So So Close!

Today I sat down to see how close we are to paying off the car loan.  At last check we were about $3000 short.

 I have been doing several things to try to come up with this extra cash.  So far I have saved $240 from my babysitting money.  Sold Kid #2's old bike for $ 25.  Sold Kid # 5's outgrown clothes just by offering them up cheaply on my facebook page and also utilizing one of the facebook yard sale sites in my area, making $40.

 I have shaved $100 off our grocery budget in the last few weeks.  By doing all of this I have come up with an extra $405 to put towards the car loan.

 Kid # 3 has been making $100 monthly payments to us also since we helped her purchase her car. I added that money to our car repayment.

Our total still owed is now sitting at $2,375.53. 

I plan to post once a week our progress on coming up with this extra money.  I have made a list of several things we have that I want to try to sell.  I am also having a yard sale with my daughter in law and her family so hopefully I can make some money at that too!

I am trying my hardest to have this loan gone by the end of September!  Wish me luck!

5 Things I Did That Were Frugal This Week

1. Cleaned out Kid # 5's closet and sold some of her out grown clothes making $22 to add to the car fund!

2. Hung clothes on the clothes line

3. Did more kitchen prep work to save us money at the grocery store

4.  Used my rain barrel to water all my potted plants.  I love that thing!

5. Stretched my gas in the  car to one day short of two weeks between fill ups!  Go me!

Taco Seasoning Mix

Here is my recipe for Taco Seasoning Mix.  I found this along time ago on All Recipes.  I usually triple this recipe and make one big jar at a time.  I store mine in a recycled salsa jar.

6-teaspoons chili powder

5-teaspoons paprika

4 1/2-teaspoons ground cumin

2 1/2- teaspoons onion powder

2 1/2-teaspoons garlic powder

1 1/2-teaspoons cornstarch

1 1/1 teaspoons cayenne pepper ( this does make it spicy.  I have left this out before when I have not had any and it was fine)

2- teaspoons salt

Mix all together and store in a jar with a tight fitting lid. 


To use  add :

2-tablespoons + 1 teaspoon  Taco Seasoning Mix and 3/4 cup water to 1lb ground beef.  Cook as you usually would.

5 Things I Did That Were Frugal This Week

1.  I did some kitchen prep work to save us from buying prepackaged food

2.  Hung the laundry on the clothesline.

3.  Used my new rain barrel to water all my potted plants

4. Lined my remaining living room curtain panels with some room darkening fabric I had found at a yard sale for $3.  Our big picture window gets the hot after noon sun so this will help alot!

5.  Sold a bicycle that no one uses anymore and added the money to my car fund

Work in the Kitchen

This week I will be getting a few days of work with my daycare kids while their parents get the house they live in ready to sell.  Instead of going to their house today to watch them I had the babies over to my house.  I decided I could probably keep the babies entertained at my house and still get a few kitchen pantry items done in the process.  I went through my cabinets and refrigerator and this is the list I came up with:

1. Taco Seasoning Mix- we were completely out and I use this for many different recipes.

2. Cream of Soup Substitute - again we were completely out and I like to use this instead of buying cream of chicken soup in a can.

3. Seasoned Rice Packets- these are like those Lipton Rice packets you buy at the store.

4. Re fried Beans

5. French Dressing

I got the first two items done but when I went to make the rice packets I realized I probably did not have enough rice to get them done.  Thursday is grocery shopping day so I will get the rice bought then and finish the packets on Friday.

The re fried beans I will throw in the crock pot before I leave to go to work in the morning and they will be done by evening time.

The French dressing I am still hoping to get done before I go to bed tonight.

I'll try to post some of the recipes I use soon :)

Not a bad start considering I was watching a 22 month old and a 9 month old for most of the day :)

Frugal Watering

My husband recently made this for me

This is my new rain barrel!  I don't know why I have never had one before.  It is awesome.  We had a pretty good thunderstorm early Saturday morning which filled the barrel to overflowing!  The hose you see coming off to the side is the overflow and it runs into a flower bed along the fence.  I have used it everyday since to water all my potted plants that I have on my patio ( project spruce up patio photos will follow soon!) and deck.  This is a trial run with it.  It has a small leak around the spout that my husband plans to fix when it is empty again. Which at the rate I am using it and it is evaporating do to the heat won't be long. 

Just another thing we are trying out in order to save some money :)  Anyone else have a rain barrel???

Where things are now..........

I have finally had a chance to sit down and run the numbers to see where we stand in our debt pay off.  We are now under $3000! Woohoo!  My original goal was to have our car paid off by my 39th birthday.  Well that has came and went.  But at least we are making progress.  This will be paid off by the end of this year though if not before.  Murphy has paid us a visit at every turn so far this year.  I am hoping that the rest of the year will be much better for us!

Other news........I am back to being a SAHM!  Our friends that I was Nannying for are being transferred out of state with the husbands job.  It was nice to have the extra income and I LOVED those babies to bits, but honestly the hours were alot for the little pay I was making.  I was gone from my house 55 hours a week.  That is more then I care to be working at this point in our lives.  My plan now is to go through the house and clean out as much stuff as I can and sell, sell, sell!  I am hoping to raise at least part of what we still owe on the car by selling our used stuff.

I have been setting aside money for the school fees in August so that won't be a concern.  I also have most of Kid #3 and Kid # 5's dance lessons fees for the year saved.  I need to go through my school box and see if I will need to purchase any supplies this year.  Now that most of my kids are in high school I don't have to buy nearly the supplies I use to.  I think I maybe able to go through the box and sell some of the supplies too.

Hope everyone is having a good summer.  I think mine has been as well as can be expected considering everything that has been going on.

I'll post again soon about some projects I have been working on!

Still here.........

I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who has thought about my family and I in the last couple of weeks!  I am still here and we are all doing the best we can be at this time.  I will post again soon and have alot to update on.  Hope all of you are doing well and staying cool this summer! 

I'll be back soon :)