This morning I am getting ready to go to my daughter's gymnastics meet in Roseburg which is about an hour and a half away. We go to these regularly in competition season and normally I would spend about $60, give or take a little, on food. They have a snack shack at the meet where you can buy hot dogs, soda, chips, candy, fruit, coffee, etc. Then on the way home we would always stop at a restaurant to celebrate. If your child is in sports and has games or meets all the tme, you see that this can get EXPENSIVE! So, today I am packing our lunch.
I am almost at the end of my second week. I haven't been grocery shopping since Feb. 16. Except for when Sean went to Costco for our cleaners. I did have him pick me up some more milk and bananas while he was there. Did you know that milk will still be good up to a week after the expiration date? I love bananas! My kids love bananas. They are soooo easy to just pop in their lunch. They are also relatively cheap also. The problem is in my head I think I have to have bananas all the time. Wrong! Remember....I have been "variety challenged" up to this point in my life. So I am out of bananas again, and I will not buy them until we go shopping around St. Patrick's Day. I will substitute with a fruit I do have. This is a good point to ponder...Substitute with what you do have, don't just make a run to the store!
I hope you are all enjoying this blog. As I said, I am learning as I go. I have felt bad at times for not having "expert" advise, but then I came to the conclusion, that is because I am not an expert...yet :) This month will be alot of journaling my journey. I want to know if this works. Shopping once a month? Who does that? This month I did, and so far it is working out really well.
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Friday, February 26, 2010
Dinner in the Midst of Chaos
I won't pretend to live an easy life. It would be wonderful to have everything go exactly the way you want it all the time. However, I have learned that even in chaos, there is victories! Yesterday for me, was one of those days.
With 4 children and a daycare at times I feel like all I do is clean my house. I wish there was a remedy for doing that only once a month :) So yesterday morning I spent cleaning every room of my house. In the afternoon I laid down some kids for their nap and one of them decided to mess around and stick a piece of metal in a light socket. Yes, he took the child proof cover off! Luckily he wasn't hurt, but we had no lights in our kitchen and living room for a while. I had company over for a couple of hours, and during that time my 7 year old hurt his ankel on the trampoline. By that night we were in the ER making sure it wasn't broken. Thank God he only sprained it and was splinted up in a couple hours.
Where's the victory in the chaos? Every meal was prepared, and we all sat together at the dinner table! Why? Because like I mentioned yesterday it was all pre planned. Trust me, it would have been McDonalds for sure if I hadn't.
In life we all will have those days when things don't go exactly the way we planned. I understand that there will be those times when things happen completely out of our control, and eating at the table just won't happen. I'm not talking about that...I'm talking about the day to day business of living, and the possibility that in the midst of chaos you can still have dinner.
"For inexpensive recipe ideas, check out http://www.allrecipes.com/ or http://www.40mealsin40weeks.blogspot.com
With 4 children and a daycare at times I feel like all I do is clean my house. I wish there was a remedy for doing that only once a month :) So yesterday morning I spent cleaning every room of my house. In the afternoon I laid down some kids for their nap and one of them decided to mess around and stick a piece of metal in a light socket. Yes, he took the child proof cover off! Luckily he wasn't hurt, but we had no lights in our kitchen and living room for a while. I had company over for a couple of hours, and during that time my 7 year old hurt his ankel on the trampoline. By that night we were in the ER making sure it wasn't broken. Thank God he only sprained it and was splinted up in a couple hours.
Where's the victory in the chaos? Every meal was prepared, and we all sat together at the dinner table! Why? Because like I mentioned yesterday it was all pre planned. Trust me, it would have been McDonalds for sure if I hadn't.
In life we all will have those days when things don't go exactly the way we planned. I understand that there will be those times when things happen completely out of our control, and eating at the table just won't happen. I'm not talking about that...I'm talking about the day to day business of living, and the possibility that in the midst of chaos you can still have dinner.
"For inexpensive recipe ideas, check out http://www.allrecipes.com/ or http://www.40mealsin40weeks.blogspot.com
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Plan Your Meals Ahead
In life we all would probably agree that in order to pull something big off successfully, we should pre plan. Whether it's life altering things like getting married or having kids, or life helping things , like cleaning out the garage or planting a garden - it always goes better with a plan. Now for all the "spur of the moment" type people, don't quit what you're doing...just add this at times. In meal planning it is essential.
I used to hate when 3:00 would come around, because I never knew what I was going to make for dinner. That was one of the biggest reasons we would hit the store everyday or just do take out. Especially with women who have busy lives, this tip is important. It will save you time, money, and those "freaking out moments"!
To start, write a list of meals you want to make for the week. They should be things that could go together. For example, I made a Roast one night, and then within that week I took the leftovers and made a Soup. Also include food for breakfast, lunch, and snacks. Make sure you think of all the ingredients you will need and then go ONE time. If you forget something...use an alternate... You will go from pre planning one week of shopping to one month of shopping in no time.
Pre Planning your menus is a lifesaver. I love waking up in the morning and already knowing what will be for dinner that night. It has made life in this area much more successful! As always, if you have some ideas about pre planning - please share them with us in the comment section.
I used to hate when 3:00 would come around, because I never knew what I was going to make for dinner. That was one of the biggest reasons we would hit the store everyday or just do take out. Especially with women who have busy lives, this tip is important. It will save you time, money, and those "freaking out moments"!
To start, write a list of meals you want to make for the week. They should be things that could go together. For example, I made a Roast one night, and then within that week I took the leftovers and made a Soup. Also include food for breakfast, lunch, and snacks. Make sure you think of all the ingredients you will need and then go ONE time. If you forget something...use an alternate... You will go from pre planning one week of shopping to one month of shopping in no time.
Pre Planning your menus is a lifesaver. I love waking up in the morning and already knowing what will be for dinner that night. It has made life in this area much more successful! As always, if you have some ideas about pre planning - please share them with us in the comment section.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Monday, February 22, 2010
Overview Of The First Week
When I came home Tuesday night I was so excited! I put all the groceries away and stocked my new shelf Sean put up in the garage with beautiful things like canned green beans, peaches, pears, mayonnaise, mustard, onions, potatoes, carrots, and 5 or 6 different types of pasta. I think I went in there 10 times before I went to bed, just to look at it :) I have to say this...Sean did too! I had 20 pounds of chicken, 10 pounds of beef, and 2 0r 3 roasts, sitting patiently in my refrigerator waiting to be wrapped the next morning.
When I woke up Wednesday morning, I was on it! Pancakes were ready early, I placed a roast covered with cream of mushroom soup in a casserole dish with cut up carrots and whole potatoes surrounding it in the oven. By 9:00, breakfast was done, and dinner was in the oven! Then I started pulling out the meat to wrap it. I've never wrapped meat before, not even once, and here sitting in front of me was around 40 pounds...and I thought...Oh God, what have I gotten myself in to. I was really praying...Oh God...LOL This is when suddenly, in comes my sous chef - Anna - And she wants to help. Of course I am imagining chicken juice and blood getting all over the place and now I am trying to explain to my 5 year old that she can't touch the counter, or anything in the vicinity because I don't want her to get sick. Then the questions begin...Mommy what's this?, Mommy why are you doing that?, Mommy can I tape the present?(aka wrapped meat). And though I welcome it, because I want her to enjoy the kitchen, a part of me is wishing she'd just go away! None the less, we made it through, wrapping about 27 different meals worth of meat in a little over 2 hours. Though I smelled like raw beef when I was done, I again found myself looking in my freezer over and over again, to see...you guessed it...the beauty!
I am not going to write my complete menu, because that would be boring. I will write an overview though. For breakfast I alternated between mostly pancakes, cold cereal, and eggs, toast, and fruit. For lunches (my biggest challenge!!!) I made homemade chicken noodle soup, grilled cheese sand, peanut butter sand, tuna sand, etc, always with a fruit and vegetable. One apple and one orange can feed 8 kids - and I always made green beans or corn with it. I bought 2 economy size bags of frozen vegies, which will go a long way! I do find myself dreading lunch time though - I love sandwiches, but I ALWAYS make sandwiches - Dinners were soooo fun! We all felt like we were eating like kings and queens. On Wed. I made the Roast which turned out amazing, Thursday I made Pesto Chicken Pasta and Pastrami Sandwiches, Friday we had Meatloaf, Asparagus, and Homemade Potato Wedges, Saturday was Chili Dogs, Sunday was Tacos (w/corn tortillas and squeezed lime, mmmmm), and last night was Jerry Pineda's amazing Chicken w/ Angel Hair Pasta and Cilantro, that he showed us how to make at a "Homebuilders" last year. The really cool thing about it, is even though we live extremely busy lives, we ate together at the table every night.
The challenges were there along the way. The kids have been used to eating snack things pretty much whenever they wanted. The problem is that they wouldn't be hungry at dinner, and it cost a lot more. So there were attitudes that would pop up throughout the day about how they were starving. It was always right before dinner, and the thought of having to wait for 30 more minutes about killed them at times. This was irritating, and I would get mad and tell them to stop complaining, and it at times it just wasn't fun. They would want to go out to eat, and we would explain to them that we are working on a budget and this week we are not going out to eat. But you know how kids can be, they still keep asking, and after a while this also got irritating. I was in the kitchen a lot more, so therefore some of my usual house work got left behind, and when you're buying time as it is, I would feel overwhelmed of everything I felt I had to do.
The nice thing about many of life's challenges is you get better as you go. I do believe that as I go forward in this, it will get easier then it even was before. I will actually have more time. I also believe that for my daughters, they will see me overcome obstacles and not give up. I also believe there will be a day when my children won't even think about going out to eat, because eating at home is so much better :)
Tomorrow I will post some ideas of which fruits and vegetables are in season during different times of the year. This is an important element to know, so you get the most for the price you pay.
When I woke up Wednesday morning, I was on it! Pancakes were ready early, I placed a roast covered with cream of mushroom soup in a casserole dish with cut up carrots and whole potatoes surrounding it in the oven. By 9:00, breakfast was done, and dinner was in the oven! Then I started pulling out the meat to wrap it. I've never wrapped meat before, not even once, and here sitting in front of me was around 40 pounds...and I thought...Oh God, what have I gotten myself in to. I was really praying...Oh God...LOL This is when suddenly, in comes my sous chef - Anna - And she wants to help. Of course I am imagining chicken juice and blood getting all over the place and now I am trying to explain to my 5 year old that she can't touch the counter, or anything in the vicinity because I don't want her to get sick. Then the questions begin...Mommy what's this?, Mommy why are you doing that?, Mommy can I tape the present?(aka wrapped meat). And though I welcome it, because I want her to enjoy the kitchen, a part of me is wishing she'd just go away! None the less, we made it through, wrapping about 27 different meals worth of meat in a little over 2 hours. Though I smelled like raw beef when I was done, I again found myself looking in my freezer over and over again, to see...you guessed it...the beauty!
I am not going to write my complete menu, because that would be boring. I will write an overview though. For breakfast I alternated between mostly pancakes, cold cereal, and eggs, toast, and fruit. For lunches (my biggest challenge!!!) I made homemade chicken noodle soup, grilled cheese sand, peanut butter sand, tuna sand, etc, always with a fruit and vegetable. One apple and one orange can feed 8 kids - and I always made green beans or corn with it. I bought 2 economy size bags of frozen vegies, which will go a long way! I do find myself dreading lunch time though - I love sandwiches, but I ALWAYS make sandwiches - Dinners were soooo fun! We all felt like we were eating like kings and queens. On Wed. I made the Roast which turned out amazing, Thursday I made Pesto Chicken Pasta and Pastrami Sandwiches, Friday we had Meatloaf, Asparagus, and Homemade Potato Wedges, Saturday was Chili Dogs, Sunday was Tacos (w/corn tortillas and squeezed lime, mmmmm), and last night was Jerry Pineda's amazing Chicken w/ Angel Hair Pasta and Cilantro, that he showed us how to make at a "Homebuilders" last year. The really cool thing about it, is even though we live extremely busy lives, we ate together at the table every night.
The challenges were there along the way. The kids have been used to eating snack things pretty much whenever they wanted. The problem is that they wouldn't be hungry at dinner, and it cost a lot more. So there were attitudes that would pop up throughout the day about how they were starving. It was always right before dinner, and the thought of having to wait for 30 more minutes about killed them at times. This was irritating, and I would get mad and tell them to stop complaining, and it at times it just wasn't fun. They would want to go out to eat, and we would explain to them that we are working on a budget and this week we are not going out to eat. But you know how kids can be, they still keep asking, and after a while this also got irritating. I was in the kitchen a lot more, so therefore some of my usual house work got left behind, and when you're buying time as it is, I would feel overwhelmed of everything I felt I had to do.
The nice thing about many of life's challenges is you get better as you go. I do believe that as I go forward in this, it will get easier then it even was before. I will actually have more time. I also believe that for my daughters, they will see me overcome obstacles and not give up. I also believe there will be a day when my children won't even think about going out to eat, because eating at home is so much better :)
Tomorrow I will post some ideas of which fruits and vegetables are in season during different times of the year. This is an important element to know, so you get the most for the price you pay.
Is It Possible For a Large Family To Only Grocery Shop Once a Month?
Let me start by saying I am a novice at this... That is why I needed HELP! So with that said, I am inviting you on my journey of saving time and money by willingly going under the apprenticeship of my friend Lucille, and only grocery shopping once a month. In my blog I will go over all the ups and downs of this learning curve. I call it a learning curve, because believe me IT IS! Now let me clarify something before I move on. It is not because I haven't had people in my life over the last few years giving me ideas about shopping, cooking, saving money, and all of that. Our church is VERY educational in all of these areas. It is because, me, myself, and I was in a big fat rut in my thinking!
Before this last week my husband would go shopping once a week, with stops to the store in between. Now this was way better then before. A couple of years ago I would do the shopping, not exaggerating, almost a day at a time. To say the least, when our grocery bill was well over a $1000.00 every month and it felt like we never had food in the house, I knew there was a problem. Hence the reason why my husband took over!
I have 4 kids of my own and have run a daycare for the past 11 years. On an average day I have 8 kids running around my house, and it never seems to fail that when they get hungry, they want me to feed them. Go figure :) So in this journey I will be shopping for a family of 6 and a full time daycare. My budget is $400.00 a month for food, and $100.00 a month for personal and cleaning items. To you that may seem like a lot, or it may seem like a little, to me it sounds like a challenge.
My 4 hour shopping trip with Lucille occurred on Feb 16., which was one week ago. It lasted 4 hours, not because we were buying a ton of food, but because she was literally teaching me how to shop. For me, one of the biggest tips she gave was to plan your meals ahead. That way I don't get stuck not knowing what I am going to make, and then make a mad dash to Taco Bell or something.
One of my biggest challenges is in the area of creativity. When I was growing up my Mom made pretty much the same meal every night. (Hey, at least we ate) It consisted of a hamburger patty, vegetable, and baked potato. Occasionally she would make a chicken breast and fried potatoes. She said I was a picky eater, and maybe that was so, but none the less I have been "variety" challenged. It seemed way easier just to go out. The problem with this is, besides the fact that it is expensive and unhealthy, is that I don't want my daughters growing up not knowing how to cook a variety of food, and having fun with it.
A lot has been said about me, and not a lot of tips yet...no worries, they will come. I am learning as I go. I will attempt to write a new blog every day for the next 3-4 weeks. My next shopping trip will be around St. Patrick's Day.
Tomorrow I will write about my menu for the first week (last week), how it went, including all the ups and downs. Trust me, there were very high ups, and very low downs. If you have any questions or comments please feel free to post them. It helps me. If I don't have the answers, I have a very good source I can pull from!
Before this last week my husband would go shopping once a week, with stops to the store in between. Now this was way better then before. A couple of years ago I would do the shopping, not exaggerating, almost a day at a time. To say the least, when our grocery bill was well over a $1000.00 every month and it felt like we never had food in the house, I knew there was a problem. Hence the reason why my husband took over!
I have 4 kids of my own and have run a daycare for the past 11 years. On an average day I have 8 kids running around my house, and it never seems to fail that when they get hungry, they want me to feed them. Go figure :) So in this journey I will be shopping for a family of 6 and a full time daycare. My budget is $400.00 a month for food, and $100.00 a month for personal and cleaning items. To you that may seem like a lot, or it may seem like a little, to me it sounds like a challenge.
My 4 hour shopping trip with Lucille occurred on Feb 16., which was one week ago. It lasted 4 hours, not because we were buying a ton of food, but because she was literally teaching me how to shop. For me, one of the biggest tips she gave was to plan your meals ahead. That way I don't get stuck not knowing what I am going to make, and then make a mad dash to Taco Bell or something.
One of my biggest challenges is in the area of creativity. When I was growing up my Mom made pretty much the same meal every night. (Hey, at least we ate) It consisted of a hamburger patty, vegetable, and baked potato. Occasionally she would make a chicken breast and fried potatoes. She said I was a picky eater, and maybe that was so, but none the less I have been "variety" challenged. It seemed way easier just to go out. The problem with this is, besides the fact that it is expensive and unhealthy, is that I don't want my daughters growing up not knowing how to cook a variety of food, and having fun with it.
A lot has been said about me, and not a lot of tips yet...no worries, they will come. I am learning as I go. I will attempt to write a new blog every day for the next 3-4 weeks. My next shopping trip will be around St. Patrick's Day.
Tomorrow I will write about my menu for the first week (last week), how it went, including all the ups and downs. Trust me, there were very high ups, and very low downs. If you have any questions or comments please feel free to post them. It helps me. If I don't have the answers, I have a very good source I can pull from!
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