Blogging Away Debt

by Ashley

Ive got a couple big deadlines right now with work that have been eating up my time, so this will have to be a quick update.

Remember how on the toddler birthday post I mentioned that we went over our grocery budget and I had instituted a no-spend week for the last week (really about week and a half) of the month? I wanted to give an update on how its been going.

So far, it hasnt been too bad. We had a lot of leftover food from the birthday party so Ive been eating a hot dog every day for lunch (luckily, there are about a million different ways to dress up a hot dog, so it actually hasnt been too boring). We also have a couple chicken sausages still left that Im planning to chop up and put into a pasta dish for dinner tonight (they need to get eaten!)

I also had a big pork butt roast in the freezer that Ive been making into different meals. The first night we had it as a roast (with carrots and potatoes I already had on hand as sides). Then I shredded all the remaining pork and split it into two halves. Half of the remains are destined for pulled BBQ pork sandwiches (we have some hamburger buns in the freezer we can use), and the other half were made into carnitas tacos (I make homemade tortillas).

Perhaps the hardest part has been trying to figure out what to do with the girls all day. Its so hot that its not safe to be outside playing for more than 5 minutes and I often used grocery shopping as a crutch for a thing we could do to fill our time. I dont want to spend a bunch of money for the childrens museum or other paid events. Instead, weve gone to the play area at the mall, story time at the library, and to play at the childrens area at my new gym. Weve also gone to the pool once (we have a community pool thats free for us), and had one play date with friends. You may be wondering whats with all the activities for the toddlers..Ive had them for about 2 weeks solid now (no daycare). Thats a whole other story for a whole other post so I wont got into that here. Hopefully its not like this for long, but thats the current state of affairs.

Ive got to run but Id wanted to give this little update.

Is anyone else on a no-spend week (or month)? Any tips on how you get by?