Just a quick hello

Now that the holidays are coming to an end I have one more commitment and then it is my hopes that I can start blogging again. I'll be leaving for a wedding later this week and once we get back I'm hoping things will slow down and I'll be able to get back to writing. Behaviors have settled with my daughter which is a good thing.

Christmas was good, but my children got entirely too much stuff thanks to grandmothers who love them so much. I've been working on cleaning the house so that when I get home I'll be coming home to a clean house rather than coming home to a mess.

Make it at home Monday - Christmas decorations.

The first year we had a Christmas tree I went out an bought a bunch of cheap Christmas decorations and they didn't last. This is not the way to be frugal. This year I decided that we are going to start from scratch and make our own and hopefully in a couple years we will have a nice stash of decorations.

This year we started with paper chains and popcorn chains. I had garland and bought 3 boxes of candy canes. This is what we have decorated our Christmas tree with. I honestly believe this is one of the most beautiful Christmas trees we have had.



What are you doing to decorate your house this year for Christmas? Any frugal tips for fun crafts for the children?

I didn't realize...

...how much time and effort it was going to take for me to homeschool the children. I'm still around and I'm still working on writing some post, but it amazes me on how little time I actually have to sit down and write. For all of you homeschooling bloggers out there you totally have my respect!

Magazine Christmas Tree

I don't usually do posts like this, but I thought this was the coolest idea to make Christmas trees out of old magazines. Make sure you check out this post on Just Like Martha's Blog. It's a really cute idea. When I get it finished I'll make sure to post a picture here. What a fun craft!

My Story Chapter 8.1

Shortly after our trip to Montana we moved into our current home. We stepped out in faith and moved before my husband had a job and before our current house sold because we found a home in our price range, that we really liked, and it had already been sold once and had fallen through. I know it wasn't the best financial move on our part, but if the children where going to stay with us we need to make some changes. We needed more room. We lived in a 3 bed room house with 6 children and with foster care regulation we would have to put Mercy and Angel upstairs (out of our room at 18 months) for the room to big enough for all of the girls. I don't think I could ever sleep with them being so far away from me at night. With in a month of our move Jonathan received a job offer and our house sold for $15,000 more than we bought it for. This was a huge relief as we where able to pay off a huge chunk of our debt.



The home we moved into was a 5 bedroom 2 story with a unfinished basement which could possibly be finished later. God blessed us with a wonderful home and lots of room to spare.

Most Recent posts elsewhere

I haven't had time to do much writing lately. You can find my latest post on Frugal WAHMs Talk Radio

Frugal Freezer Friday - What to do with Turkey

I cooked up two turkeys the day after Thanksgiving because we celebrated Thanksgiving with family and I didn't have to fix our own turkey. I would have only fixed 1, but the turkeys I picked up were smaller, so they both fit into my roaster oven. So far I have turned our turkey in to 26 meals and I'm not even done.



I've made the filling for 4 pot pies, I've made 6 cream of turkey and spinach soups, which I actually use over rice or pasta. I've also made 6 meals of cream of turkey and broccoli soup and 10 cream of mushroom soup with turkey broth, which I will combine with hamburger to make beef stroganoff, which is one of hubby's favorite dishes. Here is my cream soup recipe.



I have enough meat left that I planning on making some turkey salad for sandwiches, some meat for a few casseroles, and maybe even some turkey enchiladas. Here is a website with lost of fun turkey recipes.



What is your favorite turkey recipe? Could you easily turn it into a freezer meal so that you can treat your family later? It always amazes me how far you can stretch a turkey!

Working out the budget for next year.

With the end of the year approaching it is time to take a good look at our budget for next year and see how we can better work it to allow us to save money.



This year our monthly budget was $400 for food and $100 for the buying coop that we are in. I've decided that this year our budget is going to be $500 for food, toiletries and buyer coop. This is a little bit of a cut in the budget, but I also get a lot of our toiletries on in our food budget. It just means that I'll have to watch all of my shopping in one budget rather than 2.



They only things that I've decided that wont be included in this budget will be animal food and supplies and diapers. I wish I could fit diapers into that budget, but I don't think I can buy 4 babies worth of diapers and still keep it at $500.



I'm also actually planning to have $6000/year budget rather than actually sticking to $500 per month. The reason I am doing this is because I usually only go shopping 1-2 times per month during the colder months. Last year my budget during the winter was actually around $300 a month, while during the summer months when we could get out more it was closer to $400.



Another reason I'm going to be a little more flexible is because it allows me to stock up on items like turkey around Thanksgiving and corned beef around St. Patrick's Day, without putting too much strain on the budget.



Today sit down for a few minutes and evaluate your budget for next year, what changes can you make to your budget to help you save money?

Make it at home Monday - Turkey leftovers.

I know some of this information is a little late for Thanksgiving, but make sure to check out this post because it will give you some ideas for how to use up left over turkey.