Category Archives: DITL

5 Things Friday

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  1. Guam’s school year officially ends on Monday (Sunday for me) this means that I will be only working on Sunday night from now until the beginning of August!
    1. A sweet Guam mother sent a care package that I received on Thursday!  It included all items exclusively available in Guam. I cried!  Everything is beyond delicious.  I really needed this boost!
    2. I will have worked at least 40 hours in Guam in the month of May!  This is after sharing the majority of my caseload with others!
  2. We were able to go 45 days without heat or air. We caved yesterday May 20th and turned on the air condition.
  3. Unfortunately we discovered a water leak last weekend. The leak was in the line to one of our ice makers so that was a $5 fix.  It had been leaking on our HVAC duct work which had to be replaced. I have not received a bill for this yet.
  4. Gas prices have risen significantly over the past several week plus we need to get the oil changed in the van. Our gas budget is going to be higher than previous month but still under the budget.
  5. Grocery prices continue to rise much more than I can ever remember. We have a fully stocked pantry and freezers so I am currently focusing on re-stocking only items that we are absolutely out of in addition to more “convivence” items just to make the weeks go easier with less eating out!

Square Foot Garden Update

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We (yes all five of us) spent 8 hours working on the garden redo on Saturday. I am so excited to see all the changes finally coming together and starting to look like a neat and organized attempt.

First we started by putting down landscape fabric to help eliminate some weeds.

We added 3 new beds, 2 are 12 feet long and 2 foot wide while that third is 8 foot long and 2 foot wide.

Finally on Sunday, I started some green peppers, rainbow peppers and cucumbers inside  by the back door.

 

I am so excited to get this started!

5 Things Friday

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  1.  I have been out of work for 2 days this week because of a stye that became infected and decided to spread to my entire face.
  2.  We have decided and completed a refinance of our mortgage. We dropped the interest rate by over 1 %. We are going to pay off credit card debit with what we decided to cash out. Our current goal is to pay a extra principal payment each month in order to complete pay off the house in 7 years instead of another 15.  One interest fact for me is that my first mortgage was at 9.99% and our current mortgage is 2.75%.
  3. We leave for Disney in 15 days!!!!!
  4. Our stimulus check was used for the following- 4 new pair of glass for the kids, the cost associated with redoing our square foot garden and paying for a condo on a NC beach for a week in July.
  5. Today, I have placed two orders one for lumber $602. and a second for dirt $550. Our trip to Lowes was an additional $135. All expenses for the garden!  I have increased the budget to $1500 after today.

ICY Thursday Thoughts

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We woke up to ice this morning. The weather prediction is that we will continue to have freezing rain all day.  Because the state was placed under a State of Emergency, Kendall, Zach and I all have a true snow day. NO work or remote learning!  I do have to work in Guam but this really gives me a chance to catch up!

  • How the kids are spending most of the day…. Braxton spent last night with us because both of his parents had to work today.
  • I am planning to spend part of the day cooking!  This morning I made French Toast. We all enjoyed for breakfast and I quickly froze the remaining 4 slices for another easy breakfast.  Because of my crazy busy work schedule this week, we have been eating out of the refrigerator. With this nasty cold wet weather, I decided to add in a pot of soup a day until at least Sunday. This is a huge benefit to being at home. First it is a hot meal that everyone usually likes! Next, it is easy storage and can be used as dinners for next week. We try to package in single serving containers to make it much easier to heat and eat! And I am definitely using all the items in my pantry and freezers.
  • A no work day also let’s me continue to go through and organize both pantry and freezers. I have been determined since the first of the year to first reduce our grocery budget as it had gotten totally out of control in 2020.  I also needed to figure out what food we have and what we actually need. I am continuing to use Alexa to store both my regular grocery list and my Costco list on. I will likely get to Costco this weekend.
  • We were able to get our washer repaired on Monday.  Total cost was $130!   I am hopeful we can get at least another 10 years out of it now! I am also focusing on getting caught up on laundry. We were without a washer for 3 weeks which means lots of extra loads.  We were able to keep up with our regular clothes by washing at Amanda’s, my mom’s and a friend but nothing extra.  This morning, I have already washed 3 loads for Zach including his sheets and comforter.   Kendall will hopefully get her sheet done today as well. My goal is to wash our sheets tomorrow as I will be working remotely.

Making the best our of a really desired snow day!

What’s Up?

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  • I wanted to share this in case any one wonders why my blog post are so sparse this month. The other probably more important reason to share is so that three or more years from now, I can remember why I can’t work 2 jobs.  Currently I am averaging an additional 15 hours a week in Guam. This is in addition to my regular 40 hours at Davie County Schools.  This week, I did receive several emails that Promise to  begin lighten my load over the next month or so.  The idea that they have hired 3 more therapist and when everything is said and done I will lose hopefully half my caseload shows a better picture of how busy I really.
  • Washer update- The pump is bad as well… currently waiting on the new pump to arrive, I honestly have no clue what the cost will be so…..
  • Making BIG plans for the garden this year, I am going to completely re-arrange and re-do the whole thing.  First it will be significantly taller. This should reduce the amount of dogs that decide they like it. Second it will make it much easier for me to work and maintain without bending over so  much. I am anticipating a huge expense but also hope to re-use as much as possible from the existing.
  • Our final Disney trip for at least 2 years is 50 something days away. I am currently working on saving the money to cover our food expenses. Not sure how much we will end up with especially with the washer repair a still unknown.
  • Goal of this week is no food waste, I have a plan and the refrigerator is nicely stocked. So far this month we have spent $172.74.I was planning on a trip to Costco but still not sure where to fit that in at either so I may try to make it to March before adventuring to Costco.

Saving on Saturday

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After the struggle we had last week I am glad to say that things are definitely looking better today.

Instead of replacing the washer, we decided to have a repairman check it out to determine if it was worth the repair.   I am excited to say that he came this morning and it is a belt which will cost $20. So along with his labor we are around $100 to repair, saving us $500 if we had chosen to replace.

I feel like I am finally controlling the grocery budget.  The first thing that has made a huge difference is use “Alexa” to keep up with what items need to be on my grocery list. I have gotten in the habit of adding items as they are used up to the grocery list and then printing before going to the store. I save time and money by not purchasing items not needed!  In January we spent $230 on groceries and so far this month we have spent $171!  This is a significant reduction in our spending from last year!  I do anticipate a COSTCO trip at the end of the month but I also have a Costco list going on the Alexa so that should help as well.

My mother has been watching food prices and let me know that Aldai had  ground beef for $1.49 a pound this week.  The limit was 2-5 pound tubes. I was able to purchase 5 tubes between myself, mom and Matt today. This is the absolute lowest I have seen ground beef in several years.  I did a quick check of the freezer to determine what we needed. I was able to process 25 # today. We have taco meat, Matt’s chill and my chill. Baked beans for lunch tomorrow and 9 bags of cooked meat to use to help with a quick meal on our busy days.

Matt was able to use some wood from the building to make 2 additional Minnie Ear holders for Kendall’s wall and a shelf for Zach’s room. I will try and post pictures as soon as they both get painted.

Finally, I remember to add digital coupons and offers prior to heading to Food Lion today. My receipt says that I save $26.00 and I earned $4. in rewards!

How did you save money today?

What’s happening?

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I would really like to write a how we are saving on Saturday post. So far our out of pocket has been minimal but I don’t know if it is going to last.

First problem, internet. Now to be honest, internet problems for a long time.  We actually received a $49 credit this past month because of recent troubles. While working at home on this week, I noticed that the internet would go out for around a minute at a time. Matt called and they sent out a tech on Friday.  He ended up replacing both the modem and wireless router.  The cost to us was only the time spent waiting on the tech and the lost of internet for around an hour.  I am really hopeful that this will fix the problem.

Second problem… much worse  of course.   Matt woke up around midnight last night and then again around 2am. The temperature inside the house seemed to be dropping. We plugged in our space heater and at 6am the temperature inside the house was 59. We called the person who installed our system 14 years ago. He provided awesome service, returning the call around 8 and was here around 11.  It was the thermostat.  Lucky for us a quick and cheap repair.

As we are trying to stay warm, we notice another problem, the washer is not spinning properly and the clothes are really wet.  This is an ongoing problem, we have contacted a friend who is a repairman hoping for some advice to see if we should have repaired or replace. The washer is 12 years old and get used on a daily basis if not more than daily.

One positive that occurred today, I turned the stove on a self-cleaning cycle to add heat to the house.  While it was running, Matt and I ended up giving it the best cleaning it has had in several year. I jokingly said now watch it will be so clean that it will not work properly. So far so good it works great!

5 Things Friday

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  1. Lily got her permit today! 
  2. Amanda was able to get a new to her car without any assistance or co-signer. She returned the van she has been using since she no longer needs it. We sold the van for $1000!
  3. I am exhausted, this week has been extremely busy with both my regular job and Guam. I am scheduled to work Sunday through Thursday every night for the next month.
  4. Lily and Zachary are grounded.  The reason is politics.
  5. The kids have decided to attempt to start a small business of there own, making Christmas ornaments and pot holders out of wood.  Matt and I will be assisting in the sell but first they need an inventory.

Life Happens- Unexpected Trip

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Things change very quickly, as has been proven yet again. Matt’s father passed away on Sunday January 10th. We made the very difficult decision to leave all the kids here and head to Florida to help make arrangements and for the memorial service.  This trip was total unplanned but fortunately we were able to cover the cost without causing significant hardship.  The emotional toil was significantly higher than any money spent.  Amanda was able to spend Monday- Thursday night at our house. Haley stayed Friday and Saturday night.  My mother was the bus driver and made sure that Kendall and Zach got to school every day and to piano.  A friend stepped in to make sure the kids got to church on Wednesday night. I had already written our meal plan so no additional food or groceries were needed at home, although the kids ate out several times as a sister treat.

One thing we learned very quickly was that the small town in Florida that we were heading to was hosting a dog show.  The price of a room jumped from $72 a night to $114 after our first two nights.  Total cost for hotel was $546.71

We chose to drive with both of us going. We did consider flying but would have needed to rent a car for the week so we could not justify this expense. Total spent in gas was $112.25

We did go to Disney Springs on Wednesday night for dinner. On Thursday, we used a remaining day ticket from our December trip to spend the day at Magic Kingdom. I was able to redeem point to cover the parking and several snacks. Although this increased our trip cost by $150, this was a much needed break from the stress of the week and I would not change a thing. Our photo pass from December also was active so I will share some pictures on Wednesday.

Our total cost of the trip was $1471.  We placed most of the expenses on our gas credit card that we planned to pay off this month. During our trip Amanda who has been driving our older van decided to obtain a car loan and get a new to her car.  She returned the older van which we will sell to recovery $1000. This is very unexpected but will enable us to cover the trip with little to no financial strain!