April Showers

Wow, Spring is finally here!  I LOVE spring.  Love it!  I love the green popping up everywhere.  I love the beautiful flowers that are blooming.  The little cute, fuzzy baby animals - everything!  And I actually even love the rain that comes.  You know the saying, "April showers bring May flowers."

Besides actual rain, it seems like lately the savings are just raining down!  Just last week at Target I ran across some amazing clearance deals!  How about a digital 5.5 qt Crock-pot marked down to $8.71 from $49.99?! Between recent good coupons, great clearance finds and lots of free samples showing up in my mailbox, I feel like I just can't lose!  I'm really not trying to brag - I just want to share the good fortune.  Part of my good luck has been because of a few blogs I've recently started following.  If you are looking for ways to spend less money without sacrificing your lifestyle then I highly recommend following these blogs:

http://www.TheFrugalGirls.com/

http://afewshortcuts.com/

http://moneysavingmom.com/wp-content/w3tc/pgcache/moneysavingmom.com/

http://www.thecouponproject.com/the_coupon_project/

http://www.goodcheapeats.com/

In like a lion...

Well, I don't know about our weather coming in like a lion this month, but I feel like I am!  I'm excited again this month about my budget and menu planning and I'm really going full force!

This month I'm doing things a bit differently.  I planned out my menu with several repeating dinners.  I did this so I can attempt a small amount of freezer cooking this month.  After doing my grocery shopping (only $153 for the month!!!), I cooked up ALL of the ground beef - 15lb.  Then I separated it into gallon sized freezer bags and shoved it in the fridge until I had the time to throw a few meals together.  We'll have tacos/burritos a few times, tator tot casserole, friendship casserole, and a few other ground beef staples.  Everything will either be assembled and ready to pop in the oven, or divided into meal components, each in it's own labeled bag.  Yesterday I boiled a whole chicken to make soup.  While picking the chicken clean, I realized just how much meat was there!  Way too much for just soup!  So I put some away for a chicken fiesta casserole, and quite a bit for chicken salad.  Three full meals (plus leftovers) from one $4 chicken - not bad.   More chicken will be cooked today or tomorrow on the grill and put aside for meals later in the month.

With baseball/tee ball season starting, it's going to be really hard to get a good tasting, healthy meal on the table that will make everyone happy.  At least with a few family favorites in the freezer I know I'll have some options.  And don't forget, of course, about that wonderful crock pot!  If it's possible to be in love with an appliance, then call me smitten!

This is my menu for the month of March - this is not done in any order at all - I pick and choose each week according to what we feel like and what is going on for us day to day.

Dinner:

1. White bean soup*
2. chicken stuffing bake (cream of chick, mixed veggies, stuffing)
3. oven bbq chicken, potato pockets, crusty rolls
4. Salisbury Steak, mashed potatoes, broccoli
5. Calzones
6. Pesto Ravioli with Chicken
7. cheeseburger casserole
8. Chicken noodle soup - Southern Plate recipe
9. friendship casserole
10. friendship casserole
11. tator tot casserole
12. tator tot casserole
13. burrito/tacos
14. burrito/tacos
15. burrito/tacos
16. pulled pork sandwiches
17. pulled pork sandwiches
18. adobo chicken
19. black bean quesadillas
20. bbq meat balls
21. turkey sloppy joes
22. pesto ravioli with chicken
23. chicken and dumplings

February

Wow, is it February already?!  And almost half way through at that!

It's my second month at attempting a dinner menu and sticking with it.  It's going well so far - I love having a list to choose from instead of flying by the seat of my pants every night.  I type up a list of meals that my family loves, or new ones I want to try.  Then I rummage through the kitchen and freezer to see what we already have on hand.  I make one big shopping trip at the beginning of the month to get the items I need for my menu, as well as breakfast, lunch and snack items.  Then through the rest of the month, I'll make quick trips to get milk, bread, and eggs.  For February so far, I've spent $153!  That's not bad.  I will have to make at least one more trip for milk, but I have everything I need for our actual meals!

Last month I didn't do what I should with my grocery budget, but this month I WILL.  I am taking out my usual $150 a week for groceries in cash and carrying it in an envelope.  Whatever is not spent at the end of the month will go to pay off a bill!  I am very excited about this - the idea of paying things off just makes my little heart race!  My ultimate goal is to be debt free by the time I'm 30 years old.  I don't have much time left!!!

How did January turn out?

I know you've been asking yourself when on earth I'd update about how my resolutions are panning out!  You've been on the edge of your seats, right?  Of course!

Well, I'm happy to say that so far, so good!  As a recap, my resolutions were to be a better Christian, better wife and mother, take care of my body and take care of my budget.

Being a better Christian is both easy and hard!  I am trying to spend more time in the word every single day.  I open myself up to listen more to Him and take His lead in my daily life.

As far as being a better wife and mother goes - who knows how I'm doing on that?!  I try to show my husband and kiddos affection every chance I get, tell them I love them and do little things for them every day.  I'm trying to be an advocate for C1, since he's not getting some of the things he needs at school.  I'm also working on keeping a PEACEFUL home!!!  My home should be a safe haven to all who live here, not a stressful, messy place we all dread to see!

My body.  UGH.  Not doing so great here.  I've been battling a case of the lazies and the eat-whatever-the-heck-I-want-tos.  It stinks.  I will get back on track TODAY!!!  I have to!

And the good old budget...well, it's going ok.  My challenge last month was to eat out of the pantry, to only buy food that we HAD to have to cook meals on my menu and to spend drastically less.  I did succeed at that, actually.  My normal grocery budget is right around $600 a month for our family of five.  Last month I spent right around $200.  That's a pretty great reduction, right?  The only problem?  I ate out at lunch more, had some pretty big expenses relating to birthdays and just general shopping.  Oops.

February is a new month - and I'm excited!

Update - budget in tact...sort of.

So I've been doing amazingly well at not going to the grocery store this month!  I have enough food to feed an army in my kitchen and a great menu planned.  The only problem?  I can't seem to cook when D is out of town!  What on earth is wrong with me?!  I have cooked several meals from the menu, but I've also relied on convenience foods from the freezer, which I really wanted to stay away from!  At least I'm not eating out every night, right?  I think one of my problems is that I have so many new recipes on the menu and I keep thinking that D would really like them, so I want to wait until he's home.  Right now, I'm still under $200 for a month's worth of groceries, though I will need to head to the store for milk and eggs.  I'm probably going to just make a few loaves of bread instead of buying them.  That will save me a few bucks, plus it will be healthier and taste better.

For anyone else doing the challenge - how are you doing?  Are you struggling with anything?  Any tips for the rest of us?

My attempt at frugality

So as I mentioned before, a group of my friends is doing a challenge this month. We are trying to eat out of our pantries without buying much more. The idea is to use up what you already have on hand, which will both save money and cause you to waste less food.

I began this challenge by pulling everything out of my pantry, taking inventory and organizing everything. Then I went online, visited several awesome blogs to get frugal ideas and recipes and made a menu for the entire month. So far, I've tried some awesome recipes and fell in love with several blogs in the process. A few of my favorite new recipes all came from Mommy's Kitchen, a blog started by Tina, who is a mom after my own heart! She is passing her love of cooking down to her kids and in the mean time making GREAT family friendly food! Another great blog to check out is Life as a Mom. You can check out details of the challenge my friends and I are doing there.

An unexpected bonus of printing out a 31 entree menu is that I can show the list to my husband and he can choose what he wants me to make! While I did come up with the menu items, I don't have to make the final decision every single day on my own any more. Ahhh, such sweet relief!

Last night I made my final run to the grocery store for the month (I hope!). So far this month, I have spent less than $200 on groceries for the entire month! Our average grocery bill is about $600 a month, not counting eating out. I really hope to keep this up for the entire year. I know most months I will spend more than $200 because I won't have my pantry stocked like I did this month. But with the help of my friends and a few frugal bloggers, I should have my budget in a healthy place for 2010!

Welcome to 2010!

Wow, already a new year. A new decade. A fresh start, right? Isn't that how we are all supposed to view the "new year?" Time to find that resolution - now is the time to eat healthy, get fit, organize your house, save money, basically be a better person. Right? Right. And really, I guess this is as good a time as any to really sit and focus on what your life is. What direction are you going? Is it a good path? Will it lead you to where you want to be in the end?

This year, more than others I've been trying to gain some insight into what my real life goals are. Probably my number one goal - to be a good representative of Christ. Of his mission here. I wonder if other people see Christ in me, if they see goodness, faithfulness, love.

Another area I have thought about is my family. Am I the best wife I could be? 2009 kind of sucked in my marriage, if I'm being honest. I have to own up to my part in that. And I'm sure my mothering could sure use some work, too. Was I too harsh, not stern enough? Did I show my children that I love them every single day?

The third area I want to focus on in 2010 is my body. If you listen to the old adage that says your body is a temple... youch. I'm not very respectful of that temple! I want to get healthy this year - slow, small changes will add up to big success in this area, I think.

And the final area of my life filled with resolutions - money. UGH Wouldn't everyone rather just spend money on all the fun stuff without regard to their mortgage, electric or water bill or health costs? I sure would! Instead, I'm taking part in a challenge this month with some friends. This month we are going to "eat out of our pantries" and REALLY cut down on our grocery bills. I love a good challenge, so this should start the year off right for me. I am going to adopt the envelope system for groceries, gas and eating out/entertainment. The weekly budget will be put in the envelopes, and when the cash is gone, it's gone! This will lead to greater savings and less stress for me!

Ok, and one last goal. To blog. Seriously - the amount of time between my blog posts is ridiculous. I'll set this as a bookmark on my new computer and will blog at least once a week. Could be about the boys, the MOFIA, budgeting/couponing, crafts - who knows. But I'll be here!