Monthly Archives: July 2012

Renovation Update 7/30

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  1. Haley’s new room- Haley has moved across the hall to the largest bedroom with a half bath attached. a) Scrap popcorn ceiling- completed, b) repaint ceiling-completed c) Remove wallpaper boarder-completed d) repaint walls- e)Replace window- has been order. f)Complete floor in closet g) move window treatments.DONE!!!! Furniture needed: 2 new dresser for clothing.
  2. Lily and Kendall move into bigger room-a) Scrap popcorn ceiling, b) repaint ceiling c) Remove wallpaper boarder d) repair walls and door e) Paint walls f) Purchase and hang new window treatments. g) Matt is planning to make a new twin bed frame for Lily to use. h) change light fixture for new fan already purchased. Furniture needed: New closet divider, bins.
  3. Zach gets his own room and closet- a) Scrap popcorn ceiling, b) repaint ceiling c) adapt currently color (yellow) to boys room probably pin-stripping and maybe stickers. Furniture needed: NONE
  4. Matt’s office- Matt will need furniture only for this including -desk, chair and shelves

 Spending Totals for Renovations
Budget information:$1000
Total spent $470 with $530 remaining. 
Total spent $595 with $405 left,  Hopefully the majority of the rest will be spent on new furniture at IKEA.

No new spending this week. Just some painting going on. I don’t like the pictures because of the faded appearance of the but is really is a pretty color combination!

 

Saturday Shopping Success = Grocery Challenge Failure

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We decided to make a shopping loop through town on Saturday morning, with a stop by my parents to play with their new puppy first. The local Aldi advertised a food dehydrator for $19.99, we actually bought some apples and bananas to try out the dehydrator. Next stop CVS, I scan my card and received a free Children’s Gummy Vitamin. So I purchased a total of  4 AMP energy drinks and the vitamins total spent  $1 with 6 ECB earned.  Finally stop was Food Lion, the reason to purchase party supplies for Kendall and Zach’s party next Sunday. Matt and I both scanned our MVP cards, which produces some very interesting and useful coupons. Ground Beef is currently on sale for $1.99 a pound, one of the coupons was $5 off $45 Butcher’s Beef. Combining sales and coupons we purchased: 4 bags of Cool Ranch Doritos, 10 Food Lion brand Sodas, 3 Pespi Next Soda (sale 0.79 with one coupon 0.55/1 and a second 1.00/2) Gallon of Bleach, 5 cans of veggies  (sale 0.33 each), 2lbs of Ground chuck reduced to $5.09 and 21 pounds of Ground Beef. Our total was 64.24!!!  Total saving was 49% or 60.59. I am so excited because of the amount of meat this trip included.

 

Now if you have been following the Grocery Store Challenge you realize that is is definitely over my $30 but as I have said before we eat food and so this deal was too good to pass up!

Grocery Store Challenge

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What is my challenge? Spend as close to $20 a week at Food Lion over the next 4 weeks while purchasing items we need or to add to the stockpile based on sales. I am also going to give myself $10 a week to spend at CVS to keep rolling ECB. So that is a total of $30 a week for the next 4 weeks to feed our family of 6.

Week One Shopping: I stopped at Food Lion after work on Wednesday. I purchased Coffee Filters (a need), 2 12 pack rolls of toilet paper, 1 6 pack of paper towels and 3# of ground beef. I used the 5/25 and 2 $0.75 coupons on the toilet paper. Total spent $20.15, saved 12.50. I also got a Catalina coupon for $2 off $10 of the house brand products. My plan is to save this for next week to use to increase my saving.

CVS- After looking at the ad on Thursday and Friday, I decided that their were really only one deal that started on Sunday that I would be interested in. So Friday night, Matt and I headed to CVS to use his card for another Twizzlers deal , free candy and an I-Tunes card. I was surprised to learn that I could not use ECB for the purchase of an I-Tunes card.  I ended up spending $12.01 with a total of 7 ECB for the next couple of weeks!

Total Spent- $32.01

 

Week Two- Matt and I went to Food Lion on Wednesday night. I had a list of four items that we were completely out of. So I purchased Olive Oil, Sour Cream, Freezer Bags, Sandwich Bags, 4 2L Sodas and a pack of gum.  Total Spent $19.00. I did receive another Catalina coupon for $1.50 off 10 of the house brands.

 

 

Thoughts– Because of the challenge this week, I know I have saved money. Food Lion is currently running several “stock up deals” including Ground Beef for $1.99 and canned veggies are 0.30. I resisted the urge on Wednesday. I am planning to head back to Food Lion on Saturday to buy a couple of party supplies but these will  not be counted in the budget as I gave myself an out because of the Birthday Party.

 

Any one want to share?

 

Random Tuesday Thoughts

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  • My house is really really quiet at 8:17am!!! Why? Because this week our church is having Vacation Bible School. The kids spend from 9-12 for 5 days at church learning, doing crafts and playing games. This year the theme is “Jesus is My Rock”  Haley is the official nursery person and a general helper. Matt is in charge of games. On Monday, they had 116 kids!  From everything I have seen and heard is was awesome. All the kids were singing new songs first thing this morning.
  • This week has also turned out to be one of the busiest of the summer. In addition to VBS, Monday Lily had cheerleading, I went to pick tomatoes. Tuesday Matt has a meeting tonight at church. Wednesday we have to mow our jungle aka yard and pick tomatoes again.
  • My brother is gone with his church on a youth trips so he suggested I come over and claim as many tomatoes as I wanted. Yesterday, I picked 8 gallons. I am so excited about this because we  now have 15 cans of diced tomatoes in our freezer. By the looks of the vines, I probably will pick another 5 gallons on Wednesday, with the plan of a another batch of Salsa. I need to check again on Friday,if I can pick another 3 gallons then those will be used for more diced/stewed tomatoes.
  • We have several answers to prayer this week, first we received out of the blue a check to cover the purchase of VBS t-shirts, and the above tomatoes are another. I have been praying for some extra tomatoes, I have even debated on purchasing some  to freeze. We typically use at least one recipe a week that calls for 1-2 cans of diced tomatoes. My goal this summer was to get a stock pile in the freezer to save this cost.
  • The food co-op ended this week, but I was able to add a batch of salsa and another 4 ears of corn frozen. We will be using some of the corn this week as side dishes as well.
  • I will be updating on my Grocery Store Challenge tomorrow, but to be honest it has been a little bit difficult for me. I currently have a list, of items we are completely out of and my goal is to stay under the budget and purchase all the items. If I were not doing the challenge, I definitely would have already gone and purchased these items because I consider most of them staples. So the challenge is working, but not as easy as it sounds.
  • Nothing new is happening with the renovation simply because we don’t have the time. I am being to wonder if it will be finished before my week of vacation or if it will become the way I spent my vacation?

Most Improved Award

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One of the activities that we have participated in this summer is Swim Team. The original intent was that both Kendall and Lily would both compete this year, however that quickly changed at the first meeting where Kendall “sank” in the pool. So Lily has been on the Welcome Waves Swim Team this year.

 

Swim Team practice are 4 days a week, with a choice of morning or afternoon practice. Most days, Matt takes the 3 little kids to the morning practice starting at 10:30am, they usually arrive home around 1pm. Lily has been working really hard on swimming, she has also realized that with her goggles she can actually see where she is going. I have watched as she made huge improvements. In her very first meet, she only swam one event, 25 freestyle, her time 1:26.80. At the end of the regular season, 4 weeks later she is swimming in 3 events and probably could an 25 meter backstroke if she was not so tired after 3 events. Her swimming is so much appropriate and faster, her time 47.53! Difference of 39.27 seconds!

 

Tonight at the ending pool party, Lily was recognized as the Girl Most Improved for the age 10 and under! We are so PROUD of here! Here is the picture of the award:

 

Grocery Shopping Challenge

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I love a good challenge. After several years of reading blogs and even writing. I have seen  a lot different various on grocery challenges such as “feeding a family of four for $100 a week.” or “Eating from pantry.”   This is my own version, the first of which I have attempted and shared from day one! Feel free to leave a comment and join me!

 

How I decided on this:  I have slowly been adding to the stockpile since the first of the year, currently most of the cabinets are full. I received in the mail last week 4 coupons for $5 off $25 at Food Lion each one good for one week. I have already spent $312 on groceries this month and really need to take a big chunk out of the grocery budget to help pay some auto expenses. School starts in 4 weeks and prior to that I will have to restock on snacks and other lunch items. I definitely want to use the $5/25 coupons from Food Lion especially since I pass 2 on the way to work and historically they don’t have a good coupon policy.   I also realize that I could never do an eat out of the pantry challenge something always seems to come up and we need “x”. So after thinking and deliberation I decided on the $35 a week Grocery challenge for the next 4 weeks starting today!

 

What is my challenge? Spend as close to $20 a week at Food Lion over the next 4 weeks while purchasing items we need or to add to the stockpile based on sales. I am also going to give myself $10 a week to spend at CVS to keep rolling ECB. So that is a total of $35 a week for the next 4 weeks to feed our family of 6.

I am going to make 2 exceptions or  rule bending items up front. First, I will not be counting my final trip to Costco and/or produce stand to purchase last minute items for Kendall and Zach’s Birthday Party. I have already purchased most of the paper product but plan to purchase watermelons and sweet items along with Pizza and drinks to serve.  Second, the rumored Harris Teeter Triple event, if this occurs I will use the CVS budget to purchase items is there are too good of deals to pass up!

 

Week One Shopping: I stopped at Food Lion after work on Wednesday. I purchased Coffee Filters (a need), 2 12 pack rolls of toilet paper, 1 6 pack of paper towels and 3# of ground beef. I used the 5/25 and 2 $0.75 coupons on the toilet paper. Total spent $20.15, saved 12.50. I also got a catalina coupon for $2 off $10 of the house brand products. My plan is to save this for next week to use to increase my saving.  Success so Far!!!!!

Shopping This Week Including Renovations

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Sunday, our local Big Lots offered 20% off everything. My mom grabbed a coupon for me and then both Kendall and Zach stay at their house while we shopped. I was hoping to grab several things for the renovation.  We purchased 2 bedding sets one for Haley and one for Lily, in addition we found a coordinating blanket for Kendall’s bed. My current plan is to use the extra pillow shams as topper for windows. Matt has scraped and painted the ceiling and started working on the walls. It will take at least 2 coats of paint so no new pictures for a week or so!

Updated Spending Totals for Renovations

Budget information:$1000
Total spent $470 with $530 remaining. 

Big Lots spent $55. for new bedding. Lowes- Spent 70. for blinds, wood for Lily’s bed and miscellaneous. Total for the week $125

Total spent $595 with $405 left, we are half way with our budget. Hopefully the majority of the rest will be spent on new furniture at IKEA.

 

I also shopped at CVS on Sunday, I came away really disappointed because I spent $4 more than I should have because I forgot to use my ECB on  my first transaction. I ended up spending $16 overall. I was able to purchase 4 bottles of Head and Shoulders shampoo, 1 bottle of sunscreen, 1 candy bar, 5 2Liter Sodas, and 3 bags of Twizzlers candy. Not really a bad trip just one I screwed up and it took about 10 minute for me to rethink and fix the problems.

 

I also stopped at Food Lion today, but more details regarding this trip and my 4 week grocery challenge will be up tomorrow.


Random Tuesday Thoughts

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  • Wordless Wednesday- will have a new pictures of Haley’s room with the new bed set that we purchased on Sunday. Lily has a matching set and we bought a coordinating blanket to use on Haley’s bed!
  • Matt is currently working on painting the ceiling in the new room for the little girls. We have changed our color design yet. The holes are patched so now the real fun can begin.
  • Matt was so nice to point out a math error on my renovation budget this evening so now I am hoping to save the rest to use at IKEA.
  • I have been focused all Spring/ Summer on not wasting any of the veggies that we get from the Produce co-op. Saturday night that became a failure due to a migraine and steamed snap peas that turn bad!
  • This Saturday, will be our last day to pick up produce, so far this summer, we have frozen around 3 dozen ears of corn, several packages of spinach, a couple packs of broccoli, 5 or more packs of green beans, 2 packs of diced tomatoes and 6 cans of Rotel. This is all with the surplus that we could not consume in the week.
  • Currently in my crock-pot, I am attempting to make a vegetable soup starter, using items that would be throw away or go bad before I could use them. I added a bunch of celery (leaves and all), carrots, green onions, couple cloves of garlic and some fresh dill. Hopefully after cooking for 12 hours I will use the blender to make the base to freeze for use this winter. The color was really pretty to start so who know how it will turn out.
  • I really enjoyed being a Mom today. Matt needed to work on some things for VBS, so I took the 3 little kids to the pool. Lily had swim team practice so I was able to spend some quality time with just Kendall and Zach. After practice and ice cream we all swam laps and played for a bit. Driving home, I looked in the mirror and all the kids were singing with K-LOVE. The thought actually occurred to me “This is why I always wanted to be a mom.”
  • We are currently looking at our cell phone plan. It is time for me to get a new phone and because I have a basic phone the choices are really limited. I am even considering an Iphone.
  • In an effort to conserve energy and ultimately save money, we have adjusted our thermostat to 74 degrees. That is 4 degrees higher than where we started the summer. We are running the ceiling fans a little bit more but the house is actually staying pleasant. From reading 78 is the ideal temperature for the summer. I know we won’t get there but I may sneak it up to 75 in another week or so.