SAHM 10/11 to 10/17

Hi Everyone,

I was on this thread a couple of years ago. I am a stay at home momma of 2 crazy boys Trey is 8 and Evan will be 4 in November. I can find the time to exercise its the cooking for the family on a budget that is hard. I try and stick to my calorie counting but I find it hard with the family. How do you all do it?

its the cooking for the family on a budget that is hard

I know what its like cooking on a budget, we have five in our family and i have £27 a week to feed us all, it does not go far!

Hi Ladies!
I'm a wife and SAHM to five - 15 down to 2 - in MN. I'm new to MFP as of last week. I'm still getting the eating figured out but will continue to journal all of it and learn as I go. I have dieted a million times but can't remember ever counting calories - how weird is that?
Feeding the family on a budget is a forever challenge, I think. It seems like some days I can make a super healthy, interesting ingredient - type meal and others I need to dumb (cheap) it down and just eat a smaller portion. It's tough. My husband and I were just talking about how we're just getting started with growing appetites with our 15 year old boy. Our number two is a 13 yo boy so he'll be keeping up with his brother consumption-wise very soon. Yikes!
Anyway, very glad to have found this thread!
blessings,
Mary

Hi Everyone,

I was on this thread a couple of years ago. I am a stay at home momma of 2 crazy boys Trey is 8 and Evan will be 4 in November. I can find the time to exercise its the cooking for the family on a budget that is hard. I try and stick to my calorie counting but I find it hard with the family. How do you all do it?

Do you do menu planning? That has always been a big asset for me in sticking to my budget and now helping with my weight loss as well. I sit down on Thursday or friday night, depending on if I'm doing my shopping on Friday or Saturday and plan out the whole weeks meals and then make my grocery list from that. I can figure up how many calories are in each meal before hand as well.

Hi CJ and welcome! I am in Oregon, so we are kinda neighbors!


Katie- no race yet...just needed a lighter week...I think I am going to do a marathon in the beginning of March...in Napa Valley!:drinker: :drinker: :drinker:

Hi all! Pretty good day here--everyone is recovering from a major cold except me. I keep wondering when I am going to come down with it. Hopefully NEVER! Mom needs to be well to handle all the stuff going on. Our washer died last week so we are limping along by doing laundry at a friends. The new one comes tomorrow!!! Yes!

I did pretty good with water today been drinking lots but I forgot to keep track. Hopefully tomorrow.

Mrs B--one thing I do that proves healthy but fills my teens up is to get chicken breasts when they are on sale(stock up). Then I grill them & have with a salad. That is my basic meal but then I fill in with sides for the kids & my man. I will make rice or bake potatoes. Cheap but pretty healthy carbs that don't break the bank and actually have some health value. We try to stay away from boxed/processed stuff but it is SO hard!

Ditto to on the menu planning! It helps to plan your meals according to what is on sale too!

Kim

Hey everyone!


Kim- I wanted to say earlier...yay! on the bike riding and not hurting your hip!


Katie- I said that before too about a marathon...it took me a long time to get the marathon bug...this is my third attempt at trying to do a marathon. 1st time I decided, We found out we were moving across the country. 2nd time this past summer, I started having achilles problems, 3rd times a charm right?


Lots of laundry going on today here and cross stitch!

Good morning, ladies~! I haven't been on MFP for quite a while, as things have been very hectic around this place. I apologize in advance for the long post, but here's what's been going on...

The Man came home several weeks ago and informed me that his unit has come down on orders for deployment to the 'Stan. This is expected, and I've had lots of time to wrap my head around it. And as I am a 'goal oriented' person, I came up with the idea of saving $20K while he is gone. Proposed this idea to him. He thinks it's a GREAT idea! So the next logical question~"DH, what would we spend the money on?" He answers, a trifle TOO promptly, "Use it for a down payment for a house for Mama." :noway: Say WHAAAA?? Because we send her money every month just to get by, guess who would be paying for the rest of this house for Mama? After taking a little while to calm down, I told him that maybe we should start putting money away for our retirement. The Man says he has a plan for retirement- spend 20 years in the Army, then get a government job, retire from that, and draw 2 pensions. I said, that's great, but what if that falls through? "God will provide", he says. Well, God is providing NOW, perhaps we should be saving our money for our future. Grrrrr.:explode:

Also, yesterday I had to take my younger daughter up to the children's hospital to have a biopsy done on the lump in her leg. The initial diagnosis is that it is a lipoma, a benign tumor of fatty tissue. She is doing great, already running around the house, but doesn't like having the bandages on her leg! We need to do another consult with the doctor to talk about removing it, which we are probably going to do, and she might require a little plastic surgery to tighten up the skin after it is gone. She has had this lump for almost 2 years now though, so I'm glad it is getting taken care of.

Today is a busy day, as I was gone all day long. Cleaning house, doing laundry, and baking some cookies (and getting paid for them! :drinker: ) The wife of my refridgerator repairman wants some Mexican wedding cake cookies. I had given her hubby some oatmeal cranraisin cookies the last time he came to fix the fridge and she was hooked.

Mrs B--what do you like? My fav lunch is tuna salad on top of a lettuce salad w/ a ton of tomato slices. We also eat egg frittata, rice & beans, & many kinds of soup at lunch too. HTH!

Well today wasn't so good. I haven't been able to ride at all this week. I had high hopes because today is hubby's day off. However I had to choose between being a good home school mom or working out. I got a ton of papers graded but no workout. Kinda bummed but there is always tomorrow I guess. Nailed my calories tho'

Kim

Not sure whether I count as a SAHM or not...I'm a single mother with a full-time job, but I work from home all but 3-4 days/month and am homeschooling while working from home the rest of the time.

know i haven't been up much. i'm ok in the day--just busy keeping lo's busy and learning....but really falling apart in the evenings. i'm yelling and saying nasty things.....later after i've let it all out, i review my prayers and strategies and instantly see where i could have changed behavior. man....this parenting thing is NOT easy.

kim, that's great that you got the papers done. it is important to stay on top of it or it snowballs. hopefully you'll be able to end the week strong with biking.

mrsb--i would recommend picking one or two meals to always have for lunch so as not to have to think much. pick 2 faves that have good protein and throw in fruit and veges to bulk up.
so for example, 2 scrambled eggs with an apple and carrots--maybe a piece of bread or rice or slice of cheese too. have that on Tu, Th and pick something else for MWF and use leftovers for weekend lunches?
just a thought.

welcome new gals!
and amy--keep it up! you can run!
and i'm blanking on name--home??. at least you could be honest with the man. i don't have any advice except keep talking and connecting. maybe go to dave ramsey's site and read up there about balancing charity and savings??? and in case i haven't said it before, thank you for your family's service to our country. we are very grateful for the sacrifices you all make.

hope for good news on the biopsy too.

gotta run!

:grumble: So, it has been one of those weeks! Nothing has really gone right this week. Haven't been able to do any walks around the riverwalk this week due to schedule conflicts and other things going wrong, my calories all week have been over, about the only good thing is I've been doing all my challenges.....I've been eating the healither foods, but been eating more than I should....I think its because I've been kinda stress eating from everything that has been going on.

I'm glad tomorrow is Friday.

Welcome to all the newcomers :flowerforyou:

Hoping everyone else is having a better week.

Take care friends

Welcome to all newcomers!

Stacey~I can completely relate. Lately I have been easily "set off". My hormones are out of whack with TOM. But after I "lose it" I think back and say to myself was that worth it. So hard to think of that in the heat of it though.

Home~So important for the both of you to be on the same page. I too was going to refer you to Dave Ramsey. Here they have a "class" setup at a local church for hus Financial Peace University. I recommend everyone to look into it. Life changing if you apply what he teaches. You are right though the time to think about retirement is now not later. Hope all goes well with the biopsy.

Here life has been short of crazy. Last week my 3 yo had some stomach issues and then last weekend my girls came down with same thing. My "turn" was next and it had me down for a couple of days. I am sure that being TOM made for it to be worse I just couldn't seem to get up without the whole world spinning. So the house work got way backed up. Since the kids were out of school today (fall break) we cleaned house and then hubby and I went to the class (rode our bikes there). So I am barely getting to the computer for days. Hope that every one is having a great week. Oh and for lunch ideas I like to eat a sandwich with TONS of veggies. I will put a slice of 2 of lunch meat, cheese (very little) mustard, sprouts, tomatoes and lettuce. I load on the veggies though. All on a thin bun (100 calorie bun). So yummy, filling and good for you. Then I will have some cottage cheese as a side or fruit whichever is available. Leftovers are good too.