We got our yearly company contribution to our HSA this week. So they put in $600 for us into the HSA. That is really helping with my HSA goal of $5000, now we are already up to $3300! YEAH!

I posted yesterday that DH had gotten a check for $250 from his great grandma for Christmas. He decided how to break it up:

$50.00 for him to spend
$50.00 for me to spend
$50.00 for the lawn mower fund
$100.00 to save for our Deadwood trip in March

I haven't decided what to do with my $50 yet.

So here is the update:
Current Balance $11,500.00
+$50.00 to lawn mower fund
+$75.00 to retirement hold account from paycheck
New Balance $11,625.00

ING $8165
HSBC $3225
Lawn Mower Fund $235
= $11,625.00

Christmas Season is a great time to get discounted gift cards. We bought a $50 GC from Applebees and got a $10 GC for FREE! We got the same deal at TGIFridays. We will keep the giftcards and use them in the next coming months. I am sure there are a lot of other places running this kind of deal, and if it is somewhere that you use regularily it is a great bargain.

Got another free coupon for Victoria Secret undies today. I believe this is my 6th free undies this year.
Also got a good sale on soup today. The grocery store had the large cans of Progresso Soup on sale for .99! They are normally $2.65 a piece, so I bought 30 cans and saved $49! Whoo hoo! I love Progresso and they are really good for lunch, especially in the winter. I like to have half a can for lunch, nice and light and cheap.

DH got an extra duty at work, he will now be doing detention everyday for 45 mins after school. He gets paid seperatley for this and it is hourly based. So we decided to give DH half of the pay for fun money (he tells me he never has enough fun money ) and the other half we are going to set aside for seperate home projects/upgrades, our first goal is a new lawn mower as ours is on the fritz....it still works, but is definitely heading for a new life......
Oh and I also quit drinking pop and getting fast food breakfast last week, so I am going to take $20 a paycheck and save that for something fun for me.....like new clothes, or new bike, or new rollerblades.....hmmmmm

Since we are refinancing this month we don't have to make a payment on our mortgage. Our mortgage guy gave us 2 months off of payments since the paper work took so long to go through, so no payment needed for October and November. I have already put half of October's payment into savings and the rest I have sitting in checking to give us a little more flex for Christmas. Finally got our "official" EF account to $1K (we have over $7K in savings, but only $1K is "designated" as EF, though all of it would be used as EF if we needed it). We were also informed that the new mortgage company would be sending us a check for $1987.00, they always make sure they overestimate when they do refinances so when the numbers come back you get money back instead of having to pay more. So we have a check coming for almost $2K, plus $1300 November payment, plus $1300 surplus in our old escrow account that we will get a refund for. So that is roughly $4600 that we will have unexpectedly. I really want to put it against the new mortgage.......but I know that is not best for us right now. DH and I discussed it and are going to put the full $4600 in savings. That will get us to $12K in savings. We know that we will need at least one, if not two new to us cars in the next couple of years. We will drive our cars till they drop, but I do NOT want to have a car loan, especially when we are sending all of this extra money to the mortgage....it would be dumb to get a car loan at 6%+ when we have our mortgage at 3.75%. So we will save all of that money and just start right up again with the accelerated payments in December. Goal right now is for the balance to go down $1K a month, that would mean we will have 138 months left to pay, about 11.5 years. Then I would be 37! I am having a hard time not sending the money to the mortgage, I really don't want the amount of the loan to go up, but such is life. Closing costs and the over estimate will cause it to go up, but it will be better for us in the long run to keep the cash in savings. We will be so much more comfortable, and we will still be putting more into savings while we send extra payments to the house. Ok, I am done with my rambling now.

Here are some savings tips I use. I really like to use tips that help elimate waste of resources. They may be really basic, but they work!

Savings Tips:

1) Don't buy gift bags. I always buy wrapping paper, it lasts much longer and is cheaper. Instead of spending $3-$4 on a GB for one wedding gift, you can buy one roll of wrapping paper for the same amount or cheaper to be used on numerous gifts depending on size. I have had the same wedding wrap for 2-3 years now. For Christmas you can buy a few different kinds of wrap each year when they are on clearance for very cheap, then you never have to buy expensive bags or pay full price for wrap. I have a large gift bag that I save all my wrapping paper scraps in. Lots of pieces that you couldn't use for the gift you have can be saved and work perfect for smaller gifts like DVDs, CDs, books and jewelry. I also save all the gift bags that I get for birthdays and Christmas and keep them all together so if I am in a hurry or a bag will just work better for the gift I do have several to choose from. I also save the tissue paper.

2)Don't spend a lot of money on cards. If you really enjoy cards maybe you disagree with this, but I could not care less about cards with my gift. You read it once, you open your gift.....you go home and throw away the card and never think about it again. So I buy all of my cards at the Dollar Store, 2 for $1. I buy several birthday, wedding, graduation and baby cards at once and keep them with my wrapping supplies so I don't have to make a trip out to buy one card. I just think it is ridiculous to spend $3-$5 on a card that no one will look at again (unless maybe it is a special card for your husband/wife or something that might be saved.) Like I said if you like cards you may feel differently. Or you can always make your own card with a piece of paper folded in half and some crayons or markers.

3) Unplug. We unplug EVERYTHING. There is nothing in our basement that is plugged in right now except the washer and dryer. The TV, all lamps and any electronics are all unplugged. If we happen to spend time in the basement we plug them in while we are down there and then unplug before we go back upstairs. We keep all appliances, can opener, toaster, mixer, and radio in the kitchen unplugged unless in use. Also the laptop, cell phone chargers etc. We have our main TV hooked up to a light switch, so when we hit the switch it turns off the power to the outlet that the TV is connected to, so that is "unplugged" when not in use too. This helps a lot with the electricity bill.

4) Keep the heat/air off as long as you can. Every year when the seasons change we wait as long as we can stand to turn on the heat or air. I live in ND, so that can be a challenge! We are trying to last till October 1st with the heat off this year. It has already snowed here, so it is not easy. But if you wear warm clothes, socks and keep a blanket around if you are laying on the couch you will still be comfy. Open the shades when the sun is out and let it help heat your home. If you made something in the oven leave the oven open after you have removed your food and turned off the over and the heat from it can easily warm a room. Or cuddle! Same goes in the summer, open the windows at night, close the shades, wear layers so you can take some off to stay cool. When we do finally turn it on we still keep it very low, especially in the winter as you can keep yourself warm with clothes and blankets.

I had some coupons I snagged from the coupon box at work and think we did pretty darn good!

Target
$1.00 off Herbal Essences
-Bought the economy size bottle that is cheaper per ounce, plus used the coupon to save even more
Buy a 36-60ct Tampax, get a 18-20ct box FREE
-Bought the 54ct economy size box and got $3.99 20ct box FREE

JCPenney
DH has been needing new jeans for some time, he alwasy rips the butt pockets out from keeping his wallet in that pocket! I also have been trying to keep a pair of flipflops I have had since highschool....they are my FAVORITE....cause they are so comfy, but the heel of it is literally worn down to the ground so I have been looking for some that look comfy for a long time.
2 pr jeans
-Reg $30 each, on sale for "2 for $38", plus a $10 off coupon....Total came out to $13.16 a piece so really even better then if they were BOGO free
4 pr flipflops
-Reg $12 per set of 2 pr flip flops. On sale for $5.99 per 2 pr set, plus a $10 off coupon...came out to $1.97 total for 4 prs flipflops! .48 per pair!

Really happy with the shopping today! How can you beat .48 cents a pair for cute flipflops!
Total cash savings today = $60.81
and we only spent $43.80!

Today was the 1st day of can season! It was finally nice enough out for DH and I to go for a walk outside. We go for walks a lot when the weather is nice enough, and we always bring a grocery bag with and collect aluminum cans as we go. I know some people may find this "below them" or gross or whatever. But I actually look forward to it. I am getting excercise, helping the enviroment, and also getting a little more money for savings. It's like an enviromental scavenger hunt! We don't get a lot of money for cans, but it is still free money. Anyways today we got a lot of cans since the snow has been melting here and uncovering them. DH also found 2 pennies, so they went straight into our piggy bank for the mortgage principle! Feed the Pig!

Well readers my Mexico trip is upon us! We leave in 2 days so I will be MIA for a week. We have $600 for spending money and are hoping to bring back $100-$200. I have never been to Mexico so it should e a lot of fun. I am ready for a margarita and some fun in the sun!

Happy Savings!

So since we had that "surprise" $2000 from the casino trip to put into the EF I decided to let DH decide what to do with my bonus from work. I will find out the exact amount tomorrow but I think it will be about $500 after taxes and 401K contributions. I told DH he can decide to put it wherever he wants....EF, remodel bathroom, future vacation, or buy a new laptop (his died a few months ago, so we have been sharing mine) were the options we talked about.
Last night he surprised me when he told me he had decided that we should set up a seperate ING account for Home Maintenance with my bonus. He is so smart

Current Total = $9430.00
+$1100.00 Federal Refund
New Total = $10530.00

YEAH! We are over $10K! Normally I would not update this twice in 2 days, but since we got our federal today I wanteed to celebrate! So happy to be over half way. It will be short lived since we are going on 2 vacations next month and the funds for both are in savings. But will try to keep the discretionary spending to a minimum. Anything that we bring home will be going right into the EF.

Current Total = $8955.00
+$50.00 to EF from paycheck
+$50.00 to Vacation Fund from paycheck
-$140.00 to ROTH IRA
New Total = $8915.00

I have officially filed our taxes ($1774 federal and $270 state = $2044). Plus we are waiting for the refund check from our ecrow account ($528) which should be here in just a few days. So that is a total of $2572 coming our way! YEAH! We will put at least $1000 into savings.....after that I am still deciding. I want to put some towards the house and some into checking to give a little breathing room...and more into savings. Got to figure out the best way to stretch this.

I am hoping this will be a no spend or at least cheap weekend. I am going to the gym tonight and DH is having one of our friends over to drink some beer and pay some PS2. Staying out of trouble!

Got some exciting surprise mail today! We got our Annual Escrow Statement. We just bought our house at the end of 2007, so this is only the 2nd one we have gotten. Last year we got about $100 back at the end of the year, because we had overpaid. This year we are getting $528 back! Whoo hoo! I know it is just our money anyways, but it is money I had already "spent" so I am so pumped! I have not decided for sure what I am going to do with it yet.....but I am thinking some to mortgage principle and the rest to savings......probably mostly to savings. Also our monthly mortgage payment is going down $36 a month starting 3/1/10. So I will continuing paying the same amount and adding that extra $40 (adding $4 to get to an even number) to the principle payment every month. That's an extra $480 per year to the mortgage principle! Whoo hoo! YEAHHHH!

We are going on a trip to Mexico in March....I am very excited!! My Mom is actually flying myself, my 2 brothers and our spouses/significant others there and paying for our hotel and most of our food as well. This is not normal "Mom" behavior at all.......but my Grandpa passed away this last year.....and a very large portion of his estate went bu-bye between inheritance tax, lawyer fees....blah blah blah.....my parents are well off and now my Mom is thinking she would rather enjoy her money with her kids before she is gone and it goes to the government. So all we need to come up with is some food/drinking money and souvenir/shopping money and any other entertainment we might do tours or something. I am thinking $800ish for 2 people should be more then enough for a week of drinking margaritas on the beach! There is also a casino there so we may do that too. So we have till March to start a new account and save it up. We are at $50 and Friday it should go up a lot as it is bonus time at work.

A friend recently moved and when she was packing up her pantry she ended up throwing away 2 full garbage bags of food that was expired. I like to think that I am pretty good at keeping my pantry and other cupboards well organized and try not to let anything expire, but after hearing about how much she had to throw away I decided that I better go through and reorganize to make sure we are not wasting money by letting food go bad. I had 3 main areas to go through, lazy susan, baking cupboard, and pantry. We are big fans of stock piling, so we do have a lot of items stocked up. I have a magnetic marker board on the side of my fridge, so as I went threw each cupbaord I would write the header on the marker board, and underneath the header I wrote the names of items we need to use up sooner then later so that they don't expire. The lazy susan I had a box of pasta salad and a box if augratin potatoes that needed to be used up. Then I did the baking cupboard. We don't bake a ton, but have a lot of mixes, spices, frosting etc. I wrote down all the mixes we have had for over a year. We even made some Lemon Poppy seed muffins today to start using them up. We also put a Jello mold from that cupboard into the rummage sale box and put all of the sugar (brown, powdered and regular) into the chest freezer. Then I did the pantry, had to throw away one bottle of marinade dressing that was too old. And had one can of fruit cocktail and one can of beans that need to be used up soon so they went on the list. We also have a large supply of ranch, kethup, marinades and salsas (bought bulk when it was on good sale) so I put all of those in order in the pantry of which needs to be used first. So all in all I actually only had to throw one item away, and I have sooooo much more room in my cupboards now since everything was taken out and put back in a more organized way. The whole project only took about 30 minutes.

Today was payday for both me and hubby. Yeah! Transferred money to savings:
$100 to EF
$100 to Vacation 2010 fund
$66 to 401K
$135 to 403B
$70 to Roth IRA

Garlic Bread
Cheap idea for garlic bread, and also good way to use up hamburger or hotdog buns. Our household is only 2 people, so if we have hotdogs or hamburgers we usually have buns leftover from the 8 pack of buns. Of course you can freeze them, but they never seem to taste as good if you do that. So when we have leftover buns we have a spaghetti night and use the buns for garlic bread. Just cut the buns open, spread with butter sprinkle with garlic salt and stick in the oven for 10 minutes or so. Tastes great (for a lot less then buying garlic bread) and then you can use up those buns before they get stale/moldy.

We are getting some OT at work and I am very happy to hear it!
I did 1 1/2 hours today and am going in tomorrow to do 5 hours, and am hoping to be able to get 10/15 hours for the next 2/3 weeks. That would really help with the upcoming medical bills!

Also we went to Coldstone Creamery today! YUMMMMY! I had my free coupon from the radio contest and also a $1 off coupon from the paper. So DH and I each got a medium size ice cream, total $2.82! $1.40 a piece is a good deal for Coldstone!

I know some people keep hundreds or even thousands in their checking account at all times as a buffer. Well I am not one of those people. I transfer everything I can into savings (maybe even to a fault) and only leave the necessary amount in checking. See if there is any money in my checking account it seems to disappear somehow. A few years ago I had a line of credit (LOC) at my local bank. I used my LOC all the time. I was horrible with it, paying $2 fee everytime it advanced money into my checking account plus something like 18% interest. Everytime I got paid I would pay it back right away. But within a few days it would be advanced again....and the cycle would continue. In 2008 we switched banks. The new bank had a different LOC system. Their LOC did not have any fees when it advanced, it just had a once a year fee of $20 - you had to pay the $20 fee up front, and whether or not you used the LOC throughout the year you still pay the $20 fee plus interest if it is advanced. This was not something I was willing to pay for as a "what if" (I realize I was probably paying way more then $20 a year when you add up all the $2 fees from the old LOC but it just didn't register). So I decided not to sign up for the LOC. Instead I started my own LOC/Cushion. Each week I would write $10 "out" of my checkbook. I would write a line item in the check registry that says "Cushion $10" and subtract the $10 from my balance. Then the next week I would write "Cushion $20" and subtract the new $10 from the balance. I kept doing this each week and now my cushion is up to $600 and still growing. So if I dip under our actual balance a little that $600 is in there just in case. I am thinking once I get to $1000 I will take $500 of it and send it to the mortgage. Then move back up again etc. The trick to keeping this simple (at least for me) is that each week when I add the new entry I keep the balance added up on the new line "Cushion $600" so that I always know how much it is and don't have to add up every $10 entry, and when I write the new entry in, I check the "cleared box" for last weeks entry so there is always only one line that is showing as an outstanding amount. Then when I balance my checkbook I can just subtract the total as an outstanding check. I am pretty proud of my self made cushion and it has worked great for us so far. It is a FREE LOC!

Last week I brought a little index card box to work. I put the few coupons I had that I would not use in it. And I wrote COUPONS on the top. Then I sent out an email to my dept that anyone could bring or take coupons as they pleased. I was a little worried that some would look down on this, or think it was silly. I was very surprised to immedicatley get a positive reaction! I got a few "Thank you" and "That's a great idea" emails! And the next day several coworkers brought coupons in. Now the box is very full, over 100 coupons! I have used over $8 in coupons for household/beauty products that I would normally buy anyways. I have seen 4 others take coupons too, I hope others are checking it too, as there are TONS of coupons for all kinds of products and I am sure that there is someone that could benefit from them. Anyways it is working great so far and an added bonus is that I can first dibs since it is on my desk heehee!