April Projects

My Resolutions this year included going through the entire house one month at a time to organize, purge, and fix up if needed.  This month my goal was to jump start my financial planning and work on 14 year old Graham's room. 

Graham's Room - before

Graham's Room - after



While it's not perfect, it's a vast improvement from where we were earlier in the month.  We found this electric fireplace at a thrift shop, we found a large blue and brown print at another thrift shop and we ordered a new bed for him but it was back ordered until this week.  I shopped around and saved $300 by waiting a month to purchase the bed.

Guess what?  I'm also making money after I purge the rooms but I'll fill you in on that on Sunday's blog.

What are you organizing?  I'm actually enjoying my new system of organizing a room a month.  Next up:  Gus' room and office.

Thanks for reading,

Kristin

Great Aunt Helen's May Basket Jelly Roll

My Great Aunt Helen, who started the Norske Nook in Osseo, gave me a recipe many years ago for a May Basket Jelly Roll.   I was invited to a potluck affair this weekend, found the recipe and decided to whip it up since I had the ingredients and I did not want to go to the store.  Not only was it super simple, quick, cheap and delicious - but it was also very pretty.  This week I plan on making a few more so the kids can do a surprise "May Day" drop-off but I plan on trying poppyseed and lemon next.

Here's the recipe:

May Day Jelly Roll

4 eggs
1 1/3 cup sugar
7 tablespoons water
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/3 cups flour
1 1/3 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoons salt
Enough powdered sugar to lightly cover a small dish towel

1.  Preheat the oven to 375.  In a large bowl bet the eggs until thick, then gradually beat in the sugar.

2.  Beat in the water and the vanilla all at once.  Then add the flour, baking powder, and salt at once and beat just until smooth.

3.  Prepare the jelly roll pan by lining the sides and bottom with wax paper.  Pour the batter into the prepared pan, and bake for 12 to 15 minutes.

4.  Cover the dish towel with powdered sugar and flow the jelly roll from the cookie sheet upside down onto the towel.  Peel off the wax paper, spread the cake with jelly (I used strawberry jam I made last year), and rolled it up.    Slice and serve.

May Basket Jelly Roll

May Basket Jelly Roll - Beautiful Once Sliced

And we are still skiing in Northern Wisconsin.  Greta got in another kilometer on the Birkie Trail yesterday.

Greta out for a ski 4/27 - through the mud puddles and all!

Oh, I am so happy with the recent shift in weather.  I'm finally blogging, reading, and putting together puzzles, outside in the screened in porch where I feel most at home.  And best of all I finally got out running and on my road bike.  Wooohooo!

Thanks for reading and Happy May Day (Wednesday)!

Kristin

More Financial Planning

MORE FINANCIAL PLANNING

Who ever thought financial planning could be so flipping exciting?  Seriously, I get a major buzz every time I save $20 bucks at the grocery store and up until 6 weeks ago I was paying full price for everything!  So, here's what I've done to gain complete control of our finances:

CREATE A BUDGET:

Man, this is a lot harder than you would think but from what I have learned it's crucial to designate every dollar you earn.  If you don't pay attention to your money, those that are paying attention somehow manage to wiggle your money away.  So, for the month of April here's a small snippet of our budget:

• Groceries - $1050 - plus $180 for school lunches
• Vehicle expenses - $600 (maintenance, insurance, gas)
• House Maintenance - $100 (we painted in April)

The point is to take in your revenue and deduct your expenses so it equals zero so you know exactly where every dollar is going.

The hardest part for me -  I neglected to calculate (o.k. I forgot) how much money the kids would need for field trips, book orders, school potlucks, baseball, track etc.   But, I'm new to this so I hope to do some better planning for May. 

SPEND LESS:

Now this is the part I'm SUPER excited about.  For the month of April I set aside $1050 for groceries but ended the month spending half as much - just $575!!!!  I saved over $180 in grocery store coupons alone.  I'm not going to lie - it takes organization, time and zero ego but it's well worth it.   So, if you see me at the store avoid my line because I'm holding everyone up behind me!  And, just so you know - I'm still buying organic whole foods but for less money (another tip - I buy my organic apples, organic potatoes, and organic salad all at Aldi's for a fraction of the cost as many grocery stores).

I even managed to buy these super fun shoes (you won't believe this)..........................................for $4.00 at JCPenney.

Check out my hot new shoes - only 4 bucks!

I've been getting my coupons from 3 main apps:  coupon.com, retailmenot, and snipsnap. 

MAKING CUTS:

So in addition to shopping with coupons, I've given up many things over the past 6 weeks and I'm still fine.  It's not that I'm broke or in the poor house, but I have one goal and that's to GET COMPLETELY OUT OF ALL DEBT and to do that I need to make a few sacrifices!  I've had student loan payments for so long (my husbands too) that I feel like Sallie Mae is part of the family.  With my new focus on living debt-free I know I can kill off  my nemesis Sallie Mae and I'm VERY happy about it.  And guess what, by the time this is said and done I will have paid longer on my Sallie Mae loan than on my house - how messed up is that.

Here's my cuts to date:

• Backroads Coffee - When I step into Backroads in the morning it's like stepping into Cheers (hey, Norm I mean Kristin) only it's 5:45 in the morning.  But, guess what - I'm making coffee at home, I'm surviving and it's shaving 15 minutes from my day
• Kombucha - I developed a pretty expensive Kombucha daily habit but I ordered a mother mushroom online and I'm making it myself and saving TONS of money
• Eating out - I would eat lunch out one time per week (usually Thursdays) but I also eliminated that from my budget.  I would also take the kids out for a treat once per week (i.e. ice cream) and we've limited that to once per month.
• Paying retail - is something that no longer happens in my world
• Credit cards - I can not tell you the rush I felt from cutting up my Amazon, Younkers, Old Navy, Macy's and Scheel's credit cards.  It took me about 2 weeks to do it but once I did I felt a total sense of relief.  No more temptation! 

I have a lot more to share about my new found financial plan, but for fear that this will get too long I will save the rest for another day.

Guess what I did today?  I skied in the morning and laid out in the sun in the afternoon.  Only in Wisconsin.

Skiing with friends this morning (4/26)

Soaking up the rays this afternoon (4/26) - look at our snowy yard!




 

What tips do you have for staying on budget or saving money?  Have you ever skied and laid out on the same day?  C'mon - you have to admit that's pretty cool?!

Thanks for reading,

Kristin