Shopping 3/05

I ended up needing milk today, and had to have my husband stop for it since we're down to one vehicle. I normally don't spend more than $1.50 a gallon, thanks to my very local grocery store. They have printable coupons all the time for $1.00 off milk, and they always have milk on sale for $2.50. B didn't have a coupon with him though, so we had to pay the full $2.50. I have no picture today, but I'm pretty sure you all know what a gallon of milk looks like.


Grocery budget left: $89.68
Total spent for the month: $10.32

Friday food 3/05

I finally got my better-than-chocolate roasted broccoli!! I honestly could eat this every day, all day. I took some pictures tonight, and will post my recipe tomorrow. Soooo easy and sooooo good! The kids had a half day again today, and my husband had the day off, so all the meals cover all of us today.

Breakfast: Scrambled eggs, bagels with cream cheese, orange juice

Lunch: Bean burritos (which I made earlier and had frozen), chips and salsa, apple slices

Dinner: Pork roast with a maple/soy glaze, mashed potatoes, betterthanchocolate roasted broccoli, corn

Snacks: celery with peanut butter, cinnamon toast

I was so excited from my broccoli, I forgot I also made brownies today, so we had those for dessert!

I've also been asked what we drink, and unless I specify, the kids usually drink milk with meals. During the day the kids drink either milk or water. I make a big pitcher of iced tea every few days, so after my morning coffee, I drink that and water. I used to have a HUGE diet coke/pepsi (I wasn't picky!) addiction, but I gave that up a couple of months ago and now only drink it occasionally.

I won! I won!

I won a silicon basting brush a few weeks ago from Kikkoman and it came today. It's so much nicer than I thought it would be! And I played again today and won the spoon rest! I've also gotten buy one get one free soy sauce coupons a couple of times. All you have to do is click on the "I don't have a code" button and they'll email you one immediately. So I know it's kind of lame to be so excited about this, but I NEVER win anything! The game goes through April 30 and you can play every day!

Whoo hoo!! I just played again and won the stainless steel kitchen tongs! They seem to be pretty generous with their prizes! I'm going to end up with a whole Kikkoman kitchen!

Thursday food 3/04

So I really, really wanted the broccoli I bought yesterday...I have a way of making it that I swear I could eat every day. But I had some tomato and lettuce that I had to use up today, so I had to make the tacos tonight. *sigh* Can't waste food, right? The older kids had a half day today, so lunch was for them, too.

Breakfast: cereal, apple slices, milk

Lunch: Macaroni and cheese with ham and peas, cucumber slices, carrots...husband took sandwiches

Dinner: Tacos made with ground beef, beans, lettuce, tomato, onion, and salsa

Snacks: Almonds, raisins, cereal, apples

Wednesday's food 3/03

I had Girl One home sick from school today, which threw my dinner plans off somewhat. Maybe it was doing all the extra laundry that comes with a sick kid, or maybe it was just being surrounded by sick kid cooties all day, but I just didn't feel like cooking much tonight.

Breakfast: Bagels with cream cheese, oranges

Lunch: PB&J sandwiches, cucumber slices, carrot sticks, grapes for two of us, chicken broth and Vernor's for the sickie, husband took leftovers

Dinner: Pizza Rolls, carrot/celery sticks, apple slices (told you I didn't feel like cooking)

Snacks: raisins, pretzels, cheese

School snacks: banana muffins

The $20 a week grocery budget experiment

Out of necessity I have adopted a $20 a week grocery budget for our family of six. My budget is actually running through the first week of April, so today I withdrew $100 in cash, and put it in my grocery-only wallet.





Included in this budget is all food, plus all "household"...toiletries, paper products, cleaning supplies, etc. I am starting out with both my chest freezer and the one in the fridge FULL. I am well stocked on meat/protein, and have a fairly nice sized stockpile of canned/frozen veggies, fruit, pasta, cereal, etc. I have $16-17 worth of bottles to return (thanks to the Michigan 10 cent deposit!). I will add that to my grocery budget, since paying the deposit in the first place came out of my original grocery budget. Even though this month it's neccessary to keep our grocery spending as low as possible, I am actually oddly excited. I love me a good challenge.

I went shopping this morning for the first time this month (which is why there isn't $100 in the picture above!). I bought:

5 lbs apples $1.99
3 lbs carrots $2.79
1.04 lbs asparagus $1.55
broccoli $1.49

Total = $7.82





I *may* need another gallon of milk on Friday or Saturday, but otherwise, I'm done for the week!


Grocery budget left: $92.18

Swagbucks...if you aren't signed up, why not?

Swagbucks. I cannot say enough good things about this program! Swagbucks is a program where you collect what are called "swagbucks", just by doing the everyday searches you normally do. You just search through their search engine, and you randomally earn swagbucks. If you get people to sign up under your name, you also earn the first 1000 swagbucks *they* earn. The points add up fast. Since I joined, I've earned enough to get $110 in Amazon gift cards and also got my son Microsoft Xbox Live points as a Christmas gift. They have all kinds of prizes you can redeem your swagbucks for...from gift cards to musical instruments to cash! I always cash my points in for the $5 Amazon gift cards...it takes 450 points for one gift card, and the gift cards can just sit in your Amazon account until you want to use them. With no one signed up under me, and only doing a few searches a day, I usually get enough swagbucks to get 1-2 Amazon gift cards a month. I'm planning on holding on to them all for bonus Christmas spending! If you'd like to sign up, please consider signing up under me!

Tuesday's food and our grocery budget

I'm going to write a daily post of what exactly we're eating, and how we're doing on the $20 a week grocery budget. The grocery budget includes all food plus any household needs...toilet paper, soap, shampoo, etc. I'm starting with $100 because I'm also including the first week of April in this month's budget. I also have about $16-17 of bottle returns that will add on to that.(I'm in Michigan, with the 10 cent deposit) This is feeding 6 of us. Me and my husband, a 12 year old girl, a 10 year old boy, a 7 year old boy, and a 4 year old girl. The oldest 3 eat lunch at school, but I *think* they all have enough $ in their accounts for the month. I really should check that. Today I'll also add in what we had yesterday, since yesterday was the first day of the month. I'm also going to keep a running total of our grocery budget.

Monday:

breakfast - cereal and orange juice, plus applesauce for my son to take his meds.
lunch - tuna sandwiches, apples, carrot sticks, milk
dinner - Italian turkey sausage with green peppers and onions over whole wheat pasta and a tossed salad (the sausage will be free after I get my Jennie O rebate back!)
snacks - cheese and crackers, grapes, and popcorn
school snacks for the oldest 3 - granola bars and fruit roll ups

Tuesday:

breakfast - oatmeal and orange juice
lunch - leftover sausage, peppers, and onions, husband also took leftovers to work
dinner - grilled chicken breast, roasted broccoli and carrots, rice pilaf
snacks - apples, granola bars
school snacks - banana muffins I made over the weekend

Grocery budget: $100

My March Budget...putting it all out there

We have been hit with a $2500 car repair bill this month, so this will be a complete no-spend month. The car will be sitting at the shop until we have the money, which will probably still be a couple of weeks. We have expenses coming up in April that I'd still like to have the money set aside for beforehand, without having to dip into the bonus my husband will be getting on April 9. My goal is to pay all we need to pay this month, plus have the extra we'll need for the first half of April...our 10 year old son is going to Italy with my brother, and I'd like to have all his spending money set aside on top of everything else. He leaves April 13, so we'll have the bonus in time, but I'd really like to have it way before that. We also will be spending the weekend before that in Chicago, which is where he's leaving from, so I'd like to also have the money for that, too. So here is the nitty gritty:

Income:
$2800 - my husband is paid twice more this month
$1004 - state tax refund
$877 - money back from our health savings account for dental work and glasses we got last month
$343 - balance in checking
$644 - balance in savings

$5668 - total in for the month

Expenses:
$2500 - estimate for car repair
$155 - motorcycle payment
$35 - credit card payment
$65 - Direct TV
$25 - flute payment
$700 - April mortgage
$207 - prescriptions
$99 - trash bill (6 month payment)
$488 - car insurance (6 month payment)
$211 - car registration and license renewal
$300 - gas (the dead car left us with the gas guzzling Durango for my husband's commute)
$130 - gas (house, our heat is gas)
$85 - electric
$75 - phone/internet

$5075 - total out

That leaves us $593 for everything else. I have given myself a $20 weekly grocery/household budget. I have both freezers full and a fairly nice stockpile, so this should be do-able. I'm counting it as $100, because I'm also including the first week of April in this budget. That takes us down to $493 for 5 weeks of incidentals...on paper it looks ok, as long as we stick to our no spend vow. However, this has to include Easter baskets, a school carnival, and a promise we made to the kids...my husband is taking the boys to a movie on Friday afternoon, and I'm taking my oldest daughter to the salon for her haircut. My son will also need some new shorts and a pair of shoes before his trip. It will be tight, but I think we'll make it. I also will obviously not have all I need for Chicago/Italy, but I'm going through all the clothes and stuff in the house and doing some long overdue listing on ebay and craigslist. I'll chronicle our daily journey on our month of being broke, including our daily menus. Cross your fingers nothing else comes up!

I have NOT disappeared off the face of the earth!

February turned into one of *those* months. Boy One came down with the flu, then Girl One, then Boy Two, then Girl One again. I managed to break a molar and had to get that taken out, and while he was in there, the Dentist decided to get rid of my last two wisdom teeth. The boys also started wrestling two nights a week, my birthday and Valentine's Day were both thrown in there, and I've continued to help my mother in law out with my father in law, who is very ill. I just haven't had the time to sit down! This month is not shaping up to be much better...we just found out yesterday that it will be costing us just under $2500 to get our car repaired. My husband works half an hour away, so 5 days a week I'm without a car. It will probably be another two weeks before we can afford to get the car back. I will be writing a whole other post on that situation later today, along with our budget plan for the month. It will definately be a challenge...this will most definately be a no-spend month, and I'm only going to have a $20 a week food/hba/paper product budget for the entire month. I'll be tracking what I spend, and how we're eating daily on here, to help me stay on track!