by Claire
I have to hand it to our kids! They’re great travelers…even when I make them wake up at 4 am for a 6:30 flight! By 8:45 am mountain time we were walking through the grocery store. I had the menu ready and spent $175 of the $200 grocery budget. Steve took kid duty while I tackled the list. We will be sticking to the Real Food challenge this week…which is getting less than thrilled reactions from the kids. Honestly I don’t think they ever expected us to take the good food show on the vacation road…so perhaps they were looking for more restaurants in our future. They took the news pretty well using lots of humor to get through the announcement.
I packed some great homemade goodies for all of us for our travels but timing and appetites were such that we caved and let the kids have a fast food farewell at McDonald’s. We had a 90 minute drive and their behavior while grocery shopping was excellent so at our suggestion, we stopped. They said their farewells to fast food. At dinner some hours later, everyone gobbled up our whole wheat homemade tortillas, veggie fajitas with a little chicken (I say a little because I’m learning how little meat we really need in these meals and tonight 6 people were fed with one good size chicken breast) and black bean with corn salsa. We will also use more homemade tortillas for wraps for our day at Rocky Mountain National Park tomorrow.
Our travels were seamless and I am looking so forward to our time here. We do need the temps to drop though. Ironically we just checked the current temps here and at home. It is currently 99 degrees in Colorado…and 73 with rain in SA! The irony!
Spent today: $175 groceries (regular budget item)
$20 for the cab ride to the airport (no takers on picking us up at 5 am on a Sunday…and parking would’ve been $70).
As a reminder, I’m sharing our daily spending because I need to…vacation makes it very easy to not worry about spending and I can very easily turn off my debt reduction thinking in this setting. Hey, I’m honest! Thanks in advance for putting up with the frequent posts.
Born and raised in Texas. I’ve at least driven through every state in the US courtesy of a roadtrip loving Dad.
I’m single with two children and a good parenting relationship with their father.
I am a “life is just half full of funny” kinda gal. Humor is my saving grace and I am thankful for it every single day. I have a strong Catholic faith and am thankful for that foundation.
I read a lot for a living but still enjoy a good book. I love biographies but in recent years have found the need for fun fictional books–sadly, for a long time I just didn’t enjoy fiction!
I love live theatre of any kind–from local productions to Broadway.
I love to scrapbook and pride myself in my kids’ albums.
I love being a mom but also love my career. I’m blessed to have found a balance allowing me to be at everything my kids need and want me to be at–while also having a career.
Favorite Quotes: Well behaved women rarely make history.
Behold the turtle. He makes progress only when he sticks his neck out. -James Bryant Conant
It’s excellent that this holiday is allowing you to cook your own meals and keep going on your new eating plan, and stick to the budget. Going on holiday most often means eating where, when and what is convenient and available, but not necessarily what you’d have chosen in your own kitchen. Exploring new foods in far off lands to me is part of the travel experience, but when going on vacation close to home or at least in the same country, with few exceptions the restaurant options are likely very much like your home town. No need to throw the budget to the wind because there is some once in a lifetime experience you simply have to try.
It’s also great that you are making outdoor activities part of the holiday. It’s a great way to experience the area and the kids burn off some energy – bonus! Every week someone in my office is returning from vacation and struggling to get back into their food and fitness routine after a week or two of over-eating and inactivity. The closer you can stick to your normal meals and activities the less shocking the return home will be, and your budget will thank you too.
Do you think you might be able to post your fajitas recipie when you get back? I love, love, love veggies and it would be great if I could learn how to make veggie fajitas. And then add some of the black beans from the other recipe you posted. Which turned out fantastic by the way – thank you!!!!
Hi Claire! I am happy that you are doing so well on your debt payoffs. I was once also in a lot of debt but got myself out of it. These days the only debt we have is our mortgage and i don’t know how i used to live with my cc debts. Most of my bills are in automatic payments, its pretty stress free. Although we live below our means i think we can definitely reduce our grocery bills because i am not orgnized and we end up wasting food. I am curious about your real food diet and would love a post on that. Also any tips on menu planning. Thanks!
Nikki–more posts to come on this for sure! Today brought yet another confirmation that real food is the way to go. I’ll post on that in a bit…but the gist of the story is real food keeps the kids (and us!) full longer. Funny that our stories are different…I have the grocery/menu planning thing down but am a “recovering debt train wreck!” Maybe we can help each other along the way!
I have been unable to read this site for over a year and I am enjoying catching up and reading your story from the beginning, literally (I don’t like to start in the middle or sneak peeks at the endings). Your hot chocolate in July made me homesick for Colorado and I am smiling from Wisconsin as I read your story. Keep up the amazing work. Our numbers and faces are different but the stories are the same, debt and its painful wreckage. Keep faith and know the reward at the end of a joyous FREEDOM so few will be blessed to know. Godspeed on your journey one dollar at a time.