Hey friends! It's been a while since my last post and YouTube Video. Its been a busy past few weeks with family visiting and my and hubby's work schedule changing. We've made it work but I do hace to admit that its taking some time to get used the adjustments of a 4:45 am wake up for me. On the other hand due to the change in schedule I was able to increase my hours at work significantly while still spending a majority of the time with my family since I am out of work by 11am. So it does have its benefits.
We had family come over to visit us form New York and that was so much fun but our budget did take quite a hit because of it. Though we tried to pre budget for all the things we would be doing with the family, the going out to eat, shopping, driving and of course extra mouths to feed worked out to be more than the extra we accounted into our budget. What I did then for the month of remainder of March and will do for as long as I can for the month of April, is strictly work with what we have at home. We did a Sam's Club haul before our family came out for hot dogs(80 ct) and burgers (48 ct), and had plenty left over after we had barbecued, we also had ground beed from and Aldi's grocery trip we got on sale. We also had a few chicken breast left over from our Sam's club haul that was over a month ago as well as 2 freezer meals left over. (If you would like to see the videos to some of these hauls here's the link
FrugallyLivingInTexas YouTube)So we've been making and planning meals using the ingredients we have on hand. The only things I have purchased to add to a couple of meals are frozen vegetable to bulk it up. In the past two weeks we have spend under $50 in groceries and household items. Some of the meals we have been cooking up Lemon chicken with pasta and salad, halal cart style chicken and rice, chicken pita sandwiches on homemade pitas, salisbury steaks with rice, pasta with ground beed and pasta sauce, pesto chicken, broccoli and rice, meat loaf and rice, sweet & sour chicken with egg rolls, asian style veggies and rice, boneless wings and fries, burgers and hot dogs. If you want to take a look at our latest grocery haul link is below check that out, I got some great sales and clearances at Kroger for just under $29. I will just be adding these things to what we already have to produce some meals and probably make a shopping trip at Sam's Club once we've made all we can. I'll be sure to share that haul too.
One thing we did accomplish last month even though we did spend a lot, was to pay that last credit card, making us CREDIT CARD DEBT FREE and it feels so good. We are still working on the car and student loans. When we purchased our car, it was our first car and we didn't really know whether we should get the extended warranty, so they convinced us that we should because we would not be able to add it on later and it would be good for us and so we added it. Increasing both our loan amount and monthly payment. When we needed our first car repair and the warranty did not cover, we came to the realization that the "protection" offered was very specific and would leave us paying most repairs out of pocket even though the extended warranty plan cost so much upfront. We felt cheated and like total suckers. But through some research we made a discovery, did you know you can request to have the extended service warranties cancelled so long as you have not made any claims under the warranty and you've driven less than the number of miles you were protected for or haven't met the number of years offered by the protection? Contact the place where you purchase your extended warranty for more information. Be wary that they don't like to take care of these matter very quickly because a commission was made from your purchase and they have to take a loss. We went ahead not totally confident about it and typed up the official letter to both the servicer of the warranty and the dealership we purchased it from and sent it certified mail with proof receipt. You must send a proof of the official odometer reading with your request to prove you have driven less than your covered miles and prove proper maintenance. If you have payed off your vehicle the money you are owed will come to you, if you still owe the bank on your loan they will cut a check to your loan servicing bank. We got our response last week and were told they have cancelled the warranty upon our request and a check was being sent to the bank our loan is with. A check worth just over $1900. Which means our loan balance will decrease by this amount. That is huge! I think that is just amazing and will really help us toward our debt free journey. So debt freedom here we come. Home ownership you are next.
Until next time.
