Great savings on pumpkin patch & family fun

I was very excited to see this deal in my in box a couple of days ago and jumped on it right away. Apparently, I wasn't alone. They've already sold more than 3,000 deals! The deal is still on through the end of today 9/9.

Head to Groupon for 66% savings on admission to Oakes Farm in Corryton, TN. We've been every year for five years, and we wouldn't miss it. Now that the kids are getting older, the corn maze should be even more fun.

So here's the deal: For $11, you get three admission tickets by October 15 or two admission tickets after 10/15. Admission includes the hayride, corn maze and entrance to the "back 40"--lots of traditional games. I believe pumpkins are $5 each extra.

General admission is $10 for ages 11 and up, $8 for ages 3-10 and under 3 are free. Normally our family would have to pay $36, but with this deal, we'll only pay $19 (one groupon and one kid at the door). What a great idea to go during fall break.

For a few more tips for getting the most of your trip to Oakes Farm, check out my post from last year. My, how Brooke has changed! Ahh, fall activities. I'm ready!

Corn Maze & Pumpkin Patch: Save 60%

I was very excited to read my Groupon deal of the day at Oakes Farm. They've changed to a "general admission" policy that gets you everything for one price: the hayride, the corn maze, and a whole kids area.

Without the discount, here are the prices:

The new General Admission:

$10.00 Ages 11 & up Children

$8.00 Ages 3-10

Add a pumpkin for $5.00

Group discount (20 or more) - $2.00 off per person

If you sign up for today's Groupon deal, you'll get 2 general admission tickets for $10. Plus, if you go Wed - Fri (when they open at 6pm), you'll also get a free pumpkin. You can buy up to 3 deals. I bought two for the four of us who need to pay and we'll get two free pumpkins--all for $20. I'm actually looking forward to avoiding the weekend crowds. Checking out the farm at dusk should be fun.

Will you buy the deal?

Budget Totals for August

The "uber-savers" out there won't be impressed with my budgeting; so they can stop reading now. However, this is my first year to truly keep track of every penny spent and keep within a budget that's right for our family of five.

My monthly budget of $800 includes all groceries, farmer's markets, u-pick farms, clothing, craft stores, dollar stores, office supplies, dining out, pharmacies, and big box stores. I aim for $500 of that to be in groceries and $300 for everything else. Unfortunately for June and July I went over budget a total of $280. So my goal became to get out of debt by 9/30 by reducing my budget by $140 a month.

Here are the August totals:

Grocery: (3 Kroger, 1 Earthfare, 1 farmer's market, 1 Weigels for milk, and 1 trip to pick blueberries) $325.68 Saved $221.00 (40%)

Clothing: $110.31 Saved $94.02 (46%)

Office Supplies: $31.05 Saved $17.40 (36%)

Pharmacies: $45.10 Saved $197.97 (81%)

Target: $17.79 Saved $12.45 (41%)

Dining Out: $16.16 Saved $7.62 (32%)

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Totals Spent: $546.09 Saved $550.46 (50%)

Rebates received: $14.96

Carryover Debt: $280

Amount Over Budget: $11.13

The good news is I almost got out of debt in half the time expected. And I had my highest percentage of savings yet: 50% overall. That gives me some more wiggle room for September because I'll be spending on two birthdays and our 12 year anniversary. Even that dinner I'll be using a coupon because a few days ago, Groupon had a deal for Baker Peters: spend $20, get $50 credit. We've never been there and I'm looking forward to it.

What tips do you have staying on budget? Do you have software that you use to track your spending / savings?