One of the biggest reasons for creating MommyLuvs2save was to create a community of moms and dads who want to help their family save money when buying essentials in order to free up money for debt repayment. My own family has paid off over $111,500 in consumer debt including credit cards, student loan debt and 2 vehicles. I am a teacher at heart. I want to use the skills that I have learned to help YOU ditch debt. I want to encourage each of you in your efforts so that one day you can feel the freedom of being debt free. I’m not quite there yet either (we still have a mortgage) so I need encouragement as well 
It can be very difficult to pay down debt. There are many temptations to spend money. We live in a culture that encourages debt and spending. In addition, expenses come up and there never seems to be any extra money for paying down debt. I want to urge each of you to participate in a challenge. Just leave a comment about one positive step you’ve taken for your family each day. Did you eat in instead of going out? Did you save money at the grocery store? Did you pay extra on your credit card? Leave a comment below and we will cheer one another on every day and every step of the way.
The challenge is to leave a comment about what YOU have done to work on getting debt free each day. One winner will be chosen to win a $50 Amazon gift card at the end of each month. To participate in the challenge you must comment on at least 10 posts during the month.
* I will also be sharing my progress from the day prior.
My Progress: I had another pretty productive day yesterday. I got a text message from a lady at one of my mystery shopping companies asking about my availability. She’s working on setting me up for a lunch shop on the 28th because Ro will be off. She is also doing a little research in my area to see what new shops are available. I was able to request another ibotta payment, which was transferred immediately to my Paypal account (you have to love that!).
I went to the bank to deposit a few small checks that came in the last week or so. I also transferred some money to Ro’s account. It works best for us if he has some blow $$ that he can spend as he likes. He usually ends up spending it on the girls anyway (awww), but it makes him feel good to have some $$ to spend as he sees fit. When I was in the middle of ditching a lot of debt we used to argue a lot because I was SO intense and didn’t leave enough money out for fun and for extra spending for him. After playing around with how to handle the situation we came to this agreement and it has worked beautifully for us. I don’t have to nag him when he spends money and he doesn’t have to ask me for money. It’s a win, win for us.
I got an email from my local Chick fil a telling me that we can snag a FREE bowl of Chicken Tortilla soup on Saturday if we RSVP. I made a reservation for Ro and myself. He loves Chicken Tortilla soup and I love FREE (ha ha). I also organized a few items to take them back today. I should get about $26 back from them, which is great for something we don’t need. I made/packed all meals at home. I made The Potato Volcano because it was a cold, rainy day and it’s Kayla’s favorite.
I tried to qualify for 6 different surveys and was denied (bummer). I did earn 21 swagbucks and I also entered a bunch of sweepstakes. I still haven’t won anything (darn it !), but I remain ever hopeful
What did you do? Leave a comment We’d love to hear about it You could make 2013 your year. Who will the January winner be ? We’ll see…
Shopping for groceries and deals yesterday, so some money spent. It was all in the budget.Scored great at Walmart – total came to $18.65 before coupons – only .09 oop!!! Paid some bills and have 100 for extra cc payment. All meals made at home. Snow is expected to start around noon so I need to get out early to snag a few more deals. Did organize my pantry – had canned goods in 3 different places, now all in one and in order!!
Prayed for the finances of everyone here. Worked a 14 hour shift. Only money spent was for gas, which I saved $0.20 per gallon by using my Krogers fuel point discount. Definitely filling my tank more with working all these extra hours. Both my jobs are 50 miles round trip, so a tank doesn’t last long. Earned 87 swagbucks. For anyone with a smart phone (with unlimited data), you can earn an easy 50 swag bucks per day by watching mobile swagtv. I just run it in the background until I reach my daily limit.
Thanks for your continued prayers.
Yesterday a friend of mine wanted to meet at Applebees to celebrate the fact that both she and I have birthdays this week. Total I spent was 23 (including a 7-dollar tip) and that was for food for myself, my 2 kids, and leftovers for lunch for myself for today. Then last night my hubby ordered 2 dress shirts for work, but he used a coupon code and got a good deal.
Spent so money on a co pay and a few bucks mailing off an item that I sold on ebay!!!! I have a few more things to mail off today from ebay and that money is just staying in my paypal acct until I build it up some. They are calling for snow here, but I can’t understand why, it’s like 48 here this morning. Anyways I hope it does for my little boys sake. He just wants to “see a little mama”, so I hope so. Hope you all have a great and warm day.
I’ve been cleaning out and selling like crazy on Ebay, all things I don’t need. I’ve made about $400 in the last week to boost our savings! I love reading everyone’s comments, I just don’t get to post as often as I’d like. You are all a great motivation keep it up!
The only money spent yesterday was for a salad for dinner for myself and a small pizza for my husband. I fed our boys when we got home from a playdate, as my husband had to work late. So, got the boys off to bed and my husband came home with dinner for us. Nice little treat, and less expensive than buying take out for 2 growing boys, too!
Yesterday was an awesome day. Woke up early to be one of the 1st 300 at a new grocery store that opened in town. It was worth it, there was no line.. it was so cold (-9) that they opened the doors early… this is what I scored for free:
4 resusable grocery bags
1 free cantalope
1 free poppy seed muffin
1 free cookie
bags of potatoes, apples, peppers, etc for $1
3 coupon books..which included 13 coupons for free deli sandwiches($40 value)
lots of misc samples
Later a friend asked me to go for a walk along the river, I was bundled like on an arctic adventure, but it was good to get out of the house for some fresh air and its a free activity.
What an awesome thing to do for an opening of a new place! I’m one of the crazies that would have been out there too!
oh it was a very nice no spend yesterday and I love when that happens. I really need to get to the store today for some basics but we are expecting some snow here tonight and for anyone who lives in the south when they say snow people go crazy so I am sure that the stores will be packed.I really want to wait but I am out of milk and my kiddos loves their nightly cereal.
My husband too has his own account. It’s mainly for his gas and lunches, but that way he’s not dipping into the household account. I do watch it and have to supplement sometimes, but to me it’s easier than trying to tell him not to spend any money out of the house account. Hopefully once we ditch more debt, we’ll be able to afford to give me my own fun money account.
Yesterday was pretty awesome. I headed over to the outlets to use my Gymbucks from my my mil took me shopping for the kids. I got 25 items and only spent 43.33 oop after a $10 gift card to the outlets that was free for their 10K facebook fan giveaway. We ran into Target and I was able to snag some great deals. I found 3 cans of formula marked down from $15.99 to $4.06–bought them all! And found a great toy for a birthday party next month for $5. I did spend a smidgen more than I planned, but the formula savings are awesome. Also went into the Coach outlet and the only thing I’ve asked for from everyone is a new Coach purse…I was excited to find it and also find I can probably get a wallet that matches for less than the purse itself in the retail stores or other places. I don’t get expensive things ever, but I’ve had my current Coach wallet for 3 years, been chewed and drooled on and it’s still holding strong, so if it’ll last, I’m game!
Good for you Brittany. For me frugality isn’t about denying myself 100% of the time. It’s about saving on all of the things that you HAVE to buy in order to pay down debt, but also to splurge on a little something every now and again. Enjoy !
got my free corner bakery coupon in the mail yesterday
No spend day. Found $1 on the ground in the parking lot near my car. My neighbor, who is elderly, filled my gas tank as a thank you for the times myhusband does little fix it projects for her. Half the time he doesn’t charge her for supplies, unless it is a big project, so this is a nice gesture on her part.
Karen, don’t be discouraged about not winning. It took me over a year of entering sweepstakes to win anything, and so far it has been all small stuff.
No spend day here except $5 copay for dr visit. Hubby got one project done in the house today. We had all meals at home. Leftovers for dinner. Tomorrow night we are having a free Papa Johns pizza that I won a code for from their football game. I like free.
Tonight I have to do middle of the month bills and then I will know where I stand on the budget and if we are in the hole. I have a bunch of stuff to list on ebay and we have had one response to our Golf Gnome collection (I am excited about that).
The know will miss us but it is going to be cold, cold, cold.
Do you mind me asking how much you put in your husband’s “fun” account per month? I think that’s a great idea, just wondering how much is reasonable.
Not at all Laura. When we were both working it was $175 every two weeks. Now that money is tighter with me not working Ro has agreed to a major decrease ha ha ! It really depends on what you can afford. Now that most of the debt is gone we can do a little more than we would have been able to do. It’s funny, but Ro ends up spending a large chunk of it on little extras that benefit the family anyway. It really does solve arguments that he has it though.
My husband & I’s fun money is $50 every 2 weeks & I agree that it’s solved so many arguments between us!!
Thanks Karen and Jen! That will help me to figure out how much to give him
Went shopping with a friend yesterday & got some crazy deals. Tons of free Nutrition peanut butter (I may try making chocolate covered peanut butter balls with it) tons of free Ken’s dressing, free Godiva chocolate, Aerie beauty bag, a Biggest Loser book for $3.00 at 1/2 price books, lipton tea at Walgreens. Since we got so many great deals we went to Olive Garden. lol We don’t get there very often.I cooked dinner at home. Chicken with rice & beans & a veggie tray.
Went to lunch with a coworker who’s last day was today so spent some of my blow money. Hubby stayed home work sick but I couldn’t get him to go to the dr- I’m worried he has strep but he’s extremely anti-doctors so I knew he would fight me on it.
Last night I mailed the 4 books that I sold online & this morning I updated my payment information so I should get $72 on the 23rd & another $15 on Feb 3rd. I am trying to come up with more things to sell to offset our upcoming tax bill & 0% financing promo on our Lowe’s that expires on May 5th.
Will work overtime this weekend to save towards our baby fund!