I look at my house and know I NEED to declutter for my own sanity. With 4 boys, we have a lot of stuff and not a lot of room to put it. I plan to declutter so many times. I sit down and make a list of all I want to accomplish. The list is long. I end up discouraged not knowing where to even begin. So, I normally never even get started.
I have started reading Crystal's book, The Money Saving Mom's budget and am becoming encouraged. She devotes a whole chapter to the need of decluttering for financial success. At the end of Chapter 2 she instructs not to read any further until you declutter. So, I am going to experiment with a different approach to decluttering. We see how it goes.
The first thing I want you to do, if you decide to join me on this decluttering journey is to get a piece of paper. I want you to make a list of all the rooms in your home you wish/need to declutter. Leave 5 spaces on your paper between each room. Now walk through each room with your paper and jot down 5 areas in that room you need to work on. Just 5- we are trying not to overwhelm ourselves, so we are going to start with just 5 areas per room.
Crystal encourages her readers to start a timer for 30 minutes and start picking up and decluttering. Unfortunately, I don't have a straight 30 minutes to devote to just decluttering. So, I am going to attempt either (2) 15 minute decluttering sessions or (3) 10 minutes decluttering sessions. It depends on how my day flows. Do whatever works for you. If working with a timer makes you nervous, then just pick up and declutter when you get a chance. Just make sure you set aside a little time each day to get your 1 area done for that day. Don't worry about real deep cleaning in your designated areas, we will do that later. Right now, we are focusing on picking up and decluttering our homes.
Try to get rid of (throw away, give away, donate, sell) 5-10 items per day:)
Each day, I be sharing with you about the 1 area I chose and how it went for me. I hope you join me in my decluttering journey and share your experiences and joys:)
Ready??
Tuesday, May 8, 2012
Monday, May 7, 2012
Menu Plan for the week of 05/07/2012
This month we are planning to make and eat as many meals as we can from what is in our freezer and pantry. We shall see how it goes.
This is our menu plan for this week:
Breakfast
Banana Bread Baked Oatmeal X2- finally got an opportunity to make this
Raisin Toast with fruit
Banana muffins X2
Pancakes with homemade syrup X2
Lunch
Sandwich, popcorn and banana or carrot sticks
Dinner
Cheeseburger Macaroni with green beans
Shredded BBQ Chicken on buns, baked beans and corn
Mac & Cheese with tuna and brocolli
Griddle cakes
Homemade pizza
Pasta Bake with peas
Leftovers if we have them if not spaghetti with lima beans
Snacks
Celery with PB
Strawberries from the garden
PB crackers
Homemade Granola bars
This is our menu plan for this week:
Breakfast
Banana Bread Baked Oatmeal X2- finally got an opportunity to make this
Raisin Toast with fruit
Banana muffins X2
Pancakes with homemade syrup X2
Lunch
Sandwich, popcorn and banana or carrot sticks
Dinner
Cheeseburger Macaroni with green beans
Shredded BBQ Chicken on buns, baked beans and corn
Mac & Cheese with tuna and brocolli
Griddle cakes
Homemade pizza
Pasta Bake with peas
Leftovers if we have them if not spaghetti with lima beans
Snacks
Celery with PB
Strawberries from the garden
PB crackers
Homemade Granola bars
Eating from the Freezer & Pantry Challenge
I was so excited when Crystal announced she was doing a 4 week to fill your freezer series. That is until I opened my freezer and saw this:
A super duper full freezer.
So, I decided to do an eating from the freezer and pantry challenge. Let's see how many meals I can get just from our freezer and pantry.
That doesn't mean I am not going grocery shopping. I still need bread, milk, fruit and veggies.
Who wants to join me in my eating from the pantry and freezer challenge?
If you have an empty freezer you want to stock up, I encourage you to go over to Crystal's blog and follow along with her. If you are like me and have no possible room to put anything in your freezer, join me and lets get creative and see what we can make from what we already have.
Who's in??
So, I decided to do an eating from the freezer and pantry challenge. Let's see how many meals I can get just from our freezer and pantry.
That doesn't mean I am not going grocery shopping. I still need bread, milk, fruit and veggies.
Who wants to join me in my eating from the pantry and freezer challenge?
If you have an empty freezer you want to stock up, I encourage you to go over to Crystal's blog and follow along with her. If you are like me and have no possible room to put anything in your freezer, join me and lets get creative and see what we can make from what we already have.
Who's in??
What a week~
I posted last week how busy my week looked. I had no clue the emotional week I was about to enter.
On Monday, I was informed that a high school classmate and friend had passed away. My heart was so sad to hear the news. I wasn't super close to Shannel but we were friends in high school. I had seen Shannel a few months ago at the doctors office and she told me of her health issues. Even through all the doctor visits, she still smiled that Shannel smile that could light up a room. She had a laugh that could make your darkest day brighter and had a hug that could make you feel special and loved. I will miss seeing Shannel at the doctors office, seeing her smile and hearing her laugh. Even through her health battles, she still smiled and laughed. I was unable to go to her service but have heard how beautiful it was. Shannel was beautiful both inside and out. She will be missed greatly. Much like my mom, Shannel is waiting for us to arrive in Heaven when it is our turn to go home. Until we meet again:)
On Wednesday, I picked up my father and drove him to the hospital for a test. He is having his own health battles, unfortunately no one is able to pin point exactly what is going on inside of him. My mother and I joked before how my father had a knack for baffling the medical community:) His test went well and the doctor said everything looked fine. The doctor told me that he took some samples from my dad's stomach and will send them off to the lab. So, we eagerly wait for the results.
On Thursday, I was a chaperone for a 2nd grade field trip to Washington DC. Boy oh boy, I had no clue how many 2nd graders were at the school. We had to take 4 charter buses to Washington DC. That was fun- LOL:) We had a great time visiting the Memorials and then heading over to the zoo. Will post pictures of out trip tomorrow.
On Friday, the day went well until that evening. Nathan was hit suddenly by a nasty high temperature. He was so sick and laid on the couch for all of Saturday. Sunday morning, his fever was gone. We were so thrilled. We went to church and had lunch with my dad and all was well.
On Saturday, my friend Pam and her fiance got married. I was excited when she asked if I would be her photographer for the wedding. Her wedding was absolutely beautiful. It was an outside wedding and the area was breathtaking. There was a cute bridge and a lake with a spray. I got there early and took pictures of lake before the ceremony. I got home and downloaded all the 80 pictures I took at her wedding and I must say- I did good. The pictures turned out amazing. I think I may have a knack for wedding photography. Hmmm- wonder if the Lord will lead me in that direction.
Today~ Nathan, my poor poor Nathan, woke up this morning with a temperature of 103.5- oh my. So off to the doctor's we went. She took some blood and discovered that whatever he has is viral. So, it has to work his way out of him. Tylenol, Motrin, chicken & rice soup and popsicles are his best friends right now.
With all that going on, I didn't get a chance to post my CVS and Walgreens deals- sorry :(
I hope and pray that your week will go smoothly and that this week will be an easy one for us:)
On Monday, I was informed that a high school classmate and friend had passed away. My heart was so sad to hear the news. I wasn't super close to Shannel but we were friends in high school. I had seen Shannel a few months ago at the doctors office and she told me of her health issues. Even through all the doctor visits, she still smiled that Shannel smile that could light up a room. She had a laugh that could make your darkest day brighter and had a hug that could make you feel special and loved. I will miss seeing Shannel at the doctors office, seeing her smile and hearing her laugh. Even through her health battles, she still smiled and laughed. I was unable to go to her service but have heard how beautiful it was. Shannel was beautiful both inside and out. She will be missed greatly. Much like my mom, Shannel is waiting for us to arrive in Heaven when it is our turn to go home. Until we meet again:)
On Wednesday, I picked up my father and drove him to the hospital for a test. He is having his own health battles, unfortunately no one is able to pin point exactly what is going on inside of him. My mother and I joked before how my father had a knack for baffling the medical community:) His test went well and the doctor said everything looked fine. The doctor told me that he took some samples from my dad's stomach and will send them off to the lab. So, we eagerly wait for the results.
On Thursday, I was a chaperone for a 2nd grade field trip to Washington DC. Boy oh boy, I had no clue how many 2nd graders were at the school. We had to take 4 charter buses to Washington DC. That was fun- LOL:) We had a great time visiting the Memorials and then heading over to the zoo. Will post pictures of out trip tomorrow.
On Friday, the day went well until that evening. Nathan was hit suddenly by a nasty high temperature. He was so sick and laid on the couch for all of Saturday. Sunday morning, his fever was gone. We were so thrilled. We went to church and had lunch with my dad and all was well.
On Saturday, my friend Pam and her fiance got married. I was excited when she asked if I would be her photographer for the wedding. Her wedding was absolutely beautiful. It was an outside wedding and the area was breathtaking. There was a cute bridge and a lake with a spray. I got there early and took pictures of lake before the ceremony. I got home and downloaded all the 80 pictures I took at her wedding and I must say- I did good. The pictures turned out amazing. I think I may have a knack for wedding photography. Hmmm- wonder if the Lord will lead me in that direction.
Today~ Nathan, my poor poor Nathan, woke up this morning with a temperature of 103.5- oh my. So off to the doctor's we went. She took some blood and discovered that whatever he has is viral. So, it has to work his way out of him. Tylenol, Motrin, chicken & rice soup and popsicles are his best friends right now.
 |
| Poor sick Nathan curled up with ET:) |
With all that going on, I didn't get a chance to post my CVS and Walgreens deals- sorry :(
I hope and pray that your week will go smoothly and that this week will be an easy one for us:)
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
April 2012 Goals Update
Lets see how we did with our goals for the month of April:
Here are our 2012 Goals: (in no particular order)
1) To not eat out or at least to not pay out of pocket, with the exception of tips. If we want to treat the family to a meal out, we will make sure we have a gift card to cover all of us.
We did fabulous with this goal.
2) Pay off 2 credit cards
So excited, we paid off 1 credit card on 04/16/2012 and will have the 2nd credit card paid off in a few months:) ~ YEA!!!!!
3) Not to use any of our credit cards for 2012. To pay cash for everything.
We did great with this and used cash for our purchases in April.
4) To lower our grocery budget. Our current grocery budget is $400 month for our family of 6. Our goal is to lower that amount and to save the remainder.
We went over last month by about $0.88. We are working hard this month to stay below budget by having a pantry challenge.
5) To create a monthly meal plan for our family, to use leftovers more efficiently and to make use of everything in our pantry and freezer.
Doing great with this for April- use leftovers wisely and wasting less. With 4 boys, leftovers are not being left over as much.
6) Unclutter the house and become more organized:)
We will be blogging about a declutter challenge for this month. Hopefully, that will help us declutter better.
7) Lose weight- I need to get motivated to lose this baby weight- my goal is to lose 20 lbs this year.
I have most motivation yet again. Need to get into gear.
8) Morning devotions, prayer time and more bible reading
Doing great with this:)
9) Monthly date night with hubby- whether we go out or stay at home, pop popcorn and rent a movie
We did go out for dinner for our anniversary at Red Lobster. It was yummy and we used a gift card to pay, so that the only cash we paid out of pocket was the tip:)
10) To spend quality family time together. With everyones schedule and us running all over creation, I would love to spend more quality time together- no tv- us playing games, talking, enjoying each others company.
Not so great with this goal- will make more of an effort to make this happen.
11) Not to use our dryer to save on electricity and lower our electricity bill
Doing fabulous with this goal and when our electric bill came in it was $15 lower- YEA!!
12) To make a better effort to blog more regularly and to make a blogging schedule
Need to get better organized and actually make a blogging schedule and keep up with it.
13) To make much needed house repairs
Making a list of house repairs to do and hope to get started soon.
14) To fix the car that is sitting in our driveway so that whoever gets their drivers license first will have a car to drive or share if they both get their license at the same time
We are actually going to nix this goal as we are going to sell the car. My father is going to sell me my mom's van. It is too painful for him to have around the house, so we are not going to need the car after all. We soon will have 2 vans:)
15) To do 1 project a month and blog about it- will post the list of projects soon
We didn't get an opportunity to do our monthly project for April :( We hope to do it as well as May's project this month:)
How did you do with your goals last month?
Here are our 2012 Goals: (in no particular order)
1) To not eat out or at least to not pay out of pocket, with the exception of tips. If we want to treat the family to a meal out, we will make sure we have a gift card to cover all of us.
We did fabulous with this goal.
2) Pay off 2 credit cards
So excited, we paid off 1 credit card on 04/16/2012 and will have the 2nd credit card paid off in a few months:) ~ YEA!!!!!
3) Not to use any of our credit cards for 2012. To pay cash for everything.
We did great with this and used cash for our purchases in April.
4) To lower our grocery budget. Our current grocery budget is $400 month for our family of 6. Our goal is to lower that amount and to save the remainder.
We went over last month by about $0.88. We are working hard this month to stay below budget by having a pantry challenge.
5) To create a monthly meal plan for our family, to use leftovers more efficiently and to make use of everything in our pantry and freezer.
Doing great with this for April- use leftovers wisely and wasting less. With 4 boys, leftovers are not being left over as much.
6) Unclutter the house and become more organized:)
We will be blogging about a declutter challenge for this month. Hopefully, that will help us declutter better.
7) Lose weight- I need to get motivated to lose this baby weight- my goal is to lose 20 lbs this year.
I have most motivation yet again. Need to get into gear.
8) Morning devotions, prayer time and more bible reading
Doing great with this:)
9) Monthly date night with hubby- whether we go out or stay at home, pop popcorn and rent a movie
We did go out for dinner for our anniversary at Red Lobster. It was yummy and we used a gift card to pay, so that the only cash we paid out of pocket was the tip:)
10) To spend quality family time together. With everyones schedule and us running all over creation, I would love to spend more quality time together- no tv- us playing games, talking, enjoying each others company.
Not so great with this goal- will make more of an effort to make this happen.
11) Not to use our dryer to save on electricity and lower our electricity bill
Doing fabulous with this goal and when our electric bill came in it was $15 lower- YEA!!
12) To make a better effort to blog more regularly and to make a blogging schedule
Need to get better organized and actually make a blogging schedule and keep up with it.
13) To make much needed house repairs
Making a list of house repairs to do and hope to get started soon.
We are actually going to nix this goal as we are going to sell the car. My father is going to sell me my mom's van. It is too painful for him to have around the house, so we are not going to need the car after all. We soon will have 2 vans:)
15) To do 1 project a month and blog about it- will post the list of projects soon
We didn't get an opportunity to do our monthly project for April :( We hope to do it as well as May's project this month:)
How did you do with your goals last month?
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
My Shopping Day
Hubby and I went out for an anniversary lunch- we had a gift card to Panera. We got to sit down and have a nice relaxing lunch. Well, as much relaxing as you can have with a 2yr old. He was good but was on a sugar rush- oops.
We had gone to the mall to look for shoes and came out of the stores empty handed. My husband reminded me that I owed him a cinnamon bun, so we went to Cinnamonster for a snack. Oh my, the cinnamon bun was huge- luckily we split between the 3 of us. Ohhh, it was so yummy. Little Michael was on a interesting sugar rush for some time later and at lunch.
Here are the details of our shopping trip:
Martins
$2.16- (4) loaves of bread
CVS
$6.97- (2) Patene conditioners
$5.99- Colgate Spongebob power toothbrush
$12.96
-2.00- Colgate power toothbrush cpn
-3.48- Pantene cpn
-4 ECB
-1 ECB
-2 ECB
$1.08 Total and got back $3 ECB's
Walgreens
$2.49- Dentyne Ice
$4.00- (2) containers Country Time Lemonade
$6.49
-1.00 Dentyne cpn
-2 RR
-0.99 RR
$2.66 Total and got back $1 RR
Dollar Tree
$2.00- Trashbags
$1.00- zip sandwich bags
$1.00- zip qt bags
$1.00- zip gallon bags
$5.25 Total
Kroger
$2.69- Whole White Wheat flour
$1.75- Comforts baby wipes
$4.44
-1.75 Kroger free Comfort baby wipes cpn
$2.76 Total
Walmart
$5.58- (2) gallons skim milk
$2.72- Frozen Welch's Breeze juice
$2.00- Juice boxes
$2.32- Lunchmeat
$1.52- Carrots
$1.96- Frozen green beans
$1.00- Whole Wheat Rotini
$2.44- Ketchup
$1.00- Cinnamon
$2.53- Cheese slices
$0.97- Bottle
$1.48- Popcorn
$1.28- Brown rice
$1.04- Bananas
$3.38- Trix
$1.18- Crackers
$3.77- Popsicles
$37.10- Total
Food Lion
$1.93- Graham Cracker crust
$0.99- Marshmallows
$3.14- (2) 5lb bags sugar
$3.42- Whole Chicken
$3.31- Whole Chicken
$0.97- Whipped Cream
$1.69- Cream Cheese
$15.84- Total
This shopping trip has been added to our May Monthly Spending post, where I keep track of what we spend for the month of May.
We had gone to the mall to look for shoes and came out of the stores empty handed. My husband reminded me that I owed him a cinnamon bun, so we went to Cinnamonster for a snack. Oh my, the cinnamon bun was huge- luckily we split between the 3 of us. Ohhh, it was so yummy. Little Michael was on a interesting sugar rush for some time later and at lunch.
Here are the details of our shopping trip:
Martins
$2.16- (4) loaves of bread
CVS
$6.97- (2) Patene conditioners
$5.99- Colgate Spongebob power toothbrush
$12.96
-2.00- Colgate power toothbrush cpn
-3.48- Pantene cpn
-4 ECB
-1 ECB
-2 ECB
$1.08 Total and got back $3 ECB's
Walgreens
$2.49- Dentyne Ice
$4.00- (2) containers Country Time Lemonade
$6.49
-1.00 Dentyne cpn
-2 RR
-0.99 RR
$2.66 Total and got back $1 RR
Dollar Tree
$2.00- Trashbags
$1.00- zip sandwich bags
$1.00- zip qt bags
$1.00- zip gallon bags
$5.25 Total
Kroger
$2.69- Whole White Wheat flour
$1.75- Comforts baby wipes
$4.44
-1.75 Kroger free Comfort baby wipes cpn
$2.76 Total
Walmart
$5.58- (2) gallons skim milk
$2.72- Frozen Welch's Breeze juice
$2.00- Juice boxes
$2.32- Lunchmeat
$1.52- Carrots
$1.96- Frozen green beans
$1.00- Whole Wheat Rotini
$2.44- Ketchup
$1.00- Cinnamon
$2.53- Cheese slices
$0.97- Bottle
$1.48- Popcorn
$1.28- Brown rice
$1.04- Bananas
$3.38- Trix
$1.18- Crackers
$3.77- Popsicles
$37.10- Total
Food Lion
$1.93- Graham Cracker crust
$0.99- Marshmallows
$3.14- (2) 5lb bags sugar
$3.42- Whole Chicken
$3.31- Whole Chicken
$0.97- Whipped Cream
$1.69- Cream Cheese
$15.84- Total
This shopping trip has been added to our May Monthly Spending post, where I keep track of what we spend for the month of May.
Monthly Spending for May
Here is where I will keep a list of our spending for the month of May. Remember our monthly budget is $400 for everything for our family of 6 and 2 pets, not too mention our 2 bird feeders outside. We didn't do that bad last month. The money we don't spend out of our grocery budget gets put aside and saved. We were able to save $0 from last month (we kind of went a little over budget last month). Lets see how much under budget I can get for this month.
04/30/2012
$2.16- Martins
$2.76- Kroger
$1.08- CVS and got back $3 ECB's
$5.25- Dollar Tree
$2.66- Walgreens and got back $1 RR
$15.84- Food Lion
$37.10- Walmart
05/05/2012
$3.59- Kroger
$2.72- Martins
$6.30- Dollar Tree
$57.19- Walmart
05/14/2012
$2.26- Walgreens
$3.15- Dollar Tree
$2.76- Kroger
$2.61- Martins
$4.10- Food Lion
$50.16- Walmart
$13.33- Chicken Beef & More
05/21/2012
$6.12- Food Lion
$2.10- Dollar Tree
$4.69- Kroger
$1.08- Martins
$66.06- Walmart
05/29/2012
$74.10-Walmart
$8.25- CVS
$7.86- Kroger
$5.25- Dollar Tree
$2.16- Martins
$381.54- Running Total- YEA!!! Finally got it under $400 barely. We will put the $18.46 aside:)
04/30/2012
$2.16- Martins
$2.76- Kroger
$1.08- CVS and got back $3 ECB's
$5.25- Dollar Tree
$2.66- Walgreens and got back $1 RR
$15.84- Food Lion
$37.10- Walmart
05/05/2012
$3.59- Kroger
$2.72- Martins
$6.30- Dollar Tree
$57.19- Walmart
05/14/2012
$2.26- Walgreens
$3.15- Dollar Tree
$2.76- Kroger
$2.61- Martins
$4.10- Food Lion
$50.16- Walmart
$13.33- Chicken Beef & More
05/21/2012
$6.12- Food Lion
$2.10- Dollar Tree
$4.69- Kroger
$1.08- Martins
$66.06- Walmart
05/29/2012
$74.10-Walmart
$8.25- CVS
$7.86- Kroger
$5.25- Dollar Tree
$2.16- Martins
$381.54- Running Total- YEA!!! Finally got it under $400 barely. We will put the $18.46 aside:)
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