My dad picked pears from the tree at my Grandma's house last week.  Today I canned them.  It took a couple of hours but I ended up with 10 quarts and three pints of pears.  These will be great this winter.  These pears are really hard and the only good way to eat them is to cook them.

Aren't they pretty!  I am hoping for another batch to can up.  If I get another batch that might be enough for the  winter.  I have plenty of greens beans, squash, and salsa for the winter.  I am going to do a batch of applesauce if I can get apples cheap enough.  I love having fresh canned fruits and veggies around in the winter.  They taste so much better than what you can get at the store.

Aldi shopping

Well, with a quick trip to the beach and baby sitting all week I just made a quick trip to Aldi to get some stuff we needed for the week.  They had hamburger and hotdog buns for .25 cents a pack and milk for $2.25 a gallon.  I shouldn't need to go out again until next week, unless I make a trip to publix tonight to get some sale items.  It will have to depend on my stamina by then.  Here is a picture of what I got.

I spent around $63.00.  Not too bad!

Beach Snack Foods

Well, I told myself that I would not spend any money at the beach except for gas, but when we got here I realized that we needed a few more supplies than I imagined.  My parents are on a low carb diet, which has been great for their heath, but doesn't really work for a bunch of kids.  There were no crackers or chips to have with lunch, nothing for the kids to snack on, and no bottles of water.  The water here is really gross (Florida water), so that was mostly a need.  The kids also love shrimp, and taking them out to dinner at a seafood restaurant will cost an arm and a leg, so I went to a local place and got 5 pounds of shrimp to cook tonight.  The shrimp was $20.00 and and the trip to Wal-Mart was $40.00.  I will just take the difference from my food budget for next week.  I have plenty of supplies at home and will only need mild and some fruit this week.  We will just make a trip to Aldi on Wednesday.  Well, we are going to the beach.  Bye and happy Sunday!

Weekend trip

The kids and I decided last night to make a long weekend trip to the beach.  My grandparents bought the beach house in the 1960's.  My grandma is 95 and doesn't go to the beach anymore.  My parents spend alot of time there and asked up to join them this weekend.  I did go shopping and spent $30 at publix and $50 at Walmart.  Some of the Walmart money were videos to watch in the car and some candy to eat on the way.  Anyhow, I still stayed within my $100 for the week.  We will probably buy some shrimp at the beach and cook it.  We are not going out or buying anything extra while we are gone. 

When we travel we will bring out big cooler and fill it with drinks and snacks.  It saves a ton of money to not have to stop at a convenience store.  We will stop and get fast food, but we don't buy drinks and share fries so it is not that bad.  When we travel we always stay where there is a kitchen, or we camp and cook over the fire or the camp stove.  It is so much cheaper for us to rent a cabin or a condo and cook then to rent two hotel rooms and have to go out.

Have a good and safe weekend.  May the Lord bless you!

Glad for Friday

I am glad tomorrow is Friday and I only have one little baby here tomorrow.  I need to go to the grocery store, so I will post a picture tomorrow of what I bought and how much I paid.  I have only spent the $18 I showed you this week, so I should have plenty to spend to get what we need.  Well, we gotta to Wal-mart to get some note cards.

My favorite money saving book.

I guess the book that made the biggest difference in the way that I view frugality and saving money is the Tightwad Gazette.  She embraces frugal living, does some very innovative things to save money.  Now, I am not saying that I do everything that she does in the book, see does some really far out stuff, but I thing she has many good tip and recipes.  It is a book full of resources, that I tend to refer back to time and time again.  I have the link to the book on by sidebar, just in case you are interested in purchasing one.

Cleaning

I have been trying to clean this morning while the baby naps and now I am taking a short break.  I really hate cleaning, but love having a clean house.  So, since I don't have a housekeeper or a fairy godmother I guess I have to clean it.  I got in Ashley's room and found mounds of laundry, a ton of trash, and who knows what else.  We just cleaned it right before school started and it is already that bad.  I have to take her phone away from her to get her to clean up that room.  Yuck!  I don't know how she can stand it!  I got her room vacuumed, the girl's room vacuumed, and then the playroom done.  I have folded one load of clothes and I have one in the dryer and one in the washer.  I can't get much done on the days I have all three little kids, so this works out great to get it done today.  Friday I want to go to town and go to the grocery store.

I am going to go to the school and eat lunch with Emma.  I try to do one lunch a week and rotate my elementary kids. Once thy get to the middle school lunch is out!  Evan had his turn last week.

I got off the hook for dinner tonight.  Our church is having it's kick off for the AWANA program tonight and are serving pizza.  I am going to have three teens that I have to feed because youth group in not included.  I think that I will just make them some grilled cheese and tomato soup.  Easy and quick.

Well, I guess that I better make me a sandwich and pack my lunch and bring a bottle for Collin.  He is usually a pleasant baby, but don't feed him and watch out.  Have a pleasant day unto the Lord!