Category: Family and Friends

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How I Plan to Save Money This Year

This year I really need to work on saving some money.   I started using a new website to track all of my spending.  It shows me exactly where all of our money is going.  I was a little shocked to see how much money we really spend going out to eat or on fast food.  I’m setting a budget for everything.  I know we can’t cut everything off cold turkey so I’m going to have us do a step down method for our spending habits.

Right now we spend about $500 a month of groceries.  I would like to get that down closer to $300 or less but I know we need to work towards that.  To start I’m setting  a budget of $400 a month or roughly $100 a week on groceries.  I think we can manage to cut back by $25 a week to start with easily, especially if I really work to use up what we have in our pantry.  The following month I’ll move it to $75 a week.  If we do really well with that I might even be able to move it down a little further but I’m not going to go crazy.

We’re taking a closer look at television and cable services along with movie rentals.  We purchased a few pay per view movies on demand this month.  This is really silly considering we pay almost $20 a month for Netflix, we just need to send back our current DVD  to get the next one on our list.  My husband and I are thinking about turning off our cable television because just about everything we watch is available online and we do have Netflix.  We pay about $100 a month for cable so that’s more money we could save every month.

I know groceries and entertainment aren’t the only way we can save but at least it’s a start.  I was able to easily identify these ways to save and will do some digging into other ways to save that I might not be soo obvious to me.

 

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Toy Organization

This weekend is going to be all about getting the kids’ toys organized. I found these great organizers that have three levels and multiple bins to sort and organize all of the toys the kids have.  The bins are multiple colors too so they match the decor in the kids’ rooms.

I’m tired of stepping on toys when I go in there so I’m having the kids help me sort out all of their toys. This might take all day, but it needs to be done.

Whatever does not fit in the organizers will be donated.  At the end of each night they have to make sure all of their toys are put up. No more messy rooms!

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Big Family Gathering for Christmas

We had a terrific Christmas this year!  My mother in law came to visit and we had about 15 other people come over for Christmas dinner too!  I served a traditional turkey meal with all of the fixings.  One of the guests even brought a tofurkey because their family is vegetarian.  I tried it and it surprisingly wasn’t that bad at all.

Most of the day the kids were in the back yard.  Santa brought them a giant trampoline.  It was great to see their faces as they bounced up and down trying to get higher and higher each time.  My husband and I even tried it out with them.  We jumped pretty high.  I was afraid I might fall off myself.  I know I really shouldn’t have gotten on it with my leg but I did anyway.  I’m glad the kids got something that will keep them physically active.  I know a lot of kids got electronics and will end up sitting on the couch for the next month or so.  I really want top make sure the kids get enough activity so we convinced Santa to get them the trampoline.

 

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Major House Cleaning

One thing that always ends up being one of the last things to get done is the major cleaning before the holiday guests arrive.  My mother in law is coming to stay with us for the holiday weekend and I want to make sure the house is nice and clean.  I would hate to have someone come over to my house and not have it be clean.  I need to straighten out the guest room and add more towels to the bathroom.  I like to leave out a few different lotions and soaps for people to choose from when they come over.

I don’t want my mother in law to take a shower in a dirty shower so I really need to scrub it out.  I wish those automatic shower cleaners worked really well.  If they did I would have one in all of the bathrooms we have.  Once I’m finished with the shower I need to scrub the toilets and mop all of the floors.  Dusting is another thing that really needs to be done but doesn’t get done often enough.

There is nothing like a host guest coming to get you to clean your house.  My house isn’t dirty I just like it to sparkle when we have company.

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Happy Thanksgiving!!!

What a wonderful time we had over the holiday weekend.  It was nice to see all of the family.  We drove out to my grandma’s house and spent the weekend there.  I got to see all of my siblings and catch upon all of the exciting family gossip.

I was looking forward to grandma’s famous cinnamon buns.  Every year she makes these delicious cinnamon buns from scratch. I love the ooey gooey caramel that melts out of them when they cook.  She tops them off with a delectable, homemade cream cheese frosting.  My mouth is watering jut thinking about them.  I’ve tried to make them myself but they are never the same.

In addition to the tasty treats we enjoyed some quality family time.  After we ate the huge meal together we all gathered in grandma’s famliy room to play a few board games.  We played Monopoly and Trivial Pursuit.  The kids had a great time kicking our butts.

I’m excited to do something with everyone again next year.  We might get to see everyone again for Christmas and do it all over again.  I can’t wait!

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Imagination Time

The kids were watching a science program on the public access channel and were enjoying all of the experiments they saw.  My oldest asked me if I could get her a lab coat like the one the scientist was wearing in the program.  She said she wanted to play science lab.  I told I would see what I could find for her.

I looked around online and found a few options on http://www.blueskyscrubs.com/. I think she would like a coat no matter what size it is.  I might just order one for myself and use it as a model to make one that will fit her and then we could both play science lab together.  Her imagination is really vivid and I know she’ll come up with some wild concoctions to experiment with while she wears her fancy scientist lab coat.  I bet if I got her some safety goggles she would really be thrilled.

I suppose I’ll make a science lab kit for her for a Christmas present.  The lab coat will be the best part of it all.  I’m excited to see everything put together now.  Our imagination time is going to be filled with lots of new science adventures.

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Rest and Relaxation

My husband was very sweet this morning and made me breakfast in bed.  He made me blueberry waffles, fresh fruit salad, coffee and orange juice.  I felt like a queen being given the royal treatment.  I spent the entire morning just resting and relaxing in my bed.  I wish I could have more days like today.  Too bad I have to get up and go to work tomorrow.

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Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween! I wasn’t able to go trick or treating with the kids and my husband tonight because of my injury.  I made sure my husband took lots of pictures so I wouldn’t miss out.  I really wanted to go but walking around on crutches atgreat length did not sound easy.

I ended up staying home and passing out candy to trick-or-treaters.  I actually really enjoyed myself.  I sat on the porch all evening with a huge supply of candy.  I had my husband bring out all of the bags of candy we had and put them in our giant ice chest so I wouldn’t have to get up to refill the candy bucket every so often.  It worked perfectly because I was able to open the cooler up and just scoop out another bowl full whenever I needed more.

I had a bunch of kids show up to my house this year.  There were spooky costumes and a whole lot of princesses and fairies.  One of my favorites that I saw was a kid that dresses up as a bag of Jelly Belly Jelly Beans.  He had big giant balloons for jelly beans that were in a clear cellophane bag. It looked like he had a bag on the front and back so he could walk and not actually be in the bag.  I thought it was clever and really cute.  I wish we had two cameras because I wanted to take pictures of all of the cute costumes that I saw to share with the kids and my husband.

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Cancer Awareness

This month is breast cancer awareness month. I purchased a few cancer awareness ribbons in order to help support finding a cure. They didn’t cost very much and are really beautiful. I got a few for breast cancer and a few for lung cancer.

I have quite a few friends and family members that have suffered from numerous forms of cancer. I think it’s great that a small purchase can fund an organization that is working to find a cure to help all of those people.

I plan to give a few of the extra pins I purchased to the friends and family of those that I know that have suffered from cancer. My neighbor Susan will get one of each type. Her brother had lung cancer and her mother had breast cancer. I know she appreciates any help towards finding a cure for these terrible diseases. I’ll give one breast cancer pin to Nancy because she is a survivor as well as her sister. I don’t plan to give them all away though. I will definitely be sporting the pins on occasion myself.

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Trip to Canada

I was thinking that it might be fun to take a trip to Canada some time. I’ve never been and was considering ideas of where our family could go for a vacation.   Maybe we could spend some time during the summer there and find a place to rent like some  Edmonton apartments.

All of our recent trips have been here in the states. I think it’s about time we took the girls out of the country, not too far though. I thought Canada would be a nice starting point.  We wouldn’t have to go on those long international flights over the sea.  I couldn’t imagine how tough those flights would be on children, and don’t want to put my kids, or myself for that matter, through the pain and agony.  If we go to Canada the length of any flight would be much shorter.

I need to talk to my husband about his thoughts on the idea.  Who knows, maybe he can come up with some exciting things to do while we are there.