Where did the time go?

Once again, I went a week without blogging. I sat down wanting to update but feeling like I didn't know where to start. I decided to catch up on my blog reading first and found my inspiration. Ashley is hosting a 7 things party - so I am joining in!
7 things about Ashley - right here, right now.

1) I miss my mom. She is out of town for Spring Break with our church's middle school choir. I can't wait for Common Ground's homecoming concert on Sunday.

2) I have a seriously sick hubby right now. T rarely gets sick (unlike me!). The following might be TMI but I don't know how else to explain and document what has happened without these details. It started as gas(burping) on Thursday evening. It slowly progressed to diarrhea and last night he started throwing up on the way to his parents' house. Over the last few days his stomach has slowly swollen, obviously bloated and hard, sensitive to the touch. I went to work this morning because he insisted that the didn't need to go to the doctor. I got a text message from his mom asking me to please bring him into her clinic at 2pm so I left work early(thank goodness for a somewhat an understanding boss). They ran blood work and did a stomach x-ray but they didn't see anything unusual. He has lost almost 10 lbs from his normal average weight. So they sent us home with 3 prescriptions to be filled to treat the gas, diarrhea and vomiting. They said if the swelling doesn't go down after he has been on the medicines for a little while, then we will go from there. He is a pitiful patient and absolutely does not like the fact that he is on an all clear liquids diet. Poor T-baby. :(

3) I have serious senioritis. I am ready to get my 2 degrees and find a full-time job. This whole working 35-40 hours a week AND being in school thing is for the birds. ;)

4) It is Spring Break and I decided to throw off my work schedule. Instead of closing at work every night as per usual, I am working 11-7. Not sure if I like this(even though I was only there for 2 hours of my shift today). The morning crew is very different from the night crew and not in a good way. I am still looking forward to getting home before 11pm every night this week though.

5) We did SO good on the eat from the pantry challenge in January but I have totally gone off from that. I am determined to do better and finish March off by spending less on groceries. I desperately need to find time to catch up on all of my coupons. It's lost somewhere in my long, long to do list.

6) I was supposed to go on a Spring Break weekend trip with some of my girl friends from church to see one of my dearest friends, Savannah, at school. She goes to Pensacola Christian College in Florida. They don't get a spring break so it has worked out in years past to go visit her on the last weekend of our spring break. BUT this year their Bible Conference is that weekend. So no trip. :( Instead, I got to take the money we had put aside for my trip to go clothes shopping. It helped make the situation a little better. ;) I was SO excited to find clothes that made me feel comfortable and adult. At 22, I still want to be in style and fashionable but apparently I have a different definition of modesty than most clothes designers. When I have money to shop, I can never find clothes that I like, make me feel good about my body and are MODEST. Anyone else have this problem? I think I might dedicate a whole different post to this. ;)

7) I feel completely guilty eating food when T can't have any. So here it is 9pm and I have not eaten dinner yet. Oops. I guess I need to go fix this problem.

Sorry it is nothing in-depth or insightful right now. Too many things swirling around in my mind, I guess.
Since I am school free, hopefully I can get back into my blogging swing. Is it weird to miss blogging?

Hope everyone has a great Monday!

Eat from the Pantry wrap-up

Budget: $100
Total spent: $85.65

Can you believe it? I recalculated the number twice to make sure I did it right. ;o) When I read on Myra's blog about the pantry challenge, I thought to myself, "Oh, well, I could probably do that for a week or two." But the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to give it a real shot. And I didn't completely wipe out my pantry or freezer. The only thing we are really lacking in right now is meats and perishables but I didn't choose to replenish these just yet because we will be leaving tomorrow night for our Disney vacation.
Also, Brookshire's still hasn't marked their merchandise down to 50% so I didn't really do any blow-out shopping there like I had thought.

Here is what my pantry looks like now, at the end of the challenge.

That is not a full view of the pantry but that was all I could feature in one picture. Please ignore the fact that it is thoroughly unorganized. 

Note all of those noodle packages down low? I believe I still have 8-10 packages of various noodles that I got for about $0.50 a piece. Got any good recipes that use noodles? Let me know!

T and I have decided to Eat from the Pantry every couple of months. Overall, it has been a great experience and it is nice to know that without that extra money, we most likely wouldn't have been able to go to Disney World. Quite a reward, eh? :o)

Last Week of the Eat from the Pantry Challenge!

Menu Monday
Eat From the Pantry Challenge Final Week - Life As Mom and Money Saving Mom.


I am absolutely amazed at how well this challenge has gone. I am about $25 under budget, but I will be spending that later this week. Our local Brookshire's stores are closing. Tomorrow morning they are marking all merchandise down to 50% off and they will still be taking coupons! I know I am going to go over my $100 budget for the month at that point but I feel like it is totally justifiable. :)

Here are the meals I still have left in our pantry.
Baked Italian Chicken Spaghetti
Rice Balls
Deer Roast, Rice and Gravy
Deer Steak
Baked lemon pepper fish
Spaghetti
Blackeyed Pea Casserole

Honestly, I feel like there is still a lot in our freezer and pantry to eat. Definitely enough to last us until we leave for Disney World in a week.

Eat from the Pantry Menu Week 3

We just completed day 17 of the Eat from the Pantry Challenge. I wasn't sure we could make it this far. :) But we're still in it and we still have plenty of food to eat!
Grocery spending limit for January: $100
Total Spent: $66.58

Menu Monday


Breakfast
Toaster Strudels
Homemade Cinnamon Rolls
Pancakes
Breakfast burritos

Here are some of the meals I have planned to use in the remainder of the challenge. 

Lunch/Dinner
Stroganoff
Baked Italian Chicken Spaghetti

Rice Balls
Jambalaya
Deer Roast, Rice and Gravy
Deer Steak
Baked Potatoes
Homemade Pizza
Baked lemon pepper fish
Spaghetti

Once we eat those meals, we will see what we have left and go from there. I am hoping to stretch it out to make it through the end of the month!

Menu Deviation (Edit: Bachelor, Disney)

Oh, my goodness. Today has been one of those days where absolutely nothing goes according to plan despite my good intentions. Anyway, if you are friends with me on facebook or follow me on twitter, you already know that my nose IS broken. It is fractured from the top of my nose(around the point where my glasses rest on my nose) and goes up between my nose.
I will go into the details after I go to the ENT on Wednesday, including the story of how it happened. Cheapest form of facial reconstruction, I'm sure. ;o)
Tonight we deviated from the menu because T surprised me and fixed supper for me. He made baked lemon pepper fish, wild long grain rice, and green beans. It was so delicious and absolutely amazing to not have to cook after my headache of a day.
I am still running on very little sleep. Hopefully a dose of Tylenol PM will help with that problem. I'll be heading to bed as soon as my last batch of Friendship bread finishes baking.

P.S. What in the world is going on with this season of the Bachelor? I just have no words. Thoughts?

P.P.S. As soon as I hit publish, a Disney World commercial came on. 3 weeks from today we will be on our way. SO excited!

Menu Plan/Pantry Challenge

We are about to begin the 2nd full week of The Eat From the Pantry Challenge. :)

I bought groceries last night, but I am still a good portion under budget.  Honestly, I have enough meals from the last 2 menus that we didn't even get to - thank you leftovers! - that I am making our menu almost wholly from previous menus. I did make a few meals that were on my Pantry meal list though not on my menu. I have been dealing with a possibly broken nose(hopefully we'll find out for sure tomorrow) and, along with my constantly bleeding nose, my appetite has been finicky the last few weeks. Nothing really sounds good when it comes time to cook.

Menu for the week of 1/11/10

Breakfast

Friendship Bread(original cinnamon, chocolate with chocolate chips and trying a new recipe chocolate with mint chips found on Christmas clearance. T loves mint!)

Cinnamon Rolls

Toast

Cereal

Lunch/Dinner

50s Prime Time Meatloaf with Mashed potatoes
Black eye pea casserole with corn bread
Angel hair pasta with peppers served with steamed broccoli

Baked Italian Chicken Spaghetti with Green Beans

Philly cheese steaks

Deer Steaks with Baked Potatoes

And then she bought groceries

I had to cave and buy a few groceries. We are still well under our $100 budget for the month. If I wasn't so lazy, I would get up off the couch and give the exact total but I am totally not feeling it right now. Just keeping it real.

Work was exhausting tonight. We weren't busy. In fact we were dreadfully slow. I hate slow. It made my 8.5 hour shift feel like 14+ hours.

Anyway, we bought bread(loaf, hoagies, hamburger buns, hotdog buns - seriously a LOT of bread but we plow through it like no bodies business), milk, some reduced meat and a few little things that we needed to make some extra meals. It was $27ish. I think we did alright for several reasons:

- This was a non-planned(as in NO coupons) trip

- A hungry husband accompanied me to the store

- And a very tired wife was just ready to get home(read: didn't say no as much as she should have ;) ha)

Honestly, some people might not be impressed by the number or our progress. But I feel great that we have gone 2 weeks without buying groceries, we still have plenty of food to eat from our freezer and pantry and I ONLY spent $27. As long as we stay under our $100 goal for the month, I will be a happy lady. I plan on doing some coupoining over the next couple of days but most of it will be household items rather than groceries.

Eat from the Pantry Challenge update

So far, from our pantry, we have eaten:

Cheesy Tuna Noodle Casserole with corn on the cob

Chicken Fettucine with french peas

Jambalaya with Cajun Deer Sausage

Grilled Cheese and Soup

Spaghetti and garlic bread

Chicken Rice Cheesy Bake

Campfire stew

Chicken Rice Casserole
Red Beans and Rice with cornbread

The rest has been filled in with leftovers and sandwiches. So far, so good.

I haven't spent a cent in 2010. I will be making a grocery trip tomorrow night after work. We are in need of bread and milk because we finished our loaf of bread a few days ago and our milk expired today. At this point, I feel pretty confident that we will stay in our $100 grocery budget for January 2010. :)

Oh, deer...

 And yes, that is supposed to be spelled like that. Read on. ;)

I can only be still for so long. The 4-5 day migraine was bad enough. Less than a day of being migraine free and I woke up with a sinus headache. Lovely. I spent the day with a box of nearly gone kleenex and a consistent flow of dayquil. I feel a little bit better. No more sore throat, coughing, or runny nose. Mostly just sneezing and a slight headache. =)

Having my sweetheart home for the evening helped. T went in for his shift at 2 and got to come home about 4 hours early(around 6:30) because of the "snow storms" coming. Considering typical Mississippi weather, it really would surprise me if we only got flurries. ;) But the community is not taking any chances and many schools have already canceled school for tomorrow. Ah, snow days in Mississippi! Oh, and since his contract pays him to be there the full time, he got paid for those extra 4 hours that he was home.

T came home and, without saying a word, cooked our dinner tonight. I didn't ask or anything. So sweet! Of course, it was part of our Eat from the Pantry challenge. He made Jambalaya with cajun deer sausage. We have been eating deer meat a lot lately and I feel like we haven't even made a dent in it. We still have some in my mom's freezer and my sister is giving us a deer roast. I feel like deer meat is coming out of my ears but I am so grateful that we have it for this month long challenge!

We have a huge pack of deer steak and I don't have a clue what to do with it. Unfortunately, I have never really done a lot of cooking with deer meat. Growing up, we never really had deer meat on hand. What we have used is just basic(sausage with breakfast, jambalaya, red beans and rice, etc). So if you have any ideas or recipes, send them my way!

Day 5

DAY 5

- of 2010

- of the Eat from the Pantry Challenge

- of straight consistent blogging

- of zero out of pocket spending

I can't believe it is Day 5 of 2010. Seriously? I am still having trouble comprehending where 2009 went to and I am steadily progressing into another year. Not so sure about this. But then again, keep on trucking because in 28 days I will be going on a visit to my Happy Place/Home(Disney World)! The transmission went out on the car T has been using(his parents "extra" car), so we are down to one car again for a little while and both trying to keep our hours at work. T says we will be going to Disney even if we have to eat sandwiches for weeks. I love this man! ;o)

My Eat from the Pantry Challenge is going well so far. We actually started it mid-week last week, so we are about a week deep into it. I have had migraines the last few days so NOTHING has sounded good. I have been eating but nothing seems to be appetizing. Tonight I cooked Chicken Rice Casserole(recipe coming later in the week) and finally something hit the spot and tasted yummy. :)

I have never been consistent about blogging but I have blogged for 5 days straight! I really enjoy reading blogs and commenting on others but find myself thinking that nobody wants to read what I have to write. Well, I have come to realize that it doesn't matter if anyone wants to read what I have to write, I still need to keep my digital journal/scrapbook up. ;o) Not going to lie, those little comments at the end of blogs make my day complete but I know getting several comments on each post isn't realistic for me and I want to make sure that I continue writing for the right reasons. So I am giving it a full fledged effort.
Notice that the Christmas blog decor is gone? I resigned it this evening while I was on the phone with my dear friend Brooke. Not too bad for about 30 minutes of work, if I do say so myself.

T and I have spent no money out of pocket/unbudgeted in 2010. Let me explain. The only thing that are budgeted for us this month are rent, water, electricity, cable/internet(last big bill whoo!), health insurance, life insurance, $100 for groceries, and gas. We are trying to keep our spending on extras to a bare minimum. This is a challenge but I know that it will be rewarding, if for no other reason than not having to cancel our Disney trip because of the aforementioned car issue.

Crockpot Red Beans and Rice

Meal 1 of my pantry challenge. I adore crockpot meals. So helpful for our odd working hours. I came home from work at 7 and dinner was almost finished. Thank you for my stock of minute rice. ;)

CROCKPOT RED BEANS AND RICE

1 lb. red kidney beans
1 bay leaf
1 clove garlic, crushed (I use garlic powder)
1 lg. onion, chopped
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. pepper
Rice, cooked
Fresh chopped parsley
Meat - optional (I am using some deer sausage that we have in our freezer)

Rinse beans in cold water (sorting out bad beans as you add them into the crockpot).
Cook in 3 quarts of water for 2 hours.
Add all other ingredients(excluding rice) and cook for an additional 2-3 hours on high or 6-8 hours on low.
Serve with hot rice. Yummm. =)

Pantry Challenge

Somethings have come up and/or changed, so in order for us to make our Disney trip happen in February, I am taking on a challenge.

Through couponing, I have been able to make a very little "stockpile" of sorts in my pantry, freezer, and fridge. I did an inventory of what we have a few nights ago and I came up with 26-28 different meals. Most of these include side of veggies and/or bread and are large enough for leftovers. This does not include 3 "meals for 2" frozen veggie dinners I have, frozen burritos, canned soup or any sandwiches. I excluded these because those are what I consider to be our fall back plans or quick fixes.
I am challenging myself to cook using what we already have, only buying milk, bread and other perishables. I know that this would completely deplete my stash and I don't want to find myself having to do serious grocery shopping at some point in February, so T and I decided on a compromise. I get $100 for the month of January to buy our perishables and then use the rest for couponing and sale shopping only. If it isn't on sale or if I don't have coupons for it, I won't buy it. We will see how we do with this. I was totally shocked once I sat down and looked at all the different meals I could make with what we have on hand. I had NO idea we had that much food stocked up. And T was shocked too. ;) He always says, "Well, what is there to eat?", never saying we don't have anything but certainly making it sound that way. He couldn't believe how many meals I came up with. He asked if I really had the groceries to make all of that on hand. As if I would make something like that up. Ha.
We work on a ridiculously limited budget anyway and I know if we can do this it will save us so much money. Think of how much you would save if you did it? Want to see others who are participating? Check out Money Saving Mom and Life as Mom!