Road Trip Foods with a Week 3 Recap Thrown in: No-Spend Challenge

Week 3 was a doozy, lemme tell you! 

Monday

We visited Indianapolis for our annual MLK Jr. Field Trip day!  I love doing this because each place has activities to talk about equality and black history...with things that would be really hard for me to show the kids at home like drum shows and Rosa Parks speeches. 

We packed our food for the day and vowed that we were not going to spend any money during the day. 

Okay, so actually I had to promise Nick that we wouldn't spend any money because that was the only way that he agreed we could go.  He had a good point because we always think it's going to be cheap because all of the museums are free but after you factored in the trips to the gift shops and teacher stores I had to go to because we don't have them at home...well all that shopping and then meals and we were out a couple hundred dollars each time we went.  Yikes. 

So this time we packed foods.  I know that for me when I am thirsty is when I start to feel whiney and justified in purchasing a drink.  So I made sure to pack tons of drinks for the grown ups and for the kids. 

I packed two larg-ish coolers of food: one for cold foods and one for anything else. 

So the first one I packed up the night before with all of the cold items.  For drinks I took Fruit Shoots, Chocolate Milks, Waters, and Perriers.  My current obsession has been green apple Perrier.  Yum! I also packed yogurt tubes and cheese sticks.  Snacks with some protein tend to fill the tummy for a longer period of time when you are on the road.  Instead of the kids constantly eating, they tend to not eat as much when it is a protein. 

In the other cooler I packed our breakfast, lunch, and other snacks.  So I was a terrible mother and purchased pop-tarts for breakfast.  They were on sale for $1.50 for a box, it fed all of us, and the kids were tickled because they hardly ever, or never, get pop-tarts. 

For lunch I packed us all pb&j.  I know that's kind of a lame sandwich but we all loved it and I used these amazing cherry preserves from Costco that has whole Michigan cherries in it.  So yummy!  I also packed some chips, fruits, granola bars, and some Nutella snack cups.  We ended up having more than enough snacks for the day and had a very full lunch. 

All in all it was a yummy day and we went through the day without feeling deprived.  As an added lesson I had the kids browse the prices of food when we went by a food-court kind of place in one of the museums and I felt like they got it!  They were commenting on how expensive the foods were and how unhealthy everything was.  It was what we could call a teachable moment. 

Tuesday & Wednesday

We were home and not spending any money.  Except for I contacted my best friend and we decided to meet Thursday for drinks and chips at our local Mexican restaurant. Nick and I also started a conversation on if running shoes are a need or a want.  (They are for me).  I said they are a want and I could probably wait it out...Nick looked at my shoes and warranted that clearly this is a need.  We'll probably come back to this but at least we got the convo started. 

Thursday

So we were supposed to meet for a drink and chips but when Nick and I were driving there we were starving.  I didn't want to just throw our no-spend project out completely, so we shared a meal.  We felt like we each had enough to eat but we saved money by splitting.  I was happy, he was happy, the whole world was happy.

Friday

We did nothing.  It was nice.  We had frozen pizzas, watched the original Parent Trap, and just hung out.  I love spending time with our family.  Nothing makes me feel richer than that.

Saturday

We had a birthday party for our nephew and so we didn't have to spend a thing!  Well we purchased his gift but other than that we were there for lunch and dinner.  It was so great to be with family and to watch all of the kids playing together.  I will also say that I was proud of myself because I just bought him one gift, a tricycle. I tend to go overboard and get a small gift to attach or I buy a few gifts but this time I just got one gift. 

Sunday

We had a new pastor come to our church to preach and after we had a carry in dinner to welcome him.  It was nice to not cook and all of the foods were super yummy!  We made cheesy potatoes for a dish to take and all of the ingredients we had so it was easy-peasy!  

So as you can see this week seemed to have a lot of eating with friends and we loved it!  It was nice.  Sometimes, even though it's not a true "need", I do feel it is needed to have that connection.  Especially being a housewife, sometimes it can be a lonely world.  Carry in meals or potlucks are great ways to get together with friends and they are super cheap!

So after this week I wanted to share a run down of tips to make taking food on a road trip super simple:

Pack the Protein

Protein fills us up.  Good sources of fiber fill us up.  Be sure to stock protein as that is what fuels our muscles and helps for proper brain function (ever heard of brain drain?)

Hard boiled eggs, apples with peanut butter, trail mix with nuts, string cheese, yogurts, all things that can help curb your appetite and help you feel fuller longer when on the go. 

Drinks are the Way

Dehydration is not fun.  In warm areas and when you are wearing a coat you get parched faster than you normally would.  Be sure to pack lots of drinks and store them in a cooler so when you crack one open you will feel quenched by an ice cold beverage and not something tepid. 

Be sure to pack lots of drinks for your kiddos as that helps them (and this goes for you too!) to not feel hungry all of the time and those kiddos need have lots of liquids. 

When in Doubt Pack it Out

Pack more than you think you need.  It stinks to be starving and thinking of buying food but not really wanting to buy food but at the same time starving.  Just pack oodles of snacks and if even if you don't eat them you will have offered yourself more variety and you will feel like you had choices.  When you get home you can put the extra snacks away on the shelf and there will be nothing lossed but everything gained because you didn't have to stop for something to eat.

Everybody have fun tonight

I'm just going to come out and say it...when I am sitting at the museum surrounded by everyone with their soft pretzels and nacho cheese, I feel pretty darn sorry for my PB&J self. 

So with that sob story of mine I say pack fun foods.  Pop tarts, chocolate milk, Nutella cups, whatever.  It is so fun to have foods you don't always get to eat and a little bit of junk food will be okay for you and your kids.  Promise!  I know my kids seriously geek out when they get to have junk food so then it lessens the blow a bit to have to eat nothing but things brought from home. 

The Rules for Our No-Spend Year

As I mentioned in the last post, we as a family are going to not be spending anything extra through the 2017 year. 

Today I thought I would share with you the rules we have set out to follow as a family.

I am sharing all of this with you as an extra added layer of protection for us (ha!) that will hopefully provide the accountability to help us continue this for the entire year. After all, y'all are watching us so we better not sway from these rules! 

Because right now we feel kind of scared and nervous and ridiculous about this.

But it will be fun to see if we are up for the challenge. 

One of the things I think I should mention (in case you are missing my obvious hints to get you to read my last post, ahem!) is that this is not just about money.  We are trying to change our thinking and our attitudes as a family.

That being said, we have different traditions and ways of living in our family than I am sure you do in your family and vice versa.  For example, since our kids have turned 8 we have given them the choice for each birthday to have either a party with their friends or to go on a local-ish trip.  This year they have both chosen trips.  We will still go on the trips but how we go and what we do and spend will be different than before.  Now is the trip actually needed?  Heck to the no.  But we have already decided to go ahead and take those trips.  That's a decision our family has made. We recently purchased a lake cottage that needs some work.  While we will not be dumping money into it during our no-spend year, we will still be spending money to begin the renovations on the cottage.

 So you see, how we do this will look differently than how you would do this.  And that's okay. 

If you are doing this too and have taken the challenge I'd love to hear how you plan to do this!

Now, the rules are not set in stone.  Moses did not come off Mt. Sinai with them.  They are rules our family will have to look back on so when we want to spend money on something really, REALLY badly; we will have something we can look to to remind us of what we are to do.  Because I know how this goes.  I will twist every rule I can get my hands on to be able to buy something.  I need the rules.  My kids need rules.  We are rules-kind-of-people. 

Here are our rules for our year of Not Spending:

• We'll Only Buy for Our Needs

This year we are buying only things we need and not things that we want. 

This has already been hard for me. 

I have wanted to buy Christmas clearance so, SO bad.  But I don't truly NEED anything there.  And Lord willing all of that stuff will be there in years to come.  Try as I might to convince myself that I have to buy it all now, it really will be there in later years. I have so much wrapping paper and everything already in our attic that I don't need to go out this year and mindlessly buy a bunch of stuff. 

So we are not going to be buying something unless there is a need that we have determined.

• Food Must Be From Home

We go on a lot of vacations.  At least we have in the past.  Nick is on the road a ton and there are a lot of opportunities for us to travel with him fairly inexpensively.  The most expensive thing about those trips seems to be all of us going out to eat. 

Nick has said that he wants to make sure we can still travel as a family and travel for field trips and things but we are going to be cutting all of the food costs out (mostly!) by bringing food from home. 

This also applies to going out to eat.  Craving pizza?  Instead of calling Dominos we will make it at home.  Is pizza a need?  No we could eat beans all the live long day but we are going to allow ourselves to enjoy some of our wants (of food, at least!)

• Homemade is Best

I've mentioned before that we are still going to be celebrating holidays and birthdays. I am sure we will purchase some gifts but we are going with the motto that "homemade is best".  I have a kajillion craft kits and projects that I could make for people for gifts.  Not only would those provide us with a meaningful gift but those are things we have already purchased, money invested in things to do that have been sitting around for years.  So a gift and something to spend my time doing...seems like a win, win for me. 

Homemade will be implemented, not just with gifts but with everything.  Games during the summer?  Homemade.  Halloween costumes?  Homemade.  So and so forth.  We are going to be making lots and lots of things.  And that will keep us very busy which I like the idea of very much.  No more bored children here...they'll be too busy making something.

• Maximize Our Usage of What We Do Buy

There are some things that we will still be purchasing.  This may seem crazy to some but we are keeping our gym membership. Our kids take swim lessons there as well as 4 other types of classes.  We get huge discounts by having a membership.  That being said Nick and I don't always take advantage of our membership like we should. 

But this year we will so we are getting the most out of what we are spending.  After all, with a family gym membership of $50 a month, going every day figures out to be less than $2 a day for our family of four to go and exercise and spend time together.   And that seems like a good deal, especially with us not spending money on other "fun" things. 

So like with our gym membership, whatever we do buy we will get the most of our purchase.  Like how my Grandma washes plastic baggies and reuses them (we will not be washing out plastic baggies). 

• Think Before We Buy

So this would seem like a no-brainer but allow me to explain.  We have a notebook that we are going to be keeping as a family.  If we have something that we really, REALLY want to buy, we are going to write it down.  We'll jot it down and then come back in a few days and write how we remedied that need.  What we learned from it.  I am imagining I will be writing several entries about wanting to buy Emma an outfit I see.  And I'll probably go back and reflect that we lived our life with what we have and survived.  Hallelujah!

Also if we have something that we think truly is a need, we will write it down and ponder it.  Pray about it.  Stress about it.  After all, is it really a need? 

I found myself doing this very thing this morning when I was cleaning the tub.  I was almost out of cleaner and instantly thought "I need to go buy more cleaner."  But after pondering it I thought about how I have a ton of baking soda and vinegar that would clean our bathtub.  And I have bleach.  And if I was really honest with myself (this is embarrassing) I have bottles and bottles of cleaner that have never even been opened.  So by stopping to think about it I found that I really didn't have a need at all. 

• Birthdays and Holidays are Still On

I mentioned above that homemade gifts will be given from our home.  But I am sure we will still buy gifts.  To clarify our gift buying, if we do buy gifts we are going to have a strict budget and keep to it.  No more frivolous buying of spending a ton of money on any and every little thing.  Those times are done. 

So those are our rules.  As you can see we could make this a lot more strict and say, "beans only, no gifts, nothing!"  But we are keeping some things in our lives that aren't true needs but things that are needed for our family to be happy.  For us this isn't about making ourselves miserable but rather to find those areas where we need to change, to learn gratitude, and to grow, and stretch ourselves in those. 

Are you taking a no-spend challenge?  What are your rules?

Comment below if you are joining me with a no-spend challenge and what your rules are. 

Have a great day friends!