What I've been up to...

So the weekend after Thanksgiving I started what I thought would be a temp job at Wal-mart. I have been working a LOT...it's very hard to work until midnight...not go to bed until 1...and then wake up early in the morning so Jeff can go to work. But I will get a very handsome paycheck on Christmas Eve, so that will make it all worth it. :)

Frugal-wise, both sides of our families have done away with buying gifts for everyone. We only concentrate on parents, Jeff's grandmother, and all kids 18 and under. This has helped so much!

The new year will bring new challenges with our food budget...I have zero energy to cook from scratch! So hopefully when I get a few days off I'll be able to get some good zzzz's. I don't see the point in me working if all we're going to buy is fast food and frozen dinners!

Making my home a haven...

I will be participating in this this week: http://thehomespunheart.blogspot.com/2008/11/making-your-home-haven.html

Today was tidy day here. I put away dishes, loaded the dishwasher, cleaned the kitchen countertop, and cleared off one of my pianos.

Tomorrow will be fun day...we'll be going to the zoo (for free...thanks to zoo pass we got from the inlaws last Christmas!)

Something we're doing FREE tomorrow...

We're going back to my hometown for the "World's oldest free fly-in". We'll be watching it from behind my mother's boss's house LOL.

Here's a challenge...find something free to do this weekend, and then post a comment about what you did. It's always fun seeing what other people are doing for free. :)

Frugal war on gnats!

I've waged a war on gnats in my kitchen. So far I've killed about 7 using this method...take a small bowl or measuring cup, and put some dishsoap in it. Then put a fair amount of vinegar in it. I use just plain vinegar, but I've heard some had to use apple vinegar. Let this sit on your kitchen counter for awhile (all day or night even) and then pour out. All the gnats sink down to the bottom of the bowl.

Going on a diet...

So I may not be able to be as frugal as I hoped. My diet will be filled with a lot of fruits and veggies, and a lot less Dr. Pepper (so that's frugal I guess LOL).

So my blog from now on will be about loosing weight with no money for a gym! As a family we walked over 1/2 mile one way to Subway Saturday evening. I've also got a walking route mapped out around my neighborhood for the days when I don't have to run out the door as soon as Jeff gets home. :)

Gas is going down...

just like the stock market. Gas in Oklahoma City today is $2.57! Finally some relief in that department!

Not much to report this month.

We've done much better so far about eating out. I spent $167 on groceries on the 1st, and I'll get more money out on the 15th. Angelfood money is due on the 13th, so some of our food money will go towards that. We'll get our Angelfood on the 27th. This is what we're getting:
• 1.5 lb. Top Sirloin Strip Steaks (4x6 oz.)
• 2 lb. Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast
• 3 lb. Breaded Chicken Chunks
• 1.5 lb. Boneless Pork Filet
• 20 oz. Supreme Pizza
• 1 lb. Ground Turkey
• 1 lb. Cheddar Cheese Bratwurst Sausage
• 1 lb. Green Beans
• 1 lb. Stir Fry Vegetables (Broccoli & Bell Peppers)
• 35 oz. Crinkle-cut Fries
• 32 oz. Borden 2% Red. Fat Shelf Stable Milk
• 7.5 oz. Macaroni & Cheese
• 15 oz. Pork & Beans
• 7 oz. Chicken-Flavored Rice & Vermicelli
• 1 lb. Pinto Beans
• One Dozen Eggs
• One Dessert Item

Yesterday at Kohl's I found tights for the girls to wear to church for $.60! Almost nothing beats 90% off! :)

Not as Frugal as I hoped!

Here it is a week before the month is over, and we went wayyyyyy over budget on food. Eating out kills us! :( I won't give exact numbers, but we spent more on eating out then we did at the grocery store! This is unacceptable!

So here's my plan...I'm not going to any store (grocery or fast food) for the rest of the month. The only exception is Friday or Saturday night, because we're kidless then, and I want a date! :) We picked up our humongous load of food from Angelfood yesterday, so we're fine. The freezer is completely packed, and I'm just going to be cooking good, wholesome foods for meals this week!

On September 1, we will be doing what Dave Ramsey suggests, and we'll be using a food envelope. I'll get half of the food budget money out then, and my bank card will be confiscated. :) (Other half of food budget money will be replenished on the 15th) I will then go to the grocery store twice a month...on the first and fifteenth. I've got to figure out a way for this to work! The deadline for the new a/c/heater bill is coming up fast...if we don't get it paid off soon, we're in trouble!

I ROCK at grocery shopping :)

Today started my first month at being super frugal...and I wasn't for sure what the stores had in store for me. Well, I just spent $65...and this *may* last us over a week! This is what I got:

At Homeland:
3 boxes of Hamburger Helper for $1.50 (double coupons and they were on sale!)
Easy Mac for $1.50
Secret Deoderant for free! (sale price was $1 and they doubled my .50 coupon!!!!!)

At Crest:
Bag of Tyson chicken nuggets $3.98
Gallon of water $.65
Crackers $2.19
Gallon of 2% milk $3.34
Cat box liners $2.99
4pack of canned biscuits $1.84
Bread $.92
Lean Pockets 2 for $3
Honeycomb cereal $1.98
Shredded Cheese $2.48
Kraft Cheese Slices $2.39
White Rice $.99
Toilet Paper $1.08
Easy Mac Cups 2 for $1
12 oz canned chicken $1.67
Poptarts 12 ct $2
6 ct bottles of Koolaid $.99
Mandarin Oranges $1.72
2 lbs Green Grapes $2.99
Chicken Helper $.99
Froot Loops $2.50
6 oz canned chicken $.99
Yoplait Yogurt 6 ct $2.96
6 ct animal crackers $.99
6 ct Dolphins and Friends (like Goldfish) $.99
Borden string cheese 6ct $2
Hot dogs $1.88
20 oz Veggie Bag (brocooli, califlower, and carrots) $3.50
.85 lb of apples $1.35

So, this and what we have in the freezer (leftovers from Angelfood) should last us a while! I just wish I had more coupons to spend at Homeland LOL.

For dinner tonight, I made meatloaf (frozen dinner thing from Angelfood), real mashed potatoes, and I shucked corn!

Looking at August, with me having no job, our food budget is looking at being $450. Here's how the food budget looks so far:

Angel food will get $86. On August 23 we'll be getting:
Ribeye steaks
Chicken Leg Quarters
Chicken Breast Nuggets
Salisbury Steak Dinner
Breaded Chicken Breast Filets
Smoked Sausage
Frozen Veggies-California Blend
Frozen Carrots
Frozen Spinach
Frozen Waffles
Bean Soup Mix
lb. Rice
Instant Potatoes (which I will give away...I don't use this stuff!)
Sliced Peaches
32 oz Shelf Stable Milk
Dozen Eggs
Dessert Item

Grill box:
Sirloin Fillets
Boneless chicken breast
St. Louis-style ribs
hamburger Patties

Chicken Combo:
Cordon Bleu
Broccoli Cheese
Chicken Kiev

Fruit and Veggie Box:
Apples
Oranges
Lettuce
Cabbage
Potatoes
Cantaloupe
Honeydew

This will leave $91/week for other groceries! I can't wait to see how well I do!

Hi all!

Gee, what has happened in the past 2 months? We went on vacation the beginning of June. We acted a little frugal, but made sure we had fun too. We spent a weekend in San Antonio on our first family vacation. The kids had a blast at Seaworld, and I fried my skin.

A few weeks after we got back, we got a puppy dog (the last one bit me back in February). Her name is Lilly Girl. She is a year old half Bishon Frise/half Pug.

Ethan is potty-trained! (Except at night) What a blessing that's been on our grocery bill!

My dryer never did get hooked up, so I've been hanging stuff out on the line...and it's been great! Nothing like drying for FREE! :)

I've been taking advantage of sales and thrift stores lately. I got the girls 5 pair of shorts for $1/piece at Walmart. My thrift store had a big sale of July 4 where clothing was $1.

My job ends in 2 weeks, and then I'm a stay-at-home mom! Homeschooling is going to be soooo much fun!

We got the garden set up yesterday. We will hopefully have tomatoes, green peppers, onions, strawberries, cucumbers, and watermelon this summer!!!

Jeff got the electrical stuff worked out with the garage and the dryer, so I'll soon have a dryer again. This weekend, we also bought a clothesline, so I will hang some stuff up this summer. My new kitchen faucet is sitting on the kitchen counter...switching it out with the old one will save us quite a bit on water bills (the old one runs constantly...it's way past the drip stage).

Clutter be gone!!!

Just in case some of you are wondering why I haven't posted here in a week...we found out last week that Ethan has a lot of allergy issues. So, I've started the enormous task of decluttering our home. It is a major undertaking. We didn't live in filth...just a lot of clutter. So, mark your calendars...in a few weeks there will be a HUGE garage sale here! Maybe the proceeds from that will help pay for his weekly allergy shots or an air filter thingy for his bedroom.

Ok...you all will think I'm crazy!

Just in case some of you didn't already LOL. We unhooked our washer/dryer combo this weekend, and we put my big washer in its place. So that means NO DRYER! There are some electrical issues that keep us from hooking the dryer up in the garage, so until we can hire an electrician...no dryer! I'm very curious to see how much electric we save! And it's really not that hard to just hang stuff on a wooden rack (and Jeff's going to get me a clothes line outside soon).

My thrift store finds today!

A manual powered lawn mower $5
1 Smurfs fitted twin sheet w/pillow case $2
Faded Glory jeans size 6 $1.50
Speechless Girls Red Velvet dress size 6 $2.50
Child of Mine p.j.'s size 4 $1
Old Navy jeans size 6 $2
Mary Kate and Ashley jeans size 7 $2
Arizona jeans size 7 $1.50
Philly California size 6 shirt (really pretty blue sparkly shirt) $1

Can I hear a woohoo?! :D

New doggie...for free!!!

Today we picked up Jack Jack (the extra Jack is in reference to the Incredibles)...a full-blooded Welsh Corgi. He is such a lover boy!

I really think this dog was meant to be ours. We were going to go to the shelter on Saturday, but my FIL happened upon this note on a bullitin board from an old member of our church. :D It even goes to the vet that we've been going to for years...so the vet is going to know it's history! :D :D

Putting away new to us clothes!

Instead of spending tons of $$$ on more clothes for Ethan (my 2 yr old), I just received a box of clothes from a friend on the internet. As Bob the Builder says " Reuse and recycle!" Ethan is going to be set for at least another year.

And I'm going to be getting the sewing machine out soon to make some things...there are dresses for the girls and Christmas gifts for Christmas '08 that need to be started!

And we're even being frugal on the pets...we're getting a new dog on Saturday, and the adoption fee is only going to be $25...includes shots, dewormer, Frontline...and 4 weeks of classes for the new dog! If you live in the OKC area, you must stop by the Oklahoma City animal shelter!

Hi all!

I wanted to have a blog where I could share with everyone my thoughts on being frugal. I thought this would be a good spot to share pictures of my frugal finds. I'm hoping that some people will understand me more by reading this blog (some of my friends just don't get it).

Me being frugal started 4 years ago when we began The Total Money Makeover. Back then we had 4 credit cards, student loans, 2 cars that had huge balances on them....we were going downhill quick. But we set up a budget, and we are so close to calling Dave and telling him we're debt free! Our only set back now is the new ac/heater that we had to have put in a few weeks ago. So by summer we should be debt free! FREEDOM!!!

The way we work our budget, I get a set amount of money to spend at the grocery store and any clothing stores. So obviously I want to spend most of the money on food. So where do I get our clothes? I love getting the kids' clothes at thrift stores. My oldest has a leather skirt I found for $2. My girls' dresses cost usually around $2. Most t-shirts and shorts are $1 or less. And sometimes they get their clothes from hand-me-downs. And I've gotten a lot of fabric on clearance, and I'm going to start making the kids some stuff too. And where do we get our clothes? Most of my husband's clothes are given to him at his birthday and Christmas. Most of my clothes are from high school and college. Now last year I did need some newish jeans, and my mother gave me 4 pair of hers...and that was just fine by me!

I just prefer not to spend a lot on things. My purses usually cost me less than $20. I have a friend who thinks nothing about dropping $150 on a purse...and wow...I can think of a lot of things I can get for $150! I own 6 pair of shoes right now (and 3 pair are flip flops that were given to me!). I know most women own a lot more than that. I just don't see the point. I don't wear make up either. To me that's a waste of money. I don't even wear perfume...I ran out, and I've never felt like buying more LOL. (And before any of you bring up my Wii...that was a very generous Christmas gift...and I've never bought any of those $50 games that go with it!)

I know what some of you are thinking..."but doesn't your husband make decent money?" Well, he does ok. But after tithing and sponsoring a child in India and groceries and medicine copays, his income gets stretched. So I've spent the past several years living more as a minimalist to some degree, AND I LOVE IT! My kids are not deprived (heck, they do have ballet and church and toys out the wazoo), and we're living quite comfortable. So sit back, relax, and in the upcoming days and months I'll show you how I'm a frugal momma!