The Manning Grooms Book Review

I was reading the third book in the series right after the other two.  The Manning Grooms: Bride on the Loose\Same Time, Next Year by Debbie Macomber was the last book but there was only one problem.  There was only one single man left in the Manning family so I wasn't sure who was going to be married in this book.  I couldn't wait to find out what happens in this last book in the series.

A reluctant groom and an impulsive one… Jason Manning is content with his life as a bachelor, a slob and a sports fan. Then a precocious teen named Carrie Weston decides to play matchmaker, introducing him to her mother. To his relief, Charlotte is as uninterested in marriage as he is. But Jason's feelings start to change once he gets to know his Bride on the Loose.   James Wilkens was almost a Manning groom—because he almost married one of the Manning sisters. With that broken engagement behind him, he spends New Year's Eve in Las Vegas…where he meets Summer Lawton. She's just suffered a painful betrayal, and James promises her that in a year she'll be over it. To prove his point, he makes a date to meet her in Vegas Same Time, Next Year. Except it turns out to be more than a date—it's a wedding!

I enjoyed the first story in the book because Jason had always been on the outside fringes of the family and the only single person left.  It was great to see him find someone to share his life with and make him challenge himself.  Carrie Weston is the one who decides that she is going to match her mother with Jason.  It was a great story to watch Charlotte and Jason build their lives together.  The second story in the book was the mystery that was quickly answered because it was about James Wilkens who is not a member for Manning family but was once engaged to one of the Manning sisters. I loved reading about how James saved Summer from a horrible New Years Eve and gave her hope for going forward because he had already gone through his horrible breakup.  The friendship that comes from this bond is amazing and lasts until the next year when they meet up again.  It was great to get the story to come whole circle around to I hope that you check out this book and all the others in this great series.  I really enjoyed these great stories as well as the ones in the other books in this series and I hope that you do too!!

Menu Plan Monday 2/6

Monday- Breakfast for Dinner and Chicken Fried Rice
Tuesday- Pasta
Wednesday-Salsa Sloppy Joes with mac and cheese
Thursday- Chicken and Rice Casserole
Friday- Leftover Night
Saturday- Meatball Sliders
Sunday- Roasted Chicken with baked potato

I think that this week should be pretty easy.  I don't think that there is anything too crazy going on this week so hoping that I can stick to the schedule pretty easily.  Last week went as planned and everything went off without a hitch so here is hoping that we can do the same this week.  I did have to move things around because I didn't get the chicken in before going to the basketball game so we had Monday night dinner on Saturday, and Saturday dinner on Sunday and moved Sunday dinner to Monday.  Super glad that we had three meals that we could switch around.  Of course, I posted this and found out that my parents are coming to visit on Thursday night so things are going to move around again once I sit down and figure it out...in addition, I got a congestion/cough thing that is exhausting so I didn't have enough brain power to figure it out today.

How are things going for you??

Finally A New Month! February Shopping Started.

I was looking for a few things this month but didn't think that there were too many things that I needed to get.  I went way over budget last month so I was hoping for a low month to stay under $100.  Cross your fingers and wish me the best because I don't know if I am off to the best start.  I got a few things but I don't know if they all fall under the need category but the great news is that they nothing will go to waste for sure!  And I apologize in advance for my long Aldi story...feel free to skip the second paragraph because it has nothing to do with what I got but just my bad experience.

Anyway, here is what I have purchased so far this month.

Trader Joes $6.95

I went to get the blue cheese because we were totally out and my husband likes his buffalo chicken with fresh crumbled blue cheese.  This huge container is $3.49 and it is way tastier then the stuff at Aldi so you need to use less for the flavor so it lasts us awhile...although often causes a stink in the fridge so it has to be double containered.  I was in line forever when I saw the vinegar that I just finished so I splurge purchased it because it wasn't in the plan but I will be enjoying when I finish my homemade salad dressing and have to make more.

Aldi $16.72

We were totally out of milk so I knew that I was headed to Aldi's to get this and added eggs to the list if they were under $1.  They were $0.59 so I got two!!  I used the last two eggs when I went home that night so we are already using these.  I was out of the thin wheat crackers and still had some of my yummy cheese so I got two boxes which should last a little while.  I also planned on making Salsa Sloppy Joes next week and my husband ate all the salsa with chips!  Boo!!!  I got another jar since I didn't think I had anything to make homemade salsa and I just realized that I froze some jalapenos, have my free onion, and canned diced tomatoes!  UGH!  I might have to make some tomorrow and save the salsa.  I also got some garlic salt which we are running low on so that we don't run out.  I passed on the super cheap chicken because I didn't want to cut it and spend the money but I grabbed another bag of the chicken because I thought I should....we still had one of each in the freezer.  Oops! 

Then I had the worst cashier (okay not the world's worst because the eggs came home in one piece) but she was grumpy.  They closed down the cash register next to her which is why I got in her line in the first place because I actually had to change lanes.  The line went crazy after her and she called for the other lady to come back and she finally did to check people way farther down in line.  If she had just stayed and checked me out, it would have been way easier.  Anyway, my cashier was super friendly and having a long conversation with the person in front of me and barely spoke two words to me.  I kind of forgot to pull over to the area to pack the bags and I went outside...in the middle of cold winter temperatures.  Then I was thinking that was a mistake but I could throw the stuff in the bags outside instead of going around a circle to go back inside.  While I was there confused and trying to figure out my plan, a woman came up and asked if she could have my cart....which I was clearly not done using because I hadn't even packed the bags.  I told her yes because I thought she couldn't work the coin operated part to get another shopping cart.  She said that she didn't have a quarter and she didn't know why they wouldn't take other money.  I told her she could go inside and get change and they would help her.  She stood right by my cart the whole time.  I would normally carry my bags to the car but I got a little weirded out and said I still needed to bring the groceries to the car...she followed me.  I put the stuff in the car slowly...It was only three bags so there wasn't that much rearranging.  She took the cart and offered me no money..not even the dime she said she had.  I realize that this is only a quarter and people have certainly left me carts before but this some how this set me on edge and I was up in arms about my quarter and this creepy lady.  After giving up my cart, I was also thinking twice about going back in and getting that chicken at $1.49 per lb but I had enough of Aldi for the day.

Giant $6.15

I looked online to find the cheapest Heinz ketchup because we were at the very end of the bottle that we had.  We even put the date on it because I wanted to see how long it lasted!  The last date was 12/12 and we have an almost empty 32 oz. bottle.  Estimating that it would last about 2 months, I was hoping to pick up around 4 bottles of the 38 oz ketchup that said it was on sale for $2.50 each in the ad online.  There was a 32 oz bottle on sale at Harris Teeter but Giant is seconds from the house and offered a bigger bottle so I was excited that I would have time to do this before early school dismissal.  I went into the store and there was no sale tag on the 38 oz ketchup so I looked through the whole ad and it wasn't the ad I saw on the computer last night!!!  WHAT?!  I went out to the car and searched on my phone for the ad and only saw the one I was looking at in the store which started that day!  I must have been looking at yesterdays ad!  I was so not pleased.  They had another ketchup deal so I grabbed 4 of the smaller 20 oz bottle which were $1.50 each only when you bought 4 so I left with 4 bottles of ketchup even though they weren't the ones that I was planning on!  Don't you hate when shopping trips don't go as planned.

Total Retail $42.58

Total Savings $12.76

Total OOP $29.82

Manning Brides Book Review

I was excited to get to the second book in the series The Manning Brides: Marriage of Inconvenience\ Stand-In Wife by Debbie Macomber.  It was just as entertaining as the first book in the series but this time I knew going in that it was going to be about two brides based on the title so I was interested to find out what was going to happen in these stories.

Rich Manning and Jamie Warren have always been friends - and nothing but friends. However, that changes when she asks him to father the child she so desperately wants. Rich agrees - if she'll marry him. Because he thinks their Marriage of Inconvenience could become a real marriage instead.  Paul Manning, a grieving widower with three small children, turns to Leah Baker for help and comfort. When that comfort begins to grow into something else, Paul discovers that he wants more than a Stand-In Wife.

Although the descriptions online seem to be lacking description on this book, I don't know if I ever would have read it with the description that I found on Amazon.  I loved watching Rich and Jamie figure out how they could both have a child without the romantic entanglements that they went to a lawyer to draw up paperwork.  It was great to see them let their guards down and fall in love.  Paul Manning was the first Manning to get married but he was trying to make his new life after the loss of his wife after the birth of their third child.  He was barely holding it together when Leah came to live with him and brought joy into their life again.  Both Rich and Paul working on making their lives more full with a family and love.  The journeys are amazing to follow and page turners.  I hope that you check out this book and all the other books in the Manning series.  I know that you will enjoy them as much as I did!

The Manning Sisters Book Review

I finished all the books that I had from the library and I was really excited to grab a book from my shelf books that I own that I still haven't read. The Manning Sisters: The Cowboy's Lady\The Sheriff Takes a Wife by Debbie Macomber was the first book in a series of books that I hadn't read yet.  I didn't even know what this book was about but I was excited to read it and check out the rest of the series out of the library.  Super excited to get to read this whole series without even knowing what I was going to read. 

Montana Men and Manning Women   "The only woman who interests me is you." —Russ Palmer, rancher. When Taylor Manning accepts a teaching job in Cougar Point, Montana, she discovers that life there is very different from life in Seattle. So are the men! She soon notices a handsome, opinionated, stubborn rancher named Russ Palmer, and he notices her. In fact, they more than notice each other. And after a few months, Taylor's certain of one thing. Despite their conflicting backgrounds, she'd love to be The Cowboy's Lady. "I feel as if I've been waiting for you all my life." —Cody Franklin, sheriff of Custer County
The first day Christy Manning visits her sister, Taylor, she meets Sheriff Cody Franklin. To Christy's shock—and Cody's—they're immediately attracted to each other. Intensely attracted. There's a problem, though. Christy's engaged to someone else, someone back in Seattle. So what's the solution? See what happens when The Sheriff Takes a Wife!

I was excited to check out a new series of books by an author that I love.  This includes all the great writing of Debbie Macomber and great new characters in the Manning family.  I think that this was a great book that I got either through some summer reading program or somehow but I am glad that I picked it.  It got to read about Taylor and Russ and Christy and Cody building their new relationships.  The crazy thing is that these Manning sisters quickly turn to marriage.  I loved to watch the relationships unfold for these two sisters.  The stories were almost comical with the amount of changes that they made but I loved every minute of it.  I couldn't wait to read the next books in the series so I reserved both at the library and picked them up the next day.  I read them all back to back before even writing one review!!  I hope that you check out this book and wonderful series by Debbie Macomber because I know that you will find them page turners just like I did.

January Eating Out and Take Out Budget

This is a new thing that I am tracking because I feeling that we are spending more and more eating out so I want to make sure that it doesn't kill the budget.  The hard part of this is that we use eating out for celebrations, vacation, family visitors and other things so I have a hard time putting a limit or budget around it but I know that I need to keep track and make sure that it doesn't get out of control.

Little Caesars                                    $26.50

Crayola Experience $8.47 + $6.50= $14.97

Wendy's                                         $9.49

Little Caesars                                 $5.30

Total                                            $56.26

This month's challenge was my son's birthday party.  We had the party at the house with a bunch of his friends.  He wanted to have pizza because it is one of his favorite foods and since we weren't paying lots of money for a party out, we agreed to start with the pizza and then they decorated cookies.  They ate one of the cookies and packed the other in their bags to take home.  The rest of the goodies were things that they made like a frisbee pokeball that they decorated and poke cards that they created and colored themselves.  There was also a guidebook with coloring sheets, mazes and other sheets that they also took home so there wasn't a large cost for the party so the cost of the pizza wasn't too large when the rest of the food was made at home including cupcakes for the party and cupcakes for school.

We also took a trip to Pennsylvania for my son's birthday and we ate pizza at the Crayola Experience and then my husband promised my son this icee (also his favorite) and he paid in cash and doesn't remember how much it was but thinks it was $5.99 plus tax so I estimated $6.50.  We ate the meal that night at the hotel so there wasn't the additional cost of the restaurant but ate Wendy's for lunch the next day and Little Caesars for dinner when we got home so that I didn't have to make dinner to eat any later then it was already.

I was hoping to be around $40 monthly take out but there weren't a lot of extra eating out for no reason so I think that it worked out really low for everything we got. I hope that you did well with your eating out spending.

January Month End Budget Final Numbers

This month seems to have gone totally out of control.  I thought that I was doing really well at the beginning with super doubles but I think that I got a little off track very early in the month. Looking back, I don't know if I can point the trouble to one bad purchase or one thing gone wrong but just over spending in general.

Below is what I got for the month and what I spent:

Harris Teeter $4.99

Harris Teeter $23.03

Harris Teeter $31.51

Harris Teeter $6.72

Harris Teeter $16.96 

 

Aldi $11.73

Wegman's $25.96

Harris Teeter $26.99

Harris Teeter $42.65

Harris Teeter $6.60

Aldi $13.88

Target $3.67

Monthly Total Retail $664.79

Monthly Total Savings $450.10

Monthly Total OOP $214.69


 I am $54.69 over budget for the month with everything that I spent even though I used sales, coupons, gift cards and everything else possible to get the best deals.  I know that I bought a little too much junk food this month as well as some things that we didn't totally need but I got a ton of stuff for the money so I am not feeling as bad I should for going that far over budget on the first month of the year.

For February and going forward, I still have a lot in the freezer including 6 bags of ground beef, 7 bags of chicken, 9 whole chickens, 2 bags of cooked ground sausage, 1 bag chicken fries, 1 bag popcorn chicken, 7 bags of meatballs, 10 bags of cheese ravioli, and two boxes of Barber chicken left.  I know that I have plenty of things to get though the month and the only thing currently on the list is blue cheese from Trader Joes.  So I am hoping that I can stick to a $100 budget for February to make up for the difference in spending but if it doesn't happen then I am sure it will work out during the year.