Weekly Steps Forward...and Back Sept. 5 to Sept 11

As long as we take more forward than back, I'm happy...and even the baby steps count.

Home

I started to set up what will be my craft/sewing area in our basement. I haven't used my sewing machine for years, but I've decided to learn how to use it again. I bought the desk (which came with the lamp!) off Kijiji for $60 and the person I bought it from delivered it! The chair is an extra solid wood one that I had that I purchased years ago for $10 and then painted white. I think I'll add some art and organizers to this area but I'll wait until I start to use it more to decide what would be best. The cabinets beside offer extra storage since we don't have tons of storage space in our new house. They are currently a mess but will hold seasonal items, kitchen tools and appliances that I only use occasionally, and overstock of pantry staples.

I did some more purging of stuff we don't need including a pair of too-small rain boots, clothes, and some outgrown toys, in all I was able to donated 1 big garbage bag.

I created a family command centre in our entryway which I will show in a post coming soon! This will hopefully help to keep us all more organized, especially with the start of the school year.

Food

I stocked up on carrots and onions at .19 a pound. We will be eating lots of these coming up!

I picked up the above cookbook at Value Village for $5. The tagline "Over 450 recipes for busy people who want to serve fast, delicious meals without spending a lot of money" was just too perfect to resist. Going through it I have found a slew of recipes that I'm excited to try.

Family and Kid Stuff

We hit up some yard sales on Saturday, we didn't have much luck but I did pick up 2 like-new board games for my board game loving boy for $4 (Scrabble Junior and Operation).

On the Sunday we went to explore Bonnechere Caves in the Ottawa Valley. It was L's first cave experience and he thought it was pretty cool (especially seeing the bats - he loves bats) although he found it a little scary at parts, and has been talking about it since.

This week was the first week of school and we were feeling a bit nervous for L, since not only was he starting a new school, but he was starting French Immersion not having done it last year so he would be a bit behind the other kids and his classes are in 100% French. However, our adaptive little man has been absolutely loving it! He has a great teacher, had made new friends, and is absolutely not fazed by the language.

Other Random Money-Saving

Went to the library, as usual, and picked up one book in particular that has been really interesting. It's called Cool Tools: A Catalogue of Possibilities. Lots of gift ideas, interesting and useful websites, and a whole list of other books I now want to read!

I did 1 swag bucks survey.

When I picked up the cook book I also picked up two cheap stuffed animals for our dog, a duck and a skunk. We have long ago stopped buying him stuffies specifically marketing to dogs for him to mock-kill. They last absolutely no longer and cost many times more. Also, I'm biased, but is he not so gosh darn cute?!

Steps Back

I went over my cell phone long distance minutes to the tune of $67! I will be looking into options for inexpensive long-distance this week now that we don't have a home phone. Ugh!