Frugal Friday

Our main family goal for 2010 is to not eat out- at all for 2010. We chose this for many different reasons but the main two are health and finances. It costs us at least $25 each time we run through the drive thru or even when we get pizza. If we do that two times a week that means at least $100 a month wasted. Many times we hit the drive thru more than that. This goal is really going to stretch me. I'll be cooking even when I don't feel like it. I will also really need to watch our grocery budget so it doesn't go up either. Menu planning will become my best friend.

Our other goal is to save $5000. By not eating out we should have no trouble hitting this goal. I'm on a spending freeze for January to kick the year off on the right foot. I want to get out of the spending habit. My husband wants to get his business going and if we have a cushion in the bank he'll be able to do that.

For more frugal ideas check out Life as Mom

Looking Forward to 2010

I'm looking forward to the new year. Many awesome things are going to be happening God willing. I am hoping to make this the best year yet. I don't want to take a single day for granted. This coming year will mark 5 years since being diagnosed with breast cancer. That means God has answered my heartfelt prayer and has given me five more years. I prayed for that every day during chemotherapy. You see, I stand before you as a reminder that God does answer prayer...I shouldn't be here today. My oncologist even told me that " he wasn't ready for me up there yet". He was shocked that I am still alive.

Another God thing that will be happening this year is my hubby and I will celebrate our ten year anniversary. Our marriage has had many ups and downs but with God all things are possible and here we are. Each day brings a new struggle but a new joy as well. This year my husband hopes to branch out with his own photography business. I'm praying for him in this because it brings him so much joy to do what he loves. It makes him a better man, husband, and father. I want to honor him by stretcher our budget and giving him the freedom to make more business opportunities.

We are still home schooling. Our oldest daughter was diagnosed with some learning disabilities and we are finally seeing some improvement. We are committed to giving her the best education possible and that means homeschooling. Our oldest is also recommitted to finishing out his education by homeschooling. He had thought perhaps that he was missing something...but realized this year he wasn't. This coming year we will have been homeschooling for seven years. Praise the Lord for new mercies every morning!

My brother is getting married in May!! That is our big family news. We're excited for him. We're hoping to make it to the wedding...it's in Key West.

What are you looking forward to in 2010?

Our Goals

My husband and I have been discussing our goals for 2010. I will admit that for us our goals for the new year are going to be difficult. It will require a lot of self discipline and time. Especially for me. Our main new year's goal is to not eat out for the entire year. As in 365 days of cooking breakfast, lunch, and dinner for my family of seven. Even when I don't feel good.

Another goal is to greatly reduce our spending. Again this will require self discipline. Mostly on my part again. I love my thrift shops a little too much at times. One of the ways we're planning on doing this is by going on a spending freeze in January. My husband is trying hard to start his own business and I want to support him by making his income stretch as far as possible.

Our final goal is to start saving for a house of our own. We plan on putting all our money saved by not eating out towards our home savings fund.

Making goals works for me

Another Victory

I love coffee. I don't like it black though so I've been buying coffee creamer that is flavored. I know it's full of chemicals and other yucky stuff. I wanted to find a substitute but I wasn't having much luck until now.

White Chocolate Coffee
1/3 cup milk ... I use our raw milk
3 tablespoons white chocolate chips
melt in pan and add to your coffee.
This makes two cups of coffee for me.

This is very yummy. I'm going to try making other flavors as well and see how that goes. Do you have a favorite way to flavor your coffee? I'd love to hear it!

My New Grain Mill

One of the things I wanted for Christmas was a grain mill. My hubby bought me one and I used today for the first time. I made brownies with freshly ground wheat. I'll be honest I was worried what the kids would think. They loved them!!

I made them with Sucanat, organic cocoa, pasture fresh eggs, fresh flour, and grass fed butter.
A real food success!!

Menu Plan Monday

Can you believe this is the last week of the year?!? Where has the time gone? We are making some changes menu in 2010. We will be eating a much more Real Food diet. We are also making our family goal of 2010 to give up eating out. Those two things means that I must plan out our meals each week!! Here's what we're having for the final week of 2009

Breakfast-
baked peanut butter oatmeal
waffles
muffins/fruit
baked french toast
pancakes/eggs
bacon/toast/hash browns
overnight cinnamon rolls

Lunch-
we always eat leftovers first and when those run out...
bread sticks/sauce
veggie soup
baked potato bar/grilled cheese
hamburgers/fries
chicken/fries

Dinner-
Chicken and dumplings/mashed potatoes/bread
meatloaf/potatoes/steamed veggies/bread
chili/baked potatoes
Finger foods with family for New Year's Eve
Carolina Pork/potatoes/veggies
Fend for yourself Sunday

For more menu ideas check out I'm an Organizing Junkie

Gone Again

I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas. I know we did. The kids enjoyed their presents and declared this the best Christmas ever. We did however all come down with a small cold. One of my girls ended up with an ear infection but the rest just have a stuffy nose.

I am busy putting the house back in order. We took the tree down and have begun our annual de cluttering and rearranging of furniture. I love to start a new year with a clean and decluttered house!!

Here's a joke I found while blog surfing and thought I needed to share it...
A blonde goes to the post office to buy stamps for her Christmas cards.

She says to the clerk, “May I have fifty Christmas stamps?”

The clerk says, “What denomination?”

The blond says, “God help us. Has it come to this? Give me 22 Catholic, 12 Presbyterian, 10 Lutheran, and 6 Baptist.”

That one made me laugh out loud!!

It's a Baking Day!!

Today we're busy making tons of our favorite treats. I've got doughnuts rising and a batch of peanut butter granola cooling. I've also got a batch of yogurt in the crock pot. There's a light snow falling outside, lights are twinkling on the Christmas tree, and there's Yogi's First Christmas on t.v.

After the dishwasher is done running I'll mix up a batch of chocolate chip cookie dough and a couple batches of fudge.

What are you doing this Christmas week?

Holiday Baking

I love to bake. I don't even mind cleaning up the mess. I have to share my favorite homemade doughnut recipe ever. It's pretty easy to make but it takes awhile because they need to have time to rise. I brought these doughnuts to our home school Nerf war and all the moms and kids gave these 5 stars!

Okay- my son told me that I shouldn't share my recipe because it wouldn't be my recipe any more. I won't tell you that I found it on recipezaar or that it's called Krispy Kreme copy cat recipe. So if you really want the recipe you can find it. But trust me if you make it- be prepared for awesomeness.

Works For Me Wednesday

I love this time of year. I love baking all sorts of Christmas goodies to give away and to eat! Today my son is hosting a Nerf War for some home schooled boys and I wanted to give all the boys a little gift for coming. I'm also bringing homemade doughnuts...I figure if we give them goodies they'll want to come back next month!!

I was trying to decide what would be a good gift to give a bunch of 8-12 year old boys- something not too girlie you know? Here's what I decided on...

We're giving each boy a Homemade Popcorn Kit---it includes 1/3 cup of organic popcorn kernels, a paper bag, a card that includes a Bible verse, and directions. If these boys are anything like my son...they'll love having a treat that they can make in less than 2 minutes!

For more works for me Wednesday ideas check out We are that Family

It's That Time of Year

It's the time of the year to start thinking about what you want to accomplish for the next year. I've been thinking about a few different ideas about what to do for next year. Here is my top two ideas
* No eating out for an entire year...
* No buying anything new for an entire year... maybe this should just include books, clothes, toys, etc. Not cooking related items?? Or school items?

My other goals are as follows-
*I want to get rid of all my aluminum cooking ware...I'd have to order new pots and pans as well as a couple stone ware items. Unfortunately that would be buying something new unless of course I can convince my hubby to buy it for me for Christmas. Or I could have Pampered Chef party and try to earn enough to at least get my stone ware.
* I really want to get rid of our trash pick up. We have greatly reduced our trash but I'd like to not need it at all.
* I'm hoping to expand our garden and my canning in attempt to can or freeze enough until the next harvest season. I would like to avoid the grocery store for most of the Summer.
* Reduce our electric usage. I would like to cut our bill by 50% by the end of 2010.
* I would love to save $3,000 by 2010 or maybe even more. I need to realize that just because something is a great deal I don't need to buy it!!

What are some of your goals for 2010?

Monday Happenings

Today we went to see Santa and for the first time ever all five of our kids were in the picture!!! It truly was a Christmas Miracle!! After our visit we headed over to Build A Bear workshop and the older three girls made bears. We then went to visit the Lego store for my son and he created three Lego characters. The kids had a great day.

Our dinner however was not the highlight that I was hoping for. It turned out nasty. Maybe it was the sauce? I know I won't be making this again. I hate failed recipes...we did manage to scrounge up enough fruit and yogurt to eat so we avoided a trip to Wendy's.

Menu Plan Monday

It's the week before Christmas and things are getting exciting around our homestead! We're off to see Santa tomorrow, there's a Nerf War on Wednesday, and our first Christmas of the season on Saturday. I'm going to rely on my crock pot this week to avoid eating out! Here's what's on our menu for this week.

Breakfast-
baked peanut butter oatmeal
banana muffins/yogurt
waffles/eggs
hash brown patties/eggs
pancakes/bacon
snicker doodle coffee cake

Lunch-
leftovers or
mac and cheese
grilled cheese/baked potatoes
bread sticks with sauce

Dinner-
Sweet and Sour Chicken in the crock pot with steamed rice and broccoli
Meatloaf/mashed potatoes/rolls
Pulled Pork in the crock pot/ cheese fries
Chicken and Noodles over mashed potatoes
Order Pizza!! It's a Christmas baking day!!!!
Head to the in-laws for Christmas

For more menu plans check out I'm an Organizing Junkie

School's Out!

Our home school is officially on Christmas break. What does a home school family do on Christmas break? Here's a list of things we're going to be up to-

* Going to see Santa on Monday
* A Nerf war on Wednesday followed by hot chocolate and homemade doughnuts at our house
* Making fudge, buckeyes, Christmas cookies
* Reading The Best Christmas Pageant Ever
* Making crafts
* Making homemade play dough for friends
* Creating gift baskets for friends, family, and neighbors

I love this time of year. We're getting our Christmas tree this weekend and it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

I'm Finished

That's it...the last gift has been bought. Late last night I order my last gift online and that completed Christmas shopping 2009. I was blessed to find out about a Target deal yesterday and bought my little girls their presents. The total for Christmas 2009 is $300.00 for all five kids. I also bought them each one item that they really really wanted a sewing machine, an American Girl doll, fancy Nerf gun, and a nice wooden kitchen for my two little girls.

This is the first year that we're giving three gifts per child and we decided to have on big gift per person ( or for example my two little girls are sharing a large gift) and then two smaller ones.

How is your Christmas shopping going? Are you finished or just starting?

Meal Prep

There's been a huge change in our home...we have given up cereal. As in there is not one single box of cereal on the cereal shelf. You know what that means? I have to make a hot breakfast every single day- no matter how I feel! One of the ways I manage to do that is by preparing as much as possible ahead of time. I try to start our breakfast right after dinner while I'm cleaning the kitchen. For example, tomorrow we're having waffles so I whipped up a batch of waffle batter and put it in the fridge. If we're having snicker doodle coffee cake I put all the dry ingredients in a bowl and then I just have to add the wet ingredients in the morning. I'll also spend a day making doughnuts from scratch to have for snacks and breakfast the next day.

Starting breakfast the night before works for me

Hot Deal on Leapfrog Didji

Kids Woot has a deal on the leapfrog didji...it's the stars wars clone edition that includes the Didji hand held system and the star wars game for $27.99 (including shipping)

Hope that helps your shopping!!

Weekly Grocery Shopping

I do one huge monthly grocery shopping trip in the "big" city. We hit Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, and Raisin Rack. Once a week I head to our local Kroger store to pick up some more fresh fruit and buy my husband his pop. Here's what I picked up this week...

1lb of strawberries
2 packages of red raspberries
coffee creamer
2 12 packs of pop
a loaf of sweet bread (marked down to $.69!)
1 cup of yogurt (I'm making our own this week!)
Total $7.00 after using a Kroger gift card

I also do a bulk food trip and today I decided to visit our local Seventh Day Adventist grocery store and I bought a 50lb of unbleached flour for $.41lb!! I was pretty happy about that deal...it's the cheapest I've found flour.

How did your shopping go this week?

Menu Plan Monday

We're planning a nice quiet week this week. I'm hoping to get back to having a weekly baking day. Here's what I plan on serving this week-

Breakfasts
Baked Peanut Butter Oatmeal
Chocolate chip muffins/fruit/yogurt
Waffles
Banana Muffins
Pancakes/eggs
Waffles/hash browns
Snicker doodle coffee cake/bacon

Lunch-
Leftovers or
mac and cheese
Hot dogs/fruit
Bread sticks/ sauce
veggie soup

Dinner-
lasagna/bread
3 packet roast/mashed potatoes
sweet and spicy chicken/rice/broccoli
tacos
Stuffed Pizza Rolls
Chili
Fend For Yourself

For more menu ideas check out I'm an Organizing Junkie

Real Food Grocery Shopping

As our family has made the switch to real foods grocery shopping has become more of a chore. It takes more time only because I need to really think about what I'm buying so I have switched (again) to once a month shopping. I do still take $25 a week for fresh produce if we need it. Here's a list of where and what I like to buy-

Raisin Rack ( a health food store in the big city)
Local grass fed organic beef, pasture raised chickens, and pork
I also buy bulk Sucanat here and some raw cheeses.

Whole Foods
bulk organic candy ( not a real food I know but helpful in the reward area)
grass fed roasts
bacon
some produce
organic apple juice by the gallon ( in glass jars!!)
organic olive oil
**my kids each get to pick one treat per child per month and they usually pick it from here**

Trader Joes
hot dogs
produce
Kerry gold butter
cocoa
mac and cheese ( another not real food but easy for days I don't want to cook!!)
Jo Jo's ( oreo like cookies- 2 packages per month)
coffee

Local Bulk food store-
unbleached all purpose flour 20lbs every two weeks
sea salt
50lb of potatoes
baking powder aluminum free
baking soda
bulk yeast
all my spices

Local Farm
raw milk 5 gallons a week
fresh eggs 2 dozen a week

Most of my tomato products are from my pantry that I canned over the summer. I also have a ton of frozen veggies from either my garden, the produce auction, or Amish roadside stands.

I'm already planning on expanding our garden again this coming year and I'm hoping our berry patch produces well. I'm also going to try making butter from some of our raw milk and yogurt. My plan is to try that in the coming weeks...I'll let you know how it goes!

Do you have a favorite place to buy real food?

A Frugal Christmas...

Christmas is getting closer and closer. Are you ready? One of the ways we keep our Christmas budget low is by shopping all year. I always check the clearance sections at stores and on line.
On line shopping saves me time and money if I can get free shipping and no sales tax! I love Amazon for their selections and prices.

We also make gift baskets for friends and family. I buy baskets at thrift stores and yard sales and then I stuff the baskets full of baked goodies and items from my stockpile. I keep the cost down by using items that I get free with coupons like shampoo, razors, body wash, and other items.

The kids also make play dough for their friends and we like to make gifts in a jar as well.

This will be our first year of giving the kids only three gifts each plus their stockings. I'm hoping this goes over well and I wish we would've started sooner. We're giving one large gift and then two smaller gifts. The plan is to give one gift that they really want and fill in with some smaller items.

One of the ways I keep the costs down with the stockings is by picking toys up at yard sales and thrift stores. In the past I have found a huge bag of my little ponies for $1 and a bag full of animals for $1.50 at a yard sale. I also found American Girl books for .10 each. I only buy items that look brand new. Here is a list of goodies I fill them with... a book, candy, fun socks, and small toys. For our son I usually put football trading cards and candy in his.

For more frugal ideas check out Life as Mom

Battling Discontenment

One of my "issues" is being discontent. I often long for a much bigger house and a huge yard to let the kids run and have some farm animals. I wish for the perfect body or the perfect marriage and kids. Today we decided to do battle with our discontentment and we did some purging and rearranging of furniture.

We started in my girls' room because it always seemed so cramped and small. We moved around a bed and some furniture and tossed tons of junk. We were pleasantly surprised to see that the room wasn't really small it just wasn't used right. After one day of working we found sweet contentment in a job well done.

How are you battling the discontentment monster today?