Future Musician?

I think so...

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Overheard

Overheard while working from home this morning:

[Banging on door]

Evelyn: Dada!! Dada! What are you doing?

Jon: Daddy's going potty...hold on.

[Twisting door handle. More banging.]

Evelyn: DADA! Come out!

Jon: Hold on. Daddy's in the bathroom.

Evelyn: Daddy's hiding? Peek-a-boo! Daddy's hiding!

Jon: Yes, daddy's hiding.


That kid can make a game out of anything.

*****************

Overheard in the car:

Evelyn: Howwwwwwlllll! Ow-ow-howwwwllll!

Jon: Is that a howl dog? (A character in one of Ev's books)

Evelyn: No. It's a coyote.

Jon: Oh.

Perfect Fall

From Drop Box

Pumpking carving and pumpkin baking

'Tis the season for all things merry and pumpkin! Pumpkin bread, pumpkin waffles, pumpkin gnocchi, pumpkin ravioli, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin soup, pumpkin pie, pumpkin ice cream and, well, anything else you can put pumpkin in. I love it all.

This weekend we made chocolate chip pumpkin bread before carving our two giant pumpkins. I'll have to get pictures later since Jon forgot to bring his cameras home this weekend. Here is a picture! Evelyn was pretty interested in the pumpkin carving, but wanted them to have "happy faces" and wouldn't touch the seeds or insides. I made my pumpkin to indeed have a happy face, but with three eyes, thus making it a happy face MONSTER pumpkin, which is just about the best thing ever. We made a little happy face on a tiny pumpkin for Evelyn (the very pumpkin she had been carrying around a taking to bed with her...did I post about that?), and she was thrilled. She was equally thrilled with the trip to Michaels for candles and the whole matches-fire-danger element of lighting the pumpkins. She tried to carry her little one into the house, flame and all, to show her daddy. Such a sweet little danger-loving girl.

Grocery shopping was a bit different this week since we had a much smaller budget as I tried to do a Pantry Clean Out week. Much raiding of the CSA vegetable box and deep freeze (what? we have a duck in here?) helped us realize that we have plenty of food. And excluding beverages (sodas, milk, etc.) and halloween candy, we spent only $18 on food. And although I didn't have any coupons this week (shocking!), I still saved 40% by buying things on sale.

Jon made a stellar roasted tomato soup last night, and I can't wait to enjoy it in my lunch today.
Tonight is pork chops with apple compote.
Tomorrow is crock-pot chicken ($.99/lb!) with roasted potatoes and carrots.
Wednesday is fajitas with skirt steak (organic, only $3.99/lb, but I only got half a pound) and leftover pork chops. Also, Jon is making chicken stock from Tuesday's chicken carcass.
Thursday is pork fried rice.
Friday is leftovers day (and home-made kettle corn day).
Saturday is TBD day (probably with defrosted chicken or ground beef. Ooh, maybe bacon cheeseburger day! Or taco night!)
And Sunday is Roasted Duck day.

And that's how you raid your pantry to only spend $18 on food.

Ups and downs

Jon is home with a sore throat that causes him to squeak instead of speak. It is a little funny, hearing the tiny squeaky sounds come out of his mouth, but only a little. Jon hardly ever stays home from work, which he is doing today, so I know it is bad. I hope a good day of rest and orange juice will help him bounce back quickly.

I also hope (a lot) that Evelyn doesn't get whatever Jon has. They were together all day yesterday, playing and talking and sharing communal air space. Please, gods of tddler illness, do not set your gaze on my child.

Also, this week with the budgets was a little harder. Birthdays and illness and charity purchases and christmas gifts. I am realizing that spending money is a little like eating sugar. The more you do it, the more you want to keep doing it, and doing it and doing it. So when I am in austere money-saving mode, it is easy to stay there (or, similarly, when I am not eating refined sugars and carbs, it is easy to stay away from them). But once that line is crossed, wherever the line may be, it is hard to jump back to the other side.

Perhaps that speaks to my personality. Not a positive pesronality trait, for sure. Maybe recognition is the first step toward improvement?

But for now I am going to lunch, spending $6 over budget on this last day of our fiscal week, because I brought chili in my lunch bag, but I just can't eat it. I had it for dinner on Tuesday and lunch on Wednesday, and let's just say intestinal discomfort reigned for the next 18 hours. Not up for that again.

Pride

Look at that beautiful family. Evelyn....what can I say? She is ridiculously photogenic. I am less so, but that's just the way things go. Jon is good in a picture. But Evelyn, she steals the lens. I wish I could post more pictures from this shoot. There are some really good ones of my sisters and nieces all together, but I don't want to post pictures of other people's kids without permission. So just imagine five little girls, ages 2 to 9, being adorable.

Did you know Christmas is only nine weeks away? Cool. Jon and I created our Christmas spending budget last week and decided to spread the gift-buying out over the next three months instead of all in December. It is still early, but I think we made a reasonable budget for ourselves.We already went over on our Christmas cards, though. I love http://www.minted.com/ so much, and we got a discount in the mail, that we decided to splurge just a little. Our cards will be awesome. :)

Yesterday I saved 42% at the grocery store with sales and coupons. I even gave my office friend two coupons for Pampers, because I know she uses them for her baby, and Jon's friend a coupon for Challenge butter, because I know he likes that fancy-pants brand. I may be couponing fiend. And, I may love it.

When I used to shop at the grocery store I would usually have some sort of list, often written down, but no budget, no sense of what was on sale, no specific meal plan for the week, no idea what things I would pick up that weren't on the list. I would look at unit costs for the things I did want to buy, and usually get a less expensive version (but rarely generic). I would pick up things that I stumbled upon that happened to be on sale, if I thought I would use them. I might stock up on chicken breasts and Diet Coke, but that was it. At the register I would be surprised by the total, not knowing how much the food in my cart would cost, and I would get excited when I got above 10% or 15% savings on my receipt. I remember one time I saved 20% using sales and I thought it was some sort of miracle. The fact that I can actually remember that moment is indicative of its rareness.

But now I am shooting for 50% savings using sales and coupons. I haven't hit it yet, but I am going to someday. I am looking at the sales before I make my weekly meal plan. I am going to the store with a firm list, and a calculator, so there are no surprises at the register. I am searching the web and newspapers for coupons for every single item on my list. And what does it all mean? I have stayed within my grocery budget every week this month with room to spare, there are plenty of groceries in my freezer and pantry, and we are getting some financial breathing room. Definitely worth the extra 45 minutes it takes to organize all of this each week. (And I haven't even become a real "hard core" couponer yet, with shopping at different stores and keeping a price book and knowing everything!)

I know this is probably boring to read. I just get really excited when I know I am doing the right thing for my family. It is like I have taken on a second job, one that pays really well considering the amount of time I spend on it, and one that will keep on giving as I teach Evelyn sound financial skills (instead of the spend-what-you-want way I was modeling behavior before). In October, I have saved my family more than $800 by: 1) creating a household budget and working with Jon to stick to it, 2) creating financial goals with Jon and figuring out how to reach them, 3) spending wisely when necessary (including very very rarely paying full price for anything), and 4) not spending nearly as much--period.

I like it.

David Bowie says "Money"

Budget so far this week is looking good, although the things we can't do anything about, like household expenses and car expenses, are kind of kicking our butts. Things like blowing out the sprinklers and getting an emissions test and new tags for the car (one car this month, one car next month) -- you know those thing that come up once a year and aren't a huge expense but still throw you for a loop. Oh and that whole pesky Christmas thing coming up. Yeah, we are planning our Christmas budget tonight, I think. It will be slim, but the holidays aren't about lavish presents so much as thoughtful presents, and that is what we are going for.

But I was able to spend only $69 at the grocery store this weekend, saving 37% using sales and coupons. I was even able to stockpile a few items (like dish soap and apple juice) that were super mega on sale. I think I might do one of those "pantry cleanout" weeks next week and see how many meals I can get out of the food just sitting on the shelves. I suppose that means I'll have to clean out said pantry, but it is in dire need of some organizing anyway.

Last week I thought we saved about 15% of our weekly "variable spending" budget, but actually it was just over 25%...a big savings! This week we have about double our retail and miscellaneous budgets because we didn't use any last week. Those are good ones to save up, since I need to get Evelyn some long-sleeved shirts for fall and maybe a sweater or two. And I need a bra like woah. We have a winter coat that was Aunt Rosie's when she was a girl. It is a crazy Chinese brocade silk-like material, almost down the the floor, but it will work. Plus, totally cute.

I am really digging this whole budgeting thing, oddly. Last week I wondered what I would have purchased if I hadn't been thinking about it, and how silly it would have been because I clearly didn't need it. We did just fine cooking our meals, packing our lunches, going to the park instead of the mall, and eating ice cream in the backyard instead of a Dairy Queen.

Week 1: Budget Confession

Week one of our budget diet is coming to a close, and I am happy to say that it went very well. I have no plans to spend any money tonight (except perhaps one orange to add fragrance to a plum-apple pie when I get home), and so I can say with relative certainty that we stayed within our budget 100% and even had a little leftover. Wowza.

Highs:

• Using coupons and sales, I was able to save 44% at the grocery store. I stayed under the $100 budget, and really bought enough staple and protein items to last two weeks. Next week should be a relatively small shopping trip with perishibles and a few higher-ticket items like bath tissue and the like. I think if I really tried, I could get away with $50 budget most weeks. But that is a challenge for another time.
• I didn't go shopping for any "miscellaneous" stuff. At all. No quick trips to Target to get one thing and then ending up with $85 worth of crap. No running to the grocery store because I forgot that jar of pasta sauce or that head of cabbage. Nothing was purchased that wasn't thought-out ahead of time and planned for.
• I really thought about every dollar, and therefore didn't want to spend them on stupid, temporary things.
• We kicked ass using coupons, not just for groceries, but also for meals away from home and other things we needed.
• I didn't eat out for lunch a single time this week. We only ate out as a family once, and I got one bagel this morning (with a coupon!) -- a VAST improvement.
• There is money LEFT OVER in the miscellaneous, retail, and restaurants jars. Maybe $25 total. That is about 15% of our weekly budget. We will put that into our "Christmas Tree" mini-savings fund.

Lows:

• Apparently unskilled in the world of cash transactions, I completely lost the $8 in change I received at the grocery store on Sunday. Or maybe the teller never handed it to me. Or maybe I left it in the cart. Whatever the case, I lost $8. And I felt like an idiot.
• We decided to get lunch on our way to the pumpkin patch on Sunday, but we overbought in drinks. Could have gotten two drinks, or smaller drinks, and been just fine.
• I impulse-purchased a bag of potato chips at the gas station. Still within the budget, but totally unnecessary.
• I'm still getting used to the whole "cash only" mentality. Also, planning ahead. Preparing lunches. Cooking dinner every night. Those last two things create a lot more dishes to clean, which causes a lot more annoyance between Jon and I. We just need a better system.

All in all, I'm happy to say things went well. And there is money in our checking account! Plenty! Just waiting to pay off bills!

Here's to a new mentality. Cheers!

Pumpkin Picking

Each year, Jon and I load Evelyn into the car for a trip to our favorite pumpkin patch. This is year three of the tradition, and I don't see any end in sight. It is such fun! This year was even better since the weather was GORGEOUS (bordering on too warm!), the farm set up bouncy castles and inflatable slides for the kids (which we got to do for FREE, since a nice mom gave us her extra tickets on her way out), Evelyn was old enough to really like all the activities, and we got some amazingly humongous pumpkins by going so early in the season. Picking our own pumpkins, as well as cutting down our own Christmas tree, is something I look forward to every year.

Evelyn wore her red cowboy boots (natch), and since the weather was so warm, she also rocked the yellow gingham dress that makes her look straight off the farm. She was really interested in sitting on and climbing over the pumpkins. You may be blinded by adorableness. I'm sorry, there is nothing I can do about that.

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