Swimming & Skinny Dipping

Swimming with my Mamaw
Practicing for helping Mamaw water all of her flowers.
Skinny dipping and playing with my favorite toy...an empty water bottle!

Terrible Twos...

Wait! He's not 2 yet! How come he's already throwing temper tantrums?

I Still Live With My Parents

Chris picked out this t-shirt for Brendan a while ago...we figured that a picture on the front porch was in order. Luckily he cooperated.

At the playground

We went for a walk to the playground so that Brendan could swing and go down the big slide...unfortunately, we forgot his shoes, so he got to go down the slide with Daddy! He didn't seem to mind one bit.

Swinging with Daddy!

This is one of Brendan's favorite Daddy things to do...

Living on a Budget - Week 2

Since I went a little over budget last week, I took the difference out of this week's budget. So, I have $20.70 to work with. We did have to fill both of our prescriptions this week and I had 2 coupons for $10 Gift Cards when you fill a new or transferred prescriptions. That resulted in a $20 store credit at Kroger to put towards our budget for the week.

Sunday: Meijer - 4 packages of rice/noodles (Knorr side dishes), 5 bottles of bbq sauce (free after coupons to donate to the church food pantry), 4 8oz bricks of cream cheese, 2 tubs of cool whip topping. $5.76

Sunday: Kroger - (Two trips) 3 bottles of bbq sauce (free after coupons - also to be donated to the food pantry), 1 gallon of milk, 2 boxes of pasta salad mix, 3 DiGiorno Flatbread Melts (one free with coupon, two others will be free after mail in rebate), 1 lb. dried lentils, 5 packages of Quaker Rice Cakes (free after coupons), 2 jumbo packs of Huggies Overnights, 2 bags of Lays chips, 1 jar chip dip, 2 packages Gerber Yogurt Drops (Brendan loves these things!), 1 box of Triscuit crackers (free after coupon)
After $20 pharmacy rewards/store credit: $11.24 spent - should get $3.29 back twice for the mail in rebates on the DiGiorno Flatbreads (I'll send one to our house and one to my mom's house), plus $1.50 back from Caregivers Marketplace for the Huggies.

Thursday: Kroger - 2 bags of lettuce ($1.29 each minus $1 off 2 coupon), 1 can of creamed corn for soup, two green peppers, two tomatoes for salad. $4.67

Balance for the week: -$1.37

Yes, technically, I over spent again this week....ended up digging some change out of the bottom of my purse to pay at Kroger, but at least I didn't put anything on the credit cards!

Next week should be even more challenging...Chris' parents will be staying with us from Wednesday thru Sunday or Monday. I've got meals planned out and we mainly just need some bread, lunch meat, milk & produce to round out our meals, so we'll see. Chris thinks that we should pour some extra money into the budget/grocery envelope for this week since we'll be feeding 4 adults instead of 2. We'll see how things go.

First Word?

Brendan might be saying his first word...it's hard to tell if he's just yelling or if he's actually saying "Hi!" It seems to come out a lot like "eye" and he usually yells it at the top of his lungs. He does seem to do it at somewhat appropriate times...in Kroger as other people are nearby...so I guess we'll see! At least if it is his first word, it's a neutral one...not mama or dada.

#90 on the 101 things to do in 1001 days

So with the financial changes in our house, I have decided to try to accomplish #90 on my to-do list....I had originally written, only spend $20 per week on groceries for 4 weeks in a row. The plan is to implement a cash-only system and do a lot of meal planning based on what things we already have at home and what's one sale each week. We decided on a limit of $25 per week. This week was the first week and I think that I did OK. I did end up going over, but it's a learning process and I certainly spent less than I normally would!

Sunday - CVS has Honey Maid Graham Crackers on sale for 2/$5. I decent deal. I have 3 $1 off 1 coupons for the Graham Crackers from www.coupons.com , so $4.50 spent
Monday - Meijer. Coupon for a FREE gallon of milk and needed a few things for the dinners we had planned (sour cream, tomatoes, garlic, bananas for the little monkey, & a can of cream corn) $3.70 spent
Thursday - Target: Pace picante sauce, risotto, gallon of milk, two boxes of waffles (coupon for free Pace & free Kashi waffles) $3.17 spent
Friday - Target: 30 cups of Yoplait yogurt for Brendan (yes, I didn't need 30 for next week, but I had coupons that were going to expire soon and had Target coupons that expire on Saturday), 6 bags of shredded cheese (also manufacture coupons plus Target coupons - ended up being 59 cents per bag of shredded cheese) and 4 100 calorie pack snacks (ended up being 39 cents per box) $18.33

Grand Total for the week: $29.70 (I did end up putting the Friday Target run on my credit card, as I was a little over what I planned to spend and had to purchase a door lock - someone is tall enough and smart enough to open the pantry & back doors!) But I will take the amount I was over, out of next week's money, so things should even out.

What we ate/will eat for dinners this week (in case you're curious & so you don't think that we just ate junk!):
Sunday: cookout with friends (took a salad, as it was a pitch-in)
Monday: Egg Rolls, Asian pasta salad, broccoli & carrots
Tuesday: Crab stuffed flounder, creamy pasta & peas
Wednesday: Out to dinner at Olive Garden for our 3rd anniversary
Thursday: Beef Skillet Mac (recipe can be found on the inside of the Campbell's Cream of Mushroom soup)
Friday: Cobb Salad
Saturday: Tomato Basil Pesto Pizza, Salad & Breadsticks

Breakfast is usually cold cereal, oatmeal, or waffles. Lunch is usually leftovers or canned soup.

I'm not posting all of this for sympathy, yes, we're in a bad spot right now, but I know that if we're wise with our money, we will be just fine. We have a great stockpile of food, toiletries, including diapers to pull from. Plus, I'd like everyone to realize that you can eat well on very little money if you put forth some effort! There are two excellent blogs that I follow and get tips from - their links can be found to the right (Melissa & Jane).

15 Month picture - better late than never!

The recession hits home...

Chris got news last week that we were not wanting to hear, but had been afraid it might come for a little while now. The company that he has his largest and essentially only contract with (they were giving him at least 25 hours per week and usually 40+ hours per week) was going to very soon utilize their 30 day "bail-out" clause. They were hoping to get a large project from Duke Realty, but it appears that it won't be happening, largely due to the economy.
So, Chris is back out looking for a job. He's not hopeful of finding anything contract based or anything that will allow him to work from home. I think that we were finally getting used to our new schedules with him working at home and me working part-time & home the rest with Brendan. The bad part is that he won't get to be at home with Brendan so much, especially since Brendan seems to absolutely adore is Daddy!
We're determined to weather this storm and get by until the next job comes along, but it may be a few tight months...makes me glad that I've found and enjoy my couponing addiction.
And for those of you wondering, at this point, I will not be going back to work full-time. My doctors hired another PA on a full time basis and I don't believe that there is enough work for both of us to work full time, nor do I want to return to work full-time unless it is absolutely necessary, which at this point it's not. If I do have to return to work full-time, I'm not sure how long it would take to convince the doctors to give me back my part-time status and I really don't want to jeopardize that! Plus, Chris has more earning potential than me anyway...at least that's what I'm trying to get him to believe!

Coming out of the closet...my new hobby!

About a year and a half ago, I discovered a new way to shop, that some call "extreme couponing". It's essentially using coupons to get products for free or just pennies on the dollar. As some of you know, I've always used coupons, but never to this extent before and I've become totally addicted! I've been "buying" things for a few months now to build up a good stockpile of stuff for ourselves to use, but also decided to have a 'stockpile sale' at our neighborhood garage sale yesterday & today and see if I could make any money. I didn't keep track of exactly how much I spent to buy everything, but it wasn't very much, as some products the store actually somewhat paid me to buy them! We also sold some stuff that was gathering dust in our basement and garage and made $575 in the last two days! Just over $375 was from the products that I sold...$200 was from other "stuff".

Here's some before pictures:


& after:


Sorry the pictures were a little dark...taken in the garage with the door closed.

Just hanging around...

Mr. Cheese


Reading his favorite book..."Brown Bear, Brown Bear"

15 Months!

I can't believe that I have a 15 month old little boy! That's it for now...15 month picture with the bear to come soon... :) 15 month olds don't like to sit still for anything...

Mother's Day

We had a laid-back Mother's Day...the boys let me sleep in and then took me out to breakfast at Bob Evan's. Brendan behaved himself and didn't hit anyone with anything that he threw...cheerios, spoons, food, his cup... :)

Then later in the day, we went to Julie & Mark's house for a wonderful dinner. Brendan got to "drive" around the kitchen and had tons of fun!

In addition to hanging out with his daddy & Uncle Rob

Sidewalk 1, Brendan 0

Although, I'm not sure that he cares at this point!