I have two things in my stockpile that I have more of than anything else, toothpaste and deodorant. I probably have enough for two years.

This week the only good deals at CVS were on.....guess what......toothpaste and deodorant. I promised I wouldn't buy any more of them. There were a few other okay deals on some other things but they still weren't free, and would eaten down a few more of my ECB's. And since I don't have a ton of them left, I just decided to pass up on the whole thing this week.

Its good to take a break now and then. My husband I took an awesome bike ride through a park for over an hour.

Well, I guess its obvious. I didn't skip grocery shopping this weekend. I promise we will do it soon. But I did do all my shopping on Saturday instead. Both days this weekend it is supposed to be in the 60's to 70's and my husband is home all day on Sunday. So I wanted to get everything done on Saturday, so we had a whole day to go biking and spend time together.


Since I wasn't really seeing any tremendous deals in next week's ShopRite ad, I took a trip to Aldi's to stock up some things they have there that are so cheap.

Aldi's

1 12 pk of Ramen noodles $1.76
4 dozen eggs $4.60
1 container of vegetable oil $2.39
1 can mandarin oranges .45
1 can crushed pineapple .89
1 can fruit cocktail .85
5 boxes of corn muffin mix .35 each
2 boxes of baking mix $1.79 each
2 cans diced tomatoes with chilis .49 each
1 can bread crumbs .89
2 pks of english muffins .99 each
1 pk hot dog buns .85 each
1 pk hamburger buns .85 each
1 loaf of white bread .79 each
2 tubs of ricotta cheese $1.59 each
1 tub of romano cheese $1.99
2 bags of yellow rice .89 each
1 bag of tater tots $1.59
1 bag of french fries $1.59
1 bag of hashbrowns $1.49
1 pk of chorizo $1.99
1 bag of onion rings $1.19
2 boxes of baking soda .49 each

Total $39.88



The sale on Over The Moon milk ends later today and my local ShopRite didn't have any more. So I stopped at the one near Aldi's today and they had tons of it. The milk freezes and defrosts beautifully, so I will have milk for a few weeks.

ShopRite

4 1/2 gallons of Over The Moon Milk $1.89 - $1 q's = .89 for milk (can't beat it)
2 Frank's Red Hot Sauce $1.19 - FREE coupon in paper = FREE
1 Breyers strawberry ice cream $1.99
2 boxes of Carolina rice .91 - .50 q's = FREE
2 batteries (smoke detector time you now ) .88 each

Total $7.43

Total budget for week $47.31. Now off to get some sleep and enjoy a day outside.

Gayle, who has a great website call The Grocery Cart Challenge, was the original inspiration to me to try a budget with my grocery shopping. Please check out her site, to see how she does it and how some others who also have decided to try her challenge.

And I didn't even use any coupons to get her. She doesn't look like cranberry flavor though.

Actually this is what I found after putting all my groceries away today and going to the back door to take all of the boxes out to the recyclables. Jenna is very crafty, managed to get in there without bending or breaking the box at all. She was so cute, I couldn't resist a picture.

Well I told you how Chase raised its rate on me a little bit ago. That is card #5, so they are next to be paid off. Amex before that lowered their rate on my husband's card, have no clue why, still waiting for them to do something bad next.

Yesterday in the mail we got a nice pamphlet from Capital One saying they are raising our rate due to the struggling economy. But guess what Capital One? You were card #3 and you were PAID OFF in December So I beat you to the punch. Ha ha. That felt good.

Still not thrilled about the raised rate, but at least I don't have a running balance with them anymore, nor plan ever to.

Another reason to get these evil things gone gone gone as soon as possible.

Four days into the new month and I almost forgot to do the financial update.

1.) Pay off credit cards # 4 and 5. #4 is almost gone. Just one more payment next week and I think it will be history. Then onto #5. Just in case you didn't remember before there are seven to get through before the end.

2.) Have emergency fund at $1500 by end of year. We are now up to $1051.24. I just increased my savings deposit starting with next week's check from $50 to $80. So we should have no problem with the $1500, in fact I am aiming for over $2000 by the end of the year.

3.) Buy chest freezer and stock with deals for dinners at home. Mr. Freeze is full and happy. My freezer upstairs actually could use a few things. We continue to make dinners from home. We really have even stopped the Starbucks dates since we are now biking on the weekends. This weekend it is supposed to be in the 60's and 70's after getting 8 inches of snow. So we are so excited to get out on our bikes.

4.) Stop buying certain pre-made products and make them from scratch at home.

Laundry Detergent - I would say I still have about 5 bottles of pre-made detergent left. Once they are gone I will buy no more. So maybe by the summer we will be into making the detergent from scratch.

Fabric Softener - Still have a few boxes of those left and since I tear them in half and only use half in each load, I will probably not be through those until the summer too.

Household cleaners - Still have alot of those. I wouldn't be surprised if they last me until the end of the year.

Syrup - Still making it from scratch. Would like to get some flavorings to try different syrups flavors.

Pasta Sauce - This one might be a problem. I could make sauce pretty cheap from scratch, but my husband is very particular on sauce and the only homemade sauce recipe he likes involves a ton of ingredients and gets expensive. Plus I have found some amazing deals on canned sauce that is cheaper than anything I could have made. So that one we will play by ear.

Meatloaf - I actually haven't tried to make a bunch of this in advance yet. I think I need to stock up on some more ground meat first.

5.) Clean out the garage and sell unnecessary things. With snow still on the ground, and my brothers things taking up residence there, I don't see a yard sale happening anytime soon. However I do have a TV and a cabinet I want to sell. Supposedly a friend of mine has a friend who wants the TV. If I don't hear from them soon, I am going to have to sign up for Craigslist or something and sell it there.

I haven't mentioned for a while that my $50 a week budget is for two adults. We do not have any children. We used to spend $150.00 on groceries every week or two and would get barely 3 bags of groceries and let most of it go to waste. So $50.00 is a definitely a slash on what our food budget was before. I know people feed 5 to 6 kids sometimes on $50.00 a week, so I know that if we ever needed to slash more we could.

Over the past few months we have assembled quite a nice stockpile of food, both frozen and non. I have been thinking about taking two weeks or so off of grocery shopping and living off our stockpile. I would then take the budget for that week and add it to the snowball payment for our current credit card we are paying down. The only thing I may run out of is ice cream, and since I have an addiction to it, it might be good if I take a couple of days off from eating it anyway. My pants would thank me.

I actually do enjoy the couponing and finding deals so that may be the only part I may miss and I will have control myself if I see some really good things on sale for that week.

I could actually sleep in a little later on Sundays, and be ready to go biking nice and early since it is going to be in the 60's this weekend after getting 8 inches of snow on Monday.

Have you ever taken a mini-vacation from grocery shopping and lived off your stockpile? If so, how long have you done it? Did you allow for any exceptions, or just go hard core?

After about 2 months of doing CVS deals, I learned that I am not going to be the person that is going to buy something at CVS that I won't even use just because it has a good ECB deal. In the beginning I ended up with a diabetes monitor that I couldn't give away to save my life. After that and a few more products I decided, that I am not going to get something unless I can use it. I don't care what kind of deal it is. So I have passed up on a few things now and then. But in the end I have a stockpile of exactly what I need and that is what is most important.

I was very excited to see Carnation Instant Breakfast, or as I call it CIB, in the deal this week. I used to make a shake every morning with CIB, skim milk and a banana. But I had stopped buying CIB a while ago because it was a bit expensive. I only wish the deal was more than a limit one on it. The vanilla extract was a filled because my store didn't have in any of the ACT mouthwash that has a deal this week. But its still good, I put vanilla in everything I bake. The candy bars I actually use for baking.

1 Gillette Fusion razor $7.99
6 Reese's whips $3.00
1 Carnation Instant Breakfast $4.99
2 vanilla extracts $1.98

Coupons
(1) $4.00 off Gillette razor
(3) $1.00 off two Reese's Whips
(1) .75 off Carnation Instant Breakfast

Total ECB's used $10.00
Total oop .28
Total ECB's earned $8.99