Rain, rain go away...

I feel like vampires are having a baseball gave somewhere close by.


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Menu planning

Here is the menu for the week.  I have also already bought the ingredients that I needed. :-)

Saturday:  Lasagna, salad, bread

Sunday:  Baked burritos

Monday:  Baked potato night

Tuesday:  Fish, roasted potatoes (or mashed), peas

Wednesday:  Jam Chicken over rice

Thursday:   Leftovers

Friday:  ?? Will have to think on this one. Most likely chicken and dumplings.

Slow cooker meals

I LOVE my slow cooker!

Right now I have French onion soup cooking away for tonight.


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Price Book

One of the first things you can do to start helping to reduce your expences is to look at your grocery budget.  It is the one area that most people can find the most “wiggle” room.

The USDA gives what it considers guidelines for monthly grocery expenses at varying levels of frugality (or the lack thereof).  The most recent month listed is for December 2010.

Now that there is only four of us at home, I will show you what the dot.gov lists are food costs for a family of my size.

Family size:  1 adult male 51-70 years, 1 adult female 19-50 years, 2 children in the 9-11 age group.

Thrifty Plan:  $591.10

Low-cost:       $771.60

Moderate:      $972.50

Liberal:        $1,174.40

All I can say is “WOW!”  Even at my most unfrugal, I have never spent the thrifty plan.  Now, before anyone starts saying that prices vary where you live, I live within an hour of Washington, D.C……so my costs are not exactly cheap!

This is where a price book comes into play!

It can be simple, it can be fancy.  Just make sure you use it!

Mine  is a simple 4 X 6 notebook, with pages that can be removed and added. The prices listed in mine are now mostly Aldi (a small grocery store) prices. If I can beat their price, I know it is a good deal. I do have some other stores listed, but not as much as there used to be in there.

This has helped me to find some really AWESOME deals.  Now, I can tell if a "manager's special" is really special.  It also helps to know if a "loss leader" is worth a special trip to a store.

It takes some time to set up a price book, but the savings in the future is really worth the investment of your time now.

Menu planning

I am trying to get back into the habit of making a weekly menu.  Not only does this save money, but it also saves time.  Which is something that is at a premium for me lately!

Tuesday:  Beef and Broccoli over rice

Wednesday:  French onion soup in the slow cooker

Thursday:  Chicken....in some form. (still working that one out)

Friday:  Homemade pizza

Saturday:  Sausage gumbo

Sunday:  Rotisserie Chicken, veggie, roasted potatoes

Took a day off yesterday.

It was so weird!

The two youngest had dental appointments, so after they were over I dropped them off at their respective schools and had the rest of the day to myself!

I have been told by my co-workers that I am not allowed to take days off anymore since all sorts of stuff happened in my absence. I told them that I was very confident in their ability to handle things. :-)

Today is work, laundry, and dinner.  Since today was SUPPOSED to be leftovers, but we have none.... I need to come up with an alternative.

Have a great day!

Tired

That is how I am feeling right now.


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Late in the day.......

I have been busy, but a good busy. LOL

Took my mid-term for theology this past weekend. Got an 88%. I am happy!


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Making a menu...and sticking to it!

Here is our menu for the week:

Sunday:     Pork loin roast, potatoes, green veggie
Monday:    Spaghetti w/meatballs, bread, salad
Tuesday:    Baked potato night
Wednesday: Jam Chicken over rice
Thursday:   Leftovers
Friday:       Homemade pizza
Saturday:  ?????

Breaking out the old Price Book!

I am needing to "go back to basics" with my monthly grocery budget.  Since this blog is new, I plan to update and revamp some of the posts I wrote about cost saving strategies I have written about in the past.

The first one will be about the "Price Book."  Don't be scared, this is not as daunting as it sounds.  Take your time and it will come together on it's own.

Stay tuned for the post about Price Books.

Moroccan Mint Green Tea

This is a new tea that I have discovered.  It is made by "Stash Tea" and is simply wonderful!  Refreshing minty-ness, with a hint of citrus.

I had a cup last night and plan to have one or two this evening.

Snow day

Okay... first we were not supposed to get anything......but we got maybe half an inch of snow.  School called with the automated message that we had a two hour delay.

Fine....slept in an extra 45 minutes and jumped in the shower to start my day.  DS11 starts playing the Kinect (Daddy surprised them with is yesterday) and I get onto the computer.

About 7:30 I check the school's website.....now school is CLOSED.  By this time DD9 hears brother yelling "YAY" and comes out sleepy eyed from her room.

Both are now playing the Kinect.  Built in entertainment for a snow day.  Thanks sweetie! :-)

Wednesday Musings

Dinner today is what I call "fiesta chicken" over rice.

Working on classwork this evening and maybe tv with the kids. I know, I live such an exciting life. :)


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The best laid plans......

Well, dinner ended up being order out pizza!

Car issues, son issues, and other things led to not getting the pork loin roast in the rotissierre (sp?) on time!

I had an alternate, but DH decided that we should just order pizza.  I'm not complaining, but it is a bit of a "red light" food for myself!  I did refrain from drinking a beer with it though!  That is something. LOL

Tonight's dinner will be smoked sausage, peppers and onions, and couscous.

How do you handle last minute events that impact your dinner plans?

Dinner tonight

We will be having a pork loin roast with couscous and a green veggie.


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Did you watch the Super Bowl?

I did, kinda. LOL

First half was at our neighbor's house and second half was at home, but I was recording it so I was skimming it and mainly watching the commercials. LOL

Well.....I am off to get a young lady awake and ready for school.  Post more later.

This is going to be an all encompassing blog!

It's gonna have posts about tea, but also being frugal and other day to day life items.

I hope you enjoy it!

Deciding how and where to go with this blog.

I was going to post exclusively about tea, but lately I have been so busy that setting up pictures of pretty tea filled cups is low on my list. (sorry)

I still want to do that, but can not do so on a daily basis.  I had a previous blog about frugality, so I might just combine the two ideas.

Stay tuned and find out!