gain weight just might be to bulk cook.

With all that access to ready-to-cook cookie dough...well, who could resist?

1. Paid $1000 toward CC2. I'm not really sure where the money came from, but it could be a "third" paycheck (DH gets paid 2ce each month), saved money, and/or leftover money from closing costs.

2. Got a pay raise of almost $600 per month. Woo-Hoo!!

3. Since keeping track of my coupon use this month (my month starts with my paycheck on the 23rd), I've managed to save $15.04.

Here's my favorite vegetarian recipe. Although we're not vegetarians, we try to be reasonable about our meat intake, especially red meat. This freezes well. We call it "skillet".

1/2 cup chopped onions
1 1/2 cups TVP
1 1/2 cups water
2 14.5 oz cans petite diced tomatoes
1 cup mild salsa
1 1/2 cups chopped zucchini
1 1/2 cups frozen corn niblets (I leave this out)
1 1/2 cups cooked black beans

Put it all in a large skillet. Cover and simmer for about 45 mins. Serve over brown rice and top with sour cream.

One of my goals is to begin teaching my little ones about money. I'd like to begin incorporating chores (that they will do simply because they belong in our family) and extra things they can do to earn money. I need a way to keep track of this each week. They are young, 2 and 4 so the method has to be simple and easy for them to understand. I'd really like feedback if anyone has suggestions.

On another note, I finally went to the grocery store. I haven't been in about 2 weeks simply because I haven't had time. Lo and behold, I didn't run out of food! This got me thinking...maybe I could shop for 2 weeks in advance...which led to further thoughts...I made a menu of 4 dishes to be served each week for 5 weeks. So each week, we'll be having 4 different dishes. Preparing only 4 allows us to eat leftovers and misc. during the other days of the week. Then I made a mock grocery list for every ingredient I would need that week. I grocery shop for 2 weeks worth of menus (8 dishes) and have a ready made list. I can easily eliminate the things I already have in my pantry. With this in mind, I went shopping.

Randalls - $30.93 for 11 lbs of boneless, skinless chicken breast, and 4 boxes of Cheerios.
CVS - 2 gallons of milk @ $2.99 each = 5.98
Walmart - $126.75 this includes household items as well as grocery items. I bought 6 whole fryers that I roast, dice and freeze.

Total coupons savings = 19.00

I thought it went pretty well. I am thinking, however, about going back to Randalls and getting more chicken breasts. $1.99/lb is the best I've seen in a while.

I also bought a toaster oven, but I will return it. I want to be able to save energy while cooking, but the oven wasn't big enough to fit a 9x13 pan.