Random Saving Thoughts

I made an excellent trip to CVS on Saturday, spent $4 for a pack of diapers, men's deodorant, Biore pore strips and cleaner.

I am realizing that coupons this year are not as good as they were a year ago. The value on the coupon's are generally less and store sales seem to be running on a different cycle than the coupons.

My stock up trip to ALDI was less than $50 today. I purchased several pantry items that I have not been able to grab on a good sale recently.

The reason this was a stock up trip is that starting today, Matt and I are going to try and limit our grocery shopping to the purchase of bread, milk and eggs until the beginning of June. This will encourage us to use up the food that we have previously purchased including the Zaycon chicken as well as you our usual $800 grocery budget for May to pay for a trip we are planning.

We are going to start picking up our co-op box of produce this week. I am excited to not only see what we get but also to try out some new recipes with the food we are given.

The freezing temperature of last week, mean the demise of the majority of my square food Garden. I am still undecided as to if I want to replant things that were lost or just give up this year.

Convenient and Cheap

We have been working on re-stocking our freezers over the past 2 months. One thing that I realized is even if we have tons of foods, at least once if not several times a week, we need something that is easy to fix and doesn't require a full day of planning.
This afternoon, I was able to add 7 meals to the freezers, the total time spent was around 3 hours. Last Saturday, at Costco we purchased 6# of ground beef. It has been sitting waiting patiently for me all week. I made 2 cheeseburger pies, 2 meatloaf and 2 packages of Salisbury steaks from this pack. Any of these meals can be taken out of the freezer and completely prepared in 2 hours or less. Next, I decided to tack the Rotisserie Chicken from Costco as well. Kendall and I had both enjoyed  it as our lunch on Saturday.  I was able to remove enough chicken from the bones to make dinner for tomorrow night, which will be chicken and broccoli. I used broccoli that was frozen and even found the Velveeta cheese in the bottom of the refrigerator.   To end the day, I made Easter Egg Salad, the secret ingredient to this is the Lazy day pickles that we made last year. Hopefully, these convenient meals will make life run smoother around here for the next couple of weeks.

Wordless Wednesday- North Carolina in April

Not What I Expect........

Today is Saturday, day 3 of a 4 day weekend. I can honestly say so far this has not been what I expect!  Thursday I did enjoy time in Lily's spring party. I forgot my camera and was using Matt's phone so I had no clue how to take pictures. After lunch, we took Zach and Kendall to the doctor's office because they are both sick. Kendall's is suppose to have an old fashion cold which she has pasted on to myself, Lily and Matt. Zach has a double ear infection. In fact the doctor said that he actually had a blister on his ear drum.  On the way home from the doctor's office my brother calls and my dad is in the emergency room.  I ended up spending most of Friday at the hospital with my dad.  Thankfully, Dad is home, Zach is feeling much better with antibiotics. The rest of us are praying we can all make it to church in the morning. On the bright side of things, I have been able to work on my project list and have completed several of the items.  The kids and I did dye Easter Eggs today, I took them outside in hopes of some decent pictures. Here is what I got....

Project List

Today, starts a 4 day weekend for me! I am so excited what is even better, of the 4 days I have 1 entire day with no plans and the other all involve less than half a day!  I am going to share my project list today for the things I hope to accomplish over this weekend. As I complete each project, my plan is to take pictures if appropriate or write a summary of the project for the blog.

1. Mulch the playground and Matt is planning to hook up a water system for the square foot garden.  I was able to plant the entire garden last Friday and everything is alive and growing today. We purchased 12 bags of rubber mulch for the playground. Between Matt and myself we have been able to apply mulch everywhere else but the playground. This will get us about half way finished with rubber mulching for the playground. We have also been searching for someone to work on our septic system!
2. Matt will be picking up 80# of chicken on Friday morning. Prior to it's arrival, my goal is to sort, organize and label all the items in 3 freezers. I will then put together a list of needs for the stockpile. We will begin receiving veggies in mid April from the co-op so I am hoping that this will allow us to drastically reduce our grocery spending for the next 6 months!
3. Along with the chicken, I would like to cook and freeze a batch of beans for some summer soups such as Taco soup.  I also need to get a batch of chicken cooked and deboned for us in things such as chicken pies.
4. Finish/ catch up several 10 minute a day projects including: Coupons, Quizzing, budgeting and sorting/organizing the computer files.
5. LAUGH, SING, DANCE or HOLD 3 very cute children as much as possible! This week along we have had 3 Easter Egg hunt and a school party. Pictures should be up soon.

March in Review

The fact that I am at least 2 days late for posting this should tell you how busy we have been this past week or so. March was not a stellar month on any front but I want to inspire and remind my self of the goals I have set.

Blogging: 8 post for the month. Busy Busy Busy...

Goal: 15 per month



Devotions: 2 months in a row GOALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL! 
Goal is 3 a week.



Groceries: Wow this should probably be considered an epic failure as we spent $1300 this month. But I used $100 from last month, my plan is also to use some of April's budget to cover as well. We have been stocking up on meat this month. For the first time, we are purchasing Zaycon chicken. Matt will be picking it up on Friday (6th). We purchased 80# but I have not a clue as too how long this will last. I would think 3 month but really am not sure!
Grocery Budget is set at $800 per month, this includes diapers, cleaning supplies, food and toiletries.



Financially: This is an area that is undergoing constant change. I purchased several used books this month regarding finances, one of the major things I learned is to set a budget/plan for all the reoccurring but unbudgeted items. This include such things as clothing and auto expenses. I know that we will not be able to met the items some months but my hope is by having even half of the money saved it will help to keep us on track.  I was able to pay off 2 small medical bills this month, and one credit card.  It was a difficulty but productive month!

Goal: To be Debt free except for mortgage by the end of the year.



Weight-  I am not sure what is up with this goal. I did meet my exercise goal but not the weight lose. I am going to continue to focus on the exercise and hope the weight loss catches up!
Goal to exercise 3x a week and to be down to 150 by December by losing around 4 # a month.

Different Ideas

I enjoy reading several blogs, okay I stalk around 20  right now but who is counting?  One of the reasons that I read these blogs is to find new and better ideas.  I am always looking for new ideas regarding meal and of course budget/money matters. Several of the blogs I regularly read, help me stay up to date with coupons and sales, other simply make me realize that my life is not as crazy or mixed up as it can be.  Today I thought I would share some of the most interesting and useful things I have learned lately.

• The concept of spending 10 minutes a day on projects that seem overwhelming came from The Peaceful Mom. I have been using this concept over the past several weeks to be able to first get and keep my coupons organized as well as stay on top of quizzing and other church responsibilities. My plan is to start trying to organize, delete and combine all the documents and photos that we have saved on the computers in the past 6 years. I am thinking that it will most likely take a month or so to finally get this all done but at least I have a plan for action.
• Also over at The Peaceful Mom, she is sharing about her family's challenge of living on 28000 a year. It is so encouraging to read how they are doing. I am still debating the idea of a second checking account to place money for things like clothing and extra irregular expenses.
• I began to save and use Coke points from Couponing To Disney. One of the awesome new rewards is All magazine. This magazine is only sold at Walmart or via subscription. Currently at Coke Rewards I can earn a one year subscription for 337 points. I need about 30 more points! I have been debating on ordering this for about 6 months now and was waiting for the lowest price of 0.83 an issue again but FREE is so much better.
• Caring with Coupons, is a lady that is most local for me. She also is the first to announce Harris Teeter triples and Super Double events. We just finished a week of Triples and she is suggesting that Super Doubles will occur in 3 weeks.
• Southern Savers, is still my first stop for finding coupons and preparing for any deals.  Recently, we were able to go to Vista Print and get the first round of business cards and decals for Matt's business.
• My favorite place to find new food ideas is Lynn's Kitchen Adventures, and we recently tried egg over rice! Simple, easy and filling.

I guess I should mention that none of these ladies know or request that I recommend their sites but it just seem like a good way to share the new things I am learning!