I made it the whole week with spending $0 OOP. It was harder than I thought it might be. On the surface it sounds like it should be fairly simple. But there are so many things that just add up during the week. A lot of that I think also has to do with the fact that I am home with S most of the time. So I have the time to run out and buy things. Anyways so yesterday I did go out and buy a few groceries($24.xx and some stuff at CVS, used my ECBs and paid $3.24 OOP) The good news is that we had a yard sale on Sat. and were able to sell a LOT of the junk that was in our basement. And we made $200!! So I guess our emergency fund is about half-full including some other money in our account. The goal for the emergency fund is $1000. So that it can cover any unexpected bills without us having to charge them. But we are def. going to try and use cash for a while to pay for things. It seems so much worse to hand over cash then to swipe a card.
Update
So far the week has been interesting.
First off on Monday I discovered that we had no coffee in the house. This was no good. I NEED my coffee in the morning. So instead of running out and buying a cup I went to the Broadway cafe where P gets trade. So I got a pound of coffee, a cup of coffee, 2 oranginas, and a nutty girl sandwich which S and I shared for lunch.
Went to work Tuesday while BFF watched S. This is a normal thing that we do to save money and also so our kids can have some socialization time. I watch her baby on Fridays. I found myself with $104 in my wallet so I gave $100 to P to put towards one of our credit card bills. I didn’t realize how easy it was for me to spend that cash in my wallet on little things.
Today we ran out of milk. Luckily we had 10 empty glass Shatto bottles sitting around so I decided to take those and walk to the grocery store with S. We got $15 for them for the deposit. So I bought another bottle of Shatto, a dozen eggs from Campo Lindo, and some grapes. Total $11.44. So we still had $3.56 that we didn’t have before(except in milk bottle form)
Yes we buy the more expensive milk and eggs. They are both from local family owned farms that are hormone free and free range. The Shatto milk is one of the best milks that I have ever tasted and word is that they are coming out with cheese curds soon too. Campo Lindo eggs are also the best eggs I have ever had. Beautiful brown shells with the orangest best looking yolks. They also include a note in each package talking about their family, the farm, or what the “ladies”(the hens) have been doing. I just love it.
Ok dinner
Was some sort of lasagna thing. P made it. Not bad. Tasted like Hamburger helper but wasn’t. Pretty good actually.
Wow
I just realized how bad some of those previous shippers looked back when I was still in the “testing” phase and calling them Padfoots. O_o
I need to post some recent pics so you guys can see how far they have come. 
Alright just a few pretties-
A new week
So this week is a new week. I just got done working at the coffee shop and I have a new goal for the week. Partially inspired by Earth Day and partially inspired by our credit card debt which we are slowly but surely working off. So anyways here is my goal.
Spend Nothing Week.
Not on groceries(except for milk for S), not on entertainment, toys, CVS, etc. Nothing except the regular bills we have to pay and if we really need some milk, or groceries for S. Not a likely thing considering how much food we have in the house. I am looking forward to getting creative with what we have in the house as far as meal planning. I’m going to ~try~ to keep up on what happens here. If we successfully get through this week then I want to see how long we can go.
Today we got some CFL light bulbs for free. They are offering them at Home Depot now through the 22nd. No purchase necessary.
Dinner tonight I think will be some sort of stir fry. I’ll have to see what we have in the fridge/freezer. To be fair I will upload some pics of our stuffed freezer/pantry and etc. So you can see how much of a dent this week makes. I’m guessing it won’t be huge.
Fridge Freezer
Pantry
Why we won’t need to buy diapers.
CONGFU stocking Wednesday!!
I got tons of great shippers going up, most are up for previews right now!
These beauties aren’t up for preview yet..
Swag bucks
A search engine that pays in prizes. You can win “swag bucks” just by searching the web, later trade them in for fun stuff. I figured it doesn’t cost anything so why the heck not? They also have a program where you can earn “swag bucks” by trading in your old cell phones. I am going to have to scrounge around and see what I can find. Also if anybody who reads this blog signs up and wins from searching then I also get the same amount that you do! Yay! So if you won 2 then I would also. So why the heck not? I got time to search for stuff.
Another update(not that anybody reads this blog…) :-D
Ok so I opened up an online store. Here is the website-
My section is called Birdparty of course and I am offering up all sorts of fun stuff! We will have another stocking sometime in late Dec. or early Jan. So that is part of what has been up. Also I discovered facebook and had some oral surgery. S got her first fever but she came through it fine still it was quite scary for a little while. She is starting to get quite mobile and loves to take laundry out of baskets and put it back in. I really love having her! Sometimes I feel a little selfish in the fact that we don’t really want any more babies, but I just feel like life is perfect with her her, so why try to change that? I do miss her being a tiny squishy newborn but at the same time marvel at all the new and wonderful things she is doing now.
This Holiday season
As we begin the slow descent into the holiday season I am forced to begin thinking of presents for my loved ones. The thought of trying to traverse the sea of people out in malls, on the Plaza, and in the big box stores with a 7 month old is frankly a little bit terrifying. So this year I am making a vow to try and make most of my gifts for people, and if I am too lazy/not talented enough then I am planning on finding hopefully mostly WAHMs(work at home moms) to help fill in the gaps. I like the idea of putting my love and sweat into a holiday that is supposed to be about the love and thought when you give a gift not just the hot new item or what is convenient. So I am going to sign this pledge with the hope of honoring it.
My little gift
This is a stocking I made out of crazy red fun furry stuff. It was either going to be a stocking or an elmo costume, and since we aren’t big into the whole Elmo phenom.(at least not yet!) I though she would look cute stuffed into this stocking. P thinks that this should be her permanent stocking but it is HUGE! She would have a lot of stocking stuffers, but I always loved my stocking stuffers when I was at my dads house, so maybe we will continue the tradition of really awesome stockings. I need to make P and I ones then too right? Also Yo gabba gabba is an awesome show! In a couple years I have the feeling it is going to be big around here!
