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.