Category Archives: DITL

5 Things Friday 5/18/2018

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  1. The Square Foot Garden is looking AWESOME!  We are already enjoying lettuce that we sprout from some we had purchased. I am truly amazed at how much we are harvesting.  Everything is growing so well. I am so hopeful that this garden will help us reduce significantly our food bill this summer.
  2. I have really enjoyed baseball season this year and always look forward to swim team starting. However, these two overlapping for 2 weeks has added to the craziness of our schedule.
  3. Lily has been at a series of doctors over the last two week. The official count is 6 and that does not include our trip to the emergency room. I am very grateful for my decent insurance and our medical flex spending card that has help cover most of these expenses.
  4. I should start my part time job in July!! I am super excited at this opportunity not only for the extra pay but a definite change overall for me.
  5. The pool is officially open but with the weather stating rain all weekend, who knows when I will enjoy a relaxing day by the pool?

Overwhelmed

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I am the first to admit, I am an organizer, a planner and a list maker.  I usually jump right in and check items off my to do list as quickly as possible.  But I am also seeing that when I am overwhelmed I avoid.   Guess I should go ahead and admit upfront that I have definitely been avoiding things over the last week.

I have already explained how May is one of the most expensive months that I can remember. Dave Ramsey puts it very clearly “we have an income problem”. Both Matt and I have are actively seeking ways to increase our income in whatever way possible.  First way of increasing our income was our yard sale on Saturday May 12th.  We did ok with the yard sale. We (people who live at home) earned a profit of around $90.  The second way, Matt and I are trying to increase our income is adding hours at work. Matt is working as much as possible. In fact last week, he worked every day except Wednesday.

I have applied for and will be starting a new part time job as well. This is where a lot of my feeling of overwhelmed is coming from.  I have been juggling 3 or 4 different paper applications  that are require in addition to completing continuing education hours both for the new job and for renewing my Occupational Therapy license. I also agreed to become the treasurer for our youth group at church.

Back to my avoiding, last night I spent close to 4 hours lying in bed watching TV. I did not even want to set in front of the computer.   I was very tempted to do the same today but have caught up on everything not directly related to the new job. I still have another 5 plus hours to complete this week but writing this blog post is my reward to at least seeing the end in sight.  Hopefully, by the first of June, things will settle down and I can return to quickly checking things off my to do list!

April in Review

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Financial- We are attempting to use a cash only method for the first six month of the year in order to get us some better financial balance. We have had several large expenses this month but we continue to focus on the small gains.

  • Total paid to credit card debit $1483 total reduction in credit card debit approximately $612.We are final down to a level that is less than we ended with in December of last year. We have experienced a boast in income which we hope to increase and continue in the summer.
  • Grocery budget $475- Total spent $531.77. Yikes, It happened again and this does not include our cow purchase. The good news is that I have already made a menu plan for the month and plan to stick to $100. We will be receiving our cow sometime this month but I really don’t expect this to add to our cost at all. I am going to limit spending to what we are out of and Suddenly Salads if they go on sale.
  • Gas budget- $280- Spent $230. Gas prices are starting to increase in our area so I seriously doubt we come in under budget for the next couple of months.
  • Kid/Summer expenses :Swim team and Baseball games.
  • Earned $88-this is indeed a much lower amount than any of the previous months I have tracked but it is still extra money. We have decided to use this “extra money” for gardening and other yard supplies.

Personal- 

  • Blogging- 9 for the month. Super busy this month. The blog was technically down for over a week. Hoping to get back in the swing of things.
  • Exercise- 2 total days for the month.  a goal of 15 but not sure if that is realistic or not. This weather SUCKS!  I am looking forward to the summer and time in the pool.

5 Things Friday-4/27/2018

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  1. We stopped at Lowes after the baseball game tonight and purchased $95 worth of plants. The full moon is scheduled for Sunday so according to farmer’s you are suppose to plant during the upswing of the moon. I am just so excited to get my garden started this year.  I do know that we will need to purchase several additional items but I wanted to at least get the majority started at the “best” time this year.
  2. Matt’s debit card numbers were stolen this week and I have spent almost 5 hours dealing with the aftermath.  We are expected to get back the entire amount that was taken but it is a HUGE  pain in the mean time.
  3. I can file this under the “joys of motherhood.” Tomorrow it would appear that all three of the little kids have somewhere/ something to do.  Which means that I will be playing “taxi” for the part of the day that I am not planting outside.
  4. We are in the middle of baseball season. I actually really enjoy the games but it adds a different level of complexity to our schedule.
  5. Next week, both Kendall and Zach have field days at school which last half a day. Zach has a field trip on Thursday. I am basically take off 2 days of work. But I do realize how quickly they grow up.

Monday Update

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So I think it is pretty obvious that I will not meet my blogging goal for the month. I do have a legit reason for it this month, so I wanted to make sure that I have it recorded.  We ended up having to move things from Go Daddy due to price and this web site disappeared for approximately a week. That is as technical as I understand. I am very happy that it has all been saved including the huge amount of pictures that I post each year.  The good news is for now we have three years until we have to deal with the same thing again.

I am over grocery budget again. So far this month I have spent $436 in addition to purchasing our cow. We will still have to pay the processing fee in May but this is a years supply or more of beef.

On a positive note, we have been able to reduce our total debit this month. I am so excited about this small accomplishment. I do anticipate that the next 3-4 weeks will be very expensive as we have several summer expenses that are due. These include pool membership, swim team, church camp and baseball camp.  We also have our car insurance due in the month of May. Yikes

My plan/goal is to get some baseball pictures posted in addition to some other special ones over the last week.

Budget Friendly Easter

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We celebrate Easter but it is usually in a low key kind of way. Today was no exception. This morning we started with Easter Baskets at around 6:30am.

84C83166-A3B3-44F3-892A-97512DEC11AA 6FD73009-2379-4E4A-BD8C-95089A5C0940 DAFE24D7-0D81-4246-A94F-14EBB505078FBasket and emoji toys are great things to pick up at the after Easter sales. I would wait until everything is 75% off. Candy is always a good deal at CVS with the ECB, another option is also Target. The Dollar spot at Target can be great for some small socks and stickers. Finally shop at Five Below to grab even more candy and Hot Wheels Cars if you need.

Easter outfits are always fun! Especially when you plan ahead.  Lily and Kendall’s dress were purchased at Costco in February for $16. each. I order Matt and Zach’s matching purple shirts from JCPenny on sale for $9.99 each. Amanda found her dress at Goodwill and David’s shirt was another sale purchase. My outfit was the cheapest from my closet.

5FFF4F5F-2A22-47B9-AFE3-B1F82BBBADF8We all enjoy lunch at my brother’s house and the kids spent the afternoon playing outside and hunting Easter eggs.

I planned ahead and purchased the ham at Aldi using a $5 off $30 coupon several weeks ago. We came home and enjoyed left-overs for dinner in addition to ham salad I made that will last for several weeks.

 

Monday Mania 3/26/2018

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We SURVIVED!  Our busiest week of the Spring if not the year was last week. We managed to get everyone to their events and only ate out one  time as a family. I did eat out on Tuesday night but that was planned. My plan is to post some picture this week but we know how things go around here.

Kendall enjoyed her first “Battle of the Books” competition and even got a autographed book from her favorite author.

Zach was the catcher at his first baseball game of the season. Unfortunately, his team lost 10-9 so they only played one game in the tournament. Zach will be playing catcher all year!

Lily participated in the Lexington Youth Theaters “Happy Days” musical. We attended all three shows!

Matt and I both worked and managed to keep the house from falling down.

We had thought that tonight (Monday 26rh) would be the first night at home for everyone in several months but Matt was called in to work. So even with this week being much slower than last week. Everyone will not be home together until Friday night. No wonder I am tired.

Five Things Friday

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  1. We have made it halfway through the month of March.  I am so excited to say that we are on track financially for the month!  We have spent $371 for groceries and $153.70 for gas.
  2. Both the vans had an oil change this week and Matt was able to change the brakes on his van.  This was one of the expenses we used our tax return for.  Even better he stayed under budget.
  3. Next week is quite possibility the busiest week of the year.  Kendall has her Battle of the Books. Zach has a preseason baseball tournament. And Lily play starts on Friday night with longer practices every night.
  4. I decided to go ahead and purchase new glasses as I am starting to have trouble seeing. I purchased from Zennni Online.  The total cost was $131. I am very anxious to try them.
  5. We purchased a trailer of mulch today. More details hopefully to follow…

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Menu Plan Monday-3/12/2018

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I ended up with half a snow day today so decided to add dessert and homemade mac and cheese to the menu. Both turned out well and we (the kids and I) spent some quality time together.

Breakfast- Saturday-Cereal and left-overs , Sunday- Breakfast bowls (leftovers turned into burritos) , Monday Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday- Choice of cereal, eggs or left-overs, Thursday- Baked oatmeal

Lunch- Saturday- left-overs  , Sunday- Stuffed Green Pepper soup , Monday- Pigs in a blanket. The kids are taking 2 day of sandwiches and 2 grab and go days.  I plan to eat at work a couple of times this week as they have my favorite sandwich.

Dinner – Saturday- Ground beef enchiladas , Sunday- Breakfast including gravy and fried eggs.    Monday- Chicken Nuggets, mac and cheese, pears and peanut butter cookies, Tuesday- Leftovers, Wednesday-Hamburger Helper, Thursday- Country style steak or chicken from Costco, Friday- Pork chops or pulled pork.