Budgets, moving, plans

I’ve reworked our budget according to some new figures, including lower rent and some utilities, sharing food and bulk items with our home-sharing family, so on. I am delighted to see our budget starting to look more realistic, and with positive numbers showing up at the end! With a low guess of my monthly income, we should have enough to put a little in a savings account (WHAT? Did she just say SAVINGS? What’s THAT?), a little to give away to those in need, and $350 a month for the birth (if it isn’t all covered by April, I’ll owe another 350 each month until its paid off, so I’m planning for that now).

I think my biggest challenge will be in keeping grocery and food costs down. I currently have our limit (family of 3, one pregnant) at $300 per month. I want to drastically reduce my need for the weekly grocery trip, instead ordering my reoccuring items in bulk from Azure Standard through a local portland parenting group and splitting a large Organics to You bin. I still need weekly items from the grocery store, (milk, eggs, occasional “treat” ) but I read on another blog that when trying to reduce the need for the grocery store trip, limit yourself to $10/per person/ per week, so that you don’t spend more than 50 bucks more than you budget for each month. Our limit will be a little higher than that, but it’s a good place to start.

Cup&Saucer yummies




You know you’re moving when your living room looks like this!

You know you’re having a baby girl when she owns more clothes UNBORN than your 3 year old boy does!

Lacey and I went out to turn in our lease yesterday, had a meal at the Cup and Saucer Cafe on Denver, and walked around the new place a bit, scoping out plans for the yard. There’s an ideal corner for the chickens that we will keep fenced in so they can roam a bit but not get into the veg beds and clothes drying lines. There’s a big ol tree that I can’t wait to rig a tree swing to for the boys. The front yard looks like it might have a great sunny spot for a small square bed for herbs, but we really can’t tell until we move in and see the sunlight throughout the day. A funny moment when both of us stood in front of the house looking up at it like it was one of the 7 great wonders of the world , took a deep breath, and tore ourselves away to get back to the reality of packing and moving and dealing with the “past” before we can move on.

We are starting to think that Hubby and I can have us in boxes/bags by Saturday morning, and the landlord is good with us getting keys then, so if we can get a few guys together and a truck or two, we are hoping to get most of our moving, if not all, done on Saturday. That will give me a week, at least, to get back over here and clean, Hubby can paint the kitchen, etc etc. The sooner we get our current place move-out ready, the sooner we can get back our hefty security deposit, so we are motivated! Yesterday we rolled up carpets, spot cleaned the rugs, replaced a cracked medicine cabinet mirror with a $5 piece found at the Rebuilding Center (holy cow- awesome!), boxed up Ethan and Verity’s clothes, Ethan’s toys, etc. Our room is next – not looking forward to it. Kitchen will be last for me and tv/electronics will be last for Hubby (Friday!).

Pregnancy is going really well, btw. Verity is super duper active, keeps me up at night a lot but mostly its fine. My anemia seems to be doing better, but my leg cramping is worsening. I’m taking cal-mag citrate but its at the point that if I flex my BUTT muscle while sleeping, it will get a charlie horse. (Who knew you could get a charlie horse in your buttocks?!) I know its the last stretch that is the hardest, so I’m very grateful that moving will be underway and finished by the time she is due. I’m excited for my sister, who is due in just two weeks, with her first! I can hardly believe it!

Ta ta for now…