thank you!

Thank you to everyone who reads my blog from day-to-day or week-to-week!  It helps keep me motivated to stay on track knowing that someone out there is reading!

A special THANK YOU to my top referring sites for the week:

The Canadian Saver
and
Sharon @ My Year of Spending Less & Living More 

And a special welcome to my newest Followers:  
Hawaii Planner and Mommy Saves ALOT!
I hope you'll stop by often!!


 

want to help me plan a vacation?

Each year my husband's company has an Awards Trip for its Top Salesmen.  Because Mr. Steady is an Executive for the company we get to play Hosts and help plan the trip.   Or...actually, the wives get to help plan the trip!  (which we enjoy!!!) 

Mr. Steady sent me an email today asking me to come up with 3 possibilities for our 2012 trip.  My budget?  $300 or less per room per night and airfare must be reasonable…say $450 or less.  If we can get by without having to rent a car, that adjusts either of these or both.

In the past we've been to Longboat Key, Captiva Island, and Key West (all Florida beaches), another Florida beach that I can't remember (it was my least favorite), Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic, and this past year was to Rockport, Maine.  

Since most of us are in the Southeast we'd rather not go to Florida since it's right in our backyard.  Going out of the country is an option, but going on a cruise is NOT an option. 

Our trip usually goes something like this.  The executives arrive on Monday and the Winners arrive on Tuesday.  We have a casual cocktail party on Tuesday night at the hotel/resort bar or restaurant.  When everyone gets back to their room that night they have a gift waiting for them.  Wednesday is golf or spa treatments with a dinner that night (usually off-site).  After dinner drinks at the hotel bar and then more gifts in the room.  Thursday is normally an excursion during the day and then a nice dinner with nicer gifts presented at dinner.  Everyone goes home on Friday.  

So -- one requirement is to have golf on-site or very nearby and a spa.  We won't be bringing children with us and there will be about 40 people total.

I would LOVE to have your ideas.   Please let me know of places you've heard of or have visited yourself that you think might work for an Awards Trip.

Thank you!!!

yesterday

If you read my post yesterday, you know that I had some guys coming to cut down trees and that since I needed to be at home while they were doing it, I was going to try to accomplish a lot on my own!  There were 5 men actively working on our trees with 2 additional men giving instruction and supervising.  Let me tell you what....I am not sure I've ever seen a group of men work as hard as these 5 men worked.  The trucks pulled up at 8:30 and by 8:35 they had chain saws going and were hard at work.  I had a tough time getting started with my chore-list because it was so much fun watching the men work.

But eventually I remembered that my bedroom floor looked like this:

Although, actually it looked worse than this.  I took this picture several days ago and laundry had continued to get piled higher and higher on our floor.  But...at least you can tell that I tried to lay it out flat!   I didn't want it to get wrinkled or anything while waiting to get folded or hung up!  ha, ha!!!

By 10:00 I needed an little extra motivation since I was spending too much time watching in awe out my window to see how they trimmed and cut down my trees!  I decided I was going (try) to match them in their intensity and efficiency and so I made my own little "challenge" to get my List finished before they finished their List! 

Do you see the guy in the tree?

This looked fun!

So...I got busy and worked hard.  But 5:30 came and they got their trucks all packed up and I was still working on the laundry and vacuuming.   They won.  They finished their list before me.  But, I didn't let that stop me. 

  

I poured myself a glass a wine and kept at it.  Vacuum in one hand and glass of wine in the other.  Seriously.  I'm not kidding.  By 7:45  I had all of my hard jobs finished with the exception of cleaning my bathroom.  All that is left is stuff that I can finish by the end of the week.  And, if Friday afternoon comes and my list from yesterday is complete, I'll feel like it was a very successful and productive week!!!

a busy day at home

I love it when I'm forced to have an entire day at home!  Today the "tree guys" are here taking down several trees and doing some general clean up.  They got here at 8:30 and will be here more than 8 hours!  I want to be here in case they have questions and, luckily, I'm feeling very productive and energetic!  Sounds like the perfect day to knock out some chores!

Here's my list for today:

Clean kitchen
Sweep wood floors
Change sheets on my bed and guest bed
Catch up on laundry
Fold/Hang/Put away laundry
Clean the floor in my bedroom and bath
Clean my bathroom
Clean boys bathroom floor
Vacuum upstairs
Vacuum basement
Vacuum the stairs
Tidy basement and dust
Catch up on Bible Study reading
Send prayer requests to Bible Study group
Pay bills
Organize hospital bills and insurance payments for son's surgery
Download weekend pictures onto computer
Edit pictures from:
10-15-11 game
10-22-11 game
Pictures from weekend fun
Then,
Organize freezer and pantry
See what available meals we have
My closet - what do I have?  What do I need?  Donate
Boys closets
Boys shoes
Boys dresser drawers

Wish me luck!  I think I'll sleep well tonight!

OH!!!  I need to prep dinner in there also and go to the grocery for veggies.

weekend recap & menu for the week

We had a great and busy weekend and did well staying on track with our spending!  My sister and nephew came for a visit and we had some fun outings!  Everything we spent is in the "entertainment" budget for October, so it was all guilt-free fun!  (The best kind!)  We went to Stone Mountain one day and I only had to pay for 1 of the 3 of us since my youngest and I have season passes.   Lunch at the park was 20% off for me and my oldest and free for my youngest since I "brown bagged" it for him due to allergies.   (Had I been totally on top of things, I would have packed a picnic for everyone!)

Yesterday we went to see Moneyball and loved it!  We had a "bonfire" one night in our backyard and spent one of the days at the boys football games. (Both free activities!!!)  All in all, I think I spent about $60 on activities/snacks for our weekend fun!  Not bad!  Add the $30 we spent bowling on my son's birthday last week and we're still inside our $100 budget for this month.

One area where we continually struggle is with our Food Bill!  But when I plan our meals for the week, we do much better sticking to our grocery budget.  So, I made time to plan it out this week.  Here is what we're serving:

Tonight - Fried chicken, squash, mac & cheese, brown rice, biscuits
Tuesday - Smoked Chicken and Roasted Veggies
Wednesday - Chilaquiles
Thursday - Soup Night (not sure which kind yet...)
Friday - Shrimp and Pasta
Saturday - Date Night (Kids will have something out of the pantry or freezer)

I have most of the ingredients on hand and will just need to buy some vegetables!  Not sure what we'll have Sunday yet.  Maybe some Venison or a Smoked Turkey?

How about you?  Have you decided what to cook this week?

thank you

Thank you to everyone who reads my blog from day-to-day or week-to-week!  It helps keep me motivated to stay on track knowing that someone is reading it!

A special THANK YOU to my top referring site for the week:

The Canadian Saver!

the steady plodder's a-z list

I've had so much fun reading other bloggers A-Z posts!  It's so insightful!  Anyway, I thought I'd play along today and share mine...

A - Age 42
B - Bed Size - Queen
C- Chore You Hate - mopping and hanging up clothes
D - Dogs - We have a 4 year old Black Lab named Lucy
E - Essential Start to Your Day - Diet Coke, Good Morning America, and the USA Today!
F - Favorite Color - Oranges/Browns/Reds
G - Gold or Silver -neither really...I don't wear much jewelry.  My wedding band is gold and I wear a silver necklace almost everyday. 
H - Height - 5' 3"
I - Interests - Reading, Travel, Scrapbooking, Photography, Volunteering, being outside
J - Job Title - Homemaker
K - Kids - 2 boys...ages 10 and almost 13
L - Live - "outside the city limits" in Georgia
M - Mother's Name - Janis
N - Nickname - Sha, but my sister will sometimes call me "Sha Sha" and my husband calls me "Honey"
O - Overnight Hospital Stays - 4 (I think...)  Once when I was a teenager for nose surgery, once for complication in pregnancy and 2x for birth of the boys
P - Pet Peeves - people who throw trash out of their car windows
Q - Quote From a Film - "...All it needed was a little love!" - A Charlie Brown Christmas and

"Eat, Papa! EAT!" -Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer
R - Right or Left-Handed - Right
S - Siblings - A very fun sister who is 2 1/2 years older
T - Time You Wake Up - 6:30 on school days and 7:30 on the weekends
U- Underwear - Surely, there could have been something else used for "U"!
V - Vegetables You Hate - Green peas
W- What Makes You Run Late - Reading blogs and surfing on-line
X - X-Rays You've Had - Teeth, finger
Y - Yummy Food That You Make - Shrimp and Grits, Dressing, Chocolate Pie

Z - Zoo Animal -  Love watching the gorillas!  It's also one of my favorite children's books...Good Night, Gorilla!

zig-zag days

I feel like I've had the most unproductive month!  Actually, the most unproductive last 2 months.  I'm getting things done, but am getting so incredibly sidetracked.  I'll start to do one thing, then remember something else that I should be doing and go do that.  Then forget what I was doing in the first place! 

I'm placing too much emotional energy into my son's food allergies and that is causing me to be tired and stressed.  So, I'm not being very efficient at anything I do.  We have 11 days left in the month and I have quite a few things I'd like to accomplish before then.  So, what I am going to do?  Get tough with myself and make a schedule!  Because I have different activities on different days, my schedule will vary from day to day, but I want it to go something like this:

6:30: Wake Up!
6:30-7:45:  Take care of the dog, feed the boys and get them to school
7:45-8:00:  Eat breakfast, read the newspaper
8:00-9:30:  Meet friends to exercise
9:30-Noon:  Run errands and do chores at home
Noon-1:00:  Lunch w/hubby
1:00-2:00:  Finish chores and begin prepping dinner
2:00-5:30:  Shower, help boys with homework, do my Bible Study homework
5:30-7:30:  Boys at football practice...and if I'm not with them I want to finish dinner, then complete Rosetta Stone lessons and/or work on crafts
7:30-9:00:  Dinner, clean up, prep lunches, review homework if needed and get boys to bed
9:00-10:00:  Sit, make list of TTD for next day, read, have glass of wine with hubby
10:00:  Bedtime

How about you?  What do you do to avoid time wasters?  Do you have a schedule you follow or just fly by the seat of your pants?

october budget & goals

We had a great day celebrating my son's 10th birthday yesterday!  We've been working on transitioning him to an allergy-free diet and his birthday was his last day of any "cheats" before going 100% allergy-free today!  Yesterday he woke up to M&M Pancakes and Chocolate Chip Waffles for breakfast.  He got Chick-fil-A and a cupcake for lunch!  After school let out we went bowling as a family (my husband left work early!), which was tons of fun! And then we ate Mexican food and birthday cake last night!  He was exhausted yesterday and asked to go to bed at 8:30.  I'm anxious to see how he feels in the next couple of days after eating so much yeast and sugar.

Today though, unless I make a mistake on label reading, he'll be 100% free from yeast, moldy foods, refined sugar, pork and beef until Thanksgiving.  It's amazing how much food Citric Acid (another no-no) is in!  Pretty much I'll be cooking everything from scratch as there are only a few things I've found (Luna bars, Rice Cakes/Crackers, and some chips) that are okay foods for him.

Anyway - today's post is about the October budget and goals.  I realize we're almost 1/2 way into the month, BUT...better late than never, right?!?

Goals first...

FINANCIAL
Use cash  for everyday purchases

HEALTH
Lose 2 pounds and get to 141#
Drink more water...a goal of 64 ounces each day
Exercise each day in some capacity

PERSONAL
Log 6 hours (from 10/13-10/31) of Rosetta Stone Italian lessons
Finish 2010 scrapbook
Make drop cloth pillows for fall
Take picture of son in last year's Scout uniform
Read 2 books
Make frame to display old recipes
Make lodging arrangements for Italy and Washington D.C. trips


HOUSE
Make bed daily
Only start laundry that can be finished, folded, hung up and put away before bedtime
Clean the house thoroughly twice between now & the end of the month
Clean door frames and doors upstairs and in the basement
Lay bricks around fire pit area

and for the budget...

	Budget
Lucy dog food	0
gifts during year	25
Guitar	25
Subscriptions	25
Dry Cleaning	30
Boy Scouts	75
School lunches	50
Boys Chores (Potential…)	80
Restaurants (incld fast food/pizza)	100
My Blow Money	100
Entmt/Rec	100
Date Night	100
haircare	100
School expenses	100
Pay for grades…at the most…	125
Christmas gifts	200
gasoline ($350/month)	350
Clothing	500
Boys Birthdays - parties & gifts	500
utilities	800
Groceries, household & toiletries	1200

How about you?  Have you made your October goals/budget!  Am I the only one who's just now doing it on the 13th?!?  How are you doing with your goals for the month?

recap for september's non-financial goals

For the month of September I had several things that I wanted to accomplish that didn't have anything (for the most part...) to do with money.  How did it go?!?

FINANCIAL
Use cash  for everyday purchases - BIG FAT FAIL!
Leave my American Express and debit cards at home - FAILED!
Stay within my budget - did pretty good...definitely better than had I not had one at all!
Complete house refinancing - this actually got finished last week!  We'll save about $700/month and we've already set up a new retirement savings account that this $ will be deposited into monthly.

HEALTH
Lose 3 pounds and get to 142# - lost 2 pounds.
Track food and water intake - failed
Drink more water...a goal of 1664 ounces total from 9/5-9/30 - I drank 64 ounces of water most days.
Exercise a total of 780 minutes from 9/5-9/30 - I didn't meet this goal, but I did exercise for 45 minutes 3-4x/week
Have 16 no wine-days from 9/5-9/30 - I counted 5 days without wine. 

PERSONAL
Log 10 hours (from 9/5-9/30) of Rosetta Stone Italian lessons - Completed about 2 hours of lessons.
Finish 2010 scrapbook - almost done
Make chalkboard using foot board I purchased in the spring - didn't do
Make drop cloth pillows for fall - didn't do
Sew on badges to scout shirt and take picture of son - sewed patches...need to take picture
Keep up with my Bible Study homework - yes
Finish Maine scrapbooks - yes!  This was a huge, huge project!!!
Complete 2 lessons with youngest for God & Family - no...will table this until football season is over
Read The Glass Castle - yes...loved it!
Read The Happiness Project - yes...didn't love it

HOUSE
Make bed daily - 90% yes
Only start laundry that can be finished, folded, hung up and put away before bedtime - 90% yes
Clean the house weekly - didn't clean weekly, but it was always tidy
Clean door frames and doors - did main floor...still need to do upstairs and basement
Clean the wall on the staircase  - done!
Clean the ceiling fans - done!
Replace burned out light bulbs - done!
Put out fall decorations - done!
Put screens on living room windows - done!

Overall, I'm pleased with what I got done.  At the end of the month my free time was spent learning about food allergies.  But, the way I look at it, I got more accomplished by having a list and seeing what I could take care of when I did have chunks of time versus not having a list and not knowing how my free time was spent.

I think my favorite goal for the month was the challenge to drink more water.  It's something I never, ever would have focused on had I not made a conscious decision to do it.  I'll post October goals when I post my October budget, but I'll probably just try to finish up in October what wasn't done in September.  I need to think if there is anything I want to do.  I know travel plans is something that I need to work on this month.,,,

recap for september budget

We've had an unusual past 4 weeks!  It's already October 8th and I'm just now wrapping up September's books and working on the October budget.   Between my dog's knee surgery, our septic tank backing up and my son's surgery + allergies, we had several unexpected expenses in September.  BUT...luckily, we had a strong start to the month which counterbalanced our out-of-whack end of month spending! 

At the beginning of September I posted our budget for the month.  Here is how we did:

	Budget	Spent
Utilities	800	952.77
Groceries and household items	900	1194.7
Gasoline	350	130.52
Clothing	200	55
Restaurants (incld fast food/pizza)	100	118.1
Insurance	136.5	136.46
My Blow Money	100	74.84
Entmt/Rec	175	48.27
Gifts	25	70.07
Guitar lessons	100	75
Date Night	75	57.74
Haircare	100	203
Golf	75	0
Boys Commissions (Potential…)	80	43.75
Subscriptions	25	98.33
School lunches	50	0
School expenses	200	209.58
Dry Cleaning	30	8.72
Boy Scouts	147	48
Vet Bill - surgery	2300	2285
House Maintenance	0	815.31

Notes:
Gasoline - I'm certain that we spent more than this.  When Mr. Steady fills up the cars he forgets to give me the receipts.  My guess would be that we need to add $150 to this number.
Gifts - Went way over because we had 2 parties the boys were invited to this month that I hadn't expected.
Entertainment/Rec - Way under because we decided as a family not to go to a golf tournament and instead put the $ towards a different activity.
Groceries - I never got my cash for the month.  Paying with a debit card will never keep my on budget.
Subscriptions - Norton software had to get renewed this month.  Forgot about it when making the budget!
Clothes - Getting rolled over to October.  It never cooled off enough for me to buy the boys new jeans.
Haircare - I get color put on my hair every 4 weeks and this happened to be a month where I needed to go twice.  Another thing I overlooked when making the budget!
Maintenance - The septic tank needed pumping and I bought a new vacuum cleaner to help control the dog hair that my son's allergic to.

Overall, I'm happy with the numbers we had for September.  We managed to save some money and are still on track of our savings goal for the end of the year.  I've updated my sidebar to reflect it.  I need to sit down and make our budget for what remains of October, and I'll let you know tomorrow how I did on my non-financial September goals!

THANK YOU for all of our comments about my son's allergies.  I just replied to everyone in that Comments Section of the post.

right now, i am...

...tired from waking up early this morning to exercise with my 7th grade son before he went to school.

...needing to go take a shower to get ready for my Bible Study class.

...happy that my youngest was well enough to go to school today.

...thrilled that my youngest is a good eater and...

...hoping that transitioning to his new allergy-free diet will be easier than it sounds.

...wanting to take a day for myself where I don't do any chores or cook any meals.

...thinking that I may do this on Friday.

...excited that I can now check out downloads for my Kindle at my library.

...wondering what kind of snacks we'll have at Bible Study today.

...expecting to pay more than I planned to have trees cut down in my backyard.

...planning to build a fire pit this weekend.

...needing to go to our Farmer's Market today to purchase local honey.

...wishing I had a money tree in my backyard.

...thinking that I have a lot to do in the next 2 days to complete my September goals.

...enjoying the cooler weather.

...hoping that our electric bill is cut in half this month.

...praying that my 7th grader has a good day at school today.

This post was inspired by The Frugal Girl who was inspired by Soule Mama.

I"ll be back tomorrow with a post about food allergies, emergency funds and replies to your comments.    And, welcome Rainbowchild!  Thanks for becoming a follower of my blog!

why i love my emergency fund

Because when Murphy strikes it is simply an inconvenience instead of a catastrophe!

It's been a crazy past 4 days!  I could go into the whole story, but it would take too long, so I'll make bullet points instead.

• We had a huge storm which flooded our basement on Thursday.
• Our septic tank was backed up Thursday until yesterday.
• My youngest son had a hearing test a week ago (and failed).   
• Allergy test for my youngest on Friday who tested positive for many things....which leads to:
• Cutting down 3 trees in our backyard
• Purchasing a new HEPA vacuum that does great with dog hair
• 2 Epi-pins
• And a complete overhaul of our pantry.
• Minor surgery for my youngest yesterday to have tubes put in his ears.
• X-rays for dog's knee this morning.

While all of these things have been an inconvenience, because we have our fully funded emergency fund, wondering how much any of this will cost and trying to figure out how to pay for it did not add to the stress.

My youngest had quite a bit of hearing loss (a 40% loss in one ear and a 60% loss in the other ear).  It lead to him getting tubes in his ears and allergy tests to see what was causing his problems.  I have absolutely no idea how much his appointments and surgery will cost.  And you know what?  I didn't ask.  I know that our insurance will pay what is covered and that we have our "Flex Spending" account to pay the rest.  If we don't have enough in our Flex Spending account, we'll pay the balance from savings.  That's what it's there for! 

We paid $355 to have the septic tank pumped.

Cutting down the trees my son is allergic to will be about $600.

New vacuum that is supposed to be "the best" for picking up dog hair (another allergy) will be about $400.

Epi-pins $225.

X-rays: "free" (included in the $2100ish we already paid for the surgery)

Pantry overhaul for son's food allergies - have no idea on this one...I'll make a separate post for this issue since I know some of my readers suffer from food allergies as well.  I'll need some advice and menu ideas!

We have someone coming to look at the area in our yard that leads to the flooding.  Not sure what needs to be done to fix it, but we need to get it taken care of.  Had I not been home when it flooded Thursday, it would have caused some major damage to everything in the basement.

We've had an expensive week!  And a crazy one too, but thankfully money hasn't been keeping me awake at night.  Unfortunately, it has kept me busy and off the computer so I have tons of blog posts to catch up on!  But for now...I'm off to do laundry and continue washing the towels that we used in Thursday's flood!