Friday Follow-Up...

Well, it is the end of the month. I am officially calling today the last day of my 'No Spend Month'! It has a been a great month and I've learned a lot!

The biggest accomplishment for this month was paying off $1400 worth of debt...yay! February will be a restock month for my pantry. I'll be heading to Sam's Club to buy 100lbs of flour! And many other items. It sounds like a lot of flour but that will have to last for two months and half of it is for our 'emergency supplies'. I also do a lot of baking and we eat homemade pizza once a week, so it doesn't last long. Plus, at $7.50/25lbs, it is a great deal.

I will pop in each week to give an update on my stocking up progress...and other tips.

Have a great weekend...

Friday Follow-Up

Let me ask you...

How do you do under pressure? When life gets really stressful? Does the stresses that life can bring make you go into emotional overload? Me, I don't do so well when life throws me multiple things all in one day.

My Wednesday had all of the above...

The day started out on the right foot. Everything was going as usual. Then I got a call that the washer and dryer we bought in November (Black Friday) was finally in. It was a great deal...we got the set for $599! It was a set we really needed, as our old set is 17yrs old. The washing machine only does small or medium loads and the dryer takes 2 hours to dry a small load because the heating element is just about dead. Can you imagine how long it takes to do laundry for 9 people?! Sorry, I digress...

So, we get the call that the washer and dryer are in and can they be delivered in 15 minutes. 15 minutes!!! Well, sure they can, I said. But the truth of the matter is, it was just 9:30am and my laundry room was filled up with piles of laundry because we aren't hitting the laundromat until Saturday. Why the laundromat you ask? We have been going to the laundromat twice a month since December because we have a clog in a pipe so I can't do laundry. {heavy sigh}

The kids and I rush around to get the piles taken out of the laundry room so the gentleman can take out the old set and put in the new set. All that was fine. Not to stressful. It did get us up and going quickly that's for sure. After they came and went we settled down for the rest of our homeschooling day.

The stress really began when my 6 year old autistic son came out of his room with a blood covered face! Oh my word! I quickly take him in to the bathroom to take care of his bleeding nose. He has gotten into this horrible habit of picking his nose lately. This time, he made it bleed something awful.

As I was cleaning him up the thought of his room came to mind. I asked my 10yo daughter to check it out for me. She went and came back saying he got some blood on a few things. I was relieved. But then, I thought that didn't seem right. He had a lot of blood on his face. How could he only get it on a few things? Just then I directed her to help him and I quickly went to his room. There was blood all over his floor!!! I was instantly overwhelmed at the sight. I called out to my son to get a bucket with cold water and the carpet cleaner. I was so upset, honestly. The carpet in that room is brand new. Just 3 months old. And of course, it is a tan color!!!

I was thrilled that the spots of blood were coming up but at this point it was about 11:30am and my baby was wanting to be nursed and I was beginning to get hungry. Yet, I stayed at it. Cleaning and cleaning... I got 3/4 of the spots up. There were at least 40 of them ranging in size of an eraser head to a silver dollar...yeah not good. The smell from the fumes was really starting to make me sick. I needed to open a window in the room, even if it was 15 degrees outside.

Then my best friend called as I was on the floor cleaning up this mess. That was a good thing because she helped to calm me down. I was really on the verge of losing it an hour into this job. I was starting to shake because I needed to eat, my chest hurt because I needed to feed my baby and I really wanted to cry. She convinced me to stop and eat. After eating and feeding the baby my husband had come home for lunch and told me he'd take care of the rest when he got home. That I didn't look good. He asked if I was well enough to pick up our oldest from her tutoring job at 4pm and I said yes.

After he left I took the baby and went to rest in my bed. I told my 13yo to 'hold down the fort' and if I fell asleep to wake me at 3:30...it was currently 2pm. Sure enough, I fell asleep and they woke me at 3:30. They are great kids! I got up feeling still a bit weak but much better. I got ready to go get my daughter...

As I was backing out of our tunneled 150' driveway to pick up my daughter from her tutoring job...I say tunneled because we have gotten so much snow that our driveways width is half its size now. We don't have a plow or a snow blower and we've seen the most snow in 10yrs. Great planning I know. Anyway...

Now, I am backing out really slow so I could see on both sides, well I didn't see so well on my left side and went into the snow wall that had built up. I couldn't move forward or backwards. I couldn't even open my door. Yep I was stuck good. My son came out to try and dig me out...yea, like that was going to happen!LOLOL I had to call my husband at work to go pick up our daughter... How much more could I take today? I was really stressing...again!

A nice gentleman was driving by our property and as he slowly passed us he stopped and then backed up. He drove into our driveway and asked my son..."hey partner, are you stuck?" My son said, "yes but I think I have it!" Bless his heart, he is trying to be a MAN these days!

The nice gentleman said he had a Bobcat up the road plowing his in-laws place and he would be happy to bring it over and get me out. We of course accepted his generous offer.

About 30mins later he was back at our place...YAY! He did some plowing, pushed my Excursion forward and did more plowing. Then he told me to back the truck up to the main road and he would finish plowing the driveway. All this took him 45mins. Wow!

I tell you all this to show, when life hits you from all sides it can be overwhelming to say the least. I don't do well in situations like I was in on Wednesday. Sure, I survived it. But it totally took over my entire day. The nice gentleman who plowed my driveway didn't leave until 5:15pm. My husband didn't get home with our daughter until 5:30 and dinner wasn't ready. I hadn't even begun dinner. What do you think we did?

We got McDonald's for dinner.

I feel somewhat guilty about that. What I am really finding out is that I have been very ridged this month. I have taken my 'NSM' very literally. Like I can't spend a penny even though we succeeded in paying off $1400+ like we set out to do. I need to find a balance and that is something I will most definitely do for my next 'NSM' in March. Lessons learned...

Friday Follow-Up...

Hooray for Fridays, yes?!

I enjoy Fridays. More so now that I am looking back on the week to review how I did with my 'NSM'. This week was our mid-month payday. We took care of our regular bills, put gas in the cars and then paid one bill off and paid extra money on another bill. We had to buy some refrigerator items that we had planned for like 5 dozen eggs...yes, my family eats alot of eggs. About 10-12 dozen in one month. That is one of the reasons we are looking into getting some chickens. But that is another post.

I am feeling really good about our accomplishments this month. It hasn't been an easy thing to do for me...not spending money. Or not spending very much money. We did have to spend a little as you can recall from previous posts. Still, thus far we have spent around $60 total for the month. That is awesome! Especially when we typically would spend around $1200 in a month on groceries, unnecessary shopping and eating out. Boy have we done great!

I hope I don't sound boastful. That is not my intention. I am trying to show all of you who are reading this blog that it is possible. Even if you do a modified version of a 'NSM' you can improve you financial situation. I have heard from many people saying that they are doing their own version of the 'NSM'. I think that is AWESOME! Some are not eating out for the month. Others are reducing their eating out from 5+ times a week down to 1-2 times a week. Imagine the savings those people will see!

As much as I would like to do a 'NSM' in February it just isn't possible. I will need to do a bit of restocking of my pantry. Still, my goal for February is to be very wise with my usual grocery budget and see if I can buy enough food to carry us in March. That will definitely be a challenge, but if you hadn't noticed, I love a challenge. I am already making up my grocery list and menu for February and March so I can be prepared. It just isn't possible to do a 'NSM' if you aren't prepared.

Have a peaceful weekend,

Friday Follow-Up

Are you as happy as I am that Friday is here?! I am so happy that this week is over because I have been tempted a few times this week to spend MONEY! I also learned a few things I didn't prepare as well before entering my 'NSM'.

This week I have had sick children to deal with. Moms you all know how that goes when you have a sick, fussy baby and you have to get dinner going, right? Well that was my Monday! Great way to start out a new week...NOT! Add to that a broken ceramic plate to clean-up, care of 2yr old daughter and my emotions were quickly going down hill. Still, I was going to cook dinner. We were not going to order out as we would before. I had my 13yo take out the meat from the freezer I needed in the morning, we were good to go. Or were we?

As I went into the kitchen to begin cooking I learned he had taken the wrong package of meat out! I about fell apart! Not really but I was getting close. Here I've made this thoughtful menu with items from my pantry and I was going to stick to it! I tend to be very inflexible sometimes...I am trying to work on that. As it was 'Mexician Monday' in our house we had to have Mexican food, chicken mole to be exact. I know, there I go being inflexible again, sigh. My son took out boneless porkchops, not boneless chicken. It was an easy mistake, I know that. But it wasn't going to work. So, I quickly tried to find a solution. I had 1 lbs. of ground beef in the fidge. Not enough to make tacos with and I didn't have tortillas for burritos because of my sick baby (I make homemade). My husband called at that moment to find me a bit 'flustered'. Had I asked him to bring home McDonald's he would have. I so wanted to ask him to but I didn't. Instead, I asked him to spend $2.50 to buy tostada shells. With those we could spread refried beans on them and then a little taco meat. The 1 lbs of ground beef would be enough for our family if we could use the beans as a base. He agreed.

Dinner was great but I still spent money. I felt guilty about it all evening long. But really, when you think about it I did good. I didn't buy take-out that would have cost us atleast $25. I really believe satan was on the attack. He knows I fall under 'emotional pressure' and that is what I was in. I say, I succeeded under the attack...for the most part anyway.

Tuesday was much better. My baby was better and happy. The day was looking up... Then I received a call late in the morning that there was a death in the family. We live out of state from our family and there was no way we could attend the funeral. We usually send a card for something like this, but I didn't have a card on hand. Didn't think to have one before beginning our 'NSM'. I have learned that it is good to have various cards on hand for unexpected events. Maybe one of those boxes that have a card in it for every occassion would be good to have. So, we paid $3.50 for a card.

On Wedsneday I had the brown sugar snag. You can read about that below this post. In short, I was out of brown sugar and I learned (from my Sonlight friends) I can make my own brown sugar...awesome! I didn't spend a single dime!

Thursday was very hard. I am now sick. My head feels like it is going to explode from the sinus pressure. We are out of Tylenol and low on vitamin C because I increased the dosage I give to my kids to build up their immune system. With all my preparations I simply didn't think to check my medicine cabinet. I was more worried about food and toilet paper! LOL

Note to self: check to be sure there is a good amount of basic meds in your medicine cabinet.

I think we will be okay, provided no one else gets sick. Later in the day I took a nap with my baby. It was great and I felt better when we got up, two and half hours later! I still didn't have a good amount of energy but I was able to put dinner on the table (at 7pm which is late for us) and I baked 2 loaves of bread. My husband knew how sick I had been and thought for sure I'd be calling for him to pick-up dinner, but I didn't! Yay for me!!!

Well, that sums it up. The weekend is here. $6 was spent because of the unexpected this week but I think I did really great! Any other time I wouldn't have thought twice to spend. I am pleased with the way my mind is now 'thinking twice'. My plan for the weekend is to get my bills in order that will be paid on the 15th. My husband will be home and can help with our kids so I don't have any distractions.

It should be a pleasant weekend and I hope yours is too. Until Monday...