Menu Plan for the week of 09/30/2013

Sorry for the lack of posts last week, we have been going round and round with our Internet provider.  Our Internet goes out when ever it wants to, no rhyme, no reason.  It is quite frustrating.  We call the Internet provider, who proceeds to put us on hold for 30+ minutes to transfer us to the correct department, to be told that nothing is wrong with our service.  At one point, they didn't even want to send a guy out.  They have been out to our house 3 times.  The last guy didn't even let us know he was here, he did what he needed to do and just left- uggggg.  But what ever he did, seemed to do the trick.  It just took 3 weeks to do it. 

Hubby and I have decided we need to lose weight.  Our 2 year gym membership didn't as much as we had hoped it would.  We went 5-6 days a week for 2 years and only lost about 4 pounds- so discouraging.  We have recently come to the conclusion that it just may be the foods we are eating that are hindering our weight loss.  On our weekly trip to our huge library, we came across an interesting book and cookbook,  The Drop 10 diet.  It looks interesting, so we decided to give it a go.  What have we got to lose but hopefully unwanted weight and we get to try interesting foods.  So here we go:

Here is our menu plan for this week:

Breakfast
Glazed Blueberry Goji Scones without the glaze
Cocoa Oatmeal
Chocolate Chunk & Cherry Pancakes
Apple Parm Fritters
Mushroom Fontina Omelet
Lemon Crepe with Cherry Ricotta filling
Devil's food cherry chocolate muffins

Lunch
Sandwich, carrots and popcorn
Salad with homemade ranch dressing for me

Dinner
Truffled Mac & Cheese with broccoli
Mushroom Turkey meatballs with angel hair pasta
Crispy Popcorn Shrimp with noodles
Pesto pasta with Salmon
Edamame fried rice
Mexican lentil wraps
Sweet Potato skins with broccoli

Desserts
Chocolate chip cookies
Goji Pomegranate Sherbet
Frozen banana yogurt pops
Orange yogurt cupcakes with pomegranate icing

What yummy dishes do you have planned for your family this week?  I would love to hear all about them:)

Our Super Duper Long Trip from Virginia to Florida

It was supposed to go like clock work.  Everything was in the POD on it's way down to Florida.  All we had were dishes, mattresses and enough clothes to get us through a week.

Our plan was to get the UHaul loaded up, finish the few repairs we had, steam clean the carpets and off we go:) 

The only picture that Chris got of our journey to Florida- he slept most of the way:)

Well, those who have read here long enough will know, with our luck, that plan was bound to fail.  Everything that could go wrong did.  I wanted to pull my hair out.  We were supposed to leave early afternoon and that would put us in Charlotte, NC early evening to have dinner and say our goodbye's to family.  We didn't actually pull out of our driveway in Virginia until 7:30pm- grrrrr.  Putting us at the hotel at 12:30am Tuesday morning.  I thought that was a long drive- I had no clue what was coming:)

Tuesday morning, we got up and ate breakfast.  Our plan for the day was to make it to Jacksonville, FL- 5 and a half hours away- no problem- right????  WRONG!!  We had no way to predict 2 car accidents.  It ended up taking us 8 long hours to get to Jacksonville.  I was very thankful that the little ones did so well in the van.  Thank goodness for Redbox and our DVD player in the van.  Little Michael wanted to watch Pokémon over and over.  I now have the theme song permanently rattling around in my brain:)  It took all my sanity over this 8 hour drive to find the nearest Redbox- any kids movie would do- just not Pokémon:)  We found out that Mike the Knight held both boys interest for a few hours- yay:)

We did a little happy dance in our seats when we saw the Welcome to Florida sign.  Exhaustedly, we pulled up to the hotel in Jacksonville, FL later than planned. We didn't eat dinner until almost 10pm that night.  Every one was so tired- all we wanted to do was sleep.  The cats on the other hand were trying to figure out where in the world they were and trying to plan an escape route.  Everytime someone went out the hotel room door, one of the cats tried to escape.  Lucky for them, we are faster :)

Wednesday morning, we got up and ate a fabulous breakfast.  We loaded up the van and off we went.  The last part of the trip.  According to MapQuest it was only supposed to take 5 hours to get to our new home.  The GPS, on the other hand, kindly corrected that time to 6 hours.  We also had to make a nice long detour, someone's tummy was not being very nice.  And for a chance, this time it wasn't mine.

It seemed to take forever to make the drive from Jacksonville to Cape Coral.  Our faces were so excited to finally pull up in our new driveway. 

We had finally made it.  To our new house at the beach- as little Michael would tell you we were moving to the new house at the beach:)  Even though the water is not as close as he would have liked to think:) 

We are loving our new house.  So how did we make out our first 2 weeks here??  Our adventures will continue next week............

September's Shopping Days

I have been holding onto my grocery store receipts since we arrived, so I could easily track my spending for the remainder of this month.  This month's spending is going to be all out of whack with the whole move plus the company my hubby works for paid for all our meals while we were working our way down.  That was sweet and very super helpful :)

Here are our grocery store shopping trips since our arrival:

09/11/2013
Walmart
$3.78- Gallon skim milk- Ouch!!
$3.78- Gallon skim milk
$2.97- Ice Cream- reward for the boys being so good for 3 days of super long travel
$3.98- Ham lunchmeat
$3.98- Turkey lunchmeat
$1.38- Bread- oh my!!
$1.38- Bread
$21.25- Total

09/12/2013
Dollar Tree
$1.00- Shower Squeegee
$1.00- Measuring cups and spoons
$1.00- Loofah
$2.00- (2) pkgs toilet paper
$3.00- (3) small trash cans
$1.00- Broom
$1.00- Swiffer
$1.00- Swiffer wipes
$11.66- Total with tax

Walmart
$7.44- (6) cans tomatoes
$2.78- Eggs
$3.28- Ground beef
$2.18- Shred  cheese
$0.98- Green beans
$6.48- Tilapia
$9.97- BLSL Chicken
$2.88- Spinach
$1.60- Fresh green beans
$3.01- Potatoes
$2.98- Slice Cheese
$1.66- Butter
$1.40- Bananas
$2.44- Ketchup
$2.87- Parm Cheese
$1.78- Grape Jam
$3.88- Olive Oil Mayo
$0.96- Mustard
$1.48- Panko
$60.05- Total

09/15/2013
Walmart
$2.00- Chips
$2.00- Shred Cheese
$1.98- Pretzels
$0.96- Marshmallows
$1.48- Lettuce
$1.48- Lettuce
$2.78- Eggs
$1.76- Flour
$3.98- Grapes
$2.78- Strawberries
$5.52- (4) loaves bread
$15.12- (4) gallons milk
$1.98- Cream Cheese
$1.08- Hot dogs
$3.98- Ham lunchmeat
$3.98- Turkey lunchmeat
$2.98- Ground beef
$5.92- Frozen veggies
$6.92- Chicken
$10.03- BLSL Chicken
$1.46- Tomato
$0.78- Carrots
$3.48- Coffee
$2.94- Spaghetti sauce
$1.92- PB
$0.33- Tomato sauce
$1.76- Green Pepper
$1.88- Banana
$2.00- Taco Shells
$95.26- Total

09/22/2013
BJ's Wholesale Club
$13.96- (4) gallons milk

Walmart
$2.64- Sugar
$0.96- Mini marshmallows
$0.78- Carrots
$2.98- Raisins
$1.37- Bananas
$1.11- Tomato
$4.47- Allergy meds
$5.88- Allergy meds kids
$1.56- Tuna fish
$3.18- International Delight Creamer
$3.00- Cat treats
$0.88- Can Opener
$3.92- Frozen veggies
$1.48- Lettuce
$1.76- Flour
$36.20- Total with tax

This shopping trip has been added to our September Monthly Spending post, where I keep track of what we spend for the month of September.  How did we do?  Did we come in under our goal for September or did we bust?  Hop on over here to find out :)

Menu Plan for the week of 08/23/2013

Hello!!  From rainy Southwest Florida :)  We finally made it- wow that was a crazy looooong drive.  I am glad it is finally over.  We have finally moved all our stuff in and have settled in.  More on our crazy long 3 day move later this week:)

Here is our menu plan for this week:

Breakfast
Baked Oatmeal  with raisins X2
Pancakes X2
Oatmeal with brown sugar and raisins
Scrambled eggs with fruit X2

Lunch
Sandwich, carrots and popcorn

Dinner
Chicken Alfredo over Rotini with green beans
Spaghetti with peas
Grilled Cheese with Chicken Noodle Soup
French Toast with fruit
Lentil burgers with green beans
Corn Dog muffins with fruit
Beef & Broccoli rice

Snacks
Carrots
Strawberries
Grapes
Popcorn
Popsicles

What yummy dishes do you have on your family's menu plan for this week?  I would love to read all about them :)

CVS deals for the week of 09/08/2013

Don't forget to....
1) Go to cvs.com/email and sign up for the ExtraCare email and receive a $4/20 cpn
2) Stop by the Red ExtraCare coupon center and get CVS cpns
3) You can use a manufacturer's cpn along with a CVS cpn
4) You can use a B1G1Free cpn along with a B1G1Free sale to get both products for FREE

To view CVS Coupon Policy- click here:)

Purex- Buy 1 Get 2 FREE- Limit 6

Bumble Bee Chunk Light tuna- Buy 1 Get 1 FREE- Limit 10

Colgate, kids or Plus toothbrush- Buy 1 Get 1 FREE- Limit 4
$1 Colgate Total, Optic White, Max Fresh or Sensitive toothpaste cpn- 09/08 SS
$1 Colgate 360 manual toothbrush cpn- 09/08 SS

Spend $10 on Maybelline lip or eye and get $3 ECB
$1 Maybelline New York mascara cpn- 09/08 SS

Spend $10 on Sally Hansen cosmetics and get $5 ECB

Buy 2 Eyelashes and get $3 ECB

Spend $10 on Almay and get $4 ECB- Limit 6

Spend $12 on Head & Shoulders, Aussie, Pantene or Herbal Essence and get $3 ECB
$1 Head & Shoulders cpn- 09/01 P&G
$3/3 Pantene cpn- 09/01 P&G
$1.50/2 Pantene cpn- 09/01 P&G

Spend $10 on Nuance by Salma Hayek cosmetics, hair, facial care or body cleansing and get $3 ECB

Spend $10 on the following and get $3 ECB:
Nivea bodywash or scrub- $4
Nivea lotion or crème- $6
Nivea lip care- $6/3

Softsoap liquid hand soap- $2.99 and get $2 ECB

Revlon Luxurious ColorSilk Buttercream- $5.49
$3 Revlon Luxurious ColorSilk Buttercream cpn- 09/08 SS

Spend $6 on Carmex lip balm or healing cream and get $3 ECB

Buy Multipack Crest, Fixodent, Glide or Oral B and get $2 ECB- Limit 2
$1/2 Crest toothpaste, Crest rinse, Oral B Glide floss or picks cpn- 09/01 P&G
$2/3 Crest toothpaste, Crest rinse, Oral B Glide floss or picks cpn- 09/01 P&G
$0.50 Crest toothpaste, Crest rinse, Oral B Glide floss or picks cpn- 09/01 P&G
$1 Fixodent cpn- 09/01 P&G

Mitchum- $1.99
$1 Mitchum cpn- 09/08 SS
$1 Mitchum cpn- 08/18 SS

Buy 3 Stayfree, Carefree, Johnsons baby oil gel or Desitin- $9/3 and get $2 ECB
$1 Stayfree cpn- 08/25 SS
$0.50 Carefree cpn- 08/25 SS

Arm & Hammer Ultra Max deodorant- Buy 1 Get 1 FREE

CVS Probiotic 15ct- $9.99 and get $9.99 ECB

Spend $15 on Excedrin and get $7 ECB
$1 Excedrin 24ct+ cpn- 08/25 SS
$1.50 Excedrin 100ct cpn- 08/25 SS

Bengay- $4.49 and get $2 ECB- Limit 2
$2 Bengay cpn- 09/08 SS

Spend $10 on Bic Pens or pencils and get $3 ECB
$1 Bic Stationary cpn- 08/04 SS

Spend $10 on 3M Post It, Scotch mailing supplies, tape, Command hooks, Scotch Brite lint rollers or refills and get $3 ECB

Spend $10 on Sharpie, Paper Mate, Expo or Inkjoy and get $3 ECB

Spend $10 on Crayola and get $3 ECB

Spend $10 on Five Star 1,2,3 or 5 subject notebook and get $3 ECB
$1/2 Five Star cpn- 08/04 SS

Hershey snack size or Mars chocolate fun size 6pk- $2.97/3 and get $1 ECB

Progresso- $3/2
Use $1 CVS Coupon Center cpn
$0.50/2 Progresso cpn- 09/08 SS
$0.25 Progresso Light cpn- 09/08 SS

Colgate Max, Total or 2in1 toothpaste- $2.99 and get $2 ECB- Limit 2
$1 Colgate Total, Optic White, Max Fresh or Sensitive toothpaste cpn- 09/08 SS

Kellogg Raisin Bran, Froot Loops or Apple Jacks- Buy 1 Get 1 FREE

Fels-Naptha Giveaway Winner

With only 3 comments on the Fels-Naptha Review and Giveway post, it made it super easy to pick the 3 coupon winners.

The winners are...........

KatyChick
CatOLuck
Claudia N

**CatOLuck~ if you could please email me your mailing address, I will put the coupon in the mail for you.  Thanks :)  momstips2save@gmail.com

I will be sending out emails to the winners shortly. Congrats to the winners- enjoy your free product coupon and thanks for reading my blog:)

August 2013 Goals Update

Let's see how we did in the month of August with our 2013 goals:

Here are our 2013 Goals: (in no particular order):

1) To not eat out or at least to not pay out of pocket, with the exception of tips. If we want to treat the family to a meal out, we will make sure we have a gift card to cover all of us.~ Did awesome with this:)

2) Pay off 2 credit cards~ We did it- we are so very excited. We paid off 2 credit cards in March- WOOHOO:) And we just merged 1 credit card into another with a super low interest rate. We are now down to making 2 credit card payments instead of 6:)

3) Not to use any of our credit cards for 2013. To pay cash for everything.~ Still doing great with this goal.

4) To lower our grocery budget. Our current grocery budget is $200 month for our family of 6. Our goal is to lower that amount and to save the remainder. We had $13 leftover :)

5) To create a monthly meal plan for our family, to use leftovers more efficiently and to make use of everything in our pantry and freezer.~ Doing great with this goal.

6) Unclutter the house and become more organized:)~ Sold almost everything at a yard sale.  Still have a few house repairs and painting to do- almost done :)

7) Lose weight- I need to get motivated to lose this baby weight- my goal is to lose 20 lbs this year.~ Still going to the gym and walking on the treadmill. I have lost 5 pounds- yea!!  15 lbs left to go:)

8) Morning devotions, prayer time and more bible reading~ Definitely need to get back to doing this.  I found when doing my morning devotions, prayer time and bible reading, my day flowed a lot better and easier.

9) Monthly date night with hubby- whether we go out or stay at home, pop popcorn and rent a movie~ Didn't do any type of date night with hubby in August- need to schedule that as soon as possible.

10) To spend quality family time together. With everyones schedule and us running all over creation, I would love to spend more quality time together- no tv- us playing games, talking, enjoying each others company. I think we are going to claim Saturday's as family fun day:)~ Didn't get to do any family fun outings in August.

11) Not to use our dryer to save on electricity and lower our electricity bill~ Doing great with this- electric bill lower for this 6 months. We are on a budget plan with our electric company. They look at our usage for the past 6 months and average it out. That is what we pay. They refigure twice a year. So, for 6 months at a time we know exactly what our electric bill will be for 6 months. So far so good, we are over paying our actual usage:)

12) To make a better effort to blog more regularly and to make a blogging schedule~Need to get better organized and actually make a blogging schedule and keep up with it.

13) To make much needed house repairs~ Almost done with the house repairs- yay:)

14) To get rid of the car just sitting in our driveway (hopefully we can sell it and make a little something) and being used as storage.~ My dad is coming to pick up the car.  He is going to fix it up and give it to his girlfriend's daughter, so she will have reliable transportation.

15) To do 1 project a month and blog about it~ We did not do August's monthly project :(  Too much to do around here to get ready to move.  We have decided to suspend our monthly projects until we get settled in our new house.

How did you do with your goals for August?

Somebody celebrated a birthday.....

I am so sad but excited that my little one has turned 4.  He is growing up so fast.  Part of me wants to freeze time- he is my last little one.  But part of me wants to see what he does with his life as he grows up.  It seems like all my boys are growing up in the blink of an eye.

He went from this:

To this handsome little booger:

I asked Michael what cake he wanted me to make for his birthday.  He told me he wanted an up down up down cake.  It took me a minute to figure out what he was asking.  Have you figured it out?  Want to take a guess?  Think about it.  Now trace up down up down with your finger:)  Got it?  All he wanted was me to make him an "M" cake. 

He learned how to write the letter M by repeating up down up down while moving his pencil in that direction:)

I made him a yummy chocolate cake and daddy made the M:

We had gotten so busy with the house repairs that I didn't get a chance to make his M cake until the 30th- 3 days after his birthday, which just happened to be my mom's birthday.  M for Michael and M for my mom- little Michael didn't mind "sharing" his birthday cake with his grandmother, who he misses so much.  He is so sweet- all my boys have their sweet moments:)

September 2013 Monthly Spending

Here is where I will keep a list of our spending for the month of September. We have a $300 grocery budget. This is for everything for our family of 6 and 1 pet. We did well last month and still had $13 leftover.  I am excited to see how we do this month as we will be in the middle of a huge move.  So, let's see how we do:

09/02/2013
$3.16- Dollar Tree
$11.93- Walmart
$13.65- Food Lion

09/11/2013
$21.25- Walmart

09/12/2013
$60.05- Walmart
$11.66- Dollar Tree

09/15/2013
$95.26- Walmart

09/22/2013
$36.20- Walmart
$13.96- BJ's Wholesale Club

$267.12- Total for the month of September- I think we did really well considering moving and having to start all over with several perishable items:)  I can't wait to see how we do next month.

$32.88- Left in our budget

My Shopping Day~ 09/02/2013

We took a break from all the painting and went grocery shopping.  Which was nice, the paint smell was starting to get to me.  We are still continuing to eat from the freezer, so we only had a couple of stores to go to.

Here are our shopping day details:

Dollar Tree
$1.00- Zip sandwich bags
$1.00- Zip gallon bags
$1.00- Cake pan
$3.16- Total with tax

Walmart
$2.62- Sugar
$1.76- Hamburger buns
$1.96- Green beans
$0.93- Bananas
$4.27- Baby Wipe refill
$11.93- Total with tax

Food Lion
$5.13- Chicken Thighs
$8.19- (3) gallons skim milk
$13.65- Total with tax


This shopping trip has been added to our September Monthly Spending post, where I keep track of what we spend for the month of September.

Menu Plan for the week of 09/02/2013

How was everyone's weekend?  Ours was good just busy.  We have almost finished all the house repairs and are working hard to get all the rooms painted, updated and sell ready.  On a happy, happy note- we have a place to live in Florida:)  After several attempts, we finally found a rental that hadn't been rented yet.  Evidently, now is the time to rent in Florida.  As soon as you find something, if you don't act fast, it is gone.  Hubby left yesterday to make the very looong drive down and will finalize the lease and get the keys- yay:)  I can't believe how fast time is going- 6 more days and we will making our way down to our new house:)  This is going to be my last week posting on this blog until we get settled and have the Internet hooked up at our new house :(

Our menu plan for this week (this is the last week in our house, trying to keep the menu as simple as possible and eat what we have already in the freezer and pantry):

Breakfast
Pancakes X2
Egg Sandwiches with fruit
Banana Bread X2
Cereal and fruit X2

Lunch
Sandwich, banana and popcorn
Salad and homemade ranch dressing with a banana for me

Dinner
Spaghetti with corn and rolls
BBQ Pork with green beans
Chicken with Mac & Cheese and corn
Spinach Cheese Swirls- didn't get a chance to make this last week
Pizza
Leftover Pizza with Italian Chicken strips and watermelon
Family Reunion

Snacks and desserts
Lemon Cheesecake bars
Popcorn
Banana
Popsicle
Leftover cake and ice cream
Watermelon