Little Monkey

The last few days with Oliver have been a bit tough. It isn't his fault really. It isn't anyone's. I think he's teething again, though his gums show no signs just yet. We've had the other tell-tale signs though: more drooling than usual, funny rashes, different sleep patterns and of course, more clingy behavior.

I made it through yesterday by giving up on the notion of getting any work done and just calling it a "day off" (a term to be used loosely when caring for a child). Good thing I did since it took ages to calm him down enough for him to fall asleep. Our usual fifteen minute routine lasted about forty minutes. We had plans around lunch which meant Oliver had to be up by eleven, so I ended up with less than an hour in which I had to shower, dress, do make-up, tidy the house, prep lunch and pump a bottle. It was close, but I made it. My dreams of a morning workout were dashed, but we survived. The afternoon was much the same, but I know it isn't his fault and he isn't happy with it either.


I keep trying to start the day by blocking out the previous day. A sort of clean slate. So this morning I brought Oliver back into our bed (well, my bed by that time as Ken's already at work) to nurse him and have some morning cuddles before breakfast. It was going well and I was even reading a book from my new favorite series (Tomorrow When the War Began). Oliver decided he was done and wanted to climb around, which is pretty typical. I put my book down and he started trying to climb over my head to the headboard. It's wood and metal and Oliver is fascinated by it. He'd already burped, but I suddenly heard that sound parents of little ones are all too familiar with... that "I'm about to throw up milk" sound. I tried to work my fast mum reflexes and get him flipped around (I know, horrible right? but if he's face up he just swallows it instead of giving the gift of slightly digested milk). I thought it worked until I felt something wet on my head. As I got him all the way onto his back, which meant I was sitting upright now, I felt that warm feeling of predigested food sliding down my forehead.

Turns out I wasn't fast enough. It was in my hair and on my face. Even better? I hadn't even managed to save the sheets. At least they took more of a beating than I did. A complete loss really... But what can you do but smile, call your little monster and monkey and get on with the morning?

Ah right, cross your fingers he goes down for his first nap easily so you can have a shower.

Grocery Challenge Update

So as per my previous post, our family is working on a grocery challenge.

Our usual monthly grocery budget is $112.50 a week. We challenged ourselves to spend only $50.00 a week for a month. Turns out with how the dates fell it made more sense to do it for five weeks, or just over a month. The slight problem with this was that by including the last few days of February my first week was over $50. Failed straight out the gate? Bummer.... slight change of plan - an average of $50 a week. After all, it's an average of $112.50 a week normally. Challenge saved! But even harder with the rocky start...


The first week was three grocery shops (I like to shop around) which totalled $83.72. Eek!

The second week actually involved five different grocery purchases, but some were really small (thanks to my hubby picking up milk at 7-11 for coffee at work). They only totalled $40.16 so we weren't out of the game yet, we just had to catch up.

Week three was even better. One shop and only $29.26 for the whole week.

Week four held three shops and a total of $27.71.

We are in the final week and have spent $180.85 total so far, leaving us $69.15 for this week. It looks like we might just make it!

I'm excited by this for several reasons. I like meeting my goals. I like having "extra" money. I like clearing out the cupboards for more food. (I'm so glad we don't have as many boxes of rice and almond milk as we did - I'm sick of that stuff!) Win all around. If we do make our goal we'll be able to tuck $312.50 into a savings account for when our income is a little lower than usual. I see this happening in the couple of months, which of course was the reason for the challenge.

I miss my soy milk. That's about it though. What have we been eating? Last night was a yummy cinnamon chicken dish with squash, asparagus and rice. Other meals of late? Veggie burgers with homemade "popcorn fries"; stuffed pasta with sun dried tomatoes; burritos.

We are a bit strange in our collection of nonperishable food that fills the coat closet (at least we don't hide it under our couch anymore), but I'm happy we haven't had to resort to eating all the cans of peaches just for fruit. We've had fresh kiwi fruit, strawberries, bananas and various veggies.

It hasn't been as hard as I thought it would be, but I'll be glad to bump up my grocery purchases a bit next month. We're all out of brown sugar and chocolate chips and that means there are no fresh baked chocolate chip cookies in my immediate future... unless someone wants to bring me some???

Grocery Challenge

My maternity leave income will be ending soon. My hubby took one month of parental leave when our little one was born, which meant I had eleven months leave and I went off a bit early. It was all well and good back at the time, but as the clock ticks away it’s becoming a little scarier. At this point we’ve all agreed we don’t want me going back to my old job, which means we have to get creative. I have the potential of income from a job offered to me by hubby’s mum, but it’s sporadic and she can’t promise me all the hours I need right now.

So on that note, we’re trying to get creative fast.

While we still have the income we’ve been used to over the last while we are starting ourselves on a grocery challenge. We have $450 per month in our budget for groceries. Over the next month we are going to try to use the food in our house and only buy the bare necessities, including fruits and veggies. Then, at the end of the month we’ll take all the money in our budget that usually would have been spent and we’ll set it aside so that when mat leave income ends we have some money to tide us over and don’t see a crazy dip in income. I want to spend $200 or less over the next four weeks, which would "give us" $250. Hmm....

We are perhaps a bit stranger than some as we have a habit of buying in bulk at case-lot sales. Our coat closet holds a few cases of food, and there is a case of peaches and a case of diced tomatoes sitting by our door (there wasn’t room in the closet). We also have a deep freeze which has a fair bit of food in it.

This last weekend hubby and I emptied the deep freeze and the fridge-freezer and then took an inventory of what we had before reloading them both up with a little more order. It looks like we need a few staples in the pantry (like barley), and we may be buying another bag of beans (since they are cheaper than chicken), but the challenge is on: as small of a grocery bill as possible buying only fruits, veggies and bare necessities.

I’m really excited at the challenge, and I suspect that the extra room I end up with in the coat closet will be a great bonus.

How much do you spend on groceries?

Has anyone else tried anything like this before?

Does anyone have any good cheap recipes?