More Vacation

So mom thinks this is child abuse, but Jessica said if you blow in the baby's face they will hold their breath for a sec and you can dunk them under water. I just don't want Tato to be afraid of water/drowning like I am. I want her to be comfortable in it. So we tried it, and since it didn't seem to bother her that much, we did it again and taped it. She is gonna be a great swimmer!

Budget Blog

I've been thinking a lot about budgeting, saving money, and our financial future as a country. I've always been interested in frugality, but it seems lately it's coming more out of necessity rather than enjoyment. It seems harder and harder to get by these days on just one income and it's almost like everyone just expects women to go back to work after they have their babies. I am doing all I can to continue to be a stay at home mom but it's kind of looking grim. So this blog post is about a few things, and I hope I get lots of tips from anyone who reads this.

1. What are some possible things someone can do from home to earn extra money?

2. What are some ways to save money on anything (car insurance, credit card interest, groceries, entertainment, baby clothes) ?

3. What are some of your family's favorite go-to meals? (cheap and easy to make)

4. What are some fun free or cheap things you do as a family for fun?

You can leave a comment and if you think of something later you can leave another comment. Or if you know my email address you can email me. I thought I would start the discussion and tell what I am already doing in an effort to save money/get by. Then if you feel comfortable you can tell me what you do to save money. I really don't want to leave Tato at a daycare so please give tips freely!

To save money I:

Buy the cheap diapers
Breastfeed
Use only half a paper towel at a time
Don't go shopping . . . ever (well except for groceries of course)
Rent movies from the Redbox instead of Blockbuster
Only go see movies in the theater about . . . once every 6 months
Have the lowest minute option on our cell phone plan
Don't have a land line
Don't have cable
Got rid of our WOW accounts . . . (this was mostly out of boredom though, as our Wow accounts were our only form of entertainment and 13 bucks a month for entertainment is actually pretty cheap, we just got sick of the game)

I know it's not a lot, but it's what we're doing now. Now for the things I desperately need help with.

Ways I am NOT saving money:

I way too often have Terry pick up fast-food on his way home from work
I buy those easy skillet meals which are like 5 bucks a meal (maybe that isn't a lot for a meal for two people, I don't know, is it?)
I buy baby food
Our car is pricey
Our rent is pricey

Most of our spending has to do with food actually. This is why I need tips about cooking for lazies and stuff like that. I'm not sure what I can do about the car and rent, but tips are still appreciated. So I think food is our main problem. We just really like good food. We just don't want to make it ourselves. : ) If you have any motivational tips too, like how to get excited about cooking in addition to recipes, that would be nice too. But really anything you can think of to save money is interesting to me.

Vacation!

We just got back from an awesome vacation to visit my sister in Texas. It was so much fun and we definitely needed the vacation. The only bad part was the drive. It took us about 23 hours to get there and we decided to do it all in one day so we didn't have to waste vacation days driving. We got there Friday night and had to leave the next Saturday morning so we had a whole week of fun in the sun!


Monday or Tuesday (now I can't remember which day) Jessica took us to a delicious BBQ place called Spring Creek. They had the best rolls! Really they were like little piping hot loafs of bread but they we're unlimited so I just kept eating and eating. It was a really good place.

Most of the pictures we took are of swimming. I didn't really think to take my camera out at any other time. We went swimming a couple of times and even though Tato looks horrified in this picture, she absolutely loved swimming. Every minute of it. For awhile there she had a perma-grin. Guess we'll have to take her swimming more often.

This is what Terry looked like most of the time. He was usually dragging a few kids around the pool.


She liked this little dolphin thing that Jessica had, but after awhile she got way too relaxed in it and started to doze off so we took her out of it.




Perma-grin.In addition to swimming Jessica helped me make a quilt. Ok really I helped her make a quilt. She did 98 percent of the work. But I did pick out alot of the fabric and I sewed some squares together. I also ironed alot.
Here's the finished product. Cool huh! Thanks Jess for helping me make a quilt. We also made cards and did all sorts of crafty things. I had a lot of fun.


Well since we did so many girly things like quilting and making cards (we also rented "He's Just not That Into You" which is a chick flick), I agreed to take Terry to go see the new Terminator movie while Jessica babysat for us. We found an AMC so that we did not have to go to a Cinemark. The movie was decent. Pretty much what you would expect from a futuristic robot movie I guess. I've never seen any of the previous ones though so I don't know. Terry liked it ok. He still likes the other ones better though.We had a gift card from Applebee's that I got for my Birthday from Tricia so we went there after the movie.
We did other things like play games with the kids, watched movies, visited and stayed up way too late most nights. It was a very relaxing time. We definitely needed this vacation and we had a ton of fun. Tato did too. I think she's gonna miss playing with all her cousins.

BBQ

This year for Memorial Day we had a Barbecue at Nate and Jill's house. Now I know Memorial Day was a few weeks ago but that is how long it takes me to put the pictures on my computer for some reason. Anyways, it was a lot of fun. Jill's mom and grandma even came into town for the long weekend. I really love getting together with the family, and of course the great food doesn't hurt. I love good ole BBQ food. Burgers, Mac salad, chips, soda, dessert. Yeah, it's a real wonder how I've gained 30 pounds since High School. A real wonder. We ate, talked and played games. It was a lot of fun. Tato always has a good time over there too because she get's to play with her cousins. I know Terry will be dismayed in my choice of picture of him, but that is what he gets for being such a goofball. : )Marshall helping the kids search for bugs.

I love this picture. Bella always loves reading to, and playing with Tato. They are little buddies.

In other news (and I'm sure most of you already know) I am pregnant . . . again. Yes it was a "surprise" and yes I know where babies come from. It will take me awhile to get used to the idea of another little rugrat around the house, but I am finally starting to get excited. I had my first ultra-sound and somehow I am 12 weeks already. I seemed to have missed the first 6 weeks of my pregnancy. That's ok though, it's sure catching up to me now. Anyways, I'm open to suggestions for a nickname for the new baby. We don't know the gender yet so it kinda needs to be cute for either gender. We've been using Peanut for now but it just doesn't fit like Tato did. She is just a little Tato, that's all there is to it.