Conversation on the way home from great gandma's...or Mom you're speeding.

I have a driving assistant. Do you? Now I am not talking about some fancy smanchy new GPS navigator that gives you directions from a satelite in space. Oh no mine is much better than that! Mine can tell you how fast you are driving and what the current speed limit is on any given road. I bet yours can't do that! Are you jealous yet? Mine can see the speedometer from where he sits. Lucky me. His name Justin. He is 7 going on 20. He feels it is his civic duty to remind me of my many offenses. One of them is speeding. Admit it you know you want one!

Here is the conversation we had on the way home from my grandma's yesterday.

Justin: Mom you are driving 40 mph.

Me: I know, Justin

Justin: Mom you do know the speed limit is 25 on this part of the road don't you?

Me: Yes Justin

Justin: Well you need to slow down! You are going 15 mph over the speed limit! Boy the cops are going to get you! You are speeding!

Me: I know Justin.

Justin: You still haven't slowed down

Me: I know Justin.

Justin: YOU DO KNOW YOU ARE GOING 15 MPH OVER THE SPEED LIMIT!!!

Me: Well I am glad to see that teaching you math is paying off.

Justin: What did you say?

Me: I love you honey.

Justin: (as I am making a turn onto another road). Ok mom floor it! The speed limit is now 40!

Go mom!

Me: Huh???????

Yes I was speeding. I admit it. Guilty as charged. In my defense it is a country road with very few homes on it. They posted the 25 mph sign because a short distance up the road are several homes close together and people fly through there. I always slow down well before I get to that area. At the road I turn onto immediately after you make the turn there is a 40 mph sign. I am not sure how you are supposed to get from 0-40 in about a second. I'm actually trying for the life of me to figure out why the 40 mph sign is there since there is a dangerous curve not 500 feet away. But hey I don't make the rules people! If you haven't got a great driving assistant backseat driver like I do you might want to check into getting one. They are very annoying come in very handy!

Look what I got for 50 cents!

This was a good thing that happened this week! I had some ECB's I needed to use at CVS. I bought diapers and wipes. Someday hopefully before he is ten Kaden will potty train. In the meantime I am always on the lookout for diaper deals. Here is how I did.

2 bottles of Wisk laundry detergent $4.50 each $9.00

2 packages of Huggies diapers @ $10.00 each $20.00

total $29.99

2 huggies coupons $1.50 each -$3.00

1 Wisk coupon -$1.50

ECBs -$24.00

OOP .50 cents!!!!!

ECB's earned for future use $7.00

To see more great savings visit Money Saving Mom and The Centsible Sawyer

Struggling...

Hi! Remember me! I'm still here. My computer crashed last week. This is not the first time it has crashed but this time was disastrous for me. I had to do a complete system restore on my computer. Completely reformatted the hard drive and of course I started using the computer again and started to overwrite the files not knowing that once the files have been overwritten it is very difficult to get the files back. This was something I did not know I should not be doing. I thought no problem, I pay for back up service for my computer. Guess what for some reason my back up didn't work properly. I have figured that it seems to be a problem with this computer. that I have considered taking a hammer to After this crash I went to get back my files and most of my pictures were GONE! What was saved were the same pictures over and over. I shed many tears over loosing my beloved pictures. Memories of my sweet boys forever gone. Field trips, special days, ordinary days, school days, happy days, sad days, all GONE.

One of my goals for 2009 was to catch up on all my pictures. Several years worth. Well I guess It won't take quite as long now. I am just sad. I know it is not the end of the world. There are many more serious problems in the world. Life goes on, new memories are made. I'm still sad. So many things I forget, but could look at a picture and remember exactly when and where we were doing. I have sought advice about getting my pictures back and most have said that they were not retrievable or possibly they were but there is no guarantee and it seems it would cost upwards of $2000 to get them. IF they could guarantee them back, I'd pay it in a heart beat. Sigh......

I also have another issue going on. I'm scared and praying it is nothing or not too scary. I covet your prayers for this unspoken request. In the mean time I'll be catching you all up on what we've been up to in the last week or so.

Oh and when I told Justin that I had lost so many pictures he said don't worry mommy we can take new pictures and make new memories. Geez I just got down crying and here I go again! Have I mentioned how much I love my boys! I am one lucky momma!

On the bright side I have learned a lot about computers and have become great friends with the computer tech. Oh and I need a new hard drive which will be here on Tuesday. Yay!

Oh and one more thing, back up, burn and save your files in more than one place! Don't learn the hard way like I did!

Thanks for those of you who have emailed and wondered where I was and if I was ok. It is nice to be missed and I've missed blogging.

When I grow up.....

A little conversation Kaden and I had while cuddling together last night:

Me: What do you want to be when you grow up?

Kaden: A big boy!

Well that was simple!

Here's my plan for this week! Last week went pretty well. I did make a few changes and one night we ended up eating out so I just bumped that meal over to this week. We are working on the temptation of eating out too often and we only dropped the ball once last week.

Monday~Ham and Baked Potatoes

Tuesday~Leftover chicken and gravy (I changed up my menu a bit last week and made a roast chicken on Sunday)

Wednesday~Baked Potato Soup

Thursday~Beef BBQ

Friday~Homemade Pizza

Saturday~Spaghetti or baked Ziti (Larry and I are going out to dinner~his company dinner but the boys will be home with their Aunt and I am trying to decide on which to make)

Sunday~homemade cheese steaks and homemade oven fries

Having all your Christmas Shopping for 2009 Done!

I wish I could do this! Unfortunately I could not do it without using a credit card so even at 75% off it would not be a good deal for me. But what a great way to save! What an inspiration. Right now for me it is baby steps. I would like to one day be able to have the cash to do this. If you are not reading Money Saving Methods you are missing out!

Super Saving Saturday

This week I did the Huggies Diaper Deal at Rite Aid. I got 2 packs of Huggies diapers and two tubs of Huggies wipes for $4.46!

Breakdown:

2 packs huggies diapers @ $9.99 each $19.98

2 tubs huggies wipes @$3.49 (Money saving mom's site stated they were $3.89 but our Rite Aid had them for $3.49 each) $6.98

Total: $26.96

-$5 off $25 purchase

- $1.50 off huggies

-$1.50 off huggies

-.50 off huggies wipes ( had two of these, but somewhere along the way I lost one)

Total $18.46

-rebates from Rite Aid

-$10 Kimberly Clark rebate

-$2 huggies wipes rebate

-$2 huggies wipes rebate

Total out of pocket $4.46

I just love a great deal!!!

For more great deals visit Money Saving Mom and The Centsible Sawyer

Playing in the Snow

No, we do not have snow here. We are so wishing we did though! We are so ready for it. All we have so far this year are very cold temps and a few flurries. We are in the midst of a winter unit and you can't do a winter unit without snow can you? We decided to make our own snow fun!

The other day we decided to make a snowman. How can you make a snowman without snow? Easy! You make snow play dough! Remember back in November when I posted this Pumpkin Pie Play dough recipe? I used it to make snow play dough. I just omitted the pumpkin pie spice and cinnamon. I added peppermint flavoring and very fine glitter. The result? Snow play dough! I love making this homemade play dough so much. The possibilities are endless. Add food coloring to make different colors. If you want scented play dough you can add flavoring or even koolaid. How about some grape play dough? Or lemon, cherry, strawberry? What ever your imagination comes up with! I doubt I will ever purchase play dough again!

Snow play dough! If you look closely you can see the glitter.



Justin's snowman


No snowman is complete without his hat!

Justin's melted snowman

Kaden's little snowman. I just think this is adorable!

On Decluttering Your Sentimental Items

I came across this post at Small Notebook.org on Holding on to Sentimental Things. It is an excellent post on letting go of the clutter sentimental things that we all hold dear. I have a new outlook on what to do with things I have been holding onto more out of guilt then the fact that they are sentimental! I think I am going to take a very hard look at what I am keeping and why.

Feeding Our Feathered Friends

This week we started a winter unit for school. We're studying all kinds of cool snow and winter related things! Today we decided that we needed to make sure our feathered friends had enough food during these cold, cold days. It will be very cold here in NJ over the next few days.

The boys and I strung popcorn and cranberries and made them into circles to hang outside. We had a fun time working together and talking about the different types of winter birds we have here in our yard. So far this year we have seen a pair of cardinals~which Kaden always refers to as great mom mom birds. My grandma loves cardinals and has them all over her house~tufted tit mice and Blue Jay's. We love bird watching and are excited to see if we attract any more birds to our feeders.

Kaden loved stringing the cranberries and popcorn. He patiently worked on his for an hour and finished it himself.

concentration!



Love to see little hands working!





We had some lemons that were getting old and decided to hang some of those as well.

hanging our birdy treats

My First Grocery Shopping of 2009

I have mentioned in several posts now that we are working towards paying off our debt. It is going to be a long journey to get us to no debt. Taking the first step is the hardest part. We are taking baby steps. Yesterday I went grocery shopping for the first time this year. My goal? To spend $50. Did I succeed? No....... or depending on how you look at it yes! I spent a total of $78.41 for a total of 57 items. I went over my budgeted amount by $28. 41. Yikes! Yes I could have put some items back. On the way home from the store I was really kicking myself thinking that gee the first attempt at keeping us on track and I blew it. THE. FIRST. TIME. Ugh.

When I got home and started putting away the items, it dawned on me that really do not have to shop next week. So That $78.41 divided by two turns into $39.21 each week. Leaving me with $10.79 (the difference left if you subtract $39.21 from $50)! So for this coming week I have $21.58 that I can spend on fresh fruit, veggies and bread!. It is all in the way you look at your spending.

I did my shopping at Aldi. I do most of my shopping there since it seems to be the cheapest. Here is what I got for my $78.41 ( you can click on the picture to make it larger)

Bananas (49 cents per pound) $1.01

Frozen corn .95

Frozen broccoli .95

Frozen peas .95

2 loaves white bread (.79 each) $1.58

Hot dog buns .85

Hamburger buns .85

2 dozen large eggs ($1.45 per dozen) $2.90

10 lbs russet potatoes $3.69

2 frozen concentrate juice (.95 each) $1.90

2 frozen concentrate apple juice ( $1.24 each) $2.48

2 frozen concentrate oj ( $1.25 each) $2.50

Romaine hearts lettuce ( three per pack) $2.29

Devil's food cake mix .79

Fully cooked ham (3.25 lbs) $9.60

Grape tomatoes $1.98

2 cans condensed chicken noodle soup (. 49 each) .98

Elbow macaroni (2 lbs) $1.69

Thin spaghetti ( 2 lbs) $1.69

cheese (like velveeta 2 lbs) $3.99

onions (3 lbs) $1.49

8 cans of diced tomatoes (.49 each) $3.92 ~ I'll be making spaghetti sauce later this week)

2 cans cream of mushroom condensed soup ( .49 each) .98

Ramen noodles (12 per case) $1.76

White Vinegar ( 32 oz) .79

Tall kitchen trash bags (30 count) $2.49

2 cans tomato paste ( .39 each) .78

5 cans tomato sauce ( .25 each) $1.25

Cooking spray $1.39

Turkey bacon (12 oz) $1.99

1 jar minced garlic $1.19

1 bag of navel oranges (10 per bag) $2.89

1 lb butter $1.99

1 bag shredded Colby Jack cheese ( 12 oz) $2.99

1 bag shredded cheddar cheese (16 oz) $3.79

2lbs carrots $1.19

1 bag pepperoni ( 8 oz) $1.99

1 box tea bags (100 count) $1.69

The next step is to make a price book to keep track of sizes and prices so I can find the cheapest price for the items we need. We also just re joined BJ's. We had been members for many years and decided it was not worth it for us as the temptation was to great to over spend. Larry's work was offering a discounted membership so we decided to give it a try. I want to see if it would be cheaper to buy items like block cheese and shred it ourselves.

One thing you won't see on my regular grocery list is milk. We drink a lot of milk here, but since Larry works at a dairy he is able to buy our milk there. Right now we buy a case of milk (12 quarts) for $6. That is a substantial savings for us.

Our Weekly Menu

I sat down yesterday afternoon before I went shopping and planned out my menu for the week. I have been doing this on and off but want to be more consistent with planning our menus which will be a big help in saving money for us. I am hoping to participate in Menu Plan Monday on a regular basis. I went through my cabinets and freezer to see what I had available. I keep a well stocked pantry and freezer so we had quite a bit. Here is my plan for the next seven days.

Monday~Chicken tacos

Tuesday~Crockpot Ham and Cheese

Wednesday~Spaghetti

Thursday~Baked Salmon

Friday~Beef BBQ

Saturday~Homemade Pizza

Sunday~Baked potato soup

Back to CVS Shopping!

This marks the second week in a row that I have been to CVS. I had slacked off for awhile but now I am back! As I mentioned in my goals for 2009 post, one of my goals is to save more and spend less. In order to do that we really need to cut way back in many areas. Groceries is one of the first areas I am looking to cut back on. My goal is to spend only $50 a week for our family of four and I am trying to include everything in my grocery shopping. Food, pet supplies (we have a cat and four hermit crabs), cleaning supplies, laundry detergent, health and beauty,diapers....you get the idea. CVS is one way that helps us a lot in this area. I had an abundance of ECB's so this is what I purchased at CVS this week.

I paid a total of $2.43 out of pocket for the above items. My total before coupons and ECB's was $32.92. I had $30.49 in coupons and ECB's. I also earned $14.00 to use on a future purchase. Every little bit helps!

It's Finally Out!

Justin's tooth that is! Several weeks ago Justin had his first loose tooth. This is actually his second tooth he has lost, the first tooth was damaged when he slipped and fell into our wooden wagon. As as result that tooth had to be pulled. So this is Justin's first actual loose tooth. Very exciting in this household!

While we have been waiting for the tooth to fall out, the second tooth came completely through the gum behind the loose tooth. Well it has been almost three weeks and his tooth refused to come out. He has been wiggling that thing daily and it refused to budge. I had to call the dentist yesterday because Larry broke a tooth and questioned the dentist about Justin's tooth. I was not concerned and knew it would fall out, but it really seemed to be bothering him. The dentist of course said to wait and see if it falls out on its own.

Last night it became even looser and Larry tried to pull it. Justin said it hurt. This morning I tried to pull it, again he said it hurt. Finally during supper tonight he pulled that thing! YAY! So tonight there will be a visit from the tooth fairy!

I decided to make him a little tooth holder for him to put his tooth in. He loved it. It is made of felt and has an opening in the top to put the tooth in. I just cut two pieces in the shape of a tooth and stitched them together and added a little red rhinestone. I only stitched though the top layer where the opening is to give it a finished look. I thought it came out cute.

Yummy Potato Soup Recipe

The other night I made potato soup. This was a first for me and let me just say, it was so good! I used this recipe. It will be in our menu rotation! Enjoy!

Baked Potato Soup

INGREDIENTS
4 large potatoes
2/3 cup butter
2/3 cup flour
1 1/2 qt milk
4 green onions, chopped
1 cup sour cream
2 cups crisp-cooked, crumbled bacon
5 ounces Cheddar cheese, grated
salt and pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS
Heat oven to 350F degrees and bake the potatoes until fork tender. Melt butter in a medium saucepan. Slowly blend in flour with a wire whisk until thoroughly blended. Gradually add milk to the butter-flour mixture, whisking constantly. Whisk in salt and pepper and simmer over low heat, stirring constantly. Cut potatoes in half, scoop out the meat and set aside. Chop half the potato peels and discard the remainder. When milk mixture is very hot, whisk in potato. Add green onion and potato peels. Whisk well, add sour cream and crumbled bacon. Heat thoroughly. Add cheese a little at a time until all is melted in.

Note: this freezes well. Well I can't say that for sure since it was all eaten for supper. Next time I will double the recipe.

Oh another thing, I cheated and used the microwave to "bake" the potatoes. We used half the skins in the soup and in the other half we added shredded cheddar cheese and popped them in the microwave to melt the cheese. Instand appetizer.

I told you I was on a mission this year to be more frugal! We wasted nothing with this meal!

No Resolutions Here!

Do you make New Year's Resolutions? I don't. I used to. I learned that every time I made a resolution, I just set myself up for complete and utter failure. Every. single. time. I do make goals, however. I have a long list of goals I would like to reach in 2009 Will I achieve them all? Maybe not. But it gives me something to work towards. Here are my goals for this year, it is a very long list but I have an entire year to reach these goals! Do you make goals?

1. Time with God

• more prayer time
• more bible reading~last year I had a goal to read the bible in one year. I did not reach it. I will try again this year.

2. School

• more consistent schooling
• more organization~more prep work so that when we are ready to work on something I have it ready and not have to run last minute to look something up or print something off
• all manuals in one place
• more nature walks
• more hands on
• make a craft and reading area for the boys

3. Home

• making our home more of a haven
• declutter~my goal this year is to go through every cabinet, drawer, closet, box, shed everything and get rid of what we don't love.
• organize what I do have make things I need on a daily basis more easily accessible
• reduce, reuse, recycle~this goes hand in hand with the decluttering above
• more consistent with daily chores~make a schedule of weekly, monthly, yearly chores
• organize my coupons. I have gotten pretty good in this area, but it does need some improvement

4. Cooking

• plan weekly menus
• use what we have on hand
• cook more from scratch
• learn to make some of our favorite restaurant meals at home
• work on recipe files and cookbooks~get rid of cookbooks I no longer want

5. Gardening

• plan a bigger garden
• involve the kids more in our gardening
• start a compost bin
• find areas of the yard I can use for gardening
• start our own seedlings from seeds

6. Computer

• Organize files, delete items I really don't want~well this is happening much faster than I anticipated since the computer crashed. As I am reloading items from Mozy I am deleting what I really don't want.
• plan computer time and blogging time better
• plan blog posts ahead of time

7. Finances

• SAVE MORE
• SPEND LESS
• Pay off debt
• make up budget~read Dave Ramsey book and watch videos I purchased just before Christmas implement his plan
• plan more long term savings
• work on sub accounts for savings: emergency fund, vacation fund, Christmas fund, Korea fund
• get grocery budget down to $50 weekly
• read all of my financial blogs and apply what I have learned
• reevaluate our needs vs. our wants
• regularly go to CVS. This has saved me a tremendous amount of money over the past year. Over $3000.00! It is very worth doing.
• Only shop sales. When shopping online always shop through sites like My Points, Cashbaq, Ebates to maximize my savings
• look for more ways to save/cut our expenses and apply those savings to our DEBT

8. Pictures

• make photobooks~I have switched over to digital scrapping and have several years of photos to scrap.
• decide on what type of storage I want to use for my picture files (I have tons of them)
• delete photos I really don't want

9. Justin and Kaden

• make life books for both boys
• start journaling for both boys~write down all those memories so they aren't forgotten

10. Personal

• Read more~this is a must for me. I feel so renewed and refreshed when I read for myself! I have a pile of new books just waiting for me!
• eat better
• walk more
• take better care of me
• plan out some time just for myself each week even if it is just to the library for an hour by myself
• make a special area in the house just for me.
• remember my word for 2009 and apply it. FOCUS
• remember my verse for the year: It is God who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect. 2 Samuel 22:33
  
  
  

Computer Woes

I'm sorry for my lack of posts. My computer crashed and I have been busy reinstalling and uploading things back to my computer. Thank goodness for Mozy back up! Please bear with my while I get things back to normal. I am also in the midst of putting away our Christmas decorations and getting back into the groove of school.

My Word for 2009

Last year I participated in choosing word for the year after seeing some of the FIAR ladies doing this. Last year I had two words, Simplicity and Contentment. These are two areas I struggled with last year and am still struggling with, although I have made some progress. I am slowing decluttering and working on simplifying my life. I am far from the simplicity I want but I do see some progress. Contentment, another struggle but I am working still in this area and will continue to remind myself that I do not need everything right this second, I can be content where I am with what I have. Some days I have to really remember these words!

After much thought and pondering I decided my word for 2009 is going to be FOCUS. What do I mean by Focus?

FOCUS on God and my walk with Him.
FOCUS on my family.
FOCUS on having more simplicity in my life, having less things more time for the Larry and the kids.
FOCUS on our home and making it a haven mainly for us, but also for others that come our way.
FOCUS on paying down our debt and becoming debt free.
FOCUS on being content with what I have.

I have also decided that this year I am claiming a bible verse for 2009. This is what I chose, to remind me that I can focus on what I need to do:

It is God who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect.

2 Samuel 22:33

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year a day late! I hope you all had a wonderful New Year's Day! We did we spent the day visiting with my niece celebrating her birthday. New Year's Eve she became a teenager! Our New Year's Eve was a lot of fun! The hourly bags were a hit once again and I know this is a tradition we will carry on again next year!

Another tradition we do on New Year's Eve is to take two family pictures. I was worried this year that we would not get to do this since the camera I used this year is different then the one I used last year and I didn't know how to work the timer. I could not find the manual for the camera, which by the way was right where it was supposed to be. But why would I look in the obvious place! So with a little trial and error I figured it out. Here are our annual pictures. Please excuse my very stained shirt. I had been cooking and baking all day and neglected to change my shirt. (Hey I am just happy we got the pictures!)

We had a fun night playing games, shooting silly string, making homemade popcorn and watching a movie. I surprised the boys with Prince Caspian, which was an excellent movie! We watched the ball drop in Times Square and shook our hand made noise makers (paper plates folded in half, decorated with markers and filled with dry beans) and toasted the New Year with sparkling white grape juice. I served it to the boys in our wine glasses and Justin thought he was really drinking wine until I explained that it was grape juice. We had a fun night!

Goodbye 2008

Welcome 2009

We decided we needed some new eye wear to ring in the New Year!