Category Archives: Groceries

Saving on Saturday 01/02/2016

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We (yes it is a family thing) are participating in . So we are spending the day at home and trying to make it day 2 of no spending for the month. This morning as we were having breakfast and talking, Matt brought up that we need to purchase a fuse for the air compressor so that he can blow up the tire on the lawn mower. After a few minutes of thought we decided to hold off until February because this is not a “need” at this time.  Victory number #1!

As part of our spending challenge, we have set an additional goal of grocery spending of $200 or less for the month. Of course, we are starting to realize that we are running out of some things. Normally, I would get a list of anything I think we need from Costco and make a huge grocery trip. Instead I am starting a list of items that we need to replenish and will wait until an awesome sale come or we run all the way out. We are going to run out of milk so I will be using cash to purchase only milk. Matt found 2 gallons of milk in the freezer in our building. Victory number #2

On New Year’s Eve, we went to Walmart . I remembered from the past several years that they mark down gift set as well as Christmas items. I was disappointed when I saw that the signs still read only 50% but just happen to hear from another customer that it really was 75%. We purchases several packs of lights for $0.63 each, several make-up gift sets for $2.44 each, close to 10 gift set of lip balm for $1.22. We also found one star wars plate setting $5.42. These items will be saved for birthday gifts that are needed for the year. We ended up spending around $50.

Only 29 more day to stick to it!

Action Plan for 2016

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For some reason, I really like the wording of action plan versus goals, not sure if it is truly a motivational thing but I am going to stick with it.  My current plan for each month is not only to be accountable by reporting how each month progress but also included plans for the following month to keep things on track.

Personal-
1. Blogging– Post 20 per month. This is definitely a stretch but a good one for both accountability and fun.
2.Weight Loss– 175#.  In January, I plan to use the treadmill for at least 30 minutes a day for 3 days a week.
3. Spiritual– Spend at least 5 days a week, reading and studying The Bible. My Sunday school is starting a new study that has a work book with 5 sections each week. I also really want to finish reading through the entire Bible. Between these two things I am confident this is achievable.

Financial-  These are always much harder for me but guess that might be a good thing.
1. Set aside money each month in every budget category. I know very well where all my money goes, but in reality knowing where it needs to go and placing it there are two different things. In addition, life happens and some days I have to borrow from one item to truly pay another. I reset the following funds each January, Gifts and Clothing. I am adding an Eating Out category with a base of $200 per month which will roll and will reset next January. To achieve this goal in January, I am participating in the “January Money Diet “. I also plan to spend $200 or less on grocery. When I am success this will allow all categories to be funded except for eating out. We are suppose to attend two cheerleading competitions this month so I am not sure that we can eliminate this category all together. I do have several items that I need to sell this month which will be used to fund eating out.
2. Establish and maintain Emergency Fund- Ultimate goal is $3500, but this year adding $100 a month is a start.  See above for the plan.
3. Groceries: Goal is for $700. This month, we will be using cash and plan to spend $200.
4. Gas: Spend $400 a month. This includes repair, maintenance, tags and taxes. In the past, I have rest this budget each month with using any overage  to fund other items.  I am going to change that this year and place overage in a Capital one account to be used for larger repairs. I would like to set a $500 limit. In reality with gas prices being so low this will only take 2 months. After meeting the $500 I can switch to again using money in other ways. I am afraid of reducing this amount because if and when gas prices increase this will only cover gas.
5. Pay off all Credit Card debit by December 2016- This is by far the most lofty goal I am setting but the purpose being that we can then plan another Disney trip for November 2017!  I have no really plan for meeting this goal except by having a very frugal year and increasing income in any way possible.

Food For Thought-

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Today is my Mom’s birthday, which means we are fast approaching the end of the year. I am already in the process of looking and working on a budget for 2016. I will do a final update and set new goals hopefully this week but today I want to focus on Food.

  • Menu planning is still happening although I have not been posting the last couple of weeks have been about a couple of special meals and using up leftovers. This week we have already had a meal using meatballs my sister in law brought, tonight we made a roast and used some the sides we had left-over and tomorrow the plan is to use and make pork fried rice from leftover Christmas Eve shoulder. I am also adding some “convenient” meals to the freeze with the extra time we have this week.
  • Our grocery spending for the month is close to $900 which is way over budget. I have been taking advantage of some sells and stocking up, in addition to some extra meals and appetizers.
  • Our average monthly grocery spending for the year is at $691.59. I am totally amazed and excited for this number as it is under my $700 a month that I started in July.
  • I have been looking into some “average” numbers for grocery spending for our size family a “thrifty” plan is $770 and a “Low” plan is $1028 per month.
  • After finding these numbers I am very comfortable with maintaining our grocery spending to $700 a month. I am going to continue to focus on each month but not beat myself up for spending over now that I know it averages out within the year!
  • I was also able to find that the “average” family spends about $200 a month on eating out. In the past, I have not budgeted anything for eating out but this will become a regular expense in the year 2016.
  • We are starting the year with lots of meat in the freezer. I have already paid for 80# of pork that Matt will pick up the first week of January. We also just recently purchased chicken and a large order of ground beef. I am hopefully to not purchase any additional meat until March.
  • Our garden this year did well and we have been enjoying a variety of things. We have enlarged the garden to it’s capacity and hopefully will be able to multiply our freezing stock for the year.
  • I did not even attempt to lose weight with our trip to Disney and the holidays so I will back on track with eating healthier again in January.
  • Total random thought but at least it is food related. I just received in the mail a total of 6 free 12 packs expiring March 31. I will hold on till CVS offers ECBs or I just need them.

Day in the Life 12/17/2015-Cooking

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My unscheduled time at home ends tomorrow, so I decided to spend the day by getting ahead. I have actually enjoyed cooking most of the week, probably because I had the time and energy to do it. With this in mind,  I wanted to go ahead and get ahead start of Christmas preparations as we will have family over for several meals in the next couple of weeks. I had a plan in mind and was able to actually finish everything on my updated list. However before cooking, I clean both the vacuum cleaner and did a quick clean of the floors.

On the  menu plan for today was cowboy beans, so I started by frying a pound of bacon and then browning a pound of hamburger for this. I realized as I was browning the hamburger that I should go ahead and make a pot of chill for baked potatoes next week. I ended up letting the second pound of hamburger sit in the pan to defrost. I also need to cut up onions for the beans. I love my pamper chef dicer but it is hard to clean so I went ahead and chopped up 6 cups of onions instead of the 2 cups I needed for the beans.  I decided to try bacon wrapped appetizers that we saw on Saturday morning. This was definitely a good call as Matt froze a bag so we would have some next weekend as well. They are awesome but time consuming. Next was a corned beef ball that will work as an appetizer for several times.

After checking our supplies, Matt and I decided to head to the local meat shop to make a purchase that should last till at least March. We  have ordered pork from Zaycon but want to add hamburger, cube steak and beef stew to the freezer. We also purchased chicken wings for our annual super bowl party. I was very impressed with our total of $113, which is 18 meals of meat.

I came back home to work on browning and freezing the 20# of ground beef. While this was cooking, I was able to finish up my day with candid pecans which will be a gift and desert on Sunday. I am very proud of the hard work that I put in today but also realize this gets me ahead for the next couple of weeks.

Cooking accomplished:
Cowboy beans ( 4 total meals including today)
14 bags of ground beef
2 appetizers
Chill
Candid pecans.

Are you cooking for Christmas?

 

5 Things Friday

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  1. We decided to go ahead and purchase a new refrigerator. After much thought and some shopping around, we will be rearranging the kitchen and playroom to accommodate a full size refrigerator in addition to the one full size and the drink one we currently have.
  2. Our November budget is already turning out better than October so as long as something does not pop  up we should be back on track with budgeting.
  3. All three of the kids got excellent report cards and perfect attendance for the first quarter. Lily was more excited about perfect attendance than A honor roll. This is the first time in her school history that she has achieved perfect attendance.
  4. I am planning to set up the snow village tomorrow if I feel better than I do tonight. Matt has been so generous as to share his cold with me.
  5. I was bumped from behind today in the van. I am so thankful for the arms of protection that meant a small scratch on the van was all the damage and it did not even really affect my day as I decided not to file an accident report.

October In Review

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Blogging:  Goal: 14 per month Actually 16 post for the month!

Weight: Goal:  Met and maintain weight of 175. This goal will be considered met each month that weight loss is achieved and once this weight is achieved, each month maintained is considered achieved.  I did make some small gains/loss in the area. The last two weeks have been a real struggle.

Spiritual-  Goal. I want to spend time reading and or studying the Bible at least 5 days a week for the year.  Does half met count? I was doing so well until this past week.

Financial Goals-
1.  Full Fund the budget each month.   Fail

2. Emergency Fund to $2000.  Fail

3. Groceries: Goal is for $700. Fail

4. Gas: Spend $400 a month . Fail but not as bad as I thought  $435 for the month.

5. Eating out- $200 another decrease from even the previous month!

Disney- GOAL MET!

 

October was a long hard month for us.  Part of the reason was that it lasted 5 weeks, another contributing factor was the restocking that was needed after spending less than $400 for groceries in September.  I am looking forward to November with a more confident air! We are focusing on our Disney vacation. In order to start the month in a positive way hear are a couple of things that hopefully will help me achieve more of the goals.
1. Gas prices continue to drop, we have just finished paying all taxes for vehicles for the year and currently I don’t know of any repair needs for the month. I will be counting gas for the trip as part of the regular budget so I expect to stay right at $400.
2. We have already made our monthly trip to Costco, did that today. We ended up spending less than $400. We will be picking up our chicken order from Zaycon tomorrow so that will show allow us to not purchase any more meat until January. My goal for the month is to keep the grocery budget to $500 which will help to fund several other areas of our budget.
3. Our trip is mostly paid for, I have already made a list and purchased all the items that I *think* we need expect for cheap rain ponchos. The kids all have spending money and I am going to use “Disney Rewards” to cover the Bippity Boppity Boutique for at least 2 of the kids. We will be eating our while traveling but this should be a minimal expense of less than $200. We did eat out today but the plan is to eat at home until we leave for the trip.

5 Things Friday- 10/16

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1. We are predicted to have our first heavy freeze/frost this weekend. I am rather sad about this. This evening after dinner, we harvested and frozen any green peppers and basil that could be picked. Tomorrow, the kids are looking forward to harvesting the sweet potatoes. I am also planning to bring in as many tomatoes as can be saved.

2.We have currently gone 5 weeks without using our heat or air. This should bring our October and November Electric bills down to around $200. With temperatures to dip below freezing the next couple of nights. I am not sure how much longer we can enjoy this break.

3.I am so excited and proud to say that both the older girls are  gainful and legally employed.

4. All three of the “little” kids had dentist appointment yesterday. Both Kendall and Zach came away with no cavities and Lily has two small cavities but since they are both on baby teeth, the dentist suggested that we just wait. Zach has already started getting his permanent teeth and they have enamel.  The lack of enamel on most of his baby teeth resulted in $5000 of dental surgery at the age of 2 and we have been anxiously waiting to find out if the permanent teeth would be the same. Zach has the same over crowding issues that both Lily and Kendall have so braces at least once per kid if not twice per kid are in our future.

5.Budget wise for the month we are running fairly close. I  have already over spent the grocery budget. Gas prices in our area, during the past week have ranged from $2.09 to $1.99 with no rhyme or reason for the sudden increases or decreases, because of these sudden changes, our gas budget is going to be a close call and may even involve less driving the final week of October.

5 Things Friday

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1. I was so excited and surprised to get an email today that told me, we owe $300 less on our Disney trip than I had originally planned! This is HUGE! We have been planning and paying on this trip since February and our final payment is due mid-month.

2  I was able to sell 2 toys today and that gave me $50 to put in the budget this month.

3. We are experiencing a “rainy season” We have received rain every day for the past week and are predicted to receive an additional 4-12 inches of rain over the weekend. My plans include staying inside and long hot baths. The temperature is also a bit cool for North Carolina in October.

4. We currently are on week 4 without heating or cooling out house!  This should help reduce our electric bill to under $200 for the month of October and hopefully November!

5. We made several huge grocery store trips yesterday and have already spent all but $16 of our grocery budget for the month. I am so disappointed in this but am already facing the fact that I seriously need to increase the budget to a more achievable amount.  I need to do some research and figure out what a reasonable amount would be, any suggestions on where to find this information?

Menu Planning Monday

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This week is back to the normal busy routine. The weather is turning cooler so I am starting adding a soup day to most weeks. The challenge for the next two weeks is to use the groceries we have on hand and make a good list of items needed  on the first of October. I currently sit at $306 spent on groceries and that included buying a gallon of milk for this week.

Check out this awesome list of ways to use food and not waste, written by a friend of mine.

Now on to the menu plan

Breakfast– French toast, toast with new jelly, yogurt,  cereal, poptarts, grits or donuts at least for Monday and Tuesday. . Zach has been grabbing applesauce or canned fruit for breakfast as well.  Sunday morning- Breakfast Omelet

Lunch- For some odd reason, we have one Lunchable left in the fridge but no one wanted it this week. Lunches were all planned and mostly packed on Sunday. Our lunches include homemade chicken dunks, tomato, ranch and cheese, sandwiches one day, and a “grab day” which means crackers for most. I am going to take leftovers and Matt is eating these as well.

Dinner–Things are going really well with me arriving at home  for dinner most nights of the week.

Saturday- Lunch: McDonalds (profits from yard sale) .   Dinner- Hamburger Helper (we had the meat left from Thursday, we ended up eating our leftovers from Olive Garden).

Sunday- Lunch- My parents   Dinner-Pepper Steak using fresh peppers!

Monday- Rice Creola
Tuesday- Tomato Soup and Tomato/Basil Drop Biscuits
Wednesday-Salisbury steak, rice, green beans and fruit.
Thursday-  Coconut Shrimp
Friday- Chicken Broccoli Casserole

It just occurred to me that we are have rice three times this week. Matt loves it so I don’t think he will mind.

5 Things Friday

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1. Our September bills are starting to arrive. The good news is that the water bill is $8 less than last month and the electric bill is $30 less than last month. I am going to attribute both of the deceases to the week we were on vacation. We decided to turn the air up to 85 degree and did not use any water that week along with getting all our laundry taken care off while at the beach.

2. We are once again have a very unusual weather pattern. This summer has been hot with the majority of day reaching above 90*. However last Saturday, the temperature dropped to daytime highs in the 70s so we were able to turn off our air and open up the windows. So far, we have been 6 days without the use of heat or air. I have been researching the weather and we should be able to continue without heat or air for the next week or so. I fully expect to need to turn back on the air at least once more but in the meantime, our finances are enjoying the break.

3. I have remained under budget in both gas and groceries for the month.

4. Yesterday, Matt and I spent most of the day shopping for a desk to fit and complete our bedroom. This will be my primary “workspace” so I am trying to be both practical and frugal with this purchase. In the past I have been using a kitchen table and then the small computer desk. Kendall requested a desk and was able to clear out a huge space in her room, so that desk will be moving in her room.  We decided on purchasing both a new chair and desk at IKEA. Matt has worked really hard at getting everything assembled and I am going to hopefully find some time this weekend to organize this area.

5.  I am planning a “sleepover’ yard sale with my best friend tomorrow.  This should be fun and hopefully profitable.