August was an extremely busy month filled with both fun and tears. We started the month off by pulling a Uhaul trailer to Florida with most of Lily’s furniture to get her settled in her new apartment. Then E, Braxton and I spent almost two weeks at Disney. Matt flew in and out but did get to spend a good week at Disney. Next up was Haley’s pinning ceremony that had most of the crew together! I started back to work full time, Kendall and Zach started college. We have not struggled as much as I anticipated with all the changes in routine! I have even caught up with most of my list for before school starts. This fall we have lots of football games to enjoy, several birthdays to celebrate as well! I hope to get things back on track with regular post on the blog as well as some serious debt repayment and of course a new budget to start next year. I typically do a budget review/revise in June but this year is different. So I am honestly looking ahead and trying to really set our sights on starting 2027 off strong with both a realistic budget and debt reduction plan. This means that I am going to be making more post about budget and money over the next few months as I focus on planning!
Groceries- Goal $800 per month. We spent $536 for the month of August. My goal for the next two months is to significantly reduce our spending to less than $300 a month. I am hopeful to reduce this overall budget to $500 starting in January however I am not quite sure this is realistic. We have a significant amount of food in our freezers and pantry so I am hopeful to really stretch us this fall.
Gas- Goal is $400. Total spent was $690 for gas this month. This amount does not include the trip to Florida. I am not sure what the gas spending will be as I am adding about 30 miles or more a day with after school care for E. The price of gas continues to jump so this may be an area to reconsider in January as well.
Blogging-The goal will be 15 posts per month. This is post 10 for me. Considering that I was out of town for half the month this is a significant improvement and win for me!
Debit- The goal for 2026 will be to pay off the Home Depot Credit card without interest. Finances are always a difficult subject to be completely open and honest about. At this point, I don’t see us making the big second payment on the Home Depot card. Which means we will be hit with a significant amount of interest to tackle. God can provide so I have been praying. But regardless of his answer, we have to re adjust the budget. I am hopeful to use the remaining months of 2026 to get us on a solid financial track with planning for saving and debt repayment at the front! On the positive side a increase in income is coming and we should pay off the Tahoe in January!
No Spend Days- Goal for 10 no spend days a month. Time to make this a focus as well as get some accountability.
Health/Exercise-I am currently down an additional 10 pounds over the summer. I guess walking an average of 5 miles a day at Disney does count as exercise. We have purchased a walking pad for the house so I have no excuse to not try and exercise at least 1 time a week for now.
Foster Care- Our next court date is set for October 20th. We were notified that the official permanency plan is guardianship/reunification. This is a huge first step! We were also told that the official reason for this was to encourage both parents to begin working on their plan. I am going to try and keep my feelings and thoughts out of this section. As I want it to be a place I can find date and official things easily.
Very little progress has been made on my Summer goal list since I started back to work so this is a final update.
1. Make and order 8 photo books. We have received 2 books. I did print out 25 pictures to make E a Disney book.
2. Read a total of 8 books. I have finished five books this summer!
3. Make and freeze 12 baked ziti’s- Goal Met! July 2026
4. Make and freeze 6 million dollar spaghetti pies Goal met! August
5. Make and freeze 6 pans of chicken enchiladas. Goal met 6/19/2026.
6. Either walk or exercise 3 times a week for at least 8 weeks. This goal was not met but I lost 10 lbs so something moved!
7. Make and freeze 6 taco pastas. goal met 6/19/2026
8. Make and freeze 6 chicken, broccoli rice casseroles. 6/19/2026
9. Make at least 50 meatballs and freeze. I did not get around to the meatball however I currently have 78 prepared meals in the freezer or canning pantry in addition to the 10 jars of spaghetti sauce that is canned!
Overall I was able to achieve the summer goals related to food but not my personal self care goals. Who is surprised?
I wanted to add something that E and I are doing in the mornings and I was not sure where to add so this is the spot. We have 30 verse that have been laminated. We are going to read a verse each morning! We are hoping to follow this with a prayer. So far this does help us change our moods and I want to keep this habit up!