I don't think I did too bad but I should try to keep to a budget of $50.00 per week or less. We're having to make do on $200 less per month that our son was paying for room and board plus I now have an added monthly expense of about $39 per month for Obamacare. I chose the absolute cheapest plan that didn't have an outrageously high deductible. I could have chosen one of the zero monthly premium plans but the deductibles were thousands of dollars. The one I have has a $500 deductible. If I don't end up having to use the insurance at all this year, maybe I'll switch to a zero premium plan next year. That would save me over $450 per year but that's assuming that the rates don't go up and/or my subsidy goes down next year.
Also, our son is going to have our U-verse TV shut off soon because he was paying for that. We'll keep the internet, which we've been paying for. But, if we drop the TV, AT&T is going to start charging $4-5 more for the internet if we don't bundle it with something else. So, we might pick up their "Voice" phone plan. They have a $25 one that is only a dollar more than our basic phone service now and it would give us up to 200 minutes of local and long distance. Our current plan is $24 per month but then there's another $4.99 for long distance service plus any long distance calls that we make. And, on top of that, we are paying another $17 in fees and taxes. Basically, we're paying about $44 per month even when we don't make any phone calls. It's crazy how much phone service has gone up in the past few years. Ten years ago, the plan that we're paying $24 for now was only $4.55 per month. It's called "measured service" so we can only make so many local calls per month before we are charged a small fee per call. In over 30 years we've never gone over that limit because we rarely use the phone. Anyway, I think we will save at least $10 per month by switching to U-verse phone service plus we'll save another $4.00 on our internet by bundling the internet and phone. We don't own cell phones and the phone plan we have now is the very cheapest option that AT&T offers.
Here's the break-down for this week:
FOOD TOWN (Tuesday):
- 1 package pork steaks @ .99lb - $2.31
- Ground beef @ 1.99lb - $6.07
- 10 ounce bottle Kikkoman soy sauce - .99
- Garlic - .36
HEB (Tuesday):
- 1 jar salsa - $1.98
- Quart heavy cream - $3.56
- 2 bags pork rinds @ $1.49 each - $2.98
KROGER (Tuesday):
- Ground beef @ $1.99lb - $22.72
- 12 CARBmaster yogurt @ .40 each (minus 3 free coupon + 10% discount) - $3.24 (.27 each)
ALDI (Thursday):
- 2 8-ounce containers mushrooms @ .79 each - $1.58
- 3-pound bag onions - .69
- 16-ounce bag frozen thin green beans - $1.49
- 8 ounce Colby cheese - $1.99
- 2 bags pork rinds @ .99 each - $1.98
- 8 ounces sliced smoked cheddar - $2.69
- 1 dozen eggs - $1.19
KROGER (Thursday):
- 16 ounces shredded mozzarella (sale price 3/$10 + 10% discount) $3.01
- 2 Hormel giant pepperoni @ $1.00 each (minus $1.00 coupon) - $1.00
- 16 ounce Kroger Deluxe American cheese (on sale for $3.49 + 10% discount) - $3.14
GRAND TOTAL FOR THE WEEK - $62.97
Linda:
ReplyDeleteI've enjoyed reading your posts recently, but never see any comments. Do you mind if your readers comment, or do you prefer we don't?
Thanks,
Maria
I don't mind at all and there are quite a few comments scattered throughout my blog. I do moderate them though and have to approve them to keep out spammers.
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