Thrifty Thursday - June 14

Well, can't say that I stayed on budget this week, BUT I've been quite under for a few weeks, so it evens out (I think!). I didn't get a whole lot from Publix, but I had to get some higher priced items, like toilet paper, multivitamins, and bodywash and deodorant for Jamie. I also stocked up on Coke since Publix had another of their Buy 2 Get 1 Free sales. Here are the totals for this week:

PUBLIX
Total Spent: $42.13
Total Saved: $25.77

CVS
Total Spent: $14.98
Total Saved: $10.07 (+$5ECB)

WALMART
Total Spent: $6.38
Total Saved: $4.00  

 

TOTAL SPENDING: $63.49

TOTAL SAVINGS: $44.84

In the Merry, Merry Month of May

May was quite an exciting month in the Cashatt household. First of all, I got my new awesome job after searching for over a year. We also got to spend time with both of our moms on Mother's Day weekend, AND it was my birthday! (which will be a whole other separate post) In addition to that excitement, we also had a few other things going on:

If you know anything about TV, you know that ratings are what determines whether a show gets to stay on the air or not. What you may not know is that the ratings are run by a company called Nielsen. Well, I was contacted by the company back in April to keep a TV diary. So, for one week in May I wrote down EVERYTHING I watched. Now, I already knew that I watched a lot of tv, so I wasn't too surprised to see my diary quickly fill up during the afternoons and evenings. Anyway, it was kind of fun, and I would love for them to send me a Nielsen box so I can be a permanent part of the ratings, like my mom!

Our friend Tara has a Cornhole Tournament every year near Memorial Day weekend. Jamie is always my partner (duh) and this year we won two games, which obviously is not much, but it's the most we've done! So next year our goal is three... we'll see how that goes :-)  There are no pictures of us actually playing, but here's April and me (and doggie Ren) waiting for our next games.

And this is the cornhole board that hated me: at least half of my bags slid off the back of the board!

Although we didn't win the cornhole tourney, I DID win something else last month. One of my favorite blogs (see my name here!), The A Cappella Blog, did a bracket contest for the International Competition of Collegiate A Cappella (ICCA). They have quarterfinals, semifinals and finals, somewhat similar to March Madness. Anyway, I filled out my bracket with who I thought would place in the top two for each competition. I did so well I got second place! And so, I won a copy of the Best of College Acappella (BOCA) 2012. It's a compilation put out every year of the top recordings from around the country and I haven't gotten one in several years, so I was very excited to receive a free one! Here's the tracklisting, in case you're interested:






I also got to go to the End of Year Author's Celebration for the class I was the long term sub for. It was so fun to hear all their amazing writing and how much growth they've had even just from when I was there. I loved seeing their sweet little faces and am so excited that I will get to see them around school next year!


So, as you can see, it's been a busy past few weeks and I enjoyed every minute of it!

12 for '12 Update: April/May

SPIRITUAL
I'm doing much better on my Bible reading, usually reading at least 4 times a week. I'm going to start doubling up on entries though because I know it will be much harder once school starts again. I want to get it in while I know I'll have the time!

PROFESSIONAL
I am kicking butt on this section :-)  Most importantly, I got a job for next year! Woohoo! I'm going to be teaching second grade, which is somewhat nerve wracking (since I have virtually no experience at that level), but I'm also looking forward to the challenge. I've been spending LOTS of time reading and searching through professional materials to see what I will be able to use next year. In conjunction with that, I'll be starting my teaching blog soon, so you can all follow my progress in preparing and teaching 2nd grade (it will also be a great resource for me to later remember everything I did!).

HEALTH
In my last goals update, I talked about my lack of motivation for working out. Well, putting back on some extra weight around the midsection will give a person some motivation :-)  As I'm making my "schedule" for the summer, I'm definitely putting some exercise time back on the list to prevent too much sitting time. I'm also continuing to do well with my eating, which joining the co-op definitely helped with!

BLOG
Goals: met and continue to be!

OTHER
The grocery budget is still working and I'm really working hard to try and make it even lower for the next couple of months (until I start making money again!) because we actually have quite a little surplus of some things. We are three episodes away from being finished with the second season of Lost. I think that we will be making great progress during the summer since we don't have any regular shows to watch (once college baseball is over anyway!). As for singing, I still really want to do something, I'm just not seeing an opportunity right now.


Well, I'd say that this update looks much better than the last! Go me!

Friday Four

What I Watched: New summer tv! Among my favorites that have returned: The Glee Project, Pretty Little Liars, and Rizolli and Isles. I may write more on my summer schedule later. The movies this week ranged from good to awful: The Bling Ring:good (based on the teens that stole from celeb houses); Just Like Heaven: decent (Reese can't do much wrong in my book); Bad Teacher: bad (I can't begin to talk about the ridiculousness of this movie); and Blue Crush 2: awful (I loved the first one!) What I Read: I started Delirium by Lauren Miller. It's a YA dystopian novel, so you know it's good! What I Listened to: I've been watching a lot of VH1 this week, and two songs they (and I) are digging right now are "The A Team" by Ed Sheeren and "Next to Me" by Emeli Sande. Where I Ate: TGI Friday's was our after church choice this week and Bojangle's was our Friday night treat :-)

Thrifty Thursday - June 7

This was a pretty decent shopping week for us. I got a 3 pack of Dr. Scholl's insoles for 33% of its original price, as well as free Uncle Ben's rice. We stocked up on coffee creamer for Jamie, and got some Bird's Eye Voila meals, which are yummy! Here's the totals for the week:

PUBLIX
Total Spent: $22.82
Total Saved: $33.13

CVS
Total Spent: $4.80
Total Saved: $9.80

WALMART
Total Spent: $16.14
Total Saved: $2.00

  
TOTAL SPENDING: $43.76
TOTAL SAVINGS: $44.93    

Memorial Day Munchies

This year, we used Memorial Day as an excuse to get a good start on using some of our produce, especially things we had an abundance of. Two of those were onions and corn on the cob, which led to this deliciousness:

You can't quite see it, but that is a grilled turkey burger patty underneath grilled peppers and onions. Then we made corn on the cob (see my previous co-op recipe blog to see how we make it) and sliced up some Roma tomatoes seasoned with salt and pepper.

And as if that's not enough, check out what we had for dessert:

That is homemade peach sorbet! We followed this recipe. We only had 2 cups of peaches though, so we used 1/2 a cup of sugar and 1/4 cup of (lite) corn syrup. We also kept it going in the ice cream maker for about 3 times as long as the recipe calls for. It was soooo good, and not too sweet at all!

Substituting: The Final Chapter

Unless you've been living under a rock, by now you've heard that I have a job for next year, which means... no more substituting! Yay!! However, one of the cool things has been getting to see lots of different classrooms and set ups, so the past couple of months, I made to sure to take pictures of things I liked and might potentially use one day. And I apologize ahead of time for some of the blurriness of photos. Here we go!

CAFE: comprehension, accuracy fluency, expand vocabulary (from the same teachers who created "The Daily Five")

Comprehension strategies posters with descriptions

Management for the Daily 3: each child's name is beside the order they should complete the activities

Hairy Money: I've used this strategy before, but I liked the silver pipe cleaners for the visual

Inference anchor chart

Spelling chart: I LOVE this for helping children figure out spellings. I want to do some more research to see how it's introduced and implemented.

Nonfiction text features

Reading Strategies Song: This is PERFECT for 1st & 2nd grade. I am absolutely going to use this!

Classroom Schedule: I like how the times and subjects are separate and magnetized, so they can be moved around (because let's face it, your schedule will inevitably change from the beginning of the year!)

Synonym Anchor Charts

Where Do Writer's Get Ideas?

The Writing Process

I also saw teachers using many ideas from Pinterest, including 'The Yellow Brick Road retelling' and Animal Decoding Strategies.

Enjoy!