Like I said in a previous post we are getting serious about the debt. So we decided to start another blog that journals how we are spending, and saving. If you are interested go here, We really hope that by helping ourselves we can help someone else along the way!
We have another big snow storm coming in.....eating veggie soup and chili for the next couple of days. (funny we planned that before the weather man started talking snow.) Hope you are having a great week!
~DezynDiva~Gazelle Intense
Us
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Monday menu??
So I have thought about this at great length and decided that it can't be a Monday menu because I am not going to be able to maintain that. I HATE grocery shopping and do as little of it as possible. We used to live 20 minutes away from the nearest grocery store, had 3 little ones and I couldn't run to town for this and that so I started shopping once a month, besides I hated it anyway so this cut my trips to the bare minimum. This isn't for everyone but we save lots of money by doing this. I make a meal plan for the month....I don't care what day we eat it just, that this is what we have to choose from. So for January this is what we have. Then we only make additional trips to the store for milk and sliced bread, or the occasional oops.
Everything in Brown is made from Venison. My goal is to link the recipe to each of the meals, along with the cost. I am also going to log what we spend on groceries each month, and a record of all the coupons we use. Ultimately we are trying to keep from giving the pizza guy(whom we love dearly) all our money, and our actual eating out for special occasions. We are serious about getting out of debt and by blogging all of this I hope that it will help us stay on task as a family.
January meals
1.Salisbury steak- Instant taters Green beans homemade bread
2. Lasagna and homemade bread x2
3. Ham and beans Fried taters corn bread
4. Beef (hamburger) stroganoff
5. Sausage gravy, biscuits and peas
6. chipped beef gravy biscuits and peas
7. Roast homemade bread and mac and cheese
8. Hamburger helper and veggie
9. chicken helper
10. chicken casserole and corn casserole
11. Roasted turkey, instant sweet taters, stove-top and green bean casserole
12. Turkey soup x 2
13. pork burgers baked beans and french fries
14. pork loin cabbage baked beans pasta salad
15 mac and cheese and ham casserole
16 turkey sandwiches and pasta salad
17 chili soup x2
18 swiss steak mashed taters and green beans
19 Turkey pot pie
20 pancakes and bacon
21 French toast bacon
22 Veggie soup x2
eat supper at church 4 times
that comes to 30 meals (we vegged out new years on leftover appetizers.)
Snacks
make jello
make pudding
make cookies
make brownies
make cake
make jerky
make summer sausage
make fruit roll ups
How do you manage your spending on groceries, eating out, and the pizza guy?
Everything in Brown is made from Venison. My goal is to link the recipe to each of the meals, along with the cost. I am also going to log what we spend on groceries each month, and a record of all the coupons we use. Ultimately we are trying to keep from giving the pizza guy(whom we love dearly) all our money, and our actual eating out for special occasions. We are serious about getting out of debt and by blogging all of this I hope that it will help us stay on task as a family.
January meals
1.Salisbury steak- Instant taters Green beans homemade bread
2. Lasagna and homemade bread x2
3. Ham and beans Fried taters corn bread
4. Beef (hamburger) stroganoff
5. Sausage gravy, biscuits and peas
6. chipped beef gravy biscuits and peas
7. Roast homemade bread and mac and cheese
8. Hamburger helper and veggie
9. chicken helper
10. chicken casserole and corn casserole
11. Roasted turkey, instant sweet taters, stove-top and green bean casserole
12. Turkey soup x 2
13. pork burgers baked beans and french fries
14. pork loin cabbage baked beans pasta salad
15 mac and cheese and ham casserole
16 turkey sandwiches and pasta salad
17 chili soup x2
18 swiss steak mashed taters and green beans
19 Turkey pot pie
20 pancakes and bacon
21 French toast bacon
22 Veggie soup x2
eat supper at church 4 times
that comes to 30 meals (we vegged out new years on leftover appetizers.)
Snacks
make jello
make pudding
make cookies
make brownies
make cake
make jerky
make summer sausage
make fruit roll ups
- think about all the stuff that goes with each day. For example we drink sweet tea about a gallon a day. You have to include tea and sugar on your grocery list and knowing how much or how often you use it will make this style of meal planning and shopping much easier long term.
- make sure you also account for seasonings you might use during the month.....nothing worse than having tacos on you list and all of the ingredients to make them except the taco season. A trip to the store for a 50 cent pkg of taco season steals $$ from the Gas envelope/budget.
- my kids are in school so the only lunch menu I plan is for me and the hubby. Generally our lunches are leftovers from the night before (we don't eat most of them past that next day) or PB&J, if I get them cheap I will buy frozen veggies for myself since I am generally home.
- For Saturday and Sunday when we are all home for lunch and supper I plan for us to eat bigger meals for lunch and eat the left overs for supper. For example a pan of lasagna will feed us for Supper one night and lunch the next day and usually leave enough for hubby and I to have lunch again(we do eat lasagna more than a day old)
- Plan your breakfast out before you go grocery shopping if your kids are big cereal eaters like mine....know how much they are eating and buy enough different kinds and boxes to get them through the month. we use about 2 boxes a week....depending on the garbage disposal aka Taylor.
- Plan ahead for those nights that you are busy, forgot to thaw out your meat, or are just to darn tired to cook much. We always try to have 5 easy meals...on hand for those nights. By easy I mean hamburger/chicken helper, pot pie, frozen pizza, corn dogs, chicken nuggets. Something that you can make in 20 minutes or less that is cheaper than calling the pizza guy.
- Plan for snacks....we all have days where we get hungry for something sweet or salty you know the danger foods. One way to keep you from wanting them is when you have to make them to eat them, sometimes I don't want it bad enough to make it.
- don't forget condiments
How do you manage your spending on groceries, eating out, and the pizza guy?
NEW
After some much needed time off with family I think KNOW I am ready for a NEW year. We enjoyed a wonderful Christmas with all of our children. Christmas breaks are normally my favorite time of year, I bake, decorate, and "Martha Stewart" everything....but this year was different. I missed my extended family, more so this year, mostly because my sis is going through a really rough time and I just wish I could help her and her kids. I pray daily for them, but I am a fixer by nature and struggle often with letting God fix things. So needless to say I was a little lot less merry. I'm not sorry for it, I am just sad that I let myself get that way, when all I had to do was let God be in control, and yet once again I was stubborn and couldn't just "give" it to him. Which is one of the many NEW things I am working on this NEW year.
I don't really make resolutions, more like plans. I don't just say I'm gonna lose 15 pounds this year.... I actually write down how I am gonna lose 15 pounds this year...step by step, so when I lose sight of that goal I can look back at my plan see where I got off track and what went wrong and fix it. (that fix it thing again) I found out a long time ago this way worked better for me.....it isn't perfect but I try much harder if I write things down, and so does my family. I sat down and wrote out 25 things I wanted to do this year (this is not the plan, more of the brainstorm before the plan was written) some are personal, some are business related and some are just crazy things on my Bucket list.
1. Grow closer to God. (always a priority)
2. Be more organized. (OCD)
3. Be on time (no matter how early I start....always running behind)
4. Get Dave Ramsey serious about the debt!!!!! (we got lazy last year and are really freaked out about it)
5. Lose the weight.65 pounds 61 pounds (been a long time coming but I am working on it daily)
6. Get teeth fixed ($$)
7. Get in shape. (gotta happen if I want to make #5 a reality)
8. fix hair and wear make-up at least twice a week even if I'm not leaving the house. (never have worn make up much but am getting older and I need it more)
9. drink more water and less coffee
10 Climb Sears Tower
11 eat breakfast everyday and Take a multivitamin
12 Use coupons
13 go to garden of the Gods and hike
14 get my Firearms owners Identification card
15. go turkey hunting with my son
16 Make the deans list
17 Log at least 20 hours per week on Business (since this has always beena hobby it is alot harder than you might think as are the next 2)
18 Log all business purchases
19 Log all business sales/loss
20 Make a "new" item every day (this is easy if I don't have to do bunches of house work)
21 Add a new person to Cristel Dezynz boutique every day
22 list 11 items to etsy, ebay or artfire per month for 11 months
23 do 11 craft shows in 2011 (1st one scheduled for Feb 12th @ the community center, it's Relay for life)
24 Go on a date with my husband 11 times in 2011 (real dates not trips to Wal Mart, or the grocery store) and 11 separate dates with each of my 3 children (there date w/ me can be to Wal Mart or the grocery store)
25 Go somewhere I have never been before on Vacation. (even if it is a mini vacation)
I will update on the PLAN for each of these becoming a reality in future posts....I added a 26 and will show you the plan as this week takes shape!
Happy MLK day to you all and I hope you are off to a running start on a NEW year, NEW you!
.
I don't really make resolutions, more like plans. I don't just say I'm gonna lose 15 pounds this year.... I actually write down how I am gonna lose 15 pounds this year...step by step, so when I lose sight of that goal I can look back at my plan see where I got off track and what went wrong and fix it. (that fix it thing again) I found out a long time ago this way worked better for me.....it isn't perfect but I try much harder if I write things down, and so does my family. I sat down and wrote out 25 things I wanted to do this year (this is not the plan, more of the brainstorm before the plan was written) some are personal, some are business related and some are just crazy things on my Bucket list.
1. Grow closer to God. (always a priority)
2. Be more organized. (OCD)
3. Be on time (no matter how early I start....always running behind)
4. Get Dave Ramsey serious about the debt!!!!! (we got lazy last year and are really freaked out about it)
5. Lose the weight.
6. Get teeth fixed ($$)
7. Get in shape. (gotta happen if I want to make #5 a reality)
8. fix hair and wear make-up at least twice a week even if I'm not leaving the house. (never have worn make up much but am getting older and I need it more)
9. drink more water and less coffee
10 Climb Sears Tower
11 eat breakfast everyday and Take a multivitamin
12 Use coupons
13 go to garden of the Gods and hike
14 get my Firearms owners Identification card
15. go turkey hunting with my son
16 Make the deans list
17 Log at least 20 hours per week on Business (since this has always beena hobby it is alot harder than you might think as are the next 2)
18 Log all business purchases
19 Log all business sales/loss
20 Make a "new" item every day (this is easy if I don't have to do bunches of house work)
21 Add a new person to Cristel Dezynz boutique every day
22 list 11 items to etsy, ebay or artfire per month for 11 months
23 do 11 craft shows in 2011 (1st one scheduled for Feb 12th @ the community center, it's Relay for life)
24 Go on a date with my husband 11 times in 2011 (real dates not trips to Wal Mart, or the grocery store) and 11 separate dates with each of my 3 children (there date w/ me can be to Wal Mart or the grocery store)
25 Go somewhere I have never been before on Vacation. (even if it is a mini vacation)
I will update on the PLAN for each of these becoming a reality in future posts....I added a 26 and will show you the plan as this week takes shape!
Happy MLK day to you all and I hope you are off to a running start on a NEW year, NEW you!
.
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