Beckys Blog

Another week into October, and another week of being frugal....sort of.  After 2 weeks in a row of spending less then $50 on food for a family of 6, we are bound to eventually spend more.  For week 3, I actually spent all but $20 of our normal weekly budget, however, that included $40 worth of new jars!  We were given about 120 lbs (my estimate by comparing the boxes to Titus) of free apples, and I only had a few empty jars left, so I had to buy more.  Even though that isn't technically food, it comes out of the food budget.  If you look at just food, we spent $60 this week + jars = $100.  On just food (not diapers or jars or canning supplies) we have spent $120 in the last 3 weeks.  If I include the diapers and canning supplies, we are still $150 below budget for this point in the month!  Yay!  So I went shopping! I have never been very good at holding onto money when I have extra available to me.  Since we had extra, we agreed to buy...

I don't want to forget to blog about the kids!  When we have a new baby, I love to be able to look back and see how their growth and milestones compare to their siblings! Annabelle is 11 weeks old today.  She had her 2 month check up last week.  We are battling thrush again just like we did with the first 3.  She does NOT nurse well (still),  but I haven't had to go to formula yet.  Every day, feeding her is a struggle and it feels like a long uphill battle. Her 2 month stats - Height - 23.75" Weight - 12 lbs 8 oz She is way ahead on her social milestones.  She already imitates me and will track objects and turn her head to keep following them when they go out of her line of sight. She doesn't tolerate tummy time very well though, so she hasn't built up as much strength as her oldest sibling had by this age.  She is still right on track with what is normal though.  I don't have her paper in front of me now, but she is right about 7...

We made it through last week with no supplemental grocery runs!  Once again, I made a meal plan for the week.  I took inventory of the pantry and freezer before making it.  I made a very specific list with very specific meals in mind, and then went shopping.  I spent $45 for this weeks groceries, and that included a bag of diapers.  (Bell has a rash so I had to get disposables for until it clears up, then back to cloth.)  So far, for 2 weeks of groceries, I am $141 below our normal budget!  I rewarded myself for staying on track with a new shirt off the clearance rack at Fred Meyer ($10), so that makes our actual savings so far $131. It is interesting to see how much better we ate last week too!  Because I had a meal plan, I knew what was for dinner first thing in the morning instead of standing in front of the fridge with a blank stare at 5:30 PM.  We ate beef stew, tacos, spaghetti, chicken and dumplings...all with very little effort beca...

This month, I am trying to do a better job utilizing what God provides instead of buying so much.  This week, I have an over abundance of tomatoes and I don't have time to can them.  I have so many they are starting to go bad before I can get to them.  So last night, we had spaghetti for dinner.  I made our sauce from scratch with the tomatoes in my garden.  To make my sauce as inexpensive as possible, I only used 1 lb of meat (usually use 2) and added grated zucchini as a filler (also from my garden).  It turned out absolutely delicious.  We ate it with home canned cherries and home canned carrots.  So I spent no money on dinner tonight.  Everything was either in my garden, freezer, or pantry.  (Technically we did buy 1/4 of a cow back in July to put in the freezer, that is why I don't have to buy meat each week.)   That only utilized about 1/3 of the tomatoes I had, so today I am making beef stew.  I usually put 1 jar ...

For the month of October I have created a challenge for myself.  That challenge is to spend as little as possible on food without sacrificing balance and nutrition.  The goal is for me to be more on top of meal planning and more creative with inexpensive meals, as well as getting better at utilizing our pantry and freezer foods.  It is not uncommon for me to plan meals for a week without even looking to see what we might already have in the pantry. In a typical month, we spend between $450 and $500 on food for my family of 6 (5 who actually eat).  I'm excited to try to spend LESS!  I just finished grocery planning and shopping for the first week of October, and spent $38 for the week.  There are some things like milk and bananas that just don't keep in the pantry, along with some baking necessities that we needed.  Here is my plan for the week: Breakfast - oatmeal, cheerios, or smoothies.  We have lots of frozen cherries and blueberries from u...

I've really enjoyed going back and reading my old blog posts from when the kids were younger lately.  I've decided I want to try to use this blog as a daily journal (or almost daily).  I will post thoughts, what we are doing, Bible verses, and all sorts of things along with the occasional picture.  For my first post in my new journal / blog, I wanted to post my typical daily schedule.  That way, if I post what I have done in a particular day, I don't have to post EVERYTHING every day. The alarm goes off in the morning at 7 AM.  Usually, Annabelle is already nursing when it goes off, so I am already awake.  She typically falls back asleep nursing.  Around 7:15 I am done feeding her and get up and get dressed.  After taking all my pills that have to be taken on an empty stomach (thyroid, fish oil, etc) I pump any leftover milk for Kezzy.  Annabelle typically wakes back up at around 7:45 at which point I change her diaper and get her dressed f...