Author Archives: Sheila

Menu Planning Monday

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The last full week before Christmas break. I feel like my life is stuck in a holding pattern. I can’t make any plans or decisions regarding our new budget or finances until at least the end of the week. The good news is that Matt has a second interview on Friday, this may lead to his new job or this may be another dead end.  We also should have a better idea of what to expect financially after a meeting on Wednesday.  For now, I am just trying not to worry and spend!  We ended up eating out alot this weekend but hopefully we can get back on track quickly and easily now!

Breakfast– Saturday-Wendy’s breakfast biscuits. Sunday-Breakfast bowls- leftovers were made into burritos and froze for future use.   Monday- In an effort to use up items I made fried bologna for everyone this morning! Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday-choice of breakfast muffins, eggs, pop-tarts, sausage, oatmeal, cereal or grits, breakfast burritos, or omelets.
Lunch- – Saturday-Pork Nachos with Velvetta cheese   Sunday- Gregg’s   Monday thur Friday Leftovers, pizza and soup should work for most of the week.
Dinner- – Saturday- McDonalds prior to Tanglewood lights.    Sunday- Pasta Fagali Soup (with a whole meal frozen for the future.  Monday- Chicken taco casserole    Tuesday-Stuffed shells    Wednesday-Pork Fried rice (any remaining pork will be made into future pork fried rice meals.)  Thursday-Steak and pasta salad     Friday-Pork chops and Mac and cheese.

Saving On Saturday or Sunday

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This week I actually spent money in order to save money. I ended up with a day off work so Matt and I hit up a couple of spots that we usually don’t have time to go to.  First was the Dollar Tree. Currently most items are priced at $1. I have read several articles that indicate the standard price will be changed to $1.25 starting in January. I decided to save myself some money and do a stock up trip. I purchased items like sandwich and snack bags, deodorant and the boy’s body wash. I ended up spending $50 so I saved at least $12 on items that will be purchased and used.

Next, we stopped at the local Belk’s store. I was actually shopping for a couple of boys we chose off the angel tree at church. I did not find anything in the size that I needed that I would consider a deal, but I did manage to grab 3 dress shirts for Zach and 9 short sleeve t-shirts for Braxton for a grand total of $50.

We have several local ‘bargain” stores. We stopped at one for $6 packs of diapers and a couple of other items.

I have always shopped after Christmas for wrapping paper and for items to keep in our gift drawer.  This year I also found a bag of wrapping paper in the attic. I have been using the paper we found so that we will definitely not have to buy any more for next year either.  The kids were able to locate gifts for a white elephant gift exchange, in the gift drawer so that also saves on expenses.

Last but definitely not least is using the food we have and trying to not let any go to waste.  I made a definite effort to go ahead and package up lunch size containers for this week so that I can just grab and go.

5 Things Friday

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  1. We are continuing to focus on our electric usage. There are certain things that are beyond our control such as needing to connect the camper to the house when someone is staying it in.  And the need to keep a heater in the greenhouse in order to prevent the plants from freezing and of course our usage will be greater with Christmas lights. We also have discovered ways to save electricity in small ways. Unplugging the camper even during the daylight decreases our usage and we are beginning to experiment with the temperature we must keep the greenhouse at. Turning off lights and using the dishwasher and dryer at night continue to save us.
  2. I have realized that a year can change things completely.  This year which has been our best year ever financially has also brought more changes and twist than are even imaginable. Matt is currently unemployed but yet the goal is to end the year with our only debit being the house and Tahoe payment.
  3. Our final project of the year is going re-organizing and re-arranging our master closet.   We have started making some simple changes which already make it feel much lighter and more open. We will be installing a new closet organizer on one side and continuing to sort through clothes which will finish this project. I am projecting that the entire project will end up costing less than $200.
  4. We have several count downs going on in the house right now. First up is our first “camping” experience in Asheville right before Christmas, followed by Christmas and New Year then our January trip to Mrytle Beach which will be for 4 days instead of 2 and a longer drive. Finally our Disney trip in April. It has been an entire year since we have been to Disney! Plus this will be our first real experience camping at Disney.
  5.  I am starting to look ahead at some major home improvement projects for next year. These will be expense that we will pay out of promised money.   We will likely end up spending around $20k on these so I want to make sure they will be exactly what we want and of top quality.

Menu Planning Monday

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I did go to the grocery store with my mother on Saturday but managed to spend less than $5. This week we will be focusing on using the food we have on hand!

Breakfast– Saturday-Find your own.  Sunday-yogurt for me   Monday, Tuesday, figure it out!  Wednesday, Thursday, Friday-choice of breakfast muffins, eggs, pop-tarts, sausage, oatmeal, cereal or grits, breakfast burritos, or omelets.
Lunch- – Saturday-Pulled pork for Lily Birthday   Sunday- Olive Garden  Left-overs, pizza and soup should work for most of the week.
Dinner- – Saturday-Left-overs   Sunday- Left-overs. Monday-  Left-overs   Tuesday-Turkey Casserole   Wednesday-Baked Potato Soup  Thursday-Hamburger Helper     Friday-Pork Quesadas or you guess it Left-overs!

Saving on Saturday- written on Sunday

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This has been a crazy long and fun filled week.  After spending Friday night partying for Lily’s birthday. Saturday was spending cleaning up from said party and finding ways to  save and use as much of the food in my refrigerator as possible.  Food waste is one of the biggest areas that I can save money.  Lily’s birthday party was not on the frugal side so anything we can save and use.

We had purchased 3 veggie trays for the party at Lily’s request.  We came home with extra carrots, broccoli, cauliflower and rainbow peppers. The peppers were placed in the fridge because I am positive that the girls will use these for lunches and snacks over this week.  Matt was in charge of cutting up the baby carrots for freezing we were able to package a total of 9 cups of baby carrots in the freezer.  The packages of frozen carrots to purchase are $1.25 each.  The veggie trays are $14.99. By saving these we were able to re-coup the cost of one of the trays. I was able to steam and puree 5 cups of broccoli which was labelled for use in one of our favorite soups. another $2.25 found.  The cauliflower is not a preferred food for any of us however, I plan to take it with hummus and some ham salad to use as a meal this week as well.  We had purchased 3 bags of potatoes for baking. We ended up with approximately 25 potatoes that had been fully cooked. I made a baked potato salad to go with the pulled pork, Lily received for her birthday.  We also used this as a lunch meal.  We will use some of the potatoes for a baked potato soup this week. By adding some butter, cream cheese and sour cream we have 10 additional dishes of mashed potatoes to use for future meals.   Finally we took the left-over turkey combined with celery, carrots and onion made a casserole for dinner on Tuesday of this week.

The other area that we are focusing on is electricity use. Our electric company has joined the modern age and I am able to monitor our use daily. We have currently increased our usage by 7.77% over last year. I want to figure out what is different and how we can decrease this use as rates are also increasing.

Any suggestions or ideas are appreciated!

November in Review

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I know very well how quickly things can change but November gave us a good reminder of just how change affects everything. My goal for November was to reduce spending basically a no spend month. Sounded like a reasonable goal with the focus on paying off all the bills by the end of year. Just three days into November and we learned that Matt would be losing his job. After looking at our situation, some prayer and as the shock wore off, we decided to first sell the van and try to arrange our lifestyle to live on what income we could be certain would be available. I am thankful that it really will not be a difficult adjustment. Things are different but not awful.

Groceries– budget amount is $650.   $484 I have already been purchasing some items for Lily’s party.  I also did some stocking up on drinks and other things that I wanted to have on hand.  I am not sure what the month of December holds as far as groceries but I know that starting in January and lasting until Matt has steady employment is to reduce the grocery budget to $50 a week which or $200 a month for fresh veggies and bread only.  I may try to do this as well in December after Lily’s party.

Auto/ Gas / Insurance. My goal is $400 a month. $385.80.   Met! One of the big downsides to the new Tahoe is the gas mileage of 15 miles per gallon. We are trying to be diligent about driving it only when needed. The Equinox gets awesome gas mileage and we can drive as much as we need without a second thought.  I am going to keep the goal the same with alot of monitoring at this point.

Cash Envelope system-  Goal not  met!  This goal becomes one of the most important part of our budgeting system. It is no longer a choice but a requirement.

Goal #4- Blogging- 15 post per month.  Goal Met! This is post number 15

Goal # 5- Fitness– Goal is to exercise of some type at least 10 days a month.  Nope Naa

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– Cashed out Ibbota for $28 and fetch for $3, with another 7 currently in the account, I am waiting to cash out at 10 this time. Verizon for $5. Total $36 free money this month!

No Spend Days– Did not keep up with this as it just was too difficulty.  I worked hard to make sure things were paid. I know we had 1 day of no spend and even that is an improvement over zero.

We had some unusual expenses during this month. We also spent a ton of money but in the end, I have been able to balance out most things. We are ending the month with a brand new Tahoe, new to us camper and a huge drive way!  Most of this was covered by Matt’s inheritance so we are grateful.  We also have to figure out how to cover the expense of Lily’s car.

I know of at least one more project that we want to finish which is some better organization in our closet.   We also have our first camping trip planned for December. And best of all is CHRISTMAS!

Menu Planning Monday

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This is the first real week that we are going to try eat from the freezers and pantry.  The grocery budget for this week is going to be spent on Lily’s party.

Breakfast– Saturday-left-overs.  Sunday-Biscuits   Monday, Tuesday, figure it out!  Wednesday, Thursday, Friday-choice of breakfast muffins, eggs, pop-tarts, sausage, oatmeal, cereal or grits, breakfast burritos, or omelets.
Lunch- – Saturday-Outback for the girls   Sunday- Cracker Barrel. Left-overs, pizza and soup should work for most of the week.
Dinner- – Saturday-Pizza Sunday- Left-overs. Monday- Cowboy beans Tuesday-soft tacos   Wednesday-Chicken nuggets and FF Thursday- Cube steak and mashed potatoes     Friday-Baked potato bar at Lily’s party.

5 Things Friday

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  1. Wow how things change yet they remain the same.  Last Thanksgiving, Matt and I both had COVID-19. At least we were on the recovery side but still it was not fun.  We missed Thanksgiving almost completely.  This year we celebrated at my brothers for a big family lunch. Haley and her crew spent the night at our house.  Today, we find out that Braxton’s father has COVID so Amanda and Braxton will be spending the next 7 days with us.
  2. I wanted to decorate outside this year. Zach has complained for the past two years that we leave his window dark.  We spent a couple hours on Wednesday and finished up yesterday. I saw or heard the idea of using tomato cages for Christmas trees so we now have 4 small trees on our front yard as well. I  am planning to get some pictures to post this week.
  3. Lily really enjoys decorating especially trees. So I let her do most of the tree decorating and fluffing. We have 2 large trees along with each kid has a smaller tree in their room.
  4. I really did not do any Black Friday shopping this year. I did order from Bath and Body Works on Thanksgiving and a white shirt for Zach from Amazon today.
  5. Lily turns 16 in a week.