Category Archives: Groceries

Looking Back and Looking Ahead

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I have not had time over the past several days to go back and review the goals I had set for 2016.  I know that I did not meet any of the goals on a consistent basis. I am sad but realistically I know that goals are just that something to aspire to achieve. I am often remained of our wedding verse Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”   Our goals and God’s plans are not always the same and it is my firm belief that his plans are always much better in the end than my goals. None of the goals that I established were bad but that were just not achievable for 2016.  I will share that 2016 was the hardest and leanest year of our marriage on a financial level. I have been able to look back and identify some of the problems so that should help the coming year.  With all that written out, I am officially closing the door on 2016 and looking ahead to 2017.  I am still unsure if I am going to make goals for 2017 as I really get discouraged when I have to write “failed” each month but I also like the accountability that it provides. So for now, I am going to share on what I have been up to and how that affects my plans/goals for 2017.

Christmas 2015 made it very evident that we need to come up with some major changes in our kitchen in order for us to host our family and friend in an enjoyable environment. In January, we started the kitchen remodel which included the old kitchen and living room which was being used as a playroom. We spent 5 month removing a walk and reworking most of the area. We stop due to money and energy. This past weekend we have started working again. We used our “dining room’ on Christmas Day and it worked well but I still wanted to make some changes.  First we moved our smallest refrigerator to the building and pulled down the cabinets from around the second one. We are planning to build a custom buffet over the next couple of months for housing all the electronic/internet cable connect and also providing some additional storage space. I will try to share pictures as things start to progress.

We purchased a cow in December and are expecting to pick up the meat this week. I was able to clean out our chest freezer so that the meat will be easy to deal with upfront.

We are going to work diligently this year to regain our financial ground, two years ago we were debit free except for our mortgage, I want to get closer to that point again. One of the bright spots in the area of finances in December has been our “extra earnings” via swagbucks and MPlaces.  We have cashed out for over $300 in gift cards during December.  I am reading in several different places that January is typically a slow earning month so I am going to celebrate December success but also remember that small steps are still progress. I have decided to participate in several challenges in January in order to hopefully jump start our year. The first is a pantry challenge, we are planning to limit our grocery spending to less than $100 for the month. I have been doing some cleaning over the past couple of day and this should not be a problem. The second challenge goes along with the first and is a no spend month. We will be attending two cheer competition this month but otherwise no unnecessary spending.   Who else is hoping to achieve good things in 2017?

 

Menu Planning/ Preparation Work 12/19/2016

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The week before Christmas, we are staying busy in addition to trying to get some things planned ahead. This year, we will have Christmas breakfast (baked oatmeal) head to church and then home for a huge meal with my parents.  Christmas night we are going to have friends over for an snack/leftover festival. I like the idea of having lots of food but really don’t want to spend my entire day in the kitchen either on Christmas Eve or Christmas day, so I am trying to plan and get some preparation work done early in the week. Here is what our schedule for cooking ahead looks like so far, you will notice that I don’t have plan to do anything on Tuesday or Wednesday.  The explanation for this is my work schedule, if I have extra time great but otherwise I am still prepared.

Sunday- Pull all recipes and finalize plans for food.  Lunch will be Turkey and Ham, both in crockpots, squash casserole, pineapple casserole, stuffing, cranberry sauce, green bean casserole and cream corn.  Desert will be pumpkin and sweet potato pie.  Appetizers for dinner including cheese/meat ball, veggies and dip, chips with dip and 2 types of Mexican dip.

Monday- Cut up veggies including celery and onions for all dishes. Fry sausage for breakfast on Saturday morning and Mexician Dip.

Thursday- Sweet potatoes pies and pumpkin pie. Make cheese ball

Saturday- Assemble all casseroles and get everything in crock pots to start on Sunday morning- make sugar cookies for Santa. Cook cranberry sauce.

Of course we still need to eat this week and with all the planning and work for Christmas day it will be really easy to eat out without a plan. My goal for this week is no eating out!

Breakfast–   Saturday- Big Breakfast- grits, eggs, bacon and biscuits.. Sunday- choices  Monday-Fruit. Tuesday-  fried bologna and eggs Wednesday- choices. Thursday-  Choices Friday- Choices.  Saturday (Christmas Eve) Sausage croissants and hashbrown casserole. Choices include : leftovers, eggs, grits, French toast,, toast or cereal.

Lunch- Zach and Kendall have chicken and stars soup,  uncrustables  and homemade lunchable. They are out of school on Thursday and Friday, Zach has already requested pizza Quesada . I have salad, and leftovers.

Dinner-  Saturday- Lunch- chill  Dinner- cowboy beans/chilli
Sunday- Lunch- Baked Potato bar. Dinner- Chicken cresant rolls
Monday- Hamburger Helper
Tuesday-Leftovers
Wednesday-  Pork Chops
Thursday- Leftovers or Sandwhiches
Friday- Pigs in a blanket and movie

Lots of food and fun scheduled for this week.

Bargain Brag

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I always say that saving money is a life style, so today I want to share a few of the ways we are saving and/or earning money this month.

img_1989I had decided several months ago that I wanted to have the kids with matching Christmas clothes this year. In November, Kmart offered a sale on the dresses the girls are wearing. I was able to purchase the dresses for $8 each. Before ordering, I did check to make sure we had both girls a long shrug or sweater to wear with these as they are short sleeves. Their tights were purchased on a 40% off sale in addition to 5 coupon from e The Children’s Place for a total of $5. The most expensive part of the girls outfits were their shoes. We did find them on sale but still spent around $45 for both pair. Total for both girls outfits were $60- the average cost of one dress. Zach has had his red tie for several years now so all I needed to purchase for him was a black shirt. I found it at Walmart for $8.  I really do love dressing all three for less than $100.

Our biggest expense is by far groceries. For this reason, we definitely try to use all the food we have and not waste or let any go bad. Last Saturday, we spent baking Christmas goodies in addition to make a 7-layer salad, deviled eggs and Mandarin Orange salad. We have used these as our sides for Saturday lunch, Monday dinner and plan to use again on Friday. Today, we had what the kids call a “leftover buffet” pick what you want to eat from the leftovers and enjoy.  Matt and Lily have been able to make wraps and nachos at lunch with some leftovers as well. The tomatoes, we harvested from the garden are finally ripe.  I decided to go ahead and cook these for use in soups later on.  Finally, we purchased a bunch of bananas last Thursday, that are now really ripe. The kids decided that we would use them in a smoothie in the morning for breakfast.

Saving money means know what items you need in addition to recognizing the best deal on an item. The best example of this, is our purchase of razors from Amazon. Matt has a “favorite” razor that when it goes on sale I grab. He also is open to trying others as well. We did try the dollar shave club but simply were not impressed and after doing the math, it really is cheap for me to buy razors at CVS. Last night I noticed that Amazon had his favorite razor refills on sale. We grabbed a year supply for $20. This was definitely a case of know a good price and grabbing it.

 

5 Things Friday

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  1. I have just completed the busiest work week all year. I worked eight hours over this week. I am very grateful for this extra income but really do miss seeing my kids each night during the week!
  2. The cow we purchased is currently hanging. It did turn out to be larger than expected but I budgeted enough excess that we still should cover the cost without touching our monthly budget. After much thought and discussion, the way to account for this purchase is by dividing the amount over the first 6 months of 2017.  I will take that amount out of each month’s grocery budget and pay toward our credit card debit.  December provides an extra check for me, initially I planned to use to pay down our debit but this was a deal we could not pass up so instead we purchased meat.  Once the final cost for the cow including processing is paid. I will share what amount will be deducted each month from our budget.
  3. I am planning on doing holiday baking tomorrow. I checked out my baking list and hopefully have purchased everything we need for this fun day. We will make another batch of cookies on Christmas Eve for Santa.
  4. I am finished shopping for the month of December. I will continue to watch sales but unless the item is a need and at the lowest available price, I am going to avoid shopping the rest of the month.
  5. All three of the younger kids will be performing this weekend in our church’s Christmas musical. This should make the weekend go by really really quickly.

 

CVS Quick Trip

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I was so excited because I was able to earn and print out my $25 gift card to CVS. My plan is to use this card this month instead of money from our budget.  Thursday, I took a quick glance at the ad and then decided to wait until Saturday to really look at the ad. I made my plans and completed my trip tonight (Sunday) I will admit up front that I am a little disappointed, why you ask? Because I did not even get to use my gift card.  My CVS was already out of the free gummies, so my only purchase was for disposable razors.

img_1962I used a $3 off coupon from the newspaper but there are still several printable one available.
I also had $5 ECB from a previous transaction.
My total was $0.56 which I had in my pocket.

Earned $3 in ECB.  A good and easy trip.

Saving on Saturday-11/05/2016

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  • The weather is continuing to cooperate. We have not used heat or air in 45 days! This may one of the longest streaks ever! I am very hopefully to make it till the 15th of November.
  • I washed and hung out to dry 4 loads of sheets today. That saved at least 4 hours of dryer time. Matt was able to wash and hang out a load of my uniforms earlier in the week as well.
  • Eating left-overs, I am in charge of cooking on the weekend and I usually enjoy cooking at least 3 meals in a two day period.  This weekend, beginning on Friday, we are eating out of the fridge. I will make a pot of soup for lunch tomorrow before our pictures but otherwise this is food that will go to waste if we don’t eat so at least four or meals it is. I did make one change to our rules this time. You can only eat breakfast foods for breakfast.
  • Trimmed and polished our nails at home instead of getting manicures before our family pictures on Sunday. This step alone saved at least $75.
  • Found a local photographer who is willing to travel to my brother’s house. None of my family does well in a crowd but we all LOVE pictures. Over the past several years, we have discovered it is much easier for all of us to hire someone to come take family pictures. I also think in the end it saves money and allows a less stressful time.
  • Combining online deals. Zachary’s sheet have a mysterious hole in them. They are unfortunately the only set of “boy” twin sheet we have. I was able to combine a doorbuster deal at JCPenny’s along with a coupon they set to me. I was able to purchase 2 sets of sheets for his bed, a set of flannel sheets for Lily’s bed, a hoodie for Kendall and 4 shirts for me all for $113. I will receive back $10 in JCPenny Rewards in addition to $7 in Swagbucks.  Sheets are normally expensive so I counting all the clothes as free!
  • Meal planning- we have spent $100 at Costco so far this month and I hope that will be the extend of our grocery spending. In order for this to happen, meal planning is a must. We currently have enough meals planned for the entire month of November!
  • Matt and I both are continuing to make an effort to earn money via apps. Our current goal is to make between $150 and $200 a month. We are on track already for November with $50 this first week.

5 Financial Things Friday 11/04/2016

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1. My goal for the month was to spend $50 or less on groceries. I am already going to admit defeat with this. We realized Thursday morning that we are completely out of dog food. I know that I could always purchase a small 10 pound bag to last for the month of November but it will cost close to the same 25# pound at Costco. We did make a Costco trip and managed to spend $100. I am hopeful and actually fully expect that we should not “need” any more groceries until December.

2. I was able to cash out for a $25 gift card to CVS on Swagbucks yesterday. This will be my grocery money for the rest of the month. I do not count this in the budget because this is free money.

3. Because of yet another problem with the gas pipeline, gas in our area has jumped again and shortages are expected. The price difference between my town and Costco was 14 cent. We braved it today and actually drove the van until it read 0 MILES TO EMPTY, to fill up at Costco we saved around $3 this way.

4. We were at Costco at lunch time today and since I am not really a fan of hot dogs nor pizza, I picked up a rotisserie chicken to eat for lunch. Zach and Lily ate some with me at lunch. We brought the rest of the chicken home and made an awesome chicken salad. Finally with the skin and bones, I made chicken stock in the crock pot. I was actually able to use 2 crock pots for this and should have about 100 cups of stock!

5. The crazy weather has allowed our garden to continue producing a small amount. We are still harvesting basil, oregano, dill, tomatoes, jalapeños and green peppers. I hope that we will reduce the initial cost next year because we our dill and mint plants will reproduce themselves.

Saving on Saturday-10/29/2016

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Everyone has heard of  No- Shave November. I am going to attempt a No/Little Spend November for groceries.  I am sharing this to be accountable and also to see if anyone wants to join me.

First lets talk about the reasons, I want to do this type of challenge. One of the bigger struggle with budgeting for me is always the grocery budget. This month we are sitting right at $650. We were extremely over  budget in both September and July. As we look ahead to  the holiday season with extra spending coming in everywhere, I need to find extra money in the budget to use for the holidays. Next is the simple facts,   we have been able to take advantage of several sales and Zaycon has helped to fill our freezers. Therefore, we have on hand lots of items and even are over stocked in others.

I had a wise friend tell me “the best way to not spend money is not to shop.” So I have decided to take that advice to heart, at least for the month of November.  I talked with Matt last week about the idea of not shopping for groceries in the month of November. By planning ahead this allowed us to really look at the pantry and freezers and identify any immediate needs that could ruin a no spend month very quickly.

Now on to the how this is going to work for us. I know that we will need to purchase items like creamer and eggs so I am going to start by pulling out $50 in cash to use for these items. I also want to be able to take advantage of any “Black Friday” deal that CVS may have so my plan is to “earn” a 25 gift card from Swagbucks to use. I should be able to cash out of this card during the first week of November and simply won’t shop at CVS till then. Cash is very hard for me to spend and this way if a true need arises then we will be able to purchase the need but not go overboard. The gift card is free money that is not from the budget so it will be part of the game to see how far I can stretch this card and what real deals, I can take advantage of. Because it is a gift card unlike ECB it can be use to pay tax on the items I purchase.

Final step in this challenge is planning. I have already started working on a list of meals that we can cook this month. One advantage we do have is our scheduled trip to Georgia for Thanksgiving. This will eliminate at least 3 if not 4 days of cooking and eating from home.  Since Matt and I have already talked about this challenge we actually started meal planning last week. I know that in order to save money, I need to make sure that we are not wasting money especially by allowing food to go bad, so the focus this weekend is to finish up leftovers and find new or favorite dishes to cook with the items we have on hand.  Look for lots of menu plans for November.

Menu Planning

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Our crazy life continues but it appears that we may slow down just a bit after this week. One of the advantages to doing a monthly menu plan is that it allows us to adjust if wanted or needed without running out to the store. I made some big changes from our original plan this week for two reasons. The first was that I was given several food items that need to be used in the next week. Secondly, the weather has finally turned to fall and our garden should be much slower in production in the next couple of weeks. We have been letting our green peppers grow and were rewarded with a HUGE harvest today. I actually had enough to make stuff green peppers for dinner, put away a bag to freeze to use in soup and have enough left to make breakfast burrito bowls later this week.

reakfast–   Saturday- Sausage Cresant Rolls(the fill was actually left-over from last week). Sunday- Choices.  Monday-Overnight Apple French Toast. Tuesday- Choices Wednesday- choices. Thursday- Breakfast burrito bowl Friday- Choices.  Choices include : leftovers, eggs, grits, French toast, pop-tart or toaster strudel, Breakfast croissant, toast or cereal.

Lunch- Our lunch menu has changed as Kendall had a really rough time with her braces and we decided to buy thermos for both Zach and Kendall to use. Monday-Egg salad for Kendall and chicken nuggets for Zach. Tuesday- Macroni and Beef, Wednesday- Kendall wants left over soup and Zach has chicken nuggets again. Thursday-Tomato soup and goldfish, and Friday- Spaghetti O’s. I have already made two salad for this week and will take leftovers otherwise.

Dinner-  Saturday- Lunch- leftovers.   Dinner- Kimonos(eating out).
Sunday- Lunch- Broccoli- Cheese Soup. Dinner- Stuffed green Peppers. (I also frozen enough stuffing for another meal.)
Monday- Squash peperoni pie. ( Made this up trying to use what we had, if it works will be awesome and easy to throw in again)
Tuesday-Mexican casserole- already in fridge
Wednesday- Kielbasa and rice
Thursday- pulled pork and carrots
Friday- country style steak and gravy or leftovers depends on how the week goes.

Menu Planning

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We survived the last couple of weeks!  This week things are a tiny bit slower with no baseball game on Monday!  We have changed to a monthly menu plan and I am really enjoying the way it is working. First, Matt and I both know what is on the plan for dinner but we also know that if something changes grab another night. Second, it allows us to know what items we need to purchase and what things can wait. My goal for the last 3 months of the year, is to keep our grocery budget to less than $300 a month. This is a low low number for us but we have several large meat orders that we are working our way through which helps to significantly reduce the budget in addition to several family birthday and trips that mean we get to eat out more. Finally, we are finally not wasting food, or at least wasting a small amount which gets tossed in the compost bin so not really a waste. In fact that is the theme of this week’s plan… eating up leftovers!

Breakfast–   Saturday-Cereal, Sunday- Trisha Yearwood Breakfast Casserole.  The rest of the week will be a choice of leftovers, cereal, fried eggs, yogurt or breakfast bars.

Lunch- This week, I will have already made a chicken salad for Monday, and Tuesday- salad. Wednesday and Friday will be leftovers.  Zach and Kendall have 2 days of chicken nuggets, 2 Uncrustables with cheese crackers. and a sandwich. Lily and Matt will have frozen burritos or leftovers or pizza or chicken nuggets.

Dinner-  Saturday- Lunch- grilled cheese sandwich. (Trying to use up some bread)   Dinner-Leftover of choice
Sunday- Lunch- Friends provided . Dinner- Pick your left over meat, I cooked green beans, stuffing and fried apples to go along with this.
Monday- Chicken Fried Rice
Tuesday-Amanda’s birthday- Eating out to celebrate
Wednesday- Hamburger Helper
Thursday- Turkey pot pie (To finish up the left over turkey)
Friday- Homemade pizza night

One other important note, Lily is enjoying cooking and is making usually one meal a week. This past week, she actually made stuffed green peppers on Thursday, a cake on Friday and the breakfast casserole on Saturday for Sunday morning.