wooo I DID get what I wanted!

a friend called me this morning and said a different walmart still had all the bath sets and lip gloss things I had wanted so the girls and I went there. they had toys on clearance already too so I got a few toy things for our youngest neice and a thomas for my youngest for later. We ended up getting the bath stuff and lip gloss things I wanted (little birthday gifts for the sitter's granddaughters and my daughter loves lip gloss and lip balm so she will get some for easter and her birthday. Also found the prettiest pewter angel ornament with crystals for the girl's sitter for next Christmas. She collects angels.




We also went to farm and fleet. They only had 25% off their toys but they had a ton of thomas stuff left so I got a take along Thomas and Percy for my youngest for later for $8 total. I was pretty happy about that. Mom is getting her the track for it so I have been on the lookout for the engine and cars.



We stopped at Family Dollar also. 50% off all toys $10 and up. I got 4 things $10 toys originally for $5. A soft Belle Doll for our youngest neice for next Christmas, a remote control truck for our nephew for his birthday, an Ariel Barbie for our oldest neice for her birthday (end of January) and a Christmasy Barbie for my oldest for next Christmas, we got a few ornaments there too.

Day after Christmas deals

I went to 7 stores throughout the day. We went to Christmas on my mom's side but I got up early this morning and went with mom and dad to Kohls and a Walmart. I got like 10 rolls of wrapping paper at walmart, a couple things of candy, some cologne sets for my brother and hubby for gifts for later, a little lip gloss disney princess purse thing for my oldest DD, a tote box for ornaments since our collection grew by a lot this year and some chistmasy colored take alongs food storage things for $1 per set. There are 3 or 4 in the set. I was going to buy a larger fake tree but when I mentioned that to mom she said not to because she would just give me her 7 1/2 ft because she only puts up a little one now. SCORE! We have a 4 ft now but our ornament collection grew so much this year that we need a bigger tree now. LOL. I scored huge last year at Sears in early January. They had a ton of Dora, Diego, Tigger, Disney princess, Tinkerbell, and Barbie ornaments for 90% off. I got sets of 4 for under $1 per set! They became gifts this year since I get the girls and ornament or 2 (or more...if we find cute ones at the thrift store) every Christmas season. I try to buy things that fit their personality and interests that year and if they don't already have the year, I write the year on them with a sharpie real small.  We also went to breakfast.  That was Delish!  A meal where I didn't have to tell someone to eat; just try a bite; how do you know you don't like it?, you eat eggs all the time; what do you mean you are full, you ate 2 bites?!?!; stop fighting with your sister and EAT! 




At kohls I only got 2 ornaments for the kids. I didn't see anything that was priced good enough for me to bite.



After visiting at my grandpa's, the kids and I stopped at a Walmart. I got the girls some stickers, and we got a few grocery things. Mainly we went to decompress from the mass of people at Grandpa's and to check on the Christmas clearance there but there was not a lot left at all and it was surprising not very busy. We got gas and dinner in that town.



We got back on the interstate and we had gone about 10 miles when my oldest said she had to go to the bathroom. We went before we got back on the road so I asked her if she could hold it for a little bit. The next exit was 15 miles and there was a wayside coming up (in the middle of nowhere) but because it was just me and the 2 kids and starting to get dark, I really did not want to stop there unless I absolutely had to. She said she could hold it longer so we just got off at the next exit and walmart was right there. We went into that Walmart and she went. Then we checked out the Christmas clearance again and the girls found a couple ornaments they liked and I found some pj pants for $5.



Our final exit from the interstate there is a Kmart and the girls were tired of riding so we stopped there and ended up getting a set of ornaments, some boxers for DH, a Thomas Train for my youngest, a barbie lip gloss set for my oldest, a couple more of the barbie sets to put away as gifts, everything was on clearance and they had an additional 20% off clearance toys so the Train was only $7. O is really into trains...big time!  she was so excited about her Thomas she wanted to sleep with it.  I think I might call my MIL tommorrow and tell her about them and then have her pick up the others.  For $7 a piece, they can become birthday presents later :)



After the kids were in bed, I needed some alone time, so I told hubby I was leaving for a bit.  I went to Pamida and got a couple keepsake ornaments with 2009 on them. They are pewter with crystals. Really cute and kinda pricey for me (even clearanced they were $4.50 each) but I had a really hard time finding ornaments with 2009 on them for some reason. I also got my mom a wooden snowman decor thingy. She collects snowmen so that will be perfect and only $5. Their clearance was 70% off a lot of the Christmas stuff. They are really pricey so I don't shop there very often but I do check out the clearance. I stopped by Walgreens and I found a couple things but didn't buy. They had a lot left so I will wait and see if they go lower. If I don't get them, no biggie. They are just things for the sitter for her Birthday and stuff. She collects angels.

Christmas is over

Hooray!  I sincerely love Christmas but I am so glad when it is over.  We do have one more get together that we are supposed to attend but depending on weather tommorrow, we may skip it, as it is a 3 hour round trip drive on roads that I drive once a year.  Besides the drive, it is with family that I don't necessarily care that much for (with the exception of a couple people) and we generally stay for an hour tops and then hit the road...4 hours of my time spent driving and visiting with people that I don't care to see...whatever.  I went last year.

One thing I am not skipping though (barring a dramatic weather change overnight) is my traditional after Christmas shopping.  Mom and Dad did decide to go so I am headed out with them at 5:30 AM.  R says I am crazy but even if mom and dad weren't going I was going to go alone.  I really need a break from the family for a few hours.  I love my kids and my hubby but I am in dire need of some time without someone asking me for something or whining, crying and fighting.  Tis the season.

Should have posted this yesterday

I will still have a job after Christmas.  I was a bit worried because that is what I do.  My boss saw no reasons to let me go so I will still be working part-time for 2010 until we meet our goals, preferrably by the end of October.  I said Thanksgiving previously but R is hoping for a end of October quit date for me.  I do enjoy my job and would like to stay on but this year's Christmas season was a bit rough on the family and that comes first.  I imagine next year will be the same or worse so I will continue on with the plan as it is now....always subject to change though :)  just the way it is for us anymore.  I intend on leaving there on a good foot so I can go back when both kids are in school and possibly work something out with before school and after school care for the kids.

We had a fairly lowkey Christmas with my parents this afternoon at their house.  It was nice.  I am glad they downplayed it more this year than in years past.  It has been an overabundance of gifts in years past and this year was much more tame.  Although I did miss the big dinner and all the trimmings.  Mom had to work last night and didn't feel like cooking a big meal (we still had a pretty decent meal of prime rib, baked potatoes, and corn). 

Tommorrow is our little family Christmas.  One gift each for R and I from the girls (slippers for me...shaving set for R) and the rest is about the kids.  Then we go to the inlaws for Christmas with them. 

Saturday is my most favorite day of the year.  The after Christmas sale day!  I love this day.  It is also my mom's birthday and it is a tradition for her, dad, my brother and I to go shopping.  I am not sure if my brother will be going this year but the rest of us are.  The kids will stay home with R.  We hit the stores and then go out for breakfast.  I am looking forward to it.  On my list this year is wrapping paper (I ran out!  Shocker!), some of the bath sets that are clearanced (they had some really cute ones that I will not pay $10 for but I will pay $5..make great birthday gifts!), some ornaments (still have to get the 2009 year one for the girls but I wait until after Christmas to get them).  I really want to get O a train ornament of some sort.  I wanted to get her a Thomas one (the kids LOVES trains!) but after seeing her eyes light up at even just a train on the tracks not moving, I figured that any train ornament will do.  K has been big into Hannah Montana this year so I would like to get one like that for her.  A new tote box for just ornaments.  I started collecting ornaments for the girls when they were born, 2-3 each year, and have amassed quite a collection now.  I get them each one with something they are into (trains, barbie, hannah montana, etc.) and then one with the year for sure and usually they pick out one or two when we visit the thrift store.  Our tree is a hodge podge of different ornaments, some mine, some K's, some O's.  It's pretty cool though.  I am also looking for a bigger fake tree but that is not necessary.  Our little 4ft Charlie Brown fake tree is ok but every single branch has at least one ornament on it this year.  You can hardly see the actual tree (which might not be a bad thing!).  I bought that tree the year Liv was born.  Our other tree got ruined in the basement and Rodney has just changed jobs.  We didn't have a lot of money and that tree was $10 at Family Dollar.  It was all I could afford to spend so that is what we got.  Even if I do get a bigger tree, I will probably keep this one and put it up but not fill it so full with ornaments OR I will not get a different tree, still put this one up and just get some garland to hang around the livingroom and hang ornaments on.  That would work too.  That is about all that is on my list this year.  If I see some other good deals I will probably snag some more gift type things for next year but I might hold off on that until later, when JCP, Old Navy and Sears do their big clearance sales in January/February. 

Merry Christmas! and our goals in the new year

First off  I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas.

and now for the financial stuff....LOL.

For the new year, I have set us up some pretty aggressive (yet doable) goals.

New furnace!  (original quote a couple years ago was $4500 but I have talked to some people over the last couple weeks and I am certain that this will be cheaper now.  I am still budgeting $4500 and the leftover will go to meet our savings goal)

Have at least $7500 in savings by next November...would like $10,000 but that might be pushing it.  Ultimately I would like to have one year of my income in savings (just over $11K by the end of this year), but I don't know that we can do that before we need to be able to accomplish goal 3....

Goal 3 is for me to be a SAHM before Thanksgiving of 2010.  There are a variety of reasons (some personal, some I won't go into this publicly just in case, and because I would like some time home with both my kids before K starts school...and once K is in school my current work schedule does not work with getting her to school and home from school.  That is a mess unto itself so I won't go into that here). 

In order for Goal 3 to happen we need to get the minimum of $7500 in our emergency fund.  We could do without it but I want to have the cushion.  Why $7500?  That is 7 1/2 months of just bills.  The reccommended amount in an emergency fund for long term is 3-6 months of living expenses (more savings is better).  For us the yearly total for our monthly bills and our annual and semi annual bills comes to just under $15K.  $7500 is half of that.  I did not budget in groceries or other stuff in that $7500 for a few reasons:

That money is for unemployment for R.  Should he lose his job, he would get unemployment.  Therefore I did not feel it necessary to budget in money for gas, food, etc in an emergency fund.  If we were in a bind we could use some of it to pay for groceries, etc.  I can feed us pretty cheaply when necessary so I am not worried.

We have the stockpile.  We can live off the stockpile for a while, only needing to buy milk, bread and some fresh veggies and fruit.  I continue to stockpile even now so having food would not be an issue.

Should we need it, there are various assistance programs.  I do not advocate using assistance as a lifestyle but as a helping hand.  I will say that I have used assistance in the past and I will again if the need arises.  With the budget I have set up and the goals I have set, we should not need assistance barring any unforeseen changes. 


so those are my goals in the new year.  I am currently checking out my local banks and figuring out which one (excluding our current bank) that I should use to open a new account for this emergency fund.  I want the funds to be more difficult to get a hold of but not so difficult that I can't get to them in a time of need.  The reason for picking a new bank for this account only is so I cannot just transfer it online like I currently can from our mini emergency fund.  It is so easy right now and I want to make it a bit more difficult on myself.  My intent is to use our current savings as bill paying but clear it out (minus the $100 minimum balance required) at the end of the month when the bills are paid and transfer that to our other savings at a different bank.

if you have a little extra money now....

Ha who does right?!? but seriously this could save you quite a bit in a month or so, so keep reading!

I got this in an email.  Here is my thoughts. 

I know Old Navy has an extra 50% off clearance sale in late January or early February (and again sometime in the fall but I have never shopped that one) so my thought was taking $50 or $100 (saving $10 or $20 respectively) and THEN using that gift card when they have the extra 50% off clearance sale. Not only would I save money when I got that gift card I would save money when I bought new clothes for the kids.  I have walked out of Old Navy before with $100 plus worth of clothes for $25.  So this way I could potentially walk out with $200 plus of clothes (which I could very easily spend because the girls are growing so fast and I could get a TON of Christmas presents for next year for our neices, nephew, my brother and my parents) for $40. 

Pretty cool right?!  Now I don't recommend doing this if you don't usually shop Old Navy or there is nothing you need there but if you do shop there regularly it is a good way to save some $$.

last minute Christmas stuff and more

I worked for a little bit today.  After work I got my hair cut and then spent the rest of the afternoon with my brother.  We went to Walmart.  I spent a little there.  Not much at all.  Then we went to Goodwill.  I got a purse and a like new wallet, some PJ pants for hubby and a "ho ho" (aka Santa) ornament for Liv.  After that we went to Dollar Tree, where I got the remainder of the stocking stuffers I needed for Christmas.  A few things for my girls, a pumice stone for my brother's girlfriend, and a few other things.  On the way home we stopped at my favorite bent and dent.  I am super excited because they installed a whole bunch of new freezers. They have a ton more freezer stuff now.  Hooray!  I get almost all of our frozen juice concentrate, fries, and pretty much all of our freezer things there.  I am wondering now though if they will raise their prices. hmmmmm

 It was fun spending the afternoon with my brother.  We haven't done that in a long time.

goals

With the lack of motivation to be at work, I decided to set new goals.  Goal 1 is to get 6 months of bills in savings...right around $7500.  Our monthly bills are actually just under $1000 but we wanted to get a bit more for LP and our life and car insurances.  Goal 2 is to get $5-6K in savings for a new to us vehicle when the time comes.  We can accomplish this quickly when we get our tax return.  I did a preliminary estimate of our tax return last night and we should get quite a chunk of change back.  Part of this will go for a new furnace and the rest will get put away.  The original plan was to get a new furnace and new siding but we are going to wait another year on the siding but we cannot wait on the furnace.

I was worried about my job and how losing it would affect our savings goals.  I don't know that I am losing my job but temps are done on 12/31 and I am technically a temp.  I was injured again last week so whether or not I still have a job is up in the air in my mind.  Then I got a call from hubby today and he is going to be able to start working 10 hours (or more) of OT in a week.  That will quickly help us meet our savings goals!

car is paid off!

wooooo!  I sent the payment early on Thursday, checked yesterday and it cleared my account so now I am down to just owing a very small amount on my credit card that I will pay off this week and we are DEBT FREE (except the mortgage!)  I am so happy!


The downside to knowing that I am debt free is that I do NOT want to be at work.  I do NOT need to be there for the money so I really really do not want to get up and go in or anything.  UGH!  makes it soo hard to do a 10 hour day.   I felt that way yesterday but today was even worse.  My body aches and I just kept thinking about how my car is paid off and I already made enough this week to pay off the credit card.  Why am I here?!? 

I am thinking that because way back when I was offered and decided to stay on year round at my employer, it was *just until the car is paid off*, now it is just until we have more in savings and then it will be something else I am sure.  I make good money and I do like my job usually.  The problem is that right now we are busy and we are working A LOT.  I do not need to work A LOT, I do not want to work alot but it is mandatory to do the extra long days and Saturdays.  UGH!  Once we slow down, it will get better. 

Hubby and I talked tonight and we *think* that I am going to end up quitting before we get to this problem next year.  We are having issues with the early start days and our sitter arrangement.  I cannot do another year of this.  It is too stressful on me and on the sitter so for now I am not planning on changing anything, just keep saving money and building us up a nice big savings account but before the Christmas rush at work next year, hubby and I have lots of talking to do.  :)

busy day

We dropped off the old vacuum and some other stuff at the thrift store this morning and got a receipt for taxes. When we were in there K found a brand new angel ornament and O found a Santa driving a tractor ornament that she HAD to have so I got them both. Then we went to Farm and Fleet (regional store...mostly farm stuff but they have an automotive section, clothing section, housewares, shoes and a seasonal toy section. They have the best old fashioned seasonal candies too!) We got dad a gift card there for new work overalls and got a few other things...like the BEST manual can opener EVER. LOVE it. It actually works!! (that is a whole vent I have to type up sometime). O lost her shoe in farm and fleet but some nice person turned it in at the courtesy counter. Hooray!




Then we went to Walmart to pick up my pics and get a couple other things. Ended up finding racks of clearanced kids summer clothes for $1 each. I got 11 things. 9 for the girls and 2 for my youngest neice. Hooded dresses, skirts and leggings. They had some long sleeve shirts too but nothing that would fit my girls. I usually don't buy Walmart clothes for the kids (zippered pjs, socks and underwear is all) because I have found that they don't last with how rough my girls are on stuff and I can get it cheaper through work or by watching sales at Childrens' place, old navy or JCP or even at the thrift store or garage sales but for $1 each I can't pass it up.



Then we ran to dollar tree and got some picture frames for the pics I had made. One for MIL, one for us and one for my grandpa. The other pics will just be given to mom and our sitter since mom got picture frames for Christmas and our sitter is picky about frames.



Then we had lunch with hubby and now we are home. I have some housework to do and then get ready for the next 3 days of work work work.