Back to School Shopping!!

I know I haven't updated in a while, and I'll have to do that later when I have more time, because this year has been crazy for me!

We took a family trip to Goodwill today and the whole family got some new outfits for back to school. I will be interning as a special ed teacher this fall, so I also need a work wardrobe!

We purchased 25 items of clothing and a pair of kid hiking boots for a total of $52.
A few of the things we bought:
Capri pants for me. These were the most expensive thing we bought at $4.


Outfit for Ethan:



School polos for Ethan ($1.50 each):


School pants and shorts for Andy ($2 each piece):

Outfit for Andy (vest -$1.50 shirt- $1.50 pants- $2.00)

This week Time Magazine published The Growing Backlash Against Overparenting. The article discusses the rampant "helicopter parenting" that has become the norm in our culture, and the growing movement away from it, towards what they termed "slow parenting." In recent years, the expectation has been that the 'good' parents will do everything possible to protect their children from getting hurt or failing, and will provide the child with a multitude of structured activities to give them the most educational and future career opportunities. I liked this article as it related to our lifestyle, because it has been a difficult balancing act for our family. I have wondered if our frugality would mean less opportunity for our children, and like any mother, I've felt the pressure to make sure that my children have every advantage.

Also, this weekend I finished up a book that I borrowed from the library called The Boy who Harnessed the Wind.

I heard the authors interviewed on NPR a few weeks ago and was intrigued by the story. The story is about William Kamkwamba, an African boy with what most would agree, were no opportunities at all. After enduring a famine which nearly killed him and his family, and being forced to withdraw from school due to a lack of money, he used the knowledge that he gained from library books on Physics and Energy, to build his own working windmill that brought electricity to his home. His story is inspiring and fascinating, and what I loved the most was how he took what most people would call garbage, and used it to fulfill a need and a dream that he had. I had to laugh when he would describe the process he went through to build and refine his invention. Throughout the book he says things like, "I needed washers, but I didn't have any. So I went down to the local drinking house and found old beer bottle-caps on the ground and I fashioned them into the washers that I needed." He didn't even have basic tools--wrenches, hammers, drills, things we all take for granted, but each step of the way he figured out how to solve the problem with what little he did have. Most people in our country would give up on a project until they could go to Home Depot to buy the exact thing that they needed! Here, it seems there is rarely any need to have that kind of creativity. It seems that now money can solve every problem that we once had to try to creatively figure out.

$2.00 Kate Spade bag

Today I did a little Christmas shopping. I'm planning to try my hand at canning some yummy treats for Christmas, but I don't have canning supplies so I went over to Goodwill to see if they had anything. I didn't find canning supplies, so I decided to look around and see if they had anything else that would be great Christmas gifts. I found a brand new book for a family member, and then I found this:



Yep, a Kate Spade bag for $2. All purses and backpacks were half off today. It's got a little wear and tear, but it's still in really good shape. While I was there an auction was also going on. Maybe ten people were there actually bidding on stuff. A lady walked away with two Coach bags. She paid $26 total. I was soooo tempted, but I passed. I kicked myself later for passing up a set of 6 Dallas Cowboys collectors glasses for $6! Hubby would have liked that. I'll definitely know for next time though.

Sooooo, do I behave myself and give the purse as a gift, or do I keep it for myself? Decisions, decisions....

We did it!!!!

This morning I made a $986.19 payment to Sallie Mae and paid it off! So at this point we have paid off:

A loan from my brother-in-law
A loan from my grandparents
Capital One
Michael's Car Loan
American Express
Discover
and now Sallie Mae #1

We have one more Sallie Mae loan, and then our final debt is our large federal student loans. Those loans have been moved to a federal loan forgiveness program for public service workers, so they will be moved to BS6 on Dave Ramsey's plan. We plan to have Sallie Mae #2 paid off this Spring and move on to filling up our 3-6 months emergency fund and then saving up a 20% downpayment on a house!

I feel just a little bit lighter today :)

Maximizing oven energy (and Mom energy)

On Sunday I was trying to keep a four-year-old entertained, so we decided to bake banana muffins for breakfasts this week. Here is the recipe I like for banana muffins:

1-3/4 c. flour (wheat or white)
2-1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 c. sugar (I always cut this down to 1/3)
1 large egg, beaten
1 c. mashed ripe banana (usually 2 medium-ish bananas)
1/2 c. milk
1/3 c. oil (vegetable, canola, coconut, they all work)

Mix the dry ingredients together. Mash the banana in a separate bowl and add the egg, milk, and oil. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients, and stir just until moistened. Pour batter into greased muffin pan and bake at 400 until golden brown and toothpick comes out clean. Makes a dozen, depending on how big you want your muffins.


Since the oven was already hot, I turned the heat down to 300 and made crutons and bread crumbs. I had a full bag of bread in the freezer. I save the heels of the bread or other bread we won't eat before it goes bad. For the crutons, you just butter the bread, cut it into cubes, add seasonings if you want and dry them in the oven on a baking pan. You don't want your oven to be hotter than 300 or so. For the bread crumbs, I just dried the whole pieces of bread out, pulled them out, put them in a ziploc bad and crushed them with a rolling pin.

And then....(you thought I was done using my oven, didn't you?), I made yogurt. I have one burner on my stove that gets really hot when the oven is on...to the point where it will simmer liquid. I use that burner first whenever the oven is on, so I used it to heat the milk for the yogurt. I turned the oven off and used the warm oven to incubate the yogurt.

R.I.P. loyal friend

On Friday, I had to say goodbye to a loyal and true friend who has been with us a long time. After five years of service, my coffee grinder finally died. I had often wondered when the day that I would have to say goodbye would be here. With multiple daily uses, it far exceeded anyone's expectations.

But seriously, of all months for my coffee grinder to die--it had to be THIS one?! This leads me to admit one of my shamefully non-frugal addictions--good coffee. Yes, I am a coffee snob. I only drink coffee made in a french coffee press with freshly ground beans. And I don't buy just whatever brand. This is the one thing where I am brand loyal. I know this goes against everything I stand for, but I guess we all have our vices. Anyway, When the coffee grinder met its end, I was making coffee for company that we had over. I heard this awful crunch, and immediately my husband rushed to remedy the situation. "It's okay", he said, "tomorrow morning after your run, just go by Target and get another one." He was already foreseeing what the next morning of a coffee-less wife would mean for him. Initially, I panicked, thinking that we had no money for a new grinder! I was already hatching a plan to find somewhere to grind my beans, but knowing that it would not be the same as freshly ground beans. Then I remembered that we both still had $10 in spending money for the month. All day that day, I had been craving junk food, and I was very tempted to stop at Whataburger for lunch, and after I picked up Ethan from school I contemplated stopping at Sonic for some ice cream. But since I only had $10 for the whole month, and I had a long run on Saturday which would not be made any easier by junk food the previous day, I thought better of it. My darling husband also contributed his spending money to the coffee grinder fund. He says that a happy wife is worth it.

But for crying out loud, I'm starting to run out of ideas to avoid Murphy's attempts to sabatoge our giant November snowball! We are out of school supply/lunches money, we have $5 in the grocery envelope for the next seven days (but a well stocked kitchen at the moment), and we are both now out of spending money for the rest of the month. Our car maintenance envelope probably is also in short supply, and will not be enough to cover more than $100 repair. But we're just going to try to keep on truckin'. 22 days left!

Most people who read my blog probably know that our older son has mild autism. He is mainstreamed in school and after a really rough kindergarten year, so far 1st grade has been wonderful! He is doing really, really well in the school's new Spanish Immersion program. Everyday a folder gets sent home, and in it is Ethan's behavior chart. They can earn green, yellow, or red for the day. Well, on the third week of school or so, Ethan started bringing home a few yellows. I really did not want to see this behavior become a habit, so I started trying to think of incentives for him to get green everyday. I decided that for every five consecutive days of greens, he would earn some kind of reward. We hardly ever eat at restaurants or fast food joints, so for the first one I told him we would go to McDonald's after school to get an ice cream cone and play in the play area. That got him VERY motivated to be on his best behavior in school. Something like that is a real treat for my kiddos. It took some yellows before he worked the kinks out, and I don't think I'll ever forget the proud look on his face when he got in the car and he had his 5th green to show me :)

Since then we've gone to McDonald's two more times, and his behavior has really stayed consistently good. I'm so proud of him! For this month, though, I don't have money for McDonald's. I also didn't want that treat to become so common that he didn't appreciate it anymore. I thought and thought about something free that might be as motivational as our trips to McDonald's. And then I remembered this park that Ethan loves. We go to parks a lot (free!), but this one is farther from our house and I don't like its set-up very much (harder to keep track of both of them), but Ethan LOVES it. With autism, kids can have some strange obsessions, and one of Ethan's is apartment buildings and homes with more than one story. This park has a play structure that is three stories tall, and he's always said it's like an apartment. So he was more than happy for a trip to that park to be his reward.

We went yesterday after school and had a nice time. He got to play apartment to his heart's content. So one more problem solved without money!

Finally found the stupid pencil box at Fiesta of all places. Almost $3, which is all we had left in the school supplies and lunches envelope. Ethan was happy to have a new pencil box, and didn't make a big deal out of having to give up his one day a week of "lunch on a tray."

Unfortunately, last night my husband sat on my glasses. It was my fault really. I set them down on top of my book in our bed, and he rolled over on them. They didn't completely break, but the frames are a bit bent and need to be repaired. Surprise, surprise, there isn't any money to repair glasses this month! I still have the current pair of contacts I'm wearing, so for the rest of November I'll get my pick of bent glasses or a pair of disposable contacts that should probably be disposed of.

26 days left!

I just spent the last half hour going to multiple stores trying to find a pencil box for Ethan. Walmart had one left--a pink one. I seriously considered it, since it was less than $1, but Ethan already has enough things that make him a target for being picked on! I checked Target, and then to Office Max which wasn't open yet. He usually buys his lunch once a week, but I told him that we wouldn't be buying lunch in November, because we need to use that money for a new pencil box. He was okay with that.

I've really been trying to include the boys in this process. We've started talking a little bit about what debt is, and that Mommy hopes that they will never get into debt because it will make your life much harder. We've also been telling them that we have to be careful with our money because we want to save money to buy a house where they can ride bikes on the sidwalk and have a nice backyard. They really like that idea :)

At times Michael has been less than enthusiastic about all of this, so I got a chuckle last night when I was making dinner. I was roasting a chicken and decided to use the oven heat to make some banana muffins for breakfast. Ethan asked me why I was making the muffins now if we couldn't eat them now and Michael said, "Because Mommy is using the heat from the oven already being on to save energy and save money. And Mommy really loves that Daddy knows that that's why she's doing that." Sigh. What a guy. :)

28 More Days of crazy-tight budget!!

November 1-15 Meal Plans

Spaghetti Carbonara and Caesar Salad
Lemon, garlic, and herb roasted chicken, roasted vegetables, asparagus
Chicken and corn chili, cornbread
Rice with cheese and tomatoes, greens
Homestyle Hamburger Helper, green beans
Manicotti alla Romana (subbing cottage cheese for ricotta--it is much cheaper), caesar salad, and garlic toast (we have company that night)
Grilled chicken legs, baked potatoes, skillet cabbage
Pork steaks on the grill, pumpkin carrot rice, greens
Bubble-n-squeak (with leftover pork), steamed cauliflower
Slow-cooker chicken tortilla soup
Falafel with Avacado Spread, baked french fries
Navy beans with bacon, cornbread
Italian vegetable soup
Torta pascualina, salad
Leftovers/Breakfast for Dinner

I got an email from Michael a little while ago saying that due to changes in payroll, that $20 he will make from working the extra after-school shift today, will not be deposited until the first of December. We're just gonna roll with it. I'm going to drop the November Christmas budget by $20, and add that amount to December's Christmas budget.

Also, this morning I remembered that Ethan's teacher told me on Friday that the top broke off of his pencil box. I have no intention of not paying off Sallie Mae because of a pencil box, so I may have to pull it out of the grocery envelope or something. I still have $12 left over after shopping yesterday, which should be going for buying extra produce next week. I'm going to send her an email and ask her if it can wait a couple of weeks, if not, I'll pull it out of that envelope.

Only 29 more days of the super-crazy tight budget!!

I think I can, I think I can

Currently on the chopping block is the first of two private Sallie Mae student loans. We've been whittling away at the original $7,000 balance since February. The current balance is $990. We had about a $650 snowball to throw at it in November, and figured it would be paid off by December or January at the latest. I sat down to do the budget and realized just how close we really were to paying it off. I usually think of our budget as pretty bare-bones, so I really didn't think we could come up with $300+ to pay it off this month. But out of sheer curiosity, I decided to just see what would happen if I cut $10 out of this category, and $20 out of that category, without really getting radical. Suddenly, the amount that we needed started to look feasible. So I got a little bit more radical. I cut out all of our spending money, cut the grocery budget down, etc.

I dropped:
$10 off my YMCA dues (I had upgraded a while back so I could take group ex classes at other branches, but I've only used the upgrade once in a month)

$20 for clothing (leaving $0 for this month--we should be fine with what we've got)
$15 for haircuts (Michael just got one, and I can do without)
$40 for all of my spending money
$20 for half of Michael's spending money
$50 from car maintenance (leaving $50)
$15 from school supplies/lunches (we should already have enough in the envelope to cover November, but if not, ds can skip the one day a week that he buys lunch and take his lunch that day)
$30 from Christmas sinking fund
$20 from Thanksgiving dinner budget (leaving $60)
$55 off of a big purchase that the husband is making this month that he over-budgeted for
$30 off the grocery budget

And all of a sudden we only needed about $60 to pay it off in November!

So I cleaned out my couch coushions, change jar, car, and a couple of old purses and found $12.50. Michael did jury duty and netted $5 after parking/lunch. So now I only needed $47.50. I did a pinecone survey and was down to $44.50. I realized we had come in under budget on our November electric bill by $10, so now I only needed $34.50. I asked Michael if he could pick up another after school shift, which he was able to do, and now we were down to $14.50. I finalized the budget for October and saw that we were underbudget for gas by $15.94, and we were there!!

Now, that is a bare-bones budget! No money for clothing, spending money, haircuts, school supplies/lunches, or any extras. I dropped the grocery budget to $140 for each half of the month, but I found out that my life insurance application was approved, so we may have another $15 bill to add to the budget in a couple of weeks. That may have to come from the grocery budget. We're still going to be saving $120 for Christmas.

It will be a huge challenge to stay totally focused and disciplined in order to pay this debt off in November! If all goes as planned, I'll send off that payment on/around November 15.

Family Time and Date Night

One of our favorite family activities is to get outdoors to hike or camp. Michael found this new park with pretty fall foliage and hiking trails that was free. So yesterday morning we took the boys out there to check it out:







Not a whole lot of fall colors yet:


But it was still pretty. We loved all the cactus.



Then we went over to Michael's mom for the afternoon and she fed us lunch :) Michael helped her with some organizing and arranging, and then that evening we went out by ourselves!

We went to a restaurant that we found in our entertainment book. We purchased it for $20 from a neighbor kid doing a fundraiser. Last month I used one of the b1g1 free deals at my Moms night out, and last night we got my meal for free as well, so we've already paid for it and it is still good until the end of next year. We had $20 in the entertainment envelope, so we both got waters, and I splurged and used my spending money for a margarita. We ended up spending $23 including tax, tip, and what I chipped in for the margarita.

Then we headed over to Michael's school where the theater department was putting on the play "Almost, Maine." It was a cute romantic comedy, and since he teaches there, he doesn't have to pay for tickets and we get the best rock hard, butt-numbing seats in the house! I think they must make good money selling seat cushions during intermission. We still had a really good time though! The kids work really hard to put on a good show.

More of a brag post than a frugal post

One of my weight loss/fitness goals was to run a 5k. I ran my first one in February, and came in at 37:53, or a 12:11/mile pace. I had such a great time running that one, that I did another one in April, and yesterday I ran a 4 mile race. I came in at 43:09, or a 10:47/mile pace, so I'm definitely improving! It's become a really fun hobby for me. I really love having a race to look forward to, and trying to beat my best time. As someone who spent their whole life as an overweight/obese person, it's awesome to get out there with fit people and be able to keep up! And as far as recreational sports go, running is really cheap! I have totally flat feet, so I did go get fitted for some running shoes in January, after struggling through awful heel pain for months from my cheap cross-trainers. I spent about $75 on the previous year's model (cash, of course), and they solved all my pain problems. Now that I know what kind of shoe I need, I'll probably stick with the same brand, but shop around and buy them online next time. Other than the shoes, the only other cost is the registration for the races themselves. I used my spending money to pay for this race, which was $15 for YMCA members. I'll be doing the Turkey Trot next month, which is also $15 for Y members. One of the keys is to register early. People who register the day of the race always pay a lot more. For the race yesterday, it was $10 more to register the day of the race.

Our lunch today--Leftovers recreated

Last night we had lemon & garlic roasted chicken, roasted vegetables (carrots, potatoes, and beets), steamed squash, and homemade biscuits. We had leftover biscuits and about 1.5 cups of leftover chicken, once I'd picked the chicken clean.

I took the chicken bones and put them in the crockpot overnight to make chicken broth.

For lunch I made a gravy out of 1 c. chicken broth and 1 c. milk, seasoned it up, and threw in the sliced up leftover chicken. Served the creamed chicken over the leftover biscuits. We only had five biscuits, so husband and kids had those, and I had mine over whole wheat toast. Peas on the side and we had a whole meal for four people.

Good comfort food on an overcast, chilly day!

Stuff I never buy-Grocery/Food Edition

People often ask me how I keep my grocery bills so low, and I think I can attribute it to the things that I do not buy, that most people regularly purchase. I should say "seldom buy" because I do very occasionally buy some of these things, but they are definitely not regulars on my grocery list. I'm not saying we never EAT these things...we do occasionally have treats in the house, I just generally find the grocery store variety to be too overpriced to warrant purchasing it. I also think there are many less-expensive alternatives to these things.

So without further ado, here is my things I never buy list:

Frozen waffles
Pop-Tarts, toaster strudels
Other frozen breakfast foods
Sugary cereals (maybe one box a month, mixed with less expensive, plain cereal)
Individual packets of oatmeal

Canned soups
Pre-packaged salad greens
Bakery breads
Pre-cut fruits/veggies like baby carrots or sliced apples

Sodas and cokes
Juice (1-2 cans of frozen concentrate per month)
Capri-suns or juice boxes
Bottled water

Cookies
Candy
Chips
Fruit snacks
Individually packed puddings, jello, chips, crackers, etc.
Granola bars

Frozen pizza
Frozen dinners
Frozen lasagna
Corndogs
Pizza rolls/frozen snacks
Chicken nuggets
Fish sticks
Frozen garlic toast

Boxed dinners
Rotisserie chicken/pre-prepared meats
Cream soups
Mac and cheese boxes (except the super cheap 4/$1 boxes, you can't beat the price on those)
Canned broths
Rice mixes
Spaghetti sauce (ragu, prego, etc)

Pre-seasoned meats
Expensive cuts of meat that aren't on super-great sale

Baking mixes
Pancake/waffle mix

cookie dough/ready to bake cookies
Ready to bake biscuits/cinnamon rolls

Salad dressings (only ranch and italian--make any others)

Bacon bits
croutons

Gravy packets
Spice packets (italian seasoning, taco seasoning)

Sliced cheese
Deli lunchmeat
Specialty cheeses
Individual yogurts
Go-gurt or drinkable yogurts for kids

Paper napkins
Paper towels (one roll a month and have learned to do without if we don't have)
Paper plates
Ziploc bags (seldom have to buy--wash and re-use until they fall apart)

Organic foods (just not in the frugal budget at this point)

Name Brands of anything

Yesterday I did my weekly fridge check/clean-out. I really like to buy certain fresh herbs to cook with--namely parsley and cilantro. I had parsley in my fridge that wasn't going to get used before it goes bad. I chopped it up, put it in an old salsa jar and put it in the freezer. A little bit comes off really easily to put in soups and other dishes.

Today's frugal lunchbox

For today's lunch we have a homemade "lunchable".
Wheat crackers ($1.39/box, 9 servings in the box, 1/2 serving=about $0.09)
Slices of cheese ($1 for 8oz. brick, 1 oz=about $0.10)
1 slice of deli turkey ($1.99 package, 12 servings, 1 oz=about $0.17)

1 banana (3 lbs. for/$1.00, so probably about $0.11)

Homemade chocolate pudding (I'm going to estimate this at $0.27, 1/2 c. milk, a bit of sugar, cocoa, and corn starch)

Water in a re-usable container=free :)

TOTAL: $0.74

Meal Plan October 3-15

I didn't shop until the 3rd this month, since I was sick the first couple of days of the month.

My grocery budget for this planning period was $150.

Mushroom-chicken bake, mashed sweet potatoes, corn
Chili and cornbread
Cream cheese crockpot chicken, mashed potatoes, mustard greens
Homemade hamburger helper, steamed zucchini
Lemon-garlic roasted chicken, mashed potatoes, collard greens
Italian vegetable stew(subbing ground turkey breast)
Chicken fajitas on the grill, avacados and all the fixins'
English muffin pizzas, salad
Chicken enchilada casserole, black beans, lettuce & tomato
Ginger glazed mahi-mahi, brown rice, roasted veggies (beets, squash, carrots)
Tuna Burgers, potato salad
Barbecue stuffed baked potatoes, steamed broccoli
Leftovers/breakfast for dinner

I picked up the ground turkey breast when it the 1 1/2 lb. packages were marked down to $1.99. I also had leftover cabbage in the fridge which is another ingredient in the italian beef stew. It also calls for kidney beans and so does the chili, so on Sunday we cooked a bag of kidney beans and set some aside.

In the freezer I had some cooked brisket which will be used for the stuffed baked potatoes, and some cooked chicken which will be used for the chicken enchilada casserole. Mahi-mahi was on sale $3.99 lb., and whole chickens were on sale for 0.59/lb. so I bought three of them.

For breakfasts we'll rotate:
eggs and english muffins
cereal and fruit
Oatmeal (I like mine with peanut butter and honey)
Banana muffins with peanut butter and fruit
Pancakes

I bought three dozen eggs for $1/dozen at the 99 Cent Store, and I got english muffins at the bread outlet for $1/package. I got a box of generic rice krispies for $1.50 at Save a lot, and 2 gallons of milk for $1.99/gallon at Kroger. We still have a huge container of old-fashioned oatmeal, but I bought some steel-cut oats for myself. It should last me a couple of months. I stocked up on fruit at Fiesta, except for bananas which were 3 lbs/$1 at Save a lot.

Scratch Beginnings

I just finished reading this book (borrowed from the library!):


The author is a 24 year old recent college graduate who set out on an interesting social experiment. He got on a train and went to a new city with just $25 and the clothes on his back. His goal was to have a job, a fully-furnished apartment, a vehicle, and $2500 at the end of one year. He lives in a homeless shelter while he struggles to attain those goals. He didn't allow himself to use any contacts from his previous life, and did not tell any potential employers that he went to college.

His writing style lends itself to a quick read--I finished it in about a day.

I really admire this young man's courage and tenacity. I cannot imagine putting myself in that situation. So many people have opinions on poverty and homelessness, but this guy chose to put his money where his mouth was by giving up a year of his life to really experience it for himself.

His experience really re-affirmed my belief that America is full of opportunity, and that our choices (not unseen forces that our out of our control) largely control our destiny. He had to make tough choices in order to be able to acheive his lofty goals, and his discipline and patience paid off in the end.