Weekly Check In #9

Did you think I forgot? No, I didn't. It's just been a lot of the same stuff, keeping me busy. I look at it as maybe some of these goals will move forward in appearance faster. Daily small steps don't seem to add up to a lot, until after a good bit of time has passed. 

Blog more.

I don't blog as often as I should, but I am doing this more and it is on my mind, so there's progress. I should work this into a regular part of my week, so it gets done more often.

Keep the food budget to $400 per month.

While I limited myself more, there was the chance to stock up on pork and chicken this month, so I took it. This of course, threw things off again. I will try to post a breakdown of this later this week.

Start a garden.

Nope. Nope, nope, nope.

Pay more attention to my health.

I have been following the No S Diet, but this week, it looks like it all came back. Water weight maybe? I haven't been drinking as much as before, so maybe that's it. This is still the best way I have found to eat (for me). I have had the Carnivore diet and the Ketovore diet recommended to me. I am still researching these, but I never like the idea of cutting complete food groups from a life. 

Read 50 new books this year.

I finished 2 books this week! I managed to add more reading time in and finished the audio book of The Empowered Wife and the pre-release of Fortress of the Lost Amulet. The Empowered Wife is a great book if you want to improve your marriage. The second book, Fortress of the Lost Amulet, is being released on Wednesday. The author is a friend of mine from high school (way too long ago!) and he is an incredible writer. I highly recommend his books. They are great stories that are well written and appropriate for a wide range of ages.

Declutter our home and make it hospitable.

No progress made here this past week. Those boxes are still sitting in the kitchen. I did manage to move a few shelves around in the bathrooms, so there's more storage in both. I have also been working on small chores for daily cleaning, to keep things under control.

Complete 12 craft projects in progress.

I finished both the cross stitch pieces I had. 

I took a picture of another one I finished last year. They all need a good pressing and a frame. 

I am still working on my sweater. Fortunately, it's a lightweight silk yarn and really meant to be a summer top. 

I found a big box of fabric this weekend at a thrift store for $2. There is a lot of fabric, all different types and colors. I am looking forward to digging through and making things from it. How are your goals coming? Any words of wisdom to share?

Week #6 Check In

Here's this week's update. It's still a bit sporadic, but I am trying to keep moving forward.

Blog more.

I am still making this work, so not too bad. Momentum is key.

Keep the food budget to $400 per month.

This definitely didn't work this month. I am attempting to rework my plan, as posted earlier. I have to sit down this week and create a new plan for February to March. Some of what I bought was for more than a month. This time, I am going to limit myself more.

Start a garden.

I have more cardboard but haven't put it in the garden yet. I need to try to do this tomorrow (not raining) and I also need to start testing seeds this week.

Pay more attention to my health.

I have been following the No S Diet, and so far, I am down another couple of pounds. This makes about 7 pounds so far. Not a huge amount, but when there's a big goal, small steps don't seem like much at first. They add up though, so I am continuing with this.

Read 50 new books this year.

I still did not read like I should have this week, but I made progress on a couple of books. I have also decided to take the list I made of books to read and start reading one at a time from the list. 

Declutter our home and make it hospitable.

This was a mixed goal this week. I pulled a few boxes from our storage unit, in an effort to use the items we have. The boxes are labeled incorrectly (not my fault) so now I have big boxes in the way. However, this is not necessarily a bad thing. Because these boxes are not what I thought, I have a plan to go through them, pull what I need, then repack them (and label appropriately), before replacing them in the storage unit. 

Complete 12 craft projects in progress.

I reworked a project this week, my knitting one. I found I needed to add short rows to the upper back area, so I had to frog part of it. No big deal, really. I also started frogging another project, as I found I didn't wear it because it didn't sit right. I am going to fix that. I did finish one cross stitch project, and started the companion piece. There's a third that I am considering while it's on sale.

I also had 2 children fall prey to the crazy weather and get sick. This weekend was filled with some catching up, and I am sure next weekend will too. How are you progressing after 6 weeks of the year so far?

Grocery check in

I haven't really kept track of what we've spent EXACTLY on groceries this month. I do know we're over budget. 🙁 Part of that is food prices - stuff is expensive! Part of it is a learning curve. It's been a while since we've done this, and I'm rusty. 

Let's look at what and where we did buy:

Aldi - we buy a lot of staples here, because they have been cheaper in the past. This is still mostly true, but you have to watch carefully.

Walmart - this is the biggest store in our town, and while they offer a wider selection than Aldi, you still have to be careful about their prices. They aren't always the cheapest.

Ingles - sales are your friend here. But, you can get some really good deals, and the quality is usually worth a few extra pennies. 

Quality Foods - this is a local small chain (they have maybe 4-5 stores around this area) and can be higher on national brands BUT their sales prices are usually better than others. 

Strategy: This month, I planned, then looked at ads and shopped. I think I need to change this up a bit. While it's hard to predict what will be on sale in the upcoming month, using what's currently on sale for multiple meals and knowing what staples you need can help control the budget. Also, looking at holidays (March holds St. Patrick's Day, April holds Easter) can help predict a little. March usually has corned beef on sale; April has lamb/ham/roasts. This is harder during the summer and fall when there aren't as many holidays close together, but you can almost be assured there will be hamburgers and hot dogs on sale (and ice cream) close to July. 

Being sick hasn't helped, as it's made us want/need things not planned for, like popsicles for the children. 

Another new addition this month will be to take a pantry inventory (to use what we have better) and get our small freezer in there, so we have more freezer space.