Organizing Challenge: Study (Week 4)

We're getting down to the wire! There's less than a week until the February 29 deadline for OrgJunkie's 29 Day Organizational challenge, and this was a super productive week for me.

Check out my previous progress posts here:

Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3

I'll save the detailed pictures and explanations for Wednesday's big reveal (haha!), but some highlights of this week were

• getting Matt's sheet music and guitar tabs organized into SIX notebooks,
• coming up with a solution for Avery's "office" (aka her coloring books, stickers, papers, crayons, etc.),

and

• finally putting some pictures in a bulletin board/frame collage that I've had for at least two years.

Here are some comparisons from week 1 to now:

Between now and Wednesday, I still need to

• put pictures in a collage frame that found its new home in the study,
• finish a sewing project for Avery's art nook,
• finish a couple of other decorative details, and 
• get rid of the last remnants of "stuff" (my old laptop that needs to just be recycled at this point, my basket of unused office supplies, and some electronics that Matt needs to try to sell).

We're getting there though, and I'm loving how much better it looks already. Check back on Wednesday when it will be FINISHED!

Meal planning, grocery shopping, and other fun domestic things.

Lately I've been asked a lot about how I do our menu planning and grocery shopping. It's no secret that we're on a very tight budget around here, and we manage to keep our grocery budget to $250 a month. Truthfully, we're able to keep it that low because we have to. Keep in mind that I only consider food items part of our grocery bill; toiletries and detergent and that stuff are in another category altogether, and the way we save money in those areas is another post altogether!

Nothing that I do is truly original; I've just taken lots of different shopping/planning methods (methods? Can I even call them that?) and made them work for us.

We've tried E-mealz. I was too much of a control freak to let someone else choose what we were going to eat. And I have an aversion to companies that substitute Zs for Ss.

We've tried shopping every two weeks. We didn't eat enough produce by the end of the second week because it had gone bad. Plus I ended up going back to the store at some point anyway.

We've tried cutting coupons. Sheesh, talk about taking a lot of time! And really, most coupons are for items that I don't want to buy (processed junk food, anyone?). Sure I'll flip through the coupons in the Sunday paper, but I don't very use many of them anymore.

So take what you want and leave what you don't, but here's what works in this house:

• Menu planning: I sit down on Saturday night or Sunday afternoon and plan out our menu for the week. I'm super fancy and usually just use a piece of notebook paper. 
• Before I even start thinking about what we're going to eat, I sketch out our calendar for the week so I know how much time I'll have to be in the kitchen each day. That helps a TON because then I know which days I need Crock Pot meals, which days Matt can cook (he's better at it than I am!), and which days are good to try something new.
• Then I start brainstorming to figure out what sounds good. I usually ask Matt if he has any requests, and I flip through my Pinterest board of Recipes We've Tried and Loved.
• My last step before setting the menu is to glance through the grocery ads for my usual stores (more on that later) and looking through the pantry and fridge to see what we have that needs to be used. 
• Then we just assign a main and side dish to each day. Menu set!

• After the menu is set, I write out the grocery list. I usually hit three stores each week: Sprouts, Kroger, and Costco.
• Sprouts: I love Sprouts for their produce sales. Most of our side dishes are determined by which veggies are on sale that week. We get most of our produce here.
• Kroger: This is where we get our miscellaneous stuff like cereal, butter, eggs, baking supplies, whatever. Oh, and Blue Bell when it's on sale and I remember to print my coupon. That's an important one!
• Costco: You have to be careful with Costco because it's easy to buy unnecessary stuff just because it seems like a good deal. Our usual purchases at Costco are bananas, spinach, carrots (haha, we made it through the 10 lb bag!), cheese (we buy the blocks and shred it ourselves because it's way cheaper and tastes better), milk, meat (ground beef and chicken breasts), tortilla chips, veggie stix, and some type of snack (like granola bars or the Annie's snack bags). We also buy paper towels, toilet paper, diapers, dog food, and other stuff that doesn't count toward grocery money. I digress.
• If at all possible, I grocery shop on Sunday afternoon while the kids are napping or at night once they've gone to bed. It's SO much easier to shop (especially at 2-3 stores) when I'm by myself.

•  Just a few miscellaneous items:
• We try to limit our snack purchases. Those little boogers add up quickly! 
• We try to skip convenience items like cooking soups and taco seasoning (thanks to Pinterest we make our own!).
• I do still clip coupons for items that we purchase on a regular basis. I don't always use them right away because I usually try to wait and combine it with a sale. 
• We don't buy specific lunch food because we just eat leftovers. 
• We make most of Landon's baby food. I can't even tell you how much cheaper this is. We buy some jars for when we're out at mealtimes, but when we eat at home, we just thaw out our frozen cubes.
• I take out our $250 in cash after payday because then I can literally see how much we have left for the month.
• Price books are handy! But really once I paid attention to prices for long enough, I was able to easily recognize what was actually a good deal.

I am not an expert by any means, and I'll probably edit this post a few more times when I'm hit with a moment of grocery shopping brilliance. At the very least, now I have an answer for those of you who've asked how we do our grocery shopping around here.

Congratulations on making it this far. The end.

Wordless Wednesday

I really don't see what the fuss is all about.

Friday Five

1. I am a shorn sheep.

I've always wanted to donate my hair to Locks of Love, and I finally grew it out long enough to do it! It's been awhile since I had short hair, so I'm gonna have to get used to it. When I got home, Avery kept telling me I looked beautiful, so I think it'll be okay, haha!

2. I am not making any more baby food ever. Ugh, I'm mostly kidding, but Matt and I made SO much food for Landon last night! Matt cooked sweet potatoes, chicken breast, and carrots while I was at a meeting, and then when I got home I made peas and green beans and started making all kinda of combinations to puree and freeze. We ran out of ice cube trays, so I'll have to finish freezing a couple batches today. I know it's worth it because it's so much cheaper and better for Landon, but this girl is TIRED. And seriously, we probably made enough to last until he's totally on table food.

3. Last month I lost my car key. Yes, just one key. I was switching cars with my mom so I could go to soccer practice, and somewhere between the door and the car it just disappeared. And we still haven't found it. So annoying. Now I can't find my camera charger (hence the webcam pic above). I lost my planner for about a day, and thankfully my head is attached to my body otherwise I'd lose it, too! For those of you who were worried (ha!), I did find my planner, ironically enough, under a pile in the study that I'm in the middle of organizing. Whew.

4. In order to prevent said head loss, I've adopted a new brain. I wish I were kidding. I now have my incredible Post-It/Journal/To Do system in place (thanks to my friend Jamie and a great Pinterest find) and I finally have a good place to brain dump! I'll post the method and the madness soon. You'll just have to be patient. I know, this blog is just full of too much suspense.

5. Someone remind me never to buy 10 lbs of carrots again. You know, unless I'm planning on feeding a gajillion bunnies or something. Costco has some ridiculous mind warp on me and I convinced myself that yes I could, in fact, figure out a way for our family of four to go through TEN POUNDS OF CARROTS. (In my defense, they're whole organic carrots and were only a dollar more than the 5 lb bag of baby carrots.) I'm surprised we haven't turned orange yet. We've sauteed it as a side on multiple occasions this week, I gave a bag full to my parents, I added carrots to practically every one of the baby food purees, and Landon even used them as chew toys. While the plethora does give me another excuse to make this amazing broccoli cheese soup tonight, I have learned my lesson.

It's a low-key weekend around here; I hope yours is great!

Organizing Challenge: Study (Week 3)

Is it week 3 already? If you're just now joining me, I'm participating in OrgJunkie's 29 Day Organizational Challenge, and I'm attacking our study.

Week 1 | Week 2

I was pretty productive at the beginning of the week and got rid of a bunch of junk. I didn't get a picture of the piles that have now left the room, but I feel better already! The progression pictures aren't that drastic today, but since I only have a week and a half left, they should start looking more complete at the next check in!

Last week was the major bookshelf overhaul, so the only thing I really changed in the bookshelf this week was to add the magazine files on the top shelf. I still have some wayward items on said top shelf, but it's already looking way better than it started.

Ugh, not much has changed here this week.

This was where I spent the majority of time this week. I bought some green baskets at Dollar Tree to put on the top shelf to hold our rarely-used-but-still-sometimes-needed items. I also found better homes for the magazine files and sorted through a lot of junk on the desk surface.

Three of the big to dos left in this room are 1) to organize Matt's sheet music, 2) to sort through (and purge) the three stacks of CDs that contain who knows what, and 3) to organize Avery's "office" (I have some ideas, but it's what I'm dreading the most since I know it'll be harder to keep orderly because, well, she's only 2). Sounds like I'll be busy this weekend. Wish me luck!

Wordless Wednesday: Valentine Edition

Weekend Recap and Pajama Day!

I hate February. Not only is it the month of obnoxious, commercially-driven forced affection via cheesy cards and overpriced flowers, but it's Matt's busiest work month.

He had the musical the first week/weekend, TMEA (crazy huge music teachers convention) last week/weekend, solo and ensemble this weekend, and the last weekend is the local talent show that, for some reason, takes three full days. (p.s. I am very thankful he has a job.)

Anyway, with him gone from Wednesday morning until Saturday night, I was flying solo. Avery and Landon were really sweet though, and we managed to make it through!

{FRIDAY}

The kids and I went to Avery's Mother's Day Out in the morning because I had volunteered to babysit for teachers' kids while they had their little in-service thing. Hey, it's an easy tuition credit. I was so fried from two days of solo parenting (I know, I'm a wimp) that we went to McDonald's for lunch with Whitney and her two kids. Whitney's so much fun to talk to, plus Avery just loves her daughter Pearson, and I know that our baby boys will be friends when they get a little older.

And then my cousin Amy came over for the evening! I made cilantro lime chicken in the Crock Pot, and we ate it over rice with spinach salad. So yummy! We got the kiddos bathed and in bed, and then it was time to PARTY!! Or stuff our faces with molten chocolate cake while watching a Bridezillas marathon on Netflix. Sounds like my kind of party anyway, haha.

We weren't completely lazy though. I did our taxes, whew! Um, holy huge refund, Batman! We had to pay last year, so I wasn't expecting anything back, but I guess the fact that I made practically nothing this year meant a little break for us. I'm just glad that they're done. 

And Amy was quite the crafty little kindergarten teacher and whipped out these adorable valentines for her sweet students! Aren't they cute?!?

{SATURDAY}

I turned into little Suzy Homemaker on Saturday morning, making blueberry muffins (okay, I cheated and used a mix), cleaning, and doing laundry. Avery was soaking up all of Amy's attention and loving it.

Amy stayed at the house while Landon napped, and I took Avery to a birthday party for her friend Jacob. It was a cute little Veggie Tales party, and Avery played with her Bob and Larry favors for like an hour when we got home. 

After lunch I took the kids to nap at my parents' while I met my friend Iris at church to prep the kids rooms for the Valentine Banquet that night. We set up the dinner, craft, game, and movie rooms so it would be more than just babysitting.

The banquet was cute, and the kids' wing was problem free! We seriously have the best church family. To make it even better, Matt showed up before it was over, and I was SO glad to see him!

{SUNDAY}

I have made it to Sunday School TWO weeks in a row! I'm usually running around the kids' hall making sure everything's okay, but I'm trying to make it a priority to get my butt in Sunday School.

We went to Sam's Pizza for lunch with some of our Life Group, and when we got home we ALL took glorious naps. I'm talking 2.5 hours. Ahhh. That also meant that I didn't get to go grocery shopping until 9:30 pm, but I didn't care. Sleep trumps making a grocery list.

{PAJAMA DAY!}

Since winter decided to finally make an appearance in Texas, we spent the entire day at home in our pajamas. I feel like we're always going somewhere, so it was a fun change of pace to just chill. The house was completely destroyed with toys by the time Matt got home, but that just means the kids had fun, right?

I threw together some quesadillas for dinner and have already tested out our {not so} new Keurig since the kids have been asleep. I may have also eaten way too many Samoas Caramel Delights. That's the stupidest name ever. Why do even the Girl Scouts have to be politically correct?!?

Now I'm off to organize the pile of sheet music that has accumulated in our study over the past two years. The big organizing project is coming along; I'll have another update on Friday!

And now you know more than you ever wanted to know about our weekend. Congratulations on making it this far. The end.