Two Months In No Time Flat

Is it just me or did those two months that I unintentionally took another bloggy break just fly by? Man, I gotta work on that! I have had a very full and exciting two months though. I have taken notes in my planner so that I can share with you some of the highlights. But not tonight. Tonight I am just going to give you a little hint of what I am going to post about. You ready for it?

Cephas and Koren both have changed Scout groups. Cephas is now a Boy Scout so needed to change groups anyhow and it made sense to have Koren follow along with him to the new group. The Cub Scout Pack that Koren is now involved in feeds directly into the Boy Scout Troop that Cephas is in.

Cephas has had some issues with behavior and this is a current work in progress. I will be sharing some of what we are doing and how it is working with him. I have some ideas about what may be going on with him but until I know more, the posts may be a bit on the vague side (or they might not be - it depends on my thoughts for that day)

Cephas and Koren both have dropped their music lessons. More about that as well.

Oralee had dominated the space she shared with Jeriah. I changed that. It is pretty cute. And a HUGE change when you see the before and after! You won't want to miss that post!

Jeriah has some exciting things going on at school that I am still amazed about.

All of the kids have developed some much-needed new friendships with quality kids.

Jeriah has his first semi-regular non-family babysitter. It has been awesome!

I have rearranged my living areas three (or is it four?) times since I last posted about our living room arrangement. It is too hard to keep track. We will say that it is VASTLY different from what you last knew of it.

I have been a decluttering, spring cleaning mad woman around here. That is part of why I haven't been posting much. Too busy living life to write about it. That will change though. Well, not the living life part of it, the too busy to write about it part of it.

We have a storage unit. I hate it. I hate wasting my money every month to hold on to things that we will (probably) never need again and haven't (for the most part - there are exceptions to this) even missed having around. We are working hard on that as well. By the end of April, there will be no storage unit. Mark my words. You have them here in writing. (Yes, I think I said something about that before but there are other changes in our lives that have made this possible.)

Speaking of those other changes in our lives, I will be blogging about those as well. They are big. They are good. They are new. I am excited about them like you wouldn't even be able to believe.

And I have fallen in love with a product that I want to share with you all. That will probably be more towards the end of April, maybe even the beginning of May. It is truly wonderful and I love what I know about the company right now. More research is required at this point, but so far, I am in love with the products!

Okay, I think that will sum up this post for now. Hope to see you back here soon. I can't wait to figure out where to start! It's so good to be back!

Back At It!

Things got pretty hectic there for a bit in our life and I took an unintentional bloggy break. It happens.

Since I have left off (last real blog post was Friday, January 13th, right?) a lot has happened. I am going to rely partially on my Facebook statuses and partially on my calendar and partially on my memory to update you all on what has been going on in my life - at home, at work and at play, so without further ado...


On Friday and Saturday (13th and 14th), I wasn't feeling well. I had a major headache/migraine that left me feeling absolutely horrible and pretty much confined to the couch. Thankfully, I have bigger kids that are huge helps when I need them to be. They knew that I had wanted to make some changes in their rooms and they did the heavy lifting work for me.

Cephas and Koren took apart Koren's bed and moved the pieces of it into the living room next to the bar, then slid Cephas' mattress under Koren's bed. You see, we have plans to get the three boys a new bunkbed with trundle drawer for another mattress. That way, all three boys can have a  bed with the "footprint" of all the beds taking up the same floor area of their room as just one twin bed. However, we needed more space right away.

I had also wanted to have the boys and Oralee change dressers. The boys had an eight drawer dresser that was constantly driving me nuts because I would fold their shirts and put them away and within a few days, every single shirt would be crumpled up in their drawer, no matter how I folded them and arranged them. It drove me NUTS! So I decided (after talking with them to see what would work best for them) to start hanging all of their shirts and pants. So they only needed a dresser for underclothes, pjs and shorts. Yes, shorts. Even though it is January and we do live in a climate that is generally colder this time of year, it has been a really warm winter and we have had days in 70s, so yes, shorts.

Anyhow, to get back to the subject matter at hand, the boys traded out their 8 drawer dresser for their sister's 5 drawer chest of drawers. It's the perfect amount of drawer space for the two boys but I was going to have to figure something else out for Jeriah's clothing.

Next item up on the busy agenda: Girl Scout cookies started selling on January 13th. We have been BUSY  with that! Oralee has made it to the 150-200 box mark without really even trying for sales and we have only done door-to-door sales for the distance of one block, going up one side of the street and down the other, skipping the houses that were unlikely to purchase. It's a block that we visit EVERY fundraiser, EVERY Halloween, EVERY...well, everything. They are good supporters of my children. They are also my inlaw's neighbors. That helps, I'm sure.

Then all that week, I was feeling incredibly run-down. Not sick exactly, but just feeling absolutely tired and exhausted. I was ready to go back to bed for the day before I even got out of it. Man, that was a difficult week. Still, I did all my mommy-duty stuff. That was also the week that Hubby went full-time and started working six days a week, so it was definitely all on mom to get stuff done. I did too. Housework (although the standard for that week may have been lowered) and volunteering at school and bringing treats to school for Cephas' birthday and making special dinners for Cephas' birthday week and running kids to activities and going out for visiting teaching and helping kids with homework, and all that other mommy-duty stuff that I love doing. It was just hard to keep up with it all that week.

My inlaw's have also been getting a house ready to be put onto the market. They bought a house for my youngest brother-in-law to live in while he went to college. He is still in college but after living in the house for three years has decided that he wants to live in an apartment closer to campus, so he and his roommates moved out and now his parents are busy fixing the place up so that they can sell it.

They had offered it to Hubby and I last year, but we didn't want to renew our lease at the house where we were living and brother-in-law wouldn't have been moving out in a timeframe that would work with our timeframe, so instead we got the house where we live now.

After being in the other house, I figure that it could have worked well for us, but it isn't a huge loss to us. Besides, the payments for the house that we are buying and all the utilities are still less than just the house payment for the other place. It's a cute house though. If our finances were different and if it didn't require the kids to change schools again, it could be a top contender. Such a cute cute house!

Oh - the reason I mentioned the house was because the inlaw's have been cleaning it out and we were given some things from there that we had to go pick up and bring home. At this point, we have been given a large rug (berber style to go under our table in our dining room), a dresser (for the boys' room) and a clothing rack (for me to use when I'm ironing clothes). We have also been offered a nice blue leather couch that we are still deciding on.

I started feeling better the following week and did a thorough scrubbing down in my bathroom. And I mean THOROUGH! I cleaned the shower, the tub, the tub surround, the vanity and sink, the mirror, the toilet and the floor. Then I moved onto the chair rail, the bead board and the baseboards. I decluttered and organized and made it all nice and neat. Yeah, I kicked it into high gear in that room. It needed it big time and I was so happy when it was all done! Oh - and I also did like 8 loads of laundry that day too.

Little Oralee came down with a cold about a week ago that kept her up most of one night coughing and just feeling miserable. Jeriah had croup earlier in the month but the spacing wasn't right for that to be Oralee's issue. So anyhow, she had this cold that turned her high-pitch girly five year old voice into a husky, funny sounding voice for the first four or five days. It was ADORABLE! I loved hearing her talk when she was sick because it was just so different from her regular voice (her regular voice is adorable as well - this sick voice just had a different quality of adorable). She is much better now.

My status update from Thursday, January 26th pretty much sums up my life right now though. I'll post it here:
"Busy day so far! Hubby up and out of the door by 8 am, four kids up and out of the door by 8:20 am, dropped kids at school, went to Hubby's work to drop off Girl Scout cookies (and made a few more sales) and then off to our "home visit" with Jeriah's teacher. Came home, fed the boy, now time for some cleaning and then will get him ready for school, put him on the bus, head over to the school myself, do Thursday folder and then pick up kids, get them to do chores/homework, music practice, fix dinner and out the door for an activity this evening. Busy busy day it will be! This is my favorite job (being a mom)!

Of course, that night, Cephas had a homework assignment that I didn't understand AT ALL, even though we tried and tried and tried working at it, so I ended up meeting with his teacher the next morning before school. Then, when we ran into the same issue on Friday evening, I emailed her, per her suggestion. She emailed me back. On a Friday night. With an explanation and words of encouragement. Awesome teacher!

The neighbor girl that I had been taking care of quite a bit has been spending less time at our house lately. I did watch her this past Saturday while her mom ran an errand across town (about an hour and a half). We ran an errand as well but it was one that was close by our homes and of course, with her mom's permission. She and Koren were starting to bicker and I didn't feel like dealing with it so I just separated them and decided that was the PERFECT time to run the errand. She ended up mad at me though because I sent her home when her mom got home. She wanted to stay and eat dinner with us and watch a movie and stay the night. I told her that maybe she could do it this next weekend. We'll see what happens though.

Today I have to get some work done around the house. I have a LONG list of chores for Jeriah and I to do. The last Tuesday of the month, Jeriah doesn't have school and the other kids get out of school early so that teachers can meet and plan together. I wish that had happened yesterday though! It was 70* out. And today, the day that they get out early, the high is only supposed to be like 55*. That's just the way things happen sometimes though.

And tomorrow, one of my best friends is going to come over and spend the day with me. I have no idea what we are going to do but we are going to spend the day together at any rate. It should be lots of fun! Before that though, I really want to get the house to looking nice. It will be the first time she has come over here, so I'm a little bit nervous. I am always nervous the first time that someone comes over. I'm not sure why, I just always am.

I can't wait though! Big day of cleaning and projects today. Hubby has some plans to rearrange the furniture in the living room and front room (yes, again - even though we JUST did it and loved the way it was arranged!)  in a few weeks. Before that, I need to continue to declutter. I have been keeping tally marks on my dry-erase board of how many items I have gotten rid of so far this month and I am now up to:

For the year 2012, I am up to a grand total of: 56 items.
Which means I have 1956 items left to go and 48 weeks to do it in.

I have also been doing really well with my goals for this year that I wanted to do each week. I don't really feel motivated to keep tracking those though. I think I just bogged myself down with those. I will continue with the 2012 in 2012 though. I really really enjoy that particular challenge!

I plan to return with regular posting now. Yay! Hope to see you around here! Oh and a quick mention I want to make. You should check out Heather's blog. She has been doing the 2012 in 2012 as well! Way to go Heather!

Delayed...

Just a quick note to let you all know that the posts that I normally have scheduled for Sundays, Mondays and Tuesdays are going to be delayed or skipped this week. My kids were home from school yesterday for the holiday and I had a busy day with them. Today, I don't feel so well. So if you were looking for my regular posts, just be prepared that they will be late or not happen this week. On Friday, I will be definitely be back for Company Girl Coffee and next week, I should be back to my normal posts. Thanks so much for stopping by!

Changes This Week

Good morning! Why don't you come on in and sit for a spell? I don't have any coffee on (though I could put some on, if you'd like) and visit for a bit. I'll try to keep this on the shorter side as I have a lot to do today.

It's been a semi-busy week and yesterday, I let things go. But I'll get back to that in a bit. This past weekend at Hubby's work, someone quit on the spot. Just up and quit. Hubby has taken over this guy's hours as well as his own. It'll be nice when the paycheck shows up for it. Unfortunately, that won't be til the first payday in February, but that's okay. We'll make it work.

The Neighbor Girl, My Kids and Family and Friendship
I have had the neighbor girl every day after school and it has been going REALLY well. She loves coming over to my house after school and I'm not quite sure why. On Tuesday, she was sick and her stepdad's mom came to stay with her for the day. (My phone was dead and by the time, I was able to call her mom back, she was busy and had her phone turned off so she didn't get my message in time that I could take her daughter.)

On Wednesday, the girl's mom didn't need me to take her before school because the mom didn't need to be at her appointment until 10am. However, on Tuesday, one of the ladies that teaches at church asked me to go over to the church on Wednesday and pick up a food order for someone, so that is where I spent a large portion of my Wednesday morning. Then, I stopped in at Hubby's work to grab a bite to eat (I have about $50 or so in gift cards to use there and I get a discount on top of it, so a really good deal) and to try to have lunch with him. But he was almost done and it wouldn't have made sense to have him take a break right at the end of his shift, so I ate without him.

When it was almost time to pick up kids, I called my neighbor to see if I needed to pick up her daughter as well. She said that her daughter was really upset that morning because she didn't get to come over to my house before school and that it would probably make her daughter pretty happy if I picked her up. So I did.

We had to stop at her house on the way home to drop off some stuff and I went in and talked to our neighbor for a little bit. Her daughter had a chance to come in at that point, but chose not to.

When we finally got home, I had the kids do their homework and gave them a snack (which is our regular routine for after school) then they played video games (we have puzzle-solving games on the wii so I figure at least it is something that they have to think about and work for, right?) then sent the girl home at dinnertime.

Yesterday, when I was walking up to the school to pick my kids up (I no longer needed to take the girl before and after school because her mom's need for that was temporary), the neighbor calls me and asks me to pick up the girl and I agreed to do it. It really isn't any extra work for me, I mean, I'm already there doing that exact thing. It's just using one more seat in my van and at my table. One more snack and one more kid to help with homework. No biggie.

We get back to our home and the kids come in and get started on their homework, then snack, then a game. I drove the girl home just before dinner (yes, she only lives a short distance from us but it was VERY VERY cold and I wasn't going to make her walk in it, I didn't want to walk to her house in it and I definitely didn't want to walk to her house AND back in it) and talked with her mom for about an hour. It was nice to have that time. I get the impression that her mom doesn't really have that many people to talk to in a grown-up conversation and to be able to REALLY talk, you know? It was really nice. I enjoyed it.

Time Management and A Bad Schedule
This week, I have also been battling a bad sleep schedule and really bad headaches most of the day that evolve into migraines shortly after dinner. This past week, I have been waking up around 4:30am and I have been getting tired (and going to sleep for the night) around 7:30pm. My kids' bedtime is 8:30pm. So Hubby has been left on his own for the evening and bedtime routine. Poor guy!

Yesterday morning, even though I had a ton of stuff to get done, I went back to bed for a couple of hours after Hubby went to work. I was hoping that by getting some additional sleep earlier in the day, it would afford me the ability to stay up until, oh, I don't know? 9:30pm, 10:00pm? Something more reasonable than 7:30pm, at least. So I did it, then I went to the school to do my normal Thursday afternoon volunteering session (stuffing Thursday folders in Cephas' fifth grade class and Koren's second grade class) then going home for a bit before going back to get him and the others. Needless to say, I didn't get a whole lot done around the house. In fact, I don't think I have done ANY housework since Wednesday. Yeah, that doesn't go so well. I mean, that's like 36 hours of no housework being done. Scary. Honestly, it doesn't look that bad, thanks to some changes we have made around here.

Volunteering and Work

After doing second grade's folders and before doing fifth grade's folders, I ran over to Hubby's work to see if he was done yet because we are sharing a vehicle right now while mine is in the shop being repaired. He wasn't done, but he was close. His head manager (the store's general manager) was sitting at a table across the room and he saw me and waved. I waved back and relaxed there for a bit, drinking a complimentary diet soda and eating on some complimentary french fries (told ya I get taken care of there!) and out of the blue, Hubby's GM stands up, points at me and says, "You're fired!" It's a running joke. He fires me nearly every day that we are both there. I don't work there, have never worked for him, yet he fires me all the time. :) Weird, I know. But he's a fun guy.

Hubby got off work and went with me to finish up fifth grade's folders and then I found out that he had been promoted to prep trainer. Yay! He makes an extra $3.00 an hour when he trains AND he gets a free meal (yes, I sometimes get free food and he still has to pay for his usually) so that is pretty cool. I keep telling him that he needs to take advantage of his free meal when he gets it but he usually passes on it. Oh well. Probably healthier that way, I suppose.

Oh and my plan of napping earlier in the day worked. I was able to stay awake until 10:30pm last night before crashing. And I slept through until my alarm woke me up at 6:00am. Do you know how long it has been since I have slept through until my alarm woke me up? (Okay, last Wednesday, but before that it had been quite awhile as well) It is wonderful to sleep until your alarm goes off. I felt so excited about it! I woke Hubby up to tell him how happy I was to wake up that early. He wasn't nearly as thrilled as I was though. Hmmm, wonder why? ;)

Plans
So that was my week in a nutshell. Today, I have a lot on my agenda. I need to tidy up the house from the last 36 hours and then I have some ideas that I want to put into action in the kids' bedrooms. Oralee received a new bed last week from a co-worker of mine and then this week, she received a new vanity from some friends of ours. Her room is getting considerably more girly by the minute, I tell you! And I LOVE it! I never thought I would drink in all this girly froo-froo stuff but it is so cool and wonderful! I have some changes to make in her room (remove her dresser and set up a different system for clothing storage) and then in the boys' room (make a trundle drawer for Cephas' mattress to go on and get rid of one of the bed frames, move Oralee's dresser into the boys' room for the boys to have more clothing storage for them and rearrange their room just a bit) plus, I have a clean home challenge and an organized home challenge that I am working on as well. So I have those things to do. One thing is for sure, it is never boring in this house! :)

I hope you are all having a wonderful week as well! And many wishes for you and your family to have a wonderful weekend and next week too! Thanks for dropping by for my (long-winded) update for this week!

Organized Home Challenge - Week 2 prep

This past week's focus was: Kitchen Organization: Countertops & Sink.

Step 1: Think About the Functions of Your Kitchen.

• Cooking (and food preparation)
• Food storage (both cold storage and pantry)

Step 2: Create Usable Counter Space and Clear Your Kitchen Table (mostly).

The counters have been cleared of all unnecessary items! (Although, in the photos, you will see a pan next to the stove. That was for my dinner set-up. I had the pan setting out there, with my dry ingredients in it so that it was ready to go when it was time to cook.)

I had planned to clear off my bar area instead of our dining room table, but this didn't happen this week. It's still better than it was, but it is not where it should be ideally. It is something that will get done, but has not gotten done yet.

Step 3: Consider These Kitchen Storage Solutions To Help Clear Counter Space.

I did not get a magnetic knife storage thing for the wall. It's just simply not in the budget right now and quite honestly, I'm not sure how it would look in my kitchen in the area I have for it.
I also did not get shelves for my spices, but instead I did a little bit of food storage rearranging so that I could put my spices into the cupboard instead of having them on my counter next to the stove.

Step 4: Create The Habit Of Keeping Your Sink Clear Of Dishes At Least Two Times Per Day.

I have done this faithfully every day since I got my cupboards cleared. And yesterday, when I started dinner, my sink was clear. I was able to fill up the sink, toss my dirty dishes into the sink as I used them and loaded them all into the dishwasher while the lasagna was in the oven. Then all I had to do was the lasagna pan, the spatula and our dinner dishes. It was so nice to not have any "extras".

And now for the pictures, because we all know that is what you are REALLY here for! :)

 Okay, in this picture, there are a GREAT number of things that I removed, including:
hot pads (I hung those up), hodgepodge pile of dishes that aren't used regularly and don't belong in here (moved to the dining room), boxed food goods (put away in cupboards, a spice tray (which you can't even see in this pic - moved to a cupboard), toaster, mixer and can opener (moved to small appliance cupboard - which needs clearing out in a major way!), coke cake (in the aluminum foil - we ate it), soda (I drank it), and yeah, that pretty well takes care of this pic. Oh - there is a chair. I moved that back to the dining room.

Okay, now we turn the camera to get the other side of the counter area in the kitchen and we find more food items needing to be put away (which they were), more dishes that needed to be moved to the dining room (which they were), dirty dishes in the sink, a miscellaneous mixture of items on the microwave (I went through every item up there and decluttered it in a major way) and more random items on the bar (some of which got cleared off, some of which didn't).


And then some pictures of the bar area. Actually, in the middle bar picture, you can see the top of the armoire, I also did that surface as part of this challenge, but didn't get an after shot of it because I didn't think of it. I might grab one yet this evening and add it in to this post. But here they are, feel free to click on them to look at them in full-size. I left them little because I don't have comparison pics for you to see anything afterward.

Stove and small area next to it all cleared off and ready for cooking to happen!

Counter all cleared off, save for the tomatoes and avocados and the evening's dinner prep.

Full -view into the kitchen (yes, there were a couple of things on the floor - they have been removed though!

Kitchen sink - CLEARED!

My microwave with my drink tray on top of it. I actually swapped out this tray and the one that was on the microwave because the previous one wasn't big enough to hold all the drink mixes, etc. Also, you see my coffee pot and my digital kitchen scale and what appears to be a to-go cup from a coffee shop. Well, that IS what it is, but it holds the beans that I got from that coffee shop.

Area next to my sink where my handwashed dishes dry. I hate this area. I think it always looks bad, even when it is all cleaned. I really want a different dish drainer or maybe just a larger mat to let the dishes dry on so that I can put it away and not have to look at this.

Just another view of my sink. Looks more inviting, doesn't it?

And now, to make this an incredibly long post, we find out what the challenge is for week 2.

Week #2: Kitchen Drawers & Kitchen Cabinet Organization

Step 1: Recall the Functions of Your Kitchen From Last Week

Step 2: Declutter Your Kitchen Cabinets and Drawers

Step 3: Sort What Is Left According to How Often You Use It

Step 4: Strategically Place Everything In Your Kitchen Cabinets and Drawers According to Their Zones

Step 5: Consider Kitchen Storage Solutions For Your Drawers and Cabinets to Maximize the Use of Your Available Space

So there you have it, week one complete and week two starting up.

Clean Home Challenge, Week 2

If you remember from my post this past week, I took a picture of the top of my dresser. It was quite cluttered up with various things:

A basket of Christmas ornaments, a box of extra school supplies, clothes, hangers, a couple of single boots, a tote with some clothes in it, a container with some change in it...just very miscellaneous schtuffs. (That's the technical term for it, by the way!)

Well, I cleared it all off, dusted off the decorative scrollwork that is at the top of my mirror (not shown in the picture) and then removed all the cluttery items from my dresser and put it all away. Clothes went to the appropriate places - laundry room or the person's bedroom, the hangers to the closet, the box of school supplies to the closet where they are supposed to be stored, the boots to the shelf next to the front door where we keep them, the container of change got emptied into Hubby's change tray and then I was ready to clean off the top of the dresser itself.

I got it all cleaned off and dusted, then I put a picture frame with a family picture in it on the dresser along with three jars that I got from the Dollar Store. I had planned to use those jars to make homemade sugar scrub for Christmas presents but I never got around to it so I still had them. I just added water to them and put in some floating candles that I've had laying around here for the last two years. I also had three pillar holders (for candles) that were still new in box and I decided to pull them out and put them in there too. I think it adds a nice little touch to the dresser's look and I feel like I finally have a use for them. Then I added a small tray that I absolutely love. I actually have a set of three of these trays. The one on my dresser is the smallest of the bunch. The next size up (which is the same length but in a square) I have on top of my microwave to corral miscellaneous items that need to be taken out of the kitchen. I also have a large one that is rectangular that I use for a drink tray - well, to store drink mixes and such, not to serve drinks on.

And overall, I am quite pleased with the way it turned out! It only took about 15-20 minutes to clear off and straighten it up and decorate it. Oh - and don't mind the mirror. I had some clean laundry on the bed that needed to be folded and didn't want that to take away from the nice look of the dresser. Oh - and in case you hadn't guessed, I did find my camera. It wasn't on my dresser but just under the front edge of the dresser. How it got there, I don't have the slightest clue, but regardless, I found it!

Okay, now a quick side-by-side comparison so that you don't have to scroll up and down to compare the two:

And now moving on to Week 2:

This week we are supposed to head on out to our living rooms and clear off just one end table. This actually works out pretty well for me because I only have one. I did have three but I just recently got rid of two of them.

I have to confess, the picture of my end table is actually taken partially done. I was cleaning up the living room this morning and decided to clean up the area near my favorite relaxing / study spot in the living room. So, what you will see here is after I picked up two of those bottles of soda (Diet Dr Pepper - belonged to me, two yogurt cups with spoons - belonged to Jeriah and Hubby, a bowl and a spoon - belonged to Oralee, as well as various random bits and pieces. I had also decided to put the basket that was on my dresser in my before pic down here to store all of our various charging cords (my laptop, our cell phones, the boys' dsi chargers, the little kids' Leapster charger, etc. etc. etc.) which I think looks better than a jumble of those cords just laying down here. I may revamp that plan later on, but for now, I like it.

And here is the picture:

The Saved Quarter Challenge - Week 1 Catch Up and Week 2

I'm joining in on this a little bit late, but I am ready to participate! For the first week, we were supposed to set a goal and write it down.

My goals are to:

Save 10% of our income for an emergency fund.

Save 5% of our income for medical expenses not covered by insurance. Or to use for co-pays, etc.

Set aside 10% of our income for tithing. While not technically saving, it is an important investment and I think a crucial one when it comes to money matters.

Week 1 Complete

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Beginning of Week 2

Savings:
Hubby got paid on 1/6/2012 and I immediately put 10% of his paycheck aside for savings in a certain tucked-away spot. It would make more sense to put it in the bank to accrue interest but that is not a logical option for me right now, as I am too quick to withdraw money from there when I want it. I now have $20.00 set aside for our emergency fund. (Hubby had a lot less hours than normal over the last month or so, these totals are going to be smaller for this paycheck and the next.)
Total: $20.00 this week, $20.00 year to date

Medical:
I also tucked away 5% in another spot to set aside for medical expenses. I now have $10.00 set aside for for medical expenses.
Total: $10.00 this week, $10.00 year to date

Tithing:
And finally, I tucked 10% into an envelope and turned it in to the church yesterday morning. I contributed $20.00 plus an additional amount to the church for our tithing.
Total: $20.00 this week, $20.00 year to date

Tracking Spending:
I haven't been writing everything down as it happens, but I do keep every single receipt and then I record it later. This works for a couple of different reasons. This way I can also track regular and sale prices for individual items as well. But since I have the receipts to use for all of this, I can easily track our spending.

This also helps with one of my 2012 Resolutions, in particular Item 6e.

You can click the image above to be directed to the Saved Quarter or you can click here.