Searl House Happenings...

I haven't felt much like blogging lately.  I am not sure why.  I guess just the busyness of life.

We have 5 weeks of school left.  I am looking forward to having the time off.  I am also looking forward to spending it with Kid # 4 and 5.  Not that kid #4 really wants to spend it with me lol.  He will turn 17 over the summer and is much more interested in his friends :)

We are moving right along in our debt snowball.  In January we paid $100 towards the car ( not so great of a snowball there but better then nothing). February we paid $ 1080 ( now that is more like it!!), March - $ 246 ( small but ok) and April - $ 1251.50.  So we are moving right along.  Hopefully the snowball will keep rolling in the bigger numbers.  

We got a pretty good size tax return this year.  I have it in our savings account.  We are first shopping for new car and homeowners insurance which I hope to have done in May.  Once that is complete we will transfer all the rest of the return towards our debt repayment.  I THINK that will knock our balance down to half way being paid off which would then put us right on track to be debt free by the end of the year.  We really need to start considering what we will do when the debt payment is done.  Last time we became debt free we didn't have a plan for what to do after and got side tracked.

I have not been doing well with meal planning.  The first couple of months at the beginning of the year I did really well and we cut our grocery budget by almost half.  I am working on getting back to that, especially for the summer.  I would like to be able to save as much as I can even in the warm months.  We always tend to spend a lot when the weather is nice.  I am hoping to curb that this year.

I posted before that we are going to participate in a yard sale with my daughter in law and her sister.  I have fallen off the wagon of preparation.  This week I hope to get at least 4 more boxes ready.  Of course it is mid week already so I need to get on that :)

Over the weekend I sewed Kid # 3 and Kid # 5 some maxi skirts.  I am trying to clean out my craft stash and actually make some of the things I have bought supplies for!  It is time to get rid of some of this junk in my life!!  I will post some pics of the skirts soon.  I think I will have to make a couple for myself also :)

5 Things I Did That Were Frugal This Week

1. Put down landscape fabric I already had in a flower bed in the front yard. Now I just need to get mulch.

2. Boxed up and took 4 boxes and 2 bags to Kid # 1's house. Getting ready a little at a time for our yard sale in June.

3. Got a few quotes for new car and homeowners insurance. Looks like by switching we will save about $500 a year :)

4. Added Kid # 5 piano lesson money to the car snowball. By mutual agreement with the instructor we take May, June, July and August off of lessons. Summer months are so busy. I will use the extra money to snowball for a couple months at least. I may save July and August so that we will be ahead in the fall. We will see...

5. Started my Christmas shopping. Anyone else? Bought a gift at Goodwill which was still in the original package for $3.99. :)

5 Things I Did That Were Frugal This Week

1. We were gifted some men's clothes from my sister. I set aside some pants and a few shirts that my hubby will be able to use for work

2. I bought home some food from work destined fir the garbage. We have got two main dishes out of the leftovers. 

3. Kid # 3 and I are planning to participate in a yard sale with my daughter in law and her sister. We will use the money we make from the yard sale towards Kid # 3's fall tuition. Anyway I have 2 boxes ready and priced

4. I used my Target cartwheel app on my phone to help save some money on Easter candy for a hunt we do at my sisters. Anyone else use this app?

5. I started getting our yard ready for summer. I have several flower beds that needed cleaned out and remulched. I will be putting down weed fabric which I already have from another project. Woohoo for using things we already have!

How do you all like my new button/ picture thingy for these posts? If you are participating and doing the 5 things on your blog feel free to use my thing :) please leave your link in the comments so I can see your post too. Sometimes I miss them :(

Duvet Cover

A few weeks ago I posted on a 5 Frugal Things Friday post about making Kid # 5 a new duvet cover for her bed.  I of course meant to post pictures of it a few days after that.  Life has a funny way of getting in the way though :)

Anyway here it is

I used a flat zebra print twin sheet I had picked up at Goodwill for alittle over $2 for the front side.  Kid # 5 is all about the zebra print at the moment.

For the back side I used about 2 yards of black fleece I already owned.

To be able to easily take it on and off for washing I used some velcro tabs I already had and sewed them on in 4 different spots.

I think it turned out pretty cute and was very frugal too.  Kid # 5 loves it and I guess that is what really matters :)