Student of the Week

So close....!

A couple weekends ago, while watching me fold laundry Owen told me he wanted to wear underwear. So on they went!

He did fairly well in the days following but by the next weekend we had gone back to diapers, mostly because of poor planning from Mom. I didn't pack a bag with enough underwear and pants for Owen's night with his dad so there wasn't much that could be done. Then with Jamie being so sick, I just left it.

During, the last couple of days, Owen has again initiated the training on his own. While wearing a diaper, he came running to me and told me he needed to go to the toilet, then insisted on underwear! He is at the point now where he usually stops the pee as soon as he feels the wetness in his underwear, and comes to tell me. It's enough pee that he needs to be changed, but not enough that I'd consider it peeing in his pants. He's doing well, and all I've had to do is be willing to take him to the bathroom and wash all those clothes :)

Maybe I've actually learned a thing or two after training those three other boys!

Snow Days

What is there to do on days when it looks like this outside?

Four silly preschoolers make their own fun!

Dollar Store Fun

A few months ago while browsing the craft aisle at Dollarama, I noticed these felt boards:

You might notice that both the snowman and person are wearing summer clothing in a winter scene and that there is a rather strangely dressed person labelled "zoo." To explain, I bought three sets, a winter one, a camping one and a zoo one. Then I dumped all the little felt pieces into a large ziploc together and let the kids go with whatever they come up with.

The first one here was done by my 4 year old nephew and the second was done by 6 year old Noah (who also took the photo). He thought it was hilarious that the person was in a zoo with 3 suns (notice how he used fire?). My nephew got a kick out of using a scarf to look like a giant mushroom on top of a mountain and dressing a snowman in overalls.

So much fun for $6, which satisfies my desire to live a frugal life this year and gives the kids something to do when winter boredom hits.

Is it giving up...

...if I cut the pantry challenge short to take advantage of a special offer at a local grocery store?



I was going to shave off a few days anyway because Ill be leaving for Portugal the day the pantry challenge was to end, but I think I've given up already. A local store is offering 100 airmiles if I spend $400 before February 17. I received the email weeks ago and at the time, didn't think I'd actually do it, but given that I've spent $100 there so far, maybe I should just go for it.



For reference, 120 airmiles is good for a $20 gift certificate at the same store. I'd be collecting the usual 20 airmiles for that $400 spent, plus the bonus $100, so in essence I'd be getting $20 to do this.



Now obviously, I don't plan on just spending the money to get the discount, regardless of the cost of the items Im buying. THAT would be silly. The $100 that I've already spent was only on sale items and given that there are two separate sale weeks left, I could probably stock up pretty well on the sales offered this week and next.



To make it easier, I stumbled across Life As Mom's free budget staples check list this morning. I guess I didn't really stumble, as I subscribe to her via google reader, but whatevs. Now I can go though the store's flier, look up relevant coupons and check things off the list as I go. If all goes right, I can stock the house for the week that Ill be in Portugal and build my pantry staples, lowering my grocery bill for March and April.

Whatd'ya think?

Je m'appelle James

Friday was Jamie's first day of Kinderstart. He was sick so it was a little tough for him to get excited but we had been talking about it for weeks and he woke up knowing what day it was.



I had my cousin come over to watch the little ones and headed out just Jamie and I for some big school fun. He didn't stop talking the entire drive! When we got in the school, we found name tags on all the lockers, so it was easy to locate his new classroom.



I had him find his name and stand in front for a picture. Poor guy was really not in the best of health, but you can see the excitement in his little face :)



When the teacher opened the door, we all went in and greeted her, then found a seat to read some books that were spread out on the tables. It's so neat to see who's going to be in his class next year! At our table we had Owen and Isaac and it'll be interesting to see if they become friends down the road.



Madame introduced herself and asked all the kids to join her at the front of the class. I was happy to see that James didn't hesitate. As is usual, he talked almost non-stop while she was talking and was very active in participating. Owen and Isaac were also very active and Im sure they'll be a tough little bunch!



We made snowman pictures and the kids sang songs and listened to a story read by Madame. Then we got to bring home a bag FULL of goodies (books, paint, modelling clay, crayons, pencil, construction paper, journal, scissors, glue stick).



Then, being one who normally feels guilty about not spending enough time with each child, thought I'd take advantage of the alone time with my 3rd and bring him to McDonalds.

It was a good day and one I hope to repeat with the other four kinderstart sessions this year.

The Saved Quarter Challenge, January Recap

Oh how I don't want to write this post!

I've done terribly this month and as much as I want to blame it on a stomach bug that had me on the couch for a week or the actual FLU that has gone through three children, making going out very difficult, I can't. Im definitely not blameless in my utter failure this month, seeing as how I went out with friends twice and had non-budgeted takeout three times.

So the numbers: (forgive me, I've forgotten all of my HTML)

____________Budgeted__________ Actual __________Difference
Rent ........................1400 ..............................1400 .................................0
Renter’s Insurance .26................................. 25.67............................. -0.33
Vehicle Insurance ..317................................. 317.................................. 0
Power .....................250................................ 200................................ -50
Communications ...150................................. 100 ................................-50
Food/Household ...300 ..............................424.62........................... +124.62
Gas ..........................120.............................. 156.50............................ +36.50
Kids’ Allowances.....67..................................... 0................................... -67
School...................... 40................................. 34.45............................. -5.55
Birth/Holidays......100................................ 10.37............................. -89.63*
Giving.......................88.................................. 109................................. +21*
Micah’s Cell.............22.................................... 18................................... -4
My Spending...........25.............................. 169.85.............................. +144.85
Bank Fees................10................................ 22.06.............................. +12.06

Totals.................... 2915..................... 2987.5................. +72.52

Total Income 3469

Total Debt payment 480 (pretty much all of this went to family members that I owed money to)

Discussion

• Power/Communications, I reduced these to cover other costs during the month. Yes this is a slippery slope as now I have to come up with the short fall next month. I realize how crappy this is.


• Food/Household, Given my friend's post last week where she did a little experiment and found that Canadians pay more than double for the same grocery items as Americans, Im a little happier about this number. There was about $50 spent in take out this month that I'd like to avoid next month and I know I could have done better with sales. There's still two weeks of the pantry challenge left so maybe that will help.


• Gas, public transportation has been on strike since November so I've been driving a little over 50km each day to drive my brother to and from his university. Thankfully the drivers went back to work yesterday so my gas costs should decrease. To be fair, he did pay a large amount towards his gas usage, but it didn't quite cover it.


• Kids' Allowances, The kids and I discussed how we'd have to look at their allowances and how much we were spending on school things (thanks to Penny's suggestion) to rethink their amount. For now they understand that they're in transition and so I haven't paid anything in allowances. Micah ordered a chess game for his phone and thanks to a $30 start-up credit he had some money left over. He decided to put this towards his allowance as well as a book order. There have been a couple trips to the store in which I gave them a bit of change as well. That money was added to the household budget.


• School, See above


• Birthdays/Holidays, this category was supposed to grow each month with whatever wasn't spent on birthdays so that by the end of the year, I had some to put towards Christmas. Instead I had to take the money from here to cover other costs discussed below. We did have three family birthdays this month, a schoolmate's birthday and I bought my nephew's gift early. All of that for a little over 10 dollars is pretty good if you ask me! I did it by cooking/baking things for my family members on their birthdays and using our gift stockpile for the schoolmate's birthday. All I really had to buy were a few ingredients and my nephews gift which was on clearance for $5.


• Giving, This category is a little muddled as I discovered that I haven't been paying anything to The Mercy House. I need to look at what happened and send 5 months worth in February which would mean 125. I gave a little more at church and sent some money for my sponsored child's birthday this month though, so that's why this is higher than budgeted.


• Micah's cell, Due to the start up credit, I only had to purchase a smaller prepaid card this month so that his credit wouldn't expire. Ill be doing this until the credit is used.


• My spending, Oh this is where I hate to give details! Im going to Portugal this month and so I decided that shoes without large holes were a bit of a priority, since Ill be doing a lot of walking. I was able to buy some for $25 as well as a winter jacket for $39 because mine has been worn out for years. Without Jason to shovel the driveway, I realised that Ill be spending a lot more time outside in the cold this year, which made the jacket a necessity. Then there were the books I picked up for my trip and the two girls nights which involved restaurants/movie/coffee shop. For all of this, I think I still did fairly well at keeping the costs down. Plus I have a free admission to the theatres that I bought at a reduced rate with my meal. I can use this for a future girls night or a gift!


• Bank fees, I never have to pay extra fees! This month though due to poor planning I had a bunch! Totally have to fix this in February.

I'll be posting a revised budget for February tomorrow and you can be sure it'll include some of the lessons I've learned in January.