Entries from March 2009 ↓

I actually was tempted to go to the store today. Twice, actually. I resisted temptation, and it paid off. I’ll elaborate in my menu.

Breakfast:

All: Shredded Wheat, Milk

Lunch:

All: Macaroni and Cheese, Corndogs (My MIL bought frozen corndogs for the boys the other day. I am not sure whether it is a good thing or not, that as of today, I am no longer a corndog virgin. I always thought they looked horrible. They weren’t really bad, but not sure if they were good.)

Dinner:

(This was a bit of a challenge since we were having company over. I needed something that I would have enough ingredients to make a larger quantity of food. I also needed to have a dessert. I almost faltered after I made an entire home-made carrot cake and went to look for cream cheese and could not find it in the fridge, where I was sure I left it. I was trying to rack my mind when I complained about it hubby who opened the fridge door, pulled out a block of cream cheese, and said “This cream cheese?”. I honestly think prior to this I would have just ran to the store without really searching. Shame on me. It’s a downfall of having the grocery store 3 blocks down.)

All: Spaghetti in sauce, Meatballs, French Bread (frozen dough from the freezer), Mixed greens salad, home-made carrot cake w/ home-made cream cheese frosting

Etc.:

I needed to make a ‘generously portioned’ dish for a potluck at church tomorrow. (Am I the only one who hates those things?! But I’m a deaconess, and I’m obligated to most of them.) I usually make a side dish, but I couldn’t think of anything that wouldn’t take a long time to make (I had company so I had limited time after they left to bake) and I had the ingredients to. So I decided to go with a desert. I thought I had a brownie mix, but realized I didn’t. Darn. I did find some chocolate chips though, and decided to go with chocolate chip bar cookies. Half way in, I realized that I was a 1/2 cup short of brown sugar. Does it count that I ran across the yard and asked my aunt to borrow it? My rationalization was that I did not step foot in the grocery store, and I did resist going for a brownie mix. Plus, I had all the ingredients in a bowl already (not wise when you’re doing a Eating Out of the Pantry Challenge. Again, I’m seeing how living so close to the grocery store is a pit-fall of mine. Anyway, I got the brown sugar and my cookies turned out perfectly. 

Temptations were there today, but averted. So all’s well that ends well, right?

So far I have not been tempted to go to the store; I’ve had everything I wanted when I went to look for it.

Breakfast:

Kids: Shredded Wheat and Milk (I’m telling you, they seldom stray from their regular)

Mom: Granola and Vanilla Yogurt

Lunch:

Kids: Peanut Butter and Honey (for 1), Peanut Butter and Jelly (for the other), apples

Mom: Egg Salad Sandwich, Doritos crumbs, Baby Carrots (I was rather proud of myself for this meal; normally I would have pitched out the Doritos cumbs because they were so crushed, and I probably would not have realized those last 2 eggs in that carton needed to be used promptly before they got too old.)

Dinner:

Kids: Whatever Granny fed them

Adults: Grilled chicken sandwich on wheat with green and yellow peppers and onion

I’ll be the first to admit; I like a sappy romance novel. It’s true. I love Nicholas Sparks. He makes me swoon. And cry. A lot. I like a lot of Danielle Steele’s books too. When I saw an advertisement offering a free sample of her coupon a year or two back, I submitted my name to receive one. However I wasn’t expecting much, to be quite honest.

I am happy to admit that I was pleasantly surprised with the scent ’Danielle’. I loved the stuff! And I really don’t even consider myself to be a perfume girl. I must have rubbed that sample against my wrist like 7 times, willing it to last a little longer. Of course it didn’t. And fortunately for me, it was near Christmas so you bet it was going on my Christmas list!

Thankfully, I have an awesome husband and he came through. He got me a big bottle. Unfortunately, he had to buy it from Macy’s or something (on the internet), and it was very expensive. (Are you like me and have a small heart attack when you go into one of the giant department stores and see them selling fragrances for over $100?! I do. I’m thinking to myself “That’s a cart full of groceries!”) I was surprised to see ‘Danielle‘  on Sale at buy.com for very inexpensive. I don’t know why I was though. I swear Buy.com is becoming the new ‘It Place’.

If you’ve read this blog for any length of time, you’ll know that I love a good bargain, and will openly admit that it gives me a thrill to see how little I can live on. Ironically, I’m not all that great at saving money, as in: not spending it at all.

Because of this, I need to impose self-checks at times. Times to remind myself that while the thrill of getting a great deal is good, the main goal of getting that deal is to actually save money. Money to put towards personal debt, student loans, and for the down-payment on a future house.

I have read on several websites (Money Saving Mom is one of them) about periods of ’Eating from the Pantry”, and even attempted to do it for an entire month at one point. (I did faily well at it, if I do say so myself. But a month is slightly less realistic and I depleted a lot of my stock-pile.) ‘They’ say if you eat from the pantry one week, once every 6-8 weeks, you can essentially save yourself hundreds. Point being: you end up throwing out a lot of stuff that goes stale, freezer burnt, moldy, etc. because you have too many other things to eat; you just can’t eat it all in time. I would have to agree with that as I admit there are times I’ll throw out half a bag of grapes that got shoved to the back of the crisper, or even worse, have to toss a package of meat I didn’t cook up or freeze in time (this waste makes me particularly sick to my stomach). Also, it stretches you, which pushes you to be more creative in recipes and ingredients, using up things otherwise forgotten.

I decided to take part in such a challenge for 1 week (7 days). The thing I will make an exception on is milk - I definitely do not feel right not buying milk for my kids. Otherwise, we are going to eat from the pantry completely. If I don’t have it, I’m not going to buy it. I honestly think that a week is going to be pretty cinchy. Two weeks would be more of a challenge, but I am not sure I am up for that.

Day 1:

Breakfast:

Kids: Shredded Wheat,  Milk

Mom: Granola, Milk

Lunch:

All: Campbell’s Chunky Healthy Request Vegetarian Vegetable Soup, left over fish, saltine crackers

Dinner:

Kids and Mom: Cooked Oats (oatmeal, or Old Fashioned ‘Oytmeal’ as the boys would say. Don’t ask; I have no clue.) and brown sugar, whole wheat toast    Note: I give myself an ‘easy’ card on nights when hubby is at school. If I have time to make an actual dinner, great. If not, great too.

Hubby: Whatever he packed in his lunchpail for school - not sure what - I’m not a good enough wife to pack for him every single time.

Snacks: Strawberries, popsicles

The beauty of hope.

You can see this and other Wordless Wednesdays at 5 Minutes for Mom.