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Shared Aug 23, 2016 comment

This Week’s $81 Grocery Shopping Trip (ALDI + Kroger)

Published: by Crystal Paine on August 23, 2016 | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

We went to ALDI and Kroger on Sunday night and spent $81 total. Because I’ve been buying extra deals here and there over the last few weeks, we had more to work with this week and I didn’t need to spend as much this week — which was great!

Note: If you missed my post on Why I’m Back to Grocery Shopping, Menu-Planning, and Freezer Cooking, be sure to read it here.

Our Grocery Budget

We currently budget $125 per week for groceries for our family of 5. This does not include eating out once a week (we budget separately for that).

We also get some of our expensive groceries and personal products (such as makeup) via Amazon using credit earned from Swagbucks + we get the majority of our household products (cleaners, toothpaste,detergent, etc.) via credit earned from Grove.

I only spent $81 this week, which leaves me wiggle room to buy more markdowns at Kroger if I have time to swing by there later this week to see if they have some great markdowns. If I don’t have time or they don’t have good markdowns, I’ll roll over the extra $$ to next week.

Here’s what we bought:

ALDI Shopping Trip

Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts — $5.49
Dried Cranberries — $1.29
Blueberries — $1.49
Blueberries — $1.49
3 Macaroni & Cheese — $0.33 each
Quick Oats — $2.39
2 loaves of 12-Grain Bread — reduced to $0.89 each
3 loaves Wheat Bread — reduced to $0.79 each
English Muffins — $0.99
Chili Beans — $0.59
2 cans of Black Beans — $0.59 each
Bananas (4 lb.) — $0.58
2 Refried Beans — $0.79 each
Diced Tomatoes — $0.59
Peanut Butter — $1.49
Cashews — $2.99
2 dozen large eggs — $0.49 per dozen
Whole chicken — $5.23
Feta cheese — $1.79
Greek yogurt — $0.75
Half & half — $1.89
Baby carrots — $0.99
Total with tax — $42.35 (Plus, I uploaded my receipt to Yaarlo & earned a little cashback for doing so. If you haven’t signed up with Yaarlo, use my coupon code MONEYSAVINGMOM when you sign up to earn more.)

Kroger Shopping Trip

2 dozen brown eggs — $2.99 per dozen
1 carton almond milk — $1.99
1 gallon milk (submitted for $0.25 iBotta rebate)
4 packages bread/buns — reduced to $0.99 each
2 packages bacon — $3 per package
Salad mix — reduced to $2.49 (got $0.25 back via Checkout 51)
2 yogurts — reduced to $0.29 each
Greek yogurt — reduced to $0.39
3 3-lb. packages of Butterball ground turkey — $3.99 each

Total with tax: $38.45 (Plus, I uploaded my receipt to Yaarlo & earned a little cashback for doing so. If you haven’t signed up with Yaarlo, use my coupon code CRYSTALP861 when you sign up to earn more.)

This Week’s Menu Plan

Interested in what we’re eating this week? You can see our menu plan for this week here. I plan our menu based upon what we already have on hand, so I didn’t have to buy every single item needed to make everything on our menu.

Struggling with menu planning? Check out this post on How to Be a Meal Planning Mama.

How much did you spend on groceries this week? Tell us in the comments!

Shared Aug 22, 2016 comment

This Week’s Menu Plan (buying ahead saves us SO much money!)

Published: by Crystal Paine on August 22, 2016 | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

I went to Kroger and Aldi last night and was SO excited to get nine pounds of ground turkey for just $12 total! I came home and browned it and added some seasonings to it and am freezing it in 2-cup bags to use in some of the recipes this week and over the next few weeks.

We didn’t need the ground turkey for our menu plan this week, but at this price, I couldn’t pass it up. This is why I try to leave a little extra grocery money every week — so that I can use it on deals like this when I find them.

The more you focus on buying ahead — a little bit at a time — the easier it is to stick with a lower grocery budget. Having meat in the freezer that I purchased at more than half off makes it much easier to plan next week’s menu… because I already have some ideas to work with based upon what we already have on hand. Plus, it makes our menu plans much less expensive when we are basing them off of staple ingredients that I bought ahead when I found them marked down.

Here’s our menu plan for this week:

Breakfasts

Breakfasts are a big deal at our house. Not necessarily because of what we eat, but because this is the one meal we’ve committed to eat together around the table pretty much every single day.

Dinners are often somewhat grab and go or brown bagged — especially on the 3 nights a week the girls have swimming and skating. But breakfast, it’s a given. We eat, we talk, we read together, we pray together, and we linger around the table. It’s been a beautiful addition to our schedule + a great way to start the day!

Choose from:

Oatmeal

Smoothies

Bacon/Eggs

Lunches & Snacks

We’re trying something for lunches during the school year. Our extra refrigerator is going to be 100% devoted to lunch items.

We’re making up a big batch of freezer-friendly PB&J on the weekends and, in addition, I’ll have 4 different bins of items that the kids can choose one from — cheese sticks, snack packs, veggies, fruit, applesauce, chips, cookies, etc.

Each bin will have something different so that when they choose one item from each, they’ll have a well-rounded lunch. I’m hoping this makes things super simple and easy for them to put together their lunches at night.

Kathrynne helped me set this up and she took the initiative to write a board with details on how to put together the lunches. So far, we’re one week in, and I have literally done NOTHING for lunch prep other than help set the system up and make sure we had the items on hand for Kathrynne to get everything into baggies in the extra refrigerator.

And then the kids have been entirely in charge of each making their own lunch every night. I haven’t had to remind anyone and no one has yet to forget their lunch. I know we’re only a week in, but I’m pretty excited at how well this has worked so far — especially because the kids seem to be loving it!

Jesse and I are in charge of our own lunches and I’m going to have items on hand to choose from: fried eggs, toast, chips & salsa, yogurt, refried beans & cheese, salads, fruits, veggies, and/or leftovers.

Snacks:Egg & Sausage Breakfast Bites; Pumpkin Spice Bedtime Drink

Dinners

Jesse and I splitting up the cooking responsibilities for dinner this week. He’s in charge of the first two nights (since I have busier work days on Mondays and Tuesdays). I’m in charge of everything else.

Chicken & Cherry Tomato Bolognese, Fettucinne, Fruit

Hamburgers/Sausage on the Grill, Veggies, Fruit

Breakfast for dinner: Pumpkin Spice Waffles, Scrambled Eggs, Fruit

Slow Cooker Rotisserie Chicken, Fried Potatoes, Veggies, Fruit

Crockpot Baked Potatoes, Bacon, Sour Cream, Broccoli, Cheese

Dinner Out

Haystacks, Fruit

Freezer Cooking

I’m doing a Freezer Cooking session on Wednesday where I’m combining dinner prep with freezer cooking. This means that I’ll really only have to bake/cook one day this week. I’ll be making Pumpkin Spice Waffles, Crockpot Baked Potatoes (I won’t be freezing them; I’ll be saving them for dinner the next day.), Slow Cooker Rotisserie Chicken (I won’t be freezing this, either. I’ll be saving it to reheat for dinner two nights later.), and Egg & Sausage Breakfast Bites (we’ll be using turkey instead of sausage), Look for more details on how that goes later this week!

We spent $80 on groceries this week from Kroger and ALDI. Look for my post tomorrow with full details on what all we bought and how much we paid for everything!

What’s on YOUR menu plan this week? Share the link to it in the comments or tell us what you’re most excited about cooking!

5 Things I’m Loving This Week: School, a book I’m reading, a recipe I loved, plus more!

Published: by Crystal Paine on August 21, 2016 | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

1. Our Kids’ New Classical School

Our kids started at a new small Classical School this year. This was a big change for them as we’ve always homeschooled.

I’m so grateful for those 7 sweet years I had to be a homeschool mom. I’m also grateful for God’s direction this year (for a long list of reasons) that a different schooling option is best for our family and our kids.

I won’t pretend it was an easy decision. It was one that we made with a tremendous amount of thought, prayer, discussion, and tears.

I will readily admit that I was scared of what the first week might be like — not just for the kids, but for me, too. We prayed and prepped and prayed some more. And, by God’s grace, it was a really good week. It was so much better than I could have imagined and there were so many different ways that God confirmed to us that this decision was the right decision.

Thank you to so many of you who were praying with us, caring about us, and who reached out to us this week. It meant the world to us!

We are so grateful for this school, for the teachers, for the educational philosophy, and for how it aligns with our family’s values, educational philosophy, and worldview. We’re also grateful for how God leads different families in different ways for different seasons.

There will be new challenges and new opportunities and I’m excited to see what God has in store as we trust Him to lead one step at a time. (The kids were excited because they had a very relaxed dress code this past week so they got to wear shorts to school! The real dress code starts this coming week!)

2. Uninvited by Lysa TerKeurst

I started this book last week and it is so, so good — just as I expected it would be! If you struggle with feeling lonely, left out, or like you don’t belong, please do yourself a favor and get a copy of this book.

{By the way, if you need some extra encouragement, I shared a video earlier this week here about how to change your mindset when you’re frustrated with what you see in the mirror. I also talk about Uninvited a little bit here.}

3. Our New Lunch System

We’re trying something for lunches during the school year. Our extra refrigerator is going to be 100% devoted to lunch items.

We’re making up a big batch of freezer-friendly PB&J on the weekends and, in addition, I’ll have 4 different bins of items that the kids can choose one from — cheese sticks, snack packs, veggies, fruit, applesauce, chips, cookies, etc.

Each bin will have something different so that when they choose one item from each, they’ll have a well-rounded lunch. I’m hoping this makes things super simple and easy for them to put together their lunches at night.

Kathrynne helped me set this up and she took the initiative to write a board with details on how to put together the lunches. So far, we’re one week in, and I have literally done NOTHING for lunch prep other than help set the system up and make sure we had the items on hand for Kathrynne to get everything into baggies in the extra refrigerator.

And then the kids have been entirely in charge of each making their own lunch every night. I haven’t had to remind anyone and no one has yet to forget their lunch. I know we’re only a week in, but I’m pretty excited at how well this has worked so far — especially because the kids seem to be loving it!

4. These Flowers Growing in Our Yard

I have no idea what kind of flowers these are… I think they might even be a weed? I’m not sure. Anyone know?

Regardless, they just started growing in our backyard and I’ve been picking them and put them in mason jars to brighten up our rooms. And if they are a weed, I’m really not going to apologize… because I think they are pretty and they make me happy! 🙂

5. Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Pancakes

I made these Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Pancakes this week. De-li-cious!

As the recipe stated, the batter was very thick. But the end result was a hearty and yummy pancake that freezes and reheats really well.

(I may have eaten way more of these than I’d want to admit. 😉 They are yummy… and they make me feel like fall is coming soon! Yay!)

What are YOU loving? Tell us in the comments!

Shared Aug 20, 2016 comment

Getting Up Early When You’re NOT A Morning Person

Published: by Crystal Paine on August 20, 2016 | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

Guest post from Hannah of Affordably Natural Life

A few years ago, I read Crystal’s book, Say Goodbye to Survival Mode, and was determined to make some changes.

I was coming out of what I call “baby coma”—the period of at least three months following the birth of a baby where you have no sleep, no normalcy and no idea what’s going on.

I started making daily lists, working on goals, and trying to use my time more effectively. Of course, this was interrupted by another baby, and the process started all over again! After my second “baby coma” was mostly over (and this one lasted at least a year!), I tried to get my head above water again.

What I really missed was that feeling of fulfillment and accomplishment when I had finished something or met a goal I had set… and that’s when I decided to take Crystal’s Make Over Your Mornings course.

Now, please understand that I am in NO WAY a morning person — in a perfect world, I would wake up around 10 AM every day!

The other issue for me was that my husband (a firefighter) works shifts that constantly rotate every week, so there is no Monday through Friday week for him. I work for a nonprofit ministry as a counselor, and schedule my work around when my husband is home. It’s fantastic to save on childcare, but makes it really difficult to have a weekly routine.

I started the Make Over Your Mornings course with no great expectations (sorry, Crystal). I knew I hated beginning the day with no time to myself after I was woken by my children, and I also knew I grew frustrated more quickly that way. The point was to have good time with my kids, not be annoyed and not feel behind the whole day!

So, here’s what I did (following Crystal’s direction) to change my mornings and allow me to be productive and do more than I ever imagined!

1. I made a list.

Every evening, I made a list of things I wanted to accomplish the following morning and put the list on my vanity where I would see it as I got ready for bed. I had to remember why I wanted to get up early or there was no chance I ever would.

My list started with hot coffee! I wanted to be able to make coffee and drink a whole cup while it was still warm, rather than rewarming it six times in the microwave after I forgot it while chasing the kids around. I also included time with God, time for work (emails, writing, etc.), and time to read a few pages of a book.

2. I started small.

I decided to start small with my goal. I knew if I told myself I had to get up every day of the week, I would quit. Since our work routine changes every week, I didn’t have that to help schedule things. So, I started to base my early morning schedule around my son’s preschool days.

I thought I could do three mornings a week, and that would help me be less harried in getting him to school on time. I slowly moved up from there until I was getting up early five days a week (most of the time).

3. I made good use of my time.

Crystal advocates making your to-do list for the next day the night before. I went through that list and chose the things that needed to be done early.

The priorities were time with God and coffee. Then, I started in on my list for the morning until one of the kids got up, or I reached my time limit for waking my son up for school.

If I’m going to get up early, I want to feel that I’ve accomplished something during that time!

4. I prepped the night before.

I tried to have the kitchen cleaned up, the coffee stuff prepped, and all the things I needed in one place so I wouldn’t have to spend time looking for it. It really didn’t take that long the night before, but it changed my outlook for the early morning instantly.

I always say that Crystal is the woman who has taught me how to be an adult, but what I mean is that she has given me the small steps that add up to being able to do the big things I desired to do but couldn’t figure out how.

In getting up early, I have had more time with my kids during the day because I’m not worried about that email I need to answer or stressed because I haven’t had any time to process before the day begins.

I am also much more productive when I’m not multi-tasking and trying to manage the kids while doing some work.

The results of this early morning routine have been pronounced.

I have been very productive in my regular job, have started a natural living blog on the side, have actually read some books (which otherwise doesn’t happen unless I’m on vacation!) and have been able to be more present with my kids on the days I am with them. So thankful!

Hannah Morrell lives in Colorado with her husband and two kids. She works for a nonprofit Christian ministry, and writes for the natural living blog, Affordably Natural Life. She started this blog because of her passion to help newbies figure out how to live more naturally while saving money. And coffee. She drinks lots of coffee.

photo source

Shared Aug 20, 2016 comment

Gretchen’s $36 Grocery Shopping Trip and Weekly Menu Plan

Published: by Crystal Paine on August 20, 2016 | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

Dillons

I was short on time this week and only able to make it to Dillons. I still have some fruits and veggies leftover from the last couple of weeks so I’m hoping to stretch what I bought and what we have on hand to last for this next week. 🙂

2 Kroger Frozen Orange Juice Concentrate – $1 each

1 can Kroger Refried Beans – $0.89

1 pkg Tyson Frozen Skinless Boneless Chicken Breasts – $6.99, used $1/1 e-coupon – $5.99 after coupon

1 pkg Kroger Bacon – $3

1 gallon Dillons Milk – $2.49, used $0.25 Ibotta rebate – $2.24 after rebate

1 Applesauce – $2.19

1 Kroger Cream Cheese – $1.50, used $0.50/1 e-coupon – $1 after coupon

1 Kroger Cottage Cheese – $1.25, used $0.20/1 e-coupon – $1.05 after coupon

2 dozen Dillons Eggs – $1.39/dozen

1 Kroger Salsa – $1.49

1 Kroger Rice Crisp Cereal – $1.25, used $0.25/1 e-coupon and $0.25 Ibotta rebate – $0.75 after coupon and rebate

1 Kroger Spaghetti – $1

1 loaf Nature’s Own Bread – $1.99, used $0.25 Ibotta rebate – $1.74 after rebate

1 Green Bell Pepper – $0.79

1 can Kroger Tuna – $0.69

1 bag Kroger Spinach – $2.50

2 Cucumbers – $0.79 each

0.96 lbs Roma Tomatoes – $0.95

2 Romaine Lettuce – $0.99 each

2.27 lbs Bananas – $1.34

1 Pineapple – $0.99

Total after coupons and rebates: $36.94

Menu Plan for This Week

Breakfasts

Eggs and Muffins (from freezer cooking last week) x 4

Cereal x 2

Oatmeal and Orange Juice

Lunches

Spinach Salad, Cottage Cheese x 3

Tuna Sandwiches, Carrot Sticks

Peanut Butter & Jelly Sandwiches, Oranges

Cheese Quesadillas, Grapes

Leftovers

Dinners

Grilled Chicken, Tossed Salad, Green Beans

Spaghetti, Biscuits, Steamed Broccoli

Southwest Roll-ups, Fruit Salad

Chicken & Rice, Steamed Peas, Tossed Salad

Biscuits & Gravy, Bacon, Eggs, Orange Juice

Slow Cooker Back Bean Chicken, Fruit Salad

Dinner out

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Shared Aug 19, 2016 comment

Freezer Cooking: Taco Meat, Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Pancakes, Crockpot Taco Soup, & Chocolate Banana Muffins

Published: by Crystal Paine on August 19, 2016 | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

I did another Freezer Cooking session on Wednesday and it was really successful!

I love that cooking and baking ahead cuts down significantly on the time I need to spend cooking and baking and cleaning up the kitchen each week!

Here are the recipes I made this week:

And here are lots of pictures, videos, and details on how it all went down:

I found some great deals on meat recently, so I used that to make Taco Meat for the Taco Lettuce Wraps + the meat for Crockpot Taco Soup.

I make my own Homemade Taco Seasoning mix for the Taco Meat. Well, let me rephrase that, I dump in Taco Seasoning-type spices when making Taco Meat! 😉

It’s so nice to have Taco Meat in the freezer to use in Haystacks, Burritos, Tacos, and more! Plus, it freezes so well and thaws easily, too.

Next up, I made the Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Pancakes. As the recipe had stated, the batter was very thick. But the end result was a hearty and yummy pancake that freezes and reheats really well. (I may have tested it a few times already. 😉

Watch me make these Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins live in my kitchen here.

The Crockpot Taco Soup was SO easy to make! I made a few adjustments based upon what we already had on hand and my family really loved it! We didn’t freeze it; I just stuck it in the fridge to heat the next day.

Watch me make the Crockpot Taco Soup here… and yes, you can laugh along with me when you see how much of a flight-y, non-recipe-following cook I am. 🙂

And finally, I made Chocolate Banana Muffins. This recipe was really healthful (it only has honey instead of sugar), but it’s yummy. Not anywhere near as delicious as these Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins, but for how healthy they are in comparison, I think they are pretty good!

Did you do any freezer cooking this week? Tell us about it in the comments!

P.S. See Last Week’s Freezer Cooking Session here.

Shared Aug 18, 2016 comment