March Challenge Update

Do you recall how I had a March challenge to clean out my freezer and use up as much of the food as possible?

Well, I have been working away at it and I am glad to report that the freezer is cleaned out!  I guess I didn’t realize how much food was in there.  There is no way that we could possibly eat all of that food in a month if we wanted to.  I guess that is a good thing.

Anyway, I finally bit the bullet on Sunday and unloaded the whole freezer.  I put all of the food outside of the freezer and poured hot water over the ice in there and let it melt.  I then took all of the wrappers and trash out, drained the water, tossed out all of the ice chunks, cleaned all of the junk out of the bottom, and wiped it all down and made sure it was dry and reloaded the food back into the freezer.

It feels good to get this done and off of my to-do list.  It has been there forever.  Making myself accountable on this blog is helping me to find the motivation to finish these things I know I should do, but don’t really want to do, if that makes any sense at all.

How about you, have you done anything lately that you didn’t want to do?

Ann

Freezer cleaned out

Freezer before

 

 

Freezer after

 

Freezer being defrosted

Sunday Night Chit-Chat

Thanks to Carla at My 1/2 Dozen Daily for hosting this every week.  I think I will join in!

That sure was a good book!

 

What..

• Are you reading:  A Secret Gift by Ted Gup.
  
• Are you watching:  America’s Funniest Home Videos
  
• Are you looking forward to this week:  Easy dinners as hubby is out of town.
  
• Is one thing you did last week that you don’t want to repeat this week:  Scrambling around the house getting it cleaned up before the guy came to measure for new carpet on the steps and hallway upstairs.
  
• Was your best moment over the last week?  My oldest son J, was named Salutatorian of his senior class!
  
• Is your #1 goal for next week?  Stay on budget with food and household.
  
• Song can’t you get out of your head?  Nothing, I’m not into music at all.
  
• Best/Worst financial decision over the last week?  My best decision was to stick to my grocery budget like it or not!
  
• Is something that you’d like to learn to do?  I’d love to learn to knit, but now is not the time.  Maybe in 5 years or so when life settles down some.

How about you, what are you up to?

Ann

 

March Update On $2500 For Christmas 2014

 

Well, here we are at the end of the first quarter of 2014.  In some ways it has been flying by, and in other ways (the weather) it has seemed to go by so slowly.

I am continuing to save for Christmas 2014.  I have had a couple of hiccups in my plan, but I paid myself back, and I am continuing to push forward.

I currently have $705 saved for Christmas.  Since this is the end of the first quarter, if I can keep this pace, I will meet my goal!

It is really hard for me to save and not touch it, but I am slowly learning discipline and  that is always a good thing.

I keep telling myself that there will be no Christmas spending stress this year.  That I can give to all of those good causes that I see, and it does help keep me going.

How about you, are you saving for Christmas?  It’s not too late.  Join me and so many others out there who are trying to have a stress-free Christmas.

 

Ann

5 Frugal Things That I Did This Week

Thanks to Melissa at House Full of Searls for starting these posts.

1.  I only shopped minimally and I was $50 under budget on my groceries!!!

2. We were on Spring break and although we took the little kids out one day, we spent the rest of the week spring cleaning and hanging out close to home.

3.  I took all that wanted to go to the YMCA to use the membership that we already pay for and they had a great time.

4.  I took 3 free chicks from a teacher at school to help replace the ones that disappear periodically.  Chicks are $3.oo and up around here, so $9 savings.

5.  I cleaned out my van and used the vacuum at home to clean it instead of paying $5 or more to do it at the car wash in town.

How about you, what did you do that was frugal this week?  Do tell!

 

Ann

Spring Break and Spring Cleaning

Sorry I’ve been missing in action, but for good reason.  We have been spring cleaning.

I certainly don’t love doing it, but I sure love having it done.

Well, it’s not all done but we have cleaned 2 of the bedrooms.  Only half of the kids are off this week, the rest are off the week before Easter.   We will tackle their room that week.  It is kind of nice to break it up.  Anyway, we washed the walls, the woodwork, took posters off of the walls, dusted, vacuumed, and changed the sheets.  It feels good to get that done.

The kids are enjoying their clean rooms.  I wonder how long it will last?

Today we taking a field trip to Bass Pro Shops, eating out for lunch, and seeing a movie.  The little kids are looking forward to having a fun day with Dad.

Are you on spring break?  Are you being productive?

Ann

Chess Tournament

These two cute guys are participating in a chess tournament tonight and tomorrow. I’ll see you all on Monday.

New Deadlift 3 Rep. Max

Here I am doing my new deadlift max for 3 reps.  It was sooooo hard.  I keep watching and I can see the strain on my neck and on my face.  Wow.  It is pretty cool to see it on video in order to analyze where I need to improve.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=a-f4U3uW9II

How about you?  Are you doing anything hard today?

Ann

Random Pictures

Here are some random pictures that I have taken over the past couple of weeks.  I have lots of pictures of the little kids, but none from the bigger kids.  My husband must have them on his phone.  I’ll have him send them to me so I can get some of their activities up here on the blog.  There is never a dull moment with 7 kids!

L sitting on a stump

Waiting for the Lego Movie to start

A’s toothless grin

S as George Washington for History Hat Day

T’s 3rd place finish in History Fair

L reading herself to sleep

S as Wilbur in Charlotte’s Web for Fictional Character Day

S racing to the finish after a 1 mile fun run

I Ran A 5K Yesterday

Here I am in the blue shirt finishing up the 5k.  The time on the clock was the gun time, not my chip time.

I finished 64th out of 116.  There were 116 runners and walkers.  As usual I was the middle of the pack.  I finished with a chip time of 35:28.  It was a slow and painful run for me.  My best time is a 32:48.

How can I run 8 miles one week and it doesn’t hurt like running a 5k can a week later?

I pretty much have one speed.  Slow.  11:05 per mile isn’t too bad for me.  The sad thing is that my 5k pace is only 25 seconds faster than my half-marathon time.  How can I run for 13 miles at a certain pace (11:30) and then cut that mileage down by 75% and only improve my time by 4%?

Anyway, I was reminding my friend running next to me that the reasons that we run are for fun, for health,  and for exercise.  We don’t really run for time.

But it sure would be nice to turn on the gas once in a while!

5 Frugal Things That I Did This Week

Melissa at House Full Of Searls, posts her frugal adventures, so I thought I would too.

1.  We ate at home all week and we didn’t waste any food.

2.  I didn’t shop at all other than food shopping and I stayed in budget 🙂

3.  I worked on my goals and I had to stay home to do them.

4.  I made a loaf of bread in the bread machine to use up some candied fruit that we had in the refrigerator.

5.  I made vegetable soup out of some older veggies that I needed to get rid of and it turned out great.

What about you, what did you do to save money this week?