Gearing up for April

This month will see some changes here for us. I'll be cutting way back on my/our spending. I'll hopefully be able to hang my laundry outside, on the lines, more often. I'll hopefully get some lettuces, onions, & radishes planted by the end of the month. I'm going to work on a more stringent budget. The kids will begin the extended days at school, in order to make up their snow days. They'll be going from 9-4:30 beginning this Monday, and it will run through the end of April. This will keep us from having to make up days in June. Baseball practice should be starting any time now. We'll be getting a call from Andy's coach any day letting us know when & where practices will be. He has the same coach this year, thank God. It's going to be a busy month. A belt tightening month. But, spring is here and with that brings warmer days, blooming flowers, & hopefully some sunshine.

I've convinced Brian to use reusable water bottles (Rubbermaid-BPA free-20oz.). And I paid almost $7 for 2 of them at Kroger 2 weeks ago. He normally takes 4 bottles of water with him in his lunch, daily M-F. So I was on a mission to find two more bottles. Not only did I find 2 more bottles, I found a 4 pack of the same bottles, at Meijer on clearance, for $5.99!! SCORE! I got the kids each the same bottle, only a smaller size, to fit in their lunch boxes. I paid $2.49 each for them, but it'll be cheaper than buying juice boxes, Capri Sun pouches, or bottled water. I can send water, juice, kool-ade, lemonade, etc. and save lots of money. I'm proud of myself, and even more proud of my family for getting on board with this. Especially my hubby..he's not a big fan of change, and I thought he'd find the Rubbermaid bottles to be a hindrance, and less convenient. I just fill his bottles each night, after I wash them out, and put them in the fridge.

Now if only I could get them all on board with doing some recycling, then we'd be onto something!! Speaking of recycling....Brian took in some scrap aluminum, some old electric motors, etc. He got paid to remove this HUGE hunk of something from a store, and they paid him to haul it away. And then after spending about 12-16 hours, he & Andy had taken it all apart. He scrapped what he could, and will use the frame work of this thing to make a pipe rack, for his PVC & conduit. Anyway, he & Andy got home around noon today, after taking the scrap in, and he was over $800 richer!! He plans on paying Andy for helping, but not sure how much he plans on paying him. One things for sure, Andy definitely earned it!! We just need to find some way for Sarah to earn some money!!

Looking forward to April, and baseball!! What do you hope to get done this month? Share your plans for spring with us!

Love & hugs to all!!