Category Archives: Life

5 Things Friday-5/27/2016

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  1. I am all ready for a yard sale tomorrow. The current plan is to make a stop at the Goodwill on the way home. We(Matt) have spent the week cleaning out the buildings. I pulled the last couple of boxes out of the attic and the front building is empty as well. I have already made $45 on this yard sale, so my goal is $55.
  2. We are going to call this the summer of lean. I want to really contain our spending.
  3. The garden is still growing and we have gotten a couple squash, I am hoping that we will have plenty to eat and freeze this summer.
  4. Zach has agreed to be on the swim team this year! I love going to swim meets!
  5. My first $50 Disney gift card is in cabinet. This is so exciting!

Gift Cards- Spending Money The Fun Way!

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I had some extra time on my hands as I waited in a doctor’s office today so I decided to clean out my purse.  I was so excited to find a five dollar bill and a Walmart gift card that I had totally forgotten about.  I knew we needed a bag of frozen veggies to go in the chicken pie I was planning for Friday night, so after the appointment I headed to Walmart. I was able to grab 2 bags of frozen vegetables, a bag of Twizzlers for Matt and a pack of Kool-Aid drinks for the kids.  I still have 57 cent left on my gift card.

My other use of gift cards today is a little bit confusing but even more exciting. During the past month I have been using an app called “Swagbucks”  I can be use for shopping but I am using it to watch videos, random and not so random search of the internet and answering survey questions. So far in two months I have gained enough point and cashed in for 2-$25 gift cards to Target.  This afternoon, I decided to place an order at Target. I had already linked by Red Debit card to my account. This gives me 5% off and free shipping. I placed in my cart a $50 Disney card and a box of baking soda. Total cost was $49.43 which I enter both gift cards as payment. I have 53 cent left on one.

Total spent today ZERO and I was able to grab a couple of grocery items we are out of. I call that success!

Saving on Saturday- 5/7/2016

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sosThis project actually took us two days to complete but mainly because we had lot of other things going on at the same time. One side of the “addition” has an area of 6 inches or so from the wall that we have been attempting to grow grass in for the past three years. Last year, we bought specific “shade” grass and it still did not work. So after so talk and planning we decided to make it a flower bed. We decided not to attempt to grow vegetables in this area because it is in the shade for the majority of the day and would have a huge expense associated with it attempting to buy dirt to make sure things could grow.

I woke up bright and early Saturday morning and head out to the local “plant sale” that is by the master gardeners in the area.  In the past, I have not arrived early enough to find as much as I have wanted. This year, I arrived at 7:50am for the sale that was scheduled to start at 8.  I did miss out of a couple of specific things I was looking for but was successful over all. I focused on purchasing plants that were known to grow in the shade. I purchased 6 different shade plants for a total of $18.  As I have been looking at the front flower bed which touches this new bed, I realized that at least one of the hosta plants was too close to other plants so I decided to dig it up. I was able to spread this one plant into 5 different sections which saved at least $20. I know this plants spread and grow very quickly so by next year they should be back to the right size. After coming home and going to Zach’s soccer game, we stopped at Lowes to purchase brick blocks to line the bed and some mulch. We ended up spending $100 total for this new bed. I am so pleased and excited about this huge accomplishment.

imageThis is an attempt to view the entire side.

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5 Things Friday-5/6/2016

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  1. We finished re-planting the garden this evening between the rain showers and managed to harvest our first crop of basil.  I just froze the basil for use in spaghetti sauce, once we have an abundance of tomatoes.
  2. I ended up spending close to 6 hours in the car yesterday.  I took the girls for an eye appointment which meant that I had to then come back home and drive in the opposite direction to update their glasses. Kendall will be wearing bifocals and Lily needed to go back up to a stronger prescription.
  3. Zach has his last soccer game tomorrow. The girls both competed in their last cheerleading completion last Sunday. The hope is that things slow down for two to three weeks prior to swim team practice starting.
  4. Our budget is going to get tight for the summer. I realized that we need to make some serious debit repayment during the summer. We  have already purchased season passes to the local water park and will be paying our pool dues this months.  So the goal is play hard but not spend extra money!
  5. The kitchen is officially finished. I have decided that I will not be purchasing a new table until and unless, I am able to sell enough items on line and with a real yard sale to make the purchase.

Fun Friday-Picture overload

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As  the weather was still chilly and windy,  we found several way to fill the time. First stop the aquarium.

Then we enjoyed lunch at Jimmy Buffets Margaritaville.

Finally the girls went to Build a Bear, while Zach found the ride shop to build his own car.

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Miscellaneous Monday

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  • Our menu plan is very simple for this week. Leftovers for Monday and Wednesday and Pulled Pork on Tuesday.  I want to try and clean out as much of the refrigerator as possible before our trip.
  • I am working hard to achieve a good work/life balance.  I am finding it impossible. Work is crazy busy and the kids are crazy busy as well.
  • I am really looking forward to this trip just to have some down time without feeling rushed or like I should be doing something else.
  • The weather is starting and predicted to start warming up, I still do not have a plan for the square foot garden so I need to get this down on paper soon.
  • The heat is back on in our house. I am hoping that once we leave on Thursday, that will be the end of the heat for the year.
  • I have given myself a goal to earn $200 from Swagbucks by December of this year. I am so close to cashing out my first $25 that it is tempting to purchase an item that is 100% back but I don’t want to spend any money. So I will patiently or not so patient wait till closer to the end of the month to achieve this.
  • Zach is continuing to make huge improvement in soccer. He was able to score 2 goals this weekend and made 2 stops as goalie.
  • Lily has found her backhand spring at cheerleading! It is so nice to watch her tumble!

Saving on Saturday-04/09/2016

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Today has definitely been a day about saving, really more about saving time than money but they both are pretty important around here. First a little of the background, one of the ways that I have been trying to control our budget and spending this year is with grocery purchases.  We have only spent $1250 for the first three months of the year,   I focused on using the items that we had on hand and we were able to clean out and reorganize a lot of our freezer space.  In March, we used up all of our ground beef, so we need to start replenishing our supplies. On Thursday, Matt and I managed to make a huge grocery trip which included our local “meat market”.  Now back to today, we need to “process” the thirty pounds of ground beef we have purchased. I decided that since the weather outside was cold and windy, I would prefer to spend the day in the kitchen. I am very pleased with the results. Total time spent was approximately 7 hours, but this includes lunch and snacks for the kids as well as clean up and a couple of breaks. We were able to make the following:

3- cheeseburger pies (This are a quick and easy dinner to reheat)
4- Baked Ziti- We are sharing one with our friends for lunch tomorrow and another is already on our summer beach list. The other two will be easy Sunday lunches for this summer.
4 sets of Salisbury steaks- (a little bit more work than the cheeseburger pies but can turn out a dinner in 30 minutes).
20 one pound bags of pre-cooked ground beef. This is one of the easy ways to plan ahead and can be used in everything from spaghetti to Hamburger Helper.
Breakfast casserole for Sunday morning
Mexican rice and sausage dip for snacks and dinner today.

We will need to purchase chicken for delivery in June but otherwise we should be stocked up for the summer.

Did you save today?

5 Things Friday

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  1.  This week turned out to be extremely busy! I had planned to post at least twice during the week and as you can tell that did not happen.  I even have pictures loaded of our spring flowers. The weather is rather screwy right now. We are expecting a hard freeze this weekend and then hopefully on to Summer.
  2. Zach was “Owl Star” in his class this week. He got to take the owl to a lot of different places. This is a privilege which also included extra homework. Zach wrote 3 journal entries about their adventures and complete 3 questions each day for show and tell. My favorite picture of the week is soccer practice.

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3. Lily has  been preparing all week for the “Story Telling Festival” at her school. She and her friend presented the book 22 times today. The really cool fact is that I participated in the very first “Story Telling Festival” at the Elementary School.

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 4. Lily is also “Star Titan” this  achievement is awarded each month to one student per class. I am very proud to say that all three of the little kids have now been selected this year.

5.  As part of being student of the week, Zach filled out a list of questions. His answer to “what makes you special?”— I have 4 sisters
“Who is your hero”– Jesus.