Voluntary Poverty

2012 Budget

2011-12-23T16:28:00.001-05:00

First, I should say that I am 8K 5180.09 SHORT on my budget this year. But based on last years sales, if I cool it on supplies and inventory, I should make that easy this year with my hair pretties. I am in the hole right now, about $2700 on supplies so I will pay that back first before I put extra hair bow money into the regular budget.

I now have a mortgage on the house we are in. I did some rearranging of cash and that bit me in the butt when the market crashed. But I am not going to worry about it until I hit 40. Who knows what will happen by then!

I am also buying a car sometime next year. I am just going to have to break down and do it. My current car is 12 years old and is wearing out everywhere so quickly.

Please note, in no way is this budget frugal at all. At this point, my mad dog frugal budgeting skills are missing. I haven't seen them all year! I do hope to trim some expenses and I will note those.

Flexible Expenses

Groceries 2000 - this is an increase over last year. Everything has gone up!
Gas 1025 - Natalie's school is 15 minutes away. This has caused an increase in our gas usage.
Natalie's Clothes 400 - I am not going to need this much. But this does include shoes and boy are kid shoes expensive! I have some pairs set aside but I know I will need 1 pair of white church leather sandals and a pair of size 11.5 (or was it 12?) tennis shoes. I have 4 rubbermaid totes of clothes I have bought for $1 at the local consignment store. Great brands like Gap & Gymbo. I have to pull it all out and see what is needed to complete outfits. I am really looking forward to the end of Jan clearance sales for winter clothes for next year!
My Clothes 300 - my stuff is looking really rough. This is 3 pairs of jeans, 3 capris, some tshirts and a couple of hoodies. And a pair of shoes. Girl clothes are expensive too! I will be on the hunt for stuff for me at consignment too.
Natalie's Birthday 100 - Her birthday is actually part of a vacation I have planned. And truthfully I am not sure she will get much of anything else. I am planning on one toy, them my BF and her BFF will give a gift on the trip. I might get her a giftcard where she can pick out a second item. This money will also need to cover a cake/cupcakes on site.
Other Birthdays 150 - BF, Mom & DD's little friends.
Natalie's Christmas 400 - this is a big number. I am assuming she will get a doll bed to go with 2011's doll. And those stinkin beds are expensive.
Other Christmas 300 - The bulk of this is for the BF and my Mom.
Cats 720 - sigh. Most of this is for the strays outside. I am a sucker. They are nice cats but I really wish they'd go away.
Bath 300 - This number seems so low for a year. I guess we will see.
Vacations 1400 - last year's number was 5 or 6K. I have two trips planned for 2012. DD is starting real school and can't miss days. So we have something in Jan then something else at the end of May.
Dental Work 1000 - I have a cracked tooth and need a crown. It was cheaper for me to pay for the crown and cleanings than it was to have dental insurance and pay copays. So this sounds dumb, but I totally forgot my company gives me 1K as a bribe for having a high deductible health plan. I will use this money for my tooth.
Mad Money 575 - $10 a week plus tax. This will be hard for me.

Fixed Expenses

House Taxes, Insurance, Mortgage 5310
Car Insurance 510 (number based on new car)
Cable Modem 240
SS & Medicare 3700
medical extra 2200 - I am losing my distance vision and have to have laser eye surgery or I won't be able to wear contacts anymore. This won't fix it, but will buy me some time.
Power, Water, Cell 2520
CC Payment 720 (this is a promo)
School lunches 130 - I pack most of her food, she eats on pizza day
netflix 108
Gymnastics 1000 (est)- DD is well on her way to competitive gymnastics. I am really excited but scared about the $! Uniforms, extra lessons travel costs...around 4K. But it won't happen this year.
Ballet 423 - plus a leo but I will buy that with clothing money. She will switch from the pink to a white uniform.
Car 4800 - car payment.From the house sale, I have enough to buy a car. I just can't give up my security blanket. So I will finance a car, my credit union is 2% for new cars now. I haven't decided what I will buy and when exactly.
401K/IRA 15,000 12,800 (company does another 2200) (wanted to save 15K total this year including that contribution. Had to fix my math!)

Whew so there it is in all it's glory. I will be tweaking and playing with it as time goes on. Bye!

Some 2012 purchases

2011-12-19T12:35:00.003-05:00

I wanted to count these because that would sort of be cheating if I didn't!

I was able to purchase DD 4 PJs/Nightgowns on clearance this week for next summer and winter. Since I didn't have any of these stocked up, I was happy to find them on sale. Plus they are really cute :)

$45.20 for Owl Pjs (CUTE CUTE CUTE!), fuzzy princess PJs, Rapunzel nightgown and Ariel nightgown for DD for 2012.

$18.07 was spent on 3 Disney tshirts for her next summer (this should be the last of the shirts she needs).

I spent $43.80 on three shirts for myself. A Disney sweashirt, a long sleeved t and a tshirt. Then I bought two pairs of those weird converse croc shoes. The are canvas sneakers on top then the white toe and white part on the bottom is croc stuff. The inside is croc stuff too and has the little nubs that massage your feet. Those were $32.85. I still need stuff for our Jan trip, it isn't even 2012 and I am already thinking I am going to mess up the "my clothes" column. Boo.

Left to spend on DD's clothes: 336.73
Left to spend on my clothes: 223.35

I also bought a t for my DDs BFF to add to her birthday present. I bought the other part of it 2 months ago. $6.02

Slacker Girl Returns

2011-12-15T11:05:00.002-05:00

Every year I just sorta fade away and ignore the blog. I am going to try this all again starting in Jan. Who knows, maybe in 3-4 years I can actually stick with it the entire year? lol

I am trying to think back to this past year. The three main money things that changed were the big house selling, the stock market crashing...again (more on this later) and I started up a business. I still have my regular job too so I have been really busy.

Here in a bit I will post my budget for 2012.

July Meal Planning

2011-07-01T14:40:00.002-04:00

So I was looking through my freezer trying to figure out what meals I could make to totally clear it out. Late July/early August is prime farmers market freezer stocking time and I want to be prepared with an empty freezer!

These are the dinners I came up with, I need 26 dinners:

sausage, peppers, onions, rice X 2
fish tacos X 2 (need corn & black beans)
fish veggie rice X 2
chicken legs frozen veggie, mac & cheese X 2
homemade chicken veggie soup X 2
chicken breast, frozen veggie rice stir fry
chicken & dumplings (need mixed veggies)
ham peas mac & cheese X 8 (need 7 veggies for this)
(and are we really going to eat this 8 times in July? Maybe, DD likes it and it is easy on me. I would like to mention its all natural organic mac and cheese...not that it makes it that much better!)
shrimp with pink sauce & veggie (missing shrimp, alfredo and veggie)
spaghetti (missing ground beef)
Chinese dumplings, rice & veggie (need veggies, need filling items for dumplings) X 4

Hmmm....ok so that wasn't so hard. Not a lot of variety but to tell you the truth, I am too tired for variety. I barely keep things together here and I can't get all fancy on stuff.

I think for breakfast, it's time to get into the oatmeal routine and stick with it. I think for lunch, we'll be having a lot of breakfast foods too. I think as long as I keep a good carb/fruit/protein balance, does it matter if you eat an egg on toast at noon instead of 8am? And I am going on the record now, PBJ a couple of times a week will not kill us in the month of July (is my tiredness showing now?)

So my shopping list could be this simple:
13 pounds of veggies. Fresh, frozen, whatever.
corn
black beans
shrimp
jar of alfredo
pd of ground beef
water chestnuts
2 pds of pork
cabbage
ginger root
(I am going to make 100 of these and freeze them for next month too. I figure if I am going to have the mess, go ahead and get it over with.)
5 milks
5 juices
sugar for lemonade
canister of oatmeal
fresh fruit
8 loaves of bread
5 dozen eggs
PB
crackers (for hummus that I'll make)
Depending on sales, I can probably pick this stuff up for $100. My biggest problem will be overspending in fruit and fresh veggies, I have a lot of waste there.

My goal for July is $150. Wish me luck.

I am still here :)

2011-06-29T20:35:00.003-04:00

I just don't have anything too exciting to say lol

My house isn't closing until the 8th. That drives me nuts but at least I got $2250 in unexpected rent. After I pay the interest on my loan, I made $1750ish. I'll take it.

I also booked a cruise for a new client. But I won't be paid for that for a few months.

My spending is like wheeeeeeeee. I blew over $400 on ribbon..sweet sweet ribbon. It's my korker ribbon and I think I have found an awesome way to cook it all (you cook it to curl it). Stay tuned!

Next month I work from home every day. The little one has ballet camp on my office days and it was just easier to go remote the full month than to shift things around. So my overall spending should be a lot less. Very little gas money and our fast fooding should be a lot better. I won't be spending money in the vending machines at work either.

I have been working on my hairbows, at least 2 hours a day. I have a big show in Sept and I really want to have my basic inventory done. This is my goal:
1050 basic bows. 30 of my base 35 colors.
840 baby bows. 24 of my base 35 colors.
200 big solid bows
720 small korker solids, 20 of each of my 36 basic colors
120 med size solid bows
240 fat korkers
240 mixed korkers
120 tutu bows
100 felties
200 specialty print bows
---------------
3830 bows - yikes but really I am at least 1/3 of the way there. I just want to sew up a big inventory so when I pay to do a show, I am not feeling like I am wasting the opportunity.

Ok I think that is it for now. I will post my June spending in a few days. It is going to have a killer credit card payment on it. Eeeck.

Two weeks of Spending

2011-06-15T11:08:00.002-04:00

I have joined a no buy group on DIS that is motivating me to track everything I spend. We confess our spending and go woohooo when we do good lol

This is what it's looked like over the last couple of weeks. If you took off the $400 cruise deposit, then I'd actually be doing good. This of course doesn't include about $230 in utilities. It also doesn't include any remodeling expenses. My mini goal for the month was to keep non vacation, non utility spending to $700.

6-14 38.64 (food and gas)
6-13 $7.44 McDs
6-12 $1.10 DDs breakfast
6-11 $54.15 lunch & groceries & gas
6-10 $12.59 (pizza and diet coke)
6-9 zero
6-8 $16.53 cats & bath, $400 cruise
6-7 taco bell $2.19
6-6 $61 zumba, shoes, tea, leotard & phone
6-5 zero
6-4 $93.54 (bug killer, pool, sprinkler, flowers, lunch & groceries)
6-3 $1.10 for tea
6-2 $105 for heat pump repair
6-1 $35.33 + 5.57 (car repair and mcDs)

Early Saver Discount

2011-06-13T22:01:00.002-04:00

Hi, my name is Kim. I am a cruise addict. I set up a travel agency just so I could stalk rates on Carnival ships. (no really, I did, it wasn't expensive lol)

I finally go to book our trip in Nov, I am super happy to say we are going to Grand Turk, Half Moon Key and Nassau on a 5 day cruise. We are going to stop at Sanibel island on the way to Miami and spend a few days there too. Yiipppeeeeee

We did the Early Saver rate through Carnival. If you don't know what that is, basically you commit several months (sometimes years!) to a particular cruise. You get the lowest estimated price on that cruise.

Now sometimes pricing will shift and they aren't filling the ship as fast as they wanted to. Enter the Early Save Price Protection Guarantee!

I booked our cabins last week. Last night they dropped $5 per person. Now call me cheap (go ahead, I like it!) but that was enough for me to request a discount. Shoot, that is $20, $20 is $20 right?

It took maybe 2 minutes to fill out the form. I got confirmation of my rate reduction today. YAY!

So now I have a new obsession. How many times can I squeeze a discount out of this cruise? lol It's a game, a fun fun game!

Remodeling!

2011-06-11T23:35:00.005-04:00

Have I explained the house thing here? I can't remember.

9 years ago last week I bought a house for 37K from an estate sale. It was 1040 SF, 3 bed, 1 bath on .6 acres. It had a full basement.

My fix em up history:

Inside, it was a wee bit redneck. First thing I did, tear all the 70's paneling off he hallway. I discovered beat up drywall which I promptly put a thick plaster on.
I cut a hole in the wall connecting the kitchen breakfast nook with my den. That one game my Mom a heart attack because I just went in with a hammer and saw one day at did it lol
I painted the knotty pine in the living room, walls and ceiling. It is very beachy now I like it.
I took the linoleum off the walls in the kitchen. yes, on the WALLS. It took hunks out of the wall so the drywall came down, new insulation went up and my crooked drywall was put up. Thick plaster anyone? Check!
Next, the thing I wish I hadn't done, was put in a tile floor in the kitchen. I should have put in a floating laminate over the linoleum. I loathe my tile floor. I have busted tiles, it is cold, it is hard to clean. I LOATHE it and it was so hard to do and so expensive. I am so sick of repairing it, I could just scream.
I painted my kitchen cabinets white - huge difference.
Somewhere in here I refinished the hardwood throughout the house and put stucco on the ceilings.
Then I hit the bathroom. The faucets leaked and my Dad fixed them. Then I knocked out all of the 60's gold glitter tile, took out the old toilet, took out the old sink which looked like it belonged in a camper and retiled the tub in white, put in new drywall (crooked - insert thick plaster here), put in a new bath cabinet, a new sink top, a new faucet, a new toilet, a new mirror and a new floating floor.
Outside during all of this, Dad helped me put white siding on the house, replaced gutters, cut off trailer awnings on the windows, replaced the old cruddy windows with new ones and helped me clear land.
Oh ya, and like the first month I owned it the heat pump burned out. Month 13 of a 12 month warranty. Found out the electrical wasn't updated correctly but the install biz was already out of biz. So new breaker box and heat pump box thingy outside.
Hmmm what else? Oh ya, a windstorm came and knocked off my roof on my deck. I actually got a check for that which was awesome because it was ugly and I didn't want it anway. Later, Dad helped me build new rails.
He also helped me build my front porch rails.

Gosh I think that is it. If you haven't seen the trend here, my Dad helped me redo the entire house. That is why I'll never move and why I choose to sell the other house. My Dad put so much effort into this one so I'd be happy. His mark is everywhere.

Currently I am working on:

The kitchen. Cabinets, counters, sink, faucet, dishwasher, stove, lots of electrical. Eventually a new floor.
My bath needs refreshing. When I did it the first time I was broke and couldn't buy nice things for it. So I need a new bath cabinet bad.
My bedroom is going to lose a wall and gain the hallway area. I'd like to also vault the ceiling but that could be expensive.

And this is what happened today. My Dad would be super happy with it:

Architectural shingle in pewter. I couldn't be happier. It really inspires me to do my landscaping and do it right the first time. All my neighbors commented on it, I just couldn't be happier :)

This leaves me with about $15 and some change to finish up the house. The kitchen will just be a few hundred more for trims, the bath shouldn't be too bad. I'll probably spend another 1K in landscaping and do it right the first time. So I'll have 13Kish to devote to the basement. I am hopeful that will be enough since we are going for a bath (which I can tile myself) and the rest will be one large room. I can run the electrical wiring to save money and I will install the laminate myself which will save a ton. That will keep the house right at 70K. And really if it goes up to 80K, it isn't a big deal for an updated cottage on a half acre with almost 2100 SF!

Meal Planning

2011-06-11T22:37:00.002-04:00

I was sickly for a couple of days this week. Not really ill, but just ran down and puny. My Mom took my DD for a little extra time so I could work more and fed her for me. I ate through a bowl of rice in 2 days. So I have a lot of stuff leftover from last week.

What I have to work with (off the top of my head, I know there is more...)
Dry: stale-ish bread, rice, noodles, shaped pastas, flour, oatmeal, Irish oats, hominy, several kinds of dried beans, tons of chickpeas, coffee, creamer, flavored tea bags, tons of organic stock and organic mac and cheese
Jarred/canned: spaghetti sauce & pineapple chunks
Frozen: chicken breast, a pack of sausages, 1 pd of GB, 1 pack of chicken legs, 2 packs of white fish, some bread rounds and mystery aluminum foiled items.
Produce: 4 peaches, 4 pears, 2-3 apples, 3-4 squash, 6 onions
Cold: just condiments and half a bottle of diet coke (I try to eat my fridge up every week to throw less stuff away)

What I bought....
2 Cherry 7ups for $1 (on sale and I had a coupon)
milk - $3.59
Apple Juice - $1.99
2 bags of Doritos, $2.98 (on sale and I had a coupon for $1 off of 2...I hope to hide one of these for next week - chips are my weakness)
2 pds of red grapes - $2.53
7 peaches - $2.34 (on sale 99cent pp)
1 pound bag of mini carrots - $1 (on sale!)
mustard - 89 cents
black tea - $1.17 (This is the first time I've ever bought off brand tea. It was almost half of the cost of Tetley, my preferred brand. Then I started thinking, isn't tea just a dried leaf? So I bought it lol)
1 pack of large flour tortillas - $1.09
10 ounces of ham - $2.79
2 pounds of block cheese - $5.98
ranch dressing - free with promo coupon
doz eggs - free with promo coupon
2 pds Jimmy dean sausage - $6
Total with tax - $36.18

This week is low meat. I wish I had bought more sausage to put in the freezer because that is a good price for my preferred brand. I saw chicken breast bone in for 99 cents but I still have half a plastic shoe box (I put them in sandwich bags individually then put them in the shoe box for organization and to protect against freezer burn) of chicken breast. There were zero beef deals at any of our stores. Oh well, good thing neither DD or I are overly fond of red meat.

Here is my hopeful plan for the week:
Sunday - date night, my boy is going to cook me a frozen pizza while we watch a movie from redbox or netflixs. I am so proud of him. Our old dates used to be $25-35 in dinner, walking around stores (where I'd spend money on silly stuff) then going to a movie with popcorn and cokes - another $35. I think he's figured out I'd rather spent that $60-70 ever week on a vacation.

The rest of the week:

Perch with rice & green beans (half the bag)
Japanese chicken with rice, zucchini & onions and carrots
fish tacos with fresh salsa and peaches (the other half bag of fish)
chicken veggie soup with my awesome organic stock (I went to Kroger last month and they were discontinuing large cartons of organic stock (chicken, beef and veggie) for 50 cents. FIFTY CENTS! I got all of them, 12. So I need to use them up!)
spaghetti, garlic bread and snow peas

Does this look familiar? Yup, my Mom and my boy fed us so much last week when I was puny, all we really ate was fruit and breakfast at home. I remember making up a lot of the zucchini plus I made a few PBJ sandwiches. I realized I didn't have the ground beef for both the spaghetti and meatloaf so I let DD choose.

So that's it for the week, wish me luck.

$28.80 sold

2011-06-08T20:46:00.002-04:00

I picked up consignment money for bows today. They want more so that is good!

(and wow what a bright background. it startled me when i opened the page...off i go to fix that lol)

Meal Planning

2011-06-05T10:40:00.003-04:00

We didn't get half of our stuff eaten last week so some of this will be repeats. I went to Kroger yesterday and bought peaches, apples, 2 personal watermelons, yellow squash, zucchini, green beans, milk, a 7up, 3 doz eggs, 12 ounces of perch, onions, tomatoes and I can't remember what else. I spent a little over $35.

Perch with rice & green beans
Japanese chicken with rice, zucchini & onions and carrots
fish tacos (pollack) with fresh salsa and peaches
meatloaf burgers & squash
spaghetti, garlic bread and snow peas

Things always seem to derail on my food plans so I am only listing 5 meals. I have everything I need in order to make these 5 meals. So in a perfect world we'd eat hot cereals and eggs for breakfast, leftovers for lunch, these 5 meals, out to eat once just me and DD and out to eat once with my boy.

Spending - Week Twenty Two (May 28 - June 3)

2011-06-03T17:24:00.002-04:00

Whew, glad this week is over. Talk about money stress!

Stress 1 - my AC/heat pump outside unit broke while we were on vacation. It took 4 days to get a tech out here but the repair was just $105. It was a small part that pretty much wears out every 5 years. Since my entire unit was 7 years old, I wrung an extra 2 years out of it!

Stress 2 - my car window motor broke. My car will be 12 in November. The two front window motors had already burned out and I had those replaced. My DD's window broke the night before we left on the trip. This is still broken (boo). It is a $200 non essential repair on a car that is worth maybe $1500. Would you fix it? I can fix it inside the door so it just stays up all the time.

Stress 3 - my check engine light came on - twice. I had loss of power and at one point I thought it just wasn't going to start. I took it to advanced auto for their free computer diagnostic and a major vapor lock coded. Now for us regular people who don't talk "car", I had a leak somewhere near my gasoline. He checked out my gas cap and low and behold, it was leaking fumes that were backing up into my engine. I had a lot of yucky crud in the gas cap compartment that I thought was just road dirt. He was like ummm...no...this cap has been bad for a LONG time (well don't I feel stupid?). He asked, has your gas mileage gotten worse? Why yes it has! It was like the clouds shifted and the heavens shined down on this dear Advanced Auto man who had solved all my car problems. The gas cap, gas cleaner, gas filter and some clear coat paint came out to about $35. Fixed!

Stress 4 - I dropped a full 2 liter bottle. On my foot. After I got done almost puking, my foot swelled up so much that the underneath pad of my foot extended to almost the end of my toes. I couldn't move my big toe or move the muscles on the top of my foot. It happened late at night while I was at my Mom's, so I crashed there with every intention of going to the doc in the morning. When I woke up, ooohh...I could wiggle my toe again (it was so weird, like it was paralyzed) and my foot was half the size. Since it didn't really hurt, I didn't go to the doc. I am happy to report, 3 days later I still have swelling on the top of my foot but I can comfortably walk on it and I only have a twinge of ache every so often. Super happy I didn't blow $300 on a doc visit for a bruised foot. (I am all for going to the doc, but I try to avoid stupid visits...you know the ones where the doc gives you a look like "why are you here?")

Other things I bought this week included my main grocery run, another smaller grocery run to stock up on a sauce packet that I can't seem to find anywhere else (on sale 20% off!) and to get tomatoes. I also filled up my car. On Tuesday I bought breakfast and a snack at work.

Since I am not calculating every penny now, it is a lot easier. I know I am behind for the year and it has motivated me to rejoin my nobuy threads on DIS. Those ladies can really motivate you.

I will have a wicked high June because I'll be paying the CC bill for 2 trips. My actual low spending for this month won't show until July. I am basically going through my checking account and adding up my "outs". So I guess in a way, my spending year is Dec - Dec because I'm 21 days behind on he CC bill.

I think that is it. My what a long post!

Meal Planning

2011-05-29T12:00:00.004-04:00

I've not been doing this as I am sure you can see by our constant eating out.

What I have to work with (off the top of my head, I know there is more...)
Dry: Rice, noodles, shaped pastas, flour, oatmeal, Irish oats, hominy, several kinds of dried beans, tons of chickpeas, tons of organic stock and organic mac and cheese
Jarred/canned: spaghetti sauce & pineapple chunks
Frozen: chicken breast, a pack of sausages, 1 pd of GB, 1 pack of chicken legs, some bread rounds and mystery aluminum foiled items.
Produce: 4 apples, 1 iffy cutie orange
Cold: salad dressing and 2 yogurts - that's it, sad eh?

What I bought for the week:
Doritos - $2
2 20oz Breads - 69 cents each
BBQ Sauce - 49 cents
2 Sierra Mists - 69 cents each
2 packs of ballpark hot dogs - 99 cents each
2 heads of lettuce - 49 cents each
(these were all the grand opening specials for my store)
dozen eggs - 1.49
1 pd stir fry veggies - 1.67
vidalia onions (1.94 pds @ .79 pp)
milk - 3.59 (this is the cheap milk too)
peaches 1.39 pds @ 1.69 pp
2 pds frozen green peas
a big seedless watermelon - 3.99
2 taco seasonings - 39 cents
2 12oz frozen snap peas - $1.50 each
ground chuck - 3.05pds @ 2.69 pp
2.59 pds of bananas @ 49 cents pp
1 pd frozen corn - 1.25
then I had a $5 off of $35 grand opening coupon so all of this was 37.99.

Breakfast will be eggs, toast, oatmeal or hot cereal and fruit.
Lunch is whatever I can pull together. Prob leftovers. This is the first week of no school.
Dinners
1 - chicken, stir fry veggies, rice noodles
2 - beef tacos with salad
3 - chicken and dumplings with peas & carrots
4 - chicken enchiladas & corn
5 - taco rice (DD has requested more taco-y things), beef, black beans, rice - spiced up
6 - pepper chicken, rice & snap peas
7 - my guy normally takes us out

I will need to pick up a jalapeno and several packs of Kroger generic enchilada seasoning mix this week. I also have a free salad dressing and free egg coupon for them that I will cash in.

So if I make enough for a family of 4, then we should in theory have enough to roll to lunch the next day. I should be able to roll 1 bread (freeze it), the BBQ Sauce, the 1 pack of ballpark hotdogs, some onions, a frozen pea, a frozen snap pea & 1 pd of hamburger to another week.

~~~~~~Rant time~~~~~~

I went shopping this week with the intention of stocking up to put an end to the eating out. But I was simply horrified by the prices. I did pick and choose the super cheap items for the week and I'll work with it. But I wanted a few "fancy" things this week. Like shrimp, normally it is $5 pp on sale. $8 now. I wanted a dirty rice mix. $2.89 instead of $1.50 (max). Veggies used to be 75 cents pp frozen are on sale, $1.25. Taco seasoning mix, you know the powder envelope was 99 cents. For powder? I switched to the super generic store brand, taco bell can stick it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The new Kroger ad came out today and luckily apples, pears, avocados, yellow squash, zucchini, green beans & tomatoes are 99 cents pp. I will pick those up much later in the week for next week's menu. if I make up 10 stir fry mixes, I will have saved $6.70. It is something to think about for sure.

Extra Moola $493.39

2011-05-29T00:16:00.004-04:00

So my house should close next week. My buyer has been renting it for 3 weeks now and I have collected $750. I have an interest only loan on that house right now (kinda - don't ask, it's weird math) so I am going to take out the 256.61 that I'd pay for the month. And the other $493.39 will go straight to my extra money column. I might get another week's rent if closing is pushed to Friday. If so, I'll add it here.

Plus I should be receiving an insurance premium overage check, if I have done my math right. I will post that if/when it comes.

Changing Things Around

2011-05-29T00:08:00.002-04:00

The way I am tracking stuff is getting on my nerves. Back when I had more time, and more patience, I relished in marking each item off its own little category and keeping running totals.

No more. I mean seriously, single (ish) mom here with 2 jobs. I am sooo over it.

I am going to look through all my bank statements and CC statement and calculate how much I spent for the month. Then I'll just report the overall chunk of cash at the end of each month.

What I'll stop doing is beating myself up over every nickel and penny. I am my own worst enemy.

So anyway, I am going to play with the numbers and change my little sidebar shortly.

Spending - Week Twenty One (May 15 - May 27)

2011-05-27T15:05:00.002-04:00

We are at the beach - wheeeeeeee

Spending - Week Twenty (May 14 - May 20)

2011-05-20T22:39:00.003-04:00

14 - $4.93 on Starbucks for me and the boy. $59.72 for groceries at Kroger.
15 - $16.42 a game for DD for her Leapster. I am taking this out of her allowance.
16 - zero
17 - breakfast $3.29 and DG $7.10
18 - zero
19 - another bobo bear for DD. $15.79
20 - zero - kinda - I have a few things to pick up for our trip that I'll roll into vacation money.

So a little better this week. The groceries at Kroger just floored me though. Part of it was $10 in cokes for me. But everything was just a little more and it really added up. I can't wait until the farmers market starts back up.

For our trip next week, we are taking some stuff to cook in the room (we will have a full kitchen). I will note if this really saves money. I am bringing 2 dinners and stuff for our lunch. Mom is doing the same then we'll share for variety. Normally bringing food and cooking doesn't bother me. But for some reason this week it is rubbing me the wrong way. I guess I just want to lounge and be catered to. Silly me! lol

Sold

2011-05-20T14:52:00.002-04:00

Another tutu - this is my reminder to add $18 to the bottom number.

Spending - Week Nineteen (May 7 - May 13)

2011-05-18T10:15:00.005-04:00

I am going to keep weekly tracking even though it looks like I'll have to hit up my savings to cover everything for the year. Phooey on me.

7 $23.25 groceries, $1.95 home depot, $12.75 drinks and lunch
8 $37.70 mothers day gift, $78 target, $10.79 Mother's Day present
9 zero
10 $3.48 breakfast, $14.24 stuff for wedding, $3 change of address fee, $42.09 gas
11 $5.35 BK, $21.23 for biz supplies, $53.05 for wedding stuff, $10.95 dress for DD
12 5.48 McDonalds (My new daycare payment is to feed my Mom breakfast), $4.37 gift for mom, $45.91 for wedding things. $4.51 for lunch tacos
13 zero

Sold

2011-05-12T00:30:00.000-04:00

I was paid for one tutu tonight, sold another with payment and got another order tonight. I won't count the third until I am paid so this is my reminder to put $36 into the extra money column below.

I've also sold some bows at the consignment store and they have requested more purple ones. It looks like that is going to average 10 a month. Not a huge amount but its not like I am spending time selling them. I drop them off, I pick up cash. But I won't add that number to the bottom until I pick up the money.

I will have some super cute outfits available in size XS (4-5) and S (6). The shirt is black with glittery paris stuff on it. The tutu is hot pink, black and white. The hairbows have little effiel towers on them too. The complete package is $35. I will post pictures soon!

I am working away at my stock items for the big Oct sale. It is a huge festival where Carla (makes fun paper goods) and I will share a tent/booth. I am SO behind! I want to take 50 tutus and have 2 dozen of each bow done. I should stop posting and get back to sewing :)

Spending - Week Eighteen (April 30-May 6)

2011-05-08T09:57:00.003-04:00

So we are back from NYC. After running all the numbers I spent $1136 for the week. $510 of that was the room, the rest was food, Mary Poppins tickets, tourist tickets to everything (bought these for my boy for his birthday) and a couple of souvies (I bought 2 pictures for $20 and DD got about $12 in toys).

With Natalie's train ticket and my prebuy for the statue of liberty tickets, I was at $1244 only $44 over. Pretty good considering those last minute tickets for Mary Poppins were $192! (eeck!)

Spending - Week Seventeen (April 23-29)

2011-05-08T09:22:00.003-04:00

oops, I totally forgot to do this week's post. Since I am 100% credit carding it these days, at least I can go back and look stuff up.

23- $32.37 groceries
24 - ice cream treats for everyone 7.30
25 - zero
26 - lunch at work, $2.66, walmart 104.83(bath & cleaning mostly - we were out of everything)
27 - gas 42.86, taco bell 3.59
28 - bakery $7
29 - zero

So not horribly bad, not fantastic either.

Oh Good Grief

2011-04-23T22:11:00.003-04:00

So I haven't been subtracting my stuff. I've just been merrily spending what i want when I want.

And you know what? My budget is blown. As we approach month 5 this is what I see...

I have used up 62.63% of our grocery money. In 1/3 of the year. The main issue with this is, I used to spend $40 a week and things would be wasted. Just for fun, I compared some old receipts to this year's prices. Pennies here, pennies there, add up to almost a 15% rise in prices. So dropping it to $30 wasn't smart and I'm going to run out.

I have used up 68.31% of my mad money. A lot of that was car repair and a ton of that was biz supplies. I had better get a move on selling fluff.

My gas is half gone. Even when you don't drive a lot, a 25% rise in gas prices hurts.

Eating out is in the negative by $30. So any more eating out will have to come from my mad money. What little is left.

So summary. I suck this year. Bad.

But to be a little upbeat, I do have enough supplies to produce $15-20,000 of bows and tutus. So I just have to resist the urge to buy more supplies until I start moving product.

If my fluff doesn't sell, I will have to move money around. I can already move the wedding money back into mad money, we aren't getting married until next May. We've chosen a local location and I've always wanted a May wedding so it's pushed back a few months. And seriously, even though my house sold, we still have his condo to sell and my house to work on. We won't get it all done by Oct!

And because we won't be doing a honeymoon in Oct, I will have some leftover vacation money, about $1400. Even if we do a week in Oct at the beach, that is just $400 so I potentially have 1K to move.

And I guess I can keep some of the house money out for everyday bills. But that isn't what it is for. Bummer.

Spending - Week Sixteen (April 16-22)

2011-04-23T21:29:00.002-04:00

16- zero - cool
17- $2.19 mcdonalds, $22 for feeding my moving help, $70.99 for the uhaul for the rest of my stuff, $6.49 for uhaul gas, $10.94 gas for my car I guess, I don't remember buying this amount but it's on my CC and at my station.
18- $79.67 at walmart. 2 beautiful hanging baskets, 1 basket for my strawberry plants, a container for Natalie's clothes and a bunch of dirt for my garden.
19- target $45.97, three pairs of shoes for Natalie. 1 pair will be going back
20- another car repair $76.65, $5.72 for elastic for my biz
21- zero
22- $18.82 for my boy's birthday cake ingredients and mixers

Bow Sale

2011-04-21T20:59:00.001-04:00

I made $38 tonight after I bought cookies for the girls and made a donation. This is my reminder to add it to the bottom right tracker.

Spending - Week Fifteen (April 9-15)

2011-04-15T18:43:00.000-04:00

First, I'd just like to say I'm super proud of me for even blogging to week 15. I have the attention span of a gnat.

Second, I am spending like a maniac. I think the joy from not losing tons of cash every month has really set in. I am not even sure what I'll do with the money. Responsible Kim likes to remind wild Kim:

YOUR NEEDS

In retirement, you will need $20,000 a year in income. (Because of inflation, in 2020, that will be equivalent to $26,095.)(<--this is my income contribution to the house expenses when married, we've figured it all out on paper - our house will also be 100% paid off)

Part of that income will come from your Social Security and/or pensions. To produce the rest, you should build up your nest egg (including your 401k, IRA and other savings accounts) to $340,655 by the time you retire. (In 2020, that will be equivalent to $444,478).

YOUR CHANCES OF GETTING THERE

To save $340,655, your investments need to gain an average of -0.70% from now until retirement. We estimate that there is a 99.90% chance of this happening. (awesome possum)

Anyhooo, this is based on me sticking the house proceeds into my retirement account, still maxing out my 401K and putting 5K a year extra into my IRA. Looks good on paper. But bad Kim wants a beach condo. I am very undecided.

9- Saturday - fed Mom because she is helping me move, $20. Bath stuff and donation at Kroger 10.58. Paid $43 for April Ballet and $100 for July Ballet camp.

10- Sunday - Taco Bell 4.37 - fast food on the way to the other house so I could pack and clean.

11- Monday - clothes from target (3 shirts for me me me!!), flip flops from target (for DD) $32.19. $19.39 @ michaels for biz stuff, hobby lobby 2.94, even more biz stuff.

12 - Tuesday - 2 cups, 50 cents, breakfast at mcdonalds 3.83, biz stuff from crafter store 12.78, Statue of Liberty tickets $31. Burger King 3.29, $82.07 Kmart for capris (some of these will go back, I bought 2 sizes)

13 - Wednesday - playdate tacos with the girls 6.93

14 - Thursday - groceries & gas (charges are pending, groceries were $80ish, rant coming soon), Turbotax $82.07, biz supplies $168.05 (why yes, I have blown like 1K on biz stuff and have only made $216...stop adding it up!), $16 for a custom shirt for natalie to match her tutu...which I made with my business supplies. I am my own best customer.

15 - zero? really? finally!

I sold $13.88 in bows so I'll add that to the bottom.

I also did my taxes and have $4835 coming back to me. That is the last of my adoption credit, they changed the law this year so I got the rest of it back in a big chunk. I've been working through that credit for years! I am putting it into an IRA so I actually need to earn another $165 because I did some money manipulation to fund it before the deadline so it would count for last year. And I put in 5K. Ya, that didn't make a lot of sense when I typed it, just go with it.

I have a bow show next week. I am also making wholesale marketing packets for my bows to take to NYC. I figure worse case, I'm out ink, paper and a few bows.

This weekend I am renting a uhaul to move the few items I had at the house that sold. Salvation Army and the termite inspection dude comes on Tuesday. I am going to mow one more time. Then I never have to go to that part of town again. It is very exciting.

Spending - Week Fourteen (April 2-8)

2011-04-08T23:15:00.001-04:00

Despite spending GOBS of money this week, I have had a FANTASTIC week. Why?

I sold my house! :happy dance: It has been half-a$$ed for sale for 10 months and with a realtor for 6. Today I sold it by owner to a guy who saw it on zillow while looking up a different house. He saw it at 10am and signed the contract at 3pm. I sold it for $900 less than my asking price. Life is good!

So my three huge purchases of the week were not budgeted. And one of them should have been.

You know what I'm missing? A car repair fund. My clutch was popping and so sticky so I took it in thinking the whole thing was going bad. Plus I had a screeching sound when it was cold and I cranked the wheel too far one direction. I ended up getting a new piston, a new part on my axle that had busted and new brakes for a little over $500. But the mechanic said my car was in great shape and should last easily the 2 extra years I want it to (it is 11.5 yrs old).

The ribbon is a biz thing, I fully expect it to pay for itself in the next few months.

Natalie got a new bed. She needed the extra space so I went with a jr loft. Now half of her toys fit under the bed and she has a lot more space.

Let's see, my grocery spending is out of control. So is our fast food consumption. It's because I've been so busy every stinking minute that I've not had time to prep or cook. Poor excuse I know. Every hour of the past two weeks has been planned out. On paper. yikes.

Sat - bed $141.26 rest of walmart groceries 33.99, 4.47 mcds
Sun - zero
Mon - walmart run, cat liter coffee pot, pineapple, beet chips etc 40.59
Tues - train ticket $77, bk 5.35
Wed - car repair $508.57, ribbon 606.58 (ya you read that right, I'll explain in another post), gas $43.13, $26.20 ribbon thing, mcds 4.96, dollar general 2.74
Thurs - $1.50 car wash, look for food city receipt
Fri - pizza for playdate $1.41 breakfast

On my bows, I am pleased to say I have found a store to sell them in. She told me they were underpriced for her clients so even after you take out her %, I am making more per bow that what I would at another consignment sale. I also put them on etsy to try to sell them. My purchase this week consisted of 35 solids colors for my favorite bow. I already had 34 colors and with 2 duplicates, should have 67 different colors. Seriously, if one of my bows doesn't match your clothing..well it's not happened yet.

So for the year, I can see the grocery, hba & eating out columns hitting the dust first. So that means I am going to have to work work work on this hair stuff and make some more money to add to these columns.

Oh ya, and I made 475.55 at the consignment sale. I will add that to the extra money section.

Bye for now!

Do you Groupon?

2011-04-03T13:18:00.002-04:00

So I signed up for Groupon. It's a site where they buy bulk discounts for people based on the city you live in.

What I've discovered is it's a great way to save money on vacation!

I set my city to New York City. So far I've found 2 great deals. We got our harbor tour tickets for $13 each, a savings of $31 for our group. (yay Groupon!)

Then I got a $20 deli coupon for $10. The deli has great reviews, is priced well and is within walking distance of several place's we will be visiting. (yay Groupon!)

So with just a couple of clicks, we've saved $41 on our trip. I am out to prove to my guy that we can afford to travel multiple times a year with a little planning :) (yay Groupon!)

$216.25

2011-04-03T13:08:00.002-04:00

I have tallied my bow sales, $216.25. Since I used mad money to buy a lot of supplies, I'll dump this cash into the extra $2200 I'm trying to make this year. I haven't gotten the grant total from clothing and toy sales but out of 375 hangers, it looks like I sold 224 of them. The bulk of the leftover is winter items so I've packed them up for the Sept sale.

The great purge of 2011

2011-03-31T13:02:00.004-04:00

I have taken 375 hangers of clothes to the consignment sale that starts tonight. The bulk of it was imaginary DD2's wardrobe, 10 sizes, 2 seasons. I kept special pieces and a small quantity of basic items but the rest went. I also purged some of Natalie's clothes in bigger sizes because it didn't match her style. Instead of 14 totes holding baby gear, I have 4, 2 for toys, 2 for clothes. I'm good with that.

I purged Natalie's baby toys. I had a lot of fisher price stuff that I collected from yard sales that I choose to keep. Most everything else is gone. I also took in a ton of action figures that have been sealed up for 10 years.

I've walked through the house with a basket and have added things left and right. We use so little of our stuff. My office, which was the holding cell, echos! How awesome is that? This is the room that I'm remodeling this year by knocking out a wall. Now that stuff is out of the way, I can do that.

Anything leftover from the sale is going into my Mom's garage for the next consignment sale. I made my tags so it could go to one of two local sales. So worse case, I'll be storing some stuff until Sept. Then after the 2 Sept sales, the rest is off to Salvation Army.

Here are my bows, aren't they cute? These are just some of the solids (my fav are the solids). I don't have more than 6 of any pattern so I have at least 65 different solids/patterns. My etsy store and blog for bows will be up and running very soon :)

Weekly Spending Week Thirteen (March 26-April 1)

2011-03-31T09:54:00.004-04:00

Sat 26 - Burger King 7.33
Sunday 27 - 61.26 groceries (I bought $25 of chicken breast for 88 cents again), burger king $3.13 (good grief we eat a lot of BK)
Monday 28 - zero
Tuesday 29 - $7.51 eating at work
Wednesday - burger king again, $4.20ish
Thursday - fluffy dress for Natalie toy for future baby - $12
Friday - 6 leotards for dance or gymnastics in like new condition woot! $15. Ballerina lightplate switch for Christmas, $2. Gymboree dress, $4. Velour ballerina hoodie, $2. McDonalds breakfast, I need the recipt. Also chinese for lunch for $7.25 with friends.

Spending - Week Twelve (Mar 19-25)

2011-03-25T20:25:00.001-04:00

19 Saturday - chinese $2o (date w/boy)
20 Sunday - zero
21 Monday - 3.56 mcdonalds 23.15 ribbon sally 29.51 gas - 34.67 gas 12.98 groceries
22 Tuesday - 37.89 walmart dollar tree 43.80 (most of the stuff bought today is going back, I had a grand idea that I decided not to do.)
23 Wednesday - 22.77 ribbon
24 Thursday - zero
25 Friday - 63.35 for more bow making supplies. I totally underestimated what it was going to cost to set up a good inventory.

Spending - Week Eleven (Mar 12-18)

2011-03-19T20:26:00.002-04:00

This week wasn't that bad. I spent a lot on groceries because Kroger was doing a deal. I am on a diet and trying to eat more fish. They had albacore tuna packets for 49 cents and whiting, 5 pounds for $9. Then we tried the annie's organic all natural mac and cheese (because seriously, I can't keep up with everything), and it was GOOD! So I bought a years worth at 49 cents a box.

18 - zero
17 - $35.65 Kroger, $8.18 target. $15 fish restaurant, $25ish hobby lobby again
16 - $43.65 Kroger, $65.52 hobby lobby, $10 gas
15- zero
14 - zero
13 - zero
12 - zero

Meal Plan March 2011

2011-03-11T18:01:00.001-05:00

As I update, I am bumping this to the top. I did change beef stew for chili because I had all the ingredients. Why buy new stuff if you already have other stuff right? I also changed the Japanese meal to soup. My Mom told me about a TV cooking show where they basically made cream of carrot soup Japanese style. I am going to try that, I have TONS of carrots to use up! (and isn't this a pretty color? I'd like to have a tshirt this color!)

I really struggle with meal portions and getting overall volumes correct. This month I am aiming for 10 meals that are completely eaten, leftovers and all. Usually a meal lasts us 3 days (so tired of it after 3 days too).

- Chicken fajitas/tacos - done! YAY ME!
- chicken stir fry
- Some sort of red bell pepper cream pasta (I just bought 15 red peppers) with either chicken or pureed navy beans
- Spaghetti (beef)
- home made cream of mushroom soup (epic fail, my milk separated and I made disgusting mushroom cottage cheese)
- veggie plate, red lentils & cider potato/brussel sprout medley & carrots - Done! yay me!
- breakfast casserole (turkey sausage, cheese, grits, eggs) - done!
- chili - done!
- japanese carrot soup
- chicken hominy soup

Breakfasts - I'd like to use up every last bit of flavored oatmeal, regular oatmeal and some of the kashi cereal so I feel comfortable in ordering our bulk steel cut oats. I got some awesome fruit and nuts for it.

Lunch - hummus, egg sandwiches, PB sandwiches, fruit, maybe some soups, cold pastas etc

Spending - Week Ten (Mar 5-11)

2011-03-11T00:41:00.000-05:00

You know, this week wasn't that bad. I did try to think before I bought stuff. And yes, we ate out again (a lot) but I wasted a lot less grocery wise that I normally do. I beat myself up over that all the time. But before I made my trek to Walmart, I went and collected my returns that had been sitting for 2 months and used that store credit on things we needed. Yay!

So here is how it broke down....

Saturday - zero
Sunday - bought a pizza for my boy 10.95
Monday - returned a bunch of stuff to walmart and bought groceries, some bath stuff, cat food, a small globe for Natalie, a coffee press for me (NYC trip woot woot) and ate out Chinese. But it all equaled out so I'm not going to mess with my numbers. Also $43 for ballet.
Tuesday - 47 cents for a coffee cup and sinus pills from the vending machine.
Wednesday- play date chick fil a 16.18 - yikes. Chickfila is good but that was really expensive. I also spent 3.11 at the bread store.
Thursday - tacos with work friend 6.50 plus 22 cents for a coffee cup (forgot my mug again!)
Friday - safety pins, chips, dirt, seeds - find receipt, about $12.

Just think how low my numbers could be if we could stop the eating out. I'd have enough for the car I've been wanting (want to see it? blogs are better with pictures!)

I can get the base model for 19,124 with a corporate discount and 2.84% financing. If I pay tax out of pocket then my payments are about $400 when you include insurance.

So ask me if I'm getting it. That's a big fat no. Unless you can see a way to squeeze $4800 out of my budget without reducing my 401K contribution. sigh

Garden Fun

2011-03-11T00:17:00.001-05:00

beans, (4)	beans, (4)	beans, (4)	beans, (4)	beans, (4)	Beans, (4)
cucumbers, (2)	cucumbers, (2)	okra, (1)	okra, (1)	Cauliflower, (1)	Cauliflower, (1)
Tomatoes, (1)	Tomatoes, (1)	Tomatoes, (1)	summer squash, (1)	summer squash, (1)	summer squash, (1)

	Beans Sow seeds 1″ deep directly in garden after all danger of frost. Spacing: four plants per sq. ft. for bush beans, six to eight plants per sq. ft. for pole beans Plant second crop of bush beans (if needed) two weeks after first planting Days to harvest: 50-80 days from seed, depending on variety. Not frost-hardy. Hint: Add a legume inoculant when planting to increase vigor and yield. Learn more about Beans in our vegetable encyclopedia
	Cucumbers Plant seeds indoors 1/2″ deep three weeks before last frost, or seed in garden after frost. Transplant into garden after frost and when soil is 65 to 70 degrees F. Spacing one per sq. ft. for bush type; two per sq. ft. for vining type. Extend harvest with a second crop, planted two weeks later. Days to harvest: 50 to 60 days after transplanting. Not frost-hardy. Hint: Use row covers until flowering to keep off insects. Learn more about Cucumbers in our vegetable encyclopedia
	Okra Start seeds indoors four to six weeks before the last frost. Transplant into garden after soil reaches 65 degrees F. and nighttime temperatures stay above 60. Spacing: one plant per sq. ft. Days to harvest: 50 to 70 days, depending on weather. Hint: Use black plastic to warm soil and intensify heat around the plant. Learn more about Okra in our vegetable encyclopedia
	Cauliflower Start seedlings indoors ¼ to 1/2″ deep five to six weeks before last spring frost. Transplant into garden after frost. Spacing: one plant per sq. ft. Days to harvest: 50 to 80 days from transplant. Somewhat frost-hardy. Hints: Don't disturb roots when transplanting; keep evenly moist. Learn more about Cauliflower in our vegetable encyclopedia
	Tomatoes Plant seeds 1/4″ deep indoors, six to eight weeks before last frost Transplant into garden one to two weeks after last frost or when soil reaches 65 degrees F. Spacing: one plant per sq. ft. Grow early season crops nearby to allow more room later. Days to harvest: 55 to 100 days from transplanting, depending on variety. Not frost-hardy Hint: Remove lower leaves before planting and bury extra stem. Learn more about Tomatoes in our vegetable encyclopedia
	Summer Squash Plant seeds 3/4″ deep indoors or outdoors three weeks after last frost, or when soil is 70 degrees F. Transplant three weeks after last frost, or when soil is 70 degrees F. When picked frequently, plants will produce continuously until frost. Spacing: one plant per sq. ft. for bush varieties; two plants per sq. ft. for vining types growing on trellis. Days to harvest: 30 to 40 days from transplant; 40 to 50 from seed. Not frost-hardy. Hint: Start under garden fabric (row covers) to protect from insects. Learn more about Summer Squash in our vegetable encyclopedia

When cooking is fun again.....

2011-03-06T23:44:00.003-05:00

It is very easy to resist going out :)

Trader Joe's organic whole wheat pasta with 6 cheese sauce with sliced off corn on the cob (we "put this up" last May) plus red and yellow bell peppers.

Cheap & Yummy breakfast

2011-03-05T11:34:00.004-05:00

Trader Joe's whole wheat pancake mix, I think it was about 2 bucks. There are 4 batches per box.

I added dried raisins, mangos, pineapple, walnuts and a fresh banana to the mix and made these:

It made two breakfasts. I used water instead of milk, added an egg and a splash of EVOO along with the fruit and nuts. 50 + 10 + 10 + 25 + 25 = $1.10. Not too shabby.

Spending - Week Nine (Feb 26- Mar 4)

2011-03-05T00:25:00.004-05:00

I'm quickly losing enthusiasm for these posts lol

Saturday - I bought gas (40.62), lunch (2.75), dinner (11) and drinks at a comedy club (25)
Sunday - I went to Trader Joes (75.14), Whole Food (16.84), bought dinner (11.78), group drinks at a party (48), kroger (18.47)
Monday - I bought gas (22.51), lunch (10.23), coffee (1.90), went to the asian market (61.05) & costco (255.36).
Tuesday - 5.27 groceries, 5.48 birthday flowers
Wed - gas, $21.43
Thurs - $22.35 on groceries for Natalie (she was sick, I got bland things and I bought stuff for mom)
Friday - zero

I was going to break stuff down my HBA and grocery, then presents and such but I just don't have that kind of time lol. I can guesstimate that I bought $50 worth of food gift items from various places (coffees, cooking oils, spices, jerky) so I'll knock that off of my mad money. This trip also drained a lot of gas from that fund but such is life. The main point is I'm tracking where my money is going, right? (right? lol)

Veggie-licious

2011-03-04T21:11:00.003-05:00

Tonight was a no meat night for us. We had two dishes...

Rice, red lentils, tabasco and cheddar cheese. Simple, easy and tasty.

Dish two - fancy dish!
1 fresh head of cauliflower
2 pounds of fresh brussel sprouts
1 pound red potatoes
2 large shallots
1 apple (med size)
a cup of chicken broth
2-3 splashes of vinegar
butter

Shred the apple into the butter. Add the shallots, add vinegar, add chicken broth as needed. Caramelize. Trim brussel sprouts and cut the big ones in half. Cut the cauliflower into large hunks. Cut potatoes into wedge sizes. Cook until tender. Drain and toss in the caramelized mixture and coat. Add more chicken broth if needed.

It's not a cheap dish, I probably had $8 in it. But it makes a TON of food so we'll be having it with lunch and dinner over the next few days.

The leftover rice/lentils? I am getting ready to puree some fresh aldi tomatoes, my 2 cent jalapeno pepper (its so little lol, 99 cents a pound) and some onion to make salsa to add to the leftovers. Then I'll fry the corn shells and drape them over a glass while they are hot to make little taco cups and fill them. DD will love that :)

Tacos

2011-03-02T22:47:00.003-05:00

What fun it is to cook now! I look at my stockpile and I'm like hmmm what today?

tacos!

The best corn tortillas in the world are at the stinky asian market in Nashville. They almost have a floral scent to them. They are FANTASTIC crisped up in pan before eating (which I learned tonight - the ones in my pic were not crisped and I scraped off the toppings and tried again).

In my food processor I threw in a handful of cilantro stems, half an onion, chili power, cumin, garlic, lemon and a roma tomato. I added about a pound of sliced raw chicken breast and let it rest for 2 days in the fridge. Cooking was a breeze, I just dumped it in a skillet.

And because I fed my boy and my Mom, there is just one taco left. That is SO exciting. With one adult, and one little kid in the house, we have a LOT of leftovers. I get so tired of them. Instead of ten meals this month - shoot - we might have eleven! lol

(I also cooked bell peppers and onions and added a ton of fresh cilantro.)

Planning our NYC Adventure

2011-03-01T21:53:00.000-05:00

I normally vacation for 2 weeks in May. It's the perfect travel month, spring break is over and school isn't out yet. It is CHEAP! This is the last school-free year for us, so we are going out with a bang.

Towards the end of May is a week beach trip with my Mom. The first week of May is NYC with my boy. It's hard to balance 2 different people who want to travel!

I've been researching hotels like constantly for a month now. 2 beds, non smoking, under $200 a night....its been a little hard to locate! Especially the 2 bed part without having to pay a large 3rd person surcharge.

So we went over to Long Island City. There is a Sheratan opening just a few days before we arrive in NYC. It is a basic room with 2 beds, then entire hotel is non smoking and there won't be any bed bugs. It is also $1010 for 6 nights including taxes :) We will be 500 feet from a subway connection and the ride into Manhattan is an extra 5 minutes. I am pleased :)

Our train tickets are free because we signed up for Amtrak rewards. I bought theater tickets like last Sept, so those aren't included in this year's budget.

Want to see what we'll be doing? (Remember, Stephen pays for his own stuff.)
Statue of Liberty - $17
Top of Rock - $21
Central park Zoo - $19
Natural History Museum - Free (corporate passes - yay!)
Guggenheim Museum - Free (corporate passes - yay!)
NYC Aquarium - Free (corporate passes - yay!)
Met Art Museum - Free (corporate passes - yay!)
Modern Art Museum - Free (corporate passes - yay!)
NY Science Museum - Free (corporate passes - yay!)
Chinatown - dinner and walking around
Little Italy - we will grab lunch here since it's been reduced to a city block
Brooklyn Bridge - gonna walk it and take pictures
Wall Street - this is my thing - makes my little daytrading soul happy. I hope we are there on a day when C is doing well so I can take a pic of it on the ticker.
Wicked - bought last year
Manhattan Beach (sooooo excited, the aquarium is practically on the beach!)

All this, plus my share of the room, a subway pass and a train ticket for Natalie is a mere $657. That leaves $543 for food for 6 days and some small souvies.

I know big city folks are going to groan now but here goes - I think I'm taking some food with us.

Breakfast is not included. I've google mapped the area and I do not see fast food for breakfast anywhere. I am *this* close to buying a hot water pot to take, like what was in my rooms in China. I can take rolled oats and run them through the food processor to make them instant oats. I just bought tons of awesome dried fruit and nuts for it. A little hot water and tada! breakfast. The little pot is also something I can take on other roadtrips.

Another quandary....where are all the coffee pots in NYC? Why don't rooms have them? I've looked and looked and maybe I'm just missing them but I don't see any. I am *this* close to making some little coffee "tea" bags and bringing them along with our travel mugs.

Anyway, I am hunting down tasty cheap places to eat while we are there. If you have any suggestions please let me know :)

Nashville Grocery Shopping - Wowsa

2011-02-28T22:34:00.005-05:00

I am waiting for all the charges to come through on my card. I think I spent about $420 on HBA and groceries this weekend. We visited Trader Joes, Whole Foods, Costco and Aldi.

I've been having cooking issues, that is why we've been going out so much. I needed variety, I needed something different. So I went a little nuts. Part of me was like nooooo don't do it! Then part of me was like its not the end of the world, buy your stupid groceries (those darn voices again). Instead of spending $15 on Chinese, I'll grab some of the chicken I cleaned and froze and I'll make a quick sauce with some of my new goodies and take care of that craving.

The bulk of what I bought is stuff I normally don't get. I am interested to see what sort of new things I can come up with :)

Please keep in mind, anything from Costco was like huge! The pictures are misleading you know? (and ignore the unfinished countertop, maybe I'll get that done in March).
25 pounds of rice for like 7 bucks. I love costco.

A kajillion craisins, 4 shaving gels, a dried fruit/nut medley, 2 pds brussel sprouts & coffee filters for like 2 years. (not pictured, a huge bag of trashbags and a new rice cooker).

1.5 liters of organic olive oil, 4.5 pds of raisins, 3 pds almonds, 2 pounds of jerky, 2 huge jars of baby dills, 50 ounces of kisses (the huge jars of dills were the same price as the little jars at home - we love them and I never buy them)
Some fruit/veggie juice I got because it looked good. Organic whole wheat pasta, organic maple syrup (big bucks), everyday spice, 2 pds organic fancy rice, 1 pd walnuts and a TJ bag

This is trader joes loot (in hind-site, I should have shopped at costco first)
9.2 pounds of whole bean coffee..heee heee heeeeee (4 teeny new bags of star bucks are going back to walmart- that $30 actually pays for 3 of the 4 bags above. Lesson learned - coffee at costco is CHEAP!)
This is also costo except my violets from kroger.
2 of the lemon juices are for my Mom (Costco). The bags are my whole foods bulk buys. Everything is organic. I got about 3 pounds of chick peas, some wheat berries, cheese snack crackers, popcorn, steel cut oats and black beans.
Asian market - cilantro, red bell peppers, ginger, shredded black mushrooms, red potatoes
Lots more red peppers. Hoisen sauce, sweet soy, regular soy, tahini & adobe (mom). Also a nice tray of shallots.
2 packs of the best smelling corn taco shells in the world. I have to subdivide them and freeze them. 1 pound total of shitake mushrooms (expensive!), 2 pds red lentils, 12 ounces of dried hominey (never bought this before, it has a soup recipe on the bag that sounded good) & 2 kids of rice noodles.
aldi, 99 cent tomatoes, 99 cent onions, cheap bananas, 3 peppers for 1.50, 2 pounds of carrots for a buck & I think the seasoning packets were 39 cents. I was in cheap food heaven.

Spending - Week Eight (Feb 19-25)

2011-02-25T18:53:00.003-05:00

This is about the time of year where I give up on this blog lol The little voice in my head is telling me it's stupid to track all my money. But the practical voice is screaming early retirement! beach condo! new furniture! a greenhouse! All stuff that I can eventually afford if I stick to budget for a few years.

So anyway, my spending has been pretty crappy this week. The stock market tanked, that always put me in a foul mood (I have a 5 year plan that I get very impatient about - I know stuff will go back up). I'm being belligerent to myself, seriously, like arguing in my head. I scold myself for stupid spending (like the movie above) then the angry teen in me say to back off, it's my money and if I want to waste it I will. The voices in my head really don't get along :)

Anyway, here it is in all it's glory.

Gas at BP Thursday
Japanese on Thursday & coke 7.90 1.25
Tuesday - la caretta and a sprite - 4.87 1.25
oil change 32.94
chicken tenders 2.18
oranges 1.08
groceries at beginning of week 15.82
ice tickets - $49
cotton candy during ice show - $10
subway after ice - $7.67
movie theatre $43
march of dimes - $5
target 62.07 - 3 shirts, half and half (I need to find the receipt, this is only half of it)
taco bell 3.59
subway 7.67
chinese 11.35
walmart vday stuff - 30.16

I obviously didn't cook this week. And I'm obviously going to run out of eating out money for the year. Yay me.

Dear Movie Theatre,

2011-02-20T14:41:00.002-05:00

Last night my future hubs, my DD and myself went to a 3D movie during matinee pricing. With a couple of cokes and popcorn, the bill came out to $43.

$43 is...
more than enough for a tank of gas
2/3 of a cruise day in the off season
3 happy hour meals at O'Charleys
39 sausage biscuits
our share of a room at Myrtle beach plus lunch
78% of what I needed to do my bulk oats order
almost 5 tshirts for me for summer
86 paperback books from yard sales
and the list goes on and on.

I feel stupid. I won't miss you.

Spending - Week Seven (Feb 12-18)

2011-02-18T19:00:00.003-05:00

Um...well..ok so here it is. I did go out of town for a day where outlets were involved. What I can't get over is how much food I bought at the store, then turned around and ate out a whole lot. (not making excuses so much as just perturbed at myself)

McDonalds - 4.92 + 6.48 (I don't even remember eating there twice, but my CC doesn't lie)
Groceries - $41.51
vday drink for daycare - $3.60
goodies for friends $10
Cats - $10.49
Fundraiser - $100
Breakfast $3.23 (I had an hour to kill so I ate breakfast at the grocery store deli - it was delish)
dollar general - 2.76 (drinks for the roadtrip)
Kirklands - $21.93 (2 pictures for my kitchen)
Japanese - 14.29 (dinner out on outlet day)
gas - $27.50
Walmart - 75.79 - this was for valentines day stuff, 3 sets of rechargable batteries (big bucks!) and a present for my boy. I can't find my receipt and I can't account for $20 of it so I'll mad money all of it. (losing receipts and not being able to categorize my purchases - this perturbs me too!)
Carters - $9.20 - a dress for Natalie and a dress for a present.
coke - $1.50 - at the outlets
Burger King - 7.21 (for me, mom and Natalie)
Disney Store - 51.22 (booyah - see below....)

$51.22 at the Disney Store bought.....(and because blogs aren't any fun without pictures....)

4 Rapunzel polar fleece embroidered blankets

3 pairs of dress up blinkie shoes

3 mulan crowns

1 set of blinking tinkerbell wings

a tinkerbell crown

Some of it was for gifts, some of it was for Christmas and some of it was for Natalie because it was cute :)

Meal Plan Mooonn..um...February

2011-02-18T19:00:00.002-05:00

Yet another edit - I can't plan portions to save my life. We ate tacos for THREE dinners. I guess that makes sense, there are 12 shells in a box, if I eat 3 and she eats 1, then there you have it, three dinners.

(I am making changes as I go. Boy do I stink at meal planning. And just for fun, I'm adding pictures of some of our meals.)

You know, maybe my plan should be for a month instead of a week. I mean it's not like the weekly thing is working for me lol

I'll need 23 meals this month because of date nights. I need to do better at eating dinner leftovers at lunchtime the next day. Breakfast will be standard fare, oatmeal, eggs, cereal etc.

Meals (not in any order)
chef salad w/eggs/chicken/cheese/peas
Brats/carrot/cabbage/onion stir fry (We ate this once, it could have been 2 dinners and 1 lunch. But disorganized Kim didn't get the leftovers properly froze. Boo.)
bbq chicken on bread rounds & slaw
grilled cheddar cheese & home made chicken noodle soup
chicken & rice soup for the sickies in the house (chicken stock - gone!)
Italian sausage spaghetti & salad
breakfast casserole
Japanese style chicken with carrots & brown rice
tacos

(I scraped away like half of that sour cream lol)

Ham/bean/cheese soup with garlic cheese bread
Ham/bean/cheese soup with garlic cheese bread again
chicken spaghetti & salad
bacon/egg/cheese omelets on bread rounds (this is so good, it's my fav quick meal now)
ham subs on wheat rolls
french toast and baked apples
meatloaf and frozen veggies (at moms)
chicken salad on bread rounds and pasta salad
chicken broc cheesy rice casserole
hamburger mac & cheese with peas
no bun hamburgers & chips

(this was a big hit, little hamburgers with cheddar and pickles)

raisin bread french toast
Brats/cheese/onions on buns with cheese popcorn (hey - they all can't be winners)

Kung Pao chicken with celery, carrots & brown rice

$238

2011-02-18T18:18:00.004-05:00

I think I mentioned I've been working on my kitchen for like a year. I thought I was just replacing ugly stuff with pretty stuff. What I discovered was water damage and a lot more work.

A post or two ago I mentioned I'm trying to keep my house at a certain amount $wise. The bulk of my kitchen remodel was rolled into the original 50K that I've got in the place. So it's time to start tapping into the 20K grand remodel budget.

This is my sink! I paid $238 yesterday to have water cut off valves put in and my new sink to be installed. You can see I've really been working on the granite top too (ignore the dark spots, it was still wet). You can also see the color of the solid wood oak cabinets (minus the trim). My oak floors are a little darker but they are the same tone.

(lets digress for a minute...the person I bought these cabinets from, replaced them with maple ones...except only the doors were maple, the rest was man made wood...why..even if you don't care for the color or grain in them, would you yank out real wood and put in fake wood? Duh?)

Oak was not my first choice for cabinets. To get a real wood substitute, like maple, it was big bucks. I don't have my sheet anymore but I believe a kitchen remodel with real maple cabinets, laminate countertops, the same sink and faucet, a new stove, new microwave range unit and dishwasher was right at 12K.

You don't put 12K into a 70K house.

So my compromise:
a used stove - $100 (I had a 1960 cooktop and wall oven)
a used 3 month old microwave - $100
used cabinets - $400
granite tile countertops - $600
a new dishwasher - $400
a new sink - $200
a new faucet - $100
2 new saws plus misc pieces and parts like screws - $400
electrical outlets and wiring - $350
new copper pipes for the kitchen - $390
----------------------------------------------
I'm at about 3040 give or take a little.

I am so pleased with how it turned out, I'll post more pictures as I finish :)

$1,248.72 - ouch (and other stuff)

2011-02-15T22:06:00.005-05:00

Eeck! lol

I've apparently had my student loans for 5 years now and my super cheap payment is no more. I have to pay $162 a month. The yearly difference? $1248.72. Um...ouch?!?!

I was talking to a guy, from who knows where, who was trying to console me about the payment. I was like....dude what is my interest rate? 2%. Then I'm good. I don't care if I pay $162 for another 15 years as long as the rate is so low. He was actually like "14 years 10 months" in a peppy little voice. Lay off the coffee call center guy!

Anyway, it seems like I'm constantly changing my spending categories. I'm not sure if that is normal or not.

My bedroom remodel is being moved into the 20K remodel project (which isn't coming from my yearly budget, it's complicated lol). So is the roof. With all repairs, expansion etc, I don't want to have more than 70K in my house. If you put on a 3K roof plus a $500 bedroom, that will push me over. I know I'm being paranoid but I don't want to price my house out of the neighborhood. It is a street of little cottage houses and my basement expansion is going to make it huge compared to most. But if I can keep it under my tax assessment (often used as a guideline in my area for appraisals etc) then I am comfortable in improving my little cottage.

I found out my medical is going to be $260 instead of $279.64 so I'll fix that.

I discovered my house for sale had a $200 credit on it's budget billing power account. So I had them move that to the house we live in. And our bills really are running $107 avg and I've got that $200 buffer, so I am reducing the power column down to $1284.

Netflix is actually running $10.94, I forgot about tax.

Just to be anal, my cable modem is 19.99 instead of 20 a month.

School Supplies/Learning Materials column got a little less complicated. My Mom can now watch Natalie on Thursday, the day I lost from daycare. So $1538 is an insane number for this section now. I know I'll have to buy classroom supplies, but I think I can do that out of my mad money. My goal was to have more columns but it seems like my misc one is getting bigger and bigger.

I think that is it. I have a lot of work to do in my sidebar.

Spending - Week Six (Feb 5-11)

2011-02-12T14:04:00.002-05:00

Not a very exciting week. Not in spending, not in living. So meh. I'm glad it's over!

$20.65 - Groceries (gallon of milk, 2 pds brown rice, 1 pd ground round, 1 container OJ, 2 avacados, 1 container sour cream, 4 large whole wheat subrolls (fancy kind with seeds and nuts), 1 pd ham, 1 doz eggs, 6 bananas)
$4.21 bread store
$18.48 - Playdough set
31.76 gas
$18.44 Family dollar trip, junk food and playdough toys (it was a very junk foodie week)
$4.70 lunch @ work
$24.89 2 tshirts for me for summer, 1 pr of pjs for Natalie for next year (75% off) plus half & half
$3.72 - McDs breakfast
$3.60 - McDs smoothie run
$3.42 Kohls
$5(ish) Burger King before gym (waiting for charge to appear on CC)

So this week obviously shows that when I am bored, mad, meg, blah and just general over everything, I spend money on a ton of little stuff.

We have an out of town trip tomorrow planned to outlet shop. Yikes!

Lettuce - take 2

2011-02-10T18:37:00.000-05:00

So my first batch didn't make it past week 1. So I threw some more lettuce seed in the tub of dirt, moved it to a new window and watered it a lot more (I was worried about drowning the seeds).

Tada! Take two has made it a week and each tiny stem has 2 leaves. The other websites I've read says I can harvest leaves after 3 weeks. This stuff is going to have to take off big time to meet that timeline. But hey - it's still alive! lol

I'm feeling rather smart (and frugal)

2011-02-09T00:02:00.000-05:00

I bought 4 awesome pillows at TJ Maxx several years ago. They were slipcover style with a duck feather insert. Super nice, I loved them.

Till my cat yaked on them. And me, being the young-non-martha-stewart type, tossed them in the washer.

Oops

Ever washed a feather pillow? Imagine a big stinky dog. Like the size of a house. So I pulled out the inserts, tossed them and rewashed the outer covers and put them away.

I never got around to getting new inserts. I had no idea pillow inserts were so expensive. I was saving up money for Natalie's adoption and I didn't have $10 to stick in a pillow. I thought I'd just stuff them with something else. Um ya, I never did that. Until tonight!

A couple of weeks ago, I posted that I bought Christmas stuff at Dollar General. They had marked everything down to 25 cents. That's my kind of sale. I bought 8 of these:

See where I'm going here? I squeezed them in the store and thought..ooooooohhh...squishy like a pillow. I flip over the bag and guess what? 100% polyester. The same as polyfill.

Score!

So I used 4 of my bags of poly fill to go from this:

to this:

For $1, my favorite pillows return! Yay me! lol

On Budget - YAY me lol

2011-02-06T10:47:00.003-05:00

Natalie's birthday budget was $120. I know for some families that is really high. Compared to what I got, it's peanuts.

For her 4th birthday, there were three separate events I had to buy things for.
1. Preschool cupcakes.
2. Playdate to a bounce house on her birthday plus pizza for lunch
3. Chuck E Cheese on her birthday.

Broken down by $
birthday misc stuff (cake mix, frosting, cupcake liners, M&Ms, candles etc) - 24.10
minus 5.56 for felt going back to the store
Birthday Bounce House, snack & lunch -18.96
Presents - 16.73 on 2 Leapster games, 4.47 on pink fur stole
new favors - $1.07
Chuck E Cheese - 2 large pizzas, 12 drinks, 165 tokens, $53.26
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
$113.03

The extra $6.97? I'll move it to my mad money - woot!

Cheap Party Favors

2011-02-05T21:37:00.004-05:00

So I didn't make the hats. I just couldn't get a good pattern made out and I ran out of time. Then Natalie asked for a ribbon wand like Angelina Ballerina. So I thought - sticks - ribbons - glue...I can SO do that.

I spent $1.06 on wooden dowels at walmart. They came in a pack of 8 and were various widths and about a foot long.

Remember my cheap ribbon? First I picked out 4 of those spools. A couple of mine weren't full, I'd say if you were buying ribbon, you'd need 1 full spool per wand. Hobby Lobby has this ribbon for $1 on sale all the time. My cost? About 50 cents for all of my ribbon because of that fab deal.

I used hot glue to cover the dowel with ribbon. Then I took three strips of ribbon, folded them halfway and sewed them on the crease. I glued them pointing down (to have 6 streamers instead of 3) then wrapped another ribbon around the tip to hide the sewed part. The longest streamer was about 2 feet, the shortest, about a foot. It is hard to see, but I have ivory, pink and turquoise streamers and yellow on the dowel. I was trying to use up open spools.

The hairbows were from my etsy store collection. I'll be selling triple loop bows for $3 soon. I've been saying that for a couple of months now...sigh....

Anyhoooo - sticks + ribbon = 3 favors for $1.56. And they really liked them :)

Spending - Week Five (Jan 29-Feb 4)

2011-02-04T22:00:00.000-05:00

First things first, boy am I glad this week is over. Too much stuff going on. Tomorrow is day 9 of rush rush rush. Work & home life have whipped me over the last 1.5 weeks.

Oh ya and......

新年快樂

(happy new year!)

Chinese New Year
Chinese New Year tickets - $17
Chinese fun twirling handkerchief - $10
burger king afterwards 4.16
---------------------------------------------------------------
Ross $4.37. I had a leftover store credit from who knows when. I got myself a shirt (wooohooo!) and a pair of tights for Natalie's clothes next winter.

Ross #2 $13.78 on two large photo albums. I have at least 1200 pictures printed and not in albums. They are in little sad boxes in the TV cabinet.

Target - negative $5.48. Cool huh? I bought an adorable fancy dress for $10, 50% off. Danged if it didn't got to 75% off 2-3 days later. So I brought in the dress and they returned it and resold it to me without even swiping my card. Target...I love you.

Target - $22.26. I was in a wandering mood and I have to find the receipt. I bought even more little girl clothes (thank goodness the clearance racks are empty now, I'm a crazy woman) and some shampoo. I can't remember the rest so I might have to edit this entry.

--------------------------
birthday stuff (cupcakes, party favors, candles) - 24.10
(I have some stuff to return, I changed party favors.)
Birthday Bounce House & Lunch -18.96
Birthday - 16.73 on 2 Leapster games I hadn't counted yet
new favors - $1.07
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Walmart
groceries - 20.01 (eggs, milk, pears, onions, garlic, cabbage, bbq sauce, diet coke, little french breads, paprika, taco shells, bananas & apples)
clothes - 4 prs of tights - 8.76
seeds - 5.26
cats - 21.06
Christmas (Natalie) - 5.48
The one on the right was marked down to $5, half off! She already had the left one.

Allowance - so I decided to do something that will prob bite me in the butt in a few months. They had a Melissa and Doug train set on clearance tonight. With the extra car set for it, it all came out to $76.64. I asked Natalie if she wanted it with her money (she plays with it every single time we go into that toy store) and she said yes. So I decided to advance her allowance to her. I told her she'd get less every month and she seemed ok with it. Now at four, does she really understand? I say no lol

She hasn't noticed Jan's contribution to her piggy bank was low ($3 instead of $10 down from $20 last year). So I'm thinking as long as I give her something (in dimes, her favorite), and we continue to work on money counting then we are good. I am a super wimp when it comes to after Christmas clearance sales.

Look how awesome it is :) I am going to glue the suspension pieces together so she can put it together herself.

Walmart - $17.06
I went in for wooden dowels and fray check (different post). I also ended up getting chicken, potatoes and egg rolls from the deli. And another wooden bridge for the trains set. I am sure there are a couple of other things too, I need to find this receipt. When I am stressed, I spend. Then I feel guilty about blowing money and that stresses me more.

The reason I am stressed? Daycare dropped our spot. I have the PERFECT schedule. I had every hour planned during the week and it was like a beautiful dance. Natalie has school certain hours, had art& playtime certain hours, baths were certain times on certain days. Gymnastics and Ballet were worked in the mix perfectly. My Mother went part time and revamped her schedule in order to accommodate our new one.

So daycare decided they weren't taking one day kids and we'd have to increase our days. And you know what? I'm not willing to put her in the daycare enviroment for more than what she's been doing. Her attention span (no crappy food) has increased, her attitude has been great and everything has been pretty awesome since I started my remote work schedule in August.

So now I'll have an extra $900 which I'll move to learning materials. This column will now cover any activities I plan on Thursday for her. I have some ideas and I'll need more ideas. But I'm blabber along about that on another post.

(holy cow I spent a lot this week...don't add it up)

My January 2011 Summary

2011-02-01T01:00:00.000-05:00

Monthly roundup! Bullet style!

Jan 7.7% of total, 4 of 52 weeks reported

Groceries 1405.60/1560 = 9.9% - over just a little bit, I'm not surprised.
HBA 142.82/180 - 20.66% - oh good grief. I see my future mad money visiting this column
Mad Money - 2171.57/2238 - 2.97% - really? excellent lol
Gas 706.23/780.00 - 9.46% but I have half a tank of gas right now so it's right on target
Daycare 900/960 - 6.25% - I was sick one day and kept the little one home with me. I pay per day. Not cool that I was sick, but cool I was sick on a day I could save money LOL
Cat - 404.39/420 - 3.72% - that is pretty good. I am sad to say I've not seen three of my strays for most of the winter. I home they have found nice warm homes with lots of cat chow.
Clothes - 471.07/600 - 21.49% - I knew I'd spend a lot in Jan on clothes with the clearance sales. Hopefully I can restrain myself until the end of summer clearance (which should happen in May right? Don't you hate when stores have clothes out?)
Eating out - 418.26 /460.55 - 9.18% a little over. If I can keep our eating out to 460.55 for the year it will be a small miracle.
Christmas - Other - 290.69/300 - 3.10% - this was just for bags, bows, paper etc.
Birthday - Natalie - 115.53/120 - 3.7% - the bulk of this expense will be in Feb.

Beach Vacation

2011-01-30T10:20:00.001-05:00

I am not sure how I ended up being landlocked. If I don't go to the ocean multiple times a year I'm not a happy camper.

We are spending 7 nights in Myrtle Beach with my Mom. The room and gas charges will be split. That makes a cheap vacation for both of us.

They were running a special, for an extra $20 for the week, if we moved from the side of the building to the front. Our beds also went from double to queens. Yippppeeeee

This is my estimate so far:
Room = $604.96/2 = 302.48
Gas - $50 (extra on top of the weekly amount)
Eating out - $45 (3 $15 meals)
Groceries - $0 - I'll use our regular grocery budget. More than likely I'll bring 2 complete dinners frozen and Mom will do the same. Then we'll do milk and cereal for breakfast then sandwiches and fruit for lunch.
Misc- I think my mad money will cover anything weird. We go to MB so much, we don't have any unexpected expenses.
-----------------------------------------
$397.48

Spending - Week Four (Jan 22-28)

2011-01-28T23:59:00.001-05:00

Ok so here it is in all it's glory (more like gory glory lol)

First - I returned some unopened princess dresses that I didn't give DD at Christmas for $35. Instead of sticking that money in my misc fund, I spent it hehe I bought two more dresses for next winter for DD (see below!), 1 pair of tennis shoes for now, 1 pair of tennies for about a year from now, 1 pair of tennies to give to a friend and a Dora umbrella for $42.16. So I'll take $7.16 from the clothing column. I really hope I have little kid clothes out of my system now. I have 4 more outfits than I planned for. Bad Kim!
Wedding - I bought my wedding gown the day after we decided to get married on Ebay for $108 shipped (NWT Galina - woot). I bought Natalie's dress at Belks for $19.70 this week. I didn't have a wedding column before and now I do so here these are.
Groceries - 43.75 - meh - I am going to try monthly meal planning this month to see if that helps. My main problem? I just like to shop for groceries! But I can barely close my freezer!
Mad money - honey & containers - 22.49
Taco Thursday spilled over into taco Tuesday too. But I won a visa giftcard at work that I used on the meals. Yes, I should have used them on something useful like gas for my car, but I like tacos.
I also went out for Chinese with mom - 15.46. Can you see what happened this week? Meal plan, meal splan.
McDonalds - twice, 3.72 and 3.29 (sigh)
HBA - $3.28
Dollar General for Christmas supplies - 9.31 ...everything was marked down to a quarter. I bought stuff for me and Mom.
2 cokes @ work - 2.50
gas 38.14
Consignment store - $2.19
Daycare - $20

I squished all my eating out categories into one because sometimes we do eat something different than McDs, Chinese or tacos.

Picture time! Blogs without pictures are boring!

Groceries - Trip #2

2011-01-27T20:02:00.004-05:00

Boredom is a very dangerous thing here. I picked the little one up from school yesterday and went to the grocer again.

I guess it was worth it, I got the brats for just 1.29 a pack and there are 19.something ounces in each one. Quick someone do the math - that's about a buck a pound right? lol I got 6 of them and I left three of the mexican sausage ones for someone else. I also left the same person (a single guy who looked longedly into my cart at MY marked down brats- in my head I was going na na naaa naaa naaaaa) have the big frozen pizzas and the marinated roast. The pizzas were $1 each and were deli style. But you know what? That's just junk food in a different form. The roast might have been fine at 1.49pp but it was HUGE and who wants to buy 4 pounds of meat that they might not like?

Let's see, lettuce was normal at 5.99 for a pound. The mayo was on sale for $1.99. I also picked up more bread rounds at the outlet bread store on the way home. I had the thought that maybe this was a limited time thing (my favorite things tend to disapear) and I should buy more. So I have two packs in the freezer now and we are working our way through a new one.

$16.19 at the grocer and $2.15 at the bread store. I'm over. Again. Oops.

~\ I got a raise /~ (<--little happy flags)

2011-01-26T09:36:00.004-05:00

This is what I've decided to do with the money:

add a wedding column to the budget. I won't be pulling this money from my investment account now (which was a dumb idea anyway, a wedding doesn't make a marriage and you don't sacrifice your future for a party)
fix the ballet column. I have 4 months at $43 then she goes into the $45 class in the fall for 4 months. In the fall I plan to enroll her into a second class so it will be times 2. I pay ballet monthly.
added to the gymnastics column. Tonight was her first advanced class and she rocked it out! The advanced class is a little more a year then I get a discount on a second class and another discount for paying a year ahead. I'll owe $256.80 next week and $888 in July (I pay gymnastics yearly because of a 20% discount).
adding the last 678 to my mad money. That way I can stick it in whichever column that needs it the most lol

I had a hard time deciding where to put the money. Part of me was tempted to slap the entire thing into my "extra income" that I'm trying to earn. But I have like 500 hairbows to sell now and all my consignment sales. I'm confidant that I'll be able to come up with the $2200 (plus actually a lot, but that is a different post). Then I was tempted to rebook our Disney trip (which I canceled in lieu of a beach trip). Then I was like KIM! Grow up! LOL

My Mad Money for this week

2011-01-24T13:01:00.004-05:00

I blew a nice chunk of my weekly mad money ($22.49) on things to help our new lifestyle. I'm attempting to add more organic foods into our diet, grow some food to cut down on transportation & packaging and to remove BPA from our diet.

We had a thread on DS about BPA that skeeved me out (and skeeved is my new favorite word, I say it every day).

BPA is a chemical in plastic that is super awful, like breast cancer awful for you. They banned it from baby bottles. You also aren't suppose to microwave anything in plastic.

Plastic is also used to line the inside of canned food. Imagine this...you have a can with this lining....the canner dumps hot food into the can....the chemical leeches into the food....you open that can and nuke it in a plastic bowl....tada! You've just created a toxic stew for your family.

yuck

So anyway, the first thing I've done is stop using canned goods. That is really hard. I have probably 60-70 cans of stuff in the pantry that I can't bring myself to eat. In the next week, I'll be rehoming those cans to someone who doesn't give a flip about BPA. Part of me is like toss them. The other practical part of me knows canned goods with plastic lining will always be purchased and my canned goods are no worse that what is on the shelf now. So my compromise - give it to a food bank type place where it doesn't go to anyone I know!

(Another added benefit of getting rid of canned goods - my stockpile will be practically zilch and I'll be able to make an inventory book of everything I have. That makes my little planning soul super happy.)

So onward to the organic things. I buy organic lettuce already but that's about it. Truthfully, I've not paid a lot of attention to organic stuff. But this week I added 10 pounds of organic carrots to our diet.

The carrots were only 6 cents per pound more expensive than buying them by the pound from walmart. They came in 5 pound bags, 2 of them for $7. I think they were on sale, that is something I forgot to check.

What I first noticed about the carrots is how well they were trimmed. Not a single piece of green stuff on the tops which is thrown away and adds to the poundage (so really, these were probably the same cost and regular carrots). The second thing that struck me was how clean they were. I guess when you pay more for your food, the companies take a little extra time in presentation and get the dirt off of them. Third, about 10 of the carrots had bug bites on them. Honest to goodness bug bites. It took an extra millisecond to nip those out while I was dicing them up to blanch for the freezer. It made them seem more real!

Oh wait, so back to my mad money. I purchased 12, 16oz plastic BPA reusable canning jars for the freezer this week. They were $3.89 plus tax for 4. I really like the size. I really like how they stack. It's just a good product. I blanched all 10 pounds of those carrots and got about 9 pounds into those 12 plastic jars. I wish I had been able to get another 4 pack but I bought them out. So I just kept the extras out of the freezer and we'll eat the two Japanese meals this week tonight and tomorrow.

My other mad money purchase was for organic raw honey to sweeten my tea. I'm a white sugar junkie which is probably why I feel like crap a lot. I am hopeful to find a local source but for now, I paid $8.99 for a little jar of honey. Boy did that hurt lol

So here is my mad money. I hope to add containers every time I see them for a good price at the grocer. If we like the honey and can't get more locally, I'll look into bulk purchase options online.

(coming soon - Kim makes bread - I hope I don't burn it, the organic flour was $3.50 a bag!)

Meal Plan Monday January 24, 2011

2011-01-23T18:00:00.000-05:00

(this is the new 7 ft kitchen countertop, an no, its not done yet lol)

I spent $25.41. Now that I look at what I got, it looks pitiful lol. I do have like 12 pounds of chicken breast in the freezer. I also have 10ish pieces of fruit already. So it sounds better now huh?

Guess what's going to start us out on the list? Spaghetti! You know the stuff I've been trying to make and eat for three weeks now? I am going to make it a date night at home* so I won't have an excuse.

Meal 1 - Spaghetti. No really. With garlic bread.

Meal 2 - Japanese chicken. I want to learn how to make sesame chicken, like what our local Japanese grill makes. I'll also make carrots & brown rice with shrimp sauce.

Meal 3 - I'm craving shrimp something awful. I am going to try to make shrimp like how they make it at the Japanese grill. We'll do broccoli with this plus brown rice.

Meal 4 - bacon cheese omelets (another craving! mmmm bacon)

Meal 5 - sliced bbq chicken and mixed freezer veggies

Meal 6 - some kind of chicken breast on bread rounds & fruit

Meal 7 - chicken breast with carrots, bacon crumbles, eggs etc on salad greens

Have a good week :)

* attempting to cut down on dating expenses so he is more comfortable with tripling his retirement contributions. If he doesn't do it, we'll be screwed next year at tax time.

Spending - Week Three (Jan 15-21)

2011-01-21T21:00:00.006-05:00

I'd like to just tag this week as "oops". I think I'm over in a lot of weekly goals LOL I keep thinking, my goal is yearly, not weekly or even monthly. Keep the eye on the prize Kim lol

Eating out
My dear boy paid for 2 meals for us this week. I've been sick and puny and he fed me. I think I'll keep him.
Chick-fil-a - $6.40 for a combo tonight before a birthday party.
McDonalds - $2.19
tacos with the little one - 10.13
- what I didn't spend - my weekly taco money. I missed work on taco thursday.
mad money - work snacks, 3.05 (this kills me, just 3.05 but it was soda and chips)

Real food (as we call it around here)
Walmart* - 34.00
Target (just half and half) - 1.77
breadstore - $14.20

Clothes - wowsa. To my defense, I did finish up Natalie clothes for winter 2011. But I think I said the same thing last month haha
white tights for ballet, a set of new not needed but super cute PJs, a sweater for next winter and a 10 pack of socks - 22.68
Belks - 49.77 (pictures below - I love little kid clothes pictures)
Gymboree - 5.48

Misc
cats - 11.11
HBA #1 - 3.28
Birthday - $4.47 (pink dress up shawl) 75% off booyah!
Etsy store - $35.67 (all that ribbon and 250 business cards to attach the bows to)
Ballet - $86.00 for Jan & Feb (I overalloted $18 a year for ballet and we aren't going in may so I'll have $61 to roll into her new advanced class uniforms in the fall)
HBA #2 - 30.62 (um ya, $15 a month isn't going to cut it here. I forgot about things like dishwashing detergent and TP)

I'm over on groceries this week because I stockpiled cheese and brown rice. Brown rice is cheaper per pound in the 1 pound bags at Walmart. Unfortunately, everyone knows that. So when I saw it in stock, I got three of them. Most stores, brown rice is twice the cost of white. At Walmart, is is just 7 cents more a pound. My other stockpile item was Kraft cheese for $1.50 a block. I can't recall it ever going lower than that and the blocks I bought had 20% more for free. So that's really like getting a regular block for $1.25. Last week I made the mistake of buying walmart brand shredded cheese and it was super gross. Dried out and every piece was coated in white powder that stuck to your tongue. Never again. So that is why I jumped on the Kraft stuff :)

I went shopping, twice. Both times I was in a bored, lets roam around and see what's going on type of mood lol That is never good for trying to stay on budget. lol

Groceries bought:
27 fiber one bars
2 packs of whole wheat no HFCS bread rounds
2 loaves of raisin bread
milk
a generic diet coke
pickles (stores are so sneaky - the days of $1 pickles are gone I think. When I compared per ounce, the huge jar was so much cheaper. That is how I blew $3 on $1 pickles lol)
3 pds brown rice
saltines
1 pd carrots
1.14 pd bananas
butter
coffee creamer
taco seasoning
5.10 pounds of cheese
a big thing of half and half

And on to the little kid's clothes. I let her pick them out, she was so happy :)

It's hard to see, there are silver stars on the purple dress on the left. At least i think it's a dress, she'll wear it with pants either way lol

I love this dress. Ralph Lauren corduroy, 75% off. Gives me a little high just to touch it lol It is fully lined with crimline inbetween the layers. The skirt and sleeves are sewn in a bubble style with the lining totally enclosed. And look at all the detail on top. I love love love it.

She's all about the purple. I'm good with that, fewer pairs of shoes needed! I am particularly fond on the flapdoodles outfit on the right. Her future cousin got the same outfit so we are going to do pictures. It will be really cute.

This striped christmasy dress looks better in person. My camera made the green kinds smear into the white. The pink top was just $4.99 at gymbo and I already had the old navy new cargo skirt that I paid $2-3 for.

Whew I think that is it. Bye!

:)

2011-01-20T11:31:00.002-05:00

Natalie is being moved to the advanced gymnastic class next week and is being moved in older girls in ballet in the fall. I'm a wee bit proud of her lol

Chicken Comparison - informational and a little boring

2011-01-19T17:30:00.001-05:00

I've always wondered this...now I know.

Food City had bone in chicken breast for 88 cents a pound. I bought 18 pounds even for .95 a pound with tax.

My normal sale price for boneless chicken breast is 1.99. Historically, once a year, it will go down to $1.69. But 1.99 is more common. $2.16 with tax.

So is the savings on cleaning your own chicken worth it with these prices?

What I discovered is:

Each breast portion had a breast and a tenderloin on it. Tenderloin is $3.50+ a pound. But I'm not going to divvy it up because I wouldn't buy tenderloin compared to regular chicken breast.
There are several chunks of meat in weird little spots on the ribcage that I couldn't get off. I used knives, I used kitchen shears. They just didn't come off.
Removing the breast and tenderloin from the rib cage was really easy. There is a little spot towards the top. If you get you fingers in there the right way, it pulls off in one piece.
De-boning chicken is messy.
When I cleaned the meat I was able to snip off all bad parts with my shears to make a perfect piece of meat. Even with "boneless" chicken, I am constantly cutting off big wads of "stuff" all over it. And I often have to sip off little bones around the edges.

What I ended up with...

18 chicken breasts
18 chicken tenderloins
or 13 pounds of boneless chicken placed into 26 bags for future meals.

Math time!
17.11 / 13 = $1.32 a pound or of 61.11% of the regular cost.

I am happy with that price. It did take me an hour to debone 18 pounds but that included wrapping it in meal sized portions.

But wait, there's more...
I also had 18 chicken rib cage leftovers. With hunks of meat on them. You know what I did with that?

Chicken stock/broth...woot!

I snipped the rib cages with all those meat chunks on them until they fit in the crock pot. Then I filled it with water and went to bed. In the morning I drained all the liquid and filled it back up and set it on high again. The first batch was really strong, the second was a little weak. So I mixed the two.

I ended up with 1.75 gallons of chicken broth. And since the chicken was additive free, it's a salt free, spice free, preservative free stock/broth (is it stock or broth? I used both meat and bones - I'm undecided lol).

Store brand chicken broth in a can is 14.5 ounces for 54 cents. My scraps made 15.54 "cans" of stock for a savings of $8.39.

So I saved 19.36 on the whole deal for an hours worth of work. I ended with two high quality items. Plus I enjoyed doing it.

$30 well spent....

2011-01-18T22:00:00.004-05:00

on Etsy loot. Check out what I bought for $30, including the cases :) Most of the ribbons are full spools and there are 129 of them!

I can't even guess how many hairbows these spools will make. My first bow sale is the last Sat in jan so I'd better get back to work!

Meal Plan Monday January 17, 2011

2011-01-16T23:45:00.001-05:00

Third week of the new year already? Wow time is flying!

This week we'll need 6 dinners. Last week I did pretty well except the spaghetti didn't get made. That baja stuff lasted forever and my BF took us out for an extra meal. So I'm pushing it to this week.

Spaghetti, made with the meat/veggie mixture I froze a week ago
Spaghetti leftovers (I so hope this doesn't extend past 2 dinners)
chicken veggie dumpling stew - made with frozen chicken stock from my chicken experiment
raisin toast french toast and fruit
ham/bean soup
kung poa chicken

Shopping list
Milk
rice
fresh fruit
butter
pickles
cheese
celery if it is a good price (a nice addition to kung pao but not required).

I ran to the bread outlet today and picked up almost 20 fiber one bars, 2 bags of raisin bread, a bag of hoagie buns and 2 packs of HFC free whole wheat bread flats for about $14. So for breakfast we'll be eating through the raisin bread (plus oatmeal/cereal & eggs I'm sure), and for lunch we'll have sliced chicken breast sandwiches, tuna sandwiches, and hummus on toasted bread rounds.

And for once in my life, I am going to freeze things in advance. We can't eat 8 foot long hoagie buns so I am going to slice them and put them in the freezer for french toast. We also can't eat 2 loaves of raisin bread (it was a penny for the second loaf) so that is being divided and frozen.

Dress Progress

2011-01-16T00:04:00.005-05:00

It is easier to visualize once it's cut huh? The three ruffles are almost down to her ankles. She has requested the skirt to be poofy. I'll end up with three spare ruffles. I know one is going to trim out the cape I'm going to make from the lining. The other two will be a detachable train (tail).

As for the top, I'm currently trying to take the padded top off of the fitted ribcage area to see what I have. Its hard to take apart fancy stuff without things unraveling and making a mess.

Birthday Plans for my little Natalie

2011-01-15T23:35:00.002-05:00

My little one turns 4 on Feb 1st. It seems like she was just a little baby yesterday. But seriously, the older she gets, the better she gets. Sure, baby drooling Natalie was pretty darn cute but she pooped in her pants, cried for no reason, got carsick, and threw her toys. 4 year old Natalie is 95% self sufficient, brilliant and 100% verbal. Fun too!

Last year we visited the mouse, not the good mouse, the cheap mouse, chuck. We had 10 of her little daycare friends there. I blew like $100 on tokens and food and make tutus for everyone as a party favor. It wasn't a bad use of money, I certainly couldn't have fit that many people in my house.

So I was going to mix things up this year and take her to a bounce house type place with 2 little friends (her BFFs forever don't you know). Then I found out I couldn't bring in cupcakes. She almost cried when I told her that so we are back at the mouse again this year. She is thrilled. Me - meh - lol

I have $120 allotted for her birthday. This is what I plan to spend/have spent:

$16.73 on 2 Leapster games. Dora was discounted for like a day on the Leapfrog site. Yay leapfrog! :) I also got a word building game.
$0 on the shoes I've already bought and counted in the clothing allowance. I am so cheating.
(Stephen has bought her a tag book, stickers and a hoppity ball. Nana has bought a Leapster. So even though my stuff isn't a lot, she is getting quite a bit.)
$3 cake mix and frosting. I already have the sprinkles she likes.
$0 decorations - last year I did a princess theme. I have one pack of plates left and another pack of solid purple Halloween plates to supplement (25 cents booyah!). I also have extra party hats, a pack of napkins, goodie bags and a tablecloth. I also have regular pink balloons. I asked her if still liked these and she was like oh ya. Score!
$4.38 on mylar balloons from dollar tree, one for each year.
$1.10 wrapping paper. I am out of birthday paper and was unsuccessful in finding solid colored Christmas paper on clearance.
$0 invites - I used facebook - is that cheap or hip?
$5 princess party favors (a post all by themselves!)
$50 - 2 $25 coupons packs. Includes 2 large pizzas and 150 tokens.
$5 - I'm probably not supposed to, but I am bringing some organic juice boxes.

I am at $85ish now. $35 wiggle room? YES! lol With 3 weeks to go until the party, this is the point where I normally add things. In my mind I'm like ooohhh I can spend $35 more? wheee!

But seriously, she doesn't need it. At this point I might make a second batch of cupcakes to take to daycare. But presents? Wowsa. She got enough presents for 4 kids for Christmas. I'm a sucker for pink glittery kid things (Santa and Nanaclause are too).

Sewing Fun

2011-01-15T01:28:00.004-05:00

So this is the prom dress I bought today. We went to my fav consignment store to just wander and they had 100ish formals marked down to $10.

Almost every dress had flaws. This particular one has a lot of beading missing from the ribcage area and has a ton of loose threads. So not so perfect for a girl dreaming about a pretty prom dress but perfect for Mama fun sewing time.

My plan is to remove the skirt from the bodice first thing. Then the first three ruffles will be the main part of the costume skirt. I think for ease it will just have an elastic waist. Then the harder part is the top, I'm obviously not going to put my almost 4 yr old into a padded halter top. I envision some sort of tank top. She has also requested a cape which can be made with the matching lining. Its a lot of high quality fabrics for the $10. I'll post updates.

The skirt is pleated tulle. Doesn't that scream mermaid? lol

Spending - Week Two (Jan 8-14)

2011-01-14T18:48:00.002-05:00

Groceries #1- 7.24 #2- 3.83
Mad Money 2.19 (valentines day stuff)
Daycare - $20
Mad Money - $6.75 for doughnuts
Mad Money - $10.95 for a prom dress to cut up to make a mermaid costume for the little one
Groceries again - 41.78*
cats - 4.50
McDonalds - $1.10
Target - $14.00 on DDs christmas dress for next year and a pair of leggings.

*groceries were higher because I got bone in chicken breast for 88 cents a pound. I bought $17.11 worth. I have plans for all that chicken but that is a different post!

Grocery wise I also got milk, half and half, cheddar cheese, a generic diet "coke", bread, 1.43 pounds of turkey deli meat, 3.33 pounds of bananas, 2.63 pounds of pears and 3.06 pounds of apples. Besides the milk, half and half and bananas, I only bought loss leaders.

After reading some super disturbing stuff about canned items and the BPA plastic liners in them, I'll be ditching a lot of our can goods this week. So at some point I expect I'll have to blow my mad money on groceries to stock pile the correct way. But I think its money well spent.

This lazy mama's way to make food for the week....

2011-01-10T18:51:00.007-05:00

Did you notice our food this week is kinda......well......meh? It is actually better than it sounds.

How to cheat at dinner when you don't have time and your child is driving you crazy and all you really want is about 2 hours of quiet so you can finish working at your job so you can start working at your "Mom" job. (what? too long?)

In a pan, throw in..

1.5 rainbow bell peppers. I buy like 100 of these every summer and freeze them in 1/2 pepper quantities
2 onions
5 little parts of a big thing of garlic
1 pound of chicken breast
1 pound of turkey sausage
tomatoes, can be canned tomatoes, frozen tomatoes, whatever. I personally used a pound of frozen little pear tomatoes that I paid a whole 25 cents for during the summer

Then....

Cook all that.
Then whirl it around in the food processor. If you don't have a food processor, you should get one, they are a lot of fun. Like $40 at walmart for a black and decker one.
Start your rice cooker. Don't have a rice cooker? Get one, they are like $15 at ross and they rock.
In the pan you just emptied, pour in a jar of ragu alfredo. Add a little bit of water to the jar to get that last little bit out.
Add in half of the pureed meat veggies thing you just made. Let it cook together for a little bit.
Add 1-4 tablespoons of chili powder, just depends on how you want it to taste.
Nuke some steamer peas for your side dish (remember you have veggies in the sauce too)
Pour alfredo stuff on rice - eat - yum!

The next day (or the next)...
Take the rest of the meat veggie stuff and dump it into a jar of ragu spaghetti sauce (I use ragu a lot because it goes on sale for $1).
Cook pasta, add extra Italian seasoning yada, yada..you get the idea.

It took me 7 minutes to cut up the meat and veggies. While they cooked I did other stuff (like 15-20 minutes). The whirling of the mixture, like 3 minutes. The cooking of the alfredo sauce & rice? Like 2 minutes. Peas? zero effort.

We are eating out tomorrow, eating alfredo leftovers on Wed and doing the spaghetti red sauce on Thursday (I froze the other half of the mixture.) I look forward to cooking, without really cooking, on Thursday.

Costs (your mileage may vary)
$2 - 1 pound of chicken breast
$.95 turkey sausage (I know this is cheap, but I get it all the time for the price in the mark down section)
.50 2 small onions
.75 - 1.5 bell peppers
.10 - part of a garlic bulb
.25 pear tomatoes
.46 - 1/3 bag of rice X 2
.50 - 1/2 box of linguine noodles X 2
$1 of alfredo Ragu
$1 of Ragu red sauce
$1.50 - two pound of frozen veggies, your choice
----------------------------------------
$9.01 plus tax for

4 dinners
1 lunch
2 freezer meals minimum

Or 2 dinners and 2 leftover lunches for a family of 4.

oooohhhh ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

2011-01-10T00:15:00.001-05:00

I've always had a red kitchen. There for a bit, some blue was mixed in. But for the most part, red towels and white dishes have been my norm. Shoot, my dishes alone are 15 years old now.

The "new" kitchen will be done this month. And with the wedding happening this fall, I'm registering for new kitchen loot. I am SO excited.

But I can't seen to escape from red! I'm drawn to it! And its not just in my kitchen, my nursery is red too (the perfect shade of red btw with white crown molding, I love it so!).

So I got $40 in cash at Christmas. Instead of spending it on, I don't know, bills, I blew it on my future kitchen.

Behold!

Red!

I already had a couple of pieces, that only made me want more. Then the super wonderful TJ Maxx stocked hundreds of pieces of red, black and white kitchenaid stuff this past week. I was a lot of fun to mark these off my registry for a fraction of the price Amazon was charging. I love Tj Maxx even more than I love Hobby Lobby. Don't tell HL.

Oh ya...

2011-01-10T00:06:00.000-05:00

There are 2 things I'm not going to be including in my budget this year. Both are pretty recent and occurred after I set up my budget for the year.

One - my basement is going to be finished. We are currently in a 3 bedroom, 1 bath, 1040 SF house. Perfect size for 1 adult and 1 little kid. But.....

I'm getting married Oct 1st (that's two BTW). As of now (I am trying really hard to talk him into eloping), we are having a family ceremony in Gatlinburg. We've set a budget of 2K, 1K each, we are too old to ask people to pay for our wedding. I keep telling him that 2K would buy that 1020p, 120h, 50+ inch TV he wants plus the kitchenaid mixer, food processor and blender that I want. Silly boy wants to have a ceremony in front of family. poo on him lol

So anyway, back to news one - 1040 is not big enough for a man with his own household plus me and 1 little kid. And hopefully several more little kids. We are converting my unfinished basement into living space. We are also building a room under the deck and front porch. We will end up with 2365 square feet. We are both contributing 10K towards the project and will do as much of the work as we can ourselves.

Getting married in Oct will skew my budget for q4 but I guess I'll worry about that later.

Meal Plan Monday January 10, 2011

2011-01-09T23:36:00.001-05:00

My meal plan last week didn't work at all. I am still getting into my groove on how much food to actually make so we won't throw anything away. We are really eating up the leftovers!

This week I need fewer meals.
For 6 breakfasts, we'll stick to cereal & bananas and oatmeal & apples/pears/raisins.
I will need 5 lunches
Lunch 1 - chili soup from prior week from the freezer
Lunch 2 - Tomato soup, grilled cheese and raw carrots
Lunch 3 - tuna pasta salad with peas and carrots
Lunch 4 - egg sandwiches and probably apples because we have several from last week
Lunch 5 - DD will be at Nanas during the week one extra day. That day I'll just eat soup or leftovers, I'm not picky.
I will need 5 dinners
Dinner 1 - kung pao chicken stir fry
Dinner 2 - spaghetti
Dinner 3 - spaghetti leftovers
Dinner 4 - baja chicken pasta
Dinner 5 - Baja chicken pasta leftovers

DD will be in heaven, 5 noodle dishes in one week. I'll add veggies to these meals to balance them out. We'll also snack on fruit. I'll use chicken and turkey sausage in the spaghetti & baja chicken to just get rid of it. I like to cook both and whirl them around in my food processor to blend it really well.

This week I bought.....
cheetos - $2
navel oranges (6) - 1.98
bananas (6) - 1.15
2 pounds of carrots - 1.24
OJ - 1.98
garlic bulb - .38
2 buttermilk ranch dressings (I got two because it is always sold out) - 2.36
a pack of M&Ms hehe - .50
Grand Total w/tax = 7.24 after I used the last 4.93 from my WM giftcard

I did forget bread which I'll pick up at the bread outlet down the street. I already have chicken and turkey sausage in the freezer. I wasn't in the mood for salad so I didn't get a tub of salad greens (that might change as the week progresses). We have milk & eggs too. My BF is bring 4 cartons of juice to me tomorrow that he bought us last night and another pack of bananas. Some girls get flowers, I get cheap groceries hehe

THIS is the month we eat the freezer down to ice cube status. The only thing I want in there are the diced peppers. We simply can't eat 25 of them this month. I think I can do it :)

2 free things

2011-01-08T00:21:00.000-05:00

One, $25 in free seeds when you request a catalog. I am doing the garden thing this year and that will buy quite a bit of seeds.

http://www.gardensalive.com/catalog_request_qas.asp?bhcd2=1294464059

I also ordered a catalog for my boyfriend so I'll have $50 in stuff. And actually, their stuff is mostly organic and cheaper than Burpee so more that likely they've bought a customer with a few packets of seed. I'm a cheap date :)

(this came from Frugal Frenzy)

Two, a free tag book. Go to the site and tell them what leapfrog toys you already have. You can choose from a tag junior or regular tag book for free. Takes 6-8 weeks. If it works (and it should, they do it every year), I'll use it in DD's Easter basket.

http://www.leapfrog.com/en/freetagbook/book.html

Spending - Week One (Jan 1-7)

2011-01-07T11:51:00.000-05:00

Daycare - $20
Mad Money - $18.50 for 2 pairs of wool longies. I couldn't help myself. Darn you extra fluffy DS chat board! lol
Vacation - Beach room deposit 107.58. (Beach trip info coming soon)
Gas - 35.63
Groceries - $7.83 Kroger - I had to buy apples for the preschool party that I totally forgot about. I also got a pack of ramen (because seriously, who doesn't love ramen every so often?), a super crappy lean cuisine that I am going to write them about (the pizza is super gross) and a can of gourmet chili that was on clearance. I was hungry and I was bored. I'm lucky I came out as low as I did LOL

For our main groceries & HBA this week I used $45 of $50 worth of GCs for walmart. We got them for Christmas and I don't like hanging on to things like that. I spent about $35 on groceries (I bought some eggs for my Mom and juice we really didn't need for $5ish, that is why I was over). I'll spend the other $5 next week prob. HBA wise, I got shaving cream and bar soap. DD also scored a light up Tinkerbell wand for $3.50. She sleeps with it, she loves it.

Good stuff that came in my mail...
A check for like $2.40 from linkshare - I'll take it!
A secret shopper opp for my bank. All I have to do it go through the drive through teller which I need to do anyway. That is $10.
2 $2 off coupons for purina cat chow because I asked :)
(my goal for 2011 is to make an extra $2200 this year from selling stuff, freebies or unexpected things like the coupons....I'm $16.40 there!)

Do you notice what is missing from my list this week? Fast food! I'm SO EXCITED and a little proud of me! I have a wicked McDs breakfast addiction. I can just think of their stuff and start to drool. But you know what? Their food is horrible for you. So I'm laying off the sausage biscuits (drool drool). I also didn't go to Taco Thursday with the girls at work because it snowed and I worked from home.

Meal Plan Monday January 3, 2011

2011-01-02T21:48:00.000-05:00

I am making edits as the week goes along. This is the last week I'll assign a certain meal to a certain day.

Greetings! To start off the new year, we are going to play the "what can I eat out of my freezer and pantry"game. I have several bags of frozen veggies, turkey sausage, ground beef, chicken breast and ham in the freezer. I have too much stuff to even list in the pantry. So here we go...

What we'll be eating:
Monday
Breakfast - cheerios & bananas
Lunch - leftover creamy spaghetti and a freezer veggie
Dinner - baked potatoes with chicken/cheese/ranch & cooked carrots - leftover creamy spaghetti and a freezer veggie (dd really likes this)

Tuesday
Breakfast - oatmeal or cereal plus fruit (I am going to try really hard to skip our Tuesday mcDs breakfast
Lunch - leftovers for me, DD is at Nana's
Dinner - meatloaf hamburgers & cabbage from freezer - I can't even remember what I made for dinner this night. DD ate at Nanas and I think I ate cereal?

Wednesday
Breakfast - oatmeal or cereal plus fruit
Lunch - egg/sausage/grit/cheese casserole (we'll eat breakfast anytime!)
Dinner - date night - went to family's house for cards

Thursday
Breakfast - oatmeal or cereal plus fruit
Lunch - I'll eat at work (taco day) DD will eat at school
Dinner - tuna steak, rice & frozen veggie baked potatoes with chicken/cheese/ranch & cooked carrots

Friday
Breakfast - oatmeal or cereal plus fruit
Lunch - egg/sausage/grit/cheese casserole (freeze leftovers)
Dinner - baja chicken pasta (freeze half of sauce) & frozen veggies tuna steak, rice & frozen veggie

Saturday
Breakfast - oatmeal or cereal plus fruit
Lunch - hummus, crackers and raw carrots
Dinner - I have 2 small lamb chops in the freezer that I'll turn into soup

Sunday
Breakfast - oatmeal or cereal plus fruit
Lunch - hummus, crackers and raw carrots
Dinner - at Moms

What I need to buy
2 bags of shredded cheese
1 pd carrots
1 gallon of milk
juice
eggs
fruit (whatever is on sale plus bananas)
crackers
1 can of black olives
clove of garlic
1 pd hamburger

5 days old

2010-12-30T23:21:00.001-05:00

2 inches tall. I'm really surprised I've not killed it yet. I've got nada in the fish tank.

Breakfast Math

2010-12-30T23:01:00.000-05:00

1 big container of oatmeal, $2.04, for 31 days worth (not that I can eat it everyday for 31 days but that is the measurement lol). So seriously, if you are poor, oatmeal in a big canister is the way to go.

But who eats naked oatmeal? We all know that sugar, cinnamon, fruit, etc = extra

BUT

Thrifty alternative = mixing in stale raisin bran while it cooks.

Consistency? Slimey? Check!

Fruit? Check!

Sugar? Check!

Kid eats it? Check!

On a different topic, for those who remember my kitchen remodel, this is the granite tile I chose that ended up being about $400 less than laminate. When I get done with all of it I'll take pictures. My 3 month remodel has turn into 12-15 months lol

Its the little stupid things that thrill me. When the raisin bran is gone (and the worse part is, this is the good kellogs stuff, not store brand - why didn't I roll and clip the bag?) I am moving on to bigger things....

I got 9 boxes of kashi honey nuggets of doom on sale for 90 cents a box. I now know why it was so cheap. It's awful, dry, hard little pellets - but wait! With a touch of honey. And the meal is organic. Yippe skippy, pass me the honey combs.

So I am going to get rid of the Kashi cereal of doom one 1/4th cup at a time in our oatmeal. I should probably just throw it away or better yet donate it, but its really the first item I've bought in a long time that was organic darnit. And the box was like 100% recycled and everything. And I DO like opening my cereal cabinet and seeing boxes stacked all the way up. It makes me feel rich!

Anyway, we'll see how far I can hold out before I donate the rest. But I'm pretty determined - Kashi will not win! lol

2 important money things

2010-12-30T22:40:00.000-05:00

One - the power company cut down the tree that I planned to cut down in 2012. Estimates were in the $500s. However, a couple of weeks ago, this tree was coated in ice and bent into the power lines and caught on fire. In the rain, covered in ice. I should have filmed it. The fire traveled up the power line to my transformer and torched it. And knocked out power to the whole neighborhood. Oops.

So to prevent that from happening again, the power company started hacking away at it today. It was about 2-3 stories high and very wide. It was the type of tree that constantly shed sticks and always had limbs falling out of it. A locust tree maybe? (is that even a species? lol). They got it all the way down to a 15ish foot thick trunk. They will be back in the morning to finish the job. The $500 job. The one I don't have to pay for :)

bye bye tree! I won't miss you, I won't miss the 200 sticks you drop every month, I won't miss the weird bark that peels and drops off. Oh and the leaves? try to make your ugly brown leaves now wahahaha

Two - I think I have sold my car. I've had two cars in the 20 years I've been driving and I own them both still. My 1989 16th birthday gift is going away soon. The car my Dad gave me and just loved. It's going to a restorer. I could have it restored myself for about $6,000 and that would give me a car that would run for several years. But its not the type of car that a 36 yr old woman with a little kid who is pining away for more kids needs. I'll get anywhere from 1-1.5K for it. I'll know more tomorrow. The main thing is, I won't feel guilty about the neglect anymore, my Dad loved that car. And its going to a better home. Kind of like a farm for cars.

DD's Summer Clothes

2010-12-29T23:35:00.001-05:00

I did a lot of purging last night from DD's stored clothes. I sorted everything by season then by size. I chose my favorite things and I pulled out a bunch of frilly girly stuff I knew she'd like.

In the end, I added about 40 pieces of summer size 4/5 clothes to the sell pile.

I know I buy too much stuff. I am really bad at grabbing things because "Its only a dollar". So although I find great items for $1 (or even a quarter) doesn't mean then need to make their way into my little house.

After the great purge, this is what I have left for Natalie for summer. And for fun. let's throw in prices but without tax, because that's like math and it's late :)

1. NWT ariel knit top with embroidery & NWT purple burmuda shorts - $4 & $3
2. AWESOME Hannah Anderson dress. It's beautiful. I might have to take a picture of it. $1
3. White cotton dress with little pink flowers on it - $1
4. really nice lined pink gingham dress $1
5. NWT happy happy shirt and Arizona blinged burmudas $3 and $1
6. Super cute yellow knit sundress and denim Gap capris $1 & $1
7. NWT ariel knit top with embroidery and a skirt I'm making (hold please for details) $4
8. NWT Cinderella knit top with embroidery & NWT arizona blinged burmudas with blue and silver rhinestones $4 and $1
9. peach paisley pillowcase dress from Etsy $5
10. NWT Old Navy white tank top and Old navy denim shorts $2 and $1
11. NWT Old Navy ice cream cone tshirt and NWT light pink tulle skirt $3 & $10
12. NWT Old navy Isan Girl tshirt & tan capris with matching embroidery $3 and $1
13. NWT pink Hula girl tshirt and skirt I'm making $3
14. NWT super cute hippie snoopy tshirt and a skirt I'm making. $3

That's it. 14 complete outfits. I've have 4 pairs of crocs for a total of $29. So I'm up to $85 now.

And here is the skirt fabric! YAY!

I paid $14.13 for this tonight including 1/4th of the ribbon spool (I can make bows from the extra to sell). the cream/teal/pink fabric is for this winter. So really, for summer I'm under $10 ($8.77 actually).

Dear Hobby Lobby - oh how I love you. Your cotton fabric patterns are beautiful and you sell matching grosgrain ribbon at great prices to make hairbows. You are going to help me turn my DD's clearance rack tshirts from Old navy and Walmart into boutique creations that people will envy. I love you. A lot. We are Bffs.

Check out the "old lady I'm going on the cruise I need to make a festive dinner outfit gold lame sequin fabric". That is what the 3 yr old picked out. The tshirt is it being matching with has gold dots on it and its like a 99% match. She is SOOO excited. The green is for snoopy, the purple for ariel and the cream is for a winter top.

All the little one needs for summer is a pair of white sandals and we are done. This summer I'll actually be able to close her clothing cabinet. Things won't be jammed in. I'll have defined outfits, no more separates. I hate separates. Goodnight :D

Clothing - $14.13 spent $572.35 left (and its not even 2011 - bad kim!)

$268.45

2010-12-28T23:40:00.000-05:00

That is about what I spend on lettuce in a year.

Yikes

So I read an article about growing lettuce indoors. This is my first attempt, it is 3 days old. I am using last week's lettuce container.

I also went down to the basement and brought up my fishtank. I put a couple of inches of organic potting soil that I already had and some lettuce seeds I had from last year. My bulb is still good and I'll be setting it up in a sunny window tomorrow ( I do plan to run the tank light about an hour a day to supplement the winter sun).

Does anyone grow stuff indoors to eat? What do you grow and how to do you grow it?

I can only eat small quantities of regular lettuce. Too much and I'll break out in a rash and puke. It's the pesticides and such, which is why I only buy organic at the store. I am interested to see long it takes to grow an 11 ounces of lettuce indoors, the size of the tub I buy each week.

I also sent a "pretty please" email to Dole asking for coupons. If anyone sees Dole lettuce coupons out there let me know please!

Meal Plan Monday December 27, 2010

2010-12-26T10:15:00.000-05:00

Meal plan didn't go as planned last week. My boyfriend took us out one night and we ate the leftovers for lunch. One night I had to do a burger king run because I was out finishing up stocking shopping. Now that the Christmas rush is over, we should be better.

Edit: I just dug through our fridge and pantry. I totally forgot about the loaded mashed potatoes from Christmas that we needed to eat (soooo good). Then the little one requested more chili so I was able to dig through the freezer and pantry to come up with everything I needed there too. So meal plan Monday - take 2!

Um - take like 8. I don't know why I plan meals when I can't stick to them?

What we'll be eating:
Monday
Breakfast - french toast & juice
Lunch - canned turkey chili on loaded mashed potatoes (freeze rest of potatoes)
Dinner - lentil/sausage chili on rice

Tuesday
Breakfast - Raisin/pecan oatmeal
Lunch - salad with shredded chicken, cheese, egg, peas & carrots (DDs favorite btw)
Dinner - lentil/sausage chili on rice leftovers (freeze rest for Sat lunch) & salad - taco bell. I suck. $5 blown.

Wednesday
Breakfast - Oatmeal or cereal, will let the little one pick
Lunch - salad with shredded ham, cheese, egg, peas & carrots egg salad sandwiches - I let the kid choose - she really likes eggs - we also had some of the lentil chili
Dinner - spaghetti & frozen veggies & salad In a week moment, we went out for Chinese with my Mom. I have to try to curb that in 2011. $12 blown.

Thursday
Breakfast - sausage, eggs, grit & cheese casserole I'm not going to make this. We have so much cereal and oatmeal to eat up.
Lunch - salad with shredded chicken, cheese, egg, peas & carrots
Dinner - beef tacos & leftover veggies from Monday night (ground beef from last week is now gone!) & salad Date night! The boy is going to feed us! woohoo lol (actually he feeds us one a week if not twice, I should have planned for that).

Friday
Breakfast - french toast & baked apples
Lunch - sausage, eggs, grit & cheese casserole leftovers (freeze all leftovers) - use up the last of the lentil/sausage chili - try to freeze it and not toss it - I'm already sick of it.
Dinner - at boyfriends - party

Saturday
Breakfast - omelets
Lunch - lentil/sausage chili on rice leftovers & salad - please nooooo more lentils! I'll make the salad extra fancy somehow.
Dinner - ham, corn, green beans, cooked cabbage & leftover baked apples & salad (freeze cabbage)

Sunday
Breakfast - Oatmeal or cereal, will let the little one pick
Lunch - chicken tacos & salad (if the salad has lasted this long lol)
Dinner - at Moms

I will need to buy:
Milk (3.44)
tub of lettuce (4.78)
eggs (1.64)
a head of cabbage (X 2 - 1.36)
loaf of bread (.78)
chips ($3 for 3 cans of pringles on special)
ham (2.98)
3 chicken breasts ($3.28)
4 apples ($1.90)
bag of frozen peas (.87)
This all came out to $27.60 with tax. The only thing that might roll to next week is some of the ham. They had a special on a non-lunchmeat pack for $3 a pound. It actually looks like real ham instead of weird rectangles. Oh and the cabbage, I plan to cook it all and freeze the leftover. It was 25 cents a pound and I got 5-6 pounds.

What I'm using from our stockpile:
butter
bread
syrup
eggs
carrots
fruit (we have tangerines & apples from last week)
the GB from last week
tortilla shells I found in the back of the pantry
oatmeal or cereal
some cheese from last week
salad dressing from last week
turkey sausage X 2 (I'm down to like 2 of these, oh joy oh joy!)
6 small cans of tomato sauce (I am so glad to see these go, I'm overstocked and have been for a year)
2/3 bag of lentils
bell peppers from freezer
bag of veggies from freezer
onions
grits
chili seasonings X 2
can of chili
corn
green beans

Cheap Clothes for 2011

2010-12-26T09:53:00.000-05:00

I had a fight with DD one morning about what she was going to wear. It was a top and jeans, a princess top no less. But she wanted to wear a dress with her jeans, she wears that type of stuff a lot. Well, I was behind on laundry and didn't have what she wanted clean. So she pitched a huge fit and I realized I was dressing my kid in stuff she didn't like. Later that day, we went through all her clothes. She vetoed 50% of them, all the same type of stuff. She only wants bottoms if there are dresses with them, she only wants tops if they are with skirts. The fluffier/sparklier/shinier/pinker the better.

So I felt rotten. I've bought her whole next summer wardrobe already. Its basic stuff, I thought it was cute, she isn't going to think so.

So I am going to rethink her clothing choices. She normally has 20-30 outfits because I pay a buck or two for them. I think now, I am going to pare it down to 7 outfits. I'll have to by a few things to bling them out for her but that is ok. I remember being little and having to wear clothes that I thought were ugly. I won't do that to her too. It will cost more per outfit but we won't be doing the mix and match separates anymore.

So anyway, I am now going to add a ton of her summer stuff to the consignment sale in March.

This is what I bought her last week for her stockpile. It all met with her approval. The blingy capris (arizona nwt) go with her princess tshirts for next summer. The dress (old navy) is long enough to wear alone. The ruffle sweater (mary kate) goes over her ballet leotard. So does another white cropped sweater than I didn't get into the picture. The burgundy shirt & skirt (gymbo) are for this year, the meet her criteria because the skirt twirls. The pink skirt (gymbo) is really big but it sparkles so I'll save it.

(please ignore the unmade bed lol) So this was my $6 splurge. There will be another $1 tag sale in Feb, it should be winter styles.

Clothing balance remaining $586.48

Meal Plan Monday December 20, 2010

2010-12-19T13:39:00.001-05:00

I am going to go ahead and start with my meal plans again even though its not 2011 yet. I bought groceries yesterday, I spent $42.45 because I bought some Christmas items. I will need to pick up the crackers & source cream I forgot.

What I bought: milk, a stovetop, marshmallows, bananas, apples, sugar, big organic lettuce, vinegrette, bread, pringles, tangerines, 2 cokes, 2 dozen eggs, 1.5 pds chicken breast (3), 3 bags of cheddar cheese (2 for Christmas), 4 cream cheeses, butter, ground round & two cans of pineapple.

What we'll be eating:
Monday
Breakfast - banana pancakes - I am going to clear my freezer of black frozen bananas if it kills me
Lunch - egg sandwiches & fruit
Dinner - green salad with chicken breast, eggs, peas, carrots and cheese.

Tuesday
Breakfast - McDs
Lunch - I will take a salad to work
Dinner - chicken casserole & salad

Wednesday
Breakfast - Oatmeal or cereal, will let the little one pick
Lunch - leftovers - chicken casserole & salad
Dinner - chicken fried rice & egg drop soup (chicken is now gone - yippeee)

Thursday
Breakfast - sausage, eggs, grit & cheese casserole (I got 12 packs of turkey sausage links for 90 cents after a sale and peelie coupons on the package. I am so tired of it but I think I only have three left woohhoooo)
Lunch - dinner leftovers (I am really trying to use up leftovers)
Dinner - hamburgers & homemade fries

Friday
Breakfast - leftover sausage, eggs, grit & cheese casserole
Lunch - spaghetti - I am going to try to make a one meal portion, I hate leftover spaghetti but the little one loves it
Dinner - at my Mom's

Saturday
Breakfast - omelets
Lunch - at grandparents
Dinner - at boyfriends

Sunday
Breakfast - Oatmeal or cereal, will let the little one pick
Lunch & Dinner - Christmas dinner leftovers

I will have sugar, 1 can of pineapple, tangerines (only because we now have 30 of them), both packs of eggs because I already had some, most of the salad dressing and most of the butter to roll to next week.

I will be using flour, baking powder, salt, peas, carrots, cream of chicken soup, oatmeal or cereal, mixed veggies, bouillon, sausage, grits, 2 potatoes, ketchup, three small cans of tomato sauce, 1/4 pd of pasta, 1/4 of a bell pepper & 1/4 of an onion to complete my meals from my stockpile.

I guess I could cheat lol

2010-12-18T20:59:00.000-05:00

So today I ordered the little ones the ultimate pair of shiny turquoise blinky rainbow twinkle shoes for next summer. I had to order 1.5 sizes up because they didn't have anything in a 9 in stock.

So to be fair, I am going to count that off my $ for next year for clothes. Want to hear how much I paid?

$6.95! Booyah baby!

How?

I refer people to mamapedia and get referral bonuses. After a little bit of arm twisting, I got two people to buy something they needed for uber cheap. That gave me a $20 credit to spend on the site. So today, I bought the $40 certificate for $20 deal. That made DDs $46.95 shoes a mere $6.95. Free shipping - no tax. woot!

For those who are new to mamapedia, you can still get a good deal on the twinkle toe shoes, $26.95 max (depending on the style). You first go here:

link

then you head over to shoemall and pick out your shoes. Your order needs to be $40 order more to use the certificate. If you need to, you can buy a jibitz to get your order over $40.

Example:

$39.95
+ 1.99 donald duck jibbitz
-------------
41.94
-$40 mamapedia certificate
-------------------
1.94
+ 20 cost of mamapedia certificate
--------------
21.94

This is equivalent to $20 for me locally because our tax is 9.5%. So its a deal, but you have to work for it!

Clothes $600 - $6.95 = $593.05 remaining

Planning for 2011

2010-12-17T23:26:00.000-05:00

Ok I am starting over. You might have noticed the 2010 misc ramblings are gone. 2010 was a super weird year for me. I adjusted poorly to not having a Dad anymore. I didn't track anything. I didn't save anything. I didn't go in the hole, but I don't have a lot to show for the money I spent (except the kitchen which isn't finished - that is a different post).

What I'm starting with: no mortgage on the house we live in and my older car (11 years old last Nov!) with 120K miles was paid off eons ago. My pantry is pretty full, so is my freezer.

My 2011 Goals

to max out my 401K (in a perfect world, do a Roth too - but i don't think I'll have the funds)
to sell the big house - I'm dropping the price.
to continue getting rid of everything
to continue working on the little house we moved back to and make it the best little place it can be
to increase my income streams - even if its just $50 a year, that's $50!
when I buy something, like a toy or piece of clothing, the same type of item goes in the sale or goodwill pile
to stop wasting food and join Frugal Girl's Friday Food Waste
plan out our meals better and consistently post in Org Junkies Meal Plan Monday
come up with enough extra money outside of my paycheck to pay to have a concrete block wall built in my basement (to replace an old sliding door).
to do better with Walgreens and CVS freebies
to be satisfied with my well running, older car that suits our needs. Besides, if I get a new shiny car the outdoor cats will just scratch it up when they sleep on it (I keep telling myself that over and over lol)
to seek out high quality freebies for gift giving

This is my budge in all it's glory. And yes, I know its over the poverty line for a family of two (14,570) so the title of my blog doesn't fit really any more. But I think it's pretty decent for what I do make, and a good balance of needs and wants.

Pay from all sources (paycheck at work, ad revenue, consignment sales, bow sales)		36600
Groceries	$30 per week avg - was buying $40 an throwing a lot away	-1560
Garden set up	rototiller rental and seeds - will start my own plants	-100
HBA	$15 a month - most of this is free from CVS or Walgreens (contact cleaner will be purchased with HSA card)	-180
Tacos @ work	$7 every other week minus 7 weeks for vacations - social thing	-158.00
Chinese	$17 once a month - Great Taste Buffet	-204.00
McDonalds Breakfast	2.19 - 1 per 45 weeks	-98.55
Gas	$65 per month	-780.00
Car Insurance	$96 per 6 months	-192.00
Car Oil Changes & tire rotation	3 times @ 33	-99.00
netflix streaming	10 per month	-120.00
Cable Modem	20 per month	-240.00
House taxes	650 a year	-650.00
House insurance		-387.00
Christmas - Natalie		-200.00
Christmas - Other	extended family	-300.00
Angel Tree Kid	50 - contribute on work kid	-50.00
Operation Smile	2 kids	-480.00
Birthday - Natalie	120	-120.00
Birthday Mom & BF	$50 each	-100.00
Preschool	I have paid Spring already. I hope to start her in Kindergarten in the fall. If not I'll need $260 for Fall preschool.	-260.00
Daycare	48 weeks at $20, one day a week. I am super lucky in that my Mom watches her a lot.	-960.00
Power	$125 per month- budget billing is $107, I am going to pay a little more.	-1500.00
Water	$30 per month (max, between 22 and 30)	-360.00
Vacations	NYC, Cruise & Beach NYC - free train, room outside of NYC, I already have wicked tickets & we'll find cheap eats. Cruise - the sat after Thanksgiving is cheap. I have a $200 GC too. Beach - we'll do a week in MB in a shared room and cook all our meals there.	-3000.00
401K	16500 per year 48% This is my big goal! According to the calculators, this trims like 5 years off my retirement age.	-16500.00
401K match from job - takes from my contribution	6%	2064
House repairs - basic	for minor repairs I have a few more things to buy for the kitchen, if this is exhausted, I'll use my weekly mad money.	-500
Bedroom remodel	removing wall (free), fixing hardwood (300)& paint (60) & misc (140)	-500
Landscaping expense	mulch & bushes for front yard - look into transplanting from BF's cabin. Start flowers from seeds indoors early.	-300
Cats	35 per month - $20 my cat, $15 strays	-420
Clothes	I have been stockpiling clothes for natalie for years. I think all she needs I tights and winter shoes for next year. This number is too high but I'll keep it for now. I will need a pair of jeans and capris for next year.	-600
Gymnastics	365 pay in July with discount for year	-365
Ballet	45 for 9 months (I have enough ballet clothes for a year)	-405
Cell Phone	50	-600
School Supplies	tissues, markers etc	-50
Kindergarten Lunch Account	37 X 4 = 148 (this could be zero)	-148
misc	$30 per week - for anything I'm forgetting	-1560
Learning Materials	Homeschool type materials	-200
Allowance	10	-120
Student Loan Payment	58 a month	-696
Roof payment 3% employee card	45 a month- hope to have this installed during a warm winter month before the spring rains.	-540
Etsy shop start up costs for materials	100 - in case I find a deal on supplies before I start turning a profit.	-100
life insurance	from work	-104.88
medical	I have over 1K leftover on my HSA cards and I'll get another 1K from work next year.	-279.64
ss	6.20%	-2132.8
medicare	1.45%	-498.08
	Estimated leftover	-53.95

I plan to make weekly updates on the line items I can control.

Bye for now...see you Jan 2nd....

Voluntary Poverty

2012 Budget

Some 2012 purchases

Slacker Girl Returns

July Meal Planning

I am still here :)

Two weeks of Spending

Early Saver Discount

Remodeling!

Meal Planning

$28.80 sold

Meal Planning

Spending - Week Twenty Two (May 28 - June 3)

Meal Planning

Extra Moola $493.39

Changing Things Around

Spending - Week Twenty One (May 15 - May 27)

Spending - Week Twenty (May 14 - May 20)

Sold

Spending - Week Nineteen (May 7 - May 13)

Sold

Spending - Week Eighteen (April 30-May 6)

Spending - Week Seventeen (April 23-29)

Oh Good Grief

Spending - Week Sixteen (April 16-22)

Bow Sale

Spending - Week Fifteen (April 9-15)

Spending - Week Fourteen (April 2-8)

Do you Groupon?

$216.25

The great purge of 2011

Weekly Spending Week Thirteen (March 26-April 1)

Spending - Week Twelve (Mar 19-25)

Spending - Week Eleven (Mar 12-18)

Meal Plan March 2011

Spending - Week Ten (Mar 5-11)

Garden Fun

Beans

Cucumbers

Okra

Cauliflower

Tomatoes

Summer Squash

When cooking is fun again.....

Cheap & Yummy breakfast

Spending - Week Nine (Feb 26- Mar 4)

Veggie-licious

Tacos

Planning our NYC Adventure

Nashville Grocery Shopping - Wowsa

Spending - Week Eight (Feb 19-25)

Dear Movie Theatre,

Spending - Week Seven (Feb 12-18)

Meal Plan Mooonn..um...February

$238

$1,248.72 - ouch (and other stuff)

Spending - Week Six (Feb 5-11)

Lettuce - take 2

I'm feeling rather smart (and frugal)

On Budget - YAY me lol

Cheap Party Favors

Spending - Week Five (Jan 29-Feb 4)

My January 2011 Summary

Beach Vacation

Spending - Week Four (Jan 22-28)

Groceries - Trip #2

*~\ I got a raise /~* (<--little happy flags)

My Mad Money for this week

Meal Plan Monday January 24, 2011

Spending - Week Three (Jan 15-21)

:)

Chicken Comparison - informational and a little boring

$30 well spent....

Meal Plan Monday January 17, 2011

Dress Progress

Birthday Plans for my little Natalie

Sewing Fun

Spending - Week Two (Jan 8-14)

This lazy mama's way to make food for the week....

oooohhhh ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

~\ I got a raise /~ (<--little happy flags)