It's a fun word to say and keeps the kids busy

We are in our final days of summer for the Bacon kids.  School starts back up next week. I'm not sure what Bacon Bit will think of the empty and quiet house. I'm pretty sure he'll miss his playmates.  But since this is the last week before school starts, I think the kids have kicked up the 'I'm bored' a lot more.  It was time for a fun science experiment.  Thankfully it requires very little to wow the kids and it kept them busy for quite a while!  Digging though the pantry I found a box of cornstarch. I never really used this stuff in baking but for some reason there sat a box in my pantry.  Having remembered a recipe from when the kids were in  ECFE I decided to show them the fun of Ooblek. What you say? Surly you've heard of ooblek? No. Well learn along with us. The kids were just fascinated by the name of this stuff, but I told the to wait until they saw what it does!

First you need to start off with equal cornstarch and water.  And a big bowl to mix it up in.  Now if you want to make fun colors I suggest putting a drop of two of food coloring into the water before mixing.  Pour both water and cornstarch in the bowl and start mixing.  The goal is to mix it until it runs off the spoon easy. Clumpy like the green stuff here needs a little more water. Add small amounts until you get a runny consistency like the pink stuff below.

Now the fun part, go ahead, knock on it. Cool hun? It's hard.

Now rest your fingers just on the top of it and watch them magically sink in.

The kids were in awe!  They had a lot of fun. Bacon Jr. had fun getting it to stick to his hand and picking up the bowl.

Little Miss Bacon had fun watching it drip off her fingers.

Even Bacon bit had a bowl to play in. It was a great activity to do on one of those 'I'm bored' days.  Or rainy days or days you just want to be the cool mom!

And you can add a lid and save it for fun the next day too! I did find that it only lasts a few days though before it starts to smell and go bad but the kids can have fun while it lasts!

Planning, planning, planning- success once again (and still no dog food!)

I am honestly in shock, jaw dropping shock at the amount of people who viewed and shared my dog food post about how we meal plan and grocery shop.  It has inspired me to post once again about our every other week shopping trip. Yesterday was shopping day.  Honestly I'm impressed by how well we did since it has been 3 weeks since a big shopping trip. I did manage to sneak in a gallon of milk and some bananas while picking up cold medicine last week but that was it!  Yes our house had been plagued with some virus that has overstayed it's unwelcomed visit.  Of course it would happen to be me that it decided it like the best and has been with me for over a week.  Thankfully it's leaving!  And since I was feeling better this past weekend Mr. Bacon and I sat down with a cup of joe and discussed our meal plan.

This time the kids didn't want to stick around to discuss our upcoming meal plan, I guess there was some big construction of lego garages in process in the basement!  But before they headed to put on hard hats, we asked what meals they would like in the next two weeks.  What did our charming kids request?  You might be surprised to see for once tacos didn't make our meal plan list!  However the other usual requests that made their way were pizza, pancakes, and spaghetti.  I'm ok with that!

So what is our meal plan for the next two weeks?
Here is the dinner meal plan.  This went from Sunday October  16th- October 29th (yes we didn't grocery shop until Tuesday!)

 

Week 1:
*homemade pizza & garlic bread
*Muffin tin meals (a kid favorite on busy nights! Mr. Bacon, Bacon Bit and I had left over Chicken cordon blue that Mr. Bacon made the other night while I worked)
*Chicken and noodles, peas
*Nancy's Meatloaf, Baked potatoes, squash and corn
*Slow cooker country pork chops (pork, potatoes, and carrots)
*Lasagna, Salad, biscuits
*Chicken and Broccoli Alfredo, bread sticks

Week 2:
*Veggie beef soup and sandwiches
*Beef Stroganoff over Mashed potatoes, Mixed Veggies
*Chicken supreme and Normandy blend veggies
*Baked potato bar, Soup (leftover)
*Pancakes & Fresh fruit
*Ham and Hash brown bake, Green beans
*Spaghetti, Salad, & Garlic bread

Breakfasts standards:
muffins, eggs, pancakes, waffles, cereal, breakfast breads, toast

Lunches standards:
Leftovers, sandwiches, tuna, soup, hot dogs, homemade pizza

Snacks that I have planned:
Muffins, animal crackers (still working on that big tub we bought from Sam's Club!), homemade cookies, homemade granola bars, pudding, homemade yogurt, yogurt or pudding pops, fruit,

Sounds pretty good right?  Not too hard at all.  Like normal breakfast, lunch and snacks around here are pretty laid back.  It's more the dinner meals that I need to actually plan out.  So now that we have the food planned, it was time to make my handy list. I NEVER go shopping with out one! It would be way too dangerous if I did. Now since my last post Mr. Bacon and I have decided to increase our every two week grocery budget by $10.  That means we can spend up to $90 every 2 weeks on our everyday grocery needs.  Remember we set out $40 a month for food from Sam's Club (and shop there every 3 months, so we spend about $120). This pretty much buys our meat, pizza supplies, and frozen veggies.  So our monthly total for groceries for the 6 of us is now $220.

On to the shopping trip!

Ma Bacon's Shopping list with prices included:
Onion powder- $.50
seasoning salt-$1.68
egg noodles -$1.68
cream of chicken soup x 5-$5
cream of mushroom soup -$1
bacon -$3.98
sour cream-$1.50
shredded hash browns-$1.97
shredded cheese $4.64
spaghetti sauce-$1.33
hot dogs-$ .88
chicken deli lunch meat about 1# $5.10
1 dozen eggs-$1.68
2 packs margarine-$1.84
potatoes 10# $3.28
2# carrots-$1.12
onion x1-$.91
celery $1.28
apples- $3.68
2# bananas $1
grapes 2.5#- $4.20
lettuce-$1.38
squash -$3.83
milk x 2 gallons $5.34
2 loafs bread $3
1 box cereal- $2.32
2 frozen apple juice-$1.84
1 box pudding mix -$1.08
corned beef x2- $1.56
provolone sliced cheese-$3.38
almond milk $2.99
Creamer $1.99
total on list:  $76.96!



what we bought that was not on the list:
Mandarin oranges $1.66
Mini recess pieces (for granola bars) $1.88
pail of vanilla ice cream $5.98 (we are having a party for Little Miss Bacon's 6th birthday soon!)
hot dog buns $1.25

Grand Total for 2 weeks Groceries $87.73

Everything else we had in the house already for making the rest of our meals. Remember we picked up Ground beef, chicken breasts, and pork chops from Sam's Club.  And the ham for the hash brown bake I found left over from Easter yet!  Thank goodness I used my food saver, it looks as good as the day I packaged it!  I love shopping my pantry and freezer first! It saves us so much money and that food we bought actually gets used before it expires.

That wasn't a bad shopping trip. Especially since we lasted three weeks since our last one.  I think having everyone in the house sick for a week helped our budget. No one felt like eating much, but I'd rather buy groceries than have everyone sick!  I'm actually having fun doing the grocery shopping/ meal planning posts. I have a feeling they will continue more often in my future!  I will be posting some recipes from a few of the meals on the menu plan too so please check back for those!

Noodle saves the day!

 Not just any noodle, a pool noodle!  Well it might not have saved the whole day, but it does save some little fingers from getting pinched.  Bacon Bit is crawling everywhere, he even learned how to climb steps the other day and now we're in trouble.  He's gone in the blink of an eye and his favorite thing to play with right now is doors.  I've been baby proofing everywhere, and needed to find a solution to his love with doors. The noodle came to the rescue.  I had a noodle the kids weren't playing with out in the garage and I decided to give it a shot.  It works awesome!  I cut  about a 5 inch section from the noodle.  Then I cut a slit along the side to the middle.  Insert it over the door and we have saved fingers!  I did place this on the hinge side of the door, that way the door won't close as far, but you can put it on either side. 

Oh and for those of you who don't have kids, don't pass up that pool noodle just yet!  Do you hate when your doors slam shut from the breeze? The cool weather here in central MN has us keeping our windows open more often.  But I was always trying to find things heavy enough to put in front of the doors to keep them open.  And can you guess what would happen when I did find something? Yes the kids would decide they wanted to play with it!  These are a perfect solution to keep the doors from slamming shut in your house. So watch for those pool noodles to go on the end of the season sale. Or scour the garage and see if you have one out there.  Now sit back and enjoy that breeze!

No, we don't eat dog food around here.

Not too long ago I was discussing how we budget for grocery money with a few people.  They were shocked to hear that we only spend $200 a month on our groceries.  I happily explained that we have budgeted for spending $80 every two weeks on normal groceries and we set aside $40 a month for Sam's Club, which we make a trip to about every three months to stock up.  Their reply "well you must be buying dog food or something because that would never work in MY house, and we only feed 4 people."


Well we sure do not eat dog food around here, that stuff is expensive!  I could buy a lot of groceries with that money, and I do!  Now I know not everyone is able to make a meal every night, some have busier schedules than others.  Some prefer to eat out more often, some don't know how to cook, or are trapped in the ease convenience foods offer.  Some also live in a higher cost of living area than where we do.  There are lots of things that factor into a grocery budget.  Believe me, I didn't get here over night- we used to be all those people!  But I have been asked several times for a walk though of how we do it.  So here it goes.  I'm going to take you along with me on our two week meal planning journey!  Are you excited yet? I am!  I have to say this post is going to be a bit challenging for me, and it might get long, you have been warned!  But you will see just how we make it all work.  And I promise, no dog food!  But there will be some yummy dinner pictures!

Where it all starts.  We have decided that every two weeks we do our meal planning and grocery shopping. I buy and plan for enough to get us until the end of two weeks and then we start it all over again, rinse and repeat, you get the picture.  First it starts by sitting down with Mr. Bacon and the kids.  This is usually done around a big breakfast on the weekend (normally a Saturday unless we are busy).  After breakfast we talk about what we'd like for meals the next two weeks. Yes completely as a family!  The kids get to pick out one meal each that they would like to have.  This helps get them involved. They also get to help make that dinner the night we are having it.  

my crazy insane way to organize it all, yes I'm a list person!

Here is what we came up with for the two weeks (this was from Aug. 12-27th). These are in no particular order. We do check out the calender and see if we need to make adjustments for anything that is scheduled, like when one of us works.  I also check out the weather! Yes I do.  Why? Right now it's grilling season and I want to make sure if I'm planning to grill out, it won't rain on my parade!

Here is our dinner meal plan.

Spaghetti, garlic cheese bread, salad
Grilled chicken, wild rice, sauteed mushrooms, peas & carrots on grill, garlic toast
Grilled steak & shrimp, grilled taters, corn on the cob We ended up having fresh grilled fresh veggies from the garden!
crunchy fish, homemade fries, veggie
Tinfoil meal (burger, taters, carrots grilled)
Beef stir fry over rice
Grilled hamburgers, beans and fruit
Italian diced chicken, bread sticks, salad
tacos and fruit
meatloaf (Nancy's!) taters, veggie
chicken wraps & fruit
Breakfast for dinner
homemade pizza
Curly chicken and peas

Yes I really DO know what is in there!

Now that we have that figured out.  Time to make my grocery list. I start by scouring the pantry to see what we already have.  I always say shop at home first when making your meal plan. You already have the food, you better eat it up!  Then it's on to searching the fridge and freezer too.  What ever I don't have for a recipe goes on the grocery list.  For example we have tacos on our menu.  I was out of shells, so they went on the list.  We are lucky this summer to have a very good garden that is producing quite well.  I know not every has room for a garden but if you do, for a little work you get a lot in return! 



Want to know what my shopping list looks like for this trip?  I have included the prices for each food I bought as well. I know these costs differ depending on where you live.  We are in central Minnesota and thankfully the prices are not super high here yet. 

Ma Bacon's shopping list:
Wheat Germ $3.50
Liquid smoke  $.98
Carrots  $1.48
mushrooms $3.18
1 Lemon $.48
1 Red pepper $1.64
Lettuce $1
taco shells $.38 x4 (I bought 4 boxes! They were priced $1.38 and had a $1/1 coupon on them!)
tortillas $2.08
bacon $3.48
fresh fruit
-bananas $1.12 for 2lbs
-apples  $3.97/4 lb bag
-pineapple $2.10
-strawberries 1.48x2
chicken lunch meat $5.91 for just over 1 lb from deli
hamburger & hot dog buns $1.25 each
coffee creamer $2.38
1lb margarine .92
bread $1.50/loaf x2
cool whip $2.88
provolone cheese slices $3.38
cheese $4.28 1lb block of co-jack
summer sausage $4.98
Oregano $1.98
Milk x3 gallons $3.26 ea
dozen eggs x2 $1.48 ea
frozen juice concentrate x3 $.92 ea
_______________________
While these were on my list, they do not count to our $200 for groceries. That money is for food only.  We do budget $60 a month to spend on 'other' items such as these.  Most months we do not spend the whole $60.
Toilet paper
paper towels for garage
Tylenol for my teething Bacon Bit

things I picked up that were not on my list
Taco sauce $1.77
BIG can mandarin oranges (Miss Bacon's favorite) $1.66
 2 loafs discount french bread $1.04 each

That's it!  The rest we had at the house already!  Most of what I bought we will eat up within the two weeks, a few are pantry items that we were out of like wheat germ and liquid smoke. Each shopping trip I seem to have something that needs to be restocked in the pantry, but at least I'm not replacing everything all at once! 

So my total for my entire shopping trip to buy food for two weeks = $82.71!  I'm over by $2.71, I guess I should have put back that cool whip, but it's so yummy on my coffee drinks and the kids like it as a treat on their ice cream, and it was delicious on those waffles we had for dinner the other night!  But it wasn't something we needed.  In the end. I don't think we did too bad considering how the prices of everything has gone up.  Has anyone else noticed this too? It seems almost everything we bought we had to pay about .20 more for.  Honestly Mr. Bacon and I have been thinking of increasing our food budget by $20 because of that. Right now we are trying to keep it at that $200 level as much as we can.

Now we also buy food from Sam's club like I mentioned earlier.  We budget out $40 a month from the $200 and keep it separate.  Then about every three months we stock up on things like meat and frozen veggies.  This is the cheapest way for us to buy meat we found.  We used to search the sale ad's and shop several different stores to get what is on sale, but since moving a few years ago we don't have access to all those stores without a long drive.  This is easier and cheaper for us. So here is what our trip there looks like with costs.

Sam's Club List:
25# flour-8.96
2- 6# bag frozen chicken breasts 12.98
3# pepperoni 8.18
3 cheese blend (for pizzas) $14.24
10# 93% lean ground beef  $27.73
Round steaks $12.58 (can't remember how many pounds this was, but it's enough for 2 meals)
4# apples 6.48
animal crackers 6.68
container of taco seasoning $3.98
3# bananas $1.48
Giant can ketchup $3.28
6 pack black olives $6.78
Total $137.31

Yes I know, I'm over by $17.31.  It's not always perfect and thankfully I had extra left over from a few weeks back in the grocery budget.  When I have extra left over in my grocery budget and there are no good sales to stock up on, many times I move the extra to the Sam's club folder.  That way we are covered when this happens.  Also I was shocked once again on the rise in prices.  Flour went up $2, pepperoni almost $3 since the last time we shopped.  I still don't think we did too bad to get though the next three months.  We do still have a few things in the freezer like pork loin, and a few roasts that help to get through too. 

Now that we are fully stocked for two weeks, I can relax and not have to worry about last minute items I forgot to buy and running to the store for one thing and coming home with three bags of things we didn't need and fifty less dollars in my pocket!! 

So are you curious about what else we eat besides dinner? I assure you we have 3 meals a day and even a few snacks added in there, no one goes hungry around here.  All the items I needed to make the rest of what we eat I had on hand. 

Breakfasts are pretty laid back here:
Waffles- usually I make them ahead and freeze them so we just pop them in the toaster
pancakes
scrambled eggs (with ham I found in freezer & cheese)
cereal
oatmeal
toast
homemade muffins
Amish friendship bread (I have tons of these loafs in the freezer, a month ago I did a double batch which made 16 loafs of bread!!)

Lunches around here look much like this:
PB & J
tuna salad
hot dogs
lunch meat sandwiches
cheese quesadillas
homemade pizza (of some form)
waffles or pancakes
BBQ sandwiches
Homemade lunchables
leftovers from dinner
All lunch is served with some type of fruit or veggie  and usually homemade yogurt.

Snacks:
Animal crackers
muffins
fruit/veggies
homemade pudding
homemade popsicles
circle crackers (like ritz) with peanut butter
homemade cookies, or bars (I usually make a batch a week or every other week)
air popped popcorn
homemade granola bars
homemade yogurt
homemade trail mix

So once again, we don't eat dog food around here!  And no one can complain they can't find anything to eat either!  I hope this has helped you figure out how exactly how we shop and plan to feed the Bacon family and just how to spend around $200 a month to feed a family of 6.  I'm always busy planning and working hard to keep it at this amount.  I actually like showing just how it can be done.  And I know a lot of you are thinking, sure I could do it one week, but every week I'm not sure on.  So I'm going to do this a few times so you can see it does work!  You have to put some effort into it, you have to be willing to learn to cook or make meals yourself too.  If you are going to try to start to trim down your grocery budget I suggest to start small with baby steps.  Replace a few convenience meals with homemade meals (I have lots of yummy one's on the blog if you need inspiration!).  Try your hand at making a few snacks at home too or cut out a night of out to eat.  All these will help you slowly add more bacon to your own pocket!

And hey I promised some yummy dinners right?  Here are some shots from our dinners over the past few days.  If this is dog food, there is one happy dog out there! 

Do you like this post? Click Here to see another meal planning grocery shopping trip of ours!

Tinfoil dinner

Spaghetti

Italian Chicken

Waffles with strawberries and cool whip,
homemade yogurt with apples

curly chicken and peas

Tacos

Fully loaded hamburger and beans

Grilled chicken, wild rice, veggies and garlic toast

Steak, shrimp, grilled garden vegeies
grilled taters and sauated mushrooms

Homemade pizza

Meal planning

Sorry I've been MIA, I decided to try to make some more bacon by selling off some unused stuff! I love garage sales, but sometimes I wonder if it's worth it. Thankfully we've made quite a nice return on all the work and still have a day to go. I thought since I had a free minute tonight I'd talk about meal planning, I had been asked a while ago by a wonderful reader if I'd add my meal plans to my blog, so I'm working on it! Honestly if you want an amazing grocery budget, you can't afford to NOT meal plan. Even if it's just a little. This way you will know what you need to buy when you go to the store.

We don't plan out each meal, usually just dinner. But we always do the planning as a family. The kids love to help out with this and think of their favorite meals. Of course, it's usually the same thing- Bacon Jr. wants tacos, Little miss Bacon wants Grilled chicken and wild rice and Little boy bacon- well usually it's pizza! We do try to aim to please around here and let them plan one of their favorite meals, but we do like them to think beyond their favorites and pick other meals too. there's only so many tacos you can eat before going crazy!

Once we get our two week meal plan made, I sit down with my grocery list. I scour my cupboards to find what we have to make the meals, and what we still need. Anything missing goes on the grocery list. That way I know there are no unexpected "oh I forgot this" trips to the store, another budget saver. I also try to think about what we will be having for breakfasts and lunches. Someday I might actually plan those out, but right now I have too many other things to remember, like where Little boy Bacon's Yoshi toy went, or all the names of Little miss Bacon's animals she sleeps with (and their birthdays too- oh the fun stuff you get to remember as a mom!)

So are you wondering what two weeks of the Bacon's meal plan looks like yet? Here it is, in no particular order. When we meal plan we just list the meals we want, and then we will pick what nights they fit into our life.

Homemade pizza- salad
Grilled chicken, wild rice, peas
Grilled apple wood smoked bacon pork loin, grilled potatoes, salad (oh this was AMAZING on the grill thanks to Mr.Bacon's great grilling skills!)
Chicken wraps (tortillas, sauteed chicken, lettuce, bacon, tomato, ranch dressing) Fruit
tinfoil dinner
Crunchy fish, rice, veggies
Grilled steak & Shrimp, grilled potatoes, peas & carrots, grilled garlic toast
Cheesy ham and hash brown bake & veggies
Garlic chicken scampi & bread sticks
Tacos/nacho night
Chicken N rice, broccoli
Chicken & broccoli Alfredo & bread sticks
Spaghetti, salad & cheesy bread
BBQ Grilled pork chops, baked potato, corn on cob
hamburgers & hot dogs, fruit salad, chips

So there is two yummy weeks worth of dinner, now this was the meal plan from June 1st - 15th. Of course there have been days Mr. Bacon and I didn't want to make dinner, but we've done a pretty good job of sticking to the list. This way we know what we have on hand, and since we have everything to make a meal, we're not tempted to head out to eat. Actually eating out is very rare around the Bacon house, it gets a bit insane when you take four kids to a restaurant too! So what are your thoughts? Would you like to see more of our meal planning? Are there recipes you'd love to see from them? I love to hear back from my awesome readers!

Need to save some bacon?

I know I post a lot of recipes. But there are other ways to save money besides making your own foods instead of buying it. I decided to take another inventory around the Bacon house to see where else we can cut out a few bucks. Here are some tips I wanted to share with you, how many of them do you do?

Tips for saving money around the house now that it's warmer out:

*It's spring now (well it's questionable here in Minnesota with the frost warnings still!), start opening the windows. Fresh air helps tire the kids out too, airs out those stinky rooms that have been closed up all winter, and helps cool off the house! Opening windows at night lets in the cool evening air too!

*Keep the curtains shut where the sun is coming in. Ok this seems opposite from what I just mentioned, but on really hot days, it's good to keep those shades closed when the sun is shining in to help keep the house cool, and run the AC less. We have also opted to tint with the peel n' stick kind, a few of our windows that let in a lot of light. It really has made a difference in keeping the Bacon house cool and the sun doesn't damage our floors and furniture as much.

*When you do have to use the A/C, close off rooms you are not in, and close off vents in your basement to keep the upstairs cooler.

*Unplug anything you are not using. Take a trip though your kitchen, unplug the toaster, the mixer, coffee pot anything you are not using at the moment. It's crazy how just having those items plugged in costs money even if they are not in use! OH and 'unplug' the kids too, from the TV that is. It's nice out side, let them burn of some of that energy out there!

*Turn off the dishwasher heat, just open the door after they are done washing and let them air dry. Or if the kids have been naughty, make them hand dry them when they have cooled down a bit! Better yet, have them hand wash them too! (ok so that doesn't work with the bacon kids yet, but in a few years I will be trying it out! Grandma Bacon always said she had 4 dishwashers in the house, it happened to be her kids!)

*Turn down the hot water heater. I thought about this the other day AGAIN after the water from the kitchen faucet burnt me. I have to get Mr. Bacon on this one right away.

*If you haven't switched already, wash your laundry in cold water when you can. It saves the money it would cost to heat the water!

*It's warm out, go hang the sheets outside! Ahh... you'll thank yourself for this one when you crawl into bed with fresh line dryed sheets.

*Keep up on replacing those light bulbs. We are all energy efficient bulbs at the Bacon house and it really does help lower the bill. Better yet in the summer, let the light in instead of turning on the light. It gets light out so early now (little boy bacon thinks just because it's light outside, it's time to get up, at 5:30 am. Oh he needs to learn how to tell time!) use the light instead of the lights!

*Cook outside more! It's nice outside now, or getting there so break out the grill! Oh how I miss grilling so much in the winter. We do still grill a bit in the snow, but some days it's just too cold! Also break out the crock pots and stove top recipes to avoid using the oven. If you do have to use the oven, try to combine as much cooking as you can. Bake up a batch of cookies, make dinner, a banana bread, ect so you won't have to use the oven for a few days again hopefully.

*Combine shopping trips! Gas is unreal for a gallon right now! We try to go to town only twice a month to do our shopping. We try to combine as many stops as we can into our day. Yes it gets long for the kids, bring some snacks and water so you don't get tempted to buy them!

*Check the tires! Keeping your tires inflated properly will help you save gas!

*It's garage sale season, OH how we love garage sale season!! No one loves it more than Little Miss Bacon, seriously she can sniff out a sale sign a mile away. Go though the kids clothes and figure out what sizes you'll need for fall, make a list so when you stop you can look for what you need and are not tempted to buy other treasures! Also while you are going though those closets, take out too small stuff and sell it at your own garage sale, or thrift store or donate it so you have extra space!

Well there is a good start! Now I know some of these don't sound like they'll make you rich, but every little bit counts and adds up fast! So take a walk around your house, how else can you save some Bacon? I'd love to hear your ideas.

I want this... and this.. and...

It's that time of year again, are your kids bugging you about what to put on Santa's list yet? What do you mean Santa? It's not even Halloween yet right!?! I know around out house the kids are all buzzing when the newspaper comes to look at the toy ads and circle what they want on their wish list. It doesn't help that little miss bacon's birthday is only a few weeks away and she keeps wondering what her presents will be.

But along with those lists comes questions of where do we find the money for presents (no matter what you celebrate). This questions ate at me about 2 years ago and I hated the feeling of wondering where I was going to find the money for Christmas presents again this year. So Mr Bacon and I decided to add a special envelope just for presents in our budget. This included not just Christmas presents but also birthdays though out the year. It's worked really well since we've started it. I no longer feel that dreaded feeling.

We also started doing another thing that helps back when little miss Bacon was born. We started buying toys at garage sales or thrift stores and wrapping them up for the kids for Christmas or birthdays! Go ahead, tell the bacon kids their toys were previously played with before I wrapped them up, let my secret out of the bag. It's OK because the best part, they don't care! They're just happy to have some new toys to play with.

Everyone benefits to this. For one, my budget doesn't get crushed by buying new toys for now four kids by the time the holiday arrives since second hand toys are usually 90% less than the retail price. The environment wins two ways, gently used toys are not going to the dump and all that packaging (you know that annoying stuff that takes you 1223.287 hours to open while an impatient child waits for you to get it done faster) isn't going there too. You've saved yourself 1223.287 hours of opening that crazy packaging that gets placed on kids toys. (Really have you ever wondered who's job it is to think of how to package kids toys? They for sure have never had kids of their own.) And I know my sanity has been saved by not stressing over where money will come from to buy they toys.

Another thing I love is I start shopping early. Hopefully this year my holiday shopping will be done by the beginning of December. I'm half way done with buying the kids presents already by shopping yard sales and store sales this summer.

So what are your kids wanting now? Where can you find it cheaper? Right now it's fall here in Minnesota and that means our yard sale days are over. But there are still a lot of places to look. Do you have a goodwill, savers, 2nd hand store or thrift shop in your area. Check those out. How about craigslist? There are a lot of great toys on there. And there is always ebay. Just remember to factor in shipping costs, I've found some 'deals' are not really saving money once I add in the cost of shipping. In fact some times it makes it even more than buying it full price at the store.

*A note on ebay and craigslist: if you're on there looking for items, you can bet you are not alone! So if it's too late to start that envelope for presents, scour your house and find things that you can sell! Are there some of those gently used toys laying around that your kids haven't touched in years? That new purse you only used once? I just made over $200 this week selling on ebay so start listing stuff and make yourself some extra holiday cash!*

Now not all our toys are bought 2nd hand, some things we can't find, or just not worth it. I watch the sales all year long for things that I know I can expect on the kids wish lists. Again this helps with the presents envelope, there's always money there if I find a great deal on something they want. So start looking at those sales ads.... after all there's only 67 days until Christmas!

Saving Bacon around the house

I know most of my posts have dealt with food and how to save on your food budget. Food is one of the areas in a budget I think you can cut down the most. Next time your at the supermarket sneak a peek at other people's carts and see what's in them. I find a lot of processed and convenient foods.

But back to some non food ways to save yourself some money around the house. These are just a few tips. Take a walk around your house. How many do you already do?

• Turn off the lights. Well we've heard that one since we were little but if you have little kids running around like I do, I'm sure you have lights that are left on.
  

• Switch your light bulbs. A few years ago Mr. Bacon and I decided to take the plunge and change all our light bulbs to the energy saving bulbs. We were amazed at how much it actually saved us once we switched (average about $20 each electric bill!). The good news about these bulbs is they are not as spendy as they used to be. Even changing out one or two will help.

• Unplug it! Do you leave that mixer plugged in? How about the coffee pot. If it's not in use, unplug it. It seems like an odd thing to do, but even if your electronics are not being used, if they are plugged in they are using energy.

• Challenge yourself to use less. Of what you ask? Anything.. shampoo, laundry soap, dish soap, hair gel, shorter shower to use less water, ect. Many times you'll find that you don't notice the difference if you use just a little less.

• Refill your foam soap pump. This is one of my favorite things to do. Especially with 3 little ones around. Who doesn't like to make bubbles right?! I refill the foam soap containers in our house when they are empty. Fill them 1/4 way with soap, fill the container up the rest of the way with warm water and VIOLA! Foam soap.

• Temp up, Temp down. Yes it's hot outside, OH how I know it's hot outside. With Bacon bit cooking away inside me I definitely feel the oven heat. However Mr Bacon and I have still agree that we don't need to keep running the A/C on frigid. A few years ago we had our A/C set around 72*. Now we keep it around 74*. Doesn't sound like a big difference right? Well a handy phamplet from our electric company awhile back showed us that every one degree we change (up in summer, down in winter) saves us almost .03 a hour! Ok so lets do the math... .03 x 24 hrs = .72 a day * 30 days = $21.60 a month in savings. Looks a lot better now right! Just think now if you change it by 2 degrees.....

• Keep the curtains closed on hot sunny days. Again this will help with the the high A/C costs. I've found that investing in some 'black out shades' (I use this term very loosely because instead of spending a lot of money on expensive curtains, I bought black flat sheets from the store and hung them behind my curtains on the windows. An added bonus to this, it keeps the sun out of the kids rooms so they sleep in a bit longer in the morning!) help keep even more of the heat out of the house in the summer time.

• When cooking and baking, I try to make a few things at the same time. If I know I'm making dinner in the oven, I'll also make some cookies or other dessert in there right before or after. This saves money because you're not turning on and off the oven for just one thing. Also an oven tip in winter, after your done with the oven, leave the door open (Make sure the kids are not around, I usually do this while we sit down to eat dinner together) Take advantage of that extra heat to warm up the room.
  

So what do you think, would these help you out? Do you already do these?

Is it REALLY Cheaper? Homemade pizza continued...

About a week ago I was talking to a friend about the homemade frozen pizzas I make. (I happened to make up EIGHT of them that day!) And she asked me the big question "Is it really that much cheaper to make your own vs. buying a frozen pizza?"

So I decided to figure out just how much does cost so you could see for yourself. We do buy a lot of our pizza ingredients at Sam's club in bulk so that does effect the cost of our pizzas too.

I made four 16" supreme pizza's for Mr. Bacon and myself, Here is what I used and the cost:

This is what I prepared for making 4 pizzas

• Homemade crust- I've figured this out before, it costs about $1.50 to make the crust recipe I posted and I get 2- 16" thin crust pizzas from it. Cost per pizza $.75
• Canadian bacon (ham bought in bulk at sam's club sold in 4 packs) I use 1/4 a pack on a pizza. Cost per pizza $ .50
• Italian sausage: $2.50 a pounds- I put 1/4 lb sausage on a pizza. Cost per pizza .63
• pepperoni (bought in bulk again- $10 for a big bag and I get about 20 pizzas out of it!) Cost per pizza: .50
• Fresh mushrooms- $1.88 on the container/ 4 pizzas= Cost per pizza: .47
• Green pepper $1/4 pizza's = Cost per pizza: .25
• Red pepper$1.75/4 pizza's= Cost per pizza: .44
• Green olives $1/4 pizza's= Cost per pizza: .25
• Black olives $1.25/4 pizza's= Cost per pizza: .31
• Onion (only used 1/2 of the onion I bought for all 4 pizzas) $1.00/2 =.50/ 4 pizzas: Cost per pizza: .13
• Homemade pizza sauce (I make my own from the tomato's grown in our garden, When I don't have homemade I get about 2 pizza's from a CAN of store bought pizza sauce) Cost of my homemade sauce $1.50/ pint jar. We don't like a ton of sauce on our pizzas so I get 4 pizza's from a jar. Cost per pizza .38
• Cheese bought in bulk again for $10 a bag, and I get 8 pizza's from each bag- Ok, we like a lot of cheese! Cost per pizza Cost per pizza: $1.25

So lets add them up: Cost per supreme pizza is $5.86 for a 16" pizza. No too bad. Some frozen pizzas are cheaper in the store if you are just looking at cost. But this is for a big 16" pizza vs the 14" pizza's that are average in the store. To me this is the better deal even for a little bit of work.

All loaded up and ready to go in the oven for par-baking

When I make pizza's for the kids the cost is greatly cheaper. They only like sausage and pepperoni on their pizzas so for $3.50. No too bad either. We make 2 big pizza's for dinner at our house and have plenty left over for lunch the next day too.

So the savings is up to you....and who can turn down homemade pizza!

Weekend shopping trip

This past weekend was payday which means time to grocery shop. We planned out our menu and what else we needed around the house and made our list. This week was a challenge since we have birthdays for both our boys this week- 4 days apart! But we headed out to the store with our list in hand and managed to keep to budget. We spent $82.73 of our $80 budget so not too bad.

Here is our meal list for the next 2 weeks.
*Griled chicken, wild rice, veggies, biscuits
*Tacos & fresh fruit
*Ham and hashbrown bake, Veggie
*Chicken wraps & fruit
*Homemade pizza
*BBQ's, Fruit salad, mac & cheese
*Tinfoil dinner (potatos, carrots, onions, and mini meatballs- wrapped in tinfoil and cooked on the grill- super easy to do!)
*bowtie chicken (pasta, chicken, zucchini, red peppers)
*Turkey, mashed taters, veggie
*Mini burgers on the grill, twice baked potatoes, veggie
*Spaghetti and french bread
*Steaks, grilled potatoes, salad, shrimp
*out to eat for Bacon Jr's bday
*Out to eat for little boy bacon's bday

(now before you panic for seeing us going out to eat twice in one week, (heck I'm panicing!) we let the kids pick where they would like to go out to eat (or what special meal they'd like) for their birthdays each year. This is a special treat for them. We just happen to have 2 birthdays in the same week. We do budget for this and it comes out of the money we set aside each month for gifts)

For our meals, we had quite a bit of it on hand. We usually buy all our meats in bulk at sams club. It seems be be a better deal than the sales they have at the stores near us. I'll try to get a copy of my receipt to post on here if you're wondering just what the heck can you buy for $80?!

Grocery shopping on a budget

When Mr Bacon brings it home twice a month, that means it's time to grocery shop (along with paying bills). How do we go about it and keep within our budget? First I should say we feed a family of 5 (with one bacon bit on the way) for about $200 a month! This takes a lot of planning and a few years for us to figure out exactly how to cut our grocery bills this low. We use to spend over $500 a month when it was just 3 of us at home! Right now we allow ourselves to spend $80 every 2 weeks at the grocery store, the other $40 a month goes into an envelope to spend at SAM'S club. Here we shop about every 3 mths and stock up on things like meat and frozen veggies.

The first step- Menu planning. We rarely eat out so it's making our own meals each night. Really if you eat out a lot, think back to how much you spent on that dinner. Do you even remember? Or did you just pull out the plastic and hope for the best? When we do go out to eat it costs about $40- this is about a weeks worth of groceries for us! Way cheaper to eat at home, and I know what's going into my meals for my family.

Every two weeks we make up a menu for the next two weeks at a family. Yes you read that right, all 5 of us sit down and talk about what we want for dinners. The kids like that they get to help pick out the meals.

Once we get our meal plan down, I hunt though the pantry and freezer and see what we have for each meal. What's not on hand, we add to our shopping list and head off to get groceries, yup again as a family! Yes people think I'm insane for it, I take 3 kids 7 and under AND a husband to the grocery store! But really it works for us. Our kids get a good lesson in how to buy good vs. bad foods, and they get a nice math lesson in whats a better deal. Mr. Bacon and I keep each other in check to make sure no impulse buys go into the cart without both of us agreeing to it. So crazy, maybe, but sticking to a budget we do!

So you're thinking you want to try this, start small. If you're used to eating out a lot, challenge yourself to see if you can cut it back each week. Try to plan even a few meals a week will help. Baby steps are what get you to your goals.

so where to start?

Really this didn't happen overnight. We had an idea to get better grip of our finances but the 'how?' took some adjusting. Ok a LOT of adjusting! :)

The first step we took was just talking. Finances for a couple don't work if only one person is on board. Sure you can help some by adjusting your views of money, but the biggest impact is if both of you are on board.

Our first step was just saving every. single. receipt for a whole month. When we got home from shopping we would go back over them and highlight all the non- necessary things we bought and the impulse buys. Then we stuck them in a baggie. At the end of the month we were shocked when we looked over them. Over 50% of each receipt had impulse buys on them or stuff we didn't need! Things from what we 'wanted' or groceries we already had on hand, but couldn't find due to a poor organized pantry. We were shocked.

We moved on from that step. We researched the envelope system which uses only cash and decided it was for us. Then we started meal planning, because the biggest bulk of our receipts was food. Food is usually the one area that you can make the most adjustments to help out your budget. We meal planned our menu each week. We wrote out a grocery list and stuck to it. It was amazing to see how much we saved just with these few steps. It all helped to inspire us to keep going on it and the keep our goals for living debt free in sight!