Pay Day Friday

My paycheck was deposited today. I actually had $700 left out of May's budget and transferred that to savings....which was better than the prior month, when I had to take $200 out of savings to make it until payday. Current savings is at $2677.  Based on my June budget I should be able to at least put some more in savings (my goal is $500) at the end of June. Keeping fingers crossed. I made an extra $75 for May at my side job with the extra time I had to put in dealing with the IRS audit, putting together all the documentation requested.

As always, I'm trying to reduce what we spend on food and for some reason never accomplish this! I'm back to weekly shopping at Walmart, rather than the more expensive (and nicer) supermarket. They have similar prices....WHEN the stuff is on sale, but I have to spend too much time figuring out what is on sale and since I really don't like having to go to more than one store, I end up paying their high prices on things I need that week that aren't on sale.

So, my current plan is back to Walmart, where pretty much the prices stay the same each week. If I see a better price in another grocery store ad I will bring the ad with me and make them price match. Plus when shopping at the nicer store I didn't buy pet food/treats, cleaning supplies or personal care there, because their prices are obnoxious, so I was still making a trip to Target or Walmart for those things anyway. Now I can just do it all at Walmart with occasional trips to Target when I can combine their coupons, mfg coupons and their sales.  I am going to watch my individual prices like a hawk and compare, compare, compare.

In other areas, for the time being, some costs are going down about $130-$150 per month in total. DH has gone off all his meds, which is a $60 per month savings. Plus he needed another OTC medicine to offset one of the side effects, that he now no longer has, so that saves another $15 a month. He is rarely drinking his "diet" banana shake any more (just having a sandwich or half of a lunch meat sandwich, with lettuce, on whole grain bread), so I cancelled the automatic monthly shipment of that, which had just been increased $1 a month to $56. I had just gotten a bag delivered and still had half a bag from the previous delivery, so I'm sure what is left will take care of the occasional times he wants that for lunch. Plus he has cut way down on drinking soda. Instead of 4-5 cans a day he had himself up to, he is drinking just one. Even if I get the 24 pack on sale for $5 (sometimes), that's a $25 a month savings.  Not sure how long all this will stay as the status quo, but I guess I'll take it for now.

He's just trying to manage his pain "naturally". He does much less and really tries to pace himself. He uses the heating pad A LOT and takes warm bath's to help soothe his aches and pains.

It's warm weather now, so instead of $300 a month electricity bills, they are now $150ish. Basically that extra money just ends up going into yard care/maintenance during the summer. We will definitely be spending less this year on adding things to our yard, compared to the last 2 summers. All the trees, plants and shrubbery are now in place....we just have to pray they live this time! and the BBQ and fire pit purchased last year will last years. Sadly, the beautiful yellow rose bush I treated myself to last summer died. I have no idea why. I pruned it down last fall, at the beginning of spring some green was starting to shoot out of the branches and then all of a sudden the branches turned black. Everything else planted around it (which has been there for years) is growing fine.  I don't really anticipate having to spend much more this summer on our yard, other than more weed and feed for the lawn and probably one more pallet of blocks to finish the island and our back "steps" our our french doors. We need one more small perennial for our driveway island and if I replace the rose bush, I will just buy both at the local guy's house where he sells for $5 each. We still have a lot of the spider mite pesticide purchased last year that was over $100 for the small bottle, but like a teaspoon is used to make a gallon. DH is still doing our monthly ant pesticide spraying around the house and other buildings, so that is still saving us over $40 a month (and we've still had no ants).

I also won't have "back to school" clothes shopping this year, which I usually spent $250 or so. If she wants new clothes she's on her own now that she's graduated high school. Plus, she has more than enough clothes to wear and it's all going to look new, since she won't know anyone at college. I'm spending enough on her dorm room things.

Oh! and I earned $25 in cash back using my PayPal debit card this past month :-)