My meals from the past two days are not creative, healthy, or exciting. They are, however, thrifty.

Yesterday we had leftover waffles for breakfast, for lunch we had leftover “everything in the fridge.” We had applesauce, yogurt, smoothies, grapes, crackers, cheese, and lunch meat without bread because that was all gone. For dinner we had tacos. My friends ended up not being able to come, so I am glad I didn’t run to the store and purchase a lot of extra food that would have gone to waste since we are leaving for vacation tomorrow.

Today for breakfast we had Kate’s cinnamon rolls. The kids love these and couldn’t wait for them to come out of the oven.

Lunch was another round of leftovers, tacos, chips and cheese, cantaloupe, grapes, applesauce, lunch meat, and cheese. Dinner was leftover tacos, yogurt, lunch meat, apple sauce. A few kids made quesadillas with the leftover tortillas and cheese. I made our sandwiches for our trip tomorrow and our toddler had a peanut butter sandwich with the bread that was leftover. Even though our last few meals were not my favorite, I feel good because we are not leaving much in our fridge to go to waste while we are gone.

The loaf of bread is actually our sandwiches for the trip tomorrow. We plan on stopping somewhere for breakfast (the kids are begging for Shoney’s) and the eating lunch on the road.

I was tempted tonight to send my husband out for burgers, because I was tired and didn’t feel like trying to make a meal out of a few tortillas and yogurt. I am so glad I didn’t because now our fridge is almost empty and we didn’t spend a dime.

Thanks to those of you who tuned in to our radio show. We were very excited to answer questions and talk about our adventure with each other and some fellow bloggers. We decided to have another radio show next Friday at 10pm. You can find out all the details here, or leave me a comment and I will email you the information for the next show.

Don’t forget to stop by Joy and Kate’s blogs. Kate made crepes last week and they look delicious! Joy is cooking up a storm and is trying all sorts of new foods from scratch.

Filed under: 3 Moms, Food, Frugal living, Fun, Homemaking, Kids, organization | 2 Comments »

My smart habit for this week is a bedtime routine. I used to be very good at this, but lately I have not had any sort of sleep schedule at all. I go to bed between 9:30 and midnight, although it is usually closer to midnight most nights. This is not good for me. I usually wake up between 6 and 7:30, which fluctuates with my bedtime. I do much better if I go to bed at a certain time and wake up at a certain time. So my habit this week is to start going to bed at 11pm and getting up at 6:30am. This might be hard since we are going on vacation next week, but is also might be easier because I will have less responsibilities.

As an update on one of my other smart habits, I have been soda free for 40 days! I feel really good and don’t want to ever start drinking it again.

For more smart habits (and maybe a baby) check out Lara’s blog.

Filed under: Homemaking, My life, Uncategorized, organization | 3 Comments »

I am excited to head to Florida this weekend so I can teach my family how to work CVS.

I went to CVS early Sunday morning with my deals all planned out.

My first purchase was the razor and the Colgate toothbrushes. I had a $4 coupon for the razor and $1 coupons for each of the toothbrushes. Nothing rang up on sale so they had to do the whole transaction many times until they got it right. My total OOP after using ECB’s was under a dollar.

My second transaction was for 1 tube of toothpaste and the hair color. It should have been almost free with the coupons and ECB’s but nothing rang up on sale again. Finally they adjusted the prices and I had another transaction that was under a dollar. Then I noticed that the ECB’s for the toothpaste didn’t print. I pointed this out to the cashier and he called the manager over again. He explained that they can’t print ECB’s but I could buy something in the store for $2.99 and I would get it for free. So I got another tube of toothpaste and they rang it up and then subtracted $2.99 so my total was 0.

Both the cashier and manager were very nice and apologetic throughout the whole event. I am glad I was watching everything while it was being rung up or it would have been more complicated to fix after the transaction was completed.

So here is what I purchased for less than $2. ( I can’t find my receipts so I don’t have the exact amount)

More more weekly deals check out Money Saving Mom.

Filed under: Frugal living, My life, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

One of the reasons I procrastinated making the lion costume was because I thought there would definitely be a tutorial on the web. I figured I would google “how to make a lion costume” and many wonderful websites would appear taking me step by step through this process. I was wrong. The things that I found were either way too simple (a paper plate mask), or way too difficult (beaded paper mache) and neither were what I needed for my son’s costume.

So in hopes to help some other mom someday here is how I made the lion costume.

I found a pair of brown pajamas at the thrift store. In retrospect I probably would have purchased a sweat suit in a lighter color, but stores are not selling these at the end of April. I also purchased 1 yard of light brown felt, and 1/2 yard each of dark brown and gold felt.

I cut off the ends of the sleeves and also cut off the light part at the waist. I took out the elastic, made it smaller and folded it over and sewed a new waist.

I then cut out a hood. I had a hood pattern from another project, but I don’t think you really need a pattern.

I sewed the hood up the back.

Then I attached it to the shirt.

I then cut the felt into strips about 14 inches long.

I doubled the strips and sewed them around the hood. I started with hand sewing and that lasted about two rows. I then machine stitched the rest of the strips on the hood.

I realized something was missing…. ears. I cut circles out of the felt and then stuffed them and sewed them on to the hood. I also added a tail, which I made by cutting out a long rectangle, sewing up the side and stuffing with an old pillow. I used the felt strips for the end. I also added a small piece to the front of the shirt to give the mane more fluff.

All finished, and just in time for the play!

You can find more sew crafty at Shereen’s blog.

Filed under: Crafts, Fun, Homemaking, Kids, My life | 6 Comments »

I have a change of plans tonight. My friend called me yesterday and asked if she and her four boys could come to my kids’ play tonight. They will spend the night and then head out in the morning. I am excited to see my friend again, but how does this impact my menu? Tonight we are scheduled to have tacos. I don’t have enough meat to feed 5 extra people. As I see it I have a few choices. I could make wet burritos, using beans and rice in the burrito to stretch my meat. I could go to the store and by more meat or I could make Mexican lasagna and purchase 2 cans of tomato sauce. The most frugal choice would be the wet burritos, so I am going to make those. The only problem is that my sauce is really spicy and not all of the kids love spicy foods. I usually have my kids eat whatever I make, but I am a bit more lenient when it comes to “hot” foods. So I will make wet burritos for the people who can handle the heat, and bean tacos for the rest. I will try and post recipes and pictures later today.

Yesterday I wanted to start the day off right with some whole wheat waffles. When I woke up I realized that my blog had lost all of its links and photos. I was in a bit of a panic, but tried to not think about it as I was making the waffles. I didn’t do a good job focusing on the waffles because the first batch was way too thin and cooked to the waffle iron!

The kids’ first reaction was, “Mom you should put this on your blog!”

So here it is, the waffle mess. It took me about 15 minutes to scrape all the waffle off the iron. I added some more flour to my mix and the rest of the waffles turned out great.

I was supposed to make the kids pizza for dinner, but when my dough was done at 11:30 am I decided that we would have pizza for lunch and the sandwiches for dinner.

The pizza was excellent, and I always wonder why we ever order pizza when the homemade stuff tastes so good and is healthy!

The kids had sandwiches, orange slices, pineapple, and canteloupe for dinner and we ate with friends before our bible study.

Don’t forget to tune it tonight!

Please join Toni , The Happy Housewife, Joy, of FiveJs, and Kate, of A simple Walk, on Friday, at 10 pm EST, as we take our 3 Moms ~ 3 Kitchens ~ 31 Days series live on air at TalkShoe. We will be discussing our adventures during the first week of the series, as well as delving even deeper into our kitchen budgets and methods. This will be a perfect opportunity for our readers to ask us questions, get to know all 3 Moms a little better, and maybe even share a tip or two. We have really appreciated all the comments and emails we’ve been getting, but we know we have not been able to answer everyone as thoroughly as we wanted. That is why we decided to do this open-forum, live discussion on Friday.

Filed under: 3 Moms, Food, Frugal living, Fun, Homemaking, Kids, My life, organization | 1 Comment »

On Friday I decided to stop by the garden on the way home from taking my oldest three children to play practice. I was going to quickly put some plants into the ground, while my three little kids played nearby. When I arrived at the plot I noticed a large number of cars in the area. This is unusual, usually I am the only one at the plots during the day. Then I noticed a lot of people walking around the area, in business clothes. To make a long story short, the people in the business clothes work for the housing office which owns the land. They want to fence off the garden area. The proposed fence does not include my area which means they want me to relocate to another plot. As all of this is happening the temperature is rising, and my kids (who were dressed for sixty degree weather) are now melting in eighty-five degree weather. The garden people want the fence to extend to my plot. The housing people want me to move. The garden people told me to just keep planting in order to strengthen my case against moving.

The only humorous part of the whole ordeal was when the business folks walked over to my plot and asked me if I was planning on using it! I am covered in dirt, I have plants in the ground and a shovel in my hand! To make it even more hilarious there are people snapping pictures of the whole thing! I really felt like I was in a movie or something because it just didn’t seem real.

I am starting to get the “more trouble than it is worth” feeling but, I am going to continue to plant until they tell me to move…

Here are some pictures from the plot.

Head over to Mary’s blog for more Friday Show and Tell.

More garden posts

My Garden

Quick Garden Tip

My Garden ~ Week 1

Garden Update

My Garden ~ Update

Garden Run Amuck

Filed under: Food, Frugal living, Fun, Homemaking, Kids, My life, garden | 6 Comments »

Time for my monthly assessment of our family’s finances. For those of you who are new readers we followed Dave Ramsey’s plan to get out of debt last year. We have completed baby steps’ 1, 2, and 3.

Financial Goals for 2008

Fully Fund Emergency Fund by 2/1/08
Completed on 1/31/08 YIPEE!!!!!

Blessing Others -
10% of our income goes directly into the giving category. I would like to increase that amount so that we would be able to bless others when we have an opportunity. We had a few opportunities last month to bless others financially, I am looking for more opportunities this month.

Fully Fund Orthodontics for Oldest- Completed and paid for the braces in March in CASH!!!! We currently have $800 saved for the next child, so we are on track for another set of braces in a few years.

Begin saving 10% of income into Roth IRA’s and TSP-
My IRA will be fully funded next month. Then we will start putting $800 a month in my husband’s IRA to max it out by the end of the year.

Begin College Funding for Kids-
We will start funding this again in June. We are going with a 529.

Begin aggressive savings for house and car-
These are being funded at a slower pace than I would like. We have about $1000 in our car savings which would not replace a car for us at the moment. Fortunately we do not have the need for different vehicle at this moment.

Funding all of our expenses for the year-
I think I have finally found a balance for these areas. Many categories were severely over-funded, like clothing, haircuts, kids money. I have cut back in these areas and have increased our funding for the Homeschool Convention.

Vacation Funding -
We have saved over $800 for our family vacation for next year. Our goal is $2000, so we are almost half way there.

Cutting Our Expenses-
Since we have no debt and are saving about one third of our income, I feel like our expenses are pretty reasonable right now.

Groceries-
Last month I went over budget by about $8. There were a few unplanned trips to the store which hurt us in this category. This month I raised our budget to $600. We will be on vacation for 11 days so I am sure our grocery costs will rise since I won’t have access to the commissary.

Clothing - We have been continually blessed with beautiful hand-me-downs. Last month I cleaned out the kid’s closets and have about 10 bags for Goodwill and we passed several bags along to friends. We only need to fill in few gaps as far as purchasing clothes so I think we are doing well in this category.

Gifts -
I have decided that I am okay with the amount in this category every month. We love to be able to give gifts and if we can afford it, I want to continue.

Finding extra sources of income-
Still working on this one….

Tax Rebate-
We are trying to decide what to do with this money. Some of it will go to fund my IRA, and the rest will probably go towards purchasing a few things that we have been putting off because we would rather save money.

Can I say again how great it is to be DEBT FREE!

For those of you who are working towards this goal… you can do it! The sacrifices can be great but it is worth it in the end.

Check out Money Saving Mom for more financial check-ups.

Filed under: Frugal living, My life, organization | 6 Comments »

Quick trips to the drive-thru while out can bust a budget, but sometimes this seems inevitable. If you are out all day your family needs to eat. To keep from spending way too much money on food that is bad for you anyway, we keep a few “fast” foods in our house that we would not normally buy. When we are leaving the house, and I have a feeling that we might be gone during a meal, I put these foods in a bag and take them with us. I have one friend that keeps a rubbermaid full of snacks in her car all the time. Then if we are out, and the kids are hungry they can have a snack that will fill them up until we get home and we can eat a real meal.

Here are some fast food ideas.

Gummy snacks

Fruit roll ups

Goldfish

Ritz Bitz

100 Calorie packs

Beef Jerky

Granola bars

Cereal bars

Cheese and crackers

Individual cereal boxes

Juice boxes

Small water bottles

For those of you who are thinking that these items are all overpriced junk, I agree. But they are less than the overpriced junk you will get at McDonalds. These are also items that regularly go on sale at the grocery store and coupons are readily available. All these items will keep for an extended period of time in your car or in your house. Just make sure you keep them separate from your other food. These things are all considered special treats in my house and would be gone in heartbeat if the kids knew they were available!

For more frugal tips visit Frugal Fridays.

Filed under: Food, Frugal living, Fun, Homemaking, Kids, My life | 3 Comments »

A question from one of the 3 Moms’ posts last week.
Do you grocery shop weekly or every other week? If you go weekly, what do you find to be the pro and cons in this?
Here are some reasons why I shop weekly.
Shopping is more manageable. If I were shopping once a month I would be pulling three carts around the store for the amount of items I need to buy for a family of eight.
The commissary is just down the street. It takes me less than 10 minutes to get from my front door to the entrance of the store. I am not saving much time or gas to make it worthwhile to go fewer times every month.
I don’t have an extra fridge, freezer, or a pantry. I am limited in what I can store. I would have to run to the store every week anyway to buy produce, eggs, and milk.
It keeps my shopping trips short. My trips are about an hour from start to finish. This allows me to hit the store about an hour before closing when it is less crowded.
I don’t have to withdraw all of our grocery money at one time. I take it out weekly, so the rest stays in the bank earning interest (although not a whole lot!)
I am a creature of habit. I have always shopped once a week. I like menu planning and shopping one week at a time.

There is nothing wrong with shopping less often. If we lived far from the commissary, had a smaller family, or more food storage available, I might spread out my shopping trips. Several years ago we lived about an hour away from the commissary. I would go once a month and stock up, then fill in with weekly trips to a local store. This worked because we had two small children at the time so we bought less and spent less.

Tonight I made my second shopping trip of the month.

Shopping List
Coupons are in parenthesis

Grapes 1.6 lbs for $2.83
Bananas 4 lbs for $2
Apples 3.23 lbs for $3.20
Pineapple $2.50
Mayo - $2.25
Bisquick didn’t buy
Cinnamon $2.09
grillin beans $1.00 ($1/1)
Pizza sauce $0.72
taco shells 3 @ $0.75 ($1/3)
beans 5 @ $0.39
refried beans 2 @ $0.60 ($0.55/2)
cereal $2.81 ($2/1)
goldfish $1.63 ($.20/1)
mozzarella 1 lb @ $3.00
Cheddar Cheese 1 lb @ $3.00
Eggs 18 @ $1.82
Milk 3 @ $2.23
Yogurt $1.87
Batteries 2 packs for $8.48 ($1/2)
Bread- $1.73
Lollipops $1.69

Items purchased but not on the list

2 Jars salsa $0.99 each ($1/2)
3 packs taco seasoning $0.40 each (all free with coupons)
Soy milk $2.89 ($2.25/1)
Tortillas (pack of 20) $1.56
Sunscreen $5.32 ($1/1)

Total before coupons $71.03
Coupons $11.20

Total OOP $59.83

This is only 5 days worth of groceries since we will be going out of town.

Our daily meals

Breakfast- we were running low on everything today. Once child had cold cereal, a few had eggs, two had oatmeal, I had toast and orange juice.

Lunch- Leftover chicken pot pie, chicken tetrazzini, and graham crackers.

Dinner- Pizza at the cast party for the play.

Don’t forget to check out Joy and Kate’s blogs to see what they are up to.

Filed under: 3 Moms, Food, Frugal living, Homemaking, My life, organization | 1 Comment »

All of my links and photo links inside my site appear to be broken, I will work on fixing that today!

Thanks~

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