I Am Trying Emealz

I always hear emealz being advertised on the Dave Ramsey show but was never really brave enough to try it. I would always figure it would be no good to me since I don't have a family. However after putting off grocery shopping and going coupon stir crazy I just went ahead and took a dive right in.

Its $15 every 3 months and they do your meal planning and grocery list for you! Yes I can be lazy at times what can I say.... It has been a long time since I have really cooked (like real food) so its always challenging to make sure I get everything I need and not have to make trips to the store because I forgot an ingredient. With the meal time makeover you pretty much are guaranteed you won't need to return to the store until your next grocery shopping experience.

	Posted Every		Plan	Posted Every
Kroger	Sunday		Wal-Mart for 2	Friday
Publix	Wednesday		Any Store for 2	Friday
Wal-Mart	Thursday		ALDI for 2	Tuesday
Any Store	Wednesday		Publix for 2	Wednesday
ALDI	Tuesday
Ralphs

They also make it to where a lot of what you purchase that week is on sale and they tally up how much your total will be based on sales. I printed off 2 weeks worth of groceries, and the total would have been $150 dollars.

After getting mostly everything I wanted on the list (I edited it some) plus a few other items that don't relate to dinner I spent $138 dollars after coupons and savings. I don't remember ever having this much food in my frig or pantry all at once let alone spending $138 for at least $200 worth of groceries.

As soon as I got home, I started prepping my food. I cut up all the veggies and put them into plastic baggies so when its time to cook, it goes right into the pan. I also put all the meat and fruits into baggies so I could create more of a grab and go type situation so there would be no excuse for when I am in a hurry. Emealz is set up for people to shop once a week but since its just me I think I have enough to last me at least 2 maybe 4 weeks which is nice. Its going to be great to say bye bye to eating out for a long while!!

I may take pictures of my dinner creations so stay tuned and check out emealz if you have a free moment, I think it works well even if its 1 person or the Duggar family!

Decluttering & My First Couponing Experience

So I did tell you all a few post back that I was starting to collect coupons. After much consideration and anticipation I finally stepped out and used what coupons I had. I decided to go to walmart to buy all of my tolietries but later discovered I may have come out cheaper at meijer.

My total spent was $68 dollars and a savings of $11 worth of coupons. I got a LOT of stuff I never would have brought all at once had I not had the coupons. The only bad thing about this experience is that in discovering walmart doesn't double coupons I could have went to another store and came out a little cheaper especially with the $1.00 off coupons. All in all I had a lot of fun and I look forward to getting more coupons. However I must stress that couponing doesn't matter if you are not actually working a budget. You could say what I did yesterday was like someone having an expensive hobby, fun but not really benificial.


I haven't been on a budget this much and until I went grocery shopping yesterday I really didn't care. Im not over spending or anything but I am not really trying to keep close tabs on my funds, stress is playing a big factor in all this but I am trying to do some damage control before it gets out of control.

After I put all my shopping items away I started cleaning and realizing I had a lot of junk laying around I don't use. So I grabbed a big ole trash bag and started throwing stuff away. Over these next few months I want to get my life into a simple routine preferably one that doesn't cause me to spend lots of money thats not in my budget. I do believe once this house situation is done with I will have things a bit more under control, but for now I am going to do the best I can with what I got!!

Have you ever experienced a time where financial stress caused you to be sloppy in other areas of your life? How did you bounce back?