Grocery day!

Well I am so happy! I did our grocery shopping today and here is the result!

Wal*Mart (BIG threat for me when it comes to not following my list)
2- 3 gal & 1- 5 gal jugs of water for the cooler $3.65 ( we were paying $6 per 5 gal jug with Home Depot!)
Eggs $1.64 (Yikes! but you have to have eggs)
Coffee Creamer $1.82*
Coffee Creamer $1.82*
Coke for on the way home instead of starbucks $1.23*
English Muffins $1.97
Bread $1.88

Total with tax $14.89

* I didn't really need these things, especially the coke, and could have gotten half & half instead of flavored creamer. I figure splurging on the creamer instead of going to starbucks all the time pays in itself! And the coke was cheaper than even just a tall brew at starbucks. But if I had skipped these 3 things all together I would have saved about $5.50!

Grocery Store
BBQ Sauce x 3 @ .99cents $2.97
Beef Shoulder steaks for Mother's Day $6.37 (package of 3)
Top round steak $2.84
Fuji Apples $2.02 for 2 pounds
Onion $.97
Romaine Lettuce x 2 @ $2.00
Oranges 3.45 pounds $3.38

Total with tax $21.79

So that brings my grocery shopping for the week to $36.68! I still have to buy milk @ Costco where it's $4.69 for 2 gallons x 2 which will bring my grocery total to $46.06 under my $50 budget that I have set for myself.
I was able to do all this when I inventoried all of the freezers and pantry! Use up what you have!!!

Getting back in the saddle

I am in such a funk! I'm not sure if it's the long winter or what! I have no interest in cleaning, cooking, doing my favorite crafts, or anything else for that matter! I really need to get back in the saddle, the saddle of LIFE that is! I explained it this way to my friend recently, I feel like someone else has taken control of my mind and body, racked up too many credit card bills, and decided that they were going to sit on their but day after day feeling sorry for themselves! I just want my body and mind back!!!!!
I've decided that tomorrow is the beginning of the rest of my life! I am going to get back in the saddle, starting with doing my job again, I can't believe my boss hasn't fired me yet, and kicked me out! I really love being a stay at home mom, and taking care of my family and home, but this BRAT that took over for the last year didn't think it was that great of a life, well, it's time for her to go!!!! I am also going to start going through all of our closets and put up a TON of stuff on ebay! I want to get some money for this stuff that is just sitting there not being used. One of the things I am still trying to figure out if we want to keep or sell is the WII that we got for Christmas. We were all gung ho for the first couple of months, but now we haven't played it for about a month and nobody seems interested. I guess I will leave that to the last and hope that we will get interested in it again.
If anyone else has suffered from this funk, or from having some brat taking over your mind and body, please let me know, I love hearing from all of you!

My New Favorite Book!

My new favorite book is " Cheap, Fast, Good," By Beverly Mills & Alicia Ross. The front cover says it all..... "Hundreds of ways to eat well for less. How to plan smart, shop smart & cook smart. With 275 delicious, thrify, family-friendly recipes!"
I bought this book for only $13.95, I'd say they gave it an awesome price so that all of us that are on a budget could afford it! Ths is the coolest book I have bought in a long time, and really inspired me to get a menu together! I have learned so much so far, and I'm only half way through! Check it out at amazon.com, they might be able to show you some pages of the book, I love that feature of Amazon.

Goals

Well I have been so depressed all winter! I'm not sure if it's because most of the people in Northern Idaho are so rude, or if it's that I have been so depressed that I maxed out all of our credit cards? All I know is that I really want to change my life completely and get all of our debt paid off this year! To do this I have some goals that I know will work!

1. No more than $50 A WEEK for groceries, that's for a family of 3
2. Sell as much as I can on Ebay and half.com. Clean out all the closets to acomplish this goal. And put HALF of this money to credit cards and HALF to unexpected family expenses.
3. See if I can get more hours to work at my friends scrapbook store, and put EVERY PENNY towards credit card bills!
4. Do instead of BUY! Really look at what we are buying, and what we can do without buying!
5. Stay home more so that the oil companies don't get as much of my money.
6. Use up what craft supplies I have at home instead of going out and buying things whenever I "think" I need them for a project.
7. Shop at home first for anything that I think I just HAVE to HAVE!
8. Start really following the Flylady.com! A clean house always makes me feel better.
9. More library, less buying books, paying to rent movies, and buying cd's.
10. Less Starbucks!!! This is my biggest weakness!!!!!!

I will try and post how I do with these goals every week so that you can see my progress. I hope that you will also follow along at home with me!

The Coupon Game

Well, I have really having fun with this coupon game! My Mom use to do it all the time when I was growing up, she was a true master in the art of coupons!
This last week I went through all the ads, and all of my coupons to see what I needed and so on. It was so much fun to see what I was going to save on groceries this week, being Thanksgiving this week is always one of the hardest! I did the best at Fred Meyer, saving $15 with their coupons, and my own. They had a lot of things on sale for Thanksgiving that I had coupons for. They also had Mrs. Smiths pumpkin pies for $1.99! As my Mom said, You can't buy the pumpkin and milk for that! And they are good pies too.
So far this week I have only spent $50 on groceries, and I am done for the week! I think that if I keep playing the coupon ad game I will easily be able to slash our food budget down to $50 per week, YEAH!!!!