Saving Money & Warm Bodies

A couple weeks ago I was thinking about ways to save money since we are living off one income and money is tight. We are fortunate enough to have saved a lot of our money when there was just the two of us making it possible for us for me to stay home with our daughter. But the truth is, we can’t keep digging into our savings forever (and I really don’t want to.) Maybe I’m naïve but I always thought that once Jesse graduated from college jobs would come to him left and right. This has been far from the truth. We are STILL trying to find Jesse a job within his major (Communications—specifically organizational.) And it’s tough to admit, but we’ve used more of our savings than I like. This is in no way a desperate cry for financial help because if you know me you know I’m a very frugal person (and thankfully Jesse is as well.) When I say money is tight really what I mean is we’re spending more than I’m comfortable with. Technically, we are doing better off than most people our age with or without a kid. But I'm not going to lie, I would be pretty grateful to just break even right now.

Anyway, back to the point of all this. I was grocery shopping at Walmart (ugh, so wish we didn’t need to shop there) the other day and I had on my grocery list avocados. I took a look at the price of them and  cringed. I guess I wasn’t getting avacados this trip. I must have had my expression all over my face because this wonderfully cute old lady says to me, “3 for a $1 at Reams. Price match it.” Oh yeah!  I had forgotten all about the price matching Walmart does! I grabbed myself 3 avacados and repeated in my head that they were a dollar so I could remember to tell the check-out clerk. I was uncertain if I needed to have the ad and didn’t know how this whole thing worked. I put the avacados on the counter last and right as the lady was going to weigh them I told her the deal on them. She smiled and kindly typed in $1. Well that was easy! I went home, locked myself in our room hopped on the computer, and basically became obsessed with finding all the deals I could find.

I thoroughly prepared for this week. I made a menu (as I always do each week) with all the dinners I was going to make. Then I looked through all the advertisements for each local store and wrote down the ones that applied to my menu. Back when Jesse and I were newly weds I came up with the idea that each shopping trip our max spending was $25. Jesse loved the idea and it’s stuck ever since. Some weeks were nearly impossible but for the most part we’ve managed to keep our $25 rule. And yes, this rule still applies even now that I had a child (excluding formula, but there is nothing I can do about that.) Obviously in the future, with more children, I will need to adjust this, but for now it still works since I just make her solids from whatever fruits and veggies I decided to get for the week.  

I was going to save roughly $20 dollars with all that I found.

Jesse and I went to the grocery store to give this new price match thing a try. Unfortunately, many of the items I wrote down were not sold at Walmart but I still walked away with some savings on the items we did find. We saved $7. Now to you, that might not be a whole lot, but for this tight budgeted, stingy folk bunch, we jumped for joy! In our mind this $7 meant going towards formula for Penelope or gas. Or a date. which I kindly hinted towards Jesse ;). $7 dollars is a big deal for us.

And I think I want to start internet couponing.  Don’t be surprised if you see me on one of those shows about being obsessed with couponing in the near future. I am hooked.

I also just finished a new book! It was so good I finished it in 5 days which is a record for me now that I have a baby (and I baby sit our nephews who are 4 and 2 on Tuesdays and Thursdays which is also my pathetic justification for not reading as much.)

You’ve probably heard of it because it is a somewhat newly released movie: Warm Bodies. I had watched the movie first (which I hate doing) but the book, as always, was so much better.

 

Warm Bodies is about the world becoming zombie infested. The main character, who can only remember the first letter of his name, is “R” and has been zombified but is unsure of how long ago and how it all happened. He has always been a little bit different than all the other zombies but he still has the same major drive as everyone else: the need to eat human flesh. While attacking a group of teenagers and under strange circumstances he meets Julie, who is a living human. He kidnaps saves her from all the other zombies and over time they start to become friends. With this newfound friendship he starts to…change.

I loved this book. Loved it. The story was compelling for so many different reason. Had I not seen the movie I wouldn’t have known what was going to happen. But best of all it was comedic, depressing, with a love story, and a touch of inspiration. There was even a moral to the story. Even though R is a zombie, and thus kills people, you end up liking him. I loved that it was different from so many other zombie books I’ve read. I loved even more that this was actually a book I could recommend to my husband since the love story wasn’t sappy or the main premise of the book.

I would have given this book 5 starts had it not been one of the foulest languaged books I’ve ever read. The author drops the “F” bomb at least 75 times. If this isn’t a problem for you then I guarantee you’ll enjoy this book at much as I did, but if you’re like me and can’t stand excessive swearing than you might get a little offended by it. The biggest swearing offender in the book was the character Julie, which is probably why I had a hard time liking her. She was a little too tough for me and I would have liked to see a kinder side to her. There is also a small amount of talk on sex but really, it’s minor and I don’t think makes or breaks the book.

This is the best book I’ve read since I read the Divergent series. I definitely recommend this for older readers!

How do you save money?

What would you rate Warm Bodies?