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: Yesterday was a nice, family day. Ro and the girls were off with me for the last day before heading back to work/school today. I took the girls to their free swimming lesson before lunch. I finally broke down and went to the doctor’s office. We have a $20 copay and I wanted to try to get better on my own first. Apparently I’ve been suffering from Asthmatic Bronchitis, which is pretty much what I figured. I got 2 different inhalers and am already starting to feel somewhat better, so I guess it was money well spent. The doctor gave me one of the medications as a sample, so it was FREE !
Ro spoiled me again by making dinner. It was nice to have a break from it. I did some other jobs while he was tending to dinner. Ro has really been wanting an iphone 4s. We both have iphone 3′s and that’s more than fine for me, but he really wanted one, so I left it up to him. After dinner we headed over to At&t to trade his phone for the one he wanted. The guy at the store told him it would be $99 for a new phone. He decided on his own that he didn’t want to spend that much money on a new phone when his current one is fine. I was perfectly willing for him to get it because he has waited quite a while to get it, but it was totally his decision.
I spent some time putting together Target and Rite Aid deals for me for today. We are low on ketchup and I am hoping to snag 4 FREE bottles at Target. We are also low on laundry detergent and there are some good deals to be had. I had a nice reminder this weekend about why I fill out for all of the free samples. I actually didn’t realize we were so low on detergent and we do a lot of laundry over the weekend. I was able to do all of the laundry just using sample packs of detergent. I plan to replenish our supply today.
What did you do? Leave a comment We’d love to hear about it You could make 2013 your year. Who will the February winner be ? We’ll see…
Did Target deals yesterday. My son was almost hospitalized over the weekend for his asthma (he has viral asthma which means his asthma only really flares up when he gets sick). Ever since then I have felt out of control finacially. We spent extra money eating out because I was drained after being in Urgent Care for 2.5 hours. I am hoping this week I will start feeling more settled down and back on track with money!
Yesterday was a low spend day. Funny that you mentioned laundry soap, since that’s exactly what I bought! I had $15 worth of register rewards from Walgreens that were due to expire, so I bought 8 bags of Purex pods for a grand total of $1.88. I then went to Rite Aid to pick up a prescription (free with insurance) and use $1 UP reward that was also expiring. I spent $1.32 on a gallon of bleach. Trying to keep my spending down in anticipation of what we might owe for taxes. Prayed for the finances of all ML2S readers.
I’m holding my breath on the taxes, too. I cannot imagine how we could possibly owe more than we’ve already paid, but…
You aren’t kidding there! While I’m very thankful for a healthy income, I wish that Uncle Sam wasn’t quite so greedy with it.
So glad you are on the mend! And Ro is so sweet to cook for you again…you deserve it! It sounds like you both make a wonderful team. Yesterday I was able to use 2 coupons to snag 2 free books from my son’s Scholastic book thing. I did it online and it did allow me to purchase the 2 free books (one was a 2-pack of I Can Read Books so we got a total of 3 books for free) without spending any money. Score! Also, I have a friend who really needs to boost her income and she has been selling on Ebay for YEARS and does great at it, so I went thru my house and found 20 items to give her. She is going to do all the work of listing them, and we will split the profits. Win/win for both of us!
It is great that you are feeling better. I have asthma and haven’t had a flare up in a while. Thankfully!! But I am always waiting….lol….it usually happens after my meds have expired and I haven’t refilled them. My husband usually helps with cooking and things on the weekends when he is home and boy does it feel good to not have to cook even if it is for just one meal!! No money was spent here yesterday and hoping we can keep it up but tomorrow is my 7 month olds neurologist appt w/ a copay of $25 and I’m hoping to maybe hit target for ketchup and other deals….we’ll see.
Yesterday my office took everybody out to eat for lunch so I had a nice non-fast food lunch for free. I was tempted to stop and get a coffee on the way home but I resisted. I really need to do better at resisting those tempting little things.
Well I didn’t make my three day no spend day but I didn’t spend a lot. I needed to go to the grocery store. I only spent a few bucks but got enough food for us and baby for the rest of the week. Sold an item on eBay and well be mailing that out today. A new store/eating place opened up a week ago and the hubs keeps getting free coupons at the fire department for free food so that what we well be having for dinner tonight. I have to admit, the days when I don’t feel like saving my 12 yr old keeps me on track. I tell us that kid is going places. Hoping to list a few more things on eBay and not spend any money today. Still doing good with not smoking, but Lord knows I could smoke one mile long. Hope everyone has a great day.
Well it almost was a no spend day but then one of my friends called to see if we would like to buy some girl scout cookies from her daughter so I bought 3 boxes to help her out…no if I can just stay away from them-lol! I put a pork roast in the crock pot in the morning so we had bar b q for dinner and it was yummy. We had so much left over that my hubby took extra to work and I took extra to work to share with co workers. I have been so busy getting ready for the huge 3 day consignment sale we have here 2x a year ( I am a consignor) and tonight is drop off and tomorrow is my shopping day-consignors get to shop before it is open to the public. So I will be spending some money tomorrow but I also should be able to buy everything for my little man for summer for awesome prices.
Traded in my 450 swag points for a $5 Amazon gc. Ordered some of the 44c cards for upcoming birthdays and Easter.
Prayed for ML2S families on this site, that we would attract $ and not repel it.
Getting so frustrated my Mac will not print out Target coupons…Ive uploaded the current version of Java to no avail. Is it tacky to go to a neighbors house to print out coupons??
Talked to a surveyor about our property, he quoted me $2,000 for a current survey. What?? So I searched thru our closing docs 8 yrs ago and found enough info about square footage and property lines to list our home..although a formal survey has not been done since 1931.
Also, found a ‘out of work’ carpenter(friend of friend) that can help us with small projects on our tight budget. Hubby is working WAY too much to have time for projects. He is exhausted and sleeps a lot when he is home form a trip. Thru the grace of God, we are both determined to get rid of these shackles of debt once and for all.
Went to target yesteday for the ketchup, and cereal deals I was only able to find 1 bag of valentines M&Ms but the regular ones are on price cut too so I just grabbed a bag of them, they are for my son’s party next month and I’m trying to get as much as I can with deals ahead of time. Today will either be a walmart day or a no spend day, I haven’t decided if I want to go there yet but I do need to this week so its just a matter of which day.
Finished our taxes and we are getting $101 back! Not much, but beats paying in. Last year I was much better about keeping track of mileage spent on charity volunteering and for work; never realized it would make a difference of several hundred dollars. What else has my laziness or ignorance cost me? Sheesh.
Spent $3.25 for two loaves of day old bread. Had my nieghbor’s son with me, while she had a medical appointment, and the bakery clerk gave him a cookie and “here’s one for your grandma, too!” I need to dress better, I am in my 30s!! (But I did not give up a free cookie!)
I held my breath and took some catalinas into Kroger that expired on the 16th. I had $9 on them, and I hate it when I let those things go! Anyway, they scanned them and thankfully, they went right through no problem. So I bought two bags of things for $2.31. Whew!
Sun & Mon the hubby & I went to Louisiana to the casino–alone. We had a comp room & it’s nice to get away. We ended up winning on the penny slots. It paid for our gas, dinner on Sun. night, dinner on Mon. night. Breakfast/lunch was comped & we came home with extra. Yeah!!