Friday, October 22, 2010


Week 3 of "No Spend Month" is now over...
and it was kind of hard...
Not gonna lie...

I can't tell you how many temptations we had this week!
How many sales I saw!
And how many more Door-to-Door Sales Guys came! :)
But...
It also felt really good to be able to tell myself "No" at Wal-mart- haha.

So the rundown:
$48.22 on groceries
It was really hard to plop down that much cash, seeing how I only had a little left in the envelope. But I had to get Deodorant, Pull-ups, Panties for Allison (Yay! She's already starting to potty-train on her own!) and those add up fast. Also some food for meals.
$12.00 on Cheese from Costco
I was making some freezer meals and I figured it would save me in the long run to just buy in bulk, so I had a friend pick me up some.
$30.00 in gas for Jeff's car
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Total: $ 90.22

More than week 1 &2 together!!
*sigh...*

So my total for the last 3 weeks is: $177.27
Which is still pretty good I guess. :)

It's been a good week for the most part. I haven't really left home that much this month, besides for a trip to St. George to help my friend with a photo shoot at a wedding. So we've been finding a lot of things to do here! New imagination games to play, older toys are suddenly so much more attractive, and Jeff and I have been having our "dates" with Netflix downstairs. And my house (besides the last few days...) has been overall pretty clean! Projects I have wanted to do, but never found the time for- are now climbing up the importance scale. I really like that. Instead of buying MORE craft stuff, I'm using the stuff I have...
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We've also had more play dates with friends. Dallin goes to pre-school twice a week, but a few of us also decided to do a little "Mom's preschool" once a week... or when we feel like it. :) We try to read a story, do a project, and have a snack. I did two this month at my house. Halloween is always a fun time to do projects!

The first time, or Theme was "Silly Monsters".
We read the book "There's a Monster at the end of this Book" with Grover: m

Then we made little monster puppets and read this story about Monster Pudding.

So, we of course had "Monster Pudding" for our snack! I never knew Vanilla pudding with sprinkles would be such a huge hit!




Then, before everyone's parents came, we made our own little monsters by putting a blob of paint on a paper, and blowing it with a straw. Then we added as many eyes as we wanted. It was fun to see all the different shapes!


This week, the theme was "Halloween Ghosts".
I couldn't find my book last minute, so we just ended up reading the project for the story. There's a story about a silly little ghost that went the fridge and ate things that turned him different colors. I traced a ghost on a transparency paper and stapled it onto a white paper to make a little pocket. Then cut different colors of paper to put in the pocket each time he "ate" something.

The kids loved making faces and naming their ghosts.

We also made handprint ghosts with white paint and black paper:

And for a snack, they made Ghost Chow! (Popcorn and Ghost shaped marshmallows) They ate some there, and made some to take home for later

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ANYWAY! One more week of "No Spend Month!" :)
It's been quite an interesting month, but DEFINITELY a good one! :)

10 comments:

katie said...

cute ideas! Good for you on your no spend month!! Love the ghost chow...so cute!

Judy said...

Wow, you are so creative! I need to do more things like that.

Kirby and Tara Farnsworth said...

Hey, I love all you're fun ideas! YOu keep posting them, and I will use them and all my friends will think Im so creative, but it will be out little secret :) thanks!

Unknown said...

great monsters!

Cllr Nat said...

I am so so so happy I stumbled upon your blog,it has really inspired me that the quest I am on to save money & enjoy the simple things but still have fun is the right one. I have read your 3 weeks of no-spending and now know I am on the right track and know it is a good, worthwhile and wonderful thing we are all trying to do wherever we are in the world. Please keep blogging as you are inpiring people on the other side of the world!! No pressure ;o) xx

Skye said...

i love your blog, you have some really cute ideas for little ones (I work with little kids everyday so new crafts are always great) and I'm LOVING your no spend month, transitioning into broke college student mode so I can use all the money saving tips I can get. =)

Patrick and Marci Whitlock said...

Cute Ideas Jenna! Love them! I love your idea for "No Spend Month"! I think we're going to have to try that! It's a great idea!

Valerie said...

Love all these monster ideas! I grew up with that book and thought it was the funniest. (I'm just a stranger who ran across your blog)

lea said...

hi! just passing through... want you to know i enjoyed looking at your activity! looks like fun! maybe my boys could do this for homeschooling. :D

Meredith said...

i so want to do no spend months but the hubby, not so much. we'll see. i'd do "no spend year" if it were up to me! ;) good work girl!
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