A Happy Mail Day & shoes on my mind… lol!

I have to give HIGH praise for Nintendo Customer service!! If you read my blog regularly you’ll know that I literally *just* sent in my Wii on Friday to get it fixed… it went express which got it there yesterday. Well just before noon today a FedEx man was knocking on my door with a box from Nintendo!!! Woohoo!!

They already fixed my Wii & sent it back to me in LESS than one day flat!! This makes me happy today! Which is a good thing, ’cause all my kids are miserable… lol!

So can you guess what workout i’ll be doing today?

On another note… i’m on the lookout for a cute (and high quality) pair of ‘ballet flats’ for spring… i’ve been seeing all these “shoe” posts around the net and I can tell you, I don’t even compare! lol!! I have exactly 3 prs of shoes, and 2 prs of boots.

These are my Steve Madden fall boots… love them but can’t wear them if there’s any ice/snow around.. no grip whatsoever!!

And these are my practical winter boots…

My workout shoes…

My ‘everyday’ runners… *only pic I could find, not exact, i have a pink swoosh and mine are leather.

And I have a pr. of baby blue Croc’s…

So.. that’s my oh so glamorous shoe collection! LOL!! Now… i’ve been eyeing a ‘few’ prs of casual flats that I like… what think? I’m also debating between brown or black… black seems ‘harsh’ in the spring/summer… 

Those are some i’ve found that I like so far online, they’re all “about” $100-150ish. I know that’s pricey, but it’s not like i’m going to “outgrow” them, and I believe good shoes are worth the money cause you’ll get lots of years out of them! One thing is i’m hesitant to order online in case they don’t fit or feel right… i’m usually a 7 to 7 1/2 at most, but it varies from shoe to shoe, so I think i’ll need to get out and try on some shoes. And i’m not *exactly* sure what I want… I do like these styles though.. Tell me, what’s your favourite pair of casual shoes?

Well that’s all for today.. my ‘borrowed baby’ is sleeping and my 2 yr old is soooo cranky and miserable and i’m sure she’s going to wake him up any minute now. Ugh! Oh.. if you  missed my post about my book giveaway, scroll down and read my post yesterday!

Have a great day!!

Week 1 Goals, & My Bars… & a book GIVEAWAY!!

Good morning ladies! How was your night? I ended up watching Never Been Kissed for my movie.. i’d already seen it but my daughter hadn’t so we watched it again.. such a cute movie! I just love Drew Barrymore! What did everyone else do? I’m not really into football anymore, so I chose to ignore the Superbowl.. lol!

I’ve been asked a few times about my Savings Bars.. i’m going to post what I did and how to make your own… since I use WordPress, this is what works for WordPress. I’m going to *assume* that Blogger would be similar, but honestly have no idea. I’m not a big fan of Blogger so have no idea how it works. If you copy & paste this code into a “Text Widget” on WordPress you’ll get a savings bar like my ‘wii’ bar… the area’s which are *bold* you change to your own goal, numbers, etc… and the area’s that i’ve bolded & changed to red, you can play with those to get the colours you want. Use this colour code thingy here to choose your colours to match your blog.

<b><font color=””#0000””>Wii Repair Fund
</font></b><br>
Goal:  $100<br>
Start:  $0<br>
Current:  $100<br>
<div style=”height:15px;background:#CCCCCC;border:solid;”>
<div style=”background:#3366FF;color:white;width:100%;”><b>100%</b>
</div>
</div>
<div style=”float:left;”> START </div><div style=”float:right;”> END </div>

I just played around with the bars till I got what I wanted…. it’s pretty easy really. If you need any  help feel free to post in the comments section or whip me off an email and i’ll help however I can.

Moving on….

*********************************************************************************************************************

~Goals~

Ok.. now onto my ‘Goals’ from last week! I didn’t do so hot.. not at all. *blush*

My goals last Monday were:

1. Workout 5 x. Pft.. not EVEN close. Once. Un. Usus. One time. Singluar. Uno. Une. That’s it… it was a busy week and I just didn’t make time to fit it in. Looking at the calendar now, if I don’t get in workouts EVERY single day for the month I won’t make my monthly goal… ugh!

2. Read 2-3 chapters of my book. Nope… another big FAT X. Didn’t make time for it.

3. Purge & clean my sons computer desk. Check! I tossed out 2 garbage bags of crap. SO glad this got done at least! lol!!

4. List 5 items on Kijiji or Etsy. Check!! I listed a tonne of cards in my Etsy shop, and about 8 items on Kijiji.

5. 3-4 No spend days. Not even one. We’ve always picked up stuff here and there and apparently we’re not gonna change that easily… but, change takes time right? I definitely just “overshot’ on my goal. I think i’ll have to bump that down.. for sure. lol!

Ok.. so time for a *NEW* set of goals for the week!

1. Exercise 5x. I *WILL* accomplish this!! I did a good 45 minute workout this morning and feel great! I need to remember that I always feel fabulous after a workout!!

2. Get in 2 No Spend days. Wish us luck! lol!

3. Read 1 chapter of my book daily. (then i’ll read more hopefully when I actually sit down to read!!)

4. Clean out my hall closet. This closet is jam packed full of blankets, games, lightbulbs, etc.. lol! Seriously.. needs purged. Once again i’ll post before & after pics for you!

5. Drink 8 glasses of water daily. In the winter I find it SO hard to get in all my water.. im sorely lacking in this department.

So those are my goals for the week, we’ll see how I do!

*********************************************************************************************************************

I was reading a book by Emilie Barnes called The 15 Minute Organizer, and in the first 2 chapters she goes over setting goals & accomplishing them! I thought i’d share a few tips from the book that I found helpful and will hopefully help you out too! I have a small collection of Emilie Barnes books as I think she has fabulous ideas and a no-nonsense, but very doable approach!!

Here are a few tips I took away from the first few chapters of this book…

1. Set Concrete goals with deadlines. Instead of having a goal of, “I want to lose 10 lbs”, have a goal of “I want to lose 10lbs in 3 months”. It gives you a goal, and a timeline to work towards, something to strive for.

2. Stop being ‘lazy’ & misusing your time. I think we’re all guilty of this at one time or another, but you need to ask yourself, is sitting here watching Oprah a good use of my time, or could I be crossing something off of my “to do” list or accomplishming/working towards one of goals?

3. Take advantage of your mood & energy levels. If you’re bouncing off the walls and have loads of energy, pick one of your ‘bigger’ tasks to accomplish. Do your yardwork, or finally clean out that storage closet! Didn’t get much sleep and don’t really feel like doing much? Do one or two “mini tasks” instead.

4. What goal is #1 on your list & how will you feel when you finally accomplish it? Make a list of the “pro’s” of finally accomplishing your goal and set a plan in motion to accomplish it!!

5. Make it a COMMITMENT & share with someone! Personally, this is a big reason why I have this blog. It keeps me *accountable*. If I set a list of goals and don’t accomplish any, I feel like an @ss. lol! So being held accountable by others helps me do what needs to be done! If you don’t blog, tell a friend, your significant other, your mom, your dog, someone! lol!!

6. All your goals don’t have to be ‘jobs’. One of  my goals is setting aside a small amount of time to sit down, relax, and read. Simple as that. I need to make that important enough that I carve some time out of my day to get it accomplished. So if your goal is reading a new book, working on a hobby, or even updating your blog, etc… work that into your day. Make *TIME* for things (and people) that are important to you!

7. Reward yourself! Have you been procrastinating on losing those last 10 lbs? Reading a book that’s been sitting on your nightstand? Well give yourself a reward when you finally do accomplish your goal! A new manicure, a new pr. of jeans, a new novel, whatever will entice you to get the job done!

8. Break down overwhelming tasks into “mini tasks”. This is a big one for me, and probably a lot of you! Let’s say one of your goals is to clean/purge your kitchen from top to bottom. You could break that down to several ‘mini tasks’.

• Clean fridge outside
• Clean fridge inside
• Pull out fridge and sweep/mop.
• Clean oven.
• Pull out oven and sweep/mop.
• Scrub inside oven.
• Sort/organize/purge through top cupboards.
• Sort/organize/purge through pots/pans/baking dishes.

This list could really go on and on… even if it takes a week to clean your kitchen from top to bottom, it would be easier to tackle knowing you just had one “mini task” at a time, instead of the entire kitchen at once.

I hope some of these tips will help you plan, & accomplish your goals!

How would you like to win “Cleaning Up the Clutter” by Emilie Barnes? This book was formerly called “Simply Organized” and “Simply Dinner”. So you’re really getting 2 books in one! The first 1/2 of the book is about organizing & clutter, the 2nd 1/2 of the book is filled with recipes!! Doesn’t that sound fabulous?

I’m giving away a copy of this book (bought with my own pennies, etc..) to one lucky winner (Canada & U.S. only please, sorry but shipping overseas adds up very quickly!) simply because I want to help you become more organized & like to make people smile! Her books help me a lot, and give me so many great ideas, that I think you’ll enjoy her books too!

From the Publisher

Most women feel overwhelmed as they juggle raising a family, pursuing a career, and keeping a home.  Emilie Barnes comes to the rescue in Cleaning Up the Clutter: Easy Ways to Keep Your Family Happy, Healthy, and Organized. Emilie shows readers how to…

• Get the house clean and keep it that way
• Involve family members in helping with chores
• Plan healthful meals that save time and cut grocery bills. 
• Helpful organizational tools and charts add to the usefulness of Cleaning Up the Clutter. 

***In order to win the book all you have to do is leave me a comment saying why you’d like to win this book! If you’d like a ‘2nd’ chance, add me to your blogroll then come back and leave another comment. If i’m already on your blogroll, just let me know and you’ll get a double chance also!***  

*Winner will be drawn on Monday, Feb.15th!

That’s all for today, have a fabulous day!!

My Weekend in pictures… and a few words thrown in for good measure… ;)

Happy Sunday everyone! How was your weekend? I had a nice, relaxing weekend, stayed around the house, (aka: staying in & staying warm ’cause it’s TOO cold!!) got lots of housework done yesterday morning.. but with 4 kids, you can’t tell anymore. But it *was* clean which really is all that matters, right?

So here is my weekend in pictures…

Playing with the girls…

Did some reading on setting goals & accomplishing them.. (working on a post for this!)

Played on my Ipod Touch..

Watched Hairspray last night.. such a great movie.. love it!

Played with my scrapbooking goodies…

Ate a bag of these.. Yes, by myself. *blush*

Drank lots of this since my girls now seem to love seeing 6:00 am flashing on the clock… *grumble*

And I have dinner cooking in my favourite crock-pot.. this crock-pot is OLD but works SOOO good! It belonged to my grandpas mothers way back when.. I have a newer crockpot from my grandma (a big one!) but it doesn’t work nearly as well! There’s a pork tenderloin roasting in here for Pulled Pork sandwiches.. yum!

I also worked on my cross-stitch kit.. this is *slow* going.. lol! Cross-stitch is definitely not a “fast” project to do!

And… I also had a nice card order in my Etsy shop today, sold 7 cards, so I can finally move my “make $100 extra this month” bar to the right 1/5th of the way!! I also listed a few items on Kijiji, so am hoping to sell those, but we’ll see!

I hope you all enjoyed your weekend!! Tonight my oldest daughter and I are going to watch Bride Wars and relax.. i’ve already seen it but it was when it was first out, so i’d like to see it again.

Thanks for stopping by!

Food Waste Friday & messy computer desk purge….

Hello! How’s your day going so far? I was out and about today had to mail off my Wii to the repair center, (yay!!), cost me $11.64 to send it Express and it’ll be there Monday! Not bad, but i’m lucky that the repair center is only 2 hrs away. I’ve only heard good things about getting the Wii repaired, and that the turnaround time is fast! So with any luck it’ll be back in my hot little hands within a couple weeks! I’ll update when I get it back… in all to get my Wii repaired it was $96.39. Ouch! But… still less than half of buying new… I think new they’re about $230 plus tax (13% if you’re here in Ont). So.. we’re saving about $165 sending it in, rather than buying new. Plus the effects of tossing something else into our overfilled landfills!

Today I also have my “food waste friday’ photo to share with you from The Frugal Girl… and i’m happy to say it’s a LOT better than last weeks pic! This week we have about 1/2 cup of pasta that didn’t end up getting eaten… but that’s it!

Next week i’m aiming for a zero waste week! Do you take part in “Food Waste Fridays”? If not I encourage you to play along! It’s a great way to actually see all the waste we make and really inspires you to do better. Especially knowing that in many parts of our world people are going hungry daily and yet we’re tossing this and that… ugh!

***

Last week I listed my goals and I accomplished one of them… (looking back at my goals.. not gonna be a good week for goal gettin’.. LOL!) Anyways, I did the one thing that I needed to do the most.. cleaned up my sons nasty computer desk… Dallas is 15 and the typical teenage boy. His desk was a whole lot of gross.. ugh! So last night I decided to just get it ‘done & over’ with!

Before:

After:

MUCH better!! lol! I tossed out 2 GARBAGE BAGS full of “crap”. Eek!! But i’m glad i’m done… looks 100% better. lol!

Well that’s all for today… dinner tonight is cheddar macaroni beef casserole stuff… kids & hubby love it… i’ll have a small serving and add brocolli & cauliflower to mine.. yum! Have a fabulous day!

Week 1 on ‘the jars’ update…

Good Morning ladies! I had such an amazing night!! I just LOVED CATS!! Such an amazing production!! When Grizabella (Anastasia Lange) sang Memory it sent shivers up and down my spine and brought tears to my eyes.. she has the voice of an angel! It totally filled the theater… just amazing! I’m still in awe as you can tell… *blush* Wow…. on top of seeing CATS dinner was  awesome.. and my sister also bought me a CATS t-shirt for my birthday from the play and a pair of gorgeous wooden drop earrings! They hand-made and absolutely gorgeous! They are very light in my ears which I like, and very ‘me’.

Here’s a pic of  my gorgeous earrings! I love them!

And a pic of the back of my uber cool CATS t-shirt! I love the eyes… it was funny, at the stand where my sis bought the CATS tee’s, in big bold letters it said: The eyes go on the BACK of the shirt”. ROTFL!!! Well.. why wouldn’t the eyes go on the front?? :P I could use a little “enhancement” in that area.. lol!

Ok.. now i’ll update you with my totals for the week. Overall, we did *AWESOME*! I can’t believe all the money we have left from our jars… and that was after bills, savings, charity, etc… yay us!

This was our totals from the jars:

Food:  $197.01 (we have a whopping $2.99 left). This was spent mostly on ‘food’… we bought diapers this week and the kids got some ‘treats’ from the variety store. I’m hoping to stay LOW this week and we are well stocked and shouldn’t need a lot I hope. That being said we did buy $40 worth of groceries this a.m, so we’re at $160 already.. lol! I would be in heaven if we stayed about $100 this week… but we’ll see!

Misc: $6.19 *I think hubby bought headache pills or something. So we had $43.81 left which makes up the rest of my Wii repair fund since I already had $60 saved!! Woot!! Just went on the Wii site site and have a repair set up.. it’s going to cost $84.75, plus shipping.

Gifts & Clothes: $0.00 *the clothes I bought this week I used a refund cheque I forgot about, so we still have $50.00 left in this jar. I’m going to put the $50 we didn’t use into an ING Gifts/Clothes fund, i’ll add to this every week with whatever we don’t use.

Fun: $0.00 We had no fun this week. LOL!! We didn’t go out, and didn’t rent any movies, etc.. so still have $50.00 left. I’ll leave this in the jar, ’cause sometimes when hubby & I go out it can easily cost more than $50. Not that we go out very often… once a month at best. I may open up an ING account, so anything over $100 in our ‘fun’ jar will go into a savings account for this.. we enjoy concerts, plays, etc… so will be nice to have a little ’stash’ of money put away for this reason!

So in all we still had $146.80 left!

Today we start back to the full amounts in every jar today. $200/food, $50 clothing/gifts, $50/fun, $65/spending money (oldest 2 kids get, $10, 2nd oldest dd gets $5, hubby & I get $20 each for the week)& $50/misc. My spending money this week went towards 2 cross-stitch kits I found on Kijiji and Starbucks. Yum! lol!

So after I put out the $$ for the Wii Fund (shipping & repair), we’re left with $10.00 and that will go into our “flake” jar, since our gifts/clothing & fun fun $ will just be carried over from week to week. No idea what we’ll do with the ‘flake’ money… what do you do with your ‘flakes’?

***

My savings bars! As you can see i’ve also updated my bars again!

My Wii Repair fund is at 100%, My new Loveseat fund is up to $480 now! I was able to add another $40 to my Scrapfest fun, and tonight i’ll update my debt bar & savings bars. :) I want to start saving up to get the PS3 fixed, and my teenage son wants the computer upgraded.. but i’m thinking he’s going to have to wait on that one, since my oldest daughter uses the PS3 sometimes and wants it fixed too. So any ‘flakes’ left from our misc. jar will prob go into our PS3 Repair fun. Maybe i’ll do that with the other ‘flakes’ too now that i’m thinking about it… I don’t know. Stupid electronics… *roll eyes here*

Well that’s it for today… i’m off to do my dishes and some tidying up. Both of my borrowed kids should be gone in about an hour’ish… then i’ll start on dinner. Tonight I plan on working on my cross-stitch kit and relaxing… what’s everyone else up to tonight?

SO excited for tomorrow night to get here!

I’m excited for tomorrow to get here already! Its my birthday on the 14th (i’ll be 36 in case anyone is curious, I just look 21 is all… *whistle*) and my fabulous sister is taking me to see CATS by Andrew Lloyd Webber at the John Labatt Center!! We’re also going out for dinner at The Mongolian Grill which is an amazing little restaurant here where you actually choose your meat, carbs, veggies, spices, etc.. and they toss it on a huge grill and cook it right in front of you! Very cool!! I’ve only been once before I went to see KISS last year, but I loved it and can’t wait to go again! So those are my big plans for tomorrow night!! If i’m able to snap some pics I will!

***

So today I managed to get in a workout, did Jillian Micheals 30 Day Shred… I do prefer my Wii Workouts better.. I find them ‘fun’ instead of  ‘work’ which I think is a big thing when you’re trying to keep active… I don’t want to do something I don’t enjoy kwim? Whereas with my Wii, i’m glad to squeeze in some workout time because it’s fun. This make sense to anyone else? lol!! Or am I the only one who feels like this?

I didn’t get in my reading time… yesterday neither. In my defense I had a lot of Design Team projects due and had to work on those and get them done.. (you can take a peek at my other blog if you wanna see my ’scrappy’ stuff.. www.moralia.wordpress.com) So I got those done and tonight i’m planning on doing some reading, and i’m going to watch a movie with my oldest daughter. No idea which one… lol!

Let me see… I also updated a couple of  my ‘bars’. I added in $40 to my “loveseat fund”, added a day to  my ‘workout’ bar, started a new bar for a day trip my best friend and I are making in April to Scrapfest. It’s bascially a big scrapbooking day, where you can shop your heart out, take classes, meet up with other scrappers from all over Canada (seriously, people fly from all over for this!), so it’s a lot of fun! And i’m excited to go! My goal for that is $220. $20 to give to my best friend for gas, then $200 for my food, shopping, etc… now to be brutally honest, I don’t NEED anything for scrapbooking, I have so much it’s embarassing, but i’d like to have some cash just in case something ’sings to me’. So, $220 will do it! As of right now, we’re not taking any classes, we’re just going to hang out and have fun! Which works for me…

Tomorrow I probably have both kids I babysit.. my ‘great-nephew’, and the older boy I pick up from the bus stop… so that’s my afternoon filled. In the morning I need to get in my workout (will probably do pilates), kid stuff, housework, snap a “before pic” of my sons computer desk (ACK!!), and would like to ‘declutter’ the bookshelf in the living room.. it ‘runneth’ over. Dinner tomorrow night will be easy peasy as I need to feed everyone early ’cause I won’t be home. They’re looking at soup & sandwiches or the like…

Well i’m done rambling for today… lol! I’ll be back Thursday with how my “night out” went & an update on my first week of doing the “jar budgeting” system! Have a great night & thanks for stopping by!

Oh.. P.S – 6 more weeks of winter… stupid Groundhog…

February Goals & Weekly goals, Menu Plan Monday & a blog award!

Wow.. February 1st already! Is it just me or did January not just fly by in the blink of an eye! February I hope will show signs of spring.. lol! I’m ready for some warm weather, I know i’m jumping the gun a little bit, but I can hope right?

I’m doing well with our jars… nothing is overbudget! Our Entertainment & Clothing/Gifts jars haven’t been touched, so still $50 in those, our Misc. jar is only down by $8 something… but our grocery money is getting down there… probably have $40 left for milk/bread for the week. I did stock up on some ‘loss leaders’ & needed diapers this week, so we’re well stocked. I’ll update on Thursday will the totals of what I spent this week!

This will be my first month posting my goals for the month since I just started up this blog again after a 2 month hiatus… so here are my plans:

~Monthly Goals~

1. Raise $100 “extra” cash from card sales, selling items on Kijiji/Ebay, etc…
2. 20 workout days. This is gonna be tough.. my Wii is still broken and that’s how I do most of my workouts. So.. i’ll be pulling out my Jillian Micheals DVD’s, doing more strength training, etc..
3. 15 ‘no spend’ days. I got this idea from Saving 4 Later. Let’s hope I can do it!
4. Stick to our “jars”. Build up a ’snowflake’ fund with extra ‘flakes’.
5. Send in my Wii to be fixed. I need about another $40 to send it in and want to get this from ‘flakes’ from my jars. Hoping on Thursday to be able to do this!
6. Finish “The Lost Memiors of Jane Austen”, start another book when I finish.
7. Purge 4 ‘big areas’ this month. 1st up… computer desk!!

~Week 1 Goals~

1. Get in 5 workouts this week (even if I can only squeeze in 20 minutes!)
2. Read 2-3 chapters of my book daily for “quiet/recharge” time.
3. List 5 items on Kijiji or Ebay, update Etsy shop.
4. 3-4 No spend days!
5. Purge computer desk. (Take before/after pics)

I figure i’ll not ‘overdo’ it or i’ll never have a chance of hitting my goals.. lol! I tend to take too much on then get overwhelmed by my own stupidity… lol!!

***

And i’m all excited today ’cause I was given my very first blog award for this blog! Yay me! lol!!! Angela over at “My Year Without Spending” gave me the “Kreativ Blogger” award! Angela went through the last year without shopping for an “extra stuff”! Her blog is really interesting and I followed through her posts last year! Definitely gave me lots to think about!

Now i’m supposed to grace you all with 7 facts you didn’t know about me! Here we go…

1. I *CANNOT* watch Horror movies! Eek!! Hate them… i’d never sleep again.
2. I designed our ‘Earth Friendly’ t-shirt & reusable bag for my highschool in grades 11 & 12!
3. I’ve never flown on an airplane before.. or anything else with wings.
4. I can’t stand to see others treated poorly. I will open by big mouth and stick up for someone no matter what the situation. I’ve gotten the negative attention turned my way a few times for this.. but I can’t turn a ‘blind eye’. It’s just not in me!
5. My best friend is 10 years younger than me.
6. I have an aversion to purple, although it’s my youngest daughters favourite colour. She wears it daily, 24 hours a day.
7. When it comes to ordering food in restaurants, i’m like Meg Ryan in “When Harry Met Sally”. I just want my food the way I want it. *Blush* My husband always ‘reminds’ me before I order to not be ‘fussy‘. lol! Uh huh…. *roll eyes here*

And now i’m going to bestow this great honour amongst the following fabulous bloggers!

• Apron Thrift Girl. I just love her blog.. she’s so creative with beautiful photography!
• Frugal Dreamer. Awesome blog, i’ve been reading for a while!
• Mommy Quit her Job. I just found this blog, but I like it!!
• My Pretty Pennies. Really enjoy this blog too, great posts & pics!
• Saving 4 Later. Fabulous blog, love her day to day posts!
• Canadian Home. I enjoy her posts on day to day living!
• Juggling Motherhood. Just an all around wonderful blog!

And that covers that!

***

~Menu Plan Monday~

I wanted to join in on Menu Plan Monday this week, so will add onto my last weeks Menu and plan up to this Monday.. since i’ll be adding a few extra days hopefully i’ll be able to lower my grocery bill next week and save up some “flakes”.

Monday: Pot roast in the crock pot, mashed potatoes, carrots, cauliflower, corn, gravy.

Tuesday: Chicken Burgers & Fries, carrot sticks.

Wednesday: Homemade Mac & Cheese with brocolli & cauliflower.

Thursday: Chicken breast, twice baked potatoes, brocolli & cauliflower.

Friday: Pulled Pork sandwiches on Kaisers. *i’ll cook for the day, not a gazillion hours.

Saturday: Spaghetti & homemade buns with Brocolli & Cauliflower.

Sunday: Soup & Sandwiches.

As long as I stick to this meal plan… i’ll only have to pick up a few grocery items which will keep my bill low as we’re fully stocked up. Would love to keep my bill to under $100 for next week (thursday-thursday) if at all humanly possible!

***

Well it’s already 10:20 am here so I need to go get it in gear! Already have a roast in the crock-pot so dinner is half done! Enjoy your day!!

How was everyones weekend?

I didn’t accomplish everything on my ‘to do’ list that I wanted to over the weekend. I got about 1/2 accomplished… so better than nothing I guess!  I’ve been SO tired lately, my youngest isn’t sleeping very well, so i’m lacking in the sleep department and therefore slacking off a bit. Today was a nice day though, I spent the afternoon with my sister and we went to Value Village for some shopping… since I lost 50lbs I still haven’t full replenished my clothes.. the only t-shirts I have that fit me are concert t-shirts and those I don’t want to wear daily.. lol! So that was my goal today, short sleeved shirts! Before we hit Value Village we stopped at Canadian Tire so I could take back some Gel Knee Pads hubby bought for work with some Xmas gift cards… they didn’t stay on him so were useless… so back they went. I looked at coffee makers but then decided to wait till mine dies once and for all.  May as well use it for however long I can… lol! I also deposited a cheque in the bank that I forgot we had coming to use from a prescription reimbursement, so used that for my shopping today! So my “gifts & clothing” jar still sits at $50.00.

At Value Village I found myself 3 shirts, and a dress for each of my youngest daughters. Mya is my youngest, she’s 2, will be 3 in April and she HAS to wear purple *EVERY* single day. During the day, & to bed. Today when I was walking around in VV I found this adorable velvet & tulle dress for $9.99… and it’s completely purple! For my middle daughter I found an absolutely adorable GumDrop dress for $5.99. It’s such a sweet dress & the quality is great. The material is heavy and durable, great for fall & winter months. She loves it.. here’s a pic of my girls in their new dresses… Mya kept on squinting ’cause of the flash.. lol! Every single picture I have of her is her squinting! lol!

And for myself I bought 3 shirts… (I look horrible, but i’ll show you the pics my daughter snapped anyways.. lol!)

My grey knit shirt sweater shirt was $3.29, the Old Navy golf tee was $3.49, and the last one is a Joe shirt, and it was $4.99 new with tags! When all is said and done I spent a little over $31… not bad for 2 dresses and 3 shirts I think! And see my snazzy watch? My sister gave me an Esquire… I love it… *sigh* It has a gorgeous navy blue face and looks good with everything! She spoils me… lol!

Anyways, tomorrow is a new day, a new month actually, and i’m going to write my ‘to do’ list tonight and pick a small project around the house to do every day next week… let’s hope I can accomplish everything! lol!

K.. going back to watch the Grammys… that Lady Gaga is somethin’ else.. haha! Bye!

Food Waste Friday..

Every Friday on The Frugal Girl shares her ‘food waste’ photos in hopes of having O waste photo’s.. most of the time i’d say she does it! As for us… we need help. *blush* This week my girls wasted almost every tub of the Petite Danone Yogurt they asked me to buy, and my hubby/teenage son wasted 2 pkgs of lunch meat… (I don’t eat that stuff, so i’m totally shifting the blame on them.. lol!). Also not in the photo was some leftoever mashed potatoes/veggies/beef that my youngest daughter didn’t finish one night and I set aside for her lunch the next day and forgot about it. Next week i’m aiming for a ‘no waste week’! Not really impressed especially about all those yogurts I have to toss! Ugh!

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This morning i’m getting my 2 ‘new to me’ cross stitch kits that I posted about yesterday! So i’ll have something to play with over the weekend! It’s brutal cold here (-20c) so i’m hibernating.. lol! I’m also planning on ‘purging’ this weekend… on Sunday my sis & I are heading out to Value Village and i’d love to donate a garbage bag (or 2!) of stuff!! I’ll be posting before/after pics on Monday.. lol! This way I actually do it! So on my “to do” list for today/weekend:

• Fill 1-2 garbage bags of ’stuff’ to donate/toss.
• 3 loads of laundry
• Read 6 chapters of “The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen” (so far, so good!)
• Bake! *I’d like to bake double to give some to my grandma as she can’t bake anymore, and would love some treats i’m sure!
• Make 5 dinners to freeze & give to grandma. *Again, she’s not supposed to be cooking, so this way she can just ‘heat n’ serve’!
• Clean off teenage sons computer desk. *Gross. Nuff’ said. lol!

And I think that’s it! Have a great day ladies!

Menu Planning & my first week on the “Jars”…

Morning! It’s bright & sunny here, but COLD!! Brr!! I’ll be staying in until I pick up my ‘borrowed kid’ at 3pm. My ‘borrowed baby’ isn’t coming today, so that gives me a few free hours this afternoon to do a few things on my ‘to do’ list. One of them being to squeeze in a workout hopefully! I’m having such a hard time getting in my workouts… grr! I think i’m gonna start up with The 30 Day Shred again till my Wii is fixed. Speaking of getting my Wii fixed, if you take a peek at my bars you’ll see I already have $60 set aside to get my Wii fixed! We had $60 left from last week so its going towards my Wii fund!

Yesterday I was asked a few questions that i’ll answer now before I forget.. (i’m bad for that..) So if you ever ask me a ? and it doesn’t get answered, feel free to ask again or whip me off an email. *blush*

1) when you get pay day, do you actually go to the bank and take out the dollars to put in the jars?

Yup… we’ll take out the $350 for the week, and the rest stays in the bank for savings, bills, (we pay online) rent, charity, etc…

2) I noticed groceries is $200. Is that for each week?

Absolutely. lol! We could not in this lifetime spend only $200 a month on groceries. Our monthly grocery budget is $800. (or that’s my goal anyways!)

3) Does planning your meals for the week help to lower the grocery bill? And does it allow for the little extras?

For us, it’s the ONLY way i’m able to stay on budget! If not there’s not the right food in the house and we end up ordering in, or just grabbing stuff last minute. When I menu plan I plan our meals from what we a) already have in the freezer & b) what’s on sale. Definitely enough for nice home-cooked meals & snacks!!

4) What good books or web sites do you recommend to help me learn budgeting? I really, really need to learn!

One book that I love is the Complete Tightwad Gazette. Some of her ideas are over the top for my family, but this book is filled to the brim with ways to save money, reusing, recycling, etc.. it’s actually 3 volumes together in one big fat book! Well worth the $$ in m opinion. Other than that I just googled “budgeting”, “meal planning”, etc… and read what I could find… also on my blogroll you’ll find a LOT of personal finance blogs… they are JAM packed full of great information! Also Gail VazOxlade is absolutely my favourite money guru! Her site is packed full of awesome information and you can catch her show Till Debt Do Us Part on Slice. Or you can watch the episodes online…

One other tip I can give you is to make a list of your *FIXED* & *VARIABLE* expenses… fixed being mortgage/rent, insurance, savings, etc… then make a list of your variables being groceries, entertainment, gifts, clothing, etc… then start with however much $$$ you’re working with, subtract all the fixed expenses, then work out your variables. There’s a lot more on this on Gails website above.

Ok.. back to business! Thursday is my budget/meal plan/grocery day usually… so this morning hubbys pay was deposited and I paid our bills & hubby & took the cash out for our jars for the week. ($350/variable) You can see my jars are sitting pretty on top of the fridge, full & ready to go.

This morning we picked up a few groceries ($27.19 ) and put the rest in our Jar… so we’re at $172.81 for the rest of the week. My husband thinks i’m absolutely hilarious (read: crazy) doing this… but he’s willing to come along for the ride. I was being smirky this morning and asked him if he wanted his “allowance” for the week and he pipes up with, “But I don’t have my own jar”…. lol! What a guy… *roll eyes here*

We budget week to week as hubby gets paid every Thursday. That works easiest for us. The totals you see on the jars are to use from Thursday to Thursday only… I have NO idea how some manage to spend $200 or so per month, my hat goes off to them! But for us, we spend $40+ on bread & milk alone most weeks… lol! So even $200 is cutting it close some weeks!

• Groceries: $200
• Misc: $50
• Clothing/Gifts: $50
• Entertanment: $50

The rest of hubbys pay goes into savings, bill payments, rent, charity, etc…

I also sat down to plan my menu last night.. one thing I always do before I plan my menu is make a list to see what’s in my freezer. I take “inventory” so to speak… last week we stocked up on a bit more meat as there were some good sales on so this week we won’t need to buy any meat unless we see a good sale, then we’ll stock up. K.. so in my freezer I found:

1. 3 lbs of hamburger
2. Box of Chicken breast burgers
3. 1/2 box of Chicken breast strips
4. Beef pot roast
5. 2 Pork Tenderloin roasts
6. 2 pkgs of spare-ribs
7. 4 pkgs of Chicken breasts

Out of this I planned the following for the week:

• Spaghetti with homemade bread or buns, brocolli & cauliflower, squash.
• Spare ribs, perogies, & brocolli & cauliflower.
• One pot chicken & potatoes (I use a pkg of chicken breasts, chunks of potatoes & carrots, dump in a can of cream of chicken soup with milk, put a lid over it and cook it at 375F for 90 minutes) It’s SO good!
• Chicken Burgers & fries with salad.
• Soup & Sandwiches
• Pork Roast, mashed potatoes, corn, brocolli & Cauliflower.
• Homemade mac & cheese with ceasar salad.

I also make a batch of 5 meals for my grandmother in law who recently broke her femur & isn’t supposed to be doing any cooking really. Last week I made her shepherds pie, this week i’m going to double up my “1 pot chicken” and seperate that into 5 freezer containers for her. That way all she has to do is throw it in the microwave and dinner is done for her!

For keeping track of my meal plan I use this “meal planning” notepad that my best friend grabbed for me at Chapters.. isn’t she great!? She knows I like to menu plan and when she saw this she grabbed it for me! I’ve never seen these before so I was thrilled with it!! As you can see my week starts today.. this way also the kids can just look to see what’s for dinner and not ask me 100x…

*Nevermind my chicken scrawl… I did this last night half asleep at about 11pm.. lol!

My menu isn’t ’set in stone’… we’re having Spaghetti tonight since I have my ‘borrowed kid’ till late tonight and I know he loves spaghetti… and if hubby or one of the kids wants to move a night around, we do. As long as I know in the morning or night before so I can pull out what I need it works for me!

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On another note, I have already spent 1/2 of my spending money ($20) for the week, last night my daughter pulled out a cross-stitch kit she got for Christmas 2 years ago and asked me to show her how to do it… many, many years ago I used to cross-stitch so showed her how to get going on it then thought that i’d like to do some cross-stitching again too! I’m not big on TV (only watch 1 show a week) and a couple movies a week, so I figured relaxing at night with a tea and some cross stitching would be nice & relaxing after the girls are in bed… I decided to check out Kijiji & Ebay (was hoping to avoid Micheals, as they are SO over priced!) and found these 2 gorgeous *new in pkg* Cross-Stitch kits for only $5.00 each!

These are complete cross-stitch kits so all you have to do is open the pkg, and get stitching! I’m thrilled with my find as my mom said a lot of these kits go for $40-$50 and upwards! Ouch! lol! I’ll be getting them over teh weekend, so I can’t wait to start on one!

Question: Do you have any hobbies? If so what are they, and how do you keep them “in budget”?

Well i’m off… I have 1 1/2 hrs till I pick up my borrowed kid and lots of stuff to do! Enjoy your day!