Budget Talk

We have done a lot of different things with budgeting. I've done the envelope method at the beginning of our marriage followed by using YNAB. Now we wanted something free but also not cash all the time--and I've been using this budgeting sheet I made on Canva. The link will take you to Canva where you can edit it, or you can download it here below. 

I see a lot of budgets for monthly--but I needed a weekly one. So, obviously you would write what week it is--for example I just did our budget for the week of the 13th-19th--in the first box, and the income for the week in the second. Then you list your expenses (like "ice cream" or "gas") followed by the price and subtract the price from the income box to get your running total. 

I love it, and it's free! I just have to remember to log each purchase as it comes. I write two items in each expense box because we wouldn't have enough space if I didn't do that.

Here is what we spent for July 13th-29th in case you are interested. Every family is different so don't compare! 

First I paid our HSLDA membership. When we started 5 years ago it was only 100 a year but now it's up to 150 a year. I have never had any issues legally with homeschooling but I like to have the membership just in case. If you don't know what HSLDA is, they will help you with any legal troubles over homeschooling--say the state says they didn't receive your paperwork or tries to ask you for information that they legally can't, HSLDA will help. Even with bigger issues like child protective services or police cases as long as it's related to homeschooling, they will help. 

Here's what we spent the week of July 13th. For obvious reasons of brevity I always round up to the nearest dollar. Makes the math neat and easy. 

• HSLDA $150
• Vitamens $145
• Liver Supplement $46
• Phone (mine) $25
• Audible $23
• Credit Card Payment 100
• Gym Membership $95
• Tithe 
• Water Bill (budgeted 60 it was $68 this month--lots of sprinkler use here)
• Withdrawal $80 (spent 40 at the farmers market, rest is in my wallet for fun money)
•  Kroger $180 (this was my shopping trip)
• Walmart $239 (this was my husband's shopping trip, but I had things on the list for him. Our biggest $$ items were a tub of maple syrup for $17 and frozen hamburgers for $18)
• Gas 26.71
• Savings 100

This was everything we spent. As you can see, our grocery budget is kind of out of control.  $439 for the week for a family of 5? Next week we will try to keep it under $100. 

But we do have three very hungry kids? And I try to eat healthy...(organic when we can as long as it's not insanely different price wise) but my husband buys junk food often (which annoys me but he's a grown man so I won't complain and I"ll just love him and try to keep feeding him kale.)

I have no idea how this compares to what everyone else in the world spent, but there we have it. Anyway, that left us with $140 unaccounted for in our budget that will roll into next week. Some weeks we have piano lesson payments (we pay every 4 months) or raw milk share payments and those are quite crazy so I try to save up for them. Right now I am getting a quart of keifer, 2 gallons raw milk and 1/2 lb raw butter a week and that adds up!

I'll be honest, some weeks we cut it quite close. Inflation has been crazy, in other years we did all this and more--I regularly bought new clothes for myself and Reuben and I were also taking violin lessons. Now we carefully budget each week. 

I'm so grateful for the ways God has blessed our little family and how we are able to meet everyone's needs (Becky gets new shoes this week!) with what my husband can provide. God is so good, and I try to remember that when I get frustrated. I want to be a good steward of what He has provided. 

Year 4 and Year 1 Nature Notebooks

Our homeschool nature journals! This was Reuben's Year 4 and Becky's Year 1. What a wonderful year it was. We all grew so much and I can't wait to see what we draw, sketch and paint next year!  

We got outside so much more than last year (when we had a 1 year old baby) and Esther has loved the nature walks and activities almost as much as the older two. Although lagging behind with a baby was hard on her mama who did not get to chat as much with adults. Oh, well, nature group is about the kids but community sure is fun all around. 

Here is to next year and more nature!

Normalcy?

Well, Esther is sick. Poor Esther. She has a very stuffy nose and a low grade fever and I can tell she feels bad. But she's two, so she still has 600% more energy then she needs... also, she woke up 7 times last night so her mama and her dada are tired. SO today was interesting. 

I did a little bit of deep cleaning, and a lot of holding a sick baby. I luckily had leftovers for lunch and made fried rice and garlic bratwursts for dinner. It was so good! For desert I had a chopped apple with a little bit of pudding drizzled on top, with peanut butter and sugar free carob chips. So delicious. 

Yesterday we had nature group at my friend Melissa's new homestead. She has a little over three acres (I'm not completely sure on the specifics) in the beautiful countryside. She has room for her goats, ducks, chickens and all four of her children! All of them seem over the moon in love with their new property and it was so fun to congregate there and enjoy the open skies. I know they will do so much with it!! I have two friends house hunting right now and I hope they too find their forever homes. 

I've given up on convincing my husband to move and am trying to get used to this being our forever home and not giving in to crying or holding resentment. I mean, our house is great, it's just not what I wanted. But I don't want to talk about that right now. 

Anyway, my husband is back in the office. He's been texting me the temperatures. For some reason his floor is still hot. It was 85f one day and 90f the next. But the lab (and other floors) are 70f and so he's been spending more time there. He says the equipment on his floor is still putting off too much heat but they are working on it and it should improve next week. I still think this is crazy. But it gets even crazier. Remember when I talked about the air conditioner that fell through the ceiling? I didn't think it could get worse, but it did. The crane they were using to install the new air conditioner was so heavy it broke some water pipes below the ground. But no one knew about it right away because they are underground right? Until the water started puddling and now there is a massive sink hole there and the crane started to sink into it! Crazy. I feel like there are going to be multiple lawsuits related to the air conditioner issues at my husband's engineering office job. I mean, what?

My husband said the hole was paved over now. But still. What a wild crazy story. 

He also said we have a 2 ton air conditioner for our house and wanted me to guess how big the one for his work was. I guessed 30. But, no, they have two 25-ton air conditioners for his workplace. 

That's a lot of air conditioning. Hopefully it cools off his floor soon.

Poor Esther is so sick and I hope no one else catches it. Tomorrow's the weekend and I'm beyond excited for some rest! Here I am hoping I am not up all night with a sick baby and wake to more sick kids (or get sick myself) but at least I have soup in the freezer.

Goodnight!