September 14 Review

Another week of savings, and it's been going pretty well! This week we paid all our bills using online bill pay as usual (don't have to write as many checks or buy stamps), bought gas for both vehicles, DH paid for his lunch ticket at school for the next 2 months, and we spent $12 of the garage sale profits on tickets to the football game. Other than that, we did not spend any cash or put anything on the credit card. I bought zero groceries or other food this week, even though we hosted 10 other people for small group tonight! Because a few of you requested some recipes from tonight's supper, here is the link to the Chicken Taco Stew recipe from Spark Recipes. I left out the onion and added a can of pinto beans (rinse and drain all the beans and corn) and served it with tortilla chips and cheddar cheese. I make it a little different every time, depending on what I have on hand. Also, some of you requested the Red Velvet Cake recipe as well. And you who asked about Lemon cake, here's a link to the Cake Mix Doctor's Lemon Lover's White Chocolate Cake recipe that we'll have to try sometime. And for those of you with Oster's Bread Machine, the Cinnamon Raisin Sweet Bread was quite good, but I'd add more raisins next time.

The cash and "IOU's" in the jar are steadily growing. I will have to break down and get groceries tomorrow as we are running low on milk, fruit, and toilet paper, but we are still sitting great on meat, frozen veges, homemade bread and all the pantry/baking staples. I feel like I might be delaying some expenses instead of avoiding them (like signing up to bring cake to work in October instead of September), but it is helping to stretch the grocery budget this month. I'll continue working hard to find ways to save this week and would love to hear how the rest of you are doing! Post your comments!