34 Weeks

We have 6 weeks left until the due date! It’s amazing to think that in 6 weeks we will have a baby boy in our arms that we are completely responsible for! What a blessing and a gift from God!

Paxton is still quite active…I keep thinking he should be running out of room and slowing down his movements but that’s not the case! He is most active at night and thankfully I can fall asleep even while he is kicking and moving all around! Monday night I was cuddled up to John David and he told me he felt him moving on his back and that it was almost like the baby was inside of him! How amazing for him to experience that (while I was asleep!)

I still feel amazing, I’ve actually been sleeping a lot better the past few nights! I don’t sleep through the night but I’ve only had to get up once and I am able to get back to sleep very easily! I am so thankful for this!

I don’t have any bad aches and pains but I have noticed that for the past 2-3 days my feet have been hurting, I’m attributing that to the fact that my feet are carrying around 20 extra pounds and it’s getting a bit stressful for them! I now take more frequent breaks and sit down and prop my feet up!

This Sunday we attended a Breastfeeding Class at our hospital! I’m glad we took the class so we know that there may be challenges with breastfeeding in the beginning as well as know the proper techniques. I’m also thankful that our hospital is very much pro-breastfeeding and they have several lactation consultants! The two we met have been wonderful!

I’ve started my hospital packing list and plan to begin assembling things in my labor bag over the weekend! I just want to be ready when the time comes and not forget any of the comforts of home!

We still haven’t decided on Paxton’s middle name! We have it narrowed down but just haven’t made the official decision! I suppose we’ll know in 6 weeks what we are naming him!!

I’ve done as much nesting as I can do in the nursery for now! We have 2 showers next weekend and after those I will be able to fully complete the nursery and have everything organized and ready for our son’s arrival!

Appliqué Onesie

Making an appliqué onesie is a really simple way to make a plain onesie  pretty and personalized! In January our neighbors had their second daughter. Since she was their second daughter, they didn’t have many needs for this baby girl so I decided to make her an appliquéd onesie with her initial on it.

This was my very first attempt at appliqué and it is far from perfect but I do think it turned out pretty cute.

The first step was finding a font that I liked. Once I found it, I printed it out and cut the letter out to use as my pattern.

Then I placed my pattern on the fabric I chose and cut the letter out.

Once the letter was cut out, I pinned it to the onesie and then sewed around the edges! (Sewing around the edges on the machine with the small onesie was a bit tricky for me but patience is the key!)

Here is a close up! It is far from perfect because my ‘M’ is a little lopsided! I decided to leave the edges unfinished so they would become ragged!

It was simple and cute because it is personalized! Now, I just need to get crafty and make my son his own appliqué onesie!!

Stocking Up on Meat

One of the ways I stretch our grocery budget is by stocking up on meat when I catch it on sale or marked down as a Manager’s Special at Kroger.

My rule is to not pay more than $1.99/pound for meat. Kroger frequently runs their pork loins and boneless skinless chicken breasts for $1.99/pound and when they do I stock up!

When I find meat that has been marked down, I also stock up! It is wonderful because it is often marked down less than $1.99/pound!

Monday I stopped by Kroger to pick up pork loin at $1.99/pound and split chicken breasts at $.99/pound and found several other items marked down!

Pork Loin 5.10 pounds @ $1.99/lb=$10.15

Ground Beef 5.36 pounds @ $1.59/lb=$8.52

Pork Steak 2.70 pounds @ $1.59/lb=$4.29

Split Chicken Breasts 3.09 pounds @$.99/lb=$3.06

Ground Pork 1.23 pounds @ $1.31/lb=$1.61

Oscar Meyer Bacon 3 pounds=$2.98

(@$2.99 each

$8.97 for 3-$2.99 (FREE coupon)-$1.oo off 2=$4.98

Received $2 off my next order for purchasing 3 Oscar Meyer Bacons

Total after coupons & $2 off coupon=$2.98 or $.99 each!)

20.48 pounds of meat for $30.61 (that averages out to about $1.49/lb, I’m really happy with that!!)

I divided the meat to put in the freezer and ended up dividing it into 27 different portions which will be 27 meals for John David and me!

I also picked up a few other items while I was in Kroger using coupons:

Pringles ($1.25-$.35 doubled)=$.55

Wesson Vegetable Oil ($2.80-$1.00)=$1.80

Orbit Mist ($1.00-$.50 doubled)=FREE

McCormick Taco Seasoning @$.89 each ($1.78-$.50 doubled)=$.78/$.39 each

Dawn Pure Essentials ($1.99-$.50 doubled)=$.99

Total spent at Kroger: $39.69 and I have $2 off my next order to use!!

Stocking up on meat when I find it on sale really helps me to stretch our dollars on our $160/month grocery budget!

Creamy Ranch Pork Chops

This is a really simple and really delicious pork chop main dish!

Ingredients:

1 tsp vegetable oil

4 boneless, pork chops (I cut mine in half!)

1 can cream of mushroom

1/2 soup can milk

1/2 package ranch salad dressing mix

rice

Heat oil in skillet over medium-high heat. Add the pork and cook until it’s browned.

Mix together soup, milk and 1/2 package of salad dressing. Pour into the skillet and heat to a boil. Reduce heat to low.

Cover and cook 10 minutes.

Serve over rice!

This is delicious and easy!! With the 8 (half) chops, we had this for dinner twice and leftover for lunch twice!!

Linked to: Tasty Tuesday and Tempt My Tummy Tuesday

Bring Your Lunch

A great way to save money when traveling or when you are out in town for the day is to bring your lunch with you! We are on a limited grocery and eating out budget and spending $10 here and $8 there on fast food and eating out while we are on the go adds up quickly and is not feasible on our budget!

So, what is the solution? Bring your lunch!!

Saturday we attended Pod Camp Nashville 2010 in downtown Nashville! It was a free conference and we found a $5 parking lot a block away from the conference but we couldn’t justify spending $10 each on lunch at the conference!

Instead we packed our drinks (water & sweet tea) and stopped by Kroger on the way to Nashville!

Here’s what we purchased:

1 loaf of bread: $.78

Pimento Cheese spread: $2.50

Vinegar & Salt Chips: $1.79

Total (with tax): $5.46

Of course we only ate half of the pimento cheese spread and chips and less than half a loaf of bread so our lunch was only about $2.73 which saved us $17.27 (compared to purchasing lunch at the conference)!!

I realize it’s not a healthy lunch but it can’t be any worse than burgers and fries from a fast food place!

One of my favorite homemade on the go meals to make is a simple Chicken Salad! It’s so easy to make and pack for a frugal meal when we’re out! Serve it on homemade bread with an apple and you have a very frugal, healthy homemade lunch that saves you money!!

We’re definitely going to bring our lunch more often when we’re on the go. A little bit of planning can really save a lot of money which can make a big impact on your budget!

Do you bring your lunch with you when you are away from home? If so, what are some of your favorite meals to bring?

Meal Plan, Week of March 8

My meal plan is somewhat the same as last week’s because we didn’t get around to eating a few meals! We were blessed to go over to friends for dinner Friday night, Saturday we got home late and had cereal for dinner and last night we were again blessed when friends took us out for dinner!

Here is this week’s simple meal plan:

Breakfasts:

Country Ham & Cheese Biscuits, Cereal, Apples, Oranges

Lunches:

Leftovers

Dinners:

Monday- Fried Chicken Legs with Mashed Potatoes and Gravy and Broccoli

Tuesday-Cheeseburger Soup

Wednesday- Leftover Soup

Thursday- Traveling

Friday- Potato Soup

Saturday- Homemade Pizza

It’s definitely a frugal and simple meal plan this week! I’m keeping it simple because lately by dinner time I’m tired and don’t feel like cooking!!