We have Evacuated To High Ground

I live in a river town.  We have had record river levels and a ton of flooding in my area.  I do not live very far at all from the levee.  Our town has asked anyone who can to please evacuate our neighborhood.  This was just suggested not mandatory.  My family took the suggestion seriously and we have left our home.  So far my home is still safe.  Hopefully we will be back in it by the end of the week. 

I'll be back soon to blog about what I have learned from this experience :)

Lots of Flooding In My Area

The Governor has now declared a "state of emergency" for the whole state.  We have had terrible storms with ton of rain.  Lots and lots of flooding all around us. 

Our finished basement is flooded, which houses Kid #3 bedroom. 

This is so not what we needed right now.  I really think I could use a drink or two :) 

Hopefully I will be back soon with better things to write about!

April Savings Challenge Update # 2

Well it turned out after everything was added and subtracted and re figured and all that stuff my hubby the accountant does, we only owed a bit over $1,000.  It also turns out that my hubby had actually made enough doing taxes this year to cover that amount. WOOHOO!!! My month is looking up :)

So lets revisit my goals for the month and see how I am doing.....


1. Increase our ER fund by $226. This will place it right at $2000 and that seems to work for us while we are paying off debt. I am hoping to do this by selling our unwanted items.   So far I have sold $104 of our unwanted and unused items on our local yard sale facebook groups.  I have some other items pending pick up also.  So hopefully if all goes well with those I should easily reach this goal.  But lets not count the chickens and all :)
2. Save for our our dogs rabies shot and tag, 6 months worth of heart worm and flea meds and check up which she will need at the end of May. After I meet goal number 1 I will use any more money I make by selling our stuff to do this. I can't remember exactly what the total for this is so I will have to update this after I look it all up.
*Update: The total I will need for all of this is $187
3. See what I can cut from the grocery budget. I am hoping to cut at least $100 but I just don't know if that is realistic. I will track my spending here on the blog. Any savings I have at the end of the month will go towards the car.   I have purchased most of the groceries for this month.  I need to sit down and add up the receipts.  I believe we are under budget so far but I am not sure exactly how much yet.  I will up date this goal later this week.
4. Make a decision on what to do about the cable/landline/internet/cell phones and see what will save us the most money. Any future savings will be added to the car payment. We have made a decision on this but now we just need to put it in action. 

Not to bad for the middle of the month I don't think.  Lets hope the rest of the month goes as well.

Prom Flowers

These are the flowers I made for Kid # 3 and her friends.  I thought they turned out well.  The total cost to make the two corsages and the boutonniere was $2.13.  I had everything to make them except the flower for the boutonniere and the red centers to one of the corsages.

5 Things I Did That Were Frugal This Week

1. Re purposed some leftovers into some new meals

2. Got an extra day of work this week

3. Sold $79 worth of our used stuff on Facebook this week!

4. Read a book at got from the library

5. Made 2 corsages and one boutonniere for Kid # 3's prom which is this weekend for $2.13 :)

5 Things I Did That Were Frugal This Week

1.  I listed several items on our local facebook sites.  They are all pending pick up.  One had been picked up and I have made $25 towards my April Savings Challenge .

2. Took my kids to the movies since we are on spring break but I had a $5 coupon and we went during the day which is cheaper

3. Worked on a few projects which I already had the materials for.

4.  Ate at home

5.  Took my car in for routine maintenance which will save us money in the long run

Best Laid Plans.........( Savings Update #1)

do not always work out.....

After I posted my April Savings Challenge my husband finished up our taxes and informed me we will be owning money to the government this year :(  UGH!  I did not see that coming. 

This will basically wipe out our ER Fund.  So needless to say my April Saving Challenge will be changing.  We will need to build back up that ER Fund as fast as possible. 

I will cut out the saving for our dog's vet bill at this time.  She isn't due to go until the end of May.  I will see what I can do with May's budget to work this bill in.

I guess everything else in my April Saving Challenge will stay the same.  I will still be trying to cut the grocery budget.  We also will be making a decision on what to do with the cable/landline/internet/cell phones.

Everything saved from all of this will go into the ER fund.

April Savings Challenge

Carla at My 1/2 Dozen Daily is doing a savings challenge for this month.  I have decided to join in and get a jump on some savings and bill paying around here.

Here are my goals for the month:

1. Increase our ER fund by $226.  This will place it right at $2000 and that seems to work for us while we are paying off debt.  I am hoping to do this by selling our unwanted items.

2. Save for our our dogs rabies shot and tag, 6 months worth of heart worm and flea meds and check up which she will need at the end of May.  After I meet goal number 1 I will use any more money I make by selling our stuff to do this.  I can't remember exactly what the total for this is so I will have to update this after I look it all up.
*Update: The total I will need for all of this is $187

3. See what I can cut from the grocery budget.  I am hoping to cut at least $100 but I just don't know if that is realistic.  I will track my spending here on the blog.  Any savings I have at the end of the month will go towards the car

4. Make a decision on what to do about the cable/landline/internet/cell phones and see what will save us the most money.  Any future savings will be added to the car payment.

That about sums it up and is probably good realistic goals for a month.  If I add anymore I don't think I will be able to accomplish them so this is good!

Here We Go Again.....

We bought a 2010 Prius this week. 

My husbands gas bill from driving over an hour one way to work each day was killing us. 

We are now in debt, owing on a car again.  $16,000 in debt.  I find it depressing :( 

Our goal is now to pay off the car loan as fast as we possibly can.  We were originally hoping to be able to pay for most of a different car with my husbands side job of doing taxes.  That isn't working out as well as it did last year. 

We would like to pay it off in 16 months.  I am not sure that is realistic but we will see.  At least it is a goal to work towards.

 In order to do that we will have to come up with $700 extra each month to pay on the car loan.  There are a few ways we plan to do this which I will write about in another post.

So here we go again.........