Reining it all In and making new goals

I am reining in my unnecessary spending.  Yes I have spent money over the past month that I shouldn't have.  Time to get back on track and make some new financial goals. 

1.  Make a list and go to Wal-mart once a week.  I've been disorganized and this has led to my going to Wal-mart one too many times and picking up a few impulse purchases along the way.  Enough said here.

2.  Grocery spending.  Make up menus to use up what is in the freezer and save the balance of my budgeted grocery money.

3.  Save money towards a semi-private vinyl fence for our yard to be installed next summer.

Along with these new goals are the old ones of paying off debt by March 2012, putting money into savings each month along with paying off the mortgage as soon as we can.

I have some other goals that I have made that are things I want to do.

1.  Go bungee jumping - NOT!!!!  I want to learn to make soap.  This is something I have always wanted to do.  There is something about using lye that kind of freaks me out, but as I have read and watched the tutorials I know I can do it.  It is just finding the time.

2.  Learn to sew some vintage clothes from the Edwardian/Titantic era.  Next to making soap, this is something I want to do.  It will mean I need to practice my sewing skills so I can actually accomplish some more difficult techniques. 

3.  Learn to knit on the round knitting looms I bought.

I see so many people make financial goals and that's great.  In the quest to quit spending excessively and to pay things down, don't forget the fun goals that you can make.  Is there something that you want to learn to do, but never made the time?  Many of the things that I want to do won't cost much money.   

There's something gratifying about working on financial goals while also learning to do something new.  If you are facing a mountain of debt that will take you a long time to dig out of, the worst thing you can do is to be totally obsessed by it and think of nothing else.  Make your financial plan and goals and stick with it.   While you should take getting out of debt serious, there is no reason you can't also bring joy to your life by learning to do something new.  It makes your life interesting.

Family Finances and Trust

Throughout our married life my DH and I have traded the job of keeping track of our money and paying bills. My husband is an accountant and for the past 12 years it has been his job to take care of our finances. I found out something about myself 12 years ago and that was that I was tired of taking care of our finances but I didn’t want to give up the control. That was dumb. My DH doesn’t keep anything from me and I ask questions every now and then. I trust him and I let go of my control to know about every single penny that we spent or earned. Letting go of my control did not mean that I let go of making financial decisions for our family. We do that together.

Being an accountant, my DH tracks our spending in different categories BUT he does not control what I spend. In other words he has never told me I could or could not buy something or spend more than I had planned on groceries for example. He trusts me and he knows that I am quite aware of our financial situation and I wouldn’t do anything to jeopardize our finances. We do not have a weekly meeting about our finances. I know what our bills are and what our goals are for savings. If I have a question, I simply ask.

I trust him and he trusts me.

So, how do I know when our savings is running low or if money is getting a little tight? 1. He tells me. 2. I ask him. 3. I check our bank balance.

1. He tells me.

When I say he tells me that does not mean that he takes me by the hand and directs me to the dining room table where he has his laptop on and shows me an excel spreadsheet or a quicken report. He doesn’t go line by line to show me where we are over spending or where there has been an extra expense we haven’t planned. I live in this house too and I know when a vehicle has broken down, the plumber has been called to repair something and so on. I am aware of extra expenses. On the contrary, this is what is usually said: “We’ve had a lot of expenses over the past month.” That is all that he has to say to get the message to me that our savings are down, we have spent extra this month on whatever and we need to tighten our belts.

Last night, he said just that. I knew that in the past 30 days we have had car repair bills, doctor bills, optometrist bill for me (and my DS is going there this morning) and some other normal extra expenses. I thought we had stayed on track for our Christmas spending but as it turns out when my DH sat down and really “crunched the numbers”, we had overspent. YIKES.

2. I ask him.

Some couples put the role of family finances on one person and then they let that person carry the burden of that job. In the alternative the person that is paying the bills might not like to reveal what is and isn’t being paid. These are family finances and since we are a family I ask questions when I need to and I don’t leave the entire burden on my DH.

3. I check our account balance

I can go on line, check the balance at the ATM or call the bank. If I am getting cash from the ATM I always get the bank balance while I am there. I don’t put my head in the sand and let my DH take care of everything. After all we are married and we are a team. I want full disclosure and I can have it anytime I want it.

Action Plan

When my DH told me “We’ve had a lot of expenses over the past month” that sentence put me into action. (I might add that there was a certain tone to his voice that told me that he was quite concerned.) I started to make a list of any extra expenses I knew that we were going to occur over the next 6 months.

My DS wants a letter jacket. He has lettered in orchestra and when his brother was in 9th grade we bought him a letter jacket for lettering in cross country. It will cost around $200. Yes, this is not a necessity. It is a reward for hard work and he does deserve it. I will find a way to save up for that jacket.

Upcoming family birthdays, mother’s day, father’s day. We have in-law birthdays along with mine and my DH. I can make some gifts and others we will have to be a little more creative. For example, there is nothing wrong in purchasing used books or DVD’s for a gift along with a little homemade gift. I will work on making up a list of gift ideas and if I decide to sew or cross stitch a gift, I will need to plan ahead. I am already now thinking about Christmas 2010.

Vacation. We need to drive to Western New York this year where my mother lives. She lives in a small apartment so we will need to stay in a hotel. Between gasoline, hotel and food we have to save up quite a sum of money. Add to that the fact that my mother is not very nice to us (my own sister has totally disowned her); it is not a pleasant “vacation.” We only visit her every other year. Perhaps I will post sometime about what my life was like growing up and how that made me strive to be a better parent than my mother was to me. As a small taste, I grew up every day being told I was a “big dummy.” It is hard to set aside money for this major expenditure, all things considering, but she is still my mother and we have an obligation.

Major household repairs. Our roof is definitely showing signs of needing replaced. I do believe that we may get another year out of it. Our furnace is 28 years old (boiler furnace) and you just never know. We need to get more money into savings for this category.

Paint. We will need to paint our house again this summer. Paint is expensive and we don’t buy our exterior paint at Walmart. We will head to Sherwin Williams (the only paint store in town) to purchase a decent quality paint. Paint is expensive. A gallon on sale can run $30.00. We need to plan for this.

I think for some couples when they see what lies before them financially speaking it can be discouraging. But as I have said before, I am always up for a challenge. Yes, when the economy picks up I can go out and find a job. I really don’t want to do that unless it would absolutely be necessary. After all it doesn’t matter whether I am working outside of the home or not, the exterior of the house will still need to be painted, the downstairs of our house will still need to have the plaster repaired and painted and so on. These are all projects we can do and want to do. It is a tradeoff.

We have debt and are on track to having most of it paid off by August 2011. By then our only debt will be our mortgage payment and my car payment.

So where are we going to get the extra money to put in savings for our extra expenses? I am looking at that today. One major area is groceries. Last month’s pantry challenge only made a dent in what I have in the freezer and my pantry. Of course I did deviate from the challenge when I purchased some stockpiled items instead of only purchasing what was necessary.  Here is what my pantry and freezer look like as of today:

I also have another bin of brown sugar and confectioner's sugar

But wait, there is more ...

5 Bins of cereal items

Plenty of Pasta

How much toilet paper does a family need?

Yes, we have just the one freezer. 

I know - you must be surprised.

Now I'm starting think that I may have to sign up for that t.v. show on hoarding.

Today I am going to spend my morning making up an inventory of my pantry. Everything has been labeled with an expiration date or date of purchase. When I am putting items away in my pantry I always take a marker and write the expiration date on the outside of the item. Now I am going to go downstairs, sit at a table with my laptop and make up a spread sheet of exactly how many cans I have of what and when it is due to expire. I need to do this. Then I will know exactly what is down there and how I should be incorporating those items into my menu planning and get them used up before they expire. In the 1 year that I have practiced stockpiling I have not had to throw out anything due to an expired date of expiration.

This afternoon I am going to inventory and organize my freezer. I have been keeping an inventory list but I know there some things that I have taken out or some things that I have put in the freezer that missed the list.

I will then have the information I need to sit down and make up some menus for several weeks or even a couple of months or more. I am sure I will be surprised when I realize the amount of meals I will be getting out of my freezer and pantry. Also, I want to try some new recipes and this is as good of time as any to try some new food combinations.

As to stockpiling, while I am using up what I have in my freezer and pantry there frankly isn’t room for any “new” food in my freezer or pantry. I need to use up what we have and only buy perishables. Perhaps I should post what I have on hand and what meals I am going to make from those items. It would be wonderful to hear what others would suggest.

It has been exactly 6 months since I have been home. I look back over that time and see that we have had some setbacks financially but I have also seen areas of spending that we have reduced and made some positive changes in our finances. For savings we have always had an amount that we said we would never go under and unfortunately due to extra expenses we have gone under that amount. But we have not had to rely on credit cards for paying extra expenses. We have had the money in savings for those expenses and it is empowering not to have to reach for the plastic.

The extra money that we need to replenish savings and plan for future expenses is going to come from my basement. Yep, I will be grocery shopping from my basement for a long time. Kind of makes me think of when I was a little girl and I would pretend to have a store and would go grocery shopping in my mother’s kitchen. Maybe I need to find a little cart and download some grocery store music to my MP3 player so I can get the full experience.

Pantry Challenge - End of January

I meant to post this last week.  The last week in January I spent $19.91 which brought my total for the month to $160.58.  I overspent by $10.58 as my budget was $150.00.  My DS told me "you posted the week before that you could easily stay on budget."  Well, that was true until I came upon a sale on bar soap.  I was able to get 8 bars of Dial soap for $2.50 and since we were down to 2 bars in the house, I purchased a few packages.  Then I was able to purchase a couple boxes of Electrasol Gel pacs (20 count) for only 99 cents after using a coupon.  Sometimes you have to over spend a little to save money in the future. 

I am so pleased with the amount of money I saved in January.  By really cutting back and watching the grocery budget we didn't feel the pinch as much when we faced some extra expenses in our budget.  Not once did we feel deprived in what we ate.  I feel I was able to stay on task by not really viewing my grocery money as a budget but as a challenge.

So instead of being on a grocery budget, I am on a grocery challenge.  Sometimes it is all in the wording.

Pantry Challenge - January 23rd shopping

I almost forgot to post my update on the pantry challenge.  Here is the result of last week's shopping.  I spent a total of $26.14 which brings my grand total so far for January to:  $140.67.  There is $9.33 left in my budget of $150 for the rest of the month - being this week.  I can do it easily. 

Last week milk was on sale for only 88 cents per half gallon so I bought enough for this week.  The $9.33 will go towards fresh produce.  Since I already know of a day that one store marks the fresh produce down, I will shop there that day for any produce that we need.  Cantaloupe is on sale this week and so are bananas which are in my budget.  I have salad mixes on hand along with carrots and apples.  We have plenty of orange juice in the freezer. 

I have really enjoyed this challenge.  At the beginning I knew that I could easily fall prey to overspending if I didn't have a plan prior to shopping.  I went armed with a list and I told myself that I could not deviate from the list unless I came upon a sale that I knew would not happen for at least 6 months.  Then and only then could I buy something extra and I still hoped that I would come in under budget.  It has all worked out and I have a great sense of satisfaction in this accomplishment.

I still have quite a full freezer and pantry.  Beginning in February I am going to have a grocery budget of $65 per week. This amount will allow me to buy what is needed along with getting some extra items for the pantry.  My goal is to keep rotating my pantry by using what I have and adding more items as they go on sale.  Thus I should be able to maintain a $65 a week budget and I would hope some weeks come in under budget.

Menus for the week of January 11th

As part of the pantry challenge I am posting what we had to eat the previous week.  Last week was a rough week for me as I wasn't feeling well and I was glad that I did have some things in the freezer to use up.

Monday - We had my dad's favorite meal.  We call it "Dad's Meatballs and Gravey."  It is basically a meatloaf mixture but you use seasoned stuffing mix (such as Pepperidge Farm) for the bread in the meat mixture.  The sauce is a mixture of mushroom soup and onion soup mix.  I had both on hand but if I didn't I can whip up a homemade version of it.  Of course with something like this you have to have mashed potatoes, green beans and a salad.  I also made some cuban bread to go with the meal.

Tuesday - Leftovers.  My DS didn't mind the leftovers as he loved what we had to eat on Monday.

Wednesday - Thankfully since I had been to the doctor that day I was able to pull out a casserole from the freezer - Chicken Dumpling casserole that we had with a tossed salad and fresh pineapple.  I love casseroles that combine a meat, vegetable and bread in the same recipe. 

Thursday - A humble homemade pizza and tossed salad.

Friday - Our DS was out of town at a Debate tournament so my DH and I dined on leftovers. 

As to what we eat on the weekends:  Saturdays are usually leftovers or sandwiches and today for lunch we had Pork Burgers on homemade buns.  Pork burgers are simply unseasoned ground pork cooked like hamburgers and it is a big deal here in Iowa.  We also had baked beans and I had some tater tots in the freezer that I needed to use up.  For supper tonight it will probably be breakfast with eggs or waffles or whatever sounds good to everyone.  I have bacon and sausage in the freezer that I can pull out.

Again breakfast is either bagels, cereal or toast.  Lunches are leftovers, sandwiches, soups or salads.  Our DS eats at school.

I have been on an antibiotic this week and I am tired so we opted for simple meals (except for Monday when I was feeling great). 

Pantry Challenge - January 16th shopping

I decided to stray from the pantry challenge this week.  My goal is to still stay in the $150 budget for groceries this month but try as I did I could not resist stocking up on some items that went on sale this week. 

Kraft shredded cheese in 8 oz. packages were on sale @ 5 for $6.00 AND at the checkout I received a coupon for $5.00 off my next shopping trip to that store compliments of Kraft.  Somehow spending $6.00 now to save $5.00 later was an absolute no brainer.  We use a lot of mozzarella cheese.  The same store had ground beef for 99 cents a lb. with a 10 lb. limit and Frosted Flakes (14 oz. boxes) on sale for 99 cents (two box limit) and I had a coupon for $1.00 off two.  Canned petite diced tomatoes were on sale for 39 cents for a 14 oz. can.  I go through a lot of these in many recipes so I bought 20 cans.  I have not seen prices like that on tomatoes in a few years.  Half gallon jugs of orange juice were on sale for 99 cents. Bananas, eggs and salad fixins were at low prices also.  My DH was happy that I purchased 24 bottles of Vitamin Water for 20 cents a bottle.  Those are good deals. 

Hy-Vee grocery stores are now having a one weekend a month of "Red Hot Deals." The cheese,  ground beef, orange juice and cereal were all part of those deals. In the future I am going to pay special attention to my grocery spending during the month so that I have enough money set aside for these weekend deals.

I realize that the whole idea of the pantry challenge was to use up what you have on hand and refrain from stocking up thereby keeping your grocery bill low this month.  I just couldn't help myself. I am still on budget and will keep to that $150 budget for the month.

So this week I spent a total of $50.44 on groceries and thus far my running total for the month is $114.53.  Actually I have $5 more I can spend if you take into account the $5.00 coupon I have towards my next shopping trip.

What this has done for me:  I have reduced my grocery spending considerably and have still been able to take advantage of stockpiling deals. I have taken more care to analyze the grocery ads and stay on a budget.  I have supplemented my savings by making my own bread, rolls, hamburger buns and such.  For lack of a better word, I feel empowered that I have been able to reduce my spending and save money. 

This month we have had some out of pocket medical expenses to pay and while I had hoped that the money I had saved would actually go to savings, it is nice to have the extra money to pay bills too.

Menus for the week of January 4th

Being on a Pantry Challenge makes you think about all the food that you have on hand and the best way to serve it to your family.  In the past I have been extremely poor at using up leftovers.  They sit in the fridge and get pushed to the back and eventually turn into a science experiment and get thrown out. 

I have been making a conscious effort to use up leftovers or to freeze leftovers for later use. Here is what we had to eat this week. 

January 4th - My DS's 17th birthday.  We had sirloin filets (purchased in the fall on sale), baked potatoes, tossed salad and of course birthday cake and ice cream.

January 5th - Homemade scalloped potatoes with smokie links on top; Steamfresh peas; tossed salad and of course - leftover birthday cake and ice cream.

January 6th - Oven baked BBQ bone in chicken breasts (I make my own BBQ sauce), leftover scalloped potatoes, corn, tossed salad (Normally I serve corn bread with this meal but I forgot to make it.)

January 7th - Leftover chicken; oven fried sweet potatoe fries; broccoli salad  (There was not enough corn to eat tonight so I took the small amount and tossed it into a container I keep in my freezer to use for soup making.)

January 8th - Spaghetti with meat sauce, garlic bread, leftover broccoli salad.

I also baked bread this week so the honey wheat bread was available at supper also.  For lunches my DS eats at school, my DH eats sandwiches from whatever we have on hand.  I had a package of O.M. bologna in the freezer and pulled it out and he ate that this week.  Otherwise he eats ham, turkey or PB & J sandwiches with some chips and fruit.  I eat a tossed salad for lunch or Progresso soups that I purchased on sale last month. 

For breakfast we eat toast or bagels or cereal.  I eat oatmeal with raisins and some brown sugar.  On a few occasions I get up early and have made eggs, waffles and such but since my son now has to be at school at 7:00 a.m. for early bird classes, I have not been doing this. 

Our meals are simple meals.  I try to have a salad at each supper meal whether it is fruit or a vegetable salad.

The only leftovers in my fridge are some spaghetti and sauce; garlic bread and some broccoli salad.  My DH and DS will be going to a basketball game tonight so I will be eating these leftovers for my supper.  They will enjoy a meal of fast food - which is a treat. 

My stockpiling over the past several months has paid off with a freezer loaded with meat and a pantry that is well stocked.  I will continue to spend little especially this month to meet the challenge and I will also continue to be a strategic shopper.

Pantry Challenge - January 7th Shopping

Week Two shopping on the pantry challenge was a success due to shopping in the middle of a snowstorm.

This week as I expected there were no good sales on baking supplies, canned goods or meat.  I did a lot of stocking up on these items in the fall.  One store did have a sale on bagels which are a big staple in my running DH's diet.  The day I shopped for groceries was the same day that we had a snow storm and near white out road conditions.  I live here in town and the grocery stores are only a few blocks away so it wasn't any trouble for me to get to a store.   I knew that the one grocery store that marks down produce would be having those mark downs due to the bad weather and people staying home and not shopping.  Well, as anticipated they did.  I spent a total of $33.71.  Here is a picture of what I purchased and I have decided to detail what I spent on each item.  (As to the background, yes I am peeling off the wallpaper in the kitchen to eventually paint the walls.)

Dole Salad Mixes ($1.44 each), marked down zuchinni (49 cents), marked down mushrooms (49 cents), marked down red and green peppers (99 cents), marked down bunches of broccoli (39 cents per bunch); Sara Lee Bagels (sale for 99 cents); fresh pineapple ($1.99), cantaloupe ($1.58) Clementine tangerines ($4.99); cabbage (33 cents lb.), ruby red grapefruit (4/ $1.00); Buddig deli meats ($1.00 after coupon); pasta (77 cents); tomato soup (3/$1.00); Chinet comfort cups (free with a coupon), salt (39 cents), Hawaiian bread (day old - $1.49 and then used a $1.00 off coupon), Nestle cocoa (2/$1.00), ziploc containers (3/$2.00 and then used a $1.50 off coupon), Italian bakery bread - 69 cents; Potato Chips ($1.50); Cottage Cheese (99 cents); American Singles ($1.69 on sale and then used 50 cent off coupon), Grapefruit juice ($1.50). 

Well that is the total.  We have eggs and milk on hand and I will probably need to go and buy some more milk on Monday.  I appreciate that one of the grocery stores in town does mark down the produce for quick sale.  Because of that we have had a lot of fresh vegetables and salads.  Clementine tangerines are so good and I enjoy when I am able to get them.  Many people wonder about nutrition when you spend less on groceries.  I think I have been able to provide my family with fresh fruits and vegetables without breaking the bank.  Of course it does help to have a grocery store in town that does mark down produce.  The trick is to balance the mark down produce with the produce that is on sale at a good price and to make sure you get those items used up before they spoil.  When I am at the grocery store I can easily adapt our menus to what is on sale.

So far this month I have spent a total of $58.75. My budget is $150.00 for the month. The cost of living here in Iowa is a lot lower than other areas of the country and I know that with planning and will power I will be able to stay within our budget. 

Our meals on the Pantry/Grocery Challenge

It's getting late and I wanted to make sure I posted what we have had to eat the past couple of days.  I will warn you that it may be rather boring but it is primarily for me as I want to keep a record of what we ate this month.

Saturday, Jan. 2nd we ate leftovers. My DS and DH left in the afternoon to drive to a basketball game and didn't get home til late.  They ate at a fast food restaurant.  I dined on eggs and toast.  I love eating breakfast for supper every now and then. 

On Sunday I made up a batch of chili and put it in the crockpot to simmer while we were at Sunday School and church.  I used ground pork instead of ground beef.  I do that every now and then and the flavor is a little different but just as tastey.  When we got home from church the chili was ready and I made some grilled cheese sandwiches.  It makes a large amount.  We like to dip the sandwiches in the hot chili.  We also had some mandarin oranges.  Later on in the afternoon I baked chocolate chip cookies.  I have about 4 large coffee cans full of chocolate chips that I purchased over the holidays.

I froze the leftover chili into two separate packages.  One will make nice leftovers for my DH and I when our son is gone some evening.  The other half I will use to make chili mac before the end of the month.  Chili mac is simply chili stirred into macaroni or other pasta and heated in the oven with some grated cheese on top.  I take leftovers and freeze them for use in later weeks.  My DS does not like leftovers. If I freeze them and serve them again in a couple of weeks he doesn't consider them leftovers.  Go figure.

Breakfast is cereal or whatever anyone wants to fix for themselves and Sunday suppers are usually leftovers.  My DS had some Kraft Deluxe Mac and Cheese for supper last night. I like having the evening off from cooking a meal.

Today my son turned 17.  I had some bacon wrapped sirloin fillets in the freezer purchased last fall on sale ($1.67 each).  When these go on sale I stock up for special occasions.  We had these along with corn and baked potatoes.  I forgot to put the tossed salad on the table and well, I was a little embarrassed that I forgot it.  We had birthday cake and ice cream for dessert. 

During the day for lunch my DS eats at school.  My husband is home for lunch 3 days out of the work week and packs his lunch the other 2 days.  He either eats leftovers or has a PB & J sandwich (he loves these) or a meat sandwich, tuna salad sandwich or egg salad sandwich.  I have either soup or a salad at lunch.

I always have apples on hand and this week we have bananas also.  I also have plenty of carrots and salad mix on hand.  We have juice along with canned oranges and other canned fruit for anyone that wants them.   In the winter I generally prepare what my mother referrs to as "winter salads."  These are carrot salad, coleslaw, waldorf salad or a simple tossed salad. 

I am not a gourmet cook.  I am a simple cook that can make a meal out of leftovers from the fridge.  I try very hard to have on hand fresh fruit and vegetables and fruit juice and always milk and cheese.  My family only eats basic fresh fruits and vegetables and nothing exotic, which is fine with me.

Tomorrow I will be baking bread as our beloved dog, Griffey, was able to get a loaf of bread off the counter and she ate it wrapper and all. Darn it!!!

It is very, very cold here and by the end of the week they are predicting temperatures at minus 10 degrees without a windchill.  I am spending my days doing housework and checking all the water faucets to make sure that the pipes don't freeze.   This is homemade soup and stew weather and I am sure that we will be having these sometime this week.

Pantry Challenge - January 2nd Shopping

This morning I got up early and headed to Hy-Vee for their one day sale.  I purchased the following:  5 cans of shaving creme @ 88 cents; 5 - 8 oz. packages shredded mozzarella @ $1.00; 2 - half gallons of milk @ 88 cents and 5.89 lbs. of bananas @ 29 cents. The shaving creme was on sale at a price that only comes twice a year.  Also I looked in my freezer this morning and I did have a few packages of cheese in there.  So 5 pkgs. of the cheese was all I needed.  My total with tax came to $13.18.

From Hy-Vee I stopped at Fareway (a mere two blocks away) and picked up 1 Dole Romaine Salad mix for 69 cents as it was expiring today and 1 box of their store brand Raisin Bran cereal for $2.19.  My total was $2.88. 

I had only spent a total of $16.06 for the upcoming week.  I felt pretty good about my purchases until my DH came home from his run and told me he needed Gatorade.  Darn!  My stockpile from the summer was gone!! 

Now I know there are recipes online for "homemade gatorade" but it just isn't the same as the real thing.  Since my husband is a die hard runner, he needs gatorade to rehydrate and replenish his body after a hard run.  It is a definite need.  I was able to purchase a 51 oz. can of gatorade powder at Wal-mart for $8.98 with tax.  It makes 6 gallons and should last the month but if it doesn't, we will head out for more.  Gatorade to a runner is like milk to a child. 

My final total for the day came to $25.04.  I'm still pretty happy with this.

One more comment about my DH, he will eat anything I prepare and he never criticizes me.  He is a tremendous support to me (and I am not talking financial).  We laugh a lot in our household and we tease each other a lot.  We are a team and I love him more and more each day.

Pantry Challenge Meal Planning

I thought I would try to post what we will be eating each day, at least for our main meal.  Today being New Year's my family reminded me we usually have cinnamon rolls for breakfast.  I had forgotten.  Since everyone had slept in late and had eaten breakfast, I decided we would have a mid afternoon meal today.  I set about making homemade cinnamon rolls using a quick rise dough recipe and then I looked in the fridge and freezer for something other than plain eggs to serve.  I had some bacon, frozen homemade pie crust dough, plenty of eggs and swiss cheese.  I made a quiche.   So at 4:00 this afternoon we dined on homemade cinnamon rolls and quiche just in time for the Rose Bowl.  We had some mandarin oranges in the fridge leftover from a recipe earlier in the week also.

I love to serve my family meals that I make up on the fly as I love a challenge.  Makes me think of Grandma as she did this every day of her life.

Pantry Challenge

I have taken up the Pantry Challenge given by Life as Mom for the month of January.  I have set my goal at $150.  The main point of the challenge is to limit spending of groceries, use what you have on hand and put money into savings (at least that is the challenge for me - more money in savings). 

This week on her site she acknowledged what I had been thinking - What if I can't restock my pantry?  Wouldn't you know that tomorrow at a local grocery store they are having 3 lb. bags of boneless skinless chicken breasts for $3.99 (limit of two bags)?  Incredible.  Also, 8 oz. bags of shredded mozzarella are listed at $1.00 each.  OMG.  Bananas are on sale for 29 cents a lb. and 1/2 gallons of milk are going for 88 cents.  The bananas and milk are a given.  These are needs.  But the chicken and cheese - well, for a stock up queen this is a dilemma. That is why I got a big chuckle out of the post at Life as Mom.  So what do I plan to do? 

Well here is some chicken purchase background - I will call it CPB.  Sounds important.  Last week they had a sale at the same store for $1.49 lb. for boneless skinless chicken breast which was a price that was the lowest I had seen in 1 year. I stocked up.  The one day sale of chicken comes to $1.33 lb.   There is a 2 bag limit on the chicken.  As much as I want to buy those bags of chicken I am going to restrain myself.  My reason is that I have plenty of boneless skinless chicken in the freezer from my purchases last week.  In another month or so one store always has bone in chicken breast for only 99 cents a lb.  Which even with the bone is a great deal.  Also about every month or so one store has the boneless skinless chicken breasts on sale between $4.69 and $4.99 for a 3 lb. bag.  So I would be saving between $1.38 and $1.98 if I purchased both bags depending on upcoming sales.  I think I would rather pocket the $7.98 than spend it.

The shredded cheese is another story.   Pasta casserole with cheese and pizza have become a weekly mainstay in our menu and I go through quite a bit of cheese.  I plan to purchase 10 bags and throw them in the freezer.  So the plan for tomorrow will be to spend $10.00 on the cheese; $1.76 on two 1/2 gallons of milk and .87 on 3 lbs. of bananas at our local Hy-Vee grocery store. 

I will stop by another grocery store, Fareway, to check their produce.  Fareway is closed on Sundays so many times on Saturdays they mark down produce.  I have purchased Dole salad mixes at 50 cents a bag if they are due to expire either that day or the next.  As for produce I have plenty of apples and carrots on hand here at home and some salad greens.  I also have plenty of canned and frozen fruit and vegetables. 

I am sure that the reason for the 1 day sale is the fact that the incredible holiday food sales are over and stores want to get customers into their stores to buy not only sales items but anything else they may want. 

So, I have a plan.  I have been in stock up mode for months and have been constantly searching for good deals.  I am excited to see how much money I will be able to save by the end of the month.