I'm tired today. So I'm really glad that I made tonights dinner last night. We had a busy day, not busy like we had a bunch of stuff to do, but busy in the sense that I am now tired from all that went on today, which was driving to Duncan, walking around a museum, playing at a park and driving home. Yes, that wore me out!

               We typically are gone on Saturdays, doing whatever. We like taking mini road trips, and when I say we, I mean Ray and I. The kids would rather stay home, but they are kids, what do they know! We also like back roads and today that was what we did. We took a mini back road, road trip to Duncan...just making memories is what I tell the kids when they complain, and what I remind myself of when they are making me crazy from their complaining! They enjoy the places we go to, they just don't always appreciate the drive.

             Anyway, that has nothing to do with what I fixed today! For breakfast we had sausage and egg breakfast burritos. I am making beef enchiladas next week so I bought a big thing of corn tortillas and used some of them this morning. I guess this might count as cheating, we ate lunch out, but only because we were in Duncan. But in keeping with my frugal spending this month I made Ray get big gulps this morning when we stopped at 7-11 instead of the regular 16oz. bottles we usually get. So the drinks we usually buy are like $1.50 each and the 32oz. big gulp is .79 cents each! Hello savings! So even though we ate lunch out, I saved us money on drinks.

          Ok, on to dinner. I fixed spagh-becky....thats for you King of the Hill fans...only the best show ever. You are crazy if you haven't  watched King of the Hill, first you should, and second its spaghetti! I used some of the 30 cups of sauce I talked about yesterday and added about half a pound of hamburger meat. We also had homemade french bread, that is super easy to make and its my go to bread, and salad.

        So there you have it. So far so good. I am enjoying the fact that I have a menu planned. It really does take the stress out of what I am fixing everyday and the kids can all see it and they know what we are having for every meal. That way if we are having something they hate for dinner, they can see that first thing in the morning and they will have all day to prepare themselves to eat it!

Ready..set...go!

              Well today was the first day of The Great Grocery Challenge. I know that it isn't July 1st yet and I said I would be starting July 1st, but today is pay day in our house and pay day means grocery shopping day. I went to Sams and to Aldi to buy only the things on my list. That right there is a huge accomplishment for me, first because I normally don't shop with a list and if I do I NEVER stick to the list. I don't normally plan meals either, I'm more of a fly by the seat of my pants gal. So this was a big day for me...meal planning and sticking to a list. Wow.

                So pre my menu today, the kids had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for breakfast. (don't judge, I told you it was a grocery shopping day, I was out of food.) I could add that I gave them fruit too just to make myself look better, but I didn't. And actually now that I think about it, it wasn't even jelly on their sandwiches, it was honey. I was out of jelly.  Lunch was, wait for it....sandwiches. But this time it was turkey and cheese and they did have fruit and baby carrots with their lunch, so I'm pretty sure I redeemed myself from breakfast.

            As I mentioned above, I went to Sams to buy some of my stuff. We all know about my 25 pound bag of flour that I wrote about yesterday, but what I didn't tell you was I bought a 6 pound can of crushed tomatoes, and 6 pound can of tomato sauce. I also bought a six pound can of peanut butter and 5 pounds of cheese! But back to the tomato stuff. With the cans of tomatoes I made 30 cups of spaghetti/pizza sauce. Thats right folks, 30 cups! I was so proud of myself! I divided it up and froze it. See, we have homemade pizza every Friday night. By doing it this way, I saved a little over $10. That might not seem like a lot, but when your pinching pennies like I am this month it is a great savings! So if you didn't already guess, we had pizza tonight for dinner!

         Day one was a success. I decided to split my money for the month in half instead of taking it all at once. With that being said, I have $25 left until the 15th! But I also have all my big things bought, so really all I will need to replace is milk, and probably some fruit.

            Oh and I forgot to mention the snack my kids had. But first I want to say I'm pretty sure my kids think I am the meanest mom ever. I never give them what they want for a snack. Seriously. I don't buy fun snacks, I don't buy the individually wrapped snacks, I don't even buy cookies. Yikes. Oh yeah, and I don't buy juice...ever.  They truly have to live by the motto "you get what you get and you don't throw a fit." I don't care if they like their snack, they don't have to eat it. What, you don't like dinner, thats fine, maybe breakfast will be something you will enjoy! See...worst.Mom.ever! I won't have picky eaters and we have way to many kids for me to be making everyones favorite thing...so I just make my favorite things every night and thats that.  I guess I just said all that to say my kids had peanut butter on saltine crackers! Whatever!

Grocery Challenge...da da da daaaa

                   Yes, we have a budget...for everything. I really mean everything. My wonderful husband is great at taking his pay check and dividing it up and putting it in what seems like a million different places. We have a budget for oil changes, one for hair cuts, one for eating out, but our biggest budget is for groceries.

                We are a family of seven...wow, how did that happen. Anyways, we typically only spend $500 a month on food. That's right, only $500. Well Ray has challenged me to cut that down by $200 a month. I wondered if there would be a prize if I succeeded in my challenge, but Ray is the kind of person who would say your prize is the satisfaction of a job well done. I hate people like that. I want a prize. Maybe a trophy, or a jar filled with candy. So anyway, I accepted his challenge and I will only spend $300 in July for groceries. In my semi state of panic I bought a 25 pound bag of flour. I'm not kidding. I guess it's a good thing no one in our family has a gluten allergy.

                Just to keep myself accountable and all that I have decided to blog about what we eat, and what I buy and what we run out of! I have planned a menu for the next two weeks included in that is three meals a day plus snacks. We joke that we will be eating lots of beans, but seriously, we will be eating lots of beans!

              I'm positive my kids are going to complain about this and I'm sure I will sneak a bag of cherry sours and Ray will want a steak before our month is up. So wish me luck, I'm gonna need it!