weekend is finally here

OH.. it's Saturday already? Wow, the week went by quickly. Not alot got done but also some much needed stuff did. I can look back on the week and say I'm not completely disappointed. I plan on next week taking the girls to the zoo with our zoo pass. It expires on the 31st, so I would at least like to take them 2 more times before it does. Luckily, the zoo lets you bring in coolers, bags, etc., so that you don't have to buy food there. That is a great thing considering I have plenty of snack foods to take with us. The girls don't get hungry when they have too much fun. It is the farthest thing from their minds when they are busy. I just plan on taking some fresh fruit, fruit snacks and some juice boxes. All of which I already have on hand so my expenses won't be overdone.


This Saturday I decided not to go anywhere just to enjoy today and the weather. The windows are open and at this point the weather is right around 65 degrees with only a high of 75!! In JULY? NEED I say it again?? When I got up this morning, I decided to go ahead and get on something to eat since I passed last night. I had 4 eggs in the fridge, some mushrooms, jalapeno slices, shredded cheese, sour cream, tortillas and salsa. What sounds better than breakfast burritos? The girls and I love them, so I whip up some scrambled eggs mex-i-can style wrap it all up and serve them warm. Yummy is the word for the girls while they proceed to speak with their mouthes full.

Much to my desire to not do anything, I know in the back of my mind that Meijer is still having the 2 day sale, which I feel is an opportunity to pick up quite a few things that are on sale. Boy am I glad I did. I was just walking along happily and found out that the Meijer in my area is supposedly not going to be selling furniture anymore. I got the prettiest end table for $8.00, it was 90% off! It is a cherry stain and fit perfectly in my living room. I got a few other good things but didn't get any grocery purchases..so no money on that end spent in my budget.
After coming home, it was lunch time but honestly, I wasn't that hungry so I decided upon just making another smoothie with some bananas, peaches and yogurt. I decide to get my green beans I bought last night a'cookin..hehe. Green beans aren't green beans unless they have LOTS of seasoning and flavor. Honestly, who really likes green beans when they are straight out of a can?? UGH..either way. Chuck finally gets home from work and informs me that his boss gave him some brisket. So, guess we are having brisket instead of chicken. No biggie. He smoked it all day with hickory pellets and the girls will eat it so I put in the oven and let it warm. The green beans were great, the brisket..not so much. A lil' tough still so I opt out after about 2 bites. Chuck finishes off everyone elses leftovers. More power to ya buddy!
Saturday came and went and I was ready for bed after watching (well almost all) a movie.

Friday late night

Well, if I wasn't a tired little lady last night. The girls and I decided to take a walk with the dogs for a little bit after I got off my butt. While we were on our way home, who should be coming into the driveway? Here's daddy! The dogs of course go nuts, the girls eh, not as enthused. Makes you wonder why they say man's best friend? He was extremely tired and a little hungry so while he took a shower, I took some ham I had bought from Meijer last week and a leftover 1/2 brick of sharp cheddar from Saturday's party, 2 leftover Sara Lee buns sitting around waiting to be eaten like 2 orphaned buns (haha) and made him 2 hot ham and cheese sandwiches out of leftovers. They were warm and ooey gooey. I had to (well of course) taste the cheeseiest part. That just comes with being a wife, giving up the cheesy parts when you put the ring on. We sat down while the girls ventured off to find a snack and ended up having some fat free ice cream and butterscotch topping with some reddiwhip from the fridge. I am glad that the ice cream is being eaten. It for some reason, gives me a funny after taste with the fat freeness (not really a word but it will do). I will eat it only if it has some chocolate syrup or something to mask that. It was only .50, though with a $1.50 coupon from the catalina at kroger a few weeks ago so I won't complain. I never did eat anything else last night, so I skipped the dinner portion for me and opted out considering it was 10:00 by now.
I decided to take back the movie after Chuck and I watched Ghost Adventures, I just love that show! He settled in for his Friday night boxing and I went on my way. Already it had cooled down considerably from the last couple of days. Blockbuster and Meijer are right next to each other, so I decided to stop by Meijer and get a few things knowing there was a super sale going on. I did not have any coupons, which I was bummed about, but I did get a pretty good deal on a few things. They had 40 oz. packages of frozen boneless chicken breasts 2 for $9.00 and 2 liters of Pepsi products for .88. I bought 2 mt. dews (diet my husband loves diet mt. dew), fresh green beans for .99 lb, green cabbage 3 lbs. for $1.00 and I was out the door with 2 bags for $7.63. I sat and laughed as the catalina printed out about 15 new coupons especially the one for ERA laundry detergent that was $1.00 off while I have a manufacturers coupon for $1.00 off and it is on sale for $3.50. That is nice, although I don't use ERA very often, I will definetely use the detergent on bed linens, towels, etc., and save my good smelling Arm & Hammer or All for the clothes. I love the lingering smell of those after you take them out of the drawers.
I went back to Blockbuster to drop off the movie and saw a friend who works there, so he and I decided to complain about the movie I watched last night. Great movie with a bad ending. I decided to pick up another movie for Saturday night since I know we aren't financially well off enough to go anywhere lately.
Here's the drive home..{yawn} oh, I am a tired, tired person right now {yawn}.. it doesn't take much for me to come in, put away the groceries yet I transferred 2 of the chicken breasts to the fridge for dinner tonight. They cut those things HUGE at the factory, it will feed 4 of us on those 2 big breasts. I lay out some country ham pieces from the freezer to make my green beans and sit down again. I don't think it took me 10 minutes and I just had to go before I fell over. I kissed the clan and headed upstairs off to lala land. What a long day, and I don't usually stay up that late. Wow, makes you wonder if you didn't have kids and husbands where in this world would you be at 11:30. Me at that time a few years back would be getting ready to go out at that time, not turning in, but duty calls in life and you realize responsibility. I

Friday already?

Wow, everyone, I cannot believe Friday is here and already half over. I had to get up early this morning after my late night movie last night to go have monthly blood work drawn. I have not mentioned to this date I almost 4 years post kidney/pancreas transplant!! I have been doing great since I had it done with only minor infections such as UTI's (ugh). I thought so much that when I came home that I had things to do and I was gonna do them. I came home and showered, fed the pooches, got hubby's stuff ready and was on the road by 8:30. I had 3 different places to pay bills but I think to myself it's a great thing bills don't add into our weekly budgets, lol. I didn't really have much of a breakfast craving on the go, so I decide upon a cinnamon apple nutrigrain bar and a banana with (you guessed it) coffee! The girls decided that it wasn't much of a day to spend with mom, so they went to our nieghbors house to swim in the pool. I sent a 1/2 of a box of smores cereal and 3 bananas for them to get them started. A little after 10, I get my 82 year old grandpa to the grocery store, fix him some lunch and get back on the my journey. Chuck calls a little after 11 to let me know he's "hungry", I am in luck this month with all of the deals and coupons with restaurants in the economic status they are in. Arby's is the greatest right now. I received my weekly "junkers" full of ads and coupons for fast food and got a free Roast Chicken sandwich with the purchase of a drink and fry (any size) and also had a coupon for a free Beef 'n Cheddar. They have been printing them on the back of the receipts all of the time after filling out an online survey or call the 1-800 # printed on the receipt. Great deal, I got 2 full size manly sandwiches, a fry and a the drink for me for only $3.62. I know how much charity works since when I was on dialysis awaiting a transplant my work raised money for me, so I so graciously donated $1.00 to big brothers big sisters. Not to shabby for $4.62, a dollar off coupon for next time and yet ANOTHER free beef 'n cheddar coupon!! That made me feel even better.

I decided to leave the car with Chuck and take a walk home since we don't live so far from his work. Besides, today and all this weekend the high temperature is only about 75. IN JULY?!?! That is perfect weather if I do say so, I even turned off the a/c and let the wind blow through to save on my electricity bill. Saving feels like karma right now, it's just the right thing to do.

As I was walking home, I looked at all of the houses on my street, I imagined the families that lived in the houses, the arrangements of furniture and how different everyone lived even though all the houses on my street are brick colonial homes, all except possibly 3. Some have porches, some garages, some with pools, some perfect others I will not comment on. Then, there is mine. Smack dab in the middle of my street. It's not the ugliest house on the block, thankfully, but it definitely could use some improvement. I have no garage, which isn't a huge deal, but yet I have no porch. Wish I had a porch. As I near my house, I notice that my husband, bless his heart, has not been doing so much yard work as he usually does. I cannot take it. I get the loppers out and go at the weeds. I don't mind Ivy growing up the brick, but the weeds surrounding it got to go.

That sure worked up an appetite, although, I didn't get all of it done, but I will wait on him to get the weedeater out for the other side of the house. I decide upon using the leftover tuna mixture (hickory tuna, mushrooms, onions and green bell peppers), a package of ramen noodles and a package of individual serving broccoli and cheese sauce (only 60 calories) to make a casserole. I did not realize how much one packet would make! I boiled my ramen noodle packet and nuked the pack of broccoli cheese. After draining the "oodles of noodles"..hehe, I just like saying that since it's on the package, I added the tuna mixture and warm broccoli cheese. I mixed all of together and put into a 9 inch glass baking dish, turned the broiler on low, added 1/4 cup shredded monterey cheddar shredded cheese and some ritz cracker crumbs over top. After broiling for approximately 3 minutes it was done. I did not realize how good it was until I dug into it. Wow, for a 15 cent pack of noodles and leftover items, that was a meal I will definitely eat over and over again! If you like broccoli rice casserole, this is as great as that. Nice cheap lunch will get me the energy back to go tackle the rest of the yard, maybe....

The girls, I forgot to mention, decided to play sneakies and spend sometime at the neighbors pool during lunch and skipped out on it so we will see how hungry they are by the time they are done and wear themselves out.

Well, the girls obviously wore themselves out today because all they wanted to do was take a nap when they came in and obviously something to drink. Good thing I have some Capri Suns I got at meijer for 79 cents with a dollar off coupon a few weeks ago sitting in the fridge! I (tried) to lay down and I am having the eye droops now, but instead my mind was racing with thoughts of school. It's still over a month away before school starts, but my financial aid and class schedule still needs to be compiled. My brain hurts now and it will be worse by the time my husband comes home from work. He is working late with his brother tonight until about 8:30. I'm not personally hungry, I really couldn't be due to the fact the peanut butter OBVIOUSLY learned how to talk to me..haha. I heard it all the way in the pantry just chanting over and over again. So.. it shutup. That's the end of that little nut talking back.

The girls decided they wanted to have french bread pizzas tonight. I thawed out a french bread loaf from the deli at kroger I got for .50 a few weeks back JUST for this occasion. The girls LOVE to be in the kitchen when I let them have control of a few things. I sliced the loaf in half, and half again for them to have 1/4 each. I found 1/2 jar of spaghetti sauce in the refrigerator from last weeks pizzas I made on Friday night. All the ingredients were then left in the fridge. Pepperoni, onions, green peppers, olives, shredded 5 italian cheese and ta-da! We have a go Houston. The girls scarf it down and no wonder, they are growing girls. That's a scary thought!! 9? 7? ALREADY? and we are trying to conceive again..good thing they are that age...."INSTA_BABYSITTAS" yay!!! That excites me and also scares me at the same time.

I'm not really sure and very hopeful the man in my life hasn't decided to stray out tonight and "cheat" on my budget! I don't deal with betrayal of the wallet, hehehe. I am honestly not certain yet what I will fix for us when he does get here. It's just one of those belly gurgling nights where I don't honestly think I will be hungry until bedtime, then it's just too late to eat. I do, however, have a Digornio flatbread melts meatball marinara brand that "YAY" I got a meijer for free on Sunday because of sweet little websites that tell all the secrets. I received a coupon for it to be free a week or so ago. I like free stuff. Alot. End of story. Not really, I can keep going, I'm a talker if you can't tell, but if you really met me in person..you wouldn't think that until you REALLY got to know me. I would say I am more sarcastic and humorous than anything and I can come up with anything at anytime. I'm sometimes so bad I have to tell myself to stop. Honestly, I didn't realize how bad it was until my lovely Lexi popped off with some serious sarcasm that she topped me. Wow, guess I should watch it around them so highly. But, hey at least hey have a great sense of humor for the future and realize that beauty is not the most important thing in the world like they ( I mean she) thinks it is. anyways...I think I am going to sit and wait for him to show up and get a clue to whats on his menu for the night. Who knows??

Thursday, Thursday

Wow, it's been so quiet other than the dogs barking at the mailmen. The girls are still gone. Lexi has called because she misses momma (she does this every night when shes gone) and Shiloh acts as if prison just broke out and shes happier than a clam to be gone. I love my daughters, just one loves me more than the other I think sometimes.
I woke up quite groggy this morning and didn't really want to stay up, but I did. Once that alarm goes off, I'm awake. Haven't take a real nap since my babies were babies other than having surgery 3 weeks ago. I don't consider that a nap, I consider that a pill nap having to take pain medication. Any hoo, I get up and lay on the couch for about 10 minutes before Chuck leaves for work. The dogs run and act crazy in the yard before coming in to nap again. They pass the food bowl with their noses up as if I served them catfood. How rude. Sorry that kibbles and bits are not surf and turf in this house, poochies.
The motivation has not exactly hit me to get up and do much since the girls aren't here. I sit on the couch with the laptop checking emails and sipping my coffee and before I know it's 10:00. The little pang of hunger finally hits me. I find some bagels in the fridge and toast a mini bagel, spread some honey nut cream cheese. I also slice 1/2 banana in half and try out a little of the cream cheese on it. Not too bad, but not as good as peanut butter on it. Either way, a small breakfast fits the little tummy talking. It's just now 11:30, and I still haven't gotten up but to let the dogs go prance away in the yard and bark at the girl dog next door. They come in and yet take another nap. This house needs alot of beauty sleep obviously, other than me guess I should follow that lead and see if I slip back into looking like my daughters for a day. Even though it's this close to lunchtime, I don't exactly have a hunger pain, especially since I just ate. Good thing I don't just go by time rather than hunger like my oldest daughter. Lexi has a self set schedule when it comes to meals. If things aren't on time, she gets a little worried and acts quite dramatic. If dinner isn't on the table at least by 6:30, the questions start rolling. Quite funny.
It's on today to finish up laundry, do the dishes and mop floors. Chuck possibly may not be home until after 8 tonight from working late, but it may be tomorrow night instead. Honestly, I haven't laid anything out for dinner yet, due to the not knowing. If he works late, I may heat up meatloaf from last night and have a meatloaf sandwich. I may have left over tuna mixture and cover in cheese and bread crumbs to make a small casserole for myself. Guess I will just have to see what my tummy decides later on. Off to do some housework and get ready for my girls to come home later on.

Mopping takes alot out of you when you have only carpet in select rooms. So, to quench my thirst, instead of reaching for a bottled water like I usually do or a diet soda (I'm not much of a soda fan) I decided to make myself a little afternoon treat with some of my items from the refrigerator that needed to be used up. I had about 1/2 cup of strawberries left over from Saturday's party, already sliced and maserated in about 2 tbsp. of sugar for a few days. Quite sweet! I then took two 4 oz. cups of vanilla activa light yogurt cups, 4 peach slices with no added sugar, the other half of the banana from breakfast, 1/2 tbsp. honey and 1/2 tsp. of vanilla extract combined in the blender. WA-lah! Instant heathier afternoon pick me up smoothie. Quite the sweet tooth craving without all of the calories, fat and sugar to add to my hips from the lips. The tartness of the yogurt and strawberries combined with the sweetness of the banana and peaches make a great combination and even better in my mind that I know I didn't hop in the car and go pick up a price adding, pound adding milkshake or sundae from the local ice cream shop. GO ME!! Still, I'm not in the lunch mood, so it's already 2:00 p.m., why eat now? Even if Chuck doesn't come home at the usual 5:30, I can still have a later dinner tonight. I am now going through my pantry list to see if there is anything to wake up my meatloaf instead of the previous idea of a meatloaf sandwich.. we will see how this goes!

Well, after a long afternoon of cleaning the house, I decided to get online and think up ideas of what I could do with leftover meatloaf. I decided upon sloppy joes using the meatloaf ground up, added 1/4 cup green bell peppers and 1 tbsp. worchestershire sauce. Saute until warm and add 1 small 10 oz (I think it's 10??) can of tomato sauce, 2 tbsp. light brown sugar and a 1/2 tsp. yellow mustard. These are the best and less sodium than traditional canned sloppy joe sauces. I'm going to add Alexia waffle fries I got at Meijer on Sunday for $1.19 after $1.00 coupon, baking them in the oven instead of frying for fat content and adding alot of seasonings! Magnifique! No one in my house ever resists sloppy joes momma style. I, personally, like to take the fries, omit bun and put the sloppy joe on top of the fries, top with shredded cheese and melt for 25 seconds. I also like to add some diced yellow onion and sometimes bread and butter pickles diced. My own little creation that is yummy.

Woo, the day closes to an end almost for me now at 11:30 p.m. The meatloaf/sloppy joes were a hit with the family, and even had enough leftover for two of Chuck's friends who happened to have stopped by for a little while. All of the meatloaf is gone, 2 meals out of one pound of hamburger feeding 8 people, not bad at all I do declare! I went afterwards and conflicted with Best Buys warranty policy on this laptop. I don't get it, but who am I to say what is covered and shipping costs should be. OH WELL, guess I can deal with one broken key until I decide to splurge on myself and get it fixed. Afterwards, I stopped at Targ'et, hehe, in desperate need of electronics cleaner and had to compare prices between 60 multi-purpose wipes out of the computer department for $7.99 or a BIG bottle of pledge multi-surface cleaner for $3.99, I went with the latter of course considering if you take one wipe out, it will just dry up. My little laptop only needs a little squirt to clean the screen so, I figure it will save me in the long run. I spent $4.26, unfortunately, I did not have any coupons. I feel sad when I don't have a coupon, but it's not $100.00, so I guess I can live with a "non" bargain product once.

I end my stops at Blockbuster and get a movie for my honey to watch on the couch together while the girls decided to wind down for the night. I, however, am the only one who wants to pay attention to the movie. HMMM, oh well. We both wanted to see it, but unfortunately I am the only one who watched the whole movie. His loss, good movie. I had a little craving that hit me in the tums about 9:00 that led me back to this mornings cream cheese, ummmm, and a few ritz honey butter crackers. I did not over do it, so the guilt hasn't set in on the thighs yet. All in all, it was a productive day cleaning and getting some much needed stuff done around the house. I have a busy Friday ahead of me but I will NOT be broken of spending wisely no matter if I am out or not. I never do except for an occasional milkshake on a hot day. As long as I keep telling myself that I am going to stay in my size 3 jeans I think I may be able to pass them by like anything else I don't need in my life. Good night to all, early risers must rise again for another day of living the life. OH, my where are my manners? My grand total for Thursday would be (insert drum roll here).... $9.63. I am not sure if I am supposed to factor in the cost of movies, but I will add it just in case. Plus, I had to buy my youngest daughter a "high school musical 3" poster at Blockbuster, it was only .99 and she is a huge fan. More bargains to everyone!

Wednesday July 15

Today started out as a usual Wednesday, but something feels like it's missing? OH, it's my daughters!! They are gone for the day. Early rising they left before breakfast. Today is a forecast of ugly with a chance of pretty later in the day. I got up to my coffee (of course), and decided today was a day for one of my FAVORITE breakfasts that are easier than easy. Waffles with sliced bananas, peanut butter and syrup. Need I say more? I am a peanut butter lover. I had all of the items in the freezer and pantry, so no cost there. I am, however, low on my favorite coffee creamer. I can't do without my coffee, so I will grudgingly have to go to the store later today. Here's my way to a satisfying waffle experience: toast a waffle, my favorite are eggo french vanilla waffles, when they pop out of the toaster nice and warm still, spread the peanut butter (my pick again is peanut butter with honey already mixed in, for some reason I like the Kroger brand better than any other national brand I've tried), slice your banana over top and drown in syrup. I am a pretty healthy eater, and like for my girls to be to, so I buy the no sugar added syrup. It has ALOT less sugar and calories compared to other syrups, so I don't feel guilty when I enjoy this little pleasure.
By the time I am done licking the latter part of the syrup from the plate, quite a scene if someone catches that in my private moments haha, my hubby is home due to the rainout at work. He comes in and we talk for a few before he goes to the basement to "work" on things, only to end up working on his "beauty sleep". He is their father, guess it just runs in the bloodline.. He does inform me that they ordered breakfast at work from white castle across the street, ugh, white castle in the a.m. reminds me of my partying days, not exactly what I want to smell at 8:30 in the morning, but whatever. He spent $4.28. I however, sit down with a mission on my spreadsheets and word documents to calculate the bills and other expenses it takes to run the household. Such a fun task I might add. After the hours of getting things in order, I start on my lists of what items I have in my pantry, fridge, freezer and baking cabinet. I am a huge baker, so I have a one whole double cabinet dedicated just to spices, baking items, etc.
I find that I have alot more than I thought I did, although I knew I had enough I just didn't realize it until I dug deep into the pantry to find things I had no clue when I bought. Luckily nothing was expired. I decided now to get down to receipts for the year. Yes, call me a nerd if you want to but I like to know my savings for the year. I take all of my receipts and separate them monthly into categories such as groceries/needs, wants, bills, etc. Then I add up the amounts I have spent monthly, coupon savings and non-coupon savings such as store promotions, sales or discount card savings. It is quite a nice thing to see. I then staple the receipts accordingly and put them into a file folder. To this date, I have spent from January to July 14th $1,066.42, saved $352.80 in discounts/promos and $407.75 in coupons. I know I have more receipts somewhere, but I cannot seem to find them at this moment. BUT, it does make me happy to see that I have saved quite a bit a little more than half of what I have spent so far. Like I said, I'm a nerd, guess I should get my pocket protector out. Haha.
While the girls are going to stay the night at their aunt's house, I decide on a lunch for myself, while sleeping beauty is downstairs I won't bother, he won't eat it anyway. I have a starkist tuna pouch, hickory flavor so I plan on making a quesadilla. I slice up an onion, mushrooms, diced green peppers and saute them with the tuna in a skillet. I use one flour tortilla and some monterey cheddar shredded cheese in my quesadilla. I whip up a dipping sauce by using fat free sour cream 1 tbsp. with 3 tbsp. chunky salsa. Add 1/2 cup of the leftover pasta salad and have a satisfying lunch while I switch out laundry.
OK, so it really is a lazy Wednesday. I didn't get into the shower until 5:00 after I put a meatloaf in the oven. I used the ground beef from meijer I got for .50, saltine crackers, onions and green bell peppers, can of tomato sauce, an egg and ketchup. All of which were items from my pantry/freezer/fridge. After getting out of the shower and waking the hubby to let him know I had to run to the store, I let the meatloaf go to work in the oven.
I go to Kroger and scour the aisles "just in case" there are a few things that might be on sale that I had a coupon for. I purchase orange juice $1.50 for 1/2 gallon, french vanilla coffee creamer $2.29, bananas $1.29 and a tomato $.64 for bacon and tomato sandwiches this week making my grand total $5.72. Not too shabby, yet I had no coupons but did have my kroger plus card so it worked out ok.
Arby's in on the way home from Kroger and I give it a thought and then turn it down, even though Wednesdays are free days at Arbys and I do have 2 coupons for a free beef and cheddar.. but I stay on track and come home to meatloaf. I know it's healthier the way I have made it than beef and cheddar and fries. Heck, the coupons I have don't expire for awhile and there is always next Wednesday for a free deal.
I come home to a house filled with the smell of meatloaf lovin' in the oven! Nothing better than to walk into a house with such a yummy smell. I'm so happy now that I passed arby's by. I get to making some mashed potatoes with some potatoes in the potato box while the hubb's asks me when it's going to be done. I snicker, naps must make a growing boy hungry. We finally have a nice dinner, yet it's not at the dinner table. We cheat a little and eat on the couch when the girls aren't home sometimes. The meatloaf is nice and crusty on the ends, just how I like it and the potatoes smooth as silk. Quite a nice and lovely dinner and a bonus of leftovers for tomorrow's lunch if I please. I am getting a little tired of pasta salad, and there is still a container full of about 9 cups. UGH. I might have to push some off on my neighbors. They love anything I bring to them. They are my guinea pigs of food, especially when I bake.
The night winds down with a night of watching the dogs play outside, us watching Wipeout (hilarious), america's got talent and my favorite Ghost Hunters! I'm a tired gal by now and ready to head upstairs to bed. No cravings tonight make for a great night!
We had a grand total today in the allowance of $10.00, making our total of $14.58 so far this week. Doing pretty good so far but it's not any different than any other week.

Tuesday, July 14

Yet another appointment today. Today my daughters' have a dentist appointment. I am proud to say that my oldest has never had a cavity. That makes me proud. The only thing that is disappointing is that she is not at the age that her mouth is. For 9, she has only lost 3 teeth and it's not looking promising that she is gonna lose anymore anytime soon. Poor kid, she hates being teased for having baby teeth still. We already have the prognosis that she is in desperate need of braces, but with them not growing in yet, we do have PLENTY of time to save for them. Thank goodness! I am proud, though, that her teeth are still cavity free. My youngest, however is cavity free as of now, but has had 3 already. She's a mini me in that sense, I have spent numerous days in a dentist's chair, wide mouthed and numb. Not something I like to see my children go through. She however, has already lost 4 teeth at 7, and they are rapidly growing in and falling out. No sign of needing braces. She definitely got her dads teeth! He has the perfect alignment and smile, never has had a cavity either. I guess the girls got the combo from both of us. Booooo on bad teeth, yay on no cavities!

The girls got plenty of beauty sleep yesterday, so today started out with a breakfast of rice krispies with sliced bananas and a nutrigrain bar for them. Me, I had quaker instant oatmeal "banana bread" with sliced bananas and a dollop of honey. Quite yummy if I do say so, considering I am the only one in the house who likes oatmeal. My husband calls early to make his plea of starvation. I grudgingly pack the girls in the car and we head to good 'ol Mickey D's...ugh. No offense to mcdonalds, but I stopped liking it after growing up as a mcdonalds baby in the 80's. Too many happy meals for me in the past make me not really want fast food. He gets a hashbrown and 2 sausage biscuits for a total of $3.10 and a polar pop coming in at .74. Not once but again he calls for yet another polar pop. He's a thirsty growing boy today!

The girls and I had lunch a little while later that consisted of ham sandwiches with cheese, mustard and pickles, bbq chips and watermelon chunks all of which were left over from our Saturday night party. I mention our party and watermelon in the same sentence so I can intro my first ever watermelon basket. hint hint. OH yeah, back to lunch. I had a few handfuls of wheat thin toasted chips and another pudding cup with coolwhip. Small but satisfying yet again.

No phone call for lunch? No, he didn't call again.

Dinnertime rolls around and I have been boiling ribs for hours to get them nice and tender. I bought these ribs when they were on sale at Kroger last week for $1.99 lb. for pork loin back ribs. Great deal to feed 4-5 for $4.47. I added a pouch of Lipton noodles and sauce the creamy chicken flavor is a hit in my house. When pasta comes up in my house, my husband gets this wierd look on his face....BUT, he loves the noodles from this. He will eat more than one helping if there are any left.

Our night finally winds down..then it hits! The craving. OH NO, I thought to myself. But, I do have to say that I had stockpiled minibag popcorn bags a few weeks ago while Kmart had them on sale in a 10 pack box for $3.00 while having a coupon for $1.00 off doubling coupons up to $2.00. I bought 2 boxes for $4.00 for the craving that requires a salty, crunchy, satisfying taste. I didn't finish half of the bag during America's got talent, but hubby did for me. NO wasting there! Tomorrow the girls are going to stay at their aunt's house for a night or two to get away from us. We drive them as nuts as they drive us at times. It is summertime, so I say ok.

Monday, July 13, 2009

So, here I am Christina, age 28.. mother of 2 daughters, Lexi age 9 and Shiloh age 7. I am also a wife, bandaider, nurse, cook, maid, taxi cab driver, doctor and dentist taker-er(hehe I love made up words by my girls) and everything in between. I do all of the housewife chores, although, my girls are at the age where they are old enough to help me out. Secretly, I don't mind at all doing these things. They keep me busy and that makes a day go by fast. Now, that being said, sometimes I do have my "lazy" days. I do, however, make my girls do a few of their own little chores such as cleaning their OWN rooms and taking their laundry to the basement. Other than that, they are allowed to be kids and enjoy their time off of school. One of the things that I get the greatest pleasure out of doing is grocery shopping. I KNOW, some people may hate the thought of going and doing all of the shopping, but me I love it. It is not only a time where I can go by myself while my husband stays home with the girls, but it's a time I feel like I get a natural high anticipating the sales and savings that I can come home and brag to them that I found!! Sounds silly, but all in all I'm otherwise a pretty boring person. Hey, at least I can laugh at myself and be honest about it. My days of bars and big keg parties are long gone.

Monday July 13, 2009 started the allyou grocery challenge. This is almost like waiting on Christmas for me. I get to put all of my experience with money saving and meal planning to work for a chance to win $1,000.00 shopping card?? I never would have imagined this day would come! YAY!

Every Sunday morning, I get up with my coffee and make some sort of good breakfast for my girls. They get so excited that Sunday is not cereal (again) or anything that comes out of a toaster. Now, don't get me wrong, the girls love poptarts and waffles, but nothing compares to momma's pancakes. My oldest daughter, Lexi, is 9. She is a great foodie at her age already. She wants to know the ins and outs of how to cook and also to save money. We are raising ourselves an otherwise old fashioned girl in the 21st century and it makes me proud. She even wrote a poem this past school year about my pancakes. That was great. "the smell, the warm pancakes when she bites into them covered in strawberries and warm syrup". It was quite the emotional poem considering she does savor every last bite like she is the best critic to walk this side of the Ohio River. After breakfast, I sit with my coffee, newspaper, scissors and coupon binder to go on a hunt like no other. I sometimes sit for hours going through every ad to not only find the greatest deals on groceries but also deals that I cannot pass up, even if I have to drive a few minutes out of my norm. I always coordinate my coupons and ads together to get the best savings.

Example of the best savings I can think of are deals that involve buying groceries but finding the deal that coordinates with them. This past Sunday in the Meijer ad, if you bought any combination of kelloggs, sunshine, keeber or eggo products equaling $10.00 you would automatically get $10.00 off any backpack. That is a great deal, considering I have 2 daughters going in the 2nd and 4th grade. I myself, had coupons for all of the products. I purchased 3 boxes of kelloggs cereals, 2 boxes of poptarts and a box of eggo pancakes. (I know these aren't "momma's pancakes", but the work during the week for a craving.) The poptarts and cereals were advertised 5 for $9.00, to which I had a coupon for $2.00, $1.00, $1.00, .55 & .55. The first backpack I bought was $12.00. All in all I spent $8.78 for all of the products and even had a coupon for $1.00 off of milk when I bought one of the cereals. Alone, you can barely get cereal and milk if it isn't on sale for that price. So, I killed alot of birds with one stone that day. I plan on going back this week again before Saturday to get the deal again for my other daughter. The next deal I was very happy with was Meijer had ground beef for $1.50 prepacked pound and A1 for $2.49 (which is a great deal in itself considering it is pretty expensive when not on sale). I had a coupon for $2.00 off of A1 and the A1 bottle had a $1.00 off coupon off meat. Well, that made my total for a pound of lean ground beef 80/20 and a bottle of A1 for $1.00. We use alot of A1 in my house for fries and my husband and daughters like it on pot roast instead of gravy.

I take alot of pride in my shopping habits and my husband has accepted the fact that I am going to the grocery and may be gone for 4 hours if needed. I grab my coupon filer, tote which carries the filer and ads, Ipod and I'm ready to roll after my morning of coupon clipping.

This week, starting out I already have quite alot of pantry items and freezer items to start out with. I usually only go to the grocery store one time weekly for majority purchases but have to go at least once midweek for small purchases such as milk, oj, bananas or coffee creamer ( I HAVE to have my coffee!).

Monday morning, I started the challenge. It has been easy as every other week already is. I already have a pantry in my basement for items that cannot fit in my pantry in the kitchen. I admit, when cereal goes on sale and with the plus of the backpack last week, I have 33 boxes of cereal in my basement unopened. It's like shopping when the girls want to open a new box! Monday mornings breakfast meal consisted of me having rice krispies (my favorite) with a sliced banana, milk and of course...coffee. My daughters had cookie crisp cereal with a sliced banana and milk. I should go ahead and say, it wasn't breakfast for them. It was brunch, considering they decided to sleep in after a party we had Saturday night was a LATE one, so they had to catch up on their "beauty" sleep. Here's where I let you know my oldest daughter is a beauty queen in her eyes, my youngest just rolls her eyes at her sister. Complete opposites. Girly girl and daddy's lil tomboy. I can't say that I wasn't the mixture because I was both them at one time or another. It just makes me laugh when I borrowed my daughter's digital camera, which is much better than mine might I say, and looked to see that she obviously thinks she is a beauty queen with 130 pictures of the emotional journey of herself.. I laughed until I cried almost.

Lunch consisted of leftover pasta salad for me with a jello pudding cup and coolwhip, satisfying and yummy especially the banana chocolate sundae! Believe me, I say leftover pasta salad, I mean ALOT of it. So, hopefully I won't be getting sick of it too quickly.

Back to the day. I had a doctor appointment that afternoon and we arrived home in time for dinner. Sunday night, we had fried chicken breasts with chicken gravy and mashed potatoes with sweet italian rolls. So, last night with 2 remaining BIG chicken breasts, I reheated them in the oven and made chicken sandwiches with cheese and honey mustard, grilled veggies from the party on Saturday night consisting of broccoli, baby carrots, red pepper strips and onions, and cottage cheese. I found out at my doctor appointment that I have gained a few pounds in the past 6 weeks, so I am trying to cut back on a few non-essentials for me. Perfect timing I guess when it comes to this challenge. I opted out on the chicken and stayed to the grilled veggies, quite a serving though, but I know that they were healthy and the fiber kept me full, or was it the gas from the broccoli? Either way, I was full for the night.

My daughters enjoyed a jell-o pudding cup, sugar free with cool whip, which I might add that meijer had on sale Sunday 2 jell-0 pudding packs equals free cool whip, plus I had a $1.00 off coupon, so not too bad for $3.00 for 12 pudding cups and coolwhip. Makes for a healthy minded dessert that they like (and so do I.)

Now, I must admit, with this challenge is a challenge within itself. My husband, Chuck, works outside all day long. So summertime is hard for him. It's warm out and he doesn't have a refrigerator to keep food in at work. Just a cooler. If anyone has went out with a cooler and a sandwich they know that sometimes a mush ham sandwich is not all the crave in the heat. So, he decides to opt out on food most days but buys quite a few polar pops in the day to stay hydrated. I do make a cooler for him with about 7 drinks daily, but the ice melts quickly in the sun. The total for our Monday allowance of $25.00 per person weekly is only at a mere $1.48 for 2 polar pop drinks. Not too shabby, if I say so myself.