Cell Phones and Can I Do It?
By mommy of many™. Filed in attitude, children, easy, encouragement, family life, ideas, kids, lessons, military, mom, recipe, sharing, shopping |Tags: , attitude, children, community, family life, fun, kids, lessons, military, mom, Mommy of Many, mommyofmany, recipe, sharing, shopping
A few years ago (4 or 5) we went “all cellular”. When we looked at our phone bills and what kind of calling we were doing, we decided that we didn’t need a land-line and that we would save $ by just having the cell phones. It took a few months of tweaking everything so that our plan fit our usage, but it’s worked well for us for years. Fast forward to 2007…………..now we have 6 cell phones, 1 for each of the 3 oldest kiddos, 1 for Clay, 1 for me and 1 that is the “home phone”. When I got the bill, due for January, I wanted to fall over. We paid almost $200 for texting, alone! I went to the cell phone store and fixed the plan so that it won’t happen that way, again, but it still leaves me with a HEFTY phone bill, right after Christmas. YIKES!
Now, if you were to ask members of the family, under 30, how to pay for the extra large phone bill, you might get answers involving “magic money” or “the money tree”. Ask Clay or me and you’ll hear this; Well the only place to really pull “extra” from would be the food budget. So, the only way to pay for all those SUPER, important texts that HAD to be made, is to shave off of the food budget. So, yesterday I armed myself with pen and paper and sat down to write out meal plans for the next 14 days. Now, breakfast is easy because you can always have hot cereal or cold cereal and everyone feels like they’ve had a choice. And lunch, well PBnJ for 2 weeks will have to do. It’s the dinner-time plan that’s the most challenging. I was able to come up with 9 dinners, using mostly what is in the cupboards and freezer. Now the really challenging part is picking my brain for the other 5 meals and trying to keep it all under $150. Here’s where I get to revisit the past. (memory sequence………………..)
It’s 1994, we’re living in military housing at Camp Pendleton. We have 3 kiddos (and depending on how far into the year we are, we have one on the way) and we are now living on one income and have one vehicle. I suddenly went from working full time to being a full-time stay-at-home mom. We had sat down with the budget the year before and made the decision that putting 3 kiddos into daycare and buying a second car, for me to continue working, would not pay. So, we decided on complete breast-feeding (I was about to deliver Baby #3), cloth diapers, stick with one car and agree to watch the soon-to-be new baby across the street when that mom went back to work. Whew! But the budget was still VERY tight. I had $300 every month for food. The real kicker was that the budget only allowed for the money on the 15th. I couldn’t use ANY of the money from the 1st paycheck of the month for food. I learned by trial and error, what foods could be successfully frozen and how long things kept in the fridge. BTW-don’t freeze oranges. But, I have to say that we were never hungry and our meals weren’t terribly boring (however, looking at old photos, we were all much thinner). Times were simpler. We couldn’t just jump in the car and run errands or pull into a fast-food restaurant because it was easy. I took walks with the kids and they played, happily with what they had. There are times that I miss the way it was (ok, I don’t REALLY want to have to give up Starbucks or putting exciting new foods into the basket, but the simplicity was nice).
So, I feel confident that I can pull from my memory and whip together a few, well-planned, meals. And a couple of weeks of “light” meals won’t hurt any of us (check the pictures!)
Have some great, simple meal ideas? Share them!
Have a great day~
Wednesday, January 2nd 2008 at 1:20 pm |
Believe it or not I went ugh! when my billed showed an extra .75 cent charge for my text messaging one month. Haven’t “text” since. Good idea to have it blocked on those extra phones. I will check my receipe file box for cheap, good casseroles to fix. Have a great one for hot dogs and spinach that Clay used to love. Maybe you can substitute. Good luck with your budgeting. Love to everyone.
Wednesday, January 2nd 2008 at 2:06 pm |
Simple recipes, that can be streeetttched are my specialty!
Taco salad…made with inexpensive chips, lettuce, tomatos, hamburger or chicken, taco seasoning, salsa, sour cream. Very simple, very easy to stretch.
Another dish we do that goes a long ways is a dish with macaroni and cheese and hamburger, served with broccoli or spinach…my kids LOVE it. You can add extra cheese, or not, depending on diet and financial restrictions…and extra noodles make everything go farther. I can feed my family of 8 with 1lb of hamburger, and 2 boxes of the cheapo mac n cheese, plus some extra noodles.
Good luck with the menu!
Thursday, January 3rd 2008 at 8:00 pm |
My favorite slow cooker chili recipe (vegetarian)
1 19 oz. can chickpeas, drained
1 19 oz. can red kidney beans drained
1 19 oz. can black beans, drained
1 28 oz. can tomatoes with herbs/ spices, chopped
1 10 0z can corn
2 carrots, peeled/ chopped
2 garlic cloves minced
1 red onion chopped
1 Cup ketchup
1/2 cup liquid honey
3 Tbsp. chili powder 1/2 tsp, cayenne pepper
optional green, red, yellow peppers diced (sour cream/ grated cheese for garnish)
Put beans, tomatoes, corn and carrots, garlic and onion in slow cooker. In a bowl combine ketchup, honey, chili powder & cayenne pepper- mix well & put into slow cooker- stir. Cover and cook for 8-10 hours on low or 4-6 hours on high. Add the diced red, green & yellow peppers 30 min. before cooking time is finished.
Tuesday, January 8th 2008 at 1:06 pm |
Don’t forget there is always Mexican Lasagna. Yummy! =)
Wednesday, January 9th 2008 at 10:47 pm |
Ok, So I totally forgot about my cheapo stand by dinner. This is a favorite and I know your kids will eat it, even the veggies. I am going to portion it out for a gang your size.
4-6 cups brown rice steamed with veggie bullion or chicken broth
3-4 can black beans mostly drained (I like the Ranch Style BB at commissary)
2 head romaine lettuce (I get the 6 pack from costco) sliced and cleaned
1-2 cups whatever shredded cheese you have (I like jack or cheddar)
sour cream (I get the low fat stuff), optional
salsa (I like trader joe’s salsa authentica, though to spicy for the wee one’s but very in-expensive and oohh so good), optional
steam rice. Heat beans in saucepan, if you have it you can add a bit of cream cheese, squeeze half a lime, dash of garlic powder or a clove or two of the real stuff minced. put some beans on top of the rice sprinkle with a little cheese. Take a handfull of sliced romaine, a dollop of Sour cream and top with salsa. If you have it you can add cilantro, avacado slices or guacamole, chopped tomato, some heated frozen corn, whatever. You can even add a few slices of cooked chicken breast but that would not be as fast. My kids like it with the rice, beans, cheese, lettuce and sour cream.
this is very healthy and balanced. I serve with carrots for the kids. We had it tonight and I got two clean bowls back without one argument!!
Sunday, January 13th 2008 at 1:41 am |
Two favorites – “(memory sequence………………..)” This is Awesome!! HAHA!!
And – “BTW-don’t freeze oranges.” The fact that you even tried is Amazing! I love it!
Good luck with everything! Seems like everyone I know is struggling right now. Much love to all of you! xo