Freezer Fun

We have three freezers: one with the fridge, one out in the garage in our old fridge, and one stand-alone freezer downstairs. That makes for a frozen food tundra that can be difficult to explore.

As part of tightening the belt, my sweetie is plowing through all of our freezer stuff so we can use it up. We're having meals that we've already paid for so for a few days or weeks we are protected from the rising food costs. And, as some food prices start to come down, we can replenish our stores at the lower cost.

If you have food that you aren't sure what to do with, try AllRecipes.com and plug in the ingredients you have to find out what yummy goodness you can make tonight!

Free Internet Radio

Pandora, or "The Music Genome Project", is a free internet radio streaming service available to anyone with an internet connection and a modern web browser.

Granted, you can't put it on your iPod, but it's free and also a great way to learn about new music.

Go to the site and create a new account. Then you can log in and create "Stations". These stations are either a song or band name. Pandora then plays a song by that band that exemplifies the artist musically. You rate that song with a thumbs-up or thumbs-down. If you like it, it continues playing that track. If you don't, it continues on to the next. Usually, the next track is a band/song that is sonically similar to the original you chose at the beginning.

I have found more new artists using Pandora than I would have normally. And while you can play with this in your browser, there are desktop, iphone/ipod touch, and mobile phone versions available.

Check it out!!!

Shopping for Insurance

We've had State Farm since the beginning of our marriage. The only reason we chose State Farm is that's what Mom and Dad used at one point. But I'm more interested in trimming monthly bills these days, so I decided to shop around for better rates.

I tried one of the online insurance sites where you could search multiple companies by filling out one form. Big mistake. The rates where higher than what I'm paying now and my name is now on half a dozen mailing lists.

I mentioned my quandary to Michael and he recommended AAA. I called our local branch and sent them my current policies for the two cars, the house, and a personal liability umbrella (not for rich people, Michael!). Turns out we can save over $300/year by switching. PLUS, we'll be AAA members, which will give me peace of mind in case we ever need a little gas, a flat repair, or a tow.

Moral of the story: it does pay to shop around, but it helps to get recommendation from friends and family.

The only thing that bugs me about this whole experience is that I didn't do it sooner. $300/year for the last 10 years = $3000. That's a lot of dough!

Don't neglect bulk foods

Yesterday I went to Winco and since I had recently used up all of my small white beans for a yummy ham and bean soup (cheap, cheap, cheap), I needed to buy some more. I bought from the bulk section and it was 74 cents per lb. I know that buying from the cannery is probably cheaper yet. Anyway, I measured out what I wanted, it weighed in at 1.44 lb @ 74 cents per lb. = $1.07 Just out of curiousity, I checked the dried bean section in the regular part of the store and their cheapest store brand was 94 cents for a 1 lb. package. What a better deal that was!
Spices are amazingly cheaper when purchased in bulk . . .even when you buy the 50 cent container to put it in when you get home.

Also, Winco will deduct 7 cents per bag for each bag you recycle from home . . .I didn't know this until I saw a gal do it and she got 37 cents back for bringing in bags from home. Wonder if any other grocers do this?
Mom

Old School Budgeting

Michael and I are takin' you back to the old school. When we first got married we tracked every penny we spent and asked for receipts everywhere we went. As things got easier, we chilled out with the budget but now we're back. Here's how we've been doing the budget for the last couple months.

1. We set up some basic spreadsheets, one for each paycheck.
2. We've combined categories to eliminate headaches.
3. We pay some things early to balance spending better for each pay period.
4. J money is back! Well, so is M money and kids money. Any entertainment comes out of this, our personal funds.
5. We use cash as much as possible. We hit up the ATM on payday and when it's gone, we're done spending. This also makes balancing the account easier with less transactions to deal with.
6. We go over the budget weekly and adapt it to reflect any special expenses coming up that pay period.

This has helped us because we don't spend all the money we have, just what's budgeted. It's helped keep the checking account at a comfortable level all the time. We're also planning for things in advance a lot better. We know what expenses are coming up and set some money aside for it now (like Christmas, Nick's wedding, and other things).

So what kinda budgeting do you like to use? Are you old school too? Share your budgeting tips Sand Fam!