My New Daily Routine
Here is my attempt at my new daily routine. I have had a hard time getting things done lately and I think I just need a written routine and plan, that is still flexible enough for my day. The trickiest part of this routine will be getting up at 6:30 and trying to pack Tim’s lunch the night before. In addition I want to make a hot breakfast 2-3 mornings/week which will be a big stretch for me. Here is the rough draft of my new schedule.
6:30 Rise and Shine and shower
7:00 Breakfast and get Tim out door
8:00 Pick up and start laundry
8:30 Morning project (baking, cleaning, etc)
9:30 Play time with my son with at least 1 learning activity
11:00 Lunch and clean up
12:00 Nap time and quiet time
2:00 Afternoon project (shopping, budgeting, etc)
4:00 Start dinner
5:00 Eat dinner and clean up
6:00 Story time with Zach
7:00 Bed time
8:00 Prepare for breakfast and make Tim’s lunch
9:30 Bedtime
Oops, What Happened to Our Cell Phone Bill
Tim and I each have a cell phone but not a land line. Tim’s is a prepaid phone that we put minutes on about every three months. Mine is a basic plan with 450 minutes and free nights/weekends and calls to members of the same provider. Whenever Tim needs to make some calls, we just switch phones. Since most of my family keeps in touch through the phone and has the same provider, and most of my calls are to family, we rarely go over our minutes. In fact, until this last month I don’t think we came close to within 100 minutes of our limit.
So imagine my surprise when I found our bill this month to be almost double what it normally is. We had made a few longer phone calls and never checked our balance. I didn’t catch the error until it was too late for the phone company to change our plan for one month and change it back, which could have saved a few bucks.
We will pay the penalty this month for assuming that we could never go over our minutes. Because of this slight hiccup we are making some minor adjustments in our budget this month. I have decided to go on a cash only budget for the bills we don’t pay online or by check. In addition I am making a few more items from scratch like bread and refried beans.
In order to prevent this from happening in the future, I am making it a priority to check our balance halfway through our usage period and if we are close to our limit than checking it every few days. For others who have trouble going over their balance there are tools your cell phone company might offer for a small fee to prevent you from going over your minutes. You may also be able to change your plan for one month and then change back.
Although this bill is an inconvenience for the month, I would rather learn my lesson by going less than $50 over than going over by several hundred. We are also at a point where we don’t need to go into debt or dip into savings to deal with this small situation, we just need to use a little creativity.
Baking Bread
One of the greatest joys in life is my mother’s homemade bread. I was so excited when she sent me the recipe a couple of weeks ago. But I have to admit that I didn’t get around to baking bread until this morning when we ran out of bread and my husband had the car.
I have only baked bread a handful of times since being married. Since we don’t have a wheat grinder, I rarely have fresh whole wheat flour to make bread with. On a side note, I really, really hope to buy a wheat grinder before the end of the year so that we can eat healthier bread and save a few bucks. I also only have one bread pan, so making only one loaf seemed like a waste of energy.
But this morning I decided to forgo my excuses and make some bread. I used some whole wheat flour I found on sale a few weeks back (I know it’s not as nutritious as freshly ground flour, but it’s what I had). Thanks to my mom’s suggestions I realized that I could just make french loaf style bread in addition to my one loaf in the pan. The bread was a different shape, but it still tasted yummy.
Here is my mother’s recipe. I’m sure you could substitute honey for the sugar for healthier bread. Also, I only used 1 1/2 Tablespoons of salt instead of 2 because 2 seemed a little large. Oh, and we used water instead of milk because of food allergies.
My Mother’s Homemade Bread Recipe Makes 4 loaves
3 T yeast
1 c water
3 1/2 c warm milk ( you may just use water or use powdered milk..I just heat the water in the microwave and add 1 cup dry powdered milk)
1/4 c sugar
2 T salt
1/3 c oil
12 c flour (about) (I use half white and half wheat.)
Add yeast to 1 cup warm water and let sit for 2-3 minutes.
Add sugar, salt, oil to warm milk.
Add flour 2-3 cups at a time, stirring several times. Dough should be soft, but not too sticky.
Knead for 2-3 minutes. I just use a plastic grocery bag and knead it on the counter. You may need to add a little more flour. Place back in greased bowl.
Let rise in warm place until double. You may want to set bowl of dough in sink with warm water for 3-4 minutes to warm it up, then set it on sideboard to continue.
Punch down and let rise a second time.. Punch down again and form into loaves and place in greased pan. (If you don’t have enough loaf pans you can use a cookie sheet and shape it like french bread or make round loaves in 9″ round pans. My Aunt Marilyn always cooked hers in metal juice cans like tomato juice cans without tops that had been well greased. She set them straight up in the oven to cook. We loved her round bread)
Bake at 350 for 45-50 minutes. Take out of pans while still hot and lightly butter tops if you want.
Enjoy
Making the Decision to Change Apartments Part I
Since we’re still renting we have the freedom to move around if we can find a better deal after our lease is up. We are currently in a nice 1100 sq feet apartment nestled in a quiet neighborhood. The complex has been great for us but we think we can find something that will fit our needs for less money. So Tim and I discussed what was important for us in finding a new apartment and here are some criteria we came up with:
1. Has washer/dryer hookups or comes with a washer/dryer
At this moment we don’t have washer/dryer hookups in our apartment so once a week I load up our son and our laundry and drive the short distance to our apartment complex’s laundry building. Besides the hassle of doing laundry outside our apartment (especially when our son was sick), laundry also eats into our budget as we spend $25-$35 on laundry/month, not including detergent. Since we will have another child in August, I just don’t see how I can arrange laundry around two children’s schedules, or justify paying over $40/month in laundry.
2. Is relatively close to Tim’s job
Since we share one car, a short commute to Tim’s job is worth a little more in rent. In addition, gas prices fluctuate so much that we decided living close to work can help our gas budget.
3. Is in our church congregation’s boundaries
We have made very good friends over the past year in our congregation. We belong to an organized, large church which divides congregations similar to school districts, you are asked to go to church at a specific time in a specific building depending on where you live. If we moved too far away from where we currently are, we would most likley be in another congregation’s boundaries and have to make friends all over again.
4. Is affordable
This criteria is key as we are trying to save money to build up an emergency fund and then save money for a down payment on a house. If we were to stay in our current complex and move to a unit with washer/dryer hookups we would have to upgrade to a townhouse and spend an extra $50/month. We would really like to reduce the amount we spend on rent, not increase it.
5. Is safe
Since we live on the outskirts of a large city, we are also looking at complexes that are in safer parts of town.
6. Space
Space is last on our list, because even with adding another child to our household, you can be creative and find ways to use small spaces. We also know that if needed we may be able to store a few boxes at Tim’s parents.
So here are our criteria in looking for an apartment to rent. Everyone’s criteria may be different and you have to make your choices on what is best for your family. Now that you know your criteria, I will later write about tips on finding an apartment that fits within your budget and criteria.
Short Break
I’ll be taking a short break from blogging. Our son has been sick the past couple of days which means neither of us has slept well, and even though I’m now in my second trimester, I still have yet to gain my energy back. I need to get some rest and put our house back in some order but I will be back.
