Menu Plan Monday

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imageSide note…yes I plan to include random pictures from the beach with each post,just because it is fun!

One of the ways that we are able to afford our vacation is by planning ahead. The focus of this beach trip is the beach, which for us means alot of playing in the sand and water. The condo we stay at is at least a 10 minute drive from   any resturants or stores so we plan ahead and usually only eat out a couple of times.

The menu looks  a little different this week because we actually plan a little bit more.

Lunch- “Lunchable” and sandwhiches on the beach.

 

Sunday- Breakfast- Cracker Barrel    Lunch- Steak and Shake Dinner-Pimento cheese sandwhiches
Monday- Breakfast- gravy and biscuits, Dinner- PF Changs for my birthday.
Tuesday- Breakfast- Donuts, DInner- Mexician feast.
Wednesday-Breakfast- Sausage cresant rolls, Dinner- Baked ZIti
Thursday- Breakfast-poptart/ cereal. DInner- Hot Dogs
Friday- Breakfast- Eggs, bacon, toast.  Dinner: Chicken and Broccli
Saturday- Breakfast- Poptart/Toast/cereal.  Dinner:  Seafood out or left-overs

Vacation Sunday

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Today we officially began our vacation. Kendall was able to get up before 6:30 to start her vacation. She considers this an awesome privilege because normal she has to wait until at least 6:30 before coming out of bed. We eat at Cracker Barrel for breakfast.  We did a small bit of shopping before enjoying the ocean this afternoon. Enjoy some of the pictures from today.

Saving on Saturday August 8th

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These are the items that I was able to purchase last week at CVS. My favorite deal was purchasing 2 boxes of cereal, 2 shampoos and a bottle of hand soap for $0.40. The reason this was possible was that I received an “extra” 5 ECB for reaching $50 in beauty care spending. I used that in conjunction with the 5 ECB for purchasing $20 in P&G products from last week.  When you combine all the transactions 5 in total I spent around $8 and saved 81%.  The sharpies are going to finish up Zach birthday gift (autograph books for Disney). All the other items when in my beach stock.(More details on these hopefully later in the week.

I made several additional shopping trips this week to grab up “Lunchables” which we will use at the beach for lunches and for easy school lunches to get us back in the swing in a couple of weeks.  My best grocery deal this week came at Food Lion. I had to make a shopping trip to purchase baby food to use at work, I did use a $1.50 coupon that printed at the machine, At the end of the transaction, the regrister also printed a $3.00 catalina. I used this to purchase bread flour for $.25.

I have also started to play around and use the ibotta and checkout 51 apps. So far that have been fairly simple to use and I am not purchasing items that are not already on my list, so ever little bit helps. This week alone I earned $0.75 at Checkout 51 and 5.35 at Ibbota,

What have you been doing to save money?

Typical Thursday-08/06/2015

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Have you ever thought about or wondered what a “typical” day looks like for other people or how someone spends their day. I do all the time, one of the reasons I prefer to read blogs instead of books these days. So today I thought I would share a “typical” Thursday with you.  I must first begin by saying today is not entirely typical because Matt is working at the coliseum all day to help cover the cost of cheerleading. But really is any day the same around here?

I did have a couple of goals in mine for today including washing all the bed stuff, picking up key for our vacation, returning an item to Walmart and doing some last minute shopping for our trip.

This morning prior to leaving to drop Lily off at her science camp which was from 8-12, we washed Zach and Kendall sheets and stuff and Lily was in the washer. Lily’s camp is at her school and they have been sending message about a “book” walk for all ages. Both Kendall and Zach were excited and since the temperature was in the low 70s, we decided to check it out.

We all enjoyed the book “The Curious Gardener” and after reading we decided to hang out on the playground for a bit.

Next stop was the local grocery store “Conrad and Hinkle” to pick up pimento cheese for our trip. Around the corner, was the reality office that I dropped off payment and picked up a keys for vacation.  Our next stop was Food Lion, I need to purchase some baby food to use at work. A dash home to unload the groceries, grab a snack and bathroom break and get the first set of sheets on the line. Our bed items went into the washer. Off to Wal-Mart, we headed, I returned an items, grabbed some “Lunchables” and small snacks for the trip. Back home for lunch and hanging out more clothes before we needed to pick up Lily.

Haley wanted to have a new phone placed on her number so she came over to get that arranged. I was so glad she stayed and watched the kids while I got a chance for a Pedicure and Manicure. Do I look beachy?IMG_1917While getting my nails done, a storm came up and with a quick text, Haley and the kids rescued our sheets from the line prior to the storm!  THANK YOU HALEY! I stopped at Food Lion again, because we are our of bread flour.  This stop at home is a little bit longer as I have to make all the beds and get everyone fed dinner. Finally, Kendall has tumbling from 5:30 to 6:30 and Lily has cheerleading practice from 6-8pm today. Hopefully Matt will meet us so that someone can be home prior to 8:30. A typical day, no wonder I am so tired.

What does your day look like?

 

Monday Menu Planning 08/03/2015

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After begin so far over budget last month, you would expect us to have lots of food and items to choose from. Unfortunately, this is not the case, mainly because of the way I shop.  We are heading on vacation  next weekend and my plan is to not shop for groceries until after our return. This should help reduce/contain the bill for August. So this week is about using fresh items and cleaning out the pantry so to speak.

Breakfast-Cereal, Poptarts, grits, French  toast, breakfast burritos and maybe some baked Oatmeal to help.

Lunch- Leftovers, sandwiches, dipping day at least once. I made a batch of egg salad and chicken salad on Saturday so sandwiches are the main choice for the week. If needed we have bowls of Mac and Cheese as well as crackers that could be come lunch easily.

Dinner– Focus on smaller meals with little to no leftovers to toss.

Saturday- Lunch: Egg Salad and Chicken salad on Ritz crackers, because we had no bread.   Dinner- Pasta salad with pork, watermelon cantaloupe..

Sunday- Lunch- Cowboy beans.  Dinner-Chicken salad sandwich on fresh sour dough bread.
Monday- Pork chops, potato salad, cantaloupe and cucumber relish
Tuesday- Roast with carrots, onions and fresh fruit.
Wednesday-Hamburger Helper
Thursday-  Layer Taco Salad
Friday- Falafas in crockpot and/or leftovers.

Currently we have about 1/4 a gallon of milk left and are out of several of the kids favorite foods but they are leaning to eat what is on hand. I am hoping to grab an awesome deal on lunchables to use when school starts so at least they have something to look forward to.

Saving on Saturday-August 1st

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sosTarget is one of my favorite stores to shop. I love combining sales and other special deals. This week was an awesome week to stock up on drinks and purchase jeans. I actually received a text message from Target asking me to combine a sale with a 35% off cartwheel of sodas.. I was able to purchase 4 12 packs of Diet Coke, 1- 12 pack of Coke and 8 bottles of Diet Coke for $13.00 or $2.16 each. These will come in hand on our upcoming  Beach trip. Matt requested we grab some “Crystal Lite” packs as well. They were also on sale. Prior to making the trip, I ordered 105 K-cups, they were on sale at Buy Two, Get one Free with an additional 10% off for store pick up, the individual cost of $0.33 each. The final great deal at Target was jeans for both girls, on sale for $10 with an additional 5% using my Target card, which is connect to my regular account.

Shopping is not the only way that I am saving money this week. We are planning our annual trip to the Beach next week. In the past, we have been able to stock up on “Lunchables” to use most days on the beach. This has not been the case so far this year. I have decided that it would make the most sense to make a huge batch of sour dough rolls next week, bake and use these as our ‘sandwich bread” Today, my goal is to make egg salad, and chicken salad to use for these meals. I will also be make a big bowl of pasta salad to take as our meal to the pool this afternoon.

Menu planning and working out  a laundry schedule for the week to maximize the use of our clothes line should round out the day.

 

July in Review

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Blogging:  Goal: 14 per month Been a crazy month and I don’t even feel like going back and making one more 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.  No regular exercise…. got to get back in a routine.

Spiritual-  Goal. I want to spend time reading and or studying the Bible at least 5 days a week for the year. Fail fail fail.

Financial Goals-
1.  Full Fund the budget each month.   I can imagine that this may seem strange to some people but I set my budget based on what I need each month to cover all expected bills with extra savings going into various counts for non monthly bills. Some money are much easier than others. For example July was a crazy spending month, however with extra monies coming in from the refinancing of the house we were still able to be totally over budget but everything paid and future expenses saved for.  Goal met!

2. Emergency Fund to $2000.  Met. Added $100!  Goal met 2 months in a row!

. 3. Groceries: Spend $700 a month .Total Fail.  We started the month with a trip to Shuler meats. In addition, we have had to purchase several items such as toilet paper due to running out. Total spent in July 934.12

4. Gas: Spend $400 a month .  This is a huge FAIL!  Because of the wired state of NC, I paid sales tax on the new van when I purchased but also had to pay property tax in order to receive the permanent tag. The car also required an oil change which made me $110 over budget for the month of July.

5. Eating out- tracking purposes only $465

Disney- Goal Met! We have now paid for over half of our Disney trip!

July was intended to be our “budget reset’ month. It also ended up a very expensive and crazy busy month as well. I am so glad to look forward to our Beach trip in August for the life reset I need. Then watch out it is full steam ahead to Disney

Saving on Sunday

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sosOpps!  You are right today is Sunday. I did not get much saving done yesterday because we spent most of the day enjoying the pool.  Kendall had a friend in addition to Lily having a friend spend the night so I got not a lot accomplished except for spending time with the kids. I am starting to realize and trying to enjoy more time just hanging out with the little kids, I know in a flash they will be too busy to hang out! Now back to saving. I did do some shopping today, even with all three little kids in tow. Matt is working for cheerleading so I decided the sales were good enough and we needed most items.

First stop today was CVS. It has been 3 weeks since I last went to CVS, I hope they will not be having another test market of no sales ad in the near future. Today I purchased 7 bottles of shampoo, a bottle of detangle, 2 bottles of Tide free and clear, 4 bottles of body wash,2 sticks of deodorant and a battery powered toothbrush for $36 with a 65% saving, I also have 10 ECB to use in the future.

We also stopped by Aldi to grab fresh produce including cantaloupe, watermelon, grapes and cottage cheese that I need for a recipe. Total spent at Aldi was 18.47

We are continuing to get lots of tomatoes from the garden. I have managed to replenish the shelf of stewed tomatoes and discovered an awesome recipe for spaghetti sauce. I adapted it to the crockpot and hopefully will make at least a batch a week for the month of August. Currently, I am freezing in containers to make Baked Ziti with. My plan is to make 12 of these  and then just freeze spaghetti sauce, even the kids say this is the best sauce they have eaten.

How did you save this month?