Food budget challenge - end of week one

Week one is successfully in the books!

A bug hit our house this week, and made it really difficult not to just call for take-out one night, but I controlled the urge, and powered through.

This week's spending:

Tuesday:

Girl Scout Cookies. What more can I say? Got a message from my friend that her daughter was working hard at finishing up a goal, so I had to oblige, right? $20

Thursday:

Hubby stopped on the way home to pick up two bottles of Sprite, because I had a sick stomach and needed something simple to keep down. $2.54

Saturday:

The kids wanted to bake cookies and I hadn't come anywhere near spending my food budget for the week, so I thought a splurge would be OK. They bought two packages of chocolate chips, a box of raisins, a loaf of bread, and another bottle of Sprite (now little B has the bug). $11.61

Total spent this week: $34.15

Under budget: $15.85

Reading this, it seems like our house has a definite cookie problem! We also have an empty snack box, so I'm going to have to find something creative to do in order to fill that for the coming week's afternoon snacks.

The big challenge this week is that I plan to be out of the house four days for work, so evening meals will need to be planned ahead of time in order to keep from relying on an old stand by and blowing the budget.

Food budget challenge

Our food budget is completely out of control.

I have seen the benefits of setting a menu and shopping to it. I do so periodically, and when we stick to it – gasp – we save money! But it isn’t easy. We are a busy family, with people always going in different directions, and it is just too convenient to deviate from the plan.

Even worse, we go through terrible phases of eating out a LOT, and our checkbook really reflects it. When I can look back over the month and see more restaurants than anything else, I know we have fallen off the rails!

I went through our checking account and found that our food spending for the past three months (December, January, and February) averaged about $1,550. In the first two weeks of March, we are at $731.92. Yikes!

I would really get that budget to $250 per week, keeping “out” eating to a minimum, and focusing on a plant-based, whole foods menu. I am also thinking of moving to a cash system for grocery shopping, putting cash in an envelope each week and limiting grocery shopping (and restaurant eating) to the money in that envelope. I know it certainly makes it easy to overspend when I'm just whipping out a card at the end of the transaction, no matter what the total comes out at.

So, I was spending a Saturday morning working on my menu and shopping list while chatting with a friend online when she made a comment that totally got me thinking. What about all the food already in my house? Why is it that I go shopping every week or two for this big pile of food, and then proceed to move around what is already there in order to make space?

Here’s a thought.

What if we eat the food that is already in the cupboard?

I know, I know, it’s a tall ask. And, to be honest, some of the food probably doesn’t fit with our current eating practices. You know, the processed food picked up on a whim or the cans of soup you can’t remember the reasoning behind buying? But there is lots and lots there that is probably perfectly fine to eat, I just haven’t bothered to use it. How wasteful!

As I got to thinking about it, a project brewed in my head. I wonder how long we could live off the food that is already in our house. A week? A month? Longer?

I poked around in the cupboards, discovered a few things I had clearly forgotten about, and decided to give it a shot. And I set a goal – five weeks.

We have two freezers in our basement, a refrigerator/freezer upstairs, and dry storage food in several cupboards, as well. At the end of the five weeks, if we haven’t eaten it, I am fairly confident we don’t have any plans to! With that in mind, we will clean out the cupboards and donate anything uneaten at the end of this “challenge,” thus starting fresh in the days to follow.

(I am hoping this will help me make a transition to healthier foods easier, too! We can start from scratch!)

So the plan is to start on Sunday, March 18, and end Saturday, April 21. I am on call that entire time, so we won’t be venturing far from home, which will help a bit. (One place where we really tend to fall down on food budgets is while traveling, but that is a separate issue to attack another time!)

We did our last meal out on Saturday night, so we’ll be all ready to dive in! I think. We’ll see how challenged I feel in a few days!

Rules (Simple, to the point):

*The budget is $50 per week. This will allow us to buy fresh milk, eggs, butter, and the occasional bit in order to pull a meal together.

*Everything else must come from food already in the house!

*No eating out.

A good challenge should have a reward, right?

We have wanted to buy a new bed for a while now, so my plan is to put $200 toward our “bed fund” for every week we stick to this challenge. I’ll put cash in an envelope every Sunday for the previous week.

When we do the full five weeks, we’ll be almost there, and we'll kick in what remains. But only if we do the full five weeks!

http://www.waterbedoutlet.com/LEGACY-BRISTOL-SOFT-SIDE-WATERBED-MATTRESS-p/ss-l-bristol.htm

Homemade Granola

When a blogger friend shared this granola recipe she saw on another blog, I decided to try it out – it sounded super yummy! Right away my family fell in love, and we started making variations on the original, sometimes making a batch every day! Through months of experimenting, we have come up with a version we love even more than the one we originally read. We make a double batch, and store it in a cereal container. Enjoy!

Homemade Granola

• 4 c. old fashioned oats
• 1 c. sliced almonds
• 1/8 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/2 c. dried fruit – usually raisins, but we have also used mixed fruit
• 1/4 c. coconut
• 1/3 c. vegetable oil
• 1/3 c. plus 1/2 c. agave nectar
• 2 Tbs. vanilla extract

In a large bowl, mix together the first five ingredients. Next, in a small saucepan, combine the oil and agave. Heat over medium heat until simmering. Remove the pan from the heat, and stir in the vanilla. Pour this mixture while still hot over the oats and stir well, making sure to coat all of the dry granola.

Spread the mixture on a large, greased cookie sheet. Bake at 300 for about 20 min. (or until light golden brown), stirring the mixture after the first 10 min.

Remove from oven and cool for several minutes before stirring again. Allow to cool completely then store in an airtight container. Thanks Kendra for the recipe! We are getting a lot of miles out of it!

Play time

There was a really interesting article in the New York Times this week about a movement to "restore" children's play time. Definitely worth sharing!

Bria's hair-do

I have been watching with anticipation as baby's hair gets longer and longer, because I can't wait to do fun things with it! I wanted to have a few fun things to do with it while we are on vacation, so I thought I'd try a few styles and see what we liked.

Two days ago we decided to try out this 'do from Curly Hairdo Ideas.

It didn't go perfectly, but I was pretty pleased for a first try! I did discover as the day went on that one side was FAR more secure than the other, so I'll keep that in mind for next time.

Today we made attempt number two. It's improving!

Washing lamby

Bria got a beautiful lambskin as a baby gift, and has slept on it since she was quite small. She loves it very much, and doesn't sleep with drinks or anything like that, so I have managed to put off cleaning it a lot longer than I probably should have! Yesterday I decided it was looking well past time to do something about it, so I did some searching around for the best practices for cleaning her beloved bedding (shh, I didn't understand the instructions on the label!).

After finding a few great sources for buying them in the states (I was pleased to discover that Lamby Baby Products is just down the road from my home town), I also found several sets of cleaning instructions, and set my mind on what I was going to try. I was admittedly very nervous to ruin it!

First, I put lamby in the washing machine on the gentle cycle, warm. It came out looking like a wet cat, and holding water like a bathroom sponge.

Next, I laid it out on a big, thirsty towel on the dining room table.

I rolled it up inside the towel and squeezed a bit to suck some of the water up, and instantly the towel was drenched! There was a lot of water there, and the table was soaked, as well.

I got out a dry towel and rolled it up again.

This time, the towel didn't soak through, so I left it rolled up for a few hours, periodically squeezing it a bit to soak up as much water as I could.

Next I took a skirt hanger (the kind with the two clips at the bottom) and hung lamby up in the laundry room to dry overnight.

Then in the morning -- voila! A clean, dry lamby! Hooray!

(I took photos, but they don't seem to be cooperating. So maybe I can get them to play nicely later!)

Indian Food = Comfort Food

The snow has been coming down outside all day, and I was noticing everyone around my place was starting to get into a funk! We're halfway through Christmas break now, and with three feet of snow on the ground, there has been a lot of sitting on the couch watching movies. A lot of it. This afternoon I decided to fight the drafty dull day with some comfort food -- Indian style.

My husband and I LOVE ethnic food, and Indian is always one of our favorites. When ever we spend a few days in a city, we always look for a good Indian place (along with Thai and sushi). Among our favorites is a good curry, and samosas! Curry has long been a staple around our house, as our grocery store used to carry a good starter product that we liked the taste of. But considering we were cooped up inside and had plenty of time, I decided to branch out and try something different.

The samosa recipe is a variation on one I found online, but unfortunately the link no longer works, so I have posted it below.

For the curry, I picked up a jar of Jalfrezi curry starter ($3.89). Check next to the Asian foods in your grocery store. My store used to have one that was more like a block of chocolate and melted in the pot, but they don't carry that one anymore. The jar was nice -- we got a medium and found it quite tame, will probably go for a hotter version next time, though this was a perfectly acceptable choice for the baby, who chowed down on every last bite!

Just follow the directions on the jar, it's very easy. I added a pound of cut up pork, some chopped onion, and a bag of chopped frozen broccoli. Very simple and tasty. Usually I add a lot more vegetables, like red and green peppers, carrots, etc., but we were snowed in, so I used what ever I had handy!

Simple Samosa

1 Tbs olive oil

1 small onion, finely chopped

4 garlic cloves, minced

2 cups cooked diced potatoes

1 cup cooked diced carrot

½ cup frozen sweet peas, thawed

5 tsp. soy sauce

1 tsp. curry powder

½ tsp. cumin

¼ tsp. dried cilantro

¼ tsp. ground ginger

¼ tsp. turmeric

¼ tsp. salt

1 dash red pepper flakes

1 Tbs. water

3 (8 oz.) packages crescent rolls

(I highly recommend using the Pillsbury crescent rolls. For one, they are much easier to pinch together to form a flat piece of dough. Besides, there always seems to be a great coupon or two floating around to make them cheaper than the store brand ones, anyway.)

To prepare:

Saute onion and garlic in oil for about five minutes until the onion is soft. While cooking, combine remaining ingredients (except crescent rolls) in a bowl. Add contents of bowl to onion and garlic mixture, stir gently over medium heat for several minutes until well incorporated. Set aside.

Heat oven to 375 F. Unroll the crescent rolls and separate each package into four rectangles, pinching the triangular perforations to seal. Cut each rectangle in half crosswise to make two squares. You will have a total of 24 squares. (It may take a little coaxing with your hands to get the dough to cooperate, but make sure you take the time to seal up the perforations before moving on.)

Place a heaping spoonful of filling into the center of each square and fold up to make a little package. (It seems to work best if you fold the opposite corners in, pinch them together, and then do the other two corners.)

Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray and bake for 12-15 minutes until golden. Cool slightly, serve warm with Honey Dipping Sauce.

Honey Dipping Sauce

1/3 cup honey

1 Tbs. lemon juice

1 Tbs. soy sauce

1 Tbs. water

2 garlic cloves

1 pinch red pepper flakes

Combine ingredients in small bowl. Stir well, then microwave for 30 seconds or until just warm. Serve.

I had to replenish my spice cupboard a little bit in order to pull this one off, but I was lucky enough to find all the herbs I needed for $1.37 each. I was pretty excited about that! The crescent rolls were on sale for $1.57 a can, then I had two coupons for $1/2, so I ended up paying $1.07 each for four cans. I will use the spare to make pinwheels for a quick lunch for the kids. I used canned carrots to save some time ($.97). The potatoes came from the produce section ($1.27), I boiled them until the peels started to fall off, then chopped them up. All in all this was a simple meal, made up mostly of things I had on hand. And the family was happy!

((photo of Bria loving her curry))

French Toast

The kiddos at my daycare love, love, love anything with eggs in it, so I am constantly trying to whip up something different utilizing one of their favorite things. Last night when I grabbed a few groceries I spotted these flats of eggs that I had never thought to buy before (duh!). It was 2 1/2 dozen eggs for $4.57. Whole wheat bread was also on sale 2/$3, so I decided to whip up a monster batch of French toast and stock the freezer.

For $7.57, I fed the kids lunch today and froze enough of the leftovers for two more meals. I wanted to freeze in manageable packages to allow the most flexibility, so I took waxed and quart ziploc bags. For each piece of french toast I put down one piece of wax paper, folded it over, and set another piece on top. Then I put two of these little bundles together in a ziploc and froze them in packs of four. Now if the kids want to have French toast in the morning, they can just pull out a package and toss them in the microwave. Voila, happy children!

Cheap Fun

Sometimes you just have to let go and let kids be kids! The daycare kiddos spent hours going through my kitchen cupboards today, stacking and playing and spreading everything everywhere. But they were entertained for HOURS, so who could complain?

Bounce House Giveaway

I love Crazy Coupon Mommy -- Jeana's FB updates are among my favorite throughout the day. Right now she has a super fun (and huge) giveaway going on, for a Play House Bounce House. They look like SO much fun! You get to select the house that is the best fit for your family (we love the Little Sprout, because it's for tots like ours), up to a $499 value. How cool is that?

Check out the giveaway and enter for your chance to win.

Baby Bjorn Little Potty

When it came time for potty chairs at our house, we pulled out the one someone had given us, and put it in a prominent place for what I knew would be frequent use. I quickly learned a big lesson about the chair, and knew it was not going to work!

The potty chair which had been sitting in our basement waiting to be called up to the big leagues had several issues. First, it was big. Bria is a tiny babe for her age, so trying to crawl up onto that big potty was pretty difficult. Most of the time when she tried, she ended up with her foot inside the potty, rather than her butt on the seat. Or both, as she used one foot inside to hold herself up on it.

Second, there were really just too many pieces. There is the main body of the chair, a lid that makes it a step stool (which is still attached at this point, but that doesn't mean it would stay that way), a green ring that gives it handles (I actually can't figure out why), then the pot insert, then a blue foam seat. All in all that makes for five pieces.

The first time I pulled it out, those five pieces were spread in four directions across my house. They became hats, frisbees, and all kinds of other special things, the least of which was a potty chair. When we needed to use it, I had to go around and collect all the pieces. Not quite what you want to do when you gotta go!

Third (and maybe this is just a combination of the other two things), it wasn't very interesting to the kids. While they did sit on it, it didn't draw their attention the way I hoped it might.

My friend over at Curly Hairdo Ideas turned me on to a great book about elimination communication, and it suggested the Baby Bjorn Little Potty, so I thought I'd try that out. I found a great deal on-line, and ordered a pair up.

 

Super cute, right? Even cuter once I got it and realized how tiny and adorable it was. My 16 pound baby looked right at home on it, not struggling with the size at all. At the same time, it wasn't too small for the bigger toddlers. Perfect.

Actually, as soon as I set them out, the kids were all drawn to it right away. It got a lot of use within the first few hours.

Aside from the size, I really liked the one-piece design of this potty. Rather than dealing with bits and pieces and finding everything to put back together, or taking the seat off every time to empty it, you just pick it up, dump it out, and give it a quick rinse.

Simple makes mom happy.

Picky Eaters

I admit it, I always had a little bit of a secret smile when people would talk about their picky eaters.

"Well, if you didn't give them an option, they would eat what is put in front of them," I thought, probably rather smugly.

My three older children were all great eaters, and did exactly that -- tried new foods willingly, ate what was put in front of them, all the things I parent would want. Sure, they preferred some foods to others, but so does everyone. What was important was that I never had to worry about "getting" them to eat something!

Enter the preteen years, and the more time my children spent in other people's homes (including their father), the "pickier" they became. M, especially, started to protest an increasing number of foods.

Then along came the foster children, and my eyes were totally opened! Anything that vaguely resembled a vegetable was suddenly fought tooth and nail. It felt like I was making up for all of those years of toddler power struggles I missed out on, and in hyper drive!

My family has not changed its eating habits -- I serve just as many green things as I ever did -- but we have had to make some adjustments to table behavior as we sort out how to respond to these new challenges.Here are a few tips for dealing with picky eating that I have found helpful:

Amy McCready wrote an article on TODAYMoms which is filled with great tips for dealing with picky eaters in the house. (I am a big fan of Amy McCready and her website, Positive Parenting Solutions. Her online class was really inspirational to me.)

Mayo Clinic has a straight-forward and insightful piece on the topic.

The rule at our house is that you try everything. It is not appropriate to decide you don't like something based on how it looks (and even worse to decide based on what it is called!), so if you sit down at our table, know that at least some of everything is going to make it into your mouth. If there are choices at the table and you don't have to try everything, then the second rule kicks in -- there are vegetables at every meal. Period. So if you hate them, you might want to get them out of the way at the beginning, rather than saving them to the end!

Hot Soup, Cold Day

Nothing goes down better than hot soup on a cold day, and there is never any shortage of cold days here in North Dakota! Today I thought I'd try out a baked potato soup recipe I came across a while back while looking for slow cooker recipes, and it went over well.

It was also super easy, and made the house smell nice all afternoon.

Slow Cooked Baked Potato Soup

1/2 cup chopped onion
32 oz. chicken broth (1 carton)
1 cup water
30 oz. bag frozen cubed hash browns
1 cup milk
3 Tbs flour

Place first four ingredients in slow cooker and cook on low for 6-8 hours.  Turn slow cooker to high, add milk and flour, mix well. Cover and cook an additional 30 minutes or until soup thickens.

Serve with shredded cheese and real bacon bits.

The Morris Tribe

A link to an e-book brought me stumbling across the blog of a mother of nine today, and it's a good thing I didn't have any really important plans, because I wasn't going anywhere. The Morris Tribe is a thoughtful, well-written account of day-to-day life with a big family (like ours), and I really enjoyed checking it out. She has a great attitude and some wonderful ideas. I'm a new fan!

What kids learn from your marriage

We've always heard the saying "monkey see, monkey do" when it comes to raising kids -- but have we really put much thought into just how deep that goes? A new article from Parents magazine had me thinking this morning. What kids learn from your marriage takes a look at how moms and dads interact with each other and how that affects the kids.

The writer uses an example about who does the cooking that really stuck with me. In her home, she and her husband do the cooking together. So when her kids were playing house with some friends, they were certain that was the way it was supposed to go! I remember having similar feelings as a kid -- my dad did most of the cooking in our house, so that seemed pretty normal to me. Spending time in the homes of friends, I was always really interested in how things went there.

Now in my own marriage, I don't often put much thought into how our interactions with each other are viewed by the kids. (Aside from "Ew! They're kissing again!") I wonder what my children would say on this subject? What are moms roles, and what are dads?

Change in plans

Really loved this blog post from the Stir today about the journey we all take as parents -- from judging others for those decisions (we all do it, even if we don't want to admit it!) to finding ourselves doing things we never thought we would! Suzanne's example is breastfeeding a toddler, and I think she does a really great job of putting those crazy mixed up feelings into words. I remember having that same experience she describes, where a month in she thinks she can't do it, then minutes later it is suddenly working and ahhh....I'm so glad I made that choice.

Love it!

1000 reasons I'm a bad mom

If you need a giggle this morning, check out this addition to Moms Who Need Wine's "1000 reasons I'm a bad mom." It always makes me smile!

What would my addition to the list be, if I were to write one? Ah, that one's easy.

I'm a bad mom because if my husband is lying in bed beside me, I don't wake up with the baby. I have the capacity to be a very heavy sleeper, and if my subconscious knows that I don't actually HAVE to be the one getting up, I just don't wake. Usually I am not even aware the baby has stirred until after he goes upstairs, gets her from her crib, changes her or what ever needs to happen, and deposits her in bed next to me so I can nurse her.

On the other hand, if he isn't there, it seems as though I hear her the moment she makes a peep. Maybe I'm kidding myself, maybe she fusses for 10 minutes before I realize she's made a sound!

Cupid Cluster Snack Recipe

I tried out a yummy recipe from Parents.com today, and the kiddos all loved it. I made a few variations on the original Cupid Clusters recipe, so here is my take on it...

Cupid Cups Remix

3 cups Yogurt Burst Cheerios
1 package Gerber (or Parents Choice) dried banana-strawberry mix (find it in the baby aisle, by the snacks)
1 12-ounce package white chocolate chips

Place paper liners in 18 muffin cups. Toss together the Cheerios and dried fruit. Melt chocolate chips in the microwave, cooking one minute at a time and stirring until smooth. Pour over cereal and mix. Place in cups, refrigerate until firm, about five minutes.

The littlest ones did look at these a little strange when I first put it in front of them, so I broke off a few pieces, then they very happily went to town on the entire thing. They were happy campers! Plus they felt like they were getting a sweet treat, and I could feel good about giving them whole-grains and fruit.

Dealing with biting

I have been frustrated recently to find myself dealing with a biting toddler at my daycare. Little D recently turned one, and at about that time decided to start biting everyone he could get between his teeth.

Strangely enough, considering it appears this is a common phase, I had never dealt with biting in any of my children, so I was at a bit of a loss as to what to do.

I tried asking around, but most of the answers people came up with weren't things I was going to try with a child -- especially one that wasn't mine! People suggesting biting him back, flicking his nose, and hot sauce. I did get a few great tips, as well, but didn't have much luck with any of them.

I shadowed him constantly, but it seemed like every time I turned around for one moment, he managed to bite someone again! The odd thing, in my mind, was that it didn't appear to be provoked in any way most of the time. Not that it never was, but it didn't seem provoked as a rule.

Oh, you have the toy and I think I want it? Chomp.

You wandered into my space unexpectedly? Chomp.

L took my juice cup, but S was closer? Sorry, S. Chomp.

There doesn't seem to be any particular child who is the victim, either. At first we thought it was just the bigger kids, maybe because he felt threatened? But it quickly became clear it was everyone. Before I knew it, I was getting calls almost nightly from concerned parents.

His mom and dad were great about it, even coming in one day to hang out and watch him, to see if they could pinpoint a behavior they could work on. But, of course, while they were here, he mostly wanted their attention, not to play with the other children. So not much luck there.

I'm still at a total loss, but we're working on finding solutions...(If anyone has fantastic advice for me, I'm all ears!)

Bottle babies

Gotta love this photo of my three bottle babies. They are all growing up SO fast, but moments like this remind me they are all still little, too!