March Menu

This month I decided to use the Mom Advice Aldi meal plans again (see, I told you I love these!).

Here's what I have planned:

1.  Ravioli & salad
2.  Salmon & rice
3.  Vegetable Pasta soup and Potatoes
4.  Meatloaf and mashed potatoes
5.  Turkey sandwiches & chips (perfect for our first soccer game night!)
6.  Salsa chicken
7.  Ham & macaroni with broccoli
8.  Chicken Parmesan & pasta
9.  Pumpkin Pancakes (Saturday breakfast) with leftovers for supper
10.  Chicken Delicious & Salad
11.  Pork chops, noodles and carrots
12.  Quiche with Salad
13.  Grilled Cheese with Potato soup
14.  Leftovers
15.  Tilapia, cheesy potatoes and broccoli
16.  Taco soup
17.  Ham & potato salad
18.  Breakfast casserole with coffee cake
19.  Sloppy joes, chips and carrots
20.  Balsamic Vinegar chicken with veggies
21.  Chicken burritos and chips
22.  Spaghetti & meatballs with salad
23.  Leftovers
24.  Beef Stroganoff with spinach
25.  Rigatoni Salad
26.  Dorito Chicken casserole
27.  Roasted chicken with rice
28.  Macaroni and cheese with grilled sausage
29.  Chicken Rice with Salad
30.  Brunch for Saturday breakfast and leftovers for supper
31.  Pork Chops with Potatoes and veggies

As you can see, I did a TOTAL monthly calendar this go round.  I went shopping yesterday at Aldi to purchase enough food for half of the month.  I spent $200 for breakfast, lunch, supper and snacks to get us through mid March.

Snacks and desserts will include:
1.  homemade granola bars
2.  apple crisp
3.  banana muffins
4.  banana bread
5.  chocolate crinkle cookies

This month for breakfast I told the Fish Sticks that we would cut down on cereal (which they seem to be getting sick of after I hit that HUGE cereal sale) and have designated breakfast foods for each day of the week.

Here's the plan:
Monday - pancakes
Tuesday - sausage OR bacon with eggs and OJ
Wednesday - oatmeal
Thursday - muffins with fruit
Friday - cereal
Saturday - taking requests
Sunday - cinnamon rolls

Let's see if I can stick with that plan.  Some items I will have to make the night before or at least prep things.  Fish Sticks are pretty excited about it though.

Next up, I can't wait to show you the Ultimate Menu Calendar that my girls helped me make yesterday.  I got it off of Pinterest.  I'm hoping it will be fun and easy to use for meal planning.  The author of the calendar told me she spends $300 to feed her family of 5 per month!!  WHAT?  Sounds insane to me, but I'm game to try out what she does to see if it can help this family of 8 save some grocery money.

Shopping

I found each of these items for 25 cents each at Aldi today.  I know they were from Christmas, but in my opinion those cookies that are in gingerbread house kits taste like they've been in the package for months already.  I didn't figure the Fish Sticks would care.  I guess anything taste yummy with icing and candy on it.  I told my mom that I might even like beets if they were smothered in icing and candy.  :)

So I got 3 red velvet cakes mixes, 2 boxes of a giant gingerbread man kit, 2 boxes of sugar cookie ornament decorating kit, 2 boxes of red velvet pancake mix and 2 boxes of gingerbread whoopie pie kit.  I figured they'd be great for after school snacks.

 

Walgreens had Fish oils for FREE, Melatonin for FREE, Colgate for FREE and Kleenex for BIGI - matched with a coupon came to about $1 each after coupons and Register Rewards.

CVS ThermaCare for FREE, Colgate for 49 cents, Mentos for 49 cents and Cheerios for $1 each after coupons and ECBs.

Got some pretty good sales this week.  Go get them too!

Home Management Notebook

I love my iPhone and all its helpful apps. With all the technology at our fingertips and all the wonderful organizational ideas on the internet, we should all be wonderful at keeping our home organized, right?

I've always been a person that writes everything down and makes lists all over the place.  When the Daytimers were so popular, I had one.  Actually I had many over the years.  I even had a Daytimer that turned into a purse.  Very high tech, it was.  :)

Although I try to keep as much information as I can electronically through my computer, iPad or iPhone, I still am just a paper girl.  I have a hard time having to look things up with buttons and screens instead of flipping through pages sometimes.  I guess it's the same as reading Kindle books and holding an actual book.  Just a bit of old-fashioned in me.

One of my Daytimer replacements would be my Home Management notebook.  A day doesn't go by that I don't flip through it, write in it and read from it....several times.

On the outside I have posted a list I found on line that compares a Super Mom and an Abiding Mom.  (I have it pinned if you want to have one yourself.  It's good stuff!)  I tend to strive for Super Mom, so having this posted on the outside of my binder is crucial to helping me keep my priorities and goals in order and focused on the heart of God.

Here are my tabs and what they hold:

**Groceries - a place to jot down my lists, usually categorized by stores and sometimes if I know my store well, my list will be arranged based on aisles in the stores (That's why I love Aldi so much - great prices and only 5 aisles.)

**Meal Planning - here is where I jot down the meals that I am going to cook for the month.  I also try to include lists of ideas for breakfast and lunches or menus for those for the month also.

**Gifts - I am horrible about buying gifts early and then forgetting what I paid and that I actually have it.  Here is where I write down what I've purchased (when I find it on clearance, of course), who it is for and what I paid for it.  I also have lists of gift ideas for all family members and a chart of birthdays in order and purchases for those.

**To Do - this is just my general daily or weekly To Do list.  Most of these items have been written out on Sunday night or in the evenings after I've already gone to bed but have to jump up and jot down something that I know I will forget in the morning.  (Tell me I'm not the only one!)

**Schedules - this would be the sports schedules that the coaches have handed me, the library story hour calendar (Note to self - tomorrow is HAT day at library!), chore schedules for myself and the kids, etc.

**Budget & Spending - this section has our budget that My Man has printed out for me, plus notes that I have added to that as I try to separate the money that he gives me into categories for our monthly groceries, school needs, drug store, newspaper subscription, etc.  Oftentimes I will include goals for myself on saving or good articles that I have read about budgeting.

**Health - I have a few printed charts with exercises on them from Pinterest, some herbal remedies and herbal recipes, charts I have collected with food portion sizes, calories, etc.

**Garden - Under this tab I have jotted down notes from our summer gardens like the best green beans to plant, when to prune the fruit trees and berries, plants that like to be planted next to each other, a list of the seeds we buy each year, how to get rid of certain garden pests, and inventory of the canned vegetables I have made.

**Family - I have notes I've taken from child training books or video series, training tips based on Scripture that I have copied from blogs, a list of chores that I pay my kids to do for extra money, movies that we haven't seen but would like to, and a list of ways to show love to My Man (that I asked him for a few years ago).

**Psalms - this last section is a list of Psalms categorized with sub sections of 5 weeks.  I like to read these as I eat my lunch or when I need a quick re-focus in the middle of the day.  Under each section of weeks, they are divided into days of the week.  I used to be very regular in reading the Psalm over lunch each day.  Most days though I use it on a "as needed" basis.  I need to get back into that old routine.

 

I know everyone probably has their own way of keeping track of things to manage their home.  I have tried many ways over the years but keeping a notebook with tabs seems to be the best that works for me.  I don't usually need to lug it around with me as I can just take papers out as needed.

The most important thing is not HOW we keep ourselves organized as housewives but THAT we keep ourselves organized as housewives.  Being organized keeps us efficient, more relaxed, more productive and in the end, more cheerful with more time to spend with our family and our God.

Ministry Challenge

I told you in January that I had a ministry opportunity to share with you and here it is.

You know I recently read "7" by Jen Hatmaker and then "Crazy Love" by Frances Chan.  Both are super challenging books that have potential to either rock your world or for you to ignore.  Knowledge is dangerous, ladies.

So after reading those books I had to ask myself, "What am I doing?  Really, what am I doing to impact eternity, to love God more and to live out what He really intended the church to do?"  It's more than just being a Christian mom and wife.  It's intentional.  As I love Jesus more, I see His heart and share His heart more.  Our adoption has become part of that outflow of His love in our lives.  What other ways can I love others because of my love for my Heavenly Father?

At the beginning of the year, Ruth's 2nd grade teacher sent home the idea to make "homeless care packages" and pass them out.  She sent a list of things for us to collect and the class bagged them up and sent one to each 2nd grader.

I hate to tell you that ours stayed in our van from September until Dec. 19. when we saw a homeless man on the way to the airport when we were heading to Turkey.  Our county is a wealthy one and homeless people are not seen often.  I know that they are here, just not a daily thing we encounter.

Recently I became aware that the people who sell newspapers on the street corners are poor and allowed to keep any excess money that people give them when buying the publication.  Some of them even write articles for the publication.  I respect that they are looking for ways to raise money and hold jobs - even undesirable jobs like standing on a cold street corner all day.  I see then each time I go to town.

We also have friends who live right in the middle of Nashville who I am sure would be happy to pass some out for us.  (Jen, hope you are up for this!)

I pinned this idea on Pinterest if you want to check it out also under Ministry.

Here's my challenge to you.  I would love for you to join me on this opportunity.  Let's make 5 bags at a time and try to pass them out in 1 month.  If 5 is too ambitious, then set a goal for yourself.

I decided to put mine in denim bags that I am sewing out of excess panels that have been sitting in my closet for years.  That way they can reuse them, but gallon Ziplocs are sufficient or reuseable shopping bags.

Here's what I am putting in mine:
I found hats and gloves on 75% clearance at CVS this week.  They came to about 95 cents each.
I got wet wipes, travel tissue and peanuts at Dollar Tree.

I got peanut butter crackers at Aldi, soap, Slim Jims, toothbrushes and Bibles at Dollar Tree and hand sanitizer at CVS (sorry for the upside down phone photo).  I got small water bottles at Aldi.

I put all these things into one bag with a deoderant and toothpaste from my couponing stash.  I also put in 2 gospel tracts. 

Some other ideas would be a fast food gift card for $5, gum, mints, chapstick (oops - I forgot that but will add that to my bag too because I bought some just for this.), an Evangecube, a Bible comic book (I plan to get some of these from No Greater Joy ministries, granola bar or protein bar,....

So who's in?  Who wants to try to show Christ's love by such a simple thing as this?  I know some of you might be on a tight budget.  We are too, but these are things I collected as I was out shopping, keeping an eye out for sales and deals.

Sock Bun Pinned

I found this on Pinterest and had to try it.  You cut the toe off of a sock, roll it into a doughnut and wrap your ponytail around it.  It's easy and looks like a big, perfect bun.  Just want I need since my hair has thinned in half the thickness it used to be.  My girls loved it and right now are wearing both the socks that I cut.  Sure hate that I threw all those holey and miss matched socks away last month when I was decluttering!

CVS

I haven't really had the time to coupon lately, but was able to grab a few things we needed that CVS had on sale with coupon match ups this week. 

I think we went through 6 boxes of Kleenex this past week, so when I saw them on sale (the kind with lotion, especially), I got some matched with a coupon and it came to $1.16 a box.  I got 3.  The other 3 boxes of Kleenex are the double sized boxes of 184 and I got those for $1.16 a box too.

I planned on getting a couple Purex laundry detergent for BOGO but realized that CVS had their name brand detergent for cheaper and twice as many loads.  I got 2 for $6.

Colgate toothpaste was 50 cent each after coupons and ECBs.

Tampax was 2 for $4.

Eucerin lotion was $5.99 regular price.  With coupons and ECB's, they were $1 each.

I was excited to find gloves and hats for 75% off.  I got 5 of each of those for a ministry opportunity I hope to share with you later this week.

Valentine's candy was 75% off too and I was so glad to see 5 bags of conversation hearts for 49 cents each.....My Man's favorite!

New Crock Pot Recipe

I'm trying a new recipe tonight that looked really good and uses things I had on hand.

I found it at Lynn's Kitchen Adventures.  She has a great site with yummy recipes and oftentimes free e-books.  I've been a subscriber for a few years.

You can find this easy recipe here for Slow Cooked Tamale Casserole.  I'm going to add some fried okra and we will be set!