Oh the joy of having a non-frugal, spend thrift husband!

I have hesitated to post this, only because I don't like painting my husband in a negative light! He is a good husband and an awesome dad, and he has a ton of redeeming qualities. He is however my biggest adversary in my quest for financial wellness!
Often times when a family wants to make major financial changes for the better there is a spouse who is not as enthusiastic or willing to do so. Some say it is not possible to make the necessary changes with an unwilling spouse, I am here to prove them wrong!!! I am however not going to say its going to be easy!!!
My dear husband is spend thrift ie: A spendthrift (also called profligate) is someone who spends money prodigiously and who is extravagant and recklessly wasteful, often to a point where the spending climbs well beyond his or her means.
My husband is very likely to spend money at a convenience store, throw away things I have saved to reuse, complain greatly when I am given bags of clothes for the kids, very much wants to compare and be like the Jone's, wants the newest best item technology has to offer, LOVES to eat out and would everyday if he could!, hates to borrow anything!, when he gets money he must spend it! I could go on but I won't!
Now I will admit, I used to do a lot of these things as well and still have not perfected my frugality. My weakness was drive trough's. I also have a history of not following through on my budget and holding onto money for groceries and fun things and not paying the bills on time.
I am raising 6 children so i am so very busy all the time, so i will admit he has tripped over a few bags of clothes! lol!
My conclusion: I have to work extra hard to be an example of frugality, and show that it can work for us! I need to be consistent and keep going even through his complaining! We have made all our bills on time this month so far, I think I can keep it up long enough to make him see it is working!
Just say a few prayers for me!

What a truly CRAZY life this is!!!!!!

Wow! Lately this statement is truer than ever! I don't know if the world has tilted on its axis or what! Nothing seems to be going the way I have it planned! I see the vision in my head and what actually happens is the exact opposite of that!!! My life has always been a bit crazy but my goodness!
I've been doing pretty good at sticking to my plan. I fell off the wagon yesterday, I was starving and no end in sight to my running around, so I pulled into the dreaded McDonald's drive through. I had Cathryn with me so I ordered, 2 small fries, 2-4 pc McNuggets, a small soda and an apple juice. It came to 7.72!!!! I ALMOST SAID NEVER MIND! Then I thought that might be rude! Note to self: remember to pack snacks in the car! Maybe that will be my next post! Have snacks will travel....
Anyway I must go get 3 babies ready for the day. I pray today is not as crazy as the week so far! Tuesday Carly broke our 42 inch flat screen TV, the only one of its kind we own. Same day I found out Connor got reduced from 4 to 2 days of pre-school. CDS will no longer pay for the 4th day. And many, many other crazy things. But hey that's my life and I wouldn't trade it with anyone! Happy Thursday all! :)

Budgeting:

Ok, so I have started a budget! I have been very resistant to one in the past. I could never get them to work! But Of course the first rule in getting out of debt and living within your means is you have a budget! So I wanted a way to do mine that would be easy and something I am likely to stick with. I sit at the computer several times a day for a few minutes to check on everything, so I thought something on the computer might work. I didn't like anything with categories or spread sheets, it looked to complicated. So I am just using the notebook on my computer and saving everything to my documents. So far so good!
I do my budget based on every 2 weeks that we get payed. I keep my receipts and record them every few days. I started with our Jan 4th pay period and after recording everything I had and could possibly think of I still had 74.00 unaccounted for! :( So hopefully I will be able to get past that and start being more cautious about every cent spent!
I wish I had started recording my spending before this because by the time I started recording my spending I had already started being very careful where I spent money, so its not a true depiction of how I used to spend money, BUT I saw a lot of areas I can still trim and save money!

My family of 8 ate 3 mostly healthy meals a day for a total of 281.72 now my next step is too keep food separate from everything else. This total includes non food items for the past 2 weeks. Although thanks to my wonderful mom and her care package from Christmas I didn't need many non-food items this time!

Money saving tricks and ideas....

I want to start a section for Money Saving tricks. We all have things we do to save money. Please feel free to contribute! The only thing I love more than sharing my money saving ideas is learning new ones!

Wash and reuse meat carton trays. I also disinfect them with a bleach/water wash! (I do not usually save hamburg ones, cuz you really cant get all the yuckys out of them!) I especially like the black pork loin ones (of course i get the pork, only on sale for less than 2.00 a lb.!) They were great for frosted Christmas cookies, I just put the cookies on the trays, and wrapped them in clear plastic wrap.

Children do not need lots of Juice! and many get too much! So what I do is I take a concentrate thing of 100% juice (Usually under 1.49) and mix it to a gallon of water. Just keep in mind 8oz of this will not be considered a full serving of fruit, your children should eat 5 servings of fruits and veggies everyday, as recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics. I have a really hard time getting my kids to drink plain water, so this is a good way to get them drink something healthy.

I reuse milk jugs, but usually only once or twice. Once the milk is gone (we go through 2 gallons a day for my family of 8!) I use that jug to make the above listed juice, lemon aid or iced tea. In the summer I fill 3/4 way with water and freeze it for keep food in my cooler cold! (and once it starts to melt you have ice cold water to drink! Also you can cut the bottom off to use as a dog dish (especially if your dog likes to chew up dishes like mine!) you can also cut the top off to use as a funnel.

Hang out your laundry in the summer, and if using your dryer use from 8pm till 7am (I just got this confirmed by Central Maine Power. I hang dry all my big clothes, but dry my little clothes, washcloths, towels, bedding and blankets. I would hang dry a lot more but I do not have the room!

Since this original post my dryer has broke. We have decided to not fix it for now. Terry put up a new clothes line and it fits 2 loads of laundry. I have 3 or 4 a day so at least one load gets hung up in the house. I use clothes hangers and hang them up on the shower rod in the bathroom. Its an adjustment for sure, but truly worth the effort.

I reuse all containers. such as big (and little if we had them) yogurt containers, cottage cheese cont., any and all glass Jars I have. Esp. big spaghetti sauce ones and big pickle ones (usually a boiling hot water bath, takes the smell out and sterilizes them). I do however just keep what i need and will reuse. My collection can outgrow my closet sometimes then I get rid of some.

Make food homemade. It saves money, especially when you get the ingredients on sale or by buying in bulk, and its so much better for you than the over processed snack and meal foods bought for convenience! I really do not find it that time consuming anymore. I can throw together a batch of homemade cookies from beginning to end in about 8 min. (not including bake time of course!) If you cant bake them right away but them on your cookie sheet, throw them in the freezer and cook them later. If you can not cook them by that day, once the cookies are frozen take them off the cookie sheet and put them in a freezer bag and cook them anytime!

My children are not letting mommy blog this morning so I will be back with more tips later. Please share any ideas you have!

Buy used whenever possible! This can save you a ton of money! My general rule is: Clothing at a savings of at least 50% off retail. I try and get at least 75% off retail but if its really good shape its worth it for 50% off! I try and stay at least 30-50% off for any type of equipment, such as rototillers, lawn mowers, power equipment ect. Toys you can usually get really good deals on used. I try to save at least 50% on them.

Buy meats marked down! Today I saved about 30% on hamburger, stew meat and pork steaks! Hannaford generally reduces beef in the morning and chicken in the afternoon.

To use less hamburger in tacos replace some burger with black beans! Tip given to me today at play group by my friend Ersula! Thank you!

When making stew cut your meat up very small, that way your likely to get meat in every spoonful without using too much meat!

Share! If your friends with your neighbor and they have something you only need a few times a year (such as a rototiller or power saw) ask if you can borrow it! Just be sure to take really good care of it, and make sure you refill the gas before returning it!

XYY Syndrome:

My son Connor has XYY Syndrome. He was diagnosed at 5 1/2 months right after coming into our home. He had characteristics of a child with Downs Syndrome, when I first saw Connor that was what I was sure he had. I loved him from the second I knew we were getting him! I was relieved for him that it wasn't anything more serious.

Connor was our first adopted child, and our 4th foster child.

Connor is now and has always been developmentally delayed. When he came into care at 5 1/2 months, his muscle tone was very poor, he had his tongue out and sitting in his lower lip about 80 % of the time, he had little to no trunk control, he choked on everything, even his formula and eating solids was very difficult he also made very little noise.

He walked by 15 months with the help of a Physical Therapist.

At 19 months old he still had very little speech, he didn't even make many noises. He was just very quiet. He started speech, it was very slow but he now talks. He is hard to understand, and is selective as to when and where he will talk.

Last year he was diagnosed with PDD (Pervasive Developmental Disorder) which is on the Autism spectrum.

As you can see in an earlier post, he got orthopedic inserts and shoes 2 years ago. He wears them a lot better but still doesn't like them!

Connor rocks, flaps, toe walks, and rubs his first 2 fingers together. He responds very well to deep muscle message, joint compressions and brushing.

Connor has a hard time understanding social appropriateness. He laughs when someones being naughty, and laughs when he is being naughty or while being spoken to or put in time out. He is very observant while were out and about, taking things in, its hard for him to go from one thing to next especially quickly.

He does not get mad very often but when he does get out of dodge! Because thing will fly!

He turned 4 in November and knows 5 of his colors, some shapes, and can count to 10 with about 90% accuracy.

We had his follow up visit with his Developmental pediatrician today and she is impressed with his progress and so am I!

I have an amazing support team! Connor goes to preschool 4 days a week at an amazing developmental preschool, Crayon Country Jay Maine, and has a great Speech and OT therapist.

I try very hard to avoid over processed foods for Connor (and all of my kids) and especially artificial dyes and additives.

In September he saw a geneticist and had more in depth blood work done to see if anything else was going on with him genetically. There was. Its complicated and none really affects any different that XYY itself. It was scary at first but his Dr. explained it to me today and I was very relieved!

Connor is a complicated little man, but he is the light of our world! He is almost always smiling his great big smile! and so happy. Right now his favorite toy in the world is his "Birthday" truck! Its a toy hauler truck he got for his Birthday. He doesn't have to share it, its just his!

I'm hoping to help people who have children with this syndrome and PDD. There is very little known about XYY syndrome. I hope to post more info and links. I am posting pics and hope to get some video up soon.

Happy Back to School After Christmas Break Day!

Yay! The older kids went back to school today! Connor will go in a little while and it will just be and the girls! I am very excited! It was a crazier than normal vacation this time around!
I am really looking forward to getting back into our school time routine.
I got my calender out and up. I am really hoping the New Year will bring less appointments! My goal is no more than 3 a week and by summer have it down to 2 or less!
I'm still searching for a good budget program. Currently I am using my own, but that makes me nervous because that's what I have done in the past without success! This isn't my first time around the budget tree! :)
Now that I have shared all these ideas over the last few weeks, its time to actually implement them and stick to my plan when confronted! This is NOT easy for me! And the reason for my failure in the past! I am not taken seriously for this reason!
Time to put on my big girl panties and hold my ground! :)

I must go get Conny ready for school, but keep connected, I have some awesome ideas to share! Have a great Tuesday all!