Tuesday, April 29, 2008
No Garden!
We didn't get any gardening done yesterday. It started raining mid morning and didn't stop until late into the night. While the sun has been shining today and its beautiful, I have the energy of a turtle! I am soooo tired and just wanna sleep. Of course my babies don't so I guess I'll just wait until bedtime. :(
If you are feeling "crafty" and have more energy than me you might want to try your hand at making your own shopping bags. It can easily be done using old t-shirts.
Go here to find out how!
Monday, April 28, 2008
Gardening Anyone???
Ok, finally (I think) my seedlings are ready to go to the garden. I will be spending most of today planting my garden and cleaning the always dirty kitchen. I hope to take a break and head to CVS for some great deals today. Nothing like getting paid to shop! Keep a look out for the pictures of the garden later today.
We have planted:
Corn
Squash
Zucchini
Tomatoes
Melons
Okra
Jalapenos
Lettuce
Various flowers
We have planted:
Corn
Squash
Zucchini
Tomatoes
Melons
Okra
Jalapenos
Lettuce
Various flowers
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Sticking with your budget...
I have found it more difficult to stick to our budget these past few months. With higher prices at the grocery store and at the pump it is easy to make excuses to spend more. Since we are expecting another baby soon, I have also found myself spending more on things I really don't need, but make life a little easier. One thing we have adjusted in our budget is the grocery category. Since we are growing as a family and groceries are getting more expensive we have increased our grocery budget by $40.
Below is our general budget, although it does change with different seasons of our life. And assuming my husband will bring home a little over $2,300 a month. Sometimes he does and sometimes he doesn't. we adjust the categories accordingly. Lately we have found out selves living the bare minimum with only $1,600 a month.
2008 Budget:
Tithe-$235
Rent- $600
Groceries- $200
DSL- $65
Phone- $55
Electric- $160
Water/Trash- $70
Van Pmt.- $200
Gas/Auto- $140
Auto Ins.- $90
My allowance- $60
Husbands allowance- $150
Medical/Rx-$20
Clothes- $20
Kids- $20
USPS-$20
Savings-$215
If we bring in less than $2,300 then we don't have an "allowance" that month and we use grocery money to pay for any Rx's we have. We also don't tithe as much, as we tithe 10% of his income. The Clothes, Kids, and Savings category may be omitted as well. My husband's allowance is much greater than mine as he takes any work related expenses like uniforms and dry cleaning out of his allowance. We have found if we give ourselves a larger allowance we find it a lot easier to stay within budget. If we find extra money that month we try and put it either into savings or towards the van.
Below is our general budget, although it does change with different seasons of our life. And assuming my husband will bring home a little over $2,300 a month. Sometimes he does and sometimes he doesn't. we adjust the categories accordingly. Lately we have found out selves living the bare minimum with only $1,600 a month.
2008 Budget:
Tithe-$235
Rent- $600
Groceries- $200
DSL- $65
Phone- $55
Electric- $160
Water/Trash- $70
Van Pmt.- $200
Gas/Auto- $140
Auto Ins.- $90
My allowance- $60
Husbands allowance- $150
Medical/Rx-$20
Clothes- $20
Kids- $20
USPS-$20
Savings-$215
If we bring in less than $2,300 then we don't have an "allowance" that month and we use grocery money to pay for any Rx's we have. We also don't tithe as much, as we tithe 10% of his income. The Clothes, Kids, and Savings category may be omitted as well. My husband's allowance is much greater than mine as he takes any work related expenses like uniforms and dry cleaning out of his allowance. We have found if we give ourselves a larger allowance we find it a lot easier to stay within budget. If we find extra money that month we try and put it either into savings or towards the van.
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Cleaning the clutter!
Here are some after pictures of what took several hours to re-arrange and clean up! I wish I could call this post "Clearing out the Clutter", but really it was just cleaned up. I got rid of a few things but it was only a few. ;)


Yes, the post board does need to be fixed, but I'm feeling rather lazy right now, so its gonna stay like that for a while.


Yes, the post board does need to be fixed, but I'm feeling rather lazy right now, so its gonna stay like that for a while.
I didn't do this on my own, well, I really didn't do much at all. A good friend of mine came over to help me clean, and clean she did. She did a wonderful job for which I am very thankful! You can actually see the floors and tell there is a wall back there.
Monday, April 21, 2008
De-cluttering?!?!
I was blessed today to have a friend come over and help me clean and de-clutter. Well, really she did it as I watched. She insisted that I sit down and rest....how can argue with that?? Our office which was really needing an overhaul is now soooo clean and pretty! I wish our camera didn't die on us so I could post some pictures. The master bedroom is re-arranged for a new little baby and looking good! Hopefully we will get a new camera soon and I can post some pictures. I plan to continue cleaning daily, of course not at the rate we did today but at least focus 30 minutes a day on good cleaning and hopefully the house will look in order by the time this baby arrives.
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Free Groceries!

All of this = FREE! I printed my Food Lion coupons from www.afullcup.com Used 2 Active $2.00 coupons. Made 2 different transactions, and got $4 back for buying Live Active cheese products. Can't beat $26 worth of groceries FREE!
1-Angle Food Cake $4.49
8-pkgs. Corn bread .49ea
2- pkgs. baby food $1.09 ea
2- pkgs. cheese $2.99 ea
1- 100 ct. box of sandwich bags $3.84 on sale for $1.80
1-baby wipes $1.49
1-toddler cutlery $3.87
Safe Plastics??
If you are paying any attention to the news I am sure you have heard a lot about plastic safety in the last few months. In what I have read and seen, one source says a certain "number" is safe while another source says it isn't . I have come to the conclusion that we will start phasing plastics out of our house, starting with plastic cups! We have made the switch to all glass for us, but for the littles they still have plastic. Our daughter doesn't do "sippy" cups but rather uses a straw. I haven't yet found one that is either glass or metal.
Glass storage containers are expensive, so we will be buying these gradually as our budget allows. There are a few places were you can buy stainless steel "sport bottle" type cups. Of course plastic is the cheap version of all of these but instead of having a cabinet full of plastic ones, one or two stainless steel cups will do. I always carry a bottle of water with us when we go anywhere, two if hubby is going (he drinks mucho amounts of water and isn't good at sharing!).
To see if your plastics are safe go here.
If you are looking for baby bottles or sippy cups born free is a good resource.
Glass storage containers are expensive, so we will be buying these gradually as our budget allows. There are a few places were you can buy stainless steel "sport bottle" type cups. Of course plastic is the cheap version of all of these but instead of having a cabinet full of plastic ones, one or two stainless steel cups will do. I always carry a bottle of water with us when we go anywhere, two if hubby is going (he drinks mucho amounts of water and isn't good at sharing!).
To see if your plastics are safe go here.
If you are looking for baby bottles or sippy cups born free is a good resource.
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