Keeping Accountable

 Prepare to be super bored.  This post is mostly for myself.  I want to write down everything I'm doing for the week and it will hopefully keep me accountable.

Ever since we moved into our new home, my mind wakes me up around 6:45 and I casually get up with Jarred a little after 7.  It's such a change from when we were in the apartment where I had no will to get up and slept in until noon or after.  Yikes.

It is approximately 8:06 as I write this and I've already gotten up, dressed, brushed my teeth and washed my face, and made the bed.  Mom, did you just read that?  I made the freakin' bed!

Actually, I've been fairly regular about making the bed for a few months now.  Yeah.  I know.  Whoopity-doo.  Gold star for me.  But honestly, after lurking on The Nest message boards for long enough, I found out that the majority of those women (who are mostly in their 30s and have kid(s), by the way) don't make their bed unless they are changing out the sheets  I like making the bed because I love the decorating I've done in the bedroom.  All the colors from the fabric hoops and Sis's green satin pillow covers and the flower pillow I made make from a pretty sight.  That's really the only reason I make the bed.


I have a pretty good cleaning schedule set up.  Obviously wouldn't work for everyone and may not make sense to some.  But it's working for me.  Like magic. 

On Mondays, I clean the living room from top to bottom.  I may or may not clean the downstairs bathroom on Monday.  I did this week.  I also wash our towels used from the past week.  I change out bath towels once a week and kitchen towels every night. 

Tuesdays, I deep clean the kitchen and wash our clothes.

Wednesdays, I clean our office and vacuum the stairs. 

Thursdays, I clean our bedroom and wash our bedding.  I wash our quilt once a month.

And Fridays are bathroom day.  I will clean the master bath and the downstairs bathroom if it didn't get cleaned Monday.  Bathmat gets washed once a month.

So far, this cleaning schedule has been working out for me.  I was getting really burned out taking an entire day once a week and cleaning the entire place.  This way, I've got about 30 minutes to an hour of cleaning a specific area and I can spend the rest of the day tidying up everything else. 


Jarred and I are trying to save money in the food area.  We spent way way way too much on groceries last month.  So this month, we're trying to cut the budget by half.  $125 for a month of groceries for 2 people.  Can it be done?  I really hope. 

I spent a few hours (not all at once) planning our grocery trip this past Monday.  Ended up being under budget.  And no, we haven't had Ramen noodles all week, thankyouverymuch. 

Our Menu:

Monday:  Breakfast dinner with waffles, bacon, and baked eggs.  All I needed to get was maple syrup and bacon.  I had bought some frozen waffles a month ago and wanted to utilize them.  The baked eggs were to die for, by the way.

Tuesday:  Baked potato with salads.  I baked 2 big Idaho potatoes and pan-fried some frozen broccoli to top the potato with.  I placed a slice of American cheese over the potato and broccoli and microwaved for 20 seconds.

Wednesday:  Pizza and Salads.  We can buy a frozen pizza for $4.

Thursday:  Spaghetti and Sauce with pan-fried squash.  Easy enough.  The squash was bought 2 weeks ago.  Still good.

Friday:  Open face Turkey Sandwiches.  Yeah, this recipe can get ghetto real quick, but we still like it.  We toast bread we already have, I buy a large potato to boil and mash, and top it with cheap packaged lunch meat turkey and gravy.  Add frozen green beans and okra as a side.  Not bad.

Saturday night is a fridge raid.  Whether we want Ramen or a grilled cheese or cut up veggies, we just grab whatever we've got in the fridge.

Lunches can be anything from sandwiches to grilled cheese to frozen dinners.  We've found these awesome frozen burritos for 49 cents.  I buy 4 and that last us for 2 days, since Jarred and I normally eat the same thing for lunch.  Sometimes there are leftovers to be eaten.  Jarred always has a snack to take in, be it fresh made cookies or crackers and cheese.

Actually, we spent a few cents over $30 for this weeks groceries and I believe this is one of the better weeks we've had food-wise.  I haven't gone hungry and I don't believe Jarred has either.


Hopefully all this will be saving us some money and will teach us that you don't need much to live happy and healthy.