Sunday, September 14, 2014

Re-calculations and organizing...

This summer was a crazy one.  Dealing with Husband leaving in order to set up housekeeping with his girlfriend was a weird experience to be sure.  A saving grace was the outpouring of love and support from my family.  My Mom called to check in on me often, and she took my kids one at a time for a week.  It was nice, and it helped me to cope with the new situation.

Of the 11 weeks of summer, I think we were home for 4 of them, all 3 of us.  I had booked a cruise some time ago, and the girls and I went with my aunt on a 5 day cruise to Mexico (YAY Carnival Cruise Lines!!!) and we went to Branson 3 times, and to Dallas 2 times.  In between visits, I was submitting my resume and filling out applications like crazy.  The Monday and Tuesday before we left for the cruise, I had 5 interviews. There was a week when it was just Thing1 and me, and then we switched with Mom so that it was Thing2 and me.  The lovely thing about this is that, while I was staying with family, everybody knew of my new circumstances, and nobody let me pay for my food.  I would guess that I may have spent $600.00 for food over the course of the entire summer.  Much of that food is still in my deep freezer, to be used in the near future.  :-)

Still looking for a job.  I am just grateful that my hobby has been saving money and tightening my belt for the last few years, because now that Husband is Ex-Husband, I am living on child support and alimony, along with a small retirement account that I cashed in at the beginning of the divorce proceedings.  Luckily, I can pinch a penny until it screams.

I did not keep up with my receipts, because I knew I was not going to post for some time.  When I sat at the computer, I could not justify taking an hour or two in order to create a post when that time could be spent searching for the job that I desperately need.  Today, I plan to inventory my freezer, so I guess I am in "Paleo On The Cheap" mode already, so it made sense to go ahead and pound out my ideas and get them in a post.

So, the new grocery budget numbers...  I used the handy dandy chart from the USDA  http://www.cnpp.usda.gov/sites/default/files/usda_food_plans_cost_of_food/CostofFoodJun2014.pdf to figure out how much the girls and I would get if we were on SNAP.

Thing1  $169.10
Me        $166.60
Thing2  $157.00
TOTAL $492.70

I am supremely confident that I can stay within those limitations, and still feed myself and the girls healthfully.  In reality, my personal goal is to stay under that number, and try to consistently stay under the USDA recommended amount for a family of 2 - $389.10.  I do not think I will have a problem hanging around the $389.10 number, and will often be under it, I am sure.

I need to do an inventory of my freezers.  Out of habit, I have been tracking sales on the weeks that I have been home, and I have loads of chicken thighs because my local HARP'S store had bone in leg quarters for $ .79 per lb.  I have 30 lbs of those in the deep freezer.  I also have frozen Swai fillets (I think 3 bags) that I bought at $3.99 (regular price is $4.99, I think) and several other items in my freezers and pantry that can be combined for at least a few weeks worth of meals.  I will have to do some augmentation with trips to the grocers, but not too much.

Long story short, (too late?) I will be shopping the main components of my meals from my own freezers.  I will be creating some freezer meals after church today from this video ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XucK6aE5UYM ) I will be making the Honey Sesame Chicken with coconut aminos, so that it really is Paleo.  Also, I will be making "The World's Best Chicken".  I am debating on whether or not to make the Cafe Rio Crockpot Chicken, because I have all of the ingredients, but I am not sold on how it will taste.  We shall see.  :-)

In addition to the shopping from my own pantry, I will be doing a 21 day spending fast (  http://www.newsobserver.com/2010/01/31/312044/try-a-21-day-spending-fast.html  ) in order to reign in some of the "convenience" spending that I have been doing.  I am out of the habit of tracking my spending, and I know that I have indulged a little bit, when I really should not be doing that.  Not huge indulgences, but I really cannot afford even little indulgences.

t