I feel that sometimes they go hand in hand. I love when my kids are out of school for snow days, and summer vacation. This winter has been hard on the missed time at school. The kids have 6 snow days to make up. They had five built into the calendar, meaning that there was 11 total snow days.
My Mary is in 11th grade, and Kevin (my autisitc kid) is in 9th grade. HE LOVES LOVES snow days and summer vacation. He is a good kid and prides himself on being the "good kid" at school. The kids get to ride to school Tues-Fri from me, it's our little guilty pleasure. Monday, they ride the bus, and they always ride the bus home.
Snow days over winter are hard. Kevin doesn't want to play outside (Sensory issues), but he loves to look at the snow in the windows. He is a sting bean, weighs maybe 100 pounds. He will eat what ever is in the house. He's such a good kid, but he has a hollow leg. BTW, he ate half of the cheese pizza last night, and left his sisters maybe two slices each. He will always look for something to eat.
Mary is a good kid. She's kind, gentle, and loves animals. She does well in school and seems to enjoy working and being around other kids her age. She is a good eater, and we are working on including more veggies into her diet. (She's kind of picky). She loves to cook in the kitchen. Last year for Christmas we bought her a toaster oven, her own measuring cups, spoons, and even baking pans. She was so happy.
The snow days are killing my pantry. Enough said....
The bank account is not empty. It's a surprise. I get paid tomorrow. I'm thinking that since the kids are in school today, I will head out to Aldi. I may take my oldest kid with me. She likes to feel like "one of the adults". She is kind of funny when she says, "Oh Mom, what time do the children get home from school". It cracks me up, she's only been out of high school a year.
Groceries are a priority today. I need some fresh produce. I am down to one tomato, one apple, one orange, and a tiny bit of lettuce. We need replenishing on those things. I like to pick up some more carrots (we eat them a lot), celery (we use it alot also). We are out of bread. I was making my own, but the kids were not fond of it. It was used to make breadcrumbs, after my husband and I would make toast and sandwiches for us. We are in need of milk also. We need to be replenished with HBA. I am almost out of shampoo (less than 1/4 in the bottle), the kids need deodorant (they told me last night), and the girls are in need of their feminine products (I am THANKFUL I am passed this part of my life, due to surgical menopause).
Since I am waiting for my husband to get up, and the kids are on a two hour delay, I have enough time to finish getting a grocery list together. 300 dollars a month is all I have budgeted. I'm hoping to come in to maybe 100-150 and not more.
Debbie
ReplyDeleteSome thoughts:
-do you have a Dollar Tree nearby? (or another dollar store) I buy Vo5/White Rain/salon selectives shampoos there. Also great source for wax paper, fzn berries, Sun brand D/W deteregent, dish soap (LA Awesome-not the other stuff), "brillo" pads, Scotties tissues (I usually add a face value coupon on top), and random grocery items, having recently scored 16 oz bottles of Kraft ranch dressing + adding $1/2 bottles coupons so 50 cents out the door. Our Aldi's is phasing out a lot of their private label HBA and cleaning items as well as some grocery items. Dislike as it means a higher cost to the customer.
Do you have a Price Rite? While I scored 2, 5 lb bags of carrots @ $2.50, thinking, WOW! great deal!" they are now on sale @ $1.99 this week.
-At home bread making. Are you using a ABM? I have tweaked this over time, and now use it for mixing and first rising of the dough, then transfering the dough to a standard baking pan and letting it rise again before baking it off in the oven. Makes a traditional sized/shaped loaf this way. Also, if the kids won't eat it, would you and DH still consume it? Even if 1/2 is homemade, it's got to lead to some $ savings. Bread (even the junky white fluff) has skyrocketed in price. Can you make your own rolls? pizza dough?
-Produce is ridiculously high this time of year, in New England. I turn to canned/frozen alternatives, and what fresh I do buy is the usual cheapo stuff: cabbage, carrots, potatoes, onions, celery, bananas, apples.
HTH
We do have a dollar tree in town. We use VO5 and I used to be able to find it at CVS for 80 cents. But that was in February, and I haven't been back. I do have to go today to pick up my daughter's prescriptions. We don't have a dishwasher, so we wash by hand (it's one of the kids chores when they get home and we have dinner).
DeleteWe don't have a Price Rite. We have Martin's (a upper priced, higher income store) that doubles coupons. I went through their online circular and found that their AIM toothpaste was only 88 cents (we use aim). We will stop in for just the tooth paste. It's on the way to Aldi.
I do have an ABM. I use it to mix a lot of ingredients (I have no mixer, and hate to touch the dough. YUCK!!). We do make our own pizza dough (I have found a nice recipe in my cookbook that we enjoy). I have made bread in the past, When it's baked in the ABM, my kids don't eat much of it. My husband does, and I do. I haven't tried to let it rise and transfer it to a bread loaf pan to bake in the oven.
The cheaper produce is what we buy. We eat a good portion of it on a regular basis. There's nothing wrong with basic produce. My kids have grown up on it, I did as a kid, and so has my husband.
I love fruit. I love berries. I have a blackberry bush, two blue berry bushes, and a raised bed of strawberries that are in my back yard. They will start growing again when the winter is warmer. It's my hobby. We also have a kiwi bush that has never produced. It really just sits there and looks beautiful, just to annoy my husband when he's out in the yard with me.
We also tend to grow some tomatoes, cucumbers, and one year, we tried watermelon. We ended up with two watermelons. One regular size, and it's mutant baby brother. It's really just a hobby for me.
Your kids sound great! :)
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