Eat from the Pantry - Week Three

So last week went OK. Of course, I did leave the state for 3 days and ate well at my sister's house, but I left the family in my mom's capable hands. I left some freezer meals and recipes for her to use in my absence, and I know she did that, but I also found evidence of a shopping trip and heard they did pizza one night, too. ;-)

All that to say, they didn't use all the suppers I had planned, so we're in even better shape for this week!

I went shopping yesterday and spent $33.57. I stuck to the dairy and produce, with the exception of some bread for our small group dinner that night (see caveats). So far, I've spent $121.18 on food and household items this month. That leaves me with $78.82 and one more grocery store trip to complete the challenge. I am feeling confident!

My Meal Plan is as follows:

Breakfasts
Cereal
Yogurt
Baked French Toast
OJ and granola bars <-- This is what Doug takes to work EVERY SINGLE DAY.

Lunches
Chicken Nuggets
PB & Honey Sandwiches
Grilled Cheese
Leftovers from dinner

Snacks
Apples
Bananas
Strawberries
Crackers and Cheese

Suppers
Dinner w/small group (I cooked a turkey breast, broccoli casserole and mashed potatoes)
Chicken Lo Mein over spaghetti (freezer meal)
Zucchini Garden Chowder (use frozen veggies)
Meatballs (freezer) with pasta
Sausage Strata (using frozen sausage and bread)

Preschool - Week 15 - Letter N

This week was brought to you by the Letter N and the Number 14. :-)

Here's what we covered:

Language Arts:
- Letter of the week craft: N is for Numbers!


- Handwriting worksheets (nose, Letter Nn, nest, traceable alphabet)
- N Sound worksheet (10 Things)

Math:
- Number 14 worksheet (I made one up again. She had to make 14 stamps on the upper portion of the page.)

- Hidden Picture worksheet
- Numbers: how high can you count?

Science:
- Nests (it was a good thing my mom was here to take over the second half of this week, because she is a bird expert! I looked up some facts about alligator, turtle and wasp nests and then found a neat book that discussed bird nests. Mom took the girls to the nature center to look at their display of bird nests as well. Thanks mom!)
- Science Journal page:


Social Studies:
- Nurses (read books about what nurses do and then did a little role play)
Here's the other book we read (not included above): Nurse (People in My Community) by Macken, JoAnn Early


Nurse C helping an injured patient:

C and E reminded me of the most important job nurses do - help the kids pick a prize after their appointment:

Sight Words:
- not, no, new, nut, night

Snack:
- Nutella

Music:
- Nutcracker (free MP3 from amazon!)


Bible Stories:
- Jesus' death and resurrection

Game/Activity:
- Visit to Nature Center

Eat from the Pantry - Week Two

This week will be more challenging: 1)I'm going to be gone for about 3 days and 2)my parents will be staying here while I'm away.

Yesterday I did my shopping for the week. I also had to buy groceries to make a meal for our small group tonight. We have a $30 budget for that and make enough food for about a dozen people. I spent $29.96 on food for group and $14.11 on food for our family for this week. About $5 of the $14 is for plastic cups, by the way. Frankly, I'm a little scared and sceptical. I bought milk, yogurt, eggs and fruit. Oh, and I got some free CoffeeMate for my Dad's visit. Wish me luck!

Meal Plan as follows:

Breakfasts
Cereal
Yogurt
Homemade Waffles w/strawberry sauce
Scrambled Eggs w/cheese
OJ and granola bars <-- This is what Doug takes to work EVERY SINGLE DAY.

Lunches
Chicken Nuggets
PB & Honey Sandwiches
Pasta and Parm Cheese
Grilled Cheese
Leftovers from dinner

Snacks
Apples
Apple Pears
Nuts
Bananas
Banana Bread

Suppers
Dinner w/small group
Chicken Lo Mein over spaghetti (freezer meal)
Crockpot Roast w/carrots and potatoes (freezer meal)
Zucchini Garden Chowder (use frozen veggies)
Quick Chicken Curry w/rice (use frozen chicken thighs)
Pasta and Parm Cheese (if needed)

Eat from the Pantry - Week One

Ok, so it's been a week since I started the challenge and time for an update. Last weekend I went through our freezers and pantry to make an updated inventory of what we had on hand. Then I planned out a whole month of meals via Google Calendar.

The freezer inventory I usually do from time to time, so I know what we've got. But this is the first time I've planned a menu for a whole month! But with a challenge like this, you need a plan of attack.

Last Monday I spent $27.30 for the week's groceries and only bought milk, yogurt, OJ, butter, and veggies. I was surprised at how little the bill came to! My budget of $200 over 4 trips might be more realistic than I thought...

Here's what our menu looked like:

Breakfasts
Cereal
Yogurt
Homemade Waffles w/strawberry sauce
Oatmeal
OJ and granola bars

Lunches
Chicken Nuggets
Turkey Sandwiches
PB & Honey Sandwiches
Elbow Mac and Parm Cheese
Lunch @ at friend's house
Leftovers from dinner

Snacks
Applesauce
Canned Pears
Cheese
Crackers
Homemade cookies

Suppers
Dinner w/small group
Lil' Cheddar Meatloaves (freezer meal)
Mexican Shredded Pork over rice (freezer meal)
Homemade Pizza & bread sticks (frozen dough and dough mix from pantry)
Dinner @ at friend's house
Potato Broccoli Cheese Soup w/rolls

All in all, we ate pretty well and I basically stuck to my rules. A borderline slip is that I did stop at Walgreens to buy some Nabisco crackers. I know that is not dairy or produce but they were free after coupon, so I wasn't *technically* buying anything, right??? Also, I decided that juice is OK to buy as my family prefers to drink our vitamins in the form of V8 and OJ.

One week down - three to go!

Preschool - Week 14 - Letter M

Well, I only meant to take a two-week break for Christmas, but we ended up with a three week hiatus. Oh well! I guess that's one of the perks of homeschooling, right? Flexible schedules. :-) So, this week was brought to you by the Letter M and the Number 13.

Books of the week:


Monkeys (Creature Comparisons)
Monkeys (Animals Animals)
No, Monkey! No!
Welcome to Mexico (Welcome to the World)

Here's what we covered:

Language Arts:
- Letter of the week craft:

- Handwriting worksheets (Letter Mm, Moon)
- M Sound worksheets (cut and paste, final sound M, Initial Sound M)

Math:
- Number 13 worksheet
- Number Tracing Game: C had to roll the giant die and then trace whatever number it landed on. Once she got one of each number the "game" was done. She loved this and we played until all the numbers were traced!


* Matching: I cut up a bunch of paint swatches and the girls had to sift through them all and match them up. Some of the hues are very similar, so not as easy as it may seem:




Science:
- Monkeys (nothing exciting this week - just read books about monkeys and talked about how many different kinds there are. Looking up all the areas where monkeys live on our globe)
- Science Journal page:

Social Studies:
* Mexico - read books about Mexico, found Mexico on the globe, talked about our visit to Mexico last June and where we were AND made a pinata!




Sight Words:
* make, me, my, monkey, must

Snack:
* Marshmallows

Music:
* Mozart

Bible Stories:
* Baby Jesus - very appropriate for Christmas-time!

Game/Activity:
* C got a mosaic kit for Christmas and it made a great art project for our "M" week:

Taking on Challenge

Maybe it's because I just watched Julie & Julia, maybe it's because I'm a glutton for punishment, or maybe it's just because I have too much food in my house right now, but I have decided to take on the Eat from the Pantry Challenge issued by Money Saving Mom and FishMama.

Doug and I talked about it last night and he's game! The past two months have been expensive ones, with our new hot water heater, new water softener, new tires and brakes on the van... We ended up putting only a fraction of what we planned into savings for November and December. So let's hope that this helps make up for a little bit of that!

Here are our goals for the month of January:

1. Shop at the grocery store only 4 times in January.


2. Only buy dairy (milk, eggs, cheese, etc.) and produce (fruits/vegetables).


3. Spend a total of $200 or less on groceries and household items (i.e. toiletries and Pull-Ups, etc.)


4. Put the extra $220 leftover (or more) that we would usually spend on groceries/household into our savings account.

Crystal has some caveats in her post, so I'll include mine here: We usually have a meal with our church small group each Monday night (which I cook for occasionally) so that will not be included in the challenge. Also, we will be hosting my parents for a long weekend while I am out of town, so we may buy a few items for them while they are here. Our dining out budget is usually $30/month and we'll try to stick to that as well.

So that's it! Wish me luck... Anybody care to join in?