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The Importance of Fixing Things Sooner Rather than Later

January 10, 2019 By MelissaB 2 Comments

A few years ago, my brakes started making noise whenever I pushed the brake pedal. I procrastinated quite a while before I took the car into the shop because I didn’t have the money for the repair. However, because I waited so long, the brakes had worn down to the rotors, so my repair was much more expensive than it would have been had I come in right away.

But Wait! I Hadn’t Learned the Lesson Yet!

You would think I’d have learned my lesson, but no, I haven’t.

We own a minivan that is 11.5 years old and has 167,000 miles on it. A while ago, one of the back sliding door handles broke, so we could no longer use it from the outside. No worries. We simply herded all the kids in through the other side door. Was it a pain? Just a little bit, but we didn’t want to spend $200 to $300 on a door handle repair when we had so many other pressing expenses.

But, then the other sliding door broke. The wire coil started to fray, so we couldn’t open the door. The repair for the outer wire coil? A cool $900 to $1,000. Ouch.

So, we started opening the driver’s side door and reaching around to open the side door with the outside broken handle by using the inside handle. By now, we were starting to feel a bit, um, special, I’ll say, because of our unusual way to open the door. Still, we put off the repair because we had other expenses like a $210 garage door repair and a $90 air conditioning tune up along with a $900 deposit for braces for our son.

All was okay until the inside door handle broke. Now, the only way the kids can get in and out of the car is through the front doors. The special meter has gone up enormously, and even the kids are talking about how embarrassed the are to get in and out of the car. Now that the repair is inevitable, I called the shop to find out the repair will likely be $400 to $500 because they’ll have to remove the door and replace both the inside and outside door handle.

Lesson learned. When a repair is needed, make the repair. If you don’t, you’ll likely end up paying more in the future.

How to Get the Money Together

If your budget is tight like ours is, there are ways to get the money together to make a smaller repair immediately so you don’t have to pay more for a larger repair later:

Raid your emergency fund. This is the easiest. If you have an emergency fund, use the money and then rebuild the emergency fund as quickly as possible.

Have a pantry challenge for a week. We spend approximately $150 to $200 a week for groceries. By taking just one week to eat only what we have in the house and not going to the grocery store, we could have had the money for the handle repair before it got worse. Lesson learned.

Sell stuff. Everyone has stuff around the house that they don’t need or don’t use. Sell things at second hand stores, sports resale stores, or eBay or Facebook. You’ll be surprised how quickly the money will add up.

Do you procrastinate on repairs because your budget is tight? If so, like us, has that rationale ended up costing you more money?

How to Coupon for Healthy Foods

July 23, 2018 By MelissaB Leave a Comment

Years ago, during the coupon craze, I bought my share of convenience foods that I could get for just pennies. Thanks to couponing and buying the deals, I was able to save a great deal of money on groceries. But over the years, I found that the money I saved wasn’t really saved after all. Instead, the money just went somewhere else—to the doctor.

I had high cholesterol, high triglycerides, and after a while, serious stomach ailments that required me to go see a specialist.

I eventually switched to a Paleo diet, focusing primarily on eating fresh fruits, veggies, and some meat. Since the change, my cholesterol is nearly 75 points lower, I no longer have high triglycerides, and my stomach is much improved.

I still try to keep the grocery budget trim, but it’s much harder to do so without using coupons.

Coupons for Healthy Foods?

Coupon for Healthy Foods — Couponing for Health

For years, I just assumed that there are no coupons for healthy foods, especially foods that aren’t processed, but that’s just not true. If you know where to look, you CAN find coupons for healthy foods.

Where to Find Coupons for Healthy Foods

The best place to start is the manufacturer’s website. Here are a few of my favorites:

Organic Valley—sign up for the mailing list, and you’ll receive coupons straight to your e-mail box.

Earth’s Best Organic—you’ll find coupons for baby items here.

Blue Diamond Almonds—sign up for their newsletter, and you’ll regularly receive offers

Whole Foods Coupons—you’ll find coupons for a wide array of products sold at Whole Foods

Other Ways to Get Coupons

There are other ways that I like to get coupons for healthy foods:

Facebook

Some companies will occasionally offer a coupon when you like their Facebook page. This is my favorite time to like the page. Also, companies sometimes post coupons on their Facebook page as their status update.

Write to the company

I admit, this sounds old fashioned, but I’ve had great success with writing to the companies individually. I will find the e-mail address of the company on the product, and then I’ll send them an e-mail. I usually let them know why I like their product and thank them for making it. My kids have food intolerances, so if the company makes a product my kids can actually eat, I thank them for that.

I don’t specifically ask for coupons, but more than 50% of the time, they send me coupons. Some companies are very generous and send several high value coupons. If you create a stock letter for this type of e-mail, you can send out several e-mails, each to different companies, in a relatively short period of time.

Of course, just as when you’re using coupons for processed foods, the best way to stretch your savings is to stack the coupon with the item when it’s already on sale.

While getting coupons for healthy foods is a bit more difficult than couponing for processed foods, you still can use coupons to lower your grocery bill.

What are your favorite strategies for lowering your grocery bill when shopping primarily for healthy foods?

Is There a Best Way to Meal Plan?

July 2, 2018 By MelissaB 1 Comment

The price of groceries just seems to keep going up, and up, and up. How much I’ve spent on groceries has nearly doubled in the last five years. True, my kids are older and hungrier, but in general, the price of groceries themselves has increased. In our household, groceries are our biggest monthly expense behind our mortgage.

If you’re like my family, you’re constantly looking for a way to cut your monthly grocery costs.

I’ve found that reducing grocery expenses largely comes down to making a plan and sticking to it. There are several ways to do this.

Make a Monthly Meal Plan

Best Way to Meal Plan — How do you meal plan?

Some people lower their grocery costs by making a monthly meal plan and shopping once a month. Of course, when I say shopping once a month, that doesn’t mean it’s the only time that they go to the store. Rather, they have one large shopping trip at the beginning of the month, and then they go to the store 1 to 3 more times during the month to get fresh produce and milk as needed.

This technique can save money mainly because you keep yourself out of the stores and avoid impulse buys by doing so. You’ve likely gone into the store to buy one or two items and found yourself walking out with a cartload of groceries. Those impulse buys, even if there a good deal, can destroy your budget. Those who shop once a month reduce their spending simply by reducing the number of times they allow themselves access to the grocery store and impulse buys.

Make a Menu Plan

Another technique is to make a weekly menu plan based on what you find on sale in the grocery store flyers. Between the items that you see on sale and the items that you already have in your house, you make a menu plan and shop for the loss leaders and whatever other items you need to make your meals.

Shop First

Still others go to their favorite store first and scout out the good, unadvertised deals. For instance, if pasta is on clearance, they may buy many bags of it and have several pasta meals that week. If they find a great deal on beef, they may make a stroganoff using the beef and pasta for one meal, and a spaghetti bolognese for another meal. These planners find the good sales and then make a menu plan. Once they get home, they rely on Pinterest, the internet and sites like MyFridgeFood to help them decide what to serve based on the great sales they found.

For years I have debated about which method works best and which one saves the most money. But, the bottom line is that you must choose the method that works best for you and your family. In this season of our family life, method two works best for us.

However, it doesn’t matter which method works best for your family. What really matters if you want to cut your grocery costs is that you have a plan and you utilize one of these three methods.

What is your favorite way to menu plan and save money? Do you prefer one of these methods or a different one?