Boy's room -dressers

We got the boys new dressers today. We've been keeping an eye on Craftsman rolling tool chests for a good sale price, and finally today we looked and there they were, the bottom four drawer cart for $81.99 and the middle chest for $49.99, Yesss! We got two of each. The sale price was for the black and not the Craftsman red we had originally wanted, but for $30 less than the red, black it is!

 Boys are notoriously rough on their stuff, so we thought why not use a tool chest as a dresser, not only does it look cool (and it really, really does!) but its very sturdy, and comes with a warrantee. It also gives them more space than their previous dressers. Oh, and you can move them easily for cleaning, because they are on wheels!


They are also going through a kick where they love to get stuff they can use when they are adults. It started when we got a lifetime hunting and fishing license for M (the middle boy) for his birthday, They should be able to use these tool chests for tools when they grow up, a fact which they loved.

Their room is on the small size and with two dressers, plus their bunk bed there isn't much room for anything else. I'm moving the bookshelf to their brother's room across the hall for the time being.  Their toys have again accumulated in their room, and when replacing their dressers I'm going to purge clothes and the toys. The toys we are keeping will be rehomed downstairs to the toy room. They will get to keep their Legos, their cars, and maybe their monster trucks in their bedroom.

They absolutely love antique cars and hot rods, so with these as dressers especially, that will be my inspiration for their room.

They are already planning on giving their room a name. M came up with mini man cave, E came up with the secret hideout.
I'll be blogging the whole way.   I am also planning on doing some DIY artwork for their room and some photography.

Facebook Free February

A friend and I decided to go Facebook free in February in order to spend more time with our families and with God. It seems like I spend too much time on Facebook, and the internet in general. My cousin gave up Facebook for Lent last year and I figured, if she can do it for all of Lent I can surely do it for a month! I also have to catch up on my yearly Bible reading plan... I've been slacking.

Anyway, I'll be blogging about Facebook Free February here and tell you all what adventures we've been in instead!

Latte Loving- espresso

Part of making a great latte like I posted here is the espresso. Trust me, if you try a good shot and a bad shot you CAN tell the difference. If you want to make your own espresso at home and have it taste like a coffee shop I can tell you how.  First, the coffee grind for espresso should be a few notches finer than a 'normal' coffee grind. you should fill espresso cup for the brewer and lightly tamp down the espresso lightly is the key, if you go too hard the water won't stream through well. affix the espresso cup and brew.  when a properly brewed shot is done there should be three distinct parts, with the top layer being crema (a light froth) this is created from the tamping down process. The shot of espresso should be used or drank immediately, as the quality of the espresso will decrease rapidly (15 seconds and its rather gross) a fresh proper espresso shot should be rich and caramelly and smooth... you can taste the difference if its not done just right!

I posted about the cost here

spending $200 a month on groceries for our family of 7 meat and dairy tips

I was posting on a facebook page I belong to, and we were talking about grocery budgets, I said for a family of 7 we spend about $200 a month on groceries... The uproar was amazing... everyone asked how we do it, what our tips are. I don't usually coupon, so that made it even more interesting for people. I thought I'd share some of our tips in a series of posts.

We shop between five stores. The majority of our shopping is done at Hannaford grocery store and our local IGA. IGA has the best prices on meats, cold cuts, deli cheese and bakery breads. Hannaford is good for everything else, unless IGA has a sale. they frequently do 10 for 10 or something similar. When those sales are going on we stock up.

Meat and dairy are the most expensive things in our grocery budget. We go through at least two gallons of milk each week. That's $16 off the top of our grocery bill, we generally buy milk at the gas stations that sell at state minimum pricing, and get the generic of our favorite brand. They are bottled in the same place, and are the same milk, but Smileys is sold at gas stations for state minimum, and Oakhurst is sold at grocery stores for more.

Meat, we buy pork at no more than $1.99 lb. pork chops or cutlets we can often find for less, but tenderloin or other pork roasts we buy when its on sale for 1.99 and stock up. We buy boneless chicken breasts at no more than $1.99lb as well. Lately I've been getting it for 1.79 lb and stocking up. Hamburger we only get when it goes on sale, and we buy the large family pack to get additional savings. Beef roast we can get for 2.99 lb sometimes and we stock up then. we often buy the reduced steaks (the ones that are about to expire) and cook them that night, other than that we buy London broil or sirloin steak cuts that are less expensive but not as tender and we marinate them.

The biggest sales on meat are generally around Thanksgiving (turkey), Christmas (ham, roasts), and Easter (Ham) we stock up seriously around these times. one good sized turkey can feed our family for a week easily, often longer than that, same goes for a ham. I'll post more about tips on making a turkey last here and more about making a ham last here.

Latte loving- Make your own coffee shop lattes at home

I posted about saving money by making coffee shop lattes at home for myself and friends here now I'm going to tell you how to make a great latte.

As stated in my other post you need an espresso machine. I guess you don't really need an espresso machine. you could microwave the milk instead of steaming it and make espresso in a regular machine or keurig, but no promises.

Turn the espresso machine settings to steam so they heat up, when its ready steam the milk (about 20 ounces of it for a large, or venti, 16 ounces for a medium or grande, 12 ounces for a small or tall). start steaming the milk

Then get espresso ready, fill espresso filter cup, and lightly tamp down the ground coffee (coarser grind is better for espresso) attach to espresso machine and brew into two shot glasses. While brewing pump five pumps (or capfuls) of syrup into your large (20 oz or above) cup, 4 pumps (or capfuls) for your 16 oz  drink or 3 pumps or capfuls for a  12 ounce drink.

Add the two shots of espresso to your 16 or 20 ounce drink and one of the shots to a 12 ounce drink unless you want it strong. Then fill the cup with the steamed milk. (milk should be between 140 degrees farenheit to 180 degrees farenheit. Then you sit and enjoy!

Latte Loving - the cost

One of my favorite items in my kitchen is my espresso machine. My mom got it for us for our wedding. I am the only coffee drinker in the house, but I have an addiction.... to the dirty S expensive coffee word. I Love Starbucks! Nate HATES the price.

I still get one once or twice a week, but to supplement I buy the syrups at Starbucks and make my own. I did this before, when I was living in Wisconsin, an hour away from the closest Starbucks and no local coffee shops to make my yummy latte for me. I used that espresso machine (one I bought from Starbucks) so much that I burned the motor out in a year. Now I do it here, whenever I want.

  When Nate and I met I was buying one or two (sometimes more) Starbucks a day, at $4 a pop that's 8 dollars a day, $56 a week, $224 a month. This couldn't continue once we got married because our budget was stretched further.This is a great way to save money and still get that Starbucks treat.

 the syrups cost about $12 apiece and you can get at least 30 venti size drinks out of it, which is $.40 per drink

You can find pretty reasonable espresso makers, ours was a gift, but it would have more than paid for itself with the savings.

Espresso roast coffee or really any dark roast you can get reasonably, but if you want Starbucks espresso roast you can find it for $12 a pound. Other espresso roasts and dark roasts you can get reasonably, I even scored some Starbucks French Roast and Café Verona at a local discount/salvage store we have here at $3 for a 12 oz. package. For a venti you need two shots of espresso which is about half an ounce of coffee. at $12 for 16 ounces that's $.75 an ounce or $.38 for a venti size drink.

Milk at $4 a gallon is the only other necessary ingredient you can get 6.4 venti size drinks out of one gallon Which is $.63 per drink. I'll teach you how to make a great latte in another post.

That makes  $1.41 for a venti drink, instead of the normal $4-$5.

We have friends over at least once a week, on Fridays, and make lattes for everyone. I keep at least two syrups on hand, vanilla and cinnamon dolce. Cinnamon dolce is the hit on our Friday night get together, I made 5 lattes with cinnamon dolce syrup last Friday. I use the inexpensive Starbucks dark roasts I found and fabulous Haitian coffee that one of my friends got on a mission trip to Haiti, so mine usually costs even less to make. Hear more about her trip in a future post. I also buy the chai mix that they use at Starbucks, Tazo chai concentrate occasionally to make chai lattes. I have found it at another discount store for $2.50 a carton, it usually goes for about $4 per carton. I like my chai lattes with cinnamon dolce syrup in them too.

Introductons

I guess I'm a little late with the introductions, that probably should have been my first post.

I am a mom, I love Jesus, reading, baking, shopping, and COFFEE, lattes, espresso, or the regular stuff, flavored, or dark roast are my favorites, shoes, and coach.

Nate is my hubby, and best friend. He just went back to work as a planner. He loves cars, snowmobiles, 4 wheelers and the like. He's a bit of a gear head. He is also a financial guru. He really is great at finding good deals and making finances work, even with a little budget. He's helped me to become more financially aware and although its a struggle I'm continually working toward spending less, and I'll be sharing some of my struggles with this and some of his tips for financial health, and what we've done. He's also helped friends with their budgets and spending, and some have told us his plan worked better than that other financial guy out there.

  We have 5 kids as I've mentioned before.



I have a beautiful 12 year old daughter, She's a bit of a diva, she loves to read and she dances, she's on the competition team.

 I have three stepsons (life gets a little crazy with them).

E is a 7 year old. He plays soccer and has yet to decide on any other sports, He loves animals and is the enthusiastic helper around the house.

M is the mad man of the house, a bull in a china closet, but very, very caring, he plays soccer and basketball so far, I'm sure there will be more sports for him.

C is mostly sweet, a bit OCD, ok very OCD, He LOVES watching football and hockey. Loves wearing sports outfits, and plays soccer, I'm sure there will be more sports in his future.

The baby S, is 15 months old and he's ours. He's a sweet little boy that loves to get into everything, snuggle with momma, play with his siblings and his animals. He also loves to play with balls and cars, and to eat!

We have a crazy life because there are so many of us, and so many of them are active boys. We also have two dogs, a cranky ten year old Papillion, Toby (he's mine I had him before we got married). We have a Black Lab, Mari Alice Tibbetts, she is the best family dog ever. She tolerates every torture dished out by the kids with a thumping tail and a smile. We also have a cat, Puffy, a tiger kitten who is wild and crazy, yet sweet and snuggly. Our outside pet is a sweet unassuming goat named Junie, she's aDS Nigerian dwarf doe. We also have chickens.

We just recently lost our other goat, Mayo and our mini potbelly pig, Johnny cupcake within a week of each other to an illness, which was so, so sad. We are so glad that Junie lived through it, but is very lonely without her friends.

This summer I want to start doing more than just egg chickens. I'd like to try some meat birds. We've been talking about getting another potbelly pig... One that will be more like a dog. Johnny cupcake was getting more friendly but wasn't socialized enough as a piglet so never would have been the dog like pig we wanted, but we still loved him lots. Mayo was a baby goat that was taken too young from his mother, he was not the most healthy of goats to begin with, but I loved him and bottle fed him myself.

 

 

This is us, I hope you keep coming back to get to know us better!

Taking a weekend away without breaking the bank

When you have a family of 7 it is much more expensive to do anything. Going out to eat suddenly costs astronomical amounts, even at fast food places. there are many ways to save, as simple as dollar menu over those kiddie meals, but I'll get into all that in a later post. Taking a reasonable weekend away is difficult for families our size because many hotels don't have rooms that accommodate 7, which sometimes means two rooms and double the price. We are taking the kids away to an indoor water park this year for two nights, and as notoriously expensive as they are it is possible to have a somewhat reasonable trip. The first expense is the actual indoor water park hotel. We have three to choose from, a very small free one that requires two rooms, and two large expensive ones that require either two rooms or extra tickets. at $40 a pop that's a lot. for us the most reasonable way to do it with 5 kids is to get a family loft with a water park package. We found a deal on Groupon for a discount rate on the family loft that includes 4 tickets to the park. This means that with the baby so young we only have to buy two water park tickets.

The gas money to get there is a necessary evil, as is the loft and tickets. The best way to save money on this particular trip is on food. I always pack snacks on a road trip anyway. That saves on stopping at least once. I'll bring snacks and drinks for the trip, and peanut butter and bread for PB sandwiches, and probably cold cuts and cheese for sandwiches for lunch at the hotel room. This is great for two reasons, number one more time at the water park! number two saving money, between the bread and peanut butter for us it will cost about 5 bucks, a trip to fast food even eating off the dollar menu will cost at least $15 for all of us. Our family can live on sandwiches for the two nights, but we will probably eat out at least once, maybe at a sit down dinner, maybe at a fast food, maybe one of each. when going out to eat at a 'real' restaurant we try to go to a kids eat free day. Then hubs and I get a meal and we can let Diva (My 12 year old daughter) get an adult meal so we get three free kids meals for the three older boys. The baby gets to share a little of everyone's. If we can't go to a kids eat free we will usually have the three boys the Diva and the baby share two or three adult meals if it costs less then buying them each their own meal, or we buy bulk (if its available). We also give the kids the lower priced options, and we drink water, as drinks at restaurants are so overpriced.

The rest of our trip should be fun for the kids without ever leaving the hotel room, because the room will likely have cable (which we don't have at home) and the kids get their electronics pretty much whenever they want on the trip (the electronics are usually very limited at home). With the access to the pools and slides limited to one day this trip is not for everyone. Our kids will be disappointed they cant go to the water park all the time, but when we do go it will be so much fun!

edible landscaping

I know plenty of people who incorporate things like blueberry bushes into their landscaping plans, we do live in Maine. I didn't realize that edible landscaping was 'a thing' until just recently when a friend posted about it on Facebook. I've been thinking a lot about what landscaping I want to do in front of our house. I need to get the farmers porch fixed before I start, but the edible landscaping idea intrigued me. I started thinking about all of the perennials and shrubs that are edible that I could incorporate. Obviously blueberries had to be added, I'm planning on planting asparagus anyway, maybe I could add that. If the rhubarb that I planted last year comes up I could replant some of that. Lettuce would be a neat ground cover... My mind just keeps going. I'm excited about all the possibilities!

Back to work

After a year of being unemployed, Nate (my DH) just got a job. Today is his first day, time for me to get used to having the house to myself again. I'm thinking a lazy day today, snuggling with the baby, watching my shows (the sappy shows that Nate wont watch with me) and coffee! Ok maybe snuggling with the baby is just a wish... chasing after him picking up his messes is more likely, let the toddling ensue! As for right now, I'm planning out my garden! I've tried for the last three years to have a garden. the first couple of years we didn't get loam or till in time. Same as last year, but last year I did containers. I planted tomatoes and peas in containers and got a great crop of tomatoes. The peas started out great, I harvested three and had tons on the vine, but the goats found them. so much for the peas. for some reason the goats did not like tomato vines, but the pig loved the just ripened tomatoes, and ate most of them before I could pick them. This is the year I'm going to actually do my real garden, with a fence around it. If I start planning it now maybe it will actually happen. I don't know which varieties I'll plant yet, but I want to plant mostly heirloom so I can try my hand at saving seeds. Here is the list green beans sugar snap peas cucumbers to pickle cucumbers to eat zucchini summer squash normal peas (the kind you shell) sugar pumpkins watermelon butternut squash jalapeno spinach romaine butter lettuce maybe iceberg I also want to plant asparagus, even though it takes three years to yield. I can't wait to see if the rhubarb I planted comes up, I'll try that again if it didn't. we already have raspberries and blackberries (if the goats don't eat them all again) I'll post about the edible landscaping I want to do tomorrow. =