2013-2014 School Year in Review

If I had to define our first year of official homeschooling, I'd have to say it was a success. It wasn't what I expected it to be, and the successes weren't along the path I had originally chosen, but we arrived none the less.

I didn't like Right Start Math. But I'm planning on using the next level for the coming year. The first level, "A", simply jumped around too much in the lessons for me. Some where along the way, I ditched it for Math Mammoth, which my worksheet lover adored, but I didn't feel like I was properly teaching.  So onto level B we go.

I curriculum hopped like crazy in the phonics arena. I finally settled on Logic of English Foundations and found my phonics curriculum soul mate.  It's colorful and fun, it holds my hand, it tells me what to do if my student is struggling, it gets us moving...I just love it. Laila, who turned 4 last month, is gleefully reading CVC words. Her older brother is too, but there's a lot less "glee" going on with him at this point. I fear that I started him out before he was ready and harmed his self confidence in the process. Never again.

We didn't use the Elemental Science at all. And I can't say for sure why. Instead we did a few interest-led unit studies & it worked out just fine.

Halfway through the school year I felt like we were lacking consistency. What I realized was that we were consistently doing school 4 days a week & so that's what I continued to do, only with more mindfulness. Mondays were dedicated to recuperating from the weekend & getting the house back to neutral.

I'm really excited for what's in store for this coming school year. More on that soon.

Saving $1200 a year on phone services

I've decided that my goal for the coming year will be to set aside 20% of our income.  We're currently at a pathetic 5% and I'm looking to change that.

So each month, I'm going to be tackling one of our budget categories and trying to cut back. First I did groceries. Obviously this will be ongoing. I've started my price book, dabbled in couponing & took to stockpiling up on sales items.  I've got an inventory of my deep freezer to keep track of everything, but I do need to organize and take inventory of my pantry.

For this month, I decided to see what I could do to decrease our cell phone, landline & internet bills. I started by saying goodbye to my iPhone. We have WiFi here at home and I just wasn't using any of my data. But Verizon requires a data plan so that was $40 that was just being wasted. So I bought a used "no data required" old slider phone from ebay for $12 and will be using that from here on out.

We've got our land line & internet bundled for $112 a month with taxes. So I just averaged that out to $56 each. I called to get them seperated and had my number transferred over to Basic Talk. I bought the box at Walmart for $9.98 and my monthly bill is now down to $11.82. My internet is going to be $54 a month now. So I went from paying $213 a month (for a landline, cell phone & internet service) down to $106. That's just short of a 50% savings and at the end of the year I'll have saved a cool $1200.

The Wheels are Spinning

I called on a piece of land last night to get some details. There are very, very few options in our area that fit our criteria. Like, two. Two options. So I called on our first choice. Got the information. It's still looking good; still our first choice. But gosh. The numbers. I've got all these numbers floating around in my head; all these scenarios. If we use the equity in our current house to buy the land; if we got a bare land loan to pay for it; where will the money come from? How will we make the payments? How will we make those payments AND save up an emergency fund. Is that even possible? We'll rent out our current house once we're out of it and that will bring some extra income but what about until then?

Sure, we can trim the fat & live super frugal now--but what about in the coming years? How long can we keep that up? Grocery costs will (presumably) keep rising. The kids will keep growing. They'll keep requiring more & more food. They'll keep wearing out their jeans at an alarming rate.  At some point, I'd probably like to have a smart phone again at some point (petty, I know).

The bottom line is I just need more information. I need to meet with the custom home company and see what the options are. I need to find out what our payments would be for each scenario. I just need to keep chipping away at it. But in the mean time, I feel like I'm just treading water. The wheels are turning but I'm going no where fast.

I need to slow down. And work on the first step. Back to the basics. Get more information. Keep saving money. First things first.

This week's shopping trip

 

I'm feeling really good about my shopping this trip. Since I bought 50 lbs of beef a few weeks ago, I was able to really cash in on some of the great sales happening right now (mostly baking supplies). Here's a few of the deals I got. For reference, I usually shop at Safeway (the only store in my small town) and I do print coupons but I don't get any from the Sunday paper (maybe some day). 

• Carnation Milk for 50 cents/can (cheaper than Safeway store brand with sale & coupon)
• Nestle Chocolate Chips $1.67/bag (cheaper than Safeway store brand with sale & coupon)
• Spaghetti noodles (Safeway brand) .88/box (I think I might be able to get these cheaper at some point, but I'm getting low).
• Kraft Mayo-I'm really proud of this one! $1.49 (usually $4.99! Safeway had a sale & I used a coupon)
• Swanson chicken broth was BOGO so I got 2 for $1.59 each-cheaper than the Safeway brand
• Flour- 5 lb bag for $1.71, that's $.34 a pound, which is 1 cent more per pound than Costco (not sure when my next Costco trip will be)
• Whole Chickens were .79/pound so I bought 3 (I already have 1 in the freezer)
• I also bought another Turkey for $.69/lb

Ultimately, my goal in stockpiling is to decrease my overall grocery spending. It involves menu planning, shopping the sales, finding coupons, keeping a price book & sticking to a list. This week I bought a lot of things that weren't on sale, but ended up spending $66.76 for 54 items. Between my card savings, my J4U savings & my paper coupons I saved $60.96 

How it all began

More and more lately my mind has been on ways to save money.  Before having my first child, I worked as a loan officer. Despite the fact that math is not my strong suit, I've always loved crunching numbers. I remember being about 8 when I approached my mom with a plan to start getting paid an allowance. I had it all set out. How much each job would be worth, how I would spend (and save) my money. My parents never did pay me an allowance. But that didn't deter me.

Anyway, here I am. Twenty years later. Crunching numbers. Clipping coupons. Turning off lights. Hang drying clothes. Ditching my smart phone (soon!) All with the goal in mind of saving up enough money to buy some land & build a house.

We bought our current home when we were first married. To say it was a fixer upper would be an understatement. It is a double wide trailer with an added on kitchen. The master bedroom had a hole in the subfloring. The carpet was (still is actually) blue. The walls were horrid wood paneling.

The guest bath was adorned in turquoise & purple.

3rd bedroom flooring

But none of it compared to the classiness of the master bathroom. That's an Eeyore decal on the wall, and, yes. The word "Pooh" is spelled out in tile on the floor.

Why on earth would anyone buy a "house" like this? For one, it was incredibly cheap. And two, it had a pretty amazing kitchen.

We figured we'd fix it up, sell it, & double our investment. Then 2008 happened and the market crashed. Nobody was buying houses in our area. And we'd had our first baby & were pretty settled. So we just kept working on it as time went on. One project at a time. We started having kids and the five years flew by. I honestly thought we'd only be in this house for 5 years. It's been 7, and we'll likely be here a few more. But that's ok. We're content. Content but working towards the next big thing. A house. With acreage. Within a few miles of our our small town, but not IN it.

Getting Frugal-er

Maybe that should say "Getting More Frugal". I was trying to be clever. Eh.

Winter is coming. We'll have one more "surge" of income & then things will be tight until March. This happens every year. My husband works in a more or less seasonal industry. When things are slow, he'll bring home half as much as he does when business is...busy.

We've been putting money away, but our furnace recently died. More specifically, the fan motor. So obviously that needs to be taken care of. Fortunately we have the money on hand, but we did have to dip into our mini e-fund.

All that being said, I think the first place to cut back is groceries. I think we do ok with our grocery shopping, all things considered. We live in a small town with only one grocery store chain (Safeway).  We are 30 minutes from the nearest Walmart & about 45 minutes from all other major stores. We're a family of 5. 

It's becoming very clear to me that we need to go a step further in order to make our grocery budget stretch a bit more. I know that this will mean:

Stockpiling on sale items
Creating a Master Grocery List
Creating a Master Meal List
Making & Utilizing a Price Book
Buying in season produce
Freezer cooking
Buying Bulk
Making my own cleaning supplies

So that's the plan. 

Beginning with the End in Mind.

There is a great thread on the Well Trained Mind forum (henceforth known as WTM) asking for advice from homeschoolers that have been at it for 10+ years. Naturally, it's filled with brilliance.  My favorite piece of advice, though, was this.

So. My 4 year old son.

In 16 years.
He's learned to drive.
He's graduated high school. Public or otherwise.
He's working. Maybe through college. Maybe not.

But what else?

I hope he is kind. Generous. Happy. That he is passionate about life. I hope, with all my heart, that he knows & loves Jehovah God. Whether he loves Him or not is out of my hands.  That depends on my son alone. But I can give him knowledge.  I can equip him to make his own decisions. That much I can do.  If I can inculcate in him LOVE; love for God, love for others, a love of learning, I will count our journey a success, and I will thank God for leading me.

Of course I want my children to read and write. Fluently. To do arithmetic and beyond. To be well acquainted with the world around them. And how it came to be. How they came to be. I hope he has knowledge of mankind's past mistakes, and I hope he can learn from them.

But that's icing on the cake. I truly believe that success or failure is measured by how we treat our fellow man. I believe it is measured by how we're living up to God's standards. How God views us. And I'm quite certain that God doesn't mind that I'm not fluent in Calculus. 

I hope in 16 years, my boy (now  a grown man) can cook for himself and do his own laundry. I hope he can keep a tidy home. I hope he is a good, loving man. A humble leader. Whatever path he chooses, I hope he walks it with confidence.

These are the things I hope for my son. The things I hope to help him accomplish in the next 16 or so years.