Stretching Every Dollar

The couples that I am mentoring want to stretch every dollar that they can. Noreen and Bruce want to get themselves out of debt and financially fit. The Jones want to save for their dream house. Both of them can do it with some restraint on their spending and with cutting expenses. However Noreen really needs to get a job so that they can get rid of the debt. She has been looking for a few weeks. She was called in for a second interview for a job last Friday. I am hoping she hears back soon.

Noreen and Mrs. Jones are both doing the grocery challenge. Noreen only spent $22. last week. They pretty much ate from her pantry. Mrs. Jones spent $31. which is on target to be below her monthly budget.

I didn’t think that Mrs. Jones could lower her budget. But she was not signed up for any of the grocery rebate programs like Fetch, Ibotta, Checkout 51, Saving Star, etc. So she has done that and is checking her grocery list before she goes shopping to see if any of the things she needs are offering rebates on those sites. Noreen already belongs to all of those sites. But she has resolved to checking them with her list before she goes grocery shopping. She had not been doing that very often.

Right now if you join Fetch Rewards 
and use my Referral Code of JQ5QH, you get 3000 reward points as do I. This is good through tomorrow night.


Using rebate sites, doing wine and beer rebates, saving bottle deposits, credit card reward rebates, and Ebates, I have managed to accumulate in cash and gift cards a total of $1108. that I have saved toward Christmas gifts and other associated costs. It has been well worth my time and effort.


Both couples have resolved not to buy packaged or prepared foods and to make their food from scratch. I have talked at length with Noreen about how she can do that when and if she is working. She will use her crock pot and pressure cooker to cook up their meals for the week on Sundays. She will also make double batches of entrees to freeze so that she can have a meal ready when she is rushed. I relied heavily on both of these things when I worked. My Sunday afternoons were spent cooking. It made the whole week of meals so easy. 

Both couples are going to skip eating out and getting takeout at least for the month of September and see how that goes. It will free up some money to pay off debt for Noreen and Bruce and to save in their house fund for the Jones. They have both resolved to do that and not spend it on anything else.  

I think they are off to a great start! 

Today is my grocery shopping day so I am off to do that as soon as I eat brunch. I have made myself a scrambled egg, sausage, cheese, and salsa wrap using ingredients leftover from breakfast yesterday.