do it yourself car repair. (day twenty-one, write31days)

We've been going through things in the house and listing them for sale.  One of the bigger items we need to sell is our minivan, so we've been doing things to it to get it ready.  YouTube is a great place to find videos for car repairs, and we've saved ourselves so much money by buying the parts and learning how to do the work ourselves.  (I say "ourselves," but really it's Matt doing the work and me providing moral support, holding lights and that sort of thing.)

Last Saturday, we replaced the alternator, which was making a crazy loud noise.  Last night we got a new battery because the van suddenly didn't want to start, and the tester at the car parts place said it was bad.  But we were able to get a discount because it was prorated under the warranty.  Yay! :)

The automatic sliding door had stopped working some months ago.  Now, I really don't mind using my hands to close a door.  But if you're trying to sell a vehicle that's supposed to have an automatic door and it doesn't work, people don't like that.  And if we're going to get the price we need out of this van, we need things to work before people start looking at it.  (Also, this is a crazy-easy repair, so anyone with one of these vans shouldn't have to live with that door not working!)

So yesterday after I was done working on school with the kids, I looked at my favorite place to find repair help, Youtube.  As I watched one of the videos I found, I realized the problem was a broken wire, and that I was completely able to diagnose the problem while Matt was at work, and then let him do the soldering part once he got home.

So that's what we did, and it was an amazing thing to press the button for the door and see it close the way it used to do! :)

the week of appliances.

Our dishwasher hadn't been working for a while, so Matt started looking on Craig's List for a dishwasher to replace our broken one.  Tuesday evening (the night before my foot surgery), he found someone selling a whole kitchen's worth of appliances, including a dishwasher, for $250!  He texted them and said we were interested.
During my surgery the next morning, he heard back from them.  Since they were nearby, he zipped over there to give them a deposit.  After I was home, he enlisted the help of our pastor and his truck and they brought the appliances home.  

Our fridge in its new home. Yay! :)

So.  We have a newer refrigerator (with a working ice and water dispenser!), a working dishwasher, and a matching microwave.

Here's the range we sold and the microwave we have in their old setting.

The only thing we couldn't use was the beautiful gas range, because our home doesn't have gas.  But we listed the range on Craig's List and sold it yesterday, which means we got the whole lot of appliances for only $50.  Not bad, eh?  :)

But we're not done yet.  We are also going to sell the old fridge (which works and the ice/water dispensers are fixable) and microwave.  So we may even make enough to almost cover the cost of the other appliances we replaced this weekend...

Our washing machine died the day of my foot surgery, and our dryer had been on the way out for a while.  So when the washer died, we found a washer/dryer set very close to our neighborhood, and got it hooked up and going shortly thereafter.  

There they are.  What an exciting photo, huh?  But it's so wonderful to have a working set again. :)

So that is the story of our week of appliances.  The only appliance in our home that wasn't replaced this past week was our range.  Can't say we've done that before in such a short time, other than when we bought our home. :)

100 happy days, week three

We had quite a week this past week!  But that's for another post, and this one is just for my 100 Happy Days challenge.  Here goes...

day 15, not a great photo... but I did our taxes (can't e-file 'til Friday) and filed Marissa's FAFSA tonight. Feels SO good to have that out of the way.

day 16, yummy stuff for my lunch.

day 17, my companions, Naomi & Caspian the cat, as I rest & elevate my foot after surgery. (and Zoe, our 4-yr-old dog, has been lying on the floor most of the day. I think she's concerned about me.)

day 18, a toe sock on my non-bandaged foot, just because.

day 19, my lovely chauffeur until my stitches come out and I can drive again.

day 20, being able to catch up on laundry, thanks to this great Craig's List find today. (our washer died the day I had foot surgery & the dryer wasn't working right for a while.)

day 21, kind of a long story, but it was quite a Craig's List appliance week for us. This is the one we resold today, making our kitchen appliance upgrade cost a total of just $50!

how we save money on food.

We were married for twenty years before we actually used a budget.  It's kind of hard to believe when I think about it now, but I'm pretty sure we're not the only ones out there.

So when we grocery shopped, we just spent money.  I don't have any idea how much.  But for a time we had food assistance, and I honestly can't remember how much it was per month.  Suffice it to say that we were pleasantly shocked how much it was.  That's the first time I was really aware how much we spent on a regular basis on food.  We had WIC, too, which provided things like lots and lots of milk, cheese, whole grain cereals, peanut butter and 100% fruit juice.

Been making a lot of tortillas lately.

When Matt took the job out here in Arizona, we no longer had food assistance and had just taken our first Financial Peace University class.  So we had an idea of the need for a budget and some sort of parameters on our spending, now that we had cut up the credit cards and committed to doing it all with cash.

Our faraway home on Lake Superior.

For the past five years, we have had two homes.  There's the one we live in and call home in Arizona, and the one back in Michigan that I think will always hold a very special place in our heart (I've lived more years in that house than in any other in my life!).  We inherited it from my in-laws and hope to keep it in the family for generations to come.  Anyway, because of our family's choice to keep two homes, our budget is highly committed to the corresponding property taxes/insurance/upkeep that come with having two homes.  

(I think a lot of people's budget and spending decisions boil down to that word.  Choices.  I'm not saying they're necessarily bad or good ones, just that everybody has the things that they deem important enough to spend money on them.)

I pickled a peck of peppers.

So.  Back to the food thing.  Once we budgeted in our tithe, mortgage payment, utilities, various insurances, gasoline, household things like toiletries & cleaning supplies, etc. we came up with a food budget of $175 every two weeks.  I'm pretty sure that's a lot lower than what we used to spend when we weren't keeping track of it, and I know it's less than when we had food assistance.  But we make it work.  And here's how, just off the top of my head.

• We generally don't buy processed, individually-portioned things.  I make a lot of things from scratch.  It takes longer and you have to think ahead a bit more, but in addition to being cheaper, it's also better for us.
• I figure out which stores have the best prices on the things we buy a lot of.  We buy our dried beans and other staples from bulk bins, and we've learned over time which stores in our area have the best prices on the items we buy regularly.
• We price-match at Wal-Mart.  We look at the sale flyers from the other stores in town and get our usual Wal-Mart stuff, as well as the sale items from the other stores.  We just came home with a pile of awesomely-priced produce last night.  (This is probably just mean of me to mention it, but we've gotten five avocados for 99 cents quite a bit lately.  Yum.)
• We use a *lot* of produce.  Here in Arizona, we are blessed with inexpensive fresh veggies & fruit, from California, Mexico, South America and from right here in good old AZ.  We've discovered programs like Market on the Move, where you donate $10 and get about 60 lbs. of produce. And we watch the deals in the grocery stores, too (see above).
• We hardly ever buy meat.  Have you ever noticed how pricey meat is?  We didn't stop buying it because of that, but for health reasons.  But both Matt & I have noticed what a very big help it is to the budget.  There are thousands of recipes online these days to help if you don't know what to make without meat.  No need for a dull diet if you don't eat meat. :)
• We don't eat out much.  When we do, it's usually the dollar menu at a fast food place.  (Not the healthiest option, either, so we don't do it a lot.)  Also, sometimes on a date, Matt & I will go out and share a meal.  It's amazing how full we get when we share.

Some of the bounty we got last night by price-matching at Wal-Mart.

I think the main thing is learning the good deals in your community and taking advantage of them.  I'm pretty sure we have more options, being close to a large city.  But I also believe each community has its own money-saving secrets.  It's kind of a hobby of ours to find the little secrets here and tell other people about them.

our october, instagram style.

Ever since getting our free iPod Touch last year, I've enjoyed many of the apps made for iPhones and iPods. One of the best, in my opinion, is Instagram.  For those of you who don't know (which would be me, if it weren't for Marissa), it's a photo app, where you can add filters to the photos you take.  It has a social media-type feel, too, and people can follow your photo feeds. I take quite a lot of photos on IG and thought I'd post several from the past month or so. 

Marissa getting ready to dissect an earthworm.  Everybody else came running when I said she was about to dissect something. :)

We added pickled jalapenos to our repertoire of preserved food.

Abraham Lincoln's World, an awesome book the boys & I are reading for school this term.  Brings what was happening during that time period around the whole world to life.  This author wrote several other books of the same sort, and they're all just as great.

Lunch.

The weather is finally nice enough that we can enjoy being outside, and with our "new" thrifted patio furniture (and clearance-marked cushions), there are nice places to sit in our backyard.  One day, Jesse & Naomi decided to do school outside.  VERY nice. :)

A few weeks ago, Dave Ramsey came to Phoenix for a Financial Peace University coordinators rally.  They fed us, gave us stuff, and treated us really well.  It was a smallish group and we got to hear all about some new stuff they have coming up, including the all new FPU.  We're excited... our church just ordered our kit so we can start the classes again soon. :)

Another great book we're using this school year.  This author had a way of writing that makes things come alive.  I look forward to the days we read from these books!

Just for kicks, a pic from our first anniversary, when we were visiting Matt's brother in San Francisco.  I think it looks nice with the Instagram filters.  
Ah, don't we look so young?!

Science experiment about camouflage.  (Didn't exactly work the way it was supposed to, but they had fun anyway.)

I seem to take a lot of photos of my feet.  Here, I was waiting for a wedding to start (see below).

Went to a fun, Western-themed wedding a few weeks ago.  Jon & Chrissy look so happy in this pic. :)

Table decorations at Jon & Chrissy's wedding reception.

We're loving that it's cool enough out to open things up again.  It reminds me a lot of spring in the Upper Peninsula, when we could finally open the doors & windows after a long winter... we're just on opposite seasons out here!

Marissa & Matt :)

Made some yummy, healthy pecan cobbler.

Spent a couple days in Flagstaff for Matt's work... it was sure nice to see the fall colors.

Have you ever tried taking a photo while swinging?  It's harder than you might think. :)

Beautiful Marissa with her coffee mug up in Flagstaff. 

just some pics of life around here lately.

Thought I'd pop in for a minute to post some photos from life around here this month.  Enjoy! :)

Last week, we got tickets to the symphony for the whole fam for free through Matt's work.  We picked David up straight from work and headed to Phoenix.  It was great. :)

Here's me at Symphony Hall, with one of my new outfits from our Goodwill run on our anniversary.  (I was pretending to be perusing the symphony program.)

Some Monday morning craziness a few weeks back.

On Mother's Day, with David & his friend Everett. (the dress I'm wearing here is from that anniversary day Goodwill visit, paired with a tank top I already had.)

David treated us to Mother's Day lunch at Subway.  :)

Marissa decorated this mug for me for Mother's Day.

Mother's Day roses from Matt :)

Sweet words from Naomi. :)

Jesse did this watercolor for me on Mother's Day.

Been doing a bit more canning... these are tomatoes, and I also did 6 1/2 pints of strawberry jam this week.

Been doing some cleaning/organizing projects this week.  All of us.  And here's the boys' room on Monday night, after they sorted/organized/cleaned.  Ahhh... :)

The girls' room on Monday evening, after they cleaned up.  Their room wasn't as bad to start with, but it still needed a perking up.

Jesse was my tortilla-making helper for lunch the other day.  He was a quick learner!

Our roses are still holding out, despite the 100+ degree temps we've been having lately. :)

Did this painting, hoping to sell it in my etsy shop.  No nibbles yet...

Dinner the other night.  Pepper & garlic tofu with veggies.

Making tortillas on Sunday.  Did you know that authentic Mexican tortillas don't have a leavening agent in them?  This was my first attempt at making them like that, and it was really, really tasty. :)  Flour (3 c.), warm water (1 c. or so), and salt (1/2 tsp.).  (Of course, for all of us, we need at least a double batch.)  That's it.  :)

If anybody out there is interested, I found this lady online who is amazingly encouraging about helping people get more organized, getting their life to feel less chaotic due to clutter in their homes.  She is *so* cheerful about it.  You can sign up to get her emails, and they are really helpful.  I'm not fully doing everything, but just reading the emails has helped encourage me in our home organizing/de-cluttering efforts lately.

She calls herself the FLY Lady (FLY=Finally Loving Yourself, as in realizing you're worth loving, and how your own perfectionism can get in the way of getting your life less chaotic.)  Here's the link.  And here are her "Baby Steps", one per day, just to get you started.  She's always saying that you're not behind.  You just need to start where you are. :)

Well, that's it for now.  I've got things to do.  Finishing up the school year with the youngest three kiddos.  Starting to work my way through the mending pile.  Supervising the kids' cleaning jobs for the morning.  Oh, and my laundry is ready to change loads now, too.

See you later!