Day 13: Menu and Shopping

I did my weekly grocery shopping yesterday and hope to stay out of the stores until next Saturday (though I will stop at the gas station for milk sometime this week). Last week was a stressful week due to the dog getting hurt and the kids being unusually whiny and crabby and I ran to the store three times. That is not typical of me and the reason why we steer away from stores is because a quick trip to get one thing ends up into a bag or two of things and way too much money spent. We spent a lot of extra money last week on little things at the grocery store that we didn't need.

I didn't take a photo of the groceries this week because when I arrived home I found the batteries on the camera dead and I didn't want to keep all the groceries out while they recharged. My menu for the week goes:
Salmon Patties
Chicken breasts
Beef Strogganof
Grilled cheese and tomato soup
Lasagna
Chicken burritos
Chili
All are served with side dishes. Lunches are leftovers, sandwiches, mac and cheese, or cheese and crackers with fruit. Breakfast is yogurt, oatmeal, toast, or cold cereal.
My shopping trip included:
wheat bread $1.79
Gummi worms for Becca 67 cents
Ritz crackers $2.99 (minus $1 coupon)
Cinnamon Life cereal $2.99
Triscuit Tomato/Olive Oil crackers $2.99 (minus $1 coupon)
Stove Top Stuffing 99 cents
2 cans wet dog food 69 cents each
Spaghetti sauce $1.79
Onion Soup $1.49
dozen eggs $1.17
Chili beans $1.79
4 packages mac and cheese 77 cents each
2 cans chopped tomatoes 69 cents each
2 small candy bars for the boys 60 cents each
corn chips $1.59 (hubby only likes chili with corn chips in the bowl)
lasagna noodles $1.59
egg noodles 89 cents
tomato soup $2.29
tortillas $1.79
butter $2.49
pizza $2
fajita mix 79 cents
co-jack cheese $1.67
1.40 lb. peaches $1.39
1 tomato 38 cents
16 oz. mozzarella $2.99
Turkey bacon $2.69 (minus free coupon)
hotdogs 88 cents
4 small yogurts 60 cents each
cheese $1.89
2 packages ground beef $3.20 and $3.14
Honey Turkey slices $1
total: $58.90

My husband got some gas and spent $8.49 at the gas station. Total left for the month $383.84. We are almost half way through the month so I think we may really be able to meet this goal.

Update on Weezy: We were able to bring her home yesterday. She is doing pretty well but still won't put any weight on her leg (which is to be expected). The vet doesn't want her on any steps so every time she has to go potty we have to carry her outside. I think I may end up with some strong arm muscles by the time she is healed! We did find her on the couch this morning which was a big no-no. If she can't climb steps she surely can't climb on and off a couch! Her stitches look well except for a small area in between two stitches which is opening up a bit. I hope it will close up on it's own but will watch it closely and will call the vet if it looks any worse tomorrow. She has pain medication and seems to not be in a whole lot of pain so I hope that is the case.
I know that she is glad to be home as she was wagging her tail like crazy in the van on the way home and ran as fast as her three little legs could carry her to the kids and Ben when we arrived home. Everyone is happy to have her home!

Day 12

Weezy gets to come home today! Yay! I'll be picking her up later today. Her surgery on Thursday ended up taking three hours to repair her femur. The vet said that her leg muscles are so strong that it was hard to get into where he needed to go and get her leg straighted out correctly (that's a bulldog for you!). She is still sore, which is why the vet wanted to keep her for an extra night so that she could have the extra strength pain killers for a bit longer. We are just so thankful that she is okay!

We all know that her vet bill will blow this budget out of the water but many readers expressed that I shouldn't count this emergency towards my total as we do have savings for this and it is an "extra" expense. The challenge would end right now due to the vet bill, if I counted it towards the total. So I decided to go on with the challenge and see if we can meet the $1,200 challenge without the vet bill, but will make note of the bill at the end of the month.

Yesterday my husband decided that he wanted to grill out and since I didn't have anything prepared or ready for grilling I made a run to the store. The bratwurst patties ended up costing a lot more than I thought (7 of them cost $7.50!) and I had to pick up beans, chips, and a few other odds and ends. Total was $19.31. Which leaves us $451.23 for the month. It sure is getting lower and lower!

The boys decided to cheer me up and pick me a few flowers. Look at the gifts that they brought to me...

I just had to stick them in my old "Mad Housewife" wine bottle as it seemed fitting. It just goes to show that some of the best gifts in the world don't cost a thing!

Day 11

Yesterday I had to run to the store for red raspberries (yes, I was craving them and they are on sale this week). While I was there I picked up yogurt, bread, juice, and some ingredients for a dessert I wanted to try. Total was $18.87 so we have $470.54 left for the month.

One new recipe we tried this week which was both economical and good was Beefy Cabbage Rolls. The picture below looks gross...and the rolls looked kind of gross on our plates but we all ate them and enjoyed them. It wasn't a "these are the most delicious things in the world, I want them every week" sort of thing but more of a dish I will probably make every month or two.

1 medium cabbage
2 lbs. ground beef (I used just one pound)
2 eggs
1 onion, chopped
1 T. Worcestershire sauce
1/2 t. salt
dash of pepper
3 c. cooked brown rice
2 c. tomato sauce

Core cabbage. Steam for 10 to 15 minutes in saucepan. Separate leaves. Mix next 7 ingredients in bowl. Spoon mixture onto cabbage leaves; roll leaves to enclose filling, beginning at thinner edge of leaves. Line bottom of Dutch oven with leftover or torn leaves; arrange cabbage rolls in prepared pan. Top with any extra leaves. pour tomato sauce over top. Simmer, covered, for two hours. Rolls may be frozen and reheated in oven.

We also had apple crisp that same night. My apple crisp is just apples sprinkled with a little cinnamon, then a mixture of butter, flour, oatmeal, brown sugar, and a bit more cinnamon...mixed up until it resembles small crumbles. Pour the topping over the apple and bake for about 45 minutes or so. It always turns out differently since I don't use exact measurements and just pour into a bowl but it is always yummy!

The reason I mention the apple crisp is not because I have an award winning recipe, but rather to remind you to use up items before they go bad. I had just bought a big bag of apples last week but they all seemed to be bruised pretty badly when we started eating them. The kids hate apples with bruises and I can barely make myself eat them either so I decided to cut them up and make dessert instead. I turned something that none of us wanted to eat (bruised apples) into something that everyone wanted seconds of and saved a $3 bag of apples from being wasted.

As a matter of fact, we had a lot of leftover brown rice from when I made the cabbage rolls (I cooked about 5 cups worth instead of 3) so the next day I make fried rice with the leftovers.

Remember to use up what you have instead of letting it go to waste. Becoming creative in the kitchen is a must on a small budget.

For those of you doing the challenge as well, be sure to check in in the comment section to let us know how you are doing 11 days into the challenge. Leave your blog link if you are blogging about it.

And thank you to all those who left kind words about Weezy. She may be able to come home later today, I'm supposed to call the vet this afternoon to see how she is doing with getting around. Otherwise, she should be home tomorrow. We can't wait to have her back with us, the house seems so lonely without her!

Day 10

Yesterday was going bad. I mean, really bad. Jacob woke up whining and sat by my feet for fifteen minutes whining about nothing. I hadn't got much sleep the night before so was already at the end of my rope. I decided to cut his hair so told him he could take a bath after a haircut, which got him to stop whining. But then, Becca had a complete fit over a t-shirt that I wanted her to wear. I told her to take it off if she didn't want it and I would put it in the garage sale box. So she would take it off, then start screaming that she didn't want me to sell it and then put it back on. After a few minutes of that I decided to ignore her, then after half an hour I decided to stick her in her room, and then after an hour I decided that the boys and I would go hang the laundry up to get away from her screaming and whining (yes, all over a shirt that I could care less if she wore or not!!). Apparently both older children woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning.

Finally, after a morning like that, I looked through the cupboards and couldn't decide on a thing to eat for lunch. After all the stress I went through I felt like drinking a cherry Coke so decided to grab some hamburgers and my pop. It was $10.11. And guess what? When I arrived home and took a sip of the much anticipated Coke from Hardee's I found that it was pretty much just carbonated water. Yep, I didn't even get the pop that I wanted!

It can't get much worse than that, can it? Well, it can. Later in the afternoon Becca and Jacob went outside to play. Our 10 month old English Bulldog puppy snuck out with them. When Becca came back to the front of the house she saw Weezy sitting on the porch so opened the door for her and saw her hobble in. After telling me something about Weezy walking funny I went to check on her. Poor Weezy had strands of foam dripping out of her mouth and wouldn't use her back leg. I then saw little drops of blood on the ground and noticed a cut on her head. Realizing that she must have gotten hit by a car (and the person who hit her didn't have the decency to stop and tell us) I called Ben and had him come home from work and we ran her to the vet. What scared me the most was when we lifted her into the car and saw blood coming out of both of her ears.

The vet's office was hosting their open house and had close to fifty people touring the building, eating free ice cream, and signing up for door prizes. So we had to shuffle through the crowd to get in there.

The blood in the ears were just scratches. She had road rash all over her body. The vet thought her lung may have been punctured. And her femur was definitely broken. Weezy was perfect through the whole examination, not whining or moving and just following me with her eyes. Then her breathing became labored so they decided to give her something for shock and let her rest a bit before doing x-rays. We came home and luckily the vet called us a little later and said so far the x-ray of the diaphragm looked good but that her femur needed pinned. They will do the operation tomorrow, after checking her diaphragm once again just to make sure nothing is wrong.

And that my friends, is how a whole budget can just go right out the window. If we really were just living off $1,200 each month we probably wouldn't be able to afford the operation. Although, if we were just living off $1,200 a month we wouldn't have five pets to begin with.

We won't know how much the total is until all is said and done. She will be staying at the vet's office for at least a couple days. I'm just thankful that she will be okay as it could have been much worse.

After eating at Hardees for lunch and getting $20 in gas for the van we are at $489.41 for the rest of the month. The vet bill could suck all that away so I'm sure we will be going way over our $1,200 budget...unless....hopeful thinking....we don't get billed until July! :)

It's just strange how we could go months, or years, without something happening like this and it happens, of all months, this month.

Day 9: Clothing

My hubby mailed another Cd for Swap A Cd and then had to run to Walmart to get a doorknob safety lock as Joe has now figured out how to open the back door and has made a run for it several times this week. Last night it was right after his bath and I found him on the front porch, completely in his birthday suit! All this happened in less than a minute when I rushed upstairs for his pajamas. That boy is fast! Anyway, hubby picked up a few other things such as milk and popcorn so the total for yesterday was $18.77. Which means that the total we have left for the month is $519.52.

I am proud of myself for staying away from the stores and not making unnecessary runs to get anything. And while my husband is still picking up things here and there he hasn't been picking up nearly as much as he typically does.

My advice for saving money today is based on clothing. It could be expensive to clothe a family of 5 and wash and take care of those clothes, but it doesn't has to be.

#1. My best advice is to get yourself a clothesline. I have written about clotheslines many times before but since there are several new readers I want to reiterate again how much money they can save. We do a lot of laundry and by skipping the dryer I've noticed at least a $20 drop on the electric bill each month. The clothes last longer because they aren't being dried in a dryer (you know all that lint in your dryer trap? That is all part of your clothing!). And to top it all off, the clothing smells wonderful when dried in the sun! I know that some areas can not have clotheslines due to home owners associations but you can still get yourself a wooden drying rack or string up a line in your basement to dry some of your items.

(Yes, I still wear tie dye items...it is back in style you know!)

#2. Don't wash it if it isn't dirty. I am still trying to teach myself this trick. Washing wears out clothing. If, for example, you are putting your pajamas on after your bath and sleeping in them and then you get up and change into your clothes for the day, the pajamas aren't actually dirty. Fold them up and wear them again the next night. If you wear a skirt or dress to church and come home and change there is no reason to wash it, just hang it back up. If your clothes don't seem dirty, don't wash them. When wash days were such a chore people used to wear their clothes for a week or more at a time. While I don't know if we can stretch it that far I do know that jeans and other items can be worn for a few days before really seeming to be dirty. With my kids, the clothes seem to get dirty every single day, but for adults we can wear our clothes (usually) for more than one day.

#3. Wash in cold water. I reserve the hot water for a really dirty load or cloth diapers. Otherwise, the cold water gets the clothes just as clean and saves money.

#4. Garage Sales and thrift shops. I get almost all our clothing second hand (though often I find brand new with tag items at these places). It is more green...recycling something that is still fully functional instead of buying new and I can pay pennies on the dollar for clothes. You would be amazed at the deals that you can find and I am able to dress my children in brand name clothing for next to nothing. Hanna Andersson, Gymboree, Mini Boden, Gap and so on are found at garage sales. The best part is that as long as I keep the clothing in good condition I can often resell it for the same price, or more, than what I paid in the first place. So every year when I have a garage sale I am recouping the cost of the clothing.

#5. Accept hand-me-downs, either from others or from your own children. My aunt has a 6 year old boy. Occasionally she will hand some of his clothing down for my almost 5 year old. Mainly though, I save all my almost 5 year old's clothing for my two year old. It saves money to buy once and clothe two children. I store all the clothing from Jacob in a tote marked "Joe".

#6. Buy ahead. I don't wait until fall to buy jeans, jackets, and sweaters. When I find good deals at garage sales, thrift shops, and occasionally new online I stock up to two years in advance. I store all the clothing in rubbermaid totes in the closet and pull out what I need when I need it. Sometimes I feel as though I am "shopping" in our own closets and pulling out items that I didn't even remember that we had. It saves money and I don't have to go rushing about to find a new wardrobe each season.

#7. Take good care of your clothing. Repair small tears before they get big, replace buttons which have fallen off. Treat stains as soon as you notice them. Fold your clothes fresh out of the dryer or off the line and put it away.

Anything else that I have missed?

Green Spaghetti

Be forewarned that I am not a food photographer!

Tired of the same 'ol spaghetti with tomato sauce? We recently tried Green Spaghetti and I enjoyed it. The kids ate a little less of it than they would typical spaghetti but they still ate it. Hubby took one taste, said it tasted like spaghetti, and then ate cereal for supper. He said it tastes fine but looks gross so he couldn't eat it. Hubby is the hardest one to get to eat healthy foods in the house! It really doesn't taste like spinach at all and more like spaghetti noodles with a Parmesan sauce on it. Good for you and your wallet as I estimate that the whole recipe cost us $3.50.

10 oz. fresh or frozen spinach

1/4 c. warm chicken broth

1/2 c. grated Parmesan cheese

1/2 c. milk

1 lb. spaghetti, cooked, drained

1/4 c. butter

Steam fresh spinach just until wilted or frozen spinach until warm. Combine spinach and cooking liquid with warm broth in blender container; process until smooth. Add cheese and milk. Toss spaghetti with butter in serving bowl. Add spinach mixture; toss to mix well. May substitute broccoli for spinach and cream or yogurt for milk. May also substitute 3 to 4 c. cooked brown rice in place of spaghetti.

Day 8 and Reader Updates

We were all out of detergent for our dishwasher (fyi: there is a reason why dish soap is not recommended for the dishwasher, even a teeny tiny amount. We are on our third rinse!) so hubby ran to the store and picked some up. Once or twice a year there is an excellent coupon that comes out for dishwasher detergent. I order several coupons and stock up (for around 50 cents a box) and this is the first time in two years that I have had to buy the detergent at regular price. That hurts! It was $4.12. Hubby also ran to Walmart and bought some lemonade and a couple little treats for the kids which totaled $4.43, which means we have a total of $538.29 left for the month.

Already, just on day 8, I am feeling a bit deprived. I'm not a shopaholic but there are a few things that I want to pick up for the house (new throw pillows for the couch or covers for them) and there isn't a whole lot of wiggle room with a $1,200 budget. Maybe towards the end of the month we will have extra and I will feel comfortable enough to make a $15 non-essential purchase but towards the beginning of the month? Not so comfortable. It makes me aware of just how some families need to watch every single cent that they spend every single month. There isn't anything extra leftover and no fund for problems that may arise such as car issues or the refrigerator dying. Granted, I'm sure that many families living on a $1,200 income would take at least some form of government assistance. WIC or even $100 in food stamps would make a budget like this much easier to handle. And a family of five living on $1,200 would qualify.

But it is interesting to have a different mindset when it comes to spending. Could that $8 roast break our budget for the month? Can we afford to drive out of town and put another $20 in the gas tank? I didn't have to ask myself those questions before and now it makes me think in a different light. And that is why I am doing this challenge!

Tuesday and Fridays are now reader check-in days for those who are also taking the challenge. How are you doing 8 days in? Leave your blog link if you are blogging about your progress as well so other readers can check it out!