Freezer Cooking ~Day 4~

So far today I have gotten the following in the freezer:

3 Marinated Chicken breasts
3 Mac and Cheeses
2 Beef Enchilada's
2 Chili's

I also un-molded everything and got everything properly stored and finished

Freeze Cooking ~Day 3~

I didn't get very much done today since I spent the entire afternoon at the ER.

I finished:
1 spinach and rice casserole
11 Breakfast Burrito's

At least I got something done

Freezer Cooking Scheadule

I just realized I forgot the list the schedule of cooking days!

Day 1:
Shopping
Some baking

Day 2:
Ground Beef day

Day 3:
Chicken day

Day 4:
Vegetarian

Day 5:
Baking Day
Soups

Freezer Cooking ~Day 2~

Today is ground beef day ;)

I have been a busy girl over here today. I started cooking at 9am and with lots of breaks in between, including a super fun play date, I am nearly done!

Today's cooking:
7 ground beef with onions
3 Taco meat
6 Meat sauce for spaghetti
2 Chili's
2 Sloppy Joe's
2 Meatloaf (uncooked)
2 Cheeseburger pies (need to add topping when baking)

I still need to make :
2 Sheppard's Pies
2 Pizza Casseroles
2 Enchilada's

I plan to take a mini break for a bit and get the rest of the meals done tonight once the kiddlets are down. So far my main aggravation is not having enough "molds" available for my meals. For example I only have 1 pie pan but I need 4 of them to freeze 4 "pies". I ended up having to break out my cake pans and use them as molds. Once the "pie" is frozen I will pop them out and reline the cake pan to be able to make the sheppard's pies next.

Also I didn't fully think about how much putting warm food in my freezer would affect the temperature in the freezer. I have since upped the freezer temp and am cooling the cooked foods in the fridge before moving them over. Hopefully that will help. The pot roasts last night didn't freeze fast enough and I have black potatoes in one of my bags :(

Freezer Cooking ~Day 1~

Today started day 1 of my freezer cooking insanity. I spent the morning at Aldi and Costco getting all my supplies. Total spent: $627 that covers all the little things we were out of here, all the breakfast and snack supplies, and the 70 dinners I am making.

So far I have gotten the following in the freezer:
11 strawberry and banana smoothies
5 dozen apple muffins
27 c. of red/pink/black beans
3 roasts with veggies

I also have 25lbs of ground beef defrosting in the fridge and a mountain of chopped onions on standby.  Tomorrow is ground beef day

Preparing for Morning sickness :)

We just got the wonderful news that we are expecting our 6th child! I am only a few weeks along but I know what is coming in the next few weeks. I am feeling well right now but I know the world is about to crash around me for...oh....say 12 weeks ;) So I have decided try and get a leg up before the morning sickness and the exhaustion kicks in. I am working on getting a ton of freezer meals in the freezer in the next few weeks. With the hope that we will not starve to death when I feel to ill to cook.


Here is my current list of meals I am working on making and freezing. The plan is the break the following list down into meat type and then break that list down into a manageable day by day plan.

Spaghetti Sauce

Taco meat with tortillas

pizza casserole

Minestrone soup

Chili

Enchilada's

ground beef and onions

Pulled pork

pizza dough

Prepped Crockpot meals: Roast with veggies, chicken w/veggies

Chicken fajita's

Sloppy joes

marinated chicken breasts

smoothie ingredients

Muffins

breakfast burritos

chicken and rice casseroles

meatloaf

sheppards pie

chicken pot pie

pork teriyaki

Cheeseburger pie

sweet and sour chicken

Wonton soup

Cooked beans

Creamy Macaroni and Cheese

Banana Chocolate muffin mix

Muffin mix

Thin-crust Thai Chicken Pizza

Bean and Rice burritos
Spinach and rice casseroles

Chewy oatmeal chocolate chip granola bars

The Garden is IN!

I thought I would do before and after pics. So here are the before pics and later this fall I will get you all the after ones

**Remember we are a organic garden which in my mind means a certain level of weeds **

Cucumbers, watermelons, and herb pot


Tomatoes and potatoes


Peas  and carrots


Lettuce


Bell peppers


Onions, hot peppers, green beans, zucchini, corn salad, lettuce, spinach, red cabbage, and baby choi.




Flowers,  a herb pot, and onions in the background


Corn Salad


My back walkway with the bajillion Hosta's I dug up and transplanted


More back walkway

My new business blog :)

 In a effort to keep my personal blog personal I decided to start a blog just for my quilting business.  Sort of a online portfolio if you will. Not much on it at this point. All of my pictures of past projects are on my old computer and I have yet to get them all moved over. I hope to get to work on it more in the coming weeks.
 
http://quiltsbymimi.blogspot.com/

Buying new tires and paying off collection agencies

Ugh. Good thing we are in a pantry challenge We have had a bill show up out of the blue that got forwarded to the wrong address after our move from Hawaii. Since we didn't know about it we didn't pay it and it has now gone to collections.  Since it needed to be paid ASAP we paid the bill via our checking account AFTER we had already sent our snowball. I can always move money from our FFEF if I need to but DH and I talked about it and decided just to have a "tight" month and try and pull it out without transferring money. We shall see how we do. We are down to about $200 in the account till the end of the month.

DH also decided to get new tires on my van, a alignment, and a oil change before he leaves. So the car is in the shop at the moment getting everything done and he will pick it up tonight on his way home. Only $610 for 4 new tires and all the rest. Apparently they are having a tire sale today and he saved $100 He put the money on the CC and I will pay it out of the car savings fund as soon as it posts.

Some of the handles for the dresser came in today I got them on and they are perfect! Still waiting on the knobs then I will get a pic.

I made $20 watching a friends DD before and after school which is a nice little snowflake for all of maybe 3 hours.

The fabric for the custom hot rod quilt came in I spent nap time cutting it out, it is going to be adorable and I will have to get some pics of the progress.

So far the pantry challenge is going well. We have spent $350 so far, at this point in the month we would have normally spent $600 with another $200 before the next pay period. I am hoping to not have to go to the store again before payday. We shall see.

Halfway through the month of May

Well we are halfway through the month and we are doing pretty well.

So far the pantry challenge is going well. We have only spent $280 of our $800 grocery budget. You would think that would mean tons more in savings but it has been all absorbed my those little extra costs that have come up with the deployment.

My business is going well I sold one quilt, have custom orders for 4 more, a top almost finished, and one just being cut out. I am busy which is good, keeps my mind occupied.

I finally finished working on the twins dresser. The dresser and paint were free. I did spend about $50 on the hardware just because I found some vintage ones I loved and splurged

Before:


After (just waiting on the hardware to get here):

Gloomy rainy day here

Today is a rainy gloomy day here and I just want to curl up under the covers and sleep. To bad I still have 3 toddlers to take care of

Lets see............

Budget is rolling right along

Hailey, Sara, and I went last night to get the fish for her birthday tank. For the entire set up including tank and everything it was $12 Gotta love free stuff!

The rental car took back one of the charges and only charged us $380. I am still ticked off since it was supposed to be 100% covered. They really pulled a fast one on DH getting his to agree to something he didn't realize would make some of the charges our responsibility. Paid that off out of the pay off from the insurance company so that is done.

Dh decided last night that he would rather put new tires on my van before he goes than to get a new car for himself. So he is going to take my van in this weekend for new tires. That will come out of the insurance money as well.

Still waiting on the replacement wheel for my stroller to come in. I really don't like being house bound while DH is at work I did manage to time the buses right this morning and get the big girls on their buses so I didn't have to figure out how to walk them to school with a broken stroller. Irritates me that their buses run 30min apart!

Business stuff is slowing down, which is a mixed blessing. It is giving me more time to work on my garden but the garden doesn't pay cash   I have a order of fabric coming in today so I will be starting on a new quilt for sale soon. This one is a Lullaby baby quilt, it is pretty and pretty simple to put together.

Garden update: Tomatoes, bell peppers, onions, carrots, peas, lettuce, purple beans, zucchini, poinsettia peppers, corn salad, cucumbers, and herb pot all planted. Just got the purple beans, zucchini and poinsettia peppers in the ground yesterday so we are waiting for them to sprout. I am sure everything out there is loving this rain! Still need to get my watermelons and some cabbage in the ground. May do that today during nap time if it stops raining for a bit. It is so much easier to rip out the grass and put in a vegetable bed after it has been raining.

I guess that is it here. Been super busy and have been falling into bed lately.

Keeping the momentum

Everything is going smoothly. I know as soon as I say that something is doing to go wrong though.

We did  get some bad news in that we are going to have to cover part of the rental car, about $400. I am not overly thrilled with this news!  It will be coming out of the car savings though so I am slightly less annoyed but not by much.

I have been trying to figure out how to keep the momentum with my business and thought up some ideas for making some 4th of July things since that is the next holiday. I ordered some super cute little white star buttons, gonna add them to some red and blue hair clips. I figure all the momma's are gonna want hair clips to match their little girls outfits I also am toying with the idea of doing a American Flag wall hanging. It will be expensive to produce, but I would think it would sell especially if I get it out before the 4th. Need to think about that.

Budget wise things are on track so far this month.

I got the recordable books for DH to do for the kids yesterday. He is planning on recording them on Monday while he has the day off. I am still waiting to hear about the daddy doll, not sure when it will ship.

I gave all 5 of the kids their "summer" hair cuts over the last few days. Gotta love a free hair cut and not having to deal with long hair and tangles anymore   They are super cute if I do say so myself Now to chop off mine in the next few weeks before DH leaves or I will have a heat stroke this summer.

Okay gotta go I have a ton of cleaning to do today. I have been slacking the last few days

So far so good....

So far we are off to a good start this month. We are on or under budget in all categories which is great

I have also been so blessed to have some people contact me to do some custom quilting work which is just amazing! I love getting to play around with picking out fabric and making something for other people

I finally managed to get my etsy shop unlocked. Apparently because I had a $0.20 unpaid balance for a year they locked my account. Kicker is every time in that year that I tried to pay it they wouldn't allow me to because it was too small of a balance. *sigh* Anyways I have it all back up and running and a few things listed.

Great news weight wise as I have finally broken my plateau and am loosing again

Dh is working through all his deployment junk. Not loving that but at least it is going smoothly which is all I can ask for.

1st of May

Yes I know it is the last day of April but today starts day 1 of our May budget. Since we are only a few hours into the month we are doing well I though it would be helpful to keep track on here this month. This is the last month before dh leaves for his deployment and I know it is going to be stressful enough I don't need a financial hangover after he leaves.

So I sent the snowball to the CC to pay off the car accident charges so we have a clean slate there again. Nothing left for the FFEF though

Gotta go find DH's title so I can send it to the insurance agent so they can get us our money. DH has found a car he likes for under the amount they are giving us but the guy isn't calling him back so who knows what will happen there.

Also have to order the recordable books and the daddy doll this week so they get here in time for DH's deployment. Budget for books and doll: $50. There are about a million recordable books out there and they are all $13 per book. Adds up fast!

Feeling queasy and light headed the last couple of mornings, but by noon I am back to 100%. Gotta figure out what is going on there as well. There is some thought that I need to start some supplements like B complex and such. Need to look into how much all that will cost cause I am not loving being sick.



******ETA: Okay ordered 2 of the recordable books and got free shipping ($27 total) If I order the daddy doll today I get it for $20. Gonna take a pic of DH this afternoon when he comes home for lunch and get it ordered this afternoon. So I should hit my target!******

*****Daddy doll ordered, $25. Went $2 over my $50 budget*******

Craft ideas for my business

I have been trying to come up with some ideas on some crafts I could make to sell. I am currently working on a baby/toddler quilt and should be finished in the next day or so. So I am trying to think what to do next and since my brain is in danger of falling out these days I need to write them down where I will be able to find them again

*Baby/toddler quilts
*Baby doll quilts ~made from scraps from the toddler quilts~
*Diaper and wipes "Pocket" bag http://www.make-baby...wipes-case.html
*Fabric covered wipes container
*Cloth wipes
*Hair clips

Okay that is it for now. I am sure I will find something else that I think is cute to add to the list!

Ideas to keep me busy

I am trying to come up with some idea's to keep me busy (and maybe earn a buck or two) while DH is deployed

Income Idea's:
*Doggie Daycare
*Quilts
*Bows

House stuff:
*Paint the kids bathroom and complete mural ( http://www.elephants...-one-wall-mural )
*Paint the hallway

Okay gotta run to riding lessons

Getting back with it :)

I have been slacking so badly. It just seems like it has been one thing after another and it has just been impossible to get our footing. But that is a load of crap. I have been slacking. I don't even want to count up how much we have spent in fast food alone

Okay I need to stop making excuses and get control. I am so tempted to just say "MIL is coming so we should just wait til after she leaves"  but we are going to start right now.

So I have checked out bank balance and ran the numbers for the rest of the months fixed expenses and we are in the black by $25. As long as we only take budgeted amounts out of the account we are golden. Trouble is my MIL is coming and wants to go to NY and while she has payed for the tour I know there will be expenses associated with it. In a effort to come up with some cash to pay for it I have been on another decluttering kick....I am running out of junk to sell .....I made $43 today and $30 yesterday. I have some one who maybe interested in another item which would be another $80, but not counting my chicks till they hatch

Anyways we have $73 in cash to cover any extra expenses and I just made a second Costco and Aldi run this months so other than a small shop next week we should be good on food.

Upcoming expenses to be paid in cash (through May 1st):
*MIL's visit
*Brent's B-day
*Bry's B-day
*Brent needs a new car seat
*Daddy Doll for DH's deployment

Upcoming expenses May 1st - June 1st:
*Big Family picnic
*Hailey's B-day