Sharing Ways We Save

Well this will be stuff I did over the last couple of weeks.

So I have a daughter that is three and she got some Easter money from a lovely lady who has sort of become their adoptive grandmother here in Florida.  I share about this because I am very proud of a decision she made.  We were doing some shopping, and she wanted to spend her money and she chose a toy first.  Then as we shopped on she saw nail polish with a small bag that had minnie mouse on it with two tiny bottles of nail polish.  I told her she had to choose between the toy and the nail polish (which personally I didn't think she needed the bag and the two bottles of  polish were so tiny and I just didn't think it was a wise choice,  it was expensive just because of the picture of minnie mouse on it, but I didn't say anything)  She really wanted nail polish.  So I showed her that there were big bottles of nail polish for 1.00 each that she could choose from more colors, but i told her she would have to put the other things back.  I stood back and let her make her choice.....

and she still had enough money left over for some colorful ponytail holders to use when she goes to gymnastics on Wednesday nights!   I was very proud of her for choosing what she could get the most use out of without my influence!!!!  I have noticed my 8 year old son thinking like that too...he won a game of bingo and there were toys and stuff he could choose from...he told me mom...i didn't need anymore toys so I chose a tshirt.....it's something he can get more use out of....wooohoooo...maybe I am teaching my kids something goood.

Other things that we did over the last few weeks:

* Repurposed a cabinet I used previoulsy as a craft babinet, as a computer desk
* Our son had a $10.00 gift certificate from the AR program at school and he put it towards the purchase of a game he wanted
* Paid off the final $550.00 of a bill my husband had.
* Set a new budget for our apartment living
* Changed cell phone plans and reduced the bill by $40.00 per month
* Filed form with water company regarding the leak we had and the repair that was made and recieved a $45.00 credit.
* Went to an Easter picnic at the park and was able to just take things I already had on hand.
* Made art for the wall from my son's art project using a frame i had already

He was thrilled to see it on the wall in our entry way. 
*  We didn't eat out for over a week! Which is a huge accomplishment for us.  Unfortunately though I have fallen off the wagon already and we spent about 20.00 out  right after we accomplished our no eat out week.
* We also invested in some seeds, and fruit trees, and I am trying to learn to garden a little, but my herbs that I tried to start already died.  I am not giving up though.  I am going to replant a different way and try again.
* I made brownies and pancakes from scratch...both big hits!  Oh and I made homemade lasagna too...making my own sauce.  That was pretty good too though I need to tweak the amount of spices I put in the sauce.
* I made homemade dish soap.
* Saved .20 per gallon on gas by using gas rewards from a local grocery store.
* I also just today made a jewelry display/holder using a frame we had but unfortuantely in moving the glass got broken....the hooks I used were .97 for six and I used 12 hooks.

And to wrap it all up I said no to alot of things...things that would have been fun like a trip to a local carnival, no to thrift store trips even on 50 % off Wednesdays, and even no to a trip to the dollar tree.  There just wasn't anything we really really needed, and to be honest I still have stuff I need to get rid of.  Thanks for stopping by.....what did you do to save....remember it all adds up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And you are appreicated, if no one said it this week, I am saying it to you now!

Hump Day Blog Hop

It is time for the weekly hump day blog hop I usually like to link up. I am lagging behind with blogging lately. Next month will be a year since I started and I am seriously pondering whether or not I will continue my personal blog, or discontinue, and just read others blogs. I do like the blogging world I have learned alot, but I am not sure about my own. I haven't been able to keep up with my normal postings lately since we moved, we have had tons of issues with our new place....the leak, the second leak, mold, then the ac broke, and I am not going to lie, it is not easy to figure out how to make this small space work.  We keep evaluating and reevaluating what should go where.

I did take suggestions from everyone and we have been evaluating if we have space to garden :)

 So far we are looking at having to container garden.  We have a small back yard but the soil is full of roots in the sunny places of our yard and I can't get the shovel through them.  The roots I guess come from the trees in neighboring yards. Pictured above is a pineapple, coffee, and dwarf banana plant that I ordered online.  I also ordered two dwarf fruit trees that I planted.  Online was the most affordable route for me to go, but I didn't realize how small the plants are that you start with, so it will be quite some time before any of my gardening is actually fruitful, but you have to start somewhere.  We also have a window box that I tried planting kitchen herbs in but something went wrong and not much grew, i will have to do some more research and start over.  I also have some strawberry roots, corn and tomato plants to get started from seed, but I have had alot going on, and things just don't always go the way I plan.

anyway that is it....enjoy the blog hop :)

Monthly Budget

I have been working on sharing each week ways we save, but I thought I would do something a little different right now, and share our monthly budget.  Do you have one?  When I started blogging and doing research almost a year ago, we learned how important it is to have one, instead of just aimlessly spending money and hoping you have enough money for what you need.  I have watched a family very close to me with five children live extremely outside their means, not being able to pay for gas, and needed medicine for the kids because of wreckless spending.  Over 9000.00 came into their hands and they did not renew their drivers licenses, or even the tag on their vehicle. I now have seen the mother begging and panhandling trying to get those things paid for.  She didn't consider when her husband got a new tattoo or she purchased new landscaping items that she might needs gas in her car etc.  They saw what they wanted and bought it.  It was great that one daughter had a nice birthday party, but what about the daughter that is now sick and mom can't get her antibiotics. Watching them go through this has definately reminded me it is time to start a new budget for our new home. (We are still in the apartment that we had the major problems with, but we are trying to work it all out and stay)

When budgeting I have learned it is good to include the family and determine what is important to them, and if those things can be worked in, or if it is time to determine those things aren't needs and cut them out.  An example of this could be cable.  For our family, we decided it was important to have it with internet.  We just have a minimum package with our internet, but that is our form of family entertainment.  We will at times watch a free movie from the on demand categories as our family entertainment or something.

My new budget is not yet perfect and it will require some tweaking later.

Some of the main things in our budget include housing:

 water

 electricity

 and auto insurance

My goals for each month are as follows

Housing 620
Water 60
Electric 100
Car, renters, and motorcycle insurance 155 (for all)
Cable 80
Cell phones are currently 110 but I will be reducing those this month
automobile Gas 150
YMCA 41

We also plan to tithe and set a grocery budget of 200.00 per month once we start paying for family health insurance through my husbands work at the end of the month.  (until then I have been trying to plan ahead, we have 500.00 in savings...the pet supplies are well stocked at the moment, and I am still reading other blogs learning how to build a pantry so that I can learn to cook more from scratch and reduce our grocery bill.) 

As I mentioned these are just my goals, but it is a start at least.  I know if these are the things I am going to have in my life I know how much money I need for them.  Once we finish regrouping from the challenges we have had with this place, we will revisit our budget, and add categories like pet and medical expenses and maybe family entertainment.   I will also be working to stay within the goals I have set for the utilities or to reduce the amount of each bill.

Sharing ways we save

Surprisingly, I am making this post on time this week...despite the challenges that existed.

I want to thank everyone for their advice and support regarding the situation we have been experiencing with our landlord regarding our leaking/flooding issues.  We have experienced a roller coaster of emotions and thoughts during this issue, and have been weighing lots of different options to resolve the situation.  Temporarily we have a resolution for the moment, but not a permanent fix.  The original slab leak we had has been fixed, but the secondary leak has not.  However it doesn't seem to be leaking if we don't use the water in our guest/kids bathroom.  We have agreed not to use that bathroom, and she has agreed in a rent reduction for the moment.  The flooring has been replaced, we have put finding another place on hold and are extending the landlord some more time to completely resolve the matter and make all necessary repairs to our home.  This brings peace to the house for at least the next 4 weeks.  Very thankfully just a few days before our initial flooding event I had changed our renters insurance from Delaware to Florida, so we have put in a claim for our damaged items.

That starts my list of savings this week.  It isn't really anything I did but we saved $300.00 on our rent this month, and put it towards a bill my husband owes. 

I was blessed to recieve a box of food that contained bread, donuts, 2 pds of hamburger, and some veggies and lasagna noodles.  I also recieved a walmart bag full of canned applesauce from neighbors.

I saved gas since it was spring break this week and I did not have to drive my son to school this week.  I still have half a tank of gas...woohoo!

I met my first fastbreak goal at the ymca and will recieve 8.00 off my membership fee this coming month.

I went to the goodwill, and found 5 pairs of pants for my son, a vcr, a dress for my daughter, and new sheets and bedspread for me, and paid less for all of that then what I would have paid for a new comforter set at Walmart ( i had really toyed with the idea of buying a brand new bed set too...it was so hard not to, but I am glad i went thrifting instead!)

Last but not least, we got a free trip to the zoo with my nephew.  He had a family membership and since his step kids were at their dads, he invited my family to go....We had a good time....

 what a pretty kitty!

That wraps up our week....please share yours, I learn so much from seeing what others do.....for example, i learned I can make dish washer detergent with just two drops of dish soap and baking soda


i also learned you can make your own dish soap......What did you learn this week?

Sharing ways we save (a couple days late)

Who needs daytime tv?  My life seems to have more drama then a little bit.  My post is late due to some problems we had that started last week.  My financial efforts are weak because of the events of the week.  I didn't handle any of it very well.

The week started with an apartment flood

now these pictures were taken after we attempted to protect some of the furniture and get things up out of the floor...it wasn't perfectly organized because we were still moving in.  But there was a nice sized slab leak in our apartment that flooded us with a few inches of water.  I had complained when we moved in that we could hear water running in the wall but the landlord and maintenance guy ignored it. It has been a long week.  The landlord started in by sending professionals to deal with the issue....decided that was too expensive but it smelled so bad with the wet carpet that we started tearing it out ourselves because she said she would just lay tile.  We get the carpet tore out and low and behold.......

something is still leaking....if runs through my kids bedroom wall and across the floor.  Over a week later still no resolution.  The landlord actually told me that I need to figure out where the leak was coming from.  Hello...not a professional plumber here.  Thankfully a couple days before, i sat down and called Allstate and transferred my renter's insurance to Florida finally.  Boy am I glad I did....all the kids shoes, dress up clothes and all our wooden furniture got wet.

Now that I got that out of my system, here are some things we did to save money.

I joined our local YMCA for the month of March they were having a pay the day special.  Which means the joining fee you pay was based on the date of the day you joined.  I actually joined on the 10th.  So my joining fee was only 10.00 versus 50 or 99.  I get to exercise and my kids get to go to the kids club there.

They also had a member appreciation day on St. Patricks day, we participated and had

Green pancakes, free water, and there were some vendors so we got some free coupons and samples of lipstick!!!!  It was nice.  I also earned 10 Ybucks by participating in the Fast Forward Program that the YMCA offers, and I used that to pay for one month of Karate classes for my son. 

While at the Y event, we were told a local Chick Fil A would be having a family day on Saturday and Aunti L and I took our kids out to the event.

The kids got to roll around the parking lot in giant hamster balls.  We also painted, and ate a free chicken sandwich with a coupon I got from the YMCA event.

My son's school hosted a field trip to the St. Augustine Alligator Farm and admission with the school was much cheaper then it would have been if we had paid on our own.  It was 10.00 for me 15.00 for him but that included the school bus ride, and we brown bagged our lunch.

My frugal fails....we ate out some with the flooding issues and having to take everything out of the rooms, our space is so crowded.  It was hard to even get in the kitchen at first...so I used that as an excuse to get take out...and I did not get up with my husband this week, and he didn't pack his lunch.  So a RIDICULOUS amount of money was spent on eating out.  One of those meals was free though, my nephew is a manager at Pizza Hut and he treated our family to a free dinner.

We are at this point searching for another place because black mold has been found in the one we are in, with the Lanlord at this point stating it isn't a big deal.  If she doesn't fix it, we are out of here.  I will box up the rest of my drama and save it for another day.  How was your week.  I would love to hear about it!!!!

Sharing ways we save on Sunday

It has been a busy few weeks.  We are into our own place and I am going to share some of the things we have been doing over the last couple weeks to save money.  Moving has been really expensive with all the fees and deposits that have to be paid.  Then realizing you need things like trash bags, and I needed a microwave and crock pot.  I tried really hard to find these things used, but no success.  So i paid for them each brand new.

Anyway.......since we have spent money in other ways, and now we live on our own again, it is really time to get the budget for this place under control.  We have had some issues here like a hot water heater leak, but it has now been fixed.

We are pet owners, and I was blessed to find out that our local humane society spayed and vaccinated our cats for free!!!!!  Both of my female cats were in heat and were attracting strays like this to our house.  They were literally sitting on the patio, fence, and even at our bedroom window.  So to get them spayed was such a relief.  If you have pets that need this service, it may be a good idea to find out if you area has any low cost programs.  (Early fall, my son's cat died after she got spayed) but these girls are doing great.  The Clay County Humane Society did an awesome job!

For entertainment I have been trying to see what kind of free events our community has and we found a couple!!!

We found a small car show outside of a local restaurant one day in our travels.

The school my son attended for pre k about 4 years ago had a free open house and did face painting, tatoos, a bouncy house, and lunch.  It was alot of fun.  And the princess may attend the program next fall for two days a week, but we have to pray and see what doors God opens.

We were also invited to a very last minute birthday party for the daughter of a new neighbor at a local park and we threw together a quick gift out of stuff I found in the house.

The little one really enjoyed it, and we enjoyed the party.

Another thing we did was make our own laundry detergent.  (The last time we made it, the supply lasted for over 8 months.  It is so worth it to make your own!!!)

I made for the first time my own cleansing conditioner, with left over conditioner I already had and baby shampoo.  (works great! and much cheaper than anything bought in store or online I really liked Wen but could not buy it and the drug store dupe was good too but I just need something that cost even less)

Shopped at a local grocery store and got reward points to get .13 off per gallon of gas.

Got a free dryer, and paid 100.00 for a washer

Received a 25.00 reward card from a survey group I used to particpate in, and we used it at Lowe's to get things like trash bags, and some seeds and soil, to plant things like our own kitchen herbs and my son requested sun flowers. 

We also did a kid's clinic at Lowe's and the kids built birdhouses!!! I can't wait to hang them up outside on our fence!!!! These are free classes that you can sign your kids up for.

My kids also attend our local church every Wednesday for Calvary kids club and they eat a pizza dinner there.  Every Sunday after church we eat lunch at church.  So it helps things in the house stretch further!!!!

That is about all I can remember.  What things have you been doing?

40 Bags in 40 Days 2014 Decluttering Challenge

 You can read more about this challenge at http://www.whitehouseblackshutters.com/


 
So a friend of mine shared about this challenge on facebook....and here are my thoughts:

decrapify is the word of the day.........i have been working on this so i thought over the last few months...but after going from a three bedroom house with an office, great room, and a playroom...to a small two bedroom apartment ...i need to do ALOT more...I tried very hard as we moved not to take things we didn't love, but I can now see somehow that I failed.....my kids now will be sharing a room and there room is full...there is room for nothing else if it is going to be functional so obviously something has got to give.   I already filled my first bag for today.  I am not throwing it away, but I bagged it up for donations!  BTW that bag was a very large black trashbag for me.

This is about it for me for day one i am trying to organize the room that my littles will share for now....we won't live here forever it is just a stepping stone but for now it will allow us to live within our means!  So I am excited about using this challenge to motivate me not to let things stay disorganized....who is in?  Go get your bags and fill em now!!!  Oh and i have some pull ups i will be giving away at church tonight tooo since the Princess is all potty trained.  Every bit counts!