Coupons and Clutter

Last week, Tommie at My Crazy Chaos wrote Coupons vs Clutter. She questioned whether someone who is clutter prone should be couponing. She also showed us her coupon book and how she got it reorganized by getting rid of old, expired coupons.

Confession time: I am also a couponer. I am trying to balance couponing with my new mission of de-cluttering and also staying with in my budget. This hasn't been difficult so far, but I could see how it could be in the future.

I am currently well stocked on pet things (food, cat litter, treats) and non-perishable items (paper goods, toiletries, feminine products, and non-perishable foods) and so my budget reflects low spending in many of these categories. I only budgeted $15 to use on household goods each month! (basically anything you can get at Walmart or a grocery store that isn't food) My monthly food budget is used for FOOD ONLY and is mostly being spent on fruits, vegetables, meats, and dairy products that can't be bought in huge quantities without a lot of spoilage and waste. I do some stocking up on meat when its on sale for a really good deal. But, once my "stash" of these non-perishables is gone, what am I going to do?

 

Here's my "pantry". My kitchen is quite small and lacks much cabinet space, so my pantry shelves are in the office closet. (For reference, the office is right around the corner from the kitchen.) On the left there is my "paper towel tower".

 

This is more of my "stash". The bottom is cleaning products, etc.

 

 

This is my stash of extra cat food and litter. This is the biggest it has ever been! I will not be needing to re-stock on food or litter for quite a while.

I plan on looking for good coupon deals just prior to my "stash" of different products being used up. After finding a good deal, I will buy the large quantity of the coupon item and then be back to bare bones spending in that area. This will require self-discipline along the way. I am hoping to use less than the budgeted amount on household supplies and food each month, thus building up the excess for my larger purchase with coupons.

What are your thoughts on couponing? Where is the line between beneficial and over board?

Clearing Car Clutter

Our vehicles are like our second homes. At least, for me it is. But the downside is that cars have windows without blinds or curtains. Why don't they make car curtains? I would totally buy some!

I hate having a messy car because others can easily see what's in your car. This can be a safety/security issue, I never leave anything identifying my name, address, etc in the car. It can also be an appearance issue. Those who know which vehicle is yours will know the mess is yours. I try to keep mine neat for these reasons, but sometimes it gets away from me:

 

About half of that junk was just stuff I needed to take 5 minutes to drop off somewhere or give to someone. After I did some of those tasks and rearranged what was left, it looked like this:

Ahh! So much better and finally ready for passengers at a just a moments notice! All that's left is my re-usable shopping bags that I keep in there all the time and my tool kit for emergencies. Now to tackle the contained mess in my center console and glove box...

Finding My Info for Taxes: Part 1

I hate paper clutter! It seems to just multiply and you can never be caught up because more and more paper comes in everyday...

It's that time of year when information has to be gathered and given to the accountant. It happens every year and every year I vow that next year I will do better about keeping it organized so it's not such a hassle to find everything.

Buried somewhere in this very full, blurry, paper box is my tax info. Along with other receipts, papers, magazine pages, recipes, etc etc etc.

 

As you can see, it is full pretty much to the top. I started by just sorting through every single piece of paper in the box, putting like with like. Here's what I ended up with:

 

 

The lid of the box now holds all receipts. I will have to go back through these, keeping and organizing all relevant ones for taxes and getting rid of the rest, which I fear will be the majority. Why did I keep most of these in the first place?

 

 

This pile is recipes I found in the big box of crap paper. I will not be keeping all of these. In fact, I will only be keeping a small portion of them. I'm sure there are several similar to ones I already have and there are some that are just aspirational clutter, things I will never make because they require too much time, energy or weird ingredients I don't normally buy. Some won't fit in with my new healthier lifestyle either. Although, the occasional treat is ok!

 

 

These old checkbook duplicates are from my move before last. They are old and no longer needed. They have been shredded.

 

These two pictures show a portion of what I trashed from the box. This is only first quick sort-through and already I found that much trash/recycling.

 

 

Here is the box after. It now has pages of magazines with decorating ideas, etc, my bank statements, deposit slips, and check duplicates that still need sorted and kept. This portion of the project took about 2 hours. I'm not finished yet, but I have made progress. Now for finding a system to keep this from happening again for 2014... Do you have any suggestions?



February 2014 Budget Plans

Here is my planned budget for February:

Category	Monthly Total
Giving	$10.00
Saving	$20.00
Mortgage	$754.65
House Repairs	$15.00
City Bill	$110.00
Gas	$82.78
Cable	$77.88
Internet	$51.87
Phone	$102.20
Food	$150.00
Transportation – Gas	$50.00
Car Repairs	$15.00
Car Insurance	$93.44
Clothes and Hair	$30.00
Pets	$25.00
Household	$15.00
Personal	$25.00
Crossfit	$80.00
Cleaning	$72.00
Debt	$691.10
TOTAL	$2,470.92
TOTAL INCOME	$2,472.52
DIFFERENCE	$1.60

I already know I will be putting an extra $100 toward my mortgage payment again this month. This will be going to my escrow account to make up for a negative balance due to a BIG increase in my property taxes for 2013. The extra $100 will be coming from my 2nd job's income. The remainder of the income from my second job will be used for savings and/or debt repayment. I will also be sharing with you how I officially use my 2013 year end bonus.

I am excited to essentially start over fresh each month with a new budget. I may still have to make changes to it in the future, but I hope to start seeing some of the progress bars move!

On another note: I did some return to lender delcuttering this past weekend. I finally finished a book (affiliate link) that a friend had lent me back in September (I think)... It's embarrassing how long I've had it.

Use it Up: Halfway Point

Here it is: the halfway point into the Use it Up! Challenge. Again here is the original challenge issued by Colleen at 365 Less Things.

So far, I have used up and am not replacing:

• travel shampoo and conditioner (freebies from a hotel)
• packet of multiple servings of oatmeal

I feel like I haven't made as much progress as I thought I had. I'm trying to mainly focus on items of bathroom clutter. A bottle of mouthwash is really close to being used up, everyday I think "today it will be used up," but alas it hasn't been yet. I'm also working on my 2nd favorite perfume. I only have 2 perfumes and I LOVE one and only like the other. (Of course I had the like one first and found the LOVE one after). After the 2nd favorite is gone, I'll be able to use my favorite one everyday :)

What is your area of concentration? What have you used up so far? Are you getting close to using up anything?

Budget Check 1/24/14

With basically 1 week left of January, here is what I've spent so far this month:

Category	Monthly Total	Spent as of 1-24-2014	Remaining
Giving	$10.00	$10.00	-
Saving	$50.00	$50.00+	-
Mortgage	$755.00	$854.65	-$99.65
House Repairs	$25.00	-	$25.00
City Bill	$125.00	$99.43	$25.57
Gas	$50.00	$56.00	-$6.00
Cable	$78.00	-	$78.00
Internet	$52.00	$51.87	$0.13
Phone	$95.00	$138.90	-$43.90
Food	$160.00	$115.23	$44.77
Transportation – Gas	$90.00	$43.00	$47.00
Car Repairs	$15.00	$15.00+	-
Car Insurance	$93.00	$93.44	-$0.44
Clothes and Hair	$25.00	$25.00	-
Pets	$25.00	$25.00	-
Household	$15.00	$10.00	$5.00
Personal	$20.00	$20.00	-
Crossfit	$80.00	$80.00	-
Cleaning	$72.00	$36.00	$36.00
Debt	$688.10	$688.10	-
TOTAL	$2,468.30	$2,421.62	$111.48

Actual amount put in savings this month is $181.02. While this is over triple what I budgeted, it has not increased since my last budget check and it probably won't be increasing any before the end of the month.

My mortgage payment is $100 extra this month. This is going to my escrow account as it went negative when property taxes were paid. They went up significantly over last year. By paying extra into escrow, I will hopefully not see a huge monthly payment increase for next year.

You may have noticed that the budgeted amount of debt payments has changed from all the other budgets I've showed you thus far. Well, I'm not perfect people, I know that's shocking! ;) I found a mistake in my spreadsheet formula so I've been budgeting incorrectly all month. When I corrected the error, I found that if I only change that figure and leave the rest the same, I'd be spending more than my take home pay from my main job. :( Some adjustments are going to be made and I'll be sharing my budget plan for February soon.

Let me know if you have any questions or insight about my budget.