I just ran across a blog of a lady who budgeted $800 for the entire year of 2008 for herself and 3 daughters. Incredible! You can find it here.

I like to use coupons. I learned from a lady at church that if I go to the recycling center on Monday mornings, I can pick up a bunch of coupon inserts from the Sunday paper! She also told me about a website http://www.hotcouponworld.com/ that has discussion boards where people match up coupons to local grocery store sales. I've found some great deals, even some free stuff, by doing this. It's exhilarating to come home with a whole bunch of food and a receipt showing it only cost $6.00! I got Birdseye frozen vegetables for 30 cents a bag, Daisy sour cream for 50 cents, Coffeemate flavored creamer for 50 cents, and lots of other great prices. Of course, because I can get multiple coupons at the recycling center, that means I can stock up when I get a great deal! It's been a lot of fun. :)

Oh yeah, I have a blog. I almost forgot.

I have a new sister-in-law! Her name is Lizzie and she's wonderful. She's coming over to help me make fudge and peanut brittle and buckeyes this morning. She and Daniel are working on renovating a house in East Palestine but meanwhile are staying at Mom's house.

Miriam and Charles moved to Pennsylvania. It's great to have them around.

Rachel's expecting another baby! We haven't had another baby in the family since Dora was born, and that was almost 2 years ago!

My hubby and I are going to visit his parents over Thanksgiving. He's preaching at a church in New York on the way there this weekend and on the way back next weekend.

Quick update, but at least it's an update! :)

The seminary has a summer program for teens called Theological Foundations for Youth. I have the privilege of being their cook this year! It will be the first 2 weeks of July. I'm having a lot of fun planning the menu and I've actually already started buying some of the food stuffs. They have 31 students registered, so including the program directors, counselors, and professors, I may be feeding about 40 people lunch and dinner, for 2 weeks. I've never done anything like this before, but I'm excited about it. :)

Today is my niece Eliana's 8th birthday. David's family drove up to Mom's place last night to stay for the weekend. Hopefully either this evening or tomorrow evening we'll have a picnic birthday party for her. I haven't seen their family since last August!

Next Monday is our first anniversary. We're going to Niagara Falls and then heading to Vermont Tuesday to spend some time with Deborah and Sue in their cabin, then off to Dan's parents' house in Massachusetts for the rest of the week. It will be nice to get away without taking my computer this time. Real vacation time! Yay!

So I'm obviously excited. I'm supposed to be at work, but it's hard to stay focused. I'd better get back to it.

Well I ended up picking up a few other items at Giant Eagle in addition to what was on my list: an extra container of yogurt, 2 cans of chicken broth (2/$1), a loaf of white bread (59 cents), and Edy's loaded cookies and cream ice cream ($3.33). The total came to around $23. To make up for the cost difference, I'll skip the $5 bacon at Sparkle tomorrow. We still have a package of turkey bacon in the freezer, so that will tide us over until I see it on sale again.

I've enjoyed making weekly menus to cut down the stress of figuring out what to cook every day. This week it looks something like this:

Monday
lunch: deli turkey that Dan brought home from presbytery, leftover stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, grapes
dinner: chicken barley soup with crackers

Tuesday
lunch: pizza, salad
dinner: baked chicken leg quarters, twice-baked potatoes, mixed vegetables, chocolate cheesecake

Wednesday
lunch: grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup
dinner: I'll be at Mom's house that evening so Dan can eat leftovers from Tuesday.

Thursday
lunch: fish sticks, brown rice pilaf, mixed vegetables
dinner: hamburger helper stroganoff, peas, carrot cake

Friday
lunch: tuna salad sandwiches and/or veggie burgers, grapes
dinner: local restaurant (using Entertainment book coupon)

Saturday
lunch: workday at church, lunch there
dinner: game night at church, dinner there

It's pretty obvious that we don't get enough vegetables, but that's something we're working on. Dan doesn't like them and tells me that since he's eating a lot more of them now than before we were married, that's sufficient. We usually eat a lot more salad but since I didn't see lettuce on sale anywhere, this week we're eating frozen vegetables.

Giant Eagle:

$4.00 Kraft American Cheese x2 @$2 ea.
$8.00 Sargento Shredded Cheese x4 @$2 ea.
$2.00 Daisy Sour Cream x2 @$2 ea. with 50c coupons doubled, $1 ea.
$2.50 Dannon Plain Yogurt
------
16.50

Sparkle:

$2.98 half-gallon milk x2 @$1.49 ea.
$1.36 Quaker Cinnamon Life x2 @$1.68 ea. with $1 coupons, 68c ea.
$1.50 Quaker Oatmeal Squares @$2.50 with $1 coupon
$6.00 sirloin tip roast x3 lb @$1.99/lb.
$0.99 Plochman's mustard
$4.99 W. Virginia sliced bacon, 24 oz.
$1.00 FiberOne Yogurt 6-pack @$2.50 with $1.50 coupon
$1.00 oranges x5
------
19.82

Total: $36.32

Happy Birthday Mom! I love you!