I'm on a mission to never buy a razor blade ever again.

No, I'm not becoming a hippie and planning to never shave. I'm just tired of buying razors because they are so expensive!

Razor blades are one of the few things we have remained "brand loyal" to. I've been buying the Gillette Fusion blades in bulk at Sams Club for as long as I can remember simply because they come out to about $2.63 per blade, and unfortunately, even with coupons and sales I rarely have been able to find them for a cheaper price anywhere else. Additionally, my bald husband shaves his head every other day, and there is a specific kind of blade that he prefers - HeadBlade, which is difficult to find. Sometimes I can find them at Publix, but usually I buy them at drugstore.com. He goes through a Gillette blade every 6 days, and a HeadBlade blade every 10. I buy Gillette blades in packs of 16 and HeadBlade blades in packs of 4 (I buy 2), and they both last us about 2 1/2 months. That's almost $60 every 2 1/2 months for razors. I am just TIRED of spending that kind of money.

**Grumble Grumble** I didn't realize until doing the math to write this blog just how BAD it was. I thought I was buying them every 3-4 months. Crrraaaaaaaaaaaaaaap.

About 2-3 weeks ago, we stocked up on blades....and then I found this. I wont be buying the Razor Pro, but I'll probably go with the blow dryer approach since it's a product I already have. I do recommend that you click the link for the Razor Pro, to watch the video on how razor blades break down from being wet with water. Also, if you read the comments posted, one person mentioned leaving the blade in a cup of baby oil between uses. I may try that too, because it seems to me that baby oil would protect the blade more than simply drying the blade would.

I don't know if this works, but Clark Howard swears that he's been using the same $0.17 razor blade for 2 YEARS now. I'm gonna give it a try. I'm tired of spending an average of $20+ a month on razor blades between the hubby and I. I could do a whole heck of a lot with an extra $20 a month if we can make this work. It's just going to be a matter of making it habit to take care of the blades properly.

Big News, More Couponing, and updated budget

Fabulous news! As most of you already know, we paid off the last 2 credit cards, and for the first time in over 10 years, we have NO credit card debt whatsoever! All that we have left is a consoliddation loan, and to pay off Jonny's car. We feel very confident that we will be able to do this by Christmas, and will be able to spend Spring building up our fully funded emergency fund, as well as a down payment on a house. Our goal is to be house hunting by Summer 2011! WEEE!

We've also cut our food and household budget because of the use of coupons and looking for savings. I looked back at my post from about a month ago, when I said I had spent $89, and just shook my head. These days, my shopping trips are more in the $40 range, and I have become successful at "flipping" my bill. I dont go shopping for what I need that week anymore. I go shopping for things that we use, but are also on sale. I stock up on non-perishable items. For example: Hamburger Helper. Normally $2.00 a box, today, they were 10 for $10 ($1 each) and I had three $0.75 off 3 coupons. So I bought 9 boxes for $9.00 - $2.25 = $6.75. 9 boxes at normal price of $2.00 each would have been $18.

I don't buy things just because I have coupons or just because they are on sale though. I buy things that we use, but the key to couponing is definitely to not be brand loyal. I have stocked up on laundry detergent, toilet paper, paper towels, and personal toiletries in the last month and have spent just a little bit of money doing so. They are all different brands, depending on what was on sale when. I have a good 6 months of toletries and laundry supplies stocked up right now.

I also buy more "treats" now, because I can. Jonny and I LOVE brownies....we dont make them all the time, but I'd rather buy them when they are cheap, rather than when I'm having a hankering for some, and end up paying $3 or $4 a box for the "good stuff." Today, the Betty Crocker Hersey Brownies were B1G1, and I had a $0.75 coupon off 2. Price came out to $1.02 per box. So, in short, todays trip to Winn Dixie prior to them swiping my loyalty card was $83.33. After swiping the loyalty card, and applying coupons, it dropped all the way to $37.80.

I look at grocery shopping completely differently now. If it's not on sale, if I don't have a coupon, and it's not something I can't live without for the next week, the I don't buy it. Such a different approach to grocery shopping than I used to have...

I'm still trying to find a cheaper way to buy Gillette Fusion Blades, which is one thing we ARE brand loyal to. Jonny and I both use these, and currently, we buy a pack of 16 at Sams club for $42, which comes out to $2.63 a blade. I've been looking at target, walmart, cvs, publix, winn dixie, etc, for a better price, but even with a $3 off coupon (cant use coupons at Sams), the cheapest I have found at those places are $3.00 a blade. So...until I find a better price, I guess Sam's Club will win for this particular product. If you have any suggestions for me, please let me know!

Here's the new budget. Since the last time I posted, we have lowered the cable bill, lowered the food and grocery bill, upped the medical bill. The snowball has changed as a result of no more credit card debt, and anything left over at the end of the month will also be tacked on to the NFCU Loan until that one is knocked out as well.

--------Incomes--------
A Disability 123
J Disability 123
GIBill 1518
Paycheck 1051 (after tax)
Paycheck 1051
Svgs Allotment 100
Svgs Allotment 100

--------Charity--------
AXiD 10
Church 300

--------Saving--------
Savings 443
Sinking Funds/NFCU 300

--------Housing--------
Rent/Water 794

--------Utilities--------
Electricity 150
Mobile Phone 142
Cable 85
Storage 40


--------Food--------
Food & Household 300

--------Transportation--------
Gas & Oil 125


--------Medical/Health--------
Medical 75


--------Personal--------
A Blow 100
J Blow 100


--------Debts--------
Student Loan 126
Corolla Loan 276
NFCU Loan 700

Buying Groceries

We went grocery shopping today. Bought some stuff at Sams Club (the only wholesale club here in Columbus) and some other items at Winn Dixie.

I like Sams because I can get items that we use alot of in bulk and freeze it. We get 90/10 ground beef at $2.89 a pound. I bought a 7 pound package, and separated it into 9 smaller ziplock bags. I used to separate it in 1 pound portions, but over the last several months, we've realized that a whole pound of ground beef for the recipes we're cooking is a little bit more than we need. So we decided to package them a little smaller - 3/4 pound packages or so. This way, we get more meals out of the same amount of beef. Even for recipes such as Hamburger Helper, 3/4 pound of meat will be plenty.

Wholesale Clubs are great for getting deals in bulk. I got a 5 pound bag of rice for less than $5 (which I separated into smaller ziplock bags, too) and a pork roast that I cut in half before freezing. I'll be able to put it in the crockpot with some veggies for an easy yummy meal. We also buy hot dogs and separate them in smaller packages and freeze the rest. We do the same with bread and buns. My deep freezer is the best $160 investment we ever made, because we have the ability to buy in bulk and don't have to worry about it going bad before we can use it all.

I wasnt able to buy chicken breasts today. The Sams brand fresh boneless skinless chicken breast were on sale $1.77 a pound, but they were out. I was told they'd be getting more in on tuesday, so I'll have to go back. I could have gotten the name brand for $1 more per pound, but I can wait 2 days to get the better price.

At Winn Dixie, I bought things that you can't necessarily get at Sams. I'm trying to get better about brown-bagging my lunches for work, and cutting out the fast food. My Blow money was going towards lunch - fast food lunches, and thats one thing I'm trying to cut back on this year. I know I can cut out fast food, I've done it before, I can do it again. I bought cans of soup and some of those microwave meals for a decent price. A $2 can of soup is cheaper than a $5 value meal at the drive through (and it's more healthy). I also use coupons - but I ONLY use coupons for items I would have bought anyway. There's no point in buying a random item with a coupon if it's not something you need. However, even if I have a coupon, I still compare the store brand price. If the store brand is cheaper than the name brand, even with the coupon, I'll buy the store brand. I bought Chef Boyardee Ravioli cans for 10/$10 today. Usually, they are $1.25 each, and the Store brand is $1 each, but today, I was able to get the name brand product for the store brand price. YAY!

Using store sales, and coupons, I bought $120 worth of groceries tonight for only $89. I also like that WD allows you to buy BOGO (buy one, get one free) items for 1/2 off if you only buy 1 of the items. Publix (the other big grocery chain in my area) doesn't allow this - you have to buy both items to get the sale.

I'll probably go to "the bread store" one day this week. The bread store is a discount bakery. 1 day old bread that is no longer on shelves at the major grocery stores. I dunno about you, but I can't eat a loaf of bread in a single day, and if bread is only 1 day old, I would much rather buy it at the discount bakery - where I also get a 10% military discount. Woo! I can get a name brand loaf of bread that's normally $3 a loaf for about $1.20...sometimes less. I can also get bagels and buns. I usually spend about $12 at the bread store - and I come home with 6-8 loaves of bread and several packages of bagels or buns in the process. It's a STEAL! Here's another blog I found about the benefits of going to a discount bread store: http://getoutofdebt.org/1123/where-to-buy-really-cheap-bread