Menu Plan Monday--The month of June

May was awesome! I love menu planning by the month...easier to have it all done and as hard as it is to make that huge shopping list, we spent less on groceries this past month...about $100. From here on out, I am going to try to do monthly menus. I think it will help our budget and home in general with me having to shop once a month instead of weekly.

Another thing I am trying to do is incorporate more fruit into our dinners. I'm keeping fresh, cut up fruit in the fridge all month and will add that to the supper table.

Here's June...

Week of June 1--
Monday: Three cheese baked spaghetti (With less cheese and adding spinach. Making extra for the freezer), Italian cheese bread and salad (My summer class starts tonight.)

Tuesday: Zuchinni Crab Cakes and a side
Wednesday: Stuff you put over toast and a salad
Thursday: Chicken, basil and spinach quesadillas

Friday: Spicy beef with Bok Choy

Saturday: Homemade pizza...a new tradition.
Sunday: Black bean burgers, corn and a salad

Week of June 8--
Monday: Quick and easy beef and barley skillet (might use brown rice)

Tuesday: Shrimp and chicken fajitas (using this marinade)
Wednesday: Chicken caeser salad wraps
Thursday: BBQ grilled chicken, baked potatoes and a veggie
Friday: Vegetable manicotti, salad and italian garlic bread

Saturday: Out to eat
Sunday: Homemade pizza

Week of June 15--
Monday: BBQ hamburgers, this (which is so good and I could totally eat this as a main dish all week long for every meal but you might as well slap the cheese on my thighs because that where it will end up anyways) and a salad
Tuesday: Italian grilled chicken over a spinach salad.
Wednesday: Salsa chicken, black beans and Mexican rice...making extra for tomorrow.
Thursday: Using last night's extra to make chicken burritos or wraps.
Friday: Jeremy and I are headed to St. Louis...Crawl for Cancer!! The girls and the sitter will have pizza from a fundraiser.
Saturday: We are still in St. Louis...the actual crawl is today. The girls and the sitter will have tacos.
Sunday: "Healthified" mexican pasta skillet

Week of June 22--
Monday: Chicken caeser wraps
Tuesday: Beef and broccoli with brown rice
Wednesday: Low fat shrimp fettuccine alfredo
Thursday: Crock pot mushroom pork tenderloin with carrots & potatoes

Friday: Pulled pork sandwiches (using leftovers) and oven fries.
Saturday: Out to eat
Sunday: Homemade pizza

Week of June 29--
Monday: Letting the kiddos pick.
Tuesday: Tostadas with black beans and corn.

Wednesday: Slow cooker sloppy joes and steamed green beans.
Thursday: Pepperoni rolls and homemade italian bread sticks

Friday: Healthy corn dogs or corn dogs muffins and chips

Saturday: Steaks, baked potatoes and a veggie
Sunday: 40-clove garlic chicken (I just used the olive oil, garlic and chicken) and a side

Snacks: Cheesy crackers, health nut blueberry muffins, banana bread fruit and a few others I will decide on later. My mind is done after planning that menu!

For more recipes and menus, check at Laura at I'm an Organizing Junkie.

One of the problems of our youth is that the family unit is broken up. When we'd sit down to dinner together as a family, we'd learn about each other. We had something people don't get today.
--Paul Prudhomme

What's in store for me today?

It's my birthday!!

What are the plans you ask?

I am going to the license bureau.

My tags expire in a few days. Such excitement, I tell you. I can hardly contain myself.

Without technology

My home computer is broken. It will not turn on at all...it just beeps. Hence the lack of posting. But, I am now at a computer and this is one of a few scheduled posts for the week.

I miss blogging. There are a few things going on but nothing major. I have made a new discovery about myself. But I will save that for another day.

I am loving the three day weekend! We have done quite a few things around the house but let me start by saying I have a black thumb...gardening does not come natural to me. Neither does planting flowers or anything of that nature.

But this weekend, it changed. Let me tell you...

• Pulled all the weeds in front of the house...this took every minute of three hours.
• Edged the sidewalk and the walkway to our house.
• Pulled weeds in the back of our house around the patio.
• Pressure washed half of our house.
• Bought hastas to plant this week.

We worked all weekend! It felt great but once we sat own around 7:00, we were done. We could not do anything else. Exhausted.

But the sense of getting a lot of stuff accomplished was great..something to cross off our list. I am looking forward to next weekend when the project should be completed.

Oh, and my thumb is a pale shade of green now.

How was your weekend?

Gardening requires lots of water - most of it in the form of perspiration.
--Lou Erickson

Blah blah blah

Nothing too exciting going on in our house...thus the reason for lack of posting. Just wanted to let you know all is well...hopefully we will have some interesting things to talk about soon.

Hope you all have a great weekend!

Happy Mother's Day!

This is going to be a short post...just wanted to mention Mother's Day. To all you moms, grandmas and maw-maws out there--Happy Mother's Day! I hope you had a great one!

Being a mother is definitely one of the toughest jobs out there...everything seems to fall on the mom's plate automatically. It is stressful and tough but so much fun and very rewarding at the same time. I love my kids more than I could have ever imagined and can only hope I am doing the best for them. We take it one day at a time and do the best we can. That is all we can do.

I have to give Jeremy and Macie some love...I got breakfast in bed (Zoa was still sleeping). French toast, eggs, sausage, hash browns and biscuits and gravy was delivered to me in bed this morning. I stuffed my face and then wanted to go back to bed. It was a great way to wake up but I felt like a big pile of goo after it all. I finally got up off the couch around 12:00 and spent the rest of the day with his mom and my mom. It was a great afternoon but boy am I tired!

It must of worn Jeremy out too because he is asleep on the couch. It just started raining so I am heading off to bed now as well. Hopefully, I will be able to go to sleep...we are never in bed this early! It would be nice to start the week with a good night's sleep though...we'll see.

A mother is a person who seeing there are only four
pieces of pie for five people, promptly announces
she never did care for pie.
--Tenneva Jordan

This Saturday, help Stamp Out Hunger.

Saturday, May 9 is the National Stamp Out Food Drive. All you have to do is fill a bag or two with non-perishable food items and leave them by your mailbox. The mail carrier will pick them up and they take care of delivering it to your local food bank.

If you use a post office box, just search the USPS website for their contact information. Many post offices are participating but you might want to call and ask to make sure.

This is a great way to clean out your cabinets. I know each year when I donate food, anything that has dust automatically gets donated. It really only takes five minutes, if that, and it is helping your community.

Weekend One

How was your weekend? Ours was dreary...besides the weather, MJ came down with a 12 hour fever. Not too sure what it was but I think it was a separate virus than what Zoa had. Macie's fever only reached about 101.5 compared to Zoa's 104 temp. But today, everyone is well and back to their normal schedule with school and work...woo hoo!

Our weekend consisted of two workouts on Saturday morning. After that we had a few places to go and before we knew it, Jeremy and I had not ate anything. This was around 5:00 and we were starving. It was really hard not to run through a drive thru, but we made it until 7:30 and then finally ate something I made. What could have turned into a $30.00+ meal out only cost us $7.00 at the store to pick up a few things I needed for supper. I was really prud of us that day...the weekends are always the toughest not to eat out, especially after church. It is kind of a tradition we do so it was a little odd not to go out. Odd, but nice.

Sunday, we made a birthday dinner for my dad. Happy Birthday Dad! It was a lazy day, with the exeption of grocery shopping. We hit up Aldi's, Wal-Mart and Sam's. We still have around $50 left for the month, which is about right considering we still will need milk and a few pieces of produce. All in all, it was a great trip!

This week, our workout changes up a bit. P90X calls it a 'Recovery Week'. After three weeks of tough workouts, we get a week of easier DVD's before we hit up week 5 with a whole new set of workouts. I am starting to see changes in my body already...better arms and some abs peeking through. It's the best motivation to keep going!

Strength is not gained overnight; it is cultivated over time.
--David Shaw

Motivated!!

Wow! May is here already! Crazy, huh? This first post in May is going to focus on finances. There will be a little background in here about why I am all gung ho on getting our debt paid, our savings ripping at the seams and our budget under control. I literally woke up one day and thought about how much our debit card gets swiped. It is insane! I am ready to be done with doctor bills, hospital bills, credit cards, student loans and car payments. There is only one way to get there...

I have already told you we are going on a No Spending Experiment this month. With that being said, I want to share our current short term personal goals. One of our goals for April was to start a Christmas account at our bank. After that was completed, I just set up automatic transfers from our checking. Check!

Another goal was to list some things on Ebay, which I told you about here. I think this could go over pretty well. I obviously don't expect for me to make a million doing this, but when you are paying debt off, every few dollars toward debt can help immensely. I also spent some time putting some online money earning ideas that I can do at home into action. They have just been lingering in my email in box and I finally finished the process. It's a few dollars here and there, but it should bring in a significant amount each month.

May will have three simple goals - Put the envelope system in place, leave the money at home and get through the No Spending Experiment. I'll keep you updated!

As for the big picture of 2009, we once again are following Dave Ramsey. He has six small baby steps and we will be working on the first two for the rest of 2009.
1. $1,000 to start an Emergency Fund
This has always been in place...we just have to use it instead of a credit card for emergencies.
2. Pay off all debt using the Debt Snowball. Our goal is to have everything bu the student loan, car and land paid off my the end of the year.

• Doctor bill
  
• Doctor bill
• Credit card
• Credit card
• Credit card
• Doctor bill
  
• Student loan
• My car
• Land
  

To keep Jeremy and myself in check, all checkbooks, debits cards and the one credit card left for major emergency use will be locked in our safe. I plan to stock the envelopes at the beginning of the month and that is all we get. This will not only help us on our No Spending Experiment, but also prepare us for normal life once June comes around and we can eat out once a week again. I want to really use the cash only method...no debit card or checkbooks.

Our goals seems like a big undertaking but I am taking it one bill at a time, along with one month at a time. I will update you in June!

(Image via.)

It's clearly a budget. It's got a lot of numbers in it.
--George W. Bush