Be My Valentine: “I Love Everything You Dew” Love Note
I LOVE everything you dew!
A few weeks ago I discovered these cute “pop” love notes from Darling Doodles and have been enjoying adding these love notes to my stash of ones to give to Jake! 🙂 He enjoys drinking Mountain Dew so when it goes on sale I try to get a little for him. This particular love note was a great one to give to my man!
When Jake is coming home after being away with work for several days or if he has had a tough day I try to do something special to cheer him up. I will put the surprises in various visible places throughout the house (his side of the garage, kitchen, his desk, our dresser, on his plate at the table, etc…) where I know he will be. Although, he never knows when I am doing it or where I will put it he always finds it. On this particular day he was stressed with a lot on his plate with work, travel arrangements, family and everything else. I decided it was a good day to put out a special surprise for him to say “I love you”! The Mountain Dew and sweet note sitting on the dresser downstairs in our family room was the first thing he saw walking into the house and it did bring a smile which made it worth it for me!
Sometimes taking just a few minutes out of your day to show your spouse you are thinking about them and that you care can make all the difference. It doesn’t have to take a lot of time, money or effect but the benefits will go a long way. Doing something special for them could mean packing their lunch for work the next day, laying out their clothes the night before, or even leaving a love note on their pillow. Investing time and energy into your marriage is always good for the entire family. How do you cheer your spouse up or make them feel appreciated?
Living on a Budget: Groceries $40 for 4
I wasn’t able to spend a lot of time shopping the sales this week with all the extra stuff going on around here (including sick family members for a couple days), but I was able to go to a couple stores and pick up some stuff. Most of the stuff I stocked up on were items that we can use over the next few weeks. Here is my weekly update on our Groceries $40 for 4.
Groceries from Ingles and Walgreens
Ingles Groceries:
- $27.93 at Ingles for 1 loaf Laura Lynn Bread, 2 boxes Act II HomePop Popcorn, 2 boxes Act II Light Popcorn, 2 boxes Act II Butter Popcorn, 2 bags Laura Lynn Oyster Crackers, 2 jars Vlasic Dill Relish, 3 bags Laura Lynn Shredded Cheese, 1 container Deans Onion Dip, 2 boxes Yogurt (clearance for 50 cents each), 1 block Sharp Cheddar Cheese, 2 bags English Muffins, 4 tubes Laura Lynn Texas Biscuits, 2 tubes Pillsbury Cinnamon Rolls, and 2 loaves French Bread. (Everything I bought this week at Ingles was on sale, marked down, or on clearance. I was able to pick up some more cheese on sale, and used some coupons for the items purchased!)
Walgreens Groceries:
- $7.27 at Walgreens for 2 gallons Milk, 1 box South Beach Granola Bars, 4 boxes Mountain Dew (12 packs), (everything was on sale, I used coupons, registered rewards, and I received $5.99 in Register Rewards back to use towards my next purchase.)
This week I spent $35.20 on groceries. Even though I was under on my budgeted amount for the week I was able to stock up on some items at the same time. I was thrilled to stock up on bread and diary items as well as other great fridge & pantry items this week. I hope that next week is better week and we can come under budget!
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.
Living on a Budget: Groceries $40 for 4
It was a wild week, our family has a lot of fun adventures coming up so I am trying to stop on top of everything. Hopefully I will be able to share a little bit more about our upcoming plans before long. I was not able to get to the grocery store until late on Friday but thankfully was able to pick up almost everything I needed this week even if I did got a little over budget. Here is my weekly update on our Groceries $40 for 4.
Groceries from Save A Lot | Rite Aid, Walmart, Ingles, and Walgreens
Save A Lot | Rite Aid Groceries:
- $7.90 at Save A Lot | Rite Aid for 2 boxes Blue Bonnet sticks of butter, 2 boxes Quaker Chewy Granola Bars, 1 container Butter Spread (3 lb), and 1 bag Carrots (2 lbs). (All the items were on sale or clearance.)
Walmart Groceries:
- $0.00 at Walmart for 1 bag Whole Wheat Sandwich Rolls (on clearance), 1 bag Everything French Bread (on clearance), 1 bag Chocolate Chips, 1 box Popcorn (8 count), 2 liter Mountain Dew (price matched), and 1 box Idaho Potatoes (free product coupon). (Bought items on sale or clearance and paid with a gift card so the total was zero.)
Ingles Groceries:
- $42.84 at Ingles for 1 jar Peter Pan Natural Peanut Butter, 1 can Tuna Fish, 1 Starkist Tuna Fish, 2 boxes Pop Secret Popcorn, 2 loaves Laura Lynn Bread, 4 bags Laura Lynn Shredded Cheese, 2 blocks Laura Lynn Sharp Cheddar Cheese, 2 Laura Lynn sliced Cheese (16 count each), 2 boxes Breakfast Biscuits / Pancakes (on clearance, 10 count each), 6 containers Fresh Blueberries (on clearance), 3 bags Snow Peas (on clearance), 1 container Cherry Chocolate Covered Pretzels (on clearance), 1 container Roasted Soybeans (on clearance), 2 bottles Bare Naked Fruit Drinks (on clearance), 2 Laura Lynn English Muffins (6 count each) and 2 sweet Yellow Onions. Not pictured 3 bags of chips we purchased to take over to a friends house. (Everything I bought this week at Ingles was on sale, marked down, or on clearance. All the produce was marked down to $0.99 cents, I was able to pick up some more cheese on sale, and used some coupons for the items purchased!)
Walgreens Groceries:
- $0.65 at Walgreens for 2 dozen Eggs, 1 S6 Power Bar, 1bag Domino Sugar (4 lbs), and 1 two liter A&W Root Beer (everything was on sale, I used $9.59 in coupons, and I received $1.89 in Register Rewards back to use towards my next purchase.)
This week I spent $51.39 on groceries. Even though I was over on my budgeted amount for the week I was able to stock up on some items at the same time plus I had a little extra to spend since I had come under budget in previous weeks. I was thrilled to stock up on produce (blueberries) and diary items as well as other great fridge & pantry items this week. I hope that next week is better week and we can come under budget!
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.
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.
