Come on rain!!

Generally the news of a named tropical storm heading in our direction isn't the best news, but here on the first day of hurricane season we have the second named storm of the season. And, yeah, we are in its path! I'm sure most people between central Florida, Southeastern Georgia and into the Carolinas are actually kind of happy about this storm. We are dry and anything that will bring a good soaking rain is something to look forward to.

Of course this weekend I'm supposed to take the girls to the Animal Planet festival. So, we will have to see if they get disappointed or not. We can't go tomorrow, so I am hoping that by Sunday afternoon we might just have a nice comfortable drizzle happening.

Today I finally made it back over to the Farmer's Market - we finally had the stars aligned with having spare cash and free time. The bonus was I had to drive into the city anyway for something else so I didn't use any extra gas to make the trip. The stalls are really starting to fill in. Bushel baskets overflowing with squash, zuchinni, tomatoes, cucumbers, spring onions, freshly dug red potatoes, and many other things.

Before we left to run errands I did good and made out our menu for the next two weeks so that I could have a list to go by, and hopefully, would not get too crazy. I spent $20, to the penny - I like nice round numbers. I got: local wildflower honey (the sample was really tasty), basket of peaches, 3lbs red potatoes (@ $.50/lb), three heads of leaf lettuce, 2 slicing cucumbers and a qt of strawberries the girls just had to have to snack on. We really did not need much. I was so tempted by the squash and zuchinni - but had not made room for them in our menu. I might go back next week for some.

Speaking of groceries, it is a new month. For May my finally tally was $341 for groceries, under our budgeted goal of $350. I didn't make my stretch goal, but I'm okay with that. We still have meat in the freezer to get through much of June.

I've decided to budget $400 for this month, and aim for $300. But, I'm not all pushed to make a stretch goal this month. Our canned goods are fairly low, and with hurricane season here I think I may need to spend a little extra money building up that area of my pantry. I'm hoping for a chance to go to Aldi's next week (maybe childless). The canned goods are not for our daily use through the summer (too many fresh things to eat), but to give us something to fall back on if necessary. We end up using them during the fall and winter.

So far we have spent $89 of our budget for June. The $20 at the Farmer's Market and another $69 at the local Kroger to finish off our shopping list for the payday. I should be able to cook every meal we have planned with what we have here.
Menu 6/3 - 6/15
6/3 - Homemade or Frozen Pizza, salad
6/4 - Spaghetti, salad, homemade french bread
6/5 - Grilled Chicken Quarters, roasted potatoes, peas
6/6 - Broccoli/Ham Quiche
6/7 - Stuffed Shells, salad
6/8 - Sweet & Sour Popcorn Chicken, Rice
6/9 - Hamburgers/Hot Dogs, French Fries
6/10 - Homemade/Frozen Pizza
6/11 - Roast, Mashed Potatoes, Green Beans
6/12 - Tacos, refried beans
6/13 - Leftover Meat Skillet Dinner, buttered egg noddles
6/14 - Chicken Spaghetti
6/15 - Grilled Pork Chops

I still need to try to find ways to keep the grocery budget low. I sat down tonight to figure out what we need to save for the remainder of the year and came up with $3500 by Christmas. This includes new tires for the van, birthdays for each child, car insurance (it would sure be nice to be able to pay this in full for a change), christmas, and the biggie: a family vacation to the Outer Banks this fall. DH has plenty of time accrued for us to take a whole week at the beach. We have found a cottage that will take us and our dogs on the beach for $600/week.

A family vacation is a huge thing for us. When MB was almost two we managed to go visit my sister on the west coast for a week, but since then our family trips have been weekend get-aways. The girls will have a blast. We are looking to go in either September or October. It should still be warm enough to swim and be on the beach, but not so hot it is miserable to be on the sand. It also gets us in after the high season, so we can actually afford it.

We have a plan, and have already started squrriling the money away. I plan on trying to sell some baby stuff to make a little extra. We also don't have several school year/lesson expenses for the next three months, so that can be used towards the savings.

I have my goal this summer, and am excited to get busy. Wish us luck.

Peace,

Amy