Grocery trip

Normally I go to the store on Friday night but tomorrow my middle sister and her hubby will be coming over to have dinner and play rock band. So I talked hubby into staying home with the kids this morning while I went shopping. I am so proud of myself because I stayed within my budget!! I only took cash so I wouldn't be able to fall back on the debit card. I had 20.00 left from last week and then my 50 for this week. I managed to get all this and stay within the budget, although I did have to not get a couple of things that I was hoping to for example pop, crystal light and aluminum foil. I figured I could just make tea, and have water. I will need to probably go later in the week to get more milk but I have a couple extra bucks for that.

I went to the local scratch and dent and spent 13.69
and to Marsh and spent 50.64
Total of =64.33

Marsh had some great sales this week, that's why I went there instead of Aldis. I took my calculator into the store with me and its a good thing since I pushed that 50 in Marsh to the limit. The huggies were on sale and I had a coupon so it ended being the same price of the store brand, that's why you see those. I will let you in on my menu plan on Sunday and you can see what I am gonna make with this food.


This is actually kinda fun for me to do this. Its like a game and I'm tryin got see if I can beat it! :)

Something did occur to me today though. We usually go to Sams club every so often and that is always extra on top of the normal groceries, so I'm wondering if I should have a monthly amount instead of weekly and make it a little extra to account for the bulk items we get at Sam's. So I am going to say 250.00 per month. Do ya think I can do it? So far things have worked out,, granted I've only been serious about it for 2 weeks. Is that a reasonable number? Well I am going to try. and try hard!

Tired Wednesday and a blessing

I have been fighting extreme fatigue for some reason lately. The last couple of days it seems like there is a weight on my body weighing me down and my eyes are so heavy. I don't know what it is, I have had a cold so maybe its my body trying to fight it off. Things are going okay around here,, today I am starting to plan my menu for next week already though because I am so excited to have some beef to add to our menu. A couple of awesome friends sent some our way and we are so thankful for them!! It is truly a blessing and I couldn't be happier,, this should help us stretch by til we are able to buy our beef in a couple of months. So when you see some yummy meat in my menu you now know why and how.

That's the most exciting thing to report around here lately,,, I haven't had much to blog about. Hope all is well,

Jill

Menu for the week and this weeks grochrey trip

This week I only spent $30.00 at the stores and have my meals for the week. I planned my menu around what I already had and am just got the things I didn't have to go with it. Here is my menu

Sunday: blueberry muffins, fried egg
leftovers
split pea soup

Weekday meals:
*corn dogs, cheesy mac, corn
*ham and cheesy potatoes
*garlic Parmesan noodles, garlic bread
*grilled cheese, leftover soup
*pizza pasta

Saturday: pancakes
leftovers
chili, cornbread

Here is the breakdown of my shopping trip,, before I went I checked Owens to see what kind of sales they had so I could see if I could get a better deal there than at Aldis,, also I have been buying there store brand of diapers ( they work good), and this week I had a $3 off coupon for their diapers which are only 6.99 anyways! So I needed ham for the split pea soup,, already had the peas and needed ham for the cheesy potatoes,, already had potatoes and Owens had ham on sale for 99cents a pound!! there eggs were on sale also,,, everything else I could get cheaper at Aldi.

Owens (same thing as Kroger)
cooked ham-4.67
lrg eggs-.99
comfort diapers3.99

total 9.93

Aldi
bananas-1.68
garlic cheese toast-1.64
Cheerios-1.59
shredded co-jack cheese-2.49
shredded mozzarella-3.29
light sour cream-.99
cottage cheese-2.29
skim milk-2.49
vit D mild-2.69
paper bag .06
ketchup-1.15
whole grain white bread-1.29
Total--21.65


I highly suggest if you have an Aldi nearby to shop there,,,, the basic supplies you need are almost always cheaper there, and then shop the sale fliers and use coupons for everything else.

One of the hardest things for me is that we are out of meat right now in our freezer so until we get to buy that half of beef later in the year I am just gonna have to plan some vegetarian meals, which hubby hates by the way, and plan my meals around the meat thats on sale that week.

Grocery budget

I am happy to announce that with my meal plan and making my list to go with sale fliers this week I only spent 30.00 on groceries this week and that includes diapers that I bought!! I am proud of myself. I think I am going to set my budget for 50.00 per week. I haven't decided if I will put the 20 I didn't spend this week for a different week that I might go over or just be happy with only spending 30. What do you think?

Happy Friday

Happy Friday to everyone out there in blog land! :)

I've got good news and bad.......I survived the first phase of my root canal! It wasn't much fun but 1 hour and 45 minutes later I made it! I will still need to go back 2 more times for the whole procedure to be finished.



The bad news....... its bad, real bad... I debated on even posting about it, but then figured what the heck,,,,
When my husband came home from work today he informed me that he has been lay ed off.
Obviously not good news. Times are tough and with the will of God, hopefully we will get through this. They said he should be able to return to work after 8 weeks. So here is the plan,,,,, buy absolutely NOTHING that is not a necessity!!! Try to pay all bills and still have money for diapers and food! Don't let anyone get sick because we have no insurance for the next two months! Be able to get along with my husband with him being around 24 seven!!



Its gonna be an interesting ride,,,, don't ya think?

Lions and tigers and.....SOCKS!!!!! OH MY!!!!!!

Today my focus is laundry, but most of all SOCKS! My poor kids, all week they have had to hunt to find their socks in the morning. I've been doing laundry everyday but have lacked a little this week on getting everything put away, and have really lacked on matchin up the socks.

The sock monster has hit our house!!!!! For anyone that doesn't know what the "sock monster" is,,,,,,,,,,,,, when I lived at home there was always a basket full of unmatched socks in mom's room and we would dig through it to find our socks when there wasn't any in our drawers,,, which seemed quite often:) I'm not saying anything bad about her,, she worked full time, took care of 3 kids,,, she was a busy women,, plus she had 3 capable daughters that probably should have been matching those socks for her but anyways,, everyonce in a while on the weekends or whatever she would dump out the basket in the living room and we would have to help match them up,,,,, it's amazing how many matches we would find.... Sock freedom!!!! it was great!!! Our drawers would be overflowing with socks,,,, until the sock monster hit again.. AAAHHHHH!!!

Okay,, anyways, in my laundry room there is a basket that has been slowly filling up with socks! So, I'm gonna nip this in the bud today. HHOOORRayyyyy! Get everything put away and match all socks! Plus do everything else that I do everyday... And today is the day of my root canal. I am scared, and not looking forward to it:( Wish me luck

Plans

Do you make plans? Plan things out? Try to organize your life?

I do. I plan my menus, I plan out the bills I will be paying. I try to plan our activities out.


But it seems that my plans keep getting stomped on! Then I re plan...... some more stomping occurs. Makes me mad!

You know what though. I will keep on trying and making new plans because I WILL NOT LET MY LIFE GO DOWN THE DRAIN!!

I refuse to give up.


Just wanted to let you know that. :)

Menu plan Feb. 15, 2009

Last weeks menu went well! The homemade lasagna was exellant!! This week I'm not leaving any days open for eating out, since we went out Friday night for Valentines dinner. Also I am going to try and make a grocery budget and really stick to it.. I always have an idea of what I will spend but don't usually worry if I go over,,, I think i will start taking cash and not let myself go over the amount... I just need to set the amount up. The thing is my grocery budget will also include diapers,,, paper products... things like that, so it will be a challenge!!

Here is the menu for this week:

Sunday:
breakfast casserole(this was very yummy yesterday morning, and I put it together the night before so all I have to do is pop it in the oven in the morning)
dinner at moms

Weekday meals:
*Tex Mex ranch casserole
*spaghetti, bread sticks
*crock pot chicken, baked potatoes, corn
*fish sticks, cheesy macaroni, green beans ( I will be getting my root canal at 3pm this day so I wanted something easy so that hopefully I can get hubby to cook this night)
*bean taco bake

Saturday:
scrambled eggs, toast
homemade BBQ pizza

Emma's Room

The long wait is finally over!! We spur of the moment decided to do Emma's room over the weekend. I am very proud of us! We didn't start until about 4 Sat. night, we did two coats of paint, then Sunday morning Ben did the carpet, ripped up the old and layed the new, then we did the boarder and moved everything back into the room all by 3:30!! I know you will ask for pics so here ya go:)
We need to get a different window covering still. But for now the old blind will do.

We have some butterfly wall stickers that we will put on later. I have to decide just where I want them.

We all love it. Jess is jealous and wants to redo hers now.......Gary too!

So tonight she will be sleeping in her own room,,, not mine:( I'm a little scared,,,,,, I know I should be happy, but I just liked having her in the room with me.......

She went right down to sleep like always,,, the night will tell if she wakes up scared or not...

Happy V-day

Happy Valentines Day everyone!!! We are working on a special project tonight,,,,,,, it has nothing to do with Valentines day!!! :) It involves a certain room in my house!!! I'm very excited!

Frugal friday

Well I thought in these tough times I would write a post today on some of my best money saving ideas... I by no means am an expert but I'm always trying to stretch our paychecks so here goes.....





1. Eat at home and cook from scratch whenever possible!! this is so true, I can usually buy a weeks worth of groceries for about the same price that we would pay to all go out to a nice restaurant. Even if you don't want to cook from scratch and you buy the convenience foods it still is cheaper to cook them at home!! (I am defiantly not saying we never go out to eat,,, we do,,,, but when money is tight it pays to stay home)



2. Stay out of the stores as much as possible. For me I cant seem to go into anywhere and only get what I need or is on my list,,,,, I always see something that is a good deal or think well maybe I need that too. One of my new goals starting today is to try my best to only go to the store once a week,,, I really want to do once every two weeks and just send my husband for the things that we need that second week like milk and fresh produce,, but I need to get up the will power for that one. I know he wont buy extras.



3. Don't be ashamed to shop in second hand stores or scratch and dent stores. I just recently started going to a scratch and dent grocery and am in love with it.... Of course I cant get everything there but there is nothing wrong with the food just because the can has a teeny dent in it or the box of fruit roll ups is torn just a little. Stuff is marked way down!! I would never give family something that I think has been tampered with.



And try to never pay full price for your kids clothes,,, garage sales and Goodwill and clearance racks are your best friend when it comes to clothes!!! Babies and even older kids grow out of things so fast,, there really is no reason to pay full price for things, unless it is something that they need right then and cant wait til you find a sale..



4. Learn to live with less. Do we really need all the stuff we have? NO freakin way!!! I am really trying learn to live by this one,,,, If we could just learn that "things" do not give us happiness we all would be better off,, plus it really cuts out the clutter and just makes life better!



5. When money is tight, don't buy things just because its a good deal. Buy only what you need! Stick to your budget because if you buy the chicken you wernt planning on getting,, you wont have enough money for the light bill!! :)







These are just a few tips that I have learned lately,,,, I am trying to live by them.. It is a struggle every single day!!! Its really hard for me especially numbers 4 and 5. Times arnt looking any better financially in our future so I need to buckle down and stick with these rules! What about you?

For some more great tips visit http://biblicalwomanhoodblog.blogspot.com/

The trip outside the other day was so great,, but now it has me longing for more outdoor time. It was such a teaser! I just cant take Emma out there to play when its only 40degrees and windy!! Oh well hopefully just another month or so and then we can be outdoors more often. I say its a must when you have kids,,, its just essential for them to get fresh air and for them to be out to run and skip and just plain use their imaginations!! I try to not have the kids run and stuff in the house so being outside is well needed for us.

Has anyone been keeping up with the story of the mother who gave birth to the octupletes? 14 kids.....personally I have mixed feelings about it. At first I thought whats the big deal,, she seems nice and to be a good mother,, and I am all for the more the merrier,, but then as I heard more and found out the whole situation I had my doughts about it being so great. Once I found out her living conditions and her financial situation....... I kinda think she's being just a little selfish! I just don't understand her thinking as to why she wants so many kids when she has no job, no house,,,, and no husband. I do think that people shouldn't not help her though just because they don't agree with what she has done. Those babies need the help as do her older kids. I watched Dr. Phil yesterday and pretty much agreed with him. Hopefully God is looking out for that family and all the children in it!!

I'm looking forward to tomorrow night. Hubby and I are going out for a date night. Jess has an overnight thing at the school and mom is keeping Gary and Emma. This will be our Valentine's dinner,, just a day early! We are going to take my wedding ring in and get it sized down and stuck together. When I lost all my weight a couple years ago it became way to big, so I havent been able to wear it, I'm still now where I want to be size wise right now but I dont think my fingers are going to change that much more.

Professional dancers !

I cant believe I forgot to tell ya'll this! I am sooo excited about it. On March 6 my belly dancing instructor will be preforming with her troop, and as long as I can find a sitter for my kids I am going!! It will be my hubby and I, and my mom and step dad. I think it will be so cool to see how belly dancing is supposed to look:) She said with intermission it will last about 2 hrs! The guys don't seem to excited about it but I'm sure once they get there they will have a good time. What guy doesn't want to watch cute girls dance around, right? Anyways mom and I are super excited!!!! I think it will be a big inspiration!!

Muddy pants :)

Do you know what these are?????? Why they are a sink full of Emma's clothes!! Soaking......

Do you know why?????

We went outside!! For the first time since she has been able to walk! It was very muddy in our back yard and she fell down a lot!!!

But it was worth every single minute of pants scrubbing, she loved it and ran around the whole time,,,,, it was soo fun!!!

She never would pause long enough to look at the camera. I see a big eventful summer of playing outside in our future. I cant wait!

Sunday and this weeks menu plan

Here it is Sunday already. My how the week flies. My tooth is slowly starting to feel a little better, the antibiotics the dentist gave me are helping,, now I am going to have to go in and get the root canal done. I have developed a nasty cold and everyone else in my family seems to be getting it also. We are surviving though, it isn't going to stop me from going to belly dancing class today though. I found a cheaply priced belly dance workout video yesterday and got it,, I watched a little bit of it this morning,,, its a fat burning one so they move really fast. its probably gonna take me a while to get it down like they do it but once I get the hang of it I think it will look really cool! I've lost 11 pounds now,,, !!

Last weeks menu didn't go as planned,, I changed a lot of things around but everything we had was really good.. That's the greatness of menu planning,,, you can change whatever you want and still know that you have the food on hand to make so there is no reason to sneak out and resort to fast food.

Here is this weeks plan,

Goulash ,, corn (this has been on the menu for like 2 weeks but i have yet to make it):)

black bean and chicken tacos

lasagna and garlic bread

roasted chicken, green beans, chicken rice

quesadillas, re fried beans

order pizza

I'm not sure about Sat. yet,,, its Valentines day,,, I know that for breakfast I'm making heart shaped pancakes and bacon.....

Have a great week everyone, hopefully I will feel better this week and blog more often.

Pain

Don't worry I'm still here.

I've had a bad toothache the last few weeks and went to the dentist this morning.. Bad news! I am gettin tired of all this bad news! My tolerance level for people have been very low lately due to the terrible pain in my mouth... I'm trying my best to not take things out on my family. Its hard though...anyone who has ever had an abscessed tooth will understand. Now I have a big decision to make and I DO NOT like to make decisions!

Well I think I will leave that to all I will say on this post... there is sooo much more but I don't feel like dumping on everyone ..... I want to be positive. Have a super day...

Belly dancing and coffee shops

Belly dancing class today was fun. Our instructor has put together some choreography to music for us so at the end of this session we should actually be able to do a dance to a song...fun fun! My mom and I have been going out to a local coffee shop for lattes after class,, its nice to sit and have some girl talk without littles trying for attention,, but then also when I get home I feel refreshed and ready to take on the whole clan:) A while ago some friends of mine used to get together and we would go out for coffee once a month,,, (remember...you know who you are!!!), I miss that.... have I mentioned I love coffee! And the whole atmosphere of the coffee shop is a nice escape also. Hmmm... I'm sleepy and my mind is wondering, so I think I will sign off for tonight,,, Here is to a great week coming!

Menu Feb. 1, 2009

Here we go for this week! Nothing too exciting,,, actually the pork and curry rice soup is a new recipe.
Sunday: super bowl at moms
Weeknight meals:
pork and brown rice soup with curry
meatloaf, potatoes, corn
chicken noodle soup
goulash
pepperoni pizza
Saturday: breakfast casserole
Ft.Wayne lunch/dinner (another dentist appt.)