My Birthday Weekend

Turning 34 wasn't so bad afterall! Saturday turned out to be one very busy but very Blessed Day! First, Caleb played in his first flag-football game. His team won and he was awarded the "Best Defense" star for his belt. Next, the girls were at a birthday party where they got to spend the night at a lake house that is built directly over the water. They swam, fished, and boated all morning while we were sweating it out at the football game.

From there we went to a lunch hosted by my mom and her "friend" Robert. We enjoyed some homemade and everything made from scratch fried chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans, coleslaw, and my favorite chocolate cake with chocolate icing. YUMMY! But the best part was that Robert asked us (the entire rest of our family-grandparents, sisters, kids, etc.) if he would have our permission to marry our mom. How Sweet! Of course, we gladly said "yes" and we will be busy planning a special intimate ceremony for sometime in 2009.

After lunch and some great conversation we headed out to an Orchestra performance that my hubby Chris and my mom's now fiance' Robert performed in with over 90 other members from church orchestras from across the First Coast of Florida. Robert plays the viola and Chris the trumpet. It was directed by famed church orchestra leader and musician Camp Kirkland. It was a very stirring worship ceremony and I was totally overwhelmed with the Love of My Savior. My kids asked why I was crying and it was beautiful to explain. Can you imagine heaven's orchestra? Oh, what a wonderful time it is going to be!!!

After the performance we headed to Applebee's, one of my favorite restaurants. I enjoyed the quesadilla burger and the kids all got the $1 kids meal deals. Dinner for 6 under $35 including tip. Loved it!

I loved seeing all of my family on my birthday and spending time in such a special way with my husband and kids. Now back to reality and Mt. Laundryneverendsaroundhere! Hope you all had a great weekend too!

Daily Frugal Musings

There was nothing frugal about today. Sigh.
We had to go to the doctor. Baby has an ear infection and I have a sinus infection. Cost of appointments and prescripts: $85
All 3 older kids ate lunch in the cafeteria instead of taking lunches and that was $6.25.
I put $50 in gas into my car today.
Hubby paid for annual subscription to his online gradebook program $50
Supper will consist of leftover chili, rice, and toppings. At least that won't cost money!

Electricity Report:
Our electric bill came in at $238. Our August electric bill is always the highest for the year and this year was no exception. I am looking forward to some cooler weather but this being Florida that may not happen for awhile. I am so jealous of everyone who has already turned off the AC for the Fall!

Sadly I came home from our dr. appointments to discover that my oldest daughter had left the bathroom lights on all day! Grrr!
I am really taking a look at all of the "phantom" electricity users around the house. These are items that are plugged in, drawing a little electicity, all the time even when the item is not in use. My goal this week is to see what falls under this category and get them unplugged.

Directv:
I called customer service a few weeks ago to see if they would once again lower our rates, threatening to leave them for DISH. They easily gave me $10 off my bill for the next 12 months, a $50 credit on my next bill for HD DVR service that I have been paying for but should have been included in my package, and 3 months free of all the movie channels they offer. Our new bill looks a lot better!

Home Phone:
The same week I called Directv, I called Embarq, our phone service provider. I dropped voice mail (because ya'll know I never checked it!), and dropped to what is called the Home Simple Plan for $19.99 per month that only includes a dial tone and caller ID, dropped all long distance. Our internet is through them but remains $24.99 even with the drop in service plans. Yeah! So my new bill arrived today and instead of $84 it is now only $48. Yippee! And I've not missed anything I dropped.

Other stuff:
I cancelled a small universal life insurance policy that I had through my school board that I didn't even know I had. I signed up for it back in 2003 they said. It was $9.49 out of my paycheck twice a month but I thought it was for regular term-life. Nope. It was universal life which I don't need or want. Yuck! I can't believe I had that for 5 years! What a waste.

Everything that had to be repaired in the house from the summer fire is officially complete! Yes! Now maybe life can get back to normal. If normal ever exists around here!

My good friend Donna O. sent me some great coupons in the mail. Thanks Donna! Those formula checks are so great! The formula baby uses is now on clearance at Winn-Dixie so I ended up paying only $.50 total for 2 canisters of formula. What a blessing!

How's your week going? Anything wonderfully frugal or even mundanely frugal you can report?

Hubby is Home. Time for a New Budget

We received the last our my husband's paychecks from UPS this week and now we are headed toward major budget adjustments. But, I'm kinda excited. This gives me a whole recommitment to a frugal living lifestyle. I'm breaking out my hand "Tightwad Gazette" for some inspiration and looking over our budget with a fine-tooth comb.

In my quest to get frugal and at the same time replace items in my kitchen and living areas that were fire damaged, prep and plan for the holidays, and pay for my kids' extra-curricular activities I've decided to return to my "Gazelle Intensity" daily posts. I will be posting to keep myself accountable and to see where my money is going.

Look for posts to begin this week as I track my spending, adjust our budget, and get gazelle intense on a smaller paycheck.

When It Rains, It Pours, literally!

We have survived TS Fay, although it is still rainy and dreary. So far we've had 13 inches of rain. We lost our electricity yesterday about 2:30 pm and were out until 9 am this morning. We made it through just 5 hours of no-electricity before bundling up and heading for a friend's house for the night. She was such a gracious host, feeding me homemade potato soup and letting me curl up with a good book which I'm now reading with a furious fever to find out what happens next. It is "Twilight" and I must have been under a rock for the past year or so to have never heard of it! It is excellent. As a return of hospitality I'm making her a pan of "Not Your Mama's Banana Pudding".

I have put away all of the flashlights, candles, matches, spaghetti-o's, shelf-stable milk, etc. It would be way too easy to let the kids just gobble this stuff up and not cook for the rest of the weekend but that wouldn't be frugal, now would it? And we need to be prepared for the next one.

It was great to see our neighbors out and about this morning as we celebrated the Electric Company riding in to repair our snapped power poles. We had at least 3 major trees down on our little dead-end road and that is what caused the power outage. Everyone lent a hand to those with the most debris to remove and we are now all quiet in the neighborhood once again.

Thanks to all of you who emailed me to make sure we were doing well. I hope all of my Florida friends fared well through the storm.

I Do Not Heart Hurricanes!

After days of watching tropical storm Fay defy the odds and do absolutely nothing that the forecasters predicted, it looks like it will finally take its toll on my area tonight and all day Thursday. I was on guard, then off, then off, and now on again!!! We are stocked to the hilt with easy to eat foods (read: costs a lot of $$$), collected water in every container possible, removed everything from the yard that might could become a projectile (I hope my neighbors did the same), and put out all of the flashlights, glowsticks, candles and crank-style radio.



The kids have blown up their ready beds and we will be camping out together in the living room. I fully expect to lose power because well, we usually do so we made sure all of the cell phones are charged and the board games are ready. School is cancelled for Thursday and not probable for Friday.

Here's a current map of the projected storm track:

Do you see that black line between that connects the D and the first S? I live at the bottom of that triangular shaped county right above the line. The news says to expect tropical storm force winds for approximately 20 hours with at least 36 hours of continuous rain. YUCK!!!
Here's hoping you are all safe and sound,

Total Exhaustion and Preparing for a Hurricane

Sorry for the lack of posting over the last several days. Needless to say I am back at work and it has been a exhausting time trying to set up my new classroom, learning a new curriculum, arranging kid-sitting, shopping for forgotten school items, and now we are preparing for the possibility of a Hurricane Fay. NOT FUN!!!! So, I hope to be able to post sometime this week. And if the Hurricane comes my way I will try to let you know how we are doing through it all. Either way with the first day of school tomorrow, a new daycare routine, a new middle school routine for Christin, a new dance schedule for both girls, and flag football for Caleb it is going to be one rough adjustment for all of us. But the best news is that DADDY will be home! This is his last week at UPS. Please keep us all in your thought and prayers,

BIG changes in our home!

My dear husband and I had some time last weekend to reflect on our finances, our family, our hopes, our goals, our needs, our deepest desires and we have decided with much thought and prayer that he should quit his 2nd job at UPS. He has been there 2 years this week and it has been a tremendous support for us to get on track financially and pay off debt. UPS is a great company to work for and we don't regret his two years there but. . . . we need to have daddy home.

Here are our thoughts:
1. Our kids are just growing up too fast and time is so precious. Daddy has had to miss some very important school and church-related events and activities due to having to work at night at UPS. Emotionally I need daddy home too. It is overwhelming at times to work all day and come home and have 4 kids to care for by myself. All of us are missing out while daddy is working.

2. Much of our debt is paid. While the chart on this page shows just less that 30% paid off that was only the amount of debt we had at the beginning of this year. In actuality we have paid off closer to 80% of our consumer debt that we were carrying 3 years ago. We can still make our 2009 goal of being debt free except the house if we continue to live frugally on just our teacher's salaries. The UPS job was never designed to be long-term. It was a short-term solution to getting our debts paid. It has worked for that and while we are not there yet, the time that he has spent being apart from us, the wear and tear on his body, and the stress that only getting a little rest gives has become more and more burdensome. Now it is more burdensome than the debt.

3. It was creating a lifestyle issue that we don't want to continue. We have been lax at actually taking the entire pay from UPS and paying toward debt for a few months. We do not want to create a lifestyle that we can only have by us working ourselves 24/7. We will get back to our very thrifty, frugal ways without that extra cushion and I think the debt will be paid off even faster because of the urgency it will give us.

4. We originally only wanted the UPS job to pay off all the credit cards and one student loan. We still have $2712 left on the student loan but God is so good and blesses us beyond measure. We found out yesterday that our new school year will mean that we will get our first paycheck on August 15th instead of August 31st. Our school system likes to keep us guessing when we will actually get our first check. Last year they shorted us a pay period by changing to August 31st; this year they are essentially giving us an extra paycheck in 2008 by paying us on August 15th. These paychecks will equal the exact amount of the $2712 left to pay on the student loan and we have no bills or needs that require this paycheck! I know that it is not a coincidence and it was actually a confirmation to us that God indeed does want my husband to quit his job at UPS.

So celebrate with us as Daddy quits his UPS job officially on August 21st!!!

Bake Sale Today

The girls and I are headed to Wal-Mart to have a bake sale/car wash to raise money for their competition dance team. Last night we made lemon sugar cookies, chocolate chip cookies, peanut butter and jam cookies, brownies, and cupcakes. The great thing about having it at Wal-Mart is that they will match dollar for dollar how ever much we raise today! I am hoping that we raise enough to pay for the annual registration fees and possibly the first month's dance fees. If we can make that much it will surely be a blessing!

My Oldest turned 11 today

My daughter, Christin, turned 11 today! Happy Birthday sweetie! While the middle two kids went with dad to see "Wall-E" at the Wednesday morning movie, Christin, the baby and I headed to Gainesville for a birthday outing.

She picked out a new outfit for summer (can't wear to school) and bought some bath goodies at the Bath and Body Works Clearance Sale. We enjoyed lunch together, then had the baby's pictures made, and finally I took her to see her friend at the Ronald McDonald house. This is the friend that I asked prayers for last week. We spent an hour with her and her mom. The girls had a good time chatting. We hope that her treatment continues to go well and she can come home soon.

On Friday we will have Birthday Cake and celebrate Christin's birthday along with the birth of our country with our family.

Did you know that the founding fathers mostly signed the Declaration on July 2nd and Thomas Jefferson thought that today would be the day our country celebrated Independence? I also almost chose the name Liberty for Christin but decided against it, well her daddy decided against it. Then we almost went with Madison (as in James Madison) but finally settled on Christin. Because with Christ "in" her life she will always know the best kind of freedom.

Whew, 24 hours without computer is a longggggg time!

Yesterday we had a little accident with the laptop. It accidentally got doused with a cup of melted ice. Zappp! It was out. And no one told me until 3 hours later. And I sat down and cried like a baby. Seriously I cried. Then I got to work with the handy-dandy hair dryer. I sat and dried out the computer like I was giving CPR to a good friend. Then we held hands and said a prayer and the computer turned on. Then it went off. We tried again an hour later. It came on and stayed on for about 2 minutes then went off. An hour after that, it came on, stayed on but the mouse would not work. So, 24 hours later, it is working again! Yippee! PTL! I just don't think I could take any bad news, even if it is just a computer.

It is really amazing what you can accomplish in a day without Internet distractions.

*This morning I did two homeschool evaluations for a 6th grader and an 11th grader. They have done some awesome work this year! I earned $50 for those.

*Then I made homemade baby food for Camryn. I hope to be able to make most of her food now that she is entering the world of purees.

*I then decorated the back porch for the 4th of July. I'm a totally red, white, and blue girl and love to decorate with my patriotic stuff. Unfortunately the only room in the house that is able to be decorated is the back porch. Everything else is getting ready for new paint.

*My son and I began cleaning his room. We are painting it this weekend. It is the only room in the house that has never been painted since we moved in 3.5 years ago. He is getting a racecar themed room. All for under $200, I hope.

*I cooked on our new stove. (Heart)

*And I tackled Mt. laundryneverends. It is all done and put away. Until 1 hour from now when all the laundry baskets will be filled again with dirty stuff.

*I am finally feeling what it is like to have a "large" family. My kids are getting older and eating more, doing more, needing more, begging for more, going more places, and generally costing more. I wouldn't trade it for anything!

A Day in the Frugal Life

I'm trying really hard to have a frugal day today. Because life has been going way to fast, things have been crazy, things have been hard, and I just want a day without fuss, money, or difficulty. I am hoping that this is the day!



What I've done so far:

7:00 am- I'm up and taking a shower. The lights are off in the shower room because there is a lot of natural light. I washed my hair with bought on sale, with a coupon Dove Shampoo and Conditioner. I actually shaved my legs (isn't it a blessing when you actually get to shave your legs because no kids are screaming that they need you) with a razor I got free in the mail, using cheap-o hair conditioner bought at the Dollar General. By the way, why do they call it the Dollar "general". Is it because things used to be generally a dollar there because it isn't true anymore. It should be called the Mostly Under Five Bucks Store.



7:20- Ten minutes of prayer time. Easily could have been so much more today but the baby started crying.



7:25- Time to feed the baby. Breast is best and free! I dress her in a onesie that was given to us and a Pamper's Diaper that was practically free from CVS. I heart CVS!



7:45- Get the older kids up and get them ready for VBS. Today's the last day. My dear husband is outside putting mulch around some flower beds. He bought the mulch on sale with a $10 off coupon at Lowe's. I get dressed. I'm wearing a t-shirt I got free from a conference and shorts that are so old that I have no idea where they came from.



8:30- Kids eat breakfast. Just keeping it real because they are all having frozen Go-Gurts.

We bought those yesterday as part of the Winn-Dixie deal. They then brush their teeth with free toothbrushes, free toothpaste, and swish with Free Listerine Smart Rinse.



8:50- I eat breakfast. Today it is oatmeal and toast. The bread was free with a Sara Lee coupon and the oatmeal was from my stockpile of oatmeal that I bought in January.

My dear husband drives the kids to VBS which is about 5 miles from our house. He drops off a prescription at CVS on the way with a $25 gift card free coupon for transferring the Rx.

9:00- Put the first load from Mt. laundryneverendsaroundhere into the washer. It's an all cold water wash with half the recommended Purex detergent that I bought with a coupon when it was BOGO at Walgreens. They will get two final spin cycles to get out as much water as possible before going into the dryer.

9:10- Baby Camryn is tired of playing on the floor so she sits with me for a few minutes at the computer. We talk about letters and numbers and pull up the bank account. Now for a few minutes at Starfall.com (It's a free sight for little ones). Into the swing that was the given to us she goes. Time to eat her toys.

9:15- House is quiet and I start blogging. Wait, I forgot to check the AC temp. I have to make sure none of the little kids or the big daddy kid messed with it without my knowledge. Nope, it is still set at 78 degrees. Back to blogging. . . .

I'll be back later to update my frugal day! Hope yours is frugal as well.

Could You Survive in Poverty?

I attended a workshop this week on "Understanding Poverty" and how it affects the learning of our poorest students. It was a great workshop, where I actually learned some things that I can apply in my classroom. But I thought I would share with you 3 quizzes that we had to take to see if we could survive in poverty, the working class, or wealth. The first quiz is on poverty.

Here are some of the questions to see if you could survive in poverty:

1. I know where to go in town to buy from the best yard sales.
2. I know where dumpsters are that I can access to get thrown-away food.
3. I know how to make bail.
4. I can physically defend myself.
5. I can keep my clothes from being stolen at the laundromat.
6. I can buy a problem-free used car.
7. I don't have to have a bank account to survive.
8. I can live without electricity or a phone.
9. I can use a knife as scissors.
10. I know what to do when there isn't enough money to pay all of the bills.
11. I can move in half a day if needed.
12. I know how to apply for government assistance.
13. I know how to barter, trade, and make a deal.

I answered "yes" to numbers 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, and 13. Some of these are just part of being extremely frugal, I think. So I guess I could probably survive in poverty. Although I hope I never have to do so. I really don't get #9! Why would you need to use a knife as scissors??

So, could you survive in poverty? Which ones are your "yes" answers?

Fire and Life Update

I apologize for the lack of posting lately. Last week was a whirlwind to say the least. The cleaning team was here everyday last week for 5 to 6 hours per day. It was great but kinda weird to have them here cleaning my house while I watched the Price is Right on the couch with the kids. Do your kids love TPIR? On the days we watch, we each pick a contestant and pretend to win everything they do. Whichever one of us wins the most gets to pick lunch for the day. Kinda silly but its a great hour just to chill together and it gets them out of the hot sun during the late morning hours.

Back to last week, the girls had dance practice for 5 hours on Monday and Wednesday in preparations for Applause Nationals which was Friday, Saturday, and Sunday in Jacksonville. Caleb went to a local VBS with friends. All of us spent the weekend nights in Jacksonville since the girls had to be completely dressed and ready each morning at 8 am. We had a great stay at the Omni and it was nice to be out of our house and not have to look at the destroyed microwave. It is very creepy. The girls and their dance teams were awesome and took home tons of trophies and great memories.

Tomorrow I am faxing off the last of the papers to the insurance company so hopefully everything will continue to move along quickly. This week is our church's VBS week and Tuesday and Wednesday I will be attending an "Understanding Poverty" workshop for teachers offered by our Title 1 department. It looks like it will be very interesting.

I can't believe it is already the last full week of June! Where did the time go?
How's summer going for you?

Thoughts on Parenting

My oldest daughter, Christin, is becoming a pre-teen and with that comes all the gloriousness of acting like a teenager. And she's still 10! She will be starting middle school in the Fall (Be still my heart) and will have some choices about which electives she takes. Her dad and I have both encouraged her gently over the past few months to sign up for beginning band. Well, she wasn't having any of that. Both her dad and I were in the band and have such a great time. Plus, learning music helps with math, an area she could use some improvement in. So, two weeks ago she finally told me to "forget about it". There was no way she was joining band.

Skip forward to yesterday when, I, as a 5th grade teacher had to turn in the list of students who would be taking band. When she discovered that not one, not two, but 3 of her good friends had signed up she wanted to sign up to. It figures. So good-bye to the days are being important. At least for awhile. I still love you, kiddo!

Rolling with the Punches

Just trying to keep it real here at TFM and let you know that I screwed up my checking account BIG time! This morning at work I got a phone call from my husband. His voice was very serious and he said, "Umm, have you looked at our bank account today?" My answer was "No. Why?" Now you must understand that prior to Dave Ramsey I would have been scared to answer my husband. Because sadly I frequently screwed things up by making impulse buys and thinking that credit was free money. But today I had no worries. I knew we were on the plan. The plan is working and we know where our money is going. Well. . . .

Unfortunately $1500 went to our Ford Credit Account today. That's 3 months of car payments, not to mention that we had already made our May payment last Thursday. So that's $2000 to Ford within a week. Needless to say, I had indeed screwed up. BIG!!

What happened is kind of complicated but in a nutshell I had scheduled this $1500 payment through our online bill pay. See, as teachers we will each get 5 paychecks in June. That means 10 paychecks for our household but we won't get paid again until August 31st. We pre-pay all of our recurring bills in June so we don't have to worry about overspending and running out of money, which we have done before.

I had neglected to change the date to pay Ford and it was auto scheduled for today. No taking it back now. It's a done deal. So today I've been scrambling to cover everything but we are still short. I ended up transferring just enough money from our ING account but it won't show up until Wednesday. I also got a $10 check from Clickbank and a $60 check from Commission Junction. Those will go to the bank tomorrow.

So, there's my screw up. But hey, I now have less debt.

Pictures of Camryn

That is a preemie size onesie!

Big sister Christin with Camryn

Big brother Caleb with Camryn

Big sister Ciarra with Camryn

All of my beautiful blessings together! Aren't they precious?

Camryn Elisabeth is here!!!

Our little miracle baby made a grand entrance into the world Saturday night, January 19th at 10:01 pm. She was barely 37 weeks but considered full-term. My water broke right around 6:15 pm, went to the hospital and progressed very quickly. My husband, mom, and two sisters witnessed her incredibly easy birth and our other 3 kids quickly came in to the room to see the baby. I was released late yesterday afternoon and haven't unpacked the bags yet. When I find the camera I will post pictures of the tiny one in pink.

She truly is a miracle! After she was delivered the doctor discovered that she had a "true knot" in her umbilical cord which was cutting off her blood and nutrition supply. Only 25% of babies with a true knot of this magnitude survive in the womb and another 15% die during delivery. We are so blessed that she came early because she may not have made it much longer with the knot. God truly watched over her and I know He will continue to do so! She weighed only 5 pounds, 6 ounces and is 18 inches long. The preemie clothes are too big!

Thank you all for your prayers and well wishes! And I will post the pictures later today.

Angie

Getting Ready for Thanksgiving

My family and I are home for the week since our school system gives us the entire week of for Thanksgiving. What are we doing this week? We are going to be really busy!

Monday-Caleb and Christin are going with dad to their dental appointment, I have an ob. appointment in a different city @ 1 and will register with the hospital today. I will take Ciarra with me and hit a few stores. I am now 28.5 weeks pregnant! Only a few more weeks to go!

Tuesday- Christin is having a root canal @ 8:00 am. I will take her and if she is feeling okay we will head to SuperTarget for a few deals.

Wednesday- Clean the house day and get ready for our extended family to come over for Thanksgiving.

Thursday- Celebrate Thanksgiving and all God has blessed us with. Hit CVS for their 3-day sale. I will post deals for this later today. Get your coupons ready, there are some great "free after ECB" deals.

Friday- I am heading to Wal-Mart to get the trampoline that will be on sale. It is a 13' with enclosure for $194. This will be the kids' big gift. I was excited to see that it is on sale. I had priced everything before and had estimated $350. A great savings!