Woodwater Farmhouse

Hi friends - WELCOME!  If you are on this No Spend January journey with us, how's it going? If you are not, maybe you want to jump right in!  You can find out the " guidelines" at this post .  We are in our last few days of our challenge. We are doing awesome and no one is complaining much that we have not had a take out pizza or been to Carvel all month. My bank account is loving it also!  As promised, I am back today with an update on our week  four  of No Spend January with our fails and our wins! First let's talk about what categories we spent money on: Gas - my truck and hubby's car Price Chopper - $ 58.29 Shoprite - $ 33.46 (batteries for smoke detectors and special food for dog) Bread Store - $ 19.00 (stock up!) Life Insurance & Oil delivery  This week I went to our local Price Chopper. The deals were awesome and I did not need a lot to begin with.  I forgot to take a picture when...

Hi friends, it's been a LONG time since I have posted a Farmhouse Friday. Mostly because in January we are doing a No Spend January and I have been posting on Mondays. My last post for that will be Monday the 29th and Farmhouse Fridays will be back!!!  Now on to what we have been up to..... The girls and I went on a girls day out.  Taking in a movie ($ 5 Tuedays at our AMC if you are STUBS member) and going to Starbucks for hot cocoa and snacks!  We used gift cards for it all!!! (NO SPEND!) I HIGHLY RECOMMEND The Greatest Showman!   School has been great. If you missed my review of the Reading 3A from BJU Press, you can catch up on it here .  Molly has been working hard on her 5th grade curriculum. Zachary has been super busy with middle school. I am looking into an online high school for him for next year.  I had my monthly luncheon with a great friend this week. We switch on and off hosting.  Keeping ...

Today I am coming to you from our homeschool room.  I wanted to chat a minute about a wonderful new curriculum we started using from  BJU Press .  Our Sammie, third grade, recently started Adventures in Reading 3A from BJU Press.  SHE LOVES IT!   My goals for Sammie were to foster the joy of reading and look at stories through a biblical worldview.  Although there are many more goals that BJU Press has for this curriculum such as: encourage fluency teach vocabulary in context enhance comprehension There is more than enough extra teaching information in the Teachers Key.   I am finding myself not even utilizing all the information they give you in the workbook.  We have only been doing the pages that apply to the stories we are reading. They give you extra pages for skills.  I have yet to use the Teacher's Toolkit CD that comes with this curriculum.  That kit contains many aids to assis...

Hi friends - WELCOME!  If you are on this No Spend January journey with us, how's it going? If you are not, maybe you want to jump right in!  You can find out the " guidelines" at this post .  As promised, I am back today with an update on our third week of No Spend January with our fails and our wins! First let's talk about what categories we spent money on: Gas - my truck and hubby's car Credit card payment (we use 1 card for everything and then pay off each month, getting those collage points!) Walmart - weekly grocery pick up - $ 91.16 Shoprite - $ 8.33 (lactose free cheese & bagels) CVS - $ 10.59 (kids flossers and VICKS rub) RV Show - $ 18 entrance fee & a snack at the show So I was a little over this week with the $ 91,16, $ 8.33 and $ 10.59 for my "grocery" and home care items. But still did great!  We had lots of snow again this week and temps were COLD for most of the week.  Dinner Meal Plan:...

Hi friends - WELCOME!  If you are on this No Spend January journey with us, how's it going? If you are not, maybe you want to jump right in!  You can find out the " guidelines" at this post .  As promised, I am back today with an update on our second week of No Spend January with our fails and our wins! First let's talk about what categories we spent money on: Martial Arts - Samantha has a graduation coming up and we had to pay $ 50 for this. (every other month expense) Gas - hubby's car Medical bills (from December) Car Payment Groceries $ 96.13 (Walmart again) Shoprite - sick kid with the flu - needed some medicine mid- week. spent $ 8.77 Discount Bread Store - bread, rolls spent $ 3.00 BJ's - needed water for our water cooler, T-paper, tissues and a few other household things $ 111.48 GROCERY and MEAL PLANNING - Week Two: Well friends, I went back to Walmart this week. Doing the math, it just made sense while I am on ...

This post is part of our No Spend January challenge. Trying to make family time special and mixing it up can be a challenge. Our family prides itself on eating together ALMOST every night.  (sometimes dad works late)   Years ago I started Friday Night Family Happy Hour .  Partly because it was fun and relaxed time to wind down from a long week and partly because I get to use up leftovers! I used to put a "theme" to each family happy hour, but alas, the children don't seem to be impressed by that anymore (this mama is partied and themed out) , so we just put out the fun finger foods and graze. We used to do this ONLY on Friday nights, however, we started doing family happy hour on Sunday's also due to our church service time change. We don't get home from church until 1 pm and it's well into lunch time by then.  I decided to do a happy hour at 1 and then we eat a family Sunday dinner between 6-7 on Sundays. Sometimes we have a "mo...

As a lot of you know, we are doing a No Spend January.  If you want to read more about our wins and fails you can check out this post .  SO I got to thinking...what if I could commit to a NO SPEND YEAR - SAY WHAT? Ok now, simmer down...I am just considering when it comes to clothes, shoes, jewelry, handbags and cosmetics .  Honestly, I have MORE THAN enough of all of these things for probably more than a year, but let's just take this one year at a time..lol source  - friend's ETSY Shop I took a quick walk about my dressing room/closet and came up with YES, it's doable.    I will need to be creative with the clothing and mix and match like never before, but I can do it!  The  only area in which I am concerned about, and only a little, is the cosmetics. I know it's not healthy to use mascara for more than 90 days at a time..so I might have to spend a little on that over the next year..giving myself  $50 budget for the entire 2...

Hi friends - WELCOME!  If you are on this No Spend January journey with us, how's it going? If you are not, maybe you want to jump right in!  You can find out the " guidelines" at this post .  As promised, I am back today with an update on our first week of No Spend January with our fails and our wins! First let's talk about what categories we spent money on: Mortgage Kids Classes (sewing and martial arts) - these are part of our school curriculum and are part of our "fixed" outgoing.  Gas Propane delivery  Groceries- see the breakdown below - if you remember my own personal goal (since this is the ONLY area of our budget I can control)  was to stick to $ 100 or less each week in January .  GROCERY SHOPPING 101 - HOW I DO IT! This week I have had several people message me and ask in person, how can I feed my family of 5 (with 4 of us home all day) on  $ 100 per week and eat healthy!  I have 3 tools I use that ar...