Not Keeping Up With The Joneses

When you are trying to jump back into getting on track with finances

2018-12-04T12:23:00.000-08:00

A lot of us seem to fall off track when it comes to our finances and the way we handle money. I want to scream.... I have not had a plan in a very long time and it is time to put on my big girl panties, roll up my sleeves, and tackle this mess I have gotten myself in. The saying goes "if you fail to plan, you plan to fail."

I have been checking out different types of budgets online..there are so many of them! I have been reading about paying yourself first, 50/30/20% rule, Dave Ramsey baby steps, etc...it can be overwhelming.

The first thing in which I am going to do is get current with my debts/bills. I am not going to post how I am going to do a whole lot of other goals as I am going to focus on one goal at a time. Starting today I will be posting once a week on what I have paid down as I go. I need to get current with my hydro,phone, internet, and debt. If anyone else is going through the same with trying to get current with their finances, trying to budget, or looking for ways to save money,etc...please join me on this journey.

The TFSA account with Ing direct for Canadians

2009-07-09T08:54:00.000-07:00

I was visiting over at Saving for later's blog and she had mentioned about the TFSA (Tax Free Savings Account) with Ing. It has a 3% interest rate on the money you put into your tfsa account. I looked into it and put 1/2 of our emergency fund in there which would be $500. I just couldn't seem to put the whole $1000 which we have saved thus far into it. I am off from work for the summer so maybe that is why.

I am also not sure how much we can contribute into our savings as we do have debt to pay down/off. At the end of this month I will be contributing to our Freedom account for our irregular expenses which by the way will be ongoing each and every month while still paying down debt.

I am still proud of dh and I though, even when we fall down with life's happenings we just brush ourselves off and continue on with our goal for financial freedom :).

Mini Goals For July 2009

2009-07-05T08:17:00.000-07:00

I am late posting my mini goals for this month. Here they are:

(1) Keep expenses to a minimum and not use the credit card as I will be going down east for two weeks to spend time with my friend who is terminally ill.

(2) Learn to paint a picture with acrylic paints.I picked up the basics to do this or at least try. I wanted to do this as paintings are expensive and I figure I might stand a chance so why not try lol.

(3) organize our family room.

If anyone would like to join me with doing monthly mini goals that would be great, I would sure love having the company :)

My Best Friend.

2009-07-05T07:26:00.000-07:00

My best Friend has been terminally ill for some months now. The dr. told her last week that the cancer has spread to her liver and lungs and that she will not live to see her birthday in Sept. We all knew that this would happen eventually but we thought that she would still have more time, even she thought at least another year.

I was going to go and spend the summer down home between her place and my mothers in Nova Scotia but have decided that I will go down the middle of this month and stay a couple of weeks, come home, and then go back down for a week in August.

Carmen is a Beautiful person and I have learned so much from her. She has three girls ages 24,19,and 12.

Please say a prayer for my friend,her family, and for me too. We are headed for a lot of heartache even though we all know that we will meet one day again and that God will take great care of her.

Thank you to all,

Heather

We started our Freedom Account YAY!!!

2009-06-30T05:30:00.000-07:00

Ok so, we have our goal of $1000 in our emergency fund, now it is time for us to start our Freedom Account for all of those irregular expenses as well as start paying down/off our debt. I am putting in $180 (Canadian dollars) a month divided up into categories so that we hopefully do not have to touch the emergency fund. These are for expenses that we know will eventually come our way whether it be once,twice,three times, etc a year. We had a few extra $ to put in there so it is a bit over what we have allotted.

Because We are starting this late in the year we will probably not have enough once the actual expense comes up but the good news is that we won't have to come up with the whole lump sum at one time because we will have a portion of the $ in that category which is with our Ing account.

Here are our categories and the amount of $ going in each month

1) Home and Auto: $55
(2) Medical and dental: $35
(3) Gifts and Vacation: $55
(4) Kids: $35

Here is what we have in there right now as of today and a break down for what each category will be used for :

(1) House and Auto ( this covers repairs, wood, snowplow as we live on a snowbelt and can't keep up with shoveling durring the winter months, liscense and Registration fees). : $91.68

(2) Medical and Dental (covers eye glasses, unexpected medication, dental visits, etc..) : $65.36

(3) Kids Account (covers school registration, book fee's, sports or leisure).
: $45.11

(4) Gifts and Vacation : $65.43 (for all gifts throughout the year whether it be for Holidays or Birthdays etc...wanted to add that I don't think that we will be going on a vacation anytime soon, it just felt good to type Vacation in there lol )

We reached the $1000 baby emergency fund Mark!

2009-06-26T20:36:00.001-07:00

Yay! it took a couple of months but we did it, doing a happy dance! I had three mini goals lined up for June which were (1) get the emergency fund to the $1000 mark, (2) make a summer wreath for our front door (3) learn to crochet a dishcloths and I have accomplished all three goals YAY!

I have to think on what mini goals I would like to do for the month of July. One goal in which I have in mind is to paint a picture. I guess it will be one of my goals because I picked up some paint,brushes and a board to paint on. I hope that I havn't bitten off more then I can chew but after teaching myself how to sew from watching video's online and reading articles on the internet I think that I can do this one lol.

Anyhow, I am thrilled with my success so far with my mini goals to date.

Emergency Fund Madness!!

2009-05-18T21:18:00.001-07:00

I reviewed the four posts here regarding our Emergency Fund and I am just stunned that over the past 1 1/2 to 2 years how we are still yet again at the stage of getting that baby emergency funded.

Over this time period we have been murphy'd left,right,and center. Between dh being without work for 2 to 3 months last year, money owe'd to dh from his previous employer which never did get to dh, losing money on the investment property we had bought and have since sold.

Everytime I think that everything is just grand something happens. We need to have that emergency fund in case the car breaks down, a tire blows,or if we need an emergency dental visit etc. We need to get this done so that I can move on to getting the Freedom Account started (I will post about that once we have our baby emergency fund completed) I already have the categories and how much $ will go into each one once this first step is done. All the extra $ after this will be going on to snowball our debts which of course is another entry to post.

Seriously though, enough is enough and I/we am/are finally going to break this vicious cycle. I'm tired and I want financial freedom and I want it within a reasonable time frame. I don't mean like tomorrow I want the financial freedom fairy to appear, although that would be something, but I want to at least set the plan in motion and keep the wheels rolling until I can finally say we did it!

So, right now our baby emergency fund is at $567.01/$1000. We are over the half way mark. I will not be able to add to this until next week. I thought maybe this week but no, there is no wiggle room what-so-ever in this pay which I have just discovered after talking to dh.

I have to remind myself that we started funding this yet again on April 24th/09 with only $66.89 in our emergency fund. We made a decission that we would take $100 out of each pay (works out to weekly as dh gets paid one week and I the next)I don't know how that amount came to be the amount but we Knew that if it was too hard that we could scale back.

It takes dh and I about 3 to 6 weeks to form a habit, it is just to hang on to that habit lol. With determination and keeping this our goal I have no doubt that we can have our baby emergency fund completed within 3 to 4 more weeks.

Right Side Up Stuffed Mushroom Chops

2009-05-10T19:15:00.000-07:00

Another recipe from the cookbook Life's on Fire Cooking For the Rushed by Sandi Richard.

I made this for supper today for our Mother's Day dinner.

Right Side Up Stuffed Mushroom Chops

8 pork chops medium thickness boneless and trimmed (apporx 700g)

1 pkg Uncle Ben's Stuff'N'Such Traditional Sage

1 tbsp brown sugar

1 can cream of mushroom soup (Campbell's)

1/3 soup can water

2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

(1) Preheat oven to broil.
Place chops on a large oven-safe cake pan and broil at close range about 1 minute per side.

....meanwhile....

Prepare stuffing in a medium size stove-top pot according to package directions, however, add brown sugar.

Remove chops from oven. Drain excess grease from pan. Reset oven temperature to 350. Return chops to pan. Mound stuffing on top of each pork chop.

Combine in this order in the Used stuffing pot (No Heat): soup, gradually stir in water and Worcestershire sauce. Stir until well blended and spoon equally over stuffed chops. Bake in hot oven. Set a timer for 25 minutes

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When I make the above recipe I fry the pork chops up in a cast iron fry pan opposed to broiling. I made mine with mashed whipped potato and peeled carrots with parsley sprinkled over them.

This recipe is definately a Keeper :)

Steak Fingers

2009-05-09T14:25:00.000-07:00

This recipe is not only frugal but delicious! It is also very filling. I found it on recipezaar.com here Steak Fingers . I cook mine a tiny bit longer though then the recipe says. I have been including this recipe in our menu at least once a month for over a year now.

SERVES 4 -6

Ingredients
1 lb of good quality round steak or sirloin steak (calculate about 1/3 to 1/4 pound per person)

1 cup flour (or more)

1/2 cup soy sauce (or more, Lite is good, I find regular soy sauce to be too salty)
fresh coarse ground black pepper, to taste

Directions

(1) Cut up Round Steak or Sirloin Steak into finger-sized pieces (about 1" or so in diameter, but no thinner or the meat will cook too fast), about 1/3 to 1/4 pound per person.

(2) (To make slicing easier, place the meat in the freezer for about 30 minutes before slicing.).

(3) Dip the Steak Fingers into the Soy Sauce, then dredge in the flour. (You can use a plastic bag for the flour-dipping part.).

(4) Repeat Step 3, then place all the meat on a plate or platter. (At this point, if I want the pieces to turn out especially rare, I put them back into the freezer for a bit before cooking.).

(5) When you get a plateful of breaded Steak Fingers prepared, quickly place them into a frying pan of heated vegetable oil one at a time. They should really sizzle as soon as you drop them into the oil. As soon as the entire plateful of meat is in the oil, begin turning the pieces. As soon as you have finished turning all the pieces, begin taking them out to drain on a paper towel covered plate. Sprinkle with cracked pepper and serve over hot rice with a salad.

(6) NOTE: The entire frying process should only take a few minutes. DO NOT LEAVE THE STOVE OR THEY WILL OVERCOOK. The meat may turn out tough if it is cooked well done.

(7) P.S. These steak fingers heat well the next day for lunch, just so long as they are not cooked well done to begin with.

May Mini Goal

2009-05-09T13:40:00.000-07:00

I decided that each month I will try to do a mini goal so that I can see at the year end what I have accomplished. The year is already 1/2 over but better now then never. I figure these mini goals will add up to my bigger goal which is to get better oganized with my time and to actually start accomplishing the things which will in some way help my family along with myself in one way or another.

For the month of May my goal is to learn how to sew. I bought some material about 3 months ago (on sale)to learn how to make curtains for one of my basement windows in our family room and have yet to get it completed. My sewing machine believe it or not I bought 1 1/2 years ago and still don't know how to get the thread on the bobbin! There are 4 ladies where I work who all sew and I am going to see if I can get one of them to help me with this, if not I will proceed to hand sew these curtains even though I am not good at that either lol. I figure if I give myself mini goals this is very doable. I have about 2 1/2 weeks to accomplish Mays goal.

Emergency Fund

2009-05-09T13:13:00.000-07:00

As we know life happens, it has been crazy with the ups and downs here.

We are starting back up with the emergency fund, our goal right now is to reach $1000. We started this back up April 23rd and so far we are at $467.01/$1000.

I am determined to get back on track and to actually stay there this time around although I never meant to have to start over at this stage of the game but really, who does?

I am back, this time for real

2008-11-12T07:09:00.000-08:00

I am back to the blogging world. We had been hit hard by finances over these past months. So here we go, playing the catch up game and it sure isn't that much fun.

This past Feb. dh quit his job which we really thought that we would be ok until he found something else. Needless to say unless you have that "Emergency Fund fully funded or at least a good chunk of it in your savings, Murphy will appear out of thin air there is no doubt.

First off, dh was out of work for almost 3 months. He is now working through the commissionairs as a security guard. My parents who are in the 2nd house we bought for them to live in couldn't make the mortgage payments a couple of times which set us back paying for that.

Just want you all to know that we take full responsiblity for our finances and actions.

Our money just seemed to be gone as soon as it came in no matter what we did. I lost my way out of frustration. I had no freedom account left, no emergency fund left although as I mention it wasn't much considering so basically we were getting paid one day and then broke until the next payday.

Here is what is helping us right now:

(1) I still work at the english school here as lunch supervisor, I am no longer working the after school busing but did get a contract for 1:20 minutes after school as a daycare educator. the busing was 40 minutes after school but I now get an additional 40 minutes on top of that with a .23 cent raise per hour.

(2) One of our dd's has a part-time job and our other daughter has applications out. This will give them extra for fun money, a bit of savings etc...

(3) Still doing great on the food although prices seem to still be climbing.

(4) When there is a great sale I still try to stock up the best I can...like if cheese slices go on sale at a great price I pick up 2 or 3 packs and put in the freezer, yes you can freeze cheese slices and they are fine when thawed. I also picked up block cheese and froze those. I had always heard that once thawed it would crumble, that is not the case, one might get a couple of small and I mean small pieces come off when shredding but it worked out great and slices great for cheese and crackers.

I have to get ready for work right now so I don't have time to post more, I will get back to daily posting or at least a few times a week.

Ohhhhhhh dh found out at a meeting for work this morning that he is getting a $2 an hour raise YAY!! Will be on his next pay.

So we will see you all soon.

I'm Back..

2008-01-16T05:57:00.000-08:00

It stomed last week, so I didn't get any of my stockpile shopping done, rats! The cooking session I did not get completed either as I did not get shopping but I do plan on doing up a few things this weekend.

I did peel my potato last night and have it sitting in a 4 litre ice cream bucket filled with water in my fridge, all I have to do tonight is change the water and dump in my pot to cook it up. Bonus!I think that if I changed my water everyday that the potatoes would be ok for two or three days until I was ready to cook them up, that way I could peel extra on Sunday while I have everything out and we could have them with our Tuesday or Wednesday supper and the other days have suppers with rice,soup,pasta,salad or french fries. My hamburger is thawed and there is about 4 pounds. I am going to make up 2 meatloafs, freeze one and the rest I will make meatballs using the same recipe.I have to freeze the meatloaf cooked as the raw hamburger was already frozen and you don't want to freeze raw meat twice. While the meatloaf is in the oven baking I can cook the meatballs by dropping them into the boiling pot of water, it is quick and easy that way as I mentioned in my last post.

My boss at work yesterday offered me an extra 40 minutes a day at work which I am going to take. I will be working after school from 2:50pm until 3:30pm with the little ones to make sure that they get on the bus ok. This will give me 2 hours and 10 minutes a day @ $16.29 an hour plus they add on vacation pay and a couple of other things onto my pay. Having a planned meal ahead will be an added bonus for most days.I am not sure when I start working the shift after school but I would imagine I will start this upcoming Monday.

If you want to see some great ideas for cooking with pictures from beginning to end recipes please visit The Pioneer Woman Cooks. .

Thinking About having a Cooking Session.

2008-01-07T09:33:00.000-08:00

I am seriously thinking about doing this, although I think that I will do up a hamburger plan, chicken plan along with a Potato plan.

I have been surfing the internet (Big shock there eh? lol) and one trick I picked up for say making meatloaf is when you have your mixture made up don't bother putting it in loaf pans right away. Put your meatloaf mixture in a freezer bag and when you are ready to use it just thaw in the fridge overnight and the next day dump it in a loaf pan, pack it down and bake. I like mixing up a sauce for ontop of the meatloaf though which consists of : 1/4 cup brown sugar,1/4 cup of ketchup and 1 tbsp. prepared mustard and whisk it up. Cover the mixture ontop of your meatloaf.

Another trick which I have done in the past when I make Meatballs is instead of baking them I have ready a pot of boiling water and as I make the round shape of the meatball I drop them in there, once I have the last meatball in the pot I keep them on a low boil for about 10 minutes. They do not brown and crisp this way like baking in an oven but, when you take them out of your freezer and pop them in the oven till heated they will brown up then.By cooking the meatballs that way it is much quicker opposed to baking them in your oven. Meatballs are great because you can use them with sauces over rice or noodles, have meatball subs or serve on potatoes.

I have also in the past done up batches of taco meat which can be used for; over french fries (I like to add sour cream,salsa and lettuce on top) enchiladas, taco salad,on top of Potato, burritos,in soup, nachos and whatever else one can think of lol.

I haven't figured out what I would make up for a chicken plan yet however. I need to keep surfing for recipes there. I have in the past bought bulk chicken thighs onsale and preboiled them and then put them in the freezer, I did this for the bbq season which was great. A lot of times when having chicken I will make a double batch and freeze for future soups, chicken and dumplings, chicken pot pie etc.

For a Potato plan I would like to do up twice baked potatoes. I have done this in the past too but not for a couple of years now. I have seen a couple of recipes for mashed potato to freeze so I would also like to give that a try.

For baking deserts such as cakes I will double and sometimes tripe the recipe and bake them up in bread pans to freeze in that size. I find it easy to store in the freezer this way and also it is perfect for taking out and cutting up for lunches.

For cookies I usually just roll the dough into balls and flash freeze before putting them in freezer bags so that they won't stick together. All I do there when wanting to bake up a batch is take out say a dozen at a time but I leave them in the oven to bake for a couple of extra minutes then I would if they were not frozen. I have also baked them up prior to freezing but I find it is kind of special for the kids and dh to have freshly warm baked cookies for their lunches that day. The cookies seem to last longer that way too lol.

Pizza, yummmmmm. I have 6 round pizza pans and yes, I have made these up ahead lol.I use the recipe out of my "Not Just Beans cookbook" by Tawra Jean Kellam and it is excellent! I use her idea and once my uncooked pizza dough is in the pan; "Bake for 5 minutes in an oven at 400 so the dough does not become soggy. Cover with pizza sauce. Add your choice of toppings and cheese." Once I have finished adding the toppings and cheese this is where I wrap it up first in saran wrap or wax paper and then I cover it with tinfoil and set the pizzas in my freezer. When I am ready to have a pizza night I just pop it in the oven frozen and bake at 375 for about 20 to 25 minutes. Because we cook two at a time I have one pizza on my bottom rack in the oven and one on the middle rack. Half way through I change them by putting the one on the middle rack to the bottom and the bottom pizza onto the middle rack.

Ham and Pasta

2008-01-05T14:18:00.000-08:00

So, I had some baked ham left over from a couple of nights ago. I thought ok, what can I do with it? This is what I ended up doing.

6 cups of rotini pasta, cooked. (I just dumped the pasta in a big pot of boiling water but I think it was 6 cups, maybe a bit more)

1 and a 1/2 cup of cut up cooked ham

2 cans of cream of mushroom soup

1/2 soup can of water

3/4 of a cup of melted cheeze whiz.

Stir first 3 steps together and put in a lightly greased casserole dish. Pour and spread lightly the melted cheeze whiz over pasta mixture.( You could use shredded hard cheese but I am out)

Bake in oven at 350 for 25 to 30 minutes until heated through.

Sprinkle with parmesan cheese if you desire (optional)

Yup, delish,cheap and frugal, gotta love that! :).

Stocking Up Withdrawl!

2008-01-05T13:56:00.000-08:00

Wow oh Wow! what Excellent sales on this week in the grocery flyers. I live in Quebec Canada so some of the stores where I shop are not elsewhere in Canada, at least that I am aware of.

I shop at Maxi,Super C, Metro and IGA. IGA of course is all over Canada.

I dream of having a Years worth of toilet paper, shampoo, toothpaste, peanut butter, and all things which can be stored for that amount of time!

The wheels are turning in my head,dreams of a fully stocked pantry Oh my goodness! It is almost like a child eating candy kind of feeling, although I must admit, I do like my sweets too!

So, we have only yet spent out of our grocery money $19.46 out of a $400 grocery allowance for the month. I am thinking on taking $250 of that and stocking up.We honestly do not get the coupon deals like our friends in the U.S , I would be honestly in stockpile heaven if we did, so I have to work with what we do have.

I think that I will "Go" for it!

I will post pictures after the shopping trip next week,ds has a digetal camera. I have no idea how to use one so I will get him to take them lol.

January 3rd and already 2 no spend days for Us!

2008-01-03T16:42:00.000-08:00

I am still challenging myself on having No Spend Days. I am not going to set a number of days per month but post here each time I do actually have a no spend day to help keep track.

My no spend days will not include days where our "Fixed" bills are paid or when I pay for our hydro,phone,cable and all regular bills.

I will be counting the days I/We spend on gas,groceries,enterainment and anything else which is fair game lol.

The reason I added groceries and gas, even though they are a necessity is because I want to limit my spend days on those for once a week minimum. Dh calls me from work each night to see if I need anything from the grocery store on his way home. I usually can think of something (((sigh))).

It is just too easy to say yes. So, no more calls from dh from work, at least if it has to do with spending money :).

So, 2/31 days so far for the month of January for us with our No Spend Day Challenge.

Oh, I wanted to also add that I personally have not stepped foot in a store since last year! Well, since December 24th anyhow lol. That is 10 days for me, Dh of course has gone twice in the 10 days. Lots of No Spend Days for us!

Ok, Editing to add that dh went to pick up dd 16 just now and came back in from starting the car to let me know that he needs gas! he is right on the line....Who on earth would have thought that at almost 9pm at night we would be spending money???? Soooooooooo Frustrating!

Anyhow, instead of 2/31 no spend days so far it is 1/31. I will win this battle of cutting down our spending days, it is just to "tweak" it I guess.

My Grocery Challenge

2008-01-03T12:10:00.000-08:00

I have decided to try another grocery challenge for myself. I will be posting each time I spend money to try to start my New Year on the right foot.

I am giving myself for this month of January $400. That is a lot compared to what I used only but a couple of months ago. This will be to feed a family of 3 adults,2 teenagers and one cat. This will also include any paper/hygiene products.

Yesterday we spent $19.46 for tea,brown sugar,flour,frozen juice and a bag of chocolate chips to make up for cookies.

To do this I will keep each receipt in an envelope marked January Grocery Challenge receipts.At the end of the month I will mark down on the envelope how much is actually spent out of the $400 allowed eg: $400/$400.Also, once the month of January is completed I will put the envelope in freezer bag (large enough to hold 12 months worth of envelopes) and set in a shoe box and keep it on my closet shelf for easy access. I want to keep track along with putting other envelopes in with other receipts such as gas,clothing,entertainment etc...

I have to also consider that if we go to a store to buy foods onsale that we only stick to food. You know how the days are gone where we could once go shopping for groceries and all that the store carried were groceries? Now you go grocery shopping and you can also pick up clothing,furniture,car parts and other gadgets.Or you are out and about looking at bread and on your way out you might see something non food related and think "Oh right, I have been meaning to pick up one of those".

Another thing which I have tried to do in the past when shopping for groceries and say non grocery items was to line up my groceries first and the non grocery items 2nd so that when I would look on my receipt I would not have to jump from the top of the receipt to the middle and so on.All of the food items would be listed one right after the other. This is a good idea except for the fact when taxes are added to the total of your receipt, you have to break down what are actually food taxes and non food taxes.

I have decided that in order to keep an accurate total for our groceries I will just have to stick with groceries and either have dh with me so that I can pay for the groceries and then he can pay for the non food items . In other words, go through the checkout twice opposed to once.

Wish me luck :).

Back To Funding The Baby Emergency Fund to $1000

2008-01-03T11:50:00.001-08:00

A few weeks ago we received an electric bill of almost $500 for a balance left owing on the house we sold prior to moving in Sept. I had received the same bill around the middle of Oct and thought it was a mistake as I had paid close to that in August just before moving.I was sure that dh called them as the electric bill is in his name so they will not discuss it with me (even though I am the one who sends off the payments ugh!) Well, aparently we did owe that money because we recieved another bill in December, dh called them and yes they confirmed that we did infact owe that amount.

So, what do I do???? Instead of taking the exact amount out of the emergency fund to pay it I ended up taking out $900 and leaving only a balance of $100 in there. I paid the hydro and spent the rest on Christmas.

So, I have transfered automatically into our ING emergency fund $100 since so our balance is now $212.02.

I am writing this post to stay accountable and to pick my sorry self up off the floor and move ahead.

Glazed Pork Chops

2007-12-27T16:25:00.001-08:00

This is a Superrrrrr easy and delish way to do up pork chops. It is a recipe from my "Cooking For The Rushed" cook book by Sandi Richard.

Glazed Pork chops

8 pork chops medium thickness, boneless and trimmed (approx 700 g)

Preheat oven to broil. Place pork chops on a broiler pan. Broil just until white in color. Remove the chops from the oven and flip them cooked side down. Turn oven down to 350 F on bake.

These amounts are per chop:

1/2 tsp prepared mustard
1 tsp. brown sugar
1/8 tsp each of cinnamon and basil

Spread each pork chop thinly with the following in this order:1/2 tsp prepared mustard, 1 tsp.brown sugar, 1/8 tsp each of cinnamon and basil.

Return the chops to oven at the lower temperature and bake.

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I usually just quickly fry mine up till almost cooked and then spread the mixture on each chop, pop them in the oven and they are usually ready to eat in about 25 to 30 minutes. Broiling them would be much healthier though.

Already Foiled Up My Menu Plan For This Week.

2007-12-27T15:29:00.000-08:00

Yup, yesterday I wasn't feeling that great so I didn't cook up the turkey pot pie with ceasar salad but we did have it tonight and ohhhhhhhh but was it good!

I will not be having the beef barley soup as that was supposed to be schedualed for this evening so I will just carry on with the menu plan and have Fridays Glazed Pork chops with rice and green beans. It is quick, tastes great and super easy too....I love those kind of meals lol.

I can always add the beef barely soup either in next weeks menu plan or the week after.

I am going to wait for Saturdays flyers to see what is onsale next week for loss leaders and work around that for our meals.

For my turkey pot pies I used my left over gravy from Christmas dinner, cut up about 3 cups of turkey, added a can of peas and carrots, and I boiled up some potato I cubed up. I didn't cook the potato all the way as it cooked in the potpie while in the oven and I didn't want the potato overcooked. I did cheat with the pie crust, dh picked up some already made at the store which was nice since my pie crust is always a bit thicker than store bought. I should have made a biscuit mix instead I suppose to save money that is always good too.

Anyhow, I have an extra cooked potpie to freeze not to mention that while I was throwing everything together I ended up with a turkey mixture for another future potpie lol,. I will be freezing the rest of the turkey this evening for a future casserole, turkey soup and of course making up the broth for the soup and gravies.

My freezer in my fridge is getting stocked that is for sure between that and the meats onsale I have picked up over the past month or so.

Our January Goals

2007-12-26T15:36:00.000-08:00

You know, I thought about making goals for the whole year of 2008 but then I decided to just make up a list of goals as each new month approaches.At the end of 2008 I will go through each month and see how we did. I have so many "Big" plans for our families finances among Frugal goals. I am not going to overwhelm ourselves either but only list 2 or 3 each month.

For the month of January:

(1) Start paying down our mortgage with biweekly accelerated payments.

(2) make a double payment on our credit card.

(3) make a menu plan each monday for the week and stick to it.

I think that the hardest ones will be #2 and #3. I already know that dh will be calling the mortgage company tomorrow to have the mortgage payments changed so that goal is pretty much a given. I still wanted to list it however as come years end it will be nice to review on the changes we will have made by then.

Anyone out there care to join me each month with their goals? We can at the end of each month review how we all did together :).

Editing to add that we have accomplished with changing our mortgage to biweekly! YAY GO US :), the other two goals still working on UGH.

Back to Paying Down Debt!

2007-12-26T08:12:00.000-08:00

Well, today is December 26th, only one day after Christmas and I just went and put $500 on our credit card through online banking. Gotta love that online banking eh?

Basically a bit more than a double payment. We have met at least one of our December goals, Yay! Go us :).

I don't understand why it almost "hurts" to pay back money on debt. It was never our money to begin with but yet I found myself hesitating putting extra on our credit card. It really is one of our goals to get it paid off and we are totally excited to be debt free,like we were before this last move. Maybe it is a good thing that it does hurt, if I remember this feeling and learn from it I will be better off in the long run :).

Well, tomorrow is the big day when dh will be calling our mortgage company so that we can start mid January to pay biweekly accellerated mortage payments. We still have our regular monthly payment due the 1st of January of $873.14( This amount includes our property and school taxes) and then on January 11th it will start coming out every two weeks. It will be nice to break it up so that we are not paying the lump sum all at once.

How's everyone doing with their debt paydown?

Menu Planning

2007-12-25T19:31:00.000-08:00

I need to get more motivated with a menu plan. I am finding that it isn't that we eat out alot or even order take-out but I am leaving it to the last minute on what we are having for supper on any given day. I have been so bad lately, it is to the point my kids will say "Mom, what's for supper tonight?" My response is for them to give me 5 to 10 minutes to think on it. Not every night do I go through this but lately it seems like at least 3 to 4 nights out of the week. I end up usually whipping up spaghetti,soup and grilled cheese, kraft dinner with hotdogs etc... It isn't so terrible as I usually have a big dinner 3 nights out of a given week. I usually have our salad in the fridge and if not I haul out the pickles and some bread to go with whatever we are having. I just need to get organized in this department to make my life a little bit easier :).

We had of course our turkey dinner today and I have Tonsssssss of turkey left. So I have decided tonight that for the rest of the week:

Wednesday: turkey pot pie with caesar salad.
Thursday : Beef Barely soup with homemade rolls.
Friday : Glazed Pork chops with rice and green beans.
Saturday : Grilled cheese with home fries and dill pickles.
Sunday : Ham slices, mashed whipped potato and corn.

I want to start this upcoming Monday with a weekly menu plan. I will be freezing leftover turkey for future meals and tomorrow I will be doing up my turkey broth for future soups and gravies.

Secrets of the Millionaire Mind

2007-12-21T05:55:00.000-08:00

I am skimming through this book right now, I will read it through after the holidays.

I found really interesting however on page 98 of the book where the author T.Harv Eker wrote this; I'm sure you've heard the saying "Birds of a feather flock together." Did you know that most people earn within 20 percent of the average income of their closest friends?

The friends dh and I have made over the years are actually within 20% of our income range. Just about all of our friends we have met through work.

Does anyone else find this to be true? There are exceptions of course but all in all the authors choice of words really hit home with me.

I do have a close friend with whom I went to school with and for years where you saw one you saw the other lol. My friend is doing quite well financially, and she associates with the wealthy. Dh and I lived in the same city as my friend for a couple of years and I met alot of wealthy people through my friend.One thing that sticks in my mind is that noone ever mentioned the cost of anything, like for example, I bought this new car and it cost x amount of $. Oh, look at this new watch, I paid x amount of $ for it.

I was treated with the uppermost respect. I am ashamed however to admit that I did have a feeling of nervousness in the beginning if that makes sense, I was going out of my comfort zone.People are people, however when it comes to money it seems to change ones thoughts on this subject.