Well, we are back in school after a restful week of spring break! We had great weather and we REALLY enjoyed our camping trip! We are looking forward to a summer full of camping

My menus are a bit late. I've already prepared three of the meals I have planned.

#1 Fresh rainbow trout(caught on camping trip), mac and cheese, salad
#2 Spaghetti w/meat sauce, garlic bread, salad
#3 Chicken and stuffing casserole, green beans, cottage cheese
#4 Roast, mashed taters and gravy, salad, biscuits
#5 Ham and beans, cornbread
#6 Leftovers
#7 Church potluck

Well, we're HOPING to go camping tomorrow. We've had a lot of rain for the past couple of days and more forecasted for Thursday and Friday. We'll see how things look tomorrow before we take off. We have camper, but it is NOT fun to be trapped inside of it with three kids while it rains...been there, done that! If it were just DH and I, it would be fun and kinda cozy

So far things have been going pretty well, money wise. We've been on spring break but managed to stay within budget. However, I did "up" the dining out budget for the month. I knew we would want to eat out a couple nights during spring break, and we have! Still, we haven't even used all of our dining out money yet! Woohoo!

Spring break reminds me that summer is getting close. I don't work during the summer, so I don't get paid Time to start pinching those pennies a little harder(if possible)...

Today was my last day of work for over a week. I have tomorrow and ALL of next week off for Spring Break! Unfortunetly, I don't get PAID to be off! Oh well, I knew that this was part of the deal when I took the job. The kiddos will be off, and so will mama!

I wish I could report all kinds of frugal money saving things that I did today...but, I can't I did take my lunch and drank water for lunch but, I picked up pizza for supper. I've uped my budget this week for spring break, so it didn't hurt it at all. DD and I have had a very hard week at school this week. Not to go into great detail, but because of something that happened to her at school, I reported it and her teacher got fired for it! I hated for that to happen and DD is really upset and afraid everyone will find out that she's the one who "told" on her teacher. Anyway, we both needed a little "pick me up" after all of the stress this week and we're NOT going over budget so we had pizza tonight!

Tomorrow we'll head to the store and buy paint to paint in both DD's rooms over Spring Break. Also, we've resevred a space at a campground, so if the weather holds up, next week we'll have our first camping trip! Of course, everybody else we know is going on a "real" spring break trip...on a cruise, to New York City, Florida, Vegas. We can't afford those places, but we're REALLY looking forward to going camping! It's fun and it's in our price range!

A couple people wanted the recipe for Crockpot Pizza. Here it is. Go to the website and you can see a picture of it.

http://tammysrecipes.com/crock_pot_pizza

Description:
A delicious layered crockpot casserole with egg noodles, cheese, pizza sauce, and pepperoni

Yield:
8 servings
Ingredients:
12 ounces egg noodles, cooked according to package instructions and drained
1 1/2 pounds ground beef
1/4 cup chopped onions
2 (14 ounce) jars pizza sauce or 1 large can spaghetti sauce*
3.5 ounces turkey or beef pepperoni**
3 cups (12 ounces) shredded mozzarella cheese
3 cups (12 ounces) shredded cheddar cheese

Instructions:
1. In a large skillet, cook ground beef and onion until done. Drain. Stir in the pizza sauce and pepperoni.

2. Grease crock pot. Spread 1/3 of the meat sauce in bottom. Cover with layer of noodles, then a layer of the cheeses. Repeat layers twice.

3. Cover and cook on low heat for 3-4 hours or until heated through and cheeses are melted.

In no order:

*Tacos with lettuce, cheese, tomatoes, onion, and salsa
*Cheeseburgers with baked french fries, baby carrots w/ranch dip
*Cashew Chicken with fried rice
*Nachos for a crowd, salad
*Chicken and Stuffing Casserole, Cal. mixed veggies, salad
*Crockpot Pizza, garlic toast, broccoli
*Leftovers/every man for himself night

Crockpot Pizza is a new recipe. I actually made it for church potluck today. It made a crockpot full, which means there's plenty for supper tonight and probably lunch tomorrow too!

But, sometimes it's necessary. The kids and I went shopping today...YUCK! I hate shopping! I hate to spend the money and I hate fighting the crowds! I despartly need some new Spring clothes. Since I haven't worked for 15 years, I haven't required many "nice" clothes. I only needed a couple things for church. Well, now that I'm working I need nice clothes to wear to work. I managed to get through the first months of school with what I had this fall, but I don't have anything nice for Spring. I wish we had decent thrift stores here, but we don't. Also, I just entered the "big girl" sizes(hate to admit it, but it's true) and there just isn't anything to choose from in my size at the thrift stores. So, I had to shop today. All three of the kiddos needed a few new clothing items for Spring too. I hated like heck to spend the money. BUT, I can't tell you how nice it was to ACTULLY HAVE the money to buy the clothes! In the past I would've charged everything on the credit card and then would've had to "rob Peter to pay Paul" to try to get it paid off.

Anyway, I hated to spend the money, but at least this time I did have the money....even though I would've rather used it on something else!

I barely came in under budget this week!

Wednesday is payday for us, so it's the day I replinish the "cash" envelopes(I use the envelope system....cash only for me) All of my envelopes were empty this morning except for my "general" envelope, which held $2 and some change. I haven't cut it THIS close in a long time! Of course, there was money in the checking account, but that's for bill paying and not household misc.

Anyway, it's nice to have a little change in my pocket going jingle lingle ling, again!

Not much going on around here as finances go. I've been doing well. I'm sticking to my budget, packing our lunches every day, keeping spending as low as possible. I have a couple of challenges coming up this month. I have about $300 in unexpected medical bills. I can pay them, but I'll have to pull money out of Emergency Fund. Also, this is the month to have our vehicle tags renewed which will cost about $300. I'd like to say that I'll cut back in other areas to help cover the cost, BUT, I have cut back just as far as I possible can! We'll be fine...I just won't be able to add any extra to saving this month, which I hate!

Hope everybody is having a great weekend!