five steps to saving our food budget this month

Last week I sat down to punch in some numbers on our expenses that I hadn't bothered to do for half the month. And like usual I spent way more than I thought I had. I had 53 dollars left in our food budget for the month of July. Fifty three dollars. And it was July 17th. (I find the graph of our spending on the tablet hilarious. We haven't seen the inside of a store in days.)

I was determined to not overspend this month. So I challenged myself. 

First Step:
I searched out all the ads and found which store had the best deal. Kents was my hero that day. 

* 3.99 for 5 dozen eggs - we love our eggs
* 2.50 for a gallon of milk 
* 8.99 for tillamook - we can never ever not buy cheese

My total at the grocery store to get us through until the end of July. $53.46. Boo Ya!

Second step:
No buying unnecessary foods. Goodbye adorable-small-prepackaged applesause, pudding, and fruit leather packets.

Third step:
Cheapest meals possible. Many of the ingredients for these we had in our freezer, fridge, food storage, pantry, or garden.

* BBQ chicken pizza
* Black bean pizza
* Omelets
* Black bean burgers
* Chicken Enchiladas
* Skillet Summer Vegetable Lasagna
* Crisp Bean Burrito
* The ultimate stuffed zucchini
* Tuna Sandwich
* Chili over potatoes
* Pancakes, Eggs, Hashbrowns

Fourth step:
Make as many things from scratch as possible. Bread and treats.

Fifth step and my favorite:
Eating from our backyard.

* we have had green beans with half our meals
* we pickled some beets
* I love walking outside and grabbing an onion or green pepper
* potatoes are our favorite 
* cucumbers for snacks
* stawberries for something sweet
* zucchini and yellow squash are taking over
* we had our first corn on the cob last night
* we are sort-of patiently waiting for our tomatoes. 

 Someday soon we will have cantaloupe and watermelon.

And a little later we will have an abundance of fruit off our trees. (plus cute pumpkins to decorate our porch with)

Hope I can do this.

Why did I bother posting this. Our posterity will totally 
be fascinated by this someday. Right? 

get it done

I kind of like Mondays. I don't love that Justin goes back to work. But what I love is a fresh start. If Mondays start off well, it's a good sign to how the rest of the week may go. 

Summer is half over for us. At the beginning of the summer we needed something to make sure things got done before we had a lazy summer day. The month of June was hit and miss for us with this checklist, but the first half of July the boys have rocked it. They wake right up and get just about everything done. 

For the yard, they each have a zone in the front that is their area to take care of. Instead of overwhelming them with one huge weeding day. They just weed on Tuesdays and Thursdays, first thing in the morning. (same goes for me). It has been so great this year to not feel the pressure of always needing to be out weeding. (even if I secretly enjoy it)

And extra is whatever I assign to them. Some days it's taking out the recycle, or vacuuming the stairs, or sweeping the front porch, or washing windows, or whatever needs to be done. I am just allowing these boys the opportunity to learn hard work. Right??

The great motivator to getting their chores done. Screen time. 

Seriously, mine craft is HUGE over here.