Day 1 of 31 Days of Nothing...

We started the morning with a homemade breakfast of Yellow Grits topped with diced ham (left over from Friday's meal) and shredded cheddar cheese, whole wheat toast with all natural grape jelly and sweet tea.
Then it was off to the store for a few necessities. I bought a half gallon of almond milk, a gallon of Hickory Hill milk and a dozen eggs for a grand total of $7.38. Lord willing this will be the only shopping trip I will have to make until grocery day on Friday. Our meals could get interesting, but we will not do without.

Our little ones spent the day playing outside on scooters, chasing Sophie and Sara (our two pooches) and just enjoying being kids. I played games on the computer, read (I finished Courting Morrow Little today, a book I highly recommend by the way) and researched frugality.

Lunch was PB and J on whole wheat bread, carrot sticks with ranch and dinner was leftover black eyed peas and macaroni and cheese. Now it is on to movies and family time, life is good!

New Year, New Approach

First let me apologize for not blogging since October. Inspiration has been very little here lately and writer's block was the norm. I do hope that has changed and we are back on the blogging horse so to speak.

With the new year I feel a renewed inspiration to get our budget under control. I started working part time which will help us meet more of our financial goals if we do not lose sight of what is important. I also want to start paying off our mortgage early. That is a mountain to take on but what I keep hearing in my heart of hearts is slow and steady wins the race. So I have started a change jar and when it gets full I will apply that money to the principle of our mortgage. I don't want to take away from our emergency savings to do this with our government's fiscal cliff looming, I think it would be better to save as much as we can but change is small and does add up so that is my approach for right now. We are also bringing back the 30 days of no spending (except necessities). There is plenty in this little house of ours to keep us occupied if we just stay focused. And we have a few home improvement projects that really need to be put on the forefront. And I want to try my hand at gardening, which I am not good at in this South Carolina soil, but perhaps this will be the year I find what works.

Happy New Year every one!