Shepherd's Pie - Yummy and Affordable

I made this for tonight's dinner and put it in the fridge so tonight when it gets close to dinner time, all I have to do is put it in the oven and... ta da! We like to have this with corn bread. Yummy!

1 can green beans
1 can tomato soup
4 cups potatoes
1 lb ground beef
1-2 cups shredded cheese

Brown hamburger and put in casserole dish, then put green beans, and tomato soup in casserole dish and mix together. Add potatoes and top with cheese. Bake @ 350 for 30 minutes or until cooked through.

* I use Idahoan potato packages for the potatoes, Great Value green beans, tomato soup, shredded cheese, and ground beef from Walmart.

The approximate cost to make shepherd's pie, based on the brands I buy, is $8.66. Plus the Jiffy corn muffin mix is 50 cents. We get approximately 5-6 servings out of this recipe, therefore this meal is $1.44 a serving besides the cost of the corn bread. This also reheats well and makes good leftovers.

Food Budget

How much do you spend on groceries per week? Our budget is $100 per week for three of us. My goal when I grocery shop is around $75. By groceries, I'm not only talking about food. I also include hygiene products, cleaner, paper towels, toilet paper, etc. Things that you need that you regularly have to buy. This last grocery trip was $93.26. 75% of it was hygiene items, pull-ups, dishwasher soap, clorox wipes, etc. I only needed a few things that were actually food.

I plan out our meals for the week, and buy groceries accordingly. I recently was trying to figure out how to work occasional dining out or take-out to our budget without changing what we're allowed to spend in the given month. I decided that if I don't spend the allotted $100 on groceries for the week and only spend....$75? That gives me $25 to spend on dining out or take-out. That way we have it included in our budget already and don't have to "work it in." But.... no cheating! Don't spend less on groceries in order to allow more eating out.. no, no, no! The point is to make your budget work and buy responsibly when it comes to food.


How do you budget when it comes to groceries and/or eating out?

Wedding Invititation

Do you want to preserve your wedding  invitation or maybe a wedding invite of a friend or family member? Scrapbook it!

Greeting Cards

Buy cards from the dollar store instead of the store you tend to buy greeting cards from. I save at least $3 on every card I buy from the dollar store. I also buy many at once, saves time, money, gas (driving back again later) and of course, stress. I have a drawer that is full of cards, all kinds of cards. Birthday, anniversary, thank you, christmas, blank, get well, wedding, baby, and thinking of you cards. I am prepared! can I just say that?  Prepared and saving money! Woo woo!

Colors

Colors often affect the way I scrapbook in two ways:
1. Choose a few photos that have similar backgrounds and colors.
2. Choose one to three colors that are in your photos that you intend on using on your page. These colors can be colors that are very dominant in the photos or is a small part of the photo. Use these colors as your theme for your page. Take inspiration from the very photos you are using. Is one color used very little? Use that color a little and not a lot on the page or vise versa, use a color that used little and make it the main color of your page. Below are a few of my examples.

Purple is in the bouquet, I used the purple very little, the blue of the water is reflected as the main color on the page and is the color of the words used on the page.

This real bouquet that I had on my wedding day has bright pink roses, I used it as an accent color and inspiration on this page and the black of his suit for the main color.

This page uses quite a few colors that are in the photos, the tan dock, the green(s) in the background, the purple in the bouquet. All these colors are in the photos and compliment the background of the photos as well as making my white dress stand out on the page.

Letters to Baby

Congratulations! You have a bun in the oven! Buy a notebook. I bought one with a simple pattern on the cover. Write letters to your baby. I think I wrote about every week. I said how I was feeling, how I was excited I was, what was developing at the time, how far along I was, and anything else that related. Always date it. Once we found out the gender and picked out a name, I addressed the letters to her instead of just baby. I think it will be a treasured item as she grows up and might come in handy during those dreaded teenage years.

Hair Clip Holder

Hair Clip Holder. This is a cute way to decorate your little girl's room and to easily store hair clips. No digging in containers. Its also convenient to have in her room because at the end of the night, when I am getting her ready for bed, I can slip it out of her hair and clip it on the hanging ribbon.

Gift Tub/Tote

Gift Tub/Tote

This is or should I say these are... our gift tub/totes.
We are very much into being prepared for things. We have specific tubs specifically for storing gifts that we have bought ahead of time. We have three because we're currently preparing for holidays (mother's day, father's day, etc), birthdays,and Christmas for extended family . It saves us money, time and stress to be able to buy things throughout the year ahead of time and know exactly where we stored them. It may be important to mention that we don't wrap things before putting them in the gift tub.

Weekly Meal Planning

I plan our meals for the week every Monday. I don't always make the meal on the day that I planned. When I write out my grocery list, I figure out what meals I want to make that week and list all the ingredients I don't have on hand and the amount I need for the recipe if its produce. We've had no problem being within our budget ever since I started planning our meals out and buying groceries according to it. We used to go grocery shopping, come home and then couldn't figure out what we could make with what we had. Sound familiar?


*This also helps us know how old leftovers are, if we had a meal on a different day than I had originally planned, then I cross out the meal and write out the one we had and write the one we should have had on the day that other meal was listed.No more guessing if it's too old to eat!

Active Grocery List

Active Grocery List

Always have a grocery list on your fridge, even if its blank and doesn't have anything on it yet. When you notice you're running low on something, simply write it on the list. Therefore, you won't forget to put it on the grocery list later when you're preparing to go grocery shopping.

Our Recipe Book

This is our recipe book. Its just a three ring binder. It holds all of our favorite recipes. All the recipes are typed up and printed out with a picture. You are more likely to want to cook something if you have a picture of it!

There's four categories dividing the recipes into sections. They include: appetizers, main dish, sides, and desserts. 

Each page consists of only one recipe for simplicity. How many times have you been reading a recipe accidentally kept looking at the wrong recipe? I also write whether or not this makes good leftovers and if its a good meal for when we have family over.

Tiny Crochet Butterflies

Tiny Crochet Butterflies. I made some of these small butterflies, hot glued them to hair clips and added "sprays" that I got from Michaels. I made one without the sprays and just slip stitched a several times and wrapped it around the center and slip stitched it to secure it in place to make the antennas and center. My little girl loves to wear them in her hair and I'm always being asked if I made them. They are really easy and quick to make. I got this pattern from a youtube video that I included at the end of this post. Happy crocheting!


Use the thinnest crochet thread hook

chain 10, join. 

chain 2 (2 chains will count as one of the single crochets), 2 single crochets, chain 2 repeat – 3 single crochets, chain 2. Make 8 sets (chain 2 spaces – sets), connect last one with closest chain with a slip stitch.

Go in to the next one and slip stitch, 1 single crochet. Double crochet into same chain, half treble crochet in same hole, double crochet same hole, single crochet into same hole. Repeat pattern in each chain 2 space so you have 8 scallops total. Slip stitch closest chain, cut yarn and pull. Add spray and ribbon.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTzvnOxGKjo&feature=related

Baby Shower Cards

 Have baby shower cards that are too cute to throw away? Use them to scrapbook your newborn or baby shower pictures! They are a great way to preserve the adorable cards you received. It saves you spending money on embellishments and provides a great way to enjoy them without storing an extra shoebox that will never see the light of day.