A busy day...

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As the weeks pass by, it's getting harder and harder for me to keep up with the usual housework. So on the days when I feel a little extra energy, I try to take full advantage of it. I know, it might be a little boring to read my to-do list but I feel so accomplished today I had to boast a bit :)

1. I finally caught up with the laundry and ironing! I try to fold things right after they come out of the dryer. And yes, I love my dryer with the amount of stuff that I have to wash every week. Not frugal but keeps me sane... So about 80% of the stuff gets put away right away (which kids help me with as part of his chores) but the other 20% usually need to be ironed - mostly, skirts, dresses, dress shirts and khakis. Did I ever mention before how much I hate ironing khakis?? Ugh... But what can I do, that's the price for my love of Hubby looking all sharp for work... It took me weeks but I finally tackled the whole pile and I'm so proud of myself.

2. Cleaned the half-bath and a toilet in a full bath. Yes, just the toilet. Still pretty happy about it. That's the type of cleaning that's really getting harder and harder to do. But somebody has to do it. I asked Hubby yesterday to help me with scrubbing the tub... Sigh... Guess who will have to re-do it all? No, not me :) I will still keep trying to teach him how to do it :) I take bathroom cleaning one thing at a time right now and it works... most of the time...

3. Dishes and dinner. Well, that's one thing that I'm pretty good with but I had to mention it because I tried a new recipe and it was delish!! A bit time-consuming but so worth it. The kids actually ate all the mushrooms on their plates and that's a first for us...

4. Finished some work assignments and edited. I work a lot right now. Even more than I used to before. I try to pick up as many assignments as I can because my paycheck is what pays for all the babies' stuff we need. August was insanely expensive for us therefore I'm extremely grateful for any work that comes my way. I don't know how long I would be able to do it and even whether or not I will have the job after the babies arrive but I will keep working as long as I can.

5. Saved a box of strawberries from it's food waste destiny. I went through the fridge and cleaned it. The only thing that really needed to be dealt with was a box of strawberries. I cut them all up and froze for future snacks and smoothies. We've been doing quite a few smoothies (trying to use up stuff in the freezer) lately so they won't hang in there for long.

6. Dusted and washed the living room window. I haven't washed that window in so long, and the amount of sticky fingers all over were totally showing. It was screaming my name for weeks, and I finally got to it. Feeling so accomplished today :)

I've done a ton of other things but this list is getting a little too long :) I really want to lay down on the couch and stretch my legs right now but it feels good. Now keeping fingers crossed that I have the same energy back tomorrow :)

And how was your day??? What were you up to today?

Welcoming 2014 and starting a No-low Spend challenge.

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Happy New Year, everyone!! May this year be full of love, excitement and successes for you!

I was really looking forward to the beginning of this new year. The 2013 was not very nice to us. So many things have happened. Some I told you about, others - didn't. Some were not mine to tell... Or maybe, I was just too tired of complaining. Just writing this makes me too emotional. But hey, we are all together, have a roof over our head and food on the table, jobs we like, many blessings in life - life is beautiful!!

Still I'm quietly hoping for a little nicer year ahead :) This time I decided not to make any plans, goals or resolutions. We will take it slow, one month at a time, and hope for the best...

 Like in January we joined Carla's No-Low Spend challenge to save some money towards the ER bill that we are yet to receive:) But it's not going to be pretty, so we want to be extra-careful with our finances. We are planning on staying low in most of the categories. I don't put a number on it (well, other than the grocery budget that we want to lower to below $250 again). We will just try to spend as little as possible while still living a normal life. One of the ways to save money is just to shop less, so another small challenge that we I have (because it's not a challenge for Hubby. I already have to twist his arms to get him in a store) is to have 12 no-spend days in January. I think, this should be doable... I think...

By the end of the month I would love for us to save at least $500. Obviously, everything medical or work related will be an exclusion from this challenge. I also have two more exclusions but I will tell you about it a little later :) But for that we already have some money set aside.

I'm excited for this challenge. It will be a good start to the New Year!

Do you have any goals/resolutions that you want to achieve in the next 12 months?

September No/Low Spend Challenge

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Finally! It's been two days with no Internet here!!! We had some sort of an outage again. Ever since Quest became Century Link, we constantly have issues with our Internet. Most of of the time, we just lose connection a few times a day for a few minutes but this time it was just way too long. Because I work from home, having Internet is crucial for me. Century Link needs to spend less money on advertising and more - on improving their service...

OK, done venting :) I still need to catch up on all your posts that I've missed, your comments and e-mails but because today is the last day of the month, I wanted to start with posting our financial goals.

This week we got a note that we were finally approved for unemployment benefits. It's not much but it's actually more than I expected - $356 a week. We are yet to receive it (they said, it could take a couple of weeks) but I'm hopeful, it will kick in next week. Also August was the month when I made the most ever with translating ($561), so between the unemployment checks and my paycheck, it will be tough but, I think, it can be done. At least, this is what my goal is.

This month I'm joining Carla for September No/Low Spend Challenge. And my main goal is one - to stay within a budget!!! The question is how to achieve it...Our bills will eat about 2/3 of this new budget. And no, we can't sell the house - we are still way too upside-down. So whatever is left, needs to be stretched as much as possible. We are planning on doing it by:

1. Keeping our grocery expenses within $220 this month. With prices constantly going up (and with my boys drinking a gallon of milk every two days...), it will not be easy. We will try to achieve this goal by eating out of our pantry and freezer, trying to stick with menu planning and, well, eat less meat :) I will also stop stockpiling for some time and use more coupons (but only for the things we usually buy). Our garden has slowed down a little bit lately but we should still have plenty of tomatoes and zucchinis to last us for the rest of the month which will also help to cut down on spending.

2. Drive less. In the past couple of weeks my husband has been helping his Dad with his business quite a bit. I don't mind it at all because in a lot of ways it's an investment in both of their futures. But he's also been driving back and forth between his house and ours. And we have to do something about it. We'll try to arrange more meetings at our house and consolidate necessary trips with grocery shopping etc. We still have to work things through but it's definitely doable.

3. Keep other expenses under control. Our oldest will turn 7 in September. We are not doing a Birthday party this year (he will get the family one thanks to my husband's wonderful sisters) but we already got him a gift. September also starts a string of Birthdays in our family that will go all the way until the New Year. Luckily, I already have a few gifts (for the kids) and other gifts will just have to be trimmed a little.

As for other expenses, we will weigh and calculate every little thing before spending any money. There will  be only one thing that is excluded from this budget (aka we'll have to use our savings for it) - a car inspection, emissions and registration. It's a necessary evil that we have to do every year but I already have a coupon for getting the inspections and emissions for only $35. Keeping fingers crossed that our car will pass everything.

So these are our goals and plans. And I do hope that September will bring us some good news... Wish us luck! And thank you for all your prayers!! Did I mention before that you guys are amazing??? :)

November update on my yearly goals.

Pin It          You know what, guys, I just realized that I never did my 12 in 2012 for November. The end of this month will be the last time for me to update this year's goals. I already see a few goals that I'm not going to achieve but that's OK. Life happens. I already started thinking of some goals for next year (13 in 2013??) but it's still work in progress. Did you start thinking of what you want to achieve in the upcoming year?

But before I share with you how I did on my goals in November, I wanted to show you a few pictures.

First, is this:



This is what I got in the mail a few days ago!! Dear Cindy always knows how to put a smile on one's face :) She got me some stickers and googly eyes for fun crafts with my kids and also a fun book about silk painting. This is something I've never tried before but it's definitely on my to-do list! And she added a beautiful Christmas card and a recipe for a delicious Grandma's Apple Cinnamon cake that I need to try as soon as I can get my hands on some good apples. Thank you so much, Cindy for being a true friend!

And second is especially for Erin:



For the past 6 years I've been trying to get a NORMAL picture of my 6-year old with Santa...I don't think it's ever going to happen. We go from hysterical, crying bloody murder pictures to "Who the heck is that?" pictures to "Man, whatever is in that corner is way more exciting than sitting on the lap of this ugly dude!" I give up...

OK, now back to my yearly goals :)

1. Blog at least15 times every month. PASS! I blogged 19 times in November. It's actually the fewest times I've blogged the whole year. I think it has something to do with me being sick for two weeks...


2. Have a "money meeting" at least once a month with my husband. Still doing great with this one. We had a budget sit-down together 3 out 4 weeks in November.


3. Save enough to pay for Christmas with cash. Yes and no. Well, our original goal was $550 which we saved back in July. Turned out that this money wasn't enough for all the gifts we needed/wanted. We miscalculated a bit even though I didn't have to mail a package to my parents this time around. I think next year we will bump this number up to $700.


4. Save as much as we can for a minivan. Done back in summer. If you are new to my blog, read the whole story here


5. De-clutter 366 things this year. I'm progressing...That's all I can say because I didn't count yet. I have two bags of different things that need to go to different places like recycling, thrift stores and donation centers. I plan a post on "100 challenge" very soon where I will update the total.


6. Keep track of our food waste. Going strong. I believe this goal really helped me to be more accountable throughout the year.


7. Start putting again some money for retirement. Done! it took us a while but we finally started very small but monthly contributions of $60. It's a work in progress for us, for sure.


8. Have 1 date night every month with my husband. Definitely pass! We had a fun date celebrating our Anniversary (minus a trip to the Museum of Contemporary Art. If you missed it, read here )


9. Lose 12 lbs in 2012. I think I can officially say that I gave up on this goal :( There is no way I can lose 10 lbs a month. Or there is a way but I don't want to go down this road...I definitely fell off the wagon this year but I've done a lot of thinking and I know I want to do it in 2013. Stay tuned!


10. Read 12 books this year. Done, done and done! I've read at least 50 books this year.
11. Write in my journal at least once a week. Nah... I wrote only three times. I think I should reach this goal at least once this year, right?? I better go and write something in my journal right now :)
12.  Create mini-goals every month through out the year. Passed! It wasn't even a very small goal - I wanted to organize my kitchen, specifically, our pantry. And I'm done!! And I love it! In December I want to take it slow. I have a few  little things I want to achieve but the biggest goal will be to organize all my coupons. I used to be a pretty avid couponer (not the extreme kind but devoted...) but I kind of slowly stopped couponing altogether minus a couple coupons here and there. I want to start doing it a little bit more as grocery prices are going up and salaries are going down, unfortunately...

   And this is where I am. It's the first year that I made goals and New years resolutions and stuck with most of them, mostly thanks to blogging. And I love it! I love to see that we've achieved a lot, even if it's not everything I hoped for. But hey, I'm human, and I'm just happy to know that I'm not a complete failure and that I can actually see  progress!
 

Food waste, menu, goal updates and some goals for April.

Pin It    Last week I did not create a menu. I just didn't feel like it. And I really missed it!! It's nice to have a plan and to know what we are going to eat every night. So I'm back to menu planning. But first,my food waste this week:

   Yes! I have none! I'm so excited. I have some salad that needs to be used tonight and a bag of potatoes that I barely bought had a few that need to be used ASAP. But nothing that I can't save!  So here's a menu for this week:

Mon.- shepherd's pie, salad
Tues.-leftovers Chinese from this weekend
Wed.-chicken bean enchiladas
Thurs.-tuna patties, salad
Fr.-dump-everything-in-one-pot soup
Sat.-spaghetti with tomato sauce, broccoli
Sun.-honey garlic pork chops, mashed potatoes, veggies (Easter dinner)

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   I also wanted to quickly update on my March goals. We ended selling a bed set and a toy organizer on KSL and made $145. It really helped to outweigh some of our medical bills. We still need to have a few to come through but it looks like we might not need use our EF to pay for any of them. It's quite a relief! I did manage to stay below budget on almost everything.And I actually have $7 left in our grocery budget that I will roll into April :)

   And when it comes to my weight loss goals, I didn't achieve them :( I only lost two pounds instead of four but I'm surprised I even lost anything considering how sick we all were! On the other hand, I lost two inches on my waist (and my goal was 0.7"!), and my dress that I bought from Target fit perfectly for our special dinner last Friday:

   I'm going to keep working on my weight loss in April. Actually, my Hubby and I have a friendly competition this month. We set up some personal goals for ourselves, and we will update on them every week. We aim to achieve 100% in our goals, and whoever does the best, wins 20 bucks to use for whatever. So these are my goals:

1. Lose 3 more pounds
2. Take vitamins every day
3. Drink 8 glasses of water every day
4. Do full-body exercise (including 25 min. on a bike) 3 times a week
5. Do plank 5 times a week ( I really need to keep working those after-baby-two-years-later muscles...sigh!)

The chances of us having a tie are very slim. Even a glass of water makes a difference. But I have an advantage over him- all of you, my dear friends!! :) I'm so so grateful for your support, encouragement and friendship. And I'm grateful that you keep accountable :)

   As for financial goals, I'm not really sure what our plans are. This morning I found out that it's going to be my last week babysitting. The Mom that I sit for didn't even have a decency to tell that to me personally- she just sent me a text!! I know they are going through a lot, and it looks like he might've lost a job but how hard would it be to just honestly tell me that?? I would understand! We know what it's like to be on a tight budget. I feel kind of bumped right now. So for the month of April, I think, we'll try even harder to stay within a budget. And we will see if I need to start looking for a job. I love to be home with my kids, and we can survive on my Hubby's salary but we don't save at all, and we can't stay forever in a stage of survival.

  But even with  all that, the sun is shining, and I do believe that April will be better than March was!! I don't know why but I have a very good feeling...