the car I drive

"Little Tan" has been my car for 12 years, 2 months and 5 days.  It's a 1999 Camry LE and I bought it new when my oldest son was a newborn.  He was such a newborn that the Car Salesman had to teach us how to transfer the baby seat from our old car to this new one!

We paid the car off more than 7 years ago!   I love not having a car payment!!!

I've been driving with the "check engine" light on for almost 4 years!  We pay about $100-200 each year to fix it long enough for it to pass inspection.  What we pay each year is SOOOO much less than a car payment would be for one month!

Because of its body style, my husband has hated this car for 12 years, 2 months and 5 days!

It only has 130,000 miles on it!

He's wanted me to get a new one since before the check engine light came on.  I've always told him that when I got stranded in it AND watched it burn, then I would feel like I truly needed a new car.  Until then...Little Tan was doing just fine!  Did I mention that I LOVE not having a car payment!  I really don't want one...

Well...

...I got (kinda) stranded.  And while there was no fire, there was a bit of smoke.  It was one of the happiest days of my husband's last 12 years!

Stay tuned to see the future of "Little Tan". 

income tax

I absolutely LOVE tax-time of year because it means my family gets back all the money our government has been holding from us throughout the year!  Because of the way my husband earns his income (more than 30% of it is commissions...), the IRS holds a huge amount of his commission checks.  We have tried and tried to adjust our Withholding, but it is never enough to break even.  This year we are getting back a nice little chunk and it's very depressing to think about how we could be investing that money if the government wasn't withholding so much more than what they need to!

So, what are we going to do with our Tax Refund?   We do have PLANS for it and I'll share with you later this week where it's going!

What about you?  Do you have to pay taxes this year or are you getting a refund?  What are your plans for your refund money if you're getting one?

week 4 update - no spending month challenge

I've made it to the end of Sharon's No Spending Month Challenge and had a great month!  My goal for Week 4 was to spend $125....and I spent under that!  For week 4, I spent about $115, most of which was on groceries.

So, did I meet my goal of staying under $800 for the month?  Let's see:

Week 1 - $139.58 spent
Week 2 - $366.72 spent
Week 3 - $148.87 spent
Week 4 - $114.26 spent

Total for the month?  $769.43...$30.57 under budget!

My **WISH** for the month was to add $3900 to savings.  Because of a garage door repair ($250) and a car repair ($1100), we didn't make that goal.  But, we managed to save some and we had a great month being frugal!  Had I not been working so hard to keep our "everyday expenses" under $800 we wouldn't have been nearly as successful as we were.

Thank you Sharon for hosting the challenge! 

"yes money"

The vacations that we're taking this week were planned and put in the 2011 budget so that we would have the money in the bank and not go into debt!  (I love knowing that there will not be a credit card bill waiting for us when we get home!)  But before we left I "found" some extra money here and there that I've tucked away for our Chattanooga trip.

I'm calling it my "yes money".  My 12 year old is SOOOOO used to hearing me say "no" when he asks me to buy something that I thought it would be nice for him to hear "yes" for a change.  My thoughts are that the "yes money" will go towards things like extra souvenirs, snacks or sightseeing things he might like to do that I hadn't already planned.   He has brought his own money to spend as well, but it'll be fun for me to treat him to things that I normally wouldn't at home!

So where did I find my "yes money"?
$95 - an insurance check for his braces (that were removed 7 months ago) that I wasn't expecting to get
$6 - sold a movie on half.com
$7 - found in my coat pocket
$19 - survey money
$5 - sold a book on half.com

So...to my 12 year old, "Yes honey, you can get that!"  ...but once it runs out....

road trip!

This week my kids are on Winter Break from school and we're trying something new as a family.  One-on-one vacations with the boys.  My husband had originally planned to take the boys on a trip, leaving me home to enjoy a week of peace and quiet...ahhhh! (now that would be heavenly!)  The more the boys talked about where they were going and what they wanted to do, it was evident they had very different ideas on how they wanted to spend time with Dad. 

So?  They each are getting a trip with Dad!  And they each get a trip with me!  This week my 9 year old is skiing with Dad in Colorado and my 12 year old and I are taking a road trip to Chattanooga!  Come Spring Break, we'll flip it around and my older son will be fishing in Florida and my 9 year old and I will be taking a road trip!

We've never vacationed this way, but I'm really and truly looking forward to it.  My husband has taken 1-on-1 trips with the boys before but I've never done it.  I'm not sure if going on a road trip with mom is something they'll always want to do, so I'm taking full advantage of it while they are eager!  I'm so excited!

Plans for us in Chattanooga?  We're going to be HUGE tourists!  First stop is a private hiking tour through one of the caves.  Then, everything else there is to do in Chattanooga...the aquarium, Rock City, Ruby Falls, Lookout Mountain, Incline Railway, battlefields, and a college basketball game!

More details when we return!

cloth vs. paper napkins

On way we save money and reduce waste at our house is to use cloth napkins.   Occasionally I'll grab a paper towel to use at lunch, but for the most part we only use cloth.  To reduce waste even more, sometimes we'll use the same cloth napkin all day long!  gasp!  (unless it's truly dirty...).  When it comes to eating ribs though (or something equally messy) we don't use cloth napkins but instead use dish towels!!!

How about you?  What do you use?  Cloth or paper?

Carla over at My Half Dozen Daily has a giveaway going on this week for cloth napkins that she has made herself!  She has some very cute patterns and it's definitely worth your time to check it out.  Take a look and enter her giveaway!

week 3 update - No Spend Month Challenge

We've made it through 3 weeks with minimal spending and I excited at how well we're doing!  My goal for this week was to spend $150 or less.  Here's what we spent our money on this week!

Groceries - $94.52
Personal Blow Money - $18.34
Gas - $27.26
Dry Cleaners - $5.65
Balance due on newspaper subscription - $3.10

So, if I did my math correctly, we spent $148.87, coming in $1.13 under budget.  Yippee!

A couple of things that I've been doing to SAVE at the grocery store.  I have been making a lot of homemade breakfasts for our family this month.  I did buy a box of cereal last week to give myself a break for a morning or two, but other than that, I've been making muffins, french toast, waffles, eggs and/or bacon in the mornings.  Not buying Pop Tarts, and frozen waffles and pancakes has saved a lot of money!

Another area where I've saved money is with LUNCH stuff.  We all have our favorite bread and we are never are able to go through 2 loaves between the 4 of us before it gets stale.  I have found a fresh baked deli bread that we all like, and our grocery deli will sell it by the 1/2 loaf.  It's the perfect size for us to eat sandwiches from for 2-3 days.  I'm able to get a half loaf of fresh sandwich bread for less than $1.50!  I have also been getting fresh deli lunch meat and cheese.   It's cheaper by the ounce/pound for me to buy it from the deli counter AND I am able to get only what I need. 

So - we enter our 4th and final week of Sharon's No Spend Month Challenge.   My goal is to finish the month with $125 cash which will go towards food, gas and any incidentals.

Here is my monthly recap.  My goal for February was to keep my everyday expenses under $800.

Week 1 - $139.58 spent
Week 2 - $366.72 spent
Week 3 - $148.87 spent

forever 21

My birthday was this past weekend and the boys surprised me with a yogurt cake!  Because a bit of my frugality trickles down to them, instead of buying candles to put on top of it, they resued the number "12" candles from my oldest son's last birthday.  But they got creative...

From the mouths of my babes:
Oldest son says:  Mom...we wanted to make you think you're 21 again!!!
Youngest son says:  Mom...if you double the number, that's your real age!!!


And...my birthday surprise?!?

A digital SLR!!!!  I cannot even tell you how excited I was to get this!  I've been wanting this for many, many years!  Now...I just have to give myself some lessons and learn how to use it!

day 15 update - no spending month

We're halfway through Sharon's No Spending Month challenge!  How is everyone doing?  My goal was to spend $800 or less on my discretionary spending items.  Things like groceries, eating out, gifts, gasoline, and everyday incidentals would come out of the $800.  Our fixed expenses (mortgage, utilities) and pre-planned expenses (like monthly haircuts and a vacation that's coming up) would not come out of the $800.

I must say there are many things that I catch myself needing to buy that I'm not sure should or shouldn't count against my $800.  I have, for the most part, been erring on the conservative side and deducting these expenses from the $800 challenge.

So - let's cut to the chase.  How am I doing?

Week 1:  Spent $139.58
Week 2:  Spent $366.72

Total Spent:  $506.30
Total Left:  $293.70 for 13 days

We didn't have the Scouting expenses (badges and celebratory dinner) this week that I'd expected so that helped us come under budget.  Scout Sunday at our church was rescheduled to a different week...so that money budgeted will get spent later on in the Spring.

For Week 3, the only expenses that I think we'll have are groceries and gasoline, so I'm hoping to keep expenses below $150 for the week!

valentine's day on a budget

Valentine's Day on $50...that was my goal.  

How did I do?

$8 - my youngest son's school Valentine cards and candy
$8.25 - party supplies for son's school party
$20 - gifts for my boys...I got each of them $10 gift certificates to TCBY
$0 - gift for my husband...I cleaned the garage for him as his gift!!!
$18 - pizza for dinner (I could put this expense under "food", but since it was special for V-Day, I'll include it in the Valentines expenses)
$1.25 - ingredients needed to make a special cake for dessert

So....$60.50 is what I'd spent!!! 

I went over a bit.  I'd originally planned to make ribs for dinner, but I was able to purchase a $25 gift certificate for only $2 from restaurant.com to Johnny's Pizza (one of our favorites).  I had to spend $35 in order to use it, but figured I'd just ordered more than we needed with the intent that we'd have leftovers for dinner tonight (or freeze it for another night).   When it was time to use the certificate though, I found out that they add 18% gratuity on top of the bill -- even though I was doing carry out.  I was really disappointed.  I'd expected to be $12 out of pocket for $35 worth of food, but instead was $18 out of pocket.  So, that added $6 to my VDay that I hadn't planned.  But other than that, I felt like we did pretty good.  The kids LOVED their TCBY gift certificates and my hubby loved his clean garage!  And, it was nice having the pizza for dinner was a treat for me and freed up time to clean the garage and make the cake.

How about you?  How did you spend your Valentine's Day?

my ah ha moment

I think I may have finally gotten over my motivational plateau  that I've been on for the past 2 years with my weight loss goals.  I've kept a weight loss journal for a couple of years and looking back through the pages that I've written, I see 2 things that are constant.  I am constantly losing and gaining the same 3 or 4 pounds, and I am constantly listing 130# as my goal weight.

Last week in the USA Today's Life section, there was an article about losing weight.  In it the author compared having extra weight to having debt!  That really got my attention!  She said that we need to look at extra weight as debt and look at exercise as income.

I wasn't blogging when our family was working to get out of debt.  We paid off $32,000 in 17 months and worked hard to get it done.  It wasn't easy, but it was fun in it's own way.  There is nothing like seeing the balance due on your credit card and car loan go down each month.  Getting out of debt was something we did very well.  We were focused.  We had a plan.  We had a setback here and there, but we were never derailed.  Sounds like a weight loss journey too, huh?

So, when I read those words--- to treat extra weight as if it were debt, THAT was something I could grasp.  Since I read that article, my weight loss journey has taken on a whole new importance too me.  This time, I really feel like I'm in the right frame of mind to finish what I start.

homemade breakfasts

I've never considered myself a "baker"...mainly because I'm too tempted to eat actual homemade baked treats versus store-bought ones that I get for my boys.

But, this month I'm being much more conscientious about what I'm spending my money on at the grocery store.  Earlier in the week we had nothing in the house for breakfast that my kids would want to eat, so I whipped up a batch of muffins.  (I only made 6 so there were none left to tempt me!)   When I saw how quickly I could make breakfast AND just how inexpensive it is compared to frozen waffles and pancakes or pop tarts, I have been trying to do it each morning.  Yesterday I made homemade waffles and bacon for the boys.  This morning I surprised my husband with breakfast tacos!  We had a couple of corn tortillas left in the refrigerator so I scrambled some eggs, added cheese and voila! he had a yummy breakfast treat.

I know that realistically I won't be able to make them a homemade breakfast every single morning, but for now it's working out fine.    And...my husband asked me "Why couldn't you make us breakfast every morning?!?"

The pressure's on...

spending money to save money

I KNOW better than this!!!  But...temptation got the best of me.  Yesterday morning I had an e-mail from Shutterfly reminding me that yesterday was the last day to get my 50 free 4x6 prints!  What!?!  50 free prints?  Wow -- add that to the 15 free ones that I already had credit for and I'm up to 65 free prints!  That's nearly $10 worth of free pictures!

So, what did I do?  I spent $38.09 in order to get my 65 free prints!

It wasn't my best moment.