I started this month with a new Excel spreasheet that is too cool for words. Each tab represents my 4 different financial institutions... and within each tab, there are all of my specific envelopes. It took a while to set up, but this way I can use my debit card, instead of cash I hate carrying around that much cash. The envelope still "exists", just electronically. We got paid yesterday, so I split all of the money into the different banks, and then into the envelopes.


I just did my grocery shopping (on budget!) and Costco. I cannot believe I am going to type this... I was $50 UNDER budget at Costco. WOW! And I got a ton of great snacks for the kids (string cheese, gogurts,and stuff - all healthy-ish).

I think it helped not to by the boneless - skinless chicken breast at Costoc; rather I bought it at Fry's (Kroger). It was only $1.67 a pound for fresh, not frozen!. I bought three packages with 6 huge breasts (giggle!) in each - for the same price I would have paid for a total of 12 frozen. Score!

I've got our meals planned for the week, a STOCKED freezer and pantry... the weekend is shaping up! We have a lot going on next week... so I wanted to be as organized as possible.

My littlest DS is going to be starting a new DayCare next Monday - more expensive, but well worth-it. So we are going to go by him a back-pack and get ready for his "school" adventure!

So... in true Spring Cleaning fashion we moved rooms around last night. We now have a dedicated office again. I was sick of having our office in our bedroom. It was packed to the gills with computers, paper, and stuff. Not anymore. =) Thanks hubby for moving everything!

Today, we had to get Isabel some clothes. All her jeans that I bought her at the beginning of the year were no longer working... they got holes in bad places, and just plain didn't fit anymore. So, the kids and I walked (DH had the Van today) to Savers, a discount, used clothes store - kind of like a Goodwill of sorts) (I've never shopped there before - but I am trying). I budgeted $70, and I spent $70.10. Wahoo! On all three kids! Not bad. And they were fine with it. I promised the kids lunch @ Wendy's which was right next door to Savers, but I only took $80 with me - so we had to get lunch for 4 for only $10. We did it!

The whole walk, shopping, and lunch took 2 hours. The walk to Savers is 20 minutes. When we started it was 88 degrees outside (thanks to my nifty stroller temp gauge) and when we were walking back it was 93 degrees. The weather is perfect and warm. The smells of the trees and plants and flowers was delicious. Not sure how many of you have ever smelled the desert in the Spring, early Summer. It's very fragrant.

I am not going to lie, when we first started out - we were a bunch of complainers. Well, all except for Nic - he was in the abovementioned nifty stroller. My shins were killing me. We all need to get healthy so badly. Well, at least that was our third walk since Monday. We just need to keep it up.

This evening, I will be planning our menu and going grocery shopping. I should have done it yesterday, but the Spring Cleaning bug bit me.

Yeah. We stuck to our meal plan this week! I am so proud.

Here's our next week's (starting Friday).

I normally like to get our meal plan done before Friday, since we usually shop on Friday's. I am slacking.

I am at work... and I just got an email from my husband (for the sake of simplicity, we will call him DH - as in dear husband). DH asked me to email him back a list of the groceries we would need for next week, and he would take Nico (our almost two year old) shopping before I got home.

After I picked myself up off of the floor, I quickly created a simple meal plan...



I made sure he knew to buy what was on sale, for each item (I don't necessarily care about name brand right now), and to stay within our budget.

I will let you know how he does!