I alluded to this last week, but this is the week I'm taking the plunge. I WILL start exercising. I have several obstacles that I must overcome, but it's really time to start. First, I don't like exercising at home. I liked going to our local YMCA and working out there, but it costs money and I need a babysitter-both are things that are in short supply. Second, it is so easy to put exercise on the back-burner when the kids are in activities or errands need to be done and then it is 10 pm and I'm supposed to be in bed (which I'm failing at also). Third, Hubby is working a second job and while the weather is great for getting outside, it is hard to really get a decent workout in when you are trying to watch all three kids to make sure they don't wander into the road and they can't keep up the pace for very long, so I slow down and the benefits are lessened.
I could make excuses all day, but that is just what they are, excuses. Each evening I will do something active. I have a neighbor that wants to do the Couch to 5K program, so I will try and get set up to do that, but I also want to get out and do things with the kids. If I can't be without them, I might as well include them. The girls want to practice sets and serves for volleyball and I can play ball with little man, so an increase in activity has to be better than the status quo. I'm also going to try and get in a little 30 day Shred at least a couple times a week. It's bought and paid for, I need to use it.
I am also in the process of revamping our meal plan for this month. Last week, after a lot of agonizing reading, I decided to drastically cut the amount of grains we eat and replace them with vegetables and fruits (fresh where possible). This leaves the budget is a bind, as I spent over $50 in produce this week and another $75 in meat to get our stash built back up again. Also I just bought another 50 pound bag of flour that will be getting a lot less use. Also with food prices going up, I'm having trouble making the changes I want (and need) to make without just ditching the budget completely. At this time, I'm thankful that I do have the opportunity to take an extra daycare kid occasionally which is really helping to supplement my food budget.
Right now, I don't feel like I'm meeting the thrifty aspect of my blog/personal goal, but I'm trying to do the best I can for my family the cheapest way I can. Could my budget always be less? You bet, but would we eat as well as we do? Probably not. I will be heading out to the farmer's market next weekend to see what is available there, maybe there will be deals to be had.
Showing posts with label budget. Show all posts
Showing posts with label budget. Show all posts
Monday, May 9, 2011
Monday, February 28, 2011
Week 9: Whole White Wheat Flour
Flour is an essential item in our home. It probably ranks higher than any other food item. Because I make so much of our food from scratch, we can't do much if we run out of flour. Therefore, having a good quality, healthy flour is important to me. In order to keep up with the superfoods recommendations, I am purchasing only whole wheat flour.
This isn't something new. I've been buying whole wheat flour for years and for most of those years, I hated it. All of my "whole wheat" recipes were 1/2 whole wheat at best. Anything more than that and the food became heavy, dense and sometimes even grainy. Yuck! I want to be healthy, but I don't want to compromise quality and taste.
After doing some searching, I found that the whole wheat flour I had been purchasing all these years was ground from red wheat. Red wheat is known to be denser, lower in gluten and doesn't do well in baked goods. I needed flour ground from white wheat berries. There are hard and soft varieties, but overall white wheat does much better in breads, cookies, muffins, etc.
Armed with this new information I found whole white wheat flour and the difference is simply amazing. No one can tell the difference between cookies or muffins made with white wheat flour versus all purpose flour. Yeast breads are still a little denser (although nowhere near what I had been making), but the flavor is more in line with an all purpose or bread flour. To combat the density issue, this past weekend I purchased wheat gluten and will add that to my breads to see how it turns out.
I found a local bulk goods store that has ordered a 50 pound bag of the white wheat flour. It comes in on March 7th. I'm so very excited, I can hardly contain myself! When I pick the flour up, I'll also pick up large quantities of evaporated cane juice, rolled oats, brown rice, pinto beans, etc. This will take a large chunk of my grocery budget, but I am certain that it will save me money in the long run.
In the meantime, I picked up another 5 pound bag of flour to get me by until the 7th. This week I'll be experiementing with whole wheat yeast breads and hopefully be able to share some awesome recipes.
This isn't something new. I've been buying whole wheat flour for years and for most of those years, I hated it. All of my "whole wheat" recipes were 1/2 whole wheat at best. Anything more than that and the food became heavy, dense and sometimes even grainy. Yuck! I want to be healthy, but I don't want to compromise quality and taste.
After doing some searching, I found that the whole wheat flour I had been purchasing all these years was ground from red wheat. Red wheat is known to be denser, lower in gluten and doesn't do well in baked goods. I needed flour ground from white wheat berries. There are hard and soft varieties, but overall white wheat does much better in breads, cookies, muffins, etc.
Armed with this new information I found whole white wheat flour and the difference is simply amazing. No one can tell the difference between cookies or muffins made with white wheat flour versus all purpose flour. Yeast breads are still a little denser (although nowhere near what I had been making), but the flavor is more in line with an all purpose or bread flour. To combat the density issue, this past weekend I purchased wheat gluten and will add that to my breads to see how it turns out.
I found a local bulk goods store that has ordered a 50 pound bag of the white wheat flour. It comes in on March 7th. I'm so very excited, I can hardly contain myself! When I pick the flour up, I'll also pick up large quantities of evaporated cane juice, rolled oats, brown rice, pinto beans, etc. This will take a large chunk of my grocery budget, but I am certain that it will save me money in the long run.
In the meantime, I picked up another 5 pound bag of flour to get me by until the 7th. This week I'll be experiementing with whole wheat yeast breads and hopefully be able to share some awesome recipes.
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Trying out organic produce
Last night I headed to the store for apples. I really dislike the unplanned trips to the store. It always seems like money spent and not much gained. Of course I bought things that we didn't really need, but the purchases will make my trip this weekend much shorter. My big find was organic apples for $.77/pound. That's awesome as most on the non-organics are around $1/pound. Add to that, we've been eating apples like crazy, so I picked up 6 pounds of those. Then I also got a few other organic items that were within a few cents of their non-organic counterpart. I picked up romaine hearts, baby carrots, celery, grape tomatoes and tortilla chips. Then I also got some broccoli, cauliflower, and a couple peaches (all non-organic). I've spent another $30+ that isn't in the budget and I will still need bananas and milk for next week. At this point, I'm just trying to minimize the damage. :)
Friday, January 28, 2011
End of the month grocery tally
Most of last year my grocery budget hovered around $500/month. That included most eating out and the food for the daycare kids. I found that if we ate home more often, we ate better and saved quite a bit of money. With that in mind, part of my goal for 2011 was to lower my budget to $300/month. We are leaving town tonight for the weekend, so I'm calling this my "end of the month." My next meal plan starts Monday, so the groceries I purchase for that will count in February's budget money.
Until today, I spent right at $330. A little over, but not too bad. My problem is that it seems to be one of those months that you run out of everything at the same time. Don't you hate that? I st down last night and made my meal plan and grocery list and estimated the total to be $340. Plus, I'll still need to get milk and produce for the rest of the month. But, I think March's will be lower because over half of this month's money is going to a Sam's Club run and those items usually last 2-3 months, so that will be money saved in March and April (at least that's the plan).
Until today, I spent right at $330. A little over, but not too bad. My problem is that it seems to be one of those months that you run out of everything at the same time. Don't you hate that? I st down last night and made my meal plan and grocery list and estimated the total to be $340. Plus, I'll still need to get milk and produce for the rest of the month. But, I think March's will be lower because over half of this month's money is going to a Sam's Club run and those items usually last 2-3 months, so that will be money saved in March and April (at least that's the plan).
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