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Happy Valentine’s Day!
I hope you have planned something special for you and your Sweetie! My husband surprised me early this year and gave me a card, a HUGE mug filled with the cutest little bear and chocolates, and a live miniature rose bush! Totally took me by surprise! He’s usually the one who forgets holidays, birthdays, and anniversaries! When I saw his gift, he looked at me with much excitement in his eyes and said, “LOOK!! I remembered!!” Boy did he score some major brownie points!! 🙂
With Valentine’s Day in mind, did you all remember to plan for this special occasion while planning your meals for the month? My husband works that night, so our Valentine’s dinner (Yes, candlelight and all) will be tonight! He doesn’t know it yet, so it will be a surprise to him!
How have you done this week with the Freezer/Pantry Challenge? Have you been able to stick with it, or has it become a real challenge? So far, this week, the only thing I’ve needed to purchase is milk and fresh produce! I’m pretty happy about that! I haven’t had the desire to go out and purchase more because I truly want to stick to this challenge to the best that I can. I really want to see if this can be done!
In talking to others about this challenge, they are telling me how EASY I am making it for all of you. They’ve been through some challenges that doesn’t allow you to purchase anything throughout the month. They are required to use exactly what they have on hand, and nothing more! Now THAT would be challenging! Maybe one day I’ll be ready for that kind of challenge. 🙂
One thing I am learning about this challenge is that I am also seeing it pour into other areas of my life. I am becoming very aware of how we are spending our money. It’s making me think before I give in and say “Yeah, let’s just go out and eat tonight. I don’t feel like cooking!” I’ve even told my husband that Papa Murphy’s Pizza will have to wait until next month, OR hey, here’s an idea….how about we make our own pizza!!! What a concept, huh? LOL It’s been awesome seeing how we are working together in this now.
Here is my Menu for this week
Thursday: Soup / Salad
Friday: Scalloped Potatoes w/Ham
Saturday: Date Night
Sunday: Soup / Salad
Monday: Pancakes, Sausage Links, Scrambled Eggs
Tuesday: Grilled Chicken, Baked Potatoes, Green Beans, Salad
Wednesday: LEFTOVERS
Here’s my total grocery bill for the last week: $21.70
How is this challenge working for you? Are you feeling challenged? Are you working through it? What are you doing to try and stick with the challenge? I would love to see your comments below!!
Have a GREAT day, ladies! See you next week!
Christi
We did good this last week. My week runs Sunday to Saturday. Sunday we had chicken sandwiches on sourdough with french fries. The only thing I had to purchase was the sourdough and a bag of fries. Monday we had pot roast and everything was in the house for that. Tuesday chili mac, had everything for that, Wednesday breakfast, again, only needed the bread for toast. Thursday, I didn’t feel like cooking so I had oatmeal and my husband had egg sandwiches. One of our favorite breakfast for dinner meals. Friday is left overs and tonight is date night. We don’t go out every week, but this is our anniversary (Jan 29) and Valentines celebration so Red Lobster for us. I haven’t made the menu for next week, but it will be simple and I will only be buying what I need to make lunches for hubby and the grand kids. We have plenty of meat in the freezer. I buy it in bulk from Zaycon foods. Fresh, never frozen, no hormones and scrumptiously delicious. They only come every six months so I have to get what I think we will need. I also have a friend raising a hog and that should be here around June.
My month has come full circle now as of this past week since I started stocking up two weeks prior to your challenge. So, I have had a full month, and I’ve learned some things during that month.
(1) All meals were planned from freezer and pantry. The only extra
items bought were produce, milk, bread (I don’t make bread)and fruit.
(2) I learned I did not have to visit the other aisles for specials – -stuck to the plan.
(3) I kept receipts of everything that was spent on groceries, and also laudry supplies, toilet paper, paper towels, and cleaning supplies.
(4) I now know after a month how much I spent, and how much it takes to run this house with well planning.
(5) I am now going to use what is called the envelope method in budgeting the above items. When my income check is deposted in my account, I am going to withdraw and place in envelopes the total that I spent from January 10-February 10. This helps me stay in control of my spending in those areas, plus it gives me cash on hand when I do need to run in for milk, etc rather than writing a check or debit card.
(5) Some of us have to see it on paper for a reality check. I didn’t think I was way out of control because I did only buy sale items, but I bought too many sale items that were being left on the pantry and freezer shelves too long.
So, thank you Christie, for getting this started. It makes me feel like I am being a better steward of my money, rather God’s money.
I forgot to mention something about the envelope method- – since I know the total amount of money that is needed, I withdraw that, but I divide it into 4 envelopes which means I budget myself to that amount per week. So, only one envelope is in my purse, not the whole amount of income. I thought I should say that in case anybody was thinking that that was too much cash to be carrying around at one time.
Martha, thank you for such an awesome report on how the challenge worked for you, and what you plan to do with your envelopes each month! This is a Dave Ramsey method and I’ve always wanted to try it. After this challenge, I think I just may incorporate this into in my monthly grocery planning! THANK YOU!!! — Christi
Yes, I got it from Dave Ramsey, but never tried it. So, we shall see how it works.