Oh my word!!!!!! We are already paying a ton and are looking at a $500/month hike but that is shocking!!!

Rent- it is insane here in south Texas. Insane

My family knows a close personal friend of theirs and they said he was not in the water and the media has it all wrong. The media has changed their story 3 times from 2 foot of water, to 1 foot of water, to ankle deep water so I am inclined to believe our friend.

ugh I just moved to south Texas and didnt even think about this. I usually always leave my butter out- love having it spreadable.

my average since January puts us at 12%

I second this ^^^^^

Nobody I know eats this way. I eat healthy (Paleo AIP right now, but usually unprocessed) and I eat way more protein than that. My kids would starve if thats all the protein they got and would load up on carbs which would not be healthy. Most people I know eat protein at all 3 meals and definitely more than 1-2 ounces per meal. I know no one that just eats 1 egg for breakfast and no other protein. I am not saying no one eats like this but if I polled 100 people that know, I don't even think 1 person would say this is how they eat. I find this to be extremely low protein.

Bread is one thing I don't make very often because we only use it for sandwiches and I cannot make a good sandwich bread to save my life. I just buy Wonderbread at the Dollar Tree. If I make a loaf it is for a meal and everyone would only get 1 slice.

LOL. My kids get stuffed on 2 pieces of my pizza, whereas a store bought they could eat a half or whole pizza!!! I work on prep until it is taking me very little time so I'm not wasting any time for the things I feel really worth it. I also ration everything- if I make yogurt they can only have one per week so I am only making it once a week. It takes me like a total of 5 mins to make my pizza dough and I make a double batch and freeze it, at the same time I make my yogurt. I can now overlap my prep and get 2 things done at once and also freeze extra stuff so that I am not having to do a lot of prep every single week.

I think making versus buying is the easiest way to save. What I love most is that it cuts your grocery list down to a basic list of staples so it is easy to keep a pricebook and easy to shop. The less I have to keep track of, the easier it is to keep the grocery bill down. Its then easier to stock up if anything is on sale. I did at one time have the costs broke down like they do on the Budgetbytes website and almost all my homemade stuff is as cheap or cheaper than store bought and is way healthier. So even if I am just breaking even I consider it a win because there is no extra junk in the food and therefore it is more filling and we eat a little less and have leftovers to eat for lunch, which snowballs into saving more money. If I am stocking up when things are on sale, I am almost always saving money. When I am 100% in, I don't even ever look at at any convenience or processed foods. I have all the baking staples and I can make a variety of pancakes, waffles, biscuits, muffins, doughs....etc. I started out learning to make one or two things until it was easy and then I try and do a few new things here and there. Pizza dough and biscuits take me no time at all and have become automatic- I use Money Saving Mom's freezer pizza dough recipe and one batch makes us four large pizzas. Then I buy $1 jar of sauce, $1 pack of pepperoni and I always have shredded cheese (I buy big blocks from Sams and shred and freeze). Just doing this saves us on eating out pizza. At first it doesnt seem worth it with the time it takes to make everything, but swapping out one or two things until they become easy helps a lot and now it doesnt seem like extra work.

When I plan every single meal I save the most and waste no food (for snacks I buy 5 snacks and they can pick one each day so its not like I say you have to eat an apple on Monday) For breakfast I will write- eggs and sausage, pancakes and sausage (2), waffles and eggs (2), biscuits and gravy (2) so thats 7 meals. I know how much each person usually eats and then I figure out how much sausage we will use, etc. I pre make the pancakes, waffles and biscuits and freeze or frige them and pre make the sausage pattys (or buy premade frozen if on sale) and that way everyone can pick what they want for the day but they only get each breakfast as many times as listed. We save the biscuits and gravy for the weekends usually. I do lunch and dinner the same and I list 2 items to bake on the weekends. I stick the list on the frige and we can choose what we feel like eating that day.

Listening in- I'm having to do the same thing without an aldi or cheap grocery store- here in south Texas we only have Walmart and HEB and neither is cheap. I hate coupons and I don't find them helpful for actual food we buy (I am on Paleo AIP right now and I cook mostly from scratch) Truly EXACT meal planning and keeping a good 'ole fashioned price book has been helping a little. I literally plan out breakfast, lunch, dinner and a snack for everyone for everyday. I bake 1 dessert on the weekend for everyone and we dont eat after dinner on the weekdays. We only drink water and cheap coffee. I shop once a week with cash and thats it. I watch a lot of youtube videos and follow a lot of bloggers, but its the same old stuff- cook from scratch, plan, grow a garden, eat leftovers or coupon.

LOVE my hydroflask!!!!

One of many reasons we quit girl scouts. I will not be forced to sell or buy anything. Try and make me.

I always do- reply by X date or you will be marked a no- sorry no exceptions. People that can't say yes or no annoy me to no end

we do summer stuff- sunglasses, flip flops, beach towels, pool toys etc. we just moved to south Texas and will be living at the beach so I added boogie boards this year :) I do a little candy (standard jelly beans and peeps) and sometimes a $5 gift card or something.

Love 21 day fix. Its easy, healthy, and it works. I did a round and lost 12 pounds (I have 50 to lose though) I am starting another round tomorrow. I think the workouts are just right. They are not to hard or too long and you can adjust them to your level. They are not boring and Autumn is my favorite trainer. Shes not super cheery or super mean, but pretty motivating. I like the containers because mentally I cannot ever count another calorie and this is a simple way to portion out stuff. There are a ton of blogs with recipes that already have the containers figured out. I do use Shakeology because I have tried a bunch of other protein powders and Shakeology is the only one I like the taste of. I have done every diet onthe planet and this is by far the easiest and healthiest. I aim to eat unprocessed and this fits the bill!!

We live in Portland TX and I LOVE LOVE LOVE Rockport. Coolest little town with awesome beach. We love watching the dolphins and fishing and bike riding there. Quick shout out to south Texas- So many beaches and cool towns to visit if you want to take a REALLY long drive. The national seashore, Padre Island, Rockport, Port Aransas, Corpus Christi...... ferry rides, cool restaurants, USS Lexington, Schlitterbahn waterpark, tons of beaches, dolphins, aquariums, fishing.......

I had major drama at my old church and wanted to leave, but I didn't. I stuck it out. There were weeks I hated everyone in there. There were weeks I didn't want to look at my pastor, but I listened to his message. I also went out of my way to befriend people that weren't my regular friends. I joined a new bible study. I met some of my best friends this way, but for weeks I just went and listened and left. I moved and now go to a huge church exactly as you describe above.I know no one. I joined a Bible study and will continue to do so until I find people I have somethings in common with. Even if I don't find best friends- getting to know these people and letting them get to know you will bring a sense of community. Somewhere at some church you can find that. It takes prayer and work, but it can be done. Just sitting and worshipping and praying as a whole, knowing no one, is the "togetherness" I am talking about. Believers in one building- praying and worshipping and learning. I am not saying everyone has to be your friend or you have warm fuzzies every time you go or theres a perfect amazing church for everyone. Sometimes it may just be- church.

I can't imagine being a christian not going to church!! And I really can't imagine not having my kids immersed in a church. There is NO way I would be as deep in my faith as I am if it weren't for church. Its not about the music or even the preaching- its about gathering together with a group of believers that love God. Its about what the church can do TOGETHER. Its about praying together, worshipping together, being held accountable, learning together....The power of prayer from an entire church is just.....amazing. Yes, my kids learn more from whats modeled at home (my pastor has told us this- Sunday is just one day) but its great that they get to gather and pray with other kids their age and hear their struggles and be involved in church activities and feel like they are not alone in their walk. If Christians all stopped going to church and we didn't have the church, where would we be??? We have invited non christians to church that come home asking questions about the message, that come back because they love the sense of family and togetherness, that just want a place to feel welcome- I couldn't do that if I didn't attend church!! My kids have invited friends to youth group that are the ONLY place they will ever hear about God and see christians together in action. I have had people who aren't christians help and donate to church causes and activities because they believe what we are doing is good- that might be the seed that is planted in their lives that might draw them to God one day. No church is perfect, no pastor is perfect, every Sunday won't be perfect- this is a fallen world. Church isn't meant to be perfect. Its meant to be a place where a group of sinners meet- it can be messy :) No ones being sent to hell for not attending and I don't believe that people who don't attend have less faith or anything like that (my Gram didn't attend much mostly due to health issues and she was one of the strongest Christians I know) but I do feel we are called to be a part of one.

I can't find the link but someone did an in depth review of the new book and said it was a repeat minus all the personal stories and added in pictures and in depth on the komono, especially the kitchen. She didn't see the need to read the second if you read the first unless you just wanted more reading.

AWESOME to hear of someone partway through/on the other side!!!! thank you!

discipline I am working the Dave Ramsey plan and getting out of debt. I am losing 60 pounds (well probably not all this year) and eating unprocessed I am catching my kids up on school after a big move and tough year We moved 17 hours away from home on very short notice and I have just let everything in my life go because it came out of the blue. We don't know hardly anyone and have nowhere to be and nothing to do so it has been easy to be a lazy slacker. This year I am starting fresh in a new place and pulling it back together. I get to build a whole new life!

I think SA is innocent and OJ is guilty as heck.

Whether they were innocent or guilty (I am leaning towards innocent) there is no way they proved their cases beyond a reasonable doubt. NO way. Very few bones found, no murder scene or blood, they found the car on that HUGE lot in like minutes, the key showing up after 7 searches...........