Yeah, yeah, yeah, don't give me a hard time for not posting lately; after all, I only have1 follower.  Things have been wicked crazy.  Holidays, school breaks, health insurance changes, you name it we've dealt with it.  Things are slowly returning to as normal as normal can be with this family. 

Mike's place of employment changed their pay schedule.  We went from twice a month to every other Friday.  Doesn't sound too bad until you realize that all of our bills are set to be paid automatically through our credit union on the 1st & 15th which does not correlate with every other Friday AT ALL!  This is going to take some serious adjusting but at least there's still money regularly coming in.
The first adjustment is of course the budget itself.  As y'all know I follow the envelope theory.  I put cash into envelopes labeled with their expense (Fun $, Groceries, Household, etc.).  This makes me think about my purchases because when the cash is gone, it's gone.  I need to come up with a better envelope system/holder because the one I have now is falling apart.  This is where my sewing hero powers come in.  I'm working on a design and will post pics when it's done. 

The most difference has been felt in our fun and grocery budgets.  I really need to get creative with the food money, people.  This week will be henceforth named "Pantry Raid Week".  With the exception of Fair Shares (our already paid for Farmer's Coop), milk and a few fruits and veggies, not to equal more than $15, all of our meals will come from what is in our pantry, fridge and two freezers.  Like communism, this looks good on paper.  In reality, it is very daunting. 

We have already been doing this the past couple of days with pizza night and the shredded chicken taco's Mike made last night.  Tonight; however, I haven't a clue of what I will make.  I could use the leftover shredded chicken mixed with salsa to do a chicken chili.  I could use the leftover pizza crust to make a uhmm, well... pizza.   Or I could be all crazy and make something new.  Possibly Chicken Marsala or Tuna Casserole.  I guess all this thinking means that I need to come up with a menu for this week.

Let's see:
Sunday/  Kiel Basa, red potatoes and green beans
Monday/ Chicken Marsala over egg noodles with broccoli
Tuesday/ Pork chops, mashed potatoes and corn
Wednesday/Beef Stew with biscuits
Thursday/ Jambalaya
Friday/ Pizza Night
Saturday/ Roast chicken with veggies

Believe it or not, I have ALL the fixings for these already in the house, with the exception of an onion or two. 

I'm really going to try and be better about blogging again so I will try and post recipes this week too.