Thursday, January 31, 2013

Seriously Amazing Waffles

I didn't get my act together for a lengthy post, so thought I'd just share a quick new Waffle recipe my family and I have enjoyed 3 times in the past 2 weeks.

I found it on all recipes and Wow, is it good!  It's possible my waffles previously just weren't all that fantastic, but I can honestly say these are the best I've ever made.

All recipes has a video if you want to watch it here

Mix dry ingredients:

2 cups white flour
2 t. baking powder
1 t. salt
2 T. white sugar

Add wet ingredients:

2 cups milk
2 eggs
2 T. vegetable oil
1 t. vanilla

I thought it was really runny for waffle batter, but don't let that fool you.  They puff up beautifully!  This recipe makes exactly 6 Belgian waffles in my round waffle iron.

Katie


Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Pantry Challenge 2013! Update

One of the toughest parts of the Pantry Challenge so far is the distinct lack of cold cereal!  My kids are pretty used to oatmeal but once in a while, on the cold cereal mornings, they are tired of Chex!  And that's all we have for a good long while.  Oh well.  =)

I only started the Pantry Challenge 2013 about a week ago so there isn't much of a change in the pantry yet, but I did a closer up picture last week so you can see in more detail what I look at every day.
 I am realizing I have huge amounts of peanut butter, green beans, and tomato sauce.  I have 4 packages of egg noodles I won't use without beef for stroganoff.  I have an abundance of coconut extract.  On the floor of the pantry I have big bins for various bulk items.  I decided to try and measure how much of those I was using, too, since those are some of what desperately needs to be used.  Like 3 bins of bread flour!

I taped a green stripe on each bucket to mark the level of contents as the Pantry Challenge 2013 started.  In a couple more weeks I'll add a red line to show how levels have dropped.  The marked bins include regular white flour front and center.  You can see there's not much.  The green-lined semi-circle starting on the left includes bread flour, oatmeal, whole wheat flour (square), red beans (square), white sugar, and 9-grain cereal (that I mix with oatmeal).  In the back right corner are two more bins of bread flour and two more bins of oatmeal that I didn't bother marking with the green stripe.   

I'm hoping to make big progress on both the oatmeal and bread flour so I can have some bins back for other things.

Katie



Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Food Planning for Hawaii

Food is really expensive in Hawaii.  There is a Costco with somewhat reasonable prices, but in general food costs can be prohibitive.  My family  travels quite a bit and we try to take food on trips as a rule so we can save on dining costs.

This trip the little ladies and I are staying at my parents' condo with my mom and aunt.  I need to think about food for us and food to leave at home for DH.  

My folks travel a ton so they can check many heavy bags for free.  Mom is planning to bring a box of dry food and a cooler of frozen solid meat.  She can bring liquid items in that box so I need to ask her to pack anything I can't carry on myself, for example pancake syrup.

She is heading over about 10 days before I arrive with the girls so I have to get my act together well before we leave.

My task for today is to make a list of meals that is heavy on food we can bring or food I can affordably buy in Hawaii.  Then I need to ask Mom to bring the liquid items.

Breakfast Ideas:
Pink Heart Pancakes for Valentine's Day - pancake mix in ziploc, syrup, food coloring
Oatmeal - a week's worth in a ziploc, brown sugar, raisins
Cold Cereal - pack a box
Eggs
Fruit

Lunch Ideas:
Nachos
PBJ - pack peanut butter, jam if mom can find a plastic bottle
Quesadillas
Nuggets

Dinner Ideas:
Pasta & Red Sauce - pack pasta, frozen ground beef, onion, spices
Biscuits & Gravy - biscuit mix in ziploc, frozen sausage, veg. oil
Taco Soup - premade frozen in a ziploc
Soft Tacos - frozen ground beef, taco seasoning
Salads - salad dressing, toppings (nuts, seeds)
Macaronada - pack pasta, frozen garlic

Costco List:
Milk
Eggs
Fruit
Applesauce
Tortilla Chips
Shredded Cheese
Bread (Always Ridiculous in Hawaii!)
Tortillas
Chicken Nuggets
Feta Cheese (for salad & macaronada)

I'm sure my mom & aunt will have ideas and bring food, too.  It looks like I only need to ask mom to pack vegetable oil, salad dressing, syrup, peanut butter, & jelly.  Sweet! 

Katie


Monday, January 28, 2013

Monday Menu Plan

I made some menu adjustments last week due to major leftovers from the Taco Bar potluck last week and trying to use up expired food.  So two dinners from last week were postponed into this week.

Dinners:
Monday - Tamale Pie
Tuesday - Cheesy Rotini Casserole (made tuna helper instead last week)
Wednesday - Waffles
Thursday - Soup (freezer meal) & rolls
Friday - Pizza (family game night)
Saturday - French Toast for kids (date night)
Sunday - Pork Chops & Potatoes (didn't make last week)

Lunches:
Monday - Tacos (Leftovers)
Tuesday - PBJ
Wednesday - Mac'n'Cheese Pie
Thursday - Grilled Cheese & Tomato Soup
Friday - Leftovers/Finger Food
Saturday - quesadillas
Sunday - PBJ

Katie

Sunday, January 27, 2013

Weekly Grocery Shopping - $36.30

I worked in the kitchen at church this week and was given all this yummy bread.  The taco shells were also given to us after our potluck at Bible study Friday night.

I had a quick pop into the store this week for shredded cheese for the potluck.  I spent $6.67 that trip.

Then, I shopped this weekend at QFC spending $7.82 and Fred Meyer spending $10.65 on food.  Here is a combined photo of those visits.




Frozen Pizza $2.49 on clearance ($1.00 store coupon) = $1.49
Eggs - $1.00 each dozen
Milk - $.99 per half gallon
Organic Yogurt - $.95 each on clearance
Cottage Cheese - $.75 each on clearance
Yogurt Cups - $.40 on sale (B1G1 MC) = $.20 each
Oranges - $.88/lb
Bananas - $.64/lb   ***I had a coupon for $1.00 off the purchase of $4.00 fruit.  The oranges and  bananas were $4.07 total so I got to use the coupon.
Cucumbers - $.69 each
Bananas with red Band - $.39/lb  I wish I'd seen these gorgeous green bananas at QFC before I picked and chose over an already ripe selection at Freddy's, but QFC was my last stop.
Cream of Mushroom Soup - $.49 on clearance.

The soup is not technically something I should buy during the Pantry Challenge 2013 but it will allow me to use several cans of green beans, water chestnuts, and french fried onions from the pantry.  I only considered it because it was in the clearance bin, and I am proud of myself for painfully passing by the $.49 per box linguini.  I also technically shouldn't have purchased the pizza.  I justified the purchase knowing I'll be out of town for two weeks in February and DH will need some easy, prepared food.

I have to confess that it would have been really easy for me to just leave those items out of the picture this week.  There have been many shopping trips in the past that aren't impressive so I don't bother taking a picture blogging.  But this year I want to keep an accurate record of food costs so there it all is.

I'm desperate for lettuce so that will be an early purchase in the coming week.

This week's grocery total including milk delivery: $36.30
This year's grocery total: $206.34

Katie

Saturday, January 26, 2013

52 Weeks of Savings

Two weeks ago at MOPS we had a great speaker.  She was encouraging us to start teaching our kids about money early and had lots of ideas about curriculums, special banks, and techniques.  She also had lots of statistical evidence indicating that earlier teaching is better in this area.  The most telling statistic was that students aged 13-17 showed very little change in behavior after taking a money management  course, while students aged 8-12 made significantly 'better' choices as they grew.

My oldest daughter is 7 so I decided I'd better figure out our plan soon!  DH isn't big on allowance, but we've talked about it from a pure 'teaching finances' perspective so that may change soon. We'll see.  We also don't have much time margin in our homeschooling to add a financial curriculum this year.  I'm just trying to stay afloat with our basic math and language arts!  We are squeezing in etiquette one evening a week. 

Anyway, our MOPS newsletter had this great little chart:
I decided that this savings plan would be a good way to teach DD#1 about saving, even if we're saving MY money and not hers.  We decided to save for our Disneyland trip in 2015.  We are planning to buy annual passes for our whole family and that will get spendy with 4 kids! 

The idea is that you save $1 the 1st week of the year, $2 the 2nd week of the year, $3 the 3rd week of the year, etc.  By December and weeks 49 to 52 you've established a habit of saving are saving $49, $50, $51 and $52 for the 4 weeks in December  After 52 weeks you'll have saved $1,378!

I thought it sounded awesome, but knew that there's no way I could save $50/week in December because of Christmas.  Instead I decided to save whatever I could each week in the range of $1 to $52 and not duplicate all year.

So far, so good!  Every Sunday, after the weekend grocery shopping is finished, I put $10 in my summer produce savings and DD#1 and I put the rest into a coffee can with this chart inside.  On January 6 we put in $5.  On January 13 we put in $2.  DD#1 dutifully crossed off the Week 5 and Week 2 rows, adding 5+2 = $7.  On January 20 I only had a $5 bill and we'd already used Week 5 so I dug around in my wallet for $1 in coins.  DD#1 wanted to contribute her own dollar (so sweet) but I said we'd save separately for her own goal.  She had a great time crossing off Week 6, and adding the old $7 + $6 for the new week.  She REALLY liked getting out all the money and counting it all up to $13.  I expect she'll be giddy in a couple of months when she's counting in the hundreds and beside herself with glee when it's over $1,000.  Or maybe that's just me. 

Katie

p.s. I found a website talking about this savings plan, too.  You can sign up for weekly email reminders and encouragement.



Friday, January 25, 2013

Yummo Pizza Dough

Last night I made actual pizza for the first time.  I had planned Mexican Dip one night this week, but I realized I didn't have the salsa I needed for the recipe so I had to switch it out for something else. 

I decided to try pizza because I had pepperoni & mozzarella on hand.  I didn't have pizza sauce so I just used plain tomato sauce and I found a recipe online for pizza dough.  I was really excited to find a recipe that called for bread flour without using regular flour or even whole wheat flour.  I have a huge amount of bread flour and much smaller amounts of the other flours. 

Here's the recipe I used:

1 package of active dry yeast (or 2 & 1/4 teaspoons)
1 cup of warm water (110 degrees F)

Dissolve yeast into water.  Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes.

2 cups bread flour
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons white sugar

Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl.  Add olive oil and creamy yeast.  Beat well until a stiff dough has formed.  Remove dough hook or paddle.  Cover and let rise until doubled; 30-40 minutes.  Dump onto flour surface and roll out. 

Add toppings & bake about 20 minutes at 350 until crust is golden brown.

The crust turned out great.  It was pretty gooey rolling it out, so I wondered if it wouldn't cook all the way in the center but it baked beautifully throughout.  I'll definitely be using this again!

Here's the little bit leftover I had to save for DH.  The girls were begging for it so next time I guess I'll make two pizzas!

Katie




Thursday, January 24, 2013

Trick for Shredded Chicken

I learned this cool trick from my friend Val at MOPS.  Val said she shreds cooked chicken breast in her KitchenAid mixer with amazing success.  I admit I was skeptical, but I decided to give it a try.  I looked up directions online and it seemed easy enough. 

First I cooked up chicken breast.

Then I put it in the KitchenAid bowl still warm, but not hot.  I used the standard mixing paddle.

I mixed it up, watching closely, and Voila!  It really did work amazingly!  I just turned it off when it looked about right.

Katie

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Wrapping Paper Kid Creations

I found a few more photos of one of our recycled giftwrap projects.  The girls had fun stamping and decorating their own paper for cousin gifts.  My dad and brother build houses so they keep us well supplied with discarded blueprints which happen to come on huge white paper that's perfect for gift wrap.  

DD#1 stamping her sheet.

 DD#4 helps out by NOT touching the ink.

DD#3 is proud of her gift for cousin Emma.
Katie

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Pantry Challenge 2013!

Finally!  Welcome to the Pantry Challenge 2013!  I usually challenge myself each January to use food I have on hand and spend very little on groceries.  Sometimes I have such a bulging pantry that the challenge continues into February.  This year it will certainly continue into February since I'm starting so late!

Here is the messy pantry.

And more food stashed down behind my art supplies.

The freezer is pretty full, too.

Here is the pantry after some organizing.  It doesn't look like much change but I got all the "hidden" food back into sight on the shelves.  I also put a lot of things into their bins including 12 pounds of sugar, 5 pounds of whole wheat flour, raisins, and some quickoats.

And I found all sorts of expired stuff I should use up right away.  I see lots of cookies in my immediate future.  Mmmm.

During the challenge I try to spend $30 or less on perishable food each week.  If I'm spending $11 on milk, that only leaves $19 for produce, creamer, cheese, etc.  Should be fun!  Check in Sunday to see if I stayed under $30 for the week!

This will be doable when I'm in town, but I'm going to be in Hawaii for two weeks in February and that will be next to impossible.  I'm sure I'll post about my food planning for that trip since I take as much as I can with me due to prices over there.

Katie

Monday, January 21, 2013

Monday Menu Plan

I'm trying to use what I have on hand this week and spend less on groceries.  It's finally time to start the Pantry Challenge 2013!  More on that tomorrow.

Dinners:
M -Chicken with tomato/onion sauce (freezer meal)
T - Cheesy Rotini Casserole
W - Mexican Dip & Chips
D - Pancakes
F - Potluck Taco Bar
S - Pork chops & Potatoes
S - popcorn & smoothies (Movie Night)

Lunches:
M - Pasta with/garlic butter & parmesan
T - Mac'n'Cheese
W - Grilled Cheese & Tomato Soup
D - Nachos
F - Finger Food lunch
S -Waffles
S - PBJ

Katie

Sunday, January 20, 2013

Weekly Grocery Shopping - $64.79

Our milk this week was $11.16 and I spent $40.87 at Fred Meyer.



I really debated buying all that ground beef, but we haven't had ground beef for six months at least and DH really loves it.  I just can't stand to spend a ton on meat.  I always aim for $2.00 or less per pound and this was $2.10.  After so long of not finding it marked down I bought 12 pounds.  I started out with two 3# rolls and settled on a third after standing there debating with myself.  I'm supposed to be doing a pantry/freezer challenge like I do every January so technically I shouldn't be adding to the freezer.  By the time I finished my shopping I went back for a 4th roll rationalizing that I hadn't "officially" started the challenge yet (ie. posted about it on the blog) and it was really the best price I'd seen in Months!

3# rolls of ground beef - $6.29 each on clearance
Kikkoman soy sauce - $2.29 on clearance
Sour cream - $1.00
2# bricks of Tillamook cheese - $4.99 with store coupon
Cookie Mix - $1.49 on clearance (it has mint chocolate chips which are hard to find and easily cost $2, even on sale).  I thought it was a good deal.
Baking cups - $.89 on clearance (not included in grocery total)

I visited Target late in the week to pick up a small cup of sour cream I needed for a meal I was delivering.  I ended up getting all this for $6.76:


The sour cream was $1.14
Instant potatoes - $.83 each box
Bakers white chocolate - $1.48
Progresso soup - $.62 each on clearance
Pizza - FREE with coupon I got at checkout last time I went to Target.

Then I spent $8 at the dollar store on syrup, pepperoni, and vanilla extract.

Total spent on food this week = $64.79
Total spent on food  in 2013 = $170.04 (and $30 stashed for summer produce bulk buying)





Saturday, January 19, 2013

WalMart Holiday Clearance

I was in Oregon a couple of weeks ago and happened to be at WalMart.  I noticed a big holiday clearance area so I decided to have a look.  Everything was 75% off!


The rolls of gift wrap were $.75 each.  I thought that was a steal for licensed paper; one sesame street, one Jake and the Neverland Pirates.

The Piggy Paint were $1.25 each.  I think these will be good for birthday gifts.  It's kid-safe nail polish.

Cinderella squishy princess was $2.50.

Bible puzzle pad was $.24

The LED tree topper was $2.74.

I'm usually not big on WalMart, but I was pleased with these deals.

Katie

Friday, January 18, 2013

Snowman Hot Cocoa Craft

We had a party at Christmastime hosting 4 other families.  I wanted to have a fun craft for the kids and landed on this:





First I asked on Facebook for baby food jars and my cousin supplied all I needed.  I cut out felt 'donut' circles to fit the jar lid and felt strips to make the hat band.   Next I picked up craft paint and painted faces and buttons.

DD#2 was pretty vigorous in her blow drying so some of it ran, but hey it's a kid's craft so I wasn't too worried about it.


I filled the cocoa jars, but we let the kids fill the peppermint candy and the marshmallows jars.  One of the babysitters hot glued the jars together and glued the felt pieces into place.  Each kiddo got to choose a ribbon of their choice for a scarf and got to take home a cute snowman. 

You have to know how much of a non-crafty person I am.  Have you ever seen me post about a craft that I made before?  This was a huge accomplishment for me and that's why I'm sharing.

Here's DD#2 blow drying as I frantically decorate more jars in the background.  She is deceptively still as DD#1 takes her picture. 

Katie

Thursday, January 17, 2013

Target Clearance

Hi Readers!

You might already know that Target has a huge clearance in almost every department during January.  This usually starts the first week or two of January with many things 30% off and some 50% off.  The next week things are further marked to down in the 30, 50, and 70% range. 

Today the toy clearance is marked down to 70% at most Targets!

I've been visiting several targets keeping an eye on things, but mostly I've been watching this great Target website.  The gal writing the blog is local, too! 

 I can't actually shop today (double drat!) because one of our cars is in the shop and DH has the working one.  But if any of you go I'd love to hear about your deals!

There is clearance all over the store so check those endcaps in home decor, kitchen, stationary, clothing, shoes, hosiery, and baby while your checking out the toys!

Here are some deals I got last week:


The playdough was only 30% off.  3 specialty tubs were $2.08 and the accessory gadget was $3.84.
The little hat is a gift for a 4th baby/3rd son - it was only $3.00.
The plastic box of tools was 50% off and cost $9.98.  I love this!  I wish I knew more kids heading off to college that I could give it to.
Finally, the Disney Princess tracing fashion was 50% off costing $7.48.  This will be DD#3's "big gift" at her birthday this spring.

Did you know the non-math trick to see the percentage off?  On the upper right corner of the red clearance tag it will say 10, 30, 50, or 70. 

Katie

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Bean Stockpile

My mom gave me a bin of really old beans sometime last year.  I had labeled them "OLD - Use first" back in June 2011 when she bought a bunch of new bulk beans.  I think it was when I visited her in March 2012 when I saw the bin, untouched still in her pantry.  Anyway, she explicitly told me that the Tupperware bin was HERS and I had to return it.  So every time I saw it in my pantry I remembered that she needed it back.  I had been using the beans up and finally, in December, I decided to return it to her.

There were a good amount of beans left so I cooked them up and put them in the freezer.  Here's a photo of about 20 cooked cups of beans.  I put these in my freezer and I can pull them out and use them when a recipe calls for a can of red beans or kidney beans.  Dry beans are ridiculously cheap compared to canned.  If you want to eat organically, dry beans are an affordable staple because a pound costs maybe $3 and makes about 12 cooked cups.



Here's the empty bin.   When I joyfully returned it to Mom she said, "Oh, I forgot you had that.  I guess I don't really need it, but thanks."  Doh!  I could totally use it with all my bulk food purchases, but this way I'm limited in how much I can accumulate; always a good thing.

Katie

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Recycled Gift Wrap



Here a few more photos of my recycled gift wrapping efforts this Christmas.  I think they looked pretty good, but I do really miss the joy of giving a beautifully wrapped gift. 

These packages went to New York to my cousin and his family.




These went to Colorado to my sister-in-love, her immediate family, and my parents in-love who were at her house for Christmas.
 

Overall I thought they turned out pretty well, and I got to use lots of  ribbon bits as well as reusing plain paper.

Katie


Monday, January 14, 2013

Monday Menu Plan

Am I supposed to be figuring out dinner at 5PM?  Hm.

Dinners:
M - Biscuits & Sausage Gravy
T - Egg Casserole (tater tots in freezer, plenty of eggs, ham in freezer)
W - Baked Pasta
D - Pancakes
F - Easy Pot Pie (mom out)
S - Burgers
S - Dinner at Aunt's house

Lunches:
M - already ate nachos
T - Ravioli
W -Waffles
D - Packed Lunch (nuggets or sandwiches)
F - Cheesy Bread
S - Leftovers
S - Lunch at Aunt's house

Katie

Sunday, January 13, 2013

Weekend Shopping

We were on vacation the first week on January, but were staying with family and didn't have to eat out all the time.  I took along a cooler of food and did a little grocery shopping to supplement so I could make dinner most nights.

I spent $15.85 that first day, then $8.39 later in the week.  I went one last time the morning we left to replenish my in-laws' butter, bananas, & lunchmeat that we had depleted.  I spent $16.83 on those things and a couple other clearance deals (holiday creamer and marshmallows) to bring home.

Total spent the week were gone: $41.07

This week our milk delivery was $11.16 and I paid $5 for 3 dozen eggs from my friend's free-range chickens.  I spent $5.41 when I dashed into Fred Meyer for lettuce, tomato, cucumber, and olives for a salad I was making and then $40.61 yesterday on all this:

Cucumber - $.79
Apples - $.88/lb
Onions - $1.99 for 5 lb bag (needed for meal swap)
Cheese - $4.99 each 2 lb brick
Banana - $.64/lb
ID Creamer - $1.79 each
Mocha Mix - $1.49
Corn - $1.68 each for 2 lb bags (needed for meal swap)
Carrots - $.99 for 2 lb bag
Sausage - $1.49 each for 1 lb chubs (too good a deal to skip)

This week I spent $62.18.

I also put $10 cash away last week and this week for summer produce bulk purchases.

Katie

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

January Update

So I did poorly on my goals in December.  I didn't want to stress over Christmas and my non-stress plan is usually to intentionally step back from the 'extras' so I don't beat myself up for failing. 

My first goal was to spend $50/week on groceries so I could cover Christmas costs more effectively.  Did I meet this goal?  Heck no!  There were way too many good deals on baking ingredients, a dinner party, and a meat & cheese tray for another event.  I don't know how much I DID spend, but it was way more than $50/week.

My second goal was to save 1% toward our savings goal.  Ha!  The good news is that we didn't have to take anything out of savings!  Seriously, though.  I put $12 in the savings account.

Goal #3 was to pay for 2 airline tickets .  Check!

Goal #4 was to finish the office organization.  A big Nope.  Two boxes are left and are still sitting there. 

Finally, I wanted to keep a thankful list but I didn't manage that either.  Certainly there were many things to be thankful but I didn't write anything down.

For January my goals are simple.
1. Save something to add to our emergency fund
2. Have 2 solid weeks of homeschool for the kids, planned in advance and well-executed.
3. At least 10 days of Project Twenty Six.  I just need to wrap that up and 10 days is a good dent in what's left.
4. Finish the office organization.

Katie



Tuesday, January 8, 2013

True Cost of Food

My friend, Kracinda, who is also a reader asked recently what I ACTUALLY spent on groceries, including all the bulk purchases in the summer for canning.

I thought it was a good question and kind of surprised myself by not knowing the answer.  I used to keep meticulous track of every line item in the budget, but a couple of years ago DH wanted to have more input and he reworked our budget Excel spreadsheet so that it made sense to him.  It didn't include a cumulative annual total for each line item like my old one did.

I also got my "own" checking account shortly after DH took a budget interest so that there would be far fewer line items in the budget.  All of the household expenses including groceries, stuff for the house, paper products, clothes, gifts, etc are now lumped into "Katie's Allowance" with a transfer to that other account.  I don't budget that account other than trying to keep my grocery spending to $60 each week.

  • I also have a bigger spending week now and then when a particular sale is too good to pass up and I stock up on something.  I SHOULD spend less on the other groceries that week or eat from the pantry & freezer the following week.  But in reality I just spend more on groceries that week.  
  • In addition to those bigger spending weeks I have a few really huge purchases for canning/preserving in late summer.  Usually $60 for blueberries, at least $100 for peaches, and varying amounts for apples & pears depending on what I want to can and what I can glean or am given by friends with trees.  
  • I also recently started getting milk delivery which runs $11.14 per week for very fresh, conventional instead of paying $10.78 at the store for two gallons of organic.  I'm still undecided on that, but am keeping the service for now.
  • There are also some small costs related to the garden, like buying compost and seeds.  And there are costs to canning, like buying seals.
All told I estimate that I spent between $4,000 and $4,300 on food in 2012 not including eating out.

But it's really bugging me that I don't know an exact number so a 2013 goal is to keep track of my ACTUAL spending on food.  I think I'll still try to spend $60/week on regular groceries plus the $11ish for milk delivery or milk if I end up switching back to purchasing.  I also want to set aside at least $10/week for bulk purchases in the summer.

Gah!  Am I making more work for myself or will this be good?  Plan each week: Get $80 cash out of bank.  $60 for groceries, $10 to set aside for summer produce, $10 for another cash stash or grocery overage.  Post here each Sunday night for accountability.

Katie

Katie

Monday, January 7, 2013

Monday Menu Plan

We have been out of town so this week's meals are a bit up in the air still . . .

Monday - Dinner out on our way home
Tuesday - Pizza
Wednesday - Pulled Pork
Thursday - French Toast
Friday - Big Salad to Potluck
Saturday - Freezer Meal (also making meals for swap today)
Sunday - Popcorn & Smoothies

Lunches:
Monday - Leftovers
Tuesday - Sandwiches
Wednesday - Quesadilla
Thurday - Chicken Nuggets
Friday - Mac'n'cheese
Saturday - Grilled Cheese
Sunday - PBJ

I can't believe it's been 4 weeks since I posted!  Clearly the holidays had me hopping.  I have lots of new ideas and goals for the new year I am excited to share about, but it will have to wait for another day. 

Katie