My mini-goals for January update and new mini-goals for February

Pin It    I can't believe it's the last day of January today. I don't think I've ever had such a quick winter month in my life! Usually winter months last forever. I can't stand cold weather, and  I count days until the beginning of spring. But this year the temperatures are so mild. I really enjoy it.

   Anyway, today I decided to post an update to my mini-goals for January:

1. Blog at least 15 times this month.
   I blogged 38 times this month!! Wow, I didn't even realize that I've blogged so much! Now I just need to find a good balance between blogging, reading other people's blogs, and all the household stuff that needs to be done :) I also finish this month with 19 20 amazing followers. Thank you so much, guys, for following and just for all your support! I really appreciate it!!

2. Stay within our food budget.
   I totally nailed it!!  Our current budget is $280 for 2 adults, 2 kids (one in diapers) plus 2 more kids that I babysit two times a week and feed at least twice a day.  And I have $45 left to put into my trampoline fund. I'm especially excited because I bought 3 different cases-olives, tomato soup and mac-and-cheese, and I still had money left to put aside.

3. Create a menu every week and post it here.
   Done! I did really good this month. We stuck to our menus 95% of the time. And the only reason it's not 100% is because there were couple of days when we were finishing up some unplanned leftovers. We only ate out once in spur of a moment, and stayed within our Eating out budget for a month.

4. Try at least 1 new recipe this month.
  Done! We tried easy breezy Turkey loaf. I'm not going to post a recipe because it wasn't that good but hey, we don't know until we try, right? At least, it was an easy breezy recipe.

5. List some stuff on KSL Classifieds.
   Failed :( I actually did try to list some stuff at the beginning of the month but the website wouldn't allow me to upload pictures, and then I got caught up in things and forgot all about it.

So my new goals for February:

1. Enjoy time with my parents!!! This is my biggest goal for the month-to put all the worries aside and just enjoy them being with us.

2. Write in my journal at least 4 times this month. I epically fail this yearly goal right now, and I really feel that I need to do it.

3. List stuff on KSL. Again!

4. Figure out our 401K. My Hubby changed his job position three times last year (within his company. It was either the docs themselves payed his salary, or two different  hospitals would do it). So now we have some bits and pieces of whatever little money we payed on and off last year in three different places. We need to get it all under "one roof", and then start contributing at least a little bit every month. His company doesn't match at all the first year, and because he was kicked around between hospitals so much, they say it's his first year again!!! Even more, they sent us a letter that they even when they start matching, it will only be once a year, end-of-the-year contribution. So even if he worked for them for 11.5 months, and decided to leave, he will not get anything unless he's there on the 31 st of December! I think, it's very odd, and I doubt he will stay with them much longer. He decided to wait until after my parents go back home to start seriously looking for a job. But he did update his resume, so we are ready!

5. Get our taxes done and check our credit score. We finally started getting all the forms for our taxes, so hopefully we'll have it all by mid-February. As for our credit score, we haven't checked it in almost three years, pretty much since we bought our current house. So it's just time!

So these are my new goals. And I'm also still doing No (low) spending and de-cluttering challenges with Carla.
Do you have any goals for February?

Menu, week 1/30- 2/5

Pin It    My parents are coming Thursday night!!! I'm so happy! I haven't seen them since last February. It's extremely expensive to travel between Russia and USA. The last time I went home was when I was pregnant with a Baby, and he'll be 2 next month (Really??? How old??). But my Mom had a big project that she finished ( she works as a construction engineer), and it was enough to pay for their tickets.They are not rich at all, and I sometimes feel so guilty that they give all the extra money they make to come and visit with us. I wish we could afford to go and see them. I miss Russia, and my family, and my friends so much. But we would need at least $5000 for tickets alone :(

Well, enough of that!! They are coming, and I'm going to be happy that at least we have the opportunity to see each other, and they can spend time with their grandchildren! My menu at the end of the week will be fairly simple because we are not even sure  yet what our plans are while they are staying with us.

   One of our dinners from last week- the new recipe Easy Breezy turkey loaf, not                                   exactly my favorite version but pretty edible.


Mon.- pork chops, couscous, broccoli, leftover green beans
Tues.- leftovers from weekend
Wed.- salmon, steamed veggies
Thurs.- chicken enchiladas
Fr.- cutlets, potatoes, salad
Sat.- slow cooker butter chicken, rice
Sun.- soup, sandwiches

Food waste Monday- a good week!!!

Pin It

    After my horrible waste last week, I'm happy to say that we do not have any waste this week!!! I've found a few green beans that will go into today's dinner and some onion that started drying up, so I chopped it and put it in a freezer to use up in the next couple of weeks. I'm so excited!!

Shopping trips this week

Pin It

   I had my usual Wednesday and Saturday shopping trips this week. On Wednesday I went to Walmart . Highlights from that trip:
Ketchup (just one:))- $1 (price-matched with Harmons, had a coupon for it too but forgot to use it)
Ranch-$1 (price-matched with Harmons)
Big thing of cottage cheese- $1.99 (price-matched to Reams)
tomatoes-2lbs/99c (price-matched to Viva)
cabbage-5lbs/99 (price-matched to Rancho Market)
radishes-25c/bunch (price-matched to Rancho Market)
and the best deals were on some pork:
Pork Chops- $1.69/lb (price-matched to Rancho Market)
Ground pork- $1.29/lb(price-matched to Rancho Market)
Pork stew meat- $1.29/lb (price-matched to Rancho Market)

Total spent: $23.56
Total saved: $17.76
Coupons used: 0

On Saturday I went to Walmart to buy fixings for a salad for tomorrow's Birthday party, a gallon of  milk, sour cream and bread.
Total spent: $12.33
Total saved: $0
Total coupons used: 0


We also stopped by Reams to use our rain check from last week for eggs ( 99c/dozen, total spent-$2.04, total saved: appr. $1.50) and Harmons (the Older Kid really wanted some blueberries-1.67 for 6 oz, and we grabbed another milk just to be set for sure until the end of the month, total spent-$4.59, total saved, appr.$1)

YTD spending: $233.56
YTD savings: $161.21
Left to spend this month: $46.44
YTD coupons used : 32
YTD waste: $26.33

   I'm not planning to shop any more until Feb 1st (next Wednesday), so all the money that is left will go towards my trampoline fund. I was really hoping to have $50 left but oh well, I can't complain. I'm still way under my budget this month. Wohoo!!

February Double challenge

Pin It

   A few days ago dear Carla posted a new February double challenge, and I immediately knew I wanted to join her. We sat down yesterday with Hubby and created some sort of a plan.

LOW (NO) SPEND CHALLENGE:

February is going to be a very busy month for us. My parents are coming next Thursday. They will stay with us for 11 days and then spend another 10 days with my sister. Also we have 3 Birthdays next month. And St. Valentine's Day. So it's truly going to be a challenge for us to cut the corners and spend less. But we decided that our goal will be to add another $100 to our trampoline budget.

So in order for us to reach it, here are a few steps we could think of:

Have 15 no spend days- I've learned all to well that if I go shopping, I will probably find some sort of a "bargain" that we don't really need but the price is too hard to pass, and I might just convince myself that it's something we can't live without. So the least we go to the stores, the better.

Stay under our food budget- This truly is going to be a challenge!! With two more grown-ups to feed, money might be tight. But I hope, I can cut some expenses by using stuff in our freezer and careful meal planning.

Work on our utilities- I'll have more on this later but we really want to concentrate on our usage this month

Cut on miscellaneous spending- it's usually $120 but we always spend more than that. I hope, in February we can concentrate more on our "needs," and not "wants".

Stay under $60 with eating out- Usually our budget for it is $50/month but I increased it extra $10 with my parents here. They don't really care about going out , and I plan on using coupons for everything. We will probably grab some Chinese and ,maybe, Subway but I really am going to watch it closely.

THINGS THAT DO NOT COUNT TOWARDS THE CHALLENGE: My Birthday gift ( we already budgeted $50 for it from my Hubby's latest bonus), my hair-cut and hair-color ( again, budgeted from a bonus, and I just really need to have it done!!), tithes, date night ( this was planned monthly from the beginning of the year with a $30 limit, and all money left rolls into the next month), Tax preparation (ugh!!), gas (hubby gets reimbursed from work for mileage/usage, so we'll see how it goes this month) and medical bills (yes, we still get them from 2 ER visits in November!!) . We also have Baby's and BIL's Birthdays in February but we already have gifts for them.

DE-CLUTTER CHALLENGE:

This works perfectly with my yearly goal. With my parents here I won't have much time to de-clutter but I want to toss, donate, recycle or sell at least 29 things this month.

Rainbow jell-o recipe, just like I promised.

Pin It      I love rainbows. I truly do!! Every time I see a rainbow, it just makes my day. And so many times in my life, when I had a hard decision to make or just needed a boost of happiness, I would see a rainbow. So one of my favorite desserts is a rainbow jell-o (obviously!!). There are lots of variations online on how to make it, using whipped cream, sour cream, sweetened condensed milk. I prefer to make it with plain yogurt ( just a little healthier). And you can use normal or sugar-free jell-o. I just made some for my friend for her Birthday last week. It is very easy to make, just time-consuming (you'll have to wait for every layer to set.)
  
   You will need:

Transparent plastic cups ( I used the ones from Walmart, I needed 6)
1 pt. plain yogurt
1 3oz package black cherry jell-o ( I didn't use it, just didn't have it in my store)
1 3oz package blue berry jell-o
1 3oz. lime jell-o
1 3oz. lemon jell-o
1 3oz. orange jell-o
1 3 oz. strawberry jell-o ( I used cherry, what I had on hand)

Put your cups into a 9x13 form for stability and to make it easier to move around. Mine fits 6 cups.

    Begin with black cherry and follow the same instructions for each flavor in order given. Dissolve black cherry jell-o in 1 cup of boiling water. Divide in half. To 1 half, add 4 TBSP (without a top) of plain yogurt.Whisk really well. Pour this mixture equally into cups and let set in a fridge. It takes about 25 min. After 25 min. are over, add 3 TBSP. of cold water to the other half and pour it over the first. Put back in a fridge for half an hour. Repeat with all 6 flavors. Be patient, let every layer set!!!

   You can decorate your cups with whipped cream and sprinklers.

    For a gift, I wrapped four cups ( there are 4 members in their family) with a plastic wrap, put a card in between and decorated with a bow.

You can also make your jell-o right in a 9x13 form (just spray it very lightly with cooking spray to let come out easily) or even use a bundt pan. Check out this beauty:

                                                      Image

Bon appetite!

Menu, week 1/23-1/29

Pin It    Well, after my epic Food Waste this week, I do have quite a few things that need to be used up. So here's the plan:

Mon.- easy breezy turkey loaf (new recipe), mashed potatoes, green beans, carrots
Tues.- chicken ceaser salad
Wed.- breakfast burritos for dinner
Thurs.-spaghetti, salad
Fr.-cheesy potato bacon casserole, frozen veggies
Sat.-leftovers for lunch, tuna sandwiches for dinner
Sun.-soup for lunch, Birthday dinner with family (potluck,we are bringing a salad)

Food waste Monday- lesson learned...

Pin It    Well,  to tell you the truth, today is not a good day in my Food waste challenge. Actually, it's the worst ever! It all started like this:

 Well, actually with a bread on the back. Piece of fish was at the very end of my freezer. It expired a year ago. BOO!

But back to the story of a bread. I was getting a box of pasta out of my pantry when I noticed that there was something behind all the boxes. And when I got it out, it was a bag with a few slices of VERY green bread. Gross gross gross! Apparently, My Older Kid put the bread in the back and completely forgot about it.

Then a couple of days later I went to grab a bottle of ketchup and I saw ...well, that it expired in March of last year! And to make things worse, the were not one but three bottles of the expired ketchup. So here we go (oh, and I also found a baggie of old trail mix):

     So I decided that it's time to clean my pantry. I haven't done in a while. The result...is BAD:

31 different cans and packages!!! All expired  November of last year or earlier. This is truly a sad day. I've been doing so well with our fridge and freezer but, apparently, my pantry needed help the most. On the bright side, now my pantry is all nice and clean, and I'm ready to start a new week.

So here's what I threw away this week:
Fish-$1.88
Bread-appr. 25c (there were about 5 pieces in a bag, and it was a cheap loaf)
Heinz ketchup- 89c/ea (still had stickers on bottles)
GV ketchup- 79c
Trail mix- 50c (it's funny, I still remember most of the prices on the things I bought. I wish I would remember the expiration dates too...)
3 Campbell's select soups, 99c ea
8 chicken noodle soups, 50c ea
1 Campbell's gravy-50c
1 big can of Chili beans w/sauce- 75c (manager's special, the price is still on a can)
1 mustard-60c
1 big can of canned pears-99c, expired in Dec, 2010!!!
1 peanut butter- got it for free but still very sad
1 little bag of leftover chips-let's say, 50c
2 boxes of old taco shells- got them for 50c each
4 bags of popcorn-25c ea
1 mustard dipping sauce-69c
1 Ken's poppy seed dressing- 99c
1 can mixed veggies-50c (manager's special)
3 Stove Top stuffing boxes, 50c ea
1 Kikkoman sesame marinade-don't remember but I doubt I payed more than a dollar for it
1 Reser's potato salad- got it for free but nobody liked it. I kept moving it around the fridge until it got gross

So in total I threw away $21.19 worth of food... No good! But you know what? I've learned my lesson ! Just because something is a good deal, on sale, on clearance or I have a coupon for it, doesn't mean I need to buy it! We do not like canned chicken noodle soup but I bought it just in case...The whole case...Or stuffing... I can't stand store-bought stuffing! It's too salty and lacks flavor but again, I got it just in case! No more!!

I threw away almost 10% of my food budget this month. It's not gonna happen again!

YTD spending: $191.04
YTD savings: $140.95
Left to spend this month: $88.96
YTD coupons used : 32
YTD waste: $26.33

Food waste Monday

Pin It

                                                         Image

    I've just cleaned my fridge and I'm happy to announce that I DON'T HAVE any food waste this week!!! No...none...zero...nada...!! We finished all the leftovers over the weekend and I only have a few things that need to be used in the next couple of days. The menu plain is coming up...

YTD spending: $131.28
YTD savings: $117.57
Left to spend this month: $148.72
YTD coupons used : 27
YTD waste: $5.24

Zucchini pasta

Pin It

This meal is one of our favorites. You don't use any meat but it's still satisfying and loaded with vegetables and vitamins.

    You will need:
 1 box rotini or penne
2 medium zucchinis
2 small carrots
1/2 small onion
2/3 package cream cheese
1/2 roma tomato
1/2 can green peas
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 TBSP. olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
grated Parmesan for serving

 Prepare vegetables first. Cut zucchinis into medium pieces, grate carrots, nicely dice onions. Cook pasta according to package directions. While pasta is cooking, heat oil at medium heat and add garlic. Cook until fragrant, about 1 minute, watching closely. You don't want it to burn. Add zucchinis, carrots and onions to garlic and cook stirring occasionally until soft and completely cooked.

    While veggies are cooking, nicely dice half of a tomato. Drain pasta and mix in with cooked vegetables, cubed cream cheese, tomatoes and peas. Add salt and pepper. Let stand for a few minutes and mix well until cream cheese covers all pasta.
Sprinkle some grated Parmesan on top before serving.

PS- When I cooked it back home in Russia, I usually added smoked soft cheese. For additional boost of flavor you can add a splash of liquid smoke at the end.
 

Feeling creative?

Pin It    I love making things with my own hands. It gives me a sense of achievement. I'm not very crafty. When I was little, my Mom used to sew from home to make some money to pay the bills. She can sew anything, from bikini to a fur coat. She had (and still has) this old old beat up Zinger sewing machine that was always her most treasured possession.  We were not allowed to touch it in her absence and could only use it under her supervision (and man, she watched us like a hawk...). Needless to say, my sewing abilities go as far as mending Hubby's pants or hemming a dress. But she did want us to learn other skills like knitting, crocheting, embroidering. We were encouraged to make our own gifts for holidays (well, that and also because we were pretty broke growing up...). I don't make that many handmade gifts any more but I still enjoy the opportunity to make something.

    One of my hobbies is to make diaper cakes. It's not completely a hobby, I do sell them but just locally. So it only gives me enough money to go out with my hubby once in a while. I am thinking about selling them on Ebay or Etsy but the idea of starting the actual business terrifies me. I don't know anything about owning my business but I think I would look more into it this year. We'll see.

   Anyway, my best friend asked me to make a diaper cake for her other friend's baby shower. It took me a couple days to finish but I really enjoyed making it.

   Diaper cakes are not necessarily a frugal gift but they are sure fun to make!

My best friend's wedding!!

Pin It    So on Saturday we had a reception for my best friend and her now husband. They actually got married back in December, right before Christmas. But his family is from a different state, so none of us friends could actually be there (who can find the airfare money right before Christmas, duh???) I actually planned on going there but we had a medical situation that left us with some bills that we are gonna pay all the way into March...

    So we sat down with her and planned a smaller reception here. They both go to school right now and are as broke as can be. So we decided to pull off a $500 reception!

                                                      The gift table

  I know it's sounds almost impossible but hear me out! We were truly blessed with the help from so many people. First, we used our church building for the actual reception ( and the place is usually a HUGE expense). We had simple white tablecloths that we borrowed ( free!! ), her other friend gave us all the vases from her wedding (7 big and 3 small in total, so we only had to buy 4. We had 11 big round tables). The flowers all came from their original reception.
 
    But I think the best part was having life music there!! The groom plays in a band, and it was absolutely awesome!! We all enjoyed it so much, and it was free!

    All these things are usually BIG money pits when you plan a reception. We did do all the decor ourselves (and it was VERY simple). We also  cooked, cooked and cooked...

    These were just everyone's favorites. We didn't have any leftovers :). For the recipe, go here. Aren't they cute? And such an easy appetizer too.


       They only invited about 70 people. But everyone enjoyed it, it was a lot of fun.

                                              First guests arriving...

                                                 Yummy cupcakes...

                                              And a closer look...

        But most importantly is that bride and groom (or I should say, newlyweds!) looked really happy and just radiant. They love each other and we love them!

                                           
                           CONGRATULATIONS, JULIA AND TOMMY!!!

PS- And I'm really sorry for the quality of the pictures..I do have a very crappy camera and it's not changing any time soon.

Menu, week 1/9-1/15

Pin It    My menu this week will include leftovers from the wedding and some Russian meals. I do plan to post a few recipes within the next few weeks months.

Mon- rice soup

Tues- plov (leftovers), green salad

Wed- zucchini pasta

Thurs.- leftovers

Fr.- UVU Russian club potluck dinner (I'll make vinegret)

Sat.-family night out for pizza (use a certificate I got last year. We will finally celebrate my husband finishing  school)

Sun.- slow cooker roast with potatoes, mushrooms, steamed veggies

Food waste Monday

Pin It

  My baby was coughing all night and woke up with a fever this morning. So cleaning a fridge is hardly on my list today. I did quickly look through all the stuff in it and made the list of things that need to be used within the next few days. I did pretty good last week, and finished all our leftovers.  But I still have tons of food left after the wedding. I only have one thing to report, and it's not my fault at all that we didn't eat it!

  I stumbled upon some discounted vegetable trays at Smiths that still had a week until the expiration dates, so we got a bunch of them for the wedding. We had a few left. But I opened one of them yesterday and just felt this nasty smell. As you can see from the picture, everything LOOKS nice too. I did try one of the tomatoes and bit on a carrot, and it tasted  absolutely disgusting!! So I chucked the whole thing. Kinda of sad because it still had 3 days until it's Sell by date!! I'm thinking of writing to Kroger and complaining about it.

   Other than that, everything else still seems to be edible :)

Updated 01/10- I actually found a can half full of beans on the back of the fridge that smell kind of funky. So that's another 50c.

YTD spending: $50.33
YTD savings: $28.64
Left to spend this month: $229.67
YTD waste: $5.24

My mirror project!!!

Pin It    This Christmas my husband gave me a big leaner mirror. I've been looking for one for a while but they were way out of our budget. Finally I found one in Walmart (of all places...) But even at the price of $44, it still wasn't something I could just go ahead and buy. So I decided to try to squeeze it in our budget next year. But my sweet hubby gave it to me as a gift instead. Love you, honey!

  I love this mirror because of the size-27" x 62"!! I had this idea forever to put a mirror over our couch in the living room with the quote on it. So after he gave it to me, I turned to Etsy and found this beautiful quote. I absolutely fell in love with it! It shares perfectly how we feel about our family. So I immediately ordered it. Actually, it turned out that they are located in our state, so my hubby just picked it up couple days later.

   And here's the finished project. I wish I would have a better camera (or better photography skills...) to show you how cute it turned out! I never knew how hard it is to make a picture of a mirror- especially if you don't want your reflection in a picture too. But here it is! I love it:

   And a closer look:

   I didn't put the very top of the quote on it. It will go on some other little project...

Disclaimer: I did not get any reimbursement from VinylLettering. I just love their work and the quality of their products, and I highly recommend them.

Food waste Monday (well,Tuesday this time)

Pin It

   I was really hoping to not have any Food Waste this week until I found some nasty salad in my fridge. The picture doesn't really show it but it's pretty wilted and gross. And the pie is not my fault, I promise! We bought some frozen Sara Lee pumpkin pie for our dinner with my sister. I baked it according to the directions but when I got it out, it was liquidy on the top, so I cooked it 10 min. longer, same thing. After 25 more minutes I got it out, let it sit for an hour and it still never firmed up. It's not the first time for me to use their pies, so I was pretty disappointed. I only spent $1.99 on it after sale and coupon but it's not about the money... Our dessert was ruined!!! Luckily, my wonderful sister-in-law stopped by and brought us some cookies, so we shared it with my sister's family.

  So I would say, salad was appr. 50c and $1.99 for a pie. Hopefully, I'll do better next week!

YTD spending: $50.33
YTD savings: $28.64
Left to spend this month: $229.67
YTD waste: $2.49

First shopping trip of this year

Pin It

   I had my first grocery shopping trip of the year yesterday. I usually try to shop on Wednesdays and Saturdays but I have a wedding this Saturday plus we were completely out of milk, so I decided to go on Monday. I did end up going to a couple of different stores. I bought a case of olives (79c per can) and a case of mac and cheese (39c per box). We don't usually eat mac and cheese but my picky kiddo that I babysit eats, probably, 10 different things total. And that's it!! So mac and cheese is a must here right now! But this box should last us for the rest of the year (hopefully...). I also price-matched cucumbers with Rancho Market( 5 for 99c), some salad in Walmart with Harmons( Walmart has WAY bigger bunches than Harmons), cheese with Smiths( $5.99 plus used $1 coupon of cheese from www.coupons.com, milk with Rancho Market ($2.29 plus used 75c coupon). I got a few other items but these are the highlights of my trip.
     I also grabbed 2 boxes of Infant Advil from Walgreens. I used 2 $2 coupons (found at my doc's office) , spent $6.68 after coupons and got $3 Catalina back. This is my stock-up price, especially with a teething baby here!

Anyway, total spent this week- $50.33, total saved $28.64

YTD spending: $50.33
YTD savings: $28.64
Left to spend this month: $229.67
YTD waste: $2.49

Menu, week 1/2/-1/8

Pin It I cleaned the fridge and finished my menu for the week. I do have some Food Waste to report but I'll probably do it tomorrow. I just can't seem to be able to find the time to upload pictures on a busy Monday.

Anyway, back to the menu. We have plenty of leftover ham from a little get-together with my sister on New Year's Day, so ham is definitely going to be part of some of our meals this week:

Mon- Ham Alfredo spaghetti

Tues- BLT sandwiches w/ sweet potato fries
 
Wed- rice w/ teriyaki broccoli beef

Thurs- Hawaiian pita pizzas

Fr- drumsticks, rolls, salad

Sat- Whatever! My best friend is having a wedding reception, and we'll be so busy with it that food would definitely not be a priority

Sun- meatballs, potatoes, frozen veggies

  

My mini-goals for January

Pin It   Well, I finally decided on my mini-goals for this month. I will post 5 goals every month this year and give an update on what I achieved at the beginning of the next month.

    So here we go:

1. Blog at least 15 times this month.
   It's the same goal I have in my yearly goals and it seems to be easily achievable but considering that last time around I stopped blogging before I could even reach THIS amount of posts, I think it's worth to be mentioned as a separate monthly goal.

2. Stay within our food budget.
   Our current budget is $280 for 2 adults, 2 kids (one in diapers) plus 2 more kids that I babysit two times a week and feed at least twice a day. I was blown away to see that just a year ago my food budget was only $175, and I was pretty close to making it. The prices really went up ! My "food budget" actually includes food, all HBA, household cleaners, diapers and other necessities.

3. Create a menu every week and post it here.
   I was pretty good with working on my menu lists the last quarter of 2011 and I want to keep doing it. Cleaning the refrigerator on Mondays and creating a menu really helps me to know what we need to buy, what needs to be used and what we have more than we can eat ( like candies after all the holidays...Now I just need to convince my ODS that we don't need that many...)

4. Try at least 1 new recipe this month.
   I like to cook, and we hardly ever eat out. But I tend to stick to the same meals over and over again. I want to expand our collection of favorites and try some new frugal but delicious recipes. I'll post my favorites here too.

5. List some stuff on KSL Classifieds.
   As part of our De-cluttering goal this year, we want to try to sell  some things that carry some value. We also have a specific piece of furniture in mind (a dresser from IKEA...) that we want to save for :)