Ugh we ruined a chicken the other night, and I so wanted to pitch it and move on, but I did the frugal thing and am making soup. I just want to say, I really hate that! I so hate having to rescue things and fix them. I would much rather do it right the first time, but baring that, I want the financial freedom to toss my screw ups!

Well today I made tortilla chips, bread, cheese crakers (very good) soda crakers (cross between saltine and wheat thin). I wanted to make brownies for my husband but I ran out of energy. hopefully I will find time friday or saturday.

I also made pizza for dinner, and next time we need to make more pizza! I am still hungry, course I always am so it isn't really a marker of anything.

The grocery store was 50.47 so we aren't going to make that under 70 if next week is as bad, but 10 of it was for butter which should keep me in butter for three or even four weeks. and another 8 was for cheese, whish is a little over an average weeks worth, but I have to try and get the kids to cut back a bit. And 12 was for milk, again we are going to try and get the kids to cut back a bit. THere was also some poptarts for dh, a month or two supply. Hopefully next week we can keep it in the 20 we have left. I will be making more bread on Thursday so we wont need that but we will need flour.

I am thinking of making the grocery list now:

Milk x2
flour
eggs

There thats almost 15 right there. Doesn't leave much room though. Guess I wont be getting that chicken after all.

Last night I made hockey chili, which my DD and DH love, butI burnt the bottom of the pot! so instead of lunch for me I had a burnt mess. Hate misteaks, I hate it even more when they cost me money!

I looked at a calendar to see just how often I spend money, which is pretty easy since I go to the grocery store once a week, and spend money occasionally on Thursdays, usually for DR apointments and occasionally for walmart or BJs. Totaled up it can't be anymore than 8 times and is quite often less. The less I go to the store the less I spend, which is why we are not going to Walmart anytime soon to buy a test.

K I am in a better mood today, after all my kids hardly ever get sick so aside form regular checkups things should be good, oh and I think I am in a good mood cause I managed to get my daughter to poop in the potty! That will not only save money but come on I hate diapers!

I also found that my kids and husband like 'ship chips' which is alot cheaper than buying. The bad news is we have about 70$ to buy groceries for the next two weeks, so it is back to seeing how we can shrink that bill.

Oh and I was very proud of myself managing to get my shower done in only 20 minutes, with washing hair and a sugar scrub. Money rant would prolly make fun of me for hurring to save my few cents but he isn't looking at my credit card bill and ...

This is it, this is the day for baking, My husband is watching the kids, sort of, not like they can go far. I have already gotten 2 batches of cinnamon pie in, and a ton of ships buisquits cut out and waiting to cook, as soon as the oven is empty! I discovered that my DH can do a great jb of pounding them by actually punching the dough. I hope the final product is as good as when I beat them with the rolling pin. It did end up a bit dented looking from his knuckles, but it saved me some pounding and he had fun. Can't wait for DS to get a chance to try it, right now he is a bit short to be able to punch with any strength all the way on the table.

Next I am going to make brownies at a fraction of the cost of the mix, and even smaller fraction of the cost of buying them. And prolly try some bread too, I was getting pretty good at it, but it takes a rather long time, and my son only just started eating whole wheat bread. Thankfully I ate it when my DD was learning to like food, so she has always eaten it. In fact we went for a burger a couple o months ago and the kids wouldn't eat the bun, to pasty white! Weird, I had no troubles. We got my son into the bread by offering him 'brown' bread, his faorite color. We started with honey wheat, and once he got used to his bread having flavor we switched to 'darker brown bread' The homade kind is even darker so we will try it and see if it goes over well.

Well the grocery bill was $55, with 5 of it being for cheereos, I need to find a better breakfast for me, but I don't like bagles, muffins, toast, or any of that stuff. humph, how many moms are the picky eaters! My kids will eat most anything! They like the english muffins on sale and the bagles and such.

I did however treat myself to a loooong hot shower last night, I find it very hard to give that one up. But I am ging to test out the sugar scrub tonight I think (gotta get DH to help) and that is a cheap but very fancy way to pamper myself. He bought me the oil for christmas, and I already own lots of sugar!

I had to wash the bathroom rugs again, yet another potty accident. But I felt proud of myself, I hung them over the shower bar to dry, makes my bathroom smell like clean laundry!

Tonight is another trip to the grocery store, and while I still have to make my list, I have high hopes that it will be about 50$ again. After a couple months of 50 I am going to try and go down a little further. Right now I am focusing on putting up with 67 degree house and not going to BJ's.

I made some cinnamon pie last night for the kids to eat, and I will tyr to make more beaten ships buiscuits today for the kids, though my husband ate most of the last ones. (after making fun of me for making what is essentially 'hard tac' the stuff old soldiers ate before there were MREs. (for fantasy readers, that is 'cram')

Unfortunatly for the no BJ attempt, my daughter refuses to tell me when she needs the potty, she will tell her dad, but not me. Which means that we are out of diapers and I don't want to resort to the pullups, so she is in underware and I will be doing alot of laundry for awhile.

i looked at what was left of my grocery budget and decided what was the biggest expense, milk, snacks, and diapers. (snacks btw not really being junk, cheereos, raisins, crakers, kid healthy snacks)

So I figured I could make some bread and crackers for snacks, I found a recipe for some that are supposed to be beaten with a mallet! It was fun to make, though I didn't have a mallet. and my husband suggested a baking day, because really for me to bake does require well behaved kids that preferable will leave me mostly alone. So next month we are going to pick a thursday that my husband is off and use it to bake, I wont have to stop to help with potty breaks or diapers, and he can help the kids 'help' me.

On a good note, we found some steak on sale for christmas dinner, on a bad note on sale still meant over 25$ for 5 of them. Remind me to change our tradition next year and make the steak part for christmas eve when there is no company. then it would have only been 15 or so.

Also on a good note, several relatives have given us money for christmas, expected but still nce. We used some of it for the steak diner with cinnamon rolls for breakfast and cresent rolls for dinner, the rest I have hopes of useing for groceries for the next few weeks. That way there should be more in the bank next month to pay on the credit card.

I was so proud of our grocery shopping, my husband bought stuff for the week at less than $50. But then this morning I was debating about what desert to cook for the holiday party this Saturday and I realized I forgot to get the ham! I have people comming to my house and I have no idea what I am supposed to be feeding them! Since we already spent the budget on food this week I really don't want to go back to the store for more food, but at the same time I don't have anything worthy of company.

K first get your mind out of the gutter, BJ's is a warehouse club.

We made a run last night and I am very proud of myself, we only boght what was on the list. Enough pnut butter and cherreos to last a month. which is a lot of pnut butter . Plus some grahm crakers and nilla wafers.

course I was not proud of the fact that we had to put it on the credit card. But we honestly have no money. I have come to the conclusion we can't afford our house! But with the local market so bad we wouldn't sell it either so we are stuck with it.

I have found a way to seriously save money on groceries, not only did we keep the bill down this week, but I havn't used any of it! I can't get my DD out of my arms long enough to cook so we are having 'el cheapo stuff that DH is good at. Egg drop soup last night, tonight is spicy noodles (oriantal brand of Ramen noodles). The night before was cheap too, but I can't remember that far back- pathetic, ain't it .

Now you know why I post here in this journal every day, I would forget if I waited! I don't want to forget that I am in debt up to my ears, I want to NOT be in debt up to my ears!

Yesterdays dinner and lunch for 4 cost 2.50, tonight will be just the cost of cyanne pepper and heat, the noodles come free from SIL.

And since I can't get her to leave me alone (she has the flu- not normaly clingy) I havn't been eating much. Normally I eat like a horse, so it is saving us money (no I am not overweight 140lbs and 6ft is fine, I just eat- a lot)

Ok I am feeling a little like a squeaky wheel or somthing. the recent journal entrie notice in the 'savings advisor' had two of my entries! out of three! OK I like keeping track of little money things every day, but I am feeling a little silly.

I sent my husband to the store alone last night, I was a little worried but he made it back with only a $55 reciept. pretty good for a weeks worth of groceries. I should trust him more often . Course it helped that I sent him with a specific request to stay under 50 and NO pringles. that and we still have some frozen chicken and ground meat .