Catching Up

I can't believe how long it's been since I've posted here.  You would think I would have caught up with spring break this past week. 

So sorry - Hope I haven't lost my handful of readers.  :)

This month I plan on using my Menu Calendar that I posted to you a few weeks ago.  I've set it up and shopped for the first half of the month already.  I still can't figure out how the author told me she only spends $300 on her family on a month's worth of groceries.  My half month came to $250 at Aldi and I'm sure I'll be running back before 2 weeks ends.

I didn't write out the meals, but I'll take a photo of it to show you.  I chose 3 desserts for the month to try and added 2 items per week from the lunch menu (5 of them are shown at the end of the month).  You can also see the weekly breakfast menu that the Fish Sticks have told me they love and want to keep.

I haven't done couponing in the last couple of weeks, but used some Register Rewards that were about to expire to finish off my Easter basket purchases.

We had nothing planned for Spring Break and since the weather was cold, wet and snowy, it kept us inside for most of the time.  I don't know about you, but without some type of schedule or routine, our days can end up pretty yucky - arguing and laziness abounding.

On Day 2 of Spring Break, before things got nasty around here, I made a chart.  I decided to focus on 4 main areas (which really are pretty big focus areas around here all the time).  Each area had a Bible verse to go with it.  As I caught the kids working on these 4 points throughout the day, I would jot it down and then after supper, before our family devotions, I would brag on each one of them and tell My Man what improvements we had made.

I tell you that pointing out the things my Fish Sticks do RIGHT is always more rewarding than pointing out the things that they do WRONG.  Ironic how much easier it is for me to correct, rebuke and fuss at their sins than it is for me to praise and affirm their good traits and qualities.  Is it just me, or do you struggle with the same?  Some Fish Sticks are easier to praise than others.  Some I really have to make a conscious effort to FIND the praiseworthy things.  It might just mean that I affirm my love and affection for them as some days are hard to find praiseworthy acts.

Habits are formed when there is consistent repetition and I feel like the Lord has been convicting me of this lately.  As we wait for the arrival of our twins, I keep asking the Lord to show me what I can be working on with my kids here in my home.  This one keeps coming back to me.  Affirm.  Love.  Enjoy.  Praise.

If you struggle with this to, want to join me in daily focusing on using more positive words in our child training than negative?  I know our home will be blessed if I can make this a habit!

Dinner On The Run

Soccer season has begun and the Fish Fam is finding ourselves on the run about 2 nights a week.  Because our school does not have a home soccer field yet, our games have been about 1 hour away, meaning that we leave straight from school and get home about 7 p.m.  This calls for me to be prepared for dinners so that we don't have to spend $50 on our family at McDonald's or some other fast food restaurant.

All it takes is a little bit of pre-planning to feed your family a healthy, inexpensive meal on the run.

For our first soccer game, I made sub sandwiches and individually wrapped them around lunch time and packed them in a cooler with a bag of chips, water bottles and a small bag of mini peppers.

Last soccer game I boiled 16 hot dogs, placed each in a bun and wrapped individually in foil.  Threw in a can of Pringles and a bag of baby carrots with a carton of hummus.  The hot dogs were still warm when we ate them during half time.  I had a baggy of mustard and ketchup collected from fast food restaurants that were perfect for everyone.  There were enough hot dogs to feed a couple, hungry soccer players on the way home too.

For tonight's supper I just browned 2 lbs. of ground turkey with 1 chopped bell pepper.  Put it in the crock pot with garlic powder, salt, pepper, a few small squirts of mustard, a couple tablespoons of brown sugar and 1 1/2 cups of ketchup.  I set it to simmer on low until I go to pick up the kids at school - in about 3 hours.  I will put the Sloppy Joe meat on hamburger buns, wrap individually in foil, throw in a bag of pretzels and baby carrots and there's supper!

I buy popcorn seeds in bulk and will pop a large pot of popcorn, toss it with sea salt and Parmesan cheese to pour in a paper grocery sack for snacking during the game.  We always have plenty to share.

So remember this the next time you have an afternoon/evening filled with ball games.  You don't have to spend tons of money to eat out during the season.  Just do a little bit of prepping and you can feed your family for a fraction of the costs.  Who wants processed chicken nuggets and greasy fries when you can have yummy, homemade Sloppy Joes??

Walgreens and CVS

Here's what I got at Walgreens today:

Irish Spring body wash $1
Irish Spring soap (6 count) $1 - great for the homeless care packages!
Poise feminine wellness product - FREE
6 Speed Stick deodorant - $1 each (that's the name brand My Man uses)
Hershey bars - 59 cents each (less than that when you figure the points earned that brought cash back - just not sure how much)

Here's what I got at CVS today:

3 Kleenex - $1 each
Jelly Beans - FREE
Edge Shave Gel - $1.49 each
Almay make up - $9.58 for both

I needed mascara and powder.  These 2 items totaled $21.58.  With coupons and ECBs they came down to about $4.75 each.

All these deals can be found at Faithful Provisions

Menu Calendar

I pinned this amazing-looking Meal Planning Calendar on Pinterest.  I checked out the website thoroughly and decided to give it a shot.  I purchased almost all of the supplies for myself at Walmart.  I spent $35 to purchase the card stock printed off for the above Menu Calendar.  When it arrived, my girls and I had a good time together cutting all 100 recipe cards, punching holes in them, reinforcing the holes and putting them in rings.  We then cut out all the numbers and catagories and put magnets on the back.  We stuck circular magnets on the backs of the plastic gems.  It made a big mess but was a fun activity to share together.

The author hangs her calendar on the wall and hangs all 11 categories of recipes on the thumb tacks at the bottom of the calendar.  I think I've decided to keep mine in my office area and keep the cards in a box or Ziploc.

Because I had already planned our March menu and shopped for the groceries, I just wrote in the meals with the dry erase marker for this month.  Next month, I plan to use the calendar with its recipes.  It's a simple process and I look forward to trying out the recipes and method.  I'm hoping it will simplify things for us and maybe even save some in grocery money.  I'll let you know how it goes.  The site actually allows you to copy all of her recipes for free off of her site and tells you exactly how to make your own.  She also sells them completed and partially complete.

The same site offers a lunch menu calendar.  I was curious to see what types of things she offers for packed lunches.  I purchased the PDF file for only $5.  I printed them on cardstock from Walmart and put them together just like the above calendar.  She has some super ideas but making a different lunch for 5 days doesn't seem simple or feasible (budget-wise), especially since some of them involve more cooking.  I'm happy to have the recipes though and think I will use some, just not using the daily system that the author does.  I found all the recipes to be nutritious and simple after flipping through them.

Stay tuned for the update.

Weekly Deals

 Got a few good deals this week.

At Walgreens I got this toothbrush for 49 cents and the Alka Seltzer (which My Man has found very useful) for FREE with $2 moneymaking on that purchase!

SCORE!

 These groceries from Kroger $132.

I paid $36.13

The 2 gallons of milk were free with the purchase of 4 boxes of Nature Valley.  I had coupons for those, making them about $2 each so I got 10 boxes.

Potatoes and pork roast and loin were on sale.  The Boston Butt roast will be super in crock pot with 1 bottle of BBQ sauce!  I cut it in 2 to make 2 meals.  I cut the loin in 2 also and will drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper and roast or grill.  YUM!

Deodorant was $1. (It's for my mom.)

Pom juice was FREE with coupon and I got 11 of them!!!

In the mail I got $2 off a meat purchase, $5 off a total bill and then I had $15 gift card.

Super SAVINGS!

I racked up at CVS for Easter basket items.  I think all I lack is a bag of Starburst jelly beans for our jelly bean trail.  They had some great deals with ECBs.

The jelly beans were FREE, the body wash was $1 each, the Froot Loops (which I rarely buy but thought it might be a treat - if not to make necklaces with my little ones) were $1.50 each.

All of these deals you can find at Faithful Provisions.

Hope you found savings this week also!!

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!