$40 a Week

Figure out a budget, plan meals, and make a goal under that number no matter how little or big it is.

I'll admit I dream of shopping at EarthFare or Whole Foods with a huge wod of cash in my pocket someday. I'll also admit it is quite gratifying to set a goal and meet it, even if it is only occasionally met, especially when we are talking about finances.

My husband and I went through the financial class through our church before we got married. We were instructed to play a game with envelopes, and pretend that the amount of money in our envelope was what we had to plan to live off of. Every couple in the class had a different amount. My husband and I had one of the lowest amounts. When we went through the financial sheet we were coming up with a tight budget. Little did we know we would be living off of much less than that in just a few short months. We quickly learned we could not afford any car payment, we needed to cut cable, and chose to spray for bugs and take care of our lawn ourselves. We were lucky to be on a family plan with our cell phones to cut the cost of those. When I stared at our budget and saw little room for any type of excess in our lives I quickly realized the only place we could cut money in our budget to allow for extra fun things and extra savings was food...and gas assuming I wouldn't travel as much with our cars. So came the idea of living off of $40 a week, in hopes that we could go out to eat for a special date every once in a while and maybe have a vacation fund.

I should probably state that we were going through this budget solely relying on my husbands income. We decided to try and live off of his income alone before we had children because we both wanted me to have the option of staying home when we did have kids. Also I only had a temporary job at the time, AND we didn't want to rely on both incomes for our home or cars just in case someday one of us lost our jobs. We are so very blessed but it also has taken some hard work. 

$40 is difficult to live off of for food and it takes some creativity. I try every week to meet that goal, and I fail - ALOT. Just this week I went to the grocery store and I was over by $6 because I needed to buy formula. I don't usually buy this; I still nurse and pump for Lucy. That stuff is expensive, but we use it to supplement or when Lucy is refusing to nurse and needs food (See MCAD momma).  So opinions aside about nursing verses breast feeding, we have saved a lot of money by not buying it. Anyways, I went over budget. I didn't even get to buy chicken. This is going to be a week we will go over budget more, I know. The point is I mess up a lot. It takes a lot of planning, and honestly I don't always have time, or manage my time well enough.

My goal is to plan on Sunday while Lucy is napping and then get to the store. I often don't make it to the grocery until Monday, and my poor husband walks into work with whatever is left in our fridge from Sunday evening. He usually gets a PB&J out of the deal if we don't have leftovers...I need to get better. I also try and pick meals and recipes that have similar ingredients so if I buy 2 lbs of meat I can split it up in two different meals, or I'll use a couple chicken breasts for one meal and then shred or chop up another for a soup or fried rice or something. Also I am trying to learn myself and teach my husband that just because a meal doesn't have meat doesn't mean it is NOT a meal.

$40 dollars isn't realistic for large families, I know this. I know our budget will continue to change as Lucy gets older and she is eating more solids. I also know prices of things will change. If you have a slim budget, say you have $100 a week to spend and you cut $10 out each week. That is $40 dollars a month you just saved for your family. You can go on a date with your spouse or put the money towards a vacation or debt you owe! Even if you have a SUPER tight budget of $50 a week, make it a game and see how little money you can spend at the store. It is more fun when you are putting the money towards something fun for yourself. Maybe it is for birthday gifts, christmas gifts, a vacation, savings, retirement; saving a few dollars each week adds up! I always think If I buy the off brand, I can put $2 more to our vacation next month, or If I don't buy the extra chips, then I can put the money towards the date night this week It all depends on your perspective.

It definitely forces me into creativity...just today for lunch I was hesitant to have a PB&J just because I was tired of it, so I opened up a can of white beans, threw in some garlic and spices and blended a wonderful white bean dip/hummus and ate it with some wheat thins - YUM!

It's a sacrifice, and we have wonderful family and friends that serve us meals, too! But there is nothing like meeting a goal you set, and having extra cash around!

$2 Over...

I wrote this post last week and never got around to posting it. Some of our meals changed last week. My mom brought over a couple flank steaks she didn't have time to make (I wrote a little bit about my family popping in here), and I used those one night. Also for Mike's birthday we decided to check out OktoberFest in Carmel and then we ate a $5 pizza in the evening. We are yet to have the pork loin; it is marinating now for tonight using this recipe. It smells delicious!

September 30, 2013

I always try and spend around $40 at the grocery store for our weeks worth of dinners (If I get a lunch they are usually left overs, PB&J sandwiches, or hard boiled eggs). This week I was $2 over, which was a bummer, but it was exciting because that still means I was under budget. Remember my goal is always $35 to $40, but our budget allows for more (a little more). I have turned it into a game for me and I am trying to save as much money as we can since we have little room for excess in our lives.

So this week I was happy to report I got 2 lbs of ground beef, 3 chicken breasts, a pork loin, fruit and some grains to get us through the week. This week's menu:

Monday: Ramen Noodle Pad Thai (We tried this as a side, and cheated and went to my mom's for a rotissarie chicken.)
Tuesday: Chili Mac with side of cauliflower
Wednesday: Sweet and Sour Chicken with rice and mandarin oranges
Thursday: Spaghetti and Meatballs and apple slices
Friday: Mike's Birthday Dinner Out (or maybe pork loin)
Saturday: Left overs
Sunday: Pizza Night

I am continuing to go through recipes that I have pinned on Pinterest, so I am not always going back to the same few meals. Tonight's sweet and sour chicken was a little heavy on the sour side, but bless my husbands heart he ate the whole thing. That is love.

Each night I try my best to have a fruit and veggie, this week I bought a huge thing of grapes, so we have been heavy on the same fruit. We did try some roasted cauliflower with red pepper. I don't usually like to use canned fruit, but I opened up some mandarin oranges one night as well.

I used one pound of the meat to go in the chili mac, and the other pound is going to go into the spaghetti and meatballs tomorrow night. You remember the recipe I told you about here. Well I have been craving those things so badly, I decided I needed to have them by themselves instead of in the meatball sub casserole. The chili mac was great, and it made a ton of food. I called my parents to come over and help us eat it, and I still had left overs for Mike for lunch and put some in the freezer.

I used the chicken tonight to make this sweet and sour chicken recipe, I would recommend using a little less vinegar than what it calls for. I only used two breasts for the recipe because they were pretty large. I baked one chicken breast using garlic and brown sugar for my husband (He loves this recipe but I was out of italian seasoning packets). I don't always have a back up meal, but tonight I wasn't sure if my husband would go for the sweet and sour so I baked the rest of the chicken.

The pork loin will be made later this week. I usually have a special spice that my mom brings me from up in Michigan, but we are all out. SO that means I will be trying a new recipe for the pork loin. I'll let you know how it turns out.

You Have Permission

You have permission to BE my friend. Sounds a little arrogant doesn't it? Well it's not intended to sound that way.

Recently a mom's group I am a part of had talked about community and the importance of having authentic relationships. Our church also recently did a series of sermons on having a Harbor, having a group of friends that really know you, that are like family for you (assuming the word family brings up happy visions and faces). Mike and I have a fantastic small group of friends that we meet with EVERY Monday night. I love our small group. I also find community with the mom's group I attend. I love these women and it is so fun to discuss life and the latest mommy struggles of the week. These women are great. I encourage you to seek out such groups!

See I love the communities I have found. But something hit me this week. I was listening to a speaker at my mom's group and the speaker said something that has continued to resurface in my mind. How many of your friends have refrigerator rights? I loved this phrase refrigerator rights. I think back to all my memories as a kid, hanging out with my bestie and knowing I could raid their pantry and refrigerator and get all the "cool" snacks my mom would never buy. We could be watching a movie and I would make my friend go get my snacks out of the fridge because I was too lazy or didn't want to miss the next scene (selfish much?) but hey I could because I was a kid and I was with my friend and we had refrigerator rights. So I have been pondering this. Who in my life right now, outside of family, has refrigerator rights in my life? What can I do? I have great friends that I really wouldn't care if they got in my fridge, but do I have a relationship that is so comfortable, so real, so informal that they (my friend) would be ok to just get in my fridge and take whatever they needed or wanted? A friend that could walk into my house like Steve Urkel whenever they needed to, just to say hi or borrow an egg? I think I need more of this in my life. More of the messy friends, people that can show up and see my stacks of laundry, dirty dishes, papers stacked in my to-do pile and me not feel the urg to apologize.

After talking a little bit in my mom's group, I found that there are other people like me that want these things. I often feel people are so busy with their lives I'm hesitant to invite others in. So busy doing great things even that they don't always have time to be a messy friend or they already have "enough" of those.

Community is something Mike and I talk about a lot. It is something we have prayed about, and have seen the answered prayers. I guess I feel like something is missing sometimes. I don't know if I am looking for a Cheers like environment where everyone would know MY name, but something along those lines is what I envision. A community of friends that I could welcome into my home, my family, that could come to our holiday events. Grand celebrations of life with family, including these friends.

That brings me to my next thought. As a new mom, well 10 months new, I often think of what I want Lucy to take away from our life as a family. One day she will grow up to be an adult, sooner than I hope, and she will be making huge decisions on her own. What will she take away? I want her to have community. I want Lucy to grow up knowing she is surrounded by a community that if she didn't want to talk to me (heaven forbid) there would be other amazing adults (my friends) that she could trust.

 I am grateful for my family. Anyone that knows me well, knows that my family can easily turn into my world. We all live close together, they pop in daily, sometimes multiple times a day. If they don't pop in, we pop over. Just the other night my mom brought over 2 steaks she didn't have time to cook, so she thought we could use them - Thank you Mom! It's great, but I know not everyone has this experience. I guess I want to expand my "family", and hand out some refrigerator rights...not because I think I'm SO great, but because I know I am so broken. Our speaker said, "You may just have to ask someone to be your friend." So if you are looking for a friend, know there are many others out there and you may just need to ask....and you always have permission to ask me. In the mean time, I'm going to work harder on being invitational and actually inviting people into our crazy life.

Thanks Barry Rodriguez for the fantastic family photos!