Long Weekend

It has been a long weekend and of course a long Monday!! I want to start posting more on my cooking experiences I have had over the past 2 weeks.

My husband and I have been keeping to our $100 a week grocery budget and making meals at home. The other day I cooked up some chocolate banana bread and baked up a huge batch! So I took 3 of the 4 loafs I made and wrapped them tight for the freezer. Great to pull out one day if we are running low on sweets.
I also made 2 homemade pizzas that are just completely delicious! So for the past week we have been eating in, eating homemade goodies, and definitely feel the difference when we go out to eat. I have found it has been hard for me to eat out recently knowing that the food prepared for me was in a "fast" manor with processed foods and stuff that is just not good for me.

So before I just let my rambling go on and on, here is an example of my last shopping trip. I'm going to break it down on what I got and just how many meals could be made out of it! I know that some of you may have more or less of a family and it can be adjusted to meet your needs.

I spent $73 at Albertson's this past Thursday and here is what I got.
3 lbs of hamburger meat, 2 packages of pork ribs, 2 things of flour tortillas, fresh cilantro, apples, oranges, broccoli, lunch meat, milk(not pictured) 2 loaves of bread(not pictured) veg. oil, a bag of bananas that were ripe(whole bag at .99!!) cheese, flour, 2 2lb spaghetti noodles, 4 jars for spaghetti sauce, 2 packages of tyson grilled chicken, re fried beans, ranch style beans, and some stuff to make salsa with.
Now with all of my ingredients listed here is how many meals can be made out of this:

Half the hamburger meat,
(Meal #1)1 half can be used for bean and beef burritos.
(Meal #2) The second half for spaghetti, throw some garlic bread slices in the oven(from one of your loaves of bread) and you have a meal.
(Meal #3)Take the grilled chicken strips and you can cook chicken quesadillas with one package of tortillas.
(Meal #4)The broccoli is for broccoli cheese soup one night and rolls (not pictured)
(Meal #5) Take the pork ribs and put them into separate freezer bags, add some seasonings, worchestire sauce, baby carrots, and whatever else and you have an easy marinated crock pot meal.
(Meal #6) Have a breakfast for dinner! Whip up some home made baking mix and make some yummy pancakes and egss!
You can also whip up a big batch of banana bread for the freezer for snacking or my mom has used it for breakfast at times. The sliced cheese and carton of eggs I got this week went for the breakfast sandwiches I make for my husband. I already had another thing of english muffins in the freezer from last weeks trip so I made up a batch of those.
Spaghettios for the kids(they love them) Jelly sandwiches, also if you have any chicken salad on hand, you can make chicken salad sandwiches one day for lunch..
Also I got some flour and semi sweet chocolate chips to make up a double batch of cookies. I bake some now and then freeze the rest so I can take a few out at a time to pop in the oven for quick snacks!
My girls love apples and oranges so those will add to the snack list for them this week as well!

Of course some things I already had on hand. The baby carrots, the sauce and spices, flour sugar and baking things for the baking stuff. But this gives you an idea of just how many meals I can get out of $73.
Apple juice, diapers, toiletry items, paper towels toilet paper all come out of my walmart budget if i'm not couponing for it that week.. Whatever the sale ad has up I check it to see what budget I pull those things out on. So I would say $100 gets us our food, baby needs, and paper products(when we run low on stock) a week. I am feeding a family of 6 right now. My parents do buy there own snacks and meat if they cook one night but the point of my explanation is to show you that having a small budget can stretch out a  lot of meals!!

All of the meat I bought was on sale!! If you can in the morning, my Alberstons has already marked down meat for quick sale. There is nothing wrong with the meat, its just getting close to its use or freeze by date!

Look for more blogs soon on my homemade baking mix, baking day line ups, and grocery trips and meal plans for the week!

Fun weekend ahead!

I have been working on planning a fun blog about how to be frugal on vacation and still enjoy it and the fact of how much you can SAVE/SPEND eating in vs eating out. Trust me, I tried this weekend to satisfy my family's eat out craving and spent $25. I then went to the store the next day for groceries for that nights dinner and not only spent $5 less, I added dessert, nacho cheese, hamburger meat, chips, ranch dip, spaghettio's, and some other things. I want to find better alternatives to eating out every dinner of the week. There are quick meals out there that are so much better for you and your pocket book!!
More to come!

Trial Run Budgetting

My husband and I are currently staying with parents to save up some money for a new house. We have had some financial freedom from our current mortgage since we are renting and we are not currently having to pay for certain bills we would need to being on our own. 
   We have taken this experience to get us ready for a budget that will work for us when we do find our new home. So with that being said i'm sure you are all wondering where I am going with this! Well, we are fixing up a budget of weekly expenses. We are going to use the envelope system because it seems like it would be best for us. We are the type that if there is money in the account, we will spend it and not watch the budget. 

So payday I have set aside categories for weekly expenses and broken them down into envelopes. On payday we pull out a lump sum for the budget. I take the car payment and divide it by 4 weeks, cell phone, internet, storage, and anything else that is monthly. I take that 1/4 payment out each week so when we hit the payment due date, its all in the envelope ready to mail in and there is no taking it out all at once or pulling from savings to add to it. We also have envelopes for groceries, my couponing budget, eating out budget, and misc budget(clothes, gifts, etc) and put money in those too.

So how do I use them?
Well when I get the grocery ads I sit down and make a menu for a week on whats on sale and what I have in my pantry. ALWAYS SHOP THE PANTRY/FRIDGE/FREEZER first. You would be surprised how many cans I have of diced tomatoes and instead of checking the pantry before shopping, I come home with more than I needed. We plan all of our meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks) for the week so that we know exactly what we need when we hit the store. I hate going to the store mid wee because I forgot to buy something! Its frustrating and a waste of time. 
Anyway, I make up my list of everything we may need for the week. We pull $100 a week for groceries and we stretch it for all the ingredients, juice, soda, staples, meat, etc. When the money is gone from this envelope, it is gone. So I try to find meals that some may not have meat, or do a sandwich day or I look for good meat deals! I have done this the past 2 weeks and stayed right on budget, i'm feeding a family of 6 right now so $100 a week I think is decent.

We also have a eating out budget of $20 a week. Once the money from that envelope is gone, there is no more eating out until the next week.We even try to not eat out for the week and take that $20 and put it in a vacation fund, Christmas fund, or something else.
 I also budget out for events that might be happening for the week such as this weekend we are going to the Circus. I have $40 in the envelope for this adventure. 

The reason I am budgeting the way I am with taking out the money for bills and the weekly things is so we don't go over board while we have a little financial freedom. I want to put more money in savings than spend it. So far it is helping and getting us ready for a tight budget for when we do have a mortgage again. I have been making dinner every night at home, making breakfasts for my family, and snacks. Homemade cookies and using extra dough I can throw in the freezer for a later date, i'm also making breakfast sandwiches, frozen meals, and putting crock pot meals together for even easier dinners. 

I have learned that if there is no meal plan for dinner, we usually will eat out or resort to sandwiches. I have also learned that when you take out money for bills every week to put back until they need to be paid, that money won't be spent and your less stressed about having it in the account. If any money in the eating out, grocery, etc envelopes is left over after the week, it goes into another envelope I call the Over Budget Fund, or you can even do a Vacation fund, Christmas Fund, etc.. You won't realize how much your spending until you take it out as cash and when you come in under budget because your more aware of what you need to buy, you have some left over that can go for fun things! I will start next Thursday posting my meal plan for the week, my shopping list, and recipe list and updates on how we are doing. If you have any questions just email me and I will be more than happy to answer them! Sorry this is long and i'm sure drawn out but It's a process. Oh, and whatever money is left at the end of the week in the account goes straight into savings. There are things you might need more than your budget allows and that's okay, the reason for a budget is so you are more aware of what your spending and what your spending it on. 

I read somewhere that it is harder to hand over cash from your budget, than to just swipe your card. So give it a try and see if it helps you in the long run. I will be back to update soon!

15 minute cleaning schedule

So I started a 15-20 minute cleaning schedule every day. So far for day 1 it has worked great. Along with the usual pick up of dishes, toys, and such I add 15-20 minutes of cleaning one area. Yesterday it was vacuuming and laundry. Day 2 will be dusting and other small miscellaneous tasks. We have also stuck to our menu so far (haha only day but hey it's a start) and hubby picked up a "cabinet" for all of my bow stuff to be put up in. It stores pretty much everything but the sewing machines! Now just to work on organizing the pantry/kitchen cabinets and that is a task I can't wait to be over.

Happy New Year!!

Happy new year everyone! I am starting off the year with a daily "de-junk" timeout! I am hoping to de-clutter and de-junk (if this is even a word haha) my home so I can focus on other more important things. I also have a large to do/ to try list including some quiet time bins for my 2 year old, working on both of my daughters scrapbooks, and crafts. By listing my weekly to do list, I hope it keeps me on top of it!
January 2nd- January 6th:
1. Start in the kitchen, de-clutter cabinets and pantry
2. Work on a quiet time bin
3. Draw "plans" for shelves in master, kids room, and laundry room

I'm starting out with a small goal and hope to accomplish it. :) I also want to start listing my meal plans for the week hoping to stick to it better.

Monday: Chicken tacos
Tuesday: Spaghetti/Salad
Wednesday: Chicken Fried Steak/potatoes/veggie
Thursday: Pork tenderloin
Friday: BBQ chicken(crock pot)
Saturday: BBQ chicken pizza
Sunday: Nachos

Well, wish me luck as I start something new this week!! I am also hoping to start doing 2 crafts a week with my girls as well as letters,numbers,colors, etc. I also plan to update with tutorials on crafts, organization tips, and how my weekly goal is coming! Welcome 2012!

Cooking, cooking, cooking!

I have recently discovered freezer cooking and menu planing each week and let me just say how awesome it is! I don't have a feeling of "What am I going to cook my family today?" It is always ready and there is always a meal planned for each day. We have recently started cutting out our eating out budget and I am hoping this method will over take the fast food runs. I know occasionally we will have nights we eat out, but we have only allotted 1 night to eat out. The rest are yummy meals I have prepared and froze or will prepare that night. It is also hunting season in the Woodson household, so I made sure the freezer was cleaned out and ready for what I hope will be deer meat soon :)

Thursday I cooked up 2 pounds of hamburger meat and separated each pound into a freezer bag. Then I cooked up some chicken and shredded it. Half of it went into a buffalo sauce and the other half went in BBQ sauce. I am really excited to report back on how these turned out. I also made 12 breakfast burritos for my husband to take to work. This weekend I will be working on a post with basic recipes I use, tips and tricks, and I will put together my weekly menu so you can see how I do it!

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

Wecome!

I am so excited to start blogging about my findings, favorite meals, and easy tips to help other Mom's/Housewives/Families out there. With the Holidays right around the corner(I mean literally, it is November 1st) I hope to help you save time with Holiday cooking and frugal gifts! 


I will be preparing a homemade pizza tonight so I can't wait to share how it turns out and a recipe when I get finished. 
~Tara