Weekly Grocery Spending January 25-31

I went to the grocery store once this week, and spent $63.48.  I posted a few deals and pictures here. I thought that would be it for my totals this week, however my sister went to the grocery store as well.  She went last week for $.99 Hamburger Helper, produce, and veggie dip.  She decided to stock up quite a bit on Hamburger Helper, since we need to make a food pantry donation run soon anyway, and we like to give a variety of items.  By the time she bought the stuff we are donating, plus the stuff for home, the total was $48.24.  So we are over budget again this week!

Our weekly total this week was $111.72.

That is more than our weekly budget of $100 per week for our family of three adults, one child, two dogs, and a cat.  I better get this under control if I'm going to make decent progress on our vacation goal in February!

Our total spent on groceries for 2013 so far is $460.91.  

We are 4.5 weeks into the year, and our budget is $100 per week, so we are currently 10.91 over budget.

Wii Fit Totals January 26-29

I haven't posted about my Wii Fit totals lately, because I just haven't been using it much.  Saturday we were out shopping almost all day, and I just didn't feel like it when we got home.  Sunday I practiced basketball with Elliott for about an hour and a half, so I didn't work on my Wii Fit then either.  Monday I used it for a total of 11 minutes. lol  Yesterday I never even considered turning it on. 

My husband and I have been doing a lot of cleaning lately.  Elliott's room is the last one that we are working on.  We pulled everything  except his bed out, and my husband even ripped his closet out.  He just finished taping everything off, and we are going to start painting in just a few minutes.  Packing all that stuff up, and then down into the basement has been enough of a workout for me.  I am going to try to work out on my Wii Fit tonight, though, so maybe I'll have something to report tonight or tomorrow. :)

Wordless Wednesday: Baby Elliott

It's hard to believe that Elliott will be seven this week.  So I thought I would share a picture that I took when he was a newborn.  Here he is with his Daddy, while we were still in the hospital.  The year is wrong on the picture.  It was actually 2006, and he was 1 day old.

Coupon Shopping January 25, 2013

I almost forgot to post about our coupon shopping trip on Friday.  It was certainly not one of my best trips ever, but it wasn't too bad, especially considering it was kind of rushed.  They were out of several things we wanted, that would have pushed our percentage saved higher.  But after not doing much couponing at all for several months, any savings is good as far as I'm concerned.  The money we saved by using coupons will be going into our vacation fund as well. :)

Menu Plan January 27-February 2

My family used to always make a loose menu plan every week.  It made it easy to figure out what to cook, and then I was able to plan ahead and include dishes that need to sit in a marinade, cook in the slow cooker, etc.  We're trying to get back into menu planning.  I generally only plan dinners during the week, and then lunch and dinner on weekends.  Breakfasts are usually quick and easy items (eggs, toast, pop tarts, or cereal, plus milk or juice and some kind of fruit), so I don't include them on the menu plan.  Lunches are usually something quick and easy for whoever is at home, so I don't really plan them either.  Everyone that is home eats dinner together, though, so I try to plan it a little better.

This week, Sunday we had leftovers for lunch.
For dinner we had pizza.

Hobby Lobby Finds

As I said in my last post, Saturday we were in Minot with a few hours to kill.  We went to some thrift stores, out to lunch, and to Hobby Lobby.  My sister was in the market for wall decor, now that our remodel is FINALLY almost completely done, and everyone should have their own space back within the next few weeks.  She didn't end up buying any wall art, but that didn't stop Elliott and I from finding stuff we wanted. lol

Thrift Store Finds

Saturday my husband had all day conferences as part of his continuing education requirements for his EMT job.  He had a long dinner break at 5, so he wanted us to eat with him, since he was just in Minot, and hadn't seen Elliott much at all during the week.  Elliott had a game Saturday at eleven so we had to figure out what to do for the 5 hours in between, so we didn't have to drive all the way home for just a short amount of time.

So we decided to go thrift store shopping.  We don't shop at thrift stores very regularly, mainly because of time constraints.  We are usually only in Minot once or twice a week, and one of those days is Sunday for church.  Most thrift stores around here are closed on Sundays.

Planning Elliott's Birthday Party

It's hard to believe that my baby will be seven on Friday.  We have a big birthday party planned for him on Saturday.  We somehow forgot to send out the invitations until Friday, but we've still already received confirmation that 5 kids are coming, and I'm sure we will continue to receive more confirmations throughout the next few days.  And if it's anything like last year, there will be some kids who show up, that we didn't know were coming until they arrive.

This year we invited everyone in Elliott's class, plus the three kids from his basketball team that aren't in his class.  We're having the party at a pizza place in the same city that we play basketball in.  The party will be shortly after his basketball game ends, so I would say a lot of his basketball friends will show up.