Wordless Wednesday- Kendall Field Day
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Monthly Archives: May 2015
Saving on Saturday -5/9/2015
First check out the cute header my husband made for today!
Today’s saving is actually even bigger than I had originally thought or planned. We are all enjoying the square foot garden this year and hopefully will be reaping the benefit in just a few short weeks. One of the first things that I have been reading about is that we needed to start a compost pile to help supplement the dirt each year. I have been think and looking into different options for about six months. So today, I decided we needed to act on the idea or at least get good plan in place to get this started in the next several weeks. After some discussion and thought, we were actually able to build our compost box using wood that we already had around! That is right we spent absolute no money on the construction or materials! I am actually over the moon that it turned out so well. Even Matt got on board and helped dig in the back for the last couple of boards we needed. I am so pleased with this project that I have to share the pictures.
Side view!
This is a view from the deck. I am hoping because we can just dump that it will be easy to keep things going in it!
Standing straight in front of the new compost bin at the end of the deck!
Wordless Wednesday-Part 2 Rides
Last ride of the day….otherwise known as the kidney buster. It was so jerky and rough!
Dark picture but this is the kid roller coaster that has been in the park for years. I remember it as the Scooby Doo but Zach LOVED it! Everyone rode at least twice!
The “Big” roller coaster that Matt, Lily and Kendall rode. Zach was not tall enough.
Proof of the ride!
The first ride Zach got to pick. He stumbled and scrapped his knee running to get off of this ride.
Lily and Kendall are swinging. I was planning to ride with Zach but he decided against it to my relief.
Wordless Wednesday- Carowinds- Cheerleading
This was the final competition of this season. I am so proud of both girls. Lily’s youth team was second out of five and won special recognition for best tumbling of the day!
Kendall is waiting on the far right and Lily is in the air in the middle!
Lily is on the far end!
Lily is on the far right, Cant see Kendall
Lily is staring her tumble run!
Kendall is in the air and Lily is tumbling!
Lily in the air
Lily waiting to start a tumble pass.
Random Thought Tuesday
I have lots of these to share!
- Happy Cinco De Mayo, we celebrated by having cheese Quesada and Mexican Rice for dinner. Matt and I ended the day with margarita wine! Yes we are partying hard.
- The white van is having even more issues, currently I have a flashing light and it is running rough. I am frustrated. In fact I am so frustrated that we are discussing options for purchasing a new to us car and making payments. The goal right now is to wait several months in order to reduce our debt load and make sure we can afford a new huge monthly expense.
- I purchased 48 bottles of water at CVS for a grand total of $0.10 yesterday. This was in fact all tax. I have not been shopping regularly at CVS for over a month now but was excited to actually grab a great deal and use ECB at the same time.
- Our bean plants have spouted! I have had horrible luck with planting seeds this year that I was becoming concerned that the green beans would not grow either. In fact I was trying to find a store to purchase live plants from. But yesterday, they started popping out of the ground and today I am counting a close to 90% growth rate from the seeds.
- Spring/Early Summer has finally arrived in North Carolina. The high temperature this week are crawling slowly into the 80s. We have not needed to turn on our air condition yet but I am sure it will not be long. The great news is that we have now been a month without use heat or air. Our electric bill should remain below $200 for the month of May as well!
- Amanda has applied for and been accepted into the community college starting in the fall. I am so excited and proud of her.
- On Sunday both Lily and Kendall participate in their final cheerleading competition for the year. Lily’s team received a special honor of best tumbling for the entire day! My plan is to post lots of fun pictures for Wordless Wednesday. Pictures not only of the competition but also from the rides we enjoyed at the amusement park where it was held.
Saving on Saturday- Car Wash
I came up with a new idea to help me be a little bit more creative and save money each week. I am calling it Saving on Saturday. The goal will be for me to post one way we save money during the previous week. I would love some idea so feel free to join me!
This week we ended up saving money and have some fun at the same time. It feels like we have been living in a car for the past several weeks and both vans are starting to look like we do as well. So washing our own cars is the first way we are saving money. A low end cleaning run around $25 and even the automatic wash is $12 so I am going to estimate by doing all the work at home we save at least $24 and the memories will be priceless!
April In Review
Blogging: Goal: 15 per month Goal Met! Even with posting this month in review 2 days late! Go Me!
Weight: Goal: Met and maintain weight of 175. This goal will be considered met each month that weight loss is achieved and once this weight is achieved, each month maintained is considered achieved. Fail again! May is the month that I am getting back on track with this! I have been fairly consist with exercising but the diet part is lacking,.
Spiritual- Goal. I want to spend time reading and or studying the Bible at least 5 days a week for the year. Another Fail! I have been reading at least 3 days a week need to up my game for sure.
Personal Goals: Achieved 1 of 3
Financial Goals: Achieved 2 of 4 (50%)
1. Pay off all debit by December 2015, except for mortgage.
a. Home Depot- $170 a month Payment. Will be paid off in September. Smaller than usual payment to offset expenses and also I ended up purchasing some new dirt for the garden. We are still on track with no interest paid on this card so May and June will be catch up months.
c. American Express – pay $900 this month. Again smaller than anticipated pay so I have to buckle down.
d. Personal Loan (used to purchase van) .The current scheduled payment is $217 a month with this scheduled to be paid off in December 2015. Goal Met!
2. Emergency Fund to $2000. Used this to cover the unexpected car repair. So we are starting at zero again. Fail
. 3. Groceries: Spend $600 a month . Huge success this month. We spent $195 on groceries including $50 worth of plants for the garden. The real test will be in May if we can stay around $800 for the month, then this will be back on track for the year.
4. Gas: Spend $400 a month with any remaining to be move to Auto fund for repairs. I was unable to pay for this last repair out of our gas money so ended up using the Emergency fund to cover the large repair cost of $400. Otherwise on track with spending $364 for gas, which does include our gas for all trips this month as well.. In May, we will have to cover tags, inspection and taxes on the Dodge van. We also have several out of town appointments. My goal will be to stay at $400 including these extra expenses.
Disney- The yard sale was a HUGE! success! In fact it was the biggest yard sale profit I have ever made! I did pay an additional $300 toward our trip so this is awesome! I do not expect to make big gains in this area until July due to extra annual expenses that are coming due in May.
April was a crazy expensive month. I had planned for our cheerleading trip to the beach but with yet another van repair, we are now going to have to tighten way down for several months. I was extremely pleased to realize that we actually met several of the established goals. May is another expensive month. I have been able to save some money in advance but in May we have to pay insurance and pool dues. In addition our mortgage has increased due to the escrow account, that I am unable to close. I am hopefully that all car repairs are done for several months. No extra saving or spending planned for May but I am doubtful to have anything extra.