Dave Ramsey style date......

Only someone who has "blow" money can truly appreciate this. Hubby called last night and asked if I wanted to go see 'Sex & the City'. My first thought, "Movie theater? Expensive. Not to mention that we have to get a sitter..." So instead of ruining my husband's sweet gesture of an adult evening out, I say "Oh yes, that sounds like fun! It will be a lot of blow money though." In true FPU form he says, "Well, we can split it. We'll go dutch!" Keep in mind that we split our blow money so hence the splitting the movie. It's so funny how our thinking has changed. Back in the day we would have paid the sitter, gone to a nice dinner, gotten pizza for the kids, bought popcorn and candy and soda, and easily dropped $200, just to see a movie. We still spent a ridiculous amount of money last night, $44, including a bean burrito for Peyton, sitter, and popcorn and a coke but that's our big night out for the month.

Menu Planning

I know, I have been M.I.A. for a while. It seems like since my mom's passing I can't come up with much that seems important enough to write about. However, this blog helps hold me accountable. Therefore I am going to try, again, to get back into the swing of writing. I am starting to feel like a normal person again so hopefully it won't be such a daunting task. I am posting my menu plan for this week. A menu plan really helps me to only buy the things at the store I will actually use for the week and it also makes it easier for me to cook. I know that sounds weird. When I can just go to my plan and see what the meal for the evening is it seems easier to make it. I know I have all the ingredients and I don't have to come up with something off the top of my head. When I have to "create" something, I am more apt to go to the drive thru. I don't plan breakfast and lunches as much as I do dinner b/c I work outside of the home and I just send the girls lunches. Hubby and I don't really eat lunch. I may grab a snack or sandwich when I get home before dinner but not enough to have a formal plan. On the weeks I know I will be home with the girls, all day, I do plan breakfast and lunch b/c I know that will cut out grabbing McD's while running errands. I find my kids eat better when I have a schedule and not just grab junk on the way out to play. For all of that being said, here's the plan for this week........

Quick Chick (from www.allrecipes.com)
Garlic Red Potatoes
Green Beans
Rolls

Soft Tacos
Mexican Rice
Refried Beans

Grilled Chicken (marinated in Zesty Italian dressing)
Rice a Roni Chicken rice
Salad
Rolls

Sesame Chicken w/ steamed broccoli & vermicelli

Chicken Quesadillas
leftover mexican rice
leftover refried beans

Frozen Pizza (Red Baron's new Garlic Crust pizza's are SOOO good!)
Salad

I do all my house work and laundry on Saturday's and it seems like by dinner time I am exhausted. That is bad combination for not eating out. So instead of planning on cooking something I planned the frozen pizza. All I have to do is preheat and put it on a baking stone. I can make the salad in the morning and dinner is done! I know myself well enough to know I will go out b/c I don't want to 1. cook and 2. mess up my clean kitchen! I also always keep and couple of cans of Spaghetti O's around in case my kids won't eat what I'm making. 59 cents is worth it for them to not talk me into going out. If you participate in Menu Plan Monday leave a comment! I always like to see what other people are having. New ideas keep staying home exciting!

Garage Sale

Yesterday and today I had my first garage sale w/o my mom. She was seriously THE garage sale queen. When her and my step dad moved from the house I grew up in she had a week long, entire house "garage" sale. She made almost $5000!! Off of a bunch of J-U-N-K. She must have been smiling down on me b/c everytime I would say "5 more minutes" another group of people would come and buy more. I made enough to get a new kitchen table! And still have some to put towards our snowball. I know, I should have put it ALL to the snowball but our table was falling apart and if I have to stick to a menu plan, we need a place to eat. It was a super deal, as far as tables go. I spent $199 for the table and 4 chairs. Solid wood, with a dark cherry finish. I am in love! I also got a protection plan for when my children scratch, ding, dent, burn, marker, crayon, and stab my new table they will bring me a shiny new one for 5 years. tThey just don't know how destructive my kids can be!

Gas Prices!?!

I know I haven't posted since everything with my mom. I came and just haven't been inspired to share anything. I feel like we have strayed from Dave's teaching a bit. No credit card usage and our emergency fund is still in tact but we could have put much more in savings this month. Instead we have been sort of careless. Hopefully May will be the month to get our focus back.
I was over at one of my fave blogs, www.thriftyfloridamama.net, and was inspired to write a post. (thanks angie!) I noticed that she only spent $304 on gas last month. Then I realized that I said "only". How depressing. Our gas budget was $360 but it was stretching too tight by the end of our month (10th-10th). So we bumped it last month to $400. That seemed to be the magic number.
We have 2 cars, a small mini van and a 4 door sedan. We used to have a Tahoe and the price of gas was more than our payment. That was last summer. I can only imagine how much it would be now!
Gas prices here are 3.50-ish/per gallon. I can just about fill up my van on $40. That lasts almost a week. I drive about 20 min to work, not sure how many miles. Plus all the household errands. I do try to plan my route so I'm not driving in circles.
How are gas prices in your area and what is everyone's monthly gas budget? FYI- when I started writing this post on Saturday morning, gas was around 3.40. What a difference 3 days make!

In Loving Memory......

I know a lot of you have been praying for my mom and I haven't been updating. My mom went to be with her Lord and Savior on April 13th. After 16 days in ICU we made the decision as her family to let her go be with my grandparents in heaven. Her services were last Thursday and they were just what she would have wanted. Actually, she wouldn't have wanted that much attention focused on her. There were so many flowers we lost count around 40 arrangements, not including the family flowers. The chapel held 200 people and they were setting up chairs in the room just outside the chapel because the chapel was full 20 minutes before the service was to start. Such a testament to the amazing woman she was!

I am beyond sad but I know her struggle is over and that she is in her perfect place. And I know she is watching over us, especially Peyton.

I am in the process of getting back to my frugal ways. I went to CVS this morning and saved 167.00, spent .11 OOP, so I haven't lost my touch! I am hoping to share the secret with my sister, if she doesn't get frustrated with it. We all know it takes a couple of weeks to get into the groove of saving. I did a lot of cooking and freezing today so hopefully I will start cooking again instead of blowing our food budget. We actually stayed really well within our budget considering everything going on. We even had the money to contribute to flowers, the soloist, and the lady who did a slideshow for us. That, in itself, was an amazing feeling. I couldn't have handled any more stress after spending 16 days at the hospital with a 3 yr old most of the days.

I know my mom was proud of my money saving and new budgeting so I will continue to do those things so she can watch me with a joyful heart and not a worried heart. Thanks to all of you who were praying for her recovery, but instead she got the ultimate reward. I just wish it had come later for us.

Mom update 4/2

There has been no news to report. Nothing has changed. The doctor said today that it is a "grave outcome". Nice choice of words, huh? Please continue to pray for a miracle. Her seizures that were supposed to last 4 days are still happening (we're on day 6) and there is no projected time line of when they will stop.

Mom update

Here's a picture of my mom (Phyllis), Lee and Peyton from last summer.

Today seemed to be more promising but when the neurologist did an EEG it showed her brain to be seizing. We couldn't see the seizure they were only happening in her brain. This is just more sign of brain injury due to lack of oxygen. They put her under heavy sedation and 2 other seizure medicines to stop the seizures so we are back to waiting for another EEG to see if her brain continues to do this when not under sedation. The neurologist said that it is "bad and not what we want to see". I am trying to get this out to as many people as I can so she can be lifted up in prayer. A miracle is all we can hope for at this point. I will update again ASAP.

Thanks to Angie at http://www.thriftyfloridamama.net/ for the link on her blog. I hope it will reach more people through her as well. Thank you, too, to all the kind posts I received yesterday. I sincerely appreciate it.
Krissy