Something New!

This week I started something new to help us stay on budget. One of our biggest expenses is the grocery store so I am trying to find ways to cut back on the bill. So this is what I am trying for a while....

PLANNING A MENU for the week, and only getting what I need for the recipes from the store...along with milk and eggs and the other essentials !

So this week I used these 2 cook books to get some ideas from:

These 2 cook books are from pampered chef I LOVE them because they have a picture to go with EVERY recipe (as all of there cook books do) so you know what you are getting into before you even start, and most recipes are VERY budget friendly. This week my menu is:

Monday: Blackened Fish Tacos

Tuesday: Chipotle Shrimp Scampi

Wednesday: ground beef Ground Turkey, broccoli, mac and cheese bake

Thursday: Cheesy Chicken Chilaquiles

Friday: BBQ Chicken salad pizza

I had a few things for some of these recipes like the standard oil, spices, and things like that, but most of the ingredients I bought today I spent $108.28...I did have 3 coupons though and I bought a few things not for the recipes like yogurt, lunch meat, and Buy 1 get 1 nuts and a few other things. So lets say all 5 recipes cost around $80.00.

That breaks down to $12.00-$16.00 a meal and since I always make enough for Steve to have lunch the next day that 4 portions at about $4.00 a person. Not to bad if I do say so my self.

Our normal weekly grocery bill is most of time close to $200.00 so I feel I cut down at least half.

I will also being doing a recipe review on 2-3 of the meals from this week and I am going to pick one of the recipes for Tickle your Taste buds Tuesday tomorrow. Any picks on which recipe you want me to post?

What are ways you cut back or save? Do you have a inexpensive recipe you want to share?

Leave a comment on this post with either a money saving tip or a budget friendly recipe before 10:00pm on Thursday night and you could win a Pampered Chef Cook book of your very own(i will let Steve randomly pick one entry)....but if you don't win and you still want one you can get 10% of your order if you mention my blog when you place your order with Jenn. (Just click her name to get to her website and all of her information is there. Be sure to CALL her to place your order if you order direct from the website you won't get the 10% off!)

Good Luck and Happy Saving!!!!!

Time out

Recently Makayla has found her rebellious side. She knows what NO means, she just decides when to listen and when to do whatever she wants.

She has finally found Molly's dogs bowls. This has become a major fight. She plays in the water and then spreads it all over the floor. She also likes to pick them up and throw them down. Why is this a problem you ask? Well they are ceramic and cute and she throws them on the tile. They have not broken yet and I hope they don't.

So how am I going to get her to stop playing with the dog bowls? Why TIME OUT of course. I started by sitting her against the wall in the hall way but she fought back by banging her head against the wall. I needed a special place for her to sit that she knew she was in trouble. So I had my mom Make this.

I sit down on the floor with her and hold her hands and tell her she is in time out and why. I make her sit for about 45 seconds right now. That will be increasing as she gets older. She sits pretty well for the most part.

She knows now that when she touches the dog bowls she goes in time out. She even put herself in time out after touching them this morning. Ohh My little trouble maker.

Do you have any behavior suggestions for a 12 month old? Leave me a comment I am open to suggestion and need them!

Eating outside of the box.

The past few times I have gone to the grocery store I have bought nothing in a box. This got m thoughts going. Soooo the entire month of June our family is making a comment to eat nothing from a prepackaged box, bag, wrapper.

I have started shopping at a produce market close to our home. They get all there produce from local farmers. There prices are great and we are supporting our community and the local farmers. It is win win. I am spending about $20.00 every week -2weeks on produce where I used to spend $30.00 - $40.00 on produce every week at the grocery store.

Now when I go into the grocery store I only need meat or chicken, milk, bread, eggs, the basics. We have made the commitment for the entire month of June we will eat nothing out of a prepackaged box. Do you think we can do it? Do you want to join us? I will only shop the outer limits of the grocery store. Unless there are things I NEED in the middle but there shouldn't be. Of course there are things like milk and yogurt and things that have to come in a container, but I want to get away from the middle isles. This saves money, time, and its just better for our health.


We have also stopped using paper towels. WHY? well they are getting expensive and they are bad for MRS. Mother Earth. We use washable microfiber towels or dishtowels instead. This has saved us a lot of money and trash. We are just trying to do our part. Also we use our reusable "green" bags at the stores. I LOVE those bags they hold so much.

It seems these days everyone is trying to be a little more Green, or trying to get a little more Green in there pockets.

What are you doing to be more green? What are you doing to save a little money? Share your tips in the comments and get some new ones from other people. Thanks for sharing.