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chiaranjoo
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Name: Chiara
Gender: Female
Interests: HaDavar Messianic Ministries, Calligraphy, Cooking!
Expertise: Administration/Home-cook
Occupation: Assistant
Industry: Nonprofit
Message: message meEmail: email me
Member Since:
2/17/2003
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| June...It's 2.46PM...
June has been an interesting month... Some of you remember how Vince and I decided to go on a $25 food budget month in March? Well, that worked out really well and definitely cleared out our pantry and freezer. For the months of April and May, we also went on a reduced food budget to clear up some more room. However, now that June just passed, and I came to analyze our expenses, it seems we were going off track a little in June... Not that it's too bad or anything but it doesn't make me feel good when I look at our budget spreadsheet (just on Excel) and 99% of it is in red... It doesn't matter that we're only a few cents over or even a few dollars, it's the principle of being over our budget that bugs me. Plus, red is not a happy color when it comes to the budget  Again, we're not struggling financially, we're just not staying "on budget" this past month.
One good encouraging financial trend however, is that the past two months, we've been able to keep our monthly credit card bill closer to our goal! I have a goal number for the credit card expenses because I want to be able to pay off the bills without worrying about where the money is going to come from! So, that's a good thing for June. 
I also recognize why our June grocery budget in particular, is way over... I did an unplanned shopping trip to Costco one day because I was getting out of work late, I realized there was no dinner at home, and I was at Costco gas station to fill up my car. I asked Vince if it's alright for me to go get something at Costco... Well, one whole container of grapes (per pound price of grapes at Costco is at least twice the cost of grapes from the regular super market!), one bag of frozen tamales (waaay expensive by the way, good but pricey), one bag of sugar snap peas (again, about twice the price of sugar snaps at 99 Ranch), and we were already spending $25. I realized as soon as I got home and added up my numbers, that for the two of us, it's probably best that we buy produce elsewhere. The convenience factor was definitely there, if I were cooking for 25-30 people, I would definitely use Costco. But, for just our home use, I don't mind the extra work if it means less money out of my pocket! I've learned this lesson before, but I think I need a refresher occasionally! And that bag of sugar snaps? It's been in our bento box lunches for the past 3 weeks and I still have 1/2 the bag!
Another good thing happened in June... One blog reader who happens to belong to the same church we do, came up to me and really encouraged me about my blog. I really appreciate her encouragement because for a while now, I've gotten some rather negative/competitive comments from people who read my blog. It's not a competition of who spends less or whatever. My goal in writing about our own struggles in saving/staying on budget is to encourage others and let people know that living in SoCal does not have to be about having lots of money. I've been inspired by people like Money Saving Mom or SuperCouponGirl that I want to pass on the inspiration they gave to me. If you're interested in reading frugal blogs, please visit the links above (Beeb is busy with an estate sale right now but she's an amazing shopper and she'll be back once she's done with the estate sale).
So... there's nothing I can do about my red numbers in June, but here's going forward to July! We're starting with a little less on the grocery budget (about $90 for the month) because we were over in June but currently our fridge and freezer are very much stocked. I think we'll be OK. Also, on July 13th, I will be taking on this challenge, hosted by All You magazine. The challenge runs for a month and I'm not sure what I have to do yet (supposedly the magazine will send an e-mail with instructions and rules) so I will have blog entries on the All You Grocery challenge blog. Once it starts, I will make sure to link it to my Xanga account I'm hoping I can win, but it'll be an interesting challenge either way! The grading is based on 50% staying on budget ($25 per person, per week so for Vince and I, we get $50 per week to spend on groceries which is quite a lot!), 25% creativity (I'm assuming it's what we do with the food?) and 25% healthy-factor. The thing is, we're allowed to use stockpile items too, which is wonderful! I'm excited to see what other families do with their budget! 
Until next time...
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| Discover Review :DIt's 5.06PM...
I  my Discover card. We have a Discover Reward cards that give us Reward points for every dollar spent. Our card also has a program that gives higher reward on certain items. For example, this month (June 2009), we signed up for 5% rewards on all restaurant expenses and from July-September 2009, we get 5% on gas, hotels and theme parks.
But, the most important thing about Reward credit cards, is what you can spend your reward points on! I mean, what's the point of earning rewards, if you can't use it on things you need, right?
My favorite rewards on the Discover card is probably Bed Bath and Beyond. We redeemed so many points to get BBB gift cards. We get a bonus too, if we redeem for BBB because it takes $20 worth of points and we get a $25 gift card, that's an extra $5!
I've made a post before on how we got our Zojirushi mini rice-cooker this way. Vince really didn't like our old rice cooker, he thinks the rice tastes funny. But we didn't think we'd be able to afford a Zojirushi (they usually go for about $150-$200, some even more expensive, depending on size and features). So, I went on a rice cooker hunt about a year ago and I came across the Zojirushi Micom Fuzzy Logic rice cooker. "Micom" is micro-computerized and "Fuzzy Logic" is... something I can't explain! Here's a link to the Zojirushi site and a page about Fuzzy Logic rice cooking.
Anyhow, I'd be one to say that Fuzzy Logic rice cooking works! So, after much searching, I found this cutie at BBB:
It's a 3-cup Zojirushi rice-cooker. For the two of us, it's perfect. And the even better part? We got it for nearly free! I redeemed $100 of our Discover rewards, got $125 worth of BBB gift cards in the mail, I went to the BBB store and they ordered it for me! I had a 20% off coupon from BBB too but because it was not available in store, I had to pay for shipping. In the end, I think I paid less than $10 out of pocket! A Zojirushi that was originally $145, for $10 out of pocket is quite a spectacular deal, I think!
Our Discover card is our "everyday" card. We use it as much as possible and nowadays, most places accept Discover. Some local restaurants in our area still don't take Discover but for those purchases we have our Mastercard. The thing is, for our household, having a credit card that gives us practical rewards is really helpful. We wouldn't have been able to afford the luxury of a high-quality rice-cooker (it gets used literally 3-4 times a week) if it weren't for the Discover rewards.
The Discover Rewards program also includes other stores. For us, we redeem the points mostly on BBB because we use the rewards as a way to improve our home (for me, mostly the kitchen!) and to get gifts for others. But, we have also redeemed points at Omaha Steaks (they had an awesome deal last summer!), Dave and Busters restaurant (for a birthday gift) and Ace Hardware (we got our awesome vacuum with HEPA filter this way).
I've never been shy about using credit cards for everyday purchases because we hold to the rule of paying off our balance no matter what. In fact, I've been trying to limit our overall spending a bit more so we have been spending even less. But, by paying off our balance each month, we benefit from the Rewards points and we don't pay the finance charges
**Disclaimer: I don't work for Discover, and I'm not paid to do this review. I just that our credit card actually helps us stretch our money a bit further!
Back to normal programming tomorrow... (which means an update on this month's expenses... I will tell you what one unplanned trip to Costco did to our budget  ) Have a great day everyone! | | |
| Why I love summer... :DIt's 7.27 PM...
Yes, although I knew June has been mostly gloomy (even with thunderstorms!) in So-Cal, I still love summer! Why?
I don't think I need to say anything but I'll show you pictures
The two above pictures were taken about 3 days ago... And look what I have today:
Fifteen blueberries (the picture only had 13, because Vince and I each had one before I took the picture)!!!!
Soooo happy, the blueberries got me a bit concerned when I first started because I heard it was really hard to keep up with. After lots of leftover whey, leftover coffee, and leftover fish tank water, I think the blueberry plant is officially happy on my balcony
I do have another blueberry plant that started as a bare-root plant and it seems to be struggling a bit without the sun being out. I'm glad there's new growth each week though but I think I need to spend some more time with the plant and check its roots. We'll see how it goes...
My strawberries have been in their pots for about 2 months now and I've been diligently plucking the pretty flower buds away so I can make the plant grow bigger and be a host to many big fruits. Well, June is here, and it's time for strawberries! So, I let the flowers actually bloom, in the hope that I can get some strawberries. I'm hoping the 4 plants I have will thrive for 2-3 years so I can get more berries. My concern is with one plant that seems to have a bit of white fuzz on the crown (I'm hoping the root is not rotting).
And last, my Fresno chile plant.
You can kind of see a few pepper sticking out of it, but because it's a bit hard to see, here is the picture with signs pointing out where the chiles are
I actually got more flower on the plant today (3 really pretty flowers)! So hopefully we'll get more chiles to store in the freezer... Free chile for the rest of the year I hope
Maybe next year I'll try growing jalapeno peppers...
So, that's the update on the plants! There are more blueberries on the plant and it should give us more blueberries this season but the plant itself is still small so I'm not going to push the plant to give out excessive amount of berries. I have to say, the fruits are so much sweeter than the ones from the store! I think it's because it was ripened on the tree instead of in the box. As for the strawberries, I hope to have some berries to show you next time. I will definitely take pictures And the chile, nothing too interesting there... chiles are pretty easy to grow so I can't quite say I'm a green thumb based on growing the chile but I think my thumbs are greener based on the berries this year!
Til next time...
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| Lots of Lessons Learned...It's 2.52 PM...
I learned a lot about gardening the past couple of months... I did a post a while back, with pictures, of my balcony container garden. Most of them are doing really well, except for my dreaded sugar snap peas The heat wave from a month back killed half the plants, and the remaining ones were dry on the bottom half. Although the ones that survived kept growing and even gave flowers and a few sugar snaps, aphids got to them I also learned that my 3-foot bamboo stakes were waaaay to short for the ever growing sugar snap pea vines... This year, I will have to spend a little bit more money on good stakes and try growing sugar snaps again in the fall.
This past Friday though, I went out to the balcony and had to ask Vince to come look with me because I thought I was dreaming! After 3 months of waiting impatiently, worrying about whether my $13 blueberry plant will survive or die (people say it can be quite difficult to get a blueberry plant to flourish and give out fruit), I saw the green fruits turn purple!!!! Some of them are already very purple and plump, but they still need a few days on the stem (you can tell when the fruits are ripe because they'll come off the stem really easily) to sweeten a bit more. I was concerned that my soil isn't acidic enough. I used Miracle Grow potting soil, which has a neutral pH but for blueberries, I neede acidic soil. About a week before I got the plant, I started mixing the soil with coffee grounds, which the blueberry seem to enjoy. Then, after planting, I found out I can pour the whey leftover from yogurt making into the soil. I think the whey is acidic and has lots of protein. Blueberries seem to love the whey and I don't need to feed the plants with any other fertilizer. Just whey and lots of water We'll see how those blueberries taste!
Gardening can end up costing a lot more than expected hahaha... Thankfully, I have quite a few pots now and hopefully I can make my own starters from this year's plants (necessary for basil and I'm crossing my fingers hoping the strawberries will send runners!).
Anyway... I'm a little afraid to look at all my food receipts this month... Quite a few "food ministry" opportunities came up and for June, I'm making dinner for the college group people going on a conference trip (we can't go because of cost, and we just got a new car) and because those items are on sale now, I feel a bit pushed to get them this month instead of next month. Since next month should be more quiet in terms of food ministry, it should still be OK overall.
Our monthly expenses also dropped this month and we met our goal of spending less than $1,000 on our credit card. Normally those expenses include anything related to food, clothes, car, housekeeping, health, toiletries, entertainment (going out to eat and movies), travel, gifts (if needed), miscellaneous things and our Cox bill. Basically, our credit card expenses consist of all living expenses with the exception of mortgage, some utility bill like gas and electricity, tithing, and our association fee. I'm actually quite pleased with the lower monthly expenses and hope to keep it going
So... today's actually my very last shopping trip for the month of May. I was debating whether to go today or wait til tomorrow but I'm so glad I went today. My Ralph's store had many ground beef chubs for very cheap! I got 4 3lb. chub of ground beef for $1.49 each, which comes out to $0.50 per pound! The reason behind the price is because the sell by date for the chubs is tomorrow. I grabbed 4 because I will need 2 to make lasagna for conference people, and I can always use ground beef for us too. Our 2 chubs will last us at least 2 or 3 months! The ground beef went straight for the freezer when I got home, so don't worry, people won't get sick from the lasagna at the conference. I have a rule that the food I make for other people (potluck, serving ministry, get togethers), is made of things that I actually eat and enjoy. I use the same ingredients for potluck food and for home foods (some people might not like to know what I put in my funky dishes at times... but it has nothing to do with the price hahaha...)
At this point, I hang my head in shame... I'm at -$16.28 for food which meant my budget next month is lessened by $16.28. I blame it all on me being sick last week, so I drank all the orange juice and milk... I also realized that taking medicine without eating is not such a good idea. I think I had a slight overdose from acetaminophen (not a good thing ever!!) because I was so sick I didn't want to cook but I wanted to get better so I would eat cereal with milk, and take medicine. Cereal and milk all day does not constitute a nutritious meal, especially when one is sick! So, today's shopping trip included some canned pasta sauce so the next time I'm feeling sick, I can just quickly defrost some ground meat, open the can, boil pasta and eat something more nutritious than just cereal and milk...
By the way, if you're a shopper for your household, note that June is Dairy Month. So, if you need eggs, milk, cream, cheese, butter, whatever is considered dairy, you should see tons of coupons and tons of advertised dairy sales in the store fliers. This is when I jump and grab as many flavored coffee creamers as I can (I think they can be considered dairy, they're in the dairy aisle). Christmas is a great time to get coffee creamer too (I grabbed so many last Christmas, I haven't needed any til now).
Anyway, on to other things... I think for food ministry budget, I'm at -$15.06 but now all the expenses for the lasagna is covered (I think I might still need to grab some cheese but am waiting to see if June will bring cheese prices down) other than the lasagna noodles. So, not too shabby I think and come June, I'll have about $15 to complete the lasagna meal Ah also, I'm not going to type out my shopping list anymore... It makes the post way too long, and who really cares about how much I spend on things anyway? I will mention crazy good sales like the ground beef from today but other than that, I think I might just take a picture and give the total amount! Much easier to read, much easier to post...
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| May Update, and Happy Cinco de Mayo!It's 7.40PM...
This past week has been a flurry of shopping trips... I kind of like the "shop a lot at the beginning of the month, and only go when needed for the rest of the month" method... but sometimes I miss the spontaneity and well, when I see a good stockpile at the end of the month and I had spent nearly all of the budget, that's kind of a bummer. It's definitely a good way of making sure we're not collecting things we don't need though... Speaking of stockpile, our TP and PT pile are going down (big yay!) which means I can keep an eye out for free or almost free TP and PT this month.
An update to CVS'ers... Apparently because of the merging between CVS and Long's drugs (CVS bought Long's so if you have lots of Long's stores near you, they'll transition to CVS this month), CVS is not giving out Extra Care Bucks. You can use what you already have, but there'll be no ECB scenarios this month. I was a little bummed because I went to CVS and was expecting a $5 ECB for my next trip, when I realized, no ECB! That's OK though cause I made out with 2 John Frieda hair styling items (normal price $6.99 a piece) and paid only $1.34 (tax was $0.35, so the items added up to only $0.99)! The nice manager at the store I went to cheered me on and said "woah!" Alas, hair products don't belong in the food budget but I wanted to let people know, in case you go to CVS and collect ECBs. As far as I know, ECB's will be back in June (but not totally sure of that). Maybe this break from ECB is a good thing because it's stopping me from going to CVS so much and stockpiling lots and lots of toiletries (we have to use them up first!)
Anyhow... So, last time I left with $64.51 for food. I went to Ralph's again, spent $10.93 and got:
Juicy Juice apple juice for kids (15 grams of carbs, perfect to fix a low sugar) 2 packs of 10 each - $2.98
Quaker Quakes rice crackers for Vince 1 bag - $1.19
Mission tortilla chips 1 bag - $0.99 (coupon from Ralph's weekly sales flier)
Dannon organic yogurt 1 container - $0.60
Kraft sliced cheese, Monterey jack - FREE (I played a game on Kraft site, and got coupons for 3 free items)
Ralph's milk 1 gallon - $2.15
Wholly guacamole 1 tub - $2.99
2 Limes - $0.67
Mentos Gum 2 containers - FREE (they were 10 for $10, I had 2 coupons worth $1 each)
The cashier credited me the full amount of the Kraft cheese and didn't adjust it down to the sales price. So, she gave me $4.59 credit and the cheese was $3.50. I got an extra $1.09 because of what she did. I didn't even realize this until just now, when I tallied things up...
I realized I've been getting lots of prepackaged juice products this month. Between the Caprisun and JJ apple juice, I have lots of juice for my car. We don't drink these for fun, we'd rather get the big juice containers for home use but unfortunately, I can't leave juice in water bottles in the car, they go bad. Prepackaged juice, however, will last me months and most of the time, the sugar content is exactly the amount I need to correct a low sugar. For this reason, I count all "juice for low" purchases as a "health" item, not food. So, the Ralph's trip cost $7.93 of the food budget.
The guacamole, tortilla chips and limes were used in tonight's dinner. I used the steak I found on clearance last week and made it into fajita meat. Used lime juice, cilantro, cumin, salt and pepper as marinade, left overnight and cooked it in a hot pan on the stove! Vince said it was really yummy and the best part is, I can stretch that steak for 6 meals... I cook the steak, add onions and bell peppers and 1/3 of the steak is enough to give us both really filling dinner and leftovers for lunch.
I also went to Smart and Final, where I found cream cheese is a lot cheaper there than at Ralph's. I missed the last sale for cream cheese at Ralph's and I didn't know I was going to be making cheesecake for Mother's Day so I went to the next best thing, bulk food shops. Cream cheese at S&F was $5.69 for 48 oz. I will make 2 cheesecakes, each need 3 8 oz. bricks = 24 oz. So the 4 oz. cream cheese box from S&F will be just perfect. The cream cheese is a food ministry item.
Other S&F purchase were:
Whipping cream large container - $4.39
Eggs 18 per carton, 2 cartons - $3.50
Snyder Jalapeno pretzels for Vince's snack - $2.39
Total for S&F was $10.28 for food, $5.69 for food ministry. Vince loves Snyder jalapeno pretzel pieces so to thank him for putting up with my $25 and $75 food budgets, I got him fun snacks. Although we have a tight budget for food, I have an index card in my coupon pouch with a list of things Vince likes to eat to make sure I use the opportunity to serve him the best I can.
Another trip was to Walmart, where I found more things for the cheesecake! I spent $16.96 there and got:
True North almond clusters - $1.50
Malt O'Meal Golden Crisps cereal - $4.42
Seedless raspberry jam, 2 jars - $7.06
Total for food was $5.92, food ministry is $7.06. I like Malt O'Meal cereal because they're cheaper than other brands and the flavors are quite good. In April, I bought a big bag of the MOM cocoa rice krispies cereal and it was a good low fixer before bed-time for me. The carbs keep my sugar from going too low while I sleep.
Last stop was at the local Middle Persian market and I spent $3.58. I got:
1 artichoke - $0.99
1 green bell pepper - $0.73
1.61 lbs of broccoli crowns - $0.79
2.13 lbs bananas - $1.07
At this point, this is all I'm going to mention (I went to a couple other stores) because this post is getting a tad bit too long. I now have $36.80 left for food, and my food ministry budget is actually slightly in the negative because we took my boss and his wife out to dinner for their 40th anniversary this year. No worries though, there's no more food ministry items that I can foresee this month. So, until next month, we just won't purchase any more food ministry items.
Have a good week everyone! | | |
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