Debt Snowflake Challenge Week Two Still Plugging Along

Hello everyone, HAPPY FRIDAY! It's time to link up with Melissa at Moms Plans for the Debt Snowflake Challenge. Participating has been really motivating for me. If you haven't been by to check it out I suggest you scoot on over there ASAP. I am staying accountable and learning new ideas too. Much love Melissa!!!!!!

I am slowly plugging along in my second week. The death of the fridge is still stinging in the area where our Emergency Fund once lived. All the more reason to eliminate debt, right? RIGHT! Build old EF back up to its former glory and LARGER!

The snowflake total for this week is $80.97. It breaks down to baking profit, $67.00, Rounding hubby's pay to nearest ten $8.97 and a $5.00 deposit from my bank for a customer satisfaction survey. They are tiny but rolled together they are mighty!

I'm hoping to get that grocery budget tamed too. There are some really great deals this week so I'm hoping for a under budget trip this week!

How are your snowflaking efforts going this week? Cant wait to stop by and visit everyone! Have a wonderful weekend! HUGS! Deb

Murphy Stopped By Today!

Welcome all! It has been a very unfrugal day here in the country! OUCH! I woke up to a horrible screeching sound in the middle of the night. It was my kitchen nemesis, the REFRIGERATOR! This side by side beast has been a thorn in my side since I bought it almost nine years ago!

                                                    photo credit- convergence.com

It has made noise and broke down on a nonstop basis. I have had it repaired 4 times under warranty, 2 times under the extended warranty(one rare time it ended up being worth it to purchase a extended warranty!) and 3 times out of our pocket, all small things of course.

But today was different. The compressor locked up and a horrible smell filled the kitchen. I am glad its dead, really I am. I just wish it didn't take our emergency fund with it. I just had it built back up from the September dryer fiasco. Will we ever surpass the initial $1000? Feeling defeated toady but maybe tomorrow I can be thankful we could replace it. Sigh!!!

Ever wonder why Murphy loves to visit in January? He needs to lose my address. Dave said he will try to move in. Have you had a visit from Murphy lately? So much for a spend free day!

Well, I am off to wait for the delivery men. Have a great, calamity free day!
                                                                     Hugs, Deb

Weekly Menu Planning #2

It's week 2 already. I guess this year is going to try to fly by me too. While I might not be able to control time, at least I will be organized and frugal as possible.

The house is finally back to normal schedules and the older kids are gone. So hopefully my grocery budget will creep back down. The bad news is I am $15.79 over budget this week and for week one $22.34 bringing my negative total to $38.13. BOOO!!!! I keep telling myself it isn't too bad considering we had New Years Eve and company.

Now back to regular life! Phew!

I am dusting off some family favorites this week. My family got neglected in the weeks leading up to the holidays due to my busy baking season. So this is our menu this week.

Parmesan Crusted Talipia
Roasted Asparagus
Baked potato


Sticky Chicken
Cheesy Corn casserole
Spinach salad with lemon vinaigrette


Homemade Pizza with whole wheat crust
Pepperoni for the kids
Canadian bacon with pineapple and jalapenos for hubby and I

Leftover night (Probably Wednesday)


Ham and beans with homemade cornbread
(made with yummy ham bone from the holidays)


Soup and salad (french onion and some crusty bread)

One night for sure we will be running around like maniacs and just forage through the refrigerator. Does anyone else do that? Oops. told on myself!

So that's the week in food. What's cookin' in your neck of the woods? Have a wonderfully frugal week!!! 

I just wanted to add that I will be linking up with Susie at SusieQTpies Scraps of Life for Menu Planning Monday. I just love her blog and am so glad I found it. Go check her out!
                                                     Hugs, Deb

Debt Snowflake Challenge Week One and Having Fun!

Happy Friday fellow bloggers and followers. It has been a great week for snowflaking. It's so motivating to collect up my little "flakes" and package them for debt repayment!

Why I have never tried this, I will never know! For several years I have read lots of blogs which practiced this method. Everyone had wonderful success too, but did that motivate me? Nope!

Recently I stumbled upon this wonderful blog. Melissa will be updating every Friday. She had had some great luck this week with a unexpected deposit fee. Stop by and see what all the buzz is about!

The hubby and I have decided that all of our snowflakes will be tucked away in our new ING Electric Orange account.Then once monthly they will be assigned to the smallest debt to quickly clear up according to Dave Ramsey. I know its not the popular method over paying off high interest debts first but I like Dave's ideas. He the the "go to" guy in my book.

Here is the breakdown for this weeks "flakes".

Profit from my little baking gig $94.00

Rounding off my hubby's paycheck to the nearest ten dollar increment $8.65

A check for $2.84 from old insurance company

This makes a grand total of $105.49! In the old days this would have floated away somewhere on the weekend. What a waste! But no more, every dollar is going to work as hard as we do!

I am kind of still in limbo on what to do about my coupon savings $ and the balance in my grocery envelope. Currently they are hanging out together. The plan for now is to build a stockpile of no more than 3 each items of all our toiletry and household supplies. We have only two choices for grocery shopping in a 40 mile radius Walmart and Aldi. Not as great as I would like but I am determined so save regardless.

I welcome any input on this. I would love to hear how you all do it. You just gotta love feedback from the pros! Have a wonderful weekend and happy snowflaking. I am off to see how everyone else did with their first week.
Hugs, Deb!!!

More Frugal Blog Love!

                                                              photo credit: pennyjar.org


So glad you dropped in! I hope everyone is enjoying the new year. I was blessed with some free time over the New Year's break and I decided to revisit some of my old favorite frugal blogs since one of our resolutions for 2012 was getting back to frugal living and eliminating debt. I found several amazing new ones also.

One of them is Frugal In Florida. Frugal is a working mom of grown kids trying to keep it on the cheap in balmy Florida! That alone is enough to hook me! But while browsing around her blog I found out about her great plan for 2012 The Year Of Zero . Hop on over to see her rules for 2012. I personally love 1, 9 and 10. I have joined in and they are in my rules for 2012! Nothing like making blogging buddies with the same ideas to keep you accountable in the year ahead.

What rules would you have for finances in 2012? I think Frugal In Florida is going to inspire us all in 2102. What are you still doing here? Get on over there! I'm right behind you!!!! Let's all be fab and frugal!!!

                                                                   Hugs, Deb

Goals For 2012. Keeping It Real!

Two posts in one day??? I'm really going nuts hunh? In keeping with my goals for the year it is necessary. One of my personal goals is to blog more. A perk of blogging is that it keeps you accountable. Totally win-win for me!

Crystal at Money Saving Mom's is blogging about goals, setting them and being more intentional. This is a great post and a great blog! Make sure you stop by and link up with your 2012 goals.

KEY GOALS FOR 2012

1.MOVE CLOSER TO HUBBY'S WORK

This goal servers many purposes. Financial, will save $600 per month driving expenses alone. Of course this means a higher rent of $325.00 more but it will cut out huge costs on tires,oil changes and general wear and tear on the car.

The biggest benefit is that my husband will gain 4 hours a day. We are all winners on this one, not counting his safety and sanity!


2.RESEARCH AND PURCHASE A NEWER CAR

Because we live so far away...we wore out our car. As much as I would like, paying cash is out of the budget. We will have to settle for a decent down payment then pay off aggressively.


3. SNOWFLAKE DEBT

We will be snowflaking any cash windfalls, rebates, or money earned in overtime and the baking and soap business profits. I will put up my weekly and to date totals on my sidebar to keep me on track.

4.DATE NIGHT

Sadly, hubby and I put each other on the back burner! No more! We are going to set a frugal date night and keep it once a month. If you have any ideas, share them PLEASE! I will post any of our great ideas as we try them out.

5. GROW MY BUSINESS

My baking business is slowly growing, I'm catering small affairs, Doing 2 sandwich deliveries a week plus my monthly bread customers and holiday orders for baked goods TRIPLED in 2011 season! But I could do more. I will be adding products and participating in our local farmers market this year again. My soap and body product line took a backseat at Christmas. This year Country Moon Apothecary will expand and debut at the farmers market. My goal is to add at least 10 new items by the end of the year.

That's about it. Not many I know but it is a handful for us. I want to be diligent and succeed so this is just right for us. We are so excited for the new year. So many possibilities and the whole year to tackle them!

What do you want to accomplish in 2012? Share with us!!!!!!!!!!

Welcome 2012!

Hello All! It's a new year, time to make some goals for the new year! Isn't it great to have a clean slate? A whole fresh clean calendar full of possibilites! As you may have noticed, I am very exccited for a new year! What are your resolutions or goals for the coming year?

I have been surfing around looking for some new frugal and personal finance blogs. One of my mains goals this year is to make our money work harder. I have lapsed into somewhat of a unfrugal mode in the last few months. It has left me and the budget feeling bloated and wasteful. Being disorganized is the key problem that always leads me to unfrugal ways!

SO..I am getting in gear and throwing out all my wasteful unfrugal habits! I will be menu planning, cutting the fat from our budget, making better use of my coupons even snowflaking my savings and small income streams.

What is snowflaking? It is taking extra money and pooling it to pay off debt. Now this is a incredibly basic definition. There are so many wonderful examples out there so I will just let you go HERE this is a wonderful explanation.

I found Melissa's blog, Mom's Plans and I have been so excited! I'm on board for the Debt Snowflake Challenge. Please visit her wonderful blog and join in. We have nothing to loose but debt!

I have another great blog to share with you to but I thought I would do one per post. Got to give these bloggers each their due!

What are some of your 2012 Goals? I will be sharing as we go. Blogging about them is a great way to keep me motivated and accountable? How about you?

Thank you so much for stopping by. Now that I am getting on track I can frugally dream about my other loves, tablescaping and gardening. Its going to be a exciting year around here hope you will follow along! Happy New Years and best wishes in all you goals!
Deb