Hopeful.

I am hopeful that this is going to be a good week.

Last week was rough and that would be putting it lightly. I was in a very poor mood and Thanksgiving sort of crept up and made it even more of an anxious week. Add on a few other personal things and wa-la! it was a recipe for disaster.

I have my first appointment with the counselor on Wednesday. I'm glad. And nervous. I hope I like her. I hope I feel at ease enough to talk through everything. I've had a lot on my mind lately and the PPD just seems to be compounding things.

Glenn sat down and balanced the pile of receipts we had for the checkbook today. I usually handle all the financial issues -- the checkbook, paying the bills, etc. He brings home the bacon and I distribute it. I think having him write everything down really gave him a better perspective on things. We have been talking a lot about financial stuff lately -- changing our expenditures, our mindset and so on -- and I really feel like we're on the same page. We have a plan for the future. Now just to implement it.

I also feel better about getting a plan into place for keeping up with chores around the house. I don't want it to be immaculate all the time, but I'd like some semblance of order. And, now that Bubby seems very ready to crawl I really want to make sure things are more tidy, kept out of his reach, etc. I have this master plan where I could clean one room a day and do one (or two) loads of laundry a day and then each week things would be taken care of. I seem to get into an all-or-nothing mindset and I don't think that's helpful at all. Little by little is how it's going to have to be.

I also think we're going to start doing some holiday things this week. I'm hoping to get out to one of the local evening events if the weather is nice. We'll have to go on Glenn's night off because my anxiety and crowds don't really mix right now (or ever). We'll probably put the tree up on Wednesday. I'm really excited about that, but, at the same time, it'll probably be an adventure with a eight-and-a-half month old who's learning to crawl.

So, we'll see how the week goes. For now, I'm hopeful that it will be a good one.

The Frugal Holidays.

Or, a more appropriate term may be, the frugal life.

It sort of snuck up on us, the realization that, once again, we really don't have a lot to spend for the holidays. I know that it isn't about giving and receiving gifts. For us, it's about spending time with family and enjoying their company. But, since we celebrate "commercial Christmas" as we like to call it, the whole gift part is pretty fun. The last two years have been tight on money. In 2008, Glenn was on the chopping block and we weren't sure he'd have a job after Christmas. In 2009, he finally got a permanent position (after getting laid off in early 2009 and, luckily, getting the last temporary position they had for laid off reps), but his income had dramatically decreased and we were trying to make it work. This year I was really looking forward to celebrating! So was Glenn.

But, right now, I'm stuck trying to figure out how we're going to stretch our dollars and have enough money for Thanksgiving dinner next week. Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays and I will figure out a way to make it work.

What I do know is we really need to figure out a new way to live financially. If you've read this blog for any amount of time, then you know we've struggled with this before. We've been talking about it a lot lately and decided a shift in thinking is required. And quickly. There's also the change in thinking of how we can make things happen that we do want (from little things like a nice dinner out to big things like remodeling the house to building our savings).

So, our current Save Money Now plan is:

• Plan meals weekly and shop once.
• No going out for dinners when we're lazy, tired, don't "feel like" what we have at home.
• Pack Glenn's lunch every day.
• Start selling things that we just have sitting around on Craigslist.
• Change how we think about income and expenditures.

The shift in thinking is the big one! The others are easy once we get in a groove. But the shift in thinking must occur for all the other stuff to stick.

I'm looking at making things for the grandparents for the holidays. Does anyone have an idea of something they're going to make as holiday gifts? Glenn doesn't like any of the ones I've had so far.

And, I'd love to hear your ideas on saving money.


How do you live frugally, both during the holidays and all year long?

Menu Plan Monday

We've been trying to plan planning our weekly meals. Every Saturday morning I go and shop for the coming week. It really helps us save some money in our food budget. Basically, eating gluten- and dairy-free has ruined our food budget. I just have to spend more money on things to actually feel like I can eat. I mean, sure, I could eat fruit sorbet but, coconut milk ice-cream is so much more expensive yummier. I've pretty much failed and the weekly shopping and menu planning the last two weeks. We've (and by we I mean Glenn) has been grabbing stuff at the store every day. I'll be honest -- I am struggling lately. Glenn has really stepped up and helped out, but I know it's too much for him. I'm trying to get better and overcome this blah I've-got-so-much-to-do-and-just-can't-seem-to-get-anywhere feeling.

A couple weeks ago, I saw my friend over at Lil' Miss Sunshine linked up to something called Menu Plan Monday at I'm an Organizing Junkie & I thought I should link up -- maybe it'll help with my motivation of actually sticking with it. Organizing is something I really need help with! I'm trying to take baby steps, but I feel like it's two steps forward and three steps back lately.

But, anyway, what was this post about? Our menu plan! It really does save us money and really helps to be able to look up at our white board and see what our options are. The way we do it is to plan seven meals, but not feel tied down to having Monday's meal on Monday. We decide the morning of. That's for Glenn -- he wanted a little more spontaneity. So, without further ado, here's our menu plan for the week...

Monday: BBQ Bratwurst, potato salad, and green salad
Tuesday: Turkey burgers (with a lettuce bun for me) with corn on the cob
Wednesday: Prawn skewers (with mushrooms & peppers) and rice
Thursday: Taco salads
Friday: La Bamba casserole (no cheese & no corn)
Saturday: "Tacos de la Daddy" (thin cut sirloin steak marinated in lime, cilantro, olive oil and sea salt in corn tortillas. Topped with radish, salsa & cheese for the dairy-eaters in the house)
Sunday: BBQ Ribs with Stubb's BBQ Sauce (now gluten-free but double check the label), baked beans, and cantaloupe

It really does save us money to plan our meals out. And makes life a little easier too.

The budget.

I've talked time and again about saving money. As I posted earlier, we decided that I would quit my gig as a milk-slinger and once again stay at home full time with the kiddos. I also stated that I was kinda nervous about this whole transition. Not that I was raking in the dough, but it was additional income and now we don't have that.

We got our tax return and paid off two credit cards. I think the remainder will go towards medical bills for the birth & some things we need to get taken care of around the house.

We're going to cancel our cable as soon as the promotion runs out. I've been making grocery lists, planning out our weekly meals and sticking to them. Although I swear I am not going to tell Glenn what I'm planning -- every week he doesn't have dinner ideas when I ask and then doesn't like the ones I come up with. This week I told him he needs to come up with some ideas!!! Hopefully it will stay warm and we can keep the heat off (although I did have to turn it on for a bit this morning). We've really been working at turning lights off when we leave the room -- Alexa is getting really good at it! We have no credit cards in our wallets so if we want to make a big purchase we have to think about it beforehand.

So, how do you save money & stick to a family budget?

I quit,

Not blogging, don't worry LOL.

Today I resumed my stint in full-time stay-at-home mommyhood. I went back to work one day a week when Beanie was 17months old. It was something that just needed to be done due to some life circumstances. My bosses were great -- I basically wrote my own schedule and I actually enjoyed working most of the time. Glenn stayed at home with Beanie while I worked.

But that one day a week is one of our family days. With Glenn working farther from home the time we get to spend together as a family is hard to come by. And now there's another kiddo in the equation.

I applied for FMLA only to find out that I didn't work enough in the last 12 months to qualify (should've done a little more research I guess, but it wouldn't have changed things because I never would've been able to work enough to qualify anyways). So the only leave I got was 8 weeks of medical leave. They wanted me back to work when 2.0 (still trying to find that nickname that sticks!!) was not even two months old. I was heartbroken at the thought of going back when he was three months old, but not even two?!?!?

After a lot of talking and number crunching and more number crunching we decided I would quit work. No surprise but I wasn't bringing home the bacon working only one day a week. It was nice additional income and when Glenn got his permanent route it became nice needed income. So we're going to pinch the pennies like there's no tomorrow so I can stay home full time once again. Truth be told, I'm a bit nervous. I know we can cut our expenses by a lot (I am amazed at how little some of my friends spend on groceries and etc) but our financial mindset has to completely change. No more I-just-don't-feel-like-cooking-let's-go-out-to-eat (but let's face it, with a toddler and a newborn that isn't exactly an easy option either). No more driving through the espresso stand. No more impulse buying at Costco. Or Trader Joes (which will really kill me!). We'll be doing lots of free events with our playgroups.

But let's face it. Everyone sacrifices whether they work or not. If you stay-at-home you sacrifice having a dual income and a different lifestyle. If you work you sacrifice being with your child all day. To be honest, I have no idea how working moms do it since I feel like I have more than enough work as a stay-at-home mom.

I'm so glad I do have this opportunity. My kiddos are only going to be this small once. I'm excited. And a little bit scared. Mostly excited.

If Money Grew on Trees....

...things would be a hell of a lot easier. *sigh*

Well, the (sort of) good news is that Glenn finally got an offer for a permanent route after all the layoffs & temp work we've dealt with this year. I encouraged him to take it. We need to know what is in our future with a kiddo on the way and knowing he has a job is BIG. The (sort of) bad news is that its not at the depot he was hoping to be at & he'll have to drive a lot farther to work, he'll be working longer hours and he'll be making less money. The less money thing we knew about because he is pretty much on an awesome route right now working with someone who is on light duty. We knew any permanent route he had wouldn't make what he was making now (they're base plus commission), but the route he's taking is a lot less than we were hoping he could get. I know he's not happy about all this. I feel like he blames me for encouraging him to take it (even before we knew all the details). I just didn't want to be sitting around ready to pop a kid out and wondering if he was going to have a job, where he was going to be working, how much he'd be making etc etc. We need to know those things and be able to plan beforehand. I do think, even with all the negatives about the route he was offered, that it is a good decision in the long run and the best for our family.

But....

I guess I probably won't be quitting my one-day-a-week gig at the grocery store anytime soon. Well, at least not before March or April. I had been hoping for a quit date more like December. We'll likely need that income as long as we can now.

I'm really going to start budgeting and watching our money. I've talked about it before, but now its a necessity. Last week I grocery shopped on Monday and had all our dinners planned out. That's my new plan. Monday = grocery shopping. We had very recently cut down to dining out only 4 times a month (I say only when for other people that is probably a TON!!). We'll try to cut down farther. I need to start making Glenn lunches again. No frivolous spending. I know we can do it, its all in our mindset.

So, yea, I went from over the moon happy that Glenn had a permanent route (even if it wasn't exaxctly what he wanted) to being a little worried about how everything is going to pan out. Add in my crazy pregnancy hormones, the fact that I freaking hate this house & its really getting to me right now for some reason, and a just general blah feeling about life and things are pretty rough.

Today is grocery day. And other somewhat interesting updates.

Well, today I'm set to go to the grocery store. I've made a list, complete with dinner ideas. Just to satisfy your voyeuristic tendencies *wink wink* (and because I'm hoping maybe you'll share some dinner ideas since it seems we always cycle through the same few dinners) here is what we're having for dinner in the coming week:

--Tacos
--Chicken Cacciatore
--Crisy chicken strip wraps
--Chicken and stovetop
--BBQ Ribs

I don't profess to be doing anything fancy here. The Chicken Cacciatore is in a jar from Trader Joe's. I'm going to fancy it up a little with celery, carrots, zuchini and yellow squash (sssh...don't tell Glenn, he shys away from cooked veggies). And chicken and stovetop? Yea, super fancy. But add some veggies and mashed potatoes and its sort of like Thanksgiving dinner. Just with chicken.

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Beanie has been doing better sleeping on her own. There have been a handful of nights where she's slept in her own room by herself until 3:30 or 4am. Yay! Most nights she rustles around and wakes around midnight. I usually end up falling asleep with her then, although I've been trying harder to stay awake and head bcck into the master. And I can actually fall asleep, usually pretty easily, in the master now. Progress.

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She is still nursing, usually just once or twice a day. Her nursing sessions are very quick, making me wonder just how long our nursing relationship is going to last. Really I'm okay if she weans right now if that's what she wants. I'm also okay with nursing before naps and bed for awhile if that's what she wants. We'll see. I'm sort of taking it day by day right now. Yesterday she didn't want to nurse before her nap, just fell asleep. The same thing happens at night sometimes too. She's been horrible with her latch and a bit chompy (molars maybe?) so I've been cutting her off at night sort of. It takes her longer to fall asleep that way, but I told her she can only nurse if she's going to nurse, not if she just wants to play. She seems to understand. Sort of.

Okay, that's all for now! I've felt like with this whole blog-a-day thing that I haven't really been writing about any Beanie stuff, so I wanted to make sure I actually blogged about some parental stuff too :)

So you know the whole saving money thing??

Yea, didn't go so well last month! We only spent 20 bucks less on groceries (so still an ungodly amount) and spent waaaay too much eating out again too. Admittedly I wasn't really trying at all, so I'm not too disappointed. We did make great strides in saving money on espresso though, we went from spending over 100 bucks to spending less than 40. Woot! Woot!

Our plan for July is to go grocery shopping once a week and to have a list & a plan for dinners when we go. Also, we are only allowing ourselves to go out to eat 4x this month. And everything counts. Like if we want to drive down the hill to DQ for a burger that is one of our dining out times. So far so good on that front. We went out once for breakfast. But we went out with brother-in-law and his girlfriend so it was well worth it. And planned. Not just an on-a-whim-I-don't-feel-like-cooking going out to eat.

The month is halfway over...

...well more than halfway now, but I added up our spending on groceries for the first 15 days of June. I was all jazzed to see the total because we haven't been going to the store every day, have been eating more of what we already had at home, etc etc. Well, I was jazzed until I saw the total. Over $450??!?!?! What the heck! Here I was feeling like we were doing great and we've been bleeding money on the groceries. Sure, I know our fridge went out so we had to restock. The first 15 days also included not one, but two, trips to Costco where we stocked up on things that we will likely (hopefully) use longer than just this month. That's how Costco works, right? At least when you're a family of 3? The first 15 days also included 2 trips to Trader Joes, a store which I love to death, but, let's face it, its impulse shopping central.

So, yea, I about crapped myself when I added it up. Darnit!

$706.69

That's how much we spent on groceries last month. You don't even have to tell me how ridiculous that it because I already know. Sure I take into account that we were moving, flip-flopping back and forth between two houses and had a fridge go out, but STILL!! Over seven hundred bucks for 2 adults and a toddler (who I should mention doesn't really eat that much to begin with). Then add in that we spent almost $500 going out to eat and over $100 getting coffee (add in pastries, sandwiches, whatever) and I almost had a heart attack. And don't forget that I have a fancy pants espresso machine that just needs to be cleaned and a husband that can make a mocha that kicks Starbucks behind any day. Yea. Ridiculous!

So, my goal for June is to cut our grocery bill 1/3 (we'll start there, especially since we need to restock the stupid fridge again). To cut our espresso bill by 2/3. And the eating out thing just has to stop! It needs to be a treat, not something for every day. Or when we don't feel like cooking (almost every day *wink*).

We ended up not getting a new fridge and having a repairman come out and fix the one we have. Saved a lot of money there. Once the temp gets regulated (its taking some tinkering with) then I'll head out to the store and stock up on some good food (we're trying to eat healthier too...and why is it that healthy food costs so much more than crappy processed food???).

So, wish me luck! And share some money saving tips. I really liked the idea from Sandy on this post of planning out our meals. I don't know how you planned for all summer already Sandy, but I think I'll start with planning for a week :)