So it is that time again, a new month…so here is how I did last month with the goals I have set for the year.

Budgeting- Our grocery budget was over by 263 but I feel that we are finally able to monitor and buy most items only on good or stockpile prices. I have been able to start my stockpile. In other areas because of tax refunds we have caught up with our bills. I am still going to work hard at paying off the extra medical bills we have from the past 2 years aka 2 babies. But for the present, we are in our best financial situation in two years. We have a guy coming to tile the new bathroom this week paid in cash. Now we have to purchase a water heater, door, and sink prior to having it inspected and attempting to refinance. In other budget news, we purchased a chest freezer for $50 yesterday :).

Preschool- We had about 10 days of snow this month with the girls home from school or as Lily said too cold and yucky. I did manage to squeeze in 3 formal days of preschool and have started working on letter sounds with Lily all through out the day. So not really a good month on this front but I did order a new lower case letter book for her and we will hopefully get back on track this month!

Reading- This was a really really bad month. I am going to try and make this more of a part of my nightly routine. This is definitely my weakest area this month and needs the most improvement.

Blogging- I had 14 post in February. So not bad…

Encouragement WELCOME!!!

This post is difficult for me to write and is strictly to make myself accountable. I hope that if anyone reads it they can relate or even offer support.

Over the past several weeks in particular, we have been working on getting our budget and more importantly our spending under control. It seems that our checkbook is staying in the red. My first thought is that it is not really in the red because some of the money is “spent” only on paper. But in reality I know that that money has to be spent for what it says it is going too. We decided that when we got the unexpected refund from taxes, that money would go to get us back on track and if there was any extra it would go to finishing the room. We have also said that instead of putting every available penny into finishing the room we would first get the rest of our finances in order. This probably does not sound like a big deal but it would probably take a maximum of 5000 to finish and have inspected the new addition. At that point we could and will re-fiance the house with the addition and lower our overall debit and monthly payments. But with me not working, it is difficult to find even the extra 5000. So we see the end but also are at the point where several things need to be fixed, replace or simply bought for regular use!

Couponing is going a long way to stretch our budget and I really enjoy doing it but I am also trying not to “spend” money in order to save in the long run. This is difficult for me because I see several “awesome” deals and want to take advantage of them but in reality we don’t have the cash to do that right now. It is difficult for me to realize this and to stick to…it is not in the budget it can wait. I am not talking about huge expenses but little 10 bucks here and there type things! So yesterday, I read this great deal of pictures, free 75 prints with shipping only to pay. So I decided that I would only do it if I have either the cash or paypal funds to do it. But it is a struggle for me. Grrrrrrrrrr!

One of the reason that this week has been so busy for us is the preparation for the dinner theater presented at church last night. This is one of the two main fundraisers for the youth’s trip to LIFE this summer. LIFE is a national youth conference occurring once every 3 years. It can only be attended by youth going into 9th grade to those just graduating from High School. Love’s Sweet Song is the title of the play. Haley plays the main character and was on stage the entire performance. She has been working really hard to learn her lines and especially on slowing down and speaking clearly. Matt has a couple of lines but also enjoyed working on the set design and helping with make- up. Hopefully (depending on the weather) they will present this again tonight. A nursery was provided last night and Lily at the last minute decided to stay in the nursery “to play” instead of watching the play with me! Her statement was “I don’t want to watch a dumb play.” Below is the “time machine” designed by Matt, what you can’t see is the “Bumper stickers” on the front!

This is what we woke up to this morning! For once, we actually got more than predicted! It was around 6.5 inches this am and has been snowing most of the day! I will try and get some pictures of the HUGE icicles hanging from our house this afternoon. I have a love/hate relationship with snow. It is beautiful to look at: so clean, untouched , pure but it is COLD. I strongly dislike being cold. Even as a child, I didn’t spend much time in the snow..too cold. I have told Matt I am so glad to not be a single mom anymore in the snow. The reason is simple..he is the one who can go out and play with the kids in the snow! This year I am staying inside completely with Zach. In the future, I will go out to take pictures of the kids but definitely not stay out long! This is a very weird snow for our area, really fine and dry. Haley, Lily and Kendall all went out exploring this morning! They decided that the best use of the snow was for snow angels!

This is the post that has been in my head since lunch. I debated on posting but since this is an honest blog thought I should go ahead and get it out!

I was very poor as a kid. I am ONLY 38 but I remember things like the first time we got a Polaroid pictures of myself and my brother, a stranger took it and gave it to us at a store, and we actually lived in a rent house without indoor plumbing for the first several month. So living cheaply is something I learned from the best My MOM! I know we were poor now but I can’t tell you one time that I didn’t have something we needed like food or clothes! Food is the biggest area of expense in our house. I can’t stand the thought of throwing away food for any reason. I am famous for my left over nights where we pull out of the fridge and make at least one if not several meals. I have even been known to look up recipes to use the ingredients I have on hand! Since I am now staying at home, leftovers are a staple for lunch. Lily thinks getting a sandwich is a treat! So after Zach’s dedication last week, there was an entire baked ziti left untouched. No big deal I thought at the time. I even put it in our weekly menu plan in my head, Thursday! But even the best laid plans are interrupted! On Wednesday, I received in the mail some free items from Atkins and showed them to Matt. He decided Thursday morning to start the diet and asked me to join him. I did with the acknowledge that he would be more successful than me but I wanted to support him! I am actually glad he is starting to attempt to lose weight with the deaths of both his Mother and Sister, I get worried. So of course the Baked Ziti is off the menu. I have actually feed it to the girls 2 days for lunch but 3/4 is left. Today I broke down and had some for lunch because I hate for it to be wasted!

My internet connection has been out for the last 3 days so I will be catching up today especially with swag bucks and coupons. There may be multiple post but I will label each if you want to skip to what you are looking for!