3 Ways to Save Time on Grocery Days

Image courtesy of Google Images.

     Cut the time you spend working on your day off!  I have spent so much time on my weekends cleaning, grocery shopping, and prepping for the next week that I'm missing the time to enjoy life.  There are three ways I've tried to reduce the amount of time I spend grocery shopping at least.

     According to the Time Use Institute in 2008 (I know dated info), the average amount of time an American spends between Saturday and Sunday is 44 minutes.  This is just in the store, it doesn't include the time preparing to shop, traveling to and from the store, and unpacking of the groceries.  

Personally, when I add in extra time for the baby I have to bring with me to the store, I'm spending upwards of 4 hrs on a Saturday "grocery shopping".  This is totally time I could be enjoying life.

     In efforts to remedy this situation, I've tried a few convenience companies that I thought would save me time.

1.  Diapers/Soap.com

     

This company provides basic household products (dry goods) and ships them right to you.  This would be fine, except that I spent 3 hours attempting to find coupons to use with the sight.  In the end I did save a significant amount of money, but I forgot the goal was to save time.  Oops.

2. Amazon Prime Pantry

I liked that the pantry items shipped to me.  It obviously saved me time from going out to shop.  The only personal issue was that I like to grocery shop as soon as I get my paycheck and thus get instant gratification.  I didn't get that feeling since I had to wait for the items to arrive.  Also, there is a yearly fee associated because it is a Prime feature.

3.  Martin's Groceries to Go 

Love it!  I can go through their entire stock and pick out what I want.  I can make substitution instructions incase my personal shopper has a problem locating the item I want.  That same personal shopper will make notes into the final e-mail once my order is complete.  I also get to get the groceries same day if I want to.  Or I can set up to pick them up later in the week.  I do have to drive to the store, but I don't have to get out of the car or load the car myself.  I kind of feel lazy for doing this.  However, I remind myself that using the service provides me more time with my family and I don't have to lug the baby in and out of the store.  Not that I lug her, I carry her with love and pride.  :)

So, if you are looking to enjoy the time in life more, try out some of these online shopping conveniences.  See if your local grocery stores will deliver or at least do the shopping for you.

Now What?

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     I've figured out my financial plan.  I've made spread sheets and made thermometer charts.  I'm ready to fix my finances, but now what?  What am I supposed to do between paychecks?  I've always spent time worrying and planning for the next pay day.  Now that I know what I am doing when with my money, I'm not sure what to do with myself.
     It actually makes me very anxious to think I don't have anything to do.  I mean, even my house is clean.  What's left to focus on?  Well, I'm here to tell you it's time to focus on yourself and self care.
     What is self care?  Self care is self initiated and purposeful.  It is activities chosen by you that bring you happiness and renewal.  I found myself putting together these dots after I 1. made all my financial plans and 2. had a talk with my doctor about my eating habits.
     So here are where two roads converge.  My doctor had helped me adjust my diet around 2 months ago.  During my check up she asked how I was doing.  I told her that the after noon, after work, was my most difficult time not to eat.  I told her that with my under active thyroid, I'm tired most of the time, but at least during work I had to keep going.  Afterwork, there is nothing to make me keep going.  I'm just waiting for time to pass until it's time to make dinner for my family.  So, I eat snacks while I wait.
     My doctor suggested that I find an activity that renews my energy besides eating.  The act of eating is supplementing my happiness that I don't feel because I'm tired.  I eat, I have temporary energy, I'm happy.  I don't eat, I'm tired, I'm unhappy.  Sometimes I clean or I make plans, very organized activities that make me feel happy, and not hungry.  But, what do I do when everything is clean, and everything is organized, and planned for?
     My doctor suggested the usual, exercise, take a walk, read a book, just find something that gives me energy rather than takes my energy.  So, of course, I Pinterested activity options and found a lot under self care.  I was actually very picky about my activities.  I knew I did not want to clean, I did not want to exercise (I've already got a schedule for that), it had to be cheap, and it had to give me energy (or at least not take it).
     Here are my top 5:
1.  Pinterest
2.  Sit outside and watch the world.
3.  Draw with my oil pastel crayons.
4.  Watch a show.
5.  Play with my children.
     The last week I've been laid up because I threw out my back.  I've only managed to enjoy watching a show, but I look forward to doing other activities as I heal.  It took some getting used to, not doing anything, but after time I think I will learn to enjoy it.
 

The Failure Spurs Future Hope

Cartoon Courtesy of Google Images  

      Last I wrote I had to find $109 dollars to take out of my flexible budget and put it into my savings/debt budget in order to be successful at creating a 50/20/30 Budget.  Well...I'm here to tell you I've failed.
     That's right, I failed.  I put off adjusting and thinning the flexible portion of my budget until the second half of the week because I didn't know how I could thin out my expenses.  I knew this because I've gone through Pinterest a million times and read over and over articles telling me how to thin them out, but I've never found anything new that I was already doing.
     I finally tried on Thursday and I was right.  I was not able to make my budget fit the 50/20/30 Budget.  You may be thinking I failed because I already thought I would fail, but either way, I failed.  I wasn't sure how to handle my failure because I knew I had to not only face the readers of my blog, but of course, I had to figure out what to do about my budget.
     I also put off what to do about my budget, out of fear of failure.  I didn't know what to do until today.  I've actually been avoiding Pinterest because of my fear of failure, but today I sucked it up.  I searched Pinterest for pins about beginning budgets, but what I found was much better.  I found asunnysideuplife.com .

Image Courtesy of asunnysideuplife.com

     This is Sami.  Today she gave me future hope.  She took me through her journey taking Dave Ramsey's baby steps.  Never heard of Dave Ramsey?  Then you are living under a financial rock.  He is THE leading mind in finances!
     Sami wrote a great article in her blog that gave the overview of what her family went through as they took Dave's baby steps.  Starting with their failure to truly begin following the steps.  If you want to read her blog click on her picture.
   What I learned from Sami was that it's okay to fail.  It's okay to not know what you are doing at first.  I learned that I have to keep trying though.  Her debt was five times more than mine and she made it through.  So, what did I do with the information and new found hope?
     I started again.  This time I decided to follow the advice of Dave Ramsey and follow his baby steps.  What are they?  Well, good question.  They are as follows...

Image Courtesy of Google Image

     Tonight I started with making a budget sheet for my bi-weekly paychecks.  More importantly I made a list of all my debt from smallest to largest.  Today starts my journey to save $1000.  I know I can not (most likely) save money in the month of April or May seeing how I have 3 birthdays to throw.  I vow to put whatever is left over each paycheck into the $1000 savings pot.  I vow to start a visual reminder of my goal, such as a picture of a savings thermometer.  I vow to commit myself to my family's future!

     If you want a copy of my budget sheet, you will have to wait until next week.  There are bugs to be worked out first.  Sorry.  Until then, visit Sami at asunnysideuplife.com and check out Dave Ramsey.
    

50/20/30

Graph from Google Images 03/27/17

     Why didn't I listen to my econ teacher in 12th grade?  He told me how to budget, he told us all, but did we listen?  Well, I don't know about everyone else, but I know I did not listen.  
     I was going through Pinterest when I came across an article by Laura Shin called "How to Budget Your Money With the 50/20/30 Guideline".  The article was on learnvest.com, which I had never been to, and I was instantly drawn to the article because I had heard of the 50/20/30 guideline before.  As I read the article I started to think about why I had never implemented the guideline.  
     When I was a senior I worked as a waitress and had a small income from that.  I would put my tips into my savings account as soon as I left work.  That was all though.  I never did more and I always spent the savings.  This was the perfect time in my life to implement the 50/20/30 guideline.  What a mistake!  
     If I remember correctly, when I applied the guideline to my then current lifestyle, the numbers did not match up.  I had no drive to make them match up either.  I decided after reading the article that I should reconsider the guideline after all these years.
     According to Laura, no more than 50% of your income should be applied to your fixed expenses. Twenty percent of your income should be devoted to debt and or savings.  Then, 30% is applied to your variable income, the stuff you are never quite sure about.  
    The guideline is simple.  I like that it is simple because sometimes it's hard to make a budget when there are so many possible categories to put your money into.  I could micromanage my budget all day, but in the end I'm much happier with three simple categories.
     I want to share with you what happened when I looked at my numbers to see if by chance they already met the 50/20/30 guideline, but I think first you should know a little about how my finances work.
     I am a teacher by day and I am married to a steel mill worker.  My husband and I had separate bills before we started living together and kept it that way after marriage.  We do not share our paychecks by putting them in one lump joint account.  We each have a sole banking account and we have a joint bank account that we can use to transfer money between each other.  So, that means we have separate money, separate household bills, and we share money when each other asks.
   When I looked at the guideline I had to first decide which bills were going to go into each category.  When I tell you what my bills are, you are going to scream at me and wonder why I'm struggling with my bills.  That's the whole point of this though, I'm struggling and I shouldn't be.  Okay, in the fixed category I have prescriptions, my car payment, babysitting, and my family gym membership.  In the variable expenses category I have groceries, tithe, and vehicle gas.  In my debt/savings category I have credit cards.  I have a plan for my debt and the first step is to pay off my husband's and my revolving credit.  
     How did the numbers stack up?  My fixed category came in $234 less than half my income.  So far so good, totally feeling groovy!  My variable income came in $342 OVER!  Oh no.  Finally, I normally put anything I have left over from my check onto debt/savings, so that put me $109 under budget.  In this case, this is bad.  I should not be putting less money into my debt/savings category than the budget amount.  
     Now comes the work.  Over the next week, I am going to attempt to trim down my variable income by $109.  Ugh, so not looking forward to this.  I have to do it though.  If I want to get anywhere in life any time soon, then I have to start making changes.  I'm going to start with a change I should have made 16 years ago in high school.  
     Why don't you try it too?  At least see how your numbers stack up.  Do they fit into the 50/20/30 guideline?  Feel free to leave a comment and let me know how it goes.  

The Passage of Time

      The passage of time is one of life's scariest and happiest inevitabilities.  My sister recently told me that her husband and her were taking their family to Disney World.  They have been wanting to do this for a long time, but have been putting it off because my nephew has medical issues and they are forever in medical debt.  Her reasoning for going to Disney World now is that if she waits until the medical bills are paid off she will never go.  The idea that the time will pass whether she goes or stays home got me thinking about my own situation.
   
     I am 34 years old, I have been married to my husband for 2 1/2 years, and between the two of us we have 6 biological children and two grand children.  My husband, who is about to be 42, has been living on cash until shortly after we started dating.  It was then that he realized that if he ever wanted to own a home that he would need to have credit.  He actually had no credit score!  I on the other hand, I had throughly demolished my credit more than once, and I still fight with myself over bad spending habits.  We rent a home, have barely begun saving for retirement, have no emergency fund, and live almost paycheck to paycheck.  Did I mention I also have a huge federal school loan to payoff?

     Our financial situation is overwhelming to say the least.  My sister, I think, did the right thing and built up her credit, her emergency funds, paid off debt, did not incur debt other than necessary medical bills, and bought a fixer upper home.  She deserves to splurge and have the time of her life with her family, but I'm jealous.  Given the age range of my children (20 down to 10 mo), I have many occasions to celebrate, but I'm struggling to celebrate them in the fashion I've always dreamed of because simultaneously I'm trying to create all the financial stability I should have already built.

  This blog is to track that journey and hopefully help other people at the same time.   Please join me each week as I do my best to provide tips and tricks, along with my own anecdotale evidence, that will hopefully inspire not only myself, but others in similar life situations.  If there is anything specific you would like to hear about, please just leave me a comment, I will do my best to provide for you.