$500 Holiday Challenge

Well, I've signed myself up to another challenge. This one is over at Cents to Save. I feel motivated this year--and January is already over and I'm still motivated. Both on the exercise and my finances. Yay me!

So I've decided to start saving $500 towards my Christmas gifts I need for this upcoming Christmas. Can never start too early can we? I've decided to put away $25 every two weeks to get this covered. And I will--some way, some how! The $50 has to come out of my low-spend budget for February too. Yikes!

Wish me luck :)

February Challenges!!

So I've decided to follow along with Carla and her TWO challenges for February. Here's the details and I've added my own thoughts/goals in bold!

Here’s how the Low (no) Spend Challenge will work:
1. Choose a financial goal for the month!
- Would you like to build up your emergency fund, save up enough money for something special you’ve had your eye on but can’t afford, want to double up your debt payments, wipe out a credit card completely?! Whatever your goal is, I want to know!

My goal is to ONLY spend the extra $310 for the month that I have for spending money. That will give me $250 to put into my savings for emergency, regular savings, and my new glasses fund! I seriously have too many bills.

2. How will you achieve your goal this month?
- You need a plan of action! Will you be cutting your budget back, cutting out eating out for the month, no “hobby” shopping, trying to earn extra money? Come up with a plan & make it work!

I’m cutting out anything extra—online shopping, buying things for our puppy, lotto tickets, etc.!! The biggest being NO ONLINE SHOPPING!!! Online is killing me lol!

3. How will you allot your spending this month?
- Obviously I suggest a “cash” budget, as you can’t spend what you don’t have! There is no putting it on credit, throwing it on a tab, digging into $$ you shouldn’t be spending, etc… But if you deal with debit cards, credit cards, etc… Go with what keeps you on track! Will you budget daily, weekly, bi-weekly? Find what works best for you & stick to it!

I’m definitely trying what Carla just done. I’m going to allot myself $10 per day—and that’s all. I really want to try this. No using my debit card or credit card 

4. Track your purchases!
- Keep track of your spending. Yes, even that pack of gum that was “only” $.79! It REALLY helps you to see where exactly your money is going!

Okay! Will do!

5. Are there any “exemptions” for the month?
- Do you have any previous engagements, birthdays, events, etc.. that simply won’t fit into the month? Then choose your exemptions & plan from there how you can still reach your goal!
I know I will need a valentine day gift for BF and for my students. But someway, somehow it will have to come from the $10 per day!

Here’s how the Decluttering challenge will work:
1. There will be 4 main challenges for the month. I pick the theme, you pick the challenge!
• Week One: Personal Space Challenge
Finally clean all my clothes drawers to see what I can get rid of. And to tidy up my clothing.
• Week Two: Family Space Challenge
Clean the massive pile of “stuff” sitting on the dog kennel (I use it as an addition to my desk) and store the kennel away as we don’t even use it anymore.
• Week Three: Productivity Challenge
Look at the rest of my year of teaching and try to organize where I’m going and how much time I have left to get everything finished.
• Week Four: The “Dreaded” Challenge
Organize my scrapbooking things. ALL OF THEMMMMM!!

2. Bonus Challenges!
- I will be giving you 4 *bonus* mini challenges throughout the month! Fast & easy to accomplish!

3. Purging!!
- Toss, sell, or donate 29 items! One item for every day of the month in February… Easy as pie!
These will be all clothing items. I’m going to pass them to my mom and let her have a look through them first before I donate them.

4. The Proof is in the pudding!
- If you have a blog, before & after photos of your decluttering projects would be awesome please!!
Will do!

Ok, now for the nitty gritty rules!
1. Please leave a comment on this post letting me know that you’ll be joining in, and please state if you’re joining one, or both challenges!
2. Take (borrow, steal, etc..) my challenge photo from above & post it on your blog along with your goals for the month & please don’t forget to link me up!
3. Commit to updating about your challenge status at least once a week! So 4 updates at the minimum please! Simply post about your progress on your blog & let me know that you’ve updated in my comments section. My blog dashboard DOES NOT show me any incoming links, so I need “direct links” please! If the month goes along and there’s been no updates after the first week or so has been posted, I’ll assume that the challenge didn’t work for you. I’d like to keep the link list page updated & current so we can encourage & follow each other! I also need to track participants for my “bounty” prize at the end of the month!

I "Moustach" you to be mine!

And here is another Valetine's day card I whipped up by following a sketch! I used the sketch over at 365 Cards:Day 314 and another of my Whimsie Doodle images.

I didn't get a single thing accomplished on my "to do" list today. Boyfriend needed to go get a cord for his new Blackberry Playbook so we went to the nearest town and did a little shopping (1 hour each way!). Puppy stayed here by herself and was very well behaved, she'd finally feeling better. It did involve a trip to the vet which costs us $96 *sigh*

I guess my list will be moved to tomorrow. Tomorrow night I plan on going to another little town near us (20 mins each way) to go skating with one of my teacher friends. I'm excited :)

o"FISH"ally be mine

And the madness that is Valentine's Day cards has begun again this morning. Just waiting for the boyfriend to get up- he's being lazy today heehee. So I figured I'd whip up another card while myself and puppy are trying to be a little quiet (it's very hard to do!)

I used the sketch over at Seems a Little Sketchy and another of my Whimsie Doodle images I purchased a few nights back. If everything is starting to look the same it's because I have an American Crafts Kit that I purchased a few years back that I am desperately trying to use up this year.

Since it's Saturday I figured I'd make a little "to do" list (I'd really like to get back into using my big weekly list that I made before Christmas hmmm):
1. Clean my bathroom (boyfriend uses the guest bathroom and cleans that himself yay!)
2. Finish organizing the scrapbooking/guest room
3. Sweep and mop floors
4. Wash at least two loads of laundry
5. Complete 2 more Valentine's cards

I dig you!

Sorry for all the posts tonight-- I know, three is a lot! But this is my third and final card for tonight. I've had a blast following along with different sketches from all the different blogs. For this sketch I used CCEE Stampers and another of my Whimsie Doodle images!!

For those of you who don't know about Stampin' When I Can, you don't know what you're missing. Not only is Allison a fantastic crafter but she also complies a list of sketches (cards and scrapbooking each week!!). You should pop by! Good night all! :)

Had My Eyes on You!

Well here's my second Valentine's day card! Yay me! I love Fridays! I wish I always set time in each day to do some crafting because I sometimes forget how much I love it.

For the sketch I turned to Get Hippity with Ippity and used another Whimsie Doodle image that I'm in love it!

I love you this much!

Woah! I can't believe it's time for Valentine's day cards already!! Here is my first one for Valentine's day 2012. I used the sketch over at Try Stampin' on Tuesday and included a Whimsie Doodle image I purchased. It's a part of a super fabby set that I'm really in love with! :)

Sunday Night Chit Chat!

I have a very sick pup these past two nights. I've hardly slept :( *sigh* Poor girl!

Anyways, on to Sunday Night Chat Chat following over at My 1/2 Dozen Daily . Feel free to play along!

What are you…

Reading? Just finished reading the Grade 4 Social Studies book lol. My lesson on continents was a little too curriculum packed last day it seems. So I've taken the whole lesson and broken it down. Fun times!

Watching? My puppy. She's so sick! Like terribly sick. I guess it will be a vet trip tomorrow!

Listening to? Absolutely nothing. My boyfriend is watching Republic of Doyle but has his earphones in so that it's quiet for me to get my work done for teaching tomorrow!
Cooking/Baking? Well, I made jello today. It's the only dessert I eat since I can't have any dairy anymore. But my boyfriend cooked a chicken with all the fixings today--it was yum!

Happy you accomplished this week? We have started up our "healthy eating" lifestyle change lol. I want to lose 20 lbs and the boyfriend wants to lose 60! Yikes! We are in for a new way of eating that's forsure. But we did have one cheat night, Friday night, where we made nachos. And we both agreed that we felt like trash after eating them-- so that's a positive thing I think!

Looking forward to next week? A successful week of healthy eating!!

Thankful for today? My caring family (who have been constantly calling to check on pup!) and my awesome boyfriend who helps me out more than one person should ever help another! He even laminated my school work for me tonight! He's honestly the best!

Happy Sunday everyone :)

Classroom Boggle

Over on My 1/2 Dozen Daily Carla challenged us to accomplish something today that we've been putting off. Well, I've been thinking about making a boggle game for my classroom bulletin board every since I seen it on Pinterest. The one above is from Mrs. Rojast Teaches. Mine won't look nearly as pretty but I've got my game pieces all cut, lamented (new mini laminator for Christmas yay!) and the title done in some animal print letters. I'm excited. I'm going to use it for my Word Time tomorrow--I'm sure I'm way more excited than my students will be, but that's ok :)