Well, two weeks into the eating out of the pantry challenge and there's finally a small dent in the freezer and some empty shelf space near the home-canned garden goods.

Things are going well.

We have also started reaping harvests from the garden. It's so exciting to see all of your planning grow and end up on the table! We've picked about 3 oz of oregano; 5 oz of mint; 1.63 pounds of salad greens; and 3 pounds of strawberries. It's very exciting.

Tonight, I made shortcake from scratch (using stuff up!) to go with the strawberries for dessert. In the spirit of the pantry challenge, I've also used up a lot of the pasta sauce I canned last year, for a couple batches of lasagna. And, we're eating down the meat from the freezer.

I've been feeling compelled to try to save some money and use up what we have in the pantry. That, and get rid of clutter. I feel like we have too much stuff. We probably have much less than other families (after all, we can still fit cars in our garage!), but it's just not organized very well. Hopefully, I can remedy this.

So, on my quest to use up pantry food, this week we;ve eaten

-Navy bean soup with ham (the last of the Easter ham), plus pumpkin bread made with a leftover can of pumpkin puree from Thanksgiving.
-tilapia from the freezer, fried in Zatarain's New Orleans fish fry, with leftover yellow rice.
-We made peanut butter cookies in a plan to use what we have rather than buy treats.

I'm also thinking of using up my stockpile of shampoos, and personal care products. I've been reading a lot of about how many toxic chemicals are in personal care products (because U.S. companies can put pretty much anything in them and they don't have to put it on the label) and it can cause all sorts of allergies and health issues. I'm thinking of switching over to the organic brand-ish options.

Those are more expensive, but I was thinking. Do I really need a whole bathroom closet full of shampoo, or can I just buy one or two at a time when I need them? Sure, the less-chemically brands are spendier, but how often do I really buy that stuff? It wouldn't add up to that much more cost every year.

That is what I am thinking. Any input would be appreciated.

And finally, I am getting sooooo close to the first garden harvest. I'm so excited. I have some lettuce that's almost ready to cut, and some peppermint and oregano that are ready to be snipped and dried.

I'm tracking how much money I've spent on my garden ($756 so far, most of it for one-time expenses), and how much I'm getting out of it, plus dollar value of all the fresh goodies. I'm interested to see if we can actually save money by food gardening.

Of course, this year, we had a lot of infrastructure improvements, like importing 10 cubic yards of compost, building new raised beds and trellises, etc., that will not be among our expenses next year. But if we can break even this year, we will be profitable next year!

I also had a new vision. A few weeks ago, I traded some of my seedlings for firewood. What a great deal.

My hope is that as our production grows, we can set up more of these kinds of trades for things we need and want but can't produce: I'm thinking firewood, honey, eggs, etc. I'm good at starting seeds and I have perennial flowers to share, so maybe over time, we can make something like that work.

I ran across this eat-down-the-pantry challenge from one of my new favorite blogs. It reminds me of something we do here.

http://www.nwedible.com/2014/04/eat-from-the-larder-challeng...

I'm probably going to eat down my pantry this next week or two. I realize I've got soooo much stuff and soooo much food already. Why not just buy milk and veggies and see what we can come up with? Maybe it's the spring cleaning bug. I'm ready to clear out the old and have some empty spaces in my house, whether its the basement storage or the pantry shelves.

I admit I have another motive. Hubby bought me a way too expensive mother's day gift ( a $2,000 laptop computer. I'd be happy with a $500 one, but he's a computer geek so low end is not an option for electronics. Sigh), so now I have to figure out how to pay for it. I thought about returning it, but my mom said not to. He never buys me gifts, and he told her it's because I never like what he gets. She thinks if I send it back, I'll never get anything again!

Oh well. So yeah, trying to pay for it out of cash flow by mid-June. We might be able to do it. If I cut on groceries, send all my freelance checks to the CC, and some of the next paycheck, that might do it. We'll see.

In other news, the pantry challenge might be good because garden season is ramping up and I have a lot of canned goods still from last season. Might be good to empty some jars and clear some room for this year's harvest.

Unfortunately, planting is on hold another week as we have a cold front coming through. Crazy weather this year. So, I have a bunch of plants sitting in limbo.



But, the perennial onions are doing great!

We did it! The mortgage is finally under $50,000.

We applied our $883 federal tax refund to the balance and it just hit today. We officially owe $49,573.69.

Why is it that getting just under the big number is so satisfying?

I can't WAIT to have this house paid off, and it looks like we might actually be able to do it within three years as planned.

Hazzah!

I can't tell you how amped I am about spring. Sun on my face, hands in the garden = happy!

Apologies though for not posting for nearly two months. It's been one thing after another. I suppose that is life.

-We found and signed our son up for a new preschool. This one has a pre-K program that I was impressed with. He just misses the cut off for kindergarten next year, and is bored 'playing' all day at his current school. He wants to do letters and writing, so we're moving him. The big bonus is it will cost us about $300 less a month than his current school. I can't wait to have that extra money back!

-We did the taxes and as usual, I had my yearly bout of depression when I looked at how much freelance money I brought in vs how much I got to keep. So depressing, and making me think once again about cutting back and working on other projects.

-I have been in the garden a lot. I'm part of a new backyard homesteading mentor program in my city, and I've been matched with a couple who runs a for-profit organic farm in their tiny city backyard. I've done a lot of classes and workshops, so busy busy. But I am learning a lot and meeting interesting like-minded people!

In my own garden, I've planted spinach and all kinds of lettuce, as well as broccoli, and started many many seeds for the warm season crops. I've also been hauling a lot of compost.

-We also had to make some financial decisions. DH got his bonus so we had to decide how to divvy it up. We paid down the mortgage a bit, paid this year's escrow shortage of $400 (school tax increase), and used a lot of the rest to pay $4400 into my 2013 IRA, so I could meet the $5500 for the year. The mortgage is now under $51,000, which feels great. But still. I can't wait for it to be gone!

I've also been spending a lot of thought and time into right our financial ship, so to speak. We had simply been spending too much in recent months and were struggling to meet our goals, save, and pay all the bills without dipping into savings.

I altered some of our spending to deal with this. Cut back on eating out, and cut the grocery budget. Ironically, we cut the grocery budget by ordering very high quality grass fed family-farmed meat twice a month from a local farmer. It costs about the same as the lower-quality grocery store meat, thanks to recent price increases there. And, it's more filling, so each bit goes farther. I also switched the majority of our non farmers market spending to ALDI from Kroger and Giant Eagle.

I've had to remind myself that we'd rather have money to spend on what matters than to fritter it away on here and there stuff that doesn't matter. Thanks to these changes, we haven't dipped into savings to cover anything for about two months now, and I actually was able to put $1000 of a $1200 freelance check directly into my IRA for 2014.

I've also switched a lot of our spending from the CC to the debit card, which seems to have slowed spending and makes it so I know what we've got and don't have any surprise giant CC bills on payday.

That's pretty much it! Don't forget to track how much we're spending, harvesting and saving by having a food garden this year. The page in on the sidebar.

And for those of you who love garden stuff, I built potato towers this week and planted. Here are some pics!



The perennial 'walking' onions also survived our terrible winter.

We made it through Frugal February alive, but I will be honest. I stuck to it, but Dh gave up around Feb 15! Silly man. And here I thought I was the one with the spending problem.

It was still an incredibly useful tool, even if it didn't quite work out the way I had planned. We realize our biggest money drain is eating out, despite my constant cooking at home, kids activities, and the constant dribs and drabs of 'Oh we need X so I'll pop out and get XYZ." You know how that goes.

It did alter the way I plan meals and grocery shop. That was so productive, I plan to stick with it. I also liked having an envelope of cash on the side of the fridge. It's easy to say, if there is cash in there, we have enough to cover it, if not, go without. You can't do that with a credit card.

I'm going to stick with the monthly budget, but I may up it to $200 a week instead of $150.

We did have a lot of one-time expenses this weekend. Dh's bonus came (hazzah!), so we finally got a new mattress. It's supposed to be delivered today. Our backs have been hurting sleeping on the old one we have, so we decided it was finally time. Happy spine = happy life. It was one of our planned purchases for the year.

We also sent $3000 to the mortgage. Most will go to principal.

DS2 also needed some new shoes ($20), and we will be spending a chunk of change on a gift cert for grandma's birthday next week. She does soooo much for us.

I also had to order some berry plants and bulbs for the garden, and that couldn't wait any longer. Also planned expenses. I'm tracking the garden costs in my page on the sidebar. I'll post soon about the garden project. It's coming along!

So yes, I'd like to continue on a cash-mostly similar weekly budget for as long as possible. Anything we can do to free up more money for savings and for paying down the mortgage would be money well saved.

This was apparently the week of the snowflakes.
Maybe the universe knew I was feeling sorry for myself because No Spend Month is going badly!

Anyway, in the mail this week, I got $19 worth of rebate checks I totally forgot about: four of them total, all in one week. Two for paint from the playroom re-do, and two from various bottles of booze we gave as Christmas gifts.

And the big one. I did a 6-week weight loss and fitness challenge with some of my gym friends. We all paid $20 to enter, winner take all. I won! $220! I couldn't believe it. Lost 6 pounds (the person who loses the highest percentage of body weight wins).

The rebate checks will be going to the mortgage.

As for the $220...Dh and I talked about it. An old old friend from high school who I had lost touch with died in a car accident last week. I'd been trying to find her, and I found her via her obit, which is a terrible feeling. She was 37 and has 5 kids. Anyway, there is a memorial fund at a local bank, to help provide for the kids, and we think that would be the best use for that money.

Sure, it'd be nice to throw that to the mortgage, but in the grand scheme, we're doing okay.

We just got the hubby's 401k statement. In the past 7 years, we've socked away $291,000, including gains (and losses, hello recession) and company match. Every time he complains about his job I'm going to remind him of the company match on the 401k. It was $10,000 last year.

I want to get pinched, it's almost too good to be true!

We also found out hubs will be getting an annual bonus at the end of the month because his group met their goals. Not sure how much that will be, but it will be a welcome addition to the savings account AND paying down the mortgage.

Hazzah!

Our low-spend frugal February seems to be paying off.

The credit card bill is tiny, so I'll have to spend significantly less of the paycheck to pay it all.

There is good food in the fridge all the time. We're starting to realize where all of our missing money goes-- eating out. Ugh!

The kids aren't feeling deprived. Although we aren't going out to eat as much, we're remembering cheaper ways to still have treats. i.e. hot fudge sundaes from the sweets shop instead of a full meal out.

For the first time in months I was actually able to fund my IRA when the freelance check came, instead of using it to cover bills. I stashed $532 this month for retirement.

I'm remembering what I do and don't like spending money on, as in, what I value the most and what I don't value at all.

So yes. I'm happy! Tomorrow will mark the end of week 2. Things are overall going well.

I think I might continue this in March, albeit with a slightly higher budget. Might as well try to keep the momentum going. I have a house to pay off!

Oh, and I almost forgot. While poking around on my credit card site, I realized instead of only getting points to spend on Amazon, I could request a statement credit for the same value. So yeah, money off the top of the credit card bill. Why didn't I realize this before? I just used $60 in credits to pay down the bill. Felt good.

Well, things are going okay for our frugal February no spend month. We have $600 for the month ($300 each pay period).

I thought I'd be the problem, turns out it's hubby! He's killing us financially by always taking the kids out to eat. Argh. He's taken them out twice this week, for a total of $60! Seems like he just automatically takes them out after their sports activities, and doesn't tell me in advance, so I can't even pack him a coupon (which I had, so I'm extra steamed.)

Anyway, we did great on the grocery front. But, we are starting with a freezer full of meat and other foods, and a pantry full of canned garden produce. This would be harder, I admit, if we were starting with bare cabinets. I do suspect it will get harder at the end of the month, as the reserves go.


Here is a round-up of the first week's expenses:
Week 1:
$25- lunch at Five Guys, to celebrate DS1's swim promotion
$30- Steak and Shake dinner (boys. Hubby is killing the budget!)

$76.61- Groceries, includes, and more:
eggs
onions
org. cherry tomatoes, melon, bananas
5 lb red potatoes
sh. cheddar cheese, bread
$15 in kid fun food splurges because they're eating at home more
2 gal organic milk
organic kids yogurt
3 on sale fluorescent light bulbs
1 container organic raisins
1 pack smart dogs meatless hot dogs


$18, Peets coffee, for hubby's coffee addiction

$4.20, kids treat out at favorite bakery on school snow day

$8, indoor soccer session for hubby.

Week 1 total= $161.81


So yes. Overall, I think we did well. I just need to reign in hubby on eating out. Without last night's foray to fast food, we would have ended the week $20 under budget, now we're 10 over. And, if I point out that those two meals out means $60 we COULD have sent to the mortgage instead, maybe that will make the point clear.

Yesterday was the first NSD of no spend month, so yay!
We had 10 inches of snow last night and school was cancelled --again. So boo.

Since Christmas break ended we've had five snow days, two random days off school for teacher in service,plus a government holiday. I'm starting to feel like life will never be back to normal. Ugh.

Tell me again why I thought staying at home with kids and freelancing with heavy deadlines every week was a great idea? Oh yea, because I didn't know anything about preschool or children!

Now that we are snowed in again, I'm trying to figure out what projects to do with the kids. I feel like I used up all of my good ideas during last week's 3 snow days! We had tons of cardboard and we made 3-D cardboard godzillas, a battlefield for the army men, complete with cardboard mountains, and a fort.

Today? No ideas. Except maybe salt dough, but I don't have much salt. Of course. It's hard with my kids in particular because they do not like arts and crafts. Clearly they do not take after their artsy mom.

I was thinking of maybe having them fill up the dixie cups for seed starting, but I'm not sure I have the right potting mix. This storm really caught me off guard!

Here are the 'finished' godzillas:

Well, it's begun! We're officially three days into our low to no spend month. We've budgeted $600 for the month for any expense that isn't a regular monthly bill.

We also have two special allowances for planned events: $30 to cover tickets for the Lego movie for the boys, plus $60 for the school fundraiser tickets at the end of the month. We opted to handle these this way because they were planned in advance, and those amounts will cover part but not all of the events, so we still have to make thrifty choice while we're there.

Anyway, the $600 includes all of our discretionary spending, gas, groceries, entertainment, meals out, etc. The hope is that by being more careful and disciplined, we will free up some cash to throw at the mortgage, put more in savings, and generally hit the thrifty reset button.

So far, hubby spent $25, on Saturday, to take the boys out to Five Guys. Our 5-year-old graduated to the next level in swim classes, and it's customary to celebrate.

I'm working on the meal plan. Normally, I map out the entire week and do a big grocery shop to fill in any blanks and buy fresh produce. This week, it's kind of weird. I'm trying to use up what I have in the freezer and pantry, conserve as much of our monthly budget as possible, and cut down on trips to the store. I only have three days planned so far. My routine is already messed up!

So far, we're eating

Mon: chicken fajitas and quesadillas for the kids
Tue: beef roast from the freezer, with carrots, potatoes
Wed: Chick/veg soup from the leftover chicken
Thur: MAYBE spaghetti, meatballs and homemade sauce

After that, I'll likely have to shop for milk, so I'll just go all at once to get what we need.

I have decided that any and all 'treats' will have to be homemade. I don't want the kids to feel like they have to go totally without, and I would like to encourage them to help me more in the kitchen, so maybe more homemade cookies is the cure for that. And budget friendly.

So far, the weekend has been pretty much business as usual. We had a birthday party at our house Saturday night for Dh and my sister. We already had liquor and beer on hand, and everyone seemed to bring something as well, so the only output was in food, and most of that counted toward last month's food bill. I think we spent maybe $50 on food? Everyone had a good time, so it was worth it.

Yesterday, we had a kids' birthday party to go to that included a pizza party lunch, then we drove to my mom's house for a special birthday dinner for hubby and sister. All of our meals were covered!

February is going to be No Spend Month at our house. I should technically say "low" spend month, as it's not like we're spending nothing. We're just going to be on a super low, tight budget.

This is our second no spend month. We did one in 2008, when DH1 was just a baby. We had a set budget for all food, gas, entertainment, etc. of $400. We made it through, but barely!

This month, we're setting the budget at $600 for the month for groceries, entertainment, food, gas etc. (two kids, and they eat a lot more now).

Here is how it will work. Regular bills, like college savings, mortgage, utilities, etc. aren't included in the $600. The budget is only for the purchases we have some modicum of control over. We've also decided not to include milk in the $600, as the boys are growing and drink a lot of it, and we don't want to restrict them.

So, I guess I'm getting ready for no spend month. Although other than gassing up one car,that doesn't mean much! We're not going to be buying or stockpiling groceries or anything else before the challenge, as that defeats the purpose!

The general plan is to eat from the pantry and the chest freezer, which is amazingly full thanks to our fall farm share and recent gift of beef from a friend. That is something we didn't have last time!

My goal is to just hit the reset button on spending, and maybe free up some surplus for savings and extra mortgage payments during the one month spending fast.

Last time, the no spend month impacted our savings and spending for months after. It was really great for us.

Of course, now we have two boys who always seem to have the wants, so I have to brace myself for a bunch of kid complaining!!

Here's a link to more info on no spend month...

http://smallnotebook.org/2012/07/01/no-spend-month-start-here/

Well, by some miracle, the playroom is basically finished. I have to sew and hang the curtains but that is about it.

Here are the after pics. Total cost was about $700, most of it for the rug and new sofa bed (which, just my luck, I brought home the wrong mattress from IKEA. They are sending me the correct one, since they had the wrong box of mattresses at the right bin number for my model. Ugh.)

Anyway, here are the 'end' pics. Can you tell the boys have moved their toys back in??

Okay, so here is an update on the playroom project. Carpet is out and wood floor is clean. I've repainted, put down the rug, and am starting to put furniture back in and put the new stuff together.

Some pics are below. But first, an accounting of our expenses:
Ikea:
$239 Lyckesele sofa bed
$89 extra washable cover
$75 shelves
$25 lamp
$42 table (saved $9 with discount card)

Rug, 9 x 12
$200 for bound carpet remnant

Paint
$37.80 - 2 gallons Valspar with primer @ $35 each with tax - $10 rebate, - $22.20 on an old Lowe's gift card

Savings
Freecycled carpet and carpet padding, saved $18 in garbage disposal fees.

Total project cost:
$707. 80

Darn. Over budget! I could have scrimped and not bought the extra washable cover for the sofabed. I'm glad I didn't though. I also could have pieced together cheaper flooring, but I don't regret that either.

But, to make up for the overage in the projects budget, I'm taking "rug for the boys' room" off this year's list. I was able to repurpose two of the small area rugs from the playroom for their bedroom, and I think they will work for at least the next year. That should just about make up for it.

So, no regrets overall, even though it was more money than I anticipated.

Now, the fun part. The pics! Just so you know, I debated long and hard about what color to do the accent wall and I made a bold choice-black. So far, I don't regret it though!

If you guys love a budget room makeover as much as I do, here are some pics to tide you over. I ripped out the carpet today and peeled back part of the padding to reveal hardwood floors. Let's see if there are any surprises!

The befores are a little fuzzy. And remember, there is MORE chaos than usual because we had things out and were moving things around, and we freecycled some furniture.

Stay posted for more. I should have the floors bare by tonight, then it's on to painting, then decorating.

Before:




During:

One of my planned expenses for the year is redoing our very sad toy room/ guest room.

It has very sad and very stained white carpet, which has only gotten worse since we moved in with two little boys. (Who puts in white carpet?????).

The plan is
-removing the carpet. There is hardwood underneath.
-cleaning up the hardwood and putting a large rug over it
- a new sofa bed with washable covers
- a homework/art/lego table for the boys, with a bright light over it.

Simple, but a lot of work!

My sister and I went to Ikea yesterday to get the sofa bed and the table. I do love the idea of washable covers!

We decided on the Lyckesele sofa bed with a yellow cover and an extra orange cover, and the Linnmon table top in pine finish, to match the pine trofast storage we already have.

My budget was $500 and I squeaked in at $525, plus another $30 or so to repaint. Not too much over budget, I guess.

We freecycled the old sofabed, which was single size, s not very useful to us. I'm also considering freecycling the carpet pads, etc. to keep them out of the landfill.

Paid the mortgage today and managed to add $200 extra to principal. I can't wait for the new balance to show up.

Other than that, not much news. I'm trying to 'right' the ship financially, so to speak.

We've been doing great lowering the grocery bill. I think we've spent about $100 a week for the four of us lately,and we buy organic milk, etc.

A lot of that is due to the chest freezer being full (so glad I bought one) from farm shares, summer garden stuff, and the gift of meat our friend brought.

I'm making an effort to start 'eating down' the chest freezer, and just buy perishables like fresh fruits/veggies, milk and any odds and ends we need to make recipes during the week.

I do have a spendy weekend coming up. We're redoing the boys' toy room. The carpet is nasty, so we're taking it up shining the hardwood and sticking a large rug over it. (Already bought the rug). We freecycled the old sofa bed in there (single size, from the 1960s), and are getting a larger sofabed with a washable cover from Ikea this weekend. We have a lot of houseguests, so this will give us another sleeping option.

I'm also getting them a new art desk/ lego table future homework station. So that's why this will be a spendy weekend. These are planned expenses. I will try to be judicious with my choices, but not feel bad about spending the cash. These will be good upgrades!

I have two mortgage snowflakes to send in this week.
1. 9.49 in rebate checks
2. $15 from the scratch off lottery tickets my mom gave me for Christmas

Not too shabby. Payday is Friday, and I will send them with the mortgage payment. I WILL PAY OFF THIS HOUSE!~

A friend of ours came over to have "man night" with hubby. He brought us a giant bag of organic, grass-fed local beef from his cousin's farm. He said they couldn't eat it all before it would be no good (in the freezer more than six months, etc....), so he brought some to share with us. There had to be $60 worth of meat in the bag, at least, including steaks, roasts and ground beef.

I have to think of a nice way to say thank you. We're on a tight budget lately and also planning for a no-spend month in February, so this will go a long way to stretching the grocery dollars!

Okay okay, gardening might not seem like a financial issue, but really it is. I swear!

We have a rather ambitious backyard 'farm' brewing. (I'm up to about 600 sq feet in planting space in the back, and 200 in the front). If I play my cards right, we will have plenty of fresh, chemical free heirloom fruits and veggies to eat from April until December next year.

I'm going to keep track of everything I pull out of the garden this year, as well as every dollar I spend on the garden, so I can determine how much it really does save. At the end of the season, I will calculate what it would have cost me to buy what we grew at the grocery store. Not sure how I should account for the items I can, but I'll figure that out. Should be interesting. I did this four years ago, at the last house, and I remember we pulled almost 200 pounds of roma tomatoes out that year alone. It was an epic year for home-canned pasta sauce.

Once again I have big plans for my backyard veggie garden. I finished my seed orders tonight. Luckily, I still have plenty of awesome heirloom seeds left over from last year (still viable), so I only had to spend about $30 out of pocket to fill in all the gaps.

I also attend an annual plant and seed swap, which allows me to share my extra seedlings in exchange for sometimes very expensive flowers, fruits, and veggies. All for free. It's fun. (I got spendy irises and lilies for my front yard last year). This year, I plan to grab strawberry and raspberry starts, some perennial flowers such as bee balm, and maybe some flavored mints for a tea garden. I highly recommend finding a free plant swap. They are addictive.

Last year, the goal was to construct the gardens. We had an okay season, but made the mistake of using subsoil in the raised beds (mixed with compost) and it was just too heavy and poor to produce much. We still got some, but not nearly what we could have. That has all been dug out and replaced with an excellent compost mix.

This year, the goal is to maximize their productivity. Spring, summer, and fall crops, row covers to extend the season, the whole deal. It could be an epic failure, but no matter what, it will be awesome, and I'm excited. I've always been a big gardener, but this is a step up even for me.

I'll probably be out in the garden in late February installing hoops and row covers.

If any of you are interested....

I have done a lot of research into season extending, and found and excellent book on it: "The Year-Round Vegetable Gardener" by Niki Jabour. I love it because she gardens in the same zone as I do, so all of her advice is relevant, unlike the books coming out of California.

I'm also going to try harder to interplant-- i.e. growing carrots, lettuce or beets under the tomatoes, rather than one crop. It could work well.

I hope I'm not the only one excited to garden!

I was out working in my beds this last sunny day. Here is the top pick, of me laying cardboard for the paths (I will mulch over them. It looks nice and keeps weeds down). And, then below that, my dream for what my garden will eventually look like!

New year is always bitter sweet. I like the clean slate and the calm after the rush of holidays, but boy do I hate to see all my goal totals start at zero again! Gah! It makes me antsy, I like I need to jump start, but if it isn't payday, there isn't much to do but wait. Boo.

This morning I am feeling super thankful for everything, though. I had a nightmare that we lost everything and my family had to move into the worst housing projects in New Orleans. I've seen them. No one should have to live like that. It was a very detailed dream, down to every inch of what the apartment looked like, the rules we had to follow, the debate of letting the kids play on the grass for fear of violence, etc. It was intense. I don't know what brought it on, but it's stuck with me today. We are so very lucky, and I'm lucky we know it.

On another note, I found this series following a family trying to eat a super healthy real food diet on $600 a month for a family of five.

http://www.oursmallhours.com/2013/06/the-600-real-food-grocery-budget-challenge.html

Sorry, I can't remember how to hyper link anymore. I suck!

Hi Guys. I'm ready for a new credit card. Are there any offers out there with good bonuses and incentives? I've worn through last year's reward card and am gearing up to cancel it. Thanks!

I have wrestled with sending extra snowflakes to the mortgage, and today I finally figured out how and I'm amazed at how obvious it was and how obtuse I must be.

My online mortgage payment portal only allows you to make whole mortgage payments. If you want to send extra to principal, it has to be included with the large monthly payment. That isn't always possible for me, and I have struggled with the how do I put these $13 worth of rebates here, or $20 craigslist sale there to the mortgage balance.

I used to physically go into a branch and have the teller apply it to the mortgage. But it is often difficult to go inside a branch, with two little kids jumping around, and lines, etc.

Well, figured it out. I don't know why I didn't think of it before. I set up a line item in my online bill pay for the mortgage servicer. I sent them a 'payment' of $25 extra, with a note to apply it to mortgage principal. It hit today and it worked like a charm. Now, I can just 'pay' a bill to the servicer for whatever snowflake I have for the mortgage.

Why did it take me so long to try this?? Ugh. All the trouble I could have saved!

So, we adopted two kittens from one of our CSA farm's barn cats. They're healthy, etc. We took them in for their initial round of shots, check up, and boosters and brace your self. The bill for the two of them was $550.

Since when does taking two cats to the vet for shots cost that much???? I'm still reeling. I also asked them how much it will cost to get the cats fixed, and just for the spaying (the girl), it is $225. I'm in shock.

Who can afford that???

I called the low-cost spay/neuter shelter and it will cost me about $50 each to have them fixed. Why is there such a huge cost differential??

Part of our annual holiday tradition is heading to the local Moose lodge for the annual Christmas eve party. It sure paid off! I won the world's largest pork tenderloin in the raffle. I swear, it was as long as my torso (and I'm 5 ft 9!). I cut it into seven large chunks to share with my mom and sis, and to put in the freezer for future meals. Totally awesome!

I hope your Christmas is going great. Ours has calmed down, and was good. Back to real life tomorrow.... Here is me celebrating, making my most awesome "Oh yeah" silly face!

My final mortgage payment for 2013 just cleared. We knocked $16,222.09 off the mortgage balance this year, AND, our goal was to owe $57,000 by the end of the year, but we're now at $56,103.
Finally, a success!

I'm already looking ahead even though Christmas isn't yet here. With 2013 winding down, it's become clear to me that we did a lot of things right and screwed up a lot of others, so for 2014 my resolve is to make things simpler and more focused.

In 2013,
-we didn't meet our college savings goals of 3k a year/kid. We saved 2400 for each kid. Still respectable I guess.
-We didn't manage to put much of anything in DH's Roth
-We still have no will, and no life insurance. Ugh.

It's just reality. We used to be able to tackle a million goals all at once and go big. We could sock away money and pay off debt. But life is very different now.

For one, we now have a mortgage, whereas our last house was paid off. That's a huge chunk of money we don't have every month.

We also now have two kids. When they were babies, they were pretty cheap. breast-feeding, no daycare. Now, we have one preschool bill, and two activities a week (swim and gymnastics) plus, allowances, clothes, and other activities. And feeding them. They eat constantly!

I also had to give up a bunch of paying but not super profitable work this year due to time crunch and sanity. I don't regret it, but I miss the checks!

Yes, life is more expensive.

We did do one thing right: We knocked money off the mortgage. Last Jan. 1, our balance was about $72,500. This Jan. 1 it will be about $56,500. $16,000 off the balance. Hazzah! Now that, I am proud of.

I want that mortgage gone so I can rest easy, so the goal is to pay it down to $41,500 by next Jan. 1.

So, looking back, I wasn't very realistic about how much money we had coming in and out when I set the goals. This year, I have fewer and more focused goals. We're strapped for time, money, and energy, and having fewer goals I think will let us focus on what is most important in the coming year: saving a base amount each payday, for college, and for retirement, while also putting a sledgehammer to the mortgage, by far our largest monthly expense.

I'm always on the prowl for new and interesting personal finance books. Most are pretty ho-hum once you've been in the mix for a while. I picked up a copy of Happy Money by Elizabeth Dunn et al.

I actually liked it. It gave me food for thought. It's about the ways (using scientific research) we can spend our money to make us happier.

I know, it sounds hokey, but I'm not doing it justice. They say with a few tweaks, we can actually get more enjoyment out of the money we already spend.

The basic premise is, to be happier,
Buy experiences, rather than stuff. The joy of stuff wears off immediately, whereas the joy of experiences and the memories from them, last.

Make it a treat. I.e. buy fewer lattes, so that when you do get one, it's a treat not just an very day ho hum experience.

Buy time. As in, if you're spending to 'save' time do it in a way that eliminates the most frustrating and unenjoyable tasks of your life, because oftentimes unhappiness springs from a million little frustrations.

Pay Now, consumer later. This one, you'll have to read the book about, but it's cool. It inspired me to go for it and buy tickets to a rock show on my birthday, even though it's three months away. Now, I have something to look forward to( see above!), and I will enjoy it more because I paid up front.

Invest in others, via charity or otherwise. Also true. Seems the more I give, the more aware I am of how lucky we are and how much we have. And, the more likely I am to eschew ridiculous purchases because I am aware that it is frivolous.

So yes, I'd recommend this book. It's a quick read, and really made me think about how we use our resources.

Today was a snow day for the kids. Yesterday, it was 60 and raining. Good thing the boys and I wrapped up the fall garden tasks yesterday, because as you can see, there is snow all over everything. We're supposed to get 6 inches today.

Well, under that snow, is my ambitious garden project. I'd say 2013 was a success on that front. Starting from nothing, we now have 432 square feet of raised garden beds, plus established perennial herb garden, a peppermint garden, and tubs with horseradish and bee balm. We've also prepped a giant strawberry patch, a raspberry patch, and a popcorn patch that will be ready to plant in spring. It's very fulfilling to make your vision happen!

Take a peak!


Since we'll be growing tons more veggies, I've been looking for good family-friendly vegetarian cookbooks to help us make the most of what we produce. I also want us to start eating meatless more than just one night a week. It's better all around.

I'd love some suggestions for some of your favorite vegetarian or garden-themed cookbooks. Right now, I'm in love with "Veggies Please" by Carolyn Humphries. There are a lot of good suggestions for what to do with the tons of zucchinis you grow every year, and plenty of interesting, more ethnic recipes. It's not the same-old.

I'm less impressed with the Betty Crocker family vegetarian cookbook I got at the library. Seems like it's very carb heavy and is a collection of side dish or other random meat-free recipes they just happen to already have. It's not as interesting or inspiring.

On the job front, I mentioned before that one of my co-workers was hit by a drunk driver (while on his bicycle) and will be recovering for months. My bosses had asked me to fill in for him part or full time for three or more months. Well, the higher-ups killed that idea before it got off the ground, and I'm not really sad about it. It would have been a real pain to rearrange my childcare mid-year.

Anyway, I suggested they just dole out more projects to me as a freelancer. Everyone wins. They get help and only have to pay me for actual work,and I don't have to make any major changes. They think it's a good idea, so we'll see if we can work out more details.

More work will be hard, but the temporary bump in income would be welcome.

Oh yes, and that train wreck. In my huge woe-is-me post about my work life balance a few months ago, I mentioned the only friend who was in a similar position as me-- freelancing, at home with kids too, went off the deep end. She stopped cooking at home, stuck her kids in day care from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. and no longer seems interested in being a mom.

Well, we had ladies night last night, and it's worse than I thought. She and her hubby (who have been our friends for 9 years) are separating after the holidays. She says she doesn't want to, but he is fed up, etc etc. AND she admitted she's having an affair with a D-list rock star, because he tells her she's pretty and makes her feel special. The guy is twice our age people! Anyway, it's a wreck. I've tried to be supportive, but today I'm overwhelmed.

I'm sad. None of our friends have every had kids and gotten a divorce. This is the first for us and it's hard.