Cooking New...

This month and last month I've really put my cooking skills to work! I've cooked new things and tried to cook using less ingredients. I really want to make it where most all our meals average $5 each. That would be $1 per person! That would be great! Most of my meals are averaging $7 and that is still not bad, considering we eat meat at every meal and fruit and veggies are served as well. A lot of foods richer in flavor cost more to make. But we've managed well so far. Tomorrow is the 15th, so we are half way through this month! That is encouraging to me! I've been able to keep my grocery store spending down, and really focusing on my meal plans. I use to do menu plans, but would change them if I didn't feel like cooking something or sometimes I would fail to buy the right stuff and end up doing something else. Then ingredients would go bad. So far this month, nothing has expired, gone sour or been trashed. We are using all our resources. I really like this! I know the grocery shopping area of our budget needed a makeover, but I didn't know how bad it really was until I documented everything! Now we are planning wiser, shopping wiser and learning daily. I still have much to learn, and love reading about others expereinces and how they are accomplishing the goal of living well and spending less. I am part of a closed group on facebook, that is helping me see ways that I can cut back and save more! I am also part of a 40 bags in 40 days group. Working to decrapify our homes and lives! I have not removed 14 bags from my house yet, but I've done a lot over the past two months to decrapify! I'm hoping to clean out our shed soon! We have to borrow a truck, but that won't be a problem. Someone is also giving us bunkbeds for the boys, but I need to get them picked up! Do you have a system you use for grocery shopping and menu planning that helps your budget? Do you even have a budget? This is fairly new to us, we realized last year that after all the bills are paid, we SHOULD have MORE money leftover then we actually do. All this little spending was slowly robbing our bank account. So now we are in control once again. Telling our money where to go before it tells us where it went! This is a new year for us! We are excited to see where the Lord will lead us to serve as we prepare ourselves for his Will!

I've had enough!

These are the words shouted from my 7 year old to her brothers. I'm sure she has heard me say this before! It's always humbling to hear your words come out of your child's mouth. How many times have you had this conversation with God? Or yourself? I've had ENOUGH! Enough of the pain, enough of the frustration, enough of the lies, enough of the doubt. Enough. I remember as a child hearing someone say, "Enough is Enough". I still don't know what that means. I do know that after a long day, hearing my kids fuss and cry and yell at each other it makes me want to shout out ENOUGH! I think most days when we are that breaking point in our lives with God and we YELL out ENOUGH, God isn't upset with us, he is made glad. He is patient and he waits for us. When we get to that breaking point we are able to allow God to do what he needs to do. Often time we blame God for the pain and the hurt and we choose to walk in a way that does not show honor to God. When I yell out ENOUGH, my children know that something is about to change. Maybe our prayers should be enough of me trying to do things my way, enough of the enemy walking all over me, enough of me getting in the way of what God is wanting to do. Lord, I've had enough! Now I'm ready!