Grocery shopping and menu planning Week of 1/1/12

The first half of this week was meals from things on hand. I did our grocery shopping yesterday for the rest of the week and a little bit of stock up. We are trying to focus on eating healthier which means more fresh fruits and veggies which sadly are expensive this time of year.

Menu:
Wednesday:
B: Eggs/turkey bacon or cereal
L: At school for kids, I had a sandwich
D: Stuffed peppers for ODS and I and tacos for the rest (using the same mix of taco meat from the freezer)

Thursday:
B: Pancakes/turkey bacon or cereal
L: At school for the kids, out with a friend for me or salad at home
D: Cod, brussels sprouts for ODS and I and tacos with leftovers for the other kids

Friday:
B: Cinnamon rolls
L: At school for kids, salad for me
D:  Homemade pizza

Saturday:
B: Biscuits and gravy, eggs
L: Homemade soup and sandwiches
D: Subway after church (we just get the $5 footlong sandwiches no chips or drinks)

Groceries purchased:
Fred Meyer $69.26

4- Special K cereal $10
1- Store brand Rice Crispies $1.99
2- pancake mix $3.98
Raw sugar $3.09
Half & half $1.79
3 shredded cheese $6.50
2 OJ- $5.00
4 bagged salad kids $4.00 (wish these would last longer they are on sale for a great price)
brussels sprouts $3.38
6 grapefruit $2.00
3 green bell peppers $2.04
mandarin oranges 1.07
9 yogurt $3.00
sour cream $2.00
Bacon 1.56
cod 3.89
2 whole chickens $9.71 (.88#)
1 gallon milk $2.59

The chickens went into the freezer for future use. I also placed an order with Zaycon foods for 40# of boneless skinless chicken breast that will be here later in the month at $1.69 a pound.

See how others did at the Grocery Cart Challenge

Photo of the Day (Days 1-3)

I am following the list found here Photo A Day that I found on Pinterest.

Day 1: A photo of myself

Day 2: Photo of Breakfast (Mango Chobani , turkey bacon and coffee)

Day 3: Something I adore (Our kitty Houdini)

January 2nd

Happy Monday! Hard to believe today is the last day of Christmas vacation. Tomorrow is back to the daily grind and crazy schedule that is our life. As is tradition, today was a day of cleaning and decluttering in our household. Thankfully, this year it wasn't a huge process. While we did put together a few bags of things to take to consignment, we are finding we are "collecting" less and less junk. This is a good thing!

After decluttering my bedroom closet it was time to tackle some frugal activities. I am really wanting to make sure to use things up and have little to no waste this year. Food can be one of the biggest wastes in our house which is expensive. Tonight's dinner consisted of Chicken Pot Pie, Salad and apple pie with whip cream. 98% of what I used to make tonight's dinner was free to us and the rest was reaching its expiration date in our fridge. The next project to tackle was a stack of ripped/torn jeans. These were not jeans to be mended but rather to be taken apart. I had planned to make a denim quilt for Christmas 2011. I had collected free to me ripped jeans all year, and they were still sitting on a shelf collecting dust. Today I cut them apart and now have a box full of denim fabric strips ready to cut into quilt squares.

Now we are ready for the week, I think. The new quarter brings a new schedule and a new routine for us to get used to. Ready or not, here we go!

HAPPY NEW YEAR Bring on 2012

Happy New Year! I am so excited for 2012 and what it will bring. Last year was such a roller coaster full of changes for our family. I sat down this past week and wrote out my resolutions for the year and really thought about what I want to focus on. What changes do I want to make to better things for our family as well as help our budget. I think I have come up with some great ideas that I can follow through with and stay on top of.

Here are my resolutions for 2012. I decided to make a list of 12 :).

1. Prayer and devotion time daily.

2. Gym 3 x per week.
3. Eat healthier as a family.
4. Stick to our budget and reduce extra spending.
5. Working on handmade Christmas 2 items per month.
6. Implement a regular family game night each week.
7. Dinner at the table as a family 3 times per week.
8. Keep my blog up to date.
9. Learn one new skill per month.
10. Be more positive and thankful in the way I think, speak and act.
11. Keep in better touch with friends and family via phone and letters NOT FB or email.
12. 2 Random acts of kindness per month.

I have decided to take on several challenges through various websites that I follow as well such as the Photo a Day Challenge and I am joining a Biggest Loser Challenge that a friend is putting together.
 
So we are off and running! I look forward to posting regularly to this blog to hold myself accountable and hopefully share some great tips, ideas and projects along the way. Speaking of projects....have you discovered Pinterest yet? If not, check it out! I have saved a lot of recipes and craft projects already that I look forward to trying and sharing my successes (and failures) with you all here (I know you are thrilled right LOL).