Wordless Wednesday Sand August 12
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Category Archives: DITL
Random Tuesday Beach/Birthday Thoughts
Yesterday was officially my 43 birthday. I was very fortunate to celebrate with my family and friends at Myrtle Beach. We spent most of the day enjoying the sand and ocean waves.
Next we showered and headed out to dinner to one of my favorite resturants, PF Changs
On the way home we stopped at Krispy Kreme . I don’t think that I could have added anything to make it better.
Just for the record, this is the first and probably one post that contains two pictures of me, one of which is in a swim suit.
Typical Thursday-08/06/2015
Have you ever thought about or wondered what a “typical” day looks like for other people or how someone spends their day. I do all the time, one of the reasons I prefer to read blogs instead of books these days. So today I thought I would share a “typical” Thursday with you. I must first begin by saying today is not entirely typical because Matt is working at the coliseum all day to help cover the cost of cheerleading. But really is any day the same around here?
I did have a couple of goals in mine for today including washing all the bed stuff, picking up key for our vacation, returning an item to Walmart and doing some last minute shopping for our trip.
This morning prior to leaving to drop Lily off at her science camp which was from 8-12, we washed Zach and Kendall sheets and stuff and Lily was in the washer. Lily’s camp is at her school and they have been sending message about a “book” walk for all ages. Both Kendall and Zach were excited and since the temperature was in the low 70s, we decided to check it out.
We all enjoyed the book “The Curious Gardener” and after reading we decided to hang out on the playground for a bit.
Next stop was the local grocery store “Conrad and Hinkle” to pick up pimento cheese for our trip. Around the corner, was the reality office that I dropped off payment and picked up a keys for vacation. Our next stop was Food Lion, I need to purchase some baby food to use at work. A dash home to unload the groceries, grab a snack and bathroom break and get the first set of sheets on the line. Our bed items went into the washer. Off to Wal-Mart, we headed, I returned an items, grabbed some “Lunchables” and small snacks for the trip. Back home for lunch and hanging out more clothes before we needed to pick up Lily.
Haley wanted to have a new phone placed on her number so she came over to get that arranged. I was so glad she stayed and watched the kids while I got a chance for a Pedicure and Manicure. Do I look beachy?
While getting my nails done, a storm came up and with a quick text, Haley and the kids rescued our sheets from the line prior to the storm! THANK YOU HALEY! I stopped at Food Lion again, because we are our of bread flour. This stop at home is a little bit longer as I have to make all the beds and get everyone fed dinner. Finally, Kendall has tumbling from 5:30 to 6:30 and Lily has cheerleading practice from 6-8pm today. Hopefully Matt will meet us so that someone can be home prior to 8:30. A typical day, no wonder I am so tired.
What does your day look like?
July in Review
Blogging: Goal: 14 per month Been a crazy month and I don’t even feel like going back and making one more post for the month.
Weight: Goal: Met and maintain weight of 175. This goal will be considered met each month that weight loss is achieved and once this weight is achieved, each month maintained is considered achieved. No regular exercise…. got to get back in a routine.
Spiritual- Goal. I want to spend time reading and or studying the Bible at least 5 days a week for the year. Fail fail fail.
Financial Goals-
1. Full Fund the budget each month. I can imagine that this may seem strange to some people but I set my budget based on what I need each month to cover all expected bills with extra savings going into various counts for non monthly bills. Some money are much easier than others. For example July was a crazy spending month, however with extra monies coming in from the refinancing of the house we were still able to be totally over budget but everything paid and future expenses saved for. Goal met!
2. Emergency Fund to $2000. Met. Added $100! Goal met 2 months in a row!
. 3. Groceries: Spend $700 a month .Total Fail. We started the month with a trip to Shuler meats. In addition, we have had to purchase several items such as toilet paper due to running out. Total spent in July 934.12
4. Gas: Spend $400 a month . This is a huge FAIL! Because of the wired state of NC, I paid sales tax on the new van when I purchased but also had to pay property tax in order to receive the permanent tag. The car also required an oil change which made me $110 over budget for the month of July.
5. Eating out- tracking purposes only $465
Disney- Goal Met! We have now paid for over half of our Disney trip!
July was intended to be our “budget reset’ month. It also ended up a very expensive and crazy busy month as well. I am so glad to look forward to our Beach trip in August for the life reset I need. Then watch out it is full steam ahead to Disney
Wordless Wednesday- Camp
Our piano teacher who is also a teacher is having a half day camp this week. The kids are having a blast!
Sunday Menu Planning and other Random thoughts
I have really enjoy this 4 day break. One of the main things that has happened is that I am finally caught up. This upcoming week is a relativity slow one for us. Cheerleading is on vacation, so the kids have swim team practice each day and piano on Friday. My work is also slowing down as everyone (all 3 of us) are working this week a regular schedule so I should be able to get home early most days. As I posted earlier, we are growing the stockpile which means lots to choose from when menu planning.
Breakfast-Cereal, Poptarts, grits, toast and breakfast burritos at least one day.
Lunch- Salad (lettuce is already prepared, tomato and cucumbers from garden), sandwiches, hot dogs or left-overs. I am really encouraging Matt and the kids to eat sandwiches or left overs this week so that we can not waste any food.
Dinner– The exciting news here is that I should be able to eat most night with everyone prior to swim practice! First time all summer.
Saturday- Lunch: Potato salad, Mandarin salad, pasta salad, watermelon. Dinner- Potluck at the pool.
Sunday- Lunch- Leftovers from the week including Chinese, steak or salads from yesterday. Dinner- Pimento cheese and bacon sandwich on sour dough bread.
Monday- Grilled chicken, sides will be leftovers from the weekend.
Tuesday- Falafel in the crockpot. The plan is to wrap these up and eat at the swim meet.
Wednesday-Salisbury steak, rice and watermelon.
Thursday- Options include leftovers, shrimp or chicken nachos . (I will make the decision Wednesday night based on what the refrigerator is looking like and my mood.)
Friday- Pork chops, veggie and fruit.
With our garden in full production, the goal is to freeze a small amount each day, eat as much as we want for lunches and not waste any food!
Saving on Saturday! Happy Fourth of July
We spent around 7 hours enjoying the pool today. For dinner, we participated in a potluck which was awesome! Total spent ZERO!
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Zach is just hanging!
Kendall was so happy to get back in the water, she had not been in since Tuesday, due to her ear infection!
Boys vs Girls water gun fight!
Armed and Dangerous!
Yes! They do play together on occasion!
Someone was not happy…can’t remember why?
Savannah is one of our favorite people!
Budget Changes!
I have been talking about changing our budget for several months now. One of the major things I was waiting on was the house refinance. One of the biggest changes that I am able to make at this time is how I fund both the gas and grocery budget. In the past, I have split this cost between my two checks, starting in July I will fund both of these up front from my first check in the month! Our new budget starts July 1st and I am trying my best to get everything wrapped up and paid for prior to the end of June.
Here are the new numbers:
Mortgage: $938
Van Payment: $ 345
Pool: $40 (This will cover our yearly dues, in addition to allow for spending money while the pool is open in the summer.)
Clothing: $150 (increase of $50)-growing children is the only explanation I have for this.
Groceries: $700 (increased from $600) I simply can not feed us for $600 each month.
AAA/Insurance: $72 (increase of $25, to cover new van with additional required insurance.)
Gas: $350 (decease of $50 a month) The rationale behind this was that with the new van, I should be able to reduce the amount of money we are spending each month that are directly auto related. Out of this budget, I do pay taxes on the cars, tags/registration, routine maintence, small repairs and of course gas. I will wait until the end of the year to evaluate this category again.
Look for an update on my goals in the next several days!
Wordless Wednesday- Swim Meet
Pretty sure this is Lily!
Matt is the stroke judge…a vary fair one at that!
Back stroke!
Breast stroke
Random Thursday Thoughts
- Matt and I have survived our first week of car sharing. Because we do not feel comfortable driving the white van and the truck does not have working air conditioning, we have been car sharing. The current plan is continue for at least 2 more weeks.
- My summer clothes shopping is finished. I was able to purchase 2 pair of shorts for myself, a t-shirt for Matt, a shirt to match a skirt for Lily, a pair of short for Lily and 3 pair of shorts for Kendall today all for $92 or about $11.50 each.
- We will be increasing our food budget to $700 a month starting in July. Today I used our rewards coupon from Costco help us stay on track for the budget for June. We only needed 3 items but decided to go ahead and buy some extra produce and a couple of fun food items as well. Out of pocket was $23 for 22 items at Costco or $1 an item. No way to match that!
- We are suppose to close on our new mortgage next week so I plan to share more detail and our new budget some time after that.
- I am already working on the new budget but had to adjust both the water and electric bill higher than I anticipated due to the extreme heat (above 90 for the past 10 days with prediction of another 10 days). At this point if we do not water the garden will be start to lose anything that we have. I had planned to water every third day but I may have to alternate every other day in hopes to still get a decent harvest.
- Tonight we made the tough decision to skip a practice. We are in week 3 of 8, with 4 night a week swim practice in addition to cheerleading and piano. Because we have been car sharing, everyone has been out to at least 8:30 each night this week. I am tired and so are the kids, which is evident by attitudes so Zach, Kendall and I stayed home while Lily went to cheerleading only.
- Amanda is planning to bring a camper over next week and stay the week allowing the kids to sleep outside in the camper with her a couple of nights. I am not sure how this will work out but everyone is excited so at least it should make for some good stories in the future.