Been a crazy busy week so I am going to make this a short and simple post. We took advantage of “Talk like a Pirate Day” at our local Donut Store “Krispy Kreme”. We were able to snap 4 dozen donuts for free. We dressed like a pirate and each received a dozen donuts.
This summer has been full of fun! I really enjoyed some nice long days at the pool in addition to our week of vacation at the beach. However, I have not been as on top of budgeting as I like to be. Our Disney trip is less than 3 months away, so my goal is to tight up the budget and get up ready to enjoy Disney. Keeping that in mind, I have decided to make September a “low spend/ no spend.” month. I really want to make September, October and November all low spend/no spend months but I am going to focus on one month at a time! I know that I can make a goal but if I don’t include some action steps in addition to adding accountability then I am going to fails. I am going to list my plans/goals for September, with weekly or biweekly updates as I can.
1. Reduce Grocery spending to $300 for the month. I am going to purchase 80 pounds of chicken from Zaycon and pull out $150 in cash to put in the grocery envelope. Cash for me is harder to over spend so this should keep me on track.
2. When I looked at my September budget, I have 4 categories that are not completely funded for the month so the remaining $400 of the normal grocery budget will be used to completely fund the budget.
3 Plan to purchase both Lily and Amanda birthday cards. This will allow me to direct our gift money for October, November and December to Christmas. I have already decided that Christmas will be smaller than normal after our trip so I am estimating I need $400 to cover gifts for the kids.
4. Pay at least $375 toward our Disney trip to maximize Disney points prior to November. My goal is to pay for the Bibbidi, Bobbidi Boutique with Disney points only. I have already earned enough to cover one of the girls so well on the way. We are expecting Matt to bring in around $350 in new income from his web business, so I only need to find $25 more.
5. Maintain Gas budget at or below $400. Matt has identified several “maintenance/ repairs” that need to be completed on his van. My goal is to wait till the end of the month to complete to make sure we stay I budget.
6. Reduce/Eliminate Eating out for the month of September. Zach’s birthday is Tuesday September 1st so he has already chosen to eat at a local pizza buffet. Other than this meal, no eating out! I will have to be very deliberate with especially Sunday lunches but we have been spending over $300 a month on eating out and that is a huge amount.
I am hoping to have a yard sale of some form or fashion at the end of the month as well. This may help boost our Disney Payments.
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!
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
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.
4. Pajama’s and bathing suits make up the majority of our clothing choices.
5. Daily shell hunting, count as exercise and are much more fun than using a treadmill.
6. Sleeping late, still means 7am but watching the sun rise over the ocean makes it seem ok.
7. Pink hats are not only fashionable but make spotting kids in the ocean much easier.
8. Castle building is cooperative effort that can take all day.
9. Game nights involves food and lots of friends.
10. Blog writing is fun and easy because I have lots of pictures to choose from.
Yesterday was officially my 43 birthday. I was very fortunate to celebrate with my family and friends at Myrtle Beach. We spent most of the day enjoying the sand and ocean waves.
Next we showered and headed out to dinner to one of my favorite resturants, PF Changs
On the way home we stopped at Krispy Kreme . I don’t think that I could have added anything to make it better.
Just for the record, this is the first and probably one post that contains two pictures of me, one of which is in a swim suit.