Simple Swan meal plan- Weekly plan trial

If you would like to see Versions 1, 2, and 3 click here.  I am trying to find the best fit for meal planning for myself and my family. This is technically Version 4. LOL

As I said in Version 3, I watched a Youtube video by Debtkickin Mom.

Linking it here in case you missed it or want to watch it. She feeds her family of 6 on a budget of $500.

In the debt reduction world it seems to be recommended to have a grocery budget of $100 per person, per month. I am going to attempt that starting this week. It will be a little crossover from April but that is fine.

Today is the best day for me to start this version with my work schedule. I am not going to be going to the store and spending $100 dollars. I am allotting $400 for our grocery budget. (Pipsqueek isn't old enough to add yet. Hah)  Today it will be a Sam's Club trip to restock the freezer with meat. Because I *know* how cheap Sam's is for meat I hate paying full price at the grocery store! I will be using cash as that will be the only way I know for sure that I have stuck to the allotted amount for the month. I could add up all the debit charges but cash will keep me honest.

I have picked out 7 meals for the first week. I will have a birthday boy on May 2nd so he picked the meal. My kids are extremely basic and do not like a lot of food. The meal I have planned for today I don't think they will like. That is what peanut butter & jelly is for though. My oldest doesn't like the birthday boy's choice meal. He will have something else that night.

I do admit that now I want a planner again after seeing her video. I had a Happy Planner but I gave it away to a friend as I thought she would use it more. My week starts on Sunday but the planners all seem to start on Monday and it bugged me. I am trying to resist the want though. That is $20 (on sale) that should go to a bill.

Here is a picture of my meal plan for the week. Nothing fancy. Wednesday will more than likely be nachos for the family which is why I moved Tacos to Monday. Hubby is good with leftovers but not back to back like Debtkickin Mom does in her video above.

*All food is either already Keto or easily adaptable to fit a Keto lifestyle*

I just realized Mayo Chicken may not make sense to you all. It is Parmesan chicken. The one where you take mayo and mix in grated parm and seasonings then slather on the chicken and bake.

*All food is either low carb or will be low carb with tweaks for me.

Wedding day for K.

I am a notary and in this great state of Florida I can perform weddings.

 I have a wedding at 5 pm this afternoon about 45 miles north. Former employee of mine asked me to do it. Originally it was local to me so I said yes. Her location ended up not being built in time so she had to move it to the next town north. Since I travel a fair amount for work I have no problem with the drive.

I'm more concerned with my performance. I do not like being the center of attention so I only really do weddings for friends/family. I have always messed up at some point at every wedding I have done. Good thing I don't charge them! Haha!

22 credit cards

22 Credit Cards

This is a link to my future blog home and a post about our credit card debt.

You shouldn't have to update your links as MrsSwan.com has been flipped over already.

Theswaninme.com will be set as a redirect there once I am totally comfortable with the whole set up.

I want to share our journey for our own memories. As well possibly help someone else on their journey in the future.

I hope to see you there!

Easy Container Gardening with a kiddie pool.

On March 10th I started the kiddie pool (or baby pool) garden.

 I was inspired by my Mother's kiddie pool garden pictured below.



I knew I had an old pool in the garage. I also knew my daughter would ADORE a kiddie pool. I decided to use the old one for this garden idea and buy her a new one. It worked out perfectly as the old one had stress cracks in the edges so it would have slowly leaked water anyway.
One trip to Lowe's later and I had my supplies.

• 2- 40lb bags of potting soil (only used 1) 2 for $12
• 4 small plants on sale 2 for $5
• 2 medium plants $3.33 each

Total of $30.66 with tax as I already owned the pool (Pools are usually about $8 this size)
I ended up with 2 pepper types, 3 tomato types, and one broccoli plant.

• Green bell pepper
• Hot banana pepper
• Lieutenant broccoli
• Little Napoli tomato
• Husky cherry red tomato
• Super sweet 100 tomato

Below you will see my garden. The only care that we have shown it is daily watering. I have backyard chickens therefore it is easy to water the garden when one is dealing with the gals.



Disclaimer: This post was originally posted at www.MrsSwan.com but I realized until all my stuff switches over completely I can just double post.

Can a night owl become a morning bird?

I have a laptop. Hubby does not have a laptop. Hubby is in school online and needs a laptop. I am attempting to grow my online presence therefore I need a laptop. Hubby has homework therefore he needs a laptop for that. So this causes strife. 😤

I am not buying a new laptop, that would be wasting money that must go to debt. One of those credit cards is a Dell account that has only been added to over the last 12 yrs or so. 😑

I am going to attempt to wake up at 5am so that I can use MY laptop. I want me time and early morning is the only time I could possibly get it. I am soooo not a morning person.  However hubby takes his me time in the evening. Not to mention I need my sleep. Overtired mommy is a grumpy, grumpy mommy. 👿

Tomorrow is the first day I am going to try.

Wish me luck!

Happy Easter.

I hope that you had a restful day full of family and love.

Hopefully there was not too much sugar involved. 

I got lucky, my inlaws are watching their sugars. They made sugar free cake with sugar free pudding. Of course still a lot of carbs but that is the first cake I have had this year. It was better than I expected. I may have had some chips and potato salad as well. I still avoided that icky sugar.

I was tempted!! But I think the want has passed. To much of my favorite candy floating around in front of my nose. 

New site is coming along slowly. Not sure if I should just start fresh or migrate this years posts over. 

Trying to blog with a 3 yr old that needs lots of attention is interesting. 

Summary of the last few years.

Don't you hate it when you write a note to yourself that makes no sense a day later!?

Yeah... That would be me right now this second. 🤣

I guess I should give you all a quick summary for any that have just found me.
Married for almost 16 years. 3 kiddos- well 4 if you count the hubby- and you should.

Homeowners for almost 16 years.  You would think that we would be half way done with our mortgage right? Nope. We refinanced to pull out cash, not once, but twice. DOH!
We have about 19 years to go.

We never should have been able to buy a house. We should have lost our house many years ago when the market crashed. Thank goodness I was a member of a money saving board online back then on AOL. I made sure that we did not get a mortgage that was above our means. I am so thankful I was smart enough to do that at least or we would have lost our home for sure. The company that caused the crash is literally who we bought our house from.  We bought under what we were approved. To be honest our interest rate sucks but our debt to income is to high to even think about refinancing to lower it. So we just putter along.

Husband was laid off around 2010. He had landed a job in the horse insurance industry through a temp agency and he HATED it so he was happy with lay off. He took time off to job hunt but with a baby (middle kiddo) it just wasn't worth paying for daycare.

 He decided to go back to school. PELL Grants paid for everything since our income was so low. We took out student loans to help counteract his lack of income. We just figured we would deal with everything later . Well he kinda did some flip flopping and ended up changing majors multiple times. He was in school for seven years till he walked away. He got a job like 9 months later and has been there since.

 He is a paraprofessional for a local High School. He LOVES it! I just wish he had found this path sooner. He has had the opportunity to step up and become a teacher 3 times now in the year and a half he has been there. However, one needs a Bachelor to teach in our state. Hence, why he is back in school.

I work full time as a Area Manager to a office/retail type environment company. I do a lot of traveling to the various locations under me. This year makes 13 years with the company.


Just some simple background on me and my fam.

I have been blogging for years about my want to lose weight.

Obviously, I have not been super sucessfull. 

I am determined to be sucessfull about weight loss, debt loss, and clutter loss here in 2019.



Reader question:
How many years do you have left on your mortgage?

Financial check up

 February is the month that I gave myself a financial check up. I stopped being the ostrich with my head buried in the sand and faced it ALL.


 I admit, I am still hiding out from hubby's student loans but everything else is on the table.
I eagerly awaited late February for our tax return. I had dreams of paying off debt. However, due to robbing Peter to pay Paul over the last several months the majority of our taxes went to catching up on bills and paying off 2 small high interest loans. Ok fine. Full disclosure. 2 payday loans. I started reading about Dave Ramsey and decided to try and start to follow some of his Baby Steps.

I intended to sit on as much of our taxes as possible as hubby works for a High School and has summers off. Which equal no 2nd income for three months. I was able to set aside $1000 of our taxes to complete baby step 1. I was so pleased with myself! I was able to catch everything up AND set aside that money! (Insert Cabbage Patch dance)
Whoo hoo! Right? Well then hubby got into a little fender bender. Goodbye $500 deductible and $173.25 for ticket. As well as $25.00 for traffic school. Yeah. That hurt. Thankfully I had it in reserve and we didn't have to take out another payday loan.
Hubby is back in school for his Bachelor. He wants to be a teacher. That is partly why my head is in the sand. Because more loans. (Disclaimer: Dave Ramsey is 1000% against student loans I am aware)
We received money back from this semester which is creating BS1 again but with interest I know. Le sigh. So I cannot claim that we have completely stopped using credit.
I can claim that we have not used any credit cards in 2 months though. 😁 I am uber proud of that tidbit.
I can tell you that since I actively took control I have paid off 2 CREDIT CARDS!!
Yaasss! We only have 19 more to go! Yes, you read that right. We have 21 credit cards. 😳 Seven years of 1 income will do that to you.
This is where we currently stand. I say in my last post that I am -ISH. I guess I could say wannabe as well. Basically I am loosley following DR principals (ish) while eating low carb (ish) and decluttering (ish) my space.

Tap, tap, Is this thing on?

Hello there my lovely people.

It has been quite a while since I have been here. As I mentioned in my last post, I have moved to Instagram for my pictures and posts. For those of you that are in the dark ages like I was about Instagram it is a online community of pictures/videos. 

I may be repurposing this blog though. It has gone through so many ups and downs with me. For most of these years it has been a weight loss with a little bit of life thrown in. I have debated changing the focus a few times.

The time is here. I am changing and evolving (Pokemon hah) as I age and it is time for this blog to as well. 

2019 so far has been an excellent year for my family. I have maintained my weight loss path I started 12/31/2018. I have decluttered much out of my house. I have also started our path to financial freedom. 

I want to share with others my path on these things in case I can help you. 

Warning: I am full of -ISH. Meaning a have many various interests but I -ISH them. As long as my end game is positive that is my concern.

I hope to see you while I document our life.

For those of you that remember me and my surprise 3rd kiddo here is a current picture of her. She is now 3 and such a little stink.