Inexpensive Meals: BBQ sandwich $0.94 a serving!

Here is an inexpensive meal idea for you! Find the breakdown below.

BBQ pulled pork sandwiches:

Pork Butt: $1.77/lb. Ours came to $6.85 for almost 4 lbs.
Garlic: 1/3 head of garlic. We paid $0.38 a head, so about $0.13 for this recipe.
Onion: We used 1 onion which was $0.50.
BBQ Sauce: We use 36 oz of BBQ sauce. We can get 2 - 18 oz. bottles for $1 each. This comes out to $2 total.
Buns: We buy a 24 pack of buns at Costco for $3.50. For this recipe, we will use 12, so that is a total of $1.75.

All in all, we can get 12 sandwiches for $11.23. That comes out to just $0.94 a sandwich!

Sometimes we also have a can of corn or green beans for the 2 of us. Our grocery store has green beans for $0.33 a can and corn for $0.66 a can. If we figure that into our cost, the entire meal is $1.10-$1.27 each!


I will be sharing more meal ideas as we cook them.

Grocery Tips

Hey all! Today I want to talk about grocery shopping. We went to the store Sunday and got some great deals. I just want to walk you through how my husband and I shop. We eat great food, nothing luxurious, but still delicious and do not spend much on groceries every month.

Tip #1 Find a grocery store that you like that has great deals and takes coupons. We personally love HEB. If you do not live in Texas you have never heard of it. I am so sorry for you because this grocery store is amazing! ;) I am sure you will hear a lot about it on this blog.

Tip #2 Try branching out and trying the store brand items. Before I was married, I was used to having mostly name brand food items, so I was a bit hesitant to buy store brand for some things. But, it turns out that the store brand stuff is pretty good, especially at HEB! I was scared to try items such as cream cheese and sour cream but have been pleasantly surprised so far. There are still some items, however that I still buy name brand. Next time you go shopping switch out 1 or 2 name brand items and try out the store brand. It doesn't hurt to try.

Tip #3 If you are a soda drinker like me, you know how expensive they can be. $5 for a 12 pack? No thank you! Try to only buy sodas when they are one sale. If it is a fantastic deal, say 4 for $10, buy 8 and stock up. Most of the time we are happy with the store brand. HEB even has several flavors made with real cane sure with regular price $2.97. They frequently have a $1 off coupon on top of that! This week I bought some Coca-Cola, my absolute favorite for 3 for $9. I have been waiting for it to go on sale!

Tip #4 Have you ever thought about reducing cost on your main item which is usually meat? The main meats we buy are ground turkey, chicken breast, tilapia, and frozen cooked chicken such as chicken fillets, nuggets, and strips for fast meals. Ground turkey is a great solution to ground beef mainly because it is a LOT cheaper and healthier. We get a pound for $1.97. Chicken is also right around that price - $1.99. Tilapia and frozen cooked chicken are a bit more expensive. We try to ration these items. The frozen chicken items make a great option when no one wants to cook as an alternative to going through a drive thru. You can put some nuggets and fries in the toaster over and have a quick meal. It is always cheaper to buy raw meat rather than meat that has already been cooked, but we all need easy options for meals sometimes. Try the ground turkey though. It will save you a lot!

Tip #5 Limiting the number of times you make big shopping trips each month can help you save money. We make a big shopping trip once every 3 weeks. Sometimes we make a quick trip to the store for milk or lunch meat in between if we need to. If you go to the store every couple of days, you tend to spend more because it feels like you aren't spending much. If you go to the store 8 times a month and spend $60 each time, it may not feel like a lot each time, but you will get to the end of the month and realize you spent almost $500 on groceries (I realize this number will not be high for larger families).

Tip #6 If you see a great deal on something that can be frozen or is non perishable, STOCK UP. A couple months ago we were able to get Jennie-O turkey (of course it's cheaper than beef!) bacon for $0.52 for 12 oz! We bought 9 lbs worth and froze the rest.

Tip #7 Clip some coupons before heading to the store. We save a lot by printing out coupons and checking deals before we head to the store. I frequent Faithful Saver's blog for current deals and tips. Check it out! Also, if your store price matches, check a couple ads before heading to the store.

Tip #8 Buy the produce that is on sale that week. We love buying fresh fruits and vegetables, and my husband loves blueberries, which happen to be quite expensive. We only buy the more expensive fruits when there is a great sale. I got 3 lbs of grapes this weekend for $3.98. ;) We also got a great deal on zucchini - $0.98 a lb I think. You can save a lot by using the sales to your advantage.

I know I have more tips, but I will leave you with that tonight. In the future I will post some meal ideas with cost breakouts by serving.

How do you save on groceries? Let me know in the comments.

Auto: Pay cash for your car

In my opinion, it is a waste of money to pay interest on a car loan. I have taken out a car loan before, but luckily I did not have it long before I sold the car and paid off the loan. Save for a car and then buy a car you can afford. A brand new car will depreciate in value so quickly, you will probably owe more than it's worth within the first year or two of owning it. There is a special peace that comes with buying a car and owning it with no strings attached. You don't have to worry about making payments on it if you lose your job, and you just don't have to make payments, period.

A couple months ago, my husband's car stopped working properly. We decided that fixing the issue would cost more than the car was worth and sold the car. We needed a replacement for him, so we had to buy another car. We had not anticipated needing to buy a car, but we luckily had our savings started for buying our first home. We set a limit on how much we wanted to spend and set out to find a car.

We ended up getting a great deal on an '04 Pontiac Grand Prix GTP that my husband loves. The dealership even knocked off $500 for paying in cash. We got a great deal and owe nothing to the bank, which is amazing!

Let's look at a scenario. Let's say you buy a new car for $20,000. According to bankrate.com, for a new car, 60 month loan, interest is 4.03% on average right now. After five years, you will have paid $2,116.08 in interest for a total of $22,116.08 for a car that is now worth much less than the original $20,000. You take the hit of interest and depreciation!

Tip 1: Don't forget to account for tax, title, license, and any dealer fees when budgeting for a new (or new to you) car.
Tip 2: You can usually save some money by doing a private sale rather than buying from a dealership. Make sure the paperwork is properly done in a private sale.

Let me know your opinion in the comments. ;)

EDIT: Thank you Diego for finding the mistake in my calculation. ;) It has been fixed now.

Not our actual car, but it looks like this :)

Eating Out: Take your lunch to work

If you are trying to save up for a goal, a great way to cut out expenses is to limit the amount of times you eat out each month. My husband and I are diligent about not spending money on fast food very often - almost always under $15 a month. This is something that works for us because we just make food at home and are happy with that. One area where people tend to splurge on eating out is at work.

You work 40 hours a week, and when it gets to lunch time, you do not want to stay at work. Everyone that works understands this concept well. When I go to lunch I do one of two things. If I need to get out of the building, I go home to eat. I understand this is not reasonable for everyone, as sometimes you do not live close enough to work to do this. If I do not go home, I go to the break room, watch some tv, and eat. Doing this may be hard for some people, but if you can be diligent in doing this, you will save tons.

A normal meal at lunch will probably run you $5-$10 depending on where you go and if you get a drink, etc. If you were to go out every day during lunch, that's $25-$50 a week you are spending on fast food. In the span of a year (assuming you work about 47 weeks like me), that's a whopping $1,175-$2,350 a year just for lunch during the work week. If you compare that to making a sandwich or buying a frozen meal, you will spend $2-$3 a day on lunch - or less if you are frugal. That's $470-$705 a year, or a savings of $705-$1,645 a year! You do not have to eat lunch at work every day, but if you brought your lunch 4 days a week and went out on Fridays, that is still a lot of savings. An extra benefit is that you will probably be healthier bringing your own food than eating out every day.

I realize this is not for everyone, but this is an area my husband and I are willing to cut out while we are saving for a home.

App Review: Mint

I have been using the Mint app and Mint.com website for probably about 4 months now. I love having this app on my phone because it allows me to easily keep up with my finances. It can even alert you when bills are due or if an odd transaction has occurred - large deposit or withdrawal, etc. I will step through some of the features of the app/website, noting my likes and dislikes. FYI: I am using the Android app so it may be slightly different if you have an iPhone.

Linking of cards/accounts: Mint allows for easy linking of all of your accounts including credit cards, debit cards, checking accounts, investment accounts, loan accounts, etc. I love the security with this app. It is powered by Intuit, and I feel safe giving my information to them. If you are not comfortable with this, this app will not be nearly as useful for you. It pulls in real time data from all of your accounts so you can view it in one place. This makes life easier because you do not have to log into multiple accounts to view your finances. You can set a passcode so if someone gets access to your phone, they cannot see your financial information.

Investment accounts: You can keep track of your investment accounts such as 401Ks and mutual fund on the mint app. I like this feature but it is pretty limited on what it can show you. For my account, it only shows me the contributions I made and the total value of the account but does not show gains and losses. I wish it showed this, but for a quick view of my investment it works okay, especially since I can get the more detailed information from the actual investment site.

Budgeting tool: I used this tool for a little bit but have not been using it regularly lately. It is a neat feature that allows you to input an amount you want to spend in various categories: auto, utilities, fast food, groceries, etc. You can add your own categories as well, so there are a lot of options here. Mint will alert you when you are nearing your allowed spending in each category. This is a great feature if you are trying to set boundaries for yourself. You can also dictate if your budget can rollover to the next month in each category. For example, if you want to spend $100 each month on entertainment but in August you only spent $90, $10 will rollover to September, and your budget for September will be $110. You can opt out of this feature as well (I believe you have to be on the website to access this feature). The only thing I do not like about this feature is that you have to wait until the current month to do a budget for that month. This limits you budgeting ahead for the next month. 

Goals: You can set goals on the website as well, but I do not think you can do this in the app. For example, if you want to save for an $8,000 car, you can put in a goal to save $1,000 a month for 8 months, and Mint will track your progress.  You have to have a separate account for this goal though like a separate savings account, so I have not used this feature to the full extent yet.

Charts: I love the charts Mint provides. I will first mention the charts and information available in the app, as it is limited compared to the website. You can view a pie chart of your expenses for the current month only (which is a bit annoying). The pie chart breaks expenses up into categories. For example, it will show that you spent $50 on fast food in August. You can then click into the category and view individual transactions: $15 at Wendy's day 1, $10 at Taco Bell, $20 at Pizza Hut, $5 at Wendy's day 2. This shows you a graphic to see how large a piece of your pie is going into each category. You can quickly that you are spending a large percentage on restaurants for example.

The spending chart shows spending month to month, and you can view individual transactions as well. This is nice because it combines all of your accounts into one space so you can see your expenses across multiple credit cards or accounts. I personally like the net income chart because it shows month over month how much you are putting away into savings. It shows net income=income-expenses.

Cash Flow: This features allows you to see total expenses broken out by Merchant or Category. Here you can also click in to see individual expenses at each merchant or in each category. 

Now for the extra charts provided on the website. Here you can view your trends for spending, income, net income, assets, debts, and net worth over time. You can look at the current month, the last 3 months, the last year, etc. You can alternate between a bar chart or pie chart on the website for different visuals. The information in the app is great for a quick view, but you can access a lot more information on the website if you really want to dig into your finances. You can even export a CSV file. I look at this every once in awhile but use the app on a daily basis.

Overall, I love the features provided by Mint. I wish the app had a better way to look at investment accounts, but it works for a quick view. You cannot access the pie chart for previous months from the app, but you can look at what you spent for previous months. I wish the budgeting took allowed you to forecast expenses for coming months on the app and website.

You should try it for yourself, and let me know your opinion in the comments.

OH, did I mention it's FREE?

Coupons!

Couponing is a great way to save money. Whether you choose to use few coupons or many, you will save money. I am not a couponer, but I do like to save money using coupons during my regular grocery shopping trips.

I recommend this blog for learning how to coupon and finding great deals. She posts daily with great money-saving ideas!

Faithful Saver

Go there now and start saving!

Credit Cards

Almost everyone has credit cards, but almost no one is responsible enough to have one. I personally believe it is okay to a have a credit card if you have enough self control with it. My husband and I use our credit cards like debit cards and pay off the balance at the end of the month. This allows us to avoid ever paying interest on the card. We never put more on the card than we have in savings - or even close to what we have in savings for that matter. Then why even use a credit card you ask? Well, the main reason we use a credit card instead of a debit card is because of the bonus cash back points. We get 1% cash back on everything and 2-5% on various items through the year such as gas, restaurants, department stores, etc. We also enjoy the protection the bank puts on credit card accounts. When someone uses the credit card number without authorization, we are not liable for any of the charges.

Here are a couple things to watch for when picking a credit card:

Make sure there are no annual fees - Our goal when having a card is to never pay the credit card company anything because well, we are cheap. Our credit cards have no annual fees and we never pay interest, so they never get any money from us. But, they do give us money.

Make sure the credit card offers at least some cash back bonus. We use our cards strategically. If we get 5% back on gas that quarter on one card but not the other, we make sure to use that card for gas. If the other has 2% back on restaurants vs. 1%, we will use the one with 2% back. 

Now, when you decide to cash out for bonuses, this is where the credit card companies can get you. We always opt for the CASH back and transfer it directly to our bank account. You can even apply it directly to your credit card balance. If you get a gift card or item with it, then you really didn't get cash back for your purchases. Plus, if you use your points for a gift card, you won't get a percentage back on the purchases at that store when using the gift card. 

Be careful that you are not using the cash back irresponsibly. Just because you get 5% at restaurants this month doesn't mean you should go out to eat every night. We buy everything like we normally would if that item was not a cash back special. For example, we don't drive more in the month when we get 5% back on gas vs. a month we would only get 1%.

You might call this cheating the system, but we just like to call it taking advantage of the situation. ;) If everyone used their credit cards like this, the credit card companies wouldn't make very much money.

The bottom line is, if you can use your credit card just like you would a debit card and never charge more than you have, I believe it is okay to have one. If you are an impulse buyer and tend to spend more when using a credit card, stay away from them!!!

I repeat, NEVER PAY INTEREST. Pay off your balance each month. You will waste so much money on interest if you only pay the amount you have to pay (the statement balance). Credit cards have really high interest rates, and this is how the companies make their money.

Disagree? Agree? Let me know in the comments.