So looking at food that must be used (cooked ground turkey) and availible ingredients (not much)

I decided to make cheeseburger casserole, then I thought I should sneak in some of the yellow squash puree that UE wont eat. I was trying to guesstimate how much I could sneak in before the flavor bothered my family when I hit on a perfect idea - 'tacafy it!' If I turn it into taco flavored meat the ground red peper will cover up most anything!

boil elbow macaroni (or whatever) drain
Mix
grnd turkey (some)
tomatoes (two cans)
secret squash (shh)
taco seasoning (two packs)
extra pepper and onion (we like spicy)
add macaroni back in then
cheese


It was a success with not enough food left for lunch today! I love when an experament works.

a machine like ours.

After a couple months of making yogurt we have learned a few things.

1. We need more milk! over 4 cups a batch, and a batch lasts roughly 2.5 days.

2. A tablespoon of powdered milk in each batch helps it be smoother (mix in before heating)

3. Cook past the 185 point, reducing the milk leaves a creamier sweeter taste.

4. Never mix powdered milk after cooking! Not a good taste (to us)

5. Remove the 'skin' from atop your milk before you mix in your starter.

6. Mom is still a wuss and wont eat it!

I knew what I was making and I had a plan, stick the beans in during lunch, well miscelaneous children interfered, for one reason or another. But thats ok there is still naptime, well... I forgot! totally and completly forgot! I got first one kid than the next to sleep, then I did some schoolwork with my son, and then my daughter woke up, so she got to do some some schoolwork, then they both got turns on the computer, and, and and...it is now too late to get dried beans cooked for dinner - Urgh!

So what shall we have instead?

How much milk can 2 growing kids and two adults drink! (one adult who is nursing a 4 month old) We buy 4 gallons every week, and this week we have half a gallon left! Half a gallon! it is Tuesday! We wont be buying milk till Thursday! (well if My husband gets his way he will stop on the way home today)

I cannot believe how mcuh milk my family drinks! We honestly limit it, one glass of water for every glass of milk (more for me) and it still is almost all gone in only 5 days! That is almost a gallon a day!

I need a bigger fridge! I can't imagine how much milk we will go thru when UE starts to drink it!

err we don't want to talk about it....

Actually we bought, grapes, apples, flour, and sugar, that was the budget, then we also bought cheese, pickles (splurge) grahams (splurge) milk, eggs, corn bread (I make lousy from scratch) and bounce.

Really not like we got that much splurging.

Most of the flour is to bake and share at church, the rest is all foods I think are healthy, and I don't want to cut just to pay off the house earlier.

well actually the kids ate them up, but my husband and I were not interested in a repeat anytime soon!

I actually have a sortof menu for the next week planned:

Spinache lasagna
Burgers (found them on sale, great price)
Enchaladas (or tacos, depending on how lazy I am)
Chili
Rice something (I said sortof!)
French toast

I had a bag of fresh carrots yesterday so I shredded the whole lot. Only my son eats them raw, but we all like them in things. Last night was black bean fiesta, and I tossed in a cup of shreds, you couldn't even tell, but it tasted good.

Actually the beans were really good, not err, beany . I have no idea how I did that, but I hope I can repeat soon.

I also have plans to make carrot muffins with the shreds, and in the meantime I froze them, unfortunatly I don't have enough freezer containers to freeze that much, so I used ziplocks, my last two. I will have to get more, I would rather go with containers for reusability (no offense to ziplock washers, I just don't) but I like the flexability of the bag, cause I have to 'break offf' a chunk when I use it.

So yesterday we went to BJs and Foodlion, not bad for a total of 100$ Not great but better than last month, and it included two gifts.

But then we also went to the science center, for $37 plus 25 for dinner.

I also paid the phone bill, we spent 20$ in calls over the limit!!! No more talking to mom every day (sorry mom)

The good news is I grabbed a cloth diaper today, and am a bit more commited to spending less.

OUCH!

140! that is WAAAAAY over budget, see what I mean about getting the money out of the account!

431 for the month! way over budget, by a huge amount!

I don't know if we are going to do better in March or if we are going to change the budget!

Now normally I have good eaters, they eat what I put in front of them with little to no complaint, but on occasion I find a meal they devour as fast as I can dish it up, well not my husband, he never eats fast no matter how good! Anyway I have to write the recipe down fast so I don't forget it!(I made it up tonight - well based off of other peoples similar dishes, or at least what my taste buds rmember of them)

Parsley Potatoes: Warning-I don't do amounts!

1. Cut up and boil some potatoes (6?)

2. Add veggies when you can poke the potatoes with a fork but before they are done (I used corn, but I hope small green peas or cut up carrots would work too) (3 or 4 cups)

3. Drain then put back in pot with:
- 3/4 stick of butter (salted or not)
- onion powder (some)
- pepper (some)
- parsely (lots)

4. Mix together
-chicken boilion and
-2 cups boiling water (I used the kettle) and
-1 tablespoon cornstarch

5. Add above onto potatoes and vegetables warm up and serve.

I am finally doing it! I am writing a menu! Ok well I have done this before, but not in a long time, and not very well. No guarantees this will be very well, but I am going to try this week.

My menu starts on Thursday cause that is when we go to the grocery store.

1. Veggie stir fry N rice (if we have chicken we will add but only if the chicken is on sale)

2. Sloppy bean joes (I found this recipie thought I would try it)

3. Black bean fiesta

4. Parsely cheesy rice N brocoli

5. Quesadillas (prolly cheese, or bean)

6. Salad

Now all I have to do is stick with it .

DH went shopping today,a nd he splurged, 'since we have all that money'!! Humph! I want to pay off the house and start saving for retirement, not buy more groceries!

total (two stores) 110
budget 75!

I forgot to put this up, no wait I was sick, so here it is late.

Two stores at 30, and 85 (ouch!) = 115
budget = 75

So that leaves us 40 over for last week. and the 9 left over from the week before doesn't cover it. Not cool.

I could put in a bunch of 'buts' .... 'but we got detergent with a rebate', 'but we stocked up on X on sale', 'but we skipped so many other things I wanted!'

But I wont, those 'buts' always lead me to spending more in the long run.

We had pancakes for dinner which the kids love and DH tolerates, but the trouble is...no lunch for DH. He always packs leftovers for lunch but he couldn't today, poor guy. I can't remember the last time he bought lunch....but I bet he can recall the last time he had to pack ramen noodles (again)

i need to make something to put in the freezer, that can be a lunch for him when we do the goofy dinners.

Well oddly enough I am here to report NOT spending money, we need, err umm cough, want a few things from Aldis and Food Lion, but, well, by not going for a week we are prolly going to spend less in the long run! So baring unforseen complications we will be keeping the 9$ spare for next week or something.

Budget 75$
Actual 66$

But that was only one store, so I will have to see what happens tonight. We still need vegetables.

We also had to get the car inspected and Gas, another 66$ oddly enough.

I made them again last night, still a mess, but also good. I rolled them the other way to make the rolls thicker and have less, it worked better. I had frozen the leftover icing and found out it thaws VERY quickly! but was very good.

Last night I also tried to make 'Wookie' cookies, which is a brown sugar and cinnamon chocolate chip cookie. but I found out I had no eggs, after I already creamed the butter of course, I decided to just mix anyway, then I remembered I had no chocolate chips!!!!

I had to use a bit of milk to make it mix, but we cooked them and it tastes like...err well odd, but good. Though I will not be repeating the test, until the next time I go to make cookies and discover I am out of eggs!

Edit to add: They taste better after sitting in the fridge overnight!

Budget =75
Actual = 36

January budget = 375 (75 x 5 Thursdays)
January total = 361

Nice aint it? course it only worked cause I sent DH this week with 37$ cash! I now the budget is 75 a week but we only had 37, course that is all the cash, so next week we will use the debit card again. And that brought us in under the budget for the month! yipee!!!! Course I am out of a few things, like eggs, and nuts, but.. guess we will survive.

I wonder what happens if you forget to put the lid on the little containers of yogurt?

I did last night, I capped them this morning and put them in the fridge, but I am not sure if it worked, guess I will find out tonight.

I really am not that good at cooking, I sometimes think without modern conveniences, my family would never get a decent meal! And apparently with them I still fail...

Edit to add..It worked fine

We made it! and aside from a fortune in gas dinner was only 15$ (only, I so could have cooked it for a fraction, but no stove in the car!)

We also got out of PB sandwiches for lunch, we arrived before lunch and my Father bought oriantle, it was wonderful. Remind me to thank him and send his birthday card.

Now why didn't we use those PB sandwiches for dinner if we didn't have to use them for lunch? because a guy who has to drive 5 hours to see his wifes family (and miss football) deserves a reward, and with my cold a burger is all he is getting!

BTW the Steelers won, but Panthers lost, so I was right, DH missed seeing the last game of the year for one of his favorite teams (well just the hometown team, he actually likes the steelers)

Budget = 75
Actual = 50

But that is decieving, we only went to one store (BJ's a wharehouse club) We still need bread, and want a few other things.

I also had to buy an airtight container for flour, I had one but it only held 10lbs of flour, we buy it in 20 lb packs, so I got a dog food container thayt will hold more than 20lbs. It is a bit weird to shop in a pet food store, we have no pets! (the strays outback are not pets, they are working gals , kill the rodents and keep em out!) Wanna guess the cost of one large airtight container? 18$! Ouch... kills the grocery budget.

edit to add the 40 spent on other food.

total = 90

budget 75
actual 100

grr, well actually it was 96 but still, not good. We used cash, and I still have some left for the month, but I am not sure we will have enough for the month, I think I may have to get creative in the kitchen in order to make it for the month..

We stopped by the recycling center and they take everything, which is awesome, plus we found a dump for the garbage.

We also spent the afternoon at the playground, it was great to let DS run and not have to yell at him! Poor kid doesn't get to run enough.

I forgot to put in here, we got grocerys on Wednesday.

Budget 75
actual 80

not to terrible, and it included diapers (I am not using cloth out of the house, sorry)
Since last week was under by 20 I am happy .

I got a yogurt maker for christmas, it works and the kids like it though DS prefers it sweeter than just with fruit, I think we will try adding powdered milk to thicken and sweeten it.

but last night we broke the thermometer, so we guessed and ruined a batch of yogurt . no fun and right now instead of saving me money this yogurt maker is costing me money! We have to go buy yogurt for DH for work, and for starter, and we have to buy a thermometer, this time I want a candy thermometer so it covers all the temps and is muti purpose.

So we went grocery shopping yesterday:

budget = $75
actual = $55

I was thinking "great job", but ....... we forgot diapers and wipes, guess I have no choice but to go with cloth now! It might be good for us, I know when I forget food sometimes I get inventive with new recipies. Neccessity might be the mother of frugality!

Got peanut butter

Also a present for BILs birthday on Wednesday, hope he likes it. Bought a cake too caus e I really don't know what a boston cream pie is but that is his favorite, so hope he likes it. (was 7$ man it so could be made for WAY less!)

Peanut butter is almost gone, no way are we going to make it without peanut butter! No eggs ok fine, no rice whatever, no potatoes eh we can manage, but NO peanut butter? NO WAY!

So DH will have to run to the store on Thursday. .

Actually made it under budget, and no trip to BJs for a couple days, would like to make it till next thursday but I am not sure we can, no chocolate chips, that is like the end of the world!

We found one and DH went yesterday to check it out, seems like beter prices, course nothing name brand but that doesn't tend to bother us much.

Also went to BJs for milk, and such.

Managed to stay under budget from both , though we do have to go get more yogurt (swtiching brands, needed to make sure the kids would eat it)

So we stayed under budget, for real, like the first time in months!

but then we left the yogurt in the car so 8$ wasted. I hate that. DH hates that, and we forgot bread. UGH