The Erratic Homemaker

Wow. Time flys

2011-03-11T06:52:00.003-05:00

My lonely, neglected blog is still here. I'm going to try to clean it up a little and go back to posting some. I think i said that before though.

It seemed like such a long winter this year. Is it that the one you just went through always feels that way? Nicer weather keeps teasing. Hopefully its here to stay.

I'm still working quite a bit. Trying to reign that in a little.

I miss having bloggy friends and reading about everyone. I miss having a online diary where I can share, complain and see my own struggles in other peoples posts.

Hello again, again.

Ha! So not funny.

2010-05-25T21:34:00.002-04:00

It took weeks to get my fridge fixed. Then it died again the next day. Amazing since it seemed liked they replaced every major part. Waited another week for the repair guy who threw his hands up in the air after a hour and told us we would be getting a new fridge. Had a extended warranty but it still ended up costing me $200. My love affair with kitchen appliances may be over.

I made a bunch of meatballs and chili today. Waiting for it to cool so I can put it away and head to bed. It seems so warm today. I just think its because its so humid. My hands and feet always hurt in weather like this. Looking forward to crashing in front of the fan :)

Schedule easing up.....

2010-04-19T07:10:00.002-04:00

I have a few days off and a lighter schedule coming after this week. I'm so ready.

My fridge is still broken. The back-up-closes-by-bungee-cord fridge is holding up ok. Hopefully when the guy comes out in the morning he finally gets it fixed. I have a big cooking day planned for the morning and need it.

Planning on making a big batch of chili, crockpot carnitas, buffalo chicken dip, blue cheese spread, and pumpkin muffins. We will be eating the carnitas in the evening with rice and beans. After dinner (hopefully) we will put a few dozen burritos in the freezer. I'm cant wait till dinner, I love mexican food.

Garage sale season is starting. This weekend will be my first chance to go. I'm so excited! I have a new favorite goodwill that that been keeping us very nicely clothed but I could use a few more tops.

Off to finish up my plan and grocery list.

Wow, crazy week

2010-03-29T22:03:00.002-04:00

I just had the busiest week. New things kept popping up, fridge died, schedule changed again and again. I'm am so happy that its a new week :)

Big lots has some great furniture right now. I spent half of Sunday driving around to different stores to pick up matching pieces of the Attic Heirlooms collection. Yay! After 5+ years of looking I finally found a set I am happy with!

My 2nd child had a job interview this week and will start working as soon as we get his work permit. He will actually be working with me :) I can't believe 2 of my children will be working. Wow, time goes by so quickly!

I am getting in a little surfing, checking email, and preparing to turn in early to catch up on my sleep. My legs hurt, I bought those shape-up sketcher's and boy after my first week wearing them I can really feel it. I really love those shoes. I can tell the difference after just a week. I felt it first in my calves and it has slowly moved up my legs and I can see a visible change in my mid-section as well. That right there makes them worth the $100 price tag. I bought the work version and they are great. Most slip resistant shoes help but they have great grip, they do not slip even in grease.

Off to get a hot bath and a good night sleep.

Grey skies again....

2010-03-22T19:51:00.002-04:00

I miss the pretty weather we had last week. The sunshine was so uplifting.

I had a good Goodwill thrift week. Was able to find really nice high end swimming trunks for the older boys and a bunch of NWT young men's shirts.

Tried a new spaghetti sauce recipe, made chicken pho, and a big batch of pasta salad this week. Have plenty of leftovers so I don't need to cook tonight. Going shopping for the week in the morning and have to make food for a potluck on Sunday. Can't decide if I want to make sweets or snacks. Also need to restock the freezer, might try to fill it a little this week.

Off to make my menu and to-do list for the morning.

Chicken pitas

2010-03-15T19:55:00.003-04:00

This months Cooking Light magazine had many yummy looking recipes. On page 32 they have a spicy chicken shawarma recipe that we tried tonight. It was pretty good but not a "keeper". We also had hummus and Greek salad.

I marked close to a dozen different recipes in the April 2010 magazine. I have a few magazine subscriptions that were $5 amazon specials. I keep a stack near the bathtub for relaxing and inspiration.

I like the idea of a spicy chicken pita but the flavor of this recipe was not strong enough for my tastes. I have a really good hummus recipe from recipezaar but I was able to bring home hummus and kalamata olives from work today at no cost so I saved some time there.

I need to go to the grocery store and I am still working on my menu which should have been done Saturday :)

Parenting by text....( rambling updates)

2010-03-13T20:30:00.003-05:00

Does that sound just horrible? We are a very wired family. Computers everywhere, multiple cell phones, and so little time. My oldest is also *sniff* almost 18! He is working, has bible study, backstage for the play at school, game club, etc. and is a great help at home still. The next 2 are online charter school ( they are almost 16 and 12) and then we have little man ( 2 1/2).

I am working a lot. Some weeks 7 days. I will continue to work crazy hours until August at which point I will be cutting that down to 1/3 and things should get back to normal. DH and I work opposite shifts and the older kids help with breakfast if the toddler gets up early.The oldest helps out a hour or 2 a week if there is a scheduling conflict. Everyone else has a responsibility to watch that they keep up with their schedule and chores and so far, its working well. Texting has become a big thing, I can still answer questions all morning, check on the kids, send reminders, etc. I never thought I would be a texter ( is that a word?)

I never have to work past 3:00 and the kids are still sleeping when I start work. DH works in the evening and he has weekends off. My house is pretty quiet except for the little guy, he loves making his rounds. Big sister is his favorite person to help him start the day, as she likes to watch some cartoons with him and tries to get him into the characters. Daddy wears him out in the early afternoon and he spends the rest of the time trying to get his brothers to play cars, go outside or to play Mario Bros on the WII while he pretends to play. As soon as I get home, he moves to me and we play and then have some quiet time. He is the funnest 2 year old. He is such a people person.

My daughter has really become quite the artist this last year. She is self taught and does the most amazing,manga/anime style pictures. Lately she has taken a big interest in character development as well. My oldest two are all about computers right now.

That's whats going on right now :)

Menu 3/8

2010-03-07T17:06:00.002-05:00

I have a busy week this week. Only 1 day off and that day I have dentist appointments and errands to run.

Monday- Breakfast for dinner ( use Sundays leftover ham)
Tuesday- Cabbage soup (a hearty vegetable soup with smoked sausage and a spicy broth)
Wednesday- Mexican rice and black beans with chips and guacamole
Thursday- Leftover night
Friday- BW3 wings. Homemade potato wedges. Celery and ranch
Saturday- Little hamburgers, chips and veggies with dip.
Sunday- Cabbage rolls and mashed potatoes

I have a lot of frozen fruit that I would like to use up so I think we will have smoothies for breakfast most of the week. I plan on making a big batch of pasta salad for stretching out lunches and a batch of mini muffins for the toddler.

2010-03-03T19:29:00.002-05:00

IMG00056-20100303-1858.jpg
Testing sending a post by phone :) Leftover beef roast from Sunday turned into taco salads.

***ok, that did not exactly work.

Saturday Menu Planning for 3/1-3/7

2010-02-27T19:54:00.002-05:00

My ads arrive on Saturdays so this is my menu planning day. I look forward to Saturday afternoons. I think I enjoy the grocery ads as much as some people enjoy black Friday ads :)

Monday- Spaghetti and meatballs, garlic bread and salad (DS1 cooks).
Tuesday- Cajun catfish, garlic pasta, asparagus and cheddar biscuits. Also my prep day for the week and grocery day if I need it.
Wednesday- Beef taco salads (shredded beef from Sunday's dinner).
Thursday- Favorite smoked sausage and potatoes with green beans (DS2 and DD cook).
Friday- Chili ( from freezer).
Saturday- Pizza night. Dads in charge of dinner this night :)
Sunday- Ham, twice baked potato casserole, and green beans. Oreo truffles :)

-Its been a long time since we had catfish. We rarely eat fish even though I always mean to include it more but 3.99 lb is not to shabby for catfish and I know the kids will eat it.
-We recently started using Costco tortilla strips instead of taco chips for taco salads and chili and a giant bag for less than $4 seems to stretch a lot farther then the best deals I get at kroger during the 10/10 sales.
-Saturday DH is ordering pizza so I am making the twice baked potato casserole halfway through for Sunday and also making oreo truffles since I will be busy Sunday but still want to have a big Sunday dinner.
-Everything is pretty easy, the only things that require extra time or effort are highlighted in red.

2010-02-26T17:03:00.001-05:00

Test

Wow!

2010-02-26T16:44:00.003-05:00

Wow! Almost a year since my last post. It certainly does not seem like a year. I miss bloging and the blog world. Hope to try and catch up with a few of my favorite bloggers and to start posting again soon. Not a whole lot as I am working right now. For anyone that followed my blog before, we did not move and are still in the same house. There was to much competition for the homes we tried to buy and its just as well as looking back they all would have needed a lot of work.

I am desperate for spring. Its been a long winter in Ohio, very dreary and cold. I am trying to start on spring cleaning already. Since its cold I am tackling office tasks and clothing first. Things that are easy to do while still wearing all these layers :)

Hello!

2009-03-03T18:29:00.002-05:00

Hello! It feels like months since I have been in bloggy world. The house we were going to buy fell through. It was a short sale and the buyer was not being very cooperative when it came to the inspection and the agent said they had a back up offer ( which ticked me off) so we walked ( they had already not lived up to the terms of the contract). A week after we walked away the agent tried to get us to come back and was going to renegotiate a even lower price but it was to late for me.

Then we found another house. It was a bank owned property that had just come on the market ( on a Friday) but by Monday 4 people had put in offers and we had come in second. Sigh. I really liked the second one, even better then the first. It really only needed windows to make it ready to move in. They were gone because someone had paint balled them out while it sat empty. This was in a very, very nice area.

So, we are working, keeping our home spotless and waiting. I could live with my house always clean but not as bare as it is now. I feel naked with the rooms so empty and all my stuff packed away. We have had 6 showings, 5 left very positive feedback, 1 left no comment. We had one ridiculous offer so far and another who said they were interested but had to sell their house first. We live in a semi rural area where homes do not move to quickly so I am feeling pretty good about the number of showings we have had.

We had been looking only at cheaper homes but may consider a sideways move. We have also found someplace to rent in case that becomes necessary.

Ugh, I hate having a home on the market. I hope I never have to move again after this :)

I hope you are all doing well, I am just starting to get back to reading blogs and I hope I can catch up on what everyone has been doing.

Still waiting....

2009-02-06T21:12:00.002-05:00

Its been crazy around here. Way to crazy for me to compose my thoughts enough to blog :)

We are scheduled to close on a house at the end of the month contingent on our financing going through and the home inspection going ok. Our current house goes on the market this weekend. If the other house does not work out we will still be putting our home up for sale. I have been working for the last 3 weeks and will continue to work until we only have 1 house payment to deal with although we do have someone interested in renting our house if we don't sell by June.

Adapting to going back to work ( 4 days a week, 32 hours) has not been to bad but trying to quickly get the house cleaned, decluttered and staged while working and negotiating on another house has been exhausting. I am working opposite hours of my husband so we have to make sure we are on the same page all the time.

I really, really, really want to tell you all about the other house but its not ours yet so I am trying not to get too excited until the home inspection is done. It most definitely needs work but it has so many of the things we want.

I am excited even if we don't get it though because my husband and I have really realized what we want down the road and we will be working towards that goal.

I will be back soon with details.

I would appreciate if you all would keep us in your prayers :)

We may be moving!!!

2009-01-22T18:06:00.002-05:00

We may be moving. I don't know for sure and we will be super busy preparing just in case. I'm super stressed by not knowing. The situation is scary and exciting at the same time. I will blog about it as soon as we actually know something :)

Freezer goodies for the lunchbox.....

2009-01-16T12:35:00.006-05:00

Yum. Mexican food. I think we had it almost everyday this week :)

It was also a good time to make extra for burritos. I started parttime work this week and thought it would be a good idea to make some lunch items.

We like spicy rice with beans and cheese in our burritos.

Some things to remember for freezer burritos-

1. Make small batches until you learn what flavors/textures you like.
2. Find a good brand of tortillas that will roll without cracking. Look for ones that are not to dry.
3. Don't make them to large.Most items you freeze should be smaller so they will reheat well. If you make them to large they will dry out when you cook them and still be cold in the middle.
4.Get all your supplies ready and set up a assembly line. Enlist help if you can.
5. Freeze items on a tray or cookie sheet until frozen solid then place in ziploc bags or another freezer safe container so you can take out just what you need.
6. Most items will heat better if thawed somewhat, so they do well in a lunch box where they will have a few hours to thaw.

Here is the tray we made :)

I purchased the tortillas and a restaurant size can of black beans at GFS and cut costs by getting cheese at Costco. Cheese is only about 2.28 lb in big bags at my Costco.

We also made twice baked potatoes. I don't use a recipe any more but used to use this one saving most of the cheese for pressing into the top after they are assembled. I freeze them on a tray and then place them into ziploc bags. Just don't make them to thin :)

Back in the swing of things......

2009-01-09T07:24:00.002-05:00

We are easing into a new schedule around here. The first week went really well but we only focused on one part of it. Next week I am going to add on to it and continue tweaking, hopefully having everything worked out by the end of the month.

It was a odd week here in the kitchen with DH doing a variation on low carb to jumpstart the new year. I tried to plan ahead but the first week is always really hard ( and expensive). I ate pretty much what he ate all week but allowed more carbs for myself as I lose weight faster than he does. I would just like to lose a few pounds but I really do feel better when I eat low carb, it makes me wonder if I have a sensitivity to one of the foods I end up eliminating. When we both do it, he tries to avoid most carbs while I try to eat more healthy carbs.

Why the picture of muffins then? Well, I also made muffins for the kids this week, quickly getting them into the freezer to avoid temptation. Little muffins for the toddler and bigger muffins for my daughter for breakfast. These are applesauce muffins off of recipezaar. My daughter is not a morning person and does not like to eat breakfast so the muffins are a treat to go along with her new morning routine. The little guys has stopped eating all his favorite foods so the muffins are also meant to help me out with that this week. Luckily he has decided he really likes steamed broccoli and carrots so he wont be eating only muffins all week :)

Hello 2009...

2009-01-04T13:32:00.002-05:00

Wow. Time flies.

Change is is the air. My homeschooler just switched to a online charter school and the the change has been quite a adjustment. We will see how it works out.

We are rethinking our house. Its a big expense made bigger by our 30% drop in income and honestly its not my dream house. Its actually bigger than my dream home and while very nice I have come to realize a few things are missing that are very important to me. Privacy would be a big one. I live in a subdivision and while the lots are pretty nice sized its still not private enough. I don't want worry about what the neighbors or our HOA thinks about my yard or what I do to my house. Of course, its not a great time to sell so we will be staying put for awhile but still planning for a move someday.

We have also been thinking for some time of trying to find a new church closer to home and I think we need to try harder to do this. 2009 could be a year with a lot of changes. My focus right now is on prayer and keeping things simple so we will be ready for whatever happens.

...and of course my I want to lose 10 pounds and get more organized :)

Goodbye 2008....goodbye stuff...

2009-01-01T17:55:00.002-05:00

DH has been home helping for over a week and you can actually see my basement floor! The garbage men are starting to dislike me, the curb crawlers are making a regular pass by my home and the people at goodwill recognize us as we pull up. I can barely breath through my nose from sorting through 16 plus years of dusty toys and collections....but I can see the finishline. Its located somewhere on the other side of a garage sale, a few craiglist and ebay listings and another few trips to goodwill but its there in the distance :)

I hope everyone had a great New Years!

What a nice week.....

2008-12-27T07:15:00.003-05:00

I had such a nice week. Way to much yummy food but a wonderful week. I hope everyone had a nice Christmas :)

Its been really quiet. DH is home, he usually works a lot during the holidays but not this year so we have been working on projects and making plans for next year. DH works in the automotive industry so we have also been working on the "what if.." scenario.

We spent more on the kids then we planned. The 3 oldest all received the same thing for a total of $90 each. The little guy was much less.I did try to get the best deals on the items I bought.

The breakdown:

$50 Best Buy card ( got $10 back for each at Kroger and charged to reward card)
$27 Sansa 4 gb Mp3 players ( from black Friday, used ebates)
$12.50 Ohio State Hoodies from Finishline.com (originally $35, also used ebates, free shipping)

Hoodies are like gold in our house. I don't think I should even bother buying cute shirts anymore, no one ever sees them under the sweatshirts.

The kids were not expecting much and were really happy. The little guy got 2 toys from Amazon.com, a pair of 6.99 Skechers from Kohls and some clearance Cars cups from Meijer. He was so cute he did a happy dance the whole time he opened his presents. I wish I had a video of it as it was adorable.

This has been a inexpensive December comparably. We had a lot of blessings. Gift cards for restaurants as gifts, $125 from Craigslist, survey money, a $50 Meijer gift card reward from a credit card, the kids made $140 pet sitting, etc.

I did not hit my new grocery budget ( $300) but did stay under the old budget ( $400) while still splurging for the week of Christmas and making a Costco trip to stock up on items I only buy once or twice a year and buying many things that will last into January. I am torn between spending as little as possible in January or stocking up to be prepared for bad weather or loss of income. I am going to aim for as little as possible but not pass up any awesome stock up prices.

I made pita bread this week!I used the recipe over at http://www.tammysrecipes.com/ and it was really good. We had it with pan fried chicken breast, seasoned oven fries, hummus, greek salad, a lemon garlic dressing, and cucumber sauce. Yum, between that and beef tips for Christmas dinner, I ate way to much.

Well, I'm off to enjoy a fire in the fireplace and some list making. My to-do list today is pretty long, including a little kitchen zone recovery and some decluttering. If you have been following my packrat adventure, I am finally to the point where we are going through old boxes of toys. 16 years of rubbermaid boxes full of toys is A LOT of toys :)

If you have the gift of the ability to easily look at a item and decide to toss it or give it away, feel blessed, some of us were not born with such a gift ;)

Grocery shopping....

2008-12-15T07:12:00.002-05:00

I have learned a new grocery shopping rule. It seems the last few times I have hit the bread store before going to Aldi, then guaranteed Aldi will have marked down their bread to .25 and buns down to .33.

I still like the bread store for Texas toast. It makes the best garlic bread. I bought 6 long loaves to make garlic bread for the freezer. Kroger also had parkay tubs on sale for .25 after coupon so it will turn out to be a pretty cheap batch. I also bought sandwich bread and buns, 2 nicer loaves of Italian bread, wheat for DH and 2 packages of Italian buns for future dinners. This was before Aldi so I ended up with a lot of bread as I could not pass up the loaves for a quarter. I now have a freezer stuffed full with 29 packages of bread. The hamburger buns are mostly for breakfast sandwiches.

I stayed on the new budget this week (reduced from $100 to $75) even with a small trip to White Castle. I hit Meijer, the bread outlet and ALDI. $15 of the budget went towards items for Christmas so I don't have to go over budget for the holidays.

Today to get ahead I need to make up and freeze all the garlic bread, cook up and bag 5 pounds of spicy sausage, and organize the pantry. I have used up a lot of things lately but I still have 40 pounds of spicy sausage in my freezer. It was a mark down at GFS but I have been slow to use it because it is in 5 lb. blocks. I pulled one yesterday to thaw so I can cook it up and bag it in meal size portions. It will be appearing on the menu 2-3 times a week over the next few months. Mostly as spaghetti, cabbage stir fry and as a topping for pizza or eggs. Hopefully during that time chicken goes on sale :)

*Just a note about all that bread. I usually don't have enough room for 29 packages but my freezer was pretty empty.

It's begining to look a lot like......every other day?

2008-12-09T09:19:00.002-05:00

My tree is still not decorated. Its up but still bare. I can tell I'm just not feeling it because every time I start to think about decorating it, I feel exhausted. Like I just want to go back to bed until spring.

So I'm going to blog about it so maybe that will light a fire under my half-hibernating tooshie and I will just go in there and get it done.

:)

Menu Plan Monday....

2008-12-08T19:50:00.003-05:00

A little late but I decided not to go grocery shopping so I had to change things up a little.
Last week we ended up about $20 over budget after a $11 trip to White Castle and a weekend trip to pick up sour cream and taco chips. I want to make sure things average out to less then $100 a week for the 6 of us so I skipped my usual Monday grocery store trip. I think I will pick up some items by the end of the week because I will need cabbage and there are a few sale items that I want to buy for Christmas Dinner.

Last week I managed to get a few batches of chili and taco meat into the freezer as well as about 2 dozen burritos. I made the empanadas from last week also but they never made it into the freezer :)

Monday- A hard to describe but super yummy mexican style spicy chicken and cheese croissant sandwiches.
Tuesday-Spaghetti and garlic bread
Wednesday-Breakfast for dinner
Thursday-Shanghai noodles -Sauteed shredded cabbage, carrots and garlic in sesame oil, seasoned with pepper flakes, soy sauce and ginger powder served with thin spaghetti noodles
Friday-Chili ( In the freezer from last week)
Saturday- Pizza and Wings, my sons birthday dinner, bumped from last week because he couldn't eat that day :(
Sunday-Bean soup with smoked sausage and fresh bread

Visit Menu Plan Monday for lots of great meal ideas!

The newly frugal.......

2008-12-05T07:27:00.002-05:00

Thank you for your prayers. Jason is doing well and is up this morning ready to tackle chores so he can enjoy his day off from school with some video games ;)

I'm noticing more people interested in saving money either out of necessity or fear. I'm always wary to offer to much advice because most people really don't want it. Retailers are smart and will take advantage of this, I would not be surprised to see a slight increase in the cost of generics and ground beef because people will often buy on the assumption that these are always good buys.

So where would I suggest someone start?

Find something that motivates you, that presents information in a way that appeals to you. While I love The Tightwad Gazette by Amy Dacyczyn, its not for everyone. Dave Ramsey motivates lots of people to get out of debt. Sometimes it takes a book that really hits you where you live and makes you think about money, Your Money or Your Life by Joe Domingez and Vicki Robin has a lot of information meant to change the way you view money.

It can also help to tackle your finances from a different angle. Focusing on simplifying your life can lead to a more frugal lifestyle. Sometimes when I want something lighter to read I like to pick up Simplify Your Life by Elaine St. James. Its a small book and presents things simply and won't offer anything new to die hard tightwads but it's a fun little read.

Prayer request

2008-12-03T18:39:00.002-05:00

My soon to be 16 year old is having his wisdom teeth pulled tomorrow. His birthday is also this weekend.

He's not worried but since they will be making him sleep through it I would appreciate any prayers that things will go well and he will heal quickly. My own wisdom teeth removal did not go well at all and I would hate to see my baby go through that.

Thank you so much :)

Adventures in grocery shopping.....

2008-12-02T14:25:00.006-05:00

Meijer trip-

I dropped pot roast from the menu after seeing the sale cuts but luckily I found marked down ground beef. 10 lbs for 14.38! There are plenty of veggies and bananas hidden off to the sides including 3 bunches of bananas, apples, a avocado, green onions, radishes and cilantro. I bought 3 packages of flour tortillas for extra freezer burritos and a 100 pack of corn tortillas for taco chips, strips for salad, and enchiladas next week.

Total: 44.77

Giant Eagle

Plenty of sale pop ( usually the only thing other than gift cards that I buy there), cat food, a 2 jumbo packs diapers.

Used $5 in coupons
Total: 46.40
+ $4 off next order

Kroger #1

Plenty of marked down breads including .39 hot dog buns, .69 rye loaves, and .50 english muffins. Also a single serve Vault not shown :)

After $10 off coupon from different deal: $1.08

This kroger has a clearance section where I found some impulse buys, $2 dandruff shampoo, .50 place mats, .50 scrubbers and $1 bags of candy bars.

The bagels were to get the total to $10 to use the a coupon. Total after $10 off: .41

I had time while DH was at the dentist to hit 3 stores before he was finished then we hit a store across the street before we headed home. I'm happy we made that last trip because we found a bunch of marked down items.

Total so far: 92.56

I still need chicken wings for a birthday dinner but all the wings I saw were those ugly oversized squishy ones. Most ran about $8 for 4 or 5 lbs. I found some beautiful tiny ones when I went to GFS to see if they had any markdowns but they are $12. I think I will probably go back and get the $12 ones later in the week when I run errands.

I made a big batch of chili today using half the ground beef and plan on using the rest to make taco meat.

Menu Plan Monday

2008-11-30T12:03:00.006-05:00

Wow, its been awhile since I joined in for Menu Plan Monday. I need it. I could get away without doing a menu for a few weeks because all the items in my freezer and pantry but many things including the flu wiped out most of my favorite pantry items. I need a menu so I can stay under budget in order have money free to stock back up. We have a busy week with a birthday, outside activities, wisdom teeth extraction and to much to name so as always the menu is subject to change :)

Monday- Ham salad plates (to use up leftover ham) with pasta salad (make extra for lunch boxes) and fruit.

Tuesday-Pot roast (make extra) seasoned potato wedges ( make extra) green beans

Wednesday-Chili (make enough extra to freeze 2 dinners) Try new cornbread recipe

Thursday-Beef burritos ( using pot roast, hopefully enough to freeze a few) beans, rice, salsa and chips

Friday-Spaghetti and garlic bread

Saturday- Iron Chef night (leftovers)

Sunday- Pizza and wings (birthday request)

Also on the menu this week:

Empanadas - I have some premade pie crusts I did not use for Thanksgiving so they are going to be used for lunchboxes.

I hope everyone has a great week!

Thanksgiving was nice......

2008-11-29T07:31:00.005-05:00

The cookie tray came together nicely. I still have some scooped dough left so I think I will throw it onto the freezer for lunchbox goodies.

Instead of spreading cool whip across the the whole cake, I prefer to cut it, put it in muffin liners and then garnish. That way it is easier to serve and continues to look nice after people start taking desserts. I always seem to manage to forget to bring extra serving utensils anyway.

The mini Boston cream pies came out pretty well. They are still on the cutting board in the picture. We ended up having to leave early so I did not get to get a picture after I had put them on serving trays.

Everyone had a good time, especially all the grandkids. We will be staying home for Christmas and it will be just us. We have not had to many traditional dinners the last few years, usually preferring to have Mexican food or beef tips. I'm not sure what I am going to do yet. My 15 is having his wisdom teeth pulled this week followed by his 16th birthday 3 days later. We usually go out to dinner on birthdays but we are cutting even special occasion eating out, so far he is thinking he wants pizza and buffalo wings. Sounds good to me :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

2008-11-27T06:27:00.001-05:00

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wishing you and yours the best this Thanksgiving.

Maggie

Ok, trying to throw things together

2008-11-24T17:24:00.002-05:00

I needed to do the bulk of my shopping today, I had originally planned to go Tuesday but this weeks schedule is getting very full. My list was only half done so I had to guess on a few things.

I spent almost all of this weeks budget on holiday baking supplies but I should have enough for Thanksgiving and Christmas. I probably went a little heavy on the butter but it was on sale so I will just freeze the extra.

So, I spent the morning dealing with paperwork and phone calls, tried to finish up my grocery list, hurried to be first at the cheap haircut place, rushed through Meijer, hit CVS for some on sale hair color (yay, plus coupon!) and made it home just in time for naptime giving me time to color my hair. DH was with me for the first half of the day so things moved quickly. I'm glad I have a few things scratched off my list.

So for Thanksgiving desserts I'm considering the following:

Cookies tray
Peanut butter cookies with kisses
Chocolate chip cookies
Snickerdoodles
Dark chocolate cake mix cookies with peanut butter chips
Oreo Truffles (Double batch, they disappear first)

Dessert Tray

Store bought pumpkin pie and apple crumb pie ( only 1.99 this week!)
Decadent cake -ok, it's actually called Better than *** cake but I change the name :)
Some kind of mini boston cream pie style cake ( seems like a easy idea)
Lemon bars- this is a recipe I have never tried but if I'm gonna spend a couple days in the kitchen I want to try at least one thing new.

I made a really good carrot cake last year but not everyone likes carrot cake and it is a little more effort so I decide to skip it. I may still drop the lemon bars if something comes up or add something if things go well.

I'm going to make the cookie doughs on Tuesday and refrigerate them until Thanksgiving morning. Then the kids can scoop them for me and I can bake off fresh cookies. You can save time and dishes by making up multiple batches of cookies working from lightest to darkest so you don't have to wash the bowl over and over.Scooping them ahead of time is great if you have multiple events you need to cook for. Just keep a tray full of pre-scooped cookies in the fridge and pull out what you need.

I did make one impulse purchase at the store. Containers of key lime flavored cheesecake filling were on sale so I grabbed one thinking I could make some easy mini cheesecakes but I have since decided the package only contains enough for me :)

uh-oh....

2008-11-24T07:07:00.002-05:00

I thought I was bringing a dessert for Thanksgiving but it turns out I am making the desserts, all of them.

Thanks honey for clearing that up .

Mini Cinnamon rolls

2008-11-22T22:29:00.002-05:00

Certains things are a great deal this time of year. Make sure you pick up a extra tube of on sale crescent rolls to make these easy yummy mini cinnamon rolls

They would also be a great addition to a tray full of homemade muffins if you are expecting any guests for the holidays.

Pizza Biscuits

2008-11-22T22:00:00.004-05:00

Pizza biscuits are a hit around here, all they are is a biscuit base and pizza toppings. We made a few different combinations and sizes. A muffin tin works well but I really prefer to use a mini loaf pan. I included 2 pictures of some that had been made in a mini loaf pan and also some mini "2 bite" buffalo chicken pizzas that were made in a mini muffin pan. I used a regular muffins pan to make some with the works but did not get a good picture.

We don't eat many biscuits around here but coupons are pretty common for both flaky tube biscuits and bisquick mix. Combined with a sale and a store that has double coupons they can be really cheap. You could of course use your own biscuit recipe or copycat baking mix recipe.

I prefer my pizza to be mostly topping and very little biscuit. If using tube "flaky" biscuits I carefully pull them apart into 2 thinner biscuits or use kitchen scissors to cut into 4 pieces for a mini muffin pan. I usually use bisquick though and just use enough to cover the bottom. I have also used pyrex rectangles to make larger pizzas but you have to be careful not to use to much dough and to leave it in the oven long enough to get it fully cooked. Top with a little sauce, cheese and your favorite toppings

Some tips:

-Go very light on the sauce
-Sprinkle with italian seasoning for that wonderful pizza smell
-Great to use up leftover spaghetti sauce and veggies
-Cool completely for easier removal
-Freeze for quick snacks and to use in lunchboxes

-

No menu plan this week.....

2008-11-19T06:38:00.003-05:00

We had a really successful grocery trip this week. Meijer was really great, I ended up with a bunch of coupons that matched up with what I needed this week and some great produce deals. I went to Costco for cheese (only 2.28 lb) but did add on romaine lettuce and DH added on a package of bourbon chicken. We also bought pop and a Sunday paper at Giant Eagle. I'm switching to ice tea but DH still needs pop to take to work.

I did not buy much for our main meals this week instead trying to buy items to stock up on lunch needs, buying cheese for the freezer and taking advantage of a few coupons. I'm still trying to use up the odd stuff in the pantry and freezer.

The plan this week is to make twice baked potato halves, pizza muffins, corn dog muffins and some ham and cheese spirals. I used up all the homemade convenience food when I was sick and ended up buying school lunches by the end. If I can get those done and then make burritos next week then I should be good for the rest of the year. These are things that I like to have handy but not use everyday. I try to use the lunch boxes to use things up like leftovers and the last bits of this and that but a few grab and go days are nice also. Lunches are usually a main dish or sandwich, a side and a fruit or vegetable. I include sweets when I have them.

Dinner tonight will probably be twice baked potatoes since they are on my to-do list anyway. We will probably have broccoli on the side. The rest of the week will be based on those things that have been sitting around to long like half empty boxes of pasta and noodles.

Next week is Thanksgiving and we are eating at my MIL's home and I just need to bring a double batch of Oreo balls. They always send so much food back with us that we won't need to cook for another 2 days :)

Over the weekend...

2008-11-17T07:08:00.002-05:00

I had a pretty productive weekend. I am trying to challenge myself on the grocery budget. Instead of baby steps, I wanted to take a giant leap and go straight to saving as much as I can. DH is on board but struggled with not having his weekend junk food or Saturday night pizza ( although he did get a small one Friday on his way to work).

Weekend goal #1:No trips to the store, gas station or to buy carry-out food

My weakness is Coke Zero ( switched from diet Coke). I HAVE to have it, and it really adds up. If I buy it on sale and stock up, I drink to much, if I don't stock up, I end up running to the gas station and paying double for a 12 pack. I drank home brewed ice tea all weekend to avoid running to the store. I did drink a regular Coke this morning (already in the pantry) to drink with 2 Tylenol to fight off a headache. We do not live close to the grocery stores we shop at so impulse trips cost up to double.

Saturday DH really wanted some sweets. We had some ice cream left over but it needed a little something to satisfy DH's craving. Luckily I found a easy chocolate sauce on recipezaar that had very few ingredients and we made banana splits. Wow, that recipe is a definite keeper! It would be great with brownies.

Weekend goal #2: Organize pantry

I finally got a chance to play with my new kitchen cart. The extra space led to a re-evaluation of how I use my storage. So far I have cleaned out and organized half my kitchen. I needed to make some changes anyway. I actually have a good amount of cabinet space but I cant reach a good deal of it without a stool and I really have to much stuff. Kitchen items are a huge weakness of mine but I did manage to weed a few things out. I took a good inventory of what I have on hand and set aside some things to make sure I use them up.

I used up a few things over weekend. We had some apples that were really tart so I made apple pie muffins for Sunday. Digging through the freezer I found a large bag of green beans that I really did not care for as they were kind of stringy. I steamed them for longer than I usually would with then tossed them into a pan with garlic, crushed red pepper, and ginger, added some precooked spicy sausage from the freezer and finished with soy sauce. They turned out really good. We ate them over ramen noodles.

I need to restock on some items for lunches this week. My basic grocery list is pretty small but I am out of cheese. I buy it in bulk and freeze it so that will be a big part of my budget this week. DH and I are going shopping today (hopefully!) so I better go double check my list and get ready :)

The sun is shining...

2008-11-14T10:15:00.002-05:00

Its really pretty out today. I'm finally feeling better. I don't think I have ever felt that sick for so long. The body aches were terrible and I could barely move my neck from side to side. I was feeling pretty run down before I even got sick so maybe that contributed to it. I started feeling better yesterday and today it seems to be holding. My neck is still sore but I'm miles ahead of what I felt like a few days go. I think I was sick for almost 2 weeks. DH even took off a few days from work and I think I slept 20 hours a day those days.

Anyway, we will be giving up a few of our extras around here as we are looking at a 25% cut in income next year. I really thought my husband would be safe because he is in the last group of people whose overtime gets cut at work but they just came down and cut everything. It could of course always be worse as my husband works in the auto industry.

We spent this years bonus check on a new dishwasher and washer, a kitchen island and a Wii fit. It would have been smarter to bank the money to prepare for the next year. On a positive note we needed the dishwasher and washer and they are paid for and did not go on a credit card. The Wii is a early family Christmas present. Christmas will be very simple other than that.

I'm gonna post a few posts reviewing our budget. Things we have done, things we could have done better and things we are prepared to do if necessary. We are also going to be simplifying the menu a bit. I am going to go back to a basic rotating family menu not only to help keep on budget but to free up some time so we can work on other things. I keep a basic menu in my binder but its a little out of date. I probably won't stick to the menu 100% but it will certainly make it easier for me start cutting back.

I have plenty of housework to catch up and a grocery list to write so I think I will grab some lunch then get started :)

I have a docters note...

2008-11-07T22:05:00.002-05:00

Well, I am still sick. I did not make my 21 days of blogging. Actually I have not been doing much of anything. I did have a flu but now its turned into something else and I feel horrible. I'm taking 3 kinds of medicine including a antibiotic but my head and neck still hurt terribly and I am exhausted.

DH is off for a few days, I just pulled enough food from the freezer to get through the weekend and I have no plans but to take my medicine, drink lots of water and sleep.

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Shopping is exhausting.....

2008-11-04T16:16:00.002-05:00

I have spent a lot of time shopping recently. Every time we have gone out to shop I have tried to stop off and price check on items. That plus lots of time surfing to compare prices and I wonder after all is said and done if I saved enough.

I have been watching for deals on kitchen carts/islands. DH is buying me one for Christmas. It will be Christmas in November because it is coming tomorrow! Thanks Heather for pointing me towards http://www.allkitchencarts.com/. I tried searching for one on Craigslist and found a few that were ok but nothing that would work. I actually found some really beautiful custom islands I would have loved to have purchased but they were all to big for my space, all the small ones were to flimsy. I found many islands in the $500 plus range on the internet but that was to much and usually did not include shipping. Heather suggested the above website and I finally decided on this one. The price includes shipping.

DH also decided to look into replacing the rusty dishwasher and half broken washing machine. We went to our local scratch and dent/overstock appliance store to look for a washer first. I had found a washer on bestbuy.com that was on sale and had free shipping but wanted to find a better deal. We did not find any washer deals but did find a nice dishwasher. The dishwasher was actually more than one on sale at best buy but it was a much nicer model. We figured we would go ahead and get the dishwasher and wait a little longer on the clothes washer and we loaded it up and took it home. Of course, since I live in the appliance Bermuda triangle so guess what happened the exact same day? The washer stopped working!

I was going to go ahead and order the 3.6 cubic feet front loader but we decided to check Lowes and Home depot one more time and we found a 4.0 cubic feet model of the same brand for cheaper but we have to wait 3 weeks for it. I decided to buy it anyway and go to the laundry mat but luckily DH managed to get the washer working enough for me to do laundry, so I am trying get all the washing done before it dies again. It has a moisture issue, a bad belt and now a small hole in the drum so its leaking a little and I want to hurry up and get it out the house before it fills up with mold.

In the end, I love the cart and I got new appliances that I really loved and I am confident I saved more than enough to pay for the 5 year warranties I ended up buying. Everything is being payed for with DH's year end bonus. I know it would be cheaper to buy used but I am so done with dealing with appliances. We also plan on moving in 3-5 years and would probably need to replace any really old appliances before we put the house on the market anyway so I might as well as get the use out of them. I am so grateful that DH wanted to use his bonus in this way, he has worked so hard this year that I would have been supportive if he would have liked to buy a bunch of man toys or take a vacation.

Unless he wanted to buy a motorcycle. I'm not that supportive.

I caught a bug...

2008-11-01T15:10:00.002-04:00

I ended up spending 2 days sleeping this week. I caught one of those flus where you ache all over, have a high fever and can't stay awake. Luckily only 1 other family member got it and they did not have it as bad.

So I spent this morning catching up, cleaning up and getting in a little grocery shopping. Now I am getting in some computer time and looking through next weeks Meijer ad for inspiration. In a few hours I will have a house full of teenagers. They will probably be here till 10:00pm.

I'm looking forward to 10:01 pm. :)

Catching up/getting ahead

2008-10-28T07:32:00.002-04:00

Yesterday was pretty busy. DH had his permanent crown put on while I shopped at Meijer. I power shop and it does not take long so I walked around the store for awhile before putting groceries in my cart. I'm glad I did because I found some nice clearance clothing items for the kids. 95% percent of the time when I shop I follow a list and I list things in groupings and in order of how I walk through the store. Even when we buy large quantities things go quickly. Usually DH goes with me and drives the cart, entertaining the little guy as I throw things in to buy. I take the same route every time heading to the back to the dairy aisle and shopping the outside rows of the store only visiting the center aisles to pick up loss leaders and ending in produce which is usually the longest part of the trip. I stopped at GFS on the way home to use a coupon and pick up items for a teen party this weekend. I did buy a few impulse items here. Yum, the chipotle monteray jack that screamed my name turned out to be really good!

I don't have a menu yet but yesterday was the best day to go to store so I picked up a few needs and sale items and I will finish my menu today. I did prep a bunch of food yesterday evening for snacks and lunch boxes, even managed to get some pictures so I can finally update my lunchbox blog :)

Today will be another day of catching up and trying to get ahead. I have a lot laundry to do, I tried ignoring the troubled washer for a week hoping it would just go away but that didn't work.

Love this kitchen :)

2008-10-25T11:02:00.003-04:00

I love this kitchen!

I have perfectly good but not so attractive oak cabinets. I really like what this person did, I think I would prefer a different backsplash but I really like everything else.

What do you think?

On the menu...

2008-10-22T07:24:00.002-04:00

I'm over budget this week. If I cut out the pet products I am pretty close but my menu needed a little extra to keep DH from wanting to eat out so I spent everything without much stocking up. There is not much point in me cutting out the extras if DH is just going to buy Chipotle, pizza and Angus burgers. I "splurged" on guacamole, 3 lbs bacon, good wraps, extra pop, and tip steak. I don't think I have ever bought tip steaks before, the cuts actually looked so good that I think I will go back and buy more for the freezer before the end of the week. Most of the time when Meier has cuts of beef on sale they are not trimmed very well so I rarely buy anything other than ground beef or a occasional chuck roast. The 2.69 lb Angus tip steak looked so much better than the 2.49 lb chuckeye steak which looked like it was 50% fat.

I did end up splurging on a restaurant size portion of chicken and dumpling soup from GFS. DH's dentist visit did not go well on Monday so on our stop on the way home to pick up bacon and pepperoni we grabbed the soup so he could eat chicken and dumplings over mashed potatoes for 2 days. Luckily he was feeling better within 24 hours.

So the rest of this weeks dinners are:

Turkey,swiss and bacon wraps
Beef fajitas, rice, beans and all the fixins
Southwestern style grilled chicken salads
Bean soup with smoked sausage and cornbread
Lasagna, salad and garlic bread

Notes-
*Turkey and swiss are both on sale at our awesome local deli for under 2.90lb
*Having two mexican/southwestern style meals will help make the prep easier and will hopefully leave enough extra to throw some burritos in the freezer
*Making 3 lasagnas at once, 2 will go in the freezer

Fruits this week are mostly bananas and grapes. Strawberries are on sale but they just did not look good. We always have mandarin oranges and pineapple on hand for when we run out of fresh fruit.

I think DH may veto bean soup on Saturday in favor of carryout pizza if he can get home in time for football. He has to work 7 days this week so I hope he gets a chance to get home and get a break.

Monday notes..

2008-10-20T07:06:00.003-04:00

-Need to hit the grocery store. DH has a appointment so I am going to drop him off, shop around the corner and then pick him back up.

-I still have not made a dent in our FSA money. CVS and Walgreens both have deals on tylenol ( ECB's and register rewards) this week. If I can try to combine some of these deals over the last few months of the year to get a few bonuses that would be nice.

I'm feeling a little challenged by menu planning lately. We are working on some food issues with one child and DH has been wanting to eat carryout and comfort food lately. His schedule is horrible right now and I think he is stress eating. This and the fact we are just going through a ton of food right now. Where do teenagers put all that food? My oldest son is so thin you can count his ribs, he is literally the skinniest kid in the whole highschool but can sit down and inhale 2 to 3 plates of food in minutes. DS#2 works at school and gets free lunch if he wants but can't eat it because it makes him feel so terrible. I know he has issues with sugar but it must be something else also.

I have to leave in a hour so I better get my list finished :)

Craigslist and the kitchen island search....

2008-10-18T23:04:00.005-04:00

I love Craigslist. Last week I bought a bag full of 18 mth-2t PJ's for the little guy for $5 and a bunch of newish shirts for $1 each. My DH has been wanting to buy more window fans ( the ones with 2 fans side by side) and we found someone selling 3 of them for $25.

I have been searching for a new-to-me kitchen island for awhile. We had a stainless steel cart that I loved but it had sharp edges on the bottom and at the seams so we had to remove it during childproofing. I am currently using a $3 garage sale find that is functional but extremely ugly. So far everything I have found that I really like is still to expensive. I am hopeful about going to see one tomorrow that may be just right.

While my kitchen is good size, the counter space layout is not good for having multiple people work. The largest area is at the corner between the stove and the sink but all the glasses, plates and silverware are located in that area so its a constant traffic jam. I also prefer a area a little shorter than the standard cabinet height because I am on the short side. My mother was just over and mentioned she thought the cabinet we were using was a little to short. I'm 5 ft 3 in shoes and shes 5' 11 barefoot. :)

I thought it was kinda funny she did not notice the pretty stainless steel cart was shorter but she did notice the ugly recycled cabinet is not tall enough.

I plan on putting the boys' old twin bed frames on craigslist to cover the cost of a new island. They are captains beds which worked great when the boys were little but not so much now they are teenagers.

I know a lot of people that have enjoyed using freecycle for items as well and there are also a lot of yahoo groups but I have not found them to be as easy to search. I have been watching sales also because it seems some items that are in demand go for almost as much used as they could be had for if bought on sale.

Anybody have any other ideas or suggestions for finding a nice kitchen island/cart?

I missed yesterday.

2008-10-17T14:13:00.002-04:00

I did not post yesterday. I'm still going to keep trying to get back to blogging but yesterday I was just to cranky. My dishwasher and washer both decided to act up. The washer is inconvenient but expected.I bought it used. Its a front loader and at $100 I already made my money back in water savings. The dishwasher on the other hand just makes me mad. It was new with the house (and a upgrade at that) and its horrible. The racks have rusted, the detergent tray does not open at the right time, the water does not spray well, etc. It will be 4 years old in December if it lasts that long. I think hard water helped kill it and we now have a water softener but still it makes me mad.

I have had bad luck with appliances. I am afraid to not buy a extended warranty now. The stove broke, the old (new) fridge broke 2x, the dishwasher is almost worthless. The furnace does not count because that was a lightening strike and the hot water tank went out once but it was a silly little screen that was a easy fix. My house was built 12/04!

I'm starting to think I live in the Bermuda Triangle.

Not everything came with the house, some was bought separate so it can't be just the builder. I think its time to replace all the stainless steel with harvest gold and avocado green.

I got out today!

2008-10-15T22:11:00.002-04:00

I have not left the house much lately. Gas prices, more bulk shopping requiring less trips, etc.

I took the baby with me, visited a friend, went to Meijer in morning and in the afternoon picked up my oldest from the drama backstage crew and took everyone to the park. That's more then I usually go out in a whole week.

It was nice. I usually power shop when I hit the store but tried to make the most out of some special time with the baby. He loved it and it made my day :)

Best Banana Bread...

2008-10-14T22:13:00.002-04:00

Bananas have been our fruit of choice lately. I love this banana bread recipe. I use the recipe with my mini loaf pan that makes 8 mini loaves instead of 1 larger loaf. I bought it from amazon.com a few years ago and it saves so much time. No waiting a hour for banana bread :)

They slice up nice and neat also.

I am helping a friend/former empoyer put some items on Craigslist this week. We got a chance to catch up last week. I was hoping to catch up with some of the people I used to work with but everyone had moved on to other things. One got a great new job, 2 retired. Wow, time flies.

***This is yesterdays post that I could not put up because blogger was down, so I am still working on my 21 days straight :)

Extra food.....

2008-10-13T23:03:00.002-04:00

I always cook extra food. I have to be careful to keep track of everything to avoid losing things in the fridge but lunchboxes and leftover nights usually take care of it. I like the time savings as much as the money savings.

A few recent examples:

My red potatoes were looking little sad so I cleaned them and cooked off all of them so they would not be forgotten. They were used :

1. Right away with dinner. I boiled all of them and used what I needed right away. Served as a side dish with butter, parsley, salt and pepper.
After dinner:
2. A large amount went into a red skinned potato salad for lunchboxes. My oldest son will eat this by the pound, this is the same child who still needs a belt with slim sized pants! I make it simple with mayo, dijon, dried chives (cheap at the restaurant supply store) and a generous amount of grated hard boiled eggs.
3. Two days later the remaining potatoes were diced and fried up for hash brown potatoes and served with eggs.
4. A few disappeared along the way for a veggie tray and some finger foods for the little guy.

We made a simple tuna salad for lunch. My lower carb eating member of the family loves a "mock tuna casserole". All it is a simple tuna salad mixed with a can of drained green beans, topped with a little cheese and heated. It sounds funny but is really good. If there was any tuna salad left I planned on a broiled open faced tuna melt for myself, but it did not last that long :)

Tonight as I was getting lunches together, I noticed I made to much spaghetti sauce with meat and had a lot leftover. I think I will kick up the seasoning a bit and use it to make a layered enchilada casserole with black beans and corn for tomorrows dinner.

I love leftovers :)

Drapes.....

2008-10-12T22:45:00.003-04:00

Drapes can be really expensive. I have a few windows covered by garage sale curtains but I have not had a lot of luck finding either extra long drapes or large quantites of the same style.

The best solution I could come up with is comparison shopping combined with coupons and Ebates (BTW, I possess little-to-no sewing skills).

When we first moved into our house I stalked sales at Overstock.com and Smartbargains.com until I found a deal. I then searched for a coupon online and then went through Ebates for a additional few dollars back.

Recently, we purchased curtains for our new "teen suite" ( really just a way to get the boys back together) and found some on sale at JCPenney, searched Fatwallet.com for a coupon code and then went through Ebates.

While not as cheap as garage sale purchsed items , I figure I get a better quality product for the price I would have paid to just impusively buy a pair of curtains at at a mega store.

I do have one pair of curtains I paid full price for, a pair of pottery barn panels that I just fell in love with for my dining room. Its still the only thing in the room I like :)

Do you have any favorite places to shop for drapes or other home decor items?

Busy day......

2008-10-11T21:25:00.002-04:00

We had a big to-do list this weekend. DH took a 3 day weekend and so far we were able to put up some new curtains, painted half the garage floor and painted the pet area floor in the basement. I really like that garage floor paint that you sprinkle the little flecks on to, it really makes everything look new.

Tomorrow we have the other half of the garage floor to paint, more curtains to hang and yard work to wrap up including planting bulbs and cleaning up the beds. We finally found a light fixture on clearance for outside our front door and we plan on putting it up also.

We planned so much because it looked like days off would be hard to come by for the rest of the year but last weeks financial meltdown may change things. Its looking like DH may get to spend some weekends at home if things don't start to look up. I'm grateful if he gets to work but also grateful for a possible chance to spend more time together.

I'm exhausted so its off to bed. I hope everyone has a great weekend :)

I forgot to look up....

2008-10-10T21:42:00.002-04:00

I got the housework done and everything looked nice. No fingerprints on the doors, no stray socks peeking out from under the couch, tables cleared of clutter, blinds open and sun shining.

Halfway though my moms visit I noticed my mom looking oddly at the ceiling.

The lady bugs are back .

Day #2

2008-10-09T21:11:00.002-04:00

Day #2 and I almost forgot to blog! We are in the middle of our room swap and we are also having company tomorrow so I have been busy trying to undo some of the damage we have done this week. I have a bunch of cast off kids items crowding my first floor.

DH is taking a 3 day weekend to help finish a few things and to move the big stuff. The kids decided to get rid of a ton of toys. We packed up some boxes of keepsakes to put into long term storage, filled boxes with items for goodwill and stuffed our paper recycling pile to overflowing. I also have some furniture that needs to get put on Craigslist.

It's late and I better get some sleep if I am going to get things done tomorrow :)

21 days to make a habit?

2008-10-08T08:25:00.000-04:00

OK, I lost my desire to blog for awhile. I think I just lost the habit with all the other things that have been keeping me busy. So, I am going to just try to jump back in there by bloging everyday for 21 days without worrying if I have pictures, organized ideas or anything interesting to say ;)

Here are a few things happening around here:

-We are in the middle of a bedroom swap. All the kids are moving and they are required to sort, declutter and organize as they go. There have been bribes involved.

-I just made a huge stock up grocery trip. Nothing like a little abundance to make you feel a little more secure when everything seems so uncertain in the financial world. 10 pounds of gummy bears and frogs to put in my desk drawer don't make the scary market any better but yum!

-I survived my oldest son going to homecoming with a date ( I feel old, 10 pounds of gummy bears may not be enough)

-My little guy has the most energy of any of my children. He is currently obsessed with shoes and making sure mommy closes things and puts things back.

-DH has been working 6-7 days a week but I expect his business to implement some cost cutting soon so he should be home more weekends this fall.

I have been still trying to read a lot of blogs but unfortunatly I lost most of my original list and I have been trying to recreate it. I hope everyone is doing well!

Wooo-Hooooo...We have power!

2008-09-16T21:11:00.002-04:00

We have been without power for a few days. Luckily we had not made the big trip to the store yet! We lost a few items but managed to save most of the items in our freezer.

I am busy trying to catch up but should be back soon.
I hope everyone else is doing well!

Daily Bread.....

2008-09-11T19:18:00.004-04:00

Its been an interesting week. I've been busy working on a few things. I edited out some baby stuff and a few bags full of clothing, cleaned out a few neglected areas, dealt with a fussy baby, and took care of some appointments.

The biggest meal this week was a lasagna dinner. During my last cooking session we made 3 lasagnas for the freezer and they have been a hit. We were out our freezer garlic bread so I picked some up from Meijer and it was way to salty!
We also had white bean chili, chili cheese tater tots (trying to hide the fact they were a little freezer burned), sauteed smoked sausage and cabbage and Iron chef night (create your own dish from leftovers).

I only made one sweet thing this week and it was honey nut marshmallow treats. Just a rice krispie treat recipe with honey nut chex instead of rice cereal and 1/2 cup peanut butter added. Pretty good.

My grocery budget runs from the middle of one month to the next because that's how DH tracks the bills. We are planning a big trip on Monday so I am trying to get prepared and clean out the fridge and pantry before then.

Homeschooling has been going well. We switched to math-u-see this year for DD's math and it has been great. We also were lucky enough to find a homeschool class nearby that she can attend once a week that is affordable.

All in all, its been a good week :)

I can't restock fast enough!

2008-09-09T21:30:00.002-04:00

I think its time to resign myself to new price points. Loss leaders are still out there but harder to fine and I am running through things quickly. I miss 3/$1 boxes of pasta at Meijer, 10/10 cheese, peanut butter and taco chips at Kroger and any kind of sale on my much loved potatoes.

With the price of gas its been easier and in many cases cheaper to stock up with a once a month trip to Costco. Cheese is much cheaper at our Costco ( even Aldi is higher), Romaine 6 packs are better (Meijer went up recently, had been the same price for about a year) and even pasta has been the same price as most of the alternatives. It makes me wonder if its worth the effort to even look at the ads this month!

Meijer actually has a decent sale this week and I ordered some coupons on Sunday to help score a few bargains this week. I can shop while running errands on Friday and Saturday to save on gas. We used to be close to all the stores but now we are about 25 minutes away from where we like to shop.

I really want to find a great sale on potatoes. My kids love twice baked potatoes in their lunchboxes. We usually freeze large quantities of them and also I love, love potato soup. I am also worried about vegetable prices when all the summer deals go away. I am completely out of frozen broccoli and green beans. It usually takes 2 of the 1 lb bags per dinner so I want to try The large bags of the GFS and Costco brands to see if they will be be a good deal for us. I really like the sweet corn at GFS but I did not care for the mixed vegetable blends I have tried there.
Costco is new here and I have not tried the frozen vegetable they carry yet.

What are your favorite frozen or canned veggies or what do you turn to when you run out of fresh options?

Sniff..sniff...

2008-09-08T16:56:00.002-04:00

My baby is growing up. My oldest will be 16 in December. A few things have happened recently:

-He has his temps and is learning to drive
-He has a job lined up so he can start as soon as he turns 16
-He just asked a girl to homecoming (!!!!!!!!)***

Sigh. I'm quite sure if I was to let my hair color grow out I would discover my first grey hairs.

Sniff.

***this may not be as big a deal as I am making it as he has up to this point had zero interest in girls.

Daily bread.....

2008-09-04T08:23:00.006-04:00

We had a busy weekend and are still finding our feet with our new schedule. DH's schedule is crazy right now and he spent most of the holiday weekend at work. I finally managed to get my shopping and errands done on Tuesday.

Last night was a salad night. everyone put together their own salad. Mine is at the right. I had already made homemade croutons and salad prep earlier so it was a easy meal.

The night before that we had a taco dip (kinda like 7 layer dip) with beans, taco chicken from the freezer, cheese, tomatoes, sour cream, onions and radishes. This was a large plate that we served with chips and salsa. One of my DH's coworkers gifted us a large amount of salsa this week and we have been really enjoying it.

I am trying to adjust to early mornings again and I am having a really hard time reseting my clock. I am a night owl, always have been :)

I don't mention homeschooling much...

2008-08-26T23:36:00.002-04:00

I have 2 highschoolers in public school, a 11 yr old who is homeschooled and a 14 month old I plan on homeschooling but I tend to avoid talking about it much. I have found since I do both I tend to not fit in either side. I think its a really personal choice and have run into quite a bit of hostility from both sides.

It is also complicated by the fact my homeschooler is my only girl and people tend to grab on to that fact. It's not because she is a girl but because I was introduced to homeschooling only a few years ago and at the time she was the one benefiting the least from a public education. If I could go back and do it over I would have home schooled both my boys at least through middle school. We are in a really great school district so I feel lucky to also have that option.

This will be our third year homeschooling and the first year we don't use a packaged curriculum. I still feel like a complete amateur but my daughter has really benefited from learning at home at her own pace. We have discussed homeschooling the 2 teenagers but for right now they are really happy with the academic options and environment they have in the school they attend. I have to admit to being intimidated by the thought of dealing with teaching high school. My husband originally wanted my daughter to return to school when she hits 9th grade but he has since changed his mind. He is a little worried the the baby will be all alone if he is homeschooled because of the 10 year gap in ages between our last 2 children but as we have found more and more groups and activities for home educated children he has seemed to be less concerned about this.

Just wanted to let you know in case you were confused by the fact I talk about sending children off to school and about homeschooling :)

Daily bread and lunch stuff.......

2008-08-25T21:44:00.005-04:00

We had salads for dinner tonight. The deli had ham, turkey and Muenster cheese (my favorite) on sale. I bought enough for today and so we could throw a few sandwiches in the freezer.

My GFS just started carrying these tortillas and they are really soft and great for wrapping burritos. They were 1.49 for 12 so I picked up a few packages when I did my bulk shopping trip.

Rice wraps are always a hit with the kids. We made a spicy Mexican style rice ( I just replaced 1/3 of the water with hot salsa) and added corn and black beans. We used 1/2 cup for each burrito and sprinkled on a little cheese. I flash froze them and then placed them a big freezer bag. Most of the time I wrap them in plastic wrap so I can just grab them and add them to a lunch box but I was out of plastic wrap. They thaw most of the way by lunch time so they are easy to reheat. Its better to make smaller burritos and just use 2 if you need a bigger portion so they reheat well.

We made about 20 rice wraps.

Sandwiches freeze well if you use a light layer of margarine to keep the bread from getting soggy and don't stuff them. I pack some fresh toppings on the side on the day they are served. Don't use super cheap quality lunch meat that is mostly water for a better sandwich.

Menu Plan Monday

2008-08-25T09:24:00.002-04:00

Today is a busy day. We have a appointment at the school to change my sons schedule, haircuts, more school supply shopping, a small grocery store trip, a pet store trip and more. School starts for us tomorrow.

On Mondays we hit a neat local deli that always has 2 meats and 2 cheeses on sale (usually less than $3 lb) and we make salads and/or sandwiches. I plan on getting enough to freeze some sandwiches for lunch boxes. Small buns with a light layer of margarine seems to work out the best for freezing. I have enough stuff on hand to make rice wraps also so that should give us 2 grab and go choices to start off lunchbox season.

This weeks menu:

Monday-Chef Salads
Tuesday- Smoked Sausage hash with banana peppers, fruit salad
Wednesday- Shanghai noodles
Thursday-Iron Chef night (leftover buffet)
Friday- Red beans and rice ( spicy tomato sauce with smoked sausage)
Saturday-Pizza
Sunday-Lasagna, salad and garlic bread

I hope everyone has a great week. Check out what others are serving up at Menu Plan Monday.

Thankfulness

2008-08-24T11:52:00.003-04:00

Better a dry crust with peace and quiet, than a house full of feasting, with strife.
Proverbs 17:1

We went to my mother in laws yesterday for a cook-out. My husbands mother is always so sweet and has always made me feel welcome in her home. You always know what to expect. The menu rarely varies and is always very good. The presentation always simple, often in reused butter tubs so a lid can be popped on and food can be sent home. Her plates often walk out the door, never to return. There is always lots of love and laughter.

I am very thankful for her influence in my life.

Double ouch...

2008-08-23T18:02:00.002-04:00

Ummm... yesterday I posted about us having less accidents and medical bills than usual this year. That was before 4:30 am when the little one decided to stick his finger in my eye, resulting in "corneal abrasion". I promise my blog is not going to become a daily blog of me whining about my latest ailment.

Looking for a positive note, the boys really enjoyed the educational discussion about what parts of the body heal the fastest. We were advised that the the tongue heals the fastest followed by the eyes which led to many wonderful stories about people biting through their tongues (thanks for sharing honey) and other gory tales.

I get to wear sunglasses in and out of the house for a few days. Hopefully the neighbors don't think I've had a mid-life crises and that I'm just trying to look cool :)

Ouch....

2008-08-22T17:42:00.003-04:00

I'm a big baby when it comes to the dentist. I went yesterday and I'm still moody and in pain. I have put off going for so long that I have to have a lot of work done. I actually knew I had to have some previous work undone but I was stalling. I also can't hold my jaw open for very long as the last time I had major work done my jaw locked up for 11 days. So yesterday was my 1st visit of 3. It really did not go to bad ( as far as torture goes) but I'm not looking forward to the next 2 visits. I would stretch out the visits a little more but I want to get the bills posted to my medical savings account so I can make sure I use up the money we have in it. We have more leftover this year as we seem to have had less emergencies and childhood accidents then usual. I am very grateful for that. Luckily we have reimbursement for over the counter medicines so if I don't use it up on my teeth then I can use it to stock up on allergy medicines and tylenol (preferably at CVS with some ECBS back).

Man, I really want some candy right now.Somebody stop me :)

Daily Bread....

2008-08-19T08:55:00.004-04:00

We've been trying some of the things we made for the freezer like this lasagna. DH and the kids loved it. I thought it was ok. It only spent a few days in the freezer. I have not put the recipe up yet as I am having a hard time reading my notes through all the tomato sauce I spilled on it :)

We made chicken taco salads using the chicken taco meat. We usually use chili on our taco salads but this was a nice change.

We've gone through a lot of fruit lately. Strawberries, bananas and watermelon. They have been great buys. We grew little tomatoes this year and also ended up with a few apples off of our young apple tree. We have a pear tree but it got attacked by something and it seems to have killed off the top of the tree. Hopefully it will come back ok next year.

Crockpot Chicken taco Meat

2008-08-15T23:26:00.002-04:00

I found this on Recipezaar when I was searching for a few things to try for the freezer. I made a test batch and everyone liked it so much that I made a second batch. We had it on taco salads and nachos so far but I'm sure it would be just as good in tacos.

Crock Pot Chicken Taco Meat

3 Tablespoons taco seasoning ( store bought or homemade)
1 cup chicken broth ( I used 1 cup water and 1 teaspoon chicken base)
1 lb boneless chicken breast ( I used almost 2 lbs each time)

Combine seasoning and liquid and place with chicken into crock pot. Cover and cook 6-8 hours ( it took closer to 5 in my crock pot). This shreds super easy.

** I can't get pictures to load this evening, will try again later :)

Taco / Chili Seasoning

2008-08-15T22:55:00.002-04:00

I recently discovered ( on accident) that the recipe I use for taco seasoning and the recipe I use for chili seasoning are almost exactly the same. Actually half the time I just wing it but when I cook in bulk I can't afford to mess up so I use a recipe. By adjusting it a little ( it is extremely flexible) I am using the following mix for both chili and tacos. This is adapted from this taco seasoning and this chili seasoning. You may also be interested in Whole Foods Natural Seasoning. Test a small batch and adjust according to your families tastes before using on a large scale.

Taco/Chili Seasoning (and notes)

1 tablespoon flour
2 teaspoons chili powder (quality varies widely by brand)
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper (or pepper flakes)
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon garlic
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/4 teaspoon oregano ( I usually substitute italian seasoning)

To use mix in tacos:
Add seasoning mix to 3/4 cup water. Brown 1 lb. ground beef in skillet, add seasoning mix/water to pan and simmer for 8-10 minutes. Add additional salt to taste ( I think it needs a little extra at the end).

When I make chili in a roaster ( 18 quart) I add a x4 recipe of this mix.

Although we consider this fairly mild (we like spicy food) its easy to omit, increase, or decrease just about any of the individual ingredients. If you are trying to reduce salt in your diet you can omit it but it really makes a difference when using the mix for taco meat. Most meats benefit from a little salt in the seasoning.

Friday finds.........

2008-08-15T12:20:00.003-04:00

Well, my laptop is still not working. They only half way fixed it. So it will be going back to best buy for the 4th time.

But on a more positive note I found some nice things this morning at garage sales including this Step 2 Kangaroo climber for $10.

We pushed everything to the side in the living room so he can play with it inside for awhile but it will probably be going in the back yard. I also bought a few kitchen items and clothing. Not bad for a quick trip out :)

My laptop is coming home!!!!!!

2008-08-14T15:37:00.002-04:00

Finally. DH picked it up on his way to work and will be bringing it home tonight.I have about a dozen posts I want to put up and having my laptop back will be so much easier! It's faster and easier to use then our other computers. Hopefully it still has all my feeds on it so I can catch up with all the blogs I usually follow.

DH and the little guy have had a rough few days. DH has had a lot of stress at work and has been working 10-11 hour days and working through lunch because of all the chaos. He is coming home early tonight and taking a 3 day weekend. Little guy has been teething (back teeth) and has not appreciated momma spending so much time in the kitchen. He is smiling more today so I hope he is through it now.

DH wants to watch a movie tonight with kids. If I can get the little guy to sleep a little early I am looking forward to a few hours of quiet catch-up computer time tonight. Knock on wood :)

Bulk cooking chicken*

2008-08-13T22:01:00.003-04:00

*under construction ( ugh..horrible picture)

-Future edits will include a few tests of different ways to bulk cook chicken and notes on the results.

I cooked approximately 23 pounds of bone in chicken in my 18 quart roaster and it was probably the best batch of chicken we have made to date, at least before going into the freezer :)

Previous attempts have not been bad but have been inconsistent.

Crockpot chicken has been the most difficult because I have tried it many different ways with different "recipes" without taking enough notes to pin down the inconsistencies. I have had great chicken but also chicken that has turned out dry, unpleasant textured and once even kinda slimy after thawing (ewwwww!). Variables have included type of chicken pieces, amount and type of liquid, seasonings and cook time.

I think one issue is my crockpot is just way to hot. Modern crockpots tend to be hotter than older models and even low is way to hot on mine. I also prefer to use my roasters as they hold so much. I have 2 -18 quart roasters and besides cleaning them they are great.

Type of chicken makes a big difference. I love using boneless chicken because there is less mess but because they are trimmed of fat there also tends to be less moisture and flavor so you don't end up with as flavorful a meat or stock. My opinion (just my 2 cents) is a mixture of dark and light results in the best final product.

The last best batch of chicken we made:

23 lbs bone-in chicken (about 60% breasts/40% thighs)
3 Tablespoons favorite all-purpose seasoning**
Enough liquid to cover
Celery,carrots,onion scraps,garlic***

I turned the heat up to high to give it a good start and then set it on 300.

When done (clear at the bone) remove chicken and set in a bowl set over another bowl of ice. I have 18 qt restaurant size bowls but you can also use a large container set in a sink full of ice. Use a slotted spoon to fish out vegetables (save for another purpose or discard) and use a scoop or plastic container to also remove, strain and chill the stock. I chill overnight and then remove the hardened fat of the top. If you have never bulk cooked chicken the most important thing to remember is to debone it while it is still warm. Cold chicken is a pain to debone. This is a good job to sign up little helpers (or big helpers) for so you can make quick work of it and get it cooled down quickly.Portion and chop to use in your cooking plan or freeze as is to pull out as needed.

I use a lot of pyrex and plastic containers but when trying to streamline things I use sandwich and freezer bags. If I am focusing on just meat to add to quick dinners I usually portion into sandwich bags and then place them all into a large freezer bag. I can pull out a portion and reseal the larger freezer bag. Sandwich bags run less than .02 so I discard them and keep the larger freezer bag which stays clean so I can reuse it without having to wash baggies. It is still cheaper and less waste than the alternative of buying premade convienience food. This is especially helpful if you have a hectic schedule or are going through a busy season.

**I use Canadian steak seasoning from GFS. It is like Grill mates but much cheaper.

***I usually don't feel like eating much when I bulk cook/OAMC so I just save all the ends when I make a vegetable snack tray ahead of time to nibble on. This and a bunch of fresh fruit can be really helpful to help keep you going.

This post is a work in progress

Buffalo Chicken Dip

2008-08-13T18:12:00.003-04:00

***This will be marked under construction for a few weeks until the test batch has spent a few weeks in the freezer and has been taste tested again :)

You can find the recipe including a handy chart for multiplying the recipe at the 30 day gourmet website. Recipezaar also has a few similar versions including this one.

While eating it I kept thinking it would make a really good quesadilla filling.

Buffalo Chicken Dip
3/4 cup French's hot sauce*
2 1/2 cups Shredded or chopped chicken ( original recipe calls for 3 cups)
16 oz. Cream Cheese (2 bricks)
1 cup Ranch dressing
1 1/2 cups shredded cheese ( I used a cheddar-jack mix)

Gently heat hot sauce and chicken and then add cream cheese and ranch, stirring often till melted and creamy. Add cheese, continue stirring until smooth. Serve with taco chips, crackers or celery. Serve immediately or cool and freeze. Thaw before reheating.

*If you don't already have a bottle of this stuff in your fridge you are really missing out. Do not substitute tabasco sauce. A splash in egg dishes, soup and dips really adds a nice flavor.

Have you seen this?(nevermind)

2008-08-12T23:55:00.002-04:00

Ok, I posted a youtube video here but unfortunatly after the video ended it showed previews of inappropriate videos so I took it down.

The video is titled:

The Mom Song Sung to William Tell Overture with Lyrics

but the side bar of related videos is not family friendly. Anybody know how to fix it so they don't show? Or anywhere else to find the video?

Under construction....

2008-08-12T21:07:00.010-04:00

Chicken for tacos. I made 3 (2 cup) portions and saved a little to taste test in the morning.

White chili. I consider myself a messy but I must be a little OC at heart because I let my son make these labels and I had to fight the urge to redo them with the writing a little neater. I made 3 (2 qt) containers and also put some in the fridge for tomorrow.

Chicken in broth. Looks kinda unattractive in the flash :)

3 lasagnas. These pans have metal lids which makes them nice for stacking.

Southwestern soup. 2 containers for the freezer and a smaller one for the fridge.

Buffalo chicken dip. Yum. I made 3 but we had to eat one :)

Also made a big batch of chili.

I'm not very good at following recipes. When I want to make something I usually look up 3 or 4 versions of the recipe I am looking for and then wing it based on what I have on hand. Once in awhile something comes out really well and I end up wishing I had written down ingredients and quantities.

So, I am going to try to start posting recipes. Since a few of them will be for items that are going into the freezer they will be labeled "under construction" across the top until I have tested a batch that has been in the freezer for a few weeks. I will also include notes and pictures. This way I can link back to recipes when I post OAMC plans or participate in Menu Plan Monday.

I would like to put a special focus on foods for the freezer since I get a lot of questions and emails specifically looking for more info on the subject.

I am inviting anyone who likes to freeze meals, snacks components, or anything else to share their recipes also. For example if I do a post about chili and you have a favorite recipe for chili posted on your blog ( tried and true, preferably with pictures) please email me a link and I will add it at the end of my post. Please only send me links to your blog and not recipe sites. Please feel free to email me before I post so I can start gathering info and links for future posts. If you have any suggestions or questions please feel free to email me.

I have been cooking yesterday and today and will try to start posting the recipes tomorrow.

Thursday finds...

2008-08-07T17:44:00.003-04:00

I found 2 garage sales today and picked up a few items. I love the color of the wood on this little dresser. Little guy approves as well.

Price: $5

It does not have a home yet. I have a few ideas but no firm plans.

DH has been looking for a record player and I found this neat one that folds up like a suitcase. I'm a sucker for vintage electronics. We have a few large stacks of records in the basement that I need to go through and edit.

Price $20

I spotted a few signs up in my little town so I may not need to go far to find some sales but I need to go grocery shopping now that we have the fridge all taken care of ready to go.

I need to refill my freezer with goodies before school starts. I would love to wait for cooler weather or a great sale but I have hit the point where we are so low on meats that I don't have a choice but to pay full price. I do have good amount of spicy bulk sausage left but eating that once a week is plenty for me. We probably have enough to last me at least 6 months. It is in 3 pound packages raw and I have been cooking it and repacking it into 1 1/2 cups portions to use in pizza pasta and "deconstructed" egg rolls. The kids like the egg roll dish which is basically shredded cabbage, spicy sausage sauteed with garlic and seasoned with ginger and soy sauce and served over rice with a few fried egg roll wrappers on the side. I guess a better name might be lazy egg rolls :)

I'm going to start with our favorites like chili, meatballs, reds beans in sauce for red beans and rice and taco meat. A batch of burritos using the taco meat would also be a nice start on lunch box season. I have some new things I would like to try but I need the basics first. Since I am thinking about trying to do a turkey in the roaster this year I should probably work on a turkey plan as well. I figure I better do a test turkey before the big day. I don't think I have ever purchased a turkey except on Thanksgiving.

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

My easy button is broke...

2008-08-06T07:47:00.002-04:00

I could tell you a really long funny story about my fridge saga but I'm sure you all are tired of hearing about my fridge. Lets just all hope its finally over today, that this one is not dented, I don't end up with anymore dents in my walls, and that nobody gets hurt. Actually a little prayer that I get a totally different delivery crew from the one that was here on Saturday would be helpful :)

Troubleshooting a problem entryway...

2008-07-31T17:20:00.002-04:00

I'm trying something new in front hall. My tiny front closet has been a constant battle. Opening it blocked the entryway and it was just to small and awkward to work for us. We also take our shoes off at the front door and needed a good place to put our shoes.

I tried a chest near the front door. It was nice to sit on but not quite right. I was debating 2 side by side chests so I would have something longer to fill my long hall. The plan was to try installing some hooks above for coats. Well luck would have it that at the same garage sale I found the perfect bench I also found a open cupboard/plate rack and decided to try the combination of the 2 to handle my entryway needs. the hooks are for cup storage but they are big enough to handle coats. I fell in love with the bench, its dark, not to deep and opens to hold plenty of shoes. It appears to be meant to be the foot board of a bed so I assume it is actually a blanket chest.

Lucky me, I happen to have baskets that fit on it. Here is a picture of it on the floor as I was trying out the baskets to see how they fit.

It holds 6 baskets and we are a family of 6 so each basket can hold items for each person (hats, gloves, whatever). I am planning on 2 or 3 tiny hooks on the side to hold keys. I think I will start with plastic stick on hooks until I am sure I like the set-up that way it can always go back to being a plate rack if this does not work out.

So far it has worked well for shoes and for holding items that need to be grabbed on the way out the door. Time will tell how well it works in the fall when we needs to manage coats and gloves.

Either way, I LOVE the bench and it will stay. I paid $70 for both pieces. Its kind of hard to tell from the picture but both pieces are very large. That is a adult size coat in the picture.

Its also nice to have something done this week. In addition to recovering from a sprained foot, my fridge died ( again). It just had a new compressor installed in August (it was covered at the time but took weeks to fix) . I am getting a new fridge in a few days complete with a 5 year extended warrenty :)

I did not make a frugal choice on my fridge. It was on sale but was most definitly not frugal. I would blame a recent string of 6 0r 7 emotionally draining and stressful events that have happened recently that caused me to make a impulsive splurge but I just really wanted it. DH loved it also so we can share the blame for the budget dent :)

Unexpected finds....Giant Eagle

2008-07-23T16:55:00.002-04:00

We recently found a great deal at Giant Eagle. I'm not a big fan of GE because their prices are so high but we do shop them for a few things like Coke, gift cards and prescriptions ( only with a free gas coupon) so that we can fill the gas tank on the beast with the rewards they offer. We have not had to pay full price to fill up since we bought it. We also have cookie cards for the kids so they can get free cookies when we shop.

When we stopped by the other day I noticed 2 shopping carts full of marked down cereal. Usually I pass the carts because the are rarely marked down much but this time they were actually a great deal. From .50 for GE rice squares and krispies, .75 for non frosted mini wheats, .99 for Curves cereal and 1.10 for Nature Valley granola cereal. I definitely stocked up. I bought A LOT! I did make sure to check dates and all of it is good well into 2009. Happy dance!

We used to get nifty little coupon books for Giant Eagle good towards meat and produce but we no longer receive those. I do like their cakes though and the organic roasted garlic bread. Yum!

Looking ahead...

2008-07-22T23:46:00.004-04:00

I'm already looking forward to fall. Crisp air, hearty meals, lunchboxes, and a routine that makes one really appreciate the weekends.

Last summer we kept very busy. This summer we scheduled very little except for swimming. I'm glad because many things have popped up that have been time consuming.

I bought the oldest 2 new lunchboxes already. I found some nice ones at Costco that expand as my 2 oldest boys are now young men with big appetites. I'm glad they still like a packed lunch.

School supplies bargains are appearing everywhere. The .10 notebooks and .05 folders scream out to me every fall begging to come home with me in obscene quantities.

Fall is potatoes and carrots in every form imaginable, pot roasts of different varieties and as many soups as my DH can take. I cant wait. I should plan on losing a extra 10 lbs now just to prepare.

I love sorting through school clothes. I love trying to put together a somewhat stylish wardrobe for my children mostly from garage sale deals, thrift stores, and a few internet bargains. My daughter was shocked to see how much clothes really cost last week when when we went out to spend her birthday money. The transition from boys clothes to young men's clothes has me scrambling a bit this year but I am optimistic I will find what I need.

My daughter used Switched on schoolhouse the last 2 years for homeschooling but we are putting together her curriculum this year. Its been fun looking through all the options. I only plan on buying a math program to start as we have a ton of educational materials leftover from her older brothers.

I relocated a packing area for Ebay stuff. My challenge to sort through all that stuff in the basement has been going really well. Between the garage sale and Craigslist I was able to get rid of a lot but I have a backlog of items to put on Ebay.

Staying off my foot this week is giving me lots of time to updates lists and sketch out plans. DH has requested we change a few things around here and he really likes lists and everything laid out on charts so I figure I can have some fun with that. Since he works so much I think it really helps him feel more on top of things if he can see whats going on at home.

I think I would like to host Thanksgiving again this year so I think I will try to start working ahead on that, last year went well but I would like to improve a few areas. I was thinking of trying to use a roaster to cook a turkey. Does anyone have any first hand experience with cooking a turkey this way?

Menu plan Monday...

2008-07-21T16:28:00.002-04:00

I started on my menu for this week after we closed down the garage sale on Saturday but wouldn't you know it but on Sunday after a nice breakfast out for my daughters birthday I manage to trip on the sidewalk with my ankle folding to the right and the rest of me falling to the left. I did not manage to catch myself even a little bit and I have many lovely shades of purple all over and a sprained foot to boot.

So... my updated simplified menu is:

Monday: Ham and cheese sandwiches, pretzels and carrots
Tuesday: Chef salads
Wednesday: Spaghetti
Thursday: Deconstructed egg rolls ( seasoned cabbage with spicy pork mix over rice with fried wonton skins on the side)
Friday- Kielbasa with macaroni and cheese and green beans
Saturday- Pizza
Sunday- Mexican rice bowls topped with diced chicken breast and taco chips

Head over to Menu plan Monday and see what everyone else is having :)

Updates..

2008-07-19T15:45:00.002-04:00

Everything is going well and starting settle down. The baby is doing great. He is now sleeping through the night ( 3 nights in a row!)and is now much happier with the medicine for acid reflux. I wish I would have thought about it sooner but he did not have most of the symptoms a child with reflux usually has ( like spitting up).

I have been decluttering. I had been getting rid of stuff on Craigslist but decided to have a garage sale. I spent all this week pulling out things to sell for a Friday and Saturday sale and we made $600. Happy dance :)

We have been eating out of the freezer and making lots of quick meals and now my freezer is bare. Its time to restock it with meals and snacks.

My feet are aching and I need a nice relaxing bath before I start on next weeks menu. I didn't get to go out and shop any garage sales this weekend but DH brought me home a in box magic bullet that he bought for $5 that he found for me.

I hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Moving....

2008-06-27T22:32:00.002-04:00

OK, I'm not moving but the office is being relocated. I took a picture of all the piles of papers I had gathered from the office area, the old file drawers, and a few boxes and took a picture to post. I decided not to post it since if you enlarged the picture enough you could probably find some personal information that is best not to post on the Internet :)

Instead here is a picture of my daughter cleaning off a $2 file cabinet that has been sitting in my basement for a long time ( next to a desk I paid to much for, LOL).

Tomorrow we are heading off to buy cable so we can move the Internet connection to the new location on the first floor.

Rain is in the forecast for Saturday so instead of hitting the garage sales in the morning I will be sorting, shredding and tossing.

I hope every one has a great weekend!

Simplifying cleaning...

2008-06-24T20:26:00.002-04:00

I have been irritated by my cleaning supplies lately. I usually aim for whatever all purpose cleaner is on sale but I have run into a few problems so I splurged on bottles, a pack of towels and a gallon of concentrated all purpose cleaners. I already had a gallon of glass cleaner at home. I am working on putting a cleaning kit in each bathroom and one in the kitchen so everything is always there when I or whoever is assigned the chore needs it. I want to pick up a little caddy for each but I will wait until I get a chance to hit the dollar store. the bottles were 1.95 each, the gallon of concentrated cleaner was 8.95 and the towels were 4.97. Now no one can complain when I send them to do chores that they cant find what they need.

OK, I can't complain... :)

Changing gears......

2008-06-20T19:31:00.002-04:00

I miss my blogging and my laptop may not be getting fixed so I am going to try to blog without it.
Again :)

We had 90 degree weather last week so the kids were spending everyday at the pool but this week the temperature has dropped to the 70's so the kids have been hanging out at home. When it was hot we were eating a lot of salads and fruit to keep the stove off but with this nice mild weather I want to get a few items back in the freezer so I hope to do some bulk cooking next week.

The little guy has started treatment for acid reflux. We are not for sure this is why he always seems so restless but we are trying to rule it out. We are going to try the medicine for a few weeks and what happens.

I made some extra money this month between Craigslist and a $100 focus group. I am hopeful for a good grocery sale when the grocery ads arrive so I can do some stocking up. Does anybody else get excited about the ads? I feel so silly that I love pulling up and seeing the bag hanging from the mailbox with the new grocery fliers. I can't wait to grab them and scan for bargains. Although with grocery prices lately there has been less to get excited about.

Tomorrow is Saturday and we will be up and out the door early to look for garage sales. We try to run errands at the same time to save on gas and the days stops will include a stop at Costco, a stop at a new goodwill, and quick run into Kohls to check for clearance tennis shoes.

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Monday is sandwich day....

2008-06-09T17:03:00.002-04:00

I don't like having to cook after grocery shopping especially if we have a big shopping day and visit many stores. The last few weeks we have picked up meat on the way home to make sandwiches so I think I will just go with it and keep Mondays as sandwich day.

One of our stops today was the bread outlet. I picked up $1 loaf of rye bread along with a bunch of breads for other things and planned on making Reubens but our favorite little deli was out of corned beef. They did have a great special on smoked turkey ( 2.49 lb) and I had already picked up bacon at Meijer ( 1.89 lb) so we had turkey provolone clubs instead. I made huge sandwiches so the kids could eat half before they went swimming and eat the rest when they get home. Did I mention school is out? Woo hoo!

We had another busy week last week and also sold a bunch of items on Craigslist over the weekend. I put the money ($175) into the garage sale shopping fund. DH also found something on his "wants" list. He found a old croquet set for .50. The kids have been having fun with it already.

Jason's favorite salsa....

2008-06-09T16:56:00.005-04:00

My oldest son took salsa to Spanish class for a end of the year school activity. We still had many of the ingredients left so we made another batch for us. My DH really likes the salsa at On The Border and this is our version. He took freshly fried taco chips also but I made baked chips for us because I really don't like the mess of frying :)

Del Fratelli seasoned tomatoes ( or any quality diced tomatoes, 28 oz. or so)

a handful of cilantro

a few green onions

a jalapeno ( we like it hot, use less if you don't like it spicy)

lemon juice ( just a few tablespoons) I use bottled because it was all I had

seasoned salt (to taste)

We rough chop the produce, toss in a bowl and finish with a immersion blender until fairly smooth. Best after chilled for a few hours to let flavors blend

Monday morning planning on Tuesday :)

2008-06-02T08:56:00.007-04:00

I started this post yesterday but had to go to the doctor. I hate going to the doctor but self care was not making me feel better. My ears, nose and throat looked bad. All around yucky stuff. He said I definitely have a infection in my throat and I need antibiotics. At least I can use a coupon to get 1.00 off every gallon of gas at Giant Eagle :)

Some things going on this week:

-Spring weather is finally here and so are the fleas. I've already seen a few so I ordered flea treatment online. I am one of those people you hear about who has had a bad experience with generic flea treatments you find in the store. Many years ago we bought a flea collar for a cat who promptly had a allergic reaction and went into shock. My husband liked to refer to him as the $400 cat after that.

-I am considering a closet area near the washer and dryer in the basement. Clothes management is still a problem around here so I am considering a family closet or at the very least a overflow closet for seasonal and to big items. I try to keep items that are a size ahead boxed up but they still seem to make it into the mix when the someone goes looking for something. This will be one of my projects for the week.

-The pool is opening up this week so its time to get everything together for that. Towels, sunscreen, goggles and a small cooler need a staging area so they are easy to get to and stay organized. I still need to pick up bike locks for the oldest kids so they can ride over by themselves.

-The garage sale is still a work in progress. I think we will need to have one now and one later as we have so much stuff and I don't know if I can keep track of it all. We actually had a shoplifter at our last garage sale (long story)!

-I have not been to the store yet so I need to base my menu this week on my pantry and have DH pick up some fresh produce. The kids packed their own lunches yesterday and one bought today.

-I have 2 dwarf fruit trees in the backyard and they both are getting fruit this year. Last year only the pear had fruit but this year the apple has a few also. They were neglected clearance plants for $7 a few years ago at a Lowes. We bought some clearance shrubs at Home Depot last weekend and I hope they do well also. The cashier even let us use 2 buy on get one free coupons (one for each of us). I only took 2 coupons with me but bought 8 plants for about $60 total including a Japanese Magnolia, 3 Lilacs and some others that I can't remember the name of at the moment.

OK, off to make my menu. :)

Vehicles...( or a confession)

2008-06-02T08:26:00.004-04:00

Well we bought a car (actually 2 cars) on Thursday. We had been looking around for a while just in case we would need a vehicle. So we are no longer payment free. I am actually ok with it as I LOVE the new vehicle(s). We have a monthly payment of $330 month on a 2005 Honda Pilot EX with 44,000 miles. It has a lot of upgrades including leather and heated seats and such. We had been looking at similar Pilots with no upgrades for 2,000 to 3,000 more.

I know, I know your shaking your head right now. She bought a gas guzzler? Is she crazy? Well, probably but SUV's are where the deals are right now. They are not selling well, so the price was negotiable and it also had 2.9 financing available. It is replacing a 1996 Odyssey that was not getting good gas mileage anyway. We put $1,000 down on it. It will be the family car and will mostly only be used on the weekends or for family outings. It was 17,840 plus tax and fees.

We also bought a 1990 civic for $4,100 (including tax and fees and such). That may seem like a lot for a 1990 but it only has 31,000 miles on it (really!) and DH is absolutely in love with it. It is mint. My only concern is it has been driven so little I am worried about the belts and fluids so we are going to take it in this week and get it looked at. DH had been driving the van to work so we should see some gas savings in our monthly budget.

We sold the Odyssey to family for about a third of its blue book. That's about all we would have gotten in trade and the family member really needed a car. The money from it is going towards the Civic.

We have a paid for 1996 4 runner also that has been the best vehicle we have ever owned. We are going to hold onto it as within the next 2 years we will be up to 4 drivers in our house. It has just a little over 113,000 miles on it.

Why am I telling you so much about my non frugal purchase on my frugally leaning blog? Because I would feel dishonest if I did not make sure I include a fair picture of what we buy. Real life, not just the cheap stuff :)

Daily Bread...

2008-05-28T21:13:00.006-04:00

Yesterday we had chef salads but I lost the main picture so here is the one I packed for DH. We will be eating a lot of salads this week per hubbys request.

Tonight we had fruit salad and Caeser salad wraps.

We also had some chips and salsa as my son needed to fry chips and make salsa for a Spanish class party in the morning.

Yesterday was grocery shopping day since Monday was a holiday. I went over budget and had to drop the van off for repairs (again)..

I will not buy a new car..

I will not buy a new car...

I will not buy a new car....

I will not buy a new car..............................

Week in review......

2008-05-24T17:14:00.002-04:00

Things I did this week to save money....

(Skip to the end if you just want to see the best deal of the week!)

Big grocery trip on Monday. We hit a bunch of stores to take advantages of loss leaders and hit Costco for cheese and to use some of the coupons from the book they mail out to members.

Packed ( or had kids pack) all but 2 of the lunches needed for my family this week.

Took a half dozen surveys ( 3 of which were paid)

Bought gift cards at Giant Eagle for Home Depot (plants) and Petsmart (quarterly big trip) to earn fuel rewards. Used up .60 off per gallon rewards to save on gas. Our Giant Eagle gives .20 of per gallon reward on gift cards and we already had a balance.

Used some CVS ECB's to buy pop.

Visited local thrift store.

Sold my barely used Medela breast pump on craigslist for $150. It had a bunch of new accessories with it.

Hit garage sales on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Thursday was unusual for us but DH wanted to check out a church rummage sale on that day. We combined those trips with a many errands as week could. I got some neat buys that I will hopefully post later if I can figure out how to load pictures with my new-to-me computer set up.

The best deal we was found someone getting rid of bricks at their garage sale and bought over 380 light colored bricks for $10 total and they helped load it into our 2 vehicles! Hello new patio :)

How to cut a cantaloupe

2008-05-21T10:20:00.003-04:00

I was debating sharing a tip on how to cut a cantaloupe but I figured someone else had probably shared it with pictures and I would save time by finding it and linking to it. The person who made the video I found shares two ways to cut cantaloupe and I do it the second way except that I use a large spoon to scrap out the seeds as it is faster and leaves a more attractive center. If you try it a few times you'll get really fast at it. I have worked for 2 different caterers and have cut what seems like a thousand cantaloupes and I love how well the fruit looks when it is done this way. With picnic and barbecue season here we try to take advantage any sales on fruit we can to serve along side all those grilled meats, beans, and salads.

how to cut a cantaloupe video

Tis' the season (cook-out season)

2008-05-21T06:25:00.003-04:00

Its the time of year when all the grocery ads feature cook-out foods on sale and I have been sitting on a nice pile of Cattlemans barbecue sauce coupons waiting for a sale so I can stock up on a years worth of the wonderful stuff. DH loves meatballs from the freezer with BBQ sauce. Baked beans, mustard's, ketchup, pickles and many other goodies can also be snatched up for pennies if you live in double coupon land. Brats and hot dogs can also be a great deal and I usually grab a few packs to put in the freezer. Don't forget the sunscreen sales!

DH wants to grill out more this year and is considering buying a propane grill. We have a good sized charcoal grill but find the amount of time it takes to get it going often keeps us from using it as often as we would like. Its still on the maybe list so far.

I have been watching for a sale on beach towels for what seems like forever. I had finally decided to break down and buy them at Costco for $16 each. I have seen them as cheap as $6 other places but they were paper thin. I saw them last month and liked them but when I went back all they had was $19 double towels. I passed but luckily after some searching I found some towels in the 4 for 3 section on amazon.com and purchased 4 Ralph Lauren beach towels for $47 with free shipping. I can live with that, I know they could just take regular towels but it irritated me so much last year that I decided to buy them. Its coming out of the summer entertainment budget which is also going to buy a pool pass ( inexpensive in my small town), a zoo pass ( with free parking), and a COSI pass. Between that, garage sales, and the library we should be pretty busy this year. One of the good things about DH working nights is we can visit places early. DH will also take the older kids to Cedar point for free because of free tickets from work. I will stay home with the baby and have a quiet day which works for me because I really don't like amusement parks.

Have you planned out your summer?

Menu Plan Monday

2008-05-18T21:32:00.003-04:00

I missed the few Menu Plan Monday postings and it was more chaotic around here so I'm back to sticking to a menu this week.

Monday- Shopping Day, sandwiches with whatever meat is on sale at our favorite deli ( I'm hoping corned beef and Swiss so we can make Reuben's)
Tuesdays- Eckrich grillers, red skinned potato salad, baked beans and cantaloupe ( all on sale this week).
Wednesday- Asian noodles using coleslaw mix, mushrooms and chicken.
Thursday-Kielbasa hash
Friday- Flat bread pizzas
Saturday- Picnic lunch of Greek salads with chicken
Dinner-Wings and potato wedges
Sunday- Arroz con pollo ( looking for a good recipe)

I hope everyone has a great week!

Garage sales and clothing......

2008-05-17T13:03:00.003-04:00

DD's pile ----->

Yesterday was so busy! We headed out early and found multiple community garage sales, had to rush back for DH' appointment to have some stitches removed at 11, returned to finish up some bargain hunting, came home and changed and cleaned up and then entertained teenagers from 4-8. I was so tired at 8:00pm but didn't manage to go to sleep till 11:00. We woke up early again today but only found one really good garage sale and called it a early day, went to CVS to use up some ECB's and came home to relax. Saturday is usually when the teens have friends over but I recently switched it to Fridays so DH can relax on Saturday evening.

I had the best weekend ever when it comes to clothing buying. I bought so much its crazy. DD made out the best with over 20 items. She is the clothes horse in the family and she bought the cutest stuff like baby blue converse for .25, nikes for $1, a purse with a S on it for .25, a stack of abercrombie and limited too shirts for $1 each and 3 cute jackets for .25 each. I rarely find .25 items at garage sales but for some reason yesterday they were everywhere. I also bought a nice stack of designer polos and a few pairs of shoes for $1 each for myself. I did pay to much for a few pairs of shorts for my oldest but I was going to break down and buy them new so DH said I might as well pay the $5 each for 2 pairs of shorts. They were the only brand I have found that has a size 16 with a adjustable waist ( or lack of waist in my son's case.) I bought 6 like new Khakis and Levi's for my teens that fit great too ( at .50 each!). The baby also made out at the church rummage sale which is where everything was only a quarter. DH is the only one who did not find anything and he really needs pants so hopefully next week I find some. I easily bought over 60 items.

I like buying all my clothing ( when possible) at garage sales or thrift stores. I tend to only buy name brands because they seem to last longer and I make it one of my goals to try to make sure my kids dress well. Its also really important to my husband that the kids look good. Its not a status thing, Dh did not have nice things as a child and he remembers that it really bothered him and he is sensitive to wanting the kids to never feel that way. I have never had one of my kids complain but DD definitely likes clothes :)

I do not like looking through piles of clothes though. As much as I love a good deal on clothing I would much rather dig through piles of books or kitchen gadgets. Clothing takes so long to go through that I get anxious that I am missing something more important. I skip many sales that are disorganized unless the sale is obviously by someone that has the same taste as myself.

So I am curious what everyone prefers when looking for clothing at garage sales.

Do you prefer everything on hangers?
Do you like items neatly folded on a table?
Organized by size in separate rubbermaid tubs?

I try to look for "newness" first. My strategy is a quick glance to check out condition and price. I can rule out most sales this way. Then if a sale passes the first glance I ask about size if not clearly marked. At yesterdays rummage sale I did dig through piles though.For .25 I will put in a little more effort :)

What are your favorite tips for purchasing clothes at garage sales?

Up and running....

2008-05-15T10:34:00.002-04:00

Well, I am on a different computer but I can post :)

Nothing has been going on. Garage sales last week were uneventful. Menus have been blah. We are preparing for a garage sale (painful for a hoarder like me) and donating some stuff as we are sorting through things. My public school kids are finishing up with end of the year field trips and parties and my homeschooler is making a list of everything she would like to do before the end of our school year. The baby is still non stop eating and has added grunting for things and biting when mad to his repertoire of communication skills. Cable is already gone (at least for summer) and the stimulus check went straight to credit cards.

Fun stuff :)

I received one of the lovely notices some banks are sending out letting us know they are suspending our home equity line of credit because of declining home values in our neighborhood. Its OK because we were not planning on using it but I found it a bit unsettling. We have never paid a late payment on anything and have great credit. I'm glad I was not depending on it to pay for anything. In reading up on the matter online I have seen a lot of advice that if you are planning on taking out any money for anything this year you should do it now because it may to late later on as more banks look to cut risk.

My list of blogs that I usually read is saved on my broken computer but I will try go through and rebuild my list and catch up with everyone over the next few days. I hope everyone is doing well!

Light posting for awhile.....

2008-05-06T06:52:00.003-04:00

My posting may be sporadic for awhile. My laptop is limping along (again) and needs to go back to best buy (again) and will be gone for weeks. I can use a desktop but its not as convenient or as easy to use. I have been fighting with it for a few weeks now and have a bunch of unfinished drafts from posts I did not get done because my computer keeps having fits. Its frustrating and I'm done fighting with it. I would have sent it back already but it seems to take them forever to fix it and send it back to me. Looking at the upside DH and I have a lot of things planned so I can focus on those things.

I love you gals! Take care :)

Neither rain nor snow...........

2008-05-04T12:27:00.006-04:00

It was so cold yesterday morning. Definitely not what I was expecting for a Saturday in early May. Not on the day where my little town has the 2 biggest community garage sales it will probably have all year! Things looked so grim at 7:30 in the morning when we headed out in the drizzle to see if anyone would open on such a gloomy day.

I must have looked so pitiful clutching my sweater around me, hair slightly wet as I darted in and out of the car and up the driveways seeking a few treasures and saying a little prayer that I wouldn't catch a cold. DH drove and stayed with the baby in the car taking me from sale to sale while my still young and oblivious to cold teens ran from house to house.

In the end we had a pretty good day. Most of the treasures we found will only be appreciated by people who are geeky as my bunch ( referring mostly to myself as head geek). We all collect video games and found some nice vintage games as well as some highly coveted and good for resale titles.

I bought a great tall table for $15 that will make a nice sideboard, a Cleveland Browns winter coat for next year for $3 for the baby, A great lamp with a beaded shade for $5, A bunch of baby gap socks at .10 each, a chest in a dark stain for $10, a few nice shirts for myself at 1.50 and $2, earrings and a necklace .25 each, baby proofing items .50 each, and way to many baby toys :)

It was a fun day!

Lunch experiments....

2008-05-01T22:41:00.003-04:00

I've been working on tweaking a pizza for lunches. I've made 3 batches so far this week but I can't seem to get them into the freezer. I'm just adjusting a bisquick pizza muffin recipe but I'm trying to make it more like pizza and less like a doughy muffin. I'm using a mini loaf pan instead of a muffin tin and that seems to make a good portion size but I'm going to need another pan if I am going to manage to make enough to actually get them into the freezer :)

Good Cookie / Bad Cookie

2008-04-30T19:47:00.002-04:00

I made some impossible peanut butter cookies earlier in the week and thought they were horrible. The kids ate them (hard to make a cookie so bad that the kids pass) so today I made some vanishing oat meal cookies and added extra cinnamon, threw in some ginger and nutmeg and tossed in chopped walnuts and craisins and they were sooooo good! Yummy!

I ate to many so I hurried and put the rest in the freezer. My freezer lunch box stash was completely depleted last month so I will need to build it back up.What better way to start then with cookies?

Rebate checks?

2008-04-29T18:28:00.005-04:00

Wow, the last few days have gotten away from me. I'm not sure where they went because I don't think I accomplished much of anything :)

Saturday garage sales were OK. I picked up a few things including a couple of new outfits for the little guy for .50 each. I also bought something to put on my wall ($3 pictured), a set of 2 Ikea utensil bars with lots of s-hooks (2 sizes $10) and some bowls ($2) which I regret buying. DS2 has a thing for electronic gadgets and bought a Sony Clie with a ton of stuff including a keyboard and 2 memory cards for $10. He loves it. A few weeks ago he bought a beat up but working digital camera for $5 ( a Kodak easy share) so he is pretty happy so far this year.

So anyway... I was curious as to what everyone is doing with their rebate checks. Straight to debt or savings? Car repairs? A vacation? I think most of the people that read by blog are pretty frugal so I expect I will probably get a lot of practical answers. Do you think most people are using their checks for everyday expenses or are we about to have a bump in big screen TV purchases and in casual dining sales? What do you think?

Mine is going straight to debt :)

Shopping, shopping, shopping....

2008-04-25T14:55:00.002-04:00

-I did quite a bit of grocery shopping this week. My weekly total ended up high but I bought enough bulk Italian sausage to last a year. I bought 60 lbs for $66. I bought some earlier in the week and DH loved it so I went back and bought more. I think I am mostly going to use it in place of ground beef or half and half for meatballs. The older kids like to make scrambled eggs so I think cooking up a bunch of sausage crumbles would give them something to mix in their eggs. I also bought some other things that will last me quite awhile.

-I've been thinking about getting my hair done since my birthday ( in January). The only stylist I like is expensive. My hair is still pretty thin from post-baby shedding so I just decided to buy a box of Garnier hair color instead. I will probably have my hair in a ponytail all summer anyway. I was surprised by how much I like the new color. I may decide to get my hair done in the fall though. Maybe I will make it a reward if I finish going through all those boxes in the basement :)

-We went garage sale shopping today. I got a cute Wilton mini Noah's ark cookie cutter set for .10 and bought DD a bunch of shirts ( finally found nice long ones) for 7.50. Now all she needs is a swimsuit and she is done for quite awhile. She got the most adorable white gap shirt, I am going to try to get a nice picture of her in it to hang on the wall.

I hope tomorrow is another good garage sale day. Rain, rain stay away!