Up and running....

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.....

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...........

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....

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

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?

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....

-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!

My little guy....

"You don't really expect me to stay in here, do you?"

ALDI vs. my other choices...

I have been shopping more at ALDI lately because of the pantry challenge.I usually try to just shop the loss leaders at the major chains near me but if they don't have any great advertised deals then I can just about guarantee ALDI will be the cheapest.

DH had to go to Home Depot for a spark plug for the lawn mower so I tagged along so I could look around the ALDI nearby (which also hapens to be near the bread outlet I shop at).

Since I had plenty of time to look around I wrote down a bunch of prices to compare to the prices at my other favorite stores. Today I was able to compare those prices to a few at GFS and Costco. I also picked up some items while I was out to start stocking back up.

What I like about ALDI:

1.The produce and staples are consistently inexpensive.
2. It's usually easy to get in and out ( not always though).
3. Since they have a limited selection, its easy to decide what to buy and that helps when trying for a simple, easy menu plan.
4.There is one on my husbands way home from work.

What I don't like:

1. I can almost always buy milk, eggs, and cheese for less elsewhere. Most meats also.
2.They do not carry all the items I like.

I picked up some produce for the week and also 2 items for a taste test.

Broccoli crowns .69
Bananas .44 lb
Roma tomatoes 1.59 ( I think it was 20 oz.)
Navel Oranges 3 lbs 1.29
White bread .69
Quick oats 42oz. 1.69 (This is close to the bulk prices I have seen, bought 1 to check taste)
Ranch dressing .99 (I did not care for it)
They were out of wheat bread but it was much higher than the bread outlet anyway, I picked up a loaf of wheat for .85 at the outlet.

ALDI can be a excellent choice for many reasons. I think when I had less time to plan and a smaller family that it would have been the best choice for me.

I am also trying to get together a price book to compare my choices. I added some prices from ALDI, Costco and GFS this week. I am trying to shop only when I have to go somewhere to save on gas so it may take me a little while to get it together. If you are in the Columbus Ohio and surrounding area and want to compare prices I have a pretty good jumpstart so feel free to email me :)

If you have not given ALDI a chance, check out The Aldi Queen at Mom Advice for great recipes and info.

...and don't forget your quarter * :)

*for the cart

Daily Bread......

We had Betty White's Chicken Wings and Easy Baked Potato Wedges last night. Even though I rushed the wings DH said they were the best wings ever. I think we have a keeper :)

The picture does not do them justice. They were sooooo good.

I am looking for a few meals that will help keep us from eating out when we want something special and I think this will be a good choice.

3 Random Things

OK, I was tagged this week by 2 people for the random things tag. Momisbroke and My Crazy Debt both tagged me so here goes.

The rules for '3 Random Things':
1. Post 3 random things about yourself.
2. Link to the person who tagged you in your post.
3. Tag at least 5 other bloggers.
4. Let them know you've tagged them by commenting on their blog with an invite to participate.


1. I have a long birth name. While I can't tell you what it is because of potential identity theft I can give you a idea:


******** ****** ********** ****** *******

(Rumpelstiltskin ain't got nothing on me)

2. I dropped out of high school. School was easy. Life was hard.

3. I like to order white castle jalapeno cheeseburgers, open them up, place on a few french fries and ketchup and then smash them back together to eat. Preferably a half dozen at a time.

Ok... honestly I don't like to tag people. I always feel like I am intruding on their blog space and how do I only pick 5 people? So if I tag you and you don't want to do it feel free to ignore me :)

I'm going to tag:
Nico
Miranda
Raquel
Jasmine
Kyliesmom

The good, the bad and the ugly...(food goals)

OK, the ugly first. Drudge report has a link to a article about food rationing, really it seems to just be a few stores limiting purchases on a few items but I did find it unsettling. I know Drudge is usually full of articles meant to shock or scare, that's the point to keep you coming back. I am curious if anyone out there has actually seen any limits on rice, flour and oils anywhere?

The good and bad are on my attempt to eat of the pantry this month.

The good: I spent very little on groceries, organized my supplies, learned some new things, everyone was on board and DH had fun with it.

The bad: I could not go a whole month without eating out (we went out to lunch once), ordering a pizza (once, last night) and I could not go without pop ( grr....).

Its only April 21st but I started before the beginning of the month so a month is almost up. I still have some stuff to use up but I am going to ease up so I can buy more fresh produce and start building supplies back up.

I find it easier to track spending on my blog so I am going to record my grocery shopping here. Forgive a few dull shopping posts here and there :)

Goals for the next 3 months:

1. Start a price book. I don't usually use one but I want to go ahead a give it a shot.
2. Use staples more effectively. I made a list of staples and I could not believe how long my list was! No wonder I lose track of some things.
3. Try bread baking, unless we get a record breaking hot summer :)
4. Refill my freezer in a organized manner.
5. Focus on making our weekend meals better. On Saturday afternoons we are planning on some serious garage sale shopping this year and I want to pack picnics or use the crock pot so we can have big meals afterward. Everyone is always starving and tired afterward. Sunday meals need to be relaxing and flexible enough to accommodate extra guests. I'm thinking of big roasts, hams, or chicken that I can use the extras from to make lunches and use in OAMC meals.

Are you trying anything new?
Are you worried gas and food prices will continue to rise?
Has your shopping changed because of it?

Menu Plan Monday

In no particular order because I got as far as seeing what I needed to use up but not far enough to decide what to have on what day :)

-Chicken wings, potato wedges and corn

-Spaghetti

-Rice and beans

-Shanghai noodles with the rest of last weeks cabbage

-Smoked sausage and potatoes with green beans

-Alfredo pasta with chicken ( still have 3 jars to use up)

-Leftovers

I took a break from my pantry challenge to stock up on some good deals but I still have some stuff to use up so its back to hitting the pantry. I still have chicken breasts and seasoned ground beef in the freezer but I am going to pick up some smoked sausage for a change this week. I should have everything else on hand so I think I am going to just pick up sale smoked sausage, sour cream and strawberries (3 packs) from Meijer and milk and 10/10 eggs from Kroger. I might pick up a few coupon items also.

I hope everyone has a great week and don't forget to visit I'm an Organizing Junkie for Menu Plan Monday.

Sunday

I was catching up on some blog posts and paying a visit to Hadias when I came across her post pointing out Why bother?. It certainly spoke to me and I wanted to share it in case anyone else might find it valuable.

I love double coupons!

I did not plan any major shopping for the rest of the month but between a good cereal deal at Giant Eagle and a 4 day Super double coupon sale at Kroger I could not pass up the deals

This is over a few days . I hit multiple stores along my garage sale route Friday and Saturday. I never buy to much at one store. I spent about $50 including picking up some milk I needed. $20 of that was just for juice. I also spent $10 to get extra coupons. Total spent of $60, receipts said I saved over $280!! Not quite everything made it into the pictures, I have some stuff already opened in the fridge.

Happy dance!!!

Busy, busy, busy....

Well, turns out my family was not done with the flu like I thought. I have to finish taking care of everyone, clean up for company, and prepare for a full weekend. DH is going to have 3 whole days off and we have lots to do. April has been so busy!

I had lots of posts planned but they will have to wait until next week. I think I have been saying that all month :)

Still trying to use things up...

I have been ill the last few days but I am feeling better now. My throat still hurts but I no longer feel like I was hit by by car :)

DH had to go into work for a few hours on Sunday morning so I had him pick up some produce at ALDI to get through the week. Total was a little over $9. Yesterday after I started feeling better I also gave into the urge for some Coke Zero and bought a 12 pack for 3.92.

I may pick up a item or 2 since we are having company on Friday and I am also almost out of milk.


See this corner? I have been evaluating everything in my kitchen and this area has to go. I only recently started using the little refrigerator dish to hold garlic so its working but the rest is not helpful.

The popcorn and the TVP are ancient. They are going into the trash. I don't even know if TVP expires but its been there for YEARS. The jar on the left with spaghetti is not helpful. My family eats so much now that it does not even hold enough to feed us for one dinner. The 2 jars in the back, I love, love,love but they are heavy and I can't get a 1 cup measuring cup through the top.

I usually keep a oil bottle with spout here. It works well for me but I have it placed in the cupboard with the seasonings to the left of the stove for now while I am reorganizing. The knife tucked behind the bottles (sharp side up) is handy. I plan on putting in a magnetic strip for it eventually but there is a outlet in the way right now.

I may put something else in the big jars because I like them so much. I also definitely want to add some color to this corner.

I think I am going to eat out of my pantry and reorganize everything every April as part of my spring cleaning. Of course if something is not working before then I will fix it but looking at everything as a whole and trying to use things up has been really helpful and a lot of fun.

Daily bread and a few wrap tips for Jen :)

We had wraps, chips, a giant cookie and pop last night. We spent $4 for chips and pop, so I will need to add that to this weeks total.

DH also wanted sweets so we took one of those bag cookie mixes (free after coupon) and topped it with a little of everything sweet I could find and drizzled it with some melted leftover icing. It was yummy.

We love wraps. Usually we make them with large tortillas (colored ones if we are having company) but I ended up with a deal on a freezer case of large flat out bread so we have been using that. No matter what you are using a layer of cream cheese helps keep them moist and acts as a glue to help seal them after they are rolled up.

Pile high so they look nice and full. When rolling it takes a little practice to do it firmly enough that you pack it tight so it stays together but not so firmly that you tear the bread. If filling falls out the ends you can just push it back in or put it in the next one. When using tortillas, wrap them like a burrito, taking care to make them full and tight so they will hold up and look attractive.

Slice at a angle. If packing for a lunch wrap tightly in plastic wrap. If serving you can arrange them on a plate or if you are having company or taking to a potluck, placing them on muffin cup liners helps make them easier to pick up.

I don't have much fresh produce left but these would look much better with a little more color like some diced tomatoes, bright red onion strips, black olive slices, etc.

I usually use chicken breasts with Parmesan cheese or feta cheese and also we like deli style wraps with sliced meat and cheese, salad mix, tomatoes and banana peppers. You can also use deli style salads but make sure they are not to wet.

If you want to dress your greens to add additional flavor/moisture use a light hand or serve it on the side. You can also spread the cream cheese all the way down to seal the wrap. I often just toss the meat with dressing or sauce and then mix it with the greens. You can add flavor by mixing in items to flavor your cream cheese. Chive, garlic, herbs or chopped kalamata olives all make wonderful cream cheese spreads. My children's favorite is a chicken Caesar wrap with a little bit of olive oil, lemon juice and garlic dressing, Parmesan cheese and bacon.

A tray full of wraps (spinach, tomato,wholegrain) with different fillings (Caesar, vegetarian, roast beef) on a tray garnished with bright fresh berries makes a great food for entertaining and can be made ahead.

I have a horrible sore throat today and baby has a fever so I think Sundays dinner for me is going to be cup o' noodles :)

Daily Bread...

I made dinner early today so I could pack it for DH to take to work and we could just reheat it later for dinner. We always have taco chips and Coke with Mexican food food but I am out of both. I debated attempting to make tortillas but I was not really up to making something new today. We still had plenty of cornbread left over from yesterdays meal of chili and cornbread as well as chocolate peanut butter chip cookies and lemonade. It was a really nice meal.

Since I have been using up what I have on hand and not trying much new I thought I would include links to some of my favorite menu ideas.

Cheap Vegetables

Start with seasoned beef

Start with pasta for salad

3 Freezer items that can save the day

I'm looking forward to refilling my freezer next month. I have a list of some new things I want to try and some old ideas I want to revisit.

Bye Bye Sam's Club

DH and I had 2 hours to use up while my daughter was in a cooking class at Whole Foods. We arrived 10 minutes early and walked around until class started. I love the set up there. Everything is so beautiful and the place smells so good. They really know how to sell food. $0 spent

Usually when she takes a class DH and I go grocery shopping. Today instead we went comparison shopping. I figured since I had 2 hours free and I need to restock next month I would take the opportunity to look without actually buying anything.

First I convinced DH to finally cancel the Sam's Club membership. Since Costco came to town we have been doing most of our bulk shopping there and at GFS. We walked through once to see if there was anything that was still a bargain for us and I could not find a thing. They refunded us $40 and we said goodbye to Sam's. $0 spent

We headed over to GFS where I checked the freezer cooler that has been full of markdowns lately and did not find anything I had to have, wrote down prices on a few things like rice and cheese and asked them to check to see if I could get a price check on ordering a large batch of quick oats ( 50 lbs will be $30). $0 spent

Last stop was Costco to record prices and window shop. I was pretty tempted by a few things but made it out with just my prices written down. DH and I had a really nice time talking while we were walking around.$0 spent

So we ended up ahead $40 ( except the gas for the trip), practiced a little will power and did a little research. A nice day overall.

My will power is not perfect though. Looking at all those goodies all day did give me cravings so I came home and made Reese's chewy chocolate bar cookies with peanut butter chips.....

.....and ate all the edges :)

Eating out of the pantry...

I've been busy the last few days. The weather is beautiful and I have been working on a few different projects. I planted some tomatoes and peppers in containers, packed off a bunch of stuff to goodwill, and organized my kitchen cabinets, closet and pantry. The organization is about 90% complete as I keep adjusting it as I think of of things I want to change.

Eating out of the pantry is going well but its only week 2. I spent $12.96 at the grocery store and DH spent $3.59 on cleaning supplies.

Meijer

6 pack romaine 3.99 (for wraps, salad and color)

Large red onion .64

Cilantro .79

Dozen eggs 1.29

Apple juice 1.50

12 pack hamburger buns $1 (freeze half for next week)

and I bought 3- 1/2gallons of milk at Kroger for 3.75.

My frozen vegetable stockpile is smaller than I thought and is mostly corn. I am out of paper towels, salty snacks, and cereal.

I still have most staples on hand. Any ideas for a crunchy snack?

Monday and Tuesday

Edited to add: Oops! This was supposed to go on my other blog. This is the second time I have done this :)

Yesterday I did not get any pictures. The boys worked at school and DD had a PB&J with pretzels and applesauce. DH took a hamburger and potato salad.


Tuesday-
DD had a taco salad with salsa, pretzels, granola and a lemon cake mix cookie.

DS1&2 took a main dish potato salad with diced ham and extra egg and pretzels.

DH took a greek style chicken wrap, granola, pretzels and ice tea.

I'm now out of pretzels and all types of salty snacks. I'm trying to buy very little this month and use up what I have but this make things a little more challenging. Granola is nice for crunch but I think I will need to come up with another non sweet side dish.

Pop-up Erratic Homemaker

Imagine a erratic homemaker somewhere organizing junk drawers (sigh-yes, plural) with little VH1 style pop ups everywhere :)


"Why do I buy red kool-aid if I never like to make it because it might spill on the carpet"

"Hmmm, wonder what that goes to?"

"I wonder if that's still good?"

"Oh, yum, hot chineses mustard, must use that"

"That's prettier but the other one would work better"

"I might use that someday"

"Is that petrified?"

"My good scissors!"

"Stupid box tops"

"Looks like the kids are getting a lot of candy today, I think I will just put these ones in my pocket for me"

"Hmmm, wonder what these go to?"

"Would these be better in the diaper bag?"

"I need less containers, more lids"

"I need another diet pop if I am going to be doing this all day"

"Hey, that works, I should blog about that"

"I want a cookie"

April groceries

The week has gone pretty well with trying to just use what I have on hand but today I needed to get a few things. I want to spend as little as possible so I used my ECB's at CVS to pick up 12 packs of pop, a 2 liter for the teen get together tomorrow, milk and a loaf of wheat bread. I have white wheat in the freezer but DH does not like it. DH also snuck in a Reese's cup :) I still had to pay 1.42 after I used my ECB's. DH also bought 2 cans of soda at work this week at .65 each so this weeks total was 2.72.


One night I made some bread sticks out of the freezer and had a few left. They were really dense so I did not want to serve them in the lunch boxes. Instead I sliced them thin and turned them into croutons. They tasted just like bagel chips. They were so good I ended up making a bigger batch.

Next week I plan on picking up about about $10 worth of fresh produce to help keep things interesting. I hope there is a really good sale.

I am expecting a $50 Meijer gift card in the mail. If it makes it here soon I am going to try to use it to get through the rest of the month without spending any more cash. If a great sale comes up I may have to change my plans.

How are you doing so far this month?

Spring sorting......

This weeks menu is on track and going well. I have multiple projects going on this week that have gone from a little straightening up to major sorting.

1. I have a awkward loft that has had no specific purpose for a long time. DH moved a neat old buffet and hutch that I thought I might repair someday into the space so I can use it for organizing educational materials. Its kind of a mid century modern piece with clean lines so he removed the broken doors and we are using it as open shelving. I'll post a picture of it when I am done. It has a lot of nice storage with pull out shelves and big and small drawers that should be nice for organizing. I think the pieces that are broken on it would be a pain to fix anyway. The hard part is sorting through over a decade of educational materials. I don't throw things out ( its definitely genetic) but am determined to get this under control. Over half my items are already sorted into file boxes, I sorted but had not yet purged .

2. We are having problems with clothing organization in the MBR. I keep moving where I want to put the baby clothes, DH and I both have clothes we don't wear and items don't have a clear home. This is just silly because we have a nice sized closet. I'm not showing any before pictures because you can click on images to enlarge them and all I need is to be posting picture that may contain undergarments that I did not notice :)

3. Since I am working on a grocery challenge this month I have been cleaning and reorganizing my cabinets. I have a small pantry/closet in my kitchen that I really dislike (most food storage is just outside the kitchen) so I want to think of a better way to use it.

No shopping this week has freed up a extra afternoon, DH has a whole weekend off (knock on wood) and the kids just bought a new game that has them begging for extra chores so they can earn extra game time. Hopefully all that combined will give me enough extra time to get everything mostly wrapped up by Sunday.

Monday Jumpstart....

I tried to wake up and make pancakes to start the first week of eating out of the pantry but the little one was still n