Monthly Archives: August 2015

September Goals

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This summer has been full of fun! I really enjoyed some nice long days at the pool in addition to our week of vacation at the beach. However, I have not been as on top of budgeting as I like to be. Our Disney trip is less than 3 months away, so my goal is to tight up the budget and get up ready to enjoy Disney. Keeping that in mind, I have decided to make September  a “low spend/ no spend.” month. I really want to make September, October and November all low spend/no spend months but I am going to focus on one month at a time! I know that I can make a goal but if I don’t include some action steps in addition to adding accountability then I am going to fails. I am going to list my plans/goals for September, with weekly or biweekly updates as I can.

1. Reduce Grocery spending to $300 for the month. I am going to purchase 80 pounds of chicken from Zaycon and pull out $150 in cash to put in the grocery envelope. Cash for me is harder to over spend so this should keep me on track.

2. When I looked at my September budget, I have 4 categories that are not completely funded for the month so the remaining $400 of the normal grocery budget will be used to completely fund the budget.

3  Plan to purchase both Lily and Amanda birthday cards. This will allow me to direct our gift money for October, November and December to Christmas. I have already decided that Christmas will be smaller than normal after our trip so I am estimating I need $400 to cover gifts for the kids.

4. Pay at least $375 toward our Disney trip to maximize Disney points prior to November. My goal is to pay for the Bibbidi, Bobbidi Boutique with Disney points only. I have already earned enough to cover one of the girls so well on the way. We are expecting Matt to bring in around $350 in new income from his web business, so I only need to find $25 more.

5. Maintain Gas budget at or below $400. Matt has identified several “maintenance/ repairs” that need to be completed on his van. My goal is to wait till the end of the month to complete to make sure we stay I budget.

6. Reduce/Eliminate Eating out for the month of September. Zach’s birthday is Tuesday September 1st so he has already chosen to eat at a local pizza buffet. Other than this meal, no eating out! I will have to be very deliberate with especially Sunday lunches but we have been spending over $300 a month on eating out and that is a huge amount.

I am hoping to have a yard sale of some form or fashion at the end of the month as well. This may help boost our Disney Payments.

August In Review

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I am posting this a day early but hey at least it is posted.

Blogging:  Goal: 14 per month This is actually post 20! I may or may not post tomorrow but I am very pleased with the way I am starting to keep up with posting on a regular basis.  Goal MET!

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.  Struggling still.. I have in the last week added back in regular exercise so I hope that will make a difference.

Spiritual-  Goal. I want to spend time reading and or studying the Bible at least 5 days a week for the year.  I am going to consider this Goal MET! I have been struggling over the summer to find time to read but with school back in session, it appears to be getting easier and I am trying to make a priority otherwise.

Financial Goals-
1.  Full Fund the budget each month.   I am excited to post GOAL MET! Our savings both emergency and yearly is starting to look regular.

2. Emergency Fund to $2000.  Met. Added $100!  Goal met 3 months in a row!

. 3. Groceries: Spend $700 a month .Total Fail.  Again I am struggling in this area. I am currently $185.72 over for the month. We actually spent less this month than the several month but still we are way over again.

4. Gas: Spend $400 a month .  Fail again. I am actually only over by less than $50 this month so I have made some improvement but still not enough. September is without need for tags or title or insurance and with gas prices continuing to decease I am hoping to stay in budget!

5. Eating out- tracking purposes only $381. Again a decrease from previous months.

Disney- Failed!  But I have plans to change this!

August was not a total fail or a total success for anything. I do have plans for at least September to help adjust our budgets. I will post more later on the “goal” and the rationale as to why I think September should demonstrate good progress with all my goals.

5 Things Friday

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  1. I am loving the Ibbotta app on my phone. I started using it about 6 weeks ago and will not buy anything extra. I have mainly used it for things such as bananas and green peppers. You must have $10 worth of rebates in your account before you can claim. Tonight, I hit $10.80 and decided to move to paypal just to try out. The money showed up within 5 minutes and I was able to order 10 Lighting Charging cords and 5 car chargers for $1.15 after using the Ibbotta credit!
  2. Kendall has had a rough first week of school. I am hoping that she is just exhausted. I picked her up from school yesterday and she cried on the way home. This morning she cried prior to leaving for school. This evening she is just giggling and laughing. These are all signs that she is overly tired. We will be changing bedtime back to 7pm next week to see if that helps.
  3. We picked up Zach and Kendall’s new glasses on Monday and today (Friday) we were back at Vision Works to get Zach’s straighten out.  Boys…..
  4. I have been able to leave work before 5:30pm for the last two weeks. I am hoping this trend continues but looking at my schedule for next week, it will become a whole lot harder.
  5. Tomorrow, the community in schools is hosting a “big toy day” My plan is to take the kids and let them spend a couple of hours enjoying. We may head to the pool to finish out the day but I am seriously afraid the water will be cold after out temperatures begin in the 80s all week. The pool officially closes on Labor Day so we have two weekends left to enjoy.

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Zach First Day of Kindergarten

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Monday was the official first day of school in NC. I will be posting the traditional back to school pictures with book bags and such on Wednesday. This post is a special one for Zach. His first day of school was really 45 minutes while his dad stayed in the back of the classroom. Zach LOVED school. He is in a small class of 19 students with 11 boys in the group. He was able to complete a scavenger hunt in the classroom, listen to a story and make a craft. I am so excited and proud of him!

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Menu Planning Monday

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Menu planning is usually not all that difficulty at my house. The main reason for this is that we are always trying to make and package items that make life simpler and easier to survive. For example, when we buy hamburger, part of it is cooked and frozen in 1 pound containers, these can be used for spaghetti, chill or even hamburger helper. This past weekend, I have been focusing on cooking ahead. Breakfast items have been made and place in the fridge for easy quick mornings. I made “Breakfast Burrito filling” on Saturday morning and a large container of baked oatmeal on Sunday. We cooked up several bags of dried beans because they are so much healthier and cheaper than canned beans. On Sunday, we picked 2 gallons of ripe muscadines.  I made a batch of jelly, frozen 8 cups of whole muscadine and made a second “starter” for more jelly. Sometimes by spreading the extra work out it makes it easier and we definitely eat better and spend less.

Now on to the menu plan

Breakfast-Breakfast burritos, baked oatmeal, French toast, toast with new jelly, cereal, poptarts or grits.

Lunch- The kids will be taking Lunchables everyday, I will take leftovers Monday, Wednesday and Friday with a sandwich on Tuesday. Matt will be eating from the fridge or sandwich every day.

Dinner– I am trying to stick to my goal of leaving work by 5:30 daily so I can eat with the family most nights.

Saturday- Lunch: Coconut shrimp and grilled pineapple.   Dinner- Chicken Enchiladas

Sunday- Lunch- with my parents.  Dinner-out of the fridge.

Monday- Spaghetti with meatballs and garlic bread.
Tuesday- Grilled Chicken salad
Wednesday-Pulled pork, green beans and fruit
Thursday-  Sonic corn dogs ($0.50 each)
Friday- Cowboy beans and cucumber relish from the freezer.

Saving on Saturday- Vacation

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I really do enjoy travelling and especially enjoyed our vacation this year if you could not tell by all the pictures. One reason, that I was able to enjoy our vacation this year is because of the fact that we actually spent overall less on a week at the beach than we have spent on a long weekend trip. So today, I am going to share some tips that I used this year to not only save money but also to make this trip so enjoyable.

The first and most important tip is PLAN AHEAD!.  I booked our condo in January this year in order to get the specific week that I wanted for the rate we could easily afford. But I actually started buying for the trip back in November 2014. CVS usually runs some awesome Black Friday sales, starting the Sunday before Thanksgiving, for the past several years these have included laundry detergent for free after ECB.  I am pretty brand loyal, but in this case, I carried the free laundry detergent home and placed in a plastic container. During our beach trip, we typically come in from the beach and toss all suits and towels in the wash. My thoughts are free is good enough as long as it helps to remove the sand. Other items that I find on good deals (usually $0.75 or less) include hand soap, toilet paper, dishwasher tablet and dishwashing liquid.

The next way that I plan ahead for our vacation is meal planning. I know there are a few meals that the entire family loves and so if I am making one of these I will just make two and place the second in the deep freezer to take to the beach. Our plan ahead meals this year included baked ziti, chicken and broccoli casserole and gravy biscuits. If I find a good deal on a special snack food that we like I will also go ahead and purchase that as well. This year these items included goldfish crackers, Oreos and  Kit Kat Minis.  I also do the same with paper plates, cups and silverware. The condo does have a dishwasher but I prefer the paper for the convenience.

Another way that we save money is by saving and reusing certain items year after year.  I have a 20 year collection of sand toys that I store in a large bag in our building. Each year we take it with us to the beach. Some years we come back with less sand toys as if they break they are thrown away at the beach. We also have purchased a beach cart, umbrella and several chairs that are specifically for beach use. It may seem like a lot of trouble to carry these items back and forth but in the big picture it continues to save us money as we don’t purchase new items unless they are needed.

A finally way that we save money on vacation is by increasing the temperature of our house to 82* and turning off/unplugging anything possible. Our electric bill dropped by $30 this month in comparison to last month with the only difference being our vacation week. We also saw a $5 decrease in our water bill which is a direct result of less laundry.

How have you been saving money this week?

5 Things Friday

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5thingsfriday-logoRED1. The kids start to school on Monday. We had a meet the teacher night last night and everyone is excited. In anticipation of this we are following the school night schedule around here including bedtimes! This also means that I am trying to get some filling/quick breakfast made over the next couple of morning to help in the mornings. Did I mention that Tuesday and Friday will be the first time in 10 years that ALL my children will be in school?

2. Yesterday, was a sad day. We spent most of the day outside working in the yard and square foot garden. The reason it was so sad is that I ended up pulling up and throwing in the compost pile, about half the corn, the cucumber plants and about half of the tomato plants. We have had such a dry summer and with us being out of town last week, so no extra watering, they were dead. It was bittersweet because I was able to harvest enough corn for dinner last night and 2 small watermelon that we used for dinner today. We should continue to get a couple of tomato in daily and maybe just maybe a green pepper or so.

3. I was able to leave work on or before 5:30 every day this week and even managed to get home by 5pm this evening!  I know this is hard to understand but it is a HUGE deal for me and something I plan to continue.

4.I want to spend most of tomorrow at the pool as it will only be open for 3 more weekends. I have not checked the forecast but heard it included storms.

5. I was able to get an additional 2 GB of data and $20 knocked off my Verizon bill tonight just by asking!

Random Tuesday Thoughts

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  • We have been home from vacation for 2 days and are about 1/2 the way unpacked. Goal- Be completely unpacked by Saturday.
  • I am going to be changing/hopefully reducing my work schedule over the next month to make things a little bit easier around here in the evenings. My goal until the changes officially take place and for the whole school year is to be leaving work by 5:30. So far I have been home 2 days in a row. Go me!
  • During my extended lunch break today, we headed to Winston to Vision Works to order both Zach and Kendall new glasses. The lesson we learned is that glasses for the little kids need to have nose pieces to keep them from sliding off their face. I did use a coupon surprised? We were able to purchase 2 pair of glasses with transitional lens plus a very nice contact lens case for Lily to take to school for $200.
  • I am planning to attend a continuing education class in September, it will be the first time in 10 years I have stayed by myself in a hotel room. I think I am a little too excited!
  • Disney planning is in full swing as soon as we finish unpacking from the Beach.
  • As part of getting ready to go back to school, I had the kids try on and get rid of any shoes that were too small or that they did not like. Kendall is upset because now she is left with only 22 pairs of shoes.
  • Lily has cheerleading every night this week and man is it rough trying to get everyone back on a school schedule. Zach will start Kindergarten and we are trying to eliminate naps up front so the evening have been full of attitude. Tonight was at least better than last night. Zach made it to his “normal” 7:30 bedtime. Last night he was in bed at 6:50.
  • Amanda has started college and so far I am very proud of the hours she is putting in to be successful!
  • We are on budget so far for the month in both groceries and gas. I am so proud of this especially because of the massive Costco trip we made on Sunday in addition to the purchase of school supplies today.
  • Blogging is always better at the beach, I guess the smell of the ocean makes my thoughts come easier!