I just caught a wonderful show on CNBC called “Til Debt Do Us Part,” where the host goes on an intervention of people who are living beyond their monthly income. It was quite eye-opening. One of the tasks she has her guests complete is a net worth sheet. So, I ask: Do you know how much you are worth — or not?

I just did it myself, and was somewhat pleased to find we are worth about as much as 17 percent of the population (the third highest category). I find this funny because we have been living a very frugal life for about four years now since my income dropped to a quarter of its former glory. But I’ve always been one to live within my means, and that has meant budget cut after budget cut. But the calculation shows that it’s working. We still have no debt other than mortgages.

You can figure out your net worth very quickly by clicking this link.

Now if you happen to be in the negative, it tells you that you need to pay down debt and rack up savings/investments/real estate. Next you would need to look at your spending.

I cut our food bill in half by couponing. Shopping for clothes, household items, or gifts has been cut next to nil, with the exception of about $250 at Christmas. Travel ceased except for one annual weekend in Los Angeles, which I save for and usually pay off totally before we leave.

I do carry some debt occasionally (car repairs or business fees) but always pay them off within three months.

Yes, it’s tough, but it’s called living within your means.

I find a lot of people hold a sense of entitlement — they are entitled to have a newer car, entitled to buy new clothes, entitled to eat out when they wish. All they are doing is entitling themselves into debt, digging a deeper hole from which they will be lucky ever to emerge.

The first step on getting ahold of your finances is knowing where you stand. So I dare you to use the net worth calculator — it may not be pleasant news, but it’s the first step to improving your financial picture.

Another great Catalina deal at Vons this week! Buy four Ziploc containers for $1.99 when you buy four, then get back $4 off in a Catalina off your next order. But it gets better!

Add in the $1.50 off 2 from the May 16 Smart Source coupon flyer and and the 55 cents off 1, and you end up paying only 49 cents each for all sets of containers!

Here’s a scenario (and what I did tonight): Purchase the containers in one transaction. Then, using the $4 off Catalinas on the remainder of your order. I walked out with the remaining 13 items for $1.41 — 96 percent off!

I am really becoming enamored with these Catalina deals. Thanks to This Frugal Life for the tipoff on this great deal! Fan her on Facebook.

I know it’s going to be a good week at the grocery store when I get excited as I cut out my coupons, and tonight was one of those — I am going to get paid to buy cereal at Vons!

Beginning Wednesday, May 12, Vons has a special when if you buy four boxes of certain kinds of cereal, you get an automatic $4 off. This brings the price down for Corn Flakes (12 oz.) and Froot Loops (12.2 oz.) to $1 a box. But it gets better!

Print out two of these coupons for $1 off two Kelloggs cereals, and you will pay 50 cents a box to buy four boxes of cereal! You can find the links here or here or here. (And remember you can usually print the coupon twice.)

But it gets even better!

Purchase those same boxes of cereal through Friday, May 16, and you will get a Catalina back with your receipt for $3 off your next order at the grocery store! Now you will get paid $1 to buy the cereal!

Here is your one caveat: If you plan on buying eight+ boxes, be sure and ring them up under different transactions. You can just separate the order and tell the cashier you wish to do two transactions. Otherwise, you will only get $4 back in Catalinas no matter how many you buy.

Now if you think that’s a lot of cereal, please know it normally has a shelf life of up to a year, and the next time we will see cereal deals will be in September for “back to school.” It’s time to stock up again — this is working the 12 week cycle, like I did last week with the juice.

Gotta love getting paid to buy cereal! I will report back later on how I do this week — not a lot of great deals, but London Broil is at its lowest again at $1.77 (just after I ran out this week) and fresh chickens at 77 cents a pound. Working that 12-week cycle works!

My friend Kim was talking today on Facebook how she was doing her spring cleaning, and that gave me the inspiration to tackle two projects today — and both took less than 30 minutes. Tonight it was under the kitchen sink.
Now I keep a neat cabinet there, but I was still amazed at the dirt, gunk and nearly empty products I had when I cleared the cabinet. That was the first step. Next was to spray the cabinet bottom with everyday cleaner and just let it soak for about 10 minutes. Let the product work for you is my motto.

While the cabinet soaked, I consolidated nearly empty Windex with another one, and cleared out some cleaning products that were all gone or no longer useful (I had a bottle of furniture spray under there with no sprayer — what the heck was I thinking?!?)

Fifteen minutes later, the cupboard was sparkling. Before returning the items (in an orderly fashion) I sprayed the back of the cabinet with ant spray ’cause you know those buggers are coming.

A couple tips:

Like I said, I was surprised how dirty it was under there. I had probably cleaned it last about 6 months ago, but there were still rings on the base, as well as miscellaneous items that missed the trash can. But 15 minutes later, it was clean as a whistle — an easy 15 minute spring cleaning task.

To wind up the task (and while the cabinet spray was soaking), I gave the kitchen sink and faucet a good scrubbing, including running an old toothbrush along the edge of the sink and around the faucet to get any old gunk. A quick rinse and it was clean, too. … But, from the photo, I now see I need to touch up the window.

For more spring cleaning tips, just search “spring cleaning” on the Home page.

I surpassed my personal best at the grocery store tonight — 86 percent off and 33 items. $101 turned into $15! But I was kind of surprised by an email comment I received, “We would never drink all that juice.” Then I realized that people don’t know we’re not going to consume this in one week — I am buying low and eating low.

With a store special and Internet coupons, I got 10 juices for 99 cents apiece. Figuring one per week, we should run out just about the time another incredible sale rolls along — this is called using the 12-week cycle rule. Every product will hits its lowest price every 3 months. This week was the time to stock up.

You buy when items are at their lowest and then you don’t buy them for weeks — or even months. If they are free — or you are paid to buy them — you put it in your cart. Use it or donate it! Spread your good fortune around.

Betty Crocker had a great special — Buy 2, Get 3 Free — match with Ecoupons and manufacturer coupons, and I got paid $2.52 to buy everything! The Honey Nut Cherrios were $1.49, but minus two Ecoupons and one manufacturer coupon, and I got paid 61 cents to buy it. The Warm Delights are my Mother’s favorite — one kind was $1.99. I added an Ecoupon and manufacturer coupon, and got paid 1 cent to put it in the cart.

Don’t think I figured this all out on my own … I used one of the blogs from the Grocery Gathering blog group. In this case, This Frugal Life. I added in the body wash deal when I read it on another blog — got two for 49 cents, or 24 cents each. Oh and I scored on the Oscar Mayer lunchmeat — used a Vons in-ad coupon for $2.49, and then had two $2 off coupons from Facebook when I “liked” them — 49 cents each!

Let me tell you, when you score deals like this, you like going to the grocery store! So think ahead now to save a lot of money now and in the future.

There’s been an interesting sharing on Facebook on what we did when we had no money and needed to eat. It got me nostalgic, and I am curious what others did when “getting by” meant making meals of what you could find.

Thankfully, I always had enough food when I lived at home, but there were many lean years when I moved out, especially when I was unemployed and — literally — the only item I had in the pantry was a half-eaten box of saltines. I think that’s why I still always feel better when I open our pantry at home now. I feel like Scarlett O’Hara — “With God as my witness, I will never go hungry again.”

Times, again, are tight for us, but my shopping skills now with coupons allow us to enjoy plenty, and a variety, of foods.

But I am curious:

What did you do to get by when you had no money and were hungry?

I’ll start … when I was making $752 a month take-home and my rent was $400, my meals were pasta with Italian salad dressing, pork and beans with Yellow Wrap turkey wieners, and baked potatoes with blue cheese salad dressing. I lived for Tuesdays, when Whoppers were 99 cents!

So what did you eat to get by?

I was a block from Vons this afternoon, visiting my Mother, and I thought, “What the heck?” so I walked into the store and 10 minutes later walked out with $21 in merchandise and got paid $1 to buy it all, using the great Catalina deal on Windex and Scrubbing Bubbles that I mentioned in this post.

I threw in the coffee deal today - $5.99, had two, $2 Ecoupons from Shortcuts.com and a $1 newspaper one, and got the Maxwell House for 99 cents!

Used a $5 newspaper coupon on the Scrubbing Bubbles Extend-a-Clean (priced at $6.99), and then had an Internet coupon that when you bought an Extend-a-Clean, you got the refill for free ($3.99).

Used the in-ad Vons coupon for Windex for $1.99, and added in two Internet coupons for $1 off each. 99 cents each.

Then — got three Catalinas off my next order: One for $3 off (due to buying the Scrubbing Bubbles), $1 off for buying the refill, and $2 off for buying the Windex.

Grand total? They paid me $1 to buy it all! $21 in merchandise in 10 minutes time!

Oh man, the specials are so good this week at Vons/Safeway! I scored so great that I should have had a cigarette after! I got $109 in groceries for what will end up being $17.70 — 84 percent off!

Of course, what worked best was combining specials — combining grocery in-ad coupons, with manufacturer ones, combining manufacturer coupons with Ecoupons, combining specials with a rebate offer, and sometimes combining grocery store specials, Catalinas and coupons — to the point in several instances I got the product free or was paid to buy it!  

My main strategy in planning this shop was to use the Grocery Gathering blog, and the nice folks who volunteer to match up specials with coupons each week. By cross-referencing the three people who did Vons, I netted every deal that was possible.

These included:

But it gets better! I got paid to buy the following items:

I also bought one Jennie-O ground turkey breast and got the second one free on special. Going to mail in for a $5 rebate that I mentioned in this post, so I will end up paying $1 for each (The BOGO was only on the turkey breast, which was $6.99)! Oh and I worked the “buy 5, get $5″ Kraft deal and got sour cream (65 cents), two cheese snacks (49 cents each) and two cheese slices ($1.99 each), and paid a whopping $5.63 for $13.58 in merchandise.

The other great deal was 32 ounces of cheese that I got for $4.99 — and used a coupon of course.

Yes, folks, this is what $17.70 in groceries looks like!

Boy oh boy, there are two hot, high-value coupons on Facebook! Thanks to For the Mommas for tipping me off.

Hit this link to “like” Red Baron Pizza, and you can print a $2 off coupon for its new Pizza by the Slice product — great snack or lunch.

But it gets better, “like” Oscar Mayer on Facebook, and you will get a $2 off coupon for any lunchmeat. (You just need to enter its contest to win a ride on the Wienermobile.) Man, this can net you a good deal! Best part is this is a “Bricks” coupon, as I discussed in this post, so once it prints, hit your back button on your browser three times, and it will print again.

While you’re on Facebook, check and see if the Stouffers coupons I discussed in this post are still available (they were under its “News” tab and high value — $2.50 and $1.50 off one.

These coupons were too good not to share!