5 Things Friday

Posted on September 25, 2015 by Sheila

1. Just because I like to be a rule breaker, I am going to post my saving on Saturday, in today’s list! Amazon was running an awesome deal on Amazon Prime- $67 for a year’s membership. Matt helped us to join today. This will save us $4 a month starting in January because of the kid’s Kindle subscription. So we are going to enjoy free shipping, movies, music and books for $31 or $2.58 a month.

2. Our Menu plan this week was side track by a couple of things. First, a person at church is growing some awesome peppers and was generous enough to share these. We ended up having Pepper Steak on Sunday afternoon and Chicken Fajitas on Thursday. The second change was due to me locating a container of grilled chicken on Wednesday. Because I did not want for this to get wasted we had chicken fajitas on Thursday instead of shrimp and a awesome chicken pot pie on Friday.

3. This coming week will be the most challenging for our budget. So far for the month of October we are less than $10 over gas and groceries(which I cut to $300). We already have a menu plan in place so my goal is to stay the course and celebrate an awesome successful month!

4.I have absolutely no plans for tomorrow. My goal is to not leave the house all day!

5.The kids had an early release day today and were picked up from school at 12 noon. I am very proud to say that so far this year, no one has missed a day of school or received a tardy. FIRST TIME EVER!

Wordless Wednesday- See you at the Pole

Posted on September 23, 2015 by Sheila

5 Things Friday

Posted on September 18, 2015 by Sheila

1. Our September bills are starting to arrive. The good news is that the water bill is $8 less than last month and the electric bill is $30 less than last month. I am going to attribute both of the deceases to the week we were on vacation. We decided to turn the air up to 85 degree and did not use any water that week along with getting all our laundry taken care off while at the beach.

2. We are once again have a very unusual weather pattern. This summer has been hot with the majority of day reaching above 90*. However last Saturday, the temperature dropped to daytime highs in the 70s so we were able to turn off our air and open up the windows. So far, we have been 6 days without the use of heat or air. I have been researching the weather and we should be able to continue without heat or air for the next week or so. I fully expect to need to turn back on the air at least once more but in the meantime, our finances are enjoying the break.

3. I have remained under budget in both gas and groceries for the month.

4. Yesterday, Matt and I spent most of the day shopping for a desk to fit and complete our bedroom. This will be my primary “workspace” so I am trying to be both practical and frugal with this purchase. In the past I have been using a kitchen table and then the small computer desk. Kendall requested a desk and was able to clear out a huge space in her room, so that desk will be moving in her room. We decided on purchasing both a new chair and desk at IKEA. Matt has worked really hard at getting everything assembled and I am going to hopefully find some time this weekend to organize this area.

5. I am planning a “sleepover’ yard sale with my best friend tomorrow. This should be fun and hopefully profitable.

Labor Day Project

Posted on September 7, 2015 by Sheila

The project for today was to finishing “reclaiming” the old deck wood at the edge of our yard, check out more of the story here.

Our square foot garden did not produce the corn we had hoped for this year and one of the reasons that we think may have been part of the problem was the amount of “shade” our bed was getting. So a perfect use of this wood was to make a separate “corn” bed in direct sunlight with no shade. Next up I really wanted to add a second layer to the beds we had previously built and ran out of wood. Matt and I spent all morning working on building the box, then after yet another trip to Lowes, it is finished. I am really pleased with the results and officially declare the square foot garden finished!

You can see how the shade is covering parts of the garden in the above pictures.
I did go ahead and purchase an additional 8 bags of dirt that I will use once we have harvested all the pepper, lettuce, cabbage, and tomatoes to make sure we have a good soil base. The dirt was on sale for half price at Lowes so I wanted to make sure I had enough. I also decided to purchase some mums to help with my fall flowers as well. I hope they will live a nice long time as it does not appear to be “fall” anywhere in the near future according to our weather forecast.

5 Things Friday

Posted on August 28, 2015 by Sheila

I am loving the Ibbotta app on my phone. I started using it about 6 weeks ago and will not buy anything extra. I have mainly used it for things such as bananas and green peppers. You must have $10 worth of rebates in your account before you can claim. Tonight, I hit $10.80 and decided to move to paypal just to try out. The money showed up within 5 minutes and I was able to order 10 Lighting Charging cords and 5 car chargers for $1.15 after using the Ibbotta credit!
Kendall has had a rough first week of school. I am hoping that she is just exhausted. I picked her up from school yesterday and she cried on the way home. This morning she cried prior to leaving for school. This evening she is just giggling and laughing. These are all signs that she is overly tired. We will be changing bedtime back to 7pm next week to see if that helps.
We picked up Zach and Kendall’s new glasses on Monday and today (Friday) we were back at Vision Works to get Zach’s straighten out. Boys…..
I have been able to leave work before 5:30pm for the last two weeks. I am hoping this trend continues but looking at my schedule for next week, it will become a whole lot harder.
Tomorrow, the community in schools is hosting a “big toy day” My plan is to take the kids and let them spend a couple of hours enjoying. We may head to the pool to finish out the day but I am seriously afraid the water will be cold after out temperatures begin in the 80s all week. The pool officially closes on Labor Day so we have two weekends left to enjoy.

Menu Planning Monday

Posted on August 24, 2015 by Sheila

Menu planning is usually not all that difficulty at my house. The main reason for this is that we are always trying to make and package items that make life simpler and easier to survive. For example, when we buy hamburger, part of it is cooked and frozen in 1 pound containers, these can be used for spaghetti, chill or even hamburger helper. This past weekend, I have been focusing on cooking ahead. Breakfast items have been made and place in the fridge for easy quick mornings. I made “Breakfast Burrito filling” on Saturday morning and a large container of baked oatmeal on Sunday. We cooked up several bags of dried beans because they are so much healthier and cheaper than canned beans. On Sunday, we picked 2 gallons of ripe muscadines. I made a batch of jelly, frozen 8 cups of whole muscadine and made a second “starter” for more jelly. Sometimes by spreading the extra work out it makes it easier and we definitely eat better and spend less.

Now on to the menu plan

Breakfast-Breakfast burritos, baked oatmeal, French toast, toast with new jelly, cereal, poptarts or grits.

Lunch- The kids will be taking Lunchables everyday, I will take leftovers Monday, Wednesday and Friday with a sandwich on Tuesday. Matt will be eating from the fridge or sandwich every day.

Dinner– I am trying to stick to my goal of leaving work by 5:30 daily so I can eat with the family most nights.

Saturday- Lunch: Coconut shrimp and grilled pineapple. Dinner- Chicken Enchiladas

Sunday- Lunch- with my parents. Dinner-out of the fridge.

Monday- Spaghetti with meatballs and garlic bread.
Tuesday- Grilled Chicken salad
Wednesday-Pulled pork, green beans and fruit
Thursday- Sonic corn dogs ($0.50 each)
Friday- Cowboy beans and cucumber relish from the freezer.

Saving on Saturday- Vacation

Posted on August 22, 2015 by Sheila

I really do enjoy travelling and especially enjoyed our vacation this year if you could not tell by all the pictures. One reason, that I was able to enjoy our vacation this year is because of the fact that we actually spent overall less on a week at the beach than we have spent on a long weekend trip. So today, I am going to share some tips that I used this year to not only save money but also to make this trip so enjoyable.

The first and most important tip is PLAN AHEAD!. I booked our condo in January this year in order to get the specific week that I wanted for the rate we could easily afford. But I actually started buying for the trip back in November 2014. CVS usually runs some awesome Black Friday sales, starting the Sunday before Thanksgiving, for the past several years these have included laundry detergent for free after ECB. I am pretty brand loyal, but in this case, I carried the free laundry detergent home and placed in a plastic container. During our beach trip, we typically come in from the beach and toss all suits and towels in the wash. My thoughts are free is good enough as long as it helps to remove the sand. Other items that I find on good deals (usually $0.75 or less) include hand soap, toilet paper, dishwasher tablet and dishwashing liquid.

The next way that I plan ahead for our vacation is meal planning. I know there are a few meals that the entire family loves and so if I am making one of these I will just make two and place the second in the deep freezer to take to the beach. Our plan ahead meals this year included baked ziti, chicken and broccoli casserole and gravy biscuits. If I find a good deal on a special snack food that we like I will also go ahead and purchase that as well. This year these items included goldfish crackers, Oreos and Kit Kat Minis. I also do the same with paper plates, cups and silverware. The condo does have a dishwasher but I prefer the paper for the convenience.

Another way that we save money is by saving and reusing certain items year after year. I have a 20 year collection of sand toys that I store in a large bag in our building. Each year we take it with us to the beach. Some years we come back with less sand toys as if they break they are thrown away at the beach. We also have purchased a beach cart, umbrella and several chairs that are specifically for beach use. It may seem like a lot of trouble to carry these items back and forth but in the big picture it continues to save us money as we don’t purchase new items unless they are needed.

A finally way that we save money on vacation is by increasing the temperature of our house to 82* and turning off/unplugging anything possible. Our electric bill dropped by $30 this month in comparison to last month with the only difference being our vacation week. We also saw a $5 decrease in our water bill which is a direct result of less laundry.

How have you been saving money this week?

Random Tuesday Thoughts

Posted on August 18, 2015 by Sheila

We have been home from vacation for 2 days and are about 1/2 the way unpacked. Goal- Be completely unpacked by Saturday.
I am going to be changing/hopefully reducing my work schedule over the next month to make things a little bit easier around here in the evenings. My goal until the changes officially take place and for the whole school year is to be leaving work by 5:30. So far I have been home 2 days in a row. Go me!
During my extended lunch break today, we headed to Winston to Vision Works to order both Zach and Kendall new glasses. The lesson we learned is that glasses for the little kids need to have nose pieces to keep them from sliding off their face. I did use a coupon surprised? We were able to purchase 2 pair of glasses with transitional lens plus a very nice contact lens case for Lily to take to school for $200.
I am planning to attend a continuing education class in September, it will be the first time in 10 years I have stayed by myself in a hotel room. I think I am a little too excited!
Disney planning is in full swing as soon as we finish unpacking from the Beach.
As part of getting ready to go back to school, I had the kids try on and get rid of any shoes that were too small or that they did not like. Kendall is upset because now she is left with only 22 pairs of shoes.
Lily has cheerleading every night this week and man is it rough trying to get everyone back on a school schedule. Zach will start Kindergarten and we are trying to eliminate naps up front so the evening have been full of attitude. Tonight was at least better than last night. Zach made it to his “normal” 7:30 bedtime. Last night he was in bed at 6:50.
Amanda has started college and so far I am very proud of the hours she is putting in to be successful!
We are on budget so far for the month in both groceries and gas. I am so proud of this especially because of the massive Costco trip we made on Sunday in addition to the purchase of school supplies today.
Blogging is always better at the beach, I guess the smell of the ocean makes my thoughts come easier!

5 Things Friday

Posted on August 14, 2015 by Sheila

1. I really really like the new logo for today that Carla used on her blog. But because I am using my new IPAD. I was uanble to figure out how to copy it. So be sure to check it out on her page.

2. We only have 1 full day of vacation left. I am not looking forward to returning to the real world but I am so THANKFUL for this vacation as it has been one of the best one yet.

3. This evening we decided to head about 15 minutes north to try out a Seafood Resturant that was recommended to us by a friend. It was honestly some of the best food and service that I have recieved in year. It was also a great chance to get some more pictures of my kids, you know I honestly don’t have or share enough of these guys. The resturant was located on the dock which the ship bring in the fresh seafood.

4.Tonight stop at Boulineau’s included ice cream by the scoop on a fresh made waffle cone and adult beverages to be enjoyed.

5. I took my first ever selfie today. Going to share just in the effort to keep things real

10 Signs- We are on Vacation

Posted on August 13, 2015 by Sheila

WIth small children, it has been said that vacation is just as much work or more as staying at home. I know for us, our schedule does not change dramatically. This year has been nice with the elimination of nap time and we have been staying up later than normal. So I want to share with you 10 signs that definitely mean we are on vacation.

1. Chocolate/Peanut butter Poptarts and Kool-aid are both consider legitimate breakfast food.
2. Dessert is a requirment and must contain either frozen something or be a donut.
3. Daily trips to the local store “Boulineau’s” always include at least one non food item. Today we purchased a t-shirt, fishing net and shovel.