My Home Office

Notice the cat condo serves double duty holding my inbox.

 

My little home office is located in a corner of our living room.  I used to have a much larger desk with a hutch and everything plus a printer stand. What a monstrosity that was! 

I bought a much smaller desk, I think the smallest computer desk they make, to scale it down and make it less of a dominant presence.  The desk holds the computer and printer altogether nicely so no need of a separate printer stand.  It does have the pull out keyboard shelf so I still have a clear surface to set my work or to write on. 

I also pared down my office supplies considerably and put up a couple of shelves above to store them on.  I use pretty photo boxes to store cards, post its, notepads, envelopes, stickers and what have you.  I added a clamping desk lamp to the lower shelf for lighting and a bulletin board hangs on the wall for important things like schedules and photos of my children. 

Neat, organized and compact.  Do you have a home office?  How do you manage your computer and all your things?

Last Week’s Thrifty Moves

Purging has really been the name of the game around here.  I am getting rid of so much stuff we don’t use or need I can’t believe it.  We’ve all been working on it and have almost made it through every single closet, drawer and cupboard in the entire house. 

I bought five more boxes of cereal on sale for $1.68, less a $2 coupon, which brought the price down to $1.28.  I also bought two of the really big boxes of raisin bran $2.99 each.  We are now well stocked for cereal for awhile. 

I held off any other grocery shopping for the week and we made do with what we already had on hand. 

I called and got estimates for new tires for the truck.  Ugh! 

I sold some stuff on eBay this week and brought in some extra cash. 

I used rubber cement to glue the liner back into the case for my sunglasses.  A binder clip held it in place while it dried overnight. 

I used my rewards points from my credit card to order another $50 gift card to Walmart.  They were quick about it too because it was in my mailbox Saturday! 

I used up every last drop of my facial cleanser by adding water and getting the last of the stuff off the insides of the bottle.

I went and got my hair colored and cut by my awesome stylist.  I go see her every four months and trim my own bangs in between visits.  The way she colors it camouflages my gray hairs so I don’t have to color so often which helps my hair and saves me money too. 

Our chickens blessed us with 11 eggs this week.  Egg production is down as they have started molting.

Toaster Ovens

 

Do you have a toaster oven?  I’ve had one for years and recently upgraded to a convection toaster oven compliments of my parents.  They didn’t need theirs anymore.  Hurray for me! 

I love having a toaster oven because I can cook a lot of meals without having to heat up the big oven.  Because they are 110V they use less electricity too making them much more economical to run than the big oven. 

Another bonus is their portability.  I keep mine mostly on top of my dryer in the laundry room but in the summer time I used it out on our deck.  I love that I can bake something, even in the hottest part of the year, without heating up my kitchen.  Sometimes you just need a fresh from the oven chocolate chip cookie in the middle of July. 

For traveling they are wonderful too.  I you RV it or even stay in a hotel for an extended period of time you can bring one along and bake to your little heart’s content, if you’re feeling so inclined. 

Our new convection toaster oven is the perfect size to hold my pizza stone so now I bake homemade pizza in it.  I’ve also found that the convection feature bakes foods much more evenly and faster than the standard mode, which I hardly ever use anymore. 

What are some tips you would care to share?

Monthly Meal Planner – May – Cheating!!

I am so cheating this month.  I went completely off course last month with all the illness going on and then eating prepared meals mostly out of our freezer.  I think I only actually cooked half a dozen full meals in April and probably half of those weren’t on the plan. 

I just decided to keep last month’s meal plan up on the refrigerator and choose meals off of it to prepare in the coming weeks.  I still have most of the ingredients on hand for those meals and if I don’t I can either work around it or choose something completely different. 

I’m still in pantry and freezer purge mode.  We have sooo much food in this house and I am also shifting canned goods from the bedroom closet into the pantry as space becomes available.   

I’ve completely restocked our travel trailer too and will only need to purchase a few staples for it.  I feel like I am making some really good progress in my endeavor to clean out the freezer and pantry in preparation for a fresh start. 

What is on your meal plan this month?

Crossroads

 

I find myself at a crossroads.  I have had an overwhelming desire and a need to make a change in my life.  A big one!  It has been nagging at me for years, but the truth of the matter is I’ve been too scared to go through with it.  I’ve decided I’m not scared anymore. 

I am almost fifty years old.  I have worked my tail off my entire life.  I had my first job at the age of 9.  My brother and I were entrepreneurs when I was 11 and he was 9 running our own lawn care business.  We worked hard.  I was literally the only babysitter in our neighborhood for years.  I always had a job on Friday and Saturday nights.  

My dad owned his own business.  When we weren’t mowing lawns or I wasn’t babysitting we worked with Dad.  We always worked hard at home too.  Our parents instilled a solid work ethic in us from an early age and we have carried it with us into adulthood.  My parents have never had to worry about our abilities to take care of ourselves or our families. 

I am the person who always wants a little more, I drive myself pretty hard.  I’m always striving for improvement.  I always want to be a good person, a hard worker, become successful, stay strong and be independent.  I believe I have managed to do all that and then some. 

I’ve been a single parent for over 26 years.  It’s a lot of work.  It’s the hardest job I’ve ever had and, by far, my very favorite.  I wouldn’t trade this job for anything.  My children are my life. 

I’ve hit that point in my life where I don’t want to work so hard anymore.  I want to slow down, simplify things, become more efficient in my daily routines and enjoy my life more.  I need to stress about things less and put more fun into my life.  I need to have the experiences I’ve been longing for and dreaming about and putting off. 

I need to go to concerts, travel to places I want to visit, take vacations, see people I haven’t seen in years, meet new people, entertain more, play more games with my children, and most importantly make me a priority.  I need to live the way I truly want to live. 

So, I’ve decided to embark upon a new journey.  I’m excited about where it might lead.  I’m hoping you will all hang around and see it unfold.  I’ll still be a Thrifty Mom, because that is who I am and I don’t want to completely change that.  That part of me is pretty deeply ingrained. 

Time is flying by and I feel like it is getting away from me.  Good heavens it is May already! 

Change is good and we all know it is ever present.  It’s how we go about it that is the true adventure.  I’m ready for a brand new ride.

Grocery Budget Update - April

 

I did beyond excellent with our grocery budget this month in that I hardly bought anything.  We ate quite well from items we already had squirreled away in our pantry on freezers.  We still have plenty left too. 

My non-food budget came in at $24.94 for one bag of cat food and two of litter, 40# sack of chicken feed and a 20# sack of scratch grains.  I had $17 in egg sales to put against the feed costs. 

Although there isn’t much this is what I bought this month: 

Groceries		$$$
Cereal (5)		4.40	Double coupons
Ham		9.04	Store Coupon
Sugar 4#		1.99	Store Coupon
Deli chicken		6.99
Garden salad		2.49	Markdown
Oranges		2.03
Bread (6)		8.00	Store Coupon
Broccoli slaw		1.00
Cole slaw		1.00
Ice cream (2)		6.00
Cranberry juice (2)		3.58
Bananas		0.88
Crackers (3)		4.47	Coupon
Total		$     51.87

I have $73.13 left to spend on groceries, 67¢ leftover from March and $73.80 leftover from this month.  Not a bad way to start off in May! 

How did you do with your grocery shopping this month?

Last Week’s Thrifty Moves

 

Yes, I really do let my children eat this stuff.
 

Not a lot of thrifty stuff went on in this house with all of us sick.  We did manage to treat ourselves with over the counter medications we already had on hand as well as lots of hot tea and soup from the freezer.  Believe it or not, we also had enough tissues. 

We ate predominately from the freezer and pantry last week.

I didn’t really do any grocery shopping.  I did stop at the store Monday for a deli chicken and a pre-made salad.  Total cost for that was $9.48.  On Saturday I stopped for two bags of pre-cut slaw to make a salad.  Each bag was $1.00.  I also bought 4 boxes of cereal -  on sale $1.68 each.

Throughout the week we watched several DVDs from our own collection.  I sold five DVDs to a friend. 

I sold three dozen eggs this week. 

We purged the girl’s clothes.  After my oldest handed down to my youngest we put the rest in a bag to donate.  I now have a bag of holey jeans to turn into summer shorts. 

After last week’s bounty the chickens only laid 12 eggs this week.  I think they were worn out.