Fall Fun

This is Kate's third fall. She's really in between stages right now... she's still my baby in so many ways, but she's also such a big girl compared to where she started! I love looking back at her pictures from the past few years and seeing how she's grown (especially her hair!).

Fall is probably my favorite seasons -- I absolutely love hot chocolate, fires in the fireplace, jackets, the sound of leaves crunching under my feet, and the excitement of all the holidays buzzing in the air! Fall in the DFW area doesn't seem to last long, but today with the temps in the 60s, wind blowing yellow leaves off the trees, and a peaceful gray sky is a perfect fall day to enjoy. Hope you're able to find a part of the fall season to enjoy today!

Menu

After my grocery receipt post, Singingmommy commented and asked for info on how I turn those sorts of transactions into a menu for the week. I've also been asked that question via email, so I thought it warranted a post on the subject! If you aren't into bargain shopping, please stay tuned for a post with a different topic tomorrow!!

As you saw yesterday, this week I mostly took advantage of the buy 10 get $5 off order deals at Kroger. So my menu mostly reflects items from my stockpiles or that I purchased last week week because a) lack of great food staple deals for our family this week at the store and b) I wanted to use most of my budgeted money this week on things like SHOUT for Kate's clothing stains, health & beauty products at great prices, baggies we needed to help with my stockpiling, and to start compiling things for my holiday treat cooking!

And now, here's what we'll be enjoying this week...

Breakfast:
Weekdays - Poptarts that I stockpiled from Target for FREE in September (deal expired, but explanation), Breakfast bars I stockpiled from Kroger for nearly free in late September, fresh fruit, and English muffins bought this week
Weekend - Pillsbury Cinnamon rolls from Kroger a few weeks ago for about .25 a tube with fruit and the next day we'll have Grand's biscuits from Kroger for same price, bacon, scrambled eggs, and cream gravy

Lunch:
Cody - here's the plan, but may change throughout week if necessary with work needs: 3 days hot dogs from this week's purchase, $1 bag of Cheetos from Target a few weeks ago, 1 day dinner left overs sack lunch from home, off on Fridays
Kate & Amy - Sandwiches when at home or when we go somewhere we can pack a lunch like zoo or picnic at park - lunch meat from Kroger special last week at about $1.50 a pound, cheese slices from this week's deal, PB&J from deals this summer, and Kroger brand wheat bread with $1 Cheeto bag from same Target deal as listed above; quesadillas from cheese and flour tortillas from last week's purchases; leftovers from dinners this weekend; and for lunch time desserts - dried & fresh fruit, granola bars, chex mix bars, instant pudding, or Rice Krispy Treats (all these items from previous deal shopping except fresh fruit from this week); and to be honest, we usually take a break from our bargain shopping and check out ChickFilA or Corner Bakery or something similar one day a week for a treat!

Dinner:
There weren't any spectacular deals on meat this week, so we'll be depending on our freezer stockpile for meat selection. Thankfully it's about to start feeling like fall in Texas this week so we're going to celebrate the colder weather with:
Chicken & Dumplings - Boneless, skinless chicken breasts were on sale last week at Kroger for $1.99lb, so I got a few packages; chicken broth was on sale a couple weeks ago and I had coupons; and I'm going to use the rest of the flour tortillas I have left over from last week's burritos before they go bad; green beans; crescent rolls purchased on same Pillsbury deal previously mentioned; and salad from a head of iceberg lettuce that's usually about $1.29 or so at Kroger
Potato Soup - Last week I bought several pounds of Russet potatoes that were on sale for around .30lb (we made baked potatoes for dinner last week for the cheapest dinner EVER) so we'll use another few of those for this; milk bought this week; butter bought for free at Kroger in September; fry up some fresh bacon from the package I got for our weekend breakfasts; and cheese from last week's Kroger special of 3/$5 on Kroger brand already shredded cheeses left over from our burritos as well as our baked potatoes last week

I'll make enough of both of these dinners to have for at least 2 nights, Wednesday night we usually eat light because of church (sandwiches, hot dogs, mac & cheese, etc), we usually eat out one weekend night, and Sunday night is typically popcorn dinner for us (I keep my eyes open each week for good popcorn sales to combine with coupons... there are always popcorn coupons out there!) with a grilled cheese or PB&J with fruit for Kate.

One of the greatest money saving strategies I've found is to be more mindful of my weekly menu so I can fully use what I buy. Before I started bargain shopping, I'd buy a pack of flour tortillas to make my burritos with and after we were finished with our burritos the rest of the pack would just ruin until I threw it away. But now I buy the big pack of tortillas so each one is cheaper, learned that I can keep them in the frige to last longer, use them for the burritos as originally intended, and then make Kate quesadillas (one of her favorite foods), use them to make dumplings, use instead of a hot dog bun around sausage or hot dogs (Raider Wraps!), and anything else a girl might could think of to use a tortilla.

Also, when I'm thinking of what to cook for the next week I try hard to think about what ingredients I have left over from last week that I can just buy a couple things to go with for this week instead of buying everything each time. Stockpiling things I cook with frequently that are at great prices is also key for reducing my overall grocery bill - especially broths, cream of mushroom or chicken soups, meat, canned or frozen vegetables, pasta, tomato sauce, cheese, rice, etc. If I find a good deal I'll pick two or three up even if it isn't on my menu that week and then be sure it's on the menu for the next week.

Desserts: Cody has a definite sweet tooth so I always need to work in desserts into the menu!
Cherry upside down cake is one of this week's treats -- bought cherry pie filling (part of this week's buy 10 & earn $5 sale) and cake mix both on sale this week, butter from previous deal
Brownies -- Duncan Hines & Betty Crocker always have good mixes available on sale + coupons

Snacks: Goldfish, popcorn, raisins, Chex Mix packs, Rice Krispy treats - or whatever else is in the good ole stockpile

Drinks: Cody loves cokes which can get expensive even when you feel like you're getting it on sale, but I struck gold with this sweet deal at Target back in August (thanks to Amanda E!):
Dr. Pepper, A&W, Sunkist, Canada Dry, Big Red 12-packs are on sale 5 for $15
Buy 5 and use 5 $1/1 Target online printable coupons
Spend $10 out of pocket
Get $5 Target gift card back
$1 per 12-pack after coupons and gift card!!
And I repeated this deal as many times as possible that week, so Cody still has several 12 packs in the garage to work through before we start working coke deals back into our grocery list. In addition to the cokes, I also can at least once a month find great deals on Powerade or Gatorade at CVS or Kroger for him. Kate drinks mostly milk and water, but when I find Juicy Juice on sale I stockpile that with coupons. My main personal splurge is coffee and creamer for the mornings. It's much cheaper than Starbucks, but even with a good sale + coupons it isn't as cheap as water :).

Hope this answers some questions and gives life to how I'm making the $35 to $40 dollar a week grocery budget work for our family. But every family is different and everyone has those special things that are important to them (like coffee and creamer or prepacked hot dogs are to us!) - being frugal definitely doesn't mean being miserable or suffering through beans and rice every night. To us it just means taking more effort to think through purchases, clip coupons, search out good deals, and try to get the most for our money!

Any additional questions or comments are always welcome as always.

Weekly Groceries

Today I went to Kroger to do our weekly grocery shopping. My goal lately has been to spend only about $35-$40 a week in groceries for our family of three. This week I only spent $26.11 so I thought it was a blog-worthy moment!

As you can see from my receipt, I bought 47 items with that $26 after these discounts:

$30.62 in my manufacturer's coupons -- I get most of those in the Sunday paper as well as a few that I find and print off the internet. I buy the two paper bundle each week to maximize the deals I find by being able to get two of each, and I'm also always on the hunt for anyone who's willing to give me their left over coupon inserts so I'll have even more options.

$4.50 was bonus savings -- this category includes several things. First of all, Kroger offers e-coupons. You go to this site, click on the Shortcuts link, enter your Kroger card number, and then load up clipless coupons you can use while you're in the store (and once you get done with the Shortcut site, go back to the Kroger site and enter the P & G Brandsaver site to do the same). I love taking advantage of this -- no coupons to clip or keep up with, just add to the card, wait one hour for them to get loaded by the site, and then you're ready to save! Also included in the bonus saving total is any doubling or tripling coupons you may have. The first scan is included in the manufacturer's coupon category, but any day Kroger will triple coupons up to .39 and double coupons up to .50. This is a GREAT way to find some free or nearly free deals -- for example, the worcester sauce I got today was on sale for $1 a bottle, but since I had a .35 coupon for it and the store triples that coupon, I actually got the bottle for -.05 (which means I got a nickel off something else in my cart... unfortunately they won't give me any money back!).

39.35 in Kroger Plus Savings -- This is how much I saved by purchasing items Kroger was offering on sale this week when I used my Kroger card. Grapes were on sale for .97 a pound when you use your Kroger card, so I bought 2 1/2 pounds and saved $3.94 off the regular price of the grapes and Kate gets to enjoy fresh grapes this week! Also, Kroger occasionally has great deals to save extra money by purchasing a certain total number of a certain group of items. This week their deal was to purchase 10 items (that were already on sale) and receive $5 off the total of your purchase -- and you could do that up to three times in one order! So I stockpiled some of the items that were especially good deals when I combined the sale prices with my coupons in order to collect 30 of the designated items so I could save $15 off my order. WOW! I LOVE IT when Kroger has deals like this!

So I saved a total of $74.47, which was 73% total savings. This is my absolute favorite part of my entire Kroger receipt!! Each week I rush home and I can hardly get in the door before I'm trying to tell Cody how much I saved and what percentage that was. I'm thrilled anytime it's over 50%, pleased if it's somewhere in the 40% range, and disappointed in myself if it's any lower than that (but if that's the case I try to make it up the next week!).

I do try to buy as many items as possible on sale and stockpile things I know we use every week when I find great deals (chicken, beef, canned soups, etc) to help me make dinner, but as you can see from my pictures I still buy things that aren't on a great sale and that I don't have a coupon for as needed. For example, the 3 ready to heat and eat hot dogs from Oscar Meyer are for Cody's lunches at work. They cost $3.99, I saved .40 by using my Kroger card for a grand total of $3.59 for 3 hot dogs. Not an excellent deal, but Cody loves them, they are easy for him to pop in the microwave at work, and I rationalize the purchase by thinking how much cheaper those hot dogs are than him running down the street to Wendy's or Whataburger to grab lunch. So because we're able to save a good amount of money on groceries doesn't mean we are restricted to only items on sale or only items that we have coupons for - I just don't get too many of those special items in one week of shopping.

It definitely takes time to clip and organize the coupons, research the internet coupons to print, select the e-coupons to add to my card, look through the paper to make my list, and brain-power in the store to be sure I keep it all together, but right now the money I'm able to save my family is more than worth that effort! If you'd like any more info on how you can start saving, I'd be GLAD to help however I can!

Toddler Gymnastics

Kate got invited to go to a gymnastics class Dylan's mom was teaching one day this week. She had SO MUCH fun! She jumped on the trampoline, did her first cartwheels (with assistance of course), flipped over the uneven bars, did an obstacle course, played in the chalk for her hands, hung on the rings, jumped into the pit filled with foam cubes, danced to a song, and did so many other fun things. She was so happy! She's had a real passion for gymnastics since this summer when she saw the Olympics. When she finished flipping on the uneven bars she ran back to her spot to sit with the other kids and looked over at me to say, "Momma, I was SO BRAVE!" We had a great time, but it completely wore her out - she took almost a three hour nap when we got home. Yea for gymnastics!!

The Waiting Room

In my Bible study last week we studied the details that went into the orchestration of the Israelites escaping from their slavery in Egypt. This statement was made: We need to be mindful of what we can't see God doing and confident that His deliverance will come in His perfect timing. Then followed the questions of: a) how willing am I to wait on that perfect timing? and b) how am I being encouraged in God's waiting room?

Waiting rooms aren't fun places to hang out... not even if they give you a free coke and have a television. I wait for my oil to get changed, I wait for doctor's appointments, and I seem to stumble into so many other places to sit and wait. Waiting rooms aren't fun or glamorous, but they unfortunately seem to be a necessary part of life. The best part of the waiting room drama is hearing your name, standing up, and walking out of the whatever sort of waiting room you're caged in!

I feel like I'm stuck in a proverbial waiting room in a few different areas of my life right now. I'm trying to wait as patiently as possible for my name to be called so I can leave this spot to go receive some direction and/or answers. But sometimes I just feel impatient, disappointed, and stuck in a "life's not fair" mentality. I need to find a way to take time to make myself more consciously aware that though I don't see what's happening on the other side of the waiting room's door, God is working on more than I'll ever understand to get things ready for me to walk out of here. When the time is right, my name will be called, and out I'll march... though it probably won't be too long after I strut out of here until I find myself crawling into yet another waiting room. But that's just life, isn't it?!?

One thing that makes all the waiting better for me is the fact that I'm not sitting in my waiting room alone. I'm not a natural loner -- too much time alone tends to send me into a bit of a downward spiral. So thankfully there are a couple people sitting right here with me - tangibly encouraging me with their kind words, hugs, notes, and compassion. Somehow I've peripherally seen these people next to me without truly seeing, hearing, or appreciating them until recently. I've had such a total and complete focus on looking for the slightest crack in the exit door that I've skimmed past the people and mistakenly felt all alone. Despite my selfish, temporary tunnel vision, my eyes are now more fully open and here those encouragers are -- still with me, still encouraging me, and still loving me. This waiting room isn't nearly as frustrating or difficult when I'm able to shift my focus and see them here with me.

If I can learn to appreciate my time in this waiting room by finding a way to be content through the season of waiting, I think this waiting room (as well as the inevitable ones in my future) will be so much more meaningful rather than painful. When it's painful there's complaining, sadness, and isolation - but if I'm able to make this time meaningful I'm free to feel grateful, encouraged, and able to persevere. I'd take more meaning over more pain any day, wouldn't you?

I'm not sure if you're stuck in one of life's waiting rooms, but because I think maybe someone out there can identify with this I thought it was blog-post-worthy tonight. If you're not currently in your own waiting room, maybe you're one of the seen or unseen encouragers busy at work in someone else's. To those amazing encouragers out there - and most especially to mine - please know you are seen, appreciated, and that the waiting couldn't be as meaningful without you!