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.