I also love...

...that our electric bill came today and it's only 1/3 of what it had been! Yay for warm weather and not having the air on!

I love...

... summer breakfasts like these! Warm pancakes topped with delicious fresh fruit and a dollop of whipped cream. Yumm....

Menu Plan TUESDAY

Since yesterday was a holiday, I'm just now getting the menu planned....

Tuesday - glazed ham, broccoli, peaches

Wednesday - hamburgers, fruit salad, carrots

Thursday - sloppy joes, sweet potato fries (recipe, anyone???), applesauce

Friday - hot dogs, pasta salad (recipe below), apples

Saturday - fried chicken strips, green beans, oranges

Sunday - don't know

Dessert of the week: strawberries 'n cream

*******************

RECIPE: Pasta Salad

the spiral noodles that are different colors
fresh vegetables of choice (carrots, broccoli, cauliflower)
sliced black olives
Italian salad dressing to taste

Combine. Refrigerate. Eat!

Memorial Day pic

We were at conference at our church all weekend, and for Memorial Day they have all the military dress in their uniforms. So we made sure we got a family picture!

Some baby love...

Just a recent picture of my little sweetie!

Go see!

It was a long time that I wasn't on my blog, and now it seems I'm making up for it! haha I came across this blog post today and just HAD to share! It's TONS of links to useful articles on how to be more frugal. Some examples being...

10 Tips for Spring Cleaning Success
25 Tips for Freezing Food
10 Tips for Using Coupons
25 Ways to Save Money With a Baby
Ways to Save Money on Diapers

And SO MUCH MORE! On everything from parenting to health to finances! So GO, check it out!

Walgreens Deals

I admit, I'm not really that great at finding the best deals. I don't get a Sunday paper so we don't get a lot of coupons and typically online coupons aren't for items I usually buy. So I try to get the most out of weekly circulars and saver cards. And today I was impressed with my deals at Walgreens!

Using this month's Easy Saver Catalog and rebates I got:
FREE Kicker's Energy Spray ($3.29)
FREE Oral-B toothbrush ($4.99)
FREE 4 pack 100W Light bulbs ($1.69)

Plus the coupons in the circular were:
$5.99 for TWO 50 oz Purex Laundry Soap
$2.79 for TWO boxes of Walgreens fabric band-aids
$0.99 for TWO 11oz cans of mandarin oranges
$0.99 92 ct paper plates (family is coming in a couple weeks!)
$1.69 bread (just cuz I needed it, I know it's cheaper at grocery store)

PLUS $5 off coupon TODAY ONLY purchases $20 or more!


SUBTOTAL: $32.19 (the coupons were B1G1 FREE)
TOTAL: $13.64 (after rebates and coupons)

How's that for a deal? =)

Total Money Makeover

I've really been wanting to share about this for several weeks now, but just haven't had time! When my friend Erin was here visiting a couple months ago she mentioned this great book The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey. She described a little bit what it was about, and I asked Kevin if he'd be interested in reading it with me. He was interested so we went ahead and found the book on Amazon. As soon as we got it, I plowed through the entire book in a week because everything Dave Ramsey says about money is so exciting! Finances has been a big struggle in our marriage, as it is for sooo many couples, and I've really been seeking a way for us to come to a mutual agreement about how to spend and save our hard-earned money. And finally FINALLY we're getting there!! So in a nutshell here are the main ideas of the book....

Dave's motto is this: IF YOU WILL LIVE LIKE NO ONE ELSE, LATER YOU CAN LIVE LIKE NO ONE ELSE. This means if you work really hard now, making all kinds of sacrifices in your spendings and work your way to financial freedom, then later you can live a life of peace and security that other people don't have!

Dave's approach to saving is to tackle one thing at a time. Instead of spreading your money so thin among several different things and just gradually paying off expenses, use focused intensity to become debt free, including your house! He lays out 7 Baby Steps to follow, in order, to achieve your own Total Money Makeover!

Baby Step One: If you've got NO savings, build yourself a mini emergency fund of $1000 FAST. Get some momentum going and do whatever you can to get this $1000! Stop buying unnecessary stuff, sell extra things you have around the house, deliver pizzas for awhile, etc.

Baby Step Two: Pay off all debts (everything except house at this point). List all your debts starting with the smallest $ and working to the biggest. You get momentum going by knocking off the small ones first and feeling like you're accomplishing something. You work with "gazelle intensity" (Dave's common phrase) to pay off those debts. It means a LOT of sacrifices in spending--could be not eating out or shutting off cable or not buying clothes, etc.

Baby Step Three: Build up your fully-funded emergency fund. (3-6 months worth of pay)

Baby Step Four: Start saving for retirement. (15% of income)

Baby Step Five: Start saving for kids' college.

Baby Step Six: Pay off your house.

Baby Step Seven: Build wealth. (with investments)

Kevin and I are both on board for this money makeover challenge! We're VERY blessed that our van was our only debt, so after reading this book we decided to shuffle our money around and pay off the van right away! So that's done already, and now we're on to Baby Step Three of building our emergency fund back up again! We're going to live on a budget. We've tried before, but since we both weren't really into the budget, we never stuck to it. But this time we have a different attitude and a different approach. Dave suggests saving for things so you can pay for it right away in cash. Tuck money away for your future car, future house repairs, future car repairs, etc. We've never been ones to put everything on credit card, but I'm not sure the money was always there either. Now we're going to try a cash budget. I found a small coupon-sized expandable organizer at Target (something like this one) that I can stick our money for different categories like hair cuts, groceries, household items, diapers, clothes, etc. and when the money's gone, the money's gone! We find a way to live without! And we don't have to keep track of every receipt! This system will help us to know exactly how much we have saved towards various things since that's so hard to keep track of in any general savings account. Sure, we won't be making interest, but at least we know it won't get spent if we already have it designated for something specific. We'll give it a try anyway! Next month will be our first month trying the cash budget, as it took several weeks to figure out a good budget, adjusting things here and there. But now we're ready, ready to start this new lifestyle as we prepare for the future!

Thankful Thursday

Wow, it's been quite awhile since I've done TT too! So here I am, I wanted to make it a priority for today and now that both kids are napping, I finally have some time to take a quiet break...

* I am thankful for my parents' visit last week. I am so glad they're able to travel as frequently as they do, so they can watch the kids grow up! That means a lot to us! And we can't wait until we live closer and the travel doesn't co$t so much!

* I am thankful for my two beautiful children. They are such a delight. It's hard sometimes (okay, a lot of times) but it's sooo worth it! They really are good kids--we've been blessed!

* I am thankful for my Hubby--for driving us through Boston (I could NOT have done it!), for riding his bike to work now to save us gas money, for spending time with me and asking how he can help with things around the house, for understanding my needs and doing what he can to help me achieve my goals.

* I am thankful for our new perspective on money and spending. (more to come on this soon!)

* I am thankful for my new "support group" of friends who are also trying to "live well" by eating right and exercising!

Alrighty, it's time for me to sign off now! Blessings to you this week! For more Thankful Thursday visit Iris!

Where have I been?

It's been forever since I've posted so I thought I'd give a quick update on what we've been up to...

* Last week my parents were visiting, and we had such a great time! While still here in town we drove out to the country for some farm fresh ice cream!

And then we went up to Boston for a couple days so my parents could see the sites before we moved from New England. Our favorite thing was the children's museum! Although there was a lot we didn't see since Eli's only 2, there were sooo many exhibits great for toddlers!
Then we got to relax back home for a day before Grandma and Grandpa headed back to Iowa...

* I've been busy trying to catch up on housework as we gradually get back into routine.

* Hannah had her 3-month weight check with the Navy home nurse last week, and she's now 13.0 lbs and 24.5 inches. Paul, where does that place her in percentiles??

* We also started NOT swaddling Hannah for sleep. Thought I'd just give it a try, and she still sleeps well just in a sleep sack, so we'll stick with that.

* Last night I put both kids in the same room for the first time! Hannah has almost outgrown her bassinet, and I'm quite anxious to have our room back so I don't have to tip-toe around at night and in the morning and so I can fold laundry in the evening. All went well until 4:15am when Hannah accidentally kicked on the music player for her mobile. I rushed in to turn it off and get Hannah since she was awake. Eli woke up too and said Hi when I walked in the room. But I just told him to go on back to sleep and then quickly left with Hannah. I fed her and just laid her back in the bassinet. Eli didn't cry at all but he did lay there awake for a good half hour. Not too bad for the first night. So lesson #1, take the music player off the crib! We'll try again tonight!

* One week left to finish our Spring Cleaning! (just my own rule, I wanted to be done by the end of May) We've gradually been checking things off the list! The biggest thing left is to clean the garage, and that's Kevin's domain!

So that's what we've been up to! Hope you all have a great week and Memorial Day weekend!