The Damage

My first Publix shopping trip after deciding to pay more attention yielded a $14.85 savings. Not bad for just two coupons! I actually looked at the advertised sales and checked out the "advantage savings."

Even though we don't eat that much chicken in a normal week, it was fun to see what we could do with a roaster. Publix had advertised "whole chickens .79 cents/lb" so I thought I'd get a sweet deal on a fatty. It wasn't mentioned, but the ad was for fryers -not roasters. I went for a roaster at $1.23/lb and was just fine with that.

The Chicken Experiment

Spent: $24.51

Roaster: $8.45

Addt'l groceries for CE: $16.06

Since strawberries are in season, I went for those but could have chosen apples or something similar for the salad. Also, I bought organic spring mix. The point of this, for me, was to cut corners where possible. Maybe if the Fresh Express brand is looking good next week, I'll use my $1.00 off coupon and skip the organic. We'll see...

I'm not a fan of eating food that's been in the fridge over, let's say, 1 day. It grosses me out. So, I opted to portion out the chicken, bag it (with some extra juice from the pan) and freeze it. Today, I took out the portion for the picadillo and just thawed it by placing it in cold water.

Speaking of, the picadillo was great! I would have never thought to use raisins and cinnamon in this dish but it worked. Well, John said it was great. I still can't taste a thing thanks to this cold and allergies. We should end up getting 4 meals (for 2 and a toddler out of this). It could have been 5 but we may have a guest over tomorrow for the chicken burritos and I didn't want to be left to make a $100 run to the store just to get an entirely different dinner.

Next week is to try and beat my previous record in savings, as well as use competitor coupons. I'm also going to try my hand CVSing.

Cutting the Bill

Tomorrow is my first experiment with actually paying attention to the grocery bill for the first time in a very long time. I'm starting out with the Chicken Experiment. I am modifying it a little bit. Here goes...

Sunday:
Lemon Roasted Chicken with parsnips, carrots, red potatoes, and onion

Monday:
Chicken on mixed greens with strawberries, avacado and balsamic dressing

Tuesday:
Chicken Picadillo

Wednesday:
Chicken Burritos with Mojo

Thursday:
Italian Turkey Pasta

Friday:
Prosciutto, pine nut and spinach pizza (our splurge of the week)

Additional:
chicken stock from the roaster

The reason behind so much chicken this week is that I wanted to see what could actually be done with the bird. Really, can you get down that low with the bad boy? Also, John's returning to work and how easy could this week be?!? I'm using as much pantry food as possible. Next week we'll be back to our fish 2-3 times per week and not so much meat. I plan to balance out that cost by doing some other cheap -but healthy(er) eats.

I've spent two evenings really researching the couponing world. While I don't think I'll go all that crazy with things since I don't have 12 kids to support, I do think we could benefit from a few cents off here and there. Who couldn't?

A few great sites so far:
A Full Cup
Southern Savers -check it out for "how to's" -like couponing and "CVSing."

SAVE ME! ...from myself...

I have never been frugal. Target (before it was cool) was never my thing. I wouldn't have been caught dead wearing Old Navy (before it was cool), or shopping for shoes at Payless (before it was cool). I like quality and I thought you had to buy brand name to get that quality. I grew up down a dirt road in a house my parents spent a life time saving for and now are paying off. Money was an object, the heft of which wasn't really conveyed to me. Until later...

My parents worked hard to save money everywhere else, except for groceries. No lists were made, lots of produce was wasted, weird additive-ridden kid meals were eaten. My dad liked quality food; lots of veggies fish and meat. It was not uncommon to spend $200 per week on groceries. He never brought home doughnuts, but we did try foods from around the world (his favorite was to bring home "different" produce) along with brand name drinks, cookies, chips, junk...

When college came around, I was stuck paying for food with whatever money was left-over after bills. Once, right when I met John, I went to the store with $12 and a -$43.27 in my bank account (I saved the receipt because I hated that feeling of being in debt). It was the first time I actually paid attention.

Fast forward to 2009. I still hate coupons and bargain hunting but I can finally admit why. I don't know where to start. We move, have busy kids, I buy organic, you can't eat healthy on a budget, etc. Excuses, excuses. Thanks to the lovely Christine I found Cheap Healthy Good and a light switch was flipped on. If my food bills have been close to $200 (we just moved so there's an excuse!) for the last three weeks, what's it going to be like when my boys are teenagers? Good Lord!

My Mission: To see how low I can go. It's going to take a lot of planning but thanks to Southern Savers and a slew of other websites, the wheels are a churnin' and I'm ready to save some cash (so I can buy out Anthropologie...whole different post, I guess).

My Plan: To make my meal plans around what's on sale (no, I don't even do that!) without compromising my families desire to eat lots of organic items. We adhere to the organic meats, milk, and "dirty dozen" idea. The rest of our groceries will be conventionally grown. I'm going to post links and my meal plans. Later, I'll start posting costs, etc. Instead of just being for two adults, it will be servings for 4 with kids in mind.

I'm off to work on my excel sheets and lists before John gets back to work!

All Babies Are Different

Yes, I know this. I just didn't know to what an extreme extent. Originally, I thought the differences in my own kids would be like a Gala and a Fuji or a tagelo and an orange. Same family, just tiny differences. WRONG!

Nern and Ollie's inherent personalities are polar opposites. Now, I'm not comparing them to see who's better at what or who reached what milestone first (Eli, hands down). I'm so absolutely, stripped down exhausted that I've nothing left to do but just that.

I see my personality in Turner. Easily flustered by small things -like messes. He's always saying "I made a mess. Can you kween it?" He's very go-with-the-flow about his goals. Didn't make it up the climbing wall? Eh, take the ladder. It's still climbing. He's a compliant, non-questioning, rule follower (for the most part). Never climbed out of his crib, rarely gets out of his big boy bed and doesn't question authority. The only reason Turner throws a fit is if he's tired and that would be our fault. He doesn't just melt down if things don't go his way. He's compassionate beyond words and has a need to fix things -meticulously. Turner is a sensitive soul and I'm pretty sure he will always be this way. I have to be careful when disciplining because I can hurt his feelings with just my tone of voice.

Eli. Oh, my sweet Elias. He is his daddy made over. Bull-headed, goal-oriented to the Nth degree, and non-stop. Up in his neck of the woods, John is known as St. John. Ne'er do wrong, could charm the knickers off a sweet ol' southern lady, loudly out-going, good ol' boy. If you blink, you might miss Eli. Yep, he just flew by. He can take two to three steps and crawl faster than than you can leap over the couch to save him from ripping the TV out of the wall. He's so sweet and charming and "says" all the right things. He's so outgoing he can make friends for his older brother. I first noticed Eli's iron will when, at two weeks he could keep his head up. He had to know what we were doing around the house. You can't tempt him with distractions, or re-direct his curiousness. He has to know the facts. How does gravity work? He'll test it by pulling up on our heavy metal and leather barstools and fall straight back on his hard noggin. How does electricity work? Hmm, stick a straw in the socket and see what happens. Knowing what he wants in life will not be Mr. Ollie's downfall, but being so passionate he gets his heart-broken will be.

Pack Out # 6!

The packers are coming tomorrow and I have the least amount done, ever. I usually get all worked up that I'm not organized enough but, this time, I could CARE LESS! After the second kid, I think you just start letting go of anything you think you have control over. This is a good thing!

I did manage to get my bedroom-sized closet cleaned out. Anything we're packing and don't want the movers to touch we're stuffing in there. It's werid to see bags of snacks, laundry detergent, toys and the portable DVD player in there but it's the safest place in the house. These packout guys can get pretty careless. When we moved from San Diego to Japan, someone packed the bathroom trash can...along with it's contents. Lovely.

We usually get the cream of the crop in the moving world. When our driver for the move from Land O' Lakes to San Diego showed up he was alone. Yes, alone to move large items. Even better is that he had been in a previous "altercation" with the guys that were packing. Something involving guns...

The packers for San Diego to Japan were pretty stellar, too. They were not only lazy, but careless. Until I offered booze that could not be shipped and they shaped up pretty quick. They were stinky and fought with eachother the ENTIRE time.

Japan was out of this world! The packers showed up and took their shoes off EVERY time they came in the house. Carrying a couch? Take your shoes off! They even wrapped cushions. Oh, they were so wonderful. The took ONE break, to scarf down lunch. That was it!

The move from Monterey was an interesting one, too. One of the packers was a "shim." Turner saw her/him for the first time and said "look, a girl" because he was in the identifying stage. Yeah, honey, Mommy doesn't know what that is. The male packers, without being prompted, told us that shim was a female. In fact, she was dating the secretary. Yeah, we didn't need to know that. They took breaks like CRAZY and fought the whole time. The mover showed up with two guys he just hired. They fought the whole time and were so slow that we didn't leave until 11 pm!

So far, so good today. You can never tell until you're unpacking on the other end...

It's Starting, Already!

Let me just say, I know I've been spoiled since returning from Japan in 2005. HOWEVER, it's never easy getting used to "ship" stuff again. John's class split up in to the "top sider/bottom sider" sections in December and ever since then I can't help but keep tabs. Our dining room window faces the street and starting around noon I see the other husbands start coming home. By 3, at the latest, most are parked in their designated spots. I still wait. By 4 Turner's ansy, by 5 I give up and put Ollie on in the Mei Tai so he'll sleep. I have to STOP. John being CHENG just means it's going to get worse, very soon. Gone are the days of ever counting on him to be home so I can make dinner. I have to suck it up and just be thankful for having him around for so long. (...deep breath in...)

With the orders modification, the ship he's going to is "in the yards" -meaning it's being overhauled (instead of being deployed very soon) . No water time for him. Just long work hours. I know he'll leave the house around 4 and possibly be home by 7ish. The "ish" meaning later.

I'm just so happy we'll be in Jacksonville, where I can count on getting out of the house every day! I think it will make a big difference -getting out to the park, going for walks and just not having to brave single digit temperatures!

The packers come Monday and Tuesday and I've got NOTHING done. I figure just survive and we'll figure it out on the other end!

Falling Short

It is really all I can do to keep up these days. I just feel like I'm in a hampster wheel running my ass off. In actuality, I can't even get out for a run...

Eli is such a sweet boy, but, man, he is non-stop. He has always had a strong personality but now he's starting to show (well, since 5 1/2 months) how quickly his motor skills are developing. He hits milestone after milestone. Just when I think "he HAS to have this week off from something" -he gets more teeth, or learns to clap. I have to change his diaper with his head/upper body between my legs just to get the dang diaper on half straight. He's very manipulative, and I fall for it. We've given up any hope for getting him to sleep on his own at any point right now. We've decided to wait until we get to Jacksonville to introduce him to Turner's crib. I need him to sleep for a few hours on his own. I'm going crazy.

Turner's starting to speak in sentences and I adore it! I love everything about the things he says. This morning, he had a motorcycle in one hand and half a banana in the other and says to me "Mommy! Which hand? The motorcycle or the banana?" It was so cute. Any time the camera is out he says "Mommy! Take a picture of me" and then makes the weirdest "cheese" face. It's hilarious.

The movers are coming the 9-11th and John graduates on the 12th. I'll be happy when this 3 years of schooling are finally over! When work is over, it's OVER! No more studying!! It's so hard when Turner's begging for Daddy to play but Daddy's working on flash cards.

I've been avoiding the gym with the excuse of not wanting the kids to get sick. EVERY time I go, someone gets a cold. I just can't deal with it right now and would rather deal with a giggly butt!

I guess when all's said and done and the boys are old enough to remember, they'll know their mamma played with them all day. Even if that meant the dishwasher never got unloaded and all the clean clothes are in a pile on the floor...