I'm a Knitter!

After deciding I wanted to learn to knit I "borrowed" (she'll never see them again) some knitting needles from my Mom and set off to find a good tutorial. I figured why spend money on a how to knitting book when I have the internet at my fingertips?

I really only needed to learn the knit and purl stitches for the dish cloths I want to make so it didn't take me very long to get the hang of it. I found a great tutorial on the Better Homes and Gardens page called Knitting 101: Knit and Purl stitches. It not only has easy to understand text but great pictures as well.

This creation was suppose to be a scarf for Matt since he now has to walk to the bus stop in the cold, but I found a quicker crotchet solution. Even though I have abandoned this knitted scarf I can't wait to get my first dish cloth finished. I've been collecting patterns for a few weeks now, but need to finish a few other projects before I get started.

Our 2009 Budget

As I mentioned in a post earlier we’ve made some budget changes to reflect Matt’s new job. While I’m considering the 2009 budget finalized it may need to be changed in the future as these numbers are my best guess at what our expenses will be. I’ve increased our car insurance fund in preparation of purchasing a new vehicle sometime next year and having to pay larger insurance premiums. We have also increased our student loan payment because we’ll have to begin paying on Matt’s loans come November, I’m not sure how much our payment will increase when this happens but I want to have a nice buffer available when it does. We’ll also start saving to purchase a new vehicle (something we were going to do anyway) in the case we do buy another or replace our current one. Lastly the current budget does not use all of our available funds as we are waiting to see how much we’ll have to pay out of pocket for health insurance, once we establish this amount I can make any necessary changes.

Now on to the numbers.


Tithe/Donation: 10% of net income
~ Because I am paid hourly this number will fluctuate

Essential House Funds: $1075
~ Basic necessary expenses including mortgage, heat, water, trash pick up, student loans

Non Essential House Funds: $515
~ Unnecessary expenses that we choose to continue including cell phones, cable, gas, gifts, personal spending money

Groceries: $150

Total Expenses: $1740 + 10%


The rest of our income will go into different savings categories
As mentioned I am paid on an hourly basis and my hours do vary per week; because of this I decided to list the savings amounts as percents rather than dollars

New Car Fund: 55% (until $4000 goal met)
We would like to save about $4000 for a new vehicle and will allocate $1000 from our tax return to help in this effort

Emergency Fund: 35% (until $5000 goal met)
We are planning to set aside about $5000 for an emergency fund in 2009. We will allocate about $2000 from my bonuses in the spring to help

Retirement “Dream” Fund: 10%
Once the new car and emergency funds are fully financed we will begin putting 100% of our extra income into this fund. This should allow us to put about $7000 away in 2009 leaving us with a $5500 deficit for our yearly goal (which just means I get to think of new ways to save and make money).


So there it is our first 2009 budget. I’m sure it will be adjusted at least three to five times throughout the year, but that’s the good thing about budgets they can be changed.

Sweeps for the week 12/29

Here are some of the sweeps for the week. Most of them can be entered daily so make sure to keep checking back for the chance to win more great prices.

Instant Wins
~ Chrysler Drive to go Green Play once a day until 12/31. You do not need a code
~ Coinstar Is Free Play once a day until 12/31
~ Steam Fresh Meals for Two until 12/31 and you can get $1 off coupon
~Kotex Instant Win Until 12/31
~ Gain – Share the Love Play until 1/3
~ Cesar Canine Cuisine Play until 1/06
~ Tinker Bell Sweepstakes once per day until 1/31
~ Blue Man Group – Universal Orlando Resort Until 1/31
~ Blue Man Group Instant Win Once per day until 1/31
~ Pink Panther 2 Instant Win Play once a day until 2/10.
~ Better Homes and Gardens Once a day until 02/15. (thanks to MoonGoddess)
~ Where’s Mr. Jelly Belly Until 7/15
Crayola Art Gear Sweepstakes Until 7/31/09 Use Code: COLOR

Just Plain Sweeps
~ Circuit City - Ongoing
~ Woman’s Day Magazine. - Many Ongoing
~ Home Magazine - Many Ongoing
~Enter the Redbook get everything you want Until 1/15. More here

Free Dog Food at Menards

Last week while shopping at Menards I saw they had the 3.5 lb Iams Healthy Naturals Dog food on clearance for $2.97. This means you can use the $3 off coupon from a recent insert to grab some free dog food.

But hurry the store I was in only had two left. Right now it seems to only be dog food as I checked the small Cat Healthy naturals and they were still around $8.

Our good News

So the good news post is only a day late, I've been wrapped up in Christmas parties and a huge yarn sale at JoAnns. I'm trying to get all my materials from re-purposed items but I can't pass up $6 yarn on sale for $1.50 . If fact I'm thinking I'll go back tomorrow, just to make sure I didn't miss any thing, plus I really should pick up some more masculine colors in case Matt needs something made in the future. I can rationalize anything, it's from years of credit card shopping except this time I'm paying cash.

So on to the good news

Starting January 12th Matt will start a new job.

Like any new opportunity there are some pros and cons. Obviously the pros out weight the cons since he's accepted the position but it does mean some major changes in our home. This new position comes with a nice pay increase and health benefits, major pros.

The one con we will be experencing is the loss of a vehicle. Currently Matt uses a company car and company gas 100% of the time. We actually only own one vehicle. We could go out and purchase a new (to us) vehicle and take on a car payment, but we really don't want to owe anyone else money again. So that means for the time being we'll be a one car family, it will be an interesting experience. I work the night shift two nights a week so I won't be able to pick Matt up from work which means he'll have to take the bus. (Sadly I don't have a bus route available or else we'd be a full time bus family) In the future we'll probably buy another car but for the next little bit we're going to give it a shot and see what happens.

With all these financial changes I reworked the 2009 budget and will be posting it soon. I also have a listing of our 2009 financial and personal goals, but I put it down so I wouldn't lose it and have apparently lost it. Isn't that how it always goes?

Blog Vacation

Like many bloggers around the net I'm taking the next two days off.

But I promise to return with some great news on Friday.



Until then have a great Holiday!

Quick, Easy and Cheap Christmas Gift

Not finished with all your Christmas shopping yet? You're running out of time, but I have a quick, easy and cheap solution.
Remember the records bowls I made a few months ago?

I decided to use a few and give them away as Christmas gifts, but I didn't want the bowls to be empty so I loaded them up with chocolate chip cookies of course.


These will be going to the family members we didn't do designated gifts with this year.

The record bowls cost about $.80 and it takes about 5 minutes to make them (including oven prep time). The cookies are your standard Chocolate chip where cost and prep time vary. These cost about $10 for quite a few dozen and we made them all in about an hour. I wrapped the cookies in red saran wrap ($2) to protect them from the bowl and tied it off with some green ribbon.

Total cost per bowl comes out to less than $2 and we finished then within a few hours.

They make a great unique Christmas gift that will have everyone talking and you can have them ready in no time at all.