March, 2015

March 23, 2015 / 2 Comments

Weekly Frugal Accomplishments

Weekly Frugal Accomplishments

These are my grandmother’s daffodils.

 

I’d like to give you a look into my previous weeks frugal accomplishments. This is to serve as encouragement and inspiration for you as well as me. I plan to attempt to do this on a weekly basis. Sometimes we need to take a moment and reflect on our week in order for us to find the strength and will to stay the course. I think frugal habits are a good thing to have and practice at any stage in life, but there are many, myself included, where they are a necessity right now, and I want us all to remember that we are not alone. God is not only providing for our needs, but also the creativity to stretch what we already have to make the most of it.

I would like to encourage you to take a few minutes and share your frugal accomplishments in the comments below. We all have knowledge to share, and you may have an idea that none of us had considered, or that we can tweak to fit our situation. Let’s use this as a place of inspiration and ‘ata girls’!

So let’s begin. Here are my frugal accomplishments from last week:

I had a couple of days that I was able to hang laundry out on the line instead of using the dryer.

I’ve been turning off the furnace during the day every day for the last week save one, when it was rainy and windy. We’ve been turning it on first thing in the morning to take the chill out of the air (it’s usually down to about 64-66 degrees in the morning) but by 10am or so, I turn it off for the day, and don’t turn it back on until we go to bed, and at that point I set it at 62 just in case the wind picks up during the night and really chills the house.

I tried the “no poo” method with my hair this week. I’m going to continue this for a few weeks and see where I’m at.

We only had one small shopping trip this week.

I picked my first daffodil this week and brought it in the house to brighten things up.

I brought foam trays from veggie packaging to use as paint trays during craft time at homschool group.

I turned off LOTS of lights the girls left on.

I cooked a double batch of beans and then made a double batch of black bean soup with them so we could have it for dinner twice.

I printed off some connect the dots sheets for Emma for free and put them in page protector sheets so they can be used over and over again. I found them here.

We planted tomato and pepper seedlings a couple weeks ago and the tomato seedlings have started coming up!

I made corn beef and cabbage with potatoes and carrots to share with Joel’s parents after church on Sunday. It was my first time making it. I cooked it in the crockpot so it would be ready after church and it turned out wonderful! Everyone loved it!

I Cooked two chickens in the crockpot to use the meat for sandwiches, salads and dinners. I saved the bones and will be making broth with them probably tomorrow.

I attended our church’s Ladies Night Out pajama party Monday night. I knew that one of the gals is gluten free, one was diabetic, and two others were doing a detox, so I made a gluten free, dairy free, sugar free chocolate pudding, and yes it is quite yummy! I also brought chocolate chip oatmeal cookies to share as well. We had a fun time as always!

 

That’s all for me. What frugal accomplishments did you have last week?

March 20, 2015 / Leave a Comment

March Madness Terrell Style-Update #1

Well it’s a little over half way through our March Madness Terrell Style challenge, and I’m sure you are all dying to know how we’re doing!

Well here it is straight folks. We made a couple of modifications, and got a little confused on the numbers a couple of times, and we skipped one day because we didn’t remember until midnight and were just too tired, but we are still going strong! I figured there are 31 days in March and technically it’s a 30 day challenge so we’re still good.

To recap, we started a 30 day push-up and sit-up challenge March 1st. Really I’m the one who wanted to do it to help kick myself in gear, and my husband lovingly agreed to do it with me to help me with accountability. I also am trying to drink 8-8oz glasses of water every day.

Here’s where we modified a little. I started out doing guy push-ups because my personal goal is to be able to do full on guy push-ups. I’ve switched to doing a combination of guy and girl push-ups. Basically I do guy push-ups until I can’t do any more and then I switch to girl ones. I get a sharp stabbing pain in my right rib cage after a few guy push-ups, so I’m hoping by just doing any kind of push-ups it will strengthen my upper body and eventually alleviate that.

As far as the sit-ups go, we’ve switched to crunches. To be fair, this is what my husband wanted to do from the start, and is actually what is on the chart. I wanted to do full on sit-ups because I’m crazy like that. We’ll save that for another time, when we’ve been doing this for a while and aren’t starting from ground zero!

And as far as the water drinking goes, I think I’ve been doing pretty good. I’ve been a little lazy the last few days keeping track, and yesterday was a big dud in the water drinking department, but for the most part I’ve done pretty good!

And there you have it folks. We have 11 days left in our March Madness challenge, and I think we are going to end strong!

How are you doing? What did you challenge yourself to do this month?

March 2, 2015 / 1 Comment

March Madness Terrell Style

It’s time for March Madness…Terrell Style!

We here in the Terrell house are not really into following sports, of any kind really, so the March Madness craze doesn’t really effect us (unless you count the frustration of our favorite shows going MIA for 2-3 weeks, grrr.) I’ve decided to come up with our own March Madness.

My “game” has been off ever since the holidays hit. In November and December, we not only have the usual holidays (Thanksgiving and Christmas), but we also have two kids with birthdays and at least one trip home to Nebraska for the holidays (this year was just one but some times we make the trip twice.) So now it’s march 1, and not only have I NOT lost any weight since the holidays, but I’ve GAINED (!!) several pounds back, ugh. I realized I needed a kick in the pants and just blogging about it isn’t enough. So I have enlisted the help of my dear husband. He and I are doing a 30 day push-up and sit-up challenge. My husband is skinny by nature, and never has been known to workout, but he loves me, and so he is graciously doing it with me so I have someone to do it with every day.

I’m also striving to drink 8 8oz of water everyday for the next 30 days. Water is so good for you in SO many ways, and is great in aiding weight loss. I’ve been really bad about this in the past and am determined to develop this habit! Along with water I’ll be drinking Good Girl Moonshine. You can go to Trim Healthy Mama for the recipe. It has Apple Cider vinegar in it which has loads of health benefits, two being weight loss and appetite suppressant. It really does the trick and it doesn’t taste gross like you might think. I like mine with a couple dashes of cinnamon.

I’ve been very loosely following the Trim Healthy Mama (THM) plan over the last year, but am really kicking it in gear now that Sammie (our second child) is on a gluten free diet nad I’ve been feeding her THM foods, which are gluten-free, and have been making enough for the two of us. We’ve also had a little more give in our grocery budget so I’ve been able to buy more on plan foods. I got totally off plan during the holidays, hence the reason I gained several pounds. But this mama says no more. You can buy the book from their website or from Trim Healthy Mama" target="_blank">Amazon (affiliate Link).

Joel and I have already done our push-ups and sit ups for yesterday and today. I think I met my water quota for yesterday, and am almost there today! It’s a good start. Two days down 28 to go. Wish me luck! March Madness Terrell Style is in full swing!

 

Have you found yourself in a slump like I have? How about creating your own March Madness challenge?