Total budget spent for January

As promised, I am uploading my entire grocery list and prices so you can keep up with me and my goal of only spending 600.00 in the year on groceries. Not pet food, health and beauty stuff, toilet paper. Just food/groceries. I am trying to spend 50.00 a month only.

So , I went to day and got the rest of the stuff I needed for December and then my stuff for January. I had already posted my menu's etc. And to be technical , my mom paid for my stuff. I am paying her back since we put it on the Wal-Mart card with the after Christmas stuff so we could get 6 month's no interest. My mom does help me out and pick me up things here and there. But for January, I will be paying her back for this bill.

The stuff NOT on my January budget that I bought today for the rest of the year AND this is what my mom paid for:
Razors
Rug Doctor carpet cleaner
Coffee
Creamer
Sugar
Milk
Ketchup
Mustard
Butter

Came to 28.66 

These do not count towards my 2014 budget.

This is what my mom paid for that I WILL be repaying her in January that is my food budget so far for the month:

Tomato Juice 1.48
2 cans refried beans .85 cents each
2 cans diced tomatoes .68 cents each
enchilada sauce .68
lunchmeat 3.00
tortilla's 1.98
peanut butter 1.84
pizza sauce 1.00
pickles 1.96
Bagels 1.50
salad 2.00
eggs 2.88
potatoes 2.77
On Cor dinners 3 of them at 2.50 each
veggies 1.00 x 2 bags
salsa 1.55
chips .88 cents

Total 36.08 w/out tax
I only have milk and a few other things that i need for my meals for the weeks in January. That leaves me 13.92 for january for groceries. Depending on how much milk we use- that would be about half the budget right there. But im determined to do this. 



Also things im purchasing that wont count- toilet paper. I will be making my large TP order ( 96 rolls for under 40.00 shipped) I did this last May and I am just now about out of toilet paper. ( i have enough for January ) so 8 months for around 36 bucks- not bad. I was going to do the paper towels, but I am trying to get OUT of purchasing so much stuff like that, and going to using dish rags and such for spills and clean up. Yes it means more laundry but it means less money out of my pocket. I did purchase 2 things to have on hand. We bought the huge Sparkle select a size giant roll boxes ( 24 rolls) and we just ran out this week from May. So it was a good deal but id like to hold off. I also purchased a economy size things of dish washer tabs. Still have enough for probably another 6 months.

So many people tell me this CANT BE DONE!

Sure if you eat out a lot and buy junk food. Yes it is just us 2 humans. But still. Luckily the dog food I buy Tinkerbell is 50 lbs at one time and lasts us a good 6 months at least. Cat food, is another story. 5 cats and we go through about a bag every 1.5 months. They dont care for "treats" so I dont purchase those. We do have dog cookies for Tink though. We use the cheap clumping litter and a massive litter box for all 5 cats ( its really a concrete tub that you mix concrete in lol)

My goal is to be debt free from all our credit cards by the end of 2014. Including the ones we have had to be behind on, and have had to pay fee's, interest etc. This also includes ones that might have to go to collection or have gone to , to clear it up. I always pay my debts. Even if they are late. I made the debt, im going to pay for it. As long as a company works with me and treats me with respect- then I will work with them. I do the best I can.

Official January Budget - 31 Days of Meals

I have been working on this for over 2 weeks now. Trying to figure out how to stretch my budget as far as I can and only spend my 50.00 on groceries. Its been a struggle. I have to go off of what prices are now, and sale prices that have been coming up, to figure out some of my prices of things.


January 1st to the 4th ( Wednesday to Saturday)

Homemade pizza ( hamburger pizza w/ sauce and light cheese)
Fish and mashed potatoes ( or homemade fries not sure yet)
Nachos- chips, cheese, ground hamburger, sour cream, sauteed onion and bell pepper, salsa
Chicken Helper

Shopping lists for this - cheese, chips, salsa ( this is it i have the rest of the items)

January 5th to the 11th ( Sunday to Saturday)

Spaghetti w/ homemade garlic bread
Tuna Helper
Chicken Enchiladas
Hamburgers and tots
Meatloaf and veggies
Baked potatoes (loaded) and veggies
Baked Chicken and mac and cheese

Shopping list for this- potatoes and ground beef 1 lb ( i have the rest of the items) 

January 12th to the 18th

Veggie beef soup
Potato cheese soup
Grilled cheese
- this week is my birthday, along with baby showers and other things going on, so I figured soup and sandwiches would go over well this week-

Shopping list for this- Bread and tomatoes ( have the rest for this)


Jaunary 19th to the 25th

Fish and potatoes
Grilled chicken salad
Homemade cheese pizza
Tacos and Refried beans , chips and salsa
Beef stroganoff
Salisbury Steak and baked potatoes
Baked Chicken and Mac and Cheese

Shopping list for this- lettuce, refried beans, tortilla's , salisbury steak ( have the rest)


January 26th to the 31st

Chicken parmesean and veggies
Lasagna and garlic bread
Burgers and tots/fries
Baked potatoes loaded and veggies
Meatloaf and veggies
Soup and Salad

 Shopping list for this- chicken parmesean dinner, lasagna dinner, and ground beef and salad ( have the rest)

Alot of the items I need are for more than one meal. Like the veggies and potatoes and bread and stuff for the soups. I just make it stretch out.

I am going to print this out and do my shopping per week. That way I dont buy things that i might not need. Sometimes, my plans get changed, or I decided to just eat leftovers. And I do NOT want to spend any extra money if i dont have to one week.


As you can see, there are some repeats. But I tried to space it out over time so it was not right by each other. Alot of this stuff, I already have in my freezer, pantry. I am trying to utilize what I have left over after December.

Homemade Crescent Rolls Recipe + Appetizer

I am the queen of procrastination. I generally wait till I have the least amount of time left to do something, and then I start it. In high school, I goofed off a lot my senior year, and ended up not doing any of my "prep" work for my term paper. Yeah, you know the thing that is like the majority of the senior's grade, determines if they graduation blah blah blah. That paper. Literally did not one lick of it. I started my paper the day of, and finished it with 5 min to spare turning it in.

Was it my best work? Hell no. I made a C if I remember correctly. But I didn't need a good grade to pass, as I had a good GPA and what not, I just had to pass English. I think back now and know I could have easily gotten an A on that paper had I just applied myself a bit. Oh well.

So when I forgot that I had to bring an appetizer to this party I was attending, til the day before, it was not really anything new. Except- I am BROKE. So I could not afford to go buy anything to make anything.

So panic set in. And I started asking and looking.

And I found THIS RECIPE for homemade crescent rolls. I used it. However, I did not use them as the regular crescent roll shape. I rolled out the dough into a long rectangle, used my filling, and rolled up and sliced.

Here's the Appetizer I made:

Here's what I did:

1. Make the dough. Its a very sticky dough. So you might need a little bit more flour to make it come together because the directions are very VAGUE. It says it will be smooth and soft- it was smooth soft AND STICKY. But i went with it. Wrong. I should have added a little more flour, kneaded it a bit longer, and make it smoother and not as sticky. I did that when it finished rising.

2. Rolled it out to triangle shape- then used an ENTIRE tub of Velata Smoked Gouda cheese. Holy cow this stuff is awesome ( and its gluten free and 70 calories for 2 tablespoons which makes me happy) and heated it up. Then I spread it all over the dough.

3. I then needed something else to fill it with. I had one small can of spinach. I opened it, drained it, squeezed out the excess moisture ( very important) and then put it on top of the cheese.

4. I rolled it up like a jelly roll, then cut in slices and put on a greased pan.

5. I baked them according to the recipe for the crescent rolls,adding 3 minutes onto the time since some of them were kinda huge.

6. Once the cooled slightly, I used another almost 3/4 of a tub of the cheese mixed with a little sea salt and garlic powder to top them. 

I tried to go off her recipe stats for how much calories etc but its kinda hard when you modify the recipe. She has 93 calories but I dont use all the butter she incorporates into her rolls, or didnt for this recipe. So i went with around 133 calories per roll ( average size) for the cheese and the spinach and the bread. It might be a little less or a few calories more , especially since they are all different in size. But no butter was used as a filling OR a topper. I used some more of the cheese mixture.

Anyways- they came out great. Big hit. Very moist. Not dry at all. I am going to try this recipe again for the actual crescent roll soon.

xoxo
Steph

Mmmmm.... why is milk 4.00????

Seriously. When did this happen. Holy cow (literally). I do not go through milk like most do. And I usually get it on sale at Kroger, however, in my effort to not spend more than 600 a year on food, I am trying to start this year in December and use up the rest of my Wal-Mart gift card.

Which means buying milk at Wal-Mart.

Which is the devil.

Seriously.

Anyways, I figured I would keep everyone updated on what I am doing. We had 23.95 left over on the gift card. And I need milk. Why waste a trip just for that. So I sat down to see what I could get with that 23.95.

And as luck would have it, because I literally have no more than 23.95 plus what i have to pay in tax out of pocket, to spend, I sold something for 10.00 on a yard sale site. Praise the Lord. Literally. I needed that 10 bucks.

I am trying to not spend any more of MY money this year on food. Gift cards, selling little things, donations thats not MY money. Its extra that I consider gas money or grocery money. Because its usually 2-5.00 and not enough to really do anything with ( yes I know it adds up but I would rather take that 5 bucks or 10 bucks and get gas with it then worrying about it later)

So here's what we came up with

Cat food- the have to have it. Its not in my budget plan, but im adding it there this month b/c they have about a week left and then bam no food.
Milk
Water (bottled)
2 bags of salad
Mystery item ( yeah um we will just keep it at that)
Crackers
Lunch Meat

And that should leave my husband with a little bit of gas money after all is said and done.

Off to look into purchasing a cow now. And a dairy farm. It has to be cheaper then gallons of milk ( fyi... I grew up on a dairy farm ;) )

xoxo
Steph

Homemade Pretzels

Smashing success! Made 7 total but next time ill be making them much smaller. Way too big. And , of course, i had almost 3 of them! Not something I ever would do, but they were so good. So thats my breakfast for today. Ill be doing shakes for the lunch and dinner to counteract all the carbs. I am also doing a cleanse for 2 days. I guess I figured I would get my carbs out of the way ( I mean come on who can resist a warm, soft, fresh baked pretzel... or two... or three...)

I got the recipe from a book about recipes from restaurants. This is the Auntie Anne's version.

I do recommend sifting the flour and the powdered sugar. It helps for a better dough.

**Recipe**

1 1/4 cups warm water
1 tablespoon plus 1/4 teaspoon yeast
3 3/4 cup flour
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons powered sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons veg. oil ( I used grapeseed oil)

Water Bath
4 cups warm water
1/2 cup baking soda




**Directions**

Dissolve yeast in warm water and set aside for 10 minutes.

Combine flour, powdered sugar, and salt in large bowl. Add the water with yeast and the veg. oil. Stir with spoon and then use your hands to form the dough into a ball. Knead for 5 minutes on a lightly floured surface.

Place dough in a lightly oiled boil and cover for 45 min till the dough doubles. Put in a warm place to rise.

After dough has risen, preheat oven to 425 degrees

Make the pretzel bath by combing water and baking soda and stirring till the baking soda is almost completely dissolved.

Divide dough into 8 equal portions. I have taken a picture of what the diagram shows to do.

 You roll these into long ropes and then shape them. Dip them into the bath for a few seconds and then lay on paper towel to blot excess water. Put on baking sheet that has been lightly sprayed/greased. Sprinkle with salt. I used sea salt.

Bake them for 4 minutes on one side, then flip them and bake another 4 minutes. Till golden brown.






End Product!

This is how I roll....

Here's the start!

Mmmmm... nothing smells more amazing then fresh baked cinnamon rolls from the oven.

I have attempted, for the first time, to make them from scratch. But made them my way. I am trying to cut down on certain things, sugars for example, and the dough already called for sugar. SO - in an effort to not add any other sugar itself, I am opting for honey!

Basic dough recipe
1 package of yeast
1/4 cup warm water
1/4 cup scalded milk ( you can scald milk by boiling it i just stick my in the microwave and heat it up
1/3 cup sugar
1 egg
1/3 cup butter ( I only use real butter and I would suggest you do the same, plastic erm margarine or tub butter doesn't work well ) I also use salted butter. You can use unsalted and then add 1 teaspoon salt. I just prefer to use salted sweet cream butter. Melted
3 1/2 to 4 cups of flour

Put yeast in water and let stand to dissolve. While you are doing that, add melted butter, sugars, milk , egg and 2 cups of the flour. Beat till smooth.

Then add the yeast mixture and the remaining flour

Stir till dough begins to form. I always just stir till its starting to come together, but there are still what I call stragglers - mixture that wont quite come together with the bigger ball of dough. I then take it out and knead it in. Knead on a lightly floured surface for 5-10 minutes. Yes , its a lot of time. Yes it is needed. And yes you WILL give your arms a workout. But Its worth it.

Put in a well greased bowl ( I opt to use grapeseed oil instead of spray) and cover for 1 hour to 1.5 hours, till it has doubled in size.

Punch down the dough. Roll out onto lightly floured surface into a 15 x 9 inch rectangle.

For the filling, I used honey and cinnamon instead of butter, sugar and cinnamon. I just put the honey in the microwave and made it more pliable and brushed it on the surface then sprinkled with cinnamon.

Starting from the 15inch side, roll it up like a jelly roll. Pinch edge to seal it. Cut into slices ( 12-15)

Coat the bottom of the pan with butter and sugar- I just used a very very small bit of butter and no sugar. Place cinnamon rolls very close together, cover and let rise again for 45 minutes.

Bake for 30 min at 350 degrees. You can then use your own glaze, or whatever you want. I am opting to use a very very light butter coating and sprinkle more cinnamon on top.

Here's the finished product :) Start to finish took me about 2 hours to do. But well worth it.

They did come out a bit brown because I left them in about 5 min too long. My oven runs hot. I forget sometimes and get sidetracked! But still good. Need more filling next time since I did not use the icing glaze. I did use 1 tablespoon of melted butter and cinnamon on the top though when they came out. All in all YUMMY

January Budget

I have decided to go ahead now, sit down, and write up my budget for January.  It will be somewhat easier, as I have a good deal of stockpile to go with for the first month.

As some of you know, I have stated I would like to set a budget of 600.00 a YEAR for groceries. Which averages out to 50.00 a month. This does not include pet food, pet litter, HBA (health and beauty items like paper towels or toilet paper) but just food. And I have had some people tell me that it can NOT be done. So , being the challenge taker I am, I am going to prove them wrong.

Keep in mind, that right now there are just 2 of us. Humans that is. And I am on a healthy lifestyle journey as well. So, to be fair I do drink protein shakes a lot as my meals. They also do not count in this budget. Mainly because my mom buys them for me right now, until I can afford to do so. But that money will be set aside separately from the grocery budget. I just want to get all the facts straight before I set out on this journey.

My goal is to become debt free by December of 2014, minus the house and any loans we, as a family, might have from school etc. This includes all credit card, store card, and personal debt. Which is not a huge amount compared to others, but for us, its substantial. I will be adding bits and pieces of that in this journey as well as we go along.

So my budget for January is 50.00.
I have 31 days to fill.
I am only including dinners. Lunch we eat leftovers mainly, or I drink my shakes. So this is just dinner menu's.

Shopping List (guesstimate)
Milk- between 2 and 4 gallons. We usually go through a gallon a week/week and a half. We dont drink a lot of milk , but I use it in my recipes.
Salad- 4 bags
Tomatoes canned
Carrots
Celery
Bananas for one week
Potatoes bagged
Frozen Veggies - 3 bags mixed
Shredded Cheese - 2 bags for pizzas
Bottled water- yes I know i can just use the refillable cups. I have one, but i drink a lot of water and cant afford a new filter for my fridge just yet so it goes on the list. 2 cases
Bagels
English Muffins
Lunch meat 2
Yogurt 8 
Coffee creamer ( one thing i just cant live without )
Peanut butter

That should be right about 50.00 w/sales and commissary shopping.
You see I do not have bread or meats on there. I am all stocked up on these items. I bought a lot of chicken, fish and hamburgers and they are in my deep freezer. Breads I am working now to perfect the art of making loaves of bread. And almost have it down. Therefor, I will be making my own breads , rolls, hot pockets etc.

Just to add to this- I do not need toilet paper as I purchased 96 rolls back in May and i have enough to last me at least through February or March at the rate we use it. Best purchase ever and will do it again. Same with paper towels. I finally am down to my last 2 rolls since May. I bought some to supplement them, but i only use those in extreme cases. I use regular kitchen towels and wash them. Much cheaper. I also buy 50 lbs of dog food at a time for my one dog and that lasts her months. I have 5 cats and go through about 2 large bags of cat food a month. I am not including it in this because its not something i can really have any wiggle room with. They are my furbabies :)

Menu for January

I dont have a set menu yet. I like to go with the flow usually. But we will be having soups, burgers, fish, chicken, spaghetti, mexican foods, homemade chicken pot pie, homemade pizza and more. I have a lot of things already stockpiled. And as you can see, I love to make things. I do not ever go out with the intention of buying something just to make a dish. I did buy honey to make a sauce but knew id use it for more than just that. I like to be resourceful. So just because I am not spending a ton of $$$ on food, doesnt mean we wont eat well, have treats, etc. I encourage you to follow this blog and me.

xoxo Steph

Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup

Again, queen of making that buck stretch here. And I have to come up with ways to make even soups be

1. Filling- We do not want to go hungry!
2. Stretched to the limit- I need to make sure we have leftovers for at least 1 day, or 2 meals!

So tonight, I made chicken noodle soup. And I made it fit both requirements.

INGREDIENTS/INSTRUCTIONS

I used 3 small chicken breasts- thawed- cut up into small bites size pieces. This is enough to get chicken in every bowl.
 2 cans of chicken broth- the only reason I used these was because I had them on hand.
 I added 3 cups of water and 2 chicken bouillon cubes as well. 
Sea salt, garlic powder, can of peas and a can of corn ( because again its what I had on hand) 
 3 small potatoes, peeled and cubed. 
Also added a 1/4 cup of Thrive onion (dehydrated ) to the soup.

Put all of it in the crockpot. Put it on low. Let it cook for 6 hours. At the last hour, I put in the noodles. I used half a bag of some fancy noodles i had on hand. 6 ounces of noodles. You just want to give it some filler and use up a little of the water not all.

And voila! We now have soup for tomorrow's lunch and dinner. I will pair it with something if I need to tomorrow night. I also used oyster crackers in my soup :)

Cost of 4 meals ( ill be having it for lunch on monday as well) under 3 bucks.

I must stress- we do not like a lot of "seasonings" in our soups. I prefer to add my own and make it just right for me. Hence why i dont put pepper etc in there. Just some sea salt. You might like other things. Garlic and sea salt was enough for me as my base. I did add some more sea salt to mine as well as a little pepper but I like a very little as opposed to some who like a lot. :) Perfect base soup to add extras too!

Chicken Enchiladas! Redone

Ok, so my last post was about the Bronco Berry sauce. I used it tonight with my enchiladas. It made it like 100 times better.

I used a box kit I got for free ( for writing the company and letting them know of the issues I had with another product. They sent me a free coupon for any item of my choice up to x amount)

I used chicken and cooked it first with the bronco berry sauce on top. OMG heaven.

Then used the seasoning mix and instead of using shredded cheese, I used Velata cheddar cheese ( lower calories and so much better then shredded cheese to me) in the mix  of chicken and seasonings. Put them in the flour tortilla's and then covered them with the sauce that it came with.

So good! Here's the finished product. Love making new things, trying new recipes, and hitting the jackpot!!!! ( i added some Thrive sour cream to mine)

this is not the normal night for me by far- i dont usually eat THREE flour tortilla's but I missed lunch because of everything going on. I am still within my calories which is great.

If you do not have the kit its easy- just get some flour tortilla's , make your chicken, get some enchilada sauce and make the bronco berry sauce. Cook chicken w/ sauce, mix with cheese, seasoning and fill the tortilla's and bake at 400 for 15 minutes ( the chicken is already cooked you are just melding everything together) if you are using shredded cheese, cover with foil!

Re-Do: Arby's Bronco Berry Sauce

I am NOT a fan of sweet sauces. But this one looked to have a good mix of sweet and hot.

However, when I saw all the ingredients in this sauce, I wanted to make it less sugary and less un-diet friendly. So I made a few adjustments!

This is the recipe I used ( my redo) and the original recipe as well.

Original:
3/4 cup of water
1/3 cup of sugar
1/4 cup corn syrup
3 tablespoons pectin
1 teaspoon vinegar
50 drops of red food coloring
1/8 tsp onion powder
dash cayenne pepper
dash garlic powder
dash paprika
1/4 cup minced red bell pepper
1/2 teaspoon minced canned jalapeno peppers

My Redo:
3/4 cup water
1/4 cup sugar ( which i can omit next time the honey i use gives it ENOUGH sweetness)
1/4 cup HONEY
2 teaspoons vinegar
1 tablespoon of dried onion ( i used Thrive shelf stable ones)
1/2 teaspoon garlic
1/4 cup minced red and green bell pepper ( i used dried ones from Thrive as well)

I do not like jalapeno's so I omitted them. I also omitted the paprika and the cayenne. I dont want it THAT spicy for me. But you might.

Basically you add everything but the last 2 things, whisk, put on med/high heat and then add the last two and bring to a boil. Turn down, simmer 5-7 min till thick and then cool for 10 min and store. Makes a cup! Tastes amazing. Very Asian inspired. Im going to use this on some chicken tomorrow night! 

Came out amazing!

enjoy!!!!