5 Things I Did That Were Frugal This Week

1.  Sold 2 things out of my garage and made $115

2. Hung clothes out on my clothesline to dry

3.  Did not turn on the air conditioning even though we had a day in the 90's.  I just hung out in our finished basement all day were it was nice a cool

4. Had 2 stay at home days

5.  Made some dry mixes in the kitchen which I posted about here.  Saved me a trip to the store and used ingredients I already had :)

Little Of This, Little Of That

I have been home alone when my husband is gone to work for about 5 days now.  As in there are no kids here with us.  They are all gone here and there.  Kid #5 will be back on Friday though and so far she has been gone the longest.  She has went to stay with my sister.  It is nice that my sister and her family are now living close instead of in Arizona. 

Anyway, today I did a few odds and ends kitchen things.

First off I wanted to make a pork roast and use a recipe I found on Pinterest for it.  I can't find the link to the actually recipe but the just of it was:

1 packet dry Ranch dressing mix
1 packet dry Italian dressing mix
1 brown gravy packet.

Mix with 1/2 cup water and pour over your roast in the crockpot.  Cook 6-8 hrs.

I had a brown gravy packet and I had some homemade dry Ranch dressing mix ( that I didn't really care for when made into dressing or a dip but figured this would be an easy way to use it up) but I did not have any dry Italian dressing mix.

I turned to Pinterest again and used this recipe.  The only thing I did differently was use celery salt instead of flakes because that is what I had.  Here is my mix

While I was at it I decided to make some Taco Seasoning Mix also.  I used the last of it the night before.  We use it often and I try to keep it on hand at all times.  Here is what the mix looks like for it.

 

Both of these mixes took less then half an hour to make.  They were both made with spices I always have on hand.  I also like knowing what ingredients I am putting into them.

 

The pork roast turned out fabulous by the way.  I strongly recommend trying it :)

I Need To Hop Back On The Wagon

The frugal wagon that is.  It is not that we have been spending outrageously or anything, but when you don't keep track of where your money is going, it slips through the cracks. 

I haven't done a meal plan in weeks and have not inventoried my cabinets, pantry or freezer in the same amount of time.

I have however, finished a few projects using some items I already have.  I will take some pictures and post about them soon.

I have also done a ton of de-cluttering and have slowly been selling off our stuff we don't want.

So if I can get myself motivated I will be back to posting soon.

I just need to do it!!

So What Have I Been Up To?

Hi there.  I hope to be back to blogging regularly next week.  In the mean time this is what I have been up to.

1.  Kid # 3 has graduated high school.  Next week we meet with the counselors at our local community  college to sign her up for classes for the fall semester.

2.  I have officially been hired for a regular position at one of the kitchens in our school district. I will no longer have to be a substitute and will work 15 hours a week.  I also will get a $2 and hour raise.  It really is the perfect job for me.  I love it.

3. I also am now on summer vacation.  I have a whole list of things I would like to accomplish this summer.  But really my main goal is just to spend time with my kids.

4.  My daughter in law is doing well.  She has about 6 weeks left of her pregnancy and then my grandson will come.  We attended a baby shower for her not long ago and she got some really nice things.  I have been picking things up here and there as I see them at yard sales and on the local facebook yard sale sites.  It is fun to buy for a baby again.

5. We have started to remodel our main floor bathroom.  Of course we are doing this on a budget.  Hopefully it will be mostly finished by next weekend, which is when Kid # 3's graduation party is.  Nothing like planning a remodel right before a party lol.  I will post some pictures when it is done.  I even remembered to take some before pictures :)

6.  I haven't really meal planned for any of the month of May.  I have cut my budget by $50 this month though.  I am to busy to go shopping lol

7.  I have made $112 this month by selling our used items.  I plan to continue selling things through the summer and hopefully by the time school starts I will have made a big dent in the de-cluttering!

8.  We made our goal of paying $1000 towards the car this month.  I think we may be able to pull it off for the month of June also.  We will see.

Well that is my month in a nutshell.  I will be back to posting regularly next week.  Hope you all are staying dry!

Taking A Little Bloggy Break

There is just two weeks of school left here.  I am getting to work several days between now and the end of the year.  I am also working on several projects.  Kid # 3 is graduating high school and I have a party to plan. 

I will be back soon with several updates and some posts about my projects.

Be back soon..........

5 Things I Did That Were Frugal This Week - Late Edition

I took a few pictures of my frugal accomplishments this week :)

1. My one of my best friends bought Kid # 5 a whole grocery bag of clothes for summer.  Some she can wear now and some to grow into.  My friend shares my love of going to yard sales so she often buys Kid #5 things.

 

2.  Made my hubby some lunches using leftovers from dinner

 

 

3. Made a big batch of spaghetti sauce from scratch

 

4.  Cooked 2 pounds for black beans.  Separated them into 2 cups portions for the freezer

 

5.  Sorry no picture for this one :)  Sold another item on my local facebook sites and made $5 to add to my "dog vet fund" it now has $16 in it.

Final Post On April Savings Challenge

I thought today would be a good day to do the final update on my savings challenge since it is the last day of the month.  Here are my goals and how I did this month on them.

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.  As of today I have sold $237 worth of our unwanted items!  So I met this goal and decluttered why I was at it!!!

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
Since I met my first goal I can apply the $11 extra I made towards this goal.  I plan to continue trying to meet this goal through the month of May since my dog will not have a vet appointment until the end of the month.

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 haven't added this up yet :(  I think we are under budget but not sure.  Been a busy busy month.

4. Make a decision on what to do about the cable/land line/Internet/cell phones and see what will save us the most money. Any future savings will be added to the car payment.  We started on this goal yesterday but haven't completed it yet.  Yesterday we took Kid #1 and the hubby off our cell phone plan. They both have other options for cell phones now.  Kid #3 and I upgraded our phones and package and plan to split the cost.  This will actually save me about $60 a month.  Later this week I plan to cancel our cable and home phone.  We no longer need these things and it will hopefully save us another $100 or so a month.  I will update about this again after it all happens.

All of this is in preparation to pay off our car as fast as possible.  May will be the first month we make a payment towards the car and hopefully we will have it paid off by September 2014.  We will see. 

Just wanted you all to know I am still here.  My house is for the most part fine and I will post about it soon I hope :)