Day 4 A Challenging Day

     Its Wednesday, and today was a miss-the-bus kind of a day.  Mercy and Christiana win the prize for making it to the bus stop on time.  Everybody is now going to be on a strict showers-before-6:30am rule, and don't try to finish your homework until you are ready to walk out the door to the bus!  We are going to try to come to devotions dressed and looking ready for school, work, etc.
     One challenge for me was that Trudy really wanted to make a cake.  That is a treat, with some pricey ingredients, but I thought, why not, let's see what happens to the budget with a treat.  Well, I found out why treats are for special occasions!  They mess with the budget.  We made it, but to make up for the treat, we are having vegetarian supper.
     The family  has decided to have dessert once a week.  We haven't set on a specific day, but today was this week's day, for sure. I priced out Trudy's cake recipe, and here is the pricetag: 

Buttermilk upside-down cake,

total cost: $1.83

1 3/4 cups flour= .18

1 tsp baking powder= .01

1/2 tsp soda;= .01

1/2 tsp salt= <.01

1/2 cup butter= .40

1 cup sugar= .17

1 tsp vanilla= .02

3/4 cup buttermilk= .15

2 eggs= .18

2/3 cups butter for carmel= .54

1/2 cup brown sugar= .17

     Another challenge today was the hot cereal choice I made to offset the expense of the treat.  Cooked cereal is easy on the budget.  There was a mixed reaction to corn-meal-mush, as we call it; Rodger was excited, as were a couple of kids, some were ok, some thought they couldn't eat it, or weren't that hungry.  But a morning in school on an empty stomach is a bad idea, so Rodger said basically that they had another "think" coming.  I let the kids who didn't want much put one of their spoonfuls into their Dad's bowl, but they all ate up, plus Rodger got enough to really fill himself full.      

     We had the applesauce for breakfast because I couldn't find the lids for the small portion lunch containers.  That actually was fine and went well with the mush.  Also, some of the children, but not all, wanted milk in their cereal, some wanted to drink their milk.  I figured the protein would be good, so we used about half the usual milk, or about 3.5 cups.

     Here's how the day's food plan looks:

breakfast menu:  applesauce, cornmeal mush, tea, milk

Breakfast Total:  $1.49

20 oz cornmeal, cooked with water: .50

sugar, 5 tbsp: .05

4 tsp butter: .08

3 1/2 c milk: .46

sack lunch menu:  beef and noodles, celery with peanut butter, upside down cake

Lunch total: $5.55

cake: 1.83

500 gr. noodles: 1.04

beef roast:  1.80

celery: .70

peanut butter, 3 oz: .18

snack menu: one box of cranberry trail mix granola, divied up 10 ways
Snack total: $.99

Christiana, Noah (with the word BIG freshly painted on his bicepby his sister), and Emily eagerly awaiting one of their favorite meals, broccoli and melted cheese.  Noah once told his teacher that broccoli and cheese was his favorite food.  What?  This is not a fabricated story, I swear it. You never know what kindergardners will say sometimes.

supper menu:  boiled potatoes topped with broccoli and cheese

Supper Total:  $1.94

broccoli: .88

5 lbs potatoes: .50

4 oz shredded cheese: .56

Today's Grand Total cost:  $9.97

We made it.