Grocery budget update

So a little follow up on my post from the other day about grocery shopping...

My sweet mother was kind enough to stay with my girls at ballet on Tuesday so that I could go shopping.  Have I mentioned lately how much I love her!  What a gift...grocery shopping alone!  Anyways...I went to sams and only spent $42.50...I was hoping to spend less than $50 so this was a success.  Then to HEB....my grocery budget for the first half of the month is $150.  I am not sure if this is a realistic budget for a family of 4 for 15 days, but I can always adjust it if I need to.  So the goal at heb was to spend $100 or less...since I spent less at sams I had some extra cushion at heb.   Or so I thought.  However, many of the items were $0.50-$1.00 more than I expected.  Even though some of the items I did get for cheaper than I expected on sale it didnt quite balance out.  I went over the budget but not by a lot.  My gial was $150... I spent $160.04. 

I think its not bad considering its my first week budgeting groceries.   Also, my budget fot the month is $300 so if I can keep my groceries to $140 for the second half if the month then ivwill still be on budget for the month.   Silver lining!

Dough girl

Tonight I taught mk how to make biscuits.  I remember helping my mom when I was little.  I think its why I love to cook so much now because she let me help and taught me stuff from a pretty young age.  Anyways...I told her what to do and got the ingredients out but she did pretty much everything...and quite well I might add.  I hope I can pass along my love for cooking jyst like my mom did with me!  I am thinking about making her a little cookbook with simple recipes that I can teach her to make and she can do with supervision.

Budget buster

If you know me you probably kniw at least one thing about me: I LOVE to cook...I love to try new recipes...if I can make it from scratch I will and I will be giddy with excitement while doing it!  I love to cook. 

However, thus makes it hard to stay on my grocery budget.   If I am being completely honest, while on paper I have a grocery budget, I have never bothered to see if I am even anywhere close to my where I am supposed to be.  In fact I am pretty sure that grocery shopping is our biggest budget buster (eating out is a close second).  Well, new yeat and Mike and I are trying to be really good about budgeting...budgetingevery dollar.  Zero based budgeting.  Dave Ramsey is probably the biggest proponent of this with his Financial Peace program.  The theory is tgat you spend every dollar on paper before you ever get it in the bank.  Then when you get your check you spend save or whatever how you budgeted and therefore have no extra money, but have a budget to purchase anything you need while covering your expenses. 

Long story not so short (hehe) but I am now working off a grocery budget.  It is a fun challenge.  I am doing meal planning now two weeks at a time and this morning I spent my time meal planning, looking at circulars, dividing up my list between stores, pricing, totalling and making sure ahead of time to make sure that when I walk into the store(s) tonight I will walk out spending only my budgeted amount.  And so far I am right on budget...we will see how it all plays out tonight. 

So what does your grocery budget process look like?  Do you budget or just wing it? Tips? Tricks? Advice?

Dfw trip

Thursday evening we went out to dfw.  Mike had some meetings at the seminary and I had some hsir to do.  And we ALL had sime friends to catch up with! 

Bria got to have a sleepover with Cheyenne...Mk got to have a sleep over with Julianna...overall it was a lot of fun!

If you want to read more about Bria's sleepover you can check it out here

Hope your weekend was great!

Wordless wednesday

Animated

For Christmas the girls got a Dvd system for the car from their grandparents.  They love having it since we go back and forth to Abilene at lwast twice a week.  Recently we bought the girls 'Ducktales' season 1 and 'Darkwing Duck' season 1.  Mary Kate loves it.. so does Brianna but Bria is hilarious!  She has started talking to the dvds...the other day she started screaming "no!!!"...today "hmmmmm"  a host of other times she talks...usually when something intense happens like the vampire potato in Darkwing Duck.  They both wear earphones to watch so when its really intense you'll see her pull out her earphones and clutch her face with both hands its super cute!  Tonight they were holding hands through a 'mummy' episode of ducktales.   Love these two!

Weekends and mondays

So I think I have decided to only blog once over the weekend.  It hwts so crazy anyways and honestly I would rather spend that time with my family. 

Today has been.....monday.  Not a bad day...but nothing particularly interesting either.  Sweetest part of my day was when Bria pulled up her step stool in the kitchen and helped me do the dishes.  She helped put clean stuff away and then she asked me "when will you teach me how to wash dishes momma?"  I taught her!  She made a chore I usually hate into my favorite part of the day! 

Here are some pics...Bria was up about two hours earlier than normal for no reason other than she woke up..so she passed out while we were visiting at the hospital around 11am!   Also theres a pic of our dinner: white bean chicken chili...so yummy! And my view from my kitchen...its what I look out at while doing dishes!  Enjoy!

Week in photos

Here's my week in photos:
We went to our first Ag Show snd Mk now wants to start showing sheep.  Bria got a new soccer ball and we played in a parking lot while mk was at ballet.
A friend in our church brought us a popcorn maker just in time for family night last night.  Yum!
This weekend has been full of yummy food...homemade pizza last night with bacon, venison, and spinach...tonight chicken saltimbocca...tomorrow am making crock pot chicken tacos!
Hope your weekend is going well!

Life's a zoo!

Today I took Bria to zoo preschool at the abilene zoo.  It was a lot of fun.  This month's topic was crawling critters and for some weird reason, Bria loves bugs.   She's like the bug whisperer!  She pet a hissing cockroach and got as close as she could to a tarantula!    She learned about bugs, sang songs about bugs, made a craft about bugs and was given a magnifying glass so shecould look closer at bugs!  She loved it!  Next month they will learn about paws & claws (cats big and small!) And we will have my niece Haylie with us then and my grandparents (bria's great grandparents) will also be here so Bria is looking forward to sharing that with them!  Here are some pics of her at the zoo!

Happy place

Do you have a place or something that makes you happy?  Something you do or some place you go to escape reality for a little while?  For me growing up that was always at the piano bench.  I took lessons from the time I was 6 or so until I was 18.  I loved (and still do) the piano.  It was a safe place...a happy place.  I could go sit doen and lose myself in some Bach or a hymn or "A Whole New World".  At least for that time I wad somewhere else...feeling the music...losing track of timen...even processing emotions about other things in life.  I still find myself runnng to the piano to escape especially when I am mad or sad or frustrated. 

Recently I started teaching piano lessons.  A little girl in our church wanted to learn and so I set up gro yo p lessons with her and Mk.  It has been a lot of fun and rekindled in me my love for the piano!   it has also been reminiscent as I am using my old piano books to teach them!

Ballet blur

Today has been insanely busy...I spent the bettet part of our trip back from Abilene writing out the long version. Of our day only to have blogget dekete 60 percent of it when I published it...on that note...I am going to bed...but here are some pics...
I made bread, brianna found a fishing pole (more proof that you can sell ANYTHING to a 4 year old if barbie is on it), mike tried to change the battery in the vue, we got groceries to last the rest of the month almost, snd ehen ee finally got home we crashed on the couch!  Enjoy

Goober

Mike woke Bria up from her nap today and I heard her walking all over the house looking for me.   I was in the bathroom of course...where all moms are when their kids desperately need them.   When she finally found me she plopped down on the floor across from the toilet and just grinned!  She is such a momma's girl! 

No pic

So I went to blog at the end of this crazy busy day snd realized that I didnt take any pictures!   So now we all suffer with a sad pic of me realizing I took no pics today!  At least the pats won!

Saturday photos

Not much writing tonight...its late.  But here are some pics from our day.  Includes: bria doing my hair, my new coffee mug from one if my best friends, a 50th anniversary party, and some other random pics.