My Shopping Spree at Old Navy ( for $5.02)

So you may recall that we are in a load of debt that is insanity. Read about that here if you are so inclined.
You may also remember that in January we did NOT spend one cent on clothes for the family but I thought we might have some needs for the kiddos for this spring and summer.

So I received an email from Ebates that it was time for my quarterly cash out and that I could earn an additional 20% on my gift card balance if I cashed out with Old Navy. An extra 20% sounded nice and when I started looking at Old Navy I found several items that would be good for the kids this summer.

Side note: Ebates is a free site I would encourage you to sign up for where you get cash back online for your purchases. You then get money back either in paypal or in a gift card form. I would encourage you to sign up if you haven't yet and then use it whenever you shop online.

So I took my gift card and did some shopping. Old Navy was having 20% off any purchase and if you spent $50 then you got free shipping. My gift card was for $52.02.

I got the following items:
3 pairs of cotton elastic pull on shorts for my son. 1 in red, 1 in black and 1 in gray. That should be good to match little tshirts and he can wear them to school come spring and summer. He literally had ZERO shorts for this upcoming season so this was nice.

I got 1 print shirt for my daughter -
who again is growing like a weed and will need some tshirts.


I then also got a very nice dress for the girls for spring/summer. They have 3 dresses between the 2 of them, then 2 skirts also that they share. They could use a good dress. 

Then I still had a few dollars left on my gift card and I needed to get it up to $50 to get free shipping. So I added 2 pair of fuzzy socks. I will put these in my "gift tote" in our closet. This will either go to my girls stockings at Christmas, used for a gift for my kid's friends etc.

So out of pocket was a total of $5.02. I feel like even at the Goodwill ( one dress is $5.00) that this was a good deal. I wasn't expecting the gift card and thought this would be a frugal way to use it.

Then on top of that I earned cash back from Ebates for shopping at Old Navy in the amount of $4.62. So that puts my NET price to be about 40 cents!!

In the past it would not have been anything for me to take the kids to Old Navy and buy each of them several outfits, myself a few things I didn't need etc. I'm proud of these purchases and feel like they will be put to good use!

What are you all doing frugally this week?

So How much did we spend on groceries for January??

So for the month of January:

Family of 5 ( myself and husband) kiddos ages 12, 11 and 6 , eating every meal at home/from home and the grand total is

$472.01

I feel like that's a good start. I am trying to stay under $400 for February and should be able to. You may recall that I made these breakfast burritos ( and I still have several left) so that's nice.



The first trip of January started with a trip to Sam's club which you can read about here.  We still have some pancake mix, chocolate chips, hashbrowns and olive oil left from that trip. I also still have about 15-18 frozen quiches  in the freezer- that I have made this winter when we had an abundance of eggs. Sometimes I would put in pieces of ham or bacon if we had it and would not put in dill or asparagus- I just put in what we have- but the base recipe is the same. Regardless I have a lot of that frozen. We also still have deer meat and some sausage in the freezer so I need to try to utilize that.

We really love fresh fruits and veggies in this house though- but that can sometimes be difficult to do in the winter, in our climate especially while trying to stay out of the grocery store and use what we have! So for this month of February ( it's a short month right) I am going to shoot for:

$400

What are you shooting for in February? Any freezer meals or tips you would like to share? 

Happy (frugal) homesteading Y'all!

January Update- what we did and didn't do!

So you read yesterday that we have so much debt!!! Read about it here.



January was interesting and in a sense super fun. The weather was cold and rainy so we stayed inside a lot. The kids and I went back to school ( and work) after our long Christmas break.
Some of the highlights from January:

1. No eating out!!!! We did not eat out at all the entire month of January. I actually went to two different lunch lectures at work which were free, my husband had a lunch or two free from work but we did not eat out at all where we paid for it! That may not be much for some of you- but for us it was an accomplishment.

2. Saturday night card nights with my parents and brother and sister in law. On New Year's Eve we went to my parents and had snacks and played cards with my parents and my sister in law and brother ( Rummy). We had so much fun! So each Saturday since then we have went over to their house and played cards! We each bring a snack or something small and have a super fun time. It gives us something fun to do and is a frugal way to have fun and hang out with family. We hope to keep it up in February.

3. We did not buy a single piece of clothing. No socks. No underwear. No shirts. NOTHING. With three growing kids this is also something I'm super proud of. We just used what we have and no one is naked. We will of course have to buy more clothes for the kids soon, especially for summer as I don't know that any of them have shorts that fit- but I hope to find them at yard sales or Goodwill.

4. We got some wonderful new chickens! There was an email that come across through our local 4H group that a lady had some chicks she wanted to give to a 4Her when they hatched- for free. So we called her and visited her and she blessed my daughter with 8 rare breed chicks. She was glad to give them to us and we felt so thankful that we could be frugal and still do some neat things around the homestead.


What are your highlights from January? Any moments your proud of?

This is the post I hate to write.... how much debt do we have??

Oh. My. Goodness.

If you have followed me for very long you may recall that we are up to our eyeballs in debt.

I've debated putting out here how much we owe- but I have a feeling someone else may be struggling with debt as well. I hope it's not to the magnitude that ours is- but I have a feeling some of you may be struggling yourself.

So on December 31, 2017 we started with:

$152, 852 worth of debt.

$152,852


This is NON Mortgage debt people. Sigh.

Even though I thought we were frugal  over the last few years - we weren't seeing any progress. So starting Jan 1st 2018 we did a budget ( www.everydollar.com) followed it and did not buy ANYTHING at all we did not need. I have another post coming up about that soon, but just know that as of today January 31st- one month later we have paid off $1662!

$1662

That brings our non mortgage debt down to $151,378. It seems like only a drop in the bucket- but we have paid off more in one month than we did all of last year. That makes me both nauseated and hopeful all at once.

$151,378

It's our first month and I realize that 30 days isn't that big of a deal but it does give me a glimmer of hope.

Some of you may be saving for a trip, or trying to pay off a loan of some sort, or saving for your kids college- but please feel free to join me on this journey. I'll be updating you monthly on our budget, our debt, etc. It is way outside of my comfort zone to put it out there- but I think I'll be more accountable to you guys and also maybe someone will find some encouragement through this blog.

Follow along guys! It's going to be a journey for sure around the homestead!

Prepping Breakfast for the Week: Frugal Breakfast Burritos

A few things are going on here: 

1: we have so many eggs coming in that we can't keep up- I've made and frozen quiches ( recipe here) and we eat eggs of course fried, scrambled, hard boiled etc. But this is another good way to make a good use of them. 

2: we have gotten a few wild boars this year and processed them so we have yummy sausage

3: it's rainy and cold here so I thought it was a good day to make some of these burritos for the freezer

4: My husband loves these and takes a bag of these to work and then eats one each morning after he goes to the gym. Quick ,easy, protein, cheap and ensures he eats a good breakfast

So  I assembled the ingredients to make breakfast burritos. 

Eggs- from our own chickens

1 lb sausage- we harvested and processed ourselves

tortillas

canned jalapenos - from our garden last year

an onion

taco seasoning - ( it's in the clear container) I buy it in bulk from a local Amish store

cheese- from a local farm ( wish we could do our own cheese)

Let's chop that onion up ( I love my Ulu knife, by the way) 

Brown the sausage then add the onion and taco seasoning. 

Add the dozen eggs and start scrambling them together. 

Add the chopped jalapenos ( fresh are great here too, we just don't have any fresh ones right now). I use bell peppers when making for the kids. 

Shred some cheese to add to the top. 

Wrap that baby up- then roll in foil. 

And here we go. A nice batch of breakfast burritos to add to the freezer. We use a lot of our own ingredients, and also I buy super cheap tortillas- you could probably make them but I can get 10 for .99 cents at Kroger. I have calculated each one costs about .22 cents. 22 cents for breakfast is not bad!! I do write "breakfast" on these with a permanent marker on the foil, because I do make lunch ones as well and write "lunch" on those so we don't get confused!

What all are you guys cooking, prepping, baking and freezing this week? 

Book #5 of the year: Plain Christmas

You may recall that I wrote about my 2018 Reading Challenge. Hopefully you guys are getting a chance to enjoy reading a bit this winter as well.

The 5th book was "Plain Christmas" written by Sarah Price.
 

I really enjoyed this book. It is an Amish fiction book, set in modern times and revolves around Christmas. What's not to love ? It's about a young woman who grew up Amish but never joined the church and she ended up marrying an Englischer. She hasn't been home in a while so they decide to return home for Christmas. What I like about this is that I think it gives a good glimpse into what a difference there is in most people's day to day lives and that of an Amish family. The kids play in the barn all day and the women enjoy working side by side in the kitchen etc. It was just a refreshing read for me.

This book is part of a series though by Sarah Price and this one is actually #6. There are 5 other books about the same characters that you should read first. I wish I would have read them in order!

How are your reading goals going this year?

Have you read anything good lately?

Book #4 of the year " Mountain Midwife" Review

You may recall a few posts back, I wrote about my goal to read 50  books this year. I'm tracking them on Good Reads ( read about it here). Although I love reading and 50 shouldn't be a problem, I am finishing up my PhD this year, and working full time and of course the kids, animals etc. Either way- it will be fun to see what books I read and I'm happy to share some of my reviews with you.

                                                                   
This book " The Mountain Midwife" is a fiction book set in mountains of Virginia in modern day. Although I don't know a whole lot about midwifery, I've always enjoyed learning about it and this book did not disappoint. A very bright young lady- Ashley who was an established midwife wanted to go back to school to become a doctor- she thought she could help her patients more if she were a "real" doctor. There was a little romance, a little scandal and was just a great book I couldn't put down. It had been on hold at my library for a while before I got it- so it's popular! I would recommend this book for sure!

Any good books that you all have read this year? Did you all make a goal on how many books to read this year?

Happy Homesteading!