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.\u00a0 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!\u00a0 \u00a0I 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.\u00a0 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!<\/p>\n
Groceries- Goal $800 per month.\u00a0 We spent $536\u00a0 for the month of August. My goal for the next two months is to significantly reduce our spending to less than $300 a month.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n
Gas- Goal is $400.\u00a0 Total spent was $690 for gas\u00a0 this month. This amount does not include the trip to Florida.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n
Blogging-The goal will be 15 posts per month.\u00a0 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!<\/p>\n
Debit-\u00a0 \u00a0The 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!<\/p>\n
No Spend Days- Goal for 10 no spend days a month. Time to make this a focus as well as get some accountability.<\/p>\n
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.
\nFoster Care-\u00a0 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!\u00a0 We were also told that the official reason for this was to encourage both parents to begin working on their plan.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n
Very little progress has been made on my Summer goal list since I started back to work so this is a final update.<\/p>\n
1. Make and order 8 photo books.\u00a0We have received 2 books. I did print out 25 pictures to make E a Disney book. Overall I was able to achieve the summer goals related to food but not my personal self care goals.\u00a0 Who is surprised?<\/p>\n 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!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 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 … Continue reading
\n<\/em>2.\u00a0 Read a total of 8 books.\u00a0I have finished five books this summer!
\n<\/em>3. Make and freeze 12 baked ziti\u2019s- Goal Met! July 2026
\n4. Make and freeze 6 million dollar spaghetti pies\u00a0\u00a0Goal met! August\u00a0<\/i>
\n5. Make and freeze 6 pans of chicken enchiladas.\u00a0Goal met 6\/19\/2026.
\n<\/em>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!
\n7. Make and freeze 6 taco pastas.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0goal met 6\/19\/2026
\n<\/em>8. Make and freeze 6 chicken, broccoli rice casseroles.\u00a06\/19\/2026
\n<\/em>9. Make at least 50 meatballs and freeze.\u00a0 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!<\/p>\n