Monday Menu Planning

Posted on January 3, 2022 by Sheila

First official snow day of the school year. Technically it is a bad weather no power day but I am seeing snow flurries so decided to stay home and call it a snow day!

I started our limited grocery budget ($50 a week) last week and we nailed it! We spent $4.00 from the change jar in total. We spent alot of time last week, eating left-overs so we are all caught up for the time being. We are starting to slow pull items out of the freezers and pantry so we are definitely back to meal planning this week!

Breakfast– Saturday-sausage links and eggs Sunday-left over muffins from Costco Monday-Gravy and biscuit (made because of my school delay/closure) Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday-choice of breakfast muffins, eggs, pop-tarts, sausage, oatmeal, cereal or grits, breakfast burritos, or omelets.
Lunch- – Saturday-sliders with turkey and ham Sunday- Panda Panda Monday- left-overs Tuesday- Friday Leftovers, pizza and soup should work for most of the week.
Dinner- – Saturday-Homemade pizza Sunday- Dad’s Chicken stew (with a whole meal frozen for the future). Monday- Tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwich. (Matt spent fifty cent to purchase bread for this.) Tuesday-Hamburger Helper Wednesday- Mackerl and corn and fruit. Thursday-Spaghetti and meatballs Friday-Leftovers or Breakfast casserole depending on how the week goes.

Enjoying a slow start to a fairly busy normal week!

Plans for 2022

Posted on January 2, 2022 by Sheila

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Jeremiah 29:11″

This was actually the verse we picked out for our wedding! I think this is a fitting verse for the year as I have learned and am still learning that His plans and timing is always much better than anything I can think of.

I am going to try and be diligent in keeping up with these but also want to share that everything is not always easy or happens the way we think it should.

Financial-
This is a very difficult area for me to even begin to plan and set goals end. Currently Matt is unemployed but actively seeking a job. We had discussed the possibility of this “season” lasting even a year. In my brain, I can say that and yet I am also hoping that it does not last that long. I am going to work on short term- goals that we can focus on during his unemployment and long term- goals that we will focus on once he returns to full time employment.
Short-term– The main idea/plan for this is to stay out of debit. We already have several things planned and I want to be as resourceful as possible and use these to keep us on the right track.
1. Cash Envelope system
2. Groceries- $50 a week or $200 a month through May (April excluded). Returning to $650 a month in June
3. Gas – $500 a month (this may need to be increased depending on where Matt ends up working).
4. No spend days- I am trying something new. Instead of only writing down the days that we end up with no spending. I am going to write each day what we ended up paying for each day. If the items is from a budget category like groceries or gas then that will be written.
5. Monitor and maintain Energy usage- This is something that I have just started in the last month. I have realized that our Heating/ Air system is the biggest expense. We also need to be diligent about turning off items we don’t need. The camper also uses alot of energy just being plugged up so we need to watch this as well.
Long Term- I would like to establish a long term savings account with $10,000 I would like to add another $100 to my ROTH as well.

Garden-
We have been able to finish the greenhouse as well as fill all the beds with new soil. I want to be able to raise enough veggies this summer to feed not only us on a weekly basis but also refill the freezers. I did purchase a food saver that I plan to put to good use next summer. I have already purchased most of the seeds I am planning to use I will be purchasing both tomato and pepper plants to plant.

House-
We are on track to receive one more check from Matt’s dad estate. The current plan is to have both the kitchen and our shower room floors replaced. We will be building ourselves a new “plastic” deck and are considering adding a covering for the camping trailer.

Travel-
We love to travel and enjoy doing so as a family! Current plans included:
1.Shopping trip (4 days) in January- this is a second practice run with the new camper.
2. Disney Trip in April
3. Haley’s wedding
4. Beach Trip in July
Depending on how these go we might consider adding in a trip to Washington DC or Williamsburg in the fall.

Lots of things to look forward to!

A Look Back at 2021 and a Peek Ahead at 2022

Posted on December 31, 2021 by Sheila

I mentioned yesterday that I was struggling with deciding how to do goals for the year, today I am going to go ahead and put some goals out there, but I will leave it open that our financial goals will likely end up changed in June when I have a better idea of what type of job and salary Matt will be receiving. A second change from yesterday is that I am only going to do one post with both how we did and new goals for 2022. New goals will be in italics to make things easier for me to figure out in the future.

Groceries– budget amount is $650. I achieved this 9 of 12 months! I will add that we have been receiving gifts of food on a monthly basis from my Mother this year as she continues to eat with us 3 or more times a week. I am excited that we have been able to adjust and actually decrease our overall spending on groceries. we spent an average of $530 a month this year. In reality, this is probably a very realistic goal for us to continue however, I want to make a plan for the first 6 months of the year and then move back to this budget amount in June.
For January, February, March and May- Budget amount is $200 a month or $50 a week. I will also be using any overage in the budget to cover out eating out until Matt has a permanent job.
Eating Out budget will begin when Matt has a job and will be $100 a week or $400 a month but this will not apply during vacations or travel.

One additional explanation is that in April we have a trip planned to Disney. We are taking the camper and will be bringing a good bit of extra food to save money on this trip so I will leave the budget at $650 to help cover those expenses for April.

Auto/ Gas / Insurance. My goal is $400 a month. We met this goal 7/12 months. This is definitely an area that I will wait until Matt has a permanent job. I anticipate increasing this to at least $500 a month unless his job is in town or remote most of the time.

Cash Envelope system- Goal met 8/12 months. I will not be keeping this goal but do plan on continuing to use this system. I am dropping the goal based on the fact it is really difficult to monitor.

Goal #4- Blogging- 15 post per month. I only met this goal 4/12 months. I will definitely keep this goal for next year!

Goal # 5- Fitness– Goal is to exercise of some type at least 10 days a month. This is a goal that I struggle with each year. It appears that 4 out of 12 months I did achieve the goal for 6 or 7 days but none for 10. I am debating just reporting how many days this was achieved each month without a goal.

Goal #6 – Bible study- Goal- – Read or Listen to the entire Bible in a year. GOAL MET! I am actually going to try and do this again 2022 by using podcast. I don’t think I will keep reporting on it but I hope to continue the practice!

Earnings– Based on several major changes this year, this is just too difficult and time consuming! We will of course continue to look for ways to make extra money, but apps are no longer worth the effort! I will also plan to remove this from my goals.

No Spend Days– I love the concept of this! However, in reality it is very difficult to do! The purpose is to not spend money outside of the budget and we are doing so much better in this area! Instead of a goal this will be included along with exercise as a simple number to keep me accountable.

Exercise days-
No Spend Days-

I will be posting again this weekend on our plans and other adventures for 2022!

December in Review

Posted on December 30, 2021 by Sheila

I have actually been spending some time already getting this post ready at least in my head. My plan/ goal is to share this post and a Year in Review post today and tomorrow and then a sort of plan blog post for Saturday or Sunday. December has been a busy but fun filled month! We all really enjoyed camping and seeing Biltmore! Christmas was drama free and I am ready for 2022 to be less sick and more fun!

Groceries– budget amount is $650. $849.16 This is over for the month, but I am not too upset. I do have a plan for next year and it includes an overall reduction in grocery spending!

Auto/ Gas / Insurance. My goal is $400 a month. $401.00 MET! The most exciting part of this is that it includes out trip to Asheville and towing the trailer!

Cash Envelope system- We are definitely doing much better with this! I am planning to keep this just for accountability.

Goal #4- Blogging- 15 post per month. Goal Met! This is post number 14 and with plans for 2 more I should be good for the month.

Goal # 5- Fitness– Goal is to exercise of some type at least 10 days a month. Nope Naa yea we need to rethink and start this one.

Goal #6 – Bible study- Goal- Read or Listen to the entire Bible in a year. Need to find something to get started on this.

Earnings– No extra earrings this month!

No Spend Days– Did not keep up with this as it just was too difficulty. I am not sure what happened other than life! I am planning to keep this goal but with some additional guidance for next year.

December was a fun month. I am super excited that we are ending the month and the year with ZERO credit card debit! We also are half way to our first emergency goal of $1000. I will go ahead and state that I am really unsure about making a budget right now due to Matt still being unemployed. Once he returns to work. I am sure things will change again and we will see more direct progress toward saving goals.

Staycation?

Posted on December 28, 2021 by Sheila

I am not really sure if this is a staycation or not. The reason, this is my second week of Christmas break. Most years I get two weeks at Christmas from the school system, so it is really not unusual. The difference is that currently Matt is unemployed, so he is also at home during the break. So, is it a staycation? Still not sure but anyway, here is what we are up to during our staycation or second week of Christmas break.

Put away all the Christmas decorations- We are 50% finished with this. Yesterday, Monday, we took down and put away the outside decorations.

Clean out and organize my building- This is actually part of putting away the decorations. Matt made a trip to Goodwill two weeks ago with the first load of stuff from my building. I found 3 large totes of clothes that he has missed as well as several other items. We ended up taking another car full of items to Goodwill to donate. Even with getting rid of a ton of stuff, we still did not have room to store several large decorations. We decided to try and find some unused space under the house… JACKPOT. We used a cinder block and huge sheets of cardboard (previously stored in my building). This made an awesome shelf for holding large outside decoration that just needed to be protected from the elements.

New rain barrel for Greenhouse. Under the house we discovered a 55 gallon plastic barrel, neither Matt nor I remembered it. It is actually the perfect size for using as a water supply for the greenhouse. We switched out the trashcan and it worked perfectly.

Install a new monitor for Matt. This is in anticipation of him beginning a new job and also some additional project work. You know that it can’t be as simple as just hanging a monitor on the wall. We had to move the cabinets above his desk by 4 inches. This meant that the notorious junk cabinets that have been a catch all for many (7ish) years needed to clean out and organized. In the process we ended up re-arranging the storage shelves in my office as well. Because we are use to doing the one touch method (if you touch it put it where it goes and not just move it to clean) both of our office areas ended up being straighten and cleaned!

Kendall and Zach are spending Monday and Tuesday in Durham. Lily will meet them for Ice Skating on Tuesday.

As you can see, we are extremely busy with some not so fun stuff! My goal is to get all this done and organized so we can continue our camping adventure this spring and have some much-needed rest time on the weekends!

Let’s Talk Food!

Posted on December 26, 2021 by Sheila

Food is always a huge part of any celebration for us! This year did not disappoint! We started on Wednesday morning with a trip to Cracker Barrel for breakfast! Lunch/ Dinner was a really cool burger bar in Asheville called Juicy Lucy!

We enjoyed microwave breakfast meals in our camper both Thursday and Friday mornings! These are a huge treat for us and at $27 for both mornings way cheaper than eating out! On Thursday, we enjoyed lunch at the Stable Cafe at Biltmore.

Christmas Eve, Friday, was our usual Pork BBQ with the addition of baked beans and mac and cheese! This is definitely a repeat.

For Christmas morning/ lunch I made cheddar bay sausage balls, cream cheese cresant rolls and a hashbrown casserole. For dinner we simply ate from the fridge with the healthy addition of deviled eggs, fruit and a veggie tray.

Sunday or the day after Christmas continued our food celebration, my Sunday school class had a pot luck breakfast, lunch was at La Caretta (Mexican) and dinner is appetizers at a gathering of friends.

After all this, I am sure a food coma is going to occur soon!

I have also had a chance to view out grocery spending for the year. I am very excited to announce that we spent $6,312.75 on groceries this year which is an average of $526.06 a month!!! This is actually a decrease in the overall average from last year. I have been doing some thinking and planning. I want to challenge myself to keep grocery spending to $50 a week for the months of January, February, March and May. We are travelling to Disney in April so I am not sure if that is realistic to even attempt to keep this same budget in April. This will allow us to hopefully use up the majority of the food that is in our freezers so I can spend some time next summer, restocking with items that we currently are enjoying and make a bunch of prepared meals. It will also allow me to get a realistic idea of what we need to spend on a weekly basis for fresh food and diary items.

Wordless Wednesday- Christmas Pictures

Posted on December 22, 2021 by Sheila

Braxton

Posted on December 19, 2021 by Sheila

Braxton played bells as part of our church service today. So I wanted to share these photos and in the process I found a bunch more to share.

5 Things Friday

Posted on December 17, 2021 by Sheila

My Christmas break starts today and last for 2 weeks. Zach and Kendall actually have school on Monday and Tuesday next week and they get an additional 2 days off after New Year’s. Lily does not start back to school until January 10th!
We have our first official camping trip planned for next week. We are headed to Biltmore to enjoy the lights and an art exhibit!
The greenhouse is being productive! We have around 10 containers growing cooler weather foods. I am so excited about this and can’t wait to try some. Based on trial and error we have decreased the temperature for the heater to come on at to 45 and we are waiting to start watering again because some of the plants looked drowned.
Our electric bill rose by $100 with an increase usage of 22% from last year. We are currently in the process of trying to determine how much of this we can control and what is to be expected with the greenhouse and camper. The good news is that it did not exceed the budgeted amount but is close.
We started making Christmas treats last night… Reindeer crack and candied pecans. I may work on cookies today if I get MOTIVATED!