I took the kids to school, and came home to a quiet and empty house. Following Flylady's daily chore, I cleaned in our room for almost an hour (while watching an Oprah re-run), changed all the sheets on the beds, and am about to do my weekly home blessing hour. Mine includes a 5 minute wash in each of the 3 bathrooms, 10 minutes vacuuming, 10 minutes dusting, 10 minutes washing the kitchen floor, 10 minutes washing windows, and then I have 5 minutes left to put away whatever I discovered in the past 55 that is in an area that it shouldn't be in! Lots of days my kids and Dh pick a job and we just go at it, but every once in a while I just want to get it done and I don't want to wait until after school. I need to get the kids spending 10 minutes decluttering their bedrooms because we're starting to overfill again!
I'm going out for Thai food with my best friend today and am looking forward to that. I want to get her opinion on my working more hours, and she says that she has something important to talk to me about. Hmmm...very secretive. Other than lunch and going to buy ds5 some colouring paper, I shouldn't be spending anything else.

I filled the van up with gasoline and saved $4.50 on my grocery purchase. I also got $2 off Doritos with a coupon, so they were the same price as the chips that I normally buy. Since I wouldn't have bought the Doritos without the coupon, I'm not counting this in my challenge...I'm just reporting.

Total: $154.87

We went grocery shopping today. The kids came with me and this added a few things into the cart that I wouldn't normally buy, but they didn't go overboard. I don't know how I did this, but we're already over for the month's budget by almost $75. I did stock up at the beginning of the month on tons of stuff for the pantry. I plan dinners a month at a time, so those are all taken care of, but it was the extras...chips, fruit and I don't know what else. We are certainly going to be over in our envelopes this month! Next month will be great, because we have income tax refunds coming, it's Dh's extra cheque month, and my holiday pay for the year will be paid out with my last paycheque in March. We may put some money down on the house. The rest will go into savings. We have been so lucky with our money this past year, and have really worked hard to live below our means, and save the remainder. I will try hard to not beat myself up over spending more than I'd planned on groceries!

I've been asked by my boss to consider going full time in my position at work. This would mean 40 hours a week, as opposed to the 30-35 I work now, a better benefit package, and a 20% pay increase. Hmmm...it all sounds great, but I'm apprehensive as my first priority is my family and I wonder how this will affect them.

We haven't had anything too interesting happening around here. Everyone is happy to finally have a little bit of sunshine, even though it is freezing!

Well, it's Friday, and for most people the start of a nice weekend. Me? I start work tonight at 4:00 and will work until Monday afternoon. I hate working all weekend. AND the weather is finally sunny and beautiful..ho hum, ho hum!

I'm still waiting for dh's T-4 slip so that I can do our taxes. I have no idea how much we'll be getting back since this is the year that he left his full time job to go part time, and I started my own contributions to pension and RRSPs...always before they've been done through a spousal RRSP.

Our mortgage term is through in March. We signed a one year closed at 4.7%...next year both mortgages will be up at the same time and we'll combine them and have better leverage with bank negotiations.

I was buying some jarred fruit at the store yesterday when I realized that the bottom shelf had $1.00 off coupons from the store for the fruit I was looking at. THEN I saw the jars in the back had $1.00 off manufacturers labels! I paid .49 cents a jar instead of $2.49!!! I bought 4, and saved myself $8.00 to go in my challenge envelope.

Toothpaste was 58 cents for the first 6, as opposed to 98 cents so I bought 6 and saved $2.40.

Total: $150.37

I've been reading a lot on freezer cooking for 30 days and am very interested in trying it out. The downfall is that the only freezer we have is the one above the fridge, so 30 days of meals may be a bit squished. I did cook up all the ground beef yesterday-a big family pack. I made enough lasagna for two dinners, two dinners worth of meatballs for sweet and sour, or teriyaki, and an extra portion of plain, cooked meat for sauce, or tacos. We froze two whole chickens, and three bags of legs and thighs. I put a different marinade into each bag, and froze them, so when they defrost, they'll be soaking up barbeque, Italian, or teriyaki sauce. Along with my usual standbys of perogies, tuna casserole, garlic prawns, and a variety of homemade soups, we have meals planned until February 24th. I love the idea of the time savings, but am very curious as to the monetary savings that may occur. We'll see as the month progresses. I have $175.00 left in the grocery budget to cover weekly dairy and fruit and vegetable products, as well as whatever else may come up. The pantry is well stocked with paper products, soap, hair products, pasta, canned soups and beans, and tuna fish.
I stopped following the Flylady regime a few months back and have regretted it ever since. I started again yesterday and notice a huge change in my attitude. This house will be organized...we will have a garage sale...repeat...repeat...repeat...