Saving on Saturday

  1. This week both Matt and I realized that we are in need of new shoes. Both of us have tennis shoes that did not have any trend on the bottom. We decided to check out Belk’s last night as well had some time without any kids. We did hit the jack pot!  Stechers were buy one get one 50% off. With that discount, we purchased a pair of tennis shoes for $63.50 each.   Matt also found himself a pair of dress shoes!
  2. Part of using what is in pantry is not allowing things to go to waste, I am very proud of myself for this!  I used two boxes of Chex cereal to make “muddy buddies” and a ranch Chex mix.   I will not admit how long those boxes have been in my pantry. I also noticed that the Hawaiin rolls had not been openned that I purchased several weeks ago.  Matt suggested that we make a smash burger with them.  I used a pound of ground beef and fed five of us with that one pound!  The burgers were delicious!
  3. I did end up at the grocery store today to purchase some fruits and veggies that we have been completely out of for a couple of weeks.
  4. I am continuing to shred up junk mail and unusable paper to make the grounding and bedding for the chicken coop!  So far it is a win win!
  5. We have spent time cleaning and organizing and cooking ahead again this weekend so I will call it a success!
  6. Gardening update to come tomorrow!

Menu Plan Monday

Things are starting to get busy over here.  For example, this week, we have something in the evenings in addition to baseball practice for 4 of the 5 days!  I am working toward simple easy filling meals. The other change that is becoming apparent is lack of leftovers for lunches.  It is time to get back prepping most lunches on Sundays!

I am actually doing really well for the pantry challenge. I have not been to the grocery store in 10 days. I will be going to Costco on Tuesday to get my tires rotated but I am using my reward certificate to cover any spending I may have!  We are currently out of milk as I turned the rest into greek yogurt on Friday. However we do have Almond Milk that will work for the short run if anyone wants cereal.

Breakfast- Saturday- Pancakes  Sunday-I had fried eggs and others had poptarts.  Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday- find it (breakfast burritos, muffins, oatmeal, omelets cereal and milk, French toast sticks, sausage, pop-tarts, and eggs).  I made a couple of bowls of the egg scramble from Sunday night and also added 8 additional breakfast burritos to the stash!
Lunch- Saturday- Fix your own convenience food.  Sunday- Mexican Restaurant  Monday, Tuesday, -Wednesday, Thursday I have a veggie tray for one day, chicken salad and crackers or sandwiches and Friday is my day to eat out!

Dinner- Saturday-White chicken chill.   Sunday- Breakfast bowls Monday- Gyro Tuesday- Pizza from Costco Wednesday- Pork Chops with rice and green beans.  Thursday-Homemade Chicken bowls   Friday- homemade pizza

Monday Menu Planning

Food remains one of our largest expenses of the year. Part of the reason is that all 5 of us eat 3 meals a day from the groceries we purchase. I have failed the pantry challenge for the month of February.  In order to redeem myself and save us a bunch of money, we are going to do a 30 day pantry challenge. I will admit to stacking the odds in our favor as I asked the kids for what they thought they would need and we made a trip to Costco on Saturday.  Our February Amazon subscribe and save arrives on Wednesday so I am staying positive to see how this will work.  So far we have gone two days without going to the grocery store.  I was able to clean out the refrigerator and have a list of 30 something dinner meals so at this point we are off to a good start.

 

Breakfast- Saturday- Bacon, sausage and eggs Sunday- Muffins from Costco Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday,  Thursday   and Friday- find it ( breakfast burritos, muffins, oatmeal,omelets cereal and milk, French toast sticks, sausage, pop-tarts,and eggs)..
Lunch- Saturday- Left-overs from fridge Everyone found something.   Sunday- Christos  Monday, Tuesday,-Wednesday, Thursday left-overs or sandwiches and  Friday is my day to eat out!

Dinner- Saturday-Costco chicken, stuffing, cranberry sauce, pineapple, peas and corn from the fridge.   Sunday- everyone picked a leftover soup except Kendall who made Tomato soup and will take left-overs for lunch.  Monday- Chicken and broccoli  casserole, already made in the fridge.  Tuesday-  taco bites (made from left-overs from last week)  Wednesday-  Baked Ziti.  Thursday-Gyros  Friday- Kielbasa and rice T

5 Things Friday

  1. Last weekend we spent some time shopping to fulfill some summer needs.  I did not realize that both Kendall and Zach needed new shoes.  I still have a small list of items that are needed but I hope to finish those up this weekend as well. This was expensive but we spent time at Goodwill and Bargains by the Bin before heading to the other stores.  Zach was able to find T-shirts at Belks for around $10 each!
  2. Another good deal last weekend was Shutterfly offered 8×8 books starting at $10.  This is an awesome deal, actually one of my favorites.  I ended up spending a great deal of time, really too much time, finishing up several projects. I ordered a total of 6 books and ended up spending $130 including shipping.  The extra cost came from using Disney themes and extra pages (anything over 20). I do have one additional book I would like to get made and printed. This week Shutterfly is offering unlimited pages so I may see what that cost would be. But this depends on my time.
  3. We are headed to Disney in a short time.  I have set a couple of goals for myself in order not to be the fat mom that slows everyone down. The first is that I spend at least 12 hours on the treadmill at the YMCA.   I did my first hour last night so 11 more to go. I also want Braxton to get used to walking as we are not planning to use a stroller on this trip.  The hope is that we can start family walks on Sundays and Lily would like to do at least one other walk during the week. The problem again is time at home.
  4. I have officially lost weight. In fact, I received a compliment on it last week!   I have lost 16 pounds since December!   I am also down one jean size which is super fun!
  5. We did not even remotely stick to the pantry challenge this month. So I have decided that we will do a strict pantry challenge with the exception of milk and water and soda until our Costco trip prior to leaving.  The challenge will begin March 1st.  We will be going to Costco before then but no other trips will be made unless something is a necessity by my standards.

Menu Planning Monday

I think anyone would consider this month a fail for the pantry challenge. So far we have spent $740. This amount is actually less than my budget so I am totally fine with it. I do suspect that we will have a much lower spend in the month of March.  Small steps make a difference. We are also beginning our busy season with at least 2 kids having something going on in the evenings.  Dinner wil become more of heat and eat or at least that I what I am anticipating.   I did have an extra day off today for President’s Day”  so I cooked a bit.  More details on my shopping and planting hopefully coming tomorrow.  In other food related news, our dishwasher has finally died. We purchased a new one that will be delivered this Friday.  We are currently using as much disposable things as possible and washing dishes every other day.

Breakfast- Saturday-Bacon and mini quiche Sunday- Matt treated to Biscuit King.  Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday   and Friday- find it (oatmeal, omelets cereal and milk, French toast sticks, sausage, pop-tarts, and eggs).  We did consume the last of the muffins last week. Matt and I made scrambled eggs that can be used to help in the mornings. My goal is to continuing using what is in the freezer.
Lunch- Saturday-Cracker Barrel   Sunday- Mexican at a local restaurant.  Monday, Tuesday, -Wednesday, Thursday leftovers and Friday is my day to eat out!

Dinner- Saturday-I made a copy cat Chicken gnocchi soup. (I will definitely repeat this one).  Sunday- Left-overs as we can’t see the fridge shelves. Monday- Chicken pie, squash casserole and green beans.   Tuesday- Taco Hashbrown Casserole (new crockpot recipe). .  Wednesday- Pork chops and rice. .  Thursday-Spaghetti   Friday- Steak and mashed potatoes.

Monday Menu Planning

An update on the pantry challenge, this has been a really off week.  I ended up at the grocery store on last Wednesday, the purpose was to stock up on Diet Coke.  While at the store, I ended up picking up 15 pounds of chicken wings for our Super Bowl party.  My spend was $89. On Saturday, we were in Greensboro so we decided to go to Costco. I was very disappointed to find they were out of water   I did go ahead and grab some stuff for the Super Bowl party. My total spend was $285. And on Sunday, I went in Food Lion to grab the waters for the week another $11.49. I will have one more trip this week to finish gathering our snacks but the damage is done!  We are doing much better about food waste which is a positive.

Breakfast- Saturday- Pancakes and sausage. Sunday- I had fried eggs. Monday  Wednesday, Thursday and Friday- find it oatmeal, omelets cereal and milk, French toast sticks, sausage, pop-tarts, and eggs. Tuesday- homemade bagels we found in the freezer.
Lunch- Saturday- Christos, Sunday-Lunch at friends, Monday, Tuesday- leftovers, Wednesday. Thursday and Friday. I have a couple of bowls of chicken stew and I will add some left-overs in. The kids are going to take sandwiches and mac and cheese this week.

Dinner- Saturday-Cook-out , Sunday-Crockpot Cheeseburger Soup (not a repeat) -Monday- Shephard’s pie Tuesday-Chicken Enchiladas   Wednesday- Hamburger casserole from freezer, Thursday Sloppy Joe Cornbread  – Friday- Breakfast bowls or left-overs.

I did start moving some items around in our freezers in the building. I would like to have the chest freezer emptied out before we go to Disney but we shall see. I am already over budget for the month when I add in my subscribe and save. I hope to level out the spending after our Super Bowl party.

Random Tuesday Thoughts

I am starting to feel better again!   I started with a new and much more fun cold last Thursday. I came home from work on Friday and literally stay in the house spending most of the time in bed until Monday morning.  Today, I have lots of congestion, but no headache and less coughing!

I am going to continue the pantry challenge into both February and March.   The rules are that we only purchase items we are out of.   So far the lack of fresh fruit has been the problem so we did purchase some last week. We are planning a trip to Costco this weekend. I am going to work hard to only purchase our drinks for a month which is 2 cases of water, 1 case of diet cokes and 1 case of Dr. Peppers. Matt is getting his tea on subscribe and save so I am going to omit the case of regular cokes.  We also need flour and rice, bacon and sour cream.   This will not be a cheap trip but my hope is this will help us hold the course.  I have also reviewed and decreased our Subscribe and Save for February as well, I know that this will be $200.  I also need to order more laundry detergent for Lily which is $70.   Along with the Costco Trip I will be doing well to keep the budget at $500 for the month.   I will also be purchasing some fruits and veggies for our Junk Food Sunday.  Again I may end up around $700 for February.   I am going to be ok with it because I am still saving money and rotating the pantry.  I am starting to see a difference in our pantry and freezers so this is all a good thing.

On a positive note, we are currently getting an average of 4 eggs a day which definitely helps with protein intake and grocery expenses

We have started with our busy Spring Season of sports. This week we have both swim and baseball practice. Which means that Friday is the only evening that we will not be running somewhere.  I have been enjoying my easier, cook or heat meals so we will continue with those which will also help with our grocery budget.

It has reached our 60 day mark for our spring Disney Trip!   I was able to get up super early and got all the reservations that I wanted!   I can’t wait!

 

Monday Menu Planning

I just want to feel better and not sneeze or cough.  I started a second round of being sick on Thursday night. I came home from work on Friday and did not leave until this morning.   We did manage to stay on plan for the most part. I sent Matt to the store on Friday night to strictly pick up fruit. He spent $23.34. We are still under $200 for the month at $194 so I am counting this as a win!

Breakfast- Saturday- Bacon and biscuits.
Sunday- Find your own. I had grits Monday and Tuesday- Sausage Maple syrup muffins (We made a batch on Sunday) Wednesday, Thursday and Friday- find it oatmeal, omelets cereal and milk, French toast sticks, sausage, pop-tarts, and eggs. Depending on my energy level, I may add a baked Oatmeal in the mix.
Lunch- Saturday- Left-overs Sunday-East Coast Wings Monday, Tuesday- leftovers, Wednesday. Thursday and Friday   – left-overs and grab and go is the plan. We still have 2 completely full shelves of leftovers so we have no problem finding something to eat. The kids also make mac and cheese at least once a weel.

Dinner- Saturday-Matt picked up from Mocksville Family Restaurant., Sunday-Leftovers, I made myself an omelet. . -Monday- Beef tips and gravy, green beans and choice of mashed potatoes or rice. Tuesday-Walking Tacos in a bowl.  Wednesday- .Spaghetti and meatballs Thursday Chicken biscuit and French fries – Friday- Country style steak and gravy with broccoli and choice of mashed potatoes or rice.

I did not even go out to the freezers this week but I will be headed down to bring up more food soon.  I have started to move some food around. Just a couple cans at a time. Seriously thing this challenge could last till June at this rate.   I have concerned actually making this last to June by only restocking what is out of stock. This way I know we will rotate food. I will have to buy some items but I think that in the long run this is a good strategy for the first six months of the year.  I do see a Costco trip in February and I know my subscribe and save is going to double so I may shoot for a $500 budget for the most part.

Monday Menu Planning

The last week has been very busy. I am finally starting to feel much better and get some of my energy back but unfortunately Matt has become ill. We enjoyed a slower than usual weekend. I did use up the butternut squash I grew last summer. It made am OK soup not something anyone wants repeated.  I did stop at the grocery store to stock up on 2 Liters of Diet Coke. My grocery budget sits at $171.40. Which is over my $150 for two months!   I would consider just throwing in the towel but even if I can keep the total less than $300 for 2 months that is a third of what I typically spend in one month. I am starting to see the end of somethings. In fact, I need to clean the shelves in the laundry room, get them reorganized and make a list of what we have. I do know that in March I will be purchasing both flour and rice from Costco. This works out to be a yearly purchase so not a bad thing. This week theme is simple.

Breakfast- Saturday- Breakfast bowls with bacon and sausage. We did use a container out of the freezer of gravy.
Sunday-Biscuit King   Monday- Sausage Maple syrup muffins (these are a huge hit and most likely a repeat).  Tuesday Wednesday, Thursday and Friday- find it oatmeal, omelets cereal and milk, French toast sticks, sausage, pop-tarts, and eggs. Depending on my energy level, I may add a baked Oatmeal in the mix.
Lunch- Saturday- Left-overs  Sunday- Gregg’s , Monday, Tuesday- leftovers, Wednesday. Thursday and Friday   – left-overs and grab and go is the plan. We still have 2 completely full shelves of left-overs so we have no problem finding something to eat. The kids also make mac and cheese at least once a weel.

Dinner- Saturday- Roasted Butternut Squash soup, Sunday- Lasagna soup. Everyone liked this recipe but we will use regular pasta next time to speed up the process. -Monday- Teriyaki Chicken in crock pot, rice, pineapple and egg rolls.  Tuesday-Brats and French Fries, Cucumbers slices as well. Wednesday- Left-overs from fridge. Thursday- Eating out due to swim meet. Friday-Last 2 boxes of hamburger Helper!  This is an accomplishment for sure!

I am committed to be transparent about grocery spending hoping that will keep me moving in the right direction. Instead of giving up!

Monday Menu Planning

We have now officially completed 15 days of the longest month of the year!  I am actually starting to be able to move food around. I do need to empty one of the freezers if not two prior to the summer.  My goal again this summer will be to stock the freezers with easy to grab, easy to prepare meals. It has certainly helped this year.  This month I have spent $130.69 on groceries including out subscribe and save. This is a very low amount !  And my goal is to continue. I did order some Listerine and we have picked up sour cream not once but twice!   But let’s celebrate the good things.

Breakfast- Saturday- Sausage links and German baby pancakes!
Sunday-Homemade Bagels and Waffles.  Monday- Carrot soufflé Tuesday Wednesday, Thursday and Friday- find it oatmeal, omelets cereal and milk, French toast sticks, sausage, pop-tarts, bagels and eggs.
Lunch- Saturday- Meatballs and Lil Smokies in the crockpot   Sunday- Sushi buffet, Monday- The kids and I tried out Freddie’s   Tuesday- leftovers, Wednesday. Thursday and Friday   – left-overs and grab and go is the plan.

Dinner- Saturday- Sour Dough Waffles or left-overs from lunch, Sunday- Taco soup-Monday- Meatloaf, squash casserole, green beans, mashed potatoes and meatloaf.  Tuesday-Baked Ziti from freezer Wednesday- Philly Cheese Steak Casserole (from freezer)  Thursday- Chicken Teriyaki Friday-Panda Panda (local Chinese) on the way to swim meet.

Now to just stick to the plan!