Monday Menu Post

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Due to some major life changes, this week we are just going to hold on. Grocery spending is currently at $239.29.  I am ok with this as the life change may cause the groceries to go up as well.

Breakfast- Saturday- I had grits  and eggs Sunday- Chocolate Chip Waffles Monday-Egg bites left over from camping , Tuesday,- Baked oatmeal, Thursday- muffins  Wednesday, Friday– find it (oatmeal, omelets, cereal and milk, sausage, pop-tarts, and eggs)

Lunch- Saturday- Leftovers from Panda Panda Sunday-Baked Ziti  .  Left-overs are always great for lunches and I have a stash of crackers and other snack items as well. We are also taking some prepared soups for lunches as well.

Dinner- Saturday- Chic a Fil (treated by a friend)   Sunday- Disney Loaded potato soup Monday- Magnolia Beef. Tuesday- Chicken Broccoli Casserole.  Wednesday-KFC bowls  Thursday-Cheese Quesadillas and Mexican rice. Friday- Swim party.

Monday Menu Plan

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I talked about my word of the year “Reduce” yesterday, I also mentioned how it goes really well with my pantry challenge.  I have decided to try and include an update on the pantry challenge on my Monday Menu Post. I did make a pretty long list (65 items) of meals we could have. I decided not to share because I was not specific enough with some of the items and I will be sharing what we are eating regularly so that should help.   This marks the first full week of the pantry challenge as I did grab some drinks and chips on December 30th. We have been focusing on using up the left-overs from Christmas as well as starting to organize and use up items from my pantry. We have ran out of two items, thyme and ranch powder. I decided to add them to my Azure standard order so that I will not be tempted to shop anywhere else. So far that order is $72 and I am thinking that I can get my Amazon subscribe and save ($147) down as well so currently $250 for the month of January is the plan. You will notice that we did not use any prepared meals this week as we had enough left-overs from the party to continue to use.

Breakfast- Saturday- I had grits Sunday- I had Fried eggs and toast Monday-Egg bites left over from camping , Tuesday,- Baked oatmeal, Thursday- muffins  Wednesday, Friday– find it (oatmeal, omelets, cereal and milk, sausage, pop-tarts, and eggs)

Lunch- Saturday- Leftovers  from Smoke Pit Sunday-Brisket  .  Left-overs are always great for lunches and I have a stash of crackers and other snack items as well. We are also taking some prepared soups for lunches as well.

Dinner- Saturday- Tomato Soup (used remaining tomatoes from party and a bag of frozen tomatoes)  Sunday- Sandwiches with discard sourdough bread. Monday- Lily (Chicken pasta using the rest of our canned chicken and left-over chicken from Smoke pit)  Tuesday- Turkey pot pie (Turkey and veggies are all from Christmas party) I also made another one of these and froze for later use.  Wednesday-Spaghetti and meatballs Thursday-Eating on way to swim meet. Friday- Corn dogs from freezer.

Word of the Year

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Fun fact is that I have never made a “New Year’s Resolution”.  I have in the past and even made a couple of goals for this year.  But I am have been thinking and figured it would be a good time to try something new. I am going to chose a word to focus on this year.

REDUCE

This might seem strange but I need to spend some time and energy reducing things in several areas of my life.

First up is my pantry.  Kendall will graduate from high school this year.  She is already deciding on a college and then in two additional years she will be off on her own adult adventure. Zach at the same time will be graduating high school and staring his adult adventure.  I am guessing that within 3 years we will have an empty nest. That means we will probably need less than 1/4 of the pantry that we currently have. In reality, if we don’t consume and use up most of the “non favorite” items now then they may be here forever.  The pantry challenge is going to help with this idea. I am also planning on not purchasing any meat unless I find a deal I can’t pass up until June. I definitely want to empty out and turn off our chest freezer and move the convivence freezer out of our bedroom. This should definitely help reduce the clutter in my room as well.

Along the same lines, I am currently storing items in our pantry, the laundry room and our shower room. I would like to reduce this to having all the food in the pantry, using the laundry room as a storage area for paper products and then laundry items. This would leave the shower room for self care needs. In reality, I need to sort through all the items in the shower room and decide which ones can be thrown away, sold or simply need to be thrown away. This would also allow me to clean out the bathroom cabinets as well. Overall, I want to reduce the number of items that we keep on hand to a maximum of 6 months with most items reduced to three months. This will translate to a year supply for two people much easier than now.

Next on the reducing list is the number of clothes that I am keeping. I need to have a really good closet purge and reduce the items that I am holding on to. That is definitely something that will be waiting till the summer.

I have already shared plans to reduce our debit and spending this year as well. The overall goal is to be debt free except the mortgage in 5 years and totally debit free in 8 to 10 years.  Neither Matt nor I will be or can really increase our incomes at this point so REDUCE is definitely a must.

REDUCING Clutter and REDUCING my Stress yeap Reduce is a good word for this year.

Positive Budget Adjustments

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This is typically one of the times that I search to make sure that I am getting the best deal of all the normal bills. The reason is simple, I am thinking about the new year and a new budget.  We switched our internet provided right at a year ago. The first three months were $50ish then it went up to $86.75 which was still less than we were paying. We have been receiving promotional offers in the mail from the original provider  (Spectrum) but nothing outstanding aka worth the time and effort.

Well luckily that changed last week. We received an offer for $50 a month for 12 month at the same speed we had.  I went on line to make the change and also saw an offer for $50 free which I grabbed. I knew it would take some time to get everything switched so I scheduled for last Sunday. Of course it did not work out so a technician came on Monday and got it switched over.  We are going to save $26.75 a month for 12 months or $321 for the year.  This offer also included a free mobile phone line.

This offer required a little bit more research but we decided to go ahead and switch Kendall’s line to save an additional $35 a month.  I was actually trying to get a transfer pin from Verizon online when I managed to trigger a $20 a line discount for 12 months with the catch that I needed to call to get this discount.  Of course it did not come that easy. I spent 45 minutes on hold waiting to talk with someone who was only able to immediately apply it to 4 lines (one of which was Kendall’s).  I have been promised that we should receive the additional $40 discount in the next four business days.  But the hassle is worth it. Currently by changing Kendall’s line and given the $60 discount on the three lines our cellphone bill has decreased by $120 a month or $1440 a year!

That means that I am $1761 closer to paying off Home Depot!

Pantry Challenge update

I did a quick shopping trip on Tuesday 12/30 to end out the year.  I am going to attempt to only buy diary that we are completely out of or other items that are necessary in order to keep eating.  I am also significantly reducing my Amazon subscribe and save orders as well. This past week we have been focused on celebrating birthdays and eating left-overs.  Today, I realized that we are out of ranch powder and I used up the remaining thyme in our soup tonight.  Neither are required to eat so we should be good.

2025 in Review/2026 Goals

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2025 has been a year of change and adjustments.  The past few days have been spent playing card games and enjoying having everyone at the same place at the same time. I think this was the first time this has occurred this year.   I am planning to keep things simple this year.

Emergency Fund-  We did not met this goal this year. One of the largest expenses occurred just two weeks ago with the HVAC system.  I am going to be removing this goal for now. The focus this year will be to reduce debit and prepare for retirement and life after high school. Zach will graduate in 2 years so this time is fast approaching.

Groceries- Goal $820 per month.  This goal was met 5 out of 12 months. The total amount spent was $9596. Which gives us an average of $799.65 a month.  2026 goal is $800 a month which is a $20 reduction and we will work hard to stay below this especially with my plans for a pantry challenge in January and February.

Gas- Goal is $500.  This is probably the biggest success of the year. We meet this goal 10 of 12 months.  We spent a total of $4704.53 or $392 a month average. 2026 goal will be $400 a month, another reduction that should be beneficial for us.

Blogging- For 2025- the goal will be 10 posts per month. I was able to meet this goal for 10 of 12 months. This is a huge thing for me. I am going to set the goal for 2026 to 11 just to push myself.

Debit-   The goal for 2026 will be to pay off the Home Depot Credit card without interest.  This is due in September and is a total of $3380.30    I will be sharing some wins in this area hopefully on Saturday.

No Spend Days-  This is really hard for us but I am going to track to see if this will give me any insight as to my spending habits.  I will count any spending including gas and family spending as well as my personal spending.  I am going to make a goal for 10 no spend days a month.

Health/Exercise- I am maintaining at 179.  My goal for 2026 will be to add some form of exercise 8 times a month.

December In Review

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December has flown by. We are ending the month at home with hopefully everyone (all 5 kids) at home. This should be lots of fun!  I am planning to get up at least two post today both this month in review and a year in review post. I will get a post about goals and change in plans in the next couple of days.  I am working toward a more balanced approach.

Emergency Fund- Goal is $1000- $250. This goal was not meet. However the huge expense of a new HVAC system will be totally covered so that should count as something. We are ending the year at the same point we started $250.

Groceries- Goal $820 per month.  Goal not  met with $1272.39. This does included food for both of our big parties, the Christmas dinner party for 30 that was this past week and most of the food for the Super Bowl party that is the first weekend of September.  I am planning for a full on pantry challenge for the months of January and February.  Again I have planned to make a full post on this but we will see when that happens.

Gas- Goal is $500.  December total is $480.48.

Blogging- For 2025- the goal will be 10 posts per month. This is actually post number 13  for the month. Finally back on track.

Debit-  This post details most of the changes. The goal for 2026 will be to pay off the Home Depot Credit card without interest.  This will definitely be a stretch but I am going to work hard toward it.

Health/Exercise- I am maintaining at 179.  My goal for 2026 will be to add some form of exercise 2 times a month.

Reading through the Bible this year- Will read my final chapters today.

Christmas Reflections

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This Christmas has definitely had a different feel.  Some things are positive and some are negative and some I just know but can’t give a name.

One of the things that has been on my mind is the fact that my “littles” are not going to be at home for many more Christmas celebration. I wanted to soak in every minute and just enjoy this season of life. We started by visiting Disney at the beginning of December. It was awesome and many core memories were made.  I really enjoyed hanging out with the kids with less distractions!  Christmas Day was really laid back for us as all three kids had a cold/virus.

We lost a member of our church to a tragic accident the Saturday before Christmas, this was very unexpected and hard for everyone. I can not even begin to imagine the grief felt by his wife and three kids.

We had to replace our HVAC system, the Friday before Christmas which has some financial implications.  One of which is that we have been eating at home for the past two Sundays.  This has saved us money but we have enjoyed spending time with friends during home meals.

I am excited about the new storage areas that we have and I can’t wait to pack up Christmas in a more organized manner and get things back together in the house.

We are definitely preparing for our pantry challenge. I was able to get an additional casserole in the freezer on Friday. I also canned 5 quarts and 17 pints of turkey broth.  I also got one extra meal of soup in the freezer as well.  We need to finish up a ton of left-overs this week as well.

There is a very personal situation going on that  has “stolen my joy”.

Christmas 2025 was different.

Pantry Challenge Preparation

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I am trying to spend part of my winter break working on Pantry preparation.  I had already been thinking about participating in a pantry challenge but with the new heating and air system it is a definite we need to now.  First I have been working on a list of all of the different meals we could have based on items in our freezers and pantry. My goal is to have a list of sixty items. I am planning to share this list once I get it organized and typed up. Here are some of the other ways I am working to get prepared to make this pantry challenge successful for both the months of January and February.

So far in the last week I have made a batch of sloppy joes (8 meals), two extra meals of meatloaf muffins, two extra meals of bagels and one extra loaf of bread.

I have been searching the pantry to try and restock on any items that we might run short on during the next several months.  I ended up at Costco last night to pick up items for our dinner party on Saturday as well as the items we needed. I ended up spending $306 which puts me over the grocery budget for this month however I will let you know next week what our budgets actually look like for next year.

The “rules” I have set for myself

  1. Eating out as a family  only on Sundays – We have a specific budget for this.  I will also try and stretch this budget to cover meals on the go which will be needed for a couple of swim meets.  Matt and I will continue to have our “spending money” which is going to be reduced from $50 to $40 every two weeks for at least the first six months of 2026.
  2. Purchase only diary items such as milk, cheese and creamer.  I am planning to make bread during the challenge so this should not be needed. We have fruits and vegetables in cans, jars and frozen which need to get used up during this challenge.
  3. No purchasing of meat! With the exception of chicken wings needed for our Super Bowl party.
  4. Use at least 5 jars a week from the home canned pantry.
  5. Keep a list of items we run out of and when This is new this year but should help me figure out what I need in our pantry for the future.
  6. Lower the Amazon subscribe and save order to bear minimum of 5 items needed to keep the 15% discount or items we are absolutely out of.

Anyone else participating?

Saving on Saturday

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One of the most important things to remember is every $1 saved is an accomplishment.  With the huge financial expense of the new HVAC system, I am going to focus more on the little things for saving. The reason is we already do alot of things to save money and in reality, I can’t find much more that way. So now it is back to the basics of saving in every way possible.

I mentioned yesterday that I had not been out to eat breakfast. That is the first way we are saving money!

Another way we are saving money is by using items in our pantry. For us as a family this means that we need convenient foods that are easy to make and filling. Breakfast is one of the hardest meals for me because I don’t have much time to get out the door.  I spend ALOT of time in the Summer preparing food ahead but I also need to add to this during the year. Last night for dinner we had sausage balls and French toast.  I decided to go ahead and make a HUGE batch.  We have been getting six eggs a day so this was a good way also to use up the eggs. I purchased three loaves of French bread at Walmart for $1.47 each ($4.50), used sugar, milk, vanilla and cinnamon. I am going to estimate the entire cost to be $10.  Matt used the Blackstone to fry up the bread. We ended up with our dinner and around 60 additional slices of French toast.  Currently one meal of French toast for one person is $10 so for the same cost we probably have at least 5 meals for our family of five.

The final way we saved money this week is by building shelves out of pallets that we got for free last year. We have used this wood to complete the front part of the new building as well.  I did use part of my Christmas money to purchase the brackets. The total cost for his was around $30 but we have lots more space and I definitely like  organization.