Planning for 2019

So if you don’t know me well, let’s just say I LIVE by my planner! My planner is attached to my hip …. Okay…it’s 99% of the time in my purse – in arms reach. 🙂 Seeing new planners in a store makes me so giddy, like a fat kid offered cake, candy, AND ice cream. Ha ha  But seriously though – I get into a trance when I see an isle of planners. Just saying.

What I use my planner for:

1. Keeping track of appointments, deadlines, my insanity! Ha ha

2. Jotting down random things that have happened to me because I can’t seem to remember what I ate yesterday. LOL

3. Chores that I have done on that day so I can look back and be like: “Oh…it’s been awhile since the bath has had a good scrubbing, eh.” LOL

4. Important papers randomly shoved or paper clipped in there.

Type of Planner

I have tried countless different planners, from the standard ones you see in the box stores like Walmart, Target, Hobby Lobby, or Barnes Noble. Each year I try to find one with a better layout that fits my needs as a busy workin’ momma, but it seems like each one comes up short in there own different way.

My currently one for 2018 is the Happy Planner below. Isn’t it cute?!?!?!! 😀   Pros & cons below of how it’s meet my needs and how it’s coming up a bit short.

Happy Planner Pros

• Month & week pages
• week pages has each day divided into 3 sections which I really like!
• It’s oh so pretty inside and out
• Pages can come out easily if needed or easy to add pages with extension packs
• Fun to decorate

 

Happy Planner Cons

• Can’t buy 2019 pages and swap out the 2018 (I asked the owners)
• It doesn’t fit in my purse since it’s a little bigger than the standard A5 sizes
• It cost somewhere from $25-$35 each
• Extension packs are additional cost. Boo!

The Happy Planner has come closest to meet my needs as a planner. If it was slightly smaller to fit in my purse and I was able to buy 2019 calendar pages in a pack form to swap out 2018 under $20, I’d be a one happy gal.

Where to go from here

So taking what I have learned over the years and countless planners, I am trying to find a way to get everything I want for 2019. Why can’t I, right? 🙂 And I understand that’s it’s still September but I am already setting appointments for 2019 and would like to plug them into the 2019 planner to be ahead of the game.

I could keep trying different planners, I could stay with the Happy Planner for 2019 or I could start a bullet journal.

Bullet Journal

I stumbled on this a few weeks ago when I was still trying to find a planner that fit all my needs. If you go to Pinterest and type in “bullet journal” your browser will be flooded with array of ideas on how to use the bullet journal and the ways to use one seems endless! Why? Because the pages are blank so the owner ultimately decides what the pages will be like, how the layout will be displayed, and what sections (or data entered) will be in the journal.

What intrigues me about the bullet journal is the flexibility it offers and I can be creative at the same time.

Bullet Journal Pros

• Blank canvas – I can decide the layout that works best for me
• A5 size offered
• I can make it my planner yet track different things like my mood, habits, etc all in one place
• Fun to decorate
• Journals start at about $7 – $20

Bullet Journal Cons

• Blank canvas – either I would have to work on it now so it will be ready to use in 2019 – nothing is set up for me in advance
• Blank canvas – seems to be time consuming to set up
• Blank canvas – it might take me a while to find a pretty layout that works for me

 

So the biggest strength AND weakness to making a bullet journal my 2019 planner is the blank canvas. Either this is going to be a great success or an epic fail. LOL

What are your thoughts to planners? What styles/brands do you prefer using to keep your life right side up?

 

 

 

 

Thrifty Wednesday – Fall Score!

My older daughter has had a project she would like to do which means I’m in the hunt for a black and red flannel shirt – men’s, larger the better.

So on my lunch, I played hooky from the gym and skirted over to the nearest Salvation Army store. I browsed the men’s section and couldn’t find what I was on the hunt for.  I decided to browse the coat section. Maybe there is “coat-like” flannel shirt in the red and black plaid pattern I wanted.

Sure enough I found what I needed surrounded by coats, jackets, and vests. BUT in the meantime, I came across this like-new condition Field & Stream Hyroproof  Ultra camo jacket! It had super soft burgundy lining and felt very warm when I tried it on – not too big, not too small.

My other half hunts and I don’t own anything camo and thought, if I had this coat, I could sit with him when he hunts and enjoy the great outdoors. 🙂 And for the price of $25, it’s is a steal compared to the current similar model starting at $79.99.  SAVINGS: $58.29!!

(Similar here $79.99)

Now I have a warm camo to venture out into the great outdoors with or at least have a warm coat to shovel snow with. 🙂 hee hee

 

Feeling…….???

Over the past few weeks I have been getting really eager with the hints of fall in the air. I have a few fall photo sessions to get all geeked about! 😀 I have been dragging my children to different spots in the area to “warm up” my shooting arm. ;D Let’s just say, I have a few more spots I need to drag them to before I feel ready to rock these sessions! ha ha

Also I’m enjoying my fall wardrobe capsule puts into the fall mood. 🙂

(Gap sweater – thrifted $1, Sweater dress – thrifted $1)

But with my favorite upcoming season, I also have been feeling out of sorts on the home front. I have many projects I want to do as in: finishing up my craft area, putting up fall decor, and tilling the garden, cutting down the dying plants outside. I should feel motivated and a live and yet it seems like I’m struggling.

What am I struggling with?

That, I’m not sure, really. I feel if I knew why I have been feeling kind of stuck on the home front, I would have figured out a plan how to un-funk it.

Let’s just home, the fall weather keeps perking up my spirits in other areas in my life which seems would have to spill over into my home life, right? 😉

Are you geeked up for fall?

 

Food budgeting

I have done my September budget and am ready to pay my bills. My September budget has some tweaks compared to my August budget – good tweaks. I lowered my gas allowance and increased my bi-weekly saving auto-transfers.

Also I don’t believe my food allowance is accurate. 😦 Right now I have it listed $200 a month and my other half also covers $200 per month so our household monthly food budget is $400/month. This allowance INCLUDES nonfood items like toilet paper, paper towels, cat litter, cat/dog food, toiletries, cleaning supplies, etc.

Having a budgeted amount does NOT guarantee that I spend that amount each month. Therefore I truly don’t know the exact amount of money I currently spend monthly on food. 😦

Past Habits

1. Every 2 weeks when I get paid, I deposit my paycheck and withdraw my $100 for food and my gas allowance. I put the food money in a certain spot in my wallet and my gas allowance goes on my gas card (to get 3 cents off a gallon). My other half will give me his allowance.
2. I clip coupons whenever possible and keep them in my purse. I’m not like one of those crazy coupon ladies. I only clip coupons for the items I know I will be buying in the near future.
3. I pay cash for food, except if we go over our budget, which has happened when we run low on a lot of items at certain times.
4. We buy our pork from a local farmer which does NOT come out of this monthly allowance. The money will come out of my saving. Also my other half hunts for “free deer meat”. Therefore I don’t buy a lot of meat when we go shopping, which helps my monthly budget.

Goals

I have a good start to stay on top of my food budget but I can see there is still work that needs to be done. I need to figure out if my current food budget is realistic, if it needs to increase or if I need to take future actions to stay within the budget amount.

To figure out if my current budget is realistic, I have involved my teenage daughter to help. 🙂

Putting Goals Into Action

I continue to do what I have been doing for my food budget.

Then after we shop, I will hand the receipt to my daughter who will record the receipt using the format below which I created. 🙂 (Daughter was SUPER excited to get the form below. LOL) If there is any nonfood items on the receipt she is to note on the side so we can see if that is why that grocery trip was high. Also we can see how often we go, where we go, etc. If we get any food at the farmer’s market, street stand, etc, we let her know and she’s to put that also on the form.

Then after the month is ended, she will total what was spent and fill out the summary part at the bottom. Then the three of us (daughter, other half, and I) will sit down and review the data.

I am very excited to have this area tracked and over the next few months of tracking data, then I will make a concrete decision about what direction I am wanting to go with my food budget.

How do you keep track of your monthly food budget?

Thrifty Wednesday: Fall Capsule additions

I have begun my fall wardrobe capsule (info here) .

As stated before (here) I am incorporating the wardrobe capsule into my daily life but may not be as strict as some people who may only have 33 items. I will have a seasonal wardrobe that is tailored to my needs. 🙂

With that being said, my fall wardrobe is based on the color palette below.

So when I went to my local Goodwill on my lunch and kept these colors in mind when I roamed the racks. I normally would have looked at all the colors under the rainbow and pull anything that caught my eye, but this time, I stuck only to the colors listed above.

What I pulled: 2 khaki pants (on my fall shopping list), 1 patterned pants, 2 dresses, 1 shirt, and 2 skirts.

These pants below were AB Studios (brand can be found at Kohls or Target – similar pant here) were super comfy yet dress to wear to work or church! Plus the colors fit my fall capsule (black, white, warm browns) My cost: $4.29

Close up of the cool design! 🙂

This top (Brand: Vanity) fit comfortably. Plus it had polka-dots and ruffles which I love! This will become part of my basic wardrobe foundation (Similar found here) My cost: $2.14  Now the skirt (Brand: Talbot) – I LOVED everything about this skirt except it was snug when I stood up and failed the sit down challenge. 😦 I loved it hit just below my knees, it was tweed, and it had the khaki green in the print. If it was one size larger and fit like glove, I would have done a happy dance! (Similar found here)

The next skirt (Brand: Focus 2000) I tried on also hit just below the knees and had cute ruffles at the bottom. The fit was better than the green so it went into the keep pile (Similar found here) My cost: $1.99

This dress (Brand: H&M) (Similar found here), to me had an military vibe to it via the warm brown color, the color, button top part. The bottom was A-line still which I lean towards (wide hips 😦  UGH!).  I added the khaki green belt to give my weight more definition. Also it hits just below my knee which is what I prefer (to hide my chunky thighs).

The dress was little big in the middle as you can see from the backside where I “gathered” it via the belt. I think if I can take it in a little bit at the waist, then it will fit perfectly. It’s a neutral color and am excited to pair it with more dressed up look for work/church. My cost: $3.24.  (Belt – my cost: $2.99)

So on the left is my smaller keep pile and to the right was my larger pass pile.

 

Did you find any good thrifty steals lately? I’d love to see them! 😀

Also keep an eye out for these gems in the rough being paired with other items in my closet in my fall capsule posts. 🙂