Weekly Grocery Shopping 9/30/11

If you aren't interested in the details of my shopping trip, be sure to read down to the end of the post for my tip.

Black Hills Milk:

• 4 lbs of the BEST BURGER ever...$16.00 yes, worth every cent! I made 7 mini meatzas with one pound of it. Actually, I didn't follow that recipe, I just made 7 burgers with a lip around them to hold the pizza sauce and then cooked them for about 20 minutes at 350. Added toppings and finished cooking them until they were done. FANTASTIC!
• 3 Dozen Eggs $9.00 (sometimes we can get farm fresh eggs for $2.00 per dozen - personally I don't think those people charge enough.)
• Total with tax $25.00

Walmart:

• 6 Pack of Raisins $1.88 (hiking trips, volleyball games and cross country meets - yes, it would be cheaper to buy in bulk, but we don't need that much dried fruit
• Dill Pickles $2.44
• Almond Butter $4.48
• Garlic Powder $.74
• Cream $2.00 (not pictured)
• Total with tax $12.15

Safeway:

• Coffee $4.99
• Kerrygold butter 8oz $4.49 (are you just dying here?....people that is $9.00 per pound! crazy! When I found out they might not sell it anymore I nearly cried. Yes, it's that good. It's a deep dark yellow and it tastes heavenly. I am the only one who appreciates it around here so everyone knows that it's Mom's butter.)
• Bananas $3.65
• 3 Kiwi $1.00
• Grapes $2.45 
• Cilantro $.50
• 3 lbs Red Apples $3.99
• Total with tax $22.33

Lueders:

• Frozen Broccoli $1.79
• Sliced Mushrooms $1.50
• 8 packs Smart Chicken Leg Quarters $10.01 (on my sheet I had written $10...WEIRD!)
• Cream Cheese $2.40 
• Lemon $.75
• 8oz cheese $1.50 
• Black Olives $1.29
• Total with tax $20.39

Total so far $79.87

Still to buy 1 pack bacon $5 and 1 pack of German Sausage $5 - total  $10.00.

Take a look at my menu plan and how we really ate.


My tip of the week:

Source

Whenever you have a hard time controlling yourself at a grocery store, you can do one of two things:

1. Bring cash and a list or
2. Do NOT get a cart. You can get a shopping basket which will help you get a simple workout in, but a cart is the last thing that you need.

I have nothing against Walmart...honestly I don't know enough about both sides of the story to know if it's a good store or not. My issue with Walmart is myself. Even with cash, I find myself putting things in the cart simply because they are cheap.

Check out other frugal trips and tips at:

Frugal Fridays at Life as Mom
Grocery Cart Challenge

Why I Quit Everything to Win

Do you focus more on others than you do on your family?
At one point in my "career" as a stay at home mom, I spent more time on other people than I did on my own family. I would make treats for others and save a few out for my family. I would spend a great deal of time picking out or making a gift for others and send my kids away because "I'm busy". At the park, I would watch my children play so I could work on my volunteer projects. I hate writing all of that, but need to because I think there are so many stay at home moms who are trying to make a difference, but forget about their own family.

The day I became a quitter was on of the best days of my life.
Actually, it wasn't a day, it took a while. Back in 2005 I slowly quit everything. I quit volunteering, I quit reading self help books, I quit looking for ways to make a difference, I quit reading items on the Internet, I QUIT!!!

I started focusing on myself and my family. I read the Bible...turns out that a lot of the self help books are misguided. Here's what I learned:

• God created ME first.
• God created my marriage second.
• God created my kiddos third.

So I decided that those were my priorities. Me, marriage, kids.  Easy enough right? NO! Simple, Yes, Easy? No!

I started with small steps...I started playing again and enjoying my life. I took long walks, I played at the park with my kids, made special treats only for my family, and spent time with my husband. You know what happened?

Stress - vanished! My family became stronger. I became a better person, wife and mother.

I think I was looking to others to validate my position as a stay at home mom. I know my husband appreciates everything I do around here, but it's not the same thing as having a job and annual review. Although I do give myself a 20% raise every year LOL.

Fast forward 6 years...my chosen profession is a homemaker. I have about 10-15 hours "extra" a week that I dedicate to activities other than homemaking. I only volunteer for the activities that I know for sure I'm supposed to be doing. There are so many things that I want to do, but those things will still be there when my kids are gone.

Family First
Self - now I don't mean that you should spend this time shopping for yourself. Do something that is good for your soul. I like to go for walks along the creek, get up early before everyone else, sit and do nothing for 10 minutes.

Spouse - Do you intentionally say or do nice things for your spouse every day? Why is this so hard for me? Hopefully some day it'll become natural, but after 19 years it's still not natural, I have to be intentional.

Kids - I know that I need to have one on one "cuddle time" every day with my kids. Now that they are older they don't appreciate literal "cuddle time", but they still need to know that I care about them. I have to seek them out and talk to them. They are busy, I am busy, but it's worth the effort on my part. Sometimes I get caught up in getting everything done for them, that I forget to talk with them.

Funny story that has nothing to do with putting your kids first...I told my son that his laundry was clean, but very wrinkled because he put too many clothes in the washer. His response...."OH NO...wrinkled clothes, how will I survive." Talk about putting it into perspective for me. Why in the world do I care if he wears wrinkled clothes? Some battles are not worth fighting.

Please note that I do care if my husband wears wrinkled clothes into his professional office.

TO DO

1. Get your time back. I highly recommend Amy's book "Tell Your Time." It's a self help book that is more of a work book. If you do the steps in the book you will have time. I don't know that I ever need to read another time management book.
2. List your priorities.
3. Every week make an Intentional Living plan. This is new for me - talk about public accountability!
4. Quit everything if you are completely stressed out (don't quit your job if you need the money - I'm talking about all the other stuff you CAN quit. If you don't know what all of that stuff is, write down everything you do all day long and you'll see things you can quit. For example, are you doing laundry all day long even though your kids are old enough to help with it? Quit doing it and show them how. 
5. Take 15 minutes every day for yourself. I know I know....how about 5 minutes for yourself? Set your timer and  SIT...be thankful for everything that you have. 

Food Budget - Primal Breakfast

Money Saving Tip - Break the Food Budget Down

I've gone with the KISS (keep it simple stupid) breakfast plan for the past few months.

Every Monday and Thursday I bake two packages of sausage links. I always have enough sausage for my husband and daughter to eat as long as I keep up with this routine. My son and I will eat hamburgers and/or leftovers. I also buy 3 dozen eggs every week from a local farmer.

Sausage links cost $2.80 for 8 links ($.35 each * 4 per day = $1.40)
Small hamburger patty $4.00 for 8 patties ($.50 each * 2 per day = $1.00)
My husband eats three eggs for breakfast every morning ($.25 * 3 = $.75)
Coffee $.20

• Total cost for breakfast for one day is $3.35.  Total cost for one week = $23.45
• frugal people who feed their families wheat/grains - hang with me here...
• Total budget for food for one day is $14.28. Total budget for one week = $100.00

I have $10.93 per day remaining for any meals/snacks. 

$76.55 remaining for one week.

Why is this important to know?  You need to know if your food budget is realistic. It's not realistic to think that I can cook steaks every night for dinner and still stay under budget.

My disclaimers...we don't ALWAYS eat this way, but it gives me a good idea how much money I have left to spend for dinner. My kids will often eat breakfast really late on Saturday and Sunday and end up only eating two meals. Sometimes on the weekend my daughter will make fried eggs for breakfast instead of having sausage.

Other Notes:

• I buy sausage links from the butcher (cheaper than the grocery store and way better). Previously, I made my own sausage, but portion control and having enough on hand were issues. The sausage I buy is basically ground pork with some added seasonings.
• Links are much easier to cook than frying ground sausage. I take them out of the freezer about an hour before I want to cook them. Bake them at 350 for about an hour until they are done (I check them every 15 minutes or so, flipping as needed).
• Baking the links in the oven is much easier than frying them in a pan. In the summer I use my roaster that sits in the garage.

Frugal Notes:
When I first changed the way that we ate, I had a hard time thinking I was still "frugal" because we were spending so much money on food. My pride was getting in the way of what was best for my body. If my daughter doesn't eat meat in the morning and eats anything with carbs in it, she has MAJOR blood sugar issues. Here's my latest "primal" update. If you feel good and have energy all day long eating grains/carbs/wheat, then your breakfast budget might be a lot lower. Overall I spend less throughout the day because my kids aren't starving all of the time like they used to be.

It's important to note the process that I used to come up with the numbers. If you are interested in lowering your food budget, breaking down the budget to look at per meal cost can be very enlightening! Check out how ThriftyTexasPenny broke down her dinner meals.

Recently I started adding omelets into the mix - haven't figured the cost on that yet...


This works for me! Find out what works for others over at We are THAT Family. Find more frugal ideas at LifeAsMom Frugal Fridays.

FYI - this morning I had a half of a sweet potato with butter...best laid plans ya know!!!

Homemaking: Menu Plan and Intentional Living 9/26/11

Live an intentional life by planning your days...

Menu Plan
Printing my menu plan out like last week sure looked pretty, but it drove me nuts! I love handwriting my plan out using different color pens.

Breakfast - check out this french toast recipe! Add some apples fried in butter - YUMMMOLA
                  *** Tuesday you will see my breakfast plan posted
Lunch - leftovers; one day when the kids are home I want to make oopsie rolls,
Dinners:

1. Potatoes Alfredo with Dijon Chicken (had BBQ'd (burned!) chicken instead....too many creamy things on menu this week! salad)
2. Enchilada Salad (had leftover roast beef fried with potatoes and onions w/ fried egg on top, cucumbers, carrots and tomatoes on side)
3. Meatza ( made mini meatza's and each family member added their own toppings - it was a hit!)
4. Panera's Potato Soup - not sure what the protein will be yet...maybe this will be a test night to see how we will do on a very small amount of protein. HUGE HUGE hit! I'll try it again with 1/2 block of cream cheese and use the right amount of chicken broth next time. Served w/ 1 lb burger (makes 5 patties).
5. Burgers with baked sweet potato fries.  I had bacon and salad, my husband had a party to go to, my daughter went to a friend's house and I bought a sub as a treat for my son.
6. "Mockballs" - nope, didn't make this either...fried up burger and added beans and homemade salsa.
7. Leftovers or fried eggs or ????

Other recipes I want to make:
kale no kale at the store

Check back on Friday to see how primalish eating on a budget worked out for us!

Homemaking Plan

Self (put self first - God created me first....)

exercise AKA move daily (done on Mon, Tues, Wed (with dogs),Thurs ran around like a fool at the Cross Country meet and I'm counting that! Friday played outside with my son - volleyball and frisbee)
time by the creek 3X per week (done on: Tues, Wed, Fri)
10 minutes every AFTERNOON "Still Water Time (Psalm 23:2)" done on Mon, Tues, Wed NOT on Thurs., Friday NOPE...

Family First before Others
Say/do something nice for my husband every day. (done on: Mon, Tues,Wed...Friday - man this is hard
1 love language per day. (done on: Mon, Tues, Wed, Thu, Fri)
"Cuddle time" with kids every day (not literally since they aren't fond of that, but alone time with them) done on Mon, NOT Tues (excuse: night was spent preparing for a big hike on Wed and then walked dogs with dh - not a great excuse LOL, Wed), Thu, Fri
LISTEN when they talk - ongoing battle for me!

Others
make 5 cards: done!
walk with a friend: done!

Homemaking not a good week on the homemaking front, maybe I'm expecting a bit too much?
Figure out plan for my pictures
Fix purple shirt
Tues & Thurs 4 hours blogging and NO MORE on those days!!! done on Tues and Thu
Clean off shelf I organized my recipes instead
15 minutes in zone Mon-Friday done on Mon, Tues, Wed, not Thurs or Fri
Do something with the loads of tomatoes that I got from our friends - so far I've put them in the fridge LOL (and eaten them); on Sat. I made a bunch of salsa and froze a bunch more. Still have more tomatoes.

Check out other menu plans at:

Orgjunkie

11th Heaven's Homemaking Haven always has a lot of homemaking posts to read as well!

Weekly Grocery Shopping 9/23/2011

Don't mind me while I play with picnik.com (it's free)!!!

So I think it's funny that I bought pesticide free mushrooms, organic lettuce and whipping cream but then bought pepperoni.  Not sure why that's making me laugh this morning, must be lack of sleep! If you don't want to see all that I purchased, be sure to check out the tip below!

Safeway trip #1

• Eight O' Clock coffee $5.00 - would love to hear what kind of coffee you drink. I've been drinking Yuban dark roast for the past year and it's been good. They've raised the prices from $5 per can to $9 per can (rock bottom sale prices here) so while I'm waiting for a sale I'm trying other brands. Yuban is fair market coffee, but I'm not sure what other inexpensive brands are. Suggestions?
•  2 cream cheese $3.00 (while this technically wasn't a need for this week, I've been waiting (and waiting) for it to go down to $1.00 a pack for a while now. I want to try oopsie rolls (I wouldn't use splenda though) again.
• organic whipping cream $3.00
• bananas $1.93
• kiwi $1.00
• avocados $4.00
• organic salad $6.00
• Total with tax $25.32

Lueders

• mushrooms $2.00
• pepperoni $3.00
• onions $1.39
• avocado $1.50 (comparing the two stores for the amount of meat in each fruit)
• sweet potatoes $2.24
• Total with tax $10.73

Again, it pays to have friends with a big garden!

Black Hills Milk

• 1/2 gallon milk
• Total with tax $2.65

Safeway trip #2

• 1 dozen eggs $2.00 
• 2 pounds cheese $5.00
• 3 pounds grapes $5.00
• 1 pound turkey lunchmeat $6.41
• Total with tax $19.50

Sturgis Bacon and/or Piedmont Sausage

• Planned spending 2 packs of bacon $10
• 4 packs of sausages $10
• 4 lbs burger $16
• Total planned spending with tax $38

Other money spent

• 2 dozen farm eggs $4.00
• 1 subway sandwich at v-ball game $5.00
• Total with tax $9.00

If I buy the bacon, sausages and burger I'll be over $5.36....I think I'll just wait on the bacon until next week. Convenience food is really expensive! 

Tip

When you are paying with cash, always keep a running total of how much you have spent. I don't recommend a calculator or a cell phone for this.

On my grocery list I do the following:

1. Put the whipping cream in my cart, cross it off of my list and write 3 in the right margin. 
2. Put the cream cheese in my cart, cross it off my list, scribble out the #3 and write 6 ($3.00 for the whipping cream and $3.00 for the cream cheese). 
3. Put the avocados in my cart, cross it off of my list, scribble out the #6 and write 10 ($3.00 for the whipping cream, $3.00 for the cream cheese and $4.00 for the avocados).
4. When you buy something that costs $1.43, I always round up so I don't have to worry about taxes.

I'm sure this is obvious to some, but this took me a long time to figure out how to keep track of how much money I've spent.

This post has been linked to:
Grocery Cart Challenge
Spendwise.org

Healthy Eating

Picture Credit

One baby step at a time.

Check out Archevore!

Recipe: Jambalaya Update

On my menu plan I had posted that I was going to make jambalaya. While cooking that night, I realized that while I don't follow that recipe much, I use it as a "base" and make it my own.

It's a good way to use up random bits of meat in the freezer. Previously, I would make soups from the random bits, but I didn't have a lot of success with that. I had a couple of chicken breasts in the freezer, some sausage and then I added a pound of hamburger.

Here's what I did:

1. Fried 1 pound burger and onion
2. In the crockpot I added 1- 15oz can of tomato sauce
3. Seasoned it with celery powder, 3 cloves of chopped garlic, salt, pepper, 1T Italian seasoning, sprinkled Tabasco sauce, sprinkled some cajun on top
4. Added red beans, cooked burger, chicken breasts and sausage.
5. Cooked on the "keep warm" setting for the afternoon. 
6. Some people ate it over white rice.

I really like shrimp in this dish, but unfortunately we rarely have shrimp on hand. My original jambalaya recipe.

This updated recipe has been linked to GroceryCartChallenge and GoodCheapEats. 

Homemaking

Isn't this an awesome picture! Photo Credit

Money Saving Idea:
My son had an eye appointment at 11:30 last week. I had the brief thought of going next door to Subway and picking up a sub for him before I came to my senses. I packed a couple of sandwiches for him and he ate them on the way to his appointment.

If I can find a way to save $3.50 three times a week, do you know how much extra money I'd have in the bank? $546.

If I can find a way to save a dollar a day, I would have $365 in my bank account.

If I hang up two loads of laundry every week, I'd have $52 extra a year.

Read these posts for more money saving ideas:
Measly Money
Money Saving Idea

Remember - it ALL adds up!


Managing Your Home:
This past week I realized that I can't start dinner at 5:00 and expect to be able to help my son with his homework.  Yesterday I started the soup at 12:00 and put it in the crockpot. Our home was much more peaceful.

Less chaos = more peace in your home.

Any money saving tips or managing your home tips - I'd love to hear them! Check out more frugal tips at Life as Mom and home making tips at 11th Heaven Homemaking Haven.

Menu Plan Monday - Primal on a Budget

To see the details and the links for my menu plan, click on my google doc.

Here's the "pretty version" (click on the image for a bigger view):

Please let me know if something doesn't show up! We basically eat a primal based diet with a few modifications. I bake breakfast sausage on Mondays and Thursdays then warm them up every morning we need them.

My tip for menu planning is this:

Look in your fridge, freezer and cupboards (AKA pantry/stored items) and create a menu plan. Fill in your dinners on the menu planner. Then on the "to do" section of your menu planner, work backwards. For example, on Friday night we're having a roast - I know that I need to take it out of the freezer on Tuesday and then marinate it on Thursday. This takes a few extra minutes now, but then I don't have to think about it in the future. 

Check out other menu plans at:

Orgjunkie.com 

Desiring Virtue

Weekly Grocery Shopping 9/16/2011

Photo Credit

Menu Planning Tip:
Always think ahead. I used to walk up and down every aisle at the store and add items to my grocery cart...that wasn't a great way to feed my family, but it was the only way I knew.

Now, I try to plan ahead one week. Meaning...if someone in my family mentions that they want tacos, I'll add it to the sticky note attached to my blank menu planner. This makes writing out my menu plan much easier. (Click on images below.)

Here's how my weekly grocery shopping trip turned out:

Walmart:

• Almond butter
• Total with tax $5.00

Lueders:

• Bananas 
• Total with tax $2.50

Safeway:

• V8 Fusion $2.00
• 18 eggs (for pickled eggs - still can't peel farm fresh eggs!) $2.49
• 8 oz cheddar cheese $2.00
• Organic butter $5.00
• Organic whipping cream $3.00
• Broccoli crowns $2.00
• Onion $.98
• Bananas $1.48
• Avocados $4.50
• Leaf lettuce $1.79
• Gala apples $2.76
• Garlic $.50
• Jalapeno $.07 (big spender aren't I LOL)
• 2 lbs baby carrots $2.00
• 2 packs mushrooms $2.49
• Total with tax $35 (I also bought stuff for the food pantry and emergency food, but that came out of misc. money budget, not my normal food budget)

Butcher Shop:

• 2 packs breakfast sausage 
• Total with tax $10

Black Hills Milk:

• 1/2 gallon raw milk $2.50
• 1 pound burger $4.00
• Farm fresh eggs $3.50
• Total with tax $10.60

Iherb:

• Brazil nuts (a lot of selenium in them - I try to eat one every day, but I've been out)
• Total with tax $6.50

Still to purchase:

• Grapes at Safeway - Friday only $5.00
• 1 dozen farm fresh eggs $3.00
• Total $8.00 

Here's a picture of my menu plan:

Grocery list and store coupons:

This post has been linked to:
Money Saving Mom
Grocery Cart Challenge

Clothe-A-Kid Update, Facebook, Random Info

So I wrote earlier about how to easily save time and money - check out that cute smiling dude with a neck tie!

Ministry:
Well, Clothe-A-Kid is almost over for this year...we still have a few more thank yous to write and one seminar to attend. This year, I'm going to take four months off before I begin working on it again because I got a bit burned out at the end of this year. Here's how it got started:

2006       We started planning in January to start CAK in the Spearfish area because there were more than 700 children living below the poverty level  in Lawrence County. In August, with 7 churches involved we clothed 115 kids.

I took that info off of our flyer so the formatting is a bit weird. This year in 2011 we clothed 293 kids with a lot of donations from businesses, individuals and 12 area churches. Another lady and I have been in charge of this program for the past few years. There are a lot of communities that have this type of a program if you use swagbucks  or google search for "clothe a kid". Speaking of swagbucks, I just earned another $5.00 Amazon gift card - if you don't use it you should! Easy Easy Easy!

Family:
What have you done today for your family? I mean besides ALL the regular stuff that you have to do because you are the mom?

Yesterday, I made my kids' beds and wrote a note on their bathroom mirror. Did they notice or say anything. NOPE. Funny, I just realized that! I didn't really do this for them, I did it for me. When I think:

"What can I do so my child knows that I REALLY love them", my momma attitude changes.  

I know that I love them, but do they feel loved?

Facebook:
I joined Facebook. GRRRR....I figured out why it's so hard for me. FB changes constantly. I read how someone is a Fan, but you don't see Fan anymore, you see Like. So I set up a page (which used to be called a Fan page?), but then that  is confusing and apparently there are some bugs. So I thought that I'd delete my page and just be normal (those of you who know me in real life are laughing hysterically right now because I'm so not normal). So now I don't have a search bar or like or profile page...Hopefully the good folks over at TheFacebookForum will be able to help this newbie!

Time:
I've been spending 10-15 hours a week blogging/new websites/Facebook etc. stuff. I would call it "working outside the home." It's stressing me out a bit I must admit. I stand in awe of those who work outside their home or work at home and get everything done! I must stop comparing myself to others though because I know it's a waste of time. I do need to continue where I left off after I read "Tell Your Time".

So if anyone has suggestions/comments regarding my ramblings of ministry, family, facebook, or time, I would absolutely positively love to hear them!!! Believe me, I need all of the help that I can get!!!

Home making: Habits

Update:Good gravy, I just re-read my original post...I re-wrote it. I'm truly sorry if I offended anyone!

My husband used to be a better home maker than me. He was amazing - he'd stay home on Monday with the kids and when I would get off of work, I'd come home to a clean house and the laundry all done for the week.

When I wanted to become a stay at home mom, I knew I had to learn how to keep up with my house.

Enter Flylady

She totally changed my life and way of thinking. I had NO idea I was a perfectionist until I started reading her book and website.

Yes, it can be overwhelming....if YOU let it. Again, that's the perfectionism coming out.






You can read my FLYlady home making posts to get more information about how I use FLYlady. I don't follow everything she does, but I use what works for me.

I read Crystal's post about kitchen counters and I must admit that at first I was completely discouraged. Here she has young kids at home with her all day long and I don't, yet my counters NEVER look like that. After I spent a few minutes whining about it, FLYLADY's loving voice kicked in. I re-read Crystal's post and instead of feeling discouraged, I felt encouraged to make a few changes. My goal is to have a welcoming kitchen - free of most clutter.

If FLYLADY doesn't work for you....try bits and pieces of her system to find a way to make it work for you. Over the last year I've been able to implement the "zone" idea of FLYlady. It's time to add another FLYlady trait.

Hotspots

I have made this a habit in some areas of my home, but my Island is still out of control. I am going to add this to my to do list every day - hopefully I can make it a habit again!

Flylady works for me!!! Get other ideas over at Works for Me Wednesday.

I joined Facebook. Help me out while I learn the ropes of Facebook!

How to Easily Save Time and Money

How to easily save $36.00 per year.

Do you tend to do the same thing over and over without thinking about why you are doing it?

Every time I go to the "city" (a town of 50,000 people LOL) I stop at the thrift store to look for ties for my husband. About a year and a half ago he started a job where he has to wear a tie 4-5 times a week. When he started this job we paid $20 per tie. Then I found the thrift store with all of these cool ties for $.25 each. Yes, $.25 EACH!!!

Last time when I was in the thrift store I found out that they had raised the price of ties from $.25 to $1.00. SERIOUSLY?!?! I put back 10 of the ties that were in my cart and ended up buying four ties that my husband needed.

Why did I buy ties every month?

It was a habit....habits are good when it comes to home making and relationships, NOT good when it comes to wasting time and money.

They were cheap....honestly I don't think you should ever buy anything just because it's cheap (still working on this problem - "but honey, I saved $15!!!" "No you didn't, you spent $25."
When I go to the "city" now, I have one less stop that I need to make AND I'm creating less clutter for my family.

$3.00 (average amount I spent monthly) * 12 months = $36

Less Clutter - PRICELESS

This frugal tip has been shared at:
Frugal Fridays - Life as Mom
Homemaking Monday - 11th Heaven Homemaking Haven

I joined Facebook. Help me out while I learn the ropes of Facebook!

Healthy Eating Tip

When transitioning from a SAD diet (standard American diet) to a healthy diet, quit thinking "breakfast, lunch and dinner."

Start thinking:

Food

What food should I have next to make me feel good? In the morning when you are breaking your fast (from sleeping) you can have vegetables with butter or a hamburger....it's all FOOD!!!

When you have some time to research healthy eating, check out my blog Budget Healthy Eating.

We are THAT Family has some wonderful tips - check out the Pinterest post by Kristen.

Grocery Buying 101: Rewrite Your List

Check out the loot from our very generous friends!!!

Using my menu planner, I wrote a very flexible plan for the week.
You can see how many changes I made throughout the week.
Click on the pictures to get a closer view of my chicken scratch!

Rough Draft - I start making my list after
I list out the plan for the week.

Final Draft Grocery List - Grand total must be
less than $100 per week. 

Unfortunately for you, using a computer to write down what we plan to eat and what I need to buy at the store, does NOT work for me. I bought the following:

• Walmart: heavy whipping cream $2 and cheddar cheese $2.18 (reminded once again that I really don't like to go grocery shopping here) 
• Total with tax: $4.41
• Lueders:
• radishes $.99 (not on list)
• bell peppers on clearance $1.29 (not on list)
• green leaf lettuce $1.29
• Total with tax: $3.78
• Lueders:
• 5 pounds red potatoes $2.99
• sweet potatoes $2.88
• mushrooms $2.00
• bananas (on sale for $.50/pound - HUGE deal here!) $4.00
• Daisy sour cream (doesn't have a bunch of junk in it!) $2.00
• lime $.50 (NOT on my list!)
• avocado $3.00 (yucky - won't be buying them here again)
• 3 pounds apples $3.00 (reminded once again why I LOVE shopping here...I said to the produce clerk - "what do these apples taste like?" He immediately went back to the store room, cut open an apple and let me try it. LOVE that store and their customer service.
• 6 corn on the cob $2.40 - might be the end of corn season, wasn't quite as good as before!
• Total with tax: $24.09
• Safeway:
• 1 pound frozen cauliflower $2.00 for Josie's Shepherd Pie
• Kerrygold Butter $4.19
• 2 packages lunchmeat (need to figure something out for these volleyball games!) $4.00
• 1 avocado $1.50 YUMMY!
• 1 cantaloupe $2.50
• 6 nectarines $2.89 (yuck!)
• Total with tax: $18.08
• Butcher Shop:
• 4 packages hamburger Total with tax: $15.17
• Still to Purchase:
• 1 quart of raw milk $1.60
• 1 package of hamburger $4.00 (doing taste testing with burger)
• 1 leaf lettuce $1.60
• Kept $10 out for these items....put $25 away
• Grand total $75 (remember, I have a well stocked pantry right now - this will definitely get harder as time goes on)

The worksheet with all stores listed and how much I was going to spend at one store was invaluable. I re-wrote my list right before I went to the store so everything was fresh in my mind. What I learned from shopping this way:

Knowledge = Power

Once I knew how much I was going to spend at each store, I found it was easy to stay under budget. It was also very tempting to fall into my old habit of buying more than we needed, but that is not the goal at this point. I need to find out how much it takes to feed my family of 4 a semi primal diet before I can figure out the rock bottom budget amount needed.

Any questions/comments, I'd love to hear them!

Check out the following websites for more frugal help:
Life as Mom - Frugal Fridays
Grocery Cart Challenge

Cold Tomato Soup

Do you have an abundance of homegrown tomatoes?

While I wouldn't say I have an abundance of tomatoes, I do have enough to make this recipe. Please note that this recipe will not be good at all with store bought tomatoes. Put the following in a food processor or blender:

• 7 ripe tomatoes (I think the word ripe in this recipe is funny - would you seriously try green tomatoes? I don't know, maybe I would)
• 1 onion (Holy COW!!! I tried this with a whole onion and nearly died and we really really like onions around here. Last night I used 2 T of onions and it was still a bit strong. Next time I'll try 1T.
• 1 1/2 t salt
• 1/2 t fresh pepper
• Chill for at least one hour

Stir the following with a wooden spoon (this makes a lot - you might want to use less):

• 5 T mayo (not miracle whip)
• 1 t curry
• 2T parsley (I don't know if this is dried or fresh. I use about 1 T dried)
• 1 t vinegar
• Chill for at least an hour

Put the tomato mixture in a bowl. Add a dollop of curry mixture to soup and stir. Enjoy!

Check out other frugal recipes at:
The Nourishing Gourmet
Grocery Cart Challenge

Homemaking: Thank You

Oooooooh this post hit home this morning:

The Generous Wife

Show Love

How do you show love in your home?

Are you loving your spouse and children how THEY NEED to be loved? Or are you loving them the way you want to be loved?

You can read more about the love language concept in the book The Five Love Languages. You really should check it out from the library today!

Anyway, I wrote my husband a note yesterday. It probably took about 5 minutes total. It was a silly little dumb thing that I wrote. However, I know that it makes an impact on him. AND ME!!! Meaning I'm thinking of him and taking time out of my day for him. You know, letting him know that he is important to me.

I wish I could show each member of my family their love language every single day. That's a great goal to have, but realistically it doesn't happen. Instead, I focus on showing my love to one person in my immediate family every day - using their love language. It's difficult for me to do this because their love language is not my love language so I have to WORK at it.

What better thing could I possibly be doing besides WORKING at "showing the love" to my family?

I'd love to hear if you've read that book before and if it impacted your family! By the way, this is part of your home making job. Doesn't matter if you work outside the home too, we all need to work on this.

More homemaking inspiration can be found at: Far Above Rubies

Update: About Me & Grocery List

I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE Tow Mater! So much so that I used my own allowance money to buy a notebook and folder of him. He just makes me laugh!!! When Cars first came out, my son used to be able to say "Just like tomater, without the TAH" and spit all over just like Tow Mater. Now that my son's teeth have grown in, it's not quite as funny, but I still love Mater just the same.

I just re-vamped my About Me page. There might be some info in there that you haven't seen before.

Grocery List:
Here's the blank grocery list I created that I'm going to use for the next 4 weeks of grocery shopping starting on September 4th. Remember, I'm only buying what I need for the week. I'm going to list out what I need on this page and then the total must be less than my budgeted $90. If it's not, something has to come off of the list.

The binder I put this list in is a smaller binder that fits paper 5 1/2" X 8 1/2"- the large normal 3 ring binder is just too big for my needs...here it is on Amazon:


 (I couldn't find it locally!)










Of course, then I had to buy an adjustable 3 hole puncher dude too:














When you use this binder you take a normal sheet of paper and cut it in half on the 11" side and then punch it (I have a cutter that I use for scrapbooking.)

These are two items that work really well for me!

My really bad picture of the menu planner in action!

Check out more ideas at We are THAT Family!