Organic Soy Milk at Aldi

Aldi now carries Organic Soy Milk (vanilla and chocolate) in their Fit & Healthy Line. The cost is $1.29 per quart. It was very yummy on my cereal this morning.

It's not you, it's me

Yesterday I couldn't find anything I wanted for breakfast, so I left a few minutes early and ran by McDonalds. Yes, I know that eating McDonalds is not healthy, weathy, or wise, but y'know, sometimes you just don't care.
Anyway, I ordered an egg and cheese buiscut, a hashbrown, and a small Coke. And it didn't really taste very good. I hadn't had a McDonalds breakfast in probably about six months, and I was actually looking forward to the salty, greasy goodness. The sandwich was too salty, the hashbrown was bland, and the Coke... well, the Coke was good, but you can't really mess that up.
So, did McDonald's change their recipe, or did my tastebuds change because we have been eating less processed foods and more homemade stuff?
I don't know the answer to that, but I do know that McDonalds is much less of a temptation after yesterday.

Should I stay or should I go?

So, do you all think I should go into work tomorrow or not?

Making Monthly Payments Weekly

Brent and I have a car loan and we make our payments weekly instead of the traditional monthly. When we got the loan, the banker told us that this would save us some money, so we said okay. I always wondered exactly how much money we would save, so today I sat down and figured it out.

Our loan was for about $14k
Weekly payments - total of $1530 interest - loan would be paid off in 3 years and 10 months
Monthly payments - total of $1975 interest - loan would be paid off in 4 years and 8 months

Wow. That is a significant savings - almost $450 - with zero extra work.
We are not paying any extra than if we were making monthly payments. The banker just took our monthly payment and divided it by four. It comes automatically out of our account so it is the easiest debt we have ever had to pay off.

This was just for a $14k car - can you imagine the money you would save if you did this with your mortgage?

All this for $70

Went to the Scratch and Dent Store to refill our pantry, and came home with all this food for $70. The cost at the grocery store would probably be $200 or more. A lot of this is organic - for the same price as the non-organic stuff. Deal of the week? 28 boxes of organic macaroni and cheese for $.25 a piece. Mmmmm

Happy Valentine's Day

I hope everyone had a great day yesterday, and found something frugal to do with (or to) their lovers. :)

Brent and I had a romantic dinner of taco pizza and peanutbutter swirl ice cream. He said that my cooking was better than a restaurant's. Awww. He knows just what to say. :)

Buying Drugs

No, not that kind....

Brent had to get a prescription that wasn't covered under our insurance. So I went to Walgreens, like I always do. It was $1000 for the name brand and $250 for the generic. The pharmacist said I could ask my Doctor to write a letter to the insurance company, asking them to cover this one prescription for us. The Doctor told us to call around for the cheapest place. I had no idea that different pharmacies charged different prices for drugs. I thought it was regulated, I guess. So I called a neighboring town and their small pharmacy only charged $90 for the generic. We decided to go there.

Here are my tips for drug buying...

1. Shop around - even to neighboring large cities.
2. Ask your insurance company to insure this one thing (need a Doctor's note for this)
3. If you only need a few, you can ask the Doctor for a sample.
4. Sometimes you can buy a higher dosage for cheaper and cut the pills in half. You can't do this with all pills, so you have to ask your pharmasist and doctor about this.
5. Sometimes buying online is cheaper. Drugstore.com for our prescription was $160 - cheaper than Walgreens, but not cheaper than small town pharmacy.
6. Although contrivercial, buying from Canada is not illegal.
7. Stay informed. If it is not drug that your life depends on, do some research online for effects, side effects, other treatment options, etc. Don't just pop any pill your Dr. hands out to you.

Done with your taxes yet?

I had all of our taxes ready super early this year (like, before April 1st) because I knew we would have to pay in and then we would have some time to save for what we owe.

Brent and I do have an accountant, but I try to understand as much as I can so I can make it easy on her and us. So I got all the necessary stuff, and I was looking over last years forms, and I noticed that we had paid SS tax and Medicare tax twice for our housing allowance. Its kind of long and complicated how this works because Brent works for a church but is not a pastor, so there are all kinds of crazy tax rules that are just for us. Oh joy.
So anyway, our accountant checked into some things for us, and we did overpay last year. She is going to amend our 2004 taxes for us, and the amount we get back will probably be enough to cover what we owe for this year. Praise God! I was so worried about trying to find the money to pay for this, and now it might work out.

So here are my tax tips:

- Pay close attention and learn as much as you can about your taxes. I know it's a pain in the rear and it is really confusing at times, but it's worth it to know what's going on. I did our taxes last year (probably why the mistake) and our accountant checked them for us, but it was so valuable to learn all the laws and codes. This year i was super-organized because of what I had learned last year.

- Aim for nothing. Nothing to pay in, nothing to give back. If you always get a refund, that's a free loan you are giving to the government, and more that could have been on your weekly paycheck. If you always pay in, that's a huge chunk of money you have to come up with in a short amount of time. Either way, you can ask your employer to adjust how much you pay from each paycheck so you can minimize your April 15th payout or refund.

- If you tithe, or give to the church, don't do the EZ form. All the money you donate can be deducted, and it has made the difference for us every year between paying in and getting a refund.

- Start working on your taxes in December. I know this is kind of late advice, but the earlier, the better when it comes to tax time. Not only will you be able to file right away, but if you need to make any extra purchases or financial adjustmnets, you will be able to take care of them before the year closes.

Happy filing! :P

Debt Milestone

As of today we are halfway done paying off our business loan!!! Yay!

Started Netflix - woohoo!

Last night, Brent and I were sitting on the couch, staring at the blank TV screen, when Brent sighed and said, "I miss cable." We have gone nearly a month with no TV, except movies we have rented or borrowed from friends and family. I suggested some things we could do, but none were really that appealing. Then I remembered that we had gotten a Netflix gift subscription for Christmas (Thanks Chris and Holly!). We spent the next hour or so browsing and picking out movies for our queue. Our first movie ships today - Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence. Can't wait!

When the gift subscription runs out, we will most certainly keep getting Netflix. It was one of the conditions to getting rid of cable. There are cheaper options, but we chose this because it is most convenient. Movies at the library are free (or cost $1 for a week), but they don't have good selection and often the discs are scratched (at all the suspenseful parts of course). We have a Blockbuster and Family Video in the area, but the movies cost $1-$3 for only a few days. With our busy schedule, sometimes we don't get a chance to watch for a while. Also then you have to get in the car and drive somewhere and make sure you have cash (for Family Video, anyway). Just a pain in general.

So we're getting Netflix. It may cost some, but even the most expensive plan is $30 cheaper than cable. And I say it's a good deal.

February - Second thing you can do to improve your diet

On a message board I frequent, some ladies and I are going on a health journey based on this article - 10 Things you can do to Improve Your Diet We're taking one thing each month and making it a habit.

February is eliminating Partially Hydrogenated Oils

Fats are good for you. They help you have healthy skin and hair, regulate your metabolism, and support your nervous system. However, oils and fats are difficult to transport because they go bad quickly. So someone devised a way to chemically alter oil so it would last much longer. Thus, making vegetable oil in to Crisco. The problem is, that while regular oils and fats do good things for your body, Partially Hydrogenated Oil does nothing for you, and your body can not use it for anything (execept more padding on your bum, I guess). Plus, it has been linked to heart disease, cancer and diabetes.

Unfortunately, this stuff is so hard to avoid. I went grocery shopping and had to read every label. It was in every cookie, snack cracker, baked good, bag of chips, and frozen convenience food that I picked up. Also I found it in macaroni and cheese, cream of mushroom soup, and cake mix. After lots of reading and putting stuff back on the shelves, I was able to leave with a PHO-free cart.
Here is a link to a list of foods that commonly have Partially Hydrogenated Oils and foods that don't.

It's going to be a long month...