Show Us Your Life- Your Typical Day

I decided to participate in Show Us Your Life over at KellysKorner.

So what's my day like? Busy!

I usually get up around 5:45. I shower and get dressed. Then I head into the kitchen to get lunches packed. I wake up Austin around 6:15 or so. He and I usually have an exchange that consists of him insisting he is unable to dress himself and me insisting that surely a nearly 5 year old boy can dress himself. Then, he gets cereal and some yogurt for breakfast while I eat Toast with honey. Paul fends for himself. After breakfast I blow dry my hair and put on some makeup. Then I pour myself a mug full of coffee and head out the door. My commute is 3 minutes as I teach at our neighborhood school. (Paul takes Austin to school) I get to school at 7:25 and I teach 5th grade. Then at 3:30 I leave school. On days I don't pick Austin up, I head home.

When I get home there is dinner to cook, laundry to do and a house to clean. Sometimes there's baseball practice or a game. There's a folder from school to go through and a four year old to bathe. We get Austin to bed between 8 and 8:30. I usually try to catch a few minutes of TV and get to bed around 10 or so. Then I wake up in the morning and do it again!

Making Economical Choices

It occourred to me that while I do save a lot of money on groceries, I could possibly save even more with the meals I choose to prepare.

My first thought went to the cost of meat. Meat can take up a significant portion of the grocery budget. Don't get me wrong. I already buy meat at sale prices and stock up when the deal is at a low. I even wait until roast goes on sale for less than $2.50 per pound and have it ground. It makes a very affordable lean ground beef. But I digress, I began to think about what kinds of meals I could prepare using more affordable cuts of meat. You know, the chicken leg quarters and chuck steaks and things like that. Well, chicken leg quarters went on sale at Publix this week for .59 cents per pound. Now that is cheap. Here's a picture of the package I purchased...

Yes, that's 4 and a half pounds of meat for $2.66. Wow. I only purchased one package because I just wasn't sure what I would do with it. Well, I also read Publix Penny Pincher and she posted this recipe. So I thought about my chicken. I am hard pressed for time... so this is how I plan to modify this to my needs.

I cut up an onion, a few cloves of garlic and some carrots. Here's everything ready to go...

In the morning, I am going to put my 4 chicken leg quarters, the cut up veggies and some seasonings in my crock pot. I'll cover everything with water. When I get home, I will strip the chicken off the bone and shred it. (I will probably have extra chicken to freeze). The liquid left behind in my crock pot will then be a wonderful broth. I will use the broth to cook my dumplings, which I will make with unbleached flour. This is a very affordable meal and based on my estimates will feed my family for less than $5. It's even better that I'm going to have some cooked chicken to freeze when I'm done. I'll let you know how it turns out.