Lily at 9 years old and her first day of contacts!
Wordless Wednesday-Lily
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Author Archives: Sheila
Yard Work
I am not a person who enjoys working in the yard, well except for mowing. As a mom, who can say no to an hour of uninterrupted quiet time? I do however, want to have a yard that is pretty and looks like I care. I really enjoy flowers at least looking at them. We are finally at a season in our life when we have the money, time and energy to attempt to beautiful the yard. We are also focusing on making our square foot garden not only productive but at least not an eye sore. Yesterday, we spent most of the day working outside, the biggest project was adding a “platform” to the square foot garden as well as getting it ready to plant in a couple of weeks. I am so excited that it turned out this well.
Next after twenty years, I decide to replace the brick chip with mulch on both sides of the house.
We also ended up replanting some grass up front and I did some rearranging of the flowers in the front bed. Finally, I replanted tulips and love my flower pot in front of the house.
I am exhausted and sore but very pleased with the results.
Five Things Friday 4/10/2015
So glad that Carla did this post today! So I “borrowed” her cute picture and will share my five things!
- The white van was treated to yet another set of repairs yesterday. A new heater hose and air conditioner compressor. This depleted our emergency fund by $450. I am hoping to be able to add a little bit back to the fund this month but even more so am praying that this is the end of repairs at least for a couple of months.
- I was driving the van to cheerleading last night and on the way home suffered an allergy attack. After a little bit of thinking, realized that it was most likely due to “dust” that had accumulated in the air condition system. This morning, Matt spent another $10 to replace the cabin air filters. I am so frustrated with this van at the moment.
- I did have a major success in saving for Groceries. Our menu plan called for Baked Potato on Thursday. I realized when getting out the potatoes that I still had about a fourth of bag of potatoes that were starting to spout. In order not to waste food, I filled the crockpot with potatoes, used the remaining ones after dinner to make mashed potatoes. One 2 cup set I will use for “shepherd pie” this weekend and the others (2) are frozen for later use. I also started a crock pot with “potato corn chowder” which will be a second meal for the weekend and then at least two additional meals in the future. So I have managed to cook a minimum of 5 meals in one day using crock pots and food on hand.
- I am working toward a goal of significantly lowering our grocery cost for the month. To accomplish this I want to stick to shopping at CVS and Aldi, no Costco trips. So far for the month, we have spent $38 on groceries. The goal is to spend less than $50, purchase some landscape items and plants for the square foot garden with another $200 and use the remainder to now cover the unexpected van expense.
- In NC on Saturday, the temperature is suppose to be in the low 70s and sunny so we are planning to spend the day working on the Square Foot Garden. I hope to post pictures of all the yard tomorrow.
Wordless Wednesday- Easter Blue
Yard Sale Success
I have hinted for several weeks that we were preparing for a yard sale. I am excited and eager to announce that the physical yard sale actually took place this past Saturday. I actually began planning for this the first weekend of March. I am not at all new to yard sales. In fact, I remember travelling with my mother to a flea market as a child in order to bring in some extra money. Since becoming an adult, I usually participate in a yard sale either once a year or once every other year. For the past several years, I have been going to a small bank and setting up with our cheer gym. The standard that makes a yard sale successful has not changed over the year either. If I am able to bring home a profit of $100 then that is a very successful yard sale.
One new thing that I have never tried before was “online” yard sale. Basically this is a free facebook group., where you post a picture and description of the item, along with price and general area for meeting. I decided to only place 1-2 items for sale at a time. I also only arranged pick up and meeting in private messages and did not consider an item sold until the meeting was arranged. I was nervous at first due to the publicity of recent bad horrible stories from meeting arranged on craigslist and also some of the stories that I had heard about people just not showing up. I am excited to say that my experiences with this have been overall positive. I had one person come to what I thought was purchase an item but they looked at the item and decided they did not want it. I replaced this item for sale and in less than 2 hours had another person arrive and purchase the item. I also had one experience where I arranged to meet someone and they did not show up. Otherwise everyone showed up with cash in hand and it was the easiest way to sell items that I would consider big and I did not attempt to sell anything under $10 as I didn’t consider it worth the gas. Matt ended up doing some of the meeting during the day but even he will agree how easy and quick most were. I made around $400 just on the online part.
After the huge success via online selling, I decide to go all out with the advertising and not only pay for advertising in our local paper which cost $38 for 3 days, but also placed an ad on craigslist and on the site I use on Facebook. We also placed several signs on Friday night as well. I am so excited to announce that on Saturday we had a profit of $350 after covering the cost of advertising and two meals for us!
OVERALL YARD SALE PROFIT $750…………………..my most successful/profitable Yard Sale EVER!!!
So how are we spending this money. 1) Purchased a new stroller to use at Disney. 2)Purchased several gift items for the kids including Autograph books and a dress for Kendall to wear. 3) Purchased matching shirts from the Disney store to wear 4) Applied $400 toward our trip cost!
Monday Menu Plan
One of our biggest expenses is and has always been Groceries. I am forever trying to figure out ways to either save money and or stay in budget with this expense. In March I was so far over budget that I was even hesitate to post my monthly update. So in April I am already stressing and trying to come up with ways to make up the difference. After some discussion with Matt, we have decided to eliminate Costco shopping for the month and try to eat what we have with minimal trips to Aldi as needed. On Saturday, we did end up eating out twice but used profits from the yard sale to do so. Sunday was back on track with a creative yet traditional “Easter Dinner”. Matt grilled a can of ham on the grill with pineapple, I added a box of scalloped potatoes, made deviled eggs from our Easter eggs, add coleslaw and cucumber relish to complete. We also used some money from the yard sale to refill our gas cylinder for grill. As the weather gets warmer you notice a lot more use of this. A huge part of not shopping this month will be menu planning so here is the start.
Breakfast-French toast (leftovers) , Cereal, toast, eggs and Pumpkin Baked oatmeal.
Lunch-The girls are out of school this week until Thursday so they will be eating at home and I will pack both their lunches on Thursday. I did go ahead and make a salad for myself and probably will eat some leftovers one day this week.
Dinner– Since we have at least 2 nights at home this week, Matt will be cooking a little bit more then previous weeks but we do plan to eat from our pantry and freezer.
Monday- Pork chops with mac and cheese and glazed carrots.
Tuesday- Beef Enchiladas
Wednesday-Breakfast casserole
Thursday- Baked potatoes
Friday- Grilled Chicken
Saturday- Shrimp cocktail or coconut shrimp. Dinner- pizza ( need to use up the store bought crust we purchased.
Easter
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To me this is the most important day of the year. I have the privilege this morning to be teaching the Beginner’s Children Church group which is the two year olds. I hope that they will begin to understand the significance of this day even in the smallest manner. I am using the Resurrection Rolls as the base of my lesson. I was not able to find a recipe that I really liked so I combined a couple including scripture to make the meaning as clear as possible. Do you believe?
Easter Eggs
In pictures…. but I will add this was the most I have enjoyed coloring the eggs. It was easy and not a lot of clean up!
And the final results….
March in Review
Blogging: Goal: 15 per month Goal Met! I think I have finally got my groove with blogging!
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!
Spiritual- Goal. I want to spend time reading and or studying the Bible at least 5 days a week for the year. Doing better but still not achieved
Personal Goals: Achieved 1 of 3
Financial Goals: Achieved 4 of 4
We are continuing to make small steady progress in this area. Income wise this was an awesome month as we received an expected boast. I am also hoping to keep on track during April with our Beach trip.
1. Pay off all debit by December 2015, except for mortgage.
a. JC Penny- 79.32– . DONE
b. Home Depot- $270 a month Payment. Will be paid off in July Goal met!
c. American Express – pay $2300 this month Goal Met!
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. Placed $100 in for the month Goal Met!
. 3. Groceries: Spend $600 a month . Currently at $741 for the month. No real reason for this except we choose to purchase some steaks and convenient foods and this was a 5 week month. Hopefully better on track next month especially with the need to purchase plants for the garden and a trip for meat in our near future. Fail
4. Gas: Spend $400 a month with any remaining to be move to Auto fund for repairs. We need to make another repair on the white van this month which cost $157. We also have been travelling alot both for cheerleading and for medical appointments. With the repair we ended the month with a total of $474. Because of some extra income we did not need to dip in our emergency fund for this repair so officially this is Goal Met!
Disney- I have decided to add this just to be accountable. This month, I have been selling items online in preparation for our physical yard sale in April. I have been really surprised and excited to see the money come in. I have been able to purchase a stroller that we plan to take and use in Disney, 2 autograph books and a dress.
Looking ahead to April- First is going to be to control with grocery budget. I am hoping to eat out of the fridge and freezer for the first 3 weeks of the month prior to our beach trip. I am positive we will at that point have to head to Costco. I will also need to purchase live plants during the last two weeks of the month depending on the weather. I am setting $100 budget for this which means that I need our grocery spending to stay under $500 for the month. Next is Gas- in April, I am already aware of 3 small repairs that are needed. I am hoping that gas prices will stay low enough to accomplish these repairs in addition to covering our regular expense of gas. Finally, I have reworked our budget and have added a line for saving in our emergency fund. I am so happy to accomplish this goal.
Menu Plan Monday 3/30/2015
We are in full swing for planning our yard sale. Hopefully the weather will cooperate and we can have it on Saturday. I am keeping things relatively easy for the week.
Breakfast-French toast (leftovers) , breakfast burritos (leftovers) bagels (purchased at Costco on Saturday). Cereal.
Lunch-Lunches for the girls and I have already been packed. This week is a little different for us as all the kids are out of school on Friday. Lily will also miss on Thursday because of an eye appointment. For my lunches I have a salad, tuna salad, chicken salad and a dipping day with hummus.
Dinner– We do have a busy week with at least one scheduled activity every evening so quick, convenient and on hand are the keys for this week.
Sunday: Lunch-with friends Dinner- soup and/or sandwiches
Monday- Crockpot Pineapple chicken with rice
Tuesday- Pork Fried Rice
Wednesday-Pork Chops , mac and cheese, applesauce.
Thursday- Not sure about this day yet, I am thinking about squash Lasagna
Friday- hamburgers and tator tots
Saturday- Lunch sandwiches or leftovers. Dinner- pizza( if the yard sale occurs.)
Last week we ended up eating brunch out of Thursday and dinner out of Saturday. So definitely a fail in not eating out but this week should be easier to stick to the plan. I did try the egg roll in a bowl, it was eaten but really not all that great so not a repeat dinner.