Sometimes we play this little game around here called, "Spending Freeze". Actually, it's not called that, I just made it up. As a matter of fact, it's really not a game, but I like to make it into a game...games always make life more interesting, don't you agree?
I bet you'll recognize the game after I explain it a little better.
Rules Of The Game:
1 - May not be played until all grocery budget money, or ALL your money for that matter, has diminished. Usually happens 5-7 days before payday.
2 - Everyone in the house must play. It just doesn't have the same effect when everyone isn't on board. The kids will eventually get on board, just give them some time. They pretty much won't have a choice after a day or two=)
3 - Goal of the game: not to step foot into the grocery store until you have been paid, or at least until you run out of baby food (man, that boy can eat!).
We've been playing this game for 5 days now, but praise the Lord, payday is Saturday! I thought it would be fun to share our creative meals, I mean, gaming strategies, with you in case you ever have a chance to play the game yourself!
Saturday: We had pretty "normal" meals but began realizing that we were going to have to give smaller rations of just about every staple around the kitchen. It helped that we had Journey on Saturday night and we have an AWESOME volunteer team that provides food for us!
Sunday: I always buy meat with the discount stickers on them before they expire so I had a good meat stockpile in the freezer. I pulled out a roast to stick in the crock pot with some potatoes and carrots. We also had 1 more can of dinner biscuits to make. Mother's Day Lunch was ready when we got home! For dinner, Josh finished up the last of the pancake mix for our candlelight dinner we had. Throw in a few eggs and you've got a whole meal. My man sure knows how to please:)
Monday: Finished off the cereal and then finished off the Bisquick to make cinnamon rolls for the rest of the week's breakfasts. Lunch was a conglomeration of pretzels (finished off), lunch meat, peanut butter, saltine crackers, craisins, and apples to take on our picnic. For dinner we had wonderful spaghetti and a great salad with some broiled sandwich bread with Parmesan cheese.
Tuesday: The kids are getting a little weary of our little game. We press on toward the goal though. The kids got the last 2 pop-tarts for breakfast, I had yogurt and granola and Josh had oatmeal. Lunch was at Aunt Kelly's house for play day. Dinner for Josh and I was at small group (we made out good today!) and I made the kids grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup. Micaiah didn't get any fruit today. Just sweet potatoes, carrots and corn.
Wednesday: Breakfast will be oatmeal or yogurt and granola. Lunch will be lunch meat, salad or soup. Dinner is going to be something with chicken, tortillas and rice. Maybe I'll post what yummy meal we get out of these ingredients. I can always go to AllRecipes.com to find a fabulous recipe.
BENEFITS OF THE GAME:
1 - You get to weed out all those little things in the back of your pantry that you forgot about.
2 - You get to be creative in finding what kinds of foods can go together
3 - We all are reminded of how blessed we are to have so much food at the tips of our fingers
4 - The kids have stopped asking for snacks since their options today were "apple or carrot, what'll it be?"
5 - Josh and I aren't snacking as much either. I mean, I would hardly call my pack of tic-tacs before bed a snack! It didn't even come close to fulfilling my craving.
So, now that you know what game I'm talking about...do you ever play?
10 comments:
Yep. We're playing that game this week too! Fortunately I do have a bit of a meat stockpile in my freezer as well. The problem is, in my rush to get out of the house in the morning, I ALWAYS forget to set it out to thaw for dinner. (Ever since I've started putting Ivalee's food together in the evenings to save me that extra step in the mornings, this has been the consequence.)
I must add to our lunch options. We just ate homegrown strawberries and homegrown tomatoes. How awesome is that?!
We have been playing this game for a week! Besides cleaning out the pantry, I have been thankful for our garden which is supplying us with salads, strawberries, peas, radishes and turnips. I deposited my paycheck this morning, so I think when I pick up the kiddos from school we are going to go have fun at the grocery store. :-)
Ooh, have fun gathering your groceries!
We definitely play this game!!!... The only exception for us is if we run out of milk- you know how my kids are with their milk:)
We do this too! If you have never tried shopping at Aldi's you should. We go tot he one on Wake Forest Rd up the street from Trader Joe's. Shopping there has revolutionized our grocery stock. I've never bought anything bad from there. They have really great stuff. I've tried coupons and double coupons and I still can't beat Aldi's.
We def. do Aldi! We LOVE that store=) I usually go to the one on 401 right near our house which is VERY convenient...
Oh yes. We are having a spending freeze this week as well...payday is coming! =)
Very helpful post. Thanks for taking the time to post it. My babies beg to go to Chick Fil A once and week and this week and brought our own drinks. Love hearing ways on how to cut back on spending so much of our hard earned money on food.
Hehe, we did this tonight. What was on the menu? Mac and Cheese, Biscuits with honey, and the rest of the fresh-picked strawberries.
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