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29 Weeks

June 8, 2010 in $20 Menu Plan, family with 0 Comments

We now have a 29-week-old as of today! Yikes! Almost out of the 20′s!

Well, our 29-week-old is definitely on the move! She started army crawling at the end of 5 months, but has assumed that position for most of her crawling. Just this past week, she learned how to go from crawling to sitting back up by herself. That means I sometimes find her sitting up in her crib after her nap. However, it also means she’s a little less frustrated and more content to play by herself.

Eden absolutely adores her Daddy and her big sister. I think she sort of likes her Mommy, too. Hana Kate has a baby to take care of, but it’s babydoll (whose name is either Christa, Kelly, or babydoll, and rarely Eden, depending on when you ask) not Eden who she finds herself busy with. But Hana Kate does want to do just about everything Mommy does with Eden. She even wanted me to make a carrier so she can wear her doll on her back. I’ve found that if I help Eden “play” with Hana Kate, both girls like it, and sometimes are laughing hilariously at each other. This is the type of sister interaction I hope to see a lot as Eden grows older, but we’ll see!

Eden also loves baths and music. I pretty much gave her one bath per week (or less) before she could sit up. Once she could sit by herself, I let her take a bath with Hana Kate. And since then, Eden has protested if she hears or sees Hana Kate in the bath and she’s not in it, too. If I let her go in the hallway, she heads straight for the bathroom. If that door is closed, she heads for Daddy’s office, and if that door is closed she heads for the kitchen! :)

She also love music, and frequently crawls under her crib in search of her piano and is delighted if I pull it out so she can play it. Eden feels the need to sing along. I had her sit in church with us for the beginning of this past Sunday night service. I forgot about her love to “sing.” :) She “sang” along with all the songs we sang as a congregation, but when it was offertory time she still wanted to sing. I saw a few people turning heads, so I headed out with her and let her go to the nursery. But I love that she seems to enjoy music already.

Eden also loves food. So far, I am still nursing almost exclusively, letting her eat some solids for “pleasure” at suppertimes if she appears too distressed that she is the only one not eating. We also let her eat foods using a mesh feeding teether or chew on a water bottle. I have a lot of pics from her “first solids,” so perhaps that will be another post altogether.

No teeth yet! But that’s fine by me. I thought a couple of months ago (when the drooling began) that I saw little buds, but I think it was just the bone structure on the sides of the mouth.

Saturday’s $20 Menu: Chicken Casserole

March 29, 2008 in $20 Menu Plan, recipes with 2 Comments

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Chicken Casserole
Ingredients:
8 oz. egg noodles (3/4 typical bag)
1-2 cups shredded (cooked) chicken
1 can cream of mushroom soup
shredded cheese
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Spread cooked egg noodles in casserole dish. Mix chicken and cream of mushroom soup first, then spread over noodles. Add thick layer of shredded cheese. Bake for 20 minutes at 400 degrees.
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See here for the rest of the week’s menu plan.

Friday’s $20 Menu: Market Fresh Sandwiches

March 29, 2008 in $20 Menu Plan, cooking with 1 Comment

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 Market Fresh Chicken Sandwich
Who says a sandwich needs to be boring?
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The insides of this sandwich include:
Cheese
Spinach
Shredded Chicken
Tomato
Mustard
Mayo
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 I love to spread butter on the outside, sprinkle with seasoning salt and cheese, and broil both sides 1 – 2 minutes each.
See here for the rest of the week’s menu plan.

Wednesday’s $20 Menu: Taco Salad

March 27, 2008 in $20 Menu Plan, cooking, recipes with 2 Comments

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Taco Salad
Ingredients:
Tortilla Chips
1/2 lb. ground meat
Taco Seasoning
Salsa or Diced Tomatoes
Corn
Salad Greens (we used spinach in our case)
Cheddar Cheese
Sour Cream
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Cover bottom layer of plate with tortilla chips. Prepare ground meat with taco seasoning and add to plate, along with salsa/tomatoes and corn. Cover with cheddar cheese. Turn oven on broil, and place plates under broiler for 1 to 2 minutes until cheese melts. Add fresh greens and sour cream.
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Additional notes:
I had originally listed salsa in the shopping list, but when I went to our pantry I decided to use diced tomatoes (from the food yardsale!) instead, which would have been less expensive on the list I provided. It was probably much friendlier to my 7 week old’s stomach, too!
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We’ve also tried this with dorito style chips, as well, and like the additional flavor.
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We watered down the sour cream, which is probably why it looks so “soupy.”.
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For menus for the rest of the week, go here.

Tuesday’s $20 Menu: Chicken, Rice and Mashed Potatoes

March 25, 2008 in $20 Menu Plan, frugality, recipes with 0 Comments

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Chicken and Rice
Mashed Potatoes
(I originally said Tuesday’s menu would be chicken and potatoes, but as the author of this menu and in an effort to stretch that chicken, I’m adding a bit of rice to the mix.)
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Ingredients:
Whole Chicken
4 red potatoes
1 cup rice
seasonings
milk/water
(flour for gravy)
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Rinse chicken. Place in crockpot with desired seasonings and potatoes (cut into large cubes for easier mashing). (If you don’t want skins in your mashed potatoes be sure to remove them before adding them.) Add enough water to reach 1 inch. Cook for 3 to 4 hours on high, or 6 to 8 on low (low for a more tender meat).
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One half hour before serving, remove enough liquid to cook rice. Cook rice in juices according to rice instructions (substitute juices for water called for in recipe). Remove potatoes, which should be ready to mash. Add salt and milk/water to make mashed potatoes. The chicken juices had plenty of greasiness, so I didn’t use any additional oil or butter with anything. Use the remaining chicken juices to make gravy for the potatoes if desired. Serve chicken over rice.
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Remove remaining chicken from bones to use in later recipes. Save those bones, too–you can use them in your soup later this week!
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Gravy
Remove approximately1 cup of juices and add to sauce pan. In separate bowl, mix flour (start out with 1/2 cup) with enough water/milk to have a thick liquid. Add to sauce pan and cook over low to medium heat. Keep over heat until gravy thickens. Add seasonings such as salt and pepper. Add juices and flour as needed to adjust to preferred consistency. (If your chicken or turkey includes giblets, add them for additional flavor.)
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Simple Glazed Carrots
Carrots
Brown Sugar
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This can easily be done in the microwave. Cut desired amount of carrots or simply place baby carrots into microwaveable bowl. Add 2 tablespoons water and 1 tablespoon brown sugar. Heat on high for 3 to 4 minutes and serve.
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Fresh Fruit Salad
The list provided included oranges and bananas. Since I had some apples from previous weeks and frozen raspberries and blueberries, I added them as well. I usually add a little lemon juice to keep the fruit from turning brown and then add enough sugar to counteract the lemon juice.
The recipes listed should provide enough for at least 4 servings.
To see the entire week’s menu, go here.

Monday’s $20 Menu: Stroganoff

March 25, 2008 in $20 Menu Plan, recipes with 9 Comments

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Stroganoff
Ingredients:
8 oz. egg noodles (3/4 typical bag)
1/2lb. ground meat
1 can cream of mushroom soup
(chopped onions if desired)
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Sautee onions. Brown ground meat at medium heat. Once meat is cooked, turn heat to low and add 1 can cream of mushroom soup. Stir until blended.
Cook egg noodles in boiling water for 7 minutes. (Add salt and olive oil after drained, if desired.)
Serve meat sauce over noodles.
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If you’ll be following the menu plan I’ve provided, brown 1 lb. of ground meat, and remove half to reserve for the Taco Salad later in the week. Cook the entire 12 ounce bag of noodles, and reserve a quarter of the noodles for Mustgo Soup.
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Potato Wedges
Ingredients:
2 to 3 baking potatoes
1 tsp oil
seasoning
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Chop potatoes into wedges or cubes. Add enough seasoning to coat potatoes. Mix together until all sides are coated with seasoning and oil. Spread on a metal pan one layer thick, and cook at 400 degrees until edges are browned/crisped (usually at least 30 minutes).
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Wouldn’t you know it…but after spending the weekend with my parents, we hadn’t been able to spend much time with Daniel’s parents recently, so we accepted their invite for supper tonight. :) Thus, I didn’t make our potato wedges or get a good picture. However, I basically make them the same as this recipe found at Tammy’s Recipes.

Questions and Answers on the $20 Menu

March 24, 2008 in $20 Menu Plan with 7 Comments

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Here’s my attempt to answer some of your questions on the $20 menu and shopping list:

From Allison:

What is mustgo soup?

Oops! In my rush to get this finished before leaving town, I forgot to link a lot of things! Mustgo soup is leftover soup. You can read my previous post about it here.

From Mindi:

Do you all eat any snacks?

Yes, we do eat snacks. And probably too many! We get a lot of snacks like chips and granola bars (and candy) at the food yard sale, as well as CVS. These areas are both included in our budget. I also make things like muffins or cookies to munch on. Along the same lines, we also have dessert occasionally, and especially when we have guests.

Also, do you spend $20 EVERY week? or is this just every now and then?

Since January, we have been spending $20 or less per week on groceries and toiletries. Actually, this week was our first time to spend money on groceries since our daughter arrived in early February (with the exception of a $6 banana box of salvage groceries and a cucumber to get my swelling down after our daughter’s birth. ;) ).

Of course the main reason we haven’t bought groceries for over a month is because we had so many meals provided after our daughter’s birth. We were extremely blessed in this area. Another thing we have done to keep the out of pocket expense low/nothing is to return many of the baby items that we don’t need/have doubles of and use the Wal*Mart gift cards to purchase fresh produce.

But back to what your probably really wondering, yes we can stay at this budget level for now. A typical shopping list does not look like the one shown because I do try to keep our pantry stocked and some of the expenses go to that. We would also do more eating from the pantry, but this week I wanted to show how a menu at a similar cost could be done by others.

We do have the advantage of having the food yard sale, and without I would guess our budget would be at least $10 more per week. The sale that we go to only takes place every 2 or 3 weeks. If I need to spend more the week of the sale, I may spend more that week. Say I spend $24 that week. Then I will make it my goal to spend $16 or less the next week.

This family of 8 only spent $60 on their groceries this week; that’s much better than us!

From Lyn:

I am wondering how you are able to not pay for any out-of-pocket expenses right now other than bills/gas – I would love to read a post about what you are doing.

Much of this is included in the question/answer above. If we need something, we will buy it. But only if we really need it. And we’ve been learning that we really don’t need as much as we think. But if we do, we try to find a creative way to get it. For example, if we can get something using our extra care bucks at CVS, we might try to see if we can trade for an item we need with someone who doesn’t CVS. As mentioned above, we will see if there is anything we have as a wedding gift/baby gift that we don’t need and can exchange. (Of course, it helps if it was from somewhere like Wal*Mart or Target). And if there are no creative ways, and we truly need it or need it right away, we’ll get it. We’re not bound by this goal, but we’ve had fun and mostly success trying to stick with it.

From Amy:

Do you notice a difference with the ground turkey from Aldi?

Not really. In fact, it’s much healthier than ground beef, too!

This week, we’re actually using ground venison, and I guess that most people would notice a difference with that. We’ve gotten our venison from my parents or others who have leftover, but Daniel hopes to go hunting next year. There is some initial start-up expense, but it will save money in the long run and is also healthier.

From Cherith:

Did you get all those chicken meals out of 1 4lb. chicken??…I’ve been getting turkey breasts (around $9-10) and using them for a turkey meal, then other dishes/turkey salad later. You get lots more meat (all white) and less bone/easier to pull. I’m interested to know how you get your chicken to go so far!

That’s a good question, and I’m kind of wondering that myself. :) Since we have a little left in our budget this week, I’m planning to use it to buy more meat if needed. I am planning to use the meat in ways where the main course is not solely meat, but I’ve never done it with a chicken this small before.

Actually, it would be better financially to buy a very large turkey or chicken (better health-wise to buy turkey) and then use it for several weeks because the bigger I buy, the less bones there would be per pound. The 4lb. chicken was definitely not a good example for saving $ long term.

The Bigger, Better $20 Menu

March 21, 2008 in $20 Menu Plan, Frugal Friday, frugality, homemaking with 23 Comments

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A couple weeks back, I posted a sample of our $20 budget menu. Well, this week it’s back. But it’s bigger, and possibly a little better. I’ve also posted a shopping list with our area prices to go along with the menu. I may be posting recipes and pictures as the week goes on…so stay tuned!

We still have a good bit of venison and many other things in our pantry. Our dry goods are basically stocked for months thanks to the food yard sale, which was done on adhering to this same budget. But I wanted to put together a menu that could be accomplished by others (particularly where access to salvage food sales is not available.) This menu includes a good portion of meat (though not much red meat unless ground beef/venison is substituted for the turkey) and does not require a lot of couponing.  (To see recipe links for menu items, click on underlined text.)

Breakfasts:
Honey Bunches of Oats Chocolate Clusters

 

Lunches:
Leftovers (Sandwiches if needed)

Fruit

Suppers:
Stroganoff
Potato Wedges
Corn, Toast

Chicken and Mashed Potatoes
Glazed carrots, Toast
Fresh Fruit

Taco Salad

Mustgo Soup
Crackers

Market Fresh Chicken Sandwiches
Carrot Sticks and Chips

Chicken Casserole

Oranges

Toast

Chicken and Rice Soup

Maybe we should call this week the week of the bird! ;)

Shopping List for The Bigger, Better $20 Menu

March 21, 2008 in $20 Menu Plan, Frugal Friday, frugality with 10 Comments

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Here’s the shopping list to go along with this week’s menu. We still have a good bit in our pantry that was stocked while on this same budget; but I wanted to put together a menu/list that could be used by others trying to stay within a similar budget.

Shopping List By Store

Dollar Store*
2 Packages of egg noodles: 2/$1.00

Bi-Lo
Salad: $.99 (Produce Manager’s special; can be found most weekdays)
16 oz. Daisy sour cream $1.09 – $.50 off coupon from 3/16 (doubled) = $.09

Sav-Mor
1 lb baby carrots: $.88
4 lb oranges $2.00
Bananas: $1/3lb.=$1.00
Crackers: $.77
Celery: $.88
Onion: $.58/lb.=$.39
8 oz. Block Kraft Cheese = $2.00

Wal*Mart
Honey Bunches of Oats: $2.26 – this coupon = $.26
Frozen white sweet corn: $.98
5 lb bag red potatoes: $1.98

Aldi
1 lb. Ground turkey: $.99
Taco seasoning: $.29
Tortilla chips: $.99
Salsa: $1.49
Wild rice: $1.89
Condensed Cream of Mushroom soup: $.47
Whole Chicken: .69/lb*4.02lbs=$2.82

Entenmann’s Bakery
Bread: $.99

Total Cost for all items on this menu = $23.15
Items in green are not needed for this week’s menu.**
Items listed in blue are things I already had on hand. My total cost was: $13.48 + items in green = $14.75. (We used a Wal*Mart gift card and our total cost comes to $11.53.

*We’ve found that if you have a dollar store where everything is actually $1, you can often find some nice deals on groceries and more!

If you are reviewing this list for this $23.15 plan, you’ll see that you probably already have some of these items on hand. In addition, many of the items can be used again in weeks to come. **We prefer frozen, but you could also substitute canned vegetables to bring the cost down even further. Of course, you may not have the same stores/deals going. And it goes without saying…it’s highly likely that I’ve made mistakes on this. Please feel free to make corrections!  With some couponing, browsing, and looking at Money Saving Mom for online coupons, you can most likely do even better!