Welcome 2011...and I'm already stressing?

I am a planner. I spent Christmas vacation reading textbooks for this coming trimester so I can have a head start and finish early. Last night I got online to see if the professors for my 2 classes this trimester have posted welcome letters and schedules. They have. And both also added required reading that WASN'T on the syllabi from last semester. That is perfectly within their rights, since classes don't start until the 8th, but since I was going off of the required reading already posted to try to "GET AHEAD" and complete all the course work early-- i.e. BEFORE baby comes in early April-- having those extra reading assignments kinda stresses me out.

So I did what I do best and got out my calendar and scheduled out what I have to read every night to complete the coursework a month ahead of time... and something about having all those books and articles glaring at me from my planner for the next 3 months just stressed me out even further rather than becoming a comfort. If I drop a class, I can't take it again until next year. That will set me behind in my graduation goal and mean I'll still be in school when we add a third child-- which could push graduation back an entire year if I have to take off more for first trimester woes. So I can either take both classes now and be kind of overwhelmed for the next 3 months while in my third trimester and possibly have to settle for B's instead of A's, or I can push my entire graduation back a whole year and be juggling larger family responsibilities (i.e. another child) with writing and defending a Thesis. Ugh.

What would YOU do?

Budget 2010: Here We Go!

We have been pretty good at budgeting groceries for the past year.

The tab includes

all food,

diapers,

cleaning supplies,

and hygiene items.

50 dollars a week, no excuses.

If I know something will cost more (like if we have a birthday coming up, a fancy meal calling for pricier ingredients, or Gwen needs diapers), then I have to spend less the weeks before to save up for it. (Formula was a bear to fit into the budget. Thankfully Gwen is on whole milk now!) Menu planning is essential.

I usually gestimate how much an item will cost (it is easier to do this once you've been shopping for that item in the past), then I make sure my plan doesn't go over 50. When I get to the store, I keep track of how much things are costing (just in case my guesses were way off) and carry a calculater to add everything up as I go along. Then it is just a matter of disciplining to not excede the budget. Just last week I had to put back a bag of oranges, marshmallows (we were planning on hot chocolate after date night), and some supportive inserts for shoes for Eric since he's on his feet all day. It'll have to be another week.

We had our budget 'talk' last night for 2010.

We are going to cut out 5,000 from our spending this year.

That will take the discipline we've been using for groceries and

carry it over into

EVERYTHING.

Don't get me wrong: we weren't ghastly extravagent in 2009. Not counting tuition, we spent 29,000 dollars (which sounds like so much money!), usually a little here and a little there. but this year, it is going to be less. No more purchases--even small ones--just for fun unless we account for it in one of our budgeted categories, no more exceeding the funds for gardening or canning, or no more spending SO MUCH MONEY on Christmas. We might only do E-cards this year... and I am GOING to discipline myself and stick to 100 dollars a year on ALL craft, cake decorating, and sewing purchases (I have been known to go sorta crazy with fabric sales)! But No More!

Here's to the New Budget for 2010!

We'll see how it goes. :)

anybody else workin up a small sweat with budgeting? What I'm really curious about is when YOU make a budget cut, what gets cut and what is last to go? I think it is interesting what different families value... for example, we have a 20 dollar a month "preparation" budget for gardening, canning, and emergency preparedness. Many families might see that as superfluous...while we would cut gym memberships, movies, and clothes first, someone else might cut out date nights and canning expenses before they'd sacrifice their daily workout or Netflix. What would you hold on to as long as possible?

Taking on too much... But isn't it worth it sometimes?

Apparently, this is one of my talents. Taking on too much, not realizing my own limitations, going above and beyond expectation... I've done it for as long as I can remember. Ask my mom or my friends from Elementary school... I did it then too. Is this really a talent/gift or a weakness? I'm not really sure. Maybe both, depending on what I do with it. I guess if I get overwhelmed and stressed out about something, that is definitely a sign that I've gone too far... but if I just make some activity or project turn out REALLY great, then that's a good thing, right?

Well, I took on a normal project yesterday and blew it up into a huge production. The Pumpkin Pallooza I was hosting for Gardening/Food Storage Club at church was a smashing success with a great turnout (15 people! Wow! That was so exciting to see all the new faces! And I know so many more would have liked to come!), delicious food (I'm admittedly proud of how the pumpkin pie turned out since I've never made one, let alone from real pumpkin rather than canned--and that cake was all that I could have hoped it would be!), fellow-shipping time for new ward members and some visitors with whom I used to work, and I learned a TON in the process! That would make the 'over achieving' worth it, right?


But did I overdo it? I am feeling exhausted from sitting at the computer too long typing up info and recipes (seriously, like a 10 page document!), have a pervasive back ache that began after being on my feet ALL day yesterday cooking, and it took almost all night with windows open to the brisk October air before I finally cooled off and stopped sweating from being by a hot stove/oven baking all day...but I wasn't stressed, or anything. Just physically tired. (Which I guess is a big deal when you're 36 weeks pregnant. I forget that I can't do as much with my body as I could normally...). I had so many offers of help-- I probably should have taken people up on it-- but could we all really have fit between my table and the oven and baked all day without just having 'too many cooks in the kitchen'? I don't know... I did take Julie up on her offer to come over for about 2 hours and help with the stew. I was pretty tired by then and she was great! So, realistically, should I have asked more people to come help out?

Did I take on too much, yes. But wasn't it really worth it?

Baby Budget 2009

So Eric and I have been working on a baby budget for 2009, just to make sure we will have enough funds to cover all the new expenses. We might need to cut back our entertainment/miscellaneous fund to take care of diapers, ya know? :P It is kind of funny trying to look at national averages for things like food, diapers, and health care and then just kind of guess how much we think WE will be spending in each area. Really, we're trying to be 'generous' with our baby fund but not extravagant. Frugal. I still think we'll be surprised by how much things end up costing us. So, a quick poll for all the moms out there: what was the most surprising new baby expense that you encountered? (and may I ask how much it actually cost you?) Also, if you'd rather answer this question... what item did you purchase that everyone told you was 'essential' and then you realized afterwards there was a much cheaper route? Are there more expensive items that you think are actually WORTH the extra expense for some reason instead of getting the generic/cheap kind?