Here we go!

I know all you readers (all 4 of you ha!) are dying to know what my new project is that I mentioned the other day! Ok maybe not. I like to pretend.

Well, I've been excited all week to share it! It's a project that has been in the works for a couple months now, and I have kind of already started.

First the backstory. Two years ago I started learning about food and it's health benefits as well as the issues with a lot of processed junk out there. I immediately jumped into feeding myself and my family differently. We learned pretty quickly that our current grocery budget could not handle the mass amounts of produce and organic products that I was purchasing. So we increased it from $300 a month to $500 a month. That's going fine actually, and I still use that amount.

A few months ago I was in the middle of tending my first vegetable garden and I was learning more about growing our own food. Along with that I started reading articles about the cost of food and how to feed your family on less by growing food, shopping farmer's markets, and learning food preservation techniques. I started wondering if I could bring my grocery budget down to half the amount while still eating healthy and natural foods. I'm pretty sure I could do it by feeding my family boxed dinners and such, but that's cheating.

I had to think about this one for a long time. That's a BIG difference. But hey, I love a good challenge!

I'm gonna do it!

Is it possible? I guess we'll find out. How long will it take to get there? I guess we'll find that out too. Why am I doing this if our current budget works fine? I don't know. Maybe I will send it to our student loan every month and help that along.

In the future I may give myself a date as a goal, but for right now I'm busy just figuring all this out.

So far in the last couple weeks we've made jam and applesauce. Both were from fruit from our tree and Kris' mom's tree. So the fruit was free and the only cost was the jars, which we are able to use over and over so that wouldn't come from the grocery budget anyway. I regularly buy applesauce and so that will save me quite a bit. The organic applesauce from Costco costs us like $6 a month. If I can put back enough to last all year that would be amazing. That probably won't happen this year, but it's a process right?

We also got to pick loads of peaches and plums from a friend's house. The plums are in the dehydrator. (Nobody tell my kids that prunes are for old people, they love them!) And we are planning to can peach butter and sliced peaches. Neither of those are things I buy already, but they're delicious so that has to count for something!

This year we grew tons of potatoes and squash so that will help with the winter months. Plus, our house has a great storage room in the basement that will work awesome for keeping them!

I could go on and on...

But I won't. Not yet. One step at a time and we'll see where it takes us!

Adding Up

Remember our money jar I showed you a while back? Well, it got full and we cashed it in. Any guesses as to how much it was?

How does $225 sound? Pretty stinking awesome to me!

We put the cash in the bottom and we're on our way to filling it up again. I think by the time June rolls around we ought to be able to have two days at Lagoon and two nights in a hotel for our entire family. As well as cover our meals and spending money.

This could get addicting.

I think I'll go look under the couch cushions...

Home Sweet Home!

We did it! We found our dream house and everything fell into place perfectly and so now here I blog from my beautiful new living room. And I have a lot to say. And show you!

I don't have good house pictures yet (that's a project for the next week) but I can give you a sneak peak!

View from the back patio. My favorite place to drink my coffee.

On our first morning in the house I sat up in bed and saw this:

Living room.

Upstairs hallway. Those are built-ins at the end of the hall.

I love this laundry room. This is only half of it. Around the corner is the sink and more cupboards and drawers, a bathroom, and a door to the backyard.

We're getting nice and settled, and it's been so great. So much space and places to put everything it is strange! The kids are settled in their new school and loving it. And I've been keeping busy doing this: 

Making banana chips. yum!

Picking potatoes from our garden and apples from our tree.

Kris and I canned plum jam with the plums from his mom's tree! I've always wanted to learn how to can, but it intimidates me. A lot. We finally got brave enough to try and it wasn't bad at all!

And here's our new family member, who likes to keep me extra busy:

Her name is Zoey and she is 16 weeks old. We promised Kristian for over a year now that we would get him a puppy of his own. It was finally time to make good on that promise. She's a lot of work but it's been fun watching Kristian and her be best of friends.

I've got a new project on this blog that I will be working on. I've been planning it for a couple months now, but was unable to really work on it. Well, it's time and I'm so excited! I'll tell you all about it this next week!

Renting

I got my first taste of rental house shopping yesterday. Yuck.

There was finally a house listed in Filer, in our price range, so I hurried to look. Yeah, not worth my time. She had it listed as a 3 bedroom. Well, in my opinion, you can't count a large laundry room that lacks a door, etc. as a bedroom. At least where I come from you can't. And especially not for $750.

That was just one of the things on the bad list for this particular house.

Back to square one.

I think we will just stay put for a while longer. We're saving a minimum of $1000 a month where we are right now, and we'd only be saving $400 a month if we rent. We're going to reorganize and such to make it work better and stay put.

I feel like a kid though. And an adult at the same time. What a weird place to be.

The house we love is still in the running, I think we will just have to wait a while longer.

I can do this.

I can do this.

I can do this...

The Waiting Game

So here I am, STILL living with my in-laws. They are so wonderful about it all, I'm just READY to have my own house again. We haven't had any luck with finding another place to live. We've been talking with the guy who is selling the house we love, but he keeps changing his mind on things and it doesn't look promising now. There are no other houses in the area that we really want to buy. And there are NO houses to rent in our budget either. And it's not because I'm being picky. I would live in a trailer house at this point if there was one available.

Home Sweet Home!

The positive thing to this is that our savings account keeps growing and growing!

Speaking of growing...(nice huh?) we planted our garden and it is AMAZING! A little big, but so far we are handling it ok. We have 4 150 ft. rows of potatoes. A 125 ft. row of various veggies (lettuce, onions, cucumber, tomato, jalapenos, peas, and green beans). 2 75 ft. rows of corn. And a 50 ft row of pumpkins, squash, and cantaloupe.

I am out there everyday weeding it! It's so fun to watch everything growing and thriving. This year I am going to learn how to can stuff. I want to be able to put back a bunch of food to last us through the winter. I will have to use the farmer's market to get enough, but by buying in season that should work fine.

I would like to cut my grocery budget in half, or close to half at least. Hopefully this will be a good way to do it.

I have to admit, I really enjoy when life is simple like this. When I simplify my life I am a better, more calm person. That's better for my kids and my husband (and my in-laws!). This school year I am going to cut back on what I volunteer for. I was way over-committed this last year and we all suffered for it.

We're learning and growing. We're saving money. We're keeping hope alive that we'll get a house soon. God is good!

So now what?

I hate making decisions.

I hate it even more when I make a decision and then need to change my plan.

I think that may be where we are right now. Only thing is, I'm not totally sure. We were so excited to be putting all our money toward our last debt, and watching the color sheet on the fridge fill up. And then the neighbor gave us a tour of his house. And we LOVE it. And it meets almost all of our criteria. And he wants to sell it this summer.

So now what do we do?!

If we send everything to our student loan, there will be no down payment to buy this house. We still are not sure if the house will be in our price range. It is possible though. So for the moment we're left putting everything into savings again until we can decide what we should do.

Now every time I open the fridge, I look longingly at the thousand dollar bills on the color sheet. Then I count in my head how many we could color if we sent the money in. And then I go to bed every night thinking about how beautiful that house is, and how nice it would be to have our own space again.

I guess I will just have to wait this one out.

From Frustration to Finally

We've been a little busy lately turning this

Into this

and then this

Sorry for the bad pictures. I really need to learn how to load pics from the camera onto the computer.

So, it's been a bit busy and I've neglected this thing a bit. Let me tell you, I've had a lot to say though.

For starters, I've been so frustrated with our finances. And our lack of a house. And my car.

a.k.a. the money pit. 

It's spent more time in the shop in the last week than it has with us. And $1400 later, it's running good again. So much for our savings plan.

That's where all the frustration has been. Our savings has done more shrinking than growing in the last month and I was not responding well to that. But you can't avoid things like cars getting fixed, dental work, and doctor visits.

Last weekend was my lowest. Kris has been gone all the time working, and I was sick of nothing to show for it. I decided to look for a house. Thankfully, I didn't get very far before I was reminded via Pastor Jerry to stay the course. Back to waiting I go. But this time with renewed hope.

And for good reason. Something awesome was about to happen! Kris got his biggest paycheck yet, and we made our first large payment to the student loan! Finally! This is really going to happen!

We made a picture of our debt so we could fill it in as we go and see what it really looks like. This will also allow the kids to participate and see how it works. Each of the bills represents $1000, totalling the amount of the debt.

I'm happy to say that 3 and a half of those are now filled in! Hooray!  :)