You ever notice how people tend to start things on Mondays?
I would be one of those people.
I started off the week with my meal plan and my cash and my updated budget and I was ready to go!
And then I fell off the wagon.
You'd think after going through this cycle over and over that I would figure out how it happens and make changes to prevent it. Hasn't happened yet though.
Anyway, I still have quite a bit of food for several days. I couldn't make 3 of my meals this week because I ran out of milk. Who does that? This girl. On the grocery list for this week is obviously milk! So when I get a meal plan finalized for this week I'll get it posted.
As a result of the milk oversight, we ended up spending more than I normally would have on eating out so my budget is a tad screwed up now for February. I plan on updating that and posting it as well as doing a post with how I budget.
I went ahead and wrote this for anyone out there that has ever felt this way...you feel like you failed and wonder why bother trying changes if you can't stick with them....
Well that is one thing I'm changing. I'm going to try again next week. And instead of just making it to Wednesday I'll shoot for Thursday :)
Aside from the above, this week really was not bad....just super busy. My youngest had his Cub Scout Blue & Gold banquet which went well and we were fed which helped. I made a ton of progress on my work to do list, which was nice. And my kids actually got along and were pleasant to each other all week.
Here's to a good week next week :)
Saturday, February 27, 2016
Sunday, February 21, 2016
Grocery Haul - Feeding a Family of 5 for under $100
In any given month, between my husband and I have a way of spending a fortune on food, whether at the grocery or eating out. When I went back through our bank statements I was shocked to find that there were months we had spent more than $1,200 on food alone!! And no, we do not have that kind of money to spend!
As part of my 2016 goals, I made a commitment to meal plan, meal prep, and cook at home. I utilized Pinterest for recipes and also started shopping at Aldi. Oh, and I started using cash....no more card (credit or debit) for food. CASH ONLY! This will be really hard for my husband which I'll explain later. But for this week, we're going to have the following meals:
Breakfast
As part of my 2016 goals, I made a commitment to meal plan, meal prep, and cook at home. I utilized Pinterest for recipes and also started shopping at Aldi. Oh, and I started using cash....no more card (credit or debit) for food. CASH ONLY! This will be really hard for my husband which I'll explain later. But for this week, we're going to have the following meals:
Breakfast
- Toaster Pastries
- Frozen Waffles
- Toasted Oats
Lunch
- Salads (I will use lettuce, cottage cheese, cucumber, tomato, spices, a little olive oil)
- Lunchables (for the days the kids don't want to buy their lunch)
Dinner
- Grilled Cheese and Tomato Soup
- Breakfast (pancakes, eggs, hashbrowns, biscuits and gravy)
- A hamburger pasta dish like Hamburger Helper with veggies on the side
- Chicken, Rice, and Veggies
- Spaghetti
- Chicken and Stuffing Slow Cooker meal
- Tater-Tot Casserole
I also picked up stuff for snacks (chips, cookies, applesauce, pudding, apple juice, and fruit snacks). For the lunch critics, yes I know lunchables are not the healthiest for the kids, but one of my kids is super picky and I'm just happy if he eats. I put links to the two meals I am making from Pinterest in case you're interested.
I ended up going to Aldi ($51.00), Kroger ($16.32), and ValuMarket ($16.05) and spent a total of $83.37!! Now, in all fairness, I already had milk, bread, 2 packs of chicken breast, and a pound of sausage. but even if I had bought all that I would have been right at about 100. For 5 people....for a whole week! So yeah...I'm a little excited. And now I'm going to run off and work on prepping some of this so it'll be ready to go for dinners. Below are a few pictures of what I got....It's not a complete photo spread because it turns out I'm out of memory on my phone, but I'll make sure I'm more prepared next week.
Trying to get on track
I'm sure you've all been there at one time or another....that place where you feel like everything is completely out of control and you wonder how you ended up there. Of course, I suppose it could just be me since I'm a control freak that is freaking out about not being in control.
I don't really know when I figured it out, but when the calendar rolled to 2016, I realized I'm getting older and still have a number of goals I'm not even close to accomplishing. I wanted to be out of debt, have more saved for retirement, weigh less, be in better health, etc. It's difficult to realize that it seems like life is passing by. It's not that we haven't enjoyed the time that's gone by, but we have a lot of "life" happen to us in the last few years that include major home and car repairs, job changes resulting in a low income for awhile, and some serious medical issues that included a cancer scare. I guess I'm putting that out there because I'm trying not to beat myself up too much for not being further along. The last two years have really just been about picking ourselves up, which is how we arrived at this point.
My husband and I are very close to making enough money to cover our expenses. Yep, you read that correctly...we're in the hole every month. It's a terrible predicament to be in, but it's not as bad as it was 6 years ago. Six years ago we were behind on our mortgage and wondering how we were going to eat. You're probably wondering how we make it. For awhile, we were using credit cards (which greatly increased the amount of debt we have), and now we have worked really hard to increase our income. I took a new job last year and will get a very decent raise in July and my husband took on a second job. The income from his second job is not counted in our income because it fluctuates so much that I never know what I can count on. He works consistently, but companies are not consistent in paying him.
I'll do another post soon (maybe a video if I get motivated) about how we came to be where we are...but for now, I'm excited to finally feel like we're getting on track. My goals for 2016 include paying off debt (at least $12,000), eating healthier, practicing meal prep, reducing our food budget, and developing a cleaning schedule I can stick to. I decided on writing a blog simply because I feel like I'll hold myself more accountable if this is out there for the world to see. See you in the next post!
I don't really know when I figured it out, but when the calendar rolled to 2016, I realized I'm getting older and still have a number of goals I'm not even close to accomplishing. I wanted to be out of debt, have more saved for retirement, weigh less, be in better health, etc. It's difficult to realize that it seems like life is passing by. It's not that we haven't enjoyed the time that's gone by, but we have a lot of "life" happen to us in the last few years that include major home and car repairs, job changes resulting in a low income for awhile, and some serious medical issues that included a cancer scare. I guess I'm putting that out there because I'm trying not to beat myself up too much for not being further along. The last two years have really just been about picking ourselves up, which is how we arrived at this point.
My husband and I are very close to making enough money to cover our expenses. Yep, you read that correctly...we're in the hole every month. It's a terrible predicament to be in, but it's not as bad as it was 6 years ago. Six years ago we were behind on our mortgage and wondering how we were going to eat. You're probably wondering how we make it. For awhile, we were using credit cards (which greatly increased the amount of debt we have), and now we have worked really hard to increase our income. I took a new job last year and will get a very decent raise in July and my husband took on a second job. The income from his second job is not counted in our income because it fluctuates so much that I never know what I can count on. He works consistently, but companies are not consistent in paying him.
I'll do another post soon (maybe a video if I get motivated) about how we came to be where we are...but for now, I'm excited to finally feel like we're getting on track. My goals for 2016 include paying off debt (at least $12,000), eating healthier, practicing meal prep, reducing our food budget, and developing a cleaning schedule I can stick to. I decided on writing a blog simply because I feel like I'll hold myself more accountable if this is out there for the world to see. See you in the next post!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)