Our Budget and Good News!

Before I get into a post about money, budgeting and food shopping, I just wanted to share the news with this side of the internet world. My boyfriend proposed to me this morning and I said yes, so I'll be mentioning him as my fiance now. I am very excited, as is expected and very happy. We are going out to dinner tonight to celebrate (as well as celebrate my 25th birthday, which is today). We are planning an early Spring 2009 wedding and I will try to keep that out of my budgeting blog as much as I can, but I'm sure I'll be mentioning it.

Back to the fun stuff.

Shopping trips this week included:
November 16th CVS: $10.25
November 16th Safeway: $25.21
November 17th CVS: $.63
November 18th Giant: $1.73
November 20th Shopper's: $42.34
Total: $80.16 (or $30.16 over budget)

DAYS	MONEY SPENT
AUG 10 - AUG 16	$118.24
AUG 17 - AUG 23	$48.11
AUG 23 - AUG 30	$40.78
AUG 31 - SEP 6	$57.87
SEP 7 - SEP 13	$57.39
SEP 14 - SEP 20	$71.10
SEP 21 - SEP 27	$1.83
SEP 28 - OCT 4	$49.18
OCT 5 - OCT 11	$13.88
OCT 12 - OCT 18	$75.08
OCT 19 - OCT 25	$10.04
OCT 26 - NOV 1	$43.58
NOV 2 - NOV 8	$42.00
NOV 9 - NOV 15	$20.94
NOV 16 - NOV 22	$80.16
NOV 23 - NOV 29	$16.39

Our budget is $50 a week, or $200 a month, and while I usually like to stay under the $50, sometimes I go over knowing well that I'll still stay below the monthly amount. This way, I am able to take advantage of deals (like the double triple promotions at Shopper's and other area grocery stores) without feeling guilty and know that in the end, I will still be under budget, because the stockpiling allows us to spend less other weeks. I may very well go over budget in November (I am heading back to Shopper's tomorrow and will probably buy more stockpiling items though not nearly as many as my last trip) and then there are some drugstore deals and Black Friday drugstore deals that I want to take advantage of, but I feel that limiting myself and our budget makes me stress out about money more than I should.

We are doing fairly well and to stress out over going over a grocery budget - food that we are eating to sustain ourselves - not exactly anything extravagant is somewhat silly.

This is what works for us.

I just wanted to make another note that thanks to Capital One, I will be receiving another $100 giftcard to Target shortly. I will have made $221 from Capital One this year and have not paid them a dime over what I charge on my card.

Costco & Target

Wow, 2 posts in one day! I guess this is what happens when you actually have energy! Actually, the boyfriend and I had been planning to go to both Costco and Target for some time now. Cosco to get him on the membership plan now that we live at the same address and Target for another rack for the kitchen (we have a serious lack of closet/cabinet space in the apartment).

At Costco we gassed up his truck for $3.45 a gallon, and also bought a lb jar of sliced dried garlic (we love garlic and I use a lot of it in my cooking). The jar cost $6.15, but I had a giftcard with a low balance on it, so it cost us $4.98 Oop.

Then we stopped at Target for a rack for the kitchen. It's a "chrome" 4-tierd wired one that should be good for some pots and pans. It was $29.99. We also scoured the clearance racks and found some Puffs 4-box tissues on sale for $2.50 which I had a $1 off coupon for, and I found a Venus Embrace razor pack on clearance for $6 which I had a $2 coupon for. For the 3 items, we wound up spending $39, but since I have a $100 giftcard from capital one we spent nothing Oop.

Running tally for this week: $24.27/$59.22

Credit Cards

I know most budgeting and finance blogs will tell you that credit cards are evil and they are just a mechanism for debt. Most blogs recommend getting rid of credit cards and using cash to pay for most purchases.

I disagree.

In April 2007 I did not have a good credit score. It frustrated me because not only did I want to buy a house in the next few years, but it was a hassle to open up any new accounts. Getting a cell phone plan in my own name without a deposit was completely out of the question and that made me feel depressed about the future. So I applied for a secured Visa through Bank of America to help build my credit.

In the 8 months I had the card, I paid it faithfully on time and actually had automatic payments sent to it every week from my checking account. I never carried a balance and generally never had more than $100 charged to the card on any given day.

By December of 2007, Bank of America upgraded me to a regular credit card and doubled my balance. Through those 8 months of paying the card faithfully, I was able to raise my credit score from 649 to over 700 simply by paying on time.

In December of 2007 I also applied for a Capital One credit card. I have a similar set up with this card. I automatically transfer $100 to the card every week from my checking account. The only difference with this card is it is one of their rewards cards. So I receive 5 points per $1 on everything bought at grocery, gas and drugstores (and 1 points per $1 on everything else). Because the rewards are higher for some things and not for others, I only use the card for grocery gas and drugstores. I have a budget set up already for grocery and drugstore purchases, so it is not often that after my $100 weekly allowance, I have more than $100 sitting leftover in the account.

I do pay an annual fee. It is $29. The reason I did this is because if I were to not pay an annual fee, I would only get 2 points per $1 on the purchases I get 5 points per $1 on now.

In the last 6 months, I have been able to redeem $150 worth of gift certificates from Capital One. I always pay on time and never carry a balance so I do not pay any interest.

In the next 2 weeks, I will have enough money for another $50 giftcard, making my net gain $171 even including the annual fee.

Those $150 have helped buy furniture for the new apartment and even our wireless router. I only cash in when I have enough for the biggest "deal" with the points. You can cash in 750 points for a $5 giftcard, 1500 points for a $10, 2500 points for a $20 giftcard, etc. However, if you redeem at 5000 points, you receive a $50 giftcard, 10,000 points a $100 gift card... so it's only worthwhile for me to redeem at 5000 points and above.

I'll say that winding up with $171 just from using this card is a frugal skill, if you are careful with them, credit cards can be useful tools.