How I Cut Our Grocery Bill in Half!

....Yes, IN HALF!!!...and we eat a lot :)

I am so absolutely excited about this that I'm pretty much exclaiming it to anyone who will listen! Because not ONLY did I cut our bill in half, I spent a whole 15 mins in 3 different stores buying a months worth of groceries! How I did do that, you ask?! Well, LET ME TELL YOU!!! :)

I planned ahead.

With a little planning, and a little time set aside dedicated to making my lists, etc, I was able to save hundreds of dollars and hours of time!! (not to mention tons of gas money driving to town week each for groceries!) Here's how I did it!.....

First I made a menu for the whole month...Breakfast, lunch and supper, along with any special snacks, desserts, or foods that we always want on hand, otherwise known as our "staples" (which I have written on a list so each time I make my grocery lists I can just scan the staples list to see what we need instead of trying to remember everything and then realize when we get home that I forgot something!). After I have a menu made, I make a grocery list of everything that I would need to make all my meals for the month. Next, I categorize my lists into my 4 different places I will get the groceries.

1) Azure Standard, my buying club/co-op that I order from once a month. They usually have some great deals on produce (.64/lb for organic apples, .69 for organic potatoes, .40/lb for oranges, those are just an example of a few from this month).

2) What I don't get through Azure I will get at Coborns b/c they have a large organic and natural selection and that is usually our first choice.

3) What I can't get at Coborns or what I want to get a better deal on I will look for at Sams Club. (Example, I buy huge bags of frozen fruit that I use almost daily for snacks or to put in smoothies).

4) What I don't get at any of the above places, I will pick up at Walmart. I only had to buy 6 things at Walmart this month...awesome!

And Walmart took 15 of my 20 total minutes of shopping. So how did I do the other 2 stores in only 5 minutes?????

I ordered online and picked it up at the store.

What is this sooooo awesome?!? Well, 1)You save a ton of money bc we all know that we WILL find something that we just HAVE to have while we are in the store that wasn't on our list, thus we end up spending more than we planned (esp if you are in Sams bc everything in that store is at least $10 and 2) It saves a TON of time in the store. Yes, you do have to shop online which takes time, but I would MUCH rather shop in my pjs, sitting with my feet up, after my kids have gone to bed than shop IN the store, with all my kids, with all the other people, waiting in lines, etc. Anyday.

Sam's Club has a 'click n pull' program where you just go to their website, log in with your membership card info, do your shopping, choose your pick up time and place your order. You go into the store, walk up to the membership desk, tell them you have a click n pull order, they ring you up, you pay, they give you your cart--all full with your groceries you've already ordered, and you walk out of the store in 2 mins flat. Awesome.

Coborns is the same way...you shop online, choose your pick up time, place your order and they have it ready for you at the store...BUT there's MORE!!!...with Coborns you don't even need to go into the store!! You just pull through the parcel pick up line, tell the guy that you have an online order, they call the service desk to verify which one is yours and they place it in your vehicle for you! WOW!

Do you see how much time this saves?!? Plus, you know you have all the food you need to make your meals so there's never any last minute eating out bc you 'have nothing to eat' AND it takes all the stress away bc you know what you're going to be making!!!

(And my co-op order is obviously ready for me...I order that online and just pick it up from the truck that it's delivered on)

So that's how I did it! And, honestly, the total for my groceries this month was HALF of what I normally spend...and it was all meals, and I didn't hold back :)

HOW AMAZING IS THAT?! :)

Another fun week

Oh where does my time go?! This week has actually flown by and I can't believe that it's already Saturday!!

We are loving the fact that now that we have a place of our own, we can finally have people over for food and fellowship! Last week Ana's family was able to stay for lunch on Wednesday and Saturady! Then last Sunday we had a busy day with company...one of Nathan's sisters and family out for lunch and to show them the house. They left around 3:30 and then our neighbors came over around 4:30 and stayed for supper and left around 7:30. After putting the kids to bed, we went straight to bed ourselves since Nathan had to be up at 3:00am to leave for work.

Ana came again this week to help me, from Wednesday til today! I know I've said this before and I'm sure I'll say it again but I just feel absolutely blessed that she is willing to come to help!! This week I was able to take a little snooze on the couch and a couple nice showers without worrying about what my little kiddies were in to! She also allowed me to sit on the couch and snuggle my kids after supper while she did the dishes!! She also allowed me to go out with a few girlfriends after the kids were in bed one evening! And right now she told me to go "rest or blog" while she makes some graham crackers because I've been fighting a lost voice and a headache :) What a blessing!!

Out with the girlfriends! (which I haven't done in the evening since I've been married!)


It's not exactly easy to bake when you have a 4 year old on your back!! But Ana seemed to do it well! She made caramel pecan shortbread and another awesome crazy cake this week!


It's kind of hard for Ana to eat since the kids want to sit so close to her...she can barely move her arms! :)


Caramel Pecan Shortbread


Homemade hot chocolate with homemade marshmellows! yum!



Tiernan helping Ana baking...


What were they baking? Banana Bread...but they also made White Chocolate Cranberry Blondies :)


Ariella and Ana reading




The kids with Ana



We were actually able to get outside this week for a few mins since the weather was in the mid 40s for a couple days!! On one of those days, I decided to wash the van...bad choice. I mean, it looks nice now but with how flithy it was combined with the fact that we don't have a hose or anything outside yet made for a LOT of trips back and forth filling up a bucket inside....but I got it done! The kids also had fun playing outside in the mud. They were actually sliding and rolling in it, not even kidding! It took me WAY longer to clean their coats, snowpants, and boots than it did for them to play outside, but I guess what do I expect when my yard looks like this??






I think we'll wait until we have grass to really play outside!

The kids saw Grandpa a couple days ago for the first time in awhile...they all missed him!

Miss Ana comes!!

Well today was the first day with my wonderful help, Ana!! She came around 11am today with her whole family (who stayed for a great lunch and visit and then left) and will stay at our home until Saturday afternoon!! I can't believe what a blessing and help it is to have an extra set of hands to help with everything!! She made cookies with the boys this afternoon, helped with supper prep and the meal, did the dishes, brought a great movie about animals for the boys, helped me take the garbage to the end of our (long-enough) driveway in the freezing cold...how wonderful!!

The boys love her...Caedmon wanted to get out of bed to go give Miss Ana a hug and kiss, Brayan insisted that 'Miss Ana brush my teeth!' and even Ariella wanted a good night kiss! Tiernan wanted to show her everything and anything he could, especially his camera and his "Wild Kratt" game on the computer. I am loving the company and the extra help!!!

This is a pic of Ana making cookies (molassas chocolate chip) with the boys. It was funny because she had 30 little fingers trying to steal cookie dough, lick the spoons and bowls, taste this and taste that...she had a few more distractions than she probably was used to :) But the cookies still turned out excellent!! Brayan was crying in the pic because Tiernan got to stir the bowl but he later made up for it by shoving a golf ball sized chunk of cookie dough in his mouth...guess that showed us!!


The result...


Yes, I am going to be spoiled for the next few days....and ya know what??? I LOVE IT!!! :)

Ariella's hang outs

Well, Ariella is definately enjoying the new-found freedom!! By the time she could crawl and get around pretty well, we were living in a camper that didn't have much room to roam. Then we lived at the 2 bedroom apartment, which we felt was like a mansion coming from the rv, and she enjoyed running around that....but now??...I think she's liking the house :) Here are a few 'positions' I have caught her in the last couple days...


Just checkin' out her strawberry shortcake DVD cover on the laundry room floor, with her blankie and little doggie of course...


Happily snacking on a waffle while holding her toothbrush on the kitchen counter (and no, I didn't help her up here...she's just as capable of climbing just like her brothers :)


Chillin', reading a book in mom and dad's walk in shower...


She speaks for all of us in these pics...we are all enjoying it here :)

We are HOME!!!!!!

We're home, we're home, we're home!!!!

It was a loooooooong month wait after we last saw the house at Christmas, but it is over now and we are all moved in!! I have only 2 boxes in the garage that need to be put away and everything will be in it's place!

We have now been in the house for a week and absolutley love all the space we have (esp compared to the camper!!). And I love that there's a place for everything! We even have high speed internet ;)

Nathan was going to just take the weekend off for closing and help get settled those first few days but it turned out that right before we left for home, his foreman said that everyone had to take a mandatory week off due to this section of the job being completed! Therefore he had this whole week off! What a blessing that has been! With all the stuff we needed to buy for the house (sheets, mattresses, silverware, garbage cans, decor, towels, etc, etc, etc, etc), it was super nice having him home with the kids so I could get all that accomplished. (And now I'm all shopped-out!)

I've included a few pics of the house and I will include more once I get some taken during the day light hours. Seems as though when I try to take them at night, I can't get my camera to adjust to the lightening and the colors look really weird :) But I didn't want to keep ya hangin'......

My favorite room....the kitchen! It turned out exactly how I wanted it and exactly how I envisioned it!!


The dark color and wire mesh are in place now in preparation for the stone and stucco going on in the spring


Back of the house





Entry way


That's all for now (gotta start our taxes...) but since we now have 1) a new computer and 2) internet that works, you can be sure you'll hear from me soon :)

bummer.

I know...I'm horrible...

And now I have bad news....

My computer doesn't work :( Let me rephrased that...neither of our computers work. can't get internet on either...so I'm at the library.

That's one nice thing about small town living...the library is always 2 blocks away! I actually came here tonight to figure something out for Nathan. He was here earlier trying to do his books for class and he couldn't figure out how to turn off the ad blocker so he could see his study guide. And since I didn't know how their internet was set up here, I couldn't tell him through texts, so I came to check it out and then tell him when I get home :)

In other news, we are waaaaay excited for next week!!! Although I'm running out of things to do. I have most everything packed, which isn't much, and since all the kids' toys and everything are boxed up too, we've been watchin' lots of movies...which also gets old. But I'll try to hang in there for another week or so, and then it won't be boring for awhile :)

Kids are doing well. Tiernan calls Caedmon "Martin" and Caedmon calls Tiernan "Chris". Ariella won't stop playing on the counters and in my chapsticks and is still playing with the contents of her dirty diaper every chance during nap that she gets. And Brayan likes to gather all his toys in a cardboard box and carry them around the apt like this (even though he only has a few out).

There's more I want to write about but I'll have to take notes and do it another time. I have to get home to help put the kids in bed. Hang in there while I'm on computer hiatus!!

not tonight

Here's the deal....

I sat down at the computer...well, actually I sat on the couch with the computer on my lap...and I had the greatest intentions in the world to do this great post with pics (if my computer would cooperate) and all the to-dos of our family, but after checking some emails, and replying to a few, I have run out of time!!

Nathan was home today due to the cold weather. I think it actually was an excuse though bc he said something about the 'guys' not wanting to work today so they can work Sunday. Sunday is double time. So anyway, he was home today, which gave me some time to bring my loads of stuff to the thrift store to get rid of it! Well, you know me, I cannot bring stuff to a thrift store without actually looking a little, so I did some browsing and found a book for Nathan!

I brought it back to the apt and he quickly swiped it from me and started to read it. (Ted Dekker). I haven't seen him since. Well, he did come out for a little while to peel the potatoes so I could continue making homemade eclairs! Yeah, they were awesome. (That's coming tomorrow). But anyway....

After supper he said that if I took care of the kids and put them all to bed without his help and he could just go to our room and read, then he'd rub me. He says those words and I'm in...I will do anything for a massage.

So there you have it. He's done reading and I needa get the kids in bed. So no time to post...except for this...so I hope you enjoyed! :) I will try my best to post all about everything tomorrow!!