Day 3

Spending Strike day three was a little more difficult for several reasons:
1. Pay Day. Always seems to be more temptations when there is the most amount of money available in your account.
2. Thai Day. There's a group of us that always orders Thai on Fridays which sets me back around $10 after delivery fee and tip.
3. It was COLD again. Which means I wanted more warm beverages from the sky walk coffee joint I usually go to.  ($3.50)
4. Friday nights we always get some sort of take out on the way home. It might be from a fast food company. It might be pizza or chicken. Sometimes it's Chinese. (If we're all eating at home, anywhere from $15-30, depending on where we order from).
5. We watch a new movie while eating our takeout ($10-15)
6. To add yet ANOTHER challenge to our plate, J's mom took the kids unexpectedly. Whenever we don't have the kids we take that time to go out to eat and maybe even have a couple beers, usually at Old Chicago ($35-40 including drinks and tips).

We successfully avoided almost all of the above.

Due to a minor mis-communication, I ended up ordering Casey's pizza ($12). (We were discussing frozen pizza over the phone--what to get, what kind, from where--and he ended up saying something about Caseys. I thought he meant ORDER Casey's pizza but what he said was that Casey's has frozen pizza...whoops...although I'm sure with gas station prices I only paid another $5 more than I would have).  I also ended up making a quick run to HyVee because it's close and I had a coupon for Kraft Mac N Cheese that was expiring soon and we were out of juice which we would both want in the morning. While I was there I also picked up some Capri Suns (Spencer takes them to lunch) and some ice cream ($3) that should last us another week or so.

(PS: We didn't end up getting any movies, we just watched a few episodes of Breaking Bad and hung out and spent time with each other. I even turned my phone off for a portion of the evening so it really was just us...no facebook/instagram/pinterest...just us).

I also had to get gas and J bought E some snow boots but we consider those necessities are are not counting them towards our total. I usually only need gas about once every 2 weeks or so and I didn't NEED it need it yet (I still had just under 1/4 tank) but with the arctic temps ahead, I decided to get it when it was only 25 degrees instead of -40 windchill like they are predicting for Monday when I would have NEEDED it.

With all this being said, yesterday's totals:

Money Spent: $15
Money Saved: $43.50
Total Spent: $18
Total Saved: $108ish

$108 dollars in 3 days folks. Even with spending some on Pizza and Ice cream, I still call this a win.

Spending Strike day 2

Today I went back to work.  I did go to the chiropractor however I consider that a medical expense, more of a need than a want.

For lunch I had a canned soup, snack a break room bagel and for dinner I have some leftovers (taco meat in a salad). I started to buy a book on amazon but then remembered ($8.54 saved!) And wanted a chai because it was so cold (-3°, Chai $3.50ish).

J and the boys didn't leave the house and no money spent online for him.

Totals:
Money spent today $0
Money saved: $15ish
Total spent: $3
Total saved: $65ish

2014!

2013 was a tough year, physically, financially and (as a cause of the first two) somewhat emotionally.

We made it through. We're happy, stronger and doing ok but definitely looking forward to a better 2014.

Couple things I'm hoping to work on this year is getting myself healthier. First step to that is starting a lemon water "cleanse". I put cleanse in quotations because I'm not sure I believe that by drinking a warm glass of lemon water every morning is really gong to act as a cleanse, but it's a healthy habit. Gets in some vitamins and a glass of water to start to day off on the right foot if nothing else. If it does, in fact, have other health benefits so be it. I'm also hoping that this will eventually break my Monster habit addiction, but no promises there.

I'm also continuing my decluttering efforts. Today I took a bag of things to my in laws (shirt that didn't work for me and I couldn't return, leftover containers from Christmas etc) and got rid of some kitchen utensils that were ruined (cracked wooden spoon, broken salad tongs). Broke down boxes for recycling. Over the weekend I took everything out of the cupboards and inventoried the pantry/tossed expired food. Avoided buying a new tote to put baking goods in by finding an almost empty one in the basement.

We're also joining in on the Spending Strike that is taking over the Blogosphere. We are always tight in December/January where the overspending from the holidays collides with the end of J's salary and this year is no different. We did better, much Bette actually, throughout the year on spending in some ways but buying a new car, medical expenses and the like took their toll. Our goal is to cut out excess spending and only buying necessities. This means I won't be ordering Thai on Fridays (sob!) this month or grabbing chai out donuts for breakfast.  I am still spending a gift certificate I got for lunches at my favorite local pizza place, but other than that, no eating out for lunches. I have yogurt, oatmeal, cheese sticks and the like for breakfast. I'll buy my Monster at Wal-Mart where it is half the price of the gas station. No vending machine purchases or clearance racks. When I do have to buy something, we have to need it. Groceries. Gas. Snow boots (Emerson hit a growth spurt. His boots don't fit at all anymore. Mine have a crack).  Date night will be spent at home, watching breaking bad and eating something we make instead of grabbing take out.  I will, however, let myself spend any money I make on the garage sale sites or from my crafts.

Totals:
Money spent today: $3 (we got invited to dinner at the in laws, we picked up drinks on the way)
Money saved: $50 (we normally go to a movie on NY day as a family, we stayed home today)
Total spent: $3
Total saved: $50

My plan is with the money we save to put half in savings and the other half go towards miscellaneous things...car registration, medical bills, new computer fund.

What are your new years resolutions/goals? Would you consider a spending strike for you and your family?

Ooops...I fell off the wagon again...

Hello!

A little over 7 months has gone by since I've blogged apparently. It's mostly because we have been BUSY!

We'll start with the big news and go from there.

This tax season was a rough one. First off, we were down to one car thanks to the Intrepid's transmission taking a nose dive. We ended up buying a new car (Nissan Xterra) at the end of March which we love and I use the Mazda as my main commuter car since it's little, paid for and good on gas.

We also got a PUPPY! His name is Maverick. He's adorable. It took me a while to warm up to him, but now I don't remember our life without him. He's a beautiful French Brittany Spaniel, black and white. Full of personality and love and has the potential to be a fantastic hunter. Time will tell :) Everyone loves him except for Lola and Viktor who like to team up on him, but at least they have each other :)

Another big change this year is that J's Crohn's was acting up. A lot. He spent most of the spring/summer sick. At the end of July we had a surgery called a re-section. This is where they went in a removed approximately a foot of his  sigmoid colon. He's been doing much much better since then, so it was worth it, for sure! He also ended up getting his wisdom teeth out around Labor day.

Spencer graduated from the Montessori program in the spring and has been going to the local elementary school. He's been doing ok there. Some things to work on..being quiet, finishing homework, motor skill stuff...but overall, he loves it, his teacher, classmates and that's what's important at this time.

I have been working, crafting, etc...you know, the usual. Still doing about a pin a week...be it an outfit, a meal, craft project or maybe just thinking about a quote or downloading a book. Some weeks there are more, once in a while I don't get to do any but I'm trying :) My newest addiction is an ap by Target called Cartwheel. You get a certain amount of "slots" to choose different deals. So far I've saved over $10 on things that I was going to buy anyway--a couple of Christmas presents, dog treats, etc.

Still making my own laundry detergent, packing lunches for Spencer's school. Making lots of food from scratch. Saving money where we can and working on spending money on things I don't need/won't use.

All in all, life is good, but busy. Now that it's colder, I'm hoping to get back into the swing of things on here :)

Laundry Soap Update

You may remember about a year ago, I decided that I would try to make my own laundry detergent. I am continuing to make it, however I decided that the liquid was much more of a pain than it was worth. I use the powder and make triple batches at a time so I don't have to make it often.

For the powder you use:
1 cup Washing Soda
1 cup Borax
1 bar of Fels Naptha

All of these items are in my Wal-Mart's laundry aisle. The boxes of Washing Soda and Borax are about $3 each and the bars of soap are about $1.

I use my food processor to grate the soap (I've done it by hand before...trust me, you'd much rather use the food processor). I then pour it in a bowl then switch to the chopping blade. I then add in a cup each of the soda and Borax then start slowly adding the soap. I mix this until the grated soap (which looks like cheese, I'll take a picture next time) turns crumbly. I have  a big container that I use to store this in so I just dump it all in. The soap will settle after time, so it's a good idea to make sure your container seals tight so you can shake it every so often.

Use about one tablespoon (more or less, depending on load size and how dirty the clothes are). I use plain white distilled vinegar in my softener holder and away we go. I hardly ever have to use my dryer sheets anymore!

I do still use All on our "dress" clothes, mostly because J's undershirts were getting dingy. When I bought him new ones, I decided to use the regular detergent to keep them whiter without having to bleach anything. I think I've been using the same container of All for over a year now though, since I only use one or two loads a week, if that.

I even got my mom, who was an powder hater, to start using this. She agrees that it smells very fresh and it's hard to beat the price. My grandma uses it in her top loading HE machine without any issues. I have noticed that sometimes it'll leave a little residue if I put the soap in on top of the clothes, but I've had no issues since I've started putting it in right after the water starts and wait a minute or two before adding clothes to the water.

What is your favorite laundry soap? Would you consider making your own to save money?

January

Man. This January has not been kind to us. Don't get me wrong, it could always be worse, but it's been tough.

First off, the tax rates/health care increases have changed our income by about $70 a month. Not enough to kill us, but the difference will likely be felt.

Then my car died. Specifically, the transmission. I've had her for about 7.5 years. She's been paid off for about 4 years. We knew it was happening and had made plans to replace her after tax season. Apparently she had plans of her own. One day she needed a little more gas to "go" out of the parking ramp. The next couple of days she ran mostly fine. Then Saturday came and she made some weird noises, but nothing bad. I went to go get some Lucas Transmission "stuff'" to help me out since I thought it might be a fluid issue. Alas, it was not. On my way to get the fluid, she refused to leave 1st gear, go over 10 mph and only when we were at 5000 rpms. I put the fluid stuff in, and it seemed ok for a couple blocks, but then when I cam home from the store, it was evident that she was just done. If you've ever driven through Ankeny going 10 mph, you'll feel my pain. It took me 30 minutes to get across town with both kids going "Moooom, why are those people honking/passing/staring/passing judgement?" (Ok...so they may have just asked about the people passing us, since I had my flashers on most people seemed to give me some lee-way.) Thankfully, my dad is letting us borrow his car until we are able to come up with something, which is pretty awesome of him.

The rest of things aren't big at all,but certainly inconveniencing  Tax season started, Emerson is back in daycare, Spenny is still going to school. Today Spencer is sick. Emerson got a fever and had to come home. He has a nasty cough, drippy nose and we are waiting for a dr's appt this afternoon.

On a positive note, I have lost about 6 lbs, which is nice since I've joined my job's Biggest Loser challenge. Winner gets the pot, which is around $225 or so. That'd be awfully nice to get ahead on some things (or buy myself something...like smaller jeans! lol)

I've also been teaching myself to sew and been pinning away...even doing a lot of what I've pinned. I've been working on my Silhouette some, even dabbled in some vinyl which turned out to be way less scary than I thought. I've also been taking a lot of tips from a lot of organizational blogs and been decluttering, getting rid of stuff. I've turned my hangers backwards in my closet and started purging clothes. I've cleaned out under the island and got rid of stuff we've never used/will use/don't need. (Seriously, I apparently kept a ton of sour cream/yogurt containers that we never use...recycle!) I've cleaned under the bathroom sink and got rid of some hair products/make up. I've gone through the medicine cabinet (I had stuff that expired in 2009-10 in there!) I've been planning Spenny's lunches better and making things easier on us by filling snack bags with a serving of crackers/pretzels/cookies. I've been keeping up on the laundry AND putting it away. I'm trying to go into this tax season more prepared, so we shall see how it goes.

For now, I must get off of here and see if I can get logged back into my work site and get some work done before we have to go to the dr.

Hope this finds you all well and healthy.

Cass

With a heavy heart...

Yesterday there was another shooting. Specifically, another school shooting.

It was a in town in Connecticut. I quit reading the stories, as they were all confused and convoluted, but the gist of the matter is that a 20 year old man killed over 25 people. 20 of which were kindergartners.

20 kids that are Spencer's age. 20 innocent lives that were likely very excited about Santa coming, getting the "big" present, maybe thinking about being a doctor, an astronaut, a solider, a police officer or a ninja.  

20 sets of parents who never dreamed that when sending their kids to school on that terrible Friday morning that the rest of their lives would be changed for the worse. 

I cried at my desk all day as the news stories rolled in. A friend of a friend lost their nephew in the shooting. He was 6. 

We had our Christmas party at work last night and our CEO made a small, tasteful statement regarding the shooting, saying our thoughts and prayers were with the families and communities that were impacted. I know that there were very many eyes that watered up just at the simple statement.

The news has sensationalized this...Yahoo Shine! posted this morning on their facebook page asking if the surviving students should be allowed to be interviewed on TV. So many of the comments I read were a very simple NO!. Other's were appalled that they would even ask a question regarding this. Apparently some news outlets have been there since right after it happened, they have pictures of students being lead out by teachers. They are saying that the shooter was mentally ill (ya think?!) and I've seen Autism, OCD, Multiple Personality Disorder all tossed out there as possible reasons as to why he did this. People are crying out for more gun control, that we should restrict the ability for people to own guns. 

So many of these items are too close to home. We have a kindergarten aged child. We have several guns. We have family members with Autism, Schizophrenia and other mental illnesses.

Now is not the time to be discussing if we should have more gun control, however. Now is not the time to blame the school for not having better security. 

Now is the time to grab your babies. Give them hugs. Give them loves. If they are old enough to understand, explain to them, gently. Send your thought and prayers to the community that has been effected in this terrible, terrible situation. Now is the time to let the area grieve. And thank your lucky stars that you and yours are safe.