Provident Living-May 2014

This months money savers included:
Free movie rental of “The Book Thief” from Red Box made a great date night at home. 
My husband and I enjoyed a buy one get one free burrito from Chipotle for teacher appreciation day on a date out.
I spread compost made last year in three of my garden areas.
Dinner was served… in my husband’s classroom.  I saved time and money by not going home between dismissal time and my daughter’s call time for her Orchestra concert and bringing dinner and games for everyone instead.  We saved on gas $ this way, as well.
We paid off another credit card!  And better yet we moved our debt free date up another month.  It feels like getting the monkey off our back paying this debt off.  It is unbelievable to me that we are able to pay this much money off within 19 months of finishing our Financial Peace University course while raising 5 children on a single teacher’s salary.  Up until we took that class we were on an upward trajectory with debt and if we weren’t to add any more to it,  it would be 20 years to a pay off date.  This has been an intensely positive experience.  It’s been tough and even, at times, intense but extremely positive overall.
We were able to go to the Scholastic Book Sale with a teacher’s discount and buy some books for birthdays on incredible discount staying within our budget.
I harvested cilantro from my garden already and made pasta sauce with it for dinner one night. 
The whole garden is planted!  There are spearmint leaves, blackberries, sweet peppers, strawberries, tomatoes, lettuce, zucchini, cucumbers and cilantro.  I am trying to utilize any space I can outdoors for a garden and sunny spots seem a little hard to come by for vegetables.  As I was cleaning out the garden during the first two weeks of the month I took the opportunity to move some things around a little.  I hope the mint will do better split with some in a new location.  I thinned many of my perennials and replanted some to grow in new areas of the yard.  I also received a spring flowering bush to plant as a gift which is very pretty.
My rain barrel provided all the water needed for gardening this month.
Peonies were cut and brought in for a table centerpiece. 
I avoided turning on the air conditioning all month.
The clothesline was used for most of our laundry.  This saves our family approximately $40 per month and I am outdoors keeping an eye on the kids enjoying the sunshine while hanging the laundry.
I made several dinners utilizing beans or ham bits that I had in the freezer.
Hot dogs and cream cheese were some of my bargain purchases of the month and I stocked up.
Dental floss was free with a coupon for $1 off that I used.
Finally, I made dinner baskets for three teachers as an end of school year gift.  I included a nice note and a peony in each basket along with the mixes for Italian Salad dressing, Spaghetti sauce and Brownie mix.  I included the cans of tomato products and the pasta needed as well as the instructions.  I also made a mini loaf of white bread for each basket and included a jar of preserves.  I am running low on everything at the moment so one teacher got red raspberry/lemon jam, another received caramel apple butter and the last got a jar of strawberry lemon marmalade.  The reports I got from three children is that none of the teachers could believe it was all for them and I did receive a very kind thank you note from one teacher the very next day. 

Provident Living–April - 2014

We got a settlement check in the mail from the city for the tire and rim replacement on our small car from the pot hole damage done in February.
I was able to use our Benny  card for my eye exam and contact lenses.  This money is accrued through reporting to our insurance company things like we are smoke free or had blood work done. 
New running shoes (and socks) were replaced for my 11 year old this month.  I used store credit from a Christmas return.  They asked me if I’d like to sign up for the store’s reward card (no cost) and I would get 15% off my purchase.  The shoes (now men’s size so more expensive) and socks were over $100 but with the sale, the reward card and the store credit they ended up giving me money to put in my wallet to walk out with our purchase.  I realize the rewards program is meant to get me in the store more often but I really only go in there when I need to buy shoes.  It won’t impact my budget negatively because of that.
I got some free yogurt with a downloaded coupon. 
Eggs were purchased for .99 again.
The weather cleared so the heat was finally turned off and I intend to keep it that way.  We will set aside money over the next months to have some maintenance done on our heating system before next fall.
Our clothesline went back up two weeks ago.  I’ve only had to use the dryer twice since then.  The spring weather cooperates so well here that I can easily dry two loads a day outdoors if I need to.  Good for all those blankets and quilts finally coming off the beds.
My 17 year old borrowed a prom dress from my Visiting Teacher.  She offered a selection for Haley to choose from her daughter’s collection before she puts them on e-bay.
Our trip to the Smoky Mountains involved minimal meals out which we planned for during traveling days.  The rest of our food we took with us.  The cabin had a fabulous kitchen which really helped us keep our costs down.  Our cabin price reflected the last week of off season rates with one night free.  It was a great great trip.
We visited the library.
We made a life insurance switch finalizing it after a very long, nearly 6 month process.  Life insurance is all squared away with coverage that better matches our needs.
I purchased a long awaited book for half price.
Our bouquet for our Easter dinner was daffodils which my four year old snipped from the yard.  He used his scissors and got enough flowers for five bouquets leaving plenty of flowers in the yard still.
I purchased eggs on sale for .99 and got some yogurt for free with a  coupon.
I bought Easter Egg coloring kits at 90% off paying just .25 each.  Some years I miss out on this deal so I always try to buy a couple on years when I can find this deal.  And if someone wants to have an Easter Egg coloring birthday party in July?  It won’t be a problem! 
I purchased juice, canned pineapple and cream of chicken soup with rain checks for one of the lowest prices on these items all year.  I also bought hot dogs on special for .99 per pound.
Exciting!  We received our title in the mail for our van which we paid off about a month early so we are car-payment free now.
More exciting!!!  We paid off one of our credit cards, closed our account and moved our debt free date up closer by 4 months.  Originally our debt free date was December 2015 which we moved to November 2015.  Then we figured out a way to move it up to May 2015 and now we are looking at January 2015.  My goal now is to get that date to December of this year.  When I figure that out I’ll set a goal to move that date up again.  If feels good to be in control.

Provident Living–March 2014

I got busy last month with life and did not keep track of things I did to save money, like pick up a free one dozen eggs or that free two liter bottle of root beer, but rather I have a very short list of things we did that were financial milestones for us and show that we are making real changes and staying on the right track with our money.
We paid off our van a few weeks early and received the title in the mail.  We are car payment free now!  Hooray!  Both cars are all ours.
We got our emergency fund fully loaded again.
We found that we were in need of a new refrigerator.  We looked around on line to get a feel for what was out there in regards to reviews, product and price.  We went in to the store and got an even better deal in person than the sale they had going on that was advertised.  We paid for the refrigerator with cash… first time!  And there are no credit card bills to cause headaches this month.
We went on a wonderful vacation renting a fantastic cabin for cheaper than the two hotel rooms our family is required to have when we travel anywhere.  Our spring break coincided with the last week of pre-season rates in the Smoky Mountains.  The cabin was bigger than our house with more bathrooms and had a fully equipped kitchen.  It was so nice!  We brought our own food for eating in and taking picnics during our free excursions to the park for hikes.  In the evenings the cabin was equipped with pool, air hockey, foosball, TV/DVD, a hot tub, and of course there were stars and bears for outdoor entertainment.  We paid for everything on our trip outright.  No upcoming bills.    While vacations are an “extra” I realize, we felt that it was important to create some fun family memories and take the opportunity to get all five of our kids to the Smoky Mountain region before our children start leaving home.  This was our chance.
Also, very cool, we looked ahead and realized we were not only on track with our goal but actually moving our credit card payoff date up closer by one month.  We are looking at some more ways we may be able to move this date up by several months.  It is a really good feeling to be working toward a financial goal all together and to see the progress being made.  Knowing that becoming “debt free” is in the foreseeable future is fantastic.  We have all been working really hard at this and our kids have done without things that they want.  We are finding life to be fulfilling without spending so much and by relying on and concentrating on what we already have been blessed with though.  Working at the financial goal of becoming debt free has really been, and continues to be, a positive experience for us.

February - 2014

So my biggest financial challenge for the month was our grocery budget going down again not once but twice!!!  Our medical costs rose taking just $20 but when I’m feeding people for $15.75 for the week, a $20 cut is significant enough.  Then our property taxes went up as well… by $20 a month.  So who doesn’t eat?  Or more like which TWO people aren’t eating?  When I broke it down with the first reduction it cuts my daily cost of groceries by .11 per person and so I thought I could do that.  But cutting it again by $20 before I’ve even had a chance to adjust to the first cut makes me more nervous.  We are left with $2.03 per day per person now.  We expect this to be somewhat of a temporary cut in our grocery bill since we are in the process of changing life insurance companies and plans.  We expect to be able to add some money back into that grocery budget with what we will save in life insurance.  Life insurance changes appear to be a bit of a long process however. 
I threw a birthday party at home for my seven year old.  We stayed within our budget and were still able to do everything and have everything that Kaitlyn wanted.  As she helped plan and prepare for the party this was a good teaching tool for real life budgeting with her.

To help save money I did not use paper plates or cups.  I did use a package of cute paper napkins I had purchased some time ago for a quarter.  I usually keep a box of those.

Since this was a “Snow Fun” party we made snowman ice cubes during the week before the party and snowman chocolates for each of the girls to take home.

I had a snowman shaped tray already and we put “frosted” fruits on it to go with our pizza lunch.  I made the blue snowman cake from scratch.  It’s blue because that’s what Kaitlyn wanted but I did make his face white.  I used snow flake sprinkles that I bought on clearance after Christmas.

The banners or bunting in the kitchen and living room were homemade from scraps I had in my stash.  The snowflake ribbons decorating the living room were actually just stickers that I purchased for .25 per package on clearance after Christmas in the Scrapbooking dept. of our craft store.  I simply took curly ribbon and stuck matching stickers on both sides and then hung them.  They looked really cute hanging up for the occasion.

Party bags were “snow” white bags I purchased in a package.  Boxes of snowman chocolates were purchased on clearance after Christmas for this.  The little snowman pin on the right was a party favor… each girl crafting her own with my 14 year olds help with the hot glue gun if needed.  The girls just used tacky glue.  I already had all the materials leftover from previous crafts to make these little snowman pins.  Our games were all homemade too with sale candy prizes and a pass the snowball game with dollar prizes for each.
We took some money we had set aside from a third paycheck and went to the LDS cannery on the way home from my husband’s business trip to an educator’s conference.  The cannery is on the way home and the mileage was paid for as business expense.  We were thrilled to find that they are selling black beans in bulk once again and the prices as of February 1st were down from our November pricing.  We were able to buy 25 pound bags of black beans for $15… best price around.  We purchased 50 pounds of Black beans, 50 pounds of Great Northern beans, about 50 pounds of oats and just over 50 pounds of powdered milk.  Hooray!  If nothing else this will offset the loss in the grocery budget for a while. 
Traditional books and audio books were purchased directly from Scholastic at a special educator’s sale.  Nothing was over $5, scratch and dent were just $1 and one whole isle was marked 50% off of it’s under $5 price tag.  Combine that with a $25 off coupon and we got a box full of books for a fantastically great price which will be gifts for our children’s birthdays and Christmas. 
Egg prices have been on the rise.  I found an egg sale at Sav-A-Lot that was so good I decided I had to try this store out.  I bought 7 dozen eggs for $6.94 which will take us through the month.  This was more than a $4 savings for me.
I purchased smoked sausage for .99 and bought five.
Shampoo and conditioner went on sale for .79 each just as we were on our last bottles!
Packaged deli-meats went on sale for 1.99 each if you bought multiples of 8 with a limit of 2 specials.  I was happy to buy 16… the last 16.  Lunch meat stores well and we have enjoyed more variety to our lunches.
Cream cheese also went on sale for .99 if purchased in multiples of 8;  Good for making our annual cheesecake on March 18th… the anniversary of our first date and first cheesecake I brought over to my husband’s apartment… my contribution to the meal.
Pot holes have been a huge problem with this winter weather we’ve been having.  My husband hit a large pot hole late one night on his way home from work that made the tire bulge.  He called the city and they said they would pay for repairs only if the hole had already been reported.  We figured it probably had because early the next morning (the morning he made the call) it had already been repaired and had an orange cone over it.  Upon taking the car in for a new tire we found that the rim was severely cracked from hitting the hole as well. 

My husband went to the salvage yard and they had some cars that utilize the same tire rims there although you really have no idea what condition anything is in or if the part has already been taken.  He paid the $2 to go out into the yard to take a look around.  He found a good rim, got it off the junked car, pried the tire off and paid the salvage yard just for the part.  By turning in the cracked one he was also able to save money by not paying the “core” charge.  He then took the good rim and got the new tire put on it.  While this seems rather kind of us to save the city money we also know that it will be months before we might see any reimbursement check at all. 
These were our money saving adventures for the month of February.

Laundry Detergent

About two years ago I began making my own laundry detergent for a few different reasons but the biggest reason was cost.  With five kids producing a ton of laundry every week I was really weary of paying all that money for detergents instead of putting it toward fresh fruits and vegetables or meat, since I was reaching a point of having to make a choice.  I tried stocking up on Arm & Hammer when it would go on sale but it seemed like every time I turned around I was nearly out of detergent AGAIN.  My children’s appetites were growing and our take home pay was on its way down in spite of a so-called “raise”.  For years I’d sat down each month with our budget and brainstormed ideas to save money and I’d set a goal.  Now it was time to look into laundry detergent alternatives and I was pretty excited actually.  Especially when I found out how easy it was and how much money I’d save.  I could have kicked myself for not trying it sooner when this actually worked out!
This recipe is totally safe for your “he” machine because it is naturally low suds and very concentrated.  Using an Olay Body Bar soap for this is safe for those with sensitive skin.  It cleans well and leaves your clothes smelling, well, like nothing!  I even used it on cloth diapers when I was still at that stage with my children.  Another plus, there is no cooking involved so that saves time compared to other detergent recipes.  Because it is a powdered concentrate, no water is added so it saves space as well.  And I use my heavy duty food processor to make soap flakes so this is quick.  I do find that in cold weather that my incoming water is so cold that it does not dissolve the soap well.  I simply add the soak cycle to my loads and no more trouble.
Now that I have given up expensive and chemical filled fabric softeners as well I find that I am now spending less per YEAR than I used to spend cleaning clothes in a month!!!  HUGE savings!  This detergent will cost you around 5 cents per load as opposed to about 25 cents load, depending on the brand you’ve been using.
I make a triple batch of this detergent since I am doing laundry for 7 and on average this lasts me for about three months.  It stores well in Mason jars or in reused plastic containers like the big ones from bulk purchases of corn starch or baking powder.  Make a single batch for starters to see how you like it.
Single Batch Powdered Laundry Detergent
1 bar Oil of Olay soap, grated.  (I purchase these in bulk packaging at Sam’s Club)
1 cup Borax
1 cup Washing Soda (found in the cleaning or laundry isle and looks like an oversized orange box of baking soda)
1/2 c. Oxi-Clean (try finding a web coupon for this at Target and combine it with one of their sales to reduce your cost)
Carefully mix these together in a large bowl and then store in a dry, sealed container.
*Use 1 Tbsp. for a regular load or 2 Tbsp. for a large or heavily soiled load
**Can use Fels Naptha laundry bar in place of Olay bar soap.

Rag Quilt

I discovered the joy of rag quilts several years ago and I am still seeing new versions of them today.  But I like the flannel version for babies because it is so soft and cuddly.  I was excited to get to make another rag quilt for my good friend who is having her 7th child and first girl!  Hooray!

I checked my stash and was reminded of the rag quilt I got too busy to make for my own daughter (sigh) along with some super cute flannel I had purchased extra of several years ago when one of my nephews was born.    After checking through my stash of large fabric pieces and playing around with color options I settled on just a double layer of two different fabric patterns.  Flannel is warm to begin with and though you wouldn’t know it from this winter, this is a fairly warm region for much of the year so I thought two layers would be enough.  I cut out 46 6x6 squares of white/strawberry flannel and 26 6x6 squares of green farmyard flannel.  In a perfect world it would have been 18 green farmyard squares 54 white strawberry squares but I patterned the back to make up for my lack of fabric.  If I’d used more green I could have done this BUT this IS for a baby girl, after all so I wanted more of the white and pink or at least as much as I could get!   I sewed each square in a double layer, backsides together, then sewed the double layer squares together with the seam facing up instead of hiding.  Then I sewed around the perimeter of the quilt and the raw edges on the quilt front got clipped every half inch or so.  After a washing, this gives the clips a frayed look that is pretty.  The clipping actually took longer than the sewing!

I then folded the blanket, used some odds and ends of pink baby ribbon tied together that I had in my ribbon box to tie around the folded quilt, made a pretty label for my creation and it was ready to go.  I looked at this blanket and loved it.  Unfortunately I was not able to attend my friend’s baby shower since it was postponed due to weather and moved over top of my daughter’s birthday party but  I hope my friend and her soon to be born baby will love it too.

I got to use that pretty snowflake paper again giving it a pretty and feminine look with a soft pink ribbon tied around it.  I have missed making quilts.  This was a fun and easy project that I spread over two days. 

Birthday Banners!

I loved the idea of having pretty banners up for bedroom decorations or various holidays that I have seen floating around over the past several years.  Our own cardboard birthday banner bit the dust several years ago and we have settled for paper streamers for a while.  But with all this snow around I was feeling the need to do something CREATIVE with all this indoor time. 

I found a blue scrap of bias binding that I had and dug into my small scraps stash of fabric in shades of blue.  I ironed the scraps, cut six inch squares and then used zig zag scissors when I folded the squares in half to form a triangle.  I left the edges raw and sewed the folded part of the triangle inside the folded bias binding.  Each triangle overlapped the last.  Blue went with our latest birthday party theme but I like this project so much I may do different color themes and sizes in the future.  This was quick and easy.

I got this idea from Handmade Home.  I repurposed the edge piece I had left of an ancient white sheet.  The rest of the worn sheet had become either a ghost costume about 10 years ago or else the backing of our Christmas Tree skirt I made 19 years ago… not sure which at this point but the sheet was OLD!  I had enough sheet to cut out 13 rectangles that were 6x13.  The rectangle with the heart is slightly smaller simply because that is all I had left.  I dug into my scrap stash and picked out scraps of fabric to cover the gamut of colors in the rainbow.  I printed out bubble letters on the computer, pinned the letters to the scraps and used them to cut out fabric letters through the paper.  I centered the letters at a far end of the white rectangle and straight stitched around each letter leaving the edges raw for a shabby look that will fray a little over time.  After that, I folded the rectangle with the stitched letter in half and did a zig zag stitch around the letter leaving a casing at the top and leaving edges raw for the same shabby chic look.  When the letters were all done I strung the letters onto a ribbon and used a large safety pin to hook each end onto my curtain rods.  The room was instantly festive and everyone agrees that this banner is far better than any streamers or cardboard banners we have put up before.  I’m thinking of doing more letters so we can arrange letters for various holidays or include names.  This was also an easy project.  The most time consuming thing was stitching letters but the time went quickly when I moved my work up to the table in the living room where it was warmer and there were people to visit with or a TV show to watch.
These were both finished in time to celebrate my 17 year olds birthday and my 7 year olds birthday party just a few days later.  My little guy is talking about when we get it out again for his birthday now.