Savings in April

The earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof; 
the world, and they that dwell therein.

Psalm 24:1 KJV

Some of you read my post on saving money in March. If you haven't already and you would like to read it, you can do so here.  I wasn't going to do another post about savings this month but I had a couple of really great cost savings and I wanted to share.

Over the weekend I was lamenting the bare freezer and lack of meat in it for my roommate who eats a lot. Also the coffers were quite bare and wouldn't take much of a hit. There was virtually nothing on sale last weekend meat-wise or food wise. Since I've been sick with cold all week I didn't have much time to address my mind to how to solve this problem. Well God is good.

After reviewing last weekend's flyers and finding nothing, I was so blessed this week to find chicken on a great sale. Chicken legs (drumstick and thigh) were on sale for $1.00 a pound. This is a virtually unheard of price so I sent my roommie off to the store to bring home about 33 pounds of chicken.

This has now all been re-packaged into servings for two and there are also 3 larger packages for making larger dinners ahead of time or for inviting someone over.  Altogether I counted 20 packages of chicken.  Tomorrow we may get more to fill up the rest of the freezer.  This protein source will be supplemented with pulses like chick peas, navy beans and kidney beans and a few other meats like minced beef and a bit of pork.

On the top and bottom are the bags of chicken, red items on the right are bags of buckwheat to put on tired muscles, bags of ice and frozen fruit for smoothies on far left.

Normally, I try to make oat porridge and this month I have added Cream of Wheat to the stocks.  But I also like to have cold cereals on hand for those days when I want a change. I was able to purchase these two boxes of cereal (below) for $2.99 each. This is a savings of almost $3.00 per box of cereal.  The box of cheerios is made of whole grain wheat and the bran flakes are full of fibre.  For other wheat type products I hope to buy 5 kg. of flour for $6.99.

Flour as well as many other staples like meat have really soared in price over the last many months. I don't know exactly when it happened but it is certainly noticeable at the food stores.  Sometimes the cost of steak, chicken, and other meats/fowl is more than double to what it was selling for over the summer even.  Flour has also doubled in price so I do not buy it unless it is on sale. I remember when I could purchase 10 kg. of flour for about $10.99 and you now pay that for half the amount of flour. Has this happened where you live too?  I think it is a world wide phenomena. I'd heard that pasta prices were going up long ago due to the cost of wheat and semolina flour much of which comes from Canada but I don't know how the prices have increased in other countries as a result.

I like having fresh fruit on hand but always look for it on sale. Here is a box of clam shell strawberries for $2.98 (I often get them for $2.50 a box) and a bag of red grapes for $2.45. I won't pay more than $1.99 per pound of grapes and they don't come often at this price. I got these ones for $1.50 per pound. Perhaps I should have bought a bit more and freeze some for snacks. They are good cold. Have you ever eaten them that way?

I like avocados in a vegetable sandwich or in a salad and in home made guacamole though I haven't made the latter in a long time. I thought 3 avocados for $2.00 was a fantastic buy as they are often $1.50 per avocado.

 

I also got 5 large lemons for $2.00. I like using lemons in cooking and in adding to tea or coca cola to cut the sweetness. Other good deals this week were two packages of chocolate chips for $2.50 per package.  These will be great for making cookies and/or squares. Another good deal was a small package of dry salt pork for $1.78 for the next time I want to make baked beans.

I was also able to replenish paper towels at 6 rolls (70 sheets per roll) for $4.99.  I prefer at least 80 sheets per roll but you get what you can, when you can. Toilet paper stock was added to by purchasing 12 double rolls of 270 sheets per roll. This paper cost about $5.99 on sale and is made from recycled paper.

In surfing the websites I like to frequent, I was directed to this video and this short, thought-provoking article entitled "Are You an Over-Buyer or an Under-Buyer".  I enjoyed it a lot and thought you might too so you can find it here.  I know I am most certainly an over-buyer which is why I have clutter. I like to be prepared for all things and sometimes take it a little too far. As the woman says, one "type" is not better than the other. We each have our challenges and I am trying not to overbuy where it isn't necessary.

In my earlier post on savings I mentioned that I hadn't yet got around to seeking a reduced interest rate on my credit cards.  Well I did get up the effort this month on one card.  The bank agreed and brought down my interest from 12.99 percent to just under 6%. Can you believe it? That is more than a 50% reduction in interest rate and I could have had it much sooner. I hadn't realized until I made the call that I was on a fixed interest rate, not a variable one. I feel blessed for having found this out. While I know that interest rates are intended to go up, it is not likely to affect this credit card rate anytime soon. At least I will have some breathing room on the interest accruing on the unpaid balance.

I added about $2.80 to the Snowflake Jar Fund. When it reaches $200.00 I hope to help a woman entrepreneur in Kenya to expand her business by giving her a loan. Once she pays back the fund, it will be re-loaned to another woman and so on. The challenge will be to find women who can benefit from a loan this small as Kenya is fast becoming a very expensive country.  This will be my little contribution to helping women in the developing world.  I'd love to have you join me in this if it is something you would be interested in. Write me and I can tell you more.