Simply Reaching Out

Today is the last day, officially, of the spending freeze. I got a little behind last week on blogging every day so I am combining three days into one. I made a trip to the Salvation Army. They were having a sale on clothes, $1 each except on jeans. Jeans were half off. I bought 3 pairs of jeans for Leo, a sweater for myself and a cape/shawl for Annie. Total was $12. I had never been to the Salvation Army store. I much prefer Goodwill. I might go there next week, if I have time. I usually find really good stuff there for the kids.  I am very very happy that we did the spending freeze. We spent very little beyond our bills, groceries and gas. I took a hard look at what we could do to improve and took steps to make things better. Now that we have a firm grip on our spending, the goal is to stay the course. Like I said before, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. In a few months our debt will decrease by paying off our car and soon after our tax debt and then our credit card. ...

Now that we are getting to the end of the month. I thought I would ask my family some questions about the spending freeze. I asked Annabelle: Do you think the spending freeze effected your everyday life? She said, "not really I just didn't get to have pork buns every Friday". Do you think the spending freeze is a good thing? "yes, because we will save money and keep collecting it!" Next month I plan on doing a lot of the same things we did this month. But I can't be on total spending freeze lock down forever. Annie needs new shoes for school. Leo needs school shorts for the warmer weather. And after 8 months I am finally going to get my hair cut and colored. I am so looking forward to that! And, I have a major family project for next month that I need to invest in We are doing a garden! I did one two years ago as a total experiment and we had tons of cucumbers and kale but little else. We dug right into the ground and used only seeds.And the ground here ...

I am so glad we did this spending freeze and I can see the light at the end of the tunnel! One of my main goals, as I mentioned earlier this month, was to stop paying bank fees and late fees on our bills. The good news is I went from paying $187.50 in fees to the bank last month to $35 this month. I wish I could say it was zero but... Joel wanted to sign up for Amazon Prime, we agreed it was worth $80 for the year and there was a 30 day trial period. Well, I totally forgot that the 30 days were ending in February and our bank account would be automatically debited. So the money wasn't available when Amazon submitted the payment and we were charged an overdraft fee. I am still very proud of our progress. Plus I got caught up on a few bills that we were falling behind on. I also adjusted some monthly payment dates to a more convenient time for us to pay them eliminating late fees.  What I am looking forward to is paying my car off this September. Then I plan on making bigger payment...

I guess its time to finish the story of ..How did this happen? a continuation from Days 4, 8 & 18 So....where was I? Oh yea, fired from Medifast last July 2013. The irony was, I was complaining to my husband for weeks that I wanted to quit. Really, ever since I got written up. I imagine that they wanted me to quit but I promised my husband I would not quit unless I had another job. I had been looking with no luck. When I texted my husband that I had been fired he responded, "good,  now you don't have to quit!" I immediately applied for unemployment insurance. After a few weeks I had a phone interview and shortly after was told that my claim had been approved. I was relieved and felt a bit vindicated. They had no substantial reason for firing me. I did a good job, I was reliable, represented the company well, was promoted and counseled 75% of the centers total clients. And as with most things that seem horrible and life altering at the time, I found the silver linin...

More money saving ideas: 1) Track your spending. I have mentioned this before but, it bears repeating. I prefer the using Mint.com. Besides tracking your spending from your checking and savings accounts. You can link your 401k, credit card debt, auto loans and even your assets. It was a great tool for staying within my budget this month. 2) Re-think vacations. There is a reason stay-cations are popular. They cost less. And luckily we live in California! There is so much to see and do here. Also compare the cost of driving versus flying. If you can stand being in the car 8-10 hours to get to your destination it might be worth driving instead. Especially if you are taking your family. Also look into websites that compare travel prices such as Kayak.com. I also frequent Hotels.com and Southwest Airlines. They both have rewards programs. 3) Speaking of rewards... Sign up for them. Whether it's for restaurants, hotels, pharmacies or clothing stores. Loyalty is what these business...

Last week I told my family that the spending freeze has been successful so far and if we continue and finish the month strong that we could go out to eat. We voted and decided to have brunch at El Torito. Plus I had a coupon for $15 off. The plan was to go to brunch Sunday March 1st. But we had a surprise visit from some friends that drove up for the weekend from LA. They stayed the night Saturday and we had brunch together on Sunday at El Torito. It was nice to be there and spend time with our friends. And it was as yummy as I remember it. But it will be a long while before we got back for brunch again. The price has jumped up. Last time we were there it was $15.99 per person now, its $17.99. Plus, Leo is still at the childrens price at age 12. In a few weeks he is going to be 13. Most places have childrens pricing for 12 and under. Although, this past year anytime we said he was 12, I am pretty sure no one believed us. He is 5'8" and around 165 lbs. I can say that eating o...

I have been talking a lot about saving money. How about we talk about making money? 1) Have a garage/yard sale. When we downsized over 1000 sq ft of home we didn't have enough room to put everything! So we had a sale. We made almost $300 in a few hours just getting rid of our old junk. 2) Sell stuff on Ebay or Craigslist. Over the years we have sold a few items on Craigslist and Ebay. The biggest item was Joel's motorcycle. It took a while, but we finally the right buyer. 3) Save your loose change. When I was a kid, there was this thing called a pay phone. You would put your change in and make a call. And on a good day, you might find a quarter in the coin return! And a quarter used to buy a whole candy bar! hahaha, I crack myself up. But seriously, save your change, it can add up quickly. Did you know that the loose change people left behind at airports in security tubs totaled more than $500,000 in one year? Wow! 4) Recycling. Taking your aluminum, plastic and glass t...

One of my favorite movies ever is, Parenthood with Steve Martin. There is a scene where he is stressed out and upset. His granny is staying with them for a visit. In the middle of the chaos she says, "ya know when I was 19 grandpa took me on a roller coaster".  Steve Martin's character, Gill says "oh?"  She says with enthusiasm, "up, down, up, down. Oh, what a ride!" "What a great story",  Gil rolls his eyes sarcastically.  Finally she says, "I always wanted to go again. You know, it was just so interesting to me that a ride could make me so frightened, so scared, so sick, so excited, and so thrilled all together! Some didn't like it. They went on the merry-go-round. That just goes around. Nothing. I like the roller coaster. You get more out of it". She was trying to teach Gill a life lesson but he didn't want to hear it. Later, still stressed out, talking with his wife Karen, they start to argue. She says, "I...

This is continued for DAY 4 & DAY 8: Now here we are, it's 2011. The good news is in 2010, Joel got a job working for the City of Stockton in the Water Department and I lost 30 lbs using Medifast. The bad news is, I just got fired in September 2011 and we have lost all 3 of our properties. Let me just say that losing our properties was really hard, but it happened slowly over a period of time so we were prepared. However, being fired is one of the worst feelings EVER. I didn't see it coming and I had never been fired before. It was awful. After we short-sold our residence, we found a rental only slightly smaller than our previous home. Our oldest son Craig had moved back home so we needed a four bedroom. It was convenient to have a built in sitter! After being fired, I applied for unemployment and was turned down. The employer said they had proof I used the computer for personal use. However, my contract stated that I would receive commission on any closings that I had g...

I am feeling the chill of the spending freeze. Mostly because I want to build up my stockpile and I hate missing out on the awesome deals! And...it is getting harder to say no to my husband and kids. I manage all the money, so literally, The Buck Stops Here! They did great the first two weeks but they are starting to get the itch to spend too. For example, I have mentioned before, my daughter goes to a kids acting class. They were offering a party on Saturday the 15th. That way parents can go out and they can leave the kids to watch a movie, dance, have snacks and play. We did not have any plans to go out for Valentines Day weekend but, Annie really wanted to go to the "party" It cost $20. I reminded her that we were on a spending freeze and suggested she ask her Auntie. So a few days later she saw Auntie and asked her if she would pay. She said, yes. Yeay for Auntie!!! As we were talking about the party the next day, I told Annabelle she would be there for 4 hours. She wasn...

One of the best things I ever did to improve our finances is learning how to coupon! It has changed the way I shop. It all started when my kids started watching a show called Extreme Couponers on Netflix. I started watching with them. I was very skeptical. If you have ever watched the show, they have a self proclaimed couponer go shopping and save as much as possible. Most of the shows I saw, the people saved 95% or more. They would pick out carts full on products worth $400, $500 $600 or more. And walk out of that store paying a few dollars! I was like, why would anyone ever buy 100 Tic-Tacs? What's the point if you buy something you don't use? Double coupons, now wonder they save so much, we don't have that in California. Those were a few things that a would say. Like I said, I was very skeptical. But, the more I watched it. The more I thought, there has got to be something to this. So, I decided to start couponing. I most often shopped at Walmart. So, I would just take ...

So grocery shopping was a big ol' bust again. I am afraid $25 per week was an unrealistic goal. They say goals are supposed to be SMART: Specific Measurable Achievable Realistic Timely It wasn't realistic, therefore unachievable. When I went grocery shopping I decided to try and stay around $50 which is close to what I spent last week. I spent $60 at Walmart and $35 at Safeway. The plan this month was not to buy any meat, if I could help it. I was going to try and use what we had in the freezer. And so far, besides the linguica I bought last week, we were doing good. Today I took an inventory and we are out of chicken breast. I saw boneless, skinless breast for $1.99 per pound at Walmart and bought some. It's a good price, so I snatched some up. Then I decided since Joel and I are not buying each other Valentine's Day gifts, I should make Joel a nice, juicy ribeye steak(his favorite). They were on sale at Safeway for $5.99 per lb so, I snatched those up to. In m...

Since I LOVE saving money, I thought it was appropriate on Valentines Day to share some more ways we have found to do just that!!! 1) Always, always, always ask for a better deal. Open the door for negotiation. You might be surprised! Just about everything is negotiable. We have had the same CPA do our taxes every year for that past 10 years. I used to pay $250. Last year, I told him that things were tight and asked if he would be willing to reduce our fee. And since we don't have as many write offs its less paperwork for him. He agreed and reduced our fee to $175.  2) Cut and or color your own hair.  Over the summer months we bought a clipper and I would shave Joel's head. It was easy! But, I am not brave enough to cut or color my own hair. I know a lot of ladies that do. BUT, you can refer back to Item #1 above on this... I told my hairdresser and friend of over 12  years that I might have to go to the beauty school next time to afford getting my hair cut and colore...

Wednesday I was off and I decided to spend the morning calling AT&T. I called and spoke to someone about my internet, some else about my data plan and  yet another person about my cell phone bill. In an effort to reduce my overdraft and late fees I needed to make some changes to these accounts. First my cell phone. I spoke Nelly. At least I think that was her name, she had a very heavy accent. I wanted to change my billing date to later in the month. It's due the 5th and I always pay it on the 22nd. After paying our rent, Leo's tuition and car payment, internet and data plan, I never have enough for the cell phone bill. Therefore it gets paid later in the month and was incurring a $5 late fee every time. Unfortunately, she informed me I had to get my bill current to do that. I told her well, it will never be current then, because I always pay on the 22nd. She said, ok, I will show on your account that you will commit to paying your bill on the 22nd of this month and then y...

One of the main things I am focusing on this month: NO MORE FEES. Sounds simple enough, right? Pay your bills on time, you won't be charged late fees. Make sure you have money in your account, you won't be charged overdraft fees. Etc, and so forth. Over the past year, slowly but surely I have been setting up auto debit for most of our bills. Why slowly, you ask? Because I didn't want to give up control. At least that is what I told myself. Confession time: What I was really doing is using money for things I wanted or thought I needed instead of using them for bills. Maybe the kids need new shoes so, I would buy them knowing the money should go towards our internet bill instead, for example.Or my husband would buy a small $30 item on Amazon. He works so hard, he deserves that small item to enjoy. I am not going to nag him about it, I'll figure out a way. I would tell myself, I'll just take care of it when we get paid again. Then when we got paid, there woul...

Today I thought I would share some of the ways we have cut costs. I may have mentioned some of these before but they are worth review. 1) Stop using checks. I haven't ordered any in over a year. Once the kids school added debit/credit option, I stopped since they were the only ones I wrote checks to. 2) No fee checking account. Our account does not charge a fee because we direct deposit our paychecks. 3) Cancel any unused memberships. We cancelled our health club membership. That saved us $660 per year. We just weren't using it. There are plenty of free/cheap ways to stay healthy. At the very least there are new fitness clubs that you do not need to sign a contract that seem very reasonably priced. 4) Pack food before you go on a trip. This will save you a lot of money! Have you seen how much convenience stores charge? There is a reason they call it "highway robbery". Not to mention the cost of foods at the airport. They know you are desperate. It's especi...

The highlight of my day was dinner. I made something new. When I worked full time, one of my favorite places to go for lunch was Applebee's. I usually got salad, or the lunch special but I really loved the Quesadilla Burger. The calories were outrageous and I would spend about $13 with tip. I ate out every day. Gee, I wonder why I was overweight? And think of all the money I would have saved? The other day I realized that I could make that at home. I didn't set out making an exact replica of the Applebee's version. I decided to make own "recipe". First I mixed taco seasoning into the ground beef. I formed them into patties and fried them. I grilled one side of a flour tortilla with butter then placed the patty on half of the tortilla. I added a slice of american cheese and leaf iceburg lettuce. I experimented with the sauce, with Joel being my taste-tester. We decided the sour cream with the Tastefully Simple dried Salsa mix was the best. Once the sauce was on, I ...

I woke up to my husband doing some organizing in the garage (he's an early bird) and he also sold something on Ebay. He made $100. Yeay for my husband, he is the best! We decided to keep it in the Paypal account for now. Plus he fixed a barstool that had been broken for a little while now. I really appreciate that stuff. I hate dealing with fixing things.Also, the kids have cleaned out their rooms the past few weeks and we are gearing up for a garage sale. Maybe we will do it next month when the weather gets better. I decided to let my Stockton Record subscription run out since I heard of a better deal with the Modesto Bee. But, I'm not signing up until March. In the meantime, I went and bought a Sunday paper for my coupons. That's the only time I actually left the house today. The rest of the day I cleaned, did laundry and cooked. My sister in law, Myrna and her boyfriend, Bill came over to have a birthday dinner. I made the Portagee Beans with Garlic Cheddar Biscu...

Today I made a small purchase of eggs. They were on sale at Walgreens for $1.29 and I bought the max amount, 4 cartons. I eat eggs every day. Its a staple in my diet, a must-have! So I broke my grocery budget a little more. Next week I will do better. Time to continue my story about how we got to the point of a spending freeze. Continued from DAY 4 Blog. Once I quit working selling new homes I decided to hang my license with a Real Estate broker. One that I could do real estate transactions and loans. I also got certified as an Accredited Staging Professional and started my business The Wow Factor. I was the CEO and a Property Merchandising Consultant and Joel was the President. Well, my timing was terrible. No one wanted to stage their home, they were all foreclosing or short selling. We had two rentals we owned and had to pay out of pocket each month to make the mortgage. Plus we now had to pay for our own health insurance. We had to pay out $12,000 per month on all our bills. An...

I was really looking forward to today. I got to go grocery shopping. I was trying to keep my budget at $25 per week. Well....I spent around $50. For good reason, at least that's what I keep telling myself. First of all I had to buy linguica. Which is rarely on sale and never has a coupon. I am preparing Portagee Beans for my sister in laws birthday dinner. My husband asked if I could make it with some meat on the side. Which means linguica in the beans and grilled on the side. And if she is reading my blog she now knows what I got her as a gift and what I am making for her birthday dinner. ~lol~ Essentially I bought $9.00 worth of linguica. Plus there were a couple of great deals that I literally could not pass up. I got white bread for $.74 cents each. I bought 2. One went in the freezer. Also, bought 2 Oreos and got a gallon of Milk FREE! The Oreos were on sale plus I had a coupon. So those 3 items were $5.25 total or $1.75 each.. Also Nature Valley granola bars were $1.08 each...

Last night I worked at my part time job. I am a sales associate at Ann Taylor LOFT clothing store. Since me and the sales lead were closing, we were responsible for getting the next days sales signage out on the floor. I found out that the 60% off sales items (which is more than my 50% discount) was changing to 40% today. I decided to buy my sister in law a birthday present, her birthday is next week. It was $4.33 for a long sleeve T-shirt. I dumped out all my change in my wallet. I was a few cents short. Oh well, I decided to put the difference, .33 cents on my debit card. The sales lead that I was working with offered to pay the difference out of her own pocket. I told her it was ok. She insisted and wouldn't take my card. So, as a gift to her for her kindness I am putting together a small gift bag of toiletry items that I have in my stockpile. She is a student living away from home (Illinois) and the items are things we could all use like, toothpaste, floss, razors, etc. Plus sh...

Back in October of last year, 2013, we adopted a a dog from a rescue shelter. He is half poodle and half cocker spaniel (between the vet, the shelter and ourselves) that is our best guess. We named him Chop. Rather my son, Leo named him Chop. He was found with 2 other dogs wandering in a field next to the shelter. I call him my scaredy-cat, bird-dog. He doesn't like crowds, he doesn't like dark men, deep voices and he doesn't like to go for walks(scaredy cat) But he loves to perch on the back of the couch and the top of the recliner(bird-dog) He is very loveable and sweet and I have been able to train him. He is my shadow and follows me everywhere, he loves to ride in the car too. The reason I am talking about my fur baby is because I did not stock up on his food and treats for No Spend February. I meant to, just didn't make it. Luckily I still had $13 on my Walmart gift card. But before I went to Wally-world I decided to check out CouponMom.com and see if they had any...

Update on the February Spending Freeze: Today I have not spent a penny. The End...... ~LOL~ No real challenges today. So I thought I would write about how we got to this point. And explain why we are doing a spending freeze. I have gone back and forth about discussing this because it's kind of personal. Our failures and even our successes with money and finances can be a touchy subject. But, I figure there are a lot of people out there going through some of the same things that we are and they could probably relate to our story. When Joel and I got married we were both working and doing ok. We paid cash for our wedding/vowel renewal which cost about $12,000. Not counting the things our family contributed such as the church, the DJ and the Tahitian dancers( yea we had an awesome reception!). I was determined not to go into debt for a one day party for 200 people. Its the marriage that is the important thing not so much the wedding. I was very ambitious at this time of my life...

I woke up in a great mood! The sun was shining after a full day of rain, I enjoyed the discussion in my English class at school and after class I ran into a familiar face on campus. Someone I hadn't seen in a few months and we chatted for a bit. It was nice to catch up. But, I had to meet another friend at Starbucks and I couldn't chat long. So I rush to Starbucks to be on time, skipping the stop at the bank I was going to make because I didn't want to be late. I had $6.00 on my Starbucks card that I had been saving. I knew it would come in handy for no-spend February. I ordered my Chai Latte and an Everything Bagel with Cream Cheese, total was just under 6 bucks. And then I wait. I waited about 10 minutes and sent a text. Ooops, she thought it was at 10:30 not 10:00. So I sat there and finished my breakfast. Not the way I had planned on enjoying my Starbucks money. Oh well. I go home and packed myself some crackers, cheese and a protein bar for my break at work. At work s...

Sundays in the Juanitas house usually starts out with a big breakfast. Today I made a Roasted Onion & Bacon Crustless Quiche. Going through my pantry and stockpile the past few weeks I discovered a small box behind the canned foods. It was from Tastefully Simple. They are a gourmet food, multi-level marketing company that has home parties to sell their product. And they have some really delicious stuff. Including the Roasted Onion Warm Dip Mix that I rediscovered. The side of the box has a recipe for the Quiche. I thought it would be a delicious Sunday breakfast. And it was yummy! Quiche is one of my favorite meals and this recipe only needs 3 eggs plus half and half. Well, I didn't have any half and half so I used 4 eggs and lowfat milk about a quarter cup less than the recipe. Plus last week I bought some bacon on sale $3.99/lb at Safeway from the meat counter, thick-cut applewood. Which is a really good deal. And can I just day, I hate that bacon has become so expensive beca...

Its Saturday. And that means Bahala Na Escrima for our family. Every Saturday from 10-12 noon at the Daguhoy Lodge. Joel, my husband, is the Second Master and teaches class. Usually we eat out after class for lunch but since we are doing a spending freeze, that is out of the question. After class Annie, Chop(our dog) and me headed home. Joel and Leo were taking a student, David home. Right when we got home I made hot dogs and beans for lunch. About an hour later I got a text from Leo saying that Sherry and Chris (our friends who are visiting this weekend from Orange County taking care of wedding stuff. They are getting married in Stockton in October) will be treating Leo and Joel to lunch at Island Gourmet. So, free lunch for them. Then in the afternoon, Annabelle went to her friend Alorah's birthday party. We went to Walmart to get a present. I told her the budget was $10. I had a Walmart gift card ($25) that I found a few weeks ago while cleaning around the house.We spent about ...