Q and A Debt

Meal Planning has always been a challenge for me. Making a menu is easy but keeping to it is another story completely.  I may have found a middle ground that works for us.  While walking on the treadmill (I'll get to that in a bit), I was watching Youtube and came upon several meal planning videos.  The majority involves prepping food to be cooked/snacked on/prepared. So now, what I am doing is separating my fruits and veggies into small containers/baggies.  Like these: I wish I had more containers to show but kids have been eating the fruit like crazy, which I'm pleased about because its a much better alternative to just eating junk. I have also started to make a large pot of oatmeal. We have it for breakfast and if we want a snack. Its so yummy and so nice on the pocketbook!  We are still in the early stages of our meal planning tweaks but I'm very hopeful we will make them lifelong habits. It doesn't hurt that its a big help to our food budget. I starte...

Happy Friday Everyone! Getting my day started and trying to clean off my desk as it is a total mess! Trying to keep myself busy so I don't unnecessarily spend $$. Went food shopping yesterday.  Found a couple good buys but we didn't exactly need a whole lot. I will be buying fruits and vegetables today as the store I went to had little variety. Here's what I bought for a total of $47.74. I had budgeted $75 for the week, about $25 less than what I normally budget. I did it to see if I can make it work.  It will be a bit challenging considering the kiddos eat like lumberjacks. I'll be going to visit Dad sometime today and see where else the day takes us. Have a great weekend :)

You must have a ton of money in savings?! Wrong! So, a little over a year ago Mr. Man received a promotion.  With it came a higher salary.  That's where fact and fiction get confused.  I've noticed more comments from family about Mr. Man's salary and how now we are "Good", as in set financially.  What my family fails to realize, is that we pay all our bills and there are quite a few.  We are a single income household with a mountain of medical debt.  Add on to that the daily expenses that are not average.  I willingly volunteer, as well as a couple of my other siblings, to check up on Dad several times a week.  With that comes gas expense, food expense and the occasional entertainment expense.  We do it because we want to but that doesn't take away the financial aspect of it.  I also have a special needs child who requires weekly therapy.  We get absolutely not one penny of government assistance and our health insurance copay is u...