The Money Saving Cook

This week Nathan told me that he is tired of casseroles. He said no more soggy food. So I delivered with these meals: Sunday: Sloppy Joes Total for this meal: $3.30 I had meat from our Sams Club haul still, bought buns ($2.00) and Manwich ($1.30). Normally I make my own and don't use the canned stuff, but this week I was feeling lazy. Monday: Steak Total for this meal: $16.23 Yes, steak. Normally we would have steaks out of the annual cow we get from Nathan's family but we have already eaten all of it, so I bought steaks. Big splurge but Nathan was tired of casseroles and he grills the steak so almost no work for me. Steak ($13.07), baked potatoes ($1.28), asparagus ($1.88). Tuesday: Beef Stir Fry  over rice  Total for this meal: $9.09 I follow the Pioneer Woman's beef with snow peas stir fry, but sometimes I use a broccoli slaw or stir fry mix instead of just snow peas. I had to buy beef ($6.59) and broccoli slaw ($2.50). Wednesday: We have small...

Yay meals and grocery shopping. Ha! Here are this weeks plans: Sunday:  Stuffed Pepper Casserole  - This is SO good! Total for this meal: $6.02 I already had the meat from our last Sams Club haul, but I had to buy a bell pepper ($1.48 womp womp), Tomato sauce ($.20), and cheese ($4.34 for a 2lb bag that will last us a long time). Monday: Mexican Junk Total for this meal: $4.63 All I do for this is brown 1lb ground beef, then add taco seasoning, a can of black beans ($.92) , a can of corn ($.38) , a jar of salsa ($1.33) . I eat it in a bowl but my husband likes to eat it as a dip with tortilla chips ($2). Tuesday: Creamy Ranch Pork Chops Total for this meal: $1 I had a lot of this already. Boneless pork chops, a block of cream cheese, dry Ranch seasoning, can of cream of chicken soup in the crockpot. Eat over egg noddles ($1). Wednesday: Small group at church, we are eating baked spaghetti. I am contributing the lettuce for the salad. Total for this meal: ($1....

Toddler food! The bane of my existence. I swear that Wilson eats more than Nathan and I. He is constantly hungry, he eats big portions, and then he wants a snack immediately following. I try to limit his snacking so he will focus on meals, but anyone that has ever had a toddler knows that is not really possible. Below are some ideas of what I feed Wilson. Breakfast : Eggs, fruit, pancakes, waffles, toast with butter, yogurt (buy the big tub, not individual ones. He usually eats more than an individual one plus it is WAY cheaper), cereal bars, dry cereal, oatmeal, grits, french toast, more eggs, oh and did I mention eggs? Lunch:   Leftovers, hot dog, chicken nuggets, peanut butter and jelly sandwich, fish sticks, ravioli, macaroni and cheese, black beans, lima beans, quesadilla. Dinner : We ALWAYS feed Wilson whatever we are eating; no exceptions. We don't give him or ourselves anything extra. If he doesn't eat anything on his plate, so be it. He won't starve. If he...

Here is my meal plan and grocery trip from this week. It's late because my dad was in town and I'm just now getting around to it. Oops! Also, full disclosure, I was a food hoarder. I bought stuff when it was a great deal and it filled my freezer and pantry and I would forget about things. I finally cleaned those both out and threw away (AH!) the stuff that was no good. Now I'm working my way through what I already have in my stock pile so some of these recipes look cheap because I already had most of the ingredients. Also there was a big sale of value packs of chicken, so this week is chicken heavy. Sunday:  Spicy Sausage Pasta  with salad - Nathan LOVES this meal! Total for meal: $6.45 - I already had sausage, but I had to buy rotel ($1.00), penne ($1.00), heavy cream ($1.95), and Monterrey cheese ($2.50). Monday: Roast with mashed potatoes, green beans, and  onion casserole   Total for meal: $2.49 - I already had the roast from a BOGO a few weeks ago a...

The first step I have been focusing on in my daily life is my budget. Nathan and I have gotten a financial planner and have worked really hard on some different budget things. I will save that for another post though because that is a TON of information. One big fault in my budget is food. Did you know that the average American spends around $1200 a year on food outside of the home? What a huge number. Nathan and I are totally victim to this. We enjoy eating out and sometimes it is just easier to go out or grab something through a drive through or delivery. When we do that we spend $20 or more where if we had just eaten at home it would have cost us half or a quarter of that. More than eating out, we are wasteful. I spend so much money at the grocery store and then feel like we are tossing so much food out. Hardly ever do we throw away food that hasn't been touched like veggies that have gone bad before using them or expired pantry food. I have worked hard on that. BUT, we do t...

Several years ago, ahem lots of years ago, when I was in college I dabbled in blogging. Mostly I wrote entries about who I was dating, what party I was attending, and which classes I was failing...it did take me six years to get through college after all! I actually stumbled upon an old blog of mine while thinking about creating this one and was completely embarrassed by what I read. I quickly deleted every single entry. It's amazing how naive I was in my early twenties. Now I'm not saying that I'm not still somewhat naive, but hopefully I'm at least more aware. See below where I was celebrating my 22nd birthday with my drink of choice at the time. Ha! Fast forward about ten years and here I am. I'm a stay at home mom of two sweet babes under two, Wilson (22 months) and Elsie (2 months). My husband has a fantastic job that allows me to stay home and snuggle our babies all day, every day. As someone who was used to making my own income, I'm not accu...