Never ask the question, "What should we have for dinner?" again!

Meal planning takes a lot of work and a lot of time. My life has recently become more busy and our budget still does not allow us to eat out very often. This is why I decided to subscribe to "Emeals" yesterday. When you subscribe, they give you a meal plan each week that has recipes and the entire grocery list. They create the meals around sales at your local grocery stores and have over 40 different plans to choose from. The meal plan I have chosen is the "low-carb" one. I liked how all of the recipes are healthy and they use a lot of fresh ingredients but are simple at the same time.

The subscription for 3 months costs $21.00. I found a coupon code that saved me over $3.00. ( I figured $17.00 was a small price to pay for all the work it is going to save me!)

Has anyone else used emeals before? What has been your experience?

I can't wait to try it out! I am going shopping today!

Buying Bread

So lately I have been going against everything I have been teaching on this blog.

I have been buying bread.

This is mostly because I have gotten lazy, but it is also because I have found the way to buy healthy-- relatively homemade bread. . . for cheap!

I have discovered the grocery store's secret-- instead of buying bread in the bread isle, buy it straight from your favorite grocery store's bakery! Everytime I have gone to buy it, it is always the same price: 3 loaves for $5 or $1.67 each!! And it is delicious and healthy! How can you not decide to be lazy when you discover something as great as this?

It is the same with buns and hoagies too! In the normal grocery isle the cheapest hoagie buns I could find were $3.65 for 6. I went to the bakery and got 12 large buns for $2.50. Not bad!

Homemade Pancake Mix

I was really craving pancakes but realized I was out of my homemade pancake mix. I decided to make another big batch to store in the fridge. I love making the mix. It is so simple to make, and it saves so much time because I just add water to mine! The actual recipe suggests adding 2 eggs and 2 tbsp. oil but I think it tastes fine without.

HOMEMADE PANCAKE MIX (makes about 5 batches)
6 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups whole wheat flour (NOTE: you can substitute for all-purpose flour)
2 cups powdered milk
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup baking powder
1 tablespoon salt

Mix mix mix! I just throw it all in a ziplock and shake :) When you are ready to make pancakes, add desired amount of mix with desired amount of water. So easy!

A Home Phone for $20 a Year!

I still love Page Plus Cellular and am keeping my cell phone to use when I go out but I knew there had to be a cheaper option out there for as much time as I spend on the phone at home. That is when my mother-in-law and brother told me about Magic Jack! The name makes it sound kind of phony and I was skeptical at first but after talking to my family about it, I realized that people have had really great experiences with it. The initial cost of the Magic Jack device was $45.00 on Amazon and then I also purchased a basic cord phone for $10.00.



All you have to do is plug the usb part of Magic Jack into your computer and plug the regular phone into the other side. It works through the internet signal on your computer and the first year of the service is free and then it only costs $20.00 per year!

It is still in-transit right now but I will post an update on how it works as soon as it gets here!

Free Household Products!

Lately I have been working on a project to earn free household products! I no longer have to pay for laundry detergent, body wash, deodorant, dish soap, face wash ect. ect. I know I have posted in the past about where to buy these items cheaper, but free is much cheaper! It has done wonders for our budget! I also found out my hero Dave Ramsey does the same thing! If you would like to know more about the program, email me at renaehall675@gmail.com

Homemade Hot Chocolate Mix Recipe

Tonight we had homemade chili cheese fries for dinner and I was really craving some hot chocolate. We didn't have any mix left so I used this recipe:

3 cups nonfat dry milk powder

3/4 cup white sugar

1/2 cup cocoa powder

1/8 teaspoon salt

Just mix it up and store in an airtight container! Use 1/4 cup mix to 1 cup water. (We use milk for a richer hot chocolate) It tastes just like the stuff from the store and is much more economical!