My Frugal Family: budgeting

Showing posts with label budgeting. Show all posts

Menu Planning Monday - July 29, 2013

This week we are planning for a few new meals. We are in the process of moving so we are between two houses. I tried to choose items to try that are not so labor intensive.

Beef Bourguignon

Sticky Pork Chops

Chicken Sausage Ratatouille

Beef Negamaki - that we didn't get to last week

Pizza Hut personal pan pizzas

You can always find more menu ideas on my Pinterest Boards and to see which new items we loved you can look under Success!

Another Victim of the Economy AGAIN!!!

I feel like I am starting the blog all over again, on July 9 I started this blog when I was laid off from my job. This week, the second shoe (or axe) fell. The job that I moved across country to take has been eliminated. So I am sorry for the lack of posts this week, but I have been wandering around in a fog. I can't believe that this has happened twice! Oh well, more job hunting and hopefully a little free time to test how truly frugal we can be. My husband's take home pay is roughly $200 more than our rent payment so hopefully something will come through quickly. Sorry to be so grim, but I felt I owed you all an explanation and proof that I haven't fallen off the face of the earth. I will be back tomorrow with a new post and a new start. Hope everyone had a great Valentine's Day and I am thinking of some new projects to make for Easter and St. Patricks Day.

I did it!!! I made a Captains Bed!!!

Wow, what a day we have had...

I was given the day off work because it was slow, so I decided to make a bed that I have been planning since we moved to Nevada. It all started with this plan from Ana-white.com. If you have never checked out her site, go see it. It is awesome!!! This was what I wanted to build when we moved here.

But, DH and I decided to get a new mattress and gave our queen size memory foam to our son, so my plans got put on hold. Well now he is in love with the memory foam and wanted me to cut the mattress to make the above bed or buy at least one memory foam for his new bed when I made it.

He was not really wanting to downsize back to a twin even though he loved the plan and the idea of the two beds. So while I was out shopping the other day I saw this...

It has a double size bed in it and I said wow that would work, still giving us the under bed storage and shelves that I was wanting. BUT, they only make it in twin or double. :( So I go home and look online for plans...nothing! So we sat down and brainstormed. This is what we came up with.

Yup, that is our entire plan! We very luckily made no cutting errors and even had extra wood to return. Yes, we had to make some adjustments to what we were thinking would work as we went, but I think we had an EXTREMELY successful day. By the time we drew up our plans and got moving this morning, and got back from Home Depot it was after 1. We finished at 8 so 7 hours. Not bad for people who have never built anything before.

I was too busy to take pictures, sorry! But this is after we had painted and were getting ready to carry it up to the bedroom to finish. DH is using the hairdryer to try and get the paint dry enough to not bleed onto my beige carpets.

So we carried it up and put the finishing touches on it and DS is sleeping in it tonight. We didn't get the headboard made, didn't plan on it for today. We will get that made soon. The bed that was being sold at the store was priced at $799 for a double. This queen one has cost us $155 today, $60 for the drawers ( had bought before when planning on making the other plan) and still have the cost of the headboard, but I can't see it going over $300. So at least a $500 savings and some wonderful memories of building something for my child, with my husband!

Thanks for stopping by...Back to the Valentine's decorating now!

Sorry for the picture quality, there is a LOT of dust floating around here!

Tooth fairy please come see me...

I hate to be a cry baby, but, I am in pain....

Thursday night, I noticed a small chip in one of my molars. Went to work Friday, it was just a small chip... Well Friday night, a huge chunk of the tooth broke off. Fast forward about 5 hours and I wake up choking on pieces of that tooth...OH MY it hurts, why don't dentists work on weekends!!!

BUT the good news is that making me feel like dookie is probably the only thing that keeps me home. And when I am home, not feeling well, I CRAFT!!!

So Valentine's has been calling to me. I had picked up a few little craft starters here and there. I got a new Cricut Mini for Christmas that has been sitting in my craft room feeling neglected and unloved. We finally got acquainted and boy, have I had fun!

So today, I am going to share the first project to come out of the craft room this weekend. I have started so many, I may forego the regular posts this week to get them all out in time for V-Day.

Foam Heart Valentine Wreath

So, I started with this plain foam heart wreath that I bought for $1 at Target in the Dollar Spot

I cut these cute hearts out with the Cricut, I only have the George and Basic Shapes Cartridge that came with it, so I am limited in fonts and shapes. I wanted to add some dimension to the flat wreath, so I put a crease in the middle of each heart. I added a bead of hot glue down the back and attached one to each of the hearts in the wreath.

I, then, added a little red glitter spray paint to give it a little oomph!

Back to the Cricut to give this little $1 wreath a little more love...

I took some red vinyl and white cardstock...Cut out a 3inch heart out of each, a 2.5 in heart out of the white cardstock and then the I Love You out of red vinyl at 1.5 inches. I attched the 3 in vinyl heart to the 3 in white cardstock heart. Then glued the 2.5 inch white heart on top. Applied the I Love You vinyl and gave it a little glitter love also.

Can you tell I am trying to follow Michaels' advice

Ready for the Finale?!?

I finished it off by attaching a paperclip to the back of both the heart and wreath. Took some pink crochet string and hung the heart so it could swing free...Why 2 paperclips, I love paperclips for hanging light stuff, they give you a hook at the top and in this case it gives me a loop at the bottom to hang this string from.

Come back tomorrow to see what else I got into today...or better yet, Follow me and we'll have lots of fun together!

Ode to my true Love!

We used to live in the land of Kripy Kreme. warm coming around the rack, just dripped in glaze and ready to be boxed up. Can't leave the parking lot until you eat one or one dozen...

But alas, I now live in the land of no Krispy Kreme. But I heard about a great deal that I would share with you for Savings Saturday.

Through Valentines, if you buy one dozen doughnuts. They will give you 12 Valentines cards that are each good for a free doughnut. So that makes your dozen BUY ONE GET ONE FREE!! And the best part is that you don't have to have both dozen at the same time, you can spread out the love!!! ( Did I just hear your thighs breathe a great big sigh of relief LOL)

So hurry in and get yours before they are all gone and if you are feeling particularly generous, just let me know and I will give you my address so you can overnight me some...

Savings Saturday -The Coupons App

Before I get started on this Savings Saturday, I have one side note to make about last week’s. Old Navy doesn’t love me right now, apparently if you use the app too much, it stops you.

I never got any of the really good prizes, but it cut me off…Says check back at a later date, you have gotten all of the available surprises. So sad, I will start using it again in February and see if anything new pops up. If anyone from Old Navy happens to stumble across this post, I miss you! Send me some Love!

Ok, this is the last app that I am going to share for awhile and get on with some other ways to save money!

As I have alluded to in previous posts, I am the world’s laziest couponer. I do not like to clip and organize coupons. When I do clip some out, I spend more time trying to find them then I will ever save. So I found this app, it doesn’t do grocery coupons which is fine, this app gives me on the go coupons to restaurants and other retailers. Some stores that I shop at regularly, but always seem to not have a coupon to…Kohl’s, Michaels, Ulta, Best Buy and so many more retailers. A lot of the local fast foods are there too and they even list the local gas prices so you can find which is cheapest ( though I have not found this to be the most accurate). So just go into your app market and install The Coupons App and stop clipping and carrying.

Pin It

Savings Saturday- Snap Appy

Old Navy, I still see you every day (almost) and now you have given me a new reason to love you!

Old Navy is giving away free money to spend in their stores...You can get 10 free entries every day!

How do you get to get your share?

Do you have an Android, Iphone, Ipad, or Itouch?

If so, you are gonna want to immediately get this App for I products or App for android.

Once Downloaded, you can take pictures of the Old Navy logo on anything! I have "snapped" reciepts bags, signs in the store, ads, displays, ags and even pics of the logo on their webpage. It lets you snap 10 times a day.

You can win in one of three categories: Deals, Gametastic or Fashionspiration

I have recieved a few $10 off any purchase, a lot of $5 off $25 and $15 off $75 and lots of cute sayings ones.

And for this of you who have Shopkick you can check it, at the store, every time you walk in for Kicks!

Maybe you will be lucky enough to get one of these...

Start saving now for next Christmas or Birthdays or just get some free money

I read an article in our local newspaper recently about shopping apps. Many of them I had already heard of but one really intrigued me.

December 9th I signed up for Shopkick and LOVE IT!!! If you haven't tried this yet, you have got to check it out right now! You get 50 kicks if you sign up here. Start saving your kicks and with as little as 500 points you can get a Best Buy or Target gift card. You could save up your kicks for a Coach purse, XBOX 360 or even a cruise, many rewards are available and they add new ones often.

So in the last month I have accumulated enough kicks to earn over $20 worth of gift cards. I had to try it out and see how it worked so I was shopping in Target and opened the app and just downloaded my gift card and used it at the register, how cool is that! Instant gratification.

I know, you are saying well how do I earn Kicks and how much will it cost me?

You can earn kicks by just walking in to certain stores and malls, you can scan product barcodes at the store, you can register your Visa and get kicks for certain purchases or you can simply open the app and look for the stars that signify instant rewards

How is this saving me money for next Christmas?

So my thoughts are that if can earn at least a $25 gift card each month, that is at least an extra $300 into my Christmas budget. All I have to do is play with my phone, like I am not doing that anyway. The app is available for iphone and android. So click here and get your 50 kicks to start saving today.

Is there anything else that this app can do?

There are also special sales, featured products and coupons within the stores in the app. So if you are in the store, before you check out, all you have to do is click on the app and see what there is. Target has coupons on theirs, and before Christmas I was shopping at RUE21 and checked and there was a 20% off your purchase that I was able to use immediately. No more having to print emails and carry around coupons (then not remembering where you put them, or is that just me?) just in case you end up in that store.

Have you ever been in a strange city or even a different part of town and didn't know where to go for lunch or a store? When I open this app, it pulls up all the businesses that are close to me ( wherever you may be). I have learned so many new stores that are within a few miles of my house or work that I didn't even know were there. You can then click on the store/restaraunt and see if they are running any specials or have coupons, then click on the map for directions or click call to call the store with any questions.

What is more to say I absolutely LOVE this App, it is free, click here and try it for yourself...you have nothing to lose, just free money to gain.

Goal Setting for 2012

As I look back at the last 12 months, I realize that my attempts at budgeting have failed miserably and we are now in worse financial shape. I took Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University, set up a budget (didn't stick to it), set up my emergency fund (spent that too) and have turned my debt snowball into a debt boulder all while we lived in a relatively shopper friendly place. Now I live in the land of no double coupons and sky high grocery prices with no stockpile (yup, wiped that out too). So I am setting some goals for myself for the new year and sharing them with the world for accountability.

What went wrong in 2011 - Just a few highlights

1. Eating out WAY TOO MUCH
2. Poor planning made for very expensive shopping trips
3. Not being organized in my life ( bills not paid on time - paying late fees etc.)
4. Not planning for expenses like car repairs, Christmas, birthdays, back to school and such.

New Goals for 2012

1. Eat at home more!!!!
      Now I AM realistic! I know we will not go from eating out 2-3 times a week to eating home all year,
      but I have been diligently working these last 12 days setting up a 12 month menu that includes at least
      350 meals. We will see how it goes, I have the first few months planned and a lot of recipes selected.
     Follow me each week and I will post our menus and some recipes, I will also try to add the shopping list
     if I get it completed. I will also update on how we did the previous week. One of the largest complaints
     that I hear from my family is that it seems like we eat the same foods over and over again. So my goal is
     to have 350 different recipes to try. To see some of the foods we will be trying, check out my
     Pinterest Board .

2. Better planning for shopping to include buying in bulk, staples and myo mixes, shopping list and
      couponing. Follow along to see my tips, hints and some cool ideas.

3. Work on my ORGANIZATION !! I will share tips, ideas and hints. I will also follow up with what
     worked and what challenges I faced.

4. Get back to budgeting and stick to it!

Meet me in the comments and let me know what your goals are. I would love to share how we are doing together!

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