Paying off bills while spending a little money.

I feel like it has been awhile since I've been here posting. I want to continue posting updates during this 'spend month' but I also don't want to bore you.LOL I did pay $700 on bill this month, so I haven't gone spend crazy. The bill I am currently focused on is my son's ortho bill. Once we get it paid off we can get our daughter who will be 16 braces. She is such a beautiful girl and has patiently been waiting her turn to get braces. Hopefully by her birthday she will have them...which is in May.

I have challenged myself this month to buy enough groceries with my normal grocery budget of $1000. It will be hard and I probably will need to add a bit to it, but I think I can come close. Next month doing my 2nd 'NSM' I am again going to keep $50 for basics like eggs and produce.

We went to Sam's Club and stocked up on all the normal things I would typically buy. We did add a metal shelf to put in our storage room so we could put our bulk items on it. Plus, we have a 'preparedness' food stock that we've been building up. Having that food stock has helped us in our first 'NSM'. I know most families have to grocery shop monthly because you don't have a well stocked pantry to go as extreme as I did. It really isn't to hard to build up you pantry...I'll talk more about that in another post.

My husband and I have always tried to have 2 months worth of food in the house. Living in Florida during hurricane season showed us how important it is. When Katrina hit, our grocery store shelves became bare. There was no milk in the dairy aisle. Gas was only delivered once a week so you really had to conserve. After living through that we saw how fragile our food system can be. And to be honest, it really scared us. We had back then 5 children to protect and feed. Now we have 7 children to protect and feed.

We currently live in what I like to affectionately call the 'frozen tundra', in NW Minnesota where it is extremely cold! If our little town were to lose power because of a horrible storm like much of the USA has seen this season, we would be in trouble. The nearest town to us is 25 miles away but they would probably not have power either. And they are a lot smaller than us so they may be sold out of food. So, we like to be prepared for what may come.

In preparing ourselves we are buying chickens this spring so we can have eggs and meat. My children are so excited about having chickens. I am excited about not paying $2/dozen for eggs. My family can eat a dozen eggs for breakfast easy. I counted up last month how many eggs we go through and figured out it was 13 dozen and that is cutting back some because it was our 'NSM'. Keep in mind, I bake a lot! On any given week I bake 4 dozen muffins, 6 dozen cookies and a cake. I cook pancakes twice a week and we only eat eggs with our breakfast once a week. Being a large family we just eat a lot of eggs.

Next on our agenda this spring is to put in a large garden. We live on 2.5 acres so we have some room. We have one producing apple tree and are adding 4 more apple trees, 2 apricot, and 2 pear trees. I am so excited about having my own produce. Grocery store prices are only going up and I have had enough! For the little money we have spent on seeds and trees, we should be able to recoup that in our first season. Next year, it will be even better.

We are totally trying to cut out as many expenses we can. We have cancelled our cable tv, went bare bones with our land line telephone and didn't renew any of our magazine subscriptions. We do have cell phones but we switched to a new company and that lowered our family plan by $25/mo. We joined Netflix so we could still watch movies but that only costs us $14/mo which is a lot less than paying $85 for Direct TV. In the course of one year we will have saved $1260 by making these changes!

This first 'spend' week has been a good one...

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...

Motivational Monday...

No Spender's, we are in the home stretch! Can you believe in less than a week we will have completed our first NSM!? It hasn't always been easy that's for sure but oh how rewarding it has been...wow!

I just want to say that I am pleased with our accomplishments. I wasn't real sure if we could do it and for the most part, we exceeded my original expectations. Though, I was motivated to begin my first 'NSM', down deep I was a bit worried if I would be able to follow through.

I've had some unplanned for expenses, that I've learned to plan for, for the following NSM's. I've even had a few weak moments. Still, eating out a couple of times this month is nothing compared to the 10+ times we would typically eat out.

I went into our little grocery store twice this month, compared to the twice weekly I would have usually done. I didn't even set foot into the local Kmart, which I would do weekly and drop a minimum of $50.

There were no real temptations for me because we didn't have money sitting in our account with no place to go. I spent all but $50 of it on bills. That is really the way to go in my opinion. For me, I just don't do well with having a lot of money in my bank account so for my next 'NSM', I will do it the same way and just spend all the money on bills.

Lets finish strong this week! Ending our first 'NSM' with a bang! No matter what your personal goal was for the month, just thinking about where you are spending your money is a very good thing. Thinking twice about making a purchase will help so much in improving your financial situation.

Now lets hit the ground running...

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...

Motivational Monday...

Lets begin Monday with confessions, okay?

I am not perfect...no one is. If you are a Christian like me, you know there is only ONE perfect one, our Creator.

I was very weak on Thursday. When I challenge myself, I go ALL.THE.WAY! Not only did I attempt to not spend any money this month, I also attempted to give up soda. That is one hard thing to do when you are NOT getting take-out too!!!!

Me and my family usually drink about (4) 2 liter bottles a week. Doesn't sound like much for a family of 9 but when one bottle costs $1.50 (on sale) that adds up to $6 a week and $24 a month. If you really want the *wow* effect to that amount, it adds up to $288 a year! It can even be more than that if the 2 liters are not on sale or if it is summertime when I tend to drink a bit more. As we began our NSM I had 4 bottles of soda in my pantry closet. I told everyone that after they were gone, that was it. We saved the remaining soda for our pizza nights and a couple of popcorn snacks.

On Wednesday night the kids and I had popcorn for a snack. With water! I have to be honest with y'all...popcorn just doesn't taste as good with water. I plainly don't like it with water. That brings me to Thursday. I asked my husband to buy a couple of 2 liters of Cherry Coke, my favorite. Again, I have to be honest with y'all, I just can't give it ALL up at one time. Remember, I am not perfect. I challenged myself to the full extent this month and I was successful for half the month in all 3 areas. I feel pretty good about that.

Confession #2...yes, I have another confession...sigh.

Do you know about the ridiculous Lead Law congress has signed into law? If not, I suggest you start reading up on it if you have children, own a business that sells children's products or work for a company that does. Click on 'Lead Law' in the previous sentence to read up on it.

Anyhow, there is a collection of books I've been wanting from a small company...Hope Chest Legacy. Because of this Lead Law they are selling off their inventory at a very low price. It is very sad. Once all the inventory is gone they will only sell their books as EBooks. I just feel awful for them and other companies who may find themselves desperately trying to sell their inventory before this law goes into effect so it doesn't get thrown into a landfill.

When I heard of this I went to their website and saw that the whole collection of books I've been wanting for sometime was on sale in a bundle, I didn't think twice about it...I bought them. I received 10 books valued at $190, for $39.95. Plus, they will add some items for free that are age appropriate for my kids (I gave them the gender and age of each of my kids). Books are my weakness, I admit that. We are homeschoolers so that should be enough for anyone to understand that. With this company no longer selling physical books, I had to act and quickly. I am not sorry that I bought them, nor do I feel guilty. I am just being straight up with all of you who are reading this.

As this is my Motivational post, I guess this isn't sounding very 'motivational', huh? But it is. Let me encourage you to not be to 'anal' about not spending. Be proud at what you have accomplished this month. If you gave up eating out and have stuck with that, then pat yourself on the back. You've done good. If you had a weak moment, get back up on that horse! No one is going to think bad about your falling off the horse...I certainly don't.

Progress is good in any amount, in my honest opinion. Can you do better, always. Can you have a moment of weakness, most definitely. Just recognize it and persevere on.

Life is much to short to dwell on any failures...I am learning this myself.