Frugal Fridays

I talked a little about budgeting last month. We have our ‘blow money’ per month per person. That covers clothing, random stuff, coffee, drinks, snacks, make up, anything that is not a need, it is a want … it is our want money!

I recommend setting up a set amount of blow money first. Try that out, give yourself a few weeks or a month. If you try to do a whole budget to start with, it gets crazy hard and stressful! Start with last weeks post: blow money.

After you get that down, you may be amazed at how much you used to spend! Or how much you are now saving! The next step I recommend in budgeting is your food budget. For the first month, go easy on yourself! If you are used to going to the store several times a week, getting whatever you want, not using coupons, you are probably spending a lot on food! Set an amount per month or per week. Our budget is $250 a month. Most people cannot believe what all I can get for that amount! When we first started our budget, our food budget was almost twice that amount.

I divide it out to $50 a week, with the extra $50 for Sam’s as that is where we typically get our ground turkey, chicken, goldfish and a few other items. The key is to be reasonable, if you have lots of money left over at the end of the month … great! But start off slow and keep it going! Once again, use cash! It is so easy to just pull out the plastic and not record all your purchases.

Try those two steps … next week you will want a pen and paper!

Little joys, little potty breaks and little prayers

If there is one thing I am learning, or trying to learn, it is to focus on the little things. Joanna is doing a good job as my teacher, it is amazing what I have learned from that little girl! I have always focused on the big things. The big tests or assignments, big goals, big events … the things the world focuses on. It’s the little things though that are so much fun, and things that I do not want to forget. I love the little blessings that God and Joanna send my way.

Joanna’s eyes light up with chocolate. I love how she will see a little kiss or a little M&M and say, ‘ohh!!! Chocolate milk!’ It is so cute, everything chocolate is chocolate milk. She is learning chocolate cake and chocolate candy, but it is so cute. I love how she gets so excited, she is her mommy’s girl!

We had an Easter egg hunt at the church the day before Easter and she was so funny. She would see an egg, gasp, then run over about five eggs to get to the one that she saw. She would shake the egg, checking for ‘tandy’ and run off for more. Her eyes will light up with each egg, each little treat.

Easter Sunday, she was so excited to wear her dress. She loves dresses, ‘ohh, pretty dress,’ is commonly heard on almost a daily basis. She is a little girl for sure! But after church, she was happy to get outside with Daddy to water the garden. She got her own little watering can in her Easter basket that day and did a great job watering, while also trying to get her head under Daddy’s hose. She was so cold and so wet, but had so much fun!

Potty training has also been an adventure. Joanna is a trooper. She is doing very well and on most days will have dry panties all day, sometimes one accident, with the exception of bedtime. I love how she will sit down, start to pee, and she has the cutest little surprised face that turns into a huge smile!

She had her birthday a week ago and it was so cute seeing her so excited. I made her a ‘Bob cake’. It was hard, it almost ended up in the trash can, but when it was done and she saw it, her little eyes lit up.

It is so encouraging to see her pray. We were at our neighbors house today and she just bowed her head, held her little hands and mumbled a cute little prayer when she saw our neighbor eating. So sweet, and such a good reminder.

It does not take much to see those big brown eyes smile. Goldfish, a sucker from ‘Pa(stor) Frank’, checking the mail, seeing her friends, walking into the toy store, going down the slide, bubbles, birdies at her bird feeder, thunder, rain puddles, any puppy dog, ‘popSICles’, ‘car carts’ at Krogers, painting, VeggieTale movies, singing ‘If your happy and you know it’, playing the piano, cleaning up her ‘puddles’ from the carpet, washing her hands, getting on my bed, getting up in the morning just to say ‘goo morring’!

Everyday there is something that she loves, and it is never a new car, money, or diamonds (although she thinks they are pretty!). I want to start looking at the birds, at the park, at the bubbles, and think how blessed I am. Not only to have so many fun things, but for a God who created them all, and created a fun little girl to enjoy them all with as well!