Late Bloomer

So since today is the last day of spring, I guess I'd better get in gear and spring clean! My motto for this afternoon. "Don't love it? Don't need it!" I have picked up the girls' room, and although I didn't purge as much as I wanted, it at least looks tidy. Hopefully I can go through more toy bins tomorrow if the sun decides to grace us with her presence. See, today Josh proved once again that I hit the jackpot when it comes to husbands. He moved and assembled the trampoline in the rain! On Father's Day! Dude, he rocks!!!! That means if the sun is out, so are the girls and I can do some real damage without a ton of resistance.

We have to be completely out of our other house by July 15. That means no more free storage. I thought I did a pretty good job editing what we needed, but I was wrong. I go over there once a day at least to get this or that. I am struck by the idea that in reality, there is no way we NEED all this stuff! It makes me feel like a High School Junior that just finished "Walden" for the first time. "Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! I say let your affairs be as one, two, three to a hundred or a thousand...We are happy in proportion to the things we can do without."

It sounds so great in my head, but then I find I want something I've gotten rid of and I kick myself in the butt for being so impulsive. In the end, what do I really need? Do I need a bread machine, a George Foreman grill, 2-18 gallon tubs full of yarn, 3 different kids of hair spray? Hairspray at all? Why the Depression mentality? Is it better to be simple or well-prepared?

A while ago I made a list of what I wanted in life. Then I wrote down what stood in my way to having those things. Next I tried to make a plan to get rid of these road blocks. Three quarters of those obstacles were fixed by having a clean, uncluttered house. So every once in a while, I get motivated to start, only to get sidetracked for a good six months. I pray this time is different. Watch out guitar- I swear one day I will master you! But to get there, I gotta run and tackle our bookshelf.

Keeping track

I was so amped to keep track of my receipts and then lost them. Pretty sure the first week we spent around $75, but then this week I was probably closer to $225. I can't find all receipts (shocker!), and after talking to my friend Camille (who has an amazing blog) I might try to keep track for an entire month and average it out. SOOOO..tomorrow starts day 1 of the 30 day challenge. I'm not positive, but pretty sure the challenge will actually be keeping all those receipts long enough to log them in somewhere. Oh, and I better go splurge on some big products today! (just kidding, I will wait until tomorrow and be honest).

ok,ok, really, now I am going to post

So ,I always wait until something "exciting" happens to blog, so you know, I never blog! Everyday things happen and then the next thing you know, it's tomorrow. So I have decided to blog again for several reasons. 1)to get out all my "unimportant" thoughts so Josh doesn't have to listen 2)Josh's aunt Cris thinks I should ;) 3) I would like to work on my writing skills. I LOVE to talk, and communication is surely one of my strengths (did I mention I married a saint?) but when I was asked to contribute an article, I drew a blank. I have plenty to say, but can I write it? So here goes another attempt.
My thoughts for today: Food budget.

I try really hard to keep this part of our budget down, and haven't given it too much thought lately, but today I read a challenge that got the wheels turning again. The challenge was to post how much we THINK we spend on food each week (including coffee and going out), keeping all our receipts for one week and report back in again with our ACTUAL total. Now most people know that I am extremely competitive, so I will admit I was tempted to guess high, just so I could look good to complete strangers when I spent less. Ridiculous to say the least. So I guessed as close as I could, and we will see where the chips fall. Because it is for my benefit that I do this challenge, not theirs. I know that my major weekly shopping trip is almost always on budget, but then I go to other stores for sales and the next thing you know, I've spent two weeks worth in one. I justify my expenses because I bought sale items, but who needs 32 boxes of cereal at any given time? Apparently, we do! We have been getting better at "shopping at home". We are selling our house and live in a rental in our neighborhood. I am lazy by nature and the new owners don't move in until July, so we kept our full freezer and a bunch of dried goods at the old house. Each week (and as needed) I go to the other house with my list and go shopping. It is actually kind of fun in a weird sick way. I'm not sure where I got the depression mentality of border-line hoarding food (OK, so it is TOTALLY my mom!), but I am trying to break the cycle.

My other downfall/awesome-ness (depending on which family member you ask) is my need to try new recipes everyday. I'm not kidding, I would say on average we have something new, either main dish, side dish, vegetable, or dessert (total side note: every time I read or write the word "dessert" I hear in my head, dessert has two ses-is that right?-because everyone wants seconds of dessert) 3-4 times a week. The only things that we have had multiple times is: spaghetti, meatloaf, baked ziti, honey baked chicken, grilled chicken, anniversary chicken and tacos-beef and pork. The good side, as Josh likes to point out is that our kids try a ton of new things. The bad side is that even if you love something, who knows if it will ever be made again and many times, I have purchased some weird ingredient/spice only to never need again.
So I am in on this challenge. I think we average about $150 a week on all our food/household items. I will let you know what we really spent next week.