MIA for 2 days!!!

Sorry I haven't posted in 2 days! It sure has been busy around here! I actually had my first substitute teacher job yesterday! for 6th grade! I was soooooo nervous, but by the end of the day I had the hang of it and it was a blast! I even got a complement in the last period! One of the boys told me he had asked a friend "how's the sub in her class" and was told I was "really nice"! yay!!!!Guess I will be happy and call it a triumph for the day! I learned a couple things: TAKE A BOOK!!!! TAKE WATER!!!!! LOL OMG was I bored the first half of the day- until I was able to go to my van and find a book! but by then I was sooo bored, the book made me sleepy and I had to get up and walk around! BUT it did give me time to work on my control journal pages and that is a good thing! LOL

So, today we pick up angel food! I canNOT wait! It is like manna from heaven on these days! esp when the freezer is bare, the fridges are light and the pantries are near empty (along with the bank acct!) There will still be some needs on the grocery list this week (TP, body wash, bread, milk, apples to start) but overall it should be another (hopefully!) cheap week! We are expecting TAXES to come in this coming friday! yay! then we will have a little wiggle room. to pay bills! LOL that's ok, that's what it's there for! the rest will go back to our emergency fund to build it up after us paying about $2000 on our van! UGH!!!! I hate transmissions!

After angel food pickup I will be posting again our menu for the week, and any recipes. I will also try to post a couple cheap/easy recipes our family loves. Today is "kids choice/kids cook" so it will be interesting what they come up with for dinner! I predict.....chicken nuggets and fries! LOL

I was talking to dd12 this morning and we were trying to decide on a "pet project" for her, something she could really get behind and feel good about supporting. I told her I would give her $20 and she could buy baking supplies and have a bake sale. with that money turn it around and buy more and have another, etc etc. do this throughout the year, and at the end of the year turn the money around for her charity. She thought this was a great idea, and she started out wanting to do it for St. Jude. Which is a WONDERFUL charity. we also talked about Vanderbilt Children's Hospital (in town) and homeless children, children from battered homes, etc. What she decided is at the end of the year, the money she has collected will go to buy gifts, we will divide them in 1/3 and 1/3 will go to Vanderbilt, 1/3 to homeless shelters, and 1/3 to battered shelters. She also wants to do for military families! she is just an amazing kid! She is quite a ...um... self centered? child at times so I wanted her to find something to look beyond and see a bigger picture. So I think this will be a great thing for her, and she is at a great age to start doing it. I also encouraged her to do this with her friends, start a blog about it, etc. I am really excited for her! I will keep you posted on how it's coming!

well, off to get ready for pickup! I can't wait!!!! rofl! it's like winning the lottery every month! hehehehe

Making Laundry Easier

Good Morning everyone! Today I am talking about Laundry! "Mt. Washmore" as "FlyLady" ( www.flylady.net) calls it. You know what I am talking about. That huge out of control pile on the laundry room floor, family room floor, bedroom floor, bathroom floor, or all of them! Most people don't like to do it, but it is a fact of life that is has to get done. If not by you, by someone else , because we sure can't go out and buy more, that just makes the pile bigger!!!!

With 3 girls, how do I keep it all in check? Well, I must admit it has been out of control for quite a while, but I have had things in place for a while and what has REALLY REALLY helped me is decluttering probably 1/2 of all of our clothes! Since doing that for the last 2 months, I have really been able to keep up with the daily chore of washing clothes! BUT had it not been for other things in my "tool box" so to speak, I would not have been able to organize and get it all together.

One thing I started years and years ago was I noticed from all the consignment sales I had a ton of kiddie plastic hangers in all sorts of colors. I sorted them, then decided who they most resembled. Red/pink - oldest (she likes pink), yellow- middle (liked yellow at the time), and green- youngest. Then I started hanging all of their clothes! Everything except undergarments and pajamas. At that young age they learned who's hangers were who's and so they could go into a shared closet and know "that's a yellow hanger, that's mine". and to put them away helped too. I have white big ones and honey has big grey and black ones. It's easier for him to get it straightened out in our closet when he sees the hangers mixed up! lol Now that the kids are growing, oldest is in "big" hangers, so she is onto big blue hangers (they were hanging around! lol), middle is transitioning into big yellow hangers, but she still has yellow and small white hangers, and youngest has red and green now. Honey gets frustrated every now and again because there are "NO MORE WIRE HANGERS!" ROFL!!!!

the other thing I started about a year ago is I went to Walmart and they had these plastic bins (sterilite?) that you could stack that are very sturdy. I bought 5 of them. here is their use: lights, darks, whites, towels, sheets/blankets/tablecloths. I used a sharpie to lable them all so the family can sort their own clothes, they are big enough to hold a load, maybe load and a half, so when they are empty I know to go hunting, and when they are full, time to get the machines moving! LOL If I can find the picture I took a while ago of them I will post it.

I do want to discuss how I was able to declutter so many clothes. It started out I would have a big plastic garbage bag outside the laundry room door, and when I would fold my clothes (from the dryer onto hangers or into baskets), I would decide if it was too big, too small, ugly, tired of looking at it, torn, etc. then I would either throw it away, or give it away. At this point I was doing more of that than keeping. I was about 1/2- 3/4 giving away my loads at this point. I kept the good brands of the kids clothes, only non stained, etc. same with us. We deserve good stuff. if it meant we needed to get a few new things, then that's what it meant, we deserve to feel good, not tired in our clothes.

Now that I am pretty much decluttered I have 2 hooks on the wall of my laundry room with grocery bags on each. One for garbage, one for give away. As I am folding my clothes/hanging them, if I decide it needs to go, I put it in the appropriate bag. when the bag is full, it goes out! it is that easy.

I also made up a "laundry schedule" to help everyone understand what needs to be done when. below is my schedule you can adapt for your house:

Laundry Schedule

Gathering schedule

Monday- bathroom, LeighAnn’s room
Tuesday- Hannah and Paige’s room
Wednesday, Mom and Dad’s room, Kitchen
Thursday- change sheets, bathroom
Friday- LeighAnn’s room, Hannah and Paige’s room

Cleaning Schedule

Monday
Am-Darks
Afternoon-lights
Pm- towels

Tuesday
Am- darks
Afternoon- sheets
Pm- whites

Wednesday
Am- Towels
Afternoon- darks
Pm- lights

Thursday
Am-Darks
Afternoon- sheets
Pm- lights

Friday
Am- Towels
Afternoon- whites
Pm- darks

Tues Feb 17, 2009 Coupons, coupons Coupons!!!!

Ok, ok, I am a reformed coupon hater! I thought coupons were no good, only for the "name brand" stuff and that was always too expensive anyway so that's why they were making coupons for them, to make them the price I would pay for them! Well! Let me tell you! I was told about a site while talking in a chat room called http://www.grocerygame.com/ and the founder is a genius! I saw my mom clip coupons when I was a kid, and saw her save $20 or so every week, but what I save is way way more than that! and I would have never known it had I not found that website!

Now, from the get-go I want you to know, this is NOT an advertisment for this site! I just want you to know about a TOOL I used to learn how to do something. Will I make anything if you join? Nope! Is it a TOOL for YOU to learn how to use coupons correctly? YEP. there are a couple ways you can do it. I think there is still a downloadable book that you can get to show you how to do it if there are no "list stores" in your area, or you can join for $1 for the first month, then a nominal fee there after until you decide to cancel.

What I learned: We are a family of 5, so I need to stock up....buy 4 newspapers on monday when they are $1 instead of $1.50 so I can get 4 of every coupon. That will usually do us to stock up for a while.

Sometimes I can get things for free, or nearly free even though they are name brand! Sometimes name brand IS better! It lasts longer, tastes better, or is generally a better value!

Know which stores double coupons in your area- those are the stores to hit most often! they will be the biggest bang for your buck! I have saved 50%+ at these stores! Imagine going in and having $300 worth of stuff and paying $150 for it! amazing! and that is just ONE store, ONE week! Now, I am not saying to spend that much money if you don't have it! trust me, I understand, but spend your "extra" money wisely by using coupons, matching them up to good ads, and saving them until you find a really sweet deal!

Get out of your comfort zone, try new brands and flavors, and you just might be surprised! Oh my kids just love it when I "grocery game" because that's when they get the "fun stuff" for their lunches, like fruit by the foot, etc. lol

Take a second look at coupons, you just might be pleasantly surprised!

Monday Feb 16, 2009 Presidents day (USA)/Family day(Canada)

Happy Presidents day/Family day Everyone! Hope you are enjoying this day! For us americans, this means we have a "day off" from most things...school, mail, banks....but not creditors calling, some jobs, and figuring out more ways to save money! LOL

So, I went to Aldi with list in hand and spent $41.71. I must admit I added 3 things to my list that weren't on there : 1 lb of butter and 2 boxes of hamburger helper. the butter was 1.99 (compared to 2.99 at foodlion, etc) and the hamburger helper was .96 each. I got those items because :1. I was getting a bit low on butter and forgot to put it on my list, and 2. I forgot to put the ribs in the crockpot, so I needed a quick dinner for cheap and knew I had hamburger coming out my ears at home. I was pretty happy overall with my spending. Add to that the $25ish I spent the night before and we are up to about $66 for the week for the 5 of us. Let's see how it goes! lol

So, today I really want to talk about making things easier on you. Sometimes the cheapest isn't always the best, and sometimes doing more ahead of time is better for saving money.

A week ago or so I was running low on laundry detergent and fabric softner. I have learned to love liquid softner for my washer, so I was really trying to find a new good smelling alternative. Food Lion has a new brand out and so I thought since it was cheap I would try it.

I have started watering down the snuggle 1/2 and 1/2 when i get a new bottle because, what do we do anyway? Put a capful in, then add more water. so, to save myself time (and ultimately money) I started watering it down when I found that tip on another site. I found that the water really didn't reduce the effect I was looking for, and it stretched the softner farther because I would still do a capful, then add water! When my snuggle ran out, I added 1/2 the bottle of the "new stuff' to my old snuggle bottle (it was a bit thin looking from the beginning), and filled up 1/2 way with water, etc. well, I was highly disappointed the first load when I did what I normally did with snuggle and my laundry came out smelling not like I expected. Usually I do a load before I go to bed, then start it in the dryer in the am. In the am it should still smell nice, this time it didn't smell all that wonderful. I am now up to filling up the softner holder with 3 capfuls and am somewhat happy with the outcome. I learned sometimes cheaper isn't better. I will be getting snuggle or suavatel after this runs out! As far as the soap goes, it is gloppy, but it does the job, so..... if I can get my fav cheaper I will.

As far as making things ahead, I have told you I use coupons, and I guess tomorrow will be the day to talk about them, but what I do is "stockpile" food. Like I have 4 large boxes "add water pancake mix". I had an extra kid here this am (dd12's friend spent the night) so I made 1/2 the box and what is leftover I will freeze for fast breakfasts in the am. My kids are notorious for not wanting to eat in the am "it takes too long" etc, so if I can pull out premade pancakes and heat them up in 30 seconds, it makes mom feel good! lol

Sunday is my "big cooking day" I LOVE to cook (you have to, to save money!) so I will spend tons of time in the kitchen cooking. On sunday I will make several meals for the week, or a big pot of soup for the family to use as lunches (one dd in particular loves hot meals instead of sandwiches for lunches), when I came in from aldi yesterday I had 3 bags of "chips"- cheetos (not fluffy), fritos and pretzel sticks. I bagged them all up in portions for lunches. This guarantees they won't be taking too many then throwing them away, and it also helps to make sure they aren't over eating as well! Some weeks I have even been known to have the kids make up their sandwiches for the week and put them in the fridge so it is easier in the am (hmmmm sounds like a plan for the week! LOL).

When making dinner, make enough for 2 nights, then you can freeze one meal for another time when you are too tired and want to go "out" to eat. It will be cheaper, healthier, and actually easier because you don't have to drive anywhere. Make sure you have a sharpie on hand to write on the plastic freezer bags what is in there, and when it was made (some things all look alike when frozen!) Don't forget to ask yourself when cooking "if I don't use as much of this meat as it calls for (or as I usually use) what else can I use it for"? Leftover taco meat one night becomes taco cups the next night, leftover spaghetti sauce and noodles one night become 3 lunches for you and honey to take for work! I always make too many noodles and too much sauce on spaghetti night for just that reason. Then and when we have beef stroganoff, etc. If there is enough leftover for 5 meals, heck! make 5 lunches! pretty soon you will have a good variety in the freezer and you won't have to go out anymore!

Have fun cooking! Remember it can be fun! Get the whole family involved if you want to! Unfortunatly I have no patience due to my condition (perfectionism) LOL so I just do it myself, but then again, I LOVE doing it! find new recipes! remember the old ones! ask your family what they want to eat, or what their favorite is! You just might be surprised! don't forget to eat around that table to reconnect with eachother!

Part III menu Planning- dinner for the week

Here's our menu for dinners for the week:

Menu 2/15- 2/20/2009

Sunday 2/15/09

Ribs in the crockpot
Rice
Broccoli

Monday 2/16/09

http://www.recipezaar.com/rz.205538
Homemade mac and cheese
Asparagus

Tuesday 2/17/09

Beef veggie soup (how hard can this be to make? if worse comes to worse, I will look on http://www.recipezaar/ for one)
Homemade bread http://www.recipezaar.com/Easy-Homemade-Stuffing-104867 will use this basic recipe - love it!

Wednesday 2/18/09

Tacos
All the fixins- tomatoes, lettuce, black olives, cheese

Thursday 2/19/09

Taco cups (canned biscuits in muffin pans, spoon leftover taco meat into middle, top with 1 T shredded cheddar and bake until muffins are golden brown about 15 min)
French fries
Veggies/dip

Friday 2/20/09

Eat out-(I HOP)
Pancakes
Eggs
Bacon
Biscuits
Sometimes “eat out” means make the house the restaurant!

Saturday 2/21/09

AFM Pickup
Girls have party here that night