Only a week into March

and I already blew one of the goals! Well, it was still a good buy though. We were offered 1/4 of a cow for $125. The cow was a Black Angus Cow and from a local farmer that my brother-law knows. We split the cow with some family members and dished out $125. So I doubt I will be sticking to my goal of only $500 this month on food:) I guess it is slightly possible....but that means I would have to spend only $250 for the next few weeks of March. I guess we will see :)

D's mother gave us some pork too..so perhaps I could stay under since I will need no hamburger, roast, pork, sausage, type meats. I have a whole stack of chicken that I just bought. So I guess...I may still possibly meet this challenge???? Only time will tell!

Pay day coming up

Pay day is this coming Monday and I am already working on our dinner menus. The past two weeks was a bust. I went over budget, I failed to use cash, and I did not make out dinner menus. No menus almost always leads to us running out of food. I am blessed that my husband does not mind this happening now and then, but he has encouraged me to strive to stick to it a little better with this next paycheck. I am determined to do it!

I also need to account for some shoe shopping for my ever growing boys. Their feet seem to grow at ridiculous rates! My two oldest boys already wear shoes sizes bigger than mine! My oldest really needs two pairs.....dressier ones and a pair of tennis shoes for playing around in. Since we homeschool, I am sure we will get buy with just buying some off brand tennis shoes. But for their dressier style ones they will likely want world industries. Sometimes I can find those on sale for around 35.00. Our youngest could use a pair as well. So heres to hoping I hit some good sales next week!

Still on budget!

I still have my $25.00 bucks left in my bi-weekly spending budget. I promised the kids that if I could fit it in our budget we would get pizza for dinner friday night plus some soda.

I think that is the liberating part of having a budget. I no longer feel bad for splurges like pizza. If I am within our budget....then no problem! I have really become better at planning our meals and budgeting for excursions based on our schedules. When I made our menu out last Sunday, I left Friday blank in hopes that nothing would prevent us from affording some pizza. We almost never buy soda so a couple two liters and 2 $5.00 pizzas from Little Ceasars and we will be set!

We will probably watch a movie on netflix too! I love easy, fun, cheap family nights! Who knows....we may pull out some board games as well!

So what are you doing for fun this week?

Nothing much to report.

So far so good. I did go over my food budget, which I have not done for the past three months. But this week was an exception since we had some major food allergies to deal with. Basically our son can have very little processed food. Nothing containing Milk, Soy, or Corn. So I will now focus on purchasing more fresh fruits and vegetables and cooking supplies. His bread will need to be homemade and most of our sauces like spaghetti sauce and apple sauce will need to come from scratch. Most store bought canned items contain corn syrup or soy products to maintain flavoring and freshness.

We were already contemplating a garden...so I was excited to see this post by Oh My Aching debts on ordering seed catalogs. Since we homeschool, we feel growing from seeds will be a neat project anyway. We plan to put our boys to work in the designing and building of the raised planter beds this spring.

Monday is payday....so I will be putting up our two week budget and show what debts we will be attacking. I am hoping to be able to get our EF to 500 and pay off our Khols credit card bill of $200. Then we will be on to our second credit card, which is around 4,000. We should have it gone with our tax refund. After that is when the fun will begin! Getting rid of either one car payment or my student loan. So come back and check out the budget!

New Year Eve plans?

New Years is a very special holiday for my husband and I. We actually met at a new years eve party. Yes, our first kiss was at midnight! We got married 6 months later. I am happy to say that I am not just as in love with him as I was then, but actually more than I dreamed possible. He is my best friend and the person I want to run to and tell about anything and everything! I truly love him and just wish everyone had a love like I have found.

In the past we have found sitters and went out to parties, but as more kids have come into the family going out gets a little more difficult. This year we have opted to be frugal with the holiday but that does not mean we wont have fun with it!

The kids got a lot of board games for this Christmas from their grandparents. So we are splurging on pizza and breadsticks from Little Ceasers. I bought soda from the grocery store--a treat in our house! I also have in our pantry chips, salsa, nachos and dip stuff in the fridge.

We told our older kids that when the youngest one goes down....around 8:30 we will pull the games out and play all night while watching the ball fall on TV. I will take some pics for you to enjoy on New Years day!

These are the games they have....Life, Monopoly, Clue, Risk, Operation, Candyland, Uno, Scrabble, and Battleship.

Yesterday we played Clue. They had never played it before. Our six year old simply helped my husband move his guy around and roll the dice. When my husband made a suggestion that Mr, Green killed someone in the kitchen with a candlestick our six year old started to get mad. He was screaming "No, No, he used the gun!" and DH went a head and moved the candlestick in the room. My 6yrold ds simply smacked himself on the head and said "How can anyone kill someone with a candlestick?!?!"

We all got a chuckle out of that one...we are such good parents to be explaining how to commit murder to our 6 year old.

What are your plans for the New Years? Are you being frugal or spoiling yourself?