Since becoming a parent my thoughts on money and how to spend it have changed. Since becoming a parent to two kids, it changed drastically. Gone are the days of not blinking at spending $100 for a pair of shoes.
The biggest area of adjustment in my budget was my food bill. Certainly gone are the days of eating out. I've been doing an awesome job of brown-bagging my lunch, and making sure we are home for meals. I might go to the grocery store a bit more now, but the money spent goes a lot further than just one meal.
Today is a perfect example, we were at the Jewels (as us Chicagoans say) to pick up some items for dinner. On the list too was cake mix, so we stopped there last on the way out. Max picked up this, and says, 'Chocolate muffins please.'
My initial reaction was, 'eh...well...' and before I could get out a full answer, I saw the price tag. Ready for this??? $4.59. That's right, four dollars and fifty-nine cents. In my head I was all, 'ARE YOU KIDDING ME? FOUR DOLLARS for a muffin mix??', though the words that came out of my mouth, 'Why dont we try this instead?' pulling the small Jiffy box of chocolate muffins off the shelf.
I have no problems making these for him, but not at that price tag nor ingredients. I looked closer at the muffins on the Reese's box and its simply a chocolate muffin with a peanut butter streusel. Simple. I'll google peanut butter streusel when I get home.
So for $.89 I took the Jiffy box with us, which I think Max had a better liking too because the box was small and he had better control over it.
Without further ado, our Peanut Butter Chocolate muffins:
How did I make these?
-Follow the directions on the box for the muffins.
-Found this recipe for Peanut Butter Muffins, and just used the streusel topping.
A parenting win this weekend! (Thank heavens, because Im starting to feel defeated by the teething!)
The biggest area of adjustment in my budget was my food bill. Certainly gone are the days of eating out. I've been doing an awesome job of brown-bagging my lunch, and making sure we are home for meals. I might go to the grocery store a bit more now, but the money spent goes a lot further than just one meal.
Today is a perfect example, we were at the Jewels (as us Chicagoans say) to pick up some items for dinner. On the list too was cake mix, so we stopped there last on the way out. Max picked up this, and says, 'Chocolate muffins please.'
My initial reaction was, 'eh...well...' and before I could get out a full answer, I saw the price tag. Ready for this??? $4.59. That's right, four dollars and fifty-nine cents. In my head I was all, 'ARE YOU KIDDING ME? FOUR DOLLARS for a muffin mix??', though the words that came out of my mouth, 'Why dont we try this instead?' pulling the small Jiffy box of chocolate muffins off the shelf.
I have no problems making these for him, but not at that price tag nor ingredients. I looked closer at the muffins on the Reese's box and its simply a chocolate muffin with a peanut butter streusel. Simple. I'll google peanut butter streusel when I get home.
So for $.89 I took the Jiffy box with us, which I think Max had a better liking too because the box was small and he had better control over it.
Without further ado, our Peanut Butter Chocolate muffins:
See, not bad and not bad tasting either. It was a hit with Max. What I also love about the Jiffy mixes, they are half the size of a regular box which is perfect for us right now. I dont need a dozen muffins in my house, because I wont eat them all, I'll give some to Grandma + Ginga and the rest will get thrown out.
How did I make these?
-Follow the directions on the box for the muffins.
-Found this recipe for Peanut Butter Muffins, and just used the streusel topping.
A parenting win this weekend! (Thank heavens, because Im starting to feel defeated by the teething!)
