It’s holiday season and most of us are getting ready for the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays! And we are stressed! We are laid off, we’re barely making ends meet! We are just living pay check to pay check. I know we can blame COVID-19 for this but stress no more I got a plan for us that will not break the bank.
This is for the parents who just want to put a smile of their kids face. I don’t intend to give this advice to have anyone thinking less of themselves because let me tell you any advice I give I live by. I’ll start with Christmas! I know we all believe our child deserves everything they put on their Christmas list , which we’ll let Santa be the judge on that. Haha! If you’re child is like my oldest she’ll slide her Christmas list in before Halloween. And if I was able to get all 20 items on her list I’d have to start buying in September. Very unrealistic the way our life is set up. So what I do is after Halloween I buy every child (I have 3) a small gift (under $10) every week until December. Then in December I get each child at least one or two huge items they put on their list usually not going over $50. The kids I have that makes them happy 😊 which makes me happy. What they care most about is what we are eating during the holidays!
Unlike most households this mama only plans to cook enough for just her household. Not being selfish because we do make enough for maybe a couple guest and if we plan on going to someone’s else’s dinner we bring a side dish to add to their dinner menu. So as for our not quite traditional holiday dinners we usually have a main course of a beef product. Reason why I have a food allergy to birds; chicken, turkey and hens and we do not eat pork in my household. This year I want slow cooked country style beef ribs. I want all the fixing too baked Mac and cheese, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, cornbread muffins etc. then the desserts I plan on having cookies cakes and a pie.
Since I make a meal plan every month the food budget doesn’t really get broken by a whole lot. What I do is make the holiday week menu based off my holiday meals. Seems easy but my kids are kind of greedy. So this year I’m going to try to make my snacks homemade. Meaning instead of packaged snacks make boxed snacks! Thought I was gonna say use flour butter, eggs, vanilla extract mix it up and get a homemade dessert. I’d rather not ruin our night. I’m not the best baker I’m pretty average. I won’t burn it and it’ll be delicious I just know my limits when it comes to baking! Although I am getting better, so I’m very proud of myself!
It’s All Fun and Parenting! 