Menu Planning!!!

Admist all my reading lots of books - I do try to be organized and run our home well!!  It does not always work out, and I'm still learning!  I've only been married for 10 months, and have only been a "mom" or a stepmom for that amount of time too.  Needless to say, theres a lot to learn on both accounts!  Learning we all like to do in free time, how clean we are, what our weekly menu looks like, it can be overwhelming sometimes - but in a good way!

I'm linking up with one of my fave blogs, a bowl full of lemons this week to learn how to plan a menu, shop for only those items on the menu - and be frugal while doing all of this!

If you like menu planning + frugal, you may want to check out 5 dollar dinners she has TONS of recipes on her website and if you want to, you can pay to sign up for her weekly or Since we are on Dave Ramsey, I'm not doing that, but I am using some of her menus for this week to make up my own $5 dinner plans.  The cool thing is, I picked all menus that include food items that we already have here at home, so this week its like $0 dinners;)  Anyways, I've only planned this week, and have only done dinner - since Ash and I are both in school all day (her learning, me counseling) and Dave sleeps during the day and works late at night (nurse) dinner is really the only meal we all eat together.  Of course, our breakfast and lunch items take up a bit of our weekly grocery budget too - but more on that later. 

Anyways, here are some pics I took of me planning our menu this week, and getting ready for weekly menu planning from here on out:

My Recipe Binder, which you can read more about how I made it, here

 Downloaded from $5 dinners, this is our monthly menu plan for April, not totally filled out yet....

 I printed out a TON of $5 dinners and keep them in the Recipe Binder

 I'm also going through a lot of my cookbooks and writing down our faves on this handy sheet, found randomly on the internet, and keeping this in the Recipe Binder too so its a one stop shop for all our favorite meals....

 See?

 The Monthly Menu plan will live in this binder too, as well as the Pantry stock list.  This list was compiled on $5 to help us figure out what staple foods and items I always need in my pantry to make most of her recipes, its a good list of things that most people usually already have too - I only need to buy a few things to complete it!

These are other free printables from $5 dinners - shopping lists.  There are two here that I like, one has space to list the meals for each week and what to buy, and the one the left is a list separated by sections of the grocery store....I like both!  I honestly think I'll fill the right one out during my meal planning time (probably on Sat when I cut coupons) and then transfer the list to the left one so that its shopping made easy in the actual store (who else tries NOT to forget anything in one part of the store, only to realize you have and go allllll the way back to the aisle to get it....so annoying!)

Anyways, so there is a lot that goes into this.  Couponing, meal planning, organizing, recipe building and searching, being frugal and being healthy (April is my BE HEALTHY month, I promise the Happiness Post on that is coming....) it's a lot to think of!

Saturdays I get my paper, I will sit down and find 7 meals (or 6 if we are going out that week, which we usually do once) and recipes from my books, my binder, or the internet.  From those, I will make my list of what to buy,  trying to be as frugal as possible, which is why I like $5 dinners and coupons!!  Then, I will clip coupons from the paper that I know I will use, the rest get recycled.  Never buy an item just because you have a coupon, only buy it if you actually eat it, and honestly only use them if its a good deal!  I also get on the computer and search coupons that way, again ONLY printing ones I know I will use.   Using the circulars from the paper, I will figure out where to buy my food.  Usually I go to the ShopRite right across the street, but if Target or Wal-Mart have a really good sale (last week W had 24 pop tarts for $5, can't pass that up since Ashley eats about 4 pop tarts a day!  She's gotta cut back...we're trying!)  Then, after gathering my coupons (I use little coupon pouches from Target), deciding what stores to go to, I'm off to shop!

I'll still be tweeking this process as I go.  I'm new at this.  But there is something nice about KNOWING what is for dinner every night, and preparing in advance.  It's also easier on our wallets, which is great since we are doing our Total Money Makeover!

So that's how I am planning my meals and menu!  Any tips or sharing of your process would be awesome!

FYI - I did finally finish Sense and Sensibility, it was SO good as I already said, way better than the movie.  I'm starting Book 2 of Hunger Games, I'm so excited:)

Purge Week!!!

It's Purge Week over at a bowl full of lemons and you KNOW I'm going to be a part of that!!!  I love purging!!  It's actually part of my Happiness project (more on this tomorrow) for this month:)

So far I've cleaned out my closet and our kitchen pantry.  Here is my closet all "done":

This is the after picture, I should've taken a before.  Just imagine all those jeans and sweatshirts thrown in a haphazard pile up on the top shelf (they're folded now, I promise - I just have a lot), the skirts and work pants overflowing that hanging organizer, boots flowing out of the bottom of the closet, and a lot of the clothes falling of the hangars!!!  It was a closet nightmare!  I really want to re-work my system in here, but due to our Dave Ramsey Total Money Makeover we don't really have the money for a new closet system so I have to make this do.  I could still stand to throw away some clothes.  I keep going back every few days and pull something else out!  I'll re post a pic later this week after I comb through it again!

Here is our pantry before and after:

 We had NO system here.  Just buy stuff and throw it in there!!!  But now....

We have organization!!!  I bought those red baskets up on the top from the Dollar Store to organization all my baking stuff (we bake a lot around here!) and moved the cereal/pop tarts boxes to a shelf that Ash can actually reach (not sure this is a good or a bad thing, lol?!?!) and rearranged the stuff on the bottom.  It works a lot better for us.  I also know now what I need to buy more of, because "everything has a place" in here and if we are running low I can easily see that.  I love that motto!  I would love a hanging organizer for the inside of the door, and I could hang our aprons on the wall there on the left.  All in good time though!

So this week we will be purging through the following:

• Dave's closet
• Ashley's closet
• The game closet in the basement
• My bathroom stuff (I have a TON of hair/body/makeup stuff)
• Office
• Craft room
• Hall closets (both of them)

It's going to be awesome.  As Toni says on her blog; Clutter = Stress.  Gretchen says it in her Happiness book   This is SO true for me.  If things are messy and cluttered in my house I really go crazy, it's funny!  So here is to creating more sanity for the Bland house (Dave & Ashley will appreciate this, probably not the work to get to sanity, but the sanity will benefit them for sure) lol.

Budget Box Reveal!!

Earlier this week I wrote a post that we were definitely starting our whole Financial Freedom/Dave Ramsey plan.  I am so excited about this.  Not because we are going to be sticking (hopefully) to a VERY strict budget, but excited for what it'll do for our lives and our future and even our happiness (good for a Happiness Project post maybe?!)  Dave R says "Live like no one else now so you can live like no one else later" we like that saying.  Yeah we want nice cars and stuff and tons of clothes and games and movies...but do we want that more than early retirement, having a lot saved when we are older, traveling all over?  Nope.  We don't want the stuff!!  In fact, I'm purging our whole house of the "stuff" so we can lead more organized, clutter free lives, inside and out!

So far I've paid off 5 of my credit cards from my early "adult" years.  Such a bad idea to give an 18 yr old credits cards.  I have one more card to go, the balance isn't that high so that will be gone in a month or so - it's been closed and I never ever use it.  Then we have Daves one card to pay off.  We still use this one, but we have started to cut down on its use, a lot.  Then theres my school loan.  Ugh.  Whoever says education debt is good debt, probably doesnt have a school loan, lol!  Anyways, the point is - we are trying to pay off all this debt FAST, so our budget is based around doing that, and having an good Emergency Fun, life needs like gas and food, and then "stuff" comes last if at all!

So, to help with all this money-keeping-together I linked up with a bowl full of lemons this week to create a budget box.  Our box will help us keep our budget and finances organized!!  Have a look-sy:

 I got the box and folders and envelope book all at Target.  Total cost $15.  I guess thats ok in the challenge to become debt free?  We finalize our budget tomorrow, lol, there won't be much "extra stuff at Target" room in that budget! 

 Using my label maker (aka an organizers BFF) I labeled tons of folders with the following labels:

Pay Now

Paid Bills (we usually keep a few months worth of paid bills, just in case)

Medical Docs

Bank Info

Pay Stubs

Budget

Budget Forms

Investments

Tax Info

House Info

Receipts (have to keep these to make sure we are doing well, budgetwise!)

....to name a few

 Um...yeah, we have a lot of...paper.  This is all the stuff Dave & I have both saved, now we are merging it all, throwing most of it away (uncluttering is lovely!) and if it's important it has a place in our budget box.

 Not the most glamorous package, but this baggie will, for now, hold our calculator, check book, a pen and pencil, envelopes and stamps.  This will live in the back of the box so it's a one stop shot to paying our bills.  It has everything we need!

 All labeled and stuffed up and ready to go!

 This little book will be our envelope system.  It's a Dave R system that helps with the budgeting.  Theres a little notepad with it to track our daily spending!

 All done!!  It feels good to be financially organized - paperwise.

See?  We will tuck it onto our wonderful Ikea shelf for safe keeping so when we need to work on finances, pay bills, we can just pull the Budget Box out and go to town! 

Tomorrow night Dave & I have a scheduled date to sit at the table, pull this box out and jump into finalizing our budget.  We are excited about it, in a weird way.  It'll be hard, but it'll be all worth it in the end! 

I've gotten a lot done today!  It feels good to feel BETTER and be productive.  More on that later....time to read!!

Under the kitchen sink...

Inspired, once again by A bowl full of lemons (I love the way Toni organizes and cleans!) I decided to tackle under our kitchen sink.  It was a DISASTER!  See:

Gross!!!  It's tough because I have to share most of the space right in the middle with that pipe - but this cabinet actually has a lot of space it in on the left and right side of the stupid pipe.  Anyways, see how we just toss the grocery bags in without a care?  The cleaning supplies are tossed in there after Ashley does her weekly chores - its just a mess.  Then we have a little drawer right above it that I throw random stuff in, and that needs to be delivered from chaos as well!

So I stopped my the dollar store on my way home from cutting the wood for the craft room desk at my parents (still working on that, big reveal hopefully this week) and picked up some organizing stuff:

 Two big baskets, $1 each, and two small baskets, $1 for the pair.  So $3 for this little project.  Plus we had some of this left, that I put on the bottom of the cabinet to help it look better:

Anyways, I cleaned and organized.  I threw away a lot of those grocery bags (who needs 100 of them?!) and save some to keep down in the basement for cleaning Frodo's litter box.  I must say I am proud of how much more organized we are now!  See:

 All cleaning supplies in one place, so we can actually take this basket with us to whichever room we are cleaning - so nice!

 I put all the bags in the other basket, I actually took more bags out after taking this pic, as well as added the red protector thing to the cabinet - it looks even better than this!

 The little heart baskets hold sponges in one and candles/batteries in the other.

 I love my little door organizer too - keeps me from keeping junk on top of the counter top & sink.  Now look!!!!   I have a whole little drawer that is EMPTY!!!  More space!!  Woooo!!  Our kitch is kinda little, so more space is always fun.  I have two smaller cabinets that need serious help with organizing...so I have big plans for filling this drawer. 

So that was part of my productive day.  I've done much more, and I'll tell you about that later!

Oh here are pics of the cab with the red stuff done at the bottom:

Recipe Binder!

In the ever-going quest to be organized, I joined up with A Bowl Full of Lemons for the Weekly Challenge to make a recipe binder!  This is helpful because I am always getting recipes off the internet (i.e. Food Network or All Recipes, etc) and never want to print them out because I have no where to put them and I was just too lazy to make something like this.  Then I forget about where I found that GREAT recipe when I want to make it again, sad:( Not anymore!!  I've been inspired!  So I took an hour or so last night while Dave & Ashley were playing Disney Sing it Party Hits (yes, it WAS hilarious!) to make this:

 My chic home-made cover, I don't have photo shop (oh I miss my Mac, I need to get it fixed!) but I find that I can make stuff just as well in PowerPoint. 

 A view from the side, I wanted to make something cute for the spine, but this is a skinny binder (my mom likes to use these for recipes) and the spine is so skinny it's hard to fit anything in there, lucky I have a label maker that I looooove:)

 Once again, like the Home Management Binder I made my own dividers out of sturdy scrapbook paper.  It just makes it look prettier, doesn't it?

With my label maker I labeled the sections I think we will use the most in our family:

Appetizers

Breakfast

Bread

Crockpot

Soup &Salad

Main Dishes

Desserts

International

So now I can surf the net and try to find all my favorite recipes and fill them into this cute binder.  And any time I find a new one I won't hesitate to print it out!  YAY!  Thanks for the inspiration, Toni:)

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

I wake up to....

 Flowers and breakfast from Dave, who just got off work and hurried home NOT to sleep but to make his Valentine a nice breakfast!  How sweet!!

 Our first Valentine's Day married!!  I look rough here, sorry, I just got out of bed, didn't know where to look at the camera and whoa....just whoa....brush your hair Tina!!

We got these utensils as a wedding gift, they are really cute - see the hearts at the bottom?!?!

I'm still in the middle of trying to customize my blog!  I am having a hard time getting my awesome made-by-me header/banner to be centered on my page.  It's really cute, I hope I can make it work....it's really a pain in the but, I need to take a graphics design class to learn this stuff!

I'm realllllly behind in my reading this month.  I've been busy looking for jobs, helping my mom renovate her house so they can sell it this year, and hanging out with friends!  I'm halfway through Dead in Dallas by Charlene Harris...the True Blood books.  It's good!  But it's only my 3rd book!!  Yikes!!  It's halfway through the month, I should be done 5 by now!!!  But I'm not worried because the Martha Stewart sewing book and the Dave Ramsey book will be easy, one-day reads!

I already have a list of at least 10 more books that I was told about or saw in a store, I'm excited to pick out my new ones - Feb is just flying by.  The library called with another book I picked out, so that's 11 for this month but I'm not officially adding it unless I have time!  If I don't it'll go on Marchs list.  March!  Already!!

Anyways, I hope you all enjoy your Valentine's Day.  I know I will!!  Dave just made me a lovely breakfast, my sweet Valentine, and now I may  go help mom, and later after picking up Ash we are all going to dinner together and then making fondue!  Dave & I are celebrating our Vday on Friday, when Ash is with her mom and he has off.  We make it work around here:)  Have a great week!

I know I promised house pictures, I will get them up this week.  Oh and I'm also doing the Weekly Challenge over at A Bowl Full of Lemons to make a recipe binder!!  I'm so excited!  Check out her blog, it's awesome!

Home Management binder...

I'm doing this challenge that is posted up on one of the lovely blogs I read, it's called A Bowl Full of Lemons and the challenge is that I have to create a binder for our household mess of lives!  I'm really excited!  I need to get a binder, label maker (borrowing from mom), dividers, etc and make tabs for what fits our lifestyle.  Ours will definitely have sections for:

Schedules (weekly, monthly and year)
Finances (including a budget and a place with our creditor names/numbers so we dont have to search far)
Menu Plans
Grocert Lists
To-Do Lists
Cleaning and Chores
Health (keep copies of cards, DR numbers and Policy numbers all in one place)
Contacts
Vacations (we plan on taking a LOT of vacations in life, so we need this...maybe Disney should even have its own tab...lol)

That's all I can think of now - but isnt it a great idea?  A place to keep life organized.  I like it!  If you want to join the challenge, or just do it on your own - go to the blog above and read all about it.  I'll post more later as I get all my supplies together to start this binder. 

I'm also off to the library for my February 10 books: I'm really excited!!!  I'll post later with my picture o books and rough draft book list;)  Have a happy Monday!