Minor Lapses

So, I did end up spending some money, but it was mostly just due to timing. It is that time of year: picture day was this week. How can I not get my kids' school pictures done?! And DS turned 4 at the beginning of the month, so it was assumed that I would be getting his yearly pictures made. These things are acceptable, I think. You can't be perfect.

We have also been out to eat 3 times. It was mostly out of necessity one of the times. We were invited to a birthday party and had to drive quite a ways to get there; eating on the road was just part of the schedule. I probably *could* have packed a dinner for us, but we had been soooo good, so we looked at it as a reward. (BTW, no presents were purchased...got them out of my recently replenished stash.)

The other two times were more frivolous, but that's ok too.  Since we have yet to spend even $100 total on going out, and it is already September 21 (only 9 days to go!), I am ok with it. I also was reimbursed for some items that I had bought last month, so I call that "found" money. (Yes I am justifying it.)

I am ok with it. Again, no one is perfect. I still managed to keep all other spending to a minimum or even zero.

The meals have been going ok. I am starting to realize that crockpot cooking can actually save your dinner. There was once this week that I forgot to defrost some meat - so I threw it into the crockpot with a cream of mushroom soup and turned it on high...NO PROBLEM! Easy and pretty tasty too. Throw it over some rice, cook up some carrots, serve with a salad and...voila!

I am starting to get low on some staples, so I may need to visit the store this week for a couple odds and ends (milk, fresh berries, apples). I also have spent too much time on pinterest and found a couple great recipes that I already have the ingredients for, so I may mix up my plan a little bit too. We really only have one more week to get through, and it isn't very busy at this point! No temptations to go through the drive throughs during a moment of stress. Almost there...

I may have to plan for a nice dinner out at the end of this. But I won't go anywhere without coupons.
--Katie

Crockpot Catastrophe!

Well, I had decided that today would be a crockpot day. I had a crockpot freezer meal (my scalloped potatoes with broccoli and ham) which was ready to go...all fully assembled and ready to dump into the crockpot before we walked out the door. I had some time before the kids descended on the kitchen to spend 10 minutes choosing what they wanted for breakfast (!) so I pulled it out and started to put it in the crockpot. And that is where the fun began.

My round crockpot will not fit my oblong frozen crockpot meal! Since I already had destroyed the plastic ziploc bag it was in, I needed to find a way to defrost the meal enough so I could break it into pieces to get it in the crockpot. (I was kicking myself because I could have placed the frozen bag into the sink with some warm water, but there was no way at this point.)

First I tried putting it into a ceramic dish and letting it sit in some warm water, but even my biggest dish didn't really fit the frozen block of potatoes, cheese, and broccoli. Then I decided that the only way it was going to get in there is if I heated the whole thing in my largest pan and busted it up as it warmed up.

So there I was, at 7:45 (kids STILL hadn't picked out their breakfast) over the stove trying to get the stupid crockpot freezer meal broken up into small enough pieces so I could get the thing into the crockpot!

Lesson learned: know the size AND shape of your crockpot so that you don't have this same situation. I turned what should have been an easy meal into the biggest hassle ever. I have a feeling that if I had one of those nicer oblong-shaped crockpots this wouldn't have been an issue. But I will have to wait for October to buy one of those. ;-)

--Katie

**update: NEVER making this one again. At least not including the broccoli in the crockpot. Unfortunately, the smell of the broccoli is making the whole dish seem completely disgusting! Also, the potatoes aren't such a lovely color because they oxidized. So after all that, this one is going down the drain. :-(

Update on the September Plan

Thought I would update you on how our spending plan is going!

This last weekend I was out of town, which meant DH was home with the kids. DH doesn't typically cook. I knew this was going to be an issue. So I suggested to relatives that if they wanted to get DS a birthday present that a gift card to a restaurant would be a big hit. And it was. DS paid with his "credit card" for one meal at McDonald's this weekend. He was very proud to hand the card to the man behind the counter.

And DH actually prepared some macaroni and cheese (from a box) for the kids. Sounds like they may have gone out for a donut treat on Sunday morning, but I kind of already knew that was going to happen. ;-)

This week should be good. Lots of comfort food is on the menu. We had mexican chicken in the crockpot yesterday. Apparently the kids were not jazzed about it (MIL supervised dinner due to an existing appointment I had). However, I thought it was GREAT! Tender chicken with black beans, corn, and salsa over brown rice with cheese and sour cream on top. Yummy!

Tonight I think we will go for a convenience food. We have an activity that runs until 6:30, so we will be eating late. This would also be a good day to do a crockpot meal, but I just couldn't get it together this morning. I have meatball sandwiches and frozen lasagna on the list this week and both of those are super easy to prepare (even easy enough for DH!). I will let him decide.

I continue to be assaulted by marketing techniques and it is going to be harder and harder to stand my ground as we get towards the end of the month. I know I can do it and I will make it to the end of the month without spending. (At least I keep telling myself this.) You can do it too. There are only 19 days left.

--Katie

Crazy week

So this week was just insane. It started on Saturday when my car pooped out. My 5-year-old, completely paid for, nice new-ish car. I already knew it was due for a timing belt and a water pump, but this was completely unexpected. The car had to be towed. DH was going out of town.

Turns out the problem was the fuel pump. It is covered under the 5-year/60,000 mile warranty. I still have a month before I hit the 5 year mark. However, my mileage was at 61,300 miles. I almost literally said "are you kidding me?" to the service guy on the phone. He said something like, "It is just a fluke." And I said, "Some would argue it isn't."

A colleague, though, gave the suggestion to appeal to the service manager and start marching up the chain of command. 1,300 miles? Seems like they could cover something like that for me since I was just over the warranty limit. So one call to the service manager and his email to Kia Parts made it possible for me to save $400. WOOHOO!

I still have that timing belt and water pump to replace, but, like all periodic expenses such as car repair, I save monthly to make sure I have the money available when I need it. I am not going to stress over paying for that maintenance since I have the savings available.

In the meantime, things are going swimmingly with my spending plan! No extraneous purchases so far, our fridge and freezer are still fully stocked, and there is no desperate need to buy anything...yet. I really am starting to realize the amount of marketing and temptation there is out there to be a consumer, though. Now that I have to block it out, it seems even louder than before. No amount of coupons will persuade me to stray! ;-)

An update on our meals: we ended up having pancakes and fruit for dinner last night. Easy, yummy, and we ate up the nectarines that were starting to get overripe. Today is much more relaxed...we only have one activity today instead of 3!!!! Spaghetti and meatballs is on the menu tonight.

--Katie

First day...

So this is our first real day of no spending money...and I had to get the rental car. I am still waiting to hear what the damage will be for repairing my car.

Last night we started with Macaroni and Cheese with Turkey Ham and Broccoli. This is DS's favorite, and since it was his birthday we had to cater to his desires! ;-) I actually had found Annie's Organic Mac and Cheese on sale and just doctored it up by adding turkey ham and fresh broccoli. It is easy to add - you just add those extras to the pot as the noodles are cooking.

Tonight, by DD's request, we are having burritos and nachos. That's fine since we have an activity that runs until about 7pm, so easy is best.

The rest of the meals we chose this week include spaghetti and meatballs, pancakes with fruit, and homemade pizza. All of these are already favorites. I have a sinking feeling that the last week of the month will be filled with new dishes or meals that the kids are not so sure about. I need to sneak one in a week so we can avoid that!

We also got our CSA box yesterday - lots of cucumbers, squash, spring mix, basil, and oranges. And we got an interesting item: passionfruit. I never know what to do with this, so I mixed it in some orange juice for a neat treat this morning. It at least made the orange juice last a little longer! I may have to juice some of the oranges I have to supplement our store-bought orange juice, too.

DS, on my suggestion, received gift cards to go to McDonalds, Burger King, and IHOP. I am pretty sure he will be feeding DH, DD, and himself over the weekend while I am gone. ;-)

Things are going along ok...but it has only been one day. We'll see how we hold up towards the end of the month.

--Katie

Taking stock and preparing for September Savings

I like to do a budget every month. Down to the penny. I know EXACTLY what we have coming in, and try to estimate EXACTLY what will go out each month. Last month was a bust. Preparing for school, taking an end-of-summer birthday trip to the happiest place on earth, and a general lack of discipline attributed to a month that was off-budget. However, I am so anal with my savings (i.e. I have two accounts: one is for saving for periodic expenses and one is for an emergency fund) that it didn't make me go crazy. Well, at least not completely.

I *am* doing this "no-spending" September. (I am sure it is partially because I need to get spending back into control...)

I made my list of meals for the month (see here), I took stock of what I already had in the pantry, and made my list of what I need at the store. I visited Costco, Trader Joe's, and Vons. I still need to get to Walmart this afternoon for a couple minor odds and ends that Vons didn't have. It actually irked me a little bit because Vons didn't have couple things on my list, so I couldn't get all my shopping done in one trip.

At any rate, I ended up spending the following:
Target: $18.99
Costco: $61.81
Sprouts: $59.83
Vons: $161.83***

***Note: Let me qualify this a little bit...at the beginning of the summer I had purchased scrip cards from DD's school (if I am going to spend the money, they may as well get some of it...) and still had $157.06 left on those that had been budgeted for and paid for at the beginning of the summer. So I actually spent only $3.67 this month. :-)

So that's a grand total of $302.46 for all the groceries (actually $145.40 after the gift cards mentioned above).

And let me just say that my refrigerator and pantry are absolutely stuffed to the maximum. I am almost embarrassed to show you, but here are pictures...




















My DH even said to me..."Now you have found the fatal flaw in your plan..." ;-)

The kicker is that I also have to pick up our CSA box today. I currently have no idea where I am going to put those things and wish I had an extra fridge in the garage.

I will update you on this week's menu plan once I am able to sit down with the kids.
--Katie

PS Forgot to mention that this little experiment had perfect timing: my car is headed to the service department on the back of a tow truck today. I am SOOOOO glad I already had this planned out. Of course, I won't save as much, but I will have some extra cash that I can apply to the repairs and the rental car I will need to take me through the week. :-S