July Financial Checkin

Ok. My lordy. I'm over my rant from yesterday.

Over at Money Saving Mom it is time to do the July Fiscal Report.

So we will check in as well.

My June goals were to minimize the costs of attending my brother's wedding, use coupons wisely & effectively (effectively means without making myself insane), and continue tracking our budget. We tend to track more mid-month to mid-month because that's the time frame for the credit card but the mid-June bill was pretty over-the-top due to some spring projects, camping supply purchases and wedding expenses.

July's goals include figuring out how to easily and effectively (again, effectively means without making myself or those around me insane) use Quicken for budgeting, keep costs to a minimum to balance out June's costs and do a lot of fun but cheap activities with the kids.

I also took a long hard look at my closet. And realized I might have to go shopping. Let's recap. I budget $50/month to myself for clothing. I spent $109 for a dress and $20 for undergarments for the wedding. Gasp. I know. But I returned all those sandals in the photo because it was so freakin' cold I wore boots. And I spent $0 in May and $12.49 in April... so it balanced. So for July I went to Ross and got myself about 6 shirts from the clearance section. So I'm set again. I still need a pair of "weekend" shorts, another bra and a "spanx" top..... but my birthday is coming. And I plan to get new jeans this fall.

Have I mentioned I hate coupons??

But....

Here's the deal I just did.....

Background: In July if you buy CVS's 99 cent pantiliners then you get 99 cents in ECB's. So I got one of those last week. Last week CVS had buy Physician's formula mascara for $7.99 and get $7.99 in ECB (Extra Care Bucks) so I did that because I needed new mascara anyway.... the computer spewed out a $3 off on face care coupon.

So today I went in because Olay stuff was buy $20 worth and get $10 ECB's and the night cream that I love is $29.99 and was on sale for $24.99. Then I used the 99 cent & $7.99 ECB's and the $3 off skin care coupon AND a $3 off coupon from the newspaper insert. So I spent $10.01.... and the computer spewed out my $10 ECB and a $4 off a 20 dollar purchase..... so that's a good deal, right?

It's hard not to double count the ECB's.... If you roll them right you should only spend about a dollar per transaction.... but I'm just not that good at it. And I usually just get frustrated and buy what I want anyway....

And this cream will make me really beautiful and take away the sun spots on my cheeks.... so that's worth any cost.