So, several of my online heroes are sharing their budgets and shopping rituals. I LOVE the idea because no matter how careful I am, I can always learn more. So, visit Jenny, who is feeding eight on a budget of $150 a week (or $600 a month). I'll add more people as they start, I'm hoping that it'll become a trend.
One of the ways we save money is by shopping once a month, and always preparing a menu for the month. It seems crazy, I know, to have it set down what we'll eat in three weeks, but we're not tied to it. What it means is that we've bought what we need to make 30 meals, and we can switch them around according to desire. We have written down all of our outings, so we can plan easy meals on days we'll be gone, or even take out for special occasions. For example, we know that we'll have a babysitter on August 11th, so we have "Raisin' Canes", one of our fav chicken restaurants, written down. We can buy the tailgate meal for $25, which is half of our extra for the week, but so worth it because the quality (and that we can ask for our chicken 'naked' meaning no crusty allergens)
Today was payday. Our general idea is that we do big shopping on payday, stock up, for $400. Then we try to spend less than $50 the following three weeks to buy fresh milk, bread, eggs. I am TRYING to convince my husband that if we run out of some herb or condiment that we technically could survive until the following payday. This is important because he can not just run into the grocery and buy the one or two things we're out of, he'll stock up on Oreo's and gumballs and whatever unnecessary items we don't need. Today was $430, but I've been sick and I bought some convenience foods, like prepared chicken nuggets. We didn't stock up on meat, just bought a few extras from our food calendar. We also did not need to stock up on flour, sugar or rice, since we still had 15 to 20 pounds of each from last month.
7.31.2008
Blog Carnival...August RUN.ning edition
So blog about a typical day and hopefully include lots of pictures and commentary on what is the "norm" for YOUR family! Or maybe there isn't a "norm".;)
Flow is such a good word for how our days go, because it's like the tide. Activities and interests come and go, come and go. We don't really have a typical day, but for now, I can sum up. ;-) Perhaps it helps to know that we have seven kids, so that really affects how our days go. Not only compromising for everyone's interests, but also age levels and capability of dealing with busy-ness. With toddlers and a child with processing issues, sometimes we just can't do what everyone wants. Add on top of that MY arthritis, there are days when we are running, doing everything, and then days when I'm lucky to do the dishes.
Places we go regularly:
And various and sundry parks. We have about two dozen that we rotate through (maybe that'll be another blog post)
Our home is set up for enjoyment, actually a wide variety of enjoyment ;-) . Here are some rooms from the basement:
Crafty stuff organized on top, legos and blocks in the bins
More toys, more crafts
Toddler play area, toy kitchen and doll house
TV room, well, the other side of it. I'm standing by the TV. You're seeing board games and books, puzzles. Just to the right is my sewing machine. I love to quilt and sew, tho I have very little time for it. In the craft area I have my cross stitch and knitting stored as well, which I touch rarely. LOL!
Our day starts of with breakfast, and usually laying around. No one really watches TV in our house right now, although in the winter we do more movie parties, and play lots of board games. Just the season I guess. Right now there is a lot happening on computers, like:
webkins
and club penguin
But Sam is all over pokemon, and spends a great deal of every day building better decks and planning strategies, figuring relative scoring.
Most of our kids are indoor people, but we have some outdoor guys as well. During the summer we have to limit our outside time to early am and evenings because it is SO hot in Oklahoma, today was 102º. So the backyard is like this right now
We even have a garden (you can't see the huge ditch between the play area and the garden.
At the end of the day, people go to sleep when they are tired. The younger kids, usually 9 or 9:30. The older kids stay up until 10 or 11pm. whew.
Flow is such a good word for how our days go, because it's like the tide. Activities and interests come and go, come and go. We don't really have a typical day, but for now, I can sum up. ;-) Perhaps it helps to know that we have seven kids, so that really affects how our days go. Not only compromising for everyone's interests, but also age levels and capability of dealing with busy-ness. With toddlers and a child with processing issues, sometimes we just can't do what everyone wants. Add on top of that MY arthritis, there are days when we are running, doing everything, and then days when I'm lucky to do the dishes.
Places we go regularly:
And various and sundry parks. We have about two dozen that we rotate through (maybe that'll be another blog post)
Our home is set up for enjoyment, actually a wide variety of enjoyment ;-) . Here are some rooms from the basement:
Crafty stuff organized on top, legos and blocks in the bins
More toys, more crafts
Toddler play area, toy kitchen and doll house
TV room, well, the other side of it. I'm standing by the TV. You're seeing board games and books, puzzles. Just to the right is my sewing machine. I love to quilt and sew, tho I have very little time for it. In the craft area I have my cross stitch and knitting stored as well, which I touch rarely. LOL!
Our day starts of with breakfast, and usually laying around. No one really watches TV in our house right now, although in the winter we do more movie parties, and play lots of board games. Just the season I guess. Right now there is a lot happening on computers, like:
webkins
and club penguin
But Sam is all over pokemon, and spends a great deal of every day building better decks and planning strategies, figuring relative scoring.
Most of our kids are indoor people, but we have some outdoor guys as well. During the summer we have to limit our outside time to early am and evenings because it is SO hot in Oklahoma, today was 102º. So the backyard is like this right now
We even have a garden (you can't see the huge ditch between the play area and the garden.
At the end of the day, people go to sleep when they are tired. The younger kids, usually 9 or 9:30. The older kids stay up until 10 or 11pm. whew.
7.30.2008
Recycled from our yahoo blog. Timely reminder for ME!
Time Savers for Meals
Cut Back on Time!
On one of my lists we've been talking about how a parent can choose to walk away from chores or cooking, when they are needed by children. The discussion was centered around how a parent could be more involved in the child's day, especially when the children are homeschooled and there isn't that traditional eight hour break where you've farmed your kids out to the government training ground...I mean, public school. I wanted to offer up some ways that we, in our house, use shortcuts and alternative thinking to open up our days. Cooking has become more difficult with the discovery of several food allergies in our family, nearly eliminating all precooked or boxed meals, as well as storebought bread and sauces.
-crockpot cooking
(find your favorite recipes and figure out how to cook online. google 'easy crockpot recipes' yourself or look at www.tastycrockpotrecipes.net) Throw in a bunch of precut and precooked stuff, let simmer all day. Spend that time with your kids. Be open to reusing leftovers. Today I used leftover meatloaf, cut into cubes, to make spaghetti sauce with square meatballs. The kids think it's hilarious.
-buffet night
Got leftovers? Heat them up and put them on the table. Tell the family it's Golden Corral night. You can make one-hour yeast rolls to make it realistic. The kids will enjoy mixing and it makes the house smell good. With a microwave, I would start the bread rising, and then heat in stages. We don't have a microwave anymore, so we put everything into pyrex loaf pans on a cookie sheet in the oven at 250º for about 20 minutes. Remember to cover with foil and/or add broth to remoisten foods. We always like a layer of chedder on potatoes!
-breakfast for dinner
Nothing cooks faster than scrambled eggs and pancakes. Takes thirty minutes and the kids will love it! Precook your bacon on your OAM (once a month cooking) or OAW (once a week) day so it's easy to reheat. We also usually do our pancakes and waffles on a big cooking day to refreeze. Pop them in the toaster and they are heated in minutes.
-once a month cooking
OAM cooking doesn't have to be just once a month. It's really a life style. It's getting used to cooking large batches of meat, veggies and bread and storing it.
When you go grocery shopping, buy a moose size block of burger. You can fry it in batches, but I like to boil it in a 40 qt pot. It scrambles it up to make the perfect meat for tacos, spaghetti, cassaroles, soup, etc. Plus you can save the water as a beef broth that has no preservatives or sweeteners. We store the meat in gallon ziplocks and place in the freezer. In the morning, we can dump it into the crockpot with sauces, noodles or rice, and frozen veggies.
For meatloafs or other meat meals like salisbury steak, we put two pounds of beef in a ziplock, throw in the extras like condiments, seasonings, onion, pepper, breadcrumbs, and mix it in the bag. We put the whole thing in the freezer. The night before, put it in the fridge to thaw, and then in the afternoon, squeeze it out of the ziplock into your pan. Bake as normal. For potatoes, I keep a box of flakes just in case the kids and I are doing something great. Another alternative is just not peeling, we smash with skins for a gourmet feel. :-)
Same goes for chicken. We spend the extra money to buy boneless chicken breast. When we grill out, we'll cook about six pounds at once, we have a big cook and clean time that day, but we'll have five pounds of grilled chicken that we slice, chop and bag for crockpot days. You can also get it out, bread it and fry or bake for a much reduced cooking time. For example we use an enchilada recipe with some extra water for a yummy chicken enchilada soup. The kids who don't like soup use a slotted spoon to get out what they do like.
The same time that the chicken is grilling, we'll slice up a few pounds of onion, some green and red peppers, etc. We store those in the quart size ziplock freezer bags. You can do it for just about any veggie you see in the grocery section.
The great thing is that you can shop in the clubs, but those huge packages, saving money and time in the long run.
Dh also cooks pasta for a few days at a time...he'll cook an entire bag of egg noodles til they are slightly underdone, rinse with cold water, and bag up in our ziplock storage boxes. We can then use them to make cassaroles with little set up time. They are also handy snacks for kids, who might just like some warm pasta with butter or oil and some salt. I've done the same with rice, it reheats well with some chicken broth or any kind of sauce that you'd like to put in, and it's especially nice if you're going to have chicken and brocolli rice or some such meal that takes tomato or soup.
-at the very least,
if you want to spend more time with your kids, be open to just buying take-out. I generally choose not to because of the cost, but there are days when even with all the shortcuts we've taken, i just don't feel like it. I choose my kids first. Fast food is not a bad thing IN MODERATION. If you are preparing homecooked meals more often than not, and offering fresh fruits and veggies throughout the day, then no one will take away your 'good mommy' award. It's okay!
Picky eaters
Many of you may have kids who are more picky about eating. That's okay too. To be honest, I've never known a kid who could make their own food choices without external pressure to be picky. Let it go. Save some of the chicken or beef in your ziplock, and microwave to offer things split up rather than mixed in a cassarole or soup. We have camp trays from Target, with divided sections. It's fun to see and to eat. Let them help to cook. It's not only great for spending time together as a family, but it's also important that they know that 1) it's fun to cook and be together, and 2) how to cook. Let them fix something by themselves. Let them experiment. The first time Josh made pancakes, they were awful. Half of them were burnt, the other half still batter. But everyone in our family ate them with relish because he was so pleased to be helping and because he opened up our day to do other things.
Just some ideas. Feel free to post more in the comments section.
M
Cut Back on Time!
On one of my lists we've been talking about how a parent can choose to walk away from chores or cooking, when they are needed by children. The discussion was centered around how a parent could be more involved in the child's day, especially when the children are homeschooled and there isn't that traditional eight hour break where you've farmed your kids out to the government training ground...I mean, public school. I wanted to offer up some ways that we, in our house, use shortcuts and alternative thinking to open up our days. Cooking has become more difficult with the discovery of several food allergies in our family, nearly eliminating all precooked or boxed meals, as well as storebought bread and sauces.
-crockpot cooking
(find your favorite recipes and figure out how to cook online. google 'easy crockpot recipes' yourself or look at www.tastycrockpotrecipes.net) Throw in a bunch of precut and precooked stuff, let simmer all day. Spend that time with your kids. Be open to reusing leftovers. Today I used leftover meatloaf, cut into cubes, to make spaghetti sauce with square meatballs. The kids think it's hilarious.
-buffet night
Got leftovers? Heat them up and put them on the table. Tell the family it's Golden Corral night. You can make one-hour yeast rolls to make it realistic. The kids will enjoy mixing and it makes the house smell good. With a microwave, I would start the bread rising, and then heat in stages. We don't have a microwave anymore, so we put everything into pyrex loaf pans on a cookie sheet in the oven at 250º for about 20 minutes. Remember to cover with foil and/or add broth to remoisten foods. We always like a layer of chedder on potatoes!
-breakfast for dinner
Nothing cooks faster than scrambled eggs and pancakes. Takes thirty minutes and the kids will love it! Precook your bacon on your OAM (once a month cooking) or OAW (once a week) day so it's easy to reheat. We also usually do our pancakes and waffles on a big cooking day to refreeze. Pop them in the toaster and they are heated in minutes.
-once a month cooking
OAM cooking doesn't have to be just once a month. It's really a life style. It's getting used to cooking large batches of meat, veggies and bread and storing it.
When you go grocery shopping, buy a moose size block of burger. You can fry it in batches, but I like to boil it in a 40 qt pot. It scrambles it up to make the perfect meat for tacos, spaghetti, cassaroles, soup, etc. Plus you can save the water as a beef broth that has no preservatives or sweeteners. We store the meat in gallon ziplocks and place in the freezer. In the morning, we can dump it into the crockpot with sauces, noodles or rice, and frozen veggies.
For meatloafs or other meat meals like salisbury steak, we put two pounds of beef in a ziplock, throw in the extras like condiments, seasonings, onion, pepper, breadcrumbs, and mix it in the bag. We put the whole thing in the freezer. The night before, put it in the fridge to thaw, and then in the afternoon, squeeze it out of the ziplock into your pan. Bake as normal. For potatoes, I keep a box of flakes just in case the kids and I are doing something great. Another alternative is just not peeling, we smash with skins for a gourmet feel. :-)
Same goes for chicken. We spend the extra money to buy boneless chicken breast. When we grill out, we'll cook about six pounds at once, we have a big cook and clean time that day, but we'll have five pounds of grilled chicken that we slice, chop and bag for crockpot days. You can also get it out, bread it and fry or bake for a much reduced cooking time. For example we use an enchilada recipe with some extra water for a yummy chicken enchilada soup. The kids who don't like soup use a slotted spoon to get out what they do like.
The same time that the chicken is grilling, we'll slice up a few pounds of onion, some green and red peppers, etc. We store those in the quart size ziplock freezer bags. You can do it for just about any veggie you see in the grocery section.
The great thing is that you can shop in the clubs, but those huge packages, saving money and time in the long run.
Dh also cooks pasta for a few days at a time...he'll cook an entire bag of egg noodles til they are slightly underdone, rinse with cold water, and bag up in our ziplock storage boxes. We can then use them to make cassaroles with little set up time. They are also handy snacks for kids, who might just like some warm pasta with butter or oil and some salt. I've done the same with rice, it reheats well with some chicken broth or any kind of sauce that you'd like to put in, and it's especially nice if you're going to have chicken and brocolli rice or some such meal that takes tomato or soup.
-at the very least,
if you want to spend more time with your kids, be open to just buying take-out. I generally choose not to because of the cost, but there are days when even with all the shortcuts we've taken, i just don't feel like it. I choose my kids first. Fast food is not a bad thing IN MODERATION. If you are preparing homecooked meals more often than not, and offering fresh fruits and veggies throughout the day, then no one will take away your 'good mommy' award. It's okay!
Picky eaters
Many of you may have kids who are more picky about eating. That's okay too. To be honest, I've never known a kid who could make their own food choices without external pressure to be picky. Let it go. Save some of the chicken or beef in your ziplock, and microwave to offer things split up rather than mixed in a cassarole or soup. We have camp trays from Target, with divided sections. It's fun to see and to eat. Let them help to cook. It's not only great for spending time together as a family, but it's also important that they know that 1) it's fun to cook and be together, and 2) how to cook. Let them fix something by themselves. Let them experiment. The first time Josh made pancakes, they were awful. Half of them were burnt, the other half still batter. But everyone in our family ate them with relish because he was so pleased to be helping and because he opened up our day to do other things.
Just some ideas. Feel free to post more in the comments section.
M
Recycled post from our yahoo blog...
Original post, March 2006
In a recent post to an unschooling list, there was a fearful entry wondering how our children learn science naturally. It seemed odd to me at the time, as when I think of learning science, i nearly always think of the observation required to succeed in the scientific world. Today a wonderful example appeared in our backyard.
I watched my children learn physics as they experimented with a railroad tie. It fell off of our retaining wall a few days back, during a large thunderstorm. It came to a rest on a bump of dirt, a clump of grass. Sitting on one end, they laughed as the other popped into the air. They took turns sitting on the opposite edges, they sat stones and deadwood and our picnic supplies on one end as they jumped on the other. After a while, I offered to move it atop another tie, to see what would happen. They happily agreed, and after rearranging a bit, they were able to teeter totter. I sat in the shade nearby and read my book. They discovered that if one side of the teeter totter was shorter than the other, then the latter needed more weight to evenly balance. They learned that if you jump off one end, the other person was likely to be injured and need help. They learned that a single pivot point was not a reliable way to maintain a lever, and they learned that sometimes to get things done, you need more people on one side.
They learned that other people have discovered similar laws of physics, and that there are even names for the parts of their teeter totter (although fulcrum is not exactly what they'd call it, "Too boring" the girls agreed.) I won't say I was in awe, I know that kids can learn on their own. I was excited to see them have the freedom to learn in a way that fit their styles, so to speak. Emily and Rachel got in there, moving stuff around. Sam was the object of their experimentation (and lets just say we're lucky he's still in one piece, they tried to fling him over the wall before I stepped in and requested they use inanimate objects BEFORE trying it with a person) Dan sat back and observed, as did Breanna. Josh lectured us all on the laws of physics, as the older brother he feels much more knowledgeable and wise than the rest of us. :-P
All in all, I'd vote for a productive day. I'd wager they learned more today than I did in at least two weeks of college physics. }:-\
Avari's new snack tray
If you look closely, you'll see that it's the mold for making gummy worms. Apparently they are just right for holding cheetos. teehee!
7.24.2008
Avari LEARNED something. Gasp!
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7.23.2008
Avari, and berries...so cute she gets her own post
Purple tongue
"Mama...wait!"
Dandelion fluff
and some of our berries, before freezing. I *want* to can, but just can't spend the money on jars. I keep meaning to ask on freecycle, but alas. Could be memories of helping my mom can fruit that keeps me from trying really hard. It's a LOT of work.
Josh discovers line rider
So, he's designing them. I KNEW he would love this, but i didn't want to push him, so I showed him, what? a year ago? and let it go.
Today he's trying to create one for each of us. He won't let us see them though. :-)
It reminds me so much of myself as a kid, I never wanted people to know what I was doing. Mostly because my dad knew 'everything' and had no problems with taking over and doing it perfectly. I never wanted to be perceived as less than perfect, because less the perfect was not acceptable. (eeek...I'm really not complaining) Josh really is so much like me, it's amazing. Spacey, smart geek....I just hope that I'm doing better for him.
7.19.2008
Emily's garden
You can really tell that the pumpkins and watermelon have taken over the entire garden. The big pile of green on the right is the tomatoes, which are so tall you can't see the cuke trellis, and the pumpkins have grown UP the side of the tomato cages. Note to self, double the amount of recommended spacing.
Emily and her hair wrap...self portrait
7.15.2008
Avari, in series
For those who don't know, her name is pronounced Ava, then ree, and more than Ava, it means "Sent from Heaven". It occurred to me last night that I have friends on here with whom I've never spoken, just written LOL! Anyway, pictures from the fourth of July, that I wanted to share. She really is just a precious person, and so much fun to be with.
7.13.2008
What? Hey...there's a blog here....
I was reading my old blog and all the cool, intelligent things I used to post, and laughed. And felt a little sorry for myself. Life is too freakin crazy!!!! Either someone is sleeping over, or one of my kids is gone, someone has to have the phone, someone else needs my laptop...and the laundry. Sheesh. I could afford intelligentsia if I could rest bit and find those lingering brain cells that the previous pregnancies left behind.
Anyhoo, I asked the kids if we could just have a week to Be. Just at home, together, without this or that. Then I shot myself in the foot with "Oh yeah, except the homeschool tie dye party." Then Josh reminded me that he starts his peer mentoring program. Every day this week, across town. Um...okay, yeah, we agreed to that months ago. Then x, y and z. WHY do they call it HOMEschool? We are never there!
7.10.2008
Why does Bre keep STIMMING?!
says Dan, waving his hands in frustration.
I dunno, says I.
She's making me die (in the video game)
I'm sorry, says I.
sigh. Its okay.
7.09.2008
More pictures, from the fourth
Avari was chilling in the chair granpa gave her
Then she was REALLY chilling out. Guess she was comfy because she stripped nakey and was wrapping up in their sheet and car pillow. teehee
LOTS of yummy food... and they were ONLY eating the whipped cream because all the strawberries and blueberries were gone.
There was one accident, head on collision, but I can swear that the driver wasn't drunk...
she was ticked, though, to lose control...lol
teehee...i refrained from calling the insurance company.
break out the fireworks...
Our town doesn't allow private fireworks, but our friend's does...yay!
Speaking of friends
the kids were lining up sparklers along the sidewalk and lighting them all
Don't let the sparklers fool you, we had some big'uns
but I really love sparklers, and they are easier to take pictures of lol!
all of the kids got to set of their own (with LOTS of supervision, no freakin out ma!)
Ava thought they were loud enough. Bre's first year without the shooters muffs to block sound. But Dan did borrow some...for a few minutes.
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