Dec. 6 Here we are, well into the first week of December, and I haven't needed to go to the grocery store. I had a surplus of whole milk, from Black Friday shopping, so I turned it into yogurt the other day. This will prolong the life of the milk for a few weeks, meaning I don't "need" to go shopping for milk right away. Yogurt will sub for our milk needs, when the fresh milk runs out.
We've had a hard freeze here, so the garden is toast. I'll look for kale, broccoli, chard, sorrel, mustards and watercress to return in March. And so, we're starting in on the frozen vegetables. Hopefully this will clear enough space in the freezers to stock up on hams, should their price per pound be great, later this month.
Items that I'm looking to stock up on this month: ham, cheese, butter, and onions. I will likely find good prices on oranges, pineapple and avocados this month, as well.
In November, we went over our grocery budget of $170/month by 19.53. This leaves us with $150.47 for the month.
December 7. Out running errands, stop in at Fred Meyer. Pick up their flyer at the door and find powdered sugar, butter, cream cheese, cheddar cheese and whole milk on sale. I buy 3 2-lb bags of powdered sugar (3/$5), 2 lbs butter ($1.79/lb), 4 8-oz bricks cream cheese (89 cents ea), 2 lb block of cheddar ($4.99), 4 half-gallons whole milk (4/$5), and 2 bags of choc chips ($1.67 ea). Spent $25.47
December 11. Happen to catch Safeway's ad on TV, before the day's mail and flyer comes. Hams are 99 cents/lb for whole and shank half (limit 1 of each). I buy 1 whole and 1 half ham, total of about 30 pounds, for $30.19, for a month to date spending of $55.66
December 13. QFC also has half hams on sale for 99 cents/lb, but this store has both shank and butt portions at that price. I buy 1 butt portion half ham, about 10 lbs. Also find 1/2 gals milk on markdown for 89 cents/ea (I buy 9), 1 gallon of skim milk marked down (1.79) and 1/2 gals of eggnog for 1.19 (I buy 1). That's all I buy. Total spent $21.27, for a month to date spending of $76.93
December 13. Stop in at Albertson's for canned pineapple (20 oz cans for $1, I buy 9), cream cheese (8-oz bricks for 88 cents, I buy 4), butter (1-lb for 1.99, I buy 2). Spent $16.50, for a month to date spending of $93.43.
December 17. Trader Joe's. Hoping to pick up bananas today. But their shipment didn't come in. Just get one 9 oz canister of cocoa powder for $2.49.
December 17. Also stop at the Cash and Carry restaurant supply. Needing onions. Buy a 50-lb sack of onions for $10.51. Month to date spending -- $106.43
December 17. The 30 oz cans of mixed nuts and cashews finally came in at Bartell's. This was a Black Friday advertised item that sold out within minutes of opening the doors. I got a rain check for 10 cans of mixed nuts and 1 can of cashews, at $4.99 ea. This worked out to $2.66 per pound for the nuts. I spent $54.89 here. Month to date spending of $161.32
December 21. AT Dollar Tree and decide to splurge and buy some oregano. $1. Month to date spending of $162.32, which is $11.85 over our budget for the month.
We really didn't need a whole lot this month. I stocked up on ham (40 lbs), canned nuts (20 lbs), powdered sugar (6 lbs), cream cheese (2 lbs), cheddar (2 lbs), milk (7 1/2 gallons), and picked up some cocoa powder, eggnog, choc chips, and oregano.
Going into January, we are very low on eggs, and will need more milk, all-purpose flour and whole wheat flour, and that's it. If I find exceptional sales on other items, I have the budget to cover them.
We did go over budget by $11.85 for the month. But we'll make this up next month. We are very well stocked, which should give us a budget surplus at the end of January. I can roll this surplus forward into the mid to late spring months, typically more expensive months for us.
Tuesday, December 31, 2013
Monday, December 30, 2013
Doing the math on bedsheet repair
It's back to the basics of saving money, this week.
When my dad passed away, 11 1/2 years ago, I inherited my parent's California King-sized bed, sheets not included. I bought 1 set of plain white, cotton sheets for about $60. This included the fitted sheet, the flat sheet and 2 pillow cases. California King beds are not common in my area, and neither are the sheets.
About 1 1/2 years ago, I developed a thin spot in the fitted sheet. I patched it with Heavy Duty Wonder Under and scrap fabric, and my iron. This small patch has held just fine for the past year and a half, requiring occasional re-ironing of the patch.
I decided to hold off on buying a new sheet, and patch this one, one more time. We keep talking about replacing this bed with a smaller, Queen-sized one. And it looks like this summer could be the time to do so. Buying a new sheet, that we'd only use for half a year, didn't seem economical.
the math
A new sheet would cost $20, and would likely last 10 years, if alternated with the other sheet set for the rest of winter (a flannel set). At $20, for 10 years, the amortized annual cost of a new fitted sheet would be about $2 per year, or 3.85 cents per week.
At the fabric store a couple of weeks ago, Heavy Duty Wonder Under was on sale, and I had a coupon applicable for sale and non-sale merchandise. I spent about 25 cents for a piece of Wonder Under large enough to patch this larger tear and thin spot.
At 25 cents for the patch job, the sheet only has to last another 6 1/2 weeks, to recover my cost. And I still have a piece of Wonder Under large enough to make another patch, if necessary, in any other thin spots.
Does all this matter? Should I have just ordered the fitted sheet, even though we may not even need it in 6 months' time?
I think it does matter. I may have spared our budget $19.75, by not buying a new sheet right now. If we do, in fact, down-size our bed to a Queen in 6 months, I would have found myself with sheets in the wrong size.
I could have saved myself the 25 cents, and patched the sheet with stitching. But my time is valuable. An iron-on patch took 10 minutes start to finish, and I was able to work this mending job into a small chunk of time over the weekend.
I recognize that not everyone would be comfortable sleeping on a sheet with a patch. I got used to it within a couple of nights, on the last patch. I'm okay with this slightly imperfect solution to a worn bed sheet.
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I do the math, frequently, to see if something is worth the money. It may seem tedious to some folks, but it winds up saving us a lot of money in the long run. (We have several calculators around the house, and I keep an extra one in my purse.)
An example, is it worth the gas money to drive a few miles out of my way, for a sale? I will figure the cost of my gas and weigh it against the potential savings on the sale item. I often decide that the savings on the sale, are not great enough to warrant the extra gas expenditure. Avocados are on sale this week, for 50 cents each, at a store 10 miles from my house. That's a 20 mile round trip, just for avocados. There's a limit of 4 avocados at that price, and the store is not featuring any other sale items that I can use right now. So, I would spend about $2.75 in gas, to save $1 to $2 on avocados. Not worth it.
Another example, I can buy an LED light bulb, that will use 50 watts per hour less than an incandescent bulb, for about $10. If the fixture is in use for 6 hours per day, I can save 300 watts per day, or about 9,000 watts (or 9 KW) per month. At a rate of about 10.5 cents per KW hour, that's a savings of 94.5 cents per month, on our electricity bill. It will take about 11 months for the LED light bulb to pay for itself, then we'd see savings of almost $1 per month for the life of the LED bulb. So, in my mind, the investment into LED bulbs is worth the money.
My dad used to say, "don't sweat the small stuff, kid." But really, the sum of all the small stuff is what has allowed my husband and I to have the life of our choosing.
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