Garage Sale

A month before the garage sale, I start weeding out my excess stockpile and offer them to my friends and co-workers.  They were all amazed at the stuff I was selling and for such a cheap price.  I receive $214.50 from selling my stockpile to them and they were grateful. 

The neighborhood garage sale was originally set for April 18th.  My sister from Dallas was so excited about it and decide to come down to participate in the event.  We monitored the weather all week and it said 30% chance of rain..then 40% chance of rain by Friday.  We were hoping that it’ll just rain early in the morning or will have a big pour down and be done for the day.  My sister made plans to come down and the chance of rain changed to 60% by Friday night.  By Saturday it’s 100%.  It was ominous when we woke up but we prepare for the garage sale anyway hoping for the best.  People start coming in right away and after 2 hours before the storm arrived; I made $133.25, $97.25 was for the excess stockpile.  My oldest sister made $84 and my little sister had $75 in sales.

Because of the rain, the HOA rescheduled it for the following week and I was pretty bummed out for my sister.  She was so excited about it and did so much prep work.  She surprised me when she announced that she’ll come down again next weekend to sell her stuff.  I nervously monitor the weather again and thank goodness it turn out to be a beautiful day.  She and I were up until 1 the night before preparing for the sale, sorting out clothes and pricing everything.  We were suppose to wake up at 6 in the morning to get ready but didn’t wake up until 7.  Hieu and my brother-in-law looked after the kids and took them to Discovery Green so we can manage our garage sale.  I made a total of $283.75 that day, $188.25 of which was for stockpile items.  My oldest sister made $294, my second oldest made $48, and my youngest made $36.  It was tiring but a very fun day.

So $214.50 for the pre-garage sale sell
     $ 97.25 for the raining garage sale
     $188.25 for the re-schedule garage sale
Total $500 going toward the grocery budget.  Lots of work but now I have some more room to stock up more stuff.

Budget update

I are doing very good on our budget. The van will be paid off in a year or so and we will tackle the second lien after that. Either that or Ai-Vy will start pre-school and we’ll use this extra money to pay for her school since both her and Ky-An will be attending at the same time until Ky-An can go to public school.

I am hitting my goals in the couponing saving by watching my Out-of-Pocket and pick what deal I want to chase. It’s 3 months into the new year and I’ve saved $3000 with my couponing. I’ve also cut my grocery budget by $100 every month and we have managed to stay within that so I am happy. This is with 2 kids drinking over $6/gallon milk every few days. I think that’s pretty good for us!

January Deals - Part 2

CVS

1/18

• Starbucks Frappuccinos are 3/$5. Buy $20 and get $10 ECB.  I have some extra bucks to burn and I love these things so it's an awesome deal.
  
  
  
• American Greeting cards are $.99 each.  Buy 3 and get $3 ECB so FREE!
  
  
  
  
• 1/25
  Gillette shampoo/conditioner $3.99 - $2 MQ = $1.99 and get $2 ECB! 
  
  
  
•   Olay Definity mousse cleanser was on clearance for $5.  Buy 2 for $10 and sent in for a $15 Gift card from Olay.  I also had more ECB expiring so I bought this Vitamin shampoo with a Try-Me-Free form to get my money back.
  
  
  
  

Kroger's

• Kroger had their Mega deal 1/21 - 2/3 with some great deals! Price listed is already AFTER $5 off when you buy 10 items.  If you want to know what the price is before the $5 off then just add $.50 to each item.
  
  • Kleenex lotion $1.09 - $40 coupon - $.40 doubled = $.09/box
  • Frank's hot sauce $.99 - $.35 coupon - $.70 tripled = -$.01
  • Glade aerasol cans $.46 - $1/2 coupon = -$.04
  • Green Giant Steamers $.99 - $.50 coupon - $.50 doubled - $.50 loadable coupon = -$.51
  • Chex Mix $1.69 - $.50 coupon - $.50 doubled - $60 loadable coupon = $.09
  • Pace Picante sauce or salsa $1.26 - $.50 coupon - $.50 doubled = $.26
  • Kraft shredded cheese or slices $1.49 - $.75 = $.74
  • French's mustard $.99 - $50 coupon - $.50 double = -$.01 4
  • Tropicana $2.19 - $1.25/2 coupon =  $1.57
  • Totino's pizza rolls 40 ct $2.49 - $.35 coupon - $.70 triple - $.50 loadable = $.94
  • Ken's salad dressing $1.49 - $1 coupon = $.49
• 
  
  
  
  
   
  
  
• Blueberries weren't part of the sale but was only $.99 so I stocked up!
  
  
  
• Hormel pepporonis are $1 - $.35 coupon - $.70 tripled = FREE! It's hard to take all these pictures when there's a little thief always trying to take me items.
  
   
  
• Here she is...caught red-handed!
   
  
  

Walgreens

1/18

• 8 Ragus @ 1.99 x 8 = 15.98 - (8) $.25 coupon = $13.92 and get $10 RR so $3.92 for 8 bottles.
•  
   
  
  
• Mauna Loa Macadamias are 2/$4 next week. there's a $3/2 coupon in the ESR catalog. Pay $0.50 each after coupon.
  
  
• 2 Starbucks chocolate 2/$10 - $6 ESR.  There is a promotion until the end of the month where you get a FREE 9.5 oz bottle of Starbucks frappucinos.  So 2 box of Starbucks chocolate and 2 bottles of frappucinos for $4
  
  

Savings this year

I was hoping I'd hit $10,000 in savings this year but my final total is only $9860.91. I first keep track of this when I started couponing. I want to make sure all the money I invest in couponing and stockpile doesn't exceed my savings. I calculate this by listing every item I purchase that I use a coupon for, whether it's $.50 for a gallon of milk or $5 making an item free. I have 3 columns: 1 for manufacturer coupon, 1 for store coupon, and 1 for any cash I have to pay. I put any Register Reward catalina, extra bucks, or gift cards under store coupon. I also deduct things that I have to buy for my couponing such as newspapers every week, sheets for my coupon binder, etc. I also deduct if someone give me money buying stuff from my stockpile.

After adding the manufacturer coupons and the store coupons together, then deduct any money I have to pay out and the total is -$9860.91.

I am not as good as some other ladies on other blogs (Jane4girls and zoeysmom) where they can spend $100 TOTAL or less of grocery in per month. I don't think I can ever do that because my kids go through about 3 gallons of milk a week. Horizon milk are about $7*3 =$21. That's $84 already. Both of my kids are also in diapers and then there's the Asian market that we have to go to for most of our grocery. American grocery stores doesn't have the different cuts of meats and fishes that I need for our meals. Asian grocery stores doesn't take coupons nor have sales so there's only so much I can do.

This year I was able to stockpile the following items:

• Air Fresheners
• Candles
• Cleanser
• Contacts solutions
• Cough medicine
• Floss
• Gel and hairspray
• Lifesavers
• Aging lotion
• Cooking Oil
• Pain medicine
• Razors
• Reynolds foil
• Rubbermaid
• Saran wraps
• Shaving cream
• Socks
• Sugar
• Adult and toddler toothbrush
• Trash bags
• Vitamins
• zip-loc/Hefty bagsToddler toothpaste
• Of course shampoo/conditioner and toothpaste

Dave Ramsey's 7 Baby steps - Step 2

I've been listening to Dave Ramsey for a while and love is philosophy. I applied his suggestion of putting us on a budget, discover couponing, and now I want to work on paying off our debts. That is baby step 2. Here's a list of the steps if you are interested: http://www.mdmproofing.com/iym/babysteps.html. It depend on how quickly you want to be debt-free that you cut your lifestyle. I just want to tighten up our money but not having to make the family live on beans and rice. Heck, we don't even like beans! :P

We don't have any credit card debts but do have a second lien, a mortgage, student loans, and a car loan. Hieu and I do have over 100K in our 401K because we started out early. I tried to ask some other members on the HCW board who also uses Dave Ramsey to see if I should take some money out of the 401K to pay off some of these debts. Everyone basically tell me it's a bad idea. They advised that I should stop contributing to the kid's college fund temporarily to tackle these debts. I was contemplating that because of guilt but one person told me it didn't make sense for us to contribute to the kid's college fund when we are still paying off that our student loans. That's perfectly reasonable to me so I stopped the Upromise withdrawal. Ky-An already had some funds in there but poor Ai-Vy barely got started. I'll just have to make it up to her later after we are debt-free.

So now we are in Baby step 2. All extra money is going toward paying off the car first, including our stimulus check. I hope we can accomplish this and start our debt snowball. I would love to call to Dave Ramsey's show to scream "I AM DEBT FREEEEEEEEEEE!!!"

Deals 8/19 - 8/31

I am SOOOOO excited. I just finished this month's budget and our grocery budget is only over $63 compare to almost $200 in the past 3 months that I've been keeping track. With the $63 over budget, I have about 20 box of toothpastes, 16 boxes of Band-Aids, 7 boxes of breastmilk bags, 2 box of breast pads, 2 bottles of Children's Motrins, 20 gallons of nursery water, 5 packs of post-its, 14 bags of Bic pens, 4 box of pads, 7 bottles of Huggies CleanTeam shampoo, 10 shampoo and conditioner, 27 packs of toilet paper, 43 boxes of hair color, 7 packs of Swimmers diapers, 24 packs of Jumbo size diapers, 29 packs of wipes, 2 packs of paper towels, 15 bottles of Dawn dishwashing liquid, 2 packs of towel paper, and along with all our regular groceries for the month. Not too shabby eh? I went over budget $200 all those other months and had nothing to show for them, then it's a cycle all over again. I am so happy with this month's outcome. It's proof that couponing is working to reduce our grocery budget and I only expect it to get lower as we have to buy less stuff. My goal is to stay with our current budget, if not below, even with the new baby.

On 8/24 - I went to Target and used the $10 GC I got from the Pntene deal and got 1 bottle Dreft, 2 4-Mega pk Charmin, and 3 Pampers wipes for $2.98 Out-of-Pocket.

These 2 weeks and September doesn't look that great at CVS. I couldn't find anything to roll my Extra Care Bucks on and they are expiring so I used a bunch of it on diapers for Ky-An. At least it's free and I didn't have to pay any extra money for them. It's a bit sad to see my ECB dwindlings even though I know I can build it up later. Especially with Ai-Vy's birth coming up, I need to use them all up before they expire in September and go to waste. This past week was the only time I've actually did a CVS deal and pay more in ECBs than I get back. I see that as "losing money". It's because they didn't have the stuff I want and I misread the deal. Oh well, at least I got some Always pad that I will need. :)

On 8/27, I found out that Walgreens had a glitch in their system and if you buy 2 hair color for $6 then you get $10 Register Reward back. I wanted to run out right away and hit the stores but it rained Monday during lunch, then rain so hard after work Monday that I didn't get to the stores until Tuesday. I was never so mad at the rain and was determine to stop by Walgreens but it was really coming down and I had no choice. In addition, the streets were getting flooded so I thought it'd be smart if I try to make it home first. I dreamt about the deal all night..hehe..hoping that it'll still work in the morning. Luckily it did and I got to hit 8 stores doing 16 transactions. My first transaction, I got the 2 haircolor for $5.41 then get $10RR. After that I just use the $10RR to roll over the next purchase. I got 14 Jumbo packs of Pampers and 14 Kandoo wipes for $28. I also got a Jumbo pack of size 1 diapers for Ai-Vy for $4 and 2 boxes of Gerber milk bags for free during this deal. I still have $20 Register Reward buck to use also so I was pretty satisfied. I would've gone out some more Tuesday afternoon or Wednesday morning but I was too tired. Good thing the glitch was fixed by Wednesday or I would feel the need to hit some more stores! I need help, I know..hehe.

On 8/31 - Things I got for free with coupons these 2 weeks:

• Target - 2 post-its, 2 Dawn dishwashing liquid.


• Walgreens - 4 Clairol 100% Hair color because they have B1G1F sale and I have B1G1F coupons. 28 boxes of Revlon Colorsilk hair color from the glitch.


• Kroger - 2 Vive Loreal, same as Walgreens deal. Also got 3 Aquafresh Advance toothpastes for free here. I had 4 coupons but the cashier said there is a limit of 3. That's fine I said so I asked if she wanted the other coupon and she was so happy making my transaction so much easier.


• CVS - 3 Mentadent Toothpastes and 2 Playskool wipes

Since it's the end of the month and there's lots of coupons expiring, some really great. I left a bunch of them at Target on top of the products hoping someone can get some use out of it. I also gave a bunch to the cashier at the CVS near my house because she've always been so nice to me. I am sending the rest to the military families oversea. It cost me $5 to send them last month but at least they are able to use them 6 months past the expiration date.

Right now I have enough wipes, diapers, nursery water, toilet paper, towel paper, toothpaste, shampoo and conditioner, body wash, razors, and deodorants stocked up for a while. I still need to stock up on more diapers and wipes (can't have too much of them), dishwashing soap, feminine hygene stuff, gel for Hieu, baby powder, and Quaker's oatmeal since I eat them everyday while breastfeeding. Randall's is having B1G1 free next week so I may buy some then and there's a coupon out for $.50 off.

Here's some updated pictures of my stockpile. My little sister took some stuff when she moved to Dallas but I think there's still plenty left..hehe. I get a kick out of looking at them knowing I spent so much less than I usually did on these products.

One side of the closet in our master bedroom:

Other side of the master closet:



In the pantry:


The new shelf Hieu bought for the laundry room:


In the garage, notice Hieu put in some new shelvings above his workshop. There's an empty one on the left that is begging me to buy more stuff to fill it.

Budget Smudget

This is my second month trying to stick to my budget and it's not working so well either. I am already over on some categories and it's only the middle of the month. At this rate I don't really know how we are going to afford paying the extra amount for Ai-Vy's babysitting. I know why we are going over and I know WHAT we need to cut back. The problem is I don't see HOW!


The first category we need to cut back is grocery. I see why we had a problem sticking to that last weekend when we went to the Asian supermarket and I bought all these expensive exotic fruits. That's what I crave..what can I do??!! :P Everyone keep telling me that I need to feed my craving or my daughter is going to come out drooling so I am just following orders. Plus you can't control a pregnant woman's cravings right? In addition to my expensive fruits, the Asian supermarket never has a sale like the American ones. I can't clip coupons or wait for something to be on sale to buy it. I need all these stuff at the store and it's the same price regardless if I buy it or not. I have to send Hieu to the grocery store sometimes and he's not the most consciencious shopper. He'll stray off the list and get things on impulse that way. He has wasted a lot of food that way and I've been getting him on that but it doesn't seem to help.


The second category we need to majorly cut back is dining out. I know by cooking more I can bring this down. However even with me preparing everything to cook over the weekend, some days I come home too tired to even think about cooking. Since I am the only person who will cook in the house, if I am not doing it then we are having take-outs. Take-outs is not just for Hieu and I, we have to pay for dinner including my little sister and her boyfriend. Either her boyfriend or Hieu's little brother will join us for dinner so we always have to pay for 4 meals when ordering out. Everyone knows four adult meals on a semi-regular basis can get pricey. I can get Hieu to cook sometimes but he is limited to spaghetti and crawfish boil. You can only eat so much of that right? He's not willing to try new recipes nor want to cook. He said that's not his strong point and doesn't want to try. I do make him help out preparing stuff for me to cook while I put Ky-An to sleep though. Sometimes he does a good job helping, most of the time not.

Whenever we go out to eat with my family or his family, we always end up paying too. There's not post in the Finance Board about this and I don't think they'll understand why we feel obligated to pay anyway. If we take my mom or dad out to eat for a special occasion, the whole family of course is invited (my sisters and their boyfriends). We are the most financially stable couple so the bill fell on our responsibility. My oldest sister is in Dallas and whenever she comes down then she and I will take turn or split the bill. My second oldest sister is a single mom so we rarely let her pay for stuff. The same with my little sister, she is still in school so we don't let her pay for anything either. We don't mind paying for the family but it's a burden on us sometimes, especially when we are trying to be on the budget. For these occassions, we have to shell out at least $50 for a gift and then several hundreds for dinner for everyone. I feel obligated to take them out to eat when it's their birthday, etc or we will never see each other.

I guess this is more of a vent post because I really don't know what we can do to stick to our budget. It stresses me out sometimes and I just want to put more toward savings. I guess we'll just have to rely on extra money like we usually do to fund our savings. At this rate I don't even know if we can afford to put in the extra money for Ai-Vy's education fund! I have faith it will all work out though..it always does.

NOT a lazy Sunday

What a crazy weekend this week has turn out to be. I had no rest whatsoever!! Yesterday we went to Babies R' Us to get Ky-An some clothes from their big sale and then we went grocery shopping. Today was suppose to be a relaxing day but my little sister wanted a bar-b-que and Hieu wanted to swim so there goes our day. Hieu had to go to the grocery store to get all the food and here I am preparing them so he can throw it on the grill.

Since I am trying to stick to our budget, I bought a bunch of grocery to cook yesterday and have been on my feet all day trying to prep all the meat so I don't have to do it afterwork next week. I am a marinating, cutting, and freezing mad woman! It's sooo tiring!

Ky-An was out swimming with my sister's boyfriend, Uncle Chi, and daddy for about an hour or so while I am having my prep marathon. I finally came out and fed him plus swam a little. Poor boy starts fussing and I lift up his sunglasses to find his eyes are half-closed. He didn't take a very good morning nap and it's already 3p.m. We were trying to have him wait for his cousin Bao to come and they can swim together but my poor man is just too tired. I took him in to change him and put him to sleep. The boy was out in the sun for about 2 hours and got all dark!!! I took off his swim shorts and he's dark inside-out even though we lathered him up with sunblock before he goes into the pool each time and a hat. I need to get him one of those sunscreen swim shirt before I can let him swim in our pool again. I think he had a good time but mommy and daddy are just so tired!

My big boy lounging:


Swimming with daddy:


So happy with my little sister:


Taking a break to eat:


My favorite..watermelon!


My little sister's boyfriend, whom she teasingly call "Shamu". LOL


My older sister and my nephew, Bao: