5 Friday Facts

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  1.  I am super excited because today, I received our electric bill for the month of October. It is $146.70!!!!!!!!!!!!! This is the lowest our electric bill has EVER been!  It is actually $120 lower than our September bill.  We have been without heat and air for all of the month so I was expecting it to me lower but this just blows me away!  One interesting fact and the only difference from previous year is that in September we had our meter replaced. It now reports directly to the Energy company instead of being read by a person.
  2.  We are continue to enjoy our new “Alexa” purchases.  I am actually hopefully to start changing over several different items to make it more convenient. Zach has even gone so far as to request a echo dot for Christmas.
  3. The weather is continuing on the mild side with temperatures in the 70 and close to 80.  I am enjoying this which allows us to continue to use less electricity. My current goal is to not use heat or air until November. Another benefit of the weather is that we are still getting tomato, pimentos  and green peppers from our garden.
  4. We ended up purchasing a pressure washer last weekend and Matt has been able to clean both the drive way and the siding. We also have finished our entry way remodel. I am planning to share pictures tomorrow.
  5. I had debated making this is  own post but decided it was not long enough.  Next week is looking to be our busiest week of the fall season.  Monday- I am scheduled to work at least one extra hour but I am going to plan on 2 or more additional hours. Kendall starts cheerleading try outs that end at 5pm and Zach has a baseball game at 7:30. Tuesday- Kendall has cheerleading tryouts and Zach has a ball game at 7:30. Wednesday- Ball game at 7:30 which means no youth or kids club.  I am also scheduled to work for 2.5 hours. Thursday-piano at 4. I am scheduled to work at least 3.5 hours.  Which brings us to Friday……..YIKES!

Recipe Challenge #55

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I am actually back to have fun with this recipe challenge now that it is complete.  Last weekend I found a couple of new recipes that I plan to try.  This one turned out to be a hit.  This was found on Facebook.  When I googled it, I found several different sites to give credit to so instead here is the recipe. Lily actually put it all together and we are eating left-overs because it was so good.

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Perfect Corn Casserole

Ingredients:
1 box Jiffy cornbread mix
1 can cream corn
1 can whole kernel corn drained
2 eggs
1 stick butter melted
1 Cup Sour cream
Instructions:
Mix all together in casserole adding the sour cream last.
Bake in 350 oven for 45 minutes.
The official count is
Repeating 29
Maybe 8
No 18

5 Things Friday

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  1. I am full and over the top full in Guam.  I am currently serving 15 schools in Guam and attempting to attend all OT related IEP meetings. What this means is 10-12 hours a week currently.  I have been told that i should be able to reduce my hours by January. I am waiting to decide if this is something I want to do or just continue at the rate I am at.  Currently, I am able to handle most of it but my leisure time and blog posting will be very limited for the next month.
  2. Lily, Kendall and Zach are spending the weekend in Durham with Haley. This is the first time in YEARS that Matt and i have had a free weekend.  Last night we went on a date to Applebee’s  Today we are going to attempt to update the front door.
  3. We are definitively in Fall.  My goal is to go without heat until November 1st.  Our October electric bill was significantly higher than usual due to the summer heat lasting well in September. So far so good as the house is currently sitting at 70 and the outside temperature is 47.
  4. I did a fair amount of shopping on Amazon prime day. Since we are updating our front door including a new keyless entry, we decided to go ahead and start moving toward a smart home. I purchased several echo dots which came with a couple of smart plugs and smart light bulbs and  2 echo flexs (one in my office and one in the kitchen). So far we are enjoying the novelty of them. I also purchased several Christmas gifts and cheap ear buds.
  5. Our December trip will include Braxton, Haley, her boyfriend David and his kids!  We are currently at 60 days!

Recipe Challenge #54

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Kendall has decided that she likes baking and wants to do more of it. Last week, she made cupcakes from a  box and brownies from an older recipe.  I found this recipe for Paula Deen Pumpkin Bars on another blog and decided we needed to try!

This is definitely a recipe that takes some time and effort. I did help a little with lifting and pouring and smoothing but not enough to take any of the credit. These pumpkin bars turned out perfect. I actually preferred just frosted and a slight bit warm but everyone else said they preferred the total cool set for a day version.

The official count is
Repeating 28
Maybe 8
No 18

Saving On Saturday

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Today we focused on using what we had.  Kendall has been spending ALOT of time in her room lately. Literally staring at the walls. She decided this week she wanted to remove a couple of shelves and make it more decorative. Here is the before picture

Matt was able to cut out the round holders for her “Minnie Ears” using a drill bit that was purchased to help place lights in the ceiling. The wood was from some plywood, he salvaged from cleaning out my Dad’s shed several years ago. The current debate is to paint the circles white or black. I will update once this is finished.

Of course we re-purposed the shelf to use in the kitchen.

Another huge saving today is by re-using a device instead of purchasing a new one. This will take a little explaining but hold on. Zach is currently using the family phone. It is a Iphone 6 plus and the battery life is bad like less than 2 hours.  When we flew to Disney in August, he used the iPad to watch movies and play games on the plane.  Braxton is going with us in December and we have been trying to work out what device both he and Zach could use for entertainment. I have been looking at just replacing Zach’s phone.  But today, I spotted Lily’s old IPad mini.  It is probably close to 10 years old.  We ended up charging it cleaning off everything that we could and loaded around 10 toddler appropriate games for Braxton to use. We are working on figuring out how we could download at least one movie for him to watch. This device is so old that Disney plus nor Amazon prime will run on it.  We are looking into an Itunes gift card that would be the easiest way and cost less than $25 vs $1000 for a new phone.

So today has been a really good saving day!

September in Review

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September was interesting to say the least. I did make one huge adjustment this month. We are now using budgets more strictly and I have being very diligent about extra money. My goal is to save the $896 for our remaining Disney tickets in December from extra money or from saving money. This means that I also much cover any overages.  So far we have $200 toward our goal.

Gardening- We ended up digging up the sweet potatoes this week and probably have around 25 pounds which should last us through the winter. We are still getting a few tomatoes and green peppers. Pimentos are still producing strongly. I am planning to start some lettuce and celery to see if we can supplement some food for the winter.

Goal #1 Grocery Budget of $550- The total for the month is $501.  I did also make a huge grocery trip to Costco this week but will move that $450 out of the October budget.  We are completely stocked up and I anticipate both November and December being lower spend months in order to bring down our yearly total and monthly average

Goal #2 – Record and keep up with gas/ auto purchase- $642.18  We had to replace the windshield in the van a second time this year, which pushed out monthly total way up.  I am going to anticipate around $300 for gas in the month of October.

Goal #3-Use a cash envelope system for everything possible!. This is a struggle but has become even more important as we attempt to save ticket money.  We managed 6 no spend days this month. I am going to plan on 10 next month as our needs should be much less!

Goal #4- Blogging- 15 post per month. This is post number 15 for the month! This is thanks to Disney pictures!

Goal # 5- Fitness- Goal is to walk 3 times a week. ummm no comment

Goal #6 – Bible study- Goal- 3x a week –Yikes!

Goal #7-Attempt at least 52 new recipes this year.-  We have met this goal! I am very happy and plan to just focus on what we know for October.

Earnings_ $50. Swagbucks are really really limiting our earning so I don’t anticipate this to improve significantly before the end of the year.

October is a long month with no real breaks. I am ready so bring it on!

5 Things Friday

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  1. My COVID test came back negative. This has been so stressful.  One thing that has really bothered me is the fact that we have mandated mask yet when completing contact tracing and talking about exposure, Mask DONT matter. Yeap the question is “Who have you been in closer than 6 feet contact with, with or without a mask?”
  2. Lily made another new recipe today #53 Chicken Florentine Mac and Cheese. We had to make several changes to it because we could not find the specific cheese she used but it was good!  Even Matt who does not like mac and cheese cleaned his plate.
  3. The weather has continued to be fall like which means a HUGE saving on our electric bill. If we can last a month without heat or air, it will reduce our electric bill by $100!  That is the current goal.
  4. I have focused this month on sticking to a budget and moving all excess money to our Disney Ticket fund. We need approximately  $600 to finish purchasing tickets.  My goal is to use all found money for this. Which means that if I forget to budget something like say the Amazon Prime membership. I either have to take money out of it or find it in other places.  Currently I am also trying to cover our second windshield of the year. As of today, we have $200 or 1/3 of what we need for ticket in the fund.  Which means if I can do the same we will be able to purchase these without using my Guam money! Even better both of these expenses have been covered. We are eating out less and purchasing less groceries. The fact that I am not driving to work for two weeks is also helping lower expenses.
  5. The square foot garden is hanging on. This week I have harvested green peppers, a orange pepper, pimentos and tomatoes.  I  can tell we are close to the end of the season as the tomatoes are small but still every little bit helps. I am also noticing that my sweet potato plants are starting to die out. My plan is to wait at least another week before digging them up!

Menu Planning Monday

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How quickly things change and how quickly we all have to learn to adapt. This weekend I was in quarantine waiting on the results from my COVID testing.  It turned out to be a much slower pace weekend and I actually felt like I was able to get things around the house caught up.  The good news is that I received my negative results back today but can’t return to work until October 1st. I am working from home so that is yet another positive. So your question is how does this effect meal planning?  I don’t have to plan my lunches as I am home!  I also gain around an hour each day by not driving to and from work.  The hour is much needed as I am working 4 nights in Guam and we have a baseball game!  We are starting to add some variety from the freezer so everything is actually working out on the positive side! Another positive we have managed to stay ahead of the left-overs with little to no food waste!

Breakfast– Saturday-Biscuits with your choice Sunday- Peanut butter and chocolate oatmeal  Monday- homemade bagels (this is a new and simple recipe that will be repeated!) Tuesday,  Wednesday, Thursday, Friday-choice of breakfast muffins, eggs, sausage, oatmeal, cereal or grits, breakfast burritos, bagels or omelets, French toast

Lunch-  Saturday– Sandwiches or left-overs Sunday-Lunch Soup Sunday has returned with Ham Bone Soup

Dinner-  Saturday- Keilbsa and potato soup Sunday-homemade bagels and left-overs  Monday- Salisbury Steak, rice, broccoli and applesauce Tuesday-Chicken sandwhiches and sweet potato fries Wednesday- Cheese quesadilla and Mexican rice  Thursday- Spaghetti pie and garlic bread .  Friday- Lily is cooking Chicken Florentina Mac and Cheese.