Drama and Stress go hand in hand

I have not posted in an insane amount of time, I know that is defeating the purpose of this blog. Life at my house has been a big ball of stress lately. My honey's job transferred him to a new position that required stair climbing which he is unable to do because of a knee injury. He has a disability rating and the department was aware of the condition. They refused to transfer him or accommodate and instead put him on leave for 60 days and then laid him off. Today is the munchkin's last day at the sitter until he finds a new job and in the meantime he is looking at all his options for going back to school. In addition to this we found out we are pregnant with a child we are excited about but were told we could not have. I know there is a plan in all of this and it will work out but the stress is sometimes overwhelming. I need to remain the calm and happy one since I am pregnant and my honey is feeling responsible and depressed over the situation. Who knows what the future holds but we will soon be finding out.

On a happy note my seed catalog came in the mail and I am very determined to have a more productive garden this year.

October musing

This post is not positive and I am not sure that I can put a good spin on it. My budget sucks for this month. I knew it was going to be tight since this is a 5 week month and I would need to pay the sitter for the extra week and then Halloween candy for the neighborhood kiddos. These 2 things I tried to figure into the budget and it looked like I could do it all and only be about $1.54 short. $1.54 is something I could have made up through my change jar or a smidge out of another category or heck even 1 sale through ebay, amazon, or etsy. This was a slippery slope which I slid down with one bad decision and unforseen life that should have been in the budget. I spent more than I could on lunches and a couple of quick dinners out. The life that should have been in the budget was the munchkin getting sick. By the time I was done with co-pays, meds and something to cure the dehydration I was almost at $60 so you can see how I am not sure how I am going to get through next week. I already dipped into the savings to finish out this week and I am hoping for some amazing sales on my other accounts to make that money back and pay for next week.

The positive note will be when I tally up my grocery total since I am sure I will come in almost on target this month. Also positive is the fact the weather has been beautiful so we have not run the air or the heat and therefore our electric bill should be really low.

October grocery totals as of today

I tallied all my receipts and deducted in the notebook from my budgeted amount. The grocery totals so far are $180.26, this does also include some underwear and bras that were sorely needed and since my household budget is generally lumped in with groceries I left it in this total.

October plus some

I need to recap September for the record. The month ended with me beating myself up over the budget and at the same time elated. The debt free spending plan is the budget I decided to follow which says that any extra money that comes in should go 1/3 to savings, 1/3 to debt and 1/3 to spend. Over the course of September I was able to sell a few items online and on craigslist as well as have a yard sale. Following the 1/3 principle meant that I was able to put 142.83 into savings. That of course does not sound like a ton of money but when you had nothing on reserve for emergencies this was an amazing feat! The amount of relief I felt at the end of the month was enormous. We had a sum of money come in for back pay and once we put 1/3 of this in the savings it topped out at my original goal of $1000. I am now shooting to have $2000 in the account so I can roll $1000 into a money market account and start looking to the future. The $1000 amount I picked up from Dave Ramsey, it is enough to cover most deductibles in an emergency or most unexpected repairs. Having the "cash" on hand for a rainy day takes a great burden off daily life. This plan also meant I ended the month with money in my checking account instead of just a prayer.  The part that I am beating myself up over is I did not put another 1/3 toward debt. I used the other 2/3 on daily things and a few items I had put off taking care of like hair cuts.  October I told myself I would do better but I am not sure that is going to be the case. So far this month I have only sold a small item that netted very little to 1/3 up. Buckling down to the budget is going to have to be the remedy this month.

The other weight that has been lifted in my life is a lot of excess is gone from our house. We are getting down to basics and items we love instead of stuff that just came into our lives. Being able to go home play with the munchkin, fix dinner, clean up the dishes and have very little other cleaning to do it the evening is an experience I have not relished in a very long time. Maintaining is the name of the game now and I hope to never go back to the cluttered out of control status of before. Because of the extra time in my evening yesterday I was able to go through more of my cookbooks and see if I can find some inspiration for meals this month. I picked up some extra fruits and veggies with groceries this time and I want to have fun with dinner again. The munchkin and I are also working on getting the back porch all cleaned off so he can play and we can have dinner out there now that the weather has cooled down.

Crafting may soon be back in my life which will fill a void for creativity as well as help us have items to trade and sell online. Crafting will also help by allowing me to use up some of the materials that have come into the house or are ending their usefulness at their normal function. I need to repair some of my clothing items, I just remembered another moment of clarity I had. Why am I keeping clothes that do not fit or I do not like? I decided if I put something on and I do not like it I am immediately putting it either up for trade, sale or donating it.

I need to work on totals, and since the budget I can not get out of doing them!

delusional

I realized as I was walking back into work today from lunch that I am delusional. I keep having this thought that if I get extra stuff out of my house and organize my life that I will have time to sit down in the evening at my home desk and type out this blog in an organized thoughtful way. Laughing at myself for this thought has been the best therapy. This blog is just going to have to go in fits and starts when I have time in between work, my family, friends, groups I belong to and church.

With that being said October is off to a running start with us still eating on Septembers groceries since I have not had a chance to get to the store.

I have had some sense of accomplishment at home as I have almost traded or sold everything we cleaned out from the first pass through the house. I was able last night to clean off our large table so I can start crafting soon. There was an internal debate on whether I should start with my sewing projects first or scrapbooking. I went with sewing so I can clean all of it out of the dining room and get some Christmas projects done.

Not much better this month

I plan on a more extensive post this evening once I get home from work and clean off my desk and the office. September has not been any less hectic that August and in some respects has been busier. I want to map out my budget and grocery totals for you which will require pulling out the paperwork and receipts. We started the Debt Free Plan in earnest this month and I will say that has cut some of the stress but also has added some guilt to my life that I need to get over.

life in a nutshell

I think the title is misleading but then again I have never been good at titles. My life is always overly busy and I guess that is the nutshell but other than that it never goes according to plan or in a smooth line.

Last week every night had a 10 item long to do list and I was just frantic running around trying to get things done.
My budget for August was hurting until a random check from my mom came in the mail. It was a godsend and I truly appreciate it. I was able to pay the sitter and then used the 1/3 rule for anything extra. This 1/3 rule applied to the extra from that check and the other items I sold through Amazon and FB allowed me to put $37 in our emergency savings account, $37 toward a bill and $37 I used for some groceries, a haircut for Logan and some needed items for the dog. $37 does not sound like a lot to put in savings but when you have been living paycheck to paycheck for so long it sounds amazing. There is a comfort knowing that this method may mean money if something comes up without us having to borrow or do without.

I have mapped out my September budget and made my budget notebook so I can keep up with where the money goes and there are no surprises.

August was also a month where I was lacking inspiration for meals and I ended up throwing together a lot of junky type quick fixes. I am looking at planning better for September so I will be hitting up the recipe books and pinterest to make a skeleton menu for the month before hitting the grocery store this weekend.

One other thing this month is I have been able to barter and resell a ton of items from the house. Having some non cluttered surfaces makes my soul happy and I can see craft projects getting accomplished soon. This is much needed since we always make almost our Christmas gifts and to get them done I need to plan and get started. I am going to can some more stuff and that will be part of the gifts but I also want to get some sewing and art projects done.

Trouble in Grocery Land

If I stay away from the store I would have no trouble with keeping the totals below $200 but the lack of a freezer and a toddler who inhales milk is keeping me in the store.

The total so far was 158.81+19.77+10.08=$188.66

I am still below the total with very little left in the month but I am sure if I could have avoided the last couple of trips to the store I could have saved a ton of money.

Trying to avoid the grocery store

Trying to avoid the grocery store is easier said than done. I called home on my way home from work on Thursday and asked if we needed anything before I made it home and was asked to stop for some yogurt. It ended up being a pleasant surprise. I picked up a package of spinach that was marked down as well as some organic baby romaine that was also marked down. Bananas,yogurt and some ink pens rounded out the bill. I had a coupon on the ink pens which gave me money back on them and a $3 off purchase catalina that had printed previously. When I checked out though the cashier told me that I would get $.54 back. I thought she was mistaken but it turns out that Kroger had refunded the amount of the receipt from my complaint onto my card and so I walked out with the groceries and $.54. I did end up going back tonight to pick up some milk, bananas, bread ( I could not remember if I had some in the freezer, I did), some flank steak that had marked down and some biscuits I had a coupon on. The total for tonight was $13.27 and so the new totals are below.

August totals: $146.08-$.54+$13.27= $158.81

Rain and line drying clothes do not mix

Last night I remembered to run my errand on the way home so yeah me. I stopped at Target hoping to get some crayons for the munchkin's birthday goody bags but alas they were out. While there though I took advantage of some awesome coupons from the Sunday paper and a bag discount managing to score 6 shave gels and 2 shampoos for .94!!! I dropped off the trade items and then turned in some books at the library before heading home.  Of course by the time I did this and made it home the clothes I had on the line were getting drenched by the surprise rain storm and had to end up in the dryer.



Last night I made burgers for dinner from patties and buns in the freezer. It was quick and pretty yummy.

Info on August totals: $.94 added to $145.14 for a total of $146.08

FB and my stress level

I am a FB addict which I freely admit but this addiction is causing me some horrid stress lately. I have had to leave several of the groups because of hysteria inducing posts. For some reason people think if you garden and try to live green that you are ok with all the prepper information and other practices they consider "granola". I do not think the US is in danger of being run by the military or that I need to build a bunker to live. I also resent the word sheeple for people who do not turn to this hysteria. That is my other current beef with FB, the ease with which people call each other names.

Sorry for the unrelated rant but I am just tired of it and thinking my life would be simpler without FB.

Work and other activities

I am seriously a creature of habit and I like my habits! After work today I was supposed to drop off a trade item but instead drove straight home like I had nothing else going on. The best excuse I can come up with is it was not my trade, I am just acting as a go between so it was not on my radar. To prevent this from happening again tomorrow the 2 parties who the trade is for are supposed to remind me. We shall see how this goes!

We went through all of our DVDs and downsized them. I have listed a ton on amazon and the few that are not worth a lot for sale value I will try to trade. The cash can be used for bills and anything I trade for is something I do not have to buy. Getting rid of a ton of DVDs allowed us to fit the remaining in our cabinet and clean up our fireplace. I totally cleaned the floors tonight ( swept 4 times, steam mopped twice) and now as soon as I go through the munchkin's toys and clean my couch cushions the project will be totally done. Decluttering is helping us pay bills and I think adding some peace to our lives with the lack of clutter. As soon as I am done with the livingroom/kitchen and have traded all my listed items or found them new homes through another means I am going to start on the bar area which is where my crafts are. The last frontier in the house them will be our room/bathroom. I can almost taste the zen feeling of having a clean and clutter free house, of course with a toddler and a collector for a husband it will never be totally clutter free but at least there can be some order to my world. After the house I am going to tackle the porch and yard.

As far as totals on groceries I went to Kroger on Friday to use up some of their coupons for free items that were downloaded to my card. I then ended up back at Kroger last night for more milk. My totals for the 2 visits were $3.04 and $2.78 so the total for the month is $145.14. We are almost half way through so I am hoping to keep it to a minimum. I lucked out and got a $3.00 off any purchase at Kroger coupon so I can get another gallon of milk free this month plus some change off something else. I will try to plan accordingly.

Saturdays at our house....

I would say today was a normal Saturday and part of it was but truly what are normal days?  This morning I had to get up earlier than I would have liked to get to the co-op for my basket pick-up. The basket this time was a good mix and the couple of items we will not eat I am trading for some more mason jars so it is an amazing win for me. After coming home Phillip was off to mow the church's lawn and I laid back down since the munchkin was still asleep. I ended up getting up, hanging a load of laundry out and getting a shower before he woke up. He got up just as I was headed in there to get him dressed so we could go to Lowe's for the build and grow clinic. He enjoys the builds and gets free toys out of it. We left Lowe's and went to the library which is another of our favorite places to be. After the adventure in books we went to the bank which I will say is sheer torture. I generally never go through the drive through but I needed non twenties so I had to actually cash a check instead of using the ATM. Literally 20 minutes later with only 1 car in front of us we were home. I bartered with someone for a bicycle and was paying gas money for her to deliver and so we made sure we were home and she has as of yet to arrive or message me. I am afraid I had the wrong day but really afraid that I have been stood up. Logan, Phillip and I just hung around the house and by that I mean Phillip took a shower and then checked his email and then a nap. Logan chased the dog around endlessly until I finished listing items on ebay, fb and craigslist and suggested we go outside to plant the garden. Getting the clothes off the line was my main objective but we also cleaned out my irises, planted some bulbs that were laying around, and put in our fall garden. All of this allowed the sprinkler to come on and the munchkin to play in the water, that is until his dada reminded me it was not Sunday which is our day to water and then we ceased the sprinkler fun. Logan still managed to have fun playing in the mud we created while I cleaned up the garden tools and then in for baths. Dinner was quite simple but yummy all the same tonight. I fixed chicken and parmesan pasta with a side salad using lettuce from the co-op basket and watermelon also from the basket. Dinner is cleaned up and I am getting ready to get off here and play Uno Moo with a child who is tired but trying not to fall asleep. We had to pick up his room earlier and he used that time to pick out his 3 books for bed time tonight.

So for the day off "work"

I am not sure how the child magically knows when I have a day off. He is almost always still asleep when I take him to the sitter at 7:30 each morning and yet today when we could have slept in he was up at 6:00am, so needless to say that is when my day got started. Despite being off I still took him to the sitter so I could try to get more stuff done than is possible with a toddler who sprouts 20 hands anytime I am trying to clean. Out of my list of 20 items to do today I have so far accomplished 7 and there is still time left in the day. Unfortunately since the child decided to get up early I am exhausted but really need to get a couple more things done since people are coming by the house tomorrow early enough that I will not have a chance to get a bunch done. The excitement tomorrow will be my new bike! It will be way to hot to ride tomorrow but I am excited all the same to have a bike finally. There is an amazing amount more I could type but I need to get off here and get the munchkin in the bath and remake his bed so he can got to sleep.

Yeah for unexpected days off work!

A fabulous surprise that makes my week, we have to close tomorrow for new flooring so I have the day off work! My first thought was to keep the munchkin home but I checked that train before it got to far from the station. I will take him to the sitter in the morning and then come back to the house to tackle some of my list! There are always a ton of things I want to do that are to much of a hassle with the boys ( the munchkin and his dada) at the house. Plan so far is to take the munchkin to the sitter and come home to do some yard work before it gets to hot, I need to tear out my garden and get the fall garden started. I am going to use the square foot gardening method I believe for the fall. Turbo has also got to get a bath and then I can get showered and tackle the house. I need to get ready for the JBF sale when I do not have small hands trying to clean all the toys out of the to go pile. I am hoping I can also organize my ebay and amazon items in the office closet and reclaim so space for crafts. If I amazingly have any time left I think I am going to get started on some sewing projects. This is of course my vision of tomorrow and who knows what it will actually look like.

As for the menu this month, last night we had hot dogs to use up some buns I bought at the day old store. This was served with homemade shells and cheese. I have not a clue what we are having tonight but need to start thinking about it.

The September debt free budget is tossing and turning in my head so I will probably get it down on paper over the next couple of weeks and try to convince Phillip to put his on paper.

Grocery totals for August

Grocery totals for August this far:

Mrs.Baird's Outlet store (Day old bread)- $14.00
Kroger: $1.49
Sprouts: $18.57
Target: $94.26
Co-op: $11.00

for a total of $139.32


I managed to only have $72.99 come out of my bank account because of some rebate cards I received from AT&T($10.00 as a customer reward) and Hyundai (gas mileage class action suit).  Trading will net me some more items through the month I hope so I can minimize any further hits to the bank account.  I am also ramping up my items for sale on ebay, etsy and amazon trying to generate the extra income needed to get some bills paid off and some more put away for a rainy day.

The weekend has come and gone again

I feel like this could be a revolving post that I put out every Monday morning. I overcommitted this weekend and had a to do list that was way to long and did not get it all done. Logan stayed up to late on Friday night so we missed the books in the garden event in the morning but that is ok. We cleaned up some around the house and then had lunch with Grandma to us, Mimi to Logan. It was a nice visit and I am glad that Logan is able to get to know his great grandmother and spend some time with her. After we came home I dropped him with his dada and headed to Target to finish the monthly grocery shopping. I had made the mistake of trying to do the shopping on Friday night with him in tow, lesson learned. When he was younger, heck until a few weeks ago he was easily entertained in the store and actually enjoyed going with me but now he has turned into a wanting, grabbing, not listening tiny human who I stress over. Grocery shopping done on Saturday night and then on to more cleaning and getting ready for Sunday. Church on Sunday morning, potluck after, home for quick naps and some more trying to clean up the house and then on to a local minor league baseball game. Our local team is really great for the kids. The field is small and you get to sit close to the field, the prices are fantastic and the players chat with the kids. After the game the kids are allowed on the field to run the bases, my child made us all laugh. He did not understand the base running and has never been one to follow the crowd so he headed out to run the perimeter of the field. He was giving players 5 and running his little heart out. Finally after making it nearly to the home team bullpen a player stopped him to give him a ball and this allowed Phillip to catch up with him. They then went to run the bases properly. The ball was the highlight of his night though, he was happy with his "spaceball".

The menu over the weekend looked like:

Friday: I made spaghetti using left over meatloaf muffins that I ground back up as the meat.
Saturday: I made ranch pork chops in the crockpot which we had with leftover baked beans
Sunday: Grilled cheese sandwiches after the game since we had a big lunch at the church's potluck


I am right at $100 for the month's groceries and should be able to maintain close to that total.  The precise amounts will be up after I go home and get the total off my Target receipt. There will be 2 more co-ops this month for fruits and veggies and a couple more trips for milk where I will need to watch myself and the clearance section.

As far as becoming debt free a big leap was made in that direction, we terminated our cable as of Saturday the 3rd of August. This put my bill with AT&T down from $142.00 a month to $46.00, since we are keeping our internet connected. I will be able to use this money toward paying off one of my student loans this year. This will be another small weight off my shoulders and will make it easier to put a little more money into our savings account for emergencies as well as for a vacation. The goal after that will be my larger student loan which is going to be a more long term goal.

Beginning of being debt free and menu plans

I am about to embark on the debt free plan, tomorrow is payday and the beginning of my journey. We have always been what we thought was frugal but seemed to not be making a whole lot of progress so I am hoping this keeps me focused. My first big step was yesterday when I just told my friends at work that I from this point forward would have $40 a month to go out to eat with them on. This will be my "fun" money and so if we go out once a week for $10 lunches then that is all I can do. They were fairly understanding although it seems like a low amount to some of them since they eat lunch out everyday. It is stress relief and "fun" for them and they are able to spend the money on it where I am not.

My other point of the day is that our meals at home have actually been better since I have started the $200 challenge and my leftover group on FB. It has forced me to be more creative and get out of a rut. Since the groceries have to last and I do not want to waste any leftovers I have tried some amazing recipes. I will admit that some of them have been flops but they are few and far between. I have also dug through some cookbooks I had on the shelf and tried some great stuff from them. The older cookbooks I have also had some great dishes in them that normally we would purchase as processed meals. There has been some awesome beef stroganoff at our house without any processed ingredients and it was amazingly easy, I discovered also how easy making fried rice is and that has been a great go to meal with left over rice and small amounts of veggies.

Budget in works starting today

I am going to use the template from the Debt Free book to put everything down on paper today, scary thought! I have read a couple of other books and I think I will end up with a hybrid plan in action but I am going to see what this one looks like for now and how doable I feel it is. Dave Ramsey is the other book but I think cutting everything out will cause the honey to go into meltdown mode.

Overdoing the goals

Most people set 1 goal for themselves when the new year comes around and generally I follow this pattern. The 1 goal I set keeps morphing and now feels like an octopus that keeps coming at me. This blog was the extension of my goal to get our grocery bill at $200 and stay with my belief in not shopping at Wal-Mart and Aldi. As this year and this blog have continued I found that I needed to put up our menus so people could tell I was not feeding my family rice and beans every night in order to stay on budget and then I decided I needed to be accountable with our debt reduction. All of these goals on top of my normal everyday life of being a working mom trying to be frugal and environmentally friendly is weighing heavy on me, I am having trouble managing my time.

Last night I left work and made an awesome trade on the way home. I traded the partial bottle of laundry detergent that the honey bought while I was out of town and 2 rolls of paper towels for an 8" cast iron pan made by Lodge. Dinner went pretty quickly since I had put a roast in the crock pot yesterday morning before work. I steamed some carrots to go with the roast and the munchkin helped me make a dump cake for dessert. We ate and while the cake was baking (takes an hour) we all went out to work in the yard. The munchkin rode his toy tractor around while I brought the clothes in off the line. I then pooper scooped while my honey weedeated the yard. We use a reel mower so while my honey finished the back yard I went around the front to mow. The two boys went inside while I did some weeding on the flowerbeds so their showers/baths were done by the time I came inside. I showered and then started a load of laundry and played with the munchkin. After some online surfing of my for sale items, listing some more misc stuff for sale or trade and reading 3 books for someone to go to sleep to I hit the hay. In all of that about 6 items from my list did not get done but there is always tonight!

plans for evenings

My OCD dictates that I make a plan for my evening even though I know that it is not going to all happen. Last night is an example of one of those evenings. I completed my trades and then headed home to see my honey and the munchkin as well as work on the house. I did go outside and bring in the laundry and then sat down with a couple of slices of gouda to talk to my honey and relax. That lasted very little time before I needed to make a decision on dinner and put up my trade items. I decided to grill ribs which tasted decent and paired that with some wild rice and green beans. Clean up did not take that long and the munchkin was excited to help me wash the new glass pitchers I traded for. I am going to make sun tea now that is the height of summer here and save a touch on my electric bill. I worked on cleaning up the kitchen island which seems to be a dumping ground for everything in our hands. Between that, playing with the munchkin, and getting more trades together the evening was done.

This morning I did manage to sort out the stuff in my bedroom chair to be dealt with tonight and got the clothes ready to iron tonight. As you can tell I will be ironing tonight after dinner and see what else magically gets accomplished. I need to get more items listed on the trade site and get them out of the house. If you have not found a trade site on FB in your area you need to start one, it has been the best thing to happen to us in ages. I have been able to move things out of the house in exchange for items and services that I either want or need. This has gone a long way in helping our budget as well as helping me minimalize so I can hopefully spend an evening in the  future reading or sitting outside instead of worrying about the multitude of chores I need to do.

Weekend come and gone again

I always have grand plans when the weekend comes of amazing stuff I will accomplish. Needless to say only about half of what I wanted to do was even attempted.....I did work on the flowerbeds at our church but they are not completed. Once we made it home from the church I took down the load of clothes I had hung out on the line earlier in the morning and put out a couple more loads. I estimate that hanging out the laundry is saving us between $30 and $50 a month on our electric bill which quickly paid for the $30 clothes line. After that the munchkin and I had baths/showers and headed for the library. After we made out with every train book he could find on the shelf and I had some more canning books we headed home. The evening was just a lot of working on cleaning the house and getting my trade items together. Night night time could not have come fast enough, the munchkin even asked to go to bed at least an hour before he normally goes to sleep. Sunday morning we were up and putting more clothes on the line, fixing breakfast and getting ready for church. Church was nice as I was able to read some while working the nursery. The nursery/toddler room consisted of the munchkin and a friend playing trains. We went out to eat after church and then home for a couple of hours before heading to a baseball game for the evening. Once again baths when we came home and no fussing from the munchkin about bedtime.


Tonight I have several trades to complete and then home for dinner and dishes. I really need to walk Turbo and pass out fliers on our street for Nextdoor.com, I want us to have a stronger identity as a neighborhood. We shall see what wins out since I currently have no idea what I am fixing for dinner.

The grocery budget has stayed pretty steady, I did pick up 4 gallons of milk on an amazing half price sale on Friday but have not needed much else since the trip to the commissary. I was hoping the co-op would be offering peaches or cherries this week so I could do some more canning but no such luck. If I come across a good deal I am definitely going to jump on it. As far as the budget goes I need to flush out how much canning my own food will cost versus buying from the store. the initial investment in jars is the biggest expense but I have been collecting them as I could for a long time. The health benefits and lack of trips to the store will be the best rewards for us I believe. As long as I am not going to the store I am not finding "great" deals and buying stuff we may or may not need.

Reading The Debt Free Spending Plan by JoAnneh Nagler currently for a different prospective and ideas on ridding us of our debts and get us where we feel comfortable with our finances.

Canning

This weekend I canned like a crazed woman! It was my first ever attempt at canning by myself. I bought 8 pounds of strawberries and 25 pounds of peaches through my co-op and went to work. 6 pounds of the stawberries went into jam that ended up not setting so it is being billed as strawberry syrup. I made infused vodka, ice cream, cobbler, jam and sliced canned peaches with the peaches. I also sliced some and put them in the freezer for smoothies. The peach jam also did not set up so it is also syrup. The sliced peaches are amazing and popular opinion is that they are better than store bought. I am going to stick with this for a while since I hate putting in the work on jam and not getting jam at the end. The initial investment in jars and supplies has made it more expensive than buying store bought but I think as the jars are reused and the produce comes out of my own garden it will be a great budget stretcher. I also found another use for the syrup left when we eat the canned peaches. I am going to use it to sweeten my tea so I will have peach sweet tea with no additional sugar used!

debt free

In addition to all the other books I am reading on how to get this blog up and functional the way I want I decided to read on debt free living. I have decided the goal I am working toward besides the relief of being debt free is another tattoo. Another tat will be my reward to myself when I am out of debt and have saved enough for one. After that we will be saving up for a truck and a real vacation!

Vacation etc, etc, etc

It feels like forever since I have posted which it nearly has been. I took 5 weeks off work to spend time with the munchkin and get some stuff done at the house. I ended up spending 2 weeks doing those items and 3 weeks driving to see my mom in Florida and bringing her home with me and running her around town here before she flew home the morning I came back to work. My grocery budget for May stayed the same as I posted on here. June totals will be up soon but it will look crazy since I was traveling, stocking up for the honey so he would not starve while I was gone and then having an extra person eating with us for a couple of weeks. July will look better but will still be over. My mom was here and has a military id so she was able to get me back on the base to shop at the commissary. I picked up as much meat as I thought my freezer would hold as well as a few other items I knew would be cheaper there. I do not really need a lot of other items since I was not home for part of June but I still wanted to do some canning so I bought 2 bulk deals through my co-op which pushed my total up but should help keep it lower in the next couple of months.

I also decided to work harder at getting out of debt and so will be honest on here as far as progress is going and what we are doing to reach this goal.

Birthday!!!!

Today is my birthday!!! I have had a good day although I would much rather have stayed home in bed today. The donut fairy (my boss Jane) brought in my second favorite food this morning and then I had lunch with a friend at one of our favorite local places.

That is totally an aside to why I was posting. I wanted to throw out there that we had cracker crusted tilapia and parmasean roasted potatoes for dinner last night and the budget has taken no more hits yet. I need to trade for some more milk and use my full punch card to get free bread at the day old store and we should make it out of the month for our current total!

blogging book underway

The storm has kept people away from work today so I am using the time to catch up on some reading. I finished reading Living More with Less which was a great book that I recommend. I am now reading Blog, INC. with the hopes I will be able to figure this format out. My eyes needed a rest from the printed page so I thought I would spend a moment on here.

With all the storms and sick people at my house this week has been a blur so I am putting the menu up from a foggy memory. Sunday evening we had Ham with scrambled eggs and toast after church and naps. Last night I used the left over ham in some navy beans and served that with cornbread. Tonight I am searching my brain for something to do with the leftover beans and or cornbread. It is rainy and cooler so I may make a soup when I get home and incorporate the beans in that.

Acquiring needs with no cash!

I am trying to keep the grocery total for this month at its current total which is requiring me to make use of my trading community. I have been super blessed to be part of a Beg Borrow and Trade community and have made some amazing trades. Some items were not "needed" but still great finds. I have traded small amounts of household items for some great work shoes as well as a Kate Spade purse!!!! This week I did make a trade out of necessity. I listed the veggies we were not going to eat from the co-op and traded them for some milk and toilet paper.

addition to the May total

I had to stop for a gallon of milk on Wednesday night so we need to add $2.78 to the monthly total bringing me to $213.81. Last night we had hamburger pie for dinner which is something my mom used to make when I was a kid. It is easy to throw together and cooks up quick. Wednesday night I made alfredo sauce with ham and peas and served that over a mixture of rotini and penne pasta. Both dinners were a good way to use small bits of stuff left from other recipes.

totals for May thus far

If I have not stated before I try to do all my shopping at the beginning of the month since that is when I get paid, I run in for milk the rest of the month.

Produce co-op: $26.00
Braums for milk and ice cream on a whim: $8.99
Sprouts: $8.74
Albertson's: $48.79
Target: $54.79-$2.88 (picked up item for friend and was paid back) =$51.91
Kroger: $66.60

so my total is over budget for the month::::: $211.03

let's see how close I can keep it to this!

running through my head

I know it is ironic since I am typing this on a blog but the whole read my blog because I have everything together and I am going to tell you step by step how to achieve my level awesomeness bugs me. No one has that perfect of a life....mine is a crazy mess of nonsense on a daily basis and this is really a dumping ground for that. Sure, I am starting the $200 challenge but that is mostly to keep myself honest and accountable. I know I will fail a lot more than I will succeed and I am ok with that.  Enough for this rant. I have the receipts and will post the totals in a separate post.

Off and running!!!

I managed to get my grocery shopping done this weekend along with about 400 other things on the list. I will add up the receipts and post totals here as well as what the menu has looked like this month. There will be some treats since my birthday is this month and a lot of places have sent me coupons for free meals!

May!!!

May is off and running....I have started reading the blogging books with the hopes of working this page out. I also stopped last night and spent under $10 for ice cream and milk. Tonight I stopped and spent less than $10 for bananas and a ham. I portioned the ham out when I came home for 4 meals.
The ham was  obviously the protein for dinner tonight, this was paired with steamed carrots and a cherry crumble. I want to use up stuff from the freezer so if my garden produces later this summer I will have room to put some of the veggies up. The cherries were from some I put up a couple of months ago and the carrots were from 25 pounds I purchased through my co-op and put up a few months ago. Tomorrow the plan is to use up the leftover ham and a little more that I portioned out as well as some potatoes I have from the co-op to make a chowder.

motivation

I had a burst of motivation when I got off work, I completed a trade to have my eyebrows waxed and then traded for a pair of hiking boots. I came home and helped Phillip move the fence panels next to the gate so the trader can pick them up easily tomorrow. I fixed some dinner and then loaded the dishwasher....I then made the fatal mistake for getting anything accomplished. I sat down on the couch and there I have remained. I have been watching the munchkin play and telling him we need to get a bath but I have been unable to convince myself to get up and get anything else done.

Reading up

I have checked out a huge number of books from the library on blogging so I will soon have this figured out. The plan is to be able to post pictures of my purchases and receipts on the specified tab so that I can use this tab for my other random thoughts and life events.

Where are the extra hours that I need each day? Tonight we had beans and cornbread which I had started in the crock pot this morning. The time I bought with this ended up going to sorting boxes from the garage. The garage is nowhere near cleaned out but I guess since it is the last area other than the yard that we have to conquer I should feel some accomplishment. Unfortunately I think any sense of accomplishment will not be felt here until it is all done....then started over!

behind

I feel like I am continuously running behind, like I can never do enough in one day to catch up. When I get home tonight I will have to post the receipt totals from my milk runs. I went to see my man Bon Jovi with friends last Thursday so the honey and munchkin were on their own for dinner. It is an annual event for my friends and I to see a concert, generally Bon Jovi if he is in the area. It is an awesome tradition which we will be keeping up forever!!! Anyway, you needed to know this I guess so I could justify taking Friday off work. I worked on cleaning up my house and yard on Friday so my BBT group who was coming to my house on Saturday for a swap would not think crazy people had moved in and trashed everything. Annoying point on Friday was some repairmen in the neighborhood running new electrical lines thought telling me 12 times that they made mowers that ran on gas was funny. First time haha after that annoying. I did manage to do some awesome herbed pork chops in the crockpot and paired that with asparagus and mushrooms. Saturday the swap occurred at my house with a disappointing turn out but I will survive because my house was clean!!! This however did not allow my OCD brain to rest, I decided since all the basics were done I could start tackling the bigger projects that had been on the back burner. I made a beeswax candle....did not turn out great. Beeswax burns hot but does not hold that heat so the center burned while the outside stayed formed. I will try this again but just dip them as tapers or use multiple wicks. I also made beeswax scented bars for home burners and have some peeps testing those. As soon as they give me their opinions I will know if they are viable or not. Sunday I made the decision to do 1 thing outside and 1 inside each day and that would hopefully keep me caught up. I am drawing a blank of what I fed everyone on Sunday night but I do not think it was anything overly elaborate. Monday was back to work and I was not really feeling good so I fed Phillip my pizza left over from lunch and Logan had grilled cheese. Tuesday after work I went to the library to pick up the blogging books I requested and still have not had time to read. After that I met someone from BBT for a trade which is still in my trunk by the way. For dinner  I made Terriyaki chicken in the crock pot, paired that with rice and a stir fry of mushrooms, asparagus and carrots that I still had in the fridge. By Wednesday I am realizing that I am emotionally drained but life goes on, I swept and steam mopped the floors after I fixed dinner which was fish sticks and creamed corn. Did I mention I am feeling drained? Last night a friend was over helping Phillip replace one side of our fence so when they were done we had spaghetti and then Phillip took a shower and went to bed. Tonight I have not even thought through what will be for dinner but I think I might make a fried rice using the leftover rice, stirfry and chicken. We will see what jumps at me when I get home.

The 3 ring circus act continued at my house last night. I ran by the library on my way home and then to Kroger to rent a carpet cleaner. I am having a trade group swap at my house this weekend and did not want to scare anyone with my dirty carpets. Once home the munckin wanted to show me the Rainbow Chard we planted...they are his plants if you ask him and they have just broken through the earth. He is so excited and once I joined him to peer at the plants he started petting then and talking away to them. I let him play outside while I started dinner which was yummy meatloaf muffins and homemade mashed potatoes. The Rachel Ray idea of making meatloaf as little muffins instead of a giant loaf has revolutionized my life. Meat loaf is now only 20 minutes from start to finish instead of an hour and a half. I used a pound of ground angus I bought on clearance for $2.00 and mixed in an egg from my friend's flock as well as some carrots I also bought on clearance and some mushrooms from the co-op. I added bread crumbs I had on hand and some whipping cream that was hanging out in the fridge. They were quite tasty and the mashed potatoes were the perfect side. I used potatoes we had from the co-op which were to small to serve as baked potatoes. After dinner we cleaned up the dishes, turned on the dryer and started cleaning carpets. By the time I was done with that which even though it is only 3 rooms it is draining it was time for the munchkin's bath and bed.

While at Kroger I did take a spin by the clearance bins and came home with some Kotex and Always products. They had them marked down and I had coupons so I came home with 3 packages of pads and a gallon of milk for $6.15 which was a steal since the hygiene products were the double sized and I will not need anymore for probably 6 months or more. I know TMI but it is reality and they figure in my grocery budget. This brings my total to $177.26  leaving me $22.74 for milk the rest of this month.

I really think I am getting to old to be this busy! I am always trying to get one more thing done each day and there is still something that does not get accomplished. After work yesterday I went to sell a rocking horse for a friend to another friend , then completed 2 trades which netted me a tunic top, some shorts, 2 vintage hankies and some free range eggs from a friend's flock. I then trucked home and walked the dog which I am doing more for some exercise than anything else. After dog walking duties I snuggled with the munchkin and then dinner where we tried a new recipe from pinterest. We had grilled chicken thighs and cheesy zucchini rice which was adequate. I think I will make it again but it was not something that was so tasty as to make it in regular rotation. After dinner there was clean-up, bathes, puzzles with the munchkin, 2 loads of laundry, pick up of our bedroom floor and vacuuming. I think I sweep and vacuum up an entire dog every couple of days, I am actually surprised he is not bald!

SOOOO for a synopsis of the expenses related to dinner. I made 3 chicken thighs which came to $1.00 ( half of an organic pack I bought on clearance for $2.00) and the cheesy rice which I do not have an exact figure on but I used a zucchini from the co-op basket, 1 cup of rice which I traded for, some parmasean cheese which was in the grocery total for this month and some chicken broth which was in the fridge left from a previous recipe. I think overall it was a good, inexpensive dinner.  I also have a dozen eggs which were gifted to me from my friend for going between trades which did not put me out since I also had trades with the parties involved.

I should update what the menu looked like over the weekend so everyone does not think we are eating beans and rice for every meal in order to keep the total low. Friday night I went home and made beef short ribs on the grill and served those with navy beans. The short ribs were a disappointment which I will need to contact Kroger about. The saw at the meat counter must have been dull since the bone splintered into the meat. We survived by having sandwiches and using the bones to make beef stock in the crock pot. I used up some celery, onion and shredded carrots from a past co-op pick up. I made the stock in the crock pot overnight so I did not have to babysit it, Saturday morning I strained it and popped it in the freezer for a future meal. Saturday I picked up the pizza after much activity during the day and then Sunday we had leftover roast from lunch (potluck at church) which I chopped up, reheated with BBQ sauce from a local source and served on the remaining hamburger buns from last week.

This weekend was crazytown at my house!!! I had so many commitments and a 3 year old tagging along. He is a pretty good sport for all of the stuff I put him through. I did make another grocery store run on Saturday since my honey decided that despite our schedule he needed to smoke a roast for the church potluck. This resulted in me spending $21.95 at Kroger and $33.80 at Sprouts. Our fridge and freezer are busting at the seams at the moment so I will only be picking up milk the rest of the month. I also sold $10 worth of the asparagus I picked up from my co-op and I am trading some for a dozen tamales tomorrow night. Over the weekend I also sold some honey and lemons I had at the house which will take another $5 off my monthly total. This puts the total at $161.11, but to be fair I will make it $171.11 since I was to tired to cook on Saturday night and bought a pizza at Papa Murphy's.

The current total for the month is $120.36 but I already have a commitment to purchase some of my overrun of produce which will reduce the total. I will keep the tally going.

Ok, Here is the picture of my receipt from Wednesday night. I had a picture of all I purchased but accidentally erased it from my phone but the list is as follows:

2 gallons of milk
1 gallon apple juice
3 2 quart containers of Cranberry Juice
1 package of Ball Park Franks
Bananas
1 package beef ribs
6 1pound packages of ground beef

I went by last night and spent $1.29 on some Hawaiian Hamburger buns.

Wednesday was the night of torrential downpours here and it ended up taking me twice as long to get home in traffic and then a stop for milk so for dinner we had pigs in a blanket with black beans. Thursday night I made hamburgers.

Until I can figure out how to move items under the correct tab I will just post here. I do not have a receipt for my first grocery purchases of the month but I will put the tally here

$30 for 2 whole pasture raised chickens from a local family
$57.00 on fresh produce from co-op. Some of this I will resell or trade for other items we need since I will not use it all.

I am going to make a stop by Kroger on the way home since I need some perishables.

As for what we have been eating, Sunday we ate at Grandma's house so I did not need to make anything. Monday night we had nachos with taco meat, beans, cheese and sour cream. Tuesday night we had homemade Beef Stroganoff using left over roast.

grand plans

I always have grand plans and then run into road blocks....I am constantly findind out how little I know. Latest issue is trying to learn how to post under the great tabs I created. Since I have been unable to figure it out on my own I have started picking the brains of friends who blog and I am also requesting a ton of books from the library.