Weekly Menu

Time to share our plan for this week 422 – 4/28/13.  It has already been a super busy week as you can tell from our long list!

As always, before I share our weekly plan and our menu, you can read about each of these on these links as we encourage you to do the same to save time, money and sanity:

• Menu Planning
• Our Weekly Planner with free download

Here’s my plan this week, I’ve already done quite a bit of it between Monday and Tuesday this week!

T – stands for Thrifty – what are my thrifty goals for the week?

• Cook and freeze bulk natural sausage
• Start avocado seeds
• Plant onion bulb
• Create compost bins around house and add dumping to chore list

H – stands for Home – what are some things I/we need to do around and for our home?

• Clean out lg. kitchen cabinet
• Order Sprout Farm Kit
• Continue with Garage Sale Prep
• Clean out bedding and space bag it

R – stands for Relationships – a place where I write down who I need to call, send a note to or remember a birthday/event.

• Email Uncle
• Work out vacation details with grandpa/grandma

I – stands for Involvement – this is the part of my planner that allows me and my family to be involved in our community and church in small ways each week.

• Gather items for donation pick-up

F – stands for Finances – What financial tasks do we need to complete this week: (also as we continue to find our 2% cuts each month!)

• Send in current rebates
• Check when farmer’s market starts for sellers schedule (our girls are going to have a booth this year!)
• Evaluate and adjust savings goals
• Check out additional/different investment options
• Return Dish Box (we had this satelite service for a short while as it was included with a phone/internet package, but we have since changed providers and completely cancelled tv this time.  We don’t watch it as we use many of the alternative forms we’ve talked about many times!)
• Pay current medical bill

T – stands for To-Do’s- misc. things I need to do this week!

• Next essential oils order (I rave about the 7 for household cleaning, but I have been slowly building my supply many different types for many different uses…when I have enough saved for the next round, I order more!)
• Order promotional supplements
• Tropical Traditions order
• Follow-up on allergy information for Azure Standard foods
• Calculate costs associated with building sq. foot gardens
• Service lawn mower
• Make Vitacost order for more foods/spices on current sale (do this by 4/26)

Y – stands for You – what are some things that I can do for myself to de-stress and relax for all of the hard work!

• Take a bubble bath!

Plus I have my developing shopping list and other tasks list on the right for those extras.

Here’s our planned dinner menu for the week!

Monday – Country Fried Chicken with mashed potatoes, corn and roasted zucchini

Tuesday – Spaghetti with Mizithra Cheese and browned butter (our knock-off restaurant version), green salad, roasted asparagus with hollandaise

Wednesday – Beef and potato casserole, sliced oranges, cottage cheese, steamed broccoli

Thursday – BBQ Chicken Sandwiches (using our frozen pre-cooked chicken), green salad, rosemary red potatoes and fruit

Friday – Date Night in… $5 Pizza for kids and Alex and I get a 2 for $20 meal. (Remember how we’ve mentioned that date night in means kids on one house level playing games/watching movies..spending time together with their pizza party and mom and dad are on another level for our date night in! It is a cheaper, yet fun way for the whole family to have a date!)

Saturday – BBQ Chicken Drumsticks, Sweet Red Potato Salad, Frito Corn Salad, Fruit Tray

Sunday – Spaghetti with Mizithra Cheese and Browned Butter

And… no matter whether you make a menu or not, don’t forget about “dinner by 10.”

If you would like to print your own THRIFTY weekly planner, you can do so below. Alex designed it to where it requires very little ink and in fact you can print it in fast draft/grayscale to use even less ink.  But either one uses miniscule amount of ink! I would recommend printing or copy several as I often write plans a couple of weeks ahead too!

Please note, if you are reading this email in our rss feed or our email newsletter, you may have to click to the post HERE to print this download. 

<== Download your printable Weekly Thrifty Planner HERE

Please share in the comments below what your menu and plan is for the week!

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Time to share our plan for this week 4/7 – 4/13/13.  It has already been a super busy week.  Yesterday alone was chaos. We started the day with a visit to the dentist for me to get a root canal.  We were at the dentist for nearly 2.5 hours.  Our kids sat in the waiting room with the older ones keeping an eye on the younger ones and the receptionist watching too.  Apparently, they were super good during that 2.5 hours, which I was thankful for.  But it did help that they had 2 movies to watch provided by the dental office.  We then had to run errands and grocery shop, then we came home and planted 7 pineapple plants.  Then we had a simple but super yummy dinner of french dip with french onion soup (even with the cheese being melted over the mug of soup, Alex’s favorite!) a fruit tray of pineapple, strawberries and blackberries and roasted asparagus with hollandaise sauce.  We then did a 20-minute quick clean and then scooted off to a homeschool history fair ending with one more trip to the grocery store for something I forgot!  I can’t see our week slows down as we have an event every day this week.  I am not sure how that happens, it just does!!

As always, before I share our weekly plan and our menu, you can read about each of these on these links as we encourage you to do the same to save time, money and sanity:

• Menu Planning
• Our Weekly Planner with free download

Here’s my plan this week, I’ve already done quite a bit of it between Monday and Tuesday this week!

T – stands for Thrifty – what are my thrifty goals for the week?

• Refill empty cleaners
• Dry fresh Dill
• Plant Pineapple Plants (Here’s the picture of this completed task)

• Make newspaper pots
• Re-plant large seedlings

H – stands for Home – what are some things I/we need to do around and for our home?

• Research sq. foot gardening
• Spend 2 total hours this week preparing for garage sale and collecting things to sell (30 minutes per day)
• Get carpets cleaned

R – stands for Relationships – a place where I write down who I need to call, send a note to or remember a birthday/event.

• Research 4-H clubs and projects for this summer
• Order daughter’s new set of school books
• Cards to uncle

I – stands for Involvement – this is the part of my planner that allows me and my family to be involved in our community and church in small ways each week.

• Call Mike about helping
• Email church family about the washer/dryer we’re giving away
• Make sloppy joe pot pie for Wed. family night potluck

F – stands for Finances – What financial tasks do we need to complete this week: (also as we continue to find our 2% cuts each month!)

• Cancel Cable  (we switched internet providers to save even more money and our previous package included this and we found a better deal from another company without bundling cable/phone)
• Switch phone service to Vonage
• Send in prescription and dental receipts for reimbursement from HSA

T – stands for To-Do’s- misc. things I need to do this week!

• Exchange broken jar
• Cancel first ID hotel (using our tricks we share HERE, we booked one hotel for the “just in case” and found a better deal at a nicer hotel for a weekend trip to a homeschool conference in a couple of months)
• Research accommodations/campground options for family vacation to Yellowstone in July

Y – stands for You – what are some things that I can do for myself to de-stress and relax for all of the hard work!

• Pick up pictures
• Pack for retreat
• Charge Ipod (yes, I have to write this down because I won’t remember!)

These are additional things listed on my “Other Tasks” on the right side of the page:

• Buy more greenhouse lights
• Place essential oils order (although I have shared my top 7 for cleaning, I have been slowly building a collection of many different oils and have around 20 different types right now for all different purposes, not just cleaning!)
• Email Amy for co-op details
• Nail down fencing options and discuss research with Alex to make decisions

Plus I have my developing shopping list and other tasks list on the right for those extras.

Here’s our planned dinner menu for the week!

Monday – Lasagna Casserole, Roasted Zucchini

Tuesday – French Dip with French Onion Soup and Roasted Asparagus

Wednesday – Sloppy Joe Pot Pie for family night potluck

Thursday – Pot Roast with potatoes, carrots, onions and celery

Friday – Cowboy Chili with leftover meat from roast

Saturday – Family Dinner Out

Sunday – Spaghetti with Mizithra Cheese and Browned Butter

And… no matter whether you make a menu or not, don’t forget about “dinner by 10.”

If you would like to print your own THRIFTY weekly planner, you can do so below. Alex designed it to where it requires very little ink and in fact you can print it in fast draft/grayscale to use even less ink.  But either one uses miniscule amount of ink! I would recommend printing or copy several as I often write plans a couple of weeks ahead too!

Please note, if you are reading this email in our rss feed or our email newsletter, you may have to click to the post HERE to print this download. 

<== Download your printable Weekly Thrifty Planner HERE

Please share in the comments below what your menu and plan is for the week!

{ 0 comments }

Time to share our plan for this week 3/25 – 3/30/13.  It is a slower week until Friday when our Easter celebrations begin with extended family and a wedding of a good friend of ours on Saturday along with 2 additional events on Saturday.  But truthfully, there isn’t a whole lot that we need to do for either Easter (thanks to Grandma!) or the wedding, just mostly show up But it is a chore to be many places in one weekend with 5 little kids!

As always, before I share our weekly plan and our menu, you can read about each of these on these links as we encourage you to do the same to save time, money and sanity:

• Menu Planning
• Our Weekly Planner with free download

Here’s my plan this week,

T – stands for Thrifty – what are my thrifty goals for the week?

• *Pick up Chicken at 2:00 on Monday*
• Sign-up for Ibotta app
• Cook and freeze chicken
• Refill bulk spices
• Wash-out 6 gallon buckets and refill with bulk foods
• Pick up 40 lbs. of bulk dried corn on Wed. and extra 6-gallon bucket

H – stands for Home – what are some things I/we need to do around and for our home?

• Order vegetable culture to start fermented veggies
• Start garage sale corner in the house and begin collecting things for neighborhood garage sale in a few weeks
• Vacuum out van
• Garage clean-out

R – stands for Relationships – a place where I write down who I need to call, send a note to or remember a birthday/event.

• Help/remind daughter to write letter to friend
• Put together Easter baskets for Friday
• Write Jessica
• Wrap wedding gift for Sam
• Finish Alex’s birthday present
• Meet Alex for lunch on Wed.

I – stands for Involvement – this is the part of my planner that allows me and my family to be involved in our community and church in small ways each week.

• Drop off collected donations

F – stands for Finances – What financial tasks do we need to complete this week: (also as we continue to find our 2% cuts each month!)

• Compare prices for fencing
• Switch internet providers/Schedule for Install this week

T – stands for To-Do’s- misc. things I need to do this week!

• Make Alex’s annual dr. checkup
• Make my dental appointment
• Develop pictures

Y – stands for You – what are some things that I can do for myself to de-stress and relax for all of the hard work!

• Send in scrapbooking form
• Add music to Ipod for fresh music for cleaning/workouts with free iTunes gift card I won !!

These are additional things listed on my “Other Tasks” on the right side of the page:

• Clean out memorabilia boxes
• Clean out art supplies
• Complete The Thrifty Couple Spring Cleaning Challenges
• Wash out water fountain and get to Sam by Friday for Saturday wedding

Plus I have my developing shopping list and other tasks list on the right for those extras.

Here’s our planned dinner menu for the week!  The Hawaiian Haystacks are one of the top 10 meals in our house as everyone LOVES them!

*Since we are getting lots of chicken this week, fresh chicken in on the menu a lot

Monday – Chicken Marsala with brown rice and steamed veggies

Tuesday – Crockpot Chicken casserole with salad

Wednesday -Salad Bar

Thursday -Feta and Spinach Quiche with fresh fruit

Friday – Holiday dinner #1 at Mom and Dad’s

Saturday – Dinner at Wedding

Sunday – Rotisserie roast with potatoes, carrots, onions and celery and more holiday type foods (I don’t eat ham or lamb because I don’t like it, so neither is on our Easter menu )

And… no matter whether you make a menu or not, don’t forget about “dinner by 10.”

If you would like to print your own THRIFTY weekly planner, you can do so below. Alex designed it to where it requires very little ink and in fact you can print it in fast draft/grayscale to use even less ink.  But either one uses miniscule amount of ink! I would recommend printing or copy several as I often write plans a couple of weeks ahead too!

Please note, if you are reading this email in our rss feed or our email newsletter, you may have to click to the post HERE to print this download. 

<== Download your printable Weekly Thrifty Planner HERE

Please share in the comments below what your menu and plan is for the week!

{ 2 comments }

Whew! It has been an incredibly productive week so far for us! I feel like summer is right around the corner and that I really needed to get my garden plan underway and carried out after a vacation and then an overnight scrapbooking retreat, it seems like March is just about finished! I don’t know how time flies like that, but it certainly does!

So before I share our weekly plan and our menu, you can read about each of these on these links as we encourage you to do the same to save time, money and sanity:

• Menu Planning
• Our Weekly Planner with free download

Here’s my plan and many, many things are already crossed off and I hope to complete about 5 more things today after I finally sit down for a little while and do some blogging here

T – stands for Thrifty – what are my thrifty goals for the week?

• Refill Glass Food Containers in pantry
• Refill eye glass cleaners at eye dr. (as long as we keep the bottles, they will refill them for us for free!)
• Get free gardening seeds
• Use high value Huggies coupon (we use cloth mostly now, but use disposable when we are out and so I couldn’t forget to use this coupon!)
• Make bulk homemade muffin base mix
• Make bulk homemade bread mix

H – stands for Home – what are some things I/we need to do around and for our home?

• Clean out pantry
• Deep/Clean out Dishwasher
• Deep/Clean up Washer and Dryer
• Order Bountiful Baskets produce co-op weekly share
• Start new batch of water kefir
• Start garden seedlings

R – stands for Relationships – a place where I write down who I need to call, send a note to or remember a birthday/event.

• Baby Gift for sister in law
• Order book for cousin
• Baby gift for friend

I – stands for Involvement – this is the part of my planner that allows me and my family to be involved in our community and church in small ways each week.

• Find 5 random things to put in donation box

F – stands for Finances – What financial tasks do we need to complete this week: (also as we continue to find our 2% cuts each month!)

• Call health company about spilled bottle in shipment for replacement
• Cancel service
• Send in eczema creams receipt for reimbursement from HSA
• Send invoice to Alex’s client in Colorado

T – stands for To-Do’s- misc. things I need to do this week!

• Order next level of completed school books
• Refill thyroid meds
• Finalize Easter plans and menu with mom

Y – stands for You – what are some things that I can do for myself to de-stress and relax for all of the hard work!

• Find more local scrapbooking crops (scrapbooking is my hobby and I only do this once or twice a year over a Friday/Sat.  I decided it wasn’t enough and I was getting very far behind, so Alex said I need to find just local ones that I can attend on a Friday or Saturday for a few hours per month)
• Re-Organize scrapbooking materials after my big retreat!

These are additional things listed on my “Other Tasks” on the right side of the page:

• Grocery shop
• Tropical Traditions order during free shipping
• Order free health pack
• Refill/Dilute Hydrogen Peroxide mixture
• Wash food storage buckets

AND….I have nearly 15 of the above items done already by Wed. afternoon! The biggest was planting 324 seedlings yesterday for about 1,000 total seeds planted from flowers to produce! I talk about that in my post HERE.

Plus I have my developing shopping list and other tasks list on the right for those extras.

Here’s our planned dinner menu for the week!  The Hawaiian Haystacks are one of the top 10 meals in our house as everyone LOVES them!

Monday – Hawaiian Haystacks

Tuesday – Chicken Parmigana with Spaghetti Squash

Wednesday -Lemon Pepper Salmon with brown rice and salad

Thursday -Rotisserie Chicken with our rotisserie from grandma/grandpa from Christmas (I love this thing!)

Friday – date night in – kids get Papa Murphy’s $5 pizza and mom and dad will probably get a 2 for $20 meal at nearby restaurant.

Saturday – Chinese Casserole

Sunday – Crockpot roast with potatoes, carrots, onions and celery

And… no matter whether you make a menu or not, don’t forget about “dinner by 10.”

If you would like to print your own THRIFTY weekly planner, you can do so below. Alex designed it to where it requires very little ink and in fact you can print it in fast draft/grayscale to use even less ink.  But either one uses miniscule amount of ink!

Please note, if you are reading this email in our rss feed or our email newsletter, you may have to click to the post HERE to print this download. 

<== Download your printable Weekly Thrifty Planner HERE

Please share in the comments below what your menu and plan is for the week!

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