Come Along With Me......

As I take you with us and show you what we did last week :)

The rain was not that bad during the day on Saturday.  We saw a few flooded streets and a man kayaking down his street.  Our street was not flooded and we were able to get out, so off we went to Toys R Us for their Nerf Event.

I forgot my phone at home so no pictures :(  The boys had a blast shooting a couple of Nerf guns and everyone who participated got a small package of Nerf darts and 2 Nerf cars.

After Toys R Us we headed over to a couple of stores and did our shopping :)  We didn't need a huge amount of groceries so shopping was a breeze :)

On our way home it started raining heavily.  Sunday was little Michael's birthday and I had a cake to bake.  I baked the cake and hubby decorated it.

I cannot believe my "baby" is growing up so fast.  I need something to slow him down just a little.  It just hit me that next year Nathan will be in High School and I only have 4 more years left to teach him.  Where is the time flying to??

Michael loved his cake :)  He was so excited with this Poke ball cakes :)

By the end of the evening, the rain was pouring.  The next day some of our road was flooded so I had to end up taking our oldest to work.  Good thing I did.  I'm not sure he would have made it to work on his bike.

This is not our road but it is one of the main roads we have to take to get Chris to work.  It was not fun to drive in but we made it safe :)

Other than our minor flooding, we had a blast not spending any money other than for groceries.  I can't wait to see what we come up with to do for FREE next week :)

Come Along With Me.......

As I take you with us and show you what we did last week :)

Most of you already know about my dental visit.  My stitches felt like they were going to be in my mouth forever.  The dentist told me that if they were not out in 10 days and were really bothering me to call the office to have them removed.  Well, on the 10th day, go figure, these super annoying stitches finally released and came out- YAY :)  I have been enjoying solid food again :)

Since I wasn't sure when my stitches were going to come out, we planned a family game day at home.

I did go out on the 17th for the Cape Coral Aldi Grand Opening.  Since this one is a lot closer to our house, I didn't have to get up and leave as early as the last Grand Opening.  In 1 hour from the time we got there, all 100 tickets had been given out.

I was number:

18 is a good number for me.  I was born on the 18th day.  I was feeling really lucky.  When it was opening time, I got a gift card for the amount of:

$25.  Not bad.  I was really hoping for the $100 gift card.  That would have been amazing but $25 is still great and helps so much with our grocery budget.

Over the weekend, we had a fun game day, filled with Hungry Hungry Hippos, Operation, many hands of Uno, Slap Jack and many many more.

Mario Memory

Dutch Blitz card game

We are having so much fun not spending any money :)  I can't wait to see what we come up with to do for FREE next week :)

Come Along With Me.........

I don't know where to start.  I had my posts all planned out in my head last week but unfortunately didn't have a chance to get them typed out.  And then it happened.....

I broke a tooth- ouch :(  I called the dentist who couldn't see me until next month :(  Thankfully, they had an office the next county over that could see me the next day :)

Now remember, I went in for a broken tooth and somehow got talked into getting my last wisdom tooth cut out :(  Now I have needed to get his done for some time now.  My poor wisdom tooth came in sideways about 15 years ago.  It needed to come out.  I just didn't think that Thursday was the day.

So, I have been on the couch recuperating and on a not so fun soft and liquid diet :(

My dentist appointment last week was also the same day as I was supposed to post my Come Along With Me from the week before.  So that didn't happen.  Guess what??  You all get a bonus~ 2 week recap :)

The week of July 30- August 5th:

This week was an exciting week.  I helped out with Rev Week at church.  It was for Middle & High School students and it was awesome:

One of the nights, our library was hosting a Space Bingo Night that I signed up for but Nathan and I couldn't go due to Rev Week.  Hubby and little Michael went and had so much fun and won cool prizes:

Saturday, Hubby and I got to go to an adult art class.  We had so much fun creating art.  This is the first time in a long time that we got to do something together by our self.  It was nice :)

From August 6th to 12th:

You already know about my dental issue :(  I was so afraid the boys were going to miss the Pokémon Event at Toys R Us.  But hubby told me that he would take them and that he would take the list and go to the grocery store as well~ with the boys :)

I had no problem taking him up on his offer.  Hubby and the boys were not home- oh my.  That meant a nice quiet house for me to do something I haven't done in so long- relax and enjoy the quiet.  It was so nice :)  And to have to grocery shopping done for me, was oh so sweet :)

Now things are back to normal :)

We are having so much fun not spending any money :)  I can't wait to see what we come up with to do for FREE next week :)

Come Along With Me............

As I take you with me and show you what we did last week :)

I actually remembered this time :)  We made it to a library event that I had signed us up for.  This event was a Meet & Greet with the local Police Department and their K9's :)

I am so glad we went.  We learned so much about the K9 unit of the Police Department and got to pet this gorgeous dogs :)

I had been counting down the days for the Aldi Grand Opening in the next county.  This one will be closer than the one we are currently driving to.  Chris decided he wanted to come along with me bright and early Thursday morning.  I figured we would get held up with morning commute traffic, so we left at 6am.  The roads were clear and we got to Aldi's a lot earlier than anticipated.  We got in line:

Even though we waited in line for 2 hours, it wasn't that bad of a wait since I had someone to chat with.  Some people in line had books and brought chairs :)

I won a $25 gift card and Chris won a $10 gift card :)

We can't wait to do it all over again in a few weeks when the Aldi in our area is having their Grand Opening :)

We also had Michael's brother fly down and spend time with us.  That was nice.  We haven't seen him in quite a while.  He was nice enough to tune my guitar :)  Guess I should try learning how to play that again.  When I got my guitar many many years ago, YouTube didn't exist :)

We ended up making super yummy brownies and chocolate chip cookies~ Mmmmmm :)

None of them lasted very long.  They never do.

We have been doing so well with our No Spend Month that we were able to give our credit card company $673~ YEA!!!!!!!!

We had a blast last week and it was all FREE :)  We are having so much fun not spending any money :) 

We are doing so well that we have extended our No Spend Month into August :)  I am so excited to see how much we will be able to give our credit card company this month :)

I can't wait to see what we come up with to do for FREE next week :)

Come Along With Me............

As I take you with me and show you what we did last week for free or super cheap :)

Our library has been offering all kinds of free events all summer long.  This event was a reptile show.  Super cool.  We were looking forward to it.  That is until, I remembered the event several hours later after the event was over- Oops :(  This time it was my fault we missed the show.  I am now writing the events on my calendar beside my computer.  That should help me remember :)

Toys R Us had a Back to School Event that was really cool. Everything was set up in stations. You started out with a scavenger hunt through the science section.  Came back and filled out an all about me page.  You then moved to the Bunchem's table, where you got to build and keep a giraffe.

 Then the Slime demo.  You didn't get to make the slime but you got the opportunity to add glitter to it and got to take it home.

After the super fun Toys R Us event, we headed over to Gamestop.  The boys and hubby's favorite store :)

Nathan had a birthday gift card and knew exactly what he wanted to get.  I love going to the mall not for shopping.  We walk the perimeter of the mall and get a really good walking workout :)

We came home and made the most delicious sugar cookies- mmmmm.  This is all that is left from our baking adventures :)

We are still searching and hunting for Homeschool books.  I have found quite a few for really awesome prices and will be doing a homeschool book haul to show you everything we got :)

We had a blast last week and it was all FREE :)  We are having so much fun not spending any money :)

I can't wait to see what we come up with to do for FREE next week :)

Come Along With Me..............

As I take you along with us and show you what we did last week :)

Our local library was having a free magic show.  I was excited and signed us up to go.  Well, one of the boys was having a rough day and decided not to go :(  I checked the library calendar and it is packed with lots of fun free events :)

I am still searching and bidding on homeschool books.  This is what I have gotten in so far:

More is coming in the mail :)  I am so excited about how much money we are saving.  The BJU American Republic history set retails for $179 and I picked it up on Ebay for $34.75- Win :)  Apologia General Science set retails for $62 and I got it for $38 :)  Math U See Beta retails for $106 and I was able to purchase it for $49 :)  So excited :)  The more money we save on curriculum, the more field trips we can take.  I am going through Swagbucks for my Ebay purchases and am getting points that I can redeem on giftcards :)  If you are unfamiliar with Swagbucks, click here.  This will take you to a post I wrote all about Swagbucks.

How is your weather where you are?  We have been getting hit with some pretty strong storms here almost every day.  Got to love rainy season here in Florida :)  Normally, we don't have any issues during rainy season but this week our power has been going on and off- not fun :(

Little Michael and I decided that we needed to make cupcakes.  We had so much fun.  I let him do most of the work from measuring, stirring and even pouring the batter into the liners.  He did so well and the cupcakes tasted so good :)

I think he got more flour on himself than in the bowl :)

On Saturday, we went to Toys R Us for their International Day of Play Event and had so much fun.  They had tables set up with games to play, coloring sheets, Nerf games, Karaoke, Pie in the face game and Nintendo Switch.  The boys will tell you their favorite part was the Nintendo Switch, which is now on their birthday and Christmas wishlists :)

We had a blast last week and it was all FREE :)  We are having so much fun not spending any money :)

I can't wait to see what we come up with to do for FREE next week :)

Come Along with me.............

As I take you along and show you what we did last week.

We had an awesome week spending time as a family.

Hubby had suggested going to the beach on the 4th of July.  In his mind, the beaches wouldn't be crowded as people would be traveling and hosting BBQ's.  I was hoping he was right :)

Surprisingly, it wasn't crowded at all.  The pavilions on the other hand were all taken and the boardwalk was crowded.  No biggie.  We spent all our time in the water :)

We all had a wonderful time even though it was crazy hot :(  

We came home and soothed our sunburned skin :(  Later that evening, we went outside and enjoyed a wonderful firework show right from our driveway.  I am amazed at the fireworks that people in our neighborhood shoot off.

It then hit me, we are in the month of July.  Eeeekkkkk!!  We start our homeschool in August and I don't have any books.  YIKES!!  

Thankfully, I already know what books I want to use.  I just have to find them at the best price possible.  I went to my normal resources~ Rainbow Resource, Ebay and the actual publishers to see who had the best price.  I have been lucky with several Ebay auctions and am waiting patiently for them to arrive.

I kind of feel like I am cheating on our No Spend Month.  I have been using our credit card to purchase homeschool books.  We have a homeschool fund in place to cover all our homeschool supplies.  I am not purchasing with the intent to pay it off later, we have the money currently available for these purchases :)  Purchasing homeschool supplies does curb my online shopping and I love the hunt :)

On Saturday, we visited our local library.

Got our books for the week, ran into a friend and chatted for a little bit :)  Came home, packed our lunch and off to Toys R Us we went.

Toys R Us was having a Nerf demo.  Anything Nerf gun related, my boys are there :)

Nerf gun on wheels- how cool :)

After the demo, we went around the store and had each boy make a list of birthday wishlist ideas.  Since someone's birthday is right around the corner and then we have another birthday next month as well.

And of course, we can't take little Michael to Toys R Us without him trying on a mask:

This picture is from the last TRU event we went 2 weeks ago :) Crazy kid :)

We had a blast last week and it was all FREE :)  We are having so much fun not spending any money :)

I can't wait to see what we come up with to do for FREE next week :)

How did you spend your 4th of July week?  Did you do anything FREE or cheap last week?

Come Along With Me......

As I show you how our family saved money last week.

Normally, on our no spend months, temptation hits hard.  Even on no spend months, I see something I want but do not have the cash for.  No worry, whip out my credit card and pay it off later.  That is one of the reasons we are in the financial mess we are currently in :(

For this no spend month, we enlisted help.  Help from our boys.  We told the boys that if mommy and daddy did not use their credit card for the whole month, that we could have pizza at the end of the month.  They are so excited.  Every time I get home from grocery shopping, Nathan asks me if I used my credit card.  When I say No, he does a happy dance :)

Getting the boys involved has helped so much.  When we go to the store and they see something they want, they normally ask if we can buy it.  Now, they know that if they don't have the money and we are not using our credit card, they are fine not getting the item.  They know if it is something they really want, they can put in on their birthday wishlist.

When we went grocery shopping on Saturday, we took out an extra $50.  We are going to use $24 for pizza, soda, ice cream sandwiches and Cool Whip for Nathan's birthday, which is coming up soon.  I will have a teenager in the house again- oh my :)  We will use $23 for pizza, soda and ice cream at the end of the month.

Last week, was super easy not finding any temptation to use our credit card.  Nathan and I volunteered for Vacation Bible School at our church.

VBS is such a rewarding and exhausting experience.  By the time we got home, we ate a late lunch and took a well deserved nap.  Then it was time to make dinner.  Other than church, we didn't go anywhere or buy anything. Until Saturday.  We had our huge grocery shopping adventure.  That alone was tiring.  We spent over $200 at 1 store.  After going to 3 stores, we were done.  Came home, put everything away, ate lunch and stayed put :)

Staying strong on our No Spend Adventure.  I can't wait to see what is in store for the upcoming week :)

Come Along with Me.........

As I share 4 things our family did to save money over the weekend.

I have recently discovered Budget Girl on YouTube.  She is so inspiring and has recently paid off a giant student loan debt.  Way to go :)

Hubby and I have decided that we are ready to get super serious about our credit card debt.  We have 1 credit card that is huge :(  We consolidated 3 of our Citi Credit Cards into 1. We were hoping that it would make repayment easier.  We have been paying it for several years and have paid down quite a bit.  But it still sits at $7069.31 :(  I am so tired of paying this bill and want it to be gone ASAP. 

We have declared July a No Spend Month.

Instead of waiting until July, we decided to start our no spend NOW.

We started our No Spend Adventure off wonderfully :)

On Saturday, we spent several hours at the library taking a super cool origami class.  It is a big hit and it was FREE :)  The boys had such a great time folding paper and turning it into really cool creations.

When we came home, I went through the boys clothes and got a nice full tub to take to Once Upon A Child the next day.

On Sunday, we went to church and then headed off to Once Upon A Child to sell our boys clothes.  The process was super easy and it took a lot less time than I had thought it would take.  Unfortunately, they didn't take all the clothes but it was enough to pay for 3 pair of shorts for Michael- YAY :)

We ended up packing a lunch and ate in the van while Once Upon A Time was doing their thing.  After finishing with them, we headed over to Toys R Us for their Pre 4th of July Event.

They had Hula Hoops, Remote Control Cars, played Hot Potato, had 2 giveaways and Karaoke.  If you participated with the Hula Hoops you got a Toys R Us wrist band.  If you played Hot Potato you got a beach ball :)

At 2pm, they did the giveaway drawings.  The first number was called and it wasn't us.  The second drawing, Nathan won.  It took a few seconds to register that they called his name.  It was awesome.  Normally, we don't win anything.  They took a picture and put it on their Instagram page. 

After all that fun, we ran into Walmart and CVS real quick on our way home.

All in all, I think we had a great start to our No Spend Adventure.  Can't wait to see how we save money next week :)

March 2017 Challenge Update

Hello April :) 

March's 30 day challenge was to have a No Spend Month.  How did we do?  We started out strong.  We stayed at home on the weekends and had a blast.  You can read all about our No Spend Monthly Adventures here, here and here.

Staying home resulted in a smaller gas budget- YAY :)  We usually budget $150 a month for gas and only spent $65 :)

We stayed within our $200 grocery budget and used what we had in the pantry and freezer.  We still have food in the pantry and freezer to eat :)  We did a fantastic job not eating out.  There were days we were tired and didn't feel like cooking.  Eating out is so easy but thanks to left overs and easy meals, we didn't give ourselves that option.

I would love to say that our No Spend Month was a success and that we used a large chunk of money to pay down our credit card debt.  But you know me :)  All of our No Spend Month's have ended with snafus :(  Including this month.

Our septic decided that it needed such immediate attention that 1 company couldn't fix it.  We had to end up going through 2 companies to fix it :(  Ugggg.  I was imagining the final bills having many 0's.  Thankfully it wasn't that bad.

We are happy that our septic system is running beautifully and that since we were having a no spend month that we were able to pay those plumbing bills without having to touch our emergency fund.  We were also told that our septic should be good for the next 4-6 years :)

What I have taken away from this No Spend Month is that we don't always have to have something going on.  We can stay at home and still have so much fun:)

I can't wait to see how April's 30 Day Challenge will go :)

Come Along with me.....

As I show you what we did over our No Spend Weekend :)

First we headed to the library to pick up some requests that were ready.

We have been enjoying the cool beautiful evening weather here in Florida.

The boys are loving riding their bikes.  We are so happy to be getting some exercise as a family :)

The boys were looking for something to do.  They decided Monkey in the Middle was a great game to play.  That quickly became Michael in the Middle- LOL :)  I found some water balls in the garage and thought that maybe it would be a good idea to use them for Monkey in the Middle. 

What was I thinking?  What did I think was going to happen if I gave boys a bucket of water- hmmmmm :)  I can't imagine~ LOL :)

Monkey in the Middle was abandoned for a water ball fight that led to the bucket of water getting dumped on someone's head. 

They were wet but boy did they have fun :)

We have really been enjoying our No Spend Weekends together :)  I can't wait to show you what we do for our next Adventure :)

Come Along With Me...........

As I show you what we did over the 2nd weekend of our No Spend Month :)

We started out this weekend with a trip to our library.  We picked out books and movies for our homeschool week for our 2nd grader :)

We also ran out of duct tape constructing our pool noodle playground :)  Here's what we have so far:

And being able to enjoy this beautiful sunset was perfect:

We all had a blast.  I can't wait to show you what we get into for our No Spend Weekend Adventures :)

Come along with me....

As I show you what we did over the weekend of our No Spend Month :)

The boys were super excited with the assembly line that we made to make our cookie mix bags.  I had gotten the idea from Fake it Frugal to make these super cute cookie mixes.  That way all we have to do is dump the bag and the 3 wet ingredients in a bowl, mix, bake and enjoy :)

We made 4 of each: Brownie, Chocolate Chip cookies, Oatmeal Cookies and Sugar Cookies :)

They are so good.  I won't tell you how many baggies we have already made and devoured :)

Remember those pool noodles we had sitting in the garage?

Hubby and I, with the help of Pinterest have come up with some really cool ideas for all those pool noodles.  It has tested our patience.  Have you ever tried to duct tape a pool noodle together?  Definitely a 2 person job and even that doesn't hold sometimes.  While we are working on our creation, we set this for the boys to enjoy while they wait:

We gave them a soccer ball and had them go in and out each noodle.  That worked for a while.  Then they decided that they wanted to run through them and they wanted us to time them.  What a great way to tire them out :)  Even the next door neighbor's son thought it was the coolest thing ever :)

We stayed at home and had a great time.  I can't wait to show you next week's stay at home projects and to see how far we have come with our pool noodle creation :)