Lunch Bag Woes

Remember this?

My brand-new pristine ginormous lunch bag?


Yeah, well picture it after I dropped it on the floor at school this morning and my sticky oily salad dressing container burst open and obliterated the pristineness all to heck! Sigh...


And of course I had a long list of things to do before staff and students started to arrive and I had to postpone those things until I cleaned up all the goop and washed and rinsed my smorgasbord bag.


C'est la vie! The bag was cleaned, the list of things to do completed and a cup of green tea made before anyone else arrived. All in all the day was much better than anticipated.


Grievances with some of my EAs have yet to be settled but I was happy to see three of my former six EAs return, one new one who I met twice last week and feel she'll do quite well, and one experienced supply EA.  Yes, supply EAs already.


Let me explain....I thought I might end up with only two of my former EAs due to one of them posting out to another position BUT she didn't get the position so is back for another year - hopefully with a positive attitude. AND last week I was informed that one of my two male EAs broke his leg!!! and wouldn't be back for a couple of months...YIKES!!


So I had NO IDEA who was going to show up for work this morning but all's well that ends well as Ma Ingalls always used to say and I just hope the grievances get settled soon and everyone settles down somewhat happily for another school year. 


Everyone worked well together and the kids were happy and that's all that matters. It was a productive busy day and I just hope that the honeymoon period lasts at least until Christmas. 


Well I can hope, can't I??


On the money front of things: a no-spend day.  I look forward to many of those as there just isn't the time to SPEND!! 


Christy, Jolie, Kim and Kendra: hope your first day went well too!! (And any other teachers reading this secretly :)...

First Day of School Eve

I woke up today and it was fall.  Just like that. No warning, no preparation, just fall.  Yesterday and the day before and the day before that were HOT HOT HOT and very humid, with the humidex it was in the 40's centigrade for Pete's sake!


Yet today it's fall. It's cold out and damp and the leaves on the trees....well, they just aren't cooperating anymore. 


Harken!! Is that a school bell I hear??


I've done the FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL Eve preparation so many times now I don't even make myself a list anymore. Are the clothes ironed (with my lovely new frugal iron (it works really well by the way))?  YES!  Are the lesson plans made?  YES!  Are the numerous parent letters typed and photocopied?  YES! Is extra food cooked for the week?  YES! (although I personally had nothing to do with that) Is my hair cut? YES! Did I get a fresh pedicure? YES! Did I get all of my back to school supplies purchased and organized?  YES!  Is my classroom organized to within an inch (oops...millimeter) of its life?  YES!  Have I started my good diet, exercise and vitamin regime in hopes of preventing illness from all of those drippy noses?  YES! Is my lunch made? NO!


Woops! I'll get to that soon; I usually make my lunch at the same time as I make my dinner. And get a load of my new lunch pail extraordinaire!!

IT'S HUGE, I TELL YA, HUGE!!

Is that not a thing of beauty?? Is that not worthy to embrace the lunch of a construction workerrrrr.....teacher?  Considering my last lunch bag was from the wine store this one is certainly a step up!  It's not that I eat a huge lunch but it's large enough to hold my BRAND NEW THERMOS so I can enjoy Michael's yummy soups and stews throughout the long cold winter ahead. 


So I better toddle off and have some dinner. I worked up an appetite riding my bike down in the basement - I wonder where I'll pedal too this year? And then, after that, I'll check my notes again for tomorrow, relax with a book and hope that I get a good night's sleep.


I have a feeling I'm going to need it.

Emergency Fund Woes

There I was, all proud of myself for topping up my EF again. It had sunk to a low of $800 over the summer and at the end of August when I received the rest of the money from my trailer sale I boosted it back up to $2000.  But as we all know..."pride goeth before a fall!"


Then this happened.

Murphy's Law right? Oh hell. Well, maybe it's fixable. (Though probably not as my daughter drove I don't know how far with it like this...YES!! She said it was driving fine, she couldn't tell any difference??!!)  Sigh...Michael took it to our usual guy, Harry, I think I've written about him before.  Worse news, Harry's is now closed - we had no idea!  Digging through my memory for another reliable repair place I remembered Kraft which is about 2km in the other direction from our house.  Yes, still open...good start!

They recommended these:

Yup, all four of them.  Seems our tires were plum worn out. They also installed a right front linkage system - if you owned a Cobalt you would know this is a problem with these cars - one good pot hole = one broken link. All in all it came to $635, 4 new tires and a linkage kit and 13% sales tax.  I thought that was pretty reasonable.

But that means my $2000 EF is now down to $1365. And just after I updated all of my sidebar financial goals. (Way down the side!) I was feeling smug at having met one goal before the end of the year - no such luck! Stink! I think I'd better start practising more humility! 

So the savings (and spending) continues. I feel like I've spent a fortune the last couple of weeks but the majority of it will be reimbursed as they were expenditures for the classroom. I am all set up and ready to go though there are going to be a few glitches on the first day of school. 

I'll write about them tomorrow:)

Woo Hoo - Another Full-time Job in the Family!!

Yessiree bub!! Michael has taken on a full-time job in addition to his life coaching and working at Jambalaya - he is going to be one busy little so and so!! I am going to miss all of his wonderfully spicy home-cooking but we will welcome the additional income in helping us achieve our goals.

Michael cooking up something hot and spicy!

So we are both heading off to full-time work this coming Tuesday. It will become even more challenging getting all three of us to our various workplaces/schools with one car but it can and will be done. That is, after we take care of the flat tire that we discovered today! Money in - money out!  Que sera sera....

Hopefully he'll still have time to fly his kite! among other things...

No Frills Iron

Not too long ago Judy, over at We May Be Poor, But We Are Happy wrote a post entitled "I am just not a bells and whistles king of girl".  Many of us who write about personal finances and try hard to be frugal identified with her post and funnily enough most of us ended up driving cars with roll-up windows and push-lock doors.


Fewer features = fewer repairs.


This post is not about cars, however, it's about irons. Just over a year ago I bought a deluxe model iron - a Black and Decker model WITH all the bells and whistles:

It had everything - digital display in several languages, self shut off, you name it, it had it. Black and Decker is a good brand too right? It should be for the price I paid. (somewhere in the neighbourhood of $50)


Wrong. Shortly after its warranty expired so did the iron. Within a span of thirty seconds it would voluntarily change its heat setting - up, then down, then off. It made weird sounds and the water would gurgle out of it all over my un-ironed clothing due to shutting itself off and growing cold. I'd quickly try to iron something in 5 seconds before it would switch to another temperature - too late!


So I'm trying an experiment: meet my new NO FRILLS iron which cost me only $7.99, brand new:

I will let you know how long THIS stripped-down iron lasts - I am really hoping it proves that fewer bells and whistles = a longer lasting iron! 

I JUST LOVE SATURDAYS:)

PEA Potato Field near our House
My Own Farmer's Market!

I love Saturdays. Oh yeah, I already mentioned that. I didn't take any photos today...GASP....I know eh? In fact, I haven't taken any photos since we got home last Sunday. HORRORS!  That is why my post photo is of the lovely potato field that's near my PEI house - we were told to take as many as we wanted (spuds, not photos) so we dug up a few and brought them home - for FREE!! 


I've been sticking pretty close to home this past week except for the time spent in my classroom. School is the major focus right now, so my camera is getting kinda lonesome.


So today, being Saturday, I pushed all of the school stuff aside and really enjoyed the beautiful weather. We got up pretty early (8am - that's early for us because we like to stay up late watching movies we borrow from the library and last night was no exception!) and headed for the farmer's market. Oh how I love this time of year! The tables are creaking ominously under their heavy load. I just wanted it ALL!!!


Then the reality of my wallet set in ($22) and we settled for a huge brilliantly white cauliflower, several pale yellow peppers (haven't seen that colour before), a bag of green beans that looked like they'd just been picked a few minutes ago), a big bag of mixed greens, blueberries, raspberries and blackberries and a basket of peaches. I think that was it. And I still had a couple of dollars left!!


Already I've eaten most of the salad greens and a nice bunch of green beans, steamed and tossed in a dash of olive oil and ironically a dash of Mrs. Dash:)


After taking our marketing home we set off on our bikes for Victoria Park - it was the perfect temperature for a ride. There I took off my shoes, spread out my blanket and popped by nose into my current crime novel. I would probably have fallen asleep but for the music from the Multi-kulti fest going on and the folks a couple of trees over who had this rope attached between two huge maples upon which they were practising their tight-rope skills. They need more practise.


We biked home after a couple of hours and I luxuriated in the reading of The Globe and Mail while Michael got ready for his shift at Jambalaya. I then dropped him off so Kazi could have the car for her late shift at Jacks. I ate another incredible salad and since then have loved having a few hours to myself (being the introvert that I am it's precious to have a few hours just for me) to read your posts and write this one. I guess this is as close to a perfect day as it can get!


Hmmmmm...I wonder what tomorrow will bring??

Money? What money?

 Some folks have been blogging about how they spent their money this summer, as if summer were coming to an end or something. (Insert sound of sobbing here)  I thought this would be a good first step for me to start disclosing to you and admitting to myself that I went through a truckload of money this summer - luckily it was only a Toyota truck.


So first off we bought a BBQ. We scored big time on the BBQ - $78 at Walmart AND it has a side burner. This is how we cooked all summer, not yet having a stove. 

I bought a few clothes, mostly second hand or marked down by 50% (do you know they have end of season clothing on sale in mid-August? I love it!) However, I paid full price for this little number that I told myself I needed for a tiki-themed party I attended. Cute n'est pas? ($30)

 I thought we did pretty good on our furniture shopping - I bought this adorable rocking chair for $25...  (oh and those sneakers for $80, on sale from $149)

 and this table for our upstairs bathroom - fit perfectly! ($60)

 Not really having any furniture got to be a bore by the second week. We either had to stand up or go lay on the air mattress. So we bought some outdoor furniture from the Super Store that was on sale. Once we build our deck we'll be all set for furniture.

The faux wicker set (2 chairs, loveseat, cushions, table and umbrella) $199

 The dining room furniture - table, 4 chairs and umbrella - $99.

We bought the futon at Walmart for $128; it'll be fine for one of the spare bedrooms once we purchase REAL bedroom furniture. The side tables came from used furniture stores. $15

 Food, food and more food. You're just lucky I don't have any photos of me eating one of about 50 icecream cones!! We ate out a lot...too much, in fact. Due to the...ahem...rainy weather we found ourselves heading to the pub on a frequent basis - the food (and beer) was just so good!  $???

We became regulars on wing night Thursdays, and open mike Mondays, and Tammy & Jay Roy Wednesday nights and...you get the drift!

 We did get some exercise - dancing to the tunes played by Joey Doucette:), of course that would just make us thirsty again!

 Woops, didn't realize I was hanging out in the background of this shot - this is Steve, Kelly and Ellen - Steve is the owner of the Albert and Crown, our local. And we all became very good friends.

 Another major expense, one I haven't added up yet, of course was gas. We travelled all over the island and I don't regret one cent of that money. $??

 Here we are at a picnic in Canoe Cove - what a great spot! But we did bring our own lunch so brought down the expense somewhat. Just had to pay for gas.

 We attended just about every live music event at the Albert and Crown (paying a cover charge each time) and especially enjoyed the folk music of Laura Smith. $?

 We spent some money on gardening tools, an axe, a machete and lots more. I'm really not missing a tooth in this photo. Really. $??

 Here I am dealing with the wood from the maple tree I cut down - do you like my new wheel barrow? About $60.

 We each bought a bike. I bought mine at Walmart - just under $100. Michael bought his from a fellow who fixes up used bikes and sells them - he paid $50.

 $7 to pay for four magazines that had stories in them written by my mother - priceless!! Found them in a second-hand furniture store!

 $10 for our Welcome sign. Not a good deal - it's like a piece of wallpaper stuck to a piece of tin and within a couple of days the paper was coming loose. A job for my Gorilla glue!

 $5 for my cut glass hummingbird feeder - it works!! Hours of enjoyment, money well spent!

 Alcohol. Way too much $$. This is something called Sourpuss (sour raspberry I think) mixed with 7UP - oh my it's so good but it goes down like koolaid - too fast!

 Gahan's beer! A microbrewery on the island - good stuff!

Had a really yummy dinner here. $40

Our light cover for our outdoor light - so happy to find one - $6.

 Here it is in place, all painted up.

 This band was terrific - called Ol' Savannah - they were playing on the street in Charlottetown one night. $2

 Just in case you needed to see the light from the other side....

 Oh here I am getting icecream...they have a flavour called Toffee Almond Chill that we don't have here in Ontario. LOVE IT!!

 Yes, I bought a bat house, should have bought two! Lots of mosquitoes this summer! $15

Our clothesline:)

And of course we had to pay $43.25 to leave the island. I don't much care for that cost but have you seen the Confederation Bridge?? Holy cow - we'll be paying for it forever!


There were many more costs I haven't tallied (and probably won't - I'm thinking I'll just start fresh in September!) Groceries, dishes, gas for the lawnmower (lawnmower was free from a friend), oh yes and we paid $625 to have electric baseboard heaters put in and $120 for new kitchen faucets. 


I used $1000 from the sale of my trailer towards the summer's costs, we had some money saved up ($380) and we made $180 at a yardsale before we left. The rest came from NOT saving as much as I usually do. I sort of suspended my automatic savings deposits for two months to give us more cash flow. Oh yeah, and we had to have a repair done to the car, around $220.


So I feel like I've been bleeding money all summer long but have September's frugal budget in place. More on that in another post, this one is already way too long. 


There's just so much to tell y'all!!