Enquiring Minds

Well, maybe somebody out there is curious to know how much I spent on groceries for the month of March. The total spent was around $400.00, so we did alot better than last month. I have plenty in the house that will probably last until next Friday. I will only have to pick up a few things.

Books Books and More Books

Our whole family loves books. We utilize the library as much as possible, but sometimes there's just times where we need to buy our own copy of a great book. We do not like to pay full price for books so what do we do? We find the used books stores and there are also other solutions to the problem.



1. HALF.COM

2. EBAY

3. AMAZON

4. PAPERBACK SWAP - I have never used this company, but I do know people who have. The idea is to list books to swap and then you can get books from other people. If I buy a book, I tend to want to keep it so that's why I have never done this. I do have an account.
5. YARD SALES

Now to sweeten the deal, just sign up for swagbucks to the right of my blog (this will give me credit) and you can get free gift cards to amazon. Swagbucks is a search engine and the more you search the more swagbucks you accumulate. Eventually you redeem swagbucks that you have earned for things in their store (not just amazon). I have redeemed enough for 7 gift cards. It's a great thing!

Easter Plans

I absolutely enjoy Easter. I love everything about it, so of course I try to make it special for the kids. I woke up early this morning quite by accident and couldn't go back to sleep, so I decided to start my research on what we will be doing this coming up week (better late than never I suppose). I had an idea so I knew where to look on-line. I would like to share a few things and maybe you will enjoy doing them with your kiddies too. I am NOT superwoman so sometimes we do not do all the things I have planned. I tend to OVER plan a times!

Planned crafts

1. Clay pot Jesus- This is adorable and I love the fact that it has nothing to do with the Easter bunny. Check it out HERE.
2. Yarn Eggs- I hope to get to try this with the girls. It seems really neat. We have lots of yarn around here since the females in the house has gotten in to crochet. Check it out HERE
3. Sock Hop- This cute little craft was done in one of the classes at our co-op and they turned out so cute! Check it out HERE

Planned lessons

1. I like to explain the Jewish holiday of Passover and will use information from the book, Celebrating Biblical Feasts. This book came with our curriculum last year. You can look at what we used HERE if you would like. There's tons of information on the Internet of course, but I liked the information on Kaboose also. Click HERE to see if it's something you would be interested in using. We will also make a couple of jewish recipes from the same site.

2. I will read from the Bible and we will also make resurrection cookies. You make the cookies the night before. Click HERE I'm thinking we made these about 5 years ago. I can not believe it's been that long! If you have not done this with your children, I highly recommend it. Michael and Madison still talk about making these. You talk about each ingredient that is added and I believe because of this, they remember! If you don't have time to do anything else, you need to do this. You and your kids will not forget it.

3. There's something else you can do and I do not remember the name of it. It represents Jesus not being in the tomb after 3 days. You take a marshmallow and wrap a crescent roll around it. Bake it and the marshmallow is G O N E. My kids enjoy this activity too, especially getting to eat the rolls!

Frugal Friday

I'm going to try and post a frugal tip each Friday. We will see how it goes. I would love for my tips to be something I have tried, but at times it may be something I have just read about. Today's topic is frugal fun! I'll list a few ideas. Maybe you have done a few of these already, maybe you know more of what to do, but the ideas are endless.

1. Have an Easter egg hunt at night. I bought 16 glow in the dark eggs the other day for this activity. I can hardly wait to do this with the kids.

2. Fly a kite. Melanie has a kite that was bought for $1.00 and all the kids have been flying it.

3. Do something special for others. This is the perfect time to make a little Easter basket of goodies and give it to someone special. Someone who may need a visit. We visited an elderly couple just yesterday. We did not even bring anything, just ourselves, and everyone had a wonderful time!

4. Begin a family journal with pictures of what you do this spring/summer.

5. Look at old photo albums and talk about past events together.

Fever, Spring Fever!

Have you noticed that it's S P R I N G!? As Fred Flintstone would say, YABBA DABBA DOOOO!! We all have that wonderful fever around here. We don't want to "do school" or stay inside either. Let's get out and get in the sun! It really is hard for the kids to stay focused and ya know, their teacher isn't any better at getting school started on a sunny day. I could say we school outside, but most of the time that doesn't work for us because none of us can concentrate. So what do we do?

We find field trips to count for school and instead of homeschooling we do van schooling from time to time. Those little minds are clicking right along and my thoughts are running wild thinking, "Hurry up, understand this so we can get D O N E!" Have you ever been there, done that? I'm sure you have. Last week we went to the zoo with great friends and this week we are going to a rock climbing place. We also have field day tomorrow with our home school group. This is my favorite time of year. I am on top of the world! The long winter is behind us and warm weather is here (for the most part) and we only have a few more days of school (hoping to be done by May 15). I love summer break. Some home schoolers school in the summer, but not us. We love the pool, hanging out with friends, and finding those frugal fun things to do outside. There's so much to do that is free or CHEAP! At my kids ages, they aren't picky about what to do and they still enjoy being with their family.

So, go find some time and go outside, it's going to be a beautiful day!

Doll Outfits

Does your daughter have an American Girl doll or other 18 inch doll that she adores? If you do, then you know that the outfits can be a little expensive. I noticed yesterday that AC Moore has cute little outfits and shoes for those dolls! I also know that there are often coupons for 40-50% off a regular priced item in the papers and on their website. Maybe Michaels and maybe even Hobby Lobby carries these outfits as well. I'm pleasantly surprised at this new found treasure! I know my girls will enjoy these outfits for their dolls.

Go Get Your Coupon On!

Ahhh yes, coupons. What kind of world would it be without those lovely little beauties found lying on the floor, across my dash, or inside a pocket? Yes, it's true, my coupons end up everywhere, but somehow I manage to find them again to be able to use and cause me great joy at the cash register each time I hand them over to the cashier. I get all giddy (almost like when Phil and I were dating) and want to laugh as I carry my treasures across the parking lot to my awaiting van eager to be filled up with things that I definitely got on the.........CHEAP!!!!!

If you aren't using coupons, can I have yours? Nah, just kidding. If you aren't using coupons, you should try at least once. I have many sites listed on my blog where you can just click and they already have the items matched up for you. I also have a list of some sites where you can print coupons from your computer. Let me tell you a few things you can get FREE this week by using your coupons.

Bilo
Dial handsoap
Gum

CVS
Colgate toothpaste
Crest Rinse
Bayer Contour Glucose Monitoring System

Now with CVS, you get Extra Care Bucks back on the items I listed. If you use the coupons, you MAKE money by purchasing these items.

Like I said, I have sites posted for all the deals and with the coupons matched up. There's soooo many things you can get free or cheap at many stores. Couponing to Disney even lists Walmart and Target items that you can get free or under $1.00. Now how cool is that?

One more site that I love to go to is SOUTHERNSAVERS Awesome site and you can check a box on the items you are going to buy and print it off. No writing down your list anymore! So, go ahead, go get your coupon on and use the money you saved for something you need or want. Us, we are headed to Disney and I can't wait to tell you how we are doing it without using any money budgeted for something else.

A Night to Remember

Our home school group has a daddy daughter banquet each year and this year the Batac's were able to attend. This night was fun for all with lots of dancing for sure. The girls made scrapbook pages, and jewelry. They also had a scrumptious dinner to go along with the fun they had. It's awesome to be able to see Madison and Melanie blossom in to beautiful young ladies with their daddy by their side.

A Great Blog

I am a blog reader fanatic and somehow I stumbled across a blog about couponing to Disney. Even if you aren't saving to go to Disney ( like we are), this lady has some great information on how to save and make extra money. Go take a look, it's a really neat blog and I tip my hat to her!

COUPONING TO DISNEY

My Big Boyscout

Well, Michael's first adventure being a boyscout was getting to fly an airplane. Now you know that's an awesome thing to get to do and I have to brag about it. What 11 year old gets to fly a plane? How many people get to, no matter what age they are? This was one happy boy who has been on top of the world for two days now. It's all he can talk about (even in church). He loves being a boyscout and we are loving the fact that he does!

Doing Better!

I was able not to spend any money on groceries for 1 whole week. That is a huge improvement from last month. We spent $64.00 for this week, so hopefully we will not spend any more money until this Friday. So far, we have spent aproximately $184.00 for the month. I hope to keep a goal of spending less than $400.00 for March. I will tell you this, it takes a lot more planning on my part and dedication to keep with what we have in the kitchen. I will definitely agree with most experts, cash money is the way to go to keep yourself on a budget. Leave the debit card at home!

Spending update

Well, I felt sick when I checked out at Aldi Friday. It was $85.00 and I was going to only spend $50.00...ha! I did subtract things that were not part of our grocery bill but for things at church. It ended up being $62.00 I think. It was higher because I had forgotten that we needed dog food, tin foil, and zip lock bags. The good thing is that I haven't spent anymore money on groceries since Friday. I probably will go shopping Saturday with the girls while we are out. Michael has a boyscout activity so I will take the girls to Michaels craft store to participate in the free beading class. If you haven't took your kids to one of the classes, you should. It's fun and alot of the time it's free too. You know me, I LOVE FREE!!!!!

TGIF!!

Most Fridays seem like any other day to me, but lately I'm so glad when this wonderful day gets here! We are so busy with schooling, and like some students and teachers this time of year, we are tired and ready for summer! So being tired of school, makes it hard to teach for the teacher and makes it hard for the student to learn. Even so, we keep trudging along and Fridays are wonderful days because we have the weekend to look forward to. At least our history and science are fun and with it getting warmer we will head outside when we can.

What have we been up to? Well, besides the usual happenings, Phillip is trying to teach us to play poker and it's a blast! He has 4 students and we are slooooow learners. Our van has been in the hospital for several things in the past several weeks, so we have also been dealing with that. It's still not fixed completely.

Michael is taking drum lessons and Madison is taking guitar lessons. Hopefully soon Melanie will be taking horseback riding lessons. Phillip is working hard at his new job. All of us will be getting out soon to ride our bikes. If you know us, you know Phillip loves cycling. I'm teaching myself to crochet. It's been difficult because I'm left handed, but I'm getting the hang of it. I've actually made 2 hats that are wearable!!

We got our fireplace fixed and it's been so nice having a fire at night. We have always wanted a fireplace that uses wood.

Last, but not least, our finances. Can I just say, UGH! I was way off on what we spend each month on groceries and deals. We spent at least $500.00 in the month of Feb. That is definitely not good. Now that was the only thing I wanted to know for Feb. was how much we spend. For the month of March I'm going to see if I can get this amount down a bit. I'm trying to cook healthier and have more vegetables and fruits in the house, so this can cause the grocery bill to go up. I still think we can do better. So far we have spent $58.00 for the month of March but you should have seen what all I was able to get at Publix. Phillip also did a Bilo run. I don't have my receipt right in front of me, but maybe I can remember most of it.

13 bags of Green Giant Steamers
7 cans Green Giant veggies
2 bags Doritos
4 Right Guard Deodorant
12 cans Hunts tomato sauce
1 (2liter) drink
4 laundry detergents
6 boxes of pasta
Gallon milk
Bag of wood

I know there was more, but just cant remember. I'm hoping to be able to spend no more than $50.00 for the next week. This should take us through next Friday. Wish me luck!