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Archive for April, 2017

Recap of the week and weekend doings

April 22nd, 2017 at 11:42 pm

The last couple of weeks have been busy! Between an extremely heavy workload, baseball games and practices, guitar lessons and just normal household stuff, it was crazy! I was able to take off work on Friday, it was heaven! I did laundry, cleaned and took a nap! And today was a lot of the same. I haven’t had two consecutive days of no outside home commitments in forever. It’s been wonderful. I’m completely caught up on household and laundry. It certainly won’t last, but it’s fun to have these few moments of bliss! Work this coming week should be a little more low-key than it’s been recently, so I’m looking forward to that.

Budget wise, we are doing well. I was able to pay the down payment for the boys’ summer camp of $410 out of the grocery/household budget. It will be close, but we will do it. The remaining summer camp costs are about $3,000, which I will save for or cash flow. We were able to pay the $410 by not eating out much and not purchasing items that can really wait. There were only a couple of take outs or lunches out this month, but no dinners out at all. When we go out to dinner, it’s a minimum $100 for the four of us because the boys eat off the regular menu…they eat a lot! So with a couple of drinks or beers, plus tip, it’s usually $100+, which is ridiculous. It just takes a great deal of planning in advance, as you all know, to avoid eating out. The challenge is getting home from a baseball game at 8:30 pm, or later, and having dinner. We’ve managed, but it takes work. Also, DH made many dinners this month that produced leftovers, with my prodding, so that really helped.

As far as working out or walking, that did not happen. My Spring allergies have been brutal, but with the additional rest, I do feel better. Baby steps. I think I can swing a Tuesday workout.

We have a baseball game tomorrow with a 10:00 am arrival, 11 am game, which usually lasts at least two hours. I bring plenty of drinks, snacks and lunch if necessary. I refuse to eat out! We will make dinner at home and plan meals for the week.

I hope you’re all having a great weekend!

Weekend recap

April 9th, 2017 at 11:27 pm

It was a rough work week and busy, but fun, weekend. We ended up getting take out on Thursday because DH's work appointments prevented him from cooking dinner. We had another family over for dinner on Friday, and DH cooked. The only other takeout was sub sandwiches on Saturday for lunch because of baseball practice. So, takeout was pretty minimal. DH cooked dinner all weekend. I didn't go to lunch with my mom friends this week. We may do it this week.

New baseball clothes for the boys amounted to $220 on Under Armor .com and that included new slide shoes for the boys for the summer. I need to purchase two new chest guard compression shirts. I think DS1 still needs pants, however, I don't have the detail yet on what needs to be purchased.

Two bags will be dropped off at Goodwill this week.

I laid out my work clothes 3 out of 5 days! When the weather is warmer, I typically wear dresses everyday because it's only one item I need to choose and so much easier! There will be several days this week I can do that.

We are doing well on the grocery budget so far, we shall see! I'm hoping to have several hundred dollars to divert to the summer camp costs.

I'm hoping to go to my workout class on Tuesday late afternoon (depends on work because I would need to leave early) and on Saturday morning. I'd like to walk a few times this week in the morning before I get the boys up for school. I'm trying to get a couple other moms to join me.

It was a beautiful day today! I sat on my porch in between laundry and chores.

Getting ready for the week

April 2nd, 2017 at 10:48 pm

Looking forward to the week ahead! Hoping it will be low key but there's always a lot going on.

Dinner Meals Sat through Thurs:
Sat (last night) - Chili and cornbread (beef from freezer)
Sun - Beef tenderloin, asparagus, baked potato, caprese salad (beef from freezer)
Mon - leftover chili and cornbread
Tues - grilled chicken, salad, twice baked potatoes (baked potatoes left over from Sun)
Wed - Beef vegetable soup (beef from freezer) and any leftover potatoes (leftover from Tues). The soup was made Sun and we had that for lunch.
Thurs - grilled shrimp, seafood risotto, salad (seafood stock from freezer)

This will get us through Thursday. It's definitely more beef than we usually eat in a week (or two!). We ate a ton of seafood on spring break, so the beef will balance that out! I found out a lot of the stuff in the freezer is stock (seafood, chicken), so we'll continue to use that up. The good news is no eating out or takeout for dinner this week. I have a tentative lunch out on Friday with my mom friends. Other than that, I will pack my lunches for work. We are having our friends over for dinner on Friday night.

It will be a very busy work week. I've laid out my work clothes for tomorrow morning. I really need to do that every day. I usually have a vague idea of what I'm wearing, but it just creates more stress in the morning if it's not decided.