michelejo.com

Category: Tending Hearth

  • Budget Recap

    Ahhhhh, we did SO much better in March than we had any month in recent history.  We still slightly exceeded our projections, but those projections included having over $1k left over to save or put toward a large purchase, so we basically just created less savings for ourselves. I did have quite a bit leftover…

  • Minimalism – First Steps and a Plan

    In light of starting paleo/primal, it seemed natural to start in the pantry, with food, so my good friend helped me tackle that first.  We had so much to get rid of–rice, pastas, baking mixes, canned and bottled items that aren’t paleo-friendly, etc.   My friend’s family isn’t paleo (yet!! LOL) so she was kind enough to take it…

  • Minimalism – The Reasoning

    We moved from California to Arizona in 2005 and our belongings filled  a moving vanliner that typically can move three families’ worth of goods.  The movers told us that homeschoolers always have too many books, but the massive amount of stuff we had was crazy.  Too late to save the $23k we spent on that…

  • Trying not to look before I leap

    My awesome and amazing friend Shirley is coming over tomorrow morning to help me clean out my pantry.  She offered to help me re-organize some problem areas in my house, as a birthday present.  She offered to spend more than one day helping me.  Now that’s friendship!  😀  I think this might be the best…

  • No-spend month in June?

    I eluded to this when I updated my Sew-it-All Challenge page but I recently realized I’ve been medicating myself with shopping these past few months, a lot.  In an effort to reign all of that in (luckily I tend to stick to only buying things we really need…I just haven’t spaced purchases out like I…

  • Menu + Meal Planning

    We’ve been eating way too much delivery pizza (we had Pizza Hut twice and Papa John’s once in the past 10 days, blech!) and restaurant food over the past several months, so I decided I really need to do something about it since it kills. the. budget. Not really the whole budget per se, but you…

  • Spring Cleaning – Part 1 – The Plan

    Since we just moved in November, it really seems like there shouldn’t be tooooo much to do for spring cleaning, but no, that’s a faulty assumption. We moved a couple days before Thanksgiving and before I knew it, Chanukah was upon us. And then Christmas. And then hubby’s week off from work. And then New…

  • Berkey-Licious!

    In my post on ways to cut back monthly expenses, I mentioned that I planned on switching to a Berkey instead of continuing to use Pur filters and bottled water.  We’ve had our Berkey for about 6 weeks now, and I’m happy to report that we LOVE it.  Right before the Berkey arrived, I’d purchased…

  • Cutting back without much ouch!

    I talked a bit about this here but I’m checking in to update the progress I’ve actually made. 1)  Efax and Stamps.com — I totally blanked on canceling them but it’s on my to-do list for today.  I e-mailed Efax’s customer support several times about the double-billing, even sending them statement copies, and they no…

  • No-Spend February Recap

    They say that the road to hell is paved with good intentions.  That seems to sum up my efforts at frugality in February.  :/ I tried really, really hard but it’s been almost impossible to survive on income #1 (while saving income #2 like we’re supposed to). Jake’s B-Day…$50 Heelies, $50 Van’s, $125 dinner at…