New Year's Resolutions 2013

Many people make new goals for the New Year.  This year I decided to give it a try.  I usually don't participate because there are ALWAYS things I have goals for throughout the year.  This year, however, Ben really wanted designated goals and steps on how we were going to achieve those goals (he went to a seminar and came home really pumped about the lecture, something about attainable goals).

#1- Like everyone else in the USA we want to lose weight, but more than that, I want my kids to eat healthfully also.

1. Read Eat to Live and Disease Proof Your Child By Dr. Joel Furhman and follow it.  (This new eating plan is basically vegan and more fully a veggie and fruit based diet.  I'll explain more fully in a different post.)
2.  No junk in the house, if we're going to not follow the plan, it'll only be outside of the home
3.  Always have sliced veggies available for after nap (when the kids just can't wait until dinner).  At that point, who cares if they don't eat dinner, they've likely just eaten carrots, zucchini, cucumbers, celery, radishes, or whatever else I've put out.
4. One smoothie per day.  I can add spinach, kale, romaine lettuce, or whatever else so long as we add          fruits it tastes delicious and we drink it up, most the time you can't even taste the greens.  It ensures   we get at least some greens and berries (both of which Inara claims to hate) into our bodies.

#2 - Attend Church Meetings on time.

1. Thankfully, church is now at 11AM.  We eat a late breakfast, get dressed right after and leave 10-15 minutes early.  
2. Make sure kids are fed a filling breakfast before church.  Keep TV off (works a whole lot better now that it's down stairs).  Make sure church bag is ready to go.  (Church bag:  Living Scriptures coloring books, crayons, maybe a little doll or car, mini hymnal, all class literature, tiny notebooks with a pen. -That's it.  We're not there to play around, we're there to listen and learn.)

#3 - Aside from special details- finish left side of basement.

1. Put TV downstairs so as to have nothing keeping us upstairs during evening hours (the only time to work on basement).
2. Clean right side of basement so kids can be watched easily while we build on the other side...and just so it's clean.
3. Builders permit- by end of February
4. Install electrical- by end of April
5. Put up walls and finish building the closet wall- by end of May
6. Install insulation in ceiling (walls already have insulation) and put up ceiling drywall (or whatever it is)- by end of July
7.  Put in flooring- by end of October

 (This does not include trim, painting, or other special details, although I hope to have it painted before flooring, and trimming shortly after flooring.)

#4 - Garden

     This one will be a little more difficult.  We've always wanted a garden but we have many trees and very   few spots of full sun that are not on our drain field.  There is a space out back that we believe will work (I watched it all last summer) so we will try there.

1. Determine which fruits or vegetables to grow.
2. Green house or fenced in or convertible green house.
3. Build short raised beds, maybe one 2x4 high.
4. Constantly read up how to grow my garden and tend to it.
5. Involve kids or they will be bored to tears and I'll accomplish nothing.  :)

    

Oh Forget it.

I keep trying to do new things, which is not a bad thing but it can cause a lot of confusion, stress, and then I have the whole- other people think I'm crazy because I start and stop whatever that thing is fairly quickly.  I've noticed that I'll tell someone in my family, "Oh we're trying this new thing because of all these great reasons," and then a month later I've stopped.

Now, I just need to put it out there that it isn't always because I'm lazy, although that has been a reason, I won't deny. :)  A fair amount of the time I stop because it didn't work for us.  It took too much time, energy, money...whatever.  Other times, it just failed.  I tried, it failed.  Other times, it's too hot, too cold, something came up (like becoming pregnant and having a new baby).

So, now I'll attempt to do what everyone is always saying.  Don't worry about everyone else's opinions. How are you going to know if you never try?  Just because one way works for one family, doesn't mean it'll work for mine.

Some fails:
http://heinerhullabaloo.blogspot.com/2011/08/35-challenge-redo.html
   *yeah right, who can manage $35 per week with 5 people, well good for them!

http://heinerhullabaloo.blogspot.com/2011/07/evening-schedule.html
    *Chore lists and evening schedules are constantly changing now we have a new one that is a little more            permanent only because it's screwed into the wall and not falling down and getting lost.

http://heinerhullabaloo.blogspot.com/2011/05/great-cloth-diaper-change-for-our.html
    * We still use cloth diapers but it's an on/off thing and we've learned so much about what works and doesn't work for us.

Some successes:
http://heinerhouseholdhappenings.blogspot.com/2011/09/dinning-room-chair-project.html
    * This was a fail and success.  The table cloth covers easily tore but I've since recovered the chairs with a more sturdy wipe off-able fabric.

http://heinerhouseholdhappenings.blogspot.com/2011/09/home-made-baby-food-pears.html
    * I make most of the baby food and it is always successful.

http://heinerhullabaloo.blogspot.com/search/label/Family%20Outings
    * Our family outings are always a success, because we have fun.  Just because someone fell down or was super cranky from being tired, does not make it a failure.

With all this in mind, I plan on shutting down the Heiner Household Happenings because why shouldn't I put all my stuff on one blog as though it's a family journal of all or most things that go on.  I enjoy hearing peoples responses to things we've done and tried.  I like a visual place for me to see what we've done.  It's so much easier than having a million journals lying around or printing out pictures, cutting, pasting...blah, blah, blah.

Alright, now I'm babbling.  So, in honor of our favorite book The Stinky Cheese Man and other Fairly Stupid Tales...you can stop reading this now.  Really, there isn't anything left here but a bunch of filler.  I'm just writing more to make me look smart.  I only had 2 paragraphs and that is hardly worth a post.  Besides I didn't say anything more than what I've already said (you know, the links, because I already wrote those).  So, stop reading now.  Seriously.  There isn't anything else to see here folks. :)

$35 Challenge REDO

Okay, so that was previously a total failure.  Note to self, don't try $35 per week if going on vacation with entire family to California!  It isn't going to work.  Actually, I had this whole plan on how to make it nearly work but Ben was not for it.  He said, "We're not buying bread or packing cereal while on vacation!"  Alright, alright...I wanted to eat out at La Comida anyways :)   (Apparently, smiley faces are a new type of punctuation, at least on my blog it is.)
Click here to see my plan for super cheap vacation eating.

So, I'm going to attempt, again, the $35 per week grocery limit.  I'll add some new goals, and some of the old.

Old goals:  includes- food, baby things (ie. wipes, baby food, etc.), going out to eat, household necessities (ie. toilet paper, zipper baggies, laundry soap, etc.), health and beauty items (ie. shampoo, body wash, hand soap, etc.), and couponing trips.
New goals:  week starts Friday (payday) and ends Thursday night; can use current pantry items (this will help with cycling through some of the storage that never gets used); fruits and veggies at least twice a day; and I'm not going to stress 2 weeks, just go as long as I can.

Just so you can understand, our usual grocery budget is somewhere between $100-$150 per week but we spend over consistently for no real good reason.  Usually it has something to do with the yummy tasters at Costco :) or sodas and cookies at McDonald's.
It's fine, I just like a challenge in something that interests me, plus that extra money can be saved for Fast Offerings and fixing up our basement.
Fun Fun, wish me luck!

-Taryn

Super Cheap Vacation Eating Plan

We were going to California during the middle of my $35 per week grocery goal and I wanted to see how I could possibly make it work while on vacation.  This is what I was planning to do but understandably, Benjamin didn't feel the need to be that cheap :)

Friday-(leave for airport at 1pm)
Breakfast at home, cereal or oatmeal
Lunch at home, sandwiches or Totinos pizza
Dinner: peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, carrot sticks, popcorn (pre-popped, obviously), clementines, and an empty water bottle (the airport will allow you to bring food but only empty bottles that you may fill up after security checks you in).
Bracken: 4 frozen baby food cubes with 3 tablespoons baby cereal (will thaw by the time we're on the plane for dinner).
All of that is on hand, no associated cost.


Saturday-
Breakfast:  cereal  (packed box of cereal, bowls, spoons, dish soap, sponge), buy 1 quart of milk when awake.
    Cost: $2
Lunch:  peanut butter and honey sandwiches, apples, 1 pop tart (packed peanut butter, honey, loaf of bread, apples, and pop tarts).
    Cost:  assume didn't have apples originally (4 small) or bread (1/3 of a loaf) all bought at home because taxes are 4% less= $1.75ish
Dinner:  Super Ultra Delicious Special Gorgeous Yummy Still-Dreaming-About-It Grandma Birthday Dinner made by Super Ultra Gorgeous Talented Cousin (you know who you are )!
See, we were still able to eat real food.
   Total Cost: $3.75ish


Sunday-
Breakfast:  same as Saturday  (we didn't even manage this, we were in such a rush to get to church and were amazed to find we were the first ones there from the family!  AMAZING, it never happens.)  Instead we snuck goldfish and animal crackers during Sacrament meeting (packed from home.)
   Cost: would've cost $2, actual cost $0
Lunch:  leftovers from dinner the night before
Dinner:  eat more leftovers and cake from party
   Total cost: would've cost $2, actual cost $0


Monday-
Breakfast:  Same as Saturday
   Cost: $2
Lunch:  Zot's -there was no way I was going all the way to California and not eating the best hot dog in the world (We didn't make it. Darn it.)  Other Grandma bought doughnuts and Dad provided milk.
   Cost:  if Aunty was there $7-8, if Uncle was there $14  :)
Dinner:  La Comida- there was no way I was going all the way to California and not eating at a childhood favorite restaurant.  (We did make it and it cost more than I expected.)
   Cost:  expected $12ish, actual $21
   Total cost:  w/auntie and expected $22, w/uncle and expected $28, actual spent $23


Tuesday-
Breakfast:  haul to the airport, after settled on plane eat apples, animal crackers, goldfish, any packed snacks.
   Cost: $1.35ish (apples)
Lunch:  prepacked lunches- PB&honey sandwiches, snacks, airplane pretzels and in flight sodas.
   Cost: $0.45 (part of bread loaf)
Dinner:  not quite home yet, see if we can make it on stashed airplane snacks, sodas, and home brought snacks and any leftover bread.  When home eat Totinos pizza, again.  Wednesday we'd have a real meal again!
  Cost: $0.15 (part of bread loaf)
  Total cost: $1.95


I forgot to mention Bracken's food.  I found stage 2 foods 2 pack for $1.34 with $1 off coupon for 2 boxes attached to each box.  So, I bought 4 boxes, a total of 8 containers, enough for one container for lunch and one for dinner everyday at a total of $3.36, bringing each meal to $0.42.  Seems like a bit especially when I make mine at home for $0.10 a meal, maybe, but the cheapest I am able to find for a single container is $0.60, therefore yeah to me!  Most the time, however, he just ate what I ate.  He only ate about 3 containers.


Complete and Total Cost estimated:  $33.06
Complete and Total Cost actual w/estimate:  $29.96
     (being that we weren't being cheap and so we ate out instead of eating packed bread and cereal)
Actual Cost (since we ate out):  about $128
    We ate out a LOT, probably 8 times.  Oh well.

We had a blast though and didn't have to worry about anything.
Yea!


-Taryn

Week 1 of $35 Challenge

MONDAY
My week begun with a trip to the store for coupon shopping.  I went over budget, at least with the amount I wanted to spend on couponing.  But here is what I was able to get with the coupons.

All of this totaled $50.80.  After coupons $6.38!
Totino's were the only thing that cost me.
87% Savings!

All of this totaled $60.65 before coupons.  After coupons $17.50!
71% Savings!

Now, I'll be the first to admit that I wouldn't have bought most of the things in these pictures and the coupons convinced me to spend money where I wouldn't normally.  However, I would still have spent money on food to make baby lunches and the Gerber Lil' Entrees cost me nothing.  I would've spent money on cereal, at least $2 per box, these Special K's were less than that (I can't find my receipt to say exactly how much.)  I would still have spent money on snacks.  The snacks in the first picture were less than the snacks I would normally have bought.  And of course who in their right mind or at least decent eating habits would need 10 bags of marshmallows?!  It probably would've taken me 5-8 years to buy this many marshmallows but now I can make rice crispy treats for our visiting teaching and home teaching families without thinking twice about it (or Entegra's class, or a neighbor...etc.)

As you can probably count or use a calculator, the total has come to $23.88.  That is $10 more than I wanted to spend on coupons.  So, for the rest of the week I only have $11.12 to spend.  *cringe*  I guess I'll have to be resourceful.

TUESDAY
Just realizing how much I needed that extra mula.  I shouldn't have bought the pizza's.  Today seems to be the day I run out of everything.  Here's a list of the things we usually have on hand and are now out of.
Milk
Bread
Eggs
hot chocolate (yes, even in summer)
carrots
graham crackers
chicken broth
tortillas
rice
top ramen
Ugh, what am I going to do for a week?

WEDNESDAY
We needed out of the house and seriously needed butter.  We're doing alright considering the amount of necessities we don't have but we REALLY NEEDED butter.  So, we went to a store that I had more coupons for.

Total before coupons $13.75.  After coupons $3.29!
76% Savings!  They actually "paid" me 12 cents for each soap.

$11.12 - $3.29= $7.83 until next week, Monday at least.

THURSDAY

Today the kids and I (Taryn) went to Richmond and I didn't want to spend a ton in the process so we bought bread for 78 cents and went home to make sandwiches.

$7.83 - $0.78= $7.05

We really need milk.  Ben was asking today about tortillas. :(

FRIDAY
We still haven't bought any milk, but we're surviving on oatmeal and water instead of cereal.  We were suppose to have Hamburger Helper for dinner but that requires milk.
We ended up using the meat for tacos.  I realized, as I was searching through my cupboards for anything that didn't require milk, that I had Maseca which is tortilla mix kind of.  So we made our own tortillas (a big thank you to Mari and her Mom for teaching me how to make homemade tortillas once upon a time in middle and high school.)  We heated up some refried beans, got out the salsa, and called it dinner.

SATURDAY
Ben took the kids this morning and they went to Costco and bought our much needed milk!
$7.05 - $5.78= $1.27


SUNDAY
We usually try not to go shopping on Sunday although another loaf of bread would be nice but not necessary until tomorrow.




Wow.  So, even after running out of everything, we still managed not to spend over the $35 mark.  We even have a tad leftover!  That leftover can be used for next week, too.  Next week will be a little different due to extra circumstances.  I don't know if we can make it work, but we'll certainly try!

One thing that wasn't included in the original goal was eating out.  I didn't mention it as a do or don't.  We didn't really go out to eat but there were 2 or 3 times when I had cash in my bag and we stopped by McDonald's for cookies and a soda (soda was for me.)  This coming week (week 2) I am going to add that any type of going out has to come out of the $35.  I don't see us going out much, even for cookies.

To see what we ate this week please click here (this week wasn't done very well, I hope to improve by next week.)

-Taryn

$35 per week Grocery Goal

For the next 2 weeks I want to make a goal of spending only $35 per week on food and household necessities, such as toilet paper, shampoo, etc.  I want to make this a goal for the whole month, $35 per week for 4-5 weeks, but I'm starting little and working my way up.  I've been reading how other people manage to do this and I'm curious if I can too.  So, I'm going to put their strategies to work and see how it goes.

I want this to cover all meals with at least one serving of fruit or vegetables at each meal.  It will also include baby food, which I already make myself, so I just need fruits or veggies to keep my stock up.  As noted before, this will also include toiletries, and household products.
I'll be using some things that we already have, of course, because I don't need to start from scratch, or waste the good fruits and veggies we already have.

For us there are a few basic items we purchase every week.


Milk $2.75 at Costco, we use 3 gallons per week = $8.25
Bread $3.95 for 2 loafs at Costco, we use almost 2 loafs per week = $3.95
Eggs $3.85 for 2-18 packs at Costco, we use this many over 3-4 weeks = $3.85
     This, alone, totals $16.05 leaving me $18.95 for the rest of week 1.

$18.95, that is NOT a lot to go on.  Could be worse.  I started this goal thinking $25 per week but that's asking for failure with our family of 5.

And so I begin, starting Monday, August 1st, 2011.  I already have a coupon trip planned for Monday and don't want to spend more then $10-$15.

Wish me luck!