Sunday, March 10, 2013

Government Furlough!

Hey there, I know it's been a while but it just seems like life gets in the way of blogging. So thought I would involve you with every aspect of my life.

 My husband and I are both government workers and trying to prepare ourselves for furlough. However, like most of you we are in so much debt that the thought of losing another $1,000 a month is just overwhelming. However, we have decided to take it one bit at a time.

First, we thought we would eliminate movie channels on our cable and go with Netflix. Have y'all used that service? Is it better than having HBO, Cinimax, etc? I haven't had a chance to look at the savings yet.

Second, when a car says "premium gas only", is that mandatory?

Third, and most importantly, food! I have decided to cut back on purchasing a lot of the processed foods. Today, was my first time making Bread without my bread machine. We loved it! I also am trying to plan my meals better which will definitely help the budget. I also made Flour Tortillas today!  Can you imagine? I would never thought of that, but they were really easy. Tomorrow, I will be making breakfast burritoes with them, so I will let you know how that goes.

On the note of meal planning, I have done a lot of research (via Pinterest).  I really feel, for me, that I work best in looking at what I have on hand and decide on what I want to make that will make the most of my pantry items.  So, this week we were very short on money and I needed to keep our shopping to the absolute minimum.

With that in mind, I looked through our very bare pantry and knew I needed five meals before payday.  So, this is what my notes looked like:


Meat loaf loaded potatoes mixed veg

Enchiladas  w yellow rice corn bread

Baked ham au gratin potatoes corn
Pea soup w French bread


Lunches

Pea soup
Ham sandwiches
Pbj


Ground beef
Yellow rice
Milk
Butter
Ham
Corn
Dried peas
Sour cream
Eggs
Yeast

As you can see, the bottom part is my actual grocery list.

I'm sorry, I'm blogging in bed on my iPad, so no pics tonight but will upload some tomorrow.



Goodnight