Deals to Meals Review

I mentioned a couple weeks ago that I'd signed up for a new service offered in Colorado (and 12 other states) called Deals to Meals. Basically, they scour our local grocery ads every Wednesday and create menu plans out of the best sale items. They also recommend which non-perishables and freezable items are at their lowest price so you know when it's a good time to stock up.

I LOVE this service! What a great idea! I've been in such a rut lately with my menu plans...pizza, tacos, pasta, etc...and had reached a point where I just wasn't excited to cook or eat dinner. In fact, Nick had figured out that if he called me around 4:00 p.m. and casually suggested he pick something up on the way home from work, I was likely to agree. Not good for our budget or our waistlines!

Now, I have healthy recipes (including side dishes) scheduled for every day of the week and I'm always excited to try them! Everything that I've made from Deals to Meals has been delicious. My pantry and freezer have been filling up the last couple weeks without increasing my spending. I love that the entire plan is done for me so I don't have to think too much before going to the grocery store :).

The service costs $4.95 per month (after a 2-week free trial period), but if I refer any of my friends I can get a year of free membership! So if you decide to try the 2-weeks free trial then please let me know!

Deals to Meals

When I left my full-time job on Baby's due date, I instantly became a more frugal person. We knew that money would be tight living on one income, and after cutting back on all of our little luxuries, I realized that the last area of our budget with any wiggle room was groceries. I got really into couponing. Did you know that couponing is a verb? To hard-core coupon ladies it is. You know the ones; the lady holding up the line at the grocery store while the clerk calls the manager over to argue about some restriction on triple coupon day. That was me, for a while. I followed Coupon Mom's system and even printed my grocery list (for visits to several different stores) on an excel spreadsheet every week.

As I learned more about cooking, though, I eventually gave up on clipping coupons. I discovered that the best way to save on groceries is to cook from scratch whenever possible. No coupon on canned beans will ever beat the cost of cooking dried beans. You'll never find a sale price on bread that's cheaper than your own homemade version. I'm sure I lose out on a couple awesome deals, but couponing is just not worth the headache anymore!

Having said all of that, though, I did just discover an intriguing new service called Deals to Meals. They, like several other services including Coupon Mom and The Grocery Game, help you create a shopping list by identifying items at their lowest sale prices. What makes Deals to Meals unique is that they also provide a weekly menu plan created with items currently on sale and some that may already be in your food storage. They also identify the quantity of each item you should purchase if you'd like to stock up on enough for one person or family for one month or even one year.

The cost of the service is $4.95/month, but I just signed up for their free 2-week trial to check it out. It seems like a good idea for those of us who are fed up with coupons but would still like to save on groceries. I'll let you know if I am sold!

Mint.com

Nick came across the most AWESOME personal finance website I've ever seen. You have to check it out! Mint.com brings together all of the information from your online banking, credit cards, loans, investments, and property. My favorite feature is the budget tool: you input your own monthly budget, and Mint pulls your transactions from your bank and credit cards to compare your actual spending to your budget. It also prepares a variety of helpful graphs, such as trends in your spending, income, assets, debts, and net worth over time.

Nick makes fun of me for my...well...tight-fisted-ness. I used to update excel spreadsheets monthly with all of this information, so this website makes the job much easier! Not only does it save me time, but it also provides some neat tools. For example, in the budget section you can choose that some categories "roll over" from month to month. This comes in handy for some things, such as my "gifts" category. In one month, I may have two baby showers and a birthday to buy for, and the next month nothing. I can set the same monthly budget and if I don't spend it this month, it will carry over to be added to next month's budget. Love it! They also send email alerts whenever you exceed your monthly budget for a particular category (so, we'll be getting emails about our dining out category pretty much every month!).

Of course, the site claims to be safe and secure (check out their information about this), and it's been named "Best Budgeting Site" by Kiplinger's magazine, and "Top Pick" by Money Magazine. All for free, too!

Payday

Wow, two posts in one day. I just wanted to pass on a bit of advice that I may actually be somewhat qualified to give.

Before becoming a stay-at-home-mom (does anyone else HATE that title? We need to come up with something better but I don't have any ideas yet), I worked in banking as a branch manager. Part of my responsibilities included looking through people's personal financial records for loan applications. I also got the fun job of deciding whether or not to refund overdraft fees for bounced checks and other mistakes. I learned the importance of keeping a monthly budget and watching my own personal finances closely.

Here is my little gem of wisdom for you. Nick and I decided a couple years ago to make room in our budget for personal allowances. Nick thinks that "allotment" is a less embarrassing term. Whatever we call it, I make a trip to the bank every Friday to withdraw our cash. Everything that's not an approved household expense -- monthly bills, groceries, medical expenses, gas -- must be spent out of our personal allowances. That includes dining out, clothing, entertainment, etc.

You may be thinking that having a limited weekly allowance would be prohibitive. It's actually quite freeing. If I want to buy a new handbag (my weakness), I don't need to sell Nick on the idea first. If Nick wants to buy a new video game (I will withhold my opinions here), he can save up his allowance for a few weeks or months until he can pay cash for it. I think this system has prevented many arguments and reduced the stress in our marriage.

This takes some restraint; "bigger" expenses, such as shoes or a new winter coat, can take a long time to save up for. We're far from perfect. There have been some interest-free loans and even a couple bailouts. Originally, we intended to have all gifts and dining out covered by allowances, but eventually discovered that my gift expenses were unfairly higher (Nick doesn't go to a lot of bridal or baby showers), and our Saturday lunch out tradition is now "on the house".

In the end, this system keeps our monthly budget simple. I have no idea how much we spend on movie rentals or fast food or gum or socks-- and I'd like to keep it that way. We are each responsible for our own variable expenses. Best of all, if we have cash in our wallets to pay for something, we know we can afford it. That cash has already been set aside in our monthly budget. It doesn't really matter how big or small our allowances are -- they've shrunk during tough times and increased with job promotions -- it's the feeling of autonomy over some small portion of our expenditures that makes a difference.

One bonus we didn't anticipate? A small gift for each other is extra special now. A candy bar at the gas station or a concrete mixer from Culver's represents a small, thoughtful sacrifice.

Anyway, this is what works for us, so I thought I'd share the idea in case it will help you!