are acceptable in black and white
    
• Soft drink container caps
  
• Checkout coupons (“Catalinas”)
  
  • Printed at our competitors’ registers for dollar/cents off on a specific item
    
  • Must have “Manufacturer Coupon” with specific item requirements printed on them
    
  • Must have a valid remit address for the manufacturer
    
  • Must have a valid expiration date
    
  • Must have a scannable bar code
    
  • Are acceptable in black and white
    
  • May not be duplicated
    

We DO NOT accept the following coupons:

• Checkout coupons
  
  • Dollars/cents off the entire basket purchase
    
  • Percentage off the entire basket purchase
    
• Print-at-home Internet coupons that require no purchase
  
• Competitors’ coupons
  
  • Dollars/cents off at a specific retailer
    
  • Percentage off
    
  • Buy one, get one free (BOGO) coupons without a specified price
    
  • Double- or triple-value coupons
    

*The following are guidelines and limitations:

• We only accepts coupons for merchandise that we sell.
  
• Coupons must be presented at the time of purchase.
  
• Only one coupon per item.
  
• Item purchased must be identical to the coupon (size, quantity, brand, flavor, color, etc).
  
• There is no limit on the number of coupons per transaction.
  
• Coupons must have an expiration date and be redeemed prior to expiration.
  
• If coupon value exceeds the price of the item, the excess may be given to the customer as cash or applied toward the basket purchase.
  
• WIC or SNAP items purchased in a WIC or SNAP transaction are ineligible for cash back or application to the basket purchase.
  
• Great Value, Marketside, Equate, Parents Choice, and World Table coupons have no cash value and are ineligible for cash back or application to the basket purchase.
  
• The system will prompt for supervisor verification for:
  
  • 40 coupons per transaction.
    
  • A coupon of $20 or greater on one item
    
  • $50 or more in coupons in one transaction
    

Not only has the coupon policy been made more shopper friendly, the entire experience was positive! EVERY item I was looking for was well stocked. The cashier was friendly and engaging. The coupons were accepted with a smile and zero issues. I was thoroughly impressed… and that’s hard to do.

Good Job Wal-Mart! I’ll be back.

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I’ve written a lot about my love affair with Publix. Their stores and sales matched with my coupons make me feel like a conqueror every time I hit the checkout line. Since we’re there at least once a week anyway, when it came to prescriptions we’ve just always gone to Publix.

I mean… I’ve been telling people for years to go to Costco for their prescriptions and reminding them that they don’t have to be a member to use the pharmacy. But actually go there myself? Why would I? I have insurance and the copay is the copay no matter where you go… right? NOPE!

A couple of months ago, I had to figure out how to squeeze another expensive, ongoing prescription copay into the budget (above the $100 in copays we already shell out per month). So, I gathered up everything and did a side-by-side comparison of our current copays to the Costco pharmacy price list. I was stunned at how much less our prescriptions would cost if we just picked them up at Costco when we do our normal monthly milk/eggs/cheese/dog food run. Not only would our out of pocket amount go down for Mark’s prescriptions, but we would now pay $35 LESS for all of the prescriptions (including the new expensive one that we were trying to budget around).

To share with you the prescription price comparisons, I pulled the list of America’s Most Popular Drugs from Forbes and compared the United Healthcare standard copay list with the Costco list price.

As you can see, in the chart above, the list price from Costco is almost always less. If you don’t have insurance, you’re going to save a ridiculous amount of money on necessary prescriptions. If you have insurance, you’ll pay whatever the cheapest price is between the standard list price and your copay. At standard pharmacies and grocery store pharmacies, the prices are almost always higher and fluctuate wildly between locations.

Basically, whether you have insurance or not, moving your prescriptions to your local warehouse club is probably going to save you money on prescriptions. In some cases… a LOT of money.

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Last week, I told you that I did the unthinkable and patched my daughter’s shoes with cardboard until we could shop for a suitable replacement pair. Sierra and I set out on Saturday morning to do just that. On our way out the door, Mark asked if she was going to get another pair like the old ones. If she doesn’t have eye strain from how hard she rolled her eyes at him, I’ll be shocked. “Why would I do that?” was the response. (Uh, because you were almost crying when they broke?? … obviously parents just don’t get it.)

Luckily, the girls’ favorite place to shop for clothes and shoes is one of the easiest stores for our budget, Plato’s Closet. I love that their prices are reasonable and I don’t have to navigate 10 different stores to get a decent selection. Sierra loves that she can get funky/cute/unique stuff that suits her style… and her sisters can easily suit their own styles as well.

I thought we were going to strike out this time, since all the shoes we saw were dress shoes or too small. But there, shining like a tiny beacon at the back of the store, she spotted these. Sierra: “OMGPandaConverse!!!” Me: “Wahoo, they’re brand new and only $18!!”

That’s right… never been worn, fantastically amazing Panda Converse ($50-$80 shoes) for $18. You can’t even get the Payless plain generic version for that. Once again, Plato’s Closet saved me a million hassles in the shopping department. These shoes nothing like the last pair, yet still completely Sierra.

Sleep well tonight, my friends. Sierra isn’t wearing cardboard reinforced shoes out there in the rain today. She has OMGPANDACONVERSE.

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My husband officially thinks I’ve gone “Too Far” on my quest to save a buck.  And really, if it was to save money, I’d have to agree.  But this time, my skinflint ways are not about money at all.

Two days ago, Sierra (who is now 15) came to me to tell me that her insole came out of her FAVORITE shoes of all time.  When I say favorite shoes, I mean that when she spotted them from three aisles over, she jumped up and down, screamed, ran to them as though they were star crossed lovers sprinting toward one another in a flower filled field, and clutched them to her chest.  They were the only pair in the store, and obviously it was meant to be because they were the right size.

Last night I sent her to the store to pick up some new insoles to stick in them so she’d get a little more wear out of them before we had to toss them out.  When she got home and tried to put them in, she came to me with her shoulders slumped and said “It doesn’t matter… the shoes are falling apart and I didn’t know they were this bad.”  I peeked inside the shoes and, sure enough, she’s worn a few holes in the soles of her shoes.  Like, I could look into the shoe and see Mark on the other side.

All in all, this is nothing new to people who have teenaged children.  They find a couple of CRUCIAL wardrobe pieces and then wear them until they fall off.  That she has worn these shoes into the ground (heh… pun) in a matter of 3 months is also not shocking.  From what I hear, her father had to have a new pair of shoes almost ever pay period during this age.  Darned active hyper genes!

No, the shocking part is what I did next.  I grabbed a cardboard box, cut off all the flaps, traced her shoe on each of the pieces of cardboard, and cut out 4 thick layers of cardboard to fit into the bottom of her shoes.  Then I cut down the new insoles and slapped those in there too.  Mark watched me from the other side of the sofa… blinking at me and saying “you know we can afford to get her another pair of shoes, right?”

Yes, these are the shoes...

Of course I know!  But THESE shoes make my baby smile.  THESE shoes are not cheap to replace and THESE colors and HER size are difficult to find.  I hope the cardboard holds out a few days while Sierra and I try to find a suitable replacement.  Wish us luck that we find something she loves just as much.

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To say that the last few years has been difficult financially would be like saying that there was a little bit of rain at my parents’ house last September.  Now that Mark has a new job that he LOVES and things are going to be settling back to “normal”, we’re all starting to get excited.

Everyone in the family seems to have something they’ve been waiting with baited breath to be able to do when our finances stabilize. The kids can’t wait for their commissions to be paid again.  Mark can’t wait to be able to start making some repairs around the house.  I can’t wait to be able to take a weekend away by myself.

In the back of my head, I just keep flashing this little neon sign that says “Don’t get carried away. Don’t let the freedom and relief cause us to overspend on stupid stuff.”

And since we all know that I’m a teeny bit OCD and Must. Have. A. Plan… I wrote down my ideas on how to keep this from happening:

• Continue to budget EVERY THING
• Ignore the debt snowball the first month
• Budgeting the extra cash for taking the kids to do things we’ve put off for a year and maybe even having a date night or two
• Continue to do fun frugal things with the kids at home and with friends, so that we’re not putting ourselves into MUST SPEND situations

I worry about our willpower and you know Murphy does so like to visit me, but I think it’s a solid plan.  Keeping up with our budget, monitoring the spending, and bumping up our mad money budget for a month will HOPEFULLY keep us all from feeling like the sacrifices we’ve made (and will need to continue making for a while) are never going to end and aren’t worth it.

Have you ever been in this situation before?   How’d you keep things from getting out of control when there was more money in the budget again?  I’m kinda worried about this one.

Related posts:

1. Spouses and Money Talks
2. Changing Income Without Changing Lifestyle
3. Worried about the Economy?

You know what I realized the other day?  The word “JUST” is an evil word we use to excuse everything.  Seriously.  When someone makes a hurtful comment and you call them on it, what’s the standard reply? “I was JUST kidding, jeez.”

What about when you’re in the middle of working hard on something and your significant other decides you’re doing it wrong?  Have you ever told them to back off?  What’s their response?  “I was JUST trying to help!”

In the offender’s eyes, just = only or merely (dictionary.com: adverb – 12).  In the eyes of the offended, it’s not just, it’s JUSTIFYING = to defend or uphold as warranted or well-grounded (dictionary.com: verb – 2).

I’ve found that this is also true in money matters.  At our house, our money leaks almost always begin with “but it was just…”  We’re defending our poor choices by trying to downplay the impact it’s having on the offended party (our budget, bank balance, credit limit).  Mark and I “just” spend $10 or $20 far more often than I’d like to admit.

We spend too much money in some budget categories and have to use money from other categories to cover it.  Since we don’t borrow money or have credit cards, this means we’re taking money from other important savings goals (like vacations or home repair) to cover immediate wants (like going for a burger instead of cooking).

The last few months has been extraordinarily taxing on our family, with Mark’s layoff in January.  We got disheartened and let the reigns out a little on our spending … not that there was much available to spend.  We didn’t watch the budget as closely as we should have and ended up going through more of our emergency fund to float us through than we should have.  All because of the word we allowed to take over in our weak moments… JUST.

Let me tell you, I’m kicking that word OUT of our house… out of our spending patterns, and out of our budgeting tactics.  As Dave Ramsey loves to say about a million times a day, we’re back to putting our budget: “On paper, On Purpose, Every Month, Before the Month Begins”.

What about you?  What if you’re JUST spending $20 a day over your budget (lunches, sodas, coffee, chewing gum, cigarettes, gym membership you’re not using, movies on demand, iTunes, amazon.com, kindle books, snacks from the vending machine, HBO, Cinemax, LJ user gifts, clearance office supplies you might use someday)? What if that’s JUST $20 a day per person?  At $20 a day, 5 days a week, you’re justifying a steady leak of $5,200 a year from your goals.

What could you do with $5200 a year?  Pay down on your credit cards?  Take a fantastic vacation?  Send your kids to summer camp?  Take an extra week off work?  Prioritize what you want to spend that money on.  If you want that $10 a day for lunches (or books or coffee or movies or great shopping finds), then make sure you put that in your budget instead of mindlessly allowing your money to drip out of your account… or drip you deeper into debt.

Are you eluding the JUST in your life?  Can you tell us how to?  I suspect this is going to be an ongoing, uphill battle.

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Last week, I talked about giving yourself permission to succeed and not being the barrier to your own success.  This is my new promise to myself, and I believe I’m making progress in that arena.

One of the first things I did was log into Google Wave* and delete my To Do List.  I didn’t need that long, insurmountable list of things I should have been doing.  It felt so freeing not to be bound by that intimidating list anymore.

The next thing I did was even more important to me than the first… I opened a new Wave and started a new list.

Wave

• Subject: Current Date
• Body: Bullet point Got Done List!

There is something amazing about seeing the list get longer and longer when it represents things being done instead of things you have to do.  It’s energizing and encouraging.  At the end of the day, I move that day’s Got Done List to the “Daily Completed” folder.

For those of you thinking “yeah, but if I don’t have a list of everything I have to do, how am I going to remember it all?  I have a strategy for that too!  If it’s important enough to be on a Must Do list, put it on your calendar.  This way, you still have the visual reminder without the pressure of an arm long list of things to do.

If you know that every Tuesday you have to do a dry cleaning run, don’t put it on the to do list, put it on your calendar.  Grocery shopping on Saturday?  Calendar.  Need to schedule your annual physical?  You guessed it.

Not only does this take away the pressure of the never-ending list, it also gives you a concrete date and time to get it done and keep from procrastinating.  Then you get to add it to the awesomeness that is the Got Done List!

What are your strategies for getting things done without being oppressed by the dark cloud that is the To Do List?

*Leave me your email address if you want me to send you an invite! I have 10 left.

Related posts:

1. Weekend – The Ramble
2. Say Goodbye to your To Do List
3. Watch The Movie, Nancy!

*This is not a compensated review.  I am a Mint.com user.*

How do I love Mint.com, let me count the ways…

For most people (not me) dealing with finances is a pain in the tush.  Very few people really enjoy checking up on their money every single day.  Mint is designed with both the number nerds and the “reconcile monthly because I need to” factions in mind.. and everyone in between.

Mint is NOT great for people who would rather bury their heads in the sand and ignore their finances.  But then, if that’s the kind of person you are, you’re probably NOT reading this blog.

What I really love about Mint:

• It’s FREE!
• I can add all of my accounts!
  • Checking Accounts
  • Savings Accounts
  • Student Loan through the Dept of Education (Not anymore because it’s paid off.. but it was!)
  • Auto Loan
  • Mortgage
  • Investment Accounts (401k in my case)
  • Credit Card Accounts (Don’t have one of these anymore either.  No credit card debt @ Momma’s house!)
• I can view my entire budget at a glance, and it’s a BREEZE to set up
• It’s simple to categorize my transactions – and the budget automatically updates based on those transactions
• I can set up budget categories that roll over.  This is great for:
  • Quarterly expenses like trash pickup
  • Car repair funds
  • Home repair funds
  • Homeowner’s insurance and taxes
  • Car taxes and tags
  • Christmas fund
  • Lots of other things
• The website calculates ways I can save money on my accounts or earn more money on my accounts and shows me financial products and services I may be interested in.  I have not used any of these yet, but since I don’t carry consumer debt and I’m not ready to invest yet, there’s not much reason for me to.
• Mint calculates our net worth automatically and shows it on the home page
• I get alerts when we go over budget in an area, or when a bill is due.
• They have an App for that.  I can access my account from my iPhone.
• I can see what my trends are and compare them with the national average.

I could go on… a LOT… but if you don’t have a Mint.com account, the bottom line is that you should.  You’ll have an easy to use, easy to track way to get a grip on your finances.  The best part is that it’s SECURE (did I mention FREE?) and available from anywhere you are.  All you have to do is log in.

What about you?  What’s your favorite budgeting service or software?  Why do you love it?

Related posts:

1. Part 2 – Living frugally, yet well
2. Worried about the Economy?
3. Stocking Stuffers Almost Broke My Budget

Every time I think that you’re on the cusp of becoming extremely successful in something you’re working on, you stop doing it.  What is making you scared of success?  ~ Jules

Those are the words that have been ringing in my head since yesterday at our girls’ only tea gathering.  They have given me pause and have forced me to think about how many times/ways/things I’m self sabotaging for fear of what will happen if I’m successful at my ventures.

What if I make a ton of money as a writer?  What if we get out of debt as quickly as we can?  What if I AM able to send Anna to the college programs I want her to attend?  What if I DO sell a lot of Avon to people who love it as much as I do?  What if I do lose the 140 pounds I need to lose?  What if I ignored all of the fearful things my brain whispers to itself to keep me from trying and failing… and tried anyway?

What if you ignored your brain’s whispers too?  What if we all stopped paralyzing ourselves with fear and negative self talk?  How far could we go if we stopped asking What If and just did what our heart leads us to do?

Here’s the answer to all of those questions:  I don’t know.  But I want to find out.

I will no longer be the barrier to my own success nor the engineer of my own failures.  I will no longer talk myself out of being and giving and doing the things I love and want in life. – ~ ME

Beginning today, and for as long as I possibly can, I am giving myself permission to reach for those goals and to succeed or just to fail spectacularly and keep reaching anyway.  I’m giving you permission too.

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