Would you like Green Beans with that???

This weekend was a Poor Little Rich Girls fieldtrip.  This week I was exploring ways for us to leverage our numbers (ok there's really only 2 of us) to buy things cheaper.  I started with ordering some peanut butter from Amazon using subscribe and save.

For those who aren't Amazon aficionados let me fill you in.  Amazon has this great program they call Subscribe & Save.  This program is cool because they give you a discount off their regular prices, plus free shipping, on items that you use a crap ton of anyways.  I love it for vitamins since most come in 6 month or less supplies so I can set it up to auto ship right before I run out.  The bummer is sometimes you have to order a lot, since it's Amazon (aka 6 jars of peanut butter), but if you have a buddy that makes this a lot more realistic.

Now back to the field trip.  Bright and early yesterday morning the Poor Little Rich Girls met up at their local Sam's Club to leverage their buying power and get some healthier eats (because quite frankly I cannot continue to have rice make up such a large portion of my food intake).  So we each spent about $25 and we got lots of delicious eats!

Here are our great finds!  A lovely assortment of bell peppers, 3 pounds of bananas, some Mediterranean hummus, a double pack of Bolthouse Green Goodness (we each got our own 2 pack), ORGANIC baby spinach (we each got our own), a box of larabars (not pictured here), and last, but not least, an industrial size can of green beans.  I mean this is serious green beans.  And it was less than $3.  We split it in 2 and it was still a crap ton (these are 7 cup dishes I believe).  Usually I prefer no salt added, and BPA free cans (and organic would be FANTASTIC), but alas we're trying to accomplish something.  I figure subpar green beans are better than the absence of any green beans.

"The Goods"

Our lifetime supply of green beans...

Happy Weekend!

<3 Jen

New Years Eve 2011... A lesson in Cost/Benefit Analysis

So up through New Years Eve I've been pretty much rocking the whole not spending money goal.  So going into the week I was all hardcore that I was gonna lay low for New Years like I did for Christmas, no big deal.  Then midweek when talking to a good friend I asked "so what are you plans for New Years".  ORIGINALLY she had said they probably wouldn't do anything since their best couple friends (me & the ex) were going through a divorce.

Oh no.  Apparently at my former residence everyone was having a party.  Well everyone except me.  I was obviously a little perturbed by that, particularly when the response was, "well I figured someone would have told you by now...".  No you kind of have to have people talking to you for that to happen...  But neither here nor there, my plans to be alone at New Years definitely held less no appeal.  So wtf was I gonna do???

So on Friday night I got invited to join a friend from college out with a big group for dinner then drinks at Blue Moon Dueling Piano Bar of course thinking of the Poor Little Rich Girls pledge to get our finances straightened out I initially declined dinner but figured I could meet up for drinks with them later.

Well after weighing the pros and cons with my partner in crime (a cost benefit analysis if you will) we decided the benefit of me not sitting at home being unhappy far outweighed the cost of a little financial slip up.  So in the name of happiness, and starting 2012 on a positive note, I changed my mind about dinner and went out for the whole night.

Although I'm not a huge fan of spending money I'm glad I did because the emotional "cost" of staying home alone was quite higher than the actual cost of ~$25 for dinner and drinks.

So we're back on the wagon this week, more brown rice is in the oven as we speak... Time to be continue our quest to financial awesomeness!

<3 Jen

How Much (Money) Do You Eat In A Day?

Jen and I were literally just talking about this in the break room as we heated up our pathetic  lunches. How much do we eat in a day? Money wise. So lets take a look at today, which is basically the norm:

Breakfast: Hy-Vee (Iowa grocery store) brand instant oatmeal. $2.09 for a box of ten packets. I eat one for breakfast so that equals about 21 cents per packet. 

Lunch: Spaghetti. AKA rotini noodles with marinara sauce. I will err on the side of caution and say I can get 4 meals out of it. Box of pasta $2. Marinara sauce $1. What we're poor remember? so each serving is 75 cents. 

Dinner: I  keep my dinners light usually like a PB&J Sandwich with a yogurt. Yogurt isn't as cheap as I'd like it to be. Usually around 65 cents a piece. Loaf of bread is $2.50. I can get like 10 sandwiches out of that so that is 25 cents in bread per sandwich. Jelly ( or preserves in my case, no sugar added of course) is $3.50 a jar. I can easily get 20 sandwiches with a jar. That's only 18 cents per sandwich. We'll assume the same for peanut butter too. So for one PB&J Sandwich it's 61 cents. 

Lets recap shall we?

Breakfast: $.21

Lunch: $.75

Dinner: $1.26

Total: $2.22 

That's it. Really puts things into perspective. Before I was buying frozen meals at $2 a piece because they were pre-made and convenient. However now after doing the math, I don't think I'll go back. Lean Cuisines will now be considered a treat. We get paid tomorrow (Woooo!!!!) and I know I won't be going grocery shopping with my usual list. Give it a try and figure out how much (money) you eat in a day. 

Cheers

Marisa

Merry Birthmas!!

Say what? Well for those of you that don't know me from my other blog my birthday is Christmas Day! So I'll be on hiatus until Tuesday when I get back from the Twin Cities. I'll be turning 27 this Sunday (yikes!) and while I'm not where I thought I would be financially, at least I know I'm on the right path and will be able to celebrate my 30th birthday debt free. Which will be the greatest present of all. So happy holidays everyone, see you when I'm 27!

Cheers!

Marisa

And the winner is.... Jason's Deli!

So the best lunch ever was to... Jason's Deli!  We got hummus AND guacamole as appetizers then I had soup and Marisa had a wrap.  We felt the need to document it because, quite frankly, it will be awhile until you see these two girls out at a restaurant...

So here's us getting there!  Marisa raced ahead because she wanted that wrap bad... lol

Here's us trying not to inhale everything before it hit the table...

And here's the "before"

And the "after"

Yes we left the crumbs on the table... although it definitely took self restraint :)

Happy (almost) Friday!

<3 Jen

Poor Girls Lottery

So today the Poor Little Rich Girls hit a jackpot!  It falls under a small victory, perhaps, but it was monumental in turning the week around for us both.

So we work for a pretty small branch office of a much larger, global, engineering firm.  But for being small we have a pretty diverse group of people so we often support larger offices as the need arises.

Anyways late Monday night one of the Project Managers that I've worked quite a bit with in the last 6 months sent an email to my boss's boss letting him know how awesome me and another employee in our office had been to work with and how he looks forward to teaming with us in the new year.  We were each copied so we knew he sent it.  I was kinda like hey cool, well hopefully when they review Quarter 4 performance my name comes up for a bonus.

Nothing else came of it on Tuesday so I didn't really think anything more about it.  Then today my boss came and congratulated me on the email which was cool I guess.  Then Marisa and I went to Target over lunch (heaven knows we weren't going out-out to lunch) and when we got back I had an email from my boss's boss.

This is quite a compliment.

Take a friend to lunch and expense it

Thanks for all your efforts

Soooo we spent the whole rest of the day super pumped to go out to lunch tomorrow :)  Back when money grew on trees (or magic cards) it would have been like eh, cool.  Nice to be recognized always but at the end of the day it's just lunch.  Now it was like OMFG WHERE ARE WE GONNA GO????  THIS HAS TO BE THE BEST MEAL EVER!!!! It's amazing how going awhile without indulging makes going out to eat seem like the most amazing reward on the planet.

So maybe it wasn't quite the lottery but today for us it might as well have been.

<3 Jen

Snowballs and Envelopes

No I'm not putting snowballs in envelopes. Because we have no snow :( However, I am toying with the idea of adopting these two strategies. I've known about them for a very long time and have always thought they were fantastic, but never actually implemented them. Probably would be a lot better off now if I had. Hindsight is 20/20 right? Anyways what am I talking about? First off the envelopes.

Frugal Dad wrote about this system in 2008. Yeah told you I knew about this for a long time. Basically the strategy being, when you get paid create a budget for say, food, gas, entertainment etc...and take out the necessary cash and put it in an envelope for each category. So instead of being out and about spending willy nilly, if you're wanting to go to the movies, you have to take out exactly what you need from the entertainment envelope. This will prevent you from going crazy at the concession stand and getting the jumbo popcorn, extra large soda and boxes of candies to boot. Your pants will even thank you for this one!

And now snowballs...

JD at Get Rich Slowly introduced me to the Debt Snowball maybe a couple years ago. I have to agree with him, it's the little victories that keep you going. So instead of organizing your debt from highest balance to pay off first to lowest, reverse it. Start with the smallest. It gives you a greater sense of accomplishment faster and helps keep your momentum going to tackle the next debt. 

I'm now wondering why I never adopted these strategies back in the day. Probably because I felt I had to keep up a certain lifestyle and would be too embarrassed to say "sorry guys, the entertainment envelope is empty. No bars for me." Now, if I have to skip the bars to stay on budget and pay off my debts so be it. Debt free before 30 here we come!

Cheers

Marisa