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 felt a lot better yesterday, but I still have a horrible cough. I can’t wait until I can get a full night’s sleep. I was a lot more productive yesterday and I got through the whole day without taking a nap (woo hoo, progress!). I got a LOT of paperwork done yesterday, which was great. I’m feeling more organized now. I also ran into the grocery store to get things to make Ro’s favorite dinner for Valentine’s Day. He loves meatloaf so I made that with mac ‘n cheese and green beans. Everyone liked it.
I got a few surveys done after the girls went to bed. I also earned 36 Swagbucks. The mail was decent. We got 3 FREE magazines, a free pair of socks, my first campaign from smiley360. I got a free soup and 10 coupons for $2/1 soup, so pretty close to free. Last, but not least, I got the free case of Biscoff that I won last week. That was a nice surprise. I printed up some coupons so that I can finally go out today to get a few deals. I will have my little “helpers” with me since they don’t have school, so that may slow me down a bit.
What did you do? Leave a comment We’d love to hear about it You could make 2013 your year. I haven’t forgotten about naming the January winner. I promise I will, but I want to feel better first. Bear with me… Who will the February winner be ? We’ll see…
Ate or packed all meals at home. Got a coupon for a free 2l Pepsi and a free coke in the mail. Got a small commission check. Had to fill up with gas but that was the only money spent.
Yesterday was another super busy day. I am in charge of helping at my son’s Kindergarten parties, which is great because my 3.5 year old daughter gets to attend every party and she is included in everything. I ALMOST stopped at the store and bought one more food item, but figured the kids would have plenty and also tried to remember that saving 5 dollars, is saving 5 dollars, and every little bit adds up! It’s hard to re-train your brain that way, but thanks to this blog, I am getting better at it. We did stop on the way home because we needed baby carrots and I also saw that organic strawberries were on sale for 2 dollars, so I got just those 2 items and piad #.67 total. Not bad!
Sick kids again so that helps to limit the amount of money I spend. I got a few extra groceries to do some freezer cooking this weekend. I find we eat out a lot less if there are some quick meals in the freezer. I completed one survey. I NEED to start getting better at that. I am almost at my first Best Buy gift card. Karen, how do you cash out for those? I can not believe how easy it is to get those!
Amy- when I get to 250 points my best buy account automatically just creates a $5 gift certificate that is saved in my account & I can print whenever I want. Mine has $20 in gift certificate right now but I’m pretty sure my hubby has his eye on a new video game & he’ll be excited to know that he won’t have to use all his blow money to get it.
Paid another $335 to get one of my cc below $2,000. I can see light at the end of the tunnel with this one!!! All $ from stuff currently on Craigslist is going straight there
Grabbed a free movie from Redbox(thanks for the code), a free think thin bar(coupon) and a free dog dental chew(Vet sample)
More freebies in the mail.. dog food sample, a Tide pod, and dont ya love those free magazines.
Organized my coupon binder, and made a nice Valentine dinner at home.
Prayed for ladies on this site for peace with finances.
Glad you are feeling better!! Being sick is no fun especially when you’ve got energetic kiddies at home!
Yesterday I deposited several rebates into the bank and went shopping…lol. I bought my husband some coffee for his Tassimo brewer…it’s been sitting lonely on our counter for a while and it is his fav and I used a $10 of $30 coupon. Also picked up some necessities at Target….flour, sugar, eggs, cake mixes and things for the boys birthday tomorrow. Bought us all lunch at McDonalds….a little splurge for Valentine’s Day and we haven’t had it in a long time and won’t again for a long time….but used a coupon we got in the mail so that helped a little. My parents are throwing the boys birthday ‘dinner’ tomorrow so very little out of pocket will be spent on that. I think they realize we are pretty much broke until we get our tax money back. We usually live off of that during these months when it is hard for my hubby to get hours at work this time of year but we had an issue with our 7 month olds ss# so now we are waiting weeks instead of being able to efile like usual. Grrr….it seems it is always something….but I do finally have my husband on board with trying to save money. It took forever but he is so much more aware that every dollar spent on stuff we don’t need is one less for the things we do. Wish he would have listened to me years ago….lol….but now is when we really need it so I guess I’ll take what I can get! Thanks so much for this site! It has helped me to have a stockpile of groceries so during the hard times like right now….we don’t have to worry about finding money for food….we have all our meals planned through mid March and it is so nice to know that I will still have food in my pantry just have to restock the freezer by then. Thank you!!!
Today is the last day of going six weeks without spending on groceries (not compeltley true, as I did spend $20 for 20 packages of hot dogs!). Traded a hardback I got for Christmas and have read, for 3 dozen eggs with a neighbor who wanted to borrow it and then decided she had so many excess eggs from her chickens that she wanted to trade eggs for the book—bartering works for me!
Yesterday was a no spend day. I resisted the temptation to stop at subway/mcdonalds today. I did grab a bagel melt from wawa while I was there and split it with C. Since couponing I just can’t see spending that much for 1 meal most of the time. Its a good thing, both better for my wallet and my waist. I got my produce and a few small items for the week today as well as I had to get the boy shoes because his current ones are both getting too small and the velcro no longer stays closed so they fall off his feet all the time. We got 2 new pairs at walmart so that should last him a while.
Karen, I wanted to ask you where the new aldi was? I looked it up and it says the closest one is in pottstown which really isn’t all that close to me but if there was a new one near thorndale I would love to check it out.
Yesterday was a no spend day. I was able to request a $25 Amazon gift card from swagbucks. Entered what felt like endless diet coke caps points. The sight was extremely slow but I was bound and determined to take advantage of those double points! lol Hubby surprised me by sending me chocolate covered strawberries for Valentines. Prayed for the finances of all ML2S readers.
Yesterday was not a no spend day. Tyler had a temp. crown put on –hmmm? thought we already did that & this was to be his permanent one–but we have to go back again to get that done. $377 I did use our flex spending acct. Austin got evaluated by a different dentist that takes both of his insurances. Got 2 free Alexis sweet potatoes at Target, 6 bottles of free Ken’s dressing at Heb, free bacon (q) & a feew extras at Kroger.
Made taco salads for Valentines got the kits to make the taco shell bowls on clearance $.99 for 4 picked up 2. My family loves taco salad.
Gave my daughter $ to take one boy to lunch while I was at the dentist with the other.
PS. great mail day for you!!
Mmm, we love taco salad too. Now I must make it
It’s pretty healty too.