Day 132-133

Monday
Ryan - I have to admit a weakness of mine. When buying things, I prefer the expensive and/or the shinny cool thing over the cheap dull looking thing. For example, On Christmas Eve, I had to buy a new mouse for my work computer, because we had accidentally washed the other one and then I broke it trying to fix the wheel. Anyways, I found the exact model of the one I use to have, and then I saw a cheaper one that pretty much did the same thing as the one I use to have. Well at first I pretended not to notice it (i.e. ignored it) and proceeded to get the one that I thought was cool looking. Then  but I knew I was being materialistic and I thought of our goal and said, I can't, so I picked the cheaper one. Of course I felt disappointed, but It was the right choice. These are the things I need to fight. This will be a big savings if I can master this impulse.

Tuesday
Ryan - Well we didn't go shopping over the weekend and so selections were pretty slim. Luckily I made some pasta the night before and so I packed that for lunch. We were out of Oatmeal and had no milk for cereal, so I just guzzled a glass of OJ and took some snacks to tide me over til lunch.

Savings:
$6 (Cheaper mouse) + $6 (Lunch at work)
Total Savings: $3693.60

Day 131

Ryan - Well we survived the hardest part (upto date) of our goal. It will fun to actually get Lizzy and neighbor's some gifts. Being Sunday, the family was still sick, so only I went to church and of course no spending too.

Day 130

Merry Christmas!!!!!!
Ryan - Well even if we wanted to, we couldn't spend money, because nothing is open. Whew.
We had fun Christmas with the Mullen family and Grandma Switzer. Of course it all centered around Gracie and her reactions to the her gifts.

Day 129

Ryan - Well, it was nice to have the "day" off. I had to do some side job work, but by 11:00, the Christmas celebration began. We spent the day getting things ready to spend the night at Grandma Mullen's. The party started around 5 pm and it didn't stop until midnight for some, and 4 am for others. Gracie made cookies for Santa. Since I could not buy a gift for Lizzy, I made her a coupon book full of "Honey Do's". We'll see if she likes it.

Day 128 (Wednesday)

Ryan - Lizzy hasn't written on the for quite some time. In all fairness though, our whole family has been really sick and just getting out of bed is a real chore. I've been coming to work this week, because I used all my vacation days. Thank goodness no one else is here, so I don't get them sick. Today, I finally broke down and bought some tissues w/lotion. My nose is raw, and toilet paper feels like sandpaper. I used all my bosses tissues while he's been out of the office, so I had to buy him a new box.
I knew this time of the season would be the hardest part of our goal, but I didn't think it would be for this reason. For the last 5-6 days, we have been getting gifts and treats from all our neighbors and friends. When we lived here last time, we didn't get any, so I was expecting this sort of outpouring of gifts. One of our neighbors got our kids big gifts. I don't know what to do, because we weren't planning on doing anything.

Days 121-127

Wednesday(December 15th) - Tuesday (December 21st)
Ryan - This just to make up for all the time that has past since last Tuesday. I will be more diligent in writing everyday. It's good to do this so we are constantly reminded of our goal and don't fall in to the trap of reverting back to some old habits with spending.
I did a stupid thing last night and tried to repair my computer mouse. Well some of the screws were hidden and hard to find and so I ended up breaking it. Since it's work property, I feel obligated to buy a new one and I don't have an extra one. I'll look online to see if there are any good deals.
Earlier this week we received a bunch of Christmas candy/gifts from our neighbors. I feel bad we can't spend money to get them anything. Perhaps we can do something else that doesn't cost money (i.e. service) or use some of our baking supplies to make cookies or something. It's just hard, because you don't want to explain why to each person, but you worry that you offend them by not returning the kind gesture.

DAY 120

Lizzy -
Another busy day of cleaning, Gracie's school, watching the neighbors and working tonight at the day care. I finally called and scheduled my appointment with the building inspection place and the fire department. Another step closer to getting my license! Had no temptation to spend money today.

Day 119

Monday

Ryan - Spent all day watching kids and getting some stuff done around the house. Watch our neighbors kid, or rather Gracie played with our neighbor for 4 hours. So I mainly took care of Jack and cleaned up after the kids. I do enjoy spending time with the kids. They are great.

Tonight we wanted to get out of the house, so we went to our neighbors to visit her after her hip surgery. Then we went to Becky's to let the kids to play. Now we are going to watch Harry Potter.

When we got home a ward member left us some Christmas treats for some work I did for her. It was very nice and the world should work more like this. Doing service for one another.

Lizzy - Ah yes notice the first words from Ryan "watched the kids all day". So where was I you ask? Well let me tell you. Woke up at 7 to go to work and actually enjoyed it without the kids there. Then went to get my hair colored....huh? did I just say that? YES I DID. No it wasn't free but no I didn't pay for it. Another Christmas gift $ to the salon. I told them I couldn't spend more than the gift money so to only use it for a few touch ups with the blond however I got the most amazing girl who said "Oh I have no other clients today and its been very slow so if you want I will just do your whole head. Is that POSSIBLE?! It was. Then the next bonus was once we decided I was going to go dark all over she brought up my eyebrow situation. She asked her friend who was there chatting with us since she had no clients if she wouldn't mind coloring and waxing the brows. I was very reluctant at first since I have never done this nor am I sure coloring my brows darker was a good idea.  I then said I don't have enough $ to cover that and that I am strictly on the gift budget. So MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ME... she said she would do it free since it was my first time. So I got taken back to the spa area where the waterfalls were and the music was playing and I was pampered. Lucky was not even close to describing it.

GOING TO THE DARK SIDE!

So I love the new color and think  I may stay here a while. Well....hahaha I will HAVE to stay here a while regardless till this $ saving gig is over with!  I was pressured to buy their hair care product package of $15 and told it would keep my color lasting longer. Easily would have taken that home with me. But alas I will use my cheap Sams Club bulk size shampoo to get the job done. Will have to deal with fading color and turning into a carrot head..oh well.

So then from there I went straight to pick up the boys from school (and boys I mean the ones I am now tending) Spent 1-2 hours with them then came home. And from there Ryan explained the rest of our night. 

 TODAY'S WANTED ITEM: Hair Package

COST: $15

TOTAL $ SAVED YTD: $3681.30

DAYS 114-117

Lizzy -
Ok this week has been busy. I am still working lots on getting my checklist done for my Business License. Its a bit stressful and is taking its toll. But once I get things set up it wont be that hard or time consuming. I just feel like I am off schedule with life and need to get back on track. So lets get updated.

WEDNESDAY was Gracie Christmas Preschool Program. VERY cute. We had to bring 6 cookies so we pulled out the flour and sugar and made our own sugar cookies. Normally we would have just gone and done the store bought. We didn't have frosting but I found his green and purple icing for writing and made trees on them. Kinda cheesy looking but it worked. Gracie sat front and center and was amazing. I never knew she could sing and dance so well Usually she is very shy in crowds but I think once she saw her friends and teacher she felt in place. Then went to Grandmas for cocoa.

Ryan - Was fun watching Gracie in her first program ever. I was proud of her. We went back to Becky's for hot chocolate.

THURSDAY Gracie had a friend over all day and played. I tried cleaning and organizing the house. Tonight we went to our Ward Christmas party for dinner and a program. Again Gracie whipped out her dancing when the music started. The food was good and it was fun visiting people. And another free night

Ryan - Not totally free. I did make mash potatoes.

FRIDAY Jack wasnt feeling that well last night so I stayed home from work today. I sent Gracie to the neighbors to play and she was there most of the day. I took some time while Jack was asleep and found a raisin bread recipe. We have had this bag if raisins for a while and I didn't want them to go to waist. Then Ryan came home and we did our grocery shopping. We did not get very much so we didn't want to make Sat a big day.

Ryan - It was nice to come home today. I was starving. It will be nice to have a long weekend. Taking Monday off.

SATURDAY Lazy day. Spent most of the day just playing with the kids and visiting the Grandparents. We are now just watching movies and on the computer. No extra money spent today although I think I am getting ancy (sp?) to just go out to eat or take the kids to the Gateway or something. We had lots of evening to kill so I am sure $20 would have been spent going somewhere today. If not today than at least sometime this weekend.

Ryan - Worked on a side job. Need to send off invoice.

 TODAY'S WANTED ITEM: Gateway

COST: $20

TOTAL $ SAVED YTD: $3666.30

DAY 113

TUESDAY

Lizzy - Ooooh I am tired. Its been a long day. I have spent all day going over checklist after checklist of requirements to get my Business License. Its taking a lot out of me but I am really happy I'm doing it. I feel better having our house up to par for the inspections. But spending time on that made me neglect the house and for some reason it takes but one day for it to blow up around me. I have no energy to clean and no desire so I think I will just go to bed and rest. Have to open early tomorrow.

Ryan -
Nice time to spend with the family. Was going to work, but decided it wasn't necessary.

DAY 112

MONDAY

Lizzy - Tonight's activity was the Natural museum of History up at the U. I had heard they are free of charge on the 1st Monday of each month when we were living in Sugarhouse and I thought it would be fun to try. But forgot about it till my cousin sent an email with the info. (Thanks::) So we packed up and headed up there. Some friends joined us and we toured the place. VERY neat. I am sorry I haven't gone sooner. I would actually like to go up one day without the kids and take time to read the information. We then headed back to our friends to play games and have hot cocoa. Normal admission is $7 per adult and $3.50 for kids over 3. Then additional parking would have been about $2-3 on a normal day. However we showed up around 6 so parking was considered "after hours" and free at that point. We also concluded this would have been a fun night to just stop and have cocoa out on the town with our friends. And usually we never just get cocoa we always add fries or sandwich for the kids and then today Ryan had not eaten dinner so right there we would have added another $20 or so going out to eat.
So a $40 night ended up a $0 night:) And it was pretty fun:)
I also had to add a funny picture. As we were getting ready to go the kids were laughing and playing around and when I looked both were in my pots cupboard. Had to grab the camera and snap a shot.:)

Ryan - The thing about writing second is a I have to dig deep for thoughts write on this blog. It's been almos 4 month and we are still doing it. We haven't been perfect and we can even tighten things up, but I'm proud of our progress and overall mindset. We've avoided spending more than necessary and the blessing is when we've had unexpected cost come up (i.e. flooding of our toilet and car repair) we had the funds and didn't have to dip into our savings. I thing that's the big difference from the past. Lizzy and I have matured financially and to our surprise our kids haven't suffered as much as we thought (though they wouldn't know it, since they depend on us either way). I think the remaining time we can start refining our goal and look at minimizing cost even more without the big growing pains as when we first started. I think our groceries can be simplified to where we take eliminate the wants that we have been purchasing (i.e. snacks and desserts). Lizzy was reading an website on yahoo where a family tried to see how far their money could stretch to feed a family of four. I think we should implement this as soon as possible.

 TODAY'S WANTED ITEM: Tonight's Activity

COST: $40

TOTAL $ SAVED YTD: $3646.30

DAY 110

SATURDAY

Lizzy
Today was awesome! So I went online and posted some old lamps that I wanted to sell. Instead of asking for money I asked if anyone had a hair dryer they wanted to trade instead. I got a call within 10 min of posting the add and a lady wanted to trade me. So she came with a really nice hair dryer. Funny thing. My mom gave me an early Christmas present 20 minutes before the lady showed up and got me a hair dryer. So the lady ended up giving me $20 which was pretty cool. I told my mom she could take the dryer back and get a refund but she said to just keep it. So had my mom not surprised me with my early xmas gift I would have been able to get that dryer after all. I am loving the KSL website. So far our Christmas lights and "would be" hair dryer came with no cost. Today's activity was going downtown to see the lights at Temple Square. Our first thought was parking cost. Which was easily solved once I looked in the glove compartment for our stash of parking passes to the gateway we bought 1.5 years ago and they never expire. When we were season pass holders to the Discovery Gateway downtown they let us buy parking passes for $1 a piece and I am not sure if there was a time limit on these. So I bought like 15 thinking I would be there more often and never was. We have kept these in the car and used them each time we go there. So far, Ryans free Jazz game he used one and now tonight we use it again. Also the TRAX is free if your traveling within the downtown area so that was also covered and of course the lights themselves no cost. Fun night and no money spent:)

Ryan - Okay today was really tiring. Spent the morning doing to little side jobs. One of them was ripping out a rotted out fence post. The next job was fixing some cabinets. Either way I wanted to sleep in since the Jazz game was really late last night Then we went out to Temple Square and you guessed it. Another work out for our arms. Jack wouldn't stay in his stroller for most of the night., but atleast we saved money. BTW the first foto is really cheezy (my smile).

DAY 109

FRIDAY

Lizzy -
Not so much going on today. Just another work day and hanging around the house. I am REALLY tempted to go get that dang hair dyer again though. However I still have to continue to use other resources. I'll go online now and see if I can find another deal on KSL. I also posted pictures from Jack's birthday on the 15th of Nov and our night out at the Nativity. Oh and also...I go out this morning and look over at our snowman in the yard . I haven't noticed him in  a while and was expecting to see something a little like this...

And instead I take a look over and......WHAT THE?????!!!!!

Somehow with the snow melting he got a uni-brow,  a huge mole,  his nose sunk in and some teeth are missing.
HAhahahaHAa oh this Snowman is what we consider "special" :) Then when I came home from work his head has completely fallen off, I thought about putting it back on but it may be best left on the ground:)

Ryan - First thing I did this morning was kick a snowman's head off  :). Spent part of the evening doing a service project then came home and went to watch the Jazz game. So no money spent.

DAY 109

THUSRDAY

Lizzy - I had my orientation to get my business license today. 3 hours long and another 10 hours next month for the training. There is a TON of things on that checklist to do but I am excited to be my own boss and run my own business. So spread the word if you know anyone who needs Day Care I will be in business soon:)

Ryan - This week is going very slow. I worked at my parents to save money on driving to work, since I had to come home early to watch the kids for Lizzy. Thinking I would only get a 1/2 day in, I was able to get a full day in. So a vacation day saved.

DAY 108

WEDNESDAY

Lizzy - So things fell apart yesterday. Not only did the tire go flat but my disposal stopped working and the toilet upstairs wasn't flushing. So I just about had a melt down and then wondered how much this would all cost. But to my surprise we didn't spend a dime and everything has been fixed. Ryan fixed the toilet and yes we could have gotten a new part for it but he managed to rig it and make it work. The disposal was only clogged from my potato peels that I let fall down there so nothing to pay for there. The I took my car in today to Discount Tire and had it fixed free of charge. YES!! So better day by far. However yesterday evening was a nice surprise. My visiting teachers came and took me out for some soup and cocoa last night around 8. I was in my pajamas and ready to settle in when I got the knock on the door. It was a nice girls getaway. She paid for the whole thing which was really sweet. I am really starting to miss going out on a girls night activity. However unless I die which I am not planning to do right away, I will still get to in 9 or so months.
Tonight we are taking the kids out to see a live nativity scene. Another free activity oh yeah! It is very cold so I hope that we don't have to wait too long out there but I hear its worth it. Another victory with savings. I took the kids with me to change the tire (had no choice really) and it was right during lunch time. We could smell Mcdonalds across the street and Gracie asked to go eat something and would not let up. My fault for not packing treats in the car but we wouldn't have been able to get to them anyway. Jack too struggled because I forgot a drink but right as I was about to break down and get something they came out and said the car was done so I only had to listen to their cries the whole way home:) $5 saved SWEET!

Ryan - I was beginning to regret doing the Nativity activity after waiting in line with a kid who didn't want to walk (Gracie). So Lizzy and switched back and forth for 1 hour while we waited. Our arms were beat by the end of the night, but the end of the wait was worth the wait. Incredible probs made the everything look authentic.

 TODAY'S WANTED ITEM:  McD's

COST: $5

TOTAL $ SAVED YTD: $3606.30