Thursday, June 17, 2010

Keeper of the Home Giveaway - $125 worth!

I have been shamelessly promoting giveaways lately but you know what? I don't care! Because these are AWESOME giveaways and I figure someday, somehow, I'll be lucky enough to actually win something, lol.

This is an awesome giveaway from Keeper of the Home. 
If you've never visited Keeper of the Home and you are interested in eating naturally, organically and on a budget - I HIGHLY recommend it!
She also has two fabulous books that I plan to purchase in the very near future called Real Food on a Real Budget and Healthy Homemaking: One Step at a Time. Great resource! And she makes it all encouraging so that you don't get overwhelmed - which I did when I first started reading the blog and started thinking about changing our food.

So, the giveaway I'm promoting is: 5 Homestead Blessings videos and a $25 gift certificate for FBS books - all of which are great if you homeschool and if you have a desire to prepare your daughters with practical skills as homemakers! Fab.u.lous!

Check it out more HERE!

Friday, June 11, 2010

What Do YOU Do? - Groceries & Meal Planning

This is the continuation of a series that my friend N is doing on her BLOG called What do YOU do? I think I've participated in one or two so far and saw this one just the other day and thought I'd jump into the fun of sharing again! Please feel free to continue the sharing on your own blog or if you don't blog share here on my blog in the comments section about how YOU shop for groceries and do your meal planning.
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I had a good system worked out before Clara was born! I planned my meals per pay period (every 2 weeks roughly) and shopped at SuperTarget or Super Wal-mart for ALL my groceries. After Clara was born we received numerous meals (thank you all and praise the Lord) so I didn't need to meal-plan and ever since then I haven't quite gotten back into meal planning. The main reason is because I don't want to expel the energy it takes to bring 4 children that are 4, 3, 2, and 3 months to the grocery store. It becomes an excursion that takes alllll morning long and can often times (though not always) end with children falling apart and a mama who's at her whit's end. Plus, I have since learned that the grocery stores up here (including Target and Wal-mart) either don't have the giant carts at all or they have them but you can't seat a child in the regular cart seat because they close the legs holes.
That poses a problem when you have numerous children who are all still small. I can remedy it by having Emma walk and wearing Clara - but it still frustrates me! Why is our culture only accommodating up to 2 children?! (Sorry, getting off soapbox now!)

Alright, on to what I do actually do!
We get paid twice a month (on the 1st & 15th) so the easiest way to stretch our money, stretch our food, and keep things fresh is to shop each pay period - so twice a month.
I organize my meal planning in Microsoft Excel where I have a main list of all my entrees and then another page where I break up the pay period into weeks and days and input each meal for each day along with sides and activities that we have going on those days that may affect what we have or my prep. On that same spread sheet I make my grocery list based off those meals that I've planned.
Example:
Week 1                       Main                  Side
17-May Monday      Spaghetti                 Garlic bread, salad
18-May Tuesday      Tacos                      Rice, chips, guacamole
19-May Wednes      Chick Pasta Salad    Potato salad, green beans
20-May Thursday     Brats                       Grilled veggies, fruit, chips
21-May Friday         Pasta Bake              Rolls, corn, salad
22-May Saturday     T's Party
23-May Sunday        Leftovers

So that's where I start. I do utilize my crockpot a lot! We are currently changing some of the ways we eat and therefore are changing the way and where we shop.
Right now I am shopping at Aldi's, Trader Joe's, Sam's Club, and Wal-mart/Target. I also have certain products I order online because it's cheaper than purchasing them in the store!

Aldi's:
I get a majority of our dairy products - whole milk, sour cream, cottage cheese, butter, creamer, eggs, cheese. Their milk & cheese carriers are not organic but they are hormone free. 
Certain baking goods - baking soda, vanilla, baking powder, sea salt.
Produce - VERY reasonably priced, though not organic.
Bread - they have whole grain, no HFCS bread for less than $2.
Pasta - have whole wheat Fit & Active pasta
Chicken - 3lbs chicken breasts for $5.50
Corn chips - blue corn and regular both organic and cheap.
Lunch meat
Hot dogs

Trader Joe's:
Select dairy - Greek yogurt, milk - occasionally
Select lunch meat
Unfiltered 100% apple juice
Organic produce
Whole grain crackers
Whole grain tortillas - that actually taste good


Sam's Club:
Ground meat
Produce - occasionally 
White popcorn
Formula - occasionally

Wal-Mart/Target
Spices
Diapers - Target brand are the best for disposable!
Wipes
Dressings/condiments
Baggies
Garbage bags - Target
Olive Oil
Toilet Paper
Paper Towels

Online:
Natural sweetners
Raw honey

I'm sure I'm forgetting a few things, but that's the jist of it! I don't use coupons but I'm very careful about our spending. Aldi's has HUGELY helped our budget and allowed for the Trader Joe's and online ordering that we've added into our shopping! I know it can be socially unacceptable to talk about numbers but I wanted to put our budget on here because that gives a realistic idea of how we shop and how we spend/save. We try to stay at or under $150 per pay period so, $300 per month. We have a family of 6.  

Wednesday, June 02, 2010

Raising Homemakers: Give-Away!

I just found this Facebook page and blog but I'm already excited to read more! Raising homemakers is all about teaching and preparing daughters in the art of homemaking for the glory of God. How awesome, right?!

Well, they are also having a give-away on their BLOG for an awesome 10 DVD set called "Homestead Blessings". I don't know about you but I'm thoroughly excited! You can see a preview there or find out more HERE!