5 Things I Did That Were Frugal This Week

1. Bought some cheap, 50 cent,  mums at Lowes on Labor Day to help spruce up my yard . Spent $3 total :)

2. Made waffles from scratch for the freezer.  These make for an easy breakfast on school mornings.

3. Used some coupons combined with a good sale at Kroger and stocked up on some cheap hygiene products

4. Had several stay home days

5. Had a girls nite at a friends house instead of going out some where which was much cheaper and only cost me the price of gas to drive there

Update of Yearly Goals

I thought it might be time to update this again!  I am pretty sure there will be no more major remodeling projects done this year.  So anything that is not marked off the list by now it probably not going to get done.  I am getting ready to work  on the kitchen floor and that will be the last remodel project of the year!


Personal/Family1. Visit more with my girlfriends. Shoot for once a month. I have been keeping up with this one pretty well over all I think.
2. Invite friends over for dinner or out to dinner. Shoot for every other month. We were doing good on this for a while but then we got busy over the summer and have not kept up with it :(
3. Be more mindful of the amount of time kids are using the computer. I am seriously failing at this one I have to admit!
4. Be more mindful of my own computer time. Probably failing at this one also :(
5. Read with Lilly more I think we are doing well with this!
6. Ask for help from everyone in my family more when I am feeling overwhelmed this one is a learning process :)
7. Teach the kids to cook a few basic meals Kid # 3 does pretty well with is but I am failing at teaching the others
8. Family movie night once a month We have went to a friends house several times over the summer for an outdoor movie in their back yard.  This is a family event!
9. Go to the library more We have done this alot over the summer and I plan to continue it through the winter!
10. Read more books I have been doing this
11. Wiener Roast 2x not yet but I am hoping to get to do this soon
12. Camping at least once this year DONE!!
13. Be more mindful of scheduling my time work in progress
14. Make more gifts this year for bday's and Christmas I/we have done this alot!
15. Exercise more big fat fail!

Household

1. Sewing desk for office
2. Shelves for office
3. Closet shelves for office
4. Peg board for office Just bought the materials to get this one done!
5. Organize office
6. Downstairs bathroom floor
7. Kitchen Floor
8. make better use of chore notebook
9. organize coupon binder
10. Make a price book
11. Make a household notebook

Money

1. Pay off the balance on windows
2. Save for South Carolina trip
3. Pay extra towards car I have been doing this and I am tracking it with the ticker at the top of the blog!
4. Sell on eBay
5. Pay cash for downstairs bathroom floor
6. Try to shave $50 a month off grocery budget Some months I have done well with this and some not so much.
7. Save for Christmas I have been keeping up with this every month!
8. Track clothing/shoes purchases for family for the year I just went threw all my receipts and updated my tracking on this!
9. Pay bills on time lol I wrote a post about this :P
10. Possible bathroom remodel

Searl House Happenings..........

There is really not much happening around here lately.  The kids are all back in school  and so is my husband.  We are not yet into the full swing of activities but it will be starting soon. 

Kid # 2 has recently got an after school job. We got pretty lucky since it is for the before and after school daycare program and only during the week. This will not affect our visits with her at all,  except maybe for school holidays. 

Dance classes for Kid # 3 and # 5 will be starting tomorrow. Kid # 3 will get to help at the dance studio this year on Saturdays and because of that her lessons will be FREE!! Woohoo!   Kid # 5 is involved in Brownies, also, which has not yet started for the school year. 

Kid # 3 is having a very difficult time finding a job that will work around her school dance squad schedule.  I just tell her to keep trying and eventually something will come along.  If she does happen to get a job this could possible effect her ability to help out with dance classes and then we would have to go back to paying for her lessons.  We will cross that bridge though when and if it happens.

Kid # 4 seems to be enjoying high school so far.  I really hope this continues for the rest of the year.

It has been an adjustment not having the kids home all day.  I think I am finally getting use to it.

We have started several projects recently but none of them are completed as of yet.  I am hoping by the end of this month I will be able to blog about them.

One project I did put together in the last couple of days is a "bill binder".  I will be posting about this in the next day or two.  I also plan to discuss where we are at as far as paying off the credit card we used over the summer and my car.

Hope everyone enjoyed there Labor Day Weekend :)

Menu Plan 9/5 - 9/11

Monday - Waffles and Turkey bacon

Tuesday - Pork Spare Ribs, Baked Potato, Salad

Wednesday - Sloppy Joe's, Pork N Beans, Green Beans

Thursday - Crock pot Chicken Spaghetti

Friday - Leftovers

Saturday - Party at a friends

Sunday - Breakfast Burritos

5 Things I Did That Were Frugal This Week

1. I menu planned and made a shopping list

2. I stayed home :)

3. I used my clothes line and hung my laundry outside

4. We shopped around for some materials we need for a yard project to make sure we are getting the best price.

5. We had a leftover night and ate our leftovers for dinner

September To- Do List

Clean stove, inside and out

Rip out kitchen floor

Clean behind everything on the kitchen counters

Clean kitchen refrigerator

Clean garage refrigerator


Looks like September will be the month to really deep clean the kitchen!

Make my Mom and Mother in laws Christmas gifts.  Get one gift bought for each of the kids.

Make Kid # 3 corsage and boutonniere for Homecoming.  A post and pics to follow :)

My Home Management Binder!!

Well I have finally finished my binder!  I have been using it for a couple of weeks now and it is awesome!  There are a few things I have taken out and added in but over all it is how I wanted it.  The only thing I purchased to put this together were some more page protectors and that is because I ran out of my original ones.  Anyway here it is:

This is the spine and cover: 

I used a binder I already had that my husband had probably picked up at a yard sale some place.  We buy binders alot when we see them places and they are super cheap.  First I decorated the front of the binder.  I cut a piece of scrap book paper to fit. Then added a piece of white card stock and named our binder with scrap book stickers. The covered up portion is our last name.  I also used a few more stickers to add a little decoration :)  I then used the scraps from the orange poke a dot paper to decorate the spine.  I didn't have enough stickers to spell out the front page title so I just put "House" on it and figured if anyone had to find my binder they would be able to figure it out with just that.

On the inside of the binder is a pocket that I added an " Emergency Information" page I printed out from Life....Your way.  I also have a zippered pouch that holds my pencils, pens and dry erase markers.

After that I added a whole year calendar in a page protector for 2011 and 2012

The first section of the binder is my "Planner" section.   I used some file folders I already had and cut them down to size to fit the binder and use as dividers.  I then printed some clip art and glued that on each divider.  I also used my label maker to make labels for the tab section of the divider.

All the pages in my binder are in page protectors.  In the planner section I use dry erase markers on them so that I do not have to continue to print pages. So far this has worked out well.  My first page in this section is a daily planner page

 
The next two pages are a weekly planner page.  This makes it easy for me to see at a glance what is going on in the week.  All 3 of these pages I found at Organized Home .

Next I have a two page blank monthly calendar that I can fill in with a dry erase marker myself each month.  This has been very helpful when making appointments to be able to look at the whole month.  I found this calendar here donnayoung.org I forgot to take a pic of it so you will just have to click the link to take a look :)

Next I have a cleaning checklist that I found here at Simple Mom . Then I also have a menu planning page that I printed from The Project Girl .  I printed this on both sides of the paper so I could menu plan two weeks at a time. The very last thing in the Planner section is some notebook paper that I use for grocery lists.

The next section in my binder is the Calendar section

I have a calendar program I use on my computer to add all important dates for our family.  I have printed this off up until December of this year.  At the beginning of each month, I plan to make sure the calendar in the binder is up to date with the one on my computer,  if not I will print it again.  I also have each of the kids school calendars as well as my husbands gig calendar and college calendar.

Each of the 4 kids who are still in school have their own sections. I printed some clip art for them and also added their names with my label maker on their dividers.

Kid #2 

Kid # 3

Kid # 4

Kid # 5

In each of their sections I have put an "Medical Information" page which I printed from Finding Home .  I also included another copy of their school calendar, bus schedule, bell schedule and class schedule if those things apply to the child.  I will also be including any extra curricular activity schedules they may have.  In Kid # 5's section I will be keeping her weekly teachers notes and spelling lists that she brings home on Friday's.

The last section in the binder is my projects.

My husband made me this form for me to keep track of the things I would like to accomplish in our house.  There is a space to fill in for each room of the house.

I have a book list and movie list that I also printed from Finding Home in this section too.  The very last thing is more notebook paper which I have already started a "wish list" on for items I would like to have as gifts.

That is all there is to it.  It took awhile to put the binder together but I am so glad I did!  It is proving to be very helpful already this school year!  I however,  did not include a financial section in this binder.  I have decide to create a separate one for those items.  My home management one will occasionally leave the house with me.  I do not want to be carrying around my important financial information with me so I decided to make a separate one that will always stay in our home in a safe place.