Making Cents Of It All

Hubby and I went away for a long weekend with another couple. We would walk down to the lake everyday. It was so quiet. The only noise was the ice cracking. It was so peaceful. I can't wait to go back.

My girl friend got me these beautiful roses. They are so beautiful and smell amazing. I have 4 biological sisters and I love them very much, but my girl friends are the sisters that I get to choose. 

Hubby really wanted Chinese food for dinner. With buying his new to us truck, paying YD's tuition payment and wedding expenses, I am really watching our budget. So I went to my beloved pantry and freezers and I starting pulling things out. Chicken that I got on sale for 99¢ a pound. Low sodium soy sauce that we always have in the fridge from BJ's. Carrots, onions and broccoli(staples in our house) from the fridge. Canned water chestnuts, canned mushrooms and canned baby corn from my well stocked pantry shelves. Hubby made us chicken lo mein. It was delicious.  It probably cost us about $6 to make. The best part is there are a bunch of leftovers for lunch tomorrow. 

January is already over. That went really fast. We did get a lot done. I think with it being cold and our goals on our minds that we do more earlier in the year.  #1  Max out Hubby's 401K   We are allowed to put $19K in this and his company does a partial match. Looking long term here. We are currently putting 15% into Hubby's 401K. His job does a match too.   #2   Add to our Roth IRA  We can add $6500 to this. Again looking long term here. We will do this before the year is up.  #3  Pay cash for OD's wedding   We have given her the budget that we can contribute. We have already paid for her dress, shoes and the DJ. We have money set aside already for the rest of this. We booked the AirBNB and paid for half of it. It was a better option then several hotel rooms. We put a deposit down for the hair and makeup. YD has her dress and shoes. Everything is coming along.  #4  Pay cash for bridal shower   I spoke...

Our regular grocery budget is $500 a month. That is for 4 adults. Hubby has a dairy allergy, YD can't eat gluten and I am on a low sodium diet. This includes all of our food, cleaning and hygiene items. I was hoping to spend $100 or less in January. Our pantry is full and so were the freezers. But plans change sometimes. I came across a great sale on ground beef that I couldn't pass up. And then a friend let me know of a sale on chicken breasts that were 99¢ a pound. YD and I went to see if anything was left.  And there was. I ended up getting 44 pounds of chicken cutlets. YD lives on chicken so she was very happy about this.  I repackaged everything into smaller bags for future meals.   I also bought 2 juices that were on sale and GF bagels. The total was $56.68. My previous total was $125.54.  My new total is $188.22. I am good with that. I bought 80+ pounds of meat this month.  What did you buy this week?