Friday, July 25, 2008

This is it!!!

I have found a website that will revolutionize my life!! Yes this is it!! It is called e-mealz and it is amazing!! Dinner is one of my biggest obstacles each day. I never know what to make, and I am so sick of saying, "do you want spaghetti, tacos, or sloppy joes?" Then repeat that sentence the next day. This website gives you a weekly FAMILY FRIENDLY meal plan along with a corresponding grocery list. The bonus to this is that you can choose your grocery store and they will coordinate your meals with what is on sale!! Your meal plan is complete with recipes and your grocery list is broken down by AISLE and lets you know what items are for which meal. So if you want to skip meal 2, you can skip all of the ingredients with a 2 next to them. PERFECTLY BRAINLESS!!!! They also give you options of low-fat, low-carb, or points. I don't even know what points is:)

I have already printed 2 weeks worth, yes they are printable so you can save them to reuse, and each of the 14 meals are things my family will eat. The highest cost of the 2 is $77. That is only if I have to buy all of the things, some of them I have on hand, and if I only go to the store I chose. I could just as easily take that list to aldi and get what I can there and probably save quite a bit. I already spend more then $100 just on dinner stuff for us each week. This is also the meal plan for a family of 6 so smaller families would definitely cost less. I am so excited about this. If you want to check it out click here E-MEALZ Easy Meals for Busy and Frugal Families

Wednesday, July 02, 2008

I said I would NEVER do it!

I have one very important rule, one that I broke last week. "Thou shalt never bring 4 boys into anyone's place of business by myself." It is the 11th commandment, and I have sinned against it! I took all of my boys into the store and let me just tell you the wages of sin really is DEATH!!

I was heading to a weekend long conference at my church, and on the way to taking the kids to my parents, I had to run into CVS. It is not a big store, very few toys and such, so I justified my rule breaking. They actually did pretty well at first. We charged through the store, quickly, grabbing exactly what we needed. Diapers for the baby. I hightail it up to the counter and a very nice 12 year old boy begins to check me out. Halfway through the transaction, the computer freezes!! Ok I decide to remain calm. He looks dumbfounded, not exactly sure how to handle this problem. I suggest calling a manager or trying another register. His first life-saving maneuver was acting promptly on both of my suggestions. Manager arrives just as he is attempting to re ring me, there is no drawer in the register. The manager calls to the "back"(I can't imagine where that could be the whole store is about 500sq ft!) to get a drawer for the new register. I say don't even worry about it I will use a credit card then we have no need for cash. Apparently the register won't work without the drawer so it doesn't matter how I pay. Right next to the register is one of those "can't find the price, find it here" things. Here starts the fun stuff for my boys. While I wait, Camden is crying because his is sitting in the reason why we needed diapers so desperately and my bigger boys are roaming the store to find the coolest stuff to scan! After a 15 minute wait, they finally have the register situation worked out, the counter is full of random items they now need to reshelf. By the way, coolest item scanned that day, Dr. Scholls corn removers. Don't ask me why, the tribe has spoken.
After paying for my diapers, I head to the car. As we approach the automatic doors, Sam slams right into them. They would not open! Many people had come and gone while I waited, but when we tried to leave they wouldn't work!! We were trapped!! In what might be my own personal hell! I am starting to sweat and all of the walls are closing in on me. That store never seemed so small! After another 10 MINUTES, they get the doors working and I burst out to the free world. I was only moments from dropping to my knees, tears flowing down my face and kissing the sidewalk. I have never felt such sweet freedom! I had an overwhelming need all of the sudden for a GRANDE white chocolate mocha. Which I got, but this time I used the drive-thru!! PRAISE GOD FOR DRIVE-THRU'S!!!!!!