Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.

One thread bare king size quilt and some scrap fabric=Two twin size blankets, just in time for winter. These will be used under the boys comforters so no one will be able to see how lacking they really are:) They took me about 35 mins. Less time than it would have taken to load all the kids and drive to bed bath and beyond. The best part, they were FREE!!!!

Last trip for the 28 days! (hopefully)

Day 26: $11.16 -crazy isn't it? I seriously need to learn to make a good loaf of bread. What makes it more tricky is that Lula is sensitive to gluten but can manage the fermented bread just fine. So not just a regular loaf but fermented at that makes the challenge that much more well challenging.

The ham is for pizza tonight. Yum!

There is one loaf of Aldi's bread not pictured because we fed that to the ducks at the zoo this morning. Nessie is there, if you get a chance to stop by it is quite impressive.


Okay so a grand total of $453.32 for the 28 days. We did finish paying for our part of a cow this month but didn't eat any yet so I didn't figure that in. I figure the money we "saved" this month covers that expense. So $3.32 over, not to bad!

November Pics!

Last week Tracy asked us to join them at the Air Zoo, so field trip time it is.

Friday the kids wanted s'mores so being the nice mom that I am said sure.

Mom's way!
Dad's way!


The kids thought it was great, they got s'mores twice!

PRODUCE!!!

Lula and I are reading On the Banks of Plum Creek. In this book Laura talks about being tired of eating only meat and bread because they had no garden. So give me a good smack when I whine about how worthless Meijers is, they have produce, and oh how I love it.

Round 1: cost $3.66, gave me 14 $2 Catalina's a profit of $24!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Round 2: got 2 more $2 Catalina's. Cost $13.07 after using 15 Catalina's. And yes they made me do 16 different transactions. At least the girl in line behind me was nice because it took a while. I actually put one cat in before it scanned so I lost one but it was about the 13th transaction and didn't really care about the 2 bucks right then and there.

So we feast once again! The cookies are a peace offering to the hubby, they cost $4.49 !!!!! This man is so easy to please but don't mess with his Sunday afternoon tuna fish sandwich, which I did, oops. We were out of lettuce and tomato today at lunch, a crime in the tuna fish sandwich world:D

Grand total of $16.73 bring us to $442.16 for the month so far.

Day 20

This is getting old! Spending without thinking is just more fun:D

Wednesday: .88 on a bag of corn for taco soup
Friday: $11.52 on a chicken so we can still rotate our meats next week.
Saturday: $17.77 3 loaves of bread and 3 dozen eggs

I should count another $5, but I'm not going too. Tuesday I slothed off and didn't make the hubby a lunch so he had to eat out.

There goes another $30.17

Grand total of $425.43

$25 bucks for the next 8 days. I snuck a peek at next weeks ad and am waiting until Sunday to get produce. It is amazing that it's been over two weeks that I bought anything fresh, a produce run is NEEDED.

Just for fun!

We don't celebrate Christmas but I found this quite humorous none the less:

The Supreme Court has ruled that there cannot be a Nativity Scene in the United States' Capital this Christmas season. This isn't for any religious reason. They simply have not been able to find Three Wise Men in the Nation's Capital. A search for a Virgin continues. There was no problem, however, finding enough asses to fill the stable. (Thanks to my facebook friends!)

Day 15 update

Not much to say except that the hubby should rip the check book right out of my hand and place me on a very strict allowance. He wants nothing to do with that so I better get my act together.

Here is the list of the rest of last weeks spending.

Family Fare: $9 (one last time- 2 juices, salt, the dishwasher detergent Sharon told me about, yet another pineapple)

Orchard $10 (1/2 bushel of honey crisps and 1/2 bushel of Jonagold)

Health Store $45 (3 loaves bread, 2 dozen eggs, dari-free powder, yogurt, children's multi vitamin)

Costco $48 (chicken sausages, ham, nitrate free hot dogs, cheese, breakfast sausages, french bread)

Papa Murphy's Pizza $15 (the hubby made me do it, it didn't take to much persuasion though after spending the afternoon doing leaves)

Family Fare (yes again) $4 (tortillas and foil pans for bring a few meals to someone who had a baby a while back)

That brings this half of the month spending to $395.26. Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! Seriously I need some intervention! I guess accepting that you have a problem is the first step to recovery right:)!

Here's a little math justification for you.
$600 a month average, 6 people in the family, 30 days in a months= $3.33 a person a day or just over $1.10 a meal. That makes me feel a little better. Take that McDonalds dollar menu!
$450 a month GOAL, 6 people, 30 days= $2.50 a day or .83 per meal.

Like water I tell ya!

It just keeps slipping through my fingers, money that is.

Last night one more stop at Family Fare acquired us 3 more pineapples, 3 more spices and 2 more grape juices. $7.16

Today: six transactions at Meijer got us six laundry detergents. $11.46 out of pocket plus I have 3 off my next purchase for next time. It come out to less than 5 cents a load.

Then we have the co-op that comes every eight weeks. My total was $157.24, half which I will count in this months total.

24 -1 lb. bags of brown rice pasta
25 lbs of sucanat (if you click on the photo of the Sucanat you'll see that it is brown, the bag ripped, makes you wonder how they get white sugar white.)
organic gummy worms, free of dyes and chemicals
organic root beer barrels
30 fruit leathers
1 lb of organic cinnamon

That brings our total to $264.26. (day 9)

Double coupons day!!!! Yippee!!!!

$8.70 not too bad.

The Family Fare Stores are doubling coupons today and tomorrow!!
$1.69 for the Welch's (I love me some grape juice but never buy it at 4 bucks a bottle)
$1 for a pineapple
$1.39 for a box of tea
$.79 for a 4 pack of yogurt

Free stuff:
spices (cinnamon, chili powder, and pepper)
Hersey kisses
2 of the 3 dark chocolate snickers
single serve yogurt
tuna

I hope to go later to get some more free spices and $1 pineapples and more juice. Yippee for double coupon days!!!


Total for the month $167.02

Weekend spending

So Saturday Lettie and I bought her some diapers and a pack of pull ups. $17. Ouch!

Sunday a quick run to Target got us 4 boxes of mini wheats and 2 boxes of Kashi. $2.85, now that's more like it.

Total of $158.32 (today is day 7)