2016: A Year in Review

You know as posts go this one is probably one of my hardest to do the last couple of years.  In this case when I looked at what we'd gone through the last year and everything and realizing how bad of shape we're in now financially...it was hard not to just sink into a deep, dark depression.  Financial hard times are like a war in some ways.  You go in with a fighting spirit, get depressed, pick yourself and fight on, but sometimes it's hard to see the big picture for the month to month hardships.  I wanted to make sure I was over the "darn, I can't believe we're still here in the financial pits" type of depression before I wrote this.  I needed to be able to see the positive as well as the negative that has happened this last year.

So, let's get to "2016:  A Year in Review"

2016 Financial Review:

The Pros:

• Groceries:  Our food budget went down to 100.00 per week in 2015.  In 2016 it went down to 50.00 per week and I found that, for the most part, I was able to stick close to that for the most part.  I plan to stick to the 50.00 per week grocery budget.  If I can somehow get ahead in the financial department in 2017, I am thinking of trying out just taking the grocery budget in one big chunk (more on how I'd break that down later if we can get to that point) and maybe trying to just do one big shopping trip a month to buy the bulk of what we need, while reserving a bit of money to buy things like milk and such.  We'll see how the year goes.
• Dental Bills:  We paid off dental bills this year, sometimes with out and out help from family to get the last bit of money needed to pay off the chunks of dental bills needed before deferred interest would. eat our lunch.  We paid off another 12,000.00 in dental bills last year by sinking every bit of extra cash we'd get in (from PFD's or our income tax return and things) onto the dental bills.  
• Utilities:  I have carefully, over time, adjusted the heat down in the house at night, which has thus far saved us about 40.00 per month on our gas bill (and it's been COLD this winter, so that was a good thing to find).  I also found that despite running the electric heat earlier than the last couple of years and having to keep it higher than normal due to the really nasty cold snaps we've had so far this winter, that our electric bill is still about 70.00 less than this time last year.  I attribute this to figuring out to turn off heaters as SOON as we pack up to leave for school, LED light bulbs in the house, turning off the banks of florescents in the garage every chance I get and just being really careful to not waste electricity at all if I can help it.
• Mortgage:  By looking up my husband's credit report online right before our home owner's insurance was set to renew I found that my husband had several credit cards on his credit report that weren't his, so we contested the cards and after quickly researching social security numbers and things the credit reporting agencies removed nearly 12,000.00 of what was registering as debt from my husband's credit.  This helped to improve our credit rating with the insurance company, which lowered our home owner's insurance and as a result our mortgage is lower this month (and I hope lower for the entire year, but I'm waiting to get the paperwork from the mortgage company to confirm this).  

The Cons:

• Well despite paying off 12,000 in dental bills, we still have a ways to go to get them paid off.  We have another 5,000.00 in dental bills (a combo of my daughter's braces and my husband's teeth) in Care Credit we have to pay by November and it adds on another 300.00 onto our bill load every month.  Bright side while my husband still has two teeth to cap and one future extraction, after that we're hopefully done with dental bills for a while.  We really need to get those teeth done this year, though, as the molars that aren't done are still breaking and getting worse as time goes on.  I want to get them done sooner rather than later before we end up with either root canals or worse yet extractions (as my husband is already missing a few teeth from having to have them extracted).
• Unfortunately, by my husband getting taken in by the sleep center I have another 2200.00 to pay in bills.  I was able to get it adjusted down by fighting with them about the bill (it would have been nearly 5000.00 if I hadn't), but it still adds on another 100.00 onto our monthly bills until paid off.
• Due to sporadic income, increases in taxes and inflation, getting the PFD cut by 1/2, numerous dental bills that had to be paid, a higher mortgage than the year before due to increases in home owner's insurance and just general life stuff happening, we have nothing in savings at all and we're living from month to month and praying we have enough to make bills.  I kept hoping we'd be in better shape by the end of 2016 and hopefully have some money in savings, but it didn't happen.  Thus the depression I was battling. 

•  Big problem with lack of funds is all the things we've had to put off doing that need to be done or need to be addressed.  The sewer is supposed to be pumped this year, 1/3 of the gutters on the house have blown off and are broken and the rest of the gutters don't work and need to be repaired or replaced, both my husband's and my vehicles need to be replaced sometime soon (mine is on borrowed time for trade in and my husband's truck is nearly 20 years old now and was used hard when we bought it...it has over 200,000 miles on it now) and other things.  We still have a huge hole in our laundry room ceiling because we haven't had the money to rebuild the ceiling, we desperately need to build proper shelves and storage for things like linens, etc.  Even our heating system in the house desperately needs to be done right, but there's no money to save toward getting that done either.  It's overwhelming sometimes, but I am just trying to have faith that we'll get there eventually.

In short, it's been a stressful year for finances.

The Garden/Produce:

I felt like the garden had to have it's own section this year as so much went on with it!

• Due to lack of finances I couldn't plant the garden from plant starts this year like I normally would.  Which actually worked out okay and really opened my eyes to how great seeds are.
• Thanks to Jeannie at Get Me to the Country I became the proud owner of a ton of seeds when I was desperately trying to figure out how I was going to do a garden with no money to speak of (an offer of help that I will always appreciate).  With the seeds she sent me and a few packets of seeds I had bought on my own that I had, the garden took shape.  With Jeannie's additional guidance and sometimes just general butt kicking (of which I needed from time to time as the whole "growing from seed" thing was a bit overwhelming for me), the garden actually did do well this year!  
•  In my small garden beds I was able to grow rat tailed radishes (makes great relish and pickles, not to mention really nice addition to salads), Chinese vegetables, lettuce, three different types of potatoes (along with a few in pots I found around the house to supplement garden space.  These were grown from locally sourced sprouting potatoes that I had), chard, peas, bunching onions, carrots, garlic (left over in the garden from the previous year, which didn't do so great) and spinach.  
• I was gifted a rhubarb plant, which did well for it's first year and have an open offer to go and dig some plants at another friend's house come Spring (which I'm looking forward to :).  
• The rain during the summer was terrible toward the middle and end of summer, so some things like the Swiss Chard didn't seem to do as well as in previous years.  But the peas tried to take over the universe, growing at least seven feet tall, and the rat tailed radishes did wonderful in the garden as well.  
• This was my first year, ever, that carrots actually grew for me beyond like 1/2 an inch.  I was thrilled to use them and I still have some in the freezer.
• Through foraging in the yard I was able to get a really good amount of rose hips, which I made into syrup and fruit leather.  I also got some wild cranberries and watermelon berries as well.  
• I was able to harvest my friend's rhubarb as she wasn't going to be able to use it and offered it to me.
• I was able to harvest raspberries from my mother-in-law's house as her bushes produced way better than mine.
• I was able to supplement a LOT of produce by running into really great sales at local produce stands and just good sales at the store (the produce was worked into my normal grocery budget).
• I was able to barter my labor for blue berries and was given zucchini and squash as an additional thank you, which went into the freezer.
• By finding the wonder that is the you pick farm I was able to get turnips, which failed miserably in the garden due to a birdemic and slugpocalpyse, and get them for a REALLY good price!

Overall, as the garden and just generally being able to stock the pantry and freezer this year, it was a good year!

So, let's look to the silver linings of 2016:

1.  Well, dental bills are finally getting to a "light at the end of the tunnel" phase, which is nice.  I'm hoping that maybe, possibly, the tax return this year will be good enough to pay the big chunk of dental bills we owe off and then it would be a matter of getting the last few teeth done.

2.  Our phone company actually adjusted our bandwidth UP this year without us paying an added penny on our bill.  Instead of 70 gigs per month we now get 100 gigs.  This is great as we are watching more and more online anymore.

3.  I am grateful that the insurance we had last year, while it turned out to be a fiasco with the sleep center (which I blame the sleep center for, not the insurance company), covered a physical.  I hadn't had a physical in about five years due to it costing too much, so it was nice to know that everything was okay and things.  I am also glad that I went to the health fair and got my blood drawn so I knew to be aware of things like my cholesterol and my vitamin D levels as I honestly think this has kept me more on task with eating healthier and taking good care of myself.

4.  I learned to accept help from others this year.  This was a really hard lesson for me, but I am glad I did it as there were times when the offers of help were really the hand of God being offered through another human being.  I will always be grateful for those who helped us this last year and I work hard to pay it forward every chance I can as I've come to realize all the more how even a small offer of help, sometimes, is what someone really needs to see them through a dark spot in their lives.  I shed a lot of tears of helplessness and hopelessness this last year and every time I thought there was no way we could get through it, we did.  And every one of those times, for me, was a huge blessing.  I'd list them all, but instead I'll just say, "Thank you" and move on before I get teary eyed.

5.  Every time I think that I can't learn a new skill, a need presents itself and I find that I learn things I really never thought I would learn how to do.  This year I experimented trying to do a winter garden.  I patched my love seat and patched it again.  I ended up reupholstering my couch and redoing a rocking chair with new cushions and upholstering those cushions...all from materials I had on hand.  I foraged more than I ever have before to get my stores up where I wanted them for winter.

6.  I improved at being thrifty and actually got better at being broke, which surprised me.  I found that washing out Ziploc bags wasn't as weird as I thought in the past, I found myself measuring aluminum foil so that I wouldn't throw out extra (yes, I actually do this), I made a point of using up EVERY bit of leftovers I could (to the point of taking meat off the bone for things like ribs before serving it so that I can save the bones for stock later) and worked harder than I ever thought possible to make it on next-to-nothing a lot.

I found myself being even MORE careful with how I spent any extra money that came our way.  Gift cards were carefully used to get things we needed as much as possible, versus how I used to do it which would be to get a combo of things we needed with things we wanted if I could.  Even when buying something that I knew someone would want, like getting a furry throw for my son for Christmas from my mom, I made sure that I got something that was useful as well (thus getting him a furry throw that you could curl up in when he wasn't playing with it versus getting him a toy he might or might not use).  I got myself some food items with the gift cards my family sent this year for Christmas, for instance, but I made sure to buy only those items I KNEW I would use even if the recipe I had them in mind for didn't work out.  Nickels were tallied and spent so carefully my step-mom often joked, "You squeeze that nickel so tight the buffalo poops in your hand".

As a result of this, I've grown in wisdom in some ways, although I'll be the first to admit that I have a ton to learn yet.  I really have gotten a real idea how far a nickel can stretch and even when we have money in the future (which I pray that circumstance happens soon)  I can't see myself spending money without serious thought to the impacts.  "Do we really need this?  Is it going to last?  Should I just wait or not buy it all together and put the money toward something else we need more?"  these are thoughts that go through my head every time I pick up a clearance item at the store anymore, even if the item is less than a dollar or something.

I really started to feel a kinship with my grandmother's generation this year as I struggled, learned, stumbled and got back up again. I learned, through necessity, more of the old time skills that most don't even think to do anymore (like rebuilding a pair of boots or reupholstering a couch) and doing it because I had to, not for fun. "Where there's a will, there's a way," really is a true saying in a lot of ways.

7.  I am thrilled with the advancements the kids have made this year.  My daughter finally spread her wings a bit and came out of her shell enough to join chorus and has been having fun doing that this year.  My son got his talking device and has been improving steadily learning to make his thoughts and wants known.  He has a long way to go, but it's a start, which it's a start we've been waiting for for YEARS, so I'm thrilled with every new thought he makes known to us.

8.  I am very grateful for the friends I've met through this blog and for the little community we've got going.  I love reading how people are doing and getting inspiration by reading what they are up to.  Thank you all for reading the blog and for commenting.  I look forward to reading how your life is going every week and seeing what you are all up to and I have learned a lot from you all this year :).

And there you are folks.  My year in review.  I keep feeling like I'm forgetting things, but it was a pretty eventful year (both good and bad), so I'm sure by glossing over things I've missed stuff *laugh*.  And now onto a new year!

Shopping Goals: January 2017

Note to Self:  Really need to update picture of pantry for the shopping goals as wow has what I buy for groceries changed *laugh*.

I love my family, but sometimes I still want to dart gun them with some serious sedatives so I can get some sleep.  My husband, the natural night owl that he is, got his sleep patterns all kinds of screwed up being sick and has been going to bed well after midnight, thus keeping me up too (I can't blame him really as it's hard when you are getting over being as sick as he was) and then my son has been getting up about 1:00 am and is up till about six.  Thus, my plans of getting up decently early and getting things done gets shot with a big ol' cannon and my urge to do indecent things to family members rises *laugh*.  I'm praying that EVERYONE goes to bed at a decent hour the next couple of days and stays asleep as we have appointments to go to decently early in the morning so the children's want to sleep till ten isn't going to fly at all.

Anyway, when it comes to shopping goals this month...I actually have about forty items coming  from Amazon as a result of carefully making gift cards from my family members work for me this month with items all across the board from clothes, to vacuum parts and bags, to food items to a couple of books for my daughter and other things we've needed but I kept putting off getting.

Believe it or not, I do still have some items I'd love to get this month despite not having this thing called "disposable income" at the moment.  I can hope that maybe we'll have a decent month of income ahead of us, so I'm putting the goals out there anyway.  It actually all ties in with my yearly goals this year (I'll get finished with that post soon I hope) and I'm hoping I can get a few of the items on my list.  The way finances are looking right now, this is REALLY iffy, but we'll see how it goes.

Shopping Goals:  January 2017

Amazon.com (no affiliate links they are just links to the description of the product)

• Laundry Washing Ball (I don't buy into switching the PH level in water, but I'm really thinking adding an extra agitating agent like this to the water would help to reduce the amount of laundry soap needed to get the clothes clean, thus might help my son's eczema some more by reducing allergens on his clothes.  And it'll save money by letting me reduce the amount of laundry soap needed per load, if not all together sometimes and hopefully eliminate the need for an extra rinse cycle on the clothes).
• Bonsai trees  These are gifts for my brother for an important event in his life.  So, need to get, so I'm adding them *laugh*.  

Big maybes:

• Miso Broth Powder I love miso when I'm sick, so I want to get some of this for various uses, including making miso soup.  Seems a much better deal then getting powdered miso at the stores.
• Green Split Peas People are really impressed with these and how fresh they are.  Now that my husband is a big fan of Erbswurst, I would like to invest in some good split peas to use in later days.

Regular Stores:

• Powdered sugar (after Christmas baking I'm running lower than I would like)
• Dry Cat food (hoping for an awesome deal for a big bag of it as getting the little bags tends to nickel and dime me to death)
• Children's Ibuprofen 
• Chicken (if sales are good and we have money to stock up)

And yeah, that's about it for regular shopping goals as I'm trying to keep it simple right now with only a few "I'd like to get that" items.

And here are my big "work toward these wish list items" for this year (these are YEARLY goals, not a monthly one).  I decided to start a list like this for myself to work toward the items I would really like to get and/or need.  I tend to do better when I write things down, so I'm writing these down too.


2017 Shopping Goals/Wish List

• Miracle-Gro AeroGarden Harvest (LCD Control Panel) with Gourmet Herb Seed Pod Kit, Teal  I would love to have one of these to grow food through the winter until I can afford a proper heated greenhouse one day.  We just don't have the light through the winter naturally, so getting a kit like this is a "need" more than a "want" if I want to grow food during the winter and I like how it'll set up on a counter.
• Gourmia GK200 1.8 Qt Cordless Electric Supreme Kettle - Speed Boil - Auto Shutoff Boil Detect - 1500 Watts (I use my microwave to boil water a lot and I love it, don't get me wrong, but it's also 10 years old now and I'm worried about working it too much.  The electric kettle is cheaper than a new microwave).
• Memory Foam Mattress Topper (for the sake of my back and shoulder I need to invest in one of these at some point). 
• Non-locking 12 inch, professional grade spring loaded tongs.  These things end up becoming an extension of my arm when I cook an awful lot, I use spring loaded tongs constantly and unfortunately like 4 out of 5 pairs of tongs I have are old, thrashed, and rusting out.  I really need to upgrade from the cheapy tongs from the store to better ones, so I have my eye on about three different brands on Amazon I'd love to get.  Unfortunately at about 14.00 a pop, replacing my beloved tongs is going to be a long, on-going process.

And there you are folks.  My shopping goals for this month.  How about you?  Got anything you need to get this month?

Monthly Goals: January 2017 (and Happy New Year!)

Well, first off, "Happy New Year" everyone!  May 2017 be an awesome year for us all or at the very least may 2017 not suck :).

Tonight we enjoyed a tradition in my family, pork and sauerkraut for luck in the new year.  Instead of just sauerkraut, though, I decided to pop open my first can of the pickled red cabbage slaw from the Ball Book of Home Preserving.  I figured the universe wouldn't care if the kraut was traditionally fermented or if it was just pickled.  Impression of this stuff?  Man, it is STRONG!  It actually brought tears to my eyes eating it a few times because the vinegar taste was so strong.  I'm going to take the left overs and dump them in with a pork roast or some brats and then add something to cut the acidity (probably water) and just let the stuff cook for a while to see if I can cut the strong flavor some in it, but at this point I don't see myself making this again.  I'm probably going to just stick with the kraut next time when I can.  But hey, the rat tailed radish relish?  That stuff is tasty!  A bit thin, but tasty all the same (tried that a bit ago, but wasn't sure if I shared that or not :).

Last month's goals got kinda, sorta, accomplished.  I did get Christmas gifts done, although I have a few that I'm going to finish up and then put into storage for next year (a couple of pillow cases for the kids from some Christmas fabric I had).  I also got the new table runner made, got the videos donated to "Toys for Tots" (with how frantic December was I ended up donating them a few days before Christmas), my birthday ended up being a cheap date where we had good steak from the freezer that I got cheap and a free cake mix courtesy of Fred Meyer and their 25 Merry Days and it was decent as birthdays go.  And I got the video shelves moved upstairs, although I'm still working on organizing them and things, so that'll have to transfer over onto the goals for this month.

The kid's dentist appointment I ended up rescheduling because I was sick and not up to going, so we have that and my son's next allergy injection this week (one day apart, actually so I'm hoping my son takes it all okay).  I'm hoping my daughter does alright with all of this as she gets upset when others are uncomfortable so I'm worried she might get a bit queasy watching her brother get a shot.  Here's hoping everything goes okay.

When it comes to goals this month it kind of ties in with some of my new yearly goals (coming in another post) and are kind of all over the board, but they are goals all the same :).

Sewing Goals:

• Fix batting in comforters as much as I can (our comforters get washed about five times a week with my son and they show wear and tear a lot quicker because of it, so I have some that are losing their quilting and need some TLC to get them to last longer hopefully).
• Work on making some towels
• Work on making some pot holders

Organizing Goals:

• Start going through and figuring out what can be donated and drop off at used store
• Rearrange china cabinet and books, switch places on bottom shelf and organize things better for everyday use (more on that later as I know that's about as clear as mud).
• Start work on getting master bedroom organized, including closet
• Move sheets dresser out of son's room and find a place to put it (it's an antique and he's working on trying to wreck it)
• Organize video shelves a bit better and try to find missing movies.

General Goals:

• Get back to menu planning (more on that later as I'm going to do it a bit different...I hope)
• Get paperwork gathered together as much as possible to file for taxes next month
• Get insurance worked out for daughter for year (waiting on the state at this point more than anything)
• Get prescription refills for kids for year (on a few of them anyway)  from various doctors
• Work on getting cleaning done and schedule reset so I can keep the house clean (getting there, thank goodness)

 And there you are folks.  My goals for this month.  How about you?  Got anything planned?

Frugal Friday: Money Saving Weekly Recap

I was surprised when my slippers actually came in the mail on my birthday as they were cited to come in on Tuesday.  Behold the Smurf slippers!  Made from 100% real Smurfs!  Okay, so I exaggerated the last part.  These things are very, very blue though *laugh*.  Comfy, too :).

Right so past being another year older this week, some money saving things got done, so let's get to those.

1.  I spent a total of 54.00 on groceries this week.  We were expecting a big snow storm (we only ended up actually getting like about two inches instead), so I ended up getting eggs.  I also got frozen pizzas (they were on sale 3 for 10.00 at Carrs if you bought three of the Red Baron pizzas and then they had a 1.50/2 E-Coupon you could load to your card, so I got 3 pizzas for decently cheap...they will come in handy in the future for sure) and store brand french fries and tater tots (3 for 5.00 with an E-Coupon this week at Carrs).  I'm going to try deep frying them for my son if he REALLY gets a hankering for McDonalds the next couple of weeks as Ore Ida fries have gone up in price again and just wasn't in the budget this week (for the amount of ounces you get it just wasn't worth getting the Ore Ida ones).

I didn't grab the freebie from Fred Meyer yesterday as it was a sports drink and I knew we wouldn't drink it, so I just let it go.  I also didn't pick up the free Ranch dressing when I was in town grocery shopping, mainly to stay out of the store and away from potential clearance sales at Fred Meyer.  We are on a razor sharp edge this coming week financially and with my husband losing productivity this week being sick (which we plain could NOT afford to happen)...we're just massively broke.  So after Christmas clearance is out this year.  Oh well.  Having the heat, electricity and things turned on is more important.

2.  My plans to have my daughter invite her best friend over to go sledding this weekend went down like the Hindenburg when my daughter got the gift of the cold the rest of us have been fighting off for my birthday.  So, she's coughing, blowing through tissues and feeling cruddy right now.  Poor thing :(.  Every time she thinks she'll be able to have a play date with her best friend (who lives two doors down, which makes it even MORE pathetic) things have just been happening lately.

3.  My son's speech therapist gave us a bag of mini marshmallows as she had bought them to try on him for a reinforcer during speech therapy.  He didn't play ball, so she just gave us the bag as a way to say, "Merry Christmas".  They came in handy the last couple of days as a way to bribe my daughter to try hot chocolate to help her sore throat (yes, I actually had to BRIBE my daughter to try hot chocolate.  She's an odd one *laugh*).   It was a bonding experience ;).

4.  I managed to get my act together this week and pull meat out of the freezer to defrost AHEAD of time, so I saved having to defrost it in the microwave (a savings on energy...not much of one but a savings), the meat tasted better from not having to defrost it in the microwave and it kept me on task with the menu I had planned.  As a result we've had plenty of leftovers in the fridge to choose from, which has been good to keep lunches easy.

5.  I've been having fun watching "Full Steam Ahead" the new documentary the BBC put out with Ruth, Alex and Peter on You Tube.  It's actually rather fascinating to learn about how the railroad developed in Britain and how it changed the way everything was done, although I have to admit I've had a hard time seeing Ruth not in her Victorian clothes *laugh*.

6.  I took advantage of the gift card my mom and sister sent me this year and one of the things I got was a Kindle version of a pressure cooker cookbook.  The print edition was at least 10.00, but the Kindle version was .99.  I took the Kindle version and have been paging through it over the last couple of days (so far, honestly, I'm not overly impressed.  I think I just need to hit Pinterest for ideas.  If anyone has a good pressure cooker cookbook to recommend please share!) in preparation of Amazon one of these days getting my new pressure cooker to me (so far it's been "Shipping Today" for three days now *grumble*).

7.  I bookmarked several cookie recipes in Fred Meyer's 25 Merry Days Cookie Calendar and one of them is a shortbread type of cookie that you fill with raspberry jam.  Since I have a ton of raspberry jam in the pantry, I REALLY want to try out the cookie recipe.  I was hoping to make it over Christmas, along with a few other recipes, but I and my husband were sick and my daughter wasn't impressed with trying the recipes on her own, so I just decided to put off holiday baking till later.  I figured what was the point of doing Christmas baking if none of us could taste it anyway?  At least we got sugar cookies done before my husband got too sick and he's been enjoying those on and off.

8.  I finally came to the conclusion that this was the last year for extended family gifts from us for Christmas.  For the amount of time I have had to invest in making gifts and things, I could make my husband and kids some really neat stuff.  And when it comes to return gifts to us...no one in the family has the time or the energy to devote to making gifts themselves and I just feel like the gifts they give us in return I'm almost forcing them to give us as we gave them something and that doesn't seem right to me (if any family reads this, please please don't think I'm upset about this.  I'm not!  Really!  I know written words can come across funky sometimes, so I just wanted to put that out there to let you know I'm not angry, hurt of weird about any of this.  Seriously!).  Which, I know, the giving is the most important thing and all, but I don't do it to make people feel put out.

I HAVE enjoyed making and giving the gifts, don't get me wrong, but this year I even made people feel bad because I put so much work into things when they didn't have the time or the energy to think about it (or the money since some members of the family have huge families on BOTH sides).  It's just not worth it and seems counter to the holiday spirit.  I'll probably make a couple of gifts to give in case we get gifts from folks next year (I refuse to not give gifts in return...it's a matter of personal principle), but I think I'm going to focus my energy on my kids and husband and maybe even try and make some gifts to send to my family back East (who are always super generous to us on the holidays and who I always end up having to send a really pathetic gift in return to).  I especially want to put the creative energy into my kids while I have the chance...especially my daughter, who being my developmentally normal child is maturing faster in some ways than my son is.  I had a kind of "2x4 upside the head moment" listening to her playing in her room the other morning when I realized that I'm not going to be hearing that for many more years before she grows out of it and moves on to more teenage things like phones, friends and stuff.

What?  No, that's not a tear in my eye.  That's liquid emotion.  Completely different thing.  Ahem *coughs into fist*.

9.  I am so, so happy that I grow herbs every summer.  Folks, if you grow one thing in your garden and you cook a lot, grow and dry herbs.  You'll save more money than you know, they are easy to grow (except basil...that one is delicate and hates me some years) and the home grown herbs taste SO much better than the store bought "been sitting on a shelf for goodness knows how long" herbs you can buy.  Just saying :).  Oh and lettuce.  Grow herbs and lettuce or Chinese vegetables (thanks for giving me that lesson, Jeannie) as then you'll have salads all summer long.  Ever done the math on how much you spend on salad kits all summer?  Trust me...it's worth growing your own and it's super easy.  You can even grow lettuce in pots :).

Anyway, I've been using herbs a lot in recipes of late including rosemary chicken (I'll have to share that recipe one of these days as rosemary is the main star in the recipe :) and it's been great to have the jars of herbs sitting in the cupboard waiting for me.

10.  Smiley 360 sent me some new Mucinex Fast-Max cold medicine to test drive and I happened to get it right in the middle of this cold, so I've been using it.  I've actually been impressed with the medicine itself, but man you think NyQuil tastes bad?  That stuff tastes like death on a half shell.  It actually cut through my congestion when I could taste NOTHING and let me know how terrible it tasted.  It is so bad I have to steel myself before swigging it down.  But, it does cut the congestion and helps to break up the phlegm so I say it's worth it.

And there you are folks.  A long, rambly, incoherent mess of a post going through my week (still not feeling up to 100% and have had kids distracting me every two minutes while writing it) and some of the ways I've saved money this week (at least I hope those are peppered in the post somewhere *sigh*).  How did you do?

Monthly Goals Update and This Week's Goals

 Our holiday centerpiece above, after I put away the fruit on Christmas.  A .50 thing of holiday crackers (bought at the used store this summer) has lightened up the table and we've opened one so far and my daughter got a paper crown (obviously) and a little cloth measuring tape.  I think we'll have fun with the rest over the next week until New Years :).

So, I obviously didn't get a chance to post up that recipe I was talking about on my last post, but no worries as it's a recipe that will work all through the holiday season, so I'll post it up sometime this week.  The last couple of days I've been making it for the kid's sake, barely.  This cold is really taking it out of me, probably because I got it right after getting over another one. 

I hope everyone's holiday was a nice one!  Ours was okay, overall.  The kids liked their presents I made them and their gifts from Santa.  My husband liked his gifts, I got my pie bird and my tea strainer for Christmas, so I was happy and my husband even found me a in-brand-new condition spatula/turner at the used store and got that as a last minute Christmas gift (which was great since my other spatula has been melting a little bit by little bit every time I use it). Oh and he found me a Corelle coffee pot/tea pot with a LID for 1.50 so I grabbed it, snatched the lid off of it (the pot itself is thrashed inside) and put the lid on my sans lid in-brand-new-shape cornflower blue pot in my china cabinet (happy dance :). 

My family sent gift cards for Christmas, so I spent a lot of the last couple of days going through Amazon and finding things we've been needing but putting off getting because of money and such.  The kids will be super excited, I'm sure, to receive the socks and underwear (and my son sweat pants), I'm getting a new brush for my vacuum cleaner and my smurf slippers.  Living large!!!  *Laugh* really, though, I got some neat things for me in with the essentials, like some specialty ingredients that Alton Brown uses in his new cookbook.  Some of the recipes looked really good, so I decided that I was going to order some ingredients to make them. Overall I squeezed every last bit of use out of the gift cards I could, including getting paper towels, vacuum bags and some groceries and feel good about how I spent them.  My family definitely approved when I told them what the cards had been spent on and thanked them *laugh*.

Also, I want to thank everyone who ordered through my affiliate links the last like six months, as I finally got over the 10.00 associate fee limit and was able to get a pressure cooker for like 10.00 after I used my associate fees toward it (a birthday gift to me from my husband...which he knows he's getting it for me.  I told him.  He said, "okay" *laugh*).  Amazon has some REALLY good deals on 6 quart aluminum ones for about 20.00, so I ordered the Presto one.  Here's hoping I can master the skills to use it properly.  Everyone keeps telling me to get an Instapot (my friends all love theirs), but I just can't bring myself to shell out the money to do it.  Maybe one day, but not anytime soon with how much they cost even on sale (same with a stainless steel pressure cookers...those things are expensive!).  I'm looking forward to getting my feet wet when it comes to pressure cooking as seeing how much time and energy it saves, so I'm hoping I can make a go of using a pressure cooker decently often in the coming year (New Year's goal for me :).  I'd like to get away from the "baked chicken" monotony a bit more and I really do think the pressure cooker will help.

Anyway, total thought tangent aside there (sorry I'm feeling pretty cruddy right now), in short we got through the holidays okay and the kid's rooms don't even look like tornadoes hit them, so yay!  My daughter even asked to make handkerchiefs for my husband and I, so we took some flannel, a template cut from cardboard and some pinking shears (so she could do it without my help) and she made the gifts.  I was really proud of her as it was her idea, she picked the colors and she did the work.  Yes, they have character as the lines aren't exactly straight, but you know what?  You know it's home made that way :).

The monthly goals for this month were pretty much centered around Christmas gifts and horray I got those done, so hey, my main goal for the month got accomplished.   This week's goals are basically going to center around getting the house back up and running at close to normal and getting ready for my birthday and things.  So, let's get to those.

Sewing Goals:

• Finish up the few gifts that I didn't get to finish for this year's gifts and put them aside for next year (a couple of pillow cases for the kids and things).
• Mend son's comforter (again)
• Fold and put away left over fabric from Christmas gift making properly (the inside of my fabric cabinet looks like the underside of a lot of children's beds....I was in a hurry what can I say).
• Sew some reusable Christmas gift bags of various sizes and put them away for use next year.

General Goals:

• Figure out side dishes for birthday (we are having the good steaks I got on reduced a bit ago for dinner, having cake from one of the free cake mixes for dessert, so I want to make sure I get my favorite sides to go with the steak.  I'm thinking home made rice pilaf, salad and whole grain rolls with home made honey butter...yum!).
• Figure out menu plan for the week (chicken noodle soup is definitely going to be on that menu plan).
• Start to take down Christmas decorations and take down and put away Christmas tree.
• Keep on top of housework and get laundry sorted and put away.
• Get better (this is #1 goal.  I hope I can accomplish it without aid of a doctor as my husband spent about 200.00 after insurance today going to the doctor himself and we didn't have that to spare.  Medical bills.  Blahhhhh!!!). 
• Mail off insurance paperwork for daughter's insurance and see what happens (I hate waiting for approval/rejection on things)

And there you are folks.  My goals for this week.  How about you?  Got anything planned?

Frugal Friday: Money Saving Weekly Recap

Merry "Nearly Christmas" to you all!  I'm planning on posting up a recipe tomorrow, but just in case I don't get to it, I wanted to make sure I got a "Merry Christmas" in there just to be safe ;).

Well, Santa was nice enough to grant me an early Christmas gift this year by giving me a cold.  Again.  So far I'm holding my own and am hoping I'm fighting it off *knocks on wood* but my husband is down with a bad sore throat tonight, so I'm hoping that he doesn't get worse over the weekend.  I'm not relishing the idea of trying to figure out how to pay for an ER visit since that's all that is going to be open this weekend (and insurance doesn't cover any of that), so prayers for good health would be appreciated right about now.

This week did see some money saving things going on, so let's get to that, shall we?

1.  Instead of spending a ton of money on different things for stocking stuffers, I hit the wonderful resource that is Pinterest and printed off a build your own snowman sheet, some Charlie Brown Christmas coloring pages and a couple super cute candy bar wrappers (I wrapped them around some Hershey bars we had in the pantry) and made one candy bar into a snowman and one into a penguin.  I also had gotten a really cute "Snowman Soup" (just a cute way to dress up hot chocolate) envelope template from a friend of mine sent to me (thanks, Paula) and I printed off a couple of those, attached a candy cane to each for a "stirring stick" and placed an envelope of hot chocolate from the pantry in the envelopes.  Totally adorable and it didn't cost me more than the ink to print all of it off as I took the hot chocolate from the pantry and the candy canes from the tree :).

Past that the kids are getting some fresh fruit in their stockings that I found in the 1.00 bags of reduced produce at Fred Meyer and are actually sitting the fridge right now...apples and oranges are always good :).

2.  I decided for my birthday that what I really wanted was a pair of slippers so I didn't have to wear my sneakers in the house all the time (due to a bad foot I can't walk in bare or stocking feet and I need something with a tread to go out on my deck to dump the garbage and things).  I added probably ten pairs of slippers that looked good to me on Amazon to my cart and waited until one of the pairs went for 9.99 and ordered them with a giftcard.  Sure the slippers are bright blue, but like I care if I'm walking around my house in bright blue slippers :).

3.  One of the electrical suppliers in the area gave my husband's company a huge basket of Alaska goodies and my in-laws split up the basket among the employees.  My husband's portion of the basket is seen up top.  I'm looking forward to eating the goodies for sure, and am really intrigued to try the smoked mustard.

4.  My daughter really wanted to give her friends at school gifts this year.  Normally I wait until we are gifted something to return the favor, but she has never asked to give gifts before, so I got a list of people she wanted to give gifts to.  She's got a group of girls she hangs out with all the time at school, so her list came out to a total of like four girls as well as her one boy friend she's had for three years now.  For the girls, I took the "Hello Kitty" Bath Kit I got on clearance after Christmas last year (if anyone of you remembers those, I give you kudos *laugh*) and opened it.  I then divided the contents into four different gifts, which my daughter was happy with.  Some empty parts boxes on my husband's part and some wrapping paper and her friends were thrilled with their gifts.  For 2.49 I'd say that getting four gifts from the one kit was pretty good overall.  My daughter's best friend also got one of the extra scarves that I made last year when I made my niece her dress scarves as my daughter's best friend is pretty girly in some ways, so I thought she'd like it (which she did).  My daughter claimed the other scarf for herself *laugh*.

5.  We spent last night driving around after dinner looking at Christmas lights.  We went back to the fairgrounds to see the "Light Up the Night" display (this time we followed the right entrance and went through it the right way *laugh*, although we did have to turn around and go back through the exhibit because they had closed the back gate to get out again).  We then went to a subdivision in our local area that has the entire neighborhood rigged with Christmas lights and they have you turn your radio to a certain Christmas music station and the lights move to the music.  It's a really impressive display and has become a tradition locally for a lot of people to go and see it.  We drove through some of our local towns and saw how they decorated the city centers as well...it was a lot of fun and the kids had a blast.  I wasn't feeling great, so honestly I was happy when we finally got home, but I'm glad the kids had fun :).

6.  My friend gave me her freebies for the free cake mix and the free Tim Tam cookies, so I got those this week (thanks, Stephanie!). 

7.  Got our new insurance activated for next year.  I got the plan that was available up here next year and while it is about the same price we were paying for our current health care plan (MODA pulls out of Alaska at the end of the year) I know the deductible is higher and from what I see the coverage isn't close to great.  I need to make a point to make time to read the plan, though, so I'll go into next year educated about what we have going for us (or not).

8.  My son's speech therapist actually thought to ask him what he wanted for Christmas and he used his talker to answer!  I was speechless as he asked for something to "read" (he's been liking flipping through books lately, so his speech therapist is pretty sure he's got some reading going on and him picking that out on the talker reinforced it), something to "hug" him (I got him a big throw for Christmas, so score there), something to "hug" (plush truck will fill that need I think), some bubbles (I always have bubbles for him at each holiday, so that was covered) and some pretzels (his speech therapist got those for him and they are hidden as he was trying to eat them all before Christmas).  I wanted to cry as this was the first time my son had been able to tell me what he actually WANTED versus what I thought he might want.  Moments like this one really give me hope for his future and his being able to adapt to the challenges he's been given.

9.  When my son mentioned something to read, I decided one of the things I wanted to give him and my daughter was something to read in their stockings.  My son is getting a really cool construction alphabet book (which I bought with a gift card last month for him), but my daughter I wanted to get the first Harry Potter book for as she loves the first movie and we are really trying to encourage her to read more challenging books.  I looked at the used stores and the used book stores this last week and have found nada in the way of Harry Potter books, so I finally decided to just give her my copy of "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" for Christmas.  I had bought myself a new copy when the original one I had started to fall apart (back before I had children I read a lot *laugh*) and my copy is still pretty new looking and hey it didn't cost me anything this way, too, so score.  So, here's hoping she likes it.  I then made some pom pom book marks (thanks for the link, Sheila!) to go with their books.  My opinion on the bookmarks?  They look really cute and are REALLY easy to lose yarn out of if you pull from one side or the other.  So, I am giving my son's bookmark a few days, tops, but I think the kids will like them while they last (and hey they took about five minutes to make).

10.  My daughter's teacher gave her a 5.00 gift card to one of our local bookstores for Christmas, so I'm looking forward to going and getting her a book sometime soon.

So, there you are folks.  Some of my frugal adventures this week.  How did you do?

Christmas 2016: A Sensory Cube

Well, this is the last gift I'm posting about (I hope *laugh*) in my line up of gifts I've made this year.  This one is another repeat from last year, but with a few changes.

I made a sensory cube for my son last year (just a stuffed cube with different textures on each side) and he LOVED it and has since worn it out, plain and simple.  The cube is now pretty much flat he's used it so much.  So, I definitely wanted to make him another one this year.

This time around I just used fabrics I had around and then to make it crinkle I washed and then crumpled up an empty Doritos bag and stuck it in the middle of the cube when I stuffed it. 

I used part of the leopard print material that I made the pillow for my half-sister out of as my son really loved the material when I was working with it (it's got an interesting texture I guess *laugh*), so I was even able to use a remnant of fabric left over from making that for this project.

Total Time to Make Gift:  About an hour and a half.  I had to rip out the pieces about three times because I kept stacking them together wrong to sew them together (me and geometry are life long adversaries).

Total Cost to Make Gift:  Nothing as I had all the materials around here to make it.