Week 2 Pantry Challenge Grocery Haul & Meal Plan

 I am a few days late getting this on here but I picked up my groceries at the beginning of my meal plan. I'm most likely going to need more tomatoes before my Thursday trip and will either pick them up Monday or have my husband get them on the way home from work. I also almost caved and ordered Chinese food after our garage sale Saturday but pulled it together and made a real pantry challenge dinner. The meal plan you see at the end is the same meals as my original but was re-organized to accommodate our crazy weekend (with the exception of the potato soup I simply removed). I chose to re-write it as I didn't think you'd want to see the arrows all over the original.

Meal Plan & Grocery Haul (Pantry Challenge Week 1)

Just a little housekeeping first... 

• My meal plan begins with Friday because I grocery shop on Thursdays; I dated the left hand column to help with any confusion. Sometimes I will switch meals around depending on how the day is going or any surprises that come up. 

Pantry Challenge May 2017

We are going to kick off being back to blogging with a pantry challenge beginning with tomorrow's grocery haul. We are very blessed with a large pantry in this new house and my husband would tell you that I have taken advantage of it's space.

My Currently Messy Pantry

April 2017 Update

Happy Monday All,
     If you look around the blog you will notice that the planners are gone. What started as a desire to simply fill a missing part of the planner market shortly stopped being a missing part of the market. When Syd's Sensible Solutions decided to stop selling planners all things Syd's Sensible Solutions stopped. We have been through a lot of changes since you heard from me last. My husband is still in the Army but I gained a nephew, we moved, my husband went to school for a year, he was promoted, we bought a house/moved again, and shortly after arriving my husband was gone for work for several months. He's been back home for two months and I finally feel I'm at a place where I can come back to the blog. You can expect to see a variety of thoughts on homemaking, attempting to be frugal, meal prep/planning, homeschooling, Army wife life, PCSing (an Army move), Change of Command, and some Jesus drawing everything together. Stay and read if it blesses you and have a wonderful day if it doesn't!

Thanks!
Syd

Ham Sandwiches On The Cheap

     My husband takes a sandwich everyday for lunch. Occasionally he will take leftovers but he really prefers sandwiches. Lunch meat can get expensive if you let it, especially if you prefer real meat and not the "puréed with fillers and poured in a mold" kind. However, there is one way I keep the cost down.

     In the refrigerated section of the grocery store I have been able to find some hams that are a little smaller and boneless. They look like they've been cut. I take this ham to the deli and they slice it however I want for free. They attach the original barcode to my package and I pay the price of the ham before it was sliced. I bring the 4-5 pound package of ham home and separate it into the amount we will eat in 1 week. I seal it into freezer bags and label with the date. Dating each package is important because "hypothetically" a package could get buried in your freezer and you would want to know how old it is. Not that I've done that or anything (wink). You could also do this with a cooked boneless turkey breast but I haven't found any that I would call "real meat."

     Two disclaimers: I have not noticed a change in the quality or texture of the ham doing this however we almost always eat all 4-5 pounds in one month. Also I have not encountered a deli that wouldn't do this but that doesn't mean you won't.

     I hope this helps! Let me know what you do to save money on groceries.

C-Section Packing List

Recently I had my 3rd c-section. Seeing as I had done this 2 other times one would think I had used everything I brought. While I had significantly pared down the items I brought I still brought a few too many things. Hopefully these lists will be a blessing to someone.

We Had A Baby

Quite recently my husband and I had a baby (girl) and things are a little crazy at our house. Thankfully my mother has been staying with us and has been cheerfully scrubbing our house and chasing our older girls as I heal from my c-section. As this was my third c-section I will be posting a more realistic c-section packing list later in the week. Everything will fit into a carry-on sized bag (except the boppy and the car seat). Hopefully it will help someone as they prepare for their baby's arrival.