We’ve all been there. Funds are limited, but you still have to eat. Most people think of high carb foods like white bread and pasta when funds are low, but it’s important to get plenty of protein, especially in times of stress.
Eggs average $1 a dozen or 17 cents for a 2 egg serving with 140 calories and 14 grams of protein. They are full of healthy fats and vitamins too. With eggs you can make: egg salad; scrambled eggs; fried egg sandwiches; creamed eggs over biscuits; and frittata.
We’ve been working on this fixer upper of ours for 4 years! This is the year we might get it finished.
I pulled the red sculpted carpeting on the second floor last year even though we didn’t have money to replace flooring. The carpet was 40 years old and the allergens were really built up in it. As soon as we figured out it was part of why I was sick all the time we pulled it out. I painted the subfloor with porch paint and even though it was rough, it was ok. As soon as I could save up the money, I bought the same flooring (TrafficMASTER Handscraped Seratoga Hickory) we put down in Heather’s room. (I still need to paint the walls, add trim and wainscoting and art. And move the mattress, ha ha–but baby steps.)
It’s a little darker than the trend is going right now, but it matches our vintage doors perfectly and is only $.99 a square foot. Their lighter colorway in Lakeshore Pecan is only $.79 a square foot! It has been in Heather’s room for almost 4 years now and it has worn perfectly. No scratches or chunks out of it. It has held up better than the real hardwood we installed on the main floor.
Next step is to replace the paneling in the office. I was going to paint it white, but it has water damage that caused the panels to warp and fail at the seams, which could mean mold issues above. As much as I’m afraid to look behind the paneling, I can’t risk leaving mold up there. With fresh white paneling up, the office will become the temporary master bedroom. I’ll miss my closet, but I won’t miss running past the glass front door wearing nothing but a towel as I head to the working bathroom while hoping the glare of the sun off the glass blinds the neighbors before the sight of me in a towel does. I’m imagining this kind of cottage feel:
After that, we start removing the pine planked basement ceiling which is covered with 100 florescent lights. I love the look of a painted pine ceiling, but the lights created 100 large holes that can’t be easily fixed. The plan is to drywall the ceiling with a modest amount of LED recessed lights, and hope to leave the pine walls for painting. Heidi and I have plans for the ruined pine planks. We are hoping there will be long enough scraps to build some furniture.
The ceiling is coming down before we’re ready to finish the basement to give access to electrical and plumbing for the new master bedroom. The master has been raw studs and exposed pipes and wires for 4 years. I got tired of looking at it and thumbtacked twin flat sheets to the ceiling awhile ago. It really did make waiting easier.
Under the plywood on the floor is a giant hole where the sunken bathtub with no surrounding walls used to live. It was a big tripping hazard, so we had the tub hauled off by a metal recycler and plunked some plywood down so no one would fall to their death to the basement. This is RIGHT in front of the entrance to the bedroom. You could sit in the former bathtub in the master and watch the TV in the family room and hold a conversation with everyone, convenient :). Plus, the kids liked using it as a slide. They were pretty upset they day it left.
We are moving the door in the master bedroom from the family room to the foyer. This will give us enough space to build an ensuite bathroom, and allow faster middle of the night access to the 2nd floor where the children sleep. The doors are right on the other side of the staircase from each other. The new door is to the left of the old one and makes good sense inside the bedroom also. There’s just enough space for the new door to make it 36 inches wide with room for proper trim.
Here are the current plans for the ensuite:
Also on the list: finish the basement, build organizers in the garage, replace the driveway, build a lower patio under the upper deck, cut a back door and add stairs to go to the yard, build a swing set and finish the landscaping. We’re about $16,000 short on the budget for ALL of this, so some projects will have to wait while we save up money. I’m also hoping that I over budgeted on some projects and we will find money as we go along. Bwa ha ha! Like that EVER happens in remodeling.
We refinanced our home in January. My parents hold the mortgage to the house. It’s a rare situation I know, but they are very frugal and built a nice savings that my mom was afraid to invest in the stock market. It was sitting in the bank making %0.005 interest driving my Dad crazy. He was interested in loaning it to us where it could safely grow. We were getting a mortgage anyway and would have to pay the interest somewhere, and it feels really good paying it to them. We have the mortgage on direct deposit, so every month they automatically get paid. We’re never late and everyone has peace of mind. That simple piece of organization keeps the family relationship good. I know this is something that Dave Ramsey says to never do, but it works for us. This January, my folks gave us back all the principal+interest that we had paid them over the last 4 years and started our loan over. If we are super careful, it should be enough to finish the house modestly.
This month I’ve been hosting a spending freeze challenge for the Grocery Shrink Plus members. It was an extra perk of their meal plan membership and they got some extra stuff, like printable worksheets and the super frugal $50 week meal plan to help them get the most out of the the challenge. The best part is how the members encourage each other.
Here’s one comment from a member who gave permission for me to share her story but asked to remain anonymous:
When it comes to DIY some things can take more time than they are worth and still not turn out right. Here are 3 tried and true recipes that save significant money over buying ready made: Read more
The Christmas tree is still up and sparkling a cheerful greeting today. My organized friends are already put away for the New Year, but I’m letting the 12 days of Christmas linger on. It’s not our usual thing, but we’ve been working in extra doctor visits this week which included a 6 hour trip to see a specialist in the next state over. Times like these call for grace.
I know you’ll understand, when I say it was an accomplishment to just get the dishes washed and find clean underwear.
This week between Christmas and New Year’s, when you still have some lingering memories of Christmas and how you felt about everything, is the perfect time to make your life better next year. Were you joyful? Disappointed? Super Organized? Stressed? While you can still remember what went right and what went wrong, write a note. I have an excel document that I add a new tab to every year for gift budget planning. That way I can easily reflect on past year’s happenings and improve my plans for the next year.
At the end of the year, I write a few lines under the budget about things that I want to remember. (And trust me, we won’t remember if we don’t write it down.) For example, one year my daughter had a meltdown about not having a cute outfit to wear to our family gathering where her really trendy cousin would be. It’s not a big deal in the scheme of things, but it sure disrupted the happiness at our house. I made a note to work with her at the beginning of the season so that she’ll have a good option and then this year she surprised me by not caring anymore.
One time, I was surprised by “family gifts” that were passed around at our white elephant gift exchange party. I had thought we were doing the white elephant to avoid individual gifting and save budgets and stress on family members….but then I was handed a gift and had nothing to give in return, and I was the ONLY one who didn’t bring family gifts. That felt awful.
There are a myriad of possible ways to give charitably during the season. Our church sponsors families and we have the opportunity to buy gifts for those less fortunate. I also belong to a charitable giving group of local friends and we sponsored our local foster care system and women’s shelter this year. It was an awesome way to show my kids the joy of helping others, except I failed to plan for it in our budget. At the time of year when things are already tight, this had me scrambling. I wrote a new budget line just for that for next year’s budget.
Our grandmother passed away a year ago, and several of the grandchildren gave her daughter the grandmother’s favorite Christmas candy to remember her. It was really meaningful and I didn’t think of it, so it went into my notes.
One year I made several homemade gifts to help with our budget and improve the quality of the gifts I was able to give. The only problem was I got both kinds of flu 2 weeks before Christmas and had to wrap unfinished gifts to take back and finish at home later. Now I give myself a calendar notification in September to start choosing projects and a before Thanksgiving deadline to have them all done.
You see where this is going? It could be a good thing too, like wrapping my gifts as they came (with a code number on it so I can remember what’s in it!) and putting them under the tree and there was no last minute scramble or danger of the gift being found and the surprised ruined.
While I have the excel file open, I go ahead and copy my old budget over for the new year, then tweak it. If I have gift ideas, I add them in as well. In 2017 I’m doubling my gift budget for my own kids. It has been so small since they were born, that if we wanted to give them anything big, it had to be a family gift and use all the budget for all the kids–no individual gifts. I’m ready to change that and breathe a little. When we started out, we budgeted $20 per kid for Christmas. Then when we were debt free, doubled it to $40. For the last 4 years we raised it to $50. Next year I’m budgeting $100. I also raised the birthday budget to $100 per child. Since Darren’s salary didn’t go up, that means I’ll need to make up the difference. I kept the amount the same that comes from our regular household budget, and the rest I will earn extra each month to make it a reality.
This is also a great time to update the addresses in your Christmas card list. I almost forgot about that, because we haven’t managed to mail any out for the last 3 years or even take an updated family photo. I’ve set the bar low to improve next year, bwa ha ha.
Plus, check out this post on 2 options for a 52 week savings plan.
She’s crying…again. She seemed fine during the day, but now that it’s time for bed, she’s screaming. Is she just overtired? Being naughty about bedtime? Or is there something seriously wrong?
As a new mom, I felt a lot of stress over knowing when to call the doctor or run to the emergency room. It was even harder when they were too young to really tell me what was wrong. Is it just a cold? Or a bacterial infection that needs antibiotics?
One of my babies was a real screamer. At his 6 week checkup, he screamed royally for the doctor. The doctor looked at me and said, “Does he do this often?”
“All the time,” I responded, exhausted. I couldn’t just stay up with him at night holding him. We would have to leave the house, because his screaming would keep everyone awake. There was nothing I could do, except put him in the jogger and run. If the breeze stopped cooling his face, he would scream. 2am. 3am. I ran, so the family could sleep. (You would think I would lose weight quickly that way…but nope. Not a pound.)
“Take him to Children’s Mercy, Now.” He said. “I’m calling ahead, so they will expect you.”
I called my husband enroute to the hospital, who left work and met me there. They asked me his symptoms. “He screams,” I said. They looked confused. They ran a huge battery of tests. They found NOTHING wrong. We received a hefty bill to have our child diagnosed as “fussy.”
It made me cautious. When do I call? When is it just nothing? I don’t have all the answers to that and it’s good to err on the side of being cautious. But you can get a tool that will help you with your decision making.
There are more expensive versions for sure, but we have this one and for $15 it does the job well. It comes with a little card showing what a healthy ear drum looks like and an infected one. I don’t exactly self-diagnose with this, but If I look in there and see the angry red ear drum, we call the doctor.
As a novice, I would call the doctor and say, “He has an ear infection.” They don’t like that. Doctors went to school for 8 years to have the right to say, “he has an ear infection.” I did not. So now I call up and say, “He has an earache, a fever of 101, and when I looked inside with my otoscope I saw a red inflamed ear drum.” Just facts, no diagnosis. That goes a lot better.
P.S. The links are not affiliate links. Just a product I personally have and hope will make your life easier.
P.P.S. I’m not a doctor, nor do I play one on TV. This post is not meant to diagnose or treat any disease.
This post has some alternate titles, including: Well, That Escalated Quickly and That Time I Went to Ikea
It can happen at any store. Target is especially troubling, but even the grocery store can be a culprit. I’m there with my list, but I see something I need that isn’t on the list. It would have been if I had known about it, but I didn’t know until I saw it just now. I can leave it there and hope I forget about it, but I know I won’t. I’d just have to make another trip back for it. That would cost gas money and time, so I put it in your cart.
Photo Credit, Target Corporate
It’s only a few dollars.
It would make a great teacher’s gift. I should get 2 more.
It’s adorable and would cost more to make it myself. Besides, my time is worth something!
I’m especially susceptible when I’m shopping at a store that’s a long drive from home, like yesterday when I was at Ikea. If I change my mind, I can’t easily go back and buy something I left behind. Enter shopping anxiety. To make matters worse I had a save $25 off a $150 purchase coupon. That was a genius move by their promotions department. In my mind I was already willing to part with $125, and it didn’t take many impulse items to boost my total even higher.
Not all impulse buys are bad decisions. In fact, they can work in your favor if done properly. It’s not possible to plan any shopping trip perfectly from home. You can’t know what the available options will be when you actually get in the store, so it only makes sense to make some buying decisions on the spot.
When the cashier gave me my total I blurted out, “Well, that escalated quickly!” How can a few $5-10 items add up to that much? As I drove the long drive home, I second guessed my buying decisions, thought about what went wrong, and remembered how I usually avoided “total shock” at the register. I came up with these guidelines:
What do you think? Do you ever struggle with impulse shopping or am I the only one?
When I was growing up, my mama did a lot of things around the house. She used power tools, repaired furniture, skim coated drywall, decorated cakes, sewed clothes, baked fresh bread, gardened and preserved the harvest, had a family dinner every night, and taught Sunday School.
As I grew up, all these activities were normal to me. It wasn’t a big deal for me to bake bread or sew clothes, it was just something that mamas do. Having a nightly family dinner was just something you DO, it never occurred to me to skip it. When we were done, we cleared the table, washed the dishes and wiped down the counters. We didn’t even think about it, we just did it.
We walked away from stuff when it cost too much even though my dad made good money. Mom’s willingness to walk away and do without, or wait for the right deal made sure they had savings. They paid off their house when I was 9 and never borrowed another dime after that. It built character in me to not have the latest trends and to wait for things. I didn’t appreciate it at the time, but the skill of waiting has served me well as an adult.
We went to church. Every time the doors were open. I never had to ask if we were going. We just did.
My babies came so soon after I married and so close together that I lost some of my good habits—like going to bed early, getting up early, working out consistently, and daily Bible study. Now that life has settled down a little (knock on wood) I’m figuring out how to build these habits back into my day. My first thought was to get up early and do them before my kids are up. That way I can have uninterrupted quiet time (sounds so good!) If I did that, they would never see me do them. And those are the important things that I want them to think are just part of being a mama. Mamas read their Bibles. Mama’s take care of their bodies. Mamas pray.
The habits that I want to be second nature for my kids, the ones I don’t want to be a big deal, just something they DO, those are the things I need to model for them now. They need to see it consistently, day in and day out. Not stressful, not a big deal, just accomplished.
I wonder what my kids will just do and not think about, because it was a normal part of their childhood. I hope using cash is one of them, along with saving up to pay for stuff, being ok with roughing it to pave the way for a bigger goal, and giving to people who are in need.
Say the word “homemaker,” and this is the most frequent response:
This question is offensive to a lot of at homemakers because it implies that there’s not enough to do to keep an at home spouse off the couch watching Netflix and eating raw cookie dough. (Not that that NEVER happens. Overwhelm can drive anyone to a Netflix cookie dough binge. And if there’s any job that’s overwhelming, it’s homemaking.)
I thought about it a lot and I think I can put my job description into one tidy sentence.
Cleaning is part of it, but a tiny part.
I make sure my husband can work, and try to take care of the things that would normally interrupt the working day of a spouse in a two income household. Things like making appointments, a sick child, meeting a service provider, running errands.
I research, research, research, so we get the right products, get appropriate discounts, and stay under budget.
It’s my job to keep food in the house, and prepare meals that are conducive to health, the budget and shared family time.
I learn new skills so we can hire out less. Skills like minor electrical work, carpentry, sewing, painting, interior design, and cooking.
I advocate for our kids, so their health and learning needs are not passed over. This means more research, a lot of research, and sometimes doing interventions myself when there aren’t professionals available to us.
I manage our stuff so we aren’t buried in a pile of it, and can still find what we need when we need it. That includes turning our used stuff into cash through garage sales, Craigslist, Ebay and tax deductible donations.
I make sure everyone has clothing, within budget, that fits, is clean and repaired. Sometimes that means making it myself, shopping online, or visiting several stores. Plus taking care of personal appearances like cutting a boy’s hair or guiding a daughter through makeup and hair for her first date.
I give encouragement and support so everyone can be their best selves. This includes helping with music practice and homework, listening to their joys and sorrows and stories, and reminding them how great God made them.
This doesn’t mean I do everything myself. I’m like a general contractor. I delegate the appropriate jobs. Sometimes I delegate jobs to my kids that would be easier to do myself, just because it’s good for them to work.
I take my job super seriously. I’m constantly researching the best ways to do things and learning new skills. I’m also human and with a job list as long as mine, the big size of our household, and our limited budget, my house isn’t always company ready and the laundry isn’t always folded and put away. Sometimes my time is better spent painting a room than keeping up with daily chores and I’m so thankful my family pitches in and is understanding about that.
It’s true that we sacrifice a little in available cash for me to have this position, but we gain so much more in quality of life in exchange. I know not everyone can make this choice, so trust me that I don’t stand in judgement of work out of the home moms. I was once that mom myself.
What do you think?
Before school started this fall, we made our kids a terrible, misguided, poorly thought out deal. We told them if they all made straight A’s at semester, we’d get a puppy. They have been begging for a dog for YEARS and finally we thought we’d consider it.
First of all this deal was awful, because everyone wanted a puppy except for me. All of my kids have high IQs and were motivated very much by a puppy. So bad result #1, they get straight As, earn a puppy, and leave me to care for it while they are at school. (Which would be fine for a few weeks, but long term would be very stressful for me.)
Bad result #2. My daughter with learning disabilities is working her tail off for a puppy and earning straight Cs. It’s the best she can do with the mis-wiring she has in her brain, even though her IQ puts her in the gifted range. It is possible that everyone will earn the puppy except for her, and there’s not one thing she can do about it. According to our agreement, she could blow the puppy deal for the whole family and bear the guilt and shame on top of everything else she’s dealing with.
We either get a puppy—bad, or don’t get a puppy—BAD! This is why I should THINK before making stupid deals with my kids. Good Parenting 101: Give your kids choices when either option is a win. There was no possibility of a winner here.
I can’t tell you how many hours I laid awake thinking about this terrible situation and how to fix it and stay consistent with our promises. I knew I had to get an animal in our house some way that would negate the deal and make this ok. To make the situation a little more challenging, my special girl has on-going medical expenses that I need to save an extra $200 a month for. With our new budget, pet food and vet bills aren’t a possibility. Gah! What was I thinking?
I went to the local animal shelter website just to see what foster care was all about. Turns out it’s amazing. Our shelter only fosters infant animals or high medical need animals, and it’s usually a 1-3 week commitment until adoption. They provide all the medical care, food, and accessories. We provide the love. Since we aren’t trained properly for high medical needs, we’re on the infant only list. I filled out my application one night and the next morning, got a call to come pick up a litter of kittens. Kittens!!!!!
Abandoned infant animals are a little challenging. There might be fleas to combat, toilet training, and minor health challenges like loose stools from abrupt diet changes. But oh my! They are so cute and snuggly and fluffy and adorable. It’s so worth it.
These kittens will be available for adoption at some point and prospective parents might meet them at our home. When they are adopted, we’ll be available to foster someone else. It might be more kittens, puppies or even a rabbit. I can handle the care for a few weeks and take a break when necessary. The kids help out when they are home and have a lot of the benefits of pet ownership without the long term commitment. Now that’s a win-win.
