“Thinking of You” Star Balloon!
One of my daughters had a minor surgery (she got a set of tubes put in her ears) a couple weeks ago. Her sister wanted to pick up a get well balloon for her for after the surgery. We went to the Dollar Store and she picked out a balloon that she thought would “make her smile”.
Instead of the traditional get well balloon she got a star balloon because her sister loves anything related to space. The balloon was a big hit and is still floating above her bed even now. It amazes me how long the Dollar Tree balloons can stay up!
This little gesture of kindness, from sister to sister, reminds me of how thankful I am for kids who are thoughtful and loving (most days) towards their family members. Sometimes it’s the little things you do or acts of kindness that make the biggest impact on the lives of others. We need to do more acts of kindness to show we care for our family, friends, and those around us. It only takes a little effort from us, but it may go a long way in lifting someone’s spirits, much like this balloon lifted my daughter’s spirits.
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
Family Celebrations: Welcome Home Daddy!
Jake has been away on a business trip the last few days and all his girls have missed him greatly. He came home to a clean house and a “Welcome Back” balloon tied to a bag of his favorite sunflower seeds that the girls had picked out at the Dollar Tree. Thankfully he had a great trip and made it home safely last night. He brought home a few little treasures for the girls and a Zaxby’s Birthday Cake Milkshake for me, delicious! I am grateful for a family who enjoys spending time together. We are all glad to have him back home!
Welcome Home Daddy we missed you!!!! XOXOXO 
Zaxby's Birthday Cake Milkshake! Amazing - Thanks Babe! Living on a Budget: Groceries $40 for 4
RiteAid and Walgreens It was my third week of doing my new cash budget system – Groceries $40 for 4. Although it has been a learning process the last two weeks this one has gone pretty well so far. I have to admit, honestly, this week we stocked up on some good deals on special treats and items for road trips for the family. It is always a learning and growing progress for our family. We are continuing to utilize the food we already have in our pantry and freezer. Here is my grocery spending for the week:- $2.29 at Walgreens for 3 boxes of Sugar Free Jello Pudding and 1 M&M Cookie (see picture below)
- $9.99 at RiteAid for a 3 Mountain Dew ThrowBack (12 packs) and 1 free Diet Pepsi (12 pack). Jake really likes the Mountain Dew Throwback and recently I have been having a hard time finding it even on the shelves so we stocked up this week.
Mommy was a softy since the girls were home from school on Monday and helping me run errands. I bought the girls a giant M&M Sugar Cookie that was on sale for 50 cents. Brina and Karlie were more than happy to share the monster cookie! =) It was great having my two little helpers along for a ZoobaLoobaDoo errand! The errands were not quite as “efficient” but they did help and were super good during the trip!
SaveALot | RiteAid and BiLo Groceries from SaveALot | RiteAid and BiLo:
- $8.14 at SaveALot | RiteAid for 2 gallons of Milk, Popcorn, and Sugar Free Candy
- $5.54 at BiLo for 2 packs Eggs (Dozen each), Gatorade Orange, Gatorade Fruit Punch, and Fresh Cabbage.
RiteAid, Dollar Tree, and Winslett Groceries from RiteAid, Dollar Tree, and Winslett:
- $7.99 at RiteAid for 3 (12 packs) Mountain Dew Throwback and 1 free (12 Pack) of Diet Pepsi (We are not Diet Pepsi drinkers, but since it was a free item we have reallocated it to someone who does! I wouldn’t have done this deal again but I had 2 – $1 off coupons for Pepsi products so the packs were less than $2 each). Jake should be set for quite awhile after this week’s stocking up on the Mountain Dew throwback!!!
- $3.03 at Dollar Tree for 3 bags of Sugar Free candy
- $2.00 at Winslett’s Produce (a family store with fresh produce) for 2 bags of Gluten Free White Cake Mix (we have several friends with Gluten allergies so this comes in handy for hosting and sharing)! The bags were marked down to $0.99 from $4 each!!!
It was our third week of the challenge – Groceries $40 for 4 and we spent $38.98 so we were close to going over again, but thankfully we did better this week . I was able to stock up on some items for my man this week; Mountain Dew Throwback, Gatorade packs, and Sunflower seeds are perfect for traveling! Do you think I missed him a little bit while he was gone on a work trip, ha!? I am still trying to work out all the details of how to make the budget most effective for our family and I think some weeks will be easier than others. I used some coupons, bought clearance items, and utilized weekly ad discounts to help save us a little extra on our grocery budget. I hope to do better next week now that we have replenished Jake’s drinks! We’ll see how I do!
I hope 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.
