Category Archives: Life

5 Things Friday 2/13/2015

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1. I was able to place $50 in our Emergency Fund today!  First time this year! It is at least a start.

2. Matt has started a job that will have him out of the house at least 3 nights/weekend days a month. This is a huge change for us but I know it will definitely help cover our cost. We have been talking for several months now that we have an income problem and this is a way to help solve that problem.

3.Our budgets this month are actually looking really good at this point. We have $165 in gas and $415 in our grocery budget left. We have already purchased a part for the white van that will hopefully be the last for several months but the low gas prices are definitely helping out.

4. I am planning on spending the next couple days inside. The temperatures are the coldest of the year and we have no where to go tomorrow (Saturday) so I hope to finish up some things for church but otherwise enjoy a nice day inside.

5. We booked our trip to Disney World this week!  I am so so excited. We are counting down the days till November.

Monday Ramblings

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  • I have had a terrible cold since last Friday, today I am only taking 3 dose of medicine instead of 6 so that means I should be well by next months some time.
  • Because of feeling so blah and crummy, I have not walked since last Thursday. I was doing so good, plan to get back on track tonight. It may be with a Kleenex attached to my lip but it is at least something.
  • Last Thursday, I had the privilege of accompanying my friend Andrea to a college biology class, I came out with two observations. First, it is still just wrong that the professor is younger than I am. And second- since when is it not disrespectful to ask the professor for an update set of notes?  At least half the kids in the class had electronic devices with his notes on them.
  • February is an extremely busy month for us.  I counted and we have exactly 3 nights this month in which we are all home.
  • Because of the busy schedule, I am in charge of picking Kendall up from cheerleading on both Monday and Thursday nights. This way she can at least get in bed before 9 pm on those nights.
  • I did not share a menu plan for this week because we have 2 nights of leftovers and one night of hot pockets on the schedule. But at least we have a plan.
  • Lily and Kendall participated in their first cheerleading competition on Saturday. I am proud of both of them. Lily is working hard on her back handspring and Kendall is working on a forward roll and cartwheel.
  • Gas prices in our area jumped up 10 cent over night and have increased 14 cent in the last week. We at least were able to get all our vehicles and gas cans filled at the below $2.00 price. This makes for us a lower month in gas, so far to fill everything it cost $110.  I am hoping that even with the rising cost we will be able to keep to less than $400 for the month with one small repair needed on the white van.
  • In the area of groceries, we are trying to continue to eat out of the fridge, however I am finding several good stock up deals this month in addition to planning to purchase/pay for an order of ground beef from Zaycon foods. I will be happy just to stay within our $600 budget for the month.
  • After receiving our Verizon cell phone bill, we have actually been able to reduce out bill by over $75 a month by switching plans. We are hopeful to keep this rate for at least the year.

Super Junk Food Day

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We are not huge football fans over here but we do enjoy an excuse to eat so….FullSizeRender (2)This is what we did to celebrate the Super Bowl on Sunday. The kids were so excited to get to eat off the table. Kendall’s plate consisted of 1 chicken wing, which was too hot, one bacon wrapped cocktail wiener, a brownie and 4 peanut butter cookies. Zach really liked the bacon wrapped cocktail wieners, I think he ate around 20 of them total. At one time he had 5 in his hand.  The kids did watch the half time show but the rest of the night was spent in the playroom with play dough.

Both Amanda and Haley ended up working but overall it was a fun day!

January in Review

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Blogging:  Goal: 15 per month Goal Met!  I know that this will be at least post number 15 for the month but I also have a couple of other post in my head that I am going to try and get out but no matter what I am good for the month!

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.  I am very excited to say that I have been able to lose 4 pounds this month. I honestly think it is having the treadmill sitting in my room. I have gone from a maximum of 3 nights a week working out to a minimum of 6 nights a week walking on the treadmill. I have struggled a lot this month with my eating but success is awesome. The down side is that I am not yet back down to the weight I was prior to Thanksgiving.  Goal Met!

Spiritual-  Goal. I want to spend time reading and or studying the Bible at least 5 days a week for the year.  I am trying to spend more time in the Word, but I don’t honestly think I have met this goal for the month. Room for improvement.

Personal Goals: Achieved 2 of 3

Financial Goals:  Achieved 1 of 4

1.  Pay off all debit by December  2015, except for mortgage.  
a. JC Penny- 79.32– . DONE
b. Home Depot-     $210 a month Payment. Goal met!
c. American Express   – pay $12OO a month – paid $700 due to windshield
d. Personal Loan (used to purchase van) .The current scheduled payment is $217 a month with this scheduled to be paid off in December 2015. Goal Met!

2. Emergency Fund to $2000.  Did not happen this month due to purchase of new to us van and the windshield replacement.

. 3. Groceries: Spend $600 a month . Currently at $680 for the month. My excuse this does included the junk food for Super Bowl Sunday.

4. Gas: Spend $400 a month with any remaining to be move to Auto fund for repairs.  We did end up purchasing the new to us van and had to do some repairs to it to get it the way I feel safe in it. I am not counting the tax,title and tag fee of $126 in this cost, it was covered with the sale of my car. Nor am I counting the $217 windshield because that was a true Emergency. Even eliminating those 2 expenses that I can account for else where I am way over budget for the month at $514.  The price of gas has finally dropped to below $2 a gallon so I am hopeful that next month this expense will go way down!

 

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Sunday Catch Up and Menu Planning

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We had an unexpected weekend at home due to our cheer squads not being ready for competition. I am not going to complain because I honestly think that I am more tired tonight than I was on Friday. We definitely have stayed busy this weekend.  I will share a few highlights before our Menu plan for the week.

  • I have completed our taxes for the year. We are going to receive a refund but it is less than half of what we have received in years past. I am very proud and glad of this as it means I am letting the government borrow less of my money interest free!  We are going to use this money as a down payment on a family trip to Disney in November so everyone is excited!
  • Matt finished the required repairs to our new to us van including a new heater/cooling fan in the back. And we have started to make some other repairs that just make it look and feel better. The best news is that so far we have not spent any money on the cosmetic repairs such as ripped seat covers but instead used some supplies from the house. I am pleased to say that at this point, the van looks and runs as good as or even better than we hoped. I am really really enjoying the power sliding door!
  • I have also been able to keep caught up with an online Bible course  that we are taking.

Now on to the menu plan..We were able to stick to the plan last week except for Tuesday and Thursday.   Sonic offered 50 cent corn dogs on Tuesday so we splurged for those.  Because of the cancelled cheerleading competition we did not end up eating out this weekend so actually are way ahead of our low dinning since that eliminated at least one meal out if not two. On Thursday we ended up purchasing a chicken at Costco and using it for dinner on Thursday and a chicken pot pie for lunch today.

Breakfast-  Less choices this week unless I get ambitious toward the end of the week. Choice of  toast, grits, cereal, pop-tarts or Egg/Spinach dish (left-over last Friday). The kids can also request an egg any morning they remember it is available.

Lunch- Both of the girls have picked out and we have packed school lunches for the entire week. I am planning to use my soup at work most days as well.

Dinner-  We are back to activities 4 out of 5 nights this week.
Monday- BBQ Chicken Pizza with sourdough crust.
Tuesday- Beef Stew in the Crockpot. This is one of 2 remaining meals from our bust of a cooking day!
Wednesday-Chicken Enchilada- box mix we purchased several weeks ago.
Thursday-  Cheese Tortellini Soup-new recipe attempt.
Friday- Grilled Chicken
This should allow us enough leftovers to actually only cook on Sunday next weekend.

Finally we are looking forward to our Annual Party next week. It is one of the few times in the year that I just lay food on the table and the kids are allowed to eat what and when they want.  I have purchased everything needed including wings so I hope to keep the cost as low as possible as I am already way over budget for the month.

5 Things Friday- The Money Version

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The bills for our really cold end of December/first of January have started to come in and it will be some rearranging out our budget for February. So here we go…

1. The water bill was $8 more than last month and $5 more than our largest bill ever due to the frozen pipe that burst and sprayed water for several hours before we found it.

2. The electric bill jumped up $85 this month. I am pretty sure this is due to the extra heater we are using in the Living room but thing that the treadmill and new fridge may also be part of the problem.  The good news is that it is not our highest bill ever just much higher than the past 3 bills.

3.The cable bill increased by $8 this month, I am so upset but pretty much stuck because of where we live and the limited choices in high speed internet.

4. I was able to reduce our Verizon bill by $50 a month by changing to a new plan. However the cost will go up approximately $30 a month when Matt gets a new phone. But $20 in savings is still saving money.

5.  I am in hope and prayer that we are done with all the repairs on the new to us white van. One positive is that the oil was changed just prior to us getting obtaining so that does help reduce budget for February, along with the declining price of gas it all should make my like cheaper!

 

But…..

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I really enjoyed having the extra day off yesterday and was able to spend the entire day in my pajamas but……. we all overslept this morning which made me late for work.

I think I am going to really enjoy the new to us van we purchased. I drive great and has some super convenient feature that I would not want to lose but…. it seems that we are spending a lot of money to get it back to what I consider “excellent” shape. I am not even talking about the windshield which I consider a freak accident. We or should I say Matt has replaced the back brakes (no cost to us for material), replaced the front brakes and rotors, has ordered a new part to fix the rear heating and air and today realized that he will be changing out a transmission line as soon as the part comes in because it is leaking.

We have been doing really well with our goal for the month of not eating out but…. Sonic had 50 cent corndogs today and I could not resist!

Our budgets for the month are looking great. I have around $200 left in the grocery budget and $85 left in our gas budget but….. the additional cost of the windshield and repairs to the white van will easily take this amount and maybe more to cover.

I have been walking on the treadmill 6 out of 7 nights a week for the past 2 weeks since getting the one in our bedroom but…. I still have not been able to drop any of the extra weight I gained over the holidays. I have to be honest and say this most likely has something to do with the Girl Scout cookies that we purchased. I ate.

I have and really want to share some exciting news but… I am so afraid that I will mess it up if I share before it happens that I am going to keep my mouth shut for now at least.

 

Life Happens….

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10433159_10203603076506430_892410298076543538_n[1]This could be an example of how I viewed my life over the past week and that would be an accurate picture indeed; however this is actually the windshield of our new to us white van.

We purchased this van back in November with the idea that it would become a vehicle for us to use for travel, in addition to next school year replacing my car as a daily driver because all three kids don’t fit well with book bags and lunch boxes. Prior to the purchase we knew it needed work on the rear brakes and after driving home I knew it needed work on the front brakes as well. there also was a small crack across the bottom of the windshield which we talked about needed to replace eventually.

Last week, Haley’s car died and she needed to be able to drive to college starting Monday so we made the decision to sell my car to her on a pay as you can parent loan. With this decision, we ramped up our efforts to get the brakes fixed. Matt was able to fix the rear brakes using the parts that were given to us with the van and some good old fashion labor. On Thursday, we were pleasantly surprised to learn that we could definitely wait on replacing the windshield because we did not need to get it inspected until next year. Matt purchased new brakes and parts for the front and replaced those today and asked me to take it for a test drive.

The brakes work awesome, I was on my way to my parents house when the hood latch failed, the wind caught the hood as I am driving at 40 to 45mph and above is the result.  I am so thankful that none of the kids were in the van and God’s hand of protect kept the damage to things that are replaceable.

Total Expenses so far for this van:
$126 tags, tax and title
$119 brakes
$217 new windshield
$60 increase in insurance
$20 hood pins to replace the broken latch
$542 total in addition to the initial cost of the van

In January it would appear that Life happens to be very expensive.