So, this week's grocery shopping trip was a lot more eventful than normal.  Reason being was, Jon's throwing a gaming/birthday party today.  Since we were having some of his friends over, we ended up going to five different stores!  Yep, five.  When I say "we", it was mostly me.  We went to Sam's Club, Walmart, 2 Wegmans, and Giant.  Here's the lists of dinners for the week:

1. pizza and wings
2. Spanish Rice (carry over)
3. spaghetti (carry over)
4. cheese steaks
5. sloppy joes (somewhat of a carry over - Jon had decided to change the sloppy joes last week to hamburgers)

We first went to Sam's to get the 10lb bag of wings for the party.  The cost in total was $20.48 and was paid out of Jon's account.  While we were there, we looked at the cost of hamburger meat.  For 5lbs it was going to cost around $15.00.  Not to bad.  Last week, I had spent almost that much for about 3lbs!  I'm sure in the future, we'll be buying hamburger meat there.

Our next stop was next door to Walmart.  Here's the list and their prices:

• 2 cans of pizza sauce  $0.98 x 2 = $1.96
• loaf of whole wheat bread  $1.48
• bag of chicken strips (for Jon's lunch)  $3.47
• hoagie buns  normally $2.78, on sale for $2.50
• hamburger buns  $1.18
• gummies (for Michael's lunch)  $2.00

The total spent at Walmart was $12.90.  It was weird paying with cash, but yet so rewarding to still have cash leftover!

On the way to Wegmans, Michael fell asleep.  We went home and Jon put him to bed and stayed at home while I went on to Wegmans.  Here's the list and their prices:

• bag of potato chips  $2.50
• cereal (Jon's breakfast)  $1.99
• Steak-umms  $3.49
• pizza crust
• pepperoni  $2.29
• 2 bags mozzarella shredded cheese  $2.79 x 2 = $5.58
• OJ  $2.49
• gallon of whole milk  $3.59
• 1lb hamburger  $3.31
• soda (for party)  

I spent longer in the store than I normally do trying to look for the type of pizza crust we were looking for.  There used to be this awesome two pack Sicilian style crust for about $5.00.  The store didn't have it.  I walked the store about three times looking for it!  While I was looking around and had no husband or toddler with me, I checked out how much their Family Pack of hamburger was.  For their 5lb Family Pack of hamburger, they were asking $23.00!  They also were not having a good deal on soda so I went elsewhere for that.  The total that I spent at Wegmans was $26.08.  I again, handed the cashier cash and had money leftover!

So since Sam's, Walmart, and Wegmans had pretty crappy deals on soda, I went to Giant.  They were running a 10/$10.00 deal on Pepsi 2Ls.  Score!  I bought 4 Mt. Dews and 1 Sierra Mist.  The total at Giant was $5.13.  I was able to pay for that with cash as well!

Since we needed the pizza crust today for Jon's party, he asked if I could take Michael and go to the other Wegmans nearby and see if they had what we were looking for.  I was not able to find it there either.  Ended up going with Wegmans' pizza dough balls for $2.49 each.  Jon wanted to make sure he had enough dough so he told me to get 4 of them.  While Michael and I were there, we got Jon a cookie cake.  I knew that this would not go to waste like a normal cake.  Plus, Michael was begging me for cookies.  The cost for that was $15.00!  The total spent on this second Wegmans was $25.58 which was paid out of our joint account.  Our cash budget was $47.00, but ended up spending in total $90.17.  Making us over by $43.17!  Yeah, if it wasn't for the party we would have been under budget.  I did earn $0.50 through Ibotta for our milk and $0.25 through Checkout 51 for the loaf of bread.  Not much, but it all adds up!

On Sunday, we decided that we would take a trip in to DC and go to the Smithsonian National Zoo.  I am nowhere new to riding the Metro.  Growing up, my grandparents lived a little farther from DC than we do now.  Whenever we would visit in the summer, we would always make a trip into DC to go to one of the Smithsonian museums and would always take the Metro.  Now that I'm an adult and a mom, it's a little different.

We travel to the Vienna, VA station to get on.  In the future there will be stations closer to us.  On the weekends the parking is free, but during the week there's a parking fee of $4.75 for the day at the location we go to.  To see all the different stations you can go to, click here.

There are machines at each location to purchase your ticket.  Beware that if you're purchasing a paper ticket there is a $1 charge per trip or $2 round trip.  We had read it wrong and only put the $1 charge on each of our tickets.  It's easy enough to fix, there are machines to add money on to your ticket.  The downside is that they don't take credit/debit cards like the other machines.  Oh, and the attendants don't have cash to break any large bills.  We were lucky that the guy let us go without putting that extra $1 charge on my ticket (I had only one $1 bill on me and no change).  Children four and under get to ride the Metro for free.  Since we live so close to DC and possibly will be travelling in more often, we are thinking about possibly getting the SmarTrip Cards.  For more information about fares for the Metro, click here.

Michael was so excited and wanted to get on the "Choo Choo Train".  This was not his first time on the Metro, but it had been close to two years since he had been on it.  We kept him in the stroller until the train got to the station.
We folded up the stroller so as to not take up too much room in the train.  The Metro can get pretty crowded.  This trip, we ended up riding backwards which was probably a weird feeling for Michael.  He seemed to enjoy it though.

To get to the zoo from where we started, we had to get off the orange line and then get on the red line.  Jon held Michael's hand and I lugged the stroller around the station where we switched lines at.  I was so happy that Michael, even though he was looking all around and inspecting the place, did not try to run off.  There are two stops you can take to get to the zoo.  We took the Cleveland Park stop since it's a flat walk, the other is all hill.  Once we got up to ground level and in the sun, we opened up the stroller and Michael sat while we walked.  To see the map of the Metro, click here.

We did have an incident on our way back.  The train doors closed right before I could get on.  Jon looked worried, but it didn't faze me.  I knew that there would be another one to get on in the matter of minutes.  The doors reopened and I was able to get on with Jon and Michael.  Make sure everyone knows what all the stops are that you need to take and hold the hands of your little ones tightly.

When we went with Michael the first time, he was 14 months old.  We took pretzel sticks to have him chew on to help with going underground.  It helped a whole lot.  This time, it didn't seem to bother him.  Have you gone on the Metro with a toddler?  If so, what suggestions do you have?  Stay tune for my post about the Smithsonian National Zoo.

It had been several years since we road our bikes on the W&OD Trail.  Since Saturday the weather was just right to go biking, we packed up the Mazda with the two bikes and the bike trailer and Michael and I piled into the Sonata.  Yeah, we had to take two cars.
The W&OD Trail is part of the 100-foot-wide Washington & Old Dominion Railroad Regional Park and has a 45-mile asphalt trail that can be used for walking, running, and bicycling.  There's also a 30.5-mile gravel path that's parallel to the asphalt trail for horseback riding and hiking.  Above is a map that shows how far the trail reaches (for a more interactive map, click here).  It goes from Purcellville, VA all the way to Arlington, VA.  For more information about the trail, you can click here to go to the W&OD Trail's website.

On this trip, we drove to the Sterling/ Pacific Boulevard access point to the trail.
As you can see, there's a nice parking lot all in its own little world.  Since we were taking two cars, we decided we had to go to a place that had lots of parking.  Where we used to go was just enough room for a small amount of cars and right off of the road.
Since Michael is still working on riding his trike, we have a nice little bike trailer for him to sit in and enjoy the ride.  We love this.  In the back, there's room to store things that you need for you ride.  Inside with Michael, there's enough room for two toddlers and each side has a little holder to put a water bottle in.
We hooked the trailer to my bike, a Trek.  I bought this bike about four years ago because my bike that I had back in school was rusting really bad.
On this trip, we decided that we would travel towards Leesburg.  Only made it for about 2 miles before deciding to head back to the cars. 
I really liked the fact that they had this.  Would really stink to have your tires loosing air in the middle of nowhere.

If you living in Northern Virginia and love to go biking, this is the best place to go to.  I know that on one of our trips in the past, we ran across a BBQ joint that you could stop at and eat.  They used to have vending machines on the trail, but looks like they have been removed.  I'm sure that we will be making more trips in the future.  It's crazy how you feel like you're in the middle of nowhere, but you're actually riding through these rather busy cities.

After going to the website to look for their logo, I've found that this place has closed.  You can see why after reading Becki's review.

In reality, nothing can really prepare you for potty training.  Yes, reading as much as you can on how to make the process as easy as possible does help give you an idea of what may or may not work for you.  As with everything pertaining to kids, each child is different.

When I was told about making my own baby food two years ago I thought it was going to be really hard and time consuming.  I had been looking at the cost of baby food in the stores and was willing to try anything to save us some money.  I ended up buying a Baby Bullet since I didn't have a blender or food processor.  The ad on their website looked simple enough and it really is.  Here's the video I made the very first time I used the Baby Bullet.



My mom had bought me extra containers which helped out a whole lot when it came to making mass amounts of foods.  She also bought their cookbook which helped give me ideas on what to make and when I could start giving certain items.  I know that I saved a lot of money by doing this and it really didn't take that long to make.  For the veggies, I bought the Wal*Mart steamer packs which at the time were $1.00 each and made about 12 oz or six 2 oz jars.  The only foods that Michael rejected were sweat potatoes, white potatoes, and chicken.  He loved everything else that I made and could never be fed fast enough. 

This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I'll receive compensation at no additional cost to you. 

If you're interested in getting this system, you can click on the link below.  It's worth the investment!
I had also purchased some additional storage cups that had a awesome container for when you're heading out and need to take more than two containers of food.  Click on the link below for that.


 

Last year, I was invited to two baby showers of some friends who were both having girls.  I had been searching on Pinterest for some neat and different ideas to "jazz" up my gifts.  I ran across the idea of making Diaper Babies.  So simple and cute.  Both girls absolutely loved them.


You use newborn sized diapers and roll them up, swaddle them with baby washcloths, put 0-6 month size socks on the top as the hat, and glue on googlie eyes.  Simple as can be and so very cute.

The diaper babies with all the other baby essentials.

Since our financial situation has changed, somewhat in a good way and some in not so good.  We were for years used to having an extra $100 a week (Jon gets paid weekly) for having his works on call phone every other week.  Well, things have changed and now it's an extra $100 every other week.  Last week was the first week without it and this week we had the extra $100.  We've decided that from now on, every other week we would take that extra $100 out of the account and have the cash on hand.  Our goal is to use $50 a week.  Here's the plans for the dinners for the week:

1. Sloppy Joes (had some buns leftover from last week)
2. Pizza Casserole
3. Chicken Alfredo (already have everything except for marinade seasoning for chicken)
4. Spanish Rice
5. Hot Dogs (carry over)
6. Spaghetti

We first went to Sam's because of needing toilet paper.  We used to just buy a smaller size of Charmin at Walmart, but a few months ago we were given a free roll of the Sam's brand toilet paper.  We used it and found it to be a lot softer and nicer than what we had been buying.  The next time we went to Sam's we looked at the price and found it to be a much better deal.  We got 45 rolls of toilet paper with tax for $17.88.  The Charmin at Sam's was much more and for less rolls.  We'll be good when it comes to toilet paper for a few months!

After Sam's, we went next door to Walmart.  Michael was starting to act up so I wasn't able to price compare like I had planned, but was able to at Wegmans.  Here's the list and the Walmart (in dark blue) and Wegmans (in yellow) prices:

• rinse aid  $5.97
• loaf of whole wheat bread  $1.48  $1.99
• Man which  $1.00  $1.09
• pizza sauce  $0.98  $1.49
• small stickers  $1.00
• sugar  $2.38  $2.49
• travel toilet  $9.98
• travel size hair spray  $0.97

Not all the items we bought at Walmart could be found at Wegmans or in the same size that we purchased at Walmart to be able to compare.  I added the hair spray while at Walmart because Jon had ran his arm into my pen.  Yep, spraying hair spray on ink marks and then scrubbing the area will remove the ink!  We ended up paying for the travel toilet seat with our debt card (yep, potty training in the near future - stay tune for potty training posts) and the remainder of items with our cash.  The total spent at Walmart was $24.99.

On our way to Wegmans, Michael fell asleep.  So, we went home and I hopped in my car and went to Wegmans on my own.  Here's the list and only the Wegmans prices:

• lemons  normal price was 4/$3, I only bought 2/$1.50
• 3- 1lb hamburger packs  $3.51, $3.95, $3.99
• pepperoni  $2.29
• mozzarella shredded cheese  $2.79
• Grill Mate seasoning packet  $1.19
• gallon of whole milk  $3.59
• OJ  $2.49
• half pound of provolone cheese from the deli  $3.84

It was nice to go without a toddler being cranky and I was able to see if we were saving money by buying certain items from Walmart instead of Wegmans.  I knew that I was going to be going over our budget just because of the fact that I was buying 3 pounds of hamburger.  We were lucky that we had some money available in our checking account, but in the future that may not be the case so we'll need to budget/plan a little better.  The total spent at Wegmans was $29.87.

When I got home, I earned $0.50 for the gallon of milk through Ibotta and $0.50 for the sugar through Checkout 51.  The total amount spent for this week's grocery trip was $72.74.  Making us go over our budget by $22.74.  The overage was mostly due to the toilet paper and the travel toilet.  Not too bad with buying 3 pounds of hamburger.

With this weekend being a holiday, how did you do with staying in budget?

There are many different versions of this cleaner, but the end product is basically the same.  What you'll need is the normal blue Dawn dish soap, distilled white vinegar, and a spray bottle.  Yep, the only thing I had to go out and buy for this was the spray bottle.  It only cost me a little less than $1.00 at Walmart.  Here's how I made this:

I put 1/2 C of the vinegar in the microwave for 1 minute.  I believe this is to help it mix with the Dawn.  Pour into the spray bottle.  Then add to the spray bottle 1/2 C of the Dawn dish soap.  Put the lid on and gently mix the solution together.  I evidently was not gentle enough because bubbles started coming out of the lid.  You can make more if you would like.  Just remember it's a 1:1 ratio.

This is the before shot of my shower.  I can never seem to get the glass to ever look clean and have no idea how to get the bottom of the shower looking clean.
I might have spread a little too much.  I ended up making the solution 3 times to make sure I covered the shower.  After wiping it off, I realized that a little goes a long way with this cleaner.  The smell was not too over powering like most bathroom cleaners.  It smelled more like Dawn than vinegar.  Some people suggest to let it sit for a while.  I don't think it makes too much of a difference.  You'll want to take a clean rag or clean sponge, wet with warm water, and just start scrubbing.  Since I put so much on, it took me a long time to clean the solution off.  I ended up taking my shower head and hosing it down that way.
Here's what it looked like afterwards.  All the soap scum was off of the glass and all the chrome was nice and shiny.  I still need to figure out something to make the floor look better.  I'm thinking maybe taking some bleach to it.  Thoughts?  I'm pretty sure I will be using this for Michael's bathtub.  Very happy with getting all the soap scum off and not using harsh chemicals.  When Jon walked into the bathroom, he about fell over.  He was very surprised at how clean the glass was.  Try it out for yourself.

I know several first time mommies-to-be and thought that I would share about the things that I've found helpful to have on the baby registry.  When I was pregnant with Michael, I registered at Babies R Us, Walmart, Target, and JC Penney.  That way all mine and Jon's family members had at least one or two stores they could choose from.

Review guidelines:

1 Fork = I would rather eat dog food.
2 Forks = I would eat there if I was starving.
3 Forks = Not bad; someplace I would occasionally consider eating.
4 Forks = A good place to eat; I will put it into my rotation of places I dine frequently.
5 Forks = One of my all time favorites!

One caveat to note – I am allergic to fish and seafood, so if you are looking for those recommendations, you will have to consult someone else.

Because I have a daughter-in-law with Celiac and a really good friend who is Vegetarian, I will try to point out whether those options are present when I review a restaurant.

This coming June 12th will be mine and Jon's 10 year wedding anniversary.  So, over the next for weeks I'll be writing blogs about our wedding and what my mom and I did to try and keep costs down.  I'm going to start with the center pieces I made for our guest tables.  If Pinterest was around 10 years ago, who knows what I might of had for center pieces.

I bought several of these heart shaped glass dishes from Walmart.  At that time they were $0.99, but I think they are selling for $1.50 now.  I wrapped flower garland that I bought from Michaels around the dish and cut down to size.  I had the leaves tucked under the dish so the flowers would not move once they were set on the tables.

Our colors were green and purple (both of our favorite colors).  I didn't want to have clear water in the dish so we put grape Kool-Aid in with the water.  At that time, Kool-Aid didn't have any green colored drinks or I would have used that as well.


I had found some green and purple floating candles at Michaels that we actually lit for ambiance.  I wanted more than just plan floating candles.  I found these little green and purple flowers at, I believe, Walmart.  These candles were not lit because of the size, they probably would have been gone by the time everyone got to the reception.  This is were having green colored water would have made it even better.  I rotated between the tables on which got green candles and which got purple.  The water would have been green with the purple candles. 

Around the center pieces, I placed the CD wedding favors that Jon and I made.  I'll write a post about that later on.

I don't remember how many tables we had, but we had two regular floating candles and two flower floating candles in each heart shaped dish.
 
Hope this gives you some ideas on how to make a nice looking center piece without breaking the bank.

I did the Meal Planning a few days before we got paid, but knew that it would be a little tighter than normal due to some financial changes.  So, all the meals are cheap and not carry overs.  Here's the list:

1. chicken fajitas (already had the chicken and the fajitas kit)
2. hamburgers
3. hot dogs
4. French bread pizza
5. spaghetti
6. alfredo

This week I had planned on getting the prices at each store for all the items, but we had a not so pleasant toddler and just wanted to get in and get out as fast as possible.  I'm thinking of going by myself next week so that I can do the actual comparison.  Here's the list we had for Walmart:

• spaghetti sauce  $1.88
• hamburger buns  $1.18
• hot dogs  $2.98
• hot dog buns  $1.18
• alfredo sauce  $1.88
• loaf of French bread  on sale for $1.00, normally $1.68
• poster board  $0.33
• stickers  $1.97 and $0.98
• spray bottle  $0.98
• gallon of distilled water  $0.88
• apple juice  $2.48
• green beans  $0.98
• pizza sauce  $0.98

As you can see, we added some items while in the store (the ones in green).  Jon had forgotten that he needed distilled water for his C-pac machine, I had forgotten that we were almost out of apple juice for Michael, since they were out of green beans last week I got a can this week, and we noticed that the pizza sauce was cheaper at Walmart than at Wegmans.  The total spent at Walmart was $20.33.

Even though we had a cranky little boy, I wanted to get all the grocery shopping done.  So off to Wegmans we went.  Here's the list we had for Wegmans:

• spaghetti noodles  $0.99
• onion  $0.86
• green pepper  $1.03
• 1lb hamburger  $4.35
• gallon of whole milk  $3.59
• pizza sauce
• mozzarella cheese  $2.79
• potato chips  on sale for $1.99, normally $2.50
• OJ  $2.49

The total spent at Wegmans was $18.55.  Making the shopping trip total $38.88.  The weekly budget was $40, making us under budget by $1.12!  We also earned $0.50 for the milk purchase through Ibotta.  How are you doing with meal planning and staying to the budget.  We don't find it hard staying to the budget anymore, it's the staying to the meal plan that we have a heard time with.

I have always loved Disney movies and long before we ever had Michael, we were making sure to have a nice Disney movie collection.  We've been buying Blu-Rays for years because they are suppose to last longer than a regular DVD.  We buy the combo pack because we only have a DVD player in the playroom and a travel DVD player for long car trips.

Last week there was a day that was a beautiful day to be out playing in the backyard.  Michael and I had gone to the dollar store a few days before and saw this huge bubble wand.  Michael loves bubbles, but the bubble wands that we had just didn't work well enough and would frustrate him.  Also, he had accidentally spilled his smaller container of bubbles.  I thought this would be perfect for him.  I had a large container of bubbles that we've been using to refill his bubble container for his bubble lawn mower.  I put the dish down and just put enough bubble solution to cover the dish, which was more than enough.

It's a special restaurant review from my step-mom, a dinner and a show!  When Jon and I were first married, we went to several dinner theaters up in DE and really enjoyed it.  She mentioned that they have children performances so maybe sometime we might take Michael to it.

In the past when I would make pork chops, I would just put them in the oven and bake them.  My husband was not too fond of it so I decided that I would continue to make them the way I normally do, but added some BBQ sauce to them.

So, today is Mother's Day and instead of being waited on because of that, I'm being waited on because I'm sick.  We had done half of our grocery shopping Friday before we left for our nephew's birthday party.  Here's the meal list for this week:

1. Spaghetti (carry over)
2. Grilled Chicken (already have everything)
3. Tacos
4. French Bread Pizza

Friday we did our Walmart shopping and because we needed to buy Mother's Day cards, we ended up spending more that what we normally do.  Here's the list and the individual prices:

• 6 Mother's Day cards  $32.82
• olive oil  $2.38
• tic tacs  $1.04
• Cherrios  $2.97
• sugar  $2.38
• tissue paper  $0.97
• distill water  $0.88

At the time of going to Walmart, we didn't have a plan for our meals and just got the items that we needed that we were out of.  I had a $0.50 off coupon for the Cheerios and bought the tic tacs because I was trying out a new app on my phone.  I got the whole $1.04 back through the app.  We spent $45.08.

This morning we figured out what we were going to do for dinner for the rest of the week and, even though some items are cheaper at Walmart, Jon and Michael went to Wegmans for the rest of our shopping.  Here's the list with the individual prices:

• gallon of whole milk  $3.59
• 1lb hamburger  $4.03
• loaf of French bread
• shredded mozzarella cheese  $2.69
• shredded taco cheese  $2.69
• pizza sauce  $1.49
• pepperoni  $2.29
• tortilla shells  $0.99
• OJ  $2.49
• butter  $3.49
• Goldfish crackers  $7.49
• chicken strips  $4.39
• cereal for Jon  $1.99

Jon crossed off the loaf of French bread because he said it cost a lot more that what it costs at Walmart and will get a loaf of French bread on his way home.  He did add two packages of cookies for Michael and I for an additional $5.00.  The total spent at Wegmans was $44.71.  The total amount spent for this week's grocery trip was $89.79.  To be honest, I have no idea what our budget was after filling up two cars and getting lunch on Friday.  Jon said that we had gone over our budget by $24,71.  Jon had some cash on hand which helped pay for the overage.

Next week, we'll be back on track and I'll start posting the prices of all the items at both stores so we can see if there's a difference in prices or not.  I hope all the moms out there had a great Mother's Day.  Even though I'm sick, my little guy has come up to check on me several times today.