neverhomemaker: bills

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The Ongoing Grocery Saga

>> Tuesday, June 21, 2011

The last time we wrote about lowering our grocery bills, we got A TON of great suggestions. But we did get quite a bit of pause from some readers who think our bar might be set too high (with a $50 number that seems too low for two people to live on). We're confident we can hit our target, or at least close to it, so we're forging forward with some new thoughts this week.

First, we wanted to share some of our favorite reader tips. These suggestions particularly speak to us:

SHOPPING LESS, SCOPING DEALS:

Chelsea: "I shop bi-weekly and spend about $80 on average per trip. It's great :)"
Tracy: "I'm trying to cut back to every other week and think it really helps. It forces you to eat through what you have completely, and cuts back on impulse buys too!"
Sabina: "What's helped us is avoiding the grocery store (i.e., like your Wegmans) and shopping at the bread place, the butcher, the health food store, the fruit/veg store. The grocery store is so, so expensive compared to the independent stores."
Melinda: "I'm kind of crazy and I shop at like 5 different stores (Target, Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, Wegmans, and Shop Rite) because certain stores have certain deals and brands I like."

NO-FRILLS, FEWER BILLS:

Elaine: "We've saved so much money by going to grocery stores that offer bulk pantry items, only take debit/cash, and make you bag your own items."
Michaela: "I'm really big on eating simple foods, and I've found that has cut down my grocery bill a lot as well. A lot of the time, I'll just eat a banana with peanut butter for breakfast, toast with hummus and carrots for lunch, or steamed veggies and rice for dinner."

PLANNING AHEAD, THINKING DIFFERENTLY:

Elizabeth: "Best practices for our bill are constant meal planning (before shopping) to limit impulse buys and keep focused (I plan for 2-3 weeks at a time)."
Shruti: "I have a spreadsheet made up of my necessities and how often I can buy them."
Heather: "The only way I've been able to get my food budget down is by sticking with the cash system. If I've used up all my cash that week, then I've gotta wait or not get it at all. It's seriously been the only thing that has worked!"
Sarah: "Its maybe easier to think of it as averaging out to that amount ($50) per week over a month (so, about $200) in order to account for the weeks that you stock up on certain items or find a good deal on something special."

I've also been picking up advice from some unexpected sources. I have this new obsession with the Duggar family (Image source). Well, "obsession" isn't the word. Maybe "fascination" would be a better choice. I started watching the series from episode one on Netflix last week.

So far, I feel like I've learned a lot about stretching the grocery dollar.

Shopping big once a month. One episode featured the family stocking up on all their groceries for the month. I doubt we'd be able to shop only once monthly, but hitting the store less would definitely be worth trying.
Shopping at no-frills stores. Like Aldi. I haven't been to an Aldi since college, but I feel like it might be worth a gander. And this idea goes with what several readers mentioned about looking beyond Wegmans, trying new stores -- as well as utilizing CSA groups, farmers markets, and independent grocers.
Prepping large meals. They do this out of necessity, of course, but with freezing and other preservation methods, we could do much more with this area. I bought a fun book this weekend, so once I get my way through it, I'll be sure to share some ideas.
Simplifying. The Duggars eat well and healthfully, but they don't eat the most exotic foods. Thing is: We don't need to either. Of course we love to try new things, but sticking with the basics might be best for our budget.
Thinking outside the colorful boxes. Non-grocery items add up as well. Cleaners can be made at home! Making our own laundry detergent (again, OBSESSED with this thought!) is on the list of things to try.

PSSST: SAVING STARTS AT HOME:

When Clearly Fresh Bags heard about our quest to save, they also noted that we should pay more attention to the foods we DO have, instead of constantly focusing on what we plan to buy. I'm notorious for unintentionally letting foods to go waste -- especially apples and heads of broccoli hidden in our refrigerator's produce bins.

I tried these bags out on some of my beloved nectarines. I specifically kept one in there for an entire week, and it didn't get horribly mushy! In fact, it was still . . . fresh.

Basically, the bags keep fruits and vegetables fresher longer, thereby saving money by throwing away less. They are also re-closeable and recyclable, so that's cool. It's still too early to extract the $$$ impact these bags might have on our bills, but we'll continue to use the package they sent us and see if wasting less translates to a fuller wallet.

If you'd like to learn more about Clearly Fresh Bags and how they work, visit their website. (PS: We got some concern over adding this product review into the post. Rest assured we only got the bags to try and do not benefit from your clicks or purchases -- just something we've tried!)

STATUS UPDATE:

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, this week's grocery bill was $63. Our Greek yogurt love is still getting the best of us at $10 of that total cost. (And, yes. We are looking into making our own, just haven't had the time yet.) Other items we bought included the basics . . . eggs, bread, strawberries, nectarines, bananas, collard greens, frozen cauliflower and broccoli, garbanzo beans, peanut butter, etc. Some treat items even made it onto the list, including Reed's Ginger Brew and Jala ice cream pops.

The hardest part is taking these simple ingredients and making them into balanced, filling meals More on what we're doing with these items soon! Now, I know some of you are own your own slashing missions -- how's it going? Just leave us a comment or email us at neverhomemaker [at] gmail [dot] com.

Like what you just read? You can subscribe to the feed of these posts or follow us on Twitter or Facebook to be the first to know what the (never home)makers are up to. And we’ll love you forever!

Weekend Happenings

>> Monday, June 13, 2011

We spent most of Friday night researching CSA programs in our area. It's all part of how we're looking to slash our grocery bill to around $50 per week versus $80 to $100!

The good news is that we found an awesome farm near where we live that delivers boxes of produce to a farmers market even CLOSER to where we live. The cost is great, too -- 20 weeks of fresh veggies and eggs for only $27 per week!
The bad news is that their CSA program slots are full for this season. So, we wrote them a kind email and have our fingers crossed that we can sign on for next year's fun!

We've also decided that instead of sticking to a rigid $50 per week, we'll give ourselves some flexibility and combine our entertainment and food budgets into one giant item. (That's a lie -- our entertainment budget is a mere $50 a week as well!) So, if we need to stock up and spend $100 one week at the store, we'll find free things to do over the weekends. Alternatively, if we don't use up our budget, we'll live like kings/queens and have some fun nights on the town. Incentive should help, right!

The best way to sum up Saturday? Best friends, babies, and boatloads of fun on playground equipment:

Sunday was pretty awesome as well. We indulged in some theater time and saw The Hangover, Part II. Maybe it's the mom-to-be in me, but I was ~~somewhat~~ overly shocked and even appauled to discover there were s.e.v.e.r.a.l families at that movie with kids under the age of 12. Next weekend, we're planning to take in Super 8. Wish we had an IMAX near us!

We then headed to the mall and I found some splurgetastic coral-colored sandals. What's great about this splurge is that it wasn't one at all. Normally these puppies were close to $50. On sale? $16.99! Thanks, GAP!

Yikes! You'd think with all the time I've been spending in the bathroom lately I'd have time to paint my toenails. I'll get there. Eventually.

Then we had an indoor picnic . . . and yes. Those are sweet potato tots.

I slathered my veggie burger with mashed avocado. We plan to spread the green stuff on pretty much everything this week in celebration. 16 weeks (pregnant) means our baby is the length of an avocado -- my favorite fruit!

What did YOU do this weekend? And did you think of any ways to save more at the grocery store? Some readers have already weighed in, and we're loving the ideas!

Like what you just read? You can subscribe to the feed of these posts or follow us on Twitter or Facebook to be the first to know what the (never home)makers are up to. And we’ll love you forever!

Grocery Bills. No Progress. No Worries.

>> Friday, June 10, 2011

Would you believe that we've made absolutely no progress on lowering our grocery bills?

Problem is, even when we save, we spend big:

Our goal is to get our bills down to around $50 per week. This number seems realistic to me, but I don't know what's going on. Well, maybe I do. OK. I do know exactly what's going on. We're both eating like teenage boys while Stephen ups his training (to PR in the 5K) and I grow a tiny human.

But ~~some~~ much of what we've been buying is more luxury than necessity:

We need to refer back to some of our own rules about treats in the grocery cart. Right now, we pile them in. Chocolate almond milk, coconut milk ice cream, energy bars, fancy coffee, brie (pasturized, of course), etc. Because we're identified what we believe to be the "main" problem, we're not worried.

Our current focus is on doing without the fancy stuff and thriving with the basics.

I'd like to sign up for CSA produce delivery. Just trying to find a service in our area.
I'd like to do more with freezing meals ahead of time.
I'd like to shop sales and learn how to optimize buys with coupons.
I'd like to create a new list of pantry essentials and stick to them.
I'd like to experiment with visiting the grocery store bi-weekly versus weekly.
I'd like to shop around and other grocery stores (not always Wegmans) to compare pricing.

I think we got caught in the buying loop when I was feeling sick. I didn't want to bake or make much from scratch. But now we're really feeling it in our wallets. Now that I'm feeling much better, I've been enjoying making all kinds of treats (like s'mores bars and graham bars) that require not much more than a couple cups of flour, sugar, and other inexpensive ingredients.

Though our bills are higher than we'd like them to be, we are doing a few new things that are helping:

We're starting to look for and make sure we actually use coupons. It's a slow process, as not many are for whole food items.
We're buying more frozen veggies to eliminate waste. We don't love all frozen picks, we do well with cauliflower, peas, broccoli, corn, and even some mixes.
We've been agreeing more on what's for dinner and other meals. They don't all need to be fancy culinary experiences. We're learning to love what's in our fridge versus what we'd ideally want in the moment.
We're cooking in on weekends to make those special meals. And thus saving on that other large chunk of our weekly budget -- entertainment funds.
We're opening our eyes. We do have certain things we always buy -- like green peppers -- but in certain weeks/months/seasons, they are wicked expensive. So, we modify our diets and buy something more in season.

I'm sure this issue will continue to evolve and change over the coming months. I'm even wondering how much of an impact a little one will have on our grocery bills. So, if you have suggestions or advice, we'd love to hear what you have to say! Just leave a comment or email us at neverhomemaker [at] gmail [dot] com.

Pssst: We've been posting like crazy over on (never home)maker, baby! Check out our 15 week video post and subsequent update after my latest appointment (which was this morning).

Like what you just read? You can subscribe to the feed of these posts or follow us on Twitter or Facebook to be the first to know what the (never home)makers are up to. And we’ll love you forever!

Slashing Our Grocery Bill: What's Up Now?

>> Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Wow. Seems like FOREVER since we've posted about our grocery bills. For those of you who are new, let's recap. We wrote back in March about how Eating Well Need Not Cost a Fortune. To us, though, it sure seemed like it was draining us of our hard-earned funds. Back then, we set a goal to spend around $75 for groceries each week. A goal that, at the time, at least, seemed difficult.

However, with your help (and some of our own helpful tips), we cut our tab down to only $65 that very next week. From there, we cut down even more, and we felt awesome spending just a few dollars over $50 for our food. We even shared with your one of our big "failures" . . . a shop that tipped the money scales at nearly $85 after all that hard work.

Needless to say, that was then. In March and April. It's been a while since you've heard from us. What's been going on? A shift in our whole plan, that's what! When we set out on this whole initiative, we were also spending probably $80 to $100 on weekend stuff. Going out to eat, going to the movies, more food, more entertainment, gas, etc. A lowered grocery bill didn't do much to counteract this lifestyle. What we lacked in groceries on weekends, we made up for with meals out. (We even wrote about it briefly, but then swiftly carried on with our lives, neglecting to return to the subject.)

Our new plan is to spend more at the grocery store and spend less out. We still like to have a night on the town every now and then (and we visit mom-and-pop establishments as much as possible when we do to support the local economy), but for our health and for our wallets, we've been cooking more than EVER. This means that $100 a week at the grocery store, for example, figures out to only $50 on groceries and $50 on weekend entertainment. Versus $50 on groceries and $100 on entertainment. Or etc. I feel like in an effort to cut our bills, we over-slashed . . . and made up for it, big time.

And we often don't spent the full $100 (even for us -- crazy foodies -- it's difficult) -- so we're left with cash to go bowling (right?), rent movies, visit state parks, and other fun things. Plus, we're beefing up our cooking skills. In fact, we'll be sharing a recipe later today that we made over the weekend. It allowed us to learn specific cuts for vegetables and fruits.

A little extra cash toward fresh fruits and veggies goes a long way. With the right sauces and preparation methods, you'll likely WANT to eat at home. At least that's how we feel. In fact, when we presented ourselves with an opportunity to go out to eat or stay home this weekend, we didn't even need to think twice. The pots and pans came out, and our stomachs were ever-so happy.

You may want to try this method, too. So far, I think we're dong the best with our spending by investing in our food habit at the grocery store. And here are our (never home)maker favorites for weekend meals at home.

BREAKFAST

LUNCH

Easy Miso Soup
Apple-Cheese Bagel Sandwich (make your own bagels, too!)
Stephen's Bulgar Wheat Salad

DINNER

Veggie Behemoth: The Lover (pictured above)
Tarka Dhal (Indian lentil dish)
Red Curry with Tofu and Veggies

DESSERT

These are just a few suggestions, but we have many, many more. Feel free to check out the always-growing visual catalog of good eats (to be updated with the last couple weeks of recipes soon!). And tell us . . . what are YOUR favorite weekend recipes? Just leave a comment or email us at neverhomemaker [at] gmail [dot] com.

And if you'd like to read our journey from start to now, check out the following posts:

Like what you just read? You can subscribe to the feed of these posts or follow us on Twitter or Facebook to be the first to know what the (never home)makers are up to. And we’ll love you forever!!

Vegan Sloppy Joes

>> Thursday, April 22, 2010

I swear I've been baking, too. But most of what I'm dying to share with you is on the cook side of preparation. These vegan sloppy joes were whipped up using whatever we found in our fridge and cupboards. We were trying to skip a trip to the grocery store this week, but we weren't able to entirely (we had to buy buns). It's not all bad, though. Our total grocery bills -- including everything we needed for lunches, too -- was only $12. Amazing!

We've definitely made up for last week's gross display of food savings laziness.

What you'll need . . .

2 cups vegetarian baked beans (we used Amy's organic)
1 cup chopped greens (we used boy choy, but spinach, kale, etc. work, too)
1/2 chopped red or green pepper
1/2 cup TVP (you may use more or less depending on what texture you'd like to achieve)
1 tablespoon (or more, to taste) ketchup
Garlic powder
Whole wheat buns

Method . . .

Over medium-high heat, cook red/green pepper in a bit of olive oil for about 2 minutes. Until soft.
Add the chopped greens, lower heat to medium, and stir for one minute.
Add the baked beans, TVP, ketchup, and garlic powder. Let cook until TVP plumps (5 minutes or so).
Then spoon onto buns. Makes enough for four sloppy joes.

And if you haven't already -- go check out this month's Blog Love Fest. It's a special edition because we're not only sharing the links in a list this month. We're creating a categorized blogLOVEroll. For all the gooey details, just visit the BLF post.

Like what you just read? You can subscribe to the feed of these posts or follow us on Twitter or Facebook to be the first to know what the (never home)makers are up to. And we’ll love you forever!

Grocery Bills: Major Fail

>> Thursday, April 15, 2010

OK. Before you lose all faith in this blog, in us -- consider that since we began our slashing grocery bills quest a little over a month ago, we've saved over $120 (approximately). That being said, we had a slip-up this week, mostly from laziness. Partially from overindulgence. And most definitely from lack of planning.

Here's the ugly truth in black and white:

And here's the story:

First, we can indeed deduct some amounts from this bill. We bought our beer for the week (as we mentioned in another post, beer comes from our "entertainment" fund), and that was $10. Some toilet paper, $3.50. But that's only dropping the total down to $68. Yeah, it's still (awesomely) better than when we started out, but we were averaging almost $15 beneath this total -- and still eating large, so to speak.

$15 is $15. And as we've grown older, made our own money, and paid all our own bills, every dollar counts.

I blame our situation mostly on poor planning (lack of, really, as mentioned above). We typically grocery shop on Sunday. This week, we waited until Wednesday! Which leads me to another admission of guilt: We also visited the store Monday to buy ingredients for "dinner" and spent about $30 buying random stuff. Add that to our $68, and you may see now why exactly we've failed for the week. Grand total: $98 -- approximately $45 over budget.

Back to the "real" grocery shopping day: We didn't make a list until right before we left for the store. After I had gone running and was ravenously hungry. I wanted treats of all kinds -- so throw the "one treat a week" policy out the window. We also bought lots of dairy products because we were simply craving them at the time. I can't stress enough to go shopping (and plan for shopping) on a full stomach. Your mind will be far less crowded with all the foods your body is craving, and you'll be far less inclined to want to purchase treats all at once.

In the scheme of grocery bills, this week's wasn't too entirely bad. It's more the lack of control we displayed. It's more the laziness and absence of care that went into shopping. What's worse: Though we bought many ingredients, because we didn't plan out our meals for the week, we don't have foods that necessarily match to make meals. So, the issue is complicated further.

I won't go on. What's done is done. And all we can do is work toward a better week next week. Have any of you had a total grocery bill fail? A particular total that embarrasses you? Ever feel like you left the store with a ton of food, but with -- ultimately -- no real planned meals (think radishes and peanut butter and brie)? Leave us a comment or email us at neverhomemaker@gmail.com.

And if you'd like to read our journey from start to now, check out the following posts:

Slashing Grocery Bills: We're Going Strong

>> Friday, April 9, 2010

I can't seem to find our receipt from last week, but this week's total at the grocery store came in around $58. More like $56 if you subtract the toothpaste. Last week's was also $56. Seems to be a number we're good at sticking around. For those of you new to the blog, we're making a great effort to slash our grocery bills in half. We started out with weekly spending around the $100 mark -- which was simply from our own laziness and overindulgence.

And through some helpful hints and tricks, we've been able to get down into the $50 range for several weeks now. A little before and after photo below. And for those of you who are interested . . . here's a recap of our journey to this number:

One of my main concerns on this whole quest has been if I can still acquire the ingredients I need to make fun foods for the blog (and, of course, ourselves). It's definitely caused me to buy fewer ingredients from the baking aisle, so my sweets consumption has gone down. (I say "my" because Stephen doesn't eat many sweets.) However, I think before we started watching what we eat (both from a dietary and monetary standpoint), I was making way more than we could ever need.

So, I guess that's a tip, too. Examine your weekly eating habits. Do you have a tendency to favor certain snack foods? Do you really NEED all of them to feel happy and full? Buying less baking flour, chocolate chips, sugars, etc. hasn't been a problem. I'm finding even more creative ways to use alternative ingredients like oils and agave (of which I have much on hand) and creating new recipes as a result.

This week Stephen went to the store alone. This is a tip passed onto us by my friend Kristina. Of the two of us, I'm the food whore (excuse my language, but I feel the word applies -- there's no veggie/vegan food I won't find myself "in bed with," so to speak). What this means is: I tend to put EVERYTHING in the cart that strikes my fancy. I also dwell in the grocery aisles and could spend hours there. Stephen's in and out in no time at all. And he sticks to the basics.

In addition, we've still be concentrating on buying the bulk of our ingredients in the produce section and the outer edges of the store (where the least number of packaged goods are sold -- which also makes them cheaper). We've been eating lots of bok choy.Leeks. Broccoli. Onions. Red-skin potatoes. Radishes. Carrots. Etc. And less tofu. Veggie dogs. Cheese. Pre-packaged bread. Etc.

And we're also using more of what we already have instead of rushing out to the store to buy exactly what we want. This one has been hard for me. We have a lot of pasta. And I don't particularly like pasta. We have a lot of rice. And I'm not HUGE on rice. But we're using it. And I'm growing more accustomed to the taste. Dare I say I'm starting to even like the stuff? It feels good to be using up ingredients we've had on hand for a while. Less wasteful.

(Also, you'll notice in the photo above the item at the top that says "OMEGA 3 WW TOR" -- As one of our lovely readers pointed out a couple weeks ago, these tortillas have FISH in them! Stephen forgot and bought them again this week -- which is fine because he eats fish. But does anyone else out there know of weird, non-veggie ingredients in typically vegan foods? Check it out . . . As my friend Laura said: Haven't they heard of flax seeds?)

We even ventured to a different grocery store (we most typically go to Wegmans) after our 15K a couple weeks ago. I think we'll go back this weekend because I feel like we got more for our money. We were also less tempted by classy displays and pre-made items (though we haven't been buying any -- but it made for a less painful shopping experience). This tip came from my coworker Edward who firmly believes Wegmans is more expensive than other options in the area. He may be right. But we're both not entirely sure we're willing to give up our weekly Wegmans trips just yet. We'll give it a a try, though.

We've also been eating out less on the weekend, and I'll get to that sometime soon. In its place, we've been going to the store Friday night, picking up a few things to make a nice dinner at home -- as well as a few other treats for the weekend -- and our bill has been coming in around $28 versus $50 to $65 when we go out. And this includes bagels for Saturday and Sunday mornings. Some dessert-y items. Stuff like that. And we're still saving money!

Anyway, I just wanted to give y'all an update. Has anyone else out there been making efforts to slash bills? Doesn't have to be for groceries. I mean, taxes are coming up (yeah, we haven't done ours yet) . . . and we owe, so we can use all the extra cash we can get. We'd love to hear from you. Just leave us a comment or email us at neverhomemaker@gmail.com.

Like what you just read? You can subscribe to the feed of these posts or follow us on Twitter or Facebook to be the first to know what the (never home)makers are up to. And we’ll love you forever!

Eating Well Need Not Cost a Fortune

>> Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Yes. This is our most recent grocery bill. Fresh from last night's trip to our local Wegmans. In our "budget" (which we don't follow as strictly as we should), we have slotted around $75 for groceries each week. I feel it's possible to go even below that . . . but week after week we spend $85, $90, and more. Not only that, we typically visit the grocery store more than once a week.

Yikes!

We love to eat. What can I say? And being athletes who run (hah, get it?) a food blog -- we're bound to rack up high bills.

What do we buy exactly? Well, we do indulge a bit. Our most pricey items include avocados, coconut oil, cheeses (I love fresh mozzarella), nuts (more on that below), and Nutella. And bakery breads always tug at our heartstrings.

But I'm challenging the both of us to stop our careless spending. To really examine our cupboards and redirect our lust for certain foods. Over the next month, I'm hoping to get back down to our originally agreed upon budget . . . and hopefully go lower.

How are we going to do this . . . and still eat fabulous foods?

1.) Plan ahead. I tell everyone they should plan out their grocery lists and weekly meal plans before heading to the store. It's time to take some of my own advice. This involves sticking my nose in our cupboards . . . seeing what's really in there. Maybe planning to use a box or two of pasta. Inventing some new canned food masterpieces. Whatever. But making a grocery list/meal outline -- and checking it twice -- that's certainly the first goal.

2.) Develop staples. There are certain items (canned beans, wheat pastry flour, natural peanut butter, broccoli, etc. -- here's a good list that I'm planning to use as a guide) that make up the essentials. Vegetarian kitchen staples that are good to have on hand to create a variety of meals.

Right now, we're into exotics. We rarely make use of ingredients twice throughout the week. Maybe that isn't entirely true, but it sure feels like we're opening new bags of this and that at every visit to the kitchen. Developing staples will allow us to make better use of what we do have, so we're not tempted to rush out to the store.

3.) Cook smarter. Once a week, probably on a Sunday afternoon, I'd like to make a big pot-o-soup that could last for not one, but two full dinners. Soup is cheap. Chili is our favorite. It's filling and healthy. And if I calculate what I usually use in a chili, 1 can of corn (39 cents), one large can of kidney beans (80 cents), a large can of tomatoes ($1.50), water (free), salt (basically free), maybe some chopped peppers ($1.25 per pepper), etc. Basically, the whole thing ends up costing less than $5 . . . that's $1.25 a person (if you calculate 2 people, dinner for 2 nights).

And while we're on this topic -- I think we could make better use of leftover foods. Usually, I'm not a fan. I let Stephen be the "garbage can" -- eating everything I don't. But I'm sure our leftovers could be repurposed into another dish.

4.) Eat vegan. Yes -- we do eat vegan most of the time. But we do enjoy our cheese. However, cheese is EXPENSIVE! So, I'd like to say we'll likely only make one non-vegan dinner per week. Of course, this doesn't include meals out -- but that's another topic. Often, when we go on our second trip to the grocery store, it's to buy cheese. And, of course, if we buy cheese, we most typically must also buy bread, which leads us into . . .

5.) Make bread. I've fallen in love with the rosemary-salt bread at Wegmans. It costs nearly $5.00 a loaf. And I've eaten so much of it lately, I swear it's increased my waistline. Now when we want to nosh on fine breads, we'll make them from scratch. After all, our Garlic Tuscan Herb Loaf was awesome. And I'm sure I can adapt it to include the rosemary and salt flavors -- on the cheap.

6. Set a treats budget. We both have our things. For me, it's Nutella and Dark Chocolate Dreams (both are nearly $4.00 a jar). For Stephen, it's seafood. We need to set a budget for buying these items and stick to it. It'll be hard. But it'll make us treasure those blissful bites that much more.

These actions toward a lighter bill are all just a start. But if we can take at least $25 off each visit -- that's $100 a month. If we can stop going to the grocery store more than once a week, that's likely another $25. So, we're talking a $200 savings!

And another thing! What I wanted to mention about the walnuts (referenced above) is that here's yet another reason to READ YOUR BILLS. We never thought to really take a deep, dark look at our grocery receipt. But when I did (and it was only because I took a photo of the darn thing for this post), I noticed that we were charged for not just one, but TWO bags of walnuts. We only bought one. Scout's honor. But at $5.29 a bag, that's a pricey mistake on the checkout clerk's part. At this point, I think we may be stuck with it, though. How can we prove we have only one bag???

Has this ever happened to you? Or are you on your own quest to slash your grocery bills? Tell us all about it! We'd love the advice . . . and just knowing we're not the only ones out there embarrassed at how much we spend. So, leave a comment or email us at neverhomemaker@gmail.com.

Like what you just read? You can subscribe to the feed of these posts or follow us on Twitter or Facebook to be the first to know what the (never home)makers are up to. And we’ll love you forever!

5 Critical Reasons You MUST Read Your Bills

>> Wednesday, February 17, 2010

I'm sure the question on your minds is: WHAT happened??? Those of you who are friends with us on Twitter are already filled in. Saturday afternoon -- after a lazy brunch out at a new diner with our neighbors; talk of childcare costs (for them, not us), bills, and taxes; and realizing those taxes are due, like, soon -- we scrambled to get all our W2s and other important documents together. We also got our mail. Oh, yes. It wouldn't be a Saturday afternoon unless we received a visit from the bill fairy.

This particular bill was from our mortgage company. Our escrow balance, specifically. (And escrow account is the account, at least in our case, established by our mortgage broken for paying things like our insurance and taxes all in one convenient place.) So, let's talk numbers. I noticed our escrow amount was less this year than it was last -- maybe by 65 dollars each month -- it never really made sense to me, but we decided to not ask questions. We're new homeowners after all, this is probably a normal adjustment. WRONG. And this bill was our notice that we owed $1,300 to the bank. In April! As in 2010.

That's a lot of money!!! Not only that . . . our monthly escrow payments had shot up nearly $350 a month. This meant our total monthly mortgage and escrow was WAY over what we'd signed up for in June 2008. We both freaked out. Called our parents -- both sets of which we couldn't reach -- and then did a bit of Google searching.

That was mistake number 2. I kept finding information about how escrows can shoot up depending on a number of factors. Local and county tax increases. New property assessments. Other adjustments from year to year. Really, a number of things. So, we figured they were probably just right. They're the bank, and it's their job to tell us how much we owe them. They're professionals and wouldn't have sent us an entire year's worth of monthly payment stubs stating this new -- and however outrageous -- amount in bold print unless it was correct.

Double checked.
Signed.
Stamped and sealed.

Nope. After we got our heads on straight, I started actually LOOKING at the bill. Adding up the amounts they provided that made up the astronomical new number. I noticed that the math was wrong . . . and that, for example, they had charged us double city and county tax. That was weird. OK. Then I saw they were charging us for THREE school taxes. And we only had documentation with one of those amounts. Hmmm. To make matters worse, it was Saturday on a long holiday weekend . . . so we couldn't reach a representative to put our minds at ease until Tuesday!

So we waited. I wrote bullet points of all the things I found wrong with their document. And yesterday Stephen called them. After a long hour on the phone, the bank realized their "computer" made an error and charged us way more than we actually owe. Our escrow shortage is more to the tune of $350, which makes much more sense to me. And our monthly payment is only going up by $90 a month. This all makes sense, and the newly adjusted numbers accord with what we originally agreed to at our closing.

All put together, that initial $5,500 number that we would have owed over the course of a year turned into $1,430. Nothing much. Just a $4,070 mistake. Several lavish vacations. Four 50-inch plasma screen TVs. A couple MacBook Pros. A big chunk-o-savings. You know, no biggie.

Unless you're my brother (above), I haven't seen money grow on trees for me. So, here's why you, too, should carefully read your bills.

MISTAKES: If the story above isn't compelling enough for you, consider this . . . Billing mistakes happen more frequently than we'd like to think. More times than not, it's computer error, and I'm sure you've seen enough of those first-hand to know this is true. And if you go ahead and pay the bill and find out LATER that it was a mistake, you'll have a much harder time disputing the issue.
CHANGES: Again, we're not great at paying bills. I'd been writing my checks to my old lender and hadn't noticed that my school loan company went under new direction. Though I hadn't heard anything bad about this from my lender . . . it's certainly important to put the right name on the check. But changes can include a number of other issues, including to terms and conditions, that might even impact your amount owed. Read the fine print, folks!
RANDOM AND FRAUDULENT CHARGES: This one's more for reading your bank statement. But a few months ago, I noticed that we were having about $20 taken out of our account each month for some weird company. Furthermore, I had no idea what product or service we were receiving from said company. When I called, they said that Stephen had signed on for some trial offer of something while shopping online (which he doesn't remember doing -- but sometimes those offers are TRICKY -- so be careful). Anyway, it took us a couple months to catch this small charge. And it took a heck of a lot more effort to remedy the situation. So catch problems early, and we hope you have good luck. It does happen, even if you think you're being careful.
DUE DATES: This hasn't happened to us personally . . . but we've heard from our friends that a company changed due dates on them, and then they accrued all these late payment charges -- without even knowing it. I can't stress enough: You must read your bills carefully. And this includes all those that are automatically deducted from your account online. Convenient. Paperless. Dangerous. Those are sometimes the worst because you set a payment schedule and forget about it.
UN-NECESSITIES: You may be paying for stuff you don't even want or need anymore. Like magazine subscriptions or other things you've set to automatically renew each year that you're just no longer using. So trim the fat, and you'll be happy you did. Maybe find a new use for the cash . . . or just save it. We're bad at that, too.

If all this money-talk is stressing you out, go check out our first yoga-centric post. And maybe take the heat off and make yourself some no-bake chocolate-mint "cupcakes" . . .

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