It's been way too long since I've posted, but life just got a little nuts. I'll tell you about it. We have recently started budgeting again and man, does it feel good to know where all the money is going. While we're not amazing at it yet, we're working on it. Right before we got married we listened to the audio book by
Dave Ramsey called
Total Money Makeover. I think it has changed our married life in ways we will never know. I highly suggest it to anyone interested in this sort of thing. I digress, so anyway, we've been budgeting again (we took a hiatus over the summer when things were crazy with Grace being born, we shouldn't have, but we did) and the area that we most often bust is food...what does that tell you about us? :) So with my new found hobby of couponing, I've decided to stick with the food budget tighter. With that and a little inspiration from
Money Saving Mom last week I decided to start making freezer meals that are homemade, but that require little or no preparation besides warming in the oven. Little did I know that this is an exhausting venture, especially when you have a small child that will only nap when it's most inconvenient for you! Last week I made 4 lasagnes, 6 meals of winter white chili, and 6 meals of spaghetti. I was so proud! Then I finished off the week by cooking my first turkey and it wasn't so bad! Whoo-hoo! The last one I tried with my old roommate was a distaster (good story, ask sometime - this was the roommate who lit the kitchen on fire...). The worst part by far is the clean up. This is what my kitchen looked like when I was finished with the lasagne day:
It may not look so bad, I mean it's only a few loads of dishes, right? Wrong! You should see the countertops! It's embarassing! Needless to day, I'll be doing a repeat of my super scary Halloween mopping!
This week, I'm planning on adding to the frezer stock a few meals worth of homemade turkey noodle soup (from the turkey adventure on Saturday) and a couple of chicken pot pies. I think that will be it for me until the New Year, but I'm proud of doing that much. It really makes me feel good to do things like this and it's helping with the budgeting by buying things on sale and using them!
It may not look so bad, I mean it's only a few loads of dishes, right? Wrong! You should see the countertops! It's embarassing! Needless to day, I'll be doing a repeat of my super scary Halloween mopping!
5 comments:
You should post all the good money saving ideas you find. And recipies for all the freezer dinners. Share the wealth! We all need a little help in that department. I did frezzer dinners when I was pregnant with Rylie......so exhausting! I get it. It took me an entire day to do beef enchiladas. But I sure was glad when that baby came and we had two weeks worth of enchiladas to eat!
Well done!!! I imagine those ready-to-go dinners will be especially nice with all the craziness of pre-Christmas excitement and activities. You should have Colleen or Kira do the same thing and then swap out a couple of meals (like you give 2 lasagnas for 2 enchiladas). Same amount of work, more variety. I wish we still lived close!
After you share your recipes, Amanda, have your friends share their's, too. Yum, beef enchiladas sound delicious! Good for you, getting with the budget. That's great discipline and will reap great rewards. Funny how my non-cooking daughter is becoming so proficient at it (and enjoying it, too!)
We are also trying to do the Dave Ramsey cash system for our budget and I NEVER have enough for food because it is so hard for me to restrain myself at the grocery store. I try to eat rice and beans but crave meat...
I do the envelope method for everything now and it has made such a difference. There are also lots of cook once main item use all week menu's out there. I know I used a few of them when I was with Alex and I wanted to stretch the budget out. Do you have a crock pot to do things like shredded beef or bean soup?
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