Menu for the week

Well here I am, Miss never use a menu plan, on her third week of planning food items out. What I've noticed is less stress on the 'what to have' front, along with fewer trips to the store. I haven't yet reduced the $ I am spending, but perhaps that will come.

So here it is, a bit retroactively, starting this past weekend.

Saturday - BBQ ribs and corn

Sunday - Canadian turkey day with all the trimmings

Monday - Homemade hamburger soup and rolls

Tuesday - Beef Tacos and fixings

Wednesday - Leftover soup

Thursday - Baked ham and scalloped potatoes

Friday - Chicken quesadillas

Gobble Gobble

It's been quite the Tday weekend. We were all supposed to gather at my parents' to put a new roof on their house but this premature winter nixed that. Even were we able to negotiate the cold, the snow would have made it miserable, and things never quite seal properly when the temperatures are inclement.

So we began the weekend with my son's first game of the season. we won. yeah us! Saturday was a day of housecleaning, grocery shopping and hair appointments. Cuts for the kids and a colour for me. My younger, you would swear I cut off his life by trimming his hair. It looked awful though. Long and stringy and it just seemed to make his mood darker and I wasn't thrilled about that. Now he looks human again, he looks happy and he's ticked LOL. We curled up to watch the Rider Game in the evening. Again, a win!!

Yesterday we gathered at my parents for turkey, ham and wayyyy too many fixings. There were 25 of us there. It's always something to see how our family has grown. From mom and dad and the kids to all these grandkids, grown, with girlfriends or boyfriends. Many hadn't seen my older one for awhile and were shocked to see that at 14 he's now 6 foot 1.5 inches. He has now beaten out his grandfather and towers over the rest of them. As my one niece put it "hiya there HOLY WOW gigantor!!!" eloquent to say the least.

It was a fast day as some had to head back to Alberta for work and two were heading back to the city as they have midterms at university this week.

And for today, the real turkey day? I am off to the school to do about 7 hours of marking and prep. Oh the joys of teaching :P

Have a super turkey day everyone.

Where the money stands

As of October 1st

Debt

Mortgage - $38,539.63
Consolidated Loan - $7207.46
Vehicle Loan - $28,003.37

Total Debt - $73,750.46

Savings

Emergency Fund - $1000
Christmas Fund - $1000
RRSP 2009 - $1000

Total Savings - $3000

I did well this month, reducing my debt by over $2000. That's fantastic for me and I am excited to see that bad boy get down below $70,000.

The savings category hasn't changed as I honestly haven't been to that bank yet to add this month's money to the Efund and to Summer 2010. That will happen soon. very soon. (before I spend the money LOL)

weekly menu

Ok I have to admit that last week was the first time I'd actually done up a menu and pretty much stuck to it. It was an odd sensation to not have to wonder at the end of each work day what I would make....or to not do a handful of trips to the store to get the things I needed each day.

Now I certainly didn't save any money as I spent my grocery money totally, but it was far less stressful having the menu ready to go. That has to count for something.

Monday - chicken fingers and fries (that we didn't have Fri as two were gone for activites

Tuesday - homemade pizza

Wednesday - beef stew

Thursday - Pork chops, rice and veggies

Friday - Stir Fry (if time permits)

This weekend in our Thanksgiving so I won't menu plan for that. We are going to be over at my parents' helping them redo their roof. I believe mom has a variety of things on the menu for the kids/grandkids whilst we help. Not sure if I have to bring anything.

change challenge

I am the first to admit I have had a lifelong fascination for collecting change, counting change and rolling change. It's absolutely amazing when you add it all up and see what those little bits of forgotten and neglected currency can become.

I remember being little and saving in a jar. During my teen years in then became a texas mickey whiskey bottle that one of my family had won in a snowmobile poker rally. I have strong visuals of curling up by the fireplace in our incomplete basement, pouring the change out, separating it. Counting it. I would then cut out a little circle of paper just slightly larger than the cap and writing the $ amounts of each coin, then lining the cap with it and putting all the change back inside the bottle.

I can also remember the horrors of trying to wrap up the change when you had the flat sheets of money roller paper and you had to physically get the change on this sheet and somehow roll it all up and tuck the ends inside without spilling it all out. All hail the preformed, cylindrical money tubes!!! *bows down*

I've bought a lot of things with change over the years. I can remember 'robbing' it in early days of university to get enough $ for a hamburger. I can remember the advent of the Loonies, in Canada. I diligenty saved each and every one of these I received and purchased my wedding dress, vein, shoes and bouquet. I almost put my back out carrying all that into the bank.

I'm not a fan of 'take it to a machine and let it count it for you for a fee'. Actually, I don't even know if the banks in town have one of those machines. (small town yanno). To me that would defeat the thrill of saving.....the mechanics of filling each tube..the wonder of how much it added up to.

If you look on my 'snowflakes this year' icon on the side, you will see a freakishly large amount of money I 'found' in bits, here and there, over the year. Guestimating, I would say around $1000 of that is from rolled coins.

(yes it does add up quicker in Canada with toonies and loonies)

I've also never been a fan of artificially created change....where a person goes to the store with a $10 or a $20 and buys a bit of something for the express purpose of stockpiling the change. Nothing wrong with that, mind you. Just not my thing.

At the start of Sept I had taken in the last bits of rolled change and put it on my consolidated loan as a lump sum payment. I always love a little mind rush so my personal challenge is to see how much change I can acquire, bit by bit, until Christmas. Then I will take it in and again, put it down on my lump sum, to get that baby lower and lower. I initially was hoping for $100, but I realized that that is not too hard to achieve. One each of toonie, loonie, quarter, dime, nickel and penny gets one $92.50.

That being said, I already have $29.50. I love these little kinds of mind games to keep me amused while I continue to learn how to budget and make better choices with my money.

Let the change, begin!