Cards, Cards and More Cards

So happy to be making things again. I made all these over a weeks time. I'm also making progress on my giant stacks of 2 years worth of photos. My goal is to be caught up on my albums by Christmas. We'll see how that goes. My giant stacks have over a thousand photos. No lie:) Hopefully I'll be able to use my Cricut Expressions more. My wonderful husband gave to me for Christmas, I've only used it a few times. All to help the kids with school projects. They turned out beautiful. However, I want to use it for me!
I love this card. The stamp is from Verve.

Stamp is Greeting Farm

Greeting Farm stamp

Another Greeting Farm stamp. The waves are part of a boarder that came in a paper set. I've had my paper sooo long I'm not even sure where I got it. LOL:) I used 3d dots to make the waves pop.

A Stamping Bella Stamp.

This is one of my new favorite stamps from Greeting Farm. I'm all about cupcakes. I even wear my hair the same way as her:)

Another Verve stamp.

Well over all I was able to save $200.00. Not bad. Still still trying to get down to $250.00 in savings a month.

month has come and gone

the month has come and gone. I was able to spend $200.00 less in groceries. However, we did have to buy new glasses and tires. LOL:) so much for savings. That's life right. Can't wait to see what I do this month.

This week

Okay, so this week I've spend $140.00. More than the $100.00 I was aiming for. However, I was able to purchase meat for next week, buy one get one free. I saved 103.11. $30.00 in coupon savings. I also received a $5.00 gift card from Target. I was able to get a total of 4 things completely free with coupons. I guess you can't know all the ins and outs in a week. I still feel I did a good job this week.

I've asked my parents to save any unused coupons for me. I think I'm going to ask a few more people as well. Really max our savings.

See ya next week!

adding on....

I'm adding on to my challenge. Our grocery bill is out of control! While I'm loving the Extreme Couponing tv show on TLC, I don't want 100 tubes of toothpaste. Or a ton of junk food stock piled for my family. I'm super picky about the type of products I buy. So my add on goal is still to coupon more, but only for products we use and need. Also to cut at least $200.00 out of our grocery expense.

I'm also going to try to get full grocery's twice a month with fillers in between for perishables. To help me do this, I've made out a dinner list for two weeks and bought items I'll need for those dinners. I've also started a spreadsheet divided into sections to see just where in the store I'm spending the most money. This will help me know where I really need to try to save more. The bulk of my bill is in fresh fruits, veggies, dairy and meats. We eat a ton of fresh fruit and veggies, which is great. However, I'm sure I can find good deals on that as well as boxed foods.

So for this weeks shopping I spent a grand total of $340.43 for my family of 5. ( and 2 dogs)
I was only able to save with coupons $13.12, and a total of in store savings of $80.51.

We'll see what next week brings. My goal is to only spend $60.00 on perishables.

month almost over

Well the month is about over, and I did great with my challenge! Right at my $40.00 limit. I did buy a few new pairs of short, however they were needed. I only had 3 pairs of shorts. So I didn't add that into my budget. Can't wait to keep on going!

still going

I'm still going. I needed to buy a new cutter because mine broke. Then a few needed summer items. I'm still with in my limit for the week.

Day 2

Made it through a Target run without spending anything on myself:)

making another go at it

Last summer I made a go at not purchasing any new things for myself. Which I failed at. I did last about a month. I was going for 3 months. All summer. I'm human, it happens.

It has come to my attention that others in my life feel I spend hundreds on myself.
So as of today I'm making another go at it. For proof, not only to them, but for myself. Just to see. The thought of quitting cold turkey is appealing, however I know quitting cold turkey with anything is a lot harder. So I'm going to try to step down. Do I spend hundreds a week or month on myself..... NO! But I do pick up a shirt at Target, or my quick trip to the craft store for one thing, ends up being more then one thing.

Rules are as before but with a bit more give in the beginning. I'm going to allot a dollar amount for myself a week, $10.00. $40.00 a month. Then the next month I'll take $10.00 off, and so on. I'm just going to take it a month at a time. Baby steps. After all, I don't want to set myself up to fail.

Keep up with me if you want, or give it a go yourself. I mean how hard can it be:) LOL!

Spring is here. Time for renewing. Our family has had a lot of new changes this past year. Life has been so busy. I'm looking forward to getting back to crafting.