Child support check two weeks late and ex won't give any money

[Hound dog]

Yeah. big bear is right. I honestly can NOT stand the Extreme coupon show. I admit, it did get me interesting in at least giving coupons a shot.........but after the first show, I was pretty much done with it. Extreme is just plain too much. It's not necessary. And frankly, I get ticked off at people who go in and wipe out sale items so that other people can't get a good bargain too. These are tough times and to me that is just plain selfish.

 

[DammitJanet]

I think that Extreme Coupon show has ruined the coupon deals for the rest of America. Now a ton of stores have limited coupons to 10 per customer per day and around my town no one doubles at all. We used to have one store that doubled but now they dont. I wasnt even attempting to use coupons when they doubled so I missed out all together.

I have to admit I havent been able to figure it out yet. I tried and ended up spending more money than I was supposed to...lol. I got all confused and just made a huge mess of things. I am horrible with math now because of my brain injury and I just got confused. I am sorely considering making a trip to visit Lisa and have her take me around and teach me. I think seeing it in person would be better. Also I think a little vacation with a board buddy would do me good...lol.

I know this couponing works though. I know too many people who do it and save a ton. I need to figure it out because we spend anywhere from $125 to $150 a week in groceries a week and there are only 3 of us in this house. That doesnt even count us eating out and the times we run back to the grocery store for stuff we forgot to get the first time we were there. Its awful. Now a good deal of that is 2 liter soda's but really those can only cost but so much. Tony swears I am getting one of those new Soda Machines for Xmas. I dont think that is gonna make things much less expensive unless he can find the Co2 a whole lot cheaper than the small canisters that come with it. Those are only good for 30 2 liter bottles. I figured it out and it averages out to about $1.00 a 2 liter. That really isnt that good because there are times I can find them for 99 cents a piece but the issue is not every week. I keep saying we need to buy a months worth when we find them on sale for 99 cents. And yes, I have tried to find coupons for Diet Coke. I cant. Now if I could actually get one of those store style drink machines, then I could really do drinks at home much cheaper but those are pretty expensive to set up . About the cheapest one I have seen would be about $350 or so to install in the kitchen for a single tap. Its cheaper to put a beer kegarator in. If I was just beer drinker I would have no issue..lol.

 

[DaisyFace]

I think that Extreme Coupon show has ruined the coupon deals for the rest of America. Now a ton of stores have limited coupons to 10 per customer per day and around my town no one doubles at all. We used to have one store that doubled but now they dont. I wasnt even attempting to use coupons when they doubled so I missed out all together.

I agree. The stores really started cracking down and cutting back after that show gave couponers a bad rap. There are deals - but not like there used to be...

 

[Californiablonde]

Janet I hear ya on the high grocery bills. There's only three of us in our house too and I usually spend $120 a week on groceries. This is not including lunch money for difficult child 1 for school. Luckily difficult child 2 gets free meals at his school but my income is too high at difficult child 1's school. AND I buy generic almost everything! I need to start doing something different cause what I'm doing now isn't working!

 

[InsaneCdn]

CB... just so you feel better... I'm feeding four of us - not counting medications, and not counting the dogs - and it's a minimum of 250 a week. (prices are higher here... by a LOT).

But... time to look at what you are eating.

We buy almost nothing boxed or prepared. It's all from scratch. Even pancake mix is from scratch (not hard). As soon as you are paying for somebody else's labour, the price goes up really, REALLY fast.

 

[Hound dog]

Calblonde, you can also learn to make your own laundry soaps and cleaners. It's not hard and it's tons cheaper than buying it.....unless you find a super sale/coupon thing, which I haven't been seeing as much with household cleaners and laundry soap. (guess they figure everyone wants clean house & clothes lol )

I used to buy all my food at aldi's unless somewhere else had a major sale that made an item cheaper than aldi's. I don't mind generic, sometimes I actually prefer it. I will pass up any coupon deal if I can pick the same thing up in generic either at aldi's or somewhere else. But you have to be careful with generics, often, they're NOT cheaper than name brand. This is where the price books for things you buy on a reg basis come in handy. I can look at my price book.......if a coupon deal is not better than aldi, forget it. I'm going for paying the less amount I can pay, I'm not trying to impress the neighbors lol

There has been a crack down because of that stupid show. At least around here it's not so bad because while folks started out like crazy people with the coupon thing (seriously, they were stealing coupons out of papers!!) It didn't last long. It takes time and effort. Thankfully, most people are lazy. lol That and our economy is in the tank here, totally and folks just plain ran out of money....even for coupon deals. So stores didn't have to crack down too bad.

Janet, I would've had trouble due to my Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) if I'd not had easy child to learn with......she kept me from making too huge of mistakes in the beginning, that or standing in the isle for an hour trying to figure out what it was I was supposed to be doing. lol

 

[AnnieO]

If both difficult children are in the same district, they should both be on the same meal plan. Something's not right there.

I make Jett take his lunch... We can't afford it otherwise. And we don't qualify for ANY assistance.

Generic's good, but if it can be done completely from scratch, sometimes that's better. NOT ALWAYS. Mostly, though...

 

[Californiablonde]

StepTo@ they are not in the same district. I find that buying food for lunches is just as expensive as buying school lunches. At least that's the way it is for me. And difficult child 1 is like me. We don't like sandwiches. It's just easier for me to have her eat lunch at school. I do make her breakfast, though.

 

[InsaneCdn]

CB... what, exactly, are they eating for lunch then?

I've got one kid that takes sandwiches or wraps... and another that would rather eat cold leftovers. Either way works... and here, it is a tenth the cost of buying school lunches.

 

[Californiablonde]

difficult child 1 hates sandwiches, hates wraps, and hates left overs. It's just easier for me to have her eat at school. She tires of food really quickly.

 

[InsaneCdn]

You didn't answer the question, though... what DOES she eat, then?

 

[firehorsewoman]

Janet I hear ya on the high grocery bills. There's only three of us in our house too and I usually spend $120 a week on groceries. This is not including lunch money for difficult child 1 for school. Luckily difficult child 2 gets free meals at his school but my income is too high at difficult child 1's school. AND I buy generic almost everything! I need to start doing something different cause what I'm doing now isn't working!

CB, I have been following your thread and hope that you get your check soon. Also hope that things improve for you long term as well. It must be so difficult for all of you to live like that. by the way, as a person who pays child support let me tell you it can be just as difficult on the "non-custodial" as well. But, don't want to hijack your thread with that topic so will leave it at that.

What struck me about this particular post was how sad it is that so many of us are cutting from our grocery budgets! Just today I looked over what I have spent for the month just to be sure that I am within my food budget which sadly continues to decrease. I have spent about $250 this month for me and the two kids. My kids are here about 10-12 days per month normally but since I have been unemployed I have had them more. Still, they are not here full-time and I try to keep our food/household goods/OTC medications below $350 per month including cheap $5 pizzas purchased as treats and any meals that we are forced to eat out. We have spent a bunch of time at medical facilities lately and many times have not had a choice but to purchase food there but whenever possible I pack a lunch for difficult child or me in order to save money even at the hospital.

What makes me sad by the fact that so many of us are severely limiting our grocery budgets is that food plays a huge emotional as well as nutritional role. Sure there are some healthy lower cost options but there are way more delicious (and healthy) pricier ones in my opinion. I'm not saying that we should all be able to dine on champagne and caviar but a nice piece of salmon and some organic produce would be nice. Variety based on choice and not finances would be nice for a change. Just not in the budget though. Also, I hate the feeling of denial that pinching pennies at the grocery store brings. Still it is a choice I make too just because it is the one expense I have some control over.

 

[InsaneCdn]

FHW... some can't do this, or can only with difficulty... but fresh organic produce can be next to free: plant a garden. I'm growing a small one in containers about 30 inches round... fresh greens, carrots, radishes... and they are fairly easy to care for.

And as for delicious? well... we just gave up our favorite store-bought breakfast bread. I'm back to making home-made totally-from-scratch recipes and... when I offered to go get some of that old favorite for a treat? I was told, in no uncertain terms: "Don't you DARE".

We get our treats... like, buying a little premium pizza meat, and making our own from scratch. It costs way more than our "usual" fare, but way less than the cheapest fast-food treat we can come up with.

You're probably thinking "easy for you, you're a cook". Well, I'm NOT. I can read a recipe, but I'm NOT a cook. I can put on a decent meal for company - but it takes me all day. Anything that is "a bit of this and a taste of that", is out of my league completely. But... if I can learn to cook stuff that a family will turn down restaurant meals for... anybody can. The only valid impediments are: No stove, or physical limitations.

The only reason my food costs are so high is we live in Canada.

 

[DammitJanet]

I could never do bread and I think it would cost me more. I tried once with a bread machine and it must have been a dud that was a malfunctioning because I never did get it to make a loaf of bread even when I bought those boxed mixes that should have been fool proof. That thing went to a thrift store. The only time I make anything to do with bread is those rolls that come in a foil pan and you put in the oven. Very little chance for messing up. LOL

My grocery store sells bread in a 2 pound loaf for about $1.50. I could probably do even better if I went to the day old bread store. We used to go there sometimes and get these bags that they call "animal bags" which are just stuffed with older bread and sometimes sticky buns which people feed to hogs or even dogs or chickens. We fed them to the chickens but first we went through them because they had a bad habit of just taking them off the trucks to fill them up. We would find perfectly good bread even if it was a bit squished. I would toss that stuff in the freezer and use it for french toast, regular toast, bread pudding, etc.

 

[Hound dog]

I agree with IC.

easy child and I each planted gardens this year. Nichole was in an apartment until late summer (2nd story), still she planted a container garden of fresh veggies they use often. I just got 1/4 a bushel of green beans out of my "experimental plot" as it was planted really really late in the season, obviously didn't hurt it a bit with a little tending......and I discovered they like the spot I picked out really well.....because there are really not that many plants there. My carrots have gone wild..........since easy child's had failed completely I thought they wouldn't even grow. My grandkids have been munching on fresh broccoli, cherry tomatoes, and strawberries most of the summer.......and still are. (they unusual kids, they like it like candy lol ) I grew my tomato plants in 5 gal buckets with a hole punched into the bottom for excess water drainage......worked pretty well considering the weird weather we had this year. I've got cabbages and peppers too........did zucchini that easy child made into bread. Grandson Darrin is all puffed up because he managed to grow pumpkins at Nana's house from seeds that were left on the ground from last Oct's pumpkin carving......and he has his first pumpkin now the size of a melon, when he just really got them started the end of July beginning of August. easy child did potatoes and onions in her flower beds because she ran out of room in her garden plot.

The cost of living is going to go up....and keep going up for quite a while due to the drought, wild fires, ect..... If you can plant some of the fresh fruits and veggies you love to eat, it saves a ton of cash. You can learn to can them too and store them away to eat later, or freeze them. Best of all, it's good for you, all the way around. There are tons of resources on container gardening and regular gardening online, complete with videos to show you how. I wasn't sure how to know my carrots were ready......I found a video about it, so now I know. Simple. (never grew carrots before)

I walk in to the produce dept and nearly want to faint.

Also, before trimming the grocery budget.......look over the rest of the budget to make certain it can't be trimmed first. Look around the house to see if there aren't ways to reduce the monthly utility bills. Make it a habit to turn off lights when walking out of a room, don't use them unless you have to. I'm currently sitting at my computer desk and the rest of the house is totally dark. Unplug appliances when not in use. Buy a water savor shower head. Turn the thermostat down a few degrees, or up a few degrees if using AC......better yet, get used to the heat and skip AC all together. Check the weather stripping on doors and such.

Hmm. Maybe we need to start another ways to be frugal thread.........

 

[DammitJanet]

Hound....start a row of collards right now. They will be ready around thanksgiving and xmas. You can blanch them and freeze them to use them all winter. This will probably be the only thing we grow this year. We have completely brown thumbs.

If you need a wonderful recipe for collards I can give it to you but at first, all you have to do is clean them and remove that middle vein and chop them into pieces like cabbage and parboil them to put them into freezer bags in meal sized portions. Gallon bags are about a meal sized portion if you are having 4 people, half gallon for 2 people. They shrink down a whole lot.

 

[Hound dog]

Oh, goody Janet! With the cleaning I'm doing now, I should be able to get them in this week. I'm holding you to that recipe by the way. I love to eat them, no clue how to cook them. lol

 

[Californiablonde]

difficult child 1 will only eat hot dogs and spaghetti-o's and they have to be hot straight from the microvwave or she won't eat them. What kills me is how eating healthy is so darn expensive. I bought three chicken breasts and a side of veggies last night for dinner and the whole meal was $12. We could have gone to McDonald's and gotten two things each off the dollar menu and spent $6. I don't like to do fast food so much because we all need to lose weight plus fast food is a bunch of empty calories. Spaghetti is the only thing I can make for dirt cheap. Buying meat? Forget it. Plus right now I have no choice but to shop at Ralph's by my work. It's on my way home so I can sneak and go there after work and just hide the groceries in the trunk. Even with my rewards card the groceries are still expensive, and like I said before, I mostly buy generic. I used to go to Walmart and my grocery bill was only $80 to $90 a week so I saved big there. Unfortunately, Walmart is not on my way home so I can't drive there till I get my license back. Luckily, once I get my first paycheck and start earning income again, I won't be struggling. It's just hard right after summer when I haven't worked for two whole months.

 

[InsaneCdn]

Chicken breast is doggone expensive. The only way we get that is if there are whole chickens on sale at a really good price and I cut them up myself. Drumsticks, thighs, and legs, are cheaper.

Lean ground beef comes on sale at a good price - it's a better value, usually, than regular... because regular can have up to 30% fat, while lean can only have up to 10% fat.

Most of the time, we live on chicken legs and ground beef. Last week ground beef was on sale, this week it's chicken drumsticks.

The other cheap but easy-to-prepare source of protein is eggs. (legumes etc. are also good... but way more work, you have to know how to cook with them, and your kids have to like it...)

Small one-meal packages of meat cost more than "family" packs, too.

Hang on... I was assuming you bought and cooked from scratch... what do you mean by "a side of veggies"? If vou're buying from the deli at the grocery store... yes, that can be more expensive than fast food.

 

[Californiablonde]

Here in California, anyway, lean ground beef is way more expensive than the non-lean. I buy turkey meat. At Walmart it's $2.50 a pound which is pretty cheap. As far as chicken, it has to be white meat for me. I can't stand dark meat. Yuck. It doesn't help matters that I'm very picky when it comes to food. There are certain things that I just won't eat. As far as veggies, I buy them frozen for $2.00 a pack.