November Frugalistas

[hjffkj]

My 2 main focuses for November is not eating out at all except for if we do trivia night on Mondays and finishing my Christmas shopping.  Shopping wise I have fil and his husband, mil, and dh's grandmother.  That is it.

Savings wise I'd like to put $1500 into savings this month but that might not be possible if our house offer is accepted since we'd have to put earnest money down and pay a structural engineer and electrician to look at the house.  I believe there are some other upfront costs associated with the specific loan we are going for, we'll see.

I don't have any pet sitting lined up this month, but with Thanksgiving I know I'll have last minute bookings from a few clients.

 

What does November look for everyone else?

[HomeAgain]

We close on our house in 3 weeks.  Our lender just sent a new closing cost estimate that is $2k higher than the last.  They made changes from the first and added in things on our part that the seller is required to take care of in this state.  Needless to say, not entirely pleased at this point.  We're still hoping to do this without touching savings.

This is the first month we have no car payment, no trash payment, and no extra activities payments (like skating lessons).  Ds is continuing music lessons, but everything else we take a break from for the holidays.  Still deciding on whether to change his writing program, which will be an extra $30, but that would be in the budget.

[BarbecueMom]

We're starting off November with illness.  Not fun, but from a frugality point of view, we certainly spend less when we are stuck at home.  So far it's only DS10, but it's only a matter of time before the rest of us come down with whatever plague this is.  I just want to get this over with now and not during an actual holiday like every. other. year.

Beyond that, I don't even know.  The grocery sales were terrible this week, probably a good thing I over-bought the last couple weeks.  The "pre-Black Friday sales" are not at all tempting.  I do have $25 in Kohl's cash and rewards to spend, probably on a new work dress shirt for DH.  After pulling out the stained/torn/not fitting ones, he's down to a daily choice of blue, lighter blue, blue with stripes or blue-gray.  If I can find a maroon one, I'll use up the rewards for that.  He looks good in that color of shirt. ?

Still pretty meh about Christmas shopping.  I don't even know where to start on that.  Bah humbug?

 

[hjffkj]

1 hour ago, HomeAgain said:

We close on our house in 3 weeks.  Our lender just sent a new closing cost estimate that is $2k higher than the last.  They made changes from the first and added in things on our part that the seller is required to take care of in this state.  Needless to say, not entirely pleased at this point.  We're still hoping to do this without touching savings.

This is the first month we have no car payment, no trash payment, and no extra activities payments (like skating lessons).  Ds is continuing music lessons, but everything else we take a break from for the holidays.  Still deciding on whether to change his writing program, which will be an extra $30, but that would be in the budget.

 

I hope you can address those changes to the closing cost estimate and get that lowered so you don't have to touch savings.  We saved up all this money for a down payment for our house and with the type of loan we're talking about we may not actually have to touch more than 10% of what we saved.  I'm really hoping that is the case.  no car payments is wonderful!  We've been car payment free for almost 4 years and we won't ever go back to having a payment again.  

[hjffkj]

6 minutes ago, BarbecueMom said:

We're starting off November with illness.  Not fun, but from a frugality point of view, we certainly spend less when we are stuck at home.  So far it's only DS10, but it's only a matter of time before the rest of us come down with whatever plague this is.  I just want to get this over with now and not during an actual holiday like every. other. year.

Beyond that, I don't even know.  The grocery sales were terrible this week, probably a good thing I over-bought the last couple weeks.  The "pre-Black Friday sales" are not at all tempting.  I do have $25 in Kohl's cash and rewards to spend, probably on a new work dress shirt for DH.  After pulling out the stained/torn/not fitting ones, he's down to a daily choice of blue, lighter blue, blue with stripes or blue-gray.  If I can find a maroon one, I'll use up the rewards for that.  He looks good in that color of shirt. ?

Still pretty meh about Christmas shopping.  I don't even know where to start on that.  Bah humbug?

 

 

Being sick sucks, hope it runs through all of you quickly.

I was in a Christmas rut last week and had my 8 year old help me get out of it by having her pick gifts for her cousins.  Now I just need to shop for a few adults, which can be hard but they give lists.

[HomeAgain]

8 minutes ago, BarbecueMom said:

We're starting off November with illness.  Not fun, but from a frugality point of view, we certainly spend less when we are stuck at home.  So far it's only DS10, but it's only a matter of time before the rest of us come down with whatever plague this is.  I just want to get this over with now and not during an actual holiday like every. other. year.

Beyond that, I don't even know.  The grocery sales were terrible this week, probably a good thing I over-bought the last couple weeks.  The "pre-Black Friday sales" are not at all tempting.  I do have $25 in Kohl's cash and rewards to spend, probably on a new work dress shirt for DH.  After pulling out the stained/torn/not fitting ones, he's down to a daily choice of blue, lighter blue, blue with stripes or blue-gray.  If I can find a maroon one, I'll use up the rewards for that.  He looks good in that color of shirt. ?

Still pretty meh about Christmas shopping.  I don't even know where to start on that.  Bah humbug?

 

You sound a lot like me.  Ds was sick last week, oldest and I are sick this week.  Dh is cleaning everything to try and keep himself from getting ill, too.  It makes it difficult to meal plan because nobody wants to eat or put in the effort to cook.

Christmas is going to be pretty chill this year.  Nobody in our house really wants anything, except the 8yo who wants a "Nerf gun with a scope and a magazine and is a rifle". ? The rest of us don't want or need anything and none of the sales even look good.  We're just not really into the 'stuff' aspect when we're happy, you know? 

[mommyoffive]

19 hours ago, HomeAgain said:

We close on our house in 3 weeks.  Our lender just sent a new closing cost estimate that is $2k higher than the last.  They made changes from the first and added in things on our part that the seller is required to take care of in this state.  Needless to say, not entirely pleased at this point.  We're still hoping to do this without touching savings.

This is the first month we have no car payment, no trash payment, and no extra activities payments (like skating lessons).  Ds is continuing music lessons, but everything else we take a break from for the holidays.  Still deciding on whether to change his writing program, which will be an extra $30, but that would be in the budget.

 

Ugh.  I hope the closing goes off with no more bad surprises.  

Wow, a month off of all those bills!  Wheeee

[mommyoffive]

17 hours ago, BarbecueMom said:

We're starting off November with illness.  Not fun, but from a frugality point of view, we certainly spend less when we are stuck at home.  So far it's only DS10, but it's only a matter of time before the rest of us come down with whatever plague this is.  I just want to get this over with now and not during an actual holiday like every. other. year.

Beyond that, I don't even know.  The grocery sales were terrible this week, probably a good thing I over-bought the last couple weeks.  The "pre-Black Friday sales" are not at all tempting.  I do have $25 in Kohl's cash and rewards to spend, probably on a new work dress shirt for DH.  After pulling out the stained/torn/not fitting ones, he's down to a daily choice of blue, lighter blue, blue with stripes or blue-gray.  If I can find a maroon one, I'll use up the rewards for that.  He looks good in that color of shirt. ?

Still pretty meh about Christmas shopping.  I don't even know where to start on that.  Bah humbug?

 

 

I know right?  We have a bit of sickness right now too.  I am hoping then the holidays are in the clear.  We skipped Thanksgiving and Easter last year because of sickness. When one kid gets sick pretty much everyone does. 

[BarbecueMom]

16 minutes ago, mommyoffive said:

 

I know right?  We have a bit of sickness right now too.  I am hoping then the holidays are in the clear.  We skipped Thanksgiving and Easter last year because of sickness. When one kid gets sick pretty much everyone does. 

After the third year in a row of missing either the Thanksgiving or Christmas family dinner, I now only offer to bring packaged, non-perishable food to holiday meals.  And I figured out that someone always brings the same dish as a family with young kids signed up for, because one of those households isn't going to show up due to illness.  We have a medically fragile child in our extended family who was hospitalized for several weeks after a "mild" stomach virus, so we stay away if even one of us is or has been under the weather.

DS10 is still sick.  I guess we're skipping all activities today too.  "Darn," she said, halfheartedly, and wondered if she should bother showering if staying in sweatpants all day...

And fraudulent charges showed up on my credit card this morning.  Looks like a no-spend weekend, unless I want to use cash.  And I don't.

@mommyoffive,  or anyone else with Spectrum/Charter internet, have you seen anything about the Spectrum mobile plans they just rolled out?  $14/month per GB and unlimited talk and text.  I'm considering getting a line as a "house/kid at drop-off activity" phone, and if it works well, switching myself over with a new phone (still using an iPhone 5S, which I suspect is an iOS update or two from flatlining).  It's a Verizon MVNO, I think.  We're on AT&T, but running into several situations where we can only get a service signal on DH's Verizon work phone.  Wondering if I could talk them into an internet discount if I add a wireless line.  Hmm....

[hjffkj]

i spent $0 today! However, 50 bucks says dh comes home from work with booze

 

[HomeAgain]

$22 today and dh fixed the kids' shower.  It was a quick fix, thankfully, but there was a leak in the shower hose.

We went to Whole Foods after to pick up 2 ingredients for dinner tomorrow, saw the prices, and chose to use a few substitutes instead. 

[Soror]

We've got to work on the budget this weekend. 

Dh is working tomorrow, so that will give us some extra towards saving and he gets an extra check this month. Next week is looking slow for me, we'll see if that holds, I need to get off my butt and update my info and video...

Today I spent $5.50 taking the girls out for fries and a drink, $14 on a few groceries, and $1.75 renting a movie.

[SamanthaCarter]

This week I spent $40.00 on Halloween costume stuff, $5.00 on beverages out, $11.00 on postage and $47.00 on my gallon of maple syrup. I think that’s all. 

My mil had out of town spinal surgery on Tuesday, so the postage was for a not very frugal care package. And I have a fresh handmade boxwood Christmas wreath to be delivered a few days after she comes home. www.etsy.com/shop/TheBlaithinBlairShop. All told, about $120.00, but spread out.  

Yay for everyone’s frugal successes in October! 

[Baseball mom]

Yesterday I went to a small grocery and noticed they had turkeys less than 50c a lb.  Yeah I grabbed a couple.  And some other random food stuff I needed.  

Also stopped by walmart picked up some smaller totes.  I am doing some organizing and tired of the piles that need to be put in totes.  I bought the cheapest I could.  Spent a little money but man does that spot look better now.  Totally worth it. 

 

[mommyoffive]

Ugh.  Our water bill was $100 bucks this month.  Makes no sense.  It is $30 more than normal.  I may need to call or check the toilets.  

[mommyoffive]

Great deal on Boy's long sleeve shirts.  3 pack for 3.74 shipped

https://hip2save.com/2018/11/03/the-childrens-place-boys-graphic-tees-3-pack-only-3-74-shipped-more/

 

Shutterfly freebies

https://hip2save.com/2018/11/02/possible-free-personalized-shutterfly-photo-book-for-joann-e-mail-subscribers-check-your-inbox/

 

https://hip2save.com/2018/11/03/free-shutterfly-personalized-ornament-notebook-more-just-pay-shipping/

 

 

[Baseball mom]

Got 1 nephew a Christmas present for free ? 

 

[mommyoffive]

16 minutes ago, Baseball mom said:

Got 1 nephew a Christmas present for free ? 

 

Score!

[mommyoffive]

Spending is going to be crazy the next few months.  Although I think it is like that always

The kids had a extra performance for dance over the weekend, drove to cars to cover it and had to pay parking times 2

I think we went over in grocery last month and have started this month really high

Probably adding another day of dance plus another day of rehearsals.  Tons of extra $$ for driving and parking

 

I sold a few things.  That is good.  I need to list more. 

Bought the kids some small presents

Got some good deals on some holiday markdown food at the store. Should have bought more

Got $13 worth of free food from a survey company so that is awesome.  I may get some more this week too.  I have to wait and see. 

I really am going to be figuring out a part time job for me.  

Resisted buying $581 tickets to Melburne this weekend.  I just didn't want to travel that far in economy. 

[Baseball mom]

Sold 2 coats today.   Not much but helped out a friend and I have enough to cover an outing tomorrow

[hjffkj]

We decided to spend the weekend, today being a weekend for us because dh doesn't work on mondays, staying home and doing fun stuff for free.  It rained all day so we played a massive game of hide and seek, watched Dragonball Z, caught up on laundry.  This no spending in november is going well so far. 

[BarbecueMom]

Wow, it's amazing how much money you don't spend when hackers steal your credit card number and you don't want to use cash while you wait for the new card.  I did spend a dollar and change on a bottle of soda for DH.  No other groceries, no other shopping.  I will have to dig out another card to get gas in the morning, but so far we're doing good.

I made a grocery list and menu to cover us until 11/18, plus a couple extra soup and pasta dishes in case we need it.  Hopefully I can stick to buying only perishables and the couple shelf-stable staples (say that five times fast) we are out of, except for stock-up level sales.  I baked to use up some odds and ends this weekend: GF pumpkin spice scones, apple cream cheese stuffed French toast, and two batches of chewy granola bars (white chocolate cranberry and chocolate drizzle).

DH washed his phone, argh.  So much for "no irregular expenses" this month.  He might try to see if he can manage just on his work phone for a while.

Edited November 5, 2018 by BarbecueMom

[mommyoffive]

16 hours ago, Baseball mom said:

Sold 2 coats today.   Not much but helped out a friend and I have enough to cover an outing tomorrow

 

Nice.  I love selling stuff around the house even if it isn't that much $

[hjffkj]

Well just dropped $100 on 9 pairs of pants and 18 pairs of underwear because I apparently forgot about my oldest two when making sure everyone was set for winter. Thankfully, I had a gift card that knocked the our of pocket cost to $90 and I earned at least $5 back combining swagbucks and my cc rewards. It doesn't sound like much but small amounts add up

[SamanthaCarter]

Stuck my yard signs in the ground at the polling place today. Recycling! 

[BarbecueMom]

1 minute ago, heartlikealion said:

Huh? Like candidate signs? You can't advertise within so many feet of a polling place. I'm not sure if I understood, though. 

---------------------

It’s 15 or 20 feet (can’t remember exactly) from the entrance door, at least here it is.  My polling place is the library, so the edge of the sidewalk, between the door and the parking lot, had people standing with signs.  The whole grassy area was fair game.  Filled with signs.

[SamanthaCarter]

Yep, the grassy area 20 ft out. The campaign workers pull them out at the end of the day and they end up back at campaign headquarters. 

Edited November 6, 2018 by SamanthaCarter

[Soror]

I'm trying to pull in extra hours this month for Christmas as I don't want to take any from savings. I've got a ton of hours opened and am thinking of opening more. We'll see what I can get filled. I have 15.5 hrs booked this week and 14.5 next and it keeps trickling in.

Spent $10 at field trip yesterday, $5 shampoo & conditioner, $5 nunchucks and some allowance items from Dollar Tree

Edited November 7, 2018 by soror

[mommyoffive]

3 hours ago, soror said:

I'm trying to pull in extra hours this month for Christmas as I don't want to take any from savings. I've got a ton of hours opened and am thinking of opening more. We'll see what I can get filled. I have 15.5 hrs booked this week and 14.5 next and it keeps trickling in.

Spent $10 at field trip yesterday, $5 shampoo & conditioner, $5 nunchucks and some allowance items from Dollar Tree

 

Sounds like it is pretty steady which is awesome.  I am still really thinking of doing it. 

[mommyoffive]

17 hours ago, heartlikealion said:

Ahh ok. 

 

Were you confused too?  I was, I thought we were talking about garage sale signs.  

[mommyoffive]

$5 credit for some prime members

https://hip2save.com/2018/11/09/choose-free-amazon-no-rush-shipping-get-5-print-book-credit-select-amazon-prime-members/

[mommyoffive]

Am I the only one who didn't know Amazon does car drop offs? 

Free $10 if you do one for prime members

https://hip2save.com/2018/11/09/free-10-amazon-gift-card-w-first-amazon-key-in-car-delivery-prime-members-only/

[mommyoffive]

Freebie print from Walgreens

 

https://hip2save.com/2018/11/09/free-8x10-photo-print-w-free-store-pickup-at-walgreens/

[Baseball mom]

Thanks mommyoffive  I need some pictures!

Bought another 47c turkey today, it will make several meals.

Found another nephew the Christmas gift he wants, really cheap.

Not big savings but every little bit counts

 

[BarbecueMom]

On 11/9/2018 at 9:01 AM, mommyoffive said:

$5 credit for some prime members

https://hip2save.com/2018/11/09/choose-free-amazon-no-rush-shipping-get-5-print-book-credit-select-amazon-prime-members/

This actually worked for me today when I ordered materials for the kids' science!  Yay!

**********

I  have spent just under half of my grocery budget this month, but that includes enough to make meals for the rest of the month AND online orders for nuts and gluten free baking ingredients for the holidays and beyond.  I'll use the rest at the processor for venison (hopefully, not looking good today), stocking up during Thanksgiving sales (finally, Aldi!), and milk/eggs.

[mommyoffive]

1 hour ago, BarbecueMom said:

This actually worked for me today when I ordered materials for the kids' science!  Yay!

**********

I  have spent just under half of my grocery budget this month, but that includes enough to make meals for the rest of the month AND online orders for nuts and gluten free baking ingredients for the holidays and beyond.  I'll use the rest at the processor for venison (hopefully, not looking good today), stocking up during Thanksgiving sales (finally, Aldi!), and milk/eggs.

 

Yay on the Amazon!

Yay for getting a huge grocery savings. That is awesome.  I want to have a month like that. 

Where do you order nuts online from?  Is it cheaper like that? 

[BarbecueMom]

11 minutes ago, mommyoffive said:

Where do you order nuts online from?  Is it cheaper like that? 

Nuts.com.  It’s not cheaper, but most of the nuts at Costco and elsewhere (except almonds) have cross contamination concerns.  It’s one of those foods we have had problems with in the past.  I can get nuts I’m certain are GF from there.

And the shipping is ridiculously fast.  I ordered at 4:00pm central time yesterday, it was shipped from the east coast about 5 minutes after my order, and was on my porch by 10:30am this morning.  And the shipping was free!  Half the time it would take me longer to find clean clothes and both shoes and go to the store!

[hjffkj]

Took advantage of Kohls coupons and got mil a pajama set and a nice pearl necklace for Christmas. I shopped through ebates so that'll give me some money back and I got Kohls Cash which I will use towards someone's gift next week.  Just two more people to shop for

Edited November 10, 2018 by hjffkj

[mommyoffive]

Veterans freebies and deals if you are one or someone in your family.

https://moneysavingmom.com/2018/11/veterans-day-2018-freebies-and-deals.html?utm_source=feedblitz&utm_medium=FeedBlitzRss&utm_campaign=moneysavingmom

Target $10 giftcard with $50 grocery shopping

My rewards contest

https://hip2save.com/2018/11/10/10000-my-coke-rewards-members-win-a-target-or-amazon-gift-card/

[HomeAgain]

Slightly frustrated with our home buying process this time.  Our loan officer seems incompetent - she keeps adding things we're not responsible for and not adding things we are.  We're 5 days out from closing and have yet to have an accurate closing cost sheet.  It's really frustrating.  Dh talked to her on Friday after he chased her down because she keeps sending information through a super secure site that doesn't need to be secure (in any shape or form) and not putting her signature block on the emails (which does contain important info for us, like her extension number).
I also left dh in charge of the grocery budget the week I got sick.  There went $300 in 5 days. ? I took it back over this week and have us back down to $160, with a full meal plan except for Thursday.  I did mess up a little last night.  I had planned the teen's favorite dish: Chinese short ribs over rice with pickled radish on top.  I didn't realize the pack I bought were on the bone so the amount of meat was not the same as the number of pounds on the package!  Oops!  We stretched it out with a frozen pizza, though.
I think our special Christmas thing this year is going to be the lights festival.  We debated taking the 8yo on the Christmas train, but none of us in our family do particularly well with kid-full activities.  They're noisy and chaotic.  This would be his last year of probable interest in such a thing, though, so it made it a hard decision.  But all of us can enjoy the lights festival, it's a lot cheaper, and they hire a fantastic multilingual Santa who is tucked away in a quiet area (and they don't press people to buy a picture package).  I'll pack a few thermoses of hot cocoa to avoid paying $3.50 for a cup of Swiss Miss and make some peppermint marshmallows to toss in.

[SamanthaCarter]

There’s some nice, we’ll made cedar wren houses at wal-mart right now, proportioned correctly and with a recycled plastic roof. $9.98. I bought one for my mom and one for my mil for thier Christmas present. There were only four on the shelf - they might go fast as that’s a pretty good value. 

[Lucy the Valiant]

Me, joining in! 

Dryer broke this week, so we have been line drying in front of wood stove (something we do anyway, but not usually exclusively) - bought a $25 part and hope to repair it this afternoon when the part arrives.

Also for me this month: Christmas shopping. Partially done, and I made a Shutterfly photo book and saved it in my cart to wait for a good (Black Friday?) deal. Those are very well received by aunts & grandmothers each year. 

We host Thanksgiving, so that is a bit of a grocery budget splurge, but I'm looking for some endearing home-made napkin rings / place cards to make it personal and inviting. Turkeys on sale locally starting today, so I will zip over there and pick up as many as I can fit in my freezer, $.39 a pound. 

I'm also watching Amazon for if / when (?) the strategy board games go on sale. I did pick up Carcassone for $17, but also watching for Pandemic.

 

Edit: No $5 book offer in my Prime account. Rats.

Edited November 11, 2018 by Lucy the Valiant

[mommyoffive]

10 hours ago, heartlikealion said:

So far no luck with the $5 book credit. I get the "$1 off digital" offer. 

The other day I paid a local sitter to watch dd for a few hours. There was another girl around her age there. I asked if the other girl would be there certain days. She is expected to come twice a week now so I think I'll bring dd back on Monday when she'll be there. The rate was really affordable and dd enjoyed herself while I got some things done around the house and a break from the high energy/needs of a toddler. I think Monday when she's at the sitter I will photograph items here I want to sell. 

Months ago I stocked up on cheap (like 50 cents) clearance Color Wonder books. I still have two books left in my stash. I bought a pack of the Color Wonder markers on Target's site and put them together as one of dd's Christmas gifts. We no longer have most of our original markers. I also found the free shirt I got with another shirt purchase at FYE. I had picked that shirt out as a Christmas gift for ds. It'll be a bit big, but I guess he can wear it to sleep/grow into it. I got him a couple items during the Target game sale as well. 

My sewing class at JoAnn got canceled due to low sign up and they are not going to have any more classes as the attendance has been low the last few months. That means we got money back in our account for the class. I'm just going to hold off on trying to learn to sew for now. I'm still fighting with Creative Bug to get money back for charges in our account after I canceled the subscription (free subscription trial I canceled). Because of that we actually got an overdraft fee so I'm hoping to reverse that as well. 

I'm going to do some baked goods for holidays. I found a bag of full length pretzel rods at Dollar Tree. I might have mentioned that in the Oct. thread. I made a banana nut bread with choc chips tonight and portioned some into a mini loaf which I put in the freezer so I can bring to my dad over Thanksgiving as a gift. I might get him something else, too. He's kinda hard to shop for, but I think he might like the bread. I used dark chocolate (that's the only chocolate he eats). His birthday is that week. 

I did some meal planning so after the holidays we'll at least have some stuff in the deep freeze -- beef meatballs, chicken bites (taste like Chick Fil A) and cocktail sausages. We leave town for Thanksgiving. I made meatball subs last night with some of the beef meatballs and canned spaghetti sauce. The sub rolls came from Dollar Tree. I just portioned out several small freezer bags of rotisserie chicken tonight after I made chicken tortilla soup for dinner. I got a few bags of Hawaiian rolls for sliders at Dollar Tree, too. I found them to be better quality than the Sam's Club ones because the ones we got at Sam's Club were all soggy on the bottom. Like they bagged them too early. My family ate some 85 cent sandwich bread I found recently at Dollar General? as well. I figured it no one liked it I could make it into french toast lol. Got a can of Manwich I might use on some of the beef meatballs, too. 

Had to pay for a new car tag sticker this month, but on the plus side most of the holiday shopping is done. 

 

 

Awesome job on getting holiday shopping done.   That is so nice.

Jealous of you getting bread at Dollar tree, mine doesn't have any. 

Ah tags.  I have that this month too.  

Bummer on the sewing class getting cancelled.  Can you do something online?  

Yay for getting the sitter.  It is so nice to get a break.  Kudos for using that time to be productive.  

Awesome score on the color Wonder books. i love those. 

[mommyoffive]

2 hours ago, SamanthaCarter said:

There’s some nice, we’ll made cedar wren houses at wal-mart right now, proportioned correctly and with a recycled plastic roof. $9.98. I bought one for my mom and one for my mil for thier Christmas present. There were only four on the shelf - they might go fast as that’s a pretty good value. 

 

I had to google what a Wren house is.  Cute.  Great score on a present. 

[mommyoffive]

2 hours ago, HomeAgain said:

Slightly frustrated with our home buying process this time.  Our loan officer seems incompetent - she keeps adding things we're not responsible for and not adding things we are.  We're 5 days out from closing and have yet to have an accurate closing cost sheet.  It's really frustrating.  Dh talked to her on Friday after he chased her down because she keeps sending information through a super secure site that doesn't need to be secure (in any shape or form) and not putting her signature block on the emails (which does contain important info for us, like her extension number).
I also left dh in charge of the grocery budget the week I got sick.  There went $300 in 5 days. ? I took it back over this week and have us back down to $160, with a full meal plan except for Thursday.  I did mess up a little last night.  I had planned the teen's favorite dish: Chinese short ribs over rice with pickled radish on top.  I didn't realize the pack I bought were on the bone so the amount of meat was not the same as the number of pounds on the package!  Oops!  We stretched it out with a frozen pizza, though.
I think our special Christmas thing this year is going to be the lights festival.  We debated taking the 8yo on the Christmas train, but none of us in our family do particularly well with kid-full activities.  They're noisy and chaotic.  This would be his last year of probable interest in such a thing, though, so it made it a hard decision.  But all of us can enjoy the lights festival, it's a lot cheaper, and they hire a fantastic multilingual Santa who is tucked away in a quiet area (and they don't press people to buy a picture package).  I'll pack a few thermoses of hot cocoa to avoid paying $3.50 for a cup of Swiss Miss and make some peppermint marshmallows to toss in.

 

Ugh on the closing.  I hope that it goes smoothly so you can get past this part.  Yay for not having to move. 

Too funny about dh shopping while you were sick..  Maybe try and get a stock pile going in your house so incase that happens again he doesn't blow the budget.  Frozen meals, frozen veggies, frozen fruits, pasta, soup.  

I hear you on the holiday train.  We used to do one, but it wasn't well done at all and it was $$$.  So we replaced it with other things.  It was hard for me to do that because I felt bad not doing all things.  One of our favorite is a free holiday parade in our town.  They even do free hot cider and roasted chestnuts.  

[SamanthaCarter]

2 hours ago, mommyoffive said:

 

I had to google what a Wren house is.  Cute.  Great score on a present. 

Ha! I seem to be on a roll with not being clear in my posts on this thread! 

[Soror]

stuff bought: light bulbs- lots of LED ones (adds up but we needed to replace some), car parts, groceries thursday. $50 canned goods for canned food drive for ds' school, $25 boots for me, $11 hs outing

planning bday parties for dd3 and 4, trying to keep it fairly cheap, going to hit up 5Below and Dollar Tree tomorrow

Finished out last week w/ 19 hours, have 16 scheduled for this week so far- with 5 more hours open. Next week I have 18 booked as of now. I have from 5-8 every day. I know I could pull in some again on Friday night but we'll see how I feel, I need a day off at some point and I won't have one until the 26 at the earliest right now. I've earned $600 so far, with another $680 scheduled plus $100 in incentives and I don't even have the last week booked yet (that will be next Monday).

[HomeAgain]

My family is trying to kill me.
OR, they want to see how many signs I can tack on the walls here.
I walked into the kitchen yesterday at about 8am, half an hour after the 8yo got himself breakfast.  He left the cheese out on the counter.  I called him back, made him put it away, and left the kitchen until lunch.
Oldest child comes downstairs at around 1, eats, gets ready for work, and leaves.
3pm I go back to the kitchen.  I notice THE FRIDGE OPEN, which makes the lightbulb at the top all toasty warm, and the milk sitting on the counter. ?

The only reason dh didn't pull the same crap was because he was at work.  I'm constantly going back in the kitchen to close the bread he left wide open or put away the sandwich fixings he "was going to get to after he ate".  I don't even know how to break this habit!! For dh, I've been working on it 20 years.  For the kids, I know they have been taught to put away things as soon as they're done and to clear their plate as soon as they get up from the table (another of dh's bad habits).  So WHYY???  Why can I not convince the rest of the house that throwing away food is definitely not cool?  On top of the waste, each trash bag costs us $2 because they have to be special ones for the town.  So there's another unintended chunk of change due to their habits. During this past year I've cleaned out the freezer 3 times thanks to people leaving it open and now the top of the fridge again had to go.  Arrgghhh!

[SamanthaCarter]

I somehow did terribly on groceries last month. I blame DH. And my stocking up almost a years worth of maple syrup.  

My ds was very insistent that we decorate for Halloween this year, something our family does not do. It made me feel like I should put more effort into decorating for Christmas, as it seems important to him. My house only has one outdoor electrical outlet, and it’s way around on the side, behind the side porch. It makes putting lights up front very awkward. I decided we should do luminarias of some sort. I just ordered 24 remote controlled battery operated led votives. I think I’ll put them in glass jars to protect them from the weather (they’re waterproof but not severe weatherproof). That was $39. That pretty much blows away our Christmas decoration limit for the year after I buy some necessary replacement lights for the tree. Please give me your best cheap/free decoration ideas! 

[HomeAgain]

26 minutes ago, SamanthaCarter said:

I somehow did terribly on groceries last month. I blame DH. And my stocking up almost a years worth of maple syrup.  

My ds was very insistent that we decorate for Halloween this year, something our family does not do. It made me feel like I should put more effort into decorating for Christmas, as it seems important to him. My house only has one outdoor electrical outlet, and it’s way around on the side, behind the side porch. It makes putting lights up front very awkward. I decided we should do luminarias of some sort. I just ordered 24 remote controlled battery operated led votives. I think I’ll put them in glass jars to protect them from the weather (they’re waterproof but not severe weatherproof). That was $39. That pretty much blows away our Christmas decoration limit for the year after I buy some necessary replacement lights for the tree. Please give me your best cheap/free decoration ideas! 

We tend to do understated decorations for Christmas here.
Pinecones - I mix with a little bit of cinnamon oil (or mix in Dollar Tree potpourri) and place in a bowl.  A few years ago I spraypainted some gold and silver, so those can get added as decoration, too.
Red bow on the door wreath with a few dollar tree bells.
candles/lights in the windows.  We're actually purchasing new ones this year because our last ones ate batteries.  I'll buy 4 LED ones with timers or light sensors for the bottom windows.

I know people go all out on Pinterest, but for the most part I've found that just having a color scheme evokes holiday feelings.  We did blue and silver for a while and now do red/brass to go with our grey house.