Categories Homemaking

What I Spent This Week (2018.10.12)

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Last week, Cathy asked if I “shop the ads”.

The short answer is no, not really. Apart from keeping a price book, I keep my grocery-list making process pretty lean. I do look through Sam’s Club’s “Instant Savings” booklet when it arrives in the mail and make plans to purchase bulk of any of the items we regularly purchase at Sam’s while they’re on sale. I also occasionally check ALDI’s sale flyer when I’m making my list for Thursday – but I’m just as likely to skip it. I do typically take a peek at ALDI’s meat selections when I’m in store and buy for the freezer when they’ve got cheap meat. Depending on how much I’ve got in the freezer already, I’ll buy a ham or a pork roast anytime they’re available for less than $1.50 per pound. Likewise, if there’s a good deal on the family pack of chicken breasts, I’ll buy a pack or two, cook them in my crockpot on low and then shred them and divy them into containers for the freezer to use later for anything that calls for chicken.

But I don’t routinely look through the ads and base my lists off of them.

Tuesday, October 9

Some weeks it seems it takes me nothing at all to exceed the $30 minimum for grocery pickup. Other weeks, I’m racking my brain to come up with more for my order. That’s the way it was this week, until I remembered that I need some more canning jar lids for the next time I get the yen to can.

Walmart 2018/10/9

Those come out of my “household – consumables” budget, so my $37.02 order only contains $26.36 in groceries.

Our Sam’s Club order was almost entirely household consumables. Daniel buys the cutlery for his work group’s “snack days” and they need more forks and spoons. And we’ve decided that we’re going to use paper plates and/or bowls for Friday dinners at home so that Daniel and I don’t have to do dishes (or, as many dishes) before our Friday night “reconnecting” time.

Sam's Club 2018/10/9

The only grocery item is our cheese, $6.43 for a 2 lb block.

So we’re at $32.79 so far – $103.11 left for the rest of the week.

Thursday, October 11

ALDI had apples back at $1.49 for a 3 lb bag – which means we bought more apples to make applesauce with. Thirty-three pounds, to be precise.

ALDI 2018/10/11

Beyond that, there wasn’t a terrible lot we needed since a lot of this next week’s meals are already in the freezer.

$39.16 for apples plus miscellany.

So we’re ending the week $63.95 ahead, which is wonderful since we spend a LOT of money on coffee on the second Saturday of each month – and that’s tomorrow!

Categories Following Christ

The Habit of Contentment

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It’s easy to think that contentment is a function of our circumstances.

If only I had x or y, I would be content.

But when x or y arrives, we find that something new is necessary for our contentment.

When we find ourselves in difficult circumstances, we might be tempted to think that if only we had done something differently we could have been content. I could have been content if only I’d chosen a different major in college, not taken out the loans I did, taken this job offer instead of the other. I could have been content if only I hadn’t married when I did or the person I did. I could have been content if we’d have chosen to buy a different house or to build instead of buy (or vice versa). I could have been content if I’d have had fewer children farther apart – or more closer together.

But Elinor Dashwood’s reflections upon Mr. Willoughby’s character in Sense and Sensibility should be instructive.

“‘At present,’ continued Elinor,’he regrets what he has done. And why does he regret it? Because he find it has not answered towards himself. It has not made him happy. His circumstances are now unembarrassed – he suffers from no evil of that kind; and he thinks only that he has married a woman of a less amiable temper than yourself. But does it thence follow that had he married you, he would have been happy? The inconveniences would have been different. He would then have suffered under the pecuniary distresses which, because they are removed, he now reckons as nothing. He would have had a wife of whose temper he could make no complaint, but he would have been always necessitous – always poor; and probably would soon have learned to rank the innumerable comforts of a clear estate and good income as of far more importance, even to domestic happiness, than the mere temper of a wife.'”

A discontented heart finds something with which to be discontented regardless of circumstances.

A contented heart learns to be contented in all circumstances.

I am challenged as I look at my own life, at the woes I pour out upon my husband each day when he returns from work. No matter how good a day may be, I always can find something to complain about. My heart is too often a discontented heart, considering whatever I currently lack (whether it be sleep or a clean house or quiet children or chocolate) to be of far more importance than any of the many things God has granted me.

If I get all the sleep I desire, but am not content, I will still be just as crabby as I am now. If I had a clean house, but not a contented heart, my soul would be just as shabby. If my children were quiet, but I was discontent, the clamor of my own heart would be enough to disturb the peace.

Because contentment is not a function of my circumstances. Contentment is a habit of the heart. And contentment is learned through practice.

So when the laundry overflows the hamper and I despair of ever catching up, I must turn my eyes upward and declare “With this, I am content.” When all four children want my attention at the same time and all I want is quiet, I must calm my soul and declare “With this, I am content.” When the day draws to a close and I still have thirty undone tasks on my to-do list, I must turn off the screen and declare “With this, I am content.”

And slowly, perhaps, I will begin to be able to say like Paul:

“I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.”
~Philippians 4:11b-13 (ESV)

In Christ’s strength, I can learn the habit of contentment.

Categories Recap

Recap (2018.10.07)

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In my spirit

  • Winter dark is descending on Kansas – and on my soul. I started using my light in September, started my antidepressant the beginning of October. But the main battle-front remains in my mind – taking every thought captive to make it obedient to Christ. I am clinging to the one who shines in my heart:

    “For God, who said, “Light shall shine out of darkness,” is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.”
    ~2 Corinthians 4:6 (ESV)

Louis's new dump truck

In our family

  • The little girls have reached the first of the “eat us out of house and home” stages (which I completely and nonsarcastically love). I fed them each a quarter slice of lasagna and gave Tirzah Mae and Louis each half a slice. The little girls ate their quarter. I served them seconds…and thirds…and fourths. And then they got the barely nibbled at halves from Tirzah Mae and Louis’s plates.
  • It was with great sorrow that we said goodbye to our foster care worker, who left our agency for another one. The kids and I always looked forward to her monthly home visits – it’ll be interesting to see how things go with a new worker.
  • Louis was the thrilled recipient of a toy dump truck. Mama and papa dithered way too long about what Grandma and Grandpa should get him as a birthday present, but he’s got it at last and is busy driving and dumping everywhere.
  • I needed to measure Tirzah Mae’s height for her birthday present coming up here – which afforded a great opportunity to do some measuring activities with the kids. So we used tape to figure out how tall everyone was, then figured out how many MegaBlocks tall each person was, then figured out how many inches. It was tons of fun.

Measuring height with megablocks

In our home

  • My phone broke and it took a while to get a replacement, which meant I was discombobulated a good portion of the week. I use the phone for grocery pickup, for my grocery list, for taking pictures of the kids for these blog posts, for looking up recipes, for praying, for all sorts of things. I felt a little like I was flying blind without it.
  • The older kids and I made applesauce with those apples. Despite my best intentions of making just one canner load (and thereby avoiding the “house falls apart while mama’s canning”), we ended up with 13 quarts. The internet lies when it says you’ll get one quart from every 3 pounds of apples. If you use whole apples without peeling and coring and put them through a food mill (as I do), you’ll end up with 13 quarts out of 30 lbs :-)

Homemade applesauce

On the homestead

  • We got a flat tire. One of our brand new tires was completely flat when I came out of my Tuesday Bible study. And my phone was broken, so I couldn’t just call Triple-A on my own. So I called my husband from the church office and he called them and they couldn’t make it for almost an hour and I was despairing because I had grocery pickup and the littlest had a family visit that I didn’t have a phone to reschedule or make alternate arrangements. And then we realized that, oh duh, we were at church and there were plenty of people that could change the tire. So one of the pastors and the church’s director of operations changed the tire. And then a friend came driving by and saw us and asked if she could help and handed me a pan of pasta casserole: “Here’s your dinner for tonight.” So we made it to grocery pickup and we made it home just in time to get the little girl’s diaper changed before her ride showed up and I didn’t have to cook. What a gracious God we serve!

Louis pretending to sleep

In the library (currently reading)

  • For Loving: Glimpses of Grace: Treasuring the Gospel in Your Home by Gloria Furman
    I made precisely no progress on this, mostly because I spent too much time reading Jane Austen
  • For Growing: Let Me Be a Woman by Elisabeth Elliot
    These chapters are nice and short – perfect for while I’m doing 60 seconds of planks :-)
  • For Knowing: The Importance of Being Little: What Young Children Really Need from Grown-ups by Erika Christakis
    I finished this one this week and am hoping to write up my thoughts on it soon. Despite its strong focus on preschool education, it generally supported my sense that preschoolers don’t need much by way of “schooling”. It has encouraged me to really focus on listening to and conversing with my children throughout the day (instead of listening with half an ear while really thinking about something else.)
  • For Seeing: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
    I finished this at the very beginning of the week and discovered, to my shock, that I haven’t recorded reading any Jane Austen since beginning my library reading challenge in 2006. I am almost certain this is the fault of my record-keeping, not of my reading, but it means that I certainly must remedy the situation.
  • For Seeing: Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
    What could I do but quickly run down to my home library to see which Austen I would read next? I selected Sense and Sensibility and devoured it all over the course of this last rainy weekend.
  • For Enjoying: These High Green Hills by Jan Karon
    I’ve had the third installment in the Mitford series out of the library for a little while now, but finally started it this week. So cozy and perfect for fall and winter reading.
  • Picture books galore – fairy tales, books by the next authors in line, and books about spiders
    A garden spider spun her web across our patio door, and we’ve been watching her eagerly. We thought that it would only be fitting that we read Eric Carle’s The Very Busy Spider (and whatever else we could find about spiders) in her honor. (Side note: I’ve stuck my face in her web about a half dozen times over the past several weeks, and she’s always faithfully respun her web. Very busy spider indeed, fixing my blundering mistakes.)

Categories Homemaking

What I Spent This Week (2018.10.05)

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I’ve officially decided what to do about our foster care stipend. I’m going to take whatever portion I allocated to groceries the previous month and divide it between the weeks of the current month. So, last month, I allocated $83.60 of the foster care stipend to groceries – which means I get an extra $20.90 per week to spend this month. So October’s grocery budget is $135.90 per week.

Saturday, September 29

ALDI had this-season Gala apples for $1.49 for a 3 lb bag – and I’ve been pretty bored with store-bought applesauce – so we made a special trip to buy 30 lbs for applesauce. My plan is to can one pressure-canner load (7 quarts) at a time as long as there are cheap-ish apples available. That way I don’t have to do any marathon canning sessions (while the house falls to pieces) – but I should be able to still get some sauce that has actual flavor.

Apples, apples, apples

Total cost of apples plus a quart of half and half: $18.03

Tuesday, October 2

Walmart Grocery Pickup was $58.91

Walmart 2018/10/02

Do you ever see anything name brand in my grocery pictures? There are three potential reasons:

  • There is no generic option (Cinnamon Life, now that Walmart stopped making a generic)
  • Daniel asks me, pretty please, to buy the name brand (Honey Nut Cheerios)
  • Walmart made a substitution (the Dole Pineapple in this picture)

If Walmart doesn’t have a particular item in stock for grocery pickup, they’ll sub in an alternate at no extra cost to you (they’ll also check with you car-side to make sure their alternate is acceptable to you). Generally, the alternate ends up being the name brand version instead of the cheaper generic I always buy.

Thursday, October 4

Sam’s Club didn’t have an open slot on Tuesday (first time I’ve ever not gotten my preferred slot!) so I scheduled pickup for Thursday.

Sam's Club 2018/10/04

$38.05

That left me $20.91 for ALDI – which just wasn’t enough. I spent $26.72

ALDI 2018/10/04

So not a bad week, but not a great one either.

Categories Everyday Life

Scratching a Nine-Month Itch

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Beth-Ellen is nine months old now.

She’s increasingly independent, crawling and pulling up and standing by herself. She’s able to go longer between feedings, able to eat table food instead of just breastmilk. At the same time, she’s in the midst of separation anxiety, all too eager for her mama to stay near by.

I am nine months postpartum now.

Which means I am starting to realize that I’m something more than a mother of a little baby. I am ready again to be a woman, not simply a mother.

I look in the mirror and I care again that my face is blotchy with the acne that never left me after pubescence. I start to long for clothes that fit and flatter, not just ones that are accessible for the tasks of motherhood.

I realize that I’ve felt this way every time I’ve neared the nine-month mark.

With Tirzah Mae, I think I bought new bras. Having some that fit did wonders for my self-image.

With Louis, I went through my wardrobe and tailored outfits to my current size.

With both of them, I got pregnant not long after.

Because that’s the other way nine months makes me feel.

Like I’m starting to get the hang of this many kids. Like it’s time to add another member to the family.

I’m doing something about one of those feelings this time.

I’ve learned my lesson that clothing sizes are still in flux in this season of life – I’m not doing anything extravagant with clothes unless it can easily adapt to the ups and downs of pregnancy and postpartum.

But makeup.

I can do makeup.

So I rub on a little foundation in the morning. I color in my lips.

I think whether I have a scarf or something I can add to my “uniform” of skirt and t-shirt.

Three minutes worth of work each morning and I’m feeling like a someone again, not merely a substrate for milk.

And it feels good.

Categories Recap

Recap (2018.09.30)

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In my spirit

  • I totally don’t have it all together. I tell myself I’d love to have a mentor or mentors to help me navigate my roles (motherhood, especially). But then someone offers some totally great tips on what worked for her? Defensiveness rises up. Oh Lord, help me to have a teachable heart!
  • I had the honor of teaching on my favorite passage this morning. Abraham’s almost-sacrifice of Isaac reminds me again and again of our blessed hope: a substitute lamb, provided by God to satisfy God’s demands. May God lead each of my 3-year-old students to put their faith in the Lamb He has provided.

Transfering pinto beans with measuring cups

In our family

  • Prairie Elms preschool continues. The little girls managed to both take long naps Wednesday morning – so I got out the pinto beans and measuring cups on the kitchen floor. Tirzah Mae and Louis had a blast – and I got some food prep done. Win-win.
  • We all got our flu shots this week, with much weeping. Tirzah Mae threw a fit when the time came for her shot, but it took 2 hours or so at home for her to be giving everyone else duplicates. This girl is OBSESSED with medicine. (In the picture below, she was “charting about the lights that take care of the bad bilirubin in Beth-Ellen’s blood”)

Tirzah Mae was charting medical stuff

In our home

  • I finally got around to potting up a sprouted sweet potato that I’ve been keeping in water to root. Between that and the rosemary that I just brought in and the houseplants my mom rooted for me, I’m suddenly inundated with indoor plants. We’ll see how long I can keep them alive!
  • Speaking of bringing plants in, I’ve been thinking maybe I’ll try to bring my in-ground basil in for the winter – but first I wanted to dry one last big batch. So I did!
  • I’ve discovered that smoothies (made in a big batch using my immersion blender) are the perfect breakfast for in the car on days we need to be somewhere early. So we do smoothies on Sundays when we’re rushing to get to church to set up mama’s Sunday school room, and on Tuesdays when we’re rushing to church to prep mama’s Sunday school craft before our Bible study, and every other Thursday (or so it seems) when we have an early appointment. ALDI had bananas for $0.19 per pound last week so I got three bunches to freeze for said smoothies. They were finally ripe enough early this week, so I got to slicing!

Freezing lots of bananas for smoothies

On the homestead

  • I planted late and we had a weird spring and I’m actually a pretty terrible gardener. But my tomato plants set on tomatoes at last – and we ate some this week. Oh, the delicious acidity and unmistakeable texture of a truly ripe tomato! I will keep planting them however many times I fail if only I can eat ripe tomatoes even once a year.

    • Tomatoes from our own garden

  • We got new tires for the Expedition after a few episodes of super-low air pressure (aka flat tires). As per my habit, we brought the old tires home to avoid paying a fee for disposal – and to use for my herb garden. This time, though, I got right to cutting off the sidewalls (with my awesome hooked utility knife blade – if you ever need to cut tires, it’s totally worth getting one of these). So now I just need to fill them up with soil and get things planted.

    • My tire herb garden expansion

  • I love this season on the prairie. Yes, it gets dark and depressing. Yes, the allergies are terrible. But the prairie, oh the prairie. The rippling grass, the wildflowers, the sunrises and sunsets. Daisies (or chrysanthemums of some sort) have joined the Indian grass on our Prairie backyard and I’m LOVING IT!

Indian Grass and Daisies

In the library (currently reading)

  • For Loving: Glimpses of Grace: Treasuring the Gospel in Your Home by Gloria Furman
  • For Growing: Let Me Be a Woman by Elisabeth Elliot
  • For Knowing: The Importance of Being Little: What Young Children Really Need from Grown-ups by Erika Christakis
    I only had to go one week without before a new copy came in for me to check out – so I’ve read another chapter. This is really an excellent book (that makes me feel a lot better about how little explicitly “academic” work I do with my littles.)
  • For Seeing: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
    I’m planning to finish the last chapter before bed tonight :-) I love Austen.
  • Picture books by Eve Bunting, John Burningham, and Donald Crews
  • Picture book versions of fairy tales

Categories Homemaking

What I Spent This Week (2018.09.28)

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I went way over budget ($61.02) the second week of September and have been working to get myself out of that hole. I had to keep my groceries to just $77.71 for this week to come out of September on top.

Monday, September 24

I had an eye appointment right across the street from an ALDI and we needed butter desperately (I made tomato soup using oil and mac and cheese using schmaltz – that’s how desperately!), so I did my ALDI shopping for the week early.

ALDI purchases 9/24/2018

$28.71 leaves me and even $49 for the rest of the week.

Tuesday, September 25

Walmart Grocery pickup was $56.36 – but $4.17 of that was laundry soap and $9.33 was Vitamin D for the little ones, which means $42.86 for groceries.

Walmart Grocery pickup 9/25/2018

I DID IT!

I stayed under budget, even with buying formula!

Thursday, September 27

And then we had a doctor’s appointment and all of us got our flu shots – and the little ones were screaming and I had left bottle nipples at home so I couldn’t feed the littlest one her formula except by cup (which she was NOT happy about). So I promised the kids donuts when we went to Walmart to get some bottle nipples.

They desperately wanted to break the budget, suggesting that I purchase all sorts of expensive treats. (I’m not going to lie, I saw a rotisserie chicken that sounded SO much better than the cold beef salad sandwiches I’d packed for lunch). But I stuck to my guns, bought a $2 box of donut holes ($2.15 once taxes were done), and we’re ending September in the black.

Categories Everyday Life

Living by the list

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We were already running late and several of the kids were resisting hurrying, so I picked them up and carted them off to their car seats. One young person was missing shoes, but I knew the shoes would probably come off in the car anyway and I didn’t have time to put them on twice. I’d grab them and put them on when we reached our destination.

But when we arrived and I unbuckled the shoeless child, I realized I’d left the shoes at home.

There was nothing to do but to soldier on, carrying the shoeless child when necessary, apologizing profusely to all those whose rules we were breaking by being shoeless.

I swore it wouldn’t happen again – and when I got home, I made a checklist.

The checklist

Every time we leave the house, I check the laminated list that lives on the console of my car.

Almost every week, we stop in the driveway to get that one last item, to complete that one last task.

We didn’t get medicine this morning before we left the house. I forgot the TULA at home. Our packed lunch is still in the fridge.

The list doesn’t keep me from forgetting things – but it helps me catch them before it’s too late.

And so far, we’ve not had any repeats of our shoeless errand day.

Categories Recap

Recap (2018.09.22)

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In my spirit

  • I’m convicted of how often I despise the good gifts God has given me – particularly our children. Instead of thanking God for them and joyfully carrying out the tasks of mothering, I grumble and complain about how they add so much work! noise! clutter! Lord, forgive me!

In our family

  • Beth-Ellen is officially standing – Daniel set her down on her feet (Monday maybe?) and she stayed standing there. Then, the next day, I was folding laundry on the floor and looked over to see her casually standing there next to me!
  • Sleep training has commenced (and seems to be going well.) I held off for longer than usual since Beth-Ellen shares a room with the older two – but I was getting to the place where I was frustrated enough with the little girls’ daily demands that I didn’t have much compassion left for them – I knew I needed to do something to be sane enough to respond lovingly. Sleep training it is – and I’m already able to deal with them much more tenderly and compassionately.
  • Daniel and I had a date! A mother and daughter from our church answered our SOS for babysitters and got background checked and all that so they could watch all our kids (including our foster daughter). Daniel and I enjoyed breakfast and then a lovely walk around a local nature preserve. It’s been far too long (at least a year, maybe longer) since we’ve spent time together completely sans kids.
  • Tirzah Mae has pronounced her “L” as “W” since she started talking – and we’ve mentioned it to her a few times, coaching her on proper tongue positioning to get the “L” sound out. But she hasn’t really seemed terribly interested, and we haven’t pushed the issue. This last week, though, she decided that enough was enough and has been working hard to get that “L” sound out, stopping and sticking her tongue between her teeth before telling me a story about her “light-saver” (Nope, not going to correct her mishearing of light-saber – it’s tons cuter that she’s saving me light for winter with her golf-club turned light-saver/saber :-) )

Louis makes us a feast

In our home

  • The kids and I eat Raisin Bran about once a week – and this week I decided I was over all the added sugar. I bought bran flakes, we poured them into a cereal keeper and added (unsugared) raisins and shook it up. Still tastes delicious, and plenty sweet from the raisins.

On the homestead

  • Our neighbor gave me some daylily divisions when we first moved in – and, since I didn’t know where I wanted to put them, I put them in the holes of my concrete block raised beds. Then, since they multiply so rapidly and since the holes aren’t very big, I’ve had to divide them and replant them each year. This year, I finally figured out where I want them to be long-term, so I divided them and planted them this weekend! Now I can wait another 3-4 years before I should have to divide again. Hooray!
  • We had a big decorative-looking grass growing by the garage door and I was thinking maybe we’d keep it – until I looked it up and found out that it is Johnson grass, which is considered a noxious weed and illegal in the state of Kansas! So Daniel pulled that and got it all bagged to send to the landfill.

My newly transplanted daylilies

In the library (currently reading)

  • For Loving: Glimpses of Grace: Treasuring the Gospel in Your Home by Gloria Furman
  • For Growing: Let Me Be a Woman by Elisabeth Elliot
    I’m appreciating these short reflections on womanhood.
  • For Knowing: The Importance of Being Little: What Young Children Really Need from Grown-ups by Erika Christakis
    Unfortunately, my checkout period was over on Thursday and someone else had requested this book so I couldn’t renew it – so now I’m waiting for my own request to be filled.
  • For Seeing: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
    Because sometimes it’s good to spend a time with an old friend – and somehow Austen’s reflections are always insightful however often I re-read them.
  • Princess Picture Books
    Tirzah Mae is on a princess kick, so we’re reading lots of renditions of Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, and Rapunzel. (I took the Disney book back to the library as quickly as possible and checked out a whole spate of beautifully illustrated renditions instead.)

Categories Homemaking

What I Spent This Week (2018.09.21)

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Results are in, and…

I am officially great at predicting when I’m going to majorly blow my budget.

Also, I am officially terrible at giving weekly updates.

:-(

Tuesday, September 11

I spent $96.09 on my Walmart grocery pickup!

Walmart pickup 9/11/2018

Thankfully, $25.07 of it was on diapers. Which means I only have to claim $71.02 for grocery. Still.

I needed more pinto beans, and Sam’s Club has the cheapest around – assuming you’re buying 50 lbs. Which, of course I am! I also got individually packed Ruffles (because it’s ultimately better for me to know that there are potato chips at home that I can indulge in occasionally and in moderation when needed than for me to be picking up entire family-size bags every other week at the grocery store and inhaling them on the drive home. Just sayin’)

Sam's Club Pickup 9/11/2018

After I subtracted my oxygen bleach, it was $62.27

So… with a budget of $115 per week – I spent $133.29 on Tuesday alone. But I didn’t buy any fresh produce, so I still needed to do my ALDI shopping on Thursday.

Thursday, September 13

I spent $42.73 at ALDI – all of it on groceries.

ALDI 9/13 - Sometimes you just don't have time to arrange things

And sometimes I just don’t have time to arrange the groceries to look pretty once I get home :-)

So I ended the week $61.02 in the hole.

Monday, September 17

I sent Daniel to Walmart to pick up prescriptions for the kids and I – and to get us some ice cream. Sometimes I just feel the need. $4.30 for two containers.

Tuesday, September 18

Another ginormous Walmart order – $75.24

Walmart grocery pickup 9/18

But, just like last week, I get to subtract diapers (as well as some storage bags and plastic wrap.) After I take out those, I’m at a more respectable $41.68 for groceries. – and that 25 lb bag of all-purpose flour should last me at least a month :-)

I didn’t do Sam’s Club this week – the block of cheese from last week is still unopened in the fridge and Daniel’s Sun Chips to keep at work will wait until we’ve got more to order from Sam’s.

Thursday, September 20

Knowing that my budget was in the red, I intended to shop strictly by my list at ALDI this week.

And I almost did.

ALDI haul 9/20

But there were hams for $1.19 per pound and I don’t have any ham in my freezer right now (a rare event, let me tell you!)

And I had some extras I needed for lunch (I’d packed lunchmeat and mustard since we didn’t have any bread or easy-to-eat-while-out fruit or veggies in the house.)

Purchased to be eaten quickly... ALDI 9/20

So I also bought some bread and sliced cheese for our sandwiches, some mandarin oranges to go along with them, and some trail mix for a pre-storytime snack. (Also pictured? The bread for pizza bread Thursday evening – I’d forgotten to include it in the previous picture!)

That was $68.06 minus $4.29 for the scrub brushes I’d bought for kids’ activities. So $63.77

Okay, time for some quick math (see kids, math does come in handy in your future life!)

*Under breath* 63.77 plus 41.68 plus 4.30 Wait – am I actually going to do this in my head? I suppose, now that I’ve got the numbers down on screen it’s easy enough. Five, carry one. Seven, carry one. Nine. Ten.

$109.75

Folks, this would be lovely if I weren’t in the hole already.

To review…
Week 1: $18.48 below budget
Week 2: $61.02 above budget
Week 3: $5.25 below budget

I’m still $37.29 in the hole for the month.

I’ve got one more full week in the month and I need to keep my purchases down to $77.71

Can I do it?

The good news is that I’m working my way through the first cycle of my new fall menu and putting a half dozen or so entrees in the freezer each week – which means the second time through the cycle should be a) less work and b) less expensive. Also, now that I’ve bought beans and flour and chips and ramen (another “because mama needs something on hand just in case she wants to sulk in a corner with hot food”), I’m not going to need those again for quite a while.

The bad news is that we’ve still got one more week in that first four-week cycle – which means I’m still trying to double up (and don’t really want to make too many substitutions).

Even so, I think I’m up for this challenge. Bring it on!