Day 5 and 6

I had a bit of a break in the challenge the past couple of days. I just couldn't resist Macey's caselot, but I was still good.

Day 5
Breakfast: Cereal
Lunch: Peanut Butter sandwiches and leftovers for me
Dinner: Tuna Casserole- Not very good, but cheap and easy

Day 6
Breakfast: Cereal again although we eat a lot of cereal, I got it for free so I don't feel too bad
Lunch: Fishsticks and leftovers
Dinner: Homemade rolls and Mexican creamy turkey soup --using corn from my mom's garden

$$$

Here's the deal. We did make the 3 gallons of milk I bought monday last until today so I bought 3 more at Sam's. I also had to buy fruit snacks since it is the only way I can get the kids to take naps for a total of $13.40 I also bought 10 yogurts for $0.25 each (with coupon) and 2 bags of cereal at $0.89 each at Macey's I did buy a few other things, but am counting them to food storage. If it comes in a #10 can, it's food storage. So the total for today was $19.05.
Grand total $32.45. Not great but a good start. I will do better, right?

I not spend any money 4 days this week, so that was something. I also cooked out of my food storage everyday, which was an accomplishment.

Day #3 and #4

Things are moving along, but I am having a hard time not hitting the case lot sales this week. I think I am also going thru withdrawls. I feel like I need to spend money just to get out of the house. Hopefully, like a drug addict I can get over the initial shock and keep going.

Day #3- Wed
Breakfast: oatmeal and cereal
Lunch: Fishsticks and leftovers for me
Dinner: BBQ chicken, BBQ beans, sweet potato fries and brussel sprouts (from the co-op)

No money spent for a total of 3 days this week
Grand total money spent $10.50

Day #4-Thurs
Breakfast: Cereal
Lunch: Smoothies
Dinner: Sausage Rice casserole for big people and a mixture of other stuff for the smalls.

I did break down and went out. I mainly just wandered aimlessly. I did spend $2.87 on clearance chocolate for potty prizes (and for me in a pinch.)

Grand total spent $13.37

Day #2

Yesterday went pretty well. I am taking a tip from Suze Orman to not spend any more for 1 day a week, but am going further and going to try for 3-4 days a week. 1 day is pretty easy since we don't typically shop on Sunday, so let's go for more. I didn't spend any money yesterday, so 2 days this with no money spent and I went to the library for free!!

Meals

Breakfast: Cereal
Lunch: Chicken nuggets and tator tots
Dinner: Steak that we got from my parents' farm and roasted sweet potatoes, potatoes and yellow squash

I also made 2 loaves of wheat bread with fresh ground wheat. My kids are very picky and won't usually eat what I made for dinner, but they will eat bread and peanut butter so that will probably save us thru this whole thing. Each loaf costs about $0.50 to make.

Food Storage Challenge

I read about this challenge yesterday on a blog. I overspent at Christmas so I am trying to get our financial house back in order. The basics of this challenge are to eat out of your food storage, limit money spent of groceries and use up food that has been sitting around for 1 month.

I decided to use my blog as a way to track how we are doing and to actually commit to "rules."

The "rules" I decided on are:

1. Eat out of our food storage -- this includes using the sweet potatoes/potates from our garden that are going to go bad soon.

2. Spend only $100 on groceries - this is a cut of $200, but will include milk, fresh item. This may be a problem since we do use a gallon of milk a day, but we will try. This will not include our veggie co-op, which is $16.50 every two weeks.

We will finish this on 1/31/10. So here is how we are doing so far.

Mon:
Breakfast: Fruit left over from a party yesterday and cereal
Lunch: Corn dogs from freezer
Dinner: Sweet potato burritos - I also made 8 more for the freezer for Nate's lunch

$$$$
Spent $10.50 on 2 gallons of milk and fish sticks for lunch at Sam's

Yet again, it has been a long time since I have posted anything. So, I'll just post a little of everything from the last 6 months.

In July, we had family pictures taken at the Layton Park. I was surprised how well it went. Usually, we can never get one picture with all the kids looking at the camera, but it went great. Our photographer did a great job. (http://www.swjphotography.com/ -we are even on her front page of her site)




For Elias' 4th Birthday in August, he had to had the same cake as last year - Elmo. I was to cheap to buy the one he wanted from Sam's, so I tried to recreate it. It took a long time and I was rushed in the end, but I thought it turned out ok.


For Halloween, McKay was his favorite, Thomas the train. At the last minute, Maisey switched from an unicorn to a princess. Elias was the same as last year - a pumpkin. He wore his costume continuously for 3 days before and 3 days after Halloween.




For Thanksgiving, we made pinecone turkeys and had a great time. Notice the kids cheesy smiles.

Here is Maisey in full hair that she can only dream of.


Elias with googlie eyes.





Here is one of our dress up dance parties.


Elias in a dress up moment. As you can tell, we play dress up a lot!!


We made a visit it Tracy Aviary and loved it.

December was crazy. We had a visit from Santa to our house. Maisey and Elias loved him, but McKay wouldn't go near him.


Nate had time off between Christmas and New Year's and we did lots of stuff. We went to the Treehouse Museum. Our biggest day, started out by riding the Frontrunner to Ogden and going to the Train museum. We came back home, had lunch and naps and went to Salt Lake. We went to the Planetarium and Temple Square. Nate had to go back to work and we are really missing him today.


Overall, we have had a great 6 months and lots of fun. Check back in 6 months for a new update of what we have been doing.

Summer craziness

It's been a while since I posted since we have been very busy in the garden. Everything is in full gear and now the work begins. Please check out my other blog and let me know if you want anything. (If you have any suggestions for the blog let me know. It is still pretty new.)

www.haystackfarm.blogspot.com

Once again, I am way behind on blogging. I wonder if starting a blog was a good thing, because now I just feel guilty that I don't update it enough. Oh well, I'll just add it to the list of things that are undone in our house. I thought I would post a few pictures from the last few months that I think are fun.

These pictures were taken at the Nature Conservancy park in West Layton. It had just rained and we had a great time. Notice the rainbow in the background. It was a beautiful day.



These pictures were at Nate's cousin's home in Layton. She has a beautiful spring yard and we try to take pictures here every year. We even had our engagement pictures taken here. This year, we couldn't find anyone to take our pictures or to come help with the kids, so we tried to do it ourselves. It didn't work. The kids were like wild Indians and never held still, but I guess it is a good representation of our true lives.

Oops, I just realized I have already posted these on facebook. Oh well, I guess you have to look at them again because I am not changing it.