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!