It's June! We have moved onto the Air Force base and we love it. I seriously love everything about it. The house is not a fancy as our other house, but I don't care!! This house meets our needs 100% more than the other one did and I have to admit I like the old fashioned refrigerator with a freezer on top instead of side by side with the fridge. Open floor plans? Hate them! All it did was make it impossible to keep my toddler tornado out of anything! Our new house also has this old fashioned stuff called carpet. It's wonderful! It keeps the sound of 6 children from echoing all over the house and killing my ears. AND...we have a great yard with a view of the water, a walking trail along said water, and this wonderful covered lanai (back sun porch) where the big kids can play without their lego ships or chess pieces being disturbed. The beach is less than 2 miles away, the pool and library less than a mile away and I can drive a quick five minutes to the commissary and BX. Dan is loving being able to ride his bike to work in just over five minutes.
However, we did not find a renter to take over our lease at the old house. We were very, very close about 3 times and they fell through. We have also found that our property manager has not been helping us out very much or working well with people that want to try and rent the property. This means that we are having to pay the rent there and here. It's a lot of money and it's going to be a challenge to live on what we have left over.
So the kids and I have decided that this June we won't spend any money! OK, so we'll still have to buy groceries and possibly gas, but for the most part we will try to not spend. We still have lots of options open to us for things to do so I don't think anyone will even notice. The pool, beach and library are free and the those are their favorite places to go. I'm thinking about doing one big shopping trip at the beginning of this month to try and save money on groceries. I just have to make a menu first which is a huge deal for me! I do have some cash in my wallet which I will use for random things that we need. Today we went to the thrift store to look for bike helmets for the children. Now that we're on base they're required to have helmets when riding bikes or scooters so they have not been able to ride their bikes since we got here. We were so blessed...the thrift store had helmets for the kids that needed them for $1 and $2 each. I was so very, very thankful. We also "splurged" and got an ice cream maker for $2.50. We had been planning on getting one anyway, but now there was no way we could. However, seeing it there for so cheap we decided to go for it. I'm a little worried that the ingredients will be pricey, but we'll see.
We will have to give up ballet and tumbling class for the girls this summer. I'm a little upset about that, but I would much, much, much rather live here and give up dance than live back in our old house! Dan and I are discussing if there's some way we can make soccer camp and swimming lessons work. Maybe if I become an extreme couponer and can get our groceries for $6.72 a week! Landon's birthday is also this month and I've already been thinking about how we can have a great celebration without much money. We can make the cake at home ($2), have mac and cheese for lunch and go fishing for his activity. The boys made fishing poles from sticks and string. We're going to be checking out the thrift store for presents, too.
I am thinking about getting out my mei tai material again and trying to sell a few. It would really help with some extra money!
While this "challenge" is certainly not something I would have picked to do, I'm thankful for it. It will give me a time to really reflect on how I spend our money that God has provided for us. I'm so thankful that living on base means we do not have to pay power or water bills! I also will not need to hire the house cleaner now that we're living in a smaller house with CARPET! That's about $650 a month right there depending on utilities for the month.
That's what we're up to. Can't wait to post pictures of our new place!!
No comments:
Post a Comment