Money Monday

Monday, Wednesday...it's all the same when you are a SAHM! haha. My days are so busy. Mondays is recovering from the weekend (Sunday is always a busy day with church in the morning and then we are also going to an adult education night in the evenings) plus we have swim lessons. I also feel a strong need to get my house clean since I work Tuesday and I just feel like I have to start that day with a clean house. And then hubby had a board meeting at the church in the evening. Tuesday was work and my mom was out of town that day so I had to bring the boys to the dayhome so that always makes my day longer too. So that's all to say that my Money Monday update is happening on a Wednesday! But it's basically the end of the month and we have spent $305 on groceries, so $5 over. Not too bad. That is $45 less than our normal budget and we were going over that budget most months so I can't really complain. However, we are out of food. I mean nothing in the house out of food. We have meat (due to our giant Costco stock up at the beginning of the month) but other than a little bit of lettuce, half a galloon of milk and some carrots, we have nothing else. Which makes me think that while $300 is possible, I think I would rather do $350 and actually end the month with some food! But I feel really good that we did it! 

So here is my meal plan for the week:

Sunday:
Dinner @ church 

Monday:
B: waffles
L: sandwiches
D: leftovers

Tuesday:
B: waffles (we had a lot leftover...)
L: at the dayhome
D: spaghetti & sauce

Wednesday:
B: eggs & toast
L: pita pizzas
D: Chicken with ravioli & alfredo sauce

Thursday:
B: Oatmeal
L: McDonalds with my mom
D: Soup & buns

Friday:
B: Pancakes
L: leftovers
D: Chicken Pot Pie 

Saturday:
B: Ikea
D: Steak with Baked Potatoes 

Wordless Wednesday

I absolutely love watching my boys play together. I'm ignoring the fact that 2 minutes after I took this picture, Z took the turtle lid and dropped it on Baby K's head...

Money Tuesday? Oops!

So I missed my Money Monday update. I had a crazy busy day. Poor Baby K is teething (cutting 2 front teeth AND a molar!) so a lot of my day was spent cuddling and comforting him. 
I am actually feeling pretty good about my budget this month. It will be down to the wire but I'm confident we can make it. So far, as of yesterday (Oct. 21), I have spent $255 on groceries. That leaves me with $45 for next week. $15 of that will automatically be milk but that still gives me $30 for some fruits and veggies. I can easily work with that. 

So here is my weekly meal plan: 

Sunday:
Pizza at church :) 

Monday:
B: apple muffins
L: mac & cheese (tired, pregnant mama - don't judge me!)
D: Lasagna

Tuesday:
B: Oatmeal
L: whatever my mom feeds them. I used to leave out food but then realized she just did her own thing anyways
D: Crockpot Cheesy Chicken Broccoli 

Wednesday:
B: Toast & Eggs
L: out with a friend
D: Beef Stroganoff 

Thursday:
B: Cereal/Muffins
L: Grilled Cheese Sandwiches
D: Leftovers

Friday:
B: Oatmeal
L: Pita Pizzas
D: Perogies & Sausage

Saturday:
Brunch: Bacon & Eggs
D: Leftovers

Fall is here!

Well like it or not, fall is officially here. I do love the fresh smell of crisp fall weather, the changing leaves and of course my kids LOVE being able to jump in the leaves. We went out to my parents house this past weekend (Canadian Thanksgiving) and they spent at least an hour outside jumping in the leaves. So much fun!

Bum Genius Diaper Review

Alright, I know ya'll have been waiting - here is my long overdue review for Bum Genius diapers.
In case you don't know the backstory behind the diapers, I will quickly fill you in. I bought a different brand (see my review here) but just was really disappointed in them but was loving cloth diapering. I didn't want to give up but I knew I couldn't handle the leaks from my previous diapers. My sister used Bum Genius and offered to let me use hers when I went for a week long visit. I had only 2 leaks in that entire week (compared to an average of 2 leaks/day with my previous brand) so that quickly made up my mind. However, I had a hard time convincing hubby I needed a whole new diaper stash so I went and found some used. I know for some people that gives them the squeemies but for me, I figure the first thing my kid is going to do is poop in it so why does it matter? So I bought a set of Bum Genius 3.0 diapers (they actually don't sell them anymore but my sister's were 4.0 and I found them very similar). The one thing that I did do was buy velcro. I went back and forth on that, but I had found a couple brand new Bum Genius 4.0's at a garage sale and they were velcro and I fell in love with them. They were so quick and easy and I just felt that I could get a perfect fit with them while the snaps were limited. So I had a set of 30 Bum Genius diapers and I don't think I could ever go back. I can probably count on one hand the number of leaks I have had with them and most of those are because we forgot to change his bum and went out somewhere. Here is shot of the diapers in action :

So here is my review on a scale of 1-5 for Bum Genius Pocket 4.0/3.0 cloth diapers.

These are the criteria: absorbency, cost, overall fit, laundry, the cute factor, the company’s customer service, and Dad-Friendliness.

Absorbency: 5 stars - no leaks! They are amazing for that. The insert can be adjusted depending on what snap setting the diaper is at which I think really helps for absorbancy - plus you can double up at the front for a boy or the back for a girl which helps! 

Cost: 3 stars - they are definitely not the cheapest diaper out there, they are actually twice the price (if you are buying brand new) of my old diapers but they do hold up well so you can probably get a pretty decent resell value

Overall Fit: 4 stars - the velcro really helps with this. I did have a couple leaks when I was using my sister's which are snaps but because that was only a week, it's hard to really say what the reason was for the leaks. The legs also fit really well and I really liked that they had extra PUL on the front so that helped with leaks

Laundry: 4 stars - these are easy to launder, both the cover and the inserts can be placed in the dryer and they are super easy to stuff

The Cute Factor: 3.5 stars - they are pretty cute but there a lot cuter patterns and fabrics out there but still, a little green butt is a lot cuter than a disposable diapered butt! 

Customer Service: I honestly can't answer this one since I bought them used. 

Dad-Friendliness: 5 stars - super easy, you set the size snaps once and you don't need to do it again until your baby outgrows that size. The inserts are super easy to stuff and they also fall out really easy when you are separating them for the wash. And the velcro is pretty much the easiest thing ever to put on - just like a disposable. 

Total Review: 4 stars - If they were a little cheaper, they would get 5 stars! 

Money Mondays!

Well I can't say my goal for meal planning and budgeting has been a huge success. I've made a meal plan...have we stuck to it? Well, not completely. One of the problems I've been facing is that we are so incredibly busy right now that I just don't have time to actually make a meal but I don't think about that until the day of. So even though I have something on the menu, if I don't make it in the morning, I end up being out or just swarmed by grumpy kids at 5 p.m. and not have time to make it. Plus another issue that has been coming up is my picky tastes! There is a really good reason for this - I am pregnant! So while that is a whole other thing (see exhaustion, nausea, exhaustion...) it also means that I am having extreme food aversions. So Monday rolled around and I had Red Pepper & Sweet Potato Soup on the menu and seriously, even just opening the container of soup made me want to throw up...so there went that and I had to quickly substitute a meal. Thankfully I had just gone to a soup exchange so I had a bunch of soup in my freezer! My cravings have also affected our budget. A couple nights ago, I absolutely had to have ruffle chips with ranch dip and chocolate milk. And my amazing husband went out and bought that for me...but there was $10 out of our grocery budget. Oops! So for this month, I have spent $200 on groceries. Not great, not bad. We have $100 left for the next two weeks, however we have tons of meat so I only need to buy fruits and veggies and milk. I know I can do it. 
So my meal plan for this week will be using food that we already have! 

Sunday:
Thanksgiving Dinner 

Monday:
B: Bacon & Eggs
L: Sandwiches
D: Pasta stirfry with Italian Sausage

Tuesday: 
B: Oatmeal
L: Leftovers
D: Hamburgers w/ Sweet Potato Fries

Wednesday:
B: Cereal
L: kids are at the dayhome
D: Spaghetti Squash with meat sauce

Thursday:
B: Toast & Eggs
L: McDonald's with my mom
D: leftovers - hubby works late

Friday:
B: Oatmeal
L: Meat, cheese and veggies
D: Sandwiches - hubby is on his own with the kids

Saturday:
Hubby is on his own all day and enjoys the chance to be spontaneous with the meals! However I have some soup frozen in the freezer if he decides he doesn't want to experiment 

Money Monday

Oh man, its Monday already. That means I have to suck it up and admit to the world (or at least the 6 people who read this blog regularly!) that I am not good at budgeting and meal planning. Even if it's on my list. Actually sometimes I think it's harder if it's on my list. But I'm determined to try. So even though this is really embarrassing - as of October 7, I have spent $159 on groceries. Not $75. There are two reasons (excuses, cough, cough) for this. One being that we came home from vacation on October 2 so I immediately had to go grocery shopping and I did so good, $72 and I felt like my fridge was full. But then we went to Costco. I have such a love/hate relationship with Costco. I feel like we cannot walk into that store without immediately spending $100. On the other hand, such great deals! We had a $120 gift card to Costco (which means we technically have spent $279 on food!! Oops) and I really wanted to stock up on meat. I tend to buy smaller packages of meat or the cheaper meats (chicken thighs instead of chicken breasts) and since we had this gift card, I just really wanted to buy meat for a change, we so often have no meat in the house and I've been planning to do a big freezer cook soon so I knew I would need meat. So I sucked up my plans to spent only $75 per week and spent $207 at Costco, thankfully the gift card helped but that does mean that it's only October 7 and I have only $141 left for the 3 1/2 weeks. But I am determined that I will stick to it, even if it means not being able to buy anything but milk the last week! We do have enough food in the house right now that I really think other than fruit, veggies and milk we shouldn't have to buy too much. So that's my story of basically completely failing at my attempts to spend only $75/week but in all honestly, after making my commitment, I realized that I prefer to do most of my shopping in the beginning of the month, making a larger bill up front and then just buying the perishables the rest of the month so maybe I should go back to just a monthly amount. I guess I will see how I do this month and if it's still not working, I might need to push myself to do the weekly thing. 

So here is my meal plan for this week: 

Sunday: 
D:Ravioli with Chicken, Garlic Break & Caesar Salad
Monday:
B: cereal - kids have a Dr. appointment at 8 a.m. and we need to be fast!
L: Pasta with veggies
D: Leftovers - hubby away
Tuesday: 
B: Oatmeal 
L: Egg Salad sandwiches on fresh bread - I work  Tuesdays so I need to have these prepared in advance for my mom to give to the kids
D: Red Pepper & Sweet Potato Soup
Wednesday:
B: Toast & Eggs
L: Pita Pizzas
D: Lasagna
Thursday: 
B: cereal - I have bible study early so once again, we need a quick meal!
L: McDonalds with my mom - Thursday tradition :) 
D: leftovers - hubby away
Friday: 
B: Oatmeal
L: veggies, crackers, meat & cheese
D: Tomato Soup & Grilled Cheese Sandwiches
Saturday:
B: Pancakes & Bacon
L: leftovers
D: Perogies with sausage & peppers

And because it is just amazing, here is my recipe for Red Pepper & Sweet Potato Soup. A friend gave it to me so I have no idea where it is from. Oh and this picture is a triple batch. The recipes does not make this much soup! I was participating in a soup swap this week so I needed a lot of soup! Oh and on that note, I highly recommend food swaps. I've participated in a couple and have loved it. You get together with a group of friends and you all make a bunch of one type of food. So for the soup swap, I made 4 meals of soup and then traded the other 3 with my friends and got 3 different types of soup back. Such a great way to fill your freezer but not have to make a million different meals. 

Red Pepper and Sweet Potato Soup

2 red bell peppers, seeded and chopped
1 ½ lbs sweet potato, cubed (I used one really big sweet potato)
1 onion, roughly chopped
2 large cloves garlic, roughly chopped
5 cups vegetable stock
1 ¼ cups dry white wine (didn’t have any so I used apple juice)
Tabasco sauce, to taste
salt & freshly ground pepper

 Put first 6 ingredients in a pot and bring to a boil.  Simmer for 30 minutes.  Remove from heat and puree in a food processor, blender or using a hand blender.  Add some salt & pepper and a dash of Tabasco sauce.  Serve.