My Turn For A Thanksgiving Post! (And small Christmas update)

So we went grocery shopping for Thanksgiving the other day, and I also re-did the grocery list. Since I can go without Jessie now, I decided to take my time and compare prices and check the ingredients on everything I am feeding Samantha. I am taking away all the "Whales" aka cheap Goldfish and Teddy Graham crackers for snacks and replacing them with things like string cheese and saltine crackers, yogurt, fruit, pretzels, etc. She likes them all just as much and they are healthy for her. I also decided to cut down on the junk lunches we were buying. No more TV dinners or mini pizza and chicken nuggets. We are doing sandwiches, soups, noodles, pot pies, and then she usually gets a fruit and a vegetable. We have never kept Cokes or anything in the house, but we haven't been buying her much Juicy Juice since we had to slice the grocery budget down by about half, so I decided to add that back in there. I was able to buy all our breakfasts, lunches, dinner meats and ingredients, sides, fruits, vegetables, snacks, and drinks, and our portion of Thanksgiving for less than $200! Our budget is $150 a month now, but we raised it this month for Thanksgiving. I was so happy to see the total! And I didn't even use coupons. I just chose carefully what we bought and made sure not to get too much or to buy a lot snacks. 


Anyway, on to Thanksgiving. We are going to have my Dad over since we have never spent a Thanksgiving with him. And after the whole ordeal with my Papaw being shot in 2009, Thanksgiving isn't their cup of tea anymore. (We will be going to MIL's house the day before.) We are having cajun turkey, steaks, corn, fresh green beans, twice baked potatoes, cranberry sauce, deviled eggs, homemade apple cobbler, homemade apple pie-both from the apples we picked in Elijay, ice cream, and homemade spice cake. (I am not fond of apples or any fruit for that matter, so I wanted something I like too.)


I have also done most of my Christmas shopping for Samantha. I already ordered her Leap Pad. But here was the best part. I got her the LeapPad, a LeapPad case, two games-Tangled spelling game and Mr. Pencil writing game for $140.00. All that together would generally be $160.00 before taxes and shipping. I was very excited. I also received some of her gifts-Tangled movie, Mellisa and Doug doll house dolls, dance bag, both the games and the case in the mail. Just waiting on the system. And next week I am ordering the magnetic dolls dance set. And then, I couldn't help myself...I bought the Rapunzel and Flynn playset from WalMart. It was a little expensive, but a good deal, and I know she wanted it. One time I saw it and she started smiling saying, "ME ME ME!!! I want it! It's so cute!!! Can I please have it? It's my favorite! PLEASE!!!" She was about in tears she wanted it so bad. I told her we couldn't get it for her and she was so good about it. So I ended up getting it for Christmas. I think all that is more than enough for Christmas. I may get her an app card and some makeup for her stocking, but that is completely separate, so it doesn't count. 


PS I need some ideas from you ladies. I am not sure what to get Jessie for Christmas. He already has all the video games he wants. But he doesn't play his XBox much anymore at all so I don't want to get him accessories for it like I did last year. He has all his hunting and camping gear. He needs a tackle box for fishing, so I considered that. And I know he wants some stuff for his Mustang and for a gaming computer he is building. But I don't know much about computers so I am not sure if I should even attempt that. Anyway, those are his interests. Any ideas? I also know (Jessika and Christina) your men have a lot in common with Jessie, so maybe you could throw out some ideas based on what ya'll are getting them.