Taking Inventory

Today is Wednesday -- only two days until grocery day! I'm a little nervous because now I feel like I'm accountable to all of you for how good/bad I do on our budget! I'm also very excited. (I could barely get to sleep last night because I was so busy thinking of things for my grocery list, menu planning, and ideas for the blog!)

So, step one to staying on budget is taking inventory. As it turns out, that wasn't very difficult this week. Our cupboards are beginning to look a little bare! Now, that might make me nervous except for the facts that we grow a big garden every summer and put up a lot of produce through canning and freezing. I already know that in the chest freezer that we share with my parents (who live next door and share their stand-alone garage and cellar with us) we have deer meat and more deer meat. There's also shredded summer squash. That's about it right now, but it's a start.

In the cellar, we have canned pumpkin, tomatoes, green beans, and a basket of potatoes. In the storage room above the cellar, I have Smart Taste pasta that I grabbed from Kroger's a few weeks ago for .49 a box! Score! I think there's a couple boxes of rotini, a box of spaghetti, and a package of whole wheat yolk-free egg noodles. Obviously some pasta dishes are going on the menu list!

Just from that little bit of inventory (we haven't even gotten to inside my house yet) I already have two family-favorite meals going through my head. I make a squash casserole with squash, stuffing mix, cream soups, and a bit of other stuff that escapes me. It ends up tasting kind of like a pot pie and it's wonderful. My husband loves it and it's very cheap to make. It can be a side dish or you can add some shredded chicken and it's a meal. (If anyone wants the recipe, I will post it when I look it up later today or tomorrow.)

The other meal going through my head is venison stroganoff. I already have the deer meat and egg noodles. The only things I'm lacking are a jar of beef gravy and a small tub of sour cream. That will be a cheap meal and we all love it -- Kylie included! Throw a jar of green beans on the table with it, some bread, and you're set!

Next, it's time to take inventory inside the house. As I said, this didn't take long. I even took pictures!

As you can see from the picture, I have several boxes of Hamburger Helper that I got on sale months ago. I think I got them for around .50 per box after I used coupons. When I catch stuff that cheap, I stock up. I try not to feed us convenience food too often, but on those days that Kylie is being a terror or we're on the run, you can't beat it! I also add so much stuff to my Hamburger Helper that it barely resembles the original product!

I have Potatoes Stroganoff, Ranch Burger, Philly Cheesesteak, Double Cheesy Quesadilla, and Four Cheese Lasagna. I also have two boxes of macaroni and cheese that I wasn't too crazy about, so we'll save those for making my mom's macaroni salad, which calls for a package of macaroni and cheese made according to directions. Hopefully we'll get a pretty day to fire up the grill in the next two weeks!

Next comes my freezer, which is also pretty bare.

It's a little bit of a mess, so you can't really tell what you're looking at, I know. We have one package of pork loin chops, several packages of deer meat, a few chicken breast tenders (for nights that we have meals Kylie can't eat -- such as super spicy mexican), my last two precious packages of our garden green peppers, and enough weiners for two meals at least (we buy in bulk and freeze batches). Other than Skinny Cow ice cream sandwiches, which I bought at Sam's much cheaper than at grocery stores, and frozen chicken stock, that's about it. (I made the chicken stock a month or so ago from the bones and skin of chicken breasts which we got for .99/lb. My husband processed them into boneless skinless breasts for us, we froze them, and I threw all the "leftovers" into the crock pot with a little water and made chicken stock! I froze the stock in ice cube trays for a later use.

That pretty much takes care of my inventory. I usually have more on hand, but it's almost garden season again, so we're out of green peppers and almost out of potatoes. We usually have more meat, but my husband opted to spend most of his time last hunting season with our daughter, so we didn't get any turkey this year! (It was a wonderful trade, though, I think! I'll give up wild turkey any day to see Jas and Ky wrestling in the floor or having a tea party!)

My final inventory list looks like this:

Deer Meat (plenty)

Pork chops x 1

Green peppers x 2

Hamburger Helper (HH) Potatoes Stroganoff

HH Ranch Burger

HH Philly Cheesesteak

HH Double Cheesy Quesadilla

HH Four Cheese Lasagna

Mac n cheese x 2

Can corn x 1

Cans mushrooms x ? (at least 2 and possibly some more in the cellar)

Now that I've taken inventory of what we have, it's on to the sales papers to see what great deals they might have! I'll post more on that later!

My New Grocery Goal

Okay, I told you all that we spend $180 every two weeks on groceries, but in the past few weeks we've been having to stop for this or that a couple times. This is, undoubtedly, my fault. Why? I'm the one that makes the grocery list. If I go with a rockin' grocery list, we don't need to make trips back except for bread and milk -- which you pretty well have to buy weekly so they'll be fresh. If I go with an okay list, I'll be texting my husband every other day to tell him yet one more thing he needs to stop at the store and get.

My goal? I want to make one of those rockin' grocery store lists that I know I'm capable of making! Friday is payday, and therefore grocery day. I'm starting on my list tonight and will have it finished by Thursday night so I can send it with my husband Friday. (He'll stop at the store on his way home that night. Actually being in the grocery store is far too stressful for me. All the decisions overwhelm me and if it's crowded, I'm done for! When I get overly stressed, even the budget leaves my mind. It's way better for us if I make the list and do the couponing and he does the actual shopping! He's a lot quicker at it, as well!)

I found this blog while searching for a juicer online (don't ask me how) and this exactly expresses how I view grocery shopping and what you have to do if you're going to stick to your budget -- especially a tight budget. I couldn't have written it better myself!

Grocery Budgeting Decisions via The Simple Dollar

Trading Luxuries

Welcome to my blog! My name is Cassie. I'm 29 (and holding) and have been married nearly eight years to my husband, Jason. We have an 18 month old daughter who is very strong-willed, independant, picky, and the light of our lives! Her name is Kylie although she pronounces it "Dy-ee." Our first baby was furry -- of course, he's also adopted! Rascal Lee is an almost-eight-year-old border collie/beagle mix. He's overweight, very loving, and kind of jealous of the baby. Members of our family call him "PeeWee" or "Puppy" -- except Kylie, who calls him "Oof oof."

I never really had any doubts that once I had a child I would be a stay at home mom. Despite that, I went to college and obtained a B.A. in Professional Writing & Editing and a B.A. in Literature. I've always written -- everything from poetry, fiction, nonfiction, children's literature, newspaper articles, to blogs. I hope to still be writing when I'm old and gray, although by then I probably won't have to pick up a pen or touch a keyboard to put my thoughts on paper. I know that's possible right now through software that translates your spoken words to type on the computer, but did you miss that I'm a stay at home mom?

Given the current economy, it's hard to live as a one-income family. It isn't always fun and it's never glamorous, but it's worth it to know that I'm the one caring for and teaching my daughter. Not everyone is cut out for it, as a working friend of mine will tell you, but not everyone is cut out to be a working mom. The mornings that one of us have a doctor's appointment of some sort and I have to get myself and a cranky toddler ready and out the door, I am reminded that I am certainly not working mom material. I would live with a perpetual migraine, I'm certain.

We make sacrifices to afford the luxury of me staying home. In other words, we trade one luxury for some others. That's what making a living is all about, isn't it? Trading luxuries you can do without for ones you can't? It comes down to things as simple as: What do I want more? The luxury of having my husband stay home on his scheduled days off or the luxury of a little extra money he'd bring in if he worked one day of overtime? It's all about trading.

So, I've told you what the luxury that I can not live without is: staying home. So, what luxuries have I traded for this? Plenty!

We're careful with our money. We don't run out and purchase anything on a whim and we probably never will. Our home is kind of old, but sturdy. It's not the latest and greatest, but it's comfortable and gives us what it's supposed to give: shelter.

We're still driving the same vehicles that we were the day we were married: a 2001 Kia Rio and a 2002 Toyota Tacoma. They don't have any bells and whistles unless you count my car having air-conditioning. We don't have CD players in them. Heck, we don't even have power windows or power locks, but they get us from point A to point B and that's really all we need.

Most of our clothes come from yard/garage sales, consignment shops, or sale racks. We don't buy new clothes often. Thank the Lord for family that loves my little girl and finds awesome clothes for her from sale racks, yard sales, and Craig's List. I literally don't know what we'd do without them. I guess we'd make it, but her clothes wouldn't be nearly as adorable as they are now! (They also got most of her toys for her!)

I've given up the luxury of going to the grocery store without a list and buying whatever struck my fancy for the next week's meals and knowing that if I needed something else, I could stop again later. Now, I shop every two weeks and we're on a budget: $180 for that one shopping trip, less if we can. That includes diapers, wipes, diaper creams, as well as food, cleaning supplies, etc. It's a tight budget, but it's workable. I purchase two Sunday papers every week and clip coupons. Even my couponing has gotten cheaper as of late!

I used to have a coupon file like you buy at the store with the little folders and an elastic band around it. Well, when you clip as many coupons as I do -- not to mention the ones I print and send off for -- those just aren't big enough. My current coupon file is an old diaper wipe box with envelopes to hold the different categories of coupons. It may not be beautiful, but I don't coupon to be beautiful. I do it to stay home with my daughter.

We have pre-paid cell phones because we know that, as tight as our budget is, if Jason couldn't work for some reason, we would have to cancel our phones. With a contract, that means paying a huge fee. Without a contract, that's one less stress in what would be a very stressful period of our lives.

We have used hand-me-down furniture for years. In eight years, we've bought a mattress and box spring because my 6'2" tall husband was having a bit of trouble sleeping comfortably with his feet hanging out over the mattress. He slept like that for about two years, though! We finally bought a couch and recliner last year with our tax refund. Trust me, it wasn't the luxury version, either. I think the salesman was a bit snippy because his commission wasn't going to be very big, but that's okay too! Our one big splurge was buying a flat screen TV a couple months ago, and it's a splurge that I think 90% of people out there would make considering we'd been watching a television that had a picture so dark that you couldn't see anything but movement in night scenes -- and that was with the brightness turned all the way up!

Now, I'm not writing this for anyone to feel sorry for me. Heck, no! I don't feel sorry for me. I am blessed beyond belief. I get to be here when my little girl gets up in the morning and yells for "mama!" I get to pick her up out of her crib, carry her in the living room, and snuggle her until she gets awake enough to want down. I get to fix her meals for her so I don't have to worry about what's being offered to her. I know what she's being given to eat because I'm the one giving it to her. (That doesn't necessarily mean she'll eat it, but at least I know what she's turning away!) I get to take her outside on pretty days and have her present me with flowers that she picks. They never have stems, but they're more precious than a dozen roses in a crystal vase! I get to read her books every day before her nap and before bedtime. I get to be home with my precious daughter, and that luxury far outweighs all the luxuries we've given up, combined.

My goal with this blog is to help anyone reading it who wants to do the same types of things -- be a stay at home parent, tighten their budget, coupon, or just get better deals at the grocery stores! I'll pass on deals, coupons, and freebies to you as I find out about them. I'll give you ideas that work for me and pray that they will work for you too. Maybe you can help me out with ideas, too!