Week's menu and a few ending thoughts

Okay, why do I ever think the weeks will get easier? I have been telling myself that for months!! This week is no exception with lots of appointments and family still in town! I planned menus in my head but we have a lot extra so who knows if I'll need to shop or not!!

Monday: Lasagna Dinner at in-laws. We brought the fixin's for homemade ice cream for dessert!!
Tuesday: Tomato/shrimp pasta. WOW, my kids have shown a new interest in seafood!!
Wednesday: Chicken fried rice, oriental salad.
Thursday: Taking Neice to Casa Bonita for her birthday (yikes $$, will use a gift card to pay for some of it!!). If you live in Denver or have seen Southpark, you know Casa Bonita. People don't go there for the food... only the Sopapillas and the entertainment... but you're required to buy food.
Friday: We're having more friends over. They're bringing pork souvlaki with yogurt sauce and I'll make Salad and side dish and we'll get our free Cold Stone pie for dessert :)
Saturday: Chicken Spaghetti! My personal all time favorite! Been waiting forever to get to eat this one LOL Scott tolerates it because it is my favorite
Sunday: Porkchops with italian breading. Mashed potatoes.

And some closing thoughts as the challenge winds down:
Yes, people have finally noticed that I've been wearing the same clothes EVERY day. Unfortunately, my backup outfits all had pink shirts. And I had on a gray shirt the night we started. So I have worn a ridiculous amount of pink this month. No one even noticed that I wore the same jeans every single day or that I wore tennis shoes instead of more attractive footwear. I'd put on my work steel toe tennis shoes at work and no one mentioned anything about my wardrobe until this week when someone said "you haven't worn white in a long time" (I wore the button down shirt my SIL handed down to me for the bridal brunch) and I explained the challenge :)

If my daughter never wears her pink shirt again, she'll probably be thankful. She expressed her desire to wear something different this past week as well. It's good rehearsal for her because she's starting 4K in 2.5 weeks and they wear uniforms!! She'll get used to wearing the same thing again and again so it's good practice ;-)

Laundry. Oh dear lord. Laundry. I've had to do a load every day. To keep fresh socks and underwear and keep up with Hunter, the newly crowned messiest eater on the planet!! Tip 29. Keep clothes looking newer, longer. Thank ALL THAT IS GOOD for Oxiclean and Oxiclean knockoffs and stain sprays. First I spray stains, then sprinkle oxiclean on it and spray again to make a paste. Let sit for 24 hours. NO LESS OR IT DOESN'T FULLY WORK!!! Then launder. Hunter has had spaghetti sauce, chocolate ice cream, fruit stains, etc. on his clothes. I've been pretty successful at keeping them close to wearable but it's close... I'll be looking forward to putting him in some new diggs too. He's so handsome, he should have variety too :)

My husband. My dear dear husband. And his impulse buying and McDonalds fixation... He did very well this month. I know he went out and that's okay. We don't live in a vacuum and he deserves to reward himself too. So I have decided that from now on I'll just build it in our budget. $20 a month that he can eat wherever he pleases whenever he pleases. We can live without it and it keeps him sane. I will however start giving him cash and he will continue to use coupons (I'm teaching him well LOL) so he can make it last. How funny to give him an "allowance". But I give myself one too so I don't feel bad!!!

And our yard sale... I will have to make a pre-tally of what I'm selling off the fire list and back calculate the profit. I have a lot of toothpaste, vitamins, toothbrushes, glade air fresheners, deoderant, and maxi pads that we don't need so hopefully that will bring us back under our $500 goal for the month. Cross your fingers!!

It's hard to believe it's been 4 weeks already!! Sometimes it seemed long but in hindsight it was the blink of an eye. But isn't that how life usually goes? Try to soak some of it in each day between blinks. I have learned amazing amounts about what we need, what we value and what we used to think was important but is just frivolity. This yard sale is going to be massive. I'm getting rid of our huge stockpile and everything we found we could do without!! So if you're in the Denver area, come on by, I'll have something for you :)