2017

Posted on August 4, 2017 by Sheila

I have definitely been blessed this week and want to share some of them with you!

On Sunday, the girls received 3 full bags of clothes. Both girls tried on clothes for over an hour! Kendall will now have a back to school outfit with no money out of pocket.
Lily has had several episodes this summer of what we thought was pink eye, after a recent check up and call to her eye doctor. It is definitely not pink eye but allergies. The eye office called us in a new “cheaper” prescription and also sent a coupon card with it. After a week of calls, today the pharmacy called and we received a refund. The new eye drops are $10 a month for 12 months a saving of $50 a month.
I was able to purchase Zach a pair of tennis shoes and dress shoes for $10, He actually likes them both. This saved at least $50
I received 2 HUGE boxes of cereal today for free!
My vacation started this evening!

Wordless Wednesday- Baseball

Posted on August 2, 2017 by Sheila

Wordless Wednesday 7/26/2017 Summer Fun

Posted on July 26, 2017 by Sheila

Saving on Saturday 7/15/2017

Posted on July 15, 2017 by Sheila

I am sitting in a really quiet house, except for the occasional dog bark, it should stay this way for at least the next twelve hours or so. Lily left this morning for a missions trip to Mami Florida, she will not be returning until next Sunday. This afternoon, Amanda, Haley, Lily and Zach left to camp overnight and play at Sliding Rock NC. We do have an Amanda dog but that is really not a big deal. In the past, we would have taken advantage of the kidless night to go out for dinner most likely a very expensive dinner just because it was two of us instead of five. But not tonight!! We have definitely tighten the budget this month as we enjoyed Michigan in June and have plans for Myrtle Beach in August and Disney in November.

Tonight, Matt and I saved money by eating at home. Our menu was T-bone steaks (from freezer), baked sweet potatoes (last year’s) and a strawberry cheesecake. I made the cheesecake in my new Instapot that Amanda bought me for my birthday. We even chilled a bottle of wine from the wine rack to make the meal complete. The meal cost us zero out of pocket and was honestly one of the best I have eaten in a while.

Fog on Mackinaw Island

Posted on June 28, 2017 by Sheila

Wordless Wednesday

Posted on June 21, 2017 by Sheila

Kendall was the only one who wanted her face painted

Bounce House Fun

Horse Riding

5 Things Friday

Posted on June 16, 2017 by Sheila

Today is one of my “extra” paychecks. I budget for 2 paychecks a month so on the 2 months a year that I receive 3 paychecks it allows a little bit of wiggle room. This time the majority of the check is going to travel. We are headed on two major week long trips this summer.
Our garden is starting to produce. We are enjoying squash, zucchini, cucumbers and peppers. I have also harvest and frozen basil and oregano. I have been disappointed so far with the cucumbers but there is still hope. I am most excited about the watermelon. We already have one that is soft ball size with lots of blooms and other small one starting to form.
The first week out of school has been just as crazy busy as the weeks before school ended. Monday night was swim team practice. Tuesday night was suppose to be Swim Meet but a storm cancelled that so we headed to Costco. Wednesday night- I got confused and we ended up relaxing at the pool for an hour. Thursday- make up swim meet. Friday- yard work.
We recently lost a close friend who was the spouse of our piano teacher. The girls got a 5 week break from lessons but I am thankful they resume this week. Zach will be attending a reading camp in July so as you can see we are staying busy.
Extra earning this month have been awesome. The current goal is to purchase Zachary’s birthday present with these earns in addition to adding to our Disney fund.

5 Things Friday

Posted on June 2, 2017 by Sheila

June is a very promising month with lots of fun planned. The little kids are all on the swim team. We will participate in swim meets on Tuesday afternoons starting the second week in June.
June is also a three paycheck month for me. I get two of these a year. Because I base my budget on two paychecks a month this become extra money. This extra money will be used to help fund our beach trip and other travel plans for the summer.
We will be traveling to Michigan this month with plans to spend a couple of days on Mackinac Island. I really enjoy this trip with Amanda, Haley and Lily (at 9 months) and look forward for the younger guys to experience something totally new and different. Other plans include time spent with Matt’s family and of course Bronner’s.
The Square Foot Garden is slowly starting to produce. This week I was able to harvest snap peas and squash. I am trying something new and “pre-breading” squash for frying. I would like to have 12 packets of frying squash and 12 packs of squash casserole for the freezer.
Matt discovered a major leak in our main water line late last night. We will be repairing it ourselves not so much fun but necessary.

Saturday Savings /Square Foot Gardening

Posted on May 13, 2017 by Sheila

Today was a really exciting day for me… we harvest our first items from our garden, broccoli!

They don’t look very large but they make excellent Mickey ears and we harvest two of our four plants. Just two gave us enough for 2 meals.

I stockpile for a couple of different reasons, first is savings, second is convenience and third is nutritional. Today, we used up our loaf of sour dough bread that I made on Thursday so I decided to make another batch. I have been putting dates on the items I buy in bulk to determine if I really am saving money. I used the last 6 cups of bread flour that was purchased in March 2016. The savings is broken down this way, $15 for a 25 pound bag which lasted fourteen months. That is $1 a month for not only bread but also pizza dough. Even if the cost of the other ingredients is $1 a week, I am still saving at least $5 a month on bread by making our own.

Today was also the day that we chose to go strawberry picking this year. The kids LOVE this and it actually saves us $3 a gallon to pick our own. We have enjoyed lots and lots of strawberries today in addition to make strawberry jam that will be enjoyed for the next year. We also have frozen a gallon for use in smoothies.