I know I haven’t updated this in a while. It’s been an awfully busy few weeks at our house! But that’s a story for another post…

We managed to stay on budget for our Eat From the Pantry Challenge this month, even the week we had company for dinner twice in one week!

One tip that has helped us tremendously: shopping at the farmers’ market each week. I’m able to pick up a ton of great quality produce really inexpensively. I really learned how big a difference it is when I went grocery shopping at Publix yesterday. Normally I can buy 2 large red onions for $1 at the farmers’ market. (We love our Mexican nights here!!!) Well, when we were there on Saturday I neglected to pick one up, so I just grabbed one in the produce department of Publix when I did my weekly shopping. Big mistake. I paid $1.85 for ONE red onion! And to think there was a time in my life I didn’t even look at the prices on these things…

I realize that for all of you out there who don’t live in the paradise I call home, a weekly farmers’ market is not an option. Take comfort in the fact that during the summer when you’re enjoying your farmers’ markets, it’s too stifling hot here for them! They stop at the end of spring, so I’ll be looking at alternatives for summer produce buying.

One thing I would suggest to those who don’t have a weekly farmers’ market is to try looking at your local farms. You’d be surprised at what you can find locally very cheap. It can take a little legwork and maybe a couple field trips to check things out, but if you find one you like it’s totally worth it. This is actually on my (endless) list of projects I’d like to get done – I’d like to find a local farm to buy dairy from. Milk is so darn expensive at the store ($3.19 per gallon!), there has got to be a better way!

Another option for produce is a co-op. We have them locally but I don’t participate because it ends up costing more per week than what I spend, and I have the time and inclination to do the work of a weekly farmers’ market trip. But, I know there are a ton of people who just don’t have time for that! So a co-op is a great alternative – you simply pick up your weekly crop and get to enjoy a variety of freshly picked produce. It can also really broaden your horizons with the types of vegetables you eat. It’s a great way to try different vegetables you would never normally buy, because you’ll be getting them at their freshest and best tasting.

So all in all, we came out of our Eat From the Pantry Challenge completely unharmed. I got to experiment with different combinations of food, and although we didn’t always stick closely to the meal plan, I got to flex my creative muscles with making meals from what we had. We actually didn’t eat much differently than normally!

I’ll most likely do another Eat From the Pantry Challenge in May, so stay tuned!

In my last installment, I explained how we converted our monthly expenses to a cash system. Now we’re to the really juicy part of our story – deciding to pay off all our credit cards in 2010!

We have a significant amount of debt that we accumulated in a relatively short time period. We traveled a lot when we first got married and had a lot of fun, ate out all the time, and didn’t pay too much attention to what we were spending. Looking back on that now, I don’t regret it because we had such a wonderful time, but I am just shocked at how willingly we spent more than we made! We certainly were not faithful stewards of what we were given – we were throwing it away without thought.

We have grown significantly in our financial maturity in the past year. It was about one year ago that I started budgeting and couponing, but as I explained here we were still overspending like crazy. Then a few months ago God really impressed upon me the need for us to set a goal and stick to it, to get rid of our debt.

When I approached Andy with this idea, he thought I was crazy. Looking at the numbers, it simply does not work without some divine intervention! But I had faith and slowly he came on board with the idea. And you know what? God has already shown us that He’s helping us through this. I’ll go into more detail about that in a later post, but let’s say we’ve definitely been unexpectedly blessed so far!

So now we have the framework of our plan – living like no one else so we can live like no one else. We are using the envelope system for our cash, we have stopped using credit cards, and have committed to pay off all our credit card debt in 2010.

Next, I’ll go into more detail about the trials we have faced with this new way of life, and later I’ll explain how God has shown He’s there for us and how He has blessed us already!

We went to the farmer’s market again this week and I scored a great deal on bananas and an ok deal on strawberries. I got 3 HUGE bunches of bananas for $3.75 and a quart of strawberries for $2. I spent $0.75 on a red bell pepper and we got out of there for $6.50! We had some left over money from being under budget last month, so we didn’t dip into the week’s grocery budget. Kind of cheating, but I ended up under budget at the store so not so bad!

I went to Publix and picked up milk, coffee (on sale BOGO and I had coupons, so I got 2 lbs of French Vanilla coffee for $3!), flour, and shaving gel for Andy all for about $15.

So in total I went over budget about $1.50 but I didn’t dip into next week’s money (I’m determined not to do that!).

I’ve been so happy there haven’t been many good grocery deals, it’s really hard for me to pass those up!

So far it’s been so easy eating from the pantry that I’m tempted to do it again next month! It doesn’t hurt that last month I was able to freeze half of many of the meals I made, so I have a lot of ready made meals in the freezer. I have even been able to freeze a lot of what I’ve made this month, like last week’s slow cooker chicken tacos. I was able to freeze two more meals just from that!

This week’s meal plan is pretty simple. Andy’s cleansing today, so I’m not making anything special. And he’s not home for dinner much this week, so it’s going to be a pretty low key week for us!

Here’s the meal plan:

Monday: hot dogs

Tuesday: Grilled chicken, risotto, and snap peas

Wednesday: leftovers

Thursday: tacos (using the frozen chicken taco meat mix and I’m going to try making homemade flour tortillas – should be interesting!)

Friday: Spaghetti Lasagna with garlic bread (I used leftover spaghetti from last weekend and layered it with cheese in casserole dishes – we’re having company so it will be an easy meal all the kids will love!)

Saturday: hamburgers and mac and cheese

Sunday: Pesto Pizza (I had planned on making this last week and we ended up having to eat up some leftovers so I postponed it.)

I’ve been reading on various blogs recently about home organization, and I have to tell you that I’m not the most organized person in the world. In fact, I would title my condition “Extremely Disorganized With Good Intentions.” I really want to be organized, I just have not found the right system to do it yet. And believe me, I’ve tried!

Late last year I bought a small calendar, thinking I’d carry it in my purse. It sits on the desk in the office, rarely opened. I also bought a weekly calendar to put on the refrigerator. It’s there, but we don’t use it much. I also received as a gift a weekly menu planner to put on the refrigerator. I am proud to say that I actually use this! It took me a while, but I have a menu planning system down, which is one step in the right direction.

After reading about different home journal options, I am challenging myself to get organized this month. The way I see it, I already have about 2 extra hours every week this month since I’m not spending much time planning our grocery trips. So this time will be devoted to the seemingly impossible: getting our home organized and running like a well oiled machine. Cliché? Probably. Necessary? Absolutely!

Read about home journaling here, here, and here.

Since I made a freezer inventory a few weeks ago, I’m able to decide on meals from the freezer without standing in front of the open freezer and missing things in back. This week we’re definitely eating a lot out of the freezer!

Monday: leftovers

Tuesday: Slow Cooker Chicken Tacos (I’ll be able to freeze half for next week)

Wednesday: Chicken/Broccoli/Cheese casserole from the freezer

Thursday: leftovers

Friday: Pesto Pizza (our basil is huge so I’m excited to use it!)

Saturday: Slow Cooker Turkey with Squished Potatoes

Sunday: leftovers (Saturday’s turkey breast is huge so there will be tons to eat and freeze!)

Since we’re sticking to only buying produce and dairy this month when possible, this weekend’s shopping didn’t require a whole lot of preparation. I sent Andy and Katie to the store with a small list and they did great!

We went slightly over our $20 budget this week, but I planned to because we had a few extra dollars from a few weeks ago and we needed baby stuff.

I did take the girls to the farmers market this weekend and we got some great produce, and even tried Swiss Chard for the first time!

At Publix, we got Mylicon for Emma and vitamins for Katie, along with milk and cheese. Light trip, but we have everything we need!

Well, we have one week under our belts and we’re doing great! We stuck to the meal plan and really enjoyed each meal. If Andy hadn’t known we were doing this challenge he would not have been able to tell, which I deem a success!

I was even able to stretch Saturday’s spaghetti in to two more freezer meals. I combined homemade marinara (from the freezer) with a bag of frozen Italian veggies, a package of mild Italian Sausage and a can of crushed tomatoes with basil (we had used half the marinara on our pizza the night before so we didn’t have quite enough for the spaghetti, hence the crushed tomatoes). I mixed a pound of whole wheat angel hair pasta with all of this and we ate like kings. We had so much left over that I was able to make an odd lasagna – I layered the pasta mixture with cheese in two 8 x 8 baking pans (we had a couple bags of almost empty shredded cheese, so I was able to get rid of those) and stuck them in the freezer. Each of these will give us two dinners easily, since Katie doesn’t eat a whole lot!

I was also able to freeze two portions of the chili and cheese mixture I made for our chili cheese dogs, so we’ve got a couple more easy chili cheese dog nights in our future!

We had a busy weekend and I haven’t had time to sit down and make this week’s meal plan, so I’m doing that today. I do know that today is leftovers for me and Katie, since Andy is going his Cleanse Day today.

Shedd’s Country Crock Deluxe Side Dishes, Mashed Potatoes: Regular, Garlic, or Loaded; Macaroni and Cheese; Cheddar Broccoli Rice or Cinnamon Apples, 21 to 24 oz tub, BOGO $3.59
-$1/1 Sides PRINT
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Pay as little as $0.80 per item!

Quaker Instant Oatmeal, Assorted Varieties, 10.9 to 16.2 oz box, BOGO $3.89
-$1/1 Quaker Instant Oatmeal, Any box – 02-07-10 RP
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-$1/1 True Delights Oatmeal PRINT
-$3/5 Tearpad
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-Free Naked Juice, 15.2 oz bottle wyb Quaker Instant Oatmeal, any 10.9 – 16.2 oz box (Publix store coupon) – Publix Family Style Spring 2010 
Use the $1/1 and pay $0.95 per box and get a FREE Naked Juice using the Publix Coupon!

Quaker Chewy Granola Bars or Oat Granola or True Delights Squares, Assorted Varieties, 5.9 to 8.7 oz box, BOGO $2.99
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Use the $.75/1 and pay $0.75 per box!

Pasta Roni or Rice-A-Roni, Assorted Varieties, 3.8 to 7.2 oz box, BOGO $1.39
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Pay $0.36 per box!

Bertolli Pasta Sauce, Assorted Varieties, 15 or 24 oz jar (Excluding Organic)  BOGO $2.69
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Combine a Publix coupon with a manufacturer coupon to get these for free or really cheap!

Dole Fruit, Fruit in Gel, or Parfait, Assorted Varieties, 4pk, 4 or 4.3 oz cup, BOGO $2.65
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-$.75/2 Dole Fruit Bowls, Gels or Parfaits, Any – All You, February 2010
-$1/2 Dole Fruit Bowls, Gels or Parfaits, Any – Ladies Home Journal, Family Circle July 2009
-$1/2 Dole Fruit Bowls, Gels or Parfaits, Any – Better Homes and Gardens, September 2009
Use the $1/2 coupon to get these for $0.83 per item!

Hormel Compleats Dish or Dinty Moore or Chi-Chi’s Fiesta, Assorted Varieties, 10 oz bowl, BOGO $2.49
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Duke’s Mayonnaise or Whipped Salad Dressing, Assorted Varieties, 32 oz jar, BOGO $3.55
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If you store doubles you can get these for as little as $0.78 per item!

Nabisco Ritz Crackers or Ritz Munchables, Pretzel Crisps, Assorted Varieties, 7.5 to 16 oz box, BOGO $3.09
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Lysol Disinfectant Bathroom Cleaner, Removes Soap Scum: Island Breeze; or Mildew Remover With Bleach, 32 oz bot, BOGO $3.69
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If your store doubles you can get these for $0.85 per bottle!

Totino’s Pizza Rolls, 40 ct, 19.8 oz bag or Pillsbury Savorings Flaky Pastry Bites or Bread Bowl Bites, 7.8 or 8.5 oz box, Assorted Varieties, BOGO $3.79
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Kraft Chunk Cheese or Cracker Cuts, Cubes or Shredded, Assorted Varieties, 4.5 to 8 oz pkg, 3/$5
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Pay as little as $0.66 per pack of shredded cheese!!

Kraft American Cheese Singles, Yellow or White, 12 oz pkg, 2/$4
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Combine coupons to get these super cheap!!!

Birds Eye Steamfresh Frozen Vegetables, Assorted Varieties, Including Steam Trays, 10 to 13 oz pkg, or Corn on the Cob, 4 ct bag, 50% Off
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-$1/4 any Birdeye PRINT
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If your store doubles you can get these super cheap!!!

Tyson Beef Pot Roast in gravy or Steak Tips in Burgundy Sauce, Pork Loin In Sweet & Tangy BBQ Sauce, or Maple & Brown Sugar Glazed Ham, 17 oz pkg, 2/$8
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-$2/1 Tyson Refrigerated Entree, any 17 oz. pkg. (Publix store coupon) – Publix Family Style Spring 2010
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Combine coupons to get everything for $1!

For a complete list of deals, click here. Thanks IHeartPublix!

I posted earlier in the week my menu plan, which included pizza. Since I hate to spend money on something I can easily  make at home, I almost never buy premade pizza dough. My mom has an awesome recipe for pizza dough that motivates me to make pizza at least once per week! We don’t even miss ordering pizza anymore, and I am so happy to be able to give my family something more healthy for less money.

Mom’s Pizza Dough

3 cups bread flour (I periodically substitute whole wheat flour or go half and half)

1 tbs olive oil

1 tsp salt

1 tbs yeast

1 cup warm water

Dissolve yeast in the water and let it sit while you mix the other ingredients. Combine other ingredients (I use my food processor which makes it SO easy) then add the yeast water. Depending on the humidity in the air, you may have to add either a little more water or a little more flour. Mix until it forms a sticky ball, then transfer to an oiled bowl. Let sit for 30 minutes to rise in a warm place.

Roll out, top, bake for 15 minutes in a 400 degree oven, and you have some yummy pizza! Thanks Mom!