Menu Monday

Today (err... yesterday) is the day! The last Menu Monday! For one year we have been eating for $10 dollars a week between the two of us. For one year we have been matching our own food budget with donations to food and water organizations for others. For one year we have learned some of what it means to sacrifice what we could have for what people should have.

The hardest part was getting used to not being able to drive through and pick up something to eat. We would do that almost every Friday on our way to San Antonio, it was easy, it was fast. But now we had to plan ahead and pack food to eat on the road.

One of the best things that we took from this experience is the time we spent together working on this project. Planning our menu, shopping together, working as a team to score some deals. Also, how blessed we truly were with people who wanted to bless us with food and how God always always took care of our needs.

So it was a good year, and we felt it was well worth it and it will definitely change how we eat in the future.

This week's Menu Monday is a short one. Taylor is going to San Antonio to spend some time with her family as her brothers come to visit. So I just need a few things to eat till Thursday- pizza sounds good! So I just need some tomato sauce, cheese, and a few tomatoes (to make my new Margarita creation!)

Thanks for following along on our adventure! We will begin with a new one next year! We have been preparing and are excited to be able to join in something that so many are doing already. Just another way to share how God has blessed us in our lives. :)

*Update

Well we won't need to buy sauce, cheese, and tomatoes.  Frankie decided that because he is working late Tuesday and Wednesday that he didn't need food because the office covers dinner.  And Thursday we have a  coupon for a free Whataburger!  So it will be eggs and for lunch and peanut butter and crackers.  Guess we get to save our $20 these two weeks for another day.  :)

Menu Monday

Two more cycles and we are done for the year. It is so hard to believe that!

This is what we picked up for the next few weeks.
Turkey-loaf, Spaghetti, and Pizza are a few things on the menu.
We picked up some breakfast things, and a few snacks. :)
Taylor will be in San Antonio next week so this should be more then enough to last me.

Menu Monday

This week we made our list and only picked up items for one week and a few days, because we will be home enjoying turkey with family this week! So here is what we got...

The cereal said FREE so we got it, and after a mail in rebate we hope that the box isn't lying... :)

Menu Monday

We have had a couple people asking us lately how we eat off of $10 a week. So in this Menu Monday we thought that we would share with you our process in addition to the next two week's menu!

We always make a list before we go shopping. This week we made ours while driving back to Houston. We talk about what we have coming up (lunch meetings or parties) and if we will be at home (driving to San Antonio) to figure out how many meals we need to plan for.
Then we remember what we already have. We made a batch of beans last week that needs to be eaten and we have half a bag of rice. So we decided that tacos and enchiladas were good choices. We can make tortillas so we just need to add cheese, a tomato, tomato sauce, and some meat to our list. We know that we can make this last us for four dinners.
Because we are buying meat we also know that we can get by with just half of the package for tacos and we can use the other half for spaghetti. So we add pasta, and pasta sauce to our list. This should last us another 4 dinners.
We add items that always stay on our list, things like bread, fresh fruit, and peanut butter and jelly (if we don't have any but at this time we do).
We also like to get some kind of snacks or chips because we're munchy like that.
Breakfasts are kind of random and since milk costs so much we really haven't been buying cereal much lately. For now we have some oatmeal that we bought for around $.10 at CVS on clearance. There's eggs, bread, and the occasional chocolate chip cookie from the lobby. ;)
Lunch is almost always PB&J, with fruit, and some chips or pretzels.

So here's our list!

Next we look to see if we know we can find coupons for our items (we know what items often offer coupons but you can check for all your items on sites like coupons.com) but we almost always buy store brands because they beat even the coupon prices. We look for combo deals in paper ads but most of the time those cost too much. Sometimes we find promotions like 10 items for $10 and match some items with coupons to get super low prices and stock up!

Another rule we use is: Shop with your calculator! We add everything together as we put in items in the cart so we know we are staying within budget. Often times we have to put things back to even out the total.

This week we grabbed everything on our list with some extra money left over, so we bought butter (we have been out for awhile) and yeast (just finished our last bit last week!) and our total came out to $16 even! We had to add $1.17 for flour that we bought at SuperS with a coupon, so a total of $17.17! That leaves us with $2.83 to save for a rainy day. :)

This is what it take to feed us for two weeks.

Day one (and two)!

And it's so good!!!!



Menu Monday

On our way back to Houston Sunday night we stopped at the store and picked up a few things...

We will try to update with photos of what we make this week.

Monday Night - Yum!Tuesday and Wednesday Night

Tuesday and Wednesday Night

Thursay and weekend!!!!

Menu Monday and Lots of Updates!

Back in Houston after a wonderful weekend of friends and family... for a few days anyway! I feel like we are in our car more then in our apartment this month. First a parade, then a camping/girls night, CHF Banquet, and this weekend is our second yard sale for water, then the 5K walk for ALS. All in San Antonio or around there - kind of makes you wonder what in the world are we doing in Houston. We have been wondering and praying about the same thing...

But today we must focus on today and not worry about tomorrow. And today we need food! So we came up with a list last night and I will be headed to the store on my way home. Here is our list:

Bread - 2 loafs

Eggs

Some fresh Fruit

Tomatoes

Corn

Ground Beef

Pork Chops

Pasta

Pasta Sauce

Beans

Peanut Butter

Jelly

Snacks

We don't normally buy meat, let alone two different types, but we think we might be able to fit it in. :)


We have so much to post this week! Like I said earlier we are having a Yard Sale this weekend to raise more money for out water well in Africa though charity:water. This is our second since the first went so well- we raised over $500! Saturday's sale will be in Pleasonton, TX and we are starting to become overwhelmed with items! We have been pricing things for awhile and we are still looking for more! In fact I am taking the whole day off on Friday and we are going to be driving around San Antonio, Devine, and Pleasenton collecting items from family and friends. We are even working on a few projects at home to start selling this weekend.

Next weekend is the ALS walk and if you want to help with that, the post is below this one! There is a link on how to give. We even talked about offering ad space here on Taylor Frankie to anyone who makes a donation to that cause. So if you have a product, business, or blog and have a picture, logo, or ad let us know. And we will be posting a little more on that in the next few days.

We will also be posting about the banquet this past weekend, because if you follow us on twitter you know something that we haven't announced here on the blog yet! ;) That will also be coming in the next few days.

So hold on tight because we are about to hit warp speed!!!

Sunny Saturdays and Menu Monday on Tardy Tuesday

Well our internet is still out at the house, and we are way behind on our posts... And life is BUSY right now- Taylor is about to make a weekend trip to San Antonio to go to Chosen with her Mom at Summit Church, and I am retaking the first two sections of the NCIDQ this Friday and then I am hiking out to Enchanted Rock with a friend for the weekend!

More updates.... my car broke, and was fixed, then broke again, and I fixed it again to get it to the shop and it is getting fixed for the last time (I hope). And we were blessed with another camera! The boss replaced his and gave me the old one- a touch screen Sony Cyber Shot (Score!) plus a new case and cord to go along with it! I also had a job site in San Antonio this past Friday so we had a jump start to our weekend and filled it to the max! Check out what we did on our Sunny (with a few showers) Saturday!

Thanks, Father-in-Law, for the fun outing! :D

This week's Menu Monday is pretty short. We planned on going camping last weekend so we bought food for that and didn't eat it so that what we are going to using this week. Just had to pick up a few things to supplement...

Bread

Eggs

Carrots

Tomato Sauce

Cheese

Bananas

We will try to update photos of what we make, probably in the form of TwitPics. You can find our tweets and twitpics on our Twitter App on the side of our blog. And if your on Twitter, follow us and let us know so we can follow you. :)

Thank you Lord for your many blessings this weekend! Please guide us through our week and help us to show your love to everyone we meet!

Also, wanted to give a quick shout out to our friend Amy! We met her through CHF in SA and she has been so cool to follow on facebook and on her blog. She just helped out with a Habitat for Humanity home and posted all about it. :)

Menu Monday on Tardy Thursday...

Sorry for our tardiness, our internet is down at home. :(

Here is what we bought Monday night.

One of our first finds was a rotisserie chicken for only $1.99! Score! And next was the doughnuts for $1.99, again! (We didn't grab these until the end, when we were sure we could fit them within our budget! ;) We knew we wanted to go camping this weekend so we grabbed some food for that- potatoes, carrots, sausage, and eggs. Grandma sent us home with two loaves of leftover bread this weekend so we got to skip on that this time. We also still have some food leftover from when Taylor's parents were to here to supplement the rest of what we bought. And we picked up a few items to make pizzas! It is going to be a sweet week! ;) And we plan on trying out a tortilla recipe! :)

Time to Celebrate! ~ Menu Monday - Food Pak® Challenge

Not only is today our Bloggie Birthday and our 100th post, but it is also our Food Pak® Challenge Anniversary! For those of you who don't know, the Food Pak® is something that the Children's Hunger Fund distributes to struggling families in our cities and around the world. Through the Food Pak® they offer support and love to our neighbors, and hope through relationships with volunteers and our Savior!

When we first heard about CHF and the Food Pak® we weren't really sure we were going to donate anything, but something stirred within me and I had the idea of getting one of these boxes and eating out of it ourselves to see if it really had what it took to feed a family for weeks, like it claimed. I told Taylor my idea, and like I learned in Church this weekend- by vocalizing what I felt, I was in a way, committing to do it. Taylor was on board and she was there to make sure that we stayed on track... I couldn't have done without her. Together we went shopping, we cooked, we blogged, and at the end of week God planted an idea that then grew into what you are seeing today. We could simplify and change our eating habits and provide multiple families with a good, sustainable amount of food at the same cost. How can you argue with that? We can eat and be healthy and be happy and help others. We may not be eating our favorite foods, and it may take longer then driving through, but we do it for the love of our brothers and sisters. Our first Food Pak® experience went so well that we did it again, and at the end of our two weeks we had saved enough money to make 10 Food Paks®! God really blessed us and allowed us to greatly bless others. :)

Since then, we decided that we wouldn't be able to go back to eating normally... well, not right away. We knew we wanted to do something and we wanted to do something big, so we set our sights on 2010 and we set a goal to eat for $10 a week for a whole year. At the end of the month we take the same amount that we spent on groceries and we donate it to food and water organizations. It has been a good year so far, and it's hard to believe that we have come such a long way. But we would like to go back to where it started, and we would really love for you come along with us.

For the next two weeks Taylor and I will be taking the Food Pak® Challenge again, and we want to encourage you to try it for a week, as well. The items in the box are really common items and can be bought for around $25. If you decided to try this, we would also like to encourage you to make the same $25 donation to CHF to help feed other families through the Food Pak®. So please consider it, pray about it, and let us know! We would love to have someone to share stories, recopies, and pictures with; we would even love to offer you a chance to share with us what you learned and experienced here on our blog.

Here is the list that comes with the Food Pak®.

Here are our groceries!

And our first dinner!

Look like fun? Give it a try!

To learn about the Food Pak® Challenge visually, check out the video CHF put together on our "Media" tab!

Let the challenge begin!!!

Menu Monday & Campbell's Chicken & Broccoli Alfredo!

Now back to our regular scheduled blogging...

We had a pretty great shopping trip yesterday! Kroger is having a sale right now- if you buy 8 participating items, you receive $4 off! So we checked out our ad and scrounged for coupons and this is what we came up with-


We were right on Target with a total of $19.98! But check out how much more food we got!!! We purchased 30 items with a total of $24.04 in coupons savings, that's 54%! The only things we paid more than $1 for were the canned chicken, flour, and bag of cheese. We actually received some Kroger coupons in the mail last week and we're very excited to find a coupon for free eggs! Thanks, Kroger! Most of the other coupons came from coupons.com and we found some others by searching on Google. And since Kroger doubles and triples coupons, as well as accepts one manufacturer and Kroger coupon per item, we actually got some things for free like the Gardettos and potatoes! We haven't coupon shopped like this for groceries in a long time so it was pretty exciting!

We also still have some food leftover from the last two weeks- rice, pasta, peanut butter, jelly, and some cereal. We're going to make the Campbell's Broccoli Chicken Alfredo again, because that was really good! And this time we might even share the recipe! ;) And it's been too long since we've had pizza and our leftover sausage needs used up. Yum! Another classic for this week is our Rice Chicken Veggie casserole but we're substituting tuna this time for a change.

Looking forward to this next two week's and all our snacky goodness! :)

~~~

Now, something that we've been really excited about...

Two weeks from now, marks one year since we started our original Food Pak challenge and the beginning of our blog! We'd like to celebrate by doing something big and we want you to be a part of it! We've decided to relive this experience for our upcoming two week grocery cycle! We wanted to let you all know ahead of time so that you can prepare because we want you, dear readers, to come along with us on this adventure! We invite you to participate with us for either the first or second week as we again eat from these boxes that are a crucial element at CHF. Our wish would be that at the end of your Food Pak challenge you would want to give another Pak to a family who truly needs it with the money you saved. We originally started with trying to raise enough money for one Food Pak and we ended up making 10! We are setting our goal this time, as a team, for 10 boxes, but we have a big God so our number doesn't really matter! With Him we could double or even triple our goal! This is a big deal, and it will change your life if you let it, so take some time, think about, and let us know if you'll be joining us! We're so excited!!

Not sure what the Food Pak Challenge is? Check out the button on the top right of our blog, it will take you to CHF's website and a video. You can also click on the Food Pak Challenge Categories on the left and they will bring up all of our tagged post. (Thanks again to Fred, Christy, and Jesse for all your hard work and sharing it with us.)

~~~

Recipe Update

Campbell's Chicken & Broccoli Alfredo

1/2 of a 16 oz. pkg. linguine
1 cup fresh or frozen broccoli flowerets
2 tbsp. butter
1 lb. skinless, boneless chicken breasts, cut into 1 1/2" pieces
1 can (10 3/4 oz.) Campbell's Condensed Cream of Mushroom Soup
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 tsp. ground black pepper

1. Prepare linguine according to package directions in 3-qt saucepan. Add broccoli during last 4 min. of cooking time. Drain well.

2. Heat butter in 10" skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken and cook until well browned, stirring often.

3. Stir soup, milk, cheese, black pepper and linguine mixture in skillet. Cook until mixture is hot and bubbling, stirring occasionally. Serve with additional Parmesan cheese.

Thank you Campbell's for this great recipe! We had actually bought the soup sometime last year when Kroger was having a great 10 for $10 sale. It was a cheap item and I think we had coupons so it was probably close to free. It just happened to have this recipe on the back of it when I pulled it out to brainstorm what we could use it for!

We did use a can of chicken in place of the chicken breasts and condensed milk the second time we made it (also from the 10 for $10 sale, probably free). And the Parmesan is something we've had in our fridge for awhile since my mom sent it home with us one weekend. It was a great way to use it up and it really made the pasta! It was delicious!

Menu Monday

Well, we shopped at HEB on Saturday! It was a nice HEB with lots of samples! ;) We had fun finding deals different than Kroger, like really cheap oranges! :) Yum! We also took advantage of a yellow coupon deal- free cheese with sausage purchase! It was a great trip, with $.44 left over!

Menu Items for these next two weeks include:

Enchiladas (we had lots of leftover corn tortillas from last week!)

PB&J as always!

Eggs (breakfast for dinner is wonderful!)

and we're trying something new- an actual recipe! lol! We've had a can of Cream of Mushroom soup for the longest time and I picked it up for inspiration while making the grocery list and on the back was a recipe! Imagine that! ;) Campbell's Chicken and Broccoli Alfredo! Mmm! All it calls for is the soup, noodles, broccoli, chicken, butter, milk, Parmesan cheese, and pepper! Simple and hopefully tasty!

Other meals include a FREE Whataburger! tomorrow as well as a FREE Chicken Fajita Taco from Taco Cabana! Also, Thursday, our Pastor is hosting a Children's Ministry's Volunteer Appreciation Dinner and Pool Party! Fun stuff! For the weekend we'll be in SA, and we always enjoy sharing meals with our families. ;)

Stay tuned for an update on what we ate in CT with our saved up $61!

Menu Monday

Upon returning from Connecticut last Monday (update of our trip soon!) this is about all the food that was left in our apt...

Not bad right?? :)

We didn't get around to grocery shopping until mid-week, and we went to SA for the weekend so we shopped for just the last few weekdays...

PB&J all the way. (And we made pizza! I think it's our fav.)

We also picked up this incredibly delish burger on the way outta town for frees from Sonic! :D

And then tonight we bought for this week...

For dinner tonight...enchiladas!!!!!! They were sooooo good!!!!!

More pizza is on the menu for the rest of the week as well as good ol' chicken/rice/veggie casserole! It's good to be home! :)

Menu Monday

Trip Update!
We are packing our bags and hitting the skies this week! Jet setting through 5 airports total...I don't think I would be excited to be sitting in 5 different airports (coming home makes it 9) on one trip but I am super excited this time because it means time with Taylor! We haven't seen each other in almost three weeks! Our destination is Milford, CT to visit our good friends Tia and Joey and their two little girls. We will be sure to take a lot of pictures! (We haven't posted any lately because Taylor took the camera on vacation so I'm left with grainy cell phone shots.)

For the past 6 months and 13 days we have been eating on a $10 a week grocery budget. We shop every two weeks and plan out our meals in advance. Sometimes we find great coupons that let us dine out for free. We don't turn down food when friends and family feel like blessing us. We donate what we spend monthly on food so others may eat too.

This has been our life this year. Another thing that we were doing is saving up any surplus grocery funds in a little cup for the trip we are about to make. And this morning I counted it all up! Drum roll please............................... $61 dollars and some change! Woah! That is like we didn't eat for a month and a half... not sure how we did it, but it's done! So we have about 60 dollars to take us through our 5 day mini vacation, which comes out to about $12 a day! Not bad when you have been living off $1.42 a day! We will make sure to make note of what we eat and if you know Taylor she will be taking pictures of every meal, too! ;)

Menu Monday - Party of 1

Well it is just me this week. Taylor has been gone for 1.... 2.... 3.... to many days to count. She has been with her family since last Monday and they drove up to Michigan the following Thursday. But I will see her again soon. Our trip up North together is coming up soon, really soon! As I fly to Atlanta, Taylor will join me and we will both hop on the same plane (we did not plan that part but it's great that God was watching out for us!) and we will be flying to New York. From there we aren't really sure what to do... we know we need to get to New Haven, CT, but whether it's by taxi, or train, or car is still up in the air - I have faith that it will all work it's way out.

So until then I have a few cans of tomato sauce, a box of pasta, and some cheese... looks like its pizzas and pasta again! Anybody want to join me?

Menu Monday and our TOMS Giveaway Winner!!

Well, we thought we were getting back to normal... Last week we had a ton of fun and if you follow our Twitter updates on the blog you might have noticed that we ate out almost every day! That's right! And we didn't pay a dime (well except for tips, we like to thank our waiters!) Last week's adventures included two shared burgers with sides, a breakfast on a bun for each of us, our Wednesday small group dinner, and an art gallery opening that included a very nice spread of pasta and cheese cake! :)

Sometimes the blessings are just so wonderful. I remember when we started this whole project and I was very concerned about how we were going to make it- money was tight at the time too, but as we were sitting down at a nice restaurant waiting for a delicious cheeseburger I started to laugh at myself. Here I was worrying about how we were going to pay bills and eat, and there my wife was printing of coupons for free things! I haven't worried much since that day! Our Provider looks out for us and knows what we need!

My Mother-in-law was just telling us a story about this last week... after showing some "crazy love" to a friend, she went shopping and stopped into a pizza shop to grab something to go, and as soon as she ordered the guy handed her a pizza and said "Have a good day." FREE PIZZA! He has just scratched off a coupon and won a free pizza so he passed it onto her. Once she got home she had an e-mail from the friend saying that she was sorry for not thanking her sooner and that she knew the LORD would bless her for her kindness. :) How cool, right?! If loving people means free pizza then sign me up! ;) Tina has always encouraged us and loved us and we would like to say thanks, Mom, for being so supportive! :)

Now, since this is a Menu Monday post we need to get down to business... This week is going to be a piece of cake... or, well, pie (pizza pie that is!) Taylor is gone yet again- this time she is going to be headed to Michigan to visit extended family. So it's just me, and if you haven't learned by now I could live on pizza for the rest of my life!

So let's see... we talked about last week, this week, Taylor's trip, my love for pizza... I guess the only thing left to do is to announce the winner! So with out further ado, our giveaway results!

Thank you to all our entrants! (And thank you to all our followers, in green!)

Shake 'em up!

A blindfolded Brogan to draw the name!

And the winner is...

My very own Mom, a very dedicated reader and follower!

Congrats, Mom! We hope we've blessed your feet as much as you have blessed so many others! :D

Thank you to all of our readers, our new friends and our old friends, and those who are still being sneaky but blessed none the less by our posts! We enjoy your comments and your love! :)

Menu Monday

This week, I feel like were really back to normal...well, for a little bit...just one more week until I'm off to Michigan!

We went to Kroger with a couple of coupons in hand and our plans to take advantage of the 10 for $10 sale! (That's where the ice cream comes in! ;) Some of our staples lately have been eggs with tomatoes and sausage, peanut butter and jelly of course, and some pasta which we haven't had in a while. We also picked up some flour so Frankie can make pizzas while I'm gone! (His favorite!) The beautiful box of Lucky Charms in the background was free from a coupon I won last month! Yep, all 1lb and 8oz of it's sweet, sugary goodness! We also had a free coupon for the bag of rice, so that should add some nice flavorful variety to our week! :)

Menu Monday

Somehow we managed to eat almost all of the food we bought last week!!

Having Brogan and Teddi here was a blast and after I sort through some pics I'll post some of the good ones! (I took over 150 at the Children's Museum alone! Oh my!)

We figured spending $20 of our own and $20 from Mom would be good for while the kids were here and for this week, but I guess we didn't realize how much four people can eat in one week! Lol! We do have a little bit of leftovers (like the delicious foil pack we shared tonight!) and Mom left a couple of goodies behind (SunChips, waffles, cereal, milk, bagels, bread, and some sandwich fixins!) from their weekend here in Houston. We're gonna try and make do since we already spent our bi-weekly budget.

Here's some pictures from Homemade Pizza Night!

The kids absolutely loved it!

Only two more weeks until I leave for MI with my parents! Most of my extended family lives there and it's great to visit! From the end of that trip I'll meet Frankie in NY to go to CT to see our friends! Hopefully all of our savings will add up and we'll enjoy some great food while having a great time visiting! :D

Menu Monday on Tardy Tuesday

We're a little behind this week since we have a 6 year old and a 5 year old (aka "the littles") with us! It's incredibly exciting and a lot of fun, but a little tiring. We also use the laptop as a CD player for them at night which is usually when we do our blogging! So here's our Menu Monday on Tardy Tuesday! ;)

These are some groceries mom sent with the kids...

And then we used our $20 and some of Mom's to buy some more goodies for this week and the next.

We had a great dinner of sausage, potatoes, and carrots last night, and homemade pizzas the night before! Yum! We tried using part wheat flour in the crust for the first time and it tasted pretty good! We still have plans for foil packs (since Teddi thinks we are actually going to go "camping" at sister camp), Smores, quesidillas, hot dogs, and Ramen! Teddi loves her noodles! lol!