I own my smarts!!!!!

So this amazing thing happened.  Chris' uncle (who passed several years back) had a stamp collection.  Apparently it was the bombdiggity stamp collection because when it was sold we receive a suh-weet check in the mail.  This awesome windfall was enough to completely pay off my very last student loan from school.  You know what that means people?  It means I officially OWN my smarts!!!!!  Until now ACS Education owned them, but now *I* own them and that is an amaze-balls feeling!  Now, to attack the car!!!  Watch out car loan, I've got you in my sights!

Do you ever feel like....

.....it's never *enough*?  It's never enough money, time, patience, stuff, anything.  It's never enough because we've been taught from the very beginning to never be satisfied with what we have.  From the days of infancy where new parents purchase a million gadgets from baby-mart-imporium-a-million that their babies do not need, to the childhoods of bought emotions and feel better toys.  The ever present commercials targeted at our 5 year olds that they *need* this new toy, or that better cereal, spiraling out of control to our teenagers and young adults telling them they need to have the next, greatest, slightly slimmer, slightly larger, slightly better thing in order to be a full fledged adult.  By the time we figure out that we've been totally had, we are adults that are overburdened with debt, over connected, emotionally desensitized to the real world, and completely addicted to our lifestyles.  How do we then do a radical life change to become more aware, more self sufficient, more in tune with what's really happening?  How do we begin to care about the things we already have and the people we love when our whole lives have been an effort of brainwashing by multi-billion dollar corporations?  How do we fight against that?? 

For me, it's like a diet (and lets face it, I'm not too great at diets!).  It takes determined effort, every single day to say "I have enough, I am enough, I need nothing more to validate myself".  Then on top of that I have to say "My children have enough, my children are enough, my children need nothing more than my love to validate them".  I am determined to make those choices easier for my girls to make by giving them a foundation of appreciation now.  Everyone is fighting against me, whether they mean to or not.  From the overabundance of Christmas gifts, to the lollipops at the corner store, my children are the constant recipients of "stuff" and "things" and it's driving me crazy.  MANY days I fail.  MANY days I am the reason that my children are overcompensated with stuff.  MANY days I make the same mistakes over and over and over again.  But so long as every day I try, I aim higher, I wrestle with everything I've been taught about consumption, and give my children (and myself) the lessons necessary to make better choices about materialism and how it affects our emotions, then I am succeeding.  It's hard.  IT'S REALLY HARD.  Can you help me?  Can I help you?  Can we do this together?

Are you proud of me now? Please say you are oh please!

You didn't think I could do it did you?  Oh ye of little faith!  Well I did and it was awesome!!!  I cleared out the fridge!!!!!!!!  (Insert applause here). I moved everything that was left to the little drink fridge and actually cleaned the big 'Merican fridge. Then a throng of people descended upon my homestead laden with bags and bags of food to refill the fancy clean fridge and I had to start all over again but the point is I DID IT!  Are you proud?????

 

So, Happy New Year!!!!  What are your financial goals for 2013?  The Husband and I decided that this year we would pay off all of our credit card ($8037.25) and half of my student loan (half of $6898.04).  We wanted to be able to pay off all of it, but that seems like a very lofty goal.  We will be very excited with the credit card and half the loan, anything more will be gravy.  So, tell me what your goal is!

Miss me miss me now you gotta..........

.......well, just read this I suppose.  Being that I'm way over here and you're way over there.  So, wow, what a BUSY time of year!!!  Between Halloween, little one's birthday, Thanksgiving, and now Christmas is upon us; well I just haven't found the time to talk to you one on one.  My how I've missed you though.  So, last we met I was about to embark on a CUH-RAZAY adventure called "throwing the little one's birthday part at home".  I was almost involuntarily committed, but instead I just threw a fabulous party.  I did it all for around 135 bucks.  Ain't that swell???  Breakdown of the costs:
Decorations and activities (crown and necklace making) via oriental trading:  $50
Balloons (cause it ain't a childs party without balloons!): $35
Food (I planned a late afternoon party to avoid feeding the kids an entire meal and instead we just had snacks and juice):  $20
Cupcakes:  $0!!!  They were a gift from an awesome girl.
Present:  $30
Costumes:  $0 We already had them.

All in all I'd say it was a huge success, and it saved me loads of money over having it at one of those fun-factory-don't-forget-your-excedrin-because-the-screaming-children-will-make-you-crazy-playhouse type thingies.  A couple of photos of the party-awesomeness:

So now that that's over, and Thanksgiving has come and gone.......mmmmmmm fried Turkey.........we're staring down the barrel of
                                                    C H R I S T M A S !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 
OMGEE OMGEE OMGEE I simply ADORE Christmas.  I love the pagentry of it, the lights, the sounds, the smells, the people, it's my most favorite time of year.  Well that and 4th of July cause I am a sucker for fireworks.  If I could combine the two and have the 4th of Christmas, or the Christmas of July, or Independancemas Day I would be the happiest girl on the freaking planet.  So what have I done to make this Christmas even more special (read: make The Husband go completely insane?) oh just invited FOURTEEN people over for Christmas Eve dinner, and then have 7 of those people spend the night.  Woo hoo!!!  So, do you know how much frige/freezer space it takes to feed 14 people?  I do.  Way more than I have.  So, I'm giving that whole "clean out the fridge" thing the ol' college try.  Like for reals this time.  Like the ol' Harvard try, or the ol' Stanford try.  I mean it!  What?  You don't think I'll follow through like every other time?  This time it'll be different.  This time I'll do it.  This time it'll work.  I swear.  I can stop buying groceries anytime I want.  I can quit anytime!  Why are you judging me?!?!?!?!  I'll prove you wrong and then you'll love me.  Or, well be proud of me?  Please?  OK, so I have three days to empty out as much as possible from this:

This will be fun!  You'll see!!!

As a side note the debt board looks like this:

Le Credit Card:  $8021.26
Le Student Loan:  $6898.04
Le Van:  $19977.50

Le Horrible Total:  $34,896.80

I know what you're thinking, we're not making much of a dent in that right now, but a couple of things deserve notice.  1.  the student loan is under $7000.  2.  the van is under $20,000.  3.  CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

 

Pantry challenge follow up

First order of business, we paid off Le "forgotten" credit card!  Yay!!!  Now onto the pantry thingie:


Well, as you can see there is still a LOT of food left.  So, I think we will just continue until there is not a lot of food left.  Besides, we never did get to that single shake and bake packet, and I feel we need to eat that to truely have a victory.  I will follow up again with this later.  The villagers are getting cranky about not having their favorites around, lets see how long I can go listening to the whining about ramen/cheetos/meat/basic nutrition/blah blah blah. 

 

 



It's about that time.

Time to eat out of the pantry/fridge/freezer!  Not for any particular reason, other than they all need to be cleaned, and I don't want to grocery shop, and I want to use up the weird stuff like that single packet of shake and bake, or that half pack of kidney beans, or that granola that nobody really likes.  I'll post before and after pictures so you can see how well we do.  I do not plan to grocery shop, unless there is something I need to use up something I already have (like chicken for the shake and bake).  The plan is UBER minimal spending, creativity, and to not buy some of that weird stuff ever again!  So, without further ado, here are the befores:

Scratch, ding, and dent booyah!!!

Frugal tip of the day:  ALWAYS and I mean always, check your grocery store's "ding and dent" section, as well as the end caps.

 Today I found these organic milks on clearance for $0.99 each, and they don't even expire for 5 more days!!!  The way we go through milk in this house, 5 days is more than enough to get through it.  This milk is normally $3.99, so that's a great savings!  Also, I found these two splenda's in the ding and dent section because the boxes are a bit smashed up.  The price on these was $1.31 each plus I had two coupons for $1 off any splenda product so I paid a whopping $0.62 for BOTH BOXES!!!  Can you say score?!?!?!  I'm so pleased with today's ding and dent success.  What's the best find you've ever gotten?