Motivation (and a plan!)

Bob applied for a new position within his company last week.  I am so proud of him for having the desire to challenge himself, work towards promotions and continue to support our family.  I don't know what his chances are for getting this position, but what I DO know is that if it is offered to him we will be moving.  I am thrilled about the idea of living in the Southern Washington/Portland area again, but when I look around our house I'm not so thrilled with the idea of the actual moving process.  Last night I decided that I need to go through our home, room by room, and purge as if we are getting ready to move.  If he gets the position then I'm one step ahead on the process, and if he doesn't get the position then our house is neater, cleaner and more organized.

--On a side note:  I saw a banner for the Watershed Festival on Facebook this morning.  Toby Keith, Brad Paisley and TONS more country artists that I would love to see.  Tickets go on sale on Friday, March 15th.  A successful yard sale would totally offset some of the cost of tickets!  First order of business is to see if my parents would be willing to watch the kiddos and give Bob and I an amazing weekend away.  Hmm...

Anyway, back to the scheduled programing.  Purging.  I wrote out a list of each area in our house and came up with:

Bathrooms
Master Bedroom
Master Closet
Boys Room
Hall Closets
Ashlyn's Room
Living Room/Toy Area/Entry
Kitchen
Laundry Room
Garage
Backyard

11 areas total, some will require more time than others.  My plan is to give myself two weeks, starting today, and focus on one area at a time.  Two weeks will give me a cushion so that if I'm not able to work on an area one day, or if something takes more than one day (garage) I can devote more time.  I will go through each area and determine what we are keeping and what needs to go.  The "GO" items will be further divided into categories - yard sale/consignment, free or trash.  Whatever doesn't sell from the yard sale/consignment category will be donated.  Once I have committed to getting something out of the house I will make sure it goes, one way or another.  Wish me luck!

Meal Planning & Money Saving

I've started this entry twice already, and also discovered TWICE that the auto save function wasn't working.  Third time's a charm, right?  

I have finally found a meal planning method that works for our family!  I save money on groceries and sanity at 5 o'clock.  I'd call that a win-win for sure!  This is a peek into how I do meal planning now.  Its been some trial and error, and what works for me might not work for you.  I think the key here is to be purposeful and flexible at the same time.  Don't keep forcing yourself to do something that isn't working.  For me, staring at the fridge/freezer/pantry and thinking, "Ok, whats for dinner tonight" was one of those things that just wasn't working.  Now I can glance at the list on my fridge, consult the man to see what sounds good to us both, and pull meat out in time to defrost or begin any other prep that might need to be done. 

Step 1:  Go shopping.  I shopped on Saturday at Safeway this week.  I have found that the best way for me to save money in combination with meal planning is shopping first and buying whats on sale.  Everyone has a general idea of what their family likes to eat and will eat, pick from those main ingredients that are on sale.  Build your meals around what you can pick up at the store, not by finding recipes and then purchasing all the ingredients necessary (unless you know from your store's weekly ad what is on sale... then pick your recipes and build your meals around what you have on hand and what you can pick up on sale.)

 This is a picture of Saturday's grocery haul, and the following items are what I intend to use for our meals this week and next.  I spent a total of $141.24, with 48% savings that breaks down to $90.55 card savings, $19.97 Just For U savings and $14.95 paper coupons redeemed.

I also want to quickly highlight the Just For U deal on Ranchers Reserve beef, $5 off a $20+ purchase.  I was able to add this offer to my card and it has a limit of 1 per day, good from 2/27-3/5!  I was able to find 3 packages of Ranchers Reserve beef that added up to $20.02 which equaled paying $15.02 after the offer was applied.  Safeway also frequently runs a deal where you receive a $10 Catalina (the type of coupons that print out with your receipt, and are good to use on your next purchase) on a $75+ purchase and this past weekend was one of those offer periods.  Since the Ranchers Reserve deal is good through tomorrow, I sent my $10 Catalina coupon with Bob to work today and gave him instructions to stop by Safeway on his way home and pick out $20 worth of Ranchers Reserve beef.  Depending on how close he gets to $20 without going over, the Just For U offer will take $5 off, and after using the $10 catalina coupon he will pay $5 (or slightly over) for another $20 worth of beef!  I'm anxious to see what he picks.....



The Meat:
6pk boneless skinless chicken breasts - 2.49/lb for a total price of $7.25 (my target price for chicken breasts is $1.99/lb, but we had used all of our chicken in the freezer and I wanted to add some variety to our mostly beef menu this week!)
2 Hilshire Farms Sausages -  B1G1
Ranchers Reserve beef strips - $5/$20 Ranchers Reserve purchase with my Just For U offers
Ranchers Reserve stew beef
Ranchers Reserve london broil

The Supporting Roles:
1pk egg noodles
1 family size herb & spinach ravioli - on clearance for $2.99
2 bell peppers
2pks frozen corn Green Giant Steamers - $1.98 for both after Just For U savings
asparagus (made a great addition to our pulled pork and potato salad on Sunday night!)

Step 2:  Assess what you have on hand, and what you were able to purchase.  Come up with 5-8 meal ideas that you can make with what you have.  I say 5-8 because its likely that you will have enough for a leftover night, you may be accounting for a meal at friends/family or ordering pizza/eating out.  (or those nights where nothing sounds good so you just eat a bowl of cereal.... hands please, who else has done this?) 

I have tried meal planning that assigns specific meals to specific days, but there are times that my "assigned" meal just doesn't sound good.  I like having the flexibility of picking something off the list and knowing that we have everything needed to prepare the meal.  Which brings me to step 3....

Step 3:  As you create your meal list for the week, make a separate grocery list that includes the few items you might have forgotten at the store or that you are now determining you need to round out your meals.  This shopping trip should only have to be a few items because you have already done the bulk of your shopping.

Some of the items on my menu are utilizing things we had available (creamy wild rice soup base, 1lb ground beef, spaghetti sauce & noodles, tortillas) and some of the items from my grocery shopping trip won't make it on this week's menu.  Are you seeing the trend with being flexible?  I like being flexible! 

Since the man's schedule can vary, I like to include a crock pot meal, a few quick and easy meals and a grilling meal or two.

Our Menu:

-Stroganoff in the crock pot & frozen corn (using the egg noodles and stew beef)

- Fajitas (using beef strips & bell peppers)

- Grilled chicken and twice baked potatoes

- Creamy chicken wild rice soup with homemade bread, hopefully.

- Sausage & poatoes with frozen corn (Hilshire farm sausuages)

- Spaghetti & meatballs