Most Sundays I make a muffin or pack some fruit, or bake some cookies for the kids to share, if I have time I pack extra for my husband and I to share, only half the time there is no class for us to share it with, but that is beside the point.

This week, again, I ran out of time, err procrastinated to the last minute, and I had nothing to take to the adult class. Which left me VERY hungry, and I am sure DH was in the same boat. (we eat alot, going from breakfast at 7:30 to home for lunch at 11 is way to long for us!)

I can easily double a batch of muffins, but I have only enough pans for 3 Dz mini muffins and half a dozen big ones, which 6 is not enough to share, and cutting a loaf is not a very good idea, too many crumbs.

So either I need to not procrastinate and bake twice, or I need more pans. Or I need an alternate snack (still frugal)

Wy am I stuck inside? cause my kids have the snots, sniffles, whatever, nothing to drastic, but enough to keep them in on a sunny but chily day. I hate that! and I have no desire to save money, make homemade treats, dinner, or whatnot when I am cooped up with kids!

Nto to mention when I have too snug jeans I can usually say "I am working on it" well I dont appear to be working on it, I seem to be sitting at a computer (with baby in hand)

No offense to Nate but I really have a problem when I have 20 minutes on a computer spending 5 hunting up the blogs I check on the most! So I am finding a solution! (really has been a bit of a motto since having kids, find solutions not problems)

My husband and family really like playing with magnets, the not so new building kind. So I decided to expand our collection for Christmas. We had one set like this(only green):


But 50 is not enough, so I searched around for more, I found a huge set at a great price:


But I can't build a dodecahedron out of it!


(my sons request. I can't even build a proper cube, it collapses! The plastic rods are not strong enough.

So cheaper was a waste of cash...

Aren't I supposed to be saving for a rainy day? well this is a rainy day, and it is misearable! The kids arn't really listening, my newest is cranky, I am tired, and DH spent the night having nighmares!

So what is the money for? Is saving for a rainy day an old reference to when a job depended on the weather? Silly that a phrase I have used so often I don't really understand.

I did some searching online, and while I found lots of advice on how you should save for a rainy day I found no information on why.... (about the rain, not why on saving in general, that advice abounds online).

Might be a product of the modern world but honestly I am less likely to spend money in the rain. (cept on heatng up hot chocolate!) I don't want to go anywhere and I have to force myself to do anything (like dishes)

So I dragged the family off to Target yesterday, because I wanted mini muffin paper cups. To be fair it has been awhile and I do make muffins a lot. Plus we save on me making the muffins not buying them. But while we were in to get two packs of 2$ papers, we had to check out hair stuff for my DD and seeds for easter, and we almost got way more. I suppose I should be greatful that all we spent was $14, but I would be happier with $4. (the cost of the papers)

a machine like ours.

After a couple months of making yogurt we have learned a few things.

1. We need more milk! over 4 cups a batch, and a batch lasts roughly 2.5 days.

2. A tablespoon of powdered milk in each batch helps it be smoother (mix in before heating)

3. Cook past the 185 point, reducing the milk leaves a creamier sweeter taste.

4. Never mix powdered milk after cooking! Not a good taste (to us)

5. Remove the 'skin' from atop your milk before you mix in your starter.

6. Mom is still a wuss and wont eat it!

I am gonna be in trouble!

JC comes out of her room yesterday all happy "it matches” It was a shirt and pants, of two complimentary shades of pink. (That is a word I thought I would never use for clothes!)

Now to understand the trouble you have to know I am one of those people that only wears the basic colors and only in solids, I don't trust my fashion sense! I say I only wear what I have liked for years cause I like it, but also because I am done trying to figure out what looks good on me! I have half a dozen basic outfits that work and no luck experimenting!

This is incredibly frugal, I have no real clothing envy, only fashion sense envy! Which is not fixable with cash, so no real worry about me blowing the budget on clothes! But now I have a daughter who loves clothes, and actually seems to know what matches, I could be in big trouble as she grows and learns clothes can be bought, they don't just come from Grandmas!

I knew what I was making and I had a plan, stick the beans in during lunch, well miscelaneous children interfered, for one reason or another. But thats ok there is still naptime, well... I forgot! totally and completly forgot! I got first one kid than the next to sleep, then I did some schoolwork with my son, and then my daughter woke up, so she got to do some some schoolwork, then they both got turns on the computer, and, and and...it is now too late to get dried beans cooked for dinner - Urgh!

So what shall we have instead?

How much milk can 2 growing kids and two adults drink! (one adult who is nursing a 4 month old) We buy 4 gallons every week, and this week we have half a gallon left! Half a gallon! it is Tuesday! We wont be buying milk till Thursday! (well if My husband gets his way he will stop on the way home today)

I cannot believe how mcuh milk my family drinks! We honestly limit it, one glass of water for every glass of milk (more for me) and it still is almost all gone in only 5 days! That is almost a gallon a day!

I need a bigger fridge! I can't imagine how much milk we will go thru when UE starts to drink it!

GMC puked yesterday after church (thankfully it was after, not in!) Then spent the rest of the lazy day avoiding food (anytime my kid refuses a meat I know something is wrong!)

Then last night he puked again, several times, I have enough laundry to sink a ship and I am tired! My 4 month old, UE, still does not sleep thru the night and has taken the habit of screaming in the middle of the night, I honestly never had to deal with that, fussing yes, screaming, only if I wasn't there (or later, like 6 or 8 months, both my older two went thru a bought of midnight screaming around then)

Then to top it all off, JC (my girl) wakes up having peed the bed, yet another load of laundry. I so hate washing sheets. though at least pee doesn't make me puke like puke does!

So while I was blow drying my curly haird son, I aimed the dryer over toward my Daughter, jsut to get a giggle. I found myself thinking about how that was a waste of electricity and therefore money. But it is soooo cute to see her giggle! And really I don't want to be so focused on saving money that occassional fun cannot be had. It was a fraction of a cent, and so cute! (I got my son to giggle to, two for the price of one!)

I am totally suffering from the desire to gorge after a long famine. We were doing so well to pay off all the CCs and now....Well I like cooking real food, not quick cheap throw togethers. I like buying fruit, not hoping that multivitamin does the trick. I like baking and sharing. I really hate hanging laundry, or rather I hate having it doen early enough to hang! I want to goof off online for the first hour, not switch laundry and hang a load!

But I am doing good on cloth diapers still, and we are still frugal with all that cooking, just not as frugal as we could be. In any event I am not going to need your tax money to pay for it, just might never own this house!

At the store yesterday we walked all around, and backtracked, cause I let my son be in charge of the list, which means we walked right past so many things we needed and had to go back for them! But he felt very important, so I don't mind.

Course my legs mind! I am tired, I am a wuss really I must be to think walking around a store for 45 minutes is work, 'course I had to carry my 18 lb kid for half of it, that is part of why I think it is work.

I am wondering if it counts as frugal fitness though, I would have done it regardless of my get in shape goal...

err we don't want to talk about it....

Actually we bought, grapes, apples, flour, and sugar, that was the budget, then we also bought cheese, pickles (splurge) grahams (splurge) milk, eggs, corn bread (I make lousy from scratch) and bounce.

Really not like we got that much splurging.

Most of the flour is to bake and share at church, the rest is all foods I think are healthy, and I don't want to cut just to pay off the house earlier.

Ok so I relly shouldn't complain, plenty of people in the north are in the middle of winter right now, and here I am with cold feet complaining about the weather which will be 65 or 70 mid afternoon. But I live in the south for a reason, I want summer here!!!!

Now ask me mid August and I will be desperate for winter!

I am cold, I want to dress my baby in less, My kids out the door faster and without wondering whihc coat is needed. I want to go outside more (burn calories!) and I want to stop having the winter sloth that effects me every year (I think they have a disease name for it now, something about lack of sunshine makeing people depressed, and stuff - I just get fat and lazy though, or well that and a bit depressed)

DH has said NO to the bigger car, and I understand why, I just don't happen to agree. But oh well.

Ok so I really do know that I do not need a bigger car, but Oh I REALLY want one. We have a car that seats 5, two adults in front, and three car seats accross the back.

But no one else, just us, which means I can't ask my niece to babysit, no way to get her home .

I can't have any friends of the kids in the car, no room.

I can't sit beside my baby to distract him on long car trips (like 5 hours to Bros, or 8 to Pgh) No room.

This sucks....

I am trying to get the stuff out of my 'uncategorized' group from the old format into nice neat categories, and in the process I am reading up on things about a year ago. Back when I thought I would be in debt for the rest of my sons childhood! I am still sure I will have hte house that long, but I have hopes of improving that.

I was also reading on how hard it was to get my grocery bill down, and now I am still complaining, so I guess not all has changed in the year!

I had a bag of fresh carrots yesterday so I shredded the whole lot. Only my son eats them raw, but we all like them in things. Last night was black bean fiesta, and I tossed in a cup of shreds, you couldn't even tell, but it tasted good.

Actually the beans were really good, not err, beany . I have no idea how I did that, but I hope I can repeat soon.

I also have plans to make carrot muffins with the shreds, and in the meantime I froze them, unfortunatly I don't have enough freezer containers to freeze that much, so I used ziplocks, my last two. I will have to get more, I would rather go with containers for reusability (no offense to ziplock washers, I just don't) but I like the flexability of the bag, cause I have to 'break offf' a chunk when I use it.

So yesterday we went to BJs and Foodlion, not bad for a total of 100$ Not great but better than last month, and it included two gifts.

But then we also went to the science center, for $37 plus 25 for dinner.

I also paid the phone bill, we spent 20$ in calls over the limit!!! No more talking to mom every day (sorry mom)

The good news is I grabbed a cloth diaper today, and am a bit more commited to spending less.

This is a good thing I am the only woman I know whos husband is generally smaller, but he is in great shape, and aside from around an inch when I am pregnant he has always been. (he is also the same height, so no extra width due to height.


The only excercise planned today is a trip to BJs for groceries, but luggimg around my 18lb kid should make it count!

I payed bills last night, still a rather large total in there, which is partly cool, but also partly hard to be frugal with!

The church we go to has a goal of raising 2 million to build a new sanctuary, I agree it is a need, their current one is too small, but I also don't see how they are going to get 2 million in addition to their monthly expenses!

One family talked about 10K extra for a couple families (2mil/10K = 500 families)

There are not 500 families in the church! There are prolly not 500 active members! I really think some common sense frugality is in order, but no one asked me.

When I had a CC debt looming over my head I was generally motivated, I would get discouraged but I was still motivated, now? well umm it ain't easy!

Getting up early to pay off a house in 24 years instead of 25 is not easy! well getting up period after nursing DS isn't easy period!

I need to write down the debt and see how to tweak the numbers to make me more motivated. Like DS will be out of college before I get the house paid off! Maybe if I figure out what extra we will have to pay to get it done before he is 18 or something. (I would love to do it in less than 7 years though, like the bible tine for debt)

I know I said this before, but It hasn't moved and I went and splurged! Well we did. I needed eggs to make brownies, so I suggested to DH we go to the store a day early, no big deal, or to much money, except we had to have dinner out before shopping! to the tune of 50$! what was I thinking! I know it is there and I wanted to splurge.

Then we went shopping I dunno how much yet, and we still have to get some things! Really I HAVE got to move that money!

On a plus note it gave me great satisfaction to buy the wipes at a1$ more a box, just because I had no CC debt, and I like unscented better. (why does it cost more to get unscented?)

So do you suppoise walking around carrying a 17lb baby counts as excersise for Thursday? I hope so cause it was all I got!

I got up at 5 and worked out, then I went to self.com to log it, and the food I ate aleady, well I am in the middle of the oatmeal now. But I think keeping track online will help me, and since my waistline is going the wrong way after my baby I need the help!

So far it says I burned 189 calories working out, dunno how accurate that is though.

Oh and I wrote out the check for the CC, no more huge numbers in the checking account, but what a relief!

Now normally I have good eaters, they eat what I put in front of them with little to no complaint, but on occasion I find a meal they devour as fast as I can dish it up, well not my husband, he never eats fast no matter how good! Anyway I have to write the recipe down fast so I don't forget it!(I made it up tonight - well based off of other peoples similar dishes, or at least what my taste buds rmember of them)

Parsley Potatoes: Warning-I don't do amounts!

1. Cut up and boil some potatoes (6?)

2. Add veggies when you can poke the potatoes with a fork but before they are done (I used corn, but I hope small green peas or cut up carrots would work too) (3 or 4 cups)

3. Drain then put back in pot with:
- 3/4 stick of butter (salted or not)
- onion powder (some)
- pepper (some)
- parsely (lots)

4. Mix together
-chicken boilion and
-2 cups boiling water (I used the kettle) and
-1 tablespoon cornstarch

5. Add above onto potatoes and vegetables warm up and serve.

I don't know what to do with the giant numbers in my checking account! i generally only break 1,000 when I get a check from DH, then I pay the bills and it is back to around 200, but I have the Federal return in the account and I am actually having to deal with huge numbers! (ok not that big, 3,000).

And why is that money still there and not off to pay the CC, which I keep saying I get to do? beacuase I keep forgetting to call for a pay off amount and address! really what a lazy procrastinating idiot I am!!!

Really only pregnant people clean at 1 am and I shouldn't be pregnant! I am nursing a 3 month old, I really shouldn't be...which leaves me crazy...hmm I might rather be pregnant.

I have no mold smell but pinky stuff in my tub, and spots on my windows. I am not sure what it is, but I don't like it.

I heard mold needs a 60 degree house to grow, I am wondering if my kids need 60 degrees or if I can turn the heat down again?

I think that is effecting my finances, I almost agreed to send DH to the store midweek (we go once a week to save on cost) Plus I am considering asking for a air purifier. Really I need to get healthy, and get my family healthy so I can stop trying to spend money!

On a plus note I actually made beans and did not ruin them! I am soo proud of myself, plus I made sweet potatoes for my little one to try. DH is happy he only gets sweet potatoes at thanksgiving or when my kids are babies! I really should work on that.