Now, what was I working on??

Oh, yes, decluttering! Ha, not this week! I've had so many others things happen, like, um life?? So I did nothing this week. (in that area, anyway) Hopefully next week will bear more fruit in that area, and in finishing other projects!

Have you been more successful than me? I'd love to hear what you've done!

Finally--some projects done!

These pictures were promised a couple weeks ago, but we had some sickness here, along with other busy-ness!
I did most of this knitting while in Las Vegas, but still had to sew some pieces together and do the finish work after we got home. These are destined to be baby gifts for some friends who have recently had babies. The patterns are out of a book I have.

A new version of the sock monkey--knitted with self-striping sock yarn.

This lamb is supposed to stand up, but the body turned out kind of heavy, so he just sprawls!

Hopefully more projects around the house will soon follow!! Stay tuned!

Food and Groceries

Two items of business to discuss: The first being that we received our first box of food from the CSA. It was delivered to our door Friday morning. For $34, I believe, this is what we got:

1 tub of fresh butter
1 dozen free range eggs
1 package of Gouda cheese
1 jar plum jam
1 bunch of collard greens (never had these before)
2 rutabagas (or these)
6 potatoes
2 heads of Bibb lettuce
1 spaghetti squash



The second item has been a while in coming. I promised to give a more detailed view of my grocery spending, since I wasn't shopping at Wal-Mart anymore. Here are rough totals for December and January:

December:

produce- $60
dairy-$45
toiletries- $7
cleaning & paper products- $11
boxed/canned foods- $68
juice- $15
tortillas, bread, pasta- $25
meat- $14
formula- $17

total: $262

January:

Gluten Free Flour- $50
Produce- $39
Dairy- $55
Toiletries- $17
Cleaning & Paper Goods- $7
Boxed/Canned Foods-$46
Juice- $8
Tortillas- $2.50
Formula- $30

Then, we were in Texas, so we had to go to Central Market! We spent about $40 between that and getting some snacks for the girls at Albertson's.
I also have about $20 worth of entries on my account that I can't find the receipts for, so I'm not sure what category those fall in.

Total: $314.50

That's above my $300 budget, that I was trying to stay under...oh well! I can try again this month. I would have been great had we not gone to Central Market! But, what fun is that??

In the future I would like to spend more money on produce and fresh foods, and less on the boxed/canned foods. We'll be getting the box of produce from the CSA, and we'll also be planting a decent size garden, so my produce bill should go down this summer.

I will keep trying to improve on how I spend my grocery money (and any other money, too!), by being smarter, using coupons, eating cheaper meals, etc. I'm sure I will never have it "down pat", but I will keep working on it!

January De-Cluttering & A New Month!

While I was waiting for some pictures to upload from my camera, I remembered that I had a de-clutter challenge going on! After being gone for a week and a half and then having two sick kids when we got home, I had totally forgotten about it!
So, I looked back through my previous posts, and totaled up how many things I had de-cluttered. My total?? 598 items, most of them out of my house; probably 20 or so to still be listed and sold.
Does anyone else have a number for the things you've de-cluttered? If you didn't count them as you went, just give me a rough estimate in the comment section.

After saying all that, it's time to start over for February! I haven't done any cleaning out this week; just trying to get back in the swing of things. Have you de-cluttered this week?? Remember, I'll have a prize for the person with the most items cleaned out!