Category Archives: Shopping

Thursday Thoughts- Goals

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The summer is fast approaching, and I am counting down the days!  I want to make a list of the things I want to accomplish during the summer break.   This way I will also have more accountability this summer as well.

  1. Gardening- My goal is to grow and preserve as much from the garden as possible. I am hopeful to restock the freezer. This goal may also include purchasing some items to make my life easier in the fall.
  2. Prepared Meals- I would like to get 100 dinner meals in the freezer. I will also work on adding convenient breakfasts as well. I also want to freeze at least 10 pizza crust and maybe even some pie crust as well.  The dinner meals can include both crockpot meals and casserole.  I actually need to get started on test meal during the rest of May to help determine what things we like and what is worth making again and again.
  3. Exercise-  I am going to set a goal of 3 times a week this summer. This can include walking in the pool and hopefully at least 1 trip a week to the Y to work out.
  4. Restock- I want to spend time organizing and restocking both the pantry and the freezers. I had actually thought about adding a goal for shopping at least one day a week.
  5. Store and organize all the pictures. I need to clean off my phone but am really afraid that I am going to lose pictures.  I also need to make and order several books from Shutterfly.
  6. VIew and Decide on at least one additional video course for our Sunday school class.
  7. Earn at least one $50 gift card using apps. This is free money but also something that I don’t always make a priority.
  8. Organize/sort and Print a new passwords list for home.
  9. Review, revisit and revise as needed our household budget.  I am hopeful that things will have settled down so that I can put together a realistic budget for paying off medical bills and reducing our overall debt.
  10. Enjoy at least one day a week either reading or just relaxing by the pool. OR at least one day a week on  a special adventure with the kids!

The overall goal for the summer is to get everything back organized and ready for the school year.

5 Things Friday!

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  1. Today is Matt’s 51st birthday! We are celebrating by eating at one of his favorite burger joints “Bad Daddy’s.”
  2. This has been an extremely busy month that I just can’t seem to catch up with. Monday Zach’s Ballgame, Tuesday Izzy’s birthday, Wednesday Braxton ballgame, Thursday- Took Mom grocery shopping for the first time in a month. So we hit two scores with a plan to go to Costco to finish the restock this weekend.  And today Matt’s Birthday, see above.
  3. We have eaten out more this week than any other time except for Disney! This weekend I have got to get things together and in place to get us back on track!
  4. I have decided to hold off on transplanting my tomato and green peppers outside. I want to wait at least one more week if not two weeks depending on the soil temperature and air temperature.
  5. Lily’s new chickens have reached the point that we had to give them a taller container and a screen on top.  We also are starting to turn off the light during the day so that they learn to regulate their own temperatures. We have about 4 weeks left inside!

5 Things Friday

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  1. One of the things that I have realized while participating in the #3RiverPantryChallenge, is that over the past several years I have spent alot of money “stocking up” and really have not been making using of the items I already have. For example, in April 2020 I purchased 90# of chicken. I processed all but around 20#.  I currently have 3 or 4 bags of this processed chicken left.  I also realized that I am a food hoarder, even if I have a lot of stuff when finding food on sale I purchase. This is not neccessarily a bad thing, but I am spending money on items that are not really getting used. My goal for this year is not only to reduce the amount of money I spend on groceries overall but to use items we have in addition to only purchasing items that I know we will eat within a year.
  2. Our chickens are currently producing exactly the amount we need!   I have been able to use all the eggs we are getting and honestly have not put a single dozen in the fridge it.   The debate is currently do we just keep what we have with exactly enough or do we attempt to purchase more chickens?  This is a work in progress and a decision that I don’t have enough data to really decide at this point.
  3. Our living room is currently home to a table full of dirt. The hope and goal of this dirt is that we will have pepper and tomato plants to plant in the garden so far, our only seeds that have germinated have been a lettuce mix.
  4. We have decided not to plant sweet potatoes this year.  I realized that some of the potatoes we harvested back in October were beginning to sprout.  Matt and I spent several evenings baking the remaining sweet potatoes and bagging up in 1 pound bags. We currently have 13# of baked sweet potatoes in our freezer for use during the next year.
  5. I stopped at Walmart on my way home from work today. I decided to check out the marked down bread. I grabbed a loaf of French bread for $1.03. Half was used for  our garlic bread tonight and half is drying to use for French toast tomorrow. I was also able to find 2 bagels of everything bagels for $2.20. But overall my best find was bathroom cleaner with bleach for $0.98 each!

Saturday Happening

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Wow has this been a day! We decided early last week not to spend time working on putting metal up this weekend due to a couple of factors. The main one was the weather. The temperature this morning was 23 with the expected high of 40.  That did not mean however that it was going to be a slower take it easy kind of day either.

This morning, Matt worked on installing a new clothes drying rake in our toilet room.  The one we have been using was broken and starting to cause problems. It can and was fixed with cable ties so we just moved it to the camper!  Of course this required a trip to Lowes as does any good project!  He also was able to fix my office chair for me. He had been waiting on a wrench to use!

The chickens were definitely part of the excitement of the day. Lily discovered 6 eggs around lunch instead of the expected 4. Her next discovery was that we had caught a possum in our trap.  We decided to relocate this guy to keep our chickens safe.  As though that was not enough, Lily closed the automatic solar powered chicken door to gather eggs. Unfortunately, it decided to not work after she closed. Matt, Lily and Zach spent around an hour working with it trying to get it to even just open. The final solution was to simply to remove the door. The chickens have learned and do go up in the coop every night and the entire coop is enclosed on all sides. The real benefit to the door was to help hold in some of the heat. Hopefully this is more of a convivence problem than anything else now.

Zach had a birthday party to attend in Winston-Salem so we decided to make a trip to Costco.  We ended up spending $349 but we were out of several important and expensive items. I stuck to my list except for a few extra items for the Super Bowl party next week.

Lily and I managed to file her taxes today!  And we ended up with Braxton spending the night because Amanda likely has the flu and needed some extra help!

Man am I tired!

5 Things Friday- Budget

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  1. We practice a zero budget, which means that we plan where each of dollars go prior to the month beginning.  One exception is the Verizon phone bill, I budget to pay this entirely each month however several family members are responsible to pay their own portion. This money is not budget but I usually add to the fun money or purchase other items that are needed but not budgeted for.
  2. Several of our monthly expenses are fixed such as the mortgage payment and Tahoe payment.  I am choices at this point to only pay the required amounts as the interest rates are 2.75% and 3.49%. This allows us to focus on debt pay-off with fun thrown in as well.
  3.  For our utilities, we actually just lowered our internet bill to $49.99 a month, electricity budget is $300 and water is $44. If we manage to keep these lower than anticipated, then that adds money in for debt reduction.
  4.  This year we have increased both our grocery and gas budget. I currently have $975 for groceries and $600 for gas.  I am using any money left over even during the pantry challenge to work on debt as these are the categories that for 2022 we were most over in and we ended up using other monies to cover.
  5. Two budget categories that I rarely talk about but have been a part of our budget for the last several years are Pool Dues / Summer Fund at $50 a month and AAA/ Insurance at $150 a month.

Pantry Challenge – The Details and Week 1

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I first mention this challenge (#3RiversPantryChallenge). My goal is to share at least once a week about this challenge in order to help keep me accountable.

I stated that my only rule was that I would not buy anything until I was actually out of the item.   Unfortunately, I have already had to order/ buy toothpaste. I was going to try and use the ‘travel size ” tube I found but Lily came in and told me that she was out of toothpaste as well. So, $10.38 was spent on toothpaste for the next couple of months. I also added this to my subscribe and save list!

I have now re-done my budget and if I can survive and complete the challenge, I could possibly add around $1800 for the months of January and February!  This is a huge motivation for me. Along with the pantry challenge, I am also going to try and limit my spending for the month, especially from Amazon.  It has become so easy to just order from Amazon if we think about it.  So far, we are doing great with this part of the challenge, no Amazon deliveries in three days. Kendall ordered and received a new bible but that does not belong to me.  The one exception is that I am going to continue with my subscribe and save planned for the month. Most of these items are for lunches. Currently all five of us, take our lunch at least 4 days a week. If the kids had to switch to purchasing lunch that would be $30 a week. By keeping my Amazon subscription coming in I am actually probably saving money.

One thing that I feel like I need to share upfront is that I always take my mother grocery shopping because she reliant on a walker.  She also eats with us around 4 times a week.  She enjoys and insist that she treats my kids with certain items when I take her shopping. This week she purchased pickles, apples, raspberries, Oreos, chocolate chip cookies and strawberries. This makes the kids and my mom very happy so it will continue.  I honest think that it balances out because we share meals and meat with her on a regular basis.

One really positive that I have started this week is that I am making a list of dinners that we are currently enjoying in January that we can easily repeat in February. My goal is to make my life easier this way.

One other addendum is that Amanda brought over a case of chicken nuggets this week that she was given at work. She knows I never turn down free food so hey that should help with the pantry challenge as well.

 

Tuesday Thoughts

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  • As you have probably realized, we were out of town this weekend. Lily, Matt and I went on a campus tour of UNC-W on Friday. We drove down on Thursday and stayed until Sunday.
  • I spent an hour on the beach, we all enjoyed the lazy river, kids played in the pool. Putt Putt was enjoyed as well as a campfire and a couple of card games.
  • We also went to the outlets and enjoyed several hours of shopping
  • We have cleaned and winterized the camper. This includes using it as storage for coolers and plastic totes.
  • I started a batch of pear sauce and have plans to use the new electric canner this week.
  • We are staying very busy. I am still overwhelmed at work. Hopefully this will improve in October.
  • My health is improving, and I am hopeful to avoid a second surgery this year.
  • We have finally turned off the air conditioning which is very late for us. I would love to go any entire month with needing heat or air but the chances are very slim at this point.
  • After returning we have opened the rest of the chicken coop. The chickens are enjoying the extra space and practice flying from one end of the other. We have a automatic door to install but that is down the list.
  • My goal for the remaining three month include reducing the grocery budget and working our way through the freezer and pantry. I would love to do a no shopping challenge but not sure I am ready for that additional stress.
  • The garden is changing as well. We have added the rotating bottoms to the green stocks, we need to dig out sweet potatoes and plant that with carrots. The green beans are finishing and I need to purchase worms to add for the end of summer as well.

Weekend Wrap Up

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This weekend was supposed to be a slower than usual weekend however we still managed to get a lot accomplished.

  1.  Decided on our next house project.   We installed a new kitchen floor in March 2020.  The floor has begun to split and we have lots of pieces that no longer fit and it is becoming a hazard.  We have been talking for several months about replacing the floor.  We are not certain which direction that we want to go.  Matt and I talked and decided for the short run (less than a year) we will simply remove the new floor and return to the wood planks underneath. The current plan is to re-adjust the plank and attempt to nail in place. This is definitely not a permanent fix but solves the problem and will at least give us a presentable floor. We are going to undertake this project next weekend.
  2. Ordered the wood to finish the chicken coop and for the fence along the back edge of the yard.
  3. We have been watering the garden using county water for over a week now. It takes around 20 gallons a day to water so I am very hopeful that we will get some rain in the next 24 hours.
  4. Placed a down payment on our cow order. We should receive the cow some time the first couple weeks of August. Now we are focused on trying to decide what meat cuts we want.  I am also working on emptying one of our freezers. My goal is to get this accomplished by the end of July. However, it is fairly difficult when at the same time we are beginning to get in our summer produce.  Check and balance is all I can hope for.
  5. We ended up going to Costco on Friday night to use our reward check, I was very proud that we only ended up spending $26 out of pocket.  But that was short lived as we also went to Sam’s today.  We spend $260 of which over $200 was on food. I did stock up on Slim Jim’s (3 boxes) Hot Pockets (which the kids have been asking for) Biscuits and Pop tarts for breakfast in addition to some treats.
  6. We managed to only eat out one time this weekend. Matt has been practicing cooking on his new Blackstone.  He cooked two meals yesterday in addition to breakfast this morning!

Let’s get this week started on a good note!

5 Things Friday

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  1.  Kendall had the stomach bug last Sunday. Today Zach has a stomach bug. This thing is awful.  I am praying that it only last 24 hours so Zach and I both can enjoy Lily’s performances on Saturday and Sunday.                                                                                         Now for more positive news!
  2. I found several packs of tomato and green pepper seeds in my seed box a couple of weeks ago. I decided to use some of the containers I have been saving along with dirt that we had left to try and see if I could grow any plants from seed.  I planted 2 packs of both.  Currently, we have about 75% germination rate for the green peppers and about 25% for the tomatoes which were planted almost 2 weeks later!   The goal would be to be able to transfer these to the garden in mid April and at least half survive. If I can get even 25% to survive that will decrease my out of pocket for the garden!
  3. Gas prices have seemed to level out and have returned to just under $4 a galloon for us.  This week we have focused on having the Tahoe sit as much as possible and using the Equinox which get a minimum of 10 miles per galloon better gas mileage. It has worked so far as we have put 2 additional tanks in the Equinox this week.
  4. I stopped by the store on my way home from work today in order to purchase a couple of items that we needed because of the stomach bug.  I spent $49 which included TIde pods, 2 containers of deodorant, 4 6-packs of soda, a bag of chips and 8 packages of sausage patties. I found the sausage patties on sale for $2.39 for a package of 8 patties.
  5. Our electric bill came in this week and it is over $100 less than last month!! I am so thankful!  The next bill is typically the lowest of the year due to not needing heat or a/c for several days at a time!

 

5 Things Friday

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  1. North Carolina weather in March…last Sunday 80 and this Sunday expected low of 18*
  2. The greenhouse is currently empty. We have moved all the plants outside, one of the reasons is that it was getting over 100* during the day in the greenhouse and that would cause most of the colder plants I had planted to bolt.  We have been enjoying both lettuce and spinach. The best part is walking by the lettuce and picking some to eat.  We have started both tomatoes and green peppers inside. It is easier to start inside for the first few weeks.  They will be moved outside about 4 weeks prior to plants to continue to grow in the greenhouse and for protection against our final freeze that usually occurs sometime in April.  We also turned off the heater to save a bit on electricity.
  3. This week for the first time in history, we paid over $4 a gallon for gas. $4.11 to be exact. But the knowledge that it took 16 years for gas to go from $3 a gallon to $4 should bring us all comfort.
  4. We are doing excellent on the grocery budget for the year. We have currently spent $2.82 for groceries this month.  For the sake of transparency, we did make a trip to Costco yesterday and used our credit card earnings to purchase sugar, dog food and some other items that we were out of.
  5. Our busy season is starting. Lily’s play is next week, Zach is managing the middle school baseball team while enjoying playing his last year at the booster club. I am now working 2.5 nights a week in Guam. And best of all our Disney countdown is shrinking!