I missed my second Friday wrap up! Egads... can't believe it is already Tuesday LOL Let me just say, life happens fast when I don't pay attention. The good news is that we've kept ourselves on track and haven't gone crazy spending money. The bad news is that there is so much going on that the simple part of life is getting away from us at times. Case in point was this weekend...
Friday was a school day - yippee! J had dance, A had a basket bingo fundraiser for jump rope that we went to and V stayed with a friend to play until Daddy got home.
Saturday meant an early morning call for jump rope and an afternoon of nothing to do so we walked around the mall watching the girls hem and haw about how to spend their gift cards (they left without anything because it was all too expensive!). Funny how careful they are with "their" money!! I did get two much needed bras at Victoria's Secret so at least the trip wasn't a total bust (haha - get it?!)! We then headed to Costco to window shop, enjoy some samples and to get an ice cream treat (where else can you get 3 huge frozen yogurts and one huge hand-dipped ice cream bar for under $6?)
On Sunday I went grocery shopping, took J to a free dance clinic that she is doing and then my brother, his family and 2 of my cousins came over to celebrate Christmas. I had plenty of leftover chicken from a roasted chicken I made earlier in the week so I made chicken chili for dinner. And the bonus is that I still had enough leftover chicken to freeze for a chicken pot pie at a later date!
I have menus planned for this week and I'm ready to sit down and wrap up my January budget and plan my February budget. Oh and I get to file taxes today - woot!
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Menus for the week of 1/24
I accomplished a personal goal over the weekend! I got up before everyone else on Sunday morning, got the paper, went through coupons, planned our meals, made a grocery list and got the shopping done! It has already simplified my week.
Here is what we'll be eating this week:
Monday - ended up being leftovers
Tuesday - chicken teryaki, noodles, salad
Wednesday - meatball subs, chips and raw veggies
Thursday - chicken enchiladas, salad
Friday - pizza, fruit
Saturday - steak, potatoes of some sort and veggies
Sunday - chicken noodle soup, bread
I'm home with a sick little one today which means I can get plenty of things done around the house. Already have all of our tax info taken care of (waiting for one last statement), balanced the check book, have laundry going, dishwasher is running and now I'm off to work for a few hours. And I'm holding off on my Target run until we pick up sisters from school this afternoon, drop one at dance and we'll hit Target on our way home to make dinner.
Simplicity at its best :)
Here is what we'll be eating this week:
Monday - ended up being leftovers
Tuesday - chicken teryaki, noodles, salad
Wednesday - meatball subs, chips and raw veggies
Thursday - chicken enchiladas, salad
Friday - pizza, fruit
Saturday - steak, potatoes of some sort and veggies
Sunday - chicken noodle soup, bread
I'm home with a sick little one today which means I can get plenty of things done around the house. Already have all of our tax info taken care of (waiting for one last statement), balanced the check book, have laundry going, dishwasher is running and now I'm off to work for a few hours. And I'm holding off on my Target run until we pick up sisters from school this afternoon, drop one at dance and we'll hit Target on our way home to make dinner.
Simplicity at its best :)
Friday, January 21, 2011
Friday wrap up - 1/21
In an effort to remain accountable for our financial goals for 2011, I'm going to track my progress in a weekly wrap up. Here goes for this week.
Activities were nice and slow and almost nonexistent due to the MLK holiday and 2 teacher work days. All dance and jump rope practices were canceled. So, now I'm mentally gearing up for our return to "normalcy" next week! I don't have to drive to dance OR jump rope on Monday... love carpooling! I do have to drive to jump rope on Weds and Saturday along with regularly scheduled dance classes. I will create a menu plan for next week to reflect this.
Meals - We've stuck to our menus this week and have not gone out to dinner. We have a planned dinner out this Sunday. It is a farewell "party" at our local pizza joint for one of neighbors that are moving to Nevada. Of course since there weren't any activities this was easier to stick to than usual :) I did treat the girls to lunch on Monday with a gift card and my allowance to celebrate being home.
Spending - This has actually gone well this week. I did buy new snow boots since my oldest took over mine (and I needed a bigger size anyway) and I couldn't pass up a deal on livingsocial.com ($10 to purchase a $20 amazon gc). Other than that it has been a quiet week. If we make it through this weekend without shopping (other than for food) I'll be excited!
We've been slowly eating everything I baked this week. I ended up freezing some of the cinnamon rolls for later. Too bad we can't have 1 day off every week!!
Activities were nice and slow and almost nonexistent due to the MLK holiday and 2 teacher work days. All dance and jump rope practices were canceled. So, now I'm mentally gearing up for our return to "normalcy" next week! I don't have to drive to dance OR jump rope on Monday... love carpooling! I do have to drive to jump rope on Weds and Saturday along with regularly scheduled dance classes. I will create a menu plan for next week to reflect this.
Meals - We've stuck to our menus this week and have not gone out to dinner. We have a planned dinner out this Sunday. It is a farewell "party" at our local pizza joint for one of neighbors that are moving to Nevada. Of course since there weren't any activities this was easier to stick to than usual :) I did treat the girls to lunch on Monday with a gift card and my allowance to celebrate being home.
Spending - This has actually gone well this week. I did buy new snow boots since my oldest took over mine (and I needed a bigger size anyway) and I couldn't pass up a deal on livingsocial.com ($10 to purchase a $20 amazon gc). Other than that it has been a quiet week. If we make it through this weekend without shopping (other than for food) I'll be excited!
We've been slowly eating everything I baked this week. I ended up freezing some of the cinnamon rolls for later. Too bad we can't have 1 day off every week!!
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Baking is good for the soul
For Christmas my husband gave me a Kitchenaid mixer... to say that I'm excited would be an understatement! So far I've stuck to mixing up chocolate chip cookies because I wasn't sure where to begin. This morning I'm experimenting with homemade cinnamon rolls.
It started last night when I decided I needed to make peanut butter cookies for lunches. I mixed that up and put it in the fridge so the girls and I can bake them today. At this point I felt inspired so I found a cinnamon roll recipe and made plans to start them this morning.
Here's the thing... by the time I get it all mixed, let it rise, mix the filling, fill it and roll it and finally let it rise again we'll be eating these for lunch :) So, I think what I'm really going to do is let everything rise just as it should and then put them in the fridge and bake them tomorrow morning. It makes two pans of them (24 rolls) so I think I'm going to take one to a friend's house with their dinner tomorrow night.
This all falls into planning meals ahead and doing my best to have homemade, nutritious (ok, cinnamon rolls may not fall into this category LOL) meals for my family. I've even figured out dinner for tonight - meatloaf, mashed potatoes and a big salad. I'm debating if I want to tackle french bread for tonight too so I have a loaf to deliver with tomorrow's meal... at this rate I'm going to have to start buying baking supplies in bulk :)
Baby steps...
It started last night when I decided I needed to make peanut butter cookies for lunches. I mixed that up and put it in the fridge so the girls and I can bake them today. At this point I felt inspired so I found a cinnamon roll recipe and made plans to start them this morning.
Here's the thing... by the time I get it all mixed, let it rise, mix the filling, fill it and roll it and finally let it rise again we'll be eating these for lunch :) So, I think what I'm really going to do is let everything rise just as it should and then put them in the fridge and bake them tomorrow morning. It makes two pans of them (24 rolls) so I think I'm going to take one to a friend's house with their dinner tomorrow night.
This all falls into planning meals ahead and doing my best to have homemade, nutritious (ok, cinnamon rolls may not fall into this category LOL) meals for my family. I've even figured out dinner for tonight - meatloaf, mashed potatoes and a big salad. I'm debating if I want to tackle french bread for tonight too so I have a loaf to deliver with tomorrow's meal... at this rate I'm going to have to start buying baking supplies in bulk :)
Baby steps...
Monday, January 17, 2011
A much overdue return...
So, I've realized that life has a way of making you return to the basics even if they've been a distant thought for 2 years. Over the weekend our new minivan arrived. Yes, we bought a brand-spanking new one after driving our previous minivan for 10 years and 170K miles. It was starting to have transmission issues and rather than sink a lot of money into it, we opted to purchase a new one (exactly what I wanted)that will be driven for at least 10 years and hopefully more like 200K miles.
That being said... yeah, all that extra money we had to "play" with is now tied up for 5 years. So my extravagant life (not really, but in a year I'll think it was) is coming to a grinding halt and the basics are back. This is a good thing because we have not been eating as well as we should and really just wasting so much of our resources... kind of stupid now that I'm able to look at it a bit differently!!
So, rather than set a huge goal for 2011, I'm going to begin my journey anew with baby steps.
My first baby step is to understand that our life is so much busier than it was 2 years ago. My oldest dd's are heavily involved in their sports, but that does not mean that we can't plan ahead for healthy, home-cooked meals that we can enjoy on the run or after we're home. Flexibility will be key over the coming months...
My second baby step is to finalize a working budget by the end of January. I need to have a clear picture of what we can and can not do. I have some areas that I'll really need to look at and work on keeping myself (ie, us) in check.
My third baby step is to create a wish list of projects around the house so we can prioritize them and start saving to accomplish some of them during 2011.
This is what I plan to focus on over the rest of January. For now, I'm off to make some homemade peanut butter cookies for us to enjoy when we're stuck inside tomorrow morning due to the impending ice storm.
That being said... yeah, all that extra money we had to "play" with is now tied up for 5 years. So my extravagant life (not really, but in a year I'll think it was) is coming to a grinding halt and the basics are back. This is a good thing because we have not been eating as well as we should and really just wasting so much of our resources... kind of stupid now that I'm able to look at it a bit differently!!
So, rather than set a huge goal for 2011, I'm going to begin my journey anew with baby steps.
My first baby step is to understand that our life is so much busier than it was 2 years ago. My oldest dd's are heavily involved in their sports, but that does not mean that we can't plan ahead for healthy, home-cooked meals that we can enjoy on the run or after we're home. Flexibility will be key over the coming months...
My second baby step is to finalize a working budget by the end of January. I need to have a clear picture of what we can and can not do. I have some areas that I'll really need to look at and work on keeping myself (ie, us) in check.
My third baby step is to create a wish list of projects around the house so we can prioritize them and start saving to accomplish some of them during 2011.
This is what I plan to focus on over the rest of January. For now, I'm off to make some homemade peanut butter cookies for us to enjoy when we're stuck inside tomorrow morning due to the impending ice storm.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Throwing a 40th birthday party on the inexpensive...
Can it really be done?! I've just finished balancing the checkbook, entering in our spending for February so far and overall I'm pleased with where we are (in spite of the yearly vet visit, baths for dogs and other dog related expenses... it is the month of dogs here!!). February will be a slightly larger step than January and since we are improving I'm going with it :)
Regardless, dh turns 40 in a few weeks and we've decided that is the perfect opportunity to host our first party in the newly finished basement. I'm excited and now I have to set a realistic budget. This is the tricky part! Here is what I know we'll need:
Regardless, dh turns 40 in a few weeks and we've decided that is the perfect opportunity to host our first party in the newly finished basement. I'm excited and now I have to set a realistic budget. This is the tricky part! Here is what I know we'll need:
- alcohol (mostly beer and wine - maybe a flavored vodka too - we have plenty of other liquor)
- heavy appetizers
- paper products
- decorations
- cake
I will bake the cake so that will help with the expense. I need to see what kind of 40th cake designs I can find on the web. Paper products will probably just be large paper plates and plasticware. I have plenty of leftover napkins (from our wedding almost 13 years ago!), appetizer size plates and plastic cups. Decorations may just be some black, gray and silver balloons and I should be able to find a coupon for Party City before we need them.
This brings me to heavy appetizers. Here is what I'm thinking so far:
- Baked brie covered in pepper jelly and wrapped in dough - serve with crackers.
- Meatballs (isn't this a standard app?!)
- Mini quiche - I have a recipe from Southern Living for this.
- Vege tray
- Queso dip with tortilla chips
- 7 layer dip with chips
- Hummus with bagel chips
This seems light to me (we have 12 people so far with about 10 more we're waiting to hear from). I was thinking of serving a spiral sliced ham or sliced turkey breast with sandwich fixin's too.
So, after reading all of this, what do you think my budget should be? How inexpensive could you do it? Please share your party-planning wisdom with me! Hosting a kids' birthday is easy and can be inexpensive... hosting a grown-up birthday party is a new adventure for me :)
Monday, February 2, 2009
January wrap up
Whew! I find it hard to believe that it is already February... I just don't know where January went. I wanted to sit down and evaluate how my first month of 2009 went... I have big plans to save $5K in our cash fund so I need to keep myself accountable each month.
While January went better than any month over the last year, we have a long way to go to get to our savings goal! I've decided to look at it as a good first step for 2009 :)
We stayed well within our food and gas (auto) budget. Due to our deposit for the new couch (for the basement), our household expense line was a bit over budget. That being said, I will not have to move any money out of savings to cover the deposit on the couch. We did decide to do a year of no payment-free financing and we'll pay it off next February. We have the money in savings and could have paid cash, but there was no incentive from the store to do that. So, we'll hold onto our cash, let it earn interest and pay it off in a year.
So, what does this mean for my savings goal? Well, nothing went into our savings for the month of January because I'm paying off some spending that went on in December. Good news is that I will not need to pull from savings to cover it. I did put $125 into our Christmas account, made the girls' college account payments and our 401K contributions stand at 15%. Like I said, good first step.
So, for February my biggest goal is to put $500 in our long-term savings. My smaller goals include putting $100 into Christmas savings and to save $60 of my allowance to offset summer camp costs for the girls (I saved $60 in January).
While January went better than any month over the last year, we have a long way to go to get to our savings goal! I've decided to look at it as a good first step for 2009 :)
We stayed well within our food and gas (auto) budget. Due to our deposit for the new couch (for the basement), our household expense line was a bit over budget. That being said, I will not have to move any money out of savings to cover the deposit on the couch. We did decide to do a year of no payment-free financing and we'll pay it off next February. We have the money in savings and could have paid cash, but there was no incentive from the store to do that. So, we'll hold onto our cash, let it earn interest and pay it off in a year.
So, what does this mean for my savings goal? Well, nothing went into our savings for the month of January because I'm paying off some spending that went on in December. Good news is that I will not need to pull from savings to cover it. I did put $125 into our Christmas account, made the girls' college account payments and our 401K contributions stand at 15%. Like I said, good first step.
So, for February my biggest goal is to put $500 in our long-term savings. My smaller goals include putting $100 into Christmas savings and to save $60 of my allowance to offset summer camp costs for the girls (I saved $60 in January).
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