Weekly Update

What a Mess!
Day off on Monday! Thank goodness - I really got to get a handle on this clutter!
Paperwork strewn everywhere - a kitchen table I can't even see - my dresser top is loaded with stuff and the computer desk has (barely) a spot for my coffee mug! I have to make a grocery list and sort through my coupons, but my coupon pile has again because a cluster! How does it get this way?

Accountable without excuses
Since my "tag" recently, it's come out that I am a Motley Crue fan. Two sides of myself have now collided. I usually keep the different facets of my self separate but since they merged - they merged. The big announcement last week was for their upcoming tour. Now, any time Crue comes to town I want to see them. I try to talk myself out of it sometimes (as I did last week) - but deep down I have this passion that eats until I get tickets. Well, long story short - I got tickets. 3rd row center. I spent money for them. I spent cash for them. I'm holding myself accountable for it, but I won't make excuses for it. The inner brat won - and this time, I have no problem with it.

Gotta Do List for the Upcoming Week:

1. Organize my piles of clutter
2. Make a grocery list
3. Attack dust bunnies (there's a mutiny -- they are out to get me!)
4. Bake some desserts for dh's lunches
5. Organize coupons (again)
6. Work on 2nd page of blog that has been neglected!
7. Finalize May budget
8. Get Envelope Cash from the bank
9. Re-Organize sinking fund envelopes (stupid move of borrowing from envelopes- I need to pay them back now)
10. Meet with DS's guidance counselor about "after grad plans"
11. Write a Weekly Meal Menu.

Sharing a yummy, quick, cheap dessert recipe:

Key Lime Pie

• 1 sm box of Lime Gelatin Mix
• 2 regular sized Key Lime yogurt cups

(mix together)

• 1 small container of Cool Whip

(fold into mixed ingredients)

• Graham Cracker Crust

(pour into crust - cover and refrigerate a half hour)

YUUMMMYYYY!
I'm going to try it with Strawberry gelatin and yogurt next!

Gearing up for April

April's Budget

Again, courtesy of my You Need a Budget (YNAB) software I present by April budget! (you'll see a pun here shortly)

Changes to the budget this month include a reduction in school lunches. Because of Spring Break, I had left over funds in the lunch account that can roll over until April.

We changed plans for our Budget Billing with the Master Plumbers to include our expensive MicroPowerguard furnace filters.

$6.00 for cell phone? Well, that's because I accidentally paid them twice this month. Oops! Forgot that I had just signed up for autopay. DUH!

Gifts will be a new addition from now on. I've been meaning to put in on here, but this month was a no-brainer because ... IT'LL BE MY 39th BIRTHDAY IN APRIL! Of course, part of that money will reimburse the checking account for by son's Easter present that I forgot to budget for March. OOPS!

The grocery stockpile is growing by leaps and bounds. I've had to rearrange the upper shelf in my closet to help store extra boxes of pasta and other staples that I was able to get a good deal on while I have the extra grocery money. I'll be dipped if we are going to have a flour shortage and I won't have pasta! I won't hear of it!
LOL.


Finding Money
The whole thing about this process is to find money in places you wouldn't be looking normally. Squeeze your budget til it screams - etc.

Today, I decided to try my luck and contact Bank of America to see if I could get a lower APR rate on my credit card. I half expected them to laugh at me because I haven't used the card .. it's just been a storage account for my transferred balance.

Long story short - they lowered my rate from 14.75% to 9.9% without any hassle at all.
That should save me about $300 in finance charges. (if my pay off date goes as planned) NICE!

What's with the UNDER CONSTRUCTION thing there, Wendy?
I thought I may do a BS2 in rewind. Not that what I've done is beyond spectacular, but I thought I would share my story and what I did back in July when I decided to do my TMMO. What I did to get me to where I am now which is halfway between here and there.

BZZZ Agent - BZZ of the Day
So from time to time, I get to try new products and let people know what I thought of them.
I got in the mail today my Glade Wisp Flameless Candle. I was excited to get this because I often light candles and leave them burning unsupervised - especially in the powder room. You'd think I'd have learned my lesson from my gel potpourri incident at the last house. Gel Potpourri burns quick and leaves dense smoke in case you didn't know. Anyway, this new Wisp Flameless Candle holder is much bigger than I was expecting. I was picturing a holder that would hold something similar to a votive. This is much bigger - looks very nice and is easy to turn on and off. Best yet, safe for use in my powder room (or anywhere else that I've left it unattended) It's available in an array of Glades fragrances including my favorite Rainshower! I've got those darn plug ins all over my house too!

Oh is my Mom going to be upset!

Her "secret" recipe for Spaghetti Pie was one of the meals on my Aldi Store Emealz menu list this week! The recipes are very darn similar! And because my mom will never get a computer, I don't mind sharing the recipe because it is sooooo yummy!!!

You can find here in one my previous posts: Spaghetti Pie

Recipe Request for Chicken Picatta

The recipe from E-Mealz may be copyrighted so I don't want to infinge on them -- and this one is more like what I make myself (just too lazy to type it out - or rely on my memory) I'm really bad at writing down how I make something and usually go by tasts and the "add a little of this and a little more of that" rather than measure anything unless I'm running directly from a recipe. I take after my Italian grandma, I guess.

Chicken Picatta from the RecipeZaar -- I'm not real fond of bitter tasting capers so I usually leave them off and instead will do something like mushrooms.

Our Weekly Menu (revised copy)

UPDATE: I love Meijer's 10 for $10 sales, but I sure wish they'd stock themselves appropriately. Ad comes out on Sunday - and things are out of stock on Monday. Really??
What I did get on the $10/10 for my Weekly Menu was the cinnamon rolls, mac and cheese (both generic versions, but taste the same!) and portebella mushrooms!

On the Cellphone: While shopping - about 15 miles from home I get a phone call. It's my husband who is basically freaking out because there is a TORNADO by our house! Well, that's what he heard. He was at work about 15 miles from home in the opposite direction. We were quite lucky. A tornado did touch down, but skipped over our area and went east.

A couple of the recipes are linked below. I'll have to go type up the last one.... and figure out what I am going to make for dinner TONIGHT!

**************

When making my grocery list, I first scan the sales flyers of my favorite stores.
The best deals are found accidentally by going to that little Italian grocery store
that I told you about last month. I then scan my coupons for deals that match the sales. THEN I hit my cookbooks for ideas of what to make with what's on sale (and hit the coupons again if the case may be) A lot of work? Yep. But it's worth it to get a week's worth of menus on the cheap! We have hearty appetites in this house -- well the ds eats like a bird but the dh and I like to eat so we don't do well on itty bitty recipes.

I stumbled across a place online today that has weekly menu ideas with a shopping list! I just signed up for their newsletter and added a widget off to the right side ----> for you guys to have access to it as well. It's called Menus4Moms

Note: Here's a start to my weekly list.
I'll have to finish it up and post recipes tommorow after I see what Angelos has on sale.

Monday: Italian Sausage/Portebella Mushroom Stirfry w/ pasta
Tuesday: TBA
Wednesday: Cinnamon French Toast Bake
Thursday: Cheesy Enchiladas / Fajitas
Friday: Mac N Cheese Taco Bake
Saturday: Homemade Pizza - for the Green Bay Game
Sunday: Boys on their own

Extras: Homemade Bread (in the bread machine) and a couple of desserts.

Our Weekly Menu w/ recipes

This week again will be a little weird because of the holidays. My mother always hosts Thanksgiving Dinner and our family hosts Christmas. Last year, I decided to get a little crazy and made Rib eye steaks and lobster tails for dinner. Mind you, I'm only feeding 5 for Christmas. My husband and I were so incredibly sick on Christmas, that neither one of us could enjoy or even recall our feast so I decided that we would do it again this year. Of course, budgetted into our annual Christmas account - we are having Prime Rib and Lobster Tails for dinner . Our only splurge of this year (and probably next)

Tuesday: Taco Soup (recipe from my mentor Pam! -- was quick and delicious!!)
Wednesday: Pork Chops, Stuffing and homemade applesauce.
Thursday: Spaghetti Bake (feeds for two days - easy and yummy!)
Friday: Free Buffet at my work on Friday for Christmas
Saturday: Chicken Pasta
Sunday: Pizza (boys on their own)
Monday: Corned Beef and Cabbage
Tuesday: Prime Rib and Lobster Tails

Grocery Budget
Christmas Dinner: $114 - made it (barely)
Regular Groceries: $70 plus $35 from next week's envelope seeing that I won't be able to go shopping until late next week.

***Recipes***

Spaghetti Pie:
You may need to alter the amount of pasta and sauce if you don't have the 11x13 pan. It will bubble over (been there, done that)
I also cut down on the cheeses a touch because my son isn't a huge fan of cheese. Adjust cooking time if you have premade this and put in the fridge.

1 pound Italian Sauasage (I use gr beef and add italian seasonings while browning)
1 large onion chopped
2 jars spaghetti sauce
1 lb spaghetti cooked and rinsed
1/2 stick butter or marg.
3 eggs beaten
16 oz shredded motz cheese
8 oz grated parmesan cheese
16 oz sm curd cottage cheese

Brown sausage and onion and drain. Add spaghetti sauce along with some basil, oregano and minced garlic to taste. Simmer up to 2 hours (my mom's recipe - she's retired, I don't have time to wait 2 hours!)

Toss cooked spaghetti with butter - add eggs, parm cheese and half of the motz cheese until well mixed. Spoon mixture into buttered 11 x 13 casserole. Press down. Cover evenly with a layer of cottage cheese. Spoon sauce on top. When smooth, poke holes with a wooden spoon randomly over the entire surface.

Bake for 20 minutes at 350. Sprinkle remaining cheese on top and bake 10-15 min or until golden and bubbly. Cool 10 minutes before serving.


Taco Soup*:
1 lb of gr beef (browned)
2 cans diced tomatoes with juice,
2 small cans of tomato sauce (or 1 large can),
2 cans of pinto beans that have been rinsed and drained, (I used northern beans - all I had)
about a half diced white onion,
3-4 cups of water
2 pkg taco seasoning.

"Bring to boil, reduce heat and simmer. The longer you simmer the better it will be. We waited about 30 minutes cause it just smelled so darn good, but it's like pasta, it's even better the next day. We pour a bowl, top with some cheese, and usually will eat it with a flour tortilla. But it's good with crackers, by itself, with chips, just whatever. Takes about 10 minutes to throw together, it's cheap (tomato stuff is always on sale, beans are cheap, taco seasoning is fairly inexpensive), and makes a huge pot. I make this when I have company, everyong loves it."

*This recipe came from my mentor, Pam. She was awesome enough to share a bunch of recipes for gr beef and frozen chicken breasts. You'll see me refer to Pam's recipes often.

Mangia!

Our Weekly Menu

Boring week for menu planning. Very little left in the budget for groceries so I have to be inventive on the days I do have to cook. I didn't realize how many meals out we had this week. What a treat!

Monday: Italian Breakfast Casserole
Tuesday: Meatloaf and Potatoes
Wednesday: Hot and Spicy Tacos (got my free seasoning packet from Old El Paso)
Thursday: Mom's taking us out for Pizza for DS's birthday
Friday: Burgers on the grill (weather permitting)
Saturday: My DS's 16th birthday party - eating on the fly.
Sunday: Ravioli Shrimp Scampi (ds's favorite meal)