We discovered this great little airplane park after eating at PF Changs at the beach!
Wordless Wednesday- Beach Airplane
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Category Archives: Life
Wordless Wednesday-Random Beach Pictures
Travel Budget
If you have been reading here long you know that our family travels on a regular basis. The usual standard of travel is to save money while enjoying the trip. This long weekend was a bit different in this aspect. We still travel on a budget, however it was much larger than most of our trips. the reason? We only took snack foods and drinks, all meals were purchased. If you just want to see some cute pictures of our family, scroll down for a group of pictures
Here is our budget breakdown:
Hotel $240.72 The hotel also placed a hold on $100 for a security deposit but that was returned on Tuesday
Gas $120.00 This was 2 tanks of gas in the van. It is in addition to our regular monthly gas budget.
Food $400.00. Basically $100 a day. We came close to this everyday and the additional was spent for clothing.
Spending money $240. We used the majority of this for purchasing clothes and other small treats while shopping.
Total budget amount $1000 Total spent $1200- the additional money will be deducted from clothing and additional regular gas money not spent.
On our food budget we enjoyed pizza, ice cream, daily breakfast, PF Changs, Olive Garden and Cheeseburger in Paradise.
ICE Storm 2014
Yucky, nasty! Those are the two best words to describe the ice storm we experienced this past Friday, March 7th.
I actually headed in to work around 8am because I had decided I like to get paid for watching the nasty weather. However, God had different plans for me. I dodged several trees on Beck’s Church Road and even felt the back of my car slid a bit. At that time, the roads were covered with around an inch or so of ice. However, the thing that actually sent me home was when the police officer told me to turn around because of down electric lines in the road. On the white knuckle drive home of less than 4 miles, I watched several trees fall over, slide in the ice going up a hill and did a lot of praying.
Once at home, I decided a good cleaning day would be great especially with the business of the next two weeks. However again God’s plan are always better than mine. Our power went out around 9am, we are very fortunate that my parents that live less than a mile away still had electricity and in fact were part of the 4% of the county that never lost power. Matt and I packed an overnight bag, grabbed our electronic and dinner that was in the crock pot and headed over for a visit with the dog and kids in tow. The rest of Friday was spent watching television, surfing the internet and even a couple of games of Uno. The kids had a ball and I am betting my parents enjoyed the time as well. By Friday evening, the ice turned to rain! We received a total of over 3 inches of precipitation on Friday.
On Saturday we had a planned day of shopping in Winston. We left my parents house around 8:30 and returned home with Rugar (our dog) around 5pm that evening. We were really surprised at the amount of snow instead of ice that was received just 30 miles north of us. I plan to give more details of my deals in another post!
Our electricity was restored around 11 am on Saturday. We are so thankful and blessed. The temperature on Saturday rose to around 70* and the only evidence of the massive ice storm are the abundance of trees that are laying everywhere. We have no trees in our yard so we are among the few that don’t have clean up to complete this week.
Here are a couple of pictures…
![10009297_10153930968840083_1468916534_n[1]](https://i0.wp.com/www.teenstotsandeverythinginbetween.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/10009297_10153930968840083_1468916534_n1.jpg?w=191&h=254&ssl=1 "10009297_10153930968840083_1468916534_n[1]")
![1656199_10153930951970083_1129721321_n[1]](https://i0.wp.com/www.teenstotsandeverythinginbetween.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/1656199_10153930951970083_1129721321_n1.jpg?w=191&h=254&ssl=1 "1656199_10153930951970083_1129721321_n[1]")
![1977319_10153930764610083_1862771489_n[1]](https://i0.wp.com/www.teenstotsandeverythinginbetween.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/1977319_10153930764610083_1862771489_n1.jpg?w=190&h=254&ssl=1 "1977319_10153930764610083_1862771489_n[1]")
Random Thoughts Thursday
- It is sleeting outside again. I am seriously really really tired of cold and nasty. Matt even joked today about how cold and long this winter has been. I keep trying to remember that Spring is in 2 weeks. It really can not come fast enough for me!
- We had a significant bump up in income this month, Matt has gotten two additional web sites. This is awesome news but it also put some things in perspective as decided to list out all the “unbudgeted” expenses I can think off till the end of June. Not a happy picture but at least one that we can work on making better.
- Our septic system is going to have to be repaired this year. With the expense in addition to the ruining of the entire yard in the process, I am not looking forward to this at all.
- I am focusing on making ahead some breakfasts any chance I get. Today I was able to make 3 breakfast meal prior to my dentist appointment. This helps keep some thing from going to waste and makes my morning so much easier.
- My dentist appointment was not cheerful. I had a “significant” cavity filled and given a list of instruction to try and prevent the need for a root canal. I almost cried.
February Goal Update
This month brought a welcome 4.5 day break for me due to snow! Unfortunately, I seem to have some difficulty getting back into the swing to things. But time marches on so no use complaining. Here is the goal update for the month
Financial Goals–
1. Pay off lawn mower by March 2014 to avoid interest being charged. Goal MET! I am going to change this goal since it is nice to stay accountable. The new goal is to pay off all credit card debt by July. This will leave our only outstanding debt as a personal loan.
2. Emergency Fund to $2000. I could easily move this money and say goal met however in reality due to a expensive month heading my way, I honestly did not do this because I will be using extra money for March spending.
. 3. Groceries: Spend $600 a month- I spent $601 for groceries this month. I am going to count this as Goal MET! The goal for March will be $400 or less.
4. Gas: Spend $400 a month with any remaining to be move to Auto fund for repairs. $13.00 left in the budget for the month. I am rather pleased as we had a lot of travel this month and this also includes an oil change for the van.
Blogging: Goal: 15 per month This is post number 14! I am really happy with this as I have struggled the entire month to keep on track.
Weight: Goal to exercise 3x a week and to be down to 150 by December 2014. I am continuing to make progress with this. I did lose another 4# this month so GOALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL met!
Sunday Nite Chit Chat
My husband’s favorite new combo, coffee and snow cream!
I decided since I really needed another blog post, and I am caught up I would link up with Carla.
- Reading: Working on reading through the Bible in a Year and “John- the Beloved Disciple”.
- Listening to: Sound of my dishwasher running
- Watching: Planning on watch “Sister Wives” tonight. I have missed parts of the last 2 weeks so I can catch up tonight.
- Cooking/Baking: Banana Chocolate Chunk Muffins
- Happy you accomplished this week: Got clothes boxed up to ship off and some cleaning done during the snow days
- Looking forward to next week: A normal schedule with a light load at work due to my student for her last 2 weeks.
- Thankful for today: My family!
- Bonus Question: If you could have Carla make you anything what would it be? I would love a new wallet with lots of card slots and a 2 zippers.
SnowMageddon 2014
Lliy and Kendall sliding down!
The snowball somehow got “stuck” on the house. No one seems to know who was throwing them!
Kendall’s wild ride, she ended up hitting Matt’s leg as he was trying to stop her~ I love the way Lily and Zach are holding hands!
Zach is riding backwards!
A Space to Call My Own
This weekend the weather has been extremely cold. That was a good reason for me to stay inside. One of the things, I was able to accomplish was organize and cleaning up my desk. We (Matt and I ) did our yearly purge of paperwork.
My desk before….
After! I was able to purchase the words for $3.00 at an after Christmas sale.
Hopefully this will let me be more productive.
Cooking Day-Non Chicken 1/23/2014
Matt pointed out the other day that although we have lots of food to choice from we were running extremely low on quick and easy to prepare meals. So with a few minutes of discussion, we decided that today would be a “cooking day” I am quite pleased with the results.
First, early this morning, I placed the turkey that was purchased prior to Thanksgiving in the crockpot. I must say this is the best way to cook a turkey. I cooked it on high for 4 hours till the internal temperature was 160 then switched to low for another 3 until the temperature was 170*. I cook it breast down, rubbed with olive oil, and coated with Paula Deen seasoning. I did place one onion inside the cavity and added 1 cup of apple juice. We enjoyed turkey for dinner, I have plans to use the rest for at least 2 additional meals this weekend plus at least one or two meals of plain turkey. In addition to the meat, I have already frozen 16 cups of broth with plans to finish with at least another 20 cups today from the bones and skin. Total cost for the meat for 5 meals is $12.
Next, we purchased for the cost of processing some venison in November. We have not been able/ forgot to count the total amount of ground venison we received but we are thinking it was around 60#. Today we used 8# to make and freeze 2 cheeseburger quiches and 11 packs of Salisbury Steaks. Matt and I both worked in the kitchen for a total of 3 hours or less for these meals. The Salisbury Steaks will need to have a starch and vegetable add to complete. Total cost for 13 meals of meat is $6.
This was one of the easiest cooking days that I have done in a long time. In less than 4 hours and for less than $25 total, we have 18 meals for 5 people. That works out to $1.38 a meal. This should go a long way to helping reduce our grocery spending for the first part of the year!