Mediterranean potato salad and easy no cook dinner

I'm still sore from the accident, so we've been eating light this week. I'm so thankful for my stockpile and freezer meals this week, because when I do a little too much, I end up with some serious back pain. Sent the guys to Sams to pick up 2 items on Sunday, then I did some cherry picking at Meijer on Monday.

Meijer has Johnsonville smoked sausage on sale this week and also a $3 Mperks wyb $15 Johnsonville products, so I stocked up. I prefer Andouille sausage, but in typical Meijer fashion they were out of stock on Monday. 

Mediterranean potato salad 

(I've used this recipe for years and we love it. Practical Parsimony recently wrote about how her exbf doesn't like boiled eggs in potato salad. I have to agree with him. In fact, I don't ever eat boiled eggs)

Potatoes (I used red skin ones)

Red peppers (I just used a mix of peppers - red, green, orange,  that I diced earlier this week)

Green onion

Mushrooms

French salad dressing

The sausage one is a Johnsonville recipe that I found on their site a few years ago (looks like the recipe was removed, because I can't find it anymore)

Smoked sausage - sliced
Diced red onion
Bag frozen Southwest corn (I used the Birdseye Protein one)
Can black beans
Chopped cilantro
Mix everything together and squeeze some lime juice over it, then chill.
I didn't have any limes, so I used fresh lemon juice

I had mine over the salad mix that the guys bought at Sams (I'm staying far away from anything with Romaine lettuce). Mine looks like a lot of food, but it's mainly salad greens on the plate.

DS wanted a wrap, so I added some Sargento Southwest cheese slices and a little salad mix to the wrap. Easy peasy and I didn't have to slave over the stove.

There's still enough leftovers for dinner tomorrow, but I've been craving BLTs. That's if I can find Morrell bacon at Meijer tomorrow. I hope they didn't discontinue the item, because it's our favorite bacon brand and the fridges were empty on Monday.

We'll be eating lots of lighter meals, now that warmer weather is finally here.

I'm a born saver & love to hustle

I was born a saver and I love to hustle. For some strange reason that I cannot explain, I've always liked having money. I've always enjoyed being independent, especially financially. If I wanted something, I worked for it and saved up my money until I could afford to buy it. I always had nice things and I always had money. My friends couldn't understand how I always ended up having money, when I shopped so much. I didn't just shop, I dined out at fancy restaurants all the time too.

It's quite simple. I never spent all of my money. I always saved some. The difference between them and me is, I worked at whatever odd jobs I could. I didn't just waste my time hanging out with friends. I was always looking for new ways to earn and save money. When I was around 10 years old, I opened my first bank account. An account I had until I moved here as an adult. I saw a flyer for new bank account (banks were few and far between back then. I don't even think my parents had a bank account when I opened one) at my next door neighbor's house, I asked if I could have it. She said yes, so I completed the application, asked my dad to sign it (of course I was a minor...lol) and marched to the bank with my application and R5 (Rand is SA currency) deposit. Back in the 80s it was still worth quite a bit. Once I got my ATM card, I deposited R5 into my account every week and watched my money grow.

My parents gave us a small allowance. I always spent my allowance on beauty products, teen magazines (I'm a girly girl) and chocolates (my weakness). However, I always made money on the side. Another neighbor had taught me to crochet. So I bought some wool, crocheted doilies sets and sold them for a profit. Bought more wool and the rest of the profits got saved. Another neighbor worked at a factory that made plush toys. She's bring bags of plush home every night, that needed to have the outer edges trimmed. So her kids and I would sit and trim all those toys after dinner every night. We got 7c per plush, but I was just happy to make extra cash.

Then my dad (who worked at a factory that made sleepwear and undies for high end department stores) would purchase bulk items every month from their factory shop. He got an employee discount, so he'd pay for the items and I would sell them to friends. We'd split the profit in half. I had my regular customers. Some of those customers also turned into my hair clients. I used to blow dry people's hair right at their homes. I was armed with my professional (salon type)blow dryer and brushes and had scheduled appointments every weekend. I was cheaper than the salon and nobody had to leave their homes to get their hair styled. My BFFs parents owned a hair salon and I had worked there one summer. So I learned a few tricks and people always commented on how nicely my hair was always styled. When I told them that I do my own hair, they ended up requesting my services. That's how my hair business grew. I would cut people's grass, wash their windows, do whatever I could to make extra money. I loved to work and I loved making money - I still do :)

We didn't have fast food places or many restaurants in SA, so part time jobs were scarce. Then when I was in college, my Accounting lecturer asked me to become a tutor. Not to one person, but to a full classroom. So every day, I taught accounting to a classroom full of college students, during my lunch break. Then after classes ended, I also did typing for lecturers at other departments (our head of Department asked me to do this job). So I was making more money per hour than my dad did at his full time job. Weekends were spent working at a video store. I would go 48 hours without sleep (I can't even keep my eyes open after 10pm these days...lol), because Friday and Saturday nights were spent partying with my BFFs.

When I did my internship at one of the worlds top Accounting firms, I was offered a full time job as a secretary. A secretary to 2 of the firm's partners was leaving and the person I was working for in Auditing, recommended me for the job. Who could pass up a job at one of the Big 5? (CPAs will know what the Big 5 is). This was before I had even graduated. The company offered to allow me to go to classes half day and work in the afternoon, until I graduated. I also had 2 other full time job offers from big companies, which I declined. After a year at this firm, my boss recommended me for a Personal Assistant to the CEO position at a major client of ours. More money and better perks. I had more jobs, but I won't bore you with the details. My last job was as an Assistant Accountant.

The point is that I always worked. And while I worked, I always saved. Somewhere along the line, I had opened another bank account. So every month, I would deposit 15% of my salary into that account. When I had DS, I was a single parent. When he was exactly a week old, I made the trek to the bank and opened an account for him. At payday every month, I would transfer funds into his account too.

At the office, I kept piggy banks. I sorted my coins by denomination and saved my change for DS and my 2 nephews. DS's money went into his account and the nephews got theirs at Christmas. While I was a single parent, I also supported my entire family of 6 (including DS and myself), but I still managed to save. Long story.

So you will notice that I have lots of different savings earmarked for different things. I like doing this, it's fun to see how much and how fast I can save for certain things. I will admit that I wasn't always financially responsible. I loved to spend. I made very good money, so I lived the high life. And even though I saved, I wasted a considerable amount of money too.

I still have a retirement account in SA. I never closed it when I moved. Although I haven't contributed anything towards it since, the money has grown considerably over the years, so I'm glad I didn't cash out back then.

I love to save. I love to watch my money grow. Don't be fooled by my spending habits. I certainly know what I'm doing when it comes to spending. I still like nice things, but I'm a lot more responsible about what I buy and how much I spend on it. As you've seen thus far, I've made more money selling our old stuff than I spent splurging.

Do you just save because it's something you have to do or do you save because it's something you enjoy and have become part of your lifestyle?

My Macy's fiasco

Remember the shoes I bought at Macy's last month? Well, they were as beautiful as I expected it to be, except Macy's sent me a filthy pair. I'm not sure if it was a return or a store display, but I was having none of that. This is not the first time that they sent me dirty shoes and I was livid. Who wants to pay a pretty penny for a pair of used shoes? Not this germaphobe. 

So I contacted them and emailed pics of the dirt and they agreed to send a new pair. They also sent me a return shipping label, because I told them that I was not gonna foot the bill for return shipping. So I was expecting a UPS shipment and figured I'd just give them the Macy's shoes at the same time. When I checked tracking, I saw that my items were being delivered a day earlier and I rushed to get the return package ready before UPS arrived. In my rush, I forgot to take a pic of the return label, so that I have a copy of the tracking number. 

Got my new pair delivered and was happy with it. I had even planned on shopping the Macy's shoe sale (like I do every year), because it's my time to stock up. Well, last weekend I got an email telling me that I need to return the first pair or that I'll get billed for it. WTH? I immediately emailed them explaining that I've already returned the item (2 weeks before) and that if they bill me for the item, I will dispute the charge. Ugh, I get a response from someone who can barely speak English and gives me the standard - I have to return the item. Now I'm losing my patience, because 1. you don't understand that I've already returned the item and 2. you're not even attempting to fix this situation. So back and forth I went with Macy's until I got someone who understands English. I asked them to send me the tracking number (so I can track it myself) and tell them to check the tracking too. They then tell me that according to UPS there's nothing that can be done without a tracking number. I told them not to BS me, because they should have a tracking number since they generated the label. I asked them how they would know if customers returned any items, if they don't have any tracking numbers? Then they told me that they won't bill me for the new pair and that someone had manually entered the return (more BS and I'm seeing red at this point). Which tells me that they definitely received the shoes, but won't admit it. 

Why can't they just be honest, instead of lying to customers. By now I've decided to just be bloody done with Macy's and not shop the shoe sale (let's not forget that I had redeemed $75 Macy's gcs just for this purpose). 

So I checked DSW to see if they have the same shoe that I had my eye on, in stock. Success. Not only did they have the shoes, but it also cost less than Macy's sale price. But wait, DSW had an extra 20% off that day. So I added the 2 pairs below to my cart. When I logged into my account, I saw that they added a $20 q on anything, because they missed me (I haven't shopping there in about a year). I also had a $20/49 q, but didn't know if I could combine everything. So I redeemed $20 gcs and used the $20 q + 20% off to get the shoes. Then 2 days later, they had an extra 25% off, which I was able to combine with my 20/49 to get a pair of pumps. Score! The best part is that they offer free shipping to members. 

But wait, there's more. The day after I shopped at DSW, Macy's emailed to let me know that the CS supervisor has decided to refund my full payment for the shoes, to compensate for all the trouble I had with them. So I got a pair of $99 (original price) shoes for FREE!! Whoo hoo! 

So they mailed me a $25 gc and credited my CC with the balance (I paid with a gc before). I guess the whole Macy's fiasco was a blessing in disguise. Now I'm stuck with $100 Macy's gcs. 

Macy's has redeemed themselves, but I've decided to buy my shoes at DSW in future. I'll spend my gcs when there's a good sale and just be done with them.

So in total I got 5 pairs of shoes (please don't judge...lol) for $154.55 oop (this includes sales tax). That's $30.91 per pair.

Total retail value - $580.88 (incl tax)

I'll be back later this week

I'll be back to posting later this week. I got rear ended by a furniture truck while out shopping on Friday. Not going into details, but I'm okay (just very sore) and my car sustained surprisingly light damage. This was my first accident in all my years of driving, so I was a royal mess. After DH arrived at the scene, I parked my car at the produce market and had him drive me home. After parking my car at the market, he asked if I wanted to go inside and do my shopping. I almost hit him over the head with my purse. Did it look like I was in any condition to go shopping? I couldn't even drive myself home. Silly man. He told me later that he was trying to get my mind off the accident, so I forgive him for being foolish...lol

I've been working on a few posts, but that will have to wait. I got hit before my second stop so I only got cheese and produce. I got the produce when we returned to collect my car on Friday night.

Will post in a few days

Another recession coming?

I recently read an article on Bloomberg, talking about another recession in the near future. This isn't the first time that I've read about recession chatter. Financial bloggers have been talking about it too, for the past year. It's no surprise to me, but I still want to be prepared again. DH actually predicted the last recession about 2 years before it happened, so we were well prepared.

So, in order to prepare for another recession, I've decided to go hard at stockpiling again. Yes, we do have a stockpile, but not nearly as big as I used to have. I discovered couponing about 2 years prior to the last recession and in those 2 years, I've learned all about coupons, rewards programs and anything to do with saving/making money on groceries/hba/cleaning. I'm so thankful that I stumbled across that group (quite by accident), because it helped us tremendously during the recession. I'd like to be in that position again. Not only because of the recession, but think about a natural disaster or possible war.

No, I'm not one of those doom & gloom people. I'm a realist and a planner. I like being prepared for things. I like to have a schedule and a plan for an emergency. During the big blackout many years ago, grocery stores were cleaned out and there was no way to find a generator (we see this happen during a blizzard, so it will happen again during any kind of emergency). Thankfully we had gas stoves to cook and a decent amount of groceries to tide us over.

Couponers know that store deals and/or rewards have also changed a lot over the years. Gone are the days when I could leave Meijer with a cart full of groceries for $5-10. Even coupons have become scarce and stores are refusing internet printables too. So I want to rock whatever deals I can, so that we have no grocery worries.

My plan is to stock up on whatever non perishables, paper products, hba and water I can find at a good price. We only drink filtered water, so I also want to stock up on Pur Pitchers and refill filters. We do keep bottled water, but I don't feel comfortable keeping cases of water for many years. I don't know if it's safe. With the water pitchers (that we use regularly anyway), we'll still have filtered water. There should be lots of sales and coupons and those, with summer approaching.

The most important question though is, are you financially prepared for another recession? Can you survive a job loss or less hours/pay? Even if a recession doesn't happen for another 4-5+ years, now is a good time to save (if you haven't done so yet) for such a big emergency. That way, you'll be well prepared.

How do you prepare for an emergency and/or recession?

Weekend freezer cooking

Did my weekend freezer cooking over 2 days. On Saturday I did the breakfast items. Then Sunday the dinners.

11 Breakfast croissants (egg, ham, onions, peppers, spinach and cheese). I place some shredded cheese on croissant, before adding the egg mix. I bought a dozen croissants at Sams on Friday, but was so hungry when I got home, I just nuked on to eat.

8 Omelets - same ingredients as croissants, including some leftover mushrooms I had. I like to overload the omelets with veggies, that's why you see it spilling out

1 Dozen blueberry muffins
1 Dozen banana oatmeal muffins

I make all my breads in muffin form, so it's easy to grab on the go. I also replace sugars with crushed raisins whenever I can. I didn't use raisins in the blueberry muffins, because the raisins would've clashed with the berry flavor. I just used half the required amount of sugar

Tonight we're having lasagna stuffed mushrooms again, thanks to Thrifty mom in Boise This recipe was a huge hit last week, so we're having it again. I do make my meat sauce a little differently. I add diced red peppers, onions, spinach and omitted the cottage cheese (I'm not a big fan of cottage cheese). I also sprinkled some basil on top of the cheese

Tuesday will be chicken quesadillas. I'll make some fresh pico de gallo and add a can of refried beans, rice and sour cream. Above is my fajita chicken. I like to leave some of the juice, to help keep the chicken moist and let the spice flavors soak through. This chicken is used for a variety of mexican dishes. It's all made in the instant pot.

Wednesday - Bush's grilling beans stuffed peppers. I added some shredded cooked chicken for extra protein

Thursday - leftover buffet

Friday - nachos with the fajita chicken

Half the food (with the exception of the mushrooms and peppers) have been frozen for future meals. I hate cooking in the morning. I just want a cup of coffee in my hand. By cooking ahead, it frees up more time for me to do other things and/or is easy to grab when we're busy, sick or just not in the mood to cook.

This week's happenings

Been another crazy busy week. I spent the better part of Thursday and today running errands. We're supposed to get rain all weekend, so I figured I'd do all next week's grocery shopping today and then some freezer cooking over the weekend.

I decided to do another Ibotta run, since I needed a few items on the list like razors, artichokes, mayo, applesauce and yogurt. There was a new $3 Bonus and I needed the same amount of items to get the $2 Level 3 monthly bonus.

Meijer

Case Canada Dry $5.68 (incl deposit)
2 x 2 lt Canada Dry $2.20 (incl deposit) F
1 x Smartwater sparkling $1.44 (incl deposit)
1 x Dannon Light & Fit no sugar yogurt $1.00
Less Canada Dry case mperks q (1.00)
Less Canada Dry mperks q (1.00)
OOP $8.32

Sorry, I didn't take a pic of these items

Walmart

Musselman Applesauce $1.53
Light & Fit greek yogurt 0.97 MM (0.03)
Yoplait Mix Ins 1.00 MM (0.25)
b+b Ibuprofen 2.48
b+b extra strength pain reliever 2.48
Sargento cheese slices 2.68
6ct Schick razors 5.97
Heinz Mayo 3.48 F
Artichokes 2.37
Secret deodorant 4.97
Castello blue cheese crumble 2.98
Poise Liners 4.68
Less Yoplait q (0.25)
Less Schick q (4.00)
Less Poise q (3.00)
OOP $35.59

Total OOP $43.91
Received $25.75 Ibotta and $0.25 Savingstar
Should get back $1.50 bottle deposit
Total cost for everything $16.41

I just noticed that I never received credit for the Light & Fit at Walmart. I've noticed that you have to manually add it, after scanning your receipt. I need to submit a ticket, so that should bring my total to $15.66

I'm now done buying Canada Dry. I mainly bought it, because it's on sale at Meijer this week and there were mperks qs for it on both our accounts. We drink soda once a week, so this should last a long time.

I also stopped at our local grocery store, because they have Sargento cheese shreds on sale for $1.88 thru 4/23. I bought 9 bags (yes, all those clearanced cheese I bought at Meijer are used up...lol We eat lots of cheese and Sargento is our preferred brand). I will keep going back to stock up, until the sale ends.

Redeemed $25 Kohls gc this week. Redeemed $50 Macys last week.

Finally requested a Checkout51 check (thank goodness), so that should be arriving soon.

Picked up a new Clive Cussler hardcover book at Ollie's for $3.99. I've recently started reading his books and am actually enjoying it.

I'm still working on washing windows (darn weather's not cooperating) and my 30 minutes decluttering/spring cleaning tasks. Just little bits every day.

My small, fun shopping trip

Today I headed to Kroger to find the Popchips Nutter Puffs, because the Savingstar rebate expires tomorrow.

1 x Nutter puffs $3.00
1 x Light & fit greek yogurt $1.00
Less Nutter puffs digital q (3.00)
OOP $1.00

Received $1.00 Ibotta (75c yogurt, 25c any item) and submitted for $4 Savingstar. So a $4 MM. I'm buying yogurt for as long as the Ibotta offer is available, because it's a staple in our house.

Next, I stopped at Dollar Tree to look for a book to read. I always feel lost when I don't have anything new to read. I was happy to find this Brad Taylor book, because he comes highly recommended by my favorite author (Brad Thor).

As I was walking through the store, I saw this bread on a rack. Holy smokes Batman! This is our preferred brand of bread. I just grabbed 3 loaves, because this is the lowest price I've ever seen. I've read of others finding bread at their Dollar Tree, but have never seen it at mine (I have several DT stores in my area, but have only shopped at this location once before). At checkout I asked the cashier if they get bread every week and she said Yes!

There was also a sign at the registers stating that they limit their newspapers to 3 per customer. Happy Dance. The limit used to be one before. I guess I'll be hitting the DT for bread and newspapers every Sunday morning. I just froze 2 loaves. I do like to buy their frozen blueberries during winter. I don't buy any other frozen fruit there, because it comes from China. The blueberries are a US product.

OOP $4.24

Total cost for 6 items today = $0.24 after rewards

I also noticed Speed Stick deodorant and Wet & Wild cosmetics at this location. I need to check for coupons. I know that there are Wet & Wild qs out now.

What's your favorite Dollar Tree items?

Another Ibotta Bonus stack

I haven't done any shopping (other than groceries at Meijer) this past week, because I was just too busy. CVS didn't have anything that tickled my fancy.

Today I decided to run errands, because I needed to redeem Kohls cash and saw that my $15 RA BC is expiring tomorrow. Ibotta also has another bonus stack this week, so off to the stores I went

Target

3 Sally Hansen hard as nails $7.47 ($1.53 MM after Ibotta)
1 Sally Hansen Wax strips $4.89
1 Pace Salsa $2.09
1 Truvia $2.99
2 Covergirl Mascara $8.98
1 Loreal Hair Mask $3.99
Less Truvia q (1.50)
Less Loreal q (2.00)
Total incl tax $28.43

I bought the wax strips, because I noticed that I was running low on wax. Its not the best deal, but since there was an Ibotta rebate, I figured I'd get some. The salsa is always used in our household. We love mexican food.

When I was at Meijer earlier this week, I tried to redeem the Loreal & Truvia IP qs. Well, the darn qs wouldn't scan at self checkout, so I got the cashier over. She told me that they can't accept the qs, because it doesn't scan. WTF? I told her to clean the register, because their self checkout registers are always filthy and even regular newspaper qs sometimes have a problem scanning. They cleaned the scanner portion and still nothing worked. So they gave my qs back. I told them to remove the darn items. Don't know what this new nonsense is at Meijer.

Today at Target, both qs scanned without a problem (Imagine that!) Not only that, I had a peelie that I got from the case of Canada dry I purchased today and it beeped. It says item doesn't match. Huh?! Proof that Meijer registers are messed up. No problemo. I'll just spend my money elsewhere. Meijer's hurting themselves by not getting their act together.

After Target I went to Meijer, because (gasp), I couldn't believe that Target's prices were higher than Meijer's. This is a first.

1 Case Canada dry $5.68 (incl deposit)
2 2lt Canada dry $3.20 (incl deposit)
1 Dannon greek yogurt cup $1.00
1 Dannon no sugar added light & fit $1.00
1 Pace salsa verde $1.99
1 Smartwater $1.44
Less Canada dry peelie (0.50)
OOP $13.81

The yogurts were a $1 total MM. $0.75 each on Ibotta and Checkout 51. Yay, I finally have enough to cash out CK51. I'll just request my check and be done with them. The money will go towards my $15 goal

I bought 2 x 2 lt Canada Dry, because there's supposed to be a $1 MPerks q, that didn't deduct. I have to check if I clipped the q on DH's account, because I used my own MP today. Once you enter your account number, you can't switch to a different account and I wasn't in the mood to cancel the entire order and start over, for just $1.

Total OOP $42.24
Got back : $33.15 Ibotta ($5 Bonus Stack, $1.50 Montly bonus) + $1 Checkout51

Total cost for 16 items after rewards = $8.09

I'll also get back $1.50 bottle deposit, once we've used up the items. So $6.59 for 16 items or 41c each!

Then at RA I did the following

2 x Tide $11.88
2 x O Spice deodorant B1G50% $8.98
2 x Secret spray $10.48
Less 2  Tide qs (2.00)
Less OS L2C (1.00)
Less Secret L2C (1.00)
Less BC (15.00)
Total incl tax $14.22 Paid with a gc

Earned $10 BC and should get $4 Ibotta (Secret spray)

Not the best deal, but it's all things we use. DS just opened the last OS deodorant yesterday and detergent is always needed. There's only 2 brands we prefer - Tide & All. I feel better purchasing items we needed.

I could've done the Sally Hansen deal at RA, but I didn't know if it would credit on Ibotta, before the Bonus stack expired.

Meijer has a 10/$10 get 11th item free sale next week, so I'll stock up on a few things we need, including yogurt. We spend $14 a week on greek yogurt for myself & DS. DH eats vegan, so no yogurt for him.

March numbers

I can't believe the first 3 months of the year has gone.

Oops, I did it again. Shopped that is. This time I was not shopping for clothes. Over the past year, we have slowly been remodeling parts of the house (it's still a work in progress). So after DH redid the hardwood floors, he bought those plastic floor mats for our desks (without consulting me, I might ad). I was not happy with these mats, cause they were slippery and every time I leaned over to get something from any of the bookshelves next to me, my chair would tilt over (we have the rolling desk chairs). One day, I ended up on the floor with the chair on top of me. Thankfully DS was in the office at the time, so he lifted the chair off me and helped me up from the floor. Well, that was it for me!! I told DH I'd get rugs for our desks instead. Told him I'll wait until Kohls sends their monthly mystery discount, before purchasing the rugs.

So when I got my mystery discount over the weekend, the search was on. I figured I'd just pay for it with earned gcs, since I had some. I got a 30% discount, but my friend gave me her 40% discount that she wasn't using. So I ordered the rugs, 3 Christmas gifts, a new winter school coat for DS (last week I saw that his current one is busy breaking) and a pair of swim shorts for him. Used $95 gcs and $18.08 oop. Got 6% back through Ebates and earned $20 KC + $5 Y2Y. Those rewards will be used towards my $15K goal. I wasn't planning on any clothes shopping, but I figured I might as well get DS what he needs with the 40% off and because I wanted free shippping.

Now onto the numbers. March has been really good to us. We've had our best month for the year (earning), so I'm very happy

Gift cards earned

Mypoints $75 
Swagbucks : $25 
IGC : $75 ($50 mine, $25 DH account)
Ibotta : $50 Walmart 
Savingstar : $0 (I have enough in my account for a $10 redemption, that will go towards my $15K goal)
Bing : $5
Mycokerewards (this was a nice easy gc) $5
Total gcs earned in January : $235 

So onto the gc balances:

Kohls 
Previous balance $91.57
Added : $75
Spent : $95 + 25 (spent this when I redeemed my Kohls cash earlier this month)
New balance : $46.57

Target 
Previous balance $30 (I know that it's more than $30)
Added : $10
New balance : $40

Walmart 
Used the $45 I had, to purchase a $50 Red Robin gc. We still have $35 RR gcs left
Added $50 through Ibotta (earmarked for a new desk)

Gap - $54.54

TJM
Prev balance : $25
Added : $25
New balance : $50

Macy's 
Earned $50
Spent $25 (shoes)
New balance : $25 (earmarked for the shoe sale this month)


WHBM - $50.00

BBW - $15.00

Starbucks : $15 (this does not include the teacher's gifts). The $15 is for our personal use. I'm not a Starbucks fan (I'm a Dunkin Donuts girl), but I received this credit when I ordered something online. We'll just save it for when we're in the mood for a frappucino.

That's a total of $346.11 in gcs (excluding RR)


Total earned from online sales (after fees) : $476.14
Plus previous balance $207.37
Less expenses (139.46)  DS undies, shoes, Kohls rugs purchase
New Balance : $544.05

I'm very happy that we did so well last month. I was able to knock out 3 more Christmas gifts and we have a total of $890.16 in cash & gcs! I'm happy that I'm able to knock out the gifts so early. I love having my shopping done early, so there's less stress about what to buy and about spending a pile of money over the holidays.

As mentioned before, I will withdraw $300 from this total to start funding my $15K goal. Since there's not much good gcs left, I'll use the $50 TJM, $40 Target and $210 cash to go towards my goal. 

I have a starting balance of $108.80 in my bank account. 

$1 Savings = $36
$5 Savings = $125

As you can see, I don't just buy clothes/shoes with our earnings. It gets used for household items and whatever other needs we have too.

IBOTTA USERS : There's a new bonus stack available, so be sure to check your accounts.