Lily’s School

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I posted the first of August about our choice for school for Lily. I have been asked several times about our experiences and my plan is to share once a month on this subject. Lily is currently attending the North Carolina Virtual Academy which is part of the K12 program. Currently, we are three weeks into this adventure and overall it has been a very positive experience, in addition, Lily now answer positively when asked about her school.

First is the question about her school day. Lily has been given the freedom to sleep later on school mornings. Depending on the morning she has been sleeping til 8am but other days she is up before I leave around 7:30am.  Lily has a language arts class connect most morning from 8:30am to 9:30am.  On average she has three of these class connect sessions a day each in a different subject, these are sessions that need to be viewed. Lily likes to attend the actual class on most days but she has been able to watch at a later time on the days that we have other things going on. Our understanding is that she will need 90 hours of documented PE/Health by the end of the school year. We are using her cheerleading twice a week in addition to cooking a recipe once a week to cover this time. Lily is finished with all her school work by noon on most days. At first, she was having some problems with the idea of reading carefully during assignments. This was her biggest area of frustration. After identifying this problem, she and Matt are working toward improvement.

I have to be honest and say that we have experienced a little more problems than I anticipated during the first couple of weeks but no school is perfect, as things become more predictable for us our frustrations are decreasing.  Our first problem was the way, the first week of school was organized. Orientation did not occur until Tuesday so Monday was a kinda of find your way in the dark. This was also a difficulty day, the virtual academy started a full week before our public school so that she was doing work while Zach and Kendall were playing and still enjoying summer.  Next, is the fact that the computer listing of assignments is not consistent with the work that the teachers are requesting/presenting. It is frustrating to have to look at three different papers to make sure what you are doing is the correct lesson for the day.  Lily is very self motivated but she had some difficulty with a couple of session because of not reading correctly. I am very happy that she has been forced to slow down and read assignments before just clicking through but I can understand her frustration.  Our final area of frustration is the biggest, one of the reason we chose this route for Lily was the ability to work at her own pace, we have not seen this or simply don’t understand the process she needs to complete. Lily was able to complete all her assignments in less than 2 hours on Thursday but when I asked her about working ahead she said that she only had a list of this weeks lessons.   I hope that in the near future this aspect of the virtual academy become more understandable.

 

Saving on Saturday-9/03/2016

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Just for the record, I have 3 or 4 post that I have planned in my head and just no time to get posted. I am going to have to work on a better schedule for the next month if I have any hope of meeting my goal of 20 post. Now on to the regularly scheduled topic… saving.

This week, I have been saving and using gift cards to keep our budget low. If I purchase a gift card that is one thing but these cards are free from either swagbucks or MPlaces.

Thursday- I used my McDonald’s app to purchase Matt, Lily and myself breakfast for a grand total of $4.70. Total saved $10.00
Next Matt stopped at Starbuck’s to grab he and Lily a treat. He used a gift card earned from Swagbucks to pay so no out of pocket. Total saved $8.50
We picked up donuts to take to Zach’s class at school for his birthday. I purchased a BOGO card several years ago and continue to reap the benefits. Total saved $8.35.
I was disappointed that my Disney gift card order at Target was cancelled but decided to use the money to purchase some K-cups. I was able to purchase 4 16 packs and a container of pumpkin pie spice for zero out of pocket. The best part was I received free shipping and an additional 5% off because I have my target card store. Total Saved $53.
Total saving for Thursday: $80

Of course, it is Labor Day weekend so we had to go to Lowes. Last week, we grabbed a $10 Lowes card and a $5 Lowes card from MPLACES. We purchased bug spray, mums, pavers for the garden and light bulbs. I was able to use the cards with no trouble. One was actually on my phone and the second was a printed one. Total saved $15.

I did some planning ahead for this weekend, we have enjoyed three meals at home today, in addition to work outside the entire day. I am very tempted when we get busy to grab some fast food or order a pizza, so this is a true victory. I am going to say we saved $10 on pizza that we made at home instead using Sour Dough bread, spaghetti sauce, cheese and pepperoni.

Aldi is a great place to shop for groceries and their price in our area are significantly lower than the other stores. I sent Matt to pick up a dozen eggs on Friday. They were on sale for $0.79 a dozen so he grabbed the last 4 dozen available. Total saved $3.00

Our biggest and final saving of today is on clothing. My sister in law called and offered hand me downs for the girls. I am excited to spend a couple of hours see what we were given.

I think this is probably one of  my biggest weeks of saving so far!

5 Things Friday

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  1. Kendall got her first real injury this week on Wednesday. She was hit by a baseball bat. The result lots of blood and plastic stitches. Unfortunately this means that we will not be making a trip to the water park because she is suppose to keep them dry till Saturday and then the doctor specifically said no.
  2. Zach and Kendall both enjoyed their first full week of school. They both were excited to have homework a couple of nights this week. I hope this continues.
  3. We have declared September as a low spend/no spend month with the hopes of getting our budget back on track.
  4. Matt and I both purchased new iPhone and after several weeks of frustration I *think* everything is set. I really like the size of mine because I can read the screen easily.
  5. The weather is beginning to cool down here so. By the middle of September I hope to be able to open the windows and turn off the air.

August in Review

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Personal-
1. Blogging– Post 20 per month. Fail. This is post number 17. I feel much better about my blogging this month. I am trying to be consistent. I knew this would be a stretch to begin with so I am proud of my progress even if I did not meet my goal.

2.Weight Loss– 175#. Fail but a positive fail as it is once again moving in the right direction after vacation.

3. Spiritual– Spend at least 5 days a week, reading and studying The Bible. Nope. I am most upset about not working harder on this goal. I am going to make this my most important goal.

Personal goals are a failure for the third month straight. However, I am going to give myself a break, I dealt with a lot of stress this summer and decided to focus on my kids and making memories so how can that be a fail.

Financial- 

1. Set aside money each month in every budget category. Fail

2. Establish and maintain Emergency Fund- Fail.
3. Groceries: Goal is for $550. Fail . We spent $615 in Groceries this month. I reduced the goal from $700 in June and have been over the past 3 months so that tells me that I may have been premature in reducing the budget but will wait till December to make any other changes.

4. Gas: Spend $300 a month- Goal Met! We spent $263 this month including  our gas for our trip. The next couple of months will be expensive with oil changes and renewal of tags but I hope to spread out over a couple of months instead of just one month.

5. Pay off all Credit Card debit by December 2016- Fail. I am meeting bare minimal payments on everything but really was hoping to begin to get control and reduce this number.

Overall, August was a better month for us but we still need to work on getting our spending under control. I am planning on a very low spending month in September!

Saving on Saturday 8/27

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This week has been back to normal for us. We also are really trying to control spending and focus on saving. First this weekend, we have been taking stock of what foods we have in our pantry and freezer. I am very pleasantly surprised to say that we are very well stocked with food and not over our grocery budget this month either. I ended up making a meal plan for the month. We are going to have a different meal each weekday with no repeats. I leave the weekends open and we can have something that sounds good or try a new dish if we want. I also went to Food Lion this morning to pick up some lettuce and a couple of other items. My total out of pocket was 59 cent because I used the gift cards that we earned several weeks ago that I talked about.

My bigger saving is on sports equipment. ALWAYS check on line and ask around before buying new sports equipment!  Zach has decided to play baseball this fall and after asking around I was able to purchase most of the equipment he needs for less than the price of a new pair of shoes!

How did you save this month?

5 Things Friday 8/26/2016

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  1. Today is the last weekday before Zach and Kendall start school.
  2. Lily has been “attending” school all week at North Carolina Virtual Academy. I have had several people ask me how it is going.  I want to wait until next week to give everyone a change to adjust before honestly answering. I will say I see it as very positive given the fact it is a totally new experience and we are still all learning.
  3. Meet the Teacher was on Thursday night. I am extremely pleased with Kendall’s teacher. She is a third grader and this is the first year of EOG testing. Kendall is very much a people pleaser and follower so a nice calm steady teacher is exactly what she needs! Zach is excited because he has a teacher that NONE of his siblings have had. I know this is a big deal when you are the youngest of 5.
  4. Zach has decided to play baseball this fall instead of soccer. I am admittedly nervous about this.
  5. Matt and Zach have gone 2 months this summer without hair cuts. This is a extremely long time for them as usually at 4 weeks they are complaining. Zach has a blonde streak that he decided he wanted to keep! Check it out.

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More Beach Fun

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We had an awesome vacation and I want to share some more pictures. The weather on Saturday was rainy and humid. The tide clocks are changing due to the full moon. So high tide was not expected until 9;40 am. After checking out these two things we decided to go play putt putt. Putt-Putt is one of the things that we have been talking about doing for over a year and the timing never seems to work out. Most of us had a great time.  We did stop at Sonic that was next door to the course at 10:55 am and purchased 99 cent drinks for us! Here are the pictures.

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Can anyone guess who did not like Putt-Putt? For the record Matt scored the best.

Beach Edition- Saving on Saturday

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We have enjoyed the last week as a vacation which included lots of fun but also a budget. Today, I am going to share some of the ways that we are able to enjoy this week without breaking the bank.

1. Schedule- I am very fortunate that my employer has a condo located ocean front that is available to employees only at a great rate. In addition, the price drops almost by half beginning in August. In order to take advantage of this price, I call the first buisness day of January. A deposit of half is due within two weeks.  On the budget side, I usually recieve an extra (not budget) check in both December and July. I automatically use this to cover cost.

2.  Food-  Part of me enjoying our vacation is not spending a lot of time in the kitchen.  An average meal out for just 5 of us is $50 times 3 meals a day times 7 days equals $1050, which is three hundred more than our regular grocery budget for a month. So we have found a happy medium, which includes some eating out and more eating in.  I purchased snack food ahead of time but this is also a week in which you get to eat much more junk food and individual servings than any other time. This week our menu has looked like this. Breakfast- 2 meals out, Jimmy Dean Breakfast Crosiant x 2, cereal x 1, gravy  and biscuits (both frozen) and poptarts. Lunch- Lunchables- this usually go on sale the first of August for $1 each. Matt and I have sandwhiches supplies and pasta salads. Dinner- Baked Ziti (frozen), Pasta Salads (prepared on Saturday morning), Nachos (frozen taco rice), Chicken and broccoli casserole (frozen) Seafood (resturant ), Special Dinner (Privates Voyage- Amanda paid a large part). Leftovers or pizza.  This year we decided to try a variety of ice cream shops, one each day actually which totaled around $120.

3. Stuff- We stay in a condo so we must bring or buy all supplies. This year, we are using Disney shampoo and soaps from our trip in December. I also have collect other items from our travels such as dishwashing soaps and single serving coffee packages. I bring fast food packet for ketchup, mayonnaise and mustard. I am usually pretty brand specific for toliet paper, paper towels and laundry detergent, not for this trip. I use ECB especially on Black Friday, to purchase the cheapest possible and store for this trip.  Paper products are another way we save money, any left over plates and napkins no matter the occasion are placed in a bag and we use for this trip.

One advantage to the condo is that it has a washer and dryer. I make sure that everything we bring leaves clean. This way we have truly saved a week of electricity. We did leave on our a/c but set the temperature at 85.

Do you have a suggestion for saving money on vacation that I have missed.