First official day of summer vacation was spent at the pool with friends!
Wordless Wednesday-Pool Fun
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Category Archives: DITL
5 Things Friday Financial
This is a sad and hard post for me today but in the real world things are not always happy and warm. So this is real for us.
1. We are in limbo with refinancing our house. My understanding is that we are actually waiting on FHA to process paperwork and that is currently taking a long time. We have not even been given a time line at this point so we wait.
2. In the past two weeks, the white van has continued with mechanical issues, unfortunately the issues are becoming larger and more expensive each time. After prayer and consideration, we have decided we need to sell the van. In fact, if it does not sell as is in the next couple of weeks, we are going to call a junk yard and sell it that way.
3. The combination of both 1 and 2 also mean that we are looking at the need to purchase a new or new to us vehicle this summer instead of October/November. After some discussion with the mortgage broker, our only option is to wait until the refinancing of the mortgage is complete. The current plan is to purchase a mini van that will not only be my transportation to and from work but also the primary vehicle for us as a family. Currently we are sharing Matt’s van and he will be using his white truck as needed.
4. The white truck is small but will hold up to 4 people at a time. The bigger issue is that neither the heat or air condition is working at this time. Our weather indicates that the temperature will consistently be above 90* for the next 10 days. If and when we are able to get rid of the white van, we are planning to have the air fixed in the truck.
5.I am a stress eater. I have been struggling especially with this over the past week. Yesterday, both Lily and Kendall invited a friend over to play/spend the day at the pool with us. We ended up eating pizza for lunch and hamburgers for dinner. So our entire $40 pool budget for the month of June has now been spent.
Saving on Saturday-5/30/2015
This saving on Saturday was one that sort of happened. If you had ask me even on Wednesday about it, I probably would have not had a clue. First the story and then lots and lots of pictures.
One of my co-workers is starting a small nursery. I decided to take all the plastic trays and small pots that I have been collecting for the past several years. to her to see if she could use. I did not realize how expensive they were but really I just hated to throw them away. She was very excited to get them, and a couple of weeks later when I mentioned that one of the pepper plants I planted had died, she offered to bring me some. She ended up bring me 6 “rainbow peppers” this week. Next my friend bought at Costco a vegtable/herb growing kit at Costco with little seed pods that are guaranteed to grow. She ran out of room and brought five to me on Friday. I was sort of at a lost because we are all out of room in the square foot garden, but mentioned to Matt that I might go see if I could find some wood to add another section.
The abandoned wood pile deserves at least a paragraph of it own. We began really digging in the pile to finish the composite bin several weeks ago. This wood is actually from the deck that was on the house when I purchased it 22 years ago. About 13 years ago before meeting Matt, I had a friend to tear down the old deck and replace it with a larger one. Instead of recycling or even burning to old deck, he simply cut it into 6 foot sections and deposited in the woods behind the house. These boards are now what we are digging out and reusing.
I walked down to the edge of the woods and spotted a section of decking, I was even able to pull it out of the weeds all by myself. After bringing the wood to the front of the house, we knew exactly what section we wanted to add.
This morning after a trip to Lowes, I planted the remaining 5 “rainbow peppers, three of the garden pods that my friend gave me. After counting out the remaining squares I decided to head in the freezer and plant another 45 stalks of corn. So the only real cost to this project was $40 worth of dirt that we purchased. I am very very pleased with the way this project turned out and am also very hopefully that we will reclaim that $40 in the month of August with a second harvesting of corn and peppers. Here are the pictures I took after finishing planting and watering today!
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- view from driveway!
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- from driveway
5 things Friday
1. I sent my list of “sit down” dining reservations over to our travel agent this morning. She will be making these on Sunday! It is so exciting!
2. Today is our 11th anniversary. We celebrated by adding on to the square foot garden.
3. I made our first official harvest of the year, 1 small squash a ziplock gallon bag of dill and another bag of cilantro.
4. We are waiting not so patiently for our house appraisal so that we can refinance.
5. Swim season has officially started with practice 3-4 nights a week. This week I have been working until 6:30 then picking up Zach and Kendall from swim practice before coming home. I really dislike this schedule!
Saving on Saturday
This week saving is not exciting but still saving so I am sharing. First up hang clothes on the line instead of the dryer.
Currently on the line we have our sheets and comforter, a load of dark clothes and a load of light clothes. We love the smell of clean sheet that dry outside so I try to do these all year around. The clothes are a different story, I don’t mind hanging out outer clothes it is just a matter of timing. My goal is to get into a routine so that I can save at least 3 hours a week of dryer time during the summer. I refuse to hang out towels and underwear so those will continue to be thrown in the dryer. My only debate is the kids clothes, currently they place their clothes in their own laundry basket and after being washed they are taking out of the dryer and putting all away. It would take a lot more effort for me to hang out their loads in addition to trying to keep things separate between Kendall and Lily.
Next up is home car repair. Our white van is continuing to give us problems. Today, Matt changed out the fuel filter which cost a total of $11 and his hour of work.
Finally is a fun activity for the kids that saves at least $10 a vehicle, home car washing! The kids are having a ball and do a fairly good job!
5 Things Friday!
1. We are in the process of refinancing our home. This time we are getting a whole new mortgage. By completing this we will be dropping 7 years off our current mortgage schedule and reducing the interest rate by over 2%. So far the process has been time consuming but not difficult. Our closing is tentatively scheduled for the end of June. I will share more details once a couple of issues are settled. The first of which is the appraisal of the house which is schedule next week.
2. The end of the school year is getting closer. I honestly think it is more heavily scheduled than Christmas. Sunday-was a piano recital, Tuesday night-Lily chorus performance, Wednesday night-Ending Party for Church Kid’s club. In addition to cheerleading tryouts on Monday and Thursday.
3.Our community pool opens this weekend, with swim team practice starting on Tuesday. Zach is planning to swim this year and I am so excited just to get him in the water on a regular basis!
4.Kendall is star student next week so I am scrambling to get some picture found and printed so we can make her poster on Sunday.
5. I am officially on call for Monday, so I may have to work a couple of hours but that means that I will get a 4 day weekend for the Fourth of July!
Saving on Saturday 5/16/2015
I am really excited to share this! If you know me you realize that I am not really a craft person. For example in 4th grade it took me 3 months to learn to cross stitch and that was not even to complete a project. I like the idea of being craft but honestly who has the time?
Well this time I did. I spent around 5 hours and $3.00 to create this awesome wreath for the front of my house.
front laying on floor
Back side I think it is neat too!
I purchased a bunch of tulle on sale for 10 cent a roll several weeks ago at Walmart. For the wreath, I ended up using about 3/4 of 3 different rolls.
Step one: Make the wreath pattern out of cardboard. I found a pot lid that was the size I wanted for beside the door and then drew and cut it out and then cut our the center.
Step Two: Cut the rolls of tulle into the approximate same size piece and decide a pattern.
Step Three: Tie each of the tulle piece on the wreath, I was careful to stick to the same pattern! I am so excited to show off this project!
Random Budget Thoughts on Thursday!
- This month I am really paying attention to our budget. The goal is to get our spending under control and be able to pay down most of our debts except the mortgage over the summer in addition to saving to pay for our Disney Trip. I keep reminding myself and Matt that every dollar is important at this stage and that each dollar we save puts us a step ahead. I am also trying to enjoy the small victories like using the clothes line!
- I was able to hang out 3 loads of clothes today on the clothes line. While shopping at Walmart this morning for a toaster, I picked up 100 wooden clothes pins. Let me tell you these are the cheapest made clothes pins that I have even seen. I had to use 3 to hold up shorts and even some shirts. Matt was excited to smell the fresh laundry. I would love to say that I am going to start hanging our at least one load of clothes a week but in reality I don’t see it happening. So I am simply going to enjoy the fact that it happened today and not worry about when and if it happens again.
- Our square foot garden is actually growing really well. We have only lost one pepper plant and one cucumber plant, otherwise everything is growing. I am excited each evening to check out what is growing. We have pumpkin and corn in addition to our green beans that are all growing from seeds. The other plants are also growing. We have been watering about every third day so I hope in another month to be harvesting!
- Over the past several months we have been keeping the budget low by using up our stockpile. We currently have 2 freezers in our building. In January, both of these were filled to the brim. Today, I could combine the contents of both into one and it would not be full. My goal for the summer is to completely restock the vegetable freezer. I am hopefully to accomplish a lot of this with our garden but otherwise I am going to budget $50 a month to buy in season fruits and veggies. In the month of May, strawberries are in season. Last weekend we picked a total of 3 gallons and froze at least 2 of these. I am hoping to get another 2 gallons this weekend. One to enjoy and one to freeze. The second freezer is for meat and the only meat left in it is chicken. I have already planned a trip to the meat market/butcher the second week of June. This will take about half of our grocery budget for June but hopefully will last the rest of the summer.
- The white van is continuing to cost us. I am becoming increasingly frustrated with it. I just don’t like the idea of continuing to put money into something month after month after month. Currently the discussion is what is our best options. I honestly don’t feel comfortable driving it on long trips and especially going to Disney. So depending on our budget and saving we have some tough decisions ahead of us. Currently the goal is to keep the van running until September and then re-evaluate the situation.
Wordless Wednesday- Carowinds- Cheerleading
This was the final competition of this season. I am so proud of both girls. Lily’s youth team was second out of five and won special recognition for best tumbling of the day!
Kendall is waiting on the far right and Lily is in the air in the middle!
Lily is on the far end!
Lily is on the far right, Cant see Kendall
Lily is staring her tumble run!
Kendall is in the air and Lily is tumbling!
Lily in the air
Lily waiting to start a tumble pass.
Random Thoughts Thursday
- It does not feel like just a week ago we were enjoying some fun at the beach!
- Matt’s birthday was Tuesday but due to our schedule we decided to celebrate tonight. He wished for things to slow down and I just laughed!
- I am amazed at the difference in the weather in different parts of the country. Today it was windy but 65* but in Michigan it snowed! I am also very thankful I don’t live where it snows in April!
- I was able to plant most of my square foot garden today! The current plan is to finish it in two weeks and replace anything that does not survive. I thought I had checked the weather better but it turns out that we have a chance of going below freezing today so I hope everything survives. I am so excited to get things growing!
- . We are doing really well on our budget for the month. I knew in advance that our beach trip would cost us extra and I am hoping to cover the additional repair to the van as well. As of today, we have spent only $121 of our $600 grocery budget and that includes not only the plants you see above but steaks for Matt’s birthday dinner! In gas, we have spent $309. This amount does include our gas for travel to and from the beach but not the repair that was made on the white van prior to going. I don’t see that we will be spending anything more in gas but do expect to end up spending around $150 on groceries by the end of the month.
- Weird things excite me, as you can tell from the numbers above, we have not been grocery shopping this month. On Monday, we went down to our building where we have both our freezers. In the chest freezer is all veggies, it is starting to look a little low except for the zucchini which I froze over 2 years ago. The other freezer now only contains chicken and is less than half full. I am excited to finally be using and seeing a difference in our grocery budget. I definitely don’t want to use up all our stock pile but like the idea of starting fresh at the end of the summer and attempting to maintain the same $600 budget after cutting it down to a fourth for a couple of month.
- Our next and final cheerleading competition is only two weeks away but it at Carowinds which is an amusement park. It will be very expensive but a fun trip. I am actually really looking forward to decreasing our schedule by at least one night a week for cheerleading! Swim team starts everyday in the month of June so I am not sure what we will do for the month of June this year. I would love to take a month off from cheering but just don’t see that happening!
