Pieces of Us

Budgets, goals and the New Year

    Working on the budget has been a huge focus of ours lately.  We have really been focused on directing our money to the best places for it to be used.  Paying off debt first being a primary goal. The end-goal being debt free.

    I never thought I was the type of person that would enjoy using the 'envelope' system.  I do follow a lot of advice from finance guru Dave Ramsey.  He has very practical methods, many of them just plain common sense related.  I do not do his plan to the letter but for the most part..he makes sense. So a few months ago I decided to buck up and try the envelopes. Amazingly I discovered I LOVED it.  It gave me more freedom and at the end of the month I had more money left because I was watching it going until it was going...going...almost gone. Seeing the cash float through my fingers was  a big wake up call. Money was truly being wasted in this household.  Not any more.

    I thought I'd share my envelope system that I finally have organized to my liking. Bill money and gas money are the only things I leave in the checking account each month.  All the rest I seperate into my envelopes.  I used this tutorial to make my envelopes of of scrapbook paper....because I love pretty. *wink*  I had to upsize them a bit because the ones on the tutorial were a little small.

For the first time ever I have a large checkbook sized wallet.  It fits in all my bags though. I retired my most favorite wallet because it was a simple fold style one with no room for my envelopes.

 

Opened up you can see the colorful envelopes I made.

 

I printed up some fun category tags and punched them out.

 

They all fit in so nicely. YAY!

 

And the money tucks in well too.

Chore Packs

    Chores can be a controversial subject. I know that opinions on the subject vary widely and I respect the many choices people make regarding them.  In our home, there has to be chores.  Everyone has to lend a hand or no on would be happy. And everyone would be naked and eating off of paper plates on unmade beds. It's a way of life for us and it works.  After much pondering on the subject of chores I came to the conclusion that requiring children to help out with the running of the home is not in any way oppression as long as each person in the home is doing their fair share.  As the old adage says "Many hands make light work."  and in this home there are certainly many hands.

    There are some tasks that I never require of my children. I do not ask them to assume care of the younger children. I have never asked them to change the baby's diaper or bathe him or her. These tasks rest on me as the mother in my opinion.  Now there are times when the older girls are feeling nurturing and they want to change the baby or rock her.  This is all fine with me.  I am not going to turn down anyone who wants to change my little ones diaper! But we don't do the "buddy system" as far as the kids go.

    Having said all that I am not posting an editorial on chores, my intention was to share our method of dispersing the chores and how to keep kids motivated to do them cheerfully. Upon one of my late night blog reading expeditions I came across a site that mentioned the use of Chore Packs. A lightbulb went on in my head and I knew that this could really work for us and other people with large families.

Chore Packs are small folders, one for each child that contain a small card for each chore the child is expected to complete each day. Ours look like this.

 

Each evening I go through a stack of laminated cards and deal out the ones for each child and put them into their little folders.

 

In the morning the kids all check their chore packs to see what they have to accomplish throughout the day.  I have found that kids do not like open-ended days when it comes to chores.  They like to know how much needs to be done and then they can do it at their own leisure.  It saves me a lot of nagging.  I hate nagging so much and with this system I almost never have to.

     Caleb has easier chores like Get dressed, pick up toys etc..  The older kids have easy chores and then some more detailed ones like re-shelving books, dusting, and cleaning bathrooms. Caleb always asks me for more chores.  He loves doing chores.  I wish they never grew out of that!

I keep all the folders in a little basket, for easy keeping.

As each chore is completed the kids will hand me the card and I will check to make sure the job is done completely and properly.  If it is then it goes into their pocket on my wall chart.

At the end of each day, if they have an empty folder, that means they have done all of their jobs and they get a Mom Dollar.

 

On Sundays if they have done all their chores they will have 7 mom dollars.  Sometimes they have less because they did not get finished. They ar allowed to cash in their mom dollars for either actual cash or they can shop in the mom store.  The little kids love the mom store.  I keep a basket filled with things that they have asked me to buy while out shopping.  You know the things. 

"Mom can you buy me this gum?"

"Mom can I get new crayons?"

I will secretly stock up on these things and then they can buy them later.  It's also a way to keep us from making purchases 'just because' too much.

The kids can also choose to bank up their mom dollars and cash them in later if there is something they are saving for.

So there you have it.  How the troops do their duties in our house. It may not work for everyone but it sure works well for us.

A great bargain

    I love to post about ways to save money, recently I had an epiphany on buying clothing. My girls have lots of pairs of fun plaid shorts, the boys wear a lot of khaki and jeans.  What goes better with these things that brightly colored T-shirts?  We are not big on huge phrases or designs or even worse characters emblazoned all over our shirts, Maddy in fact prefers plain.  So the other day while I was at Michael's buying white shirts for tye dyeing I noticed that all of their Colored T-Shirts were on sale. 5 for $10.  Yes, you read that right, 5 for $10. I snatched up about 15 of them in all colors and sizes and it cost me all of $30. The shirts do not shrink or fade and are so comfortable.  I don't think I could get shirts this nice for as cheaply at Walmart or Target no matter how much i scoured for sales.
    I thought I'd pass on the tip for anyone else who is often looking for good deals and nice modest but fun clothing. And I love that my kid is not a walking billboard with something splashed across the front!

Good Grief!

Remember the Fiestaware plates I received from Amazon?

Yeah, those.  The 10 plates they sent me instead of the ONE I ordered.  Well, I sent the extras back.  I don't need 9 plates and I didn't pay for them.  I was only debited for one.  I am an honest person and I like to do the right thing.

I printed the label.  I boxed the plates.  I sent them back.

I just received an email from Amazon.  They are refunding my money and thank you for the return they say.

So now I have a lovely Chocolate Fiestaware plate.

I didn't pay for it.

Well, I did, but now I didn't.

Gotta give Amazon props for trying.

Artisan Bread

We love this bread and I make big batches of dough and freeze it in loaf size portions so we can easily defrost it for the days bread.

Recipe (for 4 1lb. loaves)
3 cups lukewarm water
1 1⁄2 tbsp granulated yeast (1 1⁄2 packets)
1 1⁄2 tbsp coarse kosher or sea salt
6 1⁄2 cups unsifted, unbleached, all-purpose white flour
Cornmeal for pizza peel

Directions

1. Heat the water to just a little warmer than body temperature (about 100 degrees Fahrenheit).

2. Add yeast and salt to the water in a 5-quart bowl or, preferably, in a resealable, lidded container (not airtight — use container with gasket or lift a corner). Don’t worry about getting it all to dissolve.

3. Mix in the flour by gently scooping it up, then leveling the top of the measuring cup with a knife; don’t pat down. Mix with a wooden spoon, a high-capacity food processor with dough attachment, or a heavy-duty stand mixer with dough hook, until uniformly moist. If hand-mixing becomes too difficult, use very wet hands to press it together. Don’t knead! This step is done in a matter of minutes, and yields a wet dough loose enough to conform to the container.

4. Cover loosely. Do not use screw-topped jars, which could explode from trapped gases. Allow the mixture to rise at room temperature until it begins to collapse (or at least flatten on top), approximately two hours, depending on temperature. Longer rising times, up to about five hours, will not harm the result. You can use a portion of the dough any time after this period. Refrigerated wet dough is less sticky and easier to work with than room-temperature dough. We recommend refrigerating the dough at least three hours before shaping a loaf. And relax! You don’t need to monitor doubling or tripling of volume as in traditional recipes.

5. Prepare a pizza peel by sprinkling it liberally with cornmeal to prevent the loaf from sticking to it when you slide it into the oven.

Sprinkle the surface of the dough with flour, then cut off a 1-pound (grapefruit-sized) piece with a serrated knife. Hold the mass of dough in your hands and add a little more flour as needed so it won’t stick to your hands. Gently stretch the surface of the dough around to the bottom on four “sides,” rotating the ball a quarter-turn as you go, until the bottom is a collection of four bunched ends. Most of the dusting flour will fall off; it doesn’t need to be incorporated. The bottom of the loaf will flatten out during resting and baking.

6. Place the ball on the pizza peel. Let it rest uncovered for about 40 minutes. Depending on the dough’s age, you may see little rise during this period; more rising will occur during baking.

7. Twenty minutes before baking, preheat oven to 450 degrees with a baking stone on the middle rack. Place an empty broiler tray for holding water on another shelf.

8. Dust the top of the loaf liberally with flour, which will allow the slashing, serrated knife to pass without sticking. Slash a 1⁄4-inch-deep cross, scallop or tick-tack-toe pattern into the top. (This helps the bread expand during baking.)

*I don't have a pizza peel, and it's been fine.

9. With a forward jerking motion of the wrist, slide the loaf off the pizza peel and onto the baking stone. Quickly but carefully pour about a cup of hot water into the broiler tray and close the oven door to trap the steam. Bake for about 30 minutes, or until the crust is browned and firm to the touch. With wet dough, there’s little risk of drying out the interior, despite the dark crust. When you remove the loaf from the oven, it will audibly crackle, or “sing,” when initially exposed to room temperature air. Allow to cool completely, preferably on a wire rack, for best flavor, texture and slicing. The perfect crust may initially soften, but will firm up again when cooled.

10. Refrigerate the remaining dough in your lidded (not airtight) container and use it over the next two weeks: You’ll find that even one day’s storage improves the flavor and texture of your bread. This maturation continues over the two-week period. Cut off and shape loaves as you need them. The dough can also be frozen in 1-pound portions in an airtight container and defrosted overnight in the refrigerator prior to baking day.

Room Rearrangers...Or Trading Spaces

I have always wanted a hutch and sideboard for the kitchen, I do not want to spend the money on one however.  Last night it dawned on me that I already have a very nice one!  I was just using it to store fabric and craft supplies.  *Lightbulb goes on*
So this morning I rearranged everything.  Hutch/sideboard to kitchen, bookshelf from bedroom to sewing area for fabric.  Vacuum. Sweep, showcase lovely Fiesta as it deserves.   And here are the before and afters.

After

The year in review- 2008

Where has it gone?  This year is like lightning!  Here are the first lines of a definitive post from each month in 2008:

January
So I was joking with Mike that we should change the baby's middle name to Clementine since I have eaten so many of them (if it's a girl of course).

February
Jillian Clementine Munoz was born on 2-28-2008 at 2:28 a.m. That's a lot of two's and eight's!

March
Caleb's new favorite word is "wub" which of course means Love. He is constantly coming up to one of us and saying, "I wub you MOM!  I wub you Gabby!" It's so sweet.

April
A Doctor walked into a room wearing a long face and told a very sick little girl that she had Type One Diabetes. I felt feelings of relief mixed with fear. Relief to know what was wrong and to be validated. Fear of the unknown and what this would mean for her life.

May
On our walk today Ginny noted some graffiti on a wall.
"Who wrote on this wall!?" she commented to herself, "Maybe  a little child!"

June
The good news is Gabby's nose is most likely not broken.

July
Maddy and Gabby have been working on their recipes for their fair entries.  I explained to them that if they were going to enter something in the fair I wanted it to be truly their work with no help from me.  So with that I turned them loose in the kitchen totally unsupervised.

August
I am not the type that puts babies in front of TV much but there are times when I need to be able to put Jillian down and get some things done. There is only one thing that totally mesmerizes her and it's Signing Time.

September
This year we had a stalemate.  The boys all wanted to go on a camping trip.  While I love the mountains I have no desire to be crammed in a trailer with a baby so all of us girls wanted to go to the beach.

October
I came across some pictures today.  I had to hop on my old computer because that one is attached to a scanner and I wanted to scan in some photos from when my girls were born. That as when I saw it. A file folder I had never opened.

November
Never ever tell a child they will not have to have a shot.  Even if the Dr's assure you that such is the case.  Don't do it!

December
This is one of my little  "mom" things that I love doing. Once in awhile i notice one of the kids has done something without being asked and without the idea that they may get recognition for it.

The post where I save you more money...

I am often asked how I am able to afford a family this large.  I cannot always explain it simply but one thing that really makes a huge difference in how much money we have is making things from scratch. We try very hard to reuse things like cloth diapers, kitchen cloths (instead of paper towels) and cloth napkins when possible, we also make a lot of things from scratch.  Making things from scratch does not mean hours and hours of toiling.  Some things can actually be made very quickly. I always make spaghetti sauce, applesauce, baby food, soup (I love making soup) from scratch whenever I can. The savings is very large when you have a big family.  Soups and sauces can be made for pennies compared to prepared foods and are much more healthful.  I am not going to post about food now however.  Instead I am going to show you how to make your Laundry Detergent from scratch quite simply and very inexpensively.

Is that a word?  It is now.

To start off you must gather your supplies.  I use a big pot that I reserve only for making soap or dyeing. I also have a large spoon, occasionally I have to go find the large spoon and sometimes it is in the sandbox. Shhh..
I am going to be making soap with it anyway, so it will be clean. *Wink*

You will also need:
A box of Borax
A box of Super Washing Soda
A bar of Zote, Octagon, Fels Naptha, Ivory or really any non perfumey type soap.  I prefer Zote, I like the color.  But I have often used Ivory and it works well for people with sensitive skin.
A large bucket
Measuring cups and spoons

Next you will prepare your soap. This is my favorite part.  When I use Zote I take a peeler and peel shavings of Zote into my pot.  You will use 1/2 bar for this batch.  Peeling is satisfying.  If you find you cannot stop peeling you can peel the whole bar and save it for your next batch.

Even MORE fun than peeling is using Ivory. Ivory sounds boring.  It's plain, it's white...but it's amazing! Gather up the kiddies for this part and put down your peeler!  Instead, put a paper towel in the microwave and set the bar on top like this...



Now punch in 2:00 and stand back and watch the drama unfold.



Better than marshmallows and smells good too.  And washes clean away!




Now just remove the giant cloud of soap and take it over to your pot. Crumble it up, this part is easy.




If you have some on hand because your kids cannot stop microwaving the Ivory soap bars you so judiciously stored up after your Dollar Tree spree...you can measure it out as well, use about 2 cups.




Pour in about 6 cups of water as well and turn the heat on Medium.  At this point we are going to melt the soap until it is a fairly clear liquid with no lumps.



Make sure you keep on heating until the lumps are gone...this is mine when it's still lumpy.




Once all the lumps are gone, you will measure out 3/4 c of Borax and 3/4 c of Washing Soda and mix it in the soapy liquid until dissolved.

I doubled my batch and so there is more shown in the picture.  Disregard that oversight...I have 6 kids and my brain is a little slow at times.




All dissolved now?  Great, now we can move on...

Pour 2 qts of hot water into the bottom of your 5 gal bucket.


Then pour in your soapy liquid.



Lastly pour in 1 1/2 gallons of cold water on top.



Take your Bucket out to the Laundry Room or wherever you plan to store it and put a lid on loosely.




It can be used now although it will be watery, it's more fun to let it sit over night.  It gels up nicely and looks like this...




*Note that I used zote for this batch so it is pink.  I use 1/2 c. per load and it cost me about $0.01 per load.  The yearly savings is around $150.00. v Good job, you are all done!  now go have a brownie or something.

More penny pinchers

I thought I would share a few more of my money saving ideas since there has been an interest lately. I like to trim the budget and the first place I trim is snacks. 

"But kids NEED snacks in their lunches!" you say.

I agree.       

           Even though we do not have to pack school lunches I still like to offer my brood a variety of fun lunch options.  While those little packs -that are all the rage now- are so convenient, they are murder on the budget. Packaging everything up individually jacks up the price.

         Making lunches everyday while stopping to fill the little baggies takes up a lot of time.  So when i buy a bag of trail mix or crackers or what not I open it right away and portion it out by serving size.  That way we have lots of quick-to-grab-on-the-go packs and they are also a nice portion. I know if I do not portion them, little sticky fingers will sneak in the cupboard and eat too many right from the box.       

         Since Gabby is diabetic, the controlled portion size is perfect.  I write the carb count on the baggie with a sharpie and she can just grab on and know what she needs to bolus right there.       Another money saver and quick and easy snack is Jello.

They do sell those individual Jello cups that come 6 to a pack but they are very pricey, I think over 3 dollars a pack. I always use the same tubs I use for the baby purees and make a whole bunch of them that the kids can have with meals or for a snack.  I make Sugar Free ones and it is something Gabby can have without having to worry about whether it will bother her blood sugar.  They travel really well too.     

My last tip is a time saver. When I do my big shopping I come home and dice up a whole celery and a couple of onions and put them in air tight containers.  This way when I am going to make a dish I can just grab out a container and save time on chopping. A lot of time it is chaotic and I am rushed at dinner and this little time saver is really nice.  Plus the celery does not go limp in the drawer!

That is it for today!