When the plan doesn't go as planned...

Sometimes the plan does not go as planned.  This has been my life the last several days.  I just can't seem to get on a blogging schedule this month.  And it's just going to get worse since I only have 3 more days until vacation!  Woo Hoo! 

The last time we chatted, I had Crockpot Cheeseburger Soup simmering away.  I must say that I thought it was just a delicious this time as I did the first time I made it, but unfortunately the kids would not even try it.  I don't know what is wrong with them.  I'm certain that if I could have gotten a bite past their stubborn lips, that they would have enjoyed the cheesy goodness just as much as I did.  But, alas...  My lovely in-laws stayed for dinner and both expressed delight in the meal.  That being said, I am going to call this recipe a win as well. 

Saturday was practically a holiday for me.  I had to work during the day, but I had the house to myself for the entire evening!  To myself!  All by myself!  As in there was not another living soul in my home until 10:30 when hubby got home from work.  No one screaming.  No one clinging to my leg as I tried to pee.  No one!  It was bliss!  Bliss, I tell you!!!  I spent the first half hour just trying to decide what I was going to do with this rare evening to myself.  Clean?  Read a book in peace?  Take a nice quiet bath?  Watch a movie that wasn't animated?  Go to bed at 6pm?  The possibilities were endless!  In the end, I did a little computer work, set a timer for 45 minutes and tackled a corner of the overly cluttered bedroom, watched a little TV while I ate dinner, took a nice, hot soak in the tub (while reading a book in peace), and turned in around 8pm after a good night chat with my muchkins on the phone.  Who says you can't have it all?  It's a good thing I got a chance to refresh a little on Saturday, because I sure needed it to deal with Sunday.  What was for dinner, you ask?  Teriyaki Chicken.  I don't have a link or a recipe for this one because it literally consisted of just putting frozen chicken in the crock pot and pouring a little teriyaki sauce over it.  Easy peasy!  It was pretty tasty as well.  I will probably make it again.  Next time I will make some fried rice to go with it.  Since it was just me at home, I didn't bother on Saturday.  But it was still yummy.  It will go into the "save" pile.

Sunday night was a busy, traumatic one in our household.  It started out innocent enough, with Crockpot Chicken and Noodles.  I very much enjoyed this recipe.  With a little coaxing, A actually ate it! He kept telling me it was yummy and even tried to convince his sister to try it.  But she was having none of it.  I am still putting this in the WIN pile.  It was a bit bland, next time I will add a little onion to the chicken to see if that will liven it up a tad.  Of course, Austin probably won't like it then.  After dinner, little E had two seizures, one of which was way worse than her "normal" seizures.  I have a call in to the neurologist to see if we can figure out what's up with that.  Then after we put her to bed, A and I were making soft pretzels for an after work snack for daddy.  When I pulled the pretzels out of the oven, I knocked the thermometer that hangs off the oven rack down.  So with the pan in one hand, I picked the thermometer up and tossed it up onto the stove.  I turned around to put the pan on the cooling rack and A apparently picked up the thermometer.  His scream was awful!  The oven was set on 475 degrees, so he burned his poor little hand pretty badly.  Luckily, Kevin gets off early on Sundays and was already on his way home.  We determined that an ER visit wasn't warranted, but A spent two solid hours crying.  It was very late for all of us by the time we got him calmed down and asleep.  Then I had a good cry before I went to bed.  My heart just hurt for him so bad!  And of course there is all the mama guilt.  If only I had set it further back on the oven.  Or made sure to tell him how hot it was.  He's usually so good about staying away from the oven.  It's E that I've worried about doing something like this.  He seemed much better yesterday, but his hand looks awful.  Luckily, I was off work since I worked the weekend.  So we packed up and off to the doctor we went.  We didn't even get anything into the crock pot before we left.  For shame!  Sometimes you just have to roll with the punches, you know?  The doctor gave us a prescription for burn cream and bandaged his hand up real good (which he was NOT happy about) and told us that when the blisters pop we will have to bring him back in to have it debrided.  That's just a fancy word for cutting out all the dead skin.  Ick!  It makes my stomach flip just thinking about it!!!  I am not looking forward to that part.  I wish that I could take it from him.  But all I can do is hold him while he cries and pray, pray, pray.  If you're the praying type, we could really use some extra ones in the coming days.  Thanks!

So like I already said, we didn't manage to get a crock pot meal going yesterday, but we are back on track today.  I'm really looking forward to dinner tonight.  This is a recipe I have made several times before and I love it.  Crock pot Chicken Fajitas! Again, I don't have a link or a recipe.  Your just cut up your peppers and onions, put them in the bottom of your crock pot with your chicken on top.  Then pour a packet of fajita seasoning on top of the chicken and turn it on low.  The chicken makes a lot of its own liquid.  When I get home, I take the chicken out and shred it, adding as much of the juice back as I think it needs.  I keep the peppers and onions separate because they're not liked by all in my household.  Gather up the other fajita fixings - cheese, sour cream, beans, rice, tortillas - and dinner is done!  It is so good, even the kids eat it!  Usually...  We will see how it goes tonight.

Anyways, I hope you have all had a less traumatic couple of days than we have.  Thanks for stopping by.  I'm going to go heat up my leftover Chicken and Noodles for lunch now.  Yum!

Happy Friday!

Happy Friday to those of you who don't work in a hospital and have the weekend off.  Unfortunately, I am not one of those people.  But I'm not going to let working the weekend get me down.  I only have 6 more days of work before my vacation!!!  Woo Hoo!!!

I'm sorry that I haven't posted in a few days.  I know you are all anxiously awaiting my review of the Pepper Steak from Monday.  Wow, I can't believe I haven't posted all week!  Hmmm...  I guess I've been pretty busy this week.  Who knew?  Anyways, so the Pepper Steak was ok.  It was a little salty for my taste and Kevin didn't like the tomatoes.  Of course the children wouldn't even let a little piece pass their lips.  Those stinkers!  And like the macaroni and cheese, we really didn't think this was any easier or any tastier than a similar recipe I make without using the crock pot.  So after some discussion at the dinner table, Kevin and I decided to put this in the "not again" pile.  Kind of disappointing.

Ok, so that covered Monday.  Now on to Tuesday.  Tuesday night we had Easy Crockpot Beef and Potato Meal.  It was super easy to pour together in the crock pot and cooked for a nice 6-8 hours.  But unfortunately, it was very bland.  We had to add salt and cheese to it to make it palatable.  And even then the hash browns were really mushy, almost more like mashed potatoes.  It wasn't awful, but it wasn't great, either.  And, of course, neither of my children would eat it.  I hate to say it, but I had to put this one in the "not again" pile as well.  I'm starting to get a little discouraged about all the things I'm discarding.

Even with taking leftovers for lunches every day, we were still being overrun by them, so we decided to eat leftovers for dinner on Wednesday.  And then my husband very thoughtfully got rid of the rest of the leftovers by accidentally forgetting them at my mother's house.  But I guess I can't complain too much since he did spend his entire day fixing my mother's broken pipes.  Thanks, honey.  You are the best!  Thursday night we had a much needed date/game night with our friends.  We ate junk food and played games and chatted till much past my bedtime.  We had a blast!  I didn't even regret it when my alarm went off at 4:30 this morning.  Although I did hit snooze 4 or 5 times.  I made a delicious brownie batter dip and some homemade graham crackers for dessert.  I have never made graham crackers before, but they were relatively simple, and delicious!  The people I work with were making fun of  me for making graham crackers until I brought the leftovers in today and they tasted them!  Then they were asking me for the recipe!  :)  I know these aren't crock pot recipes, but just in case any of you are wondering, here are the recipes for the Brownie Batter Dip and Homemade Graham Crackers.  You should try them out, they are amazing together!  This summer I am planning to try my hand at homemade marshmallows as well and make my own homemade s'mores!  Who wants to come try them out with me?

We are still plugging away at the yogurt.  I've been taking it for breakfast at work, and I must agree with the children.  It is yummy!  I am hoping to make some homemade granola this weekend to go along with it.  I've been making homemade granola bars for a couple of years now, but this will be my first go at granola.  

My very helpful husband put our dinner in the crock pot for me this morning, since I was running a tad late for work.  He chose Crockpot Cheeseburger Soup.  This is one of the few recipes for this month that we have made before.  I found this awesome website, A Year of Slow Cooking a while back.  She has a ton of crock pot recipes on there.  I thought this looked like something that my children would eat.  Potatoes, hamburger, and Velveeta - What's not to love??  My children actually weren't here the one other time I have made this recipe, but the hubs and I really enjoyed it.  We will see how the littles react to it  

Speaking of, I should probably get off here and get some work done on this house before my wonderful father-in-law brings the little tornadoes home.  I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!  We are actually supposed to be getting some warmer weather, so I'm hoping the kids can go outside and run a little of their crazy off.  Thanks for stopping by!

The March of the Crock Pot

Welcome to day 3 of the March of the Crock Pot!  Things have been going along swimmingly around here if you don't count the large amount of winter precipitation that we received over the weekend and that it is now looking like my hubby may have to have surgery.   But if we can overlook those two insignificant details, and focus on the Crock Pot March, then everything is going great!  

Last night we had Beans and Rice.  They were very easy to put together, although they do require a little more forethought as the beans have to be soaked overnight.  This recipe also takes the longest to cook out of any of the ones that I have planned for this month.  It has to cook for 10-12 hours.  And even though you just throw them in the crock pot and let them cook, I will tell you that this was not an easy time for me.  I usually use crock pot meals on days that I am going to be at work all day.  I come home and not only is dinner done, but the house smells amazing!  Win, win!  Well, the one exception would be when you are actually home all day.  These beans smelled amazing from the time that I put them into the crock pot!  The cilantro and rotel... Yum! It was torture smelling that for 10 hours and not being able to taste it.  By the time it was finally done, I think I was completely out of saliva from salivating all day long.  And I was so excited to try it that I completely forgot to take a picture of it.  Oops!  I guess I'm not used to this whole blogging thing yet.  You'll just have to take my word on it, I suppose.  Or better yet, click this link Beans and Rice and try it yourself!  I topped mine with just a little cheese, Kevin used cheese, sour cream, and hot sauce.  The kiddos wouldn't even try it.  Oh well, more for me!  :)  I am definitely putting this recipe into my dinner rotation.  Easy, cheap, and delicious!!!

There is already one unforeseen draw back to my March of the Crock Pot.  It is only day 3 and I am already out of tupperware.  My fridge is full of delicious left-overs all ready for work lunches, but I don't have any to put tonight's in.  First world problems, I know.  I guess I will be picking up some new tupperware on my way home from work tomorrow.  It would probably also help if I could get a certain someone to bring home the ones from their work...

An update on my crock pot yogurt.  Unfortunately, it did not thicken up in the fridge like I hoped that it would.  But that does not seem to deter my kids at all.  This morning they ate it without granola and seemed perfectly content to slurp it (very loudly) through a straw.  They have already gone through nearly a third of the batch in three days.  I think I will be making this recipe again.  I need something nutritious and cheap to feed my picky kiddos.  This yogurt fits the bill.  High in protein and high in fat content needed to get a little meat on my skinny kids bones (oh, if only I had that problem!).  

What do I have going in the crock pot for dinner tonight, you ask?  Pepper Steak  It certainly smells good, so I have high hopes for it.  Check back in a day or two to see how it turned out.  Thanks for stopping by!  Have a great evening, if you're someplace cold like me, stay warm!

Hello again!

Hello!  I can't believe that it is already the first day of March!  Where did February go???  I think it flew by in a whirlwind of party preparations and baking.  E turned 2 on the 19th and her party was the 23rd.  And I was out of commission for three days just prior to her party with a nasty case of vertigo.  Trust me, that stuff is nothing to mess with.  I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy.  Ok, maybe my worst enemy, but not just any plain old, ordinary enemy.  :)  Anyways...  Onto the reason for my post.

I really enjoyed the challenge of the no spend month in January.  I discovered that I respond really well to a challenge issued, even if I am the one that issued it.  So last week as I was making up a meal plan and came up with a challenge for myself in March.  Every time I use my crock pot to cook dinner I think, "Man, I really love this thing!  I should use it every day!" But I never did.  The problem was that I only knew about 4 recipes for my crock pot and even though I love those meals, we really don't want to eat them every night.   So I decided to increase my crock pot repertoire by finding a new recipe to try every night for the month of March.  I am calling it "The March of the Crock Pot"!!!  Catchy, huh?  Then began the online search for easy, kid-friendly crock pot meals.  Thank goodness for my awesome meal planning site Plan to Eat.  Seriously, you guys should check this site out, it is amazing!  You get a "Save Recipe" button for your browser (like a Pinterest "Pin It" button).  When you find a recipe that you like, you just hit the Save Recipe button and it automatically uploads that recipe to your recipe book on the Plan to Eat website.  Automatically!  And then when you want to do your meal plan you can just drag the recipe that you want to the day that you want to make it and BAM, meal plan made!  It has seriously changed my life!!  I love Pinterest, but I almost never got around to making recipes that I pinned on there, but now that I can put it right into the recipe book that I use to do my meal planning, I am trying new recipes left and right!  And then when it's time to go grocery shopping the site automatically makes my shopping list for me too!  Life changing, I tell you!  Check it out.  Plan to Eat  But, I digress...  

I am so excited about this March challenge.  In fact, I was so excited that I couldn't even wait for March to start it, so I started last night!  I made my own yogurt in the crock pot.  It was so easy and so much cheaper than buying it at the store.  It does take a while but most of the time is completely hands off.  Now, I did not plan my time very well (I blame it on my excitement), and I had to set an alarm to get up at 12:30am to add the yogurt cultures, but other than that, the recipe was super easy.  Anyone can do it!  Aunt Tammie, I am talking to you!  Since I got almost all of my recipes online, I am just going to post the links (since my brilliant Aunt Tammie taught me how to do that today!) to where I got my recipes.  This is the recipe that I loosely followed for my yogurt.  Foolproof Greek Crockpot Yogurt  My thermometer wouldn't work, so I had to find a recipe that did things more based on time rather than temperature, but it still worked out perfectly!  

Here is what it looked like in my crock pot before I put it in the fridge (Aunt Tammie also taught me how to put in pictures!).  My kiddos couldn't even wait for it to get cold before trying it out.  And since they licked their bowls clean, I call it a success!  It is unsweetened, so I just added a little honey and a sprinkle of granola and the kids loved it.   It is a lot thinner than the greek yogurt I have gotten used to eating, I am hoping that it thickens up a bit in the fridge, but it is still very good.  I am also planning on using some of the unsweetened yogurt as a replacement for sour cream in some of my recipes.  So exciting!

And then for dinner tonight we tried Crockpot Mac and Cheese.  It cooked a little faster than I anticipated, so it got a little burned around the edges, but it was still tasty.  It only took me about 10 minutes to mix it all into the crock pot and then get it going.  The temperature had to be adjusted about 45 minutes into the cooking and it only took about 4 hours till it was done, so it is not a recipe for a work day.  But it was still nice to just be able to dish it up at dinner time and be done with it.  

Neither one of my children would even put a bite in their mouth and try it.  Why are my kids so weird?? What child doesn't like macaroni and cheese???  That being said, I think I will put this recipe into the "Probably not again" pile.  Even though it was good, it wasn't really any easier or tastier than making a homemade mac and cheese the old fashioned way.  So I think I will just stick to that.  But it was still nice to try.

Wow, that was a nice, long post!  With many links and pictures because I just learned how to do that. :)  I hope you enjoyed it and I will see you back here later for more of my "March of the Crock Pot"!  I'm off to go wash my crock pot (since somebody forgot the slow cooker liners at the grocery store) so it will be ready for tomorrow night's Beans and Rice.  Yum!  

We made it. The final day!

Good morning! And Happy Friday!  I hope you all have had a fantastic week.  I am super stoked because today is the last day of our spending fast!  We have made it!!  31 days of spending almost no unnecessary money!  Sure, we had a few slip-ups here and there, but I am counting this month as a success!  I am so proud of us!!!  And you know what?  This feeling makes me want to do it again!  And the balance in the bank account makes me want to do it again!  But I think maybe I'll wait a couple of months.  There are a couple of people I want to spend some money on in the next couple months.  E will turn 2 in February and I am throwing her a sweet little "You are my Sunshine" party.  I have formulated a plan in my head during this month of no spending and now is the time to put it into action.  And in March the hubs and I will celebrate our 7th wedding anniversary!  Definitely a time to celebrate, if I do say so myself.  We have already booked a bed and breakfast in Eureka Springs and we are going to enjoy a few days away from it all, just the two of us.  I am so excited!  I cannot wait!  So maybe in April we will revisit the spending freeze.  We'll see. 

So, remember all that cooking I did on Sunday when I had a couple of hours to myself?  Well, I made a big pot of potato soup for us to have for lunches this week.  It was delicious!  (regardless of what A said) And there was going to be enough for lunch for both me and hubby for several days.  I ate it for lunch on Tuesday and then that evening I came down with a stomach bug.  I won't go into the details, lets just suffice it to say that I won't be eating potato soup for a while.  So far no one else has had a problem, so I really don't think it was the soup.  Kevin and E both ate it and they were fine, so I apparently caught something.  Unfortunately, there was more soup than Kevin could eat on his own and I was heartbroken at the thought of throwing out perfectly good food, so I ended up putting it in the freezer.  I'm not sure how well it will freeze, but I figured it was worth a shot and if it didn't work then I wasn't out anything more than I would have been if I had thrown it away today. 

I had to go to Wal-Mart yesterday to pick up a couple of things that I needed to make some cupcakes for my boss's retirement party and I saw something that really made me what to break my spending fast.  I mean really made me want to break it!  It was a super sweet yellow sparkly dress that would be perfect for a little sunshine on her big day!  And did I mention that it was only $9???  But a little voice inside my head said "Put the dress down and step away."  And somehow I managed to comply.  Yay me!  But I do plan on going back to get it.  I mean, I can't pass up a $9 party dress, can I???  That would be irresponsible of me.  Really, it would. 

I wanted to give you all the run down of our spending these last few days.

Jan 28 - $0!

Jan 29 - $34.98 for gas for the RAV4

             $21.49 for a few last minute groceries

TOTAL for the month = $523.03

I know that still sounds like a lot, but consider this: in December we spent $599.39 in groceries alone!  And in November we spent $546.36 in groceries and $402.12 in gas (this was life before the Prius)!!!  So we managed to cut our grocery budget down enough to cover our gas for the month.  Jackpot!  When you look at it like that, it looks pretty darn good, doesn't it?  Yeah, I thought so too.  :)  So even though we may have not stictly adhered to the "NO spend" I am still going to declare this month a victory!  Yay!  I LOVE winning! 

Thank you sticking with me through our little adventure.  I am planning a post very soon with a list of the things that we have learned from our spending fast.  Come back and check it out!  And who knows?  Maybe I'll keep blogging even after our experiment is over.  You'll just have to come back to see...  In the meantime, have a great weekend!

Only 4 days left!

I can't believe that there are only 4 days left in our little experiment!  I feel like this month has just flown by (I think I say that more and more as I get older!).  I'm so glad that we chose to do this spending freeze this month.  It may not have gone exactly as we had anticipated, and we may have had a few hiccups in the road, but I think we have made great strides in the last 28 days.  If nothing else, this has made us really pay attention to every penny that we spend.  No, it's not always fun (although with just a few exceptions, I haven't even really missed spending money thoughtlessly), but it's not completely terrible either.  In fact, sometimes it was kind of fun trying to creatively get something done without spending money.  I had fun trying to come up with a pie for Pie Day with just the ingredients I had on hand (with the exception of burning my hand.  Ouch!) and it was a nice brain exercise to figure out how to get E's invitations out without buying anything.  Now I'm not saying that I want to continue this spending freeze, I do want to buy some things for my little girl's party, but the hubs and I have already talked about it and we have decided to do another month-long spending freeze sometime this year.  I think it did a great job of motivating us and reminding us what our real goals are.  Plus, we have seen some real effects from it.  I was able to pay off one of our credit cards about a week ago!  Now it wasn't a large amount, but it is one less credit card to worry about.  And this morning I was able to pay a very large chunk (about half!) of the account we used to buy our sofa and loveseat last summer.  We have to pay it off by May 1st, in order to avoid interest.  And I am super stoked to say that it looks like we will be able to meet that goal with no problem now!  Yay us!  And it's these little victories that will motivate us to do it again, and again, and again!  Until it is all paid off. And won't that be nice?  I'm also hoping that our children will see the hard work that we have put into paying off our debt and will learn from our mistakes.  I want them to learn to live within their means and manage their money well. 

It's been a little crazy around my house the last several days.  I'm hoping that things will settle down a bit here soon, I don't know how much more I can take.  I had to work this weekend, but I needed a bit of a break from everything; so after work on Saturday, I went to my aunt's house for a little girl talk.  She is such a great listener and really helps to put things in perspective for me.  Plus she can always make me laugh!  After a few hours with her (and a couple delicious chocolate cookies), I left her house feeling much lighter and more hopeful than I went in.  Thank you, Aunt Tammie!  You're the best!  The kids had a birthday party to go to on Sunday afternoon, so the house was empty when I got home.  I put the quiet to good use and got busy in the kitchen getting ready for another week of Kevin working late every. single. night.  :(  So I made breakfast casserole, homemade granola bars, homemade pizza, potato soup, and browned a couple of pound sof hamburger meat for meals later this week. And that was all in just about two hours!  It's amazing what I can get done in a short amount of time without the littles underfoot.  I'm hoping that when Kevin starts his permanent schedule, that I can build some time into the schedule each week to do some kitchen prep work.  I'm sure doing so will really alleviate some stress on the nights that he won't be home.  I was off work yesterday, so I just stayed home, out of the cold, and relaxed with the munchkins.  Oh, and I did about 6 loads of laundry.  :(  Not my favorite thing to do, but I watched The Princess Bride while I did it, so it wasn't too horrid. 

Jan 24

gas for Prius - $21.67

Jan 25

stamps - $34.31 (I had to get these before the price went up on Sunday.  I have made myself a goal of sending someone in my extended family a letter once a week, so I have been going through a lot of stamps.)

Jan 26-27

$0!!!!!!!

So there you have it, our spending from the last few days.  I hope you all have a wonderful day and I will see you back here very soon. 

Apologies

I feel like I need to apologize for my little rant on Wednesday.  I'm sorry that I took to my blog to rant.  I should have used a little more restraint.  I was just so frustrated!  And so for those of you that have stuck around, I apologize and I'm glad you're still here.  And as for that whole messy situation, it turned out not to be as bad as I originally thought.  My husband went to talk to the gas station that the charge was made at and the manager told him to bring in a print off of the bank statement and they would take care of it.  He didn't have time to do it before he went to work so I had to do it after I got off work.  First, I went to the bank after work and got a new debit card.  They are able to print it off right in the bank now, so I didn't even have to go one day without a debit card.  Plus I got to pick a pretty picture to put on my card.  And the best part?  Since the card number is entirely different, I was able to use the same PIN number without comproming the integrity of our card!  Woo Hoo!  Then I went to get my free birthday cupcake at a shop downtown (I had been waiting for them to have Mocha Cappucino cupcakes!) to console myself with after I talked to the manager.  If you know me personally, you will know how very hard something like this is for me.  I do not do any kind of confrontation at all.  None.  Nope.  But if I know that I really need to do it, I can usually work myself up to being able to do it.  And then I console myself with cupcakes.  :)  So I mustered every ounce of courage that I could and went into the store and asked for the manager...  And she was gone for the day.  Whew!  I was given a stay of execution.  And since I was off work on Thursday and wasn't going to be going into town, Kevin was going to have to take care of it. Works for me!  I still ate the cupcake though to reward myself for mustering up the courage to go in.  After all, it wasn't MY fault that the manager wasn't there. And so Kevin took the statement up yesterday and spoke to the manager.  Apparently we weren't the only person complaining of that same problem on that same day.  The manager thinks that maybe an employee was doing something they shoudn't.  So she apologized and gave us back the money!  Thank you, Father!  It may seem like a little thing, but that $58 is a big thing for us.  And it is such a load off my back that we were able to get that taken care of. 

Now back to the spending fast.  Let me get you caught up real fast...

Jan 16 - $ 6.98 at Walgreens for cold medicine
Jan 17 - $23.55 gas for my car
               $10 for my boss's retirement gift
Jan 18 - $81 for two week's worth of groceries
Jan 21 - $37.50 gas for hubby's car
               $5.84 hubby forgot his lunch (again!)
Total -   $164.87

Total as of Jan 24 - $410.58

(I know this sounds like a lot, but it is really a lot better for us, I promise!  Plus we have had some unexpected expenses that could not be avoided.)

I think we are starting to get a little antsy with the spending fast.  The hubs and I both seem to be itching to buy something, anything!  Well, not anything.  I want to get started on Ella's birthday party preparations.  Oh, and go out to eat!  Everything tastes better when I don't have to cook it or clean up after it!  :)  But I am determined to go the long haul.  I WILL make it to the end of the month.  Only 1 more week!  We can do this!!!

Ahhhh!

I know that this may seem silly to some of you, but I am sick to my stomach right now.  It is very hard for me to admit this, but it appears that I have screwed up.  If you recall, I had to fill up my car on Friday.  I always use the pay at the pump when I have the kid with me because it is a pain to get the kids out and drag them into the store just to pay.  Well, I swiped my card and the pump said "See Attendant" and I was cold and tired and didn't want to bother with it, so I just hit cancel and went to a different gas station.  I didn't really think much more about it.  I figured that if the pump wasn't going to let me use the card, it wouldn't let anyone else either.  Well, today I got online and checked our banking account.  There are two charges on there (for a total of $58.84) from that gas station!  It appears that someone was able to get gas using my card after I left.  We called the bank and they said that there is nothing that they can do other than cancel our debit cards.  They said that we would have to dispute it with the store itself and that we would most likely be fighting a losing battle. 

So now I have to go to the bank after work and pick up a new debit card, memorize a new PIN (it's going to take me a while!), and we are out $59!!!  It just makes me so mad!  I guess I shouldn't have been lazy and just gotten the kids out of the car and gone in.  But seriously, have you ever had to get two toddlers into and out of a carseat???  It is like an Olympic sport or something!  It is not easy or fun.  I bet if the manager of the gas station had to do that, he would just give me the money back.  But the worst part about everything is the guilt that I feel.  I am so mad at myself!  Here we are trying to get on track with money and I just basically flush $60 down the drain.  I've been trying to tell myself that maybe the people that got gas needed it more than I do and that it was a huge blessing in their life, but unfortunately this hasn't gotten very far in making me feel better.  It works for like a second or two and then I go right back to kicking myself, over and over and over again.  Wonder how long before my butt starts to get sore?

I know that I should probably give you guys an update on how everything else is going, but honestly, I can't think about anything other than this stupid thing right now, so I'm not even going to try.  I hope you all can forgive me.  I promise to be off the pity party the next time I post.

I have a dream!

Cheesy, predictable title, I know, but I couldn't resist.  I do have a dream.  I have a dream of being debt free.  I have a dream of not having to wonder if there is enough money to fix an appliance (an oven, perhaps?) when it starts to die.  I have a dream of being able to send my children off to college without a mountain of debt pressing down on them (or us!).  And this spending fast is just the first step in fulfilling these dreams.  I think we often lose sight of these long-term dreams in the day to day living.  Instead I see the short-term goals.  Get dinner on the table in a timely fashion without losing my mind.  Solution-take out or frozen meal.  I have been really stressed and deserve a reward for all my hard work.  Solution-cookies, candy, ice cream, or any other sugar laden, expensive treat that happens to jump into my shopping cart.  But the problem with these solutions is that they are only temporary solutions to the problem, which is really not a solution at all.  These solutions actually compound the problems.  Not only does it not help us to get debt free, but it is unhealthy for me and my family.  I want to strive to (in the words of my blogger idol) Live Well, AND Spend Less.  Living well does not mean having to spend a lot.  That is one thing that this spending fast has taught me.  Much of the food that I have prepared from scratch for us ahead of time, has been much tastier than whatever frozen thing I would have picked up.  And I have learned that with just a little prep work (especially if I am by myself in the kitchen) makes things so much easier come dinner time.  When hubby starts his new schedule, he is going to be gone for dinner and bedtimes four nights of the week.  My goal is to have some alone time in the kitchen once a week (when he is home) and get the prep work done for the meals when he is not going to be there.  It can be really hard to get a meal on the table with two toddlers clinging to your legs and grabbing things off the counters and I don't want to fall back into the rut of take out and convenience foods.  Wish me luck!  And as for using food to reward myself or make myself feel better, that's bad on so many levels.  I mentioned in another post that I was going to start an online devotional based on the book Made to Crave.  The study started yesterday and I am really optimistic about it.  Hopefully that will help me fix this problem.

As for what has been going on the last few days.  I had to get gas in my car on Friday.  It was awesome because I had not gotten gas in 10 days and it only took me $24 to fill my car up!!!  At this rate, a months worth of gas for my Prius is going to equal what I was spending each week in the RAV4.  Awesome!  Plus I got a code for a free movie rental from Redbox so the family and I ate popcorn and watched Monsters University.  On Sunday we celebrated 3 family birthdays at my mom's house with pie!  We each brought a pie.  Usually I would go on Pinterest and find the most delectable looking pie I could and go buy all the ingredients to make it, but I didn't want to do that this time.  So I went into my pantry and started looking around to see what I had.  I ended up coming up with what I have named S'mores Pie.  I had a graham cracker crust and chocolate pudding.  So I put a layer of melted chocolate chips in the bottom of the crust and then filled it with the chocolate pudding.  I have a recipe for a fantastic frosting that tastes just like marshmallow fluff and I put that on top of the pudding.  Voila!  S'more Pie!  Delicious!  It was a little messy to cut and serve, but it tasted good and that's what's important, right? 

We also went grocery shopping this weekend.  I don't have the receipt with me right now, so I don't remember the exact amount that we spent, but other than a few perishables, this trip should get us through the end of the month.  If I remember correctly, we spent somewhere aroud $80.  Not too bad, if I do say so myself. 

This morning I also made the last payment for my son's daycare.  Friday will be his last day.  With daddy's change in schedule he just doesn't need to go anymore.  The kids will stay with daddy three days a week and with my father-in-law the other two days.  Not only will this be better for the kids, but it saves us $80 a week.  Score!

Sorry for such a long post.  I guess I had a lot to say about this weekend.  I feel like there is something that I missed... Oh, well, I guess I will remember it later.  Have a great week!

TGIF

Happy Friday everyone!  I am super excited about this weekend.  It is my hubby's last weekend off before he starts his new schedule and will be working every weekend.  :(  Plus the weather is supposed to warm up some and it should be nice.  I am hoping to get the baseboards from the dining room painted.  Wish me luck!

Speaking of luck, all the luck you guys wished me yesterday must have worked.  I was in Hobby Lobby for an hour and guess how much money I spent?  Not a penny!   I was so proud of myself!  I got lots of ideas and took tons of pictures to jog my memory later, but I didn't by anything!  That right there is a miracle in and of itself!  Want to know my secret?  I really didn't think I could resist the temptation, so I left my purse in the car and I didn't even get a cart!  I couldn't buy something even if I wanted to.  Which it's a good thing I took those precautions because I found these absolutely adorable napkins that would be perfect for E's birthday party and I totally would have bought them if I had had my purse.  I love them so much that I dreamt about them last night!  I will most likely be camping out on Hobby Lobby's door on February 1st to pick them up.  :)  And packing a snack kept me from being tempted to stop and gete something to eat.  Go me!

As far as the spending fast is going, hubby had a little hiccup on Wednesday.  He got hungry at work (even though I had made breakfast casserole for him, but who's keeping track?) so he bought a bagel and cream cheese.  And yesterday I had to go to Walgreens to get some more sinus medicine so I can sleep.  Sleep is important!  I also got $10 cash at Walgreens so that I can contribute to a retirement present for my boss.  We are getting her a kitchenaid mixer!  I love my kitchenaid!

I am really starting to get a little freaked out about E's birthday party.  It is 5 weeks from this weekend and I haven't started anything!  Well, I have designed the invitations and with any luck at all, I will get them in the mail this weekend.  But I had better get started on the rest of it.  First up - a budget and a plan!  Let the list making begin!

I hope you have a wonderful weekend.  If the weather is nice where you are, enjoy it!  If not, well, I'm sorry.  It is January after all. :)  I am going to try to enjoy the last weekend of having the whole family at home.  God bless!

Halfway through! Woo Hoo!

We have made it half way through our spending fast! Go us! We may not have done as well as I had hoped we would, but I am still proud. Even if we haven’t saved as much money as we could have, we have learned a lot about our spending habits, and that is half the battle won. Plus we are only half way throug h the month. Who knows what we will be able to accomplish in the second half of the month???

We had to register and pay the sales tax on my new car on Monday. Yikes! Who knew it would be so expensive. But in part because of the money we have saved we were able to pay it with only a few heart palpitations. J On the home front, I did feel rather proud of myself on Monday. I had a couple of kid-free hours (it’s a miracle!) and I made myself very useful in the kitchen. Not only did I clean everything up, but I also prepped several meals for later in the week. I made two batches of meatloaf. One went in the fridge for dinner one night this week and the other went in the freezer for use in the future. I also made casserole for dinner Monday night and a breakfast casserole to reheat for breakfasts. And I browned a couple of pounds of hamburger for super quick dinners on busy nights. Yay me! The only problem? After I did all this (when I was attempting to cook the casserole) I discovered that the heating element in my oven had gone out. Boo! So I can’t bake any of the yummy food that I have prepared. Luckily, my very handy husband thinks he will be able to replace the broken part himself. But since we shelled out all our money to the DMV earlier this week, we have to wait until payday to pick up the part. This bump in my beautiful meal plan has made me very tempted to have Kevin pick up something on his way home from work, but so far I have been able to resist. I think I am going to take my meatloaf over to my in-laws house tonight to cook it up. It just looks to yummy to resist!

Wish me luck for tomorrow. I am going to need some extra will power for sure! A has an art show at his daycare starting at 5 (but daddy won’t get off work until 5:30), which means that I will have to hang out in town for a couple of hours after I get off work. It is going to be hard for me to find something to do that does not involve buying something, or eating something. I’m planning to pack myself a little snack to eat after work so hopefully I won’t be tempted to grab a bite to eat. Plus I do have a coupon for a free concrete at Andy’s for my birthday! But I really do not know what I am going to do with my time. I could go to Hobby Lobby and start looking at things for E’s birthday party next month, but I’m afraid that is going to be more temptation that I can handle. Know what I mean? Hmmm… Maybe I can find a warm place somewhere and just read my book. We will see. Either way, wish me will power! Thanks!

I hope you all have a fabulous Wednesday!

Jan 13 -
gas for K's car - $ 34

Total as of Jan 15 - $ 245.71



It's Monday... again.

Happy Monday everyone!  I can be happy because today is kind of my Friday.  I worked this weekend so I am off tomorrow.  But... I will get a Monday on Wednesday, so don't be too jealous. 

This weekend was crazy busy here at the hospital.  I didn't get any breaks yesterday so I was really hungry by the time I left.  I REALLY wanted to stop and get something to eat (and drink!  I had drank all of my water a few hours before I got off work) on my way home.  And one part of my brain kept telling me that I would be completely justified if I did, but I really wanted to stick to our spending fast.  So I just high tailed it home and found myself something to eat there!  I was pretty proud of myself.  Before this month, I would have stopped without a second thought and gotten myself some expensive, fat-laden food to make me feel better after my stressful day. But not this day!  But this experience did help me to realize something in myself.  I tend to eat (especially bad things) when I am stressed out or tired.  I tell myself that I deserve that bag of chips or those cookies because I had a rough day.  I need to find something else to soothe my nerves rather than food.  That's not good for my budget or my waist line.  I have signed up for an online bible study group.  Next week we are starting a study on a book called Made to Crave.  This book is supposed to help people break addictions and instead channel that energy, or cravings, into a craving for God.  It sounds exactly like what I need, don't you think?  I am really excited to get started.  I guess I should get my hands on the book soon...

I also remembered that I had a coupon from my employer for a free turkey for the holidays.  I found the coupon (in the bottom of the black pit otherwise known as my purse) and discovered that it was going to expire today!  So I stopped by Price Cutter on my way home on Saturday and got a 13.5 pound turkey and a can of frozen OJ (my family sure needs the vitamin C right now) and spent a whopping $3.01!!!  That will easily be several meals for my family and all I had to pay was sales tax.  Woo Hoo!  And what's even better, is that $3 was the only money we spent all weekend.  I call that a win!

Well, I should probably get back to work.  I hope you all had a fantastic weekend and that your week turns out to be even better.  See you back here soon!

Day 10

We have made it to day 10, of our 31 day spending fast.  Just about 1/3 of the way through.  Woo Hoo!  I have been home the last two days.   Poor E and I have been feeling pretty sickly.  :(  I'm trying to decide if a trip to the doctor is warrented or if it's most likely just a virus...  Decisions, decisions.  These are the kind of decisions that drive me crazy as a mama.

Back to the topic at hand, spending.  Or really no spending. 

On Wednesday I had to get gas in my Prius.  In let my gas tank get much lower than I usually do before getting gas so I had to spend $27.91 to fill it up.  But considering I had not gotten gas since Dec 29th, I was pretty stoked!  And then on the way to get my kids after getting gas, my little car got an average of 60 mpg!!  Woo Hoo!!!!  That totally made my day.  I'm a dork, I know. 

I had to send my hubby to Walgreens yesterday to pick me up some sinus medication.  If I did not get some relief, it was going to get ugly.  And being the sweet, loving man that he is, he also picked up a little treat for me to make me feel better.  Bless his little heart, he was trying to be thoughtful. 

Forgive the short post today, but I just don't have anymore coherent words in my head.  So I will sign off with a Happy Friday!  I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and feel better than I do.  I'm going to go finish off my 3rd box of tissues for the day. 

January 8
gas in Prius - $27.91

January 9
Walgreens - $16.72

TOTAL as of Jan 9- $208.70

Happy Hump Day!

Happy Wednesday everybody!  Today is day 8 of our 31 day spending fast.  Things have not been as easy as I naively, I mean originally, thought that they would be.  My dearest husband forgot his lunch on Monday.  And since I didn't want him to starve on his first day of his new job, I authorized an unexpected purchase of a lunch for $5.84.  But I am proud of him for looking for a special to buy instead of just getting whatever looked good and spending twice as much. 

I have also been doing things at home to save money.  I don't have a lot of time in the mornings, so I usually eat a Jimmy Dean or Marie Calendar frozen breakfast sandwich.  I can't even tell you how much those cost, but I'm sure they're not cheap.  So in the spirit of lower our grocery bill, I decided to make a large breakfast casserole and cut it up for breakfasts this week.  I made the casserole on Monday and we have been eating on it all week.  And I think that it is way yummier than a frozen sandwich, if I do say so myself!  :)  I also made homemade granola bars that the kids love!  Saving money and I'm sure it's better for them as well.  Win, win!

I also wanted to explain that the money totals that I am giving on this blog do not include our bills that we have to pay every month, such as our mortgage, car payments and utility bills.  I figure that right now there is not much I can do to lower those costs so I'm going to focus on the ones I do have some control over. 

I hope you all have a fabulous Wednesday and I will see you back here soon!

Monday

forgotten lunch: $5.84

Tuesday

$0!!!

January 7 TOTAL:  $164.07

Day 6

Thanks for stopping by!  Today is day 6 of our 31 day spending fast.  Sorry I haven't been on in a couple of days, it was a busy weekend at my house.  Unfortunately, I cannot say that we have gone 6 days without spending money.  Eventually money has to be spent.  My hubby and I got a lovely evening out on Saturday for my birthday.  We went to a movie (we were planning to use a gift certificate, but left it at home.  Oops!) and out to a fabulous Japanese steakhouse for dinner.  We should have picked the kids up on our way home since we knew a winter storm was coming in, but the lure of a completely kid-free evening and morning proved stronger than common sense. 

We did do the grocery shopping while we were out without children.  We were not able to keep it under our $50 budget, but we didn't do too badly.  I was never really sure if $50 was feasible, since I have honestly never paid much attention to how much anything costs.  We got the things I needed for two weeks worth of meals (theoretically speaking) and we only spent $56.65.  Not too shabby!  Much better than the $200+ we would usually spend.  Overall, I am pleased with how our first week of grocery shopping went.  We also had to fill the RAV4 up while we were out.

Yesterday was my birthday and also "snowpocalypse"!  I would have liked nothing better than to stay snuggled up on the couch with a blanket, good book, and a cup of tea all day, but we since our good reason had taken a vacation Saturday night, we had to venture out to fetch our children.  It was quite the adventure and we ended up having to call in back up, my father-in-law in his four wheel drive truck.  But in the end, we managed to make it all home safely and I got to enjoy a nice big piece of my homemade birthday cake.  Yellow cake, with chocolate ganache filling, and chocolate buttercream icing.  Yum!

It was back to work today.  My husband started a new job today (Congratulations, honey!) and he was able to bring me to work so I didn't have to get my baby, I mean my Prius, out in this ick.  He's on his way to come get me now and then we will go get our muchkins.  Wish us luck! 

I hope you all had a wonderful and safe weekend.  Try to stay warm, I know I will!

Saturday
movie: $15 (no snacks)
dinner: $52.15 (but SO worth it!)
grocery shopping: $56.65
TOTAL:  123.80

Sunday:
gas for RAV4: $34.43

Total as of Jan 5:  $158.23

Happy Friday!

Happy Friday!  Today is day 3 of our 31 day spending fast.  So far we have managed to go 2 whole days without spending a penny.  Yay!  Only 29 more days to go.  :)

I have already had some disappointments though.  Apparently, I didn't think this all the way through when chosing January as the month to do this.  Yesterday I received coupons from a couple of shoe stores for $10 off my purchase of shoes in January as their birthday gift to me.  But unfortunately, since I don't think they have any shoes for less than $10, I will not be able to utilize these coupons.  It nearly killed me, but I threw them in the trash right away, so that I wouldn't be tempted to rationalize the purchase.  I have to admit that I am a little bit proud of myself.  :)  Maybe I can cultivate this feeling to be better than the feeling of buying something new.  Instead of getting a high from buying something, I could get my high from knowing how much money I am saving! 

We are also going to have to go to the grocery store today.  We are out of milk, eggs, and bread.  I took an inventory of everything in our freezers and pantry and used this list to make our meal plan for the next couple of weeks.  As I went, I made a small list of things that we need to pick up.  We are also going to make a point of writing down the price of each item that we purchase so that we can become informed on what we are spending our money on.  We are really bad about just putting whatever we want/need in the cart without even looking at the prices.  I have modified my shopping list to include a place to write each item's price.  We will use this information to write up our new budget at the end of the month.  This will also keep up from being completely shocked at the total when we get to the register. 

I am going to go to Kohl's this afternoon as well.  We had to buy my husband some nice clothes for his new job (Congratulations honey!) last month and earned $20 in Kohl's cash.  I am going to use this money to buy the kids some much needed new socks.  Poor E only has 4 pairs of socks that fit her!  And A has nearly worn holes in all of his socks.  I will definitely keep the total under the $20 so I won't be spending any money, but still getting something we need.  Score!

Well, I think that's about all I have for this morning.  I hope you each have a beautiful day! 

Well, Hello There!

Hello! My name is Sarah and I have to be honest, I really have no idea what I am doing here. Somehow my aunt (Hi Aunt Tammie!) convinced me that I should start a blog so that she could follow along on this little journey that my family and I have decided to take this month. When I told my husband what she suggested he asked who would follow me. Good question. My guess is only my Aunt Tammie! But anyone else who has happened across my little page is most welcome as well. I am glad you are here! I guess I should probably start by explaining what we are doing and why. My husband, Kevin, and I have decided that we need to do something quick to get our finances under control. Don’t get me wrong, we both have good jobs and have been able to afford all the things that our family needs (Thank the Lord for His blessings!), but our spending had gotten a little out of hand. We had some unexpected losses (RIP refrigerator and Pontiac) recently and therefore accrued some debt we hadn’t counted on. Couple that with our lackadaisical (and that’s being generous) method of budgeting and Yikes! We had a big mess. We have been saying for several months that we needed to get it under control, but without any specific guidelines, nothing changed. Last month I came across a post from one of my favorite blogs (www.livingwellspendingless.com) where she discusses doing a 31 day spending fast. At first I kind of laughed it off, thinking we could never do it. But the more I thought about it, the more I felt that this was the right thing for us to do. It would put an abrupt end to our overspending and force us to really evaluate every purchase that we made. And it was only for a month. I can do anything for only 31 days! I brought it up with Kevin, and to my surprise he immediately agreed! January seemed like the perfect time to do it after the frenzy of gift buying in November and December (although I didn’t necessarily think it all the way through, since my birthday is this month.), but I wasn’t going to back out now. So Kevin and I sat down and hashed out the details. We modified our guidelines a bit to meet our family’s needs. 1. Limit our driving as much as possible. And when we do go somewhere as a family, we will take my new Prius (Yay!) because it has better gas mileage. 2. No spending money on a. Eating out (we are making an exception for my birthday. I mean you only turn 31 once, right?) b. Entertainment (we will be using a gift card we were given to go to a movie for my birthday) c. Online shopping (this one will be hard for me. No Amazon, no babysteals.com What will I do?) d. Any other unnecessary spending that didn’t come to mind as we were discussing this 3. Limit our grocery budget to just $50 a week. We have a ton of food in our pantry and deep freezer and I am confident we can stay below this amount. We plan to only buy perishable items such as milk, eggs, and cheese. 4. Keep a detailed list of where every penny goes this month, so we have a starting place for building a realistic budget after this month. 5. We will not go without important items (just make a concentrated effort to eliminate the unnecessary ones) and our children will still have everything that they need. 6. Take the money saved and put it directly towards our debt. So there you have it, the details of our 31 day spending fast. I decided to go ahead and start this blog as a way of recording our adventure and holding us accountable (even if nobody else reads it!). It’s a lot harder to back out of this if I think someone may be following along. I will try to post as much as possible, but with a 1 and a 3 year old underfoot, I have no idea how often that will be. And please be patient with me as I try to figure out this whole blogging thing. Thanks! January 1st spending total: $0 (go us!)