Spending Freeze – Grocery Shrink

Why I’m Bubbling Over With Excitement

By Angela on January 25, 2017

This month I’ve been hosting a spending freeze challenge for the Grocery Shrink Plus members. It was an extra perk of their meal plan membership and they got some extra stuff, like printable worksheets and the super frugal $50 week meal plan to help them get the most out of the the challenge. The best part is how the members encourage each other.

Here’s one comment from a member who gave permission for me to share her story but asked to remain anonymous:

This “no spending freeze” has been an inspiration to me.

I finally talked with my husband about our budget. He is on board, and I am holding myself more accountable on our grocery budget. I am one of THESE people with overblown grocery budget, but can’t afford it. I am working hard on not stock piling, holding out for the true sales, and only buying what is needed right now (fruit for most part, along with paper products and toiletries). So far, we have only spent about 15% of our regular budget. I intend on keeping the same for February, and then keep our new budget to 2/3 of what we spent last year.

Our other budget items have remained at 0 for this month, except of course for what we spend our animals and pets, some homeschooling expenses and regular bills. When we had to eat out, due to lack of planning and time, it made my family more aware, and gave more tools to discuss with our kids why we are not going out every Sunday for dinner with our friends after church.

Is it hard? Yes, as I am trying not to obsess over the budget, but at the same time enjoy almost too much seeing our expenses going way down this month.

And from another member:

We were able to pay off the balance of a credit card that I didn’t expect to pay off for another 3 months! Getting this debt snowball rolling….

And we still have a week left!!!!

We wrap up the spending freeze, January 31st, but I’m keeping the group open for several ladies who want to continue freezing for a few more months and kick their debt to the curb.

But this isn’t the only reason I’m excited. Have you ever noticed how much sticking to a budget is similar to sticking to a healthy eating plan?

That’s why the next official GSP challenge is a fitness challenge. It starts February 6th and comes with special bonuses including fat shredding prep ahead meal plans, so you can have your meals and snacks all ready to go for each week, a private group where you can check in and get a pat on the back, and extra coaching. If you’d like to join us, here’s a secret link for 50% off the membership. It expires February 6th or whenever we fill up.

Wrapping up the Spending Freeze

By Angela on February 2, 2015

Can you believe the 31 day freeze is over? I know some of you have already told me you are going for another month and I think that’s awesome.

We had a possible $200 from our basic living expenses to put back into our goal fund. Those dollars were kept separate from my purse, where they would have normally gone. Those budgets were: eating out, misc., hygeine, and blow money. The clothing fund also came out of my purse, but we can’t put those saved dollars into our goal fund. They need to be saved for future needs that we know are coming.

We had a few expenses and mistakes which left us $173 from money that normally disappears throughout the month.

I was gifted $200 from 2 separate places for Christmas/End of year bonuses that I decided to donate to the goal fund.

I also earned an extra $400 selling items on craigslist and online.

So the Spending Freeze found $773 for our project! Guys, this is huge for us. This means we can move the door, do the drywall, and basically create a finished bedroom to sleep in. The bathroom won’t be done yet, but still I had doubts that this much was even possible.

I’d love to hear how your spending freeze turned out–good or bad. Nobody can do this perfectly but even a little push in the right direction is awesome!

Spending Freeze Day 28: Raise Your Income

By Angela on January 28, 2015

Oh, Ladies, what a busy day! Last night, I sent out a little email about $1 memberships ending Saturday at midnight, and I spent my day calling 72 of the most amazing people who wanted to find out all about it. They didn’t know when they put their phone number down that I was going to call them personally. It was kind of fun when they answered to say, “Hello, this is Angela Coffman from the Grocery Shrink” and wait for their response. Most people were kind of weirded out and I think I would have been too, lol. But what a joy to get to know some of the readers and actually hear their voices.

I’m already a day late on talking about Raising your income, and tomorrow I need to make more phone calls PLUS write the menu plan that goes out on Friday…..So I’m just going to write and hit publish and hope I can get my thoughts together for you. That’s part of practicing what I preach, right?

Saving money is good, but if you don’t have enough income–it can’t be your end all solution. A reader wrote in the comments last week that she was a money saving genius (my words) and lost her house anyway. I don’t want that to happen to anyone again. The truth is, we are really good at saving money around here, but it’s not enough to send our kids to college, replace our 20 year old cars, or finish the remodel project gone bad.

Earning money is the hard part for me, because it involves getting money from other people. There really isn’t any way around that. So my goal is to provide such a great service or product that the other person is better off for spending on it. Take this fitness program for example. I spent enough on it that I thought about it for awhile before pulling the trigger. Enough that I had to think about where the money would come from. BUT when I got it, I read it all immediately and then used it and it WORKED. If it had been free, I don’t think I would have been as motivated to get so much out of it. And Holly spent a lot of time putting all of that together to help people. Her family had to do without her for those hours. She deserved every dime I gave her.

You should pay people what they are worth. Which means, YOU should get paid what you are worth too. Being stingy when paying others can make it hard for you to accept your due when it’s your turn.

Here’s what you should ask yourself when you think about a business:

1. Is the amount of your paycheck tied to the number of people you help? (The more people you help, the bigger your paycheck.)

2. Is your product or service consumable? Will the customer use it up and want to replace it? (like with laundry soap, personal training, music lessons,–or gasoline!)

3. Do you feel good about what you are doing? Can you work with a clear conscience and with integrity?

4. Are you tied to an hourly wage—like teaching music lessons for so much $$$ per half hour. Or is your income potential open ended—like selling an e-course on music theory.

5. Are you using your God given gifts?

6. Do you enjoy the work?

The fastest way I know how to earn money is to work for an hourly wage. You can run out and clean houses, mow lawns etc… right away. I did that. I taught music lessons and did custom sewing. Then I used part of what I earned as seed money to start a business that wasn’t tied to an hourly wage. Because an hourly wage severely limits your income potential. It’s an ok jumping off point, but not a great goal.

Personal Entrepreneurial Job Ramblings

The following is not meant to be a text-book, just simply my journey so far. If it’s helpful great. If not, please don’t tell me I’m a mess. I already know that.

I started earning money for my family by teaching singing and piano lessons. Then added custom sewing for a little shop in Nauvoo, IL and then to dabbling in weddings. As my family required more and more of my time, I moved from custom sewing for an hourly wage to designing sewing patterns and starting an online shop. Yes, they took time to create, and there was bigger risk (what if no one bought them?), but once the pattern was finished I could replicated it 1,000 times with no new time spent. This instantly moved me away from an hourly wage into an open ended wage potential. Eventually, I moved from physically printing patterns to selling download and print e-patterns, which removed more risk and eliminated more of my ongoing time commitment (since everything could be automated.)

At the same time I was doing patterns, I wrote my Grocery Shrink ebooks. The same principle was there. It took hours and hours to write them, but I could sell unlimited copies through ejunkie (who automatically collected the money and sent the download links to customers for me.)

While I was figuring out internet marketing (ok, I’m still figuring it out) I signed up with Mary Kay. I could go out in an evening and sell products and come home instantly with cash. This saved our necks during my husband’s 6 month job loss 5 years ago.

As time rolled on, I was no longer able to go out in the evenings. There were too many music lessons and sports practices to take children to….I didn’t have even one free evening. I still had a few Mary Kay customers to take care of, but the income stream wasn’t at the level I needed it to be. I hired a business coach, who helped me realize that making meal plans for families as a subscription was the logical next step with my blog. It was hard for me to justify the expense of hiring a coach but it turned out to be the best decision ever. And Grocery Shrink Plus was born. I still work actively in that every week and recently added smart phone friendly shopping lists and video classes. Fun stuff! It has a great income potential, but I’m really hesitant about promoting myself…..so it’s not reaching it’s potential.

Recently, I also joined Sandi Sullivan at MomCeo. What a rewarding job! I hemmed and hawed about it for 3 years before taking the plunge, forehead smack. I get to talk with amazing ladies every week and help them find natural home solutions that fit into their budgets and do business training for new associates. I can do it around our busy schedule and completely from home (no parties!) This appears to be the long term income solution we are looking for.

So anyhoo, that’s our journey so far. Our dream would be for husband and wife to work together and have the freedom to travel, help others, and just be a family. It was a reality check when my daughter turned 15 2 weeks ago, that if I wanted to realize this dream while she was still home, I needed to get a MOVE ON. So….I did.

Where are you on your income journey? Do you have dreams too? Would simply saving more of your current income be enough for your family to realize them?

Spending Freeze The Final Week! (Day 26) Let’s Earn Some Dough

By Angela on January 26, 2015

It’s the last week of the spending freeze. I’m super excited! I’ve had to buy a few things besides food, but I was able to do it without dipping into my envelopes that I was hoping to save aside for the “goal.” I have just enough cash left in food to grab milk or something if we need it.

Even with all this scrimping, our wad of cash to put towards the goal is small. It’s time to make as much momentum as possible by generating some extra cash quickly. Then tomorrow we’ll talk about more long term solutions to tiny income woes.

1. Sell Stuff–Do you have any clothes worth taking to consignment stores? Anything to post to a facebook garage sale site, your general facebook page, or Craigslist.

2. Offer a blitz class: Can you bake bread, crochet, knit or sew, paint? Offer a $5-10 group class or maybe more than one (if there’s enough interest.) If it goes well, it might be the jumping point for a business :).

3. Offer a one time service for cash. Emergency cleaning, yard work, or the like.

4. If the weather is good enough, grab some friends and have a garage sale. (My last sale made $700 just for me! That’s kind of embarrassing to admit…..I don’t want you to think I’m a hoarder…) It’s an unseasonal 58 degrees here today….that’s good enough for a sale!

What are your fast cash money generating ideas?

Spending Freeze Day 22: Prioritizing Your Spending

By Angela on January 22, 2015

checkbook

If you didn’t have enough money one month to pay all your bills, what would you do? (while you figured out how to make more money…)

You’d prioritize your spending.

If you could only afford 1 thing, what would it be?

checklist

1. Probably Food (Not lobster tails, right? Just basic nutritious food.)

3. Then if you could only do 1 more thing, it’d probably be Lights.

4. Then fuel (so you can get to your job) or internet if you work from home,

5. Then your house payment/rent

etc…..You’d make a list of everything you’d want to do and order them in importance. As money came in, you would take care of each need in order of importance to you.

shopping cart

Your food budget is a mini replica of that. Having a CASH budget makes the reality of your limitations, well, REAL. Most of us don’t have enough in our food budget for everything we’d like to do. I’d like to have fresh berries every week of the year. I’d like to buy steaks once a month. But I don’t do either of those things.

I don’t usually write down my food priorities, but if I did they would be:

1. In Season or frozen Produce

2. Healthy Protein

3. Basic whole grains/staples

4. Basic Dairy

5. Snack Foods

6. Condiments

7. Treats like juice, soda, or desserts

Buy the necessary food first. Nourish your family. Then if there is money left, have a treat :).

Spending Freeze Day 21: Heidi’s 15th Birthday

By Angela on January 21, 2015

I’m busy today getting ready for Heidi’s birthday. She’s all in on the spending freeze so we’re pulling out the storage decorations and having a fun family dinner with board games. I still have a lot of cleaning to do, but here’s where it is so far:

White plastic table cloth with plain dot stickers…. It was so thin, we stuck a real white table cloth underneath, but it will make clean up better.

I have 90 minutes to mop my floors, wash 100 dishes, assemble a cake and hang the balloons. While I’m doing that, it’s time for your 3rd week reflection. How is the spending freeze going for you so far? Are you tempted to go for another month?

Spending Freeze Day 20: I wish you…

By Angela on January 20, 2015

Source: blog.freepeople.com

Bravery….

To add your unique self to all recipes! Substitute. Create new variations. Adapt it to your tastes. Adjust it to maximize your budget. Fix it to fit your allergy or fitness plan guidelines.

Food prices change all the time. Sometimes fresh mushrooms cost less than canned. Sometimes they cost a lot more. If a recipe calls for mushrooms that will end up cooked, don’t let food snobbery tell you that you can ONLY use one kind or the other.

Of course, I’m not just talking about mushrooms. It’s true for all foods. Greek yogurt can stand in for sour cream and sometimes cream cheese in a recipe. Sometimes Greek yogurt is the more expensive choice, sometimes it’s less.

Source: http://www.yourwriterplatform.com/build-your-writing-career/#more-4734

Freedom….

To Dream BIG. (Yes you CAN be debt free! Yes, my family CAN have the work situation it has always dreamed of.)

To make the best choices for your family without worrying what others will think.

To use canned cream soup….or make it from scratch. We love you the same either way.

To use canned crescent rolls or homemade. We can all live in harmony 🙂

To eat wheat or be gluten free. And to know how to do both, so if my gluten free friend comes over for dinner, fixing that meal will be no big deal. (freedom to write poetry……ha ha)

Knowledge…..

To know stuff like a Tablespoon is 3 teaspoons and 2 Tablespoons make an ounce.

To know that sugar + Fat makes a cookie a cookie…..so using yogurt here is gross. But xylitol chemically behaves like sugar so you could do that instead.

To know stuff like 4 cups of shredded cheese is a lb, so 2 cups is 8 oz. (Because 16 oz is a pound.)

And stuff like 4 cups of cut fruit or veggies, but 2 cups of hamburger, applesauce or yogurt also makes a pound. (Think about air space…..hamburger and thick creamy stuff doesn’t have much room for air, but fruit, berries, and vegetables do.)

And to have your favorite recipes memorized. So if you happen to be a place where food is needed, you can whip on an apron and save the day with nothing but your mind, and basic pantry staples.

AND Because knowing stuff makes Bravery a lot easier.

Spending Freeze Day 19: Every Day Low Cost Foods

By Angela on January 19, 2015

For the last 7 years I’ve been shrinking my grocery budget by using every day low cost foods as the basis for all our meals, and adding in surprise deals (foods that are normally not as affordable but I found a great deal) when I find them. By keeping these things on hand, I have the makings for almost any meal we could think of.

Here’s a starter list of every day low cost foods:

Fruits and Vegetables: (These vary by season, but year round I buy….)

Apples
Bananas
Carrots
Potatoes
Onions
Seasonally I also use: strawberries, grapes, oranges, grapefruit, pomegranate, pineapple, watermelon, cantaloupe, pears, zucchini, broccoli, cauliflower, green beans, asparagus, sugar snap peas, bell peppers, and sweet potatoes

Frozen Foods:

broccoli
peas
mixed vegetables
corn
carrot coins
pepper and onion blend (Dollar Tree)
Normandy blend (Costco)
Oriental Blend (Costco)
Whole Strawberries (Costco) for smoothies
Wild Blueberries (Costco) for THM and FYM recipes

Meats:

canned tuna (Aldi)
canned mackerel (Walmart)
frozen chicken breasts (Costco)
whole chickens (Aldi)
ground turkey (Aldi)
ground beef (when we can get it from the farmer)
Beef roast (when on sale or from the farmer)
Turkey Burgers (Costco)
Pork roast (When on sale)
Boneless pork ribs for BBQ (When on sale)
turkey bacon (Aldi or Costco)
Costco or Aldi lunch meats (for the kids to make lunches for school)
Occasionally, hot dogs
Breakfast sausage (when on sale)
Salmon filets—these are higher priced $3.99lb at Aldi, but I keep them on hand for my weight loss plan
Sometimes Shrimp ($3.99 at Aldi), Turkey Kielbasa, and Italian flavored ground turkey
Pepperoni (for homemade pizza)

Dairy

American Sliced Cheese (Is this food? I choose to believe it is….lalala, I can’t hear you)
Shredded cheese (in 5lb bags from Costco) We buy a cheddar blend and Mozzarella
Milk
Almond Milk (for me because I have lactose issues)
Cottage Cheese
Eggs (lots and lots of eggs)
Cream Cheese (when on sale–I usualy buy Nefchatel)
Plain Greek Yogurt (I buy a bit for starter when I let my starter get too old, but normally make my own) Then we flavor it at home
String cheese—this use to be at staple for snacks for us but everyone got tired of them and I have quit buying them
Real Butter (I know it’s expensive, but I just can’t bear feeding my family fake butter)

Bread

100% whole wheat sandwich bread (for the kids) I buy it at Aldi for $1.29 a loaf, but occasionally can find it at Dollar Tree or on sale for $.79
Tortillas–the kids use a LOT of tortillas. (I buy special low carb ones for me and Heidi.)
Bagels (These are becoming more rare for us as prices rice, but Dollar Tree sometimes has name brand ones.)
Ezekiel bread–this is just for me and Heidi. It’s $6.99 for 2 loaves at Costco
Bagel thins or Sandwich thins–I buy them when these are on the day old table at the discount bread store
Pasta–Especially lasagna noodles, macaroni, bow tie, spaghetti, egg noodles, spiral
Oat rounds, bran flakes, crisp rice, sometimes puffed brown rice, and Protein cereal (Millville brand)

The rest of our bread, I make. Things like: pancakes, waffles, cornbread, dinner rolls, pizza crust, cinnamon rolls, fat egg noodles, biscuits etc.

Canned

Green Beans (Usually home canned from the garden)
Salsa
Tomato Sauce
Spaghetti Sauce
Rotel (aldi brand)
Green chilies
Pinto, Black, & Navy Beans
Tomato soup, some cream soups (rare), chicken noodle soup (for emergencies)
Apple sauce (Usually home canned from donated apples)

Snacks (In a perfect world we wouldn’t need these, but I’ll be honest and admit this junk food fits into our super low budget.)

Tortilla Chips (Costco)
Veggie Straws (Aldi or coupon at Costco)
Graham Crackers
Ritz type crackers
Cheese Crackers
Sometimes club crackers or animal crackers
Saltines and oyster crackers
Brown Rice Cakes
Ramen noodles (the kids are crazy about these, I cringe)
Peanuts (sometimes)

Other:

brown rice
oatmeal
quinoa
flax
salt & pepper
spices: cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cloves
spices: chili pepper, garlic powder, cumin, garlic salt, paprika, seasoned salt, cayenne
Spices: basil, oregano, thyme, savory, rosemary,
Flour
Hard White Wheat Berries (for grinding into fresh flour)
Sugar (brown & white)
stevia, xylitol
baking powder, baking soda
cornstarch, glucomannan (for thickening sauces)
Plain gelatin
Oil (coconut, olive, and vegetable oil)
non-stick spray
honey (used sparingly)
Peanut butter–we use a lot of PB
Corn syrup (I sometimes use this instead of honey in cooked recipes, since honey looses it’s health benefits when heated) Not to be confused with High Fructose Corn syrup, regular corn syrup is lower in sugar than honey.
yeast
Almonds (I buy the 3 lb bags at Costco) and slivered or sliced ones from Aldi
Craisins and Raisins
Sunflower seeds (Aldi)
Condiments: Ketchup, mustard(s), salad dressings, pickles, BBQ sauce etc.

Spending Freeze Day 15: Food Part 2

By Angela on January 16, 2015

There’s no magic wand for saving money with food. It’s like everything else that matters–it takes hard work, and a little bit of sacrifice to make it happen.

When I give tips such as shop the sales, garden, make more from scratch….The thing I hear a lot is, “I don’t have time for that.” That’s a statement I relate to and get frustrated about at the same time. I have 6 kids. They play violin and piano. They do sports and ballet class. I work 4 part time jobs and have a toddler. We volunteer at church. I understand busy.

We all have the same number of hours in the day, and we each get to choose how we spend them. When I hear “I don’t have time for that,” I understand that person to mean, “That is not important to me.”

I usually buy bread instead of make it from scratch. The savings of making over buying bread isn’t high on my priority list with everything else on my plate–even though I understand the health benefits. On the other hand, I do make my own Kombucha and Greek Yogurt. It probably doesn’t make sense to anyone else.

You don’t have to do EVERYTHING the hard way to whittle your budget down to a workable number, but you will have to choose some things. Your hard, won’t be my hard. I don’t do coupons, maybe you do.

The important thing is that you are willing to push up your sleeves and do something to change the direction of your finances. Do what YOU have to do. Your family is counting on you. And the people watching are about to be inspired.

If you had an envelope with $200 cash and knew you had to feed your family with that alone for the month, would they starve? I bet you’d figure it out. What are the first 5 things you’d buy?

(PS $200 is a ridiculously low amount–and I’m not in any way suggesting that is what your budget should be…. I think it’s interesting for arguments sake to think about what we’d do with it. When your survival depends on it, something changes in your brain. Unfathomable things become fathomable.)

My first 5 things: Salt, Dry Beans, Wheat flour, Eggs, & Yeast

My 2nd 5 things: Potatoes, carrots, onions, brown rice, Whole Chickens

Leave what you would buy in the comments :).

Spending Freeze: Day 14

By Angela on January 14, 2015

I’m guest posting over at The Modest Mom today. I first me Caroline when I was a freshman in college and she was Homeschooling with her Mom. It was one of my first introductions to homeschooling and one of the reasons I homeschooled my own children for so long. She has had a lot of positive influence in my life both as a business woman and as a mother. Come visit with me today.

vegetables

Tomorrow, I’m going to start a mini series on shrinking those grocery bills step by step. Today, it’s time to reflect over the last two weeks. Can you believe it? We’ve been in our spending freeze for two whole weeks!

I have to admit that I messed up this week. I was helping my mom shop online for some replacement filters for her vacuum. We found such a great deal that I bought a set for myself too. I totally forgot for the moment that I was in a freeze. (I will use those filters though….)

It has gotten easier for me otherwise. I’ve settled into a nice rhythm staying home and getting more done. We’ve been eating from our pantry and using the lowest cost foods we have. More on that tomorrow.

So tell me about you. Any success stories to tell? Any mess ups? Can you still remember your goal?