Sunday, April 27, 2014

Spring Break on a Budget

This week was spring break for Brunswick Co., so the Headricks made a special budget for the week. First, I prayed for self-discipline because I'm guilty of costly vacations :)-- one of my greatest weaknesses.

God went before me every step of the way, and I got off to a great start last Friday by hitting the jackpot at ABC Consignment, which was having its seasonal "fill a bag" sale. I bought two bags of clothes for Ireland (American Eagle, Tommy Hilfiger, Ralph Lauren, etc.) and put it all together and made about 5 outfits. Total Cost $10! Yep, that's 5 outfits for $10. And the Easter bunny stocked Jeffrey up with water guns, buckets, and a kite for under $10.

After an amazing Easter Sunday Service at Generations Church, I prepared a home-cooked buffet for the family and we enjoyed left overs for several days (no dining out necessary!). This week we have had our fair share of sundaes, too... I found maraschino cherries at the Dollar Tree for $1, so I decided to stock up on ice cream, bananas, and whip cream as well. They were delicious, and it was so much less expensive than going out for sundaes.

And of course, since we LIVE in a vacation spot this year, we didn't need to travel anywhere! No money spent on hotels or gas. The beach is only 8 miles away and the Water Front Park is just 1 mile, so between the light house, parks, museums and the ocean I only spent an extra $10 in gas cruising around town. To top it all off, Generations had a discipleship weekend for the youth and Ireland 
got to go (and paid for it herself).

Between the beach, the maritime museum, consignment shops, ice-cream sundaes and discipleship, our Spring Break cost less than $50 and we had an absolute blast!! Of course, I must admit without the God-given weather things would've been much different. So thank you Jesus for the beautiful weather and special blessings throughout the week. This body stayed on budget!







Wednesday, April 9, 2014

March is a wrap

So-- I made it through March with my "extreme coupon" budget. It wasn't easy, but it was fun! I've realized I'll probably never be a die-hard couponer, but I did love the challenge and the savings. It definetly takes organization, discipline, and desire...:). Keeping your coupons grouped together, and making time to print, cut and sort them takes a NEED or at least a strong "want" to keep you going. Mine was a little bit of both. I needed to cut our original  $220 weekly grocery budget to $100-125 and I wanted to get the largest quantity/quality food for it. This definetly didn't happen overnight; it took several weeks of budget cuts to take the final plunge to $100/week (and that includes toiletries). And we did it!! No one starved, felt deprived, or really "needed" for anything. We did run out of a few things here and there and if it wasn't in the budget we didn't get it... ie. bread, peanut butter, chips etc.., until the following week.  So this month is a bit different. While I am still going to coupon and stick to roughly $100/week, I'm going to go to Delly's Deals and find the best price matches, make my list and stick to just want I need, 4 days at a time.

Happy shopping,
Karen