Nice. That would be about 10 dinners worth of meat for us, and it would have cost $32 for the meat alone here.

I am super late to this thread and will have to go back to read but I have a goal of working out 4-5 times a week, and losing 10% of my body weight. I have been working out 3-4 times a week since fall. I want to be up to 5 consistently by March. There is a small chance I will coach youth soccer in the spring, so that will help. I take an adult ballet class on Tuesdays, do stationary biking at home, walks, PT exercises for pelvic floor and hips, stretching, dumbells, resistance bands, and occasionally HIIT. Weight is hard to come off. I have had thyroid problems since age 11. I was underweight until about 21, then overweight since about 30 after having kids. Even in my most diligent times, it took many months to lose 5#. 10% is a reasonable goal but could take every bit of 2023 to reach. Last week for accountability... Biked Mon and Thurs, ballet Tues, weights and resistance Wed.

I went to CLE Learning to Read. There was a bit of overlap in the beginning, but it worked well for us to build at that pace.

1/8 $44.31 40 gas, 4.31 half gallon store brand organic whole milk 1/9 $0

So far I have not purchased any clothes for the kids. ✔ If I make it through the week not needing any more groceries, I have hit 38/100$ off grocery budget for month. Using gift cards to keep restaurant spending down. I have a free Dunkin tea in app for tomorrow and kids each have a GC. ✔

So far we have only done one delivery. It came in 2 huge boxes packed well to keep meats cold. The only snafu was that they sent a wrong recipe card but a call to CS got me the right one via email. 4 of the 6 meals we tried were GREAT and 2 were just okay. They are cheaper than some other services because they do not chop the veggies etc and you have to use your own salt, pepper, and oil. We did end up with excess garlic and onion and lime. They rotate many options and you pick which you want, so it's not the same 12 options each week. I have also sent 2 boxes to my parents, all vegetarian, and they have been happy with everything. I think I have free box codes or something but I don't know if that breaks any rules here, although I don't know if there is a perk on my end.

Wellll yes and no. I was under my $ limit for eating out because we had some gift cards, but we also stopped out more than we usually do. And my receipt says it was $13 instead of $10 because I forgot I got a ginger ale. LoL But yes, cheaper for 3 than a drive thru. I have been good about the water bottles and I have the week's menu planned and some snacks prepped. I am hoping to spend $0 M-F. I also reactivated my Every Plate for their $1.49/serving offer. So NEXT week (16th) we will get 6 dinners for 4 people for $46 shipped. I also had a goal of saving $100 in the month in groceries. If I buy nothing else before Friday, I will have skimmed $38 off of my biweekly amount.

This week's dinner plans... Tikka masala Sausage and beans and rice Sweet and sour chicken Tacos Pork loin Kielbasa Chicken and dumplings

They did get new jumbo water bottles for Christmas so we carry those to avoid buying drinks while on the run. Florida is always hot and we are always thirsty. 🙂 Today we slept in, had omlettes and fruit at brunch time, ran errands and ran out of time to get back home for food before chess club. So we dropped into the grocery store for ready-made deli sandwiches, which was $10. 😞

Right. We don't jump around in math, and we stick with RS for grammar. But we have gleaned from each writing program so far.

So I am struggling with doing things midday when no one is hungry, getting caught up and grabbing food out, and spending too much that way. I think I may start packing lunches or snacks a few days a week even if we don't have firm plans to go out so I can grab them if we do. We have to stop the $7, $10, $14 a pop trips.

We have been alternating styles. We did some Brave Writer, then the TT CW, now IEW Structure and Style. That way we hit a lot of concepts and techniques without burnout or boredom.

Last year I bought a Thinking Tree creative writing book with prompts and he loved it.

Yes, they just scanned it for a few years and in conjunction with my labs decided it wasn't changing and not something that had to be monitored as frequently.

We liked it a lot. I used it easily with my older boy when he was technically in first grade, and will be using it again with my younger in second. There isn't a ton of writing necessary. I just pulled out the student text. I should say that I don't have mine read the lesson or work alone in English until at least grade 4. We read together and do some written work, some oral. You have to build hand stamina. Lesson 1 is on sentences and requires the child to answer numbers 1-3 with a single word from a word bank. Then, they read 10 phrase sets and decide if A or B is a complete sentence. This could be done on paper or aloud. For writing practice, they can continue to write the 4 complete sentences they find in a set of 7 phrases. Halfway through the book, they discuss plural vs singular. There is a 12 question oral drill. Then they have to write 4 sentences about their family, 2 using US and 2 using WE. After that, 4 sentences about self, 2 each I and ME. Towards the end, there is a lesson on choosing synonyms for 6 words from a word bank after looking them up in the dictionary. I feel the entire sequence progresses well and is appropriate at every level. 7 has definitely taught me things I never learned in public school or college, but my child grasps it easily because of how it has built incrementally.

There is an interesting youtube video about giftedness being special needs or something... I will have to find it again. Here we go: https://youtu.be/QUjYy4Ksy1E

We are trying to help a stray cat and are looking at some vet bills next week. Not thrilled but he's sweet and we are smitten. More groceries today. Challenge butter was BOGO and I had 2 coupons from prior boxes. Also got decaf iced coffees BOGO.

I haven't noticed anything to be missing completely or freakishly high prices like the jumps in spring/summer 2021 that later settled. However, I have noticed the dollar stores and Walmart are continually looking absolutely ransacked. More people shopping discount stores I suppose.

Another vote for Rod and Staff. Oldest has used 2-7 and next year will use 8 while youngest starts in 2.

Zero spending today but I did go out last night for the new produce sales at the nearest store, and a hair clip for my niece. Will update numbers.

I use the same visual aid I used when paying off debt years ago... printables from Debt Free Charts.

So here was our snag yesterday. We go to the fancy donut shop on orthodontist days. We were not supposed to go back until April but suddenly needed an appointment. I had no plans to get donuts, but was reminded that the last 2 times they were closed or sold out before we got there. So donuts happened. Today, they talked me into using their fast food GCs someone gave them for Christmas. I spent $6 on overage. I also got gas again since it is rising again.

No, but I did see a couple of article headlines yesterday saying it's about to shoot up again. I didn't have it in me to click the links.

Yes, 29c since 12/23 here.

We ate the last of the beans and greens and such for dinner. We did get pushed way back on lunch because haircuts ran twice as long as expected. Got the kids a chicken strip meal at a drive thru to hold them. Picked up loss leader produce at a grocer near the salon. Making meal plan for rest of week now.