angel food ministries

Well, on February 28th, I should be picking up my first supply of angel food food. If that makes sense. (by the way I am typing from the library). I will see how far it goes with my family, and make adjustments to my ordering accordingly. I noticed that the dollar movie theatre has movies for only 75 cents on tuesdays. That is cheaper than watching them at home from hollywood video. (bring your own snacks of course). Then right next door to the dollar theatre is this really nice used clothing store called plato's closet. It has high end clothing for sale (meaning things like tommy HIlfiger jeans for ten dollars and what not. I have a fifteen year old, so these things are important to her. I managed to get a deferment on my student loans, this frees up our food budget a bit and gives tim more time to get back on his feet. I have been watching our government spend money like it's going out of style. I am not sure people even realize that we are going to have to pay this all back. I was listening to John Hagee the other day and he was talking about how much we are spending. He said "If you opened a business at the birth of Christ, and lost 1 million dollars A DAY from then until today, you would have to continue losing 1 million dollars a day for another seven hundred years to spend or lose a trillion dollars. Our government is currently 12 trillion dollars in debt. That is scary. I fear inflation is on the way, inflation that could make it incredibly difficult for people to buy food or live. America needs to be on its knees praying for our politicians, and many of our people, to repent and begin the long hard process of paying what we owe.
We need to be praying for our president and congressional leaders to bite the bullet and make some very real, very hard decisions...or life will make it for them.
Till next Tuesday,
chris

Grocery shopping and the pitfalls of cash....

Well, I allowed myself 100 dollars to shop for a family of four. I got most everything, however, I now realize that either I have to fundamentally change what we eat or increase the food budget by about 40 dollars so I can stack my pantry. I was able to buy meat for dinners, potatoes, cat food and litter, milk but not bread (which i will have to make with flour I purchased three days ago. I already have eggs, but no oil. I think I will have to have a pantry budget and a food budget. It is looking like 440 dollars a month then. I would feel like I am cheating but looking at it, and trying to be healthy as well...I just can't see how I can buy fruits and veggies and meat and starches and pet supplies, cleaning supplies etc. for 100 dollars or less a week. Heck, a gallon of milk is 2.68. A pound of hamburger is 2.62. I skipped oranges and orange juice, and just got apples and bananas..The apples were 4 bucks. NOw you look at one gallon of milk, one bag of apples, and one and a half pounds of meat, and you've already got 9 dollars. Cat litter was six dollars, so 15 dollars right there. Then cat food was three so 18. I bought chicken thighs for 4.98 for four and a half pounds. So, 23 dollars there. Potatoes were 2 dollars for 5 lbs. 25 dollars. I found cereal for 1.89, mulitgrain cheerios, that makes 27 dollars. I bought 5 cans of beans for .60 cents a can, (we are at 30 dollars) but didn't have to buy rice because we already have it. If I had, that would have added an additional 2.60 to the food bill. Our commissary charges a 5 percent fee on all purchases which most people don't get when they purchase food as well. So for one hundred dollars, it's a five dollar fee. I bought two more pounds of hamburger and some sweet italian sausage for spaghetti. That was a total of 7.50. Coffee for 6.50, mac n cheese and .59 cents a box, 8 packages of ramen, a package of carrots, head of lettuce...i could go on and on. Maybe someone has some good ideas. Maybe I am still doing something wrong. ???? I was or would have been on this budget, unable to buy eggs, bread, oil, pasta and still purchase meat. It ain't like i am buying steak. Just hamburger, pork and chicken. Every package of meat besides the bulk frozen chicken was under 3 dollars. So, looking at it this way 7 nights of meat is 3 dollars plus sides, veggie and starch. If I look at that 100 dollars as only food...no soap or laundry or pet supplies, maybe it would work then. If I divide 100 by 4, that is 25 a week a week per person, 3.58 per day, per person or a dollar twenty per meal per person. That is without buying anything but food. Okay then. Maybe I need a home maintenance, pet budget outside of the food budget. If anyone thinks this is cheating let me know. I am doing this in an effort to seperate our wants from our needs. We, unlike many people, are able to afford more. I am not going to say we are bad off, we aren't. I just feel that we need to start putting our money out in a more resonsible way. We were spending 600 a month. We bought a lot of things that got thrown away. There was a lot of waste that I would like to eliminate. I wold also like to take the money I am no longer spending and use it for rotating long term food storage.
tired and going to bed now,
chris