January 2015 goals

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As I mentioned in my last post, this year I'm fully intending to create monthly goals and post them here on the blog. Since it's already the 4th of the month, I think it's time to start rolling, right?

My January goals are pretty simple and can be summed up as "coming back". Coming back from "stork mode" to frugal living and pinching our pennies again:

1. Pay off all the medical bills. Hopefully, we can be done with it finally!

2. Create a budget and actually use it. We never actually stopped budgeting, even during the very first weeks after the babies were born. But somehow by mid-month we would completely forget about it. By posting here, I hope, I'll start being more accountable yet again :)

3. Make at least $100. Yep, I'm back to work already. What can I say, formula is expensive! Luckily my job is extremely flexible and I can do what works for us. I think, $100 is pretty doable under the circumstances (I made $140 in January) but I'm not going to push myself too much just yet.

4. Start meal planning and tracking food waste again. Yet another thing that I've been slacking on for obvious reasons. We've been extremely blessed with so many friends, neighbors, Church members who brought us delicious dinners. You might remember that I also filled our freezer with yummy meals and we actually still have a few left. We will be finishing them up in the next few weeks. But all of that lead to some food waste, mostly leftovers that we just couldn't finish before it went bad. Now that our fridge is pretty bare, food waste shouldn't be much of a problem :)

5. Check our credit scores. No explanation needed, I guess :)

6. Start working on "for sale" list. As part of my decluttering goal, I also want to sell a few things. I will wait for a little bit to start listing because time is still very unpredictable but it's not going to hurt to start planning. 

7. Buy a couch!

And these are our boring but necessary frugal goals and attempts (minus the couch :). Here's for a good January, my friends!!

Are you working on any special goals this month?

Our 2015 goals

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As I mentioned yesterday, I have a few lofty goals I'm planning on working on in 2015. As you might've already noticed I'm a little OCD and like to have everything under control. Well, few things throw you for a loop more than having a child. Multiply it by two, and I'm amazed that my hair is not all grey yet. But there is always something optimistic about the beginning of a new year! And even though my first and most important goal is to survive the first year with twins while still being a somewhat decent mother/wife to my other 3 boys, I want to challenge myself and all of us to achieve a few other things because, well, that's what I always do. So here it goes:

1. Find some "me" time once in a while. 

Now that we became an instant family of 6, it's even harder to find time for myself beyond brushing teeth in the morning (or in the afternoon... don't tell me it never happened to you...). I want to challenge myself to carve a few minutes every week to nap (haha...), relax, ponder, read Scriptures, listen to the music, read a book and whatever else might help me to stay sane and not lose it on everybody in a one mile radius. The emotional imbalance I had to deal with the first few weeks postpartum kind of scared me. I had baby blues before but this time things were more intense. I'm in a way better place right now but it's still hard when you are always exhausted and sleep-deprived, so a few minutes for myself, I know, will make a huge difference. And yes, it does include blogging. I really missed this little blog and all of you, guys! I'm not sure how often I will be able to post or visit your pages, especially in the first few months of this year but it will get easier and I'll be back more and more often very soon.

It also includes taking care of my body. I've lost everything I gained while pregnant and then another 8 lbs but I'm nowhere near where I want to be yet. And it's not even about the extra pouch in my mid-section. I want to be stronger and healthier too. I'm really looking forward to the time when I can start exercising more regularly.

2. Organize and declutter.

What's new under the sun? It seems like I always have something to organize and get rid of here. But with the birth of our babies, all 1800 sq. feet of the house shrunk even more. With four children, having house under control is a must. As usual, I want to challenge myself to get rid of 365 things but, honestly, it's not about the number. Even if I can only eliminate 140 things but have the house in a more usable stage than it is right now by the end of the year, I'll be one happy girl.

3.Beef up our savings after paying off all of the medical bills and some other expenses. 

We are yet to get all of the bills in but we know approximately how much we will owe. After paying off that and making another upcoming big purchase (more on this later), we will do our best to get our finances under control again. Ideally I want to save at least another month worth of expenses plus start working on a replacement car fund. Our sedan that my husband drives is 9 years old and has more than 140000 miles on it. Granted, we had very few major repairs done to it so far and we hope it will last us many-many more years but we don't want to be caught by surprise because DH uses it to travel for work every single day.

Another thing we want to start working on are "sinking funds". I'm not a hard-core Dave Ramsey's fan but I have huge respect for the man. One of the things he's really big about is to be prepared not just for emergencies but for everyday things too. The "sinking funds" are when you set aside money every month for the things you will definitely buy/do/use throughout the year like haircuts, clothes, car expenses (tires, maintenance, inspection etc.), vacations, Birthdays and so on. Basically, you estimate how much whatever you need will cost and then divide it by 12 months. I think it's a wonderful idea. One of our biggest expenses every year are medical bills. I want to be sure that we will have at least deductibles for all of us in savings at all times separate from our regular savings. I will be working on other sinking funds too.

4.Cash flow a few home projects

We also have a few projects planned that we, hopefully, will be working on throughout 2015. First and foremost, we want to finish our guest room aka the room for my parents. I don't know when they will be able to visit again with my Mom's health (she's doing great but is yet to receive her transplant. Hopefully, by the end of January but I'm not keeping my hopes too high because they delayed it before due not being able to get a certain medication for her. It seems like it should arrive very soon but, again it wouldn't be the first time...) but I want the room to be ready. Plus, who knows, maybe somebody else would want to visit a family with two newborn twins and to have fun staying up all night "parting" with us? :)

The other "big" project is to re-do our laundry room closet. It's just not functional right now with the amount of laundry I do every week. We want to keep it under $500. And last but not least is our master bedroom. As it often happens, the room for parents is the last to get tackled in the house but, I think, it's time. I've been collecting bits and pieces for it for the past two years and I can't wait to finally get them out of the garage and actually use them.

And, of course, there will be other small things we will be working on but these are the three big areas that we will be planning and saving for in advance. Oh, and we will be buying a new couch very soon (the big expense) but I'll share all the details about it another time.

5. Create goals every month and blog about them.

Nothing helps me to stay on track more than when I feel accountable about what I'm doing. Every time I posted goals on this blog before, you, guys, and your encouragement helped me to stay in check and persevere.  Thank you for still reading my ramblings even after I pretty much abandoned this blog for a few months, and I hope you'll have a few words of encouragement for me again.

And here it goes, my yearly goals. I told you they are pretty lofty! But hey, how can we get better if we don't push ourselves a little bit, right?

And what are your goals/resolutions/aspirations for 2015?

My, oh my... the 2015 is almost here

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Well, I didn't come back over the weekend. So much for keeping the promise... The days are still kind of a blur here. But time goes on. It's (almost) hard to believe that the babies will be 7 weeks old on Friday. Time is sure flying by... Minus those days that creep along like months...

The last few weeks have definitely been a roller coaster. To quickly sum it up, we had to deal with my milk drying up, the flu, the stomach bug, the rotavirus (baby girl) that made us switch to the most expensive formula out there, physical therapy for my husband for the pinched nerve in his back (that's been dragging for months already but we finally started seeing some improvement) and the freezing weather. Add to it two newborn babies who don't sleep day or night and yeah, life is fun...:)

I do think, we are slowly getting into some sort of routine but it will be a while before we can all breathe a little easier. Still, it shouldn't stop us (or at least, me) from trying to get my life to a somewhat organized stage. Hence, back to becoming a goal-oriented girl again.

You might remember that last year I opted not to make any goals. 2013 and the beginning of 2014 were VERY rough for us. In fact, exactly a year ago we found out that we were 6 weeks pregnant only to lose the baby just a week later. Then I lost my Grandma. Many things had happened last and this year, both heart-breaking and exciting. I have to say, I'm kind of ready to slow down to a more predictable lifestyle. I know it's not exactly in my hands but some things are. So this year I'm going back to creating and trying to achieve a few goals in 2015 even if some of them might seem lofty :)

But since this post is getting a little long, I'll share them with you tomorrow. A sneak peak - the top of the list is surviving the first year with twins :) Oh, wish me luck!!

Happy New Year, everyone!

I hope we all have an amazing year ahead of us!

Saying goodbye to September...

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Wow, I can't believe it's the first of October already. September just flew by! I guess, the weather does remind us that winter is right around the corner. It will be 39 here tonight - time to change that furnace filter already... sigh... glad not to have summer heat any more but so not ready for cold weather...

September was also full of all kinds of doctor's appointments for me. I gave up on trying to stay within our medical budget. We get some sort of bills it seems like every other day. Anywhere between $12 and $1200. The good thing is that it's slowly chipping off of the big sum at the end when the babies are here. The bad is that it's all new for us. With both of our boys, we would get one global bill at the end with another one from the anesthesiologist. Now I just keep writing checks...

On a good note, the babies are growing and very active. They measure about a week ahead and are gaining weight steadily. I, on the other hand, have lost two pounds since my last appointment. So far I only gained 18 pounds with this pregnancy which is way less than it was with my boys by now. Granted, I started a little bit on the heavier side and my doctor is not concerned but it still feels weird to lose while the babies are gaining... I told you this GD diet is kicking my tush... And I'm measuring as if I'm 38 weeks (with a singleton pregnancy) at not even 30. That's kind of crazy!! I know I have 2 growing there but it's scary to think how big I'm going to get...

We decided to increase our grocery budget at least for the month of October to accommodate my new needs and also meal freezing. Last month we added just $50 to shop for freezer meal ingredients. I don't know who I was kidding! Meat alone costs so much more than that! I comfort myself with the fact that if I'm prepared, we won't need to shop much in November or December. Because I doubt we will have time for that :) 

Otherwise, I'll be taking it easy and slow in October. No big goals here. That feels weird! I'll be packing a hospital bag, finishing the little things in the babies' room and working as much as I can since it might be my last paycheck for a while...

And what are your goals for the next few upcoming months?
 

30 things in 30 days

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 Yesterday one of my friends pinned this great inspirational thought on Pinterest:

 That's exactly how I woke up today :) I really enjoy these occasional bursts of energy when I just want to conquer the world. I've done a ton today and definitely gonna go to bed satisfied with myself (not to boast here or anything :)

I honestly didn't expect that I would be struggling to stay active so early in the pregnancy. It's definitely very different this time around. Now the simple tasks (like cleaning a bathroom) turn into the true meaning of the word "chore"... And that's why I'm trying to finish as many things as I can before I look and feel like a mama duck...

I mentioned before that I've been on a roll trying to declutter our house. Since school starts in less than a month, I want to challenge myself a little more. Hence, 30 things in 30 days.

In the next 30 days (starting August 1st and going until Saturday, Aug 30th) I want to donate-sell-gift-get rid of at least 30 things. I love the feeling I get when we have a cleaner, less cluttered house (not to mention, less dusting that I have to do...). I will update about once a week on my progress.

Do you want to join in?? It's not a huge goal so anybody can do it. And we will cheer each other up along the way :) So are you in?

The Frugal Fridays. Good bye, April. Hello, May!

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Good evening, everyone!

 Did I mention before how much I love you?? You, guys, are awesome. Thank you so much for all your support and kind words and comments. I'm happy to report that my MIL was released from the hospital. She still needs to take meds (well, actually, give herself a shot) twice a day but we are happy that the worst is behind us now. Thank you for all your prayers!

And as you can see, I took a little break from this blog but I am back, rested and rejuvenated. I also got a few ideas from you on what to write about, so hopefully, the blogging muse is here to stay for a while...

And it's also the beginning of a new month. April was not our most frugal month but it was surprisingly quite good. I got a few nice deals but, mostly, I just stayed away from the stores and put a nice chunk into our savings. We are sitting nicely at $3600 out of my $10000 goal this year. May is actually a 3-pay check month for us (wohoo!!), so I hope to bump this number to $4000 but I doubt we can do any better because, more than likely, 1 check will go solely towards some sort of vacation. We haven't really planned anything this year but hubs and I desperately need a getaway, even if it's something small and local. After a year we just need to spend some time together...

But I was thinking about our savings goals and savings in general after one of the reader's letters (hey, Laurie :). These impromptu vacation ideas are kind of unusual for us. Most of the time we plan things like this way in advance and set money aside. As I mentioned before, this year we concentrate on general savings but we still create a plan on how to reach some other goals that we have. Our budget right now is more flexible than it was before because of a little better paycheck. But the thing is - it's not really better. At his previous job hubby used to get quarterly bonuses, anywhere between $800 to $2500. So overall, we were making the same amount of money but with getting a nice sum at a time it was easier to save. Now it's  more about planning and restrain to save a dollar :) I try to move a chunk into savings at the beginning of the month when we are done with our budget. Then I'm keeping fingers crossed for some leftovers. If we have anything left by the end of the month, I move it to savings too and zero out the rest of the budget. Then we start all over again :) There are months when we have to dip into savings. But, mostly, we've been pretty successful so far with pinching our pennies.

I think, I want to write a separate post on saving when you live on a tight budget but for now I just want to say that I'm back and I'm loving it :)

So how was your frugal week and the month of April??

What inspires you?

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I occasionally like to watch "Shark Tank" on ABC. You know that show where a bunch of rich people descend to the level of some smart but not so rich people to help further promote the latter's inventions and to make even more money for themselves along the way? Yep, that's the one.

I'm not a constant viewer. It's more when I need to feed my curiosity and, maybe, get a good laugh once in a while too.

But some of the stories of the participants can be quite inspiring. Probably, about two weeks ago they had a girl on the show who started her own business selling absolutely adorable baby moccasins (for a whopping sixty dollars a pair, mind you). She ended up making a deal with Daymond John who offered her 150 thousand dollars for 25% of her growing company.

But this girl really inspired me. Why? Well, she started making these baby shoes because she wanted to find something cute and comfy for her own child. She did not know how to sew. So she taught herself following a bunch of different tutorials and discarding many ideas until she created exactly what she wanted. For the first few attempts the gal used a piece of leather she picked up at a garage sale.

When she realized she stumbled upon something big, this lady knew she needed the money to start her own business. They didn't have any extra money in their budget. But her brother was working for a window replacement company at the moment, so they could get a lot of old windows from him.

That whole summer she would take those windows, sand and paint them, and then sell on local classifieds. Some she would just dissemble and sell the metal parts at a scrap yard. She made a total of $200. When Mark Cuban learned how she funded her endeavors, he stated that it was the best story he's ever heard on how to start a business.

Just a few years later (I think she said three but don't quote me on that), she's selling $500,000 worth of merchandise a year netting about $120 thousand of pure profit...

I think, what inspired me the most about her is not even the fact that she started such a successful business but that she had perseverance. She started from scratch. Not even from scratch, from zero. She had no idea how to sew at first. But she taught herself, she used the knowledge she found and she didn't doubt her abilities. It wasn't always a smooth ride for her but she pressed on.

Sometimes the big idea can be hidden in your closet only because your doubts or hesitation wouldn't allow you to try to make something out of it. Sometimes the disappointment of the first or even second or third attempts seems to crush your biggest dreams. But Calvin Coolidge, the 30th President of the Untied States, once said:

“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan "press on" has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race”

Quite brilliant, don't you think? And right on the money.

So what inspires you to be the best you can? Do you have any ideas buried under a layer of doubt? Do you have a dream that stays just that - a dream? And how can we help and motivate each other on this road to success, especially when the pathway is quite bumpy?

Why I don't update on my yearly goals any more....

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You all know that I'm a very goal-oriented and a list-making person. And those of you who have been with me long enough, know that I create yearly goals every New Year. And try to work on them.

But not this year. It's been a while since I updated. I actually looked through my goals yesterday and smiled. So many things have changed since January. So many things are not important any more...

I did achieve some of these goals. I finally joined Facebook (please like me if you haven't already. Thank you!!). It took me a looong time. We also keep working on organizing our lives and cutting food waste.

But most of these goals became irrelevant, especially due to recent changes in our lives. And others, like reading 50 books this year, just seem funny now. I doubt I will read that many books but, honestly, I stopped counting months ago. Who cares how many I've read as long as I enjoy reading? I don't know what I was thinking when I created this goal. I'm not going to push myself to read more books just to achieve a certain amount. I'm gonna do it because I love it :)

Now I want to concentrate on small goals. Short and sweet. Mostly, on how to live from one week to another. I want to be able to progress and push myself but not for the sake of reaching some magic number.

Has it ever happened to you that you created certain goals/resolutions that you wanted to achieve and then realized that they don't really make sense any more?

A few updates about our financial monthly and yearly goals.

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 I started working on this post yesterday but never got to finish it. My thoughts are with the people in Boston - the innocent victims of hate. This tragedy seems so senseless, and my heart aches for all of them. But I'm so grateful for all the volunteers who were brave and willing to help without hesitation. These amazing men and women were ready to help others even in the face of danger. May God bless and comfort all the victims and their families!


Whoever stole our spring, give it back!!! It's been so cold and dark in the last few days. We got hit by another winter storm, and it's been snowing a lot in the last two days. I feel like a snail hiding in my shell right now. I have no desire to clean, or cook, or work. I didn't even create a menu for this week. I think we will eat what we have, and I'll make some easy comfort food like soups and salads.

On the other hand, we have some updates on our financial goals. My husband received another bonus. He gets bonuses quarterly, and we never know how big it's going to be. Usually it's somewhere between $500 and $2500. This time he had good three months, and his bonus was $1900. Because most of our tax return will go towards the necessities, we decided to put most this of bonus (minus tithing) towards our savings goals. If you look on the right side where the progress bars are, I (finally!) updated all of them. The numbers include all of the savings from the 1st of January until now.

Because our vacation fund is almost full, we also looked at booking a trip to Bear Lake in August. The water should be the warmest then, and we hope to score some delicious raspberries too. It will cost about $300-350 for 1 bed 1 bath condo for 2 nights (which is usually plenty for us because kids refuse to sleep in a new place :). Our vacation fund usually includes gas and the food we will buy too.

Another vacation we plan to take some time in summer is a 2-day getaway to Las Vegas (for just the two of us). We should have enough money left for it because we are not going to gamble. We actually want to go visit a few of our friends who live in the suburbs of Vegas some of which we haven't seen in almost ten years. We are excited to have a little time for ourselves but we are yet to plan the details of this trip.

I'm so grateful for so many blessings in our lives, and that we are able to work on our financial goals. And I'm grateful for my amazing husband who works really hard to provide for us. We don't have much but we have plenty enough.

 We also added another $300 for car repair fund (I don't have a progress bar for it) because we will need some oil changes and transmission fluid flushes on both of the cars pretty soon. And then we'll keep fingers crossed that nothing else will go wrong with the cars for a while.

And that's where we are. I will not include the bonus money into our planned financial goals for this month (or it would be too easy, right :). I don't have a good update on it yet but the plan was to make $300, and I'm right on track. And how are you doing on your financial goals? Are you planning any vacations/staycations this year?

PS- and I know, some of you asked about my progress bars. The tutorial is coming, I promise :)

My March to-do list, and what I would love to achieve in the month of April.

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I just realized that no matter how crazy and tiresome March was, we did pretty good on our goals. Granted, our to-do list wasn't very long. Here is what it looked like and how it happened:

• Finally, finish the baby blanket. Yes, I did! If you missed it, read more about it  HERE. We have the cutest new little nephew, and I hope he'll enjoy this little gift very soon. 


• Finish two projects around the house and post about them. Well, I kind of achieved this one. We did finish two projects but I only posted about one of them. But I promise, I'll post about the other one very soon (hopefully, tomorrow if I can find time to take pictures).


• Prepare our garden for the season and start planting if weather permits. Again, I can't say we completely achieved it but close enough. I dug it up, and we purchased some compost. I haven't started planting anything yet but peas are on my to-do list in the next couple of days.


• Start on spring cleaning. That's exactly what I did- I started...I barely touched the surface. I washed windows in the kitchen and the living room, and also cleaned the kitchen blinds. But not much else, unfortunately. We were all just too sick to do it. But I'm definitely going to achieve much more in April :)


• Start organizing the garage. Oh yeah, baby! Last Saturday we spent the WHOLE day in the garage (so much fun...). Let me tell you, it was a HOT MESS! As usual, I forgot to take the before pictures. But we cleaned it all. We literally got everything off the floors and outside to the back yard and I cleaned the floors 4 times until I was satisfied:

And all the junk was sitting on our patio. Yeah, I know, we are a bunch of red necks :)

I promise it didn't stay like this long. We worked all day and cleaned our back yard before the sun went down. I'm not going to show any after pictures because it's not all done yet. We organized it but there is an area of the garage that we want to turn into a work area for all the gazillion projects I have in mind, and it's still far from being done. Hopefully, we'll finish it all in April. Oh, we'll see...

And that's how we did on March goals. It wasn't a perfect month by any means but we've done quite a bit. I realized that when I don't overload my list, it becomes much more doable even when life happens.

But I'm ready for April! I've been thinking about joining Carla's savings challenge and finally I decided what I want to do. We will have some expenses this month (like creating a work area in the garage) but I still want to stay within a budget.

So this is my first financial goal - Stay within a budget. It's time, girl! The last couple of months were just too expensive. I hope to finally be able to get back on track. And first and foremost, with our grocery budget. I've been consistently over the first quarter of the year. Granted, our food budget is pretty small. We plan $280/month for our family of 4. This month we will add another $50 for stocking up because we are very low on lots of things. I hope we'll be able to stay within this amount and stock up on everything we need. Plus, I hope to stay on top in the other aspects of our monthly budget and, maybe, even save some money.

Now to the second goal. Last month I made $302 in extra income (mostly from my part-time gig). After some discussion, we decided to use this money for all the projects we are planning for this month (like again, the famous garage). But it's a lot of money for us. So what I'm hoping to do is make $300 again this month to equalize our expenses. It will not be easy but, I think, it's doable.

As for non-money-related goals, we want to achieve this month:

• Finish 4 projects around the house and post about them (haha...I couldn't even do 2 in March!)
• Garden, garden, garden!! I can't wait for some fresh produce (including kale that decided to grow back :)
• Spring clean like a mad woman...It's happening in April, I promise!

Wish me luck! And what's on your to-do list this month? Any great plans?

A few updates on my health issues and how we spent part of our tax return.

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I know it's been a while since the last time I posted anything. Actually, I think it's the longest break I've ever taken from blogging.

First, I want to thank you all for your kind comments and get well wishes. I'm so blessed to have all these amazing friends like you. I wish I would have some awesome news about my health but alas :(

Just like I planned, I went to see the doctor on Tuesday. Well, I don't have strep (I guess, that's good news) but I do have a sinus infection. But that's not all. After having a lengthy conversation with the doctor, he has suspicions that I might have low thyroid issues and, possibly, anxiety too. I've been having shortness of breath on top of constant exhaustion and many other symptoms that made him suspect it.  Nothing is confirmed yet. I had blood drawn but because they have to send it to a separate lab, I'm yet to know the results. Keeping my fingers crossed that I will get some news by the end of this week.

And because of other possible things, he didn't give me anything for the infection. So I was pretty miserable most of this week. Constant headaches wouldn't even allow me to use the computer, and I missed it (yes, I'm an addict!). I think today is the first day that I feel a little bit better and can actually partially breath through my nose. But the Baby is not doing very good. He was running a fever all night, so we are heading to the doctor later today :(

Because of a sick household, we ate mostly junk all week. And I mean junk like frozen pizza, hot dogs, chinese takeout and McD's. I can't wait to start eating normal (read, healthier) food again. Especially, because now I have something new to cook it on:

Yes, we got a new (WORKING!!!) stove!!! I wish we could get gas, but we can't do gas in our house :( But it's very nice, and did I mention, it works properly???? I love it!

And of course, we got a good deal on it (I know, you are not surprised :). After looking at many different places ( we actually got it last week, before we all got sick again), we ended up at Best Buy. This stove was originally $649 but last week it was on sale for $489. But when we got to the store, turned out that they were so back-ordered that they couldn't even order us one. So they offered us the floor model with a 10% discount. For a floor model, it was in very good condition. Actually, the only damage it had was a little scratch on the handle.

But we still didn't like only 10% discount, so we negotiated another $40 off which brought the total price down to $399. You just can't beat this price! We still had to buy a new cord (which was  another $28) but overall, after taxes and everything, we spent only $457.30.

Plus Best Buy was offering free delivery and haul-away of your old appliance if you make a purchase of $429 and higher. Well, with the new adjusted price, we couldn't get it any more (and delivery alone is $69.99!!). But it kind of erased all the purpose of the discount, so the manager waved it all for us.

So all in all, we got, well, at least $250 discount. Not bad! Not bad at all. And I love my new stove. It's not fancy but it works great and gets the job done!

At first, we wanted to use most of tax return for savings but after some discussion, we realized that there are a few things we need. I mentioned before that we'll use part of it to pay for any old and new medical bills. Then we really need to buy a new mattress for the Baby's big boy bed. Also we need a new door for the back of our garage because ours is all rotten and nasty. I don't know how much we'll have left from our tax return after all these purchases but if there is anything left by the end of April, we'll move it to savings.

So here's what's happening on our side of the world. How was your week??? I missed you all!!

My March to-do list.

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I know, we are already almost a week into March but I finally figured out what I want to achieve this month:) I'm one of those people who creates a very long list and then, when I don't reach all of my goals, I tend to feel like a failure (and it doesn't matter that I achieved like 80% of it...). So this time I have a short but sweet list because I really want to achieve everything on it:

• Finally, finish the baby blanket that I've been working on for the past two weeks (or I should say, I started it two weeks ago but never came back to it!). Mommy-to-be is due in 3 days, and I really want it to be a gift for her for when she has her sweet little boy.

• Finish two projects around the house and post about them. Nothing big! I just have a few things that I'm working on but I need to actually FINISH at least some of them. I just have too many ideas in my head, and just not enough time (or hands) to do all the projects. But I should be able to finish at least two! I know I can, I know I can...

 

 (a sneak peak at what I'm up to this month :)

•  Prepare our garden for the season and start planting if weather permits. This one is big!! I have a ton to do in our garden because we want to expand it this year. But I'm so excited to have our own produce, greens and herbs again. I really can't wait! 

• Start on spring cleaning. I would love to say that I want to do it all in March but, hey, I know my limitations...But I will try to do as much as I can (even if it's just cleaning on top of the cabinets in the kitchen and washing the blinds...)

• Start organizing the garage. Again, I'd love to be able to do it all but it's just too bad right now. We would really like to be able to actually park a car in it but we need to come up with some sort of a system because right now it just doesn't work. We cleaned it less than a year ago but we are back to square one, and our garage looks like a big dump again. Do you have a system that helps you keep your garage in order??

And that's it!  That's actually quite a bit so I better get to work :) But you know me, I can't just leave without asking how you are doing :) Do you have any goals you are working on in March? And cleaning or other projects? What's on your spring cleaning list this year?

OK, and I'm gonna go paint something...Have a good night, everyone :)

February update on my yearly goals.

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You know what guys? As I was thinking about this post, I realized that I've never written the January update (How could I???) !!! I guess, today it will be a quick sum up of both months :) I did pretty good on some goals, not so good on the others. Oh, well...here it is:

1. Live healthier.

 Ironically, the last two months were not exactly my healthiest :(  I had an issue with my back in January, then my trip to the ER in February.  Because of that I didn't exercise much, it was sporadic to say the least. I still tried to eat healthier. We added more fruit and vegetables to our diet. And I've been taking my vitamins every day. I also went to the dentist and GYN who actually told me to add extra calcium and vitamin D into my diet. After I started doing it, I felt so much more energetic. And now that the days are getting a little longer and warmer, I'm excited to go for an evening walk/jog.

2. Keep track of food waste and continue with meal planning. 

 I did pretty good with that. I kept track of food waste and created meal planning every week. I didn't follow it exactly but, probably, about 90-95%. I think it's pretty good!

3. Create mini-goals every month. 

 I did pretty good in January but I didn't make any specific goals for February. I decided to take it easy. I needed it! I'm still working on my March goals and will post it later but I don't think it will come as a surprise that it involves a lot of cleaning :)

4. Read 50 books this year.

  OK, I really don't know what I was thinking when I created this goal! Considering I usually allow myself 15-20 minutes of a "bathroom break" every day, this goal was more than ambitious. So far I've read 4.5 books and I doubt I will get more time to read as summer will approach. More than likely I'll be digging in a garden until dawn instead :)...

5. Have a Pinterest Challenge once a month and post about it.

OK, this I kind of failed. I didn't fail to do the projects (mostly, recipes) but I never posted about it. I cooked quite a few things off of Pinterest. Just yesterday we had these pork chops for dinner (link to the original recipe). It was SO good! I used homemade preserves, added water instead of wine, added minced garlic and replaced ginger with allspice (per advice of some reviewers). Mmmm...But I forgot to take a picture to show you how scrumptious they looked :(....I'll try to do better in March.

6. Nourish my creativity (on a budget).

  Our biggest project in the last two months was definitely our bathroom re-do. It took most of my energy and creativity :) I finished a couple smaller projects that I will post about next week but nothing big really. Most of the creative projects are happening in my head right now. I have a ton of ideas that I'm "working on" (to my husband's dismay ..:)

7. Finish two bigger projects in our house. 

 See above :) We are done with our bathroom, and I'm slowly working on the details of what I want in our laundry area to make it not just pretty but functional.

8. Keep working on organizing our lives.

 Didn't do much on decluttering and organizing so far this year but it's coming as spring cleaning approaches:)


9. Write at least 3 letters a month. 

 I actually did! I'm pretty proud of myself!!I wrote to quite a few friends and even reconnected with a long lost friend. I'm pretty happy with how this goal goes so far :)

10. Make time for myself, for us and for others.

  I'm working on it :) As I mentioned before, I try to spend a little time reading books every day. I also try to spend more time playing with my kids (and the cardboard house in the middle of our living room is proof of it :) and we had a date both in January and February :)

11. Work on savings goals. 

 There isn't much change since my update in January. We depleted our car fund and we have even more car expenses coming in March :( But I hope to replenish it very soon! I haven't received any extra income for February yet but it will be around $200. When I get it, we'll decide what to do with it.

12. Have a smaller family vacation and a little getaway with Hubby. 

 Working on it! We have $502 sitting in our vacation fund at the moment. Also our friends that live in Vegas insist on us staying with them instead of a hotel, so we might take them up on this offer(which will save us a little bit of money). We are still thinking about it.


13. Last but not least, I'm thinking about joining Facebook and/or Twitter. 

 Haven't done anything about that. So far I've been reading other blogger's Facebook pages and planning on what I want to do. Hopefully, I'll have my Facebook page up and running by the end of this month.

And that's where I am with my goals. How did you do on your monthly/yearly goals??

Our savings goals for 2013 update.

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Wow, can you believe it's the last day of January?? Today it was so warm here, it felt like spring! I really enjoyed playing outside with my boys, making a snowman and having snowball fights. It was awesome! I wish it would stay like this for the rest of winter...Wouldn't that be nice!

I thought today I would update on our savings goals for this year (you can see most of them on the side of this blog). January was not an easy month for us financially when it comes to our regular income. But I mentioned before that it wasn't a bad month for us overall. And that's because even though our paychecks were cut, Hubby still got a Christmas bonus and a last quarter bonus. And I received a 2-month paycheck for my part-time job and a couple of tiny checks for some secret shopping assignments. Combined, it was quite a substantial amount. Hubby's regular paycheck only covers day-to-day expenses, so all this extra income is the only way for us to set money aside for anything else. So after tithing we split all the extra income, and that's where we are after January:

1.Vacation fund- $502. Our original goal was $1200 for a 3-2 day trip to Las Vegas for two of us and a family trip to Bear Lake. But we actually hope to keep it lower. Our friends who live in the suburbs of Vegas offered to let us stay with them, and we think we will take them up on it. But we would love to take them out to thank them, and they have 3 kids, so it will not be cheap. Still cheaper than two nights in a hotel :)

2. Baby fund- $1450. This is almost a priority for us right now, and that is where the biggest chunk of money went. We just want to have this money ready for when we need it whenever this time will be. It's taking us a little longer to get pregnant this time around but we have a good feeling about it. It will happen when it should happen!

3.Christmas fund- $80. It's not much but it's only the end of January. I feel pretty comfortable that we'll have enough saved before the end of summer.

4. Car fund- $200. And we really need to boost it! We got a flat tire the other day on our car, and the rest of the tires are so old that we need new tires :( At the moment we are down to one car but it's OK. I hate driving in winter. But we will still need to figure it out very soon. I might have to put my salary for January to car fund to cover the difference.

We also set aside $200 to work on our half bath. I'm excited to start on this project in February. More pictures are coming, I promise!!

So here is where we are. I think, it was an awesome month for our savings goals. We shouldn't have much progress in the next two months because, first, Hubby only gets a bonus quarterly, and second, we don't know if we will end up owing taxes this year. But we are hopeful that we can break even.

Do you have any financial goals this year and did you make any progress on them in January?

The Inspire Me Sundays...My 13 in 2013.

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                                                        (source)
This was the first year of my life that I created goals for myself and worked on them throughout the year. I think the difference was that they were not New Years resolutions...you know the ones that you work on in the month of January and then successfully forget about as spring rolls in. Putting them in writing here on this blog made them real, visual and something I felt accountable for. I didn't achieve all of my goals (especially, the weight loss one...that's where I plain failed) but I didn't forget about them, I kept moving on and learned from what I achieved and from my mistakes too.
So today I'm finally ready with my 13 for 2013. It took me a while. I wrote a few goals down and then I realized my heart just wasn't in it. I went back and forth with others. So here it goes:

1. Live healthier. Last year I wanted to lose a set amount of pounds. I did great for a few moths, then slacked for a few months, then completely gave up in the last quarter of the year. But I realized it's more than just losing a few pounds. I'm not very big. At 5'6" I'm 159 pounds right now. It's a lot more than I would like to weigh but I have other more pressing issues. We don't eat very unhealthy. We can't afford to go organic (we do have our own organic garden though) and I'm not ready to become a vegetarian again in my life. But we rarely eat outside of home and try to stay away from a lot of processed food. We consume a ton of fruit and veggies too. My biggest problem is lack of moving andlack of adequate sleep. These are two of the few things I need to work on this year. I'm lazy, I'm not gonna lie. We go to bed late, and I'm so tired in the mornings that I have no desire to exercise at all. I have a sitting job working from home, so I move very little. That's why I realized that I need to make a few changes. It's not about losing pounds (but I wouldn't mind to shed a few along the way). It's about becoming healthier and stronger. This is my priority for this year.

2. Keep track of food waste and continue with meal planning. It worked great for us this year and I want to keep going. Menu planning really helps us to spend less and to use up more before food goes bad. I will keep posting it on Mondays as I did this year.

3. Create mini-goals every month. That's another goal that I'll continue next year too because it worked great for us in 2012. It helps me stay focused and feel that I make progress.

4. Read 50 books this year. Last year my goal was 12 books. I don't know what I was thinking! I love to read and read a lot (when I have time, often hiding in the bathroom :). So I think 50 is a very achievable goal for me. Any suggestions on books worth reading?? Just, please, don't recommend  "Fifty shades of grey" because it's...mmmm...not exactly my style :)

5. Have a Pinterest Challenge once a month and post about it. This is something I started working on last year but never kept it going. But I keep pinning things, just don't do them. I think it's time for me to try again and share with you if I was successful or not.

6. Nourish my creativity (on a budget). Somewhere mid-year I changed a focus of this blog from being strictly financial to just being about me and us. We have a very tight budget that dictates lots of things we do. But I just go crazy if all I concentrate on in life is money. I'm a fairly creative person. I love to work on different things and projects. I love to explore and learn new things. I want to keep doing it on a budget that we can afford. And of course, I will keep sharing my/our projects with you :)

7. Finish two bigger projects in our house. We have a few bigger projects here that will require  advanced planning/saving for. No, I'm not ripping off the kitchen cabinets...We (I... believe me, Hubby doesn't want to re-do anything :) want to work on our powder room and our laundry room/area this year.  

8. Keep working on organizing our lives. This year we got 412 different items out of our house. I didn't realize we had that much stuff! So this year we will keep working on de-cluttering but I'm not going to have big goals. It will be more about organizing things we have and take stuff out before we bring new things in.

9. Write at least 3 letters a month. This year I tried to write in my journal 4 times a month. I'm ashamed to say but I haven't reached this goal even once. I was close though! But one of the things I felt  bad about is not writing many letters. I have a lot of friends, especially back in Russia. And I haven't talked to many of them for more than a year. I'd love to try to write a letter a week but I think it's a little bit of a taller order than I can handle, so I'll keep it at 3 a month. They don't have to be hand-written letters. It could be a message on Facebook or e-mail. Or even writing in my journal (these are "letters' for future generations, right?:)

10. Make time for myself, for us and for others. I tend to be an over-achiever...I'm always working on something. I want to learn to simplify my life and spend more time doing what's really important- spending time with my kids, going on dates with Hubby, serving others. And finding time for myself. I think it's the hardest thing for me. But just like the quote above said- I want these goals to help me become somebody - somebody better, more relaxed, more spiritually uplifted, more satisfied with life. Happier...This is my goal for this year.

11. Work on savings goals. We have so many things we want to work on that it will need a separate post! Stay tuned...

12. Have a smaller family vacation and a little getaway with Hubby. Originally, we planned to go to San Diego and Sea World this year. But after we played with the numbers, we realized it's not going to be possible. So we decided to settle for a Bear Lake trip again and then Hubby and I want to go to Las Vegas this summer. Neither of us are gamblers. We will not waste money there. But I just wanted to see the city, out of curiousity. Plus we have friends living in the suburbs of Vegas, and we wanted to go visit them for a while. So here's the plan for now but it might change as time goes.

13. Last but not least, I'm thinking about joining Facebook and/or Twitter. Or not. I haven't decided yet. I have a personal Facebook account but I don't spend much time on it. And as for Twitter, I don't know ANYTHING about it. So it will take me some time to figure out what I want to do and if I do it, how to manage my time better so I can update one or both of these accounts.

 Again, it's all about finding a healthy balance in all of the goals. I don't want to feel intimidated by them, I want them to help me to progress.

So here it is. Might not be very inspiring for YOU, guys (sorry!) but I hope it will at least inspire ME to have a better year in 2013 :)

   

  
 

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!
 

Some updates and yearly goals updates too.

Pin It    I can't believe we only have two months left until the end of the year!! The time flies..that's how we get older without even noticing it...

   Can't you say I function on only 3 hours of sleep? :) Hence the mood :) The baby is pretty miserable today. We went to the doctor this morning and, yes, he has a flu and an ear infection :( His fever finally broke tonight, so hopefully he will start feeling better soon. We had to move our " Christmas dinner" with my parents to Sunday and cancel some plans. It's hard because they will go home next Thursday already, and we barely saw them. Please, keep our Baby boy in your prayers that he feels better and can enjoy some time with his Babushka and Dedushka!

   And because it's the beginning of the month, it's time to update on my yearly goals. It's crazy to imagine that it's almost time to start thinking of the new ones for 2013!!

   Anyway, here it goes:
  
1. Blog at least 15 times every month.  Well, that's easy!  Even with my little break I blogged 20 times last month. I love blogging :)

2. Have a "money meeting" at least once a month with my husband. Done! He's getting better and better every week too :)


3. Save enough to pay for Christmas with cash. Oh yes, now I'm just spending it :)

4. Save as much as we can for a minivan. You are probably tired already of this goal :) Achieved like forever ago.

5. De-clutter 366 things this year. I'm getting so close! I'll update more on it on Saturday but as of today we got rid off 353 things. I'm so close!


6. Keep track of our food waste. I did OK. I only skipped one week of not going through my fridge but nothing was going obviously bad that week anyway.


7. Start putting again some money for retirement. Yes, yes!! My husband finally (I mean, FINALLY!!! 10 months later!!) figured it out. We will put $60 every month into 401K. I know, it's a funny number but it's better than we did before, and we hope to be able to increase it soon.


8. Have 1 date night every month with my husband. Fail :( We are pathetic! But we had a lot going on in our immediate family, and babysitting was nearly impossible. But we already planned our November date as it's our Anniversary month :)


9. Lose 12 lbs in 2012. Nope :( I exercised a little bit here and there but not nearly enough. I didn't lose anything but didn't gain anything either, so it's a plus. I really just need to commit...Or, and kick my lazy behind!


10. Read 12 books this year. I think I already quadrupled this goal.:) Maybe, even more.


11. Write in my journal at least once a week. Nah, I only wrote once.


12. Create mini-goals every month through out the year. Well, I only had two goals in October -to finish our master bedroom and to clean the house before my parents came. I reached both! :) I really need to take pictures and share with you everything we did in our bedroom. It's quite a dramatic change!

 

   So these are my goals. I'll share my November goals on Saturday (because I want to share a little finished project with you tomorrow. Stay tuned!) 

 

Have you already started thinking of your next year goals yet? How about just this month's goals? 

September update on my yearly goals.

Pin It    I apologize for being MIA in the last few days. Everything is alright! Mostly, I was just trying to take advantage of the last days of warm weather and finish a few painting projects here. But I also have a few thoughts about the future of this blog and what I want from it. I want to have a real post about it but I still need to get my thoughts together.

   So today I better update on my yearly goals :)

1.Blog at least 15 times every month. Done! I blogged 22 times.

2. Have a "money meeting" at least once a month with my husband. Yep!! I just love how Hubby is so full of initiative :) He really wants to do it himself, and I love it!!

3. Save enough to pay for Christmas with cash. Done back in July. And I'm actively working on some gifts. I spent about $150 so far. I need a separate post for it too :)

4. Save as much as we can for a minivan. We don't really have a certain sum in mind just yet. We can't really save anything with my DH's salary. We really live from paycheck to paycheck right now, so all the money we can save will come from me babysitting, and that can really vary. Done back in summer, and we love our minivan : )

5. De-clutter 366 things this year.I didn't do much this month. We gave away and sold a few things. But I"m still right on track. We "de-cluttered" 16 things in September which brings us to 304.

6.Keep track of our food waste. We did. Unfortunately, we wasted more food than I wanted :( Hopefully we could do better in October.

7.Start putting again some money into retirement. You wouldn't believe it but we failed it :( I told you last month that we started doing it. Well, apparently, there was some sort of a glitch in a system and they still don't take money out of our paycheck. UGH!!! I'm so tired of it!! It was my New Year goal and it's already October...And nothing!!! What makes me really mad is that it's only one goal that I myself can't do anything about!!

8.Have 1 date night every month with my husband. Well, this one we failed too :( It was a really hard month, and we just didn't have time for dating. But we tried to spend more time with our family. And that's what's important at the moment!!

9.Lose 12 pounds in 2012. Nah, don't even ask :(...

10.Read 12 books this year. I only read one book in September but I already tripled this goal anyway.

11.Write in my journal at least once a week. Nah... Only 3 times. But it's OK. It's one more time than last month  :)

12.Create mini-goals every month.  I did great in September but still need to think of my October goals. So far my goals are to finish our master bedroom, to deep-clean the whole house before my parents come and to organize all the documents and papers. I think this might be it for October! 

Do you work on any personal goals this month?