Thoughts

"...we each have moments of inspiration and revelation. We must sink them deep into the chambers of our souls. As we do, we prepare our spiritual home storage for moments of personal difficulty. Jesus said, 'Settle this in your hearts, that ye will do the things which I shall teach, and command you.'"

--Elder Neil L. Anderson from the talk You Know Enough.

Budget "A Ha"

How to budget on a flexible income? Ya, that's been my question for a long time, but I think I've finally come up with the solution. How to pay the bills, keep priorities straight, and not feel like I can't spend any money on fun things. I think this budget plan might work... the trial phase is coming this month. If you're like me, I keep it simple... once the bills are paid and savings set aside the rest of the money goes into one big lump where everything an anything comes out of. I tend to run out of money, find good deals or need more groceries and then lean on the credit card crutch with a balance that just keeps expanding. Well I hit my wall and had to come up with a system that would work... so after my long-winded intro, here it is:

Take INCOME

pay % for TITHING (best investment you'll ever make)

transfer % for TAXES (since we don't get it taken out) to savings account

deposit amount for FIXED EXPENSES into bank account
(fuel, utilities, insurance, car payment, you know... and make sure to have some personal savings automatically transfered to a savings account... treat it like a bill and only use it for pre-determined purposes)

The remaining money gets pulled out in CASH and divided into ENVELOPES with specific categories based on PERCENTAGES
(these catagories are ones that un-fixed spending occurs on a regular basis... analyze past spending and figure or guess what percentage of the total is spent on each respective category)

Put this money in ENVELOPES and keep a balance ledger of the spending... only buy with cash... divide it into weekly amounts to pace your spending.

So, here's an example:
Income = 2000
Taxes & Tithing = 400
Fixed Spending = 1000
Remaining = 600 pulled out in cash

Envelopes
Food 50% = 300
Non-Food Groceries 10% = 60
Christmas 10% = 60
Clothes 10% = 60
Entertainment 10% = 60
Fun Money His/Hers 10% = 60

Pumpkins and Falling Leaves

Tonight we took grandma to Lynx Lake and discovered that fall actually does come to a few of the trees in this corner of Arizona. After being in Phoenix last year, it was so nice to see some sort of seasons again!


Last night for FHE was pumpkin carving. Ben did a fun treasure hunt to the pumpkins that the kids were so excited about. They handled the guts pretty well.

Pillows & Flowers

More Boutique stuff...

Boutiques & Bows

So I'm officially crazy, but having so much fun :) Here's what I have for the boutique so far, not including the I Spy Bags. I still have flower clips and pillows to go.


This is my note to credit Andrea... thank you again... so much.... for showing me how to make bows. LOL, I was going through my ribbon box and found the bows I'd tried to make a year ago. Just so you can all enjoy my laugh, I've pictured them below :)

Ric Rac Bow Holder

Thank Jessica for totally encouraging me! I'm meeting with a boutique this week to show them a whole bunch of stuff and I'm so excited and nervous. I made up this bow holder to go with the bows I'm taking in and I'm hooked. It's only 8 x 10" but I'm loving the idea of making a collage of bow holder frames. I've got a purple check one under way already :)

Look closely, the ric rac is pink also, so it blends in, but it's there :)

We have the coolest purple flowering bushes in our front yard that attract butterflies and bees. I went out today and snapped a couple pictures :)