Mrs. Sunshine Report Volume 3
Thanks for listening in,
Pam Jeffers
I grew up in Michigan attending a small church where my dad worked with the teens. I received Christ as my Savior at the age of 16 and moved to Florida when I was 19. Dale and I met while he was attending Trinity Baptist College in Jacksonville and we were married three months later. When Dale finished school we moved to Gainesville where we met Pastor Bill and Charlotte Bales. We worked with them to establish a church there. We then moved to Arkansas, then to Port Charlotte to work with the Bales again. We have been serving in Lake Mary for three years. I am currently working at a bank. We have three children. Gretchen is an 8th grade teacher at Trinity Christian Academy in Jacksonville, Laurel Anne is a 3rd grade teacher at Metro Christian Academy in Madison, TN and Zachary is in his first year at Trinity and very involved in several different music venues. My favorite verse is Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth me.”
Megan Jennings, youth pastor’s wife at Sonshine Baptist in Port Charlotte, has found another great way to save time and money in the kitchen. She has written a review of E-Mealz. You can read it below.
I personally have found readyseteat.com to be very helpful in finding new recipes. They use common ingredients and give you a variety of choices. You put in your zip code and it will give you the stores in your area that have the needed items on sale.
So, try something new this week!!!
It's 4:30pm, What's For Dinner?
Have you ever had your kids or husband ask you the infamous question, "what's for dinner?" and you stared back at them with a puzzled look? You have no clue what is even in the fridge or how long it’s been there. Then there is the cost of food. A little over a year and a half ago I was reviewing our expenses from a previous month and was floored by the amount that was spent on dinning out and groceries. I also knew that I hadn't done a very good job at planning meals even though my grocery receipts stated otherwise. Meal planning has been an area I have struggled with since we first were married almost 5 years ago. It wasn't that I didn't want to cook, I just had a hard time planning things that sounded good. I tried cutting coupons for a while and saved all sorts of money on various products, but at the end of the day what am I going to cook with 10 bottles of ketchup and 6 boxes of mac and cheese? Once my daughter came, I felt extremely overwhelmed with trying to raise my family, be a ministry helpmate, work part time, and plan meals. My husband saw me overwhelmed and encouraged me to just do whatever I needed to do to make things work. I dropped the coupon clipping (except for diapers and wipes) and just planned whatever I could. This is when I stumbled upon E-Mealz on Facebook. I visited the website and after some research my husband agreed to take 3 months and $15.00 to try and see if it could work for us. I signed up, and the ease of meal planning and shopping became a burden lifted off my shoulders. Not only that, but it has allowed us to save money on dinning out because we are doing it less. We are actually eating the food we purchased at the store for our meals. E-Mealz is a weekly meal planning subscription that will help you save time and money. The cost is just $1.50 per week, purchased in 3 month plans. There are a variety of meal plans to choose from: "meal plans for 2" for those of us with smaller families and for those who are empty nesters, or "family plans" for families of 4-6. They base their plans on in sale items from stores like Publix, Kroger, Wal-Mart, and ALDI. They also make plans that are for point systems, vegetarian, low carb, low fat, and even gluten free diets. You choose the store and/or meal plan and they give you the plan with a complete aisle by aisle grocery list. Your grocery bill based on the plans typically run around $40-50/week for the couples' plans and $60-80/week for the family plans. I have used E-Mealz for over 6 months and I know it has saved me time and money, not to mention the stress of planning. There is also a program to help you earn money as you promote E-Mealz to your friends and family. One of the other benefits is that it gives me new recipes that I might not have otherwise tried. Everything is very simple to make and typically uses ingredients that you have actually heard of and probably already have at home. Give E-Mealz a try and see for yourself how much time and money you can save.