Monthly Archives: November 2014

November In Review

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Blogging:  Goal: 15 per month 13 for the month counting this.

Weight: Goal to exercise 3x a week and to be down to 175 by December 2014.  I did manage to break that 185 mark that I have been stuck at since August, however post Thanksgiving I am back to where I am stuck.

Financial Goals:

1.  Pay off all debit by July 2015, except for mortgage.  I did make a huge payment on Debt this month and am refocused on this goal.. Goal Met

2. Emergency Fund to $2000.  Another fail for this month… I have to get a handle on this!

. 3. Groceries: Spend $600 a month . Goal Met  $500. I am planning to use any and all extra monies to go toward paying down debt. I purchased lots of extra stuff this month so I know it was spent, just not on Groceries.

4. Gas: Spend $400 a month with any remaining to be move to Auto fund for repairs.  Total Spent $228 for gas and another $150 for a part for my car. GOAL MET!  This is due to the significant lowering of gas prices. I also did not include any of the gas for our trip which comes from a second budget. I will hopefully report on this next week.

I did not met any of my personal goals but 3/4 of financial goal. Next month, I anticipated the same and will plan to give a detailed description of our debt and the plan to pay off prior to July 2015.

Five Things Friday- Shopping

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One of the things that I consider a real special treat/requirement when visiting Michigan is a trip to “Bronner’s”. This year, I was able to add several new pieces including a house to my snow village.  I can’t wait to get home to add these pieces to the ones that I already have in place.

Matt choice one store to visit on Black Friday- it was a local sporting store called “Dunhams”. He purchased 3 Michigan State t-shirts and a pair of work boots for $48!

I am planning on adding a second tree  to the house this year and decided it will be a “Disney”  themed tree. I have slowly been collecting Disney ornaments over the years and purchased several new items including a tree topper today at the Disney Store  outlet. If time permits, I am also going to check on line for any other awesome deals.

Zach is growing again, this time all his shirts are too short.  I have purchased a couple of new shirts for him and a sweater to wear at Christmas, but am planning to switch out all his 4T shirt for the new 5T ones that I have been collecting over the past couple of months.

I have spent the most time ever shopping for clothes for myself this trip. I am excited to be able to purchase things several sizes smaller but also a little afraid that if I am not careful I will quickly outgrow these items. I guess this is motivation for me to keep working out on a regular basis.

Thanksgiving Trip Part #1

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After our last trip to Michigan, that you read about here, I will be the first to admit that I was not at all excited to plan or start out on a second this year. But I am very pleased to say that we have enjoyed this trip.  We did have several bit of excitement on the trip up. The first of which was totally my fault, or I should say my lack of ability to back a vehicle. After checking gas prices, we stopped in Virginia to fill up. I did not check behind me as I had to quickly move the van to a different gas pump and managed to back into a very large green pole with two warning signs on it.  The good news is that the only damage was to the brake light that never worked right any way but now will need to be replaced for a third time  this year.  The only excited on the OHIO turnpike came at the end when I tried to hand over a Canadian quarter, I am still trying to figure out where I got one to start with? The trip itself lasted about 15 hours which was not bad considering we stopped every two hours or so.

We spent Wednesday shopping, at Bronner’s and Birch Run so at least I enjoyed the day. I have been able to find some awesome deals that  I may share in a separate post later. Thursday was spent playing in the hotel pool and with family, just the way it should be!

CVS- Black Friday on Sunday

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thI love to shop at CVS. This week the reason is that I can shop their Black Friday special on Sunday morning instead of Friday morning when I will be 800 miles away. I did plan ahead just a bit by getting my list all organized on Thursday and I also prepared a baked oatmeal for Matt and the kids to eat.

I am very pleased with my trips. Yes, I ended up making a total of 3 trips CVS on Sunday: however only the first was strictly for couponing.  We decided to order a calendar for a gift and after picking it up on the first trip, it had not been bond so the second trip was to get the calendar fixed. Our third stop was part of date just because we were driving by. I was disappointed in several things, the first was they started giving me a hard time as I walked into the store about using 2 cards, I responded by stating “I have two households and they should  call corporate before making policy changes.”  They ended  up being very nice and did not have a problem with my separate transactions at all. The other problem was a  bigger problem, neither of the store carried several of the main sale items, nor the one that was a money maker.  In addition, neither store would give rain checks because they were not items the store usually carried, in the past, I have gotten rain checks and used later at larger stores . But this only put a damper on the trip but did not ruin it.

For the sake of ease and because in reality it was a single  day,  I am combining all receipts to one big item.

By the numbers:
3 trips to 2 stores
12  separate transactions on 2 separate cards
7 transactions that the total it including tax was less than $0.94, one was free and 5 were less than fifty cent.
Total spent $26.96
Total Saved $83.97 or 76%, this does not include remaining ECBs.
$6.36 in Extra Care Bucks left.
2 rainchecks, one for Laundry Detergent and one for Parmesan cheese.

Menu Planning and Other Random Thoughts?

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It has been a very long time since I  talked/shared an actually menu plan. I can definitely say that we try to complete menu planning at least once a week. This school year planning  has fallen on Sundays or at least on the weekend. After some trial and error, what works best for our family is to plan not only dinners for the week but to also go ahead and stock up snacks in book bags in addition to getting at least a working list of the girls lunches ready, depending on what is actually on the list, we also try to get several of these lunches made ahead of time.

In addition to the “regular” menu planning that I am talking about above, we also try to have at least an idea for what we are going to do on the weekends as well. I have found that if I don’t think ahead and plan for at least one meal on the weekends, we end up going out to eat.  We realize that beginning next Saturday, we will be eating out ALOT!  At least one meal on Saturday and Sunday, with at least 2 meals eaten out starting on Tuesday due to travelling. Combine this reality with the idea that I don’t want to leave food in our refrigerator while we are travelling  and menu planning was a must this week.

A limitation that has played a huge part in the plan for this week is that I have really been trying to eat from our pantry over the last several months (since September).  I can honestly say that we have the least amount of food in our house today then we have had in several years. I have purchased only things we are out of  and mainly fresh veggies and fruit, for the past several months. This has helped to reduce the grocery budget to under $600 a month however it is also starting to be a little bit challenging for menu planning. I decided last week not to purchase fresh items this week in addition to the other limitations.

Sunday-                    Breakfast  choice of leftovers (sausage stuffed crescent rolls, French toast or baked oatmeal.
Lunch- cowboy beans and cucumber relish. Beans were a left over from the fridge.
Dinner- Spam (fried) and Mac and cheese deluxe.

Monday-                    Breakfast- egg casserole (Made of Saturday to use up spinach and eggs)
Dinner- Tomato soup for kids, Broccoli and cheese soup for adults.
Tuesday                    Breakfast-  choice of cereal, toast or grits
Dinner- Breakfast casserole
Wednesday                Breakfast- leftovers casseroles or choice of cereal, toast or grits.
Dinner- Kids will be eating at church, Matt and I will find either leftovers or I am thinking of making oyster stew for myself.   (Will plan to use leftovers for lunch).
Thursday-                   Breakfast-  Eggs and sausage
Dinner- Squash Lasagna
Friday-                        Breakfast -choice of cereal, toast or grits
Dinner- Kielbasa with rice (Matt’s dish).
Saturday-                    Breakfast- French toast- (if enough bread left) or finishing up any other leftovers of breakfast food.
Lunch- Zach is at a birthday party and Girls are going to use Book-it coupons.
Dinner- Mexican rice and fried apples- if any are left to be used. May also look at leftovers and eat up anything that needs to be finished.

The girls lunches have already been planned out and I have 2 days of Lily’s prepared and 3 days of Kendall’s.

Because of our date night next week, I have already planned for both snacks and lunches on Monday.  Next Monday night dinner will be Hamburger Helper because we don’t have any left-overs from it.

Sunday, I am planning a baked oatmeal for breakfast. Lunch most likely at my parents and dinner is our night out with McDonald’s for the kids.

As you can tell, nothing fancy is happening but we are continuing to eat very well!

Financial Update

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Life is about choices, this is actually one of my favorite saying and also something that is very true in every aspect of life. I also can add to this by saying that not every choice is good and bad or even good and better but it is always a choice. There have been periods in my life when what I spent money on was not a choice. The reason, after paying bills such as electric, water, mortgage etc, there was little or no money left to cover food much less anything else like new towels or eating out.  However, this is no longer the case.  I am not saying that we have a lot of money or even that we are spending our money in the best way possible but I am very thankful to say that we definitely have a choice in how we spend our money.

This  is the time of year, when I start looking at the budget and reworking and figuring out what the priorities  are  for not only November and December but also for the next year.  My work is going through some major changes as well especially with benefits.  So I definitely am looking at changing things up next year.  My cost for insurances in all forms is actually going to be lower in addition to the small raise. Given these conditions I have decided to start investing in our retirement fund. I am really nervous about this decision simply because it will be money that is “out of reach” for the short term. We, Matt and I, have discussed this decision and feel like it is the best one at this time.  I will meet with an advisors next week and for the first time ever will be investing in our future instead of the present. Along the same lines, I am adding a line item for saving as well. My goal with these decisions is to keep living on what I am making this year and place the “raise/additional savings” out of sight and out of reach.  I am still working on the number but hope to share a sample budget prior to January.

In more present financial news, we are currently doing very well with our financial goals for the month!

         1. Emergency Fund to $2000.  I know this goal will not be met this year but hope/plan to add $100 to this by the end of the month.

  2. Groceries: Spend $600 a month . Spending for the month is $390 which does include 2 Sunday newspaper subscriptions, ($130). We will be leaving in less than two weeks so I am planning to try and clean out our fridge because I can’t stand to waste food! The only purchase that I anticipate for the trip itself is Diet Cokes and maybe waters.

 3. Gas: Spend $400 a month with any remaining to be move to Auto fund for repairs. So far we have only spent $120 for gas. I did pay our auto insurance for 6 months but this was from money that has already been saved! As you will notice below, I am setting a budget for our trip which will be all inclusive.  Prior to the trip, we will be having the oil changed and adding a power outlet for the DVD player, both these items will come from this budget.  We also plan to purchase a new set of tires but this cost will be included in the trip cost.

4. Michigan Trip Budget: $2000- This is actually a very high budget for us when traveling but the current plan is this will include the cost of new tires in addition to hotel, gas, food and entertainment.

Random Tuesday Thoughts

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  • We survived family photos with 13 people including 7 “kids”. I will post some of the sneak peak that the photographer has posted for Wordless Wednesday tomorrow. So far I have been very pleased with the ones I have seen so I am hoping that we will have lots of awesome pictures to use for Christmas presents and such.
  • My work schedule has gotten very very lean in November, so far I am enjoying the extra time off because it is allowing me to catch up on things and also prepare for our trip. This week I have 2 half days off in addition to my normal Thursday.
  • We are planning to leave for Michigan in 13 days, before leaving I have to get a new schedule up for Children’s church and I would like to get my snow village up as well
  • Matt and I have a huge date night planned to go to “Garth Brooks” concert in Greensboro. This will be our first true date night in over a year, only down side is this is exactly 2 days before we are leaving.
  • Kendall is one determined child, she has managed to pull her 2 front teeth in the last 6 hours. I guess I should be glad that she waited to after family pictures to accomplish this.
  • I have finished all my Christmas shopping except for the couple that involve family pictures that are mentioned above. And I already have Christmas cards purchased!
  • I like to have seven random thoughts in a random thoughts post just because it makes it seem right. Therefore I will plan a huge budget update for Thursday or Friday of this week.