Fail but try again (#2)

Frozen week was a FAIL.......... why? because I chose the last week of the month and this is when most of my coupon's expired, and my goal was to NOT grocery shop at all.............. I ended up at the store spending $100 because some of the coupons of things I "needed" were going to expire.

I know my rule is, don't buy it just because you have a coupon for it, but I didn't use ALL of my coupons, I only used SOME! LOL. For example, we use lots of chicken broth and I had a coupon for canned chicken broth. Was I cooking with it this week? No, but I don't want to be cooking with it next week and paying full price!

So RULE change (this is a learning process)  ............. frozen meal week will be week 1 of the month, not the last week!  This way the last week I can use the coupons that are near expiring and not waste them!

Leftover Pizza Friday

I looooove pizza. In fact when I was pregnant with weeman it was one of the few foods I ever craved or was hungry for. (Un)fortunately I wasn't one of those famished eat everything you see pregnant women.  I was eh, I don't feel like eating, but I must force myself to because I'm growing a person.

So pizza was my go to.

I could eat it everyday, Papa John's is my FAVORITE, but it is pricey.  So I figured why don't I try and make my own pizza?  So I tried it with this crust

and it's not too shabby. Not the best, not the worst, but I had a COUPON for it so it helped save money.

So last week I threw my leftovers on top of the pizza and it went something like this:

Taco Pizza

Pillsbury Pizza crust

Sauce- taco sauce packet from taco kit (Leftover)

Cheese- shredded taco cheese (Leftover)

Meat- ground beef with taco season (you guessed it! Leftover)

It was delicious!  We had it for Friday dinner and then a quick Saturday lunch!  So basically I stretched out my taco dinner to 3 meals! 

Step 1- Reduce bills

So step one of me becoming a SAHM is to be able to afford to be one.  Last year my husband lost his teaching job...... we were 6 weeks pregnant and didn't see the layoff coming. We spent a year on 1.5 incomes (he found work, but not full time). So our budget was already tight. Now he is working full time, getting a "raise" (or back up to his old pay).  I also am/about to be was/ a teacher and make less than he does.

So we calculated it.... cost of childcare being covered by my job leaves us an extra $800 a month. So.. we calculated again... where can we cut out $800 a month so that I can quit my job to raise our son.  We made a list, we researched money saving things on the internet and here we are:

1. Called cable/phone/internet company- reduced bill by $80.
2. Called car insurance and said I'd be a SAHM- reduced bill by $50
3. Called cell phone company- reduced bill by $20
4. Called grocery store and reduced bill to $250. (okay I didn't call the grocery store we set ourselves a budget)

Budget reductions-
Eating out- sorry thunder thighs, no more eating out 2-3 times a week (reduce grocery/food bill to $250 gives us back another $200)
Gas money- out goes my 23 miles each way trip to work, in comes $100
Thermostat- up to 78 in summer down to 72 in winter (not sure of savings)
Target- oooooooooh so that's where all my money went....... no more $100 trips every 3-4 weeks. (Can't even tell you what I was buying anyway)
Cloth diapers- back fully into cloth reduces our spending habit by $50

So let's do the math
Need 800
-150 (bills)
-450 (budget reduction)
=600 still 200 bucks short.

Well............ we're still going with it anyway. My husband supplemented our income while he was laid off with construction. He was bringing in an extra $500 a month (we didn't add this into our initial budget) and I can tutor kids or sub a few days a month.

I'm also going to research more ways to save money.
First up: Coupon hunting and efficient grocery shopping