Income is up too!

My husband called me from work today and was tickled to discover that his pay had raised by nearly $200 a paycheck....that is $400 month! He gets raises every so many years. We had not been paying attention to how the last few years have flown by and he was due for this. Needless to say..it put a little smile on my face today!

Selling Our Stroller

We have a very nice Jeep Wrangler stroller that we purchased for our last son. He was the only baby in it so it is in very good shape. Plus, I hardly ever used it! Retail for this stroller ranges between $120-$159. I know these sell very well even used. We have decided to sell ours. Our 4th son is a ball of energy and does not like to be the "baby." He is all about being like his big brothers. He is not even 3 yet, but has been totally potty trained for about 2 months. He did this all on his own! Best potty trained baby I have had :)

We are definitely done with having babies (hubby took care of that one!) So, even though he is not quite 3 we think we are done with this stroller. Just the other day we went for a walk around our block and he refused to sit in the stroller. He made it too! I thought for sure he would beg me to carry him half way..but he did not. So I truly think we will not miss it. We still have a much easier to haul around umbrella stroller. I imagine that is the only thing I would want to take anywhere anyway.

Well, I am not sure what I should sell it for...I am think $60.00 would work and that I should post it on craigslist. It has all the bells and whistles..even a speaker system for an ipod. Again, I never even used that feature:) Two drink holders, plus a snack tray for the kid and toys to strap on. It is a pretty sweet stroller. Especially when compared to the one my other three kids were hauled around in. Whatever it sells for, the money will go to our next CC payment! Yeahooo!

Staying on tasks

I don't know about you...but I love having a set of tasks written out before me and seeing them checked off one by one. I have tried dayplanners for this purpose, however, it was cumbersome to carry them around and hang onto them. The ideal solution for having tasks laid out would be an iphone....but alas...there is no room in my budget for such a luxury:(

I have recently discovered a neat little program that is doing the trick perfectly for me. I am on my mini dell computer quite a bit throughout the day checking email, researching things for homeschool, checking the news, and just surfing the pf blogs. So it is ideal for me to use something on my computer. This program is a free shareware program called Desktop Reminder. This program is simple and easy to use. One simply downloads it and she is ready to go. I now just type in tasks that I wish to accomplish..along with the dates I hope to have them done by. The moment I turn on my computer it opens up immediately widely on my screen and the tasks list are staring at me in the face. The perfect reminder! I downloaded the program about a month ago and I love it! I also love the feeling of marking things as completed :)

Feeling accomplished is important to me as a homemaker. Most people take for granted that little satisfaction that get from a job where a task is completed or done and overwith.

This can be a challenge for a homemaker, because we all know that housework is never always done or completed. Yes, I may get one load of clothes washed, but there is another one right behind it:) Not to say that does not happen to those in a regular job. But you get what I mean. Housework can be such a thankless job.

I am now using this program to keep track of my goals for becoming debt free so I thought I would blog about it to you all:)

Battling Pessimism

I realize achieving a debt free life seems impossible to many. At times, it seems impossible to me as well as my husband. But I simply don't want to hear that it is impossible! I want to be told "You can do this!"

I have a very close relative. She and her husband have lived on modest incomes their whole lives, but they have been very disciplined. The lived below their means, in a small house. Paid it off in less than 10 years. Tithe religiously to their church. They have a nice comfortable savings account. They have no debts. Yet, when I mention this as my goal..she at times can be pessimistic. She does not know my exact situation..but she just has this attitude that there is always something that comes up and takes it away. One can never truly get ahead seems to be her motto.

Despite the fact that they are currently debt free.......she still seems to feel when she gets rid of one thing..something else will come along and take it. Recently her gas bill lowered, but then her electric bill went up. I get what she means by the two steps forward....one step back, but a person like her should be patting themselves on the back. But she is not! I don't get it. She just seems to feel saving money is always a battle.

One one hand...I find her inspiring....on the other hand she makes it seem like life with money will always be a battle. I guess I don't care to hear that right now.

In away, it is personality issue more than anything. You know the saying...is your glass half empty or half full? I prefer to think I am half full.

I sooo want an Iphone!

I have been getting so many emails lately from fellow homeschooling mommies and they all say "sent from iphone" Right now we spend around 70 bucks for our two phones (my husband has an unlimited data plan on his for work purposes) I think the iphone plan would nearly double what we currently pay.

So I know it is not in the cards right now, but boy am I jealous at times. I love the thought of sending emails, having the apps and all the other cool little techy features in the palm of my hand. The little green bug of envy is biting me!

Eating from the pantry challenge

Money Saving Mom is doing a pantry challenge for the month of January. I am not in on this challenge, but I do feel inspired by it to simply use up some of our stuff. I am hoping to add more money to dour savings by slimming down the food budget. Our food budget is pretty tight..so this is a challenge for us. I only spend between 100-125 a week for a family of 6...with one of those being a 14 year old you can see what I mean by challenge.

Here is a list of some of the things we do to keep our budget low for food. This is not rocket science, but I think some people do not realize how doing some of these simple things can add up to large savings.

1--We drink only 4 things...lots of milk, water, tea, and a minor amount of 100% juice products. Of these 4 things...we drink water mostly and it is from our filtered fridge..not bottled.
We do not drink coffee or soda...those items can really bite your budget!

2. I buy very little if any packaged food products. I do buy boxed pasta and some basic canned goods. But I don't buy things like Hamburger helper, frozen dinner pkgs, cake mixes, or packgaged cookies. Besides the fact that most packaged things are unhealthy...they are also expensive when it comes to trying to feed a family of 6 with them.

3. I do buy off brand items most of the time. There are a few exceptions...I prefer crest toothpaste but will deal with Colgate. I prefer Jif Peanut butter, but usually buy the larger off brands anyway. Other than those...if there is an off brand available for a better price..I get it.

4. I buy off brand large items from Sams.
I recently got some dish dtg....here it is pictured. This will hopefully last us 6 months or more. To inspire me to make it last longer...I write the dates on the pkg. I also buy laundry dtg. off brand from Sams. Our last purchase of laundry dtg was in October....my bucket still has likely two more weeks of dtg in it and the large container cost under $10.00.

Well, those are some of the things I do to save a buck on groceries...perhaps I will post more later :) So what are some of the things you do?

Sprucing up my coupon box!

The holidays came and went....and my coupon box sat. I just did not have time over the past month to get this puppy put to use. I bought more in bulk at Sams and less at the grocery store. Today I had some time on my hand so check it out :)

The before shot...my pile to cut and box to clean out!


AFTER I purged and refiled! You will notice...it is a tool box..that was my husband's ingenious idea. I love having it securely closed and a handle. My old shoebox was always close to being dumped out. (The pink card is hiding my name and number)



Wooh...glad that is done...now just keeping my fingers crossed for some good deals this coming week.

Don't forget...the small stuff can add up!