Menu Plan Monday 5/4

Another week with limited food in the house but made a quick trip to Wegman's to get some ground beef to have some yummy meals through the month.  I cooked half of the package as soon as I got home and make two containers of french dip sloppy joes and two containers of salsa sloppy joes which went straight in the freezer.  I am working on cleaning out the cupboard but not making a lot of progress forward so we will probably still have a lot to move but on the plus side, not as much to stock up on after the move.

Chicken Fried Rice and Egg Rolls with Spicy Garlic Green Beans
Chicken Nugget Wraps and Homemade French Fries
Rosemary Chicken and Potatoes (using last of chicken)
Olive Oil Spaghetti or Pasta and garlic bread or leftover garlic pizza bites with fresh basil (YUM)
Tacos with saffron rice (using last of Nacho Cheese Hard shells)
French Dip Sloppy Joes on homemade rolls with chicken rice
Leftovers

Here is hoping that we have another good week and eat a bunch of meals at home and not out at restaurants.  Also hoping that we only have a few more weeks of this before moving into the new house.  We are going to be out town for some time during the month because of my cousin's wedding so I want to make sure that I get some good food for my son in before we are eating from the restaurant for a few days.  Hope you have a great week and enjoy some yummy meals!!!

April Showers Brings Shopping Flowers!

I did a lot of grocery shopping this month but still came in well under budget.  I don't know why I went so crazy but I guess that means that I had too much time!!

Safeway $1.03

My husband brought home two doughnuts (not the whole case) but sadly they get eaten long before pictures could be taken so you get the picture that he sent me of the selection.  YUM!

Aldi $33.92

I am sure that I took a picture of my trip but I couldn't find it anywhere in my picture files.  Oh well, I got 20 lbs of russet potatoes, gallon of milk, mint chocolate chip ice cream, celery, chicken nuggets, chicken fries, 3 blocks of cheddar cheese, 1 block of jack cheese, lettuce, nacho cheese tortilla chips, Vanilla Wafers, wheat crackers, brownie mix, and Aldi "Oreos."  I still have a little bit left of the potatoes, celery and the chicken nuggets but everything else is long gone.

Target $9.19

I didn't take a picture but I got these two for my sick little man.  He enjoyed the immune gummies because they were tasty so who knows if they helped but why not?!  We used up most of the medicine which seems to be the way anymore with the sicknesses so I will have to go out and do it all over again when he gets sick.

Harris Teeter $25.04

This was my first and only trip to super doubles.  I haven't couponed in so long that it was a sort of sad trip but I got what I came for with just a little of disorganization.  I can tell you that there were two very nice ladies in the cereal aisle that could obviously see that I was not with it and they handed me no less than 6 coupons and even handed me food.  I shouldn't be surprised but I didn't prepare and hadn't even cut most of the coupons in my mess so I didn't know what I had and what I didn't.  I knew that I needed Cinnamon Toast Crunch and Honey Nut Cheerios.  We also needed granola bars.  I grabbed ice cream too because it was on sale and Turkey Hill is our favorite!!  I got free juice boxes, coffee creamer, and tea bags.  The rest of the items were super great deals so that I saved $67.42!!

Aldi $13.20

Went for oranges for soccer and got a ton of junk...which of course we have been eating.

Harris Teeter $16.45

I went to get lunch meat which was on sale with coupon cheaper then Aldi and some milk.  There were also two clearance nuggets that ended up being $1.99 per package which is more then I would normally pay but we ate them that week for dinner so it was still a bargain.  I also picked up a bag of nuggets which were $3.99 after coupon which is the same price as Aldi's for nuggets that I think taste better.

Aldi $7.59

HaHa!!  My husband and my son walked through the aisle and got things at the store.  I don't even know what we came home with but I know that we got Starburst Jelly beans and 2 containers of Easter Sprinkles for $0.99 each.  I think that we also got a bag of Aldi Nacho chips, Sour Cream and Chives Pringles and Aldi "Oreos" and one block of cheese.  Of course, he promptly lost the receipt and they started eating the jelly beans!

CVS $20.52 

My husband needed allergy medicine so I went to the store and we found some great deals (not the allergy medicine but what are going to do)!  There were Centrum Kids Vitamins on sale $3.44 and I used a $2 coupon so they were $1.44 per bottle!!!  I also got the Advil for $0.27 per bottle.  We also needed tissues which were $1.50 for the box.  We added the extra yummy treat of fruit slices for $0.99.

CVS $0.34

CVS $0.68

CVS $0.38

CVS $0.21

Total OOP $128.55

I know that this seems crazy but I haven't spent this much on groceries (if you can call them that) since last February (over a year ago!?! WHAT!!!).  I think part of it was poor planning and the other part was way too much junk food.  We are running low on a few different foods at the house and we are hoping to move by the end of last month so I am trying not to buy a lot of things.  I am actually putting most of the things that I am stocking up on at the new house so I am bringing groceries to two different houses.  Everything is super confusing but I hope to have a low month next month even though I know that we will need some ground beef which I am getting at the beginning of May.  How did your month go??

The Harvest of Grace Book Review

The third book in the series finally came in which was great because I was really waiting to see what would happen in this book.  I already was super confused going back and forth between two different Amish fiction series which I hope to never mess up again because it is super confusing.  The Harvest of Grace: Book 3 in the Ada's House Amish Romance Series (An Ada's House Novel) by Cindy Woodsmall was a great final book in the Ada house series.

Although Sylvia Fisher recognizes that most Old Order Amish women her age spend their hours managing a household and raising babies, she has just one focus—tending and nurturing the herd on her family’s dairy farm. But when a dangerous connection with an old beau forces her to move far from home, she decides to concentrate on a new start and pour her energy into reviving another family’s debt-ridden farm.

After months in rehab, Aaron Blank returns home to sell his Daed’s failing farm and move his parents into an easier lifestyle running a store in town. Two things stand in his way: the father who stubbornly refuses to recognize that Aaron has changed and the determined new farmhand his parents love like a daughter. Her influence on Aaron’s parents could ruin his plans to escape the burdens of farming and build a new life.
Can Aaron and Sylvia find common ground? Or will their unflinching efforts toward opposite goals blur the bigger picture— a path to forgiveness, glimpses of grace, and the promise of love.

I really enjoyed this book and the whole series.  I loved getting to know Aaron better and meeting the new characters in the book.  The best part was finding out what happens with Lena and Grey and other couples who were courting through the last few books.  My biggest sadness is that there are only three book in the series so I am done and I have to get to know all new characters in other Cindy Woodsmall books.  I really love these characters and can't wait to see them come up in other books too.  I hope that you check out this book and all of the others in the Ada's House series.  I promise you won't be disappointed!!  Cindy Woodsmall has great writing and great characters and the only tough thing is putting the book down to get other things done.  I hope that you check this out at your local library or bookstore soon.

Thrifty Thursday: More Selling Going On!!

I posted previously about all of the selling that I was doing on facebook and I am super excited to say that I jumped back in and put a bunch more things up to sell.  I haven't been super successful because it takes a little bit of work to get these things done.

I sold the tricycle that my son used to use that we bought used.  I wish that I could remember how much we bought it for but I think that I sold it for the same price which is always super great!!

We bought this bedroom set used at the same sale and used for a little bit but my son really only uses the bottom sheet and didn't ever use the top sheet, comforter, and the Clifford so I figured that it was time to sell and move on to the others that we already had.  I am super excited to say that I think that I sold it for the same price that I bought it for so it was just a short rental!!

We got a travel highchair that we used from friends and I sold it for $4.  Although not a huge profit, it is great to use something and sell it for more then you paid.

We took three vanities out of the new house to replace and we sold them for $90!!  We also sold one of the old light fixtures and a toilet for $15.  Not really a profit but it was something that we weren't planning on selling and I made over $100 so I am super excited to get a little profit on the construction stuff since we are spending a fortune on the new things to go into the house.

 I picked out a few things that I couponed for out of a box that I was moving upstairs in the new house which I had all intentions of putting up on eBay and decided to sell those too!  I got lots of interest in them so obviously I could have sold them for a lot more but I got $15 for them.  Super excited to get more out the door and more money in my pocket.

I am up to $947!!  I still have a bunch more things to sell but I need to get to work and try to break $1000!!  I think that I am doing better than if I had a garage sale but I think that I might still have to get together with the neighbor and have a garage sale to sell some of the smaller stuff.  I know that I am going to work to post a few more things each day to see how much more I can get rid of so that we don't have to move it!!

My husband also took another load to the scrap yard and made another $31.  We are now up to $79 in our scrapping experiment.  I can tell you that most of the money comes from the copper that we pulled out of the house to replace with new copper.  We also have a bunch more wires so my husband and I stripped some to see if we could get more money for it but it wasn't worth the extra work.  We have one more load to take including a cast iron tub so we are aiming to try to break $100.  I am not sure that we are going to do this long term but it is a great way to get rid of "trash" from the construction and move and put a little money in our pockets (and not have to pay for disposal).

We are working to cut down on the things around our new house and make a little money at our house.  How do you cut down on the extra stuff around your house from piling up?? Do you do garage sales?  I would love any tips on how you keep organized and declutter!!!

Small Town Brides Book Review

I was looking for more books by Janet Tronstad and found this book in the library which turned out to be two books in one by different authors.  Small-Town Brides: A Dry Creek Wedding\A Mule Hollow Match
by Debra Clopton, Janet Tronstad was an interesting mix of two authors and their two towns and characters.  The one starts off where the other left off which was lead to a little more interest in the new author for me!

A Dry Creek Wedding by Janet TronstadWhen her boyfriend proposes a "practical" marriage, romantic Rene Mitchell leaves town until her car breaks down on the side of the road. Fleeing Texas for Montana, Rene rides with tow truck driver Clay Preston. Clay lived in the same small town of Mule Hollow but never had a chance to talk to Rene and now they have nothing but time while Clay is driving her to her Aunt's house to start her new life.

A Mule Hollow Match by Debra Clopton 
Trace Crawford broke Paisley Norton's cousin, Rene's, heart--so Paisley thinks he deserves whatever trouble he gets! Trace begs Paisley to help him because no one else in town is willing to help him.  The best suggestion that he has gotten is the school teacher who is on break for the summer even though he is the one that ran Rene out of town.  He is really lost when it comes to caring for his new niece because he didn't grow up with his parents and doesn't know where to start. The hatred that starts the book is quickly replaced with kindness towards the new little girl in both their lives.

I enjoyed both short stories a lot although it was a little bit of a stretch that a tow truck driver would drive someone from Texas to Montana in the one story and that the person who was most hurt by the actions of Trace would be the person who helped him out.  If you get over the unrealistic nature of the stories, they are both entertaining and kept me reading to find out what happens next.  Just like in my movies, I like books to be entertaining and don't really put a lot of stock in having the most realistic plot so if that bothers you, you might want to skip this book.  If you are a looking for a fun summer beach book, this might be up your alley.  I hope that you enjoy it and try other books in both series.

Peace Book Review

I was excited to get the extra book in the series at the library on my reserve shelf.  Peace: A Crittenden County Christmas Novel (Secrets of Crittenden County) by Shelley Shepard Gray was a stand alone book that was meant to follow the rest of the Crittenden County mystery series.  It was a great extra ending to the already ended series and I was glad that she added the extra little bump to the series and closure for the characters!!

Beth Byler has a secret. Ever since she met Englischer Chris Ellis while helping out at the Yellow Bird Inn, she can't stop thinking about him. She knows a relationship could never go anywhere—Chris was working undercover in Crittenden County as a DEA agent. That meant he faced danger daily and carried a gun, making him completely unsuitable for an Amish woman like herself. But she knew he felt the attraction, too. It was the reason he left so suddenly, promising never to see her again.  Then, three days before Christmas, while Beth is taking care of the inn, Chris returns. This time, he is bleeding and in need of a place to hide. Against her better judgment, Beth takes him in and tends to his wounds. She also promises to keep his presence a secret. Before long, it becomes clear that nothing between them has changed but you need to pick up this book and find out for yourself what happens!!
Quite possibly my favorite book in the series because it was mainly just two characters through the whole book so you got to know lots about both of them.  Of course, it wouldn't have been nearly as good if we didn't get a chance to know all the other characters through the other books in the series.  The rest of the whole series was in the mystery section and this was in the fiction section because the mystery was solved in the last book.  I don't think that I liked the Amish mystery as much as the regular fiction so this brought the characters and the author back to what I like best about the Amish fiction books.  I hope that you check this one out if you haven't read it, even if you haven't read other books in this series because it is a great book all on it's own.  Check it out at your local library or bookstore soon!!!

Found Book Review

I got the third book in the series of the Secrets of Crittenden County from my reserve shelf which was again switching back and forth between series but I was super excited to find out what happened next.  Found: The Secrets of Crittenden County, Book Three by Shelley Shepard Gray was the next in my pile to start reading.  It was great to finally get some resolution in the first Amish mystery book series that I have read!!

As the search for Perry Borntrager's killer continues, Jacob Schrock feels like his world is about to crumble. Right before Perry went missing, he and Jacob got into a fistfight. Jacob never told anyone what happened that terrible night. He's good at keeping secrets—including his love for Deborah, Perry's sister. But when Deborah takes a job at his family's store and their friendship blossoms, Jacob senses everything is about to be revealed.  Deborah has been searching for a slice of happiness ever since her brother's body was discovered. When the police start questioning Jacob, Deborah can't believe that the one person she's finally allowed in could be the one responsible for her brother's death. Will she believe what everyone seems to think is the truth . . . or listen to her heart, and hope there is still one more person who is keeping secrets in Crittenden County.

In Found, Gray’s unforgettable trilogy of what happens when a terrible crime that strikes a close knit Amish community comes full-circle, “Englisher” Detective Luke Reynolds discovers the identity of Perry Borntrager’s killer and the community must come to terms with the surprising revelation. A murder is solved and a quiet Amish community must deal with the repercussions. Amid the surprising revelations, can a new found love survive?

As with all mysteries, the best stuff happens at the end.  There is a lot of confusion and cover-up in the murder of Perry but the truth is finally revealed and you aren't going to believe the final verdict.  I hope that this was a surprise to most of the people reading because it was to me.  I don't usually try to solve mysteries which is why I think that I was never a mystery reader before.  I like to read and follow along with what the characters know and learn as they do.  I find that it is much better for me then playing detective.  I enjoyed the final book the most and I think that the other two books were necessary to lead up to the final book resolution but I know that the first two books were a lot slower moving then some of her other book series.  I hope that you check them out at your local library or bookstore and see for yourselves.  I know that you will enjoy this Amish mystery and be as surprised as I was with the ending!!