Friday, September 28, 2007

I am starting a part-time job this Monday

It will be for 1 hour and 20 minutes Monday through Friday watching the grade 4 class at my dds school over their lunch time.My friend works there and recommended me.

It is a 25 to 30 minute walk to the school each way. I can also ride a bike which I have not done in like 27 years lol.I will need to drive however durring the winter months.

I am kind of nervous however, I am not an outdoors person and I don't really have very much experience with other peoples children although I have gone on field trips etc with my children and have had "many" sleep overs lol.

The pay as well is not bad, $16 an hour, although I don't have to work right now at this stage of our life. I am hoping that I will like it there and that the children will like me.

Anyhow, just wanted to share,it was so out of the blue today when I received the phone call.

Thursday, September 27, 2007

Still Looking for my frugal mixes binder and my morning Routine.

I still have boxes to unpack, the battle is being won however :). I have been focusing on getting our house organized. I actually have a routine falling into place. I need to however get into the habit of making school/work lunches the night before opposed to making them on the mornings they are needed. My weekdays start off like this;

Get up with family,make breakfast,make lunches,make sure everyone hasn't forgotten any papers,homework,lunches etc...,hug/kiss my family as they go out the door for school/work, then it goes like this : (1) do dishes,wipe down table and counters,(2)do a quick sweep of the kitchen floor.(3)Open bedroom curtains and make bed (4) tidy up bathroom.(5) Around 10a.m I go downstairs (basement is finished) and tidy up there, do laundry when needed. I then have some "free" for me time until I start getting after school snacks ready/start preparing supper. I do enjoy baking too so if I need cookies etc, I will just whip them up durring my "me" time. I still need to tweak my routine for in the afternoon but with all chores completed I have a lot more time to go out,go over our finances,bake etc.

I am still washing dishes by hand, Go Me! lol. I find what helps the most is to keep one side of my sink full of hot soapy water, especially while preparing for snacks,suppers and when dh and the kids are home.Durring the weekdays not so much as it is just me home. I just wash and rinse then let the dishes drip dry,as I pass by the sink about 10 minutes or so later I just put them away, I dry any droplets of water still on them of course lol. Anyhow, this has made a Huge impact on how I do dishes and it isn't so overwhelming for me as I no longer think "dishes again?".

So right now it is 9:30a.m and the main floor area/bedroom is clean and tidy for when/if I should have guests. You just never know who will show up.

The house we lived in before buying this one I never really had a cleaning routine.Our house was clean but I didn't seem to start tidying up/cleaning until later in the day as I never went anywhere really or had anyone over for tea etc. Now,because we are in an area where I can actually walk or I should say "want" to walk/visit with a friend or go to the library seems to have motivated me.:).

Saturday, September 22, 2007

Reminders of the Past!

Dh and I are trying to get back on track. We were doing so well only to somehow fall.There was a list of things that Dh and I had accomplished over a period of time. I am putting them here as a reminder for myself to get us back on track and having that sense of "peace" that we somehow have lost.

This was a post last year in which I had typed up on how our progress "was" going:


20 months ago Dh and I decided to make some changes with our spending etc and I can't remember them all in which we have tried but I thought I would post everything in which we stuck with :) I also want to note that since making changes slow but sure we have not lived from pay to pay in the last 20 months.....I do fall off of the wagon from time to time and even though our Emergency fund isn't where it should be I have to stop and remember that over the last 20 months we have had to use it for stuff like paying cash for our new to us older van when our car went Ka-put and this past May we had emergency Vet bills etc..... I had posted this on another message board to give them an update from then till now so I am just copying and pasting what I had typed earlier........Well here goes the things in which we have tried and seems to be working for us :)



(1) We pay ourselves first .....I remember when first trying this after reading different financial books I was Very skeptical.....I remember thinking "Yeah right!, how on earth are we going to pay ourselves first when we have a mortgage and bills to pay and food to put on the table, there is barely enough now to cover all of that never mind trying to find any money to put away for us." Well we did it and it worked

(A) We decided on an amount to put into our retirement fund "pretaxed" from dh paycheques....

(B) We made sure that we had from $5 to $20 each( The amount depends on prices rising etc...like when gas went up we would have about $5 each to compensate the rising prices) to keep in our purse/wallet so we could go out for a tea if we so desired, this helped from having a feeling of being broke.

(C) We opened up an ING account this past year and have $100 automatically taken out of our regular bank account into our ING account.

We did not try all of these at once....For example, we started putting money into our retirement and before moving on to another idea to try, we waited for 3 pays or 6 weeks to give it a chance and to see how it was working for us........The first pay we "felt" it......the second pay felt doable but......... by the 3rd pay it worked! We adjusted and it became a habit We also knew that if this didn't work either we could cut back on the amount of $ taken off of dh paycheque and try again or.....just cancel this idea for now.

After an idea became a habit , it took us 6 weeks or 3 pays, we would move on to another idea and try that for the same amount of time and so on and so on.

(2) Changed our Mortgage payments from monthly to every 2 weeks....... this ended up putting a bit of extra money on the principle of our mortgage. And it was such a pleasant change to divide up our mortgage payment and pay on payday every 2 weeks opposed to one lump sum once a month.........it really did make a difference.

(3) We still have our change jar ......this has paid for a nice dinner out for the family every 2 or 3 months if that is what we are aiming for at the time......alot of times now I will use it for a treat like to go out for an ice cream cone with the kids etc. It is sooooo amazing how that can feel after once living from pay to pay.

(4) Freedom account---- Still working on this one I find it hard as I keep getting into a routine of paying things off as they come in......but, I do have a couple of hundred in there now to go towards house and property taxes due in Feb. This week I will be adding some more to it......

(5) Emergency Fund.....this one seemed to take forever , still is taking forever. Dh family and my family have been having a rough go of it so we have been trying to help them.....everything seems to be ok now as of a couple of weeks ago, so now we can focus more on this. I find though that over the months even with helping our family, having the odd emergency happen etc.....we still have $1500 in there. I am just thankful that we could help them as before starting these changes it would have been impossible to come up with any money.

(6) Stockpiling.....all I can say is WOW.....major impact on cutting $ from the grocery bill. If for example mayo is on for a great sale I will by 12 jars and that will last us for 1 year minimum etc. We are at the point right now where we only have to buy loss leader/sale items except for milk,eggs, fresh produce ....things like that.

(7) One day I sat down and I called our phone company and insurance company to see what I could do to cut back expenses even if it was just a little bit....it all adds up ...I changed our insurance deductable from $250 to $500....saved us and extra $5 a month........then I called the phone company.....I got rid of our call waiting and this saved us $6.87 a month......I asked about our long distance plan as we were paying $29 a month ( I did need this to keep my sanity as we had no family or friends in this province) anyhow, because I asked, the man at the phone company said that they had a deal which was not advertised and a customer had to inquire in order to get this deal....I ended up getting that same exact plan for $29 a month dropped down to $18 a month .....I couldn't believe my luck! and all because I "asked". So total savings with insurance and phone was $22.87 a month or........$274.44 a year

(8) We had a Will made up.....this will save alot of $ and heartache for our children if anything were to happen to dh or myself.

(9) I went online to crowntools and they have a budget sheet where you can type in your income,taxes and tithe. I put in a lower amount of our income which I felt we could live off of......for Income I put our take home pay, taxes I put in $0 and tithe I put $0 as we do help out with family and friends but we never know how much it will be which they need......anyhow, I played around with the figures that the budget gave us and was amazed at how doable it really is! I still go there even now from time to time as a refresher and when I feel like I need to get back on track and focus more on what is important to us. Here is the website addy:

http://www.crown.org/Tools/budgetguide.asp

That is all I can think of right now. I am thinking of our emergency fund and forgot that even with what is left over we have used it over the months........when our car broke down we replaced it with a new to us older van and paid cash ......emergency vet bills this past May etc...

As I mentioned I wanted to share with you all an update since starting this journay 20 months ago. Maybe someone here might pick up even one idea, I don't know but it sure feels good that we don't have to worry about living from pay to pay. Also I have found that to get ahead we couldn't just live within our means.........We had to live below our means but yet we feel so much better off and truly Blessed!

It doesn't matter how much you start off with in savings or making changes.....start little and you will find just like us that once you get use to making changes eventually you will be at a point where you can add a bit more as time goes by.

============================================================================

I need this as a reminder. maybe some of the information will help others as well.

I need to work on again:
(1) Get an emergency fund up and running ($1000 min.for now)
(2) Start deducting money "pretaxed" from each pay for retirement.
(3) Start our Freedom account over.

(4) Getting our mortgage payments back to bi-weekly.For some reason with this move we just did dh decided to put our mortgage payments back to monthly, we are calling Monday to have it switched back for next month to every 2 weeks on payday.

(5) Mix up my frugal mix recipes to have on hand like,brownie mix,taco mix,biscuit mix,cream of soup mix,donut mix (for baked not fried, almost like a cake donut), onion soup mix, almost hamburger helper mix and there are a few others which I need to go over in my binder of recipes.

That is what I will start forcusing on, focusing on #1, #4 and #5 first.

Sooooooooo, Let the Journey begin! :)

Friday, September 21, 2007

What is Really in a Frugal Fridge?

I posted a question on one of my favorite boards asking for ideas. There were some really good ideas there.

In the Complete Tightwad gazette on page 265 a couple of things in which Amy has listed in "The Tightwad Refrigerator" which I hadn't thought of or heard of is Homemade refrigerator dough and yeast. I had never heard of keeping yeast in a refrigerator. Neat idea!

My friends on the message board had some good ideas too. like a refrigerator muffin mix that would be handy too.

I have in my frugal fridge right now, apples,celery,juice,bologna,homemade jam, pickles,pickled beets etc.... I just feel like I am missing something. I usually have a salad made up in a huge bowl for the week to go with suppers,snacking, lunches etc....I don't add cucumber to this bowl however as I find that it will go soggy so it is usually cut up in a small seperate soup bowl to add.

I am still curious on what others keep in their frugal fridge :)!

Thursday, September 20, 2007

Chicken Terriyaki

This is definately one of my families favorites! I usually double the sauce recipe and have made it with ribs as well as the chicken. You could also make up the sauce and I would bring it to a soft boil on med/low heat in a pot on the stove stirring regularly for about a minute or so then simmer for a couple of more minutes, cool and put in a jar/bottle for future use for stirfrys etc.......


Chicken Terriyaki


3 to 3 1/2 lb. chicken, cut up

1 tbsp. oil

1/4 to 1/2 tsp. garlic powder

1/2 cup sugar

2 tsp. water

1/4 tsp. ginger

1/2 cup soya sauce


Place chicken single layer in baking pan. Mix next ingredients and dissolve sugar. Pour sauce over chicken. Cover and let stand 30 minutes in fridge (turning regularly). Bake skin side down and covered at 350 for 45 minutes. Turn meat and bake uncovered another 20 minutes.


Recipe from; St. Maurice Catholic Church

Morris, Man.

Homemade White Bread (4 loaves)

I had gotten this recipes Years ago from Dhs Aunt. This recipe is also Great to use for homemade pizza dough!




4 cups warm water

1 cup powdered milk

1/4 cup sugar

2 tbsp yeast

1/2 cup of cooking oil or melted butter/margarine

1 1/2 tbsp. salt

1 egg (optional) I usually make this bread without

10 cups flour ( might need more or less depending on dough texture, if too sticky add more etc...)


In a big bowl put warm water, milk, sugar and yeast, let stand till foamy then add 4 cups flour, salt, egg and oil and stir then add rest of flour and Knead well.


Let rise 1 hour.Punch down dough, Cut into loaves, put in pan and rise for about an hour.

Bake at 350 for about 35 minutes.


When I take my bread out of the oven I use wax paper and rub some margarine over the top......this helps to keep the crust soft opposed to having it hard and crusty.

Cook Once And Eat Twice...

Cook Once And Eat Twice...

I have been cooking once and making enough to start filling my freezer so that we may eat twice. This is an awesome way to save money.

Tuesday I had baked a Roast Pork Tenderloin (bought on sale of course!). As soon as I took it out of the oven the first thing in which I did was to take 1/2 and set aside so that everyone knew this was going to be for another meal. I find that my family, myself included, will get up for a second helping even though we are not really hungry, just because it just well....tastes so good! I have been adding a salad as a side dish. I will be starting to alternate and make soups to freeze as well opposed to salads as an appetizer to give a bit of varity along with homemade breads/rolls on other days.I am also going to start making deserts on a regular basis,this helps to not feel deprived.

This week so far for my freezer I have for meals at another time : pork roast tenderloin, meatballs for another meal, sweet and sour sauce, 1/2 of a homemade apple crisp.

It is a start that is for certain and I used to do this all of the time. I didn't make up a double batch of Beef Enchilada Casserole yet, I am thinking that I will do this next week.

Signing Off....

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Chocolate Chip Cookies (with a touch of Oil)

Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 lb. margarine

1/4 cup oil

3 cups brown sugar

4 eggs

1 1/2 tsp.soda

1 tsp. baking powder

12 oz. pkg. chocolate chips

1 tsp. vanilla

4 cups flour


Mix fats and sugars, thern eggs, beat well. Add rest of ingredients. Spoon or roll. Bake 8 to 10 minutes at 400 on middle rack in oven. Optional: add 2 cups oatmeal.

Recipe is from : St.Pierre Roman Catholic

St. Pierre Jolys, Man.

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Needing to Save on those $.

Well now, I have been doing dishes in a dishwasher for years now. I had always hated doing dishes by hand, I put it right up there with trying to sort out socks in the laundry basket! Well I have seen a new direction and figure if I can save almost $5 for a pack of 3 in 1 dish gels which by the way I was buying every couple of weeks, then doing dishes by hand in the sink is the way to go. It actually hasn't been too badly and instead of having dirty dishes sitting in the dishwasher until I had gotten a full load to start washing, I am finding that there are hardly dirty dishes at all. Weird I know but the key to it is to not have so many dishes lol. When we were getting our house ready to sell I packed up about 1/2 of our dishes and stored them wrapped in boxes in the shed and I guess I had better donate them or have a yard sale as they are still packed and in our shed here and I don't miss them nor want them back!

We are a family of 5 at the moment living here and I have 8 cups, 7 glasses, 8 dinner plates, 8 side plates, 8 saucers and before I do forget 6 tea cups hanging on a rack in my cupboard which were my grandmothers before she passed. This is not bad at all however as it takes no time flat to get everything washed and put away....it doesn't seem to be so overwhelming and a couple of years ago I bought the Corelle plain white dishes so the plates are very thin and it even looks like less dishes to wash lol.

Ok, now lets move on to Cable t.v. We have gone almost 2 weeks without it and I am L-O-V-I-N-G it!! It is so peaceful here. I don't want it but I am out voted in this family which I love so much so I guess all good things must come to an end. I did make a couple of phone calls regarding prices and with bell I can get the whole shabang for $71.99....this is satelite and if I remember correctly you can even pause the pictures etc (Rolling eyes here lol!). I had also called vidiotron and for a really nice package I can get digital cable for $20 taxes included......the savings? $51.99. In other words Videotron won by a long shot and each and every month I will be banking that amount of savings plus the $10 in savings for the dishwashing gel cubes at the beginning of each month for a total so far of $61.99.

Ok so on to the Food Department. I went grocery shopping the other day and bought mostly from the lost leaders in the flyers. I didn't do to badly but I still spent more than I had intended. I really need to figure out a menu for the upcoming weeks. It is way more convienent not to mention when organized it can save money. I do know that we are having a pork tenderloin roast for supper tonight with mashed potato,gravy, and veggies. The first thing I am going to do however is when I take out the roast I will take at least 1/2 and put aside for another meal and freeze it so that way I can keep track. I buy my meats a bit bigger than we will eat at one sitting so that I will have another meal on hand for another day.

Tomorrow I will be making a beef enchilada casserole....matter of fact I will be making two so that I can put one in the freezer for next month.

Well, signing off for now........

Friday, September 14, 2007

Finally Offical, We own our New To Us House!

Finally! When we sold our other house we were told and had on paper by the bank that we needed a certain amount of $ for a down payment to buy our other house to have the same exact mortgage payment as before. When we were getting ready to get our appointment with our lawyer we then found out that we actually owed $3000 more then what we would have originally needed as we didn't take into account for any extra fees taken out of the sale of the house money such as survey fees etc...Big Whoops and all I can say is that we learned from our mistake!

I thought how on earth will we come up with $3000 more on top of the $11,000 and money from the sale of our house we had already come up with which was already $19.500. With the help of our mortgage broker and some shuffling of funds we managed thank goodness!

I have been wanting to invest in real estate but by gosh, I had better get things straight right off the bat as this could have been a Huge Disaster.

We had bought an investment property (house) in my home town 3 months prior which my parents have been living in until they sell their house. I don't know how this will end up but they have not had an offer on their house in the past 3 months. Dh and I have been covering the mortgage and insurance except for Septembers payment as they paid but it is really hard on my parents and they can't afford it. They might have to move back to their old house and take it off the market. If this does happen we will be putting up the investment property for sale. We would keep covering it for them but it is very tight for us as well especially paying for two mortgages,insurances, taxes etc...in such a short period of time.We would have been "ok" for a bit if we hadn't had purchased two properties so close together.

Dh and I have been talking again about him retiring by the time he is 55 which is 10 years away. He does have a military pension which is a big help, I think that I have mentioned that before? It won't however support us at this time. The only way I can come up with and possibly make this a reality is by investing in real estate. Location is key, this I know along with being at the right place at the right time to get a good deal. I am learning as I go and keeping track of our "mistakes". So far there are quite a few.

Another idea in which I am playing around with is to maybe buy a house, do some cosmetic work, live in it for a year and then sell it for a profit and buy another house to live in for a year etc...Almost like the show "Flip this house" but instead of taking so many weeks to do it we would be doing this within a year. In Canada you do not pay capital gains on the profits from the sale of your house if it is your main principle dwelling for one year minimum. That would be a lot of moving though but I think we will consider it for this house and see how it goes, we are not totally sure of the "route" we will take as of yet.