If you missed it last week, the $5 off a $20 purchase at Walgreen's is back again. The link to the coupon is

We have our gas and electricity billed together. I just checked our bill for this next month and received great news!

First, we have a $200 credit going into winter. Second, they are lowering our monthly budget payment by $39/mo! I'm thrilled.

I hope to put this money towards that pesky home equity loan starting in November.

I'm obsessed enough to go looking for tomorrow's ad (Sunday) on a Saturday night. I found a preview at hotcouponworld dot com.

It is a little rare that I shop at Walgreens. I really usually only buy bubble mailers when they are three for $1. I use these a fair amount when selling on ebay. Yesterday, I went twice!! I took advantage of the $5 coupon off a $20 purchase. See my post yesterday for the link...it is still good today!

First trip, I purchased primarily things I needed anyway.

1 gal milk $3.19
coment $0.59 with store coupon
shave cream $2.29
2 glade spray$1.98 with store coupon
foundation $5.99
candy $2.99
crest $3.79 free after rebate
6 mailers $2.00 with store coupon
SUBTOTAL $21.83
glade coupon-$1.75
crest coupon-$0.75
store coupon-$5.00
sales tax $0.70
TOTAL $16.02

After the $3.79 rebate I will have spent $11.53 for these 14 items for an average of $0.82 a piece! I'm thrilled.

I decided to come home and see if there were any other items in the ad or the Easy Saver Catalog that I might need. I printed off another $5 coupon and set out to buy the following:

Shampoo $4.99
Conditioner $4.99 $5 rebate for 2
nail polish $4.79 Free after rebate
4 soups $5.00 with store coupon
gum $1.19
tax $0.66
SUBTOTAL $21.62
coupon -$5.00
coupon -$0.50
TOTAL $16.12

I will receive rebates of $9.79 bringing my actual cost to $6.33. For 7 items, the average cost per item on trip was $0.90. FYI, the soups were the large chunky type. We eat these quite often around here.

I have already input my receipts on Walgreens.com and requested a gift card. As a result they will add 10%. Total expected gift card $14.94. Considering I spent $32.14 yesterday for 21 items and I will receive almost 15 back...I'm beyond thrilled. Average cost per item: $0.82. That is a great price for things like shampoo, makeup, milk, and chunky soups.

I maybe could have bought more items for free, but they aren't things I would normally buy. Even the nail polish is rare, but I bought it in blue to give to my 11 year old for Christmas.

Did anyone else go yesterday? Any one planning to go today? How did you do?

Here's the link to a $5 off coupon at Walgreen's when you spend $20 or more. It is good only today and tomorrow.

I'm trying to keep track of money flowing in. As of now, I have received money from the garage sales, ebay sales, DH travel, and a gift card.

In the next few days, I expect to see some interest payments and some cash from craigslist sales. Several of those are pending today and I just put them up yesterday. Today I plan to get more things ready for ebay.

I am also saving all the mysurvey points towards $30 cash. Our debit card gives us cash back and we should be getting $50 in a few weeks.

All totalled up that is over $400 in cash flowing in, besides our regular paycheck. I'm saving all this money to purchase gifts for Christmas. It is definitely not too early to start thinking about that, right?

My husband is a diet coke addict. I had been selling mycokerewards on ebay a while back, but that is no longer allowed. So, I decided to start accumulating them with no expectation of redeeming them.

After browsing the rewards, I noticed that magazine subscriptions are available. I picked Better Homes and Gardens. Nice side benefit to his bad habit!!

I may order DH Popular Mechanics, too. The dilemma is that DD brought home her school fundraiser...magazine sales!!! So, do I purchase Popular Mechanics to help the school? I could still redeem it free through mycokerewards, and pick something else for the girls...maybe American Girl magazine. I will be weighing my options.

Wow, it has been a little while since I've posted!! Here's a few updates.

Our A/C has been off since Sept 2nd, since the temperatures have fallen drastically. This morning it was 67 degrees in our home...I almost wanted heat!! I really want to wait on that one, though.

I am selling some items on ebay. I have netted over $100 so far.

Along with two other neighbors, I am coordinating a community garage sale for our neighborhood. It is just over a week away. It looks like we will have at least 10 families participating out of 40 households. I'm looking forward to making a little cash, but I don't have quite as many items as I did in the spring.

That is it for now!! Keep up the great work everyone...I am reading even when I'm not posting!

I received our auto registration renewal notice today in the mail. The fee for our Ford Taurus has dropped by $52!

I'm actually paying more than last year because we bought a newer vehicle in May. I'm still thrilled that one vehicle went down, since it does affect our total bill.

This state bills you an extra month early. My fees are not due until October. The way I save for these is reflected on the escrow page to the left. I really need the extra month until I have the money in full.

I also found out our auto insurance will be about $7 less per six months than I was expecting. The two savings together equal $66 for the year.

I will need to update our escrow account soon to reflect the savings!

If you read my blog during the month of August you may have noticed I was a bit obsessed with keeping my air conditioning off on cooler days. Of course, this was an effort to save some cash!

The efforts paid off. My electric usuage was 654 kWh for the month of August. Last year my usage was exactly 1000 kWh. The billing period for both was 29 days.

So, for having the air conditioning off for 10 days, we saved about $31.18. This August bill total was $62.54 and compared to last August's total of $93.72.

Overall, I'm pleased. At least it was a noticeable change. We are on an automatic payment with our utility company so the reduction in usage this month should help offset any usage we have this winter. It may even help reduce my auto payment amount.

Really! Thanks to HelpMeFriend for the great tie in to add to this post. Okay, where to start.

Well, yesterday after spending the day at a local amusement park I came home to find that I sold three items on ebay for a gross total of $62.75!! I am thrilled with the results since one item sold for $49, when I was expecting about $30. Must have been my lucky day!

Today, I hopped on my bike to deliver those ebay packages to the post office. That is my first time ever doing an errand like that on my bike. Cool...gas savings and exercise. I also went to the gym after dropping packages off. Must be my lucky day!

I'm home now, recording some debit transactions and checking my bank account online. I noticed that I have been charged less for Netflix and the local paper. Netflix is lower because they had some shipping problems over a week ago and reduced our bill by 15% to make up for it. The local paper is less, because of credits for papers not delivered. Four days of no newspaper. Total savings $4.20. It must be my lucky day!!

Weather is perfect again, so no air conditioning here! It must be my lucky day.

The rest of my day will involve stripping a dresser. Again...a first for me. I've had this dresser for 6 years...just waiting to be redone. It was my father in law's and it is such a nice size to put in a corner or near a door. It must be my lucky day.

I wish you a lucky day, too!!

The A/C is off again today. This will make 10.5 days during the month of August!! I expect it to stay off for a couple more, too, unless DD2's allergies start to act up.

We rode our bikes to buy sweet corn from a vendor and french bread from the nearby grocery store last night. Exercise, fresh air, fresh food and $0 in gas!! Perfect.

I am saving money for Christmas gifts. I will save our debit rewards money and survey money towards gifts for extended family members. Some of the nieces and nephews would like cash. I have $25 in bank rewards and $20 in mysurvey rewards. I expect to get at least another $50 in bank rewards and maybe $10-20 from mysurvey. That should be enough for those kids!

Christmas Cash Total $45

Today is much cooler, but the windows will have to stay closed because it is raining. I'm pretty sure the air will not kick on today, so it is close to being off.

I see several warm days in our future, so for now the a/c challenge is over. We managed to make it 8.5 days without air conditioning during the month of August. I guess we could say 9.5 since it won't run today...that's almost a third of the month!

My kids are back at school today with my oldest starting 6th grade at the middle school. The youngest is still in elementary. They will be riding different buses and leaving and arriving at different times. It seems strange already. Cost of the first day of school...$5.28 to go to breakfast with the neighborhood mom's.

I broke down yesterday and turned on the air conditioning for 12 hours. We were gone most of the day and when we returned it was 85 degrees in the house!! That is just too hot.

I turned it off this morning at 6am...probably could have turned it off sooner, but I wasn't awake!! It is still off, but I have shut all the windows, blinds and curtains. It is 81 degrees as of 1:30pm. We have all of our ceiling fans running as usual, but I may try turning on the whole house fan to see if I can at least get it to maintain the same temperature.

It will be warmer here for the next fews days. If I can't make it work for the rest of the day, the a/c will be back on for a few days until it cools down again.

For those of you counting...it has been 8.5 days without a/c! Almost a third of a month.

We've had the a/c turned off almost 7 full days. We did turn it on one night when it was rainy and humid.

I can't wait to see the electric bill next month to see how much difference we can see.

The weather is going to heat up a bit more over the next five days...so by tomorrow afternoon the a/c may be back on.

About to spend a few hours in my basement, organizing the shelves! It will be even cooler down there. Maybe I'll have to find another project for next week and spend my afternoons in the basement. Then maybe the a/c could stay off!!

We've had our air conditioning off for 4 days straight!! I love the fresh air. Thanks mother nature.

This mild weather with plenty of rain has been great for our pocket book. We have not had to water our yard and now can have the air conditioning off more days than I can ever remember.

We are still getting ready for the first day of school, just over a week away. Last week we made it to the orthodontist for head gear, eye exams for both girls and bought new sneakers.

At the orthodontist, I made the first of four payments on oldest daughters head gear. Each payment is $100. Dental insurance will pay 50%.

Eye exams for both daughters are covered in full by our insurance. Only one daughter has glasses. She did need a new prescription. We ended up getting frames at JCPenney's optical center for only $49!! This includes a warranty on the frames, too. I think I spent at least $150 last year on glasses, so I feel thrilled with this.

I'm sure I could have done better on shoes, by going to Payless shoes, but we ended up at Famous Footwear. I did get the 2nd pair at 1/2 price...but a total of $80 was spent on two pairs of sneakers. They should last most of the school year depending on growth. A side note here...my oldest daughter now has the same size feet as I do. We can share some shoes!! That will be a savings at times.

I also bought the girls each a new shirt. So far that is all the clothes that I have bought. I expect they have enough to wear for a few weeks before the weather gets cooler. I could be wrong about the weather though. It is already cool here. Only 80 degrees the last few days and expected for the next week, too. Yes, my a/c is OFF!!

Happy saving!

...about $20! My neighbor taught me to cut hair today. We cut both of my daughter's hair in preparation for school.

Both girls have pretty simple cuts...straight and no bangs. She had several good tools that made things easier. She has also cut her daughters hair for a few years now, so she has learned some tricks.

I already own scissors for hair, but need some clips, another type of scissors. She had a plastic cape, which would be nice, but a towel works, too!

I do own clippers so I could do my husbands hair, but those Army guys are a little particular on hair at times!!

What could you learn to save you money?

Did you get this $10 rebate form in with your coupons this weekend? Buy 10 qualifying Kellogg's/Keebler products and receive $10 rebate. They even included coupons for the items that qualified.

I don't do these too often. I went to Walmart to return an item and had them price match what the other stores had on sale.

I bought 11 items (needed an extra box of cereal).
$19.67 after price matches
($5.00) coupons
$14.67 out of pocket cost
($10.00) rebate
$4.67 final cost
$0.42 average cost per item

This is what I bought:
2 boxes Pop Tarts
3 boxes cereal
1 Keebler cookies
3 packages of fruit snacks
2 packages of gripz crackers

I feel pretty good about this purchase except that these are pretty unhealthy items. I will try to ration them with the kids!!

Black beans, or any other legume, are inexpensive and nutritious. This is my favorite black bean dish. It makes enough for two people as a meal. I'd use would double it if I were serving it as a dip.

I like to use simple recipes like this to save money, time and energy. It's nice on a hot summer day, when I don't want to turn on the oven.

1 can black beans, drain and rinsed
1/3c. chopped red onion
2 TBS chopped cilantro
1/4c. crumbled feta cheese
1 TBS olive oil
1 TBS balsamic vinegar

Mix all together. Eat plain, in a tortilla, or with tortilla chips. Yum!!

Let me know if you like it!

As I've stated in my blog title, I see our money as some we spend now and some that we spend later. We've done a fair amount of spending as of late. A newer Honda Odyssey is now filling our garage along with four new bikes, helmets and a bike rack. We don't regret any of it. We've had quite a bit of fun getting to know our local trails and landscape.

After all that spending, I'm feeling inspired to do some frugal things. My husband is apparently on board with this, too. I mentioned last week that he discovered driving to work through town on side roads saves him 15 miles of driving vs. the 30 miles on the interstate around town.

He started last week with a full tank and instead of draining it in full, he ended the week with just under half a tank! Wow, what a difference. We estimate that he will only need to fill the tank three times a month vs. four. That saves us about $50 a month. He seems pretty excited that he figured this out on his own. I'm proud of him, too!

So, what am I doing to be frugal? The other day I found myself using the empty bag my bulk purchase of paper towels came in to empty the cat's litter box. I usually grab a brand new trash bag for this task.

I also bought a bag of black beans instead of several cans. I have yet to use these, but I have a great frugal recipe for these that I will share later this week. I love black beans!

I also discovered another frugal site that looks promising. It is

Many Friday nights our family loves to eat pizza. The kids love cheese or pepperoni. DH & I like lots of meat, mushrooms and onions. We often have a glass of wine or two.

There is just something about pizza that signals that it is the weekend. I even look forward to these in the summer, but much more during the school year.

Pizza ordered in or eaten out can be quite expensive. On the occasions that we do eat out...we use a coupon to lessen the expense.

But the usual for us is homemade pizza. Yes, I use prepackaged crust...just adding the water at home. We buy the cheese on sale and often in bulk. A little ground beef and an onion. The cost is generally less than $8 for two pizzas. Even with a bottle of wine we are around $15.

We love our homemade pizza better than almost any take out. We can adjust the music, the lighting, the temperature and the entertainment to our liking. What could be better?

Have a fabulous Friday night!

I changed some settings on my dishwasher. I no longer have it set to "sanitize." I think it puts the dishes through an extra rinse. It seems to get them just as clean and in a shorter period time...and with less water.

I've also had good success putting a dry towel in with the wet clothes in the dryer. It does seem to shorten the time it takes to dry them.

I've been turning off the A/C much more frequently. I had it off all of yesterday, last night and until about noon today. That has to save some energy.

One habit I wish to work on is our ceiling fans. I usually leave the bedroom ones on 24/7. I don't think we really need those running unless we are in there. Now to retrain to children!!

Today was a no spend day. I should try to have several of those in the next few days. We did swing by the library. I checked out books on organization, recycling and green cleaning.

I've always loved organizing and could probably make it a business. It is interesting how the more organized one is, the less money is spent on late fees, and double purchases.

I think the more I learn about green cleaning the more I will save financially,too. I think it comes down to baking soda and vinegar for many things. Has anyone else noticed habits changing because of environmental reasons?

And...just so you know I don't really believe in global warming...but I don't like to see good things be thrown in the trash to be preserved forever in a landfill. I find that to be such a waste.

I really want to make an extra home equity loan payment of $385 this month. I think it will be less. As of now, I only have $100 in our regular checking account. I need to buy groceries for the next 8 days for 4 people. It seems other things could come up, too.

The $385 is there...it is even in another checking account. I may need to use some money from it to cover the rest of the month's needs. These needs primarily being groceries and gas.

Good news, I will be helping my sister with her garage sale the first weekend in August. I will take a couple of bins full of stuff to try to sell. I also need to get moving on some ebay sales. Now is the time that people are looking for school clothes.

My girls are set on backpacks and school supplies. Next month we will get sneakers, haircuts and a few school clothing basics. We only have 4 weeks left of summer.

Other good news, it looks like I can have the A/C off most of the day today! I think that is at least the 5th time this July! Amazing weather.

I don't know why I titled it that. I'm adding a little more cash towards the home equity loan payoff.

I received a mysurvey check for $10.00 and the Lowe's paint rebate check for $15.00. So, I'm making an online payment tonight for $25.00. This will bring our new balance below $15,500!! Every bit counts right?

I expect to make a larger extra payment by the end of the month. Can't wait to see it get below $15,000!! We'll see if I can get there this month.

On another note...

We live in the NW corner of our city and DH drives 30 minutes to the SE corner. He usually takes the interstate. Just seems to be the quickest way. Tonight he experimented with his route by driving through the city. The time was about the same, but he cut the miles in half. Instead of 30 miles on the interstate it was 15 miles through town!! Wow, that might save us at least $30 a week in gas. I'll try to keep you updated on this, too.

I recently received an email from a online photo processor for a great discount. I paid a penny for up to 50 prints, plus shipping. This is a great deal considering I rarely print pictures anymore.

Normally, this company has prints for 9 cents each. So, I saved 8 cents per print or a total of $4.00. The shipping was $3.47.

The email, of course, gave me a limited time to take advantage of this offer. They send me them fairly frequently, too, since I'm registered on their site for free. This time the timing was just right for me. I needed some prints anyway for my daughter's scrap booking project.

It does pay to sign up and register at various sites to be included in special promotions. Just make sure you don't take them up on all of them!!

Update, did plenty of ETE today. That is Erase the Evidence for those of you just tuning in. My sister is coming for the weekend...so I had to tidy up and erase the evidence in numerous areas of the house. Looks very nice now!!

I checked my retirement account today because I heard the market was up the last two days. Well, I'm glad I didn't look before. It is still bad.

My roth account alone is down 8.5% since I last checked in on May 19th of this year. The whole account since the beginning of the year is down about 13%.

The positive side in all of this is that I'm 35 and don't need this money for the next 30 years or more. I'm also still investing each and every month. My next automatic investment is scheduled for next week. Looks like my shares are still on sale for a while longer. Yipee!!

So, since I peeked you don't need to...it's not that good yet. But keep investing the shares are still on sale.

I sent in $9.62 to the home equity loan yesterday. Our new balance is $15,543.42.

The money is a result of a couple dollars left in the checking account before payday, a small amount of interest ($0.11), and atm rebates.

Because our bank is not local they reimburse us up to $15 for any atm fees we incur during a month. We have found a local convenience store that we can obtain cash from without any fees. This month we did a little traveling outside of town and ended up with $7.50 in fees.

Nice cool day here in the midwest after some days in the 90's with lots of humidity. We will have the A/C off all weekend!!

I haven't used this calculator yet, but I heard about it on the Today show this morning. If you are thinking of trading in your SUV for a hybrid or other fuel efficient car you may want to check it out

Some of our goals for 2008 are:

1)Save 15% of gross salary - retirement
2)Save $2000 for each child - college
3)Save down payment & purchase newer van
4)Begin to payoff home equity loan. (Really would like to pay off by May 2010)

We are on track to meet goals 1 & 2. We make contributions monthly to meet our yearly goals. Retirement is automatically. I do write checks for the education accounts...same time every month.

Goal three was accomplished last month with the purchase of a 2007 Honda Odyssey. We've been waiting over a year to make this happen.

I began working on goal 4 as of last week when I made my first extra principal payment of $25. Today I sent another $25.00 payment towards the loan. By the end of June, I hope to be able to send over $350 extra per month. I also intend to put any extra money on I make on ebay, craigslist, garage sales, and surveys toward this loan as well.