Hi...my name is Sue

I'm just learning the ropes....thanks for being patient!
My you tube channel is here....https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=morfP-P8yeQ
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My Instagram is here https://www.instagram.com/savingyourhardearnedmoney/

Taking Pictures and Posting on Instagram Saves us $1377.09 in 4 months!

I post a lot on Instagram these days. It's so easy, and instantaneous. I don't have to have enough space to upload my pictures, or deal with text that's wonky. I can share deals instantly and with pictures! But, once in awhile I have more to say than can be properly featured in a quick Instagram post. This is one of those times. If you have read this blog for awhile now you know there are some sure fire ways to decrease your grocery spending.

1. Using the flyers weekly to buy on sale items

2. Knowing when items cycle down so you can always buy them at their lowest price

3. Menu planning(using the on sale items, your pantry, fridge and freezer stock)

4. Combining deals like sales, coupons, points offers and cash back apps

5. Using points to buy groceries(Air miles, Optimum, PC Plus)

6. Buying meat and produce from the discount area or when it's marked down for quick sale

This may not be an exhaustive list, but it's a start. The latest thing to add to the list is photo groceries. To become more conscious of where your grocery money goes resolve to take pictures of everything that comes into your house for one month. At the end of the month you can, if you so choose, arrange this into a nice collage.( I use picmonkey and befunky). Why would you do this you ask? Well, here's my story. 

In April of this year I decided to start posting a collage of our families grocery purchases each month. At the beginning of the year I had budgeted a lot more for groceries as I found last year I was having trouble staying on budget. We feed a family of 4 with our youngest being a 15 year old boy, my husband has Celiac disease and my daughter avoids gluten and milk products. The first 3 months I was pretty much on budget. April I decided to really keep an eye on things and be more creative with sale items. Since then our grocery spending has been pretty much half of our allotted budget! The accountability of posting so everyone can see has been a bonus for me! Because of the excess we were able to buy a new to us hot tub!(ours was on it's last legs). See my Instagram for that whole story if you are interested. 

So, what easy steps can you take? Maybe just starting by keeping a running tally of your grocery spending? I keep all the months receipts in an envelope marked August. On the front I tally up the spending weekly as I shop. At the end of the month I add up each stores receipts to see how much I spend at each store. 

Maybe a second step the following month could be to start getting in the habit of taking pictures of your purchases. I try to make sure our kitchen table is cleaned off before I shop so that upon arriving home I just place the items there quickly and take my pictures. I usually separate by store, but this is totally not necessary. 

The third month you could make your collage. It's quick,easy and free with Picmonkey or Befunky. 

Finally, if you are brave, you could share on Instagram, your blog or wherever. I'd love to see! :)

In the end by being more conscious you will find you'll spend less. You'll also have a neat way to go back and track when items cycle throughout  the year. I just make a separate folder for each month's grocery pics on my computer and then toss them all into This Year's Groceries folder at the end of the year. 

From April to July end we have shaved $1377.09 off our spending!

What do you think? Could this work for you?
Instagram @savingyourhardearnedmoney

Grocery Spending for May 2015

Happy June all! Well, it's that time again. Time for a monthly report on grocery spending in our house. The grand tally came to $363.64. All those groceries are pictured above.(you can click on the pictures to make them larger) As you can see there are a lot of cleaning products and bbq sauce. Combining coupons and money saving apps these were all money makers. So, that means some of my grocery spending this month has been covered by this! In case you are interested here's a breakdown by store spending.

Walmart made $128.44 profit

Rona made $54.15 profit

Independent $26.40

Quality Greens $7.96

IGA $4.34

Cooper's $16.60

Costco $110.83

Save On $73.75

Safeway $36.60(got 162 AM which will equal $17.05 cash)

Superstore $114.16

Shoppers $155.59(cashed in $100 worth of points and made 97885 points this month, which will be worth $206.07 in groceries)

 June's spending will probably be higher as we have another adult, gluten free, dairy free eater living with us from now on. Being accountable by having to post this is quite motivating so I hope I can keep the costs down.As you can see I have some cashable points stocked up which I could use at Safeway or Shoppers to stretch my budget further. Want to see what's on sale and where daily? Follow me on Instagram where I post much more regularly. @savingyourhardearnedmoney

A Month of Groceries in Pictures

Happy May! I thought I might share some of my weirdness with you in order to possibly help you save money on groceries. When people say their grocery budget is x amount of dollars, my question is, "What does that include?" So, for inquiring minds like mine, I thought I'd show you a month of groceries at our house. The collage above represents everything that came into our house in April. The only thing not included in this total is the clothing in the one picture.(You can click on the picture to make it bigger if you want to see better.)
 I have been taking pictures of my groceries for several years now. The reason?

1. To be aware of what we were spending our grocery money on

2. To be able to look back to see when things cycle down in price

3. It entertains me

The Steps:

A.Whenever I get home from grocery shopping I arrange my purchases on the counter in groups of the store they were bought at and then I take a picture. 

B.I have a plain white envelope where I keep all my receipts for the month.

C. I keep a running tally of where I am at by adding up receipts weekly and writing the total on the front of the envelope. 

D.At the end of the month I add up all the receipts by store and make a running list on the back of the envelope

Using Cash Back Apps

As you can see this month was heavy on the cleaners and smellies. Why? They were all money makers using Snap Saves and other apps. They have offers for Pledge $7 cash back. Pledge was on sale at Walmart for less than that so I'd buy some when in store. Same with the smellies, which I gave away. Money saving apps are a great way to save on your grocery budget. In April I received $186 from Ch51 and Snap Saves. If you don't like to use coupons, but want to save money, this is a good option. (If you use coupons in combination with these apps you can save even more!) All you do is take a picture of your receipts and you are done! In Canada we have:

 Snap Saves, Checkout 51, Save.ca, Cart Smart and Zweet

This month was stock up on toilet paper month. I have found the best deal to be this Soft and Pure case that goes on sale once or twice a year. (May/Sept). The cases cost $17 and there are 36, 2 ply rolls. One case was free at the Grand opening of our Independent store, due to a $10 gift card and 6000 points they gave. April was also the month we needed laundry detergent. We buy the Costco bucket which costs $19.99 and lasts us about 4 months. 

Saving on Meat

As you can see most of our meat has the discount tags on it. I find this a very helpful way to save on the ever rising costs of meat. Mid week is usually when most stores mark their meats down.

Combining Points and Air Mile deals

As often as is possible I try and combine points deals and air mile deals with my shop. For PC points I use the PC plus app and buy my offers at Superstore, but I often Price Match a lower priced store to make the deal even better. This month I cashed in a total of $173.16 in points.(PC Plus, Shoppers, CT)

Buying in Season on Sale Foods

Each week I check the online flyers. I use Reebee and Flipp to make a picture grocery list on my phone. I also use Sale Whale to check the for the lowest price of an item. I subscribe to my city's fresh fruit and veggie store flyers which get emailed to me once a week.

Shopping the Clearance sections

Many stores now have Clearance sections tucked away on a back shelf somewhere. These are good places for find amazing deals.

For more ideas and daily deals join me on Instagram. I'm savingyourhardearnedmoney You can click the Instagram link at the top of the page to go straight there. Happy saving! 

PC PLUS POINTS PROGRAM now in the West!

The Amazing Sky!


Well, exciting news! PC Points Plus program has finally come to our neck of the woods! I am so glad! I have been watching this program for months now as it was first released out east. What it is is a free points program at Superstore. Just go into Superstore and get your free card, you don't need to have a PC bank card or PC Mastercard to participate. You can also download the app on your tablet or smart phone. You get offers sent to your app or email each week. All you do is show your card at checkout at the start of cashing out and your points are added. If I understand correctly you can only do one of each offer per PC card, so you can get the produce 5000 points and the pizza 5000 points and any of the other offers, but only one time. I was in the store today and learned this was incorrect. You can do the offers as many times as you want, but all in one shop, or receipt. Maybe you can have more than one card per household?
This week's flyers have some good ones! I like that that their point to money ratio is easy to figure out(unlike Shoppers!) 1000 PC points = $1
Superstore this week starting Nov 15
Spend $20 on produce get 5000 points($5) that's a 25% savings!
Tomatoes .96/lb
Potatoes 20lbs $4.88
Mushrooms 454g $1.98
NN Frozen Vegetables $3.68(limit 4) 500 points(.50)
NN Pasta 500g .75
Cod, Sole, Basa frozen 1.36kg $10
Lean Cuisine 2000 points price match Save On where they are $2 this coming week and use the Checkout 51 app to get another $1! You make a $1 to buy it!
Cheerios 525-725g $4.97 2000 points($2)
Hellman's Mayo 750-800ml 2000 points($2) There's a $1 off printable here
Buitoni Pizza 5000 points ($5) there's a $1 off coupon from a recent insert and save.ca

Sat Nov 16 is NO TAX Day!
Wait to buy these items if you can and you need them
Sorry for some reason my Rebee flyer for my area said it was tax free day! When I got the actual flyer it wasn't!
Palmolive 1.1 L $2.47 2500 points($2.50!)limit 2
Finish 20-25 $5.97(limit 2) 5000 points($5) there's a $1 off coupon from the free sample sent out and there are others from smart source. Combine this with the MIR and you could get 2 free!
Dove Bar $1 limit 8 100 points(.10)
Dove Body Wash 1500 points($1.50)
Colgate toothpaste 130 ml $1 limit 8 100 points(.10)
Will you try this new card out?

Checkout 51 for April

I thought it might be fun to keep a record of what I bought each month with the Checkout 51 app. 

I wondered if it might be interesting to some of you to see what I got and how much I saved.( I am secretly hoping you will get Checkout 51 and start saving too! They have it for both Android and Apple now!)

So, for the month of April I bought the following(remember we have 3 accounts in our home)

3 Kraft dinner smart .49 each

2 Cheemo perogies $1 each

1 Dr Oetker's Pizza $1.38

1 Reactine made $1.55

1 Bread      free

2 Europe's Best Frozen Fruit $1.50 each

3 Nutrigrain $1 each

3 Liberte yogurt .99 each

3 Natural Selections Sausage $1.24 each

1 Shreddies $1.22

2 Special K $1.88 each

Made $4 for 4 grocery receipts over $60

22 items purchased
Total Cost of Items $81.89

Total spent $15.97

Checkout 51 is constantly updating their app to make it work better. This past week there was an update so that we can view the offers off-line! So, fun! I no longer need to take screenshots of the offers before I leave home! This is a great app!

Planning

This is what it looked like outside this morning! It was absolutely gorgeous! I went for my walk and breathed deeply of the fantastic fall smells. It's quite warm, about 7, and I am reminded again of why walking is important for me.

As I think about how I can help you save money, I think of groceries. It is one of our biggest monthly expenditures, besides our rent or mortgage, and one of the least thought of ways to save money. I was recently told that if you want to lose weight, one way was to just start keeping track of what you eat. Without dieting, just the keeping track helps you eat less because you have to write it down. I immediately thought what about grocery or any other spending? I know for me that when I keep track I'm conscious of it, when I don't it seems to get really out of hand. You can start by tracking your grocery spending for one full month. Once you've done that, or if you already keep track of what you spend, you can look to see ways to decrease this number.

Some ways to lower your grocery bill are: 1)try buying less convience foods: prepackaged premade things usually cost more

2)plan your menus:the way I do this is a little different than the decide what you want to eat then buy it approach, I'll explain

3)track the prices of the things your family buys:I use what's called a Pricebook and I'll tell you about that

4)try to cook some things from scratch:not only is this healthier for you, it tastes better

These are just a few things, we'll touch on many more in future posts.

My Story

Now, before I go on and you wonder where I'm coming from, let me tell you a little about me. I am a work at home mom. My kids are 21, 13 and almost 9. It's always been my dream to be totally at home with my kids and after my third child was almost 2 my dream came true. I say work at home because my job at home is work, I just don't get paid. My 21 year old is on her own now, she's a beautiful woman and I miss her. My 13 and almost 9 year old and I learn at home together(dad's in on it when he's home from work). We live on a carefully constructed and followed spending plan. It's tight, but it's a choice we made as a family. I have a small business on the side, where I go and teach people how to save money. Sometimes I get paid, sometimes I don't, but I love it. My goal is always to do better with our household spending so that we are always living beneath our means. I am not a great cook and I'm not passionate about cooking, but I'm trying to cook easy things well. I absolutely love to learn and love to share my new discoveries. Books and I are inseparable, if you've ever visited my home you've seen the books everywhere, they are like friends. I love to write and this blog is part of my disciplining myself to write regularly. I welcome your comments and I look forward to conversing with you. I always learn so much from what other people do.

So, back to the groceries. The Spending Plan I have in front of me shows groceries in a category called Household/Personal. This category is supposed to consist of 15-25% of your take home pay and includes groceries, dry cleaning/clothes, gifts, household items, personal products and other, which includes miscellaneous. The Rainy Day Budget I referenced last post, breaks down each category for you with % amounts. Our total spending is this department is 16%, our groceries(which include all personal as well as cleaners,etc)is just under 13%. We spend $450.00 per month on groceries, cleaners, personal products,etc. I am wanting to further challenge myself to lower this. I have an extreme goal of $350.00 which would be 9.99%! This reduction would help us reach our pay off the mortgage in 3 years goal! This blog will be hugely instrumental in keeping me on track!

Let me encourage you to try new things one at a time. If you are new to tracking and planning your spending, do that and allow yourself time to adjust to a new habit. If you are just learning to menu plan, find a buddy who wants to get it this habit too. I have a wonderful friend who would meet with me every Monday to menu plan the upcoming week. We moved away and I don't have that anymore, it's a great way to stay on track and to get ideas! Remember, I am going to write down things as I think of them, and so there will be a deluge of ideas coming at you each post. Use the ones that are a fit for you and toss the ones that aren't. Share any ideas you have, I'd so appreciate it! Well I think you probably would like some time to process .....Talk to you again soon.Sue