The Marathon

I think marathon runners are awesome. I wish I could run like that, but oh, the asthma! Truly though, lately I've been feeling like every day of my life is a marathon. Especially Fridays! Yesterday I was full speed ahead from 5:15 AM - 11:30 PM. By 6:30 ALONE, I had gotten myself ready, given the baby a bath, ordered a birthday cake and arrived at work. *whew* This is actually only day three of a week long marathon. In the next few days we have my oldest daughter's 6th birthday, a baby shower, volunteering and consigning with Just Between Friends, a CPCU exam, and leading Bible study. Oh yeah, and I have a full-time job. And three kids 5 and under.

I didn't get to my coupons until late last night, so I tackled two grocery stores with three kids this morning. It was relatively painless. It just took about twice as long as normal with Saturday samples for 3 kids, a few bathroom trips, playing a reading game for a reward with my 5 year old, etc., but we made it!

The picture is from our bigger trip to Hy Vee. At Hen House I picked up some sugar pears, sour cream, Activia, Tostitos, cream of chicken soup and some almost free candy bars.

The main meals on the menu for this week are My Mom's Chicken and Rice and Crockpot Mexican Chicken. I also will probably try to getting around to making a few loaves of Bananas 'N Cream Bread. Other than that, we will be flying but the seat of our pants, but hopefully still eating as healthfully as possible! Last week "healthy" was a stretch so this week I'm going to try to give flying by the seat of our pants AND healthy a better shot!

$50/week grocery project (No Coupon Edition)

This week was a massive planning ahead fail. I have a HUGE stack of coupons I didn't get through because I can't find my scissors. The grocery ads were also AWFUL (save for a Kraft deal.) I had planned on making a meal plan and a list during my lunch break on Friday, but that is always a horrible idea. I never end up actually getting to TAKE a lunch break, and yesterday was no different.

I found myself at Trader Joes with only an exhausted baby last night. I picked up a few things for quick and easy meals, and then we hit Price Chopper for $.99/lb chicken breasts and cheese. My after tax total from both trips was $47. It's sure looking like $40 isn't going to get us very far this week! And how about that lack of produce? YUCK. With my extra $3, I'm going to buy a package of tortillas and a can of enchilada sauce. That will at least net us another meal! I'm sure I'll pick up a few other things while we're there because this will just not cut it!

Some of the meals on our agenda for the week are easy cheese calzones, orange chicken with fried rice, cavatini, cheese and onion enchiladas, and pancakes and eggs. We have plenty of cereal and baby's favorite for breakfast. Making lunches may be a problem! It seems like we EITHER have meals for the week OR snacks for the week. We rarely have an abundant supply of both! This week we have meals, I guess!

For more meal plans see www.orgjunkie.com.

1st Birthday and Valentine's Day Meal Plan

After returning from our trip to Denver, my last two days have been a major organizational failure. I got to the grocery store last night with two "events" to plan for and no list. Definitely a less than ideal situation! For this week, I allowed $50 from our normal grocery budget and $50 from our gift/holiday budget. So far, I've spent $75 exactly, but I forgot a few things. I'll probably pick up a few quick dinner items as well with the remainder of the budget!

I don't have much of a meal plan for the week. We'll be winging it aside from the special meals I have planned. Tomorrow night, we'll be having tortellini soup, salad and garlic bread at my son's first birthday party.. I'm making tortellini soup for 11 adults and 7 kids. Hopefully a triple batch will be enough! I'm also bringing baby mans birthday cake. I actually have a $5 off coupon for a store bought cake, so that is exciting! On Monday, we'll be celebrating Valentine's Day as a family. I'm trying a new recipe for a pork roast with dried fruit and fresh herbs and green rice casserole. I've never cooked pork loin before, so that will be a first! I'm also making Valentine's Day cookies and a Caramel Macchiato ice cream bombe. Stay tuned for those recipes (as long as everything turns out!)

We're also making Valentine's Day Peanut Butter Blossoms and Bananas 'n Cream bread for some sweet treats!

For more meal plans see www.orgjunkie.com.

When planning ahead kicks you in the rear....

You may remember that I mentioned we are going to Denver for my aunt's memorial service tomorrow. As a result, I spent our $50 on a few easy meals since I was really busy packing (and now unpacking and repacking,) preschool snacks (Newton Thins and apple juice) and road trip snacks. We were supposed to leave this morning, but we didn't feel the conditions were safe. Our road trip is now a flying trip, which renders most of our road trip snacks useless! Now I wish we had our grocery money and $60 in a full tank of gas in our car as travel money! For better or for worse, I think this is the first time planning ahead has really kicked me in the rear!

See ya'll next week!

The return of the coupon...

We're preparing to go to Colorado in two weeks for my aunt's memorial service, and with that unexpected expense, we've REALLY got to be stretching every penny. I really have not had great success with coupons over the last several weeks, but this week was finally an exception. I only hit Hy Vee with my $45. I came out around $50 after tax, but I also got an almost $3 refund on an overage from last week. I saved about $12 with manufacturer coupons, and I also used a few store coupons for a total of another $10 or so. THAT is a success for me. Usually I stick much heavier to buying loss leaders, but I was very thankful to be able to do both this week. I also did a lot of filling in the gaps with simple items (black beans, cream cheese, bananas, tortillas) to make use of some of the things we already have in our pantry.

Here is our meal plan for the week,

Saturday - 100% whole wheat bagel thins / leftover pizza from last week / stuffed shells and salad

Sunday - graham crackers and fruit / easy enchiladas and our favorite bean dip / Pei Wei as a special surprise from Daddy

Monday - blueberries and yogurt / PBJ and apples / egg in the hole

Tuesday - Banana cheerios / brown bag lunches / slow cooker black beans and rice

Wednesday - bananas and yogurt / brown bag lunches / tortellini soup

Thursday - Peanut Butter cheerios / brown bag lunches / homemade hashbrowns and eggs

Friday - bagel thins / brown bag lunches / dinner out at my husband's work banquet

We will be snacking on trail mix, crackers and cream cheese, pumpkin cranberry muffins and various other snacks.

See more recipes at www.orgjunkie.com.

Groceries for a busy week...

The last few weeks have been crazy busy. To add insult to injury, I was super sick with strep throat last Monday and Tuesday. Nothing like getting sick at the beginning of the week to derail everything I had planned! Not to mention we had a birth in the family on Tuesday and a death in the family on Saturday. Sometimes life just gets crazy!

The above picture is from Hy-Vee where I did most of my shopping this week. I spent right around $40. I also spent around $10 at Hen House on blueberries, apples, graham crackers and a half gallon of ice cream to bribe my three year old that needed a splinter extraction.

The only major meal event I have planned for tonight is homemade chicken noodle soup. I'm making a double batch to send to my sister in law's new family of 6 for dinner tomorrow night. I'm also sending a can of biscuits and a bag of salad. So, a part of our budget went to feeding an additional family this week. I've said this before, but I'm always amazed we are able to do ANYTHING for anyone else on $50 a week. I call it the loaves and fishes principle.

Here is our meal plan for the week,

Saturday - yogurt / leftover chili / dinner at my mom's (I took Icebox Boston Cream.)

Sunday - graham crackers and fruit / surprise lunch out at Chipotle / corn dogs and salad

Monday - blueberries and yogurt / PBJ and apples / chicken noodle soup and salad

Tuesday - Banana cheerios / brown bag lunches / biscuit breakfast sandwiches

Wednesday - bananas and yogurt / brown bag lunches / baked potato soup

Thursday - Banana cheerios / brown bag lunches / egg in the hole and apples

Friday - blueberries and yogurt / brown bag lunches / Little Caesars at ballet

We will be snacking on trail mix, yogurt, crackers and cream cheese  and various fruits and veggies. Next week I'm hoping to have a chance to try out some new meals over the weekened!

See more recipes at www.orgjunkie.com.

Saving for the new year...

I was so happy with the sale ads this week! My purchases were reminiscent of what I used get for my $50 when I started this blog. I was able to get A LOT of produce and stay at about $55 after tax. I didn't even really use many coupons. Maybe $10 worth or so. This is the picture from my trip to Hy Vee. The picture from my trip to Price Chopper turned out horrendously blurry, so we'll just forget about that.

It's been a rough year for us, in some ways, and a very blessed one in others. I have a lot spinning in my head right now about how we're going to move forwarded financially and with a renewed commitment to savings. I'll be updating in the next few days about all of those ideas.

In the meantime, here is our meal plan for the week,

Saturday - cereal / leftover spin dip macaroni and cheese / chili, guacamole and brown butter brownies

Sunday - 100% whole wheat cinnamon toast / cheesy vegetable chowder (a double batch for the freezer!) / my mom's chicken and rice

Monday - bagels and cream cheese / brown bag lunches / chicken broccoli cheddar braid

Tuesday - cereal and fruit / brown bag lunches / egg in the hole

Wednesday - 100% whole wheat cinnamon toast / brown bag lunches / tortellini soup

Thursday - cereal /brown bag lunches / cheesy vegetable chowder from the freezer

Friday -100% whole wheat cinnamon toast /  brown bag lunches / dinner at ballet

For snacks, we'll be eating cinnamon sugar pretzels, bagels and cream cheese, pumpkin applesauce, veggies and dip, crackers and fresh fruit.

See other meal plans at www.orgjunkie.com.

Christmas Meal Planning

We're starting to cook Christmas food around here!  This is my first of two trips to the store. I spent $50 of my allotted $100. Even with $100, I had to be extra conscientious at the grocery tab we were racking up as my $100 also had to cover our meals for the week.  Rather than sharing our meal plan for the week, I'll share what we're cooking for our various events! These are the frugal ideas I cooked up for some of the various events we had going on. Some of the new recipes will follow soon!

Christmas Eve -

My Mom's Cheesecake with my Salted Caramel Sauce

Christmas  Day-

Blueberry Lemon Scones (cranberry orange recipe, sub blueberry and lemon)
My dad's favorite Holiday Broccoli Salad
Twice Baked Potato Casserole
Red Hot Jello
Lemon Cupcakes with Lemon Buttercream for Jesus's Birthday

The Day after Christmas with my in laws -

Veggie Tray
Cinnamon Sugar Pretzels (Next year I might fill a popcorn tin with these! People have loved them!)
Apple Pie with Salted Caramel Sauce

Merry Christmas!

For more meal plans see www.orgjunkie.com.

Twas the week before Christmas...

I know I've been a little bit MIA on the grocery project, but believe me, we're still going strong! It's gotten a little tougher. I really think the quality and availability of grocery coupons has gotten a little more difficult. I did just pick up a SavingsStar card, and I also "inherited" a printer, so hopefully I can start to put that to good use! If only I can find time to actually SIT at the computer to get some work done! We're just SWAMPED here right now!

The above pictured was right around $35. The plan for the remaining money is to buy 2 gallons of milk from Aldi, several loafs of bread at the Oroweat outlet and a few bags of cheese from another local sale. I'll be honest when I say that our pantry is looking very sad. I truly do not have a lot to work with at the moment. We've been out of chicken and ground beef for WEEKS. As I was coming home yesterday, I realized that I don't really have anything special to cook for the week before Christmas. Next week's budget will cover the food that we need to share at our various festivities, but we'll be out of time for special cookie baking, projects, etc. It's a little bit of a bummer, but it is what it is. When you take a pay cut like we took in September, some things have to give. I guess special holiday baking is one of those things! Maybe I'll be able to figure something out with the things that I do already have. If not, we at least already did a little!

Here is our menu plan for the week before Christmas,

Saturday - cereal / garlic cheese bread with marinara / ham sandwiches and fruit

Sunday - 100% whole wheat cinnamon toast / cheesy vegetable chowder (a double batch for the freezer!) / stuffed shells

Monday - cereal / brown bag lunches / spin dip macaroni and cheese

Tuesday - cereal and fruit / brown bag lunches / egg in the hole

Wednesday - 100% whole wheat cinnamon toast / brown bag lunches /eggs, hash browns and bacon

Thursday - cereal / spaghetti with marinara and sauce / ham sandwiches and fruit

Friday -100% whole wheat cinnamon toast / possible inexpensive lunch out / dinner will be from a new round of groceries

For snacks, we'll be eating cinnamon sugar pretzels, crackers with cheese, pumpkin applesauce, graham crackers, veggies and fresh fruit.

Merry Christmas to you and yours!

A Frugal Thanksgiving

In a somewhat unusual twist of events, it ended up that I am hosting only the five of us for Thanksgiving this year. With both of our families in town, that is definitely not the norm! Regardless, we are excited to have some old-fashioned family fun and figure out how to cook a turkey for ourselves. Someday I know our Thanksgivings will be "just the 5 of us" plus spouses and grandchildren, so I guess we better figure the turkey thing out now!

The groceries above cost me right around $75 AFTER tax. It doesn't look like a lot, but it does include a ham AND a turkey. They turkey was free with a purchase of a ham this week at Hy-Vee, so that was a nice bonus for us. I've never bought EITHER. The gallon of apple cider was a total budget breaker too. Regardless, we'll take the $25 overage from our regular spending money. I don't have anything planned for our spending money this pay period, so it's nice when it is available! A lot of times I have it spent on things that need to be paid for over the next two weeks before I even get it!

In the meantime, our menu plan looks a little like this,

Sunday - biscuits / ham and baked potatoes / fish sticks and pears

Monday - cereal / brown bag lunches / spinach and artichoke macaroni and cheese (stay tuned for recipe)

Tuesday - cereal / brown bag lunches / egg in the hole

Wednesday - cheesy eggs / Campbell's chicken noodle soup and apples / black bean and cheese quesadillas

Thursday - TURKEY DAY (See my separate Thanksgiving menu post. I will be sharing various favorite recipes and a few new ones.)

Friday - I will be Black Friday shopping. We'll try to eat as frugally as possible, but it will probably be a lot of leftovers and possibly some eating on the go.

I definitely spent the bulk of our budget on Thanksgiving food! Sun-Wed might be a little interesting in the eating department, but we'll be fine. Have a great Thanksgiving everyone!

I'm back!

So, about six weeks ago, my little guy started CRAWLING. He's thrilled to be able to keep up with his sisters, but I'm realizing that this development directly correlates to when I started to feel overwhelmingly busy. Along with being overwhelmingly busy has come a few weeks of really bad or non existent cooking and no grocery project updates. However, after a few weeks, I'm finally feeling a little bit of relief!

The above picture is Round 1 of 3 of my grocery trips. I went pretty badly overbudget this week, but it is ok because we had some breathing room (for once) in our spending money. Round 2 was a trip to Hy Vee. I got a lot of yogurt, some cereal, pears, bananas and I truthfully do not remember what else. Round 3 was a trip to Aldi where I got 2 gallons of milk a loaf of 100% whole wheat bread, some cheese and a can of sweetened condensed milk.

Our menu plan is as follows, starting with Sunday because that is as far back as I can remember...

Sunday - pancakes and cinnamon sugar / Dorito salad at my mom's and Paula Deen's banana pudding (We took chips.) / Campbell's chicken noodle soup and bananas

Monday - Alphabet cereal / brown bag lunches / crockpot soup (This was ok at best.)

Tuesday - Alphabet cereal / brown bag lunches / egg in the hole and apples

Wednesday - smoothie popsicles / brown bag lunches / spaghetti with marinara

Thursday - Alphabet cereal / brown bag lunches /chocolate waffles and strawberries

Friday - Rice Krispies / brown bag lunches / my mom's chicken and rice

I also made a huge batch of apple, pear and pumpkin baby's favorite and used some of it to make oatmeal and applesauce cookies. Both turned out just great!

As you can tell, we're still functioning a little bit in "crisis mode." We may kind of be in that "mode" until after Christmas, but usually the deep freeze gives me a few months to pull my life back together before Spring Break and the end of school hits! I'm going to try to do a better job of updating, so hang in here with me!

Also, did you see how super cute our Jack O Lantern pudding cups turned out?! Better Pin them for next year!

Hy Vee Shopping Trip

I'm a little late updating, obviously! I feel like I have been SO busy since the school year started. Dance, homework, Bible study and having my husband gone an extra day on top of what I am used to is wearing me out! We've also been dealing with a lot of allergy related illness the last few weeks. I'm still trying to keep up with our grocery project updates, but it is sure getting hard!

When I got home from the store, I thought I did really good with our $50, but even as I am writing, I'm realizing our fridge is looking empty. I just didn't get much to put in it! Hopefully we'll manage because I have about $12 for the rest of the week left to cover anything that might come up between now and then.

Our meal plan for the week looks a little like this,

Saturday - pumpkin smoothies / burritos at Taco Bell / chicken and potato bake

Sunday - went to church without breakfast / vanilla Dutch Baby with country store fried apples /ham and cheese sandwiches

Monday - bagels with pumpkin cream cheese / brown bag lunches / crockpot chicken and wild rice soup (We didn't have this last week.)

Tuesday - cereal / brown bag lunches / tuna noodle salad

Wednesday -cereal / brown bag lunches / broccoli and cheese baked potatoes

Thursday - pumpkin smoothies / brown bag lunches / grilled cheese and tomato soup

Friday - apples with peanut butter / brown bag lunches / crockpot black beans and cheese

I have a few recipes I need to find time to add. Hopefully I'll find some time to share how I've been making pumpkin cream cheese, pumpkin smoothies and the new chicken and potato bake that I made last night some time this week!

In the early days of our $50 grocery project, I used to panic a little bit when it felt like we were low on groceries. These days, I've learned that we usually fly through the week, and we're on to a new start pretty quickly. Hopefully that we'll be the case this week!

For more meal plans, see www.orgjunkie.com.

My intentions were good...

I didn't get a picture of my groceries last night. I didn't get home until almost ten, and I had been going strong since 5 AM. I was just exhausted. I wanted to get things put away and GO TO BED. So I did.

I did a really bad job menu and grocery planning yesterday. I DID manage to get a list done, but as soon as I got to the store, I realized I hadn't even considered what I was going to actually cook or making anything new this week. So irritating. If I don't have a meal plan in mind, I end up with a bunch of random stuff. Of course, that is exactly what happened.

I spent $48 after tax, and I got cheese, a ton of yogurt, Sun Chips, canned pumpkin, dried black beans, granola bars, pears, salad mix, bagels, waffles, and I don't even remember what else. I at least did end up with some good lunch items, which is helpful because we had been running very low on lunch items.

That being said, I'm short a few items to make meals. I'm going to make another quick run for apples, cream cheese, cream of chicken soup and....ice cream. There I said it. We can't live without ice cream around here. We've given up soooo many luxuries lately, that I think ice cream is a relatively fair one to keep as long as I buy it on sale.

My husband is finally starting his regular work schedule at his new job, so we're starting a new tradition - crockpot Monday! I'll be working different hours on Mondays for awhile, so he'll be in charge of having dinner ready when I get home. Yay for me! I need a break! Thursdays, we have Bible Study, so we're switching over to a leftover night. (We're reading the book Practicing the Way of Jesus, if anyone is interested.) On Friday, we have to eat SUPER fast between school and three hours at the dance studio. I'm trying really hard to avoid fast food and am having reasonable success. The biggest problem is that we're usually just about out of EVERYthing!

Our meal plan for the week will be something like this,

Saturday - egg in the hole / birthday lunch out / my mom's chicken and rice and salad

Sunday - bagels with pumpkin cream cheese / grilled cheese and tomato soup /chili from the freezer

(We really drag out the birthday thing around here. Today is actually my bday.)

Monday - pumpkin smoothies / brown bag lunches / crockpot chicken and wild rice soup

Tuesday - cereal / brown bag lunches /breakfast sandwiches

Wednesday -cereal / brown bag lunches / tuna noodle salad

Thursday - pumpkin smoothies / brown bag lunches / leftovers

Friday - apples with peanut butter / brown bag lunches / crockpot black beans and cheese

I'd really like to do some baking this week, but I'm not sure I'll get to it! I've really been craving some apple cider scones, though!

See other meal plans at www.orgjunkie.com.

$50 week grocery project (30th Birthday Edition)

I'm running super late (again) updating this week. We've had a busy week celebrating my birthday, and I am, once again, fighting off a sinus infection.

The above purchase was right around $22 after tax at Hy Vee. I also went to Hen House and Price Chopper where I got milk, cheese, yogurt, apples, and I don't even remember what else now.

We stuck almost perfectly to $50 this week, and I will tell you that my fridge is already looking BARE. Lucky for me, I have a few birthday coupons laying around that I will be able to use, but the budget doesn't really allow for a whole family affair. I will probably use them mostly for lunches this week. Thankfully, my kids don't seem to mind sticking to the super simple and cheap favorites too much. Heck, they don't even know the difference. And, to be honest, they've been eating really well lately. I'm proud of what well rounded eaters they are!

Here is our menu plan for the week, starting with yesterday. Saturday is a distant memory.

Sunday - cereal / Mexican buffet with family (I took black beans and queso.) / Mexican buffet leftovers

Monday - cereal / tuna noodle salad and apples / cavatini and a garlic Boboli

Tuesday - smoothie popsicles / brown bag lunches / egg in the hole

Wednesday - 100% whole wheat cinnamon toast / brown bag lunches/ vegetarian chili

Thursday - cereal / brown bag lunches / broccoli cheese baked potatoes

Friday - smoothie popsicles / brown bag lunches / Little Caesars at dance

Snacks will include our usual banana smoothies, cottage cheese, pumpkin applesauce, yogurt, PBJ and whatever else I can come up with!

For more meal plans, see www.orgjunkie.com.

Birthday Freebies (in honor of my 30th!)

 

It's true! This is my birthday week, and it is a BIG one! 30?!?!? Where does the time go?

I'll be celebrating with some special birthday freebies this week. If you haven't signed up, some of my favorite eateries that offer birthday surprises are,

Red Robin
Baskin Robbins
Cold Stone Creamery
First Watch
Ben and Jerry's
Caribou Coffee
Culvers
Dunkin Donuts
Noodles & Co 
Olive Garden
On the Border
Papa Murphy's
Sonic
Starbucks

Have fun!

(Photo Credit, I Am Baker)