Week 4 Shopping update

I took my coupon binder on a test drive last week. ...And didn't end up using a thing. But thats ok. It doesn't save you any money to buy something just because you have a coupon you know what I mean? I shopped the adds and got a lot of our basics for pretty cheep because of price matching. Yay!  So we saved a little bit of money. We still paid 80 bucks. But that isn't bad for about a week and a half-2 weeks.

But I must say that Chris was pretty impressed with my organization skills. Thats a first. I'm not an organized person by any means.

I am applying for a few jobs here and there. But I am being very picky about them. No Sundays. Better pay. So in the event that my plan doesn't work as planned and I still have to work, I won't have to work as much. Or on Sundays, so we can have at least one day to spend as a family.

Week 2 Day 4 Meal Plan Monday

Last week's plan had a few changes. But for the most part it helped a lot. So here is this weeks.

Monday -I made a pot roast with potato and carrots. yummmm

Tuesday- Chicken cream of mushroom and rice. Is there a proper name for that?

Wednesday- Cinco De Mayo!  Taco Night! A friend will be with us who doesn't eat beef so I'm thinking of making this crockpot chicken in addition to ground beef. Hubby won't like the chicken because its "different." Such a picky eater.

Thursday-Pizza  We are going to visit family Friday and hate to get the kitchen dirty before we leave

Friday-Sunday- In-Laws will have this all figured out. I love that!

This was an easy week.

Week 2 Day 4 Coupon Binder

Life has been pretty busy for me. But somehow I managed to get my coupons organized! YAY!!!!

I had to wait to get my Staples Rewards Check (you get 10% back on ink paper and copies at Staples with a rewards card) to get the binder and baseball card holders. So, I paid nothing to get all nice and organized. What could be better than that?!

                                                             Here is my pile of coupons. 

Then I divided 2 papers into sections according to the organization of my grocery store...or at least how I picture it. i may need to change a few things once I start actually using it. Here are my coupons all divided into groups.

Each group gets their own page, and eventually their own section. I still need to create something to divide each one. But I think I'm going to wait until I actually go to my grocery store to see how close I was.

I don't have a picture of the final product. But you can see the cute green binder peaking in the corner of my second photo.

Now I don't have an excuse to not use my coupons. Let the savings Begin!!!!

Day 4 Meal Plan Monday

Here is my meal plan ideas for the week...

Monday- I made beef and broccoli with brown rice. I didn't have brown sugar so I added honey. It tasted good but was missing something, I'm thinking it was my lack of brown sugar. But over all, very yummy. Chris even had seconds! It is going in my 30 day recipies

Tueday- Quesadilla and soup

Wednesday- Hopefully we will be having dinner with my parents and grandma

Thursday- Something with chicken. I'm thinking crock pot chicken. Well see how I feel.

Friday--Spaghetti. Chris and his friend are running in a 5K Saturday, so I'm giong to load them up with carbs.  (I love pasta, so I'll take any excuse I can)

Day 2 b The start of my 30 day recipies!!

Well I have sucessfully come up with 23 regular dinners.... And in these 23 I'm including things I have only made one time, really liked, and totally forgot about. Here are my first 23. I'll post the actually recipies once I get them all typed up and such. :)

Chicken Enchiladas


Taco

Pizza

Taco Salad

Steak

Soup and Sandwiches

Soup and Quesadilla   (This is Hubbys favorite meal that I make. I don't know if that means I have a simple husband, or I'm a simple cook...Maybe its a bit of both.)

Big Salad

Au Jus Sandwiches

Creamy Chicken and Rice

Hamburgers

Grilled Chicken

Hamburger Helper

Spaghetti

Fettuccini

Chicken Strips

Company Beef

Fajitas

Pork Roast

Stroganoff Sandwich   (My favorite new dinner actually! Way yummy!)

Potao Soup

Crock Pot Chicken

Day 2 My Gameplan

Here is my game plan to make this work as of right now. I know its going to change and such. That's part of the fun!!!

1- Make a blog to document my journey. Hence why you are reading this. :)

2- Create  a 30 day meal plan. I got the idea from http://littlenannygoat.blogspot.com/2010/02/30-meals-review.html   Read it. It is pretty interesting. I'm only in the make a list of all your meals stage and already it has helped me. There are so many meals that I love and forget about!!!!

3- Become a couponer. This involves organizing a coupon binder and everything. It should be a fun adventure.

4-Figure out how to be a freelance writer. I love writing, so why don't I do something about it?


What do you think guys? Anything terribly important that I missed? Comments are always welcome.

Day 1 The Story Behind trying to be a WAHM

My mission: to be a work at home mommy by my baby's 1st birthday--October 14, 2010. This gives me a little less than 6 months to do it. Is it possible???

You might ask where all this is coming from. Here it is...

Well I reread my personal blog and I have written countless times how I want to be a stay at home mom, but it just isn't in the cards right now. I got to thinking, why isn't it? How much do I really make at *insert office supply store place of employment*? Well, lets see. My last check was $39.43. The one before that really wasn't much better. Seriously!! I go through the stress of finding a sitter, looking presentable to go to work, and have to deal with nasty customers for THAT. Granted, I only worked one day that week, but still. Its not worth it. So i said "Alicia, is there a way I can just save my monthly paycheck in things we waste our money on?" And it dawned on me. GROCERIES!!!!! We spent over $80 in groceries in 6 days. And we still don't have anything to eat, naturally. Yeah, I don't even make enough to cover our groceries. My job really is kind of pointless.

So I started searching for ideas and came across http://moneysavingmom.com/. Let me tell you, you need to go over there and read it. I spent probably a good 3 hours just reading what she has to say about everything. While reading, I thought why don't I do a blog about my new goal to be a wahm? And so here it is.


And so now I have this large game plan in my head. This game plan will be documented tomorrow.