2016

Posted on December 26, 2016 by Sheila

We really enjoyed Christmas yesterday, everyone was together at my parents on Christmas eve and then again for lunch at my house. We spent a couple of hours outside assembling the new trampoline.
I don’t have a menu plan for this week, first we want to finish up most of the left-overs and second I am just being lazy. Today for lunch I brought out the two cheese balls from last night and added ham salad on crackers. The kids were excited to eat desert since we have enough for several more days.
Matt and I both had to work today so I am planning to leave the Christmas decorations up until next weekend. I should have Saturday, Sunday and Monday off and may have half a day on Friday as well.
The new dining room would out great and everyone was able to eat in the same room/area. I have decided I want to move around a couple of thing in addition to building a custom buffet on the wall closest to the kitchen.
We have a water leak out front which means that we need to dig up the front yard yet again, 4 time this year, and replace the line that brings water into the house.
Santa’s delivered a trampoline that was 2 foot wider than our old one so that we are now going to have to add boards to the platform before attaching it.
I need to spend some time updating the blog especially the blog roll as now at least half of the bloggers I followed have stopped or moved on. My goal is to get it done this week.
I should get at least one post if not two this week for the year in review, but now I am going to go watch the kids outside and do my nails.

Interesting Weekend and Other Random Things

Posted on December 18, 2016 by Sheila

I was heading home from work on Friday, when I was rear ended at a stoplight. I ended up with a massive headache and a few paint scratches on the back of the van. Saturday morning my headache was gone. I did start the process of filing a claim to have my van fixed but I have a feeling this may take a long time and more paperwork than I want to complete.
Matt and I are continuing to work on earning money using several different apps. This month, we have been cashing out points for gift cards to use for food. One of the biggest expenses associated with our cheer trips is food. We have to eat at least one meal if not two or three each weekend. So far this month, we have use free money to purchase the following: $15 Taco Bell, $10 Burger King, $25 Papa Johns, $10 Dominos, $25 IHOP and $50 Chills. One of the main reason we have been so successful this month is taking advantage of special sales.
Zach and Kendall have three days of school while Lily has four this week. I am working all week but we will start celebrating next Friday night when I get off work.

Bargain Brag

Posted on December 15, 2016 by Sheila

I always say that saving money is a life style, so today I want to share a few of the ways we are saving and/or earning money this month.

I had decided several months ago that I wanted to have the kids with matching Christmas clothes this year. In November, Kmart offered a sale on the dresses the girls are wearing. I was able to purchase the dresses for $8 each. Before ordering, I did check to make sure we had both girls a long shrug or sweater to wear with these as they are short sleeves. Their tights were purchased on a 40% off sale in addition to 5 coupon from e The Children’s Place for a total of $5. The most expensive part of the girls outfits were their shoes. We did find them on sale but still spent around $45 for both pair. Total for both girls outfits were $60- the average cost of one dress. Zach has had his red tie for several years now so all I needed to purchase for him was a black shirt. I found it at Walmart for $8. I really do love dressing all three for less than $100.

Our biggest expense is by far groceries. For this reason, we definitely try to use all the food we have and not waste or let any go bad. Last Saturday, we spent baking Christmas goodies in addition to make a 7-layer salad, deviled eggs and Mandarin Orange salad. We have used these as our sides for Saturday lunch, Monday dinner and plan to use again on Friday. Today, we had what the kids call a “leftover buffet” pick what you want to eat from the leftovers and enjoy. Matt and Lily have been able to make wraps and nachos at lunch with some leftovers as well. The tomatoes, we harvested from the garden are finally ripe. I decided to go ahead and cook these for use in soups later on. Finally, we purchased a bunch of bananas last Thursday, that are now really ripe. The kids decided that we would use them in a smoothie in the morning for breakfast.

Saving money means know what items you need in addition to recognizing the best deal on an item. The best example of this, is our purchase of razors from Amazon. Matt has a “favorite” razor that when it goes on sale I grab. He also is open to trying others as well. We did try the dollar shave club but simply were not impressed and after doing the math, it really is cheap for me to buy razors at CVS. Last night I noticed that Amazon had his favorite razor refills on sale. We grabbed a year supply for $20. This was definitely a case of know a good price and grabbing it.

5 Things Friday

Posted on December 9, 2016 by Sheila

I have just completed the busiest work week all year. I worked eight hours over this week. I am very grateful for this extra income but really do miss seeing my kids each night during the week!
The cow we purchased is currently hanging. It did turn out to be larger than expected but I budgeted enough excess that we still should cover the cost without touching our monthly budget. After much thought and discussion, the way to account for this purchase is by dividing the amount over the first 6 months of 2017. I will take that amount out of each month’s grocery budget and pay toward our credit card debit. December provides an extra check for me, initially I planned to use to pay down our debit but this was a deal we could not pass up so instead we purchased meat. Once the final cost for the cow including processing is paid. I will share what amount will be deducted each month from our budget.
I am planning on doing holiday baking tomorrow. I checked out my baking list and hopefully have purchased everything we need for this fun day. We will make another batch of cookies on Christmas Eve for Santa.
I am finished shopping for the month of December. I will continue to watch sales but unless the item is a need and at the lowest available price, I am going to avoid shopping the rest of the month.
All three of the younger kids will be performing this weekend in our church’s Christmas musical. This should make the weekend go by really really quickly.

Menu Plan Monday

Posted on December 5, 2016 by Sheila

As I was putting together this post I realized that I have not posted a menu plan in over a month. We are continuing to plan a month at a time but are pretty flexible with changes if need be. Over the past month and again in December, I am making an effort to clean out the freezer. We are purchasing a cow and need to make space to place the meat. One thing you will notice is that we are eating out several times this week. The reason is simple Lily’s birthday.

Breakfast– Saturday- Left-overs including hash brown casserole, eggs, grits and gravy. Sunday- Choices. Monday-Left-overs or choices. Tuesday- Baked Banana oatmeal Wednesday- choices. Thursday- Breakfast burrito bowl Friday- Choices. Choices include : leftovers, eggs, grits, French toast,, toast or cereal.

Lunch- Zach and Kendall have tomato soup, spaghettios, uncrustables x2 and chicken nuggets. I have salad x 2, sandwhich wrap and leftovers.

Dinner- Saturday- Lunch- Pizza Hut (used coupons). Dinner- Outback .
Sunday- Lunch- Baked Potato bar. Dinner- Chill (leftover from lunch and grilled cheese sandwiches.
Monday- Kielbasa and rice
Tuesday-Taco Tuesday
Wednesday- Grilled Chicken
Thursday- I have a party so leftovers or soup for the rest
Friday- Kids are having pizza at church and Matt will eat at Taco Bell. Not sure what I will end up doing.

Why I Have Not Blogged-AKA My crazy life

Posted on December 4, 2016 by Sheila

This weekend we were suppose to be in Gatlinburg Tennessee for a cheerleading competition. Due to the wildfires, it was cancelled on Tuesday. I decided to use the time to catch up on things. On Thursday, I shopped at Harris Teeter for the sale on can goods, followed by a trip to Hanes Mall to return some items and then grab a couple of gifts to finish up my list. I also did a solo trip to Costco for groceries for the month.

Friday night- Amanda took the kids to see the lights at Tanglewood. Matt and I had a nice dinner that included wine and desert. We finished up by wrapping up all the gifts. I am so glad to be finished with this part of Christmas.

Saturday was the celebration of Lily’s birthday. I have to work a longer than normal day on Tuesday in addition to her cheerleading practice so we decided to spend the day doing the things she loves most, eating and shopping. We ended up shopping in Lexington and then returning to Hanes Mall. We finished up the night by eating at Outback. I promise to post pictures on Wednesday.

Today(Sunday)- We attended church and I spent the rest of the afternoon make a calendar for my Dad’s birthday. I know the next couple of weeks will be just as busy but hopefully with my to-do list caught up, I will be a little bit better at blogging.

Now on to some ways I have been saving first is shopping sales. This is a no brainer. However the thing to remember is consistency.

I also have been enjoying shopping at Sears recently. They offer a program similar to CVS-Extra Care bucks. Over the past several weeks they have had items such as boots on sale with bonus bucks on these purchases. I have been using to purchase gifts, the great thing about this promotion is that it can be used to cover both taxes and shipping.

Another good tip is to keep your coupons and other rewards items together. On Saturday, we used the kids reward coupons for reading to purchase lunch at Pizza Hut for $20 for the five of us. I also had $5 in rewards dollars for The Children’s Place. I used this to help with a purchase of tights. I also had coupons for JCPennys and Bath and Body Works.

November In Review

Posted on December 1, 2016 by Sheila

A day late again but at least I am being consistent.

Personal-
1. Blogging– Post 20 per month. Fail. But there is some good news, I posted seventeen times in the month of November. Improvement is a good and positive thing.

2.Weight Loss– 175#. Did not gain anything, got on the treadmill a couple of time. Still a fail but not a total lost eitehr

3. Spiritual– Spend at least 5 days a week, reading and studying The Bible. This continues to be a challenge for me. I need to find a time to set for this but so far not happening.

Personal goals are a failure for the sixth month straight. I do feel much better about my lack of progress this month. I am working to met goals, slow and steady wins the race.

Financial-

1. Set aside money each month in every budget category. Fail. No change in this category. I will admit we have acquire debit this year so now we focus on getting back on an even footing.

2. Establish and maintain Emergency Fund- Fail.
3. Groceries: Goal is for $550. Goal Met. We spent $460 in the month of November on groceries. We did commit to purchase an entire cow for our freezer in December. I am not sure how to handle this expense. In the past, I have always counted in the month it was purchased. This time I am not sure if I should do that or spread it out over the first six month of the year? Decisions Decisions, Decisions.

4. Gas: Spend $300 a month- Goal Met! Actually under budget at $210 for the month. The price of gas remains around $2 a gallon so this has helped our overall expense. I am very anxious to see how we end at the end of the year as far as a monthly average goes.

5. Pay off all Credit Card debit by December 2016- Fail. This will definitely be a focus and goal for next year.

6. Money Making Apps- I am adding this for monthly reporting. This is becoming a game to me! We collected $175 in gift cards and purchased another $60 of items that were free including shipping.

Success in three of six areas is going to be considered a success! We hope to keep up the steady stream in December. I will say that most if not all of our shopping is complete so I don’t expect this to be an expensive month at all!

Saving on Saturday 11/19/2016

Posted on November 19, 2016 by Sheila

I will admit that I have been doing quite a bit of shopping both online and some in person the past week. Last weekend, I ordered the girls some new boots. Kendall needed a new brown pair and both needed black boots to wear to cheer competitions. I found a decent sale at The Children’s Place. This weekend OLD NAVY has a good sale on jeans, Kendall does not have enough jeans to wear for a week so I ordered both girls a couple of new pair. The best part of both of these is that I shopped online and order through a link on Swagbucks so should receive back money on both. I did not pay shipping on either.

I went to Harris Teeter on Thursday and spent $90, I was able to save $160. This was a very planned trip that included 10 cases of diet coke and 3 6 packs of bottles. Everything I purchased was on sale or a rain check and my saving average was right at 60% so I count it a win.

I have been finishing up my Christmas shopping. Today on Shutterfly I order a calendar and a couple of other small gifts. I also used a cartwheel at Target for 30% off toys which was in addition to 5% off and free shipping for using my Target card.

I am extremely happy to say that I need to order one additional calendar and purchase a gift card which will be the official end of my shopping for the year.

Saving

Posted on November 13, 2016 by Sheila

This is an awesome time of year to be shopping and I really do enjoy getting some great deals. I am going to share a few of these deals and other suggestions to help you save today as well.

First, if you are shopping on-line be sure you check and use the places that offer cash back. We needed to purchase some new sheet last weekend, so I check out the sales at JCPenny’s. I ended up going through Swagbucks to make the purchase so I was able to grab 3 sets of sheets and 4 shirts for around $115 including shipping. I will also be receiving over 800 swagbucks with no real extra work.

I made some last minute trips out Friday night to Dollar General and even texted Amanda to make a stop for me. The reason a sale on Hot Wheel and Matchbox cars. The sale was Buy 1 and Get 2 free. Which made each of the cars thirty three cent. This is an AMAZING deal that I have scored one time before. I was able to grab 100 cars in three different stores. We hide some of the cars and placed the others in a gift drawer. Zach decided he needed some new cars and offered to purchase them from the gift drawer. I am so glad we got extras. I do have plans to use some of the cars as gifts for my church group in addition to they make cool birthday gifts.

I have also taken advantage of sales online at Bath and Body Works, The Children’s Place and JCPenny’s again this weekend. JCPenny is currently running their black Friday deals on-line which is a huge sale.

Finally, I am using my CVS card to purchase items. Here is a picture of my trip today.

I used $14 on the gift card leaving me with another $10. I saved $45 or 76% prior to using the gift card. I am so happy to be able to use free money to buy things we all need!

Thursday Thoughts

Posted on November 10, 2016 by Sheila

Many things are going on around here, so are money saving and some are just fun so I thought I would share some .

Matt is working on digging holes for our new trees that are scheduled to arrive today. I purchased 6 fruit trees last month. I realize that these may take several (3-5) years to produce but I am so excited to be able to do some eatable landscaping. We are getting 2 apples and 2 pear trees, so they will cross pollinate, 1 cherry and 1 peach tree. They are going in our backyard along the property line to create a natural boundary.
My goal for the weekend is to get my snow village up and in place. I am so excited to have time to spend on this project this year without feeling rushed. I will refrain from placing other Christmas decorations until after Thanksgiving but the snow village can go up now and stay til at least January.
We picked up our Zaycon steak order this morning! Both boxes were less than one pound off the promised weight so we have a $15 credit to use on our next order. The steak look amazing! Can’t wait to try them tomorrow night.
Menu planning has definitely not gone as planned this week. Last weekend we spent trying to finish up left-overs and made some head way but not enough. We are not eating out just not eating what is scheduled. Today, I am making broccoli-cheese soup and steak will be on Friday. I am betting that Saturday will be left-overs again.
No grocery spending this week!
The temperature has finally turned to fall and we ended up turning on our heat on Sunday. Our first hard freeze is expected this weekend which means the end of tomatoes and green peppers. I did plant some lettuce and we are getting a small amount from that so I hope that will continue for a few more weeks.

Teens Tots and Everything In Between

Life, Love and Coupons

Category Archives: Budgeting