Mom opening a gift!
My mom and all of her grandchildren and great grandson!
Christmas Eve Fun!
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Category Archives: Christmas
Monday Menu Plan
This plan looks a lot different, simply because it is for the week of Christmas. In my make believe world, I would get to enjoy several day of not cooking, however Christmas day or not my kids want to eat. They also want something beside left-overs after a full day of them. I am trying a couple of new things this year to see how they work out, the goal is to make things easier for me and keep everyone happy and feed without a lot of stress.
A couple of things to look for and I will definitely let you know if they work. 1.You will notice that each morning we have a casserole or other make ahead item. We are big breakfast eaters but I am not a big morning person. I am trying several new recipes and hope to make some a part of the normal routine.
2. I don’t want to spend a lot of time on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day cooking. My goal is to have everything prepped ahead of time so that I can dump and pour and/or stick in the oven for a good but easy meal.
3. The kids and I are home all week long. Matt has a couple of days off so lunch becomes a regular meal.
Saturday- Desert day. Most of the deserts for Christmas are made. I do have a couple of place and bake cookies to be made Christmas Eve. Peanut butter balls, Reindeer crack and brownies are all made! Breakfast-Bacon and egg biscuit casserole. Lunch- Olive Garden Left-overs. Dinner- Girls at Youth Christmas party. East Coast Wings for Matt, Zach and I.
Sunday- Breakfast-Toast and Church breakfast. Lunch- Gregg’s(local restaurant). Dinner- Left-overs.
Monday- Preparation Day This is the day that hopefully makes the rest of the week go smoothly. We will prep 2 days of breakfast and all the items need for Christmas lunch. Breakfast-Bacon and sausage casserole. Lunch- Oyster Stew for home, Matt has banana bread and a snack meal at work. Dinner-Pick a left-over or sandwich.
Tuesday- Christmas Eve! Breakfast-Cinnamon Roll Baked Oatmeal. Lunch- Left-over Soup day or Tomato Soup. Dinner-BBQ at my mother’s house.
Wednesday- Christmas Day-Breakfast-Sausage Cresant Casserole and Hashbrown Casserole. Â Lunch- Turkey, Dressing, 7 layer salad, Cranberry sauce, Creamed corn, Carrots, Squash Casserole, Green Bean Casserole and Cresant rolls Dinner-BBQ at my mother’s house.
Thursday- Leftover Day! Don’t think this needs any explanation but it is grab and eat. No fighting and no saving!
Friday- Breakfast-Sausage and Egg Casserole. Lunch-Nachos(depending on what is left it may be turkey nachos or it may be beef nachos. Dinner- Taco Turkey Soup. This was a huge hit last time so I hope it is as well received this time!
5 Things Friday
- Yes, it has been a week since I have posted. This week, I ended up working 4 night in Guam for therapy. As you can imagine this added to our already busy schedule.
- Better news is that both the kids and I started our Christmas break today. I ended up going back to work one day before them but we all plan to enjoy the next almost two weeks.
- Not only have I been working extra this week. On Thursday, both Kendall and Lily both were sick so off to the doctor’s office we go. Luckily it is not the flu but both girls still don’t feel great.
- We are doing awesome on budget this month. So fare we have spent $220 in gas and $206 in groceries. This includes stops at two grocery stores today. I am very hopeful that we will end the month less than $250 on each of these items.
- I am planning to start the official Christmas cooking tomorrow!
Five Things Friday
- I absolute hate our weather, currently it is 34 and raining. We have had several cold and rainy days this weeks with yet another one expected for Saturday
- Tonight we are working on some handmade Christmas gifts for both my work and Zach’s teachers. I will share right before Christmas and after they have all been disturbed. We have 12 gifts and currently have spent $8.
- I need to decide on a menu plan for Christmas day. In the past, it has always been a sort of find your own dinner thing. But as the kids get older, I am thinking toward a big lunch with left-overs for dinner. Of course, my family needs to eat three meals a day no matter what holiday it is. This also means I need to make a trip to the grocery store.
- Our budget this month is looking awesome. We have currently spent $18.54 on groceries. I am anticipating around $100 for our Christmas trip, which keeps us really low for the month but after last month it should be. I am planning to share a detailed budget for next year after Christmas as well.
- I have 4 gifts left to buy in December. One is my mother’s birthday present so only 3 left for Christmas. I only have to decide on one final gift. Lily suggested that I need to keep a list of all the things I buy during the year but my only fear is that nosey people would find it. I guess I could be generic and just put the number of gifts purchased. Any Suggestion?
Wordless Wednesday-Christmas
Saving and Shopping
We all know that I enjoy shopping and I REALLY enjoy saving money. To be honest I have done my fair share of Black Friday shopping especially when my kids were smaller and it was really a chance to get out in public without three little people attached. Things changes as we all know. I have no desire to go out and fight a crowd tonight or tomorrow. But I wanted to grab some of the best deals of the year so I did both online shopping and in store shopping on Wednesday. We ended up spending most of yesterday afternoon shopping. Crowds were light to no existence and the deals were awesome. So I thought I would share most of them with you!
- Zach used his money to order a X Box One from Costco online for $213 shipped. I used my Costco membership in addition to my Costco credit card (which I paid off immediately online). I ended up earning at least $9 back in cash for this purchase.
- Lily wanted to use her money to buy Air Pods. We had anticipated grabbing the Black Friday deal online at 10pm, Wednesday night. However we failed. I had actually put the Air Pods in my cart around 9:30 but the price did not change when I went to check out at 10:01 and by 10:02 they were all sold out online. I quickly flipped over to Staples where she was able to purchase them for $8 more. I ended up going through Swagbucks for this purchase and earned $4.02 back.
- Lily is going to a semi formal dance next weekend. At Kohls she found a dress for $38. I purchased several books for $2.50 and t-shirts for Kendall at $10 each.
- Hobby Lobby is always so much fun just to walk through. I did find some baseball ornaments that I will turn into a curtain for Zach for $4.
- Our last stop of the evening was Shoe Carnival. I was so excited to learn that their boots were already on sale for $19.99 a pair. I was beyond the moon to find a selection of wide calf boots that actually fit me. I purchased 2 pair of boots for $42. Today, I received a $10 reward certificate in my email which is good until February!
- We ate at Olive Garden and brought home 6 prepared meals to use this weekend in addition to enough left-overs and soup for three additional meals. A total of 3 meals for $80 is a huge bargain in my book!
- My only stop today, Thanksgiving was at CVS. I purchased several gifts and grabbed anything that was free and we use. I spent a total of $30.23 saved $76.14 or 72%. I also left the store with over 20 ECB to be used during the month of December.
I am excited to shop and save but not in a crazy exhausted ugly people way!
Wordless Wednesday
Five Things Friday
- We have enjoyed two entirely free meal out this week. On Thursday, we used the gift card that was earned and planned for Halloween combined with IHOP customer appreciation to feed our entire family for the cost of the tip! Friday night is always a hetic night with piano. Matt used another gift card earned via Swagbucks to pick up three large pizzas! We have already enjoyed one pizza and left-overs will be for lunch on Saturday and Sunday!
- Kendall is growing. I realized this week that she had only 2 pair of pants that were actually long enough for her. We decided to go to Old Navy to try and find her some pants. We actually found what they call “Ballerina” style pants that fit both length and her waist. We grabbed 4 pair along with 2 pair of boots for her. Lily ended up with a sweater, Zach and Braxton have matching Christmas shirts, I got a dress and Braxton has several new church outfits to wear. Total spent $225!
- I knew that I was going to be way over budget this month for Groceries. In fact I am at $882 for the month with a goal of staying under $950. I was a bit concerned until I read this :
“According to the USDA monthly report for October 2019, the average couple spends $617 per month on groceries alone.
A family of four with young kids on the Moderate-Cost plan spends $894.40 a month on groceries. Families with older kids spend $1067.50. ”
Matt and I both are working and make it work with an additional 20 or more hours of paid work each week. Our budget is really enjoying the boast and I am very comfortable with setting and achieving budget related goals for the next year. I am planning to share our new updated budget toward the end of December after a second month (December) to tweak it. I also am anticipating that I will have to only purchase one Christmas present in the month of December along with a birthday present for my mother! - The car that we are driving has significantly reduced our gas spending. Currently, we have spend $268.23 in gas. Because we will be at home more next week, I would guess that we will stay under $300 in gas this month. I can not honestly tell you the last time this happened!
- I am anticipating a three day work week next week. Sunday night in Guam. Monday and Tuesday at Davie County. Followed by a four day total vacation! I am excited not only for the break but to finish out our budget for November really strong.
How I Spent my Saturday
The kids and I spent most of yesterday working on my snow village. This is a photo heavy post if you ever wondered.
I had already done some preparation work and cleared a spot in my bedroom and go the ladder ready.
But then Lily and I decided that we would display the snow village downstairs in the living room this year! This way it would all be close together with a small shelf of houses one side of the television and the ladder on the other side!
The biggest job is to get all the houses arranged and cords hidden.
Finally we added the people and the trees!
This is a shelf that just sort of happened but it turned out awesome!
Which is your favorite? Leave me a comment!
Saving on Saturday
I was able to find a couple of hours today to search out some awesome sale items, I want to share with you. My first stop was at Dollar General. I specifically chose this store to buy Hot Wheels cars that were on sale for Buy one Get one free. The selection at this store was really limited so I only ended up purchasing 10 cars with several of those being duplicate. I will send the duplicates to church to use. I was so excited to discovery that they were taking an additional 30% off items already on clearance. Summer items are at 90%. So I was able to grab 10 packets of seed for ONE cent each. I did get some cold weather plants such as lettuce and spinach that I hope to plant in February. My favorite find of the day were these signs that I paid SIX cent each for.
Clothing was at 70% off so I found Matt a swim suit for $1.13 and Braxton an outfit for sixty-three cent. I decided I need to check out at least one more Dollar General before heading home. The second store had a much better selection of Hot Wheels cars so I grabbed one more but less of anything else. I did purchase one Christmas present for $1.34 for the older girls.
My final stop was at Food Lion to grab some carrots and potatoes. I did grab 8 2liter Dr. Peppers because they were $0.69 each. These are a huge treat for the kids and I will plan to take a coupe to our Thanksgiving dinner. I also grabbed a couple of Boston butts roast that we can use for pulled pork. The BEST deal of the day was on cupcake mix which were in the clearance section at the back of the store. The boxes of vanilla cupcake mix were marked down to twenty cent each. The shelf also had coupons for $1.00 off 2 boxes. I grabbed 20 boxes and used 5 coupons so that I was paid $1.00 to carry the boxes out of the store! Better than free!
Did you find any deals let me know in the comment section!