frugal friday: rebates rock!

i’m dubbing august the month of rebates!

sometime in september, i’ll receive around $38 dollars in rebates! that’s almost a weeks worth of groceries for us!

the best part? i haven’t gone over budget! usually i’m not so excited about rebates because you have to spend more money up front. since we’re on a budget, more money on something i don’t need is hard even if it’s free after rebate. but, due to a lot of the free stuff we’ve inherited and due to some GREAT sales these past few weeks, we’re stocked up on food for the rest of the month and still have some money leftover!

here’s something i highly recommend you take advantage of if you can:
in ames, cub foods is the only grocery store participating and right now, they have pretty decent sales on all of their kraft dairy products. here’s what i bought:

3 12oz. bags of kraft natural shredded cheese (3/$5)-$5.00
6 tubs of philidelphia cream cheese (3/$5)-$10.00
2 16oz. packages of kraft singles (2/$5)-$5.00
2 family size boxes of wheat thins ($3.79 each)-$7.58
TOTAL-$27.58
-$5.00 off my next purchase at cub foods
-$20.00 rebate
TOTAL-$2.58!

i love free things! and i love staying under budget! more details and a shopping list are here!

one giant leap!

yesterday, i wrote a check.

it was for $742.31.

it will give me and my husband entire ownership of our 2006 ford focus!

hoorah!

by the blessing of His hand, we were able to pay off one of our cars 1 year and 9 months ahead of schedule. i’m not sure how much of a savings interest-wise that is, but we’re gash-darn excited anyway!

WOOT!

eight eyes are better then four…SUCKAS!

a couple of weeks ago, bryan went to the eye doctor. he hadn’t been in a few years and he was getting really bad headaches and his vision was getting worse. he had a really low prescription so his current lenses weren’t really helping.
overall, it was a little frustrating. he has astigmatisms in both eyes and his prescription is still pretty low. basically the doctor told him he could try contacts, but they wouldn’t improve his vision as well as glasses and because of his astigmatisms he would have to wear weighted contacts which are harder to get in. bryan managed to try the contacts out, but they didn’t improve his vision at all. he was pretty frustrated about having to wear glasses all the time.

so i decided to support him and wear glasses too! so i started wearing my glasses again and i’m actually really liking it! i’ve pretty much been a strict contacts wearer since high school but i feel smarter and more artsy with my awesome purple glasses!

and bryan’s headaches are no more! and his vision is much improved! hooray!

also, i really like saying, “suckas.”

frugal friday:don’t refuse the free

here’s another quick lesson, if something is offered to you for free…um, TAKE IT! guess who isn’t complaining about have mostly chicken based meals this month? the alsbury’s sure aren’t!

this chicken was given to me by my boss. long story short, my company got paid in chicken for a small job we did and we’re reaping some of the reward!

evidently, somebody in our old apartment building worked at barilla (so we think)
about once a week, they would set out a box full of boxes of pasta. i took one box each week and now we have pasta for life! : )

i do want to say, that i’m trying really hard not to be a hoarder. i never want to take and save all the blessing God has showered upon our family, and i definitely count free stuff as a blessing! i’ve given many boxes of pasta away and made several dinners for other people with the above bounty. but whether it’s a free roll of toilet paper or a free 5lbs of chicken, i suggest to take it, and make the most of it!

on a related note, here’s one of my favorite freebies websites: http://www.shop4freebies.com it updates everyday. i usually find at least a few each week that i like and almost every freebie also comes with SWEET coupons that are often way better then the coupons you’ll find in an insert.

welcoming august

the last couple weeks of july flew by for bryan and i. we spent almost all of our free time packing, moving into my parents garage for a week, cleaning, packing, more packing, more cleaning, then finally moving into our new one-bedroom apartment.

we are so thankful to joel for helping us move some of our stuff into my parents garage, and so thankful for my family helping us move into our apartment. we were able to completely move everything in on friday night, giving us the whole weekend to unpack. we got a lot unpacked, but it’s far from complete. here are some progressive pictures from this past weekend:

some goals for august:

maybe you remember and maybe you don’t, august is welcoming month. i have a few more ideas to add to the list:
- baking treats for my neighbors and letting them know that if they ever need a cup of sugar, they can knock on #9. also, if i see a neighbor, i’m going to actually talk to them, instead of looking down and half-running to my door
- using my home as the meet-up spot. often i found myself wanting to meet-up anywhere but my home, but i want it to be easily accessible and a welcoming place
- formulating a list and a plan to make our apartment, our home (i.e. decorating, furniture, organizing, etc)
- spending more time with people then i “feel” like
- being purposeful in my time with other people
- having lots of snacks around so that when people do come over, i’m always prepared
a major goal in august is to begin to put together our apartment. i know my mom was a huge influence in this, but i need to have “a place for everything and everything in it’s place.” i was seriously starting to go crazy in our disheveled apartment-and we only lived there for two months! i’m so excited to buy exact furniture, compartments, shelves, etc for each and every knick knack we have in our house. and i love that we plan on living in this apartment for 2-3 years-i won’t feel bad about making it my own.
sell, give away or donate EVERYTHING we don’t have space or need for. i’ll probably post something on here about the things we want to get rid of, and i’ll also post on craigslist and amazon. but if anyone is looking for a quality loveseat or a tv with a receiver and speakers-let us know!
work on a few D.I.Y projects. on the list right now are:
- homemade pitas
- homemade pizza crust
- curtains
- recovering a computer chair
- pillow covers
start putting together my home management notebook. i’ll post more on this later!

hopefully those goals will meet their completion before the end of this month. but i have a feeling august is going to go really fast!

two months down…

…forever to go.

today is our two month anniversary and it’s time for another update-lucky you!

we continue to learn a lot about what this whole marriage thing is about. here are some of those things:

moving is a challenge. and an especially challenging one for two very different people. when bryan and i moved in together, we didn’t really have any problems because i had the mentality of “we’re only going to live here for two months, so it doesn’t matter if it looks like a bomb hit it 24-7.” but now that we’re getting ready to move into our semi-permanent “home,” my own personal stress levels are high. i really want this new apartment to be a haven for my husband and i, not a wreck. but we have so much stuff and did i mention we’re moving into a much smaller apartment? yeah, it’s difficult. but on tuesday, bryan lead us in prayer about the situation and the Holy Spirit led my heart to this conviction, “more then cute decorations, matching furniture, and tidiness, our home needs to be centered around godly living and led by the Holy Spirit.” we prayed this over our home and it was a huge breakthrough for me. i’m still overwhelmed, but i’m getting my priorities straight.
being away from eachother for 80 hours is not fun. for two people who have been the kind-of best friends that talk and see eachother every day for 3+ years, leaving bryan home for 4 days was a challenge for both of us. the bright side is bryan got in some great friend time (but he missed seth a lot) and i got to see God working in lots of big ways in minneapolis, mn. you can read my post about it here.
shiny new toys are more fun if you have the money for it. we are so stinking blessed. period. we love that we can afford nice things like a new tv. we love that we can take advantage of the sales because we have cash saved up. and we love treating ourselves to something really fun while working so hard to pay off our debt and pay for school with cash.

that’s all i can think of right now, but there you go!

charlie conway, minneapolis, mn

ah, how i love the mighty ducks!

but this post has nothing to do with the mighty ducks, only with minneapolis. wow, God is working in great ways there! here’s a quick recap:

we worked with STEM International, Inc. that stands for short-term evangelical missions. i was really impressed with this ministry. it was definitely the most effective and fruitful 2 1/2 day mission trip i could imagine.
thursday, we arrived in the city at around noon, ate lunch and headed over to the Hope Academy. this school was an amazing story of “loving your neighbors as yourself.”
- this school is located in the poorest neighborhood in minneapolis.
- russ gregg, the founder and principle moved into this neighborhood for missional purposes
- he started the school based on the biblical idea of loving your neighbor as yourself. he wanted a great school for his kids, so he founded a great school for his neighbors kids.
- this school is reminiscent of a school russ previously worked at in edina, the richest community in minneapolis. that gives you an idea of the quality of education these kids get.
- yes, it’s expensive, it costs about $6,000 a year to send each kid to school. how much do the parents have to pay? as low as $60 per month. each kid has a sponsor and a scholarship for up to $5,400.00 each year. amazing? yes.
friday, we worked with Source Ministries. this ministry was one with about 60 arms of service. from transitional housing, to homeless outreach, to prayer, to youth outreach, to outreach through the arts and beyond, this place is a hotbox of ministry. it was a true blessing to work with them.
saturday, we listened. we went to a place called the marie sandvik center and there really wasn’t anything for us to do. this is another ministry with their hands in a bunch of different outreach opportunities. we sat and listened to an amazing lady, marybeth, we passed out sandwiches to homeless men and women and prayed for them and we went to a church picnic. i met this amazing woman named kay at the picnic. i was so moved by her story that i almost started crying. i got to pray over her and ask God to do through her, everything she had planned. i will remember her for a long time and i’m committed to “pray for kay” for the next few years at least. it was a bittersweet parting for me, and i could simply say, “i’ll see you in heaven.” but it would be a sweet gift from God to see her in a few years and see the great things i know God plans to do with her life.
the first two evenings, we went to phillips park and did some outreach to the children and youth there.
- the phillips neighborhood is the most culterally diverse neighborhood in the entire us, possibly in the world.
- within 1 1/2 miles, over 150 languages are spoken.
needless to say, it was a great place to set up camp for two evenings. a 9-year-old girl named sophia with a strict muslim father accepted Christ. please pray for her safety and for her relationship with Christ to powerfully flourish despite her living situation. also, an ethopian man accepted Christ and took a Bible with him. we mostly played with the kids and loved on them, it was an awesome time.
the last evening, we went to the downtown area of minneapolis and shared Christ with whoever was willing to hear from us. i had never done this before and i was amazed at how the Holy Spirit just totally took my body and my words and did with them what He wanted. i didn’t experience any fear. only Power.

overall, my trip was amazing, and i have more to share with you if you would like. i’m excited for God to continue to do big things in and around me.

wifelike life.

a few weeks ago, i wrote a post about my dedication to being a miserly wife. but there’s much more that i know i can do to be a godly woman and wife.

my friend paige and i are taking it one month at a time.

here’s the line-up for me:

july: purposefulness
to me, this basically means i want to exercise general self-discipline in the following areas:

time alone with God
active, bold prayer
cleaning
tv watching
spending money
memorizing scripture
facebook

august: welcome
some ideas for this month:

creating a friendly environment within my home
loving my home by keeping it clean and user friendly
inviting people over (i have not done this in a loooong time)
challenging myself to spend more time with people then i “feel like”
(maybe) starting a woman’s group on saturday mornings-still praying about this but are their any takers? just out of curiosity?

september: taking the sabbath seriously
i’m still not entirely sure how i feel about this one. paige and i talked about it a little and i definitely agree i need to work on this area of my life but i’m still trying to figure out what exactly the sabbath needs to look like in my life. sometimes i call the days i spend watching tv with bryan all day “my sabbath”, but i don’t think that’s exactly what God’s getting at. then i got the idea that my sabbath is actually the day i get the most stuff done as far as preparing for the week goes, but i’m not sure that’s it either. i’ll take any comments you’ll give.

october: streamlining
not sure if this is the right word, but basically i want to “deal with today’s problems today.” and have a life that is somewhat predictable and efficient. ok, so that sounds incredibly boring when i put it like that. but i want to “streamline” my home so that things don’t get so piled up. i want to have systems in place for the laundry, the mail, meal times, and things like that. i feel that this will both honor my husband and keep me from going crazy.

i’m not sure about the next 8 months (we’re trying to do this for a year) but i’ll keep you posted.

so how am i doing?

july update: purposefulness

time alone with God: definitely been particularly discplined in this area. last week, i spent time with God 5 out of seven days and this week i’m 4-0, ready to finish out strong with 7 out of 7. this is not to boast, but to rejoice. june was a “good” month when i spent time with him about 6 times total.
active, bold prayer: i’ve seen God work in a few awesome ways. another positive result of solid prayer time: i find myself actively encouraging others according to the leadership of the Holy Spirit-something i haven’t been in the habit of for at least 4 years.
cleaning: overall, not the best but i am more determined at tidying up after myself and husband. i’ll work on that more in august! : )
tv watching: also a work in progress, but their have been some significant improvements such as not turning on the tv as soon as i get home from work.
spending money: i actually just added this to the list because i realized that i’m not very purposeful with the money i have to spend. sure, i have stayed within budget, but i’m not sure where all the money is going. i have yet to come in under budget and would like to work towards that.
memorizing scripture: paige and i have almost 2 1/2 chapters of galatians memorized! my challenge will be to begin memorizing before the night before i have to say it to paige.
facebook: no improvement. work in progress?

new tv-$435.64, crapton of groceries-$16.32…

…getting so excited about the deals in target that you forget why you came there in the first place-priceless.

the alsbury’s needed packing tape because we’re moving into a new apartment on july 31st. so, we ventured to target…

i had a bunch of great coupons for some things, and i thought i’d multitask and check out some deals. boy, did i find them! i got everything pictured above for $16.32 with a savings of $56.32! i was so excited!

while we were shopping around for deals, bryan wanted to check out the tvs. we’ve been saving up for a new tv for a while now and we’ve had several fun little chunks of extra income come in so we had about 450 bucks saved up.

so, the tv we were looking at was reduced by another 50 bucks making it $450+tax. bryan then got 10% off by applying for a target credit card (which we’ll probably cancel right after we pay it off) after tax it was less then we had saved up: $435.62!

here’s bryan with his new toy:
we bought everything with such excitement that we forgot to buy the packing tape. so we went back into target and purchased what we came there for in the first place : )