Tag: finances

A Look At February: Planning for a LOVE filled Month

Published on by Susie @ Pollywog's Place BlogLeave a comment

I will say that last month went pretty well, and our home does feel a bit more PEACEful. This month, our theme will be LOVE. We will be looking at ways that we can be more intentional in showing LOVE to others through our actions.

I’m going to take a quick look at what we have planned for the month so you can get a little idea about how all of our systems work with each other.

Calendar

My morning routine means that I check our calendar every morning, and here is what I am looking at:

  • There are few appointments that are noted, and I have reminders set in my Cozi app. One appointment is this week, so I remind my husband about it to make sure he remembers.
  • There are a couple of birthdays, and I am noting the special meals in my planner.
  • A few ‘special holidays‘ that we would like to include.
  • Days that the public school will be out for one of the older kids.
  • I also try to look for a day that will be a good time to go to the flea market or produce market for seasonal produce.

Chores

I also like to review the chores at the beginning of the week, as we have them listed by daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly.

Daily chores are pretty automatic, but our monthly chores rotate by the day of the month… I try to keep things as easy as I can.

Some of our daily chores include:

  • Getting ready for the day – make beds, brush teeth/hair, get dressed
  • Animal/Garden chores – watering and feeding
  • Breakfast – see our Breakfast Routine here
  • Laundry – see our Laundry Routine here
  • Planning the day – check calendar, to-do list, meal plan, etc.
  • Morning Routine – see a sample day here
  • School
  • Lunch
  • Quick Clean up
  • Afternoon Chores – water animals, check eggs, etc.
  • Dinner
  • Clean up

If you click on the links, you can find more in-depth information about each task.

Some of my weekly chores are:

  • Home Blessings
  • Homeschool Planning – look for lessons ideas to go along with our monthly task and upcoming holidays
  • Menu Planning – check that we have everything we need for upcoming meals
  • Garden Planning – check what needs to be transplanted, seeded, started, and bought.
  • Other Planning – Valentine’s Day, Super Bowl?, President’s Day, income taxes, and possible outings/vacation; check for upcoming birthdays and anniversaries
  • Grocery Shopping & Errands
  • Desk Work/Paper Work/Bill Pay/Budgeting

Some of the monthly chores this month are:

  • cleaning light fixtures/cobwebs
  • cleaning the tops of the fridges and freezers
  • cleaning windows and doors -washing curtains and/or blinds
  • cleaning out the top cabinets and wiping all the cabinet fronts
  • deep cleaning the countertops, sinks, dishwasher, cutting boards, and dish drainer
  • cleaning under the sink, and the kitchen drawers
  • deep clean the stove and oven
  • declutter the dish cabinet and island storage
  • move and clean behind the large appliances
  • take an inventory of what we have in the freezer and pantry – incoporate things into the menu
  • clean/organize the linen cabinet
  • deep clean the vacuum cleaner, and clean/change filters for the vacuum and ACs
  • deep clean the high chairs
  • deep clean bathrooms

Some of the yearly chores for this month are:

  • defrost freezers (this can be done when we inventory the frozen foods as we can place foods outside in coolers on a cold day)
  • deep clean the porches: windows, cobwebs, sweep, clean furniture, etc.

Sometimes the kiddos are tempted to skip over chores, but it catches up to them later on when things break down or run out. We are trying to teach them important skills that they will need later on in life, skills that will hopefully make them successful in all that they do.

Homeschool

Today, I check my Homeschool Manager app for anything that I might not have added to the main calendar. I normally look over the next week’s schedule on Thursdays, after we finish our school work.

  • I note when we plan to start back.
  • I add the appointments to the monthly lesson plan calendar as well, so I can plan accordingly. I realize that I may need to alter our start date and just use that as a Home Blessing day to get the house back in order, so I just swap a few things around really quick.
  • I also go ahead and update the sites for our lessons so everything is set to go for Monday!

These quick changes will keep us from having a very frustrating week back to school… at least I pray it will.

This month, I will be focusing on adding Fine Arts tasks to our homeschool routine, so I will look over those tasks to see what I can work in with our lessons.

Fine Arts(february)

We want our kids to know that you don’t have to buy things to show others how much they mean to you. Often, handmade gifts have more meaning to the recipient.

Some ways we are doing this are:

  • Art Studies:
    • Study sacred art and music
    • create art projects inspired by Bible stories or verses
  • Hymn Studies:
    • study hymns and music that appreciate the beauty of GOD’s creation
  • Research gifts and talents from GOD:

Devotional

We have a new devotional for the month as well – I did make it for 31 days, so it could be used at any time of the year.

A Love That Never Fails

Bill Paying

I usually sit down to pay bills on Fridays.

  • Pay the bills due, pay more if money allows
  • Check accounts to see what payments have cleared, and highlight them on the worksheet
  • Note any bills still left to pay

I usually do this first, so I know what I have left to spend. My bill pay worksheet makes things much simpler as I can see what I have paid, and what needs to be paid.

Meal Planning & Grocery Shopping

I normally do my menu planning on Wednesday or Thursday. I print out a couple of meal planning sheets and a grocery list so I can fill them in as I look over our Winter Meal Plan.

  • I write in the birthdays and special holidays for the month, and then add those ingredients to the grocery list. Clicking on the link will give you a ready-made list of holidays for the month and links to recipes and menu ideas to make them special.
  • I look over the planned meals and pencil them in.
  • I note the days when we have appointments and swap those meals for easier meals, if needed.
  • I check the grocery list that the kids have been filling out on the fridge, and add items to the main list.
  • I also check my pantry restock list to see what I need to add to the list, if money allows.
  • I make sure I have the ingredients to preserve the produce that I plan to pick up this month as well. I will add supplies to the grocery list, if needed. Some of these posts have not been published yet, but you should be able to find the printables in the library.
  • I will either schedule a time to go shopping or place an order for groceries and set a delivery or pickup time that works for us. When I go to town, I usually plan to take care of several errands at once.
  • At the beginning of the month, I will also place a Sam’s Club order for bulk supplies to be shipped, as well as any supplies we need from Amazon.

Special Holiday Meals: February Edition

Some of the pantry restock items I added to list are:

  • Yeast
  • Salt
  • Pasta
  • Pasta Sauce
  • one other item that I choose

Some of the produce I’d like to buy for preserving:

  • Cabbage
  • Broccoli/Cauliflower
  • Dry beans for canning

If money is short, we can skip the restock and the preserving items until next month. I don’t like to skip things too often, but we do have our pantry pretty well stocked, and as long as we replace what we use, we should be fine.

Garden & Animals

I usually try to get feed and garden supplies once a month to cut down on the number of trips I make to town. The feed store is in the opposite direction of our normal grocery store, and I need all the space in the back of the van for feed, so I can’t really combine these tasks, or I would.

I go out to the greenhouse and garden just about every day, so I keep a running list of things that I need. I will also check my monthly list of tasks that need to be done. I went over my lists this weekend, and I have:

  • placed online orders for seeds and plants

I need to:

  • get some more seeds started for the Spring
  • finish putting together the new raised beds
  • get the pile of mulch/soil into the new beds
  • transplant some of the cool weather crops out to the garden beds
  • set up bird feeders
  • deep clean the coops/pens
  • work on bed layouts/Rotational Planting/Companion Planting
  • sift the vermicompost to make potting soil for the new seeds – I actually tried a new seed starting mix that you can see here:

Some of the tasks are also listed with my yearly tasks to make sure that I don’t forget them 🙂

I also check with the kids to see what animal feed we have, check that against my master inventory list, note down what we need in my phone, and then I will make time to go get the feed. I try to combine a few tasks during the same trip.

When I go to get the feed I will:

  • get feed and animal supplies
  • pick up seeds or plants at the Farm Center
  • check with the nursery to see what they might have available
  • stop at the grocery store, if there is anything we need before the next grocery order
  • fill up with gas on the way home

When I get home, I always have the kids unload the feed right away, mix anything that needs to be mixed, and put the surplus in the old freezer that we use for storage. Once the feed is taken care of, they will clean out the back of the van 🙂

I try to make sure to do this mid-week, as Fridays & Saturdays are a bit crowded at the Feed Store. It’s always a bit stressful when we get too low on feed as well, so by making sure we have a regular schedule, we can alleviate some of the stress and replace it with PEACE, as we know we have what we need. We can also use these tasks as ways to show LOVE to one another.

To-Do List

I also like to start a To-Do List because things always pop up that I can’t fix right away. I also find things when I am out in the garden that need to be taken care of, I will usually snap a photo and then add it to the list if it can’t be taken care of right away.

This is our list so far:

  • Master Bathroom
  • build new garden beds – we finished the first ones, but then bought more
  • add solar lights to chicken coops
  • finish chicken tractor
  • hang cameras
  • put the StarLink on a pole
  • add trellises to garden beds
  • create a sensory garden and/or integrate sensory-themed activities into our existing garden

It isn’t too long yet, but it will grow longer the further we get into the year… hopefully, we can stay on top of it.

This is just a quick look at my weekly plans… I have all month long to work on some of them, and I will try to knock out as many as I can. I know that by handling the smaller things now, it will free up time I might need in the future for BIGGER and BETTER things. A little maintenance helps to keep things running nice and smooth… it also helps us to appreciate all that we have been BLESSED with.

I pray that you will find something useful in these links.

God Bless!

A Look At January: Planning for a PEACEful Month

Published on by Susie @ Pollywog's Place BlogLeave a comment

We’ve had quite the month already, and we aren’t even a week in yet, but it’s OK. There has been a sense of calm in our home, and things have been pretty PEACEful, which is our goal for the month.

I’m going to take a quick look at what we have planned for the month so you can get a little idea about how all of our systems work with each other.

Calendar

My morning routine means that I check our calendar every morning, and here is what I am looking at:

  • There are few appointments that are noted, and I have reminders set in my Cozi app. One appointment is this week, so I remind my husband about it to make sure he remembers.
  • There are a couple of birthdays, and I am noting the special meals in my planner.
  • A few ‘special holidays‘ that we would like to include.
  • Days that the public school will be out for one of the older kids.
  • I also try to look for a day that will be a good time to go to the flea market or produce market for seasonal produce.

Chores

I also like to review the chores at the beginning of the week, as we have them listed by daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly.

Daily chores are pretty automatic, but our monthly chores rotate by the day of the month… I try to keep things as easy as I can.

Some of our daily chores include:

  • Getting ready for the day – make beds, brush teeth/hair, get dressed
  • Animal/Garden chores – watering and feeding
  • Breakfast – see our Breakfast Routine here
  • Laundry – see our Laundry Routine here
  • Planning the day – check calendar, to-do list, meal plan, etc.
  • Morning Routine – see a sample day here
  • School
  • Lunch
  • Quick Clean up
  • Afternoon Chores – water animals, check eggs, etc.
  • Dinner
  • Clean up

If you click on the links, you can find more in-depth information about each task.

Some of my weekly chores are:

  • Home Blessings
  • Homeschool Planning – look for lessons ideas to go along with our monthly task and upcoming holidays
  • Menu Planning – check that we have everything we need for upcoming meals
  • Garden Planning – check what needs to be transplanted, seeded, started, and bought.
  • Other Planning – Valentine’s Day, Super Bowl?, President’s Day, income taxes, and possible outings/vacation; check for upcoming birthdays and anniversaries
  • Grocery Shopping & Errands
  • Desk Work/Paper Work/Bill Pay/Budgeting

Some of the monthly chores this month are:

  • deep clean the coffee maker
  • restock/reorder coffee supplies
  • declutter/organize coffee bar
  • clean out the lower cabinets
  • declutter/organize food containers
  • declutter/organize pantry
  • pull out any foods that need to be used up- work them into upcoming meals
  • deep clean stove top
  • clean stove hood
  • scrub high chairs

Some of the yearly chores for this month are:

  • take down the Christmas tree
  • check garden beds for any repairs needed
  • pruning anything that needs it
  • gather information for income taxes

Sometimes the kiddos are tempted to skip over chores, but it catches up to them later on when things break down or run out. We are trying to teach them important skills that they will need later on in life, skills that will hopefully make them successful in all that they do.

Homeschool

Today, I check my Homeschool Manager app for anything that I might not have added to the main calendar. I normally look over the next week’s schedule on Thursdays, after we finish our school work.

  • I note when we plan to start back.
  • I add the appointments to the monthly lesson plan calendar as well, so I can plan accordingly. I realize that I may need to alter our start date and just use that as a Home Blessing day to get the house back in order, so I just swap a few things around really quick.
  • I also go ahead and update the sites for our lessons so everything is set to go for Monday!

These quick changes will keep us from having a very frustrating week back to school… at least I pray it will.

This month, I will be focusing on adding Biblical-based Financial Literacy tasks to our homeschool routine, so I will look over those tasks to see what I can work in with our lessons.

Financial Literacy (January)

We work on our family budgets and get our Bills organized in January, so it just makes sense to use this as a teaching moment for the kids.

Some ways we are doing this are:

  • Biblical Stewardship:
    • teaching financial principles through a biblical lens
    • emphasis on the fact that EVERYTHING we have belongs to GOD
    • learning to FAITHfully manage our resources
  • Budgeting & Generosity
    • researching what the Bible says about charity, giving to the poor, and tithing
    • creating budgets that allow us to give to others in need
  • Bible verses related to contentment, greed, money, and giving

Bill Paying

I usually sit down to pay bills on Fridays.

  • Pay the bills due, pay more if money allows
  • Check accounts to see what payments have cleared, and highlight them on the worksheet
  • Note any bills still left to pay

I usually do this first, so I know what I have left to spend. My bill pay worksheet makes things much simpler as I can see what I have paid, and what needs to be paid.

Meal Planning & Grocery Shopping

I normally do my menu planning on Wednesday or Thursday. I print out a couple of meal planning sheets and a grocery list so I can fill them in as I look over our Winter Meal Plan.

  • I write in the birthdays and special holidays for the month, and then add those ingredients to the grocery list. Clicking on the link will give you a ready-made list of holidays for the month and links to recipes and menu ideas to make them special.
  • I look over the planned meals and pencil them in.
  • I note the days when we have appointments and swap those meals for easier meals, if needed.
  • I check the grocery list that the kids have been filling out on the fridge, and add items to the main list.
  • I also check my pantry restock list to see what I need to add to the list, if money allows.
  • I make sure I have the ingredients to preserve the produce that I plan to pick up this month as well. I will add supplies to the grocery list, if needed. Some of these posts have not been published yet, but you should be able to find the printables in the library.
  • I will either schedule a time to go shopping or place an order for groceries and set a delivery or pickup time that works for us. When I go to town, I usually plan to take care of several errands at once.
  • At the beginning of the month, I will also place a Sam’s Club order for bulk supplies to be shipped, as well as any supplies we need from Amazon.

Special Holiday Meals: January Edition

Some of the pantry restock items I added to list are:

  • Honey/Syrup
  • Flour
  • Jelly
  • Peanut Butter
  • Toilet Paper

Some of the produce I’d like to buy for preserving:

  • Broccoli/Cauliflower
  • Dry beans for canning

If money is short, we can skip the restock and the preserving items until next month. I don’t like to skip things to often, but we do have our pantry pretty well stocked, and as long as we replace what we use, we should be fine.

Garden & Animals

I usually try to get feed and garden supplies once a month to cut down on the number of trips I make to town. The feed store is in the opposite direction of our normal grocery store, and I need all the space in the back of the van for feed, so I can’t really combine these tasks, or I would.

I go out to the greenhouse and garden just about every day, so I keep a running list of things that I need. I will also check my monthly list of tasks that need to be done. I went over my lists this weekend, and I have:

  • placed online orders for seeds and plants
  • ordered some new garden beds
  • made a list of seed starting materials that I need to pick up.

I need to:

  • get some seeds started for the Spring
  • get the heater hooked up in the greenhouse
  • transplant some of the cool weather crops out to the garden beds
  • replace the broken beds with the new beds
  • order mulch/soil for the new beds
  • sift the vermicompost to make potting soil for the new seeds

Some of the tasks are also listed with my yearly tasks to make sure that I don’t forget them 🙂

I also check with the kids to see what animal feed we have, check that against my master inventory list, note down what we need in my phone, and then I will make time to go get the feed. I try to combine a few tasks during the same trip.

When I go to get the feed I will:

  • get feed and animal supplies
  • pick up seeds or plants at the Farm Center – I did grab a few seeds
  • check with the nursery to see what they might have available – I didn’t stop this month
  • stop at the grocery store, if there is anything we need before the next grocery order
  • fill up with gas on the way home

When I get home, I always have the kids unload the feed right away, mix anything that needs to be mixed, and put the surplus in the old freezer that we use for storage. Once the feed is taken care of, they will clean out the back of the van 🙂

I try to make sure to do this mid-week, as Fridays & Saturdays are a bit crowded at the Feed Store. It’s always a bit stressful when we get too low on feed as well, so by making sure we have a regular schedule, we can alleviate some of the stress and replace it with PEACE, as we know we have what we need.

To-Do List

I also like to start a To-Do List because things always pop up that I can’t fix right away. I also find things when I am out in the garden that need to be taken care of I will usually snap a photo and then add it to the list if it can’t be taken care of right away.

This is our list so far:

  • Master Bathroom
  • build new garden beds
  • add solar lights to chicken coops
  • finish chicken tractor
  • hang cameras
  • put the StarLink on a pole

It isn’t too long yet, but it will grow longer the further we get into the year… hopefully, we can stay on top of it.

This is just a quick look at my weekly plans… I have all month long to work on some of them, and I will try to knock out as many as I can. I know that by handling the smaller things now, it will free up time I might need in the future for BIGGER and BETTER things. A little maintenance helps to keep things running nice and smooth… it also helps us to appreciate all that we have been BLESSED with.

I pray that you will find something useful in these links.

God Bless!

10 Smart Ways To Spend That Tax Refund

Published on by Susie @ Pollywog's Place BlogLeave a comment

This post might be a little bit late to catch some of you but I do believe that with the various delays the IRS has had this year, there may be many who haven’t gotten their tax refunds yet. If you have, maybe you haven’t spent it and you are trying to think of sensible ways to spend it. Here are a few of the things that we are using ours on:

Photo by Oleg Magni on Pexels.com
Continue reading “10 Smart Ways To Spend That Tax Refund” →

Becoming Debt Free One Bill At A Time

Published on by Susie @ Pollywog's Place Blog1 Comment

As I’ve mentioned before I am working on paying off some of my hospital bills from February. I had been so sick with a kidney infection and had to go to the hospital a couple of times. Needless to say that without insurance these trips got very expensive.

However I am please to report that this week I have finally paid off the final bill that I’ve received. Yay! What a relief!I have also been looking at Dave Ramsey’s Baby Steps and plan to start working on Step #1 which is to save $1,000 for an emergency fund. I did have this saved earlier this year but due to hospital bills and other unforeseen circumstances this has since been depleted.

There are so many different ways to save even when on a budget and if you check out my Pinterest Board Momma: Be Debt Free  you can check out some different ideas there. I haven’t made a set plan yet but I’ve put $25.00 back in the pot as start towards that $1,000. I’m hoping to reach this goal by the end of the year.

I’ll be posting a new post about the second step soon!This post does contain affiliate links which help to support our blog.

Keeping Up With The Bills

Published on by Susie @ Pollywog's Place Blog3 Comments

**Please note this post does contain affiliate links to which I may, possibly, earn a small commission from if you click on and purchase an item. For full disclosure click here.

One important aspect of making sure that everything runs smoothly is making sure that the bills get paid. I don’t know about you but sometimes it gets hard for me to try to remember when things are due and how much to pay.I mean you have the normal bills like the utilities that need to be paid once a month, sometimes you have other bills that are semi-annually or annually, and then you get the unexpected bills like payments on an appliance that just had to be replaced.

The bills have to get paid or we will find ourselves sitting in the dark or with no place to live. We may find ourselves with no way to go anywhere either. Not too mention those outrageous late fees! With so much on our already full plates it can be so easy to overlook something every now and then. Knowing how much is due and when it is due is a big challenge for some people. How do we juggle all of our responsibilities and make sure that everything and everyone gets paid?

It helps to designate a place for all of your bills to go. Then you can use a variety of options to keep up with them. You could just make a simple file by due date or you can write them  on the calendar every month to remind you. I have some of them set up on my Cozi calendar to remind me about them. I also have an Excel worksheet that I created to help me stay on top of this. I am a visual person and it helps me to see it all written down in front of me. This sheet of paper is folded and placed into a desk drawer where I can easily access it when needed.

If you don’t have access to a Excel or another software you can always keep up with your bills in a notebook. Just use what you have on hand and what works best for you. Below is an example of the worksheet I created for my house:

I have a place for the name of the bill, the due date, and the amount due. The ‘ACCT’ section is to remind me how the bill is set up to be paid. The abbreviations stand for:

BP = Bill Pay through my checking account

** = Set up through the Bill’s site

CC = Set up to be billed to my credit card. (This is usually for the ones that don’t happen on a monthly basis.)

You should make your own abbreviations that you will be able to remember. It may be a good idea to write down a key somewhere also in case you forget or in case someone else may need to take over bill paying if you were sick. Keep it simple!

I also have a column for each month. I shaded them to just help keep my eyes from playing tricks on me.

This next picture is of the bills that are paid on a monthly basis.They are listed in order by the due date. I try to pay the biggest majority of my bills around the beginning of the month. This method may not work for you or your family. Make sure you know when the bills are due and pay them according to your pay schedule. After the bill has been paid for the month I simply put a ✓ in the box under the month.

For the bills that only happen every other month, or like the pest control which is every three months, I simply shaded out the other months. For the refrigerator I only have a couple of more payments, yay, so I shaded out the rest of the months.

This next picture shows the annual subscription payments that I currently have. This serves as a reminder for me to evaluate whether I really need/want to keep these services before the due date. I do have them set up to charge to my credit card but by knowing when they are due I can try to be prepared to pay them off when they come due.

Another benefit of keeping up with your bills is that you can see where your money is going. If something happens and you need to make changes you can see what is costing you the most and where you need to make cuts. This will go a long ways in helping you to make a budget, as well.

Just remember to keep your system simple and manageable. It won’t work if it is too complicated or if it takes too long to set up or use. I wish you the best in getting those bills under control.