Monday, February 3, 2014

Menu Plan Monday

Last week I had a post ready to go on Monday and I never ended up posting it.  Last week was another crazy week. I had a menu plan all ready for the week but that went out the window when we found out my Husband's Aunt passed away.  His Aunt and Uncle live up by Chicago so we had to head out on Wednesday afternoon for the visitation and spent the night to go to the funeral the next day.  We didn't get home till Thursday evening. My mom kept the oldest two so they wouldn't miss more school( our school was closed Monday and Tuesday because of the cold weather). The little guy got the fun of going with  us. Actually my  husband's uncle really enjoyed seeing the little guy and we were glad we took him.  We got home Thursday night and had to get everything ready for my son's overnight wrestling tournament. The boys were leaving Friday after school so everything had to be ready to go to the school the next morning.  My son had a huge bag to take to school and of course the meet ended up being cancelled because of MORE SNOW!! 
I am really tired of this winter and all the snow.  I know I live in the  midwest and we get snow and cold but it has been colder this year than it has been in 20-30 years.  I am ready for spring!


Here is what we had on the Menu for the first two days of last week.

Monday: Taco Casserole
Tuesday:Pulled Pork Sandwiches - I cooked two large pork roasts and separated them into freezer bags for quick and easy meals.  The amount I saved out for us ended up giving us several meals throughout the week.


Menu Plan for this week:
Monday: Spaghetti
Tuesday: Stuffed Pepper Soup
Wednesday:Crockpot Teriyaki Chicken

Thursday: Grilled Cheese / Tomato Soup
Friday: Leftovers/ Sandwiches
Saturday & Sunday: Up in the Air. We have Wrestling Tournament, Basketball games and Baseball practice.


Wednesday, January 8, 2014

Eating Out and Thank You!

Last night a friend of mine shared this article on Facebook. 
Red Lobster is having Financial problems

The main point of the article is that Red Lobster is having tough times and may have to close.   The article touches on a very important point that most of us have already realized.  Times are tough and people are not eating out as much.  It talks about how the working class is the ones taking a hit right now. 

My first though well Duh!! We have been saying this for a while now. We can't eat out like we used to. Prices are higher and for our family of five it costs us easily $45 - $65 at a restaurant. I know it will just get more expensive as my kids get older.  We still have one that eats on the kids menu but at seven years old he is starting to get to the point where it doesn't fill him up.  The article got me to thinking about some of the changes we have been making to save more money.

I started really watching what we spend about a year and a half ago as I was trying to get us out of debt. I have quickly learned that a weekly meal plan saves us a ton of money and eating at home is not that bad. I started following Melissa over at House Full of Searls  right after I started doing meal plans.  I started following Melissa and that lead me to everyone else on the wonderful blog world, Judy, sluggy, Kim, Cindi, Carla, Sharon and many more.  I have been opened up to so many more ways of saving money that I would have ever thought of on my own.


To the wonderful group of ladies who take the time to blog and share your experiences and your money saving tips I say THANK YOU!!

 I still have lots to learn but slowly and surely we have started making our way out of debt.

Tuesday, January 7, 2014

Weekly Plan

This is late as usual.  I started the week off with snow and below zero temps.  The HIGH yesterday was -8F, we had wind chills in the -40 to -50 range.  Schools were closed and a lot of businesses were closed it was too dangerous to go outside. The snow started Saturday night and ended on Sunday afternoon. I didn't leave the house from Saturday night until this morning and I was starting to go a little stir crazy! :)

Weekly Meal Plan:
      Sunday: Meatball Sandwiches w/ Appetizers ( junkfood). We watched movies and Football all day.
      Monday: Chili , Cornbread.
      Tuesday: Tacos
      Wednesday:  Ham & Bean Soup or Lasagna Soup  - not sure which yet.
       Thursday: Pork Chops  w/ Veggie.
       Friday: Homemade pizza. 
       Saturday:  ??  My son has a wrestling meet and then we have a basketball game.



Goals:
  1.  Find my dining room table. We moved some furniture around and the table became the dumping ground for everything.  
  2. Organize my craft corner.  I made several gifts for Christmas and my craft corner is rather messy still. 
  3. Exercise - I have got out of the habit of going to the gym and I can tell.


What are you goals for the week ?