January's Progress and Exciting News

I'm a little late in posting our progress update for January. We've recently learned that we will be expecting a little bundle of joy in August. This week is the second trimester and I am finally finding a little bit of energy and a lot less nausea. We are so excited that our family is growing. Our mission to be debt free will take a slightly different course for a while but that's okay.

Some changes we made during January were we dropped our weekly grocery budget from $160 to $120. I was incredibly apprehensive about this choice but I was up for the challenge. It turned out really well my first shopping trip of the year was only $89 and that's without coupons!

We also implanted a "make due" week. Make due week is the last week of every month. We continue to set $120 aside for groceries however we only buy the bare essentials and force ourselves to "make due" with what is in our pantry. It forces us to be creative and it's kinda fun.

Other changes we made were to add three new envelopes to our system: Giftmas, Clothing and Family Fun. It's important to set money aside for different categories even if you don't plan on spending money on those items during that particular month. This way you'll be more prepared for the 2-3 birthday party months and it won't break your budget.

January was a fairly good month for us. We had a dipped into our savings during Christmas and so our first priority was to "repay" ourselves for the money spent. We had an unexpected expense when my husband's 15-year old car started acting up because of the severe cold temperatures but thankfully it was only a $100 fix. At the end of the month after bringing our savings account back where it needed to be we were be able to put an extra $171 towards our debt.

Great start to the year of change!

2015 Will Be The Year of Change

My husband and I began the Dave Ramsey Total Money Make Over on January 1, 2013. Though we have paid off $30,000 we still have about $50,000 remaining. We do not have any credit cards and the remaining debt we have is a vehicle loan and education loans.  We have become stagnant in our pursuit to be debt free. We have making our payments, spending only what we have earned but we haven't been making extra efforts like we first did when we initially started this journey.

I am proclaiming that 2015 will be the year of change. My husband and I have a true desire to be debt free. The rich ruleth over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender. Proverbs 22:7.  I believe that it can happen within the next two years but I would like to see it happen sooner. This year we will be making some more significant changes to help us with our ultimate goal.

Here are some of the changes we will be making this year to be more in intentional with our spending:

Getting Rid of Cable
We have made a decision to get rid of our cable -- after the Superbowl of course. This would easily save us over $1200 a year.

Sticking to CASH only, No Debit card swiping
We got into a bad habit of swiping our debit cards in an effort to "track" our spending during the holidays. Once we started it this we got back into the habit of swiping for every little thing and those purchases added up fast.

Meal Planning, Once a Week Cooking, Using our Crockpot
We need to be better with meals. I may shop for the week and make a meal plan but that meal plan goes quickly out the window during an unexpected illness, school event, extracurricular activities etc. Then we find ourselves ordering take out or buying a rotisserie chicken with all the fixings. No budget friendly.
This year I plan on using my crockpot several times a week. I also plan on trying the once a week cooking or freezer cooking techniques.

Less is More
Trying to use what we have instead of buying more. Reducing our clutter so we are aware of the items we already have or even selling the items that are no longer needed.

Saying NO to ourselves
We actually haven't even said this to ourselves - ever. If we want to go out to dinner, we go. If there is no money left over in our grocery budget for the week we still buy that loaf of bread, jar of gravy etc. This year we have to stick to our budget and say No! That means if there is no money left in the clothing envelope then we will have to make due until the next month.

Looking forward to getting back to our "Gazelle" intense plan to get out of debt in 2015.

Menu Planning Monday

Monday- Quesadillas, Red Beans & Rice, Sliced Apples
Tuesday- Fried Chicken, Macaroni and Cheese, Carrot Sticks and Strawberries
Wednesday- Grilled Chicken Salad, Pears
Thursday- Ham Steaks, Mashed Potato, Corn and Applesauce
Friday- Buffalo Chicken Wraps w/ Chips
Saturday - Grilled Cheese and Soup
Sunday - Breakfast for Dinner

Easy Roll Ups

Photo Credit: Taste Of Home

Tasty, attractive, versatile and budget friendly! I love roll ups. Whenever my church has a potluck or if I'm having a lot of people over I always make roll ups. They are so presentable and easy to make. This is what I do! Use any tortilla wrap you like, spread with any flavor cream cheese and then fill with deli meats, cheeses, veggies etc. Roll tightly. Cover in plastic wrap and put in the fridge for two hours. Cut them in 1.5-2 inch sections and put them on your platter. You can put a toothpick through each one to make it look more decorative or secure it if you roll isn't holding tight enough. Here are some flavor combinations I have used but feel free to use your own and be creative!

Turkey Pesto
Spread cream cheese and pesto on plain wrap. Fill with baked turkey and romaine lettuce.

Southwestern
Mix 1/4 cup of your favorite salsa into a 8oz tub of soft cream cheese. You can add more if you need more flavor. Spread salsa cream cheese mixture on a sun dried tomato wrap. Sprinkle with Mexican cheese blend, chicken and cilantro.

Ham & Cheddar
Spread plain cream cheese on garlic and herb wrap. Layer baked ham and cheddar.

Roastbeef and Swiss
Spread cream cheese and horseradish on a plain wrap. Layer medium rare roast beef and swiss.

Very Veggie
Spread Spinach wrap with vegetable cream cheese. Fill with ice burg lettuce. thinly sliced carrots, red peppers and cucumbers.

Yum :-)

Stacey

Movie Night

We do movie nights in our house at least once a month. It's such an easy activity and the children really look forward to it. What I did was buy a three fold poster board and created our "Box Office". Each child comes to the box office to get their ticket, food and drinks. We always offer water, juice, candy and popcorn.

 

Daddy is the the ticket taker. He takes each childs ticket before they can enter the "theater" (our living room) and issues the rules before he starts the film. His rules are usually silly and make the kids laugh but if he say them, the girls will remind him he needs too.

 

 

 

 

We have done themes on movie nights too. Some of our favorites have been "drive-in" movie nights when we created cars out of cardboard boxes. We have also done a "The Lorax" themed movie night, "Spooky Buddies" and "Barbie: Princess Charm School". We use Redbox or Netflix. Lately Redbox has been emailing cents off codes so it has been costing us .50 to .75 per movie. Affordable and meaningful family entertainment.

 

Stacey 

Bridal Shower

 

My baby sister got married last year. My two sisters and I threw her an amazing Bridal Shower. It was set outside on a beautiful sunny day in the country. We are a very simple and budget minded family. We put together a salad lunch buffett. This included a myriad of dressings, grilled chicken, fresh cooked bacon bit, lettuce, hard boiled eggs, veggies, croutons, cheese etc. We also had rolls and fruit salad to accompany.

 

We should to decorate in yellow and white. As we grew up as children we all had "colors" that would signify what object or belonging was ours. Angela's had always been yellow. 

 

 

We used a combination of white flowers, lemon and dollar store finds to decorate. We also created tissue paper pom- poms to hang from the tent we had. We all coordinated our gift wrapping in yellow and white so that even the gift station looked like it was part of the decorations. 

 

My mother put together these delicious cupcakes with homemade buttercream frosting. We served lemonade out of an old fashioned decanter into fancy classes with a lemon twist. It was a very simple but elegant occasion.

 



We played a variety of games including bride & groom trivia, bridal gift bingo and Guess Who. Guess Who was my favorite. We had printed several names of strong females in politics, movies, literature etc. Each woman who attended the party had a name attached to their back. The object of the game was to guesss who you were. This could be done using only yes or no questions. All winners to the games go to pick a hand sanitizer from Bath and Body Works. Each prize was only $1.00. They were practical and pretty!

 

It was a lovely afternoon.

 

Stacey

Menu Planning Monday

Monday: Chicken Tacos, Spanish Rice, Corn
Tuesday: Slow Cooker Pork Chops, Mashed Potato, Corn
Wednesday: Quesadillas, Red Beans & Rice
Thursday: Shepard's Pie, Crescent Rolls and Fruit
Friday: Meatball Subs
Saturday: Dinner Out
Sunday: Spaghetti & Meatballs, Salad and Cottage Cheese

Chicken Taco recipe to follow soon!

Dora - 3rd Birthday

My daughter Madalynn loves Dora! So I hosted for her a Dora Birthday Party! Being a lady on a budget I did majority of myself -- plus I just loving DIY-ing it!

 

The Invitation:

 

I freehand drew backpack on a purple piece of paper. Once I get form that I like I trace it on to pieces of paper and cut them out. I was going to color the facial features in myself but I wasn't sure that I could do it justice. I went to www.nickjr.com. They have a lot of great party printables for the characters on their programs. I mass printed the facial features of backpack and glued them on.

 



 

The Wording:

 

Come On, Vamonos!

Everybody let's go!

 

It's Madalynn's 3rd birthday

and we are celebrating

in an aDORAble way!

 

When:

April 11, 2011

3:00-5:00

 

Where:

Madalynn's House

1234 Main Street

My Town, My State

 

Decorations:

I used Pink, Purple and Yellow for the main colors to decorate with. I made the famous Martha Stewart Pom-Poms with tissue paper I purchased at the Dollar Store. I find that the stiff tissue paper that's sold in the long package works better than the soft tissue paper that is sold folded up. It was really basic. Just yellow and purple tables cloths, plates and cups. I bought a few Dora Napkins and plates to accent the colors.

 

 

Our Menu:

Mini Sandwich Platters

(peanut butter & jelly, Ham & Cheese on Dollar Rolls and Turkey Roll Ups)

Bagel Pizzas (they were frozen)

Assorted Chips

Fruit Platter

Veggie Platter

Water

Juice

Soda for Adults

 

Dessert Time:

 

I ordered 12 cucpakes with Dora Rings and a Dora Character cake from Walmart. This cost about $12.00. It's about $6.00 for a character cake. They make all Disney princesses, Dora, some princes/heros and I think they may have expanded since we had this party.

 

The Favor

 

I bought canvas bags from Dollar Tree. They were 3 for $1.00. I glued on googly eyes and a red felt mouth with a hot glue gun. I filled them with candy, a party blower, plastic maracas and Dora stickers. It looked like Backpack :-) The kids loved it and it was a perfect end to a perfect party! Fantástico!

 

 

Stacey

Indoor Luau

I definitely think outside the box when it comes to parenting! I strive daily to make the day to day tasks extraordinary. I also like to stretch the imaginations of my children and help them to experience things like no one else!

We had an Indoor Luau at our home! I decorated our home (including filling an inflatable pool) and cranked the heat to 75 degrees. Put out a spread of delicious snacks and drinks. We listened to a Luau inspired playlist I created on www.playlist.com. I asked my children to come out into the kitchen in their bathing suits! They were absolutely puzzled -- once they came out to the kitchen they were streaking with excitement and had a really fun time!

 

What We Ate :

Veggie Platter

Fruit Salad

Cheetos

Swedish Fish

Tropical Colored Cupcakes

 

**Not my healthiest spread, I'll admit! But it was colorful and all of the girls favorites **

 

We also had a tasty punch that looked cool too!

 

What We Drank:

Using clear or a patterned see through cup or glass

Pour 2/3 full with Sierra Mist, Sprite, Seven Up or a bubbly clear soda

Put 2 scoops of any flavored Sherbet ( we used Lime,Orange Lemon).

Finish with a brightly colored straw and drink umbrella.

 

It's bubbles up and tastes great.

Our Decorations:

Everything was purchased from The Dollar Tree Store

-Purple Table Cloth

-2 Tropical Luau Mural

-Palm Tree Decoration

-Palm Tree Inflatable for Pool

-Beach Ball

 

 

We had a wonderful time. This was a great activity because it allowed the girls to try something they had never tried before. They still talk about it! I encourage you to try to try something like this! I understand filling a pool in your kitchen might be a little out of your comfort zone but a bathtub works wonders :-)

 

 

 

Stacey 

 

Saturday's Super Savings

Today I bought groceries for the week, a few stock pile items, completed restocked my laundry room and bought my daughter a brand new winter coat for only $106.00!!! For some of you that may be a lot of money and for some of you that might be not enough!

My first deal of the day came from JCPenney. Children's Outwear was 60% off. Which took a $99.99 jacket down to $39.99. I also had a take $10 of $10 purchase coupon which brought the price to $29.99. I had broughten my youngest daughter's fleece back because it was too big and had a $26.00 credit. When the total rang up it was just over $6.00 out of pocket. It was so exciting! It's a really great heavy duty winter jacket too. It's a 4 - in -1 jacket system and she absolutely loves it!

When it comes to grocery shopping. If I have the time I always go to Aldi first and then whatever I can't find at Aldi I buy at the Walmart SuperCenter. These are two of the more affordable places to grocery shop in my area. Sometimes making two stops just isn't in the cards and depending on my list I shop at one or the other. This week I was able to shop at both places and I'm glad I did.

My total at Aldi was $31.90. Some of the great buys I had there were: 24 pack Spring Water $2.99 ( I always buy this everytime I go. You can't beat it! And if I have cold bottle water in the fridge at all time my family is more likely to grab for it then a sugary juice or soda). Premade Frozen Meatballs for $2.19. (Enough for two meals and they were made of lean turkey). Cresent Rolls $1.49. (These can be really expensive depending on where you shop. They are so versatile I try to pick up a roll every time I go just to keep them on hand. Large White Eggs $1.39. (Don't know about your area but in Northern New York Eggs are easily well over $2.00 a dozen now. So this was definately a great buy!

My total at Walmart was $70.65 and I saved $16.30 from coupons. Some of my great buys from Walmart were children's Sauve shampoo. I had a buy one get one free coupon. Sauve styling products which were also buy one get one. I bought Purex Scent Softeners for $3.97 which was really good. I'm not sure if you have heard of Downy Unstoppables but they are a must have in our home. My boyfriend loves it when we add extra scent to each load of laundry. I had a coupon for Downy Unstoppables but the Purex was so much cheaper-- so I went with it. I'll let you know how it goes!
The rest of my purchases at Walmart were based on my coupons and I bought a lot of Great Value Brand products. Coupons are great but if they make you spend more money to save--- then what good does it do you? I always weight out cost and value before each purchase and I feel all consumers should. We work really hard for our money!

Come back Monday for Menu Planning Monday to see how I created a menu with the items I bought today.

Menu Planning Monday

Happy Menu Planning Monday! Super busy week ahead!! We've got Missionettes/Bible Study, Family Reading Night, work Halloween Party and the girls go to their fathers for the weekend. On top of all of this I haven't been feeling very good and so the easier the better!

Sunday: Rotisserie Chicken, Mashed Potatoes (or as my 3 year old calls them matatoes), Corn and Fresh French Bread.

Monday: Pizza Leftovers from our Halloween Party Friday.

Tuesday: Homemade Chicken Soup (using the rotisserie chicken leftovers and other chicken breasts from the freezer), Grilled Cheese Sandwhiches using leftover French Bread. * To make this soup I boil down the chicken bones with celery, carrots and onion. After several hours I remove the bones and skim off any fat. Add my rice/pasta, veggies and 2 cups of chopped cooked chicken. Let simmer for a 1/2 hour and voila!)

Wednesday: Loaded Baked Potatoes with Homemade Applesauce. Potato toppings include bacon, cheese, sour cream, sausage, broccoli and chives.

Thursday: Children's Halloween Party at work so we'll be eating there.

Friday: Chicken Nuggets, Macaroni and Cheese and Carrots Sticks. ( We eat something quick and junkie every other Friday; I have to bring my girls to their fathers which is over 2 hours away)

Saturday: Kids are gone, Justin is working. Just me...so cereal?

The neat thing about this week is that I didn't have to go grocery shopping. On Sunday I went to the store and bought a rotisserie chicken, 5lbs of potatoes, and deli item for lunches. I decided that the family would have to make due this week, so we are living out of our pantry. It's so important to have a well stocked pantry, I'll write about that some time soon! I will definately have to go grocery shopping next Sunday.

Have a great week!

Spirit Week

It was Red Ribbon week at my daughter's school this week. For those of you who don't know, Red Ribbon week is the largest drug prevention campaign in the country. ( http://www.imdrugfree.com/). During this week children and adults across the country pledge or promise to stay drug-free. At the Primary School in my area children participated in this campaign through Spirit Week.

• Monday all children wore the color red .
• Tuesday was Team Shirt Day to "Team Up Against Drugs".
• Wednesday was Crazy Sock Day to "Sock-It to Drugs"
• Thursday was Hat Day to "Put a Cap On Drugs".
• Friday there was no school because it was Superintendents Day.

Helping your child participate in school events is easy. It helps children connect better to their peers, teachers and have a better sense of community within their school . Don't be discouraged if you don't have the specified items or resources that the school requests. Improvise!

 

For instance if you are child doesn't have a red shirt for wear red day, find another way to tie the color into their attire, i.e. hair ties, shoe laces, socks etc. If you don't have a team shirt. Create your own with fabric paint/ markers and an old t shirt. For crazy socks take a pair of socks, a glue gun and any craft supplies you may have on hand such a ribbon, pom poms, googly eyes etc. My daughter and I were going to create our own socks but we found a perfect pair at the dollar store! Never forget the dollar store-- they have everything and it's only a dollar!

 

Your child will probably have Hat Day every single solitary year. This year my daughter and I started a tradition. We went to the dollar store and bought a pink baseball cap. We brought the cap home and ironed on butterfly appliques. Next year we'll take that same cap and glue on something new and continue this pattern every Hat Day. By the time she graduates she'll have a one of a kind cap that she created over the years. A simple, fun and memorable keepsake.

 

Always encourage your children to be involved. It takes very little and it means so much.

Back to School

Tomorrow is my oldest daughters first day of school, she will be entering Kindergarten. It's a very exciting time for the whole family but it also brings to light how scattered our weekly routine is. I thought I had dinner, bath time and the morning routine pretty mastered. Now I realize with new school start times, bus schedules, packing lunches etc, we will have to come up with a new schedule and new organization. Does this sound like you? I've compiled a handful of tips I plan to use for our new school year.

1. Have a designated place for backpacks, coats and shoes.
2. Layout clothes the night before.
3. Meal plan
4. Have designated bath nights
5. Set the child's bed time back by a half an hour.
6. Communicate.
7. Share tasks with your spouse or partner.
8. Have a back up plan.
9. Check your child's back pack every night.
10. Have fun with it.

Menu Planning Monday

I went away from the blogging world for a while but now I am back! And what a better way to return than to make my first post Menu Planning Monday!

Monday: Spaghetti & Meatballs w/ Parmesan Cheese and Applesauce
Tuesday: Angel Hair Alfredo with Grilled Chicken, Garlic Bread & Green Salad
Wednesday: Beef Hotdogs, Baked Beans and Cottage Cheese
Thursday: Tacos and Spanish Rice
Friday: Beef Hot Dogs, Tater Tots and Veggies with Dip
Saturday: Dinner with Grammy and Poppa
Sunday: Roast Chicken, Mashed Potato, Stuffing, Gravy and Veggies


**There are two days with hot dogs as a meal because my girls and I are alone certain nights of the week. I like to use up any food by the end of the week-- plus they love hot dogs and if it were their choice they would eat them everyday!**

I thought it would be important to get back on the menu planning wagon with the start of September and school season. My oldest daughter is starting Kindergarten on Wednesday, eeek! Next week I'll be implementing breakfast and lunch menus as well.

I work an 8am-5pm job. Because of this schedule I have to drop my daughters off to their babysitters before I leave for work. I'm currently researching quick and easy, and on-the-go breakfasts as well as yummy and healthy lunches for school. Hannah will be packing her lunch most days, plus I make lunch for my darling Justin every morning and I am sensing he may be sick of the peanut butter and jelly standard-- time to raise the bar!

That's all for now. Thanks for stopping in!

God Bless,

Stacey