Holidays

One more day of work before Christmas: Christmas Eve I work all day long. I'm not super excited about this, but a job is a job, and I'm glad we're paying off debt. The great thing is that Hobby Lobby closes at 5:30. The bad thing is that we are hanging signs and closing with the manager who doesn't seem to want to leave the store. Maybe it'll be different on Christmas Eve.

Today I have folded two shirts and washed 3/4 of the dishes (the others had to soak). I have watched 3 or 4 episodes of "Lie to Me" and will probably watch more while I finish folding things. I have baked what I need to, but dinner tonight is on our new George Foreman. WAY better since it's bigger and doesn't have the non-stick coating scraped off it.

I am toying with a New Year's resolution. Watching "Julie and Julia" makes me want to try new recipes. I'm not sure I want to "Master the Art of French Cooking," but I might try a modern-day cook that I love, like Rachael Ray. I think it would be good for me to expand my cooking horizons, and might inspire me to try some new techniques. I'm too young to be stuck in a rut just yet, and she seems to be yummy, creative, and pretty healthy. Also, I could probably get away with using her online recipes for free! I don't have any of her cookbooks, but she has plenty online. Maybe in between now and New Year's I'll look into the possibility. I could try one new recipe every day, and post a picture of what I make.

overly-blessed

Why do I ever worry about what we are going to eat? Isn't that something Jesus tells us NOT to do, because He's got us taken care of?

Well he definitely does.

Saturday was the Hobby Lobby Christmas party, and there was a lot of Turkey left over. So I took a plateful to make a casserole. The other ingredients in the casserole are already in the kitchen. Check off a couple of meals already.

I took some chicken out of the freezer, and then we didn't end up eating it the other day (we got Burger King instead, which comes from a different spending category) and now it is marinating in the fridge. Thanks to my wonderful mom, I now have a new, bigger George Foreman grill, so I can also make grilled chicken for a meal sometime.

My family came over for Christmas last night since they're leaving for North Carolina to be with my grandparents on Christmas day. I bought a ham from Aldi for us to eat, and we have a TON of leftovers. Not only does Alex want them in his lunch for his sandwich, but I'm using the bone and meat in the crock pot with some beans today for another meal.

So to wrap it up, the only things that I probably need to go grocery shopping for this week are apples and coffee, and only maybe coffee. The others are not necessary because we already have so much food! I'm not even sure we're going to eat it all, because some of the meals at the end of the week are at my in-laws house!

So I may not go for a "full" trip until next year. We really have enough leftovers to last us a couple of weeks!

Why do I worry? God's got me taken care of again and again and again.

and the budgeting continues

You know what I enjoy?Washing breakfast dishes after having all the dishes washed from the night before. There are hardly any, and it takes maybe five minutes to complete. I just finished and I feel happy about it. I might even wash the coffee pot today after my one person lunch dishes.

So there are five weeks in December. I know that every month does not have exactly four weeks, but since being married it has ended up being pretty easy to do the "four weeks per month"grocery shopping.

Well, it's finally caught up. My budget is $400/month, and I know that should be pretty easy to do. But I plan on being able to spend about $100 a week, so that's how I've been shopping. This week I spent a little more because I included buying a pair of work pants for Alex. If I need to I can put that money into the "spending" account.

Anyways, I keep an excel spreadsheet of all our spending on a monthly basis. I put in the amount and realized "This is how much I have left, and it's only the amount for one week, but there are still two weeks left in December!"

Thus begins the search for super cheap meal plans for the next couple of weeks. I shop for the week ahead of time, so this is for the weeks of Christmas and New Years. Thankfully there are the Holidays in these weeks, so some of our meals will be with family. I will be contributing, but I will not be planning the whole meal. I still have to decide what I'm bringing to Christmas breakfast and lunch with my in-laws....

I am finding some interesting ideas! Some I will probably never do because they include things I don't really want to eat or ever care to try, but some have great ideas. This week I'm already using some leftover whole wheat spaghetti to make a casserole-it's a kickback to the "spaghetti blanco" I made in home ec in 7th grade. Alex should like it because it has sausage in it.

One last story. I thought I might be snowed in on Monday, and I REALLY needed to go grocery shopping. Just in case I didn't, I made a "lots of" bean and no meat chili. Here is the recipe.

My husband informed me before we got married that he does not like chili. This was my first attempt, and I was a little nervous because there wasn't any meat in it. I didn't include meat because the only meat left in the house was one tiny leftover hamburger.

He like it! He actually got a second bowl of it! I did put cheese on top, and brought out the oyster crackers, but he actually liked it! Easy, cheap, pretty healthy, and enjoyable. I felt proud.

There will be more meals like this in the future.