2012 Budget

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

1. Groceries 2000 - this is an increase over last year. Everything has gone up!
2. Gas 1025 - Natalie's school is 15 minutes away. This has caused an increase in our gas usage.
3. 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!
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. Other Birthdays 150 - BF, Mom & DD's little friends.
7. 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.
8. Other Christmas 300 - The bulk of this is for the BF and my Mom.
9. 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.
10. Bath 300 - This number seems so low for a year. I guess we will see.
11. 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.
12. 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.
    
13. Mad Money 575 - $10 a week plus tax. This will be hard for me.

Fixed Expenses

1. House Taxes, Insurance, Mortgage 5310
2. Car Insurance 510 (number based on new car)
3. Cable Modem 240
4. SS & Medicare 3700
5. 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.
6. Power, Water, Cell 2520
7. CC Payment 720 (this is a promo)
8. School lunches 130 - I pack most of her food, she eats on pizza day
9. netflix 108
10. 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.
11. Ballet 423 - plus a leo but I will buy that with clothing money. She will switch from the pink to a white uniform.
12. 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.
13. 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

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

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

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 :)

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

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

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!

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

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

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

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)

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

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

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

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)

We are at the beach - wheeeeeeee

Spending - Week Twenty (May 14 - May 20)

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

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

Spending - Week Nineteen (May 7 - May 13)

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

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 :)