Our Meal Plan

One of Joshua's First Pizzas (3 years old)

Last week I posted a photo of what our family eats in a week.  I had a question about our menu planning, so I thought I would share that with you today.

Over the years we have had a few different ways of planning meals.  From no planning to over planning, our systems have changed as our family has grown and changed.  What we do now is working for this season, but I'm sure it will be adapted as time goes on.

In fact, our current menu plan didn't start out this way.  It evolved over the course of a few months into what it is today.  And there is always room for flexibility.  Some months we go through our plan pretty much as it is written.  Other months we're flip-flopping days around, eliminating meals, and replacing them with others.  And the variations depend on a number of different factors ranging from illness to a busier than expected schedule to just not feeling up to making whatever is on the menu.

All that to say that the following is just a snapshot of how we do meal planning in our family.  If it is anything like other "how we do things" type posts, it will need to be changed promptly after publishing.  :)

We like everyone to learn how to help out in the kitchen.  Abby (2 1/2 years old)

BREAKFAST
We eat cold cereal and/or homemade instant oatmeal for breakfast every day.  If I've made some bread and we have it on hand then some of the kids will eat toast.  Rachel (now 7 months old) eats half of a banana each morning as well.  We very rarely cook anything else for breakfast.

SNACKS
We have one official snack time each day.  The kids grab a piece of fruit and head outside to eat it while they enjoy a break from school work.  Sometimes we have sliced watermelon, crackers, or granola bars in the afternoon.  This only happens about twice a week.  Otherwise I try to limit the snacks to the morning.  If the kids are really hungry then they can get a second piece of fruit or peel a carrot.

An impromptu picnic.  Joshua (4 years old)

LUNCH
This is not specifically planned.  I just fix whatever seems easiest on any given day.  Here are a few things we usually eat for lunch:
     -Cottage Cheese, Fruit, Carrot Sticks, Crackers
     -Leftovers
     -Lentil Soup, Bread/Biscuits
     -Smoothies, Popcorn/Crackers
     -Peanut Butter and Honey Sandwiches
     -Claude--We don't do very well with this one.  We are now trying to grill a bunch of chicken over the weekend, put it on top of some lettuce, and pack some yogurt and fruit to go along with it.  Otherwise he throws some Ramen and a can of tuna into his bag along with an apple or banana.

Jeremiah (1 1/2 years old)

DINNER
At the moment we have a weekly menu that is repeated throughout the month.  The meals planned are ones that the Crew has requested that we eat on a regular basis.  They enjoy knowing what to expect will be on the dinner table and I like the simplicity.  Eating the same foods every week makes shopping and cooking so easy!

I have found that meals take less and less time to prepare as the weeks go by because I have had a lot of practice making the same handful of meals.  It may seem a bit mundane, but at this stage in family life that is exactly what we need.  Simple, easy, and predictable.  I love it!

As an added bonus, Abby has learned to tell the passage of time by what we eat for dinner each night.  "Mommy, what day is it?"  "It's Thursday, Abby."  "No.  I mean, what are we eating for dinner?"  "Burritos, Abby."  "Yay!  It's burrito night!"  Nearly every week there is an announcement on Tuesday morning before heading out the door, "It's hamburger night!"

And those raw veggies that nobody touched the first couple of weeks I set them out?  Now they are everyone's favorite vegetable.  Imagine that!  ;)

Sunday: Reach, Get, and Eat Night
     -Leftovers
     -Macaroni and Cheese, Hot Dogs, Frozen Veggie
     -Claude's Curry Ramen and Hot Dogs (Sounds weird, but we all love it!)
Monday: Crock Pot Night
     -Garbanzo Bean Soup with Bread and Salad
     -Mac and Cheese with Frozen Veggie
     -White Chicken Chili with Bread or Tortillas, Salad
     -Meatballs with Egg Noodles, Green Beans
Tuesday: Hamburger Night (Claude's Favorite)
     -Hamburgers or Veggie Burgers, Fresh Sliced Veggies (carrots, cucumber, zucchini, tomato), Watermelon and/or Corn on the Cob when in season
Wednesday: Breakfast for Dinner Night (Joshua's Favorite)
     -Whole Wheat Pancakes (just use half and half whole wheat and all-purpose flour), Fresh Fruit, Scrambled Eggs (This is our mainstay, everything else listed may or may not be made in any given month)
     -Crustless Broccoli Quiche, Fresh Fruit, Blueberry Muffins
     -Breakfast Sausage Casserole, Pancakes, Fresh Fruit
     -Egg and Cheese Breakfast Sandwiches on Homemade English Muffins, Fresh Fruit
Thursday: Burrito Night (Jeremiah's Favorite)
     -Homemade Refried Beans (I modify this slightly to make a bit less although I still use a 5 lb. bag of pintos and freeze portions for the entire month), Spanish Rice, Shredded Lettuce, Tomato, Cheese, Tortillas
Friday: Pizza Night (Everyone's Favorite)
     -The Crew's Homemade Pizza Crust topped with pepperoni and black olives, Salad
Saturday: Crock Pot, Grill, or TBD
     -Hamburgers, Hot Dogs, or other meat I find on sale, Watermelon, Corn on the Cob, Salad or Grilled Veggies
     -BBQ Pulled Pork Sandwiches (actually a Crock Pot meal), Dinner Rolls, Fresh Veggies

Hannah (3 years old) and Abby (1 year old)

OTHER FOODS WE HAVE ON HAND
     -Pasta
     -Pasta Sauce
     -Ramen Noodles
     -Rice
     -Canned Veggies (usually green beans)
     -Canned Beans (combination of black beans, garbanzo beans, kidney beans)
     -Canned Diced Tomatoes
     -Dry Beans (pinto beans, garbanzo beans, black beans, lentils)
     -Jars of Salsa
     -Peanut Butte
     -Oats
     -Flour, Yeast, Etc.
     -Frozen Fruit
     -Ritz and Graham Crackers
     -Granola Bars (a big box from our local wholesale club)

With this list I can make a few different meals or supplemental foods in a hurry.  Some regular fall backs include: Mexican Rice Casserole, Stove Top Chili, Spaghetti, Hummus, Lentil Soup, Refried Beans, Sandwiches, Bread, Granola, Cookies

Rachel likes to feed herself.  (6 months old)

RACHEL
Because she is eating solids now, I do need a plan to feed Rachel.  Here's what we do right now.  Of course, it'll change in the coming months as she needs more food, can feed herself, and just generally gets older.

Also, you'll notice that she eats the same foods every day.  It's either this or she doesn't eat because I can't manage a million different fruits and veggies and combinations of the two each day.  I am going for realistic here, folks.  I'm sure some of you can relate!  ;)  My main goal is to have at least 1 meat, 1 fruit, 1 veggie, 1 dairy, and 1 grain each day.  When we have it, I add sour cream to her dinner for the extra fat.

Rachel is still nursing but I do give her a bottle twice a day.  It's all of 2 ounces but, it does help satisfy her and round out her lunch and dinner.  The nursing hasn't slowed down, so we're all good with it.

Breakfast: Self-Feeding
     -Half Banana (thinly sliced), Cheerios
Lunch: Oatmeal Mix
     -Fruit (banana, pear, mango, or blueberry...basically whatever we have in the house), Oatmeal, Whole Milk, Greek Yogurt, Bottle
Dinner: Chicken and Veggie Mix
     -Chicken, Veggie (sweet potato, green beans, or whatever else we have ready to throw in the food mill), Brown Rice, Sour Cream, Bottle
Other Favorites
    -Graham Crackers (broken into quarters)
    -Watermelon Rind (I eat the inside of a slice then give Rachel the rest to help sooth her gums while she is teething) 

Rachel's "twin" also liked to feed herself.  Hannah (6 months old)

How about you?  How do you plan to keep your hungry crew fed?
  

What We Eat

This book as been a hot commodity around our house this week.  It is a fascinating read and has amazing photographs that keep the kids' attention for hours on end.  I highly recommend it if you're interested in food, other cultures, etc.

Anyway...after reading through the various articles in this book, I was inspired to take a snapshot of the Crew's own weekly food consumption.  So, while Claude and I were putting away our groceries yesterday morning we set out all that we plan to eat in the coming week and got a quick photo.

I put together a list and the cost of each category of groceries.  These are close estimates that have been rounded up to the nearest dollar just to make things easier.  I may have forgotten a few items and I did not include the exact amounts that we would normally eat.  You probably don't want to know all of those details.  But here's the big picture.

Total Cost of One Week's Worth of Groceries for 2 adults, 4 children (1-6 years old), and 1 infant:  $130.00

*Items not shown in photo.

Snacks ($15)
Chips, Graham crackers, Ritz crackers, Granola bars, Popcorn, Pickles

Bread and Other Grains ($18)
Cheerios, Bread (1 loaf store bought; 3 loaves homemade), Corn tortillas, Brown rice, Whole wheat pasta, Oats, *Flour and other bread-making ingredients, *Hamburger buns

Protein--Meat, Beans, Etc. ($17)
Eggs, Garbanzo beans, Peanut butter, *Refried beans (homemade), *Black bean burgers (homemade), *Hamburger patties, Ground turkey

Dairy ($21)
Greek yogurt, Whole milk, Sour cream, Cottage cheese, *Grated mozzarella cheese, *Grated cheddar cheese

Fruit and Vegetables ($27)
Strawberries, Bananas, Lettuce, Watermelon, Tomato, Jalapeno, Carrots, Mandarin oranges, Apples, Zucchini, Cucumber, *Broccoli (frozen), *Blueberries (frozen)

Prepared Foods ($7)
Granola (store bought), Macaroni and Cheese

Dessert ($5)
Ice cream, *Chocolate chips

Canned Items ($11)
Salsa, Tomato sauce (for pizza), Tomato sauce (for pasta), Olives, Tuna, Diced tomatoes

Condiments ($3)
Ketchup, Mustard, Taco sauce, Chili sauce, Barbecue sauce, Oil, Vinegar

Beverages ($6)
*Coffee, *Tea

How about you?  What does your family eat in a week?

 

Paring Down

We're at a point where simplifying routines and organization is a must.  I do not at all consider five children a large family, but we have reached a crossover point.  If God gives us more children we will not be able to get by as a normal-sized American family with normal-sized American family habits.  Even now, we're just barely eek by with our current ways of getting things done.

An area that we have been talking about changing is our toy usage and storage.  The house can become cluttered and messy in a hurry.  While we have times of day when we clean up, it is still more of a chore than I would like at the moment.  So, with a little bit of last minute motivation (namely our rental house being put up for sale and us being required to have it in "showing condition" 6 days a week) Claude and I spent one evening clearing things out, rearranging, and paring down.

I started the afternoon clearing out the clothing bins from here.

I quickly organized them by gender and size and moved them here with some help from the little Crew.

Then we moved nearly all of the toys here.  Do you recognize the messy closet from above?  :)

But left a few here.

 
And here:

We pared down the craft closet and made room for my sewing machine and fabric.

And finally moved the music area to our living room, which makes me feel like a grown-up.  I think we've had toys in our living room since Joshua was born nearly 7 years ago.

I'm not a fan of the house showing thing.  It's stressful and a bit frustrating.  On the bright side, however, our house is staying really clean and we got some desired streamlining finished (in a hurry)!

How do you keep the stuff in your life in check?

 

Library Day

Library Day.  It's exciting for the kids to get new reading material.  It's encouraging for me on particularly crazy days because I know that once we arrive home the house will be quiet for at least one full hour.  Overall it is a winning combination.

The outing itself is becoming stressful enough that I have reconsidered our library habit.  How to tweak it and still get the benefit of a pile of new books every few weeks?  For now we're making do with the current system.  If the Crew grows in numbers (and no, that is not an announcement neither is it a reference to any future announcements) our library days will need to change...we hardly fit through the rows of books as it is.

While at the library, the kids are instructed to follow our "Library Rules".  These rules strongly resemble our "Store Rules" and other general outing rules.  Some trips are more successful than others, as one can expect with a handful of littles in tow.

The "Library Rules" are as follows:

1. Obey Mommy.
2. Stay with the stroller.
3. Books go in the bag.
4. Stop taking books when Mom says so.
5. No tantrums or arguing.

Rachel and Jeremiah are loaded into the double stroller.  Rachel stays in the front and Jeremiah sits in the back where I can open the sunshade, pull it forward a bit, and keep his little hands from grabbing fifty books off of the shelves while we cruise the narrow aisles.  Lately the older kids have picked out a board book or two for him to read while we make our selections.

We usually start out in the picture book section where the kids make a beeline for the Berenstain Bears and Franklin books.  They are each allowed to pick two. Then I look through the a row of picture books and choose some for Abby and Jeremiah.

Now that Joshua and Hannah are reading so well, they are getting into chapter books.  So, we've been stopping by the chapter book section to start getting an idea of what's out there.  I'm here to tell you that finding age-appropriate chapter books for a 5-year-old and a 6-year-old is challenging to say the least.  For now they read the Little House books - which we discovered yesterday have some extras written about Laura Ingalls Wilder's mother and great-grandmother.  Maybe there are more...we'll see.

The favorite section is the non-fiction section.  This time we skipped the animal books and headed straight for the history section.  Joshua found a cool book about wagon trains and early settlers.  It inspired him to wake up this morning and declare this a "beautiful morning...so beautiful that it's a great day to wake up, pack the wagon, and move to Wisconsin!"  :)

After braving the self check-out, we arrive home, divvy up the books, and everyone heads to rest time for some reading.  The quiet is like a breath of fresh air!  :)

We have a special shelf in the school room for our library books.  It doesn't always look this nice...

On the shelf I put a piece of painters' tape with the number of books we have and their due date.  This time we have 27 books which is on the high end of normal for us.  This piece of tape enables the kids to count up our books before the next visit to make sure we don't leave any behind.  It also helps me remember what date we must head back to the library.  The three weeks fly by in a hurry and I am almost always surprised that another Library Day is upon us.

If you stop by our house within the first few days of a library trip you are likely to find a lot of little noses in books.  Even during outside play time!

And even little non-reading noses!  :)

Grocery Shopping with the Crew

Recently we have been trying our hand (again) with once a month grocery shopping. Our first attempt was while we lived in a one bedroom apartment in the New York City area.  It was a bit too much for us at that time.  After reading about how a few other families execute this type of grocery shopping I talked to Claude and we decided to give it another try.  We are working on modifying it to fit our family.

What do I like about once a month shopping?

Well, ideally it means that we only step into a grocery store a dozen times a year.  This helps us stay on budget and also saves time.  It also requires that we have a plan to make sure all the mouths are fed and our food is not put to waste.  We have been making weekly menus for the past year.  It works, but I was spending a lot of time over the course of a few weeks.  And we were spending more on groceries than I wanted to.

NOTE: Since our post about the cost of feeding our family, we have adjusted our food budget to $600 monthly.  With once a month shopping this is working well.  It was not working well when we were going to the grocery store a couple of times a week.

There are a million and one resources on the web for once a month shopping.  I don't have the time now or a workable system to write about.  If you're curious, just turn to our good friend, Google, and you'll find a host of articles written by all sorts of people who really know what they are doing.  Some of them even have printable grocery lists and samples of their monthly menus.

This is about halfway through a trip to the wholesale club.  It took us 45 minutes in the store and our "train" as the kids called it, drew plenty of attention from other shoppers.  I pushed the stroller and pulled the cart while Joshua helped steer from behind the cart.  It worked out well enough that we'll do it again if we can't go with Claude next time.

The kids and I braved this month's big shopping trips since Claude had his 50K race on the weekend we planned to shop.  We divided it into two days.  One day we went to the wholesale club and the next day we tackled the regular grocery store.  All in all it was successful.  We even made it to and from the store without incident.  Well...kind of...

At least our issues didn't happen in the store.  But I did find myself frantically unloading a van full of kids and groceries while Jeremiah (who had diarrhea in his car seat on the way home) screamed from the bathroom, Abigail had a tantrum right in the front doorway, and Rachel wailed from the confines of her car seat.  Oh, yeah...I also had to clean a car seat cover in the midst of that.  Ugh...

So far the once a month shopping has proven to be a good fit for our family at this stage.  I was able to quickly put together a menu for the month.  I tried to see what was already in our freezer and pantry.  I also am trying to make foods that everyone likes so that we don't have unwanted leftovers hanging around.  No more Pinterest searches for what to make for dinner.  We're sticking with some tried and true favorites.

I've also instituted a little "Leftovers for Lunch" campaign.  So far, so good.  It's made lunch preparation quick and easy (something I need in the middle of our school days) and has enabled us to keep up with eating leftovers before they've sat around long enough that we wonder if they are okay to consume.

And just to set things straight...we do actually go to the store every week.  BUT the list is generally short and we are keeping our wholesale club shopping to just once a pay period.  Each week we buy fresh produce and restock milk as needed.

We also keep our eyes open for sales on meat.  When we find one, we stock up and then use what's on hand in our menu planning (something we've always done).  This weekend Claude found ground beef marked down to $1 per pound.  He got several packages that are now in our freezer.  And when the kids and I went on our big trip we found turkey (leftover from Thanksgiving) on sale for $0.27 per pound.  I estimate that we spent about $30 on meat for this month and much of next month.  Don't you just love it when you score a good deal like that?  :)

Will we do grocery shopping like this forever and ever?  I don't know.  My "I must find the one right and best way to do something and execute it perfectly for the duration of my days" type thinking wants to plan on this system for the rest of our lives.  But I'm learning that what works now may or may not work in the future.  Right now it's working and I'm looking forward to settling into a routine with once a month shopping.  We shall see how long it will work well for us.

Getting Kids Involved in Household Chores

I was asked once, after writing some posts about our schedule, where cleaning fits into the mix.  I was a little embarrassed to say that cleaning was not on the schedule because we didn't have a specific plan of keeping our house clean.

There are daily tasks that Claude and I perform to keep the household up.  Every evening we finish up the dishes and go over the floors after the kids finish their kitchen chores.  We wipe down the counter tops, take out the trash, make sure things are picked up around the house, and Claude faithfully cleans the toilets and any other bathroom surface that needs attention.

In this way we keep up with the basics.  But the truth was that since our third child, keeping up with vacuuming, mopping, dusting, and other chores just wasn't happening.  Life with three children ages 3, 2, and newborn was just too much to put weekly household chores into our schedule.  We did other cleaning on an as needed basis.  And let me tell you that it was certainly needed!

Fast forward a few years and we find ourselves in a new and different life stage.

One day, more out of desperation than anything, I put a vacuum into the hands of Joshua and Hannah.  I gave them a few basic instructions and then let them have some fun "cleaning" the front rooms.  To my surprise they not only enjoyed the work, but they also did a really good job cleaning the floors.

It was then that a new day dawned in our little family.  I knew that now I had some willing and able helpers to keep up with more than the basics.  So, we instituted a set of Friday morning chores.  When we finish our work, we head to the park with our local home school group - the perfect motivation to get all of us through our chores.

Now, I find that our carpets are vacuumed and our kitchen floor is mopped at least once a week.  Because Joshua and Hannah are able to help out with cleaning the floors, doing the laundry, cleaning the windows, taking out the trash, and changing bedding, we can keep up throughout the week even better.

I have purposely waited a few months before posting about this new cleaning system.  I wanted to be sure that it was actually working and that we were able to maintain our Friday chores over a period of time.  Now after about four months, it has become a regular part of our weekly schedule.  With a few exceptions (everyone being sick or pre/postnatal check ups with the midwife) we have been cleaning every Friday morning.

Can I just say that freshly vacuumed and mopped floors are amazing!  I wasn't able to keep up with it for a season.  That required a definite change in my expectations. But I'm glad to be back in a family stage where regular cleaning can actually happen.




Our usual jurisdictions are as follows:

Joshua, 6 years old:
-Boys' Room--change bedding, pick up toys, vacuum
-Front Bathroom--change trash, change towels
-Living Room--pick up toys, vacuum
-Laundry--wash, dry, and put away boys' room bedding

Hannah, 5 years old:
-Girls' Room--change bedding, pick up toys, vacuum
-Master Bathroom--change trash, change towels
-School Room--pick up toys and books, vacuum
-Laundry--wash, dry, and put away girls' room bedding

Abigail, 3 years old:
-Girls' Room--help Hannah change bedding, pick up toys
-Clean slider door
-Mommy's helper

Jeremiah, 1 year old:
-Help Abby clean slider door
-Mommy's helper

Mom, unidentified age :)
-Master Bedroom--pick up, change bedding
-Bathrooms--clean sinks, counters, mirrors, tubs, and toilets, mop
-Kitchen--clean sink, counter, and windowsill, sweep and mop
-Laundry--keep up with loads
-Oversee kids' chores

Sometimes we change it up a bit, like this week when Joshua and Hannah worked together to clean all of the bedrooms, the living room, and the school room.  I took care of the kitchen and bathrooms with some help from Abby and Jeremiah.  I was proud of the kids to see how they are starting to take responsibility for their assigned areas.

It may not be perfect or exactly how I would do things, but they are doing their best work, learning to work together, and are beginning to develop good attitudes about their chores.
 

The Great Toy Purge of 2013

We had a bit of a crisis one evening last week.  One of our children is a bit of a pack rat.  Okay...so maybe more than a bit.  This kid collects all manner of trash and treasures to store in any container, bag, backpack, shelf, or corner that can be found.

If ever we are missing something we know where to go.  The problem is that we can never find what we're looking for until we deal with a mess like this...

And there are times when we have had enough and we insist on clearing out the entire room.

After a long talk one night, Claude and I decided that part of the problem is that this child has access to a lot of toys and other items.  Perhaps if there was less to gather less would be collected?  It was worth a try.

I've been wanting to clean out our toys for a while, so this seemed like the perfect opportunity.

So, after throwing away and giving away about half of the kids' toys here's what resulted.

Nearly all of our toys are in this part of the living room.

The boys' room now has beds, a tool bench, dress-up armor, Legos, individual keepsake bins, and clothing.

The girls' room has beds (yes, they are unmade...this is real life, folks!), a doll house and accessories, Legos, clothing, and individual keepsake bins.  Once Rachel moves in the empty wall will have a play yard.

This left some extra shelving and bins to clear out this:

Our school room shelves.

And this:

The reading corner minus half of the books that we once had there.

So that we could organize this:

The entryway closet now houses craft supplies, games, and other things we don't want the kids to have free access to.

And this:

No more folding the linens!  Now we can just toss linens into their labeled bins and be done.

Which gave some incentive to hang up these:

Now if we can just tackle this:

We'll be set!

5 Ways to Simplify Laundry

Nothing can be more daunting than a mountain of laundry which seems to grow exponentially.  And around our house, nothing seems to come in greater abundance than laundry.  With soon to be 5 kids ages 6 years and under, I have to be realistic with how laundry is done.

Here are 5 ways to simplify the laundry in your life.  Some of these suggestions may not be applicable or useful to your family, so take it for what it is: How one family, working outside the laundry basket, attempts to keep up with the laundry monster.

1. Find a consistent time of day to work on laundry.  I find that it's easiest to do laundry every day instead of waiting for one or two days during the week.  This depends on how many people are in your household - the fewer people, the less laundry and the fewer days per week you will need to do it.  The opposite is true as your family grows - more people equals more laundry equals more laundry days.

Our washer has a very cool feature called "Delay Wash".  If I'm staying on top of doing the laundry, I wash cloth diapers after dinner time and then put a load in the washer before bed.  Then I set the machine to start washing early the next morning.  When we wake up, the laundry is ready to be moved to the dryer.  This keeps from having wet, smelly laundry in the morning, and also ensures that the laundry is ready to be sorted and put away early in the day.

A consistent time of day helps so that laundry is part of your routine and not an interruption to it.  Figure out what works for your schedule and then take a month to build the laundry habit into your day or week.

2. Pare down your wardrobe.  Yep, the fewer clothes you have the less laundry you can make.  I've found this to be amazingly true as I've noticed the huge difference in how full my kids' clean laundry baskets are.

Our 1-year-old has very few clothes - just the bare minimum - and his basket is barely full any time we're doing laundry (no matter how many loads I've washed and sorted).  Our 5-year-old, on the other hand, has a lot of hand-me-downs (praise the Lord for hand-me-downs!) that she has fallen in love with.  As a result she has more clothes than she needs, changes them often, and has an overflowing basket every time we sort.

So, figure out what your family really needs in terms of clothing, bedding, and towels, and get rid of the rest.

3. Wash in big loads.  We did this out of necessity over the years of living in apartment buildings.  I wasn't interested in paying $1.25 to wash a tiny load of delicates.  So, we don't sort our dirty laundry.  Everything goes into one big load and everything gets dried together (with very few exceptions).  This saves time and we've never had any problems.

If you have a crew of small kiddos, try to buy clothes that are easily laundered and will lend themselves to washing all together.  Try not to buy clothes that will bleed or shrink easily.  Trust me, your 4-year-old is not going to miss wearing a cashmere sweater!

In our household, there is one exception to the large load rule: Cloth diapers.  I put these along with Abby's training underwear in their own load.  In our apartment days we washed cloth diapers by hand, but now we can put them in the washing machine (which senses the size of the load so as not to waste water or energy).  The diaper covers hang up to dry.  The inserts/prefolds may hang up, they may stay in the machine to be washed and dried with the big load, or I may put them directly in the dryer.  Usually I leave them in the machine since I'm not too fussed about the detergent and such - it simplifies things in the long run.  Once in a while I put vinegar in the rinse cycle to strip the diapers and help them maintain their absorbancy.

4. Stop folding.  No, we don't fold clothes except very casually.  Why no folding? Let's face it...my laundry helpers are 3, 5, and 6 years old. Clothes stay folded as long as they are in a neat pile in Dad and Mom's bedroom. Once little hands touch the piles, the folding is out the window. And have you checked your kids' dresser drawers recently? Yeah. Folding is a bit of a waste in my opinion, but then again, I don't mind slightly wrinkled clothes.

Our big laundry breakthrough came with the discovery of the "Sort and Stuff Method".

-Laundry comes out of the dryer and is sorted into baskets and piles depending on how it is stored.
-Sorted laundry is gathered up and stuffed into the appropriate drawers and baskets.  A few miscellaneous items are folded.
-Done.

Our sorting looks like this:
-Each family member has a labeled basket (Dad and Mom share) and one for cloth diapers.
-There is a pile each for towels, sheets, and things to fold (small linens that don't have baskets yet and kitchen towels that need to stored in a shallow drawer).

This method has really simplified laundry and has cut back on the time it takes to get it all put away (which for us is the hardest aspect).  As our kids grow up and our family changes I'm not sure that we will keep this method, but for now it is the simple solution that we need to keep from climbing mountains of laundry on a daily basis.

5. Enlist some help from your crew.  Our kids have always helped out with household chores since they were young.  Our laundry help looks a bit like this:

-(Almost) 3-year-old Abby transfers laundry from the washer to the dryer each morning before breakfast.  Front loaders definitely help in this area!
-Every child has "Mom's Helper" day (except 1-year-old Jeremiah, who tags along anyway).  On that day they help me to sort and put away laundry along with a couple of other household tasks.  This is a great way to spend some individual time with my kids!
-Every child is responsible to put away his/her clothing every afternoon once it is washed, dried, and sorted.  Even Abby is able to do this since we have labeled her set of drawers.

Kids love to help and feel important around the house.  So, if they're old enough, have your kids load the washer and/or dryer.  Let them help you sort and (if you do it) fold.  It may not be how you would do it, but it's a wonderful learning and growing opportunity for them.  And it will help you in the long run.

Sometimes tackling every day chores requires a bit of ingenuity, a change in expectations, and a willingness to think and work outside the box.  Figure out what isn't working for your family in the area of laundry and then brainstorm some solutions - you may find the one that makes you laugh is the one that works (like sorting and stuffing).

Now, get out there and do some laundry!


So, how do you tackle laundry in your house?

Check how others are getting their laundry done at The Joyful Keeper.

Simple, Healthy, and Affordable Breakfast Solutions

The Crew is always looking for ways to simplify.  Meals tend to be one of the biggest areas of need in that regard.  Not only do we want everyone fed as easily as possible, but we want meals that are healthy and affordable.

If you've read our post about grocery budgets, you know that I'm looking for ways to continue cutting costs on our food bill.  Until recently, cold cereal was our staple breakfast.  This was something the kids could serve themselves, it was reasonably healthy because we chose cereals without sugar and with as many whole grains as we could, and it was not incredibly expensive.

However, after reviewing our spending some more, I thought we could save just a bit more on breakfast foods.  Here was my criteria:

Simple - This means that the kids can serve themselves with minimal mess and little error.  I also wanted something that we could throw together each day or once a week without a lot of time or effort involved.

Healthy - Not only did I want something healthy, but also something that would be filling and help everyone make it (without incident) to snack time.

Affordable - My affordability measure was simply for the breakfast solution to cost less than the cold cereal we were already buying.

I came up with three different solutions:

Homemade Granola - This was simple for morning preparation and healthy (provided I used very little or no oil and only a bit of sugar).  It was also affordable because oats are, well...affordable.  The only downside is that to make enough granola to last even a week in our house takes an hour or more.  But it went into the mix anyway.

Frozen Waffles and Muffins - These also makes morning preparation simple.  They are cheaper than cold cereal and having found some good recipes, they are healthy.  But like the granola, the advanced preparation time was at least an our (and for waffles more like 2 hours).  It also went into the mix, though.

Homemade Instant Oatmeal "Packets" - This has become the breakfast staple.  It is simple the day of and very quick to mix up a huge batch in advance.  It is definitely healthy even with some sugar to sweeten it up.  We are certainly spending less than we did on cold cereal.  And I've taught the kids how to prepare their own, which gives them a sense accomplishment and enables Claude and I get ready in the mornings.

Armed with these solutions, we set to work to stock the freezer and get out the giant bags of oats.  The girls have helped considerably with preparations and at this point we have about 5 dozen muffins, 1 dozen waffles (we've eaten a few already), and 20 cups worth of dry instant oatmeal "packet" mix to get us through the breakfast rush.  The granola is still awaiting preparation, but with everything else that we have on hand it's not all that necessary.

You can check out the recipes that we used here:

Simple Stovetop Granola - We have used this recipe for about 4 years now.  I cut back the butter/oil and sugar quite a bit from this recipe.

Whole Wheat Apple Waffles - We like ours with peanut butter.

Hearty Spiced Carrot Muffins - I also made a batch with zucchini in place of the carrot.  And I reduced the sugar.  These are awesome so make extra that you can eat and still have something left for the freezer!

Healthy Toddler Oatmeal Banana Muffins - Don't let the name fool you.  These are for "kids" of ALL ages.

Homemade Instant Oatmeal Packets - We add cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger to our mix.

 So, what are you favorite breakfast solutions?

The Cost of Feeding Our Family

We've been trying to live within a strict grocery budget for something like...our entire marriage!  I jest...a little.

For whatever reason, I have this idea that we can feed a family of six for $400/month.  It seems possible, doesn't it?  I consider ourselves to be pretty frugal when it comes to spending and we practice many ways of eating on the cheap.

We don't eat out except on a rare occasion and the only "prepared" foods we buy are cereal (Cheerios and Corn Flakes) and crackers (Ritz and Graham).  We make most things from scratch (although I'm still trying to stay on the homemade bread wagon...I seem to fall off pretty quickly each round).  We limit meals with meat to a couple times per week, buy dry beans and rice, buy in bulk when that saves money, and throw away very (and I do mean very) little food - the kids don't say that Daddies eat all the leftovers without due cause.

We also do not have any dietary restrictions that require us to pay more for our groceries.  No allergies.  No sensitivities.  No chronic illness.  It makes life easy.  Praise the Lord!

Not to mention the bazillion blogs and websites I read each month trying to glean frugal insights from others (I'll say here that I'm getting the point where everything I read is old news...and most of it we already put into practice).

$400/month seems like an attainable goal, right?

And yet we haven't met that goal in months.  In fact, it's probably been even more than a year or two since we've managed it.  I was blaming the increased prices on many grocery items (like beef and dairy) or even our own overspending.

But tonight I had an eye-opening experience.

According to the most recent FDA report (May 2013), the average cost of feeding our family (from the most frugal plan, based on ages of all individuals) should be more like this:

$719.60 / Month

According to this article, I could reduce this amount by 5% to have a more accurate estimate.  That in mind, our food bill should be more like this:

$683.62 / Month

That is a HUGE difference from what I perceived as being achievable.  Of course, I do consider that we may actually eat for less than this amount even when we're exceeding by a long shot our very limited budget.  So, I did a little number crunching (I must be a nerd because this was actually an enjoyable way to spend my Sunday evening).  Here's what I calculated:

FDA Model (Thrifty Plan, Family of 6, with 5% Reduction)

Daily Meals (Per Individual)

          Breakfast:  $0.75

          Snacks (2/day): $1.00 ($0.50/snack)

          Lunch: $1.00

          Dinner: $1.25 

Daily Meals (Whole Family)

          Breakfast:  $4.50

          Snacks (2/day):  $6.00 ($3.00/snack)

          Lunch: $6.00

          Dinner: $7.50

                    Daily Total: $24.00

                    Weekly Total: $168.00 

Chew Crew Actual Spending (Typical Weekday Meal Plan)

I did take in to account the differences in how much each person in our family eats.  Each meal was itemized by ingredient and amount of that ingredient.  For simplicity I added and averaged.  So, while Claude will definitely eat more than Jeremiah, the numbers resemble the amount of food (based on the prices we usually pay) our family actually eats.

The menu I used used reflects what we normally eat.  Because Claude packs his lunch and I do not always eat the same thing as the kids, there is quite a long list on some meals.  The cost was calculated based on the number of people and the amount per serving of each food item.

Also, the dinner I chose to calculate runs a little higher than most meals that we prepare.  However, it seems to average out throughout the month depending on what we choose to eat for lunch and dinner (the two most variable meals) and what we eat on the weekends.  Weekend meals range a bit more from the week because we are all at home and Claude is not packing his lunch.

Daily Meals (Per Individual)

          Breakfast:  $0.69

                (toast, cereal, yogurt, fruit)

          Snacks (2/day): $0.69 ($0.35/snack)

                (apple, cottage cheese, peanut butter, other fruit, crackers, cheese slices)             

          Lunch: $0.83

                (pasta salad, lentil soup, salad, PBJ, carrots, fruit)

          Dinner: $1.51

                (beef tacos, beans, rice)

Daily Meals (Whole Family)

          Breakfast:  $4.15

          Snacks (2/day):  $4.16 ($2.08/snack)

          Lunch: $4.95

          Dinner: $9.08

                    Daily Total: $22.34

                    Weekly Total: $156.38

This puts our average monthly grocery bill (and it is within a few dollars of what we actually spent in June 2013) at:

$625.52 / Month

My evaluation of this little exercise goes something like this:

1. I'm not going crazy!  Groceries really do cost more.  We're not overspending and being unwise with the resources we have.  What we're spending every month is in line with national averages for a family our size.  In fact, our monthly spending is 13% less than the unadjusted average according to the FDA.  Definitely NOT crazy.

2. I'm obviously crazy!  I am expecting, week after week, month after month, that we can pay a certain amount for groceries.  No matter how many times this number is proven unattainable, I still go back to the store (well-planned and even calculated to the penny) list in hand with the same unrealistic goal in mind.  What's the definition of insanity???  Yep...crazy.

So, there you have it, folks.  A reality check that is both freeing and frightening.

So, how much do you *try* to spend on groceries for yourself or your family each month?  How do you come out - over or under budget?