Thanks Adele for introducing me today.... your voice is so lovely.
You've heard Skyfall right?
Anyhoo guys and gals, Well, I should say one gal. I think I'm done. I really enjoyed doing this blog and for over a year I have done it, but its not gaining traction and hasn't showed that anyone else other than my momma even reads these posts. It was fun, but lately its been kind of a downer knowing that its not reaching many people. So, I'll keep within my own pet peeves and give you the warning. This is it. Homemaker Kim blog is finished. Close the book.
Thank you and good night.
Momma, know that I will certainly keep you informed of all my domestic and business based adventures always..... love you!
Wednesday, May 29, 2013
Wednesday, May 22, 2013
Why I Quit Food Shopping Once A Month.
Hello All,
If you follow frugal blogs or know anything about America's Cheapest Family, you have probably heard of only going food shopping one time a month. The reasons are obviously to save time, but also so that you aren't tempted to buy those impulse buy items... (my weakness is the donuts at the bakery) It is a wonderful thing if you can swing it.
I did this for many months. I would pour over my menu for the month, look at the ads and create my "master" grocery list. I would end up shopping at 3 different stores usually. I would hit the grocery outlet first to see if there were any things on my list that I could score for really cheap. Then I would hit Target for things like toilet paper, trash bags, deodorant and things like that. I would finally hit the grocery store and be completely and utterly exhausted by the time I got home. However, knowing that I was finished for a whole month was a very good feeling.
When we started the business, things started to get a little bit more hairy. We did basically the same thing except that we would span the shopping over three days and go after work. You notice that I say "we" because I was no longer alone in the shopping. I now had hubby and son to tag along... and let me tell ya, if you wanna bust a budget just take those two into an outlet grocery store where everything is just so yummy and cheap .... and "HONEY THEY'RE ONLY 50 CENTS! So of course we had to have 8 or 10! Those boys, I tell ya....
I noticed that I had less and less time to create the menu and master list, so for a couple months I created a weeks worth of meals and just multiplied it times 4. Yes, we ate the same menu for a month straight... and it got so boring! Here's something else that got old. Since I was more rushed in my meal planning phase I ALWAYS seemed to forget SOMETHING for the menu! SHOOT! It always seemed to be a small but very much needed thing too.... like butter. Ya gotta have butta! (that's me channeling my Long Island Medium Theresa!--never heard of her? OK, moving on.)
So I finally gave in (and it helped that we now have 2 cars!) and started shopping on my days off each week. I now can create a weeks worth of meals, try new recipes and still stay within budget.
If I'm low on something there are no worries, I'll just get it next week. I still go to Target and the outlet store, but I only go once a month still for those. I hit Costco every few months for bulk items like flour and sugar. The bulk of my food shopping is at Aldi. I'm sorry folks, but I love that place. I steer clear of the processed stuff as much as possible and buy the whole foods. You can buy healthy stuff for cheap, but that's a whole other post.
So, there you have it. Now am I against going shopping once a month? Absolutely not. It's awesome. But, some families have the time, some don't. I'm definitely in the don't have time in this season of my life. That's what my blog is all about... finding that sweet spot between being a business woman and a homemaker.
Until Next Time Friends!
Tuesday, May 14, 2013
Update on all the goings on!
Hey Everyone!
Hope everyone is doing well -- and to all the momma's out there, I hope you had a great Mother's Day.
Anyway, I thought I would do an update on all the stuff going on in Casa De Boyers....
On the home front, things are moving along.... slowly, but moving. I'm afraid that my gardening dreams are all but washed away this year.... there is simply just no time unless I get up and out to the garden by the butt crack of dawn... and that's just not gonna happen. I'm looking into perennial gardening. My side garden where all my perennial plants and flowers are up and look beautiful. I have not touched it except for mowing it once this year. That's the garden I need. I (in all my spare time tee-hee) hope to move my tulip bulbs to places you can actually see them. I also want to split some of the iris that I have and move them to the bare side of the house. That would look really pretty. I've got some strawberries and a blackberry bush that are doing well even though I've only weeded the bed. The Black Susan's I planted last fall are coming up and taking off.... so yeah, I have to face it that a perennial garden is what I need. I'm looking into all the fruits and veggies that are perennial. We planted about 10 hop plants on either side of the back of the house to try to provide some privacy. They are doing great, but grow really fast and need support. This year tomato cages will be all they need, but next year, we'll need posts with steel cables to support those babies! Maybe some day HGTV will show up at my door and just do everything I want in 1 day!! A girl has to dream....
On the business front, things are moving along... steadily moving. We are so tired most days and we are working harder than we have ever worked. BUT WOW! Is it worth it. Not to say there aren't days that I wanna pull out my hair and long for things to be back the way they used to be, but those days are fewer and fewer. Things are going really well and I know this is where we're supposed to be. It feels so good to earn our own money. We are still on a tight budget at home, but we are very purposeful with every dollar. Even though we are not earning a very large salary right now, we are still able to set money back for savings. We're starting to look around the house for those extras that we really don't need or want any longer to help boost the emergency fund a little quicker.
On the kitty front, fun loving babies! Our oldest Shade, was having trouble with her tummy and the medication is just so expensive. We decided to not get medicine and just try a really high quality food. It is a grain free rabbit meat based food and it has done wonders for her. We give her a bit of either yogurt or wet food in the morning and let her eat the dry the rest of the day. She no longer vomits and diarrhea is gone. She has spunk in her step again and seems to feel so much better. The other kitties are doing great. Loving all the sun spots around the house!
Until next time friends!
Hope everyone is doing well -- and to all the momma's out there, I hope you had a great Mother's Day.
Anyway, I thought I would do an update on all the stuff going on in Casa De Boyers....
On the home front, things are moving along.... slowly, but moving. I'm afraid that my gardening dreams are all but washed away this year.... there is simply just no time unless I get up and out to the garden by the butt crack of dawn... and that's just not gonna happen. I'm looking into perennial gardening. My side garden where all my perennial plants and flowers are up and look beautiful. I have not touched it except for mowing it once this year. That's the garden I need. I (in all my spare time tee-hee) hope to move my tulip bulbs to places you can actually see them. I also want to split some of the iris that I have and move them to the bare side of the house. That would look really pretty. I've got some strawberries and a blackberry bush that are doing well even though I've only weeded the bed. The Black Susan's I planted last fall are coming up and taking off.... so yeah, I have to face it that a perennial garden is what I need. I'm looking into all the fruits and veggies that are perennial. We planted about 10 hop plants on either side of the back of the house to try to provide some privacy. They are doing great, but grow really fast and need support. This year tomato cages will be all they need, but next year, we'll need posts with steel cables to support those babies! Maybe some day HGTV will show up at my door and just do everything I want in 1 day!! A girl has to dream....
On the business front, things are moving along... steadily moving. We are so tired most days and we are working harder than we have ever worked. BUT WOW! Is it worth it. Not to say there aren't days that I wanna pull out my hair and long for things to be back the way they used to be, but those days are fewer and fewer. Things are going really well and I know this is where we're supposed to be. It feels so good to earn our own money. We are still on a tight budget at home, but we are very purposeful with every dollar. Even though we are not earning a very large salary right now, we are still able to set money back for savings. We're starting to look around the house for those extras that we really don't need or want any longer to help boost the emergency fund a little quicker.
On the kitty front, fun loving babies! Our oldest Shade, was having trouble with her tummy and the medication is just so expensive. We decided to not get medicine and just try a really high quality food. It is a grain free rabbit meat based food and it has done wonders for her. We give her a bit of either yogurt or wet food in the morning and let her eat the dry the rest of the day. She no longer vomits and diarrhea is gone. She has spunk in her step again and seems to feel so much better. The other kitties are doing great. Loving all the sun spots around the house!
Until next time friends!
Saturday, May 4, 2013
Reorganizing the Spare Bedroom Closet
Hey Everyone,
I know it's been awhile, but I'm still pluggin' away on cleaning out and organizing my house. I've finished the downstairs, now I need to move upstairs. I started in the spare bedroom because it was crying out for help the loudest. I didn't even think to take pictures. I didn't really do too much in there. We use it as a game room for our son and storage really right now. We rarely, if ever, have guests over, so we really need to use this room for function. The main thing I did was organize the filing cabinet. But, we'll talk about that project another day. So, the closet....yeah, it was kind of a mess as you can see.
So, I got to work. I went through each item deciding if it stays, gets donated, gets trashed or gets moved to a new home in the house.
It seems that I have a problem with saving gift bags and even old Christmas cards. Maybe I look at Pinterest too much?? Things got stuffed down in this "organizer" that didn't belong.
I found my vacuum cleaner bags in there! That is a sign that maybe this organizer is not working out for me... ya think?
Of course Toby was there inspecting my work....
I finally got everything out except for hubby's record collection. He put them there when we moved in our house in 2003 and he said that I can take them out of this closet when he is dead. I'm not kidding, he really said that.... he is serious about his record collection, even though he hasn't touch them in 10 years... *shrugging shoulders*
My wrapping paper "organizer" went into the donate pile quicker than anything.... no wonder it was on clearance for $1.99 when I bought it.
I'll show you guys the after picture in my next post.... but the question for now is.... what do I do with all this wrapping paper now??? Don't worry, I've got plans! ;)
Until Next Time Friends!
I know it's been awhile, but I'm still pluggin' away on cleaning out and organizing my house. I've finished the downstairs, now I need to move upstairs. I started in the spare bedroom because it was crying out for help the loudest. I didn't even think to take pictures. I didn't really do too much in there. We use it as a game room for our son and storage really right now. We rarely, if ever, have guests over, so we really need to use this room for function. The main thing I did was organize the filing cabinet. But, we'll talk about that project another day. So, the closet....yeah, it was kind of a mess as you can see.
So, I got to work. I went through each item deciding if it stays, gets donated, gets trashed or gets moved to a new home in the house.
It seems that I have a problem with saving gift bags and even old Christmas cards. Maybe I look at Pinterest too much?? Things got stuffed down in this "organizer" that didn't belong.
I found my vacuum cleaner bags in there! That is a sign that maybe this organizer is not working out for me... ya think?
Of course Toby was there inspecting my work....
I finally got everything out except for hubby's record collection. He put them there when we moved in our house in 2003 and he said that I can take them out of this closet when he is dead. I'm not kidding, he really said that.... he is serious about his record collection, even though he hasn't touch them in 10 years... *shrugging shoulders*
My wrapping paper "organizer" went into the donate pile quicker than anything.... no wonder it was on clearance for $1.99 when I bought it.
I'll show you guys the after picture in my next post.... but the question for now is.... what do I do with all this wrapping paper now??? Don't worry, I've got plans! ;)
Until Next Time Friends!
Thursday, May 2, 2013
How We Sold Our Very Loved, But Very Old Car.
Hey there everyone!
Today I thought I would share my experience in selling my very old car.
We bought this Nissan Sentra waaayyy back in 1996. It was brand new and only had 52 miles on it. We got a bit of a deal on it since it was a leftover 1995 model. It has been a great car to us. We bought it a couple months before we got married. It took us on our honeymoon, on our 3 year anniversary trip to Florida and we brought home our son in this car. We never thought we'd also take our son to 5th grade in this car! So she has had a good life with us and has been a great car. But this past year she has become tired. With 253,000 miles on it, she began nickel and diming us.... a part here, a part there.... $200 here, $50 there, another $300 there.... ahhh, our car was much less dependable. When she was rejected for inspection back in January for a variety of brake work that needed done equalling over $800 we knew that it was time to give it up.
Now, for all the money geeks out there, you know that hubby and I are debt free except the house. We learned a very important lesson here. While it was great that we buckled down and paid off our debt, we neglected to save towards the purchase of a newer car when this time came. So, if you are on the path to become debt free, be sure to save for things that need to be replaced in the future so you don't end up being stuck like we were. If we had just started putting $100 a month away when she rolled over 100,000 miles, we would have immediately had a good chunk of money for a different car. I'm getting off subject, but BEWARE!
So here's what we did to sell the car.... after I accepted that it indeed was "time to take the next step". *sniff*
Clean and wash the car as best as possible. Now guys, I'll admit, I didn't wash the outside, because really, look at the paint job. So I thoroughly cleaned the inside and called it a day.
Take some good pictures with different angles.
We listed it on Craigslist. Craigslist is free and easy to use. We uploaded the pictures and were honest about what repairs needed to be made.
Price it Fairly. We weren't looking to make a bundle. We put our list price at $500, after several offers and a couple showings, we found a buyer and agreed on $400.
There was much more interest than I thought there would be. Cars that are known for longevity will probably get you the same results. Maybe not so much for say a Ford Focus.... nothing against Fords, I'm just sayin'....
Now my car is being fixed by a fella who is handy with cars and will be his errand running car. It makes me happy to know that this isn't the end for her.... and the $400 in my hand? Yep, that's heading straight to my next car!
Until Next Time Friends....
Today I thought I would share my experience in selling my very old car.
We bought this Nissan Sentra waaayyy back in 1996. It was brand new and only had 52 miles on it. We got a bit of a deal on it since it was a leftover 1995 model. It has been a great car to us. We bought it a couple months before we got married. It took us on our honeymoon, on our 3 year anniversary trip to Florida and we brought home our son in this car. We never thought we'd also take our son to 5th grade in this car! So she has had a good life with us and has been a great car. But this past year she has become tired. With 253,000 miles on it, she began nickel and diming us.... a part here, a part there.... $200 here, $50 there, another $300 there.... ahhh, our car was much less dependable. When she was rejected for inspection back in January for a variety of brake work that needed done equalling over $800 we knew that it was time to give it up.
Now, for all the money geeks out there, you know that hubby and I are debt free except the house. We learned a very important lesson here. While it was great that we buckled down and paid off our debt, we neglected to save towards the purchase of a newer car when this time came. So, if you are on the path to become debt free, be sure to save for things that need to be replaced in the future so you don't end up being stuck like we were. If we had just started putting $100 a month away when she rolled over 100,000 miles, we would have immediately had a good chunk of money for a different car. I'm getting off subject, but BEWARE!
So here's what we did to sell the car.... after I accepted that it indeed was "time to take the next step". *sniff*
Clean and wash the car as best as possible. Now guys, I'll admit, I didn't wash the outside, because really, look at the paint job. So I thoroughly cleaned the inside and called it a day.
Take some good pictures with different angles.
We listed it on Craigslist. Craigslist is free and easy to use. We uploaded the pictures and were honest about what repairs needed to be made.
Price it Fairly. We weren't looking to make a bundle. We put our list price at $500, after several offers and a couple showings, we found a buyer and agreed on $400.
There was much more interest than I thought there would be. Cars that are known for longevity will probably get you the same results. Maybe not so much for say a Ford Focus.... nothing against Fords, I'm just sayin'....
Now my car is being fixed by a fella who is handy with cars and will be his errand running car. It makes me happy to know that this isn't the end for her.... and the $400 in my hand? Yep, that's heading straight to my next car!
Until Next Time Friends....
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