Monday Madness and Meal Planning

I feel MUCH better this week than the past two weeks. I have a slight cough left but other than that the energy level is back up.

I have so many things I want to try and get done this week. Lots of cleaning and organizing and cooking too.

This Weeks Menu

Monday- Roast and Mashed Potato's w/homemade Gravy, Broccoli

Tuesday- Chicken Toquitos w/sour cream and salsa, corn for the kids. (I will have grilled salmon).

Wednesday- Crock Pot Lasagna half plain and half with peppers.and green beans, homemade French Bread.

Thursday- English Muffin (homemade) Pizza's with homemade sauce and cheese and peppers. Fruit.

Friday- Creamy Chicken Enchiladas SEE POST BELOW (since I didn't get to make them last week) corn, fruit.

Saturday/Sunday- Leftovers, misc meals, and dinner at the in-laws.

This month has quickly come to an end and RJ has had his paycheck for a week now. Our zero budget has been great and proven to get the bills paid and the snowball rolling. However this past paycheck we have had it sitting in the bank. I overspent at the local Warehouse, twice! and we went out to eat several times. Probably blew a good $50 in eating out. We have vowed not again until it is agreed upon and budgeted. I will do my monthly wrap up tomorrow. I will once again be candid in our bad choices and learning experiences. Also I will be delighted in the successes for the month of March. Yahoo! Have a great week.

And tell me....What kinds of things are cooking in your kitchen this week? Feel free to give recipe's. I am always looking for fun and new things to try.

Creamy Chicken Enchiladas

Over at The Grocery Cart Challenge they are having a recipe swap. This is my first time posting but am an avid follower. She is also a fellow Oregonian. ;) Head over there to check out many other recipes. You will NOT be sorry you did.

Creamy Chicken Enchiladas
10-12 Four Tortillas
2 C. Cooked diced or shredded Chicken
2 Cans Cream of Chicken Soup
1 C. Sour Cream
1- 4 oz can Diced Green Chili's
1 Can Olives sliced
1 Small Onion chopped
2 C. grated Cheddar cheese
1 C. Monterrey Jack cheese
1/4 C. Milk to thin sauce

1). Mix soup, chicken, green chili, olives, onions sour cream and 1 1/2 C of the cheese. Thin with about 1/4 C milk. (More or less to your liking)

2). Spread small amount on bottom of pan

3). Spread tortilla with mixture 1/3 C or so, spread it out as much as possible, then roll as tightly as you can. Placing seam down in pan. reserving about 1-2 C sauce for when pan is full.
Repeat with rest of tortillas till pan is full.

4). Pour rest of mixture onto top of enchiladas ans sprinkle with remainder or cheese.

BAKE 375 for about 45 minutes

Serve with salsa and chips (optional).

*This is a recipe from my SIL Michelle and is literally one of my favorites. I can eat them for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I even love to take a bite before reheating them.

If you try these, again leave me a comment and tell me what you thought, variations you tried etc....

Monday Madness and Meal Planning

I must admit after a terrible week of illness I am not up for any sort of meal planning. I am tired, run down and make it through a shower and then need to rest. I had no idea how much influenza can kick someone down. It has gone through our house like mad. I ended up the worst but my poor baby was a close 2nd. For those exciting few days you can click on this site: http://bestoftheworsts.blogspot.com/



My menu this week is going to be simple.



Monday- Leftover pizza, fruit



Tuesday- Quesadillas (Since we didn't have em last time), with cheese and Chx, fruit medley and corn.



Wednesday- Crock pot lasagna. Not sure on the recipe but if it rocks I'll post it.



Thursday- Breakfast for dinner. Eggs and french toast with strawberries & whip cream (If I can get to the store).



Friday- Creamy Chicken Enchiladas



Saturday/Sunday- Cannot even think this far. Will edit later this week.





I am lacking on groceries since we were all sick this past week. I learned a lot about unexpected things in the budget. Not only were we in survival mode this past two weeks with our budget we were in survival mode in surviving. :) Plagued by the flu, horrible coughs, congestion and fevers, this house was a sad place to be. We were a little stressed over RJ's unexpected less of a paycheck 2 wks ago and with several dr visits now under our belt we will be most likely putting a hold on lour snowball. We already borrowed from the E Fund, but that's okay. We are learning and have learned quickly that we need to be prepared. Without those credit cards to fall back on.....



SO with all of this it will feel good to go over our budget for the next two week. Get areas replenished and pay off those pesky unexpected nuisances. On top of that we need to budget better and lower for groceries since we did some drive-thru and take our while under the weather. Have to admit the hubby made lots of grilled cheese sandwiches while I was down. They weren't too bad either. Think the kids are a little worn out with them but he did good!



This week on my list in home made laundry soap. I'll let you know how that goes. 1st time to make it so we will see how it goes. We will need to have some sort of scent in there or it will drive us crazy. If we can handle it we will continue it, if not then o'well, we gave it a try.



Here's to a much better week.

Just when we have it figured out....

I cannot understand why just when we think we have things figured out it can change so quickly. I learned that with the Tahoe. In an instant plans change. In just a few hours things took a turn for the worst with me. Tuesday I was feeling pretty sick. Headache that was just getting worse and aching all over. Over the next 24 hours I got really sick. Needless to say more unplanned expenses as we took a trip to Urgent Care today. You can read my story here. http://bestoftheworsts.blogspot.com/2009/03/influenza-dishes-and-tampons-oh-my.html. Expect the unexpected. Living and learning. Its just money anyway, right? I guess I now know that we need to budget dr visits a little better. That will be top of our list on Tuesday, budget/bill day.
*Not sure why the linking isn't working for me. So we are going old school with the huge link. Yay!*

Sacrifices=Success

We went from this.... :)

To this!
The picture doesn't do justice. The truck looks way worse than this picture captures. :)

Never in a million years would I think we could pay off $14,000 in debt in a year, let alone 6 weeks. But we did it. We took all of our tax return and pd things off. 2 credit cards and 1 tire place, to be exact. We also decided to sell the Tahoe which kicked us over our goal. We haven't even had the paycheck this month where we get to roll our snowball, that is coming. SO this is very exciting. With 6 weeks under our belt and the big chunks being paid we know that our snowball will surely slow, but we made our goal for 2009 to pay off $14,000. RJ and I are in shock and so happy. We get to sit down this coming Tuesday and reevaluate our goal. Lovin it. Who would have thought that a little soul searching, faith, and following would have had this much benefit. We choose to "live like no one else, so later we can live like no one else".
These things are material anyway. We have been so blessed with money from God and it feels even more of a blessing to serve God with that money. To do as we are, be responsible and keep ourselves from living out of our means. Not from borrowing from companies, or worse yet family. I know that we are on the right track and I pray that we will keep on pressing towards the goal. I cannot wait to live like no one else.

I know I asked a few weeks ago what you are doing to help reduce debt or save money. Gym memberships and cable was a big one. Anything else?

Keep me posted. And remember you can comment anonymously. Would love to hear from you and be encouraged by you as well.

**My links are not working for some reason. Hope to resolve this soon.**

Monday Madness and Meal Planning

SO, this week is a tough one. I have plenty of food but money is very scarce until the 24th when hubbies next paycheck rolls in. Not much left, well nothing at all. Not even for gas. RJ is going to donate plasma twice this week just to get us gas money. I guess there is the "E-Fund" but hate to touch that. We still need to pay that back on the 24th. Sad I know but we do what we gotta do. We will survive......

Monday- Shredded Chicken, Rice and Cheesy Scalloped Potatoes.

Tuesday- Quesedillas with Cheese and leftover Chicken, with salsa/sour cream, and green beans

Wednesday- Leftovers

Thursday- Salmon (DH will be gone) He grew up on fish in AK so he will be happy to miss out. Green beans and possibly rice again.

Friday-Sweet and Sour Chicken (will link this recipe after I try it out.) Wouldn't want to post something gross. ;) And going to attempt Chinese Rice.

Saturday/Sunday- Homemade pizza. Crust and sauce from scratch.

Sack Lunch tidbit:
I have finally found a Wheat Bread recipe that I love. The kids and RJ and I ALL love it! I am hoping to replace store bought bread with a bread we love that is soft enough for sandwiches for the kids and DH lunches. This will save me close to or about $1.25 a LOAF (takes a loaf and half to equal store bought loaf. Although home made is much more dense which means using less). We go through about 2 loaves of bread for lunches alone. Not to mention if we have toast, or use bread for dinners (grilled cheese, french toast, sandwiches, etc..)

**ATTENTION**
I have tried a few recipe's and am still wanting to try new ones. Any ideas? I figure since we are all following one another for specific reasons, we can continue to share the wealth with one another. Please send me your recipe so I can find an award winning one. I have no prize for you; just the credit that it is yours and sending more veiwers your way. I will list it on my other blog as well.( http://bestoftheworsts.blogspot.com/ ) Can't wait to hear from you with your ideas and recipes. And thanks for your help in finding the best recipe to suit my family!!

My new #1 bread recipe:

Wheat Bread

1 cup warm water (I microwave 1 C water for 1 minute.)
1 tablespoon milk
2 tablespoons oil
3 tablespoons honey
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons active dry yeast

1.Mix the all-purpose flour, wheat flour and yeast in bowl.
2. Add the warm water, milk, oil, brown sugar, honey and salt.
3. Mix together with a wooden spoon as much as you can. When it gets into a ball form put onto a flat surface to knead.
4. Knead for a good 10 minutes on a lightly floured surface. Adding dusting's of flour as needed to keep it from sticking to your hands or mat. Knead until smooth and elastic. (If you knead for at least ten minutes it should be fine.
5. Place in bowl that is lightly greased (sprayed) and turn over. Both sides should have a light greasing on them. Cover with a clean towel.
6. Let rise in a warm place 45-60 minutes. Should be about doubled in size. What works for me is placing the dough bowl on top rack of stove with warm bowl of water under on lower rack. The warm water makes oven just warm enough without the draft of the air. Lightly grease (sprayed) loaf pan.
7. Punch dough and turn out onto kneading surface. Knead a few times and form into a loaf shape. place in greased loaf pan. Place back into oven to rise in warm place for about 45 minutes or until about doubled in size again.
8. Bake bread for 30 minutes on 350, covering with foil if getting too brown half way through. I personally like my loaf very light in color. I covered at 15 minutes. Ovens vary so keep eye on it for your top color liking. (My oven cooked this loaf in about 20-25 minutes total.
9. Cool in pan for few minutes then remove and cool on wire rack covered with a towel.
Last but not least..... Enjoy!!!!

My personal review: "Incredibly soft, dense and moist. I was very surprised. It tastes good toasted although I personally felt it made it more dry, but add a little butter and jam and it was good. MY FAVORITE is the PB and J sandwich I am shoving in my mouth as I type this out. Unbelievable and for sure the best PB&J I have ever, EVER had!!!!" (And I am not even using our homeamade jam).

** If you like homemade bread give this a try. I am determined to save money on things I can bake at home for a fraction of the cost. This loaf, roughly 69 cents. Maybe even less.It hasn't lasted long. I have to make another loaf today. May have to make 2 at a time. ;) **

PRAISE GOD! Sold-Sold-Sold

It has been the song of the week. "Praise God from whom all blessings flow". I have seen God's hand in more things this past week than I have ever before. His timing, His presence, His guidance, His work, His faithfulness! We have had so many little things happen that I know it was in His timing or because He totally had his hand in it. Just today some big blessings:

1. I had a good Dr appt. I had little reason for concern to begin with but have a small anxiety issue when going to the dr. Not sure why. I've never had an unpleasant visit. So God had his hand in being with me at this visit without a doubt.

2. I helped at the School Auction where my 3 girls attend. First the enrollment was down almost 50% this year from the last. Second, the donations were down. I helped make calls and it was tough to be turned down and know it is from the suffering times. Third, the giving within the community and people who attended was down as well. This was to be expected, but boy is God great. The out poor of prayer from family and friends and faithful supporters of the school was tremendous. People still gave, some gave generously the hard earned money they made, some I am sure gave just what they had. I believe that the auction was a great success. I cannot wait to find out the actual numbers.

3. I was able to help someone due to Gods perfect timing. On my way home from the auction I noticed a vehicle at a McDonald's that was being pushed through the drive thru. I instantly recognized the car, my DD Pre-k teacher, and was able to pull in and see if I could be of any help. Right before that I had dropped my sister off. We decided to chat for a bit. Isn't it amazing how 30 seconds sooner I would have missed them needing help getting jump started. God surely had his hand in that as well.

4. We finally sold the Tahoe. The drastic measure we have taken to help get ourselves out of debt have been followed by hurdles and unexpected trials. Through uncertainties, God, like always, remained faithful. WE knew without a doubt that the perfect person to buy this vehicle would be brought a long. It turns out that person came along today. A wonderful couple about our age, have four children just as us, and best of all, Believers in GOD! My husband spoke to them for quite a while and through conversation even a small friendship formed. They even gave credit to God in the sale and purchase of the Tahoe. God kept it in our possession until they found it. Isn't God great?? There is more to the conversations they had that I wish I had time to share. If you have time check out those two links (hurdles and unexpected trials) You will better understand how we see nothing but Gods perfect timing in all he is doing.

We feel so blessed to not only have all these things just today but that God has really opened our eyes to see these things at all. We have wasted so many hours and days of our lives not appreciating the fact that we can see God in ALL things, at any moment, yet we don't give him that credit. It's not that I purposefully didn't want to, I just never looked for it. Now I do all the time. Just wanted to share. When I know that the transactions are made I will excitingly see my little $ sign at the top of my page get a little closer to wear it needs to go. To ZERO!

Praise God for a successful and blessing filled day!

Finding Freedom Friday

I have started taking part of Phoebe's Finding Freedom Friday. I love her topics and her ideas. Not only her, but she has links set up from many people like myself trying to budget, live frugally, spend less and save more. As far as I have seen most of us are mothers. Stay at home moms, part times working moms, and more excitingly, believers! We have the same goals and being able to share them with one another has been wonderful. Make sure you check out her site and the other ladies links that are on there. You will get a few, okay so maybe a lot, of ideas!

Budgeting and How it's working for us...

Most importantly, it's working. We have been on a budget only since Feb 1 of this year. Yep, a measly 6-7 weeks. We have learned SO much. Every penny in designated to a bill or debt. Okay, so maybe not every penny. Lets put it this way, almost every dollar. We plan bi-monthly with the paychecks. We set aside money for gas and food. The rest goes to the bills and debt. Our snowball is getting bigger. In just this short amount of time we have saved Thousands of dollars. By that I mean, we have used it wisely, paid a few things off, not bought anything that is not a necessity. As Phoebe stated in her blog we are not perfect. We have spent money that we shouldn't have. Its hard as we have sold things on our local CL and the $10 here and the $10 there is sitting there and we think, just this once. Well, this area is the only one at this point we need to remain accountable in. We get selfish with our time, I don't want to cook, or clean the mess from dinner so we spend. Argh! It's done, forgiven, will do better this week. One week at a time. For us it is one day at a time sometimes.

Being on a budget has been life changing for us. No exaggeration either. The real thing we ever really argued about was $. Not anymore. We are on the same page, in agreement and love what we are doing. We are accomplishing a huge thing together. I am cooking more and buying better foods. The savings I am seeing in making my own things like pizza, Bread and bagels is unreal. These are things we eat a lot of and the money saving are incredible. Cutting these out of our budget has been great even just this week. We estimate we have saved about $8 just in bagels. Yahoo!

Have great "stick to the budget" weekend. And thanks for stopping by.

Thank You Emergency Fund

I must say that I am so grateful for our emergency fund. We had to have some work done on the truck for some electrical issues. Turns out that store gave us the wrong plug and it shorted everything. After many attempts, which would make for a great blog, we gave up and took it to a professional. It costs a pretty penny to fix it. We had to borrow from the E Fund. I was freaking out a little when RJ told me the final bill was $300. Eeek! We did have another few knick knacks done to it with the locks and window which we know now wasn't really a necessity. His paycheck on Tuesday was short his stipend pay too, Shoot! The last paycheck 2 weeks ago we got our budget to zero. Nothing to fall back on for the next two weeks. Frugal living for sure! RJ sweetly reminded me that we have the E Fund and that is why it is there. (Reminder that we cut all credit cards). I was so relieved and almost had forgotten about the fund. I literally had to go to the bank and draw the $ out. I can't wait for his next paycheck so we can replenish it. I feel like I'm going to go crazy now that there isn't that $1000 in there.

Also the vehicle is back up for sale. Lots of hits but no grabs yet. We are lowering the price a smidgen. Either way it should sell. It is just under KBB so a great deal, and for a nice vehicle (sigh). I'll miss it when it sells.

Have you had to dig into your E Fund? If so how did it make you feel and how quickly did you get it paid back?

Monday Madness and Meal Planning

Here we are yet another week has passed. I was so stressed last night as I didn't have my weekly menu planned. In just two purchases I have several meals for this week. We stayed within our budget with food. Originally we assumed that to feed the 6 of us we could do it on $250, which can be easily done, but that originally included household things like toiletries, cleaning supplies, etc... We now know that we need to cut back in some way or have those needs budgeted separately.

Meals for the week

Monday- Taco Soup
>

Tuesday- Left over baked Potato and fajitas or chicken burritos as the kids know it. (which was the chx/rice last week)

Wednesday-Broccoli and Cheese Soup. Not sure what recipe I am going to use yet. But I have broccoli that must be used.

Thursday- Taco/Burritos

Friday- Breakfast for dinner: French Toast and eggs.

Saturday- Pizza/pizza leftovers (Have neices bday party to attend).

Sunday- Dinner at the In-Laws. :)

Penny Pinching Rewards...

Day 7 No Television
Oh, how I miss my shows. Well, I have access to them via the Internet, however, they are not as easily accessible. AND if we want to catch up on a show then I don't get to have the computer on my lap. Ahhh! The price you pay to save. We were paying $60 a month for Dish. We called to cancelled and for no reason at all they were able to knock off $20. Just for calling and trying to cancel. We took the deal and hung up with intentions of still cancelling. Fast forward 2 weeks..... I called to cancel. She offered to take an additional $10 off our price. So, same package for half the price, Hmmm! I questioned her on how she could do that. Then I gave a her a few thoughts of my own. I made it clear that if they were able to screw me out of $30 a month this long that I have NO intention of keeping our service. She made it clear that I was responsible for returning ALL of the remotes, the receiver and even the little round thingies UP ON THE ROOF on the satellite things. REALLY?? They refused to send someone to come take those down. And to make it worse, if we break either one of the two that are out there then we are responsible for the cost. Wow! After all this and her not being very kind they can have all their crud back. We are happy using the Internet, commercial free, to watch our shows for free.

Long story short, I got it cancelled. About 3 minutes after we hung up I had no local channels, no pkg channels and a whole lot of shopping networks.



I must admit that in the 7 days we have not had TV the girls are playing and interacting more with one another. Hubby and I are having great conversations and I have a lot more time for my Bible. So, it is a great thing to get rid of it. Good choice and in a matter of one month we have now freed up $60 additional to roll into our snowball. Yahoo!!



What do you have that you have/can get rid of, lower, or downgrade?? I'm curious.....

*I changed my settings so now anyone can leave a comment.*

Up for Sale AGAIN...

So, we have the Tahoe back on the market. For our faithful readers, which there are MANY of you.... ;) Please pray that the vehicle will sell in a timely manner. This would not only be helpful for our debt, it will help tremendously with our monthly budget. Thank you for keeping up on our blog. I really hope to hear from any of you that are reading the "TMMO" book also, or any of you that are trying anything that we are. It would be great to share our thoughts and ideas. Even one change is a great thing. Lets hear about yours...... (please, followed with a beg....)

Monday Madness and Meals Planning

This weeks Finding Freedon Friday from Phoebe was meal planning.

SO here was my repsonse:

I am so happy to say that for the 1st time ever I am meal planning. I plan 1 week at a time but purchase food for the month. I plan three good wholesome meals and 2 random ones due to schedules + leftovers. We keep our reciepts and I have a budget journal that I write it all in. I have been searching many cookbooks, family recipes and blogs to find recipes that I want to try so this is mainly how I get my ideas. It has helped us eat healthier, for cheaper, we are on strict budget and it helps us stick to it and most importantly we are eating more as a family. We have estimated we dropped our eating out by 90% in 5 weeks. (Sad to say we ate out a lot!) Happy to say we DO NOT anymore! :)

Here I am again getting my thoughts in order for what we are going to be eating for the week. SO here goes it.....

Monday- Pizza night. (DD has an awards night) This was budgeted about 3 weeks ago with cash set aside. (we will be spending $12 for the 1 pizza, drinking water.)

Tuesday- Leftovers. (DH has class) Yes it is Baked Spaghetti AGAIN. We made a little too much last week. With green beans and apples with PB. (Free Baked Spaghetti since it was already accounted for, green beans and apples with PB will land about $1.25)

Wednesday- Potato Chowder and sourdough bread. The bread was more than the soup. Eek! ($6.69 total)

Thursday- Chicken, rice and carrots. (Est. $5)

Friday- Leftovers. If leftovers are slim then I will make homemade Mac and Cheese and fries. Carb overload?? Owell, its cheap. (Free if leftovers. If not then $2.75)

Saturday/Sunday- Baked Potato with the goods cheese, sour cream, chili ($2.50) and/or grilled cheese sandwiches/tomato soup ($3.00). Fruit ($1)

Estimated total for the weeks dinners is around $31. (NOTE: This estimate is a little low as I did not look at my recipes and actually tally to the penny. My goal is to do this for the nest weeks menu. Obvioulsy it is cheaper to eat in than eat out but I like numbers so I will have it acurate next week.

There it is. I have a few other things I am anxious to try but will have to wait. I cannot cook big meals each and every night so I will have to be patient. Which I'm not real good at.

I am going to work on the sack lunches ideas. I am very simple and don't care for super strange lunches so my ideas are VERY easy that virtually anyone to do. Plus I'd love ideas, so if you have any leave me a comment. :)