Tomorrow is April 1st and I am taking on a budget challenge. In our budget we lump together our grocery, eating out, household items (such as toilet paper), baby items (diapers, etc) and personal care items (toothpaste, lotion, etc). We have pretty consistently been over budget in this category the past several months so for the month of April I am changing my methods.
Although I will still be allocating a monthly amount to this category, I will be dividing it down to a weekly amount that I can spend. This will ensure there is enough left for the last week of the month. The idea will be to buy just what we need for the week, and if there is any money leftover I will use that to stock up on good deals. This is a little difficult for me because I tend to look to the future and want to stock up on things, but it will be a lesson in trusting the Lord to provide, so that's never a bad thing.
We will have $45 per week to spend on most of the items in this category. The only things not included in the $45 will be formula and eating out.
Even though it's not April quite yet I did go ahead and do this week's shopping already...and I found that $45 goes quickly. However, we definitely have plenty to eat this week and I was able to buy two packs of diapers thanks to those very generous Huggies coupons that were available online recently.
So for week one of the challenge I did great, actually coming in under budget by $.10! Plus I know there's no money left this week so there's no point in even looking for deals or going to the store.
How about you? Need to take on a budget challenge of your own for the month of April?
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Monday, March 30, 2009
Menu Plan Monday
It's Monday again and we have a busier week ahead of us than we usually do so I've tried to plan simple meals for us. Here's our menu...
Monday
Leftover pasta from my parents, salad, french bread
Tuesday
Cheeseburger soup, biscuits, fruit
Wednesday
Leftovers or sandwiches
Thursday
Frozen pizza, carrots and dip
Friday
We'll be at a party for dinner!
Saturday
Lunch - Jeremy will have leftovers or sandwich while Clara and I are at a baby shower for my cousin
Dinner - Oven-baked Chuck Stew, biscuits
Sunday
Lunch - Pancakes, juice
Dinner - Tuna casserole, cooked carrots
Here is the recipe for the Cheeseburger Soup. It's from my cousin's mother-in-law and it's really yummy!
Cheeseburger Soup
½ lb. ground beef
¾ C. chopped onion
¾ C. shredded carrots
¾ C. diced celery
1 t. dried basil
1 t. dried parsley
4 T. butter, divided
3 C. chicken broth
4 C. diced, peeled potatoes
¼ C. flour
2 C. shredded cheddar cheese
1 ½ C. milk
¾ t. salt
½ t. pepper
¼ C. sour cream
Brown beef, drain and set aside. In same pan, sauté vegetables with basil and parsley in 1 T. butter until tender. Add broth, potatoes and beef. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer 10-12 minutes or until potatoes are tender. Meanwhile, in a small skillet melt remaining butter. Add flour, cook and stir 3-5 minutes or until bubbly. Add to soup and bring to boil. Cook and stir about two minutes. Reduce heat to low, add cheese, milk, salt and pepper. Cook until cheese is melted. Remove from heat and add sour cream. Serves 8.
Monday
Leftover pasta from my parents, salad, french bread
Tuesday
Cheeseburger soup, biscuits, fruit
Wednesday
Leftovers or sandwiches
Thursday
Frozen pizza, carrots and dip
Friday
We'll be at a party for dinner!
Saturday
Lunch - Jeremy will have leftovers or sandwich while Clara and I are at a baby shower for my cousin
Dinner - Oven-baked Chuck Stew, biscuits
Sunday
Lunch - Pancakes, juice
Dinner - Tuna casserole, cooked carrots
Here is the recipe for the Cheeseburger Soup. It's from my cousin's mother-in-law and it's really yummy!
Cheeseburger Soup
½ lb. ground beef
¾ C. chopped onion
¾ C. shredded carrots
¾ C. diced celery
1 t. dried basil
1 t. dried parsley
4 T. butter, divided
3 C. chicken broth
4 C. diced, peeled potatoes
¼ C. flour
2 C. shredded cheddar cheese
1 ½ C. milk
¾ t. salt
½ t. pepper
¼ C. sour cream
Brown beef, drain and set aside. In same pan, sauté vegetables with basil and parsley in 1 T. butter until tender. Add broth, potatoes and beef. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer 10-12 minutes or until potatoes are tender. Meanwhile, in a small skillet melt remaining butter. Add flour, cook and stir 3-5 minutes or until bubbly. Add to soup and bring to boil. Cook and stir about two minutes. Reduce heat to low, add cheese, milk, salt and pepper. Cook until cheese is melted. Remove from heat and add sour cream. Serves 8.
Friday, March 27, 2009
Five months!
Five months ago...
Today...
It's hard to believe Clara has been here for five months already! Being a parent can be hard work at times, but what a joy! It's nearly impossible not to tell her a million times a day how cute she is and how much we love her. We are blessed to be her parents!
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Deal of the Day
Muir Glen Organic canned tomatoes are normally $1.95/can. This week they are on sale at Rainbow for $1.25/can. Using coupons I bought four cans for a total of $1.25! That's what I call a deal.
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Making Your Home a Haven
For all you homemakers out there, check out this link for the first installment in a series called "Making Your Home a Haven."
The assignment for this week is to establish a morning routine of five things you will purpose to do first thing each morning. Here is my list:
1. Shower and get dressed
2. Pack Jeremy's lunch
3. Bible reading and prayer
4. Plan my top two tasks for the day
5. Daily chore (I've divided my main housecleaning chores across the week rather than cleaning the whole apartment in one day)
I'm open to some tweaking of the routine to better fit my family, but for now it's a start to help me stay focused and use my time wisely.
The assignment for this week is to establish a morning routine of five things you will purpose to do first thing each morning. Here is my list:
1. Shower and get dressed
2. Pack Jeremy's lunch
3. Bible reading and prayer
4. Plan my top two tasks for the day
5. Daily chore (I've divided my main housecleaning chores across the week rather than cleaning the whole apartment in one day)
I'm open to some tweaking of the routine to better fit my family, but for now it's a start to help me stay focused and use my time wisely.
Monday, March 23, 2009
Menu Plan Monday
Last week Jeremy had a cold. This week it looks like Clara and I are both joining in the fun. So although I'm still making my weekly menu plan, I also know that mom and baby being sick at the same time is not a good combo, so I won't be surprised if we don't stick to the plan completely.
M: Six-layer dish, homemade biscuits, pears
T: Pasta w/chicken and vodka sauce, frozen veggies
W: Leftovers
Th: Perch, baked potatoes, sweet corn
F: Brats, macaroni and cheese
Sa lunch: leftovers or sandwiches
Sa dinner: Macaroni tomato pie, garlic toast
Su lunch: French toast, fruit
Su dinner: Homemade pizza, carrots w/ranch dip
My sister was joking last night (or maybe not joking!) that she should just copy my menu each week, so I've included a couple recipes in case they interest you.
Six-layer Dish
Layer in order given in a 2 qt. greased casserole, seasoning each layer with salt and pepper.
-2 medium potatoes, sliced
-2 medium carrots, sliced
-1/3 cup uncooked rice
-2 small onions, sliced
-1 lb. ground beef
-1 qt. canned tomatoes
Sprinkle over:
-1 T. brown sugar
Bake at 300 degrees for 2.5 to 3 hours.
Macaroni Tomato Pie
Cook and drain accoring to package directions:
-1 cup macaroni
Grease a 9" pie plate and line sides and bottom with macaroni. Pour into macaroni shell:
-2 cups stewed tomatoes
Season with:
-1/4 t. pepper
-dash of oregano
-1 t. salt
Sprinkle over top:
-1/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese
-1/4 cup buttered bread crumbs
Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes or until crumbs are brown.
[Option: brown and season 1/4 lb. ground beef. Add to pie just before shredded cheese.]
Both recipes taken from More-with-Less Cookbook by Doris Janzen Longacre. I have not tried either of them before so try them at your own risk. :)
M: Six-layer dish, homemade biscuits, pears
T: Pasta w/chicken and vodka sauce, frozen veggies
W: Leftovers
Th: Perch, baked potatoes, sweet corn
F: Brats, macaroni and cheese
Sa lunch: leftovers or sandwiches
Sa dinner: Macaroni tomato pie, garlic toast
Su lunch: French toast, fruit
Su dinner: Homemade pizza, carrots w/ranch dip
My sister was joking last night (or maybe not joking!) that she should just copy my menu each week, so I've included a couple recipes in case they interest you.
Six-layer Dish
Layer in order given in a 2 qt. greased casserole, seasoning each layer with salt and pepper.
-2 medium potatoes, sliced
-2 medium carrots, sliced
-1/3 cup uncooked rice
-2 small onions, sliced
-1 lb. ground beef
-1 qt. canned tomatoes
Sprinkle over:
-1 T. brown sugar
Bake at 300 degrees for 2.5 to 3 hours.
Macaroni Tomato Pie
Cook and drain accoring to package directions:
-1 cup macaroni
Grease a 9" pie plate and line sides and bottom with macaroni. Pour into macaroni shell:
-2 cups stewed tomatoes
Season with:
-1/4 t. pepper
-dash of oregano
-1 t. salt
Sprinkle over top:
-1/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese
-1/4 cup buttered bread crumbs
Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes or until crumbs are brown.
[Option: brown and season 1/4 lb. ground beef. Add to pie just before shredded cheese.]
Both recipes taken from More-with-Less Cookbook by Doris Janzen Longacre. I have not tried either of them before so try them at your own risk. :)
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Monday, March 16, 2009
Biscuit review
As planned, I made these biscuits today to have with our dinner, and they turned out quite good. They took hardly any time to make, and I just baked up the number of biscuits we would need with dinner and I froze the rest like the recipe says. So now I have about 20 biscuits in the freezer just waiting for me to take a few and bake them up with a dinner!
I would compare them to the biscuits from KFC - a bit crustier than that on the outside, but kind of flaky/crumbly inside. Jeremy said I should make them again in the future so I take that to mean they were quite good! If you like biscuits, you should try this recipe.
I would compare them to the biscuits from KFC - a bit crustier than that on the outside, but kind of flaky/crumbly inside. Jeremy said I should make them again in the future so I take that to mean they were quite good! If you like biscuits, you should try this recipe.
$23.52 at Walgreens
All this, plus two things of ice cream, for just $23.52 at Walgreens! I think that's pretty great considering two packs of those diapers at regular price would be about $24.
Clara goes to the zoo!
Today Jeremy came home from work early so we could take advantage of the beautiful day and take Clara to the zoo for the first time! We were just there an hour, which I think was perfect for her. Here are a few pics...
and then she fell asleep on the way home...
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Menu Plan Monday
Here's our menu for this week:
M- Cheeseburger soup (my cousin made this and froze it for us), homemade biscuits, salad
T- Spaghetti and meatballs, broccoli, garlic toast
W- leftovers
Th- Six-layer dish, homemade biscuits
F- Brats, macaroni and cheese, fruit
Sa lunch- leftovers or sandwiches
Sa dinner- Breaded tilapia, oven fries, sweet corn
Su lunch- sausage and egg sandwiches, fruit
Su dinner- at my parents' house
This will be a pretty simple cooking week. The homemade biscuits is a new recipe for me...hopefully they turn out well!
M- Cheeseburger soup (my cousin made this and froze it for us), homemade biscuits, salad
T- Spaghetti and meatballs, broccoli, garlic toast
W- leftovers
Th- Six-layer dish, homemade biscuits
F- Brats, macaroni and cheese, fruit
Sa lunch- leftovers or sandwiches
Sa dinner- Breaded tilapia, oven fries, sweet corn
Su lunch- sausage and egg sandwiches, fruit
Su dinner- at my parents' house
This will be a pretty simple cooking week. The homemade biscuits is a new recipe for me...hopefully they turn out well!
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Yummy breakfast!
Sometimes she gets so excited about her rice cereal that she makes me feel like I'm missing out on something good!
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Just chillin'
Last night I set Clara on the couch next to Jeremy. A few minutes later I looked over and saw this...
She cracks me up sometimes!
Monday, March 9, 2009
Round, round, round, round, I get around!
Recently Clara has really figured out how to get around.
This afternoon I put her down like this...
and within 10 minutes she was like this!...
I have a feeling I'm going to be busy once she learns to crawl!
Menu Planning Monday
Last week's menu plan went quite well. The garlic chicken pizza was very yummy and a great use of leftover alfredo sauce! We also really liked the mexican lasagna. I'll definitely be making both of those again.
We stayed on track with my plan all week until the weekend. We were at my parents' house for dinner on Saturday and we also had some leftovers to eat up. But that's just fine because I only plan meals for the first three weeks of the month, knowing that some meals will get pushed to that last week.
Here's our menu for this week:
M- chicken salad in homemade pitas, fruit
T- breaded fish fillets, baked potatos, grilled brocolli spears
W- TGI Friday's frozen quesadilla rolls, fruit (I bring dinner to Jeremy at church on Wednesdays so we go for simple and portable meals!)
Th- Macaroni tomato pie, steamed broccoli
F- Tuna souffle sandwiches, fruit or salad
Sa lunch- leftovers or sandwiches
Sa dinner- frozen pizza, salad
Su lunch- egg and sausage sandwiches, fruit
Su dinner- Six-layer dish, homemade rolls
Some of these are new recipes so I'm excited to try them!
Friday, March 6, 2009
Friday spa day
Check out the cutie in her bathrobe after her morning bath!
Did you catch the super cute slippers?
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Double Coupon Day at Rainbow!!
Why have I never taken advantage of this before??? I must just be foolish. Every Wednesday is "double coupon day" at Rainbow Foods. Here's how it works...
Your total grocery bill must be at least $25 after sales and store coupons. Then they will double up to five coupons. The coupons can only be for $1 or less, but if you have five $1 coupons that they double, that's $10 off your bill! Plus you can still use countless other coupons of course, they just only will double five of them.
So I went to the store last night and I think it was the highlight of my day! My total came to $32.21 before coupons....after coupons it was $19.79.
These were the absolutely ridiculous deals:
--2 cans of Progresso Soup - Rainbow paid me $.20 to take them
--Crest toothpaste - Rainbow paid me $.61 to take this off their hands
--Pepperidge Farm texas toast - regularly $2.65, I paid $.50
From now on I'm always shopping on Wednesday!!
Your total grocery bill must be at least $25 after sales and store coupons. Then they will double up to five coupons. The coupons can only be for $1 or less, but if you have five $1 coupons that they double, that's $10 off your bill! Plus you can still use countless other coupons of course, they just only will double five of them.
So I went to the store last night and I think it was the highlight of my day! My total came to $32.21 before coupons....after coupons it was $19.79.
These were the absolutely ridiculous deals:
--2 cans of Progresso Soup - Rainbow paid me $.20 to take them
--Crest toothpaste - Rainbow paid me $.61 to take this off their hands
--Pepperidge Farm texas toast - regularly $2.65, I paid $.50
From now on I'm always shopping on Wednesday!!
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Menu Planning Monday (a day late)
I like to plan out our menu at least one week in advance. Usually just weeknight dinners, and then for the weekend I plan lunches and dinners.
I love scouring the grocery store ads each week to look for the best deals, then plan out our menu based on that and what we already have on hand. However, sometimes in my excitement about great deals, I end up keeping our cupboards full to the brim. So this month I have decided I am going to take inventory of what's in our freezer and cupboards, and see how many meals I can make with very little additional grocery shopping.
Here is our menu for the rest of this week:
T- chicken garlic pizza
W- leftover pork, potatos and carrots
Th- mexican lasagna, salad
F- roasted chicken, garlic mashed potatos, peas
Sa lunch- chicken salad pitas, fruit
Sa dinner- fresh ocean perch, rice, veggie
Su lunch- waffles, eggs
Su dinner- spaghetti w/homemade meatballs, garlic bread
In order to accomplish this menu I will need to buy tomatos, green onions, celery, rice and garlic bread. I also need sugar because I used the last of it to make muffins this morning. And I need tortillas for the mexican lasagna, but I think I'm going to try my hand at making those tomorrow!
So that's my plan for the week. I'm excited!
I love scouring the grocery store ads each week to look for the best deals, then plan out our menu based on that and what we already have on hand. However, sometimes in my excitement about great deals, I end up keeping our cupboards full to the brim. So this month I have decided I am going to take inventory of what's in our freezer and cupboards, and see how many meals I can make with very little additional grocery shopping.
Here is our menu for the rest of this week:
T- chicken garlic pizza
W- leftover pork, potatos and carrots
Th- mexican lasagna, salad
F- roasted chicken, garlic mashed potatos, peas
Sa lunch- chicken salad pitas, fruit
Sa dinner- fresh ocean perch, rice, veggie
Su lunch- waffles, eggs
Su dinner- spaghetti w/homemade meatballs, garlic bread
In order to accomplish this menu I will need to buy tomatos, green onions, celery, rice and garlic bread. I also need sugar because I used the last of it to make muffins this morning. And I need tortillas for the mexican lasagna, but I think I'm going to try my hand at making those tomorrow!
So that's my plan for the week. I'm excited!
Monday, March 2, 2009
Ode to a kitchen gadget
Instant meat thermometer,
I love you!! You make my life so much easier. No more opening the oven repeatedly to see if the meat is done. No more taking the meat out of the oven and then asking Jeremy if it's done because I just don't trust my judgment when it comes to meat. No more cutting our poor meat in half to see if it looks like it's done, then putting it back in the oven "just to be safe," then of course cutting it in half again to see if it's done. No more asking Jeremy repeatedly as we eat, "Are you sure this is cooked enough?"
Now I simply put the probe in the meat, set the desired temperature, and go about my other business until the alarm sounds, telling me, "Fret not. Your meat is cooked to a safe internal temperature!"
What did I ever do without you? I love you.
I love you!! You make my life so much easier. No more opening the oven repeatedly to see if the meat is done. No more taking the meat out of the oven and then asking Jeremy if it's done because I just don't trust my judgment when it comes to meat. No more cutting our poor meat in half to see if it looks like it's done, then putting it back in the oven "just to be safe," then of course cutting it in half again to see if it's done. No more asking Jeremy repeatedly as we eat, "Are you sure this is cooked enough?"
Now I simply put the probe in the meat, set the desired temperature, and go about my other business until the alarm sounds, telling me, "Fret not. Your meat is cooked to a safe internal temperature!"
What did I ever do without you? I love you.
Grammie came to visit!
This past weekend Jeremy's mom came to visit us. It was such a treat having her here! The weekend was short, but Clara soaked up as much Grammie time as she could.
Jeremy introduced Judy to Guitar Hero!
And Clara had a front row seat to the rock show!
Last snuggles on Sunday morning :(
Thanks for coming to visit, Grammie! Come again anytime!
Jeremy introduced Judy to Guitar Hero!
And Clara had a front row seat to the rock show!
Last snuggles on Sunday morning :(
Thanks for coming to visit, Grammie! Come again anytime!
Four months old!
I can hardly believe our baby is four months old already! At four months she enjoys playing with toys, sucking on her fingers, watching TV (we try not to let this happen much), talking to her friends the TV and the bedroom light, rolling from her tummy to her back, smiling, laughing, eating rice cereal, taking baths, and keeping mommy and daddy guessing as to the best method for getting her to go to sleep. We've come to love her so, so much!
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