Snacks for 23!

Is it possible to make a snack for 23 and not cost a fortune? Sure it is!

Elijah's preschool has parents take turns bringing in a healthy snack. 20 kids + 2 teachers + 1 parent = 23 hungry people.

First, I want to thank my friend Beth for coming up with the idea of trail mix for a snack. She reads this blog so I better give her some credit! Thanks Beth!

Homemade Trail mix is awesome frugal snack idea.

There are just two rules:
1/ Put in it only what you want
2/Use only what you have on hand. No spending gas money going to the store with this recipe!

Get your kids involved. We only put items in that Eli likes.

Elijah's Trail Mix
4 cups of pretzels (~$.40)
2 cups of whole grain gold fish (~$.60)
1 cup marshmallows (~$.15)
1/2 cup craisins (~$.50)
1/2 cup chocolate chips (~$.25)
2 cups Captain Crunch Peanut Butter Crunch (~$.70)

Total Cost: $2.60/23 = 11.3 cents per serving! Yeah!

The kids at school loved it. Everyone got something they liked. I packed the trail mix in little snack size baggies. This way I was able to prepare the night before and had no clean up! Simple!

I would love to hear some of the frugal snacks ideas you have!

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Great Posts of the Week

Paid it Down showed an awesome video about priorities this November.

I really want to try these fried scones from Make and Takes.

My friend, from church, Kaytlin is in Jerusalem studying and has a fantastic view on language and culture.

This bowl from the Blessed Nest is so creative! Stacey blog is so pretty too!

I hope you all had a great weekend!


yesterdays' soda intake: I had a 2 fountain cokes! yikes!

Time to Harvest

As long as the earth endures, seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease. Genesis 8:22

You'll notice that some of the pumpkins are still a bit green. I decided to harvest them early so there will be no more deer attacks!


What a fun planting year! I don't have much of a green thumb. There were some frustrating times. Overall, however, I did enjoy this year and the harvest it brought, small as it was.

Way back in April we started with little seeds. I was hopeful for the pumpkins and sunflowers. Today I want to share this bounty with you.

Fall decorating can be very frugal if you use what you harvest!

What's left of the pumpkin patch was dumped onto our compost pile.



Over time the sunflower will dry. It's going to be a great treat for the birds as they prepare for a harsh Wisconsin winter.

Look at all those sunflower seeds!


Have you started to harvest yet? Do you decorate with your harvest?

yesterday's soda intake: none

October Challenge: Reduce Soda

I really like the idea of having a focus each month - a challenge, if you will. In July I did a no fast food month. That was a huge challenge! Overall, I was amazed at the success our family had.

This month I'm going to try to reduce my soda intake.


No Soda. For me, this is huge! I admit - there are many days where I will have up 3 or 4 cans of coke - and not diet coke either. I'm not saying that I'm cutting it out all together - but I am going to make a big effort to scale back.

So what am I going to replace it with? Here's the plan:

water
tea (the caffeine will help)
crystal light drinks
orange juice
and probably of Tylenol to help with the caffeine headaches!

I will be accountable to you. I will post daily what soda, if any, that I drink.

Wish me luck!

yesterday's soda intake: none :)

What I wanted to do and what I did do...

Being frugal is different for everyone. For some it means eating beans all the time for others it means buying a used car instead of a new one.

I don't believe you can realistically go from one extreme to the other and be happy about it. For example you can't go from flying first class to going on a gray hound bus! Its about stepping down a level, not jumping off the bridge.

I've been dying for ice-cream all week. I craved Dairy Queen -mmm peanuts, banana, with hot fudge. The cost for us, a family of 4 to go to Dairy Queen could be as much as $15. Instead, I took a level down and bought a box of drumsticks on sale at the local Piggly Wiggly. Cost $2.98


I believe that if you take baby steps the challenge of becoming a frugal person will have a higher rate of success.

Have you stepped down a level this week?

PS. Don't forget to enter to my Matthew West giveaway!

yesterday's soda intake: none :)