• Fresh & Healthy: Lunch Box Meals

    Lunch Box – Chicken Salad Sandwich, Tomatoes, Cucumbers, Banana, Yogurt, Lime Jello, CheezIt Crackers, and Boost

    With the second semester of school in full swing I am back to doing school lunches again every day.  Someone asked me what I send with the girls in their lunch boxes and asked if I could share some of my ideas.  Their lunches are not fancy, but I try to make them well balanced and fun.  Here is another post on school lunches.  In every lunch I pack a meat or protein, diary, fruit, vegetable, snack, and drink.

    Lunch Box – Chicken Salad Sandwich, Banana, Cucumbers, Tomatoes, Yogurt, Lime Jello, CheezIt Crackers, and Capri Sun Juice

    Occasionally I will pick up some character sandwich bags at the Dollar Tree or other stores just for fun to add to the girls lunches.  The girls love getting Princess, Dora, Tinkerbell, Lightening McQueen, and a variety of other character lunches baggies in their lunch boxes.  Sometimes I will get great sandwich bread on clearance at the store and make what the girls call “football sandwiches” for an special treat as well (pictured below).

    Princess sandwich bags

  • Living on a Budget: Groceries $40 for 4

    Another week of doing Groceries $40 for 4.  It was a busy week but I was able to stock up on some items, including hamburger. I mainly stocked up on non-perishable products this week because we have a few family road trips coming up that I need snacks / easy to prep meals to pack.  Eating out for all the meals on a road trip will add up quickly.  Below are my grocery shopping adventures for the week

    BiLo Groceries

    Groceries from BiLo:

    • $13.19 at BiLo 3 packages of ground Hamburger (1.6 pounds or more each) and Soy Sauce (marked at $1.14 with 75 cent clearance stickers).  In had a $5.00 off BiLo Meat coupon that I used as well.  The amount was right $19.96 before coupons and discounts.

    Bargain Foods Groceries

    Groceries from Bargain Foods:

    • $50.62 at Bargain Foods for the following items
    • 4 bags of Chex Mix
    • 2 boxes of Elbow Pasta
    • 2 Oscar Meyer Snack Packs
    • 1 box of Hamburger Patties
    • 1 HyTop Berry (6 pack)
    • 1 bundle of Bananas
    • 1 bag of Tater Tots
    • 1 Lance Variety Pack
    • 2 bags Reeses Pieces
    • 2 packs Twizzlers
    • 1 bag Raisinets
    • 2 Bazooka Bubbles
    • 1 Betty Crocker Gel
    • 1 box of Mini Corn Dogs
    • 1 bag of Andes Peppermint
    • 1 bag of Nestle Dark Chocolate
    • 1 bag of Brach Cinnamons
    • 2 cans of Cream of Chicken Soup
    • 1 Dole Juice Packs
    • 1 Earthbound Organic
    • 1 Betty Crocker Sugar Cookie Mix
    • 1 bag of Cherry Raisinets
    • 1 bag of Planters Trail Mix
    • 1 Wasabi Sauce
    • 1 box of Betty Crocker Fruit Foot
    • 4 cans of Green Beans
    • 1 bag of Carrots
    • 1 Betty Crocker Rainbow Chip
    • 1 Salad Topping
    • 1 Apple Juice
    • 1 Betty Crocker Dora Fruit Snacks
    • 1 Annies Cheddar Bunnies
    • 1 Betty Crocker Scooby Doo Snacks
    • 1 can of Planters Cashews
    • 1 Canola Oil
    • 1 Emeralds Chocolate Almonds
    • 2 Breakstone Light Sour Cream
    • 2 cans of whole Green Bean
    • 1 bag of Oyster Crackers
    • 1 Eve Juice Boxes
    • 1 bag of Sea Best Tilapia
    • 3 cans of Mushrooms
    • 1 Natural Valley Trail Granola Bars
    • 3 packs of Cheese Cubes
    • 1 bag of shredded Two Cheese Pizza
    • 1 Golden Bake Wheat Bread
    • 1 Golden Bake Hot Dog Buns
    • 1 Gold Bake Hamburger Buns
    • 4 boxes Animal Crackers

    Bargain Foods is a another great place to shop if you are in the area.  We ran into 3 people that we knew just the short time we were in the store.  It is a “bent / dent” store so some items are dented and you want to make sure to check the expiration dates.  The items available will depend on what they receive from other places who have overstock or for whatever reason want Bargain Foods to move it for them.  You can find some great deals but always check the prices when shopping.  Bargain Foods is a discount grocery store so they don’t take coupons at their stores, some items you may be better off buying at a local store that takes coupons.  I purchase 72 items and very few of them were over $1.

    WalMart Groceries

    Groceries from WalMart:

    • $0.00 at WalMart (I had a $5 gift card so didn’t have to pay anything for these items) for clearance French Loaf Bread ($0.90), Purple Grapes, and Strawberries.

    I am excited to be back doing our Groceries $40 for 4 budget again.  This week I spent $63.81 on groceries.  I went over the grocery budget this week and used up most of the extra cash I had in my “grocery wallet” to stock up on items.    This week we had couple extra events that I had to purchase items for which I didn’t have on hand so that brought the amount up as well.    Hopefully next week I will do better and keep it well under $40.  Thankfully I had a little bit left over from previous weeks to cover the extra amount.

    It is my goal to give you regular updates on this budget section so you can celebrate the good weeks with me and thump me on the bad weeks!  As always you are welcomed to join the journey with me.  I would love to hear your story and how you are doing too.  The purpose of our family doing this it to watch our grocery spending while allowing us to feed our family, enjoy life, share with others, and yet stay on track with our budget.

    Living on a Budget is a series of ways our family uses a budget to help keep us accountable with our finances.  Life doesn’t always go as planned.  We have used some of the ideas I will be sharing for years while others are ones we are just starting to implement as we continue finding ways to be creative and have fun with what we have been given.  Having a plan in place allows us the freedom to be smart with what we have been given, get more creative when it is a tight (week, month, year or a season) and when necessary live a much more simplified life.  A budget helps us stay on track so we have more opportunities to enjoy the many blessings we have been given as well as share what we have with others.  There is so much more to life than having all the stuff.  We may not have the newest or greatest items in our house, we drive used cars, and wear hand-me-down clothing…..however, if our family is taken care of and have love for each other and others we have more than all the riches in the world.