The Socially Awkward Mom

10/22/2026

I usually post budget things, cheap meals, stuff about homeschooling, paying off debt... But today, we are going to touch on something hard. Halloween is a week away. I am sure your kids are super excited about wearing their cute costumes and have dreams about their candy haul! But before they go, please consider checking the s*x offender list in your area. I have 24 within a one mile radius of my home. 24!!!! Two dozen. These are only the ones who have been caught and legally made to register, this doesn't include the ones who are still out there, flying under the radar. Who have not been caught and reprimanded yet. I used this website, and my home address, then set the radius to what I thought would be a reasonable walking distance for Trick-Or-Treating, one mile. https://www.nsopw.gov/?home= Jeremy and I made the decision this year to keep our kids home. They will get Boo Buckets, oodles of candy, and a fun themed dinner, followed by a spooky family movie night (age appropriate for a 4 and 5 year old, but still fun for the teens). Because we just don't feel comfortable taking the chance. It sucks that this is the world we live in, we don't live in fear, we trust in God, but we do live in awareness.

That website works nationwide, and is published by the United States Government, Department of Justice. I am not saying don't trick or treat, you do what works for your family. I am just saying pull up the information and maybe have a talk with your kids about avoiding certain homes, you can keep that conversation very age appropriate and non scary. You could even tell them something funny, like, "I hear on the Nextdoor App that they are giving away healthy treats and apples this year, that sounds terrible! We are here for the candy!" Keep it basic. I wish we still lived in safer and easier times.

Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk. I will resume normal posts soon.

10/20/2026

We took a break from the ham tonight to make skillet pork fajitas, with a side of refried black beans, for Taco Tuesday!

Dinner tonight was super economical! The pork strips were free from my purchase a couple months ago, when I stacked Sam's Club Cash and a gift card I earned on Fetch to get a case of boneless pork loin for free, then I broke down the loins into multiple meals and froze it.

The refried beans were free, as part of a buy one get one free promo at HEB. The block of cheese was $1.96, the frozen fajita veggies were $2.38 x 2 bags = $4.76, two packets of taco seasoning were $0.71 each x 2 = $1.42 and the 20 count of flour fajita sized tortillas was $2.47 after in store coupon.

Total, about $10.61. I fed 6 of dinner, plus packed a lunch for Jeremy for tomorrow. Plus there is enough leftover for 2 lunches tomorrow. So 9 servings, making it a total of about $1.17 per serving.

I didn't have the extra in my grocery budget this week for sour cream or guacamole or other toppings, but these were still delicious without all that extra stuff.

10/20/2026

Times are tough right now for so many families. If you are needing assistance providing Christmas Gifts to your kids this holiday season, you can have them write a letter to Santa. More information can be found on this link: https://www.uspsoperationsanta.com/getinvolved Mail them soon, they go live on the USPS website on November 16th for adoption. Families with more than one child should mail their letters in one envelope, to increase chances all being adopted together, and adjust the letter postage as needed.

Tis the Season and it's time to get your letter to Santa ready. Find some tips on how to write your letter and send it out to the North Pole.

10/20/2026

If you have a Sam's Club Plus AND a WalMart+ Membership, you could get a refund for your WalMart+!!! I just renewed ours a couple of weeks ago with a half off membership discount code, but woke up to the awesome surprise on my WalMart App on my phone. Go login to your WalMart account, and follow the prompts to link if you have both accounts, the refund will come back to your account in a few days, to whatever method you used to purchase the WalMart+ Membership. And if you don't yet have a Sam's Club Plus membership, we have had one for over 10 years and it has paid for itself every single year we have had it. I highly recommend purchasing one.

10/19/2026

Dinner tonight! I stretched the spiral cut ham for a second supper meal. I made hot ham & cheese sandwiches, with a side of original ripple chips and leftover potato and ham soup that I made for dinner last night. Tastes just like Panera, without the price tag.

A loaf of Texas toast was $2.00
A 12 slice pack of cheddar cheese was $1.67
About $1.00 for the stick of butter
A party size bag (13.5 ounces) $2.50
Total: About $7.17, it made 6 sandwiches and fed 5 people (our 4 and 5 year old split a sandwich), my older son is eating at his job tonight and this wouldn't keep for Jeremy before he got home late tonight.

So, about $1.19 each.

The ham was $5.00 on sale after Christmas last year, I picked up a case and stocked my freezer, we still have one left. The one we are currently using will give us 4 dinners, and 3 breakfast so, I used about $0.71 worth of ham for dinner tonight. Making the final total about $7.88 for dinner, or about $1.57 each.

10/19/2026

73 days left in 2026. 10 more pay periods. To meet our goal of $40,000 paid off by December 31st, 2026. As of today, Monday, October 19th we have paid $37,332.33 towards our debt. $2,667.67 left to go! I am not sure if we are going to get this paid off or not in time to be honest. But, we sure are going to try and give it everything we got until the sand runs out of our timer!

10/18/2026

Dinner tonight was loaded baked potato soup, in a homemade bread bowl and apple crisp for dessert. We finally have our first day of fall weather and we will enjoy every second.

Recipe for the baked potato soup: I used ham instead of the bacon, since we will be basing a lot of our meal this week on a half a spiral cut ham, that I bought last year on sale for $5.00. https://www.thegayglobetrotter.com/loaded-baked-potato-soup/ I don't do any of the garnishes or anything, just keep it simple.

Recipe for the bread bowls, I doubled it, and used my bread maker. https://pin.it/17Zdggvvd

Super budget friendly and delicious!!!!

10/18/2026

Back from HEB and total spent was $98.43 for one week worth of groceries! $1.57 under budget! For 39 items. Breakfast, Snacks and Dinners for my family of 7. Lunch is always leftovers or fend for yourself with whatever we have on hand, which helps reduce food waste.

To stretch our grocery budget this week, I pulled one of the half spiral cut hams out of the chest freezer today, and we will be using it as the main ingredient in a bunch of our meals. I also make the vast majority of our breads, buns and baked goods from scratch, and grate my own cheese too. Everything I can do to lower cost.

Jeremy needed some snacks for his lunchbox this week, so the peanut butter pretzels and jerky sticks are his.

Here is what we are having!

BREAKFAST:
1. Biscuits & Gravy, Ham Steaks
2. Apple Maple Waffles, Scrambled Eggs
3. Homemade Apple Fritters, Fruit Salad
4. Homemade Cinnamon Rolls, Scrambled Eggs
5. Ham & Egg Skillet, Pancakes, Oranges
6. Baked Oatmeal With Honey and Raisins, Toast
7. Cereal

DINNER:
1. Pork Fajitas, Refried Black Beans
2. Ham, Mashed Potatoes & Brown Gravy, Homemade Rolls
3. Loaded Baked Potato Soup, Homemade Bread Bowls
4. Roasted Chicken Quarters, Potato Casserole
5. Rotoni Bake, Garlic Bread, Apple Crisp
6. Hot Ham & Cheese Sandwiches, Chips
7. Oven "Fried" Chicken Legs, Mac & Cheese, Steamed Broccoli

SNACKS:
1. Apples & Peanut Butter
2. Popcorn
3. Fruit Salad
4. Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
5. Peanut Butter Muffins
6. Popcorn
7. Homemade Granola Bars

Inching our way to paying off $40k

10/17/2026

I have $100.00 for groceries for the week. Let's see what I can do with what I have on hand and what I can get at HEB to try to stay as close to budget as possible.

Originally, we were going to have a very generous grocery budget of $335.00 to last us 21 days, (October 16th to November 6th) however, Jeremy and I sat down and wrote down our financial goals for the rest of the month, a balance currently at $919.18 and increasing daily, due to interest (4 more debts paid off), and quickly realized that we needed to reduce our grocery budget to free up some income to reach our goals.

Heading to the store soon!

10/16/2026

Here it is, my ultimate, I have got to get to the grocery store, nothing in the cabinets, struggle meal. Red beans and rice, some homemade freezer biscuits, and a mix of whatever bits of frozen vegetables that are laying around in my freezer that need to be used.

I used 2 chicken breast and an onion to bulk up the rice bit.

2 family size boxes of Zatarain's Red Beans and Rice $2.82 each x 2 = $5.64

1 stick of butter, about $1.00

1 onion, about $0.70

2 chicken breast, about $2.75

Total: $10.09

Bag of mixed vegetables, either mix up your own with whatever veggies you have in the freezer, or get a 32 ounce bag of frozen mixed vegetables from WalMart for $2.58 and use half for dinner, so $1.29

I make freezer biscuits in bulk once a month, and just take out what I need when I want to serve them. We like ours with a little bit of honey. You can use jam, butter, whatever you prefer on yours.

Cheap and filling! The leftovers are amazing rolled up in soft, flour, burrito sized tortillas, and topped with shredded cheese, bake on 375 for 15 minutes until the cheese is bubbly. So another make once, serve twice meal!