Labor Day Project

Posted on September 7, 2015 by Sheila

The project for today was to finishing “reclaiming” the old deck wood at the edge of our yard, check out more of the story here.

Our square foot garden did not produce the corn we had hoped for this year and one of the reasons that we think may have been part of the problem was the amount of “shade” our bed was getting. So a perfect use of this wood was to make a separate “corn” bed in direct sunlight with no shade. Next up I really wanted to add a second layer to the beds we had previously built and ran out of wood. Matt and I spent all morning working on building the box, then after yet another trip to Lowes, it is finished. I am really pleased with the results and officially declare the square foot garden finished!

You can see how the shade is covering parts of the garden in the above pictures.
I did go ahead and purchase an additional 8 bags of dirt that I will use once we have harvested all the pepper, lettuce, cabbage, and tomatoes to make sure we have a good soil base. The dirt was on sale for half price at Lowes so I wanted to make sure I had enough. I also decided to purchase some mums to help with my fall flowers as well. I hope they will live a nice long time as it does not appear to be “fall” anywhere in the near future according to our weather forecast.

August In Review

Posted on August 30, 2015 by Sheila

I am posting this a day early but hey at least it is posted.

Blogging: Goal: 14 per month This is actually post 20! I may or may not post tomorrow but I am very pleased with the way I am starting to keep up with posting on a regular basis. Goal MET!

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. Struggling still.. I have in the last week added back in regular exercise so I hope that will make a difference.

Spiritual- Goal. I want to spend time reading and or studying the Bible at least 5 days a week for the year. I am going to consider this Goal MET! I have been struggling over the summer to find time to read but with school back in session, it appears to be getting easier and I am trying to make a priority otherwise.

Financial Goals-
1. Full Fund the budget each month. I am excited to post GOAL MET! Our savings both emergency and yearly is starting to look regular.

2. Emergency Fund to $2000. Met. Added $100! Goal met 3 months in a row!

. 3. Groceries: Spend $700 a month .Total Fail. Again I am struggling in this area. I am currently $185.72 over for the month. We actually spent less this month than the several month but still we are way over again.

4. Gas: Spend $400 a month . Fail again. I am actually only over by less than $50 this month so I have made some improvement but still not enough. September is without need for tags or title or insurance and with gas prices continuing to decease I am hoping to stay in budget!

5. Eating out- tracking purposes only $381. Again a decrease from previous months.

Disney- Failed! But I have plans to change this!

August was not a total fail or a total success for anything. I do have plans for at least September to help adjust our budgets. I will post more later on the “goal” and the rationale as to why I think September should demonstrate good progress with all my goals.

5 Things Friday

Posted on August 28, 2015 by Sheila

I am loving the Ibbotta app on my phone. I started using it about 6 weeks ago and will not buy anything extra. I have mainly used it for things such as bananas and green peppers. You must have $10 worth of rebates in your account before you can claim. Tonight, I hit $10.80 and decided to move to paypal just to try out. The money showed up within 5 minutes and I was able to order 10 Lighting Charging cords and 5 car chargers for $1.15 after using the Ibbotta credit!
Kendall has had a rough first week of school. I am hoping that she is just exhausted. I picked her up from school yesterday and she cried on the way home. This morning she cried prior to leaving for school. This evening she is just giggling and laughing. These are all signs that she is overly tired. We will be changing bedtime back to 7pm next week to see if that helps.
We picked up Zach and Kendall’s new glasses on Monday and today (Friday) we were back at Vision Works to get Zach’s straighten out. Boys…..
I have been able to leave work before 5:30pm for the last two weeks. I am hoping this trend continues but looking at my schedule for next week, it will become a whole lot harder.
Tomorrow, the community in schools is hosting a “big toy day” My plan is to take the kids and let them spend a couple of hours enjoying. We may head to the pool to finish out the day but I am seriously afraid the water will be cold after out temperatures begin in the 80s all week. The pool officially closes on Labor Day so we have two weekends left to enjoy.

Wordless Wednesday- First Day of School August 2015

Posted on August 26, 2015 by Sheila

more our real style

Just love this!

2nd day of 2nd Grade for Kendall and 1st full day for Zach.

Saving on Saturday- Vacation

Posted on August 22, 2015 by Sheila

I really do enjoy travelling and especially enjoyed our vacation this year if you could not tell by all the pictures. One reason, that I was able to enjoy our vacation this year is because of the fact that we actually spent overall less on a week at the beach than we have spent on a long weekend trip. So today, I am going to share some tips that I used this year to not only save money but also to make this trip so enjoyable.

The first and most important tip is PLAN AHEAD!. I booked our condo in January this year in order to get the specific week that I wanted for the rate we could easily afford. But I actually started buying for the trip back in November 2014. CVS usually runs some awesome Black Friday sales, starting the Sunday before Thanksgiving, for the past several years these have included laundry detergent for free after ECB. I am pretty brand loyal, but in this case, I carried the free laundry detergent home and placed in a plastic container. During our beach trip, we typically come in from the beach and toss all suits and towels in the wash. My thoughts are free is good enough as long as it helps to remove the sand. Other items that I find on good deals (usually $0.75 or less) include hand soap, toilet paper, dishwasher tablet and dishwashing liquid.

The next way that I plan ahead for our vacation is meal planning. I know there are a few meals that the entire family loves and so if I am making one of these I will just make two and place the second in the deep freezer to take to the beach. Our plan ahead meals this year included baked ziti, chicken and broccoli casserole and gravy biscuits. If I find a good deal on a special snack food that we like I will also go ahead and purchase that as well. This year these items included goldfish crackers, Oreos and Kit Kat Minis. I also do the same with paper plates, cups and silverware. The condo does have a dishwasher but I prefer the paper for the convenience.

Another way that we save money is by saving and reusing certain items year after year. I have a 20 year collection of sand toys that I store in a large bag in our building. Each year we take it with us to the beach. Some years we come back with less sand toys as if they break they are thrown away at the beach. We also have purchased a beach cart, umbrella and several chairs that are specifically for beach use. It may seem like a lot of trouble to carry these items back and forth but in the big picture it continues to save us money as we don’t purchase new items unless they are needed.

A finally way that we save money on vacation is by increasing the temperature of our house to 82* and turning off/unplugging anything possible. Our electric bill dropped by $30 this month in comparison to last month with the only difference being our vacation week. We also saw a $5 decrease in our water bill which is a direct result of less laundry.

How have you been saving money this week?

5 Things Friday

Posted on August 21, 2015 by Sheila

1. The kids start to school on Monday. We had a meet the teacher night last night and everyone is excited. In anticipation of this we are following the school night schedule around here including bedtimes! This also means that I am trying to get some filling/quick breakfast made over the next couple of morning to help in the mornings. Did I mention that Tuesday and Friday will be the first time in 10 years that ALL my children will be in school?

2. Yesterday, was a sad day. We spent most of the day outside working in the yard and square foot garden. The reason it was so sad is that I ended up pulling up and throwing in the compost pile, about half the corn, the cucumber plants and about half of the tomato plants. We have had such a dry summer and with us being out of town last week, so no extra watering, they were dead. It was bittersweet because I was able to harvest enough corn for dinner last night and 2 small watermelon that we used for dinner today. We should continue to get a couple of tomato in daily and maybe just maybe a green pepper or so.

3. I was able to leave work on or before 5:30 every day this week and even managed to get home by 5pm this evening! I know this is hard to understand but it is a HUGE deal for me and something I plan to continue.

4.I want to spend most of tomorrow at the pool as it will only be open for 3 more weekends. I have not checked the forecast but heard it included storms.

5. I was able to get an additional 2 GB of data and $20 knocked off my Verizon bill tonight just by asking!

Random Tuesday Thoughts

Posted on August 18, 2015 by Sheila

We have been home from vacation for 2 days and are about 1/2 the way unpacked. Goal- Be completely unpacked by Saturday.
I am going to be changing/hopefully reducing my work schedule over the next month to make things a little bit easier around here in the evenings. My goal until the changes officially take place and for the whole school year is to be leaving work by 5:30. So far I have been home 2 days in a row. Go me!
During my extended lunch break today, we headed to Winston to Vision Works to order both Zach and Kendall new glasses. The lesson we learned is that glasses for the little kids need to have nose pieces to keep them from sliding off their face. I did use a coupon surprised? We were able to purchase 2 pair of glasses with transitional lens plus a very nice contact lens case for Lily to take to school for $200.
I am planning to attend a continuing education class in September, it will be the first time in 10 years I have stayed by myself in a hotel room. I think I am a little too excited!
Disney planning is in full swing as soon as we finish unpacking from the Beach.
As part of getting ready to go back to school, I had the kids try on and get rid of any shoes that were too small or that they did not like. Kendall is upset because now she is left with only 22 pairs of shoes.
Lily has cheerleading every night this week and man is it rough trying to get everyone back on a school schedule. Zach will start Kindergarten and we are trying to eliminate naps up front so the evening have been full of attitude. Tonight was at least better than last night. Zach made it to his “normal” 7:30 bedtime. Last night he was in bed at 6:50.
Amanda has started college and so far I am very proud of the hours she is putting in to be successful!
We are on budget so far for the month in both groceries and gas. I am so proud of this especially because of the massive Costco trip we made on Sunday in addition to the purchase of school supplies today.
Blogging is always better at the beach, I guess the smell of the ocean makes my thoughts come easier!

5 Things Friday

Posted on August 14, 2015 by Sheila

1. I really really like the new logo for today that Carla used on her blog. But because I am using my new IPAD. I was uanble to figure out how to copy it. So be sure to check it out on her page.

2. We only have 1 full day of vacation left. I am not looking forward to returning to the real world but I am so THANKFUL for this vacation as it has been one of the best one yet.

3. This evening we decided to head about 15 minutes north to try out a Seafood Resturant that was recommended to us by a friend. It was honestly some of the best food and service that I have recieved in year. It was also a great chance to get some more pictures of my kids, you know I honestly don’t have or share enough of these guys. The resturant was located on the dock which the ship bring in the fresh seafood.

4.Tonight stop at Boulineau’s included ice cream by the scoop on a fresh made waffle cone and adult beverages to be enjoyed.

5. I took my first ever selfie today. Going to share just in the effort to keep things real

10 Signs- We are on Vacation

Posted on August 13, 2015 by Sheila

WIth small children, it has been said that vacation is just as much work or more as staying at home. I know for us, our schedule does not change dramatically. This year has been nice with the elimination of nap time and we have been staying up later than normal. So I want to share with you 10 signs that definitely mean we are on vacation.

1. Chocolate/Peanut butter Poptarts and Kool-aid are both consider legitimate breakfast food.
2. Dessert is a requirment and must contain either frozen something or be a donut.
3. Daily trips to the local store “Boulineau’s” always include at least one non food item. Today we purchased a t-shirt, fishing net and shovel.