Okay, nothing like 3 entries at once!   I am trying to come up with some new recipes that are cheap to make....and don't involve beans.  Green beans are okay....but not the other kind.  The kids just won't eat them.  I was looking at my recipes and it seems like all our favorite ones cost about $10-12 a dinner to make.  Now that is for 9 of us.....but I would still like to get that down in order to fit in our budget.  Also, we try not to u se a lot of sugar.  And one of us is allergic to oatmeal, and I really shouldn't be having corn....but that one seems to be really hard to avoid (I love popcorn, corn on the cob, etc). 

Any ideas out there?    We love Chinese.....but that seems expensive most of the time.  Except for Chow mein, but I already have that one.  We like mexican and Italian too.  Oh yeah... but we already have things like tacos, lasagna, and spaghetti on the menu.

Please post any recipes that your family loves that are cheap to make.

Thanks.

Carylee

Well we went to see the house again this evening.  It is really nice.  We tried to decide who would fit in what bedroom....argued a little over what room would be the official living room (Can you believe it is that big?  There are two living room possibilities on the main floor and a huge family room upstairs. )   Then we came home, ate supper and went to our "moonlighting" job.  We clean a store for a Mennonite friend once a week.  While cleaning my husband commented how much he loved the garage (3 car)....and then said, " but that payment really scares me".  He just doesn't say much....so I knew that meant a lot.  In the end we both admited we didn't have a peace....even though we like the house a lot!  So....at this point we are going to wait.  See how much we can put away over the spring, maybe summer.  And then we will know what we are dealing with financially.  Who knows, maybe God will save the house for us....or maybe He will find us a better one in the country!

We have 9 people in our family.  I don't like to complain....I know many people have smaller homes....but our house is starting to feel really cramped.  My 13 yr old shares a room with the 3 year old.  This does not go over well when the 13 year old has friends over and locks the 3 year old out.  There is no playroom, so the 3 year old hardly gets to get her toys out.  They are all in totes in the closet (our bedrooms are all small....10*10 or smaller...except ours.   We share our bedroom with our 8 month old.....that is going to get old soon too!  So....we are praying for a larger house....which means we are really praying for a larger budget! 

We have seen a house in the country only 5 miles or less from where we live now (in town).  It has over 3000 square foot on the main level, and a completely usable basement and 7 acres.   It is perfect for our family.....except they want over $200,000 for it!   Our present house only cost us $34,000....and we are tight financially now!   We also looked at a huge house in town last night that costs about half of the house in the country.  It is in better shape, but has hardly any yard at all.  Our kids liked it, but it is still too much for us.  God really has to work a miracle here.   No house for less $ will be any bigger than what we have.  Plus we really feel God wants us near our church so we don't want to move far away. 

We are praying for wisdom.  We need finances....but we also need to decide which we really want.....a home in the country with room to roam for the kids (especially the adventurous boys in the family), or a nicer big home in town....convenient to church, etc....but without the fun  (and expenses) of gardens and outdoor animals.  

I finally have something to blog about!   I have been wondering for a long time what part of my life would be of interest to others and I think I might have found it.  I recently posted on another site a question for help.  I have been having the "grocery bill" blues lately.  I have 6, soon to be 7 children.  We have $380  a month to use for all our groceries, cleaning, health products, diapers, and paper products.  Basically for anything that we buy at the grocery store or Walmart.  Even with the help of WIC, careful menu planning, and making almost everything from scratch, we still run out of grocery money before we run out of days each month.  I have been feeling like a failure....until I posted that help question, anyways.   Evidentally, a lot of others feel the same way, and spend a lot more than we do.   I got a  lot of people asking ME, how we do what we do!   Now that still didn't answer my dilemma, but it was a little encouraging.  Someone did reccomend a website that seems really good though.  You might want to check out hillbillyhousewife.com if you want to stretch your grocery dollars like I do.

So, here I am.   We have found that shopping at places like Save-a-lot or Aldi's often saves us more money than cutting coupons for brand names.   We live in a small town in WI.   We have to drive 45 minutes to get to Walmart, Aldis, and Sam's Club, 90 minutes to a Cub Foods.  We have a small yard and we travel with my husband's job April through July.  That is peak garden season.  I can't seem to travel and accomplish a decent garden.  So I can very little.   Just applesauce and maybe some salsa when I can get left over tomatoes from a friend's garden. 

So, what do we do?  We eat a lot of venison (not for the flavor, but for the cost!).  I have learned how to disguise it pretty good.  We eat a lot of chicken in stuff.....and I don't mean chicken breasts.  They are a huge treat for us.  My family clears a whole bag of the boneless ones in one meal....so I save that for something really special.  We eat homemade soup and bread at least once a week.....and I am thinking of increasing that to 2 or more times.   We never buy store bought pizza, or other packaged meals.  We don't eat beans (I would like to but 4 of my 6 children would have to be EXTREMELY hungry to eat them).

Again, I am open to hearing from other with better ideas.  At this point...until my book becomes a best seller , I need to stay in this budget.....and soon I will have another one in diapers (Oh, yeah....I can't seem to keep up with the cloth diaper thing either....not an option here!)  Otherwise, I am happy to share any of my "secrets" with others.  

God bless.  More next time.