day 171 - homework desk

over the summer i mentioned that the boys and i were working on a homework station. here are the results of our effort now that pics are all loaded on the computer.

before:

after:

it amazes me what a little paint, fabric and fun can do for a spot. the fabric on the wall is a covered cork board. the 2 things on the side are pieces of wood with a clothes pin attached to display awesome school work or artwork. everyone has one with their name on it. it's fun.

who says you have to skimp on the good stuff?

going from just 2 people to 6 people has been a huge adjustment for our budget. and i probably get more questions about how we keep food in our house with 4 growing boys over any other question. and honestly the only real answer is God. as much fun as i have with all my bargain shopping i humbly come before God asking him to guide me and lead me so that i may serve my family and be a good steward of what he has given us. when you surrender your budget to the Lord he somehow provides more than you could ever imagine. and he doesn't skimp either. people always ask "if you buy store brand it is SOOOO much cheaper." and i agree that store brand is cheaper than regular price for a name brand. but when i have a coupon, it's BOGO and i get money back (making it practically free) why would i NOT buy it. here is a few random pics of what my food storage looks like (this is at the end of our week before i grocery shop on monday).

this is my little pantry i got for mother's day. it doesn't really hold much but it is great for canned goods and a few everyday foods.

i try to keep only food that is currently open and we eat on a regular basis in our cabinets (we only have 2 cabinets with food because we are so low on storage space in our kitchen).
the space above my cabinets is my storage. i keep my stockpile up here. you can see i have tons of cake mixes, ketchup, mac & cheese, juice, pasta and a few other things. most everything on this shelf i either got for free or less that $1 a piece. it's nice to know i always have something on hand. you can also see that most of the stuff on the shelf is name brand stuff.
one of my favorite steal-of-a-deal is shampoo and body wash. now, i know there are a lot of really cheap shampoos and soaps out there but they all stink or don't do a very good job. so i love that i can get my favorite $8 bottle of shampoo or body wash for about $.25 each. this is my small section of toiletries (10 bottles of body wash, 4 bottles shampoo, 12 sticks of deodorant, 2 bottles of dish soap, and the new lysol hand soap thingie). this has all been accumulated in the past month since after the flood we were able to give all our stocked up toiletries to people who needed them. everything on this shelf was less that $.50 each.
one awesome surprise we got this week was my parents dropping of a stack of groceries. my mom hit up a food lion going out of business and everything was 60% off. way to go mom! here is what she got for us!

i've added a few buttons on the side of blogs that i use to help me keep my food/toiletries budget under control. if you have any questions please feel free to comment or email. i'm more than happy to share more specifics of how i can save so much!

grocery shopping for 6

buying groceries for a family of six is going to be a huge adjustment for me. i've spent that past year perfecting our grocery budget and can spend only about $30 a week on groceries. that is including all our toiletries and cleaning supplies and even stocking up on diapers. well with have 5 males in the house that $30 might only buy meat for the week.

i'm a huge coupon fanatic and follow several different blogs that help me get the most of out of my shopping trip. blogs like moneysavingmom.com and faithfulprovisions.com and southersavers.com. these blogs are fantastic and help me match my coupons to the sale items. it is very rare that i ever pay full price for anything. and my average cost per item is about $.50 an item. it's like a game to me and it actually is a huge stress reliever for me to go grocery shopping.

so how do you shop for a family of 6 with 5 of those being males that could each eat you out of house and home? i'm learning alot about nutrition and what will make them full but still be good for them. since i still have a little time before they move home permanently i'm trying to stock up on some items when they go on sale. these boys will eat anything you put on their plates so i'm stocking up on anything i can. i have several vegetables and sauces i have chopped and put in the freezer for different meals. this past week publix had pasta on sale for about $.50 plus my coupons so i got several boxes for the pantry.

however, even with all the preparation i'm trying to do i'm having to release myself from my $30 a week challenge. i'm not saying that i'm going to buy everything in the store. but i do want my kids to have plenty to eat and to have healthy food choices. it's totally worth the money. so i'll keep stocking up on cereal, granola bars, pasta, muffin mixes, crackers, popcorn, and everything else while i anxiously await the larger grocery bills that are in my near future.