[Alaska]

Alright! We are back from our trip and we managed to not spend every single cent in the bank, lol! We ended up getting stuck there for an extra night because our flights out cancelled due to weather but it turned out to be a good thing because we got a hotel room in a hotel with a pub, made the teenager babysit the toddler since she was asleep anyways and had a date night.

So I am back on the saving hog today. No more unnecessary expenditures til we leave on December 9th for a few weeks (Z has a work training so the hotels are paid for and his ticket is paid for). I already bought my ticket for this next trip with miles. Z will buy his daughters tickets with miles too.

I decided to purge the back spare room of stuff and set up my office again back there. I decided it felt good to let go of so much stuff that I want to basically purge the whole house at this point. I do have way more crap than I need. So today I got rid of a twin sized bed and a trundle bed underneath it. two boxes of crap and cords from the spare room closet that have been gathering dust for probably close to 10 years. 2 garbage bags full of little boys clothing that I will take to the reuse bins at the church. and many many cardboard boxes that have just been shoved in the back room because I hoard boxes...we do a lot of shipping things and why buy a box? Right?

Next weekend I plan to attack the hall linen closet with the same indifferent gusto. We bought all new sheets and towels at Target on the trip and shipped them back and they should be here on the barge next week so I should def get the old stuff out the door.

I also need to go through the sock bin and toss anything that is worn out or we don't wear anymore (black socks...we have a yellow lab...black socks went out of style in this house three years ago when she moved in, hahaha!!). And my closet is getting the purge too because I have too many fat clothes that I hope to never revisit in there.

Aside from that, I have only to buy fresh vegetables for the next few weeks as we re-supplied with lots of staples in town and I stockpile cheese and meat like a fiend in the chest freezer. Maybe we will need to buy milk too. But everything else I bet I can stretch to the next trip to civilization.

 

[Cares]

Nice job, Alaska! Hope your trip was amazing
it feels sooooo good to purge the house, right?! We did a bit of a purge and had a little garage sale last weekend, and I'm still going through the house looking for stuff to donate. Less crap, less mess, freer mind!

 

[Alaska]

Yay Friday! And its an actual friday for me since I am on my off season schedule and get sat/sun off instead of wed/thurs.

This weekends plans are to PURGE more stuff from the house. And start organizing for a garage sale in a few weeks. Z packed up his house in Anchorage while we were there and is renting it out and ALL his stuff came in last week so its in the garage and needs to be sorted through. He has a bunch of stuff that he wants to sell too.

This next week, aside from fresh veggies and milk, we will be eating out of the deep freeze and pantry. I am not going to spend ANY money on ANYTHING, lol!! Z's birthday was last night and we ended up spending $350 taking him and his friends and my sister and brother in law out to dinner. It was a really nice time, great food, great convo and the kiddos were really well behaved which was a miracle with a two-and-a-half year old.

I think along with purging some stuff I want to repaint the bathroom, thank goodness we found two gallons of a good color in the garage that just needs a good shake and its ready to go. And I have all the painting supplies already because I used to make extra quick cash by painting peoples interiors for them. My bathroom has no mold or mildew issues either thanks to a great de-humidification system, so I don't even have to prime the walls, just have to give them a good scrub, so I think its a good Saturday or Sunday afternoon project, one and done. Also, I am sick of the blue color in there, the peachy color in the cans will look so nice and will probably make for better lighting when I am putting on make-up. I hope...although, there might not be much I can do about my face HAHA!

 

[Alaska]

I just realized I seriously need to update my signature. I am way ahead on that Home loan payoff, lol!! In fact, I should call and ask for a schedule again because I believe at this point I am more than 6 months ahead of schedule.

Today was sale meat day!!! The damn store is trying to trick us and move the days they do clearance around but I am on to them. Z texted me today and all it said was "$$meat$$" and thats all he had to say HA! I knew he found the new sale day. So I went and picked up a flat iron stead, two packages of hot dogs, two packages of deli meat and LITERALLY 25 lbs of turkey necks (for paprikash) all on 50% off. Nice haul. That all goes to next months grocery budget also because I already have this weeks meals all planned out and locked and loaded. I also had a 20% off coupon and got a case of sardines. We eat a lot of sardines in this house. We are fish people after all. hehe.

The boys are buying new suits next week for the holiday season. I was so irritated last holiday season because Z's suit is brown. Well, brownish/gray, its a herringbone. Anyways, LBD's do not go with brownish suits. So my 16 year old needs a new suit because he has filled out in the chest and neck and arms and so Z has to get a new one also. And finally, I am getting a say in the color after passive aggressively mentioning 500 times that I can never find a dress that looks good to go with him. He was going to buy navy... I had to interject. PLUS, I also threw in there that I'm not marrying a man in a navy suit. I should offer lessons on being passive aggressive online. Maybe it would pay for the suits and new dresses for the girls.

Obviously I am working on the holiday budget since suits came into the picture all of the sudden. Thankfully B and I are set as far as formal wear goes. If Z get a black suit I have several dresses that I can wear that I didn't get to wear last winter because...brown suit. We already have a good idea of what everyone is getting for christmas. Z and I are investing in shocks for our suburban as gifts to each other, the teen is getting a used but good drum set and B is getting a big girl bed because we need the crib for the baby and she climbs out of it anyways.

ANYWAYS, I got my price book out today to start planning for next weeks meals and groceries (even though its only Monday). And again, its just going to be fresh veggies and dairy at the stores because I already locked down meats. Hopefully Z will make a paprikash next week since he got turkey necks. Seriously, paprikash made by a native Hungarian is THE BEST THING EVER. I am praying that we'll have some freebies for groceries at work, I work at a dock and when boats are done fishing for the season they clean out their kitchens and I have no shame, I take the free food any chance I get. Its usually decent stuff, unopened and unexpired, or milk/cheese and bread frozen. Anyways, one of the boats took three totes out of the freezer on their last trip and turned around after three days and came back to port to offload their last trip and I am hoping they are leaving food behind and flying their crew off island instead of taking the food and crew with them to Seattle. *fingerscrosssed* damn I am cheap!!! haha!!

 

[Alaska]

Its been nearly a year but I'm still here! I updated the mortgage pay off in the signature. We are still ahead but we just paid the minimum a few months this last year due to unexpected expenses. I am thinking of taking on a second job, maybe babysitting some kids on my days off just to put towards that pay off. We really need to sell this house and move into something bigger. We are going to evict the renters in our condo in another city from where we live and convert it to a VBRO, that way we always have somewhere to stay when we are in that city (its a hub and where we fly for medical and shopping and SO's company headquarters are there so we may be able to strike a deal with them to use our place to house traveling employees). That would add extra income because after crunching the numbers even if it was only occupied 1/2 of the month, it would bring in more income then an annual lease and right now our tenants are not paying on time nearly every single month. In fact, as if right now they are still behind on September and its the 22nd!! they need to go!

We are still meal planning, buying nearly all our meat on sales of at LEAST 50% off and freezing. We got over 100lbs of fish in the deep freezer this summer, salmon and halibut. I also got a 5 lbs box of scallops in there hiding that I got straight from a boat. We've been doing really well on meal planning, its become second nature to us to plan everything for the whole week and if we know we have enough stockpiled we sometimes plan two weeks out and just have to stop at the store for milk and fresh veg.

The 16 year old and I are going to the city Oct 8-13 because I have a business engagement. He needs to see a dermatologist and really wants to see his friends that live there. I've pre-paid the hotel, bought the tickets with mileage and we'll get a rental car there. Normally I do a big shop while I'm there to stock up at Costco on non-perishables and specialty meats and cheeses we can't get here (and booze) but I might only get what we need for our late October birthday parties. I don't want to spend too much money when we are so so so close to paying off this mortgage. We want to sell the house for cash in the bank and have a massive down payment for a bigger home here since we absolutely plan to be here at least until the three year old graduates from high school since it is a great school district.