We went to eat out last week unexpectedly, so that changed up our menu a bit. I didn't get to make the Chicken Biscuit Pot Pies, so I've moved those to this week. Here's what we're having this week:
Slow Cooker Baked Potato Soup I've made this before, and it's delicious. And it makes tons of leftovers, so it's good for a few lunches later in the week. We'll have it with a green salad.
Chicken and Broccoli Packets I'm still trying to find ways to use up all my chicken. I thought this looked delicious.
Chicken Biscuit Pot Pies
PW Beef and Bean Burritos These are a favorite, and so easy to make. Probably will serve them with Mexican rice.
Grilled Chicken and Veggies
Check out more delicious menu plans right here!
Monday, November 14, 2011
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Budget Changes
We're trying something new with our budget this month. We typically use a zero-based budget, where every expense is accounted for and budgeted each month. But we've run into some problems lately where a large unexpected expense comes up (this month, it was the pest control people who needed $200 for their yearly termite treatment), and then we're forced to pay from savings because it hasn't been accounted for in the budget. So this month, we decided to just look at the bottom line of what we have to spend. We've subtracted our fixed expenses like our mortgage payment, utilities, insurance, etc. from our take home pay. And the money left over is what we have to spend. I'm keeping a weekly tally of everything we're spending. Hopefully, this will help us adjust in some areas if we're over in other areas. I'll let you know!
image from here
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Shopping the Sales: Christmas Stockings
I looked everywhere for Christmas stockings last year for my daughter's first Christmas, but wasn't able to find anything that I liked for the price I wanted to pay. I knew I wanted matching stockings for the three of us, and I wanted them monogrammed. So this year, I started the hunt early. Yesterday, I got the holiday Lands' End catalog in the mail, and it included a code for 25% off any order plus free shipping. And when you order 3 stockings or more, they take $3 off each stocking. And monogramming is free! So I just picked up three monogrammed needlepoint stockings for $18 a piece with free shipping, which I think is a fantastic price for the quality of stockings we're getting. My husband's family had stockings like this growing up, so it's nice to carry on the tradition. I finally found stockings I like for the price I wanted to pay!
Monday, November 7, 2011
Menu Plan Monday: 11.7.2011
It was a pretty busy week last week with Halloween and some travel for us, so I'm hoping to enjoy a little easier week this week. Here's what we have planned for dinner!
Applesauce Chicken I volunteer outside the house one evening a week, and try to have something in the slow cooker for dinner to make it easy on my husband. Thought I'd give this recipe a try. I found it in my copy of this book, which is my slow cooker go-to recipe book.
Buffalo Chicken Quesadillas Trying to find different ways to prepare all the chicken we bought (40 lbs!), and came across this recipe.
Turkey Tacos
Grilled Marinated Chicken I froze about 10 bags of chicken breasts with different marinades that I threw together. I'll just take one of the bags out of the freezer and cook the chicken on our Foreman grill.
Chicken Biscuit Pot Pies I'm using a recipe from this book with a few tweaks. (I've mentioned before that I love this book!) If it turns out, I'll post my version here.
Have a great week, and look for more delicious menus here!
Applesauce Chicken I volunteer outside the house one evening a week, and try to have something in the slow cooker for dinner to make it easy on my husband. Thought I'd give this recipe a try. I found it in my copy of this book, which is my slow cooker go-to recipe book.
Buffalo Chicken Quesadillas Trying to find different ways to prepare all the chicken we bought (40 lbs!), and came across this recipe.
Turkey Tacos
Grilled Marinated Chicken I froze about 10 bags of chicken breasts with different marinades that I threw together. I'll just take one of the bags out of the freezer and cook the chicken on our Foreman grill.
Chicken Biscuit Pot Pies I'm using a recipe from this book with a few tweaks. (I've mentioned before that I love this book!) If it turns out, I'll post my version here.
Have a great week, and look for more delicious menus here!
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Big Bargains
I've said before I'm not an extreme couponer, but I do love a good bargain. Here's what I picked up this week.
I love to pick up things on sale, but I love free stuff even more! The conditioner was $25, so I was so excited to get that for free. The toothpaste was a moneymaker at Walgreens, and the espresso was from a free coupon at the CVS coupon machine. A good week!
And this was my Walgreen's run for the week. My total out of pocket was $1.04 for all of this!
I love to pick up things on sale, but I love free stuff even more! The conditioner was $25, so I was so excited to get that for free. The toothpaste was a moneymaker at Walgreens, and the espresso was from a free coupon at the CVS coupon machine. A good week!
And this was my Walgreen's run for the week. My total out of pocket was $1.04 for all of this!
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Net Worth Update: October 2011
This month was a lot better on us than last month. Even though we had to dig pretty deep into our savings account because of some unforeseen expenses, we still came out positive because of our retirement accounts. And I'm really glad we have a savings account we can turn to rather than racking up more credit card debt. I'm going to try to dump a little more into savings in the next few months to make up for what we had to take out.
Assets
Savings: –2267.39 Ugh. Like I said, we had to dig pretty deep. But I need to sit down and set a goal for how quickly to get it ack up again. All in good time.
Retirement Accounts: +8119.21 Hooray! It's so much nicer to see that number go up rather than down. But I'm not too sure we won't have months of big losses to come.
Liabilities
Mortgage: –239.36 Just plugging away month after month. We're planning on refinancing at some point, but haven't made any progress on that just yet.
Total Change in Net Worth: +6091.98 A positive change, even with the huge withdrawal from savings! Yay!
Assets
Savings: –2267.39 Ugh. Like I said, we had to dig pretty deep. But I need to sit down and set a goal for how quickly to get it ack up again. All in good time.
Retirement Accounts: +8119.21 Hooray! It's so much nicer to see that number go up rather than down. But I'm not too sure we won't have months of big losses to come.
Liabilities
Mortgage: –239.36 Just plugging away month after month. We're planning on refinancing at some point, but haven't made any progress on that just yet.
Total Change in Net Worth: +6091.98 A positive change, even with the huge withdrawal from savings! Yay!
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