NaNoWriMo!

Every November out of the darkness arises thousands and thousands of hopeful authors!

NANOWRIMO Begins!

The National Novel Writing Month is a big occasion for creative writers of all ages! Starting November 1st all the participants gather to their desks, note books, and sticky notes with the goal of writing a novel with 50,000 words. The website helps hopeful authors-to-be keep track of their word counts as well as help you find inspiration with Write-in Meet ups with others in your area and a forum to chat with others. 

I too an participating this year. 

I've had close friends participate in years past and I dabbled with the idea, but never had the time to sit down and think up a good idea that could last me for 50k words.

Now I've been creating stories since I was in middle school. My friends and I would write stories with each other in them or we would all share this note book that moved from person to person and each had to write a few pages as to what happened next in the story. It was fun! 

I kept up the creative out put all through high school. Carrying my stories on a thumb drive in case inspiration hit and i needed to run to the library computer lab during lunch to type what I wanted up.

Now I just keep them on my desktop, in an unsuspecting folder so my Fiance doesn't find them. They aren't bad. I was just too nervous for eyes other than mine (And 1 very close friend) to see what I've written. I was afraid of criticism. 

Well not anymore! I took the leap! 

Grabbing inspiration from past stories I got to work Nov. 2nd. At this very moment I have a 13k word count and i'm still very much behind, but to make up for it I have plans as to where the novel will go. It's just the matter of getting to know my characters better, the environment better, and gluing my butt to my desk chair and typing it up.

Many people thought I was crazy for taking on another project. I already have school, a house to run, sick dogs to care for, and a drowning personal life I have yet to save. However, to me this didn't seem like another stressor to add to the pile. To me this was a great chance to sit down and relieve some stress with a hobby I enjoy.

And so far I'm right!

Please let me know if you are also taking part in NaNoWriMo and how your story is coming along! I wish you all the best of luck!

And for those thinking of joining, It's not too late! You still have the rest of the month to type up the 50k! It may seem daunting but believe me, once you get to going with a good scene it's hard to stop and the numbers just start adding up with out you realizing it!

See you all at the finish line!

School Bound!

It's been a long time coming but my wish has finally been answered! I got to go back to college! I'm currently Enrolled in both an accounting class, a business class, and fitness center. All year I've been helping others with their finances and keeping track of the comes and goes of their money and really want to further pursue that as a career. I want to be able to help my friends become entrepreneurs and I their trusty assistant manager/bookkeeper. I'm just so unbelievably excited for whats to come in this up coming year for Camron and I. 

This wouldn't have been possible with out the love and support of my friends and I am so lucky to have them.

Once things have settled down and I've had the time to get into the swing of homework, house work, and such I hope to find more time for my blog! 

I have so many things planned to share with you all!

Such as:

- What to do when you think your dog has allergies

-Couponing 

- Organizing your kitchen when you have no pantry

- Crocheting

- Fun DYI 

-Exercise tips that have helped me

-Healthy and Easy Recipes

Thanks so much for being patient as I get caught up on my busy life!

Cate

Week 1 Meal Plan :-3

This week's been amazing! The more and more we eat the more confident I am that We can totally do this! The picture down below is Week one's meal plan (And my original shopping list, I like to write down next to the items I get how much they are to help me calculate as i'm walking around. The items highlighted in green are items I had in my kitchen already)

(Side Note: The Chicken breast we buy are HUGE too big for us to really eat so before I put them in the freezer I cut them in half horizontally. Which not only doubles how much chicken I have, it also means no left over chicken that's being fed to the dogs)

Monday: Camron and I have a weakness for Velveeta Skillet dinners... It's pretty much a currency in our house. Our favorite is the Chicken w/ cheddar and broccoli. We had it with a side of lettuce topped with ranch and some cucumbers on mine.

Tuesday: Homemade Pizza night!!! I have a yeast-less pizza dough recipe that I love since I am HORRIBLE with yeast. We had pepperoni, bacon, green peppers, and spaghetti sauce (From Pantry)  on top. Yum!

Wednesday: Crock Pot Chili. Camron is not a fan of diced or any tomatoes so I used  a can of tomato sauce instead so there was no chunks.

Thursday: Just a simple Chicken taco night. Followed the recipe on the back of the seasoning packet. Had re-fried beans, shredded cheese, sour cream, and some hot sauce. I had a packet of Mexican rice in the cupboard that I served with it as well. 

Friday: Grilled cheese and Tomato Soup. Pretty easy.

Saturday: It's my break day from cooking! Camron and I have sandwiches for dinner with some left over tomato soup.

Sunday: Breaded Chicken with a can of corn. (I'll post my recipe once I decide on one. Luckily it's not Sunday yet!)

For Lunches It's been a mix of Tuna and Mayo with some carrots and other veg on the side to snack, Soups, sandwiches, left overs.

Breakfasts have been easy. Just a cup of coffee with maybe some toast, a bagel, or nothing because I get caught up in something else.

It's been fun. Keeping track of our meals. Checking off the days and still seeing plenty of food left for next week. Not sure how week 3 will end. I'll have a better idea half way through week 2 :)

Please feel free to ask questions, post your own cheap meal ideas, or just comment! 

Have a good weekend!

Cate

3 Weeks with $100 Challenge! Day 1!

I'm challenging myself! I give advise and help people with their budgeting all the time. Now it's time to do something that really seals in the title of "Amazing Budgeter"! I've come up with a challenge for myself. And that is to feed 2 people for 3 weeks on $100. No Coupons! Just me finding cheap inexpensive dinners to make. Plan out said meals and stick to it! I'll be posting and blogging my recipes and how said week is doing. Here We Go!


I went shopping today and spend 81.47. Leaving me with 18.59 for misc spending, milk, and what ever else we may need. Mind you I do have items in my household that I will be using but I will make sure to note which items I already had on hand and which are from my shopping. I went shopping a week ago, and just to make this clear I started and decided to do this challenge yesterday so there was no cheating and prepurchasing some items.

Receipt:

2 Packs of Chicken Breast @1.98 lb. :1st. 8.87 2nd. 7.54

2 Loaves of White Bread @ .98 ea. : 1.96

1 Potato Bread Loaf : 1.96

2 Sleeves of Bagles @ 1.74 ea. : 3.48

Spaghetti Noodles : .78

Chicken Taco Mix : .52

Cream Cheese: 2.03

2 12 pks String Cheese @ 3.22 ea : 6.44

Chunk of Chedder Cheese:  6.80

Ham Sliced: 4.07

Turkey Sliced: 6.44

Avocado : .98

Yellow Onion: .39

2 Velveeta boxed meals: 2.98

Baking Soda: .52

Mac & Cheese: .48

Coffee: 4.54

Flour: 1.64

Vinegar: 1.05

Vanilla: 1.05

Strawberries: 1.98

Blueberries: 2.48

2% Milk: 2.40

Cheeze Itz: 3.68

2 cans Kidney Beans: 1.36

2 cans Refried Beans: 1.70

2 cans Tomato Sauce: 1.14

Diced can of Tomatoes:  .88

2 cans Black Beans: 1.36

1 can Corn: .48

2 cans Tuna: .1.56

Total: 81.47

I'm lucky enough to live in a state that has no tax on food items. So it does help me in this challenge.

New Town. New Adventures

This last weekend my Fiance and I have moved to the Tri-cities for a great job opportunity for him. Like the dream job kind of opportunity. He's graduated from college with a degree in Hydraulics (The big trucks kind, not the stupid bouncy car kind) and in Spokane there wasn't many jobs in the field he was wanting. Thanks to a friend of his he finally got a in-house sales position which is EXACTLY what he's been wanting for years. I'm so happy for him.
Luckily I had already quit my serious job (It's a LONG story) And had been working at a new place for only a month so nothing was serious. I was totally ready for a new adventure for us. So far it's been hard being so far away from friends and family. Mostly friends going through a hard time and I can't be there for them except over the phone. It hurts.
However we have plans. Big plans for us and me to get in a better life style and find out own piece of heaven down here in Richland.

(Valentine and I at the Richland Doggy park)

I'm going back to school! This September I will finally be returning to college to finish my degree in Business management and get me a good start in the business world. I'm so excited for school. I've always loved school. Since I was little. I"m really looking forward to the extra side classes. I want to learn Japanese! I want to go Kayaking! I want to paint again!
College right now is just the answer all to every problem for me and i'm SOOO looking forward to it.

Right now i'm the lovely House-wife who is taking care of running the house. Doing all the errands and Chores. And i'm happy. It's been a long time since I was relaxed like this. Sure I still worry about money. Even though Camron makes more than enough. I worry more about us finding a balance with one income. It's has always been OUR money since we started being serious and living together. But it's still weird for me not having my own money to spend on what ever I want. We'll make it work i'm sure.  But I have been looking for a nice part time job to have for the summer till school starts for me. Something a little extra on the side.
Maybe my craft store will take off? Who knows.

For now I will post all my adventures, recipes, and tips I've found that have been great on how to live life to the fullest on as little as possible.

Thanks for coming along for the ride.

Cate

View from our apartment patio and windows

My Own Shop

I've had my account on etsy for probably almost 4 years. Wow, hard for me to believe! My aunt is REAL big into crafting and has made quite the success doing so. At one point she had up to 4 shops going at once. I went to stay with her for a few weeks to help her move and she got me into making Ear Cuffs and helped me set up my first site.

It was great!

I was still in school, didn't have a job, was only 17 and I was able to buy everyone Christmas gifts with the money I earned via my shop.

I managed to keep it going for 2 years and then life got too busy for me to keep up with the restock of packages and supplies for the store not to mention getting to the post office in a timely fashion. So I put the shop to bed, didn't delete it, and let it rest until I found the time.

Which was about a few days ago.

My boyfriend and I are about to move soon and we have tons of plans in the works after we move into a less expensive home. A 2nd car to buy, getting me back into college, and lord knows what else we will need so I started it back up in hopes of bringing in more side cash.

Please take the time to check it out by clicking HERE. Possibly like my facebook page HERE . And if you don't see anything you like and are looking for something specific please drop me a message and maybe I could make it for you!

Getting Your Ducks in a Row

Now I don't have one of those beautifully scrap-booked binders or an office that is more pretty than a mess like you see on other blogs sites. Maybe I will after a few weeks of this, but i'm not making any promises!
When I moved out one of the first things I did was get all my bills in one place. I made myself a folder where I stashed all my bills, paycheck stubs, receipts, and my renting contract on my apartment.
Now looking back, did I really need every single receipt ever handed to me? No.



I got all of my pages that I use from Here, Here, and Here. (To get the monthly and yearly spread sheets just Email Coordinated Kate and she sends them to you for free). Like when I was choosing recipes for Freezer Meals, I never settle. I take what I like from all kinds of sources and make something that fits me best.

I'll be continuously sharing pages I find that seem to work with my life style as I find time to do so!
For now share with me pages you use to help keep your life organized!

Experimenting With Freezer Meals

My fellow blogger and Friend Jessica  posted on her blog how she wanted to make pre made freezer meals that she saw on Pinterest. Hmm, I thought, this would be a great answer to those nights where my boyfriend and I just don't want to cook anything and a good way to save money by avoiding ordering fast food or buying those frozen, through in the oven or microwave, meals at the store!

So let the search begin!

There are soooo many pins and recipes on Pinterest about freezer meals. Apparently this has been a thing for quite a while now. Who knew?

I was looking for 3 things:

1. Least expensive.

I wasn't going to do this if it required me to spend more money than i'm comfortable with.

2. Easy and quick.

It's my first time! I wasn't going to go buy $200 worth of food to spend 6 hrs in the kitchen right off the bat! I needed a smaller transition into this amazing world of easy meals.

3. Ingredients I can find at home.

I get so frustrated when I find these really nice sounding recipes online and it requires me to buy all these ingredients. To me that's not conventional. Why buy these spices i've obviously never needed in my life before for this one meal I don't know if I even like yet??

So If I didn't have at least half of the ingredients in my kitchen I kept scrolling. It didn't take too much time before I found a few recipes I liked. Of course the post bragged about making all these meals for a few hours of your time, but I picked the ones I liked and Altered it to what I wanted. I picked 2 recipes. The Garlic Cilantro Chicken and the Pineapple Chicken.

And I found them on this site: http://prettyprovidence.com/10-freezer-meals-in-2-hours-its-true/

The Boyfriend and I don't need to feed a family of four every night, so I easily split the recipes from 2 bags to 4. (MORE BANG FOR MY BUCK!) I only spent around $30 on ingredients  I didn't have at home. I can live with that.
 Took me 45 minutes to make 8 meals and the whole house smelt amazing all day! I'm excited to go home today after work (I work graveyards) pop one in the crock pot and wake up to dinner ready!

Let me know your experiences with Freezer Meals and your easy recipes for beginners like me!