Weekend in Review...

After some nasty weather at the end of last week, we were finally able to spend the weekend outside this week! I was able to snap some cool photos of the menacing clouds that came through on Thursday night. Lots of wind and rain, but not much else. I was able to save some money on watering my garden last week, with all the rain.

All in all, we had a good weekend. The truck has taken a turn for the worse. However, we've decided not to put 'er down...we are gonna patch her up and see if we can get some more miles outta her! The leaf spring is broken and after a lengthy search, the hubster was able to find the part for around $48! So, he'll spend a few days getting it repaired after the part comes in. Friday, I got my new sink installed...so no more leaking from the kitchen faucet. I am hoping to see at least a little bit of difference in our next water bill! My neighbor installed it for me. We've worked out a barter deal for babysitting his daughter! I'm loving this agreement so far!

We did well spending on groceries this week. I think my final tally was about $84 for the week and that included a "luxurious" meal of the hubby's favorite Potato Bacon Soup and Cajun Turkey Panini's.

We spent Saturday afternoon at a neighbor's 5th Birthday party. The kids had a blast and ran themselves ragged! Today, once again, we spent the day working in the yard. We have been saving to put in a new pond, since some neighborhood kids playing with our kids in the yard, threw rocks into ours and poked a hole into it. So, today, we were able to get out and put in a new 100 gallon pond, with some beautiful landscaping with the rocks from the old pond and the free mulch we have leftover from our tree removal. It looks absolutely gorgeous, I plan to get out and snap some pictures tomorrow, so I'll be sure to post them! We also found a great deal on some solar lights, so we were able to add some accent lighting to our pond!

I think that is our weekend in a nutshell. Busy, but not a ton going on! I'll update again tomorrow and post some pictures of our new pond! Next weekend, I think we are going to add a small patio around the pond and move the fire pit to the middle of the patio! It should look really nice and the patio bricks we want are on sale until the end of the month!

Exhaustion at Simple Mommy's House...

I have spent the last week updating every area of my yard. I thought I would post some pictures of my small veggie garden while it is freshly weeded and lookin' pretty. We have had a busy couple of days. I've spent the last two days doing yard work in the front yard, digging out a new very large flower bed and trying to transplant some of the grass into areas where it is needed. Needless to say...I'm exhuasted after all the manual labor! I'm just not used to this anymore!

My oldest pitched in his first baseball game on Tuesday night, I missed it, but the Hubby was there to cheer him on. He said he did great, I was home...working on my flower bed.

We are still working to be frugal this summer and have been doing a rather good job. We gave up our pool passes this summer, and put the extra $120 into savings instead. I updated my yard with free mulch from the trees we had taken down and just bought all my perennials for $1 each on sale. So all in all, I think I spent around $12 to upgrade the heck out of my yard this year.

Once I get the front yard cleaned and finished up, I'll be sure to post some pictures of the new flowerbed!

So much summer...

Well, summer arrived in a flurry at Simply Mommy's house. It has been eon's since I posted, but my only excuse is that summer has arrived and we have been ever so busy! With baseball and swimming and BBQ's, we are left with little time for gardening, housecleaning, grocery shopping and all the neccessary things, let alone time for blogging!

We spent our 4th of July at home this year, with a tree crew arriving bright and early to do some "trimming" of our trees. This "trimming" I speak of included the complete removal of 2 trees and 4 stumps! No more worries about our trees coming down in the middle of a storm! Yippee! Plus, after the tree removal we were left with oodles of firewood and mulch to fill our flower beds and many of the neighbors. The hubby was laughing at me, becuase even when I am spending a bundle, I can still be frugal! Free mulch and firewood...those who know me, know that I can't say no to anything free!

Next weekend, we'll be busy once again tackling our garden pond and finishing up the back yard now that we have some sunshine back there! We'll be doubling the size of our pond and trying to get some grass to grow! I will try to be much better about posting things that are going on in our lives!

Newest Project

This is my latest project. My good friend is having a little girl in May, so I thought a rag doll would be a really great handmade gift for her. And gee, having 2 boys, I really had to twist my own arm to do some "girly" crafts for her! The project itself actually was really easy. I had a Raggedy Ann from when I was a child, that I used somewhat as a guide, since I hate using patterns so much! So, I just sat down, thought it through and started sewing! It is a little more "gardeny" than I would have liked, but I was trying to use up some old fabric scraps rather than go by new! I am thinking about making another one for another friend, and if I do it again, I think I will use more modern colors. Maybe black, hotpink and purple! I also really want to try doing some brown or yellow pig tails on the next one instead of the traditional red hair. And I won't miss tying all that hair on there, that was the biggest pain in the butt of it all!

All in all, she turned out really cute. I hope my friend new daughter loves it. I made sure it was 100% baby safe, no buttons, ties, etc. So she will actually be able to play with it when she is a bit older!

It's been sooooo long!

So, it has been forever since I have posted anything. So since my last post in February, here are the highlights:

1. The hubby lost his job.
2. Planned and executed my mom's surprise 60th birthday party. We had family fly in from all over the country and had about 40 of my mom's friends (some from 30+ years ago) all there...let me just say, it was a major "to-do" and I was exhuasted after that!
3. A friend turned 30 and we had a 70's themed party for her, which was a total blast.
4. I am now planning my best friends baby shower, and we have 2 weeks to go.
5. After 6 weeks off, the hubby found a new job. He is now a "garbage man". I use quotes, becuase actually he does residential recycling. Today was his first day out of training and actually on a truck...he is hurting in muscles he didn't know he had.
6. Had a "girls" weekend in Galena with my mom which was totally fabulous. We stayed at the Eagle Ridge Resort and went to a fancy dinner and shopped until we pretty much dropped. I loved looking through the art galleries and the used book store there.
7. I am painting again. I have tried working with oils...but I still hate them, so I am doing mostly watercolor work ( I think I will post a totally seperate blog with a bunch of pics).
8. I am in the middle of painting my living room (it's half done), my kitchen cabinets (half done), my kitchen walls (half done) and my bedroom (all but one wall done). I really need to work on finishing one project before starting another.
9. We had to get rid of our cat. As much as we love him, he began randomly attacking people & animals...go figure. We couldn't figure out why, so we had to take him back to the shelter we adopted him from.
10. Incidently, we have adopted a second dog. Our neighbors who moved a few months ago, had a small puggle who the boys just adored. Well, they decided she was just too energetic and they weren't home enough to walk her and care for her, so we took her in. She immediately fit into our family like she belonged, and the boys love walking her! So, Ruca (think short for Veruca Salt from Willy Wonka) became the newest member of our family.
11. I am trying to start thinking about new landscaping for the yard and also what I plan to put into the garden this year, just haven't ordered any seeds yet, but I do need to do it soon!

Ok, in a nutshell, I think that is what has been going on over the last couple of months for us. I know there is more, but I think the other stuff is pretty small potatoes and I've hit the basics! ; )

February Grocery Challenge - Week #1

Great way to start off the month...I'm over budget!

Ugh, what are ya gonna do, right? With the superbowl being more Godly than Christmas in our house, I should have better prepared my budget for the expense of the day! The best I can do, is look ahead at the month, and look back at my freezer and take solice in the fact that it is full of good deals on meat. So, I should still come waaaaay under budget for the month, since I have a freezer full of food!

So, I also found a recipe for Cracker Jacks, that I had to try and OMG! It is fabulous and just as good if not better than cracker jacks. Phe-no-men-al! I ate almost half the bowl, by myself last night. So, I won't be making it often...but it is a good alternative to buying it...becuase it is super cheap to make!

So, I'm posting my lunch and dinner menu's this week with cost analysis, just because I broke down the cost for my own knowlege, so I figured, what the heck...I'll post it!

School Lunch: Bologna sandwich (.18 - bologna at $1 per pkg on sale), chips (.20), banana (.11 - on sale at .29 per pound), dessert (.10) = .59/day

Hubby's Lunch: Bologna sandwich (.18), chips (.20), powerade (.69 - he's been buying pop at the gas station...since powerade was on sale, it'll save at least a buck a day) = 1.07/day

Home Lunch: leftovers (free) = this has been working well for us for the last month!

Dinners:

$2.02 ~ Chili made from dried beans and homemade garlic cuban bread ~ (plus, chili will also be used for superbowl day dip)

$2.89 ~ BLT's with wheat crackers

$3.00 ~ Chicken and Rice Casserole (chix, rice, brocolli & cream of mush soup)

$2.38 ~ Brats, frozen green beans & salad (Brats were on sale for $1/package...so I bought all 9 that they had left & froze them, buns & kraut were also on sale for .69/each, and the green beans and salad, I have left over from last week and need to use them up)

$4.63 ~ Pork Chops & No-Cost Stuffing (pork chops were on sale last week, so we stocked up. I have tons of left over bread heels and some buns in the freezer, plus extra stock...so I will use some of it up in the no cost homemade stuffing)

$2.38 ~ Chicken Parmesean Pasta & Salad (we love this as a side dish without chicken, so I am going to throw chicken in and see if it will fly as a main dish...plus, I will still have 1/2 a container of salad to use up)

$18.30 ~ Superbowl meal - So this includes alot of stuff we wouldn't normally pig-out on all in one meal. So we have TONS of BBQ & Hot wings (homemade of course), sausage dip with wheat thins, and chili dip with chips.

Snacks: yogurt (.24/carton), bananas (.11/each), cheese and crackers (1.50 for all), and carmel corn

So here is where my budget stands, thus far:

Groceries: $69.65/$200.00

Household: $1.70/$40.00

Meat Sales: $28.43/$50.00

Frugal Living vs. Extravagance

Making friends as a child was so simple. It amazes me that as we get older, it becomes so much harder to make new friends. Personally, I think as we get older, we become more judgemental of others who are not just like us, and it makes it harder for us to accept and make friends with people who are "different" than us.

What am I talking about you wonder? I'm talking about frugal vs. extravagant living. Can these two worlds come together in friendship and harmony? Honestly, I have no idea. When I make new friends, I tend to seek out like minded people. I was thinking about this recently, and looked around at all of our friends and realized that we have surrounded ourselves with people who tend to treat money like we do.

I made a group of "new friends" this summer, and found that even though we were all Stay-at-Home mom's, I had very little in common with many of them. Out of the deal, I came away with one friend, who seems to be like-minded about things. She seems to enjoy the simple things in life, crafting and inexpensive projects for her kids, reading for entertainment, etc. Her and I have had free playdates with each other at the park or at our homes. Never once have her and I been to McDonald's playland together, or out for ice cream, or really spent any money together. Is this how I choose my friends? Absolutely not! But it sure is a bonus to find a friend who doesn't feel like dropping money at every turn, and expecting me to do the same with her. With her, I have never had to explain or defend my frugal lifestyle. She seems to understand my desire to save my money, not spend it on unecessary things, and she understands the joy and pride I take in making many things myself. Her and I have not talked at length about frugal living, but I believe we have the "unspoken bond" of two frugal mom's trying to do the best we can in a very expensive world.

Is that to say that I don't hang out with the other mom's I met? Well, yes actually. Through the fall months when we first met, we spent one day a week having picnic's at the park, and we all had a wonderful time. Once it got too cold for that, I shifted my weekly outings to taking my son to the free storytimes offered by the two local bookstores, and many of the other moms shifted their schedules to include a weekly lunch date at McDonald's and bowling each week. As much as I and my children love to bowl (and my kids love Micky D's), we save those things for birthday's and special occassions. It is one of the things that my kids love to do, and it would lose it's excitement if we did it each week. Not to mention it would break my budget.

I do believe that someone frugal can be friends with someone who lives an extravegant lifestyle. However, I do think that it is much, much easier for two people to become friends when they have the same mind-set towards money. I have never had to defend my lifestyle choices to my frugal friend, or turn her down for a playdate because it doesn't fit in my budget. Frugalites understand that there is no need to talk about it (ok, well...unless you are sharing frugal tips). It doesn't matter to us whether you are being frugal because you choose to be or because you have to be. The fact of the matter is, it is one thing you have in common, and with other Frugalites you don't feel the need to defend yourself at every turn!