That I set up a new way to get my blog posts via email?  I used to use Benchmark as my blog delivery service, but the font was super small and the pictures didn’t email.  I talked to tech support several times and their terse answers didn’t get me very far in making the emails more attractive.  The Benchmark service is functioning, so you may still be getting those ugly emails.  No need!

Now you can subscribe on the right for rss emails with full post text in a readable font and pictures!  That way you never have to check and see if I’ve updated the blog, you’ll just get an email. (If you are still getting Benchmark emails, just hit unsubscribe at the bottom of the most recent email you have and sign up for the feedburner service.)

This is just a screen shot of the freebie form to the right.

The top sign up form, is for the freebies.  You won’t get blog emails from that.  But you will get a great coupon for my ebook set along with my debt free story and homemade cleaning recipes.

And a screen shot of the form that will get you the cool blog post emails.  Look for it on the right.

The sign up form right under that is the one to get the blog post emails.  While you’re at it, sign up for both ;).

I’ve been taking a little blog vacation.  It gave me the reduced schedule I needed to start homeschooling my 4th grader.  I was really nervous about that extra responsibility on top of our crazy house remodel, my teaching part time up at the school, and writing the menus for GSP.  But we found our rhythm and Heather is super cooperative (until Friday when we are both just plain exhausted.)

It’s time to get back to blogging and I have a lot of stuff to show you.  First up is how in the world did the 8 of us eat this month for $400?  It’s getting harder, I tell you.  Food prices are up.

We are a breath away from getting an oven which will help a ton.  But the steps getting us closer to the oven have removed even the marginal functionality I had in the kitchen in the past. Basically I couldn’t even go in the room for a few days. In our other home I made up for a limited budget by baking and making nearly everything from scratch.  That hasn’t been possible for us for the last 9 months.  I keep telling myself to be grateful for a guilt-free break from the extra work. But I still feel the stress.  The pull from both sides–needing to be frugal more than ever, but without the familiar ways that I made it work in the past.

The extra budget challenges this month: Weekly bake sales at school.  My daughter is on the yearbook committee and was supposed to bring 4 dozen cookies every Thursday to school, bagged and ready to sell.  They were selling the treats for $1 a bag to help reduce the cost of yearbooks for the middle school. The first week it was fun but after that I felt the drain on my grocery budget big time.  Without an oven we were making chocolate no bakes, rice krispie treats; and peanut butter cheerio bars.  Flour baked cookies are by far more affordable to make.  It would have cost less for us to just pay for our yearbooks, but that wouldn’t have helped as many people I suppose.

The blessings this month:  My mother-in-law showed up with a huge box of food from the food pantry in her tiny town.  The residents there usually don’t take the fresh produce, preferring the pastries and boxed foods.  So instead of throwing it all away,  they sent me fresh lettuce, spinach, Halo Clementines, low carb pitas and flatbread, rotel tomatoes, pink lady apples, peanuts in the shell….and a few other things that we already ate so I can’t remember.  The thing about food from a pantry like this, is it has been donated because it is close to the end of it’s shelf life.  It needs to be used or frozen right away, or it will spoil within a day or two even in the fridge.  The next week my mother-in-law brought fried chicken over for our lunch.  That night my mother had us all over (in-laws too) for Heidi’s birthday dinner.  We had enough chicken leftover to pack for lunches.  My mom had us over another 3 times because I couldn’t get into my kitchen space.

One day this month, one of my former students came and spent the day helping Darren lay hardwood floor.  It was an honor to have him here! While they were working, I didn’t have access to my fridge or dishes, or anything. So I used a gift card to offset buying sandwiches for the kids at Wendy’s, and then used my blow money to buy Subway sandwiches for the adults for lunch.  It was an unusually warm day (it has been swinging between 50-60 degrees and 8 degrees (-11 windchill) here and we were blessed with a warm one this day.) So I bought deli pizzas and soda at Aldi and grilled them outside for dinner.  Yum!

So we are down to the last week of the month, and I have $12.30 left.  I plan to buy a loaf of bread and a gallon of milk and then use all my loose change to buy some fun stuff for a small party we’re having here on Friday.

And if you want to know exactly what I bought, when and where and for how much.  It’s below.

I cleaned my room this weekend.  It was bad.  So bad, I was afraid someone might turn me in to Clean House.  It was so bad that I couldn’t walk to the bathroom in the night without possibly dying.  If DH heard me stir, he’d flip on the light to save my life.  He’s like a brave knight ready to save me from any peril. It was so bad that when I told my kids to clean their rooms, they gave me a look like, “Seriously? Have you looked at your own room?” Though none of them were brave enough to say it out loud.

My 6 year old went around with a clip board and a piece of paper marking down grades for everyone’s room.  I couldn’t read his interpretation of cursive, but he assured me my marks weren’t good.

My room had become the dumping ground for construction stuff and extra furniture from the dining room and family room, but even then it didn’t have to be this ridiculous. As I shoveled my way to sparkling surfaces, I found 3 bottles of pump cocoa butter.  I love this stuff for smoothing out stretch marks (combined with body brushing, and Holly’s workouts) But 3 bottles, why?  2 of them were mostly empty, but I knew there was good stuff in there. Too much to just throw away.  But I never took the time to figure out how to get it out, until today.

A simple straight razor took the top right off.  Then I used a small cooking spatula to scrape the bottles clean. I put the lotion into a small lidded container that I can keep in my closet to use up over the next 2 weeks.  It was so fast and easy I’ll definitely do it again.  Only this time I won’t wait so long.  Can you see other applications for this?  Shampoo, conditioner, lipgloss….what else?  Do you save the last bits of product?  Or do you just toss it?

1. Serve homemade soup for dinner:  Soup is warm and comforting, and one of the least expensive meals to make. (Cheeseburger soup below, click the photo to get the recipe.)

2. Unsubscribe from advertising emails:  If you don’t know about the sale, you won’t be tempted to spend. Plus you’ll save time deleting them.

3. Use the correct amount of laundry detergent—read the label.  It’s so tempting to fill to the top of the cup, but most loads only need the bottom line.

4. Don’t go.  If you can possibly wait on the item on your shopping list, stay home and make do with what you have on hand. The fewer trips you make to the store, the less money you will spend.

5. Add a meatless meal.  Use eggs for your protein source, but get creative.  Try:  egg burritos; fried egg sandwiches; quiche; omelets; fried rice, egg drop soup, or breakfast casserole.

6. Plan your route.  If you have several places to go, plan the order of the destinations to conserve the most gas. And save up your errands so you run fewer trips by doing them all at once.

7. Go cash.  Put your budgeted amounts in an envelope (or coupon organizer) for each category.  Spending cash is more tangible than swiping a card so you feel it more.  McDonalds studied it and found that people spend 47% more when using credit cards over cash.

8. Be thankful.  When you are tempted to buy something that you really could live without, skip it and name 5 things you already have that are thankful for instead.

9. Wait 24 hours.  When it’s a big purchase, high pressure sales are often part of the equation. Set a dollar limit that you won’t go over without praying about it 24 hours first.  Then you’re not likely to be a victim of a time share or a $2,000 buyer’s coop membership.

10. Plan ahead. Give yourself time to find your needed items at a deal or in a thrift shop.  When it’s an emergency it’s more likely you’ll end up paying full price.

Linking up:

Sticking to a $400 budget in December was the hardest thing so far.  With food to bring to Christmas gatherings, New Year’s, plus eating more fast food to cope with the busyness of the holidays I was way over budget.  Last month I was under budget by $100 so I spent that plus my $20 blow money to make up the difference.

Week 1 Food Spending: $98.99

Week 2 Food Spending: $176.77

Weeks 3&4 Food Spending: $244.34

Total December: $520.10 (This is a direct result of eating out!  We are still under the $550 official Grocery Shrink recommendations, but I could do better.

This month, we ate quite a bit from our pantry.  I opened the last 8 lb bag of shredded chicken purchased from Dirty Don’s several months ago for $5.  We used it to make cream cheese enchilada nachos (I made the enchilada filling in my electric skillet, then stirred in the sauce ingredients and served the whole thing over tortilla chips with shredded lettuce, cheese and salsa.  Yep, it was awesome.) We also used it over homemade Caesar salad for our New Year’s Eve supper. And there’s some left…..

Another quick meal was chili mac.  I used frozen ground beef mixed with ground turkey (because turkey is cheaper and lower in fat, so stretches the meat and the budget while still giving the beef flavor.) I used the electric skillet to brown the meat with onion and garlic, then stirred in chili powder, canned beans, rotel tomatoes, and the dry noodles from two Aldi brand boxes of mac and cheese.  I added 2 cups of water and brought it to a boil, reduced heat to a simmer and then   After 20 minutes we stirred in a little milk and the 2 powdered cheese packets and topped with a fresh shredded cheese.  This was not up to my “healthy” standards of food, but it was doable in our kitchen situation, and the kids loved it.

Christmas Eve we were assigned the bread and chips for the Coffman family gathering. Darren ran to the bread outlet and got whole wheat buns and sandwich thins, plus Bonnie’s favorite super thin tortilla chips.  (Which she served with her awesome homemade salsa.)  He also made a quick Wal-mart run for fresh rolls from their bakery.  Normally I would have baked all the bread from scratch — but an oven is handy for stuff like that.

New Years Eve we canceled our traditional party with Darren’s Best Man and his wife. I was still coughing up a storm and didn’t want to pass this nasty virus on.  My alternate plan was to go to bed early and let the family fend for themselves for food.  At the last minute I changed my mind and stopped at a conventional grocery store on the way home from running errands to see what deals were available.  (I was surprised how many other people were grabbing stuff at the last minute.  That place was packed!) I grabbed some sale priced chips, ingredients for homemade chicken caesar salad; pizza rolls (our family’s favorite junk food), kettle corn, and our favorite sodas.  It turned out to be a really fun party with just the 8 of us.

We ate out a lot more than usual the first two weeks of the month, but that spending was tempered by our parents helping us with meal prep while I was so sick.  Darren’s mom sent over homemade chicken soup (with homemade noodles); chicken soup with barley the next week, and my mom made chicken soup too.  (They were all 3 very different and very delicious.) Also, my mom bought deli pizzas one night and baked them at her house, then brought them over for our family to enjoy.  I know not everyone is blessed with such helpful parents and inlaws.  I’m super thankful.

Here’s my week 2 spending list (Thought I had blogged it….but can’t find it.)

Here’s week’s 3 and 4: