Monthly Grocery Shopping/Budget

This system has worked pretty well for me the last few years.  In fact, if I don't use it, I end up wandering around the grocery store not having a clue what to buy!
So here goes:
The first thing I do is get out a plain 4x6 notecard.
I write out our menu for the week on it.  I usually shop on Mondays which is why you will see Monday to Monday on my card.  This is actually not a card, it's poster board with a huge version of my card on it! (I taught a class and had to make it big enough for everyone to see.)

 I try to write down what activities we may have going on that night (In green) so that I can plan accordingly.  If I'm going to be running around in the evening, I may try to plan for something in the crockpot or something easy the kids can make. (Just FYI...I don't actually color code my real notecards...)


On the flip side of the notecard I make my grocery lists.  I usually go to three stores.  Sprouts for most of my produce, Walmart for all the little stuff and Sams for all the big stuff.  Next to each item I write the estimated price of that item.  I always round up.  In this scenario I only wanted to spend $125.00. I add up each list and put the total at the bottom.  Then if my total is too much, which it obviously was, ($153) I start with the Sams side first.  I start eliminating bulk items that I can get smaller items of at Walmart for cheaper.  Then I add those things to the Walmart list.(In Green)  Then I start to eliminate things that I may not be in absolute need of or can substitute something else at home in it's place.(I wasn't totally out of flax and I can use milk this week in smoothies instead of coconut water.)  I then add up my totals again until I get to the number I want.
Remember I rounded up.  This covers any tax I might have and always give me enough room if something wasn't exactly the price I had put down.  (produce can especially be hard to estimate)
I also do price match at Walmart for things like milk.  But I pretty much never use coupons.  I don't have the patience.

This next part is how I pay for it all.  First, I always use cash.  We don't do well with credit cards, and no amount of rewards make up for the interest we end up paying.  So at the beginning of the month we take out $800 for grocery money.(Danny only gets paid once a month, so it's easy to take it out all at once.)  This covers everything in a normal grocery store; food, toiletries, cleaners, paper products.
This big card you are seeing represents a regular long letter sized envelope.  I divide the envelope into weeks and put my cash for the week into it. (I don't carry around a months worth of cash.)  So each week gets $200 for groceries.
The "other" category is for things like gifts, socks and underwear, (the kids pay for their own clothes except for socks and underwear) ink or office supplies, school pictures or fundraiser things etc... I have $60 per week in that category.
I put my cash and my grocery list into the envelope and head for the store.  At the store I just put the receipt into the envelope.  When I get home is usually when I write down how much I spent at the stores.
I always try to only "borrow" money from side to side, but never down the envelope.  I don't want to mess with next weeks cash.  Any left over money I might have at the end of the month we usually put into our vacation fund!  Since we love to travel and are always planning our next trip.  But use it for whatever you want or need.

 We try and use cash for everything.  We take a lot out every month and divide it into different envelopes.  We have one for Christmas, which is awesome because we always have Christmas completely saved for when it comes.  We have one for clothing for Danny and I and a bunch of other categories.
But if you like using your cards then this envelope is a great idea.  It helps you keep track of what you spend and where, with the receipts, so it's much easier to keep track of how much you are spending!
The hardest part of this system is sitting down and making out your menus.  If you don't want to have certain meals planned for certain days then just make sure you come up with 7 breakfasts, lunches and dinners.  Then you can still make whatever you are in the mood for, but you have all the food you need.  This is a must with large families.  Good luck!
Having trouble planning meals?  Try pinterest, 100DaysofRealFood.com and byutv/foodnanny.  My favorites!

Disney World 2014!

So, even though it has been a long time since I have posted on this blog, I thought this would be the best way to document our trip for all of our family and friends to see.  Enjoy. (Disclaimer: make yourself comfortable and get ready for some serious carpel tunnel scrolling down, because this is going to be a very long post!)

About six weeks before Fall Break, Danny and I had an epiphany that this could be the last time we would get to go on a big vacation as a family before Megan heads off to college in January.  We had gone to the temple that morning and then went out to lunch.  While we were sitting there we both felt strongly like we should take the kids to Disney World.  We have been to Disneyland a ton of times, but had never taken the kids to Florida...or on a plane for that matter.

Danny and I went to Disney World for our honeymoon, and since our 20th anniversary is coming up this spring we thought it would be awesome to celebrate with one last big hurrah as a family right back where it all began!

We had to plan fast though, and let me tell you, we lucked out big time!  We found awesome airfare, a great house to rent and super cheap car rental...which for eight people, nothing is ever cheap!
The big catch was that we wanted to surprise the kids. Oh, it was sooo hard!  We almost slipped and told them about a thousand times during that six weeks!  They kept begging to go to Disneyland over Fall Break and we just kept telling them no and that we couldn't afford it! Ha!

So, a few days before we left, I started secretly packing their things.  (Except for Jakes stuff.  I knew he would be the only one who noticed things were missing.) They were pretty darn clueless.
So, when the big day came, we told them we were going somewhere and they needed to pack a small bag with iPods, phones, maybe a book to read because it would take a little while to get there.  Then we started to drive.  As we headed toward the airport, the closer and closer we got, they started freaking out.  They were saying things like, "What in the world is going on you guys??" and "This better not be some kind of sick joke!"  They were so excited!  And Danny and I could barely keep from bursting out laughing!

They started to freak out even more when we parked in the long term parking and got their suitcases out of the back of the van!

Waiting for the shuttle.  You can tell by their faces that they were dying for us to tell them what was going on!

 We had to take the shuttle to the terminal and they were begging for us to tell them! (People on the shuttle got a kick out of our little scheme. I'm sure they were dying to know what was going on too..ok, maybe not, but one guy pulled me aside as we got off and had me tell him!)
Anyway, we checked our bags outside then took them in and sat them down.  Here is a little video of the big reveal. By the way, I meant to say surprise trips, not surprise children!

So, they finally knew and Danny and I could breathe a huge sigh of relief that we no longer had to hold in this ginormous secret! Of course after the video was over and we told them we would also be going to Harry Potter world at Universal Studios, there was A LOT more cheering!

Megan nanny's the cutest baby in the world at our house for one of the amazing teachers at the elementary school by us. (Monica Winkler's baby Emelia.)  We love their family so much.  Monica taught Maddie and Baylee in Kindergarten.  Anyway, before we left, she and her sweet husband had planned a little surprise of their own for us.  She gave me a gift bag and said not to open it until we told the kids where we were going.  After we told them we opened their gift.  Holy cow we were shocked! They had gotten all of us our own Disney gift cards to spend in the parks!

  Here is a picture of us with the cards!  Thanks you guys, they came in extremely handy!  Everyone got great souvenirs!  Love you guys!

Since our kids had never really been on a plane (except when they were babies riding alone with mom and dad..which of course they can't remember), we really wanted to be able to sit all together.  Danny talked to the guy working at the gate and they let us go on early so that we could find seats together. (Seriously love Southwest airlines!)

Is Chloe excited or what?

Checking out some really good looking boys on the plane!

Love these girls!

I sure wish I had a video of take off because Chloe let out the loudest, excited squeal the moment the plane left the ground.  Everyone on the plane started laughing!  I mean isn't that how we all feel when the plane leaves the ground?  We just don't feel free to express it like a six year old can!

So excited for take off!


Saying goodbye to the Colorado plains.  Beautiful.

My favorite part of flying.  When you get up above the clouds.

We didn't get to Florida until really late.  Then we had to take another shuttle to the car rental place.  We got an incredible deal on a 12 seater van for the week.  And by the time we got to our rental house we were exhausted, but so excited.  The house had four bedrooms, a pool in the back yard a big game room, and was about 10 minutes to the parks!  We would have had to get two hotel rooms with our crew, so we usually try to rent a house instead because it is about 1/4 of the cost for us!  Plus, it means we can eat at home a lot and not out so much.  Another $ and tummy saver!

Day 2

Universal Studios

We got up early and drove to Universal Studios!  For anyone who wants to go to Harry Potter, there are two Universal Parks.  Harry Potter is in both parks, so you have to get entrance into both.  Kinda lame because it is so pricey for a one day pass to both parks.  Luckily we had a friend of a friend of a friend who helped us out and got us deeply discounted tickets.  It was awesome!  Then when we got there, the lady at the ticket booth gave us an even bigger discount and an express pass so that we could walk onto one ride without waiting in line.  (Kinda like Disney's fast pass, only at Universal you have to pay extra for them.)

We passed everything in park and went straight to Harry Potter. Diagon Alley to be exact.

Danny carried Chloe on his shoulders like this for pretty much the entire trip.  We thought we were so awesome that we didn't need a diaper bag or a stroller anymore.  Unfortunately that meant that the six year old had to be carried a lot.  Danny ended up injuring his shoulder and it took a couple of weeks to heal.  We ended up renting a stroller the last day, and what do you know, that was Chloe's best and least whiney day!  Live and learn....rent a stroller!

The Knight Bus.  The little talking head hangs in there and actually talks to you!

                  

Grimauld Place....Creature is in the window.

To enter you go through the brick wall...so cool.  

This is what you see upon entering.  It's amazing.

Every detail from the movies and books is included.

 The Weasley's Joke shop.  Fun store.

Gringotts Bank

Mac bought a wand at Olivanders!

Here is a not so great video of Diagon Alley.  

(If you are viewing this on a phone or tablet you may not be able to see it.)

At the very end of the video you can hear the dragon start to growl.  I shut the camera off and then the dragon blew out fire and I missed it!  It just does it randomly, but it's pretty cool.  The heat is intense!

You can kind of see the dragon blowing out fire in this picture.

 Our first ride!  Escape From Gringotts.  So cool.  Just the line getting to the ride was awesome.

The ride itself was a bit intense.  Chloe pretty much closed her eyes the entire time.

Inside the bank.

                 

These goblins were so real!  They actually move and watch you.

This guy asks for the key to your vault.

The portraits actually talked to you.

 Knockturn Alley was creepy.  

We had lunch at The Leaky Cauldron...yum.

Bangers and Mash (Sausage, Vegies and Mashed Potatoes)

Some sort of chicken and bacon sandwich

Fish and Chips

The girls on Hagrid's bike.

After lunch we headed over to The Hogwarts Express. You have to take it to get to the other park and to Hogsmead and the castle.  It is a really cool ride.  When you are on the train your compartments look just like the movie.  When you look out the "window"  there are scenes of the English countryside, the forbidden forest, Hagrid flies by on his motorcycle, Fred and George fly by on their broomsticks and wave at you.  It's awesome.  On the trip back to Diagon Alley the scenes are different.  On the other side of the compartment you see shadows walk by your door of characters from the movie and you hear them talking, like Ron, Harry and Hermione.  So cool.

This is Jake's video of when we were going through the "wall" at platform 9 3/4.

Need I say more?

Did I say I didn't take a diaper bag?  And yet, I pretty much did.  We took turns carrying the bag with snacks, water bottles, wipes, hand sanitizer, tylenol for headaches (which we got), bandaids for blisters (which we got), maps to the parks, treasures they picked up on the way, and our endless supply of Jolly Ranchers to kill time in lines! And gum...lots of gum.

You weren't supposed to take pictures inside the train...oops.  (They were kinda strict about that.)

I was staring at the castle...it was dreamy.

Sights you see while in some of the lines.

 Hagrid's Hut

Lots of selfie's while waiting in line.

Seriously, what's with the leaf people?

I think this was the longest line we waited in all day.  50 minutes for a 1 minute ride.

Flight of the Hippogriff.

There is a ride inside the castle that is amazing!  It's kind of like a cross between the Indiana Jones ride and Star Tours.  Multi sensory craziness.  You are on it and riding around, but also watching on screens.  Can't even explain it. Dementors were sucking out Danny's soul...you get the drift. The lines were so cool too.  So much detail.  You are basically on a tour of the castle while in line. Google it.  I'm sure people have videos of it...even though they aren't supposed to. :)

Butter Beer...seriously out new favorite drink of all time.  Buttery, caramelly, creamy goodness.

And pumpkin juice!...it's like Thanksgiving in a bottle!  Genius!

The parks close early at this time of year which is kind of a bummer, but crowds were at a minimum which was a big plus!

Entrance to Hogsmead

Just lovely.

 We actually did do other things in the park that day, like Jurassic Park.

Pretty much got soaked on that one.  Fun ride though.

Interesting ride...I'm not really into guns being pointed at my face in 3D.

Lots more selfies.

I was the only one who got soaked on this one!

Lots of big roller coasters the boys (and Maddie) went on.

And last but not least...gotta take a picture with Jaws.  

We kinda wished we had just spent all of our time in Harry Potter.  The rest of the park was fine, but there was so much we still didn't even get to see in Harry Potter like some of the little shows.  And we should have had waaay more butter beer!  

Although the Despicable Me ride was darling.  I would highly recommend it for all ages!  Chloe's favorite.  That's the one we used our express passes for so we didn't have to wait 40 minutes.

Great day!  And the week was just beginning!

Day 3 

The Magic Kingdom

We spent the day here and came back three more times with our park hoppers throughout the week. It really is a magical place.  The only complaint that we had was that there were a lot less rides than at Disneyland, especially for the little kids.  They didn't have Snow White's Scary Adventure, Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, Pinocchio, The Story Book Ride, Casey Junior or Alice in Wonderland.  But it was still awesome.  

The whole park was decorated beautifully for Autumn and Halloween.  After Halloween it was amazing how fast they put up all the Christmas decorations.  When we went back to the park on Monday, November 3, there was no sign of fall.  Poinsettias were everywhere.  The whole park was transformed!

The evil step sister Anastasia sat behind us on the carousel.  She was actually really nice!

Some very funny street performers made us a part of their show.  

They kept calling us the Von Trapps!

Rapunzel's Tower

Danny took the little girls over to Tom Sawyer Island while the rest of us went on 

The Haunted Mansion

Don't you love how Chloe is wearing her pins? 

Our pictures on Buzz Lightyear.

You can pretty much read our thoughts.

Jake pretty much destroyed us all.

I have no idea what is going on here. But you can imagine how silly we all got.

When I was a kid, one of my favorite things was The Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse in Disneyland.  They turned it into The Tarzan Treehouse, which is also great, but it was really fun seeing the Swiss Family tree again after so many years.

As you can see from Chloe's face, this was the only time she rode Splash Mountain.  

What's funny is it was her favorite ride in Disneyland.  She rode it over and over.  I guess 6 year olds have a little more fear than 4 year olds.

The people in the back look terrified.  Our family...asleep.

Always trying to come up with something new.

I just liked the progression in these pictures.   

 

This picture is from our honeymoon.

Almost 20 years later!

Jake's sideways video of the teacups...ugh.

Beautiful!

Ended the night with this.  Our favorite parade.

Day 4 

Hollywood Studios

This was a fun park.  We saw a lot of shows!  Our favorite was the Frozen Sing-a-long.

It's really funny.  You can watch it on YouTube.  Check it out, it's great. We also saw the Indiana Jones stunt show, the Monster's Inc show, Beauty and the Beast.  There was a ton more that we didn't see.  Again, this time of year was great.  Not a lot of people.

At the gift shop after Indiana Jones.

The actual statue from the movie, Splash.

Scarlett Ohara's dress in Gone With the Wind

 Danny found this little secret corner where a bunch of the characters were hanging out.  We got to talk with them and take pictures without waiting in line!

Chloe and Baylee playing in the Frozen Playground snow.

Chloe looks a bit like Gollum here.

They insisted on playing here cause...you know...we don't ever get snow in Colorado!

Danny, Jake and Mac rode the Tower of Terror twice in a row.  The rest of us passed. 

Once was enough on my honeymoon.  I have an irrational fear of elevators falling.  

It's a little too real for me thank you very much!

Maddie braved The Rockin Rollercoaster twice with them as well.

In line for the Toy Story Ride.  

What is with these two?

Once again, Jake destroyed us!

Day 5
 EPCOT

Halloween!

On our honeymoon, EPCOT was my favorite part of the trip.  I love that it's entertaining and educational.  Now that we homeschool it is even more important to me.

I also loved visiting all of the different countries.  It really feels like you are there!

We decided to spend the morning there going on the rides, then go back to Magic Kingdom until it closed at 7:00, then go back to EPCOT in the evening when we knew no one could be there until it closed at 10:00.

We designed our own cars in the line of Test Track.  Super fun ride.

This was Megan and Maddie's car.

Mac and Jake's car

Chevy has a huge display of cars when you get off Test Track. So of course the boys were in heaven.

Back to the Magic Kingdom

I loved Liberty Square. It's kind of like New Orleans Square in Disneyland.

The buildings were beautiful.

Matching Halloween shirts.

Chloe was so sad we didn't stay for Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party.

But we didn't want to spend another $500 to trick-or-treat in the park.

More Space Mountain

More Splash Mountain

Funny kids

Here are a couple of videos of us on Splash Mountain.

The castle and lighting on Main Street changed colors every few minutes!

We headed back to EPCOT.  We were right, there was no one there, but unfortunately it got pretty cold.  We shut the park down and left at around 11:00.

Norway

Italy

Danny on our honeymoon!

Danny, almost 20 years later!

One of my only regrets from the trip was that we just used our phones and iPods to take pictures.  I didn't want to lug my nice camera around.  But it sure would have come in handy, especially for the nighttime pictures.  Oh well.

 France

The ceiling inside of a beautiful pagoda in China...or was it Japan?

We were watching the fireworks show and decided to get a couple of funnel cakes to share...because they are about $7 each and while we were eating them, the lady who sold them to us came and found us and gave us a free one.  I know that seems like not that big of a deal, but things like that kept happening during the whole trip.  It was so awesome!  We felt like little angels were watching over us.  It was great.

Day 6

Animal Kingdom

We had a good time here, but it was freezing!  After being in 85 degree heat and humidity all week, it dropped down to the 40's that morning.  The rest of the day it was in the 50's and windy.  We were trying to have a fun, but the coldness made it kind of miserable.

I loved the Asian part of Animal Kingdom.  All the little markets and the music.  It mad me want to go there for real!

Of course this park closes really early because it has zoo hours, so we headed back over to Magic Kingdom!

Small World

Trying to stay warm!

There is a new ride called The Seven Dwarves Mine Train.  There was always about a 90 minute line for it and all the fast passes for it were booked weeks out!  So we thought we wouldn't be able to ride it.  On this night, it was pretty late and the line was only 50 minutes, so we decided to wait.  Right when we got into line Chloe started laughing this little evil laugh that was pretty funny.  It caught the attention of the ride attendant and he offered us fast passes.  We got to walk on because Chloe was so darn cute!  Yay!  The fireworks show started right above our heads as we were on the ride. When we got off we stood and watched the show.  Little did we know that because it was so windy the embers from the fireworks actually blew over to that ride and caught it on fire!  We were on the other side of the park when we heard the sirens, but didn't know what had happened until later.  If it hadn't been for  Chloe, we probably wouldn't have gotten to ride it because they had to shut it down for the night!

Day 7
The Temple, the Beach and the Pool

We went to the temple that morning.  It's beautiful, and the grounds are really pretty.

We had to check out the beach while we were there.

Us girls mostly explored the beach.  Too cold for a dip.

We came home with a Pringles can full of seashells.

Of course the boys had to try out the water...they didn't last too long.

We came home to the pool instead.

Day 8
Goodbye Disney World!

Of course we had to run to Magic Kingdom one last time before we caught our plane home that night.
A bunch more selfies.

This is a tradition for us to take a picture trying to get the sword out of the stone!

Seriously one of my favorite things about being together as a family all week was this.  When you spend so much time together in line talking, people watching, arguing, whining, being silly, this amazing bonding happens between everyone.

There is a trust that happens between siblings that is unbreakable forever.
Everyone partnered up with someone new every time we went on a different ride.  I could have taken this picture with any combination of the kids.
This is what makes the trip priceless.

Ever wanted to see the inside of Space Mountain while the lights are on?

Here is a quick little video of it.

One last time on Pirates.  Boohoo.

Goodbye DisneyWorld!

Killing time while we wait for the plane.

Time to go!

See Ya later!

Bye!

See ya in another 20 years!
That's Chloe's hand, by the way...it looks like I have a really weird, tiny hand.

Even though it was so sad to leave, we were all ready for a good rest and to get home to this little one! We missed her so much!

This is Emelia. The baby we watch...yum.

I must have heard "I miss Emme!" a thousand times while we were gone.
But come on. Who wouldn't miss this?
We love her so much, and I can't believe we haven't kissed those cheeks off yet!

So glad we went on our trip.  It was last minute and crazy, but one of the most memorable trips ever!

I bawled the day after we got home realizing it may actually be our last all together.  Meg goes to college in a few weeks and will be there through the summer.  She may leave on a mission right after that and then Jake a few months after her.  We will see what the future holds.  

But for now, they are all still here and mine for a little bit longer.

I'm going to savor it while I can!

~Buffy