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 think I’m puppy sleep deprived. He did better on his 3rd night, but not by too much. I shouldn’t complain because overall he is doing pretty well. It’s a good thing we waited until the girls were a little older because whew, it’s a ton of work. We have a fenced in backyard, but I’m leery to put him out there until he gets a little bigger when I’m sure he can’t fit through gaps if there are any.
I did run to the grocery store to get a few things. I only spent $15. I made/packed all meals. I made breakfast for dinner, which was a huge hit. I can always count on everyone cleaning their plate when I make it and I wasn’t disappointed. The girl’s had a little rollerskating party for school at the local rink. It was $8 for both of them, but it was worth every penny. They had SUCH a good time. It was the first time they skated and although there was a lot of falling initially, they got so much better in one night. I couldn’t believe it. I did spring for a drink afterwards because they were so thirsty, but it was well worth it. They had a great time with their classmates.
After skating I ran over to the girl’s school for a uniform exchange. I brought their gym uniform sweatshirts and exchanged them for the next size. It’s quite a savings because I think they are $38 each at the store. I was notified that I won my first Sweepstakes, YAY! It’s not a huge prize or anything, but it’s a case of a product that we like and use (value around $40!). I was happy
I couldn’t go to my WW meeting last night because of the skating party, but I was kind of proud of myself because I did work out for about 1/2 hour yesterday. I’m going to try to fit it into the schedule every weekday. I was pretty tired from all of the events of the day so I went to bed without doing ANY surveys ~ shame on me.
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…
I found a great deal on chicken breast so I made homemade chickfila and sauce. A huge hit and I only used about 1/3 of the chicken so I froze the rest. Total cost about $4. Otherwise no spend.
For 4 people, including hash browns and salad. The boys had homemade cookies for dessert that I’d made Sunday.
No spend day for us yesterday!!!!! I am debating about buying a rice cooker. I am wondering if anyone owns one, what brand it is, and whether or not you like it. Of course I would not buy the super expensive ones and only buy one with gift cards from survey companies. Oh, how the times have changed. Have a great day everyone!
Amy,
I use my rice cooker at least once a week. We have a small one, but it makes plenty of rice for the six of us. I love it because the brown rice turns out perfect every time. We also cook quinoa in it. Mine is about 5 years old and still going strong.
I bought a NIB one from the Goodwill several months ago and I have (gasp!) yet to use it. It also has a steamer tray in it so I thought it would be good in the summer time to use with veggies from my garden.
I bought a rice cooker and it soon became part of the clutter of other appliances that I bought but could have easily done without. I use my crock pot to make rice and it does just as good a job and i have one less thing to find storage for…
When I am thinking about whether to buy something, I try to remember this quote I read on a finance blog: In light of all the things I already have in my life, will this purchasemeasurably improve my life? I had gotten out of the habit of thinking that way and a freind recently reminded me of it. FOr you a rice cooker might be it, but for me it turned out to be a waste of money.
Karen, with lack of sleep from puppy, exercising yesterday, shopping, skating party, uniform exchange, cooking meals, etc….you should not feel one ounce of guilt for taking the night off from surveys…you “earned” it!!!
Yesterday we spent money grocery shopping and then at the pharmacy for prescriptions. That was all.
Spent money for groceries. Dang baby formula and diapers are expensive. If we didn’t have to buy those then we would get out cheap. Oh well, baby has to eat and have a clean hinny. Hoping to not spend a dime today. Paying more bills. Oh what joy.
Sent our taxes off to the accountant. Hoping for a big refund!!!!
Prayed for blessed finances for families on this site
.
Got some free goodies yesterday @ the mall
3 free cliff bars @Sports Authority($5 gc they emailed me)
2 free shoelaces and one arch support @Famous footwear($5 gc)
1 free trial size lotion @Bath&Bodyworks(coupon, no purchase neccesary)
Free pizza.. code from Papa Johns(coin toss winner)
20oz soda @ Subway(Prize for their game)
samples in the mail
4 orders of pancakes @Ihop..left a tip and small donation
free poise wipes@Target($3 off coupon)
Also got 3lb bag of Purina One almost free(Stacked coupons @Target)
Laughing at myself because I made the goal of not buying anything but gas and groceries til March,
Ive been doing great at this..if you dont count buying a house!
When we sell this home, we will have half down for the new one, 15 yr mortgage.(2.75% interest) double payments and we will be totally debt free in 7yrs!!! Gosh I wish we applied all this stuff when we were first married.
Oh Christy,
I think the same thing about getting started on a budget! We would be debt free by now (17 years) if we’d lived the first 14 like we’ve lived the last 3. I hope my boys are paying attention- I talk to them all the time about money, budgeting, wants v. needs…
I know what you mean. I think the word “free” was one of the first words that the girls could read ~ ha ha
Ha ha, funny. Well a 15 year mortgage is great, we have one too. That would be amazing to pay it off in 7. We are hoping to do that as well. I agree with you about wishing that you started earlier, but better late than never
Yesterday I did my drugstore deals. Thanks to the great deal at CVS, we are stocked up on TP for quite some time. You still have me beat with how many cases you have, Karen! lol At Rite Aid I spent a whopping $0.97 on coffee and a case of water! With Spring right around the corner (at least according to the groundhog! lol) I’ll be too busy to do much shopping, so we’ll be living off the stockpile. Gardening is calling my name. Can’t wait! Prayed for the finances of all the ML2S readers.
I cannot WAIT to get my hands in the soil this spring. It is really like therapy for me- I stay out until it’s too dark to see anymore, piddling around in the garden. I think it’s one of the many reasons I hate the winter- I hate being cooped up inside with nothing to keep my hands and mind busy. The bonus is the free organic goodies that come in every day!
What do you plant ? I’m revamping my gardening plan for this year.
Spent a whopping .69 yesterday for somethings I ordered on amazon. I had 25 in gcs so I just had a little tax to pay. Today was another good day, I went to cvs and came home with 8 items for .59 oop and I got 2ecb back for next time. I didn’t even have to use my Ecb from before. I’ve also been collecting rebate checks for a while and I finally cashed them for another $84, that $ is already put away to be used when needed. I reworked our debt playoff plan due to the fact that we’re getting more back than I thought so I think I can have my first debt paid off by the end of march.
We bought lunch meat and muffin mix today. We also had our first meeting with the Elementary schoold that our grandson will attend in the summer for Early Pre-school kids that are special needs. As soon as we got there, the fire drill went off and we had to leave the building but besides that he did really good. I worked on some surveys and earned a few swagbucks. I too have been praying for everyone on ML2S.
Thanks for the prayers. That’s great that you are investigating early pre-school. When kids have special needs it’s great to get an early start. Hopefully the fire drill didn’t freak all of the kids out
Whoo hoo!! Congrats on your first sweepstakes win. That is actually pretty big-a case, not just one. Yeah!!