Thrifty Meals Around $5 Or Less! - Egg Roll In A Bowl

I haven't shared a $5 Or Less meal prep for quite a while so it is about time I suppose I did.  This one is not just thrifty, it is super quick, super easy and best of all super tasty!

Egg Roll In A Bowl

1 lb ground pork, beef, chicken or turkey

1 pkg. shredded coleslaw mix

1/2 medium onion, diced

1 Tbs. minced garlic

1 tsp. ground ginger

3 Tbs. soy sauce

In a wok or large skillet cook the pork and onion, add remaining ingredients, stir and cook until cabbage begins to soften.  Remove from heat and serve.

Cook up meat & onions, I used pork

Some simple seasonings
I bought these at the dollar store

Condiments of your choice

I had a handful of snow peas I chopped up and threw in

Add your cabbage

I told you it was simple.

This is my serving, no rice and topped with a little
chili paste and a drizzle of toasted sesame oil

You can enjoy this just as is but if you want to you can serve it over rice.  I love it on its own, but my girls prefer it with rice.  I also set out condiments like sweet chili sauce (like you would dip an egg roll in), Thai chili paste, additional soy sauce, toasted sesame oil, even hot mustard.

This is it how it breaks down:

Ground Pork - $1.31

Coleslaw mix - 98¢

Onion - 15¢

Total = $2.44

Rice - 25¢

Total = $2.69

Meat prices vary.  I find ground pork anywhere from $1.79 to $2.49 a pound.  In this case I found it on markdown which saved me quite a bit.  Same with coleslaw mix, 98¢ to $1.39 a bag.

Not only a thrifty meal that would easily feed four people but also very healthy.  So here you go, a tasty budget stretching meal.  I know we'll be adding this one to our meal plans on a fairly regular basis.

  

In some cases costs are approximated.  Groceries prices vary depending on where you live.  I don't include condiments, oils, herbs and spices when I figure the cost of a meal as it would be incredibly tedious to do so.   Plus condiments are subjective as each person uses more or less.

Savings Goals

This year my goal is to slug as much money as I possibly can into savings.  Savings for my future, savings for emergencies, savings for travel, savings for early retirement.  Recently I've become even more incentivized to meet my early retirement goal.  I am less than two years away from being completely vested in our companies ESOP plan and two and a half years after that my youngest will graduate high school.  Literally less than five years from now my entire world will change and I want to be ready.

I am so excited about this too.  I do plan to work some after I take early retirement, but I plan to take jobs only when I want to and work doing only what I enjoy.  I don't love corporate America and I will be very happy to leave it behind once and for all.  Having plenty of money saved up will give me the ability and peace of mind to do exactly that.

As you all know Laverne is officially "paid off".  I have put back all the money into my savings account that I took out to purchase her.  I have also paid myself back for all the money I've spent on her so far since I made that purchase.  I still have a lot of work I want to do on her to get her ready for our great adventure and I'm super excited about it.  Fortunately I also have plenty of time to get it all done so this will allow me to pay cash as I go and not have to borrow.

In order to accomplish my savings goals I'll be constantly looking for ways to spend less money.  Spending less means I keep more in my pocket and that is a really good thing when you are trying to keep more of your money like I am.  I'll be pushing that money directly into my savings and retirement accounts.

As I take on projects and look for ways to spend less on the items we need and want I'll share with you how I am doing this.  I know we all have certain goals we are trying to meet for various reasons and if anything I do is able to help you along then that is great!  If anything you are doing would help me along, then by all means, feel free to share if you would like to.  We can all work together and learn from each other which is what really makes this blogging community so great.

Packing Healthy Lunches Thrifty Mom Style

We are serious lunch packers around here.  Wasting our money on eating out or purchasing those less than desirable school lunches just isn't something we are inclined to do.  My girls will be the first to tell you that school lunches aren't so great.  Loaded with junk and preservatives it is hard to make a really good and healthy choice from what they have to offer.  I would love to see a complete overhaul of our school lunch system someday, but I doubt that is much of a priority right now.

These are really pretty cool - literally!

We all have insulated lunch boxes.  The girls have the Pack-It lunch bags that go in the freezer and I have a regular one and use the girl's old Sponge Bob ice packs they had in grade school.  Fortunately for me most of the Sponge Bob characters have worn away with time and they're basically blank now.

Soup in a canning jar is a good way to pack it and reheat it
Hardboiled eggs are great for breakfast or a snack

We normally pack the previous night's leftovers for our lunches.  The girls are lucky enough to have teachers with microwaves that are willing to let the students heat up their lunches.  I really appreciate that and it has truly made a big difference in what they are able to take to school.

I try to keep a lot of fresh fruit and veggie options on hand

Along with leftovers I send along milk, water or fruit juice, a piece of fresh fruit or a fruit cup, snacks items like crackers and cheese, crackers and peanut butter, pretzels, trail mix or chips,  Homemade cookies and jello or pudding cups are nice as well.  I do allow the girls to have chips and some junk food in their school lunches.  I figure that we eat so much good wholesome food at home that a little in their lunch won't hurt them.

I find these at Dollar Tree

I am constantly looking for items for lunches.  Since most of what they pack comes from our grocery budget I gave myself a $10 a month allowance for "other stuff".  Ten bucks is a whole lot cheaper than the cost of two kids buying school lunches, believe you me!

These go on sale quite a bit at Fred Meyer

I pick up stuff on sale at the grocery store and I do include those items in my grocery budget.  Usually I buy the big package of assorted individual size bags of chips when they go on sale for $5.99.  I'll get two or three of those a year.  I've shopped Amazon too and one time purchased a big case of 100% fruit juice boxes for $9.98.  That was pretty awesome.

My girls love these

I usually spend my $10 at the dollar store and I hardly ever spend it all, if you can believe that.  They have a nice selection of packaged cracker snacks, individual packages of Teddy Grahams, Hanover pretzels, Little Debbie items, Dole fruit cups, Dole gelatin and fruit cups, Snack Pack pudding (although I don't usually get them there because they go on sale at the grocery stores for 89¢ a lot) applesauce cups, cookies, and even flavored oatmeal packets.

We have water bottles like this that are really handy

I don't really buy a lot of drink items for us because we are such big water drinkers.  We all have water bottles and insulated water glasses.  We fill those up and take them with us most of the time.

I get 8ct packages of these at Dollar Tree

I thought I'd give you an update on how we've been handling our packed lunches lately.  And any ideas you guys want to share with me would be great!  I am always looking for new ways to keep it interesting, more efficient and of course, thriftier!

My Dollar Tree Haul - Laundry & Cleaning Supplies!

Last Thursday I had an hour to kill before I had to pick up my youngest daughter from cheerleader practice.  Since the dollar store is on the way to her school I thought it would be a really good idea to stop in and pick up the items on my list that I wanted to get from there.

Boy am I glad I stopped in because they had received a shipment of name brand laundry detergent and fabric softener in the full size bottles.  Needless to say I stocked up!

They also had some more Comet brand cleaning supplies in stock.  Regular Comet was on my list but I decided since I was stocking up on laundry soap I might as well go ahead and stock up on cleaning supplies too.  I picked up some foaming bathroom cleaner to try on our shower and tub, more fabulous Fabulosa, extra dryer sheets, another can of their spray window cleaner and hangers for the girls as they have broken a few over the years and needed some extras.

I'm super excited about the laundry detergent and I'm pretty sure that will last us all year and well into next year too.  Same with the fabric softener and dryer sheets I bought.  I love it when I stumble across great deals like that.

Last Week's Thrifty Moves

By the time I sat down to start this post it was already Thursday!  Yes, another jam packed week for us three girls.  But a pretty good one nonetheless.

Knowing it was going to be hectic around here I started off Sunday by making up three different pots of soup.  I filled up a dozen pint jars with the soups and put them into our refrigerator.  All of the leftovers ended up in freezer containers and went straight into the freezer for later on.  Those jars of soup saved our bacon this past week, let me tell you.  They made for quick lunches and in between meals for my starving teenagers and even breakfast one morning for one of them.  And they loved having these at the ready knowing they could have one anytime they wanted.  I call that a win!

I boiled up some eggs for quick grab and go breakfasts

Monday I ended up working a long ten hour day and it was nice to know I had pot roast dinner leftovers from Saturday to reheat for our supper.  We got dinner on the table nice and quick.

Tuesday I cooked up taco meat, cut up the last of our lettuce and managed to pull enough stuff from our refrigerator to make taco salads for supper.  Boy they were really good too.  Then it was off to watch my oldest get inducted into the National Honor Society at her high school.  Proud mommy moment.

Wednesday morning I wished my darling daughter farewell as she headed off to Utah for their regional robotics competition.  They did really well and had a lot of fun.  Best of all she was able to see her boyfriend who lives down there.  They hadn't seen each other for quite awhile.

After work on Wednesday I had an hour and a half to kill before I had to pick up the youngest from cheering at a basketball game so I decided to do some grocery shopping.  I managed to get to two stores, finding pretty much everything I needed on sale or for a really good price and arrived at her school just in time to pick her up.  Then home to unload and put everything away.  Since it was just the two of us we had just enough leftover pot roast, rice, gravy and veggies to heat up for a quick dinner.  Three dinners, one lunch and a pot of soup.  I'd say we got a lot of mileage out of that pot roast.

Thursday I stopped in at the dollar store to pick up a few items on my list before I picked up the youngest from cheerleading practice.

We made yummy berry bowls for desserts last week

Friday I picked up my best friend and we headed off to the on of the local sports bar for dinner and to get caught up.  Both of us have been going nonstop since Christmas and other than phone calls and texts hadn't had time to get together.  It felt so good to sit and cool my heels and spend some time with her.

Chicken Alfredo

Saturday we had NOTHING on the schedule.  Yes!  Finally a weekend off.  It was so nice to just stay home and be... you know what I mean?  I did a few chores, cooked, made a cheesecake, spent time with my youngest, we watched a couple movies and played with the our hens, yes we did.  It was a quiet day and we really enjoyed our downtime.

Check out this delicious slice of cheesecake

Thank you for all the kind responses you posted about our girls.  Our two remaining chickens have bounced back fairly well, all things considered.  The setup we have for them in the garage is working out pretty well.  They stick close to us when we let them out for fresh air and exercise and anytime they get startled they run to the front porch and hover at the door to come in.  They do spend a lot of time with us and we spoil them with lots of treats.  They've had lots of fresh fruit and veggies to go with their regular feed.  Because they feel safe, protected and well cared for they are laying eggs, surprisingly.  Usually a traumatic event and being uprooted from their home and normal routine would cause them to stop laying.  The fact that they are laying lets me know they are doing okay.

I found this big container of large stuffable mushroom on markdown

As for the raccoon, he has been back.  The other night we were watching TV and heard him come over the fence and jump onto our deck.  By the sound of the thump he's a pretty big fellow.  My daughter jumped up and flipped on the porch light and he scampered off.  We're going to have to get a trap and relocate him, I suspect.  The other idea is to run a line of electric wiring across the top of the fence, but we don't want to zap our cats, so I've put that one on hold.

So that was our week.  How was your thrifty week?

My Bathroom Routine

Our bathroom routine is quick and easy and that makes it much nicer for all us.  It also helps that we all work together to make it happen.  We have two bathrooms in our home, a full bathroom upstairs and a half bath, or powder room, downstairs.  Every morning when we are done in the bathroom we take the time to do a simple wipe up so we don't leave water splatters soap suds or toothpaste residue behind for the next person to have to deal with.  That has been my mantra lately.  Clean up after yourself so no one else has to deal with your mess.

At the end of each day, or at least every other day, we give our toilet bowl a quick swish with a toilet brush.  In each bathroom I keep a container filled with a soapy solution of Fabulosa and water to keep our brush in.  I think this is so much better than letting a nasty brush sit in a puddle of yuck.  I do the downstairs and the girls take turns upstairs.

Once a week we clean the bathrooms.  We scrub out the tub and sink with comet and then wipe down the counters with Fabulosa I keep in a spray bottle and a clean rag.  Then we dump the soapy toilet brush solution into the toilet and give it a good scrub with the brush.

The brush and container get rinsed out with hot, hot water and then new soap solution goes in.  We clean up the toilet with Fabulosa and a rag.  About once a month we scrub it down really good with Comet and a scrub sponge.

Mirrors are washed, trash is dumped and then the floors get vacuumed and mopped.  I do the downstairs bathroom and the girls do the upstairs together.  They'll switch off on who does what each week.  Every once in a while I do the upstairs bathroom just to make sure they haven't missed anything.

Hand towels are switched out regularly and the bath mat get washed once or twice a week as needed on laundry days.  I can't emphasize enough, the key is everyone is responsible to clean up after themselves which makes all the difference in the world.  This way on cleaning day 15 minutes is more than enough time to get the job done.

February Thrifty Wrap Up & Some Big News!

Financially speaking, February was a really good month for us!  I had some overtime on my paycheck to start the month off with and easily paid all of our monthly expenses ahead of their due dates.  Our power bill was much lower than the one we had for January the previous year and that made a huge difference as well.  I actually did a happy dance when I received that.  So far our electric bill has stayed well below $200 this winter, sure couldn't say that last year, and I expect it to only get lower as we head further into the year.  Hurrah!

For groceries I did really well in February.  I was able to get some really good prices on produce and meat finding lots of good markdown items as well as great sales.  I stocked up on steak as well as ground pork and sausage.  At the end of the month I had some extra money leftover so I set it aside for March's grocery budget and when a great price on pot roast showed up at the end of the month I was able to use some of that money to stock up on that as well.

In January I had prepared my income tax refund and got it filed by the end of the month.  On February 22 I received both my state and federal refund deposited right into my checking account.  First think I did was transfer the amount I wanted to add to my savings account and emergency fund as well as an additional amount to complete my latest financial goal.

Laverne is PAID OFF!  I had paid myself back for everything but the amounts I'd spent on updates and supplies by the end of January so when I received my tax refund I added that amount back into my savings as well.  I no longer owe myself any money for what I've spent on my motorhome!  Yipeeeee!

Even after all of that I still have money left.  I'm going to sit down when I have a spare moment to decide what I'm going to do with that.  With February as a short month I'll be starting March off with a paycheck minus a couple of days on it so I might give myself a break and just use it to make up the difference.  That is one nice thing about getting your tax refund in February.

So there you have it.  A financially fantastic February!  Say that fast three times!