Hold On Baby

Kara is so funny, when the kids put her in the car set now she grabs on to the carrying handle. She must be afraid Mom or Dad might dump her out! Ha

Today was manual labor until Kara came in the afternoon. Loaded all of the outdoor decorations to the back shed, cleaned up the garage (tidying up might be a better description), Put together the shelving unit to store the sun oven, dehydrator, and canning supplies. I could use an additional unit to put the cookware for the sun oven and all the cast iron but that won't happen until February and even then I'm not sure if I have the space for it. I have a REALLY large kitchen but I keep running out of room :(.

A post from one of my young Mommy buddies on facebook last night got me thinking that I need to share a few accomplishments from 2010. first and maybe foremost was the savings we had from shopping on sale and using coupons only at the grocery store last year. Total savings were $2,035.00!!! Wish they would put a running spent total on the receipt as well but that might shock to many folks. Generally I saved 60% at least this year, might have been a bit more. That might seem like a lot for just 2 people but keep in mind I cook a huge meal at least a once a week for our whole family and whoever else might be around. We do the food for all holiday's, vacations, Birthday's and I send meals home with our Daughters on a pretty regular basis when they are working. Along with what we grew and put back from the garden we have saved a butt load of money. I grocery shop pretty much each week after checking the sale paper and comparing it to the coupons I have, if the deal is good I shop, if not I stay home. Best I can guess we averaged under $300.00 a month for food.

I didn't keep up with the savings at CVS this year but I did hang on to the fall savings receipt. It showed $512.00, not sure how many quarters they have but I do a lot more shopping in the late summer and fall to stock up for the winter on over the counter meds, toiletries, toilet paper and such. The drug store savings were in the 80% range I am sure.

I began shopping for Christmas gifts in August when socks, undies, jeans and the basics were on back to school sales. Each month after I worked the Sunday sale paper for any deals on gifts, Kholes is one of my all time favorites, LOVE the Kholes dollar back days. Certainly I saved on Christmas gifts but we still spend more than we should.

For the month of January I won't be spending anything on groceries other than milk and eggs, same goes for CVS zero spending at the drug store. We should be getting a little snow tomorrow and possibly a large storm Sunday-Tuesday, love that I won't be one of the ladies hitting the grocery store over the weekend paying full price for the necessities of a possible ice storm.