Weekly Meal Planners or Menus

I took this weekend to spend some time looking at recipes and figuring out what everyone will want to eat this weekend. This month has been a bad budget month since we are over on our monthly budget of $400 on food as well as spending on gas and restaurants. My hubby had to pay out of pocket for a business trip which he is supposed to be reimbursed for but right now, we are $450 out of money. The hotel was $230 for 2 nights and did not have a fridge. We couldn't stock up on groceries and save. We had to eat out which cost us another $150. And let's not mention the gas it took to get to his destination! I think we spent $70 every day on gas for 3 days. We drove 7 hours and over 300 miles. While the weekend event was enjoyable, our wallets are hurting now that rent is due on the 1st and we don't have enough. But hopefully the landlady will let us pay on the 3rd.

I have been checking out everyone's meal planners and while I do like the idea of pre-planning meals, my family does not all agree on one meal. The kids don't like the adult food and while we try to eat healthy, they sometimes just want to eat Ramen noodles or Waffles, even for dinner. Instead of creating one-meal choices per day, I did a restaurant style menu where people can choose what they want to eat based on the ingredients we have. When the item can not be made for the rest of the week, I'll cross it out or mark the Menu to let them know we are out and not running to the store for that until the following week.

I also made a section for Requests. Since this isn't a restaurant, I think it's a good idea that my family can request foods that they want to eat for the following week/weekend. If no requests are made, then I (who shops) gets to choose the menu items.

Here's what it looks like and what we eat on a regular basis.

I strongly believe in eating meat at dinner-time as it fills up everyone's bellies very quickly and the price of meat is pretty reasonable when bought in bulk. I like bulk items! That doesn't mean I like Costco. That's another ball-game. I just shop at my local Fry's (grocery store) and since it's less than a mile from my house, it's super convenient. If their cereal's are buy $5 and save $5, then I buy them. I tend to check out what their 5-for-5 or 10-for-10 deals are since I can stock up for two weeks on many items instead of one week. Things that are usually 10-for-10 are pastas and asian foods, such as Rice boxes. I tend to buy the bag in bulk instead.

All the summer foods (or poolside snacks) can be purchased at the Dollar Store too, such as chips, dips and sodas. I tend to stay away from those until it's 120 degrees outside in Arizona and only have them around when the kids are here (Friday after school to Sunday evening).

If you guys have any recommendations on kids meals besides Mac n Cheese since they are not big on that, leave a comment! It's hard to satisfy them being so picky but they do enjoy the fruits and yogurts. The youngest one won't eat until you put it in front of him; his "busy" schedule just makes him forget to eat. The older one though eats a lot! She is always snacking so I need to come up with affordable snacks, unlike the Fiber One bars or Oats N Honey crackers. Her favorites are now ridiculously expensive so I'm learning to substitute but she's not quite learning to accept the "unbranded" kind. We'll see. Kids are kids.

DIY: Patio Chairs

I really had zero intentions of doing anything outside today when I first woke up; however, the cool wind and not-so-terribly hot sun made for a perfect day to fix up some outside furniture without spending over $20.00 on supplies.

I fortunately had two (2) spray-paints of Rustoleum Flat White to spray my two (cedar wood, I think) bar stools for my outside bar. These bar stools were kind of handed down to us, but if you don't have bar stools and you really want some, Goodwill has great ones as low as $19.99 a piece. They are easy to fix and upgrade. After I had spray-painted the chairs white, I had to run to Home Depot to get an extra white. I was using Rustoleum Flat White. When I realized the chairs were way too bright, I decided to go with a Dark Gray Spray Paint and Navy. I prefer dark gray over light; looks better that way.

I didn't bother sanding or priming, unless you call spray-painting it white first, "priming" because that I did do. I don't see the point in sanding, priming and then sealing. These chairs are not going to last probably another year; this is just temporary. Plus my Black & Decker Sanding charger was stolen out of my garage, so I cannot sand. Any how, I used Acrylic paint that I had in Blue and painted the rest dark gray. The dark gray paint can be used for exterior but I doubt Acrylic can be, which is why I am going to use my Polyurethane Sealer tomorrow (letting the paint seep into the pores of the wood for a good 15 hours) and seal the paint from UV exposure. In Arizona, things go bad very quickly when not protected with any sort of sealant. Usually my chairs are in the shade too so they don't see too many hours of sun, with the exception of mornings.

Here are my end results on my first chair. The second chair will probably be done tomorrow. I think they turned out cute, now I just need to figure out what wonderful fabric I want on my cushions....

The brown cushions will be re-covered at a later date since they obviously don't match but for now, in case my man wants to sit outside tonight, the cushions stay.

Memorial Book Created via Blurb

Hey there,

I have been away from the blogging world because I had a deadline to meet on finishing my book for someone special. I used the site Blurb to create the Memorial Album. My husband's mother passed away March 2nd and I had this little idea to put her life into a book via pictures. I got to know her in a very different way by doing this. My husband does not know I have created this book but he does know I am up to something since I asked all family members to send me their photos of his mother.

His mother passed away due to Parkinson's and while it was diagnosed in late 2010, I could clearly see the changes in her face and posture as early as the '90's. Based on these photos, I truly believe she should have been diagnosed then instead of late 2010; however, she is gone now so I cannot say much. All I know is she lived a good life and had no enemies. She was kind and loved animals. She was even kind to those who weren't so kind to her. She died at age 70 while her twin sister lives on in sorrow.

I created a Memorial Album on Blurb for her twin sister to pay my respects to the family, as I am new, and to insure that the memory lives on. I cannot make it to the Memorial being held in the state she resided in so the least I could do is provide a sentimental gift that would mean the world to only those who knew her and loved her.

My husband will get his own copy on next paycheck. I created 28 pages (that is if you include the hard-cover and two blank pages at the end). Some photos are in color and some in black and white. It took me roughly 30 hours combined to complete the scanning of the images, editing them and sorting them by year. My deadline was Friday but I am two days late - even though the real deadline was the book had to be received before her Memorial Date, May 5th. Mission accomplished. The entire cost of the book was going to be $44 but I found a 15% discount coupon online and was able to only pay $38.94 for a 28-page colored album hard-cover with dust-jacket book.