Our Family spending

Over the last few weeks John and I have been talking about trying to cut out or limit our extra spending on items that really aren't necessary. We have also been discussing how to teach are children they have a choose as to how to spend their money. That they are not slaves to it. Instead of saying, we can't afford that (weather it's true or not) we are trying to say things like, This month are family is choosing not to spend our money on that or we didn't budget for that this month. We would be happy to put this on the list of things to consider buying next month. (Maybe, if they have to wait for something they want they will either realize they don't want it or realize they do really want it). We really want are children to be Thankful for what they have and we don't want them to have the "deprived mentality" when they don't get what they want or feel they need. Somehow we have aloud ourselves to feel this way. There is far more to life then "stuff". We are going to start to have a small budget every month that John and I can use to bless other with when we see a need. We would also like the boys to do the same, this will allow are focus not to always remain on ourselves and our needs but the needs of others as well.
To keep us accountable I am going to be posting our discretionary (food, clothing ect)spending every day. Being accountable to making a post daily will make me think twice about the unnecessary purchases. Example; Just this weekend we spent almost 10 dollars in one day on coffee and the funny thing is it was at 3 different coffee shops...I don't even remember going to 3 different coffee shops? Why is it when something becomes such apart of your life routine it's harder to change or to see that you need to make a change?
Here goes yesterday's spending:
Starbucks: $12.95 1 pound of ground coffee from (They have Christmas Blend now!!! Yummy.
OFC: $16.22 John has not been feeling well so I had to buy him some Tylenol PM which was about $7.00 dollars for the generic brand as well as some soup he could take to work for almost $3.00 but while I was there they had 10 for 10 deals on things I would normally buy so I bought a few things.

Our family's total spending for the day: $29.17
This is also going to help me balance our account on a daily basis...since I will already have the receipt's out! Wohoo! (I am good about doing this every few days but every day would be better so I don't miss anything)

Dessert

Last night I went out for Dessert with a friend. It was so fun to be out without children drinking my latte, eating yummy dessert and talking with a good friend. It has been awhile (since Sarah moved) and today I am feeling very refreshed....guess I need to do that more often!!

Grandma comes in a few more days, I am getting excited!!!

Jedi Moves

Jedi Moves, originally uploaded by johnandtana.

Like I said, I had a months worth of pictures on my camera that I just downloaded.
This picture captures all his favorites (at least at the time it was taken). Daddy's lego hat, Mr. binks (I am hoping this will become a thing of the past in the very near future), Jedi cape aka starwars blanket, lightsaber aka place mat and we can't forget the BOOTS!
Now if you could only hear him this is what he would say, "dark side"..... We were hoping he would choose the other side. But as Yoda says, do or do not, there is no try.

Great Grandma comes in a week!

This week we are getting ready for Grandma Deanne to come. Boy are we all excited and anxiously awaiting her arrival. We have beds to make, bathrooms to clean and goodies to bake. We haven't seen Grandma since she moved to L.A., almost a year ago. And Ever since we told Joshua she was coming he hasn't stopped talking about it...he misses her a lot and so do I!!!
We can't wait to see you GRANDMA!!!!

CUTE COUSINS!!!

CUTE COUSINS!!!, originally uploaded by johnandtana.

I am just now loading pictures from a month ago. I just love this picture of Joshua and his cousin. They are just too cute!!!

Waddling with the ducks

Waddling with ducks, originally uploaded by johnandtana.

While Joshua had class on Saturday we took Austen to feed the ducks. He loved it!!

Consignment

Today, I went to Spanky's to consign some of my winter clothes that no longer fit. Because they are TOO BIG!!! A glorious feeling. I found some super cute things for the boys. In the past I haven't been all that impressed with their selections...things always seemed too wore, not cute and priced higher than I wanted to pay for such things. But after today I will be back.

I have a large bin of very nice higher quality little boys winter clothing to sell but I am trying to decide if I should post it on craigslist or take it to spanky's. I'm thinking craigslist.