FFF- Frugal Food Feburary :)

After hearing on the radio that this family paid off their $100,000 debt in 6 months, I was wondering if we could pay off Andy's PT debt. in 8 months. (28,000) After briefly thinking about it, probably not. Apart of me wants to make some radical changes to make it happen, but the other part of me doesn't want to become an obsessed, no fun, always worrying, crazy woman.
However, there is one thing that I've been feeling like I need to become a better steward with... FOOD. Most of you know how the Bishop's roll in this category! We be lov'n LOTSA food. So to think about cutting back in this area makes my eye brows crinkle! Those of you know me well, know I'm already getting my first wrinkle in this area!
I'm a planner, I usually plan out our meals on Sunday and make my grocery list for the week. I usually plan on one meal out a week (date night) and usually 2 nights of leftovers. (sometimes another if Kampmans give us theres!) So here's my goals this month...

1. Look at the grocery adds (Thanks Rachelle!)
   
2. Plan cheap meals (good bye bagged lettuce, unless on sale of course)
   
3. If we go out to eat for date night, we can only use gift cards that we have or that we can use our discover reward $ for.

So there's my plan... Will I stick to it? I hope so! That's part of the reason I'm writing it down!
I'm also going to use this as my planner and share if your interested in joining me on cutting your food bill. All you Iowa City folk, feel free to shop the deals along with me, or use the meals I plan. Maybe in the future we can work together you can shop the ads, plan the menu, and share it with me :)
after each day, I gave some comments in RED
Monday- Pork Roast Recipe- Hy-vee .99 lb. 3 day sale only through Sunday. So hurry! With bread and butter
ahhh, nothing special. I mean it was OK, but the Pork Roast was very fatty! Not impressed!
Tuesday- Leftovers Still have a lot of the pork leftover because we had lots of snacks at Dr. Wenzel's surprise birthday party. Andy had the pork but I ended up having a whole wheat tortilla with PB, honey, and banana after the party. Pork just didn't sound good.
Wednesday- Junior High Pizza Party-(Buying it for my 7 players) Which changes the budget a little. Bummer... oh well they deserve it. As long as they win on Monday and Tues!
Leftover Pizza from party.. add a side salad Guess what! The girls bought it for us :)
Thursday- Breakfast for supper! (pancakes and eggs) didn't have- leftovers again!
Friday- date night (gift card to.. Applebees)
Saturday- Kathy's Whole Chicken in slow-cooker Hy-vee .77 lb. Again only until Sunday.... add some veggies and rice (lostsa leftovers hopefully, freeze some for casseroles?) Awesome! I really liked this! I made it with steamed carrots and rice that I made with some of the marinade from the chicken. A little bit of a hassle with the whole chicken, but worth it for the cost and the leftovers! Will make again!
Sunday- grilled cheese and tomatoes soup- leftover Applebees :) for lunch and snacks at perspectives for supper!

Sunday- Hy-vee List
Whole Chicken
Pork Roast
5 for $1 Kiwi
Carrots 2 bags for 1.49
yogurt- 10 for $5 Yoplait
dishwand thing (here's a question for a comment... Do you use one of these, or are you old fashioned dish cloth, or ?) What's cleaner, seems nasty when I think about this? Anybody?

Farewary Monday morning
Cottage Cheese .88
broccoli .99
oranges- 4 for $1
potatoes- 5 lbs. $1.29
sweet potatoes
sugar
lemons (2)

There you have it! We'll see how well I stick to my list! I'll try to resist the snack mixes! Until next week... check out the good deals at fareway.... Mom; notice the wieners are only $.45! It's a sign!


Anybody know what pet milk is? weird!

Back in the blog world

Well after a month of not reading other peoples blogs and not updating ours, I think I'm ready to dive in again. So for today here's a random update of our last month! I know Christmas seems like so long ago!

Kriener Christmas

Got to St. Ansgar earlier than expected on the 23rd because of the projected snow storm that was supposed to be coming. It was a nice change of pace because so often we feel like we can't settle there because we are going to 4 different Christmas's in 2 days but it was so refreshing to sit and relax and have good quality time with my family for Zander's first Christmas! Our extended family was supposed to come on Christmas Eve, but with the projected storm we instead enjoyed a nice intimate meal with just us and instead of going to Christmas Eve service

we had our own house church as we read about Jesus birth, then finished the night watching The Nativity Story. This was so valuable and precious to me! The next morning was also a treat as we watched old home videos and attempted to start transfering them to DVD. (This will take a bit longer than originally expected!) But a good goal for the future! I love

Bishop Christmas

We celebrated the week after Christmas with Andy's side of the family. Even though it was a week later it still felt like our typical laid back Bishop Christmas that we have always loved and appreciated! Looks kinda like this... talk over 4 cups of coffee, stay in our PJ's until noon, eat breakfast, play games the rest of the day. (maybe watch a movie or do a p90x workout in there) But bottom line its always so relaxing!

Random January-

Andy and I started the year off by taking a little retreat as we spent some great time with God indivually and together seeking what He would have for 2010. It was reviving to the soul (Psalm 19:7) We are pursuing opportunites but take comfort in Proverbs 19:21- Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the LORD that will stand.

On the 17th of this month we celebrated Andy's Birthday. Bishop style of course, ALL weekend! Started off on Friday going out in Cedar Rapids to the Piano Lounge listening to some live music with some great high school friends. Then on Saturday I surprised Andy by renting some snow shoes. A big bummer was I started to feel sick as I was running a fever. :( My parents and his both came to celebrate, and the next day I had a surprise party for him at the Pizza Ranch with some of our friends!

Hard to believe how fast January went!