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Okay people!  How many lurkers are really out there?  Why does no one leave comments?  For those that don’t know, no less than 10 people a day read this blog but the only people who ever comment are Erika, occasionally Kelli and sometimes Kathryn,  What up wit dat???

So – what would you like me to talk about?  Any particular subject you would like me to jump on my soapbox and scream about? Anything of which you’d like to hear my opinion?  I don’t believe them but I’ve been told I can be slightly, perhaps occasionally opinionated. 

So – TALK PEOPLE! Tell me what’s on your mind!

Jennifer

Some of you may be tired of hearing about how cheap we’re really trying to become.  For those people- Sorry Charlie! You may want to get used to it since we’re totally committed.  How committed you might ask?  VERY.  So committed that I bring a calculator with us to the grocery store.  GASP!

You see, we are on a “spending plan”.  I heard someone call it this recently.  A blogger said they hated the word “budget” and the vile taste it gives people so he chose to call it a “spending plan” because that’s what it really is.  I agree.  Basically, every time we get paid we spend all our money on paper.  We decide what to spend on the bills, pocket money, groceries, gas, eating out, birthdays, etc. That way we know what we’re spending on what and what we’re doing with our money.  We’re getting really good at it too!

Okay, back to our grocery visits on our “spending plan”. First thing you should know is that we’ve never been good at grocery shopping. I really didn’t start cooking until about 2 years ago.  Before that we ate out A LOT.  I mean, I would go weeks without cooking a single meal.  I am not exaggerating. Since we didn’t cook often, we didn’t go to the grocery that often either.  When we did go, it would be every 4 to 6 weeks and we’d spend $300.  The sad part is that there’s only 2 people in my household! We’d buy a cart full (and I mean rounded over the top of the cart) of stuff and drag it all home.  We’d cram every cabinet and freezer shelf full and half the stuff we’d end up throwing out because we wouldn’t eat it and it would expire.  I am ashamed of the food we wasted.  Well, those days are LONG over!

Now, we go to the grocery every week.  We only buy food for that one week.  We also bring CASH to the grocery store and we only spend the cash we bring. Bringing cash really changes how we shop.  Now, before we even leave the house, we decide what meals we will prepare that week.  We’ve budgeted that we can eat out 2 nights per week at usually $20 a pop so I plan for 3-4 prepared meals at home per week and we may “fend for yourself” the other night or we’ll have leftovers. I look to see what ingredients for those meals we already have and what we need to buy.  I write out a list. Shocking, I know.  Hubby is practicing patience with me.  He often doesn’t want to decide what we’re going to eat all week and on which days but he’s doing WAY better. I have to do this so I know what we have to buy. Buying food for only that week also helps us figure out how many meals we will actually have to prepare that week.  I also look through all my coupons, throw away those that are expired and pull out the ones I know I’m going to use.  I bring all of the coupons with me but I try to pull out the ones I know I’ll be using. 

Now, we finally get to the store.  Hubby and I go shopping together.  I know most husbands don’t like the grocery but mine has THE best attitude.  We actually have a lot of fun in the grocery.  Pointing out the cans of “Big John’s Pork & Beans” and the cans of “Spotted Dick” crack me up just like Hubby cracks himself up with putting the giant English cucumbers and whole sticks of peperoni in the cart. Yes, we’re dorks.

So, I’m armed with my coupons and my list and THIS is where the dedication comes in.  As we shop, I write down the price of everything on my list.  If it’s not already on my list, I add it and put the price of each item.  This means you actually have to weigh your produce and know how much everything is.  You also have to know if your store has a “buy one get one free sale” if the first one is full price and the second one rings up free or if they are both half price.  At our Publix, they’re both half price so we only buy 1 and get the sale price on it.  That is unless I have a coupon that requires us to buy two of the item and then I can REALLY get some savings when it’s already buy one get one free! Yes, dorky stuff like this now excites me!

Once we’re about two thirds through the store, and buying mostly just what’s on the list, I’ll stop and add up everything and see where we are.  Then, as each new item goes into the cart, I continue to watch the total.  If, we go over the amount of cash we have with us – something gets put back. Actually, we’ve not had to do this yet so I am very proud! 

Yes, grocery shopping takes a lot longer, requires more patience and much more organization but it’s totally worth it.  We now spend about $100 – 120 per week on groceries and we haven’t thrown out any food item since we started!  We don’t let $9 packages of chicken sit in the fridge and then go bad.  I am very proud of us. You may be thinking, if we would only spend $300 every four to six weeks at the grocery before starting our “spending plan”, we really aren’t saving money.  You would be WRONGO!  The big difference is we’re only spending about $40 per week eating out which is WAY WAY less than we used to spend in ADDITION to our $300 grocery bill. 

So, those dorky people roaming, slowly through the grocery store with coupons, lists and calculators in hand, YEP – that’s us!

Jennifer

Changed the lookof the blog again. You like?  I’m feeling springy and I think this reflects that nicely. We’ve been able to leave the door open at work a couple days this week and enjoy the fresh air outside. 

I wish the windows opened.  I don’t get windows that don’t open.  It sort of defeats the purpose, right?  We have 6 huge windows in the main rooms of our house and non of them open either. We did that because they looked good but I sure would like to be able to open them when it’s nice out like this. Oh well, guess I’ll add that to the list of things I want on the next house.

I’ve made a decision.  I will no longer allow people to be rude to me.  I’m going to start calling people on it.  That includes clients.  Just because I’m talking to you on the phone does not give you free license to curse, hang-up, and talk to me whatever way you feel like.  I am a nice person and it’s not too much to expect that people treat me courteously.  I understand people have bad times and they are sometimes in a hurry or dealing with a difficult situation.  But – they can still be courteous.

I’ve been thinking about this for the past couple of months and I had an opportunity to do it this morning.  This man has been calling my office a couple times over the last week.  His wife has a policy with an insurance company (which we are not) and he thinks it’s through my office – but it isn’t.  He left a message for us last week about his wife’s policy and my assistant left him a message that we have no record of that policy but he can call the insurance company directly and left the phone number. He called later that afternoon, after my assistant left. I answered and when I told him she’d gone home for the day, he was mad and said, “Why didn’t she call me back?” I told him I wasn’t sure but I would find out and have her call him the next day. When she came in the next morning I mentioned it to her and she said she HAD called him and left a message on his answering machine.  She called him again and left another message on his machine that she had called him back and repeated the information that we weren’t his agent and he needed to call the insurance company and left the phone number again.

This morning, he calls again and starts out by asking what company was I. I told him and he responded, “well what do you do?” I’m not going to give someone whom I don’t know, all kinds of information about me so I asked what company he was trying to reach. He said an insurance company and I said that’s not this office but perhaps I can help you with something (see how nice and polite I am?). He asked if someone was at this office and I said, yes that was my assistant. He said I need to tell her to stop making wrong phone calls because his wife DID have a policy. I stopped him and tried to tell him I remembered this situation.  He responded, “HEY HEY HEY” and I stopped him again and said, “You don’t have to be rude to me – I am trying to help you.”  Guess what?  Mr. Rude-Pants then hung up on me.  Know what I did?  I found the message from last week and called him back!  HAH!  He answered and I told him my name and he said he didn’t know who that was.  I said, “I’m the person you just hung up on” to which he responded, “Oh.” I once again told him his wife’s policy was not with this office and we were just trying to be nice and get him to the right place.  I also said to him, “I can tell you’re frustrated but your continuing to call the wrong office is just making that worse.  Although you’re not our client, we are trying to get you to the right place and your being rude and mean doesn’t help that.” He said he wasn’t being rude to my assistant and I said, “No – you were rude to me.”  He said his answering machine doesn’t work and he didn’t get any messages. I told him he needs to call the insurance company directly and I could give him that number. He said, “I already have the number” to which I responded, “If it’s the same number you called a few minutes ago you don’t have the right number because that’s to my office. I’ll be glad to give you the correct phone number if you’d like it.” Then, this MR RUDE MAN said to me, “Well give me that number right now!” So, once again I told him, “You do not have to be rude to me! The phone number is…”. I also said to him, “If you know that your answering machine doesn’t work properly you shouldn’t accuse people of not returning your calls because we had.” He hung up. 

My husband thinks I was being catty and immature.  My hope is that this man is nicer to the next person.  Your thoughts?  Would you have bothered to call him back? Do you think I was immature? 

Jennifer

I was really starting think of myself as a cheapskate.  Of this I was actually quite proud.  That was until I was flipping through Woman’s Day magazine and came across these “Reuse It” tips:

* Re-purpose cereal box liner bags as wax paper for wrapping sandwiches.

* Use a scratched CD or DVD to the back of a child’s bike as extra safety reflectors.

Seriously???  Are you really so cheap as to dig out the waxy bag, after you’ve eaten all the cereal, wash it and then deconstruct it all so you can wrap 1 lousy sandwich?  How much is a square of wax paper after all?  1 cent?  I don’t even know anyone who still uses wax paper to wrap their sandwiches in.  I usually use a ziplock bag.  That is, of course, if I could remember the last time I packed a lunch. I live very close to where I work so I just go home to eat lunch most days.

Oh – and PLEASE, I’m begging you, don’t be THAT PARENTthat makes their kid ride a bike, not only with a helmet, knee and elbow pads, but 6 scratched CD’s dangling off their bike and sewn onto the back of their jacket.  You will make another, non dorky kid, beat the crap out of them and it will totally be your fault.  You have been warned.

Hubby and I have gotten serious about money. Nothing specifically has happened to cause this per se.  Just watching the economy has made us more aware of not wasting money.

How are we getting serious? Well, I haven’t used my credit card since November.  For those of you that know me – know that this is a pretty big deal.  I took it out of my wallet back then and I’ve never put it back.  Honestly?  I hardly miss it.

Another thing we’ve done is I paid for Christmas entirely in cash.  We also cut our Christmas budget by about two-thirds.  This was HUGE! We decided we weren’t going to send every person we know a Christmas gift and those gifts we were buying were going to be much less expensive.  To tell the truth, we really couldn’t tell the difference in the enjoyment of anyone.  My sister loves her Rubik’s Cube that cost me under $10.  She probably loves it more than the $40 gift I got her last year that I can’t even remember.

 A fairly recent thing we’ve started doing is making a budget.  I know, this word may scare some of you but I now think of it very differently.  We’re still spending money – only this way we KNOW where we’re spending it and how much goes to what.  We’ve not gotten entirely miserly and we still budget for eating out and Target and a little money in both our pockets to just blow.  Actually, this is the first time I’ve ever had cash to spend without having to  make sure Hubby knew what was going on so he could track the bank account.  That’s why I used my credit card so often – I could spend what I wanted and Hubby didn’t have to worry that I’d taken money out of the bank which would affect a check he’d written.  I am LOVING the budget!

The budget has also made me an avid coupon clipper and sale finder. I sit down with the Sunday paper each week and peruse the coupons looking for deals.  Then, I check the store flyers to see what sales and markdowns they are having and see if I can combine that with a coupon for even greater savings. Example, tonight I needed to go buy conditioner which I would normally get at Sally Beauty Supply.  But when I checked the Publix flyer I saw that Garnier was on sale 3 for $8.  Not a terrible deal but when I checked my coupons I had more than 3 $1 off coupons.  Combine that with the sale and I could get 3 bottles for $5 – now that’s a bargain.  I headed to Target first to get cat litter and decided to check their hair products just to compare. Well, guess what I found? They had Herbal Essence on sale for $3.24 each but I had a $3 off coupon when you bought 2 so  I got 2 bottles of that for $3.48. Then, when I went to Publix, they actually Garnier on sale 2 for$4. I had my $1 off coupons and only used two of them (I saved the others since I was now going to have 4 bottles of conditioner). So, I got 2 bottles of that for $1.00 each!  I also had  Publix’s 1 cent mystery coupon which turned out to be Publix brand tortilla chips. I had a coupon for a free pack of gum too.  So I saved over $6.00 in coupons at Publix and only spent $11.29 for $17.53 worth of stuff.  Not too bad on such a small bill, huh? 

Okay, does my excitement over this make me a HUGE dork? I’m okay if it does, I was just wondering.

Jennifer

A funny thing came across my deskthis week.  We received an address change for a client.  Irmgard McClammy (as if that wasn’t funny enough) has moved from Devil’s Tower Circle to Church Circle Highpoint Estate.  Just goes to show what being a Christian can do for you, huh?  She moved up from a tower to an estate   This made me laugh out loud.

I was wondering how the “recession” has affected our readers.  Have you or a family member lost your job?  Are you spending less and saving more? Are you going out to eat less? Watching your impulse purchases? Paying off credit cars? Buying a used car instead of a new car? Basically, have you changed the way you spend or save money at all? 

Am I a cheapskate weirdo? I read an article on the web last week that was talking about “new etiquette” things.  One of them was splitting the check down to the last penny when dining out with friends.  The article said you should just split the check evenly by the total number of dinners regardless of who ordered what.  They said to whip out your calculator and start figuring out who got what made you a cheapskate. Am I totally alone in thinking you should just ask the waiter to bring separate checks?  I don’t want to pay 1/4th of the bill if my husband and I got water and shared a meal and another couple got an appetizer, two steaks and a dessert.  On the same token, hubby and I will often order steaks and his sister will only eat an appetizer.  Why would it be right in either of these examples to just get 1 bill and divide it evenly? Thoughts?  Is it rude to ask for separate checks or is it just easier and fair?

Jennifer

Some of you are like me.  I have a group of friends who are dear to me.  I don’t often say it and don’t always show it but I cherish my friends.  Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about my friends.  See, for me, it takes a long time to really make a friend.  I’m not sure why but it seems I have to know someone quite a long time before we really become friends. 

Don’t get me wrong, I’m a friendly person and I have a lot of acquaintances but before I really consider someone my friend I have to really get to know them.  All the friends I have I’ve known for years.  I’m not sure why I am this way.

One of my dearest friends is having a tough battle right now.  This has been a catalyst for me. Kathryn was diagnosed with breast cancer in December.  She’s been my friend since Junior High School.  She’s a fighter, is a faithful Christian woman, and is doing well, despite the treatment.  Actually, I told her last night that I thought her wig was cuter than her real hair.  Who knew she’d be such a doll with short hair?  I feel badly about the way I’ve taken our friendship for granted over the years. We go months without talking or writing via e-mail.  But whenever we get back together, we’re just like our old selves.  There’s nothing I couldn’t tell her or trust her with.  Kathryn, I love you sweetie and think you should know how very much you’ve enriched my life.  You’ve been there for me at my lowest lows (you KNOW the night my life turned upside down and you were [literally] there for me) and my highest highs and I thank God for your years of friendship thus far and many many more years to come.

I’ve found out recently that one of my dear friends will be moving away.  I won’t name her since some of her friends read this blog and I want her to tell people in her own time but I am very happyfor you.  You have so many exciting things coming up in your life and what a great adventure your’e about to begin! BIG things are coming your way (hehe) and you are going to handle it all without any problems.  Don’t worry.  You see, this friend and I spoke recently about how she too has a hard time making new friends.  She’s much like me in that we have to know someone a really long time before we really become friends.  Put yourself out there – invite people to lunch, or to the library or to just hang out at the park.  You will make friends in no time.  Surely, not as gorgeous, funny and entertaining as your friends here but, good friends nonetheless!

So, to all my friends – I don’t often say it but don’t ever doubt that you ALL mean so very much to me and enrich my life.  I am grateful to each of you!!

HUGS,

Jennifer

P.S. My mom is having surgery on her foot tomorrow.  Please keep her in your prayers for a safe surgery and fast, painless healing. I’ll be up there for a few days to help out.