Treasured Tidbits by Tina

Controlling the Chaos Days 240-269

Now is your chance to purge all those items you skimmed over or haven’t gotten to yet.

Please keep in mind this list was created with our home in mind. Yours may vary slightly, or you may still be working on items from the previous checklist.

This month is all about purging, not organizing, not cleaning, just purging our home of everything we can put into the garage sale before winter. Originally we planned our garage sale just to clear our home of clutter, but with the huge amount of medical bills we now have I am hoping to use my part of the proceeds to rebuild our emergency fund. AND I have promised myself that nothing left from the sale will still be here after 7 days. Seven days gives me enough time to drop it off to the various resale, consignment and donation shops we frequent.

What are you going to do with your items? Decide NOW before you just create “another” pile.

Decluttering | Rebecca VanMeter | August 28, 2016 3:41 pm | Comments (1)

August Shopping Trip- Stocking Up

We decided that stocking up on drinks last month was a great idea. It reduced the amount of extra store trips we made considerably, and helped me manage the overall grocery budget better. Because of our drink requirements and limitations it takes a considerable amount of our monthly grocery budget ($150/$500). This month I was able to splurge on the Starbucks Drinks (.50 each) with the money we saved buying in bulk at the beginning of the month. Besides, it is a much cheaper to put in the fridge and take on doctor’s trips than buying something on the road, and it makes a nice, refreshing treat for the teens and hubby.

Shopping Deals | Tina Miller | August 11, 2016 5:56 pm | Comments (0)

Monday Menu #15- What’s on Your Plate?

I am happy to share, that eating from the cabinets last month went well, but now it is time to restock. Due to the amount of groceries we purchased this weekend, three carts at Save-a-lot alone, we are sharing our stock up trip in a separate post tomorrow.

Menu Monday | Tina Miller | August 8, 2016 7:19 pm | Comments (1)

Monday Menu #14-Making Do With What’s On Hand

Menu Monday #14

As we enter week #14 and share our Menu Monday plan, we are wrapping up the end of our one month budgeted grocery period. During this week we are trying hard to “Just Make Do” with food from the fridge and cabinets. Keeping this in mind, we will not have a shopping trip to share this week, we didn’t last week either.

I would estimate that we have spent approximately $50 for this week’s groceries. Those items included: 3 gallons of milk, eggs, cheese, bread, lunch meat, orange juice and a few more dairy products. Items we were unable to pre-purchase and store in the freezer.

Menu Monday | Tina Miller | August 3, 2016 9:53 am | Comments (1)

Controlling the Chaos Days 209-239 Preparing For an Amazing School Year

Welcome back to Controlling the Chaos! It is a new month and a fresh start. This month we are going to catch our breaths, recover from cleaning the kids rooms and supplies and prepare for an amazing school year.

If you are just joining us you are welcome to start at Day 1 OR you can join us right where we are today.

Whatever your choice, it is time to take action and CONTROL YOUR CHAOS!

Controlling the Chaos | Rebecca VanMeter | August 1, 2016 9:36 pm | Comments (0)

Monday Menu #13

This week did not require a large shopping trip since we are eating from the cabinets and freezer and only purchasing dairy, produce and bread as needed. We are having guests for lunch each day during band camp and did increase our lunch plan to accommodate a larger lunch crowd but we still not change our over all menu. We haven’t even needed to purchase drinks after the great drink haul I grabbed at Save A Lot