1.5 lb. Bacon Wrapped Beef Filet (4 x 6 oz.)

2.5 lb. Breaded Chicken Breast Filets

1.5 lb. Bone-In Pork Steaks (4 x 6 oz.)

28 oz. Salisbury Steak Dinner Entrée

2.5 lb. Beef and Bean Burritos (10 x 4 oz.)

2 lb. Popcorn Chicken

9.5 oz. Stouffer’s Flat Bread Pizza

16 oz. Frozen Peas

16 oz. Corn Niblets

16 oz. Green Beans

2 lb. Fresh Onions

29 oz. Pears

32 oz. Borden 2% Reduced Fat Shelf-Stable Milk

9 oz. Breakfast Cereal

8 oz. Corn Muffin Mix

16 oz. Bean Soup Mix

1 Dozen Eggs

1 Dessert Item

This was the first time that I had ordered from Angel Food. I’ve been thinking about it for a while, and finally I got around to doing it. I arrived at the church that distributes the food at 10 am. There was already a small line forming. Church members were scrambling to unload boxes from pallets sitting in the parking lot. I guess the truck had arrived late. One lady came out apologizing to everyone for the wait. She explained that they had received over 2500 orders this month, more than double any other month they’ve had!

As I looked around I was surprised to see people of all different types. Suburban looking soccer mom’s, impoverished looking people, elderly men and women, middle and lower class, all of different races. I guess I had the impression that I would be out of place; wrong of me, I know.

We waited in line, in the rising heat, while the workers scurried around trying to get the food inside before it began to melt. After about 40 min. we were let inside. I guess the long wait wasn’t typical. It only took me about 6 min. to go through the assembly type line as people filled my box with food. A quiet young man carried the box to my van for me.

I was very pleased with everything that I got for such little money! I’ve already placed my order for next month. You can still get your order for June in as long as they receive it by June 9^th.

I was very pleased with everything that I got for such little money! I’ve already placed my order for next month. You can still get your order for June in as long as they receive it by June 9^th.

To see if you have an Angel Food Ministry near you check out their website.

Okay, if you haven’t heard of this term before, you need to check this out. Recently my sister did a post on Replacing Disposables with Permanents. A few people commented on this thing called “Family Cloth”, a term I had never heard of before then. It refers to a washable rag replacement for toilet paper. Now, before you get all grossed out, just hear me out. Instead of good ol’ t.p. some people are using cloths to wipe with. At first I was like “Oh gross. I don’t think I’d go that far to be more environmentally friendly, or to save money”, but I was still interested in the idea, so I did a little research to see what others were saying about it. Here are a few excerpts I found:

“I continued to think about the claims I heard like “it’s softer” “no more fuzz” and “I’ll never go back” so I decided I had to try it. After all, I was already washing cloth diapers. I could just throw my cloths right in the washer with them, no extra work required.”

“The next huge difference was the massive change in toilet paper consumption. I didn’t really keep track before but I estimate we went from buying one huge package every other week to one small package a month!!! For a family on a limited budget this is a major savings. After noticing this I knew there was no going back.”

To read this article in it’s entirety, go here.

Here are some other comments that I’ve found:

“I too have ditched the tp. I cloth diapered my kids so family cloth was an extension of this. We’ve done away w/paper towels too Easier on the environment, the sewers, my wallet AND our bodies!”

“…for families that are already familiar with cloth diapering or using cloths instead of disposable baby wipes, it’s really not that much of a jump.

However, there are variations in usage, according to the article, even among proponents of the family cloth. The article notes that some men refuse to use it, some households use it only for urination and many families will stock regular toilet paper for their guests.”

“We use family cloth at our house. The used cloth gets tossed into the diaper pail and washed with the diapers. I have yet to pull anything out of my dryer that smells like poo. My first reaction to family cloth was that it was disgusting and I would never use it. It saves money and trees and doesn’t use any extra water at my house because we already have to wash the diapers. There is no “scrubbing the inside of the pail” since we have washable pail liners. Really, it’s not as gross as you think. It’s so easy my 3 yr old can do it.

And anyone grossed out by putting soiled garments in the washer is missing the whole point of a washing machine. It’s the machine’s job to clean things. Unless you throw out your underwear after every use, some of those bodily fluids and yes, even some solids, will find their way into the washing machine.”

After giving it some thought, and reading how happy those who have at least tried it are with the concept, I’ve come to the conclusion that I’d like to give it a shot as well. I realize how socially unacceptable it sounds; but you know what, who cares! Hubby is all against the idea, which is fine with me! I’m only interested in the girls using it. My terms of usage will be: just for the girls, just for “tinkles”, and of course I’ll have regular t.p. for guests. I think baby girl will like it better too. And since I’m already washing cloth diapers, it won’t really make much of a difference. So, when I get a spare moment I’m going to cut up some old t’s and try it out! I’ll let ya know what I think once I’ve been doing it for a while.

If you are interested in reading more from other’s who have made the switch, I found this forum to be very interesting!

It’s been a couple of weeks since my last financial status update. The last time I wrote we had a little over $100 to our names! My husband has been out of work for almost 8 weeks now. I feel fortunate that we have his small business on the side, to help out a little. But it isn’t really a money maker. What he does is more like a ministry to the youth in the community. It barely brings in enough money to keep itself going, let alone pay for any of our personal bills. So, we’ve really just been scraping by.

I keep writing these updates because I want to share with everyone how the Lord gets us through this tough time. When things seem hopeless and impossible, He is faithful. I have not been sure how we would pay our bills since my husband lost his job, but I know that the Lord will provide, and as He does, I want to praise Him for it.

So, in the past couple of weeks we have had a little more money come in. Here is what we have received:

$75.99 from a refund.

$28.63 that I discovered had been hanging out in my Paypal account.

$180: my husband signed up to be a guinea pig for a sunscreen test.

$463 referral money from Revolutionary Money Exchange (BIG THANKS to Crystal for her help!).

$4.87 from a rebate check.

$250 we were able to pay ourselves from our part-time business.

So, that’s a little over $1000 that we’ve gathered up to help pay bills. I have to say that Satan has really been trying to get us down though. Our A/C went out almost 2 weeks ago, and it has been in the upper 80’s the past few days. It was so unbearable one particular day that we all had to go over to my dad’s house and hang out until it cooled down enough outside. The kids are running around in practically nothing trying to stay cool. We’ve discovered fleas in the house too. A stray cat had kittens under our house, and my husband thinks that that is where the fleas are coming from. We’re going to have to bomb the place. On top of all that, our van died while we were out yesterday. Fortunately someone jumped us off. We went to Walmart and had to buy a new battery ($70!). We spent another $40 today doing some other maintenance on the van. And, oh my goodness this really made me mad, last week I got my taxes back in the mail: I DIDN’T SIGN THEM!!! I couldn’t believe I did that!! I accidentally kept the signed copy for my records, and mailed the unsigned one. I was so upset with myself. We were really depending on that tax refund!

But, I have to look on the bright side of things. At least my power bill ought to be significantly lower next month! And at least it was only the battery that had to be replaced, and not something major (again!). At least my mother-in-law just happened to have some flea bombs handy, so we didn’t have to buy any. And, at least we didn’t have to pay taxes, and I will get a refund… eventually!

We’ve been very blessed to have a little money coming in here and there. We’ve had a hard time trying to claim unemployment. I’ll keep working on that. We’ve been sticking to a very tight grocery budget, and all of the couponing freebies have come in very handy! I am thankful that I am able to do my coupon shopping. My sweet Mother-in-law, and my step-mother have blessed us with a few good ol’ home cooked meals, so that’s been helpful! I was making broccoli and carrots for dinner tonight and my dear MIL called me and asked if I wanted some dinner. She already had it all packaged up for us, and insisted on bringing it right over. How sweet is that! Her meal was much better than my measly one!

So, anyways, that’s where we are. Getting by. I praise God that we have not had to borrow money, go on welfare, or had to pay our bills late. We’re doing alright. I can’t wait to get over this hill!! I thank all of you who have said a prayer for our family. I know it could be much worse than this, but we still need a prayer to help us get by!

We wanted to give a shout out, and a

BIG

THANK YOU!!

To Crystal, at Money Saving Mom for blessing us!!

She was so generous to send us referral’s for our Revolutionary Money Exchange accounts. What a blessing this was to our families! Especially in this time of need! Thank you for your thoughtfulness, and generosity! It was greatly appreciated!

If you happen to have an Aldi nearby, you may have realized what a valuable resource this budget friendly grocery store can be! We get most of our groceries from there, since we’ve been sticking to a $25-$30/wk grocery budget. While blog surfing tonight, I found an awesome page on Mom Advice. If you shop Aldi, or if you have one close by, you should check this out! They have created an Aldi Menu Planner, listing meals using ingredients only from this store. I was really excited when I found this. I’ll have to test them out, and see how budget friendly they really are!

My Total: $8.29 (and $2.09 of that was taxes!)

I went to Target today and got some really great deals. What’s cool about most of these is that they weren’t on sale, I just had good coupons, which made a lot of these things FREE!! Here’s how I did it:

Travel/Trial Size:

Boudreaux’s Butt Paste (3pk) $0.99

Use a $1.00 off coupon HERE to get it FREE

ALL Small & Mighty $1.00

Use THIS $1.00 off coupon to get it FREE (thanks Denise!)

Shout Wipes $0.97

Used $0.75 coupon in 5/11 SS insert

Degree Women’s Deo $0.99

Used $1.00 off Degree Girl coupon from 4/6 RP insert to make it FREE

Non Travel Size Items:

Johnson’s Buddies Soaps $0.94

Use $1.00 off coupon HERE, HERE, HERE or a $2/2 HERE; there was also a $1 coupon in the 4/27 RP insert; lots for FREE!

Bandaids (60 ct.) $1.77 (there are reportedly some boxes for $1.00, I didn’t see any.)

Used $1 coupon from Target Clipless Coupon Mailer.

Used $1 coupon in 5/18 RP insert- Made this FREE after coupons!

Sunsilk Shampoo (I lucked out and found a B1G1 packaged bottle, it also had a $1.00 off coupon on it!) $2.99

Used $1.00 off peelie coupon from bottles

There is also a $1 off coupon in the Target Clipless Coupon Mailer (if you got one)

Use $1.00 coupon in 5/18 RP insert. (I had a $1.50 printed coupon, but I’m not sure where it was from, anybody know?)

*PLUS… if you buy 2 of the double pack (B1G1) shampoo or conditioners, and use 2 peelies, and one Man Q. along with a B1G1 coupon from the 4/6 RP insert, you will get them all for FREE! (wish I’d known about this deal sooner!)

Goodlife Cat Food (3 lb) $4.89

Use $2 off Target printable coupon HERE (it says it’s good on 6 lb. bag, but it worked for me on the 3 lb!)

Use $3 off coupon from 3/9 RP to make it FREE! (or you could use the $2 off coupon in the 5/11 RP)

Purina ONE Cat Food (3.5 lb) $5.74

Used $1.50 Target Clipless Coupon

Use $4 coupon HERE to get it almost FREE

GE Energy Smart Instant-On Mini lightbulbs (compact fluorescents) $5 on sale

Use $2 off Target printable coupon HERE

Use $1 off coupon HERE

Meow Mix Market Select Cup (good anywhere really) $.44

Used FREE coupon from the 5/18 RP insert

For more Target Deals, check out our friend Denise over at The “Cent”sible Sawyer!

Kristy at Homemaker’s Cottage wrote a very sweet and encouraging post on what homemaking truly is. I was very blessed by what she wrote and reminded that I need to keep relationships first…not my to-do list. Here is a snippet of what she wrote:

On our way in Amy spotted a display of porcelain dolls in the front window and wanted to stop and look at them once we got inside. While she looked, I happened to see a cute little wooden plaque with a quote painted in black letters which read,

Homemaking is love made visible.

.

That quote has been tumbling around in my head the past week and I’ve realized more and more how very easy it is to lose sight of the real reason we women do what we do. Too often homemaking is reduced to little more than housework; a list of duties to be marked off a never-ending to do list. But isn’t love the motivation behind all our efforts? It should be, and, I think, for most of us it is. We just need a good reminder every now and again that our homemaking is more about joyful service and cheerful faces (ours and our families’) than it is clean kitchens, spotless floors, and folded laundry. Without those things our work can quickly become drudgery and a source of frustration- not only for us, but our families as well!

Am I the only one that needed to read this? Go here to read the full article.

Check out this freebie from Centsible Savings :

Register here for Office Depot’s weekly email specials and they will email you a coupon to take to the store for a free DVD+R 10-pack.

Disposables are convenient, but if you are trying to scale back and really pinch your pennies, replacing disposables with “permanents” can help you stretch you dollar. Don’t worry, I’m not against disposables (especially disposable dinnerware the weeks after a baby is born! I remember those days fondly), but would like to get us all thinking about ways that we can save in this area.

Maybe you can help me out…

Here are a few things around the house that could be replaced with more “permanent” items:

Napkins – replace with cloth napkins
Tissues – replace with handkerchiefs (people actually still use handkerchiefs, my husband is an example! This cracked me up when I first met him, but I got used to it quickly. He grew up on the farm and this is what they all did! He only uses one per day then throws it in the wash)
Paper Towels – I don’t know that I’d get rid of these completely (sometimes using a paper towel and then tossing it seems a little more sanitary than using a rag), but I could cut down and use them less often. I could use rags and wash cloths to wipe and clean, and newspaper to clean mirrors and windows.
Plastic baggies – replace with plastic containers
Paper Diapers – replace with cloth diapers (unless you’re getting them free from CVS, of course
Diaper Wipes – make your own. See Ken’s helpful post here .
Toilet Paper – ha! Just kidding
Dryer Sheets - Dryer Balls (I have these and really like them)

Can you all think of any more?

It’s like after midnight, and I totally need to go to bed! But I can’t. I’m glued to this awesome new website I just happened to come across. I LOVE this girl! She is so cute, and she gives the BEST makeup and hair tutorial videos. After watching a few of her clips, I had to go play with my own makeup using her techniques. So… now I’m on to the hair. It’s fun trying new things, and this girl makes it really easy! If you feel like playing around with your looks, and you get a spare minute (like that ever happens!), check it out! On the left hand side of the page is a menu. Scroll down to the pages, and click on the Cosmetic Demos and Hair Demos. (Or just follow my links!) Each little category has an instructional video of her demonstrating the how-to’s. Okay, gotta go. I’ve got more hair do’s to learn!!