Feeling Wealthy

This is the tough time of year for us. Scott has two jobs really, or two incomes, and the second income stretches pretty well for 10 months, but then the last two months of the year we are down to one income. Unfortunately my job situation also petered out after 10 months also, so we really are down to just the one income. I sure would love to convince the world to move Christmas to mid January. I mean its the absolute worst time of year weatherwise, so why not make that the time for pretty decorations and gatherings? Plus, it takes it out a bit from my favorite holiday, thanksgiving, so the family gatherings aren't all clumped so close together.

But, since I'm unlikely to change the world, Scott and I have asked this year to change the celebrations in our families, and they sweetly agreed. So we'll celebrate Christmas and Andrew's birthday mid January when we actually might have a little money, and now we just need to survive the next 45 days until that money appears. Sounds grim, right?

Well, this week has been a week of little blessings that made it feel much less grim. We had an orchestra concert that was prepaid so we got free quality music. We had beautiful weather so we had lots of time outside, which is totally free. Scott found a way to mix cheap coffee to make it taste as good as the "real" stuff. Mom took me to a photography class in exchange for driving. Andrew had friends over three days and the sound of his happy giggles is worth a million bucks. I also found 9 dessert plates and 3 goblets at the thrift store for under $10 total, and so now we are only five bowls away from being able to serve dinners at our house.

Yes, it was a week of blessings. Six more to go!

Dining In

Scott and recently pulled on our big boy/girl pants and set a budget and started sticking to it. Yes, I know, mid 40's is a little late to grow up, but isn't it encouraging that even crazies like us do eventually? Anyway, our grocery budget was a source of concern, because it was bigger than average, but still a bit tight for us. Why? Well, we generally buy only fresh foods, especially alot of fresh meats, fruits and veggies and those "real foods" are expensive! Also, I am a solid veggie and pasta lover and Scott is a solid, eggs, meat and meat kinda guy, so we really eat different things.

Enter ALDI. We stumbled across Aldi by accident really; our friend Mel was called to ask about a local produce warehouse in her neighborhood when we were out shopping one day and she mentioned ALDI as a good way to save more on groceries. We had heard of it of course, understood it to be cash only and since we never used to operate on a cash basis, had never gone.

Now we are fully cash only and so we checked it out, and saved 50% on our groceries for that week! We were hooked.

A week later I googled ALDI to see what was on sale that week and found their web presence was impressive. Not only can you check out the sales for the next two weeks, but they have a database of customer recipes, a meal planning tool and any recipes you save can be put into a grocery list, sorted by the layout of the store for ease in shopping.

We have tried about a dozen recipes from the site, usually about three a week, and we have absolutely loved 2/3 of those recipes and have added them to our "stable" of weekly meals.

Two favorites from this week were:

Chicken Scallopini and Barbecue Mini Meat Loaves

Aldi is a chain located in many places all over the GLOBE, so check out to see if they are in your area, and give it a try. Oh, and they now take debit cards too, so if you don't do the cash thing you can still make it work, just make sure to bring a quarter for your grocery cart and your own bags!