5 Things I Did That Were Frugal This Week

1. We ate our leftovers :) 

2. I only ran the dryer for two loads this week. Everything else has been hung up to dry. 

3. I ordered a Christmas present from Kohls. Had a 30% off code. Went through Ebates to earn cash back and choose in store pick up to save on shipping. I picked it up after work since I work right by Kohls to save on gas. While I was in the store picking it up I paid my Kohls charge account right then in cash. No late fees or forgetting about paying for me! 

4. While at work I walked with my kids to Joann Fabric since it is also close to my work. Bought some fabric I needed for a Christmas gift using a 60% off coupon for it :) 

5. Reach my first goal with my part time selling on EBay. Paid cash for my husband 4 new tires for his car this week. 

5 Things I Did That Were Frugal This Week

1. I had 3 stay at home days! 

2. We ate leftovers for most of the week. We have started having Sunday " family" dinners with some friends. We take turns at each other's houses. Sunday was our turn. We provided the main course and everyone else brought something. We had a lot leftover. 

3. I started working on a quilt which will be a Christmas present. So far I have been able to use up material I already own :) 

4. My husband wears bow ties when he plays in his band. I made him 3 new ones this week using scrap material I already had. 

5. I finished one of my projects I had been working on, spray painting some light fixtures in our house. This was cheaper then buying new fixtures in the color I preferred. Saved me approximately $40 a fixture :) 

Thrifty Thursday

I had to drop my car off to be fixed this morning. I posted last week about having a issue with my car. We had to wait for a part to come in to have it fixed.  Turns out it was a wheel barring that is bad.  The shop we use is about a 1 mile from our house.  I frequently walk during the day at the minimum of 2 miles.  So I just walked home from the shop so that I can get some of my exercise in. It was a nice sunny morning, although kinda chilly.  When  it is time to pick my car up later today I will just walk to do that also.  Easy exercise and it saves on gas.

What did you do that was thrifty today?

My Goals With EBay

Two post in one day..say what??!!

My first mini goal I set for myself when I started selling on eBay in June was to be able to make enough profit to buy both of our cars new tires.

 Today after mailing my packages from sales over the weekend I realized I have now made enough to get our first car new tires!  Woohoo! one car down, one more to go!

Reaching this point totally helps keep me motivated to keep at it. Even if my sales are slow and I only sale 3 or 4 items a week.  I am still making a profit!

Happy Tuesday!

Well I didn't manage to post over the weekend or yesterday which was a holiday from school for Kid #5.  Today we are back to our normal schedule.  Nothing to exciting happening this week.  We just have our usual schedule until the weekend.

 I do have a few projects I am hoping to finish.

 One is the recovering of our dinning room chairs.  I have 3 left to do so I plan to work on them today.

 The second is I am spray painting some of our light fixtures that I really wanted to update but discovered they would cost us about $40 a piece to do that.  We have 4 of them.  The can of spray paint cost me about $5. This was a much cheaper option.

The third project is finishing up the painting of my half bathroom vanity. I was waiting on my husband to help me with the holes for the new handles I bought, which he did over the weekend. So now I can paint the primer on them and then purchase the actual paint.

I need to run to the Post Office at some point today as I have 3 packages from my eBay sales to mail off.  EBay  has been slow going for me but at least I am making some money doing it. Every little bit helps!

Hope you all are having a great day!

5 Things I Did That Were Frugal This Week

1. I prepped some fruit and veggies for the week for easy eating! 

2. Yesterday I had to take my dog to the Vet due to an eye infection. Had the money already to pay for it out of her sinking fund. 

3. Our Vet is very close to our house. Instead of driving there I walked with my dog. That way we saved gas and we both got exercise. 

4. I hung out 3 loads of laundry this week even though the temperature is starting to get cooler. 

5. I talked with the Vet about feeding my dog and what the right amounts were. Turns out I am feeding her maybe a little to much. Adjusting the amount will be healthier for her and make her food last longer for me :) 

Murphy Is Calling........

Murphy is knocking at our door and I wish he would just go away. 

First item is that our Escrow account was short for the second time and I will now need to pay about $300 extra.  Thank you high IL property taxes!

The next is my Anti Lock Brake system light is on in my car.  I am pretty sure my back brakes need replacing :/  My Hubs is gonna call and see about taking the car in today.

A few years ago these would have been BIG issues with our finances. Now they are minor annoyances.  It still is the pits to have to spend money that we were not planning on but at least now the money is there when we need it and we will not have to charge it on a credit card.

Rainy Day

It is raining today so that kind of puts a damper on my house projects that involve spray painting.  I typically like to do that outside.  I have tried to take advantage of nice weather when we have it to get my painting projects completed before the cold sets in.

I am in the process of recovering my dining room chairs though so I guess I can get that finished up today instead. 

I also want to paint my half bath vanity. We have stripped wallpaper, painted and added new fixtures since moving here a little over a year ago. The vanity is the last project to complete that room.  I will post pictures when it is all done.  I have the primer to start painting it so I think maybe I will work on that also today.

I will need to make a run to the post office also.  I have an eBay sell item I need to get mailed.  I have consistently sold 4-5 items a week since June.  Not a ton but at least it is something.  My goal with my profits is to buy new tires for each of our cars.  I have enough now to pay for my husbands car.  Every little bit of extra money helps!

Well those are my plans for the day. What are yours?

Food Prep

This morning I have spend a lot of time prepping some of our food so that it will not go to waste.

 I have cut up a pomegranate which Kid #5 loves and I sent some to school with her in her lunch.

 I have washed and hulled a carton of strawberries.  Some of which I will use here in a minute for a smoothie.  The rest will be used this week. 

Next up is a avocado with is starting to get to soft so I will try to use most of  it in my lunch today and tomorrow.

I plan to go through our refrigerator and see what leftovers are needing to be eaten in the next day or two and I will make those into lunches for my husband.

Keeping up with our perishable food allows for no waste and in the long term saves us money.

It's October Already...Say What!?

This year has just flown right by hasn't it?  For several years I have tried to write every day in October.  I had intentions of doing the same this year but as you can see it is now the 3rd of October and I am just now writing my first post. I may keep at it for the rest of the month though, we will see.

So what has been happening here....as of right now we are getting to stay in our new city and my husband still has a job with the railroad.  Great news huh? It was a big relief when we got that news.  So now let the house projects begin :)

We recently found out that Kid #5 has a chance to take a trip with her classmates to Washington DC next summer.  This will cost us $2,000.  At first I was not happy about it and not planning to let her go.  It is not really in our budget and it is a lot of money for a 13 yr old.  We have sense decided that she can probably go and we will be doing several things to fund this trip with her helping of course.  First up is a yard sale before it gets to cold.  That is our project for this week, getting everything priced and ready to go, she is going to help of course with every part of the yard sale!

I am hoping to add $4,000 to our Babystep 3 before the end of the year.  We previously had decided we had completed Babystep 3 but then we had the job loss scare and so have since decided to add to it a little bit. 

Anyway, this is where we are at at the moment.  Hope you all are doing well.

Monday Musings...

School started last week so I am once again home alone during the day.

 The weather is suppose to be much cooler this week.  I really really need to get some yard work done.  I do not enjoy doing yard work at all so I have to talk myself into doing it most of the time.

Currently it is about 10 am. I have a load of laundry done and hung outside on my drying racks.  I am hoping to get at least one more done today.

I need to sit down and menu plan and work on our budget.  I am not feeling to motivated to do either!  I do at least know what we will be having for dinner tonight :)

I have about 5 or 6 items I need to get listed on ebay also. My goal with my ebay sales is to make enough to buy both of our cars new tires.  It is not a need just yet but it will be soon.  That is just my first mini goal and then I hope to build on it from there.

I have been applying to some part time Nanny jobs on Care.com.  So far I have not had any response to ones I am truly interested in.  I figure eventfully the right job will come along that will work for our family.  In the mean time I will just keep doing what I am doing :)

5 Things I Did That Were Frugal This Week

1. We have started back to school here. I made Kid #5's lunch this week twice. Saving us $5.00 

2. I earned 30 cents from MobiSave app and 25 cents from Checkout51 app this week. 

3. I only used my dyer for 2 loads of laundry this week. I hung out all the rest. 

4. I sold Kid #5's old lunch box for $5 on my local Facebook group

5. My husband had a pair of work pants that the hem was coming out of. I fixed them so he could continue to wear them. Saving us the cost of new pants. 

5 Things I Did That Were Frugal This Week

1. We needed something different for breakfasts and snacks. I also needed to use up some zucchini from my freezer. So I made 2 loaves of pumpkin zucchini bread. 

2. On Tuesdays we are busy with evening activities so we have been having sandwiches. We are out of lunch meat at the moment so I made egg salad to have instead. 

3. I have had 3 no spend days this week :) 

4. I cleaned a sliced some strawberries that we had not eaten fast enough and added them to my berry freezer bag. We will use these for smoothies. 

5. I spent a little over $65 out of our $200 for two weeks grocery budget. Hopefully that will be all we need until next Thursday's pay day :) 

Tuesday Happenings....

Today I am off to Kid # 1's house to watch my grandson for the evening while they go to a concert.  I spent the morning working on a few eBay listings I have and getting a couple loads of laundry done. I also threw a couple chicken breasts in the crockpot for my husband and Kid # 5 to have for dinner tonight since I will not be here to cook for them.  Hopefully it will keep them from eating out :) 

Yesterday I worked on inventorying our food and menu planning at least for the next two weeks.  We wasted a lot of produce in June and the beginning of July which is so unlike me.  We just didn't have a good plan for all the busy-ness that seems to be happening at the moment.

I am trying to be more organized with my time.  We will see how that goes :)

Hope everyone is having a good day!

5 Things I Did That Were Frugal This Week

1. I had $64 left in my two week grocery budget.

2. I made our Friday night snacks for tonight.

3. I have started getting Kid # 5 some items for back to school. I had a coupon for $10 off at DSW so we used it to get her a pair of high top Converse for school. She has several other pair of shoes that still fit so we should be good there. 

4. I had a $5.99 promotional credit for Amazon Prime Pantry for choosing no rush shipping. Well thanks to a tip today from Melissa at 320 Sycamore, I used it to order some items we needed and got free delivery and some coupon codes for my items too. I ended up getting 5 household items for half the cost and delivered to my door :) 

5. Kid # 5 and I spent a couple days with my parents. It was a very frugal little vacation for us. Total spent besides the gas to get there, $5. Memories made for my princess with her grandparents, priceless :) 

Short Week That Seems So Long...

I had meant to write yesterday but didn't get around to it. It was a good day recovering from the long weekend. Kid #5 and I didn't do much.  I cleaned up the house some and worked on listing a few items on EBay.  I am definitely not gonna get rich selling on EBay but it is a nice little side hobby. Ideally I would love to make enough to pay our mortgage payment every month.  We will see if that happens.  I do figure that every little bit of profit helps though.

I am on the fence on what to do about our savings now.  We have BabyStep 3 complete but with the upcoming potential move in a year I don't know if we should be in storm cloud mode or just move on to start working other steps.  Anyone have any thoughts on this?

Today Kid #5 and I are going to stay a few days with my Mom who is on vacation from her job.  Should be a fun time.

Hope everyone had a great 4th of July :)

5 Things I Did That Were Frugal This Week

1. I stuck to the grocery budget :) 

2. It has been cooler here the last couple of days so we turned off the air conditioning and opened doors and windows. 

3. Kid # 5 and I went to a wedding which I wore a $3 yard sale dress and she wore a free hand me down dress given to her by a friend. Win for both of us! 

4. I sold a few items on EBay and made about $30 profit. Not a ton but still better then nothing! 

5. My husband's parents came for a visit from South Carolina. Normally we spend a ton of money eating out and entertaining them. This time we had a budget and stuck to it! 

What's Been Happening With Us...

About two months ago my husbands job informed his entire office that they will be closing the office here in our city and moving it to Ohio to combine with another region. For those of you who don't know we live in Illinois.  At first we did not even know if my husband would have a job.  He had to travel to Ohio and interview for a job which he did receive an offer for.  A couple of weeks ago he accepted the offer so it looks like eventually we maybe moving to Ohio.  My husband is a railroader and has only 9 more years until he can retire from the railroad.  There is some small possibility he would switch fields entirely but I am not sure that will actually happen.  As of right now he does not know when he needs to be in Ohio to start work there.  We do know that we have one year to utilize relocation services provided by his company from the time he needs to report to work in Ohio.  Right now our plan is for him to go there without me and Kid #5 until after the 2016-2017 school year.  Kid # 5 has requested to finish middle school here and be a new student at a new school going into high school. This will allow us time to get our house ready to sell also. 

So there ya go.  This has been our summer so far. To say I am really bummed about this turn of events is an understatement :(  However I am blessed that my husband does still have a job!

5 Things I Did That Were Frugal This Week

WOW! Hard to imagine that I have not written on here in over a month 😱

Life just sometimes has away of getting busy! Here's to getting back to it! 

1. We ate all our leftovers! 

2. I shopped our local grocery store for loss leaders only this week.

3. I submitted receipts for $3.50 in MobiSave and SavingStar apps.

4. I requested 2 books from the library instead of purchasing them. 

5. I used $20 in Amazon gift codes to purchase a new water filter for our refrigerator. It had went down in price on Amazon and we needed one. I ended up just paying $1.14 out of pocket. The codes I had earned from PerkTV and Swagbucks :) 

What We Are Eating Wednesday....

I am late putting this up late but better late then never I say!

Monday - We had Chicken Patty Sandwiches ( everything came from the freezer)

Tuesday - Nachos ( I made 3 lbs taco meat which I already had and use some and froze the rest for future dinners) every thing we already had for this. Refried beans came from freezer from a prior dinner.

Wednesday - Baked Pasta and Salad. The Salad is leftover from Sunday night's dinner and my lunches this week.  Pasta sauce from the freezer.  Noodles from pantry

Thursday - Crockpot Beef and Broccoli - Beef is part of a roast I cut up last week and froze to use for this meal.  Broccoli is from freezer. Rice from the pantry

Friday - Snack night

Saturday - leftovers

Sunday - I have not plan for this yet......

5 Things I Did That Were Frugal This Week

1. I used my cash envelope for Kid # 3's birthday and with some careful planning I came in under budget. 

2. One way I came in under budget with the birthday envelope is I cashed in some points that we had on a credit card ( keep in mind my hubby is not 100% on board with Dave Ramsey) for a gift card to use towards her birthday. 

3. I bought a half price Starbucks Groupon to use when my in laws come visit. My father in law loves Starbucks. I went through Ebates to also earn a little cash back on my purchase. 

4. I bought a family pack of chicken legs for 49 cents a pound. I put 6 legs in the freezer to use as a meal. I boiled 4 to use the shredded meat and chicken broth for some future meals also. 

5. I spray painted a picture frame I already had, using spray paint I already owned and framed a poster I already had also to hang in my half bath remodel project :) 

We Are On Spring Break

It is spring break here.  My husband is gone on a business trip also so Kid #5 and I are flying by the seat of our pants :)

 We plan to do a few fun things this week.  I bought a Groupon for our local ice cream shop.  We are also doing a little shopping for some items of clothing/shoes Kid # 5 is in need of. We may hit up a movie this week too.  We will just have to see.

Even though we are off our normal schedule I have managed to work on our April budget and our menu plan also.  I have found that by planning our meals monthly I am able to cut our grocery budget.  I am hoping to continue with this.

Hope you all had a nice Easter :)

What We Are Eating This Week

Monday - Gyros ( kit from Aldi) and Roasted Sweet Potatoes

Tuesday- Leftover Taco Bake from last Tuesday.  ( I put half of it in the freezer.  A 9x13 pan will feed us 2 dinners and my husband 1 lunch)

Wednesday- Leftover Hamburgers and Hotdogs from Saturday. ( We had the kids all here to color Easter eggs and had a cookout. We planned leftovers to use this week)

Thursday - Italian Beef Sandwiches. ( roast from freezer and buns leftover from Saturday)

Friday - We will be out of town so we will eat out

Saturday - Crescent Roll Pizza ring ( new recipe we are trying.  Pizza sauce is homemade and from the freezer)

Sunday- Easter and we are going to my sisters.  I need to think of what I am going to bring. Probably Fruit Salad and something else.

I am going to try to start posting my menu's more often and share if I had to purchase the items or if they were in my pantry or stockpile.

In Celebration Of Pi Day....

I made this Peanut Butter Pie :). My husband loves pie so he was thrilled when he got home from work to have this as dessert.  Sometimes it is just the little things in life that makes us all happy :)

5 Things I Did That Were Frugal This Week

1. I meal planned for the whole rest of March

2. I checked the sales flyer of most of stores around me before going grocery shopping to ensure I was picking up the best deals.

3. Before making my meal plan I inventoried what food we already had.

4. I made this burlap hanger for my front door using up items I already had.  I think it turned out pretty cute :) 

5. Walked outside today in the nice weather and sunshine with a friend.  Free entertainment and free exercise :)

5 Years Of Blogging...Oh How Far We Have Come...

This month I have been blogging for 5 years! Wow! Time flies!

5 years ago The Plan was to be come debt free.  This did happen, actually more then once :)

It really took about 4 years to really get there and for the last year we have maintained our debt freedom.  Hopefully this continues!

As of today we are debt free and 3/4th of the way to a large emergency fund.

 My husband also received a promotion this week and with that a pretty good raise.  When the raise kicks in we will also be contributing 15% to our retirement. So that will complete Baby Step 4 of Dave Ramsey's Plan.

When I read back over this blog I am just amazed at how far we have come. I really enjoy blogging not only for the record it helps me keep as to how far we have come in this journey but also because
of the other bloggers I have met along the way.

My original goal of blogging was to keep myself accountable to becoming debt free and to have a place to share all my frugalness.  In real life most people think I am weird and do not understand my frugal out look.  This is a great place to share that and also to keep track.

Anyway, here is to another year of blogging! 

Thanks to everyone who comes here to read and comment!

PS: I post a lot about being frugal on my Instagram if you would like to follow me there :) 

This Years Envelope System

This year I decided to do something different with my budgeting and envelope system.  In years past I would always forget or not plan well for things we needed to pay for that only happened once a year. Things like random holiday's, birthday's, car registration, activities we wanted to do, visits from relatives etc.   So this year I decided to try a different approach to these things.

First I went through the calendar month by month and wrote down every thing I could think of that happened each month that would be an added expense other then our normal monthly bills.  I added the date it happened and the dollar amount I estimated we would spend.  Here is a short example of the list:

January

Family Christmas ( this involved extra purchases of food) -1/2/2016 - $50

February

Valentines Day - 2/14/2016 - $100

My Mom's 60th Birthday - 2/28/2016 - $200 ( this is my part of her party )

My Car Registration - 2/28/2016 - $110.25

March

Easter Egg Coloring Party -3/19/2016 - $100

Easter - 3/27/2016 - $150 - ( this is baskets for 5 kids and filling eggs for and egg hunt at my sisters and bring a dish for Easter dinner)

Kid #3's 21st Birthday and Dinner -3/28/2016 - $200

Spring Break -$200

Anyway, you get the idea I hope.  I did this for every single month.  Every single birthday and holiday and any other things that would be coming up that we needed to budget for. 

Next up,  I have slowly made envelopes for each and every item on my list.  I have used free envelopes that come in the mail with bills and other things to make these with.  I have almost 40 envelopes which may seems crazy but it is working so far.  I write on the envelope what it is for, the date and the allotted amount that goes in it.  I have a box I keep them in.  I do not and have not filled them all at once.  I fill them as I have extra money left from my grocery budget.  When I don't use all of the money in one envelope I empty it and move it to the next one that needs filled.  For example I gave my husband $50 to spend for Valentine's Day and $50 for myself.  I had $20 left out of my $50 so I placed it in the envelope for my Mom's Birthday Party which had not reached it's allotted amount yet. Some of the envelopes I estimated high on the dollar amount and if there is money left that is awesome and I use it to fill whatever is next.

So far this is working out great!

5 Things I Did That Where Frugal This Week

1. I had $29 left in my two week grocery budget.

2. I planned our snacks and made them all this week. 

3. I made a big batch of Taco Seasoning

4. We paid cash for my husband hair cut.

5. We added $200 to our Babystep 3 :) 

Sometimes Little Things Can Do Alot of Damage...

On Sunday we got a couple inches of snow.  My husband used the snow blower to clear the driveway and sidewalk leading up to the house.  Later that day we went to leave the house using the front door, opened the regular door to leave and the glass on the storm door shattered all over the hallway :(  We assume that my husband hit the door with a small rock and didn't know it :(   $342 later we have a shatter proof new storm door.

 A few years ago this would have been a big expense and would have stressed me out.  Now we just adjusted the budget a little bit and we have a new door.  No stress.  Not necessarily what I wanted to spend the money on but at least it is covered and we didn't have to put it on a credit card.  Murphy does come knocking even when you are debt free but it is just annoying instead of becoming a big deal.

5 Things I Did That Were Frugal This Week

1. Painted my half bath. Other then the paint I had all the supplies to do it with. More on this remodel to come :) 

2. Had $20 left in my Valentine's Day budget of $50. Not to bad huh? I moved that into my Mom's 60th birthday party envelope. 

3. Sold some curtains this week and made $20

4. A good friend of our gave Kid # 5 some hand me downs from her daughter. A huge bag of name brand stuff. We always accept hand me downs :)

5. Cooked some dried black beans and made bulk brownie mix to use in future dinners and snacks 

My Dave Ramsey Story/ A YouTube Collab

One of the YouTube Vloggers , Jennifer at Path To Debt Freedom who I watch regularly started a collab video on YouTube about other vologgers Dave Ramsey Story.  I don't vlog  but obviously I do have this here ole blog so I thought I would play along that way :)  If you all haven't seen Jennifer's channel you should go check her out.  She shares her families journey to get out of debt, does grocery hauls and menu plans and Dollar Tree hauls also.

Anyway here are the questions she asks:

1. How long have you been doing the Dave Ramsey plan? Well my first post on this blog was March 2011.  At that time we just had a car loan left. We paid that off in September 2012 but in January 2013 my husband got a new position within his company and started driving 3 hours a day.  At that time gas was high and it was costing us a small fortune.  We purchased a new to us car in April 2013 and paid it off in December 2014. Anyway I would say we have been doing the Dave Ramsey plan off and on since 2010 but really got focused in 2013.

2. What Baby Step are you currently working on? (If the Baby Step you are currently working on is 2, please continue with question #3, if not please skip to question #7)
 We are currently on Baby Step 3.

3. What was your total debt when you started Baby Step 2?
In 2013 we had $16,000 in car loan debt

4. What is your total debt now?

5. What estimated date do you expect your Baby Step 2 to be complete, and your debt (excluding your mortgage) to be paid-off?

6. Do you plan on doing a debt-free scream with Dave Ramsey, either on the phone or in person?

7. Did you take a Financial Peace University class either in person or at home, or did you read the Total Money Makeover book, or did you learn about Dave Ramsey online?
 I first learned of Dave Ramsey online reading other peoples blogs.  I have also read The Total Money Makeover twice. When my husband was driving 3 hours a day for work he would listen to him on the radio.

8. Did you do budget prior to learning about Dave Ramsey (whether zero-based, or not)?
 Sort of.  I always have wrote down our bills and had a general idea of what we could spend and have always been thrifty.

9. Have you tried Dave Ramsey’s new free Every Dollar Budgeting website? If yes, what are your thoughts?
 No I have not. I like pencil and a spiral notebook :)

10. Do you consider yourself the free-spirit or nerd of your relationship?
 I am a little of both.  While I do our budgeting and run the day to day aspects of our house I do like to spend money on my kids and household projects.  My husband does all of the long term planning such as for retirement.

11. Are you a hardcore Dave Ramsey follower? Or, have you tweaked/changed some things about the plan? If you have tweaked/changed some things about the plan, please share what and why.
We are not hardcore followers.  For one we did not stop our retirement in order to get out of debt.  We also still took a small trip for my BFF's wedding. 

12. Have you tried any of Dave Ramsey’s Endorsed Local Providers or other products/services he recommends? If yes, please give your feedback.
We interviewed two endorsed realtor's when we were getting ready to sell our house last year. While both of them seemed very nice. One only wanted to list our house for what we ended up getting for it when it sold. So if we would have went with her we would have made a whole lot less on our house.  The other was very nice but just didn't click with us.  We ended up going with a realtor who was not endorsed and we sold our house in 9 days :) 

13. From your experience, do you think this plan works? 
Yes I very much  think this plan can work for anyone at any income level if you follow the plan.

January Recap / Where oh where did the money go??

Really though January was not to bad of a month as far as being able to pay cash for things.  We spent a lot of money but it was all paid for in cash.  We cash flowed Dr bills and some car repairs.  We also ate out a lot and bought to many clothes that probably weren't actually needed.

What we didn't do was add anything to our Baby Step 3 progress.  February we must be better about this!!  We did find out we will be getting about a $4,000 refund on our taxes.  Thank you relocation benefits from my husbands company :) That will help a whole lot in making progress on our 2016 goals .

I did manage to cut our grocery budget for January by $119.29.  This savings went to finishing up funding our Valentines envelope and my car registration envelope.  I will write a post soon on how I am doing some envelopes differently this year.  So far it is working out great! I am hoping to continue on with this cheap grocery budget but we will see.  I often have high hopes for cutting the budget and then I get lazy and don't plan well.  We will see if I can keep up with it.

So as of right now our emergency fund sits at roughly $5,500 ( we had more in this fund but due to some unforeseen expenses this is where it sits now)  The first pay day for February is Thursday so I am hoping to be able to add $500 to that balance. 

How was everyone else's January?

5 Things I Did That Were Frugal This Week

1. I bought a few groceries for the first time since 12/30. I spent $47.99. I am hoping this will last us the rest of the month. We will see :) 

2. We have been using the library a ton lately. I request dvd's of Mike & Molly and we have been making our way through the seasons. I have also been reading a lot. My current read: 

3. We have been eating a lot from our pantry.

4. I made a batch of granola to eat for breakfast. 

5. I had 5 stay at home days this week. It has been cold and this seems like a lot but it helps to not spend money :)

Planning For The Year...

It has really become apparent to me that we have not planned well at all for medical and dental bills.  In years past we have all been pretty healthy and these bills have been at a minimum.

Right before the end of 2015 my husband hurt his back and started going to the chiropractor. While most of the costs are covered by our health insurance, the co-pays for two, three and four times weekly visits are not.  Today he also had a dental cleaning and was told he needs to have a crown.  While again most of the cost of that is covered through our dental insurance thankfully, about $350 is not.

We also have a $155 office visit for Kid # 5 from December who ended up sick for a few days and had to make a trip to the Dr.  We haven't found a Dr yet in our new area so we just went to the closest prompt care.  Turns out our insurance does not cover quick strep tests. Ugh!

 I am not prepared for these large bills at all.  So I will be sitting down and reworking the budget to accommodate them. I know we can easily make this work but it may prolong how fast we get out of Baby Step 3.  I was really hoping to be done by June :(

5 Things I Did That Were Frugal This Week

1. I have had 4 "no spend" days this week

2. I have not done any grocery shopping. We have a ton of food leftover from all our holiday celebrations. We are eating it up! 

3. The only spending that I did do was for $10. Not to shabby I don't think :)

4. I ran out of my regular face lotion and instead of buying new I am using up some I already had but am just not overly fond of.

5. Kid # 5 took her lunch to school 2 days this week which saved me $5 

2016 Goals

I really only have one major goal this year.

Complete our fully funded emergency fund and stay out of debt.

Ok I guess that is 2 goals.  Seems like those would be easy huh? 

Lets hope so.

 My plan is to write here more and document my frugal living more often here also.

It seems that a lot of my favorite blogs stop writing once they get out of debt. But I think it is equally as hard to save money and stay out of debt. So I hope to continue to document my journey through this process.

Here's to completing our goals in 2016

One Year Of Being Debt Free

December 31,2015 was our 1 year anniversary of completing Dave Ramsey's Baby Step 2.

 It really has been an awesome year.

It is amazing when you own no one but your mortgage how freeing it is when a unplanned expense or life event happens and you don't have to worry about how to pay for it.

 We relocated to a different city and manage to not rack up anymore debt.  We bought a few new pieces of furniture and did some things to our new house, all funded with cash. 

We also had over $2000 in car repairs for my car which were totally unplanned but also paid for in cash.

We have even managed to save 3 months living expenses for Baby Step 3.  We are planning to do at least 6 months.

Even though we have paid off our consumer debt I do not see our lifestyle changing ever.  I love being frugal and it is a challenge to me to save money.

I tell my husband all the time his job is to make the money and mine is to save the money :)

Lets hope 2016 is as nice to us as the last year has been!