Its just one of those days....

Yesterday was one of those 5AM-11PM days. Let me give you a run down of both of our schedules..

Nick: 5AM wake up
5:30AM- Out the door to work
6:00AM-3:00PM work
3:00PM-5:00PM nap
5:00PM-10PM School

11PM- Sleep...

Katie:
5AM Wake up
5:30AM- Complain about waking up
6AM Breakfast
6:30AM out the door
7-8AM Training
8:45AM-5PM Work
6:00PM-9PM School
9PM-10PM- Pack Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner for Nick and myself, prepare all school work

11PM- Sleep


Today we are making the vegetarian chili. This time I shall take photos as it should be finished in around 4 hours. :-) We have so much food leftover, we are never hungry. There is a lot of leftovers for lunch.




As for surviving $20 a week on gas...This week I filled up last friday with $20, after 2 long journeys I had to finally fill up again today.  :-( I was doing so well..

Tip of the week to save money on gas= SHOP AROUND FOR THE BEST PRICE

I cant stress enough how much of a difference that makes. Every penny counts. :)

I will update later with a more coherent entry once I have had more coffee.

Time to get next weeks shopping done :)

Here is the copy of our shopping list for this week, the red checks beside the item means its something we have in our fridge. Or we can substitute it.

Check out the size of that :). Hopefully we should be spending a lot less than $20 this week, due to the huge amount of leftover barley soup we have, as well as the one with beans in.

We are having a feast tonight as its Nicks cousins last night before he leaves for Army boot camp.... We shall take plenty of photos and get back to updating later today.

How to eat cheap on mall trips

Nick and I have been doing a lot of shopping recently. Also, we have been working our butts off trying to get promoted, get our degrees finished, and finalize our house purchase (Short sales=No fun for the buyer!).

Needless to say, we needed a bit of a release! After window shopping for around a hour (Okay...Maybe I got a dress and a sweater....And a big union jack trunk...) we were hungry and thirsty.

Because I am frugal, I always carry around a power bar in my bag. Also I carry round a reusable coffee cup (for car rides...Saves the $10 trip to Dunkin), and a bottle of water.

Nick was really REALLY hungry and decided he wanted some Chinese food. At $7 for a plate, its kinda pricey I think! So instead of both getting one $7 meal, we split it. It was very easy to do and the staff at the establishment did not mind one bit. It saved us from having to both buy a plate and a drink. We shared my water and were pretty full after. I think chewing the food slowly, and drinking water between each bite really helped us stay full.


Another piece of news yesterday... I got Tonsilitus...AGAIN! I get this around 5 times a year and the ENT doctors still wont remove them. It drives me insane, but I guess they are there for a reason.
After a panicked call to my sister in law, we got a antibiotic script called in to our local grocery store.
Now, this grocery store has a deal where some Prescription Antibiotics are FREE. You heard that, FREE!
I got a 14 day supply and it made me feel great not having to spend more money.

However, today we have blown the budget. We just brought some storage trunks to keep our stuff in before we move. They are pricey but so useful... We managed to get up to 50% off each one by shopping around. I am still tempted to go back and get the BIGGEST one there. We have a lot of stuff that needs to be stored...

Well that's my random entry for today. I feel kinda worn out being sick, so this article is kinda all over the place.

Happy Leftover Day!

It also happens to be "Black Friday" but since the blog is about food, I thought this subject was more apt.

I work at an electronics store, and today was HUGE for us, so we were working solid for about eight hours helping customers. We opened at 5:00 am, had people working at 2:00 am. Since it was so busy, the company bought us breakfast and lunch. Breakfast was coffee (desperately needed) and bagels with cream cheese. Lunch was ham sandwiches from the Honeybaked Ham Store, with chips and soda's and bottled water. Definitely beats the pants off of pizza, and way healthier.

Dinner was, of course, lots of leftovers. Turkey, stuffing, broccoli and potatoes (sweet and whipped). There was also blueberry and apple pies which were amazing yesterday, but the leftovers proved to be too filling. I might sneak out for a midnight slice, but the tryptophan in the turkey will probably freeze me in place for the night.

The dog also had thanksgiving leftovers... If Katie didn't mention it before, we found a can of wet dog food that was basically the doggie version of thanksgiving dinner including turkey, potatoes and other treats. He's a tiny little guy so he didn't eat it all, so the leftovers were chilled and he had them today.

The meal was originally pretty costly as far as dinners go with turkey and stuffing and several sides, but it was all put together by my mother and didn't actually cost us anything as far as I can recall.

Total cost for the day: $0.00

Happy Thanksgiving.

Getting ready to take the blog world by storm, coming up with a few more posting ideas. :)

A lot of people have expressed interest in this blog, and we seem to have a lot of non believers!

Today we are having a feast, and running it off later. Yesterday I (K) ran 4 miles and did 30 mins on the elliptical...As well as some free weights. 900kcal total, just to get ready for today. Hopefully tonight I can get in some Plyometrics and cross training.

The key to this $20 a week journey is planning. At the start of the week we will show you what we are buying, what our plan was, and our food shopping trip. We will do a blog, youtube video, and a podcast. So every week you can follow along. Its going to be fun, and a great way to save money.

People are wondering what exactly we are going to do with the money, firstly, we are going to put some in to a 401K. Secondly, we are going to be improving the house we are hopefully buying, and working on our goal to have it paid in 9 years.

Eventually, I would like to get health insurance too. As a sufferer from Crohn's disease, it would be great to eventually be insured.

We are very lucky to have family and friends supporting us through this journey, and people have to realize we cannot eat out anymore. We are going to be the most annoying people for the entire year! But hey! We got a point to prove in todays economy.

What else was there..... This is a very unplanned blog post!

Oh yes! We are kicking the soda habbit. Only teas and water for a year. :) I wonder how that will feel... Another thing is that we will be working on 3 books on eating cheap and cooking. There are so many cookbooks, but none address the cost factor.

So this weeks goal for my reader:
Get your spice cabinet organized. Spices are the key to "Spicing it up!" Haha! They are essential to making food interesting.

Ask for a slow cooker for Christmas, and also some food storage containers.

Think of 10 goals you would like to accomplish next year. Write them down, and stick to them. Put them on the mirror. Put them on the fridge, and put them on your door!

Find your local farmers marker too. This is essential to eating cheap.
We will also start planing vegetables once we are in the new house.

That's it for now!

What are we doing in the run up to new year?

After a huge freak-out about a car insurance payment last night, we have decided to start a little bit early. Just trying to get in to some better habits.

We are currently going through gas/petrol like crazy. With 2 jobs each and college it’s almost at $40 a week for both of us. Which I know is great compared to some large truck's gas... But these cars are tiny!
 

So, how do I lower the amount I spend on Gas?

1. Take out any extra weight in the car. I know I am the worst at this... I carry round a set of kettlebells for my job!
2. Use cruise control. It’s easy to flick on and off again, and it actually saves a lot of Gas. I love CC!
3. Turn of the engine when waiting. Especially if Nick is late out of class. If its hot or cold, open a window or wrap up!
4. Stop revving your engine... Especially young boys. Its just not cool.
5. Use higher octane gasoline if your engine allows it.
6. Take good care of your car. Do a once weekly check on your engine, tires and clean it out! This is something I do every Sunday morning. I also do a lot of repairs myself. There are so many good videos on you tube to watch about fixing cars. 
7. Make sure you have some good tires, and that they are replaced when they need to be. The pressure in the tire needs to be kept at the recommended limit too.
8. Drive at the speed limit. This helps us out a lot with the Gas limit. It also helps us to be safe.
9. Turn off the A/C when you don't need it.
10. Buy half a tank instead of a whole tank. That weight adds up eventually!

I hope this helps some people. We will be starting up a podcast soon. 

 (Hopefully next year our insurance is lower...)