Cooper's first kid birthday party

Cooper and I went to our neighbor, Shawn's, eighth birthday party at Chuck E Cheese. It was our first kid party, and we were a little overwhelmed, but we had a good time. We rode the monster truck with Shawn and rode the firetruck 3 times!

e-mealz first grocery trip

Well we've started it. I went to Wal-mart with the e-mealz grocery list and bought groceries for 5 meals. Some of the ingredients for the week we already had at the house, so I didn't have to buy them, BUT I did have to buy some of the staple items (milk, eggs, etc.) that e-mealz doesn't include in the price so we'll say it pretty much averaged out. Here's what we ended up with:

The e-mealz estimated price for the week of grocieries was $43.33 and I actually spent $34.88 on the ingredients. So I saved almost $10 from what they estimated!

Even though the list was specific to Wal-mart, it didn't match up perfectly. Some of the brands that were listed, I couldn't find and some of the prices were different both ways (more/less). I also was able to find some better deals than were suggested. For example, I needed corn flakes for one of the recipes. Instead of buying the generic box of corn flakes, I bought the smallest box of kelloggs (which was $1 cheaper). Same with meat. It suggested buying one 3 lb of chicken for 2 different recipes, but it was cheaper to buy two, 1ish pound pkgs. Some of the produce I couldn't find so I had to buy frozen (probably because it was out of season).

Anyway, so far so good. The recipe we tried this evening was pretty good! We may even eat healthier than we were before! I'll keep you updated on our progress!

We started e-mealz!

One of the things I have always struggled with is meal planning and grocery shopping. If you know me at all, you know I'm not much of a cook. Since we started our budget in November, trying to be creative with meal planning has been even MORE difficult. So, we are trying something new. This month we signed up for e-mealz. It is a website suggested by Dave Ramsey, that plans your meals and grocery shopping for you on a weekly basis. You can check it out by clicking the banners on my blog. It was only $15 for 3 months. You pick a grocery store and a meal plan. We chose Wal-mart for 2 people (since Cooper just eats off our plates anyway).

On the Menu for this week is:
Honey Pecan Chicken
Grilled Mexican Burgers
Cajun Red Beans and Rice
So-Good Chicken Enchiladas
Breakfast Dinner Pizza

The website chooses the menu items based on what is on sale at the store you chose, so the ingredients for some of these foods should be on sale at Wal-mart. According to this week, the total cost for this weeks meals should be only $43.33 at Wal-mart. Since we usually have a budget of $300 a month for groceries...if we can spend about $40 a week on groceries, we should save OVER $100 this month on groceries!!

I'll keep you updated on how things go. Planning on going shopping tomorrow for the week!

Trip to the Library

Cooper found one of his favorite books, "Smash, Crash"

Cooper loving on the big bear

This afternoon, we went to the library to check out some books. This wasn't Cooper's first time at the library, but this was one of his most involved trips. We had a lot of fun. Cooper enjoyed looking for all the truck books and pulling them off the shelf. He LOVED the big stuffed animals all around the children's section. I think they have a storytime for kids on the weekdays. We'll probably check that out one of these days.

Reflecting on 2009 and looking forward to 2010

In 2009 our life was primarily defined by Cooper! Being a parent is still relatively new and 2009 brought on lots of new exciting things. Things that happened in 2009:

- David and I both turned 30!
- Cooper turned 1! (with that came walking, talking and a fun new personality!)
- David started his own business
- took the Dave Ramsey Financial Peace classes and made the decision to stop using
credit cards and be debt free!
- My sister, Erin, got married and I got a new Brother-in-law.
- We found out we were pregnant with Mattox

Things to look forward to in 2010..
- Cooper going through the "terrible twos"
- potty training!
- being DEBT FREE!
- Welcoming Mattox to the world!

I'm sure 2010 will be an adventure and I'm looking forward to spending it with my family and friends. I hope you all have a great 2010 and God bless you in all that you set out to accomplish and do.