A Tentative Budget

My last two shops have been right around $120.00. This has included store coupons that I may not always have. I have decided to use that as my weekly allowance. If I spend an average of $120 per week that will give us a budget of $480 per month. I think it will take a lot of work, but I am going to try to hit my mark. I have spent $339 so far this month. If I stick to my plan that only allows me to spend another $141 for the entire month. We are already out of bread, and I know I have to get it today.  Well, it is good to have goals.

My First Birthday Card

Yesterday was my birthday. It was the first birthday card in my life that only had my mother's name on it. It was strange to see it in writing. Not that I imagine that my father signed many birthday cards. I assume it was usually my mother, but to have it just be her name made my heart skip a beat.

Yesterday was the two month anniversary of his passing. I can't believe how fast it has gone by. Sometimes I am so busy that I just work, cook, organize, and surf the grief away. Then it floats back in reminding me that I can't ignore it. It must be dealt with. My father is gone, and no amount of cooking, working, organizing, or planning vacations that we probably shouldn't take will bring him back. It won't change the way things are. My father is gone. It is a new normal that I must contend with and process.

An Amazing Shop

I am blown away by what I was able to get today.  Once again I had a $5.00 off coupon and an additional $5.00 on my Stop and Shop card. That gave me $10.00 of my order. Also, I bought the following products that were buy one get one free: onions, potatoes, and bread. I also took advantage of their "buy theirs get ours" that they do, which got me two dish soaps and two containers of hummus. I also got free Cabot butter due to a coupon. My final free item was milk because I spent $12.00 on certain products. That was mainly yogurt for the kids to take to school and a few yogurts for me. They looked good, but I am not sure I am in love with them.

Now my order was not free. This is not extreme couponing where I got 100 boxes of cereal free. My order included clementines, apples, peppers, lettuce, carrots, cantaloupe and fresh pineapple. It also included oatmeal, sour cream, 4-5 pounds of chicken breast for $1.77 lb, deli meat and cheese, pita bread, peanut butter, frozen blueberries, eggs and few other snack items.  It looked like it was close to $200.00, but it was only $122.00. For someone who has been spending over $150.00 a week and then hitting the store again for a $50.00 or $60.00 order this is wonderful. I have my menu plan and am working hard to get everything ready for another week of "no more shopping".

Our groceries this month........The Good and what to improve

So since the beginning of January I have been participating in a pantry challenge. I have never participated like this before. We did not have overwhelming amounts of food storage, but I wanted to focus on what we had and try to eat it.  So far, we have done really well.  My freezer is almost bare and my daughter looked in and said "We have chocolate ice cream. I didn't know that". At this point I am out of eggs and very low on yeast, rice, and oatmeal. My fridge is pretty sparse. We are working hard.

My spending for the month at this point is under $220, and the month is half over. I do have to shop today.  That is really amazing for us. Now I don't spend the $300-$350 dollars a week on food like some families, but I was finding that it was easy to be spending $150-$170 for a weekly shop with more stops through the week. I have done a few things to help eliminate the extra stops.

• Buy enough milk and bread at the beginning. Those are staples for us.  I put milk in my coffee and without coffee I am not human
• Write a plan, but be flexible. I am good at writing a plan, but I don't always want what I plan. I move things around and make changes. It is working.

So far we have eaten dinner at home for two full weeks in a row with two exceptions. We had take out pizza last weekend with a friend. After cooking for seven nights in a row that was enjoyable. My husband and I also grabbed dinner out this week since the kids were out with my mother and sister. Another nice treat. I am walking in the door most nights after 5:00 and I typically leave between 7:30 and 8:00 in the morning, so not ordering take out is a small miracle.

What I Need to Work On

We have done really well, but our food has been pretty high in carbs. Certainly not what my overall food goal is. Today I want to get more vegetables and put them into more meals. Three of this week's dinners included homemade rolls or biscuits. Delicious but deadly. I need to back off of that.

My carb heavy menu:

Sunday Chicken in Gravy with Biscuits

Monday Baked Omelet with Linguini

Tuesday Skillet Chicken Pot Pie with Biscuits

Wednesday Out for Dinner

Thursday Chicken Soup with Homemade rolls

Friday Left Over Lobster Sauce from New Year's take out from freezer and fried rice that I threw together with Caesar salad (weird combo but the kids love Caesar)

See what I mean. This week's plan, and yes I already wrote it will include more side veggies like tossed salad. I usually throw raw veggies like carrots on the table too. We will see what the next week brings.

Hello Out There If You Stop By

I have been writing and not writing this blog for years. I have talked about food, money, life, my family, sadness. Many thoughts that randomly come to mind. I have had a couple of comments in that time. However, I have noticed that I do have a few people that have stopped by and read my thoughts. It is exciting to know that I have a few people that have visited.  I would love to have a well read blog and keep thinking about what my main focus could be. So far my thoughts are very random and my blog is not the well organized machine one would hope for.

Anyway, if you do stop by please say hello if it suits you. Also, if you have your own blog please let me know. I would love to see it.  If you have a blog and ever need a guest post I do love to write and would love to contribute to another blog.  And finally, if you can think of something wonderful that I can blog about that would make me famous before I win Power ball tomorrow I would love suggestions.

Thanks for stopping by.

Taking time for me

So I did get back to the gym today. Finally. I joined over the vacation and made it four times. I was so proud of myself. Once work started back up I just could not get there. We had a cold snap too, so I had so many great excuses as to why I could not work out. Too cold, too tired, too LAZY.

The gym is one mile from my house. Yes, just one mile. That is why I joined. I figure in the summer I could walk down, work out, and walk home. Although I can be lazy, exercise boosts my mood, clears my mind, relieves stress, and just makes me feel better. Not to mention it may lower my weight.  That would be a nice bonus. Also, it will make me a better mother, wife, daughter, sister, friend, teacher, coworker. We wear so many hats, and if we want to wear them well we have to take the time to do something for us.  My typical time for myself involves cooking because I love it. Reading is also a favorite past time, however, I sort of get lost in my book and do nothing else. I would really love to add a regular work out schedule to my list of things that are for me.

Fast Weekends, and Money

Where does the weekend go?  I left work on Friday to grab the kids. I wanted to leave earlier, but I had a few things that had to be done. We were in the door before 5:00, which is early for us. I knew there was tons to do. Over vacation I had worked hard to put things in order, catch up on laundry, organize (some parts of the house). I would like to stay caught up.  Friday night included three loads of laundry that I still need to put away. Folding and putting away laundry is my least favorite part of laundry. Yesterday included basketball, grocery shopping, and cleaning the house. I squeezed it all into one day since we were having company. Now today is already Sunday and includes more activities, and I have lesson plans and work to do, AND I must go to the gym. I just could not do it this first week back.  I was so bad.  I am going today, no questions asked.

Yesterday's grocery shopping was amazing. I was able to use two different $5.00 coupons off my order, get a few items free (water and carrots), and use a few more store coupons. I don't bother printing the coupon.com coupons because my old lap top can't handle the software.  We had homemade dinner Sunday through Friday.  I prepped and really planned it out, making changes as needed. The kids took yogurts, leftover holiday treats, and fruit with their lunches. Saturday we ordered pizza since my friend and her children came over for dinner.  Today it is pizza for lunch. I roasted a chicken yesterday which I hope to get three meals out of, including soup. Can you hear my family groaning?  Last Sunday I spent $79.00 and yesterday I spent $117. That is under $200. I typically have been spending over $160 plus additional trips for a family of four. We don't have a ton of food storage, which is why I spent what I did yesterday, but we will make this work. I made sure to buy enough milk and bread so there is no need to hit a store or send my husband who always adds cookies to the milk.  I even passed up some holiday tea for .75 per box. I almost bought avocados and my nine year old joked "It's not on the list".  Well guess who did not buy avocados? It is funny to hear your own words used against you. I hear sweet voices and feet. Time to start my day.