Yes, it’s only half way because we really didn’t start until the hubby’s first paycheck in February so we are going into March with this, 4 weeks, two paychecks, close enough to a month. Although we were poor the first week of February anyways so let’s say 5 weeks of no spend. This post is mostly a diary for me, to record this month, what went well, what didn’t, etc.
The first week was great, I was all excited, we had food, we were doing well. Then the second week came and it was fine, nothing exciting except puking kids which caused our Valentines Date to be cancelled and a dog who had surgery. They ended up removing her dew claws which the “breeder’ had tried removing herself and so poor schnauzy had half grown in dew claws, one ended up getting infected so the vet decided surgery was best. She also had her teeth clean and two teeth pulled while she was getting the dew claws out. The poor girl, the first few days were rough but she’s doing great now. The new vet was great, I had an “emergency” question and he answered the phone and we discussed what was going on and all is well. We also managed to save $1000.00 by switching vets and having to drive 25 minutes.
The last week has been rough. I swear all these kids want to do is eat. Seriously. I do not have chips, cookies or the like for them to just snack on garbage, it’s fruit, string cheese and yogurt. Even I am hungry, I have now started eating Ramen noodles, it’s true. Although I can’t find the pork flavor which was my favorite, do they still make that one? The good news is, I’ve lost a few pounds, the bad news is, I get more hangry. I’m sure a blizzard that had the children home from school two days this week wasn’t helpful either on top of them being home for Presidents Day as well. Plus sick kids home two days last week and I think we’ve all just been eating more than we normally would or maybe it’s because we’re tired of being the house and can only play so many board games, read so many books and watch so much tv. Yet at the same time, why is it we can’t get anything done on our to do list?
I did have to buy the little guy some new shoes because his were literally falling apart. Not sure how I didn’t notice it but when he was in the dentist chair I realized just how bad they were. I remember seeing a $10 off of $30 for Kohls and I had 30% off so I figured I could get a pair for pretty cheap and just pay the kohls charge while I was there. Size 11 in the little kid shoes is actually big kid shoe size at Kohls so there was no way I was buying him shoes there, the prices were $45 to $50 before the coupon for some tennis shoes that will last maybe 7-9 months if I am lucky plus he didn’t like any of the shoes they had. Next I hit up Shopko/Payless but they didn’t have anything we liked so it was off to Target because he kept insisting he liked the shoes at Target. Sure enough, he did like the shoes there and they were $24, cartwheel had 15% off shoes for him plus my 5% with my red card, his shoes ended up being about $19. So not the best deal but also not the worst either.
Yesterday we splurged and went to see the Lego movie. Our family of 6 cost $30 which was our date night money we had budgeted for on Valentines Day. Afterwards we went to Costco and spent $10 on a pizza for the family which was the rest of our date night money. Does that count as eating out? I think so. Darn.
Lessons learned this past week, I don’t really have any takeaways besides being very thankful for electricity after losing it a few times during the blizzard Thursday night and also very thankful for our neighborhood, it was so wonderful to see neighbors helping get vehicles unstuck, clear each others driveways and sidewalks and offering help to one another. Once again, blessed by the people in our lives and thankful we can bless others as well.
Keep up the good work. I love keeping up with your progress.