Time to Relax

For those who read this and follow me on facebook, you will know that I am stressing about meal planning and budgeting. I am having the all day nausea of the first trimester of pregnancy. The smell of cooking food and looking at food makes me feel so sick. So I have really struggled and was getting down about it. I posted about it on facebook, and was very comforted by the responses I received. Relax, eat what you can, and don't go crazy stressing.

So we went shopping, I decided that we'd do a pizza week, like my friend Mallory did a couple years ago, but less intense. We are making pizza's 3 nights a week and then leftovers between. I got the stuff for that and the treat for preschool and other weekly necessities, I didn't have coupons - I did shop the sale and found a couple manager specials to get and only spent 85.00 on groceries!

Success! This tells me that my stocking up has helped and that I know what we need and what we don't. We have cut down on what we end up letting go bad and what just sits on the pantry shelf for months - or years.

I am also thinking that planning to cook just the 3 nights a week will work out for us pretty well, I work the other nights and Jake is really good at throwing stuff together or using the left overs. I think this will save us time and money. It should help us use our leftovers and our pantry goods.

Our pizza plan is to have 2 nights of build your own pizza and a variety of toppings and then one night do a Hawaiian BBQ pizza and see how it goes! I will let you know!

Another tidbit to show our success, we have officially rebuilt our baby step 1 emergency fund, and paid off 1 monthly payment (doctor bill) and should have another paid off in 1 or 2 months! Our debt is leaving and our account balances are growing! Yeah!

AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH

A scary and embarrassing number, but I have decided it must be documented to prevent future major slips. 300.55... That is right we have spent 300.55 in dining out. Not including grocery money... That is like my whole goal budget for the month. Bad Courtney. No more - we have a dining out budget and spending money for each person to get to use how ever we choose. That is where that money should come from. Yikes.

I have lots of excuses, but they are just that, excuses. Vain attempts to justify and rationalize bad choices. I will do better starting tomorrow. Looking at this changes my goal $ for this weeks shopping, and will require me to do some out of the pantry planning. I will be making an inventory and devising a plan based on what we have.

I might have to call my mom for help.

SUCCESS!!!

I made it out of Smith's at $73! I have even given myself a little leeway, and increased my budget goal to $80, I am so excited! (Break down, coming soon - hopefully - I can't wait to get my own computer that has a whole keyboard!)

Last week wasn't great, I went over but had great deals that are lasting me much longer than the 1 week. So I am hoping that it will all balance out and I will save some money in the next couple weeks - I am working on a plan to use the Turkey I have hanging out in the freezer. If you have suggestions - let me know. I am a novice when it comes to cooking the bird! Especially what to do with leftovers... I don't want to be wasteful, but also don't love the dark meat.

Things I Learned In January - and Plans for February

I have learned that shopping the sale - the ad from your grocery store is key to savings. Couponing is like a bonus, if you focus your efforts and follow through you will benefit - that said, if you are just starting out in the sale shopping world, are short on time, or are uncertain you will have success - shopping the ad is step one. I could not have had any success like I did without GrocerySmarts.com - thank you Kat for all your guidance and support in my grocery shopping, I made more than one confused plea for her help, she always has excellent answers! Her code is g84akg - I have it memorized now, I use different computers... I know I am not at the maximum savings point, I have a hard time shopping at different stores. I really like going to stores I know and am familiar with (employee discounts help too!)

One thing with coupons and sale prices - check the store brand, many times the sale price even with a coupon can still be more than the generic - I am totally fine with lots of things generic. Not everything though, but its worth trying it. Also, make sure you know EXACTLY what your coupon is for, ie - ounces, buy 2 get 1, certain varieties.

Success for the month
1/27 - 79.27
1/20 - 92.44
1/13 - 77.04
1/6 -  141.58
Total: 390.33
So we are still over budget but its so much better than it could have been! If it sounds like scary expenses to you, just know it is better for us, and we had lots of household things we needed - and still need, I am hoping I can really get those in the budget and start stocking my pantry so its not buying staple goods every week. Even at 390.33 that is 12.59/day for a family of 3! Pretty good!

I also have things that we haven't used, 2 lbs of lunch meat, a pork roast, bag of frozen chicken, box of frozen sausage, case of flour, case of beans, case of pears, lots of chili, paper towels, dish soap, laundry detergent and more I am sure - so we may have spent more than we wanted as a per day or week goal, but the things we got are lasting longer than expected! 

Goals/Plans for February:
1. Meal Planning - this is a struggle, when I would get to the store with my list of what we were out of and what was on sale, I still didn't have a clear plan of what we would eat... This month I am going to improve, I think it will help!
2. Less eating out - we did better than we have in past months, but we still spent 120.47, granted most of that comes out of a different budget category - entertainment or blow money. Its still too much, not good for our wallets or our waist lines! That averages out to be about 30 per week, goal is to reduce by 10 per week.
3. Less Coke/Diet Coke - I will admit it I am addicted to Diet Coke, its the first drink in the morning and last drink at night, and unfortunately sometimes the only drink in between, I know its bad and that I need to drink water, but the water in Herriman sucks, and its not cold, its not fizzy, and not delicious. And it doesn't seem to help me keep up with or be patient with my energetic Nathan!  Reasons to cut back, health - obviously - Budget - of course, but mostly - Nate. He wants to be like mom and dad, and is constantly asking for soda, sprite, root beer, mommy's coke, daddy's coke. No Milk, No water, No juice. He doesn't need my bad habits controlling his young life, and I don't need him revved up on sugar and especially caffeine. So the goal is to cut back - I don't think cold turkey is right for me. My plan is to have one less soda tomorrow than I did today. So like today I had 1 in the morning, 2 at lunch, 1 before work, and 1 after work. Well yikes, that cuts it out in 5 days... Probably not a realistic plan. Hmmm, what would be better? Suggestions? Also what do you drink? I can't have apples, red food coloring, or very much citrus, also too much plain water gives me heartburn... I will have to see how this week goes and come up with a plan and a reasonable goal for the month. I am for sure not saying that I will eliminate it, just that I need to be more moderate in my consumption.

I have one other question for all you working mom's or just busy ones- what do you do? I am only home 3 nights MWF to cook for my family. How would you make meals for the week work out when not home to prepare them from scratch?

Shopping 1/27/12

I started trying to type out the receipt info, but it was taking too long (the receipt is like 2 feet long).

My list when I went wasn't very well organized as far as meal planning goes, I had the 4star and 5star items from grocery smarts and another page with the list of necessities which showed a bit more meal planning potential but still nothing solid. I knew my goals - about 30 for Meat, Veg, Fruit, Bread, Milk and Eggs - that's a new recommendation for the Grocery Smart's teachers. Then the other 40-50 on stock ups and other household items. 

I started in the frozen foods section and got the frozen meals - 4 Healthy Choice steamers @1.49 each (that's a dollar off). Then the Lean Cuisines, they were 5 for 10, plus I had a coupon that made them 1.50 each - I had 2 coupons so I was going to get 10 - its a good deal... I went and got the milk- with coupon 1.74 and cheese 2 lb brick - with coupon 5.99, some ice-cream -sale, cereal - generic, gold fish - sale $0.99, shaving gel - skintimate @ 0.94 each - 2 cans, I can't believe its not butter - sale 1.75ish, Ritz crackers sale and coupon 1.49 each -3 boxes, wheat thins - sale and coupon - 1.32 ea- 3 boxes, frozen peas - 0.99/bag - i got 2 - I had a coupon for 0.40 off 2, Kleenex sale with coupon made them 0.70 a box - 3 boxes, I picked up some Charmin TP - 13.00, Ziploc's - not a great deal, but necessary with coupon $1.00 off 2, I went next to start getting produce bread and meat - and had been adding up on my phone's calculator the total - I was at like 90 when I realized there was a problem... 

I wasn't done, didn't have food for meals for the week, no fresh food, major problem. What do do? Do I just keep going and blow the budget in order to get all of the things that were the good deals? Plus I would have still have to get more stuff... Or do I look like a dork, who has no money and take stuff back, stand in a aisle and add up all of the dollars spent until I was on track? Last years Courtney would have just purchased it all, and agonized over spending too much when I got home. I was feeling week, and had to call Jake and tell him where I was on my spending, and he just kindly listened and asked what I thought, I knew the answer - look like a dork and take stuff back. It wasn't easy, but it was worth it - like so many things in life. 

So what do I get, what do I take back? Well I guess I don't "need" 14 frozen meals, and 3 bags of goldfish (my child inside was screaming - but they are ONLY a Dollar!!! - the grown up, was saying no.) So I took back the 10 lean cuisines and stood in the freezer aisle where there were no other shoppers and got out my pencil and paper and did some math.

TP 13

Dressing 2.84 (for 2)

Syrup 1.5

Chili 4.50 (for 10)

Cereal 3.50

Frozen meals 6

Ritz 3

Shaving Cream 2

Kleenex 1.70

Wheat Thins 4

Butter 1.80

Cheese 5.99

Frozen Peas 2

Milk 1.74

Gold Fish 0.99

Ice cream 2.50

Kielbasa 3

Chicken 9

Salad 3

Popcorn 1.80

Apples 2.5

Bread 5.00

Soda 1.80 - I got the Kroger brand - 

ok that is - still over budget - shoot - another phone call home - hey how much toilet paper do we have??? enough for the week, yep - ok, take that back, close enough! I didn't figure tax in my adding, but it was close enough! (I am shooting for 70-75 right now). So the total was 79.27 after 12.80 in coupons, 42.19 in fresh values savings! Total savings 54.99 that is 41% I will take it!!!!!

So now that I have all this random stuff, I am not quite sure what we are going to eat exactly, but we have lots of lunch meat from last weeks great deal, meals for lunch at work, bread for all kinds of sandwiches, cheese, cereal, we still have pasta and rice and now lots of chili. This week will also be a bit different because we have family in town so we might not be as diligent at eating at home, which is a big reason to stick to the grocery budget. 

So plans for now:

Sunday: Dinner at Lloyd's

Monday: Chicken and Rice and Peas

Tuesday: Kielbasa

Wednesday: Maybe playing with the Arveseth's otherwise - maybe pancakes

Thursday: Sandwiches

Friday: Pork Roast

Breakfasts - toast, apples, cereal, milk, eggs, pancakes, sausage

Lunches - sandwiches, mac and cheese, frozen meals, pasta

 

Grandma Lingwall's Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Oven 375
Mix -
1/2 C shortening
6TBSP sugar
6TBSP Brown Sugar
1 Egg Beaten
-
Mix -
1/2 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 tsp Salt
3/4 Cup Flour
-
Combine and add:
Few drops of water
1 Cup rolled oats
1/2 tsp vanilla
Chocolate Chips (about 1 cup - your choice)

Bake 10-12 minutes at 375 on an ungreased cookie sheet.
Makes about 2 dozen.

Shopping 1/20/12

Clementines 2.99                                              Buns 3.18
Kraft Pizza Cheese 2.58                                    Coke (24) 6.98
French bread 0.98                                            Diet Coke (24) 6.98
Bread 2.48                                                       Paper Towels (8) 6.84
Lays Chips 2.58                                               Salad 1.64
Salad 1.64                                                        Cream cheese 1.98
Kraft 1.58                                                         Disney Cheese 1.82
Black Ham 3.52                                                Provolone 3.37
Pantene Shampoo 3.78                                     Pantene Shampoo 3.78
Pantene Shampoo 3.78
Pantene Conditioner 3.78                                  Milk 2.29
Cascade packs 3.97                                          Black Forest ham 3.46
Black Forest ham 3.52                                      Apples 3.27
Sweet Potatoes 1.00                                         Tooth Brush 4.98
Tooth Brush 4.98                                             Bird food 6.87
- 12.25 in coupons
- employee discount 7.36
Total: 92.44

Menu Plans:

French Bread Pizza & Salad
Chicken Croissants
Steak, Rice, and Veggies
Pork Roast and Sweet Potatoes
Broiler Sandwiches
Burgers and Fries (at home)

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